Not to mention the frequent wars in the Hehuai River Basin in the past two years, even if we maintain a neutral and wait-and-see attitude, the prefectures and counties that have not yet been involved in the war have suffered from severe drought in recent years, which has greatly reduced the summer and autumn grain harvests, and refugees continue to starve to death on the way.
, all over the wilderness, wandering in all directions.
Emperor Zhu Yu of the Liang Dynasty could recruit young men from the refugees and disaster victims to expand his army, but the Sima family of Xu Si is still keeping silent, so that the prefectures and counties sandwiched between Xu Si and the Weizhou rebels have chosen to remain neutral.
It would naturally be extremely difficult to support the more than 130,000 Hehuailiang Army including Caizhou Army, Shouzhou Army and Bianjing Army by relying solely on the eight southern states that returned to the rule of Bianjing.
More importantly, after Liang Emperor Zhu Yu ascended the throne, he obtained the "Book of Heavenly Craftsmen" from Zhao Kuo. In order to facilitate control and utilize water resources more effectively and on a larger scale, the Liang State Ministry of Industry and General Supervisor for several years vigorously developed
Workshops are mainly concentrated in the Heluo area at the northern foot of Funiu Mountain.
These workshops, mines, and large numbers of craftsmen and craftsmen all fell into the hands of the rebels along with the fall of these places.
It was impossible for Emperor Zhu Yu of the Liang Dynasty to rebuild the armor production system in Bianjing in a short period of time. This would also directly lead to a serious shortage of armor and weapons supplies for the Hehuai and Liang armies for a long time.
Liang Emperor Zhu Yu led his troops to sneak out of the pass and enter Caizhou, severely damaging the Weizhou rebels' troops on the west wing. Combined with Liang Emperor Zhu Yu's power over the years, it was enough to make the Weizhou rebels panic and their morale fluctuate. If only
We were fighting against the Weizhou rebels on the western front, and there were some shortages in food, soldiers, armor, and weapons. It was not a big problem. The high morale could make up for it.
The problem was that the Mongols reacted very quickly. They not only ordered Wang and Tian to step up their attack on Yongzhou and Huazhou from Hejin, but also directly sent generals to lead elite infantry and cavalry to cross the Yellow River and enter Xingzhou to cooperate with the Weizhou rebels.
At this time, the Hehuai Liang Army was short of food, soldiers, armor and horses, which actually greatly weakened their ability to fight in the field with the Mongol soldiers and horses. Currently, they can only rely on the city forts for defense. The plan is to capture Heluo and pass through Guanzhong and
I don’t know when the strategic goal of connecting the Hehuai River will be achieved.
Although the Liang Army in Guanzhong still had nearly 50,000 troops guarding Yong and Hua Prefectures, the terrain in the north was lost. Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye's combined troops of more than 80,000 troops advanced south, and nearly 10,000 Pingxia cavalrymen intervened.
With looting, looting and harassment on both sides of the Tong River, the situation in Guanzhong cannot be delayed for too long.
The main purpose of Guo Duanduo's mission to Chu to discuss peace this time was to borrow food, soldiers, armor and weapons.
Of course, Tangyi has secretly lent a batch of grain, soldiers and weapons to the Liang Army in Hehuai, but even if he wants to continue to lend grain, soldiers and weapons to the Liang Army in Guanzhong, he must obtain Li Zhigao's permission.
Only permission is required.
And Emperor Liang wanted to continue to transfer a group of elite soldiers and horses from Guanzhong, especially a group of veterans and elite grassroots military attachés to join the war in Hehuai and strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Liang army in Hehuai. He also needed Liang and Chu to conclude a formal peace agreement - currently Liangzhou
It completely fell into the control of Li Zhigao, Li Changfeng and others.
Shen Yang has almost grasped the relevant information. I believe that the news from Cishou Palace and Huaidong will not lag behind Shangshu Province. However, how much money Tangyi has borrowed and plans to borrow in the future for grain and soldiers, the specific figures are still unknown to the outside world.
The mystery of the unknown.
These figures are a mystery unknown to the outside world, but after their birthday, Han Daoming and Han Daochang wanted to inform Qiao Chen and other family heads.
Han Qian wanted to ensure that Tangyi's fiscal revenue and expenditure were balanced and that the internal construction and development of Tangyi would not be interrupted by aid to the Hehuai Liang Army. He planned to classify all these expenditures and debits into the Official Money Bureau.
That is to say, the Official Money Bureau funded the Chishan Society to purchase grain, grain, armor and war equipment in Huaixi, and then borrowed these at low interest rates through the two main waterways connecting the Hehuai River and Huaihe River, such as the Shaying River and the Woishui River.
Strategic materials were transported to Xuzhou, Chenzhou, Bianjing and other core areas controlled by the Hehuai and Liangjun armies.
The scale of borrowing has also been agreed upon long ago, and is temporarily limited to 40% of the agricultural output of 120,000 people in Fengtai, Shouchun, and Huoqiu counties.
This was also the condition for Emperor Liang Zhu Yu to return Fengtai, Shouchun and Huoqiu cities and at the same time order Xu Mingzhen not to move the people out.
After the sudden change in Heshuo, Tangyi regained Huozhou, the counties in the central and southern part of Shouzhou, and Guangzhou and Haozhou. However, he did not directly besiege Fengtai, Shouchun, and Huoqiu cities, and did not send troops to harass them at all.
The agricultural production in the three counties, as well as Shouchun as the prefecture of Shouzhou and Huoqiu as the prefecture of Huozhou, and the craftsmen and workshops that have begun to take shape in the two cities have also been preserved.
There are 120,000 people, more than 900,000 acres of cultivated land, and the construction of ditches, water conservancy and other facilities is much better than that in other places in Huaixi. Every year, the summer and autumn grain production is about 2 million shi.
This also means that if Tangyi fulfills its agreement, the Official Money Bureau will need to lend 600,000 shi of grain and a total of 200,000 shi of grain to the Hehuai Liang Army every year.
If Tangyi directly collected money and grain from these three counties as usual, it would not be impossible to gather so much materials to support the Hehuai and Liang armies.
However, Han Qian wanted to abolish many of the old systems that Xu Mingzhen had implemented in these three places as soon as possible.
These three areas and the connecting areas in between have always been the core area controlled by the Shouzhou Army. Xu Mingzhen has been working hard for many years, which is why the farming conditions are so good. However, most of the more than 900,000 acres of land are official farmland.
, to drive soldiers, family members, servants, and servants to cultivate the land.
Precisely by directly skipping the exploitation of the clan clans in the middle, Xu Mingzhen was able to directly acquire a large amount of money and food in these three core counties to raise soldiers and horses. At the same time, he also raised a group of craftsmen and craftsmen to ensure the basic supply of soldiers and armor.
Repairing ships; its status and importance is equivalent to that of adjacent areas such as Donghu, Liyang, Wanshou and Tangyi at this time, and currently accounts for nearly half of the current fiscal revenue of Huaixi.
Now these three counties must implement the New Deal as soon as possible, and the acres of land will be equally distributed to each household. Official slaves, as well as a group of peasant households who have been severely exploited, must be given back to the poor, so that the three counties can be fully integrated into Huaixi as soon as possible.
In that case, the total productivity of the three counties will be difficult to increase quickly during the transition period, and the actual total tax revenue that can be collected will need to be directly reduced by half.
Even if these taxes are collected, they still need to be withheld by the prefectures and counties, mainly for local construction. In other words, Han Qian does not expect these three counties to make a direct contribution to the annual revenue of the government in the short term. More
Or generate indirect income from bulk goods such as coal, iron, salt, cloth, etc.
Therefore, Han Qian can only let the Official Money Bureau be responsible for fulfilling the loan to Liang Jun.
Of course, the Official Money Bureau is responsible for such a large-scale loan of grain, soldiers, and weapons, so the amount of money and grain is not as scary as imagined.
In order to ensure that food resources are not lost to the outside world, or to ensure the food security of Huaixi, a
The state government, from prefectures and counties to townships, is currently implementing a policy of unified sales and purchase of grain.
Under this policy, only prefecture, county, and township bureaus in Huaixi have the right to purchase grain from households or sell grain to households; foreign grain merchants can only trade with prefecture, county, and township bureaus when importing and exporting grain, and are not allowed to trade with households.
Direct Deal.
After recovering the main areas of Huaixi, the four seasons of grain harvest have been completed, and the food pressure in the territory has been completely alleviated. With the implementation of the unified sales and purchase policy, the price of food in Huaixi has actually dropped to 800 yuan per stone.
This is much lower than the neighboring Huaidong, Jiangdong and Gyeonggi.
In fact, the wealthy rural households in Jiangdong and other places controlled the local area and monopolized the local grain trade. They purchased grain from private households and suppressed the price extremely in order to sell it at a high price to make a profit.
When there was a shortage of food in Huaixi before, the Zhizhi government did everything possible to buy cheap food from Xuzhou and other places, and the prefectures, counties and township bureaus sold it to households, which was far lower than the price of food in Jiangdong, which was as high as two thousand yuan per stone.
It can protect urban people's livelihood from the impact of fluctuations in food prices.
Huaixi has had good harvests throughout the four seasons. After that, an additional sixty, seventy or even one to two million stone of grain will be exported every year, which will not cause a shortage of food resources within Huaixi at all.
This will also allow the Bureau of Official Money to borrow money from the Hehuai and Liangjun armies, which can actually be controlled at less than 700,000 yuan per year in terms of money and grain.
This is already within the scope of what the Official Money Bureau can bear.
In addition to the increase in the total capital of the Guanqian Bureau in the past two years, the total amount of money and grain borrowed from the Huaidong branch reached 600,000 yuan, and the total amount of money and grain borrowed from the Shou Wangfu branch amounted to 800,000 yuan. These two items combined accounted for nearly 100,000 yuan each year.
Interest income of three hundred thousand yuan.
No matter Huaidong, the relationship between Shou Wangfu and Tangyi has been ups and downs in recent years, and no matter how easy it is to borrow money and how difficult it is to pay back, in Huaidong, the quarterly interest paid by Shouwangfu can be said to be
The burden is quite heavy for both families, but they are still able to fulfill it as scheduled.
Merchants have no national boundaries. The accounts behind this are clearly calculated. The heads of the Chen Qiao and other clans have no idea that Tang Yi secretly colluded with Liang Jun to settle matters. Back then, they all claimed with indignation that they would support the Liang-Chu peace talks to drive away the barbarians.
Of course, they also knew in their hearts that the money they lent out, especially whether they had previously promised to borrow 300,000 yuan of food from Shu State, or this time they had borrowed 700,000 yuan of food from Liang Junzhi each year, if they wanted to have a steady flow of money,
The most fundamental way to recover money and interest and ensure that the principal is worry-free in the future is Tangyi's military strength.
The peace agreement secretly concluded between Liang Jun and Tangyi, in addition to returning Fengtai, Shouchun, and Huoqiu as a condition for borrowing money, food and soldiers, also agreed to open the Tangyi coal, iron, salt, cloth, medicinal materials, oil soap and other bulk materials in
Sales channels in the southern states of Liang State and Bianjing.
At present, the production system of the southern states of Liangjing and Bianjing has been severely damaged, and it has recovered very quickly in a short period of time. The people are also in urgent need of these materials to alleviate the increasingly precarious people's livelihood; and even though the initial entry scale of these materials will be very limited,
It can also provide an additional amount of tax revenue to Hehuai and Liangjun to alleviate the shortage of military resources, and allocate a certain amount of money from it to pay loan interest.
Such conditions are beneficial to Tangyi, and are also beneficial to the Hehuai Liang Army at this time. In addition to obtaining extremely scarce supplies, it can also effectively weaken and limit the military potential and ambition of Xu Mingzhen's unit, forcing it to fight with the Hehuai Army.
The Liang army advances and retreats together, otherwise Tangyi's troops and horses can cross the Huaihe River at any time and attack Qiaozhou and Yingzhou, the core areas they currently control.
In addition, the states south of Bianjing are affected by drought and war, and a large number of hungry people and refugees have fled their homes. The Hehuai and Liang armies are currently only able to recruit young men and horses to supplement the shortage of troops. In order to avoid triggering uncontrollable civil unrest, this time also
It will open a channel for these refugees and hungry people to go south to the Jianghuai River to escape famine and seek food.
Although the hungry people going south to the Jianghuai River would be mainly the elderly, weak, women and children, and there would also be a lot of diseases, and they would be considered a burden anywhere, but Han Qian had nothing to be picky about.
In the middle of the previous dynasty, the population of the West Road of Huainan multiplied, and there were once more than 3 million registered households. However, when the Chu Kingdom was founded, the population of Huaixi had dropped to 700,000 or 800,000. In the following sixteen or seventeen years, Emperor Tianyou went to Huaixi.
After a large number of military households were moved in and civilian households were established, the population slowly recovered to around one million.
Anning Palace failed and fled north. Although a large number of people were forced to cross the river and move to Huaixi, military confrontations and wars followed for several years, resulting in considerable population losses. Not counting the generals of the Shouzhou Army, the total population of Huaixi in the previous two years
All under one million.
In the past few years, Han Qian spared no effort to recruit and resettle the refugees in the territory. He also incorporated hundreds of thousands of households in the Huaiyang Mountains and moved in more than 200,000 hungry people from Jiangdong, Huaidong and other places. In the end, the total population of Huaixi barely exceeded
1.3 million, but it is still far from the peak of Huaixi.
In order to resettle these hungry people who went south, the government will first set up a number of settlements in the sparsely populated areas of Huozhou, Shouzhou and central Guangzhou...
…………
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The cold wind howled, the night was pitch black, and not a single star could be seen, making people suspect that the first snow since winter this year would drift eastward at any time.
The lights in the Han Mansion were brightly lit until late at night. Yao Xishui was sitting in the carriage at the entrance of the alley. He opened the curtains and saw that there were still people leaving the Han Mansion at this time - these people had stayed until now. Obviously, they were not just here tonight.
Birthday banquet.
"There should be four shadow guards from Han Mansion coming over." At this time, the curtain of the car in front was opened, and Ye Feiying, who looked like a nimble wild cat, retracted into the car and said to Yao Xishui.
"Let's go!" Yao Xishui lowered the curtains of the carriage, tapped the carriage wall twice, and signaled the coachman outside to drive the carriage away from here.
During the most difficult two years in Tangyi, the size of the Han Mansion shrank by nearly half. Even if the servants employed in the Mansion were hired, there would not be much difference, but the number of people serving the servants and guarding the house were reduced by more than half.
However, at this time, the Han Mansion had a small group of shadow guards stationed there, which not only did not weaken the Han Mansion's security capabilities, but actually enhanced them a lot.
As for the origin of Tangyi Shadow Guard, Yao Xishui only knew that it started with training the Xi family boys. Initially, Zhao Wuji and Guo Nuer took charge successively. After Guo Nuer died in the battle, the Shadow Guard seemed to cease to exist. It has always been
No obvious traces were exposed.
However, Yao Xishui knew that it was not that the Shadow Guards no longer existed or had been disbanded, but that the subsequent situation was not so urgent that Han Qian needed to use the Shadow Guards in depth.
The main role of the Shadow Guards is to spy on information and protect key figures. They are completely hidden behind the Military Intelligence Staff Department and the Guards Cavalry Battalion. It is difficult for the outside world to capture traces of their actions, but Yao Xishui believes that the Shadow Guards must be strengthened in Tangyi.
.
During the Chenzhou crisis and Han Qian's support of the Xianghou usurpation, many of their scout messengers who were responsible for inter-regional communication disappeared inexplicably, and now there are even corpses.
The capital city cannot be found.
In any case, it was not appropriate for them to have a direct conflict with Han Mansion and Tangyi in Jinling City at this time. The Han Mansion Shadow Guards came out to expel them, and Yao Xishui had no choice but to avoid them first.
The carriages of the Weaving Bureau could ignore the patrols and stroll slowly in the late night of Jinling City, rolling on the dirt roads that were frozen solid at night. It seemed that Yao Xishui could not sleep in this pitch-black night.
After turning east and west through several streets, the carriage stopped on the side of the street. On the side of the street was a closed medicine shop. At this time, there was a beggar shivering in the cold huddled in the corner of the medicine shop.
There were no hanging lights along the street. Only the bright horn hanging from the corner of the carriage could only vaguely illuminate the beggar's rags, while his face was hidden in the shadow and could not be seen clearly at all.
Yao Xishui opened the curtains of the car and threw a copper coin over. In the dark, the beggar reached out and took the copper coin in his hand. He stood up and said, "Princess, please follow me." Then he went to
Walk to the other side of the street.
Yao Xishui asked: "Where is the Guanjianglou coin in your hand?"
"The princess is really cautious." The beggar said with a smile, turned around, took out a copper coin from his arms and threw it very accurately into the gap of the opened window. At this time, he borrowed the left front of the carriage.
Under the bright corner lamp on the side, one can clearly see a face covered with dirt, but the eyes are surprisingly bright.
Without waiting for confirmation, Yao Xishui turned around and walked towards the entrance of the alley to the west.
Ye Feiying didn't say anything. She didn't even know who Yao Xishui wanted to see tonight. She just stayed by Yao Xishui's side silently. She couldn't imagine how many people in the world would know the true life experiences of the young lady and Li Zhigao.
Yao Xishui took the coin and did not hit it with flint. He touched the pattern and confirmed it was correct. He tapped the wall of the carriage twice and motioned to the coachman to follow him.
After bypassing two streets and alleys, the carriage finally followed the beggar and drove directly into the backyard of an inconspicuous abandoned house.
The carriage stopped in the backyard covered with withered yellow grass, and the driver and the two guards stayed behind. Under the guidance of the beggar, Yao Xishui and Ye Feiying went through the hall to transfer the property, and walked to an abandoned garden in front, where they saw a beggar.
The thin and tall figure stood under a pavilion with incomplete eaves and tiles, looking at a pond of withered lotus in front of him in trance.
There was a lantern hanging in the garden so as not to attract attention from the left and right, but the light was dim. When Yao Xishui came closer and saw the appearance of the person in the pavilion, he was also surprised and asked in a voice: "Why is it you?"
"
The man in the pavilion turned around, looked at Yao Xishui and said: "I came to Jiangnan twice when I was young. During the spring and autumn, Jiangnan is the most charming time. I lived in this house and sat in the pavilion both times.
I never get tired of looking at the green lotuses in the pond all day long. I didn’t expect that after my second trip to Jiangnan, I would encounter the Baimayi disaster when I returned to Chang’an. Thousands of Xiao Cui clans and thousands of slaves in Prince Lu’s palace were killed by the thief king.
After the bloodbath. After that, I took the remnants of the tribe to flee to Mobei. So many years have passed in the blink of an eye. I dreamed of returning to the south of the Yangtze River again. I didn’t expect that this time when I came back, people and things were different. I still remember the princess when I left Chang’an.
I'm only so tall, but in my eyes I wish I could smash this thief to pieces. But when I left Chang'an, the princess still called me uncle. I don't know why we are so different after all these years."
Ye Feiying only confirmed the identity of the person in front of her at this time, and was also shocked. Looking at the dim light, this person was probably in his forties, not even fifty, but he had white hair and was casually painted with green.
The cloth belt was tied behind his shoulders, and in the freezing cold night, he only wore a rather thin cloak, standing in front of the deserted pond.
"I came here this time and passed through Huaixi. I was delayed for three or four days on the way. After all, you and Zhigao still can't beat Han Qian. Can't you make up your mind?" said the person in the pavilion.
The people in the pavilion only stayed in Tangyi for three or four days before they came to this conclusion, and Yao Xishui could only remain silent.
The person in the pavilion continued: "Based on the character of Shen Yang, Yang En, Yang Zhitang and others, they will probably advocate transferring Zuo Wu's army back to Jinling, and then persuade Yang Yuanpu to recruit Zhou Bingwu and Du Chongtao. You really have no chance in Jinling..."
"Why do you say this?" Yao Xishui said unconvinced.
"Conspiracy and trickery will never come to light. Your master has been laying it out for so many years. If you can gain a little momentum, it is just by borrowing the power of others. Otherwise, when the Anning Palace usurps the throne, you will not be able to survive. I need to say more. "?" The man in the pavilion smiled and said, "The only chance you have now is to seek Shu. I will also arrange for people to lobby Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian to return to Shu via Yinping Road. How can this matter be 70% to 80% successful? Be sure. After the two families win Shu, you won't be able to defeat Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian. This is also your last chance. When Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye capture Yongzhou, many things will not be decided by me. "
"Uncle, have you met eldest brother?" Yao Xishui opened his mouth and called to the people in the pavilion.
"Zhigao is the legitimate son of the prince, but he has no ties to our Xiao family. He won't listen to me. Why should I go to see him?" said the person in the pavilion.
"Since uncle knows that eldest brother will not listen to advice, what's the use of our determination?" Yao Xishui said, "Besides, eldest brother really intends to conspire with Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian to seize Shu. Tangyi will definitely hold us back. What can we do? Of?"
"Why worry about abandoning the remaining land in Xiangbei?" said the man in the pavilion.
Hearing what the people in the pavilion said, Ye Feiying was also secretly frightened. He thought that his wife had been secretly planning for these years to allow Li Zhigao and others to occupy the Xiangbei states, but he didn't want to think that in the eyes of the people in the pavilion, he could give up at any time. It's like the remains of worn out shoes.
Seriously speaking, if they can capture Sichuan and Shu, Xiangbei can give up, but the question is, can they definitely capture Sichuan and Shu?
And before that, who could really be willing to take the initiative to abandon Yingxiang, Deng Sui and other states simply because they wanted to separate themselves from Tangyi's army, so that Tangyi wouldn't have the chance to hold back, and at the same time it was convenient to concentrate forces to attack Shu?
Not to mention Ye Feiying, Yao Xishui obviously did not agree with the suggestion of the man in the pavilion. He changed the topic and asked: "Liang Emperor Zhu Yu colluded with Han Qian. At this time, Tangyi had a large amount of grain, ammunition and weapons passing through Yingshui every day. The Guohe River goes north and receives hundreds of old, weak, women and children every day to alleviate the hunger in Chenxu and other states. Can Weizhou's soldiers and horses really defend Heluo?"
"Liang Emperor Zhu Yu's ability in using troops is indeed rare in the world, but Liang Shixiong only needs to stay in Heluo until next spring when the flowers bloom." said the person in the pavilion.
"Why, Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye are sure they can capture Yongzhou before spring comes next year?" Yao Xishui asked doubtfully.
"You will know when spring comes next year," the people in the pavilion said, but they would not tell Yao Xishui everything. I can’t even seize the opportunity…”
