Iron Dynasty

In the colloquial language, the fire in July is a sign that the temperature changes from hot to cold in a year.

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

"His Royal Highness, this time he took Tongzhou by surprise. After Wang Wei reacts, he will definitely attack. At this time, let Yue Yun lead a part 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. Huaizhou pretended to attack in order to contain Wei Wang's troops."

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

Upon hearing this, Xiao Ming nodded.

The location of Tongzhou is modern Nantong. It faces the sea in the east and the river in the south. From the Yangtze River in the south of Tongzhou to the west is the Jinling City where the Palace of King Wei is located.

This time, he took one of Tongzhou in order to retaliate against King Wei for detaining his merchant ship, and the other was to smash a nail in the hinterland of Wei Di. This nail will always make King Wei feel painful.

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

"On the defense of the city, who can compare to this king’s soldiers, this time this king asked Yue Yun to bring five hundred city defense guns. These city defense guns are all regular artillery, not the type of guns sold to King Wei. Even if he wants to use the Dengzhou Army's method of breaking the city, I am afraid he can't do it.

"Yes, our artillery won't kill his artillery in the first place!" Niu Ben said with a smile, and now he finally understands why Xiao Ming had deliberately produced a batch of export artillery.

It turned out that he had considered the situation today.

Handing the battle report sent by Ye Qingyun to Niu Ben, Xiao Ming said: "If this is the case, according to the Governor, you can now order the Southern Expedition Army to attack Huaizhou."

"Yes, Your Highness." Niu Ben responded and turned and left.

Watching Niu Ben leave, Xiao Ming looked at the map of Dayu State hung in the main hall. At this time, Wang Wei's fief was marked by him.

There are 13 states in Weidi, among which Pengzhou is a large northern state. Now that he controls Pengzhou is equivalent to controlling one-tenth of the northern territory of Weidi.

Now he has occupied Tongzhou, and now there are only eleven states left in the 13 states, and this Huaizhou is the contemporary Huai'an generation and is closely adjacent to Pengzhou. This is where he plans to attack next.

However, it seems that in view of the defeat of the Battle of Pengzhou, Wang Wei not only increased his troops to Huaizhou this time, but also brought fifty artillery pieces to be erected on the walls of Huaizhou.

Xiao Ming dealt with the reaction of King Wei calmly, after all, no matter how many artillery Wei King put out, there was no threat to him.

It can even be said that Xiao Ming is not afraid of any army in Dayu, his army can compete with the top army like the barbarian, how can he be afraid of these disgusting army.

His only worry is that these forces will unite to attack him. He can do it on his own. After all, his firearms force has been established almost two years ago.

Neither the thinking of soldiers nor the regularization of the army are comparable to those of the armed forces that are still stuck in the cold weapon era and have a lax organization and discipline.

He has drawn an x ​​in Pengzhou on the map, and now he has drawn an x ​​on Tongzhou. One of the two x is in the south and the other in the north, just like a huge mouth preparing to swallow the fief of King Wei.

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

"His Royal Highness, the materials that the old Feige people transported from Pengzhou have arrived, including grain, cloth, salt, tea, raw silk, and porcelain. Although the wealthy people in Pengzhou have taken away a lot of gold and silver, most of their property has been left behind. In addition to these things, there are tens of thousands of farming cattle. Elder Fei Ge asked the old minister to ask His Royal Highness whether these farming cattle should stay in Pengzhou City or sent to the territory of the country." Pang Yukun said in one breath.

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

Pang Yukun hadn't reacted for a while, and then suddenly he woke up. He smiled bitterly and said: "The old minister is confused. His Royal Highness is now going to merge Pengzhou into the state. How can he favor one and the other now?"

Xiao Ming nodded, "That's the truth. You reply to the old Fei Ge, saying that all affairs in Pengzhou are handled in Fengguozhou and counties, and the people of Pengzhou should be integrated into the country as soon as possible."

"Yes, Your Highness." Pang Yukun said.

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

"At the beginning, the king promised the people of the fief to be exempted from taxes for three years. It is indeed the time limit for you to say that, but what is the harvest this year?"

"Compared with last year's drought, this year's grain harvest can be regarded as a bumper crop. Moreover, this year's large-scale trial planting of potatoes in counties near Qingzhou has also yielded a fruitful harvest. People don't have to worry about eating and drinking."

In his view, the current state is really thriving, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, and even have money to buy various commodities.

Nowadays, the soap, salt, sugar and other materials sold by the Chamber of Commerce are the most sold in the sealed country. It can be seen that the people in the sealed country still have some surplus money.

"So, let's start levying this agricultural income."

Xiao Ming groaned and said, now he can't think of being rich and generous, and now the army is costing a lot of warfare. The bullets and artillery shells shot out are all silver, not to mention the continuous construction of battleships, artillery and muskets.

During this period of time, the innovation of military equipment is fast, but this was achieved on the premise that Xiao Ming increased the proportion of military expenditure ~www.ltnovel.com~ And the most important point is that after the Chang'an Rebellion, prices soared. The prices of these various materials have all doubled, and this has also led to huge military support becoming a financial burden for the fief.

What's more, with the refinement of government affairs, this government expenditure has also increased. At the same time, there are public servants who are all over the country. In order to popularize education, he has been losing money and earning praise.

All these have forced him to collect agricultural taxes. After all, in this social system where farming is the mainstay, agricultural taxes are still the bulk of taxes.

However, even if we want to levy agricultural taxes, we should not use too much force.

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

"Yes, Your Highness, in that case, the next official posted a notice and asked Qingzhou News to publish the matter in the newspaper." Pang Yukun said in a deep thought.

Xiao Ming nodded, "Also, this tax must be clarified. The state government is not allowed to set up names and collect taxes indiscriminately. Otherwise, don't blame this king for using the knife."