The refugee army is usually very brave in the early stage. In addition to the spirit of not being afraid of death and daring to fight, it is also able to continuously coerce young and strong men from the bottom to join the army without worrying about consumption, but this also leads to the coercion of women and children becoming larger and larger.

, and when the young elites are almost exhausted in the later stage, the refugee army will become more and more fragile, so that it will be quickly defeated and collapsed in the later stage.

If Han Qian wants to break this vicious cycle, he has to endure it, endure it, and suppress his inflated mentality desperately.

In order to reduce unnecessary consumption of materials and reduce the casualties of elite soldiers, he cultivated land, built houses, and mined coal as quickly as possible. He could give up all his later military exploits to You Guang, led by Gu Zhilong, Li Xiu, Chen Mingsheng and others.

The German army allowed Xinchang Hou Li Pu and others to stand in front with "incomparable scenery"...

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Mid-October has passed, and although the weather has not yet reached severe cold, it has already entered winter.

Nandutang Lake, located at the southwest foot of Jieling Mountain, has become shallow due to soil siltation over the years. At this time, the water levels of several upstream streams and rivers that feed into Nandutang Lake have dropped, resulting in a large area of ​​lake beach being exposed.

This allows women and children from dozens of nearby villages to directly enter the lake beach to harvest reed flowers that can be stuffed between worn-out clothes to keep warm.

Silk wadding, cotton wool and fur have a better thermal insulation effect, but Chishan generals and soldiers have no such extravagant expectations. Reed catkins are already an excellent thing. If reed flowers are not enough, use wheat straw that has been thoroughly kneaded and softened.

Replacing it with poles or thatch stems is also a way to survive the winter.

In the Jiangnan area, even severe cold weather can always be endured. In the Central Plains area north of the Huaihe River, it is really difficult when heavy snow closes the mountains.

Han Qian sat on the horse, pondering over the intelligence collected from the northern front these days.

After Liang Emperor Zhu Yu personally conquered Suiyang in Songzhou, he did not take advantage of the victory to pursue the remnants of Liang Bo King Zhu Gui, so the Xuanjia Army with heavy casualties stayed in Songzhou to rest and recuperate, while the Caizhou Army led by Han Yuanqi marched eastward.

Xuzhou, joined the Xuzhou soldiers led by Sima Dan, and took a peek at Chuzhou on the south bank of the Huaihe River.

Many people do not understand the intention of Liang Emperor Zhu Yu. Most people analyze that it should be that before the internal hidden dangers were completely resolved, Emperor Liang strengthened his control over the eastern region of Liang State and at the same time forced King Xin Yang Yuanyan to separatize Huaidong.

, to cut off the possibility of the Chu army's large-scale northern expedition in recent years.

Is it really that simple?

After the defeat of Jingxiang, Zhu Yu still had the leisure to sneak into the Chu region to scout out the military situation. Would he be worried that even after the apparent unification, Chu would have the ability to pose a fatal threat to the Liang Kingdom with complicated internal factional interests?

Wouldn't it be better to leave Yang Yuanyan to lead the Chuzhou army on the south bank of the Yangtze River and fight Yueyang's troops first, causing both sides to suffer losses?

Seeing Chen Jitang walking over at this time, Han Qian got rid of the chaotic thoughts in his mind.

"When did the adults arrive? Why didn't you tell us in advance?" Chen Jitang, wearing riding boots, walked over a muddy field and asked.

"I came back to Langxi from Nantangzhai and stopped by here to take a look." Han Qian got off his horse and walked with Chen Jitang to a slightly higher beach, overlooking the lake beach and the lake that had shrunk to just over a thousand acres after the winter.

On the surface of Nandutang Lake, he asked, "You haven't returned to Langxicheng for four or five days. You have eaten and slept in the wild. Has the reclamation of Nandutang Lake been finalized?"

Chen Jitang fell while inspecting the terrain in the central area of ​​the lake beach. At this time, he was covered in mud and his muddy robe was torn, but he was not restrained in front of Han Qian and said:

"The water surface of Nandutang Lake can reach more than 13,000 acres in summer and autumn at its widest. However, due to the extremely narrow channels of Taoran Creek and Qiwei River in the south, which are used as drainage outlets, Nandutang Lake is actually

The role of the lake in water storage and flood discharge has been greatly reduced - I have walked through it over the past four or five days, found some old people, and looked through the county records. All of Nandutang Lake has been reclaimed into fields, and the water surface of Nanyi Lake in the south is Nandutang.

Thirty times that of Nandutang Lake, and the average water depth is more than twice that of Nandutang River. We can completely widen the channel of Qixu River and divert the rainfall and floods that should be accumulated by Nandutang Lake in summer and autumn into Nanyi Lake, which will affect the coast

There will be no significant impact on the region!”

The terrain of Langxi is high in the south and low in the north, with half mountains and half lakes. The fields in the mountains are few and barren. The situation is not much better than that of Guangde. In order to accommodate more Zuo Guangde army generals and soldiers with small families, the slope terraces can be cultivated in a short time.

, after all, they are a minority.

Not only is it difficult to cultivate sloping terraces, but the grain yield per acre is still low.

In need of more high-yielding new fields, Han Qian could only turn his attention to building dikes around lakes.

Even with the accumulated experience of building a levee in Chishan Lake and large-scale land reclamation and water conservancy projects in Xuzhou, the current understanding of water conservancy, climate, geography and geology is still too limited.

The reclamation of the entire Nandutang River lake area will yield more than 12,000 acres of fertile new farmland. However, how to channel the rain that pours down during the rainy season so that it does not cause waterlogging, let alone flash floods.

There are too many factors to consider when river banks break down and cause huge floods.

In mid-September, in order to expand the scale of reclamation and industrial and mining production in Guangde, Langxi and Anji counties on a larger scale, Han Qian transferred Chen Jitang and another 300 craftsmen and craftsmen from Xuzhou.

In order to ensure safety, Chen Jitang and the others came by land, but it was much harder than traveling by water. After arriving in Langxi, they immediately put into high-intensity work, and they almost lost weight in just more than ten days.

Listening to Chen Jitang's report on his inspection of the Nandutang River in the past few days, Han Qian looked around. There were snow reed flowers on the lake beach. The scenery was naturally extremely beautiful. He frowned slightly and said:

"Although the risk is difficult to completely eliminate, the widening of the Qiwei River must be carried out at the same time, and two main canals must be dug at the same time. We cannot just expect that there will be no heavy rainstorms in Xuanzhou next year when summer begins."

It is extremely stressful to complete the reclamation of 100,000 acres of new land before spring plowing next year, and it is impossible not to bear any risk.

In this way, more than 5,000 households of generals, soldiers and families can be resettled when spring plowing begins next year.

However, the resettlement of the remaining population is a tough matter.

Although the industry and mining industry can also accommodate a large number of surplus laborers, the construction of tall buildings requires investment, and the establishment of handicraft workshops requires investment.

Workshops, overflow stone dams that stabilize water flow, roads leading to coal pits and mines in the mountains, as well as a large number of mining tools, forging and casting tools, hydraulic equipment, looms, textile machinery manufacturing, and the promotion and cultivation of cotton, etc.

etc., which not only requires a lot of resources but also a lot of time.

At the same time, it is also necessary to develop a broad market that can accommodate the dumping of large quantities of primary industrial products.

Sometimes it takes more time than the resources that need to be invested.

Zhu Yu's fundamental purpose of sending troops to Xuzhou to spy on Huaidong was because he didn't want to give him enough time? Han Qian sighed in his heart and thought silently.

"Ta-ta-ta", at this time, several fast horses galloped from the south, attracting everyone's attention.

Guo Que turned over and dismounted and said: "The messenger from Yueyang has just arrived at Langxi and reported that on the 12th, Li Zhigao led his troops to capture the two cities of Chiwu and Xunyang in Jiangzhou and killed six thousand defenders including Zhou Ang, the governor of Jiangzhou.

, captured Zhong Yanhu and other Jiangzhou city defenders with more than 7,000 soldiers. In addition, the prince of Yuzhang County also led his troops northward through the west bank of Poyang Lake at about the same time, and fell into Pengze City. He appointed deputy envoy Li Pu, and You Guangde Army Commanding Envoy

Gu Zhilong, deputy capital commander Chen Mingsheng, Li Xiu and others should have contacted the messenger sent by Yueyang first, and by this time they have all rushed to Langxi City and are waiting for you to return!"

"Jiangzhou was captured so quickly? The recruiting troops along the river and Jiangxi recruiting troops were so fast!" Xi Rong said in surprise, "After Pengze City was captured, Chizhou was less than three hundred miles east along the river. Look at it this way,

Maybe within November, the Yueyang soldiers and horses will be able to knock open the west gate of Jinling, right?"

"Liang Jun has forced King Xin back to Jiangbei. If Li Zhigao delays for one day, Anning Palace will send hundreds of thousands of delayed soldiers into Jiangzhou." Chen Jitang said.

Chen Jitang came to serve as the chief engineer of the Zhizhi Envoy Mansion, but this does not mean that he knew nothing about military affairs.

"Let's rush back first!" Han Qian gathered his cloak and said.

Han Qian spoke in a calm tone, but at this moment he knew in his heart how conflicted and entangled he was. On the one hand, in order to fulfill his father's last wish, he hoped in his heart that the war would end soon and the people of Li would suffer less.

On the one hand, if the war can be postponed until the autumn of next year and then completely ended, Guangde's situation will no longer be so embarrassing.

Han Qian said goodbye to Chen Jitang, who would continue to stay near Nandutang Lake to survey the terrain and prepare for the completion of the encirclement and reclamation work before spring. He and Xi Rong and their guards, led by Guo Que, got on their horses.
Chapter completed!