Xiapi right carries Wushui, left side Yiliu, Surabaya crosses its front, Yi, Longer mountain stands behind, the mountain is surrounded by water, it is located on the shore of Huaisi, occupies the advantage of water transportation, and there is the convenience of irrigation, fishing and hunting, the soil is fertile, the geography is superior, it is the place where the traffic is rushed.

Therefore, its early construction time can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty. Xi Zhong was made a marquis, established the Pi Kingdom, first lived in Xuedi, and then moved to the lower reaches of Surabaya.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Chu State invaded Jianghuai, and the Pi State relocated to Xue Di in order to avoid the soldiers, and because the two cities were located in the upper and lower reaches of Surabaya, they were named Shangpi and Xiapi respectively.

When he entered the Western Han Dynasty, after Liu Bang leveled the world, he named Han Xin as the king of Chu and ruled Pi; And into the Eastern Han Dynasty, changed Linhuai County to the country of Xiapi.

Since the end of the Han Dynasty, Tao Qian seized Xuzhou, and moved the Xuzhou administrative office from Tancheng to Xiapi with Zhirong as the lower Pi phase.

It has been renovated and built by various generations of rulers to the end of the Han Dynasty. The scale of Xiapi City is not inferior to Pengcheng, the outer city is twelve and a half miles around, and the south gate is called the White Gate; The middle city was built by Lu Bu on Thursday.

Historically, Shi Chong of the Western Jin Dynasty ruled Pi, learned the lessons of Cao Caoshui's capture of Picheng, built the inner city of Tuesday Lixu, and built a small city of Pi in the southwest high, so that the defense of Picheng reached its peak.

Today, Huo Jun carefully inspected the terrain of the mountains and rivers around Xiapi, built a dam on the surface, tried to flood the city with water, and secretly ordered the soldiers under his tent to dig tunnels into the city day and night.

It took nearly 20 days of civil engineering work, and finally dug out a tunnel of more than hundreds of meters, leading directly to the city of Xiapi, after a night of fighting, the Han army finally conquered the important town of Xiapi in Xuhuai.

After the city was broken, it turned to the aftermath work.

"Governor!"

Liu Zhong, the chief bookkeeper, walked into the palace and reported to him: "Our army broke through the city last night, and the sergeants were solemn and did not loot. Zhong checked the number of prisoners beheaded by various departments, a total of more than 800 beheadings, more than 2,000 prisoners, more than 15,000 men and women in the city, more than 50,000 stones of grain and grass......"

Inviting Liu Zhong to take a seat, Huo Jun instructed the attendants to serve tea, and sighed: "Twelve miles around Xiapi City, but there are only more than 10,000 people in the city, it is not worthy of the name!" ”

Xiapi has a history of thousands of years, because of its superior geography and fertile land, the population peaked at more than 200,000. Today's population is too desolate to meet the level of a state-level city.

During the Yonghe period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were 17 counties in Xiapi and about 620,000 people.

Before Huo Jun's Northern Expedition, six counties were abolished in seventeen counties in Xiapi, and eleven counties remained, with a population of less than 1,000 households in each county.

When Huo Junke went down, there were more than 10,000 men and women in the city, and at its peak, it was one in twenty.

The reason for this is that it is attributed to the fact that warlords such as Zhenrong, Liu Bei, Lü Bu, and Cao Cao took turns to appear, and under the perennial war, the people scattered and fled.

Of course, the most fatal point is that Cao Cao broke Si and Yi Ershui and flooded Xiapi City, which caused a large number of people to flee after death. Even though there has been peace for more than ten years, due to Zang Ba's poor governance, he will not be able to recover his vitality after all.

The current record, if you deduct the military town of Xiapi, the rest of the income is really sparse and ordinary compared to Huo Jun's past record, and it is not a big victory worth declaring.

Ding Feng happily entered the hall and said with a smile: "Governor, this Pi has been taken by our army, and the thieves are scattered in all directions. Why don't you take the opportunity to go east, or use troops to the west, to see if you can take Tan and Peng Ercheng again. ”

Huo Jun smiled and pointed at Ding Feng, saying that he was left and right for everyone, and said: "The person who paints snakes and adds to his feet should refer to Chengyuan." ”

"Haha!"

Everyone laughed with joy, before Jiang Ji took down Pi with words is painting snakes, and now Huo Jun gave this to Ding Feng, which really echoed before and after.

Huo Jun beckoned everyone to take their seats and said: "Tancheng is the old governance of Xuzhou, and now Zang and Lu are sticking to it, and they can't be taken lightly today; Pengcheng is especially victorious in the difficulty, and it is impossible to say that it is fast. When autumn has arrived, the water in Surabaya has fallen, as I expected, the thief reinforcements are coming to Xiapi soon, and it should be stopped now! ”

Liu Zhong put down the hot tea and said, "Dudu, Xiapi has been attacked by soldiers all year round, and the people have fled in all directions. Today, not only are there few people in Xiapi, but there are also not many household registrations in the county under his rule. Although our army broke Xiapi, how to defend Xiapi in the future is a key matter. ”

"What Zhengchen said should be reasonable!"

Jiang Ji agreed and said: "Governor, Huaixi Shouchun has not been down, Xiapi is located in Huaibei, although it is connected to Huaidong by Surabaya, but if the enemy's army cuts off Sikou, it is difficult for our army to communicate with Xiapi. Wherever Xiapi is isolated and helpless, there is a risk of losing it. ”

It is not easy to break the Xiapi, and it is even more difficult to defend the Xiapi. If the Huai River is regarded as the entire line of defense, because Shouchun did not gnaw down, the Huai River defense line of the Southern Han Dynasty is incomplete.

Because the Huaihe front was incomplete, Huo Jun devoted himself to the development of Huaidong and Jiangbei, trying to build Huaidong and Jiangbei into the base of the Northern Expedition.

Today, Xiapi is connected to Huaidong by Surabaya, and if Sikou is blocked by the Wei army, Xiapi will easily lose contact with Huaidong. Once contact is lost, Xiapi is prone to fall.

Of course, it does not mean that the Southern Han Dynasty can make up for the geographical defects of Xiapi if they get Shouchun. The fundamental reason for this is that the geographical and climatic differences between the north and the south are beginning to emerge.

The Northern Expedition of the Southern Dynasties is often the Northern Expedition along the waterways of Whirlpool, Si, Ying, etc., and its waterways are in a north-south direction, which is very different from the Huaishui and Yangtze River in the east-west direction. Because the Yangtze River and Huaishui run north-south, the Southern Dynasties could rely on the river to block the invasion of the enemy from the north.

Crossed the Huaishui, traveled to Henan and Huaibei regions, because the area is flat and vast, it is almost risk-free. The pride of the Southern Dynasty sailors, in addition to the role of transporting grain and grass in the upper and lower rivers, is no longer useful.

On the other hand, the Northern Dynasty could rely on the huge plains of Hebei to mobilize the forces of Henan's Henan, Henan, Henan, Yan, and Qing Prefectures, and take advantage of the decline in the water to send troops to the south to compete with the Southern Dynasties for control of the Huaibei region.

This is also why it is difficult for the Southern Dynasties to occupy the cities of Huaibei and Henan for a long time, and once they withdraw their troops, they will be easily recaptured by the Northern Dynasties. In addition to being too far away from the hinterland of Wu Chu, the other is the lack of natural danger barriers.

Lacking the natural hazards of landscape geography, it is difficult for Henan to form an independent geographical unit. Once the strength is weakened, or the Northern Dynasties prosper, the Henan and Huaibei regions will be easily reoccupied by the Northern Dynasties.

A very important reason why the Qinling, Jianghan and Huaihe rivers can be used as the dividing line between the north and the south is that the trend of the three is east-west rather than north-south.

The north-south direction of Surabaya almost runs through Henan, and the Northern Dynasties can gather heavy troops to besiege and play the encirclement point to help. Blocking the mouth of Surabaya and blocking the army of the Southern Dynasty going north, it will be difficult for the Southern Dynasty to give full play to the advantages of the naval division.

This is indeed the case in the overall geographical situation of Henan and Huaibei, of course, there is always no shortage of exceptions in the world.

At the beginning of the Northern Expedition, Huo Jun and Jiang Ji had considered this, east of Xiapi, the area where the two cities of Quxian and Licheng were located, bordering Wulian Mountain in the north, the Yellow Sea in the east, Shu, Yi and Sisanshui in the west, and Huaishui in the south.

Therefore, if it is narrowed down, it can be reluctantly regarded as an independent geographical unit, except that the required garrison force is larger.

The role of Xiapi City can be seen as a barrier in this area, and the latter can be used as the reliance of Xiapi.

"Why do you want to guard the next Pi today, there is a little opinion."

Huo Jun paced a little and said: "If you want to defend Xiapi, you can't focus on Sikou, you should store more soldiers and civilians on the seashore, rebuild the two cities of Haixi and Qu, and set up a water village on Yuzhou." When the thieves sent troops to take down Pi, Huaiyin and Qicheng could send troops to rescue them, hit the flanks of the thieves' army, and used to contain them. ”

After crossing the Huai River, the situation of its mountains and rivers is mostly north-south, so the defensive arrangement of troops, can not adopt the previous set of north-south thinking, it must learn to use the strategic vision of separating east and west.

Jiang Ji stroked his beard and said, "As the governor said, the fierce generals should guard Donghai County. Looking at it this way, I am afraid that it will be difficult for Tang Zhi to take on the responsibility of the East China Sea. ”

The administrative division of Huaidong is complex, with the three counties of Guangling, Xiapi and Donghai intertwined, and the regions of Yuzhou and Qicheng are under the jurisdiction of Donghai County.

As Huo Jun said, the Taishou of Donghai County will be responsible for governing the army and managing the people, and the newly attached Tang Shi not only lacks ability, but also lacks relative trust. After all, if this general rebels, the military and civilians in the Xudong region will have to belong to Cao Wei.

"Donghai is too critical to his position, I don't know who is competent?" Huo Jun asked.

Jiang Ji thought for a while, and said, "Governor, Huo Zhengnan may be able to do this job!" ”

Huo Du, the general of Zhengnan, led the Lujiang Taishou.

Hearing this, Huo Jun hesitated. In terms of official position, his elder brother Huo Du is qualified to serve, but Huo Jun is worried that Huo Du's ability is insufficient, and the restored Donghai County is located on the border between Qingdao and Xu, shouldering the burden of governing the army and reassuring the people, and its responsibility is heavy.

"Will the general do it?" Huo Jun asked.

"The last will go!"

Huo Du did not hesitate, and arched his hand and said: "The East China Sea is the gateway, although a certain person is not talented, he is willing to do it." ”

"Good!"

Huo Jun tested: "General Zhen Donghai, what will come first?" ”

Huo Du pondered for a long time and replied: "Shucheng and Yuzhou are close to the seashore, and salt farms should be opened and sold to the north and south for the purpose of raising soldiers and saving money. At the beginning of the search for wealth, the water was diverted to open up the fields, the grain and grass were self-sufficient, and the wilderness homeless people were recruited, thinking that the households were all together, which was a literary matter. ”

"In terms of military affairs, the garrison is dangerous, scouts are widely dispatched, and thieves are few to attack the border, so they will be attacked. If the thieves come here, they should retreat to the city of Qishan and wait for the governor to send troops to help. Under Pi City, then send warriors to defend it, if the enemy soldiers come to attack, should be from the capital to supervise the military order. ”

Huo Jun nodded, Huo Du has a calm temperament, has been in the army for many years, can be said to be a general, and is not easy to make mistakes. Let him sit in Donghai County today, which is the right person for him.

"Governor, the last general is willing to defend Picheng!"

Suddenly, Huo Youzhi got up from the seat and arched his hand and said: "Xiapi lives deep in the north, is easy to be besieged, and cannot be defended by those who are not brave generals. The last general said to himself, and now he has the courage to lead his troops to the town! ”

"Huh?"

Huo Jun was slightly surprised, he wanted Ding Feng to guard Xiapi, but he didn't expect his nephew Huo Yuzhi to volunteer.

Out of the intention of promoting his nephew, Huo Jun asked: "Xiapi City is close to Si and Yi Ershui, and it is easy to be flooded, how can this be controlled?" ”

Huo Yuzhi didn't think about it and said: "When building a small city, the southwest of Xiapi is high and the southeast is low, and when the small city is built in the southwest, it is set with the outer city." If a thief comes to the city, I will first defend the outer city and retreat; If the thief breaks through the outer city, he retreats to the small city. ”

"The small city has built high platforms, accumulated grain and grass, and even if the flood is surging, it can also avoid its harm. Unless the Surabaya is poured into the lower Pi and floods the city tower. Otherwise, the small town will not be lost, and the next Pi can be complete. ”

Although Xiapi City is a large city, it can only be used as a fortress due to war. However, as far as a military fortress is concerned, the twelve miles around Xiapi City, if it is not inhabited by ordinary people, it is only used for garrisons, which is too big. Huo Youzhi's suggestion of building a small city on a high platform is exactly what Huo Jun was thinking.

"Good!"

Huo Jun was overjoyed, and said: "From now on, you will be appointed as the governor of Picheng, and the military order of the governor's mansion will be transferred." ”

"Thank you Governor, you should live up to your mission!" Huo Yuzhi replied.

In this Northern Expedition, the generals have their own achievements, and Huo Jun wrote for the generals to ask for credit. and appointed the county guard to the first cadre, Gao Xiang was transferred to Lujiang Taishou to govern Lu'an; The Taishou of the East China Sea was appointed by Huo Du to govern Yuzhou; Xu Sheng bowed to Pi Taishou and ruled Zhongli.

During the period of resting the soldiers and horses in Xiapi, Huo Jun discussed with Jiang Ji, and in order to better take care of Huaibei, it was decided to move the seat of the Jianghuai Governor's Mansion from Hefei to Guangling, Huaidong. In addition to the Nozhi Office, Huo Jun also asked the center to transfer troops and horses to Jianghuai to strengthen the defense force of Huaibei.

(End of chapter)