Shi Jin and others were executed, and the soldiers of the army were all in good spirits. Liu Pet felt that without a guy like Shi Jin who was in the army, the army seemed to have become much more integrated.

Within half a month, some of the thorns in the army were taken away. While everyone was curious about what happened to these people, they also felt that the situation in the army had improved in an all-round way.

Liu Chong's cooking class work continued, and in May, a large number of people digging canals were transported near Zaozhuang. Rumors in the army were that they were all prisoners. By the end of May, the iron factory in Zaozhuang had begun to officially operate.

Entering June, new recruits came to the troops, and retired servicemen left the troops. Without those scum, the comrades-in-arms in the army felt sorry for themselves. Liu Pet didn't expect that he could cry sadly when he was separated from his comrades.

There was also news of the thorns who had been taken away, and these people were ordered to retire early. It is said that those who retire early only have a retirement allowance within the length of service, and the imperial court does not arrange a job. Now the people in the army know that it is very powerful, and the atmosphere in the army has undergone many changes.

In August, Liu Pet finished his cooking shift, and his company was responsible for escorting the prisoners of war. Liu Chong, who was promoted to sergeant, originally thought that the escort to the beach would be over, but he didn't expect that the troops would also have to be escorted on the boat. The big ship sent the tired and exhausted prisoners of war to Dengzhou.

Dengzhou is at the top of the Jiaodong Peninsula, and the prisoners of war are sent here to assemble first. Not long after it was sent here, there were boats transporting the people of the Great Song Dynasty one by one, and all of them were southerners when they heard the accents. Although Liu Pet heard that this was to exchange prisoners, he didn't expect the exchange to be so fast.

Da Yuan's side didn't expect Da Song's action to be so fast, and he was in a hurry to get into a hurry. Fortunately, most of them are not too far from Zhigu Village, and there is a North Canal connecting the two places, so it is finally dry.

After Hao Ren Wanhu, who was engaged in government soldiers in Yandi, learned about this, the whole person felt bad. The Yellow River returned north and flowed into the Bohai Sea. The Jiaodong Peninsula is south of the Yellow River and is completely owned by the Great Song Dynasty. 50,000 people were transported to Zhigu Village through the Jiaodong Peninsula, and 50,000 people were transported from Zhigu Village. Hao Ren Wanhu was very skeptical that the Great Song Dynasty was preparing for an attack on Dadu from the sea.

But he could only think about these things. Whether the Great Song Dynasty wants to attack Dadu or not, Hao Ren Wanhu can't control it at all. The Great Song Dynasty originally did whatever they wanted in the Bohai Sea, and now that they have a port in the Bohai Sea, they are even more unscrupulous. With the helplessness of being at ease, Hao Ren Wanhu began to investigate the released captives to see if these guys who were still in the prime of life could become government soldiers.

The Song army did not beat the prisoners, nor did they mutilate them. At least there were no obvious scars on the men, but they all looked exhausted. After inquiry, Hao Ren Wanhu learned that the Song State began to dredge and build canals, and the captured Han soldiers dug hard for several months in order to be released, or not to be killed.

When it comes to the amount of earth they have excavated, these people are not sad to cry. More than one claimed that they had dug a river out of their workload alone. Hao Ren didn't believe in this kind of words, if these Han soldiers were so capable, how could they be captured by the nest. Let's just run away.

Regarding Wanhu's questioning, the captives hurriedly explained. It turned out that the Song army did not let them dig by hand, but gave them shovels to dig the soil. Those shovels are small, sturdy, and lightweight. The efficiency of digging is three or four times higher than that of the wooden guys, and it also greatly increases the overall labor volume of the gang.

It was the first time Hao Ren had heard about this kind of shovel, and he wanted to scoff at it. If the shovel was as sharp as the captives described, it would cost a lot of money. Even if Song Guo is very rich, can he come up with so much money?

Aside from this small detail, Hao Ren was quite serious about the captive's other words. It was not easy to find experienced soldiers in this era, and Da Yuan was willing to take the trouble to exchange the captured Song people for the Da Yuan prisoners, and that was because the deal was really worth it.

After checking the prisoners, Hao Ren urged his literati to work overtime to make a list. He himself went to Zhao Guo Shoujing to inquire about the Tongji Canal. Guo Shoujing is an expert, so he showed Hao Ren this information. Hao Ren, who was born in the navy, knew the meaning and value of this canal after reading the map.

The Great Song Dynasty was now able to reach the Huai River from Lin'an via canal. The Tongji Canal is from the Huai River to Bianliang. During the Battle of the Yellow River, a considerable part of the Song army walked from the north bank of the Yangtze River to Bianliang on two legs. If the Tongji Canal could be rebuilt, the Song army would be able to move quickly between the north and the south.

Guo Shoujing was not as nervous as Hao Ren. In other words, since the Great Song Dynasty successfully barred the river and built a dam, water conservancy expert Guo Shoujing has seen it. He said with relief: "Wanhu, although the Yellow River returns to the north, the old river channel will not be able to dry up in a year or two. It looks dry on the surface, but the river has been soaked by the river for a hundred years, and it is so easy to dry up below. I think even if they can cultivate, it will take seven or eight years. ”

Hao Ren just nodded, and then took his leave. Sitting in the carriage, he felt very irritable. Da Song did not carry out a surprise attack, and Zhao Jiaren's strategy was unremarkable, using a method that a six- or seven-year-old child could understand. However, this method is too heavy to deal with.

Can Da Yuan now order the Song State not to build the Tongji Canal? Obviously impossible. Then Da Yuan could watch the Song State calmly spend a few years repairing the Tongji Canal from the Huai River to Bianliang, and then mobilize troops from the core economic zone of the Great Song Dynasty to Bianliang. At that time, the Huaxian Treaty between the two sides had expired, so the Song army began to wage war.

Shake your head vigorously. Hao Ren banished such a vision of the future from his mind. He looked out the window. Outside on the road...... Pedestrians are scarce. Hao Ren looked outside carefully, but he felt that there were not as many pedestrians on the street as before. This made Hao Ren very surprised. How did it suddenly change like this?

Thinking about it again, Hao Ren suddenly came up with a reason. In Dadu, tens of thousands of Song prisoners were sent to Zhigu Village to exchange Han prisoners.

Without these tens of thousands of people, can most of them have such a clear sense of desolation? Hao Ren felt that he couldn't convince himself of this idea. But apart from this reason, he couldn't find any other reason for the loss of most of the city's population.

On the third day of the ninth month, news came from Helin. The leader of the Ögedai Khanate, Erjin Haidu, led an army to attack the Mongol capital of Horin. Emperor Kublai Khan immediately ordered the formation of an army to prepare for the conquest of Haidu. So he ordered a discussion with the Song State about more than 3,000 Mongol captives.

This time, Kublai Khan no longer entangled, and the two sides reached an agreement to exchange more than 3,000 Mongol prisoners for more than 29,000 Song prisoners. In order to be able to exchange all the Mongols who could fight, Kublai Khan took out all the Song captives in Dadu in exchange.

By October, when more than 3,000 Mongol captives had arrived in Dadu, Hao Ren felt that there were fewer pedestrians on the streets of Dadu. It's autumn again, and the once thriving big city is in an instant slump. made Hao Ren Wanhu full of melancholy.

In such a situation, Hao Ren went to the Great Song Embassy in Dayuan to visit his old friend Song Gongming, but saw that Song Gongming was packing his luggage. Hao Ren asked in surprise, "Brother Song, where are you going?" ”

Song Gongming invited Hao Ren to sit down, made him a pot of tea, and then said: "I was originally a negotiator, and I came to talk to Dayuan about the exchange of prisoners. Now all we have left is hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands. We've talked to them many times. Really want to exchange them, wait for the opportunity. ”

Hao Ren didn't speak. This is something that everyone knows, it makes no sense to say so much, Kublai Khan will not exchange the Song traitors in his hands for those hundreds of thousands of households. At least not yet. And the tea in the cup this time also greatly attracted Hao Ren's attention. This is not white tea, nor is it green tea, but a tea with a strong flavor and is very thorough.

Seeing Hao Ren drink the tea in the teacup cleanly, Song Gongming filled another cup for Hao Ren, and said with a smile: "Is it good to drink the black tea of Sinhala?" ”

"Good tea! Good tea! Hao Ren praised again and again.

Although Song Gongming was showing off, he was actually very surprised. Sinhala does not produce tea, but spices. Since the Great Song Dynasty used the local area as a base for marching into Tianzhuyang, Zhao Taiwei also let him open up a black tea plantation there. Regardless of whether Taiwei Zhao's words are right or not, everyone has tried it first. I didn't expect black tea to grow so well locally. Like Siam's bamboo paper, it became a new commodity for transportation from overseas to the Great Song Dynasty.

The Great Song Dynasty has high and low evaluations of the taste of this black tea, and the Mongolians, Arabs, and Europa people are crazy about the taste of black tea. Song Gongming proved that Mongolians with normal tastes would like the taste of Sinhalese black tea through a live experiment conducted by Hao Ren, a Mongolian who is a Mongolian with a normal taste.

Asked the staff to bring a bag of black tea, Song Gongming handed the gift to Hao Ren Wanhu, "I don't know how long it will take to come back after I go back, let's make this bag of tea a parting gift." ”

Hao Ren Wanhu opened the kraft paper bag and saw that the paper bag was filled with tea leaves wrapped in tin foil. The south is humid, all kinds of transportation equipment will absorb water, and tea will be moldy and deteriorated in a high temperature and high humidity environment. Therefore, Da Song used tin foil to make the inner packaging, and the effect was very good. This bag of tea weighs one pound (Song Jin is 600 grams), which is not a cheap gift in Dayuan.

Knowing that Song Gongming would come back after a long time, and it was useless to buy it, Hao Ren was moved, and said with emotion: "Brother Song, I actually want to discuss with you if I can buy some arquebuses from Song Guo." ”

"Didn't you make an arquebus?" Song Gongming asked with some puzzlement.

For that kind of imitation hand cannon, Hao Ren didn't bother to comment. "I don't want many either," he asked. 1,000, but I don't know what price Brother Song wants. ”

Song Gongming thought for a while in embarrassment before he spoke: "But I don't know where you have taken so many Song people captive." Can you tell me the truth first? ”