Chapter 1299 Purpose
Chapter 1299 Purpose (for the leader Elzbach)
It was very windy on the mountain, but the scenery was beautiful.
Zhai and Pang looked up at a high-rise wooden building that was being built, not understanding its meaning. However, they did not ask any further questions and went straight to the point.
"My lord has lived in Liaodong for many years and has gotten used to every blade of grass and every tree in Pingguo. The tribes that have followed him for many years have also settled here. It may be difficult to move far away suddenly." Zhai Kai said: "The emperor of Daliang is rich and powerful, so why should he keep his eyes on Liaodong?"
"So, Murong Qiannian is willing to accept the title?" Yang Bao's train of thought was indeed different. He directly grasped the key point and asked back.
Zhai Kai was about to say something, but was stopped by Pang Jian, who said, "General Yang, at this point, we must unite as one. I heard that Emperor Liang first advocated 'tolerance for the sake of the country'. Liaodong is a foreign land, and the Chinese court is not strong enough to handle it. It is better to feudalize it. My lord is willing to use his wife as a hostage and never rebel."
Yang Bao smiled but said nothing.
Is a wife really important to an ambitious man like Murong Ren? If he loses his wife, he can remarry; if he loses his son, he can have another one. If you think that his wife can restrain him, you are fooled.
So Yang Bao didn't take the question at all. He didn't have the power to do so. So he avoided the question and asked, "How many soldiers are there in the Anshi City area?"
Zhai Kai and Pang Jian did not answer.
Yang Bao was displeased and said, "What can't be said at this time? I have already guessed it myself. It will be at most 10,000 people. If there are more, you won't be able to support them."
The population in the controlled area is at most 100,000, and people are still uneasy. It would be good if we could effectively utilize 70,000 people.
Seventy thousand people can provide twenty thousand able-bodied men, including all men aged thirteen and above and sixty and below. But now the two sides are confronting each other, and it is impossible to gather all these twenty thousand men and send them to the front line. That would make life unbearable.
This strength is far inferior to Murong Huang.
It was just that the past three winters were too cold, and Liaodong, Changli, Xuantu, Liaoxi and other counties were affected, and Murong Huang did not have enough supplies to launch a large-scale war.
Seeing that Yang Bao easily exposed their true colors, Zhai Kai and Pang Jian were both shocked, but then they understood: they heard that Murong Han fled to Liang State and was awarded the position of general. The true situation in Liaodong probably could not be deceived. After all, Murong Han had also guarded Liaodong for many years (governing Xiangping). If he had not been forced to flee, but had the opportunity to return to Xiangping, then how could Murong Ren have a say in Liaodong now?
While Zhai and Pang were silent, the foot of Ma Shi Mountain was crowded with people and bustling with activity.
Not only were the young men busy working, but most of the naval soldiers also got off the ships to help level the land, cut down trees, and build fortifications.
Bags of grain were carried ashore, bundles of arrows were stored, and swords, guns, bows, shields, vehicles, crossbows and the like were indispensable.
With each passing day, the Liang people took deeper roots in Mashijin (Lushun).
As long as they were allowed to occupy the surrounding areas based on Ma Shijin, build cities and forts to defend themselves, and store up enough supplies and equipment, who could drive them away?
Anyway, their lord cannot break through these camps. Even if it is Murong Huang, he may not have the strength to do so. To be more precise, he may not be willing to pay the price of tens of thousands of casualties to take down these castles one by one.
"You two came here just for the canonization?" Yang Bao glanced at them and said, "If it's just this matter, the words are clear and there's no need to say more. You can go back."
Pang Jian cupped his hands and said, "General, Murong Huang is a mad man who killed his brothers. If such a vicious person succeeds, he will definitely be a threat to our borders. Since the Liang army is coming, it is better for us to march north in large numbers and join forces with our lord to defeat Murong Huang and take Xiangping. In this way, all the cities that surrendered to the enemy will be killed to show their support."
Yang Bao sneered when he heard this, and said, "No hurry. The royal army on the shore now only has 10,000 people. It's still possible to protect ourselves, but it's difficult to defeat the bandits. It's better to stabilize the camp for the time being, store up military supplies, and make plans after the army arrives."
Pang Jian sighed inwardly. As expected, it was almost the same as he guessed. This group of people just wanted to gain a firm foothold first, manage Ma Shijin, and then they could attack or defend, and they would be invincible no matter what.
If you besiege them, they have supplies at sea and you cannot cut off their food supply. But attacking the city will be too disadvantageous and you may not be able to win.
Don't worry about it. God knows when another large number of soldiers will land, become stronger and start expanding outward.
The most annoying thing is that they completely pushed Pingguo to the front line. If Murong Huang did not capture Pingguo, it would be difficult to threaten Ma Shijin. Whether to support Pingguo and to what extent was entirely up to them.
Now that things have come to this, there’s really not much more to say.
Zhai and Pang tried one last time but to no avail, so they could only leave in disappointment.
Yang Bao looked at their receding backs and chuckled.
He understood the other party's anxious mood.
After two years of fighting, their strength became weaker and weaker, and people's morale became more and more unstable. Reinforcements finally arrived, but they didn't care about Murong Ren's life or death at all and only wanted to make the best use of them.
What would you think? You would probably just surrender to Murong Huang out of anger.
Of course, it was just talk. Murong Huang was a rather cruel and brutal person. Even if you surrendered, you might not be able to survive. This was the fundamental reason why so many people were still desperately resisting until now.
Especially some of them were once subordinates of Murong Huang, but later betrayed him and surrendered to Murong Ren. They really didn't dare to surrender.
After standing on the mountain for a while, Yang Bao went down the mountain.
This is the best season in Liaodong. We must seize the opportunity to build barracks, warehouses, and cities and stockpile enough supplies before winter.
If you can avoid fighting, then don't fight. This is the principle.
Of course, another principle is not to let Murong Ren die, which is also very important. Otherwise, why would they cross the sea and head north this year? Wouldn't it be better to come back next year? It would also save a lot of money and food.
******
In late June, the commander of Shamen Town, Zhongli Ke, led his fleet back to Penglai.
Zeng Yi, the leader of the Yellow Head Army, stood on the shore, quietly watching the returning fleet.
I heard that they headed north in early June and could reach Mashijin in Liaodong by sailing for a day and a night, but it took them almost twenty days to return to Penglai.
He didn't know how many ships there were before they set sail, but judging from the ships that returned, they seemed to have been damaged to a certain extent, and had obviously experienced storms at sea. This cast a shadow on Zeng Yi's heart.
"Uncle, are we going to cross the sea on this boat?" Team deputy Rankin came over and asked in a low voice.
Zeng Yi didn't answer, but his brows were furrowed.
To be honest, if you asked him to join the army to cross the desert or go over mountains to fight, he wouldn't be that scared, because that means being down to earth, but crossing the sea by boat?
"Yesterday, there was a rumor from the Zuo Feilong Guard that the emperor gave two rolls of silk to everyone crossing the sea in order to boost morale and dispel fear of crossing the sea. I wonder if it's true." Lan Jin said again. "I'm afraid it's true." Zeng Yi's brows relaxed a little and said, "There are only about ten thousand people crossing the sea, and only 20,000 rolls of silk. The court can afford it. What else have you heard?"
"I also heard that after crossing the sea, they won't be able to come back this year." Rankin said, "Starting from October, the navy will not dare to cross the sea. They will definitely wait until May or June next year. This will take a year."
"What?" Zeng Yi's expression suddenly changed, and he asked, "One year? How about the farm work at home?"
"I don't know about that." Rankin said dejectedly, "Maybe they will exempt taxes, or give rewards."
Zeng Yi sighed deeply.
Crossing the sea to fight would take a year, or even longer. How would morale be maintained? Would there be enough food and fodder?
Just as he was thinking about food and fodder, food and equipment had already started to be loaded onto the ship at the dock.
This was the fleet that stayed behind in Penglai in June, led by Deputy Admiral Huang He. There were not many ships, only about 200 in total.
A large ship can carry three to four thousand hu of grain, and a small ship can carry one to two thousand hu, which is much less than the carrying capacity of inland grain ships. After all, these are not real grain transport ships, but modified warships, or they have not been modified at all, but unnecessary equipment such as crossbow carts have been removed, and all of them are used to transport millet and wheat.
Can we transport 300,000 hu of grain this time?
Zeng Yi didn’t know.
His eyes fell on another place where a lot of people gathered and were salvaging the sunken ship.
Strangely enough, we heard that everything was fine before, but on the day they arrived, a strong wind suddenly blew up in Penglai, shaking the ships anchored in Pu Nei. Several small boats capsized and more than a dozen naval soldiers were killed.
This is a life-threatening job!
Zeng Yi withdrew his gaze.
If 10,000 infantrymen were stationed in Liaodong for a year, they would need 300,000 hu of grain if they wanted to have a little more food.
If there are 20,000 people, then 600,000 hu will be needed. It would be better to have some surplus food to deal with unexpected situations, then 800,000 hu will be needed.
We will probably have to continue transporting grain into July, but I don’t know how much we can transport.
Winter clothes, equipment, draft animals and even war horses will be transported next in August, and probably in the first half of September, but it is hard to say what will happen after that.
The sound of "dong dong" drums suddenly rang out in the camp.
Zeng Yi and the others looked stern, and they all returned to the camp, lined up, and prepared to exercise.
******
The high tower in Penglaipu has almost become the office space for officials of all ranks.
Tian Mao, the governor of Qingzhou, had just arrived from Guanggu City, bringing with him, in addition to grain, 20,000 rolls of silk.
These horses will be distributed on the spot to the soldiers and followers of the Zuo Feilong Guard, two horses per person. Some of them will also be given to their comrades who will nominate trustworthy people to transport them back to various military headquarters and distribute them one by one.
In addition, considering that the war against the Murong clan will not be launched until next year, those who cross the sea this year are mainly responsible for establishing a stable outpost garrison and protecting Murong Ren as much as possible to prevent him from being conquered by Murong Huang. Therefore, they need to garrison or even fight in Liaodong for a long time. Therefore, each family of those who go on the expedition will be given four pieces of silk.
However, Qingzhou did not have to pay for this money. Instead, the governor of Yuzhou would send 40,000 pieces of silk to various counties and distribute them to the soldiers of Zuo Feilong Guard and his subordinates and their families.
Of course, this kind of thing should be told to everyone to boost morale.
Six rolls of silk per person was a generous reward. In this way, the farm work at home was not a big deal, after all, it was just one less strong man, and the family could barely support themselves.
As for the First Battalion of the Yellow Head Army, they also received rewards, but they were borne by Sizhou.
After Tian Mao arranged the reward distribution, he saw the "Navigation Log" handed over by the navy.
He read it carefully and found it to make a lot of sense.
It is no secret that the emperor wants to build a shipping settlement in the north, and Qingzhou is one of the locations.
To be honest, all the ship settlements of some level in the Daliang Dynasty were inherited from the Jin Dynasty, which in turn were inherited from the Eastern Wu. The three major ship settlements of Hengyu, Wenma and Fanyu were all located in the south, and the layout was a bit unreasonable.
But what can we do? Northerners are not good at this, so isn't it normal that they are not as good as others in shipbuilding?
But the emperor thought it was not possible. He believed that the north should have at least one shipping settlement that could rival Hengyu, Wenma and Fanyu.
After much deliberation, he was inclined to settle in Qingzhou, and ordered to transfer personnel from the south of the Yangtze River, and then recruit shipbuilding craftsmen from the north - it's not that there are no shipbuilding craftsmen in the north, but their skills are low - start with repairing ships, and then slowly build seagoing ships.
Tian Mao took on this task and has been focusing on it recently.
All the people in Qingzhou who knew a little about shipbuilding had been gathered together, and now the only thing left was to choose a site.
Today, I saw the suggestions sent back by Shen Yanfa, the Chief Clerk of the Naval Commandery, and wrote them down one by one, preparing to show them to the Emperor first.
While copying, he also felt a little emotional: without large-scale sea transport, some problems will never be seen.
Of course, this is not the scariest thing.
The most terrifying thing is that you don’t understand how the bureaucratic system works: even if a craftsman raises a question, the official in charge of the industry may not necessarily adopt it.
It is better to have less trouble than more. The transportation volume is so small in a year, why do you change it? Only when the scale is expanded, the problem is magnified, and outsiders raise doubts - such as Zuo Feilongwei or Wanshengjun - will the officials of the shipyard feel pressure and have the motivation to improve shipbuilding technology and safety.
Another possibility is that people who are more powerful than them, such as the emperor, raise questions.
Previously, he proposed to change the flat-bottom boat into a pointed-bottom boat, and Wenmachuantun was already in the trial production stage. After hearing that there were a series of things that needed to be changed after the flat-bottom boat was changed into a pointed-bottom boat, it was equivalent to rebuilding a new boat, which was not so simple.
In addition, merchants engaged in maritime trade are very motivated to improve shipbuilding technology because they are responsible for their own profits and losses and even their lives depend on it. However, there are too few such people at present, and there seems to be no goods worth transporting by sea.
After Tian Mao finished writing, he immediately sealed the letter and asked someone to send it to Beijing.
(End of this chapter)