After the more than 20,000 Chu troops under Wang Sheng's command withdrew from Suzhou and Hangzhou, they went to Ningguofu to Chizhou Mansion, boarded the ship at Huangshiji near Anqing, went up the Yangtze River, and disembarked in the area of Pengze and Hukou to make the final preparations before the general attack, so he came to Nanjing for a meeting this time, only took a few guards on light horses and fast horses, stayed for two days and returned to Hukou, and personally commanded the battle of Jiujiang.

Although he came and went in a hurry, Wang Sheng could clearly feel that in the past few months since he left, great changes have taken place in the city of Nanjing, the city is still the same city, and the people are still those people, but it has shown a vigorous new atmosphere, and the changes in all aspects are dizzying, and they are as silent as spring rain.

In order to make up for the huge gap in military spending, Wang Kefan imposed heavy taxes in the three provinces south of the Yangtze River, and once there was a saying that "the sky is three feet high", but he did not blindly ask for it by drying up the river and fishing, but grasped the big and the small, strictly grasped the proportion, and demanded that the officials responsible for the specific implementation could not take advantage of the fire to rob, although the gentry and businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River felt the pressure, but they could basically get through by gritting their teeth...... Immediately afterwards, they found that Wang Kefan was very open-minded in industry and commerce, and also vigorously supported agricultural construction, and successively introduced several policies that pointed directly to the key points, and solved practical difficulties for them, and the Nanjing area soon came out of the shadow of the war, although it was the winter leisure time, the production and construction in various places were in full swing, building bridges and paving roads, building water conservancy, and a large number of workshops and workshops were started, and the people could find a way to eat and make money, and there was no social turmoil caused by high taxes.

"Money is earned, not saved." Jiangnan has developed industrial and commercial trade, and many gentry have both landlords and merchants, and their ability to make money in business far exceeds that of inland provinces. Seeing that Wang Kefan was so open-minded, he not only did not discriminate against industry and commerce. He also sincerely helped them solve the problem, and did not hesitate to invest a lot of money to repair the road and wharf. Everyone's support for him has risen sharply again...... Wang Junmen is indeed a ruthless person who scrapes the ground, but people do not stuff it into their own pockets, but take it from the people, use it for the people, and part of the taxes collected are used for military expenses to protect the safety of various places in the south of the Yangtze River, and the other part is invested in the construction of various infrastructures, which are all good deeds for thousands of years.

Under intentional publicity. This view has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has become the mainstream view in society, in addition to word of mouth among the gentry, Chu Xun also tried his best to gain the support and understanding of the middle and lower classes. Just a month ago, the Tang Bao of the Admiral Yamen ran a supplement, one issue of each rest and sunrise, to publicize and explain the policies of the Chu army, and distributed it to various places for wide posting. It's like an original newspaper.

Newspaper! This is an important initiative launched by Wang Kefan, as a mouthpiece for Chu Xun and the Chu army, competing with the gentry for the control of public opinion, and as a well-informed traveler. Wang Kefan is definitely a media master of this era, and under his careful guidance, this supplement of Tang Daily is detailed in content. Lively and lively, after each rest day is posted. It will attract a large number of people to watch, and they will come again and again. From morning to night, there is an endless stream of people, even if they are illiterate, they are willing to listen to those literate people read and explain again.

"If you don't go out, you will know the world", this sentence implies a huge helplessness and a huge desire.

In this era, there was no real media, and the public's demand for information had been suppressed for many years, and after being ignited by this supplement, it suddenly exploded, and due to the limited communication conditions, this supplement run by the Chu military had a significant delay, and the reports were all "news" from ten days ago, but no one raised dissatisfaction. Knowing the "latest" situation of the Northern Expedition, knowing what new policies and decrees the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River were, knowing that Shanghai was vigorously building a wharf to go to sea, and knowing that Ma'anshan was mining in the mountains, the common people all had a sense of pride in participating in national affairs, and felt that some heavy taxes were not paid in vain, and they would survive the most difficult days, and they would definitely have more momentum in the future.

Where there is demand, there is a deal. When Wang Sheng came to Nanjing, it was just in time for this supplement to be at its most prosperous, and the public was no longer satisfied with going to the door of the yamen to read the newspaper every day off, but hoped to sell a copy and return home to read it carefully.

Wang Kefan ordered that the hairstyle of this supplement should be changed, and in addition to sending it to various yamen for posting free of charge, it was also necessary to expand the printing volume and sell it to the public at a low price, so as to become a real newspaper. After accounting, such a newspaper must be sold to at least ten copper plates to protect the capital, but Wang Kefan made a decision, a newspaper only sells two copper plates, it is completely a loss to make money, Wang Sheng does not know the cause and effect, and is quite puzzled by this, spending so much effort, what to do with a loss-making deal?

Of course, this question is only hidden in his heart, he will never raise any doubts, the facts of the past few years have proved that every time Wang Kefan comes up with something new, it will be of great use to keep it in the future, and anyone who questions it will be slapped in the face in the end, and he admits that he is a fool, and he dares to make irresponsible remarks about Wang Junmen's decision, which is really unbelievable.

Coincidentally, when Wang Sheng left Nanjing, the freshly baked newspaper sent three "reporters" to Hukou County, Jiangxi Province, with him, to report on the news related to the Battle of Jiujiang.

In the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the river surface is open, the water flow is stable, the ships go upriver along the east bank, from time to time they pass by the merchant ships and cargo ships that go downstream, the sails on the river are dotted, the ships are like shuttles, the wreckage of the Qing army's fortifications along the river can be seen from time to time on the west bank, the broken walls are broken, a mess, several warships of the Zheng family sailors are slowly cruising along the shore, and when they see where there are traces of the Qing army's repairs, they immediately open fire to break it.

"Those who get the Yangtze River, get the Jiangnan, no wonder our newspaper is called "Yangtze River Daily"!" It was a young man with a round face who spoke, and although he joined the special profession of "journalist", he still had an obvious bookish anger, scolding Fang Xuan and impassioned.

"You're not right, it's not just about getting Jiangnan, it's about winning the world, I think it won't take a few years for the Chu army to go to Beijing and drive the Tartars out of the customs." The other tall reporter was also a young man, and he had a few dark red pimples on his face, which were shining in excitement.

"Yes, how interesting the Northern Expedition is! I originally wanted to report on the Second Army of the Northern Expedition in Huai'an, but the higher authorities didn't let me go, so I was sent to Jiujiang this time. The round-faced reporter said with a regretful face: "Alas, I don't know how Huai'an is fighting, whether there is a truncation of the Tartars' luck, I really envy Lao Zhou and a few of them." ”

"Envy what they do? Jiujiang is more capable here, you guys are fishing this time, don't be afraid of danger, follow where you fight the hardest, you must come up with a good draft! "Responsible for leading the team is an elderly man in his forties, named Su Chunyang, but he has a very pen name - "Mengyang", he was the master of Huguang Hengyang Mansion in his early years, and later joined the Chu Army as a civilian worker.

At this time, Wang Sheng walked over, saw a few of them, stopped to say hello with a smile, and asked casually: "What do you "Yangtze River Daily" do?" Isn't it too cheap to sell only two coppers for a newspaper? ”

"General Wang San doesn't know, this price was set by Wang Junmen himself." Meng Yang saluted and said: "A newspaper has two coppers, so that ordinary people can afford to buy them, so that they can see the articles in the newspaper, these two coppers are not to make money, but to make people cherish the newspaper, so that those who really need it can get it......"

The two of them were talking, but the round-faced young reporter was looking at several guards behind Wang Sheng, these guards were carefully selected, whether it was hand-to-hand combat, or riding a bow horse, they were proficient in everything, and they were sturdy, their expressions were fierce, and they exuded a vigorous and heroic spirit from top to bottom, and at first glance, they were all elite soldiers, so that the round-faced reporter had a feeling of self-shame: "Such elite soldiers are worthy of the invincible name of the Chu army, if they are replaced by General Wang San's Northern Expedition to Huai'an, I don't know if they can fight to Shandong......

……

Thousands of miles away, under the city of Huai'an, a bloody battle is raging.

Wang Kefan continued to launch the Northern Expedition, mostly in order to defend as an offensive, and he did not expect to recover the entire Jianghuai region at once, but the ordinary officers and soldiers of the middle and lower classes did not know, "Capture Jianghuai this year, Shandong next year, and Beijing the year after next!" Inspired by this slogan, many people left blood letters and suicide notes before the expedition, full of longing and passion for the Northern Expedition, and died bravely in the battle.

Wang Jincai's Second Army of the Northern Expedition, the main force came from the Pingjiang battalion under him, but it was also mixed with sand, because the Pingjiang battalion suffered large losses in the battle of Ningzhen, the combat effectiveness of the second army was not too strong, at most only a little stronger than Tian Jianxiu's first army. But the more this is the case, the more Wang Jincai hopes to fight a good battle to prove his ability, and go all out in the battle to attack Huai'an, eager to break the city in one battle.

Wang Jincai is quite self-aware, knowing that his military level is at most middle and upper-class, and he can't be compared with a general like Tian Jianxiu, so his tactics are very simple, that is, to attack suddenly, go all out, and take advantage of the fact that Tan Tai and Kong Youde's reinforcements have not yet arrived, capture Huai'an in time, and lock in the victory...... Stupid people have stupid methods, sometimes this stupid way to go straight to the goal is more practical, the battle of Hefei has just ended, Tan Tai and Kong Youde's main forces have been transferred to Luzhou Mansion, Fengyang Mansion area, Huai'an Mansion is relatively empty, under Wang Jincai's continuous onslaught, it is precarious. (To be continued......)