Chapter 1074 Water Battle
Chapter 1074 Water Battle (Part )
Shao Xun's layout for Xiangyang started with land.
He designated Caizhou Island as a garden directly under the Shaofu, and directly allocated the former military farm troops to cultivate the island - Caizhou had been connected to the land in later generations, but at this time it was still a sandbar in the Han River.
In addition to Caizhou Island, they also obtained the territories of the Liao family in Zhonglu County and the Cai family in Xiangyang County.
The Cai family not only had fields on Caizhou Island, but also in Xiangyang, Shandu, and Zhonglu counties. After Wang Ru's rebellion, Caizhou Island, the Cai family's old nest, was captured, and the main branch of the Cai family was almost wiped out. The fields scattered in various counties were gradually occupied by others, but now all of them have been reclaimed.
As Huang Biao led his troops southward, the Ma family of Yicheng and the Huang family of Bin County (Huang Chengyan's family) were successively defeated. All their land was taken away and the remaining wealth was left as military rewards.
After dealing with these four families, there are still more than 2,000 hectares of land. It just needs to be organized and concentrated in one place to accommodate the soldiers of the prefecture. In the process, it involves exchanging land with the local nobles in Xiangyang. A lot of things need time.
The location of Longxiang Prefecture had also been chosen: it was located south of Mount Dan, across from Caizhou Island.
With these 1,200 soldiers from the government and the gardeners of Caizhou, the imperial court's control over Xiangyang was greatly enhanced. At least it would not be as chaotic as it was during the Wei and Jin dynasties, when a local noble family would rebel and the local area would immediately change color.
As for measuring the land, it will definitely be postponed.
At least before conquering Jin, the local nobles in Jingzhou had value for united front. As for what would happen after the conquest, of course they would be thrown away as urinals. Shao Xun would not tell this secret publicly, but those who knew would understand.
"Your Majesty, you'd better give some benefits." Zhongshujian Zhang Bin reminded: "Jiangxia still has a lot of wasteland. You can give some of it as appropriate to fill the local population."
Shao Xun nodded slightly, and at the same time noticed that Zhang Bin was getting older and his energy was not as strong as before.
He escaped the great epidemic that year, but still could not resist the erosion of aging. However, there was nothing he could do. This was the law of nature and no one could transcend it. At least those Taoists had conducted large-scale research for more than a hundred years, but so far there had been no results - of course, it was impossible for there to be any results.
"What Mr. Zhang said is very true." Shao Xun said, "Jiangxia, Jingling, and Nanjun can allocate some counties as appropriate."
This means that some areas of these three counties can be left unmeasured and given to the wealthy families to develop. Once developed, all the land belongs to you and can be passed down to your descendants.
Of course, it is also possible not to develop it, and just guard the family business in the north. Anyway, now we are just clearing the fields occupied after the Yongjia period. Many old families occupied the land very early, and even have a lot of land deeds from the Cao Wei period, so they can barely maintain it.
"The officials who surrendered from Xiangyang can also be employed according to their abilities." Zhang Bin added, "Perhaps some court officials can be given positions to wait for vacancies. The Imperial Academy can also accept more children from Jingzhou. Your Majesty is planning to build a national academy. When you appoint students from the Imperial Academy as officials in the future, at least the nobles of Jingzhou will not object..."
Zhang Bin is indeed mature and prudent, and the suggestions he gives are all very reliable.
Shao Xun had previously said that land in the south of the Yangtze River would not be measured, but none of the counties of Xiangyang, Nanjun, Jiangxia, and Jingling were in the south of the Yangtze River. They were all in the north of the Yangtze River, so they should all be measured. But everything depends on the actual situation. If many noble families in the north can't wait any longer, they must first give some sweet treats to appease their hearts.
Of course, Shao Xun doesn’t have to give it to them, but that wouldn’t be a rebellion against them!
But again, looking at each person's style of doing things, he is still very willing to share the benefits with others.
Next, Zhang Bin proposed how to absorb and disintegrate the fighting mixed Hu tribes, as well as how to deal with possible rebellions. These ideas were all very insightful, and Shao Xun adopted them one by one.
******
At the end of the first ten days of the first lunar month, Tao Kan was still in Huarong.
This place is quite special.
The north side is an area that is being silted up to form land. There are some reclaimed paddy fields, and some counties and towns were set up during the Wei and Jin dynasties. However, the degree of development is definitely far from enough, and lakes and swamps still exist over a large area.
As for the south side, there is no need to mention the Yunmeng Lake, where the sky and lake are one color and the waves are vast and misty. It seems that it will take many years of silt deposition in this area before enough land can be slowly formed. In fact, it was not until the Tang Dynasty that these huge lakes and swamps were little by little divided into discontinuous water bodies, with well-developed areas in the middle of the water bodies. It was not until the Southern Song Dynasty that this area, later known as the "Jianghan Plain", showed its true colors.
In addition to the lakes and swamps, there are two rivers, Yangshui and Xiashui, which connect Jiangling and Mianshui. The Yangshui flows not far north of Huarong, while the Xiashui flows south of Huarong. After entering the Yunmengze, the river disappears and then flows out of the Yunmengze and connects with the Yangtze River near Jiangling.
Yangshui and Xiashui are not tributaries of the Yangtze River, but branches of the Yangtze River, and the water volume is still abundant. Therefore, Tao Kan went downstream from Huarong to rescue Yangkou, and went upstream to support Jiangling.
On the eleventh day of the first lunar month in the first year of the Taihe reign of the Great Jin Dynasty (330), Tao Kan and the shogunate's Sima Wang Qianqi were strolling along the riverside in the parade ground north of Huarong City, talking non-stop about the war.
Not far away, tens of thousands of soldiers were training.
Tao Kan watched quietly for a long time, and Wang Qianqi did not speak, for fear of disturbing Tao Kan's interest.
"This is the army founded by Lord Liu, and Wang Chuzhong and I continued to train it. It has been in existence for quite a while, even longer than the Imperial Guard." Tao Kan said, "But it is still far inferior to the soldiers that Shao recruited from the pile of dead bodies."
Wang Qianqi didn't know what to say.
He had also read military books, and once thought that as long as he had "wisdom in hand" and "brilliant strategies", he could win the battle. But now he knows that there are not so many wars in the world that were won by strategies. Every one that appears is worth writing about.
A real war is often a competition of who has stronger soldiers, more reasonable tactics, and more food and fodder.
From his observation, after several battles in the past few months, the Jingzhou army should have been scared, which was the most worrying part. Although they were training now, they all had stern faces and low morale. It was difficult for such soldiers to fight against the Liang army.
"Xiangyang should have been lost by now..." Tao Kan suddenly sighed.
Wang Qianqi didn't react for a moment and said, "Mingsong, although Xiangyang will be lost sooner or later, isn't this too soon?"
Tao Kan did not answer him. Some things should not be known to too many people. What he said just now was a slip of the tongue. Anyway, it won't be long before the news of the fall of Xiangyang and Fancheng will spread, and everyone will know it by then.
The war had been going on for nearly four months, and he didn't know how long the war could last. Anyway, he had done his best to drag it out until now. From now on, he could only do his best and leave the rest to fate.
The Liang army has already launched an attack on Jiangling. It is said that the battle lasted for seven or eight days without any pause.
The newly arrived Xiangzhou soldiers could not withstand such fierce fighting and were driven off the city wall on the spot. Fortunately, the Jingzhou soldiers fought bravely and took back the city wall, but they suffered quite a lot of casualties.
This war has entered the stage of competition and attrition, which is extremely cruel. Whoever gives up first will be doomed.
He still needs to wait for the right opportunity. Most importantly, he needs to withstand the criticism from the court in Jianye.
Losing Xiangyang and Ji'nan consecutively is no small matter, although he has done a good job.
******
The people of Jiangling might never have imagined that one day the place where they lived would become the focus of world attention.
This time, the Liang people didn't even dig trenches. They directly dispatched various troops to launch attacks in the north and west of Jiangling City in turn.
From morning till night, the drumbeats never stopped.
The mixed Hu people had attacked the city countless times, and this time it was the young men from various counties in Henan who took over.
They pushed the ladders forward in batches, braved the enemy's kerosene, boiling water, and gold juice, and fought bravely. Not far from them, on the surface of the Yangshui River, a water battle also reached its climax.
Yang Bao rushed to Jiangling from Shouchun years ago and transferred dozens of key officers to reorganize the navy, which had grown to more than 5,000 people.
Around the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the army's reorganization was quite effective, so they followed Jiang Ke's order and crossed the Yang River with the entire army and rushed directly to the enemy's water stronghold.
Above the river, the arrows were so dense that they could not be described in words.
The naval officers and soldiers of both sides each held up a large shield, and in just a short while, the shield was "stuck" with arrows.
Yang Bao stood at the bow of the largest ship - it was called a ship, but it was actually just a river boat carrying cargo - and felt uneasy as he watched his own warships bravely rushing forward.
This newly formed navy seems to have average combat effectiveness, and its ships are much worse than those of others.
When the ships of both sides were mixed together, the enemy could shoot from a high position, while our side could only shoot from above, which was a great disadvantage.
The only thing that can be expected is that the morale of the local tyrants headed by Huang He and even the river bandits will be very high after suddenly gaining official positions.
Every time the boats collided, someone would shout, calling on the soldiers who were knocked to the ground to get up quickly, stab each other with spears on the river, or even jump onto the enemy ships and fight in close combat.
Amid the sound of drums, people kept falling into the river, dyeing the water surface deep red.
People also jumped into the river from the blazing boats in panic, shouting and yelling. As they shouted, they soon saw the enemy soldiers floating in the distance, so they drew their daggers and fought each other on the river.
The boats passed by mercilessly, knocking these people to pieces. But soon more people and bodies fell into the river, repeating the previous events over and over again.
This was the first time Yang Bao had seen such a bloody and fierce water battle.
His ship soon passed an enemy ship.
At this time, he could even see the slightly nervous and helpless expressions on the faces of the Jin navy soldiers on the enemy ships.
"Snap!" The enemy threw out a hook and hooked it tightly onto Yang Bao's ship.
Then a springboard with a hook on the top was lowered, and dozens of Jin navy soldiers armed with short weapons rushed out of the cabin and tried to rush over along the springboard.
"Boom!" The helmsman was quite good at boat handling and he crashed into the boat hard.
Yang Bao was caught off guard and stumbled and fell to the ground, with the sound of "splashes" of people falling into the water filling his ears.
At this moment, some people fell into the enemy's boat, some fell into the water, and some started fighting each other.
Yang Bao wiped the blood from his forehead and staggered to his feet.
What I saw was an increasingly chaotic battlefield. The ships of both sides were almost completely mixed together. The sounds of weapons clashing and the screams of the dying were everywhere.
On the long dike in the distance, a large group of palace soldiers and soldiers from the Left Camp of Silver Spears were advancing bravely, trying to attack the Jin people's water fort.
It is obvious that the purpose of today's battle is to drive the enemy navy out of Jiangling.
(End of this chapter)