Iron Dynasty

As the saying goes, there is fire in July, which is a sign that the temperature of the year turns from hot to cold.

Three days after the Battle of Tongzhou, the situation about the battle in Tongzhou spread to Qingzhou, and the converter steelmaking production line was also steadily under construction during this period.

His Royal Highness, this time we took Tongzhou by surprise. After King Wei reacted, he would definitely attack in a big way. At this time, let Yue Yun lead some of the warships to cruise on the river near Jinling City to make King Wei jealous, and at the same time let Lu Fei send cavalry to go there. Huaizhou pretended to attack to contain the forces of the King of Wei.

According to the current military system, the Tongzhou battle report was first sent to Niu Ben, and Niu Ben who got the battle report immediately discussed the matter with Xiao Ming.

Hearing this, Xiao Ming nodded.

The location of this Tongzhou is modern Nantong, a place facing the sea in the east and the river in the south. From the Yangtze River in the south of Tongzhou to the west is Jinling City, where the palace of the King of Wei is located.

This time, he took Tongzhou, one in retaliation for King Wei's seizure of his merchant ships, and the other in order to smash a nail in the hinterland of Wei, which would always make King Wei feel pain.

At the same time, mastering Tongzhou completely means that he has a stable coastal supply point, and this maritime trade can be regarded as a transit point.

In terms of defending the city, who can compare to this king's soldiers, this time this king asked Yue Yun to bring 500 city defending artillery pieces. These city defending artillery pieces are all regular artillery pieces, not export-type artillery pieces sold to King Wei. Even if he wants to use the Dengzhou Army's method of destroying the city, he may not be able to do it.

Yes, our artillerymen didn't kill his artillery right away! Niu Ben said with a smile, and now he finally understood why Xiao Ming deliberately created a batch of export-type artillery.

It turned out that he was thinking about the situation today.

Handing over the battle report sent by Ye Qingyun to Niu Ben, Xiao Ming said, In that case, according to what the Governor said, we can now order the Nanzheng Army to feign an attack on Huaizhou.

Yes, Your Highness. Niu Ben replied yes, turned and left.

Watching Niu Ben leave, Xiao Ming looked at the map of the Great Yu Kingdom hanging in the main hall. At this time, King Wei's fief was marked by him.

There are a total of thirteen states in Wei, of which Pengzhou belongs to the big state in the north, and now he controls Pengzhou, which is equivalent to controlling one-tenth of the northern territory of Wei.

Now he has occupied Tongzhou, and now there are only 11 of the thirteen prefectures. As for this Huaizhou, it is the current generation of Huai'an, and it is closely adjacent to Pengzhou. This is where he plans to attack next.

However, it seems that in view of the failure of the Battle of Pengzhou, King Wei not only increased his troops in Huaizhou this time, but also brought fifty artillery pieces to erect on the Huaizhou city wall.

Xiao Ming took it calmly to the reaction of this King Wei. After all, no matter how many artillery pieces the King Wei took out, there was no threat to him.

It can even be said that Xiao Ming is not afraid of any army in Da Yu. His army can compete with the top army such as the barbarians, so how can he be afraid of these disgusting troops.

The only thing he worries about is that these forces will join forces to attack him. He can do it alone. After all, it has been almost two years since his firearms unit was established.

Neither the thinking of the soldiers nor the regularization of the army can compare with the disorganized and disorganized armies still in the age of cold weapons.

On the map, he has drawn an X in Pengzhou, and now he has drawn an X in Tongzhou. The two Xs are one in the south and the other in the north, just like a giant mouth ready to swallow the fiefs of King Wei.

While thinking about the next strategy for Wei Di, Pang Yukun arrived at the main hall after the announcement.

His Royal Highness, the supplies brought from Pengzhou by Feige's old-fashioned people have arrived, including grain, cloth, salt, tea, raw silk, and porcelain. Although the wealthy family in Pengzhou took away a lot of gold and silver, most of their property was left behind. , in addition to these things, there are tens of thousands of cattle, and Feige asked the old minister to ask His Highness whether these cattle are left in Pengzhou City or sent to Fengguo territory. Pang Yukun said in one breath.

Naturally, it is left to the people of Pengzhou. Isn't Pengzhou now the king's land? Xiao Ming asked rhetorically.

Pang Yukun hadn't reacted for a while, and then he suddenly woke up and said with a wry smile: The old minister is confused. His Highness is now going to incorporate Pengzhou into the feudal kingdom. How can we favor one over the other now?

Xiao Ming nodded, That's the truth. You replied to Mr. Feige, saying that all affairs in Pengzhou should be handled in accordance with Fengguozhou County, and the people of Pengzhou should be integrated into Fengguo as soon as possible.

Yes, Your Highness. Pang Yukun said.

After a pause, Pang Yukun said again: His Royal Highness, the three-year period has now passed, and according to reason, it is time to collect agricultural taxes.

At the beginning, this king promised to exempt the fiefs from paying taxes for three years. You said that the time limit has indeed come, but what is the harvest this year?

Compared to last year's drought, this year's grain harvest can be considered a bumper crop, and this year's large-scale trial planting of potatoes in the prefectures and counties near Qingzhou has also yielded a lot of harvests. People don't have to worry about eating and drinking. Pang Yukun said with a smile.

In his opinion, the current Fengguo is really prosperous, and the people have no worries about food and clothing, live and work in peace and contentment, and even have spare money to buy various commodities.

Nowadays, the soap, salt, sugar and other materials sold by the Chamber of Commerce are the most sold in Fengguo, which shows that there is still some spare money in the hands of Fengguo people.

In this way, the agricultural tax will begin to be collected.

Xiao Ming pondered and said, now he can't think of being poor and generous. Now the army is spending a lot of money to fight east and west. The bullets and artillery shells fired are all silver, not to mention the continuous construction of battleships, artillery, and muskets.

During this period of time, the innovation of military equipment was fast, but this was achieved on the premise that Xiao Ming increased the proportion of military expenditure.

And the most important point is that after the Chang'an Rebellion, prices soared, and the prices of all kinds of materials doubled, which also caused huge military support to become a financial burden on the fiefs.

What's more, with the refinement of government affairs, the government expenditures have also increased. At the same time, there are public officials all over the country. In order to popularize education, he has been making money at a loss.

All these forced him to levy agricultural taxes. After all, in this social system with farming as the main body, agricultural taxes are still the bulk of taxes.

However, although it is necessary to collect agricultural taxes, it cannot be too forceful.

The result of his negotiation with Pang Yukun was to take only one tenth of each mu of land, which was enough to ensure that the lives of the people would not be affected.

Yes, Your Highness, since this is the case, the lower official will post a notice and ask Qingzhou Newspaper to publish the matter in the newspaper. Pang Yukun said after pondering.

Xiao Ming nodded, Also, this tax must be clarified, and the prefectures are not allowed to collect taxes indiscriminately, otherwise don't blame this king for making a knife.