Chapter 727 New County and Capital
The Fubo soon set out again. As the target had been exposed, it was believed that as long as Maodun was not stupid, he would definitely strengthen the vigilance on the lake at the new base, and it would be more difficult to succeed in the raid in the future.
Thinking of this, Shu Da simply ordered to move forward at full speed. This time, he changed the previous sneaky raid routine and used the convenient water transportation and the speed of the sailboat to play with Maodun.
Just when Maodun arrived at the second base, the Fubo also appeared at the lakeside of the base at the same time. There was another ultra-long-range artillery attack. Maodun was so scared that he didn't even enter the base and fled directly to the depths of the grassland.
After two consecutive raids, Maodun had figured out the idea of the Han tribe. They just wanted to rely on their own ships and weapons to destroy all their bases one by one.
After Maodun came to his senses, he simply did not go to other strongholds, but sent his own soldiers to other strongholds, brought out those herdsmen and livestock directly, and hid himself in the depths of the grassland to avoid the attack of the Han tribe.
On the other side, three days after Maodun's nest was attacked, Xue Tu also led 10,000 elite cavalry of the Han tribe and 20,000 herdsmen cavalry who had just rebelled, as well as 3,000 cavalry of Su Ri Tu, a total of 33,000 troops, and marched towards Maodun's nest.
As a result, before they arrived at their destination, they encountered many of Maodun's defeated troops on the way.
Xue Tu hardly made any moves. When many defeated troops saw so many people and horses of the Han tribe, they chose to surrender at the first time. Some even wanted to escape with a fluke, but chose to surrender after being surrounded by the Han cavalry.
Xue Tu walked all the way and collected the surrendered soldiers, and finally came to Maodun's base camp. As a result, there was only a mess in sight. Most of the soldiers and herdsmen were gone, and only a few herdsmen were still surviving here.
This place had just been bombarded by the Han tribe, and everything that could be destroyed had been destroyed. The herders thought that the Han tribe would not be able to come back in a short time, so they simply did not change places and continued to live in this ruin.
But when they saw tens of thousands of cavalrymen from the Han tribe attacking again, they numbly did not flee or resist. In fact, since the moment they chose to stay, they thought that they had nothing to do with Maodun, and even if the Han tribe came, there was no reason to fight them again.
If the Han tribe insisted on taking them away, that was fine. They had always heard that life in the Han tribe was good. If joining the Han tribe could bring them a stable life for the rest of their lives, they would not mind doing so.
They only hoped that there would be no more wars and killings in the future, their relatives would no longer die in vain, and the cattle and sheep could graze by the lake in peace. Such a life was enough.
Xue Tu naturally didn't mind accepting all the good herdsmen who were happy to live and loved peace. What made him depressed was that he learned from the herdsmen that the Han tribe's large ships had attacked them a few days ago. He led such a large group of people out, but he didn't get to fight a single hard battle. He was busy picking up people on the way, which really made him feel aggrieved.
Fortunately, the harvest of this trip was not small. He picked up a lot of people and livestock for free, as well as endless cattle, sheep, leather and other supplies.
After asking about the movements of Maodun and the Han tribe's ships, Xue Tu almost understood the plans of the leader and Maodun. If he guessed correctly, Maodun's other strongholds must have been attacked in the same way.
Thinking of this, Xue Tu immediately sent out a large number of scouts to scout Maodun's other strongholds. He led a large army to gather the surrendered soldiers all the way to the southwest of the grassland, preparing to intercept the fleeing Maodun's defeated army on the way.
Thanks to the "cooperation" of the surrendered soldiers, Xue Tu easily obtained information about Mao Dun's various strongholds and arranged troops in advance to block them halfway.
In this way, Mao Dun's several strongholds, under the double attack of gunboats and Han troops, had several battles with Xue Tu one after another, but every time as long as the ten field guns were pulled up and fired a few times, the opponent would collapse without a fight, and then it was an easy harvest and seizure.
In just less than a month, all of Mao Dun's forces and a large number of people and materials were wiped out by the Han tribe, and Mao Dun himself disappeared in the vast grassland as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth. Even the Jinwu Guard spies planted by You Zhi beside Mao Dun lost contact, and Mao Dun could no longer be found in the entire grassland.
However, when this news was sent to Luo Chong, he refused to believe that Mao Dun would die. This guy's character was the kind of super-tolerant, and he was also a die-hard who refused to admit defeat. It was too naive to think that he would be solved in this way.
Luo Chong immediately let Kaiyuan County spread the news that anyone who could kill Maodun, whether alive or dead, would be rewarded with a high reward and title by the Han tribe, ensuring that his family would live a life of wealth and glory.
The herdsmen on the grassland were of course interested in this, but they had limited manpower, and it was undoubtedly like looking for a needle in a haystack to find Maodun all over the world. This kind of wanted order with a high reward could only rely on luck.
The war that lasted for more than a month finally came to an end. The Han tribe spent a lot of ammunition and very few casualties to win. Maodun's whereabouts were unknown, but it could not stop the development of the Han tribe.
In this battle, the Han tribe successively gained a population of about 60,000, of which 10,000 were directly beaten into slaves, the remaining 30,000 were young and strong, and the remaining 20,000 were women and children. These human resources were in Luo Chong's hands. There was a lot of room for development.
The first thing to do was to consolidate the strategic results achieved in this battle, that is, to firmly control the population and land just snatched from Maodun, so as to prevent this guy from making a comeback again.
After thinking about it, Luo Chong decided to add two counties in the grassland, one in Maodun's original base camp, and the other in another important base camp of Maodun.
It is close to the southern coast of the mainland, located between the Zhudao Strait and the grassland lake. There is a not very high mountain range around it, with abundant water sources and dense vegetation. It is very suitable for farming, fishing, and grazing.
After determining the development ideas, Luo Chong issued a series of orders and appointments.
Chai Duoduo was transferred to lead the Qianniu Guard to garrison Maodun's base camp, lead 10,000 herdsmen, set up Zhangwu County, take the meaning of the Han tribe to show its military power, and bring 20 cannons to build a city here.
The Huben Guard was divided into two, becoming the Jinghai Guard and the original Huben Guard. Each of the two guards was divided into 1,000 soldiers and horses, and the vacancies were supplemented by the herdsmen who surrendered to the Han Dynasty and made meritorious contributions in this battle.
Xue Dongliang, former Sima of the Huben Guard, temporarily served as the commander of the Jinghai Guard, led the Jinghai Guard with 20 artillery pieces to another important stronghold of Maodun, set up Binhai County to build a city, and also led 10,000 herdsmen.
In order to better manage and divide, Luo Chong also officially named the grassland lake Honghu. The three grassland counties were all built along the lake, Kaiyuan County, Zhangwu County, and Binhai County, which can also be collectively referred to as the three Honghu counties. The main transportation is all connected by the Honghu waterway. The three counties will have docks to provide basic support for future shipping materials.
Xue Tu was still the commander of the Huben Guard, but Luo Chong ordered him to lead tens of thousands of herdsmen to Tuohai County immediately after the reorganization of the Huben Guard, temporarily garrison in Tuohai County, and hurry to train 10,000 new troops.
As for the purpose, Luo Chong did not say it, but relying on the brains of Xue Tu and Da Shu, they could guess it almost right.
Placing 12,000 troops in Takuhai County was either to prepare to attack the Tang tribe, or to rely on the convenience of the seaport to prepare to use Takuhai County as a springboard to send troops to Takeshima.
But it is more likely that they were placed there to deter the Tang tribe, and they were actually preparing to send troops to Takeshima, which was in the best interests of the Han tribe.
After all the population and livestock were divided, the remaining slaves were directly taken back to the Han tribe base camp and assigned to various construction sites for construction. At the same time, they could also exchange a lot of miners from Dongxin County, and then migrate the miners to several newly established counties to farm.
Until the end of February of the second year of Jianyuan, when all the newly established counties and migrated populations were in place, Luo Chong ordered a comprehensive population census. The results of this census showed that the Han tribe already had a registered population of 327,963 people and 14,376 slaves.
Moreover, the registered population is still increasing rapidly, and the main growth directions are concentrated in four places. The first is the mountain people recruited from Tuohai County, the second is the herdsmen recruited from the three counties of Honghu, the third is the immigrants recruited by Youye in the temporary camp in the north, and the fourth is the wild people recruited by Jing Yan in Dongxin County.
These four places are the main sources of population for the Han tribe at present. However
, as the territory of the Han tribe becomes larger and larger, and more and more resources are developed, new sources of population will definitely appear in the future. At the same time, in order to further stimulate population growth, Luo Chong also issued an important order in March of the second year of Jianyuan.
That is to reduce the agricultural tax of the Han tribe from the original 10 taxes and 4 to 10 taxes and 2, directly reducing half of the taxes, so that the people have enough food at home, and naturally dare to have more children.
In this way, in two or three years, the population of the Han tribe can easily exceed one million.
It was at this time that another very important thing began to be put on the agenda by Luo Chong.
That is, where is the capital of the Han tribe built?
As the population grows, Luo Chong wants to better manage his territory. He must establish a country and become an emperor. However, establishing a country is not such a simple matter. If there is no capital and a decent palace, it is ridiculous to rashly wear a yellow robe.
Although it is a little early to become an emperor and establish a country, it is definitely possible to start now to select a capital and build a palace. You must know that such a huge capital cannot be completed in one or two years.
And after all, it is a capital, and the construction of all aspects must be top-notch. Luo Chong originally planned to build an underground network like the German sewer for the capital to solve the problem of drainage in the capital.
Don't underestimate this. You must know that the Han Chang'an City in history had to build a new Chang'an City because of the pollution of the water source.
To build a metropolis, the first thing to consider is water, food, transportation, fuel and other aspects. These are indispensable things for human survival. Moreover, as a city, these things must be very sufficient because the population of the capital will definitely not be small.
In addition, in order to consolidate the ruling position of the capital and the future development direction, some important mineral resources are also indispensable, especially various metal minerals.
After thinking for a long time, Luo Chong finally decided to put the capital to the west of Tuohai County, where there is a vast impact plain. It is adjacent to the Liuyang River system in the east. Through the tributaries of the Liuyang River, it can reach the old counties such as Hanyang City in the north and the sea in the south; it is adjacent to the Honghu River system in the west, and can reach the three counties of the grassland with a little repair.
There are abundant fresh water resources, fertile land, dense forests, warm and humid climate, and grain can be planted all year round. There is no problem in solving food, clothing, housing and transportation. In terms of minerals, judging from the fact that the Tang tribe can produce ironware by itself, there must be iron mines there, but the scale of the iron mines is unknown. There are
pros and cons to building a capital there. The advantage is that there is more room for future development, and the disadvantage is that it is far away from the current central area of the Han tribe. After the capital is built in the future, it will be too far away from those old counties.
However, people should not only focus on the immediate benefits. The geographical pattern of the current Ruyang, Hanyang and Liuyang counties is still too small. When the Han tribe grows to a population of one million, it will definitely become overcrowded and will have to move to other places.
Instead of doing this, it is better to do it now.
Of course, building a capital is not such an easy thing. Just the preparation of various building materials and the preliminary development of the land will take a long time, and there must be enough labor, just like the Europeans building castles. Before the castle is built, there must be a small town around it where workers gather to provide food, clothing, housing and transportation for the construction workers.
The capital of the Han tribe is the same, but if you want to take on such a huge project as the construction of the capital, you need the full support of at least two counties.
So what needs to be prepared most at present is not the capital, but the county used to build the capital.
Takumi County is relatively close, so it can be counted as one, but another one needs to be built to the west of Takumi County.
Dig the sewer project on the spot, use the excavated soil to make bricks or foundations, take stones to make cement, and cut down huge trees for beams. Anyway, it takes two or three years from the time these big trees are cut down to the time they are completely dried in the shade. When the wood is almost ready, it is estimated that other building materials and the underground water system of the main city will also be almost ready. At that time, just pull the building materials over to build the above-ground part.
Thinking of this, Luo Chong immediately gave orders to Xue Tu and Da Shu again, asking them to explore the geography and resources near the capital in advance and draw a detailed map, so that he can draw a design according to the terrain in advance.
The planning of the capital is also a difficult point. Fortunately, Luo Chong already has a lot of experience in urban planning. The capital can be designed according to the pattern of the county city, as long as a few facilities are added.
The imperial palace, the central administrative center, the royal bank, the royal mint, the guards barracks, the imperial university city, etc., are not owned by ordinary county cities.
(End of this chapter)
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