Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 267

The north gate of Haizhou City is called Linhong Gate, because this gate faces Linhongkou.

From a distance, Linhongkou usually looks like a large floodplain, which is covered with reeds in autumn. It is actually an estuary wetland, where the Qiangwei River and several other rivers enter the sea.

The Ming Dynasty built a sluice at Linhongkou. The sluice intercepted the river water at ordinary times to ensure the water volume and ensure the transportation of salt ships. During the tide period, it was to prevent the seawater from flooding back and destroying the farmland. There was even a team of soldiers stationed all year round for defense.

But the main function is to ensure the smooth flow of the canal. The canal is the first. This is a national policy. It has been implemented for hundreds of years. During this period, many contradictions and conflicts have arisen. , so that the farmers have no crops. When there is a flood, the canal is unwilling to discharge the flood, and the fields still have no crops.

For the Ming Dynasty, ensuring the smooth flow of the canal was more important than ensuring the agricultural output in the Jianghuai area, because since the Yellow River seized the Huaihe River into the sea in the Song Dynasty, the Jianghuai area has become a severely flooded and drought-stricken area. The river bed here pushes up, pushes the coastline into the sea, and often breaks through. The Jianghuai area has lost its status as an important place in the south of the Yangtze River during the Tang and Song Dynasties.

On the contrary, the area south of the Yangtze River has been reclaimed, and the area centered on Suzhou has become a new land of fish and rice, replacing the Jianghuai area. The development of Huguang in the middle and late Ming Dynasty made Huguang the world's granary. Rice grains from Huguang have to go through the Grand Canal to be transported to Beijing and other northern regions.

Therefore, compared with the agricultural output of the Jianghuai River, the canal is obviously more important, so the purpose of various water conservancy projects is not to prevent flooding and conservation, but to become a thoroughfare for ships.

Not to mention the sea estuary like Linhongkou, there are sluices built on the canals leading to the sea from salt shops like Bianjiapu.

However, the sluice gates of those canals are generally closed, unless they are opened when sea water is to be diverted.

Yang Chao stood on the north wall of Haizhou City. This is a location on the west side of the North Gate. This location is very special because there is a temple behind it called Yuwang Temple. Yuwang is the great Yu who controlled the water. Gong is said to be a sacrifice to the water god. There are such temples all over the country. Although the scale is not as large as temples like Guandi Temple and Yuewang Temple, they are blooming everywhere in the south.

The Yuwang Temple in Haizhou City was built on the west side of the north gate, with the purpose of using the power of Yu the Great to deter the North Linhongkou and prevent floods.

Next to the Yuwang Temple is a canal. In fact, there are canals in Haizhou City, just like the Qinhuai River in Nanjing. Most cities in the south of the Yangtze River, as long as conditions permit, generally open canals. After all, smart ancients have long discovered , The opening of a canal is very important for the transportation of goods. Even if the government doesn't care about the convenience of merchants, it needs to consider the guarantee of huge amounts of supplies.

The canals of Haizhou City lead to the four city gates in the southeast and northwest, and finally flow from the west gate into the Qiangwei River, connecting the Qiangwei River with the inner city, and forming a pier market on the canal bridge in the city center, known as Shiqiao. .

So as long as you take a boat from the city, you can go directly outside the city. Unfortunately, the resourceful Zhizhou also sealed the water gate, saying that it was to prevent the enemy from sneaking in.

After Yang Chao wasted a lot of eloquence, he finally got through with Song Lian, dug open the water gate of the north gate again, and dredged the canal.

At this time, on the canal at the foot of Yang Chao, there were several ships, and on them were slightly panicked soldiers.

Naturally, these were not Yang Chao's soldiers, but a group of soldiers who were supposed to guard the gate at Linhong.

And now their task is to go to Linhongkou again, there are captive soldiers outside the city, so it's no wonder they are not afraid.

Fortunately, Yang Chao sent someone to protect them, otherwise they wouldn't get out even if they were beaten to death.

Even threats and intimidation finally got these people to obey!

Three days have passed since the mountain god got angry. Yang Chao has built three small boats, which can carry a hundred people to set off, but the captive soldiers have not taken any action. The water gate reopened and set off.

Watching the boat go out from the water gate, appear in the moat outside the city, go all the way to the northwest, and finally enter the Qiangwei River. During this period, the barracks of the captive soldiers were closed, and not even a single horse came out. Yang Chao returned with peace of mind. in the city.

Linhongkou is less than ten miles north of Haizhou City. Although these small boats are not fast, they are enough to go back and forth in one day. These people should be able to come back tonight. If the plan is successful, the captive soldiers will probably have to move again. The premise But they still don't plan to retreat.

The boat left, and Haizhou City was still running as before, but the power of a big explosion was gathering in the calm.

If the captive soldiers could not be repulsed before the explosion, Yang Chao thought he could not control it, but a big chaos was inevitable. When he thought that he had to suppress the civilians with his own hands, Yang Chao couldn't help but feel a little dark.

I inspected some workshops in the city. Almost all the handicraft workshops in the city are now serving the military, and the burst of energy is quite huge.

Anyway, pieces of iron armor are constantly being made, blunderbusses are being made one after another, long guns are being made continuously, and countless military supplies are being manufactured continuously. If casting cannons is really time-consuming and labor-intensive, Yang Chao would not hesitate to ask Haizhou Help cast the cannon.

Anyway, apart from food, other materials in Haizhou can’t be consumed, such as iron and wood are very cheap, or after the food is under unified management, almost all other materials have depreciated. Daring to take it away by force, Yang Chao sometimes found that the attitude of these civil servants towards common people's property was no different from that of military commanders, as long as it was necessary and had an excuse, they would take it away without hesitation.

But Yang Chao did get the most benefits. Now he has received a thousand bird guns, and the number is still increasing. Now he can increase at least [-] guns every day. The long guns have accumulated [-]. There are still [-] stocks in stock, and [-] collars for the iron armor, but Yang Chao didn't equip Min Zhuang, and put all of them in his own warehouse. There is no doubt that once he leaves Haizhou, these are Yang Chao's private goods.

I don't know whether it was intentional or not, Song Lian seemed to forget all this, and let Yang Chao continue to grab all kinds of military supplies from Haizhou.

Maybe he acquiesced to regard these as Yang Chao's military expenses.

Linhongkou is like a huge mirror, and the sandbars are like pearls dotted on the mirror.

A meandering chain connects the pearls in series.

Unlike the necklace, the chain is made of stone, a complex dike.

Extending from both banks, passing through the sandbar at the mouth of the river, it completely separates the mouth of the river from the sea more than ten miles away. It has to be said that just by this sea wall, one can feel the raging ambition of the dynasty that built him in the first place.

I heard that the construction of the seawall began in the Song Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty would rather not build the city wall, but has been maintaining the seawall. The purpose is to protect the salt-producing Huaibei coastal area.

Three small boats appeared here, compared to these buildings, they were insignificant, like water flies lying on the water.

The people on the boat were completely relieved, because they didn't meet Tartars along the way, and arrived here safely, and the Tartars didn't even occupy this place.

Soon they appeared next to seawalls, where there were special stairs for them to go up, and there were even sturdy buildings built on them, and there were exquisite levers inside, allowing them to put down pieces of dam stones.

As the thick iron chain slid, one piece of the dam rock slipped from the reserved position, instantly stuck the bottom, blocking the flow of water to the sea.

That's right, their purpose is not to open the sea dam to release water, because the sea wall in front of the station has always been half-opened, and because there has been neither flood nor tide, the dam rock has not blocked the sea dam, and now they want to What I did was to seal the dam stones.

The soldiers protecting Linhongkou may not be well-trained soldiers, but they are indeed qualified hydraulic workers who care for the sea dam. In their hands, one after another dam stones were obediently manipulated, and they walked through one after another dam embankment until they were busy. In the afternoon, the mission was finally successfully completed.

Then they start their journey back.

The boat glides on the calm water, the dense reeds on the shore have been submerged, and the fish in the water jumped to the surface excitedly.

Yang Chao checked the situation of the workshops for a day, mainly focusing on the blacksmith and carpenter workshops. The blacksmith workshops are naturally very important to produce military supplies, but with the supervision of the person in charge, Chen Jin, the quality has always been good, and the carpenter workshops are busy. wooden boat.

Regarding the requirements for these wooden boats, Yang Chao didn't ask how strong they were. The only requirement was that the draft should be shallow, and that they could sail easily even in water three or five feet deep. Well, so the carpenters have little choice but to build punts, which they are somewhat sorry for.

Because Haizhou is close to the sea, the craftsmen here are still capable of building sea-going ships. They have enough wood to build three-masted ships, but now it is a waste to use them to build flat-bottomed boats.

But this is the military, never considering efficiency and cost. For the military, being able to win is the most efficient and the smallest cost. Once it loses, it is the most inefficient and the biggest cost.

Since Haizhou has excellent craftsmen, Yang Chao is not too worried about the quality of the boat, and went to see the training situation.

That's right, even though the captive soldiers seem to have given up their strong attack, the training of the civilians in Haizhou City has not stopped. Yang Chao found that many of these civilians who have been baptized in bloody battles have the conditions to become elite soldiers. For those who see blood, training is not a problem, and those who have seen blood are the most precious.

Yang Chao already has the intention to recruit a group of thousands of troops to supplement him. He believes that after he wins this battle, it shouldn't be a problem to move around a bit. Moreover, he has made such a great contribution, and the troops to be replenished in the future will not be just one The Qian Corps is likely to be the entire Xinjiangkou camp.

The soldiers who finally came back from Linhongkou asked Yang Chao to finish his inspection in the city and received them enthusiastically. Then, regardless of whether it was his own soldiers or the sailors guarding the gate, Yang Chao gave 100 taels of silver to each of them. If the siege of Haizhou can be completely lifted, then what these people did today is the most important thing, and it can be counted as the first achievement!

(End of this chapter)