On May 12, Sun Zhuang rushed to Shanyang with Qin Chengzu, and rushed to Siyang at night to stay overnight. The next day, together with Li Wei, who had officially assumed the post of governor of Shanyang, and Liu Tingzhou, who had arrived from Shuyang, they went north together and arrived at Chenjiatang, which was considered to have entered the area controlled by the Red Jacket Army.

The Red Jacket Army is responsible for contacting Li Liang, a general under Ma Lantou and the guard general of the Red Jacket Army in Suyu.

Although Liu Tingzhou is the envoy appointed by the imperial court, Liu Tingzhou also knows the truth of "giving milk is the mother", and knows that Qin Chengzu came on behalf of Lin Tie, which is the key to this last Zhao'an negotiation.

Qin Chengzu was in a high position in Huaidong, and in his early years, he was also born in Huai's upper class. The Red Jacket Army did not snub him, and also felt that he was kind, Li Liang personally went out of the city to greet him, and escorted Qin Chengzu, Sun Zhuang, Li Wei and his party from Suyu to Huaiyang.

On both sides of the avenue are wheat fields, as if the hair on the head of a leper is very thin.

On the solar terms, it is already a mango seed, the wheat ears south of the Huai River have fallen heavily and are waiting to be harvested, and the wheat in the north of the Huai River has just pulled out the ears, not to mention that it will drag on for a month to have a harvest.

When resting on the way, Qin Chengzu got off the horse, handed over the whip and reins to Sui Hu, walked to the side of the road, grabbed a bush of wheat and orange poles, looked at the wheat ears, frowned slightly, and didn't say anything.

"South of the Huai River, the fertile land can be full of rice and grain when planted with spring flowers, rice or cotton and linen can be planted in summer, ten acres of land can support a well-off family, Huaisi ditches are abandoned, either drought or waterlogging, one acre of land can harvest five buckets of grain a year, even if God opens his eyes, the difference is seven or eight times," Li Wei is most familiar with the situation in Huaisi, and he does not care about Li Liang's presence, nor does he take care of the face of the generals of the Red Jacket Army, and directly tells the embarrassment of Huaisi counties.

Liu Tingzhou frowned slightly, and said: "After several years of war, the shrubs and forests have become wasteland, and in the countryside, there is a great shortage of iron tools, not to mention the Huaisi counties, four or five out of ten farmers on both sides of the Shushui River are still working in the fields with stone sickles and wooden knives," and asked Qin Chengzu, "The iron fields in Chongzhou and Shanyang, can you sell some iron to the military commander this year?" ”

"I have to ask Lin Mengde about this, and I am happy to do it," Qin Chengzu said, "I don't know very well, since Lord Liu has brought it up, Huaidong always has to squeeze out some." ”

"How much can I squeeze out, Qin Sima will give me a quasi-number." Liu Tingzhou hit the snake and asked with the rod.

To say that Liu Tingzhou's status is naturally higher than that of Qin Chengzu, it is a bit disregarding his identity to ask such a question.

Qin Chengzu secretly said in his heart: Liu Tingzhou can be regarded as one of the very few capable officials in the Dayue Dynasty who can be loyal and dutiful, but it is a pity to oppose Huaidong everywhere.

"Three or five thousand pieces, perhaps." Qin Chengzu said.

"Then I will set 5,000 pieces, and I will send someone to Shanyang to ask Master Li for it." Liu Tingzhou said.

Li Wei has just received an order from Ren Shanyang County, and he doesn't know the bottom of the Shanyang County Iron Field, and the Shanyang County Iron Field is also under the direct control of Cao Ziang - Liu Tingzhou said so, Li Wei just kept silent with a cold face.

Qin Chengzu didn't expect Liu Tingzhou to be so pestering, so he could only smile helplessly, and said: "I'm afraid it's not okay to give farm tools directly, if Shanyang is insufficient, Chongzhou Xingxing is allowed to squeeze out 50,000 catties of wool and iron, and Lord Liu can go back and send someone to Chongzhou to negotiate......"

Farming is the heaviest iron. A family can harvest four or five acres of land day and night, and if you use a stone sickle, it will take two or three times as long to say less. When it comes to reclamation, in addition to guarding against miasma and water and soil adaptation, it is also particularly dependent on iron knives and sickles. Overgrown with bushes and intertwined roots, without sharp knives and saws, only with stone sickle knives, how easy is it to open up wasteland and cultivate seeds?

There are many barren beaches and barren islands in the south, barren mountains and barren forests, and Jianghuai, Huhan, Huxiang and Jiangxi and other places have only been fully developed in the previous dynasties, and the development of eastern Fujian is even more backward, and it is only after the families of the eight surnames of the remnants of the previous dynasties entered Fujian that they have been relatively fully developed.

In the south of Wuling, the geographical scope of Quang Nam is almost more than twice that of Jiangdong County, but the development is extremely insufficient, the indigenous people are rampant in the mountains and wilderness, often rebelling, at this time the entire Quang Nam County has 2120,000 households, even far less than Pingjiang or Jiangning Province, only comparable to the pre-war Mingzhou Prefecture.

Quang Nam is too far away, and the place is self-contained, and there is a tendency to divide it. Even if he didn't have the intention of tearing the soil and claiming to be the king, he was temporarily out of Jiang Ning's control, and secretly had a good time with the luxury family.

Huaidong was beyond the reach of Guangnan, but after Huaidong landed in eastern Zhejiang, he firmly controlled Mingzhou Mansion and Changguo and Daishan Islands in his hands, and suppressed the luxurious Jin'an and Zhedong sailors in the inland rivers and did not dare to go to sea, and in fact had achieved absolute control in the East China Sea.

Huaidong's next intention is to seize Yizhou Island.

Yizhou is the Taiwan of later generations, with a vast area of thousands of miles, and the area is only much larger than Huaidong.

Yizhouzhi County has been in existence for more than 200 years, but in addition to the uncivilized aborigines, there are only more than 4,000 households registered in Dingkou, which only reaches one middle county in the Yue Dynasty, and is even less than 11 of Dingkou in Chongzhou, Hailing, Haiyu and other large counties.

The sea ships of the Jinghai Sea Battalion set out from Mingzhou Mansion to attack the coastal areas of Jin'an, and it took at least five or six days to make a round trip. When the weather is fine, standing on the northwest corner of Yizhou Island, you can even see the shore mountains and islands along the coast of eastern Fujian. Occupying Yizhou Island and using Yizhou as a base, it formed a flanking attack on the coastal areas of eastern Fujian, and it was more advantageous to harass the ships that attacked the sea ships day and night, and to capture fighters.

In addition, with Yizhou Island as a base, Huaidong's maritime trade can be extended to the South Seas.

Yizhou was under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou Prefecture after the county, and it was considered the control of the Song family at this time, and no matter what attitude the Song family had, Yizhou was bound to be obtained by Huaidong in the near future.

Of course, after the capture of Yizhou, how to run Yizhou, in addition to serving as a water camp base and a springboard for maritime trade to connect with the South Seas, there are still great differences within Huaidong about whether to immediately relocate people on a large scale to run Yizhou.

Compared with the Changguo Islands, which have only been abandoned in recent years, they are relatively simple to reclaim, and there are not so many miasma lands, and most of the area of Yizhou Island is a complete barbaric miasma. The difficulty of reclamation is far away from the Hecheng grassland and Xisha Island, and 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.

Huaidong's ability to resettle displaced people and refugees is mainly directly attributable to two things, one is rice grain, and the other is iron smelting. In the end, Huaidong was able to control Dingkou, rice, grain, and iron smelting, which directly reflected Huaidong's military potential.

After Huaidong Qianzhuang, it can borrow money to develop iron smelting workshops on a large scale and with great leaps and bounds. Lin Lian's plan to increase production in Chongzhou and Shanyang this year is to require the output of crude iron to reach 5 million catties and the output of refined iron to reach 2 million catties.

Compared with Huaidong's crude iron output this year, 50,000 catties of crude iron are supplied to Liu Tingzhou, accounting for only one hundred, but in Liu Tingzhou's view, 50,000 catties of iron is not simple.

If Shanyang County is excluded and the counties of Huai'an Prefecture are taken away, I am afraid that we can only find 20,000 catties of iron.

Li Liang listened to the greed beside him, and thought to himself that if the Red Jacket Army could have 50,000 or 60,000 catties of iron, how good would it be? I just thought about it in my heart, after all, I haven't officially accepted the recruitment of the imperial court, and if I accept the recruitment of the imperial court, how can the imperial court and Huaidong not guard against the Red Jacket Army, and how can they supply tens of thousands of catties of iron at every turn?

In the northwest of Suyu, the Red Jacket Army set up a trestle bridge in the narrow part of Bianshui, which could cross the river into Huaiyang.

Although the Red Jacket Army is headed by Liu Miaozhen, after all, it is a female generation, and there are many inconveniences in all things, and Ma Lantou actually presides over more military and political affairs. Ma Lantou's influence and status in the Red Jacket Army are actually not under Liu Miaozhen.

Liu Tingzhou entered Huaiyang three times ago, Ma Lantou was polite, greeted him at the gate of the city, and greeted him on the bank of the Bianshui River today, obviously coming to Qin Chengzu.

Liu Tingzhou sighed in his heart, although Huaidong secretly sent rice and grain to the Red Jacket Army, although he had no conclusive evidence, but he knew the general situation, he only hoped that the generals of the Red Jacket Army could change their evil ways and return to the government, serve the imperial court, and not completely win over Huaidong.

The refugees were mainly evacuated to the area east of Bianshui, and after nearly half a year of recovery, Huaiyang City has somewhat recovered some vitality. The castle has also been repaired, but it is all made of rammed earth, and it shines white in the sun.

These flashes of light make the city look better in the sun, but in fact, when the city was built with soil, the shells and fine stones in the soil were not sifted out. Even if all the defective sections of Huaiyang City are repaired with soil ramming, the actual firmness is worse than that of the ordinary version of the city.

When the Donghu people attacked Jizhou, they had already used catapults on a large scale to attack the city, and Huaiyang City at this time was somewhat vulnerable in front of the large catapults.

At noon, Ma Lantou came forward to entertain him and had a luncheon.

Officially, it is also the Zhao'an on the bright side, which is naturally dominated by Liu Tingzhou and Li Wei, Qin Chengzu and Sun Zhuang came on behalf of the Huaidong Military Division, and did not directly participate in the Zhao'an negotiations on the bright side, and went back to the post house to rest after luncheon.

Qin Chengzu only said that he was too tired to travel continuously, so he wanted to rest in the post house first, and he didn't restrict Sun Zhuang to pull Li Liang to catch up with the old days.

Huaiyang City naturally cannot be compared with Chongzhou, and it is even strictly forbidden to sell alcohol openly in the city, and there is no wine on the table during the luncheon......

found a restaurant, very dilapidated, Li Liang went straight into the backyard, opened the pot and turned over the cupboard, occupied the only large piece of roe deer meat in the restaurant, threw down a piece of silver, sat down with Sun Zhuang next to the table at the window, untied the lacquer gourd on his waist, shook it, and said: "The wine of wild fruit brewing, or Sun Shuai, you taught me the craft - for this matter, I almost gave Ma Shuai a beheading to show the public, Huaisi's grain is too precious, take the grain privately, and it is useless for anyone to plead." Fortunately, the explanation was clear, and I was so scared that I didn't dare to drink it again. Today, I still asked Ma Shuai to please you. ”

There was a stack of bowls stacked on the corner of the table, Sun Zhuang took one and put it in front of him, regardless of whether he was open or not, he poured half a bowl of wine, took a sip to taste the taste, and said: "It's too sour, you can't learn this craft!" ”

"......" Li Liang also poured himself half a bowl of wine greedily, drank it in small sips, the fruit wine was not strong, there was only half a gourd wine left, and he drank it with a treasure, and asked Sun Zhuang, "If the negotiation is completed this time, will the pole master come back?" ”

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

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

"Shit, you're pouting and shitting, I don't know? It's the same for anyone who asks," Sun Zhuang sighed with emotion and said, "No return!" ”

"......" Li Liang said anxiously, "There are two cavalry captains below the Heavenly Maiden, one is occupied by Ma Shuai, and the other is left for you - this can be given to you from the military attache of the third grade, Huaidong can't give it to you." Besides, after the negotiation is settled, you are in Huaidong and Huaiyang, isn't it the same? If Dongyu comes in, Huaidong still expects you to be in front with us - as long as you promise to come back, Huaidong won't tie you up, right? ”

The conditions that Jiang Ning can give are almost discussed.

Jiang Ning was only willing to set up a military town in Huaiyang to incorporate the Red Jacket Army, and Liu Miaozhen, Ma Lantou and others were also awarded the titles of spear cavalry lieutenant and cavalry lieutenant to lead Huaiyang Town.

"Huaidong doesn't owe me, the rest is what I owe to Huaidong and adults, if you don't pay it back, how can you go?" Sun Zhuang said with emotion, "If you talk to Ma Lantou, don't mention this matter again." ”

Li Liang smacked his lips, he didn't know what to say for a while, if Sun Zhuang hadn't let out the two cities of Suining and Suyu at a critical moment, the Red Jacket Army would not have escaped the doom of annihilation.

Before that, Sun Zhuang had more than 10,000 male soldiers and was the defender of the two cities. After that, Huaidong was demoted to a soldier. This time, Sun Zhuang joined the army as a commander and resumed his status as a military attaché, but it was far from being comparable to when he was in charge of the Northern Army.

The generals of the Red Jacket Army felt that they owed him a debt to him, so they wanted him to come back, return his old subordinates to him, and give him one of the three senior military attache titles given by the imperial court.

"By the way, we've talked about it so many times," Sun Zhuang said, "The situation in the north is very urgent, Jiangning and Huaidong don't want to drag it out any longer, and there are still some things here that they find difficult to negotiate, Huaidong can let Mr. Qin come over, and it can be finalized - you tell me first!" ”

"The Huaiyang military town has been set up, but there are places that cannot be discussed in matters such as the number of military towns, the station, the money and salary, and the placement of magistrates and Dingkou...... Li Liang said with a bitter face.

Sun Zhuang also knows what can't be discussed, but he doesn't know how far the Red Jacket Army can make it, and he doesn't know whether it can be mixed together.

On the issue of garrison, Jiang Ning's meaning is to concentrate the Red Jacket Army in Huaiyang City; Huaidong's meaning is to let the Red Jacket Army be stationed in Huaiyang and Suining, and let out Suyu City, which is close to the inner line; Liu Miaozhen, Ma Lantou and other generals of the Red Jacket Army naturally didn't want to give up a place, and wanted to use the three cities as horns to firmly control the core area of Huaisi - of course, the three cities were controlled by the Red Jacket Army, and the Red Jacket Army insisted on not letting it out, and Jiangning and Huaidong had no intention of forcing it.

In principle, the three counties of Huaiyang, Suining, and Suyu are temporarily incorporated into the jurisdiction of Huai'an Prefecture; The three positions of county magistrate, county magistrate, and priest are selected by Jiangning; The officials were selected from the local gentry by the Huai'an Mansion, and the Red Jacket Army nominally accepted the control of the Huaidong Military Division—for this reason, Huaidong almost quarreled with Jiang Ning on the table.

Considering that it is more convenient for the food and salary of Huaiyang Military Town to be unified by the military consular division in charge of Liu Tingzhou, and Huaidong facilitated this matter behind the scenes, it is difficult to convince Huaidong if there is no interest, Jiang Ning finally bowed his head in this matter, making Huaidong Military Division a big domain with the right to control the military town.

Jiang Ning only agreed to pay Huaiyang Military Town with 20,000 soldiers, four buckets of grain per person per month, and three coins of silver, Liu Miaozhen and Ma Lantou hoped to retain the 30,000 soldiers secretly agreed with Huaidong - these 30,000 soldiers and horses are the elite of the Huaisi Liumin Army after all these years of war, don't be a last resort, how can Liu Miaozhen and Ma Lantou disperse these soldiers and horses?

Liu Tingzhou came over this time with some concessions, that is, on the basis of the money and grain allocated by the 20,000 soldiers, a part of it was added, which was coordinated by the Red Jacket Army. The two Huai salt and silver are only 1.8 million taels per year, and the money and grain allocated by Jiangning to Huaiyang Military Town are capped at 200,000 taels, which is almost the limit of Jiangning, and there are too many places to use silver.

Of course, Jiang Ning is willing to allocate 200,000 taels of silver every year, and he will be awarded an official reward, which is already very generous in the eyes of the princes of Jiangning, but it is far from solving the problem of the Red Jacket Army.

It is enough for each soldier to eat four buckets of grain per month, and the key is to pay for silver.

When he was exchanged, three coins of silver could buy six or seven buckets of rice grain, and it was barely enough for the pawns to support the family, and the family had some fields to cultivate, and life was not bad. At this time, the three coins of silver in the front of Haosi and other places, can only buy two buckets of grain, to Huaidong is slightly better, can buy more than half a bucket, but to Huaiyang, counting the money, there is little difference.

The Red Jacket Army came over, and the small family had no cultivation field, and the soldier's family only had three dollars of silver to survive, and in fact, he could only hang his life.

This is still based on 20,000 soldiers, and if you give 30,000 men, the situation will be even more embarrassing - of course, it is much better than in the most difficult times, so there is nothing that cannot be compromised.

After entering Huaisi, in addition to the Red Jacket Army, more than 50,000 displaced soldiers were disbanded on the spot and dispersed to the countryside and villages as refugees to receive relief - this part of the displaced army plus small families exceeded 200,000 people. In addition to these, there are nearly 140,000 war refugees in the Huaisi region.

Except for the Red Jacket Army and their families, the total number of other refugees stranded in the Huaisi area is almost 360,000 according to preliminary statistics.

Jiang Ning advocated that the refugees be expelled from the Huaisi region and that they should be returned to their respective homes.

"Master Gong, tell me, if you don't even have a little ration to eat, you will be expelled from Huaisi, and you will either starve to death on the road, or you will rebel with the flag," Li Liang said indignantly, "What does Jiang Ning mean, why can't we think of it?" They still want to trick us into fools! They connived at the livelihood of the displaced people, and then sent us to suppress it—damn, we can do this kind of thing of crossing the river and demolishing the bridge—besides, even if the Red Jacket Army and the family are preserved, the others are mostly relatives and neighbors in the township, so they can really bear to drive them away, regardless of whether they live or die? ”

"Smack!" Sun Zhuang drank the wine in one gulp, put the bowl on the table, and didn't say anything.

"Over there in Huaidong, can there be any surplus of rice and grain this year?" Li Liang asked.

In the past six months, Huaidong secretly transported nearly 200,000 stone rice grains, which was the key to the Red Jacket Army's stable position in Huaisi and the survival of 300,000 or 400,000 displaced people.

In late April, Lin Lian attacked eastern Zhejiang, and the strength of the Huaidong army nearly doubled.

Liu Miaozhen and Ma Lantou naturally want to continue to get the secret support of Huaidong, but when Huaidong's soldiers and horses expand to sixty or seventy thousand, how much extra financial resources can they have? They don't know how Huaidong operates, and can only speculate on Huaidong's financial resources with conventional thinking. Especially after the Jinhai grain road stopped, Huaidong also lost one of the most important financial resources.

Moreover, they officially accepted the imperial court's recruitment, and only nominally accepted the moderation of the Huaidong Military Division, and the grain and salary were allocated by the Huaidong Military Commander controlled by Liu Tingzhou, and there was no reason to ask Huaidong to secretly support money and grain.

The money and grain that Jiang Ning is willing to allocate can only barely support 30,000 horses and small families.

Not to mention that 300,000 or 400,000 displaced people and refugees will compete with local forces for land, and if they are not handled well, they will induce sharp contradictions, even if Huaiyang, Suining, and Suyu have enough wasteland to resettle so many people, with the current high price of grain, Jiang Ning will have to come up with 6,700,000 taels of silver to resettle so many people.

The two Huai salt and silver can still be squeezed out, but all the forces are staring at the two Huai silver, Yue Lengqiu and other Jiangning princes, even including Gu Wuchen, which one is willing to waste the two Huai salt and silver on the displaced people?

"Suyu and Suining, after saying that, you can't compete with the local government for land, Huaiyang should be able to reclaim and plant some land," Sun Zhuang asked, "There won't be a little harvest here, right?" ”

"Yes, there is nothing to hide from you," Li Liang said, "but it is really ugly, you can also see that the fields opened here in Huaidong can have 20,000 or 30,000 stone rice grain harvested this year!" ”

"I'll come here, listen to the meaning of the adult, I can still support this point, but the specific number is in Qin Ye's stomach, and I don't know." Sun Zhuang said that he was also worried that Huaidong occupied only a small amount of land, and the food he could raise was really limited.

"If you have it," Li Liang said, "as long as you can get through it by tightening your pants." ”

Sun Zhuang was afraid that Qin Chengzu would have something to tell him, so he didn't talk to Li Liang much outside, so he went back to the post house. What Li Liang said, Sun Zhuang did not hide it from Qin Chengzu, he briefly described it, frowned and asked: "Huaiyang can only collect twenty or thirty thousand stone rice grain, it is really too short, how much can Huaidong squeeze out?" ”

"The cavalry captain is a military general from the third grade, is it a pity that you refused?" Qin Chengzu asked, "At most, Huaidong can help you get the rank of captain of Zhaowu, but there is a difference of three or four grades before and after......

"What is there to do as a ghost fishing official in the imperial court, I owe it to the lord and have not paid it back, and the imperial court has asked me to be the prince, but it is not worth it." Sun Zhuang said.

"......" Qin Chengzu smiled and said, "Huaidong can still squeeze out some grain, but just like good iron should be used on the blade, Huaidong is currently mainly building a defense line against the Donghu people on the northern front, and how to use the squeezed out grain must revolve around this." Let's talk about it, how to build a defense line in the north? ”

"The ditches are all abandoned, except for a few big rivers, the Donghu people poured in, I am afraid that they will not be able to stop until the Huai River," Sun Zhuang said, "Huaiyang here, if it is possible, the outside of the Huaiyang city wall should be covered with a layer of bricks, build a fortress around Huaiyang, slope to the northeast, connect with Bianshui, and then connect with Suining - it's just that this is not good enough, if you can poke Chen Hansan's turtle belly off, take Xuzhou, and the northern line will be much more comfortable!" ”

"It's impossible in a short period of time, don't think about it." Qin Chengzu said.

Chen Hansan can struggle to survive, and he will get stronger and stronger the more he lives, and he will not be without his excellence.

Chen Hansan holds 20,000 elites, and he is extremely vigilant here, guarding the Xiongcheng of Xuzhou, and the outer cities are also mostly controlled in his hands, and it is extremely difficult for Huaidong to pull out Chen Hansan.

Besides, Jiangning and the Liang family in the north will not sit back and watch Huaidong fight Chen Hansan. Once Huaidong sent troops to fight Xuzhou, Jiang Ning might hesitate and hesitate, and the Liang family would almost certainly lead troops to aid Xuzhou and fight against Huaidong with the three coalition armies of Chen and Han - not to mention that the coalition forces against Donghu would be divided internally.

"Without Xuzhou, Huaiyang and Suining are connected on both sides, and it will be much more ugly," Sun Zhuang said that his attainments in the art of war are not as good as Zhang Gou, but after all, he has been the commander of an army, and his vision is still there, not comparable to ordinary people, and said, "Then it is necessary to strengthen the Red Jacket Army as much as possible according to what the adults said-the current Red Jacket Army has 30,000 elite soldiers, if they can eat enough, their combat power will be similar to that of the Changhuai Army, but they lack bows and crossbows that can suppress the cavalry, which is too different from the Changhuai Army, and sometimes they can only fill it with human lives." The Donghu people had to have 10,000 cavalry leaking in, and the Red Jacket Army could only hide in the walled city. If you must fight in the field, build more chariots and carry them with large shields and spears, but you can only barely hold your position. Hu Renjing cavalry shooting, will not rush the infantry formation, accustomed to hitting the flanks first, shooting with a bow and crossbow, the infantry formation must have a corner that cannot be carried, this field battle is about to be defeated! ”

"It's not fine enough, but it's generally not bad," Qin Chengzu said, "My lord's meaning, if you don't feel that I have yielded you, I have something to teach you!" ”

"Then I'll kowtow to you, old man!" Sun Zhuang got up and knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

"Get up," Qin Chengzu put his arm around him and said, "Just learning the art of war is just Hinayana and Mahayana is a political matter." You also have a deep understanding of the situation in Huaisi, and tens of thousands of elite soldiers are actually unable to build a strong base to resist the infiltration and breakthrough of the Donghu cavalry......"

At this time, someone came in to inform that Li Wei was back, and Qin Chengzu asked him to come in quickly.

"After talking, Jiang Ning refuses to pull out a single hair on his head," Li Wei said distressedly, "If you want to build a defense line in Huaiyang and Suining North according to your wishes, you can't let Dingkou evacuate to the north." It is also necessary to be as prepared as possible to receive the next wave of refugees from the north, where the land south of the line to the Huai River is too limited to settle the displaced people. Also, how much supplies can be allocated on the northern line! ”

"Not counting the investment in the second line of defense in Siyang, Shanyang and Shukou," Qin Chengzu said, "Rice and grain are in short supply everywhere, and it is necessary to prepare for the refugees from Jinhai to go south, and to say less along the line, it is necessary to lay 300,000 stone rice grain to ensure that no one will starve to death; Before the end of the year, the most that can be squeezed into Huaisi is only 400,000 stone grain. ”

Sun Zhuang thought it would decrease, but he didn't expect it to increase instead of decreasing. By the end of the year, there are less than seven months, and 400,000 grains will be invested, which means that 60,000 stone can be invested every month, which is 50% more than before. After accepting the key recruitment, Jiangning's side can pull out almost 12,000 to 14,000 stone rice grain every month, which is very different from the situation since the beginning of the year, and even ordinary refugees can eat half full.

Of course, good iron is used on the cutting edge, how to use so much food, Huaidong has his own plan, and he will not raise so many people in vain, so that they can lie down and sleep under the sun every day.

"That's enough," Li Wei said, rubbing his hands, and said, "Ren Jiangning has exhausted all the organs, what the adults do is the art of the Great Dao, and I am completely convinced of this miscellaneous Confucian dispute," and asked again, "How much iron can Huaidong squeeze out, iron is very important, and it doesn't work to just eat enough." ”

Since the Red Jacket Army marched eastward, although Huaidong secretly transported grain every month, it had extremely strict control over strategic materials such as iron. To strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Red Jacket Army and the ability of the Huaisi region to reclaim the wasteland and grow the land, iron is an indispensable material.

"The raw iron material has been given a million catties, and the refined iron material has been given an upper limit of 300,000 catties, which should be sufficient!" Qin Chengzu said, "Depending on the situation, I will dial some armor over." ”

"Huh!" Li Wei said with a smile, "When you came, you said that you would give Liu Tingzhou 50,000 catties of iron, and I was still playing ninety-nine in my heart, I really underestimated Mr. Qin and adults......

"At the end of last year, the adults set the total iron output of the two subway yards in Chongzhou and Shanyang to exceed 7 million catties, and asked for the opening of coal and iron ships between Haidong and Chongzhou, many people did not understand, and I also hesitated," Qin Chengzu said, "It seems that the adults have already calculated......

Armor is the most difficult to build, ordinary knives, spears and arrows, as long as there is a supply of iron, Huaisi can also gather a group of craftsmen to build, so as to supplement the lack of ordinary weapons; And it's easier to build farm tools.

Even if the Donghu people defeat Yanjing, they will need to adjust for a period of time, and then attack the defense line built by the Liang family along the banks of the Yellow River, and at the earliest, there will be no large-scale cavalry leaking to Huaidong until the end of the year.

Lin Jian wanted the Red Jacket Army to build the first line of defense on the periphery, with Fengli Camp as the main force, and build a second line of defense around the Huai River in Siyang, Shukou, and Shanyang, so as to ensure that the production of the inner line of Huaidong would not be disturbed.

As long as the Red Jacket Army held Huaiyang, it actually had a strong shielding effect on Haosi and Dongyang and other places on the inner line, and the Donghu cavalry could only go further west, looking for a breakthrough from the direction of Shouzhou and Nanyang, and Lin Jian couldn't care about thinking about things over there at this time.

Of course, although Huaidong prepared so many materials for the northern front, it was also necessary to use these materials as a condition to prompt the Red Jacket Army to cooperate with Huaidong's deployment on the northern front.

Qin Chengzu pulled Li Wei to discuss for a long time in the quiet room, because Liu Tingzhou and Liu Miaozhen and Ma Lantou generals did not talk very happily in the afternoon, after evening, Ma Lantou and Li Liang invited Liu Tingzhou, Qin Chengzu, Li Wei, Sun Zhuang and others to have a banquet in the post house on behalf of the generals of the Red Jacket Army, but Liu Miaozhen did not appear.

There was no wine, just some game, and there was no speculation in talking, and the dinner was hastily over. After the dinner, Li Liangcai sneaked over and invited Qin Chengzu and Sun Zhuang to go to the military palace to discuss secretly, and Li Wei stayed in the post house to drag Liu Tingzhou.

In the Ming Hall of the Military Mansion, the homemade candle burned with a smell of pine resin, Liu Miaozhen took off the bronze mask that was still worn on her face during the luncheon and the afternoon negotiations with Liu Tingzhou and Li Wei, in order to show her respect for Qin Chengzu's representative of Huaidong, and said: "My brother commented on the world's figures in front of him, and admired Mr. Qin the most, sighing that Mr. Qin was a traitor and could not invite him to participate in the grand event, and I never expected that Mr. Qin was secretly the mainstay of Huaidong......"

"General Liu is polite," Qin Chengzu sat down at the bottom of Liu Miaozhen and said, "There are countless good generals in Huaidong, including Fu Qinghe, Cao Ziang, Ao Canghai, Ning Zechen, Zhao Qingshan, Zhou Tong, Zhao Hu, Ge Cunxiong, Ge Cunxin, Sun Zhuang, Zhang Gou, Chen Yan, etc., and Lin Mengde, Sun Jingxuan, Sun Jingtang, Ge Siyu, Hu Zhiyong, Liang Wenzhan, Li Wei, Zhou Guangnan, Wang Chengfu, etc., all of them are not the choice of the moment, and if there is Gao Zongting, who is the 'strategy of the world', he is also working for Shoujinhai - Qin is inactive, which is really worthy of praise. If you really want to talk about the world's characters, my family may be able to deserve the praise of An Shuai, and my family also admires An Shuai very much......"

Chongzhou Wenchen is not very famous, but when it comes to military generals, Qin Chengzu reported so many people like a few treasures, Ma Lantou, Li Liang and other main generals of the Red Jacket Army who accompanied each other, and there was really no one who could pat his chest and say that he was stronger than them. Sun Zhuang had already expressed his mind in the afternoon, Qin Chengzu listed the Huaidong military generals, and included Zhang Zhuang, Zhang Gou, and Chen Yan among them, and the taste was a little complicated when the generals of the Red Jacket Army heard it.

Although it is said that as a general in Huaidong, he must take the lead, bear hardships and stand hard work, and is not afraid of sacrifice, but the generals of the Huaidong Army have strong combat power, can work together, and can always and everywhere occupy the strategic initiative, and can lead the army to fight freely, which is probably the most desired realm of military generals.

Liu Miaozhen stared at the big candle on the edge of the table thoughtfully, as if Qin Chengzu's words aroused her thoughts, and after a while, she said to Qin Chengzu: "I want to go to Chongzhou, I don't know if it will be a little presumptuous to suddenly bring it up at this time!" ”

Liu Miaozhen suddenly said this, not to mention Ma Lantou, Li Liang and other generals of the Red Jacket Army, Qin Chengzu was also very surprised.

Although Liu Miaozhen is a woman, after all, she is the commander of the Red Jacket Army, and she has not officially accepted the court's recruitment, Huaidong detains or kills her, and she does not have to bear moral accusations at all, and Jiang Ning will not object. even though