Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 461: Hou Jing, the Pioneer in Abolition
"These Liao villages can help each other, and the places where they are built are all important roads leading up the mountain. No wonder the Nanping Liao has been a scourge to Ba County for decades."

The speaker was an old soldier with a head full of white hair and feathers adorning his ears. He was none other than Su Bi (the old white-bi soldier) who had trained Yang Jia before he entered Shu.

Although Su Li was quite old, he could still walk very fast on the mountain, even faster than those young and strong recruits.

When Yang Jia was promoted to captain, he specifically asked Hou Jing for Su Li to help him train new soldiers.

Yang Jia also looked at the villages in the mountain stream. It was just as Su Bi said, these villages were easy to defend but difficult to attack, and were indeed difficult to deal with.

"This is the most dangerous place. The Nanping Liao often placed rattan ropes on the river and robbed ships on the Jialing River. The government once organized soldiers to fight against them, but the terrain was too dangerous. When they chased them into the mountains, they were ambushed and defeated by the Nanping Liao. From then on, the Nanping Liao became very powerful and difficult to control."

Yang Jia looked at the mountain stream below. It was close to the Jialing River and was indeed a good place to rob people.

It was also because of this golden waterway that the Nanping Liao became the strongest among the Liao in Ba County.

At this time, Su Qi suddenly lowered his voice and said:
"Get down."

Yang Jia instinctively lowered his head and saw two Liao warriors camouflaged in green branches jumping down from a big tree in front of him. They quickly climbed up another tree like monkeys and flexibly climbed and jumped through the trees in the mountains.

Yang Jia was also frightened and broke out in a cold sweat. If it weren't for Su Bi, an experienced veteran, they would have been discovered long ago.

The Liao soldiers of Nanping Liao are truly natural mountain warriors. If we fight them in the mountains, we really have no chance of winning.

Su Qi smiled and said:

"They are quite agile, but their equipment is too inferior. They are still a little inferior to Meng Huo's rattan armor soldiers."

Yang Jia looked at Su Li in confusion. When did Meng Huo's rattan armor soldiers come about? Even Meng Huo's tribe might have been lost in the long river of history. But from Su Li's tone, he sounded like he had fought against Meng Huo's rattan armor soldiers before.

Yang Jia shook his head and still focused his attention on Nanping Liao.

On his way back, he humbly asked Su Li for advice.

Su Qi said bluntly:
"With your army, you can't defeat those Liao people in the mountains."

Yang Jia knew that Su Bi was telling the truth.

Yang Jia himself is a mountain dweller from Qiuchi, and the mountains in Ba County are not the bare mountains on the Loess Plateau like those in Qiuchi. The mountains are full of trees, like a maze. Once you enter the dense forest, you can't see the sky and it is impossible to tell the direction.

Yang Jia brought the latest compass made in the workshop of the County Duke's Mansion, and Su Bi was experienced, so they did not get lost in the mountains.

If the Han soldiers in the army grew up in the plains, they would probably faint as soon as they went up the mountain.

Moreover, when fighting in the mountains, it is impossible to wear heavy armor, and it is even more difficult to ride a horse, which is not in the best interests of the northern cavalry.

Su Qi said:

"We still have to use the Prime Minister's method. The best way to deal with these monkeys in the mountains is to trap them to death."

Yang Jia and Su Bi were already very familiar with each other and knew his idiosyncrasies. Whenever Su Bi mentioned the prime minister, he was naturally referring to the Prime Minister Zhuge of Shu Han.

Yang Jia nodded and said:
"In this case, let's just follow the general's orders."

Yang Jia came down from the mountain and then, in accordance with the order issued by Hou Jing, began a vigorous abolition of slavery movement in Ba County.

Yes, Hou Jing’s three main strategies in Shu were to abolish slavery, abolish slavery, and abolish slavery!

The Liao people themselves had the custom of turning defeated tribes into slaves, and after coming into contact with the Han people, the Liao people also started a trade of selling defeated tribes to the Han people as slaves.

This kind of slave trade only benefits the tribal leaders. Ordinary tribal members will become slaves once they are defeated in the war, and even their wives and children who are not captured will be sold by the tribe.

The Liao people were extremely barbaric and cruel to their slaves, some even using them for human sacrifices.

In general, most Liao people were willing to work hard in the Han people's manors rather than be sold to hostile tribes as human sacrifices.

Simply put, the Han people regarded slaves as means of production, but the Liao people regarded slaves as livestock.

Therefore, after Hou Jing understood the slavery system of the Liao people, he decisively issued the "Abolition Order", ordering the liberation of slaves of all ethnic groups in the manor. He also cracked down on the slave trade, punished slave traders with severe laws and even punished those who bought slaves.

For example, in Yang Jia's army, there were some liberated Liao slaves who did not want to continue being slaves and were even braver than some veterans on the battlefield.

Yang Jia knew that he could not defeat the Nanping Liao in the mountains, so he simply started from the surrounding areas, winning over the surrounding tribes and blocking the trade of the Nanping Liao merchant caravan. The most important thing was that Yang Jia advised Hou Jing to build a navy in Ba County to escort the ships on the Jialing River.

When the letter arrived in Chengdu, it was exactly what Hou Jing wanted. He called Su Miaoxiang (a shipbuilder with ingenious ideas) who was sent from Hanzhong and asked him about the progress of shipbuilding in Shu.

Hou Jing wanted to attack Baidi City, so he naturally had to build ships.

The location of Baidi City is impossible to attack without a navy.

Wang Sengbian was also building ships in Baidi City. Southern Liang was good at shipbuilding. If Hou Jing could not defeat Wang Sengbian on the water first, he would have no chance of taking Baidi City. So before the New Year, Hou Jing wrote to the Political Affairs Hall of Yongle City. Su Liang, who was in charge of military affairs, quickly coordinated and sent more than 30 shipbuilders, led by Su Miaoxiang, to Chengdu after the New Year.

After Su Miaoxiang inspected the water system in Shu, he decisively proposed a huge plan to Hou Jing to build a large Huanglong rowboat that could accommodate 200 people!
The so-called "beating the boat" means setting up a beating pole fifty feet high on the boat.

A huge stone was tied to the top of each wooden mast, with a windlass underneath. During battle or when enemy ships were approaching, the windlass could be used to quickly lower the huge stone to smash the enemy ships.

If you miss the target, you can quickly put it away and release it again.

This type of boat-racing machine had already appeared in the fleet sequence of the Southern Liang Dynasty. However, even in the Southern Liang Dynasty, there were only fifty people on the boat-racing machine. This was already a huge ship with a paddling pole.

The Huanglong boat that Su Miaoxiang proposed to build had four poles. Even if surrounded by enemy ships, the poles could be used to deal with enemies on all sides.

In fact, Hou Jing was originally reluctant to do so.

Building such a large ship is extremely expensive, and they have no navy and no experience in water combat.

However, Yang Jia's report made Hou Jing determined to build the Huanglong boat.

If you don’t have a navy, you can make one yourself!

If there are no sailors, we can train them!

If you don’t understand naval warfare tactics, you can learn it yourself!
Hou Jing now has a wife and children, and he also knows that the navy is indispensable. Judging from the ambition of the Duke of County, in order to unify the north in the future, he will definitely go south to conquer the Southern Liang.

How can we conquer Southern Liang without a navy?
I will personally train the navy in Chengdu, so that I can get the credit in the future war to destroy Southern Liang!
After realizing this, Hou Jing gathered all the shipbuilders in Shuzhong and handed them over to Su Miaoxiang, asking him to build four large Huanglong boats and train naval officers and soldiers in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
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The second year of Wude, the second year of Wutai, the seventh year of Tongxi, Jiankang.

This year, Emperor Xiao Yan did not have a smooth year.

A major case occurred during the New Year.

Xiao Yan's good younger brother, Xiao Hong, the Prince of Linchuan, who had billions of dollars hidden in his family's treasury and had to flee during the Northern Expedition due to rain and flooding, is now in trouble again.

What was committed this time was a serious crime that completely violated human ethics.

Xiao Hong had an affair with Xiao Yan's biological daughter, Princess Yongxing. After the affair was exposed, Princess Yongxing actually tried to murder Xiao Yan.

Now, Princess Yongxing has been captured and Xiao Hong has also been imprisoned in the mansion.

Upon receiving the news, Zhu Yi gave up his New Year holiday and was urgently summoned to the palace by Xiao Yan.

When entering the palace, Zhu Yi learned the whole process of the case of Xiao Hong and Princess Yongxing from a eunuch he was familiar with.

Since the Southern Song Dynasty, most of the royal princesses have been arrogant and dissolute, with bad behavior, and Princess Yongxing Xiao Yuyao was even worse.

She was married. Princess Yongxing married the son of Yin Rui, an old friend of Xiao Yan. This marriage was arranged before Xiao Yan became emperor.

Because her husband Yin Jun was short in stature, the princess hated him and often did not want to see him.

Every time she was summoned, Princess Yongxing would write the name of Yin Jun's father, Yin Rui, on the walls of her mansion in advance to humiliate him.

Yin Jun finally couldn't stand this kind of humiliation anymore and told Xiao Yan about it. Xiao Yan was also dissatisfied with the princess's evil behavior, so he hit the princess on the back with a rhinoceros ruyi to teach her a lesson, and even broke the ruyi because of the force he used.

But Princess Yongxing never repented and always hated her husband Yin Jun, and even hated her father Xiao Yan who punished her.

Xiao Hong, the King of Linchuan of Southern Liang, had bad behavior and was punished many times by Xiao Yan. Also, because Xiao Yan abolished copper coins and replaced them with iron coins, the billions of copper coins stored in his treasury became zero overnight.

Crown Prince Xiao Tong also hated him, and when Xiao Hong suffered a huge loss, he wrote "On the Foolship of Money" to mock his uncle.

Princess Yongxing Xiao Yuyao had an affair with him, so she planned to assassinate the emperor and usurp the throne, promising to make her the queen after the plan was accomplished.

Xiao Yan fasted for three days for the New Year, and all the princesses participated in the fast.

Xiao Yuyao asked two male servants to put on maids' clothes and sneak in to do the work.

However, the palace servants discovered that there was something wrong with the two male servants, and they strengthened the protection around Xiao Yan.

After the fast was over, Princess Yongxing asked to see Xiao Yan. Just as the two male servants were about to take action, the guards who were lying in ambush nearby captured the princess and her entourage.

Xiao Yan was horrified, but he did not make it public. He killed two servants in the palace, dragged Princess Yongxing out of the palace in a black carriage and imprisoned her in a palace outside the city. He also ordered that Prince Linchuan Xiao Hong be imprisoned in the mansion.

Zhu Yi sighed. There was really no one in Xiao Yan's family who was easy to deal with.

When they arrived at the hall, Bian Ji naturally accompanied him. Zhu Yi winked at Bian Ji, and Bian Ji immediately opened his mouth and silently lip-read to tell Zhu Yi the news he knew.

The two had already formed a political alliance that integrated both internal and external factors. After knowing Xiao Yan's intentions, Zhu Yi became more confident and asked to see Xiao Yan.

(End of this chapter)