Everything was as usual, and before the secret decree was announced, the news of the new establishment of the Northern Zhejiang Embassy Department spread first. Lin Jian hurried to King Ning's mansion with a little step, and the officials who arrived first were already talking in groups of three or five.

Those who were edicted to enter the government to discuss matters were mainly officials at or above the prefect level, and only the adjutant officials at or above the level of senators, politicians, and servants were eligible to attend the meeting, and the officials attending the six departments of Jiangning were either squires or scholars, and their official qualities were amazingly higher, and in addition, they were the official representatives of Jiangxi, Lianghu, Guangnan, and other counties.

More than 40 people were crowded together, and almost all the powerful figures or representatives of the southeastern counties of the Dayue Dynasty gathered here, and most of the faces of Lin Jian did not recognize them.

He doesn't know others, but others know him.

Among so many people present, there were only two people who had not reached the rank and were given the imperial gift to wear purple clothes.

In addition to Lin Bin, the other is Shi Zhang Xitong, the head of King Ning's Mansion, who is known as the little minister.

Lin Jian was prominent for his military exploits.

Zhang Xitong is known as the little minister, not because he is Zhang Xie's eldest son, but because all the edicts issued by Ning Wangfu must be signed by his deputy to take effect.

Now that King Ning is in Jiangning, he also leads the six departments of Jiangning to manage the political affairs of the southeastern counties, so he directly wears the hat of the minister of southeastern affairs. Although the chief of the palace is only the official of the fifth grade, Zhang Xitong's power as deputy is really amazing, and there is nothing wrong with saying that he is a little minister.

King Ning would not come out in a hurry, Yue Lengqiu, Cheng Yuqian, and Gu Wuchen were summoned to the inner house to discuss matters; Dong Yuan didn't appear, so he must have been inside. Lin Jian didn't know who was coming and who hadn't come yet. On the contrary, those officials of the Sixth Department of Jiangning, although they still held the titles of Shangshu and Shilang, waited in the hall together, and they couldn't see any complaints on their faces. Seeing Zhang Xitong coming out, they all gathered around and talked and laughed.

The weather was hot, but Lin Lian's heart was cold, and he also stood aside coldly, looking at Zhang Xitong who was surrounded by everyone; Looking at his proud appearance in the spring breeze, Chen Zhihu's transfer to the south probably has the merit of his Zhang family's "strategizing".

The impatient Emperor Chongguan couldn't wait to transfer Chen Zhihu to the south, so that the already precarious Yanbei defense line was on the verge of collapse, and it was difficult for Li Zhuo to support the building that was about to collapse.

The people sent to contact Li Zhuo did not return for a long time, and Lin Jian couldn't guess what Li Zhuo and Gao Zongting were thinking.

It is impossible for Li Zhuo and Gao Zongting not to see the crisis in front of them, but they have no choice. Zhang Xie and Hao Zongcheng almost grasped the government and politics, how much can Emperor Chongguan hear Li Zhuo's words of loyalty?

At this time, Zhang Yubo came from outside, and he was the first to see Lin Jian and walked towards this side.

"Why is it so late, and you think you won't be able to make it?" Lin Jian asked.

"The official boat leaked out of the Surabaya River before it left the bottom, so I still went to Shanyang to borrow a boat from Ziang. This delay is two days, hurry up and hurry, I only arrived at Chaotian last night, stayed overnight on the north shore, and left before dawn, and finally there was no mistake...... "Zhang Yubo panted slightly, it can be seen that he rushed into the city to Ning Wangfu, and he was also in a hurry.

"You don't even need a better official ship in Xuzhou?" Lin Jian saw that Zhang Yubo's official robe was patched, and he felt sorry for him.

Zhang Yubo was not sad, and said calmly: "In the first battle of Huaisi, Xuzhou suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties, and countless people who were displaced from the chaos returned to their hometowns one after another after last autumn. The bandits were like locusts, they had no grass, they were already poor, and they delayed the harvest for two seasons. The city of Xuzhou is almost destroyed, and it needs to be repaired, which place doesn't need money-I thought that the ship would last some time. By the way, you sent someone to open a furnace in Shanyang to make iron, can you give me more than 100 craftsmen? Xuzhou has coal and iron, and there must be craftsmen who can open the furnace to make iron, and if they can smelt iron, they can breathe a sigh of relief! ”

Lin Jian shook his head and said, "You know that I don't trust Chen Hansan; You can transport Xuzhou's coal and iron and stone to Shanyang, and I will let Shanyang buy it at the price, but I won't give it to you......"

Even the furnace built in Shanyang is only smelting pig iron and wrought iron, and the smelting of refined iron, especially the double-furnace smelting, is strictly controlled in Chongzhou. In order to maximize the steel (iron) production in Chongzhou in a short period of time, Lin Jian changed the six blast furnaces in Guanyintan into steel-making furnaces, and made steel-making by double-furnace agitation and sandwich pouring method.

the production of raw wrought iron raw materials, or to build a blast furnace in Shanyang County; Or from Danyang, Pingjiang and other places directly with the local iron-smelting workshops to purchase raw wrought iron as raw materials.

Over there in Xuzhou, it is a blast furnace for smelting wrought iron, and Lin Jian will also severely suppress it! Sun Zhuang was the same, Lin Jian would never allow a skilled blacksmith to cross from Huaidong to Huaibei.

Lin Jian didn't mind expressing this attitude in front of Zhang Yubo; Zhang Yubo could only laugh helplessly, and Lin Lian's attitude was straightforward enough: if Xuzhou wanted to improve its financial resources, it could only organize people to go into the mountains to dig coal and transport iron and stone to Shanyang to exchange for silver.

Lin Jian noticed that a middle-aged official who came with Zhang Yubo's face changed slightly when he heard his words, and asked Zhang Yubo, "Who is this?" ”

"Shi Mazhen, the director of the Xuzhou system, has seen my lord!" Ma Zhen reported himself viciously.

"Oh, Chen Hansan didn't have the courage to come over, you came here for him," Lin Jian smiled contemptuously and waved his hand, "You don't need to be polite, maybe he will be a slave of the fourth family one day, and we will have to meet each other!" ”

Ma Zhen hated it in his heart, but he didn't dare to confront it in front of him. When they came in, the armor was all searched, but Lin Jian tied the saber to his waist in a grand manner - this is the gap between identity and status.

Chen Hansan now has to be a man with his tail between his legs, and Ma Zhen doesn't dare to cause trouble for him. Ma Zhen and Zhang Yubo are not all the way, but they came from Xuzhou together, and they taught Lin Jian a lesson at this time, so they hid to the side.

Ma Zhen was also a strategist who followed Chen Hansan in his early years, with a goatee on his chin and a lake-blue official robe on his body, just like a rich landlord.

Although Lin Jian is not liked, others will not give him a look, but will perfunctory him. Ma Zhen came over, others knew his identity, and they didn't even give him a straight eye. It's not that Ma Zhen's official position is low, the key is that Chen Hansan rebelled again and again, and anyone who changes them will be ashamed to be with them.

Zhang Yubo would not fight for Ma Zhen, Ma Zhen left, but it was convenient for him to talk to Lin Zhen and asked, "What about my lord?" ”

The "adult" in Zhang Yubo's mouth refers to Gu Wuchen, indicating that Zhang Yubo still regards them as officials of the Gu family.

Lin Jian said: "I'm too late, Yang Pu is outside, presumably the adults have summoned him in first, Zhang Yan, Yue Lengqiu, Dong Yuan, Cheng Yuqian and others have not seen the figure......"

"Oh," Zhang Yubo said again, "When I came in, I heard that there was going to be an envoy from northern Zhejiang, is this serious?" ”

"It's a secret decree, but the news leaked yesterday," Lin Jian said, "I don't think there will be only one secret decree this time, and there will be more 'surprises' waiting for us in the future!" ”

When Zhang Yubo saw Lin Lian say the word "surprise", his face was cold, knowing that Lin Lian meant to be sarcastic, and asked in a suppressed voice: "You are not optimistic about the current situation?" ”

"......" Lin Jian shook his head, and retreated to the corner with Zhang Yubo to talk, "You see that this hall is rubbing hands one by one, waiting for the benefits of eating, but the Yanbei defense line has been stabbed, and today is a little more good, what is the benefit?" The messenger I sent to Jibei to find Li Bingbu has been gone for half a month, and there has been no reply to this day, and I really don't know what Li Bingbu thinks in his heart - maybe the choice that Li Bingbu has to make is difficult! ”

"What choice do you think Li Bingbu will make?" Zhang Yubo asked.

"Fight out of Linyu Pass!" Lin Jian said.

"Ahh Zhang Yubo was stunned for a moment, and said, "With the martial courage of the generals of the Huaidong Army, add 100,000 troops, and fight Liaoxi, the victory or defeat is five or five!" Li Bingbu wouldn't be so impatient, would he? ”

"It's not that Li Bingbu is impatient, it's that Li Bingbu has no choice," Lin Jian said bitterly, "First, the government and the opposition are in a hurry, and the one on the dragon chair is afraid that he doesn't have much patience, otherwise this time he wouldn't think that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it and transfer Chen Zhihu to the south." The second is that Li Bingbu does not take the initiative to fight Liaoxi, and if the eastern captives besiege Datong again, Li Bingbu will be forced to lead troops into Datong to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the eastern captives, and the chances will be even smaller at that time! ”

Zhang Yubo sighed helplessly, he knew why it was more unfavorable to say that the decisive battle in Datong was more disadvantageous, in the final analysis, it was still grain and grass!

Hit Liaoxi, Liaoxi is close to the east coast of the Bohai Sea, before the winter, there is no ice in the North Bohai Sea, and the grain and grass can be transported by sea, and the Jinhai grain road is connected. Li Zhuo only needs to think about military issues, and he doesn't have to worry much about food and grass.

The straight-line distance between Datong and Jinhai is 700 miles, separated by Yanshan and Hengshan. If Li Zhuo transferred the main force of the Jibei Army to Datong for a decisive battle with Dongyu, the battle dragged on for half a year, and the Dayue Dynasty could be directly dragged down!

The northern part of Shanxi was crippled the year before and last year, and the southern part of Shanxi was in a continuous drought, which could not provide grain and grass support for the Datong defense line. The tax grain of Western Qin was intercepted by the Cao family, most of Zhongzhou was disabled by bandits, and the relatively complete Hezhong Mansion was the territory of the Liang family. Further south, if the grain and grass are to be transported to the northern line, it is necessary to take the Jinhai grain road.

It's not a matter of money or not, the capacity of the Jinhai Grain Road at this time cannot support a large-scale battle far from the coastline and away from the Jinhai Grain Road.

What is even more painful is that the warships of the Goryeo have appeared in the waters east of Tenglai. Although the combat power of the Denglai Navy Division is not too weak, it is afraid of fighting a war of attrition. No matter how weak Goryeo is, it is also a country with two or three million Dingkou, how can the Denglai Navy fight with the Goryeo Naval Army?

Lin Jian saw Zhang Yubo frowning and said, "Even if the Li Army's advance into Liaoxi goes smoothly, it will only be a long time, and the situation will change greatly. Whether you can clean up the mess depends on Jiangdong's side. I advise you to quit Xuzhou after illness, Chen Hansan is not trustworthy! ”

"You also said that whether you can clean up the mess depends on Jiangdong's side," Zhang Yubo said firmly, "How can I escape from Xuzhou at this time?" ”

Lin Jian didn't know how to persuade Zhang Yubo, Zhang Yubo's temperament was too straight, and he was easy to break. Maybe in the future, when Huaidong wants to go against the grain, Zhang Yubo will be the first to stand up against Huaidong.

After Lin Lian didn't care about the calculation, he didn't want to see Zhang Yubo folded in Chen Hansan's hands, frowned and thought about it, and said: "Maybe persuade the adults, let Liu Xilin go to Xuzhou with you, there will always be a response!" ”

"Can Jiangning leave Liu Xilin here?" Zhang Yubo asked.

"The establishment of the envoy in northern Zhejiang is the first secret order, who knows that there will be a few earth-shattering news thrown out today," Lin Jian said, "Judging from this situation, the power of Ning Wangfu will increase greatly, and it makes no sense for Liu Xilin to stay here!" ”

Liu Xilin served as the captain of Dongcheng and controlled two battalions of horse infantry in Dongcheng, which was an important bargaining chip for them to confront Wang Xueshan. Ning Wangfu is also in Dongcheng now, and the elite of the fifth battalion of the Ning Wangfu Guard Battalion is stationed in Dongcheng, compared to before, Dongcheng Wei is not so important.

Liu Shidu, Shen Rong, and Liu Tingzhou walked out of the inner mansion at this time. Seeing Lin Jian and Zhang Yubo standing in the corner talking, Shen Rong's face sank, and he walked away, and Liu Shidu and Liu Tingzhou looked over.

Lin Lian bowed his head and signaled, not knowing what Liu Shidu and Liu Tingzhou had to say to him at this time.

rushed to talk to Liu Tingzhou; Liu Shidu walked over, hugged his fists to greet Lin Jian and Zhang Yubo, and said, "Brother Yu came to Jiangning last night, and Wang Xuanfu first found a few of us to pass the ......."

"How much?" Lin Jian asked bluntly.

"After the quarrel, they all said that it would be divided evenly according to the mu, and an additional one cent and eight cents per mu would be levied!" Liu Shidu said.

"Whew!" Lin Jian gasped.

Zhang Yubo didn't hold it, he had a seizure on the spot, and said: "Isn't this strangled by the neck!" The voice was so sharp and sharp that everyone in the hall looked this way.

Other people also know more or less about the news to be levied, and they can understand what Zhang Yubo's words mean, so they didn't come over to add fuel and vinegar.

"It's not finally settled yet, Uncle Yu is a little restless......" Liu Shidu persuaded him.

Lin Jian tugged at Zhang Yubo's sleeve and said, "The situation in Xuzhou is different, and the county department will give special consideration." No matter how it is spread, it will not be evenly spread on the head of Xuzhou. However, he also felt in his heart that this levy was really ruthless.

In addition to Chongzhou County, Hailing Mansion has four counties, Hailing, Xinghua, Gaocheng, and Jianling, and the total number of naturalized acres is about 7 million mu, which means that Hailing Mansion will pay nearly 130,000 taels of silver to the county department every year in addition to the taxes paid before.

comforted Zhang Yubo, but Lin Lian's eyes were staring at Liu Shidu.

Pay an extra 130,000 taels of silver every year, and Hailing is capable of digesting it in one prefecture and four counties. However, if Liu Shidu and the following magistrates do not want the prefecture and county to digest this additional levy, and spread the 130,000 taels of silver that will be paid this time again into the fields, it will be extremely harmful to the peasant households who are already poor and struggling on the verge of bankruptcy.

Liu Shidu stared at Lin Tie, and he was also a little weak-hearted. He wants to digest this levy from within the prefecture and county, so as not to increase the burden on farmers, but will the following four counties agree?

At that time, the world's industry and commerce were underdeveloped, and there were few bribe-givers, so if officials wanted to make a fortune, they could only rely on corruption.

The so-called "three years of Qing Governor's Mansion, 100,000 snowflake silver", where did this snowflake silver come from? Every year, the grain tax and various assessments are levied, and after deducting the payment to the county department, the supply of water and local expenditures, most of the surplus money and grain will fall into the pockets of individuals, which is the main source of this snowflake silver.

The officials can't wait to increase the miscellaneous donations, and how many are honest and willing to digest the levy from within? Isn't this a problem with your own money bag?

Lin Lian smiled coldly and said to Liu Shidu: "I won't embarrass Lord Liu, when Lord Liu consults with the four counties, tell them, don't make a civil unrest, when I lead the troops to suppress it, everyone's faces are gloomy!" ”

"Of course, Jiangdong can't be messed up anymore!" Liu Shidu said.

Liu Tingzhou is quite upright, Liu Shidu is softer, but he is not a person who will make a big mess, Lin Tie can protect the two prefectures and eleven counties of Huai'an, but what about the other eight prefectures in Jiangdong County? There are also seven newly merged provinces in northern Zhejiang and Henan, how to add a levy law? These are not something that Lin Jian can control.

is Dongyang Mansion, Lin Ting Lizhen is willing to take more than 100,000 taels of silver from the government treasury and county warehouse every year to pay to the county department, and not spread it to the farmers?

Lin Jian couldn't help but be frustrated, in fact, he couldn't affect the levy of Dongyang Mansion. Lin Bin's mood was not only depressed, but also the idea of giving up on himself: let's mess around, the world is already chaotic enough, then it's completely messed up, and it's easier to leave Huaidong to clean up the mess again.

Lin Jian made up his mind, this time Huaidong will not fight, it depends on how long those who fight for the benefits can hold the benefits in their hands!