Hu Kai was appointed as the defense envoy and held the emperor's talisman to sit in Caizhou. His authority was much greater than that of a magistrate in the ordinary sense. Even though the ancestral laws since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty were designed to prevent powerful officials from becoming powerful, Bianliang was captured by cavalry vanguards.
Threat, when the situation is extremely serious, the DPRK and China are not ignorant of compromise and flexibility.
Although Hu Kai only had control over the soldiers and horses of King Qin and Ruzhou, Xuzhou, Chenzhou and other places that assisted Caizhou in defense, under Caizhou's direct rule, even if the sealing officer dared to violate his will, Hu Kai would
Hu Kaidu could directly seize his position first, instead of having to impeach and report the matter to the court for decision as in the past; for subordinate officials who had committed illegal acts, Hu Kai had the right to kill them first and then report them.
Although Hu Kai was at odds with Cai Ting and others after being transferred to the Central Committee, and was unable to secure a position in the Privy Council. He was kicked out to serve in the Ministry of War, where he was relatively quiet, and was somewhat far away from the prime ministership. However, he became famous at a young age and served in the Imperial Academy and local officials.
For thirty years in Lusizhou County, his disciples and old officials spread all over the country.
At the same time, the Hu family was still a prominent family in Ezhou.
Even though Hu Kai did not have many disciples following him when he was serving in Beijing, when Hu Kai came to Caizhou to take charge of the emperor's talisman and needed people, he flew to pass the letter, and a group of disciples and old officials dropped everything and came to Caizhou.
The states agree.
Hu Kai had the power to open a government and appoint subordinate officials. He disposed of a large number of Caizhou officials, and Caizhou's military and political affairs were not paralyzed; on the contrary, the corresponding work was taken over by his disciples and former officials who came to like him, and soon
It straightened out.
Hu Kai's ability to control Caizhou's military power was much stronger than Xu Huai imagined.
This is incomparable to Wang Zhen, who was too upright and had only Lu Xiong by his side when he was exiled to Tangzhou.
Under such circumstances, Xu Huai naturally abided by his duties and did not dictate the affairs of the state.
In addition to the many affairs of the newly established Chushan County and the construction of the Inspection Department Camp in Qingyi Ridge at the northeastern foothills of Dafu Mountain, the main task Xu Huai was responsible for was to lead his troops to undertake scouting, patrolling, and prevention in the eastern part of Chenzhou.
The captive cavalry came from the northeastern bank of Yingshui River and penetrated into the hinterland of Caizhou Defense Area.
Hu Kai's current defense deployment for the four states south of Beijing, except for the relaxation of Xiangyang Prefecture Army (Jingxi South Road), Jiangling Prefecture Army (Jinghu North Road), and Tanzhou Prefecture Army (Jinghu South Road), does not have much field capability.
King Qin's reinforcements were packed into the cities between Chenzhou, Xuzhou, and Caizhou to guard the outside. They selected a small number of elite warriors to scout and patrol between the cities.
On the one hand, it is to prevent small groups of robbers from penetrating into the western area of Beijing, burning, killing, and looting. On the other hand, if a large group of robbers is detected heading south, it can provide an early warning and evacuate the people into the walled city in time.
, strengthen the walls and clear the fields, and try to reduce the losses in the southern area of Beijing as much as possible.
After the troops from Tongbai Mountain withdrew southward, as one of the few soldiers and horses under Caizhou's garrison camp with field capabilities, they naturally had to shoulder these tasks.
The scout and patrol area involves six cities and dozens of villages within 156 miles east of Chenzhou and Caizhou. It is impossible for Xu Huai to go out personally at this time and take on everything in an all-round way.
Xu Huaize appointed ten people, including Xu Xin, Yan Xiaoyi, Wu Chihai, Wu Chige, Yuan Lei, Fan Zongqi, Wang Jun, Wei Daya, Eucommia ulmoides, and Xu Sihu, as the generals of the cavalry camp, each leading a team of cavalry in rotation.
Enter the above areas for scouting and patrolling.
In the newly established Chushan County, in addition to setting up the Metropolitan Inspection Department camp at the entrance of the northeastern foothills of Dafu Mountain, Xu Huaixian set up a camp at Zhouqiao Station at the east entrance of Tongbai Mountain Road, and between Dafu Mountain and the northern ridge of Tongbai Mountain. Two more patrol inspection divisions were set up at Shiling Gate, with Guo Junfan and Zhu Chengjun as the inspection envoys, Shen Zhenzhen and Meng Laodao as the deputy military envoys, each leading a battalion of soldiers and horses to garrison.
Xu Huai gathered the remaining 3,000 horse infantry troops into the main camp of the Capital Inspection Department, with Xu Xin'an, Tang Pan, Yin Peng, Tang Qing, Han Qi, Wang Xian and others as commanders. The soldiers and horses of each unified battalion were not trained. cease.
Xu Wuqi, Pan Chenghu, Wang Ju, Su Laochang, Xu Wujiang, Xu Wukun, Xu Wuliang, Zhou Jing, Tang Tiande, Zheng Tu, Liu Qiong'er and Di Niang who returned from Fuzhou served as deputies to assist Xu Huai in handling the matter. The increasingly complex military and political affairs of the county government and the camp.
Although the scouting mission undertaken by the Chushan Inspection Department Camp was limited to the eastern areas of Chenzhou and Caizhou, Xu Huai did not give up paying attention to the entire Hehuai defense battlefield.
After Liu Qiong'er returned to Tongbai Mountain, Yue Yulou was reorganized.
In addition to the original intelligence analysts, elites who are good at lurking, camouflage, reconnaissance, etc. were also drawn from the military. They were led by Zhou Jing to strengthen direct detection and collection of the situation.
“On the fifth day of the first lunar month, the main cavalry force of the Chihu East Route Army crossed directly from the low-lying land east of Bazhou to the south. In just three days, they traveled more than 700 miles and crossed into Dunqiu County, Weizhou. With such force, he stormed Dunqiu County, and then the army rushed to Weizhou City. Fortunately, King Lu entered Weizhou City early. In addition to the 6,000 cavalry, he also recruited many soldiers and horses from Weixiang and other states, so that the Weizhou defenders had enough Twenty-five thousand people. The city of Weizhou was also very dangerous. The Chihu people did not dare to take action in a hurry. Instead, they drove away the prisoners and built forts under the city, making a posture of besieging Weizhou. The purpose should be to attract the defenders of the cities in northern Hebei. They rushed to help Weizhou in order to encircle the point for reinforcements. However, the Chihu people were wrong this time. They stayed at the gate of Weizhou for five days. Heading south. Currently, two teams of ten thousand people have entered the Gyeonggi area, but it is still unknown whether their main force will attack Bianliang City directly..."
Standing in front of the camp of the Chushan Inspection Department, Xu Huai, Wang Ju, Xu Wuqi and others listened to Zhou Jing's talk about the latest developments of the main cavalry force of the Chihu East Route Army in the northeast of Bianliang.
The terrain between Dafu Mountain and Jinding Mountain cannot be said to be very dangerous, but it is similar to the valley between Yuhuangling and Shituo Village. The rocks are piled up and the mountains on both sides are steep and cannot store rainwater. It is very difficult to open up wasteland.
In Dafu Mountain and to the east of Jinding Mountain, there is the Huaibei Plain along both sides of the Wuzhai River. The shallow hills and plains are suitable for cultivating food.
Therefore, the east of Dafu Mountain is densely populated, while the valley between Dafu Mountain and Jinding Mountain is sparsely populated with only some hunters, medicinal farmers and poor farmers who are forced to have no land to cultivate.
Xu Huai and others could not find a suitable village, so they directly requisitioned it and converted it into a camp city.
Considering that the tens of thousands of acres of valley between Dafu Mountain and Jinding Mountain would be used for horse herding, Xu Huai and the others finally found a relatively small place on the west bank of the mouth of the Wuzhai River where it leaves Qingyi Ridge in the northeast of Dafu Mountain. Build a large camp on a flat piece of land.
It is said to be flat and wide, but that is compared to the tall peaks and cliffs on its two wings.
The source of the Wuzhai River comes from Qianyan Ridge in the middle of Dafu Mountain, and flows from west to east between the mountains, and flows out from the north entrance of Qingyi Ridge. The stream upstream of it is located among high mountains and lofty mountains, and the water is very fast; at the mouth of the stream exiting Qingyi Ridge,
The hills and mountains are also undulating, and to the north are the Fugou Mountains and Fenghui Mountains branching off from Jinding Mountain, which form a natural barrier to the valley.
Thousands of civilians were recruited from Tongbai Mountain to serve as slaves. It only took more than ten days to cut down trees and clear the mountain. They only leveled an area of 30 to 50 acres and built a fence around the perimeter to serve as a temporary camp.
In addition to the emergency construction of several wooden sheds in the village to serve as the office buildings of the Metropolitan Inspection Department, Xu Huai and the others are still living in marching tents.
The Qingyi Ridge Camp does not need to be very big, but the actual city wall needs to be thick enough and close to the mountains of Qingyi Ridge and the west bank of the Wuzhai River, so the difficulty of subsequent construction will naturally not be low.
Xu Huai also planned to build a small village at Gunshigou Mountain Pass, close to the northern foot of Qingyi Ridge and open a remote road connecting Qingyi Ridge Daying and Gunshigou Xiaozhai, and then open a remote mountain road south along Gunshigou and cross Dafu.
Mountain.
This mountain road intersects with the stream in the upper reaches of the Wuzhai River. A sentry village will be built at that point to serve as a transfer station between the North Ridge of Tongbai Mountain and Dafu Mountain to prevent small groups of enemy soldiers from penetrating deep into Tongbai Mountain to facilitate personnel.
and transfer of materials.
If it weren't for the fact that this tragic war would last for many years, and if they hadn't made a fortune from the war in Shuozhou and accumulated more than 500,000 yuan in goods, Xu Huai would never have expected to be able to do this in a short time.
.
The large-scale recruitment of soldiers from Tongbai Mountain also led to a sharp decline in the young and strong labor force in the mountains.
These civil servants who were recruited in the early stage must be dispersed and returned home in time when spring plowing begins - the fields in the mountains are mainly sloping dry fields, with high labor input and low output. However, no matter what, food production must not be left behind.
Otherwise, if we mainly rely on transporting food from Tangzhou and Dengzhou through mountain roads, how much money will be consumed in vain?
Fortunately, there were already refugees fleeing the war and going south, and Xu Huai didn't have to worry about recruiting young men for subsequent construction. He was even considering using these young men to build more rolling dams in Tongbai Mountain, so that more dams would be built.
Many barren valleys have been transformed into farmland suitable for farming.
Tongbai Mountain has many mountains and few fields, but its area is much larger than the average county. There are actually many undeveloped valley slopes between the mountains, such as between Yuhuang Ridge and Shituoling Ridge.
In the past, the clans with large surnames had almost monopolized the cultivated land cultivated in the mountains, valleys, and shallow mountains. They had no strong desire to reclaim sloping dry fields; and the small and poor peasants did not have the ability to do this. It required hundreds of people to organize, and it required
It is a large-scale reclamation project that requires a large investment of money and food.
Officials have no intention of organizing reclamation work in the mountains.
Investing tens and hundreds of thousands of grains to cultivate 10,000 to 20,000 acres of sloping mountain fields may increase grain production in the mountains by 10,000 to 20,000 acres. However, considering that these sloping valley fields are so difficult to cultivate, a lot of labor is invested in cultivation.
Calculating the sharecropping, the cost may not be recovered in thirty to fifty years.
In peaceful times, only a fool would be willing to do such a thankless task.
What's more, sloping mountains and fields are easily affected by flash floods and mudflows during the rainy season.
However, once war breaks out, all economic and people's livelihoods and logic must change.
No matter how high the cost of land reclamation in mountainous areas is, it is still cheaper than transporting grain from the outside through rugged mountain roads.
What's more, Xu Huai knows that his behavior is not pleasing to people. Who knows if others will use money and food to choke him in the future?
Therefore, after the conscription was completed, Xu Huai asked Su Laochang and Cheng Yi to lead the men to survey the Beiling and Dafu Mountains to find the source of the streams and valleys that could be reclaimed.
Xu Huaidu felt that he had a deep-rooted farming instinct in his bones, but he had not had the opportunity to develop it in Shuozhou in the past two years.
When he returned to Tongbai Mountain this time, he paid so much attention to farm affairs that he was somewhat indifferent to Zhou Jing's report that the main force of the Chihu East Route Army was in Weizhou and on the Bianliang front line.
When others speculated on the possible subsequent movements of the main force of the Chihu East Route Army, he said somewhat indifferently: "The main force of the Chihu East Route Army will directly abandon Bianliang in the next step and go to besiege Zhengzhou..."
