It snowed heavily in Huainan, and the newly renovated post road was paved with cinders, and thousands of people and horses trampled past, leaving a muddy place.

Along the road, the township divisions requisitioned laborers overnight to repair the road.

Although in two days, the temperature will become colder and colder, and stepping on the melted turbid snow water will freeze the road solid all day, but it is also necessary to smooth the road surface in time to ensure that the follow-up material resources are continuously transported to Huangchuan quickly by vehicles and horses.

However, the requisitioned laborers seem to have slightly more, and hundreds or thousands of laborers, holding simple tools such as wooden shovels, working in the snow under the bitter cold, under extremely difficult conditions, but few of them cried out that they were tired.

Since the Tangyi army recovered the central areas of Huozhou and Shouzhou after the spring, it first abolished the lowly status of slaves and maids, and directly confiscated the fields of the wealthy families.

Those who did not flee at the first time were all imprisoned as war criminals in hard labor camps for reform.

The confiscated land is allocated to the poor tenant farmers and slaves who are actually cultivating, and it is only necessary for these tenant farmers and slave families to pay three months and ten consecutive years of volunteer work for the township secretary to repair roads and canals during the slack season every year. Of course, there are Ding Zhuang conscripts in these households, and even this discount is directly exempted.

The newly recovered counties are exempted from this year's summer and autumn grain tax and Dingkou tax.

And even if the land is measured and apportioned into the mu, the new field tax will be uniformly levied next year, which is only less than half of the various levies collected by the Shouzhou Army before.

The prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of Tangyi will be directly exempted from heavy forced labor in the future.

At this time, if the people are requisitioned to repair the road, the township department will pay the wages or directly offset the new land tax collected after the apportionment of the mu next year.

For the idle and strong laborers who are stuck in the dilapidated shacks in the cold winter, participating in road construction can not only get an extra income, but also save food at home.

In the summer and autumn, although the flooding of the Huanghe River, Guan River and other river basins was extremely serious, the tens of thousands of households whose fields and houses were washed away by the flood were all relocated to the northern part of Chaozhou and Chuzhou, and the remaining households were not affected by the floods.

There are even some people who are a little bolder, so they take out some of the surplus food, buy a few new clothes for their families, or buy a few handy farm tools, or buy two carts of lime, and hire young people from the same village to help repair the dilapidated houses a little bit, and then build a new thatched roof to protect from the wind and rain.

During the battle of Wujinling, the Shouzhou army forcibly recruited more than 30,000 people from Gaocheng and other counties, responsible for building roads, camps, transporting grain, and even driving to the battlefield as miscellaneous soldiers to consume the strength of the Tangyi army.

These people are all strong laborers, and to their families, it is as if the main beam has collapsed, but they do not want to think that after the spring of this year, 25,600 families will not only get in touch with their long-lost father, son or husband, but also learn that they have officially become the generals of the Tangyi army.

For the poor who are struggling at the bottom, it is already great news to know that their families are safe and sound; Next, in addition to the township division's allocation of land for the general's dependents, all of which are allocated free of charge according to the average household of 15 acres, and the field tax is halved during the five-year service period, each general is not only paid according to the regular salary after the spring, but also pays the cantonment auxiliary military salary of five yuan, so as to prepare for better resettlement of his family.

It will be quite complicated to win the support of the clan lords, but it is straightforward and simple to win the support and support of the poor and slaves who are struggling on the verge of survival.

Of course, behind this is a strong enough fiscal and tax revenue and the organizational force formed by a large number of grassroots officials as support.

Instead of the depression and panic of the approaching war, hundreds of young and middle-aged people ran to the township department all day long to ask if the government had any plans to recruit new soldiers.

Some of the people who were forcibly conscripted by the Shouzhou Army during the Wujinling War were only sons in the family, or brothers, or fathers and sons were conscripted into the army at the same time.

Whether it was to follow the tradition of succession or to ensure that every household had a young and strong labor force at home, after recovering the central part of Huozhou after spring, Han Qian ordered the return of almost 3,000 auxiliary soldiers to his home.

This part of the population is even more anxious to return to the camp.

The standard of clothing, food, housing and transportation of the Tangyi army is much higher than that of the low-level poor people in the world.

Meritorious service is rewarded, and if you can survive several periods of literacy classes and literacy classes, you can be appointed as a military attaché, and then you can be appointed as an official when you return to a locality, even if this is a bit far for ordinary generals, but after the service period, you can still enjoy half of the salary when you are transferred to the reserve force, and if you retire from the reserve, you can also enjoy a part of the salary until you are old.

For the children of Huaixi, who have been struggling on the edge of survival for decades, where to find such a good thing?

Even as a soldier and civilian husband, he can enjoy the treatment of an auxiliary soldier in the cantonment camp, which is better than being idle at home in the cold winter and not being able to find a livelihood.

In order to alleviate the huge pressure on military funds, it was impossible for Han Qian to expand the troops and horses without limit, and even kept thinking about reducing the number of soldiers and horses on active duty, but at this critical time, in order to ensure the possibility of rapid expansion of troops and horses in a short period of time, while Su Lie, He Liufeng, and Tan Xiuqun were transferred to the west, the government also ordered the Township Division to recruit 100 to 300 new road repair workers in addition to the original construction plan.

At present, 27 counties and 189 township divisions under the jurisdiction of the government have been established, and in this way, nearly 40,000 young and strong people are actually in a state of semi-mobilization and semi-readiness.

Almost half of these young and strong laborers are distributed near the post road that starts in the north of Chaozhou and goes to Le'an and Huaiyang Mountain through Anfeng Village and Gaocheng.

This post road has a long history, at present it is also the main land passage from Chaozhou, Chuzhou to Huangchuan and Le'an, along the way across a number of sources out of the northern foot of Huaiyang Mountain, the northeast foothills, flowing into the Huaihe River and Chaohu Lake, every encounter with the river is built ferry, pontoon bridge, every twenty or thirty miles also built a post station, post shop.

Anfeng, Gaocheng, Yincheng, Xinjing and other major cities in Shouzhou, central and southern Huozhou and northern Chaozhou are all distributed near this post road, which is the most densely populated place in the central area of Huaixi.

And along this post road, after crossing the Huang River to the west, it is Le'an City, which is only sixty miles away from Luoshan City in the east.

Less than 40 miles north along the Huang River from Le'an Castle is the Huangchuan Fortress where the old rule of Gwangju is located.

Huangchuan City is divided into two cities, the old and the new, standing between the Huang River, each other is the horn, the defense situation is excellent, but Le'an City is closer to Luoshan, and the soldiers and horses who are transferred to the west wing are naturally assembled in Le'an.

In addition to the post road in the north of Huaiyang Mountain, from the upper valley of the Longtan River to the upper valley of the South Huangshui River, and then enter the valley of the Baishui River through the plank road of Huazhufeng, all the way through the newly built road in the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain, you can directly enter the upper reaches of the Huang River, and then go down the Huang River to enter the Le'an City.

This passage that has been newly built in the past two years is much narrower and more tortuous, but this passage as a supplement can make the manpower and materials in Huaiyang Mountain fully play, and at the same time, there is no fear that the passage north of Huaiyang Mountain may be cut off by the scouts and horses of the Shouzhou Army, and it can also be more concealed The assembly and mobilization of the Tangyi Army is even more significant.

A group of men and horses gathered in the direction of Le'an, and in Le'an County, Kong Xirong built a number of barracks on the west wing of the county border one step earlier.

In mid-November, when Li Changfeng, the Marquis of Linjin, Zhou Yuan, the squire of the Ministry of Works, and others strongly refuted Han Qian's urging to quickly resolve the Luoshan defenders' negligence within a month, the 12,000 elite soldiers and horses of the Tangyi Forward Army, with He Liufeng as the main general and Su Lie as the deputy general, had already stationed in the camp on the east bank of the Gushui River, which was only less than 30 miles away from Luoshan City.

And one of the core camps of the Zuolongquean Army on the west bank of the Gushui River, Dushanyi is only 500 steps away from the main camp of the Tangyi Forward Army, which is actually equivalent to facing each other across the Gushui River.

After the forward army arrived on the east bank of the Gushui River, it did not stop and wait for further orders before acting, but divided its troops and horses to spread along the east bank of the Gushui River, occupying and controlling many places where it was easier to cross the river - the Xiangbei Army organized hundreds of people on the opposite side of the river bank to dig the river ice every day, so that the Gushui River did not completely freeze in late November.

In addition, Han Bao, who was transferred to Kong Xirong's account after returning from Heshuo to the south, was also incorporated into the forward army sequence with Wang Ji this time, and each led more than 1,000 elite foot soldiers to directly advance into the two wings of the valley in the upper reaches of the Gushui River, and launched a clean-up of the cottages in the upper reaches of the Gushui River.

In the autumn and winter of last year, Kong Xirong led his troops into the mountainous area on the northern slope of Huaiyang Mountain, launched a rebellion of the poor and slaves at the bottom, and resisted the oppression and exploitation of the wealthy families, which was only limited to the area east of the upper reaches of the Huang River.

However, the mountainous area in the upper reaches of the Gushui River, which is close to the Jiuliguan and Lingshan camps controlled by the Xiangbei Army, is quite far away from Wujinling, and because the mountainous area along the Gushui River is relatively flat, it is easy to be attacked by the garrisons of Huangchuan and Le'an, so last year, a large-scale rebellion of the poor and slaves at the bottom was launched, and it did not extend its tentacles to the mountainous areas along the upper reaches of the Gushui River.

Although the Gushui River is the boundary river between Luoshan and Le'an and Huangchuan counties, the upper valley of the Gushui River, Xuanxi Bay, Gaohuadian Port and other places traditionally belong to Luoshan County.

At least before Wei Qun sent the Great Chu to propose that the Shu-Chu coalition army attack Guanzhong, Han Qian did not think about engaging in a military confrontation with Li Zhihe, and even the east bank of the middle and lower reaches of the Gushui River only sent a small number of sentinels, and did not build a fixed camp, and naturally did not think about controlling the mountainous areas in the upper reaches of the Gushui River.

However, after Han Qian made up his mind to kidnap the Wen clan to Tangyi, the Gushui River became more important in the western flank, and the attitude of the western flank towards the mountainous areas in the upper reaches of the Gushui River also changed radically.

Just two or three months ago, Kong Xirong was not limited to repairing several permanent camps along the east bank of the Gushui River, Kong Xirong also assigned hundreds of capable men to sneak into the upper valley and mountainous areas of the Gushui River near Jiuliguan, secretly contacting and instigating the low-level poor and slaves in the cottages.

Now when it is time to harvest, Han Bao and Wang Jiao's elite soldiers and horses directly enter the mountains, knock on the cottages, and those who do not obey will launch a riot from the inside, and the inside should be combined with the outside, and the cottages will be forcibly conquered, abolishing the old system of slaves and maids, suppressing the wealthy people, and mobilizing tens of thousands of low-level poor people and slaves in this area at the fastest speed, establishing two township divisions, and requisitioning 2,000 strong, expanding the soldiers and horses to more than 4,000 people, stationed near the mouth of the gorge where the Gushui River is out of the scissors ridge and only more than 20 miles east of the Lingshan camp of the Xiangbei Army. Threatens the flank from Jiuliguan to the Lingshan camp and from the Lingshan camp to Luoshan City.

In the cold winter, the river is dry and thin, and it is easy to intercept the upper reaches of the Gushui River.

At the same time, a large number of lime, stone mud, green bricks, strip stones and other construction materials were continuously transported to the mouth of the Jianziling Gorge by thousands of mules and horses from Huangchuan, Le'an, Yincheng, Xinjing and other places, and hundreds of strong laborers were organized to cut down trees in the nearby mountains.

Such a big move is obviously not just to build two camps at the mouth of the Jianziling Gorge and connect them with pontoon bridges.

From the mouth of the Jianziling Gorge to the north, thousands of people were requisitioned along the east bank of the Gushui River, and despite the severe cold of ice and snow, they rushed to repair the abandoned river embankments and roads on the east bank.

…………

…………

"Does Han Qian really want to repair the weir at the mouth of the gorge?"

Xu Jing stood on a gentle slope and asked angrily.

He looked at the river ice on the north side of the Scissors Ridge, the ice had been cut off, and hundreds of people had already laid a low fence wall in the river and filled it with earth and rocks to block the small amount of river water that seeped down, but in the river below the fence, countless people were removing the silt from the riverbed.

Looking at the camp on the east bank, hundreds of mules and horses were constantly piling up bricks and stones, and it was obvious that a formal weir was to be built in the river below the improvised fence.

At this time, Han Qian did not hesitate to requisition thousands of people to build a weir dam upstream of the valley water, and his sinister intentions were self-evident.

In the first battle of Wujin Ridge, the main force of the Shouzhou army was gathered in the narrow river valley between Wujin Ling and Meitang Mountain, which was more susceptible to the impact of the upstream water, but after the Jianzi Ridge, the west bank of the Gushui River was a horse flat river, and if you want to use the water to impact the Xiangbei military camp built on the periphery of Luoshan City twenty or thirty miles away, you need to use the weir and the mountains on both wings to store more than ten times the amount of water in the upper reaches of the Gushui River, so you need to build a higher and more formal weir.

It is not impossible to do a project of this scale in the world, but the scale of the requisitioned civil servants is huge, and at the same time, it cannot be completed in a short time.

Of course, if others can't do it, it doesn't mean that Tangyi can't do it.

Looking at the large number of green bricks piled up on the east bank, it is obvious that Han Qian wants to replace the stone with green bricks that are easier to fire, and build the dam body - the blue brick dam body is more likely to be eroded by river water, far less than the stone, but if Han Qian's purpose of repairing the weir is only to store water to impact the west bank, using green bricks and leaving the stone can undoubtedly save a lot of time.

In fact, even if the height of this weir is not high enough to store enough water, the existence of this weir will force the Xiangbei army not to dare to approach the Gushui River at will, and the camps like Dushanjin, which are close to the west bank of the Gushui River, will have to be abandoned.

Of course, after the spring of next year, even if the Tangyi army releases water to wash away the road between the Lingshan camp and Luoshan City, it will be enough for them to eat a pot.

Zhang Qian, who was assigned by Shen Yang to rush to Luoshan to inspect the battle situation and coordinate the relationship between the Xiangbei Army and the Tangyi Army, only met with Gao Shao and Kong Xirong in Le'an City yesterday, and crossed the Gushui River today, just arrived in Dushanjin, and had not yet seen Li Zhihe's face, and was pulled here by Xu Jing and Yao Xi in the middle of the road, but he was also secretly surprised when he saw this scene, but he didn't expect Han Qian to be so blatant that he directly showed his fangs against the Xiangbei Army.

Was Han Qian so desperate to stop Li Zhihe from taking over the Luoshan garrison?

"Do the imperial court and Shen Xiang want to sit back and watch Han Qian, a thief, act so recklessly and ignore it?" Xu Jing stared at Zhang Qian and asked resentfully.

Zhang Qian's face was gloomy and silent.

Xu Jing, as the head of the Privy Council, looked indignant, and he really unabashedly favored the Xiangbei Army, and Xu Jing and Yao Xishui also rushed over from Jinling with him this time, what is the current situation in Jinling, they are not unclear, what is the use of asking him what is the use, what is the use of pointing the finger at Shen Xiang?

Just as most people in the DPRK and China don't look down on Han Qian's goodness, most people don't want the Luoshan defenders to surrender for Li Zhihe.

And even so, so many princes and ministers above the court are unwilling to wade into this troubled water, so he will be insignificant and go north with Xu Jing and Yao Xishui, but what can it do?

Can he run to Han Qian's face and bare his teeth?

When he came over this time, he didn't even see Han Qian's face, he actually knew that Han Qian was in Le'an City yesterday.

Even though Zhang Qian knew that Shen Yang never wanted to see the Tangyi Army and the Xiangbei Army provoke without permission, at this time, he didn't want to be involved, so he cleared his throat and said: "The Marquis of Qianyang didn't cross the line much, and Lord Xu reprimanded him for his wanton behavior, which was a little too much. Besides, the mountainous area in the upper reaches of the Gushui River belongs to Luoshan County, but the Xiangbei Army has not been able to capture Luoshan City for more than half a year, and it has also failed to effectively control the mountainous area in the upper reaches of the Gushui River. ”

Seeing that Zhang Qian also had a kind attitude, Xu Jing's face was also gloomy, but it was difficult to refute.

It's not that they don't know the importance of being in direct control of the township, but knowing doesn't mean they can do it.

And even in the prefectures such as Xiangdeng Junying, which they focus on, they can only install their own manpower in the core official positions of the prefectures and counties, and a large number of assistant officials and officials and the grass-roots military attaches of the prefecture and county township soldiers can only rely on the children of the local township families to fill the position.

At the grassroots level in the township, they can only completely let go of the control of the big villagers.

Otherwise, today there would be bandits and thieves here, the people there will gather to resist donations and taxes, and the 40,000 or 50,000 elite soldiers and horses of the Xiangbei Army will be exhausted, and it will be difficult to control the place without leakage.

In the final analysis, the children cultivated by the Late Red Mansion and the Marquis of Xinchang, including Li Zhihe's cronies around him over the years, after the Right Shenwu Army suffered a devastating blow, they have successively filled in the Left Dragon Bird Army, the Left Martial Army and the Left Shenwu Army over the years, and it is not enough to master forty or fifty thousand elite soldiers and horses.

Excluding Gwangju, the 32 counties of the five prefectures of Xiangbei need 1,000 core officials at the state and county levels alone, and if the township and department levels are to be directly controlled, the scale of the officials will be tripled.

Where can they divide so many times the number of officials who are proficient in official affairs, laws and regulations, and pen and ink to control the place?

As long as they rely on the children of the big families to rule the place, it is a joke to want to mobilize the poor and slaves at the bottom.

Compared with their lack of resources in governance, Han Qian's East Lake School in Liyang City has hired more than 400 teachers and staff alone.

Like the repair of the Anfeng Canal, the excavation of the Yongyang Canal, and a series of major projects, Han Qian appointed little-known people as the chief engineer.

Over the years, Han Daoxun and Han Qian's father and son have cultivated a large number of usable descendants in Xuzhou, which is difficult for anyone to catch up with in a short period of time.

The three armies of Xiangbei are also subordinate to the forbidden army system.

Even if Li Zhihe has tried his best to reduce the burden of generals in recent years, he is only barely able to do so without the need for soldiers or soldiers to bear the cost of building and maintaining soldiers' armor, war horses, and military horses, and there is no way to take out an additional 500,000 or 600,000 yuan a year to pay each general's salary.

It is impossible for them to send two or three thousand elite soldiers and horses to the remote mountainous area in the upper reaches of the Gushui River to prevent the Tangyi army from arbitrarily interfering in the mountains, right?

However, the Tangyi army arbitrarily intervened, unscrupulously mobilized mobs to suppress the township tyrants, restored local order at an unimaginable speed, and transferred a large number of enthusiastic young and strong laborers into the army, and they had no way to take precautions in advance, nor could they stop them in a timely and effective manner.

"Han Qian wrote to the story, and Li Chen wanted to solve the Luoshan defenders within a month, so that the hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers and horses of Dachu would not be pinned down by more than 10,000 Luoshan defenders, and the reason was also tenable - besides, the Xinjin Marquis besieged Chaozhou for a long time, resulting in the defeat of Hong Zepu and Zhongli, there have been many discussions in the court recently, which makes Shen Xiang above the court, and it is difficult to speak for the Xinjin Hou,"

Zhang Qian saw that Xu Jing was silent, and continued,

According to Zhang's shallow view, the elite of the Xiangbei Army is no worse than the Tangyi Army, and he is ruthless, and I believe that it should not be a big problem to capture Luoshan City within half a month. And since Wen Bo insisted on having no intention of accepting Xinjinhou's surrender, instead of arguing about these at this time, Lord Xu should try his best to help Xinjinhou capture Luoshan City as soon as possible - if Xinjinhou can guarantee that Luoshan City will be captured within half a month, Zhang will risk his life and will block the main force of the Tangyi army from crossing the Gushui River for half a point, and I believe that Qianyang Hou will have nothing to say. ”

Xu Jing almost spurted out a mouthful of old blood, but he couldn't refute Zhang Qian's saying that it was impossible to capture Luoshan City within half a month if the Tangyi army came over.

And when it came to whether the destruction of the main force of the Great Chu Naval Division and the Right Shenwu Army was the responsibility of Li Zhihe's siege of Chaozhou for a long time, Xu Jing couldn't refute it with confidence; After all, he fled back to Jinling like a dog to save his life.

Yao Xishui stood aside and didn't speak much, but listening to Zhang Qian's words, it undoubtedly also represented the attitude of Shen Yang, Yang En and others, and he was actually dissatisfied with the Xiangbei Army's insistence on absorbing the Luoshan defenders instead of resolutely annihilating them, and couldn't help asking: "According to Lord Zhang's view, apart from the forcible capture of Luoshan City in half a month, what other way can work?" ”

"I haven't seen the Marquis of Qianyang himself, but yesterday I came to meet with Gao Shao and Kong Xirong, and their meaning is also very simple and clear, the Xiangbei Army cannot guarantee that it will be able to capture Luoshan City in half a month, so it will withdraw to the west side of Luoshan City in the near future, and the Tangyi army will enter the east side of Luoshan City to persuade him to surrender, if Wen Bo insists on not being willing to surrender unconditionally, then the two armies will attack it together, and the Tangyi army will ensure that within half a month, take the east city. If the Xiangbei Army can't capture Xicheng within half a month at the same time, Luoshan County will be under the jurisdiction of Tangyi Xingying and the government will be under the jurisdiction of the government......"

"That's what Shen Xiang meant, right?" Yao Xishui asked.

"Of course, Shen Xiang hopes that the Xiangbei Army can capture Luoshan City alone as soon as possible and make another meritorious contribution to Great Chu." Zhang Qian said.

Yao Xishui almost spurted out a mouthful of old blood, and captured Luoshan City in half a month, how many heavy casualties did the Xiangbei army have to pay, why couldn't Shen Yang speak and get a backache?