When Jinxi City was defeated by the 19th Regiment and the 23rd Regiment, Shengjing City had been surrounded for almost a month. Although it was so long, the city was not worried about food at all, but there was a slight lack of coal and firewood. Fortunately, it is summer now, so there is no need to burn fire to keep warm, and the consumption of firewood is relatively small.

As the capital of the Qing Dynasty, Shengjing was the foundation of the Qing court outside the pass. Not only did there be generals of Shengjing like the "local emperor", but there were also five departments of households, etiquette, work, punishment, military affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which were in charge of the entire Northeast, with sufficient food, money, and soldiers. In recent years, the Qing army gathered a large army in Jilin to deal with Beihai Town, and almost half of the money, grain and soldiers were supplemented from the Shengjing area.

Before Beihai Town built Xingkai Lake and Shuangchengzi areas into farming areas, Shengjing area was the largest and most important grain-producing area outside the pass. When natural disasters occurred in the capital and Zhili, Shandong and other provinces within the pass, they often transported grain from Shengjing area to provide assistance. In addition, the harvest in Chahar Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin and other places failed, and they also had to rely on their support.

The Qing Dynasty's grain storage system in Shengjing was divided into flag warehouses and civil warehouses. The flag warehouse was exclusive to the Eight Banners garrisons and bannermen, and the civil warehouse was often closed. For example, the civil warehouse in Chengde County, Fengtian Prefecture, stored 40,000 stones of rice, and the flag warehouse was as high as 160,000 stones. The grain storage in the two granaries combined, more than 100,000 people saved some food, and the food storage that the people owned, would be fine for three or four months.

After talking about food, let’s talk about money. Whenever wars, payrolls and rewards are the same as flowing water. But Shengjing is the least short of money. There are more than three million taels of silver in the banking warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue in the city.

In the 42nd year of Qianlong's reign, because the Ministry of Revenue in Shengjing was unable to make ends meet, Qianlong specially issued an order to allocate 10 million taels of permanent storage from the Ministry of Revenue in Beijing to improve its finances. Later, the military pay for the Qing court to use troops in Jilin was also allocated. In a few years, so much was left.

Finally, there are soldiers, not to mention this. The Eight Banners soldiers in the city were originally as high as 15,000, and their families were totally no less than 100,000. In the past, they thought that there were too many soldiers and were exhausted and the number of people was limited. Now, many soldiers felt that there were not enough. All the bannermen men over fifteen or fifty in the city were summoned.

In ancient China, it was an agricultural society. Under this economic system, as long as the army could pay military salaries and the officers and soldiers could have enough food, their morale would not be completely disintegrated and they would still retain combat effectiveness. Therefore, although the Qing army in the city could not defeat the Northern Navy in field battles, the courage to stick to the city was still there.

At the beginning of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, that is, at the end of the August Western calendar, the sorghum outside the city was ripe, so the Northern Navy began to harvest sorghum under the nose of the Qing army. When Zhao Xin came with supplies before, he had already calculated the time for harvesting crops, and he was just thinking about "making food over the enemy."

Although sorghum tastes worse than white flour, its calorie value is higher than rice and white flour. Each 100 grams of calories is 350 calories and is rich in crude fiber. For those soldiers from the North Navy from the north, sorghum is their staple food from childhood to adulthood, and eating wheat has only happened in recent years.

"The army gate, the North Sea pirates are collecting sorghum outside the city!" The visitor was Bo Lin, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Shengjing, who also served as the prefect of Fengtian. In addition to anxiety, his expression was also a bit confusing.

"Yu Ting, I would have known that this would happen, so I would let them go. How many people can those pirates in North China take?!" Shu Liang showed an indifferent expression when he heard this.

He had planned a few days ago that the North Navy would definitely seize the hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum outside the city. The other party collected during the day, so he organized people to go out to collect from Xiaonanmen at night. In addition to sorghum, straw is also a good thing. There is not much firewood and coal in the city, and it is just the right time to need it.

After so many days of siege, he can estimate how many people there are in the Northern Navy. After 20,000 to 30,000 people died, everyone can't come out to collect sorghum, right? You can't defeat you in a war, but you can't collect food? There are tens of thousands of people in Shengjing City, and you can even catch a small amount of them.

"No, Dajun Gate, go and have a look! They are not using people to cut sorghum, they are used, they are used... I can't explain that thing clearly. I don't need to use cattle and horses, and I don't see anyone to control it. It's so evil!"

"Oh?" Shu Liang's face became solemn.

Half an hour later, Shu Liang, under the escort of a team of cavalry, rode his horse to the outer city's Wairun Gate. Before he could even go to the city, he saw the city walls full of people from afar. The scene was very noisy, which made Shu Liang very annoyed. Those who knew that this was a war, and those who didn't know thought it was a big market!

Seeing that the general looked wrong, his personal soldier Goshha hurried to find the city gate guard. After a while, a drum sounded down the city tower, and then a soldier shouted at the top of his voice: "The army gate is here!"

Those on the city wall who were looking out with their necks looking out in shock, saw two carved feathers rising from the edge of the staircase leading to the city, and then a black marten tail was revealed. Then, a carved gold leaf treasure cover plate seat, decorated with golden flowers and cloud dragons, and helmets wrapped in python stone and blue satin with ears and neck protection also appeared. The face under the helmet looked in his early fifties, with a black and red face, a nose as if hanging, and an eyebrow like a closed eyebrows and eyes, a beard attached to the long beard under the jaw. It was the local emperor of Shengjing City, and Shu Liang, the first-rank general.

Shu Liang walked slowly up the city wall. He was wearing a stone-green satin bottom, iron leaves wrapped in the middle, cotton armor with silver nails on his outside, a treasure knife hanging on his waist, and a pair of soap boots on his feet. He was embroidered with a group of pythons on the left and right shoulder pads, and the shoulder pads were connected by iron leaves, decorated with golden dragons. The shoulder pads and the silk ribbons at the connection between the left and right armpits and the body armor were also all stone-green. It was so majestic and powerful that he was a little panicked...

"See the army gate! Pay tribute to the army gate!" A large area of ​​people kneeled down on the city wall, including armored soldiers and gunners holding bird guns, as well as flag soldiers Zhuangyong holding bows, arrows, spears, and swordsman.

Shu Liang had a blue face, stroked his beard with one hand, and let out a "hum" sound from his nose, thinking that he would deal with you later, and he would have to find a few unlucky guys to beat military sticks. He walked to the city wall, took the Qianli Mile Mile from his personal soldiers, pulled it apart, and looked closely in the direction of Bo Lin's finger, and was shocked!

In the endless fields west of Shengjing City, several large harvesters were roaring, clearly audible across several miles. At the lower position of the head of these harvesters, there was a six-tooth roller cutting platform with a width of five meters; as the harvester continued to move forward at a speed of five kilometers per hour, only half a foot high left wherever he passed.

Suddenly, Shu Liang noticed that a harvester stopped after harvesting a leap of sorghum. Then the cutting platform in front slowly rose. Only then did he see from the view of the Qianli Milestone that the "giant shovel" was painted red and white. When the cutting platform was raised to about one meter, the harvester drove straight to the dirt road next to the field and parked next to several four-wheeled carriages. The carriages were dragged by four horses, and the carriage was surrounded by four or five feet high wall panels, just like a square barrel.

At this time, the harvester threw out a thick white tube from the top, opening downwards, facing the first carriage. Just when Shu Liang was not sure about the reason, he saw the reddish-brown unshelled sorghum gushing down like a waterfall. After a while, the carriage seemed to be full, and the white tube stopped spitting, and then turned to a carriage carriage behind. After the three carriages were all filled with sorghum, the harvester turned around and returned to the field, put down the header, and continued the previous operation.

"This!" Shu Liang's eyes were wide open, and his mouth was open, and his whole body was in a bad state.

Bo Lin behind him said, "Da Junmen, that thing can harvest ten acres of sorghum in just one cup of tea."

The city gate guard on the other side was afraid that the world would remain unconfused: "The flag was a long time ago, and the monsters had only been out for more than an hour, and hundreds of acres of sorghum were taken away."

Ten acres!!! Hundred acres!!!

Shu Liang had long heard that Beihai Town used machinery and equipment. Not to mention the other side, it was well known to everyone, which made countless people amazed. However, Beihai Town used a large number of machines in agricultural affairs, and few of them had seen it. It was horrifying to see it today!

Bo Lin behind him whispered: "The army gate is not only here, but also outside the north gate and the east gate!"

"Let's go! Go and have a look!" Shu Liang turned around and left with his subordinates. At this moment, he no longer cared about punishing those who watched the fun.

When he went to the north and east of the city, it was indeed as Bo Lin said, and the efficiency was exactly the same as before. During this period, he received a report from the South Gate Guard, saying that there were several huge harvesting machines on the south bank of the Hun River. After hearing this, Shu Liang felt dizzy and was then supported by his personal soldiers to get on the horse, his face was extremely ugly.

Not to mention sorghum, now there is no need to grab straw, so I left half a foot high! The North Pirates' hand is really cruel!

Since the Northern Navy had only six regiments involved in the besieging Shengjing, only 15,000 people were involved in the full range of operations, and even if there were less than 30,000 migrant workers in front of him, it was impossible to harvest hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum in a short period of time with a sickle. Besides, there were not so many sickles in the logistics.

In order to shock the tens of thousands of Manchu and Han people in Shengjing and to vigorously develop agriculture after taking over Liaodong, Zhao Xin transferred more than 200 drivers and maintenance workers from Furdan City to Weiyuan Fort before opening the original. After the troops took over Tieling, he returned to Furdan City and brought over more than 30 newly bought harvesters at the beginning of the year. At the same time, the Logistics Department recruited a large number of carpenters and blacksmiths in Kaiyuan and Tieling, and asked them to build hundreds of four-wheeled carriages in the form of assembly lines according to the drawings.

Although the process went through a lot of trouble, the final scene and results were still very satisfied with him.

In the future, the main crops in Liaodong will still be sorghum and soybeans. Zhao Xin will not be so angry that he shoveled all the sorghum fields and changed to wheat. Then, it is purely a head that is squeezed by the door.

Even if he unified the world, he had to do what he had to do to ensure that the people were full. China in the agricultural society has always been a country with frequent natural disasters, and food relief needs to be allocated every year. In addition, Beihai Town will recruit at least hundreds of thousands of people to control Huang and Huai in the future. The food rations for so many people cannot be afforded at all within the pass, so it can only be transported from outside the pass.

The Northern Navy used the harvester to make the thunder in Shengjing City very light. At night, the harvester outside the city was still busy, with countless bonfires illuminating on the ridges of the fields. The Northern Navy on duty even fired several flares from time to time, which made more than 100,000 people feel at ease all night and frightened.

As the panic worsened, the next morning, the grain prices in Shengjing City suddenly rose. Seeing that the autumn grain was hopeless, the grain numbers began to be reluctant to sell and take out a little bit.

For example, the largest Taihe in the city, Tianhe and other grain shops were either supported by the Qing royal family, or the five ministries of Shengjing or officials stationed in the Eight Banners. These people invited to join forces and would meet to plan the next day's grain price every night. In this way, the wealthy and powerful soldiers of the Eight Banners were not worried. Instead, the "Brives and Banners" families who fled from outside the city could not bear it.

It is well known that there are a large number of Han people in the Eight Banners. These people were collectively called "Han Army" in later generations. The Han Army of the Eight Banners is generally divided into two groups, the Han Army Armour and the Banner and the Guard and the Three Banners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, in the Liaodong and Jingji areas, in addition to the above two types of Han people in the Banner, there is also an unknown group; they are a bannerman society composed of Han immigrants who have invested in the Han people. They are huge in number and complex in the composition, and most of them are not found in official documents.

These people claimed to be "subjects under the Three Masters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Shengjing", but they did not belong to the bannermen in any manor in Shengjing. The Qing court separately managed the genealogy and the list of this group and were not included in the Eight Banners Han Army.

To put it bluntly, the "Suqiren" is the imperial village. Some of the tenants in the flag village bring land to the top of the village, which is like Wu Jinxiao in Heishan Village in "Dream of Red Mansions"; more of them are people who are short of food and clothing, hunger and cold. Most of these people are desperate to invest in their farms.

When they learned that a large number of "flag-followers" could not afford to eat, General Shengjing, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Revenue and Fengtian Mansion issued a notice requiring that the grain numbers in the city should not increase at the price and must be sold at the usual price. Violators should be dealt with more severely. However, this move not only could not help but the grain prices rose even more.

The family of the "Suqinren" was poor. Seeing that they could not afford the food, they ran to Chengde County Government to complain and demanded to punish the unscrupulous businessmen. Shu Liang was worried that the people would be unstable, so he handed over the matter of handling grain prices to Chuansen, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice. Chuansen went back and decided to take a grain merchant named Dan from Huang County, Shandong to take action. He deserved this person's luck, so who made Huang County occupied by Beihai Town now!

The grain market in Shengjing City is located in the northwest of the Dizaimen, which is also the place where the daily grain traders gather to set the market price. Chuansen reported that General Shu Liang, Shengjing, and Bo Lin, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, personally led fifty soldiers and officials from the Ministry of Justice. Suddenly, he came up to the "Hengshenghao". He locked the single grain traders without saying anything, and then circled a piece of open space at the intersection south of the Dizaimen, placed a case in front of the crowd, and personally interrogated it.

The single grain merchant actually knew Chuansen for a long time. When the other party took office, he also gave gifts with other merchants, and was filial to him during the holidays. He knew that it would be even more troublesome if he dared to make friends with Chuansen in such a situation, so he had to kowtow and beg, expressing his willingness to give out five hundred stones of sorghum, and only beg for mercy to remain undead.

Chuan Sen's purpose today is to kill a warning to a hundred people, and it is absolutely impossible to spare him. He picked up the gavel and slapped the case hard, and sneered: "Haha, I'm just thinking about donating food now, it's too late! You and others were actually stocking up food in wartime, swearing food, raising value, and attracting each other, hoping to value profits. This has led to the rise in the price of grain, making it harder for the people to eat! This official is ordered by the army Jun to calm the anger of the people and suppress the price of food. Come on! He will punish the person with the Ming Zhengzhu punishment!"

The grain merchants became more and more shocked when they heard it. They knew that something was wrong. They kept twisting and struggling and shouting injustice. Why? It’s not my idea to raise the price of grain in the city. At most, we just follow the crowd!

At this time, a lieutenant from the Ministry of Justice standing behind him was ready. As soon as he was calling for injustice, the man reached out and pinched the jaw of the single grain merchant, lifted and pulled it, and took off his chin joint, and immediately became mute. Then an executioner holding a sharp blade stepped forward, waited for the officer to hold the other party's whip, looked at the neck joint, and raised his knife and fell.

Amid the screams of the onlookers, the head of the single grain merchant rolled on the ground, closed his eyes unwillingly, and a blood arrow shot out from his neck. Because the incident happened suddenly, some people in the crowd sighed and said that they would have brought a steamed bun over if they had known it, and they were all trashed.

The day after the heads landed, no grain numbers dared to raise prices. However, not much grain was sold, and the door was closed after a hundred stones. On the third day, the people who bought the grain ran to the ground to line up before dawn. There were long queues outside the grain store. As soon as the shop was down, it immediately became crowded and people pushed and shoved. It was nothing to quarrel and fight for buying grain. It was so angry that they were red and they were searching the guys and sent them to death.
Chapter completed!