The journey from Koriyama-juku to Naganohara Town of Takasaki Domain is a long one. Although the distance between the two places is only more than 500 miles from the map, the traffic conditions on the island country's roads are too backward. Not to mention Amiao and the others, even if the daimyo went to Edo to attend the meeting, he would often be delayed on the road due to traffic problems.
No, the group encountered heavy rain two days after setting off. They stayed at the campsite for one night. When preparing to set off the next day, the guide learned from the townspeople that the river five miles ahead had swollen due to flash floods and could not pass.
Li Wenqing didn't believe this evil, so he asked the village chief of Suchang Town to lead the way and go to check the situation in person. When I arrived at the place, I was dumbfounded. I saw that the water depth in the originally passable place was more than 1.5 meters, and the current was so fast that it was obviously impossible to pass.
"Where's the boat? Are there any boats around here?"
Among the accompanying guards were naturalized residents from Mutsu. After listening to the other party's translation, the village chief explained embarrassedly: "Sir, we are in the mountains and there are no boats."
Li Wenqing asked: "Then what would you do if you encountered this situation before?"
"We can get over it when the water recedes."
"How long do we have to wait?"
"It's really hard to say. The water recedes when the rain stops. According to past experience, it may be two or three days, maybe five or six days. I'm really sorry for delaying Mr. Tianchao's schedule!"
After receiving such an ambiguous answer, Li Wenqing rolled his eyes helplessly. He had no choice but to return to the dormitory and explain the situation to everyone. No problem, just wait.
Although A Miao and the others' trip was delayed, the village chief of Shuchang Town was secretly happy. Even though A Miao and his party were only about thirty people, they still spent a lot of money on food and accommodation. Everyone lives in middle-class and upper-class houses, and the rent for each room per day is 180 to 200 Wen. In addition, there are more than fifty horses, and the supply of horse feed costs a lot of money.
However, what makes the townspeople even more happy is yet to come. These people in the guard platoon have either left the island country for many years, or they have never been here. I had nothing to do but found something to kill time, so I went to hang out at various shops in the town. Good guy! They didn't buy anything but wine, and they didn't let go of any other local specialties, refreshments, or snacks. When I checked out, I was given shiny silver coins, which made the boss crazy.
You must know that in these days under the shogunate's rule, the town's emphasis was not to open for half a year, and to stay open for half a year. The annual attendance report is its main source of income, and the rent for ordinary travelers is not enough to live between their teeth. To be able to meet a group of people from Beihai Town who were so generous, the townspeople benefited from it from top to bottom, and they would laugh out loud in their dreams at night. They wish that such a distinguished guest could stay for five, six, seven or eight days.
Li Wenqing had no interest in visiting the shops. He would get up early every morning to box in the yard and get sweaty. Then he would go back to the house and take the trouble to dismantle and clean his pistol. Fortunately, his wife, Chen Jishan's sister, also came here. Although the couple did not live together, they always had the opportunity to talk and even have sex, so they would not be too depressed.
A Miao was also anxious. Zhao Xin said before she came to the island country that after paying homage to her relatives this time, the two of them would finish things when they got back. Although Zhao Xin was a bit sentimental and couldn't give her a status or a grand wedding banquet, she didn't care. No matter it is Shen Xuan, Wang Zhenyi or Tang Xiao, she feels that she is the only one who can accompany Zhao Xin until the end.
"Duofu, what do you think he is doing now? I miss him. Do you think he misses me too?"
Hearing the "slave" question, Duofu, who was lying in A Miao's arms, closed his eyes and groaned. A Miao sighed and said, "Oh, I don't even understand what I said."
Do you think I don't understand? This king has a group of wives and concubines, okay? The person you asked about may be wandering around now.
Well, Zhao Xin is indeed wandering outside, but he is not wandering around.
After inspecting the steel plant in Khabarovsk at the end of May, he took the guard company aboard three modified armed speedboats and headed west along the Yangtze River, then turned into the Songhua River and passed through Sanxing, Hulan, Alchukha and Boli. Dune and other places, they landed to inspect the spring plowing and sowing conditions in various places. By the time he arrived at Linjiangmen Pier outside Jilin City, it was already mid-June.
Linjiangmen Wharf used to be the site of the Manchu Shuiying and Shipyard, and is located outside the west gate on the southwest side of Jilin City. After the Northern Navy captured Jilin City, the camp of Shuiying was transformed into the garrison of the garrison.
Because he had been notified in advance, when Zhao Xin disembarked, all officers above the garrison regiment lined up at the dock to greet him. The leader is his former guard company commander and current Jilin Guard Regiment leader Chen Jishan.
"salute!"
Zhao Xin returned the gift and greeted Chen Jishan and others one by one with a smile. Whenever he shook hands with the officers present, without waiting for the other party to introduce himself, he called out his name, which surprised and delighted the officers.
It is said that officers above the Beihai navy battalion must attend short-term training courses hosted by Zhao Xin before being promoted, and before each class starts, he must read the resumes of the trained officers with photos over and over again and write them down in his notebook. After he memorized it, he even asked Shen Xuan and A Miao to help block the text and guess the name only by looking at the photo. Therefore, despite the fact that there are hundreds of officers at the battalion and regiment level of the Beihai Navy, Zhao Xin will know who they are as long as he sees them and can accurately tell their number.
Zhao Xin asked himself that he did not have the gift of photographic memory, so he could only use stupid methods to do this without any opportunism.
"How's it going? I made you a contractor when you first came here. You don't blame me, do you?" Zhao Xin patted Chen Jishan on the shoulder and continued looking towards the north of the city: "Has the wooden city wall to the north been demolished?"
Chen Jishan said: "It was all demolished. The wood was sent to the brick kiln for firewood."
Zhao Xin asked again: "How are you doing with the publicity to the residents in the city?"
The deputy leader in charge of missionary work said: "There are broadcasts every day in the city and Guanxiang, twice in the morning and afternoon. The people didn't understand it at first, but later they understood the truth and supported it. Many people even took the initiative to go to the brick factories outside the city to find it. If you work hard, you can wait to live in a big brick house with tiles."
Zhao Xin smiled and nodded: "Before winter this year, Jilin City must complete at least half of the house renovations. If there is a fire, I will only ask you." After saying that, he turned to the officers on the side with a serious face. He said: "The same goes for you."
"Yes. Promise to complete the mission."
What they were talking about was the comprehensive reconstruction project of Jilin City. The reason for major changes is because local fires are too frequent. Basically, there is a small fire every two years and a big fire every four or five years. From 1790 to 1791, fires broke out in Jilin City under the Manchu rule for two consecutive years, burning down more than 8,000 houses. If it were not for the abundant local timber resources, tens of thousands of people would be displaced.
The former Jilin general Hengxiu even followed the advice of a staff member who knew Feng Shui and had someone build a "fire avoidance map" on Xuantian Ridge outside the north gate. He tried to suppress the fire with the Kan hexagram representing water. It was simply ridiculous.
After Jilin City was captured last year, the Civil Affairs Bureau quickly sent people to inspect. They found that wooden buildings accounted for more than 99% in the city and Guanxiang; not only the main streets were paved with logs or wooden boards, but even the gutters on both sides of the streets They are also always inlaid with wooden boards. In addition, except for the government grain storage warehouses, all other private houses, large and small, are made of wooden boards as walls, and the roofs are covered with bark or thatch. Because they need to burn fires for heating in winter, residents usually store a large amount of firewood in their yards.
That's it, why not wait for it to burn? !
The team responsible for the inspection wrote a report after returning, recommending a major renovation of the entire Jilin City. Otherwise, there is no telling when there will be another fire next year, and it will be too late to cry. In fact, not only Jilin City, but also Alchukha, Lalin, and Dashiwula City have the same problem. However, because the population is not as large as Jilin City, the fire problem is not as prominent.
So after the beginning of spring, the engineering team sent by the Civil Affairs Bureau selected a site outside the city; when the ground thawed in April, they began to build the required large-scale brick factory. In addition, a brick kiln alone is not enough. There must also be a supporting charcoal factory or even a coal factory. If there is a project, there must be people to work, and the large number of Qing troops who have nothing to do because of surrender will have something to do. When you have money on hand, you have to spend it, buy grain and cloth, and support your family. The originally bleak market in Jilin City also prospered.
Zhao Xin stayed in Jilin City for five days. In addition to inspecting spring plowing, he also inspected the brick factory under construction accompanied by Chen Jishan. The most important projects of the entire brick factory are the two deep oval pits for burning bricks and the 20-meter-high chimney. The local people were amazed after hearing about it. Many people even came to the construction site to watch.
On June 20, Zhao Xin left Jilin City, went south by boat, passed through the Songhua River and transferred to the Huifa River. After another three days of land trek, he arrived at the base camp of the Northern Navy's Eastern Front Command, Weiyuan, on June 27. fort.
This is commonly known as "wicker edge". The so-called side wall is not a city wall at all, but an earth embankment with a width of three feet and a height of three feet. On the embankment, three willow sticks are inserted every five feet, and each willow stick is connected with a rope to the horizontal willow branches. It is also called "inserting willow knots". rope". On the outside of the earthen embankment, a deep trench was dug to prevent pedestrians from crossing.
As soon as he saw Deng Fei, he asked with a smile: "Have you brought everything?"
"That is required."
"Okay, I'm eagerly looking forward to your arrival so that I can wait for the rice to be cooked."
"Has the troop mobilization been completed? Has the mission letter been distributed?"
"Confirm your arrival time. There was a mobilization meeting yesterday."
"Well, I'll go to the warehouse in the evening."
"learn."
The two of them spoke like code words, but they were actually talking about the summer and autumn battle plans of the Eastern Front troops. This is a huge combat plan drafted by the Northern Navy Staff Department, revised many times, and finally signed and confirmed by Zhao Xin. It mobilizes up to 14 regiments of troops, including migrant workers, etc., and the number of mobilized people is as high as 50,000. Multiple people. In addition to the garrison regiments, garrison battalions and some new recruits who stayed in various places, the Northern Navy came out in full force this time.
In more than ten days, the Eastern Front troops will dispatch a huge force of eight regiments to launch a general offensive against the Qing army entrenched outside the Pass in a vast area stretching from Liaohe River in the north to Daling River in the south. This time, Zhao Xin wants to completely eliminate the Qing army outside the pass.
According to the battle deployment, the eastern front troops will first launch an attack with six regiments on Changtu, Kaiyuan, Tieling and other places south of the Willow Border Wall, and then go straight to Shengjing; secondly, they will attack Lu Shoushan Station stationed in Hunchun. The Ministry dispatched two regiments to take a boat from Mokuowei and go around the peninsula. They attacked Lushun first, then Fuzhou, Xiongyue, Gaiping, and Niuzhuang, and finally captured Jinzhou and forced other prefectures and counties in the inland areas of Liaodong. surrender.
In order to cooperate with the offensive outside the pass, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties were unable to transfer most of the troops within the pass to the north. Four regiments will also be dispatched from the Jiaodong area. Under the command of Sheng Haizhou, they will attack Laizhou, Qingzhou, and Wuding and recover them in one fell swoop. Among them, Wuding Prefecture is in the northernmost part of Shandong, bordering the Bohai Bay to the east, Tianjin Prefecture to the north, and Jinan Prefecture to the south. It is only more than 500 miles away from the capital. Once it is captured, the Qing government will be very uncomfortable.
The closer the war comes, the calmer the atmosphere will become. Although Zhao Xin and Deng Fei were very careful and even brought military supplies personally to avoid attracting the attention of Manchu and Qing spies, the Qing troops in Changtu and Kaiyuan still smelled something unusual. . The first is that there are many more drones flying in the sky than in previous days, and the second is that the activities of the North Navy reconnaissance team are very frequent.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty has been fighting the Beihai Navy for so many years. Although it was a disastrous defeat every time, their experience points have been increasing. They are extremely familiar with the behavior of the Beihai Navy before taking action.
Release the strange bird! Detectives are out! Then came the cannon blast! When he woke up, his soldiers had already arrived with repeating muskets.
So two days later, the urgent reports from Changtu and Kaiyuan were delivered to Shengjing almost at the same time. Five days later, the military aircraft office in the Old Summer Palace received a six-hundred-mile urgent order from Shengjing General Shu Liang late at night.
In the past, emergency military reports from various places were sent directly to Qianlong's imperial court. No matter day or night, the eunuch had to be woken up even if he fell asleep. However, since the spring of this year, the eighty-three-year-old Qianlong has become more and more energetic. Sometimes he is sober and sometimes confused, and he is unable to deal with many things. Therefore, He Shen, who has the power and monopoly, makes his own decisions. All memorials must be reviewed by him first, and then Depending on the urgency of the matter, he shall submit it in person.
He Shen did not go back to his garden today, but stayed at the duty house in Guajiatun. He slept very lightly, and Liu Quan woke up as soon as he entered the room. He turned over and sat up, and saw Liu Quan holding a letter in his hand under the candlelight, and asked casually: "Where did it come from?"
Liu Quan asked his son Liu Yin to hand over a hot towel to Heshen to wipe his face. He bowed and said, "Sir, there is an urgent report from Shengjing for six hundred miles. The envelope has a purple seal of 'Express' and three chicken feathers pinned to the seal. It was just brought in a stick of incense ago."
"What time is it?"
"It's only the second day of Chou's junior high school."
He Shen took the hot towel from Liu Quan's son Liu Yin and wiped his face. Then he took the letter from Liu Quan's hand and sat down under the lamp with his clothes on to open it. Because he had just woken up, his face was expressionless at first, but after taking a few glances at the memorial, his expression dimmed and his face became gloomy and pale. He put down the letter, stood up and walked a few steps back and forth in the room. He looked up to the sky and sighed, shaking his head and saying, "I will do whatever I fear the most! I need to change my clothes and go see the emperor."
"Master! The emperor is still asleep at this hour, why not"
Before Liu Quan finished speaking, He Shen raised his hand to stop him. He approached him and whispered softly: "Zhao Ni is going to attack Sheng Jing."
"Ah!!" Liu Quan was so frightened that he was speechless for a long time.
(End of chapter)
