Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 303 Benefits of Salt Lake
Just as Xie Ai and others on the northern front were preparing for the battle three days later, Huan Xi, who was attacking Hedong County on the southern front, was unstoppable and defeated Hebei and Dayang counties.

Because it was Huan Xi who was conducting the expedition himself, and with his restraint, the soldiers did not dare to act arrogantly.

Although the flags were changed at the top of the city, it did not affect the lives of the people.

Announcements of people's peace are plastered all over the streets of Dayang City, and businesses that had been closed for fear of war have reopened.

Except for the fact that Liang Jun soldiers patrolled the streets from time to time, and everyone entering and leaving the city had to undergo strict searches, there was almost no difference from usual times.

At least the mood of the people in Hebei and Dayang counties is generally stable.

Huan Xi rested for a while in Dayang and then headed north, planning to meet Shen Jin in Jie County.

Previously, Shen Jin was ordered to send troops to liberate the county, but unlike Huan Xi's progress, Shen Jin was unable to capture the city.

Of course, this is also related to Shen Jinbing Shao.

The military system now implemented by Huan Xi seems to be a soldier for all the people, but the state and county soldiers are seriously lack of training and are equivalent to the rural soldiers of later generations. Their combat effectiveness is very low and they can only be used to defend the city.

Although Huan Xi did not explicitly prohibit the raising of private soldiers, his attitude towards this matter is well known. Shen Jin's private soldiers made great contributions during Huan Xi's Northern Expedition to Guanzhong. When the soldiers came out of Ziwu Valley, it was Shen Jin who served as the vanguard and replaced him. Huan Xi opened the way.

At the beginning of the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty, General Fan Shen of the Gengshi regime attacked Anyi City occupied by Liu Xiu's general Deng Yu. He went north from Dayang, crossed the Zhongtiao Mountains, and started a fierce battle with Deng Yu south of Jie County.

Going north from Dayang to attack Jie County and Anyi, you need to cross the Zhongtiao Mountains.

Therefore, Huan Xi also acquiesced to the existence of this private army, but it was doomed to be impossible for Shen Chong to expand its scale. Huan Xi would not allocate additional funds for him to supply these thousand people with Shen Chong's financial resources. It's already the limit.

Huan Xi also hoped to lure Lu Po Lou's main force out of Anyi City. If he really wanted to fight in the wilderness, he did not believe that Yu State's second-line troops could defeat his elite infantry and cavalry head-on.

The Zhongtiao Mountains follow the Yellow River and run from northeast to southwest, with a total length of more than 1200 miles. The peaks stand tall and the overall altitude is between 2300 meters and meters.

How could it be possible to win Jiexian County with just one thousand pieces of music?

As for Shen Jin's attack on Jie County, the only thing that could come in handy were the Qian Bubu he had recruited in his early years.

However, things went against expectations. Although Fu Jian's order ordering Lu Po Lou not to fight without permission had not yet been sent to Anyi, Lu Po Lou made up his mind and would never take the initiative to attack before Li Wei joined him. Huan Xi's expectations were doomed. It's going to fail.

Fenglingdu, Hebei, Dayang and other places are distributed from west to east in the narrow strip between the Zhongtiao Mountains and the Yellow River.

To the north of the Zhongtiao Mountains is the Yuncheng Basin of later generations, where cities such as Puban, Gaowang, Jiexian, and Anyi were all located.

The army was walking in the canyon. Although Huan Xi did not reach the north of the mountain, his thoughts were all about the salt lake at the northern foot.

On the other hand, Huan Xi was not only followed by elite infantry and cavalry, but also state and county soldiers separated from Zhou and Chu to take over the cities he captured, so there was no need for Huan Xi to divide his troops to garrison them.

To the north of the Zhongtiao Mountains, there is an ancient inland salt lake, which is not only the birthplace of Chinese civilization, but also the largest salt production area in ancient China for a long time.

In the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties, in order to prevent salt theft and smuggling, a forbidden wall with a total length of more than 100 miles was even built here. According to historical records, the salt pond lasted for a week and stood as tall as a city.

In ancient times when sea salt was not popular, table salt was a hard currency. After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty relied on reforming the salt system and promoting the salt monopoly to survive. The reason why the Yu State was able to raise 50,000 elite infantry and cavalry in just one Bingzhou state was because they controlled the Salt Lake and made profits from it.

You must know that Huanxi occupied four states and had only 55,000 troops. Among them, there were 30,000 infantry, 10,000 Baobao Xianbei, 5,000 guards and 10,000 Guanlong cavalry. That is to say, the former Liang Jingqi is now being transferred eastward from Anding County.

Huan Xi has been coveting this treasure land for a long time.

The main purpose of his attack on Hedong was to capture all of Hedong County, occupy the strategic terrain, seal off the Yuncheng Basin, and capture the Salt Lake.

After all, the Yu State was facing a huge financial crisis after losing the Salt Lake, and Huan Xi no longer had to worry about finances. If the situation was declining, it would probably become the bane of the Yu State's demise.

In fact, Huan Xi had never thought of marching straight into Jinyang. Not to mention that Jinyang was a country with four fortresses, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Whether he could invade the Taiyuan Basin.

Even if he climbed over the natural dangers of Gaobi Ridge, went deep into Jinyang City alone, but once the Yan State sent troops from Hanoi County to attack Hedong County and cut off Huanxi's retreat, Huanxi would surely be dead.

What worried Huan Xi was that even if he stopped at Hedong County, Murong Jun would not be able to let him seize the benefits of the Salt Lake.

Fortunately, the Guanlong Tuqi were already on their way out from the east, and it wouldn't be long before they could reach Hedong via Puban and join him. Even if the Yan State sent troops to support him, Huan Xi would not be able to do so when Fu Jian's main force did not return. Not capable of fighting.

After all, it was impossible for Li Wei, Lu Polou and Murong Jun to trust each other.

Allied forces with different agendas often achieve the effect of 1+1<2.

As Huan Xi expected, after learning that Huan Xi sent troops to Hedong County, Murong Jun even though he was not financially wealthy, he still squeezed out money and food from his teeth and sent 50,000 infantry and cavalry to the rescue.

In recent years, the biggest factor restricting Huan Xi's progress has been the tight financial embarrassment. Once Huan Xi is allowed to reap the benefits of the Salt Lake, he can make huge profits by selling salt to Guanxi, Sichuan, Jingzhou, Jiangdong and other places. .

This will undoubtedly fill in Huan Xi's biggest shortcoming.

Huan Xi had a good reputation. If the finances were not really tight and it was difficult to support the long-term war, Huan Xi would not be able to increase taxes on the people and choose to suffer the people.

Murong Jun attached great importance to the battle to rescue the Yu State. He took Taiyuan King Murong Ke as the main general and Taiwei Feng Yi as the deputy general. Together they led the troops south and headed straight for Hanoi County.

Since the State of Yu did not dare to let go of the dangerous passes of the Taihang Mountains and allowed the Yan army to penetrate deep into the hinterland of Hedong, the Yan army could only enter the southern part of Bingzhou via Zhiguanxing from Hanoi County after arriving at Hanoi County.

Because Huan Huo went to Jiangdong for funeral, Mao Muzhi, who was ordered to stay in Luoyang, received an urgent report from Hebei and learned that the Yan army was moving south. He quickly strengthened the alert and dispatched a messenger to inform Huan Wen and Huan Xi and his son.

The messenger going south naturally wanted to ask Huan Wen for help, while the messenger going north wanted to remind Huan Xi.

Of course, when Huan Xi walked out of the Zhongtiao Mountains and arrived at the Yuncheng Basin, he already knew the news about the Yan army going south.

It's just that the Yan army sent troops from Ji County. The journey was far away and they had to detour through Hanoi County. It was impossible to fly here with wings. Huan Xi had no time to worry about the Yan army at this time, because Li Wei's reinforcements were not far from Anyi.

On the northern front, three days passed by in a flash, and it was finally time for Xie Ai to leave the city to face Fu Jian.

(End of this chapter)