Jingzhou straddles both sides of the Jingjiang River and has eight counties under its jurisdiction: Jiangling, Dangyang, Jingmen, and Jianli counties are located in the north of Jingjiang River (Hualing County belongs to Fuzhou), and Zhijiang, Songzi, Gong'an, and Shishou counties are located in the south of Jingjiang River.

, northwest of Dongting Lake.

Because Jingzhou is located on the Wushan Mountains in the west, it is an important place to control the entry and exit of Bashu, so its strategic position is particularly important.

In order to limit the possibility of cutting off the communication between the center and Bashu after the Dongjing rebel army gained power, and occupying Wushan's terrain, which was difficult to destroy, Jingbei soldiers and horses quickly retreated from Huainan and quickly sent heavy troops to station in Jingzhou, especially on the south bank of the Jingjiang River between Jiangling and Jiangling.

Zhijiang, Songzi, Gong'an and other counties to curb the Dongjing coalition's westward expansion.

However, Jinghu North Road still needs to store troops and horses in Sui and Anzhou to prevent the Japanese troops from breaking through the Wusheng Three Passes and invading southward. The troops and horses that can be gathered are limited.

The imperial court's request for the Jinghu North Road to coordinate the campaign to suppress the Dongjing bandit army was only to use the road to rule Ezhou and the Qianlu to govern Jingzhou as the core to curb the expansion of the bandit army to the east and west wings.

The Jinghu North Road Construction Department and the Military and Horse Deployment Department have done an outstanding job in completing the combat tasks assigned by the imperial court.

After the autumn of last year, the scope of activities of the Dongjing bandit army within Jinghu North Road was basically restricted to the eastern area of ​​Jingzhou east of Jiangling and Gongan counties, south of Hualing and Mianyang counties, and west of Hanyang.

The Jingdong area is about 240 to 50 miles in length and breadth. In the Spring and Autumn Period, it was still part of Yunmengze. Over the past thousands of years, the Jingjiang River and the Han River have carried hundreds of millions of silt from the upper reaches and deposited it to form land. However, the terrain is low-lying.

The current situation of lakes and rivers has not changed.

The Jingdong area is not only prone to waterlogging every flood season, but floods from the upper reaches of the Jingjiang River and Han River often pour out here. After summer, water often reaches the sky.

The Dongjing bandit army was able to occupy this area but could not successfully clear it out, which was really due to the geographical constraints.

In the recruitment order issued by the Privy Council this time, it also requires the Jingbei Military and Horse Deployment Department to continue to use Jiangling, Hanyang, Gong'an and other cities as the core to curb the expansion of the Dongjing bandit army to the two wings, so that the Chushan Nancai Recruitment Department

Using Hualing County in Fuzhou as the advance base, they marched southward to suppress the bandits occupying the Jingdong area.

Nan Cai's army and horse training had just begun, and there was a shortage of water troops. Of course, it was impossible to defeat the bandit army overnight.

Xu Huai built the rear army camp at the mouth of the Changlin River, thirty miles west of Hualing City, including the Fantai military camp. At that time, tens of thousands of grain, ordnance and other materials were continuously sent from Nancai and Wuyang to Fantai.

Transferred.

Xu Huai led his troops to fight in Jingdong, so he naturally had the authority to collect grain and fodder on the spot and draft men to prepare for the war.

However, in addition to following the usual practice and ordering the counties to allocate part of the military rations, Xu Huai mainly followed Zhufengtang's approach in Nanyang Prefecture and directly set up 30 military rations in Hualing, Dangyang, Jingmen and Quhui in the north of Jiangling County.

The grain post was built as a sentry post, and inspection envoys were appointed to lead the post officials and soldiers to garrison.

In addition to purchasing grain directly from farmers and small and medium-sized landowners in various places, the Liangzhan Shaoyi also recruited brave men from the local lower class people, bypassing the local capital and elders, and directly organized the township soldiers and civilians to control the war.

Block water and land channels and block the movement of bandits.

This was actually done in the northern part of Jingzhou, bypassing the four county government offices and the local gentry with the big surname Zong, and setting up inspection and inspection divisions, military villages and sentry villages directly under the jurisdiction of the Recruiting Military Division, to directly control the local area.

Although there has been an inspection department system for a long time in the world, it was usually only established in key areas of prefectures and counties. There were usually only two or three inspection departments in a state. Their main responsibilities were to inspect and prevent bandits and to prevent the sale of salt and iron under the system.

Waiting for the imperial court to monopolize the smuggling of materials and collect taxes.

The inspection of Sijun Village in Huaiyuan back then was a typical example.

However, at that time, under the county level, the local gentry with the local surname Zong served as the head of the senior household and the Baojia system of Dubao was used to govern the place.

The most critical point of Xu Huai's new policies in Chushan was the establishment of extensive inspection departments, replacing the clan-controlled township security departments with county inspection departments and extending administrative power. What was actually implemented was the township department system.

The township secretary system can ensure the implementation of policies such as reducing land rent, measuring land, clearing land, and equalizing taxes. At the same time, it can bypass the clan gentry and directly control the training of rural soldiers and farmland water conservancy repairs and other matters.

Xu Huai, Shi Zhen and others knew very well that after the Huai Wang family became aware of their actions in Nanyang and Jingxiang, they would definitely speed up the recruitment of Sun Yanzhou, Hu Dangzhou and other traitor generals.

By doing this, King Huai's group not only lost the legal excuse for Chushan to stay in Jingxiang, but also allowed Ge Boyi to recruit hundreds of thousands of Dongjing bandit troops in Jingnan and select the most capable ones to be incorporated into the camp.

Wu was able to fundamentally reshape the balance of military power in Jinghu, forcing Chushan to temper his strengths.

In response to this, in addition to absolutely not allowing the Dongjing bandit army to be easily absorbed by Ge Boyi, what Chushan is currently doing is to directly strengthen its control over Jingxiang, Nanyang and other places.

Of course, the two also complement each other.

Fantai was mainly used as a camp for the rear army to gather and transfer grain, fodder and other materials. In early October, after it was confirmed that Wei Chujun, the son-in-law of Ge Boyi, had stayed in Jianye for a few days and then returned to Yuezhou, Xu Huai was about to recruit the commander-in-chief.

The Chinese army camp where it is located is located directly in Changlin Town on the north bank of Bailu Lake.

At the same time, Fan Zongqi led his former army to the east of Bailu Lake and built camps on both sides of the Sangchi River leading from Bailu Lake to Sangchi Lake.

Xu Huai stood on a flat hillock on the north bank of the Sangchi River and looked around; Su Miao and Niu Er led a group of guards to the left and right sides of the hillock to keep watch; Shi Zhenye had returned to Wuyang and was presiding over the Ru-Cai Liang Dynasty with Xu Wuqi and others.

In order to deal with state military and political affairs, Xu Huai finally transferred Xu Wujiang to Fantai, and also took the command of the rear army of the Nancai Recruitment Division, and transferred Tangpan to Changlin Town, and also took the command of the Central Army of the Recruitment Division.

At this time, Xu Wujiang, Tang Pan, Fan Zongqi, Han Gui, Zhou Jing, Shi Hu, Wu Chihai and others accompanied Xu Huai and climbed to the pingan to observe the terrain.

In early winter, with the continuous decrease of water and rainfall in the upper reaches of the Han River in Jingjiang River, the water in the entire Jingdong area receded, exposing large swaths of flat land covered with reeds, weeds and shrubs.

In order to prevent the bandits from hiding in the reeds, or using the reeds to cover their maneuvers and raids, the former army of the Recruiting Division not only stepped up the construction of the camp, but also sent a large number of troops to clean up the surrounding reeds.

The most effective and quick way to clean up reeds and shrubs is to do it all at once.

At this time, we saw smoke filling Pinggang and the flickering light of fire.

The lake water receded, the beach was exposed, and the reeds and grass were cleared one by one. However, most of the beach was muddy, or even turned into swamps, making it difficult for people and horses to pass. Many of the original roads were also destroyed by the bandits.

Under this situation, those who want to go directly from the north to the south to suppress the rebel forces entrenched in Sangchi Lake and Honghu Lake, and those who want to cross the Jingjiang River from the gap between Sangchi Lake and Bailu Lake to enter and suppress the entrenched policemen and Shi

To the west of the head, the bandit army located on the northwest shore of Dongting Lake is extremely difficult to attack.

No matter how strong the Chushan army is, they are still not gods.

What's more, Nancai's soldiers and horses have only been training for less than a year, and they have not experienced cruel and bloody actual combat. The navy's strength is also extremely weak.

When Nan Cai's soldiers and horses send troops to attack from this direction, there is no possibility of a quick victory.

"The entire Jingdong area is too large. Even if hundreds of thousands of young men are recruited at all costs to build large weirs, it will never be possible to eradicate floods within three to five years."

After relocating to Nancai County, Zhuang Shouxin stayed in Nancai as the county magistrate to preside over the embankment and the construction of Nancai City. After Xu Huai returned to Nancai from Jianye, he stayed in Xu Huai as a counselor of the recruitment department.

Around me; for more than half a month, Zhuang Shouxin, in addition to consulting various local chronicles and documents, also led hundreds of engineers from the Dushui Division to conduct emergency surveys of the terrain, streams, and lakes in the Jingdong area. The preliminary conclusions are not too optimistic.

,

"Especially in Jianli County, the south of Hualing County, Mianyang County and Hanyang County, except for the highlands where the Yunmengze water surface has been exposed since ancient times and the hundreds of villages that have been built over hundreds of years, most of the other areas are not only topographically

It is low-lying and is also threatened by floods from the Han River and the Jingjiang River during the flood season. Even if we forcibly build embankments on the north bank of the Jingjiang River and the west bank of the Han River, it will be difficult to withstand floods and internal waterlogging from both left and right sides, as well as internal and external attacks..."

"If we ignore the area east of Bailu Lake and just build a weir along the east coast of Bailu Lake, is it possible to eradicate the flooding west of Bailu Lake?" Xu Huai asked with a frown.

"Theoretically speaking, it is possible, but two things need to be done," Zhuang Shouxin replied, "First, in Shatou City, block the entrance of Jingnan Cao River into Wazi Lake to prevent the Jingjiang River from flowing through the sand during the flood season.

The water mouth of Toushi invades Wazi Lake and Bailu Lake; the second is to block the water mouth of Hualing River to prevent the Han River from flowing into Bailu Lake during the flood season; or

Alternatively, another waterway can be built at the east end of the Hualing River to divert the Han River's flood season water directly from the west of Hualing City to Mianyang County and Jianli County in the south. However, in this case, it is necessary to divert the floods from Hualing Zekou to the south.

In the north, a new waterway will be opened, connecting Fantai in the south, and then leading to Wazi Lake and Bailu Lake to ensure that shipping in the hinterland of Jingxiang is accessible..."

"Can we initially choose the new waterway?" Xu Huai asked.

"Looking through the local chronicles over the years and looking for traces of the destruction of embankments on the west bank of the Han River to divert floods, we can choose Zhangshan and the Shayangbao area to choose new water mouths to open waterways, but whether it is feasible requires further dispatch of engineers to survey and verify..."

Zhuang Shouxin said.

"It's fifty miles from Zhangshan to Fantai?" Xu Huai looked at Han Gui and asked.

"Slightly less than that," Han Gui answered with certainty. "To open a river channel, we need to take advantage of the terrain. The river channel may eventually be sixty or seventy miles long..."

"Wei Chujun will return to Yueyang in the next two days, and King Huai will ascend the throne in the next two days. Ge Boyi has been instructed by the new emperor to recruit people. The conditions are broader than we imagined. Can we still make it in time?"

Xu Sheng asked worriedly.

There is reliable news that Ge Boyi will be in contact with Sun Yanzhou, Hu Dangzhou and other thieves for more than a day or two. After the new emperor ascends the throne, Ge Boyi will receive greater authority and can directly recruit people.

In comparison, their actions are much slower. It may take at least half a year for their layout on the north bank of Jingjiang River to bear initial results.

Xu Sheng was worried that they didn't have time and that they hadn't started to do anything. Hundreds of thousands of Dongjing bandit troops just accepted Ge Boyi's recruitment. What else could they have fun with?

Xu Huai smiled slightly, seeing that many people were still confused and worried, and said:

"No matter how much sincerity Ge Boyi promised Sun Yanzhou, Hu Dangzhou and other thieves on behalf of the imperial court, and no matter how much sincerity he showed, and no matter how much spies Tian Rusheng and others sent by Chi Huren were inside the Dongjing bandit army,

How to instigate it? The fact that the Dongjing bandit army is mainly composed of thirty-six forces absorbing a large number of Dongjing poor people and refugees from the south will all determine

The fate of the Dongjing thief army could be suddenly decided by Sun Yanzhou and a few Hu Dangzhou people who had determined that their internal relations were in disarray. And most of the generals of the Dongjing thief army had extremely high trust in the imperial court.

Fragile, if not for this, how could they have chosen to rebel in the first place? Therefore, we must prevent Ge Boyi from being in Yuezhou,

Recruitment in Tanzhou and other places is not as difficult as you fear. In fact, all it takes is Nancai soldiers and horses on the north bank of the Jingjiang River to press against the back and belly of the Dongjing rebel army like a sharp blade, so that most of the generals of the Dongjing rebel army will be like

With a thorn in their backs, no one dares to believe Ge Boyi's sincerity in recruiting people on behalf of the court. Another thing is the progress of Jingnan and Jingbei soldiers and horses in recent years.

The suppression is far from making the Dongjing bandit army cornered. This will also make them more hesitant, thinking that they have more choices... Therefore, before the Chihu people once again gather the main force to attack Zhaoling and Ruyang, we
Chapter completed!