A group of officials in Zizhou, who were willing to join the Shandong Righteous Army, still held their original positions, and those who did not want to be attached were directly escorted back to Yidu Mansion and handed over to the Yamen of the Jiedu Envoy for disposal.

Except for the defenders and officials, after the capture of Zizhou City, the rebels did not make any difficulties for others, including the residents, merchants and ordinary people who took refuge in the city, they were basically not harassed, and their lives and property did not suffer any losses.

Yao Chang knew how important a stable city was to the strategic plan of the rebel army, Zizhou was not far from Jinan Mansion, and if there was a city, there would be merchants, and if there were merchants, there would be intelligence and various materials, and without these two things, it would be impossible to take Jinan Mansion.

After the 50,000 rebels took Zizhou, 20,000 of them were transferred back to Yidu Mansion and belonged to the right government of the Shandong Righteous Army and stationed in Yidu Mansion, and the remaining 30,000 people were stationed in Zizhou and belonged to the left mansion of the Shandong Righteous Army.

Because the former governor of Zizhou and some subordinate officials were escorted to Yidu Mansion, and the affairs of the state government were not managed, Yao Chang temporarily took over the functions and powers of the governor, and the state government was able to barely operate.

The state government was restored, and Yao Chang issued the first decree: Zizhou belongs to the Shandong Righteous Army, and from now on, the common people and businessmen will be exempted from taxes for three years.

News of the tax exemption soon spread throughout the city.

When the city was broken, everyone was panicked, and the people's hearts were unstable, as soon as the news came out, the people and businessmen were overjoyed, and they all found the state government to ask if the news was true, and the enthusiasm was so high that it was unimaginable.

After Yao Chang personally came forward to confirm that the news was true, the hearts of the people in Zizhou quickly stabilized.

In addition, the state government also promised that if the merchants and the people had grain in stock, the state government would purchase it at market prices.

At the same time, it is widely publicized that as long as those who are willing to belong to Zizhou, whether it is a state, county or village or town, all policies will be treated equally!

It is not clear how much impact this news will have on the surrounding states and counties, but after a long time, with the basis of facts, the surrounding businessmen and ordinary people who are still suffering from heavy taxes will definitely be admired, and Zizhou City will definitely grow further at that time.

Yao Chang imagined the scene of the surrounding states and counties and the people being attached, and he was a little hesitant in his heart.

The reason why Jinan Mansion is still immobile at this time, at that time the Shandong Righteous Army attacked Zizhou did not affect their interests, Zizhou was not under their control, forced rescue, and the cost was their own troops and money, grain and grass, once the surrounding states and counties rushed to belong to Zizhou, several counties under the jurisdiction of Jinan Prefecture are not far from Zizhou, if they are also attached because of taxes, or raise troops to make trouble, Jinan Mansion will not sit idly by, then it is likely to take the initiative to attack Zizhou, and the small wall of Zizhou City is low, even if there are tens of thousands of people can not resist the siege.

However, then Yao Chang still thought of some ways, if he wanted to keep the city of Zizhou under the attack of Jinan Mansion, he could not let the enemy army easily come to the city, and if he could not reach the city, the enemy army would not be able to attack the city, and Zizhou could become the frontier position of attacking Jinan Mansion.

Heightened and strengthened the city wall of Zizhou, there were not so many bricks and stones, so Yao Chang planned to make a fuss about the moat.

Therefore, the state government and Zuofu quickly ordered to widen the moat, from the original three zhang wide, expanded to ten zhang wide, and the depth was set at three zhang, and after the completion of the city, the river in the west of the city was introduced into the moat.

At this time, it was the time of agricultural slack, and the state government recruited people into the city in the name of managing rice to participate in the construction of Zizhou City, and hundreds of people came to register their names in one day.

Subsequently, all the rebels were thrown into the excavation of the moat, and ordinary people also participated.

When the rebel army took Zizhou and expanded the moat in full swing, the Yamen of Jiedu sent a batch of grain, grass, gold, silver and copper coins to Zuofu, and at the same time re-dispatched a subordinate official to live in the state ya, specifically to assist Zuofu in managing the logistics supply of 30,000 rebels.

Yao Chang, who was busy and anxious, could finally put aside all the miscellaneous matters such as grain, grass and logistics, concentrate on managing military affairs, and vowed to build Zizhou into an inaccessible place for the enemy, and train the more than 30,000 righteous troops in Zuofu into an elite army capable of attacking cities and plundering land.

After the Shandong Rebels captured Zizhou, the whole of Shandong gradually stabilized.

Mizhou, Weizhou, Laizhou, the soldiers are not bloodless to join the Shandong Righteous Army, the effect is remarkable, Dengzhou, which was still resisting the siege of the righteous army from all walks of life alone, after learning that most of the entire Shandong region fell into the hands of the Shandong Righteous Army in Yidu Province, soon announced to the outside world that Dengzhou voluntarily belonged to the Shandong Righteous Army and accepted the rule of the Yamen of the Shandong Righteous Army!

Besieged Dengzhou for a long time, but the result was that the rebels from all walks of life who got nothing were disappointed, and frantically attacked Dengzhou City, but Dengzhou City was high, and although there were four or five thousand righteous troops without unified leadership, there was no way to take Dengzhou City.

After two days of fierce attack, most of the rebels retreated by the same route and returned to their familiar land, only nearly 2,000 rebels were still hovering near Dengzhou, still waiting for an opportunity to enter Dengzhou City and grab some money and food to survive this winter.

However, their wishes soon turned into extravagant hopes, and the Shandong Rebels stationed in Yidu Province sent 2,000 elites into Dengzhou City to take over the defense of Dengzhou, while the original defenders all joined the Shandong Rebels and were transferred to Yidu Prefecture for training.

At the same time, they also got a news that joining the Shandong Righteous Army not only had food to eat, but also money to get, so the rebels from all walks of life were in their minds and went to Yidu Mansion to ask to join the Shandong Righteous Army.

After the Shandong Rebels took over the defense of Dengzhou, almost all of the entire Shandong East Road fell into the hands of Shen Jin, Yao Chang, and Luo Cong.

All prefectures and counties in Shandong are rapidly moving towards peace and stability, while the situation in the north and south is very different from that in Shandong.

From the Yangtze River in the south to the Huaihe River, and then to Xuzhou, Suzhou, Bozhou, Chenzhou, Caizhou, Xiangyang, Xinyang, Dengzhou, Tangzhou, Ruzhou and other places are wantonly accumulating grain, weapons, and armor.

Regardless of other places, let's just say that Bozhou, Suzhou, and Chenzhou, while accumulating grain and grass and strengthening training and preparation for war, also gave two months of vacation to the officers and men of all armies and units in batches, encouraging and advocating that the officers and men bring their families to the army and to the front line.

Those who bring their families to Bozhou, Suzhou, and Chenzhou can get five acres of barren land for each ordinary soldier, and reclaim it as their own land, which can be tax-exempt for the first three years.

As soon as this order came out, the soldiers whose families were north of the Yangtze River brought their families to the army, and built a number of military camps in Suzhou, Bozhou, and Chenzhou.

As long as the military dependents live in peace of mind and the barren land is reclaimed, the grain of the garrisons in various places does not have to be transported from the south of the Yangtze River, and they can be supplied locally; as long as the money is given for procurement, the food of the military dependents is the most reliable guarantee for the march and war, and when necessary, the military families can also be organized to help transport it.

Through more than half a year of preparation, the number of military dependents in Bozhou, Suzhou, Chenzhou and other places has reached 200,000, although the food of the Suzhou army is not sufficient, but the daily ration is reduced by half, plus the grain purchased by the military families with the money of the soldiers, they can still survive this winter, and even last until the spring of this year.

The food problem, although it is a matter of the imperial court and the governor of Suzhou, but Zhang Xiaoxiang has only been an official in Lin'an, and his only connections are also in the south of the Yangtze River.

When he presided over the Hui Yi Office, he also knew a lot of merchants, although there were no merchants north of the Huai River, but there were many merchants in the Jianghuai area, and they might be able to get grain through them.

But the problem is that Jianghuai has been ravaged by Wan Yanliang, and now he doesn't know where those businessmen are, let alone where to find them.

Just when Yang Congyi was at a loss for the food problem next spring, an old man came to the door, and he was still a businessman, and it was Guo Qing from Taihu County.

Guo Qing, who has not been in contact for many years, how can he find Bozhou?

This has to start with Yang Congyi leading the army to defeat Yan Liang's 500,000 army in three water battles.

After Wan Yan Liang hurriedly retreated, the world shook, because few people knew what happened, so he won all three water battles, and then annihilated Yang Congyi, who crossed the river at night and attacked the enemy army in Zhenjiang camp, became the most dazzling hero of the Great Song Dynasty, and his reputation spread quickly in Jiangnan with the retreat of Wan Yan Liang's army, and the story of his defeat of the enemy army was known to women and children.

Guo Qing, who was far away from the battlefield, also learned the news of Yang Congyi's defeat of the enemy at that time.

He is a businessman, and the first money he earned had a lot to do with Yang Congyi, and later he participated in the return to Yi to supervise the construction many times, providing logistics material procurement and supplies, and made a lot of money.

Later, he used the harbor wharf and warehouse built at the expense of the Xinghua army to go to Goryeo and Wa to do a few overseas trades, and then his wealth increased significantly.

It can be said that Guo Qing has a great relationship with Yang Congyi today, after all, the envoys who return to the Yi Department know are all wealthy businessmen, and those big businessmen can cooperate with him, what they see is the face of the Hui Yi Zheng Envoy, although Yang Congyi does not know.

Now, as a businessman with some fame in Huaixi, when Guo Qing heard that Yang Congyi had defeated the Jin people in several battles and forced them to withdraw their troops in a panic, he immediately decided to find Yang Congyi quickly.

Later, when he heard that the Great Song army crossed the river, pursued the enemy army in the starry night, a hundred miles a day, and chased it to the north of the Huai River in a few days, and even quickly captured several large cities, and firmly held the enemy's counterattack, Guo Qing immediately smelled a business opportunity.

So after hearing that Yang Congyi was stationed in the area of Bozhou and Suzhou, he immediately led his caravan and came to the army with a large number of medicinal materials to offer condolences.

Yang Congyi was about to find a businessman to help solve the problem of rations for 200,000 military dependents, when Guo Qing came to the door, and when he heard that he was now rich and wealthy, he immediately asked him to help with the food problem.

It is undesirable to be able to cooperate with an army like Yang Congyi, not to mention the past friendship, Guo Qing naturally agreed.