Of course, this retreat is not to stay in the city, but to send a large number of experienced cadres to the countryside to strengthen the management of the rural areas, and at the same time to explore all kinds of resources in the base areas, and by the way to punish the local tyrants and inferior gentry who are inclined to the Qing court and oppose the rule of the Huaxia army.

In this process, the Mixed Yuan Sect did not fight any big battles, but all kinds of small-scale battles continued, although the Mixed Yuan Sect won all of them, but it also involved a lot of energy, and there was no intention of large-scale battles for the time being.

From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, there has always been a saying that officials do not go down to the county, that is, the imperial court is also in charge of the county seat, and the rest of the place is actually under the autonomy of a large number of gentry.

There are many drawbacks to this practice, and the only benefit is that the imperial court can worry about it, but in the case of the mixed Yuan sect, it will never adopt such a rough management method, and it has established a rural management system from counties to townships and even villages in the base areas of Guangdong, and has also accumulated a large number of excellent grassroots cadres and governance experience.

In order to reduce the peasants' resistance to the new regime in the newly occupied areas, Li Xian ordered the northern part of Zhejiang and Songjiang Prefecture to be exempted from grain tax for three years, which also achieved miraculous results, at least the vast number of ordinary peasants had little resistance to the new regime.

On this basis, Li Xian also put forward the slogan of "reducing rent, interest, tax, and exempt from forced labor," initiated the governance system from villages, townships, towns, and counties, and established a set of governance systems that were much stricter than those of the Qing court.

In this process, there were also many gentry who resisted in various ways, and then were suppressed by force or Huairou by the Mixed Yuan Sect, which is needless to say.

It is worth mentioning that several large families in Huzhou plotted to rebel, but they were strongly suppressed, a large number of fields and houses were confiscated, and the mixed yuan sect took the opportunity to confiscate more than 20,000 quintals of raw silk.

Just by selling confiscated raw silk to foreigners, Li Xianbu obtained more than 10 million taels of property, which was close to the entire income in Hangzhou, which was a windfall.

Li Xianbu, the most powerful and radical in the Huaxia Alliance, temporarily entered internal affairs mode, which also affected other forces within the alliance.

During this period, Sanyuanguan and Tiandihui also continued to manage the internal affairs of Ningbo, occupying several counties and developing them as base areas, trying to digest the gains since the dispatch of troops.

During this period, the second half of 1846, there were also some major events.

First of all, through the previous occupation of Putian, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Huzhou and other places, and through the tax revenue from direct trade with Shanghai, the mixed yuan sect accumulated more than 30 million yuan of property, and began to expand its army.

In the past, the annual income of the Mixed Yuan Sect was only about 4 million yuan, and it could only maintain a regular army of about 30,000 people, but this time it made a windfall, so it decided to recruit 50,000 new soldiers, and at the same time, it also planned to continue to recruit 50,000 soldiers and horses in the next two years.

According to this plan, the Mixed Yuan Sect would be able to have as many as 130,000 regular troops within three years, and its overall strength would quadruple compared to what it is now.

Sanyuanguan and other allies naturally wanted to take the opportunity to expand the army, and then they found quite embarrassing things, whether it was Sanyuanguan or Tiandihui, or Yang Tianming and Yue Bufan's department, the territory was not small, and the number of personnel under his rule was also sufficient, but there was not enough money to recruit, train and equip enough troops.

Taking Sanyuanguan as an example, the economic strength before the Northern Expedition was actually similar to that of the Mixed Yuanzong, but after Li Xianbu occupied Putian and Fuzhou, he obtained more than 10 million yuan in spoils, and Sanyuanguan happened to fight with the Qing army attacking from three ways at that time.

Then Li Xianbu occupied Dayuan Island, eliminated the Fujian Naval Division, and also occupied Ningbo, spending a lot of money and military supplies, but the real money expenditure was about five million yuan, and the cost of inviting a large number of allies to help in the battle was also paid in the form of sharing part of the administrative power of Dinghai and Ningbo with the allies;

Then Li Xian hit Hangzhou, monopolized almost all the income, and obtained more than 10 million yuan of net income, Sanyuanguan and others also shared the two million taels of property seized in Ningbo, half of which was also distributed to Li Xian, although this income was not small, it was not as rich as Li Xian's department;

After that, the Little Knife Society revolted, and the Huaxia Army took advantage of the situation to send troops to capture Suzhou, and obtained more than 10 million yuan of property, of which Li Xianbu received 4 million yuan, Sanyuanguan also received 4 million yuan, and the rest was shared by the Heaven and Earth Society;

Then, Li Xian confiscated a large amount of property from the hostile gentry in northern Zhejiang, especially raw silk, and also traded with foreign merchants who came to China, as well as a large amount of taxes, in short, more than 10 million yuan in revenue, and these three yuan could not be shared.

Wang Jiuxuan and Yuan Fang calculated the income of the Sanyuan Concept together, and found that since the Northern Expedition, the Sanyuan Temple has obtained additional economic benefits of more than 5 million yuan, which is much stronger than the previous few years of their own hard development, but compared with the Mixed Yuan Sect, it is much worse.

Moreover, the trade of the Huaxia Army or the Huaxia League to Fusang was also launched, and Sanyuanguan had a large number of factories in Guangzhou, although it could obtain a lot of benefits, but the industrial strength of the Mixed Yuanzong was not worse than that of Sanyuanguan, and after obtaining the northern part of Zhejiang, it had the largest raw silk production base in the entire Qing Dynasty, and the benefits earned through trade would only be above Sanyuanguan.

Overall, the Sanyuanguan now has an annual income of 8 million to 10 million yuan, and has a reserve of materials and money worth 8 million, while the mixed yuan sect can have an annual income of more than 20 million yuan through the silk tea trade, and has a staggering 30 million yuan in financial reserves.

Although most people still regard the Sanyuan Temple and the Mixed Yuan Sect as the two strongest forces in the world, in terms of wealth, the gap between the two sides is quite huge.

What's more, with so much money, the Mixed Yuan Sect will be able to recruit more soldiers, and its military strength will soon increase, and the number of troops will definitely exceed 100,000 within two years, and it may reach between 130,000 and 150,000 within three years.

In contrast, the resources that can be used to recruit troops in Sanyuanguan are much less, and they may be able to recruit another 20,000 troops in two years, and after three years, they can maintain a maximum of about 60,000 to 70,000 troops.

"Damn, how can the strength of our two sides be so different?" Wang Jiuxuan said in surprise after comparing the economic and military data of both sides.

"When we got Guangzhou, we felt complacent, and now we have to pay the price for the original decision. Yuan Fang said with a wry smile.

At that time, Li Xian opposed the Huaxia Army's direct occupation of Guangzhou as a base area, and then Sanyuanguan did not fight for the dominance of Guangzhou.

It is precisely because Sanyuanguan has the dominance of Guangzhou, during the Northern Expedition, the Qing army attacked Guangzhou in three ways, and Sanyuanguan could only stand up to defend Guangzhou, although it won, but also invested a lot of material resources and manpower, so that it could not expand in a short period of time.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Xianbu went north to attack the rich cities, and even occupied Fuzhou, obtaining quite a large amount of materials and property, and the gap between the wealth of the two sects was immediately widened.