Xu Huai learned that Emperor Jianji was critically ill, so he rushed to Beijing with a secret edict and rested for a night in Nancai.
He set off and turned back, returning to Nancai four days later.
After half a month, Xu Huai could be said to be physically and mentally exhausted. At this moment, he reined in his horse and stopped on the more than 20-mile-long south embankment of Xiaoqueling Mountain, looking at the rippling Qianchapu in the south.
After the flood season, the rainfall in Jingbei has dropped sharply, the water in the upper reaches of the Han River and Jianshui River has dropped significantly, and the water levels of Qianchapu lakes have dropped, exposing large swaths of beach land.
In order to ensure that Nancai has a certain flood storage capacity and reduce the pressure on the embankment as much as possible during the flood season, a buffer zone of two to three miles is left between the south embankment of Xiaoqueling and the lakes. In autumn and winter, the water will recede to expose mud and ditches.
Come from the beach with intertwined streams.
Late September is the season when the reeds are fully grown, and all you can see are white reed flowers; walking among the reeds are the reed picking teams organized by each village——
At that time, in addition to fur coats, wealthy people mainly used cotton and velvet filling to sew coats to keep out the cold. However, for the poor peasants of the middle and lower classes, reed velvet was a more affordable and high-quality material to keep out the cold.
The cut reed poles can be used to repair roofs or fence livestock sheds; in the beginning of spring, new reed crops can be cut as fodder for livestock, and the reed sprouts can also satisfy hunger.
Nancai has recruited more than 200,000 hungry people in total, but the newly cultivated grain fields are currently less than 80,000 acres. Even if the construction of Meidu, Jindu and other large towns is completed, the total number of grain fields that can be cultivated will not exceed
Three hundred thousand acres is difficult to support such a large population.
Therefore, for a long time to come, in addition to continuing to import a large amount of food from the outside, Nancai also did everything possible to organize the people to fight for more food from this world.
In addition to the reed picking teams, in addition to the built fields, Nancai also organized people on a village-by-village basis to rush to plant the beach land after the water receded, striving to get some harvest before next year's floods; the water surfaces of Qianchapu lakes were also
It is a fishing team organized in a village.
Although most of the people in Nancai are thin and weak, and their clothes are ragged, they are in good spirits.
After all, for more than a year, in addition to reclaiming the fields, Chushan has also made every effort to build enclosed houses in the villages to ensure that every hungry person has a place to live and is not exposed to the wind and sun; at the same time, it also provides benefits to all the people.
The elderly, weak, women and children ensure the supply of the most basic food rations - at least in Nancai, the hungry people can see their living conditions improving little by little, instead of slipping into a more miserable situation.
Sometimes, hope is always more important.
Listening to the Yao Yao singing coming from the depths of the reeds on the lake, Xu Huai couldn't help but let go of his tiredness for many days. He said to Wang Ju, Han Gui, Guo Junpan, Wu Chihai and others around him: "This is
When I went to Jianye, I didn't hesitate, and I even secretly asked myself if I had done anything wrong, but the scene before me cleared all my doubts, do you know why?"
"It's not difficult to guess. Jieshuai just means that the Zheng family and his son will never be able to do what they are doing - Jieshuai's ambition to control prisoners and bring peace to the people is as solid as a rock, but the Zheng family and his son are by no means like-minded people. Since they are destined to go in opposite directions one day,
It doesn't matter if we get rid of it one day earlier or one day later?" Han Gui said with cupped hands.
"I used to say that Mr. Shi was the roundworm in the handsome man's belly, but now it seems that Mr. Han will be added to the list." Guo Junpan said with a smile.
"Jie Shuai," Zhou Jing, Fan Zongqi, Jiang Xie, Xu Sheng and others came over and asked, "Jie Shuai has been marching westward non-stop, why did he stop here?"
Xu Huai marched westward from Jianye through Chizhou, Qichun, and Huangpi. He traveled non-stop all the way. He almost didn't stop except for eating and changing horses. Instead, he entered Nancai, and his speed slowed down.
Zhou Jing, Fan Zongqi and others could not wait any longer in Nancaicheng, so they drove their horses twenty miles to meet him.
"Only after seeing these, can I be more certain that Nancai's troops and horses are available!" Xu Huai pointed to the situation on the inside of the causeway and said to Zhou Jing, Fan Zongqi and others.
"Jie Shuai is so sure?" Fan Zongqi asked with a smile while leading his horse.
For more than a year, in addition to being responsible for the defense of Nancai, Fan Zongqi was also responsible for the rehabilitation of prisoners of war and the training of rural soldiers. To be honest, he was a little unsure at this time.
He was not worried that the 10,000 rural soldiers who were fully assembled at this time were insufficiently trained.
The 10,000 rural soldiers assembled now have never been on the battlefield. There is definitely no way to compare with veterans who have fought in many battles, but they are all well-trained at this time.
What Fan Zongqi was worried about was that when the final recruitment order was promulgated, the Nancai soldiers and horses, who were mainly former prisoners of war from hungry people, learned that the goal of their gathering and departure was to attack the caves that entrenched Jingjiang River and Dongting Lake and came from the same source as them.
Jing Alliance Army, will the morale of the army be shaken, and how much morale will be available in the end?
"You are not confident enough now because your work is not meticulous enough," Xu Huaixiao asked, "How is the gathering of boats and ships going?"
The mobilization and assembly of troops and the transportation of tens of thousands of sets of weapons and armor from Wuyang and other places were not big problems. Xu Huai was mainly worried about whether the number of ships assembled in such a short period of time was enough.
Although he had no plan to directly enter Dongting Lake and fight the main force of the Dongjing bandit army, a large-scale gathering of boats was indispensable.
However, gathering the boats in Nancai was also their difficulty this time.
After moving the capital to Jianye, Zhufengtang opened up a shipping route from Xiangyang to Jianye; when Qiaoqiao established Nancai County in northern Hubei, Zhufengtang further expanded the scale of medium and long-distance shipping.
However, in recent years, in addition to the Dongjing Lake bandits ravaging Jingjiang River, Dongting Lake, Ezhou, Yuezhou, Jingzhou and other places have urgent needs to form naval forces. The construction of the Huaihe River and Yangtze River defense lines is an important step in resisting the Red Husband's southward invasion from Huainan.
The most important thing.
This caused the shipyards in Jianghuai, Jinghu and other places that were capable of manufacturing large ships to be basically requisitioned by the imperial court or various supervisory departments, or explicitly made every effort to build various warships, and were directly purchased by various navies.
Nancai County also started building a large-scale shipyard in Suolong Lake at the beginning of the year, but it will not be put into use until the end of the year at the earliest. It will take some time before the first medium and large boat can be actually built.
The boats currently owned by Zhufengtang and Nancai were mainly transferred from Xinyang, Zhouqiao and other places under the orders of Xu Huai, in addition to being seized from Panlongzhai and purchased from various places in Jinghu.
Zhufengtang currently has only twelve merchant ships with a carrying capacity of more than 400 stone.
The fishing teams organized by each village were mainly small awning boats and small sampans with a load of ten or twenty stone, mainly from the capture of Panlong Village, with a total of 1,200 boats.
These boats seemed to be numerous, but they were completely useless.
However, after Qiao was established in Nancai County, twelve township divisions (inspection divisions) including Xiaoqueling, Panlong, and Dongcha were successively established under the jurisdiction. Township divisions were used as units to organize rural soldier drills, and at the same time, they also organized troops mainly entering Jingjiang and Han Dynasties.
The fishing fleet, which conducts fishing operations in the water and also takes into account defense, has a total of more than 400 medium and large awning boats, dhows and galleys.
These boats were mainly transferred from Xinyang via Huainan and other places.
In addition, Nancai County Weisi also specially formed a naval force of 500 people, with a total of more than a dozen red horse boats, eight oar warships, and two stern warships, all of which were transferred from Xinyang.
Come.
However, after learning that Emperor Jianji was critically ill, he hurriedly tried to transfer a large number of boats from Xinyang. In addition to the fact that the Huaixi camp would not let them go easily, there was no time.
It takes more than two thousand miles of waterway from Xinyang to Nancai. In addition to passing through Hongzepu, a shallow and slow-flowing city, and the Shanyangdu Canal, which is divided by many weirs and dikes, it also has to go upstream after entering the Yangtze River from Yangzhou.
Even if there were no obstacles along the way, it would take less than two months to complete such a long waterway.
Zhou Jing stayed in Nancai, together with Fan Zongqi, Jiang Xie, Xu Sheng and others. In such a short period of time, he could only gather more than 400 boats under the jurisdiction of Zhuxiang Fishing Boats for backup - there was no way to add these boats.
War weapons, after modification, can only be used as ordinary transport ships; currently, only the twelve medium and large merchant ships belonging to Zhufengtang have undergone corresponding modifications.
"Yesterday, we received a message from the Commander-in-Chief. According to our preliminary draft, the army will directly cross the Han River from the northwest of Hanchuan River to Hualing County. Or, going one step further, we will accompany the Commander-in-Chief and directly march into Jiangling!" Zhou Jing
said.
Although the levy order issued by the Privy Council did not grant Xu Huai the power to control the troops and horses of Northern Jing, Xu Huai led his troops to the west of the Han River to suppress the bandits. Who dared to stop the troops of Nan Cai from entering the city west of the Han River? Xu Huai came.
When he lost his temper, he sent guards to tie him up, hang him, and beat him, but no one dared to criticize him.
When Xu Huai led his troops into Hualing or Jingzhou to govern Jiangling City, even if there were defenders in the city, based on the principle of not having two generals in one city, the defenders must accept Xu Huai's control.
Only the defenders who set up Jinghu North Road, Kong Changyu, pulled him to the platform were they qualified to compete with Xu Huai.
"Let's go to Hualing first. Whether we should go to Jiangling or not, we will wait until Hualing to see the situation!" Xu Huai said.
Hualing City controls the key node of Hualing River, Changlin River and Bailu Lake. Even though Zhu Zhi was appointed magistrate of Hualing, on the one hand, Zhu Zhi had no soldiers or horses, and on the other hand, Zhu Zhi just obeyed him in the end.
Father Zhu Hang, Xu Huai wanted to prevent King Huai from awakening, and directly ordered Gao Junrong, the supervisor of Jingbei, to lead his troops to Hualing to block their retreat.
By then, they may not be able to swallow all the fat in their mouths into their stomachs.
Zhou Jing then talked about the specific deployment plan. In addition to Xu Huai personally crossing the Han River and taking the land route directly to Hualing, Xu Huai will also write a document on the establishment of the Jinghu North Road in the name of the Chushan Camp.
The Military Deployment Department requested that while the Nancai navy took over the Hualing River and Changlin River waterways, it would also blockade the Han River to the west of Nancai and the mouth of the Hualing River; Xu Huai would also use the Chushan Line to
The name of the battalion is Xiangyang Prefecture and Nanyang Prefecture. A troop of troops and horses will be mobilized from Wuyang and other places to ensure that the logistics channel starting from Wuyang, passing through Nanyang, Xiangyang and Yingzhou and entering Hualing is always under the control of Chushan troops and horses.
, to ensure that the grain and materials gathered from various places in Rucai are continuously transferred to Hualing to support the Nancai soldiers and horses in the campaign against the Dongjing coalition forces.
In order to prevent King Huai from waking up and stopping him, Nan Cai's soldiers and horses need to cross the Han River in the next two days and head towards Hualing County...
