Just when Li Xiong was in high spirits in the Kunhai area, news of the war in the Yinsheng area of Dali State in the south also came back.
Since the Soviet Union and Song Dynasty jointly attacked Yinsheng City from the east and south in May this year, countless battles have broken out in this area.
At the beginning, the two countries' troops were sharp and successfully captured more than a dozen cities in the north and south near Yinsheng City, and directly attacked Yinsheng City.
However, with the arrival of reinforcements from Dali, the overwhelming offensives of the two countries were curbed.
Among the Dali army were two innate masters, King Pingchuan and the Grand Wizard of the Shrine. These two were very powerful. With their actions, they easily stopped Su Xuange and Xie Ning.
As a result, the two men's original strategy of using the innate master as the spearhead to directly take the lead in breaking the city failed.
Subsequently, there were several battles between the masters of both sides. Su Xuange and the others could not take any advantage from the two innates in Dali. They even fought to the death several times. All four of them suffered serious injuries and were almost life-threatening.
After Lian Fang tested them, both sides knew each other that no one could take advantage of the top level combat power of the Xiantian Grandmaster.
Therefore, out of fear of each other, the two sides reached a tacit agreement not to take action, but instead began to attack the soldiers at the bottom, hoping to decide the outcome from the strategic battlefield.
So after that, the confrontation between soldiers from the two camps suddenly became fierce.
However, in terms of the level of soldiers, Dali State maintains 50,000 soldiers all year round. These are elites with good combat power. Nowadays, 30,000 elite soldiers have been mobilized from the major vassals in the country, so there are about 80,000 elite soldiers in the Dali army.
The scale of this elite army is no less than that of the Su and Song states combined.
Including the remaining 220,000 temporarily recruited militiamen, Dali is even better than the two countries in terms of quantity.
So after the two sides started fighting, after several battles, both sides suffered heavy losses.
The Soviet Union had 100,000 soldiers and horses, and more than 30,000 of them died in direct combat, including about 10,000 elite soldiers. The Song Dynasty lost more than 10,000 of its 50,000 troops, all of which were soldiers.
As for Dali, the losses were similar to the same scale, even more than those of the two countries.
However, Dali's country is strong. With an army of 300,000 people, it is not a problem to kill 50,000 to 60,000 people, and it can completely support it.
But the Su and Song countries combined only had 150,000 troops. At this time, the loss of 50,000 yuan was reduced by one-third.
This loss is already considerable.
At this time, in the rear areas occupied by the two countries, from the Black Teeth area and the Tonghai Kingdom, news of local barbarian riots came one after another. Many cities had been captured by the rioting barbarians.
Especially in Tonghai State, the riots were particularly serious. I heard that more than 100,000 barbarians there had risen in arms and stood up to resist the rule of the Soviet Union.
With a population of less than 500,000, this small country could attract more than 100,000 barbarians. It can be said that almost all the men in the country came out to participate in the riots.
And the reason why such a feat can be achieved is naturally inseparable from the Su country's old craftsmanship - extortionate expropriation.
Yes, it is extortionate taxes.
Things start from last year.
Since the massive tax increase in the country, there has been a rebellion that spread across the country. Even if the Soviet Union finally put down the rebellion, it basically destroyed the country and its economy completely collapsed.
Therefore, for Su Xuange, the main purpose of sending troops to the southwestern barbarians was to open up new territory and expand the territory. The main purpose was to find new financial resources for the country.
With this purpose in mind, there is no need to think too much about what a group of poor and crazy Kuhaha will do when the Soviet army arrives at Tonghai Country.
They robbed food, money, women, everything that could be robbed, everything was robbed.
Anyone who dared to stop him would be killed.
Naturally, the barbarians in Tonghai Kingdom couldn't stand such brutal methods.
Originally, foreigners came to rule, which made them feel disgusted in their hearts. Nowadays, these foreign rulers are still so cruel. It would be strange if the barbarians of Tonghai State don't come out to rebel.
Therefore, once a rebellion occurs in this country, it will spread throughout the country.
Because all the barbarians in the country suffered from the Soviet army, everyone had a grudge against the Soviet army.
At this time, someone took the lead in the rebellion, and naturally countless people followed.
Coupled with the Dali Kingdom's instigation behind the scenes, a nationwide riot was a matter of course.
With heavy losses at the front and instability at the rear, the Soviet Union and Song Dynasty were naturally unable to continue the fight.
Therefore, in September, after each country left some troops behind, they quickly retreated with their troops and returned to the Black Teeth area and Tonghai Kingdom, busy suppressing the riots.
At the same time, they sent messages back to their respective countries to continue dispatching troops and generals, preparing to conquer Dali Kingdom again.
Although Dali won the victory, after the war, more than half of Dali and its vassal states were affected by the war, and production was greatly damaged. Coupled with the recruitment of a large number of local militiamen, spring plowing and summer planting this year were also delayed, and there was a food shortage in the country.
Therefore, after tentatively sending troops to pursue the Soviet Union and Song Dynasty, and finally receiving a tenacious counterattack in the Black Teeth area and Tonghai Kingdom, they had to give up the idea of continuing to regain the two areas.
He turned to focus on the country, resuming farming and production while accumulating grain, fodder, and soldiers to prepare for a new round of war in the coming year.
So in early October, the war in the Dali Kingdom gradually subsided as the New Year approached and the cold winter arrived.
Not just here in Dali.
In Xichuan Kingdom, the battle of Panshi Mansion, which lasted for several months, also came to an end in October.
Facing the 50,000-strong Nanzhao army and the continuous siege, coupled with the personal action of Zhao Changqing, the innate master, even if Ji Hui was in charge of the city, he could not support the Taiyuan Emperor when the monk king was injured. Long.
Therefore, after defending for nearly three months, Ji Hui once again used his seriously injured body to block Zhao Changqing, but finally lost and was severely wounded again on the battlefield.
Finally, with his last breath, he had no choice but to abandon the city and break out of the city without missing a trace.
And without him, the innate master, to guard him, the thousands of remaining soldiers in the city would certainly not be Zhao Changqing's opponent.
On the day Ji Hui was defeated, Panshi City was captured, and another city of Xichuan Kingdom fell to Nanzhao.
However, perhaps because the siege took too long, the Nanzhao army accumulated too much resentment. After breaking the city, they immediately launched a massacre.
After two days of killing, all the remaining 10,000 soldiers and civilians in the city died at the hands of the rebels, and no one was spared.
After the news spread, it immediately caused panic in Xichuan and even surrounding areas.
A large number of Xichuan citizens began to flee to the nearby Han Dynasty and Chu Kingdom.
Among them, Xichuan County of Chu State accepted many refugees. And the number is quite large, with fifty or sixty thousand people.
Even according to current trends, as the brutal behavior of the Nanzhao army continues, more people in the Xichuan region will flee. This number may continue to increase, and it is not impossible to eventually reach more than 100,000.
Therefore, Lu Yuan also attached great importance to this matter.
After receiving a report from Xichuan County on the reception of refugees, an imperial edict was immediately issued to move all the refugees received there and send them all to Qianzhong County.
Now Qianzhong County is worried that there is not enough population. At this time, there can be 50,000 to 60,000 more refugees, which will solve the urgent need.
And this isn't a one-and-done deal.
As long as the Nanzhao army continues to wreak havoc in Xichuan County, countless refugees will continue to flee to Xichuan County. This is a long-term population reception work with huge benefits.
After Lu Yuan even saw this, he directly ordered the Imperial City Division to ask their manpower in Xichuan to try to encourage the local people to join the escape team and come to Chu State together.
Nowadays, Chu State is in urgent need of population, so it would be good to bring in more families.
Lu Yuan has made this work one of his top priorities for this year and next, and has handed it over to the Imperial City Department and Xichuan County to set up a professional working group for implementation.
…
The surrounding situation abroad is undergoing intense turmoil.
At this time of changing circumstances, Lu Yuan was also working hard to implement his strategy and conquer the southwestern barbarians.
Conquering the southwestern barbarians did not happen overnight.
Taking Qianzhong County now is just the first step. The second step is to stabilize the county and prevent foreign invasion. As for completely digesting and controlling this county, that is the third step.
Now that the first step has been completed, at most, only the Huichuan Kingdom's territory is left. I wonder if we should seize it and make up for the ten prefectures' territories in Qianzhong County.
But this is just a question of whether it is possible or not, it is of no importance.
Therefore, the main strategic goal of Chu State today is still the second step, which is to stabilize central Guizhou and eliminate foreign aggression.
The aspect of preventing foreign aggression has been left to Li Xiong. As long as his Kunhai Kingdom can grow stronger, it will naturally be able to isolate the Dachanghe Kingdom and the Nanzhao Kingdom, blocking these two powerful enemies from the outside.
Lu Yuan doesn't need to worry about this.
What's left is to stabilize central Guizhou, which is sorting out internal affairs, and that's what he needs to deal with.
Therefore, after returning to Shicheng, Lu Yuan was busy handling government affairs in various places in Qianzhong County.
Qianzhong County is still under military control because it is located on the front line and the complex security situation within the territory requires the use of troops everywhere.
Therefore, even if a county governor has been appointed here, many matters cannot be handled by the local government.
Many aspects involving military affairs need to be handed over to Lu Yuan's palace, with him as the king's holy judge.
In addition, there were many matters in the Chu State's court that the ministers and Queen Lan Cai'er could not decide, and they were also sent over in a hurry for Lu Yuan to handle.
The sum of these many things made him extremely busy.
Of the twelve hours a day, I had to set aside four hours to deal with official duties, then two hours to practice, and the last six hours to eat, drink and rest.
The full schedule made Lu Yuan feel like he was back to the days when he was a cultivator.
Fortunately, with all this busyness, as Qianzhong County is slowly sorting out, the local situation is becoming increasingly stable, and it is gradually becoming less and less leisurely.
By the end of November, a large number of government affairs in Qianzhong County had almost been handled.
The local county government will handle the rest, and there are fewer and fewer matters that require Lu Yuan to make decisions.
His working hours of four hours a day were also reduced to two hours, giving him more time to practice.
Under Lu Yuan's busy work, after the review by the officials of Qianzhong County in November, the first household registration report in the county was finally sent.
"Your Majesty, now through statistics from various prefectures and counties in the county, the detailed household registration numbers of the entire county in central Guizhou have been officially calculated.
Today, there are more than 92,300 registered households of Chu people in one county and eight prefectures, with more than 458,000 people.
Among these registered households, there are 40,000 households with 200,000 people, immigrants from Yulin County. There are 55,000 people in 11,000 households, recent immigrants from Xichuan Kingdom.
There are 31,300 households with a population of 153,000. They are criminals who were exiled from the country and married local barbarian women and children.
There are 7,000 households with 35,000 people. They were recruited from the prefecture and county soldiers in the country and were compiled after the Yi women and children got married in the local areas.
Finally, there are 3,000 households with 15,000 people, composed of landless people recruited from the country who came to settle down and married the foreign women and children.
All of the above are people who have become kings.
In addition, with the assistance of the imperial army sent by the king, the barbarians in various local prefectures and counties were also counted and registered.
Today, the Yi people have more than 135,000 registered households and more than 473,000 people.
There are many people, old and young, with only three to four, or even two or three people in one household, and very few men.
Moreover, most of them resent our country, Da Chu. If innocent people help assimilate, they may eventually become a hidden danger to the local area. "
Gu Weijun, the governor of Qianzhong County, came to the palace with a thick household registration list and reported to Lu Yuan.
Taking the register and looking at it while listening to the other party's report, Lu Yuan couldn't help but ask: "If you put it this way, there are currently 227,300 Chuyi households in Qianzhong County and 930,000 Is it a mouthful?"
Gu Weijun respectfully replied: "Your Majesty, that's exactly what it is."
When Lu Yuan heard this, he couldn't help but nodded with satisfaction.
This expedition to Da Changhe State opened up four thousand miles of Qianzhong County and eight prefectures. In terms of territory, it can be said that it increased by about one-half on the original basis of Da Chu.
In terms of population, although there was not much growth, it only increased by about 630,000 people. Among them, only about 150,000 were allocated to criminals and were being assimilated.
But even so, the population of 630,000 was almost one-tenth of the original total population of Dachu.
If you include the immigrants accepted from Yulin County and Xichuan Kingdom, it is more than one-tenth of the total population.
These increases in territory and population undoubtedly raised Da Chu's national power to another level.
Taking into account the previous accumulation, Chu State is now a quasi-big country with four counties and twenty-five prefectures and a population of more than seven million.
In terms of comprehensive strength, it is equivalent to half of Ning Guo. It is one step closer to the goal of seizing the opponent's Yangzhou hegemony.
With such a huge harvest, how could Lu Yuan not be happy?
Therefore, after confirming, he said to Gu Weijun: "You don't need to worry about the remaining 135,000 barbarian households. Next year, the Ministry of Punishment will probably deport another 20,000 criminals. The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households will deport another 20,000 criminals. On the other side, he also promised to recruit 5,000 soldiers and immigrants from prefectures and counties.
With 25,000 people here, it is enough to digest a large number of immigrants.
Moreover, on the Xichuan side, I also ordered Xichuan County to recruit immigrants, and they will continue to move here to enrich the household registration in Qianzhong County.
In addition, there were also 250,000 immigrants from Yulin County and Xichuan Kingdom who had previously migrated.
Among so many people, there should be more than 10,000 unmarried men of the right age.
Your local government can also work on this and allocate some barbarian women and children to these people to digest the local barbarian people.
In this way, in terms of immigration, at least 20,000 households of foreigners can be digested.
All added up, 45,000 households of barbarians can be settled next year.
We will solve some problems the year after tomorrow, and some more the year after tomorrow...
Within three or four years, there were not many barbarians left in the area.
In the end, even if there are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of barbarians left, they will not be able to make any trouble in the face of this surging trend. "
It can be said that Lu Yuan has been thinking hard these days about how to digest the barbarian women and children everywhere. Not only was he thinking about it, he also summoned some close officials to think about it together.
In the end, the above two paths were summarized.
One relies on exiling criminals in the country and recruiting immigrants.
One that relies on obtaining marriageable men from immigrants.
These two approaches can help Qianzhong County and digest local barbarians in a long-term and sustainable manner.
In addition to the above two ways, there is actually a third way, which is to transform a group of the Forbidden Army and let them serve as county soldiers in Qianzhong County.
In Da Chu, despite the military reform, the wages and benefits of local prefectural and county soldiers have become much worse than those of the Forbidden Army.
But not all armies in the local army are like this.
For example, county soldiers belong to the rank of combat soldiers in Da Chu.
In other words, the wages of county soldiers are actually no worse than those of the forbidden army. Both are soldiers, but one is a local army and the other is a central army, with different affiliations.
Therefore, it is actually not very difficult to convert the imperial army into county soldiers, and there will not be much resistance.
It's just that the conditions in Qianzhong County are still as mentioned before.
I won’t talk about the local barbarian rebellions, proximity to war zones, etc.
After all, the Forbidden Army was also fighting in various places. Aren't they right now in Qianzhong County, fighting against Da Changhe?
This is what I eat, so there are some dangers. No one will be afraid of these.
But the environment here is really bad, it's a real backcountry.
The most intuitive point.
Nowadays, the eight prefectures in the county have a combined population of less than one million, which shows how poor this place is.
The Imperial Guards are not afraid of war or danger, but are they afraid of poverty?
Even if the salary and benefits are the same, in Huahua World or in the countryside, it is a different experience.
Just this environmental difference is actually equivalent to some gaps.
Therefore, it is still quite difficult to convert the forbidden troops under his command into soldiers from central Guizhou Province.
However, Lu Yuan also made some compensation for this. If there are forbidden soldiers who are willing to transform into county soldiers, the court can compensate each converted county soldier with one hundred acres of land.
Anyway, Qianzhong County is a vast area with sparsely populated areas. After the war, large areas of fertile farmland were left uncultivated.
It happened to be collected at this time and distributed as welfare benefits to county soldiers who were willing to settle locally.
With this condition in place, it can still attract a lot of people.
After all, one hundred acres of land is basically equivalent to a small landowner.
As everyone knows.
The life of a landlord must be much higher than that of ordinary people, even some wealthy people among the common people.
This wealthy class naturally includes those forbidden soldiers.
If you settle here and become a county soldier with similar wages and benefits, you will have such conditions and benefits, which is enough to make some people give up the colorful world and come here to earn a family fortune.
Especially among Lu Yuan's imperial army, many were reorganized northern Zhou people. These people were kidnapped to the south and could no longer return to their homes in the northern Zhou Dynasty. They were almost single.
Therefore, there are now many single men in the Forbidden Army.
For these homeless people, if they can earn a family business in Qianzhong County, it will be enough to ensure that their family inheritance will be worry-free.
Well, considering the special situation in Qianzhong County now, after settling in, a wife and several children will be allocated immediately. Even under the conditions of the county soldiers, it is not impossible to get one or two more wives and children to satisfy the wish of three wives and four concubines.
If you think about it this way, it becomes even more attractive.
Therefore, after this generous treatment spread among the army, many Forbidden Army soldiers were already interested and began to apply to be converted into county soldiers.
Now Lu Yuan is letting people in the Forbidden Army be responsible for this matter and do the ideological work of the single Forbidden Army.
The current progress is quite smooth, and about 3,000 forbidden troops have already filled out their applications.
It's just that these people still need to adjust their defense zones, adjust their organization, and make some transfers and supplements to the original troops, which won't be completed so quickly for the time being.
However, with the efficiency of Lu Yuan's generals, it is estimated that these things can be almost completed by March next year.
Moreover, the number of converted imperial troops by then may reach 5,000, or even 7,000 or 8,000. It is not impossible to even complete the establishment of tens of thousands of soldiers in a county at once.
And when these county soldiers settle down, they can digest a large number of local barbarians.
By then, the control of Qianzhong County will become more and more stable.
In order to govern Qianzhong County, Lu Yuan racked his brains.
