"How many troops do you think Tanzhou can gather before the year?" Seeing that Lin Haizheng, Yao Xishui, Chun Shisanniang and others were quite surprised, Han Qian asked with a smile.

In front of Han Qian, Lin Haizheng naturally didn't have to hide his clumsiness, and immediately said honestly about his thoughts:

"When the Ma clan was at its strongest, it also had 70,000 soldiers and horses, and I was foolish to think that Tanzhou could gather 60,000 soldiers and horses at this time. I think that at present, Tanzhou has deployed 6,000 soldiers and horses in the direction of Yuanshui, mainly in Wuling, and at this time, some soldiers and horses have entered Yuanling with Ma Rong, which means that Tanzhou will send two to three thousand more troops in the direction of Yuanshui in the future, so that we don't have to worry about us entering the hinterland of Langzhou. Although the combat effectiveness is relatively weak, the valley that leaves Yuanzhou and enters Hengzhou is relatively open, and Tanzhou has to deploy 10,000 troops there for defense. In the north of Langzhou, even if the Shu army helped contain the general Zhang Jiao, the main intention of the Shu army was to threaten and contain, and it was not very likely that Jingzhou would really attack, so Tanzhou would deploy 8,000 to 10,000 troops in this direction. In the end, Ma Yin, Ma Xun, father and son were able to stop His Highness from leading the Ezhou soldiers and horses westward, about 30,000 troops,"

Lin Haizheng crossed his fingers and continued to count the deployment of troops and horses in Tanzhou that he had originally speculated.

"I began to think that Ma Yin, Ma Xun and his son have a maximum of 30,000 troops in their hands that can be used to resist His Highness's dispatch from Ezhou, not to mention that Tanzhou and other cities must be divided into limited forces to defend, and I also thought that if Your Majesty can decide to cut the feudal domain now, maybe it won't take long for the New Year Festival to calm down the chaos in Tanzhou, but I didn't expect that the military potential prediction of Tanzhou is so much higher than mine."

"It's not that simple, you speculate that Tanzhou can gather 60,000 horses, which is compared with the forces of the Ma clan on the shores of Dongting Lake in the previous dynasty, but you don't take some changes into account," Han Qian said, "In the early years, the Ma clan only had more than 3,000 directly subordinate tooth soldiers, and the other soldiers and horses were drawn from the state and county. After the Ma clan was attached, Ma Yin, Zhao Sheng, Luo Jia and others successively changed the 30,000 soldiers and horses allowed by the imperial court to be prepared by the ministry system, which is equivalent to the expansion of the tooth soldiers they have tenfold, and even further mobilization, and the three families can almost gather more than 40,000 troops. In the early years, the foundation of the military administration is still there, and it is not possible to abandon it in just six or seven years, and according to the calculation of 250,000 to 300,000 households in the five prefectures, 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers and horses can still be transferred......"

In the current world, the military system and the service system are the mainstay, and what Han Qian practiced in Xuzhou is the recruitment system, and the prisoner soldiers, clan soldiers, fan soldiers, etc., are all non-mainstream in the world, and the demand for military resources and combat effectiveness are different.

At that time, there was no special military attache school, and the training of military attaches and generals was either inherited within the Jiangmen clan, or the grassroots generals relied on their own understanding to continuously learn and accumulate in the war, which was quite uneven in any case.

Han Qian's early training of the children of the family soldiers mainly focused on reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, and he himself had in-depth thinking about marching operations and military systems when he went to the bloody war in Xichuan.

Even so, the military education received by the children of the Han family's soldiers and even the elite scouts and children of the Zuo Division was still much more complete than that of ordinary military attachés.

Next, in addition to considering widening the post road from Longya City to Jiming Village and providing sufficient military support to Chenyang City, Han Qian also considered further recruiting Jianyong and expanding the scale of the Wuling Army.

The four surnames surrendered, and the money and grain levied or collected from Jingyun and other villages were as high as 120,000 stone grains and more than 30,000 yuan of grain, and this year's autumn grain collection was also completed one after another, and 100,000 stone grains and nearly 20,000 yuan of grain were collected and deducted from the state and county officials Fenglu, daily public money, canals, river embankments, and reclamation advances for the coming year, and Xuzhou also had 120,000 stone grains and 40,000 yuan for many expenses of the Wuling Army next year.

And attacking Jiming Village and Chenyang City, even if it is not expropriated, just by collecting the inventory of the surnamed forces, it will get more than 30,000 stones, and the rest of the materials will be converted into more than 20,000 yuan.

The supply of the Wuling army in the coming year is quite sufficient.

The population and the number of acres of land in the five counties of Xuzhou have also been counted, and the total number of irrigated fields in the mountains and dry land is about 1.5 million mu, and because the existence of watered fields is too small, the final field tax can only be approved to 100,000 stone of grain and 20,000 yuan per year.

The population of Xuzhou has almost doubled compared with the approved population of more than 70 years ago, including the number of people who have moved in in in recent years, the total number of people has reached more than 22,000 households, more than 176,000 people, and the number of men over the age of 16 and under the age of 45 has also reached more than 56,000.

Xuzhou implements the Turkish-Hakka nationality, but it is impossible to eliminate the Turkish-Hakka contradictions or hatreds accumulated in the past thousand years in a short period of time.

Of course, Han Qian would not be satisfied with just recruiting soldiers in the five counties of Xuzhou, and after two days, he would invite Jianlong and Yang Zaili to Longya City to discuss with them the possibility of recruiting soldiers from the upper reaches of Yuanshui, and said:

"The surnames in the upper reaches of the Yuanjiang River are very heavy on the Fanhu, there are a large number of Fanmin, working hard, but they can't eat and clothe, and the grain fields and lakes are mostly controlled by the big surnames, Fanhu wants to make a living, but can't find a gap, if the Wuling Army recruits Jianyong in the upper reaches of the Yuanjiang River, to the boss, Lord Yang, do you think it's feasible?"

Xiang Jianlong and Yang Zaili are now worried that the matter of secretly contacting Xiying will leak out, where do they dare to point fingers at Han Qian's words, but they just say yes again and again, but they can't say a reason.

"I invited the two adults to come over, I hope that the two adults can give Han Qian advice, but I don't ask you to come over and be responsible for nodding," Han Qian said with a smile, "The two adults don't have to worry about being known about the secret contact with Datan Village." There are indeed many people in the Xiang clan and the Yang clan who have secretly reported this matter to me, but I think that Boss Yang and Boss Xiang saw that Xiying had gathered such a strong force in Chenzhou, and there was the support of Tanzhou behind them, and their minds were wandering for a while, which was really human nature, and besides, they didn't report to the boss and Yang Boss to Xiying, how could Xiying easily believe that the attack of the Wuling army had moved east? If the scheming Xiying had stayed in Jiming Village, we would have not been able to lure out the three thousand soldiers to annihilate it! ”

"We were also confused for a while, and we were confused by Xiying's words," Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong didn't care about their age, so they knelt down in front of Han Qian, and begged for mercy with a handful of snot and tears, "Young adults, but what is the difference, we have the slightest push, but we are not allowed to die well, cut off children and grandchildren, I just hope that the young adults can give us two old fools the opportunity to make meritorious contributions and atone for our sins!" ”

Seeing that Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong personally admitted that they had indeed secretly colluded with Xiying, Lin Haizheng couldn't wait to draw his sword and poke the two of them into a hole.

"Look at what the two elders said, didn't I say that I didn't care about this matter, you, what are you afraid of? Hurry up, hurry up, I invited you here today to ask questions, not to scare you......" Han Qian bent over, and finally Yang Zaili, who was lying on the ground and refused to get up, picked them up, pressed them back into the chair, and said.

"Flutter!"

Xi Ying couldn't help laughing.

Han Qian turned his head and glared at Xi Yi, telling her to be more serious, and discussed the plan with Yang Zaili and Jianlong in a serious manner:

"In addition to asking the ships of the two bosses to help recruit soldiers from the upper reaches of the Yuanshui, at present, my Han family still has more than a dozen merchant ships in Qianyang City, and the shipyard is also building a steady stream of new ships, and there is nowhere to go for the time being, I think that these merchant ships will be merged into the fleet of the two of you, and in the future, the repair and new construction of the two fleets will also be responsible for the shipyard, and after the annual profit and loss are approved, I only need to divide the dividend of forty percent, I don't know what the two bosses think?"

"Everything, but please tell the young man." Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong couldn't wait to dig out their hearts and ask Han Qian to see that they were completely sincere when they said this.

To recruit soldiers from the upper reaches of the Yuan River through the fleets of Yang Zaili, Xiang Jianlong, and Xixunqiao, Han Qian must send people to keep an eye on them, in case they collude with the powerful forces in Jingzhou and even the ancient county of Qianzhong, and send the soldiers with different aspirations over in a formation, and at this time, the matter of the joint venture will be finalized by the way, so that no matter how large the scale of commerce and trade in the upper reaches of the Yuanjiang River controlled by the three families is, he can intervene in it and get some dividends from it.

What's more, the ironware, cloth, shochu, tea and medicine produced by the Han family's craftsman workshop can be transported to the ancient county of Qianzhong through the fleet, and even further, to Nanzhao and other places where the road is more distant and treacherous.

Throughout December, Zheng Hui and Zhang Ping were in Chenyang to reorganize their military preparations, and did not compete to attack Yuanling and Lipu, mainly attracting Tanzhou soldiers and horses to Yuanling and lengthening Tanzhou's defensive line.

Xixunqiao sent the coffin to Da Tan Village, although he himself was unfortunately detained by Xi Ying, but the remnants of the Chenzhou surnames who retreated to the Lipu Basin east of Da Tan Village also became quite peaceful at the end of the year.

Even though he continued to recruit and mobilize Jian Yong from within Lipu to strengthen the defense of Datan Village, he did not send troops to disturb Wukou Village and Chenyang City.

At this time, Han Qian not only excavated the military potential of Xuzhou to a deeper extent, but also assisted his father Han Daoxun to continue to promote the construction of river canals and dams, the repair of cities and the reclamation of barren beaches in the five counties of Xuzhou.

After Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong learned a lesson, they also became honest, and trade with many Fanzhai villages in the upper reaches of the Yuan River quickly returned to normal.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with Zheng Hui's westward march to eliminate Zhufanzhai's wariness of the Han family's father and son to occupy Xuzhou.

Although in the past nearly 1,000 years, the Central Plains' rule over the prefectures and counties of central Guizhou has only been superficial, since the Qin and Han dynasties, not only the old counties of Qianzhong, but even the forces in more remote places such as Lingnan and Nanzhao have chosen to serve the Central Plains government most of the time, and the integration of culture and commerce has never been severed.

The forces in the upper reaches of the Yuan River were even more worried that after the Han family and his son seized Xuzhou, they would overthrow the old government and rule the upper reaches of the Yuan River by force.

In that case, the privileges of the caste power will be completely stripped away.

At this time, after alleviating this concern, the caste forces were also eager to resume commerce, and as for recruiting soldiers, it was also the need of the imperial court to cut the domain of Tanzhou.

In this way, around the New Year Festival in the sixteenth year of Tianyou, the salt, cattle, horses, and livestock that were in short supply in Xuzhou were transported in batches.

At the same time, more than 800 sturdy people who were too poor to make a living entered Xuzhou with the ship, and with the courage recruited by Han Qian from Xuzhou, the strength of the Wuling Army was further expanded to 6,000 people after the year, and the engineering battalion used as a reserve soldier and baggage army was also expanded to 2,000 people.

After the New Year's Festival, the new messenger carried an edict from Jinling over the mountains and mountains into Xuzhou.

After determining that Zheng Hui led the Wuling army to capture Chenyang City, divided Chenzhou into two sections, north and south, and forced thousands of Tanzhou soldiers and horses to enter Yuanling to assist in defense, Emperor Tianyou finally issued an official edict at the end of the year, removing Ma Yin, Zhao Sheng, Luo Jia and others from the posts of Tanzhou Jiedu envoys, Shaozhou Assassin History, and Hengzhou Assassin History, and ordered them to enter Beijing to listen to the edict in order to take up new posts.

Ma Yin refused to obey the edict, so he proclaimed himself the king of Hunan in Tanzhou, took Tanzhou as the national capital, declared himself a vassal to Liang State, canonized his son Ma Xun as the son, and canonized Ma Yuanheng, Zhao Sheng, Luo Jia, Ji Zhongqi, etc. as envoys of Langzhou, Shaozhou, Hengzhou, and Yuezhou.

In Emperor Tianyou's new edict, it was required that the new policies such as the reform of the field tax system and the joint registration of Turks and Ukers should be limited to Xuzhou, and that they should be treated differently as special measures that had to be implemented to eliminate the domain of Tanzhou, but ordered Han Daoxun and Zheng Hui not to arbitrarily apply the new policies to Chenzhou and other places other than Xuzhou, and ordered Han Daoxun and Zheng Hui to do everything possible to appease Xiying and other big chiefs in order to contain Tanzhou more vigorously.

As long as Xiying and other big chieftains are willing to join the imperial court, they can even be allowed to assemble independent camps to participate in the war against Tanzhou......