Dong Yuan now has the status of a feudal official. He personally went out of Haozhou City to the east dock of the city to greet the representatives of the salt merchants. He did not feel condescending.
Hongtaekpo is not a regular-shaped lake. Due to the complex topography of the surrounding hills and mountains, Hongtaekpo is also composed of river meanders and bayous areas. During the dry season, shallow lakes are exposed. The entire Hongtaekpo is a group of lakes composed of a series of small lakes.
, there are only a few waterways that are truly conducive to the navigation of large ships.
The Huaihe River flows into Hongzepu from the northeast of Haozhou City. The Hongzepu Lake area under the jurisdiction of Haozhou, also known as the Upper Huaihe Bay, corresponds to the Lower Huaihe Bay under the jurisdiction of Shanyin downstream.
The hills and mountains in Haozhou are continuous, and the terrain is much higher than that of Shanyang downstream. Every time a flood occurs in Hongzepu, it spreads to Shanyang and other counties downstream. However, there are few floods in Haozhou, so along the Shanghuai River Bay
, there are less fields and more mountains, but the small amount of fields is more suitable for farming than in Shanyang County downstream.
For hundreds of years, the local people who live and breed around the Shanghuai River Bend have built hundreds of miles of earth embankments along the river bend to protect their fields and houses, and have also fought for hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile farmland from Pubin. The wars and destruction in these years have
, the bay embankment was left unkempt and dilapidated, and large areas of Urahama fields were naturally abandoned and uncultivated.
After Liu Tingzhou came to Haozhou Prefecture, although he organized people to plant crops and resume production along the Shanghuai River Bay, he still did not have the strength to organize manpower to repair the embankment...
"I heard that Shanyang has begun building stone ponds along the Xiahuai River Bay. Has Mr. Liu heard about this?" In the early spring, the water was shallow and the boat was moving slowly in Puli. I learned that the salt merchant's boat would take another hour to arrive.
When they arrived, everyone sat under the canopy and waited patiently. Chen Jingrong and Liu Tingzhou sat next to each other and asked him about the embankment.
"That's true," Liu Tingzhou said. "The water conditions in the Lower Huaihe River Bay are usually more severe than here. The Shanyang Embankment has collapsed two or three times in ten years. When Liang Wenzhan took office, he was determined to rebuild Dayang.
The embankment was not started until Li Wei took it into his hands. I heard that 20,000 pieces of stone were used to go up the embankment last year. The problem from Xiahuaikou to Baitang River was almost solved at once. I heard that this year we will go from Baitang to Baitang River.
The river will be built further south..."
"Huaidong's treasury is full, it's really enviable!" Chen Jingrong smacked his tongue and said, "Drinking the water from the Huaihe River, Huaixi is starving people everywhere, but Huaidong turns a blind eye. At this time, they are so extravagant that they spend a lot of money to build stone ponds..."
Building the stone pond consumes the most money. The stones used in Shanyang Dike weigh thousands of pounds each. The 20,000 stones used in Shanyang to build the embankment last year were all mined from the surrounding hills and mountains, which cost countless manpower and material resources.
Shanyang was able to build a stone pond for two reasons.
First, the horse service case and subsequent new policies such as land inventory, reclamation and planting, etc., filled the treasury of Shanyang County. The horse service case alone added tens of thousands of acres of public land in Shanyang County, and the annual public rental income was nearly 100,000 stone grain.
.
The second is that Huaidong made an agreement with the imperial court that the Huaidong Military Division would draw taxes and food from Hailing and Huai'an to support the army, with a limit of 800,000 stone grain.
In recent years, Huai'an and Hailing prefectures have carried out large-scale inspections of hidden fields, land transfers, household registration, and large-scale construction of water conservancy projects and reclamation of wasteland, which has resulted in a sharp increase in taxes in the eleven counties of the two prefectures.
In previous years, the tax and grain taxes of Huai'an and Hailing were only one million shi, and the portion paid to the county officials ranged from 400,000 shi to 600,000 shi. However, when Liu Tingzhou left Huaidong and took office in Haozhou, Huai'an and Hailing had ten million shi.
The total tax revenue of one county is as high as 2.5 million dan.
Huaidong did not take a penny of money from the court, and naturally refused to let the court draw a grain of rice from Huaidong. Due to the agreement at that time, the military commander could only requisition an upper limit of 800,000 kilograms of rice and grain from the local area, and more taxes
Fu, at least on the surface, can only be retained and used in prefectures and counties.
In this way, the eleven counties of Huai'an and Hailing will have more than one million tons of rice and grain tax revenue that can be used for local affairs expenses than in previous years.
Shanyang is a key county under Lin Fu's control. After the Mafu case, almost all officials in Shanyang County were from Huaidong. Its tax revenue ranks first among the counties in Huai'an. In the past two years, almost all of them have been collected.
It is not surprising that we can save energy and build a stone pond at this time.
Of course, Lin Fu spends millions of taels of silver every year in Huaidong on ditches, water conservancy, roads, bridges, embankments and other matters. On the one hand, it is for the livelihood of the local people. On the other hand, it is to use these local expenses to support Huaidong.
, a work camp with a scale of more than 100,000 people.
It is really worrying to think that the number of soldiers in Huaidong today exceeds 100,000, and there are almost the same size of supply troops behind them.
Except for Huai'an and Hailing, the tax revenue of Pingjiang and Danyang is comparable to that of Pingjiang and Danyang. The core areas of Mingzhou, Kuaiji, Yongjia, and Taizhou are all controlled by Huaidong. After the Xuzhou War, including the Yinan area
, Huaidong gained eleven new counties on the northern line. Now the imperial court can still have a general understanding of the taxes of Huai'an and Hailing, sixteen counties in eastern Zhejiang, southern Zhejiang, and ten counties under the jurisdiction of Xuzhou
The five counties were all under the iron curtain of Lin Fu, and the court had no way to interfere with official appointments, tax collection and other matters.
Huaidong only said that these places had just experienced war and were severely damaged. People's livelihood was in urgent need of recovery. The court did not provide money and food. There was really no excuse to forcefully interfere in local affairs. However, based on Liu Tingzhou's understanding of Huaidong, it was speculated that Shan was already in Zhejiang at this time.
Mingzhou Prefecture on the eastern inner line can provide Huaidong with taxes worth millions of stone grains every year.
It would be fine if Lin Fu didn't have ambition. If he had ambition, who in the world could control him?
Thinking of this, Liu Tingzhou felt very worried.
Liu Tingzhou knew that when Chen Jingrong mentioned this, he was not simply lamenting the wealth of Shanyang. In Jiangning, there were also many people who hoped to squeeze out some money and food from Huaidong to make up for the shortcomings of other places, but it was not easy!
The more he worried about Huaidong's disobedience, the more Liu Tingzhou felt the need to support Dong Yuan in laying a foundation in Huaixi. After all, there would still be someone who could curb Huaidong's ambitions in the future, which would be conducive to balancing the situation.
Of course, Liu Tingzhou knew that Dong Yuan was in Lin Fu's position and might not have no ambitions, but the situation was like this. Even if it was to lure poison to quench thirst, Huaixi could only pin its hopes on Dong Yuan.
Liu Tingzhou thought of the enthusiasm of King Yuan Hancheng of Chu these days, so it was inconvenient to come out in person to meet with the salt merchants this time, but he sent a steward from the palace to accompany Dong to Haozhou, with the intention of building a bridge through it.
Liu Tingzhou secretly sighed: since the founding of the dynasty, it has been taboo for royal families and vassals to make friends with ministers and generals. However, in the current situation, where the foreign vassals are tyrannical and the imperial power is weak, as long as Chu Wang Yuan Hancheng does not go too far, he will just turn a blind eye.
Close one eye.
In the dispute between Ning and Lu, Huaidong's attitude played a decisive role at that time, or if King Lu was not in Qingzhou, but in Jinan, he might be able to fight against King Ning - Qingzhou did not have the strength to forcefully support King Lu at that time, Lin
Fu led his troops to garrison in Laizhou, but the Liang family was there. As long as the Liang family made a move first, Huaidong didn't want to fight with the Liang family and lose both sides, so he could only follow and support King Lu.
Liu Tingzhou wondered whether King Chu also saw the subtleties in this?
But in any case, the current actions of the King of Chu are not too outrageous, and the King of Chu has a deep influence among the Chang Huai Army and Huaiyang Salt Merchants, which is probably what Dong Yuan hopes to borrow.
The relationship between the King of Chu and the Changhuai Army can be traced back to the Huaisi War. The Changhuai Army was trapped in Xuzhou City for more than half a year. The King of Chu and Yue Lengqiu fought against the powerful enemy together. Among the generals of the Changhuai Army, there were
Very high reputation.
At the moment, Dong Yuan can only recruit generals from within the Changhuai Army to control Tao Chun - Tao Chun sent Yue Lengqiu's protection to fight Dong Yuan, but he may still be a little behind.
Dong Yuan squinted at the water of Hongzepu Lake outside the pier. He was now considered a feudal official. A member of the feudal official came to the pier to greet the salt merchants and had to wait for an hour under a canopy that was not protected from the wind. This was originally shocking.
I don't know how much controversy it will cause if the news spreads to Jiangning, but Dong Yuan needs to show such a posture at this time.
As a high-ranking official in the border areas, Dong Yuan did not feel that the scenery and relaxation at this time was the same as when he first came to Zhiweiyangli.
Although Huaixi has 100,000 troops and can receive two million taels of silver from the court every year, the gap with Huaidong is still too big. Without the support of the Weiyang salt merchants, Dong Yuan didn't know what he would do.
Go use your hands and feet.
The arrival of Ding Zhiru made the situation in Huaixi improve. The support of the Weiyang salt merchants played a subtle but crucial role.
As a coach, if you can't control people, you have to control money and food. If you don't have one, it's strange that the generals below will pay attention to you.
Now that everyone believed that Dong Yuan could raise money, their attitude was different - Tao Chun returned to Guoyang and had already begun to eliminate weak soldiers, and the first batch of 3,000 old soldiers had already set off to Shouzhou.
As long as Huaidong holds Xuzhou, Guoyang's 30,000 elites will be enough, and Huaixi's pressure on military resources will be greatly reduced.
In order to avoid alarming Luo Xiancheng, Dong Yuan only sent Xiao Kui'an and 10,000 elite troops to Xinyang to garrison and encircle Chen Hansan; Dong Yuan only retained 5,000 soldiers in Shouzhou. This time, he would have about 45,000 troops and horses.
Turned into a garrison soldier and prepared to garrison the fields in Guangying, Shouzhou.
There was no way, except for the two armies and horses in Dongyang and Luzhou that were not under control, the 20,000 soldiers and horses transferred from the Imperial Camp Army when Xiao Kui'an and Tao Chun in Huaixi and Dong Yuan came to Huaixi to take office were not his.
Direct lineage, difficult to control like an arm and a finger.
Only by taking advantage of the opportunity of farming and breaking up some of the soldiers and horses to serve as soldiers can the control of military leaders like Tao Chun and Xiao Kui'an be broken. Dong Yuan could then install some cronies or promote some generals from ordinary generals.
Thereby gaining control of a direct line of troops who obey his orders.
Although the garrison soldiers are all old and weak who have been eliminated from the army, as long as they can manage the army, it is not a problem to raise ten thousand elites. The key is to recruit strong men from the refugee army as garrison warriors. In addition, the income from the garrison is in their hands, as well as money and food.
You don't have to look at the face of military commander Liu Tingzhou for everything.
Dong Yuan thought that it might take a year before he, a feudal official, could take the initiative in Huaixi.
Only when we have soldiers and food in hand can we make military leaders like Tao Chun and Xiao Kui'an obedient.
Dong Yuan had a profound experience of these lessons in northern Zhejiang. After the Fuyang War, Meng Yishan was very obedient. After the Fuyang War, Dong Yuan's direct soldiers and horses were severely damaged. Meng Yishan wanted to climb on his face, and finally returned it to Wu
The Party and Huaidong worked together to squeeze out the last remaining direct troops and move to Huaixi.
As for Yuan Hancheng's thoughts, Dong Yuan can somewhat understand it, but it is too early to talk about it at this time.