The day after Lin Jian and Liu Miaozhen's wedding, Yuan Guizheng and Yuan Jinsheng's father and son said goodbye and left Xuzhou to meet Dong Yuan.

Chen Xiaoyan has been with Gao Zongting for eight or nine years, and he has long grown from a young man to a shrewd and capable young man, and Gao Zongting naturally hopes that he can have a bright future in Huaidong.

As long as Yuan Guizheng negotiated the transit with Huaixi, the materials such as rice grain, iron materials, mules and horses, armor and ordnance could be loaded and transported to Xinyang at the fastest speed, and the Nanyang army would receive them.

Crossing the Huai River from Sizhou, rushed to Shouzhou non-stop.

Dong Yuan will be in Shouzhou for two months, the scale of Tuntian is not large, but it is more dilapidated than before, after all, it looks better. Yuan Guizheng came out of Xuzhou, and also understood Huaidong's thoughts - Huaidong was going to use troops against eastern Fujian on the southern front after the autumn, hoping that the defense lines of Huaixi and Nanyang could stabilize as soon as possible, so at this time, while vigorously supporting Nanyang, Huaixi would not be restrained for the time being.

But obviously, if Dong Yuan wants to run Huaixi into a scene like Huaidong, three or two years is far from enough.

The displaced people must be appeased and given relief, ditches must be dug, roads must be built, bridges must be repaired, ferries and ferries must be set up in large streams and rivers, post stations must be built, and officials and officials must be recruited and supported.

Yuan returned to politics, and Dong Yuan had just returned from Xinyang.

Dong Yuan rushed back from Xinyang, in addition to seeing Yuan returning to power, Gongsun Yi and others broke away from Jiangzhou and rushed to Shouzhou to take refuge.

Gongsun Yi, these old men, were Dong Yuan's loyal cronies when he was in Eastern Fujian. When Dong Yuan went to Weiyang to form the township soldiers, he recruited them to govern the army, which made the Weiyang Army and the Dongyang Army at that time bright for a while, resisting the invasion and infiltration of the Huaisi Liumin Army into Weiyang.

Later, Dong Yuan led the Weiyang Army to the south to fight against the Zhejiang-Fujian rebels, and Gongsun Yi and other generals became the backbone of the Northern Zhejiang Army and made great achievements for Dong Yuan.

Dong Yuan left Hangzhou, and although Gongsun Yi and others did not leave the Hanghu Army, most of them moved their families to Jiangning with Dong Yuan to resettle in order to show their followers.

Now Dong Yuan's descendants who stayed in northern Zhejiang were transferred to Jiangzhou, and they were under the jurisdiction of Yue Lengqiu, Dong Yuan also knew that Yue Lengqiu was the master who ate meat and did not spit out bones, so he didn't think that he could get the descendants back from his lineage, but he wanted to summon Zhaogong Sun Yi and other henchmen and generals to his side, and then re-establish a new army in Shouzhou.

Dozens of generals such as Gongsun Yi, plus their own soldiers, about seven or eight hundred people rushed to Shouzhou to join Dong Yuan, which finally made Dong Yuan a little more confident.

Yuan Guizheng, who also rushed to Shouzhou, realized that Dong Yuan could be a feudal official and give support to the Wu Party to compete and win against Huaidong, and he also had a deep foundation.

Yue Lengqiu was also anxious to digest this part of the soldiers and horses transferred from the Hanghu Army, and Gongsun Yi and the others were not co-opted, so naturally they would not stop them from leaving, and he also wanted to requisition some military attaches from the Changhuai Army and the Huinan Army to enter Jiangzhou to strengthen the power of the descendants in Jiangzhou.

Tao Chun, as the chief general of the Changhuai Army, his every move was concerned by the imperial court, and Jiangzhou did not have a suitable position for him, so it was naturally impossible for him to give up his soldiers and horses to go to Jiangzhou to join Yue Lengqiu, but at the same time, he could not prevent Yue Lengqiu from recruiting some grassroots and middle-level generals from the Changhuai Army to Jiangzhou.

On the one hand, the Changhuai Army was reducing the old and weak, although it became more elite, but the number of troops was reduced, but the position of the general was reduced by nearly one-third, and even if there were military merits, promotion became difficult.

After these generals arrived in Jiangzhou, most of them were promoted by Yue Lengqiu, and maybe another Tao Chun might come out. Yue Lengqiu's rule of the army over the years has not been in vain, and the impact on the generals of the Changhuai Army is naturally not negligible, and it is also something that Tao Chun cannot contain.

Now Dong Yuan and Yue Lengqiu have exchanged military attachés, and they have a tacit understanding.

In addition to Yue Lengqiu, Dong Yuan was also anxious to divide the Changhuai army, and even won over the generals of the Changhuai army through the king of Chu. Today a person will be transferred to the south bank to serve as a county lieutenant, and tomorrow a person will be transferred to the south bank to serve as a city school. There are many bandits in Shouzhou, Haozhou, Xinyang and other places on the south bank, and the prefecture and county need quite a lot of garrison military attachés, and Tao Chun can't stop his centrifugal generals from being promoted, so he is really depressed.

It will be nearly a year since he left Hangzhou, and after the withdrawal of the Changhuai army, the situation in Huaixi has gradually improved, but the more this is the case, the more Dong Yuan can feel the gap with Huaidong.

When Yuan Guizheng came to talk about the transit of the Huaidong grain ship this time, Dong Yuan was naturally inconvenient to make any stumbling blocks, and Liu Tingzhou heard that Huaidong was going to organize 400,000 stone rice grain to be transported to Xinyang in batches before the autumn, and then transferred from Xinyang to Nanyang, and his eyes were so greedy that he drooled.

The money and grain that Jiangning has allocated to Huaixi now, after deducting the money that should be paid to Nanyang, there is only 1.8 million taels of silver left, including 600,000 stone of grain.

According to the rules, the military rations were allocated by the military commanders, and after deducting the transportation consumption, there was only 500,000 stone left.

Liu Tingzhou is well versed in the unspoken rules of the imperial court's household branches, and only 600,000 stone of military rations has been given more than 100,000 stones, which is already because Chen Xiyan and others personally supervised it to show their support, and cannot hope for better results for the time being.

500,000 stone grains are enough for 100,000 soldiers and horses to wrap their stomachs, and the key is to run Huaixi, and the place where rice and grain are used is far more than just raising an army.

If the local rice price cannot be stabilized, and if the government wants to recruit displaced people to build roads and cities, and to reclaim wasteland and grow crops, it can only use rice grain to calculate wages, and without rice grain, nothing can be done.

Dong Yuan first wanted to restore the township soldiers in Xinyang headed by Meng Shi Meng Yi and Meng Zhishen as the Xinyang government army, and in addition to the local self-raising, he also promised to supply 4,000 stone of grain every month.

Liu Tingzhou knew that Xinyang's foundation should be stabilized, and he would have to attract local forces to contribute to the suppression of bandits, and the monthly supply of 4,000 stone grain was not too much, so how to make up for this gap?

The price of Weiyang grain has risen to one or two or five yuan, and it has arrived in Shouzhou for one or two or eight yuan, and it has arrived in Xinyang and two yuan for the freight rate.

The first 500,000 taels of silver Dong Yuan received from the Weiyang salt merchants was only enough to transport 250,000 stone rice grain to Xinyang.

In addition to food, there was also a severe shortage of iron, mules and horses.

In addition to armor, the demand for iron in the casting of agricultural tools is greater.

The land that can be used for tuntian in Huaixi has been abandoned for several years, and the shrubs are overgrown, the soil is compacted, and the ditches are deserted.

Nowadays, Jiangning's gross iron material is equivalent to copper, and the price of refined iron is four times that of copper.

Now there are 60,000 people in Shouzhou, and in terms of 20 catties of iron per capita, 1.2 million catties of wool iron are needed to really carry out the matter of Tuntian. 1.2 million catties of gross iron material is worth almost 200,000 taels of silver, and more importantly, the iron-smelting workshops in Weiyang, Jiangning and other places can't squeeze out so much iron at all.

Huaixi really wants to take out a large amount of silver to buy iron in Jiangning, which will only lead to a further surge in iron prices.

The materials supplied by Huaidong to Nanyang pass through Huaixi, and the bill of materials naturally has to be filed with Huaixi.

Seeing that the list listed that Nanyang could get 200,000 catties of fine iron needed to cast armor from Huaidong, Liu Tingzhou licked his lips and asked Chen Xiaoyan, who came to Shouzhou to assist on behalf of Huaidong: "Huaixi is also short of refined iron, can Huaidong support part of it?" ”

"Nanyang is in a hurry, Huaidong is also tightening his belt to supply, Lord Liu invited, Xiaoyan really didn't dare to recklessly agree on behalf of Huaidong......" Chen Xiaoyan replied.

Liu Tingzhou was so angry that he was about to vomit blood, in those years in Huaidong, he had already known that Huaidong had been so extravagant that a large number of iron components were used in the construction of wooden bridges in the countryside. In the past two years, Huaidong has moved the iron-smelting factory to Shanyang on a large scale, so as to use Huaiyang's coal and iron nearby and alleviate the shipping congestion of the Beiguan River.

After the Red Jacket Army marched eastward, Huaidong transported as much as two or three million catties of iron to the Huaisi area every year, and today it supplies 200,000 catties of refined iron and 600,000 catties of woolen iron to Nanyang.

In the final analysis, if Huaidong does not control Huaixi, even if he takes into account the overall situation, how can he support Dong Yuan to gain a foothold in Huaixi?

Dong Yuan's face was gloomy, and he couldn't refuse the Huaidong grain ship to borrow from Huaixi, so he only said: "Master Hou came from afar, let's rest in the post house today, and talk about some details tomorrow; If the townsfolk want to hold Nanyang, the stakes are very high, and Huaixi will only support it......"

Yuan Guizheng, Yuan Jinsheng, and Chen Xiaoyan said goodbye and left first, and went to rest in the post house, leaving only Liu Tingzhou, Ding Zhiru, Chen Jingrong and other Huaixi officials in the public hall.

"Now that Yanyu's sentinel can penetrate into the bank of the Huai River, and the Huaidong boat crosses the Huai River to Xinyang, we have to send troops to escort it, can we levy some fees?" Ding Zhiru said.

It is natural for ordinary merchant ships to cross the border and levy taxes, but the materials transported to Nanyang by Huaidong through Huaixi are urgently needed by the military, and Ding Zhiru does not have the face to say that he wants to collect taxes, but the geese have plucked their feathers, and such a large amount of materials have crossed the border, and he does not scrape a layer of oil to buffer Huaixi's urgent needs, how can he be willing?

Dong Yuan's face was gloomy and silent.

Scrape a layer of oil, scrape the oil of Nanyang. Huaidong is so generous this time, there is a sense of pulling Nanyang Liang Chengchong, Huaixi has to scrape a layer of oil, and the relationship between Huaixi and Nanyang will be more rigid, which is probably what Huaidong wants to see.

Chen Jingrong looked at Liu Tingzhou and asked, "How much does Lord Liu think it is appropriate to levy from Nanyang?" ”

The materials that Huaidong wants to transport to Nanyang this time are very huge, even if it is only scraped down, it can make Huaixi's current material shortage breathe a sigh of relief. Of course, there are also bad influences, so we have to weigh the pros and cons, and then let Liu Tingzhou, the military commander, come forward and share the bad impact.

Yan plucked his feathers and offended Nanyang, Dong Yuan couldn't escape the relationship, and Liu Tingzhou didn't think about getting rid of the relationship, gritted his teeth and said: "Pingjiang's raw silk goes to sea to Haidong, and Huaidong will collect sixty percent of the tax; The Huai River is really not peaceful, so I have to leave two percent of the goods to cover the escort to be enough......"

Dong Yuan nodded and said, "Then Lord Liu and Zhiru will be responsible for this matter, and talk to Yuan Guizheng ......" He was also afraid that tomorrow Yuan Guizheng would splash tea on his face in a hurry, causing the scene to be too ugly.