Yes, Madam Prime Minister

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"Let's not talk about that anymore. What are we doing this afternoon after we finish eating?" Canaan changed the subject. They were out having fun, and she didn't want to bring up any political topics.

Guo Hanlu said, "Didn't we say we were going to play cards?"

“This is good.” Canaan’s eyes lit up.

She is quite good at playing cards.

“Whoever wins more gets more time at night,” Agustina added.

"Huh?" Guo Hanlu was initially surprised and disappointed, but then she felt it was good. "That's pretty good." The reason she felt it was good was that once she had an orgasm, she would become like that, and she really didn't want others to see her like that.

Agustina leaned gently against Guo Hanlu, "Don't worry, experts play with experts, novices play with novices, and if all else fails, we just gamble on luck."

"I'm fine with anything," Lu Jianling said. It wasn't that she didn't want it, but she wasn't that eager.

As we chatted, the dishes were almost ready.

"Come on, come on, let's eat! Quickly try my cooking!" Ronan called out from a short distance away.

Chapter 1069 The Little Ice Age, the Great Chaos, and Five Years in the Blink of an Eye

In 1614, the weather in the east was as abnormal as the previous year, and it was foreseeable that the harvest of grain crops next year would not be very good.

This was the Little Ice Age.

If it's the same as Ronan's original timeline, then this is just the beginning.

In the original timeline of Luonan, the climate began to deteriorate starting with Emperor Daojun of the Ming Dynasty, reaching its peak during the reign of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. Yes, the coldest time was not during the time of the one who hanged himself, but during the reign of Kangxi. It was not until the time of the Ten-Complete Old Man that the weather truly warmed up.

The cold and drought in the north lasted for more than a hundred years.

While raiding for hay, the Northwest Army also introduced rye from the Rus' Empire and planted it on a large scale. They also introduced the Western three-crop rotation agricultural model to the semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral areas and purchased high-quality seeds of potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn from seed companies in Guangdong at high prices.

Moreover, a large number of pro-farmer policies were introduced, further suppressing local landlords.

It sounds fantastical, but it's actually quite normal.

In the original timeline of Luonan, during the early stages of the formation of the separatist regime at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the various military governors were restless. However, after the Huang Chao Rebellion, when the separatist regime truly took shape, while the various military governors were engaged in aggressive military campaigns, they also began to "strike at the local tyrants and distribute land," emphasizing agriculture and sericulture and reducing the burden on farmers. This was especially true of Zhu Quanzhong, who was initially wise but later became a madman.

It's a very simple principle: the territory belongs to you.

And the same is true in this world and in this era.

Moreover, it's fine that mortals are like cattle and horses, but mortals are also the foundation for the birth of extraordinary beings. When it is realized that the world cannot be unified again in a short period of time, then the next generation must be considered. If the population decreases significantly, it means that the number of extraordinary beings in the next generation will decrease significantly.

It is detrimental to the country, and even more so to the interests of their own groups.

On the other hand, the same applies to the new court formed by the alliance of powerful families in the Central Plains and the Jiangnan region.

While raiding and killing, he also tried to treat the people under his rule well.

It's magical, but it's also real.

As I said before, the land wasn't my own in the past. I was just a visiting official, or a local tyrant who might explode any day now. But now everything is mine, so it's different.

Meanwhile, the Gongjinhui (Communist Progressive Association) has long been engaged in vigorous development.

1615.

In central Hunan, people began to surrender to the Gongjinhui (Revolutionary Alliance) like a snowball, not because of force, but because they were deeply attracted by the Gongjinhui's peasant associations. The peasant associations did not "seize the land from the landlords and distribute it to the peasants," but simply turned the land into a common asset. The peasants had the right to use it forever, the landlords had the right to manage it, and the state and the peasant associations jointly owned the land.

Undoubtedly, under the farmers' association system, the nouveau riche could retain their wealth for longer, and the intensity of competition between them would be greatly reduced.

As the saying goes, the capitalist's opponent is another capitalist. In the past, a nouveau riche who successfully colluded with the government could easily eliminate another nouveau riche.

Often, it doesn't even reach the third generation.

Under the peasant association system, the local tyrants were stripped of their direct political power and could no longer expand wildly, but the succession was more stable, and they still had indirect political power.

Isn't it good too?

The people in Jiangnan called themselves aristocratic families, but people from other places just laughed at them at the time, because they all rose to power at the end of the previous dynasty. The current dynasty is not even two hundred years old, and their main lineage and branches have actually risen and fallen several times. The only difference is that the surname of the head of the family has not changed.

In other places, so-called powerful families may not even last until the third generation.

Seris, that's how curly he is.

Therefore, the people of central Hunan, who were inclined towards the farmers' association and the labor union, completely surrendered and were incorporated into the Gongjinhui (Progressive Association).

1616.

The entire Hunan province was brought under the influence of the Gongjinhui.

By this time, the Gongjinhui had expanded to Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, and western Fujian.

The population under the rule of the Gongjin Society was finally half that of the imperial court and Jiangnan.

In 1617, after two years of peace, war broke out again.

The Central Plains court dispatched troops from Nanyang, advancing towards Xiangyang. The Jiangnan court dispatched troops from Nanchang, Jiangxi, aiming for Wuhan. Meanwhile, the Gongjin Society set out from Changde, Hunan, with the goal of capturing Jiangling, which is Jingzhou in Luo Nan's original timeline.

These three places are all important nodes on the Han River.

The war ended in 1618.

This time, faced with an attack from three sides, Hubei was completely powerless to fight back and surrendered.

Like the three warlords at the end of the Han Dynasty, the imperial court, Jiangnan, and the Gongjin Society each occupied a part of Hubei. The imperial court, like the Wei Kingdom, occupied the north; the Gongjin Society, like the Shu Kingdom, occupied the south; and Jiangnan, like the Wu Kingdom, occupied the west.

Moreover, the imperial court and the territory of Jiangnan are quite similar to those of Wei and Wu, except that the Gongjin Society is completely different from that of Shu.

In the same year, the Northwest Army Corps seemed to be silent, but in fact it encountered a big problem.

Reverse hay buffing is not without its side effects.

This not only aroused the hostility of the grassland people, but more importantly, it triggered the merger of tribes. After several large tribes swallowed up the small tribes, several even larger tribes were formed.

In these bad times, the Northwest Army not only didn't help them, but also tried to rob and kill them. What did they care? They fought them.

The grassland people have long since stopped practicing archery and horsemanship. They are now mounted infantrymen with muskets, each with three horses: one to carry equipment, one for transportation, and one for short sprints. They split into several groups and head south to plunder.

Siege warfare is impractical. There aren't enough large-caliber heavy artillery pieces, and even if there were, they wouldn't be convenient to carry. Moreover, there aren't enough superhumans to form a tactical vanguard to break through the enemy's defenses.

But harassment and robbery are more than enough.

The Northwest Army Corps was busy putting out fires everywhere, and in the meantime, it gathered its forces to prepare to wipe out the lair of these stinking shepherds.

In 1619, the imperial court, the Jiangnan region, and the Gongjin Society engaged in repeated battles for control of Hubei.

Meanwhile, the imperial court was also fighting in the Jianghuai region against the Jiangnan region, while the Jiangnan region was also continuously fighting against the Gongjinhui in central Jiangxi.

All three sides are engaged in continuous two-front warfare.

During the war, the army of the Gongjinhui grew stronger and stronger, not only in terms of equipment but also in terms of the quality of its personnel.

Of course, the military equipment of the imperial court and Jiangnan was also getting stronger and stronger.

War is the simplest and most brutal form of communication. Once a weapon or tactic has thoroughly defeated the opponent, it is impossible to expect the opponent to be foolish enough not to learn from it.

However, the imperial court is weakening.

Initially, the imperial court's soldiers and generals were the most professional, while Jiangnan and the Gongjin Society lacked sufficiently professional generals, and their soldiers included a large number of new recruits.

Now, in the war, young generals are rapidly rising to prominence, and new recruits are becoming veterans, while the imperial court is making little progress in this regard.

The Gongjinhui also has an advantage that the other two parties do not have.

The Gongjinhui could also go to Sichuan.

The imperial court wanted to take Sichuan, but unless the Northwest Army was willing to lend it to them, and even then, they would have to go from the north, which was simply unrealistic. As for Jiangnan, it was even more out of reach unless they crossed the territory of the Gongjinhui.

But the Gongjinhui is much easier to deal with. In recent years, the military strength of the imperial court, Jiangnan, and the Gongjinhui has been improving rapidly, but Sichuan is still the same as before. It looks good and has a large number of troops, but it has never fought a war.

Ronan didn't take those tens of thousands of people in Sichuan seriously at all.

Moreover, they have been infiltrating for years.

Chapter 1070 Reappearance of "Jingzhou in the Three Kingdoms" - Henan Holds the Line, Western Intervention

In 1620, David marked the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom.

In eastern Sichuan, Sichuan fought a battle with the Gongjinhui (a secret society), lost, and subsequently surrendered.

The Gongjinhui acquired Sichuan.

Once Sichuan surrendered, Guizhou followed suit.

Then, Yunnan also surrendered.

Although they all surrendered, the Gongjinhui was temporarily unable to control the three southwestern provinces. The other side remained in a semi-independent state because the Gongjinhui could not station troops there. Its main forces were still concentrated in Hubei and Jiangxi.

However, commercial cooperation with the three southwestern provinces has been further strengthened, and the resources of the three southwestern provinces can be utilized to a certain extent.

The Gongjinhui's strength has been further enhanced, or rather, its ability to replenish its resources has become stronger.

By this point, in terms of the population under their control, the Gongjin Society was no less powerful than the imperial court and Jiangnan.

1621.

The Northwest Army finally quelled the rebellion in the northern grasslands, but suffered heavy losses and was unable to fight again for a short time, so it could only retreat to the interior.

If it were several years ago, the imperial court would certainly have seized the opportunity to take Guanzhong, resolve the Northwest Army conflict, greatly expand its power, dominate the entire north, and use overwhelming superiority to launch a northern expedition against the south, thus reviving the Wei dynasty.

But now it's impossible. The imperial army is also tied up. If it moves, either Hubei will be in trouble or the Jianghuai defense line will fall. There are no more troops to send to conquer Guanzhong.

Fortunately, the Henan in this world is not the Henan in Ronan's original timeline, otherwise it would have collapsed.

In Ronan's original timeline, there was the evil regime of the Song Dynasty that committed atrocities.

The devastating impact of the Song dynasty on China far exceeded that of the Jin dynasty, which led to the Five Barbarian Invasions, and even surpassed that of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, which plunged China into chaos, and the Qing dynasty, which exercised extreme rule and ignorance over the Chinese people.

The detrimental effect wasn't just the loss of Yan and Yun during the Song Dynasty's defeat, but also the Song Dynasty's three changes of the Yellow River, which ruined Henan, the heartland of China, and even turned the Jianghuai region into a poor area.

Later, the Mongol Yuan dynasty messed up the Yellow River again, and it was that incident that created the person who started with just a bowl.

By the early Ming Dynasty, Henan had only two million people, including immigrants who had moved there. Can you believe it?

The land south of Seris in this world is still quite wealthy.

However, the long-term sustainability of the war is also becoming unsustainable.

The consumption of military resources in the era of firearms and cannons was incomparable to that of the era of cold weapons.

Putting aside everything else, even ordinary soldiers who use muskets need to be well-fed and paid, and they also need to receive pensions. Soldiers who are only half-full and don't receive their pay can endure training and charge forward under enemy bullets and shells.

Extraordinary soldiers, and the mid-level extraordinary individuals recruited to assist them, are even more expensive. Extraordinary soldiers cost at least fifty taels a year, excluding weapons, food, rewards, and pensions; their salaries alone are equivalent to the annual expenses of five families. Mid-level extraordinary individuals are not something that can be bought with money; they demand certain privileges, such as salt permits, iron ore certificates, and river management licenses.

1621.

The Gongjin Society risked sending Sichuan and Guizhou troops to take over the defense of Jingnan and launch a full-scale attack on Jiangxi, while the navy was deployed to contain the forces in Jiangnan from the rear.

While severely damaging the Jiangnan corps in Jiangxi, Jiangling also fell.

The Sichuan and Guizhou troops were unable to stop the imperial army from advancing south along the Han River.

Some retreated to Hunan, while others fought a guerrilla war while retreating, thus delaying the imperial army's advance.

At the same time, the Gongjinhui and the Jiangnan side quickly reached a peace agreement, with the Gongjinhui withdrawing from Jiangxi and not occupying a single city or place.

Soon, a major battle broke out between the Jiangnan region and the imperial court in Hubei.

The imperial court, which intended to occupy the entire Hubei province, was defeated and retreated to Xiangyang. Jiangnan was originally prepared to completely occupy southern Hubei, but unfortunately, the Gongjin Society returned and recaptured Jiangling.

The situation has returned to what it was at the beginning of the war.

All three sides suffered losses in this battle.

Overall, the Gongjinhui suffered relatively small losses, while the other two parties suffered significant losses.

1622.

If we switch back to the original timeline of Ronan, the tumultuous late Ming Dynasty is about to begin.

The Northwest Army Corps had tried its best, but unfortunately, the heavens were blind and the harvest was still poor. And the Northwest Army Corps couldn't just fire its soldiers.

Not only can the soldiers not be discharged, but they also have to invest huge sums of money in military equipment.

A poor harvest leads to rising grain prices, which in turn hurts all industries.

The Northwest Army Corps must launch an attack; otherwise, internal rebellions will break out.

The Northwest Army, together with the tribes that had been previously defeated, marched into Shanxi. This time, the Northwest Army itself also mobilized.

At this point, the imperial court faced the threat of being attacked from three sides, struggled to maintain its position, and was forced to withdraw from Hubei and retreat to its defensive line.

1623.

The Gongjinhui (Community for the Progress of the Union) was merely consolidating its defenses; its focus was on reform and development.