Since January, "notorious" inspection brigades have appeared in Shandong, Beizhili, Shanxi, Anhui and Henan, where they set up checkpoints and inspected private salts.

Anyone who sells private salt will be detained! If there is any resistance, they will be killed on the spot. Although the salt merchants in Lianghuai can still transport private salt into these five provinces, they are already worried.

Those salt squads were brave and good at fighting, with a team of twenty people, and sometimes they dared to rush to kill two or three hundred people. If they were mobs, they would inevitably flee after rushing. If they were more fierce, these inspection teams would contact the brigade. These salt squads were all riding horses, coming and going like the wind. As long as they were targeted by these salt squads, they would almost be spared.

Within these five provinces, the bandits and bandits located on the salt transportation roads were also unlucky, and the brigades began to clear out the main and secondary roads in the province one by one.

These bandits are not thieves, they have little sense of offensiveness towards officers and soldiers, and their power is very scattered, so it is easier for the inspection brigade to clear it out. After all, each squadron is equipped with artillery.

If the bandits could fight together, the inspection brigade would probably not even be able to hold the gaps. After all, the inspection brigade's strength is often scattered everywhere. If the bandits fought guerrilla warfare, the inspection brigade could only be difficult to move forward.

However, the inspection brigade was at least from the government, and there were few bandits who dared to attack on him, so the inspection brigade began to break through one by one.

There are indeed a few people in each of them, so the speed of suppressing bandits is slower. Therefore, the clearance starts from the main road, and then picks soft persimmons first.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient troops, Zhao Yan allowed the Shandong Inspection Brigade to recruit auxiliary soldiers from the local area, and each inspection brigade can reach the target of two thousand people.

Denglai has a small population, so Zhao Yan is not willing to draw too many young and strong people from the garrison. Once these young and strong people are transferred too much, their production will inevitably be affected.

Besides, there are too many young and strong places to be drawn now, and the biggest one is the navy. Behind the rapid expansion of the navy, more soldiers must be needed.

More Marine soldiers are also needed. This year the navy is so inflated that it will be able to seize Taiwan occupied by the Dutch next year. The Dutch's warships in Asia are only more than 30, which has been lost by nearly half of the Dutch Navy. As one rises and the other falls, its strength has been greatly reduced.

This year, the number of Marines needs to be expanded to five thousand men and sailors need to be expanded to three thousand men.

At the same time, the cavalry battalion also needs to be expanded. If enough horses can be purchased, it is also expected to expand 10,000 cavalrymen to the front-line troops this year.

There are so many places that require manpower. If the inspection brigades in each province are short of personnel, it is best to recruit soldiers from each province. The young and strong in Denglai are kept for production, and various infrastructure construction requires a lot of manpower.

In addition to recruiting soldiers locally, the second-tier troops were also preparing to draw troops and enter the four provinces to suppress bandits, while the front-tier troops in Shandong were mainly suppressed. At present, the bandits from other governments did not dare to open on the commercial roads in Shandong even if they were robbed. The bandits in Shandong were suppressed to a very honest manner.

These bandit suppression policies are combined to strive to eliminate bandits from the five northern provinces within three years.

After the spring in Shanxi, Li Jixian received news from various teams that famines broke out everywhere in Shanxi, and most of the people in Shanxi had no food.

For this reason, Li Jixian immediately activated the emergency strategy stipulated in the regulations, went to the Shanxi branch of Jimin Commercial Bank, and asked to allocate grain to arrange porridge sheds in various prefectures and counties.

"Captain Li, all the grain banks in our Shanxi branch will cooperate to suppress the grain prices, but the sweet potatoes in stock are not enough. Captain Li still needs to transport 50,000 shi of sweet potatoes from Handan first. This is the maximum amount you and I can transfer privately. However, 50,000 shi is probably not enough. We need to report to the general before we can transfer a large amount of transportation." said the shopkeeper Lin Da of the Shanxi branch.

"Okay, I'll report to the General soon. Master Lin, you are responsible for suppressing the grain price. Our inspection brigade is responsible for opening porridge sheds in various places." Li Jixian nodded. Then he immediately sent two teams, one to Handan and the other to Denglai.

On that day, Li Jixian received the signature from the Shanxi Commercial Bank branch and immediately went to the grain stores in various prefectures and counties to collect grain.

At present, in terms of relieving hungry people, the five northern provinces have begun to implement division of labor between grain banks and inspection brigades, one is responsible for calming grain prices and the other is responsible for providing porridge relief.

These northern provinces are also areas with frequent natural disasters, so they are also major areas that need relief. If the grain shops are all allowed to do it, the goal will inevitably be too great, and the people who hold grudges all expose their anger on the business shops. In addition, let the inspection team come out to provide relief, so that the people can more directly understand the kindness Zhao Yan gave them.

It is necessary to buy people's hearts, but it is not to buy them tightly for the sake of bribery.

The reliefs of the southern provinces are still under the leadership of all the commercial banks. There are fewer natural disasters in the south, and there are more grain production than in the north, so the rebound caused by the commercial banks' behavior is not very large.

After taking out the grain, each team immediately began to open a porridge shed outside the city, and invited some hungry people to make the porridge. The fragrance of sweet potato porridge quickly floated.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang... Porridge is being given at the east gate! Porridge is being given at the city gate!" Seven or eight teenage children, holding a broken basin, knocking all the way with wooden sticks, shouting along the streets in the county town.

"The officials outside the city have given porridge, and the officials outside the city have given porridge... dongdongdong..."

"If you have an official to offer porridge, get the dishes and chopsticks." After hearing this, the people in the city immediately rushed to the porridge shed outside the city in groups. Within half a quarter of an hour, many hungry people had gathered outside the porridge shed.

"Everyone has it, don't squeeze, don't squeeze, line up, line up." Yanding tried his best to maintain order.

"Go and find some fences immediately and separate a few places to queue up." Seeing this, the team leader hurriedly asked someone to find the fence.

As soon as the fence was inserted, the order immediately improved, and the hungry people could only line up in the passage made of the fence and wait slowly.

"Oh! They are the salt diced rice from Shandong. It turns out that they are serving the porridge."

"They killed a lot of salt vendors in Shanxi!"

"The price of salt has dropped now. In the past, one pound had to be sold for three cents of silver, but now it only sells for one pound."

"These officials also suppressed many bandits, and the black-headed god in southern Jin was cut off by them."

"Yes! These officials are really good people. They will give us porridge when they get famine."

The people were talking while eating sweet potato porridge in the bowl.

"I just don't know how many days this porridge can be used. My family has no food. If this continues, my child...hey!" said a commoner worriedly.

"Dear brothers, don't worry, my general will soon transport grain from Shandong, and the porridge shed will be opened until after the famine." The team leader said loudly, "If everyone can't survive in Shanxi, my general will distribute fifty acres of arable land, as well as oxen and seeds to each household in Shandong. The year before will also distribute food to everyone. None of these need to be repaid. The land rent is only 40% and you don't have to participate in the service every year."

"So good?" some people asked in surprise.

"Of course, my master is General Denglai and General Longhu Zhao Yan. He will not deceive everyone. If you want to go to Shandong to settle down, you can come to my place to register."

"I'm going."

"I'll go, too."

"Just make the rations for that year, I'll go too."

Suddenly, many hungry people began to sign up, and the scene was extremely hot.

"These are just the people in the city. There are still many people in each township. We will organize people immediately and open the porridge shed to those towns tomorrow."

...Because the grain shop in the disaster area opened warehouses and released grain in a timely manner, the famine in Shanxi was suppressed in time. Within a few days, each team recruited some people in the local area, formed a relief team, and opened porridge sheds in various townships.

All commercial banks in Shanxi are obviously prepared to deal with the famine. Grain banks in various places have reserved enough sweet potatoes to support half a month. Handan has urgently transported 50,000 shi of sweet potatoes to Shanxi. On the fifth day of Li Jixian's report, Denglai also agreed to the report of transporting 300,000 shi of sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes were continuously transported from Handan to Shanxi, and porridge sheds were open everywhere. The same was true for famine in Nanyang, and they were soon suppressed by sweet potatoes transferred from Yingzhou.

Nothing happened to eat tree bark or grassroots everywhere.

Handan also dispatched an infantry battalion to Shanxi to escort hungry people in Shanxi to Denglai. Yingzhou Battalion also sent a battalion to Nanyang for escort.

In the past, when a business bank led refugees and hungry people to Denglai, there were cases of being attacked by bandits on the way. Such a big target was placed in front of all bandits, but it had to be guarded against.

However, bandits in some places dare not offend when they see the flag of Jimin Commercial Bank. They are really afraid of being suppressed. Once Jimin Commercial Bank is moved, General Denglai must send cavalry to clear them.

That was Zhao Shaxing, who killed the thief and lost the loss! He was really targeted, but he would not have had a good time. Although he could still run away, it was troublesome after all.

Not all the people who had famine were willing to go to Denglai, but most of them chose to leave Shanxi when they encountered famine.

Those who are unwilling to go to Shanxi will issue "Essential Sweet Potato Planting" to those literati in the village and sell sweet potato seeds at low prices.

This famine made the people in Shanxi and Nanyang eat sweet potatoes, and they also knew the benefits of growing sweet potatoes, and even attracted the attention of some local officials.

In terms of sweet potato promotion, there is basically no problem in Shanxi and Henan, and most people in Henan know this kind of thing.

There are sweet potatoes in the grain store of Jimin Commercial Bank, which are very cheap and can buy one pound for only two cents.

Since last year, some sporadic sweet potatoes have been planted everywhere.

By the beginning of this year, sweet potato planting has blossomed everywhere in Shanxi, Henan and Anhui, and many people have also planted sweet potatoes.

"Elements of Sweet Potato Planting" spread very quickly. Many officials who want to make some achievements are all in their hands. The promotion of sweet potatoes has basically entered a smooth stage.

If next year and the year after, the areas where sweet potatoes are grown will definitely increase significantly, and the famine problem can be greatly alleviated.
Chapter completed!