Chapter 500 Intercepting Iron Ore
Chapter 500 Intercepting Iron Ore
Before dawn the next day, most of the county soldiers packed up their belongings and went home, but more than 500 county soldiers stayed behind, willing to become recruits and serve the King of Jin. Luo Shixin immediately organized them into the Yuhang Camp, appointed his personal guard captain Liu Jian as the general of the Yuhang Camp, and arranged several personal soldiers as brigade commanders, responsible for leading this new county soldier. They will be stationed in the city and directly under the jurisdiction of the military headquarters of the General Administration.
This was Xiao Xia's idea for the county soldiers reform. The original county soldiers service system was to be abolished, and 500 soldiers would be recruited from each county as new county soldiers. Soldiers would be sent by the military department of the General Administration Office to serve as generals above the rank of brigade commander. At the same time, the new county soldiers would be directly under the military department of the General Administration Office. When conditions were ripe in the future, they could be transferred to the governor to lead. The military salary would be borne by the county government. A county could still afford to support only 500 soldiers.
At daybreak, Luo Shixin led three thousand troops into the city and went to the county government office to visit Lu Daode, the governor of Yuhang County.
Lu Daode was from Liang County. He went to Jiangdu to pay a visit to King of Jin Xiao Xia last year. He had been very nervous in the past two months. It was only after King of Jin cancelled his inspection of Yuhang County that he realized the Shanyue people were going to rebel. He was scared and kept writing letters to King of Jin, begging him to send troops to Yuhang County. Now that the army has finally arrived, Lu Daode finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Lu Daode personally led the officials to the outside of the county government office to welcome Luo Shixin's arrival, and together they welcomed Luo Shixin into the county government office.
The two sat down as host and guest, and Lu Daode asked his men to serve tea. Luo Shixin said solemnly, "This time, I was ordered by His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin to station in Yuhang County to deal with the rebellion of the Shanyue tyrants. His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin asked me to ask Envoy Lu, how was the tax collection last year?"
Lu Daode sighed and said, "Tax collection is normal, about the same as last year. The key is that it can't be transported out. I heard that there are small gangs of bandits operating in Yuhang County. Some say there are dozens of them, some say hundreds of them. Merchant ships have been robbed repeatedly on the canal. I dare not send taxes north. If they are robbed, I can't bear the charge of losing the tax."
“Where are the taxes now?”
"It is in the government warehouse inside the city, guarded day and night by government servants."
Luo Shixin smiled and said, "Captain Dong Huailiang is leading 2,000 troops stationed outside the city. Why don't you ask him to send troops to guard? Why don't you ask him to escort them north?"
Lu Daode smiled bitterly and said, "It's embarrassing to talk about this. It's late spring and early summer, and the wheat fields need manpower to maintain, so I don't want to call up the county soldiers. But Dong Huailiang told me again and again that the Shanyue rebels are coming to Yuhang County, and we must call up the army for defense. He said it several times before I finally agreed.
Unexpectedly, ten days ago I suddenly learned that Dong Huailiang was actually the son-in-law of Yan Qiong, a powerful Shanyue tyrant in Dongyang County. This news scared me, and I was afraid that he would suddenly lead his army into the city. I dared not let him escort the taxes, as that would undoubtedly be a sheep walking into the tiger's mouth."
Luo Shixin nodded. "Your Excellency, don't worry anymore. We executed Dong Huailiang last night, and all the county soldiers have been dismissed and sent home. Five hundred soldiers are left to be reorganized into county soldiers, led by my men, and they will be responsible for the defense of Qiantang County."
Lu Daode breathed a sigh of relief. "That's great. General Luo, will the army stay in Yuhang County? Do we need to pay for the military rations?"
Luo Shixin said slowly: "Leave the taxes of Yuhang County to me. I have the order from His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin. The military rations will be drawn from the taxes, but the vegetables and meat will require the assistance of the local government."
Luo Shixin took out a copy of the Jin Wang Order and handed it to Lu Daode. Lu Daode looked at the Jin Wang Order and nodded, "I understand. Please rest assured, General, I will make arrangements!"
Another task of Luo Shixin was to cut off the supply of iron ore from Dongyang County to Kuaiji and Yongjia counties. That afternoon, he found the official in charge of shipping, Qiantang County Lieutenant Chen Huang.
At the dock of Qiantang River, the wind was very strong. County Lieutenant Chen Huang said loudly with great effort against the wind: "We are all Qiantang River here. It gets wider as it goes east, like a long trumpet. You can say it is a river, or you can say it is a sea. The river and the sea are one, but we believe that it is not officially in the sea until it reaches Yanguan County."
Chen Huang pointed to the southeast and said, "The E River flows into Qiantang Bay just north of Kuaiji County, but it is very close to the East China Sea. The biggest disaster here is the tide. There are low tides at ordinary times, and high tides in August. Once there is a high tide, the sea water will rush ashore and sweep away the people on both sides. Therefore, the banks of the Qiantang River east of Qiantang County are uninhabitable."
"Is there any connection between iron ore transportation and sea surges?" Luo Shixin asked.
The county lieutenant smiled bitterly and said, "It didn't matter before, but it has become very important in the past six months."
"why?"
"In the past, there was the Xixing Canal, which directly transported goods from Qiantang County to Kuaiji County. The canal began to be dredged last fall, and navigation was temporarily suspended. It was said that it would resume in February this year, but it has not resumed yet. Currently, all kinds of freight can only go through Qiantang Bay to Cao'e River. This place was originally a shipping warehouse, but now it has been temporarily converted into a transit warehouse."
"So now iron ore can only be transported by sea?"
"Yes! But the tidal bore is very strong when traveling by sea. The wind and waves east of Qiantang County are very strong. The small cargo ships from Dongyang County can only deliver goods to Qiantang County, and then the goods are transferred to large ships and sent to Cao'e River. The warehouses are filled with a large amount of iron ore."
Luo Shixin asked quickly: "Is there any iron ore in the warehouse?"
"Take some away, and leave some."
"Why not transport all of them away?" Chen Huang grinned, "Because there aren't that many ships!"
"Take me to see it!"
The two men came to the warehouse area, which covered a large area and had more than a hundred large warehouses, half of which were government warehouses and the other half were private warehouses of big merchants.
Chen Huang pointed to a dozen large warehouses ahead and said, "General, did you see that? Those dozen large warehouses were built by merchants from Dongyang County. The iron ore is piled up in five warehouses near the river. I saw them transporting it in with my own eyes."
When they were less than thirty steps away from the warehouse, more than twenty warriors came forward and shouted, "This is a private warehouse, no one is allowed to enter, please leave!"
Luo Shixin turned around and winked, and his general waved his hand, and hundreds of soldiers drew their swords and rushed forward. The twenty or so warriors had never seen such a scene before, and they were so scared that they ran away, and escaped completely in an instant.
The warehouse manager also ran away, so the soldiers broke the lock and opened the warehouse door. They saw that it was full of mountains of ore. All five warehouses were opened, and they were all full of iron ore. Each warehouse was piled up like a small mountain.
Only then did Luo Shixin understand why only half of the iron ore was transported away, because there was simply too much iron ore.
"I still don't quite understand why they don't use big boats and go directly to Cao'e River without having to transfer."
Chen Huang smiled slightly and said, "When the general said this, I knew you had never been to Dongyang County. The water in the upper reaches is shallow and there are many rapids, so large ships cannot sail there at all. The mines can only use 100-ton flat-bottomed boats to transport the ore out. After reaching Tonglu County in the middle reaches, large ships can sail on the Qiantang River.
Of course, they can also change ships in Tonglu County, but once the Xixing Canal is repaired, there will be no need to change ships, and there will be no need to go through Tonglu County again. It is just the same to go to Qiantang County and change to a larger ship. "
Luo Shixin nodded, "I see. Then the small boat must unload the cargo here and change boats?"
Chen Huang shook his head. "If they knew that the Sui army had occupied Yuhang County, they would change ships in Tonglu County, so they wouldn't have to unload the cargo in Qiantang County. I suggest that the general arrange patrol boats on the river to intercept all cargo ships for inspection."
Luo Shixin smiled and nodded, "I understand, thank you for the reminder!"
At this time, a group of mounted soldiers came running over, "General Luo, urgent pigeon message!"
The leading soldier rode up to him, dismounted, and handed a pigeon letter to Luo Shixin, "It was sent by His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin to Wu County. We rode to Yuhang County."
Luo Shixin opened the pigeon letter, and a hint of excitement suddenly appeared in his eyes. He said to Chen Huang: "Does Yuhang County have warships?"
"There are official ships. They used to be warships of the Southern Dynasty. How many do you need, General?"
"How many are there?"
"About thirty or so!"
"Where's the big cargo ship?"
Luo Shixin asked again: "Civilian cargo ships are also fine, as long as they can sail through Qiantang Bay."
"We can probably raise four or five hundred ships!"
Luo Shixin nodded, "Arrange it immediately, I need it urgently!"
(End of this chapter)