Chapter six hundred and sixty-two gains and losses
The imperial edict to confer Han Qian with the title of Councilor on Political Affairs and to commend Han Qian for his contribution to the recovery of northwest Huai came later, and was not sent out from Jinling until the 15th.
Han Daochang received the errand of delivering the decree and rushed to East Lake by boat as the minister of delivering the decree.
Han Qian was worried that the situation would change at any time. After persuading the surrender of the You Shenwu Army years ago, he stayed in Huangchuan and took charge. At the same time, the Tangyi Army's troops on the west flank did not decrease to maintain military deterrence against the Xiangbei Army.
Han Daochang received the mission to meet Han Qian, so he and Huo Li, who had led more than a hundred bodyguards and cavalry back to East Lake to rest, rushed all the way to Huangchuan to meet Han Qian.
They rushed to Huangchuan, but they did not expect that Zhou Tan, who had been demoted as the governor of Guangzhou, arrived one day earlier than him. At this time, Han Qian, Zhou Tan and others were in Luoshan after Zuo Longque's army withdrew.
Han Daochang, accompanied by Huo Li and others, rushed to Luoshan to meet Han Qian.
Guangzhou has been almost completely crippled. More than 20,000 households in Luoshan were moved to Le'an, Huangchuan and other places by Han Qian. After Li Zhigao led the Zuo Longque Army, they retreated from the northern foot of Tongbai Mountain to Nanyang (Dengzhou).
), the soldiers and horses of Lingshan and Yiyang also retreated south to Jiuli (Huangxian) and other pass lines, and Tangyi went west to receive the registered civilians transferred from the four counties of Yiyang, Qisi, Luoshan and Tongbai, and the Xiangbei Army
There are less than 10,000 people in each household.
Except for the two thousand soldiers and horses who followed Han Qian and Zhou Pan to the west, Luoshan City had row upon row of well-preserved houses in the seven to eight hundred paces square city, but there was not a single civilian household. It was completely an empty city.
Previously, Feng Liao rushed to Jinling to confess. He only said that he would do everything possible to recruit Wen Boqi's troops, but he did not say that he would encourage the local princes to usurp the throne in the future. Of course, these were irrelevant, but after seeing Han Qian, Han Daochang
As I walked around the empty streets with everyone, I still couldn't help but complain that exchanging Jingzhou and Xiangbei for Guangzhou was a very costly deal.
"After Li Changfeng went to the secret court, Cishou Palace still secretly released the news that we were plotting something behind his back. A lot of criticisms arose in the court for a while. But after Cao Yong and Wang Ang came to Beijing with their credentials, the criticisms
It quickly disappeared. It can be seen that the vast majority of people in the court can still distinguish between right and wrong. Of course, some people may have thought in their hearts that after Chu captured Liangzhou, it would have the basis for plotting against Shu. "There was no one else around.
In addition to Gao Shao, Feng Liao, Kong Xirong and others, Zhou Pan can also be said to be a direct descendant of Tangyi at this time. Han Daochang spoke without any scruples and said with regret, "If Liangzhou can fall into our hands, the time has come.
, we send troops from Xuzhou and Liangzhou to attack from the north and the south, it will be more convenient to plan for Shu generals..."
"If you are greedy for too much, you will lose, and no one is a good person - Guo Rong and Zhou Tan were right to make such a decision in Canglang City at that time," Han Qian said with a smile, "Currently, Zuo Wuxiang Army and Zuo Shenwu Army have also entered Liangzhou.
On the one hand, greatly sharing the military pressure Wenbo and the others are bearing, we also need to calculate how much we can save on military expenses such as food and fodder..."
Even under the threat of Han Qian personally leading the troops on the west wing, Li Zhigao, Chai Jian and others did not dare to attack Canglang, Jingyun and other cities from behind. However, if Tangyi took the waterway from Xuzhou or Donghu and sent navy troops to protect it,
Transporting military supplies to Liangzhou involves huge military expenses and freight costs. At least 70,000 to 80,000 yuan is needed to invest in food every month, which amounts to nearly one million yuan in military expenses in a year.
In addition, don't expect that the Xiangbei Army will enter Liangzhou at this time to jointly resist Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian's counterattack.
If they really want to control Liangzhou for a long time, the newly formed Youshenwu Army will be under great military pressure. Not only will this additional military expenditure be a long-term heavy burden for Tangyi - Shu Kingdom
Even if the promised annual tribute is spent in Liangzhou, it will still be far from enough.
If Zhu Yu finally chooses to withdraw from Guanzhong, and Guanzhong is taken over by the Mongolians, how much resources will Tangyi have to invest in Liangzhou to contain the Mongols' military advance from the south of the Qinling Mountains?
Now that Liangzhou was assigned to Xiangbei, not only did all the armies in Xiangbei bear the military pressure of Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian's counterattack, but Wen Bo later led the right Shenwu Army to withdraw, while Zhu Yu also handed over Guanzhong to the Mongols.
, it will also be up to the armies of Xiangbei to bear the lead of the Mongol people coming out of the Qinling Mountains from the south.
At this time, all military expenditures incurred in Liangzhou also need to be shared by the Xiangbei Defense Envoy and the imperial court. Han Qian only needs to allocate a batch of meat and sophisticated soldiers and armor every month to additionally strengthen the Right Shenwu Army.
enough.
In this way, Tangyi only needs to spend more than 10,000 yuan per month on the battlefield in Liangzhou.
The saved military resources will still be invested in the management of Huaixi.
More importantly, when Prince Yongzhen of Changxiang stabilized the situation in Shu, wouldn't he and many Shu subjects worry that Tangyi would one day occupy Xuzhou and Liangzhou and attack from the north and south to seek Shu territory?
The country has no right to fight, and interests come first.
Han Qian could understand with his toes that if Wang Yong really wanted to secure his position as the leader of the country, he would be the first to fall out with them and try every possible means to take back Liangzhou from their hands.
When the time comes, Wen Bo leads the Shenwu Army on the right to stand alone in Liangzhou, with enemies from both north and south, and the Xiangbei Army with ulterior motives on the east flank. What ability will they have to defend Liangzhou?
On the southern route, Wang Yong may not only cut off trade with Xuzhou, but may even secretly support the two states of Siye and the big surname forces in central Guizhou to fight against Xuzhou.
After hearing what Han Qian said, Han Daochang asked hesitantly: "You have never thought about taking Liangzhou from the beginning to the end, so why did you include Liangzhou in the secret agreement from the beginning? Is it for Li Zhigao?
The bait laid by Chai Jian and the others? However, you have known for a long time that Lu Qingxia was colluding with Guanjiang Tower and the northern fleeing gentry, and you were even worried that Lu Qingxia was secretly attached to the Mongols. Now you have given Liangzhou to them. Once the Mongols really
Once Guanzhong is captured, aren't you worried about them working together as a group and completely colluding together?"
"If possible, who would be willing to be a lackey of a foreign race? No matter what Lu Qingxia thinks, I think not only Li Zhigao, Li Changfeng, Li Xiu and others will not be willing to do so, but even Chai Jian, Zhou Shu, Deng Tai, Xu Jing and others will not be willing to do so.
Will you be willing?" Han Qian said, "Of course, after they win Liangzhou and establish a solid foundation, they will actively seek Shu if they have the opportunity. From the geographical point of view, they also have this advantage - this also means that they will not easily
Give up Liangzhou."
In the original plan, Li Changfeng did not expect that Li Changfeng would meet at the right time, but he had already considered that Li Zhigao, Chai Jian and others had the ambition to win over Liangzhou. At the same time, Xiangbei also had favorable geographical conditions, but even then, Han Qian did not think of bringing Li Changfeng to Liangzhou.
Liangzhou was taken as his own.
Han Daochang thought the same thing. Liangzhou is the bridge connecting Xiangbei to Shu. Li Zhigao and others really want to plan for Shu. They will definitely strengthen the management of Liangzhou and will never give up Liangzhou because of secret collusion with the Mongol people.
.
Han Qian continued: "Of course, there is another consideration in giving up Li Zhigao to Li Zhigao, that is, whether we are wary of Li Zhigao's ambitions in the future, or we want to take Li Zhigao back from Li Zhigao, this will prompt Wang Yong to follow us.
The relationship is closer and more harmonious... Right now, we can only see this step
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, the current situation is difficult, we can only take one step at a time."
Han Daochang thought that there were not many people in the world who could see this step, right?
"Li Zhigao gave up the four counties of Guangzhou so simply and neatly. He was probably anxious to lead his troops into Liangzhou himself, right?" Zhou Tan intervened at this time and said.
"You secretly set a stumbling block for them when they were in Canglang, causing Li Changfeng and Li Xiu to lead their troops into Liangzhou in advance. Currently, Li Changfeng is also the governor of Liangzhou. If he cannot lead his troops into Liangzhou as soon as possible, once Liangzhou
Once the situation stabilizes, he will have no excuse to enter Liangzhou," Han Qian said with a smile, "There are some differences between Wanhonglou and the Prince's Mansion in East Zhejiang..."
Zhou Pan nodded. When they negotiated with Li Changfeng, Yao Xishui and Fei Wenbo in Canglang City, they could feel that Yao Xishui knew about the fall of Taiyuan Mansion in advance, but Li Changfeng did not know about it. It can be seen that although Li Changfeng was clearly Ci Shou
He was the highest-ranking figure in the court outside the palace, but Lu Qingxia, Yao Xishui and others were somewhat wary of him.
"It doesn't matter if Li Zhigao can lead his troops into Liangzhou. Once Zhao Mengji is resisted and Wang Xiaoxian makes the first counterattack, Wen Bo and Tan Yuliang can lead their troops to withdraw from Liangzhou." Feng Liao said with emotion.
"By the way, how is the situation in Guanzhong now?" Han Daochang remembered something and asked.
There are too many obstacles for the news from Guanzhong to reach Jinling, but Han Daochang believes that even if Tangyi has to cross mountains and rivers, they will definitely send some scouts to cross the Qinling Mountains or Funiu Mountains and sneak into Guanzhong to confirm the changes in the situation in Guanzhong in time and send the news back.
"Perhaps after the Youshenwu Army was surrendered and marched westward, Zhu Yu guessed what we were going to do. In mid-to-early December, he secretly assembled all his elite troops on the northern front. After Shi Jizu was granted the title of King Yong by the Mongols
, eager to seize Yongzhou to be his king of Guanzhong, and worried that Yongzhou would be captured by the Shu army in advance, so his troops took a short rest and went south along the Fenshui River Valley. They couldn't wait to enter the Hejin area, stepped into the trap set by Zhu Yu, and were brutally defeated by the Liang army.
The main force in Guanzhong was severely beaten, 40,000 soldiers and horses were killed in a rout, and Shi Jizu fell off his horse and died in the chaos..." Han Qian said.
"Ah, Zhu Yu is so powerful?" Han Daochang asked in shock, "But besides Shi Jizu, what are the Mongols and other troops in Weizhou doing on the northern front? Are they just sitting back and watching Shi Jizu's troops be destroyed?"
"The Mongols still intended to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Liang Army on the northern front. At that time, there were 60,000 soldiers and horses divided into two groups to cooperate with Shi Jizu in fighting. After seeing the main force of the Liang Army leaving the city, they wanted to intercept its retreat from the flanks and achieve the purpose of encirclement. However,
Unexpectedly, under the personal command of Zhu Yu, the elite Liang army fought extremely quickly and fiercely. Before the two groups of soldiers and horses could surround them from the flanks, Shi Jizu's troops were completely defeated by the elite Liang army led by Zhu Yu. Later, they were defeated by Zhu Yu.
The troops broke out of the encirclement and retreated to the north of Yongzhou - the entire war ended in only three days from the start to the end..." Han Qian said.
"Three days?" Han Daochang clicked his tongue, not knowing what to say. In the cold winter, there was snow everywhere on the Guanzhong Plain. Three days may not be enough for the cavalry to travel two hundred miles, let alone surrender to Mengwu.
Shi Jizu, the crown prince of the Jin Dynasty who was destroyed by the Jin Dynasty, was defeated and died within a few days of being granted the title of King Yong. He did not even seize the title of Yongzhou, which is also very sad.
Han Daochang asked again: "So, Liang Jun has a good chance of guarding Guanzhong?"
"It's difficult," Han Qian shook his head and said, "Liang Jun's victory may be able to boost his morale a little, but such a rapid forward attack and a breakout and retreat will cause many casualties. At this time, the troops west of Yongzhou
Fengzhou, Qizhou and other places have fallen into the control of Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian. Tongzhou, Linzhou, Qingzhou and other places in the north are also occupied by Wang Yuankui's Chengde army and Pingxia people. At present, Liang Jun only controls the front
Chao Jingzhao Prefecture belongs to the three prefectures of Yong, Hua and Shang and nineteen counties. Even though Liang Jun is backed by the Qinling Mountains in the south and Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian in the west are temporarily unintentional to advance eastward, the land in the north is lost and the Mongolian cavalry can be ready at any time.
It can invade from Pingchuan on the north bank of the Wei River to the depths of Yongzhou, and even penetrate directly into the hinterland of Huazhou, closely linking the Liang Army and Tongguan..."
Han Daochang knew that the three prefectures of Yonghua and Shang were the most elite areas in Guanzhong, especially the two prefectures of Yonghua and Yonghua, which spanned both sides of the Wei River and had fertile land. Even after the Guanzhong area was crippled, Liang Jun occupied Guanzhong a few years ago and recruited refugees.
There are millions of households in these two states.
The most critical issue was that after all the geographical advantages were lost, the Mongols in the north and the Weizhou rebels in the east, even after Shi Jizu's troops were defeated, could still easily gather hundreds of thousands of troops and slowly push southward.
At this time, the Guanzhong Liang Army did not have any dangerous terrain to defend on the northern front. Even if the Mongols slowed down their offensive and only sent a small group of cavalry to invade south, the agricultural production in Yonghua and Hua Prefectures would not be able to sustain. The Guanzhong Liang Army had 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers.
Where does the horse's food come from?
Unless the Mongolians can be expelled from Guanzhong and the Tongqing and Hejin areas are recovered, and Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian must be expelled from Qizhou and Fengzhou to the west, the geographical advantage of Guanzhong will be considered complete.
However, Zhu Yu was taking risks to defeat Shi Jizu. Even if the main force of the Mongol people shrank back to digest and solidify the Jin land, Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye were all veterans of the Jin state. Seventy or eighty thousand soldiers and horses and the Pingxia people's cavalry were stationed in Qingzhou, Tongzhou and
In the Hejin area, the Guanzhong Liang Army, which was short of food, ammunition, armor, wounds and medicine, could not easily be defeated.
"Next, Liang Emperor Zhu Yu may negotiate peace with Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian, but it won't be easy," Zhou Tan said.
He rushed to Guangzhou yesterday to take up his post. He understood the situation in Guanzhong earlier than Han Daochang and thought more thoroughly. He did not feel that the victory of Liang Jun in Guanzhong would bring fundamental improvement to the bad situation they faced.
As time went on, when the Mongols felt that they had enough control over the Jin region, their elite cavalry and the Han army were mobilized again. Not only was the Liang army in Guanzhong in danger, but Han Yuanqi, Chen Kun and other troops who were defending Bianjing were struggling to support themselves.
It will also be difficult to support a single tree and cannot escape the end of defeat.
Han Qian sighed and shook his head. Putting aside the bad situation at the gate, he discussed the matter of Zhou Dan taking over Guangzhou.
At present, it is necessary to move the Shanzhai people eastward from Junzhou as soon as possible. With Canglang at the forefront, Li Zhigao and the others will not set up any obstacles for the Shanzhai people to move eastward at this time. Even if they do not take the initiative to move people out, Li Zhigao will
With the expulsion started, it is estimated that more than 20,000 soldiers and civilians will move into Gwangju in the near future.
Li Zhigao also made it clear that he would not allow so many people to reorganize and move eastward.
The current plan being discussed is for Shanzhai officials and their families to be transported to East Lake by merchant ships from the Chishan Association. For other people who are willing to move to Guangzhou, in addition to road guides, the Zhiji Prefecture will pay five cents of travel expenses to each household, and then they will be transferred to Guangzhou.
The corresponding settlement fee will be issued.
In addition, Han Qian plans to reorganize Huangchuan and Le'an counties under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou, but even so, Guangzhou will only have a population of more than 70,000 households in the future.
Considering the possibility of maintaining a long-term military confrontation along the Huaihe River, these populations will mainly be located in the shallow hills and low ridges of the Huanghe River and the upper reaches of the Gushui River near Huaiyang Mountain and Tongbai Mountain.
In these areas, in order to arrange agricultural production well, it is necessary to build more dams to intercept water sources and divert water through canals.
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, more fields can be irrigated, and the cost of farming is higher than that in the plain area near the Huaihe River.
However, these things must be done in the cloud.
In Huozhou, Shouzhou, and Haozhou, Han Qian also guided the households to resettle southward as much as possible, tried every means to increase the population density along Chaohu Lake, and evacuated the residents in the central and northern parts of Shouzhou, Haozhou, and Huozhou near the Huaihe River.
household.
These are all preparations for the Mongol cavalry to march straight in and directly occupy or allow the Weizhou rebels to completely occupy the Hehuai area.
Fortunately, Huaixi is vast and sparsely populated, so the land is extremely abundant, and the land on both sides of Chaohu Lake and within Chuzhou is also more fertile.
Of course, Tangyi's reliance on Huaixi's land tax is quite limited. More importantly, it relies on the dumping of cotton, ironware and other primary industrial products to the hinterland of Dachu and surrounding forces. This also determines that Tangyi cannot simply do this.
A local separatist vassal power.
This time the Shu Kingdom ceded the two states of Xia and Liang. The geographical location was very crucial, but the fundamental reason why Tangyi was not taken was here.
What Tangyi has done so far is to make other forces unable to find excuses and unable to block the Chishan Society's trade.
By the end of the year, the three core prefectures of Chuchao and Xu had planted more than one million acres of cotton fields, harvested more than 900,000 dans of seed cotton a year, and expanded their export sales to 6 million pieces of cotton cloth and hundreds of thousands of waddings.
This project can directly contribute millions of dollars in income to the government every year.
In addition to the counties in Xuzhou, nine counties with high-quality coal and iron mineral resources, including Donghu, Longtan, Huaiyang, Tingshan, Yongyang, and Nanqiao, have also vigorously expanded the double-furnace ironmaking method.
The iron material produced also successfully exceeded the threshold of 12 million kilograms.
However, Tangyi's current export of iron materials, including armor and weapons, is mainly high value-added refined iron products, totaling less than 2 million kilograms, which can provide the government with 200,000 yuan per year.
income.
The iron materials refined and produced in Tangyi are currently mainly supplied for internal consumption.
This is mainly due to the operation and development of the Huaixi prefectures, which require a huge amount of investment in various types of iron tools. Last year, more than 6 million kilograms of iron were consumed in the production of agricultural tools alone, reaching an average of six kilograms per capita. However, it is precisely a large amount of high-quality iron tools.
Only after the large-scale distribution of agricultural tools in various ways did the agricultural production in Huaixi states recover so quickly.
Without such a huge amount of iron tools, the efficiency of reclaiming wasteland, weeding pear fields, digging canals and other projects would be much slower.
The subsequent demand for iron tools in Huaixi's agricultural production will remain at a relatively stable level. However, Han Qian intends to promote the application of iron products in bridge building and other construction work, and the internal demand for iron materials will also increase rapidly.
The price will continue to rise, but at the same time, it will also promote the strengthening of external dumping, taking advantage of the advantages in cost and quality as well as the business network spread by the Chishan Association to compete with the local iron smelting industries in various places.
This means that Tangyi's iron smelting still needs to develop in a big way.
Engineers from the Engineering School discovered a kind of bile water deep in the Quyang Mountains early last year, which could produce copper using the displacement method. Han Qian speculated that the commonly known bile water should be a solution containing copper compounds.
On this basis, the Engineering School summarized the method of smelting copper with bile water. In the second half of the year before last, it officially established a smelting plant in Quyang. Last year, it consumed two million kilograms of iron materials and smelted 800,000 kilograms of copper.
Since the previous dynasty, the iron smelting industry has been abandoned for a long time. Even so, a pound of Jianghuai refined iron only sells for fifty or sixty yuan. The price of crude pig iron is even lower, ranging from ten yuan to more than twenty yuan, but the price of copper is real.
One kilogram is worth more than a hundred dollars, and it can even be used as a hard currency trading commodity.
The copper coins cast in Dachu are also worth one thousand qian and four taels of copper.
For two and a half kilograms of crude iron, one kilogram of copper material can be obtained by smelting copper with bile water. No matter how you calculate it, it is a very cost-effective deal.
The newly established smelter in Quyang contributed an income of 40,000 yuan a year to the government.
Quyang is a newly established county, and households have been organized into households along the upper reaches of the river. As of the end of last year, there were more than 20,000 households, and more than 160,000 acres of farmland were cultivated. The annual field tax collected is equivalent to money and grain.
There are only about 40,000 yuan.
Of course, the consumption of iron materials is also huge.
Han Qian will not keep the bile water copper-smelting method secret. After all, only one bile water has been found in Xuzhou. If more bile water or other copper-containing compound solution resources similar to bile water can be found in other places, this
If the method is promoted, more copper materials will be produced.
On the one hand, if the scale of commerce in the Jianghuai region is further expanded, the production of more copper coins, as well as the promotion of the use of precious metals such as gold and silver in commercial transactions, can expand the private money supply. On the other hand, this method promotes
Going forward will directly expand the demand for iron materials, and the ultimate beneficiary will be Tangyi's growing iron smelting industry.
Although thousands of kilograms of iron materials and iron products are supplied internally, various taxes, city parking taxes and over-taxes are set at a low level, but such a huge scale still contributed hundreds of thousands of annual income to the government last year.
In addition to Butie, the annual output of Wuchuan well salt is stable at 120,000 shi, which also provides the Zhizhi government with an income of nearly 300,000 shi.
It is a pity that the output of Wuchuan Well Salt is difficult to continue to expand, otherwise the income will at least increase a lot.
Huaixi Zhuzhou counties currently have a population of one million, and their annual salt consumption is more than 100,000 shi. Currently, they can only buy and sell from the salt and iron transfer department, and then resell the salt in each county with a tax of 100 shi per shi.
Shang, every year, the salt and iron transfer envoys eat up hundreds of thousands of dollars of salt profits in vain.
Chen Jingzhou, the imperial envoy to Shu, Han Qian wrote a letter to Chen Jingzhou, hoping that after he arrived in the capital of Shu, he could negotiate an agreement with Wang Yong, the representative of Tangyi, in which Tangyi would bear the annual tribute promised by Shu.
However, the Shu Kingdom needed to cede Yantian Port, located in the southernmost part of Yuzhou, which could produce well salt, and merge it into Wuchuan County.
If this matter can be negotiated, the well salt that Tangyi can produce every year may be increased to about 300,000 dan. After deducting the annual tribute, Tangyi can still get an additional 100,000 and 200,000 dan of salt profit every year.
Another thing that Tangyi strongly promotes is coal mining. Currently, more than 500,000 tons of coal are mined in Xuzhou and Huaixi counties every year, but it can only be supplied for internal consumption in Xuzhou and Huaixi counties. In Han Qian’s view,
Coming is not enough.
The Wujianshan Coal Mine is being vigorously developed and is expected to be put into production after autumn. The output in the first two years will double Tangyi's coal output and be able to supply Gyeonggi and other places.
Although coal may not be as profitable as shipbuilding, the large-scale use of coal and iron is the basis for the rapid increase in productivity.
It is precisely because of the various taxes and municipal land tax revenue on primary industrial products such as cloth, iron, coal, and salt that it can reach such a scale. Han Qian decided at the beginning of last year that all land tax revenue should be reserved for prefecture and county local expenditure.
This is very different from the Shouzhou army who ruled Huaixi and squeezed the local area desperately.
This also determines that Tangyi, while maintaining strong military strength and deterrence, must also maintain fragile connections with all parties that cannot be broken off at will.
