A little girl about four years old was comforting her crying mother: "Mom, don't cry, there is meat to eat today, is it the New Year!" ”

Zhao Rui followed the voice and looked over, only to see two pieces of stew on the rice in the little girl's bowl, and her mother's bowl was white rice and green vegetables.

How hard is the life of the people of Dali to this extent? Is it the New Year for a child to eat a piece of meat?

Zhao Rui couldn't believe it, and asked a few more Dali people, only to know that their performance was by no means exaggerated.

When the people who were slaves in Dali had such a serious meal, most of the leftovers from the master's family were mixed together for them to eat, and even the dogs in the family ate the same as them.

Now that these Dali people have come to Zhao Rui, it is not an exaggeration to say that they have really arrived in heaven.

The Dali Righteous Army was stationed not far to the north, their food was a problem, and smelling the aroma of food wafting from Zhao Rui's side, they could only use miscellaneous grains and wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger.

As the leader, Sariwei eats and lives with the rebels, although the food is not good now, but he knows that the good days in the future are not far away, and now with the strong backing of the prince of the Song Dynasty, they can attack and retreat here, and they can go to the north to grab the food in the future.

The soldiers of the rebel army also have military rules, and they have no contact with Zhao Rui's side, but they are still very interested in this prince, it seems that he is at least a good person, and he has taken in 4,000 refugees for them to eat and drink, and this alone is enough to explain.

Now there are 4,000 poor people in Dali, plus 10,000 "outsiders" such as prisoners of the Dali army, and some Jiaozhi people whose families live in remote areas and cannot go home on the same day, Zhao Rui ordered the construction of miners' living quarters.

With the support of Zhao Rui's strong funds, a number of miners' "dormitories" have risen from the ground, and divided rooms of different sizes, the small rooms are for people living in family units, and the large rooms are all shops, which are only for single miners to rest.

Several toilets were also built, garbage stations were set up to keep the mine clean, and showers were set up where the stream passed, so that the miners could bathe after their daily work.

The shower rooms are divided into two sections, men and women, and are very popular with the miners.

Originally, because of the climate, a day of work must be sweaty, and because of the soot staining, everyone's body is a thick layer of stains, at this time to take a bath, change clothes, eat delicious meals, almost everyone feels that this is the life of the gods.

When the soldiers of the rebel army saw the life of the miners, they couldn't help but yearn for it, if they could live a stable life, who would go to fight without sacrificing their lives?

But where there was oppression, there was resistance, and the news of the rebel army once again spread throughout Dali, and soon a force of 30,000 men arrived, and Sheliwei decided to launch their first battle.

Because Sariwei understood that if there was no war, these people would have nothing to eat.

These poorly equipped, tragic rebels are preparing their ranks, and on the other side are a group of peaceful miners mining with peace of mind, they can see each other, and they have become a stark contrast to each other.

"Let's go!"

Sariwei gave an order, and the 50,000 army marched towards the north, and the food and clothing of the 20,000 righteous troops in the past few days were all solved by themselves, Zhao Rui did not take the initiative to provide food, and Sariwei did not ask for it.

Although Zhao Rui's power made Sariwei sigh to himself, he still had his arrogance as the leader of the rebel army, and Zhao Rui reluctantly agreed to shelter, so how could he be embarrassed to ask for food again.

Wait, wait for me to conquer a few villages, have money and food, and then give some to the prince, it will not be in vain to be protected by him!

Zhao Rui didn't seem to have any reaction to the expedition of the rebels, and was still organizing and arranging production, which made the miners feel at ease, after all, no one wanted to be affected by the war, and the current orderly life made them live very comfortably.

The 50,000 rebels of Sariwei marched north, and they were fierce and carried the belief of victory.

After all, there is no food and grass, and if the battle is lost, or the victory is slow, it is possible that you will go hungry today.

This is a battle of resistance, but also a battle for survival, which makes those pampered Tusi troops unable to resist at all. In addition, the northern area belongs to the southeast corner of Dali, there is no strength of the Mongol nobles, and the villages are scattered and the troops are sparse.

Sheliwei pushed out the Tusi of the Ayue Department to be slashed in public, and won the unanimous applause of the people, such a military force was undoubtedly powerful, and attracted many local young people to join the army, and they vowed to slaughter the Tusi who had done many evils.

Killing livestock and cooking rice, the Israeli soldiers ate a solid meal that night, and Sariwei was not too happy, because the grain reserves here were still too small, and 50,000 people really couldn't eat for a few days, and there were still a large number of people who also had to eat food.

After thinking about it, Sheliwei ordered those people who had no intention of joining the army, as well as a group of old and young women and children, to take them to Zhao Rui's coal mine, anyway, Zhao Rui also needed miners, and he was responsible for the food of these people.

Sariwei had no psychological burden and continued to plan his next attack on other villages and towns.

The previous loss of 10,000 Dali soldiers, coupled with the news of the fall of Ayuebu, the Mongolian nobles began to pay attention to the existence of this rebel army, after all, it was this rebel army that captured a series of important towns many years ago.

Report, transfer troops, the four princes Ao Kuo once again led an army of 100,000 to Dali, he led the troops to defeat the rebel army, and now he wants to reappear in the past, and then this group of rebels will be shattered.

But the intelligence said that this rebel army was related to Zhao Rui, which was the most fearful thing for Aokuodu, Zhao Rui did not have many troops, but with the combat effectiveness of the musket, these 100,000 elite soldiers were not sure of victory.

Wait until the capture of the Southern Song Dynasty, and then wave the army to attack Zhao Rui with all their might, this is already the consensus of the officials of the Yuan court.

Ao Kuo is a rare military genius in Dayuan, he is proud of his talents, even if he is not very old, he rarely admires anyone, but what he saw and heard in Guangyuan Prefecture last time made him very interested in Zhao Rui.

This is not normal, a general is also a prince of the Great Yuan, why should he be interested in an enemy? But when Aokuodu discovered that the superficial gold mines in Guangyuan Prefecture had been excavated, he was still deeply shocked.

Bai used nearly 100,000 troops of the Yuan Dynasty to mine him, and simply played the generals of the Yuan army in the palm of his hand, how many people are there in the world with such an amazing talent?

But in any case, this war still has to be fought, Ao Kuodu army went south, first went to Dali, the hereditary governor Duan Shi received a high-level reception, and then sent 100,000 Dali troops and Yuan troops to form a 200,000 crusade army, marching to the southeast.

Zhao Rui didn't feel any relaxed in the mining area at this time, the food brought by his team was finished, and the food from the nearby county town that he had been buying didn't seem to be much, but fortunately, just a few days ago, two Shenzhou ships arrived in Anbang Prefecture, Xiong San sent a letter to ask Zhao Rui how to arrange it.

Zhao Rui replied to the letter, asking Li Fulin to quickly load his weapons and bring them back to the occupied city to exchange them for grain and transport them, and let Jiao Xian, the commander of the navy, be responsible for shipping and safety, so that Zhao Rui could soon get grain and grass replenishment in the coal mine.

In addition, those Xiucai and Taoist priests asked Xiong San to send people to lead Zhang Zhennan, and it happened that he was in short supply of management personnel, which was a good civil official supplement.

At the same time, Zhao Rui allocated the stored grain, first transported it to the coal mine here in Baole Prefecture, and waited until the grain of the Zhancheng State came, and then replenished it to the grain depot in the territory.

Since the Righteous Army went out, the mining area has continued to receive the people of Dali who have gone south, although they know that they have left home for the sake of the Righteous Army, but they are still anxious and panicked.

Not only are they worried about their livelihoods, but they are also worried about whether the Cochin side will really accept them.

Zhao Rui's arrangement quickly dispelled their concerns, in the mining area, there were no idlers, either mining or transporting coal, and there was also work to make board cars.

At this time, the transportation capacity was low, but fortunately, there were almost endless trees nearby, so Zhao Rui ordered a large number of board carts to be built, and then used the horses that captured the Dali army last time to transport coal to Wanya Prefecture.

The Dali horse itself is a horse breed that is good at carrying transport, which can be regarded as making the best use of things, and it can be regarded as solving the problem of insufficient transportation capacity for Zhao Rui.

Previously, Zhao Rui's idea of wanting to move some people to Wanya Prefecture was also realized, those people in Dali did not understand the benefits of Wanya Prefecture before, but with the progress of the transportation work, more and more people discovered the benefits of Wanya Prefecture, which is not inferior to the coal yard, not only has patches of cropland, but also iron mines, copper mines, and smelting centers, so the labor demand here is very large.

Moreover, Wanya Prefecture adheres to Zhao Rui's policy, and all the people who come to settle down will send houses and fields, so there are a large number of Dali people who settle in Wanya Prefecture.

This undoubtedly relieved the pressure on Zhao Rui's grain, in Wanya Prefecture, in addition to the city's own grain, it can also be purchased from the neighboring Xuanhua Prefecture and Fuliang Prefecture, anyway, Zhao Rui is now in piles of gold and silver, which is just used to develop his own strength.

More and more Dali people have settled in Wanya Prefecture, a large part of them are engaged in the transportation of coal, and a small part is involved in the local mineral excavation and smelting work.

At present, in the coal yard, except for the prisoners and hired Jiaozhi people captured by the Dali soldiers, almost all the Dali refugees have settled in Wanya Prefecture.

This made the Jiaozhi people very envious, and many of them secretly went to Wanya Prefecture, and the officials in the neighboring cities turned a blind eye because of Zhao Rui's face, and regarded them as invisible.

Because of the drive of coal mines, the cities of Taiyuan Prefecture, Polynod Prefecture, Guangyuan Prefecture and Qiyuan Prefecture have been enriched, in fact, even if the Jiaozhi Kingdom has lost control of these cities, but for the first time in these cities received full taxes, which made the Emperor of Jiaozhi extremely happy, and coupled with the guilt of the princess, Zhao Rui directly made Jiaozhi the prince of Jiaozhi, named the king of the Northeast, and managed these four cities, as long as the annual taxes are paid in time.

On the one hand, there is no extra force to attack Zhao Rui, and on the other hand, it is also out of fear of muskets, so it is better to sell Zhao Rui and let him take over a few cities, not to mention the truce, and still have a part of the income.

At this moment, the northeast region connecting from Wanya Prefecture to Anbang Prefecture has all become Zhao Rui's sphere of influence.

Zhao Rui is now the king of Yongping in the Southern Song Dynasty and the king of the northeast in Jiaozhi.