In May of the sixth year of Yongli, the Yangtze River basin, including the south of the Yangtze River, except for Hubei, Sichuan, and Guangxi, ushered in a rare time of peace again.

Jiangbei and Hubei, which had recently been occupied by Su Yan, followed Jiangxi closely and began a mighty reform of apportioning the land into the mu.

The squires and landlords in these two areas had long heard the specific content of the policy of apportioning the land to the mu, and they knew that Su Yan was ruthless to the landlords, so except for those who were determined to escape in advance, the rest were obedient to accept the reform.

At the same time as the reform of the apportionment into the mu, Su Yan took the time to go back to Nanchang Mansion - after the Qing court envoy Zhang Duan reported the ransom price demanded by Su Yan to the imperial court, although it was not clear what the reaction was within the Qing court, they still quickly gave an answer.

In order to be able to successfully redeem the prisoners of war, the Qing court could only hold its nose and agree to Su Yan's conditions, and ordered Zhang Duan to verify the number of prisoners of war and report it in time, so that the court could prepare enough ransom.

If the Qing court refused to redeem the Han prisoners of war whose ransom was not high, it would definitely alienate the Han people in its army, which would be even more fatal to the already shaky Qing court.

After Su Yan personally returned to Nanchang Mansion, he returned to Nanjing with the Qing court mission, and counted the number of prisoners of war in Nanjing, because the Mongol bannermen who surrendered after the Battle of Huai'an chose to surrender, so the number of Mongol prisoners of war was very small.

After the Manchus were sent across the river, they were stuffed into factories and mines and worked as cattle and horses day and night, without enough food and clothing every day, and when they were brought out and assembled, almost everyone became skinny and devoid of human appearance, and the braids on the back of their heads were thin and withered, like the tail of a mouse.

In contrast, the current situation of the Han Army Banner and the Green Battalion who were charged into the punishment camp is much better, although their food treatment is also the lowest level, and they have to risk their lives in every battle, but those who can survive are still like individuals in terms of clothing and mental outlook.

When he returned to Nanjing in early May, Zhang Duan almost cried when he saw the Manchurians who had been held in the open field and "saw the light of day."

"I, the king of the Qing Dynasty, how could I fall into such a field?"

Zhang Duan thought sadly, he recalled that in the past, when the Qing Dynasty King entered the customs, he was like a tiger and full of spirit, and then looked at the appearance of these beggars who were not even as good as beggars, and his heart was both sad and afraid.

The reason why he is afraid is also very simple, he is afraid that he will fall here like these Manchus in the future, you must know that his Zhang family was originally a courtier of the Ming Dynasty, and his father Zhang Xinguan was the secretary of the Criminal Department, such a heavy minister treason to the enemy, once the Ming army came back, they will definitely not have a good end.

It is precisely because of this that Zhang Duan and they have a bit of a conversion fanaticism in it, and they do their best for the Qing court, and they do not want the Qing court to collapse and fall.

Su Yan ordered someone to show Zhang Duan the counted prisoner of war roster, and after checking it, the latter pointed to the Mongolian prisoner of war roster registered on it and questioned it, saying:

"Why is the list of Mongols so at least, just over four hundred?"

Before Su Yan could answer, Gu Yanwu, the head of the military department beside him who was in charge of accommodating prisoners of war, took the initiative to reply: "Most of the Mongols died in battle, and the above are all the remaining prisoners of war, do you think we can't hide the number of prisoners of war?"

"I don't dare." Zhang Duanbao said with a smile, and then continued to check the list of personnel.

After determining the number of prisoners, he immediately said that he would report truthfully to the imperial court, and hoped that Su Yan would treat the prisoners well and improve the living conditions of the Manchu prisoners of war.

Su Yan agreed to his request and built a special camp outside Nanjing to hold these Qing prisoners of war.

In addition to Shuosai, the prince of Chengze and more than a dozen Manchu generals, there were 1,863 Manchurian soldiers, 455 Mongol soldiers, and 4,382 Han soldiers.

These prisoners of war want to be ransomed, and the Qing court will have to pay a total of 180,000 taels of silver, which is still very cheap compared to Shuosai's three million taels of silver, but that Zhang Duan really deserves to be from the Qing court

Doglegs, he took the opportunity to make a request, hoping to bring back the corpses of Nikan and Bolo and others.

The corpses of Konikan and Bolo had already been dug and hastily buried, and now that Zhang Duan brought it up again, Su Yan had no choice but to do what he wished, ordering someone to dig up the grave and dig up the corpses again.

After digging it out, the corpse was returned to the north by boat with Shuo Sai and others - the Qing court wanted to redeem Shuo Sai's 1 million grain and grass and 3 million silver had been handed over to Su Yan as early as Nanchang, but Su Yan did not order the release of Shuo Sai for a long time, so he was imprisoned for several months in vain.

Now, Zhang Duan has come to Nanjing together, and he can finally be released and see the light of day again.

Using the three million taels of silver redeemed by the Qing court, Su Yan went on a construction spree in the prefectures and counties under his control—he systematically upgraded the military buildings in each city, building artillery foundries and other buildings that could be built by the system.

In addition to this, he also invested in the construction of all the annexes (ports, estates, factories, etc.) that could be built in the provinces.

Considering that there was still a lack of heavy firepower in the army, Su Yan put into the conscription of 12-pounder infantry guns and 12-pounder infantry howitzers in all the prefectures and cities where artillery foundries were built.

Although Su Yan has a budget of three million in his hand, but when it comes to the county seat, the three million is not enough.

Although the three million were spent at once, it was worth it, and in a few months, even the county town could directly recruit the most basic line infantry, and there was no need to retreat to the second best thing and recruit Cossack infantry.

After a few days in Nanjing, a fleet sailed from the East China Sea into the Yangtze River and entered the port of Nanjing, and after more than five months, the mission to Korea finally completed their mission and returned to Nanjing from Seoul.

After returning to Nanjing, Wu Zhongluan, the envoy's secretary of the Ministry of Rites, did not rest for a moment, and dragged his tired body to meet Su Yan.

After getting off the ship, he heard the news that Su Yan was canonized as the king of Chu, and while he sighed that he was really a young hero, he saluted Su Yan more respectfully, and reported what he had seen and heard about his trip to Korea.

As rumors from the outside world general, North Korea is divided into two factions, one pro-Ming faction and the other pro-Qing faction, the pro-Ming faction is headed by the monarch and always fantasizes about the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, while the pro-Qing faction believes that the decline of the Ming Dynasty has appeared, and it should recognize the reality and follow the Qing court closely, so as to avoid the recurrence of the rebellion.

The appearance of Wu Zhongluan and the Daming Sailor undoubtedly boosted the pro-Ming faction in Korea and dealt a heavy blow to the strength of the pro-Qing faction.

It all started three months ago, in early February......