Chapter 3581
Chapter 3581
Chapter 3581
Although Shi Chengwu's suggestion sounded very tempting, Tao Hongfang keenly discovered the problem.
"Chengwu, according to what you said, we use public opinion to create tension, so that there will be a refugee tide on the other side, and then drive the refugees to our side. But how can we achieve this with the Yangtze River in between?"
"If we send a boat to the other side to pick them up, it will probably only scare the people and make them flee further, right? Besides, the government on the other side will not sit idly by and watch the people cross the river to our side."
After hearing Tao Hongfang's doubts, Shi Chengwu calmly explained: "This is where we need to guide public opinion... Let me ask you, with war imminent, where is the safest place to escape to?"
Tao Hongfang responded without hesitation: "Of course, we should flee to places that are not affected by the war. For example, taking Jiangpu and Liuhe counties on the other side of the river as an example, the safe zone is Chuzhou and Fengyang in the rear."
Shi Chengwu nodded and said, "If the people on the other side of the strait flee because of the war, the fundamental reason is that they don't have confidence in the resistance of the Ming army. And we must make the people on the other side realize that even if they flee to Chuzhou or Fengyang, they may not be able to completely avoid the war. There is no real safe zone there."
Shi Chengwu said this, and simply stood up and walked to the map hanging on the wall, pointing to an area adjacent to Liuhe County and Fengyang Prefecture and said, "Compared to this, isn't this place safer?"
Tao Hongfang looked intently and saw that the area Shi Chengwu was pointing to was exactly Yangzhou Prefecture which was under the control of Hai Han.
Hai Han controlled Yangzhou much earlier than Nanjing, but in order to ensure Yangzhou's special trading status in the Jiangnan region, Hai Han never used Yangzhou as a front line for launching military operations.
In fact, even after taking over Yangzhou, the area has always maintained free exchanges with the Ming Dynasty, which is equivalent to a buffer zone between the two countries. Although the relationship between the two countries is tense, a large amount of materials and silver money still circulates between the two countries through Yangzhou, a special channel.
Even the offensive launched by Hai Han last year did not choose to send troops directly from Yangzhou to attack the north bank of the Yangtze River. Therefore, the two counties of Liuhe and Jiangpu located on the north bank of the Yangtze River in the original jurisdiction of Yingtian Prefecture are still under the control of the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty also maintained a tacit understanding and would not use force against Yangzhou. On the one hand, Yangzhou's trade involved the interests of too many people, and on the other hand, it also wanted to avoid providing Hai Han with an excuse to start a war.
In this way, in the safety ranking of the Jianghuai region, Yangzhou would really be ranked ahead of Fengyang, Chuzhou, Luzhou, Hezhou, Anqing and other prefectures under the control of the Ming Dynasty, and the possibility of being affected by the war is extremely low.
However, Tao Hongfang still had a question: "If the refugees on the other side of the river flee to Yangzhou, then all the benefits will be taken by Yangzhou, so won't our work be in vain?"
Shi Chengwu shook his head slightly and said, "This work will not be in vain. We can first negotiate with the Yangzhou Management Committee to transfer a portion of the refugees accepted by the local area to Yingtian Prefecture for resettlement."
Population is a special resource that Hai Han has always considered the more the better, and its priority is even higher than land. If a large number of people can be obtained from Ming without going to war, it will definitely be a great achievement that can be reported to the Executive Committee.
As for the consequences of creating a refugee crisis, the two men thought of the same thing: how to bring these refugees to Yingtian Prefecture to make up for the population loss caused by the war last year.
Yangzhou only needs to take good reception measures to obtain a group of cheap people, and naturally will not refuse such a good thing that comes to its door. Of course, if you want to achieve such an effect, the drama must be big, otherwise it will not scare people, and there is no question of creating a refugee wave. The public opinion guidance mentioned by Shi Chengwu is an important means to promote the plan, and it must be implemented before the military starts.
In order to create public opinion, Shi Chengwu's men are mostly people who do menial work, and are not really suitable for this task. He must rely on the strength of Tao Hongfang to have any hope of success.
The next day, the government on the other side of the strait received the news and thought that the armed fleet that appeared at Yanziji was just a normal rotation as Tao Hongfang claimed, and would not launch a war against the Ming Dynasty. But at this time, the Ming Dynasty's spies reported some different news from the Yanziji wharf.
It is said that Yanziji Wharf has begun to secretly mobilize civilian ships and war supplies, apparently preparing for the logistical and supply mission of some kind of river crossing operation.
Moreover, this statement is not groundless. Qin Jian, the superior official of Yanziji Wharf, convened a meeting of managers of various shipping companies to assign tasks. The Ming Dynasty spies obtained first-hand information from this meeting.
According to the information revealed in the Qin bamboo slips, the number of civilian ships that Hai Han needs to assemble is extremely large, estimated to be as many as three to five hundred ships, which far exceeds the needs of daily river patrol missions.
There is of course only one possibility for mobilizing so many civilian ships, and that is to carry the Hai Han army to attack the north bank of the Yangtze River.
Although Qin Jian did not announce the specific time of action at the meeting, he made clear requirements and asked all shipping companies to make corresponding preparations. Once the government gave the order, they must immediately gather their ships at the Yingtian Prefecture section of the river to cooperate with the Hai Han army.
As for the target of attack, even a fool could guess that it was Jiangpu and Liuhe counties, which were only separated from Nanjing city by a river.
The statement made by Tao Hongfang the day before was immediately regarded as a smokescreen to confuse the audience. Compared with the "change of defense" mentioned by Tao Hongfang, launching an offensive was obviously more in line with Hai Han's usual style.
The news from the shipping meeting was soon confirmed from other places.
Yanziji Wharf announced that due to business needs, it began to recruit a large number of temporary workers, and the wages were nearly one-third higher than usual.
Rice shops in Nanjing suddenly announced that due to the recent tight food supply, they would implement purchase restrictions on commodities such as rice, flour and oil to prevent people from hoarding and malicious speculation.
The garrison troops in Nanjing began to cancel their leave and call personnel back to report for duty.
All these signs combined were clearly a precursor to the outbreak of war. The Ming army stationed in Jiangpu and Liuhe counties had less than 3,000 men combined, which was clearly unlikely to withstand Hai Han's massive attack. Once the war broke out, the two places would probably be quickly crushed by Hai Han's army.
However, the bad situation did not end there. Soon news came from Yangzhou that another Hai Han army would launch an offensive southward from the direction of Hongze Lake in Huai'an Prefecture. At that time, not only the two counties originally belonging to Yingtian Prefecture would be attacked, but even the eastern part of Fengyang Prefecture would be caught in Hai Han's north-south pincer attack.