During the Tianxuan period, the entire Hehuai area (including the northwest Jingdong Road, Jingdong East Road, Jingdong East Road and the northern part of Jingdong South Road) had a population of more than 20 million, making it the most prosperous place in the Central Plains. But even so,
The rents that the imperial court could collect from the Hehuai River were not enough to maintain the tens of thousands of troops garrisoned in the capital, the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, and the expenses of the imperial court.
At that time, in addition to relying mainly on supplies from Jianghuai, Jinghu and other places, the central branch could also collect five to six million guan of salt tax revenue from Jiechi on Hedong Road every year.
At this time, Hehuai was in dilapidated condition, with 60 to 70% of its population lost. There were dilapidated cities, barren fields, and flooded rivers everywhere.
If the Chihu people voluntarily withdraw from Hehuai, they will definitely set fire to the villages and cities, further destroy the roads and rivers, and make Hehuai even more dilapidated.
At that time, not only will the restoration of agricultural production in the Hehuai area require a large amount of relief money and grain, but until the Bian, Cai, Si, Wu and other rivers that have been severely damaged by their dams and rivers are repaired and restored to smooth flow, the post roads passing through them in a short period of time will still be blocked.
The severely damaged post road transports four to five million stones of grain and other necessary living and combat materials to the banks of the Yellow River every year. What an astonishing price must be paid?
What's more, although the garrison cavalry of Zhennan Zongwangfu and Pingyan Zongwangfu were severely damaged, they did not suffer a devastating blow.
On the one hand, the captive soldiers of the two prefectures can recruit new elite cavalry from the grasslands, and on the other hand, they can borrow cavalry reinforcements from Hexi, Longyou and other places.
And the vast land of Hehuai River and Huaihe River is very convenient for cavalry to enter and exit.
The Sikong Prefecture was unable to build dense military fortresses along the Yellow River in a short period of time. The forts and cities were combined to form a complete defense system, and there was no way to prevent the Red Husband cavalry from infiltrating to harass and kill.
Another key reason is that even if the Sikong Mansion intercepts all the people in the north and east of Hehuai and other places and does not let the Red Husbands forcibly take them away, there will still be a large number of dependents of the Han army who surrendered.
Most of the more than 200,000 soldiers who surrendered to the Han army in Heluo and the eastern part of Hehuai will be taken to the north of the Yellow River by the Chihu people. It is difficult to expect that the people's hearts in the Hehuai area will stabilize in the short term.
It is obviously unrealistic to urgently return the capital to Bianliang at this time.
No matter how the subsequent war develops, the next focus of the Sikong Mansion is to build the Yingshui defense line.
The significance of building the Yingshui defense line is not to worry about the Chihu people's ability to launch a large-scale attack along the Yingshui coast.
After the Second Battle of Huainan, Xu Huai focused on moving the soldiers and their families of the Xiaosheng, Xuanwu, and Jingsheng armies to Shou, Hao, Guang and other places along the Huaihe River.
Before the start of the Yingzhou Campaign, 3 million acres of abandoned grain fields were reclaimed in two years, of which more than 1 million acres were directly granted, a thousand villages were built, and more than 200,000 houses were built, making Shou, Hao, and
The population of Guangsanzhou quickly recovered to 1.2 million.
In the Battle of Yingzhou, the Sikong Mansion not only mobilized a total of 300,000 soldiers and horses, but also recruited nearly 400,000 supply troops on a large scale, and civilians participated in frontline support operations. The reason why it can be so grand is that in addition to the increasingly solid foundation for the construction of the Jingxiang Road,
An important core factor is that in addition to providing 100,000 troops and civilians nearby, Guangshou and Shou also provided additional supplies from the local area.
Fang requisitioned 15.6 million shi of grain.
The next step for Sikong Mansion is to focus on building the Yingshui defense line. In fact, it is to combine the construction of the defense line in the three prefectures of Xu, Chen, and Ying with production recovery, with the west and south Beijing camps as the core.
In addition to the more distant Jingdong East Road (eastern Shandong), the three prefectures of Xu, Chen, and Ying have a strategic geographical advantage over the hinterland of the Hehuai River. At the same time, they rely on the Ying River to form an organic whole with the Huaihe River. As long as
If we can manage the three states of Xu, Chen, and Ying well, it will be a matter of course for us to recover Zheng, Bian, Song, Bo, Shang, Xu, and other places.
Even if the Red Husbands withdraw from Hehuai this autumn and winter, Xu Huai will only ask the Xuanwu Army to march north to recapture the two states of Song and Suzhou, while the Jingnan camp will mainly use Bozhou Zhiqiao City and other cities in the north as autumn and winter recapture operations.
The goal.
Further north, the states on the south bank of the Yellow River mainly focused on building outpost military villages in the early stage, and actively guided the people in these areas to evacuate southward and move to the four states of Xu, Chen, Bo, and Su to live in denser villages.
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In addition to focusing on restoring agricultural production in Xuzhou, Chenzhou, Yingzhou and other places, we will also establish stricter and more stable grassroots governance in these places.
The uneasy people of the Hehuai River turned into a mobilizable military potential under the control of the Sikong Mansion.
If we want to talk about the must-win place in this autumn and winter, it is Heluo, and it is Luoyang Mansion that ranks among the best in the world.
In addition to the newly established Heluo camp, which has the main force of four towns under its jurisdiction and is actively preparing for the battle to regain Luoyang, the Jingxi camp will also be able to attack Zhen, the gateway to the east of Luoyang, from Yuzhou and Dengfeng between Jishan and Songshan.
Use troops at Yuanguan.
After regaining Luoyang, the troops and horses of the Heluo camp will also be responsible for occupying the entire territory of Heluo.
On the one hand, Heluo is in danger of the fortress, which is conducive to defense. On the other hand, Heluo overlooks Guanshan to the west, borders Hedong to the north, and stretches out to the east from the Zheng-Bian Weihuai prefectures. The geographical location is too critical and important.
If the offensive had not been interrupted by heavy rain, Xu Huai would not have been in a hurry to return from Yingzhou. The next step would be to attack Heluo, not Zheng Bian.
However, even if he successfully regains Heluo this autumn and winter, Xu Huai will not rush to send troops to march north or west. He will still use Heluo as a base for marching westward and northward. He will first use two or three years to develop a certain foundation before he can move further.
To consider other things.
In addition to arrangements for combat operations and defense line construction, Xu Huai's next priority at the court was to reorganize the state troops and horses in eastern Zhejiang, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, and Jingnan.
Since the founding of the Dai Viet dynasty, one of the most typical signs at the local level is that the military has been governed by culture and the military has been controlled by culture. As the chief military officer at the state level, the military commander no longer simply accepts the control of the governor and other administrative officials.
It is generally held directly by the presiding officer such as the magistrate.
In addition, the main generals and military officials such as the local prefecture military commanders, Du Yuhou, and the Du commanders were mainly recommended by the prefects such as the magistrates. The Ministry of War's appointment power over the local prefecture military officials was in name only.
All of this reduced local military equipment to the status of vassals and subordinates of the military officials.
The soldiers and horses at the Lu level were all deployed in the Division, and they could only directly command more or less stationed imperial troops, and had only control over the state soldiers. This also made the strategic envoy, the head of the four supervisors of the Lu Division, even less powerful than the chief officer of the Lu Prefecture.
This is mainly due to the establishment of the Dai Viet Dynasty.
Fearing the emergence of powerful vassals, he tried every possible means to establish checks and balances at the road level and at the supervisory level, and tried every means to strengthen the power at the state level.
Emperor Jianji ascended the throne in Xiangyang and first changed the military system of Jingxiang North Road.
On the one hand, the magistrates of the various prefectures no longer also serve as military and horse supervisors, and instead select capable generals to serve as full-time military and horse supervisors in the state capitals. At the same time, the military and horse supervisory departments of each state government accept the vertical leadership of the military and horse supervisors of the road troops and horses.
Although the combat effectiveness of the Jingbei Army after restructuring cannot be compared with the elite of the Forbidden Army, it performed far better than other state soldiers in the first and second Huainan Battles as well as many rounds of garrison and defensive operations.
Xu Huai now not only wants to extend this to Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Jingnan, and Zhejiang East, he also wants to merge the prefectural military and horse supervisors with the duties of regiment training envoys, and combine the training of rural soldiers, instead of completely letting go.
Give control to local clans.
In addition to commanding the soldiers and horses of King Qin of the various roads during the Second Huainan Battle, since Xu Huai took charge of the government in Sikong Mansion, the soldiers and horses of the various prefectural governments have also participated in four rounds of garrison. Especially this time in the Battle of Yingzhou, a total of
One hundred and fifty thousand soldiers and horses from various prefectures participated in the battle.
Whether besieging Huaichuan, Quanhe, and Jiaopi, or participating in the interception operations in Taihe and Ruyinbei, a group of brave generals emerged from all the prefectures.
The Intermediate and Advanced Military Command School will intensify its efforts to recruit students from the various state soldiers who have made meritorious service, and train them as reserve military officers, and then gradually replenish them to the various soldiers in the subsequent garrison and defense and combat processes.
Go to the Department of Horse and Horse Deployment and the Department of Military and Horse Supervision of the state capital.
Matters such as the granting of land to the soldiers of the various prefectures and the reduction of rents and tenancies must also be promoted with greater efforts.
At present, Zhejiang East and Jiangdong are presided over by Wang Fan and Liu Yan. The relevant work is already advancing. In the future, we only need to do more solid work. For Jiangxi and Jingnan Roads, Xu Huai plans to recommend Zhou Jing and Xu Xin'an to serve as directors of these two roads.
Soldiers and horses are deployed to advance the matter.
At this time, Xu Huai intended to create an elite division under the banner of Sikong Mansion that would conquer the world.
In addition to having a strong material base to support this elite division, it also needs a huge reserve force to replenish it at any time.
As for other things, Xu Huai won't think too much about it at this time.
In the Battle of Yingzhou, a total of 110,000 prisoners were taken.
Except for the 20,000 prisoners of war who returned to the German Army, they had no sense of belonging to the Red Husbands. They would be directly incorporated into the military garrison sequence under the jurisdiction of the west and south Jing camps. Their families would be moved from Jingnan to reunite, and military garrison camps would be organized in the three states of Chen, Xu and Ying.
, the other nearly 90,000 prisoners of war are all soldiers who surrendered to the Han army. Some of them will be used to make up for the shortage of mining labor in major mines. Some of them will be sent to Qionglai Mountain through the Yangtze River waterway and sent to Dajianlu to speed up the development of Qionglai Mountain.
The force was also used to reinforce the remnants of the Khitan to accelerate their expansion into the Tubo Highlands.
At present, the influence on Dali is quite limited. Even if Guangnan West Road is ordered to further expand the tea horse buying trade with Dali, Dali does not actively cooperate, and the number of war horses that can be obtained from the West is still quite limited, between two and three thousand good horses every year.
Horses are not enough to select and train the vanguard generals.
If we want to obtain high-quality war horses on a large scale, we can only support the remnants of the Khitan to speed up the expansion of the Tubo Highlands, and seize a large number of good horses directly from the Tubo tribes and transport them to Beijing and Xiang...