In response to Chen Ji's question, after Huisheng, Xie Hong and the others glanced at each other, Xie Hong explained with a smile: "Your Majesty, we know that the Governor of Wu is stationed in Jingkou and Jiangyin County to defend against the invasion of the Xia army, but there is a shortage of ships on hand, so we are willing to join forces to contribute five hundred big ships!" ”

"Shhh Chen Ji and Du Ling couldn't help but take a sharp breath, these scholars are so generous, although they know that these so-called big ships are ships sailing on the river, not that kind of sea boats, but the number of five hundred ships is still a large number.

These ships, plus some of the ships prepared by Wu Mingche before, can make him have nearly a thousand ships in his hands, but if he uses these big ships as arsonist ships, he always feels that it seems to be a bit of a waste.

So Chen Ji smiled and said: "Huh, I would like to thank all the family masters and monks for their great help, but these big ships are enough to be used as war ships, but it is too wasteful to use them as arson ships, and now what is most lacking in Wu Dadu Governor is arson boats!" ”

At this time, Gu Fei, the head of the Gu family, said with a smile: "If there is only a lack of arson boats in the Governor of Wu, it will be simpler, these fire boats can be converted into dilapidated fishing boats that are used for fishing on weekdays, and if Your Majesty needs it, my Gu family alone can provide two hundred!" ”

Several other family owners also smiled slightly, if they only provided a big boat, they would still be a little distressed, but if it was just an arson boat, it would be simpler, most of these Wu surnamed Shi families have a boat yard, even if they are built now, they can build hundreds of fishing boats in ten days.

So these people also donated generously, and in just a short time, they provided nearly 2,000 fishing boats that could be converted into arson boats, and when the time came, these boats were full of dry firewood, oil, sulfur and other combustion-supporting materials, and they would inevitably force the Xia army and sailors downstream, and even burn all the Xia army's warships.

Seeing that the heads of the scholar clan in front of him were donating their money, Huisheng also folded his hands and said: "In order to help the monks sweep away the evil and clean the four seas as soon as possible, I am willing to collectively provide 100,000 stone military rations for the monks in the surrounding 360 temples of the Great Respect Temple and Jiankang!" ”

Hearing this news, Chen Ji was even more happy, and he laughed and said: "It is said that the people have been popular for a long time, and my uncle and eldest brother said that the Futu Sect was unreliable and kept me away from the high monks, but now it seems that the Futu Sect is the real trustworthy of my Da Chen!" ”

After Huisheng heard Chen Ji's words, he also sneered again and again in his heart, the Futu Sect has occupied a lot of land in the Southern Dynasty for hundreds of years, especially during the time of Emperor Wu of Liang, a large amount of land was rewarded to these monasteries, including Huisheng's Great Jingai Temple, each family has thousands of hectares, and most of them have tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land.

Under the hard work of countless dependent people and lower-class monks, these large amounts of cultivated land have a large amount of property every year, and their wealth is not less than that of the scholars of the Southern Dynasty, which is still because of the Hou Jing Rebellion, otherwise these monasteries will be even richer.

In addition, these monasteries not only own a large amount of land production every year, but also have a large number of good men and women who continue to give alms every moment, and even some deceived good believers give all their family property to these monasteries, so how can these monasteries not be rich.

Compared with these rich monasteries, although Nanchen's Daomen also have some industries, most of these are fields that are barely for their own consumption, and they don't occupy much land, so how can Daomen provide enough military rations?

However, Chen Ji didn't know this, in his opinion, it was good for the Futu Sect to support him, and the Daomen did not provide any military funds, so he was dissatisfied and supported Chen Bozong against himself, so Chen Ji immediately ordered the abolition of the original decree of Chen Baxian and Chen Qian restricting the Futu Sect.

After this, Huisheng, Xie Hong, Gu Fei, these senior monks and scholars were even more flattering, which made Chen Ji extremely satisfied with these scholars in his heart, and he said loudly: "With your strong support, it is not difficult to repel the Xia army in the East China Sea!"

With Wu Mingche, the governor led the army to garrison Jingkou and Jiangyin County to defend the East China Sea army, and the general Cheng Lingxi led an army of 20,000 troops to garrison Wuxing County and Wu County, responsible for the safety of the two counties; In addition, there is a general Zhang Zhaoda who led an army of 30,000 from Yuzhang County to rescue Huiji County, and it won't be long before there will be good news. ”

Regarding Chen Ji's words, of course, Huisheng and the heads of the family would not say anything to disappoint the fun, and left soon after, but when they walked out of the gate of the imperial city, everyone's expressions became a little complicated, but the eyes that looked at the imperial city were a little disdainful.

No matter how these scholars looked down on Chen Xu, who was born in a poor family, but there was no discount for Chen Ji's support, and soon a large number of various ships were sent to Wu Mingche's hands, which made Wu Mingche, who was originally a little nervous about the ships, overjoyed.

"Let all these arson boats gather in Jingkou, but all those hundreds of big ships will be sent to Jiangyin County!" After Wu Mingche knew that the Southern Dynasty scholars had provided a large number of ship news, he immediately reflected his request back.

Jiangyin County is the first county at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and it is also the first position to face the battle with the Xia army, and the defense requirements here are still very high, but Du Qian, who came to report the good news, was very strange, why didn't Wu Mingche let all the ships be sent here?

Because Du Qian is the son of his friend Du Ling, Wu Mingche patiently explained to Du Qian's question: "Jiangyin County is the outlet of the big river, the big river is connected here by the river and the sea, the river flow speed is slow, and the mouth of the big river here is extremely wide, which is more suitable for the group operation of the large fleet!" hacker

If the arson ship is placed here, because the speed of the ship is slow, the water surface is too wide, it will not be able to play its own function, only the naval warship group combat effect is better, the same way, although there are nearly two or three thousand arson ships, but after all, it is too scattered on this wide river, and only the Jingkou here The river surface is narrower, and the water flow is fast, if the fire boat is lit here and goes downstream, it can make the Xia army warship unable to dodge, and then it will definitely establish a miracle! ”

Hearing Wu Mingche's explanation, Du Qian understood why Wu Mingche would put all the arson boats in Jingkou, but he thought about it and suggested: "Uncle Wu, in this case, I think it is more suitable to go there in Guazhou, where the river is narrower than Jingkou, and the Xia army will inevitably beware of the decline when it comes to the vicinity of Jiankang City. ”

Wu Mingche also laughed at Du Qian's suggestion, and he said patiently while laughing: "Zizhong can be regarded as having a heart, but if the river is too narrow, Xia Jun can completely use the technique of breaking his arm and abandon some ships to block these arson boats, and more importantly, "

Speaking of this, Wu Mingche's voice was much lower, "You must know that Jiankang City is not far from the other side of Guazhou, if the Xia army rushes here, even if we repel the Xia army, it will not look good on His Majesty's face, so no matter what, we can't let the Xia army rush to within 100 miles of Jiankang City!" ”

Hearing Wu Mingche's patient explanation, Du Qian finally understood that his father asked him to follow Wu Mingche to learn the skills of war, and it turned out that there were still these ways in these.

In the days of waiting for the arrival of the Xia army, Wu Mingche continued to make preparations for battle, and for a time Jiankang City and Jingkou (Zhenjiang) further downstream of Jiankang were filled with all kinds of naval forces from Nanchen, during which there were a large number of arson boats converted from various fishing boats, once the Xia army's naval army entered the Yangtze River, it would use various means to attack.

At this time, although the Yangtze River was still very wide, but the river was not as vast as the sea after all, if a large number of fireships went down the river, it was still difficult for the Xia army to resist, so this method also became the only means for the Chen army to deal with Wang Ze's army.

When Wu Mingche and others were preparing for battle, Zhang Zhaoda, who set out from Yuzhang County, also led 30,000 people to successfully cross the mountains and came to Huiji County, but found that the Xia army here had left, and it seemed that the Xia army should be ready to attack.

However, Cheng Lingxi, who was stationed in Wuxing County on the other side of Qiantang Bay in Huiji County, did not find any traces of the Xia army setting off towards Wuxing County, so he urgently sent a message to Wu Mingche, and at the same time prepared to prevent the Xia army from killing a horse gun.

Just when Chen Ji received that Wu Mingche and Cheng Lingxi's departments had made all preparations, and were confidently waiting for Xia Jun's arrival, ready to give Xia Jun a hard blow, he waited left and right and never saw Xia Jun coming.

It is not correct to say that the Xia army did not come to attack, according to Wu Mingche's intelligence description, the Xia army did come, and it was a large naval army, but this naval army turned around near the mouth of the Jiangyin County and suddenly retreated by itself after stopping on the sandbar for a day.

In the face of Xia Jun's behavior, Chen Jun did not relax his vigilance, not only Wu Mingche was ready to fight at any time, but even the Southern Chen defenders of the Jiangbei counties were also mentally guarded to the death, especially the three counties of Yuzhou Island and Haizhou, which were close to Wang Yong, were the top priority of defense.

But in the following month, news was transmitted from these places that no movement of Xia Jun was found, and these news made Chen Ji breathe a sigh of relief and extreme anger.

Originally, I was not afraid of the strong combat effectiveness of the Xia army, but when I was making all the preparations, the Xia army retreated without cooperation at all, and if you want to say that you will retreat after a battle, you can tell the people that the Xia army was afraid of the combat effectiveness of the Chen army and took the initiative to retreat.

But now, after making all the preparations for battle, Xia Jun didn't come, as if he was particularly afraid of Xia Jun, and even reached the point where the rumors were all soldiers, although in fact it was true, but Chen Ji still felt that he was deceived as angry.

However, Chen Ji was unhappy in his heart, which does not mean that those civil officials think so.

It seems that the literati in China have always been good at flattery, and many ministers of Nanchen immediately cheered when they saw that the Xia army took the initiative to withdraw their troops, saying, "The king of Jiankang is here, and the people of the small countries in the East China Sea are afraid."

I have to say that the prestige of the literati among the people at this time was so high, such a nonsense reason was unanimously approved by the majority of people inside and outside Jiankang City, in their opinion, no matter who established the overseas country, after all, it could not compare with their own Chinese orthodoxy.

Besides, if it weren't for the people of the East China Sea who were afraid of Jiankang's royal spirit, how could they suddenly retreat after coming to Jiangkou? Therefore, the people of Nanchen, especially the people of Jiankang City, have become more confident

Compared to the joy of these people, Chen Ji didn't think so, although there were many ministers who made up for such a reason, but Chen Ji himself knew what was going on, and while he was relieved that the Xia army was withdrawn, he was also particularly curious about why the Xia army suddenly withdrew.