Just as Jiangling armies were scrambling to sell their prisoners of war to Xiakou, Yingcheng on the south bank of the river was finally captured. Hou Jing's generals Song Zixian and Ding Hequan were captured, and tens of thousands more prisoners of war were also captured.
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At this time, selling prisoners of war to Xiakou had become an open secret, so shortly after the Battle of Yingcheng, except for a few enemy general leaders and other important prisoners, all other prisoners of war passed through the Xiakou camp.
At this time, Wang Sengbian had already felt that the two sides had lost a sense of boundaries due to too frequent exchanges. If he continued to let things go on, even if King Xiangdong did not reprimand him, other unexpected things might happen.
So Wang Sengbian reported the military intelligence personnel here to Jiangling and asked the King of Xiangdong to make personnel arrangements for the newly recovered Yingzhou as soon as possible. When the King of Xiangdong had just appointed Xiao Shao, the king of Changsha, as the governor of Yingzhou, he even
Before entering the country, Wang Sengbian led his troops to continue eastward. Taking advantage of Yingzhou's victory, he went straight to Jiangzhou and captured Huancheng in one fell swoop.
As the main battlefield left Yingzhou, the transaction between Xiakou and the Jiangling armies also came to an end. The final results of the transaction were also very gratifying. The number of prisoners of war exchanged from the Jiangling armies reached more than 100,000.
There were more than 3,000 people, and including the 15,000 shi of grain that Li Tai had previously given to Wang Sengbian, they only paid more than 50,000 shi of grain.
Even if you don't take into account the skills of these prisoners of war, this transaction is an absolute profit.
The Jiangling armies were gradually running out of food and fodder, and faced with the temptation of the great success of the Eastern Expedition to quell the chaos, they sold off the captured personnel at half-sale, half-free dumping prices, in exchange for precious food and the ability of their troops to continue fighting. In
In their opinion, as long as they can counterattack to Jiankang, there will be plenty of achievements and prisoners, so there is no need to worry about it now.
If it were a different time or a different place, it would probably be difficult to conclude such a deal.
Because he only needs to travel one step further to Jiangzhou, Chen Baxian will take his 500,000 stones of food and grass to share with the Jiangling armies, thereby gaining the acceptance and recognition of the Jiangling generals, and having the same status as Wang Sengbian in the coalition army.
, and even after the attack on Wang Sengbian in the future, Zhou Tiehu and other generals of the Western Army led their troops to join Chen Baxian, allowing Chen Baxian to receive part of Jiangling's personnel legacy.
After these rebel prisoners were exchanged, they exerted extraordinary value before they had time to undergo detailed reorganization.
Previously, Wang Sengbian's envoy sent Wang Lin's boat. Li Tai was still too young and had little experience, so he just had fun at the time. However, when he used the big ship for drills afterwards, he discovered this.
A large ship can only move forward and backward, but it cannot turn around if it wants to.
After some investigation, Wang Cao, Xu Wensheng and others determined that there was a problem with the rudder in the rear cabin of the big ship. It should be that the Jiangling people deliberately destroyed the rudder before delivery, so the big ship was allowed to maneuver.
The reliability is greatly reduced, and the actual combat performance is also greatly reduced.
Although Xiangyang also has experience and technology in maintaining large ships, its largest ship is still several feet shorter than the Jiangling ship. As a relatively sophisticated ship accessory, the rudder has different sizes and structures for different ship types.
, many boatmen are also helpless about this.
But among the prisoners of the rebel army, there was a group of troops stationed in Jingkou. Jingkou was not only an important town for Jiang defense, but also a large shipyard, where many Liang army boats were built and repaired.
Therefore, this group of soldiers stationed in Jingkou has many people who are very familiar with various types of warships. One of the soldiers, together with more than a dozen shipwrights, solved this problem from inspection to maintenance in just a few days.
, the rudder of this large ship was restored to its original state, so that the large ship can flexibly turn forward and retreat in the waterway.
Li Tai was overjoyed when he learned about this. He took out a Gao Aocao and rewarded this ship repair team. Such an amazing reward immediately shocked everyone, especially among these prisoners of war, there was only one talent.
Technicians all express themselves enthusiastically, hoping to gain favor and rewards and directly improve their own situation.
The talents of these prisoners of war were also diverse, some were good at boats and carts, some were good at smelting, and they displayed various industries. It can be said that all kinds of manual production techniques in Jiangnan were included.
Li Tai was both delighted and lamented about this. Hou Jing's rebels only knew how to destroy but did not manage or construct. The craftsmanship possessed by these craftsmen can be said to be the essence of hundreds of years of technological development in the Southern Dynasties, but they also
Being driven to the battlefield without any screening and used as cannon fodder.
I don’t know how many journeys these people took and how many dangers and tortures they suffered before they got here. The number is still quite considerable. It makes people feel heartbroken to think about how many people have sacrificed in this process. Hou Jing’s rebellion is not just about production technology.
The destruction of the environment and environment has also devastated the entire social structure and people's livelihood in Jiangnan.
At first, Li Tai only exchanged these people as human resources for developing the navy, but after getting to know them more deeply, he discovered that the value and connotation of these people far exceeded the original imagination.
In order to absorb all these people, place them properly and give full play to their value, a more systematic plan is undoubtedly needed. So he sent a letter to the General Manager's Office, and ordered the Commander-in-Chief Pei Xia to come south to organize and organize these personnel in more detail.
arrange.
Of course, in these troubled times, the military industry is the top priority for development.
Before Pei Xia arrived, Li Tai ordered Li Quji to select 2,000 boatmen with shipbuilding experience, provide them with food and supplies, and then led these boatmen north to Xingzhou in the upper reaches of the Han River, that is,
It was later that Danjiangkou built boats.
Whether it is for military or civilian use, it is necessary to have enough ships to make full use of water resources. For now, because there is not enough naval force, although Li Tai's power has developed to the Yangtze River, he does not dare to go to the riverside.
When setting up water conservancy facilities such as the large water conservancy spinning wheel, the right to speak on the river is still not as strong as that of Jiangling Military Palace.
As the main battlefield to quell the rebellion in Nanliang continued to advance eastwards to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the foundation and development framework of the navy's river defense was established, Li Tai no longer thought of staying here anymore, and summoned the generals here to give an explanation.
After reviewing the personnel details, he led his troops to the north and returned to Mianbei.
Not to mention other personnel changes, in terms of Nanliang alone, since Hou Jing raised his troops from Shouyang in 548 AD and started a rebellion, to the middle of 551 AD, the Hou Jing Rebellion, which lasted for nearly three years, finally ended.
After Hou Jing defeated Baling, he ushered in a new turning point.
Although Hou Jing still fled eastward and returned to Jiankang City, the various arrangements he had set up along the river were broken down one after another. In particular, his generals such as Ren Yue and Song Zixian were captured one after another, which further reduced his power.
In the first half of Hou Jing's Rebellion, the Jiangling military government, which had been busy cutting off clans and fighting against each other, finally got on the right track to suppress the rebellion. After successfully defending Jiangling through a series of battles such as Baling, the Jiangling generals headed by Wang Sengbian also
The counterattack finally kicked off.
Jiangling's army first recaptured Yingzhou, which had been captured by the rebels, and then Wang Sengbian led his forward troops to recapture the important town of Huancheng in Jiangzhou.
At the same time, Chen Baxian, who became famous in Lingnan, also led 30,000 troops from the Lingnan allied forces to march north to Luling County and temporarily stationed troops at Baqiu in the Gan River Basin.
Between Wang Sengbian and Chen Baxian is the Yuzhang County of Jiangzhou. The person who now occupies Yuzhang is Hou Qi, the subordinate of Xiao Fan, the wise and clever Poyang king who had previously voluntarily surrendered Hefei to the Northern Qi Dynasty.
Prince Poyang and his son died one after another. Hou Qi turned to Hou Jing and was treated as a fellow clan member by Hou Jing. Now seeing that the situation of suppressing the rebellion was good, Hou Qi also raised troops in the county and refused to allow Hou Jing's troops to enter the city. Accordingly, the county
The city expressed its surrender to Jiangling Military Mansion.
Although all the troops are nominally under the control of the Jiangling Military Mansion, there are still many undercurrents surging inside. Naturally, Wang Sengbian is the leader among the troops in the Jiangling headquarters, but Wang Sengbian can be said to have fought in addition to Baling, Yingcheng and other battles.
He himself has been a military general for a long time and has no experience of being independent. Therefore, in terms of reputation and prestige, he is far inferior to Chen Baxian, who quelled the rebellion in Jiaozhou and was a powerful figure in Lingnan.
The Jiangling armies considered themselves direct descendants, and they had just completed the most difficult reversal of the war, so they were arrogant. Facing the Lingnan armies led by Chen Baxian, they could not help but feel wary and grudge, thinking that Chen Baxian was
Seeing that the war had taken a turn for the better, he led his troops north to compete for military success.
Chen Baxian originally wanted to lead his troops north to join forces with Wang Sengbian in August, but he sent a letter to the north to inquire about the military schedule but never received a positive response. He could vaguely guess what the Jiangling troops were thinking.
"These Westerners are really narrow-minded. Just because they support the king, they don't allow other divisions and brigade to share the credit!"
After submitting letters one after another and being ignored, Chen Baxian's subordinates such as Zhou Wenyu and others couldn't help but complain.
Chen Baxian was nearly fifty years old, tall, with a swollen forehead and long arms. After hearing the complaints from his generals, he laughed and said: "In the current national crisis, a man of righteousness should go forward bravely. Why bother to care about the merits? What's more, Wang Zhengdong and others
After many hard battles, we finally curbed the arrogant thieves. After the disaster, we finally saw a turn for the better. The Jing Mansion deserves to be the first military mansion in Zhenjiang. All our people should congratulate us on this achievement. If anyone doubts me, sincerely
You should resolve your doubts with your heart, this is the attitude that can help each other, so how can you be angry with yourself and harm others!"
Due to the resistance of the Jiangling armies, Chen Baxian did not rush to lead his army northward, but ordered his troops to transport the grain and grass northward to help the Jiangling armies.
After Wang Sengbian received the food and grass sent by Chen Baxian, he couldn't help but sigh: "Chen Xingguo is really a righteous man, and I am ashamed of myself!"
But after sighing for a while, Wang Sengbian thought about what happened in Xia Kou before, and sighed with regret, stroking his palms: "I just regret that I'm late..."