On May 29, the third year of Jingkang, Yue Fei and Li Xiao'e got married in Bianliang. On the same day, Ji Qian and Hua Ruyu, Xu Qing and Hua Xiaoqi also held a very large-scale wedding in Yingtianfu. The joy of the three weddings diluted the misery on the Central Plains for a while.

On the night of the wedding, a grain merchant from other places found Li Bashao and was willing to sell grain from Jiangnan to Jiangbei. As long as the Protectors can afford the price, they will have to sell as much grain as they want. Li Bashao knew that these grain merchants were inextricably linked with the dignitaries and nobles in the small court of Nandu, so they were able to hoard a large amount of grain and grass despite the general shortage of grain in Jiangnan. Even if the Protector Army didn't buy it, these black-hearted businessmen wouldn't distribute the grain to the people of Jiangnan, so Li Bashao directly ordered a million quintals of rice. And tell these merchants that if they can be shipped as quickly as possible, the price can rise by one percent.

At the beginning of June in the third year of Jingkang, heavy rain fell on the Central Plains. It rained heavily for three days and three nights, and for a time the water of all the great rivers hit the embankment. The water of the Yellow River is even more fierce and fierce. Although the water conservancy in the Yingtian area of Bianliang is excellent, especially in Yingtianfu and Caozhou, under the labor of millions of displaced people last winter, the canals were dug to connect the villages and villages. However, if the Yellow River and the Huai River break through, the territory of the Protector Army will immediately suffer a catastrophe.

It was precisely because of this concern that Yue Fei left Bianliang on the fourth day of his wedding, led a group of generals, and invited river engineering experts to the south bank of the Yellow River, inspecting the danger of the river embankment everywhere, and at the same time calling on all the people to pay close attention to the embankments of the major rivers in various places to prevent someone from deliberately destroying them.

Since the territory of the Protector Army is located in the lower reaches of the water, whether it is the Golden Dog, Zhao Gou, or the Amitabha Buddhists, they will not let go of this excellent opportunity to replace the soldiers with water.

The Yellow River, the Huai River, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and other rivers that can cause floods are tens of thousands of miles long in the Central Plains alone, but they cannot be protected by the people's army. Only by mobilizing all the people to defend the embankment on their own initiative can the great destruction that is sure to occur be prevented.

Sure enough, before the heavy rain had passed, the people on the banks of the Yellow River and the Huai River had at least stopped hundreds of conspiracy to destroy the embankment. At least more than 100 people died protecting the river embankment. But none of those who destroyed the embankment did well. Either they were killed on the spot by the swiftly arriving Protectors, or they were dismembered by the angry people.

The people of the Central Plains may not care about changing the dynasty, but they definitely care about their homeland. These embankment destroyers are not dealing with the Protectors, but against them, the people who live by the river. Once the river bursts, none of the villages and homes built along the river will survive.

It was precisely for this reason that even some of the scholars who did not have a good impression of the Protector Army stood up and led the elders of the village to respond to Yue Fei's call. Yue Fei also did not forget the sacrifices who protected the river embankment, and all enjoyed the treatment of martyrs of the People's Protector Army. Not only are the pensions on par with those of the martyrs, but the families are also exempt from paying taxes for three years. As a result, after the battle of the military and the people to jointly protect the embankment, Yue Fei's prestige among the people rose sharply again.

In mid-June, through the waterway of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Jiangnan grain merchants transported 200,000 stone of grain at a flying speed. As soon as the Protectors received the food, it distributed it to displaced people who were struggling with hunger. Although each homeless household can only get one bucket of grain, it can last at least a month if it is mixed with wild vegetables.

Li Bashao was surprised by the speed of the grain merchants, and later learned that it was Zhang Jun who had transported most of his military rations. Zhang Jun didn't care about humiliating with the Protectors. As long as he was given enough taels of silver, he could sell the grain to the golden dog. Because what Zhang Jun Dashuai cares about most is the helpless silver ball weighing thousands of catties that he put in the basement. This business brought back at least dozens of helpless weights to Zhang Jun. Thinking of this, Zhang Jun, who was far away in Jiankang, smiled and squinted his eyes.

Like Zhang Jun, the ones who smiled and squinted were the homeless people in the Central Plains. With the advent of summer, there are more wild vegetables and fruits. Without the encouragement of ill-intentioned people and the rampant rogues, a large number of displaced people have returned to their hometowns, or settled down in deserted towns and towns to replan their future lives. At this time, the major chambers of commerce began to show their skills, and they sent traders to various homeless settlements to sell goods. All commodities are available for purchase and settled at the end of the year. They sell a wide variety of goods, including farm tools, knives, and weapons that are poorly made but also have a certain lethality. But more often than not, it's a variety of pickled foods.

Yue Fei had foreseen the great famine and the tide of displaced people that would occur last year, so he took precautions and vigorously promoted pickled food in Yingtian, Xuzhou, and Caozhou, and pushed the price of salt to a low level, which directly bankrupted several private salt smugglers, and also made ordinary people finally like the rich, and began to buy salt in tanks and jars, and caught fish from the river into pickled fish, made domestic pork into pickled meat, and made all kinds of wild vegetables and fruits into pickled products. Anyway, as long as there is something to eat, whether it is suitable for making pickled products or not, all of them are made into pickled products. Since Yue Shuai said, as long as there are endless pickled products, Yingtian Chamber of Commerce and Xuzhou Chamber of Commerce will all buy them at a suitable price. Therefore, the people all burst out with great enthusiasm, and almost cleaned up the fish in the Yellow River, Huai River and Liangshan Bo in 800 miles.

At that time, many people did not understand Yue Fei's decision. But after the emergence of this year's tide of displaced people, both businessmen and ordinary people admired Yue Fei's foresight.

In fact, Yue Fei prepared pickled food for the people of Yingtian, Xuzhou, and Caozhou, but he underestimated Huang Zongshi's ability to govern, and also underestimated the diligence of the people of the Emperor and Song Dynasty. The old people and young children tended to the fields at home, and the laborers either joined the people's protector army, or went to work in various workshops, not only to save food for the family, but also to earn wages, and the result was that when it came to the Chinese New Year, these villages that had been exploited by Zhao Gou were all restored.

With enough wheat and rice to eat, the people were a little uncomfortable with these deadly salty cured meats. So they sold the excess cured meat to local chambers of commerce. Originally, I was worried that the Chamber of Commerce would not accept it, but as a result, the Chamber of Commerce collected as much as it could. The people snickered as they continued to make cured meat. Anyway, the price of salt is as cheap as dirt. Go to the river to catch dozens of catties of fish and make cured meat, you can add a new dress to your children, why not?

The cured meat that should be disliked by the people of heaven is simply a godsend in the eyes of the homeless people. These sun-dried fish and pork, eaten in the stomach, can not only endure hunger, but also save money to buy salt. You must know that the homeless people who are not in the area of the Protector Army do not enjoy the low price of salt. Just the salt money saved, a family of four can save two dollars a year. What's more, these things are not broken. Buy dozens of catties, save some food, and you can eat until the end of the year. As for the cured meat, hehe, we are not the people of Caozhou, Xuzhou, Yingtian, there is a place of Longxing, and we don't have to worry about eating and drinking. As for those of us who are homeless, thank God for those who stutter.

It is for this reason that the mountains of cured meat in the chambers of commerce around the world are sold out in just one month. Although the vast majority of displaced people have chosen to buy their accounts, the Chamber of Commerce is not worried that it will not be able to collect the money by the end of the year. Not only did these chambers of commerce have the backing of the people's army, but also because the spirit of contract among the people of the Emperor and Song Dynasty was extremely strong, and there were very few cases of default.

With enough salt, the displaced people gradually regained their mental strength, handed over their fields to their wives and children, and flocked to Luoyang, Bianliang in groups to work. Although Luoyang and Bianliang were sacked by the Jin soldiers several times, the foundation was still there, and after the Protector Army was stationed, it quickly stabilized the people's hearts with good military discipline and brought confidence to the merchants. Suddenly, the dormant local merchants, and the foreign merchants who came with money, opened all kinds of workshops again. Especially after Huang Zong rushed from Yingtianfu to Bianliang as the prefect, he directly accelerated the speed of Bianliang's recovery. In just a month, half of all the abandoned workshops have been started, and those that have not been started have already been bought, and they are being reorganized.

These workshops required a large number of young and strong workers, so the displaced people from close proximity flocked to the city. Of course, after the wave of these displaced people, there is also the deliberate promotion of the Propaganda Department of the People's Protectorate.

Yue Fei, Li Bashao, Huang Zong, and others all believe that the more developed a country's industry and commerce are, and the more people engaged in industry and commerce, the more stable the society will be. In addition, Luoyang in Bianliang was the center of the Emperor and Song Dynasty, and in its heyday, there were millions of people in Bianliang City alone. So don't worry that these homeless people will make Bianliang overcrowded.

In July, as the grain merchants in the south of the Yangtze River brought in nearly one million stone of grain, the mountain of hunger pressing on the heads of the displaced people was finally removed. Seeing that the news of starving people from the secret intelligence departments in various places finally stopped coming, Yue Fei's heart finally settled down.

Now that the Great Famine had come to an end temporarily, Yue Fei shifted his attention to Jinghu South Road in the south of the Yangtze River. There, his mentor Zong Zezheng and Zhang Suo, the former envoy of Hebei West Road, led tens of thousands of people's troops to defend Changsha City and resist the large-scale attack of Zhong Xiang Yang Mi. The people of the Secret Intelligence Division not only infiltrated Zhong Xiang Yang Mi's army, but also successfully infiltrated Changsha City and got in touch with Zong Ze.

What made Yue Fei happy was that in the letter he sent, Zong Ze not only did not scold him for being rebellious, but encouraged Yue Fei to make persistent efforts to fight the Zhending Mansion as soon as possible and recover all the old lands of the Emperor and Song Dynasty. Zong Ze did not mention the imperial court in Jiangnan at all in the letter, nor did he mention his own situation.

However, Yue Fei had already learned from the Secret Intelligence Division that even though Zong Ze was defeated with his remnants and blocked Zhong Xiang's army of more than 100,000, he still could not get the trust of the imperial court. The reinforcements he asked for were always hovering on Jiangnan West Road and Guangnan West Road, more than 1,000 miles away from Changsha, and had no intention of advancing at all. Because Zhao Gou couldn't deal with Yue Fei, he transferred his anger to Zong Ze. Today's Changsha City has been holding on for several months, and the people in the city are approaching food, and it seems to be a crumbling situation. However, Han Shizhong's army, which had the best chance of defeating Zhong Xiang, still stayed on Poyang Lake, and was in a state of uncertainty with the lake bandit Li Qi.

Although the people of the Secret Intelligence Division have repeatedly claimed that Zhong Xiang Zhong Tianwang is also a hero. Even if Changsha City is defeated, I am afraid it will not hurt Zong Shuai. But Yue Fei knew that Zhong Xiang was a hero, but Yang Qi was a villain. Once Zong Shuai falls into their hands, he will definitely not be able to fall well. More importantly, Yue Fei absolutely could not tolerate his mentor falling into the hands of Amitabha Buddhism.

Therefore, after the situation in the Central Plains stabilized, Yue Fei immediately set out to aid the south. Although it is impossible to send a large army to Jiangnan. But if you send three or four thousand elite soldiers and pretend to be a rogue who crosses the river, you can still hide it from Zhao Gou's eyes. Anyway, at this time, Zhao Gou was recruiting the rogues from the Central Plains in the past, Cao Cheng, Qi Fang, Kong Yanzhou, Li Qiong and others had become the official commanders of the imperial court. Yue Fei thought about it for a while, and decided to send Zhang Yongyi and his wife to lead four thousand elites to sneak across the south of the Yangtze River and go to Jinghu.