Aoshan Island can be said to be the remnant of Baohua Mountain extending into the river. In the early years of the previous dynasty, the island was small, only a few dozen feet in diameter, six or seven feet above the river. The mountain was shaped like an Ao, so it was named Aoshan.
The river has changed its course and accumulated sediment. It has gradually expanded to a sand island with a radius of three or four miles when the water level is high, and a sand island of seven or eight miles when the water level is low.
The water of the river rises and falls with the four seasons. Aoshan Island has not been artificially transformed, and the surrounding dams have been built to stabilize the island. It can be inhabited, and the cultivated area is small. In addition, the river to the north of Jinling is long and vast, and bandits and bandits come and go. Therefore, except in the spring and autumn, there are households along the river.
Apart from crossing the river to the island to farm or collect firewood, there are no households permanently living on the island.
In late September of the third year of Yanyou's reign, a group of soldiers led three to four hundred civilians to Aoshan Island. After that, cargo ships docked every once in a while, transporting large amounts of lime, masonry, wood and other building materials to the island to build the Aoshan Island.
Camp, house.
Aoshan Island is small in size, facing Tangyi, Gyeonggi, and Yangzhou across the river, and belongs to Runzhou in the southeast.
The Youlongwu Army moved to Runzhou. At this time, under the pretext that a small group of Shouzhou Army penetrated through the gap between the Tangyi and Yangzhou defense lines to the north bank of the Yangtze River to peer into the south of the Yangtze River, they built forts and small docks on Aoshan Island and stationed a small number of troops there.
Guarding soldiers and horses is also an aboveboard matter that cannot be discussed.
In early October, the new wind blows from the south, and the world becomes colder.
Compared with previous years, this year, affected by the turmoil in the Jin Kingdom in the north, Liang Jun gathered in the area north of the Yellow River on a large scale, and the situation along the Huaihe River became relatively calm.
They are worried that the streams along the Huaihe River may freeze at any time, Liang Jun's naval dispatches have also been greatly weakened, and Liang Jun has no signs of large-scale cavalry gatherings. This is destined to ensure that the generals in Jinling will be able to prepare for the northern line this winter.
Worry less about the battle situation.
Several warships sailed from the Qiupu River into the Yangtze River and followed the river to Aoshan Island. In the afternoon, they docked at the south side of Aoshan Island and built a trestle with rows of fir trees to serve as a simple dock.
Yang Zhitang boarded the trestle, surrounded by a row of generals, climbed to the top of a hill only seven or eight feet high on the south side of Aoshan Island, and looked around.
Choosing to build the navy camp here was Han Qian's compulsory requirement, so he had no choice. However, when you get to the island and look far into the distance, you can even vaguely see the water mouth where Hangou connects to the Yangtze River. This is undoubtedly a place where you can get a glimpse of Yangzhou and Tangyi.
a strategic location.
On the southeast side of Aoshan Island, the terrain that intrudes into the river is steep, and the middle is little affected by sedimentation. However, there are sedimentary sand banks extending out on the left and right, which are favorable conditions for building a dock.
Although it has been less than 20 days since we organized the manned landing on the island, there are only some simple barracks on the island. However, after the trestle has passed, a large amount of construction materials have been piled up, and it has not yet turned into a solid retaining wall or barracks.
"Your Majesty, it should be Feng Liao and Han Daochang who came from Tangyi." The guard came over, pointed to several sailboats in the northwest, and said to Yang Zhitang.
After burning the incense, Yang Zhitang could clearly see the figures of the several sailing ships. The two large ships in the front were the galleys used by the Tangyi Navy as the main battleships on the Yangtze River. In addition to the necessary sailors, the
Outside, there are only a few guards and horses.
Seeing this scene, Yang Zhitang felt relieved.
As an agreement, Yang Chitang requested an order to go to Yangzhou to inspect the military situation. In fact, the day when he officially took up the important task of proposing marriage was when Tangyi handed over the first batch of warships.
With these two galleys, which can accommodate up to 300 soldiers and 200 crewmen for combat, the Longwu navy can be considered to be of some size.
Not to mention the rumors, Youlong Wujun sent people to Aoshan Island to start construction, which was enough for the generals and officials of the court to see the clues.
However, even if it is seen that Shou Wang Yang Zhitang has the intention to build the Navy Camp and Wugang on Aoshan Island first, in the eyes of many people, as long as Yang Zhitang, who is from the clan, supports the imperial court, no matter whether Shou Wang Mansion and Huaidong are at this time,
How close you are to the Marquis of Qianyang and the construction of Shuijun Yingcheng on Aoshan Island will be beneficial to the court in the long run.
Otherwise, let alone the Liang Army, if the Huaidong Army and the Tangyi Army one day have different aspirations, cross the river from the north bank to the south, and land on the left and right sides of Jinling City, there will be no resistance on the Yangtze River.
As for whether to rebuild the Dachu Navy or to form a new navy under Youlong Wujun as a measure for Quan Yi, there is not much difference in the minds of many people.
Of course, even if Yang Zhitang is in charge of the Privy Council, it is impossible to allocate more military funds to Youlong Wujun when the central finance is so stretched.
Allocate money and food from the inner court?
That is even more of a dream.
And because Youlong Wujun had not undertaken heavy combat tasks before, the military resources it received before were equally distributed to each general, and the standards were even much lower than those of the Huaixi Forbidden Army and Tangyi soldiers.
Therefore, even if it is just to build a camp on Aoshan Island in the early stage, or to build a navy camp and a dock, the Youlong Military Army's current military resources are insufficient, and the Shou Prince's Palace first needs to pay for food.
Fortunately, Yang Zhitang has been the prince of Yuzhang County and the governor of Hongzhou for many years, and has run Hongzhou. Yuanzhou has a deep foundation. Even if it cannot be compared with Feng Han and other well-established aristocratic clans, he did not have enough money to raise 500,000 to 600,000 yuan in the early stage.
question.
Of course, even without the support of Xuzhou and the imperial court, the Shou Prince's Mansion did not have control over the navy.
The Zhennan Jiedushi established by the previous dynasty once had jurisdiction over the counties and counties along the Ganjiang River and Poyang Lake (later the entire Jiangxi Province). Hongzhou was its governing state, located on the southwest side of the vast Poyang Lake. It has always been the
An important land and water town in the Ganjiang River and Poyang Lake water systems.
After the founding of the Chu Kingdom, the Zhennan Jiedushi was dismissed and the status of Hongzhou was intentionally weakened. However, in order to combat and guard against the Poyang Lake bandits, the local state soldiers in Hongzhou also organized a naval army of more than a thousand people.
Yang Chitang moved east of Runzhou along the river, and the situation of enemy invasion along the coast was becoming increasingly serious. He asked for an order to mobilize the Hongzhou water camp and move it to Aoshan Island to defend the capital. Can the ministers in the court not agree?
The problem is that the scale of the Hongzhou water camp is limited. After recruiting half the troops and horses, there are only more than 600 people and more than 20 large-winged ships and fighting ships.
The main mission of the Hongzhou Water Camp in the past was to fight against lake bandits and water bandits. The generals' combat effectiveness was not strong enough, and the warships were not strong enough. It was difficult to compete with Liang Jun's navy in deep and wide waters, and it was unable to single-handedly protect the river east of Runzhou.
, the coastal defense line, so we had to choose to cooperate with Xuzhou.
The main force of the navy was destroyed in Hongzepu. At that time, the situation in the Jianghuai River was critical. This was also the reason why the Hongzhou water camp did not rush to King Qin.
Otherwise, if Taihu Lake, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, and the states and counties along the Yangtze River were just cobbling together a naval force of 20,000 to 30,000 people from local state soldiers, how could there be any problems?
Of course, for Prince Shou's Mansion, the first and most difficult problem to solve is the warship.
Liang Jun's newly built naval force in Haizhou mobilized shipwrights and timber from various counties in the Liang State, as well as a large number of Jianghuai shipwrights and shipwrights who had been threatened by the Anning Palace and fled north.
As for Hongzhou, which is the sphere of influence of Prince Shou's Mansion, there are two shipbuilding yards, one of which is even run by Prince Shou's Mansion. However, for a long time, they have mainly built small and medium-sized ships that ply the waters of Poyang Lake.
There were no shipwrights with experience in building big ships, and they lacked the wood to build big ships.
This kind of wood usually needs to be cut down and transported from the old forests in the mountains, and then dried in the shade for two to three years before it can be used to build a ship; otherwise, the ship will crack and deform soon after entering the water, and it will not be able to withstand the beating of big winds and waves.
The Yangtze River Estuary is facing the enemy.
In the past, several shipyards in Jianghuai that could build thousands of stone ships were concentrated in Jinling, Runzhou and Chaozhou.
After the Jinling Incident, the shipbuilding yards in these three places were all destroyed, and the stored timber was either burned or transported away. The shipwrights and shipwrights were also taken away and fled north, becoming the shipbuilding force of Liang Jun's navy.
In addition, the shipbuilding yard that Gao Chengyuan organized in Yueyang that year had accumulated a batch of wood that could be used to build large ships, which could be used at this time.
The problem is that this shipyard is under the direct jurisdiction of the Hunan Xuanwei Envoy. How confident is Yang Zhitang that he can compete with the imperial court for the warships built by the Yueyang Shipyard, or that he can directly use the Yueyang Shipyard to stockpile wood and skilled ships that have been drying for three years?
Does the craftsman ask for his own name?
You must know that Huang Hua, Chen Fan and others are all representatives of the Jiangdong family clans. They are most opposed to the Shou Prince's Palace extending its hand too far in the Jiangdong states.
As the main battleship of the Tangyi navy, the galley is long and narrow like a shuttle, with sails raised. It can be seen with the naked eye that its speed is obviously much higher than that of ordinary rigid sailing ships.
As we sailed closer, the cast-iron horn on the bow looked like a ferocious beast hidden beneath the water.
During the Jinling Incident, people in Lanting Lane took the Xuzhou warship to attack the Donghua Gate Shuiguan. Although the hull was seriously damaged and had to be abandoned midway, the iron gate was torn open as thick as an arm and even the solid Shuiguan wall was destroyed.
A section of it collapsed, which was extremely impressive.
At that time, many warships of the Wuya Army on the left and right were built in Xuzhou.
Although most of these battle shows sank in Hongzepu, Liang Jun requisitioned a large number of civilians and ships afterwards to destroy all the sunken ships built in Xuzhou. Even the hulls were completely burned by the fire, which took a lot of trouble.
Towed to Haizhou, it can be seen that the strength of Xuzhou warships has long been valued by Liang Emperor Zhu Yu.
Yang Chitang heard from the secret agent of the Fang Division that the first dozen or so of Liang Jun's naval warships in Haizhou were even directly renovated using the frame of the sunken ship in Xuzhou.
After waiting for a long time, when he saw the war sailing ship approaching the trestle, Yang Zhitang couldn't wait to board the ship to meet Feng Liao and Han Daochang.
Because these two ships were to be handed over directly, Feng Liao and others brought less than sixty guards and sailors with them.
Seeing that Yang Zhitang was so impatient, Feng Liao simply ordered the escort, the sailors to withdraw, and the men from Prince Shou's Mansion to take over the two ships.
When facing the enemy, in order to avoid being attacked by fire and to facilitate the handling of war equipment, the three masts and sixteen giant sails will be lowered, and a total of sixty giant oars on the upper and lower floors will pump water to drive the ship forward; the sides and the top of the cabin
A total of thirty crossbows and scorpion cannons were placed on the deck, with a range of 250 steps.
Without the long-handled baton used by Wuya warships (building ships), long-range attacks cannot destroy enemy ships. Han Qian also strongly advocated avoiding side-to-side combat and using a strong hull to directly squeeze away and ram the encircling enemy ships.
open.
There are sixteen watertight compartments inside the warship. It is not a big deal if the ship's plates are damaged. As long as the overall structure is strong and does not deform, the warship can maintain its due combat effectiveness and persist until the end of the battle.
In addition to strengthening fire prevention, the ship also has a special water-drawing and extinguishing device. When encountering an enemy fire attack, it is much more efficient than the generals and boatmen who rush to use wooden sticks to lift water to douse the fire.
Feng Liao would leave several military attachés and boatmen behind to instruct the people in Prince Shou's Mansion on how to operate the two ships. At this time, he also practiced it in front of Yang Zhitang, and then asked with a smile: "The price of the bare ship is 20,000 yuan.
Including many war weapons and a set of replaceable accessories on board, the total amount is 40,000 yuan, and the two ships total 80,000 yuan - within three months, except for man-made damage caused by wind and waves, Xuzhou will repair it as new for free; one month
Within the period, if the prince is dissatisfied with anything, Xuzhou can also guarantee a return - I wonder if the prince is still satisfied?"
What advice can Yang Zhitang give?
Not to mention other things, the four iron anchors weighing three to four thousand kilograms at the beginning and end cannot be cast by Hongzhou.
With these four anchors, such a large hull can be anchored stably and directly in the deep water in the middle of the river, without having to worry about not even being able to find a big tree for mooring on the shore.
It is precisely because of the lack of this kind of iron anchor that can catch the mud at the bottom of the river that the thousand-stone ships built by Jianghuai are all shallow-bottomed and flat-bottomed ships so that they can be moored directly on the shoals. The same is true for the Five-Tooth warship, which cannot be built.
Pointed bottom boat.
However, a sharp-bottomed warship of the same size, even driven by a giant oar, is significantly faster than a flat-bottomed warship.
As a veteran who followed Emperor Tianyou in the north and south, how could Yang Zhitang not know the importance of speed in the battle between the two sides?
At least for now, at least on large warships, Xuzhou has an irreplaceable advantage simply by being able to cast such giant iron anchors.
The large and medium-sized fine iron components inside the hull used to strengthen the structural strength also need to be cast and formed at one time. At present, only Xuzhou seems to be able to do this.
To be honest, in the following defensive operations along the river and coast, Yang Zhitang will not be willing to put these two warships into the battlefield. More importantly, he will use small and medium-sized warships as consumables to confront Liang Jun's navy in relatively shallow and narrow inland rivers.
.
However, without a few large galleys to support the scene, Longwu Navy would not be powerful, let alone deter Liang Jun Navy from directly entering the Yangtze River waterway east of Runzhou - speaking of which, Dachu Navy was in
In the era of the Louchuan Army, the five-toothed Louship built with great effort was much less practical than the large galley warships. Why should we grit our teeth and build it?
At this time, Ji Xiyao, accompanied by more than a dozen people, walked over from the other side of Aoshan Island and met with Shou Wang Yang Zhitang, Feng Liao, Han Daochang and others.
Ji Xiyao has been on Aoshan Island these days to provide some detailed guidance on the construction of the navy camp, dock port and ship repair yard.
There are countless talented people and craftsmen in Prince Shou's palace. It is not difficult to tell whether the warships provided by Tangyi and the opinions put forward by Ji Xiyao contain evil intentions.
This was the first time for Yang Zhitang to meet Ji Xiyao, but many of the suggestions Ji Xiyao mentioned in the past few days on the island would be passed on to him immediately.
He also asked Liu Chengsi to find the palace engineers for careful review, but found that Ji Xiyao's suggestions were all neglected by the palace engineers. He had never thought of the wonderful features. It was hard to imagine that the dark and thin young man in front of him looked like this.
He was just thirty years old, and he was more accomplished in craftsmanship than Yang En, the Marquis of Liyang. This person was the first to preside over the Xuzhou Battleship Yard, and I don’t know where Han Qian got such a person from.
Of course, when Ji Xiyao came over, he did not provide free guidance. He still strongly hoped that when the Shou Prince Mansion built Aoshan Island, it could purchase lime, masonry, wood and other building materials from Tangyi.
Prince Shou's Mansion has a large number of cheap slaves in Hongzhou who can make lime, bricks, and cut wood. However, the transportation from Hongzhou is thousands of miles away, and the freight is expensive; and those who want to be nearby are controlled by aristocratic clans from Runzhou and other places.
When purchased from a kiln, the price is as high as that of Tangyi.
Tangyi even provides a slurry called "stone mud", which can be mixed with lime to build walls. After drying, it is as strong as adding boiled glutinous rice slurry to lime, but the price is higher than that of boiled glutinous rice slurry.
Glutinous rice milk is cheap.
All in all, Han Qian will provide the most attentive and considerate service to the new navy of Youlong Wujun, and the accounts can be paid on credit, as long as Prince Shou's Mansion promises that the merchant ships of the Chishan Society can enter the counties and towns of Hongzhou without restrictions.
Bu - Hongzhou is the traditional sphere of influence of Prince Shou's Palace. Not only are hundreds of thousands of acres of the palace's farmland being released to Hongzhou, but Yang Zhitang is also the governor of Hongzhou at this time.
Everyone hopes that the foundation can be laid more solidly, not to mention that what Tangyi provides is indeed of high quality and low price. Can they still choose the good over the bad and sacrifice the cheap for the expensive?
As for Tangyi's repeated appeals for the lifting of trade restrictions, Yang Zhitang did not believe that after the restrictions were lifted, Xuzhou and Tangyi combined could only account for 14 counties and more than 400,000 households, so how much goods could be exported.
Seeing that it was almost time, Yang Zhitang, Feng Liao, Han Daochang and others took a boat to Hangou Shuikou so that they could enter Yangzhou City to meet Wang Wenqian before dark.
…………
…………
Wang Wenqian also led Yangzhou generals early in the afternoon to wait at the ferry outside the west city.
Yang Zhitang, as the privy envoy and King of Shou, was officially ordered to supervise the defense of Yangzhou this time.
In addition to Wang Wenqian, generals such as Zhao Zhen, the general manager of the Yangzhou camp, Yin Peng, the state commander, and Xu Zhi, the chief minister, also gathered under the newly built colorful shed in front of the ferry.
However, by this time, the news that King Shou was asked to come to Yangzhou to serve as a matchmaker had spread in Jinling, Yangzhou and other places.
Seeing the fleet of the longevity king Yang Zhitang approaching slowly, Yin Peng thought to himself, this marriage has been going on for so many years, and it is probably only people like Yang Zhitang who come forward to propose a marriage, who can save something for the Wang family.
To save face, otherwise all the uncles within the Wang family would be in trouble.
Feng Liao and Han Daochang accompanied Yang Zhitang ashore and met with the Yangzhou generals headed by Wang Wenqian. They had to discuss official business and the matter of protecting matchmakers.
At this time, there is also an accompanying merchant ship docked on the north side of the pier. The ship is loaded with thirty-two betrothal gifts. Another elder from the Wang family will be sent to receive them, and they will be taken directly along the causeway outside the west city wall.
, carried to Shugang Jianyuan.
There is nothing good to say about Yangzhou's defense.
After Tangyi's troops entered autumn, they intensified their attacks on the enemy-occupied areas in Chao and Chu north of the Chu River. Troops and horses were frequently dispatched to divert the main attention of the Shouzhou Army on the southern front.
Including Fanliang Lake, the defense in Dongyang County in the north is under the jurisdiction of Chuzhou.
Yangzhou faced very little military pressure. There were only 30,000 troops stationed in Yangzhou at the beginning of the year. By this time, in addition to the 10,000 soldiers who had been converted into garrisons, more than 2,000 disaster-stricken families had also been recruited, with the help of money borrowed from Tangyi.
He used the money to buy seeds, farm tools, livestock, and rations. He used every opportunity to build lake embankments, build villages, dig rivers and ditches, and reclaim more than 100,000 acres of grain fields in the west of Hangou and on the west bank of Shaobo Lake.
Far from weakening, the defense line on Yangzhou's western flank was greatly strengthened.
In addition to being harassed by Liang Jun along the Huaihe River, due to the weakness of the salt soldiers protecting the salt field, Huaidong Salt Fields is easily penetrated by Liang Jun's navy. Huaidong currently has to strengthen the defenses on the eastern front of Chuzhou and Taizhou, and its military resources are even more stretched.
, if the grain storage lasts for another two months, we will fall into the predicament of a shortage of food.
The crowd walked through the streets and alleys, and, surrounded by guards in bright armor, rode into the governor's palace. After meeting with the Yangzhou generals, most of the middle-level generals resigned first, leaving only Yang Zhitang, Liu Chengsi, Feng Liao, and Han Daochang in the hall.
, Wang Wenqian, Zhao Zhen, Yin Peng, Xu Zhi et al.
There is still no way for Huaidong to overturn the conditions issued by Prince Shou's Mansion in Tangyi.
Tangyi provided an extremely cheap loan of 20,000 shi of grain per month. King Shou Yang Zhitang tried his best to get more aid for Huaidong from the court, and the only requirement was that Yangtai and Taizhou should relax trade restrictions on Chishanhui.
, release the Hailing River east of Taizhou to Youlong Wujun, so that the newly formed navy of Youlongwu Army can pass through the Hailing River from the west wing of the Huaidong Saltworks to participate in the joint defense of the coast north of the Yangtze River...
Evacuating some of the refugees and resettling the disaster-stricken people in Tangyi will also alleviate the relief pressure on Huaidong.
Wang Wenqian and Zhao Zhen, on behalf of Huaidong, can only strive to further increase the loan scale, hoping that they can borrow Xuzhou's armor, weapons, warships and other military supplies on credit in the future.
Since Huaidong raised its demands, Feng Liao, on behalf of Tangyi, unceremoniously asked Huaidong to significantly reduce the garrison on the west wing of Yangzhou, and asked Zhundong to transfer more troops to the west of Fanliang Lake and from Fanliang Lake
Between Hongzepu and Hongzepu, we took a peek at the enemy troops stationed in Shiliang County and actively fought against them.
In addition to more realistically strengthening the military pressure on Chuzhou's enemy forces, this can also reduce the military threat from Huaidong on the eastern flank of the Tangyi soldiers.
Han Qian is not naive enough to think that if everyone is now married and formed an alliance, Huaidong will not suddenly turn against Tangyi from the east wing one day.
At this time, Huaidong was required to continue to significantly reduce the defense troops on the west flank of Yangzhou. If one day, Huaidong wanted to turn against them, it would take a while for them to gather troops on the west flank of Yangzhou. This would also help Tangyi adjust his troop deployment and gain enough troops.
time.
Yang Zhitang also absolutely supports Feng Liao's suggestion.
At present, Youlong Wujun is stationed in Runzhou at this time, across the river from Yangzhou. If King Xin Yang Yuanyan has some trust in him, he should reduce the number of troops stationed in Yangzhou.
This can actually further alleviate the pressure within Huaidong.
There is a huge difference in whether more than 10,000 elite soldiers and horses are left empty on Yangzhou's western defense line or transferred to the northern line to strengthen the counterattack and harassment operations against the Liang Army; and if the Chuzhou frontline troops are sufficient, one
More than 10,000 elite soldiers and horses were converted into garrison troops. In the future, the increase or decrease in military expenditures can be the difference between 200,000 to 300,000 shi of grain per year.
Everything discussed here was immediately reported to the office of King Xin Yang Yuanyan who was stationed in Dongyang at the earliest opportunity.
Feng Liao, Han Daochang and the others first stayed with the longevity king Yang Zhitang in the post house. In the early morning, they could faintly hear people coming and going in Yang Zhitang's yard. Feng Liao ignored them and waited until noon the next day to rush to the Governor's Mansion to discuss matters.
It seems that only then did King Xin Yang Yuanyan's reply come through, saying that part of the garrison in Yangzhou can continue to be withdrawn, but it is required that the loan amount be increased to 50,000 shi per month before the summer grain harvest tomorrow.
Feng Liao's attitude was very simple. After the Han family had drained the money, the monthly loan of thirty thousand shi of grain would be overwhelming. If the extra money was spent, if the longevity king Yang Zhitang could think of a way, they would not stop it.