Compared with the calm waves when he came, the return journey was full of wind and waves. The strong winds were mixed with snowflakes to cover all the sight. The snowflakes fell on the sea surface and disappeared silently, but they remained on the warships. Many places were covered with a thin layer of snow, condensing into a hard shell. The third-layer warship opened the way, and followed the other small warships and semi-submersible ships that attacked this time. Due to the wind and waves, the semi-submersible ship had completely floated to the water.

There were many warships, but there were more than 1,500 naval and marines. There were only more than 200 people returning to the warships. This was the survivor of the small army that was faking his merits to attract the main force of the Ming army in Yangquan, Wuzhou. None of the large troops attacking the Ming people Suojiang Pass could run back.

This time, it encountered a complete failure.

After returning to the warship, Cao Hui locked himself in a cabin for two days without eating or drinking. Even if Jiang Tong went to persuade him, he would not ignore it.

In just a short period of time, the Qi people suffered two major defeats in front of the Ming people, which was a heavy loss. The Battle of Panlong Mountain destroyed two masters and the ghost general Jia Fangzhou. This time, they not only lost more than a thousand elite troops, but also the spy network established in Jiangnan in Chu will undoubtedly be removed by the Ming people with the momentum of plowing the courtyard and sweeping the caves because of this operation.

And they got nothing.

"Master, has Commander Cao still not come out?" After arranging the sailing matters, Fan Xin came to the top floor and saw Jiang Tong.

Jiang Tong shook his head.

"Victory and defeat are common in military affairs. What's wrong with the commander? He is not a person who is easily discouraged, right?" Fan Xin was a little puzzled.

"There are huge losses in a row during this period." Jiang Tong sighed. "And General Fan, to be honest, this time, even I was scared."

Fan Xin was shocked: "Master, you are the master of the master, what are you afraid of? There are not many people in this world who can be called your opponents, right?"

Jiang Tong smiled bitterly: "If it is a martial arts duel, even if it is facing a top-notch player like Bi Wanjian and Qin Feng, even if I know I will fail, I will not feel afraid. It will only inspire a stronger desire to survive and burst out with stronger combat power. But this time, what scares me is some guys who don't understand martial arts and are even a little cowardly."

"What's the reason?" Fan Xin was puzzled.

Jiang Tong looked at the stormy sea and told Fan Xin about the battle above the Wu River.

"It's just that businessman, who hid in a pile of silk, didn't even have the courage to look at me, but he rushed towards me without hesitation. He might know that he would die, but he still rushed up. There was also the young businessman who overturned a merchant ship on the river after seeing me kicking me, and was so scared that he fainted, but his ship still hit him." Jiang Tong sighed, "Why are you saying that? Those merchant ships were carrying their lives, and the whole ship of silk was really a big sum of money. They all over the Wu River, Fan Xin, can you figure it out?"

Fan Tong remained silent.

"There are those merchant ship guards. Do these things have anything to do with them? Or they have anything to do with them, or they have nothing to do with them. They only have more than a hundred people, but facing thousands of our soldiers, they rushed up without hesitation." Fan Xin's body trembled slightly," At that moment, when the shouts of the Ming Dynasty sounded in the Suojiang Pass for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, I felt fear and I had no intention of fighting. Such a country, such people, made me feel scared from the bottom of my heart. That was the first time I felt that our Daqi could not defeat such a country."

"We will definitely beat them. Master, what you encounter may be an exception." Fan Xin gritted his teeth. "The merchant ship guards should be retired soldiers of the Ming army."

"Where are those businessmen?"

"Maybe they are the special ones." Fan Xin said: "What kind of virtue are merchants? Master, have you seen them in Daqi?"

"It is precisely because I have seen it that I am frightened. Ming Dynasty can even change the temperament of merchants. This is the most worrying thing!" Jiang Tong shook his head and sighed: "General Fan, you are the one who has sunk the main battleship of the Ming army. How did you do it at that time?"

Fan Xin was stunned for a while and said, "It's just a desperate effort. At the beginning, I led the Clippers, which were faster than the opponent and took advantage of unexpected sneak attacks. But even so, I lost a lot. Regarding warships, the Ming people are indeed much stronger than ours. Over the years, we have fallen too far behind. But now we are constantly improving. The gap between the performance of the latest warships and the main warships of the Ming people in all aspects has been narrowed in all aspects. In a few years, we can build several fleets that compete with the Ming people."

"I hope this is the case!" Jiang Tong was a little depressed. "The Ming people said that the standing army was only a fraction of the entire army of our Daqi. Now all their troops will not exceed 300,000, but in the real war, they can mobilize the troops they can only have a lot more than our Daqi."

"Hide the soldiers and the people." Fan Xin said helplessly: "The three-year retirement system adopted by the Ming people allowed soldiers to leave with their armor and weapons when they retired, as well as their militia reserve system. This requires strong financial resources and extremely powerful control over the rule to dare to do it. Da Qi cannot do this. Master, can you imagine the consequences of our Da Qi if we allowed soldiers to leave with a full set of weapons when they left the army?"

The two of them were speechless. If that were the case, Qi might have been everywhere. Perhaps without Ming calling, Qi would collapse first.

"Fortunately, our situation is getting better now. The forces of the Eight Great Masters and the First Emperor are either wiped out or subdued. The Great Qi is slowly concentrating all its powers on the court. A united Qi State is forming. No matter how strong the Ming State is, compared with us, it is only a 50% or 50% number at most."

"Maybe!" Jiang Tong, who had been with the Prime Minister Tian Fen for a long time, knew more about the inside story. The situation of Qi was far from as simple as Fan Xin thought. At least in terms of economic recovery, Qi encountered great difficulties. As the Prime Minister, Tian Fen was worried, but now, although he is the Prime Minister, he has only the right to suggest and no power to govern. The emperor listened to his words if they felt useful, and abandoned them if they felt useless. However, this usefulness or not, all comes from Cao Yun's own judgment.

Cao Yun's current strategy is to accumulate wealth desperately and gather the financial resources of the whole country in the hands of the court without limit. Now the treasury seems extremely abundant, the weapons and equipment are changing with each passing day, the reformed army pays sufficiently and the fighting spirit is high, and the warships are launched one after another, but in contrast, the difficulties of the people are increasing day by day. The people are allocated to the fields, but the various tyrants and miscellaneous taxes they bear have not decreased at all, and it is even more serious than when they were dependent on the big households before. At that time, although they had to pay heavy rent to the landlords, many of the country's taxes were not overwhelmed by them, but now they have to bear the burden on themselves. In many places, there have been examples of abandoning the land and fleeing. Moreover, such things are no longer an isolated case.

Merchants were even more important objects of exploitation by the court. The two countries were engaged in business. The merchants were rich in the Ming Dynasty, while the merchants of Qi were rich in the court. The merchants of Qi were more wealth porters in front of Qi. The Emperor of Ming Dynasty believed that merchants could be the creators of wealth, but the Emperor of Qi did not think so. In his eyes, merchants were just speculative wealth transporters.

Jiang Tong had heard Tian Fen lament that if this continues, the country will not be a country.

Jiang Tong and Tian Fen discussed this issue. Cao Yun was a wise man. He was not unaware of the disadvantages of Qi doing this now. Cao Yun, who had a deep understanding of Ming, firmly believed that only by defeating Ming in the shortest time could he ensure that Qi's longevity would last. The longer the delay, the less the Qi would be the opponent of Ming.

In order to defeat the Ming Kingdom in a short time, Cao Yun could only adopt some extraordinary policies to accumulate more wealth for the Qi court to win this war. Therefore, he was trying his best to squeeze national strength and squeeze every drop of wealth in Qi as much as possible in order to invest it in the future war.

Cao Yun set the time limit for this period of five years. This is fundamentally different from Tian Fen's strategy of governing the country. Tian Fen believes that the foundation of the country should be consolidated first, start from the most basic, enrich the people and strengthen the country, and operate slowly like the Ming people. However, Cao Yun does not think that Qi is the opponent of Ming in this regard, so he must first concentrate all his strength to kill Ming, and then turn around and carefully govern a unified country.

The two of them had a contrary strategy, but now, Tian Fen did not have the capital to challenge Cao Yun at all. He is now just like a human-shaped stamp.

The army of Qi was indeed stronger than before, and the national treasury was more abundant, but the people were even more in distress. In addition, the Ming Dynasty was constantly promoting the fire with some means that the Qi people could not understand, which made the dilemma of Qi's people worsen.

What made Jiang Tong feel the most clearly was the rapid rise in prices in Chang'an. Chang'an is the capital of Qi, and prices here have always been strictly controlled. However, even when prices in Chang'an were soaring, there is no need to mention other places.

In Qi, what has appeared in an extremely abnormal prosperity. From the perspective of the court, the country is now unprecedentedly powerful, but from the perspective of the people, the country is now at its worst.
Chapter completed!