In fact, some of the wealthy families and gentry of Jiangnan who really had a long-term vision had already begun to invest in the north long before unification, and their investment was of great help to the empire to safely survive the primitive capital accumulation stage.

That's why the empire called these people the enlightened gentry, who helped the empire no less in the process of going south.

After the unification of the empire, the number of enlightened gentry increased a lot, because as long as they were not too stupid, then the gentry could at least see that according to historical experience, the current empire should be able to maintain at least dozens to a hundred years of rule, more than a hundred years of peace, and then it is possible to enter the end of the dynasty.

In other words, if nothing else, those who are alive now will be bathed in the glory of the empire for the rest of their lives.

Then, following the baton of the empire is the best way to keep the door from falling.

Don't you see that even the four wealthy families of Jinling have the heart to go to the big ship of the empire?

However, there are not so many families who can really see the direction of the baton of the empire.

Or for example, the four wealthy families, their approach made many families with real heritage secretly laugh at themselves - when the empire was in Jiangbei before, they did not send charcoal to invest in the snow, and they did not become the first batch of "enlightened gentry".

Before the empire went south, he sent a few daughters to his grandson, and he wanted to change the court, but he did not actively assist in the process of the army going south, did not help coordinate the problem of military rations, did not coordinate the stability of the market, but spent a lot of money to repair the "Grand View Garden".

After the reunification, the emperor set the capital Jinling to go south, and they actually thought of dedicating the Grand View Garden to the newly arrived emperor as a palace .......

It's hard to imagine such a stupid person, right?

Think of your yard as a royal palace? It's just looking for death.

Fortunately, His Majesty did not order the Jia family to be copied, he just issued an edict on the spot, ordering the Jia family to donate the Grand View Garden and transform it into the campus of Jinling University.

Since it is a donation, then naturally don't think about recovering a penny of cost, you know, this Grand View Garden was created by the Jia family who were greedy for the private wealth of the former dynasty patrol salt royal Shi Lin family!

At such a big price, the Jia family didn't even get the door plaque of the enlightened gentry!

It's a tragedy.

It's also a joke.

In the eyes of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, although the four wealthy families of Jinling were defeated in the past, they also had a layer of gold and jade.

Now they don't even have the glamour of their appearance.

In fact, in the eyes of the truly promising wealthy gentry, the most beautiful, the most valuable, and the most glorious at present should be those families with the plaque of the enlightened gentry with the inscription of the crown prince Xu Shiyang, and then the plaque of the emperor's imperial pen inscription.

These two things are hung on the door, which is the guarantee of the family's prosperity in the new dynasty for hundreds of years to come.

Yes, you read that right, the inscription of the crown prince is more important than the emperor's imperial pen.

Because the gentry and wealthy families who really understand the general trend of the world know that the one who really controls the overall situation of the empire is the future emperor, the current crown prince.

This is also the reason why some Jiangnan gentry heard that the national policy of the next stage of the empire (this is not difficult to inquire, the newspapers are constantly publicizing) is "the population goes north, the industry goes south", and immediately sent the outstanding children of the family to pack up and go north:

It is true that the emperor and the capital are in Jinling, but the prince is still in Yanjing!

Everyone can't help but think about it in advance, if the crown prince ascends the throne in the future, is there any possibility for the empire to move its capital to Yanjing!

The answer, of course, is – it's very likely!

A circumstantial evidence is that the empire is building two palaces at the same time in Yanjing and Jinling, one south and one north!

Although they are all in the suburbs, in terms of magnificence, the imperial palace in Yanjing is a little stronger than the imperial palace in Jinling - because of the different population densities in the suburbs, the land acquisition in Jinling is much more expensive than the land acquisition in Yanjing.

Of course, in fact, the reason why Xu Shiyang allowed this is mainly to take into account both the north and the south, the national defense security of the north and the expansion needs of the south, neither of which can be easily given up, so the only way to continue to maintain the current two-headed dragon situation is to continue to maintain.

Even if he ascends the throne in the future, this situation will not be changed for a while.

Because after Liaodong, Mengwu Grassland and the Western Regions were in hand, the north had actually reached the limit of expansion, and if the empire wanted to continue to maintain offensive expansion, it could only be placed in the south, and it would go all the way from the South Sea to Tianzhu Ocean through developed shipping.

Therefore, Xu Shiyang planned to reside in Yanjing himself to stabilize the northern territory, and at the same time attract Han people from the south to settle and cultivate land in the north.

And his father, as well as his son in the future, will sit in the south and preside over the external expansion work - the combat effectiveness of the Nanyang natives is not strong, which is just right for Xu Daizhuo to brush up his military exploits.

Again, if necessary, Xu Shiyang also plans to set up a third capital in Chang'an to preside over the work in the northwest direction - of course, it doesn't seem necessary now, because the kings of Qin and Jin are enough to establish a safe buffer for the northwest.

Because of this, although the actual combat results proved that the combat effectiveness of the Jiaozhi soldiers was very weak, Xu Shiyang still wanted the Southern Expeditionary Corps to be fully prepared to attack again, and strive to destroy the enemy in a battle.

At the same time, Xu Shiyang also ordered Xu Daizhuo, who was dealing with the old backlog of cases in Yangzhou, to report to the Southern Expeditionary Army.

At this time, the Southern Expeditionary Army was almost ready.

The 60,000 new recruits from Gui and Guangdong provinces have also completed their basic training and are now under the leadership of veterans of the field army to carry out a sweeping operation against the Dongman who rebelled last year -- this can be regarded as a kind of training in lieu of war, so as to make final preparations for the upcoming war of revenge.

……

The fifth day of June.

Xu Daizhuo, the emperor's grandson, led 500 guards to ride into Yongzhou, which had not yet recovered from the war.

The troops he brought were also the last batch of support from the empire to Feng Sanhu, and so far, the 80,000 Southern Expeditionary Army (20,000 veterans plus 60,000 recruits) and 30,000 navy have all been in place.

However, it was still not possible to start the operation at this time, because it was still the rainy season on the Cochin side, and it was not suitable for the movement of the large army at this time.

Xu Daizhuo is only here to adapt to his new position.

"Huh? Welcome, Your Highness. ”

At the entrance of the current Provisional Headquarters of the Southern Expeditionary Army, Feng Sanhu, commander-in-chief of the Southern Expeditionary Army, led all the headquarters personnel to come out to greet Xu Daizhuo.

However, after seeing Xu Daizhuo's dress, Feng Sanhu couldn't help but let out a surprised voice.

Because His Royal Highness the Imperial Grandson wore the uniform of a naval colonel!

"Don't get me wrong, Lieutenant General." After getting off the horse, Xu Daizhuo said bluntly: "I'm not here to provoke conflicts between sea and land. I wear a dress to coordinate the joint actions of the Navy and the Army, which is my duty. ”

Feng Sanhu smiled, it was really interesting, he thought that Xu Daizhuo was here to supervise the army.

Of course, this is not to say that he is really just a liaison, the five hundred guards are enough to tell the story.

But this attitude is really comfortable.