Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 555 How to make Li Jing an emperor
If the Central Plains Dynasty, which has all Huaibei, wants to go south to attack the separatist regime of the Southern Tang Dynasty, when Ezhou, that is, Wuchang is not in its hands, there are only three ways to go.

The westernmost one is the one taken by Fu Jian and Zhou Shizong Guo Rong. They descended from Feishui to attack Shouzhou, which is the later Shouxian County of Anhui.

The road in the middle can go down from the vortex to attack Haozhou. This Haozhou is Fengyang, Zhu Hongwu's hometown.

The easternmost one is from Xuzhou to the south through Surabaya to attack Chuzhou, the bridgehead in the Huainan area.

Chuzhou is the Huai'an of later generations. Only when it is occupied here can it go directly to Yangzhou through the Hangou of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, threatening the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River.

But speaking of three options, in fact Zhang Zhao didn't have many choices.

First of all, it is unrealistic to attack Shouzhou from Feishui River.

Because after Liu Yanzhen raised [-] forbidden troops to go northward, Li Jing transferred Liu Renzhan, a famous general of the Southern Tang Dynasty, from the post of Jiedu Envoy of Wuchang Army in Ezhou to be Jiedu Envoy of Qinghuai Army in Shouzhou.

Originally, Liu Renzhan was in Wuchang, and it was Southern Tang who planned to take action against Ma Chu, who was in constant civil strife.

Li Jing's brain circuit is a bit strange, the Central Plains is so chaotic, he doesn't use the power of the whole country to go north to compete, but first fights Wang Min, and then wants to fight Ma Chu, doing all the trivial things.

But, he is not so stupid, at least he knows how to drop Liu Renzhan to the post of Jiedushi of the Qinghuai Army.

Although Liu Renzhan was able to defend Shouzhou firmly in history, Zhou Shizong deliberately wanted to surround the spot to fight for aid.

But Guo Rong didn't decide to surround the spot for aid from the very beginning. He had no choice but to choose to surround the spot for aid after he really couldn't attack Shouzhou.

This proves that Liu Renzhan's qualifications as a famous general are not false.

At this time, Zhang Zhao didn't have as much time as Guo Rong, so it was impossible for him to touch Shouzhou.

As for Haozhou in the middle, that's not a good choice either.

First of all, the transportation capacity and shipping conditions of Woshui are far inferior to Feishui in the west and Surabaya in the east. If you go to Woshui, it will be a big trouble to transport luggage.

Secondly, the Huaihe River passes directly to the north of Haozhou. The Huaihe River in this section has a fast flow and a dangerous river course. It is simply the best natural barrier in Haozhou.

The topography of the Haozhou area is in the shape of flat rivers sandwiched between hills in the middle of Nanshan and Beihe.

Although there is flat land, it is cut into small pieces by the densely covered rivers and hills, which is extremely unfavorable for the activities of northern cavalry, but it is conducive to the penetration of sailors who are good at boats.

In addition, Haozhou can be regarded as the poorest place in Huainan. The people are strong and supplies are difficult. If you really want to get into Haozhou and think about it, it will be difficult.

In history, very few people chose to use Haozhou as the breakthrough point. This is the reason why they spent a lot of time in the next week and only went to fight Haozhou and the neighboring Sizhou at the end.

Then the only option left is to go to Xuzhou, go south along Surabaya to Suzhou, and knock on the gate of Huainan to Chuzhou (Huai'an). Such a choice.

However, at this time, the road from Xuzhou to Chuzhou is not easy, because it is easy to travel from Xuzhou to Chuzhou in later generations, especially from Suzhou to Chuzhou, because there is a middle canal from Suzhou to Chuzhou.

However, the Middle Canal was gradually excavated on the basis of the canal in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it did not exist at that time.

Therefore, at this time, the Tongji Canal of the Grand Canal in the Sui and Tang Dynasties could not directly lead to Chuzhou. It could only go from Surabaya to Huaiyin County in the west of Chuzhou, and then from Huaiyin County, take a section of the Huaihe River to Chuzhou.

Not to mention the need for boats to turn around, Zhang Zhao's navy is not many, and he is not familiar with the water transportation of the Huaihe River. Once he encounters the interception of the Southern Tang Army's navy on the Huaihe River, it will be dangerous.

At that time, the Southern Tang navy in the upper reaches will mobilize large ships from Sizhou to go down the river, while the Zhou army in the lower reaches will not be able to attack Chuzhou, and they may suffer a big loss on the Huaihe River.

And even if Chuzhou is successfully captured, Chuzhou is still four hundred miles away from the south bank of the Yangtze River, the heart of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and it is far from being able to deter the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Just when Zhang Zhao was thinking hard, Jinyi's personal guards brought back an extremely important news to Zhang Zhao.

That is, after the people of Chuzhou heard that Liu Yanzhen might die in battle, they actually held a celebration in private.

Although they gathered in the name of offering sacrifices to Han Xin, Marquis of Huaiyin, Jinyi's personal guards had developed several Chuzhou merchants who were selling Hexi's in-demand goods as early as the beginning of the year, so they clearly knew the inside story.

After Zhang Zhao heard it, he immediately asked Jinyi's personal guards to hand over to Wang Yisi the information that Liu Yanzhen served as the governor of Chuzhou in the past, flooded the fields, and devoured the people of Chuzhou.

Then go to the captured Nantangzhou county soldiers and civilian husbands to find people from Chuzhou, and interrogate them carefully.

Later, a more accurate evil plan about how Liu Yanzhen devoured 300,000 mu of land from Chuzhou people was presented to Zhang Zhao.

Moreover, Jinyi's personal guard also inquired about another policy of the Southern Tang Dynasty in Chuzhou and Huainan as a whole, that is, Bo Zheng.

The so-called Bo Zheng policy is a policy that makes Zhang Zhao's scalp tingle after seeing it.

Bo, can be interpreted as a transaction, the original meaning is to exchange things, which is nothing, the key lies in the latter levy, the levy of the levy.

In short, the Southern Tang court strictly controlled the trade of salt, tea and sugar in the entire Huainan area, and took these as official operations.

These three items, especially salt and tea, are the necessities of people's livelihood.

After controlling these items, the Southern Tang court set the price high, and then used these extremely high prices, which were more than ten times higher than private salt, to forcibly barter for common people’s corn, wheat, rice and cloth.

Often a small piece of salt can be exchanged for a hundred catties of grain, and the people have no right not to exchange it.

Even if you don't lack salt, sugar and tea at home, as long as the government thinks you are lacking, they can come to you directly to 'change'.

Good guy, he can obviously snatch it, and even set up a name, he really, I'm crying to death!

Under this policy, the people of Huainan suffered unspeakably, and it also gave birth to various dark forces among the people.

For example, the Huainan merchants recruited by Jinyi's personal guards were not legitimate merchants at all, they were armed private salt and sugar dealers.

In addition to Bozheng, the Southern Tang court also implemented the military land system in Huainan in the name of guarding against the Central Plains court.

Hmm..., do you think that the military land system of the Southern Tang Dynasty is to set aside a piece of land and then allow the army to cultivate it?
Think too much!They forcibly seized the people's cultivated fields and directly designated them as military fields, and then used government orders to force the people in Huainan not to cultivate their own fields until they finished farming the military fields.

The so-called military land system was originally a policy stipulated in the early days of Li Min's administration to enhance Huainan's military reclamation and defense capabilities.

But in the later period, from high-ranking court officials to local officials and powerful people, they formed a strong chain of interests and firmly controlled this area.

Speaking of military land system, it is military villages, but there is not a single soldier, and it all depends on the voluntary labor of the common people, and they are not allowed to cultivate their own fields until the military land is planted.

And since there are no soldiers, the output must have nothing to do with the army. Most of it was divided up by officials and local tyrants, and a small part went into Li Jing's inner treasury.

When Liu Yanzhen was the governor of Chuzhou, he dared to flood the rations of tens of thousands of people at one time. It was this interest group that drove and protected him.

No wonder this guy can become a 'famous general'. The Southern Tang court has benefited so much from him, so how could they not help to praise him?
Zhang Zhao suddenly felt that it was too cheap for Liu Yanzhen to be killed directly, and he should be captured alive and executed immediately.

Well, the people in Huainan, specifically the people in Huai'an, Yancheng, and Lianshui in later generations, what sins did they do in their previous lives to have this "blessing"?
Knowing these operations, Zhou Papi could be regarded as a super benevolent person in front of the Southern Tang court.

However, since the people in Huainan have suffered so much, it happened to be Zhang Zhao's opportunity.

He immediately called Zhang Liecheng in front of him and ordered, "Send out [-] miles of Tiqi, and send some of these businessmen who have developed you, as well as the people with prestige in the vicinity of Chuzhou, to Xuzhou day and night."

The so-called eight-hundred-mile riding is definitely impossible to run eight hundred miles in a day, but the BMWs that are good at walking are all chosen, and it is still possible to run more than a hundred miles a day.

Knowing that the matter was serious, Zhang Liecheng hurried down to make arrangements, while Zhang Zhao immediately held a military meeting. Since it was possible to take Chuzhou smoothly, Zhang Zhao had a big plan.

. . . .

In the office of the Wuning Military Office, in the White Tiger Festival Hall, Zhang Zhao's hand continued to stroke down from Chuzhou on the map, until it stopped at Yangzhou.

At this time in the Southern Tang Dynasty, there were two capitals, the east and the west, and the west capital was Jiangning Mansion, the capital of the emperor and the court.

The eastern capital is Yangzhou, which is the economic and cultural center of the Southern Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the status of Nanjing was far from being comparable to that of Yangzhou.

From Chuzhou (Huai'an) to Yangzhou, the Hangou section of the Grand Canal in the Sui and Tang Dynasties is still very smooth, and there are also Chidao on both sides of the Hangou, which is simply a highway leading directly to Yangzhou.

"I mean, after the capture of Chuzhou, immediately select the fine cavalry, with [-] cavalry as the vanguard, and [-] cavalry as the backup, one man and three horses, traveling day and night, heading straight to Yangzhou, the eastern capital of Southern Wu.

Since Yang Xingmi took control of Huainan, except for the small-scale friction with Wu Yue, Yangzhou has not been in war for 50 years.

Fireworks go down to Yangzhou in March. In such a place full of flowers, I am afraid that I have long forgotten how battles are fought, and everyone must relax.

I killed them suddenly with fine cavalry. They were unprepared, and Yangzhou would definitely not defend. "

As soon as Zhang Zhao's words came out, everyone was shocked, but after the shock, he was excited.

Zhang Zhao looked around at the cavalry generals around him, Bai Congxin, Ma Shacai, Murong Xinchang, Li Cunhui, Li Ruotai, Gao Xingzhou, Gao Huaide, Yao Yuanfu, Hu Guang, Huang Yingda, Qiongre Duojin, Zhao Yanjin, Zhao Kuangyin, Zhe De Yuan and Wang Shenqi.

All of them are the most famous horse fighters in this era, and there are three generations of old, middle-aged and young people. They need experience and experience, and they need to work hard.

In addition, there are a large number of second-, third-, and fourth-generation BMWs with folded ears and sweaty horses in the army, as well as gold-fingered weapons such as cloth armor, pear flower guns, and god-arm bows. It is impossible for the Southern Tang army to resist in a hurry.

"Sage, Yangzhou has been conquered, what should we do?" Murong Nobunaga asked softly.

He knew what Zhang Zhao was thinking, and he didn't want to destroy Southern Tang, because it couldn't be done.

What Zhang Zhao wants now is to ask Li Jing to cede land and become a vassal like Shi Jingtang, present gold and silver treasures, go to the Tang Kingdom, and be an obedient emperor, that's why he asked this question.

Seeing that Li Cunhui was eager to try, Zhang Zhao stretched out his hand a little bit.

"Cun Hui'er, tell me what we should do?"

Generally speaking, this kind of question is answered by Murong Nobunaga, so Li Cunhui was very excited, he said with a blushing face.

"Returning to the saint, we should be kind to the people in Yangzhou, pretending to be stationed for a long time.

In this way, the court of the Southern Wu Dynasty was afraid that I would drink horses and rivers, so it would definitely use all the strength of the whole country to rescue me, while we quietly left Yangzhou City and ambushed in the Guabu area.

When the southern Wu army crossed the river from Guabu and attacked with all their strength when their foothold was not stable, if this army was killed, Li Jing would send an envoy to kneel in front of the saint and kowtow for mercy! "

"Hahaha!" Zhang Zhao laughed loudly, feeling excited.

"My son really has the qualifications of a general, would you like to be a pioneer?"

Li Cunhui immediately knelt down and shouted with great joy: "My son is willing to be the vanguard and capture this piggy dragon of Nanwu for my lord!"

Seeing that Li Cunhui was going to win the first place, all the generals in the hall asked for their orders one after another, and the morale was like a rainbow for a while.

(End of this chapter)