I have a cornucopia

Chapter 305 They all want to improve
Her Majesty the Queen then issued an imperial decree ordering the warring parties to cease fighting for half a year...

Harvest after the autumn harvest.

If you still want to fight at that time.

All parties accepted the order obediently.

In the final analysis, they could no longer fight. Although the militia had achieved a series of victories, these victories were achieved at the expense of elite veterans. Even the Zhejiang and Suzhou, Songjiang and Changzhou militias had suffered much less casualties than their opponents. The Zhejiang militia had annihilated more than 20,000 enemies against the Jingnan army, while suffering less than 4,000 casualties of its own. It can be said that the exchange ratio was amazing.

but……

The 30,000 elite veterans of the Zhejiang militia were trained through years of war. Over the years, Zhejiang invested an average of no less than two million silver dollars in them each year.

Military pay is not the bulk of the cost.

What really costs money is combat and training. A militia soldier gets three taels of silver a month, but one shot from their heavy artillery costs one and a half taels of silver. Now, due to war consumption, the cost of raw materials has increased, and the gunpowder now is not the crude and shoddy product of the Ministry of Industry in the past. In fact, the gunpowder of the Ministry of Industry in the Wanli Dynasty also cost five cents of silver per pound, which is about half of the current price. More importantly, the lifespan of these cannons is only a few hundred rounds. When the lifespan is reached, they have to be melted and recast. Zhejiang militia relies entirely on firepower. It is normal for a cannon to fire hundreds of rounds in a battle. In order to maintain combat effectiveness, they have to fire a few rounds every month for training.

All of this is silver.

A huge amount of silver was invested, coupled with years of actual combat experience, strict discipline and training, and finally this powerful legion was created.

But now the Zhejiang Elders Association no longer has the ability to train more such soldiers.

No money.

There's not that much time.

Now the newly recruited militiamen don’t even have enough banjo guns!
Their enemies did suffer 20,000 casualties, but that was nothing to the Jingnan Army. Not to mention that there were nearly 100,000 northern refugees in Zhoushan, which could be easily replenished by sea transport from the north. Behind them were countless people who wanted to make a fortune in the south of the Yangtze River, but behind the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were those unruly people who were waiting to divide their land.

The Jingnan Army could continuously recruit new soldiers. The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River did not dare to recruit new soldiers from their own fellow villagers, and could only recruit from retired soldiers from militia training in Huizhou and other places.

native?
The ones who opened the door to the Jingnan Army in Shaoxing were the local recruits!
The gentry even had to always keep a number of militiamen around them to guard against rebellions by the unruly people.

They really don't want to fight anymore.

That's why the Haining Hometown Association asked the man surnamed Cha to find Li Zhifang. As long as Li Zhifang swore to heaven that he would not rob and kill their families after they surrendered, they would not only be willing to surrender, but also be willing to be their guide. But unfortunately Li Zhifang did not agree. He was too lazy to even lie. It has to be said that this makes people very desperate. Even if you coax us?

Now Her Majesty the Queen's decree can be regarded as a temporary relief for them.

As for the Susongchang group training...

Do they dare not obey orders?
Gao Jie is watching over his head. This guy keeps shouting that he is the Queen's dog and dares not to give face to the Queen. Does he think he doesn't dare to cross the river and go straight to Jiangyin?

Finally, with the imperial edict of Her Majesty the Queen, the battle in Jiangnan, which had been fought for two months, was temporarily stopped when spring returned to the earth.

“In March, the grass grows and the birds sing!”

King Yang drove a tractor and walked happily on the land of Henan, which looked like a prairie.

And he was followed by his Northern Expedition Army.

The reason why he liked this tractor was that it could be refueled. It was not difficult for him to distill crude oil. He could just make a distillation device and then cook it with fire. First, steam, then coal, and then firewood, and the rest would be used as fuel. However, this kind of oil was still a bit rough for modern car engines, whether diesel or gasoline. After all, these engines were already quite sophisticated, and the failure rate would increase dramatically when using these oils.

He doesn't want to break down halfway.

But the same can’t be said for tractors, especially old-fashioned ones like this.

What's more, it is the king of off-road...

After all, no off-road vehicle can beat a tractor when it comes to off-road driving.

So at this moment, the tractor was still dragging the armed trailer behind it, rolling over a green area, surrounded by teams of galloping cavalry, followed by countless chariots and soldiers marching in formation. The low-quality diesel of the tractor burned out thick black smoke, which drifted in the air with the wind, as if it was carrying a black demon fog. And there were some surviving people around who were watching in horror, and some were even scared to kneel down and worship the monster. For them, this scene was indeed a bit shocking. It was said that this was the day when the king's army would conquer the Central Plains in the north, but they didn't expect that the king's army would come riding on a monster. In fact, at this time, Fang Yizhi had already recovered the entire occupied area of ​​Henan, and even some of the exiled Henan people were returning. This place, which was the worst affected by the chaos in the late Ming Dynasty, could finally be restored and rebuilt.

"Call them here!"

King Yang shouted.

The cavalrymen following him immediately rushed towards a group of people kneeling in worship not far away, and then drove them over, who knelt down in fear beside the stopped tractor.

Yang Feng waved his hand behind him, and immediately the servants in the trailer brought out a bag of corn seeds.

"Reward your immortal seeds!"

Yang Feng said.

The attendant immediately threw the seeds in front of the people.

The old farmer in the lead took a few steps forward on his knees tremblingly and looked at the colorful packages of the fairy seeds.

"This is an immortal seed, but it needs to be nourished by immortal energy. The soil in the mortal world is filthy. Although it can yield a good harvest if planted, the harvest will degenerate and reduce the yield if planted again. The degradation and reduction will be even greater if planted again. In the future, someone will come to teach you how to breed and alleviate this degradation. Plant it now, and it will help you get through this year."

King Yang said.

His theory is still very reasonable, at least ordinary people really accept it. The immortal seeds are given by immortals, so of course they cannot withstand the soil of the mortal world, so it is completely reasonable for them to degenerate.

This is a serious modern high-yield disease-resistant seed. Basically, as long as it is planted, even without chemical fertilizers and pesticides, it can guarantee at least 500 to 600 kilograms per mu. For these old farmers, it is really a fairy seed, but the degradation is more serious. But this is only for their emergency this year. In the future, there will be technical teams stationed in various counties to promote new crops in this area. Yang Feng already has many people working for this job. Of course, corn and wheat are planted in the Henan Plain. Although it was severely damaged by the war, it also allows land to be directly distributed, and it does not have to rely on war like in Jiangnan.

Moreover, the gentry forces were almost wiped out. They killed a wave of them when Li Zicheng was a bandit, and then the Qing army went south after the capital was captured. The rest fled again, and those who did not flee surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

And now their house has been raided again.

This went on time and again, and the only gentry left in Henan were the returning exiles.

But they are all poor people, after all, they have been living off their savings for years in exile.

As for them...

If they come back empty-handed and can still take back their land, then it can only be said that the common people here have brought it upon themselves. Even the unruly people would not do that, so of course they can only accept the life of obedient citizens.

As the old farmers bowed in gratitude, King Yang drove his tractor, spewing black smoke, on the Henan Plain, distributing bags of corn seeds to every village along the way. He drove the tractor all the way to the bank of the Yellow River, and in front of him was a huge gap, two miles wide, which was dug by Huang Shu and others, and then eroded and expanded over the years. It is spring now, and the water volume is not large, but all you can see is yellow sand. The silt deposited is rapidly causing the area where the Yellow River flows to become desertified, covering the fertile land that can be cultivated under thick fine sand.

This is the Yellow River flooding area. And the longer the time, the thicker the deposited sand layer will be, until it becomes like Lankao later.

In fact, it is still the case now. During the Ming Dynasty, the Lankao area had already become desertified, so sorghum was mostly planted in this area. Of course, Lankao is basically an uninhabited area now, and the population east of the Yellow River flood area had long been moved by Yang Feng to southern Shandong to open up wasteland.

“This needs to be blocked!”

King Yang said.

"I also want to block it and have been making preparations, but I don't have enough manpower right now."

Lu Zhenfei, the new river governor and Henan governor next to him said.

Now not only Lu Zhenfei, but also Ma Shiying has been reinstated. Old Ma is still the Prime Minister. After all, Liu Zongzhou has been executed, and Old Ma has done a good job in the previous years. Although the situation is different now, he is still needed to maintain the position, and Lu Zhenfei has of course been reinstated.

"I'll block you guys!"

King Yang said proudly.

Then he turned straight back and walked directly into an abandoned house nearby.

Lu Zhenfei, and the Henan officials who also came to greet them, and even the King of Zhou, he was still there, his fiefdom was still in Kaifeng, of course he had to go back to Kaifeng, even though Kaifeng was still soaked in mud and sand at this time, and there was also Liu Fangliang who came from Luoyang to greet them, he was the general governor of Henan, and was considered the highest military commander in Henan. Everyone stared at the deserted house with wide eyes, because of the obstruction of the broken walls, they could not see the situation inside, they could only see colorful smoke rising, and then a white light flashed in the smoke, and it seemed that a huge thing appeared out of thin air. Before they could see clearly, a roar sounded, and the next moment the broken walls of the deserted house fell down as if they were trampled by a giant beast, shattered as they fell, and the huge thing also drilled out of the colorful smoke.

Everyone stared in amazement at this behemoth that was bigger than a house.

"Come on, I'll lead you to block the Yellow River!"

King Yang said proudly while sitting in the cab of a giant bulldozer.

The steel behemoth rumbled forward, crushing the desertified land and heading straight for the gap ahead.

"Quick, grab your weapons and attack!"

Liu Fangliang, who was witnessing such a scene for the first time, shouted excitedly.

Then he rushed to the supplies that Lu Zhenfei was going to use to plug the gap, picked up a shovel and rushed to Yang Feng's bulldozer. When he ran to the front, he also realized that this thing was not a monster, but a steel machine, similar to Yang Feng's tractor, but bigger. He climbed up very cleverly, stood on it and waved to his subordinates, and the soldiers who followed him immediately rushed to the supplies, and then the Northern Expedition generals who followed Yang Feng also woke up and hurriedly urged their men to scramble for the supplies.

"Don't grab them, I'll transport them here!"

Lu Zhenfei shouted quickly.

Of course, no one paid any attention to him.

We don’t know when he will be delivered, so now is a good opportunity to fight alongside King Yang.

They all want to progress too much.

The few supplies that Lu Zhenfei prepared were snatched away by these guys who were eager to make progress in a blink of an eye. Then, like infantry following a tank, they quickly rushed to the bulldozer following King Yang, while those who didn't get any looked for something they could use.

At this time, you can't fall behind even if you go up and dig the soil with your hands!
Besides, it’s not impossible.

The Northern Expedition Army was still equipped with engineer shovels, which were really useful at this time, especially when building temporary defense lines. Breast walls could be quickly built, and artillery fortifications were also needed in field battles. In order to quickly build artillery fortifications, artillerymen even carried a large number of sacks, which could all be used.

Of course, these had nothing to do with Yang Feng. He soon reached the gap and pushed the mud on the river beach forward to first reinforce the embankment on the side that had not been broken.

"My lord, this won't work. This kind of soil is not solid. It needs to be compacted."

Liu Fangliang reminded him.

"Nonsense, I'm just acting. Do you really think I'm going to use this bulldozer to build a two-mile-long embankment? I have 40,000 soldiers. Go back to Luoyang and gather the laborers. Speak louder about me and say that I have borrowed divine beasts from the gods and am blocking the gap in the Yellow River. Let them all come. This is a meritorious deed. They will all be blessed by the gods in the future and will be able to enjoy happiness in heaven after they die."

Yang Feng said.

"Well, Your Majesty is so frank!"

Liu Fangliang was almost confused and couldn't follow his train of thought.

But he was also very smart. This kind of project required a large number of civilians, but his territory was in Luoyang, and the people there didn't care about the downstream at all, unless they were forcibly conscripted, which was of course possible, but with Yang Feng's boasting, he could make the people come on their own. Looking at the soldiers around who were bravely vying for the first place, even using their breastplates as shovels to shovel the soil and pile it up with King Yang, he understood this enthusiasm. He immediately jumped off the bulldozer, then mounted his horse and headed straight for Luoyang with his guards, and Yang Feng continued to push the soil up behind him.

Such a pile of soil is certainly not feasible, but as long as it is piled thick enough, it can still block the river water back to its original river channel. After all, the amount of water is not large.

The civilian laborers and Northern Expedition soldiers who arrived later were able to quickly complete the dam under Lu Zhenfei's command.

Rammed earth.

Bamboo cage.

sack.

There are even a lot of wooden stakes.

These will turn the dam he has built into a truly solid dam.

If that’s not enough, you can transport cement here.

There are cement factories in the Xuzhou area, all built by the Yang family, but their output is limited. However, it is enough to build a levee of more than 1,000 meters. In fact, it is not just here. More levees will have to be built on the Yellow River in the future. After all, breaches are frequent these days.

"We have to solve this breach problem once and for all!"

Yang Feng said as he looked at Lu Zhenfei who also climbed onto the bulldozer.

"There is no way, unless the Yellow River becomes clear."

Lu Zhenfei said straightforwardly.

"Peace and prosperity? That's a big deal."

King Yang said.

(End of this chapter)