Alexander believes that Li Ning’s layout has elements of his own interests in mind, so he believes that the friendship between the two parties will continue.
What's even more fatal is that Li Ning was planning to propose arms trade between the imperial court and Macedonia. Although the quantity and type were strictly limited, after he informed Alexander of the news, the other party was still overjoyed.
This means that there will no longer be a city like Tire that can block his progress.
But it is a pity that Li Ning's suggestion did not receive a quick reply from Cao Ping, which went against another charter he proposed that was being debated fiercely in the court.
In the past 1038 years, one of the most common things Li Chaoye did was to conduct heated discussions based on Li Ning's suggestions. This was the case for the previous copyright law and patent law, and the same was true for another measure.
This measure is like this. In order to quickly utilize the newly occupied land, Li Ning believes that professional farmers should be organized to colonize the land. These professional farmers can include both immigrants from the Song Dynasty and local people.
But they all have one main task, which is to produce a sufficient amount of food for the Song Dynasty court. If they fail to complete this task, their rations may be affected.
This requires an accurate calculation process. According to popular practice, you can generally receive more than 50% of the rent, and the grain that tenants can receive is only half of their total income.
But the Song Dynasty court did not think they needed to offer such high conditions. They not only charged 40% of the rent, but also distributed a certain amount of rations every month. They even distributed some Chai Xin and Chai Xin every year according to the prime minister's system. Cloth was given as a reward, which of course depended on their agricultural production techniques and careful management of the land. According to Li Ning, these should be called monthly salaries.
With such careful thinking, the imperial court believed that most of the land could be put to good use. Therefore, they agreed with Li Ning's opinion, but they had to decide which parts were included in the so-called collective farms and whether they were within the traditional territory of the light curtain. In the implementation of this policy, fierce debates occurred both inside and outside the government?
Therefore, Li Ning and others had to face the huge negative impact of this strategy, that is, the defensive operations against Xixia seemed to have been delayed by these idiots.
For Xixia, a small country, it seems that all the civil servants do not take it to heart. Almost everyone thinks that it is just a square formation and it seems that it can be easily solved. Only Wu Yu from Fujian suggested that the court should not rebel against Li Yuanhao's proclaimed emperor. Ignore it, just give him a slight increase in official title, stabilize him, and don't let new soldiers invade easily.
Of course, this policy of following the border did not get the permission of the young emperor, let alone the approval of young men like Li Ning.
Therefore, Li Ning immediately entrusted certain affairs in Egypt to Pang Ji, and then returned with his elite troops.
Some things in Egypt are actually difficult to deal with. Alexander also encountered similar troubles in the few cities he occupied. Although the land he was allocated according to the covenant was not much, he still spent a lot of time on serious governance and design.
In order to establish a future administrative structure for Egypt, Alexander, as he did with all the areas he conquered, restored the ancient local traditions that were beloved by the people. At the same time, he also knew very well how to make these people who had experienced long-term centralized rule accept their civil and military rule. To this end, Alexander completely separated administrative and military institutions. The power of the former was limited to the collection of taxes and the enforcement of well-established laws and customs from ancient times, which Alexander wisely did not change. Military commanders do not have any financial power in their hands, avoiding the risk of merging the military and finance into one. [Illustration] Alexander did not make any changes to the original government institutions except for the change of national leaders, but he closely monitored them so that the local people no longer had the opportunity to carry out organized resistance activities. All town acropolis will be garrisoned by trustworthy Macedonians. In addition, there will be a general outside the city who will be ordered to recruit new soldiers locally and train them according to Macedonian drills. There will also be enough Macedonians in his hands to control these local soldiers. Alexander was generally revered as king everywhere because the people knew that after the change of power, the new king's taxes would not be as heavy as those of the Persian king, thus alleviating their financial pressure.
Regarding Egypt specifically, Alexander appointed an Egyptian, Doroaspis, as governor of Egypt, and at the same time handed military power to two Macedonians. Among them, Pentarion was responsible for commanding the Memphis garrison, and Polemio was responsible for commanding the Pelusium garrison. Both of them were fellow cavalrymen. In addition, Alexander left a part of the Greek auxiliary troops in Egypt and gave them to the command of Lycidas. Postestas and Balaclus were appointed commanders of the entire Egyptian army. The troops Alexander left in Egypt, including the above-mentioned garrisons and auxiliary troops, totaled 4,000 people, among which Pentarion also had 30 triremes in his hands. The command of Libya was given to Apollonius, and the conquered part of Arabia to Cleomenes. Calanas succeeded Balaclus in command of the remaining Greek auxiliaries in the army, O'Brien took over the command of the archers from the dead Antiochus, and Leonato became one of the adjutants. According to Arrian, Alexander was worried about handing over such a huge and resource-rich country to anyone, so he arranged several governors on this land far away from the future battlefield.
Interestingly, among the available historical materials, due to different writers, various historical materials have different records of governors, civil officials, and military commanders, but these details are not important to Li Ning.
What Li Ning is concerned about is Alexander's subsequent actions.
After spring arrived, Alexander built a bridge across the Nile and returned to Tire, where his fleet was already stationed. While passing through Samaria, Alexander punished the locals for assassinating his lieutenant Andromachus (who was replaced by an officer of the same name as Memnon). In Tire, Alexander once again held a grand and gorgeous sacrificial celebration in front of the temple of Hercules. Athens once again sent envoys to ask Alexander to release the Athenian mercenaries captured at the Battle of Granicus. According to Curtis, in order to appease the Athenians, Alexander graciously agreed to this request this time. This action had an immediate effect, and it is said that even Demosthenes wrote a letter begging Alexander to forgive him for his vicious opposition. In addition, Alexander sent a fleet to the Peloponnese to suppress the great and resilient people of Sparta and prevent them from exerting influence in the rebellion against Macedonia.
In order to let reliable figures be in charge of taxation, Phenicia was handed over to Koranas, and the Netoros region was handed over to Philosenus. Harpalas, who had just returned from defecting, was unable to afford field command duties. Appointed by Alexander to be in charge of the army's treasury. This Harpalas was once one of Alexander's cronies, and he followed Alexander when he was exiled for provoking his father. Alexander never forgot the friendship of Harpalas. But before the battle of Issus, this Harpalas made some small mistakes and ran away for fear of punishment. Now Alexander summoned him back to take charge of the funds. Alexander is very knowledgeable, but sometimes he trusts his friends too much. Once a friend, always a friend, and only the bad behavior of rebellion could make Alexander cut off the friendship. Nyakas, who later became the commander of the fleet, was appointed governor of Lycia as far as the Taurus Mountains; Asclepiodoras was appointed governor of all Syria, and his deputy Menon was dismissed for negligence; Menander was put in charge of Lydia, and Clearchus succeeded him in the Greek auxiliaries; Eregeas became commander of the allied Greek cavalry; Laomedon, because of his familiarity with the Persian language, was Appointed commander of the military police.
After completing these adjustments to command posts, Alexander began to advance towards Tapsakas, and in the process he must have also recruited part of the garrison from Asia Minor to supplement the field army. After crossing the Eurontis Valley to reach Antioch, Alexander began to march eastward, advancing from Phoenicia to the Euphrates River in 11 days, averaging nearly 20 miles per day. For comparison, before the previous mass retreat of tens of thousands of people, it also took 12 days for 10,000 Greek mercenaries to march from Myleandros to Tapsakas. Tapsakas is often used as a crossing point across the Euphrates River, where Cyrus crossed the river. Engineers assigned to the vanguard by Alexander were also preparing to use ships to build two pontoon bridges here. However, because Darius sent Mazaias with 5,000 cavalry and 2,000 Greek mercenaries to guard the other side, the engineers were unable to complete the pontoon bridge. However, when Alexander arrived, since Darius was ready for another decisive battle with Alexander and was eager to fight, Mazayas no longer blocked the opponent and retreated with this outpost, which was the forefront of Darius's new army. The floating bridge was finally built. Judging from the actions of the Persians, it seems that they wanted to lure Alexander into the heart of the empire, so that if Alexander was defeated, his army would be wiped out. From this point of view, Mazayas's orders should be limited to reconnaissance and reporting on Alexander's actions, because Darius did not seem to want to delay the battle. In addition to the two pontoon bridges, Macedonian engineers repaired another bridge demolished by Mazayas.
The officials of the Song Dynasty were far from expecting that Alexander's war would proceed so fast. They did not think it was a wise choice to send troops hastily before Egypt was completely under control. What's more, Li Yuanhao's judgment was enough to involve major domestic affairs. Part of the force, so this military operation had to be completed by Alexander himself.
Fortunately, Li Ning's trust in his friend had already spread to the hearts of Song Dynasty officials, so everyone believed that the king would win again.
Sure enough, the small river did not stop the stressful pace.
Alexander spent several weeks laying the foundation stone of the new city of Nicephenium before crossing the river into Mesopotamia. The purpose of Alexander's continuous establishment of cities was very clear: first, to provide shelter for those who were injured or no longer fit to fight; second, to serve as a series of military outposts to protect communication lines; and finally, these cities could also spread Greek culture locally. Culture and customs. When establishing these cities, engineers would first delineate their rough boundaries at selected sites, then determine the location of the acropolis, dig trenches, and build walls to protect the city and gradually enhance its defense capabilities. After completing these tasks, the Macedonians will invite surrounding residents to settle in the city, grant them certain preferential treatment, and provide garrison protection. Asia's large population was soon able to develop these areas into rich lands, and the sites Alexander chose for building cities were always of excellent quality and are still worth thousands of dollars to this day. More importantly, being able to cover the entire battle line with fortified towns that are not widely spaced also has very important military value, because messengers, reinforcements, military baggage and other materials are often transported back and forth on these roads. We will also see later how effective these fortresses were.
After establishing the city of Nicephanium, Alexander crossed the river there and entered Mesopotamia. According to Arrian, Alexander kept "the Euphrates and Armenia on his left" as he marched, meaning that he was heading north toward Armida. Because the terrain of this road is flatter and supplies and fodder are more abundant, it is often used as a marching route. The road along the Euphrates River that led directly to Babylon along the Euphrates River that the Greek mercenaries took during the mass retreat had been ravaged by the Persians to prevent Alexander from advancing directly to the capital. What's more, the Euphrates plain is hotter than the Tigris highlands. According to Xenophon, the desert road over the Euphrates River was very short of supplies and in extremely poor conditions for the passage of troops. In addition, Darius may have specially ordered his troops to ravage all roads except the Tigris River Plateau in order to lead Alexander to the decisive battlefield he hoped for. There is no doubt that the Persian king was eager for war and would be happy to see the Macedonians advance in his direction. He was quite confident about the outcome of the battle at this time.
Alexander originally intended to advance toward what is today known as Old Mosul near Nineveh, but he learned from captured Persian scouts that Darius was halting on the Tigris River with a large army. Although a decisive battle with the Persian army was Alexander's main goal, he preferred a battle on open ground, and he also believed that it was unwise to cross such a large river in front of the Persian army. In order to avoid enemy interference, Alexander decided to move closer to the upper reaches of the Tigris River so that he could not be blocked by the enemy when he reached the Tigris River. However, Alexander still encountered many difficulties when crossing the river because the river was fast and the ferry was as deep as the soldiers' chests. You know, in Persian, this river was called "The Arrow" and its flow rate today is about 6 miles per hour. It must be mentioned that, as a general rule, the fording depth should not exceed 4 feet for cavalry and 3 feet for infantry. In order to slow down the flow of water, Alexander used horses to form a barrier in the upstream direction to slow down the flow of water. A team of cavalry was also deployed downstream to stop the soldiers who were washed away by the river. To encourage the infantry to cross the river, Alexander took the lead and waded across with his weapons held above his head. Some soldiers pulled each other across the river, and in the end no one died in the river. From a certain perspective, this is one of the most interesting examples in the history of large armies crossing the river.
Just as Alexander was crossing the river, Li Ning had already arrived at the most important place in his life, which was Bianjing, the center of power of the Song Dynasty.
At this time, the Song Dynasty did not have four capitals, but the three existing ones were relatively famous in history. First, starting from the Zhou Dynasty, Luoyang, Xijing, was the center of Chinese civilization. The geographical situation here was tight, although the transportation It's not very convenient, but it is really suitable as the capital of the generation. Song Taizu once wanted to move the capital here, but its geographical conditions are really not conducive to water transportation, and it cannot gather too much prosperity. Therefore, it was ignored by those who were greedy for it. The wealthy fools stopped him.
The deserters believed that Yanjing City was a good place, so it became the Tokyo of the Song Dynasty. This Tokyo was not the capital of the Japanese country, but just the eastern capital.
As for Nanjing Yingtian Mansion, although it has the same name as Nanjing Yingtian Mansion during the Ming Dynasty, it is not Nanjing, Jiangsu, but Shangqiu, Henan. This is the place where Song Taizu's cavalry was located. It is the so-called Longxing Land, so it has the treatment of a capital city.
A few years later, the Song Empire will have another companion capital, which is Damingfu in Beijing, which mainly defends against the invasion of the Liao Kingdom in the north.
But there is no such name yet. As for the Liao Kingdom, it is actually a very interesting existence now.
In fact, even Li Yuanhao could see this clearly. After he started the rebellion, he made the most important choice, which was to unite with the Liao Kingdom to attack the Song Dynasty.
The Liao Kingdom had a military advantage over the Song Dynasty, and Xixia and the Liao Kingdom were also nomadic peoples, so they could naturally unite to fight against the Central Plains Dynasty.
As for the Liao Kingdom, they were of course happy to see the Song Dynasty being threatened, and had even made plans to profit from it. Therefore, they would marry a princess, although it was most likely a princess in name, to Xixia to achieve peace. and alliances.
This undoubtedly made Li Yuanhao more courageous.
