When Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty toured the south, the Yangzhou government had tens of thousands of people, and built a palace in the east peak of Shugang in the northwest of the city.

When the Sui Dynasty died, the palace was destroyed in the war, and in the early years of the previous dynasty, someone spent a huge amount of money to repair the ruins called Jianyuan, which has the meaning of "taking the lessons of the previous car and warning the future generations".

In the past 300 years, Jianyuan has been abandoned several times, and has been repeatedly ruined and repaired, and at this time it has become a mountain villa garden that can be found everywhere in a historic site outside Yangzhou City.

Jianyuan along with the mountain to build buildings and pavilions, the range is quite wide, the ancient trees on the mountain cover the sun, twists and turns, climb to the halfway mountainside, the stone paves the mountain road, winding and steep, cross a bamboo forest, there is a small lake of more than ten acres of size in the middle of the mountainside, like a mirror embedded in the trees and stones.

On the opposite side of the pond are several houses, and in the open verandah facing the lake, many people are watching around a wooden cart.

"This cotton milling car was originally handed down by the Li people of Yazhou, also known as the churning car, which was passed to Wuxi through Guizhou, and has undergone many improvements by generations of craftsmen, which is better than before. The main structure of the agitator is a pair of rollers of different thicknesses, made of hardwood, and animal leather can also be wrapped on the rollers, so as not to hurt the cotton—Cui Yao, Xiao Bi, the two of you turn these two rollers,"

Wang Jun instructed the two maids to use the wheel to rotate the two rollers of the churning car, and pointed out the rotating part of the rollers to his father Wang Wenqian.

"Daddy, look here, the thickness of the rolling and pumping is different, every moment of rotation has an inch difference, you see the daughter feeding the cottonseed between the two shafts, just between the shaft and rolling, the cottonseed husk and the lint are separated, which is really much faster than peeling the cottonseed by hand! It's ingenious......"

Wang Wenqian looked at the beard for a while, and he really didn't know how much faster the speed of the cottonseed hulling was faster than that of hand-peeling the cottonseed.

Before the Qin and Han dynasties, there were records of cotton in the Western Regions, saying that cotton was like grass, the seeds were like cocoons, and the silk in the cocoons was like fine threads, which was called white stacks.

At that time, there was cotton transplantation in the Central Plains, but in the royal garden is more regarded as ornamental flowers, and to the previous dynasty, the Western Regions and southern Xinjiang only a large batch of cotton cloth into the Central Plains, the previous dynasty had "Gui cloth white as snow, Wu cotton soft as a cloud" verses circulated, the Central Plains and Jianghuai area folk also began to have a small amount of cotton planting.

However, what restricts cotton planting and the promotion of cotton cloth is that cotton cloth is deseeded and woven more complicated and difficult than hemp. This eventually made cotton fabrics extremely expensive, so that, like silk fabrics, they were reduced to the exclusive products of family lords, eunuchs, and clans, and had no chance with the common people.

However, due to the limitations of weaving technology, and the fact that most of the cotton varieties that came from the Western Regions in the early years were coarse cotton species, the comfort and aesthetics of cotton cloth were inferior to silk fabrics, which caused the demand for cotton fabrics in the upper class society to be far lower than that of silk fabrics.

For many reasons, even if there have been areas to grow cotton in the Central Plains and Jianghuai regions since the previous dynasties, the quantity is still extremely limited and has not been popularized on a large scale.

The planting of cotton, in fact, is not much more difficult than hemp, and the yield of cotton seeds per mu is not much lower than hemp, so it can be seen that if we can really use the new cotton milling wheel, big bow, and multi-fold hammer spinning wheel, once the difficulty of cotton fabrics is reduced, it is equivalent to the level of hemp fabrics, and cotton planting will be greatly promoted.

After all, cotton fabrics, whether they are warm or comfortable to wear, are far from being comparable to hemp fabrics.

Wang Wenqian thought to himself that Han Qian was such a character, and it was really interesting that most people thought that he was a man who took the sword and was good at taking risks, but it was a pity that there were few people in Chuzhou who really paid attention to this person, and finally failed and was forced to withdraw from Jiangnan.

"When I returned to Yangzhou, I tried to plant more than 200 acres of cotton in Zhuangzi, and these days I have found craftsmen to imitate the cotton milling cart and other looms one by one, which is indeed feasible. Daddy ordered to collect more cotton seeds, teach weavers, next year Yangzhou will make use of some river flats and sandy loam, and you can plant one or two hundred thousand acres of cotton on a larger scale, and wait until the people see its benefits, perhaps not four or five years, Huaidong counties will be able to benefit a lot from it. Wang Jun continued excitedly.

She also showed her father Wang Wenqian the shirt she wore on her upper body, and the purple cloth trousers she wore on her lower body, which were draped like skirts, all of which were produced in Qianyang; The socks on the feet are also made of Qianyang cloth, which is very light and breathable, instead of the thick and hot felt socks that are worn in early summer.

In the past two days, she also took the maid to try to make cloth shoes, but the soles of the shoes should first be made of glutinous rice paste, paste layers of cloth to dry, and then use coarse cotton threads to sew tightly, which is very time-consuming, and it has not been made at this time, but she first took out a few semi-finished products of the soles to show her father: "If these cloth shoes are made, the soles are nailed with wear-resistant cowhide with fine nails, and they are light and breathable to wear. ”

"There are three to five hundred acres of land in Zhuangzi, you can do it by planting and playing, and you don't have to interfere in other things." Wang Wenqian said with a slightly gloomy face.

Wang Jun was in high spirits, as if he had been splashed with a basin of cold water, and his beautiful eyes dimmed a little, and asked: "If this matter can be done, the states of Huaidong can benefit a lot, do you have to avoid this suspicion?" ”

"This method can be preached no matter how others learn it, but our family should be cautious." Wang Wenqian said.

Although Yueyang's soldiers and horses attacked Jinling and even fought fiercely with the Lou Boat Army on the river, the Chuzhou army did not contribute much, but after Yang Yuanpu succeeded to the throne in Jinling, he still according to the original agreement, and ordered the king of Xu Xin to put Huaidong according to Yang Taihai and Chusi Prefectures, with Chuzhou as the national capital.

Although it is very likely that Yang Yuanpu also knew how to forbear, seeing that Yueyang's soldiers and horses had suffered heavy casualties in the capture of Jinling, in order to delay time in order to recuperate, this also gave them the opportunity to officially place Huai Dongguo, and also set up Huai Dongxing Shangshu Province to act on its own in accordance with Yang Yuanpu's edict of the new emperor.

On the one hand, it is necessary to guard against the possibility of Jinling changing its coat at any time, on the one hand, to raise grain to raise 40,000 elites, and on the other hand, to settle the hundreds of thousands of family gate lords, slaves and maids who were forcibly relocated from Su Changrun Sanzhou to the north bank of the river during the Jinling War.

None of this is easy.

Of the five prefectures in Huaidong, only Yangtai is far away from the eastern front battlefield of the Liang army, and it has a population of nearly 600,000 in recent years.

Sizhou, Haizhou, and even Chuzhou, where the king of letters and kings Yang Yuanyan had been stationed for many years, had barren land and sparsely populated, with a combined population of less than 400,000.

On the one hand, it was frequently harassed by the Liang army, and at the same time, it was located in the buffer zone between the Liang and Chu countries, and the imperial court had never bothered to spend great efforts to deal with the floods on the east bank of the Huai River and Hongze Lake, which caused the people's livelihood to wither and farming to waste.

At this time, with the addition of more than 100,000 people forcibly taken to the north shore, the total population of the five prefectures of Huaidong was about 1.1 million.

It is unimaginable that we need to use a population of 1.1 million to raise 100,000 standing elite soldiers.

As far as Yangzhou is concerned, the four counties are all upper counties, with a total of more than 50,000 households and more than 380,000 people, but raising 40,000 elites requires more than 600,000 yuan of money and grain every year, which has far exceeded Yangzhou's previous financial empowerment.

In this case, it is necessary to levy a large amount of land tax in order to cope with the past.

However, the taxes borne by the civilians of the four counties of Yangzhou in the past were already extremely heavy, and if they really wanted to double the levy, the people would have no way to live, and it was very likely to provoke a popular uprising, thus giving Jinling an excuse to meddle in the military and political affairs of Huaidong.

The only way is to imitate Xuzhou, clear the acres of land, and the additional taxes will be borne by the family lords who occupy a large number of fields and houses but only bear very little taxes and forced labor.

Among the high-level generals in Huaidong, there are very few people from the big clans, so there was no resistance to forcibly conscripting slaves and maids into the army on the south bank.

Wang Wenqian himself also set an example in Yangzhou, first from his own acres of land to levy.

In the early years, Wang Wenqian traveled to Yangzhou, liked the scenery of Shugang very much, and had long thought that if the second prince did not have the possibility of inheriting the throne, he should seek to seal the Huaidong, so he personally replaced the Wang family's fields and mansions to Yangzhou early.

At present, the Jianyuan Garden on the east peak of Shugang, near 20,000 acres of fields and more than 400 slaves and maids, are all his Wang Wenqian's private property.

With this additional levy, almost 30% of the annual harvest of these fields had to be handed over to the state government as taxes and service money to support the army.

Although there is no resistance from the top level in Huaidong, and Wang Wenqian is also leading by example, how can they be willing to accept such a strong levy by the clan forces that are not weak in the Yangtai region?

Even in order to consolidate his control over the Yangtai region, Wang Wenqian suggested that King Xin select a large number of sons and daughters of sect lords from Yangtai and Yangtai prefectures to join the provincial officials of the Huaidong Xingshangshu Provincial Committee, but there was no way to completely quell this dissatisfaction.

Not to mention the resentment in the hearts of those sect lords in Su Changrun's three states who were forcibly requisitioned slaves and maids, and who were forcibly asked to move to the north shore in the later stage of the Jinling War.

Therefore, Wang Wenqian stayed behind, but no matter how good his posture is, a lot of criticism will be concentrated on him.

Wang Wenqian can be at a loss in front of King Yang Yuanyan, but can he withstand everyone's mouth?

At that time, if there are people everywhere in Xingshangshu Province who say behind his back that he is colluding with Xuzhou, even if he believes in Wang Yang Yuanyan and believes him, he must learn from Shen Yang to resign from his illness to show his innocence.

Even if he knows that cotton fabrics can be popularized, the benefits are great, but Wang Wenqian doesn't want Wang Jun to do this, two refusals of marriage is embarrassing enough, Wang Jun really wants to come forward to promote cotton planting and cotton fabrics, even if no one slanders him for colluding with Xuzhou, it will attract countless people's fingers.

Besides, in Wang Wenqian's mind, Huaidong has no danger to defend, the enemy is on all sides, and it is not a place to operate. Therefore, even if there is a big profit in planting cotton, there is no need to do it immediately.

Wang Jun didn't want to make it difficult for his father, and he didn't want to have any direct disputes with his father about these matters not long after he arrived in Chuzhou, but he thought that there were many people in Zhuangyuan who initially mastered the methods of cotton planting and weaving, and then consolidated and consolidated them, and then released them in batches to help them settle down in the following townships and counties, and buy farms to grow cotton and textile cotton cloth.

In the spring and autumn period, the ditch was dug in Yangzhou to pass the Jianghuai, the Sui Dynasty further transformed the ditch, and the Jiangnan Canal and the Tongji Canal and the Yongji Canal were dug on the north and south sides, Yangzhou has always been one of the cores of the lifeline of the entire eastern water transport, after the prosperity of the Huaidonghai salt, the salt officials and salt merchants of Yangzhou gathered, making the social atmosphere of Yangzhou far more civilized and active than other places.

As long as the slaves, maids, craftsmen and workers in the house are scattered and let out to settle down, although the scale of planting cotton and textile cotton cloth in the early stage is limited, as long as there are exemplary examples, the villagers in the neighborhood and even the gentry can see the benefits with their own eyes, and the promotion of cotton fabrics will not be too slow in Yangzhou, where the social atmosphere is relatively much more civilized.

Wang Jun was thinking about things in his heart, and saw Yin Peng from a distance with a few people, who were anxiously climbing the mountain and walking towards Jianyuan, wondering what was going on, so that Yin Peng, who was in charge of the criminal Cao and the prison in Yangzhou, couldn't wait to come to Jianyuan to see his father in person?

Yin Peng led people into the open verandah and handed over an open secret letter to Wang Wenqian.

Wang Wenqian took out the secret letter, and after reading it, his face was slightly gloomy just now, and suddenly became gloomy.

"Daddy, what's going on?" Wang Jun asked with concern.

"Wang Lin is dead." Wang Wenqian handed the secret letter to Wang Jun and said.

Wang Jun read the secret letter, and immediately suspected that there were twists and turns inside, and asked:

"How could Mr. Wang commit suicide by swallowing poison? Is it Emperor Yanyou who wants to use Shen Yang? ”

In fact, when she was in Fanchang, she was worried that after Wang Lin's identity was exposed by Han Qian, she might be liquidated by Yang Yuanpu, so she mentioned to Yin Peng at that time that she wanted to find an excuse to take Wang Lin back to Yangzhou, but at that time, Ruan Yan was responsible for contacting and negotiating with the people in Yueyang, and Yin Peng had no right to decide.

Ruan Yan decided to keep Wang Lin there at that time, and his purpose was only to make it difficult for Shen Yang to defend his innocence, and he had to leave Yang Yuanpu's side in order to avoid suspicion, so that Yang Yuanpu would lose a powerful minister who could really assist him.

But I don't want Ruan Yan's original calculation to be realized in the end, Wang Lin suffered a liquidation in this way, even if Wang Jun didn't know Yang Yuanpu's new appointment of Shen Yang at this time, but she believed that because of Wang Lin's "suicide letter", Shen Yang should soon return to Jinling City and return to Yang Yuanpu's side.

Wang Lin is a child of the Wang family of the Runzhou Wang family, and her grandfather Wang Jixiong and father Wang Wenqian, as a side branch of the Runzhou Wang family, had some contacts with Wang Lin and other Wang children in the early years, Wang Jun She was also Wang Lin had to teach Mengxue for a period of time when she was a child, but after her grandfather Wang Jixiong paid homage to the prime minister, after the rumors that he intended to cling to the Wang family and were rejected, her family did not move around with Wang Lin and other Wang children.

In the impression of the world, the famous family is always stubborn and arrogant, but the official eunuch from a small family is proud of clinging, such rumors are naturally convincing, grandfather Wang Jixiong and father Wang Wenqian broke off contact with Wang Lin and other Wang children, and it is natural that the world thinks that the face can not pass.

Wang Jun only learned about all these rumors when he grew up and became an adult, but when his father was invited by Wang Yang Yuanyan to Chuzhou as the secretary, he casually laid out a secret chess.

Originally, Wang Lin served in the Yushitai, and picked Xu's not much important lawlessness for impeachment, intending to use the method of agitation to get the favor of the Anning Palace, but he didn't want the Anning Palace and the Xu family to be arrogant, so he directly forced Wang Lin away from the Yushitai, and spent several years in the idle position of the cold pot and cold stove.

It was still when the third prince Yang Yuanpu was named the king of Linjiang County, and at the same time, Shen Yang, a scribe from Runzhou, valued Wang Lin's articles and talents, and recommended him to serve beside the third prince, so he entered the palace of Linjiang County by mistake.

Wang Jun later guessed that his grandfather Wang Jixiong should have had an indifferent relationship with his father until the rumors that his father made it - even if his grandfather Wang Jixiong was even less optimistic about King Xin, this should be a very important reason, right?

Wang Jun had long expected that Wang Lin would be liquidated, and when he really heard such news at this moment, he also had a faint sentimentality in his heart, but then he thought of the tragic situation of thousands of drowned corpses piled up on the river beach south of Yangzhou a few days after the Jinling Water Battle, and the sentimentality at this moment faded a lot.

Compared with the tragedy of the Jinling War, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians died in the war, Wang Lin's personal tragedy is undoubtedly much bleaker, at least his death is far from being comparable to Han Daoxun's generosity and fierceness.

"The one in Jinling who used his power to get rid of Lord Wang, and then summoned Shen Yang to his side to do things, it is really not to be underestimated!" Of course, Yin Peng also believed that Wang Lin was definitely not committing suicide, but he received the secret report and rushed to Jianyuan to see Wang Wenqian, and he was not in a hurry to sigh or be angry about Wang Lin's dismal end, he was more worried about what kind of threat Emperor Yanyou would pose to Huaidong at this time than they had predicted in the past.

Wang Wenqian also frowned, and said with emotion: "We still despised him a little in the past!" The one in Jinling not only used this method to summon Shen Yang to his side, but also pinched his nose and named Han Qian as the Marquis of Qianyang, no matter what he thought, he believed that the matter of sealing Han Qian as the Marquis still touched by Zhang Qian and Du Chongtao to some extent. ”

"Yes, the unruly Han Qian in Jinling can tolerate it, Zhang Ben and Du Chongtao don't have to worry about their previous hesitation and hesitation, and there will be too serious consequences if they don't join Yueyang in the first place," Yin Peng asked, "However, Jinling may not mobilize Zhang Pan, and maybe Zhang Ben will continue to defend Jingzhou, but the east side of the Deng Xiang defense line is Junzhou, one of the foundations of the Dragon Bird Army, and it is only natural that Jinling will send the descendants of the Dragon Bird Army to replace Du Chongtao at this time, Will the Zheng family fight for Zheng Hui the opportunity to defend Xiangzhou? ”

"Although Zheng Hui did not directly lead his troops to participate in the offensive against Jinling this time, he was responsible for staying in Yueyang during the Jinling War, which shows that he has won the trust of that person - at the same time, the Zheng family should also have the intention to expand the power and influence of his clan in Jingxiang, Zheng Hui replaced Du Chongtao to integrate the military and government of Deng Xiangjun and the three states, and guard the border of the Western Front, which should be a more certain thing, right?" Wang Wenqian looked at the forest trees in the mountains with far-reaching eyes, and speculated, "And if the person in Jinling wants to show his tolerance and generosity to Du Chongtao, and wants Du Chongtao to atone for his crimes, he should transfer Du Chongtao's troops to attack Shouzhou from the west——"

"But this should be just one of the soldiers and horses in Jinling's attack on Shouzhou, who else will Jinling choose to cross the river to attack Shouzhou from the south to the north?" Yin Peng asked.

Du Chongtao's troops were all withdrawn from the Deng Xiang defense line and attacked Shouzhou from the west as a way of soldiers and horses, but there were only 30,000 horses, and they could not fundamentally threaten the Shouzhou army, which still had more than 80,000 elite troops after absorbing the remnants of the Nanya Forbidden Army, so it was inevitable that they would have to transfer another 30,000 to 50,000 elite combat forces from the Jinling armies, land from Chuzhou, and attack Shouzhou from south to north.

This way, who will be the commander of Emperor Yanyou, who will be the commander of the new successor to the throne, and who can be recognized by Shen Yang, Xinchang Marquis Li Pu and many upstart ministers, Yin Peng is a little puzzled.

Jinling has many options for the commander of the soldiers and horses along the way.

In addition to Li Changfeng, Marquis of Linjin, Yang Zhitang, Wang Yang Zhitang of Yuzhang County, Li Zhihe, Guo Liang, Gao Chengyuan and others, and even Gu Zhilong and Huang Hua, although they were all reappointed as local assassins in the later period of Emperor Tianyou, they all had long-term experience and experience in commanding troops before, and they were not unable to lead 350,000 elites from south to north to clear Anning Palace and the remnants of the Xu family.

Chuzhou and Jinling across the river, and located between Chaozhou and Yangzhou, Jinling with who is the commander from Chuzhou landing, leading the troops from the south to the north to attack Shouzhou, Yangzhou must not be careless.

If you use Lao Cheng to be a serious person, Yangzhou can still relax a little, but if Jinling uses a person like Han Qian who likes to take the sword as the commander, Yangzhou will have to make some appearances and send troops to cooperate with Jinling's attack on Shouzhou, so you have to worry about whether the soldiers and horses sent will be swallowed by him casually find an excuse.

Moreover, Yang Yuanpu's power and trickery in dealing with Wang Lin made it even more difficult for them to believe that Jinling was really sincere in Huaidong's canonization.

Or is it that when Jinling decided to pursue and suppress the Anning Palace and the remnants of the Xu clan, and asked Chuzhou to send troops to help, he completely ignored it?

Yin Peng looked at Wang Wenqian's brows and fell into deep thought, thinking that at this time, people may be having a headache about Wang Lin's "suicide by leaving a book", how to provide a countermeasure to His Royal Highness King Xin, right?

Wang Jun stood in the open verandah, her beautiful eyes like stars cast into the vast wilderness outside the mountain, she could guess what her father and Yin Peng were worried about, and sighed faintly in her heart, she didn't know when this chaotic world would be a head, and she didn't know how Han Qian would react after knowing such news in Xuzhou and receiving Yang Yuanpu's reward as a marquis? He should be able to see that Yang Yuanpu is still too eager, right?