Yanhu's offensive against the Hehuai defense line in this winter was not strong, and even Qingzhou, which was the most heavily armed, whether it was Jiangning or Qingzhou itself, thought that it would not be difficult to hold the key cities. But after surviving this winter, how the situation will develop, even Huaidong did not seriously think about and deduce.

After Song Jia poked this question out, Lin Jian thought about it for half the night before falling asleep in a daze, and the next day he summoned everyone to discuss this issue. In addition to Liu Miaozhen, Ma Lantou and other generals of Huaiyang Town, Liu Tingzhou and Xiao Kuianan were also invited.

Discussing the defense of the Hehuai defense line, after all, is not a secret of Huaidong, let Liu Tingzhou and Xiao Kuian'an participate, and through them, some of Huaidong's thoughts on the Hehuai defense line can be conveyed to the people of Jiangning.

Sometimes things are like this, if Huaidong directly conveys his thoughts to the past, everyone in Jiangning will first wonder what Huaidong's intentions are. In this way, any advice from Huaidong will be greatly reduced in effect, and may even prompt the people of Jiangning to go to the opposite side of the matter.

"If we are asked to formulate a defense plan for Qingzhou, we should take Linzi City as the core and Yangxin as the outpost to form a buffer zone between the north of Linzi City and Yangxin. This area is 200 miles deep and close to the mouth of the Bohai Bay. Although the terrain is flat, it is actually a long and narrow corridor of lake swings. As long as Yangxin is held in front and heavy troops are stationed in Linzi to ensure a certain field capability, it can basically ensure the safety of cultivation in the areas east and south of Linzi, and prevent the Yanhu cavalry from penetrating in," Gao Zongting analyzed, "The advantage of taking Linzi City as the center of gravity can also better rely on Pingyuan Mansion and Jinan Mansion to rely on each other......

Yangxin and Pingyuan are about the same latitude, located in the north, and together they directly face the enemy army in Yannan.

Linzi and Jinan are almost on the same east-west horizontal line, located on the inner line.

Taking this defense plan as a starting point, Huaidong speculated that Yanhu would only be able to attack Linzi and Qingzhou on a large scale after conquering the plains and Jinan—and Song Jia believed that the Gu family father and son were likely to put the Qingzhou army's defense focus on Yangxin after this winter had passed......

"After next spring, if the main forces of the Qingzhou Army are all assembled on the front line of Yangxin, it will inevitably cause a top-heavy stagnation," Liu Miaozhen and Liu Tingzhou sat opposite each other, sitting on the left and right of Lin Tie, and said, "In terms of topography, the soldiers and horses assembled by Yanhu in Yannan are not very different from the use of troops in Yangxin City and Pingyuan City. The biggest difference is that Pingyuan City has Jinan as the backing, and its own troops are relatively sufficient, and once the Qingzhou army gathers in Yangxin, Yangxin is besieged, and the Qingzhou army will not be able to draw extra soldiers and horses to rescue Yangxin in Linzi. Thinking about it this way, once the main force of the Qingzhou Army gathers in Yangxin, it is likely that Yangxin will become the primary target of Yanhu's attack! ”

"The pawn is effective, guarding the border and defending the enemy outside, Liang Chengchong's guarding the plain and Gu Siyuan's guarding Yangxin, how can there be any order?" Liu Tingzhou listened to Gao Zongting and Liu Miaozhen speak successively, thinking that they still want to maintain Qingzhou in essence, and have the meaning of beggar-thy Liang and causing trouble to flow westward, Liu Tingzhou was quite dissatisfied with this, and retorted, "Qingzhou and Jinan are dependent on each other - even if Yanhu attacks Yangxin first, Liang Hou and Lu Guogong will not sit idly by......

Lin Jian scratched his temples with a headache, and he didn't know how to explain the truth clearly to Liu Tingzhou.

Liu Tingzhou wants to be regarded as a capable official, but he still can't get rid of his limitations, which are very obvious in Dayue officials.

Either be weak to the end - Jiang Ning's request for the Hehuai defense line this time is only to hold key cities, and even explicitly prohibit generals from fighting in the city, and completely abandon the countryside outside the walled city after clearing the wilderness. Once the situation improves slightly, it will rebound violently, and it is desperate to establish a strong defense line at the forefront and completely block the enemy army from the outside.

There is a fundamental lack of a realistic and executable strategic plan.

This limitation is not only in Liu Tingzhou, but also in Gu Wuchen.

This divergence is manifested in the military, which is divided into two highly controversial strategic directions, the outer line defense and the inner line defense.

When the strength is weaker than the enemy, active interior defense is a more realistic and appropriate strategic solution.

Taking Qingzhou's defense plan as an example, with Linzi as the center of gravity and Yangxin as the outpost, it is a typical inner line defense.

Yangxin City is small but strong, and a small number of troops only need a small number of troops to hold on. The main force of the Qingzhou Army gathered in the hinterland of the inner line of the first line of Linzi City, which could force Yan Hu not to let go of his hands and feet to attack Yangxin.

And before Yangxin fell, the main force of Yanhu was obviously not likely to venture deep into Linzi to engage in a battle with the Qingzhou army.

The Qingzhou Army gathered the main force in Yangxin, which was the idea of external defense.

If the strength is stronger than the enemy's army, there is no doubt that it is natural to focus on the periphery of the force and go toe-to-toe with the enemy. But when the strength was weaker than the enemy's, the Qingzhou army gathered the main force in Yangxin, which was actually to let Yanhu be on the periphery and not have to take too much risk to get the opportunity to fight.

Li Zhuo's five-year strategy is the idea of active internal defense as a whole.

Lin Jian sometimes thought that if Emperor Chongguan no longer ventured into Liaoyang City after the Jizhen army defeated Songshan, but accepted Li Zhuo's suggestion, leaving only a small number of elites and sufficient grain and grass to stick to Songshan, and Li Zhuo led the main force of the Jizhen army to retreat to the inner line and continue to maintain the situation of the inner line defense, the situation would never be as difficult to clean up as it is today.

Lin Jian knew very well in his heart, don't say that Li Zhuo was unwilling to venture into Liaoyang in order to ensure that the vitality of the Jizhen army was not harmed, in that situation, if he led the main force of the Huaidong Army to fight Liaoyang, he would not be able to escape the ending of the fiasco.

It's a pity that there are many people in the Manchu Dynasty who boast of being a martial artist, and few people can see that it is a trap.

At this time, the same trap is likely to be placed in front of the Qingzhou people again, and Yan Hu is likely to induce the Qingzhou army to press the main force to the Yangxin area - Huaidong sent people to dissuade and explain, will it be effective?

Lin Jian had no confidence in this, and listened to the discussions of everyone in the hall, and said to Liu Tingzhou: "Jiangning intends to strengthen the defense west of Huaiyang to ensure that there are soldiers and horses guarding the line from Wukou to Shouzhou to Luzhou. I can understand this and feel that it is necessary. But now that Jiang Ning has transferred Xiao's command and envoy to the past, and he doesn't want me to interfere in the defense of the Western Front, what kind of thing is this? Is Commander Xiao still a general in Huaidong, am I still an envoy in Huaidong? If the commander of Xiao is completely transferred out of the Huaidong Military Division and placed under the direct jurisdiction of the Imperial Camp Division, I will not ask, but the supply of ordnance has nothing to do with Huaidong from now on, and the general's family is also invited to move out of Huaidong...... In addition, Lord Liu has no time to stay in Huaidong recently, and I see that the grain, grass and money in Huaidong will be reported to you by the branch envoy, and it will save you a lot of hard work. ”

Liu Tingzhou pondered the meaning of Lin Lian's words: Xiao Kuian's department can break away from the Huaidong Army, but the small family of the department must move out. This is almost not a condition, there is a large amount of wasteland in Haosi that can be used to house the general's family, and Liu Tingzhou also hopes so, so as to ensure that Xiao Kuian's department is loyal to the imperial court, and avoid the possibility of looting and coercing Huaidong in the future.

In addition to this, the condition put forward by Lin Jian was to request that the money and grain taxes of Huai'an and Hailing be merged under the jurisdiction of the Huaidong Military Division's branch envoy (Lin Mengde), and the Huaidong branch envoy would report to the general army consul and be responsible.

In fact, it was later used by Lin Tie in Huaidong for his own use. That is to say, in addition to the military and political power, Lin Jian must fully control the financial power of Huaidong.

Liu Tingzhou touched his chin and groaned, and said: "This matter is not decided by the lower officials, and Lord Lin may be able to go up to the fold to ask for the holy judgment." He thought in his heart: the tax data of Mingzhou Mansion is a secret, and it has been completely controlled by Lin Lian, but the money and grain taxes that Huai'an and Hailing Prefectures can draw out to raise the army are not high.

After the Jinhai grain road was broken, the taxes of Mingzhou, Huai'an, and Hailing were all given to Lin Bin, and it may not be able to raise a total of nearly 80,000 soldiers and horses in Huaidong.

From this point of view, it is not too much to be bound by Lin to conquer for his own use in Huaidong. However, once Lin Jian fully controls the military and financial affairs of Huaidong, no one in Huaidong Prefecture will dare to confront Lin Jian head-on, even if it is an official appointed by the imperial court, in this sense, this is a great harm to the imperial court, and over time, Huaidong is likely to be completely reduced to a feudal town for the Lin family.

The position where Gao Zongting was sitting was the most convenient to observe Liu Tingzhou's face, seeing Liu Tingzhou's hesitation, thinking that even if Jiang Ning knew that this was a glass of wine, he was hungry and thirsty, and he would urgently drink it to quench his thirst.

As far as Huaidong is concerned, there is no direct benefit to letting Xiao Kuian's subordinates out of control. However, the merger of the money and grain taxes of the two governments into the unified jurisdiction of the two governments, without the resistance of Liu Tingzhou, will be convenient for Huaidong to comprehensively promote the new policy to Huai'an Mansion, and even from the money and grain taxes to the government.

moved out the small capital of Xiao Kuian's subordinates, which meant that Huaidong had no intention of robbing Xiao Kuian's subordinates. In addition, there is a large amount of abandoned land in Huaixi that is uncultivated, and more than 10,000 households have been relocated to the area, which can restore agricultural cultivation in Huaixi, and can also make Huaidong tillage tense.

Liu Tingzhou left Huaiyang with an ambiguous attitude.

Regarding the possible development of the situation on the Hehuai defense line, Lin Jian could only say bluntly, and he was not too sure whether he could listen to Jiangning and Qingzhou.

After Liu Tingzhou left, Lin Jian stayed in Huaiyang for two more days, and then went south to Huai'an City to discuss with Liu Shidu, the prefect of Huai'an, about promoting the new policy in Huai'an.

No matter what, no matter what means are used, Lin Jian must fully implement the new policy in Huai'an Mansion after next spring.

No matter how the external situation develops, fundamentally, Huaidong's strength will continue to increase.

After deducting local expenditures, the tax and grain that can be withdrawn to raise the army throughout the year (excluding Chongzhou, Hecheng and other places) has been increased from 300,000 stone to 360,000 stone before the new policy. Local expenditures totaled 410,000 stones, the same as last year, but the sources of income were very different.

In the past, the local expenditure of Hailing Prefecture and various counties mainly relied on Ding tax, capitation assessment and various miscellaneous taxes.

The new policy has been promoted, and the proportion of miscellaneous taxes, including municipal tax, passing tax, mining tax and workshop tax, has been greatly increased, and it will be collected by the Military Department and the Financial Bureau. The tax and capitation assessment were reduced to reduce the burden of the poor people, and the local expenditure mainly came from the increase in land endowment and official land income from the inventory of acres.

In the past, in addition to the money spent by the officials, the expenses for maintaining the local military equipment, and various dispatch and construction affairs, a large amount of local expenditure was for the officials to be greedy for ink.

The new policy promoted in Hailing Mansion does not seem to have too direct benefits for the Huaidong Military Division for the time being. However, in the past year, Lin Jian abolished the Hailing Prefecture Army and merged it into the Eastern Zhejiang Xingying Army, and vigorously rectified the rule of officials, and the local government was able to save a large amount of money to do public affairs such as building water conservancy, reclaiming wasteland, repairing cities, building permanent positions, and building roads.

In addition, a large amount of money and grain savings are kept in the county warehouses, which are also controlled by the Huaidong Military Department and can be used as an important supplement to the military reserves.

"The new policy must be implemented, and the reduction of taxes and taxes is a matter for the government, and we must resolutely do it, and we also require the local landlords and large households to reduce the rent of tenant farmers. Working in the fields all year round makes it a problem to even eat; In a disaster year, if you have to change your children and eat, you will starve to death - who has no resentment and no resentment in their hearts? Lin Jian always took the trouble to talk to the officials below about the details and significance of the new deal, and the same was true for Liu Shidu, "I think the problem is very simple, no matter how important things in this world are, it is not as important as eating and living." There was a lot of trouble outside, whether it was an official or a family with a lot of money, the soldiers were in turmoil, and a knife in the neck was death, and there was no life. Huaidong can't be chaotic, and the most fundamental point is to let everyone eat enough and not starve to death. Only in this way can we ensure that there will be no chaos in Huaidong, and if there are foreign enemies coming in, everyone will have the heart to work together to resist foreign enemies. I will talk about this truth when I meet people, and I hope that Lord Liu can also talk about these truths when I meet people. Let everyone understand that the implementation of the New Deal is a good thing for everyone. You can even invite those big landlords who have fled to Huaidong to tell everyone what the situation is like outside! Of course, some people are resistant, and it is normal, this is not a fuss, and you can slowly persuade them to understand and accept. However, if someone jumps out to make trouble, he must not be soft-hearted. In Chongcheng, the profiteers in front of the yamen who hoarded Juqi and intended to manipulate the price of rice had a lot of brains cut off......"

"What your lord said is extremely true, Jiang Ning also has the intention to follow Huaidong to promote the new policy, how can the lower officials not do their best?" Liu Shidu said.

Of course, Liu Shidu is not very optimistic about Jiangning's implementation of the new policy. As soon as Jiang Ning's side started talking about the new policy, there was a lot of noise. How many of the officials in Jiangning are not big landowners and big landlords? Don't talk about others, Chen Xiyan's Chen family is the landlord of Jiyang County, who has thousands of hectares of fertile land. Chen Xiyan had the heart to serve the imperial court and donated 10,000 acres of fertile land to the imperial court to raise the army, but there were too few officials with such high consciousness after all.