The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 812 Investigate and correct illegal activities and clear Hebei

In the second year of the Ming Dynasty (195), the first ten days of November.

The weather is getting colder every year, and winter is coming sooner every year.

Occupying the land of Hebei, the biggest benefit brought to Taiping Road is tantamount to a large amount of fertile land.

The official outbreak of the Battle of Weijun began in May, and in late May, the Wei army and the Han army launched a decisive battle in Fanyang.

Xu An led the main force of the Ming army to march lightly all the way, arrived at the battlefield when the Han and Wei armies were about to decide the winner, defeated the Han and Wei armies in one fell swoop, and became the only victor in the battle of Fanyang.

After five months, all the three states in Hebei were collected.

The state of Wei fell, and the Han court retreated to the south of the Yellow River.

Last year, the country of the Ming Dynasty suffered drought, locust plagues, and earthquakes one after another. The use of troops in Mobei and the Western Regions cost a lot of money and food.

This time, the food for the Eastern Expedition to the Kingdom of Wei and the Northern Expedition to Mobei was even the military rations borrowed from the common people with IOUs, so they got a fairly sufficient supply.

The household department of the Ming court was in a state of deficit in May, and this deficit was terrible.

If it hadn't been for the massive wealth brought by opening up the Western Regions, Ming Ting's internal funds would have already been broken, and even the basic salaries of soldiers could not be issued.

This time, with the use of troops, the food reserves for disaster relief in various places have been mobilized. As military expenditures, the suppression of the famine in various places has almost reached its lowest point.

Fortunately, the famine did not come, and because of the cooperation of the judges, Taipingdao was able to peacefully control the entire land of Hebei before the autumn harvest.

A large number of Ming troops poured into the land of Hebei continuously, and the mature crops planted in the fields of Hebei were also harvested one after another.

The Eagle Wolf Guard has set up a thousand-household office in Hebei, and has begun to collect evidence and prepare for a public trial.

Although it was said before that those who take the initiative to seek refuge will be lessened, but they have not said that they will be pardoned.

The forest farms, lakes, and mines in various places have basically been handed over to the Ming army. These strategic resources, as well as public resources, must be in the hands of the state.

In terms of land, Xu An did not directly deprive most of the land of the powerful families as he did in Yizhou and Zhongzhou before. The method was a little milder, and the powerful families in the three states of Hebei took the initiative to retain a certain amount of land.

But even so, the land collected in the three prefectures of Hebei is even more than the land in the three prefectures of Zhongzhou, Bingzhou, and Yizhou, and it is much more fertile.

If Guanzhong is fertile and wild for thousands of miles, then the land of the three prefectures in Hebei is thousands of miles of fertile wild.

Except for the continuous mountains in the north of Youzhou, and the Taihang Mountains on the left of Jizhou, the rest of the country is almost all plains.

This is called the North China Plain in later generations. It has a vast area, low and flat terrain, few ups and downs, and a flat river.

In the second year of Yuanshi (2 AD), the registered population of the Han Dynasty was nearly [-] million, and the population living in the North China Plain accounted for half of them.

Huabeiping is due to its excellent geographical environment, densely populated and developed agriculture.

After the Battle of Wei County, with the surrender of Qu Yi, the prefectures and counties in various places also chose to submit one after another. Therefore, it can be said that Xu An took the two states of Jizhou and Qingzhou without bloodshed, so there was no impact on the local economy and various affairs. What a spoil.

The harvest of a large number of mature crops this time directly allowed Xu An to obtain a large amount of food.

The harvested grain not only directly eliminated the deficit crisis of the Mingting household department, but also made up for the military rations donated by the people of Bingzhou, and even brought a lot of wealth.

At this time, Xu An really understood how rich Hebei is.

When the clerks of the household department and the Eagle Wolf Guard made statistics and checks, they even suspected that they had miscalculated the data and repeated the calculation many times.

Xu An was also very surprised when he saw the submitted documents.

No wonder at the end of the Han Dynasty, some people described the land of Jizhou as having millions of armies and ten years of valley branches.

It is indeed an exaggeration to wear a million armor, but there are indeed a million young and strong, but there is no exaggeration in the ten years of Guzhi.

At the beginning, almost all the grain and grass supply for the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Kwantung Warlords was supplied by Jizhou.

Today, if the economic levels of the three prefectures in Hebei are ranked from high to low, Jizhou is the first, Qingzhou is second, and Youzhou is at the bottom.

Although Qingzhou is only the area north of the Yellow River, its economic development is even richer than that of Youzhou, and its grain production is much higher.

The taxes of Jizhou and Hanoi counties alone are already more than the taxes that Zhongzhou, Bingzhou, Liangzhou, and Yizhou can contribute, and they pay more food and grass.

Yuan Xi is really not very good at governing the region, and Youzhou has been exploited many times by Gongsun Zan and looted by the Jizhou army. It is difficult to resume production in many places, and it has gradually recovered in the past year.

Jizhou has been stable since Han Fu took over, and Qingzhou is the same. Most of the wars broke out on the south bank of the Yellow River, and rarely spread to the north bank. Therefore, the economy of Hebei has not been damaged.

In fact, in the Battle of Qingzhou, although Wei Ting was defeated, he still had a great advantage.

It only takes two or three years to keep a low profile, and then you can obtain a large amount of food and soldiers, and at the same time recruit a large number of soldiers to make up for the losses in Qingzhou, and then go south to crusade against the Han court again.

It's just that the officials of the Han court are not just for nothing, they also know their situation, so there is this Northern Expedition that broke the boat.

Xu An put away the last document on the desk, frowning.

The last document was written not about Hebei, nor about Mobei and the Western Regions, but information about the South, which was written by Yinglangwei.

While he was stabilizing Hebei and Mobei, Han Ting recruited many recruits in Yanzhou, and at the same time transferred troops from Yangzhou and Yuzhou to the north.

The battle of Jingzhou has come to an end, and Yiling has not been captured in the end. Although the navy trained by Gan Ning is much stronger than the previous Yizhou navy, there is still a big gap compared to the Jingzhou navy , Yiling's topography also restricted the attack of the Ming army.

On the Nanyang battlefield, Huang Zhong led the main force of the Jingzhou army and the Ming army led by Xu Huang had an encounter in Nanyang County. The encounter ended in the defeat of the Jingzhou army.

After Huang Zhong finally led the cavalry and cut off the crossbowmen, Xu Huang saw that although the Jingzhou soldiers were defeated, their formation was not in disorder, and their retreat was still orderly. In the end, they chose to focus on safety and did not continue to pursue.

In Nanyang County, there was no danger to defend, and the Jingzhou army retreated all the way to Xiangyang, and Xu Huang also pursued to Xiangyang.

Xiangyang and Fancheng are located at the southern end of the Nanyang Basin. They stand against the Xian Mountain and stand between the Han River, connecting Jingyu and controlling the north and south.
Xiangyang City has a relatively high terrain, surrounded by water on three sides and mountains on one side.

The north, east, and south are surrounded by the Han River, the west is Wanshan, and the southwest is Xianshan and a series of more than a dozen large and small hills.

Huang Zhong is experienced and experienced. He deployed defenses along the river, lined up against the mountains, and garrisoned Fancheng.

The more than [-] warships lying across the river, and the [-] Jingzhou army in Fancheng, stopped the Ming army's attack after all.

Although there is a counterweight catapult, there is still no way to conquer Xiangyang City.

The counterweight catapult is invincible on the northern plains, but in the south, it is not acclimatized, and it needs the assistance of infantry and sailors. Without the assistance of infantry and sailors, the counterweight catapult is lethal. No matter how big it is, there is no way to approach the city.

It's hard to do it alone. After receiving the withdrawal of Gan Ning and Zhao Zhi, Xu Huang also withdrew the siege of Xiangyang, and led his troops back to Wuguan.

The ending of the Jingzhou battle did not exceed Xu An's expectation.

The army attacking Jingzhou was originally used as a partial division to support the main attack, and the troops that restrained Jingzhou and Yuzhou could not all go north.

Although Xu Huang led the troops to retreat, when he withdrew again, he took away most of the crops in Nanyang County and transported them back to Wuguan.

The Nanyang Basin had a registered population of more than [-] million before, and the land was extremely fertile. The grain harvested not only made up for the consumption of the Ming army, but also made a lot of wealth.

In the Battle of Jingzhou, the Ming army had already achieved its original goal and gained enough benefits.

The reason why Xu An frowned was not because of the war, but because of the change of the Han army.

The secret report he received reflected that the Han army was wrapping bricks on the city wall.

For the cities on the south bank of the Yellow River, Puyang, Yanjin, Gaotang, Guangcheng Pass, and Xuanmen Pass, the Han army began to use bricks to outsource the city walls.

Although the counterweight catapult is powerful, its destructive power is limited in the face of a thick brick wall.

After several years, Hanting has made progress and thought of countermeasures.

The enemy did not rest on their laurels, but was constantly learning, which also made Xu An feel a sense of crisis.

First, it began to imitate from the army and armaments, from the ring armor to the new riding equipment, and then from the equipment, from the four-wheeled carriage to the catapult.

Once the Han army finished bricking the city wall, the advantages of counterweight catapults would be continuously reduced, and the difficulty of attacking the city would also increase.

Cities such as Zhuyuanguan, Xiangyang, and Yiling all proved that the role of the once invincible counterweight catapults has now begun to be reduced.

During the Battle of Xiangyang in the Yuan Song Dynasty, when the Yuan army with counterweight catapults attacked the Southern Song Dynasty, it still needed to rely on manpower to attack the city forcibly in many cases. The Battle of Xiangyang finally lasted for six full years before the Yuan army was able to capture Xiangyang.

The river network in the south is dense and the terrain is complex. It is difficult for cavalry to exert their full power, and the same is true for equipment.

"I ordered that Zhongzhou Workshop set up a brick factory and start producing bricks, giving priority to supplying Luoyang area, and giving priority to packing bricks for Taigu, Yique, and Luoyang two passes and one city."

"Order Li Heng and Wang Ren to lead the troops and horses of the headquarters to the Luoyang area, build a city guard at the west of the Xuanmen Pass, and also build the outer wall with bricks, so as to block the way for the Yanzhou Han army to enter the Luoyang area."

Xu An took the map that was put aside before, and then said to Hao Zhao who was beside him.

"Let Xu Huang station troops temporarily to monitor Nanyang, Jingzhou."

"Send a message to Zhao Zhi that Zigui and Wu County can abide by the rules, but they can't abide by the rules and retreat to Jiangguan. As long as they guard Jiangguan, it is enough to protect the navy as the director, and don't care about the gains and losses of the city."

It doesn't matter if Yiling cannot be attacked, but the navy must not lose too much.

The army is easy to raise, but the navy is difficult to train.

Attacking Jingzhou and Yangzhou requires a strong navy, and now all hope lies in the Yizhou navy, otherwise the difficulty will increase several times, and the time will be delayed even longer.

"promise."

Hao Zhao made a promise, picked up the brush, and quickly wrote down what Xu An said.

Now that he is brought by Xu An's side to obey orders, he has already taken on the role of the commander of the army.

Although Hao Zhao doesn't have the talent of Chen Sheng to have a vivid memory and is proficient in arithmetic, he is much more capable than the ordinary long history
My own cheap apprentice is useless.

Han Ting is strengthening the defense of the Yellow River, but Xu An can do limited things now, it is impossible to attack Han Ting immediately.

From the original four states to the current four provinces and eight states, it should be twelve provinces to be precise. After all, the provincial system has begun to be implemented.

The original eight states added the word province after the name of the state, such as Bingzhou, and now the official name of the Ming court has become "Bingzhou Xingsheng".

The Western Regions are still the Protectorate, and have not yet been changed to provinces. After all, the Western Regions are somewhat special, not directly controlled areas.

In just five months, under the rule of Taipingdao, the population has nearly doubled, the area has also expanded a lot, and various problems have emerged one after another.

The aristocratic and powerful families in the land of Hebei are not good men and women. The surrender is partly due to the strength of the Ming army, the persuasion of the examination and distribution, and the reason why Xu An promised that the active volunteers can reduce their punishment, so they are a little more honest.

In order to truly bring the land of Hebei under the rule, it is necessary to solve the powerful families in the territory. The public trial has not yet been held, and the internal problems have not yet been resolved. Although the money and food are sufficient, the military strength of the Ming army is stretched. It's not time to go south.

What's more, the problem of the [-] army under Qingzhou Quyi's command has not been completely resolved.

On the third day after the second batch of catapults arrived, the generals on the outskirts of Yijing collapsed, and the city of Yijing also fell on the same day.

Knowing that there was no hope of escape, Gongsun Zan beheaded his wife and children, set himself on fire and died.

The fire ignited in Yi Jing, and it took two full days before it was extinguished. When the Ming army entered Yi Jing, except for those who fled outside the city before, all people and animals in Beijing were wiped out, and life was cut off.

"How much evidence has the trial collected?"

Xu An knocked on the desk, remembering the things he had handed over to the judge before. It has been nearly five months now, and the judge should have almost done the final work.

Hao Zhao paused for a moment, with a thoughtful look on his face, thought about it and then replied.

"Some of the grain and money warehouses of the Zhen family have been dug up, but there should be a lot that have not been dug up. In the rampant township, the evidence of the fish and meat people has been collected almost, and the files submitted by the judges have accumulated a lot. That's enough of a conviction."

"The eagle wolf guards and military capitals in various places have also completed their preparations, and are just waiting for the commander's military order."

Xu An's eyes fell on the nine counties of Jizhou on the map, his eyes were slightly sharp, and he said coldly
"Order, Xu Rong, Yu Du, Liu Shi, Bai Rao, Zhu Jiu, Ma Chao, and Pang De are on standby, ready to suppress the rebellion at any time."

"The decree is issued to order the Eagle Wolf Guards to open public trials in Jizhou, Qingzhou, and Youzhou, with the assistance of the six gates, to investigate and correct the lawbreakers, and to eliminate Hebei."

(End of this chapter)