The rain was pouring down and crackling down on the roof of the carriage and the long stone pavement.

Han Qian tightened the reins and slowed down the horse, walked next to the carriage, and said: "I wrote a letter to Xuzhou in the afternoon, thinking about bringing Ting'er and Wenxin's mother and son to Tangyi to live for a few days, and also thinking about waiting for her mother and son to come over and talk about this before officially inviting someone to Yangzhou ......."

"Even if you have a conscience, otherwise she stayed in Xuzhou and knew that you were marrying in Tangyi, even if she didn't say anything, she would be very desolate in her heart." Xi Ying leaned over and said.

The maid Xiangyun sat in the back of the car, a little stunned, and she didn't notice the raindrops falling on her face.

As a personal maid, the entanglement between Wang Jun and Han Qian and Wang Jun's insistence on not marrying all these years, she knows better than anyone else, but she deeply regrets it, because she knows better than anyone what the obstacle between Wang Jun and Han Qian is.

This time she dressed up and followed to Tangyi, she really thought she was coming to relax, after all, Yangtai and other places are also in chaos, although Jiangnan is prosperous, it is not as good as coming to Tangyi to feel at ease, but she didn't think that she would accidentally meet Han Qian as soon as she landed on East Lake, and she didn't expect to stay as a guest, Han Qian suddenly turned to the topic of finding someone to talk about.

Besides, Han Qian wanted to find someone to go to Yangzhou to say goodbye at this time, but the Wang family would definitely agree?

At the wedding banquet of the three princes back then, who openly humiliated the Wang family with the marriage contract, and who was in Fanchang who heard that Lord Ruan and Yin Sima had re-mentioned the marriage contract but left regardless of the sleeves, leaving the young lady alone in Fanchang and embarrassed to face the rumors and rumors all over the city?

Thinking of this, Xiangyun puffed up his stomach for Wang Jun.

"You seem to be sure that I won't turn around and leave after listening to your crazy words, how did you guess that I came here for this?" Wang Jun rested his hand on the guardrail on the side of the carriage, and his ice-skinned little arms reached into the rain, watching the raindrops fall on his slender fingers.

"Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang was in Sizhou last year, drove tens of thousands of cavalry to invade Huaidong, and planned to destroy the reclamation system established by my father in the south of Chuzhou in his early years, but King Xin failed to see through his intentions in time, and still implemented the strategy of clearing the wilderness in the past."

Han Qian wiped the rain off his face and said,

"If in the past, the Huaidong defense line relied on the supply of the entire Great Chu, in order to protect its strength, it would be no problem to avoid the enemy's edge with the strategy of clearing the wilderness. Even if the reclamation system of one place is destroyed, it will only take two or three years to recover, but the fault is that after King Xin sealed the Huaidong, military supplies could only be requisitioned from the only remaining three states and seventeen counties under his rule, and the production system was severely damaged, and it was immediately overstretched. In terms of grain stocks, Huaidong may be able to support another three or four months, but when Chuyang counties encounter another catastrophe, the grain production capacity in the summer and autumn will keep three or four achievements to the sky, and the taxes that can be levied are less, which means that the grain stocks of the Huaidong Army will not be replenished at all this year. In this case, even if Huaidong did not directly send officials to Jinling to talk about the item, but intended to test Tangyi's attitude first, there was no need to call you over......"

Xiangyun felt that she was a fool at this time, and thought to herself, yes, this time the young lady wanted to run to Tangyi to play, and the adults didn't say a word, they didn't stop it, so obviously abnormal, they didn't even see it?

Xi Ying smiled and hugged Wang Jun's shoulders from behind, and said: "Two days before you came, Han Qian also joked that Huaidong's weakness was exposed so thoroughly this time, how could he have to pay a few ladies out in exchange for the assistance of the imperial court, but he didn't want Huaidong's wife to have not paid it out, but Lord Wang, who has always been clever and unwilling to suffer losses everywhere, had to compensate his daughter first......"

Being embarrassed by Xi Ying's words, Wang Jun diverted the topic and asked Han Qian: "Liyang City is intact, but not many households have moved over so far, what are you going to do with this place?" ”

"I'll give it to you as a dowry," Xi Ying said with a smile, "Donghu City is messy, maybe it may not be able to build a shape in three or five years, and Han Qian doesn't have the spare energy to build a mansion in a short period of time, and you can't be wronged to live in a simple and humble room when you get married!" ”

"If you talk nonsense again, I'll ignore you." Wang Jun couldn't help but protest.

"Ji Xiyao has been transferred to Tangyi, and next month, the main teachers and newly enrolled students of the Engineer School, the Medical Care School, and the Martial Arts School will move over, and a normal school will be built," Han Qian said, "Of course, there may only be more than 1,000 people in the initial stage of the school, and there will still be some houses that are temporarily idle, but I don't want too many people to move in for the time being......

The west gate of Liyang City is only 356 miles away from the newly built causeway on the east bank of Chaohu Lake.

In other places, you may feel that this road is far away, but the city wall outside Jinling City is more than 20 miles from east to west, and the distance from the Imperial Palace to Changchun Palace is also more than 30 miles, so you can see that the distance between Liyang and East Lake can be said to be just right.

In the future, build a galloping road between Liyang and East Lake, which can be used by the carriage to drive back and forth, and it will be an hour to go back and forth between Liyang and East Lake.

Liyang is not suitable for the construction of dock port, inconvenient for the transportation of bulk materials, but the environment is quiet, dense forests, the summer climate is warmer than the East Lake, Dongguan thirty or forty miles away, but it is a good place to buy a school and escape the summer.

In the afternoon, I came out of the East Lake camp, took advantage of the rain to go east, and the road was not fast, and I was delayed for an hour on the way, and walked along the street into Liyang City, and in front of a house on the east side of the long street, the sky was almost dark.

Although the defenders in Liyang City have cleared the house and there are people to maintain it in normal times, Han Donghu still took the guards in to search it first, and Han Qian lived in with Wang Jun and Xi Ying.

As early as before Emperor Tianyou did not cross the river to capture the Shengzhou Jiedu Embassy (Jinling), Liyang City was the tooth tent of the southwest camp of the Huainan Army at that time, and Li Yu lived in this house - the warships of the Huainan Army at that time also took the Yuxi River, entered the Yangtze River from Chaohu Lake, and crossed the river and landed on the west side of the Shengzhou Mansion.

Emperor Tianyou crossed the river to set the capital of Jinling, and then gave this house to Li Yu, but when Li Yu resigned and returned to Yuzhang, he handed over the fields and houses given by Jinling, Liyang and other places.

After that, this garden became the official garden under the jurisdiction of the Liyang County Government.

Coming from the long street, the house is a little unexposed from the outside, but after the three of them walked in, they saw that there was a hole inside, and there were several sets of yards in front and back, and there must be hundreds of houses in total.

Although the pavilion hall is not very tall and wide, the blue bricks and tiles, the pink wall curved corridor and many flowers and trees such as bamboo pomegranate and begonia complement each other, which is very elegant and quiet.

Large and small meandering ponds in the garden can also be seen everywhere, and there are many koi fish in them, which can be seen that after the recovery of Liyang City, although this garden is not inhabited, it is well cared for, and the road and the front yard of the house

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There are no weeds and rotting leaves.

There is a wooden building in the middle garden built on the rockery three or four zhang high, Wang Jun and Han Qian, Xi Ying climbed the wooden building, they just walked through the long street in full view, and the extreme overlook, the Qingcang Mountain in the north of Liyang City, looming outside the rain curtain, as if a dragon lurking in the rain.

Although Wang Jun made up her mind to come over and pierce this layer of window paper in person, and came all the way to think about the various circumstances of this matter, but Han Qian directly pierced this matter, and the courage in her heart seemed to be completely drained, but at this time, she was embarrassed to get up, standing in front of the window railing of the wooden building, stretching her soft and slender figure, as if she wanted to imprint the beautiful scenery in front of her deeply into her heart.

"This house, doesn't make you feel that you don't have the habit of living in Jianyuan, right?" Han Qian asked.

Wang Jun glanced at Han Qian with disgust, afraid of being teased by Xi Ying, so he ignored his words.

"I said, everyone is so familiar with each other, so there is no need to find someone to talk about the dowry and dowry, or let's talk directly about what kind of dowry Huaidong needs before marrying you?" Xi Ying sat casually in front of the long case in the hall, holding his snowy chin in his hand, and asked Wang Jun.

"I was full of thoughts that I would be humiliated again when I came to Tangyi this time, and I could only go back to Yangzhou to guard the nunnery, and I didn't think of asking my father what the conditions for believing in the king were," Wang Jun took a breath, sat down with Xi Ying, and said, "However, Huaidong's situation in the next two years is very difficult, and it needs to add millions of grains from the outside every year to rebuild the reclamation system, but I am worried that the imperial court will take this opportunity to suppress and raise the ...... of withdrawing the feudal domain."

"If there is no unstable factor of the late Red Mansion and the Queen Mother, this may really be a good opportunity to abolish the Huaidong Domain,"

Han Qian stood in front of the window, sighed lightly, and said,

"However, the interior of the court is far from stabilizing, Huaidong and Huaixi had better maintain the status quo first, but Yang Yuanyan's conditions are nothing unacceptable-"

"Fortunately, otherwise, in order to marry you, Han Qian may have to forcibly detain you this time, and the world will laugh at you." Xi Ying said with a smile.

Since the Xichuan War, Xi Ying has followed Han Qian's side, like a concubine and a maid, the relationship is close and trusting, and naturally he knows best the entanglement between Han Qian and Wang Jun over the years, especially Fanchang's refusal to marry, in the final analysis, Wang Jun has borne great sacrifices to provide the best excuse for Han Qian to return to Xuzhou.

If there were any more twists and turns in the marriage between Han Qian and Wang Jun, she felt that it would be better to solve it directly by force.

Anyway, Han Qian forcibly implemented the new policy in Xuzhou, and during the Jinling Incident, he further offended the clansmen and lords, and he was not afraid of one more thing that would make people all over the world talk about it.

Wang Jun smiled and said, "Even if you know Huaidong's needs now, I'm afraid this matter won't be so easy to handle, right?" ”

"If it's not easy to do, you have to do it," Han Qian said with a smile, "You also know about the situation in Donghu and Xuzhou now, compared to Huaidong, I actually need two to three years to stabilize the foundation here—it's also a shame that your father couldn't get a glimpse of the depth of Tangyi, otherwise he won't compensate you, and I will have to cooperate with Huaidong......"

"You don't want to think about how many people you have calculated over the years, Wang Jun doesn't marry, and if you don't force you to show your ambitions more openly, who in the world can rest assured to cooperate with you?" Xi Ying said angrily.

No kidding, and then the three of them sat in the pavilion to figure out how difficult Huaidong's current predicament was to solve.

Every year, the state and county pay the land tax and the household department to the national treasury, as well as many miscellaneous taxes, are all certain.

In order to maintain the operation of the military and political system, prefectures and counties must also retain a certain percentage; Even the new annual additions in the state and county are kept as local expenses.

Before the household department carried out a large-scale verification of the household registration of the acres of land, there was no place where all the taxes would be handed over honestly, not to mention the current power controlled by the clan lords at the grassroots level, and they wished they could pay a little less.

In addition, the financial resources that can be controlled by the central finance of the outer court are mainly the salt profits controlled by the salt and iron envoys, as well as various taxes and taxes including wine, tea and iron.

This kind of tax, part of it is in the form of grain and cloth and other physical forms - most of the time the tax is also one of the ten extracted in kind to deduct the tax; Some of them were escorted to Beijing in the form of money-making currency for later use.

Even though the prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River remained generally stable and were not affected by the Jinling Incident, the grain that the imperial court could collect from the prefectures and counties every year was only 2 million stones, 1.2 million horses of cloth, and other miscellaneous taxes and miscellaneous donations fluctuated around 2 million yuan.

This is the income of the foreign courts, and the expenditure is calculated by the envoy department, in addition to the official rewards of the courtiers and hundreds of officials, the largest part of the expenditure is the military expenses of the forbidden army and the guards and pro-army.

In addition, the inner court also controlled the income from coinage and land rent of Huangtian Villa in various places in the name of the Inner Court Bureau, but it was mainly used for the expenses of the inner government and the clan, and had nothing to do with the outer court; Whether this money and food can be used for emergency purposes and how much it is taken out depends on the mood of Emperor Yanyou and the Queen Mother.

To tell the truth, Da Chu's worries about external troubles have not stopped in the past two years, and it is not easy for Shen Yang to preside over the central government affairs, and it is not easy to barely maintain the operation without collapsing.

The in-kind taxes that the imperial court can directly collect every year are only more than two million stone grains and more than one million pieces of cloth—the transportation of these in-kind taxes is also the transportation of the prefectures and counties at this time—even if it is not enough to distribute the Manchu civil and military officials, reward and maintain such a large system of forbidden troops and guards, and it is necessary to take an additional part from the land rent harvest of the Huangzhuang to supplement it.

Now Huaidong is short of millions of stone of grain every year, and the imperial court is no longer able to directly take out so much grain, but even if it takes money to buy from the people, based on the high grain prices in Jianghuai in the past two years, it will have to take out two million yuan a year......

In the case of such a tight financial situation in the center, if you really want the inner and outer courts to squeeze out so much money and food from between your teeth and reinforce Huaidong, you can't ask King Xin to mortgage all the profane pants before you are willing?

Although the court is not only not monolithic, but even very divided, no matter which party the king cooperates with, the additional expenses of as little as two or three million yuan in the next two or three years, or as much as four or five million yuan, are a huge obstacle that no one can avoid.

Even if Han Qian wanted to cooperate with Yang Yuanyan, the king of letters, he had to discuss and find a way together to see how he could overcome this obstacle without touching the fundamental interests of Huaidong under the obstruction of many courtiers.

It's not really hard.

This is not to have Han Daoming as internal aid, it is enough for Han Qian and King Xin to join forces to put pressure on Jinling.

Of course, with Wang Jun, who knows the thoughts of his father Wang Wenqian and Xinwang Yang Yuanyan and other Huaidong generals, Han Qian can more clearly sort out the intricate entanglements of interests within Huaidong

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Shi will also involve the secrets of the late Red Mansion, Han Jun, the Queen Mother, and even Li Zhihe's life experience, and tell Wang Jun so that she can prepare to help him with detailed countermeasures.

Knowing so many secrets, Wang Jun didn't seem too surprised, his slender hand held his snowy and round chin, and he looked at Han Qian with beautiful eyes and said, "You really want to marry me, or you can invite Prince Shou to Yangzhou to say goodbye, so that my father can also regain some face......

"Yang Zhitang?" Han Qian held his back to the windowsill, clasped his hands in front of his chest, and bent up one hand to support his chin and groaned.

"Even if King Shou doesn't know the more detailed situation, he should also be extremely vigilant against Lu Qingxia and Li Zhihe. And Shen Yang, Yang En and the others may be more loyal to His Majesty, but for King Shou, if His Majesty is too deeply controlled by the old subordinates of the Shenling Division, His Royal Highness King Xin, who is also the widow of the previous emperor, may not be another better choice for him,"

Wang Jun looked at Han Qian and said,

"As you said, if there was no Lu Qingxia and others to restrain the Queen Mother behind their backs, King Shou and many people in the court might be more resolute in supporting the withdrawal of the feudal domain, but King Shou should hope that Huaidong can maintain the status quo now. And His Royal Highness King Xin may have secretly asked someone to talk to King Shou about it, but King Shou is not sure that he will make this matter alone......"

Han Qian nodded and said, "Or maybe he doesn't want to provoke His Majesty to be suspicious of him at this time, and he doesn't want to take the lead in doing this—maybe the marriage contract between you and me was proposed by this old fox first?" ”

"My father went to Chuzhou in mid-July to see King Xin, Ruan Yan came forward to talk about it, how did King Xin think of this, but he didn't mention it, maybe it was really King Shou who said it...... "When Wang Jun pondered the question, his beautiful eyes gave people a slightly blurred feeling, and his eyebrows were also slightly frowned unconsciously.

"If King Shou had been involved in this matter a long time ago, and asked King Shou to come out and say goodbye, he couldn't refuse. And King Shou is in front of His Majesty, and he can also use the excuse that he can't push back the entrustment here, but he takes the initiative to make peace with Huaidong. Of course, the whole thing is just enough to push forward the cooperation we have not reached with Shou Wang for the time being, and it can be counted in one fell swoop—but if Lord Assassin Shi knew that his daughter was so eager to turn his elbow this way, I really don't know what he felt in his heart. Xi Ying said with a smile.

Wang Jun stretched out his hand to hit Xi Ying, but Xi Ying was so agile that he easily dodged on the side of his body.

Han Qian pondered for a long time, and said to Wang Jun: "Whether Yang Zhitang is involved in this matter or not, we are still just guessing, even if I send someone to test it, Yang Zhitang, the old fox, is very wary, maybe he will directly shirk the matter of kissing, it is not good to be too hasty." However, before Tangyi and Huaidong, there is one thing that can be cooperated first to lay the ground......"

"What can be done first?" Wang Jun asked.

Han Qian said: "In June and July, Tangyi reclaimed more than 100,000 acres of land and cleaned up tens of thousands of old houses, and I want to arrange for people to go to Yangzhou to sell these fields and houses at a low price of 12......

Not to mention Jiangdong and Zhejiang, the people of Yangtai and Yangtai are not without surplus grain.

Yang and Thailand are the land of fish and rice, and they have not suffered from military disasters in the past ten years.

During the Jinling Incident, King Xin sent troops to occupy Yang and Taizhou, and also tried his best to win over local forces, and only needed to pay taxes normally, which was far from the later period when the Chuzhou army was preparing to withdraw to the north bank for a month or two, and plundered Runchang and other states without scruples.

The people of Yangtai and Yangtai not only have grain in stock, but also not too little.

However, the problem is that the commoners, especially the Shixiang clan, have surplus grain in their hands, and in addition to paying the normal field tax and Ding Tax, it is impossible for the Huaidong Army to directly grab grain in their own ruling area unless it is absolutely necessary - if it really comes to this point, it is better to kneel down directly and take the initiative to ask the imperial court to withdraw the feudal domain.

Even if there is a temporary tax increase, it will eventually be apportioned to the common people, which will further aggravate internal contradictions and turmoil.

Of course, if the Huaidong Army can have enough money, not only can Yangtai and Tai buy a certain amount of grain, but they can even send people to Runhu, Lake and other land of fish and rice where grain is more abundant to buy grain.

After all, Huaidong is still under the jurisdiction of Great Chu, and the Huaidong army has suffered successive military disasters and floods, even if the imperial court does not help, it will not restrict Huaidong from purchasing grain from Jiangnan Prefecture.

The same is true for Tangyi.

Tangyi's grain is extremely scarce, and the newly cultivated grain fields have not yet reached the harvest time, even if there is a harvest this autumn, it is necessary to first meet the problem of food for the young people of the generals in the coming year, and the grain used in the army and industrial construction will need to be purchased for a long time.

At present, in addition to the 20,000 stone japonica rice and 30,000 yuan allocated by the Privy Council every month, Tangyi also buys 60,000 or 70,000 stone of grain and grain from the prefectures and counties where the grain price is still low, and even from Yuzhou under the rule of Hou Wangyi of Changxiang, to transport it to Tangyi to meet the consumption.

Such a huge amount of consumption, in addition to the Han family's continuous sale of fields and houses in Xuanshe and other places, and the purchase of grain and other materials from Xuanshe and other prefectures to send to Tangyi, is also mainly due to the fact that Xuzhou has collected more than 800,000 horses of Qianyang cloth and 4 million catties of seed cotton from the cotton weaving industry this year.

The tax in kind of Dachu was mainly grain and cloth, which was used as a necessity of life, and sometimes it was even a currency harder than gold, silver and copper.

Han Qian used work instead of payment in Tangyi, and when he hired the generals to work, he mainly used grain to offset the money, but the labor service money requisitioned from the Guangde Army and Jiangzhou was paid with Qianyang cloth, and the labor workers were not unhappy at all.

Jiangzhou and Guangde Mansion were ruled by Zhou Yi and Chen Jingzhou, and Han Qian even used Qianyang cloth to replace the grain stored in the warehouses of these two prefectures, while Changxiang Hou Wangyi was more willing to exchange Xuzhou for grain and grain with high-quality and cheap Qianyang cloth......

At the same time, the capacity of the Chishan Club has gradually recovered, as long as there are no major changes in the follow-up, only more than 800,000 horses of Qianyang cloth and 4 million catties of seed cotton can be exchanged for 6,700,000 stone grain for Tangyi.

At this time, coupled with the support of the Han family's bankruptcy, many things on Tangyi's side can be carried out simultaneously.

However, the problem of the Huaidong Army at this time was that not only did they have limited surplus food in their hands, but they also couldn't come up with much money.

Tens of thousands of old houses and tens of thousands of acres of fields are really sold in Yangzhou, and they can almost get more than 200,000 yuan to lend to Huaidong for the purchase of grain and grain - no matter how low the land price of Tangyi is, the households in Yangtai and Yangtai will not be very tempted, but the households in Chuzhou who fled from the war and their houses were burned down and even the displaced people who fled south from the north bank of the Huai River and Sizhou are different.

While this will only delay the crisis for a month or two, it will also allow more time for subsequent resolutions......

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