"Now the Hu people ...... cough, cough...... Where did the Hu people fight? An Guogong asked while coughing.

Xie Yuheng replied: "Back to my father, three days ago, the Hu people had already captured Xuyang Mansion.

Xu Yang commanded Min Jiang to be his father's right-hand man, and he and his generals died in the battle to protect the city, and no one surrendered.

Although our army suffered heavy casualties, the Hu people also suffered a lot of losses.

According to the spies, the Hu army suffered about 8,000 casualties, which was the largest loss since the invasion of Jiangnan.

Because of the heavy casualties, the Hu people are repairing in the city, and there should be no more large-scale troops in a short time. ”

"You have to arrange the future affairs of Min Jiang decently, don't chill the hearts of other generals.

At this time, we must not let the backyard catch fire again, otherwise there will be endless troubles. ”

"Yes, father."

"How's the other thing going?"

"Back to my father, we have collected about 50,000 stone of grain from rich families from all over the country."

"It's not enough, those rich families must have more than enough food in their homes, and you want to collect grain under other names.

Now there is a shortage of food everywhere, and we can ignore those civilians, but we must raise enough military food.

Otherwise, once there is a shortage of food in the army, a mutiny will be triggered at any time.

Even if we want to rob it, we must ensure that there are enough military rations.

In addition to forcibly requisitioning grain, you also find ways to borrow grain from various families.

Remember that it was borrowing grain from various families, not forcibly requisitioning grain.

These are extraordinary times, and once those families are really pressed, they are likely to unite against us, and then we will be attacked from the back.

At this time, we must not make another enemy...... cough, cough ......" As soon as An Guogong finished speaking, he coughed again.

"Father, are you alright?" Xie Yuheng hurriedly stepped forward to smooth his back.

"I'm fine." An Guogong forced a cough and pushed him away.

"Father, do you want to change the doctor for this disease?"

"It's the same for all of them, and everyone tells me to recuperate with peace of mind and think less.

But at this juncture, can you feel at ease? It's all just nonsense.

You don't care about this, let me ask you, how is the fire gun made by the Ministry of Industry? ”

"With the addition of the batch that was made before, there are now about 3,200 strokes in total."

"Not enough, not enough.

Even if you have to put a knife on their necks, you have to force them to build another 5,000 rods in half a year.

You have to remember that whether our Xie family can make a comeback this time depends on these firearms.

As long as we have a large number of firearms in our hands, those Hu people will not be in trouble, and it will be a matter of time before we want to take back the seized city.

Even if we face the Ning family, which is also equipped with firecrackers in the future, we have the strength to fight.

Therefore, no matter what method is used, we must recreate a large number of firecrackers in half a year, and this matter is more urgent than anything else, you must keep this in mind. ”

"Yes, father, I'll do it quickly."

"Alright, that's all I have to say, you can go back and do things."

"Then the son will retire first, and the father will take care."

After Xie Yuheng left the study, An Guogong, who had been suppressing his cough, immediately coughed violently.

When he finally finished coughing, he immediately saw some obvious blood foam on the handkerchief used to cover his mouth, and his heart sank.

An Guogong, who is more than 70 years old this year, knows that his time may be running out, but he is not reconciled.

He is unwilling to let the hegemony he has created with all his heart fall to the end he has now.

Originally, since the death of Emperor Jing'an, their Xie family has become the imperial family that truly controls the entire Great Wei court.

Even if it is to change the emperor, it is just a matter of their words.

They are even ready to replace the Zhao family and directly change the dynasty.

But who would have thought that with the rise of the Ning family in the northwest and the large-scale invasion of the Hu people, the Xie family could only move the capital to a corner of Jiangnan.

This is not the worst situation, the worst thing is that since the Hu people took Jiangkou Mansion to open the bottleneck of invading Jiangnan, they have now become the biggest enemy of the Xie family.

In addition, the Hu people spread a large number of plagues through spies, and now the Xie family not only has to deal with the large-scale invasion of the Hu people, but also has to face more and more serious sores and plagues, which is really exhausting.

That's not all, An Guogong has not forgotten that the Ning family is raiding all over the north.

Now that there are many generals and a large number of firearms, the Ning family is like a sharp sword hanging above the Xie family's head that will be inserted at any time, making it difficult for An Guogong to sit still.

In such a crisis-ridden situation, how can An Guogong recuperate with peace of mind? This led to the condition getting worse and worse.

But this is cheaper Xie Yuheng.

Due to the deterioration of his health, An Guogong had to gradually transfer the power and connections in his hands to his only surviving son, Xie Yuheng, and let him handle various military and government affairs instead of him.

Although An Guogong was unwilling to hand over his power like this, he had to do so.

……………………

While the Xie family was doing their best to collect grain and make firecrackers everywhere, the northwest and northeast were not idle.

While continuing to actively train troops, the northwest is also further promoting the large-scale cultivation of potatoes.

Due to the bumper harvest of potatoes last year, all the farmers who tasted the sweetness were full of enthusiasm for this drought-tolerant and high-yield exotic crop, and all wanted to increase their yields in more varieties.

In terms of how to breed, after Jian Shuqi has continuously organized people to go to the countryside for publicity and education in the past few years, many farmers have now learned how to breed and plant potatoes.

Since the beginning of spring, many farmers have begun to plant more potato seedlings in their fields on their own initiative, hoping for a better harvest next year.

As for the northeast side, there is a sub-regional planting policy.

In those areas where the soil quality and water sources are better, rice, wheat, and other conventional grains are grown according to the original method.

Only those wastelands and mountainous areas with average soil will be planted in large quantities with drought-tolerant and high-yielding potatoes.

In particular, most of the terraced fields cultivated by hundreds of thousands of displaced people are planted with potatoes.

In this way, not only will the displaced people be able to achieve self-sufficiency, but they will also be able to use the surplus harvest to pay their taxes, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

Today, these hundreds of thousands of displaced people are no longer a burden on the northeast region, but have become one of the relatively stable suppliers of military rations.

Of course, this sub-regional planting policy refers to the practice of Guantian.

If they are ordinary yeoman farmers, they can plant whatever they like, and the government does not care, as long as they pay full taxes.

But because potatoes are drought-tolerant and high-yielding, many farmers are willing to plant potatoes in their fields with poor soil quality as their own rations or spare food.

Due to the vast territory of the northwest and northeast, coupled with the fact that it is a new thing, the cultivated potato seedlings are still in short supply.

Therefore, the various parts of Jiangxi that have just been recovered by the Ning family have not had a chance to plant this new crop, but it is only a matter of time.

After several years of careful management, the people of Northeast China are now completely accustomed to the rule of the Ning family, and few people miss the old days.

There is no harm without contrast.

Since the Ning family took over the Northeast, not only have all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes disappeared, but also due to the long-term supervision of the Honest Society, there has rarely been collusion between officials and businessmen and villagers in various places.

Because once this situation occurs, as long as people report to the local Integrity Society, there will soon be people from the Integrity Society to investigate the officials.

This makes all the officials dare not act mischiefly, lest they be caught by the Integrity Society.

This kind of good environment of clean government and peaceful living and working in peace and contentment is not only a little better, but much better than when the Great Wei government was governed in the past.

Therefore, all the people in Northeast China feel that the current life is very good, and almost no one wants to return to their previous life.

But this is not the case for everyone.

For some stubborn scholars who are pretentious, they are still resistant, and their hearts are still thinking about the old days.

But these people are only a very small number after all, and they are all helpless scholars.

It's okay for these people to play tricks, but if they want to rebel with real knives and guns, even if they are given ten guts, they will not dare.

In addition to all this good governance, the government did a great thing a few months ago.

This major event is that the Ning family, in the name of the government, carried out nationwide vaccination in the entire northeast to prevent the sores and plagues that are raging in the provinces south of the Yangtze River.

As soon as this news came out, all the people who had been worried that the plague would spread to the northeast were all happy and applauded.

Many people in Northeast China know that after the implementation of the vaccination method in the whole northwest of the country, no one has had sores for so many years, which shows that this vaccination method is indeed effective.

Now Ning Jiaken is willing to vaccinate the people of the whole northeast for free, which is really good.

As soon as the vaccination work organized by the local government began one after another, all the people spontaneously flocked to the local vaccination sites to get vaccinated.

Although the workload is huge, because of the previous experience of the whole army and the whole population in the northwest vaccination, the military doctors in charge of vaccination are also familiar with this kind of thing, and they have begun to be busy and unchaotic.

With the orderly development of vaccination work in various places, in just about two months, all the people in Northeast China have been fully vaccinated.

Because of this incident, the people of the whole northeast were full of gratitude to the Ning family and began to support the rule of the Ning family from the bottom of their hearts.

In addition, at the request of the Ning family, the government also used this vaccination campaign to complete the registration of all people's personal information, and also conducted a complete census by the way.

On the Jiujiang side, there has finally been a real explosion in terms of commercial trade.

More than twice as many merchant ships enter and leave the port every day as before, and the entire port is often overcrowded.

The reason for such an explosive situation is the plague in Jiangnan.

Due to the rampant plague in Jiangnan, many merchants did not dare to do business and load goods in Jiangnan.

At this time, Jiujiang, a port city without plague, became the best alternative.

In addition, Jiujiang Port was originally exempt from tariffs, which is even more good news.

As a result, in just a few months after the outbreak of the plague in Jiangnan, Jiujiang Province became an area where most merchants entered, exited and stayed.

It was from this time that Jiujiang Port officially replaced the major ports in the south of the Yangtze River and became the largest port in the Central Plains.

Many businessmen who had never been to Jiujiang for business found that it was indeed a good place to do business after coming to Jiujiang.

Not only are customs duties completely exempt, but there is also the supervision of the local clean and honest society, and no official dares to arbitrarily exploit businessmen who come here to do business.

In addition, the stamp duty system introduced by the local government can greatly guarantee the legitimacy of transactions, and it does have a great business atmosphere that cannot be seen in other places.

The arrival of this large number of merchants also brought great growth to the local economy.

Whether it is an inn or a restaurant or restaurant, the merchants who come to patronize it are everywhere, making the owners who run these establishments smile without seeing their teeth.

Even the workers who move at the docks have too many merchant ships to load and unload goods every day, resulting in the cost of porters rising again and again.

This increasingly bustling atmosphere makes every local feel excited.

Behind this prosperity, the vast majority of people do not know that Jiujiang is not only a commercial city, but also a secret military city.

Whether it was the musket that terrified the Wei army, or the flowering bullet, an artifact of defending the city that made it difficult for the Hu people to enter, they were actually researched and produced here.