Tang Ying stood at the head of Guangling City, looking at the vast land on the other side of the river, and couldn't understand why his lord was so eager for this land.

In Tang Ying's view, today's Guangling is nearly a thousand miles away from Pengcheng, the capital of the Song Kingdom, and it is already far enough away from the Song Kingdom. As for the Jiangnan opposite Guangling, even if some of its territory has been developed by Wu and Yue for hundreds of years, it has some civilized atmosphere, but the entire Jiangnan land, in the eyes of the Song people, is still a wild land.

How can such a wild land be compared with the rich Huaishui land in terms of value? Even if the Song State didn't attack the land of Chen Cai, which Han and Wei had their eyes on, and only attacked the land of Huainan, it would be better than such a wild land, right?

In fact, Dai Yan is so obsessed with Jiangnan for no reason. The resistance encountered in the capture of Jiangnan will be relatively small compared to Huaishui, which is one reason. And the more important reason is that the potential of this place is far stronger than that of Huaishui.

The water network in the south of the Yangtze River is dense, mostly plains, and few mountains. Once developed, it can become an important grain-producing area in the Song Kingdom. And now that the economy of the Song Kingdom has been so developed, the land south of the Yangtze River is more valued by Dai Yan, and there is another important resource - talent.

The people of the Song State were loyal and righteous, and had the style of the ancestors, and were able to form a disciplined army. However, in Dai Yan's view, after the baptism of thousands of years of civilization, the Song people lacked the spirit of martial arts and good warfare after all!

The land south of the Yangtze River is the land of the old Wuyue. The people of this place are not like the people who have been deeply influenced by Confucianism and become polite and polite like the later generations of the next five generations; Now the people of Jiangnan are known as the children of Jiangdong, and their martial arts and good fighting can be ranked in the forefront of the whole world!

Dai Yan will not forget where the Jiangdong soldiers led by Xiang Yu, the most important of which Xiang Yu led by the powerful Qin Dynasty in later generations, came from! And in the era of chaos in the world at the end of the Han Dynasty and the rise of heroes, Tao Qian, Liu Xuan, and Sun Ce, who recruited Danyang soldiers from Danyang, which one was not a well-known warlord! So much so that in the later Sun Wu regime, Danyang Taishou could become the most important feudal official, and he had to be served by the most descendant general of the Sun family!

And Danyang County, which produced elite soldiers, is actually just a large piece of land in the western part of the Yangtze River. These recruited elite soldiers are actually the descendants of the Wu people who have been wiped out.

As an ethnic group originating in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Wu people's custom hair tattoos are not only different from the Central Plains people, but also from the Chu people who also live in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yue people who live in the south.

The Wu people value righteousness, are brave and good at fighting. Unlike the state of Chu, which did not accept the Zhou and did not absorb the culture of the Central Plains, and had its own faction, the state of Wu believed that after Taibo, the eldest son of King Wen of Zhou, he had a strong sense of belonging to the Zhou, and it always tried its best to absorb the advanced culture from the Central Plains.

Although the Yue Kingdom is quite similar to the Wu State in terms of customs and culture, its country is still essentially a barbarian country. He did not identify with the culture of the Central Plains, nor was he interested in the morality and etiquette of the Central Plains. Therefore, when Goujian, the king of Yue, destroyed the state of Wu, he was able to resort to despicable means that the countries of the Central Plains could not imagine, and immediately after the success of destroying Wu, he strangled the heroes, and cooked the rabbit and the dog!

You must know that Jiang Taigong, as the hero of the opposite sex who founded the Zhou Dynasty, was able to have the position of the prince of the country, and was able to seal the land and build the country, becoming the founder of the Qi country! And the courtiers who followed Jin Wengong into exile in various countries, after the Jin Kingdom became the hegemon, they also enjoyed the wealth they deserved, and their fame was passed on to future generations! Such a harsh treatment of loyal ministers was a rare occurrence before the Warring States Period!

Moreover, after the Yue State destroyed Wu, it was no longer interested in the Central Plains, so its country would fall into civil strife all the year round in an increasingly closed environment, and then fall into weakness, and finally be destroyed by Chu.

For Dai Yan, the Wu people value righteousness over life and death, are brave and good at fighting, and are willing to absorb the advanced culture of the Central Plains, this is a group of natural elite soldiers! Such a valuable talent is not snatched, and Jiangnan does not take such a treasure land, but instead competes with Han Wei and other countries for the land of Huaishui, isn't this a sacrifice of the basics?

Moreover, Dai Yan's covetousness for the land south of the Yangtze River and the Wu people is not a day or two. As early as when he was still a great pedestrian of the Song State and first joined the Chu State to conquer the Yue Kingdom, he had such thoughts.

When he was in charge of Taoqiu, he traveled thousands of miles to the land of Wu Yue and invited descendants of Wu nobles like Wu Yi to come to Taoqiu to help train sailors, in fact, he also had the intention of being able to win over Wu people in the future.

In today's Song Kingdom, not only are Wu elites like Wu Yi active in the army, but there are also many craftsmen from Wu in the iron works and shipyards of Taoqiu. When he was now conquering Jiangnan, Dai Yan did not let go of these people, and brought them to this place!

Dai Yan needed them to return to Wu, return to their hometowns, and promote the civilization and strength of the Song State to their villagers, so that the Wu people could accept the Song Kingdom. And if these people can recruit a group of people in Wu Land and make waves, it will be a great good thing for Song Guoke!

The reason why the Song army was able to capture Huaiyin and Guangling so quickly was because the Song State had the land of the East China Sea nearby, and there were righteous men from the East China Sea to help the Song army, so that the Song army could form a local combat advantage against the Chu army! And if the Song army also had the help of the Wu people when they captured the land south of the Yangtze River, then it would not be an unattainable thing for the Song State to take the south of the Yangtze River!

Although Tang Yan couldn't fully understand Dai Yan's strategic intentions, as the person who had followed Dai Yan for the longest time, he had absolute loyalty to Dai Yan, and naturally he would not doubt the orders Dai Yan gave him. Therefore, only three days after the Song army completely occupied Guangling, the Song army relied on the sea ships provided by the nobles of the East China Sea to smuggle Wu Yi and some Wu craftsmen from the sea to Wu Land.

Nambu Castle is a city located in the east of Wucheng, the core of the Wu land, near the sea. After the Yue State destroyed Wu, the rulers of this place became the Yue people, and now the Chu State has destroyed the Yue, and this place has been replaced by the rule of the Chu people. The Wu people who stayed in this city and its surroundings, because of their identity, had no chance to stand out under the rule of Yue or Chu.

Fortunately, the Yue and Chu people knew that the Wu people were brave and ruthless, and they did not dare to press them too much, only in this way, they finally survived by this barren city.

On this day, Wu Ren Di Lu was carrying his fishing nets and walking to his boat, preparing to go out to sea to fish, when he suddenly saw a huge ship with sails coming to the shore.

For such a huge ship, Dilu is no longer surprised. He knew that this kind of ship belonged to the Northern Song people. The Song people don't know what's going on all these years, as if they have an incomparably advanced ship overnight, and they are invincible across the sea! In the memory of Di Lu and his clan, when the shipbuilding industry of the Wu people was the most developed, the ships built by Wu Di could not be compared with the ships of the Song people today!

Fortunately, the ships of the Song people sailed on the sea, and they were kind to the Wu people. Occasionally, they would come to the seashore and trade with the Wu people with some fine knives, whale oil, and tea, and the Wu people near Nanwu would enthusiastically help them if they encountered a shipwrecked Song ship.

Today, the Song people's ships have come to the sea again, could it be that they want to trade again? Dilu thought eagerly. In this way, the matter of going out to sea to fish should be slowed down, after all, the exquisite things brought by the Song people are of good quality and low price, and they are deeply loved by the surrounding Wu people!

Thinking so, Di Lu put down his fishing net, ran quickly to the side of the big Song boat, and greeted the Song people on the boat in the Song language he didn't know much.

As soon as the big ship docked on the shore, it stopped. Just when Di Lu thought that these people would bring something good, he suddenly found that these people were different from the previous Song people!

These people are all dressed in exquisite costumes and have luxurious jade ornaments on their bodies, but their hair is not tied up with a high crown like the Song people, but they are all wearing broken hair.

And when the men got closer, Dilu could even see the occasional bare skin in their clothes with fish and dragon tattoos! These people are Wu people, and Di Lu immediately judged the identity of these people! However, the Wu people were deeply oppressed by the Yue and Chu countries, when did the Wu people have such a rich and noble figure? Dilu was a little puzzled.

Just as he was thinking about what to say, someone in the crowd across suddenly called out his name: "Dilu! ”

Dilu looked at the voice, and he knew the man! Isn't this the blacksmith of Nanwu City, who was invited by the Song people in the north to go to the Song Kingdom more than ten years ago? Now that he has returned to Wu Land, he is still dressed like a nobleman!

Di Lu stepped forward with a hint of envy and asked him, "It turned out to be Lao Wang, seeing that you are rich and noble, you want to live well in the Song Kingdom, right?" ”

With a smug expression, the blacksmith said with a smug expression: "That's nature, I used to wait here and didn't know the wealth of the world. It wasn't until I went to the Song Kingdom that I knew that there was such a prosperous place in the world! ”

As the only industrial city in the Song Kingdom, Taoqiu has always been a place where wealth gathers. As a craftsman with iron-smelting skills, even if he is an ordinary craftsman in Taoqiu City, his net worth is far higher than that of ordinary Song farmers, and compared to the people of Wu Land today, the gap is even more incalculable!

Seeing Di Lu looking at him with an envious expression, the king blacksmith couldn't help but feel a little proud! However, he thought about the heavy responsibility of this trip, and immediately said to Di Lu: "Alu, you know, I was able to go to the Song Kingdom before I waited because I had the technology to smelt iron. But now that I have returned to Wudi, I am not here to show off, but to bring a great wealth to the villagers! As long as our plan can succeed, not only will the villagers be able to get rid of the oppression of the Chu people, but you will also be as rich as me! ”