Chapter Five Hundred and Sixtieth Emperor Liang's Heart
"Ouch!"
Standing in the snow in the alley, listening to the dull screams coming from the inside of the courtyard wall, Han Duan felt a tight twitching in his thighs at this moment, thinking that Han Jun had never thought of escaping back to Jinling before.
The city is really not easy.
After a while, Han Duan looked at Feng Liao and asked, "We should go in and see with our own eyes..."
The lives and fortunes of countless people were at stake. In order to prevent others from trying to hide the truth, Feng Liao had to see it with his own eyes before he could feel relieved. He lifted up his robe and signaled Han Duan to go first.
There are only three adobe houses in the empty yard, and the windows are all covered with thick cloth.
Feng Liao and Han Duan pushed the door open and entered the house. There was a newly built fire pit in the house, which was emitting a warm flow of heat, allowing people to be naked in the house without catching a cold.
The two people responsible for the torture of Han Jun stepped aside. Han Duan looked over and saw that Han Jun had passed out. He was surprised that he didn't hear his screams again when he walked into the yard.
Han Jun was lying there with his lower body naked, and the wound on his crotch had not started yet. He could only see a bloody mess there, which made Han Duan's scalp feel tight. He didn't know why so many people were willing to enter the palace to seek a career every year.
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Twenty years after the founding of the Chu Kingdom, there were only more than 300 eunuchs and maids in total at the beginning. Most of them were old people brought by the Xu family from the Guangling Jiedushi Mansion. In just ten years, the number increased to more than 7,000.
people.
Emperor Yanyou conquered Jinling City and dismissed almost all the eunuchs and maids. In less than two years, the number of eunuchs and maids serving in the palace increased to more than 2,000, half of whom were cleansed.
Internal eunuch.
It is really unimaginable that there are so many people among the people who would ruthlessly send their children to the palace to purify themselves just to find a job.
Seeing that Feng Liao had also confirmed it, Han Duan walked out of the house with him, stood in front of the porch and asked in a low voice: "If Han Jun hadn't come through..."
These days, there are many dead people suffering from trauma and sores. Every year, they are sent to the palace for cleansing and tortured in prison, but they are not able to survive. There are countless corpses that are dragged out and buried in mass graves. Who knows whether Han Jun can survive?
"Then we can only claim to have died of illness, which is better than leaving the hidden danger of being alive." Feng Liao said coldly.
"Yes!" Han Duan agreed.
Han Duan still has to stay, at least until Han Jun's lower body injury has eased in five or six days, before he can take Han Jun across the river back to Jinling City. Feng Liao took a boat around the Yangtze River waterway in the afternoon and rushed back to Tingting.
Shandong Nanzhai, meet up with Han Qian.
At dusk, Yin Peng took a boat from Yangzhou to Tingzi Mountain to meet Han Qian.
Faced with the strong pressure from Liang Jun, Huaidong was forced to abandon the cities on the north bank of the Huaihe River and shrink to the south bank. However, it was still unable to prevent the large number of Liang Jun cavalry from directly interspersing between the cities on the south bank, looting grain, livestock, and young men.
, burned down the house.
The entire Huaihe River was frozen in the ice and snow, and the Huaidong territory was completely flat. It could be said that there was no obstacle for Liang Jun's cavalry.
Huaidong could only strengthen the walls and clear the country, and evacuate more people and strong people into the city nearby.
Huaidong's cavalry numbered only more than 5,000, and they simply did not have the ability to contend with the Liang army's cavalry, which was several times their size, in the wild.
Even Xin Wang Yang Yuanyan was extremely worried that Han Qian would not be able to support himself in Tangyi at this time, so he chose to retreat to the south bank.
In that case, Li Zhigao was blocked in Shuzhou, and the Shouzhou Army could free up 50,000 or 60,000 troops to attack Yangzhou, Dongyang and other places from the west. The situation in Huaidong at that time would really be extremely dangerous.
Even if Han Qian led his troops to retreat in Tangyi Gucheng and did nothing, Yangzhou would feel even more pressure.
Ten days ago, Han Qian led his troops to march west along the Chu River and had a fierce battle with the Shouzhou Army sweeping in from the southeast on the north bank of the Chu River. This somewhat relieved the generals guarding Yangzhou.
Both Wang Wenqian and Zhao Zhen were counting on Tangyi soldiers to gain a foothold on the north bank of the Chu River.
In this case, the defense of Han Qian's troops on the north bank of the Yangtze River is to open a line. At least until the Shouzhou Army suppresses Han Qian's troops back to Tangyi City, there will be no spare power to look eastward.
In this case, as long as Huaidong is fully prepared to defend against Liang Jun in the north, it will be able to sustain it more or less.
Yin Peng came here this time hoping to form closer cooperation with Tangyi and share resources to a certain extent.
In addition to the exchange of military intelligence in the 500-600-mile area from Hongzepu, Fanliang Lake to Huaiyang Mountain, Xinwang Yangyuanyan also hopes that the construction of Huaidong's west flank defense line can be better connected with the northeast flank defense line in Tangyi
At the same time, he hoped to purchase several large warships from Xuzhou.
Chuzhou had a water camp in the early days, but after the Jinling Incident, most of the large warships organized by the Chuzhou water camp were destroyed in water battles with the Lou Ship Army.
Although Huaidong still had a naval force of more than 15,000 soldiers at this time, most of the warships were fishing boats and modified small and medium-sized merchant ships.
Although the main force of the Dachu navy was annihilated in Hongzepu, the direct reason was that the large warships equipped, especially the main warships based on Yueyang|Shuiying, mainly the sharp-bottomed warships built by Xuzhou, were too deep and extremely unstable.
It is suitable for navigation in shallow lakes, but those who truly know water warfare know in their hearts that the responsibility for the defeat cannot be passed on to the warships built by Xuzhou.
The warships built by Xuzhou are fast and strong in structure.
Gao Chengyuan led the Yueyang Navy, which had little foundation at the time, and was able to fight fiercely with Dachu's most elite naval fleet in the Yangtze River waterway without being at a disadvantage, which shows the advantages of Xuzhou's warships.
At present, the Xuzhou Water Camp has entered the Yangtze River waterway. The Lou Chuanjun and Liang Jun Navy will most likely not be eager to enter the Yangtze River to compete with the Xuzhou Water Camp. Then after the Huaihe River thaws, the threats Huaidong will face will greatly increase.
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If the Huaidong Water Camp cannot take advantage of the lower reaches of the Huaihe River, it means that after the Huaihe River thaws, the Liang Army cavalry will most likely not withdraw to the north bank.
By then, the entire Huaidong area will have become a buffer zone for the war with Liang Jun, and the production system will also collapse. What will the millions of soldiers and civilians do to feed them?
The most pressing issue facing Huaidong is no longer to defend the main cities until the Huaihe River thaws, but whether the lower reaches of the Huaihe River can be controlled after the Huaihe River thaws, and the way out if the lower reaches of the Huaihe River cannot be controlled.
Yin Peng also brought back a very crucial piece of information this time, that is, after Liang Jun occupied Haizhou, he moved a large number of soldiers and civilians from Xuzhou and built a camp at Kongque Lake southeast of Haizhou City.
Kongque Lake has a ditch that leads to the Huaihe River in the south and the ocean in the east. It does not freeze all year round. Wang Wenqian suspected that Liang Jun would most likely build a shipyard or navy camp there, or both.
The Anning Palace rebels crossed the Yangtze River and fled north. Among the nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians, there were a large number of craftsmen.
As for the naval force, in addition to tens of thousands of elite naval forces, there are also hundreds of experienced shipwrights.
Listening to Yin Peng's introduction to the latest development of the situation in the north of Chuzhou, Feng Liao couldn't help but gasped and said with emotion: "Even without our early intervention, Liang Emperor Zhu Yu might not have been eager to lead the main force of the Liang Army south to attack the Huaixi Forbidden Army.
?”
"If I were in Zhu Yu's position, I wouldn't be in a hurry to attack south," Han Qian said, standing in the biting cold wind with his hands folded. "Even if the Huaixi Forbidden Army was completely annihilated, Liang Jun would not have the chance to devour Dachu."
, if unfortunately, under the attack of Huaixi and Huaidong troops, the price paid is too high, let alone the enemies in the north of Liang State, I am afraid that there will be no peace in its territory..."
After Da Chu pacified Wu and Yue, he once made a statistics on the Dingkou in the area he ruled. At that time, including Zhejiang, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan, Huaidong, Huaixi, Jingxiang and other places, the total number of Dingkou was less than 1,100.
Ten thousand.
In recent years, due to frequent wars in Jingxiang, Huaidong, and Huaixi, the population has not increased, but has actually declined.
Although two large-scale wars broke out in the Jiangnan areas, the two wars calmed down very quickly and did not form a protracted, cruel and bloody tug-of-war and military confrontation. Therefore, Zhejiang, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and other places will hide
, including the people who fled, Han Qian estimated that there should be a significant increase compared to the statistics compiled by Tianyou in the 9th year.
Taking the states in Hunan as an example, in the ninth year of Tianyou's reign, the population was over 1.8 million. However, after the vassal reduction war, the actual population of the five states of Tanlang, Yue, Shaoheng alone was as high as over 2.2 million.
The four prefectures of Chenxu and Siye had a population of nearly 500,000. At this time, Yongzhou and Chenzhou, which were controlled by rebels, also had a population of more than 200,000.
This means that the actual population of the eleven states in Hunan is as high as three million.
The population of Jiangxi is slightly smaller, but the original Jiangnan East Road and Dingkou Zixi, including the two Zhejiang and Gyeonggi areas, are far better than Jiangxi and Hunan in terms of potential and scale.
Although there are no accurate statistics, Han Qian estimated that Da Chu controlled more than 40 states in the south of the Yangtze River at this time, and the total population would not be less than 13 million.
Even if Da Chu abandons all territory north of the Yangtze River, and even if there is no more serious threat to the north of Liang's army, it will be extremely difficult to completely defeat Da Chu in one or two battles.
Not only was the northern part of the Liang Kingdom facing a more serious threat, Liang Emperor Zhu Yu was not in the right position, and quelling the previous Zhu Gui rebellion was far from completely solving its internal hidden dangers.
At present, the more than 60,000 direct cavalry under the command of Emperor Zhu Yu of the Liang Dynasty on the southern front are the foundation for his rule of the Liang Kingdom and for commanding the generals and ministers to obey orders. Once the losses are heavy, it is difficult to say whether rebellion will break out again within the Liang Kingdom.
After Emperor Liang went south and captured Xu Mingzhen, he did not cross the river directly west of Hongzepu and went south. Instead, he turned around and attacked Chuzhou. Han Qian was more blindly confident. It can be said that it was because he personally defended Tangyi, but from Liang Emperor Zhu Yu
Analyzing the overall situation, Zhu Yu still had to take advantage of the opportunity of being in charge of the southeast to change the direct line to control Xuzhou and completely integrate the Sima Dan family under his rule.
In this way, Liang Emperor Zhu Yu could almost control the situation in the southern part of the Liang Kingdom, and then he could more calmly call on the veterans in other areas to return to their posts and stabilize his rule.
After Liang Jun captured Haizhou, there were immediate signs of building a navy camp and a large shipbuilding yard in Haizhou, which further showed that Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang had a profound plan to attack Da Chu.
On the other hand, Emperor Liang granted Xu Mingzhen the title of Duke Huo and allowed him to occupy Huaixi as a vassal town. In exchange, Xu Mingzhen was probably required to hand over the Lou Chuanjun.
Compared with Shouzhou, Haizhou, which has an ice-free port, is indeed more suitable for the Liang State as the foundation for the large-scale development of the navy, but the prerequisite is that Bianjing must be able to control Xuzhou and other cities.
The Southeast region has extremely strong control.