Chapter 293: The Wealth of War

The Battle of Jiading was the largest battle since the formation of the Perak Army, and the money spent was far greater than before, which made Li Shuang and other government officials full of sorrow, but a few days later, after the statistics of the results, especially after the capture statistics, their faces turned gloomy again, and they all smiled. Capture statistics show that the gains far outweigh the costs, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they were made in blood. After Ouyang Xuan saw the statistics, he once again sighed that war was definitely the most profitable economic model, no wonder there were so many warlike people in this world, no wonder the Mongols were so keen on conquest and plunder.

The first item in the statistical list is the land population of Meizhou and Yazhou. According to the seized population and land inventory, the four counties of Meizhou have a population of more than 40,000 households and more than 120,000 people, and there are more than 2 million mu of cultivated land, mainly sloping cultivated land in low mountains. The five counties under the two prefectures of Yali and the two prefectures of Diaoyan have more than 30,000 households, a population of more than 100,000 people, and more than 2 million acres of cultivated land. These cultivated lands have only a small amount of paste-fertilized land, and most of them are low-yielding mountainous areas. There are no population statistics in the surrounding Yibo tribal areas, but the estimated population is about 20,000. However, judging from the low governance ability of the government, Ouyang Xuan estimated that there were still many hidden populations in these two places, and the total population should be about 300,000.

Due to the heavy casualties in the defense of the city, the Jiading army did not participate in the pursuit of recovering the lost territory, but only sent people to assist the Thunderbolt army to take Jingyan County. After the war, Huang Dagen, in accordance with Ouyang Xuan's order, handed over Jiajiang and Hongya, which originally belonged to Jiading Prefecture, and Jingyan County in Longzhou to Zan Wanshou. As for Meizhou and Yazhou, they were included under the banner of the Thunderbolt Army. It is said that after this battle, the vitality of the Jiading army was greatly damaged, and it was difficult to deal with the second attack of the Mongolian army and the nuisance of the surrounding barbarian tribes. The Perak Army has Meizhou and can share the great pressure of the Jiading Army.

The second item in the list of statistics is the number of prisoners. Although the new annex army suffered a crushing defeat in this battle, there were only about 2,000 dead and wounded, and most of them were taken prisoner, except for a very few fierce people who escaped into the wilderness and fell into the grass as bandits, plus a total of 6,000 puppet officials and subordinates. Many of them surrendered voluntarily because of the Thunderbolts' policy of captivity. Although there is no shortage of food in the summer, it is not easy to be a bandit in the barren mountains and mountains, and it is better to go to the mines to serve as laborers, at least not to starve to death. The Thunderbolt Army has opened a lot of new mines, and the post-war reconstruction of Meizhou and Yazhou requires a large number of manpower, and these free strong laborers have solved the urgent need and made Li Shuang happy.

Ouyang Xuan, the rest of the seized list, only took a cursory look at it, and then skipped over. These seizures were broadly divided into three parts, one of which was grain and grass. Niu Lin originally thought that this joint attack on Jiading would not take too long, so his cavalry did not bring grain and grass, and the new annexed army did not bring much grain and grass, so he only captured hundreds of thousands of catties of grain and grass. In addition, a lot of military rations were also captured in the two states of Yamei. The second is the equipment and equipment of the thousands of newly annexed troops, among which the Thunderbolt army sees the ships the most, and the military equipment and weapons are selected by Jiading, some of which are equipped for the militia, and some of which are returned to the furnace to make iron; The third is money, although there is a lot of money and goods in the treasury of the two prefectures and counties of Yamei, it is not as much as the family wealth of Liu Daer and Cao Zhizhou and other officials. They squeezed and squeezed the bones, and accumulated a lot of gold, silver, jewelry, and antique jade.

Compared with the economic captures on the above list, Ouyang Xuan paid more attention to the military and political significance of this battle. From a political point of view, after this war, the Thunderbolt Army not only helped Zan Wanshou hold Jiading and added a strong political ally, but also eradicated traitors and pro-Mongolian forces such as Liu Da Earphone and Cao Zhizhou. At present, the Thunderbolt Army has a population of hundreds of thousands in several states, and it is already the first main force in western Sichuan to resist Mongolia. This not only makes the Lin'an Association pay attention to the voice of the Thunderbolt Army, but also believes that it will also make Yu Xing's extortion and deliberate difficulties somewhat restrained.

From a military point of view, the capture of Yazhou is a guarantee for the Thunderbolt army to ensure the source of fire and war horses, and also expand the depth of military defense, and there is no longer the worry of the Mongolian army from the arrow furnace sneak attack. If the Mongol cavalry wants to attack the heart of the Perak army, it is very unlikely that they need to continuously break through the precipitous fortresses such as Dajian Furnace, Lizhou, and Baizhang City. In the direction from Chongqing Mansion to Jiading, the Thunderbolt army has firmly controlled the Jinma River-Min River, and there are fortresses such as Guankou Village and Pengshan City, and the Mongolian army, which has been crippled, cannot pose a threat to the Thunderbolt army and Jiading Mansion on the west bank of the river, but has to be on guard against the attack of the Thunderbolt army at any time. The offensive and defensive postures of both sides have shifted positions.

Half a month after the Battle of Jiading, Zan Wanshou came to Chongqing Mansion, and his trip was to thank the Thunderbolt Army and Ouyang Xuan for their rescue. In fact, he had wanted to come for a long time, but there were too many things after the war, and it took half a month to make the trip. The Thunderbolt army sent troops to help, not only saved tens of thousands of people in Jiading City from the ravages of the Mongolian army, but also saved his life several times. Therefore, as soon as he got off the boat, he knelt down to Ouyang Xuan, who was greeted on the dock, this action made Ouyang Xuan startled, and hurriedly supported him. Although Zan Wanshou was young, he was an official in charge of the government, and it was rare for him to bow down in front of everyone, which not only surprised the Perak Army officials who usually got along with each other with simple courtesy, but also surprised the accompanying Jiading officials. You must know that although Ouyang Xuan is the deputy envoy of Chengdu Road to pacify, he is a fictitious title, and he is just Zan Wanshou's nominal boss.

It was precisely because Ouyang Xuan was only a nominal boss, but he helped without hesitation, that Zan Wanshou was grateful. On the other hand, Yu Xing, as the top boss, asked for bribes before he took office, and his ugliness was really annoying; When Jiading was besieged, not a single soldier was sent, and Hezhou, Luzhou and other places were strictly ordered to stand by in case of a sneak attack by the Mongol army, but in fact, they told the armies not to act rashly; After the siege of Jiading was lifted, Yu Xing immediately sent a messenger to ask Zan Wanshou to confiscate the family wealth of Liu Daer, Cao Zhizhou and other rebel generals and send them to Chongqing Prefecture. According to its greedy nature, it is natural to be greedy for this money.

If before coming to Chongqing Mansion, Zan Wanshou was only grateful to Ouyang Xuan, then what he saw and heard under the rule of the Thunderbolt Army made him admire Ouyang Xuan and admire him so much. As a traditional scholar, it has always been his dream to "work together, govern the country, and level the world". He set out from Lin'an, where "the warm wind smoked the tourists and made Hangzhou Bianzhou", and the people he saw along the way were living in dire straits. Entering Sichuan, which is ravaged by Mongolia's iron hooves, it is even more a thousand miles of red land and white bones. Only under the rule of the Thunderbolt Army such as Chongzhou Mansion, Qiongzhou, and Dayi can we see the shadow of the former country of abundance. There is no hunger here, it is orderly and a busy scene. Although the people he saw were hurried and even tired, his faces were full of smiles and ruddy colors. More importantly, although there is a difference between the clothing and food of the officials and the common people here, there is no huge difference, which is different from the scene of "Zhumen wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road" in other places.

After a long conversation with Ouyang Xuan all night, Zan Wanshou decided to join the Thunderbolt Army system, but his decision was only known to Hou Xing and a few other henchmen. Hou Xing and others did not know the specific content of the conversation, but the few words that Zan Wanshou often said in front of them showed his heart: "All people in the world are equal, and there is no distinction between high and low", "The people are important, and the monarch is light", "The world is the whole world, not the world of one family and one surname"........