It took two days to deal with the aftermath of the war, searching the battlefield, treating the wounded, and dealing with the surrender of troops. On the third day, the fleet continued to set off, along the canal waterway, all the way south.

Both the cavalry and infantry battalions of the Pingnan Army joined the marching procession, but instead of choosing to take a boat, they marched on foot. This time it was no longer a hidden trace, but a fanfare, escorting the fleet to the grand descent.

Nearly 10,000 troops marched south along the canal, setting up several miles of marching columns, hundreds of ships competing for the current, waving flags, and passenger ships and cargo ships passing through the canal south and north retreated one after another.

The news of the defeat of the combined forces of Gao Jie and Liu Liangzuo by the Pingnan army had already spread along the canal, and the news that Emperor Chongzhen led his army south to quell the rebellion of King Fu also spread throughout Lianghuai. The Gao Jie army, who fled from the north and caused trouble in Lianghuai, was annihilated, which made the officials and gentry of Lianghuai praise one after another.

Because there was no garrison and no supplies, and the local government was unwilling to supply the material food and salary needed by the army, Gao Jie's army came all the way south, and could only rely on looting to survive, and the military discipline was extremely lax, and the burning and looting happened repeatedly, and the countless sufferings brought to the people of Lianghuai were destroyed today, making the local officials and gentry and the people breathe a bad breath.

Local officials in Huai'an, Yangzhou, and Fengyang either personally chased the fleet to meet Chongzhen, or sent cronies to come to the army to show their loyalty to Chongzhen.

The battlefield Shao Bo Town is only a day's boat ride from Yangzhou, and the Yangzhou prefect Ma Zhi personally led people to greet the canal ten miles outside Yangzhou City to welcome Emperor Chongzhen.

Yangzhou is an important town in the north of the Yangtze River, is the distribution center of Huaiyan, the world's rich businessmen gather, and the prosperity here can not go to Suzhou and Hangzhou. Now, the north has fallen, and Yangzhou will inevitably become a frontier to resist the northern captives, playing an important role in defending the south of the Yangtze River, so its importance is self-evident.

Since he arrived in Yangzhou, he naturally needed to spend a few days, first, to meet with local officials from all over the country, to declare the authority of Chongzhen, the great son of heaven, and at the same time to exert pressure on Nanjing, so as to achieve the goal of surrendering the army without a fight.

Moreover, in Yizhen, which is more than 100 miles away from Yangzhou, there is still Huang Degong's army, which is the army that supports King Fu. Before this army is settled, the army cannot easily cross the river.

Under the welcome of the Yangzhou prefect Ma Ming, Chongzhen temporarily lived in Shouzhiyuan in the north of Yangzhou City, and began to meet local officials, celebrities and giant businessmen, and was very busy.

After experiencing the changes of life and death, Chongzhen's temperament has changed a lot, and at least he has learned to pretend to these people.

The rich places in the world, one is Suzhou and Hangzhou, and then Huaiyang, Huai'an Chongzhen has been there, and now he wants to see the prosperity of Yangzhou, so as to have more understanding of his country.

When he was in Huai'an, although he felt the prosperity of the south, Huai'an was much worse than Yangzhou after all, although there were many wealthy merchants, but he was afraid of the emperor and the majesty of Lu Zhenfei, and no one dared to try to meet him face-to-face.

But Yangzhou is different, the rich businessmen here are real wealthy businessmen, a real rich country, and everyone has a deep political background, there are no longer a few high-ranking officials in the family, and the vast majority of themselves have the status of a meritorious person or a prisoner, so they are naturally qualified to follow Ma Mingming to meet Chongzhen.

And Shouzhi Garden is the private residence of the Lin family of Yangzhou salt merchants, the emperor toured south, and the Lin salt merchants dedicated their own gardens to Chongzhen.

After living in Shouzhi Garden, Chongzhen really saw the prosperity of the south, a flower and a grass, a stone and a tree, all of which are ingenious, and the bamboo waves in the garden make people linger and forget their worries. Although this garden is not big, it is very exquisite, of course, it is far less graceful than the Beijing Imperial Garden, but it also has another style.

As for the house and the furnishings inside, everywhere shows the wealth and luxury of the owner, the seat screen, the pillar vase, and even the cups and dishes, etc., all of which are exquisite.

If in the past, Chongzhen would not have paid attention to these at all, after all, in the eyes of him, the emperor, no matter how exquisite these are, they can't compare to the palace. But after fleeing all the way, Chongzhen can be said to have truly seen the hardships of the place. The ragged homeless people in the north, the beggars begging along the streets of Tianjin Wei, the poor soldiers of the coastal defense battalion, and even the ordinary people in the market, these Chongzhen have all seen it.

Under careful attention, he also knew the living conditions of the people under his rule, such as an ordinary people's house, the annual income is only ten taels of silver, and it is only enough to buy food, and if the price of food rises in a disaster year, he will be hungry. Chongzhen once chatted with the soldiers of the coastal defense battalion on the boat, and knew that ordinary military households, each family rented about 20 acres of military land, and in addition to the land rent handed over to the Shangguan, the land also needed to pay taxes to the imperial court, and the remaining grain in a year was not enough to make ends meet.

The local poverty shocked Chongzhen, the soldiers of the Pingnan Army and the regimental training soldiers of the Huai'an regiment training camp are all ordinary people at the bottom, but most of them are struggling on the poverty line, and their biggest daily wish is that they and their families can be fed.

Compared with them, these wealthy businessmen live too superiorly!

After staying in Shouzhi Garden, Chongzhen knew what the supreme enjoyment of the world was, and what made Chongzhen sad and sad was that he, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had a quality of life in the past, which was not even comparable to an ordinary salt merchant in Yangzhou.

His daily meals are only four dishes and one soup, but here are delicacies from the mountains and seas, and many dishes he has never heard of. He was thrifty on weekdays and reluctant to fill in new clothes, and even let the queen continue to wear it after the dragon robe was torn, and many of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were even more ragged, and they could not issue a new set of military uniforms a year. But here even the servants are dressed in brand new clothes, and silk and satin are everywhere!

How did a salt merchant amass so much silver? Why is he richer than the emperor?

In whose hands did the wealth of the Ming Dynasty go?

In the past, in the palace, Chongzhen also thought that because of natural and man-made disasters, the people of Daming were miserable, and in his eyes, most of the people of Daming were extremely poor. Because many times, even his ministers and his father-in-law will pretend to be poor in front of him.

But now, Chongzhen knows that Daming is not short of wealth and silver.

An ordinary salt merchant, an ordinary gentry is so rich, so what about a bigger salt merchant, more gentry?

The Ming Dynasty has so much land, such a vast land, and countless outputs every year, but most of the wealth is not in the hands of the people, nor is it in the hands of the emperor, but is usurped by a very small number of people.

The poor people in the Ming Dynasty are the people, the poor are the court and the emperor of him, and some people are not poor at all, this is the impression that Chongzhen got on the first day of his visit to Yangzhou.