Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 419 0414 [Little Li Guanghua Rong]

After Zhu Ming went to Nanyang to summon the great clan, he did not immediately go to Jiangling, but went further upstream to Zhijiang.

Zhao Fengji, the second in command of the Water Conservancy Department, came from Hanzhong to control the water, and also followed Ju Ming.

Standing at the bow of the boat, Zhao Fengji pointed to the lakes and marshes in the distance and said: "Since the Five Dynasties, the water conservancy in the north and south of the Jingjiang River has been in disrepair. The long-term development of water conservancy can only be sustained. Since King Shu's reform, why have the counties around Xiangyang repeatedly recruited people to open up wasteland with little effect? ​​In addition to the heavy burden on the people, there are frequent floods and droughts."

Zhu Ming shook his head and said, "It's not enough now. The local wealthy households have already lent a lot of food to the government, and the common people don't have much leftover food. If we want to develop water conservancy, we have to wait another two or three years."

Zhao Fengji said: "We can afford to wait two or three years. Within these two or three years, I want to visit all the states and counties north of the Jingjiang River and make a comprehensive water conservancy plan for the long-term."

"Thank you!" Zhu Ming said sincerely.

The so-called Jingjiang refers to the section of the Yangtze River from Zhijiang to Chenglingji in Yueyang.

For thousands of years, this section of the Yangtze River has been quite like the Yellow River. The sediment has continuously silted up and raised the river bed, and even the wonderful scene of hanging the river on the ground has appeared many times. The river course moves back and forth and changes constantly.

Let’s talk about Zhijiang, where the Yangtze River divides into two and rejoins at the upper reaches of Jiangling, and Zhijiang County is sandwiched between the “two Yangtze Rivers”. (At this time, Zhijiang County was on the other side of the Songzi River Estuary in later generations.)
In the early Southern Song Dynasty, the Yangtze River diverted its course and directly flooded Zhijiang City. The county seat was moved to Baishui Town from then on, and it was not moved again until the late Qing Dynasty.

The county seat that also changed its address is Songzi on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Zhao Fengji said: "Jinghu Lake must be seized as soon as possible. There are many rivers and lakes in the south of Jiangling, which can divert the flood of the Yangtze River. In the past hundred years, countless wastelands have not been reclaimed, but a large number of people have gathered around Jiangling, constantly encircling the lake to reclaim land and plunder the flood. lake."

Zhu Ming said: "Creating fields around the lake is convenient for irrigation, which is more convenient than opening up wasteland. The imperial court does not impose restrictions, and does not build water conservancy projects. The common people will naturally come to whatever is convenient."

"Local officials want to take care of it, but they really can't do it." Zhao Fengji sighed.

The Yuan Dynasty knew that it was not advisable to reclaim land from lakes. How could those ministers in the Song Dynasty not know?
Su Shi once said that it is very difficult, and it is better not to return the fields to the lake: "The ancient weirs and weirs are mostly farmed nearby. If you want to recover, you must hunt them down. People will be shaken, which is not good governance."

Shen Kuo, however, was strong. In order to alleviate flood disasters, he returned farmland to lakes in Zhejiang and Zhejiang provinces, but he was criticized by local wealthy households—"Su people sued Shen Kuo and others for building bank fences for civilian fields, destroying fertile land, and wasting money on public and private interests." money".

From the perspective of maintaining stability, Su Shi opposed the return of fields to lakes.

From a long-term perspective, Shen Kuo insisted on returning the fields to the lakes.

They each represent a point of view, it is difficult to judge who is right and who is wrong.But soon it became an issue of old and new party disputes, and water conservancy was mixed with politics. Since then, no one has been willing to cause trouble.

The magistrate of Dangyang County accompanied Zhu Ming to the territory of Zhijiang County, pointing to the Zhang River and said: "This river is seriously silted up, and it is difficult for large ships to move. We must capture Zhijiang as soon as possible and organize civilians to dredge the river. As long as the Zhang water is cleared, there will be no Jiangling." , Sichuan money and food can also be quickly shipped to Jingmen and Dangyang.”

Ju Ming galloped forward on horseback, took out his binoculars to observe, and found that there were large swamps on both sides of the upper reaches of the Zhang River.

This is because the water conservancy is not good, the floods are flooding all the year round, the two banks have been reduced to floodplains, it is difficult for the common people to survive, and the fertile fields in the Tang Dynasty gradually turned into swamps.

The upper Jingjiang is slightly better, and the lower Jingjiang is even worse. From Jiangling (Jingzhou) to Shishou, there are floodplains everywhere.

In such a situation, it is strange that the land is vast and the population is scarce!

Ju Ming rode his horse to patrol along the road, and the places he went next belonged to enemy-occupied areas.

However, Chen Ziyi led more than a thousand cavalry and scattered nearby to prevent the people from paying food. The villages on the north bank of the Yangtze River have been controlled.The troops of Chu State, even the navy dared to hang around, and the infantry all hid in Zhijiang City.

Knowing that Zhu Ming is coming, Chen Ziyi greets him with three hundred riders.

Zhu Ming chatted with Chen Ziyi, and then casually asked, "How is the heavy riding?"

Chen Ziyi said: "There is a lack of armor and a lack of horses. Now the general has more than 1000 northern war horses, but if all the horses wear heavy armor, some war horses are unbearable. We must buy stronger horses."

Zhu Ming said: "Human armor and horse armor will be delivered one after another, but war horses have to be purchased slowly. Have you chosen the place to cross the river?"

"It has been selected, and it is more than fifty miles upstream of Jiangling." Chen Ziyi said.

"Take me to have a look." Zhu Ming said.

The Yangtze River splits into two at the Zhijiang River, and flows back into one again after tens of miles.

The narrowest part of the river channel in the northern part of the confluence is only 30 meters wide, which is the result of continuous alluvial sediment.If the Yangtze River does not change its course, it is estimated that the northern section will be completely silted up in another 200 years.

When everyone came there, Chen Ziyi pointed to the river and said, "The river is not deep there, and big ships are easily stranded. False Chu sailors dare not come."

Zhong Xiang's navy is far stronger than Ju Ming's navy.

He converted a large number of tank ships and merchant ships in Dongting Lake and Jiangling into warships, which can also be used to transport goods when there is no war.

Of course, there is no vehicle or boat yet.

It is a large warship that can carry thousands of people. It sails with manual pedals. Although the ship is large, it is fast.There are even faster loach boats, each with dozens of people.

Historically, Yang Yao owned [-] vehicles and hundreds of loach boats, not only repelled the encirclement and suppression of the Southern Song Dynasty many times, but even made Yue Fei lose his temper.

In the end, it was Yang Yao himself who became corrupt and gradually lost his support, while Yue Fei blocked the food roads around him.Yang Yao's generals led the navy to seek refuge with Yue Fei, offering a plan to put water plants and rice stalks in the battlefield waters. These plants blocked the wheels of vehicles and ships, causing Yang Yao's large warships to lose their mobility.

Yue Fei won Yang Yao's water army, and his tactics were spread in the Southern Song Dynasty, becoming the key force in the Southern Song Dynasty's defense of the Yangtze River!
Zhu Ming took out his binoculars and saw Zhong Xiang's warships patrolling downstream. He said with a smile, "There are more small boats in our navy, which are just suitable for fighting here. Let's take Zhijiang down first!"

Zhang Guangdao captured many large ships of officers and soldiers, but he could only sail along the Han River to Hanyang, where the Chu State Navy blocked him, and he could not reach the Zhijiang and Jiangling battlefields at all.

If you want to fight a water battle here, you can only send out Li Bao's Kuizhou navy.

Although the Kuizhou Navy also has large ships, it is still too weak compared to the Chu State Navy.Even, they may be blocked upstream and unable to approach the Zhijiang battlefield.

To cross the river here, countless small boats have to be built temporarily!

Half a month later, thousands of militiamen marched south, and all the generals were leading the army. Zhu Ming deliberately gave the generals a chance to make contributions.

Only by doing meritorious service can you prove yourself.

One militia was led by Han Shizhong and Zhong Yanchong, and the other was led by He Ji and Wang Xun.Including Cui Xiu, who brought an "30 army" to vote, has also been promoted to militia battalion commander.

"At the end, I will see the Generalissimo!"

One by one, the surrendered generals knelt on one knee in front of Zhu Ming, holding weapons in their left hands and clenched fists in their right hands across their chests.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "Get up, you all go to observe the battlefield first."

All the generals came to the riverside together, Han Shizhong was surprised: "The Yangtze River is also so narrow? It seems that it is only about ten feet wide."

Wang Xun was there before, and explained: "This is just the northern part of the river. The Yangtze River is divided into two parts, and there is a wider part in the south."

Wang Xun drew a picture on the ground with a spear, and quickly sketched a simple map of the Jingjiang River.

Han Shizhong stared at the map and thought carefully: "If you take Zhijiang, you will be able to strangle your throat, and it will be difficult for the Puppet Chu Navy to go upstream. At that time, Changyang and Yidu can easily cross the river and conquer!"

He Ji asked, "How many enemy troops are there in Zhijiang?"

Chen Ziyi said: "I'm not sure, it may be 5000 people at present, but the puppet Chu navy will go to the southern section of Jingjiang River, and they can continue to send troops to defend the city."

Wang Xun observed the other side of the Yangtze River and said: "There are a lot of trees there, you can build siege equipment after crossing the river."

Deng Xia was in command of the artillery unit, Hua Rong was in command of the firecrackers, and the two of them were there at this time.

Deng Xia said: "After the giant cannons from Hanzhong and Jinzhou were transported to Yingzhou by boat, they were towed to the Zhanghe River with great effort. The upper reaches of the Zhanghe River are difficult to pass by large ships, so they are being hauled here by land. Several giant cannons The guns are aimed at the narrow river, and you can cross the river calmly without worrying about the puppet Chu water army's harassment."

Hua Rong also said: "The Shenji Battalion will participate in the siege of the city. You can regard it as hundreds of god-armed bows, standing outside the city to help you suppress the defenders."

Wang Xun asked curiously, "Shenji Camp's firecrackers, are they really that sharp?"

Hua Rong smiled and said, "I will know when the time comes."

"But I want to know myself and the enemy." Han Shizhong said.

Hua Rong took off the long leather pouch on his back, and carefully took out his firecracker.

He cherishes it so much that he even sleeps with it in his arms.

The reason why the bird gun is called the bird gun is to describe that it can hit flying birds, and it is extremely accurate when used by a marksman.

Huarong pointed to a tree tens of meters away: "Everyone, look after it."

He first hung up the matchlock, lit the matchlock, and after aiming, pulled the trigger.

The trigger is pressed down with a matchlock, igniting the medicine pool.

"boom!"

There was a crisp sound, and blue smoke drifted out.

The generals rushed over to check immediately, only to see a small hole was punched out of the tree trunk, and the lead bullets were lying in the small hole.

"It's really a magic weapon!" He Ji exclaimed.

Han Shizhong imagined: "If there are [-] firecrackers, line up in front of the formation and shoot at the same time... Tsk tsk."

Hua Rong said: "The construction of firecrackers is very slow. In the beginning, only a few dozen pieces could be made a year. Later, many craftsmen were recruited, and as they became more proficient, they could only make two to three hundred pieces a year."

"As a surprise soldier, it is enough." Zhong Yanchong said.

All the surrendered generals surrounded Huarong, wanting to ask for it and try it for themselves.

But Hua Rong cleaned up the firecracker and carefully put it back into the bag, without any intention of handing it over.

Han Shizhong asked: "How many sharpshooters like General Hua are there in the Shenji camp?"

Hua Rong said, "More than 20."

Han Shizhong said: "We can build a high platform outside Zhijiang City and let the sharpshooters aim at the enemy's generals. If the generals are killed or suppressed so that the generals dare not look up, our soldiers can take the opportunity to attack the city."

(End of this chapter)