As the saying goes, July is a sign of a year when the temperature turns from hot to cool. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Three days after the Battle of Tongzhou, the situation about the Battle of Tongzhou reached Qingzhou, and during this time, the converter steelmaking production line was also under steady construction.

"Your Royal Highness, this time you took Tongzhou by surprise, and the King of Wei will inevitably attack after reacting, at this time, let Yue Yun lead a part of the warships to the river near Jinling City to cruise to make the King of Wei jealous, and at the same time, let Lu Fei send cavalry to Huaizhou to feign an attack to contain the forces of the King of Wei."

According to the current military system, the Tongzhou battle report was first sent to Niu Ben, and Niu Ben, who got the battle report, discussed the matter with Xiao Ming as soon as possible.

Hearing this, Xiao Ming nodded.

The location of this Tongzhou is the modern Nantong, which is a place facing the sea in the east and the river in the south, and the Yangtze River in the south of Tongzhou is the Jinling City where the palace of King Wei is located in the west.

This time, he took Tongzhou in retaliation for the king of Wei's seizure of his merchant ships, and the other to smash a nail in the hinterland of Wei, which would always make the king of Wei feel pain.

At the same time, a thorough grasp of Tongzhou is equivalent to having a stable coastal supply point, and this maritime trade can be regarded as a transit point.

"In terms of defending the city, who can compare to the soldiers of this king, this time this king asked Yue Yun to bring five hundred city defense cannons, these city defense cannons are all regular artillery, but they are not export artillery sold to the King of Wei, even if he wants to use the Dengzhou army's method of breaking the city, I am afraid he can't do it."

"Yes, our artillery hasn't killed his artillery in the first place!" Niu Ben said with a smile, and now he finally understood why Xiao Ming deliberately made a batch of export-oriented artillery in the first place.

It turned out that he had thought about the situation today.

Handing over the battle report sent by Ye Qingyun to Niu Ben, Xiao Ming said: "In this case, according to what the governor said, you can now order the southern expeditionary army to feint to attack Huaizhou." ”

"Yes, Your Highness." Niu Ben answered yes and turned to leave.

Seeing Niu Ben leave, Xiao Ming looked at the map of the Great Yu Kingdom hanging in the main hall, and at this time, the fief of the King of Wei was marked by him.

There are a total of thirteen states in Wei, of which Pengzhou belongs to the large state in the north, and now he controls Pengzhou, which is equivalent to controlling one-tenth of the northern territory of Wei.

Now he has occupied Tongzhou again, and now only eleven of the thirteen states remain, and as for this Huaizhou, it is the contemporary Huai'an generation, which is closely adjacent to Pengzhou, which is where he is preparing to attack next.

However, it seems that in view of the defeat in the Battle of Pengzhou, the King of Wei not only increased his troops in Huaizhou this time, but also transported fifty artillery pieces to erect on the Huaizhou city wall.

Regarding the reaction made by this King of Wei, Xiao Ming handled it calmly, after all, no matter how many artillery pieces King Wei took out, it was not a threat to him.

It can even be said that Xiao Ming is not afraid of any army in Dayu, his army can compete with a top army like the barbarians, how can he be afraid of these barbarian army.

His only concern was that these forces would unite to attack him, and he would be able to fight alone, after all, his firearms unit had been established for almost two years.

Neither the thinking of the soldiers nor the regularization of the army can be compared with these armies that are still stuck in the era of cold weapons and have loose organization and discipline.

On the map, Pengzhou has been drawn by him with an X, and now he has drawn an X on Tongzhou, these two X's are one in the south and one in the north, like a huge mouth ready to devour the fief of the King of Wei.

was thinking about the next strategy for Wei Di, when Pang Yukun arrived at the main hall after the briefing.

"Your Royal Highness, the materials sent by the old Feige from Pengzhou have arrived, grain, cloth, salt, tea, raw silk, porcelain, although the wealthy family of Pengzhou has taken away a lot of gold and silver, but most of the property has been left, in addition to these things, there are tens of thousands of cultivated cattle, Feige Lao asked the old minister to ask His Highness on his behalf, whether these cultivated cattle are left in Pengzhou City or sent to the territory of the feudal country." Pang Yukun said in one breath.

"Naturally, it is left to the people of Pengzhou, isn't Pengzhou now the feudal land of this king?" Xiao Ming asked rhetorically.

Pang Yukun didn't react for a while, and then he suddenly woke up, and he smiled bitterly: "The old minister is confused, His Royal Highness is now going to merge Pengzhou into the feudal state, how can he favor one over the other now?" ”

Xiao Ming nodded, "That's the reason, if you reply to Fei Ge Lao, you will say that all the affairs of Pengzhou will be handled in accordance with the feudal state and county, and you should let the people of Pengzhou integrate into the feudal state as soon as possible." ”

"Yes, Your Highness." Pang Yukun said.

After a pause, Pang Yukun said again: "Your Highness, now that the three-year period has passed, it stands to reason that it is time to levy agricultural taxes." ”

"At the beginning, the king promised the people of the fiefdom to exempt the people from paying taxes for three years, and you said that the time limit has indeed arrived, but what is the harvest this year?"

"Compared with last year's drought, this year's grain can be regarded as a bumper harvest, and this year's large-scale trial planting of potatoes in the prefectures and counties near Qingzhou is also a rich harvest, and the people are not worried about eating and drinking." Pang Yukun said with a smile.

In his opinion, the current feudal country is really thriving, the people have no worries about food and clothing, live and work in peace and contentment, and even have spare money to buy various goods.

Nowadays, the soap, salt, sugar and other materials sold by the Chamber of Commerce are the most sold in the territory of the feudal country, which shows that there is still some surplus money in the hands of the people of the feudal country.

"Then the levy will begin."

Xiao Ming said in a deep voice, now he can't think of being poor and generous, now the army is costing a lot of money in the east and west, and the bullets and shells that are being shot out are all silver, not to mention the warships and artillery and muskets that are constantly being built.

During this period, the innovation of military equipment was fast, but this was achieved under the premise that Xiao Ming increased the proportion of military spending.

And most importantly, after the Chang'an Rebellion, prices skyrocketed, and the prices of all kinds of materials doubled, which also led to huge military support becoming a financial burden for the fiefdom.

What's more, with the refinement of government affairs, the government expenditure has also increased, and at the same time, there are all over the country, in order to popularize education, he has now been losing money and making money.

All this forced him to levy agricultural taxes, after all, in this kind of social system where farming is the main body, agricultural taxes are still the bulk of taxes.

However, although it is necessary to levy agricultural taxes, it is not necessary to use too much force.

The result of his negotiation with Pang Yukun was to take only one-tenth of each acre of land, which was enough to ensure that the lives of the people would not be affected.

"Yes, Your Highness, since this is the case, the lower official will post a notice, and by the way, let the Qingzhou Newspaper publish this matter in the newspaper." Pang Yukun said with a deep groan.

Xiao Ming nodded, "Also, this tax must be made clear, and the state governments are not allowed to set up false names to collect taxes indiscriminately, otherwise don't blame the king for using the knife when the time comes." ”