Food is the treasure in troubled times.

Yu Xiang issued the Prime Minister's Decree that the price of grain should be uniformly limited throughout the country, and that the price of grain bought and sold by the people should never be higher than the price limit, and those who live in strange places of grain will be severely cracked down.

Nanjing is the political, economic and cultural center of the southern Ming Dynasty, the largest city in the world, and has the largest city wall in the world. There are nearly 10,000 students in the foothills of Jilong Mountain. International students from rare countries flock to it, and it is the most desirable place for students from all over the world.

Lu Weiqi was transferred to the prefect of Nanjing, and Zheng Xiancheng was appointed as the chief soldier of Nanjing. The two were in charge of military and political power in Luoyang before, and their cooperation was quite tacit.

Lu Weiqi launched a severe crackdown on illegal businessmen in Nanjing, stabilized grain prices, stabilized the grain market, and played an exemplary role in the entire south. Lü Weiqi's actions in Nanjing were seen as the attitude of the imperial court, and a grain price clean-up campaign was also in full swing in various parts of the south.

During the war years, the common people were very sensitive to food, and it was the consensus that they would rather lose a piece of gold than give up a grain of grain, and the war would easily lead to soaring prices, the depreciation of gold and silver, and the real war would come, even if there was more gold, they could not buy food, and no matter how much money there was, it was useless, therefore, during the war years, the common people would cover the grain and reluctant to sell, and those princes and nobles, rich merchants and gentry would hoard grain. Therefore, in the great Ming Dynasty in history, there was a tragic situation of cannibalism in the north, but the south was still rich, but Chongzhen was unable to mobilize food from the south to help the victims in the north.

Chongzhen was unable to mobilize the grain from the south. But Yu Xiang had to find a way to get the grain out of the south.

After Yu Xiang took office, he vigorously promoted the special law in wartime in the northern provinces. It was a year of calamity in the northern provinces, and they were barely able to achieve self-sufficiency by implementing special wartime laws and building grain protection areas, but the huge army consumed an astronomical amount of grain, and relying solely on the common people of the northern provinces to squeeze grain out of their teeth could never meet their food needs. Yu Xiang must find a way to get the grain out of the hands of those big grain farmers in the south and let them take it out willingly, without creating new social contradictions.

First of all, Nanjing Prefecture set an example, developed production, planted grain crops extensively, and reduced the planting of cash crops in a large area; it was winter, and Lu Weiqi asked farmers to plant winter vegetables, reduce the consumption of grain, and save grain. The administrative direction is to increase the area of grain planting and reduce the planting of cash crops, so as to give the people the expectation that there will be plenty of grain in the coming year and that grain prices will fall in the coming year.

Yu Xiang demanded that grain be purchased at a price slightly higher than the market limit, that is, the price of grain collected at the government-run grain purchasing station would be higher than the market price, and the common people would certainly sell grain to the government-run grain purchasing station.

In addition, a prime minister's decree was signed, which clearly stipulated that after the next summer harvest, the guide price of grain must be lower than the current grain price, thus further strengthening the expectation that grain prices will fall. It's a bit like the futures approach of later generations.

After doing these work, the most important thing at the moment is to build water conservancy projects, increase the construction of grain protection areas, in the northern provinces, Yu Xiang vigorously promoted the women's liberation movement, and pushed women into the society as labor, which was definitely a great change before, before women rarely went out, not serf women, generally the door did not go out of the door. Women's emancipation will be launched as a labor force, of course, Yu Xiang will be moderately mastered, unlike later generations, women are too hard, work like men in society, have to have children, take care of the family, women have almost no own life, Yu Xiang should try his best to avoid this situation, try to let men live to support their families, women can choose their own way of life, this social division of labor is more reasonable.

With the construction of a large number of grain protection areas, grain output in the coming year will certainly increase from the south to the north. Grain from the northern provinces was quickly purchased, and some squires finally took out several years of old grain and sold it to the imperial court.

The most sensitive to this matter are the merchants, who see that there is a price difference between the guide price of grain and the government's purchase price, and many of the commodities they sell are not traded in cash, but ask for grain to be traded, and then they sell the grain to the grain collection station, and then earn a price difference, so as to maximize the profit of the commodity.

Slowly, the price of grain in the southern market loosened, and some large households sold grain to the grain collection stations, which showed a domino effect, and those who stockpiled grain left enough for their own rations and sold grain to the imperial court.

Grain purchased from the southern market was continuously transported to the north.

When the grain is harvested, the soldiers in front have no worries. Zuo Liangyu attacked the peasant army several times and won several battles, and the core strength of the peasant army was completely wiped out.

Shaanxi gradually settled down, a large amount of relief grain was transported to Shaanxi, the peasants had something to eat, had a way to live, and all settled down.

A few years ago, Shaanxi was in turmoil, the population was seriously reduced, leaving a large amount of land, the imperial court tax reduction policy, Chen Zhiping was sent to Shaanxi to carry out the construction of water conservancy projects, after a year of recovery and development, Shaanxi has no problem with food self-sufficiency.

The mountain kings scattered all over the country, under the effect of the wartime amnesty law promulgated by the imperial court, surrendered to the imperial court one after another, and after the good time, because they were worried that they would be settled after committing crimes, they were very honest and low-key.

The law is the foundation of maintaining the society, the laws of the Ming Dynasty are improving, Shengying has become the judicial book of the Ming Dynasty, he seized the time to complete the laws.

According to Yu Xiang's requirements, the law does not seek the best, but it must be continuously improved with the development of society, and the law must have a self-evolution function, and must have a timely self-correction function, not dogma, and must keep pace with the times. The law is prudent, the law must be strictly enforced, and the violation must be investigated, establish the idea that everyone is equal before the law, and fully embody the dignity of the law, which is different from Confucianism advocating "rule by etiquette, rule by virtue, rule by man", Confucianism advocates suffocating human nature through self-practice, so that self-discipline and self-reflection are carried out, and in the specific implementation process, the operability is too difficult to grasp, because many truths have many different interpretations in different people's hearts, and it is difficult to achieve perfect unity between etiquette, morality, and people. Therefore, there is resistance to the implementation of the legal system advocated by Yu Xiang, and even in some places, there is no knowledge that there is a legal system. In many places in the south, in the middle of high mountains and rivers, the environment is closed, and in many places, the law is replaced by clan rules, even in later generations, the network society with highly developed information, this situation still exists, it can be seen that it is difficult to popularize the law.

Yu Xiang decided that no matter how difficult it was, the problem of law popularization should be solved.

Yu Xiang knows very well that the key to solving the problem of popularizing the law is to establish a postal system covering the whole country, keep the information flow channel unimpeded, and the rapid transmission of information is fundamental. Thanks to Jiang Bofang's efforts, the laying of the postal system has progressed very rapidly, the first step is to complete the laying of the postal network in major cities, and then gradually pounce on small and medium-sized cities, and finally to remote villages.

To buy grain, you need a lot of silver. Yu Xiang stepped up efforts to promote the issuance of new coins, reduce the imperial court's dependence on silver, and promote the development of commercial trade.

The issuance of the new currency in the northern provinces is relatively smooth, and it is still more difficult to implement it in the south, but fortunately, there is a national treasury, as well as the support of large business groups such as Fuwang, Xu Ji and Li Ji merchants, and the silver can barely be maintained.

Yu Xiang learned from later generations, issued Ming bonds, to raise funds from the society, the difference between Ming bonds and postal savings is that the bonds are borrowed for a fixed period of three years, but the interest is much higher than the bank, in the south, it is very difficult to carry out the special law in wartime, everything step by step, Yu Xiang's strategic thinking is to first fight outside, and then to secure the interior, and after the elimination of the Qing army, increase the intensity of reform in the south, there is no stable domestic environment, reform will only be empty words.

Through the unremitting efforts of the new imperial court, finally in March of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, in the third year of Yu Xiang's arrival in this world, the situation has improved, the food problem has been solved, the financial revenue has increased significantly, and the treasury has money.

It's time to launch a counterattack against the Qing soldiers.

On April 1, the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the Red Lady Governor Jiliao Baoding and other military affairs, and also managed food and salary. Temperate Shuntian, Baoding, Liaodong Sanfu, Jizhou, Changping, Liaodong, Baoding four towns. Commanders Liu Guoneng, Wu Sangui, Zhuge Shanzhen, and Zhang Youliang fought against the Qing soldiers.

On May 1, the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the Ming army, under the command of the Red Lady, launched the Battle of Yizhou.

Liu Guoneng was the commander of the East Route Army and led 120,000 troops, including 50,000 former Lu Xiang Shengyuan soldiers and 70,000 former Henan New Guards.

Wu Sangui was the Western Route Army, leading 80,000 soldiers from Guanning Iron Cavalry.

Zhuge Shanzhen commanded 15,000 special forces and responded at any time.

Zhang Youliang led the firearms battalion, with 1,000 red-coated cannons and 5,000 tiger squat cannons, which were dispatched with the army.

Jia Binjiu led 3,000 nights to spy on the military situation.

Yu Xiang wants to fight with the Qing soldiers with absolute superiority, this time it is the most elite troops of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty is no longer passively beaten and passively defended, but takes the initiative to attack.

Not only that, but the Red Lady also adopted the suggestion of Li Yan, the former chief of the General Staff, to divide the enemy army by using a discord strategy.

In the face of the Ming army's approach, the people in Shenyang were panicked, and it was rumored in the city that Dolgon would collude with the Ming Dynasty in the future to kill Yue Tuo, and Dolgon deliberately killed Neng Chen, intending to cut off political opponents and covet the throne of the Qing Dynasty.

Huang Taiji is a man, he is a generation of heroes, of course he will not listen to these rumors, but the rumors of the common people are extremely powerful, and they have noses and eyes.

The most uncomfortable is Dolgon, he is indeed a famous general, very capable, but when the rumors spread, he is also very shaken, and the master of high merit is in what dynasty and what generation, it is a very taboo thing, and the Ming soldiers pressed the border, after the previous competition with the new guards, I knew that it was powerful, and I just took this opportunity to avoid the limelight, so as not to bear the responsibility of defeat. Therefore, Dolgon voluntarily asked to give up his military power, withdraw from the center of political power, and choose to go into hiding.

Huang Taiji has dizzy hair and brain pain these days. It was the most severe test he had ever received since he registered.