Traveling under starry night, on May 12th, Sun Zhuang followed Qin Chengzu to Shanyang, crossed the Huaihe River and spent the night in Siyang. The next day, he joined Li Wei, who had officially assumed the post of magistrate of Shanyang County, and Liu Tingzhou, who came from Shuyang.

Let's go north together and reach Chenjiatang, where we will enter the area controlled by the Red Coat Army.

The person in charge of the Red Coat Army's contact was Li Liang, a general under Malantou and the Red Coat Army's guard in Suyu.

Although Liu Tingzhou was the official recruiter appointed by the imperial court, Liu Tingzhou also knew the principle that "a mother is a mother who gives milk" and knew that Qin Chengzu came on behalf of Lin Fu, which was the key to the last round of recruitment negotiations.

Qin Chengzu held a high position in Huaidong, and he was also a horse bandit in the upper reaches of Huaihe in his early years. The Red Coat Army did not neglect him and felt that he was kind. Li Liang personally went out of the city to greet him and escorted Qin Chengzu, Sun Zhuang, and Li Wei to cross the border from Suyu

Go to Huaiyang.

There are wheat fields on both sides of the avenue, like the hair on a leper's head, which is very sparse.

In terms of solar terms, they are already the seeds of the harvest. The wheat ears south of the Huaihe River have fallen heavily and are ready to be harvested. The wheat north of the Huaihe River has just sprouted. It will take at least a month to harvest.

While resting on the way, Qin Chengzu dismounted his horse, handed the whip and reins to his guard, walked to the roadside, took a bunch of wheat and orange poles, looked at the wheat ears, frowned slightly, and said nothing.

"South of the Huaihe River, the fertile fields can be filled with rice and grain by planting wheat in the spring, and planting rice or cotton and linen in the summer. Ten acres of land can support a well-off family. The ditches in Huaisi are exhausted, and there is either drought or waterlogging. One mu of land can be harvested in a year.

Five buckets of grain, even if God opens his eyes, the difference will be seven or eight times." Li Wei was most familiar with the situation in Huaisi County, and did not care about Li Liang's presence, nor did he care about the faces of the generals of the Red Coat Army, and directly sent Huaisi counties to

Talk about your embarrassment.

Liu Tingzhou frowned slightly and said: "After several years of war, the jungles have become wasteland. In the countryside, there is a severe shortage of iron tools. Not to mention the counties of Huaisi, four to five out of ten farmers on both sides of the Shu River still have

Working in the fields with stone sickles and wooden knives," he asked Qin Chengzu, "Can the iron yards in Chongzhou and Shanyang sell some iron to the military commander this year?"

"I have to ask Lin Mengde about this, maybe it's possible," Qin Chengzu said, "I'm not sure. Since Mr. Liu brought it up, Huaidong always has to squeeze out some."

"How much can be squeezed out? Qin Sima gave me an accurate estimate." Liu Tingzhou followed the snake to the pole and asked.

To say that Liu Tingzhou's status is naturally higher than that of Qin Chengzu, it seems a bit disrespectful to ask him like this.

Qin Chengzu secretly thought: Liu Tingzhou can be regarded as one of the few capable officials in the Dai Viet Dynasty who can be loyal and dedicated to his duties, but it is a pity that he always opposes Huaidong.

"There may be three to five thousand pieces," Qin Chengzu said.

"Then we'll agree on five thousand pieces, and I'll send someone to Shanyang to ask for it from Mr. Li," Liu Tingzhou said.

Li Wei had just received a transfer order from Shanyang County Magistrate and did not know the details of the Shanyang County Iron Works. Furthermore, the Shanyang County Iron Works was also under the direct control of Cao Zi'ang - Liu Tingzhou said this, but Li Wei just kept a cold face and remained silent.

Qin Chengzu didn't expect Liu Tingzhou to be so troublesome, so he could only smile helplessly and said: "I'm afraid it won't work if you give farm tools directly. If Shanyang is insufficient, Chongzhou may be able to squeeze out 50,000 kilograms of raw iron materials. Mr. Liu

Just send someone back to Chongzhou to negotiate..."

For farming, the heaviest iron tool is. Using a sickle to cut rice and wheat, and wearing the stars and the moon, a family can harvest four or five acres of land day and night. If you use a stone sickle to do it by hand, it will take at least two or three times. When it comes to reclamation, in addition to preventing miasma,

, in addition to being acclimated to the soil, they also rely heavily on iron sickles. There are thick bushes and tangled roots. There are no sharp saws and only stone sickles and wooden knives are used. How easy is it to open up wasteland for cultivation?

There are many desolate beaches, desert islands, desolate mountains and desolate forests in the south. Places such as Jianghuai, Huhan, Huxiang and Jiangxi were only fully developed in the previous dynasty. The development of Eastern Fujian was even more backward. It was only after the eight-surname family of the previous dynasty entered Fujian.

have been relatively fully developed.

South of the Five Ridges, Guangnan's geographical scope is almost twice that of Jiangdong County, but it is extremely underdeveloped. The indigenous people roam the mountains and fields and often rebel. At this time, the number of registered households in Guangnan County is only 212,000.

, even far less than Pingjiang or Jiangning Prefecture, and only comparable to Mingzhou Prefecture before the war.

Guangnan is too far away, and the place is self-contained, with the tendency of separatism. Even if there is no intention of breaking up the soil and becoming king, it is temporarily out of Jiang Ning's control, and secretly has a happy relationship with the She family.

Huaidong was beyond the reach of Guangnan, but after Huaidong landed in eastern Zhejiang, he firmly controlled Mingzhou Prefecture, Changguo, and Daishan Islands, and suppressed the She family's Jin'an and the eastern Zhejiang Navy.

Lu Jiangheli did not dare to go to sea and had actually achieved absolute control over the East China Sea.

Huaidong's next intention was to seize Yizhou Island.

Yizhou, later known as Taiwan, covers a vast area of ​​thousands of miles, and its area is only much larger than Huaidong.

Yizhou has been a county for more than 200 years, but apart from the uncivilized indigenous people, there are only more than 4,000 registered Dingkou households, which is only one of the middle counties of the Yue Dynasty, not even large counties such as Chongzhou, Hailing, and Haiyu.

Dingkou’s Eleven.

The sea ships of Jinghaihai camp set out from Mingzhou Prefecture to attack the Jin'an coast. It was a long way and it took at least five or six days to go back and forth. On a clear day, standing on the northwest corner of Yizhou Island, you can see as far as the eye can see.

You can even see the mountains and islands along the coast of East Fujian. By occupying Yizhou Island and using Yizhou as a base, you can form a pincer attack on the coast of East Fujian. The harassing ships can travel back and forth day and night, and it is more advantageous to capture fighter planes.

In addition, with Yizhou Island as a base, Huaidong's maritime trade can be extended to Southeast Asia.

After Yizhou was established as a county, it came under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou Prefecture. At this time, it was considered an area controlled by the Song family. Regardless of the Song family's attitude, Yizhou was bound to be acquired by Huaidong in the near future. As long as the Jinghai Second Water Camp was completed,

It will cover the Chongcheng infantry camp to attack Yizhou.

Of course, after the capture of Yizhou, there are still big differences within Huaidong on how to manage Yizhou. In addition to serving as a water camp base and a springboard for maritime trade to connect Nanyang, whether to immediately relocate people on a large scale to manage Yizhou.

Unlike the Changguo Islands, which have been abandoned in recent years, they are relatively simple to cultivate and there are not so many miasma lands. Most of the areas on Yizhou Island are completely barbaric miasma lands. How difficult is it to cultivate them?

, it is far away from Hecheng Grassland and Xisha Island, so the cost of development is naturally extremely high.

However, with the surge in Huaidong's iron smelting capacity, it is not impossible to move people to Yizhou on a large scale to reclaim wasteland.

Huaidong's ability to resettle refugees is mainly directly reflected in two things, one is rice grain, and the other is iron smelting. In the end, Huaidong can control Dingkou, rice grain, and iron smelting, which directly reflects Huaidong's ability to resettle refugees.

military potential.

With the establishment of Huaidong Bank, it was possible to borrow money on a large scale and develop iron smelting factories in a great leap forward. Lin Fu's production increase plan for Chongzhou and Shanyang this year requires that the output of rough iron should reach 5 million jins, and the precision

The iron output should reach two million jins.

Compared with Huaidong's rough iron production this year, the supply of 50,000 jins of raw iron to Liu Tingzhou only accounts for one hundred and one hundred percent. However, in Liu Tingzhou's view, 50,000 jins of iron is not simple.

If we exclude Shanyang County and collect all the counties in Huai'an Prefecture, we may only be able to find 20,000 to 30,000 kilograms of stored iron.

Li Liang listened with envy at the side, thinking how good it would be for the Red Coat Army to have fifty or sixty thousand kilograms of iron? He was just thinking about it in his mind. After all, he had not officially accepted the imperial court's recruitment. Besides, accepting the imperial court's recruitment, the imperial court and

How could Huaidong not be on guard against the Red Coat Army, and how could it possibly supply tens of thousands of kilograms of iron materials at every turn?

In the northwest of Suyu, the Red Coat Army built a trestle bridge at the narrow part of the Bian River, allowing them to cross the river into Huaiyang. Malantou had already led his troops to wait on the west bank of the Bian River, which was considered a very respectful attitude.

Although the Red Coat Girls are headed by Liu Miaozhen, they are still women and have many inconveniences. Malantou actually presides over more military and political affairs. Malantou's influence and status in the Red Coat Army are actually not lower than Liu Miaozhen.

When Liu Tingzhou entered Huaiyang three times before, Malantou was polite and greeted him at the city gate. Today he went to the Bianshui River to greet him. It was obviously for Qin Chengzu.

Liu Tingzhou secretly sighed in his heart. Although he had no conclusive evidence about Huaidong secretly delivering rice and grain to the Red Coat Army, he knew the general situation. At the moment, he only hoped that the generals of the Red Coat Army would change their ways and return to power and serve the imperial court.

Don't let Huaidong win over completely.

Refugees were mainly evacuated to the area east of Bianshui River. After nearly half a year of recovery, Huaiyang City has regained some of its vitality. The city has also been repaired, but it is all built of rammed earth, shining white in the sun.

These flashes of light make the city look better in the sun. In fact, when the earth was taken to build the city, the shells, fine stones and other objects in the soil were not screened out. Even if all the incomplete sections of Huaiyang City were repaired with tamped earth, the actual solidity

It's a bit worse than the regular version of the fortification pool.

When the Donghu people attacked Jizhou, they had already used stone-throwing crossbows on a large scale to attack the city. At this time, Huaiyang City seemed somewhat fragile in the face of large-scale stone throwing crossbows.

At noon, Malantou came forward to entertain us and have a lunch.

The formal and overt recruitment was naturally led by Liu Tingzhou and Li Wei. Qin Chengzu and Sun Zhuang came on behalf of the Huaidong Army Division and did not directly participate in the overt recruitment negotiations. They would go back after the luncheon.

Rest in the post house.

Qin Chengzu only said that he was too tired from the continuous journey and wanted to take a rest in the post house. He also asked Sun Zhuang to take him to Li Liang to reminisce about the past.

Naturally, Huaiyang City cannot be compared with Chongzhou. Public selling of alcohol is strictly prohibited in the city, and there was no alcohol on the table during the luncheon...

After finding a dilapidated restaurant, Li Liang went straight into the backyard, opened the pot and rummaged through the cupboards, and took over the only large piece of deer meat in the restaurant. He dropped a piece of silver and sat next to Sun Zhuang.

He sat down at the table by the window, took off the lacquer gourd from his waist, shook it, there was a sound of water, and said: "The wine brewed from wild fruits is the craft you taught me, Sun Shuai - for this matter,

I was almost beheaded by Ma Shuai. The food in Huaisi was too precious. It was useless to use the food to brew it privately. Fortunately, the explanation was clear, and I was so scared that I didn’t dare to drink anymore. I still asked Ma for permission today.

He's so handsome, so I only use it to please Mr. Gang."

There was a pile of bowls stacked on the corner of the table. Sun Zhuang took one and put it in front of him. He poured half a bowl of wine, took a sip and tasted it. He said, "It's too sour. You can't learn this skill first."

!”

"..." Li Liang greedily poured himself half a bowl of wine and drank it in small sips. The fruit wine was not strong, leaving only half a gourd of wine. He drank it with great enthusiasm and asked Sun Zhuang, "If the deal is settled this time,

Now, will Mr. Gan come back?"

"Ma Lantou asked you to ask?" Sun Zhuang asked.

"Ma Shuai didn't say anything, I asked myself."

"Shit, you stick your butt out and poop, am I not clear? No matter who asks, it's the same," Sun Zhuang sighed and said, "I won't come back!"

"..." Li Liang said anxiously, "Below Tiannu, there are two cavalry captains, one is the horse commander, and the other one is left for you - this can be obtained from the third-grade military attache, Huaidong can't give it to you. Let's talk about it.

After that, when you are in Huaidong and Huaiyang, is it still the same? If Donglu invades, Huaidong will still count on you to fight with us - as long as you promise to come back, Huaidong will not tie you up.

Let it go?"

The conditions Jiang Ning can provide are almost negotiable.

The authority of the Zhizhi envoy was very great. He had jurisdiction over a local military and political affairs and was also in charge of local military equipment. The local Fujun, County, Bing, Xiangyong and Yongdu were within the scope of his jurisdiction. Jiangning was only willing to set up a military town in Huaiyang to recruit the Red Coat Army, and Liu Miaozhen

, Malantou and others were also awarded the title of senior generals such as the Captain of the Cavalry Captain and the Captain of the Cavalry to lead Huaiyang Town.

"Huaidong doesn't owe me anything. The rest is what I owe Huaidong and you. If you don't pay it back, how can we leave?" Sun Zhuang said with emotion, "Tell Malantou and don't mention this matter again."

Already."

Li Liang smacked his lips and didn't know what to say for a moment. If only Sun Zhuang had given up the cities of Suining and Suyu at the critical moment, the Red Coat Army would not have been able to escape the fate of destruction.

Before that, Sun Zhuang had more than ten thousand troops and was the guard general of the two cities. After that, he was demoted to Huaidong as a soldier. This time, Sun Zhuang commanded the army to accompany him and resumed his status as a military attache, but he was far from being able to do so.
To be continued...