In mid-to-late July, there was no chance of a major war, so Lin Fu devoted all his thoughts to adjusting the defense deployment in eastern Zhejiang.
Although the Huaidong Army has more than 80,000 troops on the southern front, with Mingzhou as its center of gravity, the eastern Zhejiang defense line is divided into three relatively independent sections:
First, with Ouhai as the center, there is a need to garrison troops for defense in Yongjia, Ouhai, Pingyang, and Huipu counties; secondly, with Shengzhou as the center, the defense villages at the northern foot of Tiantai Mountain and the northwest foot of Luohe Mountain are garrisoned.
It is necessary to conduct a military confrontation with the Zhejiang and Fujian troops garrisoned in Dongyang; first, Xiaoshan is the priority, and the need to garrison troops in Shanyin, Kuaiji, and Xiaoshan must also be taken into account, and even Hangzhou, which is threatened by the Zhejiang and Fujian troops garrisoned in Fuyang, must
Lake area.
There are about 60,000 infantrymen in Chongcheng Infantry Camp, Changshan Camp and Zhejiang East Camp, and more than 10,000 naval troops in Jinghai No. 3 Water Camp. Nearly 70,000 troops are forced to be scattered among these three defense lines. Even in Mingzhou Fucheng, except for the surrounding areas, there are
With 20,000 supply troops and five battalions marching to eastern Zhejiang, Fu Qinghe had no more reserve troops.
Not only was the main force of infantry trapped deep in the eastern Zhejiang defense line, but even the main force of Shuiying was unable to escape from the southern front.
The reason why Lin Fu dared to deploy the main force of the infantry camp relatively dispersedly on the three defense lines was because he relied on the high-speed maneuverability provided by the water camp's sea route and the Qianjiang waterway.
When the Zhejiang and Fujian armies gathered forces to attack one side, the Huaidong army could quickly adjust its forces through water camp warships.
Although the distance from Pingyang at the southern end of the defense line to Xiaoshan at the northwest end is more than a thousand miles away, through the communication of water camp warships, mutual aid can be provided within two or three days at the earliest, thus reducing the number of opportunities for the Zhejiang and Fujian armies to separate and attack.
Danger.
Naturally, Lin Fu did not dare to transfer the main force of Shuiying out of the southern front.
In addition, in addition to ensuring that Yizhou is safe, it is also necessary to continue to harass Quanzhou, Jieyang and even Guangnan County by sea.
Yizhou is no longer just a transit base for Huaidong's attacks on southern Fujian and Guangnan County. From the end of last year, Lin Fu officially decided to develop Yizhou Island on a large scale.
The number of immigrants in the early days was limited, but since the opening of the battlefield in southern Zhejiang, the cumulative number of prisoners of war captured by the Zhejiang and Fujian armies, as well as serious prisoners in the Jianghuai area, was about 14,000. Lin Fu handed over these people to Sun Shangwang,
To supplement the shortage of manpower for the reclamation of Yizhou Island.
At the same time, Lin Fu was urging Jiangning to agree to move the prison city to Yizhou Island, so that the prisoners gathered in the prison city could promote the development of Yizhou Island.
Huaidong has invested so much manpower and materials in Yizhou, so there is no room for loss. However, the garrison force on the island is very limited, with only three battalions of infantry. At present, it mainly relies on Shuiying warships to block the Yizhou Strait. Zhao Qingshan leads Jinghai
The main force of the First Water Camp is stationed on Yizhou Island almost all year round.
In just two or three years, Huaidong expanded from more than 10,000 elite soldiers to an army of 100,000. In the end, except for the last reserve elite combat force of less than 10,000 people in the Jinhai camp in Chongzhou, the military strength was temporarily reduced.
It is actually very stretched.
The only thing that can make people breathe a sigh of relief is the Great Victory in Southern Zhejiang and the Great Victory in Laotangpu. In addition to the annihilation of more than 27,000 Zhejiang and Fujian troops (including more than 6,000 people exiled from Yizhou Island and more than 7,000 local soldiers recruited into the army)
In addition, nearly 100,000 pieces of armor were also seized, including more than 10,000 sets of armor and more than 9,000 bows and crossbows.
In addition to the expansion of the army marching to the east of Zhejiang, more than 6,000 sets of armor and more than 4,000 crossbows were saved. Calculated at a 50% armor rate, it was enough to equip another 20 battalions of armored soldiers.
War has always been a matter of ups and downs. The Zhejiang and Fujian Army's lost troops can be replaced in one bite, but the lost soldiers and armor will take several years to replace.
After the She family's Jian'an peace talks, nearly a hundred thousand old soldiers were disarmed and returned to their fields, and their armor was put into storage. Although the military strength was once reduced to less than 20,000, the military potential was still there and had not been weakened - precisely since the She family raised the flag of rebellion again.
, the total number of troops of the Zhejiang and Fujian armies rapidly expanded to 200,000, the total number of soldiers and horses far exceeded the previous supply of soldiers and armor, and the average combat strength was on the decline.
In order to achieve the manufacturing capacity of armored ordnance with twenty battalions of soldiers per year, the Huaidong Ordnance Supervisor employed a total of more than 30,000 craftsmen - this was the manufacturing level reached after Huaidong further promoted the factory system and greatly improved efficiency. The She family has recently
In two years, the company's financial resources have been almost exhausted, and it cannot even maintain half of Huaidong's level of armor manufacturing capabilities.
This means that if the soldiers and armor lost by the Zhejiang and Fujian armies this time cannot be captured from other places and can only be made by themselves, it will take at least six or seven years to make up for it.
The strong get stronger and the weak get weaker. Just like Yanhu captured a large number of soldiers and armor from the border troops, Huaidong is also much more abundant in the supply of soldiers and armor.
With the savings from this seizure and the storage by the Ordnance Superintendent for more than half a year, Huaidong can still equip thirty to forty battalions of armored soldiers.
However, Lin Fu had to consider the financial pressure Huaidong was facing at this time.
Lin Fu and Lin Mengde wanted to add an additional one million taels of military expenses in advance, and Lin Mengde and others were already anxious. If they proposed to equip forty battalions of armored soldiers at this time, Lin Fu was afraid that Lin Mengde would be overwhelmed.
Quit.
The Forty Battalion maintains the establishment of the labor camp and can actively participate in local water conservancy, land reclamation, road construction and other engineering affairs. In addition to helping local production resume, nearly half of the cost of the labor camp can also be directly included in local fiscal expenditures.
Even if the investment is large, the benefits are not small. Especially since Lin Fu built large-scale water conservancy projects in Huaidong, the local area has benefited greatly. Not only has a large amount of wasteland been transformed into grain fields, but the original fields' ability to resist drought and floods has greatly increased.
, grain production continues to be high.
If it weren't for the strength of the Huaidong Army and the number of grain workshops in Chongzhou, Hecheng, Guanyintan and other places, the price of food in Huaidong would be much lower than in surrounding areas.
It is precisely because the total number of regular soldiers and supplies of the Huaidong Army exceeds 200,000, and within the scope of Huaidong, the number of workshop households not engaged in farming has increased year by year, reaching a total of 110,000 households. This part of the population, except
Huaidong imports 800,000 tons of rice grains from Haidong every year. The food problem mainly relies on Huaidong's own rice grains. You can know that Huaidong's total grain output today is far from what it was four or five years ago. Lin Fuwei entered
It can be compared before the main Huaidong.
The most successful experience among them is that Huaidong has maintained a large-scale labor camp establishment for a long time.
Once the forty battalions of soldiers and horses are equipped from the supply troops and organized into soldiers, not only will these people no longer be able to contribute to local affairs, but a large amount of additional military supplies will be spent, which will undoubtedly make the army a little stretched at this time.
Huaidong's financial situation worsened.
Lin Fu could only grit his teeth and see if the situation would improve in the autumn and winter. Even if Liu Yefei and Dengzhou Town surrendered to Yanhu now, they would not be able to defeat the main forces of Jinghai's First Water Camp and Second Water Camp from the south.
Come out and destroy the Dengzhou Town garrison and shipbuilding and ship repair base.
In late July, Emperor Yongxing and the ministers finally reached an agreement on the defense of Huaixi. Instead of setting up a separate envoy, a separate imperial Haoshou Army was established. Dong Yuan served as the commander of the Imperial Haoshou Army, and was transferred from the imperial camp. Twenty thousand soldiers and horses returned to Dong Yuan's command, stationed in Haozhou and Shouzhou, and controlled the armies of Guoyang, Luzhou and Dongyang.
Jiang Ning no longer let Dong Yuan run the place, and added the word "yuqian" to Haoshou Army. The intention was to implement an army in which "in wartime, soldiers and horses are under the control of the general. When the war is over, the general returns the power of the troops to the court." system.
July is a hot month, and after entering the second half of the year, the weather is not as harsh as the hot summer, and the winds on the East China Sea have become calmer. In order to return to Chongzhou as soon as possible, Lin Fu chose to take a boat and take the sea route.
Prior to this, from late May to late July, as many as five hurricanes swept through the sea nearly a thousand miles deep from Lushan Island to Changshan Island. In the area under the jurisdiction of Huaidong, Changguo Island was the most severely affected by the wind disaster in late June. , Fortunately, the disaster relief was timely, and except for 19 people who were crushed to death by the collapsed house or disappeared, other losses were minimized.
By the end of July, the storm season in the East China Sea cannot be said to have completely passed, but the probability of being swept by a hurricane has been greatly reduced. And the ability of the Xiaoo Princess-class super-large sea-going ships to withstand storms is beyond the reach of ordinary sea-going ships. As long as they are not unlucky, If it happens to be swept by the wind belt of the center of the hurricane, under normal circumstances, it can even withstand a giant làng two feet high.
When the boat enters the river mouth, the flood peak released from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River reaches Jiangning, and the river bank suddenly becomes dozens of miles or even nearly a hundred miles wide. Without the restraint of both sides of the bank, the flood loses its power and only makes the river water turbid and still floats. A lot of debris washed up from upstream.
The first thing that comes into view is Jiangmen, which is also a walled city built in Huaidong based on the Jiangning garrison pier.
In addition to investing some people in Guanyintan in the early stage, the prison city mainly stayed in Jiangmen in the later stage.
A large number of prisoners were deported to Jiangmen. In addition to some of them being used for reclamation and planting, more were used to build various workshops for resettlement. After the Guanyintan shipyard and the ordnance supervisor's workshop were crowded, Jiangmen, He The city and the eastern suburbs of Chongzhou actually became a gathering place for civilian factories.
In addition to a large number of exiled prisoners, Jiangmen also has more than 10,000 workshop households, and its urban rate is even higher than that of Danyang, Kuaiji, Mingzhou and other large cities.
Jiangmen currently belongs to Hecheng, but in terms of the scale of workshop households, Jiangmen has already entered the ranks of a large county.
Lin Fu originally intended to stay in Jiangmen, stay one night and then return to Chongcheng. As soon as the ship docked, the post horses from Chongcheng chased Jiangmen and brought two pieces of bad news:
First, Qin Zongyuan, who was granted the title of Zhizhi envoy to Sichuan Province only a year later, was defeated by Cao Yiqu in Deyang, led his troops to surrender to the Cao family, and was granted the title of Zhizhi envoy to Eastern Sichuan. He continued to lead his troops to attack the refugee army entrenched in eastern Sichuan.
Second, Chen Zhihu led his troops to abandon Yangxin in mid-July, crossed the Xiaoqing River, first defeated the first part of the Qingzhou Army guarding the Xiaoqing River, and then rushed to Linzi. Since the main force of the Qingzhou Army was trapped in Yangxin, the Linzi defenders had less than a thousand people. The reinforcements of the Liang family were far away, so Chen Zhihu led more than 10,000 elite troops to attack Linzi and captured the city in three days. After seizing the city, he sent troops to plunder Linzi for three days.
"East Sichuan may not be bad news," Gao Zongting said, stroking the short mustache on his lips, "Qin Zongyuan and Gong Yucai fought in eastern Sichuan for three or four years, but failed to win, but they conquered the land of Tianfu. The counties in eastern Sichuan were beaten to pieces. At this time, both eastern and western Sichuan were given to the Cao family. Without rectification, they would not be able to dominate the world. However, allowing the Cao family to capture eastern Sichuan as soon as possible would be beneficial to the Cao family's troops. The main force returned north in time to defend against Yan Hu..."
It was during the Qin and Han Dynasties that the capital Guanzhong ruled the world.
In the past five or six hundred years, Guanzhong's water conservancy has been severely damaged by frequent natural disasters. Years of severe drought have turned it into a miserable borderland.
Before Dayue, both the Chen and Yan dynasties no longer had their capital in Guanzhong. In addition to facing threats from foreign tribes in the west, the most important thing was that the real estate in Guanzhong was not enough to support the royal capital, and the waterway of the Yellow River from Tongguan was too dangerous and narrow.
It is unfavorable to import grain from other places.
After Cao Yiqu had the idea of separatism, he built water conservancy projects in Guanzhong and planned for both Sichuan and Sichuan. His strategy was good, but he still lacked enough time. First, the Cao family built water conservancy projects in Guanzhong, which was just a corner repair and could not change Guanzhong.
The situation of successive years of severe drought, and the large-scale refugee army entering the two Sichuan areas, has crippled the eastern part of Sichuan, known as the land of abundance. The Cao family does not have enough time to manage the eastern part of Sichuan, and they have to face the Yanhu cavalry from the northeast.