After the Sixth Army moved north, the Chinese Empire controlled several more provinces, such as Shandong and Henan, and successively appointed many officials such as the governor of Shandong and the governor of Henan.

Among these officials, middle- and lower-level local officials at the prefecture, prefecture, and county levels were transferred, and some were former Qing officials who defected to the Qing Dynasty, while officials at the provincial level, especially high-ranking officials at the level of governors and political envoys, were generally transferred from Nanjing, and the transferred officials were generally core officials in the civil bureaucratic system.

After all, the governor of a province is the real minister of the frontier, and it is impossible for a core official in the Chinese Empire to sit in this position.

Wu Xi is a veritable core official, he and Jiangsu governor Xue Huan, are Yu Shengjun has been in the era of Lin Zhe of the middle-level officials, after the Chinese army captured Nanjing in 1857, he served as a Taoist in Changzhenjiang (Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Jiangning three prefectures) in Jiangsu Province, and in the civil official system of the Chinese Empire, the Taoist is different from the Taoist of the former Qing Dynasty, and its system is regarded as a provincial-level official, only one level lower than the governor and political envoy, and directly assists the governor in handling the affairs of the prefecture and county to which he belongs.

In March 1858, he was transferred to the Ministry of Civil Affairs as the assistant minister, and in August he was promoted to the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Now he is directly transferred to Zhili as the governor, which shows that this person is not slow to be promoted in the civil service system of the Chinese Empire.

Of course, this is not his special case, in fact, many officials who followed Lin Zhe in Yu Shengjun's era are now mostly in high positions except for a few people with limited talent and ability.

After Xue Huan was appointed governor of Zhili in early January, he went north directly along the coast on the navy's supply ships, and after landing in Tianjin, he initially worked in Tianjin and began to form his governor team.

After hearing that the army had conquered Beiping. He directly took the entire governor Yamen to Beiping, and then began to deal with the civil affairs of Beiping and the entire Zhili.

These two days are for the people of Beiping. It was definitely the most unforgettable period in my life, first facing the attack of the Chinese army. Xianfeng's escape and other factors led to chaos throughout the city, and in the chaos, the entire city almost lost all order, and the mob who tried to fish in troubled waters tole, rob, and even stormed shops and houses in groups, and because of the panic caused by the people of the whole city to grab food, the doors of many rice and grain merchants in the city were trampled by the people who came to buy food.

Subsequently, Yixun used strong means to suppress the chaos in the city, and nearly 1,000 people were killed in less than a day.

Later, after the Chinese army entered the city, it also carried out military control in the city, and vigorously searched for the recalcitrant Manchu elite ministers, and the most direct result of all this was a large number of civilian casualties.

Although from the beginning to the end of the year, Beiping was not damaged by large-scale war. However, the number of dead and wounded in the past few days is not quite a lot, according to follow-up official statistics, during this period, more than 3,000 residents in Beiping City were killed or injured.

It was not until the arrival of Wu Xi, the appointed governor of the Chinese Empire, in Beiping that this chaotic situation was initially ended, and Wu Xi, the governor of Zhili, used various means to transport a batch of grain to the Beiping area in a short period of time to initially alleviate the panic caused by the food shortage in the area.

Of course, this relief is only temporary. Tianjin and Beiping have a large population, and the grain production in the Zhili area is limited, and the Ming and Qing dynasties have relied heavily on the grain in the Jiangnan and Huguang areas for hundreds of years to meet the food needs of many non-agricultural populations, which gave birth to Caoyun.

Before because of the outbreak of war. Naturally, this kind of transportation was stopped, and now that Beiping has been taken, the Chinese Empire will naturally not sit idly by and watch the food shortage in the region.

The Cabinet has encouraged non-governmental grain traders to transport grain northward. And the navy also gave a commitment to escort the ship!

Of course, it is very unreliable for the main force of the south-to-north grain transfer to rely entirely on the strength of non-governmental grain merchants. Large-scale grain transportation also has to rely on the strength of the government, to be precise, on the 'grain storage department'.

The Grain Reserve Department, which was directly subordinate to the cabinet of the Chinese Empire, was undoubtedly the most grain-bearing institution in the country in modern times. This institution, which is responsible for stabilizing grain prices, cashing out taxes in kind, storing grain, and transporting large quantities of grain, is an official organization that has detached itself from traditional administration and has a certain commercial nature.

Although the grain storage department is an administrative body, it adopts enterprise-style management, and each province has set up a special grain storage branch and directly participates in the grain trade in the market.

Their source of grain is not only the massive amount of grain collected by the Ministry of Finance due to taxes in kind, but also the establishment of local grain purchase stations to purchase grain from small and medium-sized buyers or simply farmers.

At the same time, they will wholesale large quantities of grain to local small and medium-sized grain merchants, and after leaving sufficient grain reserves in the producing areas, they will transport large quantities of grain to areas where there is a shortage of grain.

Only a few of the middle and high-level heads of the branches in the provinces and provinces are state employees, while the others are ordinary employees hired from outside.

This kind of official administrative structure operating in the mode of enterprise is actually quite complicated, you say it is a state administrative body, he just operates in a commercial mode, the pursuit of commercial interests, you say that it is a state-owned business structure, but they put political interests in the supremacy of commercial interests, all actions are for the sake of politics and services, for example, last autumn in the southern Zhejiang provinces and counties were affected, resulting in a decline in grain production in the autumn, local food shortages and food prices skyrocketed, the grain storage department is from northern Zhejiang to transport a large amount of grain, Putting it on the market at prices as high as 30 percent lower than the local food price.

This move not only caused a number of local grain merchants in southern Zhejiang who tried to raise grain prices to suffer heavy losses, in fact, the loss of the grain storage department itself is not small, this big distance from the north of Zhejiang, the freight is not cheap, just this action, so that the Zhejiang branch of the grain storage division under the loss of more than 100,000 yuan.

But even if it is a loss, when the local food price returns to rationality, the people no longer have to bear the food price that is twice as high as in previous years.

Therefore, at this time, the person in charge of the Zhejiang branch was not only devalued because of the loss, but also transferred back to Nanjing, and was promoted to the director of the rescue and disaster relief department of the grain storage department.

This position may not sound lofty, but there are only four divisions in total, and the Grain Reserves Department is a direct agency of the Cabinet. This is a little more powerful than the usual head of a central agency.

In order to prevent corruption within the Grain Reserves Division, but also to prevent the Grain Reserves Division from suffering serious losses. The accounts of its provincial branches are supervised by a third party, and this third party is the Royal Bank, which also has branches throughout the country.

The Grain Storage Division is preparing to mobilize a large amount of grain from Guangdong and Jiangnan to go north to Zhili and other places by sea. It was used to fill the food shortage caused by the cutting off of water transportation in the former Qing Dynasty.

Of course, this kind of large-scale transportation is not directly distributed free of charge, in fact, even after the grain of the grain storage department is transported to Zhili, it will be sold at the normal market price.

Nowadays, the price of grain in the north is quite high, the grain in the south is sold in the north, and the grain storage department uses the advantage of extremely low-cost shipping, and the profit of this round trip is not low.

However, the grain storage department wants to transport grain to the north to alleviate the grain shortage in the north, which cannot be done in a day or two, and even if it is fast, the grain transported by the grain storage department will not be able to arrive at Tianjin Port until two months later.

The current people of Beiping will continue to endure high food prices. The stability of the place also depends on the forced pressure of the military!

Just when the military officers led by Lu Daobao and the local officials of Zhili represented by Wu Xi were busy dealing with the local government affairs of Beiping.

Song Xiangtang, Xianfeng and others chased and fled, and they also unknowingly stayed away from Beiping!

January 25th, Jixian County!

Le Shan and Mu Yin listened to the officer in front of them wearing the uniform of the new army and said: "According to the time, my family commander should have left Tangshan with the army, and now they are heading to Luan County, and then to Shanhaiguan!" ”

"And what about you coming to meet the forces of the Holy Driver?" Although Leshan was already aware of what was happening, he still couldn't help but have illusions in his heart.

The young officer with the rank of colonel of the Qing army said with a sad face: "When our army had not yet arrived in Tangshan, it sent a joint force to the north, but then the rebel army chased too closely, and when approaching Tangshan, our army fought a battle with Shi Rebel's department. The losses were very large, so my family commanded the troops scheduled to Jixian County to return to Tangshan, and now they are advancing east with the main force! ”

Although he had expected him to say this, when he heard the man in front of him really say it. Mu Yin still couldn't help but scold: "He Shi Rongchun is so bold, who gave him the power to withdraw without authorization, and who made him withdraw to meet the troops!" ”

But the young colonel heard this. But his eyebrows frowned slightly, and then he said directly and unceremoniously: "At present, Lord Du has appointed my family to rule and act in charge of all military affairs!" ”

The implication is that. Shi Rongchun has enough power to decide these things, and he doesn't need to ask anyone for instructions!

"And. The Lord also approved the withdrawal plan! ”

Looking at this young colonel, Mu Yin is not angry, these people who came out of the Jiangben Academy are all extremely arrogant, they only have Du Xing'a in their eyes, only Shi Rongchun, the generals in the new army system, and there is also him Mu Yin, the minister of military aircraft who is in charge of the affairs of the military department.

The young colonel said at this time: "Now the rebel troops are chasing after our troops, I am afraid that they have also arrived in Tangshan now, if you continue to march east to Shanhaiguan, you will either advance lightly and catch up with our army in front of the rebel army, or choose another way!" ”

"In my personal opinion, I suggest that you don't go to Shanhaiguan, you can cross the Great Wall in the northeast direction in Zunhua and Xinglong, and then go to Chengde, and then enter Zhuosuo Tumeng to Jinzhou!"

"Besides, I have other military affairs to stay soon!" After the colonel had finished speaking, he took his leave, and it was not long before he heard the sound of whipping horses' hooves outside, and it was obvious that the man rode away directly on his fast horse.

And after the officer who came to report the news left, Mu Yin and Le Shan were silent for a long time.

After a long time, Mu Yin reopened his mouth and asked Leshan: "What is the chance if we go to Shanhaiguan to join the army?" ”

Le Shan sighed, and then pointed to the map on the table: "Look at the distance from Tangshan to Shanhaiguan, and then look at the distance from Jixian to Shanhaiguan where we are now, unless we can walk hundreds of miles in one day, otherwise it is impossible to reach Shanhaiguan in front of the rebel army!" ”

"Then you mean to go to Chengde? It's winter now, and this rugged mountain road is not easy to walk! ”

Le Shan smiled wryly: "Do we have any other choice than going to Chengde?" ”

Mu Yin also sighed and didn't say anything, the situation was deteriorating faster and faster, which made him pessimistic about whether he could escape from Zhili and go to the Northeast.

After the two of them discussed for a while, they came out and were about to go to Xianfeng to make a report, but as soon as they went out, they heard a commotion outside, and several knights quickly ran in and dismounted, and said in a panicked tone: "Oh no, the rebel army is catching up!" ”

Hearing this, Mu Yin couldn't help but feel dizzy, and he was about to fall directly to the ground, causing a burst of exclamations from others! (To be continued.) )