Even in the cold Liaodong, spring is gradually coming. By the end of April, when the Model Army began its march towards Xiangyang, the Liao River had not yet opened, but if you stood by the river and listened carefully, you could hear the clatter of the ice. This is a sign that cracks are gradually appearing in the ice, and generally speaking, at this point, there is a certain risk of continuing to drain the river with ice or something.

This time is also the most difficult period of the year for me in the Qing Dynasty. The land in Liaodong is fertile, but the cold and drought in these years have affected the whole of Liaodong, which has made it difficult for Liaodong to achieve self-sufficiency in food. If it weren't for the looting that broke through the customs every year, and the grain purchased through some merchants, I would have had a famine almost every year in the Qing Dynasty. In fact, when I was still called "Dajin" in the Qing Dynasty, the leading brother of "Dajin" was still Nurhachi, and Xiong Tingbi was still presiding over Liaodong, Xiong Tingbi almost relied on a strict blockade to bury "Dajin" in the winter famine. At that time, Nurhachi even had to use the same method of killing chickens and eggs to support himself.

Of course, such hard days have passed for a long time, and over the years, I have been able to grab a large amount of money and a large number of people every year when I enter the customs in the Qing Dynasty. Relying on these coats to farm, plus using the looted property to buy food and materials, at least the Eight Banners don't have to worry about not having enough to eat, and the new generation of Zhushen warriors no longer knows what it's like to be hungry in winter. But this year's situation is very different, first of all, the operation to enter the customs a year ago suffered a fiasco, and the two white flags not only did not take anything back, but instead lost their troops and suffered heavy casualties. Such losses can be said to have never been seen since Nurhachi raised his troops under the pretext of the "Seven Hatreds".

And the most terrible problem brought about by this failure is not just not grabbing things, or too many people dying. Although the number of Zhushen warriors is limited, they can still get a certain amount of supplies by catching those raw Jurchens in the deep mountains. Nowadays, the most terrible problem for my Qing Dynasty is that the image of our Qing Dynasty that has worked hard for many years to build up a hundred battles and victories has been seriously shaken. In the past, with the prestige accumulated from a hundred victories in a hundred battles, and with the reputation of "the Jurchens are not satisfied with ten thousand, and they are invincible when they are full of ten thousand", whether it is the Ming army or the Mongols, when facing our Qing army, they are all terrified, and they don't want to fight at all, and their morale will fall into a mess. But now, with this war, the situation is completely different.

Now the grain fields originally opened up in Liaozhen have fallen into the hands of my Qing Dynasty, and I have a lot more grain produced by the Qing Dynasty, but over the years, my Qing Dynasty has also produced a lot more people. Especially every time you enter the customs, you can bring back hundreds of thousands of coatings. These coatings also have to be eaten and consumed. It is not a big problem for my self-produced grain to support the beginning of spring in the Qing Dynasty, but it will take several months from the beginning of spring to the beginning of sowing and the grain is ripe and ready to be harvested. During this period of time, the food shortage was not small. In previous years, many of these missing parts were bought from Liaozhen. Of course, Liaozhen sold grain to the Manchu Qing Dynasty to make some money. But Liaozhen sold grain, more because he was afraid of the Manchus, than for money. Now it is impossible for Liaozhen to sell grain to me in the Qing Dynasty, and because of the existence of the Ming army in Bijia Mountain, it is difficult for my Qing Dynasty to threaten Shanhaiguan anymore. So there is no way to take Liao Town. Even Liao Zhen dared to transfer the main forces to Guannai to deal with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong at such a time.

Another part of my grain in the Qing Dynasty was bought through Mongolia and in the Xuanda area, through some merchants in the Ming Dynasty. This path still works. It's just that before winter, there was a war in Shanxi and Shaanxi, and Shanxi was not the main producer of grain, and their grain was also purchased by local merchants from other places. Before the winter, because the trade routes were impassable, the reserves in the hands of the merchants in these places were also limited, and after the winter, the roads on the Mongolian side were also difficult, so the grain that could be transported was also limited. Fortunately, I still have some savings in the Qing Dynasty, so it's not a big problem to survive a winter, at least, the flagmen haven't starved yet, of course, they will starve to death every year, and it's not a big deal.

But some news from Shanxi made Huang Taiji very worried. Early this morning, Huang Taiji summoned all the Belle Lords of my Great Qing Dynasty to discuss things.

"Hauge, tell everyone about it." Huang Taiji commanded.

"Yes, Huang Ama." Haoge first saluted Huang Taiji, then stood up and turned to the others: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have found out the news from Shanxi, saying that the price of grain in the Ming Kingdom has skyrocketed this year. In the area of Jingshi, the price of grain has reached two taels of silver and one stone. Shanxi is naturally more expensive, I'm afraid it will cost four or five taels of silver a stone. And even if we don't consider the price, there is still very little food that can be bought, about less than half of last year's price. ”

The news surprised everyone, especially those who were older and had experienced the famine of the year, and they all frowned. After a while, Zilharang was the first to speak: "Your Majesty, this situation is not good. Last year, we were able to buy some grain from Liaozhen, but this year Liaozhen naturally doesn't have to think about it, and the grain in Shanxi is less than half, so it's really a good day! There are still many months to go from the beginning of spring grain planting to harvesting, and during this time, I am afraid that many people will starve to death. By the way, Your Majesty, why is the grain in the Ming Kingdom so expensive this year? ”

"The Ming Kingdom is also fighting with soldiers. Mr. Fan knows this. Huang Taiji said, after speaking, he turned his head to look at the person standing behind Haoge, and the man came out and knelt down and kowtowed: "Your Majesty, the slave is indeed clear about this matter, please allow the slave to come and tell you about it." ”

"Well, you tell them about it." Huang Taiji nodded.

"Your Majesty, this year, the Ming Kingdom once again mobilized a large army to besiege Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Among them, the Zheng family's army is now attacking Li Zicheng entrenched in Xiangyang along the Yangtze River to the west, and Wu Sangui led the men and horses of Liaozhen from Beijing to the west to attack the Chuang army in Shaanxi. If you want to fight such a battle, you naturally have to hoard military rations, the Zheng family has money, and Wu Sangui has soldiers, so they either buy them at a high price, or simply buy and rob them themselves, and get a lot of grain. In addition, this battle was fought in Huguang, so the summer harvest in the Huguang area was naturally not expected. Therefore, many grain merchants feel that when the time comes, the harvest in Huguang will fail, and the price of grain will rise, so they naturally refuse to buy it, but instead hoard all the grain that can be bought in the market. As a result, the price of grain naturally rises. ”

"What a hateful businessman these merchants are! Your Majesty, one day in the future, I will be able to win the world, but I must take this group of businessmen seriously, these guys, for money, can do anything! Although he knew that Mr. Fan, who was introducing the situation, was a businessman, Zilharang couldn't help but say so.