At the same time that the Sui and Tang dynasties began to negotiate with the Chinese capital, Zhang Xuan also arrived in the central capital, and at this time, Laihu'er had already launched a naval offensive first, and he personally led hundreds of warships along the Yangtze River to the west to clear Du Fuwei's water transportation capacity.

After a two-year absence, Zhang Xuan once again came to Jiangdu, where he had governed, and the news spread, and hundreds of thousands of Jiangdu people spontaneously came outside the city to welcome the return of the former Jianghuai envoys.

When Zhang Xuan's boat appeared on the Jiangdu Canal, the two sides of the canal suddenly resounded with thunderous applause and shouts, countless people cried with joy, cheered loudly and unwillingly, hundreds of thousands of pairs of arms waved on both banks, and many white-haired old men knelt down on the shore, as if to welcome the triumphant return of the hero.

Jiang Du Yu culture and after the mutiny has been sinking for too long, they are extremely eager to get the opportunity of rebirth, eager for prosperity to return, and when Zhang Xuan arrived, everyone saw a glimmer of hope, Zhang Xuan carried the dream of a new life for hundreds of thousands of Jiang Du people.

When Zhang Xuan walked out of the big boat, the two sides of the strait broke out again into thunderous cheers, Zhang Xuan waved his hand to salute the people on both sides of the strait, he was really moved by the enthusiasm of the people of Jiangdu, hundreds of thousands of people went out of the city to welcome his arrival, and he only stayed in Jiangdu for a few months.

At this time, dozens of white-haired old men were brought up by the officials, and they knelt down to pay respects, "Xiaomin greets His Royal Highness King Qi, and wishes His Royal Highness King Qi a thousand years old!" Chitose! Chichitose! ”

Zhang Xuan hurriedly stretched out his hand to hold on, "Elder friends, please get up quickly, kill Zhang Xuan!" ”

The old men were helped up by the soldiers, and the first old man cried with joy: "We are looking forward to the stars and the moon, and we have finally brought His Highness back." ”

Zhang Xuan knew this old man, he was the chief of the Liang family elder council of the wealthy family in Jiangdu, he was at least eighty-five or sixteen years old, he had served as the leader of the gentry in Jiangdu for nearly thirty years, Zhang Xuan smiled slightly: "I haven't seen him for two years, Liang Weng's body is still very good!" ”

Liang Shiweng saw that Zhang Xuan recognized him, and his heart was even more excited, and he hurriedly said: "Thanks to the blessing of His Royal Highness, Xiaomin is in good health, and with the thousand-year-old Chrysostom, Xiao Lao'er will definitely live a few more years." ”

At this time, Zhang Xuan said loudly to the elders: "Zhang Xuan understands everyone's request, restoring the prosperity of Jiangdu is also the most urgent thing for Zhang Xuan to solve, Yu Wenhua has been captured, and will be publicly beheaded in Zhongdu in the near future, and the Wagang army has also been exterminated, I went south this time to completely exterminate Du Fuwei, he is Jiangdu's henchman, this time it must be completely eradicated, I believe that the Tongji Canal will be restored soon, and the north-south trade will flow again, I promise you that within three months, Jiangdu will no longer have bandit worries!" ”

Zhang Xuan's words spread quickly among the crowd as if they had grown wings, and the banks of the canal were completely boiling, men, women and children wept with joy, and countless people raised their arms and shouted, "Hurray!" Long live King Qi! ”

Although Li Qingming served as the governor of Jiangdu, he was actually fully responsible for the government affairs of Jiangdu, and assigned the jurisdiction of Jiangdu City to the left-behind government, which made it impossible for Jianghuai Xingtai Shangshu Lu Zhuo to interfere in Jiangdu's affairs.

"In these three months, I mainly visited the major families in Jiangdu, as well as the major commercial houses, reversed the outflow of Jiangdu's population, restored most of Jiangdu's handicraft industry, and also stabilized the price of grain in Jiangdu.

"How's it going?" Zhang Xuan asked directly.

"Back to His Royal Highness, due to the fall in food prices, the outflow of Jiangdu's population has stopped, and due to the continuous war between Meng Haigong and Jiangnanhui, a large number of people have fled to Jiangdu, in the past few months, the population of Jiangdu has recovered from 500,000 to 700,000, but they are all temporary refugees, and Jiangdu's burden has increased.

Speaking of this, Li Qingming couldn't help but smile bitterly, it was he who planned to provoke the civil war between Jiangnan and Meng Haigong, but he had to face the refugee tide that led to it in the end.

"If you are short of manpower, you can transfer people from Donghai County, the return of Xuzhou refugees from Donghai County is almost complete, I will immediately transfer the officials over there to assist you in dealing with the Jiangnan refugee problem, this is an opportunity to buy people's hearts, you must seize this opportunity."

"The lowly job also understands this, and the lowly job is also doing its best to settle the Jiangnan refugees."

Zhang Xuan nodded, and asked again: "How is the progress of the centralized transportation of cargo ships?" ”

"This matter can be said to be full of twists and turns, and it has been repeatedly unexpected."

"Tell me more about it."

Zhang Xuan was very interested in this matter, Zhongdu has gradually become the economic center of the north, and Jiangdu is the economic center of the south, if the two economic centers can be unified, there will be a huge burst of energy in the economy, Li Qingming proposed to control the cargo fleet, this is indeed a good way.

"Before the humble post visited the three major shipping companies in Jiangdu, Baijie Shipping Company, Nanyun Shipping Company and Quantong Shipping Company, they have more than ninety percent of Jiangdu cargo ships, up to more than 600 ships, of which the background of Baijie Shipping Line is Dugu's, and the background of Nanyun Shipping Company and Quantong Shipping Company are Jiangnan Society, I proposed that the shipping of the three shipping companies be coordinated by the government, but they unanimously refused, and several visits were strictly refused, so I considered setting up a Beiyun Shipping Company, and the government provided cargo ships for free to transport materials for merchants, and squeezed them down with competition. Unexpectedly, Duvowe did me a great favor. ”

"You mean the attack on a cargo ship by Duvowe's army?"

"Exactly!"

Li Qingming nodded and said with a smile: "Du Fuwei's army robbed the merchant fleet in Qian County, Xiapi County and Pengcheng County at the same time, resulting in dozens of trading houses suffering heavy losses, more than 400 ships were taken away by Du Fuwei, and the three major shipping companies now have less than 100 cargo ships left, and the day before yesterday they came to me at the same time, hoping to temporarily lease the ships of the government, but I refused. ”

"And what are you going to do next?" Jaang Hyun continued to ask.

"The lowly plan is to take a two-pronged approach, on the one hand, to set up a northern shipping company, mobilize 500 cargo ships from all over the country to Jiangdu, and completely crush the three major shipping companies in the form of free freight, and at the same time draw salaries from the bottom of the kettle, and order the Jiangdu shipyard not to build ships for private people, so that within three months, the Jiangdu government will be able to completely monopolize the freight, and then appropriately collect some freight, not to mention making money, at least not to lose money, and the lowly job has calculated, as long as it is half of the price of the three major shipping companies now, it can maintain the balance of payments."

Zhang Xuan secretly admired that Li Qingming was worthy of being transferred from a squire in the military department to a left-behind governor, and he really lived up to his expectations, and only he could quickly open up the situation and reverse the status quo that Jiangdu's commerce was controlled by major forces, Lu Zhuo really couldn't, he didn't have this kind of courage and skill.

Although he was very appreciative in his heart, Zhang Xuan did not show it on his face, he pondered for a moment and then asked, "How is the shipbuilding capacity of Jiangdu Shipyard?" How big can a ship be built? ”

This is also a problem that Zhang Xuan is very concerned about, although he has collected the best shipwrights in the north and obtained the drawings, but it is still very difficult to build a large ship such as a transverse boat, so far only one has been built, if the south can build a transverse boat, of course, it is the best.

Li Qingming shook his head, "I'm afraid I'm disappointed, this year Jiangdu has lost nearly half of the population, most of them are excellent craftsmen, most of the boatwrights have left, thousands of huge dragon boats were built in Jiangdu, but at present, Jiangdu Shipyard can only build a cargo ship of about 500 stone at most, it is not as good as Beihai County Shipyard, Your Highness, please forgive me for saying something against my ears, we intercepted Yu Wenhua last year, and we did not take Jiangdu homeopathically, which is a major strategic mistake for us, You must know that Jiangdu at that time brought together more than half of the essence of the Great Sui. ”

Zhang Xuan didn't speak, and Li Qingming didn't need to point out this, he also knew in his heart that he had indeed made a big mistake.

After pondering for a long time, Zhang Xuan said: "Excellent talents will not disappear out of thin air, we will make up for the loss and use various methods to attract the return of these excellent craftsmen." ”

Zhang Xuan patted Li Qingming on the shoulder, "I will leave this task to you, you don't care about the refugees in the next step, hand it over to the ****, he will be here in two days, you go all out to restore the manufacturing capacity of Jiangdu, I don't care what means you use, and I don't have to worry about whether the imperial court will agree, you report this matter directly to me." ”

Li Qingming nodded slowly, he felt the trust of His Royal Highness King Qi in him, but at the same time, he also felt the huge pressure on his shoulders. (To be continued.) )