When Gao Cheng drove back to Luoyang, the spring ploughing of the new year had already begun.

After leaving Luoyang for more than half a year, there were occasional famines in the area, but with the active relief of the left-behind officials, they spent it safely without making too much trouble.

Even if it is a henchman such as Chen Yuankang and Cui Jishu, no matter how greedy they are, they don't dare to use disaster relief money and food, everyone knows that this is the bottom line that Gao Cheng drew for them.

In fact, as early as more than 10 years ago, Gao Cheng set up standing positions in various places to adjust grain prices, and at the same time, he was also preparing for the famine, as long as it did not encounter a serious disaster like the great drought in Guanzhong 17 years ago, it would basically not have much impact.

After Gao Cheng returned to Luoyang, while reviewing the government affairs of the past six months, he was also preparing for this year's three-way Pingchen, and the time was set after autumn.

If the troops are dispatched after the spring ploughing, the northern soldiers will face the threat of Lingnan poisonous snakes and beasts and the scorching heat miasma, even if they can suppress Nanchen, I am afraid that under the most optimistic situation, the soldiers will have to suffer more than half of the casualties.

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After the autumn harvest, it is different, not only the autumn grain is put into storage, but it can better support the war, and the timing of fighting in Lingnan in winter is much better than in midsummer.

After winter, the temperature decreases, the miasma will also weaken, and diseases such as falciparum malaria are at a low rate.

Gao Cheng couldn't find a special medicine for malaria, cinchona cream, so he could only find a way to send troops at the right time to reduce the threat of Lingnan miasma as much as possible.

Therefore, in the battle of Pingchen, Gao Cheng also made a time limit, and in any case, he had to end the war before the summer of next year.

In later generations, Yang Guang went on an expedition to Tuguhun, encountered extreme weather, and froze to death nearly half of the soldiers on the road.

Over the years, Gao Cheng has not thought about looking for the cinchona tree, he clearly knows that this tree is native to Peru, South America, but he is really powerless because of the distance across the ocean.

The development of navigation technology cannot be promoted by a single sentence, and at the same time, high military expenditures and years of conquest have also made the national treasury unable to support the development of navigation.

After all, compared with overseas colonization, the reunification of China is the first priority.

Under Gao Cheng's dispatch, a large number of soldiers were sent to Jiangnan to familiarize themselves with the climate, most of them elite veterans, and the 100,000 infantry cavalry recruited before took over the defense of various places and continued to intensify training.

There are pros and cons to this approach, the advantage is naturally that the soldiers and war horses are familiar with the climate, which can minimize non-war casualties, but the disadvantages are also obvious, Gao Cheng put 200,000 elites in the south of the Yangtze River, and wrote the meaning of the southern expedition on his face, so he had enough time for Yuwentai and Chen Ba to make pre-war preparations.

The two of them can now be called poor soldiers in the governance, in terms of Shu, and even a few households have reached the level of three households raising a soldier in the late Shu Han Dynasty, Yuwentai has established a standing army of about 140,000 people in Shu, of course, the salary of a single soldier is still much worse than that of Northern Qi, after all, King Xiaogao is famous for treating soldiers well.

Chen Baxian may also wish to let more, because there are many soldiers under his command, there is no need to allocate military salaries, and Southern Chen only in Lingnan and North Vietnam will raise 1670,000 soldiers.

Yuwentai and Chen Baxian's intentions are also obvious, to step up the expansion of armaments and war, and survive Gao Cheng's southern expedition this time, but the quality of the soldiers is difficult to say, especially the soldiers under Chen Baxian.

Correspondingly, 50,000 Northern Qi soldiers in Jiangdong, 50,000 former Liang soldiers in Jiangzhou, Gao Jishi led 50,000 foot cavalry in Hengzhou, and Hu Luguang also had 50,000 Han and Hu elite soldiers stationed in Xiangzhou.

200,000 elites, as well as the need to recruit nearly 600,000 people and some state and county soldiers in the Jiangnan region as auxiliaries, for the Northern Qi Dynasty, it was undoubtedly a battle of the country.

The war stopped before the summer, and it was also a last resort, and it really had to cost nearly a million people more than half of them in the midsummer in Lingnan, just a high amount of pension, and Gao Cheng would not want to do anything in the next few years.

On the contrary, even if Chen is not destroyed as desired, as long as the retreat is timely before the arrival of summer, and the population is not greatly damaged, a second battle to destroy Chen can be set off in a short time.

Of course, having the ability to launch the second battle to destroy Chen does not mean that you really have to rush to send troops.

If this battle is lost, Gao Cheng can only choose to boil the old man tactics and boil Chen Ba to death before sending troops.

After all, the defeat of the Allure War is already a nerve-wracking, and if it fails one after another, it is tantamount to Yang Guang's third expedition to Goguryeo.

Xiao Gao Wang is much younger than Chen Baxian, a full eighteen years old, especially a general like Chen Baxian, who has risen in the ranks, and his combat bravery also means that he is injured.

It is now 555 AD, and according to Gao Cheng's understanding, Chen Ba first died of illness in 559 at the age of fifty-three.

If you are really going to lose, it's a big deal to wait patiently for a few more years, and King Xiao Gao will not care about any etiquette and not mourn.

It is effective to boil the old man, but if you have a chance, you have to fight a war, and for this reason, Gao Cheng was already preparing for war even during his southern tour.

War preparations are not only about money, food, sergeants, and armor sticks on the surface, but also about contacts and solicitation in the dark.

Gao Cheng had previously sent the Wang family south to reunite with Du Niche and asked her to talk, which naturally meant to separate Chen Baxian and Du Niche.

But Chen Baxian's reaction was much more than Gao Cheng expected, when Du Gong even wanted to kill his wife to prove his innocence, it was Chen Baxian who stopped him, comforted and appeased, and completely harvested Du Gong's loyalty.

And Gao Cheng secretly sent someone to contact Xian Ying, the leader of the slang people, and promised to be a high-ranking official, but she still sent people to Guangzhou and handed them over to Chen Baxian for disposal.

In fact, Gao Cheng attached great importance to Xian Ying, she was promoted as the leader of the slang tribe at the age of 23, and in the following ten years, she subjugated the surrounding barbarians, actively promoted Han culture and advanced production technology, encouraged the Yue people to learn Chinese and Chinese characters, and spread the concept of learning and excellence, which is undoubtedly an important figure in promoting ethnic integration in the Lingnan region.

Gao Cheng even made an exception in the promise, Xu Qiyong Zhenlingnan and North Vietnam, of course, it can only be her generation, and it cannot be passed on to future generations, otherwise it will not be a country within a country.

But people don't appreciate it, and they don't know what kind of soup Chen Ba poured into her first.

However, Xiao Gao Wang did not hold a grudge, after all, Xian Ying's prestige among the people of Lingnan and North Vietnam, as well as her various practices of promoting sinicization, made Gao Cheng believe that Xian Ying was the most suitable person to run Lingnan and North Vietnam after the war.

It's just a pity that the messenger who was sent to Guangzhou and let Chen Ba cut off his head first.

During these days, the officials of the Northern Qi Dynasty were Cui Jishu, who was also the secretary of the household department, and Feng Zihua, the secretary of the Ministry of War, was the most busy, and the Xinshu of the Ministry of Industry was also not idle for a moment, whether it was grain transfer or casting weapons, it was the top priority.

Gao Cheng also asked his five sons, who were training in the sixth department of Shangshu Province, to participate in it, and while helping out, he was also taking the opportunity to observe their ability to handle things.