"Chunlai, since you suspect that there are big families in Huaiyin who are colluding with the Baishuitang bandits, do you have any specific clues?" Jiang Feng asked in a deep voice. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"I can only say that I am a little suspicious, but these big families are often local wealthy families, and they also have great influence in Chuzhou, and they have many eyeliners, and they hide in the back, and they don't come forward at all, and the channels for selling stolen goods are also all over Jianghuai, so it is extremely difficult to grasp their handles. Tian Chunlai shook his head.

The Shouzhou merchant ships also suffered a lot on this road, even if there was a Shouzhou naval escort, but it was impossible for every ship to have a Shouzhou naval escort, and one or two single merchant ships were very easy to become the prey of the Baishuitang water bandits.

Later, many times the merchant fleet from the upstream had to assemble in Shouzhou, and then uniformly asked the Shouzhou Navy to escort the east, but the ships from the downstream, the Shouzhou Navy was difficult to take care of, either they could only ask the dart division to protect the army, or they could only ask for more blessings.

The generals present didn't expect that the situation along the Huaishui River in Wudi was also so complicated, and they were actually involved in the Baishuitang water bandits, and now they are colluding with the ant thieves.

"It's a pity that such a good golden waterway was ruined by a group of Baishuitang bandits, no wonder there are now a lot less merchant ships and goods entering the Central Plains through the Bianhe River, and this Baishuitang bandits are afraid that they have a lot of 'credit'. ”

Chen Wei couldn't help but sigh, he prefers to look at problems from the perspective of people's livelihood.

In these years, the land road is also not quiet, and the land transportation consumption is very large, the amount of manpower transportation is small and slow, the animal transportation is subject to the road conditions, the consumption of livestock is also huge, and the transportation capacity is also limited a lot, so it is often as long as it can rely on a waterway, and there is a good wharf, it can quickly form a prosperous commercial port.

Like Shouzhou, Haozhou, and Sizhou all rise from the Huai, while Ezhou, Jiangzhou, Hezhou, and Jiangning also rely on the river to prosper, and the reason why Yangzhou and Chuzhou are so developed is because they are just on the throat of the Cao Canal between the river and the Huaishui.

The Huai River of this year and the Huai River of later generations are not the same, the precipitation along the Huai River is abundant, there are many Xue Ze lakes along the Huai River, not only there are Cao Canal and the river water are connected, but also Bianshui, Yingshui, Ru Shui, Vortex Water, Shui Shui, Surabaya communicate with the Central Plains Huaibei, and can go straight to the sea, so the shipping is quite prosperous, if it can solve the problem of water bandits in one fell swoop, it does have a great role in promoting the commercial and trade circulation along the Huai Zhuzhou.

"This is only one of the aspects, after all, the Bianshui passes through Huaibei, Huaibei has a bad relationship with Daliang, and the caravan from Daliang is robbed, maybe it will be suspected of Huaibei and think that Huaibei is secretly doing trouble. ”

Ding Man also rarely interjected a sentence, the Ding family also operates a caravan, and there is also a caravan running from Bianliang to Yangzhou, knowing that the situation on this line is complicated, the income is high, but the risk is also huge, and there are too many aspects that need to be touched.

"In this way, the ant thief is also planning a big one, and it is actually Yangzhou's idea. Chen Wei couldn't help but sigh, "Yangzhou is the essence of Jianghuai, if it is poisoned by the ant thief, I am afraid that the entire Jianghuai will be greatly damaged, and I don't know if Xu Zhihe is aware of the evil cunning of the ant thief." ”

"The collusion between the ant thieves and the water bandits is extremely harmful, and there is also news from Jiangzhou, Han Baling's department is also colluding with the river bandits and the water thieves in Danyang Lake on the Xuanzhou side, so that one south and one north, the ant thieves have been opened through the waterway, if it is difficult for the Wu State Navy to control the river waterway, it is not a fantasy for the ant thieves to sweep the entire Wu land and even the Yue country. ”

Zhang Wanshan looked farther, and because he had more sources of information in his hands.

Han Baling's troops crossed the river to attack Xuanzhou, but retained part of the Zongyang area stationed in Shuzhou.

Hou Chen's trip to Shuzhou had been reported to him, believing that this was a harbinger of the ant thieves wanting to control the entire river and waterway, once Qin Quan really swept through the two states of Chu and Yang, then the Han Baling Department would inevitably echo each other and attack Runzhou, and the situation would really be erosive.

"I'm afraid it's not just the ant thief family who is plotting to seize Yangzhou, Yue Guo is also fighting Yangzhou's idea. Cui Shang shook his head, "Now it depends on whether Xu Zhihe can defeat Yang Pu in one fell swoop, but the addition of Xu Zhixun's unexpected factor has made the whole situation a little more uncertain, and we don't know how much the town navy Xu Zhixun has mastered, how big the town navy is and what role it can play in this civil war." ”

"Although the ant thieves are inferior in military discipline, their scale and destructive power are quite terrifying, and once these ant thieves go crazy, especially under the stimulation of huge interests, I am afraid that they will far exceed our imagination. Jiang Feng had a calm face.

Thinking of the terrible situation of 100,000 ant thieves crossing Huai, once it is successful, it can be imagined what kind of situation will happen to Chuyang Erzhou, and the essence of Jianghuai may be destroyed in an instant, but now Huaiyou is powerless to take care of it.

And in a sense, if the ant thieves completely destroy Chuyang Erzhou, then it will be an opportunity for Huaiyou in the future.

What Huaiyou hopes most now is to see that the ant thieves and Yue Guo can stalemate in the fight for Chuyang and Yang, and they will be happy, which is the most in line with Huaiyou's interests.

The military discussion was dispersed, and everyone else had left, but Chen Wei, Yang Kan, Zhang Ting, Ding Man, Tian Chunlai, and Zhang Wanshan stayed.

A big war is definitely not only by the armed collision of the army can solve the problem, Huaiyou is a place to conquer, take Luhao and even Chuzhou, not just to get a handful and leave, but to include these four states in Huaiyou, so that it will become the foundation of the real hegemony in the future, then a single click to defeat or eliminate Yang Pu is not the core, how to win the hearts of the people in Luhao and even Chuzhou, is fundamental.

Luhao and Chusi are different from Shouzhou.

Shouzhou was basically swept away by the ant thieves, and only in Shouchun City did the three surnames be retained, and other small and medium-sized gentry such as Huoqiu, Anfeng and Shouchun were almost swept away by the ant thieves, even so, after Huaiyou took Shouzhou, it still took a lot of thought to integrate it into the Huaiyou system.

The current Luhao and Chusi Prefectures are basically not affected by the ant thieves, that is, their original social and political structure is basically complete, and these gentry and noble clans are basically loyal to Wu Yang, but this loyalty may increase or decrease with the evolution of the war situation.

If Huaiyou really won these states with a military victory, then how to really make these states belong is the most difficult question.

On this issue, Jiang Feng also asked Chen Wei, Cui Shang, Zhang Wanshan and others to start arranging relevant matters and conducting research after establishing that Wu Di would be the next strategic goal of Huaiyou.

Huaiyou's military strength has not yet reached the level where it can crush everything that dares to block Huaiyou's will, and Huaiyou does not want to make these states a place of turmoil after taking Luhao and Chuzhou, which will affect Huaiyou's strategic layout here, so it is necessary to take multiple measures at the same time on how to achieve this strategic goal.

"How are the Chaohu bandits getting in touch?" Jiang Feng asked about some of the dark side when there were only a few people left.

This is not suitable for everyone to know, not that they don't believe the rest of the generals, but that many things are useless to know, and there are many people, and it will be a big disaster after leaking out.

From the beginning of planning to seize the two states of Luhao, Huaiyou was thinking about how to successfully complete this task.

Naturally, there is no need to say much about military preparations, without the backing of force, everything is empty talk, but force cannot solve everything.

Luzhou is the nest of the Yang family, with a strong foundation and deep influence, especially in Hefei, but it does not mean that there are no hidden dangers in Luzhou, and the Chaohu water bandits are a major force in Luzhou.

Because the fertile water flows into Chaohu Lake, and Chaohu Lake is connected to the southeast by the water of the river, the status of Chaohu Lake is extraordinary, and it is much more important than the white pond.

However, based on the fact that the focus of the ant thieves will be the two states of Chuyang and the two states of Runchang in the south of the Yangtze River, although Qin Quan also sent people to contact the Chaohu water bandits after recruiting the Baishuitang water bandits, the ant thieves have no intention of fighting for Luzhou in the future, so the efforts on the Chaohu water bandits are not deep.

Qin Quan is still very self-aware in this regard, he knows what kind of goods he is under his command, and the big guys who conquered the two states of Chuyang and even the two states of Runchang in the south must be highly motivated, not to say.

These four states are the essence of the entire Jianghuai Wuyue, rich and incomparable, since the Huangchao Rebellion, Wu Yue established the country, these places have not been warred for many years, the land of fish and rice, the land of ointment, the luxury crown of the world, it can be said that the gentry and family in the south of the Yangtze River are respected, and any county is pulled out of a county than the broken and barren land of Heshuo Qingmi, a state has a greater harvest, so no one will be willing to descend.

But if these people are to attack the relatively poor prefectures and counties of Luhao and Chu in the west after taking Chu Yang, I am afraid that these people under their hands may not have so much enthusiasm.

It is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift, especially for these bandits, when they are not forced to have nothing to eat, when there are more opportunities to choose, who will want to go to a poor place to fight?

Separated by a river in the south, there are also Runzhou and Changzhou, and there are fat sheep such as Jiangning and Suzhou, why do they want to attack such poor places as Hechu? Even Qin Quan could hardly suppress his subordinates' yearning for a rich land, not to mention that there were indeed not many things worth remembering in Luhao and Chuzhou.

Since there is always a war to be fought, why not fight where there is more value and more gain?

And the Chaohu water bandits are not stupid, they also saw that the center of gravity of the ant thieves is in Chuyang, and it is just a convenient move for the Luzhou side, so although they also covet the scenery of the ant thieves, they are not easy to raise the flag, but they just set up with the ant thieves, leaving an incense feeling, which may come in handy in the future.