Merchants are the economic factors of the free regulation of the market, and while merchants sell goods to promote commercial development, they also promote the exchange of goods and trade exchanges between various places to the greatest extent, and are an important stabilizing force to ensure people's livelihood.

No matter how wide the state is, it is impossible to be all-encompassing. The existence of businessmen organically integrates the three major links of production, transportation and sales, and the regulation and control at the national level is not enough to solve the balance of supply and demand in the market and the demand for people and materials, and ultimately it is still necessary to rely on the free market mechanism to self-regulate the supply and demand of the market.

Bailiyan is a human being, and he knows very well the power of economic strangulation, and it is very easy to kill all the shipowners and other cadres, but to create economic chaos and panic, it still depends on the spread of these businessmen.

After interrogating the new oarsmen, it was learned that from mid to late April, all the oarsmen of the official ships of the Jinxuedi people were replaced by Jinxuedi people, and the third and fourth generations of Central Plains oarsmen from Songdia Province were all transferred to private merchant ships. Bailiyan judged from this that the Jin Xuedi people were reorganizing the naval army to prevent the robbery of the Central Plains people again.

The most nerve-wracking thing for Bailiyan is not the Jin Xuedi people's navy, no matter how large its navy is, at best it is just an army with warships, its thinking and tactical tactics are still at the army level, and its native auxiliary legion army is not very good, Bailiyan is still most worried about its population base.

Although it annihilated its 1340,000 horses and wounded tens of thousands this year, its soldiers can still be replenished from the local area or even from the Guannei, and the Jinxuedi people have unicorn horses, which has reduced the manpower required for logistics and transportation, thus liberating a large number of manpower into the war, and consuming manpower for a long time, which is extremely unfavorable to the coalition army.

Of course, the source of soldiers does not mean that they can be used in war, their training still takes time, production requires manpower, and with the scarcity of veterans and the loss of death, their combat effectiveness is gradually diluted by new soldiers.

The waterway to the west is not smooth, because the terrain outside the pass is high in the south and low in the north, the Babugia Mountains lie in the south, except for the Posong River in the two provinces of Posong and Songdia, the main rivers are flowing from south to north, and the navy will inevitably go north on the way to the west, or go up to the south, and detour through the water network in the east-west direction. In this way, the waterway, which was originally no more than a thousand miles in a straight line, had to walk two or three thousand miles in all directions.

The wealth of the Jinxuedi people was well experienced by the coalition army in the battle of Calezer, and the navy plundered countless materials and goods along the way, not counting cattle and grain and grass, and the gold and silver coins plundered in one of its villages were equivalent to all the income of a feudal lord of Xian for five years.

And its homeland has been settled in the rear for a long time, not invaded by the invasion of war, which greatly facilitates the mobilization potential of the Jinxuedi people to start war.

Those who do not resist will be killed, and those who do not resist will be released, so as to expand the number of refugees and increase the pressure on local administration and economy.

The fleet grew rapidly from the initial fifty ships to more than ninety, and the most recent ransack even captured a large merchant ship weighing more than 3,000 stones, loaded with alcohol, ready to be transported to the small town downstream for supplies.

At the same time, the news of the invasion of the inland river by the coalition navy quickly spread to Posong City:

"Are these damn pigs going crazy to rob our land!"

Kabias tore up the letter and cursed hysterically, while a grim-faced Gudapa despaired that he couldn't figure out the situation:

"It's not that they dare now, it's that they're doing it, and there's no reason why they shouldn't. Plunder is the right of warfighters, and as I said earlier, they should not be underestimated. How about now, our four legions were beaten by them, and they threw away their armor and poured out. It won't be long before their ships sail under the city of Posong. ”

"No, it's never going to happen. We have a lot more people than they are. We also have the moon gods, whose dastardly deeds the priests will curse! ”

"Come on, Kabias." Gudapa scoffed: "The spell has been cursed a thousand times, but the situation is getting worse and worse, and the priests should go and see for themselves, the crippled soldiers, and the plundered villages."

It is time to stop them from continuing westward now, or we will suffer even greater losses. ”

"Aren't Mooney's men chasing this group of pigs along the way, what else can we do?"

Kabias complained, and Gudapa was much calmer:

"Their goal is to plunder all the villages along the river and the passing merchant ships, and they should immediately move all the villages along the way inland, block the waterways, and stop them from continuing to plunder."

"Are you crazy! This will cost us a lot of tax revenue, and municipal and provincial officials will not agree. ”

"That's better than being plundered by the northerners."

"No, I think I have a better way!"

A cruel evil color flashed in Kabias's eyes at this time, and Gudappa felt ominous, and hurriedly asked:

"What's the solution?"

"This is our land, and it's useless for them to take silver and gold, but it's a lot of money for us."

Gudapa's face turned black when he heard the news:

"Are you crazy, you are going to allow them to plunder our people!"

"But it will end up in our pockets, won't it!"

"You can't do that!" Gudapa strongly objected: "I will give the order to the cities now, evacuate all the villages along the river, and if Mooni and Temir know, they will kill you!" ”

"No, you can't do it, I believe that the vast majority of municipal and provincial officials will not agree with your approach, which will cause them to suffer huge losses, which will not benefit you."

"You're threatening me!" Gudapa was furious.

"You are wrong, I am doing this for your own good, the army's affairs, the army should be allowed to solve it, almost all of our troops have been transferred to Mooni and Temir, even if there is a problem, it has nothing to do with us, as the governor of Posong Province, you and I have done our best, isn't it!"

"No, you're dereliction of duty and dereliction of duty!"

"Hehe......" Kabias sneered: "The senators and officials are more convincing than you, let's see!" ”

"You ......"

Ignoring Gudapa's rage, Kabias turned and left the empty Hall of Honor.

Two days later, at a city council, Gudapha's decree was rejected, and Bailiyan's navy continued to wreak havoc on the waterways of eastern Po Song province, rapidly expanding from more than 90 to more than 110 ships.

On this day, in a certain area of water in the wild, Sikong Nan led the plundering team to collect troops and board the ship, which was another plunder.

"General, the village seems to be prepared, except for grain and grass, this plunder is much less than the gold and silver obtained in the previous one, and most of the cattle and horses are missing."

"That's natural, our army has killed all the horses, cattle and sheep wherever it goes, and the villages everywhere have already heard the news, and it is inevitable to evacuate all the valuable materials. But they didn't know when our troops would arrive or where they would plunder, so their preparations were of little significance. ”

Bailiyan plundered all the way with a clear goal, mainly ten pieces, iron, bronze, grain, coal, gold and silver, jewelry, medicinal materials, salt, cloth, oil, and the rest of the things were incidental.

Iron, copper, and coal can be used to smelt metals, grains, herbs, and salt are fed by people and horses, and cloth, oil, and meat are by-products, which are conducive to improving life and raising morale. As for nitrate and brimstone, the looting has not yet found large-scale sulfur saltpeter in the villages, so it is of little significance.

All cattle, sheep, horses, and livestock, except for those who need to be loaded and taken away, are to be slaughtered on the spot, not a single one is left, houses and farms are burned, all economic industries are destroyed, and a scorched earth policy is implemented in order to distort the relations of production.

After such a long drive, all localities heard the evil deeds of the coalition forces, and they were all frightened when they heard about it, and they were bound to be prepared.

All the way westward and plundered, encountering countless resistance, and hundreds of casualties before and after. After all, the villagers' strength is limited, and when they encounter veterans of the whole coalition army, the self-organized people's army is useless.

The signs of this raid made Bailiyan consider collecting troops and returning to Xihe to expand the establishment of the navy. At present, there are more than 100 ships, and large ships have been captured one after another, and the personnel of each ship are relatively diluted, so it is necessary to return to Xihe to continue to expand the number of sailors.

The second is that the Jin Xuedi people's naval army in the Posong River has not appeared for a long time, which makes Bailiyan worry that the Jin Xuedi people may be planning a bigger battle.

While thinking, Sikong Nan said:

"General, our army is currently understaffed and carrying a lot of cargo, should we lead the ship back to the West River for rectification, in case its naval army makes a big move and fills all the rivers, my army may not be able to withstand it."

"What Brother Sikong said is that he should return to Xihe, but next time, I'm afraid it won't be so easy. You didn't notice that our army burned and looted countless times along the way, why is there no trace of its naval army so far? ”

"What does the general mean is that the Jin Xuedi Navy is accumulating strength?"

"It should be so, so far, no naval army has been found to come to intercept it, only the infantry army is pursuing on the shore, which must be avoiding the edge of our army, buying time for the rectification of its naval army, and then after our army retreats to Dranky, the western waterway will be blocked by the naval army, and then look for the opportunity for a decisive battle.

At that time, both the ships and the number of troops will be far superior to our army, and even if our army has the advantage of tactics and gunpowder, its number is enough to offset the advantage of our army, so I pondered and killed him with a horse pistol. ”

Bailiyan spread out the map and pointed to the Boglaat Lake, which is more than 500 miles away in a straight line to the southeast:

"This is the Boglath Lake, where the Taron River and the Bertila River converge, and it is also an important hub of the east-west waterway, the lake is extremely wide, and it is the fastest to go from the West River and the Waterfall River to the west, otherwise you must go north to bypass the small river, which is extremely unfavorable for the passage of the fleet. Therefore, the Jin Xuedi people will inevitably set up a water village here in the future, and use this as a foundation to block the westward advance of our water army.

At present, our army is located more than 500 miles in a straight line from Lake Boglaat and about 800 miles by water, and on the way back, our army can set up an ambush here to lure and destroy enemy ships. ”

"Is the general trying to blow up the ship?"

"That's right, to lead his army into the lake, and then blow up and sink the boat. This time, more than 300 light fishing boats and small boats were captured, which were enough to load gunpowder to blow up and sink enemy ships. ”

The boat is a kind of small boat that is commonly used to cross the river to fish, can seat five or six people, carry several stone goods, this time the westward has seized more than 300 small boats, Baili Yan ordered each big boat to tie the small boat to the outside of the port side, so as to facilitate the use.

The previous Jin Xuedi infantry army blocked the naval army with a row of pontoon bridges in the narrow waterway, and they were all blown up by Bailiyan with gunpowder loaded with small boats.

(End of chapter)