"General Dong ordered the whole army to be mobilized, and most of the soldiers of the Fifth Division have been rebuilt!" Sun Chengren sat on the cash cabinet of the newly opened "Sun Ji South Store" in Penglai County (i.e., Dengzhou City), listening to the news reported by one of his juniors. It was still early in the morning, and there were not many people on the street, so both of them were a little bored and could gossip.

The "Fifth Division" mentioned by the two of them refers to the 4,000 soldiers of Dong Xueli's department, and the number is naturally given by Shao Shude. In the nearly one year since his retreat from Jinan, Shao Shude has spent a lot of effort to rectify these servant troops: the old, the young, the soldiers, the weak and other unqualified sergeants have been eliminated one by one. Some of these laid out soldiers were reclaimed in Dengzhou, as the basic plate of the East Coast people's control of the place, and the land they were allocated was the land of the original landlords and gentry, which made a mortal enmity with the gentry, and from then on they could only follow the East Coast people to the dark; Of course, some of the soldiers who had been laid out were diverted to Sakhalin Island and the eastern coast mainland, about one-third of the number.

After the reorganization and elimination of these troops, Shao Shude gave them numbers and stations, such as: 4,000 soldiers of the First Division, Zhai Congge served as the division commander, and the station was Jeju Prefecture, Jeju Island; 4,000 soldiers of the second division, division commander Qin Shangxing, stationed in Jimo County, Laizhou Prefecture; 2,000 soldiers of the Third Division, division commander Sun Shouzheng, stationed in Yin County, Ningbo Prefecture; 3,500 soldiers of the Fourth Division, division commander Chen Zhilong, stationed in Ninghaizhou, Dengzhou Prefecture; 4,000 soldiers of the Fifth Division, the division commander is Dong Xueli, and the station is Penglai County, Dengzhou Prefecture; 3,000 soldiers of the Sixth Division, division commander Xie Qian. The station is Weihaiwei, the capital of Dengzhou; 3,000 soldiers of the 7th Division. Division Commander Ding Mingwu. The station is in Laizhou Fuye County; The eighth division, 3,000 soldiers, division commander Du Chong, stationed in Zhaoyuan County, Dengzhou Prefecture; 4,000 soldiers of the Ninth Division, the division commander Niu Chenghu, was stationed in Huang County, Dengzhou Prefecture; The 10th Division has 3,000 soldiers, and the division commander Ding Weiyue is stationed in Dinghai County, Ningbo Prefecture.

Ten divisions totaled 33,500 men. That's a lot less than the 55,000 people at its peak. However, after the successful "slimming", the average combat effectiveness of each unit has improved, and the limited resources can be fully invested in the soldiers who can be used. As for the unbearable, it is natural that you can't make up the numbers in the team anymore, so you can only go home and farm.

After this rectification, the combat effectiveness of each unit has been improved, and it can fight with the green battalion of the Qing army in the north if it is pulled out alone, and the few troops who are good at fighting will even go beyond the front line of the ordinary green battalion. However, Shao Shude gave them the name "division" (the internal military system is still the Ming Dynasty, that is, the "battalion" is the unit), but they are not allowed to increase or decrease the number of troops at will in the short term. Unless Shao Shude himself approves it, it is not feasible to disarm or recruit troops privately. Violators will be severely punished by Shao Shude, whose prestige depends on the endorsement of more than 20,000 officers and soldiers directly under the command of the East Coast.

In addition, Shao Shude also stipulated that the government of the Heishui Pioneer Corps on the east bank would pay for the military rations of the various ministries for the next year, and that the ministries could raise their own food and salaries in their respective stations after that -- of course, the premise was that they did not make a fuss with the heavens and people, otherwise the east coast would interfere. The reason why this is done is also helpless, the burden of tens of thousands of servant troops is too heavy, and the territory on the east bank that can be firmly controlled in his hands is only a Jiaozhou Fort in Laizhou Prefecture, except for the original Fushan County, Wendeng County, Dasongwei, and Chengshanwei.

Among them, Jiaozhou Fort is a military fort, not to mention that the people on the east coast have cleaned up potential local opposition forces and seriously set up administrative institutions in Fushan and Wendeng counties, which have been recuperating in the past few years, and the current order of agricultural production has been greatly restored, local bandits have also been effectively eliminated, the population has increased to a certain extent, and the market has gradually prospered. In particular, Fushan County, which is closest to Yantai, has a population of more than 60,000 -- which is already more than the figure of Chongzhen's 15 years, and the county has popularized the three-crop rotation system on a large scale -- for this reason, the people on the east coast have almost brought over all the cattle and sheep left by the Koreans on Jeju Island, and there are now some stalling horses, breeding cattle, and breeding sheep on the island -- grain production has steadily increased in the past two years, and the soil texture has also been improved to a certain extent.

The policy implemented by the people of the East Coast in Fushan County has given the county a new look, and the great governance of the great governance that several generations of emperors in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties have failed to do has actually been done under the high-pressure rule of the East Coast people. At present, the county is small and hidden, everyone can live, and people of insight have put away their different thoughts after seeing this change, and the people's hearts have gradually obeyed.

According to the statistics just released in July, Fushan County has enjoyed a bumper summer grain harvest, with a total of 11,000 tons of wheat and nearly 100,000 tons of alfalfa harvested in the county. This kind of grain production is basically enough to ensure the food needs of all the population of the county for a year and there is a surplus, and the production of alfalfa is not only more than enough to feed livestock (obtained from Jeju Island, which is loaned to households by the Northwest Reclamation Bank), but also to support the consumption of military mules and horses. And this is just summer grain, after harvesting this stubble, everyone can also plant another season of miscellaneous grains, the harvested grain is purely earned, even if there is more surplus after paying taxes, you can sell it to improve your own life. It's a pity that Shao Dashuai of the yellow-clothed army does not allow the people to hold more than 30 acres of land, otherwise everyone can use this money to buy land, and now they can only save it for emergencies.

Fukuyama County has grown (or should it be "recovered") so rapidly that it dwarfs the famous Penglai County, the former capital of Denglai, not far away. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Penglai County was repeatedly attacked by soldiers, and after the Qing army entered the customs, it changed hands several times between the Ming, Qing and the east coast, and the vitality was greatly damaged. In the past three or four years, with the Qing army being expelled from Denglai, Penglai County has only lived a few years of peace. It was a very good time in the memory of the peasants, when the landlords and gentry died and ran away, and no one collected the rent, except for the occasional arrival of the army from the east coast to collect some rations.

However, after this county was "rewarded" by Shao Dashuai to Dong Xueli and Dong Zongbing, who came to surrender from the west (the Ming people generally understood the division commander as the chief military officer of a town), the county's good days came to an end. First of all, the people were repeatedly levied to rebuild the city wall and build roads, and then Dong Zongbing also began to ask them to collect taxes, although the taxes collected were not as good as the taxes in the previous Ming Dynasty, but everyone was not rich, so the development of Dengzhou gradually slowed down. Even, some landless poor people also ran to Fushan County, Wendeng County, hoping to mix up the identity of the land, which makes Dengzhou's population increasingly scarce, the county's population has fallen below 100,000, although the people's livelihood has slowly recovered from the withering, but the speed is far less than Fushan, Wendeng and other places.

However, Dengzhou is Dengzhou after all, and its geographical location is still extremely important. Especially after Shao Shude sent people to dredge the water city "Xiaohai" (a place for ships to moor, protected by a city wall) that had been silted up for many years, Dengzhou City developed by relying on its unique conditions and a relatively large population in Dengzhou. Leather goods, mountain goods, seafood, timber, livestock, pearls, medicinal materials, building materials and other commodities from Heishui were transported to Dengzhou by sea, and Dengzhou's grain, handicrafts, gold and even labor flowed into Heishui through this route, and the trade between the two places started so difficult.

Now the Sun family has gone to Dengzhou to open a branch, which is also out of this due intention. Anyway, Dengzhou City is a big city, although it has been repeatedly warned at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but most of the city buildings have been preserved, so in terms of pattern, it should be far better than the states and counties of Denglai Prefecture at this time. In other words, no matter how withered the livelihood of the people in the countryside of Dengzhou is, at least the population and commerce in the city of Dengzhou are still okay.

Especially after Dong Xueli's 5th Division of 4,000 officers and soldiers was stationed, the city's commerce developed rapidly. You must know that the thousands of officers and men of the Fifth Division have fought in Qingzhou, Jinan, Dongchang, and Yanzhou for a year or two, and they have conquered a large number of cities, and their bags are quite large, so the demand for all kinds of commodities is quite large. The opening of the second store of the "Sun Ji South Store" here can be regarded as the right way, and it will develop in time -- provided that Dengzhou is not threatened by war.

Dengzhou is certainly not threatened by war for the time being! For this point, Sun Chengren is very sure. Therefore, he quickly said to his younger people: "If you want to spread any gossip when you go out, I can do my part." Nowadays, it is possible to worry about the price of food rising three times a day in the market, so it is better to make some preparations as early as possible. Well, tomorrow you can bring money to the grain store in the city -- yes, the one newly opened by Lord Dong's brother-in-law -- and buy some rice and noodles. After the Fifth Division sets out, find out more news, make more preparations, and operate as usual, don't panic, the sky won't fall yet! ”

In fact, Sun Chengren is right. This time, the whole army mobilized not only the Fifth Division, but also the Ninth Division Niu Chenghu Division stationed in Huangxian County, and 8,000 men from these two divisions were conscripted to defend the Denglai border, which was just a normal round battle. They will enter the Jiaozhou Fort and replace the first and second divisions that have been fighting abroad for a long time to maintain their combat effectiveness.

Since the construction of Jiaozhou Fort on the east bank was completed and the city wall of Yexian County was also rebuilt, the Qing army extinguished the idea of advancing eastward. On the one hand, they built a fortress in Qingzhou Mansion and held a large group training, and at the same time sent envoys to contact the east bank for the second time, which seemed to intend to negotiate peace, but Shao Shude rejected it again.

In the face of such a situation, the Qing court also felt quite helpless, so it could only station the soldiers and horses withdrawn from the Shanxi battlefield to various key nodes, and at the same time ruthlessly relocated the people of many coastal states and counties to the interior, which naturally set off local turmoil again. It's just that the Qing court was very determined and suppressed any opposition to the relocation of the border as soon as possible, so this matter was also stumbled and implemented. It's just that this is not very useful for the people on the east coast, because they are not as ineffective as Zheng's army back then, and at the same time they have a strong ability to attack fortifications - of course, this is a later story.

At the same time as reconstructing the defense line against the yellow-clothed thieves on the northern coast, the Qing court also began to transfer part of its troops (about 780,000 people) to the south in two ways to support the precarious shape in the south, but it is unknown how much effect it had. (To be continued......)