The refugee camp where He Aba is located is about twenty miles northwest of Baiti Gang. It is a large village located in a river bend.
There is a rammed earth wall surrounding the village, and a river more than ten feet wide, winding northward in the northwest of the village, seems to be flowing in the direction of Hongzepo.
During the interrogation of the wounded prisoners, Kong Xirong, He Liufeng, and Lin Sheng learned that the village was called Chongjin Ferry. There was a post road built by the former dynasty but in disrepair due to the war decades ago. It passed through here and turned thirty or forty miles west.
Shiliang County.
Since Hongzepu, Fanliang Lake and the neighboring counties such as Jinhu and Shiliang have many lakes and crisscrossed streams, the terrain is quite complex even if it is not like Xuzhou, which has mountains stretching for hundreds of miles.
It was only after Han Qian arrived at Dingjiagou that he met up with the old troops of Zuo Guangde's army, and then decided to use Taihu Lake and the Yangtze River waterway to transfer tens of thousands of women, children, the elderly and the weak to Hongzepu and Fanliang Lake areas to settle down.
In the early stage, they only sent people to explore the situation near Baiti Gang. Even so, due to the loss of a large amount of information due to the war, they were still very unfamiliar with many nearby place names, the flow of streams and the conditions of the ancient post roads.
.
Some tasks can only be made up for later, and it is difficult to achieve perfection in such a short period of time.
Sometimes it is enough for them to be better than their enemies and make fewer mistakes.
Fortunately, access to nearby villages mainly depends on this ancient post road.
Even in the official information, this post road is abandoned. There is no existing official road across the river. The post road connected it, but Kong Xirong, He Liufeng, and Lin Sheng led their troops to walk a few miles west from Baitigang, and they could still easily
Recognizing this ancient post road, the heavily battered roadbed is still loess, and the trees on both sides are still tall and dense.
The young and strong men in the village were kidnapped when the Anning Palace rebels retreated from Chuzhou north. Even the few fishing boats and ferries were also taken away.
There are still more than two hundred abandoned old, weak, women and children left in the village.
He Aba gathered a group of thousands of refugees to escape the war in the west of Chuzhou. They came here three months ago and used this place as a camp. They are considered to be the largest refugee force within a radius of 20 to 30 miles.
Of course, not wanting to attract the attention of the Forbidden Army and the Anning Palace rebels, He Aba and the others settled here, and for the time being they did not think of annexing the small group of refugees nearby to expand their power.
The scar-faced man took a dozen silver-halberd guards and fled back in panic with the refugees, but he expected that Chishan would take advantage of the victory to attack Chongjin Ferry after finding out the true situation, and would not allow them to stabilize their position.
When the opportunity arose, he advocated that the remaining 230 or 40 strong men from Chongjin Ferry should be transferred out first.
He Aba was captured. Huaidong was responsible for contacting the principals lurking in Chuzhou's informants and secret stakes, as well as the seven subordinates who secretly controlled the refugee force with He Aba. They either died in battle or were captured together with He Aba. The refugees were strong.
They still don’t know what their relationship is with Huaidong, and they don’t even know who the scar-faced man is. After suffering such heavy casualties, he feels shocked, frightened, afraid and resentful. Who else is willing to listen to his greetings?
Besides, the most difficult thing for the refugee forces is to separate the able-bodied men from the young women and children at home.
When Kong Xirong, He Liufeng, and Lin Sheng led more than 300 infantrymen to Chongjin Ferry, they were still arguing over whether to stay or go. The scar-faced man saw that the situation was difficult, so he was forced to lead a dozen silver halberd guards.
He escaped on horseback through the gap in the northeastern protective wall and walked away.
Of the thousands of refugees on Chongjin Ferry, except for a few who took advantage of the chaos to escape, the vast majority gave up resistance and chose to surrender.
This is also what suits Kong Xirong and the others best.
It's not that Kong Xirong, He Liufeng and the others were afraid of a tough battle, but they were actually worried that the fighting here would be too fierce and bloody, attracting the attention of the Forbidden Army or the Anning Palace rebels in the south.
In that case, the subsequent development of the situation may not be under their control.
Don't talk about anything else, even if the Imperial Army in the south increases vigilance, strengthens the blockade of the land and water passage to the north in the southern part of Chuzhou, and the imperial court orders the prefectures and counties between Taihu Lake and the Yangtze River to strengthen supervision, how can the thousands of women and children from the Chishan Meeting be transferred here?
Of course, there are dozens of refugee forces gathered in Shiliang County, large and small, with complicated conflicts. They fight each other for territory and food sources, and even hundreds of people fight with weapons, but it is extremely normal.
matter.
The guards led by Kong Xirong had no choice but to wear a robe over their armor and scales in such a hot weather, but if they really wanted to participate in the fight, they would definitely not be able to take too much care.
Everyone is happy with the current result - not to mention Kong Xirong, He Liufeng, and Lin Sheng, who also rely on killing and injuring refugees to demonstrate their illustrious military exploits.
With the elite combat force composed of veterans from Zuo Guangde's army, it was really a bit of a bully to encircle and suppress the strong refugees who were still at a disadvantage in numbers.
In order to prevent other accidents, to easily control this group of refugees, and to further clear up the hidden piles lurking in Huaidong, Kong Xirong, He Liufeng, and Lin Sheng briefly discussed it and decided to detain these people to the Baiti Gang camp overnight.
Although the houses and camps on the Chongjin Ferry side are relatively complete, there is a complete wall outside the village, and there are three to four thousand acres of normally cultivated fields, there is no direct waterway connection with Fanliang Lake, and it is only a short distance from Baiti Gang.
A little further.
In the future, more congregants, women and children will move north from Chishan, but some people can be accommodated here, but now they cannot disperse the limited elite troops to occupy this place.
Although Chongjin Ferry was only more than twenty miles away from Baitigang, Kong Xirong and the others still struggled until late at night before returning to the Baitigang camp.
The torches were burning high, and the full moon in the sky was extremely bright, which brought great convenience to the night march.
Han Qian stood in the sentry tower next to the suspension bridge, watching the prisoners passing by the suspension bridge one after another. Most of the prisoners, old, weak, women and children, had sallow faces and thin faces, with frightened faces.
After interrogating He Aba and three other Huaidong secret agents, he also confirmed that Huaidong's control over this group of refugee forces was far less than that of Tan Yuliang and Zhao Zhixian's control of Osprey Village back then, and he also confirmed that there was no influence from Anning Palace.
If the rebels secretly infiltrate, most of them can be directly absorbed into the Chishan Society, or they can be dispersed and settled around Baiti Gang, and controlled as peripheral affiliated forces.
The problem is that there are suddenly more than 1,200 people in the camp, and the supplies brought in earlier are also becoming tense.
In particular, more than 90 injured prisoners were treated, and among the more than 200 prisoners who came back overnight, there were 50 or 60 people with more or less minor injuries who needed treatment. This meant that the bandaging medical materials and trauma treatment they had carried before were
The drugs used to stop bleeding will last for at most half a month if consumed in large quantities.
Perhaps before the second batch of wound medicine and bandaging materials are replenished, they will be almost used up.
It is relatively easy to smuggle wound medicine and bandaging materials over. After all, they occupy a small volume. The medicinal materials transported by one or two horses and camels can be used for a month or two.
The target is not obvious, and it is easy to find a gap to smuggle it over from southern Chuzhou.
However, even if there is no increase in the number of people in the camp, and there are only nearly 2,000 people in the camp, it will be necessary to replenish thousands of kilograms of food every month. It will not be easy to smuggle it over.
If tens of thousands of old, weak, women and children are transferred here, before farming near Baiti Gang is resumed,
, even if you can catch fish and shrimp for food, within a year, at least two to three thousand dan of food will be needed every month to survive the famine.
The main reason why the so-called strong and strong refugees organized by He Aba are actually vulnerable is that most of the people are so hungry that they are so skinny that they cannot be strong at all, let alone the rigorous and arduous training.
And because of hunger, most of the refugees eat fish, crabs, shrimps, and snails, and do not pay attention to their diet and drinking water. Many of them have been infected with schistosomiasis (water bug epidemic); and for other minor illnesses and disasters, it is impossible to seek medical treatment.
An elite combat force is always inseparable from excellent logistics supply and management.
There were landless farmers in the Jiangnan area one after another. They crossed the river and wanted to enter the northeastern part of Chuzhou to reclaim wasteland. The government and the garrison along the way could turn a blind eye.
However, if you want to form an organization, transport grain and grass on a large scale, and organize thousands of people to cross the river and establish a foothold in the northern part of Chuzhou, you need to open up all the links up and down, and you need the tacit consent of someone above the court.
Just like at this time, the clans of Gyeonggi and nearby prefectures and counties, as well as the princes, ministers, officials, and upstarts who had taken advantage of the opportunity, had already sent people to occupy large-scale fields near Chuzhou City or south of Chaohu Lake and along the river in southern Chuzhou.
It was recognized by a large number of officials from both the government and the public who came from powerful eunuchs and clans, including Yang Zhiyuan, Prince of Yuzhang County, Li Pu, Marquis of Xinchang, and Wei Zhen.
Otherwise, how could the government and garrisons along the route pretend to be deaf and mute and turn a blind eye to the organized, large-scale but unknown forces heading north across the Yangtze River?
Not to mention the Jinyun Division, even if the Privy Council Staff Division sent a detective to investigate, it would be easy to find clues and trace them to Guangde Mansion.
If most of the old Zuo Guangde army and their families had not been transferred, this incident would alarm the princes in the court and Yang Yuanpu. Han Qian could not predict what changes would follow.
Thinking of this, Han Qian turned around and said to Feng Liao: "He Aba and other Huaidong hidden stakes and the other four captured Silver Halberd guards will be sent to Yangzhou early tomorrow morning!"
…………
…………
By the end of July, the Forbidden Army's siege on Chaozhou City had lasted for two and a half months.
Li Zhigao fought very steadily in Chaozhou City and did not make any rash advances.
Even though he had an absolute advantage, Li Zhigao still did not conduct a complete encirclement of Chaozhou City. Instead, he left a gap several miles wide in the north to facilitate the defenders to abandon the city and flee north, and at the same time to undermine the defenders' fighting spirit.
However, in front of Chaozhou City, Li Zhigao built forts one after another and tried his best to strengthen them.
The frontal attack on Chaozhou City mainly used cyclone cannons to bombard the city wall. They had an attitude that it would not matter even if the confrontation lasted until next year.
Under this situation, everyone can see that the rebels have no chance to turn defeat into victory in Chaozhou. The fall of Chaozhou City will happen sooner or later. And even if Liang Jun recruits the Anning Palace rebels, he will never be able to defeat them in this situation.
He hurriedly sent troops to cross the Huaihe River and go south.
After the situation of the imperial court's recovery of Chaozhou was completely clear, Yin Peng was ordered to take several retinues and Guo Xiao, Han Qian's liaison in Zhuyu Bay, into the Baiti Gang camp.
At this time, more than half a month had passed since Han Qian sent people to send He Aba and other hidden stake wounded prisoners back to Yangzhou.
In the attack on the Baiti Gang camp, Yangzhou did not send anyone to participate, and they did not even know about it beforehand. It was Han Qian who sent people to send He Aba and other injured prisoners there. Only then did Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng know that King Xin personally sent men to attack Baiti.
The failure of Camp Gang.
Although all this made Wang Wenqian, Yin Peng and others anxious in Yangzhou, they could only take good care of He Aba and others first, and then send people to Chuzhou to report the matter, and wait until King Xin makes a decision.
It was not until the day before yesterday that King Xin Yang Yuanyan sent an envoy to Yangzhou, leaving Wang Wenqian fully responsible for contacting the Chishan Society.
At this time, the Baitigang camp had erected fences along the inside of the north-south ditch and at the entrance of the mountain ridge. The east slope of Baitigang formed a narrow strip of land two miles long from north to south and more than 400 paces wide from east to west.
The capital circle is the camp of Chishan Society.
It's just that the fence walls are not particularly high, only as high as one person. The stray trees on the inside and outside have not been cleared away and are deliberately preserved. Unless you walk close, it is difficult to spot the existence of the fence walls from a distance.
In addition to Baiti Gang, Yin Peng came along the way and saw one or two small-scale refugee camps in the south and southwest. The security was very tight. It was obvious that the Chishan Society was using the small-scale refugee camps on the periphery as a base.
Sentries and blockades were set up to prevent the Forbidden Army and the Ning Ning Palace from spying, and hidden stakes penetrated directly into Baiti Gang to see what was going on.
Chishan will try his best to delay the discovery of the core camp of Baiti Gang. Obviously, he wants to take advantage of the fact that the imperial court and the imperial army have not strengthened their supervision and blockade, and transport as many people and materials as possible.
Walking into the camp through the suspension bridge, you can also see that in the beach area along the lake, the reeds near the lake shore have been cleared out, and a row of half-man-high wooden stakes have been laid around the perimeter. This is to prevent ships from approaching directly from the outer lake when the lake water rises.
Camp.
Of course, in addition to the plank road pier, a simple small shipbuilding yard has been built near the south gate wall in such a short period of time, and four small awning paddle boats are about to be launched.
Although it is easy to use new materials to build a ship without long-term storage and drying in the shade, the ship plate will be easily deformed and water will leak after launching. However, if you want to build a batch of fishing boats to catch fish and shrimp nearby in a short period of time, there is not so much emphasis; as a medium and long-range ship,
It is definitely not possible for merchant ships or warships to do this.
Of course, we really need three or five sturdy cargo ships or warships here, and Yin Peng believes that Chishan, with the support of Xuzhou behind him, will find his own way to get them.
On the contrary, Chishan will establish a foothold here. There is a huge need for small fishing boats that can catch fish and shrimps in Fanliang Lake and nearby streams. One or two hundred boats may not be enough, so there is no way to directly fish from other places.
Large-scale mobilization has come, and construction can only be organized in the camp.
I saw that the fields inside and outside the camp have been cultivated, but in any case, even if the new fields of two to three thousand acres are planted with food, even if there is a harvest, it will not be enough to maintain what is already in the camp at this time.
The daily consumption of two thousand people.
Then he secretly estimated the population gathered in the surrounding camps. Chishan Club had gathered about 3,000 people nearby in a short period of time. Yin Peng was also secretly surprised. He just didn't know how many were refugee forces recruited from nearby and how many were recruited from Guangde.
The government was transferred to the old headquarters of Zuo Guangde Army.
"Yin Sima, would you please make this trip..." Feng Yi walked out of the yard to greet Yin Peng and his entourage.
"The Marquis of Qianyang has been staying in Baiti Gang?" Yin Peng didn't know beforehand who he would meet and negotiate with after he came over, but he thought that Han Qian should have returned to Xuzhou since the meeting at Zhuyu Bay, and would not have stayed
Take the risk of staying in Jianghuai.
When he saw Feng Yi, he realized that he had been wrong from beginning to end. He secretly felt that it was not unjust for Chuzhou to personally instruct people to attack the Baitigang camp and suffer such a huge setback.
Walking into the conference hall that was renovated from the ancestral hall, Han Qian stood in front of the newly drawn map and was calculating the amount of subsequent dredging work for the Chongjin Duheng Canal with Xi Yong.
The river that goes north through Chongjin Ferry was subsequently confirmed to be the Sanglim River that leads directly to the lake south of Hongtaekpo.
In the middle and early stages of the previous dynasty, Shiliang County organized civilians to dig a seven or eight-mile long horizontal canal directly to the north of Chongjin Ferry, connecting Shanglin River and Fanliang Lake to the east of Baitigang, making Fanliang Lake
Lianghu and Hongzepu have an additional title in Shiliang County
Water connection.
However, at the end of the previous dynasty, the Jianghuai heroes were competing for hegemony, and the water conservancy was in disrepair for many years. After the founding of the Chu State, the counties in Huainan were regarded as the buffer zone between the Liang and Chu countries. There were several floods, and the horizontal canals had long been blocked. Fan
The connecting waterway between Lianghu and Hongzepu in Shiliang County was therefore cut off.
Whether it is connecting Fanliang Lake and Hongzepu, conducive to irrigating farmland, or channeling and draining floods from the upper reaches of the Shanglin River to a greater extent, the role of this horizontal canal is very important.
Even though there are some things that cannot be started immediately at this time, Han Qian still hopes to help Han Donghu and Su Lie finalize the later work plans first.
The horizontal canal has its previous foundation, and the blocked areas are mainly located at both ends, so it is relatively easy to re-excavate and dredge it.
Once the Hengqu canal is dug, the strategic position of Chongjin Ferry will become even more prominent, not even under Baitigang.
After all, the area facing the lake on the east side of Baiti Gang is too narrow, and it is impossible to control ships sailing into Fanliang Lake, which is 140 to 50 miles deep.
In comparison, after the horizontal canal was dug, Chongjin Ferry became a more important strategic node.
Han Qian put down the charcoal and placed it on the map. He turned around and looked at Yin Peng: "Your Highness, King Xin, is sure of your trust this time. He won't make any more tricks to attack Baiti Gang at night?"
Yin Peng smiled awkwardly, Huaidong couldn't make up his mind to break up with Xuzhou, and they broke up with each other. He was beaten with bruises and bruises for playing such a little trick, and he was speechless.
Even if Yangzhou was in charge of this matter, it wouldn't be so embarrassing.
"The Chishan Society secretly established a foothold in Shiliang County. There is a worry about raising tigers in Huaidong, but there are no visible benefits." Yin Peng put aside his embarrassed expression and said seriously according to the words he and Wang Wenqian had agreed upon, "Huai
Dong Neng can turn a blind eye, which is enough to deal with the Marquis of Guizhou Yang, but if Chishan wants to use Hangou to transport materials and personnel through Yangzhou, it may not be too difficult, right?"
Obviously, after Li Zhigao regained Chaozhou, the situation would be unfavorable to Huaidong, but it was impossible for Huaidong to not only tolerate the Chishan Society's foothold on the west bank of Fanliang Lake, but also condone the Chishan Society because of this or because of Han Qian's intimidation.
ships passed through Yangzhou.
If this is really the case, why would King Xin lose any face?
"Huaidong is connected to the sea in the area controlled by Haizhou. Are you really not curious whether the new salt-drying method I mentioned is true or false?" Han Qian stared at Yin Peng and asked.
The Huaidong Salt Fields directly under the jurisdiction of the Salt and Iron Envoys is located on the vast coastal shoal between the Jianghuai River estuary, but currently, most of Haizhou to the north of the Huaihe River estuary is still under the control of the Huaidong Kingdom.
The eastern part of Haizhou is also connected to the sea.
Part of the salt in Huaidong was obtained by secretly organizing people to boil the sea on the tidal flats in eastern Haizhou.
However, cooking sea salt is not an easy task.
The Salt and Iron Bureau has more than 40,000 households and nearly 300,000 salt farmers in the Huaidong Salt Fields. It has 3,000 salt soldiers and thousands of salt officials, large and small, so that the Huaidong Salt Fields can be maintained.
More than one million tons of sea salt are produced every year.
Haizhou has always been a barren land, with three counties. At the height of the previous dynasty, the population was only 140,000 to 50,000.
In the middle and late period of the previous dynasty and when Liang and Chu fought for supremacy on both sides of the Huaihe River, although Haizhou was located on the edge of the main battlefield in the east, there were constant battles of all sizes. A large number of people either died or fled, and large areas of land were abandoned.
At present, the area directly controlled by Huaidong in Haizhou has a population of only more than 2,000 households, except for the garrison.
Even if we don't take into account that Liang Jun may infiltrate and attack at any time, even if we don't take into account the supervision of the Salt and Iron Envoy, how many people can Huaidong organize on the coastal beach at the mouth of the Huaihe River to boil seawater and make salt?
If we really want to keep up with the salt boiling efficiency of Huaidong Saltworks, Huaidong needs to organize at least 4,000 households, nearly 30,000 salt households, to collect firewood on the tidal flats in eastern Haizhou and boil the sea to make salt, in order to satisfy Huaidong.
Salt was used by millions of soldiers, civilians and livestock in the east.
In fact, the scale of Huaidong's secret salt production on the tidal flat in the east of Haizhou is only seven or eight thousand tons per year, which is less than one-tenth of what Huaidong needs. The real needs are mainly from the Salt and Iron Bureau.
Taking advantage of the loopholes in supervision, they took advantage of the convenience of geographical proximity and directly sent people to collude with kitchen households or salt farm subordinates to directly traffic illegal salt into the country.
This also ensures that Huaidong Fan Kingdom can obtain more than 300,000 yuan of salt profit every year.
Huaidong can currently maintain 120,000 troops, mainly relying on the looting of Changrun and other states during the Jinling Incident, but one-time looting cannot last long.
The consumption of soldiers and horses is extremely huge, not only the food and wages of the generals, the construction of barracks, the preparation of soldiers, weapons and vehicles, the maintenance of livestock and horses, four sets of military uniforms per person every year in winter and summer, the total number of the army is 480,000
The preparations for the military uniforms and the rewards during the holidays are all huge.
Huaidong maintained an army of 120,000 troops, and in just one year, it consumed most of the goods previously plundered from Changrun and other states.
Next, without any pressure from the court, Huaidong itself had plans to reduce its standing troops to 60,000, vacate 60,000 troops and form garrison troops, and organize land hoarding and reclamation to make up for the lack of military supplies.
Even so, Huaidong's financial expenditure cannot be separated from the annual salt profit income of up to 300,000 yuan.
Therefore, no matter what, Huaidong must try its best to weaken the control of the Salt and Iron Commissioner over the Huaidong salt field and hinder the court from carrying out fundamental reforms in salt matters.
As for whether the new salt-drying method mentioned by Han Qian was true or false, when Yin Peng went to Chuzhou to report the matter, Ruan Yan and others did not dare to easily conclude that it was false.
"..." Han Qian took out a pamphlet from his desk, handed it to Yin Peng, and said, "The sun-drying method has been used to make salt in the Hedong Salt Pond for hundreds of years, but it is not used along the coast. It's not that they haven't tried it before. In fact, in the past, it was dried by the sea.
Compared with boiling salt, salt is not necessarily beneficial. I have collected books on salt from hundreds of years ago and carefully analyzed the pros and cons of each method. I summarized the following: coastal beach, leakage from drying fields, tidal intrusion, and turbid salt brine.
Storms, hurricanes, and rain are all its drawbacks. Some drawbacks are difficult to overcome, but others are easy to overcome. Therefore, methods for building salt field dams, testing salinity, diverting irrigation, and leaching brine are all described in this booklet.
It’s just that the new method has not been tested on a large scale, and there may be a lot of room for improvement. But I wonder if Huaidong will go to Haizhou to verify this method first? I believe it is always better than going to Huaidong Saltworks for verification, Mr. Yin
,dont you agree?"
Yin Peng stared at the pamphlet Han Qian handed over. He didn't believe that Han Qian would really let Huaidong get this new method of drying salt easily.
Han Qian thrust the pamphlet into Yin Peng's hand and said: "My conditions are very simple. In a few days, two merchant ships will be stationed in Yangzhou from Xuzhou. When the time comes, please invite Mr. Wang and Mr. Yin to show your support..."
Xuzhou is a Fanzhou. When merchants enter the hinterland of Dachu, they need to go to designated areas to conduct transactions after extracting and buying.
Xuzhou merchant ships can theoretically enter Chuzhou, but under the supervision of the Salt and Iron Envoy, it is obviously impossible to trade with the refugee forces in the northeast of Chuzhou. The territory of Yangzhou, which belongs to Huaidong, is the Salt and Iron Envoy.
Blind areas beyond the jurisdiction of
The Chishan Society wants to establish a foothold on the west bank of Fanliang Lake, maintain contact with the outside world, and obtain different supplies. The most stable channel is also Yangzhou...
Han Qian did not raise any higher requirements at this time. Yin Peng could take away the new method of drying salt and verify it first, but at this time, he would have to allow two ships of supplies from Xuzhou to sail to Baitigang via Yangzhou.
