Northern Dynasties

Chapter 577
Caiyang City is located on the east bank of the Bishui River, nearly ten miles away from the river, and is connected to the Bishui River through a horizontal canal.

In this way, even if the large ships traveling on the Hanshui River turned into the Bishui River, they could not directly reach Caiyang City, or they had to abandon the boat and land, or change to a small boat to reach Caiyang City.

The heart of defense is indispensable, and the heart of harm is acceptable. Li Tai ordered the construction of Caiyang City to provide assistance to Xiangyang in name, but in fact it was also monitoring and spying, and to carry out some necessary military operations when the conditions are ripe. action.

But Xiangyang is an important town in Jianghan after all, and the military and civilian population gathered in the area is more than 20 million.The defense city of Caiyang is only stationed with more than 2000 infantry and cavalry armed forces. If you are not careful and undefended, this sharp knife inserted under the nose of Xiangyang may become a piece of food delivered to your mouth in minutes. Fat.

Therefore, the location of the city should be separated by a certain distance from the main shipping road to ensure that it will not be directly attacked by the navy from the south. Various defenses can be set up along the river.

In the past year, various construction tasks in Jingzhou have to be carried out to equalize the land and reclaim wasteland. The manpower has been used to the extreme, and there are not too many hard-working craftsmen to come south to build a new city.Therefore, the construction of this city of Caiyang mainly relied on the manpower of the local Han barbarians, and Xiangyang also organized many soldiers to come to help to build this new city.

When Li Tai rushed here, Liang Shiyan, Li Quji and other generals were already waiting outside the city, and after a few brief greetings, they entered the city together.

Li Tai first sent someone to Xiangyang to inform Xiao Xi that he had arrived, and then asked about the recent changes in the Eastern Hand area.

"After Liu Zhongli led his troops to the east, there were no foreign soldiers in the counties and counties under his rule to make up for the defense, but the Haozong people of his prefecture each defended their territory with their tribes. After the order, he arranged for ranger scouts to go south. On the way, I saw the villagers gathered in various places in Qiaojin..."

Liang Shiyan carefully reported to Li Tai the information he had obtained recently on Eastern Han, without missing any details, and finally said: "Although there are many officers and soldiers from Liang in this area, they are still on guard. Although the villagers It is not an elite army, but looking at the order of its village is so strict, I am afraid that it is not a good opportunity to enter the map now."

After Li Tai heard these things, he couldn't help sighing secretly. He has made a lot of noises during the past year in Jingzhou, and the impact he caused is not limited to Jingzhou.Needless to say, the Xiangyang area, which bears the brunt, has spread a lot of his reputation and deeds in various parts of Eastern Han.

Before Li Tai's arrival, although there were many local tyrants in Suilu Zhujing, these tyrants were mainly engaged in various production activities, and seldom carried out military organizations and activities.

But this time Liu Zhongli had just led the troops in the territory to leave, and the tyrannical tribes seamlessly took over the defense of the Handong area, leaving no loopholes or opportunities to exploit.

It can also be seen that these local tyrants are also well aware of the truth of "they are afraid of thieves". Although he has not yet put it into action, he has already raised the alert level of Jingzhou to the highest level.This feeling of being valued made him not know whether to laugh or cry for a while.

However, there is always a reason to be a thief for a thousand days, but there is no reason to defend against a thief for a thousand days. After all, these local tyrants in the Handong area are not real military forces. Temporary vigilance and defense are nothing, but it is difficult to persist for a long time.

Perhaps they still fantasized that Liu Zhongli, a stalwart of Jianghan, would be able to blow up Hou Jing's rebellious army soon after leading his army eastward, and then return to town.But this kind of thinking is undoubtedly a dream, not to mention Liu Zhongli failed to solve Hou Jing, even if this wave was solved by him, it would be easy for him to leave, but difficult to come back.

Now that the big drama has just started, the impact on the situation in Jianghan is not too big, and it is normal for Lu Haoqiang to still guard their own gates.

Li Tai rested in Caiyang Fangcheng that night, and the next morning, Yueyang King Xiao Xi hurried over impatiently.

"Hou Jing has already crossed the river!"

As soon as they met, the ashen-faced Xiao Xi threw out a piece of news that might be a blockbuster to the time flow, but Li Tai had already expected it.

Although he was not very surprised in his heart, Li Tai still stared and said: "Is this impossible? Hou Jing's troops are just a group of disabled teachers and defeated people. Even if they can coerce some criminals in Shouyang, they will definitely not be some strong people." Army, how could it be so easy to break through the natural moat of the river?"

"Ah, misfortune for our family and country! If the court hadn't been for the connivance, how could the dog thief have caused such a catastrophe? Now that he is old and old, it is hard to see things. It is really hateful for wolves from Jiangbei to enter the house! The river is surging, if not for Yu Liang in the court to attract him, how could Su Jun cross the river?"

When King Yueyang spoke up to this point, his face was full of indignation again, and it was obvious from his voice that he blamed all the mistakes on the crown prince in the court.

This matter is so strange and complicated that it is difficult to say who is responsible for it. Even those who are involved in it are still at a loss. Feeling guess blame.From what King Yueyang said, it can be seen that their brothers are really upset with Prince Xiao Gang for a long time.

But after hearing what he said, Li Tai couldn't help thinking about it, how many times did the northern troops go south during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties?If it was Su Jun in the Eastern Jin Dynasty last time, it would have been more than 200 years.

King Yueyang was obviously very angry. After meeting, he just babbled and cursed about this matter for more than a quarter of an hour.

Although he is displeased with the many personnel affairs of the Jiankang court, he is still a Liang man after all. The Yangtze River, which is the most dangerous line of defense, was crossed by the rebellious army on an outing. , Of course, I couldn't help but curse at those wastes in Jiankang City.

After venting for a while, King Yueyang restrained his emotions a little, then turned to Li Tai and said: "It is best to stop the goods coming from the upper reaches in the near future. Even if this disturbance is over, there will be The aftermath continues. I am afraid that the market situation will not improve in a short time, and the goods stored in Xiangyang may not be safe..."

It's nothing to suspend trading, after all, this business route is not the only one Li Tai relies on.Although the sales were fast and the profits were considerable during this period, he had already foreseen the situation in Nanliang, so it was nothing to stop.

However, when he heard Xiao Xi express that the situation in Xiangyang City was not safe enough, he quickly said, "Is there any trouble that bothers you? Why not tell me, I will do my best to help if I can!"

"Well, there are indeed sorrows, but there are also a lot of ugliness in the family, which is really hard to talk about."

King Yueyang sighed first, and then said: "Boshan, you should know that my family is out of order. Even if my brother is forgiving and doesn't care about it anymore, others don't necessarily think so. This time Hou Jing is in chaos , Although it is a jumping clown, it has given some people with ulterior motives the opportunity to gather power!"

Speaking of this, King Yueyang's expression and tone turned evil: "My brother has detained Zhang Zuan for several months, but the imperial court has not yet issued an order to revoke Zhang Zuan's appointment, which shows how much he wants to replace me. Jian. But I created the prosperity and strength of Yongfu today, so how can I hand it over to others?

The traitor finally waited for the opportunity, Liu Zhongli went here to put an end to the chaos, and led many of my Yongfu elites away.These aristocratic families have benefited a lot from themselves, but they still abandon me in the face of the test!Apart from calming the chaos and eliminating thieves, they may also secretly have the idea of ​​supporting them..."

When Li Tai heard this, he couldn't help thinking about it for a while. Brother Xindao, did you suffer from some kind of persecution paranoia?Liu Zhongli won't even be able to deal with the clown you are talking about, let alone support him.Of course there are supporters, but this guy didn't do it!
However, seeing King Yueyang's frowning and solemn expression, it was obvious that this was not just a casual remark, but that he believed in his own judgment very much, and he was full of a sense of crisis about it.

The so-called guilty conscience is probably the case.From the perspective of King Yueyang Xiao Xi, the current Hou Jing is not considered a great threat, but as the prince's confidant Liu Zhongli leads the army to the east, it is very likely that it will lead to a situation that he does not like to see.

Moreover, this time Liu Zhongli went east and took away many powerful trilogy from Yongzhou, which aggravated Xiao Xi's sense of crisis in his heart.It turned out that the interest alliance he had formed by selling Western Region merchants during this period of time was still not as good as the popularity and appeal that the Hedong Liu family had accumulated in Xiangyang for many years.

No matter what kind of psychology Xiao Xi is motivated by, his current suspicious state is undoubtedly beneficial to Li Tai.

So he also frowned empathetically and said: "This kind of situation really has to be guarded against, after all, we still have to be prepared. I don't know what kind of preparedness you want to make, my lord?"

After hearing this, King Yueyang turned his head and looked at the hall of the defense city, and then said again: "The defense city here is well built, and more soldiers can be stationed here. I don't know if it is convenient for you to add more troops here now, Boshan." Garrison strength?"

Li Tai was about to agree after hearing this, but his heart suddenly moved, and he changed into a rather embarrassed expression and said: "Oh, since your majesty has asked, I will not hide it from you, there are two thousand troops stationed here. It is already a limit of current personnel expenses.

Your Majesty should know that Sizheng, the Duke of Taiyuan in our country, is still trapped in Yingchuan by the eastern bandits. Although he is famous for his good defense, there is a huge gap between the enemy and our forces.I worked with General Wang for a time, and the current town is also close to each other, and there is always a need to reserve some people in the town to wait for changes..."

"Oh, yes, I shouldn't bother Boshan with my troubles, I'm really sorry."

After hearing this, King Yueyang also sighed, but in Li Tai's eyes, he seemed to be a little relieved. It seemed that this so-called request was indeed a bit of a test.

(End of this chapter)