While Wufeng was vigorously adjusting the defense of the Western Xinjiang, the General Administration of Military Affairs was also actively adjusting the defense of the entire centrally controlled area, including Jinzhong. The Chenggu Army Corps was still stationed in the area south of Qinghe Prefecture, while the 14th Army Corps was adjusted to the east of Zhongzhou to strengthen its defense against the Luyang line, and the Third Army was also arranged to the area adjacent to Longquan, which clearly put on a defensive posture against the Western Xinjiang. The Fourth Army was arranged to Jinzhong, with three divisions stationed in Jinzhong, and the other two divisions were placed at the junction of Jinzhong and Longquan. The eighth and ninth two legions were placed on the southern line, with more than 200,000 troops placed in the front line with Huanggang and Jiujiang. Although the posture was decent, even the General Administration of Military Affairs was still unsure of how much effect it could play.

A series of defense adjustments came a bit suddenly, but the order from the General Administration of Military Affairs clearly expressed the unquestionable intention, that is, in the meeting of the kings, the security of the imperial capital must be fully guaranteed, and the Imperial Guard Corps, which has been in a state of headlessness, seems to have begun to recover. Ma Yuanzhang, the commander of the Imperial Guard Corps, who has not appeared for a long time, also began to appear frequently, which also attracted the attention of all forces. After all, when several armies were stationed in the suburbs around the imperial capital, only the most powerful armed force of this empire was left in the entire imperial capital city. Although the kings entered the capital, although each had armed forces, the strong dragon did not suppress the local snake, and the kings were unlikely to lead too many guard forces. If the Imperial Guards could really be tied together, or joined forces with the other party, it would be a great threat to the other parties.

Although all parties have expressed their desire to enter Beijing, it is still hard to say whether they will enter Beijing after finally reaching the city. The imperial capital is like a cage that threatens the safety of all parties, and at this time, the owner of this cage may not be able to control the power to open the cage, which makes everything full of variables.

With a hint of fatigue and excitement after the task was completed, Ying Jianming stood alone at the top of the city and looked west. Tomorrow, His Highness Qin would pass through Jinzhong East and enter Zhongzhou. The Jinzhong City in his hand became the only level for His Highness Qin to contact his territory after entering Zhongzhou. It can be imagined that Xijiang attaches importance to this level. Fortunately, his first division finally won the opportunity to station in the city. However, it is still an unsafe factor to be stationed in the suburbs of the second division. Fortunately, the Fifth Division, controlled by his confidant, is also stationed in the suburbs of the city. The entire situation is still in his own hands. There is really an unpredictable change. He can also firmly control this level and connect with the Western Xinjiang army.

It is obvious that the 20th Regiment was also deployed in the suburbs. It is a balanced need. Ying Jianming couldn't say whether it was because the other party did not believe in him. After all, the First Division was his own line, and although the Fifth Division could not see anything on the surface, his suggestion when deploying it still aroused the other party's alertness. This is reasonable. Although the other party has no military ability, he is an expert when talking about playing power. However, he probably never dreamed that he had an extraordinary relationship with Xijiang, which was a subconscious guard.

Looking into the distance, there are some faint mountain shadows in the sky, and the terrain of Jinzhong is a bit special. In addition to being a complete flat land along the western business road, the southern part of the business road divided into two north and south pieces by this business road are almost all broken terrain between hills and flat grounds, and the situation in the northern part is generally the same. Except for a large area of ​​flat land that looks like a gap is opened in the area adjacent to Longquan, the other parts are also mixed with shallow hills and dams.

However, although this seemingly broken land is not fertile, it contains the most abundant coal mine resources in the empire. Almost all the fourteen towns in Jinzhong Prefecture produce coal. Not only is the coal quality good, but it is also easy to mine. In addition, the Fan River flows through the city of Jinzhong Prefecture and winds into Zhongzhou. This place becomes the largest coal production area in the empire and the largest fuel supply area in the imperial capital.

The wealth of coal merchants in Jinzhong is known as the three most wealthy merchant groups of the empire, together with the salt merchants in Yangzhou and the financial merchants in the imperial capital, which shows the wealth of the coal mine owners in Jinzhong. The coal mines are like black gold, which can make people rich overnight. After a few generations, they can become rich people in the entire empire. After becoming rich, most of these coal mine owners chose the imperial capital as the place to buy property and build families. The dignitaries and nobles in the imperial capital were also jealous of the rich resources of Jinzhong, and they have used various power means to penetrate Jinzhong for hundreds of years.

Come on, many aristocratic families who were originally from the imperial capital have gradually immersed in Jinzhong. In addition, the local coal merchant forces in Jinzhong penetrated into the imperial capital. Combined with the two, the closeness between Jinzhong and the imperial capital is even far greater than the connection between Jinzhong and other prefectures including Heshuo County, including the capital Hejian Prefecture. The position of Jinzhong City has even touched the nerves of many people in the imperial capital. Every time the adjustment of the main officials in Jinzhong will always cause minor storms in the imperial officialdom, and it has become a barometer of changes in the imperial officialdom.

But all this is a thing of the past. After experiencing the Taiping Cult, the coal merchants in Jinzhong were greatly hit. Almost all the big coal merchants had to escape and hide in the imperial capital to avoid disaster. As soon as the Taiping Army took control of Jinzhong, they took these coal mines under the ownership of Taiping Cult. However, due to the escape of a large number of skilled workers and the joining of the Taiping Army, and the coal mine owners escaped from disasters, most of the coal mines were actually in a state of stagnation, and the sales of coal mines were also interrupted, and Jinzhong suddenly became a useless rib. Without sales, the coal mine was almost worthless, and coal was not much different from Nibashi. The Taiping Cult, who lacked economic mind, did not realize this. They would not use other methods to make up for their economic difficulties except for fighting and barbaric plunder. The huge Jinzhong Mansion with rich resources could not obtain much financial support from them.

The collapse of the Taiping Cult seems to have brought a glimmer of hope for the return of the coal merchants in Jinzhong. The imperial army's resumption of control over Jinzhong seemed to foreshadow this point. A large number of coal merchants who fled to the imperial capital returned to their hometowns one after another, and coal mines began to resume work one after another. However, the reality is often not as beautiful as imagined. With the large-scale expansion of the army controlled by the central government, the central government's finances were obviously unable to support such a huge army. Especially after the East China Sea and Jiangnan successively cut off the payment of fiscal and taxation to the central government, this problem became particularly serious. Although the central government's finances still had some background, the army of up to seven legions was not able to control a Zhongzhou and a central government in Jinzhong at all. However, under pressure from other parties, the central government of the imperial army did not dare to dismantle several legions. If it wanted to maintain it, it had to transfer these problems to the industrial and commercial class.

So coal traders are now the main donation targets. According to the Central Committee of the Empire, Jinzhong not only has to bear the military expenses of a legion stationed in Jinzhong, but also the expenses of another legion. This is equivalent to having a Jinzhong Prefecture bear the expenses of two legions. No matter how rich Jinzhong is and how rich coal traders are, it is unlikely that they will accept this result. The ending is that coal traders refuse to pay, and the army stationed here simply implements military control, replacing the government forcibly collecting various taxes and liquors as military expenses. This has also led to the continued tightening of the relationship between local coal traders and the army.

Zhang, the backers of coal merchants, also constantly attacked the court, attacking the military headquarters ineffective management of the army, and the army harassed the local area, causing public resentment. The military headquarters put state affairs first, and the finances were unable to support the army, so they had to drink poison to quench their thirst. They took this method to raise funds to maintain the existence of the army. Fortunately, His Majesty is no longer in charge of government affairs, and many major matters are solved by several important officials in the court. The final solution is to be only mixed, so that the military can garrison the troops and reduce the burden on the people in Jinzhong. On the other hand, it also hopes that the gentry and the people can understand the current government's plight and endure it for a while.

However, this kind of thing is difficult to accept by coal merchants, especially in coal merchants with strong background power in the emperor. So some coal merchants began to turn to Hejian, Longquan and Heishan to the west, while others began to openly refuse to pay donations, which directly caused conflicts between the two sides, and the situation in Jinzhong became increasingly unstable. The reason why the military deployment and adjustments were suddenly carried out this time was to strengthen the defense of the imperial capital, and on the other hand, it was to alleviate the already bad military-civilian relations. At least after the adjustment, the new Fourth Legion could also re-establish a relatively eased relationship. Of course, this was just the wishful thinking of the General Administration of Military Affairs.

Coal merchants hope to return to the past situation, but the army of up to seven legions of the Empire must be borne by people. Given that the ongoing drought in the past year or two has made it difficult for farmers to maintain food, if farmers want to bear such a huge amount of money, it is probably possible that farmers will immediately trigger a riot among farmers. After repeated consideration, the top leaders of the Empire had to count this expense on the merchants, especially the coal mine owners who were tyrannical like Shanxi merchants.

Ying Jianming and his superior Xu Xiangyang, the commander of the Fourth Legion, both knew the links. The reason why Xu Xiangyang would rather control the remote control of the imperial capital than stationed directly in Jinzhong was that he was unwilling to face the attacks of those coal mine owners directly. You must know that these coal mine owners have great backers behind them. Xu Xiangyang just wanted to make a steady transition, and did not want to have too much relationship with the senior officials of the imperial capital on this issue. These tightrope-like problems were pushed to Ying Jianming, who was fully responsible for the defense of Jinzhong Prefecture City.
Chapter completed!