Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 315 Waiting for the Enemy to Collapse
Among the four counties in southern Jing, Changsha is the most important.
Although it cannot be compared with Nanyang County and Nan County in Jingbei, Changsha County still stands out among the four southern counties.
The other two, Lingling and Guiyang, are both barren lands. As for Wuling... it is assumed to be a place to pacify the barbarians.
Historically, Liu Bei borrowed four counties in southern Jing plus the southern part of Nan County, but never returned them. When the two sides were arguing, the Eastern Wu only mentioned Lingling, Guiyang and Changsha counties, but never mentioned Wuling County.
Wuling County was actually connected to the Nanzhong area in the south of Yizhou. Although it belonged to Yizhou and Jingzhou, they were actually the activity areas of the Nanzhong barbarians and Wuling barbarians, just like the Shanyue and Wuxi people in Zhangling and Guiyang.
Only a few counties in the north were relatively prosperous - the seat of the former governor of Jingzhou was in the north of Wuling, and these counties were where troops were stationed to deal with the Nanzhong barbarians, or the Wuling barbarians.
Liu Pan, the governor of southern Jing, was nominally the prefect of Changsha, just like Sun Jian when he was alive.
For Liu Pan, the truly important area is Changsha and the northern part of Wuling.
Since the General's Mansion was bypassed from the south, being able to defend against the enemy in Guiyang was already a great success.
However... In April of the fifth year of Jian'an, Shamoke initially integrated the Wuxi people and led the Wuxi barbarian army into the Jingnan battlefield, symbolizing the complete end of Liu Pan's defense in Guiyang.
Liu Pan accepted Han Xuan's suggestion, or "step", and withdrew the defense line to Changsha.
As a result, the Wuxi people penetrated deep into the Han counties. Once any conflict arose between the Wuxi people and the local Han people, it would cause conflicts between the General's Office and the Wuxi people!
Liu Pan had also used this trick unintentionally before when he put down the rebellion in the four counties of southern Jing...
At that time, Liu Pan was fighting in Changsha with the Jingnan gentry headed by Zhang. Because of the latter's lack of strength, they lured the Wuxi barbarians to the north for support. As a result, they were unable to restrain the behavior of the Wuxi barbarians. Not only did the people of Guiyang and Changsha suffer, but even several gentry were deeply harmed. Therefore, they turned against Zhang and stabbed him twice.
Moreover, the army of the General's Mansion came from the Wuling area. Even if Guiyang County was given up, the opponent's food supply would be very difficult. As long as Guiyang County could not produce grain this year, either the General's Mansion's isolated army in Jingnan would be dragged to death, or... the General's Mansion would be dragged to death in order to feed this isolated army!
There is also a war going on in Jingbei. Does the General's Mansion really have so much food to waste on transporting food from the Wuling Mountains?
Similarly, once the food supply is cut off, it will further promote the instability of the Wuxi Barbarians...
Han Xuan was well aware of this, so he suggested that Liu Pan should not fight for the gains and losses of a county or a place, but should retreat directly to Changsha.
Of course, the more important reason is... that we can’t win.
With the previous experience of the rebellion in southern Jing as a precedent, it was a good thing that Guiyang did not demolish the city wall, and naturally there would be no further reinforcement.
Jingnan has always been a place where people often surrender at the first sign of trouble.
In the history without the "white rabbit effect" (white map effect), when Cao Cao went south, the four counties of southern Jing surrendered together with Liu Cong. After Cao Cao was defeated, the four counties of southern Jing surrendered to Liu Bei. When Lu Meng attacked Jingzhou, Changsha and Guiyang surrendered directly to the Eastern Wu...
It was originally thought that the 20,000 troops from the General's Mansion were alone and deep in the enemy's territory. As long as they could hold out for a few rounds, the enemy would sooner or later be unable to continue. However, it was unexpected that the Wuxi people would suddenly intervene at this time.
Although the fighting power of Wuxi people on plains is not as good as that of Han army, they have filled the vacant manpower in the General's Mansion. To put it simply... they are at least capable of being cannon fodder!
As a result, Liu Pan also accepted Han Xuan's "step" and returned north to Changsha County, preparing to defend Changsha and several counties in the north of Wuling.
Before leaving, I didn't forget to cut the seedlings...
It's only April, and even with the climate in southern Jing, the rice is not yet ripe. We have to wait at least another month or two. However, it's impossible to fight back this year anyway. People don't eat to feed the horses, and horses don't eat to burn firewood. We can't leave them to the army of the General's Mansion!
As for the people?
Naturally, it was handed over to the General's Mansion for relief.
Because the gentry in the four southern Jing counties had rebelled before and had been dealt a heavy blow by Liu Biao, the resistance of the aristocratic families in the folks against Jingzhou Prefecture was very small.
The Nanjun gentry cooperated with Liu Biao in order to reap the interests of other counties in Jingzhou. However, Nanyang County had always been incompatible with Jingzhou and was originally the stronghold of Yuan Shu. Therefore, the four counties in southern Jingzhou were their main target.
Liu Pan and his men left Guiyang with all the food and loot they had. Compared with Yuan Shu, Liu Pan did not go to extremes when he overdrawn manpower, nor did he enter the city to plunder.
Firstly, Liu Pan wanted to save face, and secondly, the General's Mansion's pursuit of Yuan's remaining followers had a deterrent effect.
Zhang Liao only brought 20,000 troops, and after some casualties, there were only 15,000 left. He did not dare to allow the Wuxi people to stay in the city defense. It was very difficult for him to control the twenty or so counties in Guiyang and Lingling, and he was unable to advance to Changsha.
The White Tiger Tribe led by Shamoke and other vassal tribes, totaling 30,000 barbarian soldiers, were always stationed in the same county town with Zhang Liao's 5,000 main forces and Gao Shun's 3,000 Xianzhen Camp.
Although Shamoke considered himself the General Zhennan of the Han Dynasty and the Pacifier of Nanzhong of the General's Mansion , but... military discipline is not something that can be restored in a day. It is easy to expect these barbarians not to disturb the people, but to expect them to consciously not disturb the people when no one is watching... that is a bit too much to ask.
Zhang Liao and Chen Gong's goal has also been achieved - with Guiyang County and Lingling County as rest stops at the "end", the General's Mansion can send troops there continuously.
Just marching through the Wuling Mountains would not be very efficient. Moreover, the long journey would not allow them to get local food, and the consumption of military rations would be terrifying.
Even though the route from Zhangling to Guiyang is via the Wuling Mountains, the distance is not as far as from Zhangling to Jinling. However, because it is full of mountains, hills and forests, the consumption of military rations is three or four times greater - more than 30,000 shi of military rations were transported to Guiyang County, but after deducting the consumption, only 10,000 shi were left!
This is a mountain cart improved by Huang Yueying, otherwise the consumption would be even higher.
The logic here is indeed the same as what Han Xuan and Liu Pan expected and hoped for.
But what they don’t know is…
The General's Mansion really has no shortage of food. Now not only has the per-acre yield in Yangzhou increased by nearly 30% compared to five years ago, but the cultivated land area has not decreased but increased. In particular, a lot of fields have been opened up in military and official settlements, and this part of the per-acre yield is all used to supply military supplies.
At the same time, there are Jiangdong salt and white sugar, soft glass, Jiangdong brocade and other powerful tools, which can also siphon grain from other regions into Yangzhou.
With Yangzhou's grain production, if it was not controlled, grain prices would have fallen back to the level before the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
At that time, the aristocratic grain merchants would naturally not be so creative as to buy grain from other places and transport it back. For every stone of grain transported from the Central Plains to Yangzhou, they would lose at least a few hundred dollars. What's the point?
After all, grain prices are rising in other regions, so we should move grain out of Yangzhou instead!
However, the salt permits, the white sugar and rock sugar produced by the official workshop, as well as Gan's Jiangdong brocade, etc., were all based on grain. In addition, Yangzhou's breeding industry was more developed and required more feed, which increased grain consumption and forcibly stabilized grain prices. In particular, the salt permits and the preferential prices of "imported grain" made Yangzhou operate like a grain-sucking machine.
With the recovery of the commodity economy, Bai Tu has long wanted to make the currency "harder" again, but now he cannot release grain, so he has to put it aside for the time being, and wait until the grain production is completely stable before supporting the five-zhu coin...
