Chapter 703 Fighting for Prisoners of War

Chapter 703 Fighting for Prisoners of War

The Han River from Mianyang downward is called the Xia River, and the point where the Xia River flows into the Yangtze River is called Xiakou.

During its long history, the lower reaches of the Han River have been diverted from time to time due to the influence of geography, climate and other factors. Therefore, the location where it flows into the Yangtze River has also changed from time to time, eventually forming several Jindu crossings connecting the Han River.

The place where Xia River enters the river from the west is called Xia Shou, the southeast part of Mianyang is called Zhuankou, and further east is Xiakou. Not far from Xiakou is Jiangxia City, and on the other side of the river to the south is Ying City. , the seat of the prefecture of Yingzhou in Nanliang, which was the future Wuchang.

As Jiangling's naval division withdrew from Xiakou, all armies gathered to attack Yingcheng on the south bank, and the Jingzhou Governor's Office took advantage of the situation and took over Xiakou. Since then, the handover of several Tianjin ferries delivered to the Western Wei Dynasty by the King of Eastern Hunan has been completed, and the several ports where the Han River enters the river have been guarded by the Western Wei navy.

This was naturally another milestone achievement in the expansion of the Western Wei Dynasty's territory. The entire Han River was completely included in the territory of the Western Wei Dynasty, and the Iron Hoof of the Western Wei Dynasty was able to drink directly from the Ma Dajiang River.

But as territory expands, new challenges naturally arise. The temporary involvement could not explain any problems. Chen Qingzhi of Nanliang even controlled Luoyang City in the Northern Wei Dynasty for a time, but in the end, the vigorous Northern Expedition ended hastily.

The acquisition of several Jiangbei ports means that the entire Han River waterway is under the control of the Western Wei Dynasty. From Hanzhong to the Handong area, the dispatch of materials and the distribution of personnel have a lower-cost operation method, which means that the entire The personnel connections within the jurisdiction of the Jingzhou General Administration have been further consolidated and strengthened, which also means that the rule of this area has become more reliable.

At the same time, it also means that if necessary, the human resources of the entire Han River Basin can be poured into the river continuously according to Li Tai's idea, and sent to further places through the operation of the river channel.

However, if you want to realize this vision, you need to have sufficient naval power. Otherwise, these ports will not only become the cornerstone of further expansion of power, but will become a heavy burden for border defense.

In the original history, after the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties captured Jiangling, there was no further major breakthrough in Jiangling. Even if they occasionally gained something, they lost it quickly. The big reason was that there was no strong naval force to support it. As a result of its military operations, the activities in the middle and lower reaches of the river during this period of the Northern Zhou Dynasty were not only not majestic at all, but also seemed a bit wretched.

Although Li Tai is not good at the management and construction of the navy, he is good at the coordination and dispatch of personnel. Now that he recognizes the problem, he naturally has to find a way to make up for it.

The construction and maintenance of these port water camps and the maintenance of the troops are much more complicated and cumbersome than the land camps. The maintenance of single boats is a very profound knowledge.

Although Li Tai did not have the energy to learn from scratch and master it, he did his best to systematically understand the steps involved in order to have a basic understanding.

The subordinate officer sent by Liang Wang Xiaoqi as the commander-in-chief of the naval alliance was named Wang Cao. He himself had managed the Xiangyang Navy for a long time, so he was very familiar with all matters. He was able to do it without high-intensity military tasks. Qualified for this position.

If there really is a situation where the naval force needs to go into battle, then even if Wang Cao is qualified for Li Tai, he will not use him as the commander-in-chief. The so-called employment without suspicion is just a formality. When it comes to suspicion, all leaders in the world are like birds. Even if there are occasional cases where you are confidant, it is because there is really no better choice.

Xu Wensheng, who suffered severe physical and mental injuries, decided to join the Jingzhou General Manager's Office after recuperating for a period of time. Even if he is old and has nothing else to seek, he still has to find a place to stay for the thousands of people under his command.

Li Tai was naturally overjoyed by this. Even if he was not sure whether Xu Wensheng would be loyal to him, when it came to hating Xiao Laoqi and Jiangling Military Mansion, Xu Wensheng would definitely rank high.

Although Linghu Yanbao and Zhu Meng, who had previously formed and trained boat divisions in the upper reaches of the Han River, were just rushing to the top, they were already rare generals under the Jingzhou Governor's Office who had some naval experience. So the two of them, together with Xu Wensheng, were appointed as the defense commanders of the three ferry cities. Each of them led a naval division to be stationed in one place, and they were jointly controlled by Wang Cao, the naval commander.

In addition to the more than 10,000 men under Xu Wensheng's command, the navy under the jurisdiction of the Jingzhou General Administration also reached more than 30,000 men, and there were nearly a thousand boats. Looking at this number alone, it is quite impressive, but in fact the quality is worrying.

Nearly half of the more than 30,000 naval officers and men have never participated in any water battle, and even fewer have participated in water battles with more than 10,000 participants. One of the outstanding characteristics is their lack of experience.

As for boats and vehicles, it is even more difficult to describe. Otherwise, Li Tai might not have thought of using a small boat to transport grain to Jiangling Naval University. After Wang Lin's provocative ship was delivered, she immediately ascended to the position of King of Ships.

Since the navy must rely on ships as an important combat tool, in addition to having a certain degree of combat literacy, it must also know how to operate and maintain ships. Therefore, in addition to being a soldier, a qualified navy sergeant must also serve as a boatman. After all, the largest ship's carrying capacity is also very limited. When the actual battle begins, it is impossible to load an additional crew team without combat capabilities.

The larger the warship, the higher the technology required. Therefore, the accumulated training of relevant personnel and the further upgrading of ships and vehicles are two unavoidable mountains that stand in the way of the construction of Jingzhou Navy.

Relatively speaking, the former is more difficult than the latter. After all, the life scene of the Northerners limits their accumulation of relevant knowledge and experience. It requires a lot of time, energy and learning ability for special training. The difficulty is not inferior to jingle. test.

Therefore, attracting a large number of southerners to join the army is also an operation that Li Tai must carry out to develop his power to the present. The easiest thing to obtain at the moment is the rebel prisoners captured by the Jiangling armies.

The overall organization of Hou Jing's rebel army was not high, and they could be described as a mob. Their combat methods relied on a small number of elites to open up the situation. The army behind them would swarm in, burn, kill, and loot. They could not be said to be an elite division. But if it is specific to each person, it is not without merit, and there are even many multi-talented talents.

After all, Hou Jing's base camp for recruiting troops is Jiankang City. As the capital of Nanliang, Jiankang City is difficult for others to live in Jiankang City for a long time if they don't have talents, except for those powerful people who are useless. Go down. Therefore, the personal skills of these people who were coerced into the rebel army in the city were slightly higher than those of the people in the countryside.

If Li Tai openly proposed to buy these prisoners of war with rice or other materials, he would definitely not be allowed to do so. Instead, it would easily arouse the other party's vigilance. But if this need is packaged as a gift to people, it will become a trend.

So when Wang Sengbian led his army to besiege Ying City on the south bank of the Yangtze River, a large number of people also gathered in Xiakou on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and the scene was extremely lively. Many Jiangling generals even went to the extent of fighting in order to be able to land in the camp first and sell prisoners of war in advance.

After all, the rebel army was destitute after burning all the millions of stones of food and grass in Huainan. As the victorious side, Jiangling's army gained very little. Apart from a handful of ragged prisoners, there was almost no other income. The army will continue to march eastward along the river. If they don't reserve some food in advance, their own troops will probably collapse from hunger before reaching Jiankang.

"Don't be anxious, no chaos is allowed! Everyone can bring troops into the camp, but if you violate the camp rules again, you will be expelled immediately!"

Li Yunxin ordered the sergeants to maintain order here and kept shouting loudly to the crowd. All the Jiangling soldiers had something to ask for, so they did not dare to be presumptuous and lined up to enter in accordance with the regulations.

On the camp's campus, the prisoners of war lined up along the long fence. On both sides of the fence, people kept bringing buckets and pouring strong-smelling liquid on them. This is not to humiliate them, but to disinfect them and get rid of the germs and diseases they carry.

After some washing, these prisoners of war were led under the large bamboo shed. Someone would ask them their names, where they were from, and what skills they had. There are also some hand tools placed next to the bamboo shed to verify their skills through hands-on operation.

"Captain, wait a minute, wait a minute. Although this slave doesn't know any craftsmanship, he is very tall. When we captured him earlier, he injured several of my men. Although he is weak now, he will become stronger after a few days of feeding. You don't need two stones, you only need one stone." One stone, five buckets, no, one stone, one stone of food!”

The school grounds are filled with the sounds of such bargaining. The current price of a prime-year prisoner of war is two stones of grain or even lower. But as long as they can sell it, the owners will breathe a sigh of relief and go about their business happily. Go elsewhere to collect food.

As for the prisoners of war who were sold, they did not feel that their personalities were insulted, but instead felt happy in their hearts. Because those selected prisoners of war were all led into a neat camp and given clean Gebu blouses to cover their bodies, as well as vegetable soup mixed with mixed vegetables to satisfy their hunger, this treatment was better than falling into the hands of the Jiangling army. Too much!

In the big tent in the camp, Li Tai also told Ma Xiu, the governor of Anzhou, and others with a serious expression: "If all the families in Suilu have food, they will all be transferred here, and the general manager's office will return it to each other after the autumn. Each family's loss will be calculated for merit." , we will all get paid for each other’s progress by the end of the year!”

In order to raise enough food and grass to maintain the current transaction, Li Tai also embarked on the path of selling officials and titles like Yu Wentai.

If we can't take advantage of the fact that Jiangling's armies are short of food and trade for those prisoners of war now, they won't be able to buy them in a while, because Chen Baxian, the powerful man from Lingnan, is coming north with his army and 500,000 shi of food!