Wang Xingwu said, the so-called "understanding" of the prince of the world, what he understands is not just a left army. Why, because in the conversation with Mr. Gu, the prince deduced in detail the actions of the left army after abandoning Xiangyang. After getting the exact conclusion that the Left Army would move in the direction of Jiujiang, Shizi said that he "understood".

Therefore, the drunkard does not mean to drink. What the prince really cares about is not a certain person or a certain army, but a certain city or a certain region. And this city, this region, is the theme of today's court discussion - "the voice of the world"!

And this city and this area, according to his presumptuous speculation, should be the feudal domain of the king of Huayang County - Lizhou and the Liyang Plain where Lizhou is located.

Why did the prince choose Lizhou and the Liyang Plain as the important places for the troops to be stationed and the base for the Protector Army to fight in Sichuan?

Is it that the mountains and roads here are dangerous, and the city is strong and deep? Apparently not.

Lizhou is bordered by Lishui in the south, the city is small and dilapidated, and the city wall has even been washed away by floods several times.

The three counties of Anxiang, Shimen and Cili under the jurisdiction of Lizhou are not famous cities.

At the same time, the area of the Liyang Plain is not large, and it is connected to the Dongting Lake Plain on the south bank of the Jingjiang River by a low hill in the north. In addition to the Songzi River, Hudu River and other Jingjiang River tributary rivers have the role of military barriers, almost a flat river, no danger to defend.

So why choose Lizhou? He ventured to speculate for five reasons:

First, Lizhou is the feudal domain of Huayang County, a branch of the Shu Domain, and the division is famous.

In the name of protecting relatives, the Protector Army stationed troops in Lizhou and cultivated land to open up wasteland, which not only justified its name and low political risk, but also won the favor of the clans and gentry in the world.

Protecting the security of the clan is also the primary responsibility of the local government. King Huayang has a guard, which ensures the safety of the clan, and also ensures the stability of the place by the way, and also saves the money of the local government, why not the local government? Recently, Li Mingshi and He Huan vigorously recruited and trained troops in Lizhou City in the name of the Huayang County Palace, and the local government pretended to be deaf and dumb, which is a clear proof of this.

Second, the bandit problem in Lizhou is relatively light and the rear is stable.

During the Chongzhen years, although there were big thieves in Hunan, such as Lin, Lan Kou and the mountain thief Xiao Xiangyu, etc., the thieves did not spread on a large scale, and they were relatively calm in general. If there were no major wars in the region, the imperial court would not pay too much attention to it, and the economy would not be devastated. When the Protector Army is stationed in Lizhou, it can get a relatively relaxed rest and training without disturbance, and it can concentrate on dealing with the thieves without worries.

Third, although Lizhou is a plain and has no fortified cities, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

There is the Yangtze River in the north, Dongting in the east, Lishui and Yuanjiang in the south, Wuling Mountains and Tusi in the west, water on three sides, one side against the mountain, and several big rivers in the middle.

As the saying goes: the northerners are good at riding, and the southerners are good at boats. Most of the thieves are Qin, and attacking Lizhou is the length of the national army with their own shortcomings! If the Protector Army takes the rivers and lakes as the city, the water surface as the road, and the boats as the chariots and horses, it can maneuver in all directions, gallop to the aid of all important directions with a small number of troops, and control a large area south of the Yangtze River with Lizhou as the center. If the thieves dare to make a desperate gamble and cross the river to attack, it will be a backwater formation in the taboo of the art of war. Once you fail, you will be buried in the belly of the fish, and you will never recover!

Fourth, Lizhou has been the land of fish and rice since ancient times, and it is a good place to raise soldiers in Tuntian.

The Protector Army went out of the province on a large scale to fight, and ensuring adequate food supply was the biggest problem.

Shuxiang and Hunan are thousands of miles away, and there are natural dangers of the Three Gorges. Relying entirely on Shudi for shipping supplies is not only unreliable, but also has great losses on the road, and is absolutely unfeasible, so it is necessary to rely on the local area to solve most of the supplies and implement the practice of "food for the enemy".

There are at least 20,000 hectares of paddy fields, barren fields, and barren mountains in Lizhou, supporting a population of 500,000. If the tax rate of "ten taxes and one tax" in Shu and the method of compulsory requisition of surplus grain can be fully promoted in Lizhou, 50 to 1 million stone of grain can be levied annually, and the regular army can be increased by 6,000 and the garrison army by 15,000. The remaining grain can be used as a reserve for the people in the surrounding provinces in the famine year, and can also be used as a military food reserve for the army of the Sichuan Protectorate. If both Sichuan and Lizhou have a certain amount of military grain reserves, then the army will not need to carry a large amount of grain when leaving Sichuan, and its mobility will be greatly enhanced.

More noteworthily, Lizhou is also adjacent to the fertile Dongting Lake Plain (Note 1), which includes Yuezhou, Changsha, Changde, and Jingzhou south of the Yangtze River. These areas are fertile with fertile soil and abundant rainfall, and are traditional rice producers.

As Zhu Zhihan of the clan said in his report to the Shu Palace, Hunan produces rice but not silver, and the imperial court collects silver but not its true colors, so the silver in Xiangyin rice market is expensive and cheap, and the stone rice in summer and autumn is as low as one or two or five coins. The Nanzhi merchant ships returned with a full load of millet at the Xiangjiang wharf, which enabled the disaster areas in Susong, Anqing, Huizhou and other places to survive the famine year.

In addition to rice production, Hunan also has an advantage, that is, there are many lakes in the territory, and the area is vast, even to the point of "more lakes and fewer fields". There are many fish in the lake, so the fishery is relatively developed, and the fishery tax has great potential.

In Huguang's land tax data, Huguang's Jiangnan half province has a total of nine prefectures and two prefectures, and when five feudal kings are crowned, the summer and autumn taxes are still as high as 1.4 million stone (Note 2), which is nearly half of the whole province of Sichuan!

If the Protector Army can expand its control area from a corner of Lizhou to the southern half of the Jiangnan Province in Huguang, with its abundant grain output, it will not be empty words to conquer the world!

Fifth, there are already 100,000 displaced people in Lizhou, which provides the most solid foundation for the National Protector Army.

In this regard, Wang Xingwu gave a detailed explanation with his own experience.

Wang Xingwu recalled that in Renshou County in the early spring of last year, he met Shizi for the first time as a hungry and crazy Hanako, and felt the care of the organization and the warmth of home for the first time.

How many people were there in the Protectorate at that time? There are only about 1,000 people in one battalion and six companies, plus hundreds of Tianquan Tusi battalions!

More than a year has passed, and the battle of the National Protector Army has become bigger and bigger. From Niujiaozhai to Bashan, from the chaotic people to the local rioters and rebels, the enemy is more and more, stronger and stronger, and the situation is becoming more and more complicated. However, instead of weakening, the Protector Army grew rapidly under the leadership of the Prince. From two battalions to twenty infantry regiments of the field army, in addition to nearly a hundred garrison battalions.

In the future, when fighting out of Sichuan, the Protector Army will face hundreds of thousands of thieves who have sacrificed their bandits, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and bandits in the official army, and may also be invincible Tartars. But he still believes that with the commander of His Royal Highness the Prince, the Protector Army will still confidently sweep away the opponent and lay a peaceful country for the people of the world.

What is it that makes the Protector Army created by the Son of the World stronger and braver the more they fight?

It is the people's hearts and the people's will;

It is the ideal of "protecting the country and the people, and the world is peaceful";

It is to seek food and clothing, and chase the dream of being well-off;

It is the mind of the benevolent and righteous world of the prince, and the mind of the world with the people!

Most of the soldiers understand that they are fighting for the future of themselves, their families and their country. In order to defend the fruits of victory, they have no way out!

Therefore, the voice of the world is not in the far away city, not in the food and soldiers, but in the people's hearts and public opinion.

The voice of the world is in the hearts of the people!

With the support of the people, no place can be conquered; With the support of the people, no army can be defeated!

About 100,000 displaced people from Henan, Nanzhi, Huguang and other places have been resettled in Lizhou. These people have land, food rations, seeds and farming tools, a relatively stable life, and hope for the future. They were organized by Wang Zhuang, and healthy women, men, old people, and children all became laborers. They have the courage to fight, and they have the motivation to fight. Just train them into a military and tell them to fight to "defend the fruits of victory", and they are the best warriors!

Finally, Wang Xingwu reminded Zhu Pingjin that the water network in the area of Lizhou is dense, and the role of the water army is very great. At present, the Protector Army has only four centipede warships, which cannot meet the needs of future operations in any case. He hoped that the prince could set the establishment of the navy as soon as possible and rapidly expand the scale of the navy.

……

Wang Xingwu's suggestion to use Lizhou as the main battlefield for the Protector Army to leave Sichuan did not surprise everyone. But Wang Xingwu extended Li Zhou from one city and one place to a place to which Zhu Pingjin was extremely sensitive and concerned: Hunan.

WANG XINGWU'S SO-CALLED HUNAN IS DIFFERENT FROM HUNAN PROVINCE, WHICH ZHU PINGJIN WAS FAMILIAR WITH IN HIS PREVIOUS LIFE, AND REFERS TO THE PREFECTURES SOUTH OF THE YANGTZE RIVER IN HUGUANG PROVINCE, INCLUDING HUANGZHOU PREFECTURE, WUCHANG PREFECTURE, YUEZHOU PREFECTURE, CHANGDU PREFECTURE, CHANGDE PREFECTURE, HENGZHOU PREFECTURE, CHENZHOU PREFECTURE, BAOQING PREFECTURE, YONGZHOU PREFECTURE, JINGZHOU PREFECTURE, CHENZHOU PREFECTURE, THE SOUTH PART OF JINGZHOU PREFECTURE, AND THE THREE XUANWEI DIVISIONS OF SHIZHOUWEI, RONGMEI, YONGSHUN AND BAOJING UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE HUGUANG METROPOLITAN DIVISION.

Zhu Pingjin, who had a general understanding of history, knew that Zhang Xianzhong had captured most of Hunan and Jiangxi with lightning speed, and that his farthest forward had reached Shaoguan in Guangdong, scaring a local official of the Ming Dynasty to death.

However, Zhang Xianzhong did not settle down in Hunan. He unexpectedly abandoned all the occupied areas in Hunan and Jiangxi, and threw all the volunteer cadres assigned to work in the localities to the returning regiments of the counteroffensive. Subsequently, Zhang Xianzhong began to march to Sichuan. After paying a huge price, Zhang Xianzhong finally got his wish and entered Sichuan from Kuimen, starting the last madness of his devil's life.

In the face of the enemy, Hunan seemed vulnerable.

The remnants of historical knowledge tell Zhu Pingjin that this conclusion is wrong.

After the fall of Beijing, in the face of the situation that Huguang only had Wuchang left to break the city, and in the face of the arrogance and arrogance of the thief general Zuo Liangyu, He Tengjiao, the governor of Huguang, swore an oath in Hunan, collected stragglers, and gradually organized an army to resist the Qing Dynasty.

This army captured the remnants of Li Zicheng, quelled local rebellions, and brought a moment of respite to the doomed dynasty of the Ming Dynasty.

If Hunan is lost, Hunan and Guangdong will be lost. Without Hunan's standing up at the most critical moment, Emperor Yongli of the Southern Ming Dynasty would not have survived for more than ten years.

Clear historical memory also tells Zhu that this conclusion is wrong.

At the end of 1938, just over a year after the official start of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese occupied the important town of Wuchang and approached Hunan. After withdrawing from Yueyang, the Chinese retreated to the Xinqiang River north of Changsha and built improvised trenches to hold back the advancing Japanese troops.

No one thought that this improvised earth and stone defense line would be as solid as a rock!

No one thought that this earth-and-stone defense line would be able to hold out for six years, during which time it experienced four battles to defend Changsha.

In the past six years, a national defense line that determines the fate of the Chinese nation has gradually taken shape:

From the junction of North China and Northwest China, the Yellow River goes south through Tongguan, reaches Yichang through the mountains of western Henan and western Hubei, and then begins to turn to the east, Changde and Changsha extend to the mountains of southern Anhui and eastern Zhejiang, forming an "L" shaped front that extends thousands of miles to the grassland in the north and the big sponge in the south.

On this "L" shaped front, the Japanese army not only fought with the anti-Japanese guerrillas behind it, but also fought with the national army on the defensive line, and the use of troops was always in a dilemma of insufficient equipment.

In the end, the Japanese, who were on the verge of defeat, jumped over the wall in a hurry, and finally mobilized their last strategic reserve, the Kwantung Army, to break through the Hunan defense line and capture Changsha in 1944. However, it was not until the defeat of the Battle of Hengyang that the Xiangjiang River, which runs through the whole province of Hunan, was opened up by the Japanese, completing their so-called campaign goal of building a "continental communication line" from land to sea.

The corner of this "L" shaped line of defense, the pivot of this strategic line of defense, is in Hunan.

Note 1: The total area of the Dongting Lake Plain today is about 15,000 square kilometers, and the area of the Ming Dynasty should be smaller, because the Dongting Lake in the Ming Dynasty was much larger than today's Dongting Lake.

Note 2: "A Little History of the Ming Dynasty" records that the grain amount of the provinces south of the Huguang River during the Chongzhen period was: 160,300 stone in Wuchang Mansion, 252,000 stone in Huangzhou Mansion, 194,000 stone in Jingzhou Mansion, 170,000 stone in Yuezhou Mansion, 98,000 stone in Changsha Mansion, 55,000 stone in Baoqing Mansion, 224,700 stone in Hengzhou Mansion, 93,300 stone in Chenzhou Mansion, 68,000 stone in Yongzhou Mansion, and the two Zhili Prefectures of Jingzhou and Chenzhou are missing.