From the beginning when Shewenzhuang determined the strategy of entering Zhejiang via the sea, the Song family has not been optimistic about the situation since the Song Dynasty. In recent years, they have focused on the strategy of Quanzhou and have no intention of following the She family into Zhejiang and Jiangxi to conquer cities and plunder territory.
It is also the Song family's insular behavior that makes the distance between the Song family and the other seven surname clans farther and farther away, making the relationship between them not as complicated and inseparable as before.
Taking the war in eastern Zhejiang as the dividing line, the Zhejiang and Fujian armies were defeated one after another on the eastern front. The situation took a turn for the worse, and a large number of Fujian children died in a foreign land. On the one hand, the Song family was secretly lucky, but on the other hand, it also strengthened its strategy of insulating itself and never followed suit.
The thoughts of the She family and the other six surnamed clans going all the way.
Since they have a wait-and-see attitude, defecting to Huaidong or Jiangning is a choice that has long existed in the hearts of many members of the Song family but is inconvenient to express.
Compared with the other six surnames, the She family has long been regarded as the leader and closely entangled with the interests of the She family. The Song family chose to invest in Huaidong at this time, which actually did not have much psychological burden. In addition, the reason for the garrison in Quanzhou was relatively pure.
Being under the control of the Song family also made the Song family less worried when they chose to invest in Huaidong.
The situation is also very obvious. The Song family does not want to surrender to Huaidong at this time. When Huaidong takes action and organizes troops to disembark from eastern Fujian, it is very likely that they will choose to attack Quanzhou first.
The She family has a large number of elite troops stationed in Jin'an. Huaidong was under too much pressure to attack Jin'an from the beginning - landing from Quanzhou, firstly, it was close to Yizhou Island, where it stocked up war preparation supplies and assembled troops.
It is most convenient to transport it to Quanzhou for landing; in addition, Quanzhou is adjacent to the Jinjiang River in the north, and the Huaidong soldiers surrounded Quanzhou City, which can well block the Jin'an reinforcements on the north bank of the Jinjiang River; in addition, landing from Quanzhou can also block the coastal areas of southern Fujian south of Quanzhou.
The prefectures and counties are isolated from Jin'an, achieving the purpose of dividing and attacking.
After confirming that Huaidong had the ability to organize a large number of troops to land from the east coast of Fujian after the Autumn, the Song family actually had no choice at this time.
Song Jia came to Quanzhou at this time, not so much for Huaidong, but for the Song family. She did not want the Song family to be forced to surrender again when the army came to the city.
On the third day after Song Jia entered Quanzhou, from Song Fu down, the Song clan decided to give up watching and defect to Huaidong.
It was inconvenient for Song Jia to stay in Quanzhou for a long time. The important matter had been decided, so she took a boat to Yizhou first, then transferred to a big boat via Yizhou and took the Heishuiyang north back to Xuzhou.
The Spring Festival has just passed, and it is already the early spring of the third year of Yongxing. Quanzhou does not feel very cold, but it will take another two months for the spring breeze to blow across the land of Xusi.
Song Jia stood on the deck, looking at the roaring sea waves and reflecting the sunlight, as if thousands of scales were hiding among them to fight. Calculated, she and Lin Fu had known each other for six years in Jiangning. The first time they met was because Ao Canghai led his men to assassinate She Fei.
Hu failed and kidnapped her and She Mingyue, but were eventually rescued by Lin Fu. Ao Canghai had long been the leading general of Huaidong, and now the Song family also wanted to surrender to Huaidong. Thinking about it, this process is really tortuous.
If it hadn't been for that accident, so many things that followed wouldn't have happened, right?
Song Jia secretly thought that this fate was really funny.
Song Bo stood on the bow of the ship, looking at the distant mountains and the beacon pier built by Huaidong among the mountains along the coast.
On behalf of the Song family, Song Bo went to Yizhou Island to meet with Zhao Qingshan, Sun Shangwang and others who were responsible for the southern front affairs in Huaidong, and secretly discussed the cooperation between the two armies. There were also dozens of Song family descendants headed by Song Yi.
On the ship, they will follow Song Jia northward, intending to be incorporated into the Jeju camp army and serve Huaidong as a promise and guarantee that the Song family will surrender to Huaidong and not repeat it again.
The boat was so close to Yizhou Island that the trees on the shore could be seen clearly, and the beacon tower on the promontory mountain was still shining with the cold light of swords and guns.
Under the protection of two Huaidong Jiyun-class warships, the ship Song Bo and his crew were riding was sailing along the northwest coastline of Yizhou Island toward the mouth of Sanzhu River.
Like Zhejiang and Fujian, Yizhou Island also has a mountainous terrain. Many of the mountains are over a thousand feet tall, which is very majestic. However, the flatland resources are richer than those in eastern Fujian, and the offshore plains and basins suitable for farming are mainly concentrated in the west of the island.
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The Eastern Fujian region has only been fully developed in the past two hundred years, while the development of Yizhou Island lags even further behind.
If it weren't for the She family's painstaking investment in development in order to suppress the bandit forces in the East China Sea, Yizhou Island would probably still be a barbaric land where only natives live today.
Although Jinzhu River is named "Xi", it is the most important river in the northwest of Yizhou Island. It is early spring, the dry season, and the mouth of the sea is ten miles wide. The boat goes upstream from the mouth of the river, and the mountains on both sides are undulating.
It goes on for about twenty miles against the current, and the terrain suddenly opens up. Hidden between the mountains is a lake basin with a circumference of more than seventy miles.
According to ancient records, there was originally a huge lake between these mountains. Jinzhu River and other rivers merged into it, and then entered the sea from the mouth of the mountain ridge in the northwest. The sediment was deposited, and the current lake was gradually formed in the northern ridges of Daoshan.
Dang plain.
The summer storms on Yizhou Island are fierce and life is difficult. Only the Hudang Plain between the northern mountains is surrounded by mountains and is the least affected by the storm. It is close to the sea and connected by a large river. The She family originally built Yizhou County.
, was chosen on the north bank of Jinzhu River, which was also the earliest area to be developed in Yizhou Island.
In the early years, most of the more than 10,000 households and more than 200,000 fields belonging to Yizhou County were distributed on both sides of Jinzhu River.
In the thirteenth year of Chongguan, which was also the first year of Yongxing, after the fall of Mingzhou, the She family was forced to abandon Yizhou Island, and about 20,000 Jianyong were forcibly moved to Fujian. The houses on both sides of the Jinzhu River were all set on fire, and Yizhou County was
Nature is also a mess.
It had only been a year and a half since Huaidong took over Yizhou Island. Although his sister said that Huaidong had moved nearly 100,000 people to the island in the past year and a half, Song Bo still had doubts in his heart.
Eastern Fujian is more mountainous than land, and there is a large coastal plain in the west of Yizhou Island that can be cultivated. However, in the past two hundred years, only the lake plain between the northern mountains has been developed, and it is not without reason.
Yizhou Island has a hot climate and dense forests, making it extremely difficult to reclaim wasteland and stockpile farmland.
Secondly, miasma is serious on the island. In the early years, the She family built a city on Yizhou Island and also used prisoners. Forty-five out of ten people died from the miasma.
With such a high death rate, how could ordinary people be willing to move here?
In addition, the Yizhoudao River originates from the mountains and merges into the sea. The flow is relatively short. However, there is abundant rainfall in summer and it flows down wildly, which can easily cause floods.
Yizhou County was destroyed by floods twice. It was not until huge manpower and material resources were invested in building a stone pond on the north bank of Jinzhu River in the southeast of the county that Yizhou County was protected from the direct threat of floods. However, although the fields on both sides of Jinzhu River are fertile,
, but it is always under the threat of floods in summer.
In addition to the Hudang Basin where Yizhou County is located, the coastal plain area in the south is even wider. If measured carefully, tens of millions of acres of flat farmland are not to mention. However, in addition to the difficulty of reclamation, serious miasma, and flooding of streams and rivers in summer,
In summer and autumn, we often face severe storms.
If Huaidong hadn't taken over Yizhou Island, Song Bo would never have believed that any force could triple the population of Yizhou Island in such a short period of time.
Song Bo had been to Chongzhou. Although the dredging of the Huaidong Yan River had not yet begun at that time, Xisha Island had already grown in size, and Song Bo had an initial impression of Huaidong's political capabilities. Over the years, Zhejiang and Fujian
Hidden stakes and spies were most concerned about Huaidong's information, including the dredging of the Salt River, the construction of sea dikes, and the reclamation of Huaidong Lake, which all showed that Huaidong had extraordinary abilities in governance.
Think about the methods Lin Fu used to govern the prison island in Jiangning before he became famous. Although the Qingliu scholars were disdainful and even labeled as "pig herdsmen", they truly reflected Lin Fu's extraordinary political ability.
When he was on prison island, Lin Fu trained the first batch of capable people.
Later, Huaidong developed miscellaneous schools, advocated craftsmanship, and recruited talents in an eclectic way, which laid the foundation for Huaidong's rapid rise.
After staying in Quanzhou for several days, Song Jia told everything she had seen, heard, and felt in Huaidong over the past few years. She wanted the Song family to understand that the rise of Huaidong was no fluke, and the pattern of Huaidong's rise was definitely not that of others.
Able to imitate.
Although it is far away from Huaidong, it is connected by land and mountains, making it easy to sneak in. It is close to Yizhou, but across the vast sea, it is not easy to get close and sneak in. Therefore, the Song family's close neighbor Yizhou Island is being taken over by Huaidong.
The current situation is not very clear.
Entering the mouth of Jinzhu River with the boat, we saw that the shacks on both sides of the bank were indeed much denser than in previous years. After entering the Hudang Plain, we discovered that a new remote embankment had been built on both sides of the bank in addition to the original old embankment.
Protecting tracts of fields and houses from floods
Although Song Jia's identity has not been disclosed, Zhao Qingshan and Sun Shangwang, who were in charge of military and political affairs in Yizhou, knew it. Moreover, Song Jia brought a secret letter from Lin Fu when he went south, ordering Zhao Qingshan and Sun Shangwang to cooperate in order to recruit the Song family to ally with Huai.
When the time is right, Huaidong will land directly from Quanzhou and occupy eastern Fujian.
In the Chiwei Cape Bay on the south coast of the Zhuxi River estuary, the main port of the Huaidong First Water Battalion, only a few warships responsible for the island's defense are moored in the Neihu Port southwest of Yizhou County - except for those with soldiers on the deck station.
In addition to the inner guard warships, there are more than a hundred large and small ships stationed in the inner lake port, including several five-masted giant ships.
It was only when the She family withdrew their troops and civilians from Yizhou two years ago that so many ships were parked here.
"Huaidong has really opened up the Nanyang route!" Song Bo lamented that those five-masted giant ships could not travel on the inland rivers and could only go to the Nanyang islands for trade.
"Do you still suspect that I have lied to you?" Song Jia said with a smile, "Huaidong only allocates an additional two hundred thousand taels of cash to Yizhou Island every year. If it were not for opening up the Nanyang route, this amount of money would not be enough... At present, the Nanyang route consists of
Yizhou was responsible and ensured that all the revenue from Nanyang in the previous three years was invested in Yizhou Island. Last year, the goods transshipped to the Nanyang Islands through Yizhou included thousands of tons of raw silk, seven ships of tea, iron, porcelain, cotton cloth and tung oil, and twenty dyes.
The remaining ships brought back 400,000 taels of rice from the Nanyang Islands to make up for the initial rice shortage on Yizhou Island. In addition, they also brought back more than 800,000 taels of gold and silver - all of which were invested in Yizhou Island!"
Song Bo was certainly aware of the huge profits from sea trade. In the early years, the Song family also had ships going to sea.
In addition to being restricted by navigation and shipbuilding technology, it was also mainly because the interests of maritime trade at that time were scattered in the hands of various families, and the She family was not willing to take on the responsibility of clearing out pirates near and far alone. Therefore, the scale of maritime trade in eastern Fujian has always been small.
are severely restricted.
Every year, several or more than a dozen families of the Song family would gather together two or three ships of raw silk, tea, cloth and other goods, risk leaving the port from Xiapu, pass through the Black Water Ocean, and go to Kyushu Island in Haidong to seek huge profits.
Make enough profit to build a new ship.
The risk of going to the South China Sea is too great, so we won't easily send a ship there.
Based on the scale of trade between Yizhou Island and the Nanyang Islands in the past year, it is natural that a stable route has been developed to make it possible for so many ships to communicate.
The difficulty in developing Yizhou Island is mainly due to the severe limitations of natural conditions. However, if we can invest huge amounts of money ruthlessly, the harsh natural conditions are not easy to overcome. In the past year, the profit of the Nanyang route included 400,000 stone rice grain and 800,000 taels of silver.
It is not impossible to invest in Yizhou Island and move nearly 100,000 people to the island in such a short period of time.