By the time of the Yongxing Five-Year Shangyuan Festival, Jiangning had survived the most difficult year.

It's just that the gentry and noble eunuchs were far more injured than the civilians in the Jiangning War last year, and their vitality has not recovered, including the number of palace attendants in the inner palace has also been reduced to the previous eleven.

Jiangning's prosperity in the past was largely supported by the huge group of gentry and noble eunuchs in the city, and when this class did not recover, it became difficult and long for Jiangning to restore its former prosperity.

The temporary decline in the prosperity of the cities did not put the livelihoods of the urban commoners in ruin.

On the one hand, the Privy Council took over the workshops under the Ministry of Industry of Jiangning, quickly resumed production, and encouraged the gentry and merchants to set up workshops in Jiangning City and the peripheral towns and towns of Hekou, Quyang, and Chengnanpu near Jiangning City, so as to create new ways for the urban poor who could no longer rely on the old gentry and eunuchs to make a living; On the one hand, the Privy Council organized the relocation and resettlement of the surplus population to the surrounding prefectures and counties on a large scale to meet the labor needs of the quarrying, Jinshan, Liyang and other industrial mining and reclamation.

For a time, the number of households in Jiangning City dropped sharply from 160,000 before the war to 120,000, which greatly relieved the grain pressure and labor surplus in Jiangning City.

After the sharp decline in salt prices, with the autumn grain market last year, the grain price in Jiangning fell to the level of a bucket of grain and a dime of silver, which is actually the trough of grain prices in Jiangnan since the collapse of swallow thistle. After the Yanyan Canal was dug through, Lishui Mountain could be directly transported into Jiangning, and the price of charcoal in Jiangning fell by nearly one-third.

Even if it can't be compared with the Huaisi Chaos and the collapse of the swallow thistle, but from a rough look, there is also a scene of peace in Jiangning City; The homeless people were extinct for a while, and the poor people in the market could barely survive.

On the Shangyuan Lantern Festival, the palace also set up a banquet to reward the ministers as usual.

In order not to affect the reunion of the minister and his family, the banquet in the palace also started early. During the banquet, scouts rushed back from Guanzhong to report a little secretly, and Lin Jian retired halfway and rushed to the Privy Council to discuss the military plane.

Since late August last year, Yanhu has launched a second large-scale offensive against Guanzhong.

Obviously, Yanhu also saw that the long coastline on the east side was its weakness.

If you don't want to ask Huaidong to take the first step to exterminate the luxury family, pacify Jiangxi, and gather heavy troops in Xuzhou to launch a large-scale counteroffensive against Yanlu and other places from the eastern front, Yanhu must take Guanshan first, and increase the strategic depth of the western front, and also threaten the right flank of Jianghuai.

The Huaidong Army sent troops to western Zhejiang, encircled Shangrao, and Yanhu marched into Guanzhong, all of which rushed to launch an offensive before the end of last year, and in fact the two sides wanted to compete for the strategic initiative in the future.

Compared with the first roundabout attack on Guyuan, Pengyang, and Qingyang from the western front, Yanhu still took the western front as the main direction of attack on Guanzhong this time, but at the same time added two partial divisions: all the way from Yulin and Qingjian to the south by Gangu Road, and attacked Yanzhou, an important town in the north of Western Qin County; Along the way, Chen Zhihu's 20,000 elites were transferred from Henan to Jinzhong, crossed the Yellow River through Pujin, and attacked Heyang in the west, directly threatening the core of Guanzhong.

Although Jiangning determined the strategy of joining Cao to resist the capture, the Cao family was able to gather 100,000 soldiers and horses in Guanzhong to defend the territory; But this time, Yanhu really gathered 200,000 soldiers and horses on the western front and attacked from three routes, which was bound to wipe out the foundation of the Cao family in Guanzhong in one fell swoop.

Liang Chengyi considered that if Guanshan was lost, it would be difficult for the river to survive alone, so he led his troops from Shaanzhou to cross the river to the north and attack Jinnan to divide the pressure in Guanzhong. Chen Zhihu crossed the river from Pujin and captured Heyang, led his troops south, attacked Weibei in the south, and lured Wei Shiyan, the general of Guanzhong, to confront each other on the north bank of Weishui, while Chen Zhihu crossed the Yellow River again in Chaoyi, returned to Hedong, and set up an ambush in the riverside reeds in the south of Ruicheng, and lured Liang Chengyi's soldiers and horses north into Jinnan.

Liang Chengyi's troops were defeated in a battle, and Liang Chengyi only had thousands of remnants to retreat to Shaanzhou.

In order to prevent the loss of Hezhong Province, the Privy Council had earlier ordered Nanyang and Huaixi to reinforce Hezhong Province. A few years ago, Liang Chengchong and Dong Yuan sent their generals to lead troops north, so that Hezhong Mansion was temporarily worry-free. However, the land of Henan was all ruined, although the threat of the flank of Hezhong Prefecture was solved, but the combined forces of Nanyang and Huaixi went north, and it was difficult to effectively contain the Yanhu forces. And going north to Jinnan or east to Shandong, it is beyond the reach of Nanyang and Huaixi at this time - the situation in Guanxi is precarious.

In order to accurately grasp the situation in Guanxi at any time, the Military Intelligence Department of the Privy Council assigned scouts to go north, and every once in a while, they had to send people back to detail the military situation in the north, so that the Privy Council could have more accurate information to corroborate each other with the notes handed over by the Cao family and the Liang brothers.

Lin Lian, together with Gao Zongting, Song Fu, Qin Chengzu, Cao Ziang and others, listened to the scout's report on the field intelligence in the north, and asked the scout to go down to rest.

"If Weishui is defeated by the captives after spring, it will be difficult for the Cao family to support them in Guanshan until next year," Gao Zongting said, "If the Cao family does not say hello and retreats to Liangchuan to preserve their strength first, the situation on the middle line will be very bad, and the Changshan army should not delay further when it goes south......

Lin Jian stood in front of the map hanging on the west wall of the capital hall, looking at the movement route of the soldiers and horses of the Beiyan Third Road, his brows furrowed deeply; Qin Chengzu, Cao Ziang, Song Fu and others all frowned deeply.

It has always been easy to attack the south from the north, and it is difficult to attack the north from the south.

The northern land is a bitter cold land, and from the bitter cold land to the south, supplies can be levied or plundered on the spot; From the south to the north, supplies rely more on a sound logistics system.

After Henan was disabled, the Huaixi soldiers and horses had to go north, and they could not get supplies from the uninhabited remnants of Henan for thousands of miles.

For Yanhu, he only needs to occupy a few key passes such as Daliang in Henan, and even if he temporarily abandons the entire territory of Henan, there will not be much loss. And after the winter, most of the rivers and rivers are frozen, and they cannot borrow ships, and it is even more difficult for the southern soldiers to go north.

After the autumn, Yan Hu transferred Chen Zhihu to Jin, but strengthened the defense of Xu Si's soldiers and horses on the eastern front, although it left a gap in Henan, it was still difficult to use Jiangning's side. Even if Dong Yuan has been recuperating in Huaixi for a long time, and 100,000 soldiers and horses have the strength to fight a battle, but the logistics of the expedition is a weakness, except for covering the Hezhong Mansion from the flank, he still does not dare to go deep into the Yellow River to fight.

Guanzhong is a place of passing, but if you put the pastures of Yanxi Zhuhu on the battlefield, you will find that Guanzhong has a large military channel in the northwest, north, and northeast where it meets Jinzhong. Like Jiangxi, the situation is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but there are still several holes around where soldiers can be used.

Of course, it is impossible for the Cao family to give up Guanzhong easily, but when the situation is so critical that they have to give up, can they expect the Cao family to be selfless and desperate to defend the western front for Jiangning?

Unlike the luxury family in Chad, Jiangxi, the Cao family has occupied the two rivers for three years, and Jiangning has officially recognized the Cao family's governance of the two rivers, and the Cao family retains its strength and retreats to the two rivers, and it is still possible to rest and recuperate - the Cao family is not without a way out after losing Guanzhong.

Now I am afraid that the Cao family will not be able to withstand the pressure and take the initiative to give up Guanzhong.

Lin Jian turned his head and looked at Qin Chengzu, Cao Ziang, Song Fu and the others, and asked, "You all agree to the proposal of the sect court?" ”

"I'm afraid it can't be delayed until next year!" Cao Ziang said.

The original plan was to drag the Shangrao war for a year, drag the luxury family to the point of weakness, and then collapse in one fell swoop. The current situation in the north requires that the Changshan Army be transferred south in advance, and the Shangrao offensive will be carried out in advance in the spring and dusk.

Lin Jian nodded and said, "Immediately order Ao Canghai to lead Zhang Jiheng and Zhang Gou to the south first; Ziang, you go to Luzhou to supervise the army on my behalf......" thought about it again, and said, "That is, from the cavalry battalion, two battalions of soldiers and horses led by Sun Zhuang, and followed Ziang to Luzhou; The war horses transported after the spring were given priority to be added to Luzhou, and Xu Sunzhuang drew generals who were good at cavalry and archery from various armies and barracks, and formed the third brigade of the cavalry battalion in Luzhou as soon as possible; Huang Zuyu's injuries have not yet recovered, but he wrote a letter requesting to return to the team to lead the troops, so he was asked to go to Luzhou with Ziang......"

Ao Canghai led the elite into western Zhejiang, joined the Chongcheng army, and the most senior general who stayed in Yijiang and Luzhou was Ge Cunxiong.

However, Ge Cunxiong is good at managing the navy, and the center of gravity of the Privy Council's operation in Luzhou is on land, so Cao Ziang, who is proficient in this aspect of affairs, needs to go to Luzhou to control the overall situation.

Cao Ziang nodded, he went to Luzhou for another purpose, which was to hide people's eyes. If the situation on the Western Front could not support and collapsed first, it would be a normal arrangement for Luzhou to send Cao Ziang to supervise the army at the strategic support point of Jiangning in the inner layer of the Western Front, and transfer Sun Zhuang, Huang Zuyu and other generals to strengthen Luzhou after the main force of the Changshan Army went south.

The Huaidong Army could only obtain qualified war horses from Jeju and Fusang Islands, and the number was limited, and all the armies required a certain amount of armored light cavalry, which was used as a general and a scout in time of war, and the development of cavalry battalions has always been greatly restricted. When the total number of soldiers in the Huaidong infantry battalion reached 150,000, the cavalry battalion only had two brigades, the first brigade was deployed in Xuzhou, and the first brigade was in Jiangning to serve as the cavalry of the forbidden camp, and the total scale was less than 10,000. It was also at this point that Lin Jian decided that Sun Zhuang would go to Luzhou to form another brigade of pure cavalry troops.

The scale of the reserve soldiers in the Huaidong Baggage Barracks is not as good as the year before last, and it needs to be further restored, but the plate is large, and it is not difficult to draw three or two thousand soldiers with cavalry skills. In order to make the third brigade of the cavalry battalion become an army as soon as possible, Lin Jian made an exception for the first time and asked Sun Zhuang to transfer manpower from various armies.

In the future, if you want to win a decisive victory with Yanhu in the Central Plains, without a certain number of cavalry, it will be very difficult to fight.

Huang Zuyu was born in the Yu Wangao Department of the Eastern Fujian Army, and after Tang Fuguan returned to Huaidong, he was also quite reused, but in the autumn of last year, when he was in charge of the Yishan bandits, he was wounded and retired to recuperate. Huang Zuyu was asked to go to Luzhou with Cao Ziang, and he could directly train a new army to make up for the lack of troops stationed in Luzhou after the main force of the Changshan Army was transferred south.

Song Fu immediately drafted the order, and after Lin Tie signed it, he left the Privy Council from the side door and went back to Chen Yuan, when the sky was already completely dark.

Lin Jian sat in the carriage, listening to the sound of ruts, thinking about things, and suddenly the carriage and horses stopped, and listened to Chen Daozi shouting in front of him and asked, "Who is it?" Hold it! ”

Lin Jian lifted the curtain and looked at the front of the carriage and horse team with four young men in Tsing Yi in civilian clothes.

This is the sandwich road outside the imperial city, next to the Privy Council military aircraft, and the military and civilians are forbidden to travel. These four people walked in the middle of the road, not officials and generals, but very abrupt, no wonder Chen Daozi and them were like facing a great enemy, more than a dozen horses drove horses and drew swords forward, and surrounded the four suspicious people.

"Grandpa Lin!" The little guy in Tsing Yi in the center didn't panic, and turned around and shouted.

Lin Yan smiled dumbly and said, "Why did Princess Yuan Yan sneak out of the palace again?" ”