Chapter 318: The Broken Territory
The Black Water River is the Nujiang River. After Li Yunqing crossed the Nujiang River and defeated the Tubo army, he obtained this forward base with an excellent climate. He is resting the army, storing food and grass, and preparing to continue his advance.
The logistics team came up, and Li Chuan went to report to them happily: General Cao has sent us the new flags of the New Song Army, including flags of the columns, squadrons, and teams.
Li Yunqing stood up excitedly and led a group of brothers out of the big tent to see, and asked them to unfold the flag and raise the column's flag.
Zhao Yulin gave Li Yunqing the numbers of three columns. He read Ding Gong's letter and saw that the king praised his Western Expedition Army and asked him to keep moving forward. He was so excited that tears filled his eyes when he planted the military flag on the city wall of Luoshui. He raised his arms and shouted with great passion: The Shenwei Army is mighty, long live the new Song Dynasty.
The generals waved their flags and cheered along with him, their voices echoing throughout the valley.
Looking back, Li Yunqing called all the generals to discuss the current situation and ask for advice.
Deputy General Cao Yong suggested that the troops should immediately advance to Bomi while the weather was good. Because the people along the way said that the climate there was better and it was the granary of Tubo. If we took the granary, we would have food security and would not have too much pressure on logistics and transportation. At the same time, we cut off a grain route for Tubo.
Li Yunqing nodded and raised his hand to signal Li Chuan to speak.
Li Chuan has been promoted to the position of logistics officer of the Western Expedition Army. Cao Yong and Li Yunqing saw that he was smart and was Zhao Yulin's servant, so they wanted to train him.
The young man took a breath and said that he agreed with General Cao's opinion and suggested that the troops march to Bomi immediately. At the same time, we can send a detachment to march to Kemai, because the climate in Kemai in the south is very good and the products there must be abundant. After we take Kemai, we can get good food supplies and reserve food and grass for the army.
Li Yunqing told the generals: The Third Young Master and General Cao have no instructions, so we have to make our own decisions based on the circumstances.
His idea was the same as everyone else's, and he made up his mind. Cao Yong would lead 20,000 troops as the vanguard to set up camp in Bomi, and Li Chuan would be given 2,000 troops to go to Komai to collect food and fodder. He would lead the central army to follow into Bomi.
After receiving the order, the generals took action immediately.
Li Yunqing advanced along the way, leaving behind brothers who were familiar with Tubo along the way like a seed drill. He took back the fields, property and livestock from the slave owners and distributed them to the poor serfs. A large number of liberated serfs joined the garrison of the New Song Dynasty.
These serf brothers were liberated and became masters of their own affairs. They worked hard to grow crops during the busy farming season and took up swords to guard their homes in their spare time. They became his best helpers in stabilizing the occupied areas.
However, Zhao Yulin reminded him in a letter not to be too anxious, as the journey to Lhasa City in the west was too far and the biggest problem was the difficulty in supply.
Zhao Yulin told him that he must stabilize the place he conquered, build a smooth transportation station and open up the transportation channel. When he arrived in Basu, he found that the weather here was much better. He was determined to conquer Bomi to obtain better material support and quickly urged the army to advance westward.
Zhao Yulin was tortured to exhaustion by Zhao Feiyan, so how could he know Li Yunqing's military strategy? The couple got up early in the morning to practice swordsmanship in the yard. Feiyan said that it would be better for her to find the head female teacher, and let her brother hold her to practice, because she couldn't calm down.
Haha, this woman really knows how to tune the piano. Zhao Yulin almost fainted. He let her go and told them to practice on their own.
After breakfast, the two went to the government office. Mr. Ding invited them to the flower hall to discuss matters with Lao Cao and told him that military intelligence from Shunfengsi had arrived.
Dali in the south fought with Yue and Pagan to regain the jade mining area. Goryeo and the Mongol Empire in the east actually fought to a draw, and the two sides were in a stalemate in the struggle for control of the peninsula.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that it was not a draw yet. The army of the northern grassland empire had forced the Goryeo regime to the islands and mountains, but did not abandon its wealth and population. The Mongolian army did not get what they wanted. The two sides were at most in a stalemate on the territory of Goryeo.
Lao Cao asked him who would win in the end?
Zhao Yulin felt that the Mongolian army would eventually withdraw from the peninsula as it could not seize wealth and population, and that as long as Goryeo persisted, it would definitely win.
It was July, and the summer was scorching. Cao felt that the Mongolian army was hardy and cold-resistant, and was good at fighting in the cold winter. It would be difficult for Goryeo to survive this winter.
Zhao Yulin said that whether they can survive or not is not very meaningful, but it is definitely beneficial to us. The Mongolian army's eastward expeditionary army must have been dragged down on the peninsula by Goryeo, and it will not return until next spring. We just took the opportunity to hit them with a hammer.
Lao Cao's eyes immediately lit up, and he asked him in a low voice if he wanted to take action in advance?
Zhao Yulin shook his head and said that it would be better to just go with the flow and see how prepared his brothers were.
Lao Cao immediately said that he would go to the battle personally this time .
Mr. Ding disagreed, saying that if both of them left, who would stay at home?
Zhao Yulin said that we cannot move for the time being. If the general wants to stretch his muscles, he can go to Changsha to inspect the renovation of Lingqu Canal. Someone must still stay at home, so he will go to Lizhou to Fengxiang Prefecture to take a look.
Lao Cao said a little depressed that he was asked to supervise the logistics again. Tan Yousan had already taken office in the Logistics Department, and these were all things he could do well.
Zhao Yulin said with a smile that the general was in the south of the Yangtze River, which made the enemy relax their vigilance. We have to buy more food from Yue State. We will transport the food from Shu and Qin Gong to the Luoshui City of Tubo, which will inevitably lead to a shortage of food in Shu. The general will just buy the food from Yue State to replenish the Changping warehouse.
In fact, the Western Expedition Army had no problem fighting against Tubo, because Tubo had long since disintegrated into various kings' separatist regimes of varying sizes. Even if they united at this time, they were not in harmony with each other in heart and it was difficult for them to form a joint force.
On the contrary, the logistical supply of the Western Expedition Army became the biggest problem. Tens of thousands of troops needed food and drink, and the minimum guarantee was not a small amount.
However, the most difficult part about supply is that there is no way forward.
The Tibetans had a small population and a vast territory, so their men and horses moved almost exclusively in search of water and grass. If the Shenwei Army wanted to obtain supplies quickly, they had to build roads through the mountains and build bridges over water.
Therefore, wherever the team went, the road construction and logistics teams behind would follow. The new Song Dynasty was no longer fighting against Tubo, but fighting against the sky and the earth, and was determined to build roads.
Next, we had to fight against nature. We encountered bad weather, and it snowed heavily in June on Zheduo Mountain. The logistics had to overcome difficulties to deliver the military supplies.
Lao Cao told everyone that the Logistics Department had appointed a deputy envoy to be responsible for the material support of the Western Expedition Army, with a focus on opening up the passage from Yazhou, Kangningzhou and Queer Mountain to Tubo.
In terms of logistics, a relay transportation method was adopted , with Yazhou organizing manpower to transport the supplies to Dege, and then Corningzhou organizing personnel to transport the supplies further forward to the military camp.
Lao Cao said that the team building roads and bridges is constantly expanding, and they also need daily necessities.
But we must do this. If we don't build the road, the two places will not be able to communicate conveniently, so how can they be unified?
Mr. Ding believes that no more projects can be started. Right now, people are needed to build roads and relocate Jinguan City. If we start a big project, there will be no one available. When the farmers leave their hometowns to work, who will grow crops?
Zhao Yulin also felt that this was a problem, as Chengdu could no longer undertake large-scale construction projects.
Lao Cao nodded and told everyone that his servants said that the price of vegetables has increased. A large number of farmers from the surrounding areas of Chengdu have moved to the city to participate in the construction of resettlement areas and the relocation of Jinguan City. These people who used to grow vegetables now stop growing vegetables and work in the city, so the supply of vegetables has been greatly reduced, but they still need to eat vegetables in the city, so the price of vegetables has increased.
He smiled and said that this was normal. The supply of vegetables was there, and when people saw the vegetable prices rising, they would work harder to open up fields and grow vegetables to increase the supply. A slightly higher price could increase farmers' income.
However, we do need to pay attention to the fact that there are too many construction projects at the moment, which has led to the concentrated transfer of labor. In the future, when we gradually build a construction and construction team, steadily implement construction projects, and guide the division of labor and diversion of society to form industries, there will be no sharp increase in vegetable prices.
Several old gentlemen listened with great interest and felt that what he said made a lot of sense.
Lord Ding said that the officials who were out supervising the reforms would be back in a few days, so we should discuss the matter again.
He said yes, and it was a good opportunity to talk about the division of taxes into two levels: central and local.
Zhao Yulin brought up the idea of tax sharing and told Ding Gong that Luzhou wanted to build roads and dredge waterways but lacked money. He thought that it was the same everywhere, and that county magistrates, prefectural magistrates and prefectural magistrates had to go around to beg for money. This system was obviously not conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of local government offices.
He proposed tax sharing, which would not only motivate local governments to collect taxes, but also allow first-level local officials to make independent arrangements for the construction of local roads, schools and other basic infrastructure needs based on the financial resources they control.
Lao Cao agreed immediately. He and Zhao Yulin had worked in Hanzhong and Guanzhong before and knew the benefits of tax sharing. But he also stressed that financial supervision must be strengthened after tax sharing, otherwise it would give illegal officials loopholes.
Ding Gong had heard about the tax sharing between Xuzhou and Hanzhong, and he had no objection. Thinking that there were more than three people in the Central Council, he said that he would inform Zhao Yan tomorrow. Then they would know about the republican affairs, so they could discuss it together and reach a consensus...
Zhao Bing and Shi Xiang of Jiangdong were also discussing taxes. They had a very tight life this year, even worse than Meng Gong who was short of money to pay the army.
Because of the help from the New Song Kingdom in transporting military pay, Meng Gong was able to save money and survive.
Zhao Bing was not so lucky. Jiangdong only had five administrative districts left and the remaining territory in Jiangbei, and he lived on the income from salt and maritime trade.
The salt industry collapsed after Shi Xiang and Zhao Yulin fought a salt war. Zhao Yulin transported back salt from Xining Prefecture as a hedge, which brought down both the sales volume and price of their sea salt. After Zhao Bing took over, the salt revenue dropped by half and could never recover to the level before.
As for the second item, sea trade has also been declining this year. After the new Song State and Yue State connected, they opened free trade in Leizhou and Fangcheng. The burden on merchants was half of that in Jiangdong, and a large number of sea traders came here.
