Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2634 The reign title was changed to Qian Yuan, marking the beginning of the campaign against Tang.

Before we knew it, another winter had slowly passed.

Winter is over and spring is coming. As the snow on the ground melts away, spring is gradually approaching.

In the old year, the Great Jin finally won the war in the north, thus eliminating all the former vassal states of the Han Dynasty and completing the unification of the Central Plains.

From then on, the enemies of the Great Jin Dynasty would no longer be those of the people of the Central Plains, but rather those of the grasslands and foreign enemies such as the Tang Dynasty.

In the new year, everyone in Da Jin believes that Da Jin will have a new beginning and will usher in a new era.

In the new year, Li Xiang officially changed the era name to Qian Yuan.

The Book of Changes says, "Great indeed is the Qian principle, from which all things originate, and which governs all under Heaven."

Qian Yuan, meaning the beginning of Qian, signifies the origin of the Way of Heaven.

The character "元" (Yuan) represents the beginning of spring and the generation of all things.

Changing the era name to this one just as the new year and spring are about to arrive is quite fitting.

Moreover, changing the era name was also to signify that the Great Jin Dynasty was about to have a new beginning.

Similarly, in the new year, Lady Huarui gave birth to the twenty-first prince, whom Li Xiang named Tong, precisely to commemorate the unification of the Central Plains.

In the new year, large quantities of supplies were continuously transported from the Central Plains to Youzhou by the Yangtze River Navy.

On land, supplies from Siyong and other places were being continuously transported northwards.

In fact, since the beginning of winter, supplies from the Central Plains and Siyong had already been transported to the north in several batches.

Compared to internal wars, external wars, regardless of their difficulty, are several orders of magnitude more challenging in terms of winning people's hearts and minds.

This is precisely why, in order to truly occupy territory externally, it always takes much longer than in internal wars.

In particular, what the Great Jin Dynasty wanted was not temporary dependence, but long-term rule, not a rule like that of the Yuan Dynasty, which would be uncontrollable once it collapsed, but at least a relatively effective rule.

Therefore, the implementation process will be more complicated and will inevitably take more time.

The Yellow River has not yet fully thawed. Once the Yellow River has fully thawed, the supplies from Siyong and other places can be transported by the Yellow River Navy from land to water after leaving Sizhou.

Compared to land routes, waterways are not only much faster, but also require significantly less logistical support.

At least, compared to land routes, waterways can save a lot of resources along the way.

In the winter of the previous year, Qi Jiguang and Han Shizhong incorporated a large number of prisoners from the former Qinghan Navy and the Youzhou Navy, which not only replenished the losses of the Changjiang Navy in the northern war, but also expanded the size of the Yangtze River Navy to 120,000.

The Yellow River Navy did not expand at all; as a northern navy, a size of 30,000 was sufficient.

Therefore, even though 20,000 of Qi Jiguang's Yangtze River navy remained at its southern Yangtze River naval base, the combined forces of the Yangtze and Yellow River navies still numbered a full 130,000, stationed at the ports of Qingzhou and Youzhou. Last winter, Xue Rengui and Li Mu jointly submitted a memorial, which was approved by Li Xiang. The governors of Qingzhou, Li Guangdi, and Youzhou, Wu Qi, personally oversaw the construction of two large sea-land transshipment bases, utilizing a large number of prisoners and farmers, in Wuzhong County of Youzhou and Buqi County of Donglai County of Qingzhou.

Wuzhong County in Youzhou was once the naval base of the Youzhou Navy.

Although Buqi County in Donglai Commandery of Qingzhou was not the main base of the Qing-Han Navy, it was once a very important branch base of the Qing-Han Navy. It was here that Liu Rengui fought his last battle and put up a stubborn resistance.

It was precisely because of this foundation that Li Guangdi and Wu Qi were able to complete this enormous project within a single winter.

Not only were the existing ports further expanded and rebuilt, but the original ports, due to the scale of the Qinghan and Youzhou navies in the past, were not built on such a large scale and could not meet the needs of the Great Jin Dynasty.

In addition to the port, Li Guangdi and Wu Qi built a large number of warehouses to store goods from various places that were transferred to the port.

After all, these two ports will not only be needed in the upcoming battle against the Li Tang dynasty, but also in the future if we want to take action against the grasslands.

In addition to the large number of warehouses, the next step was to build a large number of defensive fortifications on the perimeter to prevent the two ports from being destroyed.

In their original plan, these two ports would be the two largest transit points for supplies in the upcoming battle against Li Tang. If Li Tang were to launch a full-scale naval attack, they would have to be able to ensure the safety of these two ports and their stockpiled supplies.

Wuzhong County in Youzhou was part of the area that later became Tianjin.

Buqi County of Donglai Prefecture in Qingzhou was part of the area where Qingdao was located in later times.

These two regions naturally possess the advantage of being able to build large ports and serve as hubs for water and land transportation.

The port of Buqi County in Donglai Commandery, Qingzhou, was mainly responsible for storing all the supplies needed for the navy in preparation for the war against the Tang Dynasty.

In comparison, if the navy wanted to target the Li Tang homeland, it would be more convenient to send troops from Qingzhou than from Youzhou.

As for Wuzhong Port in Youzhou, it mainly serves to handle the consumption of a large number of infantry and cavalry.

In the upcoming war against the Tang dynasty, the Jin army plans to deploy 300,000 infantry and cavalry, plus 130,000 naval troops, totaling 430,000 men, for the upcoming campaign against the Tang.

The remaining 100,000 troops were left to guard the three prefectures in Hebei, especially Youzhou in the far north.

On the grasslands, due to the presence of the Tuoba Wei regime in the very center, although chaos is bound to reignite, precautions must still be taken.

Of course, while all 430,000 men, especially the 130,000 naval troops, would be involved in the upcoming war against the Tang Dynasty, not every unit would directly participate in the battle.

Within the navy, a portion of personnel must be allocated to assist in the defense of the two major ports and the transfer of supplies from various regions to the north; they are indispensable in these tasks.

Therefore, of the 130,000 naval troops, only about 80,000 would be directly deployed to combat.

With 430,000 soldiers and the farmers used in this battle, the total population would reach one million.

Although the scale of this campaign was not as large as the previous wars in the south and the central plains, nor as large as the previous campaigns in the north, it was still quite large overall.