Hot air balloons were originally created by Guo Ning to attract teenagers to study. Later it was used for military communications and reconnaissance.
However, this product has always had many restrictions on the environment in which it is used. It cannot be used in the morning when it is foggy, it cannot be used in the evening when it is dark, it cannot be used in windy and rainy days, and it cannot be used during marching; and the production level is also somewhat ups and downs. If something goes wrong, it will often end in a tragic human life case. , so it has not spread to all military departments.
At the beginning of last year, the Water Transport Department under the Ministry of Housing proposed to mobilize a number of craftsmen who are familiar with the production, maintenance and use of hot-air balloons to go to Qingzhou to assist the officials of the Water Transport Department in monitoring Huichuan in Qingzhou and sort out the dispatch of the water transport fleet.
Since the founding of the Zhou Dynasty, the domestic situation has been stable and overseas exchanges have been prosperous. Through Tianjin Prefecture, which was Zhigu Village at that time, mountains and seas of goods came in and out. The amount of grain alone was more than three million shi every year.
Compared with sea transportation, Yuhe water transportation, which was originally regarded as the lifeblood of Dajin, was inevitably in decline. Even the Water Transportation Department originally stationed in Tongzhou was moved south to Huichuan, Qingzhou. However, Yuhe is still an important transportation thoroughfare connecting many famous cities in Hebei and Henan to Dafu. After the reduction of grain transportation, private merchant ships quickly filled the gap.
It is much more difficult for the Caosi to manage these private fleets with complicated origins than it was before when they were just in charge of the cantons. However, the Huichuan River mouth is the end point of Hebei's complex water system, where the Yuhe River and the Jiaotuo River merge. The fleet is heading north here, facing Tianjin Prefecture, and it is bound to be unable to compete with the Tianjin Prefecture Transportation Department for the right to pass the river.
As a result, for two consecutive years, the congestion of ships along the Yuhe River was severe. Officials, businessmen, the army, and the people complained repeatedly, making the Cao Si very anxious.
Until one day, Caosi officials suddenly had a whim. They arranged hot air balloons in a narrow and difficult section of the Yuhe River, and ordered special personnel to board it to monitor the traffic conditions of the river. The pipe hooks, holes, and ministers responsible for clearing congestion here have since gained extremely high response speeds, and the passage of ships has been much smoother.
Caosi was overjoyed and immediately allocated money and food to expand the number and scope of use of hot-air balloons. In just one year, 24 groups of hot-air balloons were deployed upstream and downstream of the Yuhe River, with a total of more than 60 hot-air balloons being used in turn. .
Under Cao Si's promotion, special workshops were quickly established, hot air balloons were continuously manufactured, the quality continued to improve, and various required parts and fuels had special specifications and stable supply.
Naturally, money investment is indispensable for this, but no matter how high the investment in hot air balloons is, it is still much lower than building high towers and platforms every dozens of miles. Hot air balloons can be moved and are so flexible to use. At the beginning of this year, some large chambers of commerce also pooled their money to buy hot air balloons for their own use in rivers that Caosi could not take care of.
One day, the Zhou army thought of this matter again, and suddenly discovered that several of the products it had in hand had become outdated products. If you want the latest and best, you can either ask the Water Transport Department to arrange production, or pay to buy it from a specialized workshop.
This made the military feel uncomfortable, and at that time someone proposed to postpone the deployment and think of a solution at home. But at the same time, the Great Zhou Imperial Academy and the Left and Right Division broke the news that the telescope, which took several years of research, could be sold within the designated range.
After Guo Ning learned of the news, he immediately rewarded the relevant officials and craftsmen, and ordered a batch to be purchased and distributed to senior officers and elite scouts of the Zhou army. From this, many officers discovered that a hot air balloon alone was not enough. Paired with a telescope, the hot air balloon immediately became an artifact for monitoring the battlefield!
In this case, there is no room for frugality or delay in this matter.
The guards and the inspection department in front of the palace immediately invested money to restore the configuration of the hot air balloon, and even bought the largest and best one. In addition, under the guise of the emperor's personal army, they grabbed goods in Tianjin Prefecture and took away the telescope from Shanghai Banking Group at a high price that would be distributed to the leaders of each fleet and could see the farthest distance.
At this time, the guards and the subordinate troops from the inspection department in front of the palace arrived on the grassland. When they were about to face the Mongols, they naturally raised the hot air balloon in their hands to monitor the distance. Because it was still far away from the Mongols, and the hot air balloon specially used the so-called "protective color", the generals were sure that there was no risk of being discovered in the short term.
Unexpectedly, Ado also had a telescope and was at the commanding heights on the grassland. After searching carefully for a long time, he finally found the location of the emperor and the imperial army.
After the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, the central official system
The body made slight adjustments to the Jin Kingdom system, but there were no major changes. In the establishment of the Forbidden Army, the Department of Guards and Envoys was omitted, while the Department of Inspection in Front of the Palace and the Department of Guards and Envoys were retained and transformed into a parallel structure.
Of course, in external publicity, it is not mentioned that this move inherited the old practices of Liao and Jin Dynasty, but dates back to the Later Zhou Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, and the emperor's predecessor named Guo was used to explain the matter.
In front of the palace, the Long Xiang army under the Inspection Department had a total strength of more than 10,000, and the bodyguards and soldiers numbered 3,000. The two groups were the elites who took turns to protect the emperor when he went out to patrol the frontiers.
Since these two imperial armies were under the direct control of the emperor, inspections were conducted in front of the palace to inspect the commander of Si Zuo Du and the general of the bodyguard Si Zuo Suzhi. The position of General Si Zuo Suzhi was vacant. The one who daily led the Longxiang Army was Xiao Du, the commander of right capital who was transferred from Liaodong. Moller and his deputy Gao Xin; and the leaders of the bodyguard army are General Ni Yi and his deputy Wanyan Chen.
These four generals include Han'er, Khitan, and Jurchens. Their appointment reflects Guo Ning's determination to unite all ethnic groups in the domain and put an end to internal strife. The four generals are all outstanding and valued by Guo Ning. Their subordinates are of course the most powerful among the hundreds of thousands of Zhou troops.
The emperor's imperial army will not be dispatched in full force. At this time, there are 8,000 Longxiang troops and 2,000 personal guards who are deep into the grassland. But these ten thousand people alone are enough to defeat the main force of the Mongolian army. At least, the officers and soldiers of the Long Xiang Army and the guards generally think so.
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In addition to this mobilization of troops, the three recruiting divisions in the north all sent people to participate.
Zhao Jue's department is responsible for ensuring logistics, not to mention. Qiu Huiluo's subordinates, such as Zhang Shao stationed in Jinlianchuan, Zhao Xuan stationed in Jinshan Mountain, Tian Xiong stationed in Yehuling and others, all accompanied the army; Han Xuan's subordinates, including Pu Su, who came from the east of Pingdi Pine Forest to assist in the battle Lie Meng also took the real female cavalry recruited from the white mountains and black waters, and participated in the pursuit and fighting of light cavalry on the grassland for several days.
With the input of these three recruiting divisions, no matter how many troops the Golden Family has left in the grassland, they will never be a match.
However, since ancient times, when the Central Plains dynasties launched conquests on the grasslands, the problem has never been the victory or defeat of the battle. In the Han Dynasty, Wei Huo conquered the Xiongnu, in the Tang Dynasty, Li Ji conquered the Turks, and even in the Jin Dynasty, starting from Wanyan Zongbi, generations of people conquered the Mongol tribes on the grassland. The most important thing was how to find the base of the grassland tribes and use a decisive battle. The battle determines the situation.
If this cannot be done, the army will fall into the quagmire of thousands of miles of grassland, and no matter how strong the force is, it will be useless; in the end, it will be a good thing to be defeated, and it is not unprecedented for the entire army to be annihilated.
For Dazhou, the current grassland is such a quagmire.
Because of the absence of Genghis Khan, the tribes of thousands of households, which used to be like an arm and a leg, became more and more loose and independent. If the imperial court uses heavy troops to attack, every punch it throws will be meaningless on this thousand-household tribe and that thousand-household tribe.
If you have to use soft and hard means to persuade them one by one, the army may not be able to linger on the grassland for several years.
Regardless of winning or losing, the Zhou Dynasty was rich and had many places to spend money, not to mention that various parts of the Central Plains had been war-torn for a long time and still needed to recuperate. Even if Guo Ning sells his blood, he can't raise such a large military expenditure.
If we insist on force, we will definitely make the same mistake as Daikin. While good news spread frequently on the grasslands, people all over the Central Plains could not bear the exorbitant levies and taxes, and they began to revolt.
On the other hand, there have been frequent commercial exchanges between the grassland and the Central Plains in recent years, and the mentality of many thousands of families on the grassland cannot be hidden from the Zhou court.
If Zhou Dynasty did not send troops, these tribes would not have the interest or courage to become enemies of Zhou Dynasty. They put more energy into competing with each other and maintaining their own interests. On the contrary, the military actions of the Great Zhou Dynasty would cause them to immediately unite and regroup under the Orda tent in Haraholin, which would trigger an increasingly fierce resistance.
If the Mongols were to launch a ruthless attack and march south to plunder without hesitation, even if the Zhou Dynasty could repel them ten times, a single oversight would inevitably lead to serious consequences.
Thinking about it this way, it is actually very difficult to gain any benefit from a war with the grassland.
Perhaps this was the reason why Genghis Khan dared to mobilize the main force of the Mongolian army for the western expedition and put a weak grassland in front of Guo Ning. The current situation of the grassland can just isolate him from Guo Ning's force.
Then, if the big week
Should we be content with the status quo on the border and maintain peace between the two families?
This is even more of a way to die.
Everyone knows that the grassland is the core territory of the Mongol Uluth, and it is impossible for Genghis Khan to give up here! When he unites the huge power gained from the Western Expedition, this terrible conqueror will definitely come back!
If the Great Zhou Dynasty cannot take measures in the grassland in advance, then it will have to watch Genghis Khan regain a rich and loyal grassland, and then re-invade the Central Plains with more powerful force!
The last time the Mongolian army invaded the Central Plains, how many people were killed and how many farmlands, water conservancy projects, villages and cities were destroyed?
Everyone still remembers it.
Almost everyone among the civil servants and generals of the Zhou Dynasty was a survivor of that tragic scene. No one could accept that scene happening again, and no one could accept that the newly born Da Zhou would once again shed blood and fight a powerful enemy in his own hinterland.
Therefore, all the civil and military officials were sure that when the opportunity came, it was inevitable to reach out to the grassland.
Where are the opportunities? How did the opportunity come?
The emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Guo Ning, was an extremely bold person who was extremely good at creating opportunities from scratch. This time, he created the most suitable opportunity.
He gathered all the forces with different ideas on the grassland and gathered them on the stage surrounding Usha Castle in the eastern part of the grassland.
"All units of the Mongolian army are in formation! There are at least 50,000 cavalry!"
A military officer shouted loudly and ran past the soldiers.
This military officer is thin in stature but has a loud voice. Judging from his clothes, he is specifically responsible for climbing on the hot air balloon and looking out.
There are usually three military officials placed in the rattan basket hanging at the bottom of the hot air balloon. One person is responsible for the rise and fall of the hot air balloon, and the other two are responsible for the lookout and write the information obtained from the lookout on the wooden board. An iron ring is nailed to the top of the board, which can be used to fasten the rope holding the hot air balloon and throw it to the ground.
But sometimes the military situation is urgent or complicated, and writing on a wooden board takes too much time and cannot be written clearly. Some soldiers who are extremely confident in their own skills will use iron rings to fasten their belts and ropes at the same time, and climb down directly along the ropes.
Climbing down from a height of tens of feet requires extreme bravery. In the eyes of the people on the ground, those soldiers' iron rings were holding not only their own belts, but also their own heads. Therefore, even the most conceited Forbidden Army officers had nothing but admiration for these officers.
At this moment, the soldier was shouting and running, and the Forbidden Army soldiers who might be in the way moved out of the way.
The soldiers looked sideways at the soldiers running towards the central army, and then whispered to each other: "Coming, coming! The Mongols are all here! Good guys, 50,000 riders!"
