Every autumn and winter, Xiangyang builds a pontoon bridge in the west of the city to facilitate land transportation with Fancheng on the north coast. When the Han River rises sharply in the flood season, or when large quantities of materials need to be transported directly to Jinzhou, Han River and other places upstream, the pontoon bridge will be dismantled.
However, at the end of the eighth year of Shaolong's reign, in addition to the usual pontoon bridge erected at Wolongji Ferry in the west of Xiangyang City, the Xiangyang government also recruited soldiers and civilians to erect a pontoon bridge between Yuliangzhou and Lumen Mountain in the east of the city.
The Han River flows from west to east into the territory of Xiangyang Prefecture, but in the northeast of Xiangyang City, it almost turns a big right-angle bend, and the flow turns south, heading towards Yingzhou and Fuzhou.
After flowing through the entire Nanyang Basin from north to south, the Tangbai River flows into the Han River at almost the top corner of this large right-angled bend.
Over thousands of years, billions of silt from the upper reaches of the Han River and Tangbai River have been alluvial and deposited in this large bay to form a large sandbar in the center of the river that stretches for nearly 20 miles from north to south and 11 or 2 miles from east to west.
In the pre-Qin Dynasty, some people used earth and rocks to cross the water flow on the edge of the sandbank, leaving several gaps. Fish baskets made of bamboo and wood were placed in the gaps to catch fish. In ancient times, this fishing method was called weirang, so this
This sandbank has been called Yuliangzhou for thousands of years.
There is a large shoal formed by alluvial sediment in the east of Xiangyang City. Across the river from Yuliangzhou is Yuliangping.
To the east of Yuliangzhou, close to the Lumen Mountain on the east bank of the Han River, is the remnant of the Dahong Mountains. It is also the gateway from Yingzhou on the east bank of the Han River to Nanyang - the rocky beach on the south side of the Yuliangzhou, because the veins are adjacent to the Lumen Mountain.
Jie, also known as Lumen Beach.
Yuliangzhou divides the Han River that turns south into two parts. The east channel is the main channel leading to the mouth of the Tangbai River, and the west channel is the main channel leading to the Jin Ferry in the north of Xiangyang City.
The industry in Beijing and Xiangzhou is becoming more and more prosperous, and the Yuliangzhou East Waterway is also becoming more and more crowded with boats. Every year, thousands of merchant ships pass through it, bringing ironware, cotton yarn, cotton woolen fabrics, and wood produced in Yunyang, Biyang and other places.
Commercial goods such as tea and medicine were shipped to Jinghu, Jianghuai and other places, and even went to sea via Hangzhou, Yangzhou, and Runzhou, and were exported to overseas vassal countries.
Erecting a pontoon bridge on the east waterway between Yuliangzhou and Lumen Mountain will not completely seal the Hanshui waterway. Ships can still go to the Tangbai River waterway through the west waterway, but it will also have some impact on the increasingly prosperous shipping.
hinder.
While everyone was wondering, after the Lunar New Year in the ninth year of Shaolong's reign, the government recruited tens of thousands of troops, and the people built embankments on the north and south sides of the Yuliangzhou pontoon. They quarried pebbles from the east beach of Yuliangping and woven them with bamboo.
The large basket carried it and sank into the waterway between Yuliangzhou and Lumen Mountain to cut off the water flow.
At this time, everyone suddenly realized that the Xiangyang government was going to build a large iron bridge between Yuliangzhou and Lumen Mountain.
The east waterway between Yuliangzhou and Lumen Mountain is 150 feet wide. At this time, no matter how strong the construction industry in Beijing and Xiangzhou is, they will never be able to directly build a super iron bridge spanning 150 feet.
To build the Yuliangzhou Iron Bridge, you need to first build embankments upstream and downstream of the waterway between Yuliangzhou and Lumen Mountain, drain the water, and then build thirty groups of super-large bridge piers on the river bed, and then arch each section
Bridges are erected on these piers, connecting Yuliangzhou with the land on the east coast of Lumen Mountain.
And because the waterway between Yuliangzhou and Yuliangping is more open, more than 400 feet wide, and also bears the impact of violent floods during the flood season, it is not suitable to build a super-large iron bridge in the short term. Fixed pontoon bridges will be used at that time.
Connecting the two sides of Yuliangzhou and Yuliangping.
After the completion of this series of projects, in addition to the fixed bridges connecting the east and west banks of the Han River, boats can pass between the iron bridge arches without interrupting shipping. This can be said to have initially opened up the water and land transportation bottleneck in Xiangyang.
Even with some clever tricks, the Yuliangzhou Iron Bridge was a huge project that was beyond the imagination of most people, not to mention that it was unimaginable more than ten years ago.
It has a lot of experience in iron casting and construction, but the widest iron bridge built in the past is less than one-third of the Yuliangzhou Iron Bridge.
The reason why the Xiangyang Bridge was built between Yuliangzhou and Lumen Mountain where the Han River turns south is that in addition to using Yuliangzhou in the center of the river to significantly reduce the construction volume of the iron bridge, there is also a key technical reason, which is the fish
Among the waterways on the east and west sides of Liangzhou, the east waterway is the least affected by the flow of water during the flood season.
The Yuliangzhou Iron Bridge is the key link between Bixiang Avenue and Xiangyang City. It is located here to facilitate the future extension of Bixiang Avenue southward along the east bank of the Han River.
Bixiang Avenue, which has entered the construction stage at this time, is part of the north-south main road in Xu Huai's vision, and will need to continue to extend north and south in the future.
The northern extension of Bixiang Avenue and the gravel road extending through Fangcheng to Ye County have started construction at the same time. It will also connect Xiangcheng, Xuchang, Changge, Xinzheng, and extend to Zhengzhou Zhiguan City.
The southern extension of Bixiang Avenue goes south through Lumen Mountain, along the east bank of the Han River, to Yingzhou, Fuzhou, and Ezhou, and reaches the bank of the Yangtze River.
Only by achieving this step can this avenue initially connect the northern and southern parts of the empire.
The old city of Xiangyang is located between Yanshan Mountain and the Han River, with a narrow terrain. During Wen Hengyue's administration, a new city was built to the west of the old city, between the northern foot of Longzhong Mountain and the Han River.
The entire Xiangyang City is more than nine miles long from east to west and four miles deep from north to south. In the past, it could be said to be a large city. As the seat of the imperial capital, it was obviously too narrow.
The south side of Xiangyang City is blocked by Yanshan Mountain, Longzhong Mountain, and Liuzi Mountain, and the north side is blocked by the Han River. There is no room for expansion. At the same time, Xiangyang City, the broader Nanyang Basin, and Suiying Anhuang and other prefectures on Jinghu North Road were blocked by the Han River.
Water barrier - even after the Yuliangzhou Iron Bridge is completed, it is far from meeting the land transportation needs of the imperial capital.
When Sikong Prefecture planned Xiangyang New City, it had two main options. One was to merge Fancheng on the north bank into Xiangyang, and the other was to build the city on a site in the southern part of Zaoyang County on the east bank of the Han River and north of Lumen Mountain.
The Sikong Mansion repeatedly weighed and finally decided to build the new city of the future imperial capital in the open area east of the Han River, Tangbai River, and north of Lumen Mountain. In this way, Bixiang Avenue, as the main road running through the north and south of the empire, could be straightened as much as possible.
, and can also save huge investment in building a super-large iron bridge on the lower reaches of Tangbai River.
Tangbai River is the main waterway from Yunyang and Biyang to Xiangyang in the south. If you do not want to interrupt shipping and ensure smooth land routes, you must build large iron bridges. For other relatively minor rivers, pontoon bridges can be erected in a short time to save construction costs.
.
Of course, after the recapture of Bianliang, there were many voices in the DPRK and Central Government that wanted to return the capital.
Now a new city is to be built for the imperial capital on the east bank of the Han River. It is obvious that if the news leaks out, it is destined to cause an uproar.
Therefore, Xu Huai discussed with Shi Zhen, Han Gui and others and decided not to talk about the new city for now.
It is impossible to build a new city directly now. In addition to large-scale construction projects such as the Yuliangzhou Iron Bridge and the southern extension of Bixiang Avenue, the largest commercial cargo transfer terminal and storage and transportation area in Beijing and Xiangzhou will be built east of the Han River in the early stage.
At the same time, a camp and training ground for the Third Town of the Selective Front Army will be built north of Lumen Mountain. First, the construction land of more than ten miles to the east of the Han River and north of Lumen Mountain will be enclosed.
In the future, Sikong Mansion, Xiangyang Academy and Pingliang County Prince's Mansion will be built on the east bank.
It will take at least a year to lay the groundwork. After the construction on the east bank has reached a certain scale, or after the Sikong Mansion has further grasped the situation between the government and the opposition, and after the civil and military capitals of the entire court have taken root in Xiangyang and settled down, it will not be too late to formally launch the construction plan for the new imperial city.
Of course, there are many criticisms from both the government and the public that the promotion of a series of super-large industrial construction projects is a waste of money and people.
However, in order to avoid excessive consumption of people's power, Xu Huai promoted large-scale industrial construction, always using a combination of conscription and forced labor, and never forced the people to do unpaid heavy manual labor-for prisoners of war.
Except for slavery, even prisoners of war will return to their status as commoners after completing a certain number of years of hard labor.
The specially recruited workers and soldiers who are engaged in manufacturing, no matter how meager the salary paid, will ensure that the income from farming is slightly higher than that of the same period.
However, all of this relies on the increasingly strong fiscal revenue of the Sikong Government to support it.
After Xu Huai took control of the government with the Sikong Mansion, he did not significantly increase the taxes in Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Jingnan, Jingbei and eastern Zhejiang. The annual rents and taxes paid by the Five-Road Envoys remained roughly the same as during the Second Huainan Campaign
level.
Since the fall of Bianliang, the annual income of the central government has mainly relied on the grain rent and taxes paid by these five roads.
Including taxes on iron salt, tea cloth and other commodities, the five routes can generate an annual income of nearly 30 million yuan for the central government.
In addition to the five roads including Jiangdong and Jiangxi, Guangnan East Road, Guangnan West Road and Fujian Road are located in remote areas with sparsely populated areas. The amount of money and food collected each year is limited. Before the Tianxuan period, they were unable to make ends meet.
After the fall of Bianliang, Emperor Jianji ascended the throne in Xiangyang. The money and grain paid by these three roads each year was only more than two million guan.
At this time, the Sikong Mansion was beyond the reach of these three roads, and Xu Huai did not think about developing the tax sources of these three roads.
The taxes on Xishu Road mainly supplied the war effort on Dongchuan Road and West Qin Road; the West Zhejiang Road was basically divided by the Ge family at this time, and the rent and food on Huaidong Road were currently collected and financed by Han Shiliang and his troops.
The central government currently collects 32 million yuan of money and grain from various southern routes every year, which is much higher than before the fall of Bianliang.
However, with the suppression of the Dongjing banditry, the public security situation in the southern states and counties has been increasingly improved.
Government officials in various places, either proactively or passively, have taken many measures in recent years to clear land and level taxes, suppress powerful people, reclaim wasteland, resettle refugees, and expand tax sources.
This has not only allowed the tax revenue that local governments can retain to begin to recover; people's livelihood in various places has also improved to a certain extent compared to previous years.
In addition, since there were no new establishments after the dismantling of the Suwei imperial army, and the expenses of the inner court were greatly reduced, the central branch is currently mainly used for the salaries and various public funds of thousands of civil and military officials in various ministries and departments in the court, and the total annual expenses are reduced to
Eight million strings.
Six years ago in Shaolong, the inner court alone had five to six thousand chambermaids, and together with other miscellaneous expenses, it would cost seven to eight million guan a year; although this was compared to the inner court expenses during the Tianxuan period, it was already
Great savings.
After deducting the central government's annual expenditure of 8 million guan, the various roads turn over to the central government every year and there is still 24 million guans in rent and food that can be spent, which is directly in the hands of the five-road tax envoys headed by Shi Zhen, which is basically
It can cover the military pay and troops of the five armies of Jingsheng, Xuanwu, Tianxiong, Xiaosheng and Xuanfeng with a total of 150,000 soldiers, 50,000 garrison troops and horses of various roads and prefectures, and 150,000 defenders on each defense line.
Military expenses such as armor equipment, construction of barracks and fortresses, etc.
Overall, military expenditures have not increased significantly compared to Shaolong six years ago.
On the one hand, the scale of military pay for generals and soldiers has not been increased, and land grants have even been used to replace the previous costly military merit rewards.
The work of allocating nearly 100,000 generals of the Xiaosheng, Xuanwu, and Jingsheng armies to farmland and resettling their families has basically been completed. The generals and their families can now basically guarantee self-sufficiency in food and other basic living materials, and there is no need to use meager expenses anymore.
The military pay was used to buy the soaring high-priced grain - the grain, cotton and silkworm cultivation of the generals' families even had some surplus, which was purchased by the Sikong Mansion.
This ensured that the living standards of Yuan Xiaosheng, Xuanwu, and Jingsheng's 100,000 generals and dozens of dependents had been greatly improved compared to Shaolong's six years.
The total expenditure on equipment such as armor and weapons has not increased significantly, but has actually decreased.
However, there has been a qualitative improvement in the armor and equipment of the entire army. This is mainly due to the fact that Jingxiang took over the manufacturing of all armor and war equipment.
The fastest growing growth is mainly due to investment in the construction of camps and various military fortresses.
This is mainly because the front is advancing too fast.
After the great victory in Yingzhou, the defense line advanced to the Yingshui River, taking over more than 20 cities in Chen Xuying and other prefectures and counties, and building hundreds of military garrisons. More than 200,000 soldiers and horses were to be stationed in the new garrisons, camps and fortresses, etc.
In more than half a year, nearly 5 million yuan was invested in the construction of the direction.
Now that Heluo, Zhengbian and other places have been recovered, there cannot be any reduction in the expenditure in this area.
However, even so, the central government's annual revenue can almost cover all military expenditures.
In the past, the central defense was excluded, and more than 20 million yuan of money and food were invested every year, but this could not necessarily cover the huge expenditure of the Huaihe River defense line. The living environment of more than a dozen generals and their families was even extremely harsh and difficult.
At that time, in addition to the manufacturing of soldiers and war equipment, there was a lot of corruption in the transportation of military grains. A more fundamental reason was that the generals did not grant or allocate fields to the soldiers. With the large-scale influx of refugees in the Jianghuai River, agricultural consumption production suffered.
Severe damage, food prices skyrocketed, swallowing up the seemingly considerable military pay income of the generals.
It also forced the court to provide additional rewards in addition to military pay in order to ensure the basic survival needs of the generals and their families.
In addition to the central annual income of more than 30 million guan of money and grain each year, which is jointly managed by the Wulu Duzhi Department and the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Sikong Mansion also directly governs the Jingxiang Road, the four major camp garrison areas, and the newly recovered prefectures and counties.
The entire manufacturing system has developed to this day. In addition to maintaining its own normal development and expansion, it can also contribute more than 8 million yuan in taxes and profits to the Sikong Mansion every year.
Jingxiang Road can also pay taxes of 4 million yuan every year.
In addition, the reclamation system under Sikong Mansion is growing day by day.
Since the rise of Xu Huai in the Chu Mountains, all the powerful and powerful people have been conquered, and the newly reclaimed or reclaimed fields have been taken over by the government. Then the camp or production department will organize the manpower to build villages on a large scale, and appoint township officials to take charge.
In addition to the refugees who surrendered, the families of ordinary soldiers and prisoners of war who had undergone certain punishments after being captured were all incorporated into various villages to participate in reclamation and farming, as well as the excavation and construction of local roads, rivers, canals, dams and other public projects.
Since the villages, houses, and various agricultural tools needed to cultivate the land, as well as the cattle, seeds, and the rations for survival are all provided by the camp or the company, the cultivators will get a part of the final harvest from the official fields, but they are also
A considerable portion should be used as taxes and rents should be paid to the official warehouse.
Only generals who have made great achievements in battle will be directly granted land, without the need to pay additional rent, and can also be exempted from part of the tax.
Before Emperor Jianji ascended the throne in Xiangyang, Xu Huai led the people of Chu Mountain and worked hard to reclaim 50,000 to 60,000 acres of sloping land in the north and south ridges of Tongbai Mountain. In order to improve irrigation conditions, he built weirs and dams in streams regardless of the cost, but this was also for the sake of Chu.
This laid the foundation for the subsequent development of hydraulic engineering in the mountain.
During the Jianji period, in addition to cultivating 4.5 million acres of sloping mountain fields, with the increase in military strength, they were able to control the Ruzhou trough basin between Jishan and Funiu Mountains, as well as Ru River, Mingxi River and the northern part of Tongbai Mountain.
In the Pingchuan area surrounded by mountains such as Ling Mountain, Dafu Mountain, and Dengtaijia, the farmland directly controlled by Chushan Mountain in the plain area suddenly increased to more than three million acres.
When Emperor Shaolong ascended the throne, Xu Huai used the name of Nancai Recruitment Division to recruit millions of refugees when he suppressed the Dongjing bandit rebellion. He also forced Emperor Shaolong to agree to add the area north of Jingjiang River to Jingxiang Road, and simultaneously opened the
Large-scale land clearing and reclamation work was carried out in Nanyang, Xiangyang and Jingzhou.
By the seventh year of Shaolong's reign, the four counties of Nanyang, Xiangyang and Jingzhou, plus Nancai, had been cleared and confiscated. In addition to the large-scale construction of embankments and villages in northern Jingzhou and other places, a total of 8 million acres of official land had been acquired in six or seven years.
The fourth stage was after the Second Battle of Huainan. Xu Huai actually dismantled the Huainan West Road. On the one hand, he merged Luzhou, Shuzhou, Hezhou and other counties in southwestern Huainan into the Jiangnan East Road. On the other hand, he merged the counties in northwestern Huainan into the Jiangnan East Road.
Shouzhou, Guangzhou, Haozhou and other places were brought under the jurisdiction of the Xingying War Zone, and a large number of generals and their families of Jingsheng, Xuanwu and Xiaosheng armies were moved in for resettlement.
In three years, these areas were re-cultivated and up to 6 million acres of mature farmland were reclaimed.
Over the years, after deducting more than 3 million acres of land granted by military merit, the total number of official land under the jurisdiction of the Sikong Prefecture's Farming Division now reaches 14 million acres.
This does not include the achievements of Liu Yan and Wang Fan in clearing fields in Jiangdong and Zhejiang. It does not include the newly added jurisdictions along the Yingshui River after the great victory of Yingzhou. It does not include the recovery of Heluo, Zhengbian and other places.
Cultivated land available for development.
In the eighth year of Shaolong's reign, the official land tenancy and land tax revenue under the jurisdiction of the Sikong Prefecture, after deducting the expenses of local reclamation, water conservancy road repairs and personnel, was also handed over to the Sikong Prefecture, including two million shi of grain and one hundred shi.
A large amount of materials including 500,000 dans of cotton - this does not include the 4 to 5 million shi of grain purchased at low prices from the people of various villages with additional funding from the Sikong Mansion.
The significance of the settlement system is not only to hand over a large amount of additional materials every year, nor to quickly restore local agricultural production, but not only to facilitate the large-scale promotion of new manufacturing technologies within the settlement system, and more importantly,
This is the reason why Sikong Mansion has successfully secured nearly one million reserve soldiers.
These reserve soldiers participate in the farming work of each village as station soldiers during the farming season, and are organized by the village officials for basic drills; in their free time, they are assembled as labor troops to participate in the construction of various local public facilities or to meet the material transportation needs of frontline operations.
.
In addition to participating in training as a garrison soldier and receiving a small amount of subsidies, once recruited as a labor soldier, the salary paid will also be guaranteed to be slightly higher than the income from farming - for the refugees who had no livelihood and were displaced from place to place earlier,
And for prisoners of war who received certain hard labor punishment, it was already an excellent treatment.
It seems that the Sikong government has to bear additional costs in addition to the huge construction expenditures, so the Sikong government needs to expand borrowings appropriately to maintain expenditures.
However, in addition to not overly consuming people's power and causing public dissatisfaction, this move not only ensures sufficient reserve troops, but also allows new construction projects, new settlements, and defense line construction to continue rolling out.
At this time, in addition to the restoration of county governance in Xiangcheng, Zhaoling, Queshan and other places, large-scale settlement and reclamation construction was underway in Xuchang, Wanqiu, Xiangcheng, Shenqiu, Ruyin, Huaichuan, Jiaopi and other places to accommodate Yingzhou
After the great victory, the number of prisoners who surrendered to the Han army and those who were vassalized by the Han army were taken into custody, totaling about 900,000 people.
At present, the armies of Jingsheng, Tianxiong, Xiaosheng, and Xuanwu have regained six state capitals in the northern and western areas of Jingxi North Road, including Heluo, and the southern area of Jingxi East Road. It is currently estimated that they will once again contain the surrendered Han military households.
The total number of expelled people is about 1.8 million.
Although the war greatly reduced the population of the Hehuai region, the proportion of young and strong men among the surviving population was extremely high.
The Sikong Mansion has made preliminary statistics on the people accommodated in the three major camp garrison areas. There are 2.8 million people, and the total number of young men between the ages of 15 and 50 is about 1.2 million.
Even if the young men in the Han army were eliminated - these people were untrustworthy and stained with the blood of their comrades - there would still be nearly a million young men who had been expelled and enslaved in the past.
This also means that if these people are included in the settlement system of Sikong Mansion, the number of reserve soldiers will double.
At this time, Sikong Mansion may not be able to advance into Guanshan, Hedong, or directly attack Puwei, forcing the soldiers and horses of Prince Ping Yanzong's Mansion to retreat further north, and then regain Jingdong East Road and other places.
However, in the end, everyone in the Sikong Mansion, led by Shi Zhen, Han Gui, Liu Shiwang, Chen Zixiao and others, still firmly opposed the radical military strategy at this time.
In addition to avoiding excessive use of troops and horses, which may cause heavy casualties, the most important thing is to digest the millions of additional troops, which will take time and process.
And this is a step that Sikong Mansion should not skip when running the world.
Now that the Chihu people have not completely retreated from the Central Plains, Sikong Mansion has won great victories one after another and regained lost territory. Therefore, the local officials and gentry in Jianghuai and Jinghu have behaved extremely docile and cooperative.
The Sikong Mansion could also justifiably hold high the banner of "Expelling the Huru and Recovering the Central Plains", requiring the government and the public to concentrate their main resources on military operations, ensuring that the empire's focus was on ensuring military victory one after another.
If we rush to use further troops against the Chihu people now, it is inevitable that the military operation will be frustrated and the personal prestige of Sikong Mansion and Xu Huai will be damaged.
However, even if the Chihu people can be expelled from the Central Plains as quickly as possible, the situation may not develop in favor of the Sikong Mansion.
After the Red Husbands were driven out of the Central Plains, the government and the public would soon lose their strong will to continue to use troops against the Red Husbands, and the focus of the court would need to shift from conquests to construction. At this time, there were already some voices in Xiangyang that wanted to return to Bianliang.
, has already illustrated this trend.
It’s not that those who thought about returning to Bianliang have already stood on the opposite side of Sikong Mansion, but the end of large-scale military operations and the shift of the empire’s focus to construction will inevitably lead to scholars and civil servants who are better at government affairs.
Become active again - whether actively or unconsciously.
Once the large-scale military operation ends, the psychological inertia formed by the use of civil society to control military affairs and the use of civil society to govern military affairs since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty will inevitably rear its ugly head again.
At that time, the Sikong Mansion still wants to continue to directly control the reclamation construction in Hehuai and even Hedong, Guanshan, Hebei and other places in the name of the camp camp area. The conflict with the officials and gentry is likely to intensify again.
Unless Xu Huai is willing to use more intense and severe methods to carry out bloody purges of officials and officials, Shi Zhen, Han Gui and others all advocate that military operations in Hedong, Guanshan, Hebei and other places should be slowed down.
Or seven or eight years is better.
Slowed down until Sikong Prefecture initially digested Heluo, Bianzheng and Xusu areas; slowed down until Sikong Prefecture’s total size was expanded to two million. After many rounds of training, the garrison troops initially formed a centripetal force towards Sikong Prefecture; slowed down.
When they arrive at Jianghuai, if the Jinghu gentry dares to rebel, Sikong Mansion can kill them with just one finger...
By that time, it will not only be easier for the Sikong Mansion to send troops to regain Hedong, Guanshan, Hebei and other places, but many things in the future, including concessions, will become truly logical...
The Kong government invested additional money to purchase four to five million shi of grain from the people of various villages at low prices.
The significance of the settlement system is not only to hand over a large amount of additional materials every year, nor to quickly restore local agricultural production, but not only to facilitate the large-scale promotion of new manufacturing technologies within the settlement system, and more importantly,
This is the reason why Sikong Mansion has successfully secured nearly one million reserve soldiers.
These reserve soldiers participate in the farming work of each village as station soldiers during the farming season, and are organized by the village officials for basic drills; in their free time, they are assembled as labor troops to participate in the construction of various local public facilities or to meet the material transportation needs of frontline operations.
.
In addition to participating in training as a garrison soldier and receiving a small amount of subsidies, once recruited as a labor soldier, the salary paid will also be guaranteed to be slightly higher than the income from farming - for the refugees who had no livelihood and were displaced from place to place earlier,
And for prisoners of war who received certain hard labor punishment, it was already an excellent treatment.
It seems that the Sikong government has to bear additional costs in addition to the huge construction expenditures, so the Sikong government needs to expand borrowings appropriately to maintain expenditures.
However, in addition to not overly consuming people's power and causing public dissatisfaction, this move not only ensures sufficient reserve troops, but also allows new construction projects, new settlements, and defense line construction to continue rolling out.
At this time, in addition to the restoration of county governance in Xiangcheng, Zhaoling, Queshan and other places, large-scale settlement and reclamation construction was underway in Xuchang, Wanqiu, Xiangcheng, Shenqiu, Ruyin, Huaichuan, Jiaopi and other places to accommodate Yingzhou
After the great victory, the number of prisoners who surrendered to the Han army and those who were vassalized by the Han army were taken into custody, totaling about 900,000 people.
At present, the armies of Jingsheng, Tianxiong, Xiaosheng, and Xuanwu have regained six state capitals in the northern and western areas of Jingxi North Road, including Heluo, and the southern area of Jingxi East Road. It is currently estimated that they will once again contain the surrendered Han military households.
The total number of expelled people is about 1.8 million.
Although the war greatly reduced the population of the Hehuai region, the proportion of young and strong men among the surviving population was extremely high.
The Sikong Mansion has made preliminary statistics on the people accommodated in the three major camp garrison areas. There are 2.8 million people, and the total number of young men between the ages of 15 and 50 is about 1.2 million.
Even if the young men in the Han army were eliminated - these people were untrustworthy and stained with the blood of their comrades - there would still be nearly a million young men who had been expelled and enslaved in the past.
This also means that if these people are included in the settlement system of Sikong Mansion, the number of reserve soldiers will double.
At this time, Sikong Mansion may not be able to advance into Guanshan, Hedong, or directly attack Puwei, forcing the soldiers and horses of Prince Ping Yanzong's Mansion to retreat further north, and then regain Jingdong East Road and other places.
However, in the end, everyone in the Sikong Mansion, led by Shi Zhen, Han Gui, Liu Shiwang, Chen Zixiao and others, still firmly opposed the radical military strategy at this time.
In addition to avoiding excessive use of troops and horses, which may cause heavy casualties, the most important thing is to digest the millions of additional troops, which will take time and process.
And this is a step that Sikong Mansion should not skip when running the world.
Now that the Chihu people have not completely retreated from the Central Plains, Sikong Mansion has won great victories one after another and regained lost territory. Therefore, the local officials and gentry in Jianghuai and Jinghu have behaved extremely docile and cooperative.
The Sikong Mansion could also justifiably hold high the banner of "Expelling the Huru and Recovering the Central Plains", requiring the government and the public to concentrate their main resources on military operations, ensuring that the empire's focus was on ensuring military victory one after another.
If we rush to use further troops against the Chihu people now, it is inevitable that the military operation will be frustrated and the personal prestige of Sikong Mansion and Xu Huai will be damaged.
However, even if the Chihu people can be expelled from the Central Plains as quickly as possible, the situation may not develop in favor of the Sikong Mansion.
After the Red Husbands were driven out of the Central Plains, the government and the public would soon lose their strong will to continue to use troops against the Red Husbands, and the focus of the court would need to shift from conquests to construction. At this time, there were already some voices in Xiangyang that wanted to return to Bianliang.
, has already illustrated this trend.
It’s not that those who thought about returning to Bianliang have already stood on the opposite side of Sikong Mansion, but the end of large-scale military operations and the shift of the empire’s focus to construction will inevitably lead to scholars and civil servants who are better at government affairs.
Become active again - whether actively or unconsciously.
Once the large-scale military operation ends, the psychological inertia formed by the use of civil society to control military affairs and the use of civil society to govern military affairs since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty will inevitably rear its ugly head again.
At that time, the Sikong Mansion still wants to continue to directly control the reclamation construction in Hehuai and even Hedong, Guanshan, Hebei and other places in the name of the camp camp area. The conflict with the officials and gentry is likely to intensify again.
Unless Xu Huai is willing to use more intense and severe methods to carry out bloody purges of officials and officials, Shi Zhen, Han Gui and others all advocate that military operations in Hedong, Guanshan, Hebei and other places should be slowed down.
Or seven or eight years is better.
Slowed down until Sikong Prefecture initially digested Heluo, Bianzheng and Xusu areas; slowed down until Sikong Prefecture’s total size was expanded to two million. After many rounds of training, the garrison troops initially formed a centripetal force towards Sikong Prefecture; slowed down.
When they arrive at Jianghuai, if the Jinghu gentry dares to rebel, Sikong Mansion can kill them with just one finger...
By that time, it will not only be easier for the Sikong Mansion to send troops to regain Hedong, Guanshan, Hebei and other places, but many things in the future, including concessions, will become truly logical...
