Wushan Long Gorge is four hundred miles long, and the four ships have a very deep draft. After dropping their sails, they are pulled upstream by three to four hundred trackers, so naturally they cannot go very fast.
From the time they entered Nanjinguan Gorge to Baidi City in Kuizhou, Han Qian and his companions had traveled four hundred miles by water for more than half a month.
At this time, if you go west along the Yangtze River from Baidi City, you have to walk another 800 miles of waterway to reach Yuzhou City, an important town in eastern Sichuan, where the ancient Jiangzhou City is located. From Yuzhou to the west, go north through Luzhou and enter Zishui (Tuojiang River).
It took another eight hundred miles to reach the destination of their trip, which was the Chengdu Prefecture of Jinguan City, the base of the founding base of Shu Lord Wang Jian.
Baidi City, formerly known as Ziyang City, was built by Gongsun Shu, the heroic ruler of Shu in the late Western Han Dynasty.
It was rumored that Gongsun Shu built a city on the mountain after taking control of Shu. When he saw a well in the city, white mist steamed out, like a white dragon. He named himself Bai Emperor and renamed the city Bai Emperor City. The mountain behind the city was named Bai Emperor.
Emperor Mountain.
Baidi City is located on the north bank of the Yangtze River. It is surrounded by mountains on one side and water on three sides. It is backed by a high gorge. It dominates the water and land routes and strangles the gateway of Wushan. To the east is the last section of the Wushan Long Gorge. There is a saying "all the water will flow into thousands of rivers."
The dangerous gorge Kuimen is known as "Qutang competes for one".
The high cliffs on both sides of the bank stand steeply. The surging river flowing through this place suddenly narrows into a ravine that is no more than a hundred meters wide and only 50 meters wide. Even in the dry season, tens of thousands of square meters of river water rush in every second. It is no wonder that there is "Kui".
It is said that he is the most powerful person in the world.
After Han Qian waited for the fleet to leave Kuimen, he stood at the stern and had a panoramic view of Kuimen. The feeling became more vivid. He secretly felt that only one Shu army could fight the navy stationed in Baidi City, and the Chu navy was the most powerful and powerful.
It is difficult to escape from Kuimen.
The so-called battleground for military strategists of all dynasties is nothing more than this.
"In such a strong current, ordinary stone anchors cannot hold onto the bottom of the river at all!" Yang Qin stood beside Han Qian and said with emotion as he watched the torrential river water rush into Kuimen.
Even if a traditional broad-bottomed flat-bottomed boat stops midway, it is often difficult to find a suitable big tree for mooring on the beach. If a pointed-bottomed boat wants to stop midway, it can only rely on anchorage.
In the early years, stone anchors were mostly used to tie boats, and the ropes were sunk to the bottom of the water. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, copper and iron anchors began to be used.
The four-claw iron anchor sinks to the bottom of the water and can deeply grasp the mud of the river bed. It is much superior to the stone anchor that sinks directly on the river bed. However, with current cast iron technology, an anchor weighing three to four hundred kilograms is almost
It's the limit.
Not to mention the turbulent currents like Kuimen, even in the relatively flat and open section of the Yangtze River, an anchor weighing three to four hundred kilograms cannot stop a giant ship with a load of three to four hundred thousand kilograms!
It is possible to use a winch to sink thousands of kilograms or even tens of thousands of kilograms of stone anchors to the bottom of the river to tie up ships. However, in such a fast river, such heavy stone anchors cannot tie up large ships of four thousand or two thousand stone, let alone two thousand stone.
It is difficult to tie up a thousand-stone ship, not to mention that the lifting and landing of such a heavy stone anchor is extremely cumbersome and slow.
Although Longya City is already casting iron claw anchors weighing a thousand kilograms, depending on the water potential of Kuimen, it may not be able to tie the thousand-stone ship.
"After the peace talks between Shu and Chu, business travel between the two places is no longer prohibited, and the road to Shu is smooth. When ships pass through the Kuimen Gorge, they can try out the new anchors!" Han Qian said to Yang Qin.
In Han Qian's view, if Baigong wants to develop, it is definitely not possible to build a car behind closed doors. The key is to apply it in order to accumulate more practical experience. The ships built by Wufengshan,
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If it can be tested in turbulent flows like Kuimen Gorge, technological improvements may be faster.
"What are Lord Han and Commander Yang talking about?" Wang Yong, the Marquis of Changxiang, came over and asked.
Of course, Han Qian would not tell the Marquis of Changxiang Wang Yong that they were discussing how the naval warships could successfully fight out of Kuimen from the lower reaches. He said with a smile: "It was all thanks to the hardships of hundreds of trackers along the way that we successfully passed through the Wushan Changxia.
, I asked Yang Qin to take some copper coins and reward them to the trackers - at this time I thought, maybe it would be better in the name of the Marquis."
When Han Qian and others headed west, they did not ask the general of Yiling in Kiazhou to directly send official slaves to help them pull fibers. Instead, they hired local trackers after arriving in Yiling. This also made it easier to have contact with the lower class people in eastern Sichuan.
These trackers who walk along the shores of the Chang Gorge in Wushan all year round, their bare shoulders are sunburned in the cold weather, and there are bloodstains from the ropes.
On the river beach full of rocks, a pair of straw sandals could not last long. As soon as I walked down, my feet were covered with bloody wounds from sharp stones.
Even so, the trackers could only make ends meet after this trip.
The suffering of people's livelihood is evident.
Although the hiring money had already been paid in Yiling, Han Qian immediately took out a hundred coins and asked Yang Qin to send people to disembark, and in the name of the Marquis of Changxiang, he rewarded more than 300 trackers.
After passing the Kuimen Gorge, the terrain on both sides becomes gentle, with low hills and mountains. The river also opens up, and the narrow part is almost two thousand steps wide.
At this time, there was no need to hire trackers. The four ships raised their sails and sailed in the strong wind. Their speed suddenly picked up, and they arrived at Yuzhou, an important town in southeast Sichuan, in just three days.
The Marquis of Changxiang was afraid of the suspicion of the Marquis of Qingjiang, so he was usually very careful not to make friends with officials, and his friendship with local officials was also very weak.
Han Qian and the others marched westward. Apart from exchanging documents for customs clearance, they did not stop at many shores along the way. On November 15th, they finally entered the Chengdu Prefecture of Jinguan City, the richest and most prosperous city in Sichuan and Sichuan.
Turning into the Pijiang River from Zishui, the sailboat can directly dock at the pier outside the south gate of Fucheng.
Pijiang River is also the moat of Chengdu Fucheng.
Wang Jian, the Lord of Shu, also sent Wei Qun, the minister of Honglu Temple, and the ceremonial guards early to greet Han Qian and Guo Rong in front of the south pier of the city to discuss the next meeting, the date of the marriage, and the etiquette.
The bulk of the goods Han Qian brought on this trip were for his personal sale and would not be unloaded for the time being. However, as national gifts and betrothal gifts, two to three hundred boxes of Lingluo cotton satin, jewelry and jade, as well as Han Qian's secrets, were brought to Shu.
The property that is handed over to the dignitaries of Shu Kingdom must be brought into the city together.
Honglu Temple also prepared carriages and horses in advance. Zhou Chu, with his family troops, loaded the boxes of betrothal gifts into the carriage. Han Qian and Guo Rong were accompanied by Wang Yong, the Marquis of Changxiang, and Wei Qing, the minister of Honglu Temple.
Next, admire the majestic and majestic capital of Shu.
Sichuan and Shu, especially the Chengdu Plain, have been fully developed since the Qin Dynasty, much earlier than the Jianghuai region. When the population in the previous dynasty was at its most prosperous, there were more than 1.2 million households and more than 6 million people.
, however, in the middle and late period of the previous dynasty, the clan fled Sichuan many times to avoid disaster, and also brought the war from Guanzhong to Sichuan and Shu. Currently, under the rule of Wang Jian, the leader of Shu, although it has been peaceful for more than ten years, according to the households in Shu
According to the Ministry's inventory in the past two years, the population has only recovered to 500,000 households, less than 3 million people, less than 50% of the peak of the previous dynasty.
Compared with the control population, which is in the tens of millions,
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The Liang, Chu, and Shu kingdoms above control about a quarter of the population and are naturally the weakest. However, even so, in addition to the local troops in prefectures and counties, the Shu lord Wang Jian directly controlled the imperial army.
It's as high as 160,000.
Even though the Chengdu Plain directly controlled by Wang Jian, the Lord of Shu, was one of the rare richest places in the world, maintaining such a huge military force was extremely difficult.
160,000 Shu troops and 30,000 Zhenjiang troops were stationed in Yuzhou, Kuizhou, and Xiazhou Yiling. They were mainly used to prevent Chu from peeking from the west. There were 60,000 troops stationed in the Shu capital and nearby areas to control the core Chengdu Plain.
, and the most elite 70,000 soldiers and horses were stationed in Liangzhou (Hanzhong) and other places to prevent the Liang army from invading southward.
Although it was the cold winter season, the climate in Shu was mild and mild. Standing in front of the moat, Han Qian didn't feel too cold.
After more than two hundred boxes and cages were loaded on the carriage, Han Qian led Yang Qin and led a large army to the military camp specially arranged by Honglu Temple outside the city. Surrounded by nearly a hundred troops, he was about to get into the carriage and enter the city.
Then he heard the clatter of horse hooves, turned around and saw three fast horses galloping along the galloping road outside the South City Gate.
When the three fast horses approached, Han Qian saw that the leader was Guo Que, who had entered Shu in advance and was in charge of spying on the intelligence affairs of Shu.
"What happened?" Feng Yi, who was beside Han Qian at this time, asked in surprise.
Guo Que is the little crow Guo Que'er who once lurked around Feng Yi. He was awarded the eighth-level martial arts medal for his merits in the war to eliminate the vassal vassal, so he wanted to take the opportunity to change his previous "base name"; Han Qian helped him name "Quie Enemy".
" means ", using the same pronunciation of "que" as the name.
Emperor Tianyou didn't use his father to send an envoy to welcome his bride. Han Qian kept thinking about this in his heart and couldn't calm down. At this time, when he saw Guo Guo, regardless of the officials on his left and right, he came directly to meet him, he felt even more "
I was shocked. I didn't know what happened in Tanzhou, but Guo Que was asked to come here in such a hurry to deliver the message.
Seeing that the visitor was acquainted with Han Qian, Shu Honglu Temple Minister signaled to the guards to get out of the way.
Guo Que dismounted and came over, handed a wax pill to Han Qian, and said in his ear:
"Mrs. Ting ordered that no matter what the situation, this letter must be handed over to the Lord as soon as possible!"
I don't know what happened in Xuzhou, and Han Qian didn't care about Guo Rong. Wang Yong, the Marquis of Changxiang, and Wei Qun, the Minister of Honglu Temple, were by his side. After seeing that the secret message left on the wax pill was indeed the secret message he had agreed with Zhao Ting'er, he
He pinched open the wax pill and took out a piece of paper, only to see it read:
"Half a month after my husband left Longya City, Jinling sent a messenger to Qianyang with an order to transfer his father to the capital to serve as Jingzhao Yin. After knowing the news, I rushed to Qianyang and wanted to persuade my father to leave after the New Year, but
My father seemed to have realized that a crisis was brewing in Jinling. On that day, he entrusted the military and political affairs of Xuzhou to Chief Shi Xue Ruogu and Sima Tiancheng. He took Zhao Kuo, Han Laoshan and other family members and set off directly for Beijing. I hesitated for a long time.
In the end, I didn’t dare to tell anyone about the poisonous candle without permission..."
Han Qian's hands and feet were cold. He didn't expect that Emperor Tianyou didn't use his father as an envoy to Shu to welcome his bride, but actually transferred his father to Jinling to serve as Jing Zhaoyin at this time!
Moreover, for such an important appointment of Jing Zhaoyin, Emperor Tianyou ordered to remove it as soon as he ordered it to be removed. There was no news about it in advance, and the third prince was not even consulted about his intention.
Han Qian definitely didn't want his father to enter Beijing at this time, but counting the time, his father might have been in Jinling for two days!
