Lord of the House

Vol 11 Chapter 23: Visiting Shenshan

During the autumn ripening season in Jiangning, the coasts of Jiangxi are also golden with golden ears, waiting for a bumper harvest, but among the paddy fields, the sparsely deserted fields are like the bald spots on the head of a leper, which are very dazzling.

Jiangning's outer counties and the coastal plains of Poyang Lake ended the war at about the same time and began to resume production.

Jiangning, Yijiang, and Huizhou Zhufu counties, in addition to exempting taxes and taxes, invested more than 1.5 million taels of silver after the war, in the form of food-for-work, to help the displaced return to their hometowns, restore local production, survive the famine.

The Privy Council also set up mining farms in quarrying, Lishui, Liyang and other places, opened rivers and canals, built roads in mountains, and absorbed a lot of labor. More importantly, a large amount of rice grain was imported from Huaidong, which helped the flow to overcome the famine. The import of a large amount of iron tools and the construction of river canals and embankments also promoted the restoration of agriculture.

Therefore, after the summer of Jiangning, the overall situation stabilized. After the autumn, when the rice ears were like gold in the fields, it made people look at the dawn of rejuvenation-the speed of recuperation and recuperation made the world dumbfounded.

She Feixiong, surrounded by cavalry, galloped up Guanshan Ridge in Sili, overlooking the undulating mountains and fields in the lower reaches of Xinjiang River.

From the west of Zhejiang, there are two main passages: one is the Wujiang River, which advances westward from Wuyuan; the other is the Xinjiang River, which advances westward from Xijiangshan County, Quzhou. Among them, the Wujiang Road is dangerous, and there are many dangerous passes along the way; while the Xinjiang channel is relatively spacious. From the northwest of Zhejiang, there is Yushan Henan, and it merges into the Xinjiang River, while the Quzhou in the east is the core area of ​​the valley in the middle of Zhejiang. It goes from the west of Zhejiang to the west of Jiangxi. the main road.

Shangrao, located in the upper reaches of the Xinjiang River, is the real gateway to Eastern Gansu.

Wujiang and Xinjiang are two passages, and the two armies are heavily confronted. Between Wujiang and Xinjiang, and from Wujiang to the north to the south of the Yangtze River, Huaiyu Mountain, Yishan Mountain, and Jiuzi Mountain are high and valleys, forming the two counties of Jiangxi and Jiangdong. natural barrier.

But no matter how dangerous the mountains are, and the scouts pass through the secret rooms, there will be no major problems.

She Feixiong also knew the situation of agricultural recovery in the periphery of Jiangning.

It was thought that the looting of Jiangning City and the surrounding counties would at least make it difficult for Huaidong to stabilize the situation in two or three years, and it would be difficult to resume large-scale wars. How could it be expected that Huaidong would take Jianghuai's troops into place in less than a year? Is the situation straightened out?

The Huaidong Bank borrowed five million taels of silver from the Jiangning government and the Ministry of Household twice, which was the key to the rapid stabilization of the situation in Jianghuai. Although the luxury family looted Jiangning, the amount of gold and silver obtained was not a small amount, but Jiangxi's materials were scarce, no more than Jiangning and other places can import grain, salt, iron and horses from Huaidong.

In the early years, Li Zhuo led the East Fujian Army to fight fiercely in northern Fujian and northern Fujian. In order to support the war, Jiangxi's financial resources were almost exhausted. In addition to the natural and man-made disasters in the later period, Jiangxi never recovered. When the extravagant family brought troops into Jiangxi, the war ignited all over Jiangxi, and the supplies in Jiangxi were even more scarce.

After the successful capture of Jiangzhou at the beginning of the year, the luxury family was considered to have a complete grasp of the Poyang Lake Plain.

However, with the She family's troops and horses retreating into Jiangxi, in addition to restoring agriculture, the She family is more urgent to stabilize the peripheral defense line and raise enough food and grass to support hundreds of thousands of troops and horses.

Can not import food and grass from outside, can only compete with the people for food. For the Poyang Lake Plain, which was devastated by the war, it was double exploitation and extortion, rather than investing a lot of materials for relief.

After the beginning of spring, there was famine along the Poyang Lake and tens of thousands of people died of starvation. The agricultural recovery in the Poyang Lake Plain was very unsatisfactory. Chaos has arisen in various places. She Feixiong has been raising elite troops and horses to put out the chaos for nearly a year, and it is impossible to stop every day. She Feixiong was also deeply tired by sending troops eastward and reinforcing Shangrao this time, and did not know when he would be able to reverse his disadvantage.

The She family can't invest a lot of materials to help the local area, but rely on the local area to recover on their own. It will take four or five years to slow down, but Huaidong will not give them so much time. After the fall, Huaidong organized a large number of materials, troops and horses to concentrate on the border of Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

"Young commander, the former army has passed Hengfeng, shall we rush to Shangrao first?"

Several horses galloped from the foot of the mountain, and the captain led by the captain strode to She Feixiong to report.

"Don't be in such a hurry, the movement speed of Huaidong Chongcheng's army is not that fast!" She Feixiong said.

Huaidong troops and horses will be concentrated in Jiangshan County in the west of Quzhou. The most spacious passage is to take the Qianjiang River. From Lanxi River, through Lanxi County, it will make a large circle and enter Quzhou. Although this route is tortuous, it will take a large circle. There are many waterways to borrow along the way, and the terrain is spacious. Take the Yushan River directly into Jiangshan County. There is a dangerous mountain road from Wuyuan to the upper reaches of the Yushan River, which will limit the number and speed of Huaidong soldiers and horses passing through.

Both of these routes determined that Huaidong troops could not quickly concentrate on the front of Shangrao, and the real battle might not be possible until mid-to-late November.

She Feixiong was more worried that the Shangrao war would last too long, rather than worrying that Shangrao would give Huaidong a breakthrough.

Standing on the Guanshan Ridge, you can see the Xinjiang River in the distance, the dry water after the autumn, the Xinjiang River is thin and narrow, shining with sparkling waves, like a silver band of light embedded in the mountains.

The skinny river is full of ships carrying supplies to help Shangrao, and a large number of civilians are forced to come here, barefoot in the increasingly cold river beach wetlands, the thick hemp ropes are deeply squeezed into the flesh, pulling the sinking grain boat. Up the river.

The post roads on the north bank of the river are all eastbound soldiers and horses.

Including the Mingkou and Baizhou villages that stand guarding the Wujiang River in the north, the She family is located in the southeast of Poyang Lake, with Shangrao as the center, deploying more than 50,000 troops to guard the gate of Jiangxi, keep Huaidong troops and horses out of Jiangxi, and Protect the passage between southern Jiangxi and northern Fujian from cutting off Huaidong.

The 50,000 guards, plus the civilian husbands and mules and horses requisitioned by the army, will consume as much as 50,000 to 60,000 stone per month, plus the cost of building fortresses and building war weapons, which puts pressure on the luxury family. It will get better day by day.

In addition, the pressure faced by Jiangzhou will not be weaker than that of the east line. Jinghu Hu Wenmu has successively moved eastward, and the number of troops and horses concentrated in Ezhou and other places has exceeded 40,000; and Chizhou Yue Lengqiu is not a fuel-efficient lamp. The rate of 50,000 troops and horses expanded westward along the southern foot of Huaishan Mountain.

When the troops and horses of the luxury family are contained to the Shangrao and Jiangzhou lines, their control over the inner side of the Poyang Lake Plain and both sides of the Ganjiang River will inevitably be weakened. The remnants of the Pan family have not been completely wiped out, they hid in the deep mountains and old forests in the upper reaches of the Ganjiang River, waiting to counterattack at any time. It is difficult to guess what kind of thoughts are hidden in the hearts of those local forces who have surrendered on the surface. Once the She family's garrison in the interior is reduced, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not have any changes.

She Feixiong felt as if he was on a dangerous ship with leaking walls, and now he can only hope that the ship can last longer. As long as Beiyan defeated the Cao family and captured Guanshan, the situation on the Jiangxi side could be completely relieved.

At that time, Nanyang and Huaixi were in danger, and Suizhou would surrender to Beiyan at any time. The main force of Huaidong troops and horses could only be forced to go north to defend Beiyan and ensure that the hinterland of Huaidong would not be attacked by Beiyan cavalry.

She Feixiong is not the kind of person who will pin their hopes on others. Even if they expect Beiyan to attract the main force of Huaidong's troops, they have to survive this wave of Huaidong's offensive first.

She Feixiong was thinking wildly, and stood on the top of Guanshanling again, watching the marching team, and then drove off the road with the entourage to chase the front army. thing.

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Huichang and Changting in the southeast of Ganzhou are located at the intersection of Wuyi Mountain and Nanling Mountain. The mountains and ravines are connected, and the peaks and roads are dangerous. However, there are still many cottages among the mountains, and there are walking vendors who use mules and horses as their feet to walk Between the mountains, in order to make a small profit.

In winter, when it rains lightly, a caravan of more than a dozen old and young men and six mules and horses rushed to Lifangliao at the northwest foot of Zhupo Mountain in Huichang County to seek shelter from the rain and sell various goods.

The cottage is closed, and most of the traders rely on this side to get in touch with the outside world. The villagers of Li Fangliao, regardless of Yumo, all rushed to the downstairs of the village to choose suitable objects.

This year, the army is in chaos, and it has been a long time since the merchants have come here. Even the owner of Li Jialiao, Li Houjun, personally walked out of the big house to join in the fun.

Li Houjun was fifty years old, with a thin and narrow face, and was a rare scholar in four townships and eight li. Although he did not pass the imperial examination, but with the legacy left by his ancestors, Li Houjun was also one of the few people in the four townships and Bali. Hearing that there was a traveling caravan passing through the border, he was accompanied by two long attendants and walked to the Fanglou.

The goods spread by the caravan on the linoleum include rouge gouache for the eldest girl and the little daughter-in-law, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, and whetstone, knife and iron for daily home use. It's just that this businessman's face is very good, not the business traveler who used to go this way.

Listening to the elderly merchants squatting in front of the stall selling goods to the villagers, Li Houjun lifted his robes, squatted in front of the stall, picked up a stack of porcelain bowls on the lacquer cloth, and asked, "Listen to the accent, my brother lives in Longnan?"

"My lord really has sharp ears. The little one lives in the narrow slack between Longnan and Dingnan, and walks around to make a living." The merchant frowned and pointed to the porcelain bowl in Li Houjun's hand, "My lord has sharp ears and sharp eyes. , this porcelain bowl is a good product from Yongshan kiln, this batch of bowls is expensive, and a stack counts for eight taels of silver..."

"Oh, bite your hand!" Li Houjun put down the porcelain bowl with a smile, and asked again, "Since I can come from Yongshan, I should also know the situation in Jiangzhou. My brother said that the army is in chaos, what time is it? head?"

"It's coming, it's coming, or the little ones don't dare to come out and ask for a living." The vendor replied casually.

"Is there salt and iron?" Li Houjun asked.

"Aren't they all here?"

"Is there more?" Li Houjun asked.

"Oh, salt and iron are not easy to deal with. Officials allow this. Excessive amount is a crime of beheading," the trader said calmly. "Besides, there is a shortage of salt everywhere in the mountains. What does the master want iron?"

"The farm tools in the stockade haven't been replaced for many years, and the damage is too much, which will affect the farming next year. The chopper knives that I put out are useless!" Li Houjun stood up on his knees and said, "You guys are walking around the world. It’s not easy to make a living. The visitors are all guests, so I went to the house for a good meal at noon. Li Jialiao thanked you for still reading here…”

"Thank you, sir, for your meal..." More than a dozen old and young men thanked them together.

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The villagers watched a lot, and the few who could afford to buy things were few, and most of the people dispersed for a long time. Li Houjun really sent the housekeeper to come over and invite the merchants into the house to eat~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and the rest will be taken away. The goods are all packaged down.

It's just that this housekeeper is strong, with calluses on his palms and thick knuckles. He doesn't look like a housekeeper in a big family at all, and he has a knife around his waist, more like a military general fighting on the battlefield; several hunters look like of people walking around.

Li Fangliao was originally a cottage, so it is not surprising that there were many hunters.

A dozen or so merchants were calmly dining in the courtyard, and they didn't dare to look at people who looked like hunters. Although it was some rough food, but an extra piece of bacon was given, and everyone was thankful. The leader of the foot merchant was a middle-aged man with a mature face and a weather-beaten look. He must go to Li Houjun to thank him, and then followed the housekeeper to the main courtyard.

"Master wants salt and iron, Xiao Xian doesn't have it in his hand, he only has a few bodyguards in his hand. If the master doesn't dislike it, he will make a price," said the leader, "Go back to Huichang City and report to the officialdom. If you lose, you can buy a few knives at a big price and you will be..."

"The hoes, pots and pots need to be repaired, and iron materials are needed. What do I want your knives for?" Li Houjun became vigilant.

"When I was in Huangbai Mountain a few days ago, I heard Chen Jiashu from Chenjiawa say that the young master of the domain is in Zhupo Mountain. I thought you were buying salt and iron on behalf of the young master of the domain!" Laughing, as if to say something insignificant.

Li Houjun was so frightened that his hands and feet were cold, but the butler beside him was steady. He pulled out the saber from his waist, put it on the leader's waist, and said in a low voice, "Who are you?"

"The people from Chen Jiawa introduced us here to look for the young master of the fan. We put a thousand taels of silver in the city of Ganzhou and did not take it, and went into the old forest in the deep mountains. Chen Xiaowei, who do you think he is?" He didn't care about the knife on his waist, looked sideways at the housekeeper and asked. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter

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