When Yizhou Island was getting on the right track step by step, Guan Yu from across the sea finally led thousands of people to Haitan Island. But at this time, except for some empty houses and buildings, there was nothing else on the island! This scene before his eyes Guan Yu was helpless for a while, this was the disadvantage of not having a navy.
Guan Yu's 30,000-strong army had not even marched halfway when they found out that all the bandits on Haitan Island had fled, taking tens of thousands of civilians with them. So when Guan Yu came over with his navy commander Rui , only this empty island can be seen.
The roads in Kuaiji County are too bad. Many places are deep in the mountains and old forests. There is not even a village. Guan Yu's army has no supplies. It is like fighting on the outside. In addition, the roads are narrow and difficult to walk, and the marching speed has dropped even further. Lower again.
This made Guan Yu's two-pronged siege a joke, so after he learned that Daqian's army had left Haitan Island, he immediately stopped his army's march, and then led his navy to the island to investigate the situation, and saw an empty island. !
He looked at Zhu Zhi and said helplessly: "If Daqian County continues to harass our counties with such methods, our Yangzhou Army will not be able to catch up with them even if we are exhausted, otherwise they will use such methods to suck Yangzhou dry." People, it seems that moving the people along the coast is the only way we can deal with them! Let’s move the remaining people in Dongzhi County to other counties.”
This is the experience Guan Yu gained from marching for more than half a month. The situation in Kuaiji County is completely different from that in the Central Plains. There are few towns and narrow roads in Kuaiji County, which is not suitable for large army operations at all. It would be more convenient for the big man to march with a small force, but Guan Yu also knows that Yangzhou No matter how fast the army marches on land, it cannot be faster than the large army with warships.
In the end, Guan Yu discovered that he could only use Zhu Zhi's method to cut off contact with Da Qian's army to reduce losses!
Cheng Pu said solemnly: "General, Dongzhi can use the method of banning the sea, because there is only one county within a radius of 500 miles, and tens of thousands of people have fled to Yizhou. Now there are fewer people near Dongzhi. Most of the time, banning the sea no longer matters! But places like Shanyin County at the core of Kuaiji County are the most densely populated places in the entire Kuaiji County. If we also use the strategy of banning the sea, then the entire Kuaiji County will be destroyed by ourselves! This is a survival issue for 200,000-300,000 people!"
The sea is not as restrictive as the river. It can be said that the entire Yangzhou coastal area is within the attack range of Fan Xian's fleet. This can no longer be dealt with by restricting the sea. The best way is to use ship against ship and gun against gun to build A fleet that is not inferior to Da Qian, but this is something Guan Yu cannot do.
Guan Yu repeatedly said with his beard: "We don't have the financial resources of Lei Gong, but if we want to protect Yangzhou, we don't necessarily need to build a fleet. We can build forts on the coast of Yuhang, Shanyin and other counties to resist the attack of the Daqian army. , Although Yangzhou has a long coastline, the places suitable for landing are also limited. Warships from other places cannot get close at all. Even if they get close, it will be difficult to launch large forces. Our army only needs to hold a few key nodes."
This march was not without benefits for Guan Yu. The advantage was that it made him familiar with the situation in southern Yangzhou, allowing him to formulate a strategy more suitable for dealing with the Daqian Army. Just like before this march, he thought Kuaiji County has a population of 200,000-300,000, which should be similar to the northern border counties of the Han Dynasty. However, this march made Guan Yu understand that the south and the north are completely different.
Yuhang and Shanyin in Kuaiji County are only less prosperous than the Central Plains and much more prosperous than the northern border. However, outside the scope of these counties, they are simply an uncivilized wilderness, surrounded by virgin forests and even There are very few villages. For example, Dongzhi is more than 700 miles away from his nearest county seat Yongning, and Nancheng to the west is thousands of miles away, and there are no roads connecting it at all. It can be said that Dongzhi is a county town surrounded by wilderness. Even if the Daqian Army sends 100,000 troops to occupy the place, it will definitely retreat due to logistics.
Kuaiji County is not even inferior to Yanzhou in terms of area, but its population is only 200,000-300,000, and 90% of it is concentrated in the Yuhang area. Dongzhi is a lonely county, with no other city within a radius of 500 miles. , only then did Guan Yu make the determination to ban the sea to 50 kilometers near Dongzhi, because he knew that this would have little impact on Kuaiji County.
Moreover, Guan Yu was not worried about Da Qian's invasion of Yangzhou in Dongzhi, because even if Da Qian's army occupied Dongzhi, it would be difficult to affect the overall situation of Yangzhou. As long as the generals of Da Qian's army were not stupid, they would not be able to send tens of thousands of troops. Attacking Yongning County 700 miles away on land, Guan Yu would laugh to death if he really did this.
It was this march that made Guan Yu understand that even if the Daqian army wanted to attack Yangzhou, it could only attack from the Yangtze River line in Danyang County and the coastal line of Wu County. However, the Danyang line had the Yangzhou Navy and had a home field advantage on the Yangtze River. , may not be the opponent of the Daqian Army and Navy. What he really wants to defend is the front line of the Qiantang River. Is this reduced a lot?
That's why Guan Yu came up with the idea of building a naval fort in a dangerous place to prevent the Daqian army's fleet from landing. Of course, this can be regarded as a defensive trick. Let alone a few dozens of people landing, but if thousands or even tens of thousands of people are involved, It is obviously impossible for people to land without a pier. After all, there are no assault boats or landing craft in this era, so certain infrastructure is required, and there are only a handful of places with piers in Wu County.
But Cheng Pu was still not optimistic and said: "This is just a temporary solution, not the root cause. Yangzhou has thousands of miles of coastline and how many cannons the general can cast. For the army, our defense line is full of loopholes."
Guan Yu was helpless: "Even if it treats the symptoms but not the root cause, we can only afford this method. To maintain the size of Yangzhou Navy, we really don't have the money and food to build a navy like a large army."
Cheng Pu said angrily: "The Da Qian army has already arrived at their doorstep. Do the noble families in Yangzhou want their property confiscated by the Da Qian army rather than use it to fight against the Da Qian army? Haven't they seen the power of the Central Plains clan members?" At the end of the day, we don’t know that we are the ones protecting them, but at this life-and-death moment, they still care about this small amount of money and food!”
At this time, Zhu Zhi was extremely embarrassed. He was a local powerful man in Yangzhou, so he naturally understood the thoughts of these wealthy nobles and powerful men. What Cheng Pu said seemed to be very reasonable, but all of this was based on the fact that Guan Yu could defeat the Da Qian army. On a basic basis.
If they can't do this, then for the powerful people in Yangzhou, Cheng Pu's theory is bullshit. Guan Yu can withstand the army of Da Qian, or Liu Bei can defeat Lei Gong. Naturally, they will not be stingy with this little money. Even It means that if the entire family can be wiped out and the entire army can be wiped out, Yangzhou nobles and nobles are willing to spend all their property.
Because only by defeating Lei Gong, even if the wealthy nobles in Yangzhou are penniless, relying on their family background, their wealth can be restored in a short period of time. When the time comes, they will sing and dance, and the world will still belong to them. of!
But now all the knowledgeable people in the world understand that Liu Bei can't defeat Lei Gong at all, and Guan Yu can't stop the Daqian army from occupying Yangzhou. This makes people very desperate.
The possibility of Guan Yu's defeat is not 100%, but it is 90%. Under such circumstances, how could the powerful people in Yangzhou invest their money and food in a casino that is bound to lose? They naturally have to think about themselves.
Those who had the ability to run had already run away, and those who had not run away began to think of ways to sell off the land in their hands. Anyway, when the Daqian army invaded, these lands could not be saved. But even if Lei Gong has countless sins, he will not be able to keep it. What makes people all over the world admire him is that he is extremely observant of rules. Even if these rules are made by Lei Gong himself, even if it is not good for Lei Gong, Lei Gong will not easily destroy these rules.
Over the years, he has annihilated hundreds of thousands of noble clans, but he only killed people and punished the heart, but rarely physically destroyed the noble clans. Except for those who deserved their crimes, most of their family properties can be preserved, and they can It is said that Lei Gong is more observant than people like Ling Emperor, Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, and Cao Cao, which makes the nobles and nobles know the bottom line of Da Qian.
In this case, the nobles and nobles were even less willing to donate their own money and food. It was already difficult to retain the land. Their local disciples and old officials would also be wiped out by the army. The only thing they could rely on was This is the little property in their hands. This may be the only capital for their family to turn around. In this case, how could the powerful Yangzhou invest their only capital in the hands of Guan Yu, who is bound to lose. They are willing to stay With these capital, after Lei Gong's death, will the world turn around?
Guan Yu didn't know what to say when he heard Cheng Pu's complaints. He more or less understood the inner thoughts of these powerful nobles in Yangzhou. He felt helpless in his heart. These years of experience told Guan Yu that the biggest gap between Da Qian and Da Han was in finance. Above. Lei Gong can easily get tens of billions of money, but it is very difficult for his elder brother Liu Bei to get several billions. Just like now, if he can get several billions, not to mention he can build an army that can rival the big army. fleet, but it is still possible to build a defensive fleet, and the situation in Yangzhou will be much better.
Zhu Zhi thought for a while and then made a more pragmatic suggestion: "Ming Gong can build a batch of fast warships, not for their combat effectiveness, but for their speed. In this way, we can connect the entire coastal counties of Yangzhou and quickly obtain News about the Great Qianjun."
Guan Yu nodded and said: "Brother Junli, I'll leave this matter to you. The roads in the south of Yangzhou are too bad. If you want to communicate quickly, you can only rely on flying pigeons to send messages. From now on, these messages will also be left to Brother Junli." deal with!
Zhu Zhi nodded and said: "No!"
Then Guan Yu left Cheng Pu and 1,000 soldiers to him and asked him to move the remaining population of Dongzhi County to the Qiantang area, while he followed the navy's warships all the way back to Shanyin.
But as soon as he came back, he received extremely bad news! So much so that he had to summon Yangzhou civil and military officials to discuss countermeasures!
"Our spies in Yizhou came to report that Daqian's army had a bumper harvest in planting sugar cane in Yizhou and made billions of dollars using the sugar cane to make sugar. Now Daqian has decided to expand investment in Yizhou! "
"Billions of dollars! How is that possible?" This figure made Yangzhou's civil and military ministers unable to believe it. The fiscal revenue of the entire Han Dynasty was less than 10 billion dollars, while Yangzhou only had more than 2 billion dollars, which was an increase of nearly 10 times. numbers, but they watched Yizhou being reclaimed by the army. In less than a year, they could make billions of dollars. Even if there were gold mines in Yizhou, they would not be able to make so much money. !
But Guan Yu smiled bitterly and said: "It's true. The Daqian army used sugar cane to produce tens of millions of kilograms of stone honey. Now these stone honeys have appeared all over the Central Plains. We will soon learn about this news. Stone honey A pound of more than a hundred dollars is worth billions of dollars! If Bao Xin really has so much money in his hands, we in Yangzhou will be in real danger."
Naturally, it is not possible to start a war just by relying on money, but the army has no shortage of food, grass, and personnel. The only thing missing is money. Now Bao Xin has supplemented this.
Zhu Zhi immediately said: "Don't panic, everyone. Bao Xin has not even been in Yizhou for a year. Even though he has a lot of money and food, his foundation is not stable. It is impossible to attack our Yangzhou in a short time."
Zhang Zhaodao: "Bao Xin is just a school lieutenant. He is not a threat. The key is that if there are more cadres and more money, they may launch an attack on our Yangzhou!"
Zhu Zhi said firmly: "This is even more impossible. If the Daqian Army wants to attack our Yangzhou, it can only launch an attack from the Yangtze River. However, the navy of the Daqian Army has not yet been built. Last year, Ming Gong defeated Fan Xian's navy. Lei Gong could not They may not learn their lesson, which means that even if they have money and food, they will not be able to attack our Yangzhou within 2-3 years!"
After hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. At least in a short period of time, it would be impossible for the Daqian Army to attack them!
Huang Gai thought for a while and said: "We in Yangzhou are relatively safe with the Yangtze River defense line, but Nanyang County in Jingzhou and even Yizhou may not be immune to the attack of the Daqian Army!"
Zhu Zhidao: "Ming Gong wants to pass this news to the general and let the general pay attention to the actions of Da Gan's army. Anyway, they will launch a surprise attack!"
Guan Yu immediately ordered Feige to deliver the message to Xiangyang City!
Don't drive Zhang Hong and said: "Ming Gong, Yizhou is a barbaric land, and Bao Xin only has tens of thousands of refugees. They can actually achieve such achievements in just one year. We in Yangzhou can also learn from Bao Xin's methods. He can grow sugar cane in Yizhou, we can also grow sugar cane in Yangzhou, Daqian can make money by making sugar, and we can also learn, not to mention making billions, but even if we can make 1 billion a year, we want to build There will be money for the naval fleet."
Guan Yu was a little moved after hearing this, so he asked: "Does any of you know how to grow sugar cane, and how many of you know how to make sugar from this sugar cane?"
Everyone looked at each other. It was the first time for many of them to hear about sugar cane, and they didn't even know why sugar cane could be used to make sugar.