The first thousand and sixty-one chapters come to Jiangxia again
Li Na finally chose to withdraw his troops. Under the pressure of the situation, he led his troops to retreat north overnight. At the same time, he sent someone to notify Cao Guang to lead the navy to retreat. As for how he felt when he finally learned that the navy no longer belonged to him.
, that’s what happens in the future.
After meeting with the governors of the five Huainan states in Jiangdu, Guo Song immediately returned to Runzhou. It was already mid-September. Although Guo Song still had Mingzhou, Wenzhou, Xuanzhou and other places to inspect, he did not have time to continue his inspection south.
After staying in Runzhou for a day, Guo Song officially ended his tour of Jiangnan and took his family back to Chang'an by boat.
Guo Song's tour of Jiangnan was of great significance. He appeased the officialdom, visited wealthy families, comforted the people, stabilized the officialdom and people's hearts, won the support of the Jiangnan nobles, and brought Jiangnan back to the imperial court.
Guo Song immediately appointed Lu Zhan as the salt and iron transport envoy to the two Zhejiang Roads, responsible for transporting taxes and grain from the two Zhejiang Roads. Although Lu Zhan was born and grew up in Chang'an, he was an out-and-out successor to the Lu family in Suzhou.
The clansman has followed Guo Song for many years, and he is responsible for the finance and taxation of Jiangnan. Guo Song is very relieved.
The fleet was sailing on the vast Yangtze River. It was already late autumn. There was a strong northwest wind blowing on the river. It was sailing against the current. The fleet had to rely on trackers to pull it, so the fleet sailed close to the south bank.
Thousands of bare-chested trackers, shouting low chants, lined up on the shore and struggled to pull the big ship westward.
Guo Song sat in a cabin and concentrated on reviewing the memorial. The imperial court sent people to Runzhou not long ago. There were some important memorials that he had to approve, such as next year's imperial examination plan, Anxi's plan to recruit Long March athletes, and
More than a dozen impeachment letters from Yushitai.
In addition, the last batch of 5,000 camels purchased by the historian was delivered to Zhangye. At this point, all 50,000 camels were in place, and the court paid nearly 1 million taels of silver, which far exceeded the 500,000 taels of silver set at the time.
The budget, because the budget was seriously exceeded, required special approval from Guo Song.
At this time, Xue Tao walked into the cabin and personally brought a cup of freshly fried ginseng tea to her husband. She put the tea cup on the table and said with a smile: "This is a ship. It will rock. My husband drank it while it was hot."
!”
Guo Song put down his pen, picked up the tea cup, took a sip, and asked with a smile: "What are everyone doing?"
"Except for Xiaowei who was drawing her autumn plans for the south of the Yangtze River, everyone else was quite bored. They either gathered together to chat or play backgammon. Taking a boat was too boring. Everyone was eager to return to Chang'an as soon as possible."
Guo Song smiled and said: "I originally wanted to say that next time I go to Anxi for inspection, should I take you with me?"
Xue Tao was surprised, "Will my husband go to Anxi next year?"
"It may not be next year, but it may be the year after. I will definitely go there."
Of course, Xue Tao knew that her husband would have many more inspections in the future. Inspections were very important to the stability of various places. This time they realized that inspections in the future were unavoidable. She said nothing more and just nodded silently.
At this time, Guo Song remembered something, took a thick stack of newspapers from behind, handed it to Xue Tao and said with a smile: "These were sent by the guards just now, they are all from the past month or so."
Xue Tao was suddenly surprised and happy, and said in surprise: "Why are there newspapers on the river?"
"There was a post ship coming from Xiangyang just now, and it was going to be sent to Runzhou. Our ship intercepted it and asked for a copy of each of the two newspapers."
"Now we have a newspaper to read!"
Xue Tao was overjoyed and hurried away with the newspaper. With the newspaper, their journey would not be so boring.
...........
That morning, the fleet arrived in Jiangxia County, Ezhou. The fleet anchored in Jiangxia County for supplies. Everyone also went ashore to rest. Xue Tao took everyone to the Yellow Crane Tower. When she and Guo Song escaped from Bashu, they had
I have been to Jiangxia and bought Minqiu here. This is also Minqiu's hometown, but her parents' tombs were moved to Chang'an by Guo Song a few years ago, so she has no souvenirs here.
The Yellow Crane Tower has been cleared of tourists and hundreds of soldiers are heavily guarded. No outsiders are allowed in except the princess and other family members.
After boarding the Yellow Crane Tower, everyone was in high spirits, but Min Qiu seemed a little depressed.
Xue Tao walked slowly to Min Qiu and said softly: "I remember you once said that your uncle is in Jiangxia, why don't you go and see him?"
Min Qiu shook his head, "Back then, he occupied the house left by his parents and sold me into slavery. He and I had already severed all ties with each other. I don't have any uncle."
"Then you have other worries?"
Xue Tao smiled again and said, "If you have something on your mind, just say it. Don't keep it in your heart."
Min Qiu looked at the Yangtze River below and sighed softly: "I don't know, I want to see my former residence, but..."
"Then I'll let my husband make some arrangements later. Now that I'm here, I still have to go take a look. I don't know when the next time will be!"
Min Qiu nodded gently, her heart full of expectations for her former residence...
Guo Song inspected the garrison camp in Jiangxia. After the Jiangling battle, in addition to Pei Xin leading a part of the army back to Guanzhong, Zhang Yun led 20,000 troops to Jiangxia to prepare for the next Huaixi campaign.
Although Zhang Yun is still the nominal commander of the scout army, he has been promoted to the general of hussars, and his scope of authority is no longer the scout battalion. He has also begun to lead the army to stand alone. The actual commanders of the scout battalion are three deputy commanders, Huben.
Lang General Chen Li, Huben Lang General Zhang Yuanzhi and Huben Lang General Zhou Fei, while military affairs were under the charge of Chief Shi Shao Jianzhi.
The soldiers were training on the martial arts field. Guo Song, accompanied by the generals, inspected the school field. He asked again: "Are the soldiers still used to this place?"
"Brothers have adapted very well. There are 10,000 troops here under Ma Sui. Most of them are from nearby states and counties. They are well-trained and have strong combat capabilities. They are no worse than our army."
Guo Song nodded, "That's why we didn't disband them. It would be a pity to disband and return home."
When they arrived at the commander's tent, Guo Song walked to the map, looked at it for a moment and asked, "What does the red flag on the map mean?"
"Reporting to your highness, a red flag is a city where troops are stationed. A red flag represents a thousand people, such as Huanggang County in Huangzhou, Anlu County in Anzhou, and Yiyang County in Shenzhou. These are the three counties close to Jingxiang.
Each of the key counties in Huaixi Prefecture has 5,000 troops stationed. Then, Hefei County in Luzhou to the east, Shouchun County in Shouzhou, and Shucheng County in Shuzhou also have 5,000 troops each. Among the eight states in Huaixi, there are only 5,000 troops stationed in them.
There are no troops stationed in Qizhou and Guangzhou."
Guo Song sneered, "With their troops so dispersed, aren't they afraid of being defeated by us individually?"
"Every general has a habit! For example, Xue Lun, the king of Guangling County, likes to gather his troops in Yangzhou, while Gaoyou, the king of Huaixi County, likes to disperse his troops. When he was stationed in Songzhou, he dispersed 5,000 troops to various counties.
One thousand people per county.”
Guo Song smiled and praised: "As expected of a scout general, he has studied the enemy generals thoroughly!"
Zhang Yun touched his nose and said, "Thank you for the compliment, Your Highness. I am really used to humble positions. I wish I could find out all the eight generations of the other party's ancestors."
Zhang Yun's words were humorous, and everyone laughed together.
...........
In the afternoon, Guo Song accompanied Min Qiu to the south of Jiangxia City. Although Min Qiu was just a concubine, she was also one of Guo Song's wives. As her husband, Guo Song of course had to accompany her to visit her former residence.
With her husband accompanying her, Minqiu's originally tense mood relaxed a lot. She felt a strong sense of security, which was also an important reason why Guo Song liked her. Minqiu had always been insecure, so she relied heavily on her husband.
When having sex, she devoted herself wholeheartedly, wishing that she could become one with her husband. Every time he spent the night at her place, Guo Song would get great satisfaction.
"That's the courtyard!" Min Qiu pointed to a courtyard by the roadside and whispered.
Min Qiu's father is a teacher who runs a private school, the same profession as Xue Tao's grandfather. Her family's house is in a good location, close to the street, covering an area of about two acres. No wonder after Min Qiu's parents died of illness, her uncle took her to occupy the property.
Sold into slavery.
The Jiangxia County Magistrate had already taken the lead and explained to the owner of the house. Dozens of soldiers had also made security arrangements. Guo Song and Min Qiu walked directly into the yard.
Walking into the yard, Minqiu was stunned for a moment, tears falling down her cheeks. Seeing that she was in an abnormal mood, Guo Song gently hugged her and asked, "What's wrong?"
"It's gone, my former home is gone." She couldn't bear it anymore, turned around and fell into her husband's arms and started to cry sadly.
Guo Song took a closer look at the house and immediately understood that the houses were all new and had only been repaired for a few years. It should be that Min Qiu's former residence had been demolished.
At this time, the county magistrate came with the owner of the house. The owner was a middle-aged man in his forties. He didn't know who the person opposite was. Even the county magistrate treated him respectfully.
The owner of the house was so frightened that he knelt down and kowtowed. Guo Song asked, "What is your name?"
"My name is Mayong, everyone calls me Magoro!"
"Is it him?" Guo Song asked.
Minqiu shook his head, wiped away tears and asked, "Who bought this house?"
"A man named Jiang Quan sold it to me five years ago. The house is about to collapse. It's just a piece of land."
Jiang Quan is the son of Uncle Min Qiu. Min Qiu asked again: "There is an old man named Jiang Yi, do you know?"
"Of course I know that he is Jiang Quan's father, and this piece of land is named after him, but this man has died a long time ago, more than ten years ago, including Jiang Quan. I heard that he also died last year."
"How did Jiang Quan die?"
"I heard that they were crossing the river by ferry and the boat capsized. His family was sitting in the cabin, but they couldn't escape and were all trapped inside the boat. Not even their bodies were found."
Min Qiu was speechless for a long time. She had always hated her uncle deeply, but when she heard that their whole family was dead, she felt a little lost and couldn't hate her anymore.
"Want to go in and take a look?"
Min Qiu shook his head, "Let's go!"
Guo Song took her out of the yard, and the two of them got into the carriage, which drove directly to the dock.
After they left, the homeowner asked the county magistrate in a low voice: "Excuse me, magistrate, who are they?"
The county magistrate snorted and whispered something in his ear. The owner of the house jumped in fear! He sat on the ground, his lips trembling and speechless. The man just now turned out to be...