Chapter 354 Practice
Kaiyuan Prefecture was the front line of the Song-Mongol front.
There were only 80,000 registered citizens in the 17 cities under its jurisdiction.
In other words, there were less than 300,000 living people under the jurisdiction of such a large prefecture!
Of course.
According to the situation in Jiachuan County, the number of people in Kaiyuan Prefecture should be doubled.
Even so, there were only more than 600,000 people.
Lin Chen frowned slightly and roughly read the decrees issued by the Southern Song court to Kaiyuan Prefecture in recent years.
In addition to recruiting wing troops, there were additional taxes.
In other words, the taxes that ordinary people in Kaiyuan Prefecture had to pay every year were twice as much as their annual surplus from farming!
No wonder a large number of people under the jurisdiction of Kaiyuan Prefecture fled and became refugees.
Of course.
How many layers of increase in the Southern Song officials were involved is unknown.
For Lin Chen, he did not expect that there would be an unexpected surprise when he went north.
He did not mind expanding his influence in the secret realm.
According to the original history.
At this stage, the Southern Song Dynasty court had reached a point where it could not take care of itself.
After losing the important cities of Jingxiang, there was no obstacle to the north going south.
I think the officials in the Southern Song Dynasty court were all worried about how to resist the Mongols who were about to go south.
Or, some people had already had second thoughts and began to look for a way out.
They could only surrender to Mongolia and continue to serve as Han officials under Kublai Khan.
As for Song Duzong, he naturally continued to play music and dance, and did not care about these trivial matters at all.
So Mongolia decided to attack in two directions, one to swallow Sichuan and the other to approach Lin'an.
There was not much strong resistance in Sichuan and Sichuan.
It was obvious that the Southern Song Dynasty had almost given up the important cities of Sichuan and Shu at this time.
Anyone could see that the Southern Song Dynasty was about to fall.
As for Cao Ling, it was even more like a dream.
He did not expect that he would be a prisoner from a county magistrate in just one month.
That day when Zhang Shun led 300 naval soldiers to break through the gate of Kaiyuan Prefecture, he and the prefect were on the top of the city and saw it clearly!
These extremely brave soldiers could not possibly be the Xiang army.
Cao Ling was quick-witted and reacted immediately.
This was not a rebellion by bandits, but a rebellion by someone!
Thinking of this, Cao Ling was terrified, fearing that he would be beheaded by the rebels.
However, when he found that the rebels did not care about him and others, Cao Ling's mind became active.
In order to compromise, why not join the rebels?
It is better than staying in this dark prison and waiting to die!
So, Qiao Xuan heard the report from the officers that someone was clamoring to see him.
This made Qiao Xuan, who had already taken over Kaiyuan Prefecture, interested.
It must be said.
The Southern Song officials in Kaiyuan Prefecture were rotten to the core.
Qiao Xuan only led two thousand newly recruited soldiers and easily took over the counties of the entire Kaiyuan Prefecture without any resistance.
These county magistrates thought that the Mongolian army was coming, and basically opened the city and surrendered without saying a word.
Seeing this, Qiao Xuan felt even more disgusted with the scholars in this blessed land of immortals.
They have no integrity of a scholar, and I don’t know what they have learned from the books of sages!
Indeed.
Looking at the Southern Song Dynasty.
If Wen Tianxiang hadn’t saved the reputation of the Confucian scholars, it would have become a joke.
“You are the ones who are clamoring to see me?”
Qiao Xuan looked at the embarrassed Cao Ling and said coldly.
Cao Ling saw Qiao Xuan and his eyes lit up.
He could see that the person in front of him was a high-ranking official even if he was not the leader of the rebels.
“I am Cao Ling, the magistrate of Jiachuan County. I am willing to serve you and do my best!”
Cao Ling said loudly, not feeling embarrassed at all.
Qiao Xuan was amused by his words.
“You have no ability to defend the land, and you have no literary temperament. Tell me, what can you do for me?”
Qiao Xuan sneered.
This statement almost said, you are a waste, I don't like you.
Cao Ling was dumbfounded after hearing this.
When Qiao Xuan arranged for someone to take him away, he was still confused.
Cao Ling was so stupid, and he had to thank the Song Dynasty for its hundreds of years of support for scholars.
As the saying goes, no punishment will be imposed on a doctor.
As long as a Confucian scholar has a reputation, basically if he has not committed a serious crime, he will only be demoted and sent home.
This has made countless scholars develop a mentality of being superior to others.
Of course.
This idea was quickly wiped out by the Mongolian butcher knife.
What saints say, these foreign races are not happy to listen.
Qiao Xuan was also unwilling to say more to this group of Southern Song Confucian scholars.
With his ability, it is easy to govern a prefecture.
As for how to recruit talents to govern the place in the future, that is something that his master needs to consider.
But at the moment.
Lin Chen's focus is not on this.
The fleet heading north naturally could not conceal its movements from the eyes of both the Song and Mongolian sides.
When they saw the army with black flags, both sides were quite surprised.
Could this be the newly formed imperial guards of the court? But why didn't they hear any rumors?
Therefore, Lin Chen was not questioned at all when he left the area controlled by the Southern Song Dynasty.
This saved him a lot of trouble.
In the main cabin of the sailing battleship, Lin Chen looked at the map, and a thoughtful look flashed in his eyes.
He left Sichuan and Shu along the Jialing River, and the places he went up were all controlled by the Mongolian Handi Hou.
According to the spies.
Fengxiang Prefecture has three Handi Hous and two Mongolian Wanfu captains, and the assembled army is more than 80,000.
And the number of people is still increasing.
Obviously.
In order to support Kublai Khan's plan to destroy the Song Dynasty, all places are preparing for war.
Only the Southern Song Dynasty court pretended to be ostriches and pretended to know nothing.
According to the map.
If the fleet led by Lin Chen continues to move forward, it will face a Mongolian cavalry of 10,000 people.
Of course.
There are ways to avoid it.
But Lin Chen did not plan to take a detour.
It just so happened that he intended to use this Mongolian cavalry to see how the "God's Whip" was.
"Pass the order, the infantry will get off the boat and go along the river!"
"Yes!"
Yang Zhi and other generals brought by Lin Chen from Li Tang were very excited.
They were not Southern Song generals who were afraid of war.
They were just foreigners. They followed Lin Chen to kill a lot in Liaodong.
On the other side.
As the main general, Atatemur was also a member of the noble bloodline of the Golden Family.
Although the blood relationship was far apart, he was still proud of it.
Therefore, Atatemur, who was less than 30 years old, became a commander of 10,000 cavalry and was ordered to garrison here.
But Atatemur didn't like the life in the Han area.
In his opinion, the eagle should soar in the grassland, not live with these cowardly Han people.
Therefore, Atatemur often took his guards to hunt Han people as prey, and called it tempering the blood of the grassland.
When he learned that a Han army from Sichuan was approaching, Atatemur was not surprised but happy!
Atatemur had seen the combat effectiveness of the Southern Song army.
After learning that the other side had less than 30,000 or 40,000 troops, Atatemur despised it even more.
It is no exaggeration to say that a thousand Mongolian soldiers can chase tens of thousands of Southern Song troops!
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