Suzhou was known as Fuli in ancient times, and because of its prominent position, it has always been a battleground for soldiers. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In order to seize this place, Huainan has raised troops to the north many times, especially three years ago, Yang Xingmi personally led an army of 60,000 troops to the north, but fought hard under the city of Suzhou for a month, and was finally forced to withdraw because of the lack of food and grass.

At this time, in Qi County, forty miles south of Suzhou, Yang Wu set up the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army here.

Just as Huainan chose to clear the field with a strong wall in the face of the Liang army's southern expedition, this time the Huainan army also chose to deal with the Huainan army with a strong wall and a clear field in the northern expedition.

Therefore, when Yang Wu led the army to Qi County, the people in the city had basically run out, and the grain baggage was also hidden in large quantities.

Yang Wu didn't care about this, unlike Zhu Quanzhong, the Huainan Army had the advantage of the naval army, so the logistics were very smooth, and there was no need to worry about being cut off by the Liang army.

The only thing that gave him a headache was how long the grain stored in Guangling would be able to last if all the baggage had to be transported from the rear.

"There is no need to worry about the weight of grain and grass for the time being, and his subordinates have just received a letter from Luo Zhixiang not long ago, saying that this year's harvest is excellent, and there are bumper harvests in various places, especially the gradual promotion of Champa rice, which makes the grain harvest much more than in previous years. So this year's autumn tax should be completed on time. Gao Miao said with a smile.

The promotion of Champa rice, this is one thing he is personally grasping, and now the income of Champa rice is obvious, which is not only a great credit to him, but more importantly, because the promotion of Champa rice will feed more people for this, which is what he values the most.

"Your Highness, after several years of gradual trial planting, it is basically certain that it can indeed adapt to various environments, especially the characteristics of drought tolerance and short growth period, which is too important for increasing grain production. Therefore, the subordinates suggested that from next year, the Champa rice will be gradually promoted to all parts of Huainan! ”

Yang Wu nodded, now it seems that the time is indeed ripe to promote Champa rice, not only verifying its adaptability and superiority, so that the officials in Huainan are convinced, and now the seeds of Champa rice are enough to be promoted to all places.

"After this battle is over, after returning to Guangling, Mr. Gao will write a piece of music and let everyone discuss it, if everyone thinks it's okay, then start promoting it!" Yang Wu also said with joy.

Then, he continued to ask, "Is there any new news from Guangling now?" How is my father's health? ”

Although Yang Xingmi has come out to take charge of Huainan again, most of the things, as long as they are not urgently needed, will be transferred to the army to be handled by Yang Wu, and he is only responsible for dealing with those urgent matters, which is also arranged in this way considering that his body needs to recuperate.

"Your Highness, rest assured, the king is in good health! And ......" Speaking of this, Gao Miao's face was a little strange and said: "And Your Highness may not be long before there is another brother or sister!" ”

Yang Wu couldn't cry or laugh a little, what is this? After Yang Xingmi retreated, he went to create people all day long.

But as long as the old man likes it, Yang Wu naturally has no opinion.

"As for the affairs of Guangling, there is one thing that His Highness needs to personally inquire!" Gao Miao continued.

Due to the busy military affairs, Yang Wu is generally in charge of the government affairs sent to the army.

Judging from the current situation, if Yang Wu opens the country in the future, he is qualified to serve as prime minister or prime minister, and only Gao Miao is more suitable at present.

First, Gao Miao's qualifications are old enough, and he defected to Yang Xingmi with Yuan Xi and Dai Yougui; Second, Gao Miao has served as the secretary in charge for a long time, he has handled all the big and small affairs in Huainan, and recently he has been in charge of the affairs of the Military Command Department, so he has a certain understanding of military affairs; Third, the recent promotion of Champa rice has accumulated enough credit for him, and it is most suitable for him to take up the position of first assistant.

In addition to him, among the other civil officials, Zhou Yin's temper is too straight, Yin Wengui's ability seems to be a little insufficient, Yan Keqiu's qualifications and merits are not enough, and Luo Zhixiang and Chen Yanqian and others are even worse.

In this way, unless Yang Wu is ready to let the military general serve as the first auxiliary minister, he can only let Gao Miao come. Therefore, during this time, Yang Wu gradually exposed him to more government affairs in order to prepare for the future.

"Your Highness, here's the thing, some time ago there was news from Hailing, saying that the local seawall was in disrepair and had burst in many places, which caused the tide to back up and the brine to fill up, which not only flooded a large number of fertile fields, but also destroyed the local salt stoves, so the local officials wrote to request that the Hanhai weir be rebuilt." When Yang Wu heard this, he immediately attracted attention.

After Huainan's current tax was changed to the collection of goods, the source of cash mainly relied on the two monopolies of salt and tea.

Not to mention the tea monopoly, the salt monopoly alone brings more than one million yuan of income to Huainan every year, accounting for one-fifth of Huainan's annual income.

More importantly, the annual income of more than one million guan is not the peak of salt income, before the chaos in the world at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huainan salt income can reach three million guan per year.

Although the salt income has decreased a lot due to the war in the world and the large loss of population, according to Yang Wu's estimate, there should be a lot of room for improvement in the income of the Jianghuai salt farm.

The first one is the salt drying method, today's Huainan still uses the ancient salt boiling method, that is, the brine is put in the pot and boiled into salt with fire, this method is not only small in output, but also extremely high in cost, especially the consumption of firewood is large, boiling into a stone of salt will consume about 400 catties of firewood.

Coupled with the high transportation cost and the continuous increase in prices in order to ensure the interests of all parties, the high price of salt in this era is not without reason, and the problem is that many people cannot afford to eat salt, and the flood of private salt.

Therefore, Yang Wu estimated that if the boiled salt can be changed to seawater dried salt, it will definitely be able to greatly increase the output and reduce the cost, thereby reducing the burden of the people and increasing the salt income.

The second point is to rebuild the seawall, the Jianghuai Salt Farm is on the coast of the Yellow Sea, and the current seawall is still built more than 100 years ago by Li Cheng, the deposed envoy of Huainan West Road, because of the disrepair, there is often the phenomenon of seawater inflow.

If the dam can be rebuilt to solve the problem of seawater inflow, it will not only greatly benefit the local people, but also reduce the loss of salt works.

So these two points are actually what Yang Wu wanted to do for a long time, but first, he was busy with everything and did not have enough time and energy for the time being, and secondly, because of the frequent wars in Huainan and the tight finances every year, there was no extra property to rebuild the embankment.

More importantly, the rectification of the salt policy will definitely touch the interests of many people, and Yang Wu does not want to move easily before he is not sure enough.

But with the elimination of Qian Biao, Huainan officially gained a stable rear, and there was also a certain surplus in finances, especially this big victory, which greatly increased his prestige and gave him enough confidence to touch such affairs as Yanzheng.

Of course, it is impossible to reform the salt administration so hastily, and no matter how you say it, you have to wait until he returns to Guangling to find an opportunity to do it.

As for now, it is better to deal with the matter of rebuilding the seawall first.

So after listening to Gao Miao's words, Yang Wu immediately asked, "Who is the person who wrote the book?" What about his recitals? Show it to Lonely! ”

Gao Miao hurriedly said: "The one who played the chapter is Yang Xin, the county magistrate of Hai'an County, that is, your royal highness, your clan brother. His recital is here, Your Highness, please take a look! ”

"Is that him?" Yang Wu suddenly became more interested.

Now as he gradually grasps the power of Huainan, but Yang Xingmi is getting old day by day, his younger brothers are still young and can't be counted on in the short term, so the power of the Yang family will be too thin at that time.

If this person can really pay attention to practice, do things sincerely, and his ability is not bad, Yang Wu can quickly promote him as a help for the Yang family.

Yang Wu immediately took the piece and looked at it carefully.

In the recital, Yang Xin succinctly described the situation of this seawater inflow, and then elaborated on the need to build a new seawall; Finally, he gave a rough estimate of how much money and time it would take to build the seawall.

In general, the content of the music is relatively detailed and the conditioning is very clear, the only problem is that he seems to think that the difficulty of building the seawall is too simple, and the cost and time proposed should be far from enough according to Yang Wu's estimate.

However, these details are not to be pursued now, the most important thing is that Yang Wu saw a young official who wants to do things and has a certain ability from this recital, and such a talent is what Yang Wu needs most.

In addition, after Yang Wu's observation, he found that Yang Xin's character was also very good, and he was not a villain who was rampant as soon as he got his will, so Yang Wu's interest in cultivating this person was even stronger, and he planned to hand over the task of building the seawall to this person.

It's just that according to Yang Wu's estimate, the entire seawall will be at least nearly 600 miles long, and it will also pass through Yangzhou, Chuzhou, and Haizhou.

So Yang Wu asked Gao Mian: "Mr. Gao, the matter of building the seawall is very necessary to be done. Gu intends to hand over this matter to Yang Xin, but he is worried that he will not be able to handle this matter when he is young, and wants to find someone to assist him, I wonder if Mr. Gao has any good candidates? ”

Gao Mian thought for a while and replied: "If you want to find someone to assist in handling this matter, my subordinates feel that there is one person who is just right, but this person has no official status at present!" ”

"Oh, I don't know who it is?"

"This person's name is Huang Ne, a native of Suzhou, is the staff of Liu Wei, the governor of Lianshui, calm and capable, proficient in general affairs, it is said that he is helping to take care of many things of Governor Liu, if His Royal Highness uses this person to assist Yang County, there will be no chaos!"

"Huang Ne?" Yang Wu nodded, and immediately ordered someone to go to Chuzhou to recruit this person.