Every day, hundreds of hungry people were sent to Sangchi and Changlin Camp via Dongzhou Village, and then to the military villages located along Changyan and Zhangfanxin River in northern Jingzhou.
In order to maximize the use of low-lying land, Changyan followed the topography of the north shore of Wazi Lake and Bailu Lake; loads of soil were carried from the newly opened canals to the river embankments by two to three hundred thousand men, women, and children, regardless of age.
Seeing the weirs and embankments getting higher day by day.
The wood and stone mined deep in Wushan are continuously transported along the east-west streams or newly opened mountain roads to the rivers and long weirs for digging and construction sites, and are used to build weirs, dams, villages and houses.
Behind all this, in addition to the Nancai Recruitment Department deploying nearly 2,000 township officials and engineers from all over Chushan to organize and implement it, what is more important is the material support of grain, fodder and various tools.
In late December, the total number of refugees recruited by the Nancai Recruitment Division, plus the landless poor recruited from the local area and the people who moved from Nancai, exceeded 250,000, and the daily food consumption reached more than 2,000 shi.
; More than 20,000 animals were recruited from Ruzhou and Cai to supplement the lack of livestock power, and countless fodder was consumed every day.
Of course, digging canals and building long weirs and fortresses are inseparable from the tools at hand.
The new emperor ascended the throne and changed the Yuan Dynasty to Shaolong.
In the first year of Shaolong's reign, the total output of the four iron yards directly under the jurisdiction of Chushan Iron Smelting Supervision exceeded 100,000 tons as scheduled. However, after September, all refined iron produced by the Iron Smelting Supervision Station stopped being exported.
The parts originally exported by Zhufengtang were all made into tools such as shovels, shovels, and plows, and were transported to the four counties in northern Jingbei for use by the Nancai Recruitment Department.
The refugees gathered along the shores of Dongting Lake and thought about reclaiming the beach land and planting food. However, using wooden shovels and hoes as tools and no livestock for labor was time-consuming and labor-intensive, with minimal results. They also had no ability to build large dams to block floods.
A fire can wipe out all efforts.
Chushan was able to cultivate sloping terraces on a large scale in Rucai and Ruzhou, mainly because of the popularization of fine iron casting and forging tools; women could also participate in field work more easily.
After building large weirs and digging rivers in northern Jingbei, Chushan continued to transport to the four counties in northern Jingbei. In addition to grain, it mainly included various iron tools and animal power.
These and thousands of village officials and engineers are the wealth that Chushan has truly accumulated over the years.
It was transported by land to Fangcheng via Wuyang, then changed to a small boat on the upper reaches of the Baihe River to Biyang, and then transferred to a medium-sized boat from Biyang and went down the Baihe River into the Han River, then entered the Hualing River through Beizekou of Hualing County until Fantai was entered into the warehouse.
The scale of this transport road continued to expand. By late December, a total of more than 10,000 troops, 4,000 to 5,000 mules and horses, and more than 400 large and small boats had been mobilized to ensure that supplies could be continuously transported to Jingbei.
Of course, most of the largest amounts of food consumed were purchased from Nanyang, Xiangyang, Jingbei and other places.
More than a hundred grain warehouses distributed in the four counties of Nanyang and Jingbei ensure that tens or even two to three hundred thousand kilograms of grain can be purchased every day, and then continuously transported to Fantai.
The requisition was relatively smooth. On the one hand, the Nancai Recruitment Department launched a large-scale rent restriction and tenant refund in northern Jingxi, forcing landowners of all sizes to return large amounts of grain hoards to tenants, which promoted the flow of grain in northern Jingbei.
On the other hand, clan gentry in various places also spread rumors that Chushan would forcibly occupy Nanyang, Jingxiang and other places. Worried about being liquidated, clan gentry sold their fields and houses and moved to Jiangxia, Jianye and other places.
The grain they had hoarded in the past was also sold off on a large scale, flooding the grain market.
The Nancai Recruitment Department also issued a grain purchase order in northern Jingbei. Except for the grain warehouse set up in Chushan, other grain merchants were strictly prohibited from entering the market to purchase grain.
Although the requisition order made the local gentry scold them, it was very effective in driving down the price of grain in the four counties of northern Jing from seven or eight guan per stone in the early days to less than 2 guan per stone.
Although the four counties in Jingbei are prone to frequent floods and have a sparse population, the land is fertile, and the Dong-Jing coalition invaded Jingbei in the previous year. Jingbei was mainly restricted to Hanyang, Mianyang, and Jianli counties, and did not extend to Hualing, Jingmen, and
In places such as Sanyang and Gangneung, local grain stocks are still sufficient.
It's just that these grains are hoarded by landowners big and small. Tenants renting grain fields not only have to pay 60% to 70% of the rent, but also bear multiple increases in taxes. It is difficult to make ends meet, and naturally there are not many grains of rations left in their pockets.
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An order to restrict rent and retire tenants caused the gentry in the four counties in northern Jing Dynasty to hate Chushan to the core, and there were a lot of uproar, but it made the landowners of the four counties in northern Jing vomit out nearly a million dan of grain at once.
Coupled with the continuous import of grain from Xiangyang, Nanyang, Yingsui and other places, there is no shortage of grain supplied by the Nancai Recruitment Division to Nancai County and Jingbei County for the time being.
Although the imperial court remained silent and did not agree to Xu Huai's petition, after December, the soldiers and horses under the Nanyang Recruitment Division were officially organized into the Tianxiong Army Rear Army, with Tang Pan and Fan Zongqi as the chief and deputy commanders, with a total of five
Xiangbujia; the water infantry of Weisi in Nancai County were also directly controlled by the rear army.
The Nancai shipyard was also rushed to be built before the end of September, but the shipbuilding timber needed to be stored and stored for a long time before it could be used. The wood that Chushan had previously stored in Xinyang, Chushan and other places would not be able to be used after September.
It was transported by water from Huainan to Nancai.
Faced with this situation, Chushan also overcame various difficulties and transported the materials prepared in Xinyang and Chushan, especially some heavy and huge timber, to Wuyang by water first, and then transported them by land to Fangcheng by mules and horses.
Transfer to waterway and transport to Nancai Shipyard.
Fortunately, Chushan used fine iron to cast the wheels and shafts, and the carriages were strong enough. Otherwise, it would have been more than two hundred miles of land that would have required many extra hands, and many carriages would have fallen apart halfway through.
Even so, the cost of transporting heavy shipbuilding materials to Nancai is not high, but it is all worth it.
Along with this, thousands of shipbuilders and 2,000 navy generals headed by Zhou Quan, Shi Xiong and others came to strengthen the Nancai navy.
In addition to the Dongzhou Village headquarters, the Nancai Recruitment Division also wanted to recruit more Dongjing bandit troops. It would be an ideal to surrender without fighting, but in reality it was still necessary to fight to induce surrender.
In addition to building the Jingbei Changyan and digging the Zhangfan New River, the preparations of the Nancai Recruitment Division cannot stop. However, if they want to attack the Dongjing coalition and maintain military pressure, the most critical thing is to significantly expand Chushan's naval force in Jingjiang.
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As new warships continued to be built, and with Zhou Quan, Shi Xiong directly led the Xinyang Navy southwards, the Nancai Navy directly expanded to more than 5,000 men, practicing all day on the Han River, Jingjiang River, Suolong Lake and other lakes.
After entering late December, part of the navy also moved from Nancai to Bailu Lake.
As soon as the Chinese New Year passed and entered the second year of Jilong, the Nancai navy entered Sangchi Lake through the Dayan sluice connecting the newly built Sangchi River to Bailu Lake, and established itself in Jianli County, generally located in the Linjiang area south of Sangchi Lake.
The water village forces compete for control of Sangchi Lake.
Several water villages located in the Linjiang area south of Sangchi Lake belong to the Chishan Village headed by Hu Dangzhou. Chishan Bay is located in Gong'an County. It is a wedge-shaped area formed by the accumulation of sand from the west Dongting Lake to the Jingjiang River from the north -
In autumn and winter, the water level of Dongting Lake in Jingjiang River drops. In addition to the mouth of West Dongting Lake in the east, there are also many rivers criss-crossing Chishan Bay on the west side, connecting West Dongting Lake and Jingjiang River, like a city that separates Chishan Bay and the area near Gongan County.
Isolated; in the flood season, this area is flooded with water, with only a few small sandbanks above the water.
In his early years, Hu Danzhou occupied Chishan Bay and ravaged the countryside. After he gained power, he built a dozen water villages, half on land and half on water, as his base. The nearby area, including the Sangchi Lake area on the north bank of Jingjiang River, was also controlled by him.
For thousands of years, silt transported from the upper reaches of the Jingjiang River has been continuously deposited in Bailu Lake, Sangchi Lake and other lakes. Although the water area is quite vast, the water level is very shallow, which is not conducive to the operation of large ships and strong ships.
In the flood season, Bailu Lake and Sangchi Lake are connected to the Jingjiang River. The water level has risen, but the surrounding low-lying lands have also been submerged. The water between Jianghan and Han is like a vast ocean, and more waterways are connected with the Jingjiang River and Dongting Lake.
As a result, water conditions have become extremely complex.
The bandits who were born and raised here and have been there for many years occupy the absolute right time and place.
This is also one of the reasons. Although Jingnan and Jingbei have been training their naval forces very diligently in recent years, they are unable to defeat the Dongjing coalition forces that have already gained momentum.
The Nancai Recruitment Division wanted to use war to promote surrender, and the naval forces certainly could not wait until the water rose in April or May before entering Sangchi Lake, Honghu Lake and Jingjiang River to search for the main force of the rebel army.
At this time, in addition to the twelve larger stern ships and fighting ships, the Nancai Recruitment Division mainly assembled hundreds of centipede ships (named after their paddles resemble insect feet), red horse ships, and killing ships.
Entering Sangchi Lake; six larger large-winged warships were moored in the boat pond excavated to the north of Changlin Camp.
The bandit army has also tried its best to build new warships in the past two years. The Nancai navy used centipede boats and red horse boats as the main force to enter Sangchi Lake, but they could not take any advantage in terms of ship type.
However, on the warships built by Chushan, the parapets, awnings, bow and stern decks were all covered with iron armor.
In addition to the powerful crossbows often equipped by generals, bed crossbows have also become standard equipment for small and medium-sized warships such as centipede ships.
On large ships and battleships with multiple levels of cabins, fire oil tank throwing crossbows built after the stone cannons of the Western Regions have also become standard equipment due to their strong tops.
These are far beyond comparison with the bandit army.
Stone cannons in the Western Regions usually need to fill the suspension box with stones weighing several thousand kilograms or even tens of thousands of kilograms as counterweights. When the stone projectiles are thrown, the suspension box suddenly falls, and the impact force transmitted to the support frame is extremely shocking.
Currently, no warship is strong enough to withstand such a powerful impact.
There is simply no way for large and medium-sized Western Region stone cannons to be placed directly on warships for surface combat.
However, on medium-sized warships such as stern ships, part of the side plates and watertight compartment diaphragms are cast and riveted with fine iron. At the same time, the small Western Region stone cannon on the top of the ship is fixed with these side plates and diaphragms by riveting. At Baibu
Launching fire oil cans over distances has become a reality.
Just after the first month of the second year of Shaolong, the Nancai navy entered Sangchi Lake. They wanted to take advantage of the water village forces outside Chishan Village to familiarize themselves with the water conditions and practice tactics. When the water level rises after April or May, more troops will be mobilized.
, warships with larger ships and more densely deployed war equipment entered the Jingjiang River to wipe out the water bandits in Chishan Village...
