Northern Prefecture Rivers and Mountains

Chapter 292

The spring plowing in the first year of Yuanxing (402 AD) was larger in scale than any previous one.

Although they failed to capture the two prefectures of Nanyang and Xiangcheng last year, they consolidated their position on both sides of the Huai River.

After Liu Mu issued the decree for land reclamation, more than 12,000 lowly households and 30,000 slave households began to cultivate land in Huaibei, starting from Yingchuan.

These military settlements were basically reclaimed along the old sites of the Cao Wei military settlements.

Although the Cao Wei dynasty has faded into history, its traces remain. Liu Daogui specially retrieved Deng Ai's "On Crossing the River" from the library and sent people to conduct on-site investigations of the canal built by the Cao Wei dynasty.

Most of them are just clogged, and can be used again with a little dredging.

We now have so many lowly households and slave households at our disposal, all of which are free labor.

Only two meals a day are required.

At first, there were rebellions and riots by the lowly households. After the arduous labor, they had no energy left. After working every day, they would fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow and would not have any wild thoughts.

“We still don’t have enough manpower. There are too many dikes and fields in the Ying River, Ji River, and Huai River basins. Back then, when Cao Wei repaired the Shaopi, they mobilized 100,000 farm laborers.” Although Liu Muzhi has been busy these days, he is more energetic.

"We can't find that many people right now. After spring plowing, we'll mobilize the households to work for a day, providing two meals a day: two liters of millet or dried beans for men and one and a half liters for strong women!"

These days, a person's daily food ration is about two liters.

They provide meals for a day and can bring back two liters of grain.

Nowadays, wars are raging everywhere, and the price of grain is soaring. In Jiangdong, a liter of grain has risen to four thousand coins, which means that a pound of grain costs about four pound and thirteen ounces. Even so, there is still no market for it.

After Huan Xuan became king, he tore off his mask, indulging in pleasure, enjoying hunting and building palaces on a grand scale. He never even glanced down at the ground and had no interest in managing the eight prefectures of the Three Wu regions...

Therefore, these two liters of rations were very valuable and could be exchanged for firewood, salt, fish, meat, cloth, and other daily necessities.

After the bandits ravaged Jiangzuo, Guangling's commerce suffered a severe blow. Pengcheng, with its strategic location at the crossroads of waterways and north and south, became a new commercial hub. Liu Daogui had worked tirelessly for many years, and the major workshops gradually began to thrive.

With no threat of war, merchants flocked to the area, and all industries flourished, gradually replacing Guangling's position.

Within the territory, grain and cloth are hard currency and can be directly traded for other goods.

"There is another matter. Langya in the East Sea has been occupied by the Yan bandits. They have taken over most of the salt fields and shipyards. The southeastern seaport has been blocked, which has greatly affected the livelihoods of merchants and the people." Liu Muzhi flipped through the dossier.

He pulled out a card and handed it to Liu Daogui.

Southern Yan also had capable people. After capturing a large number of ships, they began to build a navy and sell smuggled salt to supplement the national expenditure. They also set up military farms in Langya and Dongguan, turning all the captured Jin people into farm settlers.

The three counties of Xudong have always been prosperous lands.

If the power of Southern Yan rises, Liu Daogui will be in trouble.

Murong De's ambitions extended beyond the Huai and Si rivers to the Jiangzuo region.

"Don't we still have the Righteous Army and the Garrison Command? After the spring plowing, we can allow them to go east in groups to plunder Southern Yan. Consider it training!" Liu Daogui came up with a plan.

The Zhechong Prefecture was no different from the army.

The military quality of the military households under its jurisdiction is beyond doubt. The Zhechong Prefecture provides weapons, warhorses, oxcarts, and ships; they can simply go and plunder.

“This… seems to damage the reputation of the Governor.” Liu Muzhi was a traditional scholar who valued benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness.

Although Liu Daogui had received some education, he came from a humble background and had experienced the hardships of life, so he was not bound by many constraints. He thought, "If the barbarians can rob us, why can't we rob the barbarians? If they can go there, so can I!"

Liu Muzhi was stunned for a moment, "The Governor has such great spirit!"

"As the art of war says: A wise general seeks sustenance from the enemy. One bushel of enemy food is equivalent to twenty bushels of our own; one stone of enemy food is equivalent to twenty stones of our own. In the past, Langya and Donghai belonged to the imperial court, and we couldn't refuse or act freely. Now that they have been occupied by the White Barbarians, why should we be polite? We will use their grain to feed our soldiers and civilians, and use their blood and flesh to hone our military prowess!"

In the flat plains of Yanzhou or Yuzhou, Liu Daogui's methods would not have worked.

However, the three counties of Xudong are adjacent to the Sishui and Huaishui rivers, and there are also tributaries such as the Yishui and Wushui rivers within their territory. This can just offset the cavalry advantage of the Yan state, and also make full use of their own naval advantage.

Liu Muzhi chuckled, "It seems I should also take some time to read some military strategy."

Liu Daogui smiled and said, "Military strategy and governance are not so different."

A general who is well-versed in military strategy is bound to be a good minister who governs the country.

Wu Qi and Zhuge Liang are examples, but few people reached their level. The scholars of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties were almost all ruthless people who could kill on horseback and govern the people on foot.

Even the envoy was a fierce man who would draw his sword and kill the king at the slightest provocation.

Unfortunately, after the Sima family established their state, they never produced another person like him.

Since ancient times, farming and warfare have been intertwined. After the spring planting season, Liu Daogui, in the name of the military government, issued a "Military Expansion Order," allowing civilians to form teams to "expand their territory by force" in the three counties of Xudong. The military government rented equipment such as swords, crossbows, arrows, warships, and warhorses.

If you're willing to pay a high price, even armored suits and full vests can be rented.

Of the spoils captured, four-tenths belonged to officials and six-tenths to civilians. Captured able-bodied men and livestock could be sold directly to the military government.

Pengcheng area may not have much else, but it has a lot of iron mines. Emperor Wu of Han once set up an ironworks office and built ironworks there.

Another large ironworks in Xingyang was also in Liu Daogui's hands. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, it could produce 2,000 catties of pig iron per day.

In this era, the ability to smelt iron was essentially the ability to wage war.

However, he was busy farming at the moment, and restoring the Xingyang Ironworks would require too much investment. Moreover, he was under threat from the Wei Kingdom. The Pengcheng Ironworks were sufficient, so Liu Daogui was not in a hurry to restore them.

The moment the "Martial Expansion Order" was issued, the entire territory was instantly abuzz with excitement.

Even illiterate slaves knew what this meant. The people of the North were fierce and warlike; two villages would often engage in full-scale battles over water resources, fighting to the death, not to mention their raids on enemy territory.

In just three days, thousands of people signed up.

Almost all of the martial arts masters in Pengcheng signed up, with the Liu and Tan families being the most enthusiastic. They formed their own cavalry force of two hundred men, armored soldiers of one hundred men, and more than a thousand followers.

Judging from their posture, they're ready to go all out.

The weapons, including swords, spears, crossbows, shields, and armor, were not much inferior to those of the military headquarters. The long spears used by several generals were all exquisitely crafted, top-quality goods.

What shocked Liu Daogui even more was that they were able to develop siege engines such as cloud chariots and battering rams.

The Cao family went even further, assembling a fleet of three thousand men…

However, the most enthusiastic were the slave households. Some people mortgaged their entire family's food rations for the year in exchange for bows, crossbows, and leather armor, hoping to turn their fortunes around.

Of course, not everyone is suited to go to "Wutuo". Those who are timid or physically weak should stay behind and go to the banks of the Huai River to reclaim wasteland and dredge the river.

Although the money and grain were less, the situation was stable.

The mobilization capacity of Zhechong Prefecture was astonishing; in just half a month, it assembled a force of fourteen schools.

The school has 800 students, totaling nearly 12,000 people.

Meng Ganzhi's scout battalion was responsible for tasks such as making liaisons and gathering intelligence on the enemy. Liu Zhong's six thousand naval troops were all deployed to this task, treating it as a practical training exercise.

At the same time, Liu Daogui led 8,000 infantry and cavalry north to Licheng to contain Murong De.

If he were to go south to provide support, Liu Daogui would do the same thing as last time, turning half of Qingzhou upside down.

Murong De occupied Muling Pass, and the counties of Xudong were under his military might. Liu Daogui occupied Licheng, which was like a knife hanging over the head of Qingzhou.

Except for the sea to the east, the Southern Yan was attacked from almost three sides.

To the north, they had to defend against Yu Yue, the Minister of Works of Wei, and Da Xijin, the Governor of Youzhou, while to the southwest, they were under attack from Liu Daogui, putting them under immense pressure.

Fortunately, Murong De was a veteran general, and his subordinates Murong Zhen and Murong Guo were also quite good, making their defense watertight.

But the city belongs to the Yan army, while the area outside the city belongs to the Wu Tuo army.

They took almost everything they could carry, and burned everything they couldn't take.

Liu, Tan, Xu, and the other two families joined forces, gathered 4,000 troops, and successively captured three fortified villages in Langya County, taking more than 4,700 prisoners and countless supplies of grain and money.

These fortified villages were also to blame for their own actions. When the Yan cavalry marched south, they chose to surrender to protect themselves and opened the roads, which allowed the Yan army to advance so smoothly.

I don’t know, I’m scared.

The power of these martial masters was even stronger than Liu Daogui had anticipated.

However, it's not surprising that the families next door were the backbone of the Northern Army.

With Liu Daogui's support, they were in no way inferior to the Yan army's infantry and cavalry, and with the support of Liu Zhong's navy, they defeated Murong Zhen's cavalry.

However, the other Wu Tuo Army units were not so lucky.

Many were also defeated by local powerful families and the Yan army.

Even Liu Zhong's navy suffered from the uprising of Murong Zhong and the ambush of Zhang Chong's navy, losing seven warships and suffering more than 600 casualties.

The Cao family suffered even greater losses, as they were caught up by Murong Zhong's cavalry and killed more than two thousand of them.

Cao Ji hurriedly sought help from Liu Daogui, who had no choice but to send Gao Xun to provide support and make strategic plans.

Even a broken ship has three thousand nails; the Southern Yan is not made of clay. Murong Zhong is Murong Chui's cousin, and has been fighting across the world for decades. His skills are not bad. He can see that the key to breaking the deadlock lies in the navy.

Zhang Chong was also a fierce general under Murong Chui.

The fact that the two of them fought against Liu Zhong together and only lost so few men proves that Liu Zhong's skills were not bad.

His navy consisted of new recruits who had just been brought in from Wuxing County, so it was understandable that they suffered a setback.

But after weathering the first month, the situation gradually reversed.

The Wu Tuo Army and the navy gradually adapted to the battlefield, growing stronger with each battle. They often appeared and disappeared unpredictably, keeping Murong Zhong and Zhang Chong constantly on the run.

The Yan army's base was in Qingzhou, separated by the Taihang Mountains, making transportation difficult.

Murong De's elite troops were tied down in the north by Liu Daogui, leaving them free to maneuver in the south.

"Qingzhi, here are twenty Tiger Warriors and a thousand veterans from the Northern Army. Go to Dongguan and give them some practice."

As the brother-in-law, Liu Daogui naturally had to take care of his brother-in-law.

Everyone around him was eager to go, but Shen Qingzhi remained calm and obediently stood guard.

He is sixteen years old this year, only two years younger than Xiao Chengzhi.

Xiao Chengzhi was already a fierce general on the battlefield.

"I accept the order." Shen Qingzhi didn't say much, but a hint of joy and excitement flashed in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)