Qingzhou, east coast.

Since Lu Yaoliang returned to Qingzhou in Lingshui County, his prestige within the regime has become much less than before.

The repeated defeats on the battlefield made these officials and families in Qingzhou have to start doubting whether Lu Yaoliang's ability can control the situation in Qingzhou.

As one of the few places in the north that has not been affected by the war, Qingzhou is not an exaggeration to say that it is a paradise, and it has super potential.

But now that a good hand is played poorly, it's hard to say that it's just because of timing and luck.

Moreover, since Xiao Jiu formed the navy, Heizi has been constantly harassing the hinterland of Qingzhou along the coastline, making the local defenders anxious.

From time to time, they even instigated the mountain bandits in Qingzhou to collude to resist the suppression of local officers and soldiers in the county government.

On the other hand, the local officials in Qingzhou, because they have always suppressed the rebellion in the first place, often have to pay a heavy price before they can drive out the enemy.

And Heizi and the Yuzhou soldiers under him went directly to the sea ship and continued to wander the sea, waiting for an opportunity to find the next coast.

As for those mountain bandits who were instigated by the sunspots to rebel, it was even more convenient, and they could just find a mountain forest to drill, and the officers and soldiers would have nowhere to find them.

Moreover, the Kuroko navy is not really isolated, as the Lingshui caravan gradually develops maritime trade, the Kuroko and their natural supply can often be obtained from the sea.

In this era, even fishing boats were relatively rare, so there were no pirates on the sea who lived by robbery, so the navy did not need to spare some energy to guard the safety of caravans.

Later, as Heizi gradually gained a foothold in Qingzhou, the gold, silver, grain and grass brought by the Lingshui caravan through the sea ships also allowed him to win over the local mountain bandits.

In order to reverse this passive situation, Lu Yaoliang also issued an announcement in Fucheng, using the savings in the treasury to recruit Qingyong into the mountains to suppress bandits.

It's just that in the face of the government's call, there were few responses in Qingzhou County, except for the tenants who really couldn't eat, no one responded.

A large part of the reason for this situation is that Lu Yaoliang collected a large amount of taxes in order to use troops in Lingshui County.

Now Lu Yaoliang took the group of soldiers under his command out for a walk, not only did he not make any achievements, but also squandered the money and food he had saved before.

In today's Qingzhou Army, don't say that you can't pay for being a soldier, I'm afraid that eating is a problem.

Unlike the sunspots that have been floating on the sea, they have the continuous support of the Lingshui caravan behind them, and the assistance of the local armed forces, which is naturally much better.

Those mountain bandits who cooperated with the sunspot may have had a bad image in the hearts of the local people before, but they can't stand the fact that the sunspot has repeatedly paid money and food to buy the hearts of the people for them.

In particular, the atrocities of the Qingzhou army forcibly requisitioning grain and grass before were different from the mountain bandits who gave alms to the people in the mountains.

History is always so wonderful, and now the people of Qingzhou have more mountain bandit forces in their hearts than they trust the government.

And since those mountain bandits were funded by the sunspots, they were no longer limited to their own hills of different heights, and began to make revolutions in the countryside.

With the guidance of Heizi and other elders in Lingshui County, the behavior of this group of mountain bandits became more formal, and they also gained greater prestige.

At the same time, these landlords and gentry in Qingzhou were unlucky, and they were always worried about whether a robber would suddenly come out of their house and learn their name, or that some villagers and hired farmers would come to raid their homes with mountain bandits.

With the passage of time, the voice of the people in Qingzhou has become louder and louder, and some people have directly raised the banner of doing the right thing for heaven.

Hearing this, Lu Yao trembled with good anger, but he knew in his heart that everything was reality.

He didn't think he had done anything wrong, and that he would be able to achieve a lot of experience summed up by his predecessors.

If you want to achieve a hegemony, it is impossible to be immortal.

"Pass my orders and go out of the city to suppress the bandits."

Under the warm sun, Lu Yaoliang rode a war horse with golden hair, and personally led the newly recruited soldiers out of the town to suppress the rebellion.

But there are countless mountain bandits in Qingzhou Nuoda, and at this time, they have the financial and material support of the Lingshui Chamber of Commerce, and it is by no means easy to take overnight.

Just when Lu Yaoliang had no time to clean up the rebellion in his territory, the Lingshui caravan representing Xiao Jiu began to build his vast empire on the sea.

As the world is divided and divided, these merchants of the sea appear like ghosts along the coastline in different lands.

Starting from the southern border closest to Yuzhou, Xiao Jiu enjoyed the first wave of dividends of sea trade, and as the team grew stronger and stronger, the tentacles began to gradually stretch to the north.

Although Qingzhou had a hostile relationship with Xiao Jiu at this time, the local wealthy families were also eager to eat Xiao Jiusheng's flesh against Xiao Jiusheng, who wantonly slaughtered the landlord and gentry in their territory.

But when the merchant ships of the Lingshui caravan docked in front of them, few of them could not be carried away in the face of huge profits.

In Xiao Jiu's previous life, there was a saying that when the profit reached 10 percent, the merchants would think about the risk of trading, and when the profit reached 50 percent, the merchants would take risks, and when the profit reached 100 percent, these merchants would even sell the hemp rope that hanged themselves.

Reality is always full of spicy irony, and these people who want Xiao Jiu's death the most are doing business with each other at this time.

The trend of the times is never controlled by a single individual, and even one or two people who can see clearly will eventually be regarded as heretics by more ignorant people.

There is no way, after all, there is only one caravan in Lingshui, and there is more than one wealthy family in Qingzhou, and someone will always do it if you don't do it yourself.

It would be good if these families could form an alliance to jointly resist the economic invasion of the Lingshui caravan, but they only cared about fighting for power and profit.

In this way, the business of the Lingshui caravan became bigger and bigger, and even some of its business partners included Qingzhou officials.

As a result, Qingzhou was completely reduced to a dumping market for raw materials and commodities of the Lingshui caravan under the soft knife of the Lingshui caravan.

In this era, there was no talk of a trade tax, and even if Lu Yaoliang and his officials in charge of finance noticed the abnormality, they did not have any idea of dealing with the enemy's invasion.

What Lu Yaoliang can do now is to secretly send people to spy on these wealthy families in Qingzhou, and once he finds out that there is a secret peace with the Lingshui Chamber of Commerce, he will directly fine a large amount of money.

It's just that in this way, the family that has been cut off from the financial route must be resentful in their hearts, and the Qingzhou family consortium, which was originally the solid backing of the Qingzhou Army, has also begun to drift away from Lu Yaoliang.

In addition to Qingzhou, Liaozhou, located at the northernmost tip of the mainland, also welcomed a southern caravan from the sea for the first time.

When a large number of southern goods are transported to the border area of Liaozhou, the economic impact on the local market is tantamount to a nuclear explosion.

Liaozhou, as one of the six border states, was dominated by the pseudo-Xia regime supported by the Rong people on the grassland, but it retained considerable independence.

This is not because there are many people of the Daxia ethnic group in Liaozhou or the local armed forces are strong, but because there are many ethnic groups living here, and there is not much land suitable for farming.

But this wilderness frontier, which has been forgotten by the world, has taken the fast ship of sea trade dividends because of the chaotic situation and different land routes.

Goods from the south were sold by some of Liaozhou's elite who controlled the military and government, and they were able to make a lot of money from all kinds of goods at low prices.

Most of the profits from the trade in Liaozhou were given to the local wealthy families, and although on the surface it seemed that Xiao Jiu suffered a loss, they became Xiao Jiu's most loyal supporters and were inseparable from it.

As time goes by, the climate gradually gets colder, and this devastated land once again welcomes the new year.

It's just that although this winter did not have a large number of people freezing to death and starving to death like last year, they still looked lifeless.

At this time, although the great drought had passed, and the farmers in various places had ushered in a bumper harvest, with the demise of the Great Xia, the local forces became kings everywhere, and the local taxes were also increased.

In this era when everything is based on food as the first priority, the most important thing is to have enough food, and if there is food, there will be people, and there will be subordinates to work for you.

But if you blindly chase domineering, there is something hidden that will quietly disappear, that is, the people's heart.

Xiao Jiu brought many thoughts from the memory of his previous life to this era, bringing a lot of benefits to himself while carrying it and feeding the people under his hands.

Some people commented that Xiao Jiu's success was just opportunistic, but what everyone ignored was that without the support of thousands of people, how could he have done what he did today?

Since Xiao Jiu took commerce as the foundation of his power structure, another form of agrarian thought, which was different from this era, began to take root.

According to Xiao Jiu's assumption, if the sea trade is properly managed and the breakthroughs are opened one by one along the coastline, the whole world will become his granary.

In fact, when the goods of Yangcheng County and even the south were transported to various places with cargo ships, in addition to the lifeless market was gradually revitalized, capital also began to sprout.

Originally, the peasants who should have turned their backs to the loess and turned their backs to the sky all their lives walked out of the land on which they depended for their livelihood and set foot on the unknown distance, which was also an ideological enlightenment.

Now the business of the Lingshui caravan is getting bigger and bigger, and factories are being built everywhere in Yangcheng County, which improves the quality of life of the people and injects vitality into the times.

The giant ships on the ocean gradually strung together the fragmented lands of Great Xia into a single bead, and Xiao Jiu and his Lingshui caravan were the head of the line.

Just on the Xiao Zi that rode the wind and waves, Li Fu sailed into the distance against the slightly chilly sea breeze and reached a more distant place.

And it was this ocean voyage that brought Xiao Jiu something that really gave him the capital to compete in the world.

The gears of fate are beginning to turn, and no one knows what the future holds.