Chapter 430: Post-war Reconstruction
At Chenjiawei in Xuzhou, the battle to encircle and annihilate the Mongolian army has come to an end. The Shenwei Army is capturing prisoners and cleaning up the battlefield. A large group of troops is heading straight for Pizhou to recapture the last city in the south.
Yang Xingyun followed suit, surrounding the enemy on three sides and leaving a gap on the north. Mengge and Hubili rushed out recklessly. When the Mongolian army saw their commander running away, they immediately lost their fighting spirit and just wanted to escape.
The pursuit troops reported to Yang Xingyun that they did not capture Mengge and Hubili, but Yang Xingyun was relieved.
To be honest, when he learned that the two big fish were surrounded, he didn't know how to end the situation, because Zhao Yulin's instructions were that he didn't want the two men to die immediately.
Kouxibuhua was not so lucky. As soon as the artillery team of the Shenwei Army arrived, they immediately launched an attack on him. His remaining soldiers heard the deafening sound of the thunder bomb explosion and knew that their death was coming. The cowardly ones immediately threw away their swords and guns and surrendered, while the madmen charged towards the rain of bullets and soon collapsed.
Kouhui rode his red electric horse and ran desperately, but was still chased by the Shenwei cavalry from behind. Finally, he was stopped by a collapsed earth wall. The Shenwei Army's Zhuge Crossbows shot intensive arrows at him. His body and the horse he was riding were full of arrows, and he fell to the ground with a bang.
The Shenwei Army took advantage of the situation and counterattacked, easily entering the city and retaking Xuzhou.
By the evening, the news of the victory in Xuzhou had spread to every corner of Kaifeng. The few people were all jubilant, and families on both sides of the Bian River hung up big red lanterns to celebrate. Pious people also went to the river to drop lotus lanterns to pray for the safety and happiness of their families.
Zhao Yulin returned to his mansion in high spirits. Chen Chen ordered some wine to celebrate the great victory in Xuzhou. But when he saw Hulan Muna's expression, he immediately shouted, "Forget it, forget it."
After a short break, Hu Lan smiled and said that her sister had just arrived in Kaifeng, so we should be welcoming her and celebrating the great victory in Xuzhou, so why not drink?
Let's have a good drink.
Soon, the kitchen became busy.
The three of them opened the Wu Gu Feng Lai and started drinking. After a while, Hu Lan got himself drunk.
Zhao Yulin carried the little woman to the bed, and after Chen Chen helped her take a bath, the three of them squeezed into one bed to rest.
The little girl patted Hu Lan's little butt and said, "Brother, you still care about me and want to come and watch over me while I sleep."
He said with half closed eyes that he did not see Hu Lan drunk.
Chen Chen hugged him and breathed heavily, saying, "Sister is also drunk, brother, give me a hug."
He stretched out his hand to use as a pillow for me and told me to go to sleep, saying that there were still many things to do tomorrow...
Besides, Mengge and Hubili fled desperately for two days and two nights under the cover of their personal guards. They came to a large wild swamp to rest and stay overnight, but they were spotted by the local bandits.
These habitual bandits who begged for food on the swords saw a group of ragged defeated soldiers coming and lying down, and they thought that they were prey that had fallen to their doorstep. Soon, countless boats emerged from all directions, and they aimed their bows and arrows at them and shot at them intensively. Immediately, some soldiers were shot by arrows and screamed in fear.
Although the archery skills of the pirates were not as good as those of their personal guards, they still killed many people with their surprise attack. The water in the pot set up on the shore had just boiled, and the rice was not ready yet, but in the panic they overturned it and it was gone, which meant they were not allowed to eat.
Brother Meng was furious. Is it really the case that a tiger is bullied by a dog in plain land?
He drew his sword and shouted "fight back, fight back!" He rushed into the reeds, pulled out the water ghosts and tore them into pieces.
Suddenly, a long arrow hit Mengge on the shoulder. Mengge groaned and his personal guards immediately pushed him down and made him lie under them. Hubili crawled over to see if he was okay, and immediately shouted: Let's go, let's quickly retreat to Li Quan's place.
Li Quan was the largest Han army leader in Shandong. He was originally loyal to the Lin'an court, but the old emperor and his ministers tried to win him over and plot against him, so he became a typical fence-sitter.
The imperial court gave him an official hat and benefits, so he followed the Song Dynasty; the Mongolian army gave him silver and an official hat, so he joined the Mongolian army again. This is like what later generations said about those law enforcers who ate both the plaintiff and the defendant, and who were able to get along with both sides and actually prospered.
However, as he watched the Shenwei Army and the Mongolian Army fighting to the death, this guy just stood by and watched without helping anyone.
Li Quan received a report from the guards outside the door. He was surprised to know that Mengge and Hubili were defeated and fled to him.
When he learned that their followers were less than a hundred people, he felt much more relieved and ordered the guards to prepare the way and immediately welcome the two masters into the government office to entertain them with good wine and delicious food, and have beautiful girls sing and dance to accompany them.
Mengge was very sensible and praised Li Quan without saying a word of punishment. This made Li Quan even more cautious. It was said that this prince was particularly ruthless, so he did not dare to be careless at all.
Hubili learned that Li Quan had secretly deployed assassins in the rear tent, and advised Mengge to leave quickly and cross the Yellow River directly to Damingfu for safety.
Meng Ge said confidently, "What are you afraid of? This guy doesn't dare to resist."
He stayed in Li Quan's house ten days and left only after his wounds healed.
During his stay, Hubili and Mengge got to know Li Quan's family background and temper thoroughly. When they left, Mengge said that this man could not be kept and his team would not follow them to the desert.
Hubili smiled confidently and said not to worry, he had a plan, after we crossed the Yellow River we would ask him to fight the Shenwei Army, and then we would bribe his men...
As Hubili spoke, he raised his right hand to his neck and made a gesture that everyone understands: wiping the neck with a click. Mengge chuckled and understood.
At this time, Zhao Yulin was convening officials of all ranks in Kaifeng Prefecture to hold a meeting.
He took Chen Chen and Hu Lanhua to travel around the nearby states and counties for more than half a month and then decided to hold a meeting.
Zhao Yulin first announced that Chen Chen would be the chief steward of Kaifeng Prefecture, and then announced that his young wife Zhao Tuhulan would be the chief of staff to assist Chen Chen in managing Kaifeng affairs.
The gentlemen in the hall have already heard that this is equivalent to handing over all the affairs of Kaifeng to his two wives.
Immediately, Chen Chen presided over the meeting on his behalf and announced three rules:
The first is that the existing officials will remain unchanged, but they will be subject to assessment by the government office. The chief officials of each state and county will have to go to Kaifeng to attend a meeting once a month and report on the progress of various affairs.
Second, in the future, government offices must use the resettlement of refugees and immigrants as the basic basis for assessing official promotions. The performance of a local chief official will first depend on whether the local people can live and work in peace and contentment and how much the resident population has increased.
Chen Chen said: She saw from Zhengzhou that Kaifeng had enough land to support the people, but it was not popular. Therefore, in the future, we must vigorously introduce immigrants. Local officials must not only settle local beggars and refugees, but also contact relatives through relatives to invite villagers who have fled and left their hometowns to come back and live, reclaim wasteland and live a good life.
The third is to set up a pollution control bureau in each prefecture and county, and first clean up the city. In the future, the affairs of the pollution control bureau will be included in the performance evaluation of officials, and the cleanliness of the city, whether there are infectious diseases, and the scale of the outbreak will be recorded in the promotion evaluation book of the local chief official.
Then, Hu Lan reported that according to the order of the prefect, all localities must clear up the land that has not been handed over, and all land must be owned by the government. Counties and prefectures that have not completed the redemption must do so within ten days, otherwise they will lose their official positions.
Starting this year, taxes on farmers in various places will be abolished, and Kaifeng Prefecture will not collect a single penny of taxes from the common people within three years.
Moreover, local officials also need to use their brains to find ways to cultivate commercial taxation.
From now on, Kaifeng Prefecture implemented a two-tier tax system in accordance with the regulations of the New Song Dynasty court. When local business prospered, the taxes increased and the taxes retained in accordance with the regulations could be flexibly allocated by local officials.
Afterwards, Hulan began to announce the office expenses of all the directly affiliated prefectures and counties, and ordered them to go to the transfer office to collect the new currency of the New Song Dynasty, exchange and use it according to the regulations of the court, and collect and destroy the knife coins of the grassland empire.
Finally, Zhao Yulin told them that Kaifeng had returned to the Song Dynasty, and the laws, currency, weights and measures must be unified, and everything must be done according to the rules of the New Song Central Council.
However, you gentlemen must also see that these places have many affairs to deal with before returning to the new Song Dynasty. It is impossible to accomplish them all at once. When you go back, you must act in accordance with the principles of fairness, justice and equality for all. We will use one or even three years to gradually transform them so that the people can live a good life.
Immediately, Chen Chen announced the adjournment of the meeting.
Yan Luming came over happily to greet Zhao Yulin. He said with a smile that Yingtian was downgraded to a prefecture. Did you feel sorry for Lord Yan?
The man immediately said in fear and trepidation, "Third Young Master, please don't call me that. It would be humiliating. How dare I call myself Lord? Please teach me, Third Young Master."
Zhao Yulin said that Yingtian was recovered peacefully, and there were many evil people hiding there. After returning, he must take the responsibility and get the court's affairs done.
Yan Luming immediately nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, and asked him to rest assured.
Zhao Yulin said: After his uncle passed away, members of the Yan family and old friends would definitely come to him and he would take care of them in any way he could. He hoped that he would do his job impartially.
Yan Luming was very excited to hear Zhao Yulin's frank communication, and he happily assured him that he would act impartially after returning and would not disappoint the third young master's expectations.
In the evening, Miao Gui, Lai Chuanfang and Yang Xingyun came to discuss military affairs.
Miao Gui was very happy to report to him: the territory had expanded by more than double, and the soldiers on hand were no longer enough.
The generals also laughed out loud when they heard this, and their hearty laughter filled the room.
The logistics officer Tan Yousan coughed twice and said that General Cao Gongyouwan was leading 30,000 Lingnan soldiers from the sea, and this place would be a hot land from now on.
He had already seen this situation in the military newspaper. With the strong assistance of the Fire Phoenix, Cao Youwan completed the reorganization of the Jiangnan and Lingnan armies and led the reorganized new army directly northward from Fuzhou by ship .
Not only that, after the Yang family army in Bozhou moved to the south, it has developed into an independent Bozhou column, and is also moving eastward along the Yangtze River to join the battle to recover the country.
He said that in the future there will be more and more people serving as soldiers here and it will not be possible to rely on transporting food from Guanzhong and the south. We must first find a way to solve the problem of food for the army.
