The substitute prince: Reported the emperor's brother at the beginning

Having said that, Qin Haifeng admitted that Ning Yi's training method was based on the unheard-of Mandarin Duck Army Formation.

It's extremely strict with them, and only two months of intensive training has made them quite capable.

If they train for a while longer, they will indeed be able to become elite.

But what's the use of the elite? They are just a bunch of little brats. Can they really fight against a hundred of them? Can a hundred little brats fight against thousands of elites and remain undefeated?

It’s still the same old routine. These newcomers will first rest for a few days, and then they will start the devilish daily training.

Two hundred people, divided into four squads, if they were trained in this way, the shouting and killing sounds of hundreds of young boys who were not very tall would still be deafening, and the sound would be crisp, making people feel that they were doing a good job.

Ning Yi asked the housekeeper, "How many craftsmen have been summoned from the refugee camp?"

The steward smiled and said, "Your Highness, rest assured. According to your instructions, we have recruited hundreds of blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, and other craftsmen."

At present, Ning Yi can only select people from the disaster victims outside the city. There are only hundreds of thousands of disaster victims at various city gates outside the city, who rely on the little relief food from the government to keep themselves hungry all day long.

As many workers as possible were recruited in the city.

But more of them are still struggling outside the city. If they can be given food, they will naturally be willing to follow.

Even Ning Yi was specifically responsible for the food, clothing, and other expenses of their entire family, so they were naturally happy.

Ning Yi was very satisfied that he could gather hundreds of people.

He looked at the second batch of servants, who had already trained hundreds of them, and said leisurely, "In two months, it will be time to raise the army."

This made Qin Haifeng confused. He didn't know how His Highness would raise an army. Even if you recruited a group of disaster victims, if they didn't have qualified generals to train them, they would just be a mob. What use would they be?

Could it be that they were using the group of threatened officers from the Yongying Battalion? This seems to be the only possible scenario at the moment.

Ning Yi suddenly said, "Give orders to the twenty guys in Jiangdong. They are in the disaster area of Jiangdong. They have almost finished their training. Come back."

After several months of training in the Prince's Palace, he has become elite enough.

They went to Jiangdong for hard training for a long time. According to Zhang Jinlu's introduction, they even went to the battlefield to suppress bandits and kill people.

If possible, Ning Yi would like to train them for a longer period of time, at least a year before graduation internship, but it is too late now.

Half a year of various trainings is more than enough, and the rest can only be strengthened in the military.

Ning Yi had just returned to the central courtyard and stepped into the main hall.

The little girl, Rou'er, had changed into a simple maid's outfit. She bowed slightly to Ning Yi and whispered, "Greetings, Your Highness."

Ning Yi didn't even look at her and went straight into the hall.

Since it was decided that Rou'er would stay, she has been very diligent and would take the initiative to do any chores in the central courtyard.

Since Ning Yi still didn't trust the Yang family, he simply ignored the two maids sent by Yang Ziqin and sent them off to do chores.

Instead, it was Rou'er, the maid he saved, who had been helping him clean the main hall. She was really not a maid he could trust.

Ning Yi had just changed his clothes and sat down to look at a pile of disaster relief materials sent by Tan Donglin.

At present, the disaster relief has been initially stabilized, and silver and grain are continuously transported to Jiangdong. Gao Qingshui has also arrested many local officials one after another.

That’s not all, a lot of local military equipment was also reorganized.

For a while, Jiangdong became a little more stable and the people could finally have some porridge to drink.

The construction of the river embankment has officially begun, and a large number of people have been recruited to work in exchange for relief, which will make Jiangdong look better on the surface.

But he frowned when he looked at the message sent from Jiangdong.

The price of grain in Jiangnan has risen sharply.

Jiangdong and Jiangnan are adjacent to each other. The disaster in Jiangdong is in full swing, while the scenery in Jiangnan is beautiful.

However, since Jiangdong needed a large amount of grain, in addition to transporting a batch from the capital, Jiangnan became an important grain purchasing area.

The price of grain in Jiangnan has risen from one liang per stone to five liang, and it is even difficult to find grain at five liang.

Gao Qingshui told Ning Yi in a letter that he seriously suspected that grain merchants in Jiangnan were forcibly purchasing local grain, storing it, and waiting for the price to rise before selling it.

This resulted in a significant reduction in the amount of disaster relief grain in Jiangdong.

As the Jiangdong Censor, Gao Qingshui could cause trouble in Jiangdong, but he had no control over Jiangnan.

He wrote to the governor of Jiangnan several times, and he also went to Jiangnan in person.

It still didn't work, Jiangnan didn't care at all. After all, it was Jiangdong that was in disaster, not Jiangnan.

If you want food, you can buy it at this price, or even at a premium.

Gao Qingshui was helpless. He told Ning Yi that the collusion between officials and businessmen in Jiangnan to drive up grain prices was a heinous crime.

He also went to the countryside in the south of the Yangtze River to inquire. Although the grain sold by the people was a little more expensive, it was only slightly more expensive than before.

Moreover, local authorities restricted them from selling the products randomly and only allowed them to sell to designated merchants.

After purchasing large quantities of grain, those grain merchants were not in a hurry to sell and continued to hoard it.

When grain merchants from other places wanted to purchase grain, they would be troubled by local officials and encounter all kinds of troubles on the way, so they finally had to give up.

Ning Yi frowned as he finished reading Gao Qingshui's letter and muttered, "What a bunch of troublemakers."

When the country was in crisis, these parasites not only did not want to help with disaster relief, but also tried to find ways to profit from it. The officials and businessmen in Jiangnan made a lot of money by taking advantage of the disaster in Jiangdong.

That was all the money and grain he collected from the capital, and they were all embezzled by them at all levels.

But there are too many issues involved. According to Gao Qingshui's introduction, not only officials, but also the aristocratic families and even the princes are involved.

After all, the amount of money and grain for disaster relief is so huge, who wouldn’t be jealous?

The vassal kings of Jiangdong were also making trouble in Jiangdong. Even Gao Qingshui had dealt with many powerful families and corrupt officials in Jiangdong.

But he has no way to control the vassal kings of Jiangdong. They are members of the royal family and they just want to make money from the national disaster. What can you do?

Moreover, each vassal king has soldiers. If they are provoked, they will really cause cholera in the local area. What's wrong with them making a small profit from the price difference?

Ning Yi didn't have any better solution now, so he could only send people to other areas to collect food and transport it to Jiangdong.

However, if we want high-quality water, it must first be used to maintain the river embankment, and the rest of the people should try their best to build the river embankment and roads.

Ning Yi really wanted to ascend the throne right now, lead the army, and march south to wipe out all those evil spirits one by one. Those who were left were just a bunch of troublemakers.

I had just put down the brush I was writing to Gao Qingshui when I looked up and saw the little girl Rouer, still standing quietly at the door like a door god.

Isn’t it tiring to hold a rag in your hand?

Ning Yi casually asked, "Don't you want to go check on your father?"

In the entire hall, there were only him and the little girl Rouer at the door.

Rou'er seemed to have just come back to her senses, and she replied crisply, "Yesterday, Rou'er asked the housekeeper, who was going out of the house on business, to give father ten taels of silver."

"Hmm?" Ning Yi raised his head slightly: "I was the one who started giving you those things, and you actually gave them all?"

Rou'er suddenly knelt down, her voice crisp and frightened: "Your Highness, please forgive me. Rou'er, I just want to help my father..."