But after only a while, Qian Qiaogong laughed suddenly and frowned and said, "I just can't understand why Huang Tuozi is willing to follow Chen Zhiyuan... I am really not familiar with Qingyin. Maybe I was rescued by Chen Zhiyuan and have a grateful heart. Besides, it may be that men and women love each other and have a love affair with Chen Zhiyuan, but Huang Tuozi shouldn't. As early as the New Year, Huang Tuozi would agree to me whenever there was a loyalty or bottom line...."

Wu Zhengwen heard this and slowly lowered his face and waved his hand hard, as if he didn't want to continue discussing this topic, "Everyone has their own ambitions, why bother...going back!"

....

Perhaps it was the brief tranquility before the storm came.

For five consecutive days, the Qing army north of Guting showed no sign of attack.

This is unusual, very unusual.

You should know that the Qing army in Yanzhou had reached nearly 50,000 at this time, and from the direction of Northern Zhili, the troops stationed in various prefectures and counties controlled by the Qing court had already moved closer to Yanzhou.

This is a harbinger of a great war and a decisive battle.

Will the Qing court really plan to fight a life-and-death battle with Wu in Xuzhou?

Of course, Wu Zheng was not idle either. The first batch of reinforcements, 10,000 people, led by Zhang Guowei, had arrived in Xuzhou. He could provide reinforcements to Pei County at any time, and another ten thousand people had already entered Huai'an City.

At the same time, 20,000 troops from the second reinforcement of the First Army have landed in Yangzhou and replaced Yangzhou Defense.

The newly recruited more than 40,000 new troops have been trained for more than a month. If the war is urgent, you can also go north quickly.

Under Chen Zilong's control, the Hanming Half Moon Talk began to be intensively distributed, increasing the original Half Moon issue to every five days, reporting on the continuous victory of the Northern Expedition Army and the latest government orders of the General's Office.

All prefectures and counties were quickly mobilized, and the young and brave in each household had been registered and could be summoned at any time with one order.

It has to be said that at this time, under the rule of the General's Mansion, the national mobilization had already entered, and everyone knew that this was a national war, a national war of life and death.

What is strange is that with such a difficult finance, the General's Mansion has even owed the "rest settlement fee" to recruit new recruits, and the people did not hear any opposition. The people silently sent their husbands and sons to recruitment sites in various prefectures and counties, and even took the initiative to donate money and materials.

This kind of atmosphere of unity infects others, and then infects yourself from others.

It is precisely because of this unity that the General's Mansion has supported the war for nearly fifty days without the empty treasury, and did not stop the military workshop for one day. Instead, it took this opportunity to quickly expand its production capacity and provide a steady stream of ammunition supply to the northern battlefield.

Wu Zheng was no longer panicked at this time.

Countless worries, doubts, and confusion disappeared.

In fact, even the most difficult tomorrow will be when the sun rises and becomes today, you will find that it is not that difficult.

What Wu Zheng is really worried about now is no longer the upcoming Xuzhou offensive and defensive battle, but the fleets of various countries that have already gathered at sea.

An urgent report came from Hangzhou that the foreigners who were "robbed" of supplies from the two major ports by the General's Mansion finally could not contain their anger and greed.

Take advantage of his illness and kill him. Both China and abroad know this truth.

The "combined fleet" led by Britain and Geely and Portugal's two major fleets have taken shape. They issued an ultimatum to the General's Office with the words of Wei Kuangguo. They must pay double the payment for goods to compensate for the "looted" materials and compensate merchants from various countries for more than a month's losses. At the same time, merchants from various countries are allowed to invest in the Weaving Department and exempt the three-year tariffs from the two major ports... Otherwise, war will begin!

Of course, Wu Zheng was not afraid. The naval guns of this era were far from reaching a range of twenty miles away. The foreigners just wanted to take advantage of their wars. They would never dare to land and dare to take a step forward on the mainland. The Northern Expedition Army could teach them how to be a human being in minutes.

What Wu Zheng was worried about was that the formation of the foreign fleet would eventually endanger foreign trade, and foreign trade had become the first of the four pillars of the General's Mansion's annual entry.

Now the biggest source of the annual income that supports the General's Mansion is the collection of import and export tariffs. The agricultural tax, which was originally the pillar of the dynasty, has dropped to the third place due to the Wu dispute.

The second place is Hanming Bank. Hanming Bank, which integrates three major money banks, is huge in scale and has more than five million depositors involved. The interest rate spread it operates now is enough to spread the cost and has a considerable surplus.

The silver coins that Mo Zhongnian promoted were accepted by the world, especially those praised by merchants everywhere. This is not because merchants do not trust bank bills, but because of human nature. Only when real money and silver are put in their pockets can they feel particularly at ease.

The real "profit" of Hanming Bank still comes from the hoarding of wealth of countless depositors. Merchants from all over the country and even merchants from various countries will basically leave the circulating funds at Hanming Bank for the sake of convenient delivery, which has caused a huge liquidity surplus.

This is also one of the important reasons why Mo Zhong Nian can resist this battle with his own strength until today.

The fourth pillar of the General's Mansion is handicrafts. After more than three years of development, the weaving department has become the fourth pillar of the General's Mansion.

The weaving department had formed a huge industrial cluster at this time, with countless mulberry households, weaving households, brokers, and middlemen in Jiangnan, actively joining the weaving department, thus seeking greater profits.

This is the reason why Wu Zheng forced the import and export tax. Since the industrial revolution had not yet arrived and the production capacity was low, the production of silk fabrics was greater than that of supply. In other words, any merchant who purchased silk fabrics from the two major ports was unable to get it. They often needed to stay in Jiangnan for two or three months before they could raise the required amount of goods.

Wu Zheng's forced tax increase further promoted the rise in the price of silk fabrics. Scarcity is more expensive, and things that need to be fought for are often the best. This is equivalent to "hungry marketing" in later generations, which is similar.

But this also made the weaving department make the largest gold, because the production capacity of the weaving department accounts for almost half of the entire Jiangnan silk fabrics, which makes the weaving department invisibly have the right to bargain on silk fabrics, and the price increase is decided by one word.

Therefore, in order to seek greater profits, mulberry households, weaving households, brokers, and middlemen in various places took the initiative to join the weaving department, which formed a growing voice in the weaving department. Simply put, if a foreign merchant wants to purchase the required amount of goods as soon as possible, he cannot avoid the weaving department.

In fact, this is precisely the reason why the joint fleet of the foreign merchants proposed to invest in the Weaving Department, because although the Weaving Department is not an official in public, in fact, the three women in charge of the Weaving Department are particularly identifiable, which is something that everyone knows.
Chapter completed!