The rebels in the south had to stop their offensive because of their own economic base on the small-scale peasant economy and the fact that it was now spring ploughing.

At the same time that the southern rebels stopped attacking, the northern rebels Jiang Jiu also stopped attacking.

And because the imperial court was short of food and grass for a while, there was no direct attack for the time being, so the situation between the two sides was so deadlocked.

However, the balance of war is still gradually tilting towards the side of the Ming court.

After all, while the south was busy with spring ploughing, the north was also stepping up production, a large number of guns and artillery were further produced, and the rebel army formed was also stepping up training.

The amount of grain brought back from overseas has also continued to increase, and many people have fled to the north by various means, increasing the strength of the north.

And when the two sides insisted on this, Apocalypse finally figured out his wired telegraph technology, and indeed set up the first telegraph line between Lushun and Jingshi.

Zhang Gui was also very happy about this, and immediately sent a reply to Tianqi after receiving the telegram from Tianqi.

However, just as Apocalypse and Zhang Gui were exchanging telegrams, the new emperor also sent a telegram to Zhang Gui, talking about the current situation and hoping that Zhang Gui could give him some advice.

Zhang Gui told him to think globally and not just on land.

The new emperor suddenly realized, and immediately restored Zhang Gui's position as the commander of the West Factory, and directly asked Zhang Gui to coordinate the fleets of the West Factory in the name of the commander of the West Factory to harass all parts of the south for him, and the imperial court recovered the lost territory and rebelled against the hoe girl.

After Zhang Gui was authorized, he really carried out this matter seriously.

After all, there is a lot of money to be made here.

First of all, just by sailing to the south to grab grain in the name of rebellion, and selling it to the imperial court can make a lot of money.

Secondly, it can also directly collect money to help transport some ordinary Han people who are unwilling to accept oppression in the south to the north.

And it just so happened that Zhang Gui's Lushun fleet had already appeared steamships, so it had an advantage over the Ming Dynasty's own naval fleet, which also participated in the raiding mission, in terms of harassing the southern rebel forces from the sea.

Of course, it was not only Zhang Gui who could make money from the imperial court, in order to allow Zhang Gui to better command the Xichang fleet to attack the south, the new emperor also authorized Zhang Gui's Lushun fleet to purchase arms from the imperial court.

Because the imperial court, which owns the entire northern industrial base, now has no shortage of arms, and it needs to exchange arms for food.

Although this would allow the imperial court to make a lot of money from Zhang Gui, Zhang Gui could increase the strength of his private army through the purchase of arms.

As a result, Zhang Gui's Lushun fleet and Jiading corps increased in strength in a short period of time, and he still commanded the fleets of Xichang.

Not long after, Zhang Gui personally led his Lushun fleet south to Jinshanwei in Songjiang Prefecture, and landed in Jinshanwei, and directly ordered his Jiading Corps to attack Songjiang Mansion, arrest all the officials of Songjiang Mansion and return them to Eucalyptus, and also plundered all the grain stocks in the treasury of Songjiang Mansion, and also took away tens of thousands of people.

Coincidentally.

Zhang Gui's fleet continued to harass along the border, sometimes not only raiding, but also participating in smuggling, directly contacting some large local landowners and buying their grain at high prices.

After all, the south is not monolithic, and many landlords and bureaucrats have a good relationship with Zhang Gui, such as Zhu Xieyuan and Jiang Dejing, so they secretly sold him millions of stone grain.

Of course, for these landlords, they don't want their grain to rot in vain.

Not long after, the whole south was shaken.

"Damn! Why did he, Uncle Zhang Guo and Xichang, also get involved and attack my rear from the sea?"

Feng Xuexian was furious because of this.

Cheng Kegong said after a moment of silence: "Now it seems that the only way to do this is to move the border and forbid the sea, just like setting up barbed wire along the rivers and mountains, and setting up nets and sentry posts along the coast, and not allowing the board to go to the sea, so that every household can go out and build walls to prevent small-scale fleet attacks, and at the same time send a number of regular barracks to be stationed along various seaports to prevent large-scale naval divisions from attacking and harassing everywhere at any time!"

"It's too expensive! In fact, many large households have come up with a lot of grain and allowance, the key is the requisition of the people, where are there so many people, do you want spring ploughing? Do you need to transport the grain everywhere? Is the war still going on?"

Feng Xuexian said in embarrassment.

After hearing this, Cheng Kegong slammed his fist on the table very angrily: "Why don't the imperial court in the north and Uncle Zhang Guo in Lushun have these problems?"

"Because they don't just dig in the ground! They don't have to worry about spring ploughing, even if they run out of food, they can go south directly to collect grain."

Feng Xuexian replied.

Cheng Kegong was still unwilling, and said, "Think about it again, Taizu was still able to succeed in the Northern Expedition back then, can't we do it?"

"Maybe it's because the times are different."

Feng Xuexian sighed and said, "According to the people from Songjiang Mansion, this Uncle Zhang's steamer is very fast, and like a steam train, it also keeps spitting smoke, so it must be some kind of miracle skill! As a result, these sailors of his uncle Zhang Guo were allowed to come and go at will on the sea, and even entered the inland rivers to show off their might, forcing many large families to donate 300,000 stone of grain before leaving."

Peng!

Cheng Kegong slammed his fist on the eucalyptus table: "Why do you want to offer food, these big families are really afraid of death!" We rebelled for them, but they themselves used food for their enemies."

"There is no way, our small sailboats can't stop it, and the big families don't want to watch their shops and houses along the river destroyed by their cannons, and even the fields along the river can't complete spring ploughing."

Feng Xuexian said: "Now it seems that this is actually a way, negotiate with his Uncle Zhang Guo, you can give him a certain amount of silver and food every year, just let him not really help the court disturb our rear."

Cheng Kegong nodded after hearing this: "It can only be like this."

So, it didn't take long for the southern rebels to really send envoys to Zhang Gui.

"Are you going to give me a million stone of grain, 200,000 horses of silk, and 500,000 taels of silver every year?"

Zhang Gui asked to make Dong Zuyuan.

Dong Zuyuan nodded: "That's right! It depends on whether His Highness is willing to remain neutral."

After hearing this, Zhang Gui asked directly, "Do you think that Lushun, Ganghwa Island, Jeju Island, Kashima, and Luzon Island, which the imperial court has let the lonely generation guard, be worth a lot of these grains, silver, and silk?"

Dong Zuyuan saw that Zhang Gui was not moved, so he had to grit his teeth: "Three million stone grain, 500,000 horses of silk, and one million taels of silver!" How?"

"It's not about money and food."

Zhang Gui got up and replied, "Putting aside the righteousness that no Han people want their country and nation to be divided, the Guhe Imperial Court is actually the same now, and what is most lacking is people, especially Han people!" The imperial court is the Han labor force that lacks the lowest cost of education and is the easiest to identify with the rule of the imperial court, and what is lacking is a large number of Han freemen who can come to settle in the port and island where the lonely place is, no way, there are still not enough Han people on those islands, so that it can't be completely like Middle-earth, you know, Lonely can't go back to Middle-earth casually, but he is also a homesick person, if he wants to live in an area that is more like Middle-earth, then there must be enough Han people. What's more, if Lone wants to be able to return to Middle-earth in the future, he must first eliminate you landlords who only want to confine your compatriots to slavery on your estate."

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