Although the refugee army is accustomed to using brutal methods to destroy local order, they also need to contact business travelers in exchange for medicinal materials, iron materials, salt and other materials that are in short supply in the local area. Naturally, they cannot completely avoid the infiltration of sentinels from all parties.
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Huaidong sent spies in Suizhou, pretending to be adventurous and profitable traveling traders, carrying medicinal materials, salt and other supplies that the refugee army was in short supply, climbing mountains and ridges, sneaking into areas controlled by the refugee army, contacting the refugee army, and collecting intelligence information.
Monitor the movements of the Changle Army.
Throughout July, Luo Xiancheng gathered the elite of Changle Army in Suizhou, recruited manpower to repair the city in Suizhou, spread rumors that he would build the Changle Palace in Suizhou, and searched for beauties nearby. Judging from the intelligence collected, Luo Xiancheng
He planned to make Suizhou his Changle nest.
Of course, this is only a superficial phenomenon.
"Luo Xiancheng has a cunning temper, sniffs out danger, and can sneak away faster than a rabbit. Before the situation in Henan is clear, he completely settled the old camp in Suizhou. I will not believe it either alive or dead," Zhang Gou said about the intelligence coming from Suizhou.
He had a different view and said, "They say that cunning rabbits have three burrows. Luo Xiancheng told the world that he would build his den in Suizhou. This further shows that this is a cover-up. He wants to do something else..."
The three-month intensive study of the military commander cadet team has ended, and most of the cadets have been awarded military positions.
Han Caizhi, Zhang Gou, Zhang Jiheng and others took up command and joined the army.
The so-called commanding and joining the army has the same power and authority as that of a military commander, but it is a military deputy at the level of brigade commander. Because it is different from the camp post, there is a command and joining the army. The next level up to the town department and the military department have the same
The military deputy with authority is called Marching Sima.
In order to actively prepare for the offensive against Daishan and Changguo in the autumn, this group of military commander cadets, consisting of more than 140 cadets, nearly 80 people, including Han Caizhi, Zhang Jiheng, Chen Zhi and others, was incorporated into Jinghai stationed at the Shengsi defense line.
The First Water Camp and the Chongcheng Bu Camp.
On the eve of Zhang Gou's report to the Second Water Camp of Jinghai, he withheld a transfer order from Lin Fu and was incorporated into the newly established Military Intelligence Staff Department headed by Qin Chengzu, the Right Commander of the Marching Army. He still served as the commander and joined the army.
Although Zhang Gou's wish has always been to become a water camp general, Lin Fu needs to have a staff member who is familiar with the situation of the refugee armies. No one is more suitable than Zhang Gou, so he can only feel wronged.
Lin Fu touched his short mustache on his chin and stared at the Jianghuai topographic map spread out on the ground.
He delayed it until the end of July, waiting for Qin Chengzu to arrive in Shanyang, before he set off to return to Chongzhou. He walked from Qingjiangpu to Yandu and walked south along the dike that defended the sea dike. Today he just walked to Pu at the junction of Yandu and Jianling County.
Nanbao, received a secret message from Suizhou.
Luo Xiancheng's tribe has always been the target of Lin Fu's attention.
Once Luo Xiancheng's troops completely disrupt the situation in Jinghu, rice grains from the two lakes will not be transported to Jiangdong, and Jiangdong County's food supply this year will be tight. Rice prices are Lin Fu's biggest concern, so any changes in Suizhou will be reported to
It was passed to him as quickly as possible.
On the topographic map of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, Tongbai Mountain is the watershed between the two waterways of the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. Suizhou is to the south of Tongbai Mountain, with Xinyang in the east, Nanyang in the north, and Xiangyang in the west. There is a Xiaojiang Mingfu River in the territory, which goes south to Jiangxia (now Wuhan).
This topographical map is an official map and can only be viewed roughly. Lin Fu does not have the ability to send people to sneak into areas outside Huaidong to conduct large-scale map surveying, so he can only use official maps.
Lin Fu just stared at the topographic map and remained silent without expressing an opinion, asking others to share their opinions first.
"Luo Xiancheng wants to build a comfortable home, and Xiangyang is more suitable. Suizhou is a small city and has a narrow terrain. It is not a place to take root. It is more suitable to serve as a barrier to Xiangyang together with Nanyang. Furthermore, Xiangyang is located in Hanzhong, connected to Hanzhong to the north and south to Xiangyang.
Controlling Jing and Han is easy to defend and easy to attack. Could it be that Luo Xiancheng wants to gather troops in Suizhou and take Jiangxia directly?" Chen Enze guessed.
Chen Enze is no longer the fledgling county school boy he was four or five years ago. Although it will take another three or four months to reach the age of youth, from Lin Fu's side to being incorporated into the Guards Battalion as deputy sentry general, sentry general, and deputy battalion general,
Camp General, it has been two years so far.
After these years of ups and downs and military experience, Chen Enze has grown into a strong figure, with dark skin, sharp eyes, and bright eyes, making it difficult for anyone to guess his origins as a scholar.
Chen Enze married Lin Mengde's second daughter a few years ago and just gave birth to a daughter.
In the army, generals who were both proficient in literature and military affairs, and capable of military intelligence analysis and staff work were so scarce that Lin Fu could only transfer Chen Enze out of the Guards Battalion and join the Military Intelligence and Staff Department as a commanding officer.
The war situation became more and more severe and complex, including the scale of the war to be organized in Huaidong, which became larger and larger. The burden on Qin Chengzu's shoulders became heavier and heavier. Lin Fu established the Military Intelligence Staff Department in Huaidong and organized a group of
A group of outstanding staff generals gathered together, not only to share Qin Chengzu's worries, but also to ensure that there would be no major loopholes in the military decisions made by Huaidong.
After listening to Chen Enze's words, Lin Fu took matters into his own hands, almost lying on the ground, and took a charcoal pen to mark the route from Suizhou to Jiangxia.
Going south along the Xiaojiangfu River, the road from Suizhou to Jiangxia is relatively straight and the whole journey is about three hundred miles.
If we start from Xiangyang and go back to Jiangxia along the Han River, the distance will more than double.
The land route from Xiangyang to Jiangxia was dangerous and difficult, and Luo Xiancheng could not raise so many ships at one time by taking the water route.
Luo Xiancheng wanted to plot Jiangxia, so it was appropriate to use Suizhou as a gathering place for troops and horses.
"Luo Xiancheng was curious and rarely fought hard battles. This was also the reason why An Shuai led his troops to Huaisi the year before last and why he hunkered down in Shouzhou." In addition to Zhang Gou's unbreakable friendship with the old Huangjue Rebel Army, he also
The other civilian soldiers on the road had no sympathy. After he adjusted his mind, he also devoted himself to offering suggestions and suggestions for Huaidong. He no longer had any reservations in his words. "After the officers and soldiers of Jinghu were defeated by Luo Xiancheng in Suizhou, they all gathered in Jingzhou, Jingshan, and Jiangxia."
On the front line, we are ready, and the possibility of Luo Xiancheng going to Jiangxia to pull out this iron nail is very small..."
"If we are not going to fight Jiangxia, we must bypass Jiangxia and go to Qichun, and prepare to cross the river to Jiangxi!" Qin Chengzu said.
Zhang Gou was once the core general of the refugee army. He had followed the old commander Yang Quan in his early years. He had a deeper understanding of the generals of the refugee army than anyone else in Huaidong. Qin Chengzu and others tended to accept Zhang Gou's judgment of Luo Xiancheng.
In the team that followed Lin Fu south, in addition to more than 200 guards, only Qin Chengzu, Wu Qi, Zhang Gou, Chen Enze and others accompanied him. Zhou Pu led the cavalry camp to temporarily station in Siyang Village to guard against any changes by Sun Zhuang!
"I thought so too," Zhang Gou saw that Qin Chengzu also supported his view, so he became more open-minded and boldly speculated, "The She family sent someone to persuade An Shuai to lead his troops southward the year before last, but An Shuai ignored him and said
Maybe I’ll send someone to Gu Dou Luo again this year and it’ll be done!”
"Chen Zhihu fought so brutally in Henan that Luo Xiancheng was on pins and needles in Xiangyang. If he wanted to avoid Chen Zhihu's attack, he had no other way out except leading his troops to flee south!" Qin Chengzu said, "It's just that he was in the Baitong Mountain area.
It is not easy to take two to three hundred thousand horses out calmly! It is even more impossible to cross the river with two to three hundred thousand horses!"
"He may leave the miscellaneous subordinates in the Baitong Mountain area," Lin Fu frowned and spoke at this time, "He leads the elite to jump out of the encirclement. It is best if he can open up the situation on the southern front; if he cannot open up the situation, he can still
If you retreat to the vicinity of Baitong Mountain, your vitality will not be completely damaged!"
"For the current plan, in addition to informing Jinghu and the two counties in Jiangxi to deal with it carefully, we can only suggest Mr. Gu to dispatch the first section of the Jiangning Water Camp to Anqing to respond," Qin Chengzu said, "Should Chongzhou increase the scale of stocking up on grains?
?”
"If the scale increases, the pressure will be too great. Uncle Mengde's hair is half white, so let's keep the few black hair on his head for two more years," Lin Fu said playfully, with a worried look on his face.
, "Huaidong Bank has just been established. At this time, it is borrowing a large amount of money directly in the name of the military commander. We cannot make a good start, so it is better to wait!"
"Perhaps we should raise rice from the Haidong region now to make up for the shortage. When we were in Jeju, I didn't think the rice in Kitakyushu was any worse than the japonica rice in Jianghuai!" Chen Enze said.
"This needs to be done immediately," Lin Fu nodded and saw Zhang Gou holding a pen and paper in his hand and said, "Write this down for me and bring the relevant people to discuss it after returning to Chongzhou! Except for Huaidong
In addition to actively increasing grain production, the only area that can import a large amount of rice grains is Haidong. Over at Haidong Xingying, we still need to add more people!"
Zhang Gou leaned on the saddle and copied down Lin Fu's words.
He only came into contact with Huaidong's core secrets after he was officially awarded the military rank.
He had heard of the place name Haidong when he was studying in the past, but he had no idea where Haidong was. When he saw the map of the entire East China Sea, Zhang Goucai was shocked. He took a sea ship from Chongzhou to Jeju and then to Kyushu Island.
Going to Goryeo is not as troublesome as going upstream from Chongju to Jiangning. I also want to take a sea boat to visit Jeju, Dongju and Kyushu.
During this period of time, in addition to reading various miscellaneous books, Zhang Gou also walked across the land of Huai'an and gained a newer and more comprehensive understanding of the topography of Huai'an, which he was far from able to do before.
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The entire terrain of Huaidong is an extended oblique triangle, with Huai'an and Hailing located on the hypotenuse.
From a strategic geographical point of view, Weiyang Mansion (also known as Yangzhou in later generations) is the core of the Huaidong Triangle.
In addition, Weiyang Prefecture is also the most developed area in Huaidong. Even if we do not take into account the fact that the Salt and Iron Division was established in Weiyang, the land tax of Weiyang Prefecture and six counties is equivalent to the combined total of the eleven counties of Huai'an and Hailing.
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This was also the main reason why in the later period of the Huaisi War, the imperial court had to grant the official position of Huaidong envoy to Lin Fu, but listed Weiyang Mansion separately from the Huaidong Military Department.
From a military point of view, it is still possible to occupy the entire Huaidong. However, after the excavation of Weiyang Mansion, the entire Huaidong oblique triangle is missing a piece, the foundation is weakened by more than half, and there is almost no room for development.
The Huaidong Army is very sharp and can be said to be the strongest army in the world in recent years. But when the world is in chaos, how many people will think that Lin Fu can achieve great things with Huai'an and Hailing?
Zhang Gou used to think that Huaidong's chances of winning were too slim. It wasn't until he saw the map of the entire East China Sea that marked the entire Haidong region that he realized how narrow his vision was in front of the commander!
Who in Jiangdong could have imagined that Huaidong had more than 4,000 troops stationed in the Haidong area, and in addition, more than 1,000 civilian households were moved there!
All Huaidong lacks is time.
While Zhang Gou was copying, Lin Fu thought about it and said to Qin Chengzu: "It seems that things are about to change today, and Huaidong's pace will be stepped up - the new households in Qibao Village will be directly registered."
Yellow book, select some people from the combat training school and make them Lijia. What do you think?"
"Yes, even if the secret of the Yellow Book is leaked at this time, it is not a big deal. Some things are not only done by Huaidong's family." Qin Chengzu said.
The so-called yellow list is actually a list of military households in Huaidong. After Lin Fu entered Chongzhou, while resettling the refugees, he compiled another book of Ding Zhuang, a refugee household, as a potential recruitable soldier in Huaidong.
The rotation training of militiamen is also mainly carried out for the households listed in this register.
It's just that this work was strictly controlled within Chongzhou County before. Lin Fu wanted to spread it all at once. In addition to Hecheng, it would also extend to Huai'an and the hinterland of Hailing. It also meant the Qibao Village that Lin Fu said
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The construction of the section of the sea wall from Hecheng to Yandu has just started, but in the past year, the Huaidong Army Division has built one every thirty miles from Hecheng to Yandu, totaling seven posts.
According to external reports, the purpose of building the post fort is mainly to make preparations in advance for repairing and defending the sea wall. After the completion of the construction, the sea wall can be repaired and defended in seven sections at the same time. With the post fort as the backing, the garrison of the workers, generals, and generals as well as the
The preparation and storage of embankment construction materials are extremely convenient, which can reduce the burden on the local government and greatly increase the speed of embankment construction.
Another is to wait for the embankment to be built, build a post road on the embankment, and the post castle can serve as a post station or post house.
This was what Lin Fu said to the outside world before the embankment was built. However, after the seven posthouses were completed, many people felt that the construction was too solid.
Each posthouse is more than 200 steps square, with green brick walls and rammed clay inside. The walls are three feet high and the wall base is two feet wide. The foundation inside the fort will be the same height as the completed sea wall.
Each posthouse costs only 150,000 to 60,000 yuan in blue bricks, in addition to more than a thousand stones of white ash, and hundreds of stones of glutinous rice. The cost is astonishingly high. In comparison, the sentry forts built by the Salt and Iron Company in the salt area,
At best, it is a short and small bump on the earth.
After the posthouse was built, Lin Fu directly set up a camp based on the posthouse, appointed village officials, and recruited refugees to reclaim wasteland and grow vegetables and grain. In the name of the outside world, he wanted to recruit workers and supplies for the soldiers who built the embankment.
Provide food and vegetables and save money.
In this regard, Hu Dahai, the magistrate of Yandu County, only dared to go to Liu Tingzhou to complain; the officials of Jianling and Gaocheng counties simply pretended to be deaf and dumb.
The three counties of Gaocheng, Jianling, and Yandu themselves have a large amount of wasteland, wasteland, and wetlands and swamps that are difficult to cultivate. Since the sea dike is built on the side of the salt field, the salt field also has a large area of land designated to defend the sea dike.
inside.
At that time, the salt production method mainly used the boiling method, so large areas of forage land were reserved in the salt area to provide the fodder required for boiling salt. The salt field area designated on the inside of the sea wall is actually a preserved forage land, pasture and salt field.
The household’s place of residence.
In addition to reclaiming wasteland in the three counties of Yandu, Jianling and Gaocheng, the settlement also occupied a considerable part of the forage land of the salt field.
The officials of the Salt Supervision Institute were even more distressed. If they dared to resist, the Huaidong Military Division would immediately be able to rely on seven forts to completely cut off the flow of illegal salt.
Compared with allowing the Huaidong Military Division to occupy some fodder land and completely cutting off private salt, the officials of the Salt Supervision Institute could not bear the loss.
Lin Fu chose to take the eastern route back to Chongzhou in order to inspect the preparations of the seven villages along the way. This was the most solid step for him to penetrate the hinterland of Huaidong.