The river north of Echeng is more than ten miles wide. At a glance, you can't even see the outline of the land on the north shore. The evening wind blows the sparkling waves, and the river tide beats on the embankment of the pier and is full of loneliness.
The ground has receded, and some looming sandbanks are still floating in the middle of the river.
These sandbanks of different sizes are called "Ezhu". A sixty years ago, during autumn and winter, Qu Yuan was exiled to the south of the Yangtze River by the fatuous King of Chu and came here.
Dr. Sanlu, who was led by Gao Guanbo, stood on the wharf of Echeng and looked back at Yingdu. He lamented endlessly and left behind the poem "Riding in Ezhu and looking back, the wind of autumn and winter"...
But now, if Qu Yuan was resurrected and stood at the same place, he would probably not be able to look back, because the ships of the Chu State had fled, and tall Qin army warships, loaded with soldiers, set foot in the south of the Yangtze River.
E City stands on the riverside. In Heifu's opinion, this city is slightly larger than Anlu County. It has five gates, each named after its direction, except for one gate in the west corner, which is called Linjin Gate and faces the river in the north.
At present, because E Jun has fled south with his own weapons, E City no longer resists, the gate of Linjin is opened, and some local elders come out to kneel down to greet the Qin army. Although this place is classified as "Southern Chu", its language and customs
, there is not much difference from Anlu and Zhucheng across the river.
Therefore, when he led his troops to take over the city, Hei Fu did not feel the unkindness and hatred of the people in Chen County. The men, women, and children in the city were originally wary of them, but when they heard An Lubing's accent, they were not too afraid.
Already.
In the years before the war between Qin and Chu, the two sides had frequent exchanges. Heifu remembered that when he was the chief of the pavilion, two of the first three robbers he caught were from Echeng, and they were from Echeng.
There was a child who followed the Qin tomb robbers and found Ruo Ao's tomb. He was also from Dishaxian near Echeng.
Li You was also very satisfied with the attitude of everyone in the city, and smiled at Hei Fu: "It seems that what the governor said, the method of using the people of Nanjun to govern the land south of the Chu River can indeed be tried."
This is the strategy that the governor Teng thought of in order to implement Qin's rule in the Jiangnan area in the future. He believed that instead of sending officials from Xianyang and the Central Plains who were not accustomed to the soil and language and did not understand the language to be county magistrates, it would be better to choose to recognize the laws of Qin and fight in the war.
By appointing locals from Nanjun who have made meritorious deeds as officials, this can reduce the resistance of the Chu people in Jiangnan and put the administration on track as soon as possible.
Li You also joked that Heifu could consider it. After the war is over, he might go to Xianyang in a few years and wait for a county to be established in the Jiangnan area. He might be able to become a county captain...
For meritorious service in the military, he became a fifth official, entered Xianyang as an official, and then was sent out to serve as a county lieutenant in a border county. He was promoted to a county guard of two thousand shi... Although now with the six kingdoms being wiped out one after another, there are more people who have made meritorious services, and the five senior officials are not as good as before.
If it is valuable, you may have to be a right concubine or above to become a county lieutenant, but the promotion path of senior officers in the Qin State is almost like this.
Just when Li You thought that if all the towns south of the Yangtze River fell in the wind, he would be able to capture all the land south of the Chu River before spring, a military report from Dongting shattered his idea.
Seeing Li You's eyebrows furrowed, Hei Fu secretly said, "It's probably because the Bashu army on the west route encountered an obstacle..."
This time the Qin State seized the land south of the Yangtze River of the Chu State and used a total of three troops: the boat division, the Nanjun troops, and the Bashu troops.
When Wei Tusui set out from Jiangling, his hundreds of ships also carried more than ten thousand soldiers from Bashu. They passed through Yunmeng and entered Dongting Lake. They disembarked at the mouth of the Xiangjiang River. Under the leadership of Ba Junwei, they attacked Changsha and Qinghai.
Yang, which is Hunan in later generations.
Then the empty ships continued eastward, arriving on the river between Zhu City and E City, destroying E Jun's boat division, and then carrying Nanjun soldiers across the river. Li You's goal was E City, and more than a hundred miles to the south, the world.
The largest copper mine: Tonglu Mountain!
I never thought that things were going smoothly here, but there was no news from the Bashu soldiers.
Heifu said meaningfully: "The Chu State has been running Changsha and Qingyang for a long time. The Qu family also killed the envoys who went to recruit surrender, and seemed to be unwilling to die. I'm afraid there will be a tough battle there."
The State of Chu has been developing Hunan for a long time. As early as the late Spring and Autumn Period, Changsha, which is rich in millet and rice, was an important granary of the State of Chu. As the saying goes, "Hou (hou), Pang, Changsha, is also the millet of Chu." When the time entered the Warring States Period, Wu Qi prime minister
During the Chu period, they merged with the Man Yue in the south, and then Dongting and Cangwu were established, which almost included the entire Hunan into the territory of the Chu State. It has been sixty years since.
After the Battle of Yanying, many Yingdu people fled to Changsha and re-established the city there. And because Qingyang and Changsha were all granted to the Qu family as county magistrates, the Qu family, after Qu Yuan, had always been anti-Qin, so
The Chu people there were the most fiercely resistant to Qin.
As expected, Li You sneered and patted the silk letter and said: "Bajun Lieutenant was blocked at Wujiaguan and failed to achieve success for more than a month. However, all the people of the Qu family joined the army and sang Qu Yuan's "National Sorrow" and "Ai Ying" on the banks of the Miluo River.
They resisted step by step. The Bashu soldiers were in dire straits and had no choice but to ask me for help. I hope that after I capture the city of Hubei, I can go over to support them and destroy the Qu family together."
Heifu asked: "What does the captain want to do? To aid or not to aid?"
"The Qu family has thousands of soldiers and is the largest feudal lord in the south of the Yangtze River in Chu State. Of course, we must go to help and annihilate them!"
Although Li You was dissatisfied with the Bashu soldiers, he did not dare to ruin the overall situation. He planned to send people to capture Tonglu Mountain first, and after controlling the mineral deposits there, he would capture Shaxian and go along the river for reinforcements.
After hearing his plan, Heifu was moved in his heart and asked: "The captain is going to Changsha, what about the Pan, Ai, and Gan areas south of Jiujiang?"
These places were Jiangxi in later generations. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Jiangxi was the territory of the Yangyue people, and the Chu State only had a few small towns along the river. It was not until Wu Qi that "Yangyue was gathered in the south, and Chen and Cai were merged in the north."
From then on, the Chu State controlled Jiangxi and reached the end of the Gan River. It built the "Limen Fortress" at the northern foot of Wuling Mountains, facing Baiyue across the mountain. This became the crown belt of the Chu State and even China.
The extreme south of the seven countries, as for Guangdong and Guangxi? The appearance of this place is probably not much different from the Amazon rainforest...
Although it has gone through more than a hundred years of operation, the development of Jiangxi, let alone Jiangdong, is far inferior to that of Changsha. There are only a few feudal lords in Chu State, gathered in four or five counties, maintaining a certain
Under the rule of the state, 90% of the area is still the territory of the Yue people.
Li You was ordered to take over Jiangnan, and Jiangxi was naturally among his goals. Although at the moment, it was obviously more important to go to Changsha to eliminate Qu's family first, but he couldn't just ignore it...
When Li Youzheng was hesitant, Heifu took the opportunity to come forward and said: "I am willing to share the worries of the captain and lead the troops eastward!"
…
When Hei Fu returned to his troops, they had completed the robbery of E Jun's treasure house. Ji Ying was shouting at everyone to move the bronzes out of E Jun's mansion one by one. When Hei Fu arrived, he happily reported his merits to him.
:
"County Lieutenant, although the treasury of Ejun is not as good as Shouchun Chu Palace, it is different from other princes. His palace is built like a palace, and gold (bronze) items are everywhere.
It’s still big!”
After that, he pointed to the Dongmen Leopard who was carrying a big cauldron with several soldiers and said: "According to the instructions of the county captain, the large ritual utensils are left to the captain, and the rest are distributed to the county captains. We and other troops
Officer, if you pick up some small and unfashionable utensils and bring them back to be melted with copper materials, you can exchange them for a lot of money!"
"This is natural. Mr. E is rich and famous in Chu State."
Heifu picked up a copper festival that fell on the ground and found that there were more than ten lines of gold inscriptions on it. It turned out that these were boat festivals and chariot festivals issued by the King of Chu to E Jun, which stipulated that E Jun's vehicles and ships could pass through the territory of Chu State.
There is basically no need to pay taxes, which is a great preferential treatment. In addition, E Jun controls the mining of Tonglu Mountain, which is why he is so rich.
It's a pity that E Jun, who fled in a hurry, didn't have time to take away all this, so he took advantage of the Nanjun soldiers.
Hei Fu secretly said: "I asked why Lieutenant Li left Qingyang Qu's family alone and came to fight E Jun. He probably thought that E Jun had more money to make. Poor Captain Li of Bashu, did he just eat it like this?
The hard bones of flesh..."
As the war progressed, the mentality of the Qin army also changed. At first, they just went for the land of nobility, but after enjoying the benefits in Shouchun, the Qin soldiers suddenly discovered that they could make money by robbing the nobles of Chu State.
It seems to be no less than the reward from the King of Qin.
Most of the things from the Chu Palace were sent to Xianyang, but the treasure troves of the feudal lords from various places gave the soldiers an advantage. After this battle alone, Heifu felt that his property had increased by twenty or thirty yi, and the copper that Li You obtained
Converted into gold, silver and jewelry, the amount exceeds one hundred yi...
Even Captain Tu Sui, the captain of the navy, was given fine bronzes worth tens of yi. The captain set aside a fleet to transport these trophies back to Nanjun.
"War money." Heifu couldn't help but sigh: "It's so easy to make money."
"Brother, is this allowed by law?"
A timid voice came from beside him, but it was Heifu's younger brother Jing. He also put on the Qin army's military uniform. Jing had graduated from school last fall, and when Hei Fu went back, he happened to catch up.
He married Lady Yan, and then encountered the battle to conquer Jiangnan.
It was no longer the disciple's surprise, but since he had "separated" from Hei Fu, he no longer had the preferential treatment of being exempted from military service and not being drafted at the same time for those who lived with him. In addition, Hei Fu wanted to lead him to gilding, so he enlisted in the army and became a secretary.
Jing was holding a pen to record these shocking belongings, while feeling uneasy. The young man had learned to behave in school, but this was the first time he had seen such a scene.
“If the water is clear, there will be no fish.”
Heifu said calmly and comforted him: "Besides, the princes of Chu who resisted Qin are not protected by the laws. Part of their private property should be attributed to the credit, and the rest should be given to the soldiers to comfort them for the hardships of the war. What's wrong with that?"
?”
However, it was not yet time to wallow in peace on these belongings. Heifu asked the army officers to come to his place for a small meeting after they had finished moving Ejun's treasury.
"The captain's plan has changed. He will no longer advance eastward, but will turn around and help the Bashu soldiers attack Qingyang and Changsha. He ordered me to continue downstream with the Lou Chuan division to capture Jiangxi."
"Where is Jiangxi?" Dongmen Bao and others looked at each other, and Heifu said it smoothly. The name of this place has not appeared yet.
"It is Fan, Ai, Yugan and other places south of the Yangtze River."
"Is Anlu the only one to take the lead?" Li Xian asked with concern. Although Heifu brought out 1,500 people this time, and even Xiao Tao became a lord of 500, it was still not enough.
"Five hundred people from Yan County, five hundred county soldiers, five hundred people from Jingling, plus Anlu soldiers, a total of three thousand people, are all at my disposal."
Heifu took out the tiger talisman that Li You gave him and said with a smile: "From now on, I am the 'Sima of the Other Department'!"
There are military commanders under the command of the captain, with a rank of six hundred stones. Among them, those who lead the battalion are called commanders. The number of soldiers they lead varies according to the situation and is not fixed. Their status is between the captain and the commander, and they often serve as partial divisions.
commander.
When everyone heard this, they knew that Hei Fu had been promoted again, and they all knelt down to congratulate him.
Heifu took the initiative to ask for help this time, to share Li You's worries, and also took the opportunity to seize the person of his choice.
The three five-hundred masters are Gong Ao of Yan County. This son has officially become the five-hundred master by relying on Heifu's military exploits. There is also Jingling Wei Shi Anpu, who had a good relationship with Heifu when he was the chief of the pavilion. Finally,
It was a Manchu from Ying County. During the battle against Chu, he stayed behind in Nan County and did not join in. This time he finally followed.
With these old acquaintances as subordinates, Heifu was very confident in conquering Jiangxi.
Although Jiangxi is a large territory, it is still a barbaric land. Three thousand people are completely enough. The Chu princes there are also poor, and there are many Yue tribes. I am afraid there is not much money to be made, and it is a job that everyone avoids.
,but……
"Although there are not many troops, this is the first time that I have led an army on my own!"
This is what Heifu pursues. Although it is not bad to follow Li You, he wants to lead the army alone. This is not only an experience for himself, but also a rare qualification.
"In this way, I don't have to share the work with my boss. Everything during this period is decided by myself!"
In the words of later generations, I would rather be a chicken head than a phoenix tail!
Besides, although in the eyes of Li You and everyone, Hei Fu's trip was just to conquer a few small counties and conquer several Yue tribes, thousands of years later, the narrative of this military operation may become
Already...
"Heifu captured a province!"
Or "Heifu, the hero of Jiangxi!" "The people of Jiangxi will remember me, and maybe they will build a sculpture for me, or name a certain main road 'Heifu Road'." Heifu said happily.