After waiting for five days at Wushan Pass, news from the Xiangyang camp finally came.
Bai Mengyang ordered Shangguan Ming to take Ji Hui, Qiao Kangquan, and the remaining 60,000 troops under his command to join him at the Xiangyang camp.
When these people arrive in Xiangyang, Bai Mengyang's army will increase to about 200,000. Among them, there are no less than one hundred thousand elites. Six more innate masters are enough to compete with the Zhou and Liang countries.
The land of Xichuan County will be temporarily handed over to Lu Yuan to maintain local security and stability. It will be handed over after the war is over.
As for the matter in Hanzhong County that Lu Yuan was concerned about, Marquis Wu'an also made a decision and asked Lu Yuan to lead his troops northward to resist the Zhou people in Hanzhong County.
Among them, Bai Mengyang wrote sincerely in the letter: "Now that the Liang people have come east, the battle for Xiangyang is no longer possible. The confrontation between Zhou and Yue should end with peace talks.
But those who want to negotiate for peace are just promoting the talks.
Therefore, I predict that this time the Zhou people will mobilize heavy troops to go south in an attempt to regain Hanzhong County, and even capture Xichuan County again to threaten my flanks.
Therefore, the land in Hanzhong must be heavily guarded.
The west side of our army is in the hands of the King of Changsha. I hope that the King will give a serious warning and keep the Zhou people away from Hanzhong County. "
At this time, the Liang people threatened Xiangyang, so neither Zhou nor Yue dared to fight.
But Hanzhong County was thousands of miles away, blocked by mountains and rivers, and the Liang people were beyond their reach and couldn't intervene at all.
Therefore, Xiangyang County cannot fight, but Hanzhong County does not have these problems.
Therefore, the focus of the next game between the two countries is the gains and losses of Hanzhong County and even Xichuan County.
If the Yue State can defend Hanzhong County, it will naturally have the upper hand in the subsequent negotiations.
And if the Zhou people recapture Hanzhong County, then under this threat, the Yue State will naturally be constrained in every aspect of the negotiations, and must try to give up a large amount of the benefits it has swallowed.
Maybe in this Northern Expedition, except for Tianmen Mansion and Xichuan County, everything else that happened overnight will be vomited out again, and the two countries will restore their original boundaries.
Although Bai Mengyang didn't say this explicitly, Lu Yuan had already seen the meaning behind it when he saw the letter he wrote.
So.
Although Lu Yuan was a little dissatisfied with the fact that the other party left him alone to fight against Zhou's main force, he didn't say anything.
Because the truth is obvious.
Now it is Lu Yuan who occupies the territory of Hanzhong County and the western part of Xiangyang County. As for the imperial court, up to now, it has only occupied the three southern mansions of Xiangyang County.
When it comes to harvest, it is clear at a glance who is bigger and who is smaller.
Therefore, the imperial court could spit out the Nansan Prefecture of Xiangyang County, which would not cause much loss to them.
But can Lu Yuan accept vomiting out the Xisanfu of Xiangyang County and the land of Hanzhong County?
For him, this is simply throwing away half of the territory he currently controls and all the results of the Northern Expedition. This is simply unacceptable.
Therefore, in this battle of Hanzhong County, he had to fight even if he couldn't do it.
If he doesn't block the Zhou people, then he should be prepared to lose all his money this time and throw away all the results of the victory.
…
"They are really monkey-like vampires!"
Lu Yuan threw away the letter, cursed, and then sighed, and ordered someone to send the army to prepare to set off for Hanzhong County.
Then he ordered people to take custody of the prisoners, and obtained 50,000 Zhou warriors and thousands of Qiang prisoner prisoners from Yuzhong Mansion and Wushan Pass. They were all escorted back to the south of the Yangtze River for reorganization.
Speaking of prisoners, I have to mention here that Lu Yuan gained a lot of prisoners during the Northern Expedition.
In the battle of Guining Mansion, after beheading Gui Lianyun, Lu Yuan attacked the city and captured 40,000 Zhou warriors.
Then Xiangyang County ambushed the Zhou soldiers and horses who fled from Dangyang, and captured more than 10,000 people.
When he was in Hanzhong County, he also captured thousands of county soldiers.
Including the more than 50,000 prisoners in Xichuan County at this time.
Since the entire Northern Expedition, Lu Yuan had captured as many as 110,000 elite soldiers.
This is an extremely terrifying amount.
You must know that before the Northern Expedition, including the Miao soldiers and local county soldiers, the total number of soldiers and horses under Lu Yuan's command was only about 170,000.
But now, after the Northern Expedition and all the previous wars, he only has more than 80,000 soldiers left, including 30,000 Miao soldiers, 10,000 prefecture soldiers, and a total of about 130,000 soldiers.
There are now over 110,000 prisoners, and they are all elite soldiers. If these people cannot be controlled and digested well, they will become a hidden danger under Lu Yuan's rule, and they may explode at any time.
Therefore, in order to watch over these prisoners, he divided the few remaining soldiers on hand into 10,000, and arranged the task of escorting the prisoners back to Jiangnan.
After these people send the prisoners back, they will rest and recuperate while guarding the prisoners with the 40,000 soldiers and 10,000 prefecture and county soldiers left behind in the south of the Yangtze River.
With these 60,000 people in Jiangnan, they could barely maintain local stability, but at the same time they were optimistic about the 110,000 prisoners.
After dividing these 10,000 people, Lu Yuan only had less than 20,000 Changsha Kingdom tribe members left. There are also nearly 10,000 rebels and more than 30,000 civilian warriors, totaling 70,000 people.
After making these adjustments.
Before setting off, he ordered Zhou Qing to be the temporary commander-in-chief of Xichuan, leading 10,000 troops and horses. He was temporarily responsible for the security and stability of Xichuan County, and at the same time mobilized grain and grass to support the front line of Hanzhong County.
In addition, he also made Zhou Qing responsible for selling off the land and property held by the local government in various places in Xichuan County, as well as inspecting the land and property seized by the Zhou and Qiang people along the way, and collecting the wealth that Li Xiong and the Zhou people had hoarded over the years. All goods are transported to Changsha.
At the same time, we began to relocate the household registrations of those who had joined the army and civilians, and moved them back to Dongting County for resettlement.
After so many years, although the Western Shu Kingdom has experienced wars for a long time, the local people and even the gentry are extremely tired and poor.
However, the Qiang and Zhou people, as rulers, and even local officials, became rich and wealthy during this series of liquidations and plunders.
When he captured Jinguan City in Xichuan County before, Lu Yuan directly plundered more than 20 million taels of gold, silver, jewelry, and various other goods from the treasury in the city and the inner treasury of the palace.
According to the officials who were in charge of the treasury, among the two treasuries, the originally hoarded goods were three to four times more than they are now.
However, the Shu Kingdom had been using troops for many years, and the place was dilapidated and poor. In order to support the army, it had to spend a lot of money to buy weapons and food from the Zhou Kingdom and the Yi Kingdoms in the southwest.
After the Zhou army arrives, they still need to be rewarded and provided with money and food, which is another huge expenditure.
After doing this several times, there was only so much money left in the city's treasury.
After Lu Yuan heard this, he couldn't help but secretly gasp. He was almost moved and wanted to imitate Li Xiong.
But think about what the other party did, which was to wipe out Xichuan's family fortune at once, and to exchange for such wealth with the current situation of the entire Xichuan County being in decline.
As for Dongting County in Changsha Kingdom, although it has just gone through war, as local production gradually recovers, officials at all levels gradually replenish it and have begun to steadily provide themselves with sufficient taxes.
Nowadays, not counting Tianmen Mansion, there are one county and nine mansions in the south. Lu Yuan can collect more than 5 million taels of taxes from the local government every year. And with the gradual recovery of local production, the amount of these broken silver will increase year by year.
According to Sun Siwen and Cui Changqing's estimates, when Dongting County returns to its peak before the war, the annual tax revenue will reach more than 8 million taels.
With such wealth, a ten-year rest would be equivalent to Li Xiong's income from plundering the entire Xichuan.
After the other party looted, Xichuan County was in ruins. It could not recover for decades or hundreds of years, and it was destroyed in one go.
But Dongting County has a steady stream of water. The longer it goes, the better the business will be and the more money and food it can provide.
Which of the two is better or worse is clear at a glance.
Therefore, Lu Yuan only had a heartbeat, abandoned this idea, and then began to happily accept Li Xiong's inheritance.
In addition to cash, Li Xiong also has a large amount of other properties, worth even ten times more than cash.
After all, the emperor of Xishu directly slaughtered the entire Xichuan martial arts world, and wiped out a large number of local wealthy gentry.
It can be said that the ruling class of Xichuan County was completely wiped out.
The wealth gained in this way is naturally astonishing.
Even the current silver is worth 60 to 70 million taels. If you include other industries such as antique calligraphy and painting, shop fields, etc. that are difficult to sell, then the harvest can reach hundreds of millions of taels.
Such an astonishing wealth is naturally extremely tempting.
At this time, Lu Yuan was immigrating a large number of people from Hanzhong County, and it was expected that more than one million people would be relocated, which was equivalent to more than half, or even more than half, of the actual population of his Changsha Kingdom.
Such a large-scale immigration requires money and food spent on the way. After the immigrants arrive, redistributing land to them, distributing seeds and farm tools, relocating houses, and helping them resume production is an effort that will last at least one or two years.
The money spent one after another is like a flood that cannot be stopped.
Judging from the expenses Lu Yuan had spent on accepting refugees before, it would cost at least more than 10,000 taels of silver to accept one million refugees.
As an immigrant, he has to be responsible for the expenses of those people along the way.
From Hanzhong County to Dongting County, the journey is more than a thousand miles, and even to the south of Dongting County, the journey is as much as two thousand miles.
For such a long distance, just eating and drinking on the way is a huge expense.
It is conservatively estimated that when the immigration work is completed, the expenditure will even reach 20 million taels.
With Lu Yuan's current financial situation, it is not impossible to come up with such a large sum of money.
After all, he has nearly 20 million taels of silver in his account, and his annual fiscal revenue is more than 5 million taels.
Taking all these out can barely fill this hole.
But the problem is that after filling the immigration hole, Lu Yuan's money to support the army is gone.
He maintained an army of 100,000 people, and the military salary alone cost six million taels of silver a year. Including other additional expenses, the amount is seven to eight million taels.
If you are going out to fight, like now, it will be more than 10 million taels.
How could it withstand such a huge expense without the support of the small treasury of 20 million taels?
In fact, Lu Yuan no longer had 20 million taels of silver on hand.
Because from December last year to the end of March, he had spent almost three million taels of silver on the Northern Expedition for four months.
This is because there are 60,000 Miao troops in the army, and the expenses of these people are relatively low. If replaced by normal soldiers, the cost can reach four million taels.
But now it seems that this war is not over yet, and may continue for several months and a half, or even longer.
By the time the fight was over, Lu Yuan conservatively estimated that it would cost eight million taels of silver.
In this case, during the war, including the 40,000 troops he left in Jiangnan, the annual expenditure would be 10 million taels.
Therefore, after the war is over, Lu Yuan's small treasury will only have ten million taels of silver left at most, which will not be enough to cover the cost of immigration.
Therefore, his original plan was actually to make a fortune in Hanzhong County and Xichuan County, and supplement his immigration expenses through the seizures in these two places.
At this point, it seems that with Li Xiong squeezing out the entire Xichuan harvest, let alone filling the hole of immigration expenses. Even after filling in the holes, there is still a lot of money left.
Even including the harvest in Hanzhong County, the money can be even more.
"I just don't know how much money was finally seized?"
Lu Yuan was thinking like this, and there were already large armies surrounding him, and they were already on their way to Hanzhong County.
When going to Hanzhong County this time, Lu Yuan did not follow the path back to Xichuan. Instead, he chose the road from Guining Mansion, Fangling Mansion, and Xicheng Mansion in Xiangyang County, and entered Hanzhong County from this line.
The reason why I chose this route is mainly because I wanted to see what happened to the immigrants who migrated from Hanzhong County along the way.
At the same time, he also led the army to show off his power in the Three Prefectures, using the power of victory to deter those ambitious locals who were not stable, so as to ensure the stability of the Three Prefectures.
A great victory was enough to temporarily put an end to all instability in the local area.
On the first day of April in the eighth year of Hongdao's reign, Lu Yuan led an army of 60,000 people to the north and passed through Guining, Fangling and Xicheng. The local Zhou people were shocked when they saw the victorious army coming.
Wherever you go, you surrender.
On April 20, the army arrived at Hanzhong County. On the 25th, they arrived at Nanzheng, Hanzhong County.
…
Inside Nanzheng County Mansion.
After three months of absence, Lu Yuan finally saw his queen again.
The two were affectionate for a while, and after saying some thoughtful words, the friendship in their hearts was over, and they finally started talking about business.
“Your Majesty, in the past three months, we have divided our forces to attack, and all the prefectures and counties in Hanzhong have been captured by now.
Then, according to the king's strategy, the household registrations were counted, the people were relocated, the treasury was searched, and the property was collected from the local wealthy families.
After hard work in March, 150,000 households and 800,000 people have been successfully relocated to Dongting County.
In addition, an inventory of Hanzhong County's treasury revealed that the money and grain that had been hoarded here to supply Xiangyang and Wushan were obtained, with more than 5 million taels of silver, 3 million shi of grain, and more than 10,000 pieces of various other ordnance.
Later, he collected military donations from large local households and received five million taels of silver and one million dan of grain.
At the same time, some land properties controlled by the government were sold, and more than one million taels of silver were obtained from this project.
Based on the above count, our army gained twelve million taels of silver, four million dan of grain, and a lot of ordnance during the attack on Hanzhong.
In this battle with the Zhou people in Hanzhong, there is no need to transport food and grass from the rear. The captured money and food alone can support our army of hundreds of thousands and we have been fighting the Zhou people in Hanzhong for two years. "
With a little credit and pride, Lan Cai'er reported to Lu Yuan the results of her work over the past few months.
After hearing her words, Lu Yuan couldn't help but be overjoyed, and immediately praised: "Okay, she is indeed my queen. This contribution can be regarded as the first contribution in the Battle of Hanzhong."
Although the harvest in Hanzhong County is far inferior to that in Xichuan County.
But this was because Lu Yuan didn't want to do anything here and make his reputation as bad as Li Xiong's.
Otherwise, if we start looting this place, we won’t dare to mention too much. It’s easy to get 50 to 60 million taels of silver.
But in this way, Lu Yuan's reputation here and even in the world will be ruined.
Compared with the money, one's own reputation is naturally more important.
And just like Lan Cai'er said.
Even the current harvest is enough to support Lu Yuan to maintain a 100,000-strong fighting force in Hanzhong County for two years.
Not to mention, of the 110,000 soldiers and horses he currently has in Hanzhong, more than 50,000 of them are volunteers and civilian warriors. They are cheap cannon fodder that basically costs nothing.
If calculated from this aspect, the money and food seized would even be enough for him to fight for four or five years.
How could Lu Yuan not be happy about this situation?
So when he caught his queen, he praised her so hard that Lan Cai'er's eyes narrowed in praise, and she was so happy that she couldn't find the edge.
In the following days, Lu Yuan not only continued to strengthen his relationship with Lan Cai'er, but also began to supervise the local government and continue to relocate people.
In addition, he also began to set up defenses at Xiegu Pass and Yangping Pass in the north and west of Hanzhong County. He stationed 30,000 troops in the two places respectively, and then went to guard them with Lan Cai'er respectively.
There are 50,000 troops left in the rear of Hanzhong County to maintain stability and relocate their household registrations.
After another half month, another 30,000 households in Hanzhong County were relocated.
In late May, after more than three months, the Zhou Kingdom in the north finally reacted, completed internal coordination and mobilization, and sent an army of 150,000, led by two generals of the Zhu Kingdom, to reach Xieguguan. Down.
Yes, just like Vietnam.
After losing two Zhuguo generals one after another, the Zhou people also began to urgently replenish their troops.
First, an innate master was cultivated through internal promotion, and then another one was recruited from the Zhou Kingdom's martial arts community to replenish the original Eight Pillar Kingdom generals.
Yuwen Chong, who had originally escaped from Wushanguan, also received news at this time.
This man fled to the front line of Xiangyang City, joined the local Zhou garrison, and was garrisoning on the spot.
This way.
The Zhou people had four Zhuguo generals and an army of 200,000 in Xiangyang City. At the same time, here at Xieguguan, there are also two generals of the Zhu Kingdom and an army of 150,000.
Of the eight great generals of the Pillar Kingdom, only two are left in the country at this time.
And these two people, obviously like the Yue Kingdom, are the last pillars of stability in the country and must not be moved lightly.
Therefore, the force sent at this time is already the opponent's limit.
In order to cope with the Yue Kingdom's Northern Expedition this time, the Zhou Kingdom has devoted all its efforts and bet on the fate of the country.
