Chapter 1168 A big gamble
Before Ji Han regained Guanzhong, or in other words, before Adou moved the capital to Chang'an, let's talk about which palace had the most luxurious and magnificent palaces among the Han, Wei and Wu kingdoms.
That must be Wei Guo.
Not only did the state of Wei have five capitals, but before a certain country boy changed the course of history, the state of Wei was also the most powerful.
Coupled with the fact that there is Cao Rui who likes civil engineering, the palaces and palaces are naturally built the most among the Three Kingdoms.
As for the two countries Shu and Wu, they are neighbors with the same disease.
When the Shu Han Dynasty was first established, there was no imperial palace, so General Zuo's Mansion was used as the imperial palace.
Liu Bei's battle at Yiling depleted the Shu Han family. Zhuge Liang worked hard and finally regained some strength.
In the first few years after Adou ascended the throne, the treasury was always tight.
Where did you get the money and food to build the palace?
It wasn’t until the palace made the most successful investment so far that life began to get better.
Finally moved to Weiyang Palace in Chang'an, where he could know the emperor's happiness.
As for Sun Quan of Wu State, he was even worse than Adou.
After Adou ascended the throne, he only had a hard time in the first few years.
Since Sun Quan ascended the throne, until now, there are no channels for investment.
As a founding emperor, Sun Quan has never been too bad at employing people.
Don't he know that the whole court is filled with complaints about the school affairs office?
But the school affairs office can handle things, because the school affairs office can help them make money!
For this reason, Sun Quan had to pretend to be deaf and dumb when it came to the school affairs office.
A man is poor but his ambition is short, and a horse is skinny and has long hair, that's all.
It’s just that no matter how well the school affairs office generates money, at most it can only subsidize some of the shortfalls in the treasury, treating the symptoms but not the root cause.
It would be too difficult to be like a certain country idiot who treats both the symptoms and the root cause, improves the productivity of the entire country, and improves the efficiency of society in creating wealth.
So even after moving the capital to Jianye for so many years, the palace where Sun Quan lived was only Taichu Palace.
The Taichu Palace was actually an expansion of the general's residence where Sun Quan originally lived, and was even simpler than Liu Bei's general Zuo's residence.
After all, Jincheng has always been an important town in the southwest.
Although Jianye City has a long history, it is far less prosperous than Jincheng.
After Sun Quan moved the capital to Jianye, Jianye City still needed to be re-planned. In the earliest Jianye City, some gates were made of bamboo fences.
Fortunately, there is Stone Mountain to the northwest of Jianye City. On Stone Mountain is the old city of Jinling City, guarding the entrance of the Qinhuai River into the river.
(Note: Before the Tang Dynasty, the Yangtze River flowed directly under the Stone City. After the Tang Dynasty, the river shrank to the northwest and gradually changed into its current topography)
This stone mountain is the most important strategic location for protecting Jianye City.
It doesn’t matter if Jianye City doesn’t have a city wall, but Stone Mountain must not be lost.
With the loss of Stone Mountain, Jianye City can directly declare the city broken.
So Sun Quan didn't even have time to expand his palace, so he built a stone city on the old city of Jinling and used it as the main naval base of the Wu Kingdom.
There are stone warehouses and stone warehouses in the city to store military grain and weapons.
The garrison at Stone City was also the main military force protecting Jianye City.
Sun Quan personally led troops to the north many times, and most of the troops mobilized were also from the garrison of Stone City.
This is the most elite force he can personally control.
Stone Mountain is located in the northwest of Jianye City, and it belongs to the remaining veins of Zhongshan Mountain.
Zhongshan, however, is located in the northeast of Jianye City.
The water originating from Zhongshan Mountain converges at the foot of Zhongshan Mountain, forming lakes of different sizes.
Of the two most famous lakes, one is to the west of Zhongshan Mountain and is called Hou Lake (Xuanwu Lake in later generations).
One is in the south of Zhongshan Mountain and is called Qianhu (namely Yanque Lake in later generations).
(Before the Ming Dynasty, Yanque Lake was very large and should be comparable to Xuanwu Lake. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, in order to build a palace city, Lao Zhu recruited hundreds of thousands of people to fill up most of the lake, leaving only one lake.)
This time, Sun Quan recruited the people to dig ditches in advance as soon as spring began, nominally to drain the water from Qianhu Lake into Qinhuai.
In this way, grain from Wujun and other places can be transported to Jianye faster.
At the same time, it is also to regulate the water volume of Qinhuai River.
It will not be like last year when the fields around Jianye experienced drought and there was no water for irrigation.
The lake at the foot of Zhongshan Mountain clearly has water, but it cannot be used.
reasonable, very reasonable.
After succeeding Man Chong, Wang Ling, who was the military governor of Yangzhou, inherited the policies of previous generations of governors and did not relax his vigilance towards the south.
During this winter, many people in Wu were so hungry that they had nowhere to go and secretly ran north.
So he does understand what the miserable situation in Wu has been in the past few months.
At this time, after learning about Wu State's actions, he thought that Wu State was seriously weakened by the drought last year, and Sun Quan had to try his best to remedy it.
Not to mention Wang Ling, even Ma Tian, who had stayed in Wu for so long, might not have thought of it if he had not had the information about the Xinghan Hui:
Sun Quan recruited civilians at this time not for the so-called construction of water conservancy projects, but for the northern expedition to Wei.
Because most of the grain that the Han Dynasty shipped to Jingzhou last year did not land in Jingzhou at all, but directly changed the ship and continued in the direction of Jianye.
After some grain ships came from Shu, they did not even stop in Jingzhou, but went straight eastward along the river.
But regardless of whether they changed boats or not, they finally entered Stone City along the intersection of Qinhuai River and Dajiang River.
In other words, most of the food used by Shu to relieve Soochow was transported to Stone City by Sun Quan and stored up.
Some people who would rather be starved to death, nor were they willing to open their warehouses and put food.
“This time, the bet is big!”
According to the plan, as soon as the spring of this year begins, students who have studied in Wu for nearly four years will return to China.
But for some reason, the team leader, Ma Tian, received a notice from China and postponed his return date for the second time.
The first time was because Wu State needed additional supplies, so part of the debt was used to extend the study period for one year.
But this second extension was without any reason, it just allowed them to act as ordered at any time.
Although Ma Tian was called exaggerated by the late emperor, he was still a figure who could discuss military plans with the prime minister.
It may not be possible to lead the troops into battle in person, but there is a way to talk about it on paper.
At this time, seeing Sun Quan’s various actions and combining it with the intelligence he had, he quickly came to a conclusion:
Sun Quan is planning to build water conservancy projects openly and cross the river secretly!
“Sir, what bet? Who wants to bet?”
Luo Xian and Fu Qian are both in their twenties and are in the prime of their lives.
Four years of living on the water have made the surface of their skin oily and slippery, and you can tell from their regular exposure to water.
The two of them were sitting on the bow of the boat doing nothing, looking up at the rolling river, constantly hitting the stone mountain and causing countless waves.
The roar of the waves reached my ears, and I even felt water droplets splashing on my face.
No matter how huge the river is, the majestic stone city stands still, like an elephant watching an ant.
Although I don’t know how many times I have seen it, Luo Xian and others can’t help but marvel every time they see the Stone City blocking the river:
Such a dangerous place is really easy to defend but difficult to attack. In addition, the Wu people are good at maneuvering boats. I wonder how difficult it would be to attack it?
The two people who were muttering couldn't help but feel a little confused when they heard Mr. Ma's words:
“Sir, didn’t the army say that gambling is not allowed?”
Martin heard the two people’s questions and smiled:
“The State of Wu is afraid that it will send troops to the north again.”
"oh…"
When the two of them heard this, they were not too surprised.
In the past few years since they came to Wu State, except for the drought last year, the two sides have been in peace.
For the rest of the time, the Wu people would fight against the Wei thieves in Jiangbei every year, with varying scales.
To be honest, even Luo Xian, Fu Qian and the others are used to it.
Compared to the Han Dynasty who just stayed still and started a big battle every time they moved, Wu State was more inclined to carry out continuous small-scale raids.
Even the Wu generals on the front line were keen to cross the border and plunder from time to time.
Because of this approach, even if it fails, the loss will not be big, but if it succeeds, it can not only claim credit but also plunder the spoils.
Especially the men and women among the spoils of war are all their own private property and do not need to be handed over to the state.
It’s really like eating two fish with one fish.
This ethos among Wu's army led them to be brave in private plunder and timid in public warfare.
The most typical example is that every time the Wu army goes north to attack a city, as long as the Wei army closes the city gates and holds on, Wu will be unable to attack it.
The generals below will habitually want to lead their own troops to plunder the surrounding people, and when they have plundered enough, they will want to retreat with the spoils of war.
Sun Quan's repeated hatred at the foot of Hefei City is not unrelated to the Wu army's ethos.
If it is beneficial, they will rush forward in a rush, but if it is not beneficial, they will want to retreat. How can this kind of army have the resilience?
Without resilience, where would the siege capability come from?
Sieging a city requires real sacrifice of human life.
Luo Xian muttered:
"Wu Guo obviously managed to regain his breath with the help of the big man, but is he planning to go north to rob him soon?"
To be honest, although Wu's ship-managing skills are indeed worthy of learning, he actually looks down on Wu Jun's corrupt morale from the bottom of his heart.
Fu Qian was much more straightforward. He curled his lips and said:
“Isn’t it normal for Wu Dog to be like this?”
Compared to Luo Xian, Fu Qian's disgust and hatred for the Wu people are deeply rooted in his bones.
Using the enemy's best fighting method and defeating the enemy with his own hands was one of the important reasons for him to come to Wu to study.
Another important reason is that it was the division commander's order to come to Wu.
“This time, I’m afraid it’s going to be different.”
Martin expressed a different opinion. He pointed at the Wu ships that were constantly entering and leaving Stone City:
“Don’t you think there is something unusual about the Wu garrison in Stone City these days?”
"But sir, didn't you say that Wu Jun is going north again? Isn't it strange that there is no abnormality?"
Luo Xian and Fu Qian were a little confused.
Martin smiled calmly:
“Sun Quan has hoarded so much food in Stone City, and now he has requisitioned so many civilians in Jianye, plus the current abnormality..."
As he spoke, he looked at the two of them and continued:
“Also, the date of your return has been delayed again and again. I heard that the people from Chang’an who were sent by the State of Wu to learn how to fight on horseback have not come back either.”
“In my opinion, I’m afraid the movement won’t be too small this time.”
At present, 20,000 people have gathered in Jianye, and I heard that there will be at least 100,000 people in the end.
How many troops are needed to employ 100,000 civilians?
Luo Xian and Fu Qian are considered top-notch among their peers.
But firstly, he does not have as many information channels as Martin, and secondly, his knowledge and experience are not as rich as Martin.
If not, why would the big man let Ma Tian be the team leader?
When I heard what Martin said, I felt that the problem was a bit serious.
But when he saw the two of them, their eyes lit up:
"Sir, are you saying that it is possible for us to follow them into battle this time?"
"Putting what you have learned into practice is the rule of the academy, and it applies to you as well." Martin did not deny it, nor did he confirm it, "It's just that this time you may follow Wu State to the north."
"But I guess the Wu people don't dare to let you go into battle to engage the enemy. Otherwise, there will be casualties and it will be difficult to explain to the big man."
To put it bluntly, it is an observation and study group.
The cavalry training camp of Wu State is probably the same.
Luo Xian and Fu Qian couldn't help but feel a little disappointed when they heard this.
Ma Tian saw the expressions of the two people, how could he not know what they were thinking.
"You two, don't underestimate the actions of following the Wu army. If the Wu people really make a big move this time, they will definitely have to use their family resources."
I would rather starve the food to death, and now have so many people who have issued so many people.
Martin reminded:
“The Wu people are famous for their boat divisions. If you follow them, you will definitely see a lot of things. This is an extremely rare opportunity to understand the Wu army.”
When the two of them heard this, they understood, and their eyes suddenly lit up:
“Sir, how confident are you in your guess?”
Ma Tian looked at the stone city and said leisurely:
“Seven or eight points.”
Otherwise, how can we explain the various anomalies in front of us?
“If it is really as expected, sir, do you think the Wu people will succeed this time?”
“The world is unpredictable, how can I know it?”
Ma Tian’s gaze turned north again.
On the vast river, it is difficult to see clearly what is happening on the other side.
Obviously, Sun Quan has made big plans this time, but he wonders if the Wei State will be prepared?
In the past, communications between Wu and Han would most likely have been intercepted by Wei at the Jingzhou border.
Therefore, if Han and Wu agreed to send troops in April, it was possible that Wei would discover it in advance.
But since the fall of Guanzhong, Wei began to shrink its troops in northern Jingzhou.
In the past, Wei's layout in Jingzhou was centered on Xiangyang.
But now, with Wancheng as the center, we are also guarding the south and west.
As a result, part of the Wei army in Jingzhou will be transferred to the Wuguan Pass to the west of Wancheng to prevent the Han army from leaving Wuguan.
If Xiangyang's location was not too important, Jingzhou Governor Guanqiu Jian even wanted to suggest Cao Shuang to abandon Xiangyang, shrink his troops, and deploy defenses along the Han River.
The shrinkage of Wei State in the north of Jingzhou, coupled with the internal divisions of Wei State, also weakened Wei State's strength.
In this case, Wei's attention was more on Wuguan.
Naturally, I don’t have more energy to pay attention to every move in the south of Jingzhou as before.
(End of this chapter)