Han Qian came to Qianyang this time, in addition to inspecting Langxi and Quyang counties, he also made a special trip to Qianyang City to meet Guo Rong and ask him to go out of the mountains to work in Xuzhou.

At the beginning, as a deputy envoy, he and Han Qian went to Shudu to welcome their relatives, and Guo Rong accompanied some palace attendants, but it was precisely because of the existence of these palace attendants that Guo Rong helped Han Qian to hijack the Qingyang county lord and escape from Shu in the capital of Shu.

Guo Rong was unwilling to kill the palace attendants he usually served, so he couldn't go back to Jinling, and Yueyang had no place to stay, so he finally came to Xuzhou to live temporarily alone.

In the past year or so, he has lived in the guest house behind Guanyue Tower, and he has almost exhausted all the coils he has with him, and his robe has been patched a lot.

Han Qian didn't plan to stay in Qianyang City for more, Guo Rong hurriedly returned to the guest house to simply pack his bags, and when he came out, he found that Han Qian's entourage had already settled the money for the house and wine for him, and everyone did not delay in Qianyang City, and after separating from Lingtian City in Qianyang County, he went out of the city to board the boat to the south bank of the Ruan River, and then changed horses to take the road on the east bank of the canal to go south.

Although the canal is one of the five major tributaries of the Ruan River, from Langxi City to the mouth of the river, the water surface is also thirty or forty zhang open, but there are many dangerous shoals and reefs in the river, and the strange rocks in the river are craggy, even in the rainy season, they can only pass small and medium-sized ships below 100 stones, and they go against the current, the speed is slow, but they may be able to reach Langxi City faster by riding a horse and taking the trail.

The official road from Langxi to Qianyang was built on the east bank of the canal, zigzag along the cliff bank, although it has been renovated with great effort in the past two years, it is only five feet wide, and it is extremely difficult for two horses to walk side by side, and it is necessary to be particularly careful when riding the horses.

On one side is a mountainous area, on the other side is a turbulent river, if you are not careful, you will fall to the strange rocky river beach and fall on the broken bones, and you can also see many vehicles dumping on the river beach along the way.

Langxi Road was first built in the Qin Dynasty a thousand years ago, when the Qin Emperor moved 500,000 people from the Central Plains to fill in the southwestern counties such as Qianyang and Guilin, and lived together with the Zhuyue Yi bureaucrats.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty built post roads twice, sent troops to conquer Yunnan, and newly established Yizhou County under the jurisdiction of the Yizhou Thorn History Department, which not only increased the population of the southwest a large number, but also really opened up the connection between the Central Plains and the southwest region, and also made some areas such as Qianyang rich and prosperous.

It's just that since the end of the Han Dynasty, there have been frequent wars in the Central Plains, the southwest region has become closed again, the agricultural economy and culture have even degraded to a considerable extent, and the post roads built by the Qin and Han dynasties have also been largely abandoned.

Like the Xuefeng Mountain Post Road, Xuzhou invested tens of thousands of dollars and grains before and after, and also hired a large number of slave laborers from Sizhou, which can only be regarded as restoring to the scale of the "five-foot road" in the Qin and Han dynasties; Langxi Road is located in Xuzhou, but it was also renovated that it was restored to the scale of the "five-foot road" in the Qin and Han dynasties.

It is a real pity that the reef in the canal water is too dangerous, especially the reef hidden under the water surface, the boat will be destroyed and people will die if there is a slight carelessness during the boat, and the benefits of the waterway are far from being fully utilized, so that the goods between Langxi and Qianyang City mainly rely on wheelbarrows, and even the carts are difficult to pass, which directly restricts the transportation of bulk goods.

Seeing that Han Qian and Feng Yi were surrounded by thirty or forty people, walking and stopping all the way, Guo Rong saw that Han Qian did not necessarily rush to Langxi City today, and he was more concerned about looking at the terrain of the mountains and rivers on both sides.

After traveling for more than 20 miles, it was already dusk, and at this time, I saw a new post house in the col beside the road, composed of several cross-courtyard buildings, and there was no village in front and back.

Guo Rong traveled to Langxi in July and August last year and did not see a house built here, and saw that there were many cars and horses parked on the flat land sorted out in front of the courtyard.

At this time, I saw a young man in an official robe, with two sword archers, walking quickly from the direction of the river beach in front of him, and saluted Han Qian: "Lord Ji is still on the river beach in front, staring at breaking the reef with an iron boat, and he can't get out, I don't know if you will pass by Xindian Township today......

Only then did Guo Rong see clearly that the young man in front of him was the one who accompanied Han Qian to Shudi, and he was also one of the representatives of the children of the soldiers trained by the Han family.

Guo Rong remembered that his name was He Liufeng, he was not very young, but he was extremely capable, and he heard that there were small officials in the courtyard who came out to greet him, and only then did he know that he was serving as a township inspector here at this time.

Han Qian saw that it was still early, so he was not busy going to the township to inspect the courtyard, and asked He Liufeng to lead the way in front and rush to see Ji Xiyao how they used an iron-bone boat to break the reef.

The site of the reef breaking was three or four miles away in front of the Xindian Township Inspection Division, Han Qian and the others rushed over, and Ji Xiyao and more than a dozen people stood on the river beach with muddy faces.

Seeing Han Qian coming, Ji Xiyao took two engineers to climb up the post road with both hands and feet, pointed to the iron-bone boat dragged to the river beach, shook his head and said to Han Qian: "The reef is too hard, and the iron-bone boat seems to be solid, but when it hits the reef, it only collapses the stone pillar hidden under the water, and the hull is seriously deformed, leaking and sinking, and it can no longer be used - this method is estimated to be too bad, and the cost is too great." ”

Guo Rong saved Ji Xiyao, who joined the army as a worker, from trying to use iron-cast keel ships loaded with sand and gravel to break through the reef, so as to open up a smoother shipping channel between Langxi and Qianyang.

Just look at the iron-boned ship that was dragged to the river beach, although the deformation is not too bad, but the hull plate is broken a lot, and it can no longer be used.

Although Xuzhou cast iron armor is in the world, but an iron skeleton ship more than two zhang long, although only the keel and flank plate are cast with fine iron, but the iron consumption is not low.

What's more, it has to be cast and formed, which consumes a lot of manpower.

An iron-boned ship more than two feet long is not cheap.

Seeing that Han Qian did not hesitate to use such an iron-bone ship to teach Ji Xiyao to use such an iron-bone ship to carry out the continuous trial and error in breaking the reef, Guo Rong could really feel Han Qian's determination to further expand the water and land transportation between Langxi and Qianyang, which also represented Han Qian's determination to run Xuzhou.

Seeing that Han Qian was not wearing an official robe, and the clothes of his concubine wife Zhao Ting'er were also quite ordinary, he must have used every copper in the operation of Xuzhou, and he didn't know if he purely wanted to build Xuzhou according to the wishes of his father and son, or that he had ambitions that were different from ordinary people deeper in his heart?

Han Qian personally climbed to the river beach to see the damage to the hull and impact corners, and secretly felt that the value of repair was not great, and this iron-skeleton ship might have to be dismantled on the spot and transported the useful iron materials to the iron foundry for recasting.

Even if a reef that is extremely unsightly can weigh hundreds or thousands of tons at every turn, and it is smashed by a ship, how strong a ship can smash the reef without any damage to itself?

Even if Han Qian knew in his heart that these were stupid methods, the canal connecting Langxi and Quyang counties, and the channel with a width of more than 100 meters was restricted by these reefs, which was a pity, and it would directly restrict the development of these two counties.

However, in order to further widen the traffic from Langxi to Qianyang, Han Qian still asked Ji Xiyao to find a way to clean up the reefs that were easy to clear in the main channel of the canal as much as possible by various means, and to mark the reefs that could not be cleaned up temporarily on the main channel with iron castings.

Otherwise, even if this channel can barely pass through the hundred stone boats, it will be hit and sunk by the reef at every turn, and I don't know how many people drowned, and the cost of using this channel is too great.

Han Qian and Ji Xiyao discussed further expanding the Langxi Road, Ji Xiyao complained bitterly, saying that the left side is mostly a rock slope, and it is too difficult to excavate, and it is still necessary to concentrate on building the post road from Langxi to Quyang Nanfeng Village in the early stage.

From Langxi to Quyang Nanfang Village, there is no ready-made post road for more than 40 miles, only the mountain road path trampled by mules and horses in the mountains, which is extremely steep.

In addition, the rebellion in Fanzhai in the south was more serious, and Ji Xiyao strongly suggested that Han Qian should go south from Langxi to Quyang, and be sure to bring more soldiers and horses from Langxi County to escort him.

"From Langxi to Nanfangzhai, there are many deep gorges on both sides of the canal, and the navigation conditions should be better, right?" Han Qian asked.

"Logically, yes, but the channel hasn't been carefully surveyed, and there are reefs hidden beneath the surface." Ji Xiyao said.

He did not advocate that Han Qian take the risk of taking a boat to Nanfeng Village now, when Zhao Wuji took a large number of people to Nanfeng Village in early February, and the second batch of women and children who moved west, more than 100 families were resettled in Quyang, and they were all by land.

Now these people are required to pay taxes and accept the rule, and some of them must be moved out of the particularly remote mountains and mountains to build river embankments, villages, and reclaim fields by river valleys and valleys.

Under the influence of his father, Han Qian's mood has changed a lot, but it does not mean that he has the kindness of a woman, he knows the trade-offs, knows how to weigh the pros and cons, and also knows that there is no perfect way between heaven and earth.

Even if some blood has to be shed at this time, as long as the naturalization and naturalization can be carried out thoroughly, the hidden danger of division and antagonism can be truly eliminated.

Therefore, Han Qian also asked Zhao Wuji to use force to suppress after he arrived in Quyang, so he should not be soft-hearted.

If this is done in the early stage, it will be difficult to completely avoid bloodshed.

Zhao Wuji's time in Nanfeng Village was still short, and his control over the mountains on both sides of the canal was limited, Han Qian thought to himself that if they were attacked by boat, it would be more dangerous than taking the land route, after all, there was no way to transfer the most powerful warship of the water camp from Qianyang.

Han Qian thought about it, and only promised Ji Xiyao that after they went to Langxi City tomorrow to meet Gao Bao and the others, he would look at the situation and then ask Ji Xiyao to pack up, follow him into the Xindian Township Inspection Division for the night, and introduce Guo Rong to him.

When Ji Xiyao was in Jinling, he was just an insignificant soldier who was incorporated into Taowuji as a hungry people.

Because he and his father Ji Fu knew how to build ships and sail ships, when Han Daoxun went out of Xuzhou, he was selected by Han Qian to accompany him, and it was almost five years in the blink of an eye.

In the past five years, Ji Xiyao has participated in and presided over the construction of shipyards, weaving institutes, coal and iron mines, iron foundries and a large number of industrial buildings in Xuzhou. Chen Jitang was still in the early stage of the war to cut the feudal domain, and only then did he go to Xuzhou with Han Qian.

Ji Xiyao's father Ji Fu is old, and he has enjoyed Qingfu in the house for the past two years, Zheng Tong decided to stay in Jinling and not return to Xuzhou, so Han Qian used Ji Xiyao to replace Zheng Tong to preside over the construction of various things.

Xuzhou is in the sequence of the states of Great Chu, counted in Xiazhou, and Zhucao participates in the military only from the rank of eight grades, but what does it matter?

At this time, Ji Xiyao faced Guo Rong, and there was no restraint at all, bowed his hand, sat on a reef and washed the mud on his boots and trouser legs, and then climbed ashore with Han Qian and walked to the Xindian Township Inspection Division.

Today, there happened to be a villager who hunted an elk, pulled to the township inspection department to sell, in the early summer the weather gradually became hot, the venison is not pickled or roasted with fireworks, can not be preserved for a long time, transported to the side of the post road to buy meat price is also very cheap.

Xi Ying walked over and took out a thousand dollars to buy the whole skinned and bloody elk.

An elk that is still in the growth period is not very strong, but it has been skinned and entrailed, and it has a small 200 catties of meat.

Kong Xirong pulled He Liufeng and Xi Fa'er to do it himself, leaving the other venison to marinate and supplement the meat, they took the two fattest hind legs, carefully coated them with spices, oil sauce, and refined salt, and put them in the backyard, roasting the meat oil dripping onto the charcoal and sizzling, and the aroma wafted all over the small courtyards of the Township Inspection Division.

Han Qian's entourage was less than 30 people, and there were more than 20 officials and knife archers in the Township Inspection Department, who took away a deer leg weighing more than 20 catties, and the remaining deer leg was Han Qian pulling Zhao Ting'er and Xi Ying's two daughters, and Feng Yi, Guo Rong, Kong Xirong, Xi Fa'er, He Liufeng, Ji Xiyao and Gong Cao, two engineers, sat around the bonfire, took a knife to cut off a piece of fragrant and tender roasted leg meat, and talked while drinking wine in the starry night.

At this time, he had time to talk about the situation in Jinling, and it was only at this time that Guo Rong learned more details about the capture of Jinling, and not only limited to listening to the fake and indistinguishable gossip faxed by the past business and travel offices in the restaurant and tea shop in Qianyang City.

Yang Yuanwu's body should have been out of order for a long time, and the courtiers attached to the Anning Palace, as well as Zong Zhengqing, Yang Tai and others, did not see Yang Yuanwu again a year ago, and many military and political orders were issued by the Anning Palace through Niu Gengru, Wen Duqiao and others, or through the hands of the fifteen-year-old prince Yang Fen.

There are all kinds of indications that Yang Yuanwu should have died a few years ago, but everything was secretly buried under the control of the Anning Palace - as far as the Anning Palace is concerned, it is also worried that Yang Yuanwu will die after only one year on the throne, which will seriously demoralize the defenders.

After Han Qian left Jinling, Yuan Guowei and Jiang Shu could not go against Yang Yuanpu's will, and first excluded the part of Jinyun Tower's original family that belonged to Han Qian's lineage, which greatly weakened Jinyun Tower's power lurking in Jinling City.

Yang En went out of the city to see Yang Yuanpu, but in the end there were still clues, and when Yang En returned to the city, he was arrested and imprisoned by the staff.

Even if Yang En endured the severe torture and beating, and did not explain to anyone in the court who had different thoughts and colluded with the soldiers and horses outside the city, under the high pressure of the Anning Palace, he casually executed a few suspicious generals, and no one dared to act rashly.

Yang Yuanpu's plan to capture Jinling City through the combination of the inside and the outside also went bankrupt.

This made the general attack on Jinling City completely turn into a bloody battle, and the casualties on both sides were relatively heavy.

From mid-January to early February, the two sides suffered nearly 40,000 casualties, and even the casualties of the attacking side were slightly heavier.

However, the problem is not to mention that the civilians in the city are starving, and the army's materials and food are becoming more and more scarce.

In contrast, the besieging soldiers and horses were well supplied, and a steady stream of new soldiers were replenished, and finally the outer walls were captured by mid-February, and the siege weapons were advanced to the inner walls.

This is the general trend, a general trend that is difficult to reverse even the intrigue and trickery, and the general trend that rolls over everything like a rolling wheel.

What's more, Yang Yuanpu is a cadre and general, although most of them hide their own small abacus, but these people have to calculate the choice of the moment in the world, and they all understand that everything they expect will not be fulfilled until the capture of Jinling City.

Therefore, no matter how heavy the casualties are, as long as there is no stupid and unattainable defeat, the besieging soldiers and horses will become stronger and stronger.

Whether it is active or coerced, as well as the aborigines in the city, they mainly gather in the area between the inner city wall and the outer city wall of Jinling.

Although it is inevitable that tens of thousands of people will starve to death, and although two or three hundred thousand people have been starving for so long and are all skinny, the vast majority of people still persevered to the end.

At this point, the general trend of Anning Palace is completely gone, even if Yang Yuanpu is transporting grain to relieve these two or three hundred thousand people, and recruiting strong people from it to participate in the siege, he can exhaust the last bit of strength of the defenders.

Xu Hui saw that the general situation was inviolable, and at this time finally decided to coerce the Manchu Dynasty civil and military forces and his family to flee north across the river.

Yang Jian, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, did not kill himself, but actually died in the assassination of the late Red Mansion.

Before the late Red House assassinated Yang Jian, he tried every possible way to win over Yang Jian, but in addition to Yang Jian's wife and children, who were controlled by the Anning Palace, he made great efforts to fight with the Wuya Army and the sailors in the first battle of Chizhou.

In the evening, the Red Mansion used Yang Jian's side for a long time, and was accepted by Yang Jian as a spy in the Jiang room in his early years because of his talent, and by bribing the staff official who was responsible for supervising Yang Jian's wife and children, he handed over the poison pill to the secret spy, thinking that he would blame Yang Jian's wife and children for poisoning Yang Jian's wife and children, and then blame the Anning Palace, forcing Yang Jian to lead the Lou ship army to join Yueyang.

As long as it is human, there will be feelings, which is also the key to the most difficult to control secret spies that have been lurking for many years.

The concubine who married Yang Jian, although she was a disciple who had been carefully cultivated by the Late Red Mansion for many years, gave birth to Yang Jian, not to mention that she had feelings for Yang Jian, and was unwilling to poison the two adult children born to her and Yang Jian with her own hands, and died by swallowing poison pills after struggling for a long time.

Seeing that the matter was revealed, the late Red Mansion sent people to coerce Fan Xiang, the general of the Lou Ship Army who had already intended to surrender to Yueyang but was waiting for Yang Jian's reaction, to assassinate Yang Jian when he was looking at the army.

Not to mention Li Pu and Yao Xishui, the people of Yueyang never want to see the real inside story of this published to the public, and can only claim that Yang Jian killed himself, but several other generals of the Lou Boat Army were angry at Fan Xiang's betrayal and Yang Jian's tragic death, and they all followed Anning Palace more firmly, making the Jinling Water Battle even more tragic.

In this battle, the Lou Naval Army can be said to have suffered a great injury, but nearly half of the soldiers of the Wuya Army's naval division and Fan Xiang's subordinates were killed or wounded, and about more than seventy percent of the naval warships were destroyed.

Due to the destruction of the shipyards on the periphery of Jinling City, the soldiers and horses of Yueyang did not have the strength to cross the river to pursue the Anning Palace and the remnants of the Shouzhou army for the time being.

In addition to the total number of casualties of more than 30,000 naval generals on both sides, a large number of court ministers were coerced to cross the river, as well as eunuchs, palace maids, officials, slaves and maids in Jinling City, and their families, almost 1340,000 people.

During the fierce battle, these small boats were not strictly protected by the naval warships, and second, they could not withstand the impact of the river waves, capsized hundreds of large and small ships, and countless drowned.

Among those who fell into the water, there were as many as six or seven thousand who swam back to the south bank.

Yang Yuanpu was a little better than his father Yang Mi, detaining more than 6,000 people, and imprisoning those who were indeed descendants of the Anning Palace and the Xu family as prisoners of war, while others were granted amnesty when they succeeded to the throne.

The boat escorting Yang En also capsized in the middle of the river, but one of the directors in charge of guarding Yang En thanked Yang En for his loyalty and escorted Yang En back to the south bank in the turbulent river and escorted Yang En back to Jinling City.

However, in any case, Yang Yuanpu also successfully captured Jinling City, and succeeded to the throne in Jinling in early March, and divided the vassals.

The edict that made Han Qian the Marquis of Qianyang was also sent by Zhang Ping's disciple An Jixiang out of Jinling City as soon as possible, and was sent to Chenzhong City on March 25 and handed over to Han Qian.

Han Qian told Guo Rong about the latest changes in Jinling City.

"Shen Yang is suspicious, in order to avoid suspicion, he went to Guangde Mansion to serve as the prefect and left the center, why do you want to return to Jinling next month to serve as a servant and a member of the Tongzhong Shumen, and take over the authority of the prime minister?" Hearing Han Qian say so much, Guo Rong was still quite puzzled about Shen Yang's final appointment and appointment.

On the one hand, he felt that with Shen Yang's temperament, even if Emperor Yanyou wanted to use him, he would not accept such an appointment until the suspicion was cleared, and on the other hand, Zheng Yu, Zhang Chao, and Li Pu were vegetarians and would agree to such an appointment?

"Wang Lin committed suicide by drinking poison in Jiangzhou in the first half of the year, and left a suicide note before he died, admitting that he was entrusted by Wang Wenqian to lurk in Yang Yuanpu to report ......the news," Han Qian said lightly.

"This disciple you taught is really not weak!" Guo Rong couldn't help but smack his lips and said.

He obviously decided that Wang Lin's death was inseparable from Yang Yuanpu, and only if Wang Lin died like this, Yang Yuanpu could transfer Shen Yang back to his side for reuse; And Jinling's appointment is also a little urgent.

"It's not weak!" Han Qian smiled and said.

He had to admit that it was quite a good strategy to make Wang Lin die like this, and if Yang Yuanpu could really control the situation and take Jingxiang, Shouzhou, Huaidong and other places into his hands one by one, so as to avoid the Jianghuai land falling into war, he would also be happy to see it.

However, Yang Yuanpu couldn't wait to use this method to transfer Shen Yang back, in the final analysis, he was not good at governing politics, but he didn't dare to trust others.

For a monarch who has mastered Jiangnan East and Jiangnan West Dao, and believes that Jingxiang and other places will then express their salty obedience, there is only one Shen Yang under his command who can be used and trusted, and it is too lonely......