Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 244 Xu Song's Response

The next morning, Wang Dayuan sent a letter to his family, in which he stated that he had made up his mind to follow Lu Jin. He also talked about Lu Jin's talent and benevolence, the current size of the Shengwu Army, and the current situation in the world.

Located in Luzhou, reaching the Huai River in the north, controlling Anqing in the south, and controlling the Yangtze River, the Shengwu Army, which has a hundred thousand soldiers and is eyeing Jiangdong, is very powerful. Today, the heroes in the world are divided into four groups. Liu Futong in the north and Xuzhou Sesame Li will both face the attack of the Yuan court. Only Lu Jin and Xu Shouhui in the south have a better chance of success.

However, Xu Song integrated politics and religion, and no evil cult had ever succeeded since ancient times, so the Shengwu Army in Luzhou had more hope. Its leader Lu Jin was also a benevolent and righteous monarch with ambitions for the world, broad knowledge, courage and strategy. He hoped that his family could move to Luzhou.

In addition to his parents, Wang Dayuan's family also includes his wife and children, all of whom were born before he went to sea for the second time.

Wang Dayuan went to sea twice. He returned to China in 1335 and stayed at home for more than a year. He went to sea for the second time in 1337. His two children were born at that time. Now his eldest daughter, Wang Jingtong, is 16 years old and his son, Wang Zhiyuan, is 15 years old.

Fifteen is neither too old nor too young. If he can learn some skills under Lu Jin, he will be able to work in a few years. He will definitely become the pillar of the next generation of the Wang family. In addition, with the title of marquis promised by Lu Jin, do you still worry that the Wang family will not prosper in the future?

Yesterday, Wang Dayuan first learned world geography from Lu Jin, then saw a telescope, and at night he saw cars and electric lights. He also looked at the moon with a telescope and learned what the "moon" was. He also learned the astronomy of the solar system from Lu Jin, and how the sun, moon and earth are related. Now he is completely convinced and regards Lu Jin as a god-like figure.

If one's own descendants could become Lu Jin's disciples, they would be like the emperor's disciples.

As for the eldest daughter, I heard that Lu Jin now has only one wife, and she is pregnant. If she can marry Lu Jin, that would be the best. If not, it would not be bad for her to find a young single general of the Shengwu Army to be her wife. Lu Jin has many young unmarried generals under his command.

Of course, he did not write about his children's marriage in the letter. He only told his wife to bring them here quickly, pack up their belongings and valuables, and give the property that could not be taken away to Wei Ziming for management, and leave a reliable housekeeper at home to look after it.

Wang Dayuan's letter was not sealed and was handed directly to Lu Jin, which was obviously a sign of loyalty. Lu Jin immediately agreed and asked Bao Yu to send someone to Nanchang, Jiangxi to pick up his family.

During the following two months of leap March and April, the entire Shengwu Army was in a state of intense busyness.

At the end of the intercalary March, Lu Jin organized a second examination in Luzhou and admitted more than 60 civil servants. In addition to filling the gaps in the newly conquered Anqing Road officials, he also assigned an additional assistant official to each county. Now, each county under his jurisdiction was staffed by a three-person staff consisting of a county magistrate, a county magistrate, and a chief clerk.

Under normal circumstances, this configuration is a bit too much, but now it is to reserve officials in advance, so that after crossing the river, officials with political achievements and experience can be transferred to the newly annexed areas to serve as officials, and the original chief clerks and county magistrates can be promoted on the spot to avoid a shortage of officials after crossing the river and the inability to quickly control the newly occupied territories.

However, there were many people who came to take the exam, as many as 37 people. After all, only a few of them were added to the civil service system. So for the remaining people, Lu Jin asked Bao Yu to pick a group of dozens of people to add to the intelligence system. He also selected more than people to add to various troops as training officers, especially the th Army in the east. The training officers of several regiments were fully filled, and some troops even had deputy training officers.

Such an arrangement is naturally also a preparation for crossing the river in the future. By that time, the army will definitely be expanded on a large scale again, and the training officers of these new troops will be transferred from the deputy positions of the Eastern Route Army.

In addition, Lu Jin also issued a training mobilization order to Yang Jing's 37th Army. Those who performed well in training would be given priority in replenishing armor and weapons. Battalion officers who performed well in training and made meritorious service in combat would be promoted to regiment commanders next time.

As soon as this order was issued, the 37th Army on the Eastern Front immediately entered a frantic training rhythm. The battalion officers of each regiment were hoping to be promoted to commanders first in the next army expansion.

The 35th Army on the southern line of Anqing Road was not idle during this period. Liao Yongan personally stayed in Anqing to build defense lines, form a militia and internal guard force, recruit refugees to reclaim wasteland, and train soldiers and replace equipment.

In Anqing City, they first repaired the damaged side of the city wall, then made the wall higher and thicker, and built a barbican at each city gate. On top of the barbican, they built arrow towers, and on top of the city wall, they built artillery batteries. It was clear that they wanted to turn Anqing into a fortress, as if they were going to defend it to the death.

Feng Guoyong was sent by Lu Jin to oversee the construction of bastions and artillery positions. He worked non-stop for the past two months. He first built Leichi Fort, and then built Taihu Fort in the valley of Dabie Mountains west of Taihu Lake. Once these two bastions were built, the way for the Yuan army or Xu Song to advance north from Anqing was completely blocked.

Unless they take a detour through Xiangyang, west of the Dabie Mountains, there is no way they can go north.

However, there are still several more important artillery positions and bastions to be built next, especially along the river at the Lei Chi river mouth in Wangjiang County, as well as Shankou Town and Congyang Town on the north and south sides of Anqing. A bastion needs to be built at the mouth of each of these two rivers.

These five bastions, together with the artillery battery on the island in the middle of the river next to Tongyang, can completely turn Anqing into an iron wall and cut off all ships traveling on the Yangtze River.

However, with so many artillery batteries and bastions, the demand for artillery and muskets has greatly increased. Coupled with the artillery needed on naval ships, the Shengwu Army's demand for artillery has almost reached an abnormal level.

Lu Jin's previous order to build a new waterwheel boring machine at a suitable location was also carried out. Now, a new workshop has been built on Anqing Road, upstream of the Wanshui River in Qianshan County. However, it is not responsible for making weapons, but only for boring cannons.

Similar boring machine workshops were also built on the banks of the Pishui River in Huoshan Town of Lu'an, the Rushu River in the lower reaches of Chao County, the Chushui River near Hanshan, and the Haoshui River next to Dingyuan.

These five newly built boring machine workshops have greatly increased the output of artillery. The current artillery production process only requires the Feixi Iron Works in Luzhou to cast the artillery blanks, which can then be transported to various workshops for boring processing.

In order to improve the efficiency of these workshops, Lu Jin also assigned different tasks to several processing centers. Since there were many bastions and artillery positions on Anqing Road, the workshop in Qianshan County was specifically responsible for boring holes for the eight-jin cannon.

Chao County and Hanshan are relatively close to the navy, and they specialize in boring small-caliber four-jin revolving cannons to supply the navy; Huoshan Town specializes in boring 14-jin mountain howitzers, and Dingyuan specializes in boring 155-caliber 23-jin heavy cannons, which are divided into short-barreled howitzers and long-barreled fortress guns.

With these workshops to share the tasks, the Feixi Iron Works in Luzhou can free up more energy to forge muskets, armor, grenades and other weapons.

The ironworks' boring machine was replaced with a new hydraulic rolling mill to produce more plates. This move directly increased the output of armor and muskets. Now the Feixi Ironworks can produce 1500 sets of armor and muskets of various types per month, and the output of muskets continues to increase.

By the end of April, the two combined brigades of the Guards had all been equipped with standard armor, and one of the four infantry regiments of the 37th Army on the Eastern Front had also been equipped with standard cloth armor. This move also greatly boosted the morale of the troops on the Eastern Front. After all, being able to produce armor and weapons on their own would surely inspire the soldiers. The morale of the remaining regiments was also aroused, and they trained even harder.

On the Susong side of Anqing Road, Miao Daheng was stationed in Susong, and his son Miao Youzhen personally led the navy to station in Leichi to cover his father's flank. This is what is called father and son fighting together. But Miao Daheng was still worried, so he ran over to help his son build a water fort.

Liu Chuanyi also followed Lu Jin's order to help Miao Youzhen form the Lei Chi Navy. The two guys transferred some grassroots officers from the First Regiment of the Navy, and converted all the ships captured from the Battle of Anqing into warships to form the Lei Chi Navy.

After everything was ready, Liu Chuanyi returned to Luzhou and continued to participate in artillery training with the new arrivals Zhu Shouqian, Li Dingbang and others.

By the end of April, Wang Dayuan's family was also brought over, and his son Wang Zhiyuan was enrolled in the artillery class. Wang Dayuan originally wanted to marry his eldest daughter to Lu Jin, but after several attempts, he found that Lu Jin had no intention of taking a concubine for the time being, so he settled for the second best and had Lu Jin personally act as a matchmaker and introduce the girl to Zhu Shou, the major general commander of the First Brigade of the Imperial Guard.

Zhu Shou was a general of the imperial guards of Lu Jin. He was only 20 years old this year and unmarried. She could become the legal wife if she married him. Although Zhu Shou's background was lower than that of the scholarly family of Wang, she would at least be granted a title in the future, which was considered a good match. So Wang of Nanchang completely joined the Shengwu Army.

Zhu Yuanzhang's brother-in-law, the newly arrived Li Zhen, came to Lu Jin in a humble capacity and was immediately valued by Lu Jin. With gratitude in his heart, he diligently inspected the spring plowing matters in various places during this period. He also allocated a large number of farm tools and oxen from the iron factory to various places, so that he did not miss this year's spring plowing.

The second and third salt wells were drilled in Dingyuan. Now the salt production has greatly increased. If we save a little, it can basically meet the salt demand in the jurisdiction of the Shengwu Army, and we will be less dependent on private salt from Jiangsu.

After discussing with Li Shanchang, Bao Yu and others, Lu Jin decided to continue importing salt. On the one hand, it was to win over private salt dealers such as Zhang Shicheng and Lu Zhen. On the other hand, now that Lu Jin had occupied Anqing and cut off transportation on the Yangtze River, the entire upper reaches of the Yangtze River market would become Lu Jin's possession.

You have to know that the entire upstream province of Jiangxi does not produce salt. Sichuan now has a sparse population and the output of salt is not that much. Sichuan well salt can now only be supplied to the Huguang region, and a large part of the salt needed by Jiangxi's tens of millions of people depends on the supply of the eastern coastal areas. Now that Lu Jin controls the transportation lines, it would be a shame if he didn't become a middleman to make a profit from the price difference.

So Lu Jin bought a large amount of private salt from Lu Zhen at a low price, and then sold it to Jiangxi. This move not only earned a lot of financial income for the Shengwu Army, but also enabled them to buy some scarce materials from Jiangxi, such as cotton, grain, and medicinal materials. It was even more beneficial to the development of Jiangxi's intelligence system. Now Bao Yu has already begun to plan to develop an intelligence network for this trade route.

Of course, this is only the situation within the Shengwu Army. As far as all the forces in the world are concerned, since Lu Jin captured Anqing Road, the Shengwu Army has not actively attacked a city in the past few months. From the perspective of outsiders, it seems that the entire Luzhou has become silent. Only people inside know that Lu Jin has been actively preparing for war.

However, other forces were not idle either. Xu and Song were very active in the first half of the year, constantly conquering cities and expanding territory by thousands of miles.

In January of the year, Xu Shouhui of Hubei occupied the entire Huanggang and Huangshi areas, and marched westward, sending Ding Puluo to capture Hanyang. It was also at this time that Chen Youliang, through the introduction of his relatives, brought several thousand soldiers from Xiantao to Hanyang to defect to the Song Dynasty and joined the Xu-Song Red Army.

Afterwards, Xu Song's troops were divided into two routes. Chen Youliang led the Western Army to capture Tianmen, Xiantao, Jingzhou and other places, made great military achievements, and was promoted to commander-in-chief.

Another group attacked Jiangxi eastward, captured Anlu, killed the Anlu prefect Choulu, and recruited the surrender of Ming Yuzhen, a rebel leader from Jiangxi.

Faced with such a difficult situation, the Yuan court immediately stockpiled heavy troops and many capable officials in Fangcheng, north of Xiangyang, hoping to block the Xu Song Red Army's northern expedition to the Central Plains.

Xu Shouhui personally supervised the battle, and Grand Tutor Zou Pusheng personally led the army to clear all the outposts outside the important town of Wuchang, and then began to attack the city.

Zou Pusheng first sent two thousand men to pretend to surrender, but the Yuan Dynasty defenders took advantage of the situation and tricked the two thousand men into the city and then massacred them all. Zou Pusheng lost the first round.

Then, both sides made some bold moves. The Yuan court transferred the guard to another place, and the new highest person in charge was the prince of the local vassal king Weishun in Wuchang, named "Heshang". He was the great-grandson of Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty.

Zou Pusheng heard that the prince was very greedy for money, so he bribed the monk with money. The monk then arrested the pro-war faction in the city and put them in jail. Then Zou Pusheng joined forces with the enemy to capture Wuchang.

King Weishun was so angry that he was forced to flee to Dadu with his rebellious son. However, the monk did not have a good ending in the end. He was beheaded by Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty and was not able to spend a penny of the black money he collected from Zou Pusheng.
After Wuchang was captured, Xu Shouhui immediately moved the capital from Huanggang to Wuchang. The Song army then went down the river to the east and began to attack the cap of the Jiangxi treasure bottle, the important town of Jiangzhou, which was later Jiujiang.

Li Fu, the governor of Jiangzhou Road, was the only top scholar in literature from Bozhou since the Sui Dynasty began to recruit scholars through imperial examinations. However, Li Fu was also good at fighting and had a lot of brains.

This guy inserted a large number of plum blossom piles under the river surface to create artificial reefs. When the Song army attacked Jiangzhou, the ships were stuck by the plum blossom piles and could not move. Finally, they became sitting ducks. Li Fu ordered the launching of rockets, killing a large number of Song soldiers and burning many warships.

Zou Pusheng had a bad start and felt that it would be difficult to attack Jiangzhou by force, so he first cleared out the outer strongholds to isolate Li Fu, and then launched a general attack again.

This time, Zou Pusheng used a strategy of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west. He first set fire to the west gate to lure the main force of the defenders to the west gate. Then the main force of the Song army immediately raided from the east gate and broke into the city.

Tujianbuhua, the Pingzhang of Jiangxi Province, fled from the north gate. The general manager Li Fu swore to die rather than surrender. He was more loyal than Tujianbuhua, the Mongol. Finally, he led the remnants of the Yuan army in street fighting in the city, shouting "Kill me if you want to kill, don't kill the civilians". Later, Li Fu died in the battle and was buried with great honor by the Xu Song Red Army.

At the same time, Peng Yingyu's disciples stationed in Jiangxi took advantage of the opportunity to attack Shangrao, Jingdezhen, and Huangshan, and occupied a large area of ​​Jiangxi territory in just a few months. In the following months, the Song army was in a tug-of-war with the Yuan army in Jiangxi.

In view of the current complex situation in Jiangxi, the intelligence system of the Shengwu Army in Jiangxi, under the order of Lu Jin, all went underground, but the private salt business continued as usual. Even if Xu Shouhui knew that Lu Jin was behind the private salt business, it didn't matter. Jiangxi did not produce salt anyway, so he had to continue buying it.

If the original historical trajectory was followed, the Song army would split into two routes again. One route would go south to attack Yueyang, Hunan, and march towards the Dongting Lake Plain. The other route would go east along the river, capture Chizhou, besiege Anqing, and seize this battleground for controlling the Yangtze River.

but now
"What did you say? Luzhou's Shengwu Army has occupied the entire Anqing Road?" Xu Shouhui said in shock.

Peng Yingyu immediately said, "Your Majesty, that's right. Lu Jin of Luzhou sent 30,000 troops to attack Anqing at the beginning of the year, and they conquered it all within a few months. Now they are building fortresses in various cities in Anqing and training new troops, ready to defend the city to the death."

As soon as these words were spoken, the civil and military officials of Xu Song looked at each other in confusion, wondering whether they should carry out the plan to attack Anqing.

(End of this chapter)