Traveling under starry night, on May 12th, Sun Zhuang followed Qin Chengzu to Shanyang, crossed the Huaihe River and spent the night in Siyang. The next day, he joined Li Wei, who had officially assumed the post of magistrate of Shanyang County, and Liu Tingzhou, who came from Shuyang.
Let's go north together and reach Chenjiatang, where we will enter the area controlled by the Red Coat Army.
The person in charge of the Red Coat Army's contact was Li Liang, a general under Malantou and the Red Coat Army's guard in Suyu.
Although Liu Tingzhou was the official recruiter appointed by the imperial court, Liu Tingzhou also knew the principle that "a mother is a mother who gives milk" and knew that Qin Chengzu came on behalf of Lin Fu, which was the key to the last round of recruitment negotiations.
Qin Chengzu held a high position in Huaidong, and he was also a horse bandit in the upper reaches of Huaihe in his early years. The Red Coat Army did not neglect him and felt that he was kind. Li Liang personally went out of the city to greet him and escorted Qin Chengzu, Sun Zhuang, and Li Wei to cross the border from Suyu
Go to Huaiyang.
There are wheat fields on both sides of the avenue, like the hair on a leper's head, which is very sparse.
In terms of solar terms, they are already the seeds of the harvest. The wheat ears south of the Huaihe River have fallen heavily and are ready to be harvested. The wheat north of the Huaihe River has just sprouted. It will take at least a month to harvest.
While resting on the way, Qin Chengzu dismounted his horse, handed the whip and reins to his guard, walked to the roadside, took a bunch of wheat and orange poles, looked at the wheat ears, frowned slightly, and said nothing.
"South of the Huaihe River, the fertile fields can be filled with rice and grain by planting wheat in the spring, and planting rice or cotton and linen in the summer. Ten acres of land can support a well-off family. The ditches in Huaisi are exhausted, and there is either drought or waterlogging. One mu of land can be harvested in a year.
Five buckets of grain, even if God opens his eyes, the difference will be seven or eight times." Li Wei was most familiar with the situation in Huaisi County, and did not care about Li Liang's presence, nor did he care about the faces of the generals of the Red Coat Army, and directly sent Huaisi counties to
Talk about your embarrassment.
Liu Tingzhou frowned slightly and said: "After several years of war, the jungles have become wasteland. In the countryside, there is a severe shortage of iron tools. Not to mention the counties of Huaisi, four to five out of ten farmers on both sides of the Shu River still have
Working in the fields with stone sickles and wooden knives," he asked Qin Chengzu, "Can the iron yards in Chongzhou and Shanyang sell some iron to the military commander this year?"
"I have to ask Lin Mengde about this, maybe it's possible," Qin Chengzu said, "I'm not sure. Since Mr. Liu brought it up, Huaidong always has to squeeze out some."
"How much can be squeezed out? Qin Sima gave me an accurate estimate." Liu Tingzhou followed the snake to the pole and asked.
To say that Liu Tingzhou's status is naturally higher than that of Qin Chengzu, it seems a bit disrespectful to ask him like this.
Qin Chengzu secretly thought: Liu Tingzhou can be regarded as one of the few capable officials in the Dai Viet Dynasty who can be loyal and dedicated to his duties, but it is a pity that he always opposes Huaidong.
"There may be three to five thousand pieces," Qin Chengzu said.
"Then we'll agree on five thousand pieces, and I'll send someone to Shanyang to ask for it from Mr. Li," Liu Tingzhou said.
Li Wei had just received a transfer order from Shanyang County Magistrate and did not know the details of the Shanyang County Iron Works. Furthermore, the Shanyang County Iron Works was also under the direct control of Cao Zi'ang - Liu Tingzhou said this, but Li Wei just kept a cold face and remained silent.
Qin Chengzu didn't expect Liu Tingzhou to be so troublesome, so he could only smile helplessly and said: "I'm afraid it won't work if you give farm tools directly. If Shanyang is insufficient, Chongzhou may be able to squeeze out 50,000 kilograms of raw iron materials. Mr. Liu
Just send someone back to Chongzhou to negotiate..."
For farming, the heaviest iron tool is. Using a sickle to cut rice and wheat, and wearing the stars and the moon, a family can harvest four or five acres of land day and night. If you use a stone sickle to do it by hand, it will take at least two or three times. When it comes to reclamation, in addition to preventing miasma,
, in addition to being acclimated to the soil, they also rely heavily on iron sickles. There are thick bushes and tangled roots. There are no sharp saws and only stone sickles and wooden knives are used. How easy is it to open up wasteland for cultivation?
There are many desolate beaches, desert islands, desolate mountains and desolate forests in the south. Places such as Jianghuai, Huhan, Huxiang and Jiangxi were only fully developed in the previous dynasty. The development of Eastern Fujian was even more backward. It was only after the eight-surname family of the previous dynasty entered Fujian.
have been relatively fully developed.
South of the Five Ridges, Guangnan's geographical scope is almost twice that of Jiangdong County, but it is extremely underdeveloped. The indigenous people roam the mountains and fields and often rebel. At this time, the number of registered households in Guangnan County is only 212,000.
, even far less than Pingjiang or Jiangning Prefecture, and only comparable to Mingzhou Prefecture before the war.
Guangnan is too far away, and the place is self-contained, with the tendency of separatism. Even if there is no intention of breaking up the soil and becoming king, it is temporarily out of Jiang Ning's control, and secretly has a happy relationship with the She family.
Huaidong was beyond the reach of Guangnan, but after Huaidong landed in eastern Zhejiang, he firmly controlled Mingzhou Prefecture, Changguo, and Daishan Islands, and suppressed the She family's Jin'an and the eastern Zhejiang Navy.
Lu Jiangheli did not dare to go to sea and had actually achieved absolute control over the East China Sea.
Huaidong's next intention was to seize Yizhou Island.
Yizhou, later known as Taiwan, covers a vast area of thousands of miles, and its area is only much larger than Huaidong.
Yizhou has been a county for more than 200 years, but apart from the uncivilized indigenous people, there are only more than 4,000 registered Dingkou households, which is only one of the middle counties of the Yue Dynasty, not even large counties such as Chongzhou, Hailing, and Haiyu.
Dingkou’s Eleven.
The sea ships of Jinghaihai camp set out from Mingzhou Prefecture to attack the Jin'an coast. It was a long way and it took at least five or six days to go back and forth. On a clear day, standing on the northwest corner of Yizhou Island, you can see as far as the eye can see.
You can even see the mountains and islands along the coast of East Fujian. By occupying Yizhou Island and using Yizhou as a base, you can form a pincer attack on the coast of East Fujian. The harassing ships can travel back and forth day and night, and it is more advantageous to capture fighter planes.
In addition, with Yizhou Island as a base, Huaidong's maritime trade can be extended to Southeast Asia.
After Yizhou was established as a county, it came under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou Prefecture. At this time, it was considered an area controlled by the Song family. Regardless of the Song family's attitude, Yizhou was bound to be acquired by Huaidong in the near future. As long as the Jinghai Second Water Camp was completed,
It will cover the Chongcheng infantry camp to attack Yizhou.
Of course, after the capture of Yizhou, there are still big differences within Huaidong on how to manage Yizhou. In addition to serving as a water camp base and a springboard for maritime trade to connect Nanyang, whether to immediately relocate people on a large scale to manage Yizhou.
Unlike the Changguo Islands, which have been abandoned in recent years, they are relatively simple to cultivate and there are not so many miasma lands. Most of the areas on Yizhou Island are completely barbaric miasma lands. How difficult is it to cultivate them?
, it is far away from Hecheng Grassland and Xisha Island, so the cost of development is naturally extremely high.
However, with the surge in Huaidong's iron smelting capacity, it is not impossible to move people to Yizhou on a large scale to reclaim wasteland.
Huaidong's ability to resettle refugees is mainly directly reflected in two things, one is rice grain, and the other is iron smelting. In the end, Huaidong can control Dingkou, rice grain, and iron smelting, which directly reflects Huaidong's ability to resettle refugees.
military potential.
With the establishment of Huaidong Bank, it was possible to borrow money on a large scale and develop iron smelting factories in a great leap forward. Lin Fu's production increase plan for Chongzhou and Shanyang this year requires that the output of rough iron should reach 5 million jins, and the precision
The iron output should reach two million jins.
Compared with Huaidong's rough iron production this year, the supply of 50,000 jins of raw iron to Liu Tingzhou only accounts for one hundred and one hundred percent. However, in Liu Tingzhou's view, 50,000 jins of iron is not simple.
If we exclude Shanyang County and collect all the counties in Huai'an Prefecture, we may only be able to find 20,000 to 30,000 kilograms of stored iron.
Li Liang listened with envy at the side, thinking how good it would be for the Red Coat Army to have fifty or sixty thousand kilograms of iron? He was just thinking about it in his mind. After all, he had not officially accepted the imperial court's recruitment. Besides, accepting the imperial court's recruitment, the imperial court and
How could Huaidong not be on guard against the Red Coat Army, and how could it possibly supply tens of thousands of kilograms of iron materials at every turn?
In the northwest of Suyu, the Red Coat Army built a trestle bridge at the narrow part of the Bian River, allowing them to cross the river into Huaiyang. Malantou had already led his troops to wait on the west bank of the Bian River, which was considered a very respectful attitude.
Although the Red Coat Girls are headed by Liu Miaozhen, they are still women and have many inconveniences. Malantou actually presides over more military and political affairs. Malantou's influence and status in the Red Coat Army are actually not lower than Liu Miaozhen.
When Liu Tingzhou entered Huaiyang three times before, Malantou was polite and greeted him at the city gate. Today he went to the Bianshui River to greet him. It was obviously for Qin Chengzu.
Liu Tingzhou secretly sighed in his heart. Although he had no conclusive evidence about Huaidong secretly delivering rice and grain to the Red Coat Army, he knew the general situation. At the moment, he only hoped that the generals of the Red Coat Army would change their ways and return to power and serve the imperial court.
Don't let Huaidong win over completely.
Refugees were mainly evacuated to the area east of Bianshui River. After nearly half a year of recovery, Huaiyang City has regained some of its vitality. The city has also been repaired, but it is all built of rammed earth, shining white in the sun.
These flashes of light make the city look better in the sun. In fact, when the earth was taken to build the city, the shells, fine stones and other objects in the soil were not screened out. Even if all the incomplete sections of Huaiyang City were repaired with tamped earth, the actual solidity
It's a bit worse than the regular version of the fortification pool.
When the Donghu people attacked Jizhou, they had already used stone-throwing crossbows on a large scale to attack the city. At this time, Huaiyang City seemed somewhat fragile in the face of large-scale stone throwing crossbows.
At noon, Malantou came forward to entertain us and have a lunch.
The formal and overt recruitment was naturally led by Liu Tingzhou and Li Wei. Qin Chengzu and Sun Zhuang came on behalf of the Huaidong Army Division and did not directly participate in the overt recruitment negotiations. They would go back after the luncheon.
Rest in the post house.
Qin Chengzu only said that he was too tired from the continuous journey and wanted to take a rest in the post house. He also asked Sun Zhuang to take him to Li Liang to reminisce about the past.
Naturally, Huaiyang City cannot be compared with Chongzhou. Public selling of alcohol is strictly prohibited in the city, and there was no alcohol on the table during the luncheon...
After finding a dilapidated restaurant, Li Liang went straight into the backyard, opened the pot and rummaged through the cupboards, and took over the only large piece of deer meat in the restaurant. He dropped a piece of silver and sat next to Sun Zhuang.
He sat down at the table by the window, took off the lacquer gourd from his waist, shook it, there was a sound of water, and said: "The wine brewed from wild fruits is the craft you taught me, Sun Shuai - for this matter,
I was almost beheaded by Ma Shuai. The food in Huaisi was too precious. It was useless to use the food to brew it privately. Fortunately, the explanation was clear, and I was so scared that I didn’t dare to drink anymore. I still asked Ma for permission today.
He's so handsome, so I only use it to please Mr. Gang."
There was a pile of bowls stacked on the corner of the table. Sun Zhuang took one and put it in front of him. He poured half a bowl of wine, took a sip and tasted it. He said, "It's too sour. You can't learn this skill first."
!”
"..." Li Liang greedily poured himself half a bowl of wine and drank it in small sips. The fruit wine was not strong, leaving only half a gourd of wine. He drank it with great enthusiasm and asked Sun Zhuang, "If the deal is settled this time,
Now, will Mr. Gan come back?"
"Ma Lantou asked you to ask?" Sun Zhuang asked.
"Ma Shuai didn't say anything, I asked myself."
"Shit, you stick your butt out and poop, am I not clear? No matter who asks, it's the same," Sun Zhuang sighed and said, "I won't come back!"
"..." Li Liang said anxiously, "Below Tiannu, there are two cavalry captains, one is the horse commander, and the other one is left for you - this can be obtained from the third-grade military attache, Huaidong can't give it to you. Let's talk about it.
After that, when you are in Huaidong and Huaiyang, is it still the same? If Donglu invades, Huaidong will still count on you to fight with us - as long as you promise to come back, Huaidong will not tie you up.
Let it go?"
The conditions Jiang Ning can provide are almost negotiable.
The authority of the Zhizhi envoy was very great. He had jurisdiction over a local military and political affairs and was also in charge of local military equipment. The local Fujun, County, Bing, Xiangyong and Yongdu were within the scope of his jurisdiction. Jiangning was only willing to set up a military town in Huaiyang to recruit the Red Coat Army, and Liu Miaozhen
, Malantou and others were also awarded the title of senior generals such as the Captain of the Cavalry Captain and the Captain of the Cavalry to lead Huaiyang Town.
"Huaidong doesn't owe me anything. The rest is what I owe Huaidong and you. If you don't pay it back, how can we leave?" Sun Zhuang said with emotion, "Tell Malantou and don't mention this matter again."
Already."
Li Liang smacked his lips and didn't know what to say for a moment. If only Sun Zhuang had given up the cities of Suining and Suyu at the critical moment, the Red Coat Army would not have been able to escape the fate of destruction.
Before that, Sun Zhuang had more than ten thousand troops and was the guard general of the two cities. After that, he was demoted to Huaidong as a soldier. This time, Sun Zhuang commanded the army to accompany him and resumed his status as a military attache, but he was far from being able to do so.
Comparable to when he was in charge of the Northern Army.
The generals of the Red Coat Army felt that they owed him a debt, so they wanted him to come back, return his old army to him, and give him one of the three senior military attache titles given by the court.
"By the way, we have talked about it so many times," Sun Zhuang said, "The situation in the north is very urgent. Jiangning and Huaidong don't want to delay it any longer. There are other things that are difficult to negotiate here. Huaidong wants to
Mr. Qin can come over and make a final decision - you tell me first!"
"The Huaiyang Military Town was established, but there were some disagreements on the military town's quota, location, money, local officials, and settlement of Dingkou..." Li Liang said with a grimace.
Sun Zhuang also had a general idea of what could not be reached, but he didn't know how far the Red Coat Army would give in, and he didn't know if it could be reconciled.
Regarding the garrison issue, Jiang Ning's intention is to have the Red Coat Army stationed in Huaiyang City; Huaidong's intention is to have the Red Coat Army stationed in Huaiyang and Suining, and to give way to Suyu City, which is close to the inner line; Liu Miaozhen and Malan
Naturally, the first-class generals of the Red Coat Army did not want to let go of any place. They wanted to use the three cities as the horns to firmly control the core area of Huaisi - of course, the three cities were all controlled by the Red Coat Army. The Red Coat Army
Jiang Ning and Huaidong insisted on not letting him come out. Neither Jiang Ning nor Huai Dong had any intention of forcing him.
In principle, the three counties of Huaiyang, Suining, and Suyu are temporarily under the jurisdiction of the Huai'an Prefecture; the three positions of county magistrate, county magistrate, and edict are selected by Jiangning; the officials are selected by the Huai'an Prefecture from among the local gentry.
The army nominally accepted the control of Huaidong Military Division - because of this matter, Huaidong almost set off a table and had a quarrel with Jiang Ning.
Considering that it is more convenient for Huaiyang Military Town’s food and salary to be paid by the military leader Liu Tingzhou, and Huaidong facilitated this behind the scenes, it would be difficult to convince Huaidong without any benefit. Jiang Ning finally bowed his head on this matter.
This made Huaidong Military Division a great vassal with the power to control the military and town.
Jiangning only agreed to provide 20,000 soldiers, each with four measures of grain per month and three coins of silver to pay for the military town of Huaiyang. Liu Miaozhen and Malantou hoped to retain the 30,000 soldiers they had secretly agreed with Huaidong - these 30,000
The soldiers and horses are the elites of the Huaisili people's army who have been eliminated through years of war. How could Liu Miaozhen and Ma Lantou be willing to disperse these soldiers and horses as a last resort?
Liu Tingzhou came here this time and brought some concessions, that is, on the basis of the money and food provided by the 20,000 soldiers, an additional part will be coordinated internally by the Red Coat Army. The Lianghuai salt and silver are only 1.8 million taels per year, and Jiangning
The amount of money and food allocated to Huaiyang Military Town is capped at 200,000 taels, which is almost the limit of Jiangning. There are too many places where money is needed.
Of course, Jiangning's willingness to allocate 200,000 taels of silver every year and grant officials and rewards was very generous in the eyes of Jiangning's princes, but it was far from solving the problem of the Red Coat Army.
It is enough for the generals and soldiers to eat four measures of grain per month. The key is to pay them.
When it was exchanged for him, three coins of silver could buy six or seven buckets of rice, which was barely enough to support the family. Besides, the family had some fields to cultivate, and their life was not bad. At this time, three coins of silver were in front of Hao Si and others.
The land can only buy two bushels of grain. It is slightly better to go to Huaidong, where you can buy half a bushel more, but if you include the transportation money to Huaiyang, the difference is not much different.
However, when the red-coated army came over, the family had no farmland to cultivate, and the soldier's family had only three coins of silver to survive, which in reality could only cost one life.
This is still calculated based on 20,000 soldiers. If it were divided among 30,000 soldiers, the situation would be even more embarrassing - of course, this is much better than the most difficult time, so there is nothing that cannot be compromised.
After the key to entering Huaisi, in addition to the red coat army retaining its intact establishment, more than 50,000 refugee troops were disbanded on the spot and dispersed as refugees to rural villages to receive relief - this group of refugee troops, including their small families, exceeded two
One hundred thousand people. In addition to these, there are almost 140,000 to 50,000 war refugees in the Huaisi area.
In addition to the Red Coat Army and Jia Xiao, preliminary statistics show that the total number of other refugees stranded in the Huaisi area is almost 360,000.
Jiang Ning advocated expelling these refugees from the Huaisi area and letting them return to their hometowns.
"Master Gan, tell me, after being driven out of Huaisi without even a living ration, you will either starve to death on the road, or you will rebel again," Li Liang said angrily, "Jiang Ning
How come we can’t think of it? They still want to deceive us as fools! They just allow the refugees to cause trouble, and then send us to suppress it-damn, we can do this kind of thing of burning bridges across rivers-and besides, forget it
The Red Coat Army and the family have been preserved, and the others are mostly relatives and neighbors in the countryside. Do you really have the heart to drive them away, regardless of whether they live or die? "
"Pah!" Sun Zhuang drank all the wine in one gulp and put the cracked bowl on the table without saying anything.
"Over in Huaidong, can there be any rice and grain surplus this year?" Li Liang asked.
In the past half year, Huaidong secretly transported nearly 200,000 stones of rice and grain, which was the key to the Red Coat Army stabilizing its position in Huaisi and allowing the 300,000 to 400,000 refugees to survive.
In late April, Lin Fu rushed to attack eastern Zhejiang, and the Huaidong Army's strength nearly doubled.
Liu Miaozhen and Ma Lantou naturally want to continue to get Huaidong's secret support, but if Huaidong's troops expand to 60,000 to 70,000 people, how much extra financial resources will they have? They don't know how Huaidong operates, so they can only use conventional thinking
Let’s speculate on Huaidong’s financial resources. Especially after the Jinhai grain road was stopped, Huaidong also lost one of its most important financial resources.
Furthermore, when they formally accepted the imperial court's call for peace, they only accepted the control of the Huaidong Military Division in name only. The food and salary were changed to be allocated by the Huaidong Military Division controlled by Liu Tingzhou. There was no reason to ask Huaidong to secretly support the money and grain.
The money and food Jiang Ning was willing to allocate could barely support 30,000 horses and families.
Not to mention the 300,000 to 400,000 refugees. The refugees will compete with local forces for land. If they are not handled well, it will lead to sharp conflicts. Even if Huaiyang, Suining, and Suyu have enough wasteland to accommodate so many people, with the current high
With the price of grain so high, Master Jiang Ning said that he would have to spend six to seven hundred thousand taels of silver to accommodate so many people.
Some of the Lianghuai salt and silver can still be squeezed out, but all forces are eyeing the Lianghuai silver. Among the Jiangning princes such as Yue Lengqiu, and even Gu Wuchen, who is willing to waste the Lianghuai salt and silver on the refugees?
"Suyu and Suining have agreed not to compete with the local area for land. We should be able to cultivate some land here in Huaiyang," Sun Zhuang asked, "won't there be no harvest at all here?"
"Yes, there is nothing to hide from you, Mr. Gan," Li Liang said, "but it is really ugly. As you walk along, you can also see that the fields opened here in Huaidong can produce 20,000 to 30,000 shi this year.
The rice harvest is as big as the sky!"
"I'm coming here. I heard from you that I can still support this point, but I don't know the specific number in Master Qin's belly." Sun Zhuang said. He was also worried that Huaidong only occupied such a small amount of space.
The amount of food we can raise is really limited.
"It's okay," Li Liang said, "As long as you tighten your pants and you can get through it."
Sun Zhuang was afraid that Qin Chengzu would ask him something, so he did not talk to Li Liang outside, so he returned to the post house. Sun Zhuang did not hide what he had said to Li Liang from Qin Chengzu, but briefly summarized it, and asked with a frown.
: "Huaiyang can only collect 20,000 to 30,000 kilograms of grain. There is really a shortage. How much can Huaidong squeeze out?"
"The Cavalry Captain is a third-grade general. Isn't it a pity for you to refuse?" Qin Chengzu asked, "Huaidong can at most help you get the title of Zhaowu Colonel, but there is a gap of three or four ranks...
"
"What's the use of being a Guilaoguan in the imperial court? I haven't repaid my debt to you, and the imperial court asked me to be a prince. It's not worth it." Sun Zhuang said.
"..." Qin Chengzu smiled and said, "Huaidong can still squeeze out some food, but just like good iron must be used on the edge, Huaidong is currently building a defense line to defend against the Donghu people on the northern front.
How to use the squeezed-out food depends on this. Can you tell me how to build the northern defense line?"
"The ditches are all gone. Except for a few big rivers, the Donghu people are pouring in. They are afraid that they will not be able to stop until they reach the Huaihe River," Sun Zhuang said. "Here in Huaiyang, if possible, the outside of the Huaiyang city wall must be covered with a layer of
Bricks are built around Huaiyang, diagonally to the northeast, connected with the Bianshui River, and then connected with Suining - but this is not good enough. It must be able to poke Chen Hansan's tortoise out and capture Xuzhou.
, the northern line is much more comfortable!”
"It's impossible in a short time, don't think about it." Qin Chengzu said.
Chen Hansan was able to struggle and survive, and the longer he survived, the stronger he became. He would not be without his excellence.
Chen Hansan held 20,000 elite troops and was extremely wary of this side. He was guarding the mighty city of Xuzhou, and many of the surrounding cities were under his control. It would be extremely difficult for Huaidong to remove Chen Hansan.
Besides, Jiangning and the Liang family in the north will not just sit back and watch Huaidong attack Chen Hansan. Once Huaidong sends troops to attack Xuzhou, Jiangning may hesitate, but the Liang family will almost certainly lead troops to assist the three coalition forces of Xuzhou and Chen Han.
Those fighting against Huaidong - at that time, not to mention the coalition forces fighting against Donghu, the internal forces would first be torn apart.
"Without Xuzhou, Huaiyang, and Suining connecting on both sides, it would be much uglier." Although Sun Zhuang is not as good as Zhang Gou in the art of war, he has served as a commander of an army after all, and his vision is still there. It is not comparable to ordinary people.
, said, "Then we must do what your Lord said and strengthen the Red Coat Army as much as possible - the current Red Coat Army has 30,000 elite soldiers. If they can have enough food, their combat strength will be similar to that of the Changhuai Army, but they lack
The bows and crossbows that can suppress cavalry are far different from those of the Changhuai Army. Sometimes they can only be filled with human lives. If the Donghu people have 10,000 cavalry to leak in, the red coat army can only hide in the walled city. It must be
For field battles, build more chariots and use large shields and spears to carry them, but you can barely hold the position. The barbarians are good cavalry and archers, and they will not forcefully rush into the formation. They are accustomed to attacking the flanks first and shooting with crossbows.
If even one corner of the formation cannot be held up, this field battle will be lost!"
"Although it's not precise enough, it's not bad in general," Qin Chengzu said, "My lord, if I don't feel like I'm humiliating you, I can teach you something!"
"Then I kowtow to you, old man!" Sun Zhuang got up and knelt on the ground to kowtow.
"Get up," Qin Chengzu held his arm and said, "merely learning the art of war is only Hinayana, while Mahayana is political affairs. You also have a deep understanding of Huaisi's situation. Tens of thousands of elite soldiers cannot actually build a stronghold to resist the penetration and breakthrough of Donghu cavalry...
…”
At this moment, someone came in to announce that Li Wei was back, and Qin Chengzu asked someone to bring him in quickly.
"After much talk, Jiang Ning refused to pull out even a hair on his head," Li Wei said distressedly, "If you want to follow your wishes, build a defense line in Huaiyang and north of Suining, we can't allow Dingkou to be evacuated to
Go north. We must also be as prepared as possible to receive the next large-scale influx of refugees from the north - south of the defense line to the Huaihe River, the land that can be used to resettle the refugees is too limited. Also, how much supplies can be allocated to the northern line?
!”
"Not counting the investment in the second line of defense in Siyang, Shanyang and Shukou," Qin Chengzu said, "Rice and food are in short supply everywhere. To prepare for the refugees from Jinhai to go south, it will take at least 300,000 stones of rice and food to be laid along the line.
Guarantee that no one will starve to death; before the end of the year, the most that can be squeezed out to Huaisi is only 400,000 stone grain."
Sun Zhuang originally thought it would decrease, but he did not expect that it would increase instead of decreasing. There are less than seven months to the end of the year, and he will invest 400,000 grains, which means that he can invest 60,000 dan per month, 50% more than before. After accepting the recruitment, the key is
The Jiangning side can pull out about 12,000 to 14,000 kilograms of grain every month. Compared with the situation since the beginning of the year, it can be said that the situation is completely different. Even ordinary refugees can only eat half full.
Of course, good iron is used on the cutting edge. Huaidong has its own plan on how to use so much food. He will not feed so many people in vain so that they can sleep under the sun every day.
"That's enough," Li Wei said, rubbing his hands, and said, "After all Jiangning's efforts, what you do is the art of the Dao. I am completely convinced by this mixed Confucianism dispute." He asked again, "Huaidong
How much iron can be squeezed out? Iron is very important. Just having enough food won't do the trick."
Since the Red Coat Army marched eastward, although Huaidong secretly transported grain every month, it had extremely strict control over strategic materials such as iron materials. To strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Red Coat Army and the ability of Huaisi to reclaim wasteland and cultivate crops, iron materials are a must.
Indispensable supplies.
"We have given one million kilograms of raw iron material and an upper limit of three hundred thousand kilograms of fine iron material. This should be sufficient!" Qin Chengzu said, "We will allocate some armor depending on the situation."
"Ha!" Li Wei said with a smile, "When you came here, you said you would give Liu Tingzhou 50,000 kilograms of iron. I was still thinking, I really underestimated Mr. Qin and the adults..."
"At the end of last year, your Excellency decided that the total iron output of the Chongzhou and Shanyang subway stations should exceed 7 million jins, and required the opening of coal and iron ships between Haidong and Chongzhou. Many people did not understand, and I also hesitated.
"Qin Chengzu said, "It seems that you have a plan..."
Armor is the most difficult to make. As long as there is a supply of iron materials, Huaisi can gather a group of craftsmen to make ordinary knives, spears and arrow clusters, which can make up for the shortcomings of ordinary weapons; while making agricultural tools is easier.
Even if the Donghu people capture Yanjing, they will still need a period of adjustment before they attack the defense lines built by the Liang family along both sides of the Yellow River. It will be the end of the year at the earliest before large-scale cavalry leaks to Huaidong.
Lin Fu wanted the Red Coat Army to build the first line of defense on the outside, with Fengli Camp as the main force, and build a second line of defense around the Huaihe River in Siyang, Shukou, and Shanyang to ensure that the production on the inner line of Huaidong was not disrupted.
As long as the red coat army holds Huaiyang, it will actually have a strong shielding effect on Haosi and Dongyang and other places further inside. The Donghu cavalry can only go further west, looking for a breakthrough from Shouzhou and Nanyang. Lin Fu can't care about it at this time.
Think about things over there.
Of course, although Huaidong had prepared so many supplies for the Northern Front, it still had to use these supplies as a condition to prompt the Red Coat Army to cooperate with Huaidong's deployment on the Northern Front.
Qin Chengzu invited Li Wei to discuss in the quiet room for a long time. In the afternoon, Liu Tingzhou and Liu Miaozhen, as well as the Malantou generals, did not have a very pleasant conversation. In the evening, Malantou and Li Liang, on behalf of the Red Coat Army generals, invited Liu Tingzhou and Qin Chengzu to the post house.
, Li Wei, Sun Zhuang and others had a banquet, but Liu Miaozhen did not show up.
There was no wine, only some game, no speculation, and the dinner ended hastily. After the dinner, Li Liang came over secretly and invited Qin Chengzu and Sun Zhuang to the military mansion for a secret discussion, while Li Wei stayed in the post house to hold off Liu Tingzhou.
In the bright hall of the military mansion, there was a scent of rosin from the homemade candles. Liu Miaozhen took off the bronze mask he wore on his face during the lunch and afternoon negotiations with Liu Tingzhou and Li Wei to show his respect for Qin Chengzu, who represented Huaidong, and said
: "My brother commented on the world's figures before his death, and admired Mr. Qin the most. He lamented that Mr. Qin was killed by traitors and could not be invited to participate in the grand event. He never expected that Mr. Qin had secretly become the mainstay of Huaidong..."
"General Liu, you're welcome," Qin Chengzu said, sitting under Liu Miaozhen, "Huaidong has countless advisers and good generals, including Fu Qinghe, Cao Zi'ang, Ao Canghai, Ning Zechen, Zhao Qingshan, Zhou Tong, Zhao Hu, Ge Cunxiong, and Ge Cunxin.
, Sun Zhuang, Zhang Gou, Chen Zhi, etc., Wen Youlin Mengde, Sun Jingxuan, Sun Jingtang, Ge Siyu, Hu Zhiyong, Liang Wenzhan, Li Wei, Zhou Guangnan, Wang Chengfu, etc., are all the choices of the moment.
Gao Zongting, the "Plan of the World", is also working to guard Jinhai - Qin has done nothing and is really worthy of this praise. When it comes to real people in the world, my lord may be worthy of the praise of An Shuai. My lord also thinks of An Shuai.
Highly recommended..."
The civil servants in Chongzhou are not very famous, but when it comes to military generals, Qin Chengzu listed so many of them as if they were treasures. Among the main generals of the Red Coat Army who are here with them, such as Malantou and Li Liang, really no one can boast that they are better than them.
Sun Zhuang had expressed his intention in the afternoon. Qin Chengzu listed the generals of Huaidong, including Zhang Zhuang, Zhang Gou, and Chen Zhi. To the generals of the Red Coat Army, the taste was a bit complicated.
Although as a general in Huaidong, you still have to take the lead, endure hardships and stand hard work, and be unafraid of sacrifice. However, the generals of the Huaidong Army are strong in combat, can work together, and can always take the strategic initiative everywhere, and can lead the army in battles smoothly. This is probably
It must be the realm that military commanders long for most.
Liu Miaozhen stared at the big candle at the corner of the table thoughtfully. It seemed that Qin Chengzu's words aroused her thoughts. After a while, she said to Qin Chengzu: "I want to go to Chongzhou. I don't know if it will be wrong to bring it up suddenly at this time."
It would be a bit presumptuous!”
Liu Miaozhen said this suddenly, not only asking for Malantou, but also Li Liang and other generals of the Red Coat Army. Qin Chengzu was also greatly surprised.
Although Liu Miaozhen was a female prostitute, she was still the head coach of the Red Coat Army. She had not officially accepted the court's recruitment. Huaidong would detain or kill her without having to bear any moral blame. Jiangning would not object. Even if
For example, after Chen Hansan served as the envoy of Xuzhou for two years, he did not even dare to go to Jiangning.
Malantou's face was full of embarrassment. If Qin Chengzu and others were not present, he would have directly objected.
Although Qin Chengzu was surprised, Liu Miaozhen was willing to go to Chongzhou. This was better than anything else. He immediately said: "General Liu is willing to go to Chongzhou. That is the best. I will invite General Liu and his party to Chongzhou on behalf of Huaidong; let Sun Zhuang
While I am escorting General Liu to the south, I will stay in Huaiyang and discuss the alliance with Marshal Ma!" The implication is that I am willing to stay as a pledge to ensure that Huaidong has no evil intentions towards Liu Miaozhen.
"It would be best if Mr. Qin is willing to stay in Huaiyang to discuss the alliance..." Malan stopped in front and said, really afraid that the eldest lady would advocate for Qin Chengzu to be released without authorization.
Lin Fu is a very ambitious person, how can he stick to trivial things such as morality and credit? If the eldest lady insists on going to Chongzhou, Malantou will definitely take Qin Chengzu as a hostage. It is best to persuade the eldest lady to give up.