I want to be emperor

Chapter 426 The flying black dragon holding the sword flag
On the eighth day of March in the fourth year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire, Song Zushun, the governor of Jiangbei in the Ming Dynasty, led more than [-] remnants of the Jiangbei New Standard Army in Yangzhou City, more than [-] guards, and more than [-] civilian officials including the prefect of Yangzhou. More than a hundred people dedicated their cities to the Great Chu Empire.

Thus ended the Battle of Yangzhou, which had lasted for more than a month.

After Song Zushun surrendered, Luo Zhixue, the emperor of the Great Chu Empire, appreciated his talent, specially awarded him the rank of major general of the army, appointed him as a senior adviser of the army, and transferred him to the staff department to observe and study, so as to understand and adapt to the combat methods of the Chu army.

In the Jiangbei New Standard Army under his original command, officers above the sentinel are voluntary, and those who are willing to continue to join the army and pass the assessment will be arranged to enter the Army Officer Academy for further study, and will be assigned another post after the training is completed.

Those who do not want to continue to join the army can be dismissed and returned to the field, or they can be transferred to civilian positions.

Ordinary soldiers, grassroots non-commissioned officers, and team officers were joined by officers of all sizes transferred from other units, reorganized into the [-]nd Division of the Second Division, and transferred to Chuzhou to garrison and cooperate with the Second Army to fight.

Thousands of guard soldiers, young and strong, were reorganized on the spot into multiple reclamation camps, transportation camps, and construction camps.

Immediately afterwards, the engineering troops of the Great Chu Empire, with the assistance of a large number of surrendered troops and young adults, began to clean up the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in this section of Yangzhou City.

In order to defend Yangzhou City, the Ming army restrained the Chu army’s inland warships from going north along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and directly blocked the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal by sinking ships and other means. The transport ship can go all the way north to Huai'an along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

By this time, the battle of Yangzhou had come to an end, and the aftermath was almost done.

The next thing to do in Yangzhou City is to clear out recalcitrants and crack down on tax-resistant elements. These things have nothing to do with the main force of the military. Naturally, the local patrol police and armed tax police are responsible.

After the armed tax police stationed in Yangzhou City, it is inevitable that there will be a bloodbath.

In the first three days alone, the armed tax police, with the cooperation of the military, confiscated 86 recalcitrant officials, gentry, and vassal houses.

Combined with the confiscated gold, silver, grain and other materials from the official warehouse before, the gold, silver, money, and grain obtained by the Great Chu Empire in a city like Yangzhou is worth half of what it previously obtained in Jinling City.

And the ratio of gold and silver to cash is higher.

Because there are many salt merchants in Yangzhou city, and many of these salt merchants are actually the white gloves of Ming court dignitaries, cabinet ministers, and vassal kings. There are no big bosses in the court to support them. They want to make a lot of money as salt merchants in Yangzhou. That's impossible...

How could an ordinary businessman keep the huge profits of tens of millions of taels?

Therefore, the big salt merchants in Yangzhou City are basically all kinds of bigwigs in the Ming court behind them.

And the assets of these bigwigs of the Ming court were naturally confiscated by the Great Chu Empire. As for those salt merchants, they were just a group of white gloves, and they didn't have the right to make decisions themselves!

Those with a good attitude will not only confiscate most of the assets, but also give you some leftovers, which is enough for these white-glove salt merchants to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, and there will be no threat to their lives.

Those who have a bad attitude and try to resist basically ransacked their homes and exterminated their families.

After a few days of copying, the expenditure of the Great Chu Empire in launching the Jiangbei Campaign has basically returned more than half...

Chen Xingkai, who came along with him, reported to Luo Zhixue with an excited expression on his face: "Your Majesty, the confiscated proceeds of this time have basically been accounted for. There are more than 800 million taels of gold, silver, copper coins and cash alone."

"There are also a large number of calligraphy and paintings, curios, shops, yards and other industries, as well as a large number of various materials such as salt and cloth."

"After these rare curios, industries, and materials are gradually processed, it is estimated that more than 600 million taels can be returned."

"More importantly, through the large-scale crackdown on salt merchants in Yangzhou and the acceptance of the salt farms in Yangzhou Prefecture, our salt company can also obtain a large number of salt farms, and the cost of subsequent salt companies can be further reduced. The supply volume is further increased, and this alone will increase the annual profit and tax of the salt industry company by at least 300 million taels."

"As expected of Yangzhou, a major city in the salt industry, the rich are very rich!"

As Chen Xingkai said, he couldn't help sighing, he had confiscated many cities, but this was the second time he encountered such a rich city.

The last time was Yingtianfu Jinling City.

And what is Jinling City in Yingtianfu?That's the core of the entire Jiangnan, and it's normal for the fake capital to copy tens of millions.

However, Yangzhou City, strictly speaking, is just an ordinary city, and it is not a rich place, that is, the transportation is more convenient and it is close to the saltworks.

Just relying on salt merchants can push this city to such a high level, which shows how rich the salt merchants are.

Luo Zhixue was also very satisfied with this: "This time your tax department has done a good job, and you will continue to work hard in the future. There is Huai'an in the north, which is also an important town for salt industry and water transportation!"

Chen Xingkai said: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, the Jiangbei Tax Patrol under my taxation department has made full preparations, and has seized and confiscated many industries outside Huai'an City in advance, and controlled the local coastal salt farms. They got it all in one pot."

"According to our estimates, at least another 1000 million taels can be squeezed out from Huai'an Mansion."

Luo Zhixue nodded after listening: "That's good, this time the Jiangbei Campaign and the subsequent Northern Expedition will cost a lot, and the tax revenue alone will not be able to withstand it. I can only count on these two places to make up for the shortfall. Do it well." !"

-

Various confiscations in Yangzhou Prefecture are still going on, and the salt industry company also moved in in time, and took over a large number of coastal salt farms, allowing these salt farms to continue to produce, and at the same time rectified the local salt workers, voluntarily hired The method is to recruit these salt dices as a whole into the salt industry company.

This voluntary employment is because the salt farms under the official control of the Ming court often have cruel squeezes, so that the salt workers are so poor that it is difficult to make a living, and once they fail to pay the full amount of salt, they will often be severely punished. Punishment, so it is often heard that the salties will flee from the saltworks...

However, the salt industry companies in the Great Chu Empire did not engage in any contracting system, but adopted the method of recruiting workers to manage production by themselves. For wages, I don’t want to do it and I don’t force it.

Although the salt industry companies of the Great Chu Empire adopted the model of administrative organization management, in fact the administrative organization model was limited to the upper level, such as the salt industry head office and the managers of the salt industry branch companies in various provinces. They are all hired managers and ordinary employees.

On the whole, it is no different from the large factories belonging to other industrial departments in the Great Chu Empire. They all adopt the model that the senior management is officials, and the middle and low-level managers and ordinary workers are employees.

I can't say whether this government-run enterprise model is good or bad in the future, but at least at the current stage, Luo Zhixue thinks it's working well. Luo Zhixue can use these government-run enterprises to control the process of industrial development.

-

At the same time, Luo Zhixue stayed in Yangzhou City for a few days. After the engineering troops reopened the blocked Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in Yangzhou, he led his army to continue northward.

His goal of going north this time is very clear, that is to personally lead the army and supervise the battle to take down the two strategic cities of Yangzhou and Huaihe.

As for the battle further north, Luo Zhixue might not go there in person.

The main reason is that the distance is too far, and the follow-up Northern Expedition will last for a long time. After defeating Shandong, we have to fight Henan, Shaanxi, and Beizhili. Will continue to fight.

During the long Northern Expedition, Luo Zhixue was destined not to be able to lead the army to command the battle outside for a long time.

And as the emperor of the empire, Luo Zhixue couldn't leave his capital for too long, and problems would easily arise after a long time.

Therefore, in Luo Zhixue's plan, this time the Northern Expedition will be conquered after Huai'an City is captured, and then it will be almost time to return.

As for the army, it will continue to carry out other parts of the Jiangbei Campaign, such as taking Hefei, Fengyang, Xuzhou and other places, and advancing the front as a whole to Henan and Shandong.

On March 15, Luo Zhixue led the main force of the First Guards Division, the Fourth Division and the three mortar regiments to continue northward, while some troops of the No.[-] Division stayed in Yangzhou, Tongzhou and other places.

When Luo Zhixue went to Huai'an along the canal, a large number of inland river transport fleets of the Great Chu Empire were already sailing towards Huai'an under the cover of the navy's inland river warships and infantry.

From the first day when the Yangzhou section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was opened, the Logistics Department of the Great Chu Empire organized more than 500 ships loaded with various combat supplies and food to go north along the canal.

But don't look at the fact that there are more than 500 ships, but in fact there are not many...

The navigation capacity of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is limited, and these ships are also small tank boats, and the amount of materials carried is not large.

When these ships loaded with supplies arrived at Huai'an City first, the Third Army outside Huai'an City also obtained a large amount of ammunition that was in short supply.

Immediately afterwards, the Third Army launched several tentative attacks on Huai'an City.

By the time Luo Zhixue led the First Army and other troops to arrive outside Huai'an City, the Third Army had almost completed the fortifications outside Huai'an City.

And with the arrival of a large number of 48 mortars and fourteen-pound heavy artillery, in fact, the two and a half divisions of the third army alone were enough to take Huai'an City.

However, for the sake of conservatism and to reduce casualties, the Chu army still put the two divisions belonging to the First Army into battle.

On March [-], under the command of Luo Zhixue, tens of thousands of Chu troops launched a general attack on Huai'an!

Under the indiscriminate bombardment of hundreds of artillery, the defense system is not as good as Yangzhou City, and the military strength is not as good as Huai'an City in Yangzhou City. Even if Yang Sichang personally supervises the battle, the fate of falling is inevitable.

The fierce artillery fire of the Chu army was not something the Ming army could resist at all.

Not to mention that the Chu army also has an absolute advantage in strength. A total of four and a half divisions and four mortar regiments, plus some engineers and naval forces, more than 6 people participated in the Huai'an Battle.

Under such a disadvantage, Yang Sichang's troops couldn't hold on for three days.

On March [-]th, the infantry of the Chu army had already killed the Huai'an city!

That night, after hearing that the Chu thieves had broken through the city, Yang Sichang, in despair, suffered a stroke and fell into a coma.

When the sun rose the next day, Yang Sichang, who had been in a coma all night, finally stopped breathing.

At the same time, a huge Chu army flag 'black border red bottom black dragon holding sword flag' was also raised at the gate tower of Huai'an city.

Looking from a distance, it looks like a black dragon grabbing a long sword and hitting the sky!

(End of this chapter)