Wang Jun walked into the courtyard, with Xiang Yun following beside her carrying a pigeon cage.
Seeing Han Qian and Xi Ren sitting in the courtyard talking, Wang Jun said happily, “The day before yesterday when Wang Tang went to Longtan, I specifically asked him to bring A’Zi and A’Zhu to release them at Longtan. Look, both A’Zi and A’Zhu have just flown back, and they even brought back the letter Wang Tang wrote at Longtan!”
Wang Jun took the pigeon cage from Xiang Yun’s hands and showed Han Qian and Xi Ren the pair of gray-white domestic pigeons inside the cage.
“Really?!” Xi Ren asked excitedly.
Long-distance rapid communication was one of the most difficult problems to solve in this era, but with Tangyi’s development reaching this stage, there was an extremely urgent need to establish a more complete and rigorous intelligence reconnaissance and transmission system.
Although there was some understanding in this era about using birds to transmit messages, particularly using domestic pigeons for messaging, Han Qian had also considered this problem when he was in Xuzhou, but he lacked the conditions to implement it.
Even in this era, although some noble family sons raised domestic pigeons for amusement, it was extremely rare, and furthermore, Xuzhou’s relationship with them could hardly be described as harmonious.
Additionally, utilizing the homing instinct of domestic pigeons for emergency communication could only work in one direction.
That is to say, if domestic pigeons were raised in location A, ultimately one could only release the pigeons from another location, and the pigeons would carry the letters back to their nest at location A.
To ensure that the pigeons’ nest-recognition ability would not weaken, the time they were taken away from their nest could not be too long.
At this point, to ensure that a certain location had reliable emergency communication capability with the nest location, one would need to simultaneously raise multiple groups of carrier pigeons, rotating them to be taken to other locations.
Only this way could one ensure that the carrier pigeons spent most of their time being fed at their nest, minimizing their time staying away.
Furthermore, for long-distance flight of domestic pigeons, the requirements for selection, cultivation, care, and disease prevention were extremely high.
Even though there was some understanding of using domestic pigeons for messaging in this era, numerous complex technical problems meant that throughout history, no regime had ever been capable of properly raising carrier pigeons on a large scale as a means of emergency communication. For a long time, only occasionally would individual noble family sons raise them as playthings.
It was only after the great victory at Wujin Ridge that Wang Jun had someone find several pairs of domestic pigeons from Huzhou and had her attendant maids begin raising them. Currently they had only bred to the third generation.
It was only last winter that they brought some young pigeons to the Huaiyang military camp to raise them, and only recently did they begin testing the emergency communication capability between external regions and the Huaiyang military camp through carrier pigeons.
Currently it seemed to have some effect, but to establish a true emergency communication system based on this, they would still need to overcome too many difficulties.
Fortunately, Tangyi’s resources were currently becoming slightly more abundant, and they were also working to establish a more complete and powerful intelligence reconnaissance and collection system, so some matters now had the conditions to be promoted.
After having Xiang Yun return the pair of gray-feathered domestic pigeons to their nest, Wang Jun only then noticed the secret letter transmitted back from Dingzhou. After reading it for a moment, she furrowed her delicate brows and said thoughtfully:
“Perhaps before the Liang army captures Luzhou, Wang Jingrong will persuade Wang Yuankui to submit to the Mongol Uighurs…”
Xi Ren was startled and said somewhat uncertainly, “Wang Jingrong controls the elite northeastern border troops of the Jin army and holds the three most fertile states in Hebei. Surely he wouldn’t be so spineless?”
Wang Jun said, “The Jin Emperor has passed away, the Crown Prince was driven to Shuozhou and not allowed to enter Taiyuan Prefecture, Prince Lu has usurped the throne, Wang Yuankui has troops occupying Jingxing Pass and refuses to allow Prince Lu’s troops to enter Hebei. At this time, it appears he still wants to support the Crown Prince’s enthronement. While Wang Yuankui claims to be a Jin general and initially killed the Liang envoy when the Liang army attacked the north, his subsequent military actions were very hesitant. Even when the Liang army besieged Luzhou, his vanguard forces never officially emerged from the Taihang Mountains. There are some contradictions here…”
Han Qian nodded and said, “To say that Wang Yuankui killed the Liang envoy cleanly and decisively, indicating absolutely no intention to submit to Liang, yet then hesitated to send troops—most likely there are internal divisions within the Chengde Army.”
“If there are divisions, he shouldn’t have so cleanly and decisively killed the negotiator sent by Zhu Yu,” Xi Ren said.
Wang Jun said, “Now we can confirm that Wang Jingrong is a former member of the Shenling Bureau. If we assume that Wang Jingrong is creating trouble behind the scenes, or even that Wang Yuankui is to some extent being led by the nose by Wang Jingrong, then many things can be explained. Killing the Liang envoy didn’t require many people to participate—Wang Jingrong could even act first and report later, having someone kill him first, which would force Wang Yuankui to grudgingly accept it. But the deployment of troops and sending forces from Jingxing to strike west at the Liang army involves an extremely wide scope. Whether the opinions of the many officers large and small in the Chengde Army can be unified, and whether the preparation of supplies, weapons, and provisions will be deliberately delayed by someone, is not something three to five people can secretly control…”
“You’re saying that Wang Yuankui may not really want to turn against the Liang army, and it’s possible that initially he was coerced by Wang Jingrong’s methods with no choice, and subsequently Wang Jingrong will also force Wang Yuankui to turn toward the Mongol Uighurs?” Xi Ren asked. Thinking carefully, this indeed seemed possible, otherwise many things truly couldn’t be explained.
Wang Jun said, “I believe this is quite possible. Wang Jingrong is a former member of the Shenling Bureau, and his deep hatred for the Liang army is one aspect. On the other hand, since he obtained the ‘Heavenly Craftsman’s Manual’ from the Wanhong House, he should also know that the ‘Heavenly Craftsman’s Manual’ had long been transmitted to the Liang Kingdom. Under Emperor Zhu Yu’s personal intervention, dual-furnace iron smelting and other methods have been promoted far more widely in Bianjing and Luoyang than in the Chengde Army. Wang Jingrong understands better than most people in the north that Luzhou is difficult to defend, and after Luzhou falls, the Chengde Army, relying only on its thirty-thousand-plus elite border troops and three states of territory, will find it very difficult to withstand the Liang army emerging east from Jingxing! We must now consider the situation where Wang Yuankui submits to the Mongol Uighurs, allowing Mongol cavalry to drive straight in from the Hebei Plain and directly assault the major Liang town of Weizhou. Of course, if Wang Jingrong indeed has close contact with the Wanhong House, then regarding possible actions the Chengde Army might take in Dingzhou, Lu Qingxia and Li Zhigao should be prepared in advance. Perhaps we need to watch the movements along the Yiyang line even more closely…”
Xi Ren couldn’t confirm whether Wang Yuankui would turn toward the Mongol Uighurs as easily as Wang Jun predicted, but she felt Wang Jun was absolutely right in saying that Tangyi should constantly watch the Wanhong House’s movements in Yiyang at this time.
Han Qian tapped the stone table in the courtyard, thought for a moment, and said to the guards at the courtyard gate, “Find Guo Rong, Feng Liao, Tian Cheng, Guo Que, and Han Donghu for me.”
Throughout the entire winter, after welcoming Yuan Guowei to his post, Han Qian didn’t remain at East Lake or Liyang but quickly led the Guard Cavalry Battalion to rush to the newly established Huaiyang County, and until early in the second month, he remained stationed at the Huaiyang military camp built from the modification of Shen Family Settlement in the Jinwu Ridge valley.
Throughout the winter, Han Qian personally supervised the construction of a city in the shallow hill river valley on the south side of Wujin Ridge and along the upper reaches of the Nanfei River.
The northeast slope heartland of Huaiyang Mountain had large expanses of stream valleys and river valley plains, but no matter how one calculated, it was still a mountain region, and the cost and difficulty of building a city was several times that of plains regions.
However, within the one-hundred-plus-mile depth of the northeast slope of Huaiyang Mountain, even if they continued to relocate people outward, the population inhabiting and multiplying in the heartland would not be less than seventy to eighty thousand. This already met the standard for establishing an upper-class county.
To strengthen control over the heartland of the northeast slope of Huaiyang Mountain, to prevent wealthy households from staging a counterattack and retaliation, and to mine local deposits and develop resources as much as possible, utilizing the water power and water transport of upstream streams and rivers to develop smelting, casting, textile weaving, oil pressing, soap making, and other industries to support the construction of defense lines on the north side of Wujin Ridge without having to transport all materials from East Lake at great effort—all these made it necessary to construct a mountain city in a concentrated manner.
This could also make full use of the abundant labor force in the mountains and improve the situation of scarce farmland and impoverished households.
Of course, Han Qian’s winter presence at Wujin Ridge to oversee matters also served to conveniently attract the Shouzhou Army’s elite eastern front forces, thereby relieving defensive pressure in other areas.
There was another matter, which was Han Qian personally directing the mobilization work among the bottom-tier poor and slaves in the mountain region west of Huazhu Peak.
From Huazhu Peak to Jiuli Pass on the western side of Huaiyang Mountain was a straight-line distance of about one hundred seventy miles, belonging to the northern slope region where Huaiyang Mountain’s depth was even more extensive.
Even though these areas had rather treacherous mountain ridges and the heartland didn’t have as many stream valleys and river valley plains as the northeast slope and east slope, the mountain people who had hidden and multiplied there in recent years were conservatively estimated to number between eighty and one hundred thousand.
Especially after the great victory at Wujin Ridge, when the Shouzhou Army forcibly ordered the people in southern Huozhou to relocate north, a large number of people fled into the mountains again.
The relatively gentle river valley and stream valley passages leading to the heartland of the northern slope were all concentrated under Shouzhou Army control in the southern Huozhou region.
For them to go directly from the northeast slope, they would have to cross a large group of lofty mountains and steep ridges centered on Huazhu Peak—mountains over one thousand meters high, some even seventeen or eighteen hundred meters, covered in gleaming white snow in winter, with extremely rugged and steep terrain.
The severe cold weather and thick accumulated ice and snow were further obstacles preventing Shouzhou Army soldiers from passing through this precipitous mountain region.
However, as Wang Jun had previously stated, before Shouzhou Army soldiers gained a considerable degree of cold resistance, the Tangyi army actually possessed a greater relative advantage in cold winter combat.
Thus, this winter, Han Qian still recruited elite troops from various units, organizing them into teams of a dozen or thirty to fifty people to cross the towering mountains and enter the northern slope region of Huaiyang Mountain. Taking advantage of the winter season when the Shouzhou Army was unable to interfere in the mountains, they mobilized the bottom-tier poor and slaves in the northern slope mountains to arm themselves and resist the oppression and exploitation of wealthy households.
The true essence of guerrilla warfare was definitely not merely sending small elite forces to tie down and harass the enemy. At the strategic level, it was mainly about mobilizing the bottom-tier poor in enemy-occupied areas to establish base camps.
While strengthening themselves, this actually also greatly compressed and reduced the population and land the enemy army could control, thereby weakening the enemy army’s ability to obtain supplies.
The guerrilla warfare in the northern slope of Huaiyang Mountain was primarily Kong Xirong’s responsibility, with elite troops skilled in mountain guerrilla warfare drawn from his units.
Most of the current Tangyi army soldiers came from recruited Huaixi refugees, among whom were many soldiers familiar with the northern slope mountain terrain—a small number were even mountain people who had escaped to find livelihoods because they couldn’t bear the exploitation of wealthy households.
Using the cover of wind, snow, and severe cold, under the name of the Southern Huo Special Task Battalion, hundreds of small elite units were selected, given sudden intensive training for a certain period, then dispersed into the northern slope to join with scouts and cavalry from the Military Intelligence Bureau who had previously infiltrated. Three months later, the Southern Huo Special Task Battalion’s strength had expanded to over nine thousand men, with families totaling over thirty thousand people, essentially controlling most of the northern slope heartland.
Currently the biggest problem was that the mountain terrain, deep gorges, and dangerous ravines near Huazhu Peak were too rugged. Small groups of men could barely get through, but large amounts of supply materials could not.
Without excellent armor and weapons, without large amounts of material supplies, although the Southern Huo Special Task Battalion had large numbers, its combat capability was limited—perhaps comparable to local militia.
However, fortunately Han Qian was stationed at Huaiyang, so apart from establishing a tighter defense line in southern Huozhou, Xu Mingzhen temporarily dared not concentrate large elite forces to forcibly attack into the northern slope heartland.
This bought time for the Southern Huo Special Task Battalion to reorganize and for Huaiyang to rush to build a cliff plank road near Huazhu Peak and Tanyang Peak connecting the Baishui River valley with Yanzi Stream valley in the upper reaches of the Nanfei River…