The situation in Shandong was quite stable, the Qing army was not able to advance at all, and Yang Chao could not fight to Beizhili to stretch the battle line too long, so both sides were actually at the limit.

After a month of sitting in the town, Yang Chao found that he could leave, there were three generals Li Wuliu, Wang Pu and Zhao Kang here in the military, a group of civil officials from Jiangnan were mobilized to come over, and a large number of Shandong civil officials were retained.

The Jiangnan region is also stable, King Sanshun was repelled by Yang Chao, even if he successfully escaped, he lost at least half of his soldiers and horses, which can be described as a heavy loss, and he was unable to attack at all, so Hong Chengchou has not taken any action during this time.

However, the Qing army in Zhejiang fled to Fujian, and after occupying the whole of Fujian, it continued to go south and captured the whole of Guangdong.

After getting Yang Chao's permission, many men immediately went south to occupy the whole of Zhejiang, but several provinces in the north and south of Zhejiang were miserable by the Qing army, and many men couldn't help but want to go south to Fujian to find those soldiers and ruffians to settle accounts.

But Yang Chao didn't have the troops to support him, especially when there was a jackal staring at Hong Chengchou on the side of the couch.

If Hong Chengchou, the big traitor, is not eliminated, it will be difficult for Yang Chao to sleep peacefully.

So on the second day of confinement, Yang Chao planned to return south.

Under the protection of the soldiers, Yang Chao rode a horse, Dong Xiaowan sat in a carriage, and the group slowly walked south along the canal.

When he was about to arrive at the city gate, the more Yang Chao thought about it, the more wrong it became, and he still had lingering palpitations about yesterday's confinement.

It's just terrifying, and it's a calamity, I was locked up in confinement for nothing, and I completed a baptism of the soul, but after a while, I have come to my senses, and I have become a utilitarian again, and I find that I seem to have suffered a big loss, and I went to confinement by myself, but the perpetrator was sitting in a carriage. There is nothing to lose, it can't be like this.

At this time, when he saw an inn, he immediately asked the army to stop and called Dong Xiaowan out. entered the inn, found a house, and immediately stripped her naked, and kissed her again in broad daylight. Biting, touching, and another assassination training, like a recruit who had enough strength to pierce the target, finally tossed Dong Xiaowan out of strength before stopping.

It can be regarded as an unforgettable lesson for this little concubine, but this unforgettable will make her never dare to come to the barracks to find Yang Chao in the future, or will she often reminisce, and she will not know if she comes on purpose.

An hour later, Dong Xiaowan blushed, covered her face with a handkerchief and walked quickly to the carriage. The group continued on their way.

A series of political activities were carried out in Huai'an and Yangzhou, exchanging condolences with officials at all levels, meeting with local gentry and wealthy families, asking them about the administration of the government, and exchanging views with wealthy businessmen and tycoons.

In the Jianghuai region, or most of the entire Jiangnan region, Yang Chao was appointed as an official, at first because the civil officials of the Qing Dynasty looked down on Yang Chao, and later became a civil official who looked down on Yang Chao and looked down on the masters, since these officials did not do practical things. Their only role is not to share a share of the common practice from the hands of the little officials, so what use do they have, it is better to directly use the officials who can do things, and the officials are mostly locals. The people's situation and political conditions are also better understood, and it is easier to stabilize the locality.

So later, Yang Chao simply didn't want to see the civil officials from the imperial examination, at this time, the civil officials began to be optimistic about Yang Chao, and posted them one by one to ask for officials, I have to say that this is the most shameless group of people, and Yang Chao didn't bother to take care of them.

I have seen the government management of the Jianghuai region. It should be said that it is not bad, although it is not too brilliant, but it is slightly better than in the past, in fact, as long as it is not worse than the period of Emperor Chongzhen, Yang Chao can accept it.

Huaiyang's gentry and wealthy clan's opposition to Yang Chao's tax collection was much lower than Su Song's, first, Yang Chao had rescued them from the Qing army many times, these gentry were somewhat grateful to Yang Chao, and second, after Yang Chao's explanation, they also understood that Yang Chao had no money and no army, and without an army, he couldn't beat the Qing army, and if he couldn't beat the Qing army, they would have to be slaughtered. Not to mention the slaughter, they couldn't stand the kind of horse racing that Beizhili and Shanxi played, so they all accepted Yang Chao's official gentry's request for grain.

It can be said that since Yang Chao took power, they are the most profitable group of people, subject to much fewer restrictions than in the past, and they have the least opposition to paying taxes, after all, after Yang Chao collects their taxes, they can also take care of them, they can hardly reduce the filial piety to the officials, and find that the officials did not embarrass them.

But Huaiyang's largest business group, salt merchants, has had a less pleasant time lately.

Yang Chao's salt policy, they were strongly supported at the beginning, because they did not have to be subject to the government, in the past to sell private salt, now it is also bright, but a very serious problem is that the price of salt plummeted, so that their profits are much less than in the past, and many people's biggest income is no longer the salt industry, but has become a money business.

In fact, they have also tried to unite to carry out price control, but one or two can do it, and three or five can make do, when the competing team is eighteen, and it is divided into two irreconcilable opposites, the Huai'an faction and the Yangzhou faction, price control can only be a joke.

After Yangzhou and Huai'an negotiated the price, the two sides invariably lowered a little bit more privately than each other, and soon the two sides lowered the price, after negotiating the price internally, there are always people who do not play cards according to the usual practice, and throw a lower price outside, and the price alliance basically collapsed without control for more than three days.

In the final analysis, it is due to the overproduction of salt due to their large-scale construction, and fierce competition is inevitable, and it would be good to have ten well-run ones left.

They hope that Yang Chao will come forward and limit the price through the government's decree, but they really can't restrain themselves.

Yang Chao was not accustomed to the salt merchants' habit of over-relying on the government, so he immediately rejected their request, but said that since their profits had been greatly reduced, the government should also consider their interests, and promised to reduce the price of salt tickets to half next year, and only charge 50,000 taels of silver to allow them to work.

Fifty thousand taels of silver is better than nothing for a big salt merchant, but there is no way.

Yang Chao knew that the fierce competition would make them quickly start to differentiate, and those who knew more about salt production would concentrate on the salt farm, those who were better at transportation would concentrate on the salt ship, and those who were better at selling would concentrate on the salt shop, and the overall efficiency would be improved.

The improvement of efficiency will further lower the price of salt, and the people will consume lower prices of salt, and Yang Chao found that he had no loss at all.

After leaving Yangzhou, he did not stop in other places, and went directly to Xinjiangkou.

Xinjiangkou was not affected by the siege, even in the most urgent time, it was still guarded by 3,000 elite soldiers, because here is the most important thing for Yang Chao, the headquarters of Jiangnan Bank!

The headquarters of Jiangnan Bank is currently in Yang Chao's porcelain palace, which was originally intended to be a trading place, but also made the Duke of Nassau very unbearable, Yang Chao is not unbearable, but because the business of the golden hairpin building is shrinking significantly, after the small court moved south to Fujian, a large number of noble children in Nanjing City followed, the most important thing is that the civil officials of the six departments of Nanjing, large and small, as well as the scribes and talents who lingered here in previous years, have left, Yang Chao has abolished the music registration system, and the Qinhuai River has presented a bleak scene.

Although this is a loss of culture, if culture is based on the absurdity of the music system, Yang Chao would rather have the perverted prosperity of the Qinhuai River disappear, just as he could not abolish slavery for fear of a blow to plantation production.

Because of the recession of Jinchai Tower, the two largest sources of customers were lost, and wealthy merchants became the largest customers, so at the request of Kang Xiaobao, Yang Chao did not move the exchange out of here.

It happened that Jiangnan Bank was established and also needed a stable office location, so it moved in directly.

The staff of the bank worked in the hall on the first floor, which was covered with porcelain tiles, and the third floor was used as a vault, and the second floor was still empty at this time.

The loss of property was huge, but there was not much loss of people, because the Qing army that set the fire had not had time to slaughter, Yang Chao organized a counterattack and beat them to the north city.

Since the Jinchai Building is gone, then there is no need to care about her business, and it is appropriate to move the exchange to the hall on the second floor of the Porcelain Palace, adjacent to Jiangnan Bank.

In addition to Yang Chao's porcelain palace, other industries in the area around Xinjiangkou are also very prosperous, with dense warehouses and shops on the wharves, frequent boats, five giant waterwheels rotating on the river in the distance, and villages with misty cooking smoke.

On the contrary, the barracks look a little old in the middle, which is very incompatible with the thriving market.

After a visit to the barracks, which is now a huge production base, most of which has been vacated for workshops, except for the training ground for recruits.

Those who cast cannons, drill guns, and build swords, are busy.

The scale of craftsmen here has now exceeded 10,000 people, but even so, it is still unable to meet the consumption of the army that has expanded to 400,000, Yang Chao still has to purchase one-third of the equipment such as iron armor and bird guns on the market in Nanjing, but there is no need to purchase cannons, because after getting on the right track, there are molds drying out almost every day, and new cannons are casting, and various types of cannons are generally produced by flowing water.

I have to say that Yang Chao came at the right time, he met a craftsman who made an innovation, and the chief craftsman reported the matter to Yang Chao, hoping that Yang Chao would decide.

"Give and give! 10,000 taels of silver, technological innovation is the most important. Not to mention such an important innovation! ”

After hearing the return, Yang Chao couldn't help but be overjoyed, because this innovation was too unexpected for him.

It's called the Iron Molded Cannon! (To be continued.) )