Chapter 732: Westward Expansion

Xi Ying listened for a long time, but he didn't expect Han Qian to be thinking about such a far-reaching question, and couldn't help but ask suspiciously: "You want to activate the new government department and solve so many problems?" โ€

"Yes, it must be resettled in a new place with sufficient authority and status, so that the meritorious generals will be willing, or can rest assured that they will hand over the military and political affairs in their hands to more capable and energetic follow-ups, after all, not everyone is Li Yu. If my children and grandchildren are wise enough, they will naturally have the ability to suppress them, and if they are not, there will be no problem in messing around, and they will not harm the state government. In this way, the position under my ass no longer seems so unique, and it is no longer so critical that 'those who live can control the life and death of others, and the lives of those who lose are in the hands of others', saving children and grandchildren from fighting for it" Han Qian said, he lay on Xi Ying's thighs, looked at the distant blue sky outside the window, and said, "Of course, many things have to be done overnight, but this move still has to go first......

Han Qian's initial idea was to separate the Shangshu Province among the three provinces and no longer be directly controlled by the ministers appointed by the central government, but to form a council similar to the clan and the Honorable Council.

He also knew that it was impossible to put the specific personnel selection and rules of procedure in place, at least for the time being, and he did not want the newly formed Honorable Council to impose too much restrictions on him.

At present, he is considering that the eldest uncle Han Daoming and Zhu Juezhong, the minister of the Zhu clan, will jointly take charge of the parliamentary court, and some high-ranking generals and noble princes of the old Liang army who are difficult to adapt to the new policy will be placed in first, which can be regarded as an explanation to Zhu Yu and the old ministers of the Liang State.

Whether it is the old man, Yun Puzi, Lei Jiuyuan, and Wen Duqiao, who are getting older, it is not suitable to directly control the extremely energy-consuming military and political affairs, and they can all enter the parliamentary house as a senate minister or a counselor to exert their spare heat, instead of holding back in the house and not having a place to pass the time.

The day-to-day affairs of the Senate are presided over by Qin Wen and other ministers, and Qin Wen can also keep an eye on the movements of the Senate for him, but these ministers mainly serve the Senate ministers or counselors, and do not directly interfere in the power of deliberation, deliberation, and rejection.

The House of Representatives will first be put into initial operation, and the selection and allocation of subsequent members of the Council and the rules of procedure can be gradually improved.

It is only with the House of Parliament that the old and the new systems merge and form a truly systematic legal framework.

Han Qian had never talked to Xi Yi about this kind of issue before, mainly because he had never thought that his identity and status would undergo such earth-shaking changes in a short period of time before this year, and it was not until the end of May this year that the Heluo War came to an end before he had the energy to stand at the level of a country to think about these issues holistically.

"I'm dizzy when I hear it, I really shouldn't think about these things." Xi Ying said bitterly.

"Come, I'll help you pinch your shoulders." Han Qian sat up straight and asked Xi Ying to sit beside him.

In late autumn, but the palace room is as warm as spring, Xi Ying is wearing a water blue sรจ skirt and an apricot yellow jacket, after a hard day, her hair is a little crooked, revealing a snow-white crystal neck stalk that is as tender as jade, which makes people have the urge to take a bite.

Before Han Qian stretched out An Lushan's claws, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching, Xi Ying sat on the side of the desk, but it was Wang Zhe and Yin Peng, with an official, who came over with a stack of documents from the Nannei History Mansion.

At present, Han Qian can shirk the specific and cumbersome government affairs, he just needs to keep abreast of the latest situation, and he also wants to form a system of discussing politics as soon as possible, but military and political affairs cannot allow him to shirk.

It has been two months since Liang and Chu formally signed the peace talks in Jinling, and from these two months until the end of the year, both sides have to carry out the implementation of the peace talks.

On the side of Liang Guo, specifically the Nannei History Mansion presided over by Tian Cheng, Guo Duanduo, Zhao Qi and others was responsible for the specific implementation and supervision of the peace talks, and a batch of documents would be sent to Han Qian's case every ten days.

At present, it seems that both sides have implemented the situation relatively well, and border trade has also been normalized, and the backlog of commercial goods in the early stage has been dumped into the hinterland of Jianghuai through the economic prefectures along the Yangtze River and along the Taihu Lake, and salt, timber, tung oil, animal power, medicinal materials, cow bristles, and leather, which are in short supply in Huaixi, have also been smoothly transported from the Huaidong Salt Works, Hunan, Jiangxi, and other places.

This means that Han Qian's most anxious Liang Chu peace discussion is now settled.

And with the current situation of checks and balances among many factions within the Chu Ting, as long as they do not make substantial threatening actions against the Chu State on the southern front, it is not easy for the Chu Court to reach an agreement and take the initiative to tear up the peace talks.

This means that he can rest assured that he will focus on the northern front in the future.

Yin Peng returned to the situation in the past ten days, Wen Bo sent a small group of elite soldiers and horses into Xiangshan to carry out infiltration operations.

After more than ten days of relaxation and contact, Yin Peng is now well qualified for his current ministry.

A small group of soldiers and horses crossed the Yu River from Bishan and entered the depths of Xiangshan, Tian Weiye immediately responded on the other side, in addition to strengthening the patrol of soldiers and horses on the north side of Xiangshan, he also dispatched soldiers and horses to directly encircle and suppress the infiltration of the Liang army.

However, the Mongol army could not build every inch of Xiangshan on the fort, and in the rugged and dangerous terrain, it was not an easy task to drive all the elite soldiers and horses of the Liang army back to the south bank of the Yu River.

Yesterday, the Mongolian army also deliberately mobilized the navy from Mengzhou into the main road of the Yu River, hoping to block the waterway of the Yu River north of Bishan to help clear out the elite of the Liang army that had infiltrated Xiangshan.

Luoyang already has a certain capacity to build warships, but it was not until late August that the first batch of warships was built, mainly small and medium-sized red horse boats and Mengchong ships, and the number was far from enough to seize control of the Yu River waterway.

The shipbuilding technology of the Mengwu people and the northern land should lag behind the Jianghuai, not to mention the comparison with the Xuzhou, Donghu, Huoqiu, and Shouchun shipyards, but Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing ordered Mengzhou and Puzhou, Jinzhou, Yanzhou in the middle and upper reaches of the Yu River, and Yongzhou along the Weishui River to build ships, and the warships currently equipped by the Mongolian naval division are enough to equip a naval army of more than 12,000 people, regardless of the quality.

In terms of the size of the navy alone, the Mongolian army in the middle and upper reaches of the Yu River is currently ten times that of the Liang army, and Han Qian naturally ordered the newly formed Heluo Water Army Brigade to be limited to the activities of the Yiluo River waterway, and even mainly rely on the land weapons on both sides of the Baima Gorge to expel the Mongolian army's naval division warships outside the Yiluo River

Good.

Now the Mongolian army will transfer the naval division warships into the Yushui River, but Han Qian is not worried that the small group of soldiers and horses that infiltrated Xiangshan in the early stage will fall into a desperate situation where the back road will be cut off, in fact, there is another month, the Yuhe River is frozen, and the Mongolian naval division warships are forced to withdraw to the water camp Dazhai, Wen Bo wants to support the soldiers and horses who have entered Xiangshan, and only needs to send people to step on the river ice to send materials into Xiangshan.

The Mongol army showed no signs of a large-scale southward offensive this winter, and the freezing of the Yu River became a favorable condition for them.

And when the river ice melts next year, Luoyang will probably be able to build a full fleet of warships, and even if the scale of the Heluo naval army is still only one-third or one-quarter of the enemy's army, Han Qian is still confident that it will form a scale out of the Yiluo River and operate in the Yu River north of the Tiger Prison Pass and the Bishan defense line.

When the time comes, they will be able to teach the Muguls how to fight water wars.

As long as they gain control of the Yu River waterway, they can cut off the connection between Xingyang and Mengzhou on the north bank, and because the Yu River bursts its embankment east of Xingyang, the connection between Xingyang and Bianliang has actually been cut off by the water of the Yu River, and in fact, they will be able to besiege Xingyang at that time, and annihilate the defenders of Xingyang with Zhao Wuji and Li Xiu who are stationed in Xuzhou.

And only by capturing Xingyang, the eastern flank of Heluo can be considered relatively safe, and then troops can be used against Guanzhong.

Of course, even if it is far from the time to recover Guanzhong in a big way, Kong Xirong, who led his troops to garrison Shangluo at this time, can still divide a small group of troops and horses into the mountainous area at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains on the western flank to carry out corresponding infiltration operations - this is also the tactic that Kong Xirong is best at.

In the terms of the Liang Chu peace agreement, Li Zhihe and Chai Jian were required to garrison no more than 5,000 troops in Yunyang and Fangling west of Canglang City, and after more than half a year of rest, Han Qian also wrote to Li Zhihe and Chai Jian, asking them to send troops from Luoyang in the northwest of Liangzhou to attack the military fortresses in the northern section of Chencang Road, such as Fengzhou and Dasanguan, which were currently occupied by Wang Xiaoxian's troops, through Chencang Dao.

The battle does not necessarily need to be too hasty, but the transfer of troops and horses to the northwest flank of Liangzhou to contain as many enemy troops as possible and create greater military pressure on them is also conducive to the further alleviation of the situation in Heluo.

"What's new in Liangzhou?" Han Qian was not worried about Kong Xirong's side, and looked at Yin Peng and Wang Zhe, mainly paying attention to the movements of Li Zhihe and Chai Jian's troops.

"There are more than 6,000 soldiers and horses in Liangzhou who have moved west to Chuyang and Luoyang in the past two months, but Li Zhihe has just arrived in Luoyang from Liangzhou today," Wang Zhe said, taking out one of the notes from a pile ......and handing it over.

Liangzhou Song Shu involves military secrets, which are directly sent to the Military Intelligence Staff Office, and are not within the jurisdiction of the Left and Right Internal History Offices.

Han Qian took the note handed over by Li Zhihe from Liangzhou, and while flipping through it, he motioned for Wang Zhe to pick up the important ones first.

"Li Zhihe thought that Wang Xiaoxian's troops in Fengqi and two states, there were 30,000 elites, guarding Chencang and Xiegu dangerous roads, more than enough, he sent troops from Luoyang and other places, it was difficult to promote, he thought about entering Luoyang from Weiyang along the water (upper reaches of the Han River), and entering Chengzhou through the ancient road of Luoyang Rhino Station, and could peek into Tianshui according to Wudu and Qishan - and if they could persuade the Shu army to go north from Jiangyou Pass together, they could join forces to seize the land of Longxi, and then contain and threaten the enemy army in Guanzhong from the western flank," Wang Zhe briefly recounted Li Zhihe's recital this time, and said, "However, Although the soldiers and horses of Liangzhou have been relieved by the grain and grass of Sichuan and Shu, the armor is unfavorable, and from Luoyang to Chengzhou, all the way is a narrow and dangerous way, the soldiers abandon the horses, and they are not allowed to carry heavy weapons, and there is an urgent shortage of light armor and crossbows and other ordnance, Li Zhihe hopes that Luoyang will allocate 3,000 each, and all the adults in the staff office think that Li Zhihe can not be guarded against it......"

Jing Hao, Han Yuanqi, Gao Shao, Guo Ke, Feng Xuan, and Chen Jingzhou, who arrived in Luoyang two months ago, all added the rank of counselor, which was different from the ordinary position of participating in the military, and as the highest-ranking military officer in Daliang, he assisted Han Qian in handling large and small military affairs.

For example, after Li Zhihe's recital was sent to the Military Intelligence Staff Office, they first drew up a preliminary opinion after reading it, and particularly important matters still needed to be consulted with the governors of the four prefectures.

Han Qian flipped through the music and saw that at the end, there was indeed a note written by Chen Jingzhou attached to the back, and he joked with a smile: "Chen Jingzhou said that he was born as a mountain bandit, and this handwriting is much more beautiful than mine......

Wang Zhe and Yin Peng just smiled awkwardly.

At present, Xuzhou imports commercial goods to Shu, and the surplus part is directly exchanged for grain, well salt, horses, leather, tung oil, medicinal materials and other materials from Shuzhou to Xichuan, of which there are 30,000 stone grains and corresponding well salt and other materials left in Liangzhou every month.

This is also the condition for the annexation of Liangzhou in exchange for the original.

However, compared with the 200,000 soldiers and civilians in Liangzhou, the food shortage is as high as half, and more than 30,000 stone materials are imported every month, which can only help Liangzhou stabilize the situation at present.

Of course, the people of Luoyang only want to reluctantly help Li Zhihe stabilize the situation in Liangzhou, so that they can't eat enough and starve to death, so that it is most convenient to control it.

If a large number of sophisticated weapons and other materials are sent to Liangzhou, after the Liangzhou soldiers and horses are really strengthened, Li Zhihe will still be obedient, everyone still has deep doubts in their hearts.

In addition, Qinling, west of Longshan and north of Minshan, were once the jurisdiction of the former Longyou Dao and Longyou Jiedu envoys.

At the earliest, he served as the ambassador of Jiedu with the right Xiaowei general, the deputy envoy of Longyou defense, and Guo Zhiyun, the prince of Taiyuan County, and then Wang Junkuo, Ge Shuhan, Guo Ziyi and other famous generals were stationed, with 70,000 elites, and the town of Longyou 12 states and the Anxi Protectorate and the Beiting Protectorate.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the Longyou Hexi garrison withdrew, and these places were occupied by the Tibetans for more than 150 years.

Even though the influence of the previous dynasty in the Anxi Protectorate and the Northern Court Protectorate had long since declined, in the last years of the previous dynasty, Zhaozong sent troops to recover Qin, Cheng, Wu, Wei and other Longyou prefectures close to the Fengxiang Jiedu envoys.

The previous dynasty collapsed, and the states of Longyou were scattered and scattered, but the prefectures adjacent to Longshan and the western foot of the Qinling Mountains not only had the tribes in awe of the previous dynasty, but also a large number of Han army children took root and multiplied there.

Chen Jingzhou and Han Yuanqi were not only worried that after the soldiers and horses of Liangzhou were strengthened, Li Zhihe would not listen to orders according to Liangzhou, but also might use his identity as a child of the clan of the previous dynasty to win over the forces of the Longyou tribe and the heirs of the Han army.

Yin Peng is still dealing with the stage of familiarizing himself with the situation, and Wang Zhe is not afraid to express his own opinions, and he also feels that there are too many uncertain factors to strengthen Li Zhihe's department at this time.

"Li Zhihe wants to play a bigger role, I don't think there is anything

No," Han Qian shook his head and said, "If it weren't for the fact that I was worried that Liangzhou would not be willing to take on more military responsibilities, I naturally also hoped that Liangzhou could send an elite army of soldiers and horses to try to gain a foothold in Wuzhou through the Rhino Post Ancient Road - of course, my current goal is not only to hope that Li Zhihe can contain and threaten the enemy army in Guanzhong from the western flank, but also hope that he can occupy Wu and Chengzhu Prefectures and fight and divide Pingxia and other tribes!" โ€

The Tibetan Dynasty had been fragmented for decades, and had lost control of the surrounding areas such as the Song Domain, Longyou (including Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, and Guazhou that occupied the Hexi Corridor and Yinzhou and Xiazhou which occupied the Hetao Plain).

The tribes that inhabit these areas are also currently in a state of fragmentation, and before that, only the Zhuqiang Pingxia tribe inhabiting Xia Prefecture joined the Mengwu people, and entered the Ling, Qin and other prefectures from the northwest, and once occupied Xiaoguan, the gateway town in the northwest of Guanzhong, but Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian also gained more space to survive and use troops against Shu from the Pingdao during the period of crossing Fengzhou and Qizhou, and sent troops out of Longshan to seize the eastern region of Qinzhou west of Longshan from the Pingxia people.

What Han Qian had to consider now was not only for Li Zhihe to send troops into Wuzhou, Chengzhou and other places in the south of Qinzhou to contain Wang Xiaoxian's troops and horses, but he was also worried that when the Mengwu attack on Heluo was frustrated, he would strengthen his control over the Hetao and the tribes in Hexi through the Pingxia people in the future, so that he could lead a stronger cavalry force to threaten Guanzhong and Shu from the west.

What's more critical is that the Pingxia people are already showing signs of rising under the leadership of the leader Li Yuanshou.

Han Qian never wanted him to lead the Liang soldiers and horses to resist the Mughurs, and at the same time, he would cause another powerful Tibetan force in the northwest region to integrate the tribes of Hetao and Hexi, and he did not want this force to be used by the Mugyus.

Even if Li Zhihe led his troops into Wuzhou and Chengzhou, won over and divided the Hexi tribes, and attacked the Pingxia people led by Li Sixiao, it was possible to become a trend, but in the long run, if he didn't want Liangzhou, which was extremely geographically critical, to become a place occupied by local separatist forces, and he couldn't completely remove the vigilance of Li Zhihe, Chai Jian and others in a short period of time, it was better to simply leave some living space for them in Hexi, or they could get along peacefully.

Han Qian took away the articles attached by Chen Jingzhou and Han Yuanqi after the recital, picked up the Jiao ink pen and wrote the reply directly after Li Zhihe's recital, and wrote down his worries that the tribes of Longyou would be courted by the Mengwu and that the Pingxia people showed signs of rising.

Han Qian hoped that after the soldiers and horses of Liangzhou marched westward, in addition to containing and attacking Wang Xiaoxian's army near Longshan, he would also pay more attention to winning over and dividing the forces of the Hexi tribes and preventing the Pingxia people.

In addition to the armor and ordnance that Li Zhihe invited in Songshu, Han Qian also asked the Military Intelligence Staff Department to strengthen the spying into this area, provide more intelligence support for the operations and activities of the Liangzhou soldiers and horses in this area, and also proposed to equip the Liangzhou soldiers and horses with a team of 30 doctors to support their activities in the Qinling Mountains and the western foothills of Longshan Mountain.

As for Han Yuanqi's worries, the more important thing is that the center must continue to be strong and strong enough.

Luoyang, as the ancient capital of the Nine Dynasties with a history of 3,000 years, has been one of the most developed places for agriculture and water conservancy along the Yu River for thousands of years.

In the last years of the previous dynasty, Heluo was in turmoil, and there was not one out of ten households, but in the hands of Zhu Yu, it only took ten years to restore prosperity again.

Liang Shixiong's occupation of Heluo, even if it was repelled by Zhu Yu, was only a temporary retreat for the Mongol army and the Eastern Liang army, and the retreat did not vigorously destroy the local water conservancy facilities, and even the ditches of the Yiluo River were destroyed by Han Qian's order.

Zhu Yuzhi Heluo attached great importance to the construction of weirs and dams on the Yi River, the Luo River and their tributaries.

In his early years, Zhu Yu built the dam not to develop hydraulic equipment, but to raise the water level of the stream and river that passes through the hilly belt so that it can be irrigated to the higher slopes on both sides.

In addition to making the slope area in the middle reaches of the Yishuiluo River, nearly 2 million acres of irrigated land have been added, and the flood disasters in Luoyang, Yanshi, Gongxian and other places in the lower reaches of the Yiluo River have been greatly reduced, and the most direct and convenient conditions have also been provided for the large-scale rapid development of the workshop system of using hydraulic power in Heluo.

At present, hundreds of weirs and dams have been built in Huaiyang Mountain, Wujian Mountain and other places for irrigation and the development of hydraulic workshops, but it took four or five years to lay such a foundation.

The only downside to the Heluo area is that there will be a period of ice cover for more than two months.

With the arrival of middle and senior engineers who moved north from Xuzhou to Luoyang one after another, the Luoyang precision parts and armor and armor manufacturing workshop directly under the jurisdiction of the Military Intelligence Staff Office will be able to debug and produce by next spring, and even if there will be a freeze period of more than two months every year, the impact will not be too great.

At this time of year, in addition to annual leave, you can also arrange the maintenance and transformation of equipment, as well as the training and study of engineers and craftsmen.

Luoyang, the national capital, and Jingzhao counties, including the mountain people who fled to the mountains at the northern foot of Songshan and Funiu Mountains to escape the war, currently recorded 820,000 Dingkou; After Huazhou and Shangzhou (Shangluo) accepted refugees fleeing the war, nearly 400,000 people were also recorded.

At present, there are 1.9 million Dingkou in the five prefectures of Huaixi, and in recent years, Xuzhou has continued to export young and strong laborers to Huaixi, and the population has remained at about 200,000 without a major increase, the population of Dengjun and the two prefectures of Deng Jun is 200,000, and the western Henan region west of Yingshui, Funiu Mountain and Songshan has about 1.3 million people, and the Dingkou of Liangjin and Jinzhou, which occupies the Hanzhong Plain, plus the population of 1.2 million in Heluo and Shanghua prefectures, the total number of households in Liangguo is about 5 million.

However, the farming and water conservancy systems in the middle and upper reaches of the Yiluo River remain perfect, and the current situation is much more optimistic than Han Qian initially expected.

He now has a letter to urge Wen Bo to organize small groups of troops and horses in the mountainous areas north and west of Lantian Pass in Xiangshan and Kong Xirong to carry out infiltration operations, and by the first to mid-November, after Yingshui and other rivers and Huai are completely frozen, he also wants Zhao Wuji and Li Xiu to take the lead in Chenzhou and Xuzhou to launch a counteroffensive against the Biannan region controlled by the Eastern Liang Army, disrupting the rhythm of Zhu Rang and Liang Shixiong's integration of forces in eastern Henan and Shandong.

Even in the future, if he recovers Guanzhong, Hedong and other places, and even the Central Plains is reunified, even if Li Zhihe gains a firm foothold in Longyou and collects tens of thousands of cavalry, what threat can he be considered?