Chapter 1220 Reconstruction and Development!
June 17th, Chishan Prefecture, Jiangnan

Under the attention and expectation of all, Ye Mingsheng, the Grand Marshal of the Great Zhou Army, the Prime Minister of the Great Zhou Cabinet, and the Duke of Feng, arrived in his loyal Jiangnan. The first stop of Ye Mingsheng's journey to Jiangnan was Chishan Prefecture!

When Xu Zhaojie attacked Jiangnan, he also set his sights on Chishan Prefecture, and as he wished, he captured this important prefecture along the Nanjiang River through a surprise attack...
Just when Xu Zhaojie was preparing to use Chishan Prefecture as a bridgehead and swallow up Jiangnan bite by bite, the people of Jiangnan said no to him!
Although at the beginning of the war Xu Zhaojie achieved some victories with his good command and the advantages of the Zhennan Army's strong combat power and experience in many battles, its momentum was very intimidating for a time, and it seemed that it would swallow up the south of the Yangtze River!
However, Lu Jianchao, the then Governor of Jiangnan, who had the support of the Fengwu Army's firearms, was not intimidated by Xu Zhaojie. He actively listened to the advice of his subordinates and made three decisions!
The first decision was that the Jiangnan Army should hold the city firmly and not go out to fight the Zhennan Army in the field, so as to delay the Zhennan Army's progress.

The second decision was that the Jiangnan Navy on the Nanjiang River would block the waterway, cut off Xu Zhaojie's retreat and supply lines, and prevent Xu Zhaojie from getting any supplies from his hometown of Huainan!
The third decision was to mobilize the entire Jiangnan region for war and organize tens of thousands of reserve forces to prepare to fight Xu Zhaojie!
Under Lu Jianchao's three decisions, Xu Zhaojie's shortcomings in this military adventure, such as insufficient troops and lack of successors, were completely exposed. He was soon forced to give up several prefectures and counties he had previously captured and retreated to Chishan Prefecture!

Just when the Jiangnan Army, led by Lu Jianchao’s nephew Lu Yun, was preparing to take down Xu Zhaojie and conquer Chishan Prefecture in one fell swoop, they were met with stubborn resistance from Xu Zhaojie...

Although Chishan Prefecture had become an isolated city at that time, thanks to the wealth of Jiangnan and the supplies in Chishan Prefecture, Xu Zhaojie still led the remnants to hold out for several months. He also took advantage of the slackness of the defenders to launch a night attack, giving Lu Yun a tragic defeat with tens of thousands of casualties!
Although Xu Zhaojie won a great victory with the help of Chishan Prefecture's supplies, his actions and the offensive and defensive battles over the past few months have caused great damage to Chishan Prefecture itself!

The city, which was originally prosperous and peaceful, with more than 100,000 people living in and around the city, has almost become a ruin. The people living in and outside the city are either dead or fled. After this battle, it can be said that only one in ten people in Chishan Prefecture survived!

Although Xu Zhaojie's military adventure in Jiangnan ended in failure, the actions of the Zhennan Army and the losses in the war itself caused indelible damage to the city of Chishan Prefecture and its people!
After conquering Chishan Prefecture, Lu Jianchao, the then Governor of Jiangnan, was also preparing to rebuild Chishan Prefecture. However, by that time Xu Zhaojie had been defeated and captured. He Jingyun led the First Army and the Fourth Army to capture Huainan!

Under the pressure of the Fengwu Army, Lu Jianchao was under great pressure. His mind was full of thoughts about whether to fight or surrender. The people of Jiangnan and the government were also worried, so the plan to rebuild Chishan Prefecture was forced to be shelved.

Although he had the successful experience of successfully repelling Xu Zhaojie's invasion, Lu Jianchao was very clear that the strength of the Fengwu Army under Ye Mingsheng and the Zhennan Army under Xu Zhaojie was not at the same level. At that time, the Fengwu Army had swept all the territories of the Great Zhou except Sichuan and Jiangnan. Ye Mingsheng's trend of unifying the world was already set, and it was difficult for him to resist this trend...

Although Lu Jianchao knew rationally that he could not defeat the Fengwu Army and Ye Mingsheng, Jiangnan was, after all, his family business that he had managed for more than ten years. Lu Jianchao was simply reluctant to hand it over to others!

Just when Lu Jianchao was hesitating between fighting and surrendering and didn't know what to do, Song Weijie, the then Governor of Sichuan, ordered his spies to blow up the Jiangnan Army's gunpowder depot at a time when the Jiangnan Army was conducting a military exercise and the relationship between the Fengwu Army was tense in order to force Lu Jianchao to go to war with the Fengwu Army, thus triggering a war between the two sides!
After the breakdown of negotiations with Ye Mingsheng, Song Weijie had already decided to completely break away and go to war with the Fengwu Army, but he felt that he and his family could not defeat the Fengwu Army alone, so he wanted to bring Lu Jianchao with him, and the two families joined forces to deal with the Fengwu Army!
At that time, Song Weijie had made a very careful calculation. He provoked a conflict between the two sides and let the Fengwu Army attack Jiangnan. While the two sides were fighting, he led his troops out of Sichuan and attacked the rear of the Fengwu Army, waiting for an opportunity to attack Jingchu and Huainan and reap the benefits!
However, although Song Weijie had made a good plan, the reality did not develop as he expected. Song Weijie never expected that the Jiangnan Army under Lu Jianchao's command, although able to drive Xu Zhaojie out of Jiangnan, was completely powerless when facing the Fengwu Army!
The Fengwu Army led by He Jingyun crushed the enemy all the way without encountering any decent resistance. They killed their way to the city of Lin'an and forced Lu Jianchao to give up resistance and surrender...

At this point, the entire Jiangnan region fell into the hands of the Fengwu Army, and a few months later, Song Weijie, who was good at plotting, was assassinated by Liu Baichuan, a captain of the General Coordination Office. After his death, the Sichuan Army fell apart and formed various factions, which were finally taken care of one by one by the Fengwu Army, and the entire Great Zhou Dynasty was completely unified!
This also means that the reconstruction and subsequent development of many prefectures and counties in the Great Zhou Dynasty, including Chishan Prefecture, has become the responsibility of the Yijing court!

Because Jiangnan is the richest region in Da Zhou, many businesses in Jiangnan have business in Nanyang, Dongdao, and even overseas. They exchange silk, tea, porcelain and other products for gold and silver and ship them back to Da Zhou! Therefore, Ye Mingsheng also attaches great importance to Jiangnan and regards it as the core of his overseas strategy. Therefore, in the governance of Jiangnan, Ye Mingsheng did not take rash actions, but appointed Zhu Chen, the former Jiangnan Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, as the new Jiangnan Governor. In the appointment of other Jiangnan officials, Ye Mingsheng also appointed and dismissed Jiangnan natives as much as possible!
Ye Mingsheng's move was to ensure that the change of regime would not have any major impact on the order of Jiangnan, and to appease the people and merchants in Jiangnan so that they would not have any unnecessary concerns because of the arrival of the Fengwu Army!
After becoming the governor, Zhu Chen also wanted to make some achievements to show Ye Mingsheng, to let Ye Mingsheng live up to his promotion and that it was the right choice for him to serve as the governor of Jiangnan...
Because he had been to Yijing and was instructed by Ye Mingsheng in person, Zhu Chen knew that Ye Mingsheng attached great importance to overseas trade, so he also regarded overseas trade as one of his work priorities. He also adopted some measures to encourage major businesses to strengthen overseas trade and bring the money earned from overseas back to Da Zhou, so as to achieve a leapfrog progress in Jiangnan's overseas trade!
However, although Zhu Chen invested a lot of energy and enthusiasm in this work, due to various reasons the final results were very limited!

Although Zhu Chen was very unwilling to accept this and wanted to change the situation, in the end, because it was too complicated and involved too many people from all sides, and Zhu Chen did not have the courage to make a subversive change, he could only give up!

Although he was forced to give up the achievement of making a leap forward in Jiangnan's overseas trade, Zhu Chen's idea of ​​making achievements did not change. Especially after the news came from the Yijing court at the beginning of the year that Ye Mingsheng intended to tour the south, Zhu Chen became more determined to make some achievements and let Ye Mingsheng see his work ability!
After much deliberation and with the active suggestions from his staff, Zhu Chen set his sights on rebuilding Chishan Prefecture!
In fact, after the Fengwu Army recovered Jiangnan, the reconstruction of Chishan Prefecture had already begun. Some people from Chishan Prefecture who were stranded outside began to return to their hometown, and the ruins caused by the war were also rebuilt...
However, because the focus of the work of the Governor's Office led by Zhu Chen at that time was on how to promote the development of overseas trade in Jiangnan, some human and material resources were tilted towards this matter. As a result, the reconstruction of Chishan Prefecture was somewhat slow due to the lack of strong support from the Governor's Office!
After Zhu Chen suffered a setback in promoting the development of overseas trade, he planned to make achievements in rebuilding Chishan Prefecture in order to show his ability to Ye Mingsheng. So he turned his guns around and transferred the manpower and material resources that the Governor's Office originally concentrated on the development of overseas trade to the work of promoting the reconstruction of Chishan Prefecture!
As a result, the reconstruction progress of Chishan Prefecture was greatly accelerated. According to Zhu Chen's requirements, the reconstruction of the main urban area was completed on June 10. The population in the city and surrounding areas also increased from 10,000 to 50,000, which is half of the level in its heyday!

With such a transcript, on June 15th, Zhu Chen and He Jingyun came to Chishan Prefecture together, ready to welcome Ye Mingsheng's arrival!

On June 17th, Ye Mingsheng and his group of several thousand people arrived at Chishan Prefecture. Because Ye Mingsheng had learned from the war reports that Chishan Prefecture, a Jiangnan prefecture, had been greatly affected by the war, and now it had only been more than a year since the end of the war, so Ye Mingsheng had already prepared to see the devastation.

Therefore, when Ye Mingsheng saw the thriving scene of Chishan Prefecture, he was surprised and delighted. After inspecting Chishan Prefecture, Ye Mingsheng also affirmed Zhu Chen’s work achievements...
After receiving Ye Mingsheng's affirmation and praise, Zhu Chen felt relieved. After all, he had not made any progress in promoting the development of Jiangnan's overseas trade, the work that Ye Mingsheng valued most. Therefore, the results of rebuilding Chishan Prefecture were like a fig leaf for him, making his work as the governor during this period look less unsuccessful.

After inspecting Chishan Prefecture, Ye Mingsheng also met with He Jingyun who came to Chishan Prefecture with Zhu Chen. Ye Mingsheng and He Jingyun had a conversation. The content of this conversation was very private and no one knew what Ye Mingsheng and He Jingyun talked about.

After this conversation, He Jingyun resigned from the post of commander of the First Army due to illness and returned to Yijing.

On the evening of June 20th, just as Ye Mingsheng was about to set off for Lin'an and on his last night in Chishan Prefecture, Ye Mingsheng received a memorial from Song Haibo.

Under the light of the kerosene lamp, Ye Mingsheng looked at the contents of the memorial and shook his head in disappointment!
Although Gao Zhenji had some talent and was capable, he was still a little young and not stable enough, and he still lacked a broad vision. Even though he had reminded him not to exaggerate, after getting the help of Wu Jia, he still directed his anger towards Ma Jingui, who was temporarily serving as the governor!
Although Sun Xiuquan had absolute power in the Huainan Censorate, Ye Mingsheng still learned about the dark side of Huainan through some channels such as the Coordination Office.

Having been in the officialdom of the Great Zhou for such a long time, Ye Mingsheng has actually become accustomed to these things, even a little numb. He has foreseen these situations a long time ago. In fact, if such situations did not occur, Ye Mingsheng would feel that something was abnormal...
Although Ye Mingsheng had the will and ability to carry out a thorough overhaul of Huainan, he was well aware that local tyrants like Sun Xiuquan and Ma Jingui had been entrenched in Huainan for many years and that various forces were intertwined. Therefore, if they were all dealt with together, it would inevitably cause considerable turmoil, which would be detrimental to the current stability and reconstruction of Huainan!

So in Ye Mingsheng's mind, although Sun Xiuquan and Ma Jingui must be dealt with, Ye Mingsheng's idea is to divide and conquer. Two people will deal with them one by one, first dealing with Sun Xiuquan who is jumping the most happily, and then dealing with Ma Jingui. In this way, the negative impact can be minimized!
Ye Mingsheng also knew that during Gao Zhenji's previous work in Kangyin, he had touched upon many existing stakeholders and had had considerable conflicts with the former prefect Ma Jingui!
That's why Ye Mingsheng warned Gao Zhenji not to expand the scope of the request, meaning that he should only target Sun Xiuquan first and let Ma Jingui go for the time being!
Gao Zhenji is also a smart man. Although Ye Mingsheng's words were a little euphemistic at the time, he undoubtedly understood what Ye Mingsheng meant. He was also very happy in front of Ye Mingsheng and assured Ye Mingsheng that he would not exaggerate the matter!
However, just a few days later, he turned a deaf ear to Ye Mingsheng's words, and after dealing with Dou Kai with the help of Wu Jia, he began to sharpen his knife and turn to Zhuyang, ready to settle the score with Ma Jingui who had made things difficult for him before. Ma Jingui naturally would not sit still and wait for death, so at this moment in Shouchun City, the two men were fighting fiercely...
(End of this chapter)