Nanjing failed to compete for the throne, King Lu returned to Jiangbei, he did not give up, but at this time he had to compromise.

On the way back to Jiangbei, King Lu also made a reflection, this failure, after all, his own strength is not good, although Wang Yan allowed him to govern, but presumably in the decision-making of major events, in the end, he still has to succumb to Wang Yan, and it is not interesting for him to stay.

Therefore, King Lu decided to only send Zhang Kentang, Zhang Huangyan and other Zhejiang ministers into the Nanjing court to represent his interests and make things happen in the court for the Zhejiang gentry, and he returned to Jiangbei to speed up the pacification of Zhejiang on the one hand, and on the other hand to pass through his own territory.

After the fall of Nanjing, there was less Hong Chengchou's plan, Jiangbei's Duoduo, the square inch was in chaos, more than 100,000 horses, divided into Hefei and Yangzhou, even Huai'an was lost, and no troops were sent to open up, but once Jiangnan was lost, the Grand Canal was not so important to the Qing court.

At this time, Jiangbei showed an eerie tranquility, as if both parties were tired and each lay on the ground to gasp.

Jiangbei, Yancheng, King Lu, who decided to lie down and taste his courage, led a group of officials to walk between the ridges, with green rice on both sides, blowing layers of waves with the wind.

Countless soldiers and civilians walked through the fields, pulling weeds, and the waterwheels in the distance, under the trampling of the healthy masters, poured the water from the ditches into the paddy fields.

As you can see, if nothing else, this year should be a good year.

"Thanks to His Royal Highness's purchase of this batch of grain from Nanyang, we were able to plant the seedlings before the summer planting, and Yancheng and Rugao, two slightly safer counties, were able to plant the seedlings." Zhao Shuxiang followed behind King Lu and said as he walked.

In order to control Xie Qian's subordinates, King Lu also played some power tricks, first of all, he transferred Xie Qian's think tank Zhao Shuxiang out and appointed him to the title of the head of the household department.

"Can the grain in these two counties be eaten until next summer?" King Lu asked casually when he heard this.

Zhao Shuxiang hurriedly gave up his hand, "I was about to report to His Highness, and the minister roughly estimated that if there is no famine, it is estimated that there may be more than 400,000 stone of rice grain, and if something changes, I am afraid that it will be even more." ”

Jiangnan has been fighting for more than half a year, and there will definitely be a shortage of grain this year, and grain prices are afraid to soar.

King Lu couldn't help but be a little annoyed, the climate in Nanyang is good, three crops a year, and if you want to stay in China, I'm afraid you can't finish the grain, but it is said that the people over there are lazy and don't produce much food, but it is difficult for him to buy food now.

At the beginning of the year, when he went to Nanyang to buy grain, grain was already very tight, and the price of grain doubled, and Wang Yan also looked at Nanyang grain very closely, and he had to buy grain through the relationship between the Bo Si of Guangnan City to buy grain.

Korea in the east is poor to death, thank God if he doesn't starve to death, Japan doesn't produce grain, and King Lu is a little at a loss.

400,000 stones, in previous years, it didn't cost much, but this year I'm afraid it will cost at least two million.

After this year's battle, King Lu can be said to be poor, and he has to ask Wang Yan for money.

"How much can I charge for drying salt this year?" King Lu stopped and asked.

"Chen is in Baijuchang, Miaowan Town has opened more than ten salt drying farms, plus some of the original salt farms, this year can collect about 800,000 taels."

When King Lu heard this, he pursed his lips, "The scale of drying salt will be expanded, and it will reach at least one million this year." ”

Zhao Shuxiang hurriedly bowed down and said: "Your Highness, rest assured, as long as there is no major war in Jiangbei this year, the minister will definitely double the scale of the salt farm." ”

King Lu nodded, this Zhao Shuxiang is a talent, the salt of Lianghuai has always been an important source of tax revenue for the Ming Dynasty, if he can master more salt fields and restore Zhejiang, his finances will improve immediately.

When the time comes, if you don't say that you will surpass Wang Yan, you will at least compare the pro-Tang faction.

King Lu and his entourage continued to move forward, preparing to go to the seaside to inspect the salt pans.

Xie Qian and other two Huai tribes of the armed forces, after taking refuge in the King of Lu, King Lu with his civil officials, quickly regularized these tribes of the refugees, carried out transformation, the young and strong into an army, the old and weak women and children were all used for tuntian, salt and other production.

With the participation of civil officials who are good at governance and management, the Jiangbei region, which has been seriously damaged, is believed to be able to recover soon.

Before King Lu and his entourage reached the beach, several galloping cavalry caught up with him and brought a big news, "The Yellow River was blown up by the Qing army." ”

In the north of the river, on the south bank of the Huai River, the king of Lu, under the escort of a group of cavalry, marched along the river in advance, and the amount of water sent down the Huai River was reduced by at least half.

King Lu and his entourage hurriedly rushed into Huai'an City, and Xie Qian and other generals came to welcome him into the palace hall.

A short time later, an emaciated scribe was brought to the lobby.

When King Lu came in, Xie Qian had already told him some information, and he asked first: "Mr. Yan, you can tell Gu about the specific situation." ”

This scribe was Qian Qianyi and other Jiangnan restoration forces, sent to the Shandong side of the incident in the south of the literati Yan Ermei.

"Your Royal Highness, it's miserable~ Dongyu exterminated humanity, northern Shandong, hundreds of miles away, Gu was flooded by Dongyu, Yuyuan Righteous Army, millions of soldiers and civilians, it's all over, woo~" When Yan Ermei heard King Lu ask, she couldn't help but feel sad and cried on the ground.

Seeing him like this, King Lu didn't want to ask in a hurry, and waited for Yan Ermei to cry for a while before he slowly asked clearly.

As early as when Xie Qian was crisscrossing Shandong and Huai, the Yuyuan Army took a more formal route because of the participation of the original Liu Zeqing and Jiangnan literati, and the righteous army concentrated on Caozhou and other places, and did not fight on the move.

The Qing court felt that the Yuyuan Army was less harmful, so it did not attract enough attention, and several attempts to encircle and suppress it were terminated due to some changes, and the Yuyuan Army was further strengthened.

After the Battle of Jiangnan in the south began, the Yuyuan Rebels also received an order to contain the Qing army in the north, so as to cooperate with the Battle of Jiangnan.

Jiangnan was very important to the Qing court, and after receiving the urgent military report from Hong Chengchou and Duoduo, Dolgon in Beijing naturally would not sit in Beijing and watch the play, and he soon began to draw the Mongolian Eight Banners that submitted to the Manchu Qing Dynasty and prepared to go south to support.

However, when the army advanced south along the Grand Canal, the Yuyuan Rebels who got the news ambushed the Qing army, but they did not expect to defeat the Qing army in a battle.

At this time, Dolgon realized the threat of the Yuyuan Righteous Army, there was such a man, at the junction of North Zhili and Shandong, and close to the Grand Canal, the threat to the Manchu Qing was too great, not only blocking the Qing army from going south, but also threatening the Qing army's grain route, and even making the North Zhili unstable.

Dolgon immediately mobilized men and horses to encircle and suppress, but the Yuyuan army used Yuyuan and tunnels to deal with the Qing soldiers, and the Qing cavalry could not exert their combat power in the woods, but were constantly attacked by the Yuyuan army through the tunnels, and the losses were huge.

When King Lu heard this, he knew that the Battle of Jiangnan had been fought for so long, and the Qing army in the north had not gone south to support, and it turned out that it was dragged by the Yuyuan army.

Now that the Yuyuan army is wiped out, the Dread Ze area is dry, or the weather is cold and frozen, the Qing soldiers in the north will definitely go south.

This is not for anything else, Dolgon has no food now, and it can't be robbed if he doesn't rob it, even if the Ming Dynasty is not easy to fight, he has to rely on cavalry to grab a wave.

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