Zhou Huai'an had also received Guiyang Wei from afar, but it was the first time he had come from this city. Standing on the top of the city and looking into the distance, it can't help but make people sigh that this is the geographical advantage of "the screen of the three Hunan provinces, the key to the management of the two Guangzhous".

This is the subordinate of Lianzhou in Jiangxi (South) West Province, and it is also the southernmost point of Jiangxi Province, which is geographically an administrative division wedged into the Lingnan region, and belongs to a certain traditional planning method.

And Guiyang City just stands on the pipeline from the Nanling Mountains to the Jinghu area outside the Ling, under the mountain pass at the southern end of the Qitian Mountains. Accompanied by the water flowing down the tributaries of the Xiangjiang River, in this irregularly shaped valley with high north and low south, it is divided into two official roads, southeast and west.

In the mountains named Jiuzhi Mountain in the north, there are two mountain roads formed by the twists and turns of the natural mountains, including the Yangshan Pass, which was built in the Qin period, and the Dupang Ridge Road and Qitian Ridge Road leading to Guiyang.

The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty used troops to send troops to the south of Vietnam to march south, and in addition to the construction of civil engineering and the dredging of the famous Ling Canal, he also built four new roads including the Yuecheng Ridge in Shi'an, the Mengzhu Ridge in Linhe, the Du Pang and the Qitian Ridge in Guiyang, which have been used since then.

The Yuechengling Road is the most convenient route from Huguang to Liangguang from the south to Guangzhou, and it is also the most important waterway to turn over the Nanling Mountains, and it is also the route for the Huangchao army to go north. However, if you go to Guangzhou by this way, it is still too far away.

Mengzhuling Road (also known as Guiling Road, Xie Muguan Road), this road traces along the Xiangjiang River to Yongzhou (Lingling) in Hunan, and branches off with Yuechengling Road, and then goes downstream along the Xiaoshui River; Through Hunan Daoxian and Jiangyong, it crossed the Mengzhuling Pass and arrived at He County in Guangxi.

Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, sent Lu Jia as an envoy to South Vietnam to say Zhao Tuo, that is, to take the road from Guiling. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty pacified Nanyue, he set up Xie Mu County (now southwest of Jiangyong County, Hunan) between Yinzhu Ridge and Du Pang Ridge, with the purpose of controlling this passage, which was later called "Xie Mu Pass".

During the Northern Song Dynasty, Pan Meifa of the Southern Han Dynasty and Yue Fei suppressed the uprising of ethnic minorities in Guangxi, all of which entered Lingnan through Xie Muguan, so they have always been regarded as "the key road to Lingkou".

The advantage of this road is that there are two rivers with very close sources that diverge from north to south: Xiaoshui and Hejiang. From here, you can go down the Hejiang River to Jiangkou Town, Fengkai County, along the Xijiang River in Guangdong Province, and you can go down the Xijiang River to Guangzhou. And from here to Chang'an, there is also a clear exploration mileage, the whole journey is about more than 4,000 miles.

There is another fork on this route, which is the Lingling and Guiyang Qiao Road that branch out of the upper reaches of Xiaoshui, a tributary of the Xiangjiang River; It was opened for Zheng Hong of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

In the Tang Dynasty, this road was used the most, because Lingnan could rely on the Beijiang River and Lianjiang waterway, and Lingbei could also use the Xiaoshui, Xiangjiang, Dongting, Yangtze River, and Hanshui waterway to connect with the north-south passage between Jingxiang, and then enter Guanzhong directly through Wuguan, Shangshan, and Lantian Road.

Then it is also through the territory of Guiyang Qitianling Road (also known as Xindao, Huangxi Pass, Yangshan Pass Road). This road goes back from Hengyang, Hunan Province along the Leishui River, passes through Leiyang County, Qin, and reaches Chenxian County (now Chenzhou, Hunan Province); From Chenxian County to Dry Road, go southwest, pass through Lanshan County, and reach Hangui County (now Lianzhou City, Guangdong) in the south;

Or go south to Pingshi, and then go southwest, through Xingzi can also go to Lianxian County, Guangdong. This section of the land route does not have lofty mountains and mountains, and after entering Lianzhou, Guangdong, you can use the Weishui (now Lianjiang) and Beijiang waterways to go straight down to Guangzhou. This is also the main route for Zhou Huai'an to send troops to help this time, with the help of water transportation.

In addition, it is the easternmost Da Yuling Road (also known as Hengpu Pass, Meiling Pass Road); This road from Nanchang, Ji'an, Ganzhou, Yueda Yuling to Nanxiong, Shaoguan, and then from the land south to Guangzhou, is a common passage to maintain Jiangxi and Guangdong.

In ancient times, it was called "Plug Shang", when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the South Vietnamese defeated Han Qianqiu to "make people seal the Han envoys and put them on the plug", that is, the head of the Han envoy was packed in a box and placed at the boundary of Lingkou. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, there was the Mei family to build the city and choke the mouth of the ridge, called "General Mei City", and the Qin Dynasty changed its name to "Hengpu Pass".

When Zhang Jiuling, a famous minister of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, was the governor of Guangzhou, he rebuilt the mountain road, and turned the five-foot road opened up in the mountain stone into a wide road for two cars to run side by side. Therefore, it is also the most important route outside the Jiangnan Roads today.

At least two of the Wuling Tunnels are in Guiyang County, but they are administratively subordinate to Jiangnan West Province and the current Hunan Observation Mission, which is undoubtedly a basic precautionary measure to prevent the four closed cities after the rebellion in the Lingnan area.

Now that this Lingnei Shengyao has fallen into his own hands, if he captures the key points in the mountains, then the righteous army under his command can form a place of victory for soldiers in Jiangxi, Hunan and other places outside the Ling.

It is said that the allusion of Zhao Zilong's plan to take Guiyang in the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty occurred here; Well, it is the Guiyang Taishou Zhao Fan who claims to be Zhao Yun's own family, first drank to worship his brother, and then called the widowed sister-in-law out to serve wine and wanted to kiss and kiss, which angered Zhao Yun to send the city head first and then send it to the story.

Although Lianzhou is only a lower state, it has 32,210 households and 143,533 mouths at its peak. Although the hilly fields are not abundant, the three counties are also relatively rich in minerals such as gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron. As a result, it is a state with mining and metallurgy as its main economic activity.

In addition, the copper pit community in Pingyang, Chenzhou, and the lead-tin ore in Huaizhou; Therefore, the imperial court followed the system of "golden officials" in the Western Han Dynasty, set up "Guiyang Supervisor" in Guiyang County (now Guiyang), set up five furnace yards to mine copper and cast money, and managed the corresponding monopoly of silver pit and lead pit mining.

Since the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Guiyang Jian has been famous for his "28 copper mines and money prisons". There are more than 90 coin-casting furnaces in the country, and there are five in Guiyang. The most recent was the casting of "Xiantong Xuanbao" in the year of Xiantong, which began to be minted ten years ago.

About thirty craftsmen per furnace. Every year, except for June and July, it will be stopped, and the remaining October will be made ten times. Each casting is about 21,210 catties of copper, 3,799 catties of white and 540 catties of black tin. The price of copper and tin is about 750 wen per penny, and the cost of the craftsman is outside. Each furnace counts 3,300 pieces of money, and about one year old, counts more than 327,000 pieces of money.

In addition, according to the "Yuanhe County Atlas": Guiyang "The silver produced is fine, and there is no other place to match". The local annual output of silver is 19,955 taels, accounting for almost one-third of the output of Jiangxi Province.

Of course, the more important thing is that the copper obtained from here can not only be used to mint money, but also a basic sign of a gradually maturing local government; It is also one of the important raw materials for casting cannons. However, the laborers, servants, and craftsmen in these places were scattered due to the war, so it would take some time for them to restart before they could re-recruit and recover.

At present, in Guangfu, an early short fire gun is being tried to forge iron sheets with a hydraulic stamping mechanism and then rolled up on rollers; In the next step, Zhou Huai'an also plans to use a hydraulic drilling machine to punch holes in the wrought iron rod of Baotou Steel after the mechanical transmission is relatively stable and has a high precision.

After defeating the enemy in one place, the reconnaissance team, census team, and work team brought by Zhou Huai'an will use the nearest soldiers as the horses to exit and carry out operations. On the one hand, search for possible hostile forces and the remnants of defeated soldiers who have taken refuge in the civilian population; on the other hand, it is also to collect evidence and clues to liquidate those wealthy families in the city;

Here, it is mainly those who have been working for generations of local wealthy and powerful people, so the people are fierce and there is no lack of privately made armor for profit; There are also miscellaneous places such as Shanyi "Mo Xi", during which there are many armed fights and battles, so in terms of organization and daily fighting experience, it is not comparable to those peasant groups of other opponents.

If there are people with sufficient means and prestige to connect and organize their forces, coupled with the echo of the local mountain Yimoxi; It is no wonder that Chai Ping's invincible sweeping troops in other places will suffer a big loss here. According to the information collected by Zhou Huai'an in the local area.

Chen Yanqian, the local tycoon of Guiyang who was the opponent this time, was such a person, although he did not have any official status or title, but he owned more than a dozen pieces of land, mines and workshops in and out of the mountain; There are many guards and subordinates who protect the mines, as well as many thugs, overseers, and mine chiefs who obey their orders, and their hands and eyes reach the sky and they are very prestigious.

Not only did his subordinates suffer a lot of lives and the children stopped crying, but they also talked up and down and operated all kinds of intricate relationships, claiming that even the assassins of the past dynasties had to invite him to sit on an equal footing in the past, so that he could consider opening up the situation, and the money and grain taxes collected were levied on the Ding Servants.

Therefore, when Huangchao's rebel army went south, compared with the local soil groups in the Pearl River valley who took the initiative to jump out to resist and rebel; The Lianzhou area, which no one cared about for the time being, became a happy land for him to do whatever he wanted, wantonly annexing local forces under the banner of defending the territory and protecting the territory, and encroaching on and occupying the government's property.

Later, after the situation outside the ridge gradually stabilized, he was also quite aware of the current affairs and accepted a lot of money, grain and goods, and gave the Heavenly General's Mansion at that time a thick settlement; Therefore, it is not included in the target of the army. On the contrary, it has won more time and buffer to hibernate and gather strength.

And when most of the rebel army went north, he even got a banner from the deputy governor Shang Rang, and called himself a member of the rebel army. He was even able to place a nephew under the command of Meng Kai, who was left behind, to listen to the order. However, because of his low rank, it did not attract any attention from Zhou Huai'an at that time.

Then, probably during Zhou Huai'an's expedition to Annam, he was also able to sweep away most of the dissident forces in the three counties of Lianzhou, and began to have ambitions and ideas for his own side; What happened later was a natural one.

With the failure of Meng Kai's seizure of power in Guangfu, the rest of the rebel troops stationed in those places were not all willing to join the banner of the Sanjiang Army; One of them hastily gathered with many baggage and family members, and was deceived by his people when he sent people to Guizhou when he borrowed the way to Guizhou; After being drunk and disarmed, many more were killed, and the rest were sent to the mines to be enslaved.

As a result, Chen Yanqian, who had gained a lot of armor and baggage, began to swell in confidence. It was decided to cross the mountain road of Qitianling and attack Pingyang, the city of Chenzhou Prefecture, which was still under the command of the Hunan Observer Envoy; In order to control all the minerals of this generation under their own command.

Thus he succeeded almost half of his calculations; Under the banner of coming to help, he successfully deceived into Pingyang City, and killed the instalted assassin Shi Dong Yue and annexed the department. did not expect that the sweeping troops led by Chai Ping would kill his old nest under Guiyang City; On the one hand, he asked the clansmen to welcome him with cattle and wine, and deceived them into the city with snakes, but on the other hand, he led the capable men and horses to come back over the mountains and mountains.

Therefore, while being ambushed in Chaiping City, the left-behind camp outside the city was also attacked by the inside and outside of the city; It was his nephew Chen Lingxuan, who served in the left-behind division, who mixed in under the name of Meng Kai, the former left-behind envoy, and attacked and killed Wang Gui, the deputy lieutenant left by Chai Ping, and shouted "Meng Liushou is back" and "only kill the thief and monk" caused chaos in the camp, and many old rebels were defeated by foreign enemies at a loss;

It's just that he obviously didn't expect Chai Ping, who was born in the senior young rebel army, to be much more difficult than most of the rebel generals he had seen; I didn't expect the reinforcements from Canton to react so quickly; In the end, both inside and outside the city were lost, and they had to withdraw from Guiyang City again, and then led their troops to escape from Qitianling.

However, as the price of this battle was not small, only more than 1,000 people were finally collected back outside the city, plus the remnants of the troops brought out by Chai Ping in the city; This time, the sweeping troops can be said to have lost more than half, and what is even worse is that more than a dozen generals below Wang Gui have also died, if the traditional rebel army would have been demoralized and out of control.

Therefore, this gentleman can be described as a typical template for a heroic character who has risen in troubled times; It's just that if this being is in its way, it won't be so pleasant. Therefore, for the sake of long-term peace and stability, we can only mobilize the model of the common people to cut down the grass and eradicate the roots, and eradicate the deep roots of their families and henchmen in the local area.

For example, the confiscation of their land and mines after the trial of their members. Then, after the usable part of the confiscated materials is removed, the remaining part of the inventory, household belongings, and real estate are distributed in disguise as compensation for mobilizing the poor to transport and deliver them, and they are disguised and distributed into circulating goods.

Due to Chen Yanqian's large-scale elimination of dissidents and mergers with other large and wealthy families in the local area, the remaining work is much simpler; As long as there is enough force as a deterrent and support, there are also all kinds of bitter owners and parties in the people, among which there are even some survivors of wealthy and powerful families who are bitter and vengeful and want to take revenge.

Finally, after the confiscated land and mines outside the city were accounted for and surveyed, new tuntian offices and public workshops were set up in the encirclement, and then the landless and destitute were recruited to cultivate and work. Then the surviving soldiers of the rebels who were rescued from the mines and workshops in the territory were divided into the territory, and many people who were captured and enslaved from other places were also placed in them to recuperate.

The next step is to send troops to attack those Mozi villages that are fighting for the tiger, and punish the capture and capture of their young men and women, and further enrich the period; In this way, from inside the city to outside the city, a group of potential beneficiary classes and grassroots organizations with a certain degree of executive power in the future have been initially laid and formed;

Later history said that "where the teacher goes, open the warehouse and release grain, relieve the hungry and suffering, release the slaves and maids, clear the hermitage, and the whole city is pale (Baotou)." ”