Chapter 131 Hefei
After staying in Shouchun for five or six days, Li Yuanhui and Zheng Shandao not only discussed the issue of military farming, but also allocated a lot of military equipment from the Shouchun arsenal to fully arm Zhu's Huainan soldiers.

He then led the crowd south by land to Hefei.

A few days later, Li Yuanhui, his staff, and two armies totaling more than 2,000 people arrived at Hefei New City.

Looking at the city not far away, Li Si asked, "Is this the Hefei city where Zhang Wenyuan defeated Sun Zhongmou's army of 100,000 with his 800 cavalrymen?"

The captain Yin Gong who came to greet them explained: "This is the new city. Hefei, where Zhang Wenyuan resisted Sun Zhongmou, is the old city. This new city was later built by the famous Wei general Man Chong. The old city is thirty miles east of the city."

"I see."

Hefei was originally the state of Luzi granted by the Zhou royal family. Later, Lu State was subordinate to Shu State, and Shu State was subordinate to Chu State.

From this we can see that Lu was just a small country and Hefei was just a small city.

During the Jianwu period of the Later Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu conferred the title of Marquis of Hefei on Jian Tan, and the Hefei Marquisate was established, during which some construction began.

After experiencing wars and chaos, it was not until the end of the Han Dynasty that Liu Fu, the governor of Yangzhou, single-handedly built Hefei, rebuilt the city from the ruins, built fortifications, and turned it into a military fortress.

This Hefei city is also the place where Zhang Babai defeated Sun Shiwan.

Later, Man Chong proposed to build a new city 30 miles west of the old city, facing the Fei River in the south, which is the ancient Shi River course, and Jiming Mountain and Jiangjunling in the west. It was mainly used for military purposes, with a garrison of 4,000 to 5,000 troops at ordinary times and a maximum capacity of 7,000 to 8,000. The old city was used as a residential and commercial area, with only a small number of troops stationed there.

This pattern of two cities coexisting continued until the Dayan period.

However, there was no need to station a large army in Xincheng. Now there were only more than 1,500 troops stationed in Hefei, under the command of two colonels.

Yin Gong, Zhou Ben.

Hefei is not large in scale. As it occupies a high ground and is surrounded by the Shishui River and its tributaries, Chaohu Lake and numerous small islets, it is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

When Li Yuanhui was outside the city, he began to plan how to use troops based on the terrain.

It is very difficult to completely surround such a city because of the complex terrain and crisscrossing water, which makes it impossible to stop in many places.

If they are too far apart, tens of thousands of troops will be separated and unable to respond to each other, and even the encirclement effect will not be achieved.

"It is indeed a dangerous place that made Sun Zhongmou sigh with regret."

Everyone laughed when they heard this.

When talking about Hefei, this important city in Huainan, there are two names that cannot be avoided.

Zhang eight hundred, Sun one hundred thousand.

Although the city in front of them is not the old city where they fought in the past.

But when Sun Quan attacked Hefei for the fifth time, he was blocked by this fortified city and had to retreat.

Hefei New City has three city gates, the East Side Gate, the East Middle Gate, and the West Gate.

Among them, the East Middle Gate is considered the main city gate, also known as the Zhengdong Gate. Li Yuanhui led his troops into the city from here.

During the Cao Wei period, especially during the confrontation with the Eastern Wu, Hefei was the seat of the General of the Eastern Expedition for a long time. This General of the Eastern Expedition Mansion, which was originally built by Man Chong, also became the General of the Southern Suppression Mansion of Li Yuanhui.

Although this mansion has not been inhabited for a long time, because Li Yuanhui decided to use it as the seat of government many years ago, Huainan prefect Zheng Shandao sent people to repair it after taking office.

Now it has been renovated and is large enough to accommodate the entire Pingnan General's Mansion and serve as the residence of Li Yuanhui himself.

Many houses were also built around the general's mansion for his officials and their families to live in.

Li Yuanhui was very satisfied with these preparations. After settling all the troops, he went to rest because he was tired from the long journey.

It was not until the next day that he formally convened the generals and subordinates from various departments to discuss matters in his Pingnan General's Mansion.

The military officers included Li Qinglian, Xie Xun, Zhang Fu, Chief Clerk Cao Ce, Special Military Commissioner Zhu Xingzong, Colonel Ma Deyi, Wang Tong, Yin Gong and others.

In the courtyard of the general's mansion, a large banner was hanging high, Li Yuanhui sat on the commander's seat, and a scepter was placed behind him.

After all the officials paid their respects, the meeting began.

Li Yuanhui was not pretentious, as the saying goes, a new official should make three big moves when he takes office.

The first was to let the captain Yin Gong, who was originally stationed in Hefei, be responsible for collecting military reports from the big thief Guo Fenghuang and sending out scouts to gather information on the military situation.

Second, it was to set up military farms. Commandant Chen Qiong was directly promoted to lieutenant, but he was the captain of agriculture, and he was in charge of military farms together with Zhang Fu, Xie Xun and other staff members of the General of Pingnan's office.

Third, conscription.

General Pingnan was in charge of the military affairs of the three counties of Huainan, Lujiang and Guangling, and the troops directly under his command now only included 1,600 men under Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Jian, 1,000 cavalrymen brought from Luoyang, and 4,000 former Xuzhou troops stationed in Guangling.

In addition, Guangling County had 2,000 soldiers, Huainan County had less than 4,000 soldiers, and Lujiang County had more than 2,000 soldiers. Although these 8,000 people were also under his control, they were also under the command of the governors of the various armies.

This is the case with the more than 1,000 troops stationed in Hefei City.

The 4,000 Xuzhou troops in Guangling will sooner or later be handed back to the command of the Xuzhou governor, but they are only temporarily under his control.

Therefore, Li Yuanhui planned to take in refugees under the name of military farming, with the upper class being sent to the army and the lower class being sent to farm.

The same was done for the other tribes, where the old and weak were selected to serve as auxiliary soldiers and to cultivate the land.

According to the initial plan, in addition to the county soldiers, Li Yuanhui intended to expand his army from 8,000 to about 10,000 people.

Of course, this is just preliminary.

According to his current estimate, as long as these three counties are stabilized, it will not be a problem to support tens of thousands of troops.

But for now, whether he is recruiting soldiers or stockpiling food and fodder, he has to proceed steadily.

Don't take too big a step.

After all, the Great Yan Empire is not in chaos yet, just a minor one. So he needs to keep a low profile and expand his army to 8,000 people in the name of suppressing the great thief Guo Fenghuang.

When the wind changes drastically, we can recruit troops openly.

Li Yuanhui planned to train the first batch of recruits personally.

Before he set out, his cousins ​​Dou Xianjun, Dou Fengjie, Li Xuandao, Li Xiaoqi, Li Gongren, Li Xiaoxun, Li Xiaozong, and his good friend Yu Zhongheng all came to him and followed him to Jianghuai.

These people are all good at riding and shooting, and are familiar with military laws. They are just the right officers.

Li Yuanhui's plan was to let them recruit soldiers and serve as lieutenants, and use them as the base to form his own central army.

In addition, Zhang Zhen'e, who had made great military achievements, was appointed as Sima of a separate department. He was allowed to recruit his own soldiers, with a quota of 1,200.

More than Lao Zhu and Lao Zhang.

In addition, Li Yuanhui also issued notices to various places in Jianghuai, encouraging local powerful people to lead their troops to join the army.

After all, the Jianghuai area, where the people are tough, does not have first-class aristocratic families like Cui, Lu, Li, Zheng, Wang, Wei, Du, Pei, Xue and Yang, but there is no shortage of arbitrary and powerful local people.

Although these powerful people were rampant in the counties, they had no chance to become officials in the court unless they were able to hook up with a noble like Li Yuanhui.

Moreover, facing the coming chaos, Li Yuanhui felt that cooperation with local powerful families and wealthy people was a must.

But there are some ideas on how to cooperate.

The most powerful clan in Guangling must be the Zhang family in Jiangdu. Although Wucheng Hou himself has never appeared, his two grandsons both serve under him, and Zhang Wu's gift of the famous sword to him is a gesture of his attitude.

Murong Anguo was in Huainan before. He was not good at rebelling, but he was good at governing the place. There was not even a fortress in Huainan.

Lujiang is also a place where elite soldiers are produced. The soldiers of Lujiang County and the soldiers of Danyang complement each other.

As early as the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao went south to Yangzhou with Xiahou Dun, Cao Hong and others to recruit soldiers. The governor of Yangzhou at that time was on good terms with Cao Hong, so he recruited two thousand "Lujiang top soldiers".

Being called "superior armor", they are undoubtedly elite.

Of course, compared to the "Lujiang Shangjia", the Lujiang bandits are more famous, such as Chen Ce, Mei Qian, Lei Xu, and Chen Lan, who all gathered tens of thousands of people. Their bravery is no less than that of Zang Ba who dominated Qingxu. Cao Cao sent a large army of elite troops to eliminate them.

Currently, Lujiang is the most chaotic among the three counties of Jianghuai. In addition to the big thief Guo Fenghuang in the territory, there are also several powerful thieves.

This is also the reason why Li Yuanhui wanted to place the Pingnan General’s Mansion in Hefei, as it is close to Lujiang.

Only when Lujiang is under control can Jianghuai be stable.

(End of this chapter)