Aoshan Island can be said to be the remaining vein of Baohua Mountain extending into the river, in the early years of the previous dynasty, the river island was narrow, only tens of zhang square, six or seven zhang higher than the river, the mountain shape is like Ao, then the name Ao Mountain, after more than 100 years, with the river diversion, sediment siltation, has gradually expanded to the sand island of three or four miles square when the water level rises, and when the water level is low, it is seven or eight miles square.

The river rises and falls with the four seasons, Aoshan Island does not undergo artificial transformation, builds a dam around the island to consolidate the island, the area that can live and cultivate is narrow, and the north of Jinling is long and vast, and the river bandits and lakes come and go, so except for the spring and autumn period, there are households along the river to cross the river to the island to farm or pick up firewood and grass, and there are no households to live on the island fixedly.

In late September of the third year of Yanyou, a group of soldiers led three or four hundred people to land on Aoshan Island, and then a cargo ship docked every three or five days to transport a large number of lime, masonry, wood and other building materials to the island to build camps and houses.

Aoshan Island is small in scale, facing Tangyi, Gyeonggi and Yangzhou across the river, and belongs to Runzhou in the southeast.

The Youlongwu army moved to Runzhou, at this time, under the pretext that a small group of Shouzhou troops penetrated from the gap between Tangyi and Yangzhou defense lines to the north bank of the Yangtze River to peep into the south of the Yangtze River, and built a camp sentry fort and a small wharf on Aoshan Island, stationed a small number of vigilant soldiers and horses, which was also above board and could not be ignored.

In early October, the wind blew south, and the sky and earth became cold.

Quite in previous years, this year, affected by the turmoil in the Jin Kingdom in the north, the Liang army gathered in the area north of the Yellow River on a large scale, and the Huai River became relatively calm along the river.

Worried that the streams along the Huai River may freeze at any time, the dispatch of the Liang army's water division has also been greatly weakened, and the Liang army has no signs of large-scale cavalry gathering, which is destined to this winter, the generals in Jinling can worry less about the battle situation on the northern front.

Several warships sailed from the Qiupu River into the Yangtze River, followed the flow to Aoshan Island, and docked on the south side of Aoshan Island in the afternoon, using several rows of fir trees to build a trestle bridge that served as a simple wharf.

Yang Zhitang boarded the trestle bridge, surrounded by a row of generals, climbed the mountain on the south side of Aoshan Island, which was only seven or eight zhang high, and looked around.

The choice to build a naval camp here was a mandatory requirement of Han Qian, and there was no choice, but when you land on the island, you can even vaguely see the water mouth of the Yangtze River connected to the ditch, which is undoubtedly a key place to get a glimpse of Yangzhou and Tangyi.

On the southeast side of Aoshan Island, the terrain in the river is steep, and the middle is rarely affected by sediment sedimentation, but there is a sedimentary sand bank extending from the left and right, which happens to be a favorable condition for the construction of a dock port.

Although it has been less than 20 days since the organization of the landing of people on the island, there are only some simple barracks on the island, but the trestle has not yet turned into a solid parapet wall and barracks after a large amount of construction materials have been piled up.

"Lord Wang, it should be Feng Yi and Han Daochang who came from Tangyi." Sui Hu came over, pointed to several sailing ships in the northwest, and said to Yang Zhitang.

After a stick of incense, Yang Zhitang could also see the figures of the several sailing ships clearly, and the two big ships in front were the oars and sailing ships of the Tangyi Navy that served as the main warships on the Yangtze River, and there were only a small number of guards and horses on board in addition to the necessary sailors.

Seeing this scene, Yang Zhitang's heart was wide.

As an agreement, Yang Zhitang asked for an order to go to Yangzhou to inspect the military situation, which was actually the day when he officially undertook the important task of taking up the important task of starting his family, and that was when Tangyi handed over the first batch of warships.

With these two rows of war sailing ships that can accommodate up to 300 soldiers and 200 shipwrights for combat, the Longwu Navy can be regarded as a certain scale.

Not to mention the rumors, the Right Dragon Wujun sent people to Aoshan Island to build a large number of projects, which is enough for the generals and ministers of the DPRK to see the clues.

However, even if it is seen that Shouwang Yang Zhitang has the intention of building a naval camp and dock port on Aoshan Island first, in the eyes of many people, as long as Yang Zhitang, who was born in a clan, supports the imperial court, no matter how close Shouwangfu is to Huaidong and Qianyang Hou at this time, the construction of a naval camp city on Aoshan Island will be beneficial to the imperial court in the long run.

Otherwise, don't talk about the Liang army, if the Huaidong army and the Tangyi army have different aspirations one day, cross the north bank and go south, and land on the left and right sides of Jinling City, there is no resistance on the Yangtze River.

As for whether to rebuild the Great Chu Water Division, or as a plan for power and friendship, first compile a new water army under the banner of the Right Dragon Martial Army, there is not much difference in the minds of many people.

Of course, even if Yang Zhitang is in charge of the Privy Council, it is impossible to allocate more additional military funds to the Youlong Wu Army under such a stretched situation of the central finances.

Allocation of money and food from the inner court?

That's even more of a dream.

And because the Right Dragon Wu Army did not undertake heavy combat tasks before, the military funds obtained before were evenly distributed to the heads of each general, and the standard was even lower than that of the Huaixi Forbidden Army and the Tangyi soldiers.

Therefore, even if it is only to build a camp city on Aoshan Island in the early stage, whether it is to build a naval camp and a dock port, the existing military resources of the Youlongwu Army are insufficient, and the Shouwang Mansion needs to pay for its own money and food first.

Fortunately, Yang Zhitang has been the king of Yuzhang County and the leader of Hongzhou for many years, and has a deep foundation in running Hongzhou and Yuanzhou, even if it cannot be compared with Feng Han and other deep-rooted family lords, there is no problem in raising five or six hundred thousand yuan of money and grain in the early stage.

Of course, even without the support of Xuzhou and the imperial court, the Shouwang Mansion is not without the power to control the naval army.

The former dynasty set up the Zhennan Jiedu envoy, once governed the Ganjiang River and Poyang Lake coastal counties (the whole territory of Jiangxi Province in later generations), Hongzhou as its governing state, located in the southwest of the vast Poyang Lake, has always been the Ganjiang River and Poyang Lake water system of the water and land town.

After the founding of the Great Chu, the Zhennan Jiedu envoy was revoked, and the position of Hongzhou was deliberately weakened, but in order to crack down on and prevent Poyang Hukou, the local state soldiers of Hongzhou also formed a naval army of more than 1,000 people.

Yang Zhitang asked for the requisition of the Hongzhou water camp to be relocated to Aoshan Island to defend Gyeonggi on the east of Runzhou, and the ministers of the court could not allow it?

The problem is that the scale of the Hongzhou water camp is limited, and half of the soldiers and horses are recruited, and there are only more than 600 people, more than 20 large-wing boats, and hazy fighting ships.

In the past, the main task of the Hongzhou Water Battalion was mainly to fight against the lake bandits and water bandits, and the combat effectiveness of the generals was not strong enough, and the warships were not strong enough, so it was difficult to compete with the Liang Army's naval division in the deep and broad waters, and it was impossible to protect the defense line along the river and along the coast east of Runzhou alone, so it had to choose to cooperate with Xuzhou.

The main force of the water division was destroyed in Hongzepu, and the situation in Jianghuai was in danger at that time, and the Hongzhou water camp did not rush to Qinwang in a hurry, which is also the reason.

Otherwise, how could there be a problem with Taihu Lake, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, and the prefectures and counties along the Yangtze River, just cobbling together a naval army of 20,000 or 30,000 people from among the local state soldiers?

Of course, for the Shouwang Mansion, the first and most difficult problem to solve is the warship.

The Liang army's newly built naval division in Haizhou was a shipwright and timber recruited from the Zhuzhou counties of the Liang State, as well as a large number of Jianghuai shipwrights and shipwrights who fled north by the Anning Palace.

As the sphere of influence of Shouwangfu, although Hongzhou also has two shipyards, and even one of them is run by Shouwangfu, for a long time, it has mainly been built by small and medium-sized ships in the waters of Poyang Lake.

Shipwrights who have no experience in building large ships, and still less timber to build large ships.

This kind of timber is usually cut down and transported from the deep mountains and old forests, and then dried in the shade for two to three years before it can be used for shipbuilding; Otherwise, it will not take long for the ship to crack and deform when it enters the water, and it will not be able to withstand the big wind and waves at all, not to mention the Yangtze River estuary to meet the enemy.

In the past, several shipyards that Jianghuai could build large ships of thousands of stones were concentrated in Jinling, Runzhou, and Chaozhou.

After the Jinling Incident, the shipyards in these three places were destroyed, the stored timber was either burned or taken away, and the shipwrights and shipwrights were also carried away and fled north, becoming the shipbuilding force of the Liang army's naval division.

In addition, in the shipyard that Gao Chengyuan planned in Yueyang back then, he hoarded a batch of timber that could build big ships, which could almost be used at this time.

The question is that this shipyard is directly under the jurisdiction of the Hunan Propaganda Mission, what confidence does Yang Zhitang have in being able to compete with the imperial court for the warships built in the Yueyang Shipyard, or directly reach out and ask for the timber and skilled shipwrights that the Yueyang Shipyard has hoarded for three years?

You must know that Huang Hua, Chen Fan and others are all representatives of the Jiangdong family, and they are most opposed to Shouwangfu's hand stretching too long in Jiangdong Prefectures.

As the main warship of the Tangyi Naval Army, the oars war sailing ship is as narrow as a shuttle, and the sails are bulging, and the naked eye can know that the speed is obviously much higher than that of ordinary rigid sailing ships.

When you get closer, the cast-iron horns in the bow of the ship are like fierce beasts hidden under the water.

During the Jinling Incident, the people of Lanting Lane took the Xuzhou warship to storm the Donghuamen Water Pass, although the hull was seriously damaged, and had to be abandoned halfway, but the iron gate with the thickness of the arm was torn open, and even the solid Shuiguan city wall was knocked down, which was extremely impressive.

At that time, many warships of the left and right Wuya armies were built in Xuzhou.

Although most of these warlords were sunk in Hongzepu, after the Liang army requisitioned a large number of people and ships, and dragged all the shipwrecks built in Xuzhou, even if the hulls were burned through the fire, to Haizhou, which shows that the Jianli warships of Xuzhou have long been valued by Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang.

Yang Zhitang listened to the secret agent of the Fang Division, and the first dozen or so ships of the Liang Army's naval division in Haizhou were even directly transformed by using the frame of the shipwreck in Xuzhou.

After looking forward to it for a long time, seeing the sailboat approaching the trestle, Yang Zhitang couldn't wait to board the ship to meet Feng Yi and Han Daochang.

Because these two ships were going to be handed over directly, Feng Yu and the others brought less than sixty guards and sailors with them.

Seeing that Yang Zhitang was so impatient, Feng Yi simply ordered the guards and sailors to withdraw, and the men and horses of the Shouwang Mansion took over the two ships.

When facing the enemy, in order to avoid fire attacks and to facilitate the handling of war weapons, the three-masted and sixteen-sided giant sails will be lowered, and a total of 60 giant oars will be driven forward by the upper and lower floors. On the deck on the side and on the top of the cabin, a total of thirty bed crossbows and scorpion cannons were placed, all with a range of 250 paces.

Without the long-handled slapping rod used by the Wuya battleship (Lou ship), long-range attacks could not destroy enemy ships, and Han Qian also strongly advocated avoiding the side of the battle, and using a sturdy hull to directly squeeze and crash away the enemy ships that were encircling them.

There are 16 watertight compartments inside the war sailboat, and there is no major problem if the ship board is damaged, as long as the overall structure is solid and not deformed, the war sailboat can maintain its due combat effectiveness and persist until the end of the battle.

In addition to strengthening fire prevention, the ship also has a special water absorption and extinguishing device, which is much more efficient than the soldiers and shipwrights who hurriedly take wood to carry water and pour water on the fire when encountering enemy fire.

Feng Yi will leave several military attaches and shipwrights to guide the people of Shouwangfu in detail how to operate these two ships, at this time, he also practiced in front of Yang Zhitang first, and asked with a smile: "The price of the bare ship is 20,000 yuan, plus many weapons on the ship and a set of replaceable accessories, a total of 40,000 yuan, and the two ships are a total of 80,000 yuan - in addition to man-made, wind and waves overturning, there is damage within three months, and Xuzhou will repair it free of charge; Within a month, if the prince is not satisfied, Xuzhou can also package the return - I don't know if the prince is still satisfied? ”

What advice can Yang Zhitang give?

Not to mention the rest, only the four iron anchors weighing three or four thousand catties at the beginning and tail are not something that Hongzhou can cast.

With these four iron anchors, such a large hull can be safely and directly moored in the deep water in the middle of the river, without worrying that there is not even a mooring tree on the shore.

It is precisely because of the lack of this kind of iron anchor that can catch the silt at the bottom of the river that the large ships built by Jianghuai are all shallow-bottomed and flat-bottomed ships, so that they can be directly docked on the shallows and moored.

However, a sharp-bottomed warship of the same size, even if driven by a giant oar, was significantly faster than a flat-bottomed warship.

As a veteran who followed Emperor Tianyou's southern expedition to the north, how could Yang Zhitang not know the importance of speed in the battle between the two sides?

At least for now, at least on large warships, Xuzhou has an irreplaceable advantage just by being able to cast such a giant iron anchor.

The large and medium-sized ferrous components used to strengthen the structural strength inside the hull also need to be cast and formed at one time, which seems to be only possible in Xuzhou at present.

To tell the truth, in the next defensive operations along the river and coast, Yang Zhitang would not be reluctant to put these two warships into the battlefield, and mainly used small and medium-sized warships as consumables to confront the Liang army's naval division in the relatively shallow inland streams.

However, if there are not a few large rows of sailboats that support the scene, the Longwu Navy will not be imposing, not to mention that the Liang Army Navy will not dare to directly enter the Yangtze River waterway east of Runzhou - to put it mildly, the Wuyalou ship built by the Great Chu Navy Division in the era of the Lou Boat Army is much worse than the large row oar war sailboat, and it is not necessary to grit its teeth to build it?

At this time, Ji Xiyao, accompanied by more than a dozen people, walked over from the other side of Aoshan Island and met with Shouwang Yang Zhitang, Feng Yi, Han Daochang and others.

Ji Xiyao has been on Aoshan Island in the past few days, and he is providing some detailed guidance on the construction of naval camps, dock ports, and ship repair yards here.

There are countless skilled craftsmen in the Shouwang Mansion, and it is not difficult to tell whether the warships provided by Tangyi and the opinions put forward by Ji Xiyao harbor evil intentions.

Yang Zhitang met Ji Xiyao for the first time, but many of the suggestions mentioned by Ji Xiyao on the island in the past few days will be passed on to him as soon as possible.

He also asked Liu Chengsi to find the engineers of the palace to carefully screen, but found that the suggestions made by Ji Xiyao were all negligent and unthinkable wonders of the engineers of the palace, and it was hard to imagine that the dark and thin young man in front of him looked like he was just thirty years old, and he had more attainments in the art of engineering than chasing Yang En, the Marquis of Liyang; And the Xuzhou Warship Field was presided over by this person at the earliest, and I don't know where Han Qian got such a figure from.

Of course, Ji Xiyao came over, not for free guidance, but also strongly hoped that when Shouwangfu built Aoshan Island, he could buy lime, masonry, wood and other building materials from Tangyi.

Shouwangfu has a large number of cheap slaves and maids in Hongzhou who can burn lime, green bricks, and cut wood, but they are transported from Hongzhou, thousands of miles away, and the freight is expensive; If you want to buy it from the nearest kiln controlled by the family valve in Runzhou and other places, the price will be as high as Tangyi.

Tangyi even offers a slurry called "stone mud", which is mixed with lime to build walls, and when dried, it is as strong as boiling glutinous rice milk mixed into lime, but the price is lower than that of boiled glutinous rice milk.

All in all, Han Qian wants to provide the most intimate and thoughtful service to the new formation of the Youlong Wu Army, and the accounts can also be owed on credit, as long as the Shouwangfu promises that the merchant ships of the Chishan Society can enter the counties and towns of Hongzhou without restriction - Hongzhou is the traditional sphere of influence of the Shouwangfu, not only hundreds of thousands of acres of Wangfu Zhuangtian are in Hongfang, Yang Zhitang is also in Hongzhou at this time.

Everyone hopes that the foundation can be laid more solidly, not to mention that what Tangyi provides is indeed good quality and cheap things, can they still sacrifice the good and the bad, and the cheap for the expensive?

As for Tangyi's repeated requests for the relaxation of trade restrictions, Yang Zhitang also does not believe that after the restrictions are lifted, Xuzhou and Tangyi will add up to only 14 counties and more than 400,000 Dingkou, so how many goods can be exported to the outside world.

Seeing that the time was about the same, Yang Zhitang, Feng Yi, Han Daochang and others took a boat to Hangou Shuikou, so that they could enter Yangzhou City to meet Wang Wenqian before dark.

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Wang Wenqian also led the Yangzhou generals to wait at the ferry outside the west city in the afternoon.

Yang Zhitang, as a privy envoy and King Shou, came to supervise the defense of Yangzhou on the surface this time.

In addition to Wang Wenqian, Zhao Zhen, the head of Yangzhou Xingying, Sima Yinpeng, Changshi Xu Zhi and other generals also gathered together under the newly built color shed in front of the ferry.

However, by this time, King Shou was asked to come to Yangzhou as a matchmaker, and the matter had spread in Jinling and Yangzhou.

Looking at the fleet of Shouwang Yang Zhitang slowly approaching, Yin Peng thought to himself, how many years has this marriage been tossed back and forth, and probably only a figure like Yang Zhitang has come forward to conspire and say goodbye, which can save some face for the Wang family, otherwise the uncles within the Wang family will have to make a fuss.

Feng Yi and Han Daochang landed with Yang Zhitang and met with the Yangzhou generals headed by Wang Wenqian.

At this time, there was also an accompanying merchant ship docked on the north side of the wharf, and the ship was loaded with 32 wedding gifts, which would be received by another elder figure sent by the Wang family, and carried directly along the causeway outside the west city wall to Shugang Jianyuan.

There is nothing to say about Yangzhou's defense.

After the Tangyi soldiers entered the autumn, they strengthened their attacks on the enemy-occupied areas of Chao and Chu north of the Chuhe River, and the troops and horses were frequently dispatched to contain the main attention of the Shouzhou army on the southern front.

And the defense of Dongyang County, including Fan Lianghu, on the north side, is under the jurisdiction of Chuzhou.

At the beginning of the year, there were still 30,000 troops stationed in Yangzhou, and by this time, in addition to 10,000 generals had been turned into tunding, more than 2,000 disaster-stricken people were also recruited, and with the help of the money borrowed by Tangyi, they bought seeds, farm tools, livestock, and rations, and built lake embankments, tunzhai villages, and excavated canals in the west of Hangou and on the west bank of Shaobo Lake, and reclaimed more than 100,000 mu of grain fields.

Far from weakening, the defensive line on Yangzhou's western flank was greatly strengthened.

In addition to the Huai River along the Liang army to attack and disturb, because of the weakness of the salt soldiers, the Huaidong salt field is very easy to be penetrated by the Liang army's naval division, Huaidong currently has to strengthen the defense of the eastern line of Chuzhou and Taizhou, the military resources are even more difficult, and the grain storage will be supported for another two months, and it will fall into the predicament of lack of green and yellow.

Everyone walked through the streets and alleys, surrounded by a guard with bright clothes and armor, rode into the Thorn History Mansion Hall, and after meeting the Yangzhou generals, most of the middle-level generals retired first, leaving only Yang Zhitang, Liu Chengsi, Feng Yi, Han Daochang, Wang Wenqian, Zhao Zhen, Yin Peng, Xu Zhi and others above the hall.

There is still no way to overturn the conditions offered by Tangyi and Shouwangfu in Huaidong.

Tangyi provided a loan of 20,000 stone of grain per month at a very low price, and Yang Zhitang, the king of Shou, tried his best to get more aid for Huaidong above the court, and demanded that only Yangtai and Taizhou relax the trade restrictions on the Chishanhui and open the Hailing River east of Taizhou to the Youlongwu Army, so that the newly formed naval army of the Youlongwu Army could participate in the defense of the coastal north of the Yangtze River from the west flank of the Huaidong Salt Field through the Hailing River......

The evacuation of some displaced people and disaster-stricken people into Tangyi for resettlement is also to relieve the relief pressure in Huaidong.

Wang Wenqian and Zhao Zhen, on behalf of Huaidong, can only strive to further increase the scale of borrowing, hoping to borrow Xuzhou's armor and war weapons, warships and other military supplies on credit in the future.

Since Huaidong raised its requirements, Feng Yi, on behalf of Tangyi, also unceremoniously demanded that Huaidong greatly reduce the garrison on the west flank of Yangzhou, and asked Zhun Dong to transfer more soldiers and horses to the west of Fanliang Lake, and from between Fanliang Lake and Hongzepu, he could spy on the enemy troops stationed in Shiliang County and actively fight against the enemy army.

In addition to strengthening the military pressure on the enemy army in Chuzhou more realistically, this can also reduce the military threat from Huaidong on the eastern flank of the Tangyi army.

Han Qian was not naïve enough to think that now that everyone had married and formed an alliance, Huaidong would not suddenly turn around and attack Tangyi from the eastern flank one day.

At this time, Huaidong was required to continue to drastically reduce the defense troops on the west wing of Yangzhou, if one day, Huaidong wanted to turn his face, it would take a process for them to gather troops and horses on the west wing of Yangzhou, which could also adjust the deployment of troops for Tangyi and buy enough time.

Yang Zhitang also absolutely supports Feng's proposal.

At present, the Right Dragon Wu Army is stationed in Runzhou at this time, across the river from Yangzhou, if the letter king Yang Yuanyan has some trust in him, he should reduce the garrison in Yangzhou.

In fact, this can also further alleviate the pressure within Huaidong.

The difference between the more than 10,000 elite soldiers and horses is very great whether they are left empty on the defense line on the west flank of Yangzhou, or transferred to the northern line to strengthen the counterattack and harassment of the Liang army; And if the number of troops on the front line of Chuzhou is sufficient, and more than 10,000 elite soldiers and horses are converted into garrison soldiers, the future military expenditure can be the difference between two or three hundred thousand stone grain per year.

Everything that was discussed here was reported by the messenger as soon as possible to the office of Yang Yuanyan, the king of letters stationed in Dongyang at this time.

Feng Yi and Han Daochang first accompanied Shouwang Yang Zhitang to live in the post house, and in the early hours of the morning, they could vaguely hear that there were people entering and leaving the courtyard on Yang Zhitang's side, Feng Yi also ignored it, and stayed until noon the next day, and then rushed to the Assassin's Mansion to discuss the matter, it seems that it was only at this time that the reply of Yang Yuanyan, the king of letters, came over, and he could continue to withdraw part of the garrison in Yangzhou, but asked that before the summer grain harvest tomorrow, the borrowed money and grain should be increased to 50,000 stone per month.

Feng Yi's attitude is very simple, the Han family has squeezed it out, and the loan of 30,000 stone grains and grains provided every month will be up to the sky, and if there is more, Shouwang Yang Zhitang can find a way, and they will not stop it.