Chapter 856 Shouchun
Throughout winter and December, when the Taishan Army was stationed in Kaifeng, apart from that day's meeting, they were still training for the rest of the day.
Everything was so bland, even Qing, Xu and Yang didn't make any big moves, they seemed to be quietly accumulating strength.
While the other party continued, Zhang Chong sent out sentinels and began a detailed investigation of the Huainan area where Shouchun was located.
It was through a winter month's exploration that Zhang Chong also had a clearer understanding of Shouchun's shape.
In fact, at the beginning, without Xun You's advice, Zhang Chong planned to fight the battle this way according to his own plan.
Since he could see that Linzi and Shouchun were holding back their fists, he would definitely break this pair of combined punches.
In Zhang Chong's plan, the two armies of Ding Sheng and Dong Fang, who were moving southward from the north bank of the Yellow River into the mountain and river channels west of Jinan, would cooperate with Guan Yu and Heifu of Taishan to attack Cao Cao in Linzi.
Defeating Cao Cao without asking for a battle would at least contain Cao Cao in the Qingzhou area.
Zhang Chong will lead most of the main force south to Pengcheng in the Yellow River Navy fleet when the spring water rises next year.
In the Central Plains, Zhang Chong will leave thousands of cavalry troops to roam along the line of Turbulence River. Once they encounter Sun Jian's troops from Shouchun, he will resolutely defeat them in the field.
In this way, after Zhang Chong leads the main force to capture Pengcheng, he will be able to take the initiative on the eastern battlefield. At that time, whether he attacks Qingzhou first and annihilates Cao Cao, or he pursues the victory and goes deep into Xuzhou to completely capture the land north of the Huaihe River, It was all a matter of Zhang Chong's thoughts.
But now, when Zhang Chong understood the importance of Shouchun, he was not prepared to fight like this.
So what's so important about Shouchun? So much so that Zhang Chong wanted to overturn his original plan.
It turns out that Shouchun City is not on the north bank of the Huai River, but on the south bank. Moreover, people do not go deep into the Central Plains by walking, but by relying on the waterways of the Central Plains, which can be reached directly by the Yellow River.
For example, the Jiangdong soldiers occupying Shouchun are equivalent to occupying the high-speed hub of the world. Relying on the local boats in Jiangdong, along Huai, Si, Ru, Ying, Wo, and Ji, they can travel in a very short time. Arrive anywhere in the Central Plains within 1 minute.
In this world, most counties and counties were established along waterways. Those Jiangdong soldiers could directly find a place with shallow water to dock, and then plunder the counties.
And when the time comes, even if Zhang Chong deploys a large number of cavalry as backup, how can he catch up with the boats in the water?
In this way, what Zhang Chong faced at this time was actually a choice, that is, he must capture Shouchun.
But he couldn't attack Shouchun so directly. If he exposed his tactical intentions too early, he would lose his initiative.
In this way, Zhang Chong adopted a method, that is, to pretend to be suspicious of the soldiers, and to be true and false.
He asked the Ding and Dong armies on the north bank of the Yellow River to continuously go south to the plains to harass Cao's army when the river was frozen.
This move was not only to tire out the enemy, but also to confuse the enemy, so that Cao Cao would think that his side would still be his main attack direction.
At the same time, Zhang Chong would also deliberately build boats in the Honggou area so that the enemy forces in the Pengcheng area could detect his strategic intention to go south from Honggou to Surabaya.
As for Zhang Chong's real trump card, he has already put it into action intensively this winter.
……
People south of the Yangtze River have always considered the Yangtze River and Huaihe River to be dangerous, and guarding the Yangtze River is better than guarding the Huaihe River.
But this is not what these important generals under Sun Jian should know.
Because in the past history, the world has never used the north to attack the south. The land south of the Yangtze River cannot resist a state in the north. How can you let people defend it?
But even if this truth is not obtained from past historical experience, it does not prevent Sun Jian and others from understanding the importance of Huainan.
In Sun Jian's own words:
"We are indeed in danger of the Yangtze River in the east of the Yangtze River, but if there is no Huaihe River to rely on, then the north of the Yangtze River is where Beigang branches with reeds, and the enemy can sneak in to help. The river is thousands of miles away, so how can we take precautions?"
The principle is this. Although there are three ways to enter the river, it is for large-scale military operations. In fact, as long as a small-scale army sneaks in, where can't they cross the river?
So from the beginning, Sun Jian did not put all his hopes on Jiang Fang, but found Shouchun.
Shouchun is the seat of Jiujiang County, and the person who guarded Jiujiang County at that time was a captain named Lu Jun.
At that time, Yuan Shao was seizing control of the Central Plains, and the imperial decrees of the Kanto region could not pass to the south, and the governors of the south, especially those in Yangzhou and other places, could not be appointed or removed in a timely manner.
At that time, a group of clan thieves emerged in Jiujiang. They were Chen Lan and Meicheng from Lujiang. They were both clan bandits in the Huoshan area. These people relied on the steep terrain of Qianshan and Huoshan to constantly disturb the water transportation on the Huaihe River and gain heavy supplies. countless.
At that time, the prefect of Jiujiang was afraid and fled away, and the court could not send a new governor for a while, so Lu Jun actually acted as the agent for Jiujiang.
However, Lu Jun's abilities were limited and he did not have the ability to defeat Huoshan bandits such as Chen Lan and Mei Cheng.
As a result, Jiujiang and Lujiang areas fell into chaos.
It was also at this time that Sun Jian rose to prominence in Jiangdong, and later gained the support of the imperial court.
When he learned that Jiujiang had an empty governor, he personally led his army up the river and entered the Feishui River at Ruxukou.
It was during this trip in person that Sun Jian discovered that Ruxukou was a battleground for military strategists, and it was easy to defend but difficult to attack.
From Feishui down into the Yangtze River, the water channel is narrow, which means that the enemy can only use light boats to go south.
Then he only needs to set up a water stronghold at Ruxukou and arrange the giant boats on the vast river to form an overwhelming advantage over the enemies in the north.
Since Sun Jian thought so, he immediately made a decision and ordered the Jiangdong side to immediately organize craftsmen and civilians to set up a chain of fortresses at Ruxukou, and then set up a water fort on the river, thinking that it was a hub for land and water.
After giving the order, Sun Jian led the fleet to continue along Shishui into Hefei, then along the Feishui River on the edge of Hefei, all the way to Shouchun on the south bank of the Huaihe River.
When the giant ships in Jiangdong were hoisting the Han flag, especially Sun Jian's tower ship, which was also hoisted with the festival conferred by the emperor, Lu Jun from Shouchun City took the county officials out of the city to pay their respects.
Because the news of the imperial court's defeat in Hanoi had reached Jiujiang at that time, people like Lu Jun actually knew that the Han Dynasty was irreversible.
So when Jiangdong Tiger Sun Jian arrived in Shouchun with his warships, they discussed it and thought that only General Sun could protect the southeast.
When Sun Jian got off the boat, he was overjoyed to hear that the Lu Jun in front of him was from the Lu family of Wu County.
Why?
Because when Sun Jian decided to separate Jiangdong to fight for the Central Plains, he consciously supported the Jiangdong native faction and allowed them to form their own interest groups, so that they could be separated from the Central Plains dynasty.
At that time, in the land of Jiangdong, there were four families that could be called noble families, namely Gu, Lu, Zhu, and Zhang.
It can be said that 99% of the talents in Jiangdong come from these four families and their disciples. As for these four families, they also valued Sun Jian's overwhelming force and believed that it was a warrior like Sun Jian who could protect the interests of the Southeast in troubled times.
So the four families immediately turned to Sun Jian.
But at this moment, when Sun Jian heard that Lu Jun was from the Lu family, the tangle in his heart immediately disappeared.
Because at that time, Sun Jian was just the governor of Wu County and had no name to occupy Shouchun. And he would not be reconciled if someone else was asked to serve as the governor of Jiujiang.
In this way, after learning that Lu Jun was one of his own, Sun Jian finally made a bold decision to declare Lu Jun as the new governor of Jiujiang.
At this time, the Yangzhou area had been isolated from the imperial court for a long time. The chief minister here was actually appointed by Sun Jian himself.
Originally, this was a certain degree of trespass and not legal enough, but soon, Zhou Yu escaped from Kyoto. Although he failed to bring Queen Mother He and the others across the river, he did bring back a sealed edict.
This edict was written by Zhou Yu himself, appointing Sun Jian as the shepherd of Yangzhou.
But no matter who wrote it, the seal on the edict is true, so Sun Jian, the Yangzhou Mu, is also true.
In this way, Sun Jiancai officially appointed and dismissed his brother-in-law Wu Jing as the new Jiujiang prefect, stationed in Shouchun, while Lu Jun was promoted to the shogunate as a soldier.
In fact, despite Sun Jian and the four families saying they are one, in the final analysis, in Sun Jian's heart, only his own family can be trusted.
Originally, if Lu Jun was the governor of another place, Sun Jian might have been more generous. But when Sun Jian arrived in Shouchun in person and saw the terrain of Shouchun, he did not dare to leave this place to Lu Jun.
After watching Shouchun, Sun Jian had only one thought, and that was:
"If you gain the Huaihe River in the south, you will be able to reject the north. If you gain the Huaihe River in the north, you will be unable to protect the south."
If he gave it to Lu Jun with such a vital place, Sun Jian would not be able to sleep at night.
Also because he recognized the importance of Shouchun, Sun Jian also did the following things after appointing Wu Jing as the governor of Jiujiang.
His first priority is to deal with the clan thieves who are causing trouble in Jiujiang, namely Chen Lan, Meicheng and other Huoshan bandits.
Sun Jian's method of handling this matter was very simple, that is, he went into Qianshan alone with only a knife and a jug of wine.
When he left, the boats parked on the Huai River were not even noticed.
When the Jiangdong generals realized that they were getting anxious, Sun Jian came back, bringing with him Chen Lan and Meicheng and their 15,000 clan members.
Sun Jian conquered these two people with his personal charm. The two believed in Sun Jian and began to settle south of Shouchun and on the east bank of the Pi River under Sun Jian's arrangement.
The land here is originally fertile, suitable for the development of production by these two clan thieves. On the other hand, the two clans can also serve as the reserve army of Shouchun City, supporting Shouchun in the north at any time.
After taking in Chen Lan and Meicheng, Sun Jian took in Lei Xu in the Qianshan area, and generally pacified the vast Tongbai Mountain area to the west of Shouxian County.
In addition to recruiting the clan thieves from Lujiang and Jiujiang into his tribe, Sun Jian also assembled the chief officials of Jiujiang and Lujiang counties.
At that time, the prefect of Jiujiang was a famous scholar from Yanzhou named Bian Rang. Later, he abandoned his official position and ran away because he could not bear the harassment from clan thieves.
The neighboring Lujiang and Jiujiang are similar, and because of the existence of the Tongbai Mountains within the territory, the troubles caused by the clan thieves are even worse. The number of officials in the counties and counties is as high as ten.
Now that Sun Jian wants to build the Huaihe River defense line with Shouchun as the core, the officials from Lujiang and Jiujiang must be ready.
Naturally, Sun Jian, who had no one in his entourage, could only give these positions to the four Jiangdong families.
It was precisely because of this that Sun Jian began to have the idea of recruiting Jiangbei scholars, but he never revealed it.
However, the four families were full this time, but it was Sun Jian who really ate the meat.
Because Sun Jian also did the third thing, which was to vigorously develop Shaopi for farming.
Sun Jian engaged in farming not once or twice, but he did it as a last resort.
Previously, it was not without cost that the four Jiangdong families fell to Sun Jian's side so quickly. One of the costs was that Sun Jian's shogunate could only collect a symbolic one-tenth of the rice from the four families as tax.
Without the tax revenue from the four major families, Sun Jian had to raise military rations himself if he wanted to supply the 40,000 elite soldiers of the shogunate.
That's why Sun Jian began to develop civilian villages.
He called the refugees from the north of the Yangtze River to settle in the south, and the shogunate distributed seeds and land. Finally, the shogunate in the east of the Yangtze River took seven-tenths of the grain as tax.
But now, after taking over Lujiang and Jiujiang, Shaopi between the two counties has become a piece of cake.
Shaopei is specifically located in the south of Shouchun. It was the Chu State Prime Minister Sun Shuao who diverted the Peishui River to the east of Baishao Pavilion to form the lake. Later, after successive generations of repairs and improvements, the area around Peipei expanded to two to three hundred miles, and more than one million hectares of farmland were irrigated.
And more than a million hectares of land around the lake are all high-quality farmland. Now it suddenly belongs to Sun Jian alone. One can imagine how far his strength has suddenly expanded.
However, Shaopi is currently only considered as a potential area. If he wants to develop more than one million hectares of lakeside land, Sun Jian will need to continue to invest manpower and resources in this area.
In fact, just one Shaopi was worth Sun Jian risking his life to defend Shouchun.
But Shouchun's value to Sun Jian goes beyond that.
For him, Shouchun was his base for heading north to the Central Plains and the starting point for his ambition to conquer the Central Plains. And for a general on horseback, this alone is enough to trump everything.
If he didn't want to establish an alliance with Xuzhou, he would need to sit in Jiangdong.
For these reasons alone, Sun Jian had already moved the state government of Yangzhou directly to Shouchun.
However, Xuzhou was indeed too important. It determined Jiangdong's next strategy, so even though he was reluctant to give up, Sun Jian still withdrew his troops back to Jiangdong when the water rose in autumn.
He left Wu Jing with more than 10,000 elite troops and 300 large and small boats. He also gave his brother-in-law a high enough authority to mobilize Huainan's resources and consolidate Shouchun city defense.
And Wu Jing did indeed do a good job. Before winter came, he had built hundreds of light boats on the Huaihe River and trained a capable naval force.
Wu Jing is also very far-sighted. He understands that with the Taishan Army taking over the Central Plains, if he continues to simply defend Shouchun, he will not be able to defend it for a long time, so he must take the initiative to attack.
The light boats built by Wu Jing are suitable for use in the water networks in the Central Plains. These water networks are generally submersible, and only these light boats can travel unimpeded.
So, as the magnificent Taiwu Three Years came to an end, Jiujiang Wu Jing was also full of ambitions and aimed at the Central Plains.