Fenghou

How could that shoddy thing be the work of top craftsmen in the Song Dynasty.

Even Wanyan and Lisa were also shaken. He defended the Datong soldiers: "The situation was chaotic at that time. Many people died. The city walls collapsed. The soldiers didn't understand. They ran away after picking up a piece of iron. They didn't know. ..."

Wan Yanchang waved his hand and interrupted him, "I don't mean to blame them. They can be forgiven if they don't understand, but we must know in our hearts and don't believe in things with unclear origins, such vague words as possible, probably, maybe Nothing is allowed, there must be a definite source, not only Tie Huolei, any object, any news, anyone in the future, the source must be clear, general drink Lisa, do you understand what I mean?"

Wanyan Helisa nodded, "I understand!"

Wan Yanchang felt touched, and said slowly: "What I said is actually intelligence. Sun Ziyun, knowing yourself and the enemy, can win every battle. This is what Chen Qing did better than us. He knows us very well, but we know nothing about him. I know, he was finally kicked out of Shanxi Road and Hedong Road. I have been thinking about this problem for a while. We are too arrogant. We have never looked down on Chen Qing and refused to learn from his merits. If we don’t reflect on it and change it , he will be kicked out of Hebei Road sooner or later."

"What does Marshal Du mean by the change?"

"The first is to strengthen intelligence gathering; the second is to stop infighting."

"Stop internal strife means Wushu?"

Wan Yanchang nodded, "The lessons we have learned from our internal strife are too heavy. We are obviously a very powerful force when we are together, but we fight on our own and refuse to cooperate with each other. In the end, we were defeated by Chen Qing."

Wanyan and Lisa were also deeply touched, he nodded and said: "Marshal Du is too right, political opinions can be different, but we must be united in dealing with foreign enemies, I was originally an envoy, I went to discuss with Wushu, eliminate differences, strengthen cooperation."

"I'll write a letter later, and you take it to Bianliang!"

After finishing speaking, Wan Yanchang waved to Han Feng who was in the hall, and Han Feng immediately walked up the hall, bowed and said: "Marshal please give me instructions!"

"I read Wang Shuang's letter carefully. Lu Wei is worth wooing. He has a high status. Small money is meaningless to him, so I spent [-] yuan to buy him. Although that Lu Hang is a villain, there are villains The role of people is also bought. This time I will let you bring a batch of gold. You have established an intelligence network in Jingzhao. I need information. There is a lot of information about Jingzhao. You must make full use of Lu Wei. "

"Humble job must tell the two Duke Yuhou!"

Wan Yanchang nodded, "I will write a letter for you to take over. From now on, if each of you is promoted to a higher level, I will reward you a lot!"

Han Feng saluted and left. Wan Yanchang looked at Tie Huolei carefully for a while. He really wanted to keep this high-quality and exquisitely crafted Tie Huolei as his collection, but he finally restrained his desire and kissed Tie Huolei beside him. Bing said: "Find a few more people and immediately escort it to the Firearms Institute."

……

In mid-February, the Weihe River was completely thawed. A fleet of thousands of flat-bottomed cargo ships sailed on the river. Hundreds of trackers pulled ropes on the south bank. There are more beautiful scenery on both sides of the boring Weihe River.

These thousand flat-bottomed cargo ships were loaded with 50 shi of grain. The grain was produced in the Hehuang Valley. The army first used camels to meet Longxi County several times, and then transported them by water. Their destination was not Jingzhao, but Tongguan. Then use camels to transport to the direction of Hedong Road or Henan Province.

Chen Qing's annual plan was submitted to the Internal Affairs Hall for discussion and approval in mid-January, and the next step is to implement it. The most important annual plan here is to attack the Central Plains, that is, west of Bianliang, food, materials, and intelligence and public opinion.

Outside Chen Qing's official room in Xuanwu Hall, more than a dozen generals wore armor and sat neatly waiting in the corridor outside. The civil servants in the lobby outside were talking a lot. It's been a long time since I saw this scene. Are they going to go out again?

At this time, Chao Qing came out of the room and saluted all the generals, "All generals, please follow me!"

All the generals stood up together, with an astonishing momentum, and followed Chao Qing to the other end of the corridor.

At the other end of the corridor is the meeting hall and the staff room, which occupy a large area. The walls of the staff room are surrounded by maps, and there is a huge sand table in the middle, which is two feet long and one foot wide. The sand table is replaced regularly. , the last time it was in the north of Hedong Road, but this time it became the Central Plains.

The generals had been informed beforehand, and at this time, the sand table in the room confirmed the rumors that King Yong really wanted to attack the Central Plains.

Every general was very excited. They used to attack the periphery, but now they are finally going to touch the real area.

At this time, footsteps came from outside, Chen Qing, Guan Shigu, and Zhao Kai walked in, all the generals bowed together, "See Your Highness!"

Chen Qing smiled and waved his hands, "I kept everyone waiting."

Chen Qing walked to the sand table, looked at the sand table and said to everyone: "When you see the sand table, everyone should have thought about what's going on, but today is not a formal military deployment, it's just a briefing to let everyone know what's going to happen, and then What preparations need to be made, this has never happened before, but there will be in the future, that is to say, our future wars will become strategic."

"Will this leak the secret and let the enemy know in advance?" Yang Zaixing asked with some concern.

Chen Qing shook his head with a smile, "Do you think Wanyan Wushu is unprepared? Ever since we captured Shanzhou, he has been preparing all the time. In fact, it's the same thing whether he leaks the secret or not. He knows what will happen. I don’t know what will happen? Hundreds of thousands of troops are fighting, fighting for national strength and logistics.

In fact, the war of the Kingdom of Jin was also a conspiracy. They signed a five-year armistice agreement with the imperial court last year, just to stabilize the south, and then concentrate their power to conquer the Mughal tribe. The defense of Xingkou also increased the number of troops in Luoyang. We all know this, so we don't have to hide it, just create momentum and give the people of the Central Plains an expectation. "

Speaking of this, Chen Qing pointed to the sand table and said: "Although the strategy is not concealed, the tactics are highly confidential. How to fight, how many troops to send, marching routes, soldiers' equipment, logistics arrangements, etc. must not be revealed in the slightest, but today This is not the time to talk about this, but I called everyone here to collect troops and combat plans from you. You are all generals above the command and have staff around you. I will give you a month to go back and think about it!"

Everyone was gearing up, eager to go back and prepare immediately. Chen Qing laughed again: "I want to say four more points. First, don't just think about big plans, but also consider small ones. Once a plan is adopted, the general who makes the plan is the one who will implement it." By;

Second, our plan for this expedition to the Central Plains is to capture the west of Bianliang. Don’t think too much about the plan. We won’t go to Jeju and Yunzhou;

Thirdly, I will place this sand table in the side tent of the Chinese army tent in Bashang Barracks, and generals above the command can bring their staff to check the sand table;

Fourth, if you need to transfer large-scale military supplies such as ships, please discuss with Guan Dujian. If you have additional financial expenses, please discuss with Zhao Dujian. How much, everyone must be mentally prepared. "

Everyone laughed and dispersed, but Chen Qing stopped Zhao Xiaoyi.

Chapter 943 Leak

Zhao Xiaoyi has also been promoted to deputy commander at present, which can be regarded as a commanding level. He is mainly in charge of logistics and transportation, so he has been unknown, but in fact, he has appeared behind every battle.

At present, the long-distance transportation in Sichuan and Shanxi mainly involves two types, one is ships, and the other is camels. Among them, the ships are controlled by the military department department. What needs to be made clear here is that the military department department is a civilian government office, which is equivalent to the merger of the Privy Council and the Ministry of War of the imperial court. , Responsible for recruitment, assessment, rewards, military registration management, martial arts, militia, and the manufacture, storage and distribution of grain and military supplies.

However, the military power of the military department is very limited, and it is impossible to mobilize regular army generals and hundreds of thousands of troops on a large scale. The limited military power of the military department is manifested in two places. One is to mobilize regular troops with less than 500 people within the state.

Secondly, the Ministry of War can mobilize local state soldiers and militias, which add up to 10 people, and the militias in Guangling Prefecture and Xiazhou have 5 people.

And the military power of the 35 regular army and the internal guards is in the hands of Chen Qing. Chen Qing is the general of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Army. He uses the general order to command various armies. The cross-state transfer of more than 500 people must have Chen Qing's order. , and the marshal's tent in the Bashang military camp is his general's camp, and he basically goes there every few days.

Although the military department does not hold military power, it also serves the army. The grain, grass, military supplies in the warehouse of the military department are all owned by the army, and the ships, land, and buildings are also owned by the military, and the food and grass of the Finance and Tax Transshipment Department , Money, supplies and other civilian warehouses have nothing to do with it.

The camel camp controlled by Zhao Xiaoyi belongs to the military, with 5000 people and [-] camels. There were originally [-] camels, of which [-] camels were allocated to the Finance and Tax Transshipment Department for the exchange of materials between Jingzhao and Sichuan Road.

In the official room, Chen Qing said with a smile: "I just found out yesterday that everyone calls you the Camel King. This nickname is very domineering! It's very good."

Zhao Xiaoyi is much more mature than before, and has already married. His wife is Xu Ning's youngest daughter, who gave birth to a son for him last year. Xu Ning named him Zhao Ning with a stroke of a pen.

Zhao Xiaoyi smiled wryly and said, "I used to be called Zhao Luotuo, but now I am called the Camel King. Most likely, it was changed by the God of Wealth. I guess he will ask me for the camel again."

Chen Qing chuckled, "He saw your report and knew that the Camel Camp had added [-] small camels last year, so he had an idea."

Zhao Xiaoyi knew that King Yong left him, and it was probably for this reason, he quickly said: "It is not impossible to transfer camels to the transshipment department, but at least he can improve the living conditions for the camels. The five seats I applied for last year The greenhouse has not been approved for a long time, and it is said that it is stuck with him."

"Okay, let me remind him, but I let you stay to tell you that the Battle of the Central Plains requires a large number of camels. Don't borrow them for the time being. Take good care of the camels. Be careful not to be poisoned by enemy spies. Strengthen defense."

"I understand it."

"How many camels are available at present?" Chen Qing asked again.

"Reporting to Your Highness, there are currently [-] camels, of which [-] young camels cannot be used, and [-] female camels need to rest, so the available camels are [-]. If the war does not start until May, Then the available camels will increase to [-]."

"I know, you go!"

"Retire from humble position!"

Zhao Xiaoyi saluted, and slowly retreated.

Everyone in the official room left, and Chen Qing came to the staff room alone, and came to the sand table with his hands behind his back, staring at the sand table for a long time, lost in thought.

……

In Juxiang Restaurant, Zhao Shuang and Zhou Hua invited Lu Wei to dinner again. According to Lu Xian's reaction, Lu Wei has been quite impatient these two days, always pressing for money, so Zhao Shuang naturally wanted to appease Lu Wei.

"Don't worry Lu Sima. Based on the time, my subordinates should be on their way back. They can bring the money back to Jingzhao in about ten days at most. We will definitely pay the rest of the money."

Zhao Shuang is very confident, he has already received the pigeon letter from Wan Yanchang, Lu Wei is of great use, let him comfort him, and buy him over.

Lu Xian also persuaded: "Elder Brother, don't worry, Brother Zhao and Brother Zhou are both kind people, and they keep their promises. I believe they will never break their promises."

Lu Tang sold a large amount of grain data to Zhou Hua, and Zhao Shuang thought it was very valuable, so he gave him [-] guan.

With the money, Lu Xian spent this period of time living happily and happily.

Lu Wei nodded, "You keep your word and stay in Jingzhao, which reassures me. In fact, I am mainly worried that your subordinates will encounter bandits on the road, and that will be troublesome."

Zhao Shuang waved his hands and said with a smile: "Don't worry! With so much gold, people will definitely be sent to protect it. In fact, it is basically safe to pass through Taihang Mountain and enter the border of Hedong. Generally, you will not encounter bandits."

"I'm relieved when you say that, come! Let's drink."

The four of them toasted and drank it all. Lu Wei glanced sideways at Lu Tong and said with a smile, "I heard from Lu Tang that you gave him five hundred coins?"

Zhao Shuang laughed and said, "Of course it's not for free. Brother Lu also provided us with a lot of valuable data."

Lu Wei said lightly: "I know, he gave you the data of the account book, but I want to remind you that some data may not be accurate."

Both Zhao Shuang and Zhou Hua were taken aback, and quickly asked, "What do you mean?"

Lu Yan jumped up and shouted, "Brother, I didn't deceive them."

Lu Wei waved his hand and calmed Lu Tang down, "I didn't say you lied to them, but you don't understand some things, and they probably don't either."

Zhao Shuang asked anxiously, "Can Lu Sima be more specific?"

Then Lu Wei calmly said: "Lu Tong is in charge of grain, and there are three types of warehouses for the Sichuan-Shanxi Xuanfu Envoy to store grain, one is the military warehouse of the Department of Military Affairs, and the other is the warehouse of the Finance and Tax Transshipment Department. The Jing warehouse and the transfer warehouse, as well as the Bashang barracks barracks, Lu Jiang’s account book can see the situation of the army warehouse and the Bashang barracks, but you can’t see the grain situation of the Jing warehouse and the transfer warehouse.”

Wang Shuang asked again: "We know that the Jingcang is just outside the West City, but what is the transfer warehouse?"

"There are five transshipment warehouses, Huangshui warehouse, Lingzhou warehouse, Chengdu warehouse, Qinzhou warehouse, and Hedong warehouse. These are five large granaries. They are actually the sub-warehouses of Beijing warehouse in various places. The five major transshipment warehouses are only the first. The second level, and then there are the granaries of each state, basically every state has them, so there are countless, and only the Finance and Tax Transshipment Department knows the grain situation in various places."

Zhou Hua scratched his head and said, "We only care about military warehouses, these civilian warehouses mean little to us."

Lu Wei shook his head, "If you really think this way, you are wrong. Sometimes the military and the civilians are not distinguished. For example, when preparing for the Central Plains this time, they transported hundreds of thousands of shi of grain from the Huangshui warehouse to Tongguan. They did not go to the military warehouse at all. You watched Jingzhao singing and dancing, but you never thought that war would break out, because the army warehouse did not allocate food."

Zhao Shuang and Zhou Hua were taken aback, "Is the Western Army going to attack the Central Plains?"

Lu Wei nodded, "Basically, officials at my level know about it. The specific timing of the attack has not yet been decided, but the military has already started training for combat readiness, and all relevant departments are allocating money, food and materials to prepare for the war. The armory sent nearly [-] sets of armour, armor and crossbows to Tongguan for [-] large ships the night before yesterday, as well as [-] military tents, you don’t know about this, do you?”

Wang Shuang's face was pale, he stood up suddenly and saluted, "Thank you Lu Sima for telling us about the important military situation!"

Lu Wei smiled and did not speak. In fact, he was deliberately leaking secrets under the order of King Yong to make the other party believe in him more.

"This is not a major secret. At least [-] high-ranking officials know it, and the generals above the command also know it."

After a pause, Lu Wei asked again: "Although it is not a major secret, it is also a Class A document that cannot be circulated outside. You just need to know it, and you must not spread it around."

"We will never!"

At this moment, Wang Shuang could not wait to go to Xianyang to write a pigeon letter to report the important military situation to Wan Yanchang.

Chapter 944 Mengzhou

Mengzhou is the southernmost state of Hedong Road, a state close to the Yellow River. It used to be a part of Shanzhou. Because it was inconvenient to manage Shanzhou across the Yellow River, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Xuanfu envoy made it an independent state, called Mengzhou. The next door to Mengzhou is Huaizhou, which belongs to Hebei and the territory of the Kingdom of Jin. The two states are bounded by Qinshui and do not communicate with each other.

However, the price of salt in Mengzhou is only [-] Wen a catty, which has increased by [-] Wen to [-] Wen this year, but it is still much lower than the salt price of [-] Wen a catty in Huaizhou. Not only the price of salt, but also other The price of food and cloth is several times lower than that in Huaizhou, and there is also a huge gap in taxes between the two places. Mengzhou was exempted from tax for a year the year before last, and it started to collect taxes last year, but the tax burden is only less than [-]% of that in Huaizhou .

With the same [-]-year income, people in Mengzhou will live countless times better than people in Huaizhou. People in Mengzhou can eat and wear clothes, and they can kill a sheep during the New Year. People in Huaizhou just eat their last meal without eating. pause.

Such a huge gap in life has caused Huaizhou people to lose their balance. Since last year, many people have secretly swam across Qinshui to buy salt, grain and cloth in Mengzhou. Mengzhou people also discovered this business opportunity. Many villagers So he squatted on the bank and sold salt, grain and cloth to people who came from the other side. With a little extra money, the villagers had an income from the difference, and the people on the other side were also much more convenient. Everyone was happy.

It's a pity that the good times don't last long. Since June last year, the Huaizhou garrison has deployed three patrol teams on the east bank of Qinshui. Once they go to the opposite bank to buy things and are caught, they will be killed in severe cases, or fined for going bankrupt. Fewer and fewer, and soon disappeared.

The garrison thought it had curbed this smuggling, and the general of the garrison even asked Wan Yanchang for credit, but in August, it was time to collect the summer tax, and half of the wheat harvested by the people in Huaizhou would be taxed away by the government.

The tide of fleeing broke out suddenly, and the people, old and young, went to Mengzhou with food and meager property. At this time, Mengzhou's 10,000 troops killed Qinshui in time and wiped out all three patrol teams. Hundreds of ships were organized on Qinshui to transport the fleeing people day and night. Seventy percent of the Huaizhou people, about [-]+ people fled to Mengzhou.

This is the Mengzhou incident that happened in August last year. After it was published in the "Beijing News", it caused a great sensation.

At this time, 10,000+ fugitives from Huaizhou were placed in a large camp outside the city of Heyang County. Since September last year, the people in Huaizhou have implemented the method of working for relief. In Jincheng County, Zezhou, north of Wangwu Mountain, A shallow open-pit coal mine was discovered, and a thin layer of soil was dug out, and there was seven feet of high-quality coal underneath.

The army organized [-] Huaizhou young and strong to come to Jincheng County to mine coal mines. Some of them were used to smelt iron, but most of them were used to make briquettes.

Thousands of people set up three briquette workshops. After brief training, they began to produce a large amount of briquette. In this way, the daily hard work of [-] young people can not only support themselves, but also feed the whole family in Heyang County.

The miners earn one hundred yuan a day, three yuan a month. According to the lowest price in Mengzhou, they can ensure that the whole family is fed and clothed, and they can save a consistent amount of money every month without paying taxes. This is not Huaizhou The life people dream of?

Although it is work relief, many people have moved their minds. Even after returning to their hometown in Huaizhou, can they continue to dig coal to make briquettes and earn money to support their families? I can earn less than two rounds of money, but now I earn three rounds of money every month.

Moreover, when they become official miners, their income will increase to [-] yuan per month. How can the miners not be excited when they think that they can earn [-] yuan a month, including food and lodging?

This is actually what Chen Qing meant. At present, coal digging and briquette making are all done by the army. This is very unreasonable. Chen Qing had long wanted to hand it over to the local government. The event, the right time, the right place, and the harmony of people were all in order, and the [-] refugee miners took over the task of digging coal for the army.

That afternoon, Hu Yanlei, the scout commander, brought a dozen scouts to the refugee camp in Huaizhou. The officials led them to a large tent. The officials shouted: "Uncle Meng! Uncle Meng!"

"Who is it!"

A burly, tall, middle-aged man walked out of the large tent, about 50 years old, with dark skin and half-white beard and hair.

"Ah! It's Lieutenant Wang, what's the matter with looking for a villain?" The middle-aged man surnamed Meng was all smiles.

County Captain Wang pointed to Hu Yanlei next to him and said, "This is the commander of the army, Hu Yan. He has important matters with you."

"Everyone, come in and sit down! There are blankets inside, so you can sit directly on the ground."

"no need!"

Hu Yanlei asked: "Are you Meng Xiaoguang who is known as the Yellow River buffalo?"

The middle-aged man smiled and waved his hands and said, "The Yellow River buffalo is the favor of my friends, it's really not worth mentioning, but I am indeed Meng Xiaoguang."

Hu Yanlei said indifferently: "The few of us want to go to the other side of the Yellow River to have a look, and we want to invite Senior Meng to drive the boat. After that, I will pay you ten pennies a day, how about it?"

"Ten pennies!"

The middle-aged man smiled so hard that his eyes narrowed into slits, ten pennies!sure.

……