Human ambition is something that is difficult to explain clearly. The world is already in chaos. If there is an opportunity to control tens of thousands of powerful soldiers in a town, no matter how great the risk is, there will be people who will not hesitate to take chestnuts from the fire.
In the eyes of people in Qingzhou, Huaidong's hard work seems to have ulterior motives, right?
Lin Mengde stood under the pavilion to take shelter from the rain, looking at the motorcade gradually appearing in the distance, a slight smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, thinking: It’s okay not to listen to the advice, just let Qingzhou hit his head and bleed, and he will never do it again.
There are so many disturbing demon moths anymore.
Watching the motorcade arrive in front of the pavilion, the rain gradually stopped, with only some raindrops floating. Lin Mengde did not let anyone hold an umbrella for him. He watched Gu Siyuan get out of the car under the lanterns, walked forward and saluted: "Young Master
This trip must not be publicized. Your Excellency specially asked Meng to come out of the city to welcome you. I hope that the young master will not feel that Huaidong is neglecting him." He bowed to Yang Pu again. Yang Pu has not yet held an official position, but is a retainer of the Gu family. Lin Fu has always regarded Yang Pu as his
Elder, Lin Mengde will not neglect his etiquette in front of him.
Now that Gu Siyuan has come in person, in order to prevent the Dongyang system from falling into division, Huaidong can only give up its previous position and keep silent about urging the Qingzhou people to evacuate south.
Gu Siyuan originally did not expect his brother-in-law Lin Fu to come out of the city to greet him in person. Seeing Lin Mengde's very respectful attitude, he hurriedly bowed and returned the courtesy and said: "Uncle Mengde is trying to hurt my nephew..." As he considered himself his nephew, he invited Lin Mengde.
Get in the car first and go into the city together.
For Gu Siyuan's arrival, Lin Fu and Gu Junxun prepared an empty garden in the city to accommodate him. The garden was not big, but it was exquisite. The decorations, furniture, and serving maids, cooks and maids in the garden were all Gu Junxun's.
Organize it yourself.
Gu Siyuan's trip was very secret. If the news leaked, it would cause unreasonable suspicions in many quarters. The carriage and horse team stopped directly in front of the house. Lin Fu and Gu Junxun were waiting here first.
Lin Fu was wearing a green shirt and was standing in front of the house. Gu Siyuan and others also got off the carriage early and walked over. Lin Fu stood on the steps with sleeves and hands and said with a smile: "There are many winds and rains. It's hard work for Siyuan and Uncle Yang to come here."
Alright?"
"Sister-in-law, miss!" Yang Pu has always been a servant of the Gu family, so naturally he greeted Lin Fu as his uncle from a distance.
"I don't think so," Gu Siyuan said, walking two steps behind. "I saw that Huaidong's sea dike, which took two years of hard work, was finally built. I felt happy and excited. I want to learn from you in Qingzhou.
It’s a great cause, it’s Huaidong who came back to rescue us!”
"Of course, if Si Yuan doesn't say anything, how can Huaidong just watch?" Lin Fu said, sighing in his heart: He always refuses to give up his ambition of holding a large number of troops!
Gu Junxun held his daughter Zhengjun in his arms and said angrily: "Really, we are talking about military and political affairs as soon as we meet. As a younger sister, I look like an eyesore next to you!"
Gu Siyuan laughed and said, "Xunniang is now a mother, but her mouth is still so unforgiving!" He stretched out his hand and pinched Zhengjun's pink face, and said, "Zhengjun, call me, uncle, come and listen.
…”
Zheng Jun, who was learning to speak, shouted timidly.
Gu Siyuan took out the gift for his niece from his pocket, which was a pair of jade bracelets. Gu Junxun complained about her brother's expense.
The garden here is only for Gu Siyuan to stay temporarily, and the dust-washing banquet is naturally arranged elsewhere. In addition to Gu Siyuan and Yang Pu, Lin Fu also invited Zhao Qinmin, Zhao Jin and his son to accompany him, and the accompanying guards and retinues all stayed in the garden.
Eat, rest...
The last time we met, it was during the Huaisi War. They had been separated for nearly two years. Lin Fu noticed that Gu Siyuan had a short mustache on his lips and looked mature and steady.
Gu Siyuan's performance in Qingzhou in the past two years was also remarkable, but his qualifications and popularity were still low. Even if he inherited Tang Haoxin's political legacy in Qingzhou, he could only rule Qingzhou with Du Juefu, Chen Yuanliang, Zhang Jinxian and others.
Zhang Jinxian has the least influence in Qingzhou. On the one hand, Ren Tongpan assists Chen Yuanliang in political affairs. Even though he is a post-Jin official from the Dongyang family, he is not as deeply rooted in the local area as the Du family. Perhaps it is also because he is too close to Huaidong——
Du Juefu and Chen Yuanliang are the two people with the strongest influence on Qingzhou besides Gu Siyuan, and their status is actually not lower than that of Gu Siyuan.
Whether it is Du Juefu or Chen Yuanliang, it cannot be said that they are incapable, but they have their limitations.
Chen Yuanliang thought more about getting promoted and making a fortune. He wished he could imitate Qin Chengbo who cast silver into silver balls and hid them in a silver cellar, so he did not compete with Gu Siyuan for his position in Qingzhou. Du Juefu wanted more to increase the Du family's influence in Qingzhou.
The powerful people in Qingzhou are very careful about acquiring land, fields and houses.
In the past two years, only 400,000 taels of silver were distributed to Qingzhou from the lijin collected directly from the Jinhai grain road.
With so much money, in addition to maintaining nearly 4,000 elite combat troops in Qingzhou, most of the money fell into personal pockets and was not used to run Qingzhou properly. Even two people in Qingzhou kept the Jiao Lai River flowing smoothly.
Wan Yunjun, in the past two years, has been barely making ends meet, living a very difficult life, and has not been able to participate in profit sharing.
At this time, 20,000 troops were hastily organized into combat soldiers, and there were serious deficiencies in armor, training, and experienced grassroots military attachés, and the morale of the army was actually unavailable.
At this time, the social conflicts in Qingzhou have not only not been alleviated in the past two years, but have even become more serious. In addition, the Liang family has been relentlessly infiltrating into Qingzhou and other places, and the marriage between Gu Siyuan and the Du family may not even be possible.
With the full support of local gentry and powerful forces, the gap between winning the hearts of the people is even further.
Gu Siyuan wanted to seize Qingzhou and become independent, but he lacked both the foundation and the time. But when things got to this point, there was no point in arguing and persuading. It was better to seize the time and let Gu Siyuan make more preparations in Qingzhou, so as not to suffer a disastrous defeat in the future.
The longer Gu Siyuan can stay in Qingzhou, the better it will be for Huaidong.
The so-called politics probably exists because of compromise.
Gu Siyuan and Zhao Qinmin thought they would have to waste more words, but they didn't expect that Lin Mengde or Lin Fu didn't show any unsupportive attitude from the moment they stepped into Chongzhou City.
Zhao Qinmin was also secretly depressed, not letting Gu Siyuan mistakenly think that he was stirring up trouble behind his back. He also thought that Lin Fu's change of attitude was probably because of Gu Wuchen and Gu Siyuan's tough attitude, which forced Huaidong to bow his head.
After the banquet, Gu Junxun hugged his daughter and left first. Lin Fu invited Gu Siyuan, Yang Pu, Zhao Qinmin and others to Dongya to discuss matters.
From the topography, Qingzhou is on the east side, occupying Jinan, the plains and the eastern part of Shandong. The Liang family in the south is on the outside. As long as the Liang family does not collapse, Qingzhou will be safe. This is also a factor why Gu Wuchen and Gu Siyuan ignore the risks of defending Qingzhou.
If Qingzhou is to be supported for a longer period of time, it will be too late to implement the New Deal. Implementing the New Deal will only make the local gentry forces stand against Gu Siyuan and others, exacerbating the instability in Qingzhou. The top priority is to improve the combat effectiveness of the newly formed Qingzhou Army.
force.
Chongzhou's armor manufacturing capacity has greatly exceeded that of the Jiangning Ministry of Industry, but it is still far from meeting the needs of the Huaidong Army for its own military expansion. Even if it can squeeze out some of it, it will still have to secretly support the Red Coat Army - Lin Fu cannot ignore the Huaidong Army.
The fundamental interests of the East were ignored, but it was not a problem to support Qingzhou with hundreds of thousands of kilograms of iron. Qingzhou needed to organize its own craftsmen to make spears, knives, and arrows.
Of course, Gu Siyuan needs Huaidong's support and solidarity to ensure that more Lianghuai salt and silver can be used by Qingzhou.
The Tianjin-Hai grain road was cut off, and Jiangdong County's Zhecao Silver was basically retained by various prefectures. Maybe after the new emperor was established, there would be other explanations for Zhecao Silver, but at this time Jiangning could use it to build defenses against Donghu in the Hehuai River.
The people who moved south to the defense line mainly used the salt and silver saved in the Lianghuai River.
Huaidong is on the inside of the Hehuai defense line. If it swallows the Cao silver, in principle it can no longer reach out to the two Huaihe salt silver. Otherwise, it will appear to be too greedy, morally passive, and will also attract the joint suppression of other forces.
Huaidong did not take any cents from the Lianghuai salt silver, so it supported Qingzhou in getting more Lianghuai salt silver. Of course, if Qingzhou wanted to get a share of the Lianghuai salt silver, it could not hide behind the Liang family.
In the past few days, messengers have been traveling between Jiangning and Chongzhou almost every day, repeatedly asking Huaidong for his opinion on the issue of the Hehuai defense line.
The Liang family also wanted to defend the Central Plains, but the Liang family was too greedy in the early days. Its power not only included the eastern and southern areas of Shandong, but its second son Liang Chengyi also used Hezhong Prefecture as its base, blocked Tongguan in the west, and advanced eastward along the Yellow River to control Qinyang and Hebi.
, Puyang and other areas, if the time had not been too short, the Liang family would have penetrated deeper into Henan after Chen Zhihu was transferred north.
From Hezhong Prefecture to Jinan Prefecture, Pingyuan Prefecture and to Linzi further east, the straight-line distance is 1,3400 miles wide, including the front of the former Zhongzhou County and Shandong County. There are large mountains on the east and west sides of the Taihang Mountains facing
The channels for dispatching troops: Jinan, Pingyuan, Qinghe and other places should block the enemy troops coming from Yanji and the southeastern foothills of Taihang Mountain. Qinyang, Henan and other places should block the enemy troops coming from southern Shanxi and the western foothills of Taihang Mountain.
With only the 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers and horses controlled by the Liang family, there are too many loopholes to defend such a wide line of defense. More importantly, although the area controlled by the Liang family is large, most places have been repeatedly devastated by wars, and the defense
The military potential is extremely poor.
Even though the Donghu people's ability to expand southward was greatly weakened after controlling Yanji and Jinjun, it would not be too difficult to penetrate the Liang family's defense line.
Jiang Ning and other forces obviously do not want to allocate too much salt and silver from the Lianghuai River to the Liang family, allowing the Liang family's power to continue to expand. The Liang family is also aware of the current situation. If they don't want to end up with nothing, they must shrink their defense lines and give up their position.
Move some territory on the defense line to allow the Changhuai Army, Qingzhou Army or other troops to join in the defense.
The threat from the Cao family, and Hezhong Prefecture was a relatively intact prefecture controlled by the Liang family that had not been damaged by the war. The Liang family's life and death were different, so the Cao family's troops left Tongguan and entered Hezhong Prefecture to assist in defense.
When the Yuan Dynasty returned to power, they were busy coordinating for the Liang family in Jiangning. Jiangning currently planned to let Tao Chun lead the main force of the Huai army to retreat to Qinghe and Anyang, occupy the terrain at the southeastern foothills of Taihang Mountain, and block the space between Jinan and Hezhong for the Liang family.
On the east side, Gu Wuchen hoped that the Liang family would give up Linzi, and Gu Siyuan would lead the Qingzhou army into Linzi, then control Yangxin in the north, and share the pressure from the enemy forces in Yannan with the Liang family's troops in Jinan and Pingyuan Prefecture.
Of course, both Huaidong and Jiangning wanted to mobilize Chen Hansan to go north. However, Chen Hansan complained of illness in Xuzhou, complaining about lack of money and food, and occupied Xuzhou without leaving. No one could do anything to him. At this juncture, no one could do anything.
I didn't dare to force Chen Hansan to rebel, so I could only let him go.
After more than ten days of emergency consultations, a plan was basically formed to build the first line of defense along the Yellow River with Liang Chengyi guarding Hezhong, Qinyang West Line, Tao Chun guarding Qinghe, Anyang Middle Road, Liang Chengchong guarding Pingyuan, Jinan Middle East Road, Gu Siyuan guarding Yangxin, and Linzi East Road.
.On this line of defense, Liang Xi, the Duke of Lu, was the governor of military affairs.
There is no danger to defend the Hehuai River. In addition to the first line of defense, Jiangning also plans to build a second line of defense on the north bank of the Huaihe River.
Chen Hansan defended Xuzhou and recruited the Red Coat Army to defend Huaiyang. However, the area formerly controlled by the Henan Zhizhi Envoy Department was a huge gap, so Jiangning decided to transfer the Dengzhou Army to fill it.
The Dengzhou Army is another line of suppressing troops that Jiangning can control.
During Li Zhuo's rule over Ji, the Dengzhou Army was the second force that Li Zhuo focused on strengthening, in addition to the Ji Zhen Army.
Hao Zongcheng replaced Li Zhuo as commander, and mobilized the Dengzhou Army to land from Jinzhou in the southeast corner of Liaoning to attack the flanks of Liaodong. The Dengzhou Army failed to play its role, and the main force of the Jizhen Army was brutally destroyed in western Liaoning. The Dengzhou Army hurriedly wanted to withdraw from Liaodong, giving
They pursued them one after another and suffered heavy losses, but more than 10,000 water infantry troops were still saved.
Dengzhou is located in a corner of Shandong. At this time, Jiangning completely gave up the idea of attacking Liaodong's flank by sea. In addition to the Dengzhou Navy still staying in place, he planned to transfer the 5,000 soldiers of Dengzhou Town to Xuchang and Yanling for reinforcement, and to cooperate with Huai
Yang, Xuzhou, constructing the second line of defense.
The idea of using salt and silver from the Lianghuai River to build two lines of defense in the Hehuai area is generally the same, but how to distribute the salt and silver, and who has more and who has less, is the focus of competition among various companies.
Perhaps the annual 1.8 million taels of salt and silver could allow the Hehuai region to recruit 108,000 more soldiers, but in Lin Fu's view, these two lines of defense are full of loopholes and have no foundation. They are also intrigues and wary of each other.
Even hostile, it is really impossible to form a complete defense system.
Once Donghu can gather 100,000 troops to attack and defeat them along the way, it may lead to the collapse of the entire Hehuai defense line. But in the current situation, this strange thing is the only plan that each family can compromise and accept in the short term.