The junction of Shanxi and Shaanxi, Wubao City.

Jian Guoning stood on the Linjiang City Wall and looked quietly at the other side of the river.

It's been three days, and he comes here to watch every day, and he stops for several hours.

Wubao is a small county with a population of less than 2,000 in the city, with only a few villages and villages nearby, and the entire county has a population of only more than 3,000.

However, Wubao is a key transportation conflict between east and west, and is a dangerous place between Qin and Jin. Since ancient times, it has been a place that military strategists must compete for. It is also one of the important ferries in the middle section of the Yellow River, a water transport hub in the north and south of the Yellow River, and a stronghold for east and west trade roads.

In the prosperous years, most of the people who come and go to Wubao were business travelers, but now, more of the people who come and go to Wubao are hungry.

There was a severe drought in northern Shaanxi, and countless hungry people were ripped. The desperate hungry people crossed the Yellow River and entered Shanxi and even the Central Plains to find a living meal.

The key to crossing the river in northern Shaanxi is Wubao and Xiazhou, especially Wubao, which is the first to be hit.

The hungry people from Yan'an, Suide, Qingyang and other places, and even border deserters all rushed to Wubao to cross the Yellow River east.

Jian Guoning has watched countless hungry people cross the Yellow River, and has also witnessed the death of the larger number of hungry people in the Yellow River and exposed the corpses in the wilderness.

The small town of Wubao cannot accommodate so many hungry people. In recent years, tens of thousands of hungry people have starved to death outside the city.

The Yellow River is dangerous, and countless hungry people died of sinking the river by the waves.

The prosperous Wubao in the past has long become a hell on earth where hungry people drift over the wild water and ghosts.

Until the rebel Qin Chuan emerged.

Since the sixth year of Chongzhen, Qin Chuan has been sending people to Wubao to serve porridge and collecting boats and rafts to meet hungry people in the east. During this period, it is difficult to measure the hungry people saved.

At that time, Jian Guoning was like this now, standing at the city wall every day, looking at the smoke from the porridge shed by the river at the bottom of the mountain, hungry people lined up for food, and the boats and rafts were woven, and a prosperous and prosperous scene.

The good times did not last year. At the end of last year, the imperial court suddenly transferred the border troops in Yulin Town to Wubao, blocked the Wubao Ferry, and blocked Qinchuan's porridge boat from the east coast.

At that time, the imperial army had not yet expelled the hungry people, and turned a blind eye to the hungry people. Although countless hungry people starved to death, a small number of hungry people could find a way out.

But now, the imperial army not only expels the hungry people from all directions, but even blatantly kills the hungry people and takes credit for it!

From the day when Zeng Jinkui led his troops to kill innocent people, Jian Guoning was unwilling to do business and only came to the Linjiang City Wall every day to watch.

He was looking at the hell on earth in Wubao, and then at the prosperity and prosperity of the other side.

A rumor kept lingering in my mind: Shanxi Governor Wu Yan had rebeled from the court and surrendered to the traitor Qin Chuan.

At dusk, Master Zhang Ting came behind Jian Guoning and said carefully: "Sir, it's time to go back."

Jian Guoning then withdrew his gaze and walked slowly down the city.

Halfway through, he suddenly stopped and looked towards a ravine to the west.

"The bodies can no longer be buried in Qingyanggou."

He seemed to have made some decision suddenly, and after saying something inexplicable, he quickly walked down the city.

The master stood there in a daze, looking at Qingyanggou, repeatedly figuring out what his words meant.

Qingyanggou is a mass trap. In recent years, the hungry people who starved to death nearby and the bodies of bandits who attacked Wubao several times were buried there.

Jian Guoning got off the city tower and went straight to a grain store on North Street alone.

The owner of the grain shop was about to close the door, but when the magistrate arrived, he quickly opened the door again and invited Jian Guoning in.

When he entered the shop, Jian Guoning sat down on a simple chair and said, "There was a mute in your shop not long ago, right? Take him to see me."

The owner of the grain shop looked at each other, but did not dare to ask more, so he nodded and ran to the warehouse behind him.

Not long after, a young man bowed and bowed his head and looked dull, was taken out.

Jian Guoning waved his hand: "You and your wife are going out first, I have to ask him some things."

The grain shop owner changed his face. He thought the mute had done something, so he hurriedly bowed and begged: "Sir, since he got the call, this mute kid only works in the store every day. He never had any relationship with the sluts on the street, nor had any holidays with anyone, so he just was honest and honest..."

Jian Guoning waved his hand impatiently: "I just want to ask him something, wait and get out quickly."

The grain shop owner opened his mouth and wanted to say something. The proprietress on the side pulled his arm over and pulled him out.

When the door was closed, the boss and his wife walked away. Jian Guoning then set his eyes on the young man with a dull face and looked at him carefully.

The man buried his face deeply and did not dare to look up at Jian Guoning. He was so nervous that his hands kept wiping his dirty pants.

"Take me to see him."

Jian Guoning said something inexplicable.

The man raised his eyes slightly, but he quickly recovered as before. He waved his hands in panic and whispered, probably because he wanted to say that he didn't understand what the magistrate was talking about.

Jian Guoning said patiently and calmly: "I know you are from Qinchuan. Don't forget that I have worked hard to manage Wubao for many years, and you will know the third Japanese official who comes to Wubao."

The man suddenly raised his eyes and looked at Jian Guoning firmly.

"Don't worry, if I want to arrest you, I will have arrested you long ago. If I want to meet Qinchuan, it will be related to the life and death of tens of thousands of hungry people in Wubao Shicheng and northern Shaanxi."

After a long time, the man suddenly bowed to Jian Guoning, then pointed to his chest, then clasped his fists to the east to make a gesture of salute, and finally pointed to Jian Guoning, but he was speechless.

"Are you really a mute?"

The man nodded.

"You mean, will you report to Qin Chuan and let me wait for the news?"

The man nodded.

"Okay, I'm waiting for you for three days."

…

The second day after the Wen Zheng arrived, Lao Huang also returned, bringing back more than 1,300 stove households from Siyancheng, as well as more than 2,000 hungry people gathered along the way.

Like Qin Chuan's fight for Wen, Lao Huang's way of returning was simple and crude. Ren Liang led 5,000 troops from the Longwu Camp to rush out from Ningxiang Fort and drove away a Ming army that blocked the important road. Lao Huang and the stove households and hungry people passed Ningxiang Fort and entered Yongning Prefecture.

Qin Chuan picked a few older saury households to stay in Heishan Town, and worked with Luo Zixi and Dongli Sanren to study how to extract refined salt. Among them was Yang Quan'an from Xiaozhao Village, and the rest of the saury households and their families were all sent to Bahannao in central Ordos.

Bahannao is a large salt lake. Qinchuan personally surveyed it when he was still in Ordos. There are several small salt lakes scattered in the north and west of Bahannao. There is an alkali lake called Bayannao fifteen miles south. It contains a very large alkaline lake, and there is also a large alkaline lake thirty miles southwest.

The first salt farm in Qinchuan planned was in Bahannao, and he planned to build an alkali factory in Bayannao, fifteen miles south, to extract alkali and extract soda ash and caustic soda. For this reason, he had already transferred two thousand Guandi troops to Bahannao to station, and two to three military forts will be built soon.

In this era, all the stoves in the salt lake or the beach were drying salt on the mud and sand. Not only did they have an additional process of washing mud and sand, but they also had a lot of losses. Qinchuan wanted to build a cement floor salt drying field like modern times, which not only greatly improved the efficiency of the stoves, but also minimized losses.

Since these projects require a large amount of infrastructure materials, Yan Sanqi has sent a construction team and a group of cement and brick and tile makers to Bahannao, and built a cement plant and brick and tile kiln there. After finding an easily mined iron ore, an iron smelting plant will be built there.

The migrant workers required for these projects will be recruited from the Chahar tribe and the Ordos tribe, including the later production of refined salt and alkali, and some Mongolians will also be recruited to do the most basic work.

After arranging the work of the salt farm, Qin Chuan began to formulate a plan for military expansion.

The total strength of the Guandi Army was 52,000 before the New Year. This year, the war lasted for more than two months. The death and injury of the army caused the Guandi Army to lose nearly 3,000 troops, and now the strength is less than 50,000.

Among them, eight thousand troops were devoted to the defense line of Gujiao and Loufan, and these eight thousand were mainly gathered in Gujiao.

The total force along Jingle, Ningwu Pass and Shenchikou is 7,000, Yongning Prefecture, Qinglongdu, and Junfu Fort are also 7,000 troops. The defense line on the east bank of the Yellow River from Luoyukou Fort to Hequ has 6,000 troops. Because the territory in Hequ and Bieto Pass has extended to the west and north, the defense force has been reduced to 1,500.

The newly occupied Fugu, the guard forces along the Shenmu to Bahannao Salt Field were 8,000, and the remaining 12,000 troops were concentrated along the Qingshui River to Daqingshan to deal with Jiannu.

At this point, Qin Chuan's less than 50,000 troops were already in short supply, and almost all defense lines depended on military forts or passes to defend. It was urgent to defend Chengdu and could no longer expand outward.

After the spring sowing next year, Huang Taiji is likely to attack the front-line areas, and the court is likely to launch a new round of offensive against him, so expanding the army is imperative.

However, due to population restrictions, he could only recruit between 16,000 and 20,000 new recruits in this round, making the total strength of the Guandi Army reach 65,000 or even 70,000 to be slightly more reliable.

Among the new recruits, a considerable number came from the Chahar tribe and the Ordos tribe. When these two divisions were incorporated by Qinchuan, there were still about 8,000 soldiers who could fight, but many of them were sick and disabled. Not only were there old men in their fifties and sixties, but there were also disabled people who had broken hands and feet, but there were even young men in their early eleventh and eleventh years old.

These old, weak, sick and disabled people are definitely not available. Qin Chuan plans to temporarily recruit only 3,000 soldiers from Chahar and Ordos tribes to ensure that these two tribes maintain a certain amount of labor.

The military affairs department was responsible for the recruitment work. Qin Chuan held a meeting and carefully discussed it and then formulated a recruitment plan, and then threw it to the military affairs department for implementation.

As before, this year's recruits must complete training before next spring plowing, and then add to each battalion, each battalion conducts daily training and prepare to go to the battlefield at any time.

After arranging all the affairs, Qin Chuan left Loufan with a hundred red-clothed servants and headed straight to Qinglongdu, Yongning Prefecture.

He was going to meet Wang Helun, a wealthy businessman in the Guanzhong Plain, and the largest iron pot customer before.
Chapter completed!