Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 353 Dongchuan sends troops
"Kill, kill, kill—"

At the end of May, shortly after the imperial edict was issued by the court, light cavalry went to various provinces with the edict, and Dongchuan was the most important one.

Outside the city of Baidao, Gao Pian stood on the military camp platform and watched the Dongchuan army training there.

After the great victory at Niutou Gorge two years ago, he returned to Baidao City to recruit tens of thousands of soldiers. After elimination, only 35,000 elite troops were left in Dongchuan, including 7,000 elite cavalry, 20,000 cavalry infantry, and 8,000 infantry.

Eight thousand infantrymen were stationed at various important roads in Dongchuan, seven thousand elite cavalrymen and nearly ten thousand cavalry infantry were stationed at various important roads in Rongzhou, and the remaining ten thousand cavalry infantry were stationed in Baidao in order to support the north and south of Dongchuan.

The sound of hurried footsteps came from the school platform. Soon, Wang Zhongren walked up to Gao Pian and bowed, "General, an angel from the court is here with an imperial decree. Please go to the Yamen to bathe and change clothes."

"Are you here?" Gao Pian seemed to have guessed that the court would send him an imperial edict. After nodding slightly, he turned and walked towards the gate of the military camp.

Half an hour later, when Gao Pian changed into a purple robe, bathed, burned incense and waited respectfully at the Yamen, an eunuch walked in with several soldiers.

"Pass on the Supreme Emperor's order. Dongchuan Jiedushi Gao Pian will receive it!"

The eunuch's voice rang out, and Gao Pian slowly knelt on the cushion and kowtowed respectfully.

"Your Highness, I am Gao Pian, the governor of Dongchuan, and I am accepting your order."

"My disciple, Jin Xichuan..."

The imperial edict, with hundreds of words, simply stated that Xichuan was attacked by foreign bandits and southern barbarians, and Gao Pian was summoned to dispatch 10,000 Dongchuan troops to provide assistance.

"The decree is as on the right. Please obey it and implement it. I'm very careful."

"Your Highness Gao Pian accepts your order and bows down to wish you a long life!"

When the imperial edict was handed to Gao Pian, Gao Pian looked calm, took the edict with both hands respectfully, then bowed and stood up.

Upon seeing this, the eunuch immediately urged: "Envoy Gao, Xichuan is in danger, please send troops and generals as soon as possible."

"Please rest assured, I will definitely send troops in three days!" Gao Pian returned the greeting respectfully, then looked at a general beside him:
"Lead the way for the angel, please enter the Bodaoyin Hotel."

"I obey your command!" The general responded hastily, and then took the initiative to lead the eunuch and the people behind him to Zhouya Yin Hotel in Baidao City.

After they left, Wang Zhongren took the imperial edict from Gao Pian and asked tentatively:

"General Jie, there are only 10,000 cavalry and infantry in Baidao now. Should we transfer all these troops to Xichuan?"

"Of course." Gao Pian nodded slightly and walked to the main seat in the yamen and sat down.

After he left, Wang Zhongren followed him and poured tea for him, saying, "The three states of Wen, Fu, and Long were originally under the jurisdiction of Dongchuan, but were transferred to Xichuan in the past, and I used this to seek the states in Longnan."

"As a result, Xichuan not only failed to recover the prefectures in southern Longnan, but also neglected training in recent years, resulting in three prefectures being besieged. Even Lizhou in the north of Dongchuan is in danger of being besieged."

"I think we should send more troops to Lizhou to prevent the war from spreading to Dongchuan."

Wang Zhongren was thinking about protecting the country and the people, but Gao Pian said calmly, "It is normal for prefectures and counties to change their affiliations."

"Wenfu and the other two states once belonged to Longyou Province, but later changed to Jiannan Province."

"Now that Shang Moyan has led the foreign bandits to invade, they should be eager to seize the three passes and five cities and enter Chengdu to plunder. Why did they turn around and attack the three states of Wen, Fu and Long?"

Gao Pian seemed to be whispering, but also seemed to be asking questions.

Wang Zhongren thought for a moment before saying, "There are rumors in the court that the foreign bandits were commanded by Liu Jilong. Could it be that..."

"It's not impossible." Gao Pian nodded slightly, but soon added:
"I have said it long ago. Liu Jilong is young and strong, and has the appearance of an outstanding person. He will definitely not be inferior to others."

"Even if he is willing, the generals under his command may not be willing."

"Whether Shang Moyan is driven by him or not, he will not stay in Longyou peacefully."

"How about this... take this opportunity to add some fuel to the fire and make Xichuan's bonfire even higher!"

Wang Zhongren was stunned when he heard this: "General Jie, you mean..."

Gao Pian looked at Wang Zhongren, thought for a moment, and then said, "After this incident, the court will definitely not tolerate Liu Jilong. When you lead your army to Xichuan, you only need to guard the three passes and five cities."

"If we can catch the bandits, and finally use some tricks, even if it was not Liu Jilong's order, we must say that he was the one who ordered it."

"Yes!" Wang Zhongren agreed decisively, but he was puzzled and asked: "General Jie, but what good will this do for us?"

"Benefits?" Gao Pian glanced at him and said in a deep voice: "I want to control the troops of Jiannan..."

Almost at the same moment when Gao Pian's voice fell, there were continuous shouts and cries of killing from the three states of Wenfulong, hundreds of miles away from Dongchuan.

Among them, Qushui County, the seat of Wenzhou, was attacked by countless tribes because the city was located in the central river valley of Motianling.

"The first one to reach the summit will be rewarded with 100 cattle and sheep, and promoted to a minor position!!"

"kill--"

Countless slaves risked their lives in order to conquer Qushui and gain civilian status.

They are unarmored, but at this moment they are pushing countless battering rams, cloud rams, and nest rams to attack Qushui County.

Qushui County, which is close to the Baishui River, deliberately widened the moat by two meters in order to defend against Longyou in the north.

However, over the past half month, countless corpses and sandbags had filled up the moat. At this time, nearly 10,000 tribesmen outside the city launched a crazy attack, with thousands of elite cavalry behind them.

On the top of Qushui City, the Xichuan soldiers, who had been exhausted for countless days and nights, barely held up their bodies, roaring with long weapons in hand.

"kill--"

Amid shouts and cries of killing, countless siege engines crashed into the city walls. The Xichuan army, which consisted of less than two thousand soldiers, faced the fierce attack of nearly ten thousand troops and tried their best to hold on to Qushui City.

The deafening shouts and cries of killing seemed to be heard even in Pandi County, Wuzhou, fifty miles away.

"You see, if you shake this thing, the wooden paddle inside the barrel will rotate, which will then cause a vortex to wash the clothes."

"This is better than the one you made before, and it won't damage clothes so easily..."

At the ferry dock outside Pandi County, hundreds of people surrounded it, but Liu Jilong was sitting at the edge of the ferry with a waist-high sealed wooden barrel in front of him.

The lid on the top of the barrel is locked by many concave and convex mechanisms, and there is a hand-cranked wooden handle device in the middle of the lid.

As Liu Jilong held the lid with one hand and shook the wooden handle with the other, the sound of water flowing soon came from the barrel.

Everyone applauded when they saw this scene, while Liu Jilong laughed and scolded, "I asked a teacher to teach you how to read, but you can't even do something as simple as this."

Faced with his ridicule, the soldiers around him laughed dryly and scratched their heads.

"Well, while there is still time, the Protectorate will pay for the carpenters in Pandi County to make this washing machine for the army. Each group will only have one. Don't be lazy and put too much clothes in. If it breaks, you will have to pay to repair it yourself."

"Thank you, General Jie—"

The thanks from the soldiers around him kept Liu Jilong smiling. He had not led his troops into battle for many years.

A few days ago, I saw soldiers washing clothes with wooden hammers at the ferry, and it immediately reminded me of the hand-crank washing machine I had seen in my previous life.

Hand-cranked washing machines appeared very early, and it seems that they appeared in the early 19th century. They were made entirely of wood, and the only difficulty was the gears used for hand-cranking.

However, this did not pose a problem for the craftsmen of that era. After all, bronze gears had existed in the Central Plains as early as the pre-Qin period. It was not difficult to make them, but the difficulty lay in standardized production.

As long as the Protectorate pays for it and gathers craftsmen to produce it, this hand-cranked washing machine is very useful and the profit is not low.

A hand-cranked washing machine can wash a set of clothes at a time. After putting in soap nuts, it can wash clothes very clean in a quarter of an hour. Compared with the traditional wooden hammer washing machine, it saves a lot of effort.

"Okay, do your own laundry. You should be able to receive the washing machine in a few days."

Liu Jilong gave an order and immediately left from the crowd.

Chen Ying, Li Ji and others followed, and Ma Cheng praised him: "You are worthy of being the commander. We can see brothers washing clothes on weekdays, why didn't we think that this wooden barrel and a few pieces of wood could wash clothes so easily?"

"If you read more books in your daily life, you will not be so confused." Liu Jilong shook his head, but he was just joking.

The wooden hand-cranked washing machine is not difficult to manufacture, and its production method is very simple. However, it was not discovered until the early nineteenth century.

In fact, in addition to the hand-cranked washing machine, similar hand-cranked wooden fans were not invented until the early nineteenth century.

However, this thing had already been invented by Liu Jilong a long time ago. There were several upright hand-cranked fans in the Protectorate alone.

Although it is not as labor-saving as a hand-cranked clockwork fan, it is much cooler than a fan.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong cast his eyes on the boats on the ferry. These boats were not big, only about five meters long and ten meters wide. Even in today's era, they could only be considered small boats.

"The craftsmen from Xichuan built these ships?"

Liu Jilong frowned slightly. He had been busy with military affairs these days. He had inspected the official warehouse, Changping warehouse and reserve warehouse in Pandi County one after another, and had not had time to go to the shipyard.

Now that I have some free time today, I am ready to go to the shipyard. However, I see that the boats at the ferry are all small, and I can't help but frown.

Chen Ying explained: "The craftsmen in the shipyard can build larger boats, but the Qiang River in the Pandi section is too shallow to launch large ships."

"Let's go and take a look." Liu Jilong led everyone to the shipyard.

Ships are particularly important to Liu Jilong. This is not only related to how to take over Jiangnan in the future, but also affects how to connect sea transportation in the future.

As the temperature continues to drop, many cities and oases along the land Silk Road will disappear due to the climate and environment, while the Maritime Silk Road will gradually become more prosperous.

This can be seen from the growing strength of Guangzhou in Lingnan Road. Maritime transportation is the Silk Road of the future.

"Come on!"

When everyone arrived at the shipyard gate, several people in charge of the shipyard had already arrived to greet them.

Liu Jilong glanced inside and outside the shipyard. Just talking about the situation inside the shipyard, there were five docks of different sizes. Together with the warehouses for storing wood and the drying rooms for processing wood, the total area was no less than 200 acres, which was not very large.

"Masters, please show us these five docks."

"Yes, the commander-in-chief invites you..."

Three managers in their fifties led Liu Jilong and his team into the shipyard, and visited the wood warehouse, the wood drying room, and the four docks.

In the timber warehouse, mature timber is piled up like a mountain. Many of the timber are more than ten feet long, which is very suitable for making keels of large ships.

The wood in the drying room has gone through the steps of peeling, drying, and brushing with tung oil. It can be used to replace damaged hulls or directly used for shipbuilding.

In the four docks in front and back, there are sea gull ships and chariot ships (paddle boats) of about 50 meters in length. These are the types of ships that were commonly used by the people and the navy in the Tang Dynasty.

Along the way, Liu Jilong remained silent and just listened quietly to the explanations of the three masters and some shipbuilding craftsmen. It was not until they entered the fifth dock that Liu Jilong's expression changed slightly.

In the fifth dock, there was a ship that had been built long ago. Its shape, length and height were exactly the same as the one Liu Jilong had in mind.

"General Jie, this is the Fu ship that you suggested to the shipyard and built."

The three persons in charge bowed and reported, and everyone's attention was attracted by the large ship in the dock.

"General, this Fu ship is ninety feet long and eighteen feet wide. It has twenty-seven watertight compartments at the bottom, plus the same number of rib supports."

"There are twelve boathouses above the deck, which can accommodate forty-eight people. The deck is equipped with a five-meter-long main mast, and another..."

Liu Jilong had ignored the words of the person in charge, because when he got the approximate data of the ship, he already knew the situation of the ship.

After the chief introduced himself, Liu Jilong continued, "The river section in Wuzhou should not be able to launch this boat, right?"

"Have you built a smaller Fuchuan and tested it? Can this ship sail after entering the Jialing River?"

"Yes!" The person in charge quickly replied: "It is true that the Qiang River in Wuzhou section cannot launch this ship, but we have tried the five-meter-long Fu ship, and it was launched and sailed very successfully."

"In addition, although the Qiangshui section of Wuzhou cannot launch Fuzhou ships over 50 meters long, as long as we enter Jinggu County in the Lizhou section, we can launch Fuzhou ships of about 90 meters long."

In response to the words of the person in charge, Liu Jilong frowned slightly.

Lizhou belongs to Dongchuan. Although he could signal Shang Moyan to attack Lizhou, given Gao Pian's character, he would never lose the land.

"Can the Jiangyou County of Longzhou be used by this nine-foot-long lucky ship?"

Liu Jilong asked the three people in charge, and these three people were all boatmen who had fled from Xichuan, so they naturally knew the hydrological conditions in Shuzhong.

The three of them looked at each other, and one of them said, "I'm afraid it won't work in Jiangyou County. We have to go to Brazil (Mianyang) to get a voyage."

After hearing this, Liu Jilong sighed helplessly in his heart, and after a moment of silence, he asked:

"With the timber currently stored among the captains, can we build large ships over ten feet long in Rongzhou (Yibin), Luzhou, and Yuzhou (Chongqing)?"

"Of course!" The three were very sure, but after being so sure, they raised the issues they were worried about one after another.

"General Jie, although we can build large ships by relying on the Yangtze River, we still need experienced boatmen to sail down the river. In addition, we need to guard against pirates on the Yangtze River."

"There are three gorges along the Yangtze River from Sichuan. Therefore, when going down the gorges in April and May, many boats will be destroyed and people will die because of the difficulty of crossing the Three Gorges."

"Since ancient times, many officials have gone down the gorge in May, and as a result, their ships were destroyed and their families died..."

"After passing the Three Gorges, you can see many pirates on the Yangtze River."

"In addition to robbing and killing pedestrians, these bandits often engage in the business of selling illegal tea and salt. Many salt merchants hire them to sell illegal salt, so their boats are not smaller than those of the official army, and there are more of them..."

The words of the three leaders gave Liu Jilong a rough understanding of the situation in the Yangtze River.

First of all, the nearly one thousand shipbuilders under his command could definitely build Fu ships of more than ten meters in length. The only problem was that he needed to capture one of the three states of Rong, Lu and Yu before these shipbuilders in the shipyard could let go and build large ships for him.

"The three states of Rong, Lu and Yu..."

Liu Jilong felt a little headache. If he really took over these three states, it would mean that he basically took over the entire Bashu territory.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong stopped thinking about it for the time being and just bowed to the three persons in charge and said:
"I would like to ask the three of you to lead the captains and nearly a thousand sailors to hone their skills. In five or six years at the latest, I will definitely give you the opportunity to show your talents!"

"General, please don't do this..."

"I am terrified..."

Facing Liu Jilong's bow, the three managers quickly returned the greeting. Seeing this, Liu Jilong stood up and looked at Chen Ying: "How much money does the shipyard spend every year?"

"In the past few years, the annual expenditure was nearly 10,000 guan. In recent years, due to the river boat business of Wang Tao and others, the annual expenditure is only more than 4,000 guan."

Chen Ying explained and Liu Jilong nodded slightly.

Spending more than 4,000 strings of cash to support nearly a thousand boatmen is not a big expense.

At most in five or six years, he would definitely take over the land of Bashu, but...

Liu Jilian felt uneasy when he thought about the impeachments against him in the court these days.

If the imperial court took action in advance, he would have no choice but to raise an army to fight against the imperial court. Perhaps he could take over Bashu first and then wait for an opportunity to take over Guannei Road.

Even if he didn't have Guanzhong, with Guannei Road, Longyou Road and Jiannan Road, he only needed to digest the situation for two or three years before he could continue to send troops to Guanzhong and sweep across the various roads in Guandong.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong felt that he might need to prepare early in the face of rumors in the court.

He turned and walked out of the dock, followed closely by Chen Ying, Li Ji and others.

After leaving the shipyard, Liu Jilong turned around and asked everyone, "How many militiamen are there in Longyou?"

The militia in Longyou are actually state soldiers, and their number is not small.

"About thirty-four thousand, but half of them are employed in the township."

Li Ji answered without hesitation, and Liu Jilong nodded and said, "Send a message to Chen Jingchong and Gao Jinda, and tell all the towns to recruit their full quota of soldiers. In addition, the militia must be maintained at 30,000. There must be no mistakes."

"I obey your command!" Li Ji responded quickly, then looked up and met the eyes of Ma Cheng and Shang Duoluo.

The fact that his own commander ordered the fourteen garrisons to recruit their full quota of soldiers shows that recovering the six states is just the beginning.

Our own commander is finally ready to fight...

"Chen Ying, keep an eye on the situation in the south and urge Shang Moyan to take over the three states of Wenfulong as soon as possible."

"In addition, if Youshilong has any movements, please inform me in time."

"Yes……"

Liu Jilong gave instructions to Chen Ying. Chen Ying glanced at Li Ji and others and bowed in a dignified manner in response.

Seeing the military order coming out, Liu Jilong took the reins from the soldier beside him, jumped on the horse and rushed to the military camp...

(End of this chapter)