When the Battle of Lang Son came to an end, another war that made Gao Pangshi even more worried was about to begin.
This war has a codename drawn up by Gao Pragmatic himself: Snake Catching.
The capital of the Mo Dynasty, and even the capital recognized by the entire Annam including the Le Dynasty, was called Thang Long, which was also known as Hanoi in later generations.
This city was founded in 621 AD and was called "Purple City" at that time. It was also called "Songping" in the Tang Dynasty. In 886, it became a fortress, known as "Duluo", and was the administrative seat of Gao Pian of the Tang Dynasty.
In 1010, Li Gongyun took advantage of Youchong, the heir of the former Li Dynasty, usurped the throne, changed the Yuan Dynasty to Shuntian, and established the Li Dynasty.
The first policy promulgated by Li Gongyun in the first year of Shuntian was to move the capital from Hualu to Daluo City and change it to Thanglong. Li Gongyun said to his ministers: "I looked at the map and saw that Daluo City, the former capital of Gao Pian, is located in the middle of the world. It has the power of dragons and tigers, diverging from all directions, with many people and people, and it is the capital of the emperor. I want to take advantage of this place. , to settle down."
Li Gongyun consulted the ministers in the court for their opinions. All the ministers said: Your Majesty said that this is a benefit to the world for all generations. Li Gongyun was so happy that he moved from Hualu to Daluo City. When the royal boat arrived at the city, a dragon saw him, and he ordered the city to be renamed Shenglong City.
After settling the capital in Thanglong, Li Gong accumulated the assets from all over the country and started a large-scale construction project according to the Chinese architectural style.
Thang Long is located in the resource-rich Red River Plain and is close to the sea. It is rich in products and has a prosperous population. As the center of the founding of the dynasty, it can get rid of the restrictions of the pastoralist economy of the mountain tribes in the old capital, which is very beneficial to the rule of the new dynasty. So much so that the Chen Dynasty and Hou Li Dynasty after Li Dynasty both established their capitals here.
However, Gao Pragmatic may have committed Wang Mang's mistake for a while, and was somewhat dissatisfied with the name of Thanglong City, so he named the combat operation targeting Thanglong City "Snake Catching".
dragon?
Outside of China, how dare you call yourself a dragon!
It was Gao Jue who was responsible for executing this "snake-catching" operation.
After Gao Jue's honeymoon, he was transferred from Gyeonggi Province to Annan. If he were an ordinary person, he would probably be very unhappy. Not to mention Gao Jue himself would be unhappy, and his new wife would definitely be even more unhappy.
However, Gao Jue and his wife were just the opposite. Both of them were very satisfied and even grateful for this transfer order.
Because Gao Jue's wife is none other than Gao Pangshi's former maid Shang Yue, well... now her name is Gao Shang Yue.
Gao Jue was originally an older young man. Although he had been given a high position in the past, no one had solved the "life-long affairs" for him. Although he was not from a high background, he had an ambition and did not want to get married when nothing had been achieved.
Later, he had become the leader of the family guard group, and he was still alone. It happened that Gao Pragmatic was getting older, and if the two girls, Shang Yue and Qin Qin, did not get married, they would become old girls in this era, so Gao Pragmatic Be pragmatic and make the decision, marry Shang Yue to Gao Jue, and marry Ting Qin to Gao Xiaozhuang.
In fact, before this, no one in Jinghua dared to suggest the idea of Shangyue Tingqin. According to them, the result of Shangyue Tingqin should be that Gao Pragmatic took over the house. But it turns out that Gao Pragmatic did not have this idea. He would rather use it to consolidate the loyalty of his subordinates.
Of course, this is actually a side benefit. Gao Pragmatic mainly thinks that he has no lust for the two girls, and it is not good for them to take over the house - the status of the girl from the first house is not improved much if she becomes a concubine. Instead of becoming a concubine, It would be better to marry Gao Jue and Gao Xiaozhuang as their official wives.
It is unknown to outsiders whether the two girls who admire the moon and listen to the piano have any regrets, but they can definitely feel that Gao Pragmatic really cares about them.
Although Gao Jue is only the leader of a retainer in name, he is not an ordinary retainer leader. He usually has thousands of direct subordinates, distributed in Gyeonggi, Henan and other places. If there is any abnormal situation in the place, such as harassment by refugees, etc., Jinghua's local mine protection team and factory protection team will also be uniformly dispatched by Gao Jue.
In other words, he is the number one general in charge of military affairs under Gao Pragmatic.
Gao Jue is in charge of the army, while Gao Xiaozhuang is in charge of wealth. The three major factories in Kaiping have always been managed by Gao Xiaozhuang. Later, after the Jinghua Musket Factory and Jinghua Artillery Factory were built, Gao Xiaozhuang also dispatched them. It can be said that the most important industrial base in Jinghua, "Kaiping Industrial Zone", was fully in Gao Xiaozhuang's hands.
Therefore, Gao Jue was transferred to Qinzhou not long after his honeymoon. Not only was it not a bad thing, but it was a sign that he continued to be trusted by Gao Pragmatic. That being the case, how could the couple be unhappy?
However, Gao Jue was still feeling a little nervous at the moment. He had fought against Japanese pirates, gone out to the north of the Great Wall, and suppressed bandits, but this was his first time fighting against the Annan people.
Fortunately, the master left the mountain operations on the northern front to the two chieftains Cen and Huang, and he was responsible for the Thang Long area in the plain area.
The Red River Plain with crisscrossed water networks should be similar to the geographical environment when he fought in the south of the Yangtze River, but the overall situation is also somewhat different.
From Thang Long to Thanh Hoa, this area has been fought for decades. Now the north and the south are facing each other. The Mo Dynasty happened to send troops to the south. It would be better if the Mo Dynasty wins. But if the Mo Dynasty loses and the Li Dynasty pursues them, I will The situation to be faced is even more complicated.
Gao Jue didn't think there was anything strange about his master's actions this time. In his opinion, the master's so-called "war of revenge" was definitely just an external rhetoric. With his understanding of the master, he could allow him to use so many resources to fight against the enemy. The purpose of promoting this war can only be profit.
And it's a huge benefit.
But Gao Pragmatic didn't say anything clearly, so Gao Jue could only guess: What benefits could Annan gain?
When he became an ancestor, he could only collect more than 70,000 taels of silver in taxes in Annan every year, and the highest consumption of silver was nearly one million taels a year. Hundreds of thousands of taels. If it weren't for such a huge financial hole, how could Xuanzong simply abandon Annan?
Unless Annan has a mine!
Gao Jue guessed in his heart that if there hadn't been a large mine in Annan, the master would not be so interested in such a remote land. But how big must the mine in Annan be for the master to spend such a huge amount of money?
The key is, the master doesn’t seem to be short of minerals now.
Come on, don't think about making money if you can't figure it out. Anyway, the master is better than me. The key is to think about how to win Sheng Long now.
Gao Jue now has a copy of the general layout of Shenglong City, which Gao Jingshi asked Gao Mengnan to forward to him. In addition, there is also a description of the hydrological conditions of the Red River.
These two things were provided by a businessman from Guangzhou Port. The businessman's surname was Hu, and he happened to be in the pepper business. Of course, he also occasionally did some business such as agarwood. During the Ming Dynasty, Cantonese merchants were also a considerable commercial force. This is why the highly pragmatic Jinghua has only laid a foundation in Guangzhou Port for so many years.
However, this boss Hu is not a native Cantonese businessman. He migrated from Huguang, so he did not get along well among the Cantonese businessmen and was often ostracized and bullied. After the highly pragmatic Jinghua's power expanded to Guangzhou, he observed it for a while and then decided to defect there - defecting did not mean selling himself, but that all his cargo ships used Jinghua's private port in Guangzhou.
Boss Hu's fleet is not large, and even calling it a fleet is a bit high. He actually only has three ships in total, and they are much smaller than Jinghua's own-style armed transport ships. Because Jinghua's armed transport ships are equipped with cannons, their tonnage is relatively large along the Ming Dynasty coast. The unified standard is 1,600 tons. In later generations, it has a displacement of 800 tons.
Although Boss Hu's three ships are only 900 pieces in size, they also have armed forces. At first, they only hired some sailors who dared to fight gangs. Later, after joining Jinghua, he bought twelve Jinghua-made ships. The naval gun was installed on his own ship, and from then on he began to move sideways along the northern coast of Annan. Even the Mochao Navy seldom caused trouble to him.
His business is mainly in the north of Annan. He occasionally goes to the south, but not much, because Mo Chao in the north is nominally the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty's face is easier to use here.
His boat is not that big. He often sails directly along the river from the mouth of the Red River to Thang Long for trading. He is quite familiar with the hydrology and waterway of the Red River. So this time, Gao Pragmatic wanted to attack Mo Chao. When mobilizing maritime power in Guangzhou Port, Boss Hu took the initiative to ask for help. He not only provided the layout map of Thang Long City, but also provided more critical hydrological descriptions of the Red River.
He even personally joined Gao Jingshi's maritime expeditionary force, and his three gun-carrying transport ships became part of the two hundred or so ships mobilized by Gao Jingshi. In fact, for a maritime businessman like him, there are still twenty or thirty ships in this highly pragmatic fleet.
Of course, Boss Hu is not loyal to Gao Pangshi. They have no leadership relationship. What he and other bosses who are willing to join the Gao family's expedition fleet value is Jinghua's thighs, well... maybe I should say giant legs.
In their opinion, Jinghua was too powerful. It had a port, a fleet, a shipyard, and a gun factory, not to mention that Jinghua’s employer was the emperor’s classmate, Gengchenke’s top six scholar!
What does it mean to hug Jinghua's lap? It means that they are basically not afraid of the government finding trouble, and it means that they can buy whatever they want from Beijing... be it ships, cannons, or even equip the sailors with some muskets - although in theory it is illegal, But out of the sea, the Ming Dynasty's method is not very useful, only firearms are useful.
Gao Jue looked at the pamphlet in his hand again, turned to Boss Hu, who was tall and fat and did not look like an ordinary southerner, and finally confirmed: "Boss Hu, at this time, our fleet can really run directly along the Red River. Under Shenglong City?"
Although Boss Hu is tall and fat, he smiles like a Bodhisattva. He is cheerful and not nervous at all: "Don't worry, Gao Tuanzuo, the Red River is wide and deep enough. This waterway has been under the water for more than ten years." , there will be no problem. If Annan had been prepared in advance, it would be possible to plant dark tombs and the like in the river. However, their naval strength was far superior to that of the Southern Dynasty, and they did not know that they would suddenly send troops to attack Thang Long by water. , these things are definitely not available right now... After all, after An Chun's deployment, his own navy will not be convenient."
