Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Everyone passed around the imperial decree one by one. Song Ying said, "With the Marquis overseeing the situation, we can feel at ease! It's just a pity that Mr. Pang was assassinated!"

His expression was somewhat somber, with a slight redness around his eyes.

Zhang Cong looked similar, appearing somewhat sorrowful.

They were all Pang Tang's men. When Pang Tang was still the governor in Liao Yuan, they were his subordinates.

When Pang Tang came to Chongshan Town, they were transferred over due to the staffing needs.

To them, Pang Tang was both a benefactor who had promoted them and a mentor who had educated them.

It was not an exaggeration to say that Pang Tang was their teacher.

Yang Zhenshan thought of Pang Tang, his expression also becoming sorrowful, "Later, this Marquis will go to mourn Mr. Pang."

"Let's first discuss the situation at the Governor's Office!"

Song Ying said, "Everything at the Governor's Office is functioning normally, we can mobilize civilians at any time to provide food and fodder supplies for the troops!"

Subjugating the Wuliang Hu Clan and the East Sea Hu Clan are entirely different matters.

In the years when Chongshan Town subjugated the East Sea Hu Clan, they only needed to cross the border, and the longest logistics transportation was just over a thousand li, and Chongshan Town only needed to mobilize a small number of civilians to work with the garrison's soldiers to ensure the army's logistics.

Moreover, at that time, the different Rescue Camps attacked independently. Except for the larger logistics pressure on the Camp under Liang Chu, the other camps practically had no logistic pressures.

Now, to subjugate the Wuliang Hu Clan, the logistical pressure will be countless times greater.

From Chongshan Pass to the western border of Chongshan Town, the straight-line distance is four to five hundred li, the distance via the official roads is even longer, the southern official road winds through the mountains, the total distance could reach a thousand li.

The northern official road is somewhat closer, but also around seven to eight hundred li.

The northern official road is actually the road from Chongshan Pass to Dinghu Guard.

Dinghu Guard is located at Guanshan Pass where Yang Zhenshan once burned a hundred thousand troops; these years Zhou Lan has established a Guard City there and has also reclaimed land in the valley, moving several military households there to farm.

Under the West Road Dinghu Guard Assistant General, there are six garrisons, apart from Dinghu Guard, the other five are scattered across the northern plains.

These five garrisons are not yet perfect, they can't monitor all areas of the Northern West, they can only monitor the areas close to Dinghu Guard.

This is an unavoidable issue, North Western plains are vast grasslands, setting up garrisons there requires first considering how to defend against Wuliang Hu Clan's raids.

What Zhou Lan can do is to gradually build ramparts, reclaim suitable wastelands for farming and horse-rearing, slowly eroding that grassland.

Although significant progress has been made, there is still some way to go before the ideal state is achieved.

Besides within Chongshan Town, transporting food and materials for the Wuliang Hu Clan is also a major problem.

The territory of the Wuliang Hu Clan stretches three thousand li from east to west, if the army penetrates deep into Wuliang Hu Clan's territory, this supply line could extend two to three thousand li.

Moreover, within the territory of the Wuliang Hu Clan, there are no official roads, making logistics extremely difficult.

As the Wuliang Hu Clan moves southwards, they can use some tribe's banners as supply transfer stations, whereas if Chongshan Town moves westward, they would need to open up a supply route.

Not only do they need a large number of civilians to help transport food and materiel, but also a large number of soldiers to escort them.

The longer the battle line, the greater the logistical pressure.

And soon it will be mid-April, the prime time for spring plowing in Chongshan Town, mobilizing a large number of civilians at this time will definitely affect spring plowing.

It wouldn't be feasible to let the military households and civilians of Chongshan Town plant less food this year just to subjugate the Wuliang Hu Clan.

Thus, Yang Zhenshan does not want to mobilize civilians.

"How much money and food does the Governor's Office have now?" Yang Zhenshan asked.

Song Ying said, "1.23 million taels of silver, 480,000 dan of grain!"

"So much?" Yang Zhenshan was surprised.

Feeling slightly better, Song Ying smiled, "These past two years, Chongshan Town in the north has started taxing fields, the field taxes collected by the Governor's Office are three times more than before, and these two years we haven't started any major construction projects, just built some garrisons and repaired official roads, consuming much less money and food than before!"

Yang Zhenshan nodded slightly, Chongshan Town is now in a harvest period, years of hard work were paying off, seeing the first fruits now.

With increased acreage, field taxes also doubled, commerce flourishing, commercial taxes also increased.

And the Governor's Office unlike the General Mansion does not need to maintain so many soldiers, so the surplus money and food far exceed that of the General Mansion.

In this case, even more so, they can't mobilize civilians on a large scale, otherwise it would inevitably affect the development momentum of Chongshan Town.

Yang Zhenshan thought for a moment, looking towards Capital Commander Ning Qinghe, "Old gentleman, how many soldiers can the Governor's Office mobilize?"

Ning Qinghe, calm and composed, said, "If we mobilize from the Central Road, North Road, and East Road, without affecting spring plowing and city defense, we could mobilize about twenty thousand soldiers."

The garrison soldiers also have to be responsible for local defense, it is not possible to mobilize them all, probably only about a quarter.

And the two guards on the Western Road of Chongshan Town are the frontline, definitely cannot mobilize soldiers from there, so we could only mobilize soldiers from Central Road, North Road, and East Road.

Ning Qinghe, old and judicious, considered very thoroughly.

Yang Zhenshan nodded slightly, "That's enough."

"The Governor's Office immediately mobilizes twenty thousand soldiers, the Governor's Office provides money and food, immediately transport the money and food to Dinghu Guard, issue orders to the Assistant General Mansion at Dinghu Guard to build granaries, stock up on food and fodder."

The army does not move, food goes first.

How to attack the Wuliang Hu Clan will be discussed later, first get the money and food to Dinghu Guard.