When the first war report entered the city of Nanjing, Zhai Zhe was chatting with his three attendants about some Jiangnan customs.

Tongcheng Zhang Bingyin, Yiwu Zhu Zhixi and Huizhou Wang Sichun, these three are the same age, they are only in their early twenties, and they are the luckiest young people in the Ming Dynasty, among which Zhang Bingyin is the most trusted.

The regent talked very much, and the topics ranged from Yangzhou thin horses to Qiantang jumping tides...... covering Vientiane in the south of the Yangtze River.

When Zhai Zhe was in charge of Ning Shao's general army, he had witnessed Wu Yue's boy jumping in the tide in Qiantang, and his white bodies were like big fish churning in the turbulent tide, which reminded him of the white stripes in the waves said in the Water Margin.

It was a game of the brave, he had recruited a lot of sailor soldiers among the tide jumping boys, and now they have all grown into the backbone of Ning Shao's sailors.

Yangzhou thin horse, the regent of the Ming Dynasty has only heard of his name until now, and has not seen his person.

Zhang Bingyin listened to the regent's inquiry, and did not dare to hide it, so he told the Yangzhou thin horses he knew one by one.

Before he entered the Regent's Palace, he had wandered in the Wind and Moon Field. Don't blame him, this used to be the most popular game among Jiangnan Shizi. If you haven't been to the Qinglou, you're embarrassed to attend a reunion of friends. Gu Yanwu was even proud of having flower willow disease.

Zhai Zhe's expression remained unchanged on the surface, and he was full of disgust for Yangzhou thin horses in his heart, and he couldn't accept it just by wrapping his little feet. It was a deformed aesthetic and a destructive and distorted mentality.

Zhang Bingyin knew that the regent Chongjian hated luxury, and finally said: "After the Qinhuai River Fang was cleaned up, Yangzhou was occupied by the Qing Dynasty for another year, and now there are very few people who make a living on thin horses. ”

Zhai Zhe revealed the truth in a word, and said: "I'm afraid that the salt merchant's life is not good, and the thin horse has no market."

The impact of the household reform of the salt system on the south of the Yangtze River was great, and the salt merchants of Huizhou, as the richest group in the south of the Yangtze River, were about to slowly withdraw from the stage of the Ming Dynasty. If you can't change careers, you will have to fall in the middle of the road.

Zhang Bingyin and the other three stayed by Zhai Zhe's side all day, and just listening to the tone of his words, they could also know the regent's true attitude towards some sensitive events in the court. But they also understand the truth that a companion is like a tiger.

On the third day, when it came to the lively place, the emergency military report was not restricted, and the guards sent in the urgent report from Jiangbei.

Zhai Zhe took the military report, and the three attendants naturally closed their mouths.

The military newspaper came every time, and the Ming army captured the county seat of Xuyi and captured the strategic place on the shore of Hongze Lake. But there are two murmurs hidden in the good news. The Ming army Zheng Zunqian and Sun Zhijing's troops suffered heavy losses and needed to rest for a period of time before they had the strength to fight again; In addition, Zheng Zunqian suffered heavy losses in his headquarters of soldiers and horses, and in order to vent his personal anger, he went on a killing spree in Xuyi County, killing thousands of people.

After reading the military report, Zhai Zhe couldn't suppress the anger in his heart.

Before going on the expedition, he summoned several generals to emphasize military discipline three times and twice, but he didn't expect such a thing to happen in battle. Zheng Zunqian was only the chief soldier and did not come to Nanjing, and Feng Qin and Li Zhian could not get out of the department.

He rolled up the battle report and said, "Zhang Bingyin, send this submission to the Ministry of War, and ask Liu Suifeng to thoroughly investigate this battle to determine rewards and punishments." ”

Zhang Bingyin bowed down to take it, didn't dare to ask more, agreed in his mouth, and turned around to go out.

Since ancient times, the two Huai regions have been different from the north and south.

The Lianghuai salt works are famous all over the world, so they have created a rich Yangzhou, and at the same time, they have also fed a group of smuggling salt barons. However, the two Huai have suffered from the flooding of the Huai River for many years, and there are often famines, such as Fengyang and Xuyi. The power of the two Huai clans is very strong, the people are fierce, and the people are poor and think about change, when Ming Taizu relied on a gang of fierce people in the two Huai to raise troops to drive away the Mongolian Tartars.

The Ming army opened up a battlefield in Huaiyang, and it was very important to have a good relationship with the local heroes. Therefore, Zhai Zhecai announced the world before the start of the war, exempting all localities from taxes for three years.

The so-called Haoqiang is also a grass on the wall, whoever is good to them, they will think about a certain side.

Zhai Zhe was furious and sent the submission to the military department, but Liu Suifeng did not rush to make a move. Sure enough, in less than half an hour, Zhang Bingyin ran back out of breath and said, "Liu Shangshu, the regent has ordered this matter to be postponed for the time being." ”

Liu agreed with the wind, and turned around to put the good news into the bottom layer of the drawer.

The Great War broke out, and the regent would not punish the generals at will. Even if Zheng Zunqian had, he also won the credit for conquering Xuyi. The court's harshness on military generals would make the soldiers dissatisfied.

If the Northern Expedition does not go well, Zheng Zunqian will not be able to escape the blame in a few months. Otherwise, the matter will not be brought up again. In order to prevent controversy, he credited the main merit of this battle on Sun Zhijing.

The battle of Huaiyang is a lead, and it will soon detonate most of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhai Zhe originally wanted to sit in Nanjing, but Xuyi's changes made him a little uneasy about the situation there.

He was familiar with the structure of the army, and the news that Zheng Zunqian had killed thousands of people in Xuyi would definitely not be hidden, but it was never possible that it would appear in the military newspaper so soon.

Judging from the date marked on the urgent report, Xuyi was recovered three days ago. Feng Qin was confronting Ji'er Harang outside Huai'an City, and had no chance to set foot in Xuyi City. Zheng Zunqian will not mention that he killed innocents indiscriminately in the military newspaper, so it must be Sun Zhijing's secret report to Feng Qin.

It is common to compete for merit in the army, but once this matter is known to Zheng Zunqian, the seemingly close brotherly friends are likely to turn against each other.

Mid-June.

Bao Guang, the general of the guard, led 3,000 soldiers and horses to escort the regent Zhai Zhe out of Nanjing and crossed the river to Yangzhou.

The Ming army won, and the regent suddenly came to Yangzhou to suppress the formation, which made the Huaiyang generals tighten the strings in their hearts.

The banks of the Yangzhoufu Canal are a little more vibrant, but they are far less prosperous than before, and it is difficult to regain the scene of the past after the salt merchants were hit.

Yangzhou is now full of refugees.

The people of the north are constantly unable to escape, except for a few craftsmen, most of them can only farm, there are many people in Jiangnan, and there is little land, and these people have no source of livelihood when they go to Jiangnan, resulting in more and more bandits and beggars in Susong and other places in recent years. When Zong Mao was the governor of Nanzhili, he ordered the Jiang waterproof division to strictly prevent the northern people from crossing to the south, and drove the beggars from Suzhou and Songjiang to the north of the Jiangbei, and Yao Qisheng continued this policy after he arrived in Nanzhili.

After the Ming army recovered Yangzhou, it confiscated the land that was committed to the Qing squires and distributed it to the northerners, but it was only a drop in the bucket. Xuyi County ordered Zhu Zezheng to defend the city desperately, probably because he was worried that the Ming army would confiscate all his family's land after recovering Xuyi.

Recruiting is also a place for refugees, but more people still make a living by pointing to the porridge shacks opened in Nanzhili Prefecture.

Hearing that the regent was coming to Yangzhou City, Yao Qisheng rushed across the river to settle the reception. Zhai Zhe rode a horse and did not take a sedan chair, although he ordered the government soldiers to drive away most of the refugees along the way, many things still could not escape the regent's sharp eyes.

Zhai Zhe originally came to supervise the war, but after arriving in Yangzhou, he realized that the situation in Jiangbei was more complicated than he imagined. Zhai Zhe beheaded many Duo on the river bank last year and 4,000 Jurchen captives to sacrifice the dead people in Yangzhou, and his reputation in Yangzhou was very good, and the locals in Yangzhou set up many shrines to worship.

Yao Qisheng picked up the regent by the canal and stayed by Zhai Zhe's side. He couldn't ride a horse before, and few literati in Jiangnan could ride a horse. Just knowing that the regent doesn't like to ride in a sedan chair, he deliberately learned to ride a horse, and today it finally came in handy.

He is an official of Yu Lian, from Anqing to Huguang to Nanzhili, there is nothing that makes Zhai Zhe feel uneasy.

Zhai Zhe didn't ask much on the way, and waited until he settled down in the city before asking, "What's going on with the refugees in Yangzhou Mansion?" ”

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