To be honest, in the following defensive operations along the river and coast, Yang Zhitang will not be willing to put these two warships into the battlefield. More importantly, he will use small and medium-sized warships as consumables to confront Liang Jun's navy in relatively shallow and narrow inland rivers.

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However, without a few large galleys to support the scene, Longwu Navy would not be powerful, let alone deter Liang Jun Navy from directly entering the Yangtze River waterway east of Runzhou - speaking of which, Dachu Navy was in

In the era of the Louchuan Army, the five-toothed Louship built with great effort was much less practical than the large galley warships. Why should we grit our teeth and build it?

At this time, Ji Xiyao, accompanied by more than a dozen people, walked over from the other side of Aoshan Island and met with Shou Wang Yang Zhitang, Feng Liao, Han Daochang and others.

Ji Xiyao has been on Aoshan Island these days to provide some detailed guidance on the construction of the navy camp, dock port and ship repair yard.

There are countless talented people and craftsmen in Prince Shou's palace. It is not difficult to tell whether the warships provided by Tangyi and the opinions put forward by Ji Xiyao contain evil intentions.

This was the first time for Yang Zhitang to meet Ji Xiyao, but many of the suggestions Ji Xiyao mentioned in the past few days on the island would be passed on to him immediately.

He also asked Liu Chengsi to find the palace engineers for careful review, but found that Ji Xiyao's suggestions were all neglected by the palace engineers. He had never thought of the wonderful features. It was hard to imagine that the dark and thin young man in front of him looked like this.

He was just thirty years old, and he was more accomplished in craftsmanship than Yang En, the Marquis of Liyang. This person was the first to preside over the Xuzhou Battleship Yard, and I don’t know where Han Qian got such a person from.

Of course, when Ji Xiyao came over, he did not provide free guidance. He still strongly hoped that when the Shou Prince Mansion built Aoshan Island, it could purchase lime, masonry, wood and other building materials from Tangyi.

Prince Shou's Mansion has a large number of cheap slaves in Hongzhou who can make lime, bricks, and cut wood. However, the transportation from Hongzhou is thousands of miles away, and the freight is expensive; and those who want to be nearby are controlled by aristocratic clans from Runzhou and other places.

When purchased from a kiln, the price is as high as that of Tangyi.

Tangyi even provides a slurry called "stone mud", which can be mixed with lime to build walls. After drying, it is as strong as adding boiled glutinous rice slurry to lime, but the price is higher than that of boiled glutinous rice slurry.

Glutinous rice milk is cheap.

All in all, Han Qian will provide the most attentive and considerate service to the new navy of Youlong Wujun, and the accounts can be paid on credit, as long as Prince Shou's Mansion promises that the merchant ships of the Chishan Society can enter the counties and towns of Hongzhou without restrictions.

Bu - Hongzhou is the traditional sphere of influence of Prince Shou's Palace. Not only are hundreds of thousands of acres of the palace's farmland being released to Hongzhou, but Yang Zhitang is also the governor of Hongzhou at this time.

Everyone hopes that the foundation can be laid more solidly, not to mention that what Tangyi provides is indeed of high quality and low price. Can they still choose the good over the bad and sacrifice the cheap for the expensive?

As for Tangyi's repeated appeals for the lifting of trade restrictions, Yang Zhitang did not believe that after the restrictions were lifted, Xuzhou and Tangyi combined could only account for 14 counties and more than 400,000 households, so how much goods could be exported.

Seeing that it was almost time, Yang Zhitang, Feng Liao, Han Daochang and others took a boat to Hangou Shuikou so that they could enter Yangzhou City to meet Wang Wenqian before dark.

…………

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Wang Wenqian also led Yangzhou generals early in the afternoon to wait at the ferry outside the west city.

Yang Zhitang, as the privy envoy and King of Shou, was officially ordered to supervise the defense of Yangzhou this time.

In addition to Wang Wenqian, generals such as Zhao Zhen, the general manager of the Yangzhou camp, Yin Peng, the state commander, and Xu Zhi, the chief minister, also gathered under the newly built colorful shed in front of the ferry.

However, by this time, the news that King Shou was asked to come to Yangzhou to serve as a matchmaker had spread in Jinling, Yangzhou and other places.

Seeing the fleet of the longevity king Yang Zhitang approaching slowly, Yin Peng thought to himself, this marriage has been going on for so many years, and it is probably only people like Yang Zhitang who come forward to propose a marriage, who can save something for the Wang family.

To save face, otherwise all the uncles within the Wang family would be in trouble.

Feng Liao and Han Daochang accompanied Yang Zhitang ashore and met with the Yangzhou generals headed by Wang Wenqian. They had to discuss official business and the matter of protecting matchmakers.

At this time, there is also an accompanying merchant ship docked on the north side of the pier. The ship is loaded with thirty-two betrothal gifts. Another elder from the Wang family will be sent to receive them, and they will be taken directly along the causeway outside the west city wall.

, carried to Shugang Jianyuan.

There is nothing good to say about Yangzhou's defense.

After Tangyi's troops entered autumn, they intensified their attacks on the enemy-occupied areas in Chao and Chu north of the Chu River. Troops and horses were frequently dispatched to divert the main attention of the Shouzhou Army on the southern front.

Including Fanliang Lake, the defense in Dongyang County in the north is under the jurisdiction of Chuzhou.

Yangzhou faced very little military pressure. There were only 30,000 troops stationed in Yangzhou at the beginning of the year. By this time, in addition to the 10,000 soldiers who had been converted into garrisons, more than 2,000 disaster-stricken families had also been recruited, with the help of money borrowed from Tangyi.

He used the money to buy seeds, farm tools, livestock, and rations. He used every opportunity to build lake embankments, build villages, dig rivers and ditches, and reclaim more than 100,000 acres of grain fields in the west of Hangou and on the west bank of Shaobo Lake.

Far from weakening, the defense line on Yangzhou's western flank was greatly strengthened.

In addition to being harassed by Liang Jun along the Huaihe River, due to the weakness of the salt soldiers protecting the salt field, Huaidong Salt Fields is easily penetrated by Liang Jun's navy. Huaidong currently has to strengthen the defenses on the eastern front of Chuzhou and Taizhou, and its military resources are even more stretched.

, if the grain storage lasts for another two months, we will fall into the predicament of a shortage of food.

The crowd walked through the streets and alleys, and, surrounded by guards in bright armor, rode into the governor's palace. After meeting with the Yangzhou generals, most of the middle-level generals resigned first, leaving only Yang Zhitang, Liu Chengsi, Feng Liao, and Han Daochang in the hall.

, Wang Wenqian, Zhao Zhen, Yin Peng, Xu Zhi et al.

There is still no way for Huaidong to overturn the conditions issued by Prince Shou's Mansion in Tangyi.

Tangyi provided an extremely cheap loan of 20,000 shi of grain per month. King Shou Yang Zhitang tried his best to get more aid for Huaidong from the court, and the only requirement was that Yangtai and Taizhou should relax trade restrictions on Chishanhui.

, release the Hailing River east of Taizhou to Youlong Wujun, so that the newly formed navy of Youlongwu Army can pass through the Hailing River from the west wing of the Huaidong Saltworks to participate in the joint defense of the coast north of the Yangtze River...

Evacuating some of the refugees and resettling the disaster-stricken people in Tangyi will also alleviate the relief pressure on Huaidong.

Wang Wenqian and Zhao Zhen, on behalf of Huaidong, can only strive to further increase the loan scale, hoping that they can borrow Xuzhou's armor, weapons, warships and other military supplies on credit in the future.

Since Huaidong raised its demands, Feng Liao, on behalf of Tangyi, unceremoniously asked Huaidong to significantly reduce the garrison on the west wing of Yangzhou, and asked Zhundong to transfer more troops to the west of Fanliang Lake and from Fanliang Lake

Between Hongzepu and Hongzepu, we took a peek at the enemy troops stationed in Shiliang County and actively fought against them.

In addition to more realistically strengthening the military pressure on Chuzhou's enemy forces, this can also reduce the military threat from Huaidong on the eastern flank of the Tangyi soldiers.

Han Qian is not naive enough to think that if everyone is now married and formed an alliance, Huaidong will not suddenly turn against Tangyi from the east wing one day.

At this time, Huaidong was required to continue to significantly reduce the defense troops on the west flank of Yangzhou. If one day, Huaidong wanted to turn against them, it would take a while for them to gather troops on the west flank of Yangzhou. This would also help Tangyi adjust his troop deployment and gain enough troops.

time.

Yang Zhitang also absolutely supports Feng Liao's suggestion.

At present, Youlong Wujun is stationed in Runzhou at this time, across the river from Yangzhou. If King Xin Yang Yuanyan has some trust in him, he should reduce the number of troops stationed in Yangzhou.

This can actually further alleviate the pressure within Huaidong.

There is a huge difference in whether more than 10,000 elite soldiers and horses are left empty on Yangzhou's western defense line or transferred to the northern line to strengthen the counterattack and harassment operations against the Liang Army; and if the Chuzhou frontline troops are sufficient, one

More than 10,000 elite soldiers and horses were converted into garrison troops. In the future, the increase or decrease in military expenditures can be the difference between 200,000 to 300,000 shi of grain per year.

Everything discussed here was immediately reported to the office of King Xin Yang Yuanyan who was stationed in Dongyang at the earliest opportunity.

Feng Liao, Han Daochang and the others first stayed with the longevity king Yang Zhitang in the post house. In the early morning, they could faintly hear people coming and going in Yang Zhitang's yard. Feng Liao ignored them and waited until noon the next day to rush to the Governor's Mansion to discuss matters.

It seems that only then did King Xin Yang Yuanyan's reply come through, saying that part of the garrison in Yangzhou can continue to be withdrawn, but it is required that the loan amount be increased to 50,000 shi per month before the summer grain harvest tomorrow.
Chapter completed!