After several months, Qin Feng appeared in Hulao again. When he came last time, Qin Feng used Hulao as his base camp, gathered troops, defeated hundreds of thousands of troops gathered by Qin Emperor Yue in one fell swoop, and completely determined the battle situation of Qin Ming. Now all the territory of the former Qin State has basically become the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and what Ma Yue can still control is just a small area near Yongdu.

The war is still going on, but it is no longer the main issue that Qin Feng is considering. Victory is undoubtedly the only thing to worry about is how much it will cost to win Yong.

Yongdu is the capital of Qin after all. Qin State was established for a hundred years and plundered all directions to support Yongdu. The Qin people around Yongdu are also the place with the most recognition of Qin State. The city is strong and the grain reserves will definitely not be too small. There are complete various types of military equipment production workshops in the city. As the last fortress of the Qin court, it is definitely not easy to eat it.

To siege first, consume the enemy's will and courage, and then bite it bit by bit, is a strategy formulated by the Ming court. When the overall situation is determined, whether it is Qin Feng, Zhengshitang, or the Ministry of War, they are not willing to use high casualties to exchange for the results of defeating Yongdu.

The most outrageous thing about Ma Yuebu was that he gathered hundreds of thousands of troops to launch a counterattack on Hulao. This battle not only failed to achieve the goal he wanted, but instead consumed a large amount of living forces, and also reduced Yongdu's strategic grain storage to a dangerous level. Although there are also a lot of fields to plant in Yongdu City, it is not an exaggeration to describe the population of Yongdu as a drop in the bucket.

Qin Feng attaches great importance to two things now.

The first is the stability of the occupied Qin territory, and the second is the economic development of these places.

The Qin State left the Ming Dynasty a mess. The first wave of cleaning up the Deng family's forces was considered to be the first wave, collecting a large number of strong men to join the army, levying various war taxes, and then suffering painful failures were the second wave, and Bian Wushuang led his troops to attack Qin from Chu was the third wave. The continuous heavy blows caused Qin to suffer heavy damage. No overnight food at home is the most common state of the Qin people now.

People are living in poverty, bandits are rampant, and the public security situation is extremely deteriorating. And now it is just the winter when Wan Mu is dormant, which makes all this even worse.

The Ming Dynasty could not mobilize more troops to maintain local public order. After accepting the new appointment and taking office in the new territory, the officials who were not with the army, but with their own guards, and the Tianwu and Mingwei Escorts who were hired to wipe out the bandits. Their manpower was also limited, and they could only ensure the safety around the city. Other areas were still in a state of chaos.

Qin Feng’s current main goal is to make the people of Qin not starve to death this winter. As long as he can have some food to save his life, he will not starve to death, and he will not cause chaos.

Qin Feng was not afraid of organized resistance or counterattack by the Qin army, but what he was most worried about was similar to the disaster caused by Moro in Yue. A large number of people were surrounded, robbed and eaten, like locusts passing through, destroying the places they walked through.

This is the most difficult thing to deal with. If the army is dispatched to wipe out, these people will be defeated with one blow, but as soon as the army leaves, they will immediately rekindle. What is even more annoying is that the army cannot distinguish between those who are rebels and those who are the people. Killing them all is a waste of trouble, but this is something that the Ming Dynasty and the people will never accept.

Whether it is the Ming Dynasty or the people, one thing now recognizes is that to develop, more people will inevitably be needed. The Ming Dynasty has been founded for eight years, but it has always been in a dilemma of lacking a large number of people. Years of war have caused countless deaths in Dingkou. Many county-level governments in the Ming Dynasty are still in a desolate place with a hundred miles of uninhabited people.

This also made the county magistrates from all over the country use any means to attract the population, and even the matter of buying and selling the population was done openly.

It was a consensus among the Ming Dynasty and the people of the Ming Dynasty to feed the people first. Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty was well-off this year and the grain prices plummeted. In order to protect the interests of farmers, the court even had to set a grain protection price. The grain purchased by the court was much higher than the grain purchase price in the market.

This method allowed the court to reserve a large amount of food. As for the court's contribution to a large amount of money, it was not necessary to worry about it. This year, the Ming Dynasty encountered austerity. The Central Bank of the Ming Dynasty was vigorously printing money, and finally stabilized the prices. In other words, the Ming Dynasty now has money, but it is worrying about where to use it.

The large number of troops gathered here for reorganization had their own destinations. One third was trained into the new army, and they ate the imperial grain of the Ming Dynasty. One third was taken away by the county governments in various places, which lacked population in the Ming Dynasty, and went back to enrich their local population. The other third returned to their hometown with the severance money.

But even so, Hulao did not become deserted because of this, and it was still very lively. Outside Hulao City, a large number of barracks have now become huge warehouses. A large amount of grain and weapons were transported here from the Ming Dynasty, and then from Hulao as the starting point, it was transported to various places in Qin.

These grains supply the Ming army besieged Yongdu and also bear the burden of providing relief to the people of Qin. Every day, caravans continuously transported the grain here on the Ming Dynasty, and then caravans transported the grain from these huge warehouses and then transported it along different roads to other places.

However, relief can only solve the temporary difficulties. The so-called emergency rescue but not poverty, allowing the people in Qin to fill their stomachs first without rebelling. This is only the first step. The second step is to allow these people to support themselves. And this is the matter for the newly appointed officials.

So even in winter, the entire Qin area is still vigorously building roads and building water conservancy projects. In fact, with the current temperature of this season, it is really not suitable to do these things. But special things are handled with special treatment. Even if it is twice the work, the Ming Dynasty is still happy.

Of course, this is not because the officials of the Ming Dynasty failed, but because they had no choice but to have their own difficulties.

Relief is just to save one's life. If you don't do anything throughout the winter, something may still happen. The newly appointed officials must find something for the people under their rule to consume their energy in their hard work day by day.

These labors are not mandatory. If you don’t stay at home, you can only rely on the court’s relief, and you only have a bowl of porridge every day. But if you can participate in these labors, build roads, dig canals, and do it for a day, you can get a day’s wages.

There was no such thing as labor service in the Ming Dynasty. These projects were all paid by the government to hire the people to do.

In the Ming Dynasty, because of this system, various engineering teams of all sizes had appeared. There was always no shortage of smart people in this world. They recruited craftsmen and labor to form organized teams to undertake these work of the court. The court was happy to see it because there were too many such engineering teams, and the price paid by the court was smaller when competing with each other. More importantly, these engineering teams had professional talents, extremely high organization, and greatly reduced the pressure on government organizations. In Ming Dynasty, the number of officials was too small.

But in Qin, such things are still unimaginable. They can only be organized by the government. Fortunately, these newly appointed officials have received the orders from their superiors in advance. Now they don’t need to do the project beautifully or how fast it is. The most important thing is to let these Qin people have something to do.

In the words of the Prime Minister Quan Yun, that is to spend money to buy peace.

Digging out thick snow and digging hard frozen land is a thankless thing in itself. But it is worth it to pay these prices.

Because this has brought stability. Furthermore, even if it is twice the result, at least these roads and ditches have taken shape. After the spring plowing starts this work again, these projects can quickly enter the formal channels.

It has to be said that the people in Qin are still very hard-working. After having the help of life, they have the opportunity to make money by relying on labor. The Qin people enthusiastically participated in this wave of construction.

In order to make these people feel at ease, on all construction sites, wages are settled daily, and a few colorful tickets can be obtained every day, and then using these tickets to buy food for the family to fill the family has become the happiest thing for the Qin people.

It was rare for the Qin people to work for the government and get wages, because under the rule of the Qin people, there was one word called labor and another word called conscription.

Although it also serves rice, it is not much better than a pig. Now you earn it yourself. If you are willing to eat better, you can buy anything you want from a merchant, and if you are willing to be frugal, you can just eat enough.

In fact, the Ming people's banknotes had already begun to be circulated in most of the Qin State before this. Accepting such banknotes was not a difficult task for the Qin people.

For Qin Feng, the happiest thing is that Qin has gradually begun to stabilize. At least in the surrounding areas of the county town and the county town, all work has been orderly, which also means that the rule of the Ming Dynasty has begun to take root and sprout in these places. There are still many bandits and rebellions are still happening, but these unpleasant things are gradually moving away from the center of development and are forced to shrink towards remote places or remote places in the mountains and forests. Although this makes it more difficult to suppress bandits, it is an excellent thing for the overall situation.
Chapter completed!