The World of Yellow Sky

"call out----"

The whistle sounded again, Deng Long raised his head and looked forward, and a black shadow had covered the sunlight and leaped forward.

"Oh!"

The loud noise caught the attention of the sailors of the Han army on the warship.

Deng Long was holding the mast in one hand, and holding the ring-shoudao tightly in the other hand. Not far in front of him, Gan Ning, dressed in a brocade robe, was coming with his halberds upside down!

"kill him!"

Deng Long's eyes were red, he had no way out.

Following Deng Long's shout, a group of sailors of the Han army who had just recovered all rushed towards Gan Ning like crazy. They were staggering, and some of them hadn't recovered from the previous shock.

The blood bursts, and the bloody wind suddenly rises.

Gan Ning walked forward slowly, while the two halberds were dancing, there were wailing sounds.

All the sailors of the Han army who charged fell to the ground.

The dripping blood flowed down the blades of the double halberds in Gan Ning's hands and flowed on the deck. At this time, Gan Ning was as terrifying as the ghosts and gods in the legends, and no one could cross the death net woven by the double halberds.

Deng Long was terrified in his heart, his hand holding the Huan Shou knife was trembling.

The shadow of death shrouded his heart, Deng Long was in a state of chaos, panicked and wanted to escape.

Deng Long turned around and wanted to run to the cabin at the back of the ship. He was completely panicked and lost his courage. He didn't dare to confront Gan Ning head-on. He even forgot that he was in a ship that had already On the broken ship, there is no escape, no escape.

The sound of breaking through the air suddenly sounded, and Deng Long's heart was full of alarm bells, but there was not enough time left for him to react.

A short halberd flew towards him like lightning.

The sharp halberd blade cut through the thin leather armor on Deng Long's body in an instant, and the icy halberd tip pierced through his vest and protruded from his chest.

Without exhaustion, he continued to move forward with Deng Long's body, and the huge force carried by the short halberd firmly nailed Deng Long's body to the bulkhead of the cabin.

The warship was shaking, and Gan Ning stood beside the mast holding a halberd in one hand, looking coldly at all the beings on board.

The warship wailed again, the gap in the hull was getting bigger and bigger, more and more river water was pouring into the warship of the Han army, and the warship was sinking.

A rope floated from his side. Gan Ning stretched out his hand and easily grabbed the rope. Then he ran to the right and jumped onto the edge of the boat. Leaped back to his flagship.

Above the river, deafening cheers came from all directions.

Everyone saw that the flagship of the Han Army Navy was destroyed, and the warships of the Yiling Han Army Navy that were still fighting finally lost their remaining fighting spirit.

Most of the warships raised their flags and lowered their anchors, while a small number of warships on the edge of the battlefield had already set sail and fled.

Gan Ning stood at the bow of the ship, looking at the sinking flagship of the Han army.

Deng Long was stable, relying on the water fortress, so he had no way to expand his advantage these days. This time, he finally took advantage of the Yiling Navy's underestimation of the enemy, lured it out of the water fortress, and was able to annihilate it in one fell swoop.

Now he can finally lead the navy to seal off Yiling's river outlet, cut off its eastward route, completely cut off its supply, and at the same time rush to help the army that is attacking Yiling City.

The battle in Yiling was not as easy as imagined.

Yiling is surrounded by mountains on the west, north and south sides, the terrain is rugged, and only the east side is smooth.

The army led by Zhao Zhi was stationed at the foot of the western mountains, and Yiling City was built on a dangerous basis. Although Zhao Zhi had such a powerful weapon as a counterweight catapult, it was difficult to use his fists because of the terrain of Yiling.

Moreover, Yiling's defenders had an extremely tenacious will to fight, and they were well equipped with large shields and long spears. There were also many bed crossbows in the city, which greatly increased the difficulty of attacking.

Zhao Zhi even personally led troops to attack the city several times, but in the end he failed to capture Yiling.

Liu Biao also knew the importance of Yiling, so he arranged all the elites under his command in Yiling. The guard of Yiling City was Liu Biao's nephew Zhang Yun.

This time the Northern Expedition of the Han Army involved a lot. Liu Biao knew that the Yellow Turban Army would definitely launch an attack, so he naturally did not place all his hopes on the navy and dispatched many elite soldiers to Yiling. This is why Yiling has not been captured for a long time. s reason.

Although there are siege weapons such as counterweight catapults, it is still difficult for Zhao Zhi to open up the situation due to the terrain, and the most important thing is that the soldiers under Zhao Zhi's command are basically soldiers from Yizhou. Soon, it was far from reaching the strength of the main force of the Ming army, and its military equipment was relatively backward.

"Sail..."

Gan Ning raised the short halberd in his hand and was about to give an order, but he stopped when he reached his mouth.

But the short halberd in his hand froze in the air.

Gan Ning narrowed his eyes slightly, and the pupils in his eyes shrunk.

One after another, red flags were slowly rising from the distant river, and the sound of war drums rang in his ears.

"General..."

The faces of all the Ming army sailors around them changed drastically.

Gan Ning put down the short halberd in his hand, inserted it back into his waist, and took the binoculars from the hand of the adjutant beside him.

In the camera, warships densely covered the river in the distance, and countless red flags appeared in front of his eyes.

Above the flagship in the center hangs a fiery red banner with the word "Su" written on it.

Gan Ning's expression changed slightly, and he issued a military order in a deep voice.

"Sail down."

"Order the ships to burn the captured warships directly, don't miss them, and evacuate westward."

Gan Ning held the rope by his side with his hands, his eyes were cold.

The main force of Jingzhou's navy has arrived, and there are as many as a hundred ships in just a cursory sweep of the river.

There are only more than 70 warships under his command, most of which are small ships, and the number of them is uneven. He has just experienced a big battle, seventy to one hundred, or even more, how can he win.

"Hoo--" "Hoo--"

A short whistle sounded, Gan Ning also put down the binoculars in his hand, the ship under his feet was turning around.

The enemy is far away, and it is still too late to turn around.

It's just that since then, everything he has done before has been in vain.

"Go back to the camp, send a fast boat to the outside of Yiling City, and inform Bing Beidao that reinforcements from Jingzhou have arrived..."

Gan Ning looked complicated, looked at the Han fleet in the distance, sighed, turned and walked towards the cabin.

It was time for the battle of Yiling to come to an end. Even if reinforcements from Jingzhou arrived this time, they had already lost the chance to capture Yiling.

……

Su Fei stood at the bow of the ship, looking at the river in the distance. At this time, he had already seen the warships of the Ming army navy, and also noticed the fleeing Yiling Han army navy.

"Put down the fast boat and go to meet the warship that our army has evacuated."

"Among the fleet, steer and red horse go first, force the enemy back, don't pursue them."

Su Fei is a general under Huang Zu's command. He naturally knew that it was impossible to catch up with the Ming army's navy from such a long distance, so he only gave orders to meet and expel them.

Su Fei noticed that the red flags were still flying above Yiling's water fortress, he knew that he had come in time, and that Yiling had not fallen into the hands of the Ming army, so he calmed down a bit.

It's just a pity that if the Yiling navy persisted for a while longer, when he led the fleet into the battlefield, he would definitely be able to bite off a piece of flesh and blood from the Ming army navy.

Su Fei withdrew his gaze, looked at the guard behind him, and said calmly.

"Send a message to General Huang that our troops have arrived outside Yiling City and have forced the enemy navy back."

……

Outside Yiling City, eight counterweight catapults were throwing stone bullets towards Yiling City not far away. The soldiers of the Ming army under the catapults were constantly busy, and teams around them were on guard. The armored soldiers are defending.

The Han army in Yiling City did not sit still. He sent troops to attack the Ming army's catapult positions several times. Although they did not capture them, they still posed a certain threat to the Ming army's catapult positions.

In the most dangerous time, the ballista of the Han army attacking with the team even shot at the bodies of two catapults, destroying their structures and making them unusable. Therefore, only eight catapults are still throwing stones. Ten catapults and two catapults can be repaired later, but it still makes Zhao Zhi feel heartbroken.

Zhao Zhi stared at the dilapidated walls of Yiling City with a gloomy expression.

This city blocked them too much time, he had already left thousands of corpses under the city, but he was still unable to take Yiling City.

The terrain in Yiling City was also uneven. Apart from the outer walls, there were also inner walls and arrow towers in the inner city.

Zhao Zhi didn't dare to move the counterweight catapult too far forward.

The counterweight catapult appeared for a long time, and it also revolutionized the tactics of the Han army. They began to make fast-moving bed ballista to restrict the counterweight catapult in the Ming army.

A rush of horseshoes came from the side, Zhao Zhi's expression moved slightly, and he looked to the side.

When he saw the three small flags on the back of the messenger who came to announce the message, his expression became even more embarrassing.

"Order the ministries to stop the attack, protect the catapult convoy and dismantle the catapult..."

Zhao Zhi looked at Yiling City not far away, although he was not reconciled, he knew that the correct choice should be said in a deep voice.

"Withdraw the troops and return to Zigui."

Chapter 8: Investigate and correct the lawlessness, and clear Hebei

In the second year of the Ming Dynasty (195), the first ten days of November.

The weather is getting colder every year, and winter is coming sooner every year.

Occupying the land of Hebei, the biggest benefit brought to Taiping Road is tantamount to a large amount of fertile land.

The official outbreak of the Battle of Weijun began in May, and in late May, the Wei army and the Han army launched a decisive battle in Fanyang.

Xu An led the main force of the Ming army to march lightly all the way, arrived at the battlefield when the Han and Wei armies were about to decide the outcome, defeated the Han and Wei armies in one fell swoop, and became the only victor in the Battle of Fanyang.

After five months, all the three states in Hebei were collected.

The state of Wei fell, and the Han court retreated to the south of the Yellow River.

Last year, the country of the Ming Dynasty suffered from drought, locust plagues, and earthquakes one after another. The deployment of troops in Mobei and the Western Regions cost a lot of money and food.

This time, the food for the Eastern Expedition to the Kingdom of Wei and the Northern Expedition to Mobei was even the military rations borrowed from the common people with IOUs, so they got a fairly sufficient supply.

The household department of the Ming court was in a state of deficit in May, and this deficit was terrible.

If it hadn't been for the massive wealth brought by opening up the Western Regions, Ming Ting's internal funds would have already been broken, and even the basic salaries of soldiers could not be issued.

This time, with the use of troops, the food reserves for disaster relief in various places have been mobilized. As military expenditures, the suppression of the famine in various places has almost reached its lowest point.

Fortunately, the famine did not come, and because of the cooperation of the judges, Taipingdao was able to peacefully control the entire land of Hebei before the autumn harvest.

A large number of Ming troops poured into the land of Hebei continuously, and the mature crops planted in the fields of Hebei were also harvested one after another.

The Eagle Wolf Guard has set up a thousand-household office in Hebei, and has begun to collect evidence and prepare for a public trial.

Although it was said before that those who take the initiative to seek refuge will be lessened, but they have not said that they will be pardoned.

The forest farms, lakes, and mines in various places have basically been handed over to the Ming army. These strategic resources, as well as public resources, must be in the hands of the state.

In terms of land, Xu An did not directly deprive most of the land of the powerful families as he did in Yizhou and Zhongzhou before. The method was a little milder, and the powerful families in the three states of Hebei took the initiative to retain a certain amount of land.

But even so, the land collected in the three prefectures of Hebei is even more than the land in the three prefectures of Zhongzhou, Bingzhou, and Yizhou, and it is much more fertile.

If Guanzhong is fertile and wild for thousands of miles, then the land of the three prefectures in Hebei is thousands of miles of fertile wild.

Except for the continuous mountains in the north of Youzhou, and the Taihang Mountains on the left of Jizhou, the rest of the country is almost all plains.

This is called the North China Plain in later generations. It has a vast area, low and flat terrain, few ups and downs, and a flat river.

In the second year of Yuanshi (AD 2), the registered population of the Han Dynasty was nearly 6000 million, and the population living in the North China Plain accounted for half of them.

Huabeiping is due to its excellent geographical environment, densely populated and developed agriculture.

After the Battle of Weijun, with the surrender of Quyi, the prefectures and counties in various places also chose to submit one after another. Therefore, it can be said that in Jizhou and Qingzhou, Xu An took it without bloodshed, so it has no impact on the local economy and various affairs. What a spoil.

The harvest of a large number of mature crops this time directly allowed Xu An to obtain a large amount of food.

The harvested grain not only directly eliminated the deficit crisis of the Mingting household department, but also made up for the military rations donated by the people of Bingzhou, and even brought a lot of wealth.

At this time, Xu An really understood how rich Hebei is.

When the clerks of the household department and the Eagle Wolf Guard made statistics and checks, they even suspected that they had miscalculated the data and repeated the calculation many times.

Xu An was also very surprised when he saw the submitted documents.

No wonder at the end of the Han Dynasty, some people described the land of Jizhou as having millions of armies and ten years of valley branches.

It is indeed an exaggeration to wear a million armor, but there are indeed a million young and strong, but there is no exaggeration in the ten years of Guzhi.

At the beginning, almost all the grain and grass supply for the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Kwantung Warlords was supplied by Jizhou.

Today, if the economic levels of the three prefectures in Hebei are ranked from high to low, Jizhou is the first, Qingzhou is second, and Youzhou is at the bottom.

Although Qingzhou is only the area north of the Yellow River, its economic development is even richer than that of Youzhou, and its grain production is much higher.

The taxes of Jizhou and Hanoi counties alone are already more than the taxes that Zhongzhou, Bingzhou, Liangzhou, and Yizhou can contribute, and they pay more food and grass.