At the end of the summer of the thirteenth year of the Great Cause, Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang, who had been preparing for more than three months, raised the banner of the Qing monarch in Taiyuan and marched south. In the same month, Xue Ju, a native of Jincheng, established himself as Emperor of Qin. Li Liang, a native of Wuwei, established himself as the king of Daliang.

At the same time, Wang Shichong, the commander of Jiangdu, left Jiang and Huai Jin to the north to rescue Luoyang.

The heroes and heroes of Hedong, Langyou, Henan and other places have become a pot of porridge, but the land of Hebei is rarely quiet. The three forces of Dou Jiande, Luo Yi, and Li Xu all died down and tried their best to devote themselves to another battle.

They split up to harvest the summer grain. The people live on food, and without food, no matter how powerful the hero is, he will starve to death!

The devastation caused by the war was enormous, although Luo Yi tried to exercise restraint when he retreated. But the banks of the Lai River, which had just regained a little vitality, were still devastated. Summer is coming to an end, but the wheat in the field has not yet had time to be harvested. In some farmlands near water sources, weeds grow as lush as wheat stalks. Tens of thousands of birds and finches munch on the ground, and whenever someone passes by, their wings soar in mid-air to block out the sun.

Some pheasants and quails that are too fat do not fly far and fall off, not only because of the sudden weight gain, but also because of eating the sprouted wheat kernels. The mildly toxic wheat can make people look at gold and make the limbs of cattle and sheep twitch. For pheasants and quails, which are much smaller than cattle and sheep, it is enough to make them stagger as if they were drunk.

The peasants, who had just rushed home from the chaos outside, turned a blind eye to the "fat" that had fallen around them, and rushed into the fields like madness, taking food from the mouths of the birds and God as much as possible. The wheat is a lifesaver for them to survive until the next harvest, and if they don't harvest enough of it, many of the families they have just established will be shattered again at the beginning of this year's spring when the harvest is not harvested next year.

No one wants to see a famine happen. Even the big families in the city sent all their forces to join the seizure operation. If the people are left without food, they will become homeless again. There is only half a step between the outcasts and the outcasts, and if the Boling army can't suppress the bullets, the danger that has befallen some big families in the past few years will befall them. On that occasion, many high-walled compounds were burned down by a fire, and tens of thousands of acres of fertile land lost their owners. The reason why Li Xu was able to find so much wasteland in the six counties to share with the people was because the former owner of the field had been raided by the Liukou. This time, the surviving big families will not be willing to let the tragedy happen to themselves.

After leaving a certain number of soldiers and horses to maintain law and order, Li Xu temporarily dismissed most of the soldiers under his command to go home, so as not to delay more agricultural hours. In last year's granting of land, the officers and men of the Boling Army were allocated a certain amount of land under their names. After doing their best to defend their homeland, they have a reason to go back and solve the problems of their wives and children.

In the sound of the sickle, the civil officials of the six counties did not dare to hide in the yamen to enjoy the blessings as in previous years. From the ungraded helpers to the four-grade county guards, they all pretended to walk to the ridge and put away the grain with the people. Although they can't do much work, the impact they have on the people is huge. "This dynasty is out of the Qing Dynasty again!" "God is open!" "With Master Li in charge, who dares to be idle!" The people were talking in amazement, their faces full of excitement. They remembered that it was only when the first emperor had just established the Great Sui that the officials were so intimate with the people. In those days, the servants did not dare to ask for bribes, and they were willing to go down to the ground to work with the common people to open the sickle officials, and they would soon be promoted. It's just that that era was too short, and soon the name of the Great Sui changed from Kaihuang to Renshou, and then became a great cause that made people bankrupt.

If it were the last summer, even if the officials everywhere were afraid of Li Xu's troubles, they would never let go of their bodies and be in the company of the ordinary people. But now it is different from previous years, first, the power of the imperial court can no longer affect the north of the Yellow River, although Li Xu, the governor of Boling, is not called a lonely widow, but he is an out-and-out emperor of the soil. If he is not happy, no one will find him to support the dead. Second, the scholars selected through the imperial examination last year have gradually mastered the mode of daily government affairs, and countless pairs of eyes are staring at the few official positions. If the person in his position is unwilling to seek his own government, the sons of the world will rush to do it for him.

Last year, Li Xu braved the world to try out the new policy, and slowly began to show results. The area that was not harassed by the Youzhou army was very fruitful. Some of the cooked land that has been harvested in the second year has a gratifying yield, and although the people cannot afford to have much surplus after paying the field tax, the family of five with 30 acres of land will definitely not go hungry again in the coming year.

As the war moved away, the two large counties of Boling and Hengshan, which were in situ battlefields, also became more and more prosperous. The number of goods traded in the market has increased significantly, and the people who come to the market can line up in long lines every day when the city is opened. Some of the merchants, who had almost disappeared, came alive again, driving their cattle from north to south, transporting the county's specialties and surpluses to the great bazaars for exchange, and earning the hard-earned money to feed the family.

With the increase in the number of firms comes an increase in taxes. A large amount of copper coins were sent to the treasury, then transferred to the army, and then spent like water.

Swords, armor, instruments, bows, crossbows, arrows, all these things need to be borne by the locality. Add to that the cost of compensating the wounded soldiers, and the cost of relocating a new wave of displaced people, which is staggering. Every time he saw the bill, Li Xu patted his chest and secretly rejoiced, fortunately, as soon as he took office last year, he forcibly promoted the Juntian Order. Otherwise, even if the Boling Army can withstand Luo Yi's attack this time, it will be dragged down by the huge expenses in the future.

In fact, it is not that there are no other means of collecting money, Wang Xuba and Guo Fang mentioned it in private, and persuaded Li Xu to find fault with the big households in each county and cut down a batch. In that way, not only would a large amount of fertile land be vacated to house the people, but also sufficient floating wealth would be harvested to supply military supplies. This proposal made Xuzi's heart flutter, but thinking about the kings and heroes who had died under his hands in recent years, he had to reject this tempting idea. Although the treasury of the six counties can be replenished in a short period of time, as time passes, the floating wealth in the county will always be robbed. When plundering became a habit, the brethren inevitably extended their swords to the plain-headed people like them.

The days without the constraints of the imperial court were not easy. The high-ranking officials and dignitaries can no longer point fingers at the affairs of the six counties, but Li Xu also has to face all challenges alone. The people can't live their lives, and they will secretly scold him, the ancestor of the chief manager. The officials were lawless, and it was no longer the court that was damaged, but his prestige. While being overwhelmed by a large number of civilians, he did not dare to delay the construction of the army in his hands in the slightest. If there is not enough force, the relatively rich six counties are fat in the eyes of the world's heroes. It wasn't just Luo Yi and Dou Jiande who tried to pounce and take a big bite, Liu Wuzhou of Ma Yi would not remember his relationship with Li Xu back then, and even Li Yuan, a nominal ally, would show his fangs behind a kind face when his eyes were red with hunger.

And the current situation is that Tang Gong Li Yuan's soldiers and horses were blocked by the torrential rain between Lingshi and Fenxi, and they were on the verge of running out of food. Li Yuanji and Ma Yuangui, who stayed in Taiyuan, scraped the ground three feet and searched almost every household's grain bags. There is an endless stream of refugees fleeing from Hedong to Hebei, and the slightest carelessness may lead to a new wave of banditry.

"In August, we can still harvest some beans and sorghum!" Cui Qian flipped through the documents sent by civil officials from all over the country and reported to Li Xu one by one. Due to his contribution to resisting the southward movement of the Youzhou army, he returned to the decision-making circle. Although he is not yet accepted by all his colleagues, everyone has to admit that he is more skilled than everyone else in handling local government affairs.

It was good news that the beans and sorghum were not tasty, rather than starving the soldiers and the people. If there is a slight surplus, Li Xu also hopes to take out some coarse grain to come to the outside of the plug in exchange for war horses. Years of combat experience taught him that although foot soldiers were suitable for guarding the city gates, if he wanted to completely destroy the enemy army, light cavalry that could be used to outflank him was indispensable.

With the return of the Boling soldiers who had been scattered and evacuated in the Battle of Henan, the rebuilding of the cavalry was on the agenda. More optimistic than Li Xu's prediction, the 4,000 brothers who were scattered on the south bank of the Yellow River have now returned more than 1,800. Some of them were forcibly left behind by the county officials to assist in the defense, but they also sent letters back to report to their former bosses and their families that they were safe. For the soldiers who were temporarily unable to return, Li Xu ordered local officials to treat their families kindly. The responsibility for the defeat is not theirs, and at the same time, these brothers may also make up for the lack of connections in the Six Counties in the future.

"But all parts of the newly returned Zhuo County in the north have almost no harvest this year!" Cui Qian's next message immediately ruined everyone's good mood. "Zhuojun Taishou Guo Xianhe hopes that the adults can allocate a batch of summer grain to rescue the emergency as soon as possible, those places come early in winter, the grain arrives late, and someone will definitely starve to death!"

"You can let them work for cash, help the new displaced people build houses, and earn food for the winter. There is a lot of flat land on both sides of the Sanggan River, and the displaced people who fled from the Hedong area can just be settled in that vicinity! Zhao Ziming, the military commander, couldn't bear to see the coach worried, and suggested in a low voice.

In the battle with Luo Yi, the six counties of Boling regained the areas of Liyang Mountain, Huairong, and Zhuolu that were previously occupied by the Xue brothers. Because of its proximity to the border area, the area has always been sparsely populated. It is used as an ideal place to settle the displaced people in Hedong.

"Maybe the faster we build, the easier it is to attract the prying eyes of others!" Cui Qian didn't think that governing a former barren place was as simple as Zhao Ziming said, "Luo Yi didn't have any good intentions when he returned it to us, and after he returned to Jixian County, he immediately withdrew the infantry general from the fortress to Liucheng." Right now, nearly a thousand miles from Lishui to Juyong Pass, except for our brothers, there is no Central Plains army stationed! ”

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