Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

In mid-May, Zhao Gang, who had returned to Henan to gather his troops, arrived in Jingzhou. The total population of soldiers, civilians and Han barbarians was more than 6,000. Most of them were stranded in Luyang to help transport grain and grass to Yingchuan. It would take some time before they could come south. Entry.

At the same time, this team also brought the latest information on the Eastern Wei army's movements, which was very bad news. Last month, General Gao Cheng of the Eastern Wei Dynasty led the country's elite troops on a southern tour. They crossed the Yellow River from Hulao and arrived in Luoyang. The rescued Jiuqu City in Yiyang was attacked fiercely by the enemy. Shi Peikuan, the defense chief stationed here, was abducted by the enemy.

In addition, Kongcheng and Fuliu City in the Yi River Basin were also captured by the enemy. The city lord Li Yisun who was stationed here lost all his troops and broke out. He was rescued by the barbarians in the mountains and fields of Yixi and is still missing.

After hearing these depressing military reports, Li Tai felt quite complicated. He understood that the Eastern Wei Dynasty was planning to remove the strongholds around Yingchuan first, leaving it isolated and helpless, and then concentrate its forces to attack Yingchuan.

But even if you see through it, there is no clever way to deal with it. If you really want to stop the enemy's tactical arrangement, it is nothing more than fighting one goal after another. In the end, the overall national strength is still the focus.

Li Tai has positioned himself as a spectator, and no longer thinks much about it, but concentrates on handling matters within his own administration.

According to the situation reported by General Zhao Gang, the number of people who can arrive in Jingzhou in this batch and the next batch is about ten thousand. If there is enough time to organize the third batch, the number should be even more. It is estimated that the total number can Reaching more than 20,000 people.

Of course, it is impossible for such a large Henan Province to have only so many people, but only so many could be mobilized in a hurry. This also shows that Wang Sizheng's Henan Daoxingtai's ruling foundation in Henan is weak.

Although the situation was not as expected, Li Tai did not care too much. He also knew that it was impossible to dispatch too many people across regions to Jingzhou in a short period of time. It was already good to have such a harvest.

These Henan people who arrived in Jingzhou were basically extremely poor people with no savings. They arrived in Jingzhou relying on the meager rations they received in Yingchuan and Luyang. Many of them were already trembling with hunger, looking at The immature cereal crops in the fields were all glowing green. If there were not troops along the way to support and restrain them, they would have been unable to bear the urge to rush into the fields to pick food.

Fortunately, this is not the first time that the state capital has welcomed people into the country. It has not failed to prepare. It has set up food distribution points at regular intervals on the road to provide them with food rations, and in this way, these people have been divided among counties. .

Since the state capital had just experienced water conservancy expansion and a large increase in farm work at the beginning of the year, coupled with the comprehensive registration and resettlement of these immigrants, the living environment of the locals and newcomers was basically staggered, allowing them to live in peace and avoid problems. A large number of conflicts between natives and guests arise.

As May came to an end, Zhao Gang personally led the second batch of Henan immigrants to Jingzhou, and also brought the latest news: the Eastern Wei army had arrived in Yingchuan. Although its forward troops were defeated by Wang Sizheng's initiative, its army The main force did not retreat, but surrounded Yingchuan, completely losing Yingchuan's communication with the outside world.

However, there is also good news. Since a large amount of food has been transported to Yingchuan City recently, many local tyrants and forces in the surrounding areas have seen this and have gradually attached themselves to Yingchuan. Therefore, before Yingchuan was surrounded this time, a large number of soldiers and civilians gathered in the city.

But thinking about how much effort the Eastern Wei Dynasty invested and the price it paid to capture Yingchuan, Li Tai didn't know whether the increase in soldiers and civilians in the city was good news. Under the siege of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, which was nearly the entire nation's army, even doubling the number of soldiers and civilians in Yingchuan City seemed to be of little significance.

However, as Wang Sizheng is the world's top city defense master, when the personnel resources at his disposal increase, he may perform even more amazingly, and Li Tai is also looking forward to this.

Zhao Gang brought more than 11,000 people this time, and a large number of them were young men. They were all Ding servants who were attracted by the food. They were isolated outside Yingchuan City by the Eastern Wei army. Instead of staying in Luyang, it was better to go south to Jingzhou.

Another thing that surprised Li Tai was that there were nearly a thousand households of various types of craftsmen among this group of immigrants.

These craftsmen's households were originally organized and accumulated by Hou Jing when he was in Henan, but he did not have time to take them away with the army. They were left in the counties of Henan and were taken over by Wang Sizheng. Now that Yingchuan was about to suffer a military disaster, Wang Sizheng certainly had no way to organize them for production, so he simply packed them up and sent them out.

After Li Tai learned about this situation, he couldn't help but be overjoyed. Sure enough, good people are rewarded. If he hadn't supported Wang Sizheng with so much military rations in time, he probably wouldn't have gotten these craftsman manpower.

The Mianbei area is in dire straits and is extremely short of manpower, let alone higher-level craftsmanship.

Li Tai originally planned to start building a workshop industry as summer and autumn came and harvests began to appear in the fields. He would rely on the unique natural resources of the Nanyang Basin to smelt iron and forge soldiers and continue to grow his strength. The arrival of these craftsmen can be said to have greatly increased the relevant talent pool.

Therefore, he did not place these craftsmen randomly in the countryside, but moved them all to a new city on the west bank of Feishui River. He first let them perform some simple fortification work organized by the state government, and waited until autumn and winter. After the farming work ended, the development of handicraft industry was vigorously promoted.

As for Zhao Gang, Li Tai also has important tasks to arrange.

Mianbei was a mixed territory with Han barbarians, and the living habits and customs of the barbarians were very different from those of the Han people. Li Tai had neither the experience nor the patience to unite the barbarians, so he repeatedly established rule after entering the country, which also caused many barbarians to flee. Except for a few barbarian chiefs such as Huan Shuzu who are focused on, the interaction between other barbarian chiefs and the state capital has become sparse and their attitudes have become cold and distant.

No matter how strong Li Tai's national complex is, it is undeniable that the barbarians are an important civil force among the Han, Mian, Jianghuai and Han Dynasties. Although they are not highly organized, once they gather together to cause trouble, they will have powerful energy to shake up the local military and government.

If you are not proficient in anything, leave it to professionals. Zhao Gang has rich experience in dealing with barbarians, and he also has great experience in integrating and recruiting barbarian forces. Therefore, Li Tai plans to hand over all matters of negotiation and integration of barbarians in Jingzhou and surrounding areas to Zhao Gang.

"The barbarians seem to be immutable, but in fact they have their own likes and dislikes and weigh the pros and cons. Their followers may not be good at farming and producing mulberry trees, but they are also capable and brave. If they are used properly, they can be a considerable force. the power of."

Hearing that what Li Tai arranged for him was exactly what he was good at, Zhao Gang nodded and agreed. When he heard that Li Tai was worried about the wandering barbarians in the territory, he smiled and said.

"Since the matter is entrusted to Zhao Chaoqi, I have no worries. Whether it should be coercion or inducement is entirely up to Zhao Chaoqi's control. If you need anything, just go to the house and get it. If you need troops, I will do it!"

Li Tai gave Zhao Gang full autonomy and hoped that Zhao Gang could organize a considerable barbarian force as soon as possible so that he could have stronger capital to participate in the next chaos in the world.

Everything in Jingzhou is well organized and developing rapidly, and has not been affected by changes in the external situation. But other places are not so lucky. Although the drastic changes have not yet occurred, many signs have begun to gradually emerge.

Li Tai can arrange his development plan in an orderly manner by predicting the situation, but other people in the current situation need to judge the direction that is beneficial to them and respond based on the step-by-step development of the situation.

In this process, some choices are right and some are wrong. But there is no right or wrong at the moment the person makes the choice. Only when the result is revealed, will they be either happy or regretful. However, the vast majority of people no longer have the chance to redeem themselves, but they are still not convinced. Know.

With Hou Jing's army defeated and hastily fleeing south, the drama of the Three Kingdoms melee staged by him seems to have come to an end.

Hou Jing also went from being a man of great influence who could determine the general trend of the world just by his affiliation in his most prosperous days, to a bereaved dog, trapped in Shouyang, Huainan, living on the mercy of Emperor Liang, and no longer having the energy to influence the direction of the situation.

At least this was the case in the eyes of the Nanliang monarch and some of his ministers, so they completely forgot about their previous plan, ignored the begging of Hou Jing, the defeated general, and actively sent envoys to negotiate peace with the Eastern Wei Dynasty, trying to restore the defeat of Huaibei, both internally and externally. adverse effects.

The old Bodhisattva has been a vegetarian and worshiped the Buddha all his life, but he still cannot detect the cause and effect of karma. He is unaware that the roots of disaster he planted and watered with his own hands have sprouted and grown, and are about to mature and fall away!