Lin Fu came to Xuzhou to inspect the defense. The main purpose was to adjust the troop deployment and defense ideas in the Xuzhou area.

To the north of Xuzhou, the Luxi plains are open and connected by the Bianshui River and the Sishui River. However, due to the current situation, Beiyan gave up its efforts to go south to attack Xuzhou from here, and Huaidong could not gather superior forces to counterattack the north in a short period of time.

Jining, Dongping, Tai'an and other places.

Next, Huaidong should strengthen its competition and control over the Mengshan, Yishan, Kunyushan and other mountain systems in central and eastern Shandong and the Jiaolai River.

Lin Fu made adjustments to the Xuzhou camp, with Liu Miaozhen as the general manager in charge of defense, and Li Wei in charge of political affairs. The division of labor remained unchanged.

The Northern Division of the Military Intelligence Department moved to Xuzhou so that it could collect and analyze military intelligence in the North nearby, so that the Xuzhou troops could respond to changes in the situation more timely and accurately; Wu Qi was transferred to Xuzhou to lead the Northern Division of the Military Intelligence Division as the deputy general manager of Xuzhou Operations and Camp.

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Sun Zhuang was transferred to the deputy commander of the forbidden camp cavalry army. He will return to Jiangning with Lin Fu to expand the cavalry camp in Jiangning. The cavalry troops in Xuzhou were reorganized into the third cavalry brigade, with Li Liang as the brigade general and Zhao Bao as the commander.

He served as deputy general and was stationed in Xuzhou and other places.

As the deputy general manager of the camp, Malantou also knew Yizhou, controlled Chu Zheng, Liu Xilin and other troops, and was responsible for the penetration and control of the eastern troops and horses in the mountainous areas between Yizhou and Qingzhou.

Yang Shi was reassigned as the deputy commander of the Second Water Battalion, and he and Ge Cunxin were responsible for garrisoning the waters outside Huaikou and the Huaisi waters on the inside. Together with the Fengli Army guarding Shanyang and other places, they were under the control of the Xuzhou camp.

In addition, Sun Jingtang resigned from the post of commander of the supply camp and was appointed deputy general manager of the Xuzhou camp, responsible for the recruitment, training and supply of supply and ammunition manufacturing, industry, mining and ordnance, shipyards and workshops in the Xuzhou area.

Lin Fu initially set up a labor camp to accommodate the tens of thousands of migrant troops who had surrendered during the Huaisi War. In addition to undertaking engineering and farming affairs, the more important purpose was to provide qualified soldiers for the Huaidong Army.

Reserve soldiers.

In the past two years, the scale of Huaidong's troops and horses has expanded rapidly. All reserve soldiers were transferred from the labor camp. The expansion speed of the labor camp could not keep up, and the scale shrank to half of its peak. At the same time, Huaidong

As the control area in the East continues to expand, management matters such as recruitment and training of military personnel must also be dispersed to various camps.

Xuzhou will be a key area for victory between the north and the south in the future. If Huaidong wants to take the eastern route to the Northern Expedition, it must use the Xusi area as a bridgehead. The recruitment and training of reserve soldiers in the Xuzhou camp are actually far more important than in other areas. The work camp

Nearly half of the budget is invested in Xuzhou.

In addition, the people of Huaisi and the refugees from the north who passed through Xusi had strong folk customs. They had always been the elite soldiers recruited by generals, and the quality of the soldiers was better than that of Zhejiang, Fujian and other regions.

Lin Fu specifically asked Sun Jingtang to stay in Xuzhou and recruit Jianyong from Huaisi and those who were in trouble in the north to prepare for the future Northern Expedition.

After the Xuzhou camp was adjusted, Liu Miaozhen and below, Wu Qi, Sun Jingtang, Malantou, Li Wei, Ge Cunxin, the commander of the Second Water Camp, Ning Zechen, the commander of the Fengli Army, and others were all core figures in Huaidong, including Li

Liang, Geng Quanshan, Chu Zheng, Liu Xilin, Yang Shi, Zhao Bao and other good generals have initially formed the framework of a heavy military group with both water, land, horse and infantry capabilities.

More than one-third of the troops in Huaidong are deployed here. In addition to preventing the Yan army from going south and preparing for the future Northern Expedition, it also forms a powerful clamp on Huaixi to the west...

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Since the beginning of summer, the water level of the Huaihe River has continued to rise, and the levees on both sides of the river have been in disrepair for many years. People in Shouzhou are worried that the fragile levees will not be able to withstand the impact of the flood peak. In late June, they saw signs of loosening of the levees on the south bank.

Dong Yuan was forced to order Tao Chun to dig a dyke on the north bank to release floods.

Woyang on the north bank was a buffer zone for the war. Except for the cultivation near the fort, most of the area was deserted. As long as the flood could not destroy the fort, the losses would be much less than if the embankment collapsed on the south bank.

Standing on the top of Xiashi Mountain, you can watch the vast flood flow from the excavated embankment to the low-lying area on the north side, forming a large lake, expanding the lake area at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Liu Tingzhou came over, pulled out a long bench, and sat down. His boots were soaked with water and he took them off. Water dripped from his trousers and socks and dripped under the eaves.

"Master Liu, has the water level really receded?" Yuan Hancheng turned around and asked Liu Tingzhou.

Huaixi could not withstand the big trouble, and the north bank was flooded. Yuan Hancheng also came from Shouzhou City to Xiashi Mountain to watch. Standing on the top of the mountain, they could see that the opening after digging the embankment on the north bank overflowed into the lake, but they could not see

When looking at the rise and fall of the water level of the Huai River at the bottom of the mountain, one naturally has to ask Liu Tingzhou, who has just climbed up from the bottom of the mountain.

"It dropped three feet. As long as it doesn't rain heavily in Xinyang in the past two days, the south bank embankment should be able to be saved!" Liu Tingzhou said.

Although the losses from the flood discharge on the north bank are small, the road across the Huaihe River and connected to the military fortresses such as Guoyang still needs to be rebuilt, so it is impossible to cause no losses at all; the key is to protect the south bank.

Yuan Hancheng was relieved when he heard that the South Bank embankment could be saved, and said: "Thank God, I can breathe a sigh of relief, and my heart is in my throat - hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland are under the embankment."

, once the levee collapses, a year's hard work will be wasted!"

Liu Tingzhou pretended to smile relaxedly and said: "Prince Chu is really working hard. After autumn, he will work hard to repair the embankment. He can't be so worried next year..."

"That's right," Yuan Hancheng said, "hiring civilian workers in Huaidong has helped relieve the refugees, built water conservancy, and opened up tax sources for the future. It will benefit multiple people with one stone. You still need to learn what you should learn!"

Huaidong only gave this side a two-year buffer period. After two years, Huaixi's soldiers and horses will mainly have to raise money and food from the three prefectures of Haozhou, Shouzhou and Xinyang on the south coast.

In fact, even if Huaidong promised that the money and food for Huaixi's army would be supplied by Jiangning in the future. With Jiangning's military, political and financial affairs all under Huaidong's control, they and Dong Yuan would have to really believe in Huaidong's promise.

It's stupid - if you want to prevent Huaidong from controlling him and lead him by the nose, you need to have the capital and confidence.

Even Yue Lengqiu was forced to occupy only two counties in Chizhou on the west bank of the Qiupu River. In these days, he also carried out a large-scale land inventory, suppressed wealthy households, and forcibly confiscated nearly 100,000 acres of official land on the west bank of the Qiupu River and converted it to farming.

If the food of the soldiers and horses were all controlled by Huaidong, wouldn't Huaidong have to be flattened and rounded to do as he pleased in the future?

Yue Lengqiu has a total of 50,000 soldiers and horses in his hands. He controls the territory of the two counties. There is no need to compromise with local forces. But for Yue Lengqiu, the territory of the two counties west of the Qiupu River is too narrow. Qiupu and Shicheng

The combined population of the counties is not even as large as the number of soldiers and horses in Yue Lengqiu's hands, and the two counties have more mountains and less fields.

Yue Lengqiu couldn't rely on local food to support him, so he could only bite the bullet and be driven by Huaidong to go west to Jiangzhou. The situation in Huaixi was better.

In the south, west of Hongzepu and northeast of Huaishan, it also controls the land of Sanfu. After the Huaisi War, the refugees from Haoshou gradually returned to their hometowns. In addition, a large number of refugees from Henan and other places crossed to Huainan and stayed in Huaixi. Today, Huaixi

The population of the three prefectures is also 12.3 million.

Under normal circumstances, the tax revenue that a population of 12.3 million can provide is far from being able to support a huge military of more than 100,000 people, because the resources produced by this population will be used to rent land for the local government.

Occupied by gentry and officials.

Take the cultivation by tenant farmers under the condition of large-scale land annexation as an example. 50% to 60% of the harvest of one acre of land is given to the landowner as land rent, 10% to 20% is collected as tax and returned to the government, and the tenant farmer can only feed himself 30% to 40%.

The good thing about the situation in Huaixi is that during the years of war, local forces have suffered devastating blows, and there is no large-scale intermediate rentier layer. As long as Huaixi can resume production, farmers can directly return 50% to 50% of the income from farming.

Sixty percent of the harvest is used to support the army, which can barely support 100,000 troops and horses.

The She family, based in a corner of eastern Fujian, could raise more than 200,000 soldiers and horses at most. This is why the imperial court wanted to have sufficient financial resources to suppress the middle class of rentiers, suppress wealthy households, and suppress land annexation. This was often the core of the New Deal.

Thought.

In the view of Yuan Hancheng, Liu Tingzhou, Ding Zhiru and others, Lin Fu was able to rise by taking control of Huaidong only because of these methods. Dong Yuan was also famous for his political governance.

After Dong Yuan entered Huaixi, the most urgent thing he did was to collect land and farmland.

When Dong came to Huaixi, there were abandoned and ownerless lands everywhere, so he was not afraid of not having any land for farming.

Farming can raise soldiers, and farming can be used for enough purposes.

When farming in Huaixi, the soldiers receive money and grain, and all the gains from farming belong to the officials; when the farmers farm, they pay half of the harvest to the officials.

After Emperor Yongxing returned to Jiangning, Jianghuai, Fujian and Jiangxi fell into relative silence. To put it bluntly, all forces were fighting for time.

Huaidong was trying to gain time to completely control Jiangning, while Huaixi, Chizhou, Jinghu, Xiangtan and other vassal towns were trying to gain time to increase the capital for self-protection.

Time in Huaixi is still too tight. After the Xuzhou War, Huaixi started large-scale farming and it only took a year.

Moreover, Huaixi had to provide necessary seeds, farm tools, and cattle to villagers and villagers. The shortage of these resources restricted the expansion of the scale of farmland.

Before the middle of last year, with the support of salt merchants, Dong Yuan had relatively sufficient capital in his hands, and he was able to purchase a large number of farm tools, cattle, and grain planting from Weiyang, Jiangning and other places, and the total scale of Huaixi's farmland was reduced to one.

It will be expanded to 400,000 acres per year.

The scale of 400,000 acres of farmland is far from enough. If we want to support 110,000 troops and have the reserves to continue fighting one or two large-scale wars, we need to directly control at least 2 million acres of farmland. Only in this way can we

Taxes and money are saved to do things such as building armor, building warships, and supporting officials.

Lin Fu began to rectify the salt affairs in Jiangning in late February, which caused a large number of salt merchants' children to flee to Huaixi with their family wealth.

In the short term, the large amount of gold and silver brought by the salt merchants' children is extremely beneficial to Huaixi. The salt merchants' children will settle in Huaixi, purchase houses, and purchase wasteland to recruit people for farming, which will be conducive to the further restoration of production in Huaixi.

By selling ownerless wasteland and recommending the sons of salt merchants as local officials, the Westward Camp could directly obtain a large amount of gold and silver to make up for its lack of financial resources.

However, it is not without serious consequences.

After the suppression of the salt merchants, Weiyang Mansion became mediocre. Even if the successor magistrate was recommended by Shen Rong, it was difficult to support it. Apart from providing taxes to Jiangning, Weiyang Mansion could hardly do anything else.

The establishment of Jiangning Lijin Bureau merged Weiyang Prefecture and Dongyang Prefecture into it, which actually put the water and land channels from Weiyang Prefecture to Huaixi under the control of Huaidong.

Nowadays, the over-tax on the material trade flow between Huaidong and the Seven Prefectures in Jiangnan, Zhejiang and Eastern Fujian has been reduced to a low level of "one tax per thirty". This is Lin Fu's substantial benefit to the Seven Prefectures in Jiangnan. Jiangnan's Grain and iron prices soon fell, people benefited, and the situation became much more stable.

However, under the control of the Jiangning Lijin Bureau, when shipped to Huaixi, Chizhou and other places, the tax rate was immediately raised to the high level of "five taxes and one", and the taxes on ironware, mules, horses and cattle were even higher.

To expand the scale of farming, a large number of agricultural tools, cattle and grain growing will inevitably be needed. Compared with the Weiyang Mansion under the control of salt merchants in the past, Huaixi will have to pay at least 40% to 50% more gold to purchase these materials at this time. Silver - the gold and silver brought by the salt merchants' children who fled to Huaixi will probably not last long before they are all used up. Huaidong's cruelty makes people feel a lot of powerlessness.

There is also iron and coal in Huaixi, and the mountains can be mined, but the remaining bandits in Huaishan must be cleared out first. In addition, the initial investment in mining is also huge.

In addition to farming, Huaixi soldiers and horses will have to raise their own armor, weapons, and warships in the future.

Even if the workshops under the Ministry of Industry were not destroyed during the war, it would have been impossible for Huaidong to send sophisticated soldiers and armor to Huaixi.

Huaixi's troops and horses are currently complete with armor and armor, but there is no reserve. Once a large-scale war occurs, the armor, bows and arrows will consume a lot of money. Huaixi will have to build its own armor to replenish it. First, it lacks iron materials, and second, it lacks craftsmen.

Yuan Hancheng and Liu Tingzhou sat under the eaves of the corridor and talked about the military affairs of Huaixi. The more they talked, the more chilling they became: if they had ten or eight years, they might be able to slowly straighten out these things, but Huaidong would give them ten or eight years. Time? Will Yanlu give them ten or eight years?

If Huaixi, Chizhou, Xiangtan, and Jinghu are still like this ten years later, I am afraid no one can stop Lin Fu from abolishing the emperor and establishing himself...

Dong Yuan went to Xinyang to inspect the water conditions and could not return today, so Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Hancheng left the Xiashishan Camp and returned to Shouzhou City.

In Shouzhou City, the heavy rain had stopped long ago. Liu Tingzhou and Yuan Han entered the city in carriages and horses, and by chance a post horse came from the southeast.

Liu Tingzhou intercepted Yiqi, who reported: "Dong Chongguo, the Privy Council envoy went to Luzhou via Hongzepu on a certain date, and ordered Huaixi to send people there to discuss important military and political matters..."

Dong Yuan was not in Shouzhou, so Liu Tingzhou was naturally the one to receive Lin Fu's letter. He opened it, looked at it, and handed it to Yuan Hancheng, saying: "The Privy Council's envoy stayed in Xuzhou for a month and only went to Luzhou. Thinking of sending people from our side to discuss military affairs, is it possible that Xuzhou can bear the responsibility of resisting the Yan captives?"

Bei Yan is now focusing on attacking Guan and Shaanxi, greatly reducing the pressure on Huaihe and Nanyang. Chen Zhihu has 50,000 or 60,000 troops in Henan, which is not enough to attack Nanyang or Hezhong Prefecture alone. Naturally, it is difficult to pose any threat to Nanyang, Hezhong Prefecture and Huaixi. .
To be continued...