The day after the wedding of Lin Fu and Liu Miaozhen, the Yuan Dynasty returned to power. Yuan Jinsheng and his son took their leave and left Xuzhou to meet Dong Yuan. Huaidong sent Gao Zongting's scholar Chen Xiaoyan to accompany him to mediate on behalf of Huaidong.
Chen Xiaoyan has been with Gao Zongting for eight or nine years, and he has grown from a young boy into a smart and capable young man. Gao Zongting naturally hopes that he can have a bright future in Huaidong.
Huaidong has sufficient material reserves and shipping ships in Shanyang. As long as Yuan Guizheng has negotiated the transit matter with Huaixi, rice, grain, iron materials, mules and horses, soldiers, armor and ordnance and other materials can be loaded onto the ship as quickly as possible. It was shipped to Xinyang and received by the Nanyang Army.
Cross the Huaihe River from Sizhou and rush to Shouzhou without stopping.
Dong Yuan will be reclaiming wasteland and farming in Shouzhou for two months. The scale of the farming is not large, but it is more dilapidated than before. After all, it looks better. When Yuan Guizheng came out of Xuzhou, he also understood Huaidong's thoughts - Huaidong wanted to go after the Autumn When deploying troops against Eastern Fujian on the southern front, we hope that the defense lines in Huaixi and Nanyang can be stabilized as soon as possible. Therefore, while we strongly support Nanyang at this time, we will not restrain Huaixi for the time being.
But it was obvious that if Dong Yuan wanted to turn Huaixi into a scene like Huaidong, three or two years would not be enough.
The refugees need to be appeased and rescued, ditches need to be dug, roads need to be built, bridges need to be repaired, large rivers and rivers need to have ferries, ferries, and post stations need to be built, officials and subordinates need to be recruited and supported, so many things are entangled together, but there is no single move. The magic way to cut through the mess is to straighten things out one by one, which is a test of political ability. The key is to invest resources.
When Yuan returned to power, Dong Yuan also just came back from Xinyang.
Dong Yuan rushed back from Xinyang. In addition to seeing Yuan return to power, Gongsun Yi and others left Jiangzhou and came to Shouzhou to seek refuge.
Old people like Gongsun Yi were direct relatives of Dong Yuan who had loyally followed him when he was in Eastern Fujian. When Dong Yuan went to Weiyang to form rural soldiers, he recruited them to run the army, which made the Weiyang army and the Dongyang army at that time inseparable, and they could not resist. The invasion and infiltration of Weiyang by the Huaisi refugee army.
Later, Dong Yuan led the Weiyang Army south to fight against the Zhejiang and Fujian rebels. Generals such as Gongsun Yi became the backbone of the Northern Zhejiang Army and made great achievements for Dong Yuan.
Dong Yuan left Hangzhou. Although Gongsun Yi and others did not leave the Hangzhou Army, most of them moved their families to Jiangning with Dong Yuan to show their intention to follow him.
Now Dong Yuan's direct soldiers and horses who stayed in northern Zhejiang have been transferred to Jiangzhou and are under the control of Yue Lengqiu. Dong Yuan also knows that Yue Lengqiu is a master who eats meat without spitting out bones, so he never thought that he could still bring his direct soldiers and horses to Jiangzhou. When he came back, he thought about recruiting his close generals such as Zhao Gong and Sun Yi to form a new army in Shouzhou.
Gongsun Yi and other dozens of generals, plus their own soldiers, about seven to eight hundred people came to Shouzhou to seek refuge with Dong Yuan, which finally gave Dong Yuan a little more confidence.
It also made Yuan Guizheng, who rushed to Shouzhou, realize that Dong Yuan was a feudal official and had a solid foundation to support the Wu Party in its struggle against Huaidong.
Yue Lengqiu was also eager to digest the soldiers and horses transferred from the Hanghu Army. Since Gongsun Yi and others were not tempted, he naturally would not stop them from leaving. At the same time, he also wanted to command the Huai Army and requisition some of the Huinan Army. Military attachés entered Jiangzhou to strengthen the direct forces in Jiangzhou.
As the commander-in-chief of the Changhuai Army, Tao Chun's every move attracted the attention of the court, and there was no suitable position for him in Jiangzhou. Naturally, he could not give up his troops and go to Jiangzhou to join Yue Lengqiu, but at the same time, he could not stop Yue Lengqiu. Recruit some grassroots and mid-level generals from the Changhuai Army to Jiangzhou.
On the one hand, the Changhuai Army was eliminating the old and weak. Although it became more elite, the number of troops was reduced, but the number of general positions was reduced by nearly one-third. Even with military exploits, promotion became difficult.
After these generals arrived in Jiangzhou, most of them were promoted by Yue Lengqiu, and maybe another Tao Chun was born. Yue Lengqiu had not been running the army for nothing these years, and his influence on the generals of the Changhuai Army cannot be ignored.
This was something Tao Chun could not contain.
Nowadays, Dong Yuan and Yue Lengqiu exchange military attachés, and there is somewhat of a tacit understanding.
In addition to Yue Lengqiu, Dong Yuan was also anxious to divide the Changhuai Army, and even used the King of Chu to win over the generals of the Changhuai Army. Today he will transfer one person to the south bank to serve as a county captain, and tomorrow he will transfer another person to the south bank to serve as a city school. Shouzhou on the south bank,
Haozhou, Xinyang and other places were overrun with bandits, and the prefectures and counties needed a lot of garrison military attachés. Tao Chun could not stop his cynical generals from being promoted, and he was really depressed.
It has been nearly a year since he left Hangzhou. After the Chang Huai Army withdrew, the situation in Huaixi gradually improved, but the more it went like this, the more Dong Yuan could feel the gap with Huaidong.
Yuan Guizheng came over this time to talk about the Huaidong grain ship crossing. Naturally, Dong Yuan was inconvenient to make any stumbling blocks. Liu Tingzhou heard that Huaidong would organize 400,000 liters of grain to be transported to Xinyang in batches before autumn, and then disembark from Xinyang.
Transferred to Nanyang, I was so greedy that my mouth was watering.
The money Jiang Ning now allocates to Huaixi, after deducting the money allocated to Nanyang, is only 1.8 million taels of silver, including 600,000 shi of grain.
According to the rules, military rations are paid for by the Military Command. After deducting transportation costs, the remaining five hundred thousand dan is less than half a million dan.
Liu Tingzhou was well aware of the unspoken rules of the imperial household branch. The 600,000 dan military rations cost just over 100,000 dan. This was because Chen Xiyan and others personally supervised the operation to show their support, so he could not expect better results for the time being.
Five hundred thousand stone grain is enough to feed a hundred thousand soldiers and horses. The key is to manage Huaixi, and rice grain is needed for far more than just raising the army.
The price of local rice cannot be stabilized, and the government wants to recruit refugees to build roads, build cities, and cultivate wasteland for planting, so it can only pay wages in rice grains. Without rice grains, nothing can be done.
Dong Yuan wanted to first restore the local soldiers in Xinyang under the leadership of Meng Zhen and Meng Zhixiang, and assumed that the Xinyang Prefectural Army would be the Xinyang Prefectural Army. In addition to local self-financing, he also promised to supply 4,000 shi of grain per month.
Liu Tingzhou knew that the foundation of Xinyang must be stabilized and local forces must be roped in to suppress bandits. A monthly supply of four thousand shi of grain is not a lot, but how to make up for this critical gap?
The price of grain in Weiyang has risen to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
The first sum of 500,000 taels of silver that Dong Yuan received from the Weiyang salt merchant was only enough to transport 250,000 liters of rice and grain to Xinyang.
In addition to food, iron materials, mules and horses are also in severe shortage.
In addition to soldiers and armor, the casting of agricultural tools has a greater demand for iron materials.
The land in Huaixi that could be used for farming has been abandoned for several years. The bushes are overgrown, the soil is hardened, the ditches are abandoned, and there are not enough iron tools. It is difficult to carry out the work of reclaiming wasteland and farming.
Nowadays, the price of raw iron in Jiangning is equal to that of copper, and the price of refined iron is four times higher than that of copper.
Nowadays, there are 60,000 soldiers recruited in Shouzhou. Based on the average of 20 kilograms of iron per capita, 1.2 million kilograms of raw iron is needed to really start the field work. 1.2 million kilograms of raw iron.
It's worth almost two hundred thousand taels of silver. What's more important is that the iron smelting workshops in Weiyang, Jiangning and other places simply cannot squeeze out so much iron.
If Huaixi really wants to spend a large amount of money to buy iron materials in Jiangning, it will only lead to a further surge in iron prices.
The materials supplied by Huaidong to Nanyang pass through Huaixi, so the bill of materials naturally needs to be filed through Huaixi.
Seeing the list, Nanyang could obtain 200,000 kilograms of refined iron materials needed to cast armor from Huaidong. Liu Tingzhou licked his lips and asked Chen Xiaoyan, who came to Shouzhou on behalf of Huaidong to assist: "Huaixi
There is also a shortage of refined iron, can Huaidong provide part of it?"
"The situation in Nanyang is urgent, and Huaidong is also tightening its belt to supply supplies. Mr. Liu has asked me, and Xiaoyan really dare not agree rashly on behalf of Huaidong..." Chen Xiaoyan replied.
Liu Tingzhou was so angry that he vomited blood. During his years in Huaidong, he had known that Huaidong had been extravagant enough to use a large number of iron components to build wooden bridges over rural streams and rivers. In the past two years, Huaidong has moved iron smelting factories on a large scale.
Go to Shanyang in order to use Huaiyang's coal and iron nearby and alleviate the shipping congestion in Beiguan River.
After the Red Coat Army marched eastward, Huaidong transported as much as two to three million jins of iron to the Huaisi area every year. Today, it supplies 200,000 jins of refined iron and 600,000 jins of rough iron to Nanyang. Huaidong is cut off
It is impossible to tighten the belt to the extent.
After all, if Huaidong does not restrain Huaixi, even if it takes care of the overall situation, how can it be possible to support Dong Yuan to gain a foothold in Huaixi?
Dong Yuan had a gloomy face, and he could not refuse the Huaidong grain ship to borrow the passage from Huaixi, so he only said: "The Marquis has come all the way, let's rest in the post house today, and we will discuss some details tomorrow; the Jinxiang Marquis must hold on
Nanyang is a very important matter, and Huaixi will only support it..."
When the Yuan Dynasty returned to power, Yuan Jinsheng and Chen Xiaoyan left first and went to the post house to rest. Only Liu Tingzhou, Ding Zhiru, Chen Jinrong and other Huaixi officials were left in the palace.
"Now that Yanlu's outposts can penetrate to the bank of the Huaihe River, the Huaidong ship crosses the Huaihe River to Xinyang. We need to send troops to escort them. Can we levy some fees?" Ding Zhiru said.
It is natural for ordinary merchant ships to levy taxes when passing through the border. However, the materials transported from Huaidong to Nanyang via Huaixi are urgently needed by the military. Ding Zhiru has no shame in saying that taxes should be levied. However, if the geese are plucking their feathers, such a large amount of materials will not be levied when passing through the border.
How can he be willing to lay down a layer of oil to cushion Huaixi's urgent needs?
Dong Yuan had a gloomy face and said nothing.
Scraping a layer of oil, scraping oil from Nanyang. Huaidong is so generous this time, it means to pull back Liang Chengchong of Nanyang. If Huaixi has to scrape a layer of oil again, the relationship between Huaixi and Nanyang will become even more rigid.
This is probably what Huaidong hopes to see.
Chen Jingrong looked at Liu Tingzhou and asked, "How much does Mr. Liu think is appropriate to charge Nanyang?"
The materials that Huaidong will transport to Nanyang this time are very huge. Even if only 10% of them are scraped, it can alleviate the current shortage of materials in Huaixi. Of course, there are also bad effects, so we have to weigh the pros and cons. Furthermore, we need to let
Liu Tingzhou, the military commander, came forward to share the bad influence.
Yan Guo offended Nanyang by plucking his feathers, and Dong Yuan could not escape his involvement. Liu Tingzhou also did not think of clearing up the relationship. He gritted his teeth and said: "The raw silk from Pingjiang goes to Haidong, and Huaidong has to levy 60% of the tax; Huaihe River really counts.
If we don’t have peace, we have to leave 20% of the goods to pay for the escort..."
Dong Yuan nodded and said: "Then Mr. Liu and Zhiru will be responsible for discussing this matter with Yuan Guizheng..." He was also afraid that tomorrow Yuan Guizheng would throw tea in his face in a hurry and the scene would be too ugly.