Volume 11, Chapter 13 is broken

After the deliberations were over, the crowd walked out of the forest and tied up in the nest city, and Yuan Jinsheng shouted to Jingzhou Mansion, who came to Jinghu on behalf of Hu Wenmu, to sentence Wei Jinyuan: "Lord Wei, Lord Wei," said with a salute, "Jinsheng is polite here......"

"The young marquis is polite!" Wei Jinyuan was forty years old, with a thin and narrow face, and two beards seemed to be glued to his lips, seeing Yuan Jinsheng shouting to him, he stood still, and bowed to Yuan Jinsheng, and when he saw Liu Tingzhou coming from behind, he gave another salute.

"It's still early, Jin Sheng is willing to do the east to invite Lord Wei and Lord Liu to taste the deliciousness of Chaohu, and inquired about an excellent source in the city, Lord Wei and Lord Liu can enjoy their faces?" Yuan Jinsheng asked.

"The young marquis is invited, but Jin Yuan can't ask for it." Wei Jinyuan said.

Jinghu and Nanyang face the Changle bandits in Xiangfan and Suizhou together, and their interests are relatively consistent, but because the channel is blocked, any official letters have to be bypassed from Xinyang and Shouzhou.

I don't want to have any dealings exposed under the eyes and noses of Huaixi and Huaidong, the two families can only do business honestly, and there is not much personal friendship between the core figures.

There has never been a substantive secret talk between Nanyang and Jinghu, including Huaixi, so Yuan Jinsheng and Liu Tingzhou can't figure out Jinghu's attitude towards Huaidong's stealing of Jiangning and controlling the government.

Jinghu is far away from Jiangning, if Huaidong is based on Luzhou and infiltrates westward, it will border Jinghu in Jichun, but at present, Lin Jian clearly wants to include Yicheng in the defense area of Chizhou, which makes Jinghu and Huaidong have no direct conflict of interest.

When Lin Tie Jun discussed, he claimed that whoever fights with his heart will get more money and food, and to be honest, Liu Tingzhou was worried that Lin Tie's move was to divide the other feudal domains.

Deng Yu naturally didn't have the heart to accompany Liu Tingzhou, Yuan Jinsheng, and Wei Jinyuan out to eat and drink today, and he had to write down the conclusion of today's military discussion and send someone back to Chizhou.

Yuan Jinsheng invited Liu Tingzhou and Wei Jinyuan to the city to find a restaurant.

Emperor Yongxing abandoned Jiangning and fled westward, and the damage to the nest was particularly serious. In the past six months, the city has been very depressed, with only two or three liquor shops playing under the guise of welcoming customers.

There are not so many particulars in these years, Liu Tingzhou is in Shouzhou, and Yuan Jinsheng is difficult to eat meat in Nanyang. Yuan Jinsheng and Liu Tingzhou also talked about individual unity, and they had no shape when they ate it, and Nanyang and Huaixi were too bitter.

"This Chizhou can be regarded as a military order, and after October, it will use troops against Jiangzhou, and Jinghu's soldiers and horses in Ezhou will not be able to escape the duty of pincering from the western flank," Yuan Jinsheng asked, "If Jinsheng asks something that shouldn't be asked, how many troops is it possible for Jinghu to throw in Ezhou after the autumn?" ”

"Young Marquis, are you worried that our troops to guard against the Changle bandits in the north will be insufficient?" Wei Jinyuan asked.

Yuan Jinsheng didn't know for a while whether Wei Jinyuan was really confused or pretending to be confused, and thought that the meaning of his question was clear enough, could it be that Jinghu really wanted to honestly help Huaidong to exterminate the luxury family?

After eating this banquet, Wei Jinyuan didn't confide in any truth, and Yuan Jinsheng was faintly worried.

On the way back to the post house, there was Wei Jinyuan, Yuan Jinsheng and Liu Tingzhou were inconvenient to talk about, and when they entered the post house, Wei Jinyuan went back to the hall to rest first.

Yuan Jinsheng sighed lightly: "Jinghu has not suffered from Huaidong, I am afraid that he is greedy for Jiangzhou......"

Liu Tingzhou looked at the moonlight floating on the top of the laurel tree in the atrium, frowned, listened to what Yuan Jinsheng said, nodded, and said: "What Huaidong did is probably a plan for distant friendship and close cutting, if Hu Wenmu does not think of Kuangfu Emperor's family, it will be difficult to ensure that he will not fall into Huaidong's trap." If you think about it, when the privy envoy agreed to put Yicheng under the jurisdiction of Chizhou, Wei Jinyuan's expression ......"

Yuan Jinsheng frowned and thought about it, thinking about it, it was indeed possible.

Jinghu is sandwiched between Jiangxi, eastern Sichuan, Xiangtan and Xiangfan: Luo Xiancheng has 200,000 soldiers and horses in Xiangfan, no matter how much there is or how much there is, it is certain that it will be difficult to exterminate for a while; The Cao family in eastern Sichuan and the Zhang family in Xiangtan, like Jinghu, were nominally appointed by the imperial court to rule over the vassals—and the current occupation of Jiangxi with the Zhujia was the only opportunity for Jinghu to expand outward in the near future.

Tanzhou asks for self-protection, and must try its best to weaken the military strength of the luxury family from the southern foot of the Luoxiao Mountains to Xiangtan.

Yuan Jinsheng recalled the details of the military discussion, Deng Yue asked to assign Yicheng on the north bank of the river to Chizhou, Wei Jinyuan subconsciously frowned, presumably very dissatisfied with this arrangement, but Yicheng is on the north bank of Chizhou, far away from Jiangxia, the core area of the eastern line controlled by Jinghu, and Wei Jinyuan has no reason to stand up and stop Chizhou from taking Yicheng over.

At present, the possibility of Yue Lengqiu wanting to develop in the east has been eliminated, and if he wants to gain a firm foothold, he can only expand to the west - if Yue Lengqiu finally occupies Jiangzhou, and then runs Huangmei to the west according to Chizhou and Yicheng, he will inevitably compete with Jinghu for control of the eastern Chudong region. To prevent this from happening, the best way for Jinghu is to occupy Jiangzhou first!

************

Aiko died on the battlefield, Ai Jiang was captured on the east bank of Gucheng Lake, so far I don't know where Huaidong was imprisoned, and the old ones were also abandoned, defected to Huaidong, and cut their robes into enemies - this kind of pressure in my heart, after Luwenzhuang arrived in Jiangzhou, my hair was dyed like snow.

At the beginning of the year, Jiangzhou was successfully captured, and most of the elite main forces of Fujian were successfully withdrawn into Jiangxi, without suffering the disaster of overthrowing; The surrender of Huang Binghao, Yang Xiong, Chen Zishou and other generals made the luxury family still get more than 50,000 combat power for nothing-and in a series of wars such as Mindong, Yijiang, and Liyang that began after the autumn of last year, the troops in Huaidong's hands were less than 40,000.

That is to say, the number of troops controlled by the luxury family has increased by more than 10,000 compared with before the war, and after the war, Jian Yong was recruited from Jiangzhou and Yuzhang to be incorporated into the army, and the scale of soldiers and horses was constantly expanded.

After occupying Jiangzhou, the 20 counties along the Poyang Lake and nearly 20 counties along the Gan River basically fell into the pockets of the luxury families, and there were very few remnants of resistance, and most of them retreated into the deep mountains and old forests, and it was difficult to cause great harm in a short period of time.

Such a situation should be slightly better than last year's situation when the top subordinates were all beaten, but Hao Wenzhuang, Hao Feixiong and others all know that there is a greater crisis in the silence - it is true that they occupy more than 40 counties in Jiangxi, but Huaidong will definitely not give them more opportunities to rest and recuperate.

Changshi Hu Zongguo pushed the door in, holding a crumpled note in his hand, watched Hao Wenzhuang sit in front of the public case and read the letter, and said: "Luzhou secret report, Lin Tie convened the feudal clans in Luzhou, and what he discussed was indeed the use of troops in Jiangxi after the autumn - Lin Tie assigned Yicheng on the north bank to Chizhou, and Yue Lengqiu first transferred a group of soldiers and horses to cross the river to rectify the remnant city. ”

Haowenzhuang took the secret report from Luzhou and read it, spread out the map again, asked Hu Zongguo to sit in front of the desk and study it with him, and tapped his fingers on the opposite bank of Jiangzhou, the position of Huangmei at the tail ridge of Huai Mountain, and said: "This is it!" ”

The whole southern foot of Huaishan is about three or four hundred miles wide from east to west, bordering the river and the mountains, and there are shallow lakes and swamps along the river, and the existence of these shallow swamps makes it very difficult to cross along the river.

Only on both sides of Yicheng and Huangmei, each has a ridge that extends directly to the river bank, the land is solid, the river bank is stable and the river channel is narrow, it is easy to build water and land wharves, and it is also very convenient to cross the river.

After the remnants of Haowenzhuang retreated to Jiangzhou, he first built a fort and garrison at Huanglongling on the opposite bank to control the key points along the river in Huangmei County.

The defender of Huanglongling was Han Li, the general of Zheng Mingjing who broke through from the eastern shore of Gucheng Lake.

Zheng Mingjing personally led the elite to intercept the tail in order to ensure that the main force could withdraw into Jiuzi Mountain in time, and finally stayed on the east bank of Gucheng Lake with Zheng Mingjing to contain the more than 8,000 dead soldiers and horses of Huaidong, and only less than 1,000 people broke through.

To occupy territory, it is usually a few points to enclose an area. When Yue Lengqiu sent troops into the north bank, he would inevitably march west along the north bank of the river and along the southern foot of Huai Mountain, and eventually he would inevitably snatch control of Huangmei, that is, the tail ridge area at the southwest foot of Huai Mountain.

The remnant city of Huangmei can not be occupied, but the luxury family can't give up the Huanglongling on the north bank and more than ten miles south of the remnant city of Huangmei. Once Huanglongling is lost, not only Jiangzhou City is under the prying eye of Huanglongling on the opposite bank, but also Poyang Lake, which has entered the hinterland of Jiangxi, and is also under the peep of Huanglongling on the opposite bank.

"This is true or false, there must be a fight!" Hu Zongguo said, "It's just that it's hard to understand the movements of Huaidong!" ”

After the autumn, there will be a big battle, and the most difficult thing is still Huaidong, not counting Huaidong's soldiers and horses in Jin'an, its troops on the western front will exceed 120,000 people, mainly gathered in western Zhejiang and Luzhou......

"Huaidong will be beaten after the autumn!" Haowenzhuang moved the map down and pointed out the direction of Shangrao, "It is impossible for Huaidong to unite Yue Lengqiu and Hu Wenmu to use troops against Jiangzhou from the waterway, and transfer the soldiers and horses of Luzhou and Yijiang to the south, and Huaidong can gather 100,000 troops to fight Shangrao from the west of Zhejiang!" ”

Hu Zongguo's back was cold:

After the Jiangning War, in order to avoid the dispersion of troops to the Huaidong Army, they took the initiative to abandon Quzhou, Fuyang, Huizhou, Chun'an, Wuyuan and other places, and concentrated the troops previously scattered in western Zhejiang and central Zhejiang to Shanghuan, Xinzhou and other cities to guard the eastern gateway of Jiangxi, and even transferred 10,000 elites from Jian'an Mansion in the middle reaches of the Minjiang River to supplement the eastern front.

Even so, their strength on the Eastern Front was only 30,000.

With 30,000 soldiers and horses building the defense of the Eastern Front, why don't people have the confidence to withstand the impact of 100,000 elites in Huaidong? How much do you have to draw troops from Jiangzhou to supplement the Shangrao defense line in order to have a certain grasp of holding it?

Wanting here, Hu Zongguo felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart.

In this way, the total number of soldiers and horses under the name of the Governor's Office of Zhejiang and Fujian is not small:

There are 20,000 elites in the middle and upper reaches of the Minjiang River to control Jian'an, Pucheng, Shaowu and other western Fujian regions, and the eastern defense line of Shangrao and Xinzhou, with 30,000 soldiers and horses, to defend the Huaidong Army from the west of Zhejiang; The eldest prince led 20,000 elites to the south along the Gan River, entering the remnants of the Chao Domain, Huang Binghao and Chen Zishou led 30,000 soldiers and horses from Yuanzhou to the west, through Luxi to Tanzhou, followed by the soldiers and horses stationed in Jiangzhou, a total of more than 70,000 people.

Over the years, the strength of the luxury family has not decreased significantly, after all, the area under control has been increasing, and if there is war damage, you can recruit strong and brave soldiers to make up for it - in the autumn of chaos, men who can give food and are willing to carry guns and spears to the battlefield abound; Even if you are unwilling, you are forced to join the army, and you can make the choice of the local villagers?

It's just that these 178,000 soldiers and horses can no longer be compared with the hundreds of thousands of elites in the second time of Fujian's second uprising, and there are less than 60,000 real Fujian soldiers left, and the rest are newly recruited soldiers from Zhejiang and Jiangxi or surrendered troops.

Huang Binghao, the former senator of the Liangzhejiang Governor's Mansion, the Huxi Town Guard and the governor of Pengze County, the former Jiangzhou envoy, the Xiangtan envoy and the governor of Yuanzhou, the former Dongting Hukou, Yang Xiong, the governor of the Jiangzhou Navy and the former Donghai Dakou and the Jiangzhou Navy Governor Su Tingzhan are not of the Fujian lineage, but the total number of soldiers and horses under the descendants of these four people exceeds 90,000.

Huang Binghao deceived the luxury Fei Xiong and was forced to give up Jiangzhou, but he led his troops and horses to Yuanzhou as the base, and he wanted Xizhou with all his strength, and created a new piece of territory to stand on his own, weakening the control of the luxury family over him. Yang Xiong is quite proud of the position of the governor of the Jiangzhou Water Army, but his naval army does not have the strength to compete with the Huaidong Water Battalion in the Yangtze River, Tian Chang and Su Tingzhan can fight to the death with Huaidong, caused by various factors, but it cannot be ensured that they will not buy Yue Lengqiu and Hu Wenmu at the last moment - Tian Chang and Su Tingzhan are now stationed in Jiangzhou, and it is Jinghu and Chizhou that they have to deal with - the two of them have no grievances with Jinghu and Chizhou, if Jinghu and Chizhou come forward to win over, people's hearts will be unpredictable.

If Huaidong really started after the autumn, the time left for the luxury family was too short - the war in Jiangning was over, and it was only half a year since he withdrew to Jiangning.

Before the dust of the war in Jiangzhou settled, the counties along Poyang Lake were buffer zones of the war, and agricultural production was greatly affected.

In order to raise food for the army, even though they knew that the local agricultural affairs were far from being restored, they still forced a large proportion of summer taxes, and Poyang County, Guankou, Ganyuan and other counties had to send troops and horses to suppress them because of the civil unrest, and even a large number of peasant households fled into the deep mountains and old forests in order to evade taxes -- the luxury family wanted to gain a firm foothold in Jiangxi and move hundreds of thousands of people from Fujian to resettle them, not to mention the need for a buffer period of three or five years.

Who would have thought that Huaidong would not give a year's time, and he would be ready to be born after the autumn, which made people breathless!

When the decision was made to march north from Huizhou and invade Jiangning, in addition to transferring Yue Lengqiu's troops and horses from Jiangzhou, the main intention was to destroy the economic foundation of Jiangning's periphery and make Jiangning unable to resume war in a short period of time.

Huizhou North, Chizhou East and more than a dozen counties around Jiangning are one of the core essence areas in the south of the Yangtze River, with a population of about 500,000 households. After Emperor Yongxing ascended the throne three times, these more than a dozen counties, plus the summer tax and autumn tax of Jiangning City, as well as various taxes and taxes levied to the local government, as well as additional taxes and miscellaneous donations, totaled about three million taels of silver a year.

The political turmoil, the balance between the forces of the various feudal domains, and the sudden loss of such a large tax source, and to maintain the stability of the two Huai defense lines in preparation for the Yan captives, there are as many as 1.45 million refugees to invest a lot of additional resources for resettlement and relief, and the price of rice and taxes in Jiangnan have reached the limit that the people can bear - Hu Zongguo and others think that even if Huaidong can control Jiangning, it will take two or three years to sort out these and digest Jiangning, so it will take two or three years to have the spare strength to start the war again, Where did you ever think that all parties had been silent for half a year, and they were ready to fight again......

"Could it be Huaidong's false shot?" Hu Zongguo asked hesitantly, there was no one else, there were not too many taboos to discuss the issue, and he was not afraid to shake the morale of the army by asking such a question.

Huaidong actually did not have the ability to enter western Zhejiang on a large scale after the autumn, but it was not impossible to create an atmosphere to force them to transfer troops and dispatch generals to achieve the goal of further consuming Jiangxi's resources.

"I'd rather Huaidong have a false shot, we don't have a big alarm," Hao Wenzhuang shook his head and said: "But for more than half a year, Huaidong has settled the situation around Jiangning, and has not used its own reserves, and even has the spare strength to use a large amount of silver to build a school in Guangjian, which shows that Huaidong still has the ability to fight another war in western Zhejiang......"

Hu Zongguo's heart tightened for a while, Huaidong really wanted to fight after the autumn, plus the three families of Chizhou, Jinghu, and Tanzhou, how should they deal with it this year?

"Is there any news from Chen Hansan's side today?" Hao Wenzhuang asked.

"Not yet," Hu Zongguo asked, "When the Governor waved his division to invade Jiangning, Luo Xiancheng did not move, can you really count on him at this time?" ”

"Luo Xiancheng is a person who lacks urgency and wisdom and is not indecisive, but according to 200,000 soldiers and horses, he will not fall down until now, and he will not be a straw bale; The total time we spent trapped in Jiangning was too short, Luo Xiancheng failed to respond in time, and Beiyan didn't have time to make any moves, in the final analysis, Huaidong was too fast! Hao Wenzhuang said, "This trip, even if Luo Xiancheng still does not move, and borrows more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to Chen Hansan to lead him south, he can also share a lot of pressure for us!" ”

"That's the only way," Hu Zongguo said, "if it doesn't work, I'll send someone north tomorrow ......."

****************

Xuzhou was defeated, and Chen Hansan led the remnants to flee into Huaishan.

With the support of Huaidong and Jiangning, before the beginning of autumn last year, Nanyang and Huaixi focused on rectification and prevention and control, and strengthened the blockade of Tongbai Mountain and Huaishan Mountain. Liang Chengchong and Dong Yuan soon formed an impregnable blockade of Huaishan in Nanyang, Xinyang and other places, Luo Xiancheng was afraid of offending Jiangning, and insisted on not letting Chen Hansan lead the remnants into Suizhou to rest and recuperate.

When the luxury family invaded Jiangning from Huizhou, Chen Hansan's power was too weak, and the luxury family mainly sent people to win over Luo Xiancheng, but Luo Xiancheng was too cautious and never dared to make any moves, and Chen Hansan was trapped in the Huai Mountain, until the luxury family soldiers and horses were driven out of Jiangning by the Huaidong army, and he knew a series of war changes after the war in Huizhou.

After the remnants of Haowenzhuang retreated into Jiangzhou and joined the main force of Yuzhang's army of Haofeixiong, and seemed to gain a foothold in Jiangxi, Chen Hansan was afraid that Ma Zhen would sneak to Jiangzhou to see Haowenzhuang, and proposed to join ......

Luxury Wenzhuang did not intend to directly accept Chen Hansan's attachment. Chen Hansan led his troops to join him, but he only added two or three thousand more remnants, which could not improve the crisis faced by the luxury family at this time - Luxury Wenzhuang deliberately supported Chen Hansan to stand on his own in the Jichun area south of Suizhou and at the southwest foot of Huai Mountain, so as to form a third-party force connecting Jiangxi and Xiangsui.

Obviously, even if Luo Xiancheng has the heart to unite with the luxury family, he will not want to see the power of the luxury family develop to the north shore and occupy Jichun and other places. Jichun is connected to the terrain of Suizhou in the north, and when it really comes to that point, Luo Xiancheng must consider the danger of annexation to the luxury family.

Supporting Chen Hansan's self-sufficiency in Jichun, on the one hand, Chen Hansan's power will not be enough to threaten the Changle Army if it develops in a short period of time, and Chen Hansan can connect Jiangxi with the Changle Army, and can share the military pressure of Jinghu for the Changle Army - this plan is easier for Luo Xiancheng to accept, and even secretly supports.

Unlike Luo Xiancheng, who became conservative after gaining power, Chen Hansan was almost nothing after the defeat in Xuzhou, and he was even more ruthless in breaking the kettle and fighting for his life - when the luxury family reached this point, it was even more necessary for a character like Chen Hansan to stand up and charge, and would rather assign Jichun, Huangmei and other places on the north shore to Chen Hansan to occupy independence. This is better than pulling Chen Hansan directly under his command, and it can better resolve the military pressure from Chizhou and Jinghu on both sides.

This time, Chen Hansan and Ma Zhen personally came to Suizhou to see Luo Xiancheng, which was to talk about borrowing soldiers and food.