Feng Liao originally waited for Feng Yi to see Han Qian before he came back to see Huang Hua. Unexpectedly, Huang Hua proposed to go to Dragon Tooth City first, which was quite unprepared.

Xuzhou had no overt rebellious intentions, so it could not prevent Huang Hua, who was his immediate superior, the Xuan Comfort Envoy, from freely coming and going in Xuzhou.

Feng Liao was not good at walking, and he had falsely claimed to have a leg injury before. He found a doctor overnight and put a plaster on him. Then he took a shoulder carriage early the next morning, together with the prefecture Sima Gao Shao and Feng Yi who came back overnight, along with ten retinues.

Accompanying the Xuan comfort envoys Huang Huaying, An Jixiang, Yang Shouyi and others rushed to Longya City.

Longya City is only about forty miles away from Chenzhong City, but it has to climb three mountain ridges. Fortunately, after two years of renovation, the ancient Longya Mountain Post Road has been doubled in width based on the five-foot old road in the early years, which is also very convenient.

In order to facilitate the passage of horse-drawn carriages, the newly built post road dug out the steps that had become slippery in the early years, and used coal ballast and coarse sand excavated from streams and rivers to pave the winding mountain slope. The distance is all the way longer than the old road.

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The current two-wheeled carriages are not suitable for climbing up and downhill. Although Feng Liao and the others encountered many carriages passing by along the way, the goods they carried were quite limited, which was slightly better than using oxen, horses or human-powered camels.

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Within Xuzhou, larger-scale material transportation mainly relies on water transportation.

Feng Liao knew that Han Qian had long asked the Engineering School to develop a new type of carriage that was more suitable for climbing slopes. However, most things in the world cannot be accomplished overnight, and many things are being done, but there has been no progress yet.

Of course, it cannot be said that progress is slow.

Even if we count it since Han Daoxun became an official in Xuzhou, how many years have passed? And it has only been two years since Han Qian took full control of Xuzhou's military and political affairs.

What Huang Hua and Zhou Qinian saw in Chenzhong City at this time was definitely not as beautiful as the Jiangnan water town or the splendor and wealth of big cities like Jinling and Yangzhou.

No matter how reasonable the planning and construction of Chenzhong County is, the newly paved streets are planted with small saplings that have not yet grown up. The whole city looks bare and there is not much greenery. It is far less green than the surrounding hills, even in winter.

In season, it is still green.

The whole city was paved with coal ballast, and there was not a single stone pavement. When Huang Hua entered Chenzhong City, accompanied by Xiying, the governor of Chenzhou, it didn't rain for several days. When the strong wind blew, the city was filled with swells.

The sky is filled with black and gray.

The faces and bodies of the residents in the city are also covered in gray, and their clothes are rough and drab in color.

The buildings in the city are also mainly in a rough style, with few decorations such as carved railings and painted buildings.

To be serious, Chenzhong at this time is far inferior to Chenyang City, which has hundreds of years of foundation.

However, Huang Hua and Zhou Qinian are not ordinary people with ordinary eyesight after all. They can see the strong and vigorous vitality of Xuzhou from this roughness and even roughness.

What's more, Chenzhong City has been under large-scale construction based on Jiming Village for less than a year.

At this time, the autumn harvest has just passed. The Longya Mountain Post Road is the main road connecting Linjiang County and Chenzhong County. You can see many newly built roads along the way, branching off from the main post road and connecting to the valleys on both sides.

In these valleys and mountains, there were originally only a few households struggling to survive, but now new villages have formed. On the mountain ridges in the distance, many people are leading cattle to cultivate new terraces.

Others may not be able to see anything, but Huang Hua and Zhou Qinian can judge from the distribution of villages along the road that the density of Xuzhou's population has long exceeded the 80,000 population counted at the end of the previous dynasty;

The size of wheat straw and the ears of grain left in the fields can also be used to judge the level of farming in Xuzhou, which is no worse than that near Jinling, the imperial capital.

In addition to Xiying, who knew the situation better, Huang Hua also called Gao Shao, Feng Liao, Feng Yi and others from time to time to ask about some things.

Only then did Zhou Qinian understand more clearly that Han Qian had set up a township inspection department in Xuzhou, which enabled the resettlement of the population in Xuzhou, the reclamation of new fields, the construction of water conservancy and roads, and the promotion of intercropping and intercropping farming techniques.

Able to move forward quickly and effectively.

Although since the Qin and Han dynasties, there has been a tradition of having rural officials assist prefectures and counties in managing bandits, taxation and other matters, usually only two or three people are employed, and they do not even pay salaries, but the inspections of townships in Xuzhou are much higher than

Traditional village officials are much more complete.

In addition to regular tasks such as arresting bandits and collecting taxes, there are also medical officials, academic officials, agricultural officials, engineers, etc. under the township inspection department, who are in charge of various affairs. It can be said to be a complete small prefecture and county government office.

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The advantage of doing this is that many things can be implemented more thoroughly, but the biggest disadvantage is that the organization is bloated and money and food are lost.

Almost more than half of the land tax that Xuzhou could collect at this time was spent at the level of the township inspection department.

To increase the number of six or seven rural officials and miscellaneous workers, the salary may only need to be increased by more than a hundred yuan. However, the township must set up junior schools, rural medical clinics, agricultural and industrial training centers, road administration, post offices, agricultural reclamation, and autumn training. Because of the abolition

Because of the corvée, a large sum of money had to be paid for every job done.

At present, in addition to the huge expenditure on public service money at the township level, each township cannot afford to spend 700 to 800 yuan a year. The same reason is also true at the county level. The seven counties combined spend almost 50,000 to 60,000 yuan a year.

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Just these two pieces of money have almost used up all the land taxes that can be collected by the seven counties, leaving no money left to pay.

The maintenance of military equipment and food and salary for state government branches and state camps mainly come from income from over-taxes, city parking taxes, industrial and mining taxes, and large-scale sales of warships, armor and weapons to foreign countries.

From this we can also see how dependent Xuzhou is on the outside world.

With Han Qian's instruction, Feng Liao did not conceal this from Huang Hua. On the one hand, Huang Hua and others could learn about these situations from Xi Ying and others, and more importantly, it showed that Xuzhou, which was attached to Dachu at this time, had actually passed.

It was quite difficult, and I had no right to have any dissent.

Once the channel of communication with the outside world is cut off, the overtax and city parking taxes will be greatly reduced; at the same time, because bulk goods cannot be dumped, industrial and mining taxes will also be sharply reduced, and the income from warships and ordnance will be direct.

For nothing.

"Many of the new policies were formulated when the boss was still alive. We advised you to make some cuts or to live within your means, but you are very insistent."

Feng Liao hinted that everything Xuzhou is doing now is because Han Qian wants to inherit his father Han Daoxun's last wish. In fact, Xuzhou is somewhat unsustainable internally. He said rather bitterly,

"After the situation in Jinling stabilized, tens of thousands of officials and slaves were recruited to build warships, armor and weapons, and they no longer relied on Xuzhou. It was previously thought that Sichuan salt could enter Xuzhou and Xuzhou materials could enter Sichuan via the Qianjiang River.

Shu can make up for some, but I didn’t expect that Sizhou would make two big mistakes again, and the plan in this regard came to nothing - now I don’t know how to make up for this shortfall next year..."

Huang Hua would not believe Feng Liao's words, but it was difficult for him to understand the more specific situation now, and he did not express any opinions along the way.

Zhou Qinian pondered Feng Liao's words all the way, but could not see any flaws.

Of course, Xiying and Sizhou Sima Yang Shouyi, who came here on behalf of the Yang family, did not look very good after leaving the city early in the morning.

Chai Jian refused to listen, and the state soldiers from the Tanlangyue prefectures could not be mobilized. Huang Hua ignored his status as a propaganda envoy and rushed to Longya City to see Han Qian. How could he ask Han Qian to give in too much?

Han Qian refused to give in, Huang Hua wanted to quell the civil unrest, and wanted the Shu army to withdraw from the Wuchuan Valley. Xiying and Yang Shouyi could figure out with their toes which family should sacrifice their interests in the end.

It's just the current situation, how can they be stubborn?

Although the Sizhou soldiers had dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the rebels in the past half month, killing and wounding nearly two thousand generals, their own casualties were lighter, but not by much.

War is never a simple arithmetic problem. It does not mean that 5,000 elite troops are reduced by 30% and there are still 3,500 men and horses available.

In fact, after the Sizhou soldiers suffered such heavy casualties, their morale was extremely low from top to bottom. The attack on the Panlongling villages was already somewhat unsustainable. The offensive in the past two days has been quite perfunctory.

It's over.

In other words, if they want to be stubborn and persist, they don't have many chips left in their hands.

…………

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Dragon Tooth City has not undergone any large-scale expansion.

Since the state government was moved to Chenzhong, Han Qian spent most of his time in Chenzhong on official duties, and the engineering school, state medical center, etc. were all moved to Chenzhong. Currently, Longya City is only a living area in addition to being used as a foundry.

The Township Inspection Department has settled in it, and now it can only be said to be a rather prosperous small town in the mountains.

Han Qian was still "ill" and only sent Xi Chang and Han Dong out of the city to meet Huang Hua and others.

After entering the room, Han Qian, who was already waiting in the hall, sat on the soft couch with a thin quilt covering his legs. His face was sallow, and he looked sick and cold. He looked really like

When he was "sick", it was not that he deliberately avoided seeing her, nor was he arrogant and did not even go out of the house to greet him.

"Your Majesty asked me to go to Hunan. He once said that everything is difficult to resolve and I need to consult the Marquis."

Since Huang Hua had come to Dragon Tooth City, he didn't care about mere etiquette. After exchanging greetings, he sat behind the chief's desk diagonally across from Han Qian. He slightly narrowed his eyes, stared at Han Qian's sallow face and asked,

"Considering the current situation in Sizhou, I wonder what the Marquis has to say?"

"Master Xi, General Yang are both very important figures in the southwestern part of our country. Due to the situation in Sizhou, it might be better for the Xuanwei Envoy to consult them."

Han Qian was very ill and looked very weak and said,

"I am still in Xiaozhong at this time. Although I am busy with state affairs and cannot sit in front of my father's tomb, I don't care much about affairs outside the state. Furthermore, Feng Liao should also have reported to the Xuanwei envoy that Xuzhou is here

The times were quite difficult, and I was unable to ask about matters outside the state..."

"Can the rebels be appeased?" Huang Hua ignored Han Qian's coyness and asked directly.

Hearing that Huang Hua directly stated his intention to appease the rebels without consulting them, Yang Shouyi and Xiying's eyes twitched, but in the end they did not stand up and say anything.

"Can you appease Mr. An and Mr. Fu have been in Sizhou these days. They know well that Han Qian is blinded by earplugs and really can't answer the questions of the Xuan comfort envoy - otherwise, in the eyes of some people, I, Han Qian,

Whatever Qian said and did, he always had ulterior motives!" Han Qian seemed to have made up his mind to stand aside and never answer Huang Hua's words.

"The Shu army is marching south. At this time, there are still troops and generals deployed. It doesn't seem like a bluff. If Sizhou loses, Xuzhou will also be threatened," Huang Hua continued. "It will be impossible for Xuzhou to stay out of trouble.

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Speaking of which, this was also the first time for Han Qian to see Huang Hua.

Huang Hua rose to prominence in the army in his early years and presided over local political affairs for a long time, so his reputation was not very prominent.

During the Jinling Incident, Huang Hua mainly united with local forces to defend Huzhou and wait and see the situation. However, after he really made a choice, he led the Huzhou troops to march north, recover Su Changrun, and attack Jinling City from the east. He was extremely decisive in using troops.

He can also take the lead.

As the commander-in-chief of the troops on the East Route, he suffered a knife wound and an arrow wound in Jinling City. For a long time after Emperor Yanyou came to the throne, he could only stay in the house to recuperate and did not take any serious responsibility. Until then,

He was ordered to go to Huzhou to serve as the propaganda envoy and take charge of military affairs.

Han Qian would never despise such a person.
To be continued...