A rapid and loud baby cry suddenly broke through the silent night sky of Dragon's Tooth City.

The courtyard was full of anxiously waiting people, and at this time they all looked happy, and they couldn't help but walk to the delivery room.

Zhao Laoqi was still a little reserved, rubbing his hands, and saw his mother-in-law pushing the door and walking out of the delivery room, so he eagerly ran to the corridor and asked, "Was it born male or female?" ”

"A woman's birth is a ghost gate, you don't care about your daughter, but you only care about whether she is born a man or a girl? If you give birth to a girl, do you still want to throw it away? The mother-in-law of the Zhao family glared at Zhao Laoqi, and said angrily.

"Zhao Ye is also concerned about chaos, is Madame in good health?" Tian Cheng stepped forward and asked.

Han Qian's leadership of the Chishan Army in Jinling can be said to be frightening step by step, it can be said that it is walking on thin ice, no one can be sure that there will be no accidents, and if Zhao Ting'er can raise a male heir for Han Qian at this time, the significance of this is obvious to stabilize the hearts of the people in Xuzhou.

Tian Cheng, Yang Qin, and Xi Chang rushed to Longya City to visit Zhao Ting'er in the two days when he was in labor, and Ba Wang's could hope that Zhao Ting'er could give birth to an heir with a male surname for Han Qian.

"Mrs. Xi thought I was in the way and kicked me out, as if I could still harm the court? Whether it's a man or a woman, I forgot to look at it. The mother-in-law of the Zhao family said with a face full of grievances.

"Han Qian has written to me many times, saying that Ting'er will not let you interfere with the birth of a child, and especially emphasizes that you have to listen to Ah Jiu in all matters of birth and rearing, and you still insist on going over to make trouble?" Old Zhao said angrily.

"I have all the old rules handed down from my ancestors, how many women have been born and raised like that, why do you use my own daughters to add to the chaos? How old is Ah Jiucai, she has never married and raised, what can she know? The mother-in-law of the Zhao family said indignantly.

Tian Cheng, Yang Qin, and Xi Chang shrugged, this was a family matter that they couldn't intervene in, but looking at Zhao's puffing appearance, listening to the loud baby cry in the delivery room, it was inconvenient to continue to ask whether Zhao Ting'er was born a man or a woman, so he could only wait patiently in the yard.

After a long while, Du Jiuniang, who had been waiting in the delivery room for a day and a night, pushed the door out tiredly, stretching her waist, but suddenly saw so many people standing in the courtyard, she was startled, stuck out her tongue, and hurriedly saluted Tian Cheng, Yang Qin and others, and said: "Mrs. and the little son, mother and son are safe, congratulations to Zhao Ye, be a grandfather......

Seeing that Zhao Ting'er was born and raised, Tian Cheng, Yang Qin, and Xi Chang looked at each other with satisfaction and smiled.

Although the little son born at the moment may not be Han Qian's only heir, or even a son-in-law, but under the current situation, Han Qian can have an heir to stay in Xuzhou, and everyone can do whatever they need to do next, don't worry about any accidents in Jinling, and Xuzhou will fall into disintegration.

"Shouldn't you send someone to Jinling to report the good news to your lordship?" Yang Qin rubbed his hands and asked.

"I'll go to Jinling to report the good news." Xi Ying pushed open the door of the delivery room and walked to the front of the porch, and said to Tian Cheng and the others with the fatigue of taking care of Zhao Ting'er for several days.

Xi Ying did not sneak into Jinling with Han Qian before, but chose to stay in Xuzhou, mainly to take care of Zhao Ting'er, who was pregnant.

At present, Zhao Ting'er is safe to give birth to, and Du Jiuniang, who can be called the holy hand of gynecology at a young age, is taken care of by her side, and at the same time, she is a little boy who can make many people feel at ease, Xi Ying thought to herself that she should also go to Jinling to meet Han Qian.

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At the end of July, the scorching heat had gradually dissipated and the weather became cooler, but the rainy downpours in the eastern prefectures of Jiangnan for several days left the land muddy and the flash floods on the verge of breaking out, which also exacerbated the increasingly severe famine in Jinling.

Fortunately, when the passage of Jinling through quarrying and Tuxi into Chizhou and Jiangzhou was not closed, Xi Ying, who was dressed in disguise, took Xi Fa'er and others to land from the northeast foot of Jiuhua Mountain, and a large number of hungry people with yellow and thin faces along the way fled to the west and south.

Of course, they came all the way by boat, and after leaving Ezhou, the situation in the Jiangchi Shuchao Prefectures on both sides of the Yangtze River that they saw along the way was not optimistic.

Han Qian once criticized the historians of the past dynasties for writing books, mainly focusing on the life accounts of princes and generals who were too limited, but he didn't know that the continuation of one dynasty and one generation was the foundation of money, grain, and goods, and Xi Ying's feelings were even more profound at this time.

After the Jinling Incident, the Anning Palace's control over the six prefectures of Shujiangchi, Shouchao, and Chuzhou to the west and north of Jinling was strengthened, but it was blocked by the Chuzhou army and lost control of the Jiangdong prefectures years ago.

Not to mention the loss of the money and grain supply of Jiangzuo Prefectures, the salt farms to which the Salt and Iron Transshipment Department belonged were mainly distributed in the coastal flats east of Chuzhou and Yangzhou, and fell under the control of the Chuzhou Army at this time.

The Jinling Incident, the Chuzhou army raised the banner to rebel, which also made the Great Chu set up a huge team of salt officials under the Salt and Iron Envoy Division, and the millions of salt profits that could be raised every year were also lost.

However, at this time, in addition to the officials and officials in the court, in addition to nearly 10,000 eunuchs and palace maids in the imperial city, the total number of 120,000 Nanya forbidden army and Shouzhou army were distributed inside and outside Jinling City, and there were also 50,000 or 60,000 officials, slaves and maids including the old and weak, women and children, who needed to be supported by the envoys.

At this time, Xu Mingzhen commanded the elite of the 40,000 Shouzhou army on the north bank of the Yangtze River, waiting for an opportunity to attack Chuyang and Yangzhou, and at the same time pinning down part of the elite of the Chuzhou army on the north bank of the Yangtze River; And as Li Zhihe led his troops to Ezhou to recruit troops, Anning Palace was also forced to increase the garrison in Jiangzhou - Anning Palace's military salaries and grain expenses outside Jinling were not only reduced, but further expanded.

All this has made Jinling's degree and expenditure gap bigger and bigger.

However, everything had to be maintained, and Anning Palace could only continue to levy money and grain from Jinling County and the six prefectures of Jiangchi, Shuchao, and Chushou.

In half a year, three additional grain levies were levied, each time more than the first.

The family gate valve also passed on a considerable part of the miscellaneous taxes to the common people.

People who are overwhelmed either flee their places to avoid excessive donations or gather to resist donations and taxes.

Xi Ying took a small boat all the way east, and saw that there were more and more people fleeing from the famine in Jiangchi Shuchao Prefecture, and civil unrest was also one after another - of course, the bad situation that Han Qian was most worried about did not happen, although there were many hungry people along the road, but searching the rivers and mountains, they could always find food to satisfy their hunger and barely survive the days.

The periphery of Jinling is in chaos, the river water rises in summer and autumn, most of the rivers in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, because there is no constraint of the river embankment, the water surface is often as wide as tens of miles or even hundreds of miles, the water camp of the Lou Boat Army and Jiangchi and other states, no matter how many warships and horses, there is no way to completely block the Yangtze River waterway.

In addition, a large number of hungry people rely on the river for food, and when Xi Ying left Ezhou, it was quite inconspicuous to change to a canopy boat.

After landing at the northeast foot of Jiuhua Mountain, day and night, it is also very smooth to stick to Jiuhua Mountain all the way east, and enter Guangde Village on the third day of August.

"You guy, your little life is much more nourishing than ours, see that you are raised for white and strong, this time I have to ask the adults to leave you behind and accompany us to endure some hardships." When Han Qian heard the news, he specially ordered Guo to come over to welcome Xi Ying and others into Guangde Village, but Guo had a deep friendship with Xi Fa'er, and when he saw Xi Fa'er, he happily hammered him in the chest.

Guo Ke is also an important general in the army, looking at the dishes on his face, combined with what they have seen and heard all the way since they entered the northern foot of Fuyu Mountain, Xi Ying knows that the situation of the Chishan Army at the northern foot of Fuyu Mountain is worse than what they saw along the river and what they expected in Xuzhou beforehand.

After asking Guo Qi, Xi Ying learned that more than 300,000 soldiers, women and children could barely survive by only one-third of the normal rations, and even so, the food stored in the army was only enough to last for more than ten days.

In comparison, the state of the Chuzhou army is still the best.

After all, the strength of the Chuzhou army to cross the river was enough to control the three states of Runchang and Su on the north coast of Taihu Lake.

These three states are extremely rich in grain, and the normal backlog of grain that has not been handed over last year alone is as high as one million stones.

In addition, the Chuzhou Army also controlled the Huaidong Salt Farm for the first time.

Huhang, and other Zhejiang regions, although they all recruited troops to protect themselves, were more willing to remain neutral until the Chuzhou army won another decisive victory, but in order to ensure their own needs, they would not refuse Huaidong salt to enter the local area; This can actually raise millions of dollars of military funds for the Chuzhou army.

In addition to Yueyang, which controls the land of Hunan and Kyushu, the tripartite forces entangled in Jinling and the surrounding areas at this time, only the Chuzhou army can talk about strong troops and horses, and the situation is the best.

With Guo Ke directly into the courtyard where Han Qian usually handles military affairs and daily life, Xi Ying saw a shadow from a distance walking out of the study inside, from the moon gate of the verandah, to the courtyard on the west side.

The man walked in a hurry, holding a large stack of books in his hand, just looking at the side of the figure is extremely beautiful, Xi Ying didn't have time to see the face, seeing this person enter the secret place of the military plane, the guards in the courtyard turned a blind eye, secretly thinking that Han Qian is not lonely, who is this collusion?

It was inconvenient for her to open her mouth directly to ask Guo Ke, seeing that the courtyard on the east side was more heavily guarded than Han Qian's place to take charge of military affairs, and asked Guo Ke curiously: "What is the occasion over there, so many guards are around?" ”

"The adult was talking with the old lady and the second master there, and the adult said that Mrs. Xi was coming, so he went directly." Guo said.

"Old lady? Han Wenhuan? Xi Ying didn't know the plan to recruit Gu Zhilong, and when he heard Guo say this, he was startled, thinking that Han Wenhuan shouldn't be in Yueyang at this time, and when the boss Han Daoxun was tortured and died, Han Daoming and Han Daochang couldn't escape the crime of falling into the well, how could he have the face to suddenly run to Han Qian.

Although it was a secret to recruit Gu Zhilong, Xi Ying was definitely qualified to be the core person who heard about it, not to mention that Han Qian had already instructed Guo to take Xi Ying to see him directly in the East Courtyard.

Guo led Xi Ying and Xi Fa'er to the heavily guarded East Cross Courtyard, and whispered the matter of recruiting Gu Zhilong, and said to them the important ones: "It's really a coincidence, the old lady came over one foot earlier than you and came over with the Marquis of Xinchang." ”

Xi Ying had too many doubts in his heart, but at this time, he could only hold back the doubts in his heart, and wait until he saw Han Qian first.