The fleet returning from Goryeo did not return to the military port, but headed westward from the mouth of the old Yellow River... to the north bank of the Yellow River where hungry people gathered in Qingzhou.

More than a thousand huge warships stretched for hundreds of miles, and the sails covered the sky and the sun, making it a spectacular sight. The north bank of the Yellow River was filled with people who came to watch the excitement.

The first handsome ship slowly docked. The sailors put the planks of the ship on the shore. More than a hundred guards disembarked first. Then, Yang Yuanqing appeared on the side of the ship. He looked up at the dazzling sunshine and took a deep breath.

The breeze carries the scent of earth.

His eyes fell on the large group of officials on the shore again. Yang Yuanqing saw Du Ruhui, smiled, stepped on the board and got off the ship. The moment his feet landed, he actually felt like he was floating. For nearly ten days,

After a long sea voyage, he finally returned to the Central Plains.

Du Ruhui quickly led everyone forward to salute, "See your highness."

"Thank you for your hard work."

Yang Yuanqing looked at the tanned faces of the officials and their eyes full of excitement. He felt grateful, bowed his hands and saluted everyone, and said loudly: "This time we comforted the victims and saved hundreds of thousands of victims.

my life, I can

I understand the hardships involved. You have all put in a lot of hard work. You are all meritorious officials. I will remember your achievements. But there is still a long way to go. I hope you will continue to work hard to resettle the victims.

Perfectly done.”

Yang Yuanqing's speech aroused applause from the crowd. Surrounded by the crowd, he got on his horse and headed towards the refugee camp.

..."Your Highness, what was the outcome of this battle in Goryeo?" Du Ruhui couldn't help but stepped forward and asked in a low voice while no one was paying attention.

Yang Yuanqing whispered a few words to him. Du Ruhui's eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands in excitement, "This is great. This way the food problem is completely solved."

"Not only is it a matter of food, but there is also a large amount of various military supplies, including 400,000 sets of armor alone. There are also many invisible gains, such as Goryeo officially professing its vassalage to the Sui Dynasty, and the Liaodong Peninsula also agreed to belong to the Sui Dynasty."

Du Ruhui was slightly startled, "Why is the Liaodong Peninsula's ownership of the Sui Dynasty an invisible gain?"

"Because the Liaodong Peninsula is controlled by the Yuan family, and Bishe City at the southern end of the peninsula is controlled by Gesuwen's five thousand troops. It is meaningless to just rely on a piece of paper from the King of Goryeo. We still need to send troops to fight a hard battle."

"Then when will Your Highness plan to take action?"

"No rush."

Yang Yuanqing shook his head, "If we don't force the Yuan family now and let Korea suffer from internal conflicts, if we attack the interests of the Yuan family too early, it will make them unite with the outside world, but it will promote the internal unity of the Korean people."

At this time, Qin Qiong urged him to step forward. He glanced at Du Ruhui and said to Yang Yuanqing: "The general manager has something I want to discuss with the general manager."

Du Ruhui understood and urged the horse away. Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly and said, "Do you want to go back to your hometown?"

Qin Qiong was told what was on his mind, and he nodded, "Now that most of the people in Qingzhou have escaped, the morale of Dou Jiande's army is low, and the morale of the army is floating. I only need to lead 30,000 troops to ensure that Dou Jiande's army and Liu's army can be defeated within a month."

Heita's army captured Qingzhou.

Yang Yuanqing smiled and said, "I still have 30,000 of the most elite soldiers on hand. It doesn't even take a month to sweep across Qingzhou in ten days."

Qin Qiong blushed and said after a while: "Is the suggestion of a humble position wrong?"

Yang Yuanqing took back his joke and said solemnly: "I can understand your eagerness to regain Qingzhou. To be honest, Dou Jiande is already a fish out of water. Sooner or later, he will be my meal. As for Qingzhou, it belongs to the Sui Dynasty.

What's in the bag.

But we need to think longer term. If Qingzhou is captured, the Sui Dynasty will directly border Li Mi, which will contain Li Mi's southern strategy. I heard that Li Mi is actively training naval forces in Jiangyang.

Now that all the major forces in the south except Du Fuwei and Xiao Mian have surrendered to Li Mi, Li Mi's next target is most likely to be Xiao Mian. In this way, the Wei army will fight the Tang army for Xiao Mian. This is correct.

This is what I hope to see. In this case, we need to slow down the pace of our march south so that Li Mi does not feel the threat from the north, and then he will let go and fight the Tang army."

Qin Qiong nodded and lowered his head in shame, "The humble position is short-sighted and anxious, and it almost ruined the manager's plan."

Yang Yuanqing chuckled, "Actually, it's just that I'm not in my position and not seeking my position. If you were to sit in my position, you would still think a lot. Now that almost all the people in Qingzhou have been poached by me, I will send people to Qingzhou again."

Propaganda in various places to let the hungry people who stayed in Qingzhou know

, Hebei has food to eat, and strive to attract 90% of the population of Qingzhou to Hebei. Without the people, what will happen to Huan Jiande's military rations? I will order Xu Shiji to station the army in Jiyin County to prevent him from attacking the Central Plains.

, he can only continue to go south to fight with Liu Heitai, and let them fight!"

"But so many people are a huge burden!" Qin Qiong looked at the huge refugee camp in the distance and sighed.

Yang Yuanqing laughed, "It depends on how you look at it. I think they are a rare asset. When can we gather so many civilians?"

.........Everyone entered the refugee camp. Because of the arrival of the fleet, the camp became extremely lively. News of the arrival of Chu King Yang Yuanqing spread throughout the camp. Hundreds of thousands of people poured out of the camp and lined the streets to welcome Chu.

His Highness the King has arrived.

Hundreds of soldiers were extremely nervous and protected Yang Yuanqing on both sides. Yang Wuqing smiled and saluted everyone, which triggered an even more enthusiastic response from the victims. I don't know who shouted, "Long live the King of Chu!"

Then thousands of people shouted, and gradually, the shouts like a mountain roar and a tsunami resounded through the sky, "Long live! Long live the King of Chu!"

At first, Du Ruhui and other officials were a little unnatural in shouting at the people, but everyone looked at the sincere faces and pairs of grateful eyes. Gradually, everyone was infected, and even the young Zhu Suiliang couldn't bear it.

He raised his arms and shouted: "Long live the King of Chu!"

Yang Yuanqing just felt all this silently.

... Everyone came to a big tent in the middle of the camp, which is where officials work. The big tent was filled with stacks of disaster victim registration lists several feet thick, arranged according to each county.

Neatly.

Yang Yuanqing casually picked up a book, which was the registration book of Duchang, Beihai County. Each person on it had their name, age, address, and their temporary number plate code.

Yang Yuanqing knew how much work it would take to register more than 300,000 people, but having these lists would be of great benefit to the governance of Qingzhou. At least these hundreds of thousands of hungry people could contribute to the restoration of Hebei's vitality.

Putting down the booklet, he sat down on the wooden couch and smiled at everyone: "I know everyone has a lot to say. Let me talk about the main points and see if I can solve it for you."

Pei Jin glanced at Du Ruhui, and Du Ruhui nodded. Pei Jin stepped forward and saluted: "Your Highness, I have something to report to you in my humble position.

Yang Yuanqing saw that Pei Jin had become thinner and darker, and his eyes had become calmer. He no longer had the arrogance that he used to hide. It could be seen that he was indeed changing. He had become able to endure hardships and was pragmatic. He was worthy of being a member of a famous family.

, as soon as he starts to mature, he will immediately show his outstanding talents.

Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly and said, "Pei Shaoqing, please tell me."

Pei Jin is the chief official of the refugee camp in Pingyuan County. Of course, he has the most say. He bowed and said: "Your Highness, the biggest problem for the 300,000 hungry people now is overcrowded living. There are more than 40 people living in one tent, and men and women are mixed.

Living together, life is very inconvenient. Many problems and even crimes have arisen. Violence among families fighting for food, the spread of diseases, extortion by evil people, and adultery of prostitutes. These problems are endless. We all hope to evacuate the victims to

Go to each county."

Yang Yuanqing nodded silently. He glanced at Du Ruhui again. Du Ruhui quickly bowed and said: "Ziwei Pavilion is also evacuated to various counties."

Yang Yuanqing then slowly said: "First of all, everyone needs to understand why I don't attack Qingzhou directly, why don't I directly take over Qingzhou and provide disaster relief on the spot, wouldn't this save the hungry people from fleeing? There is no need to mobilize so many officials and scholars.

Help, why don’t I do this?”

There was silence in the big tent. Yang Yuanqing paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his hands. His tone was not harsh, but he was just explaining one thing clearly: "The key is that I have to concentrate the people's power and do something. Both Hebei and Qingzhou

In a place where bandits are most rampant, the war and chaos in the past few years have completely destroyed all kinds of irrigation canals. Without farmland water conservancy, how can it be possible to have high grain yields and achieve year-on-year production?

In order to have a good harvest, we must repair the abandoned farmland and water conservancy, but the people's power in Hebei alone is not enough, so I need hundreds of thousands of people in Qingzhou to assist. If it weren't for the disaster, they had to rely on others, and they would not cross the river to go north.

, now that I have given them food and saved the lives of their wives and children, they should repay me, so the next days will be their days of hard work."

Having said this, Yang Yuanqing said to everyone: "There was a severe drought in the sixth year of Daye. You should still remember what happened in the seventh year of Daye. That's right! The floods in the seventh year of Daye flooded dozens of counties in Henan and Hebei. It was this drought that

, a flood caused hungry people all over the world to swarm in rebellion, and finally ruined the old Sui Dynasty."

Du Ruhui stood up and said to the crowd: "Your Highness is right, we must gather the victims. First, we must dredge the canals in various places in Hebei. They are not only farmland water conservancy, but also flood storage and flood discharge canals when major floods come.

Complete the water conservancy in Hebei, and then dredge the Central Plains canals. In short, I want to make full use of the disaster victims in Qingzhou..."

"What if these young men are dissatisfied and riot?" someone asked worriedly.

Yang Yuanqing laughed, "Their parents, wives, and children are all in our hands. We provide food to feed the women, children, and the elderly. He can only work hard. Of course, after Qingzhou is pacified, I will give them land and give them light corvee and small taxes."
Chapter completed!