Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 135
Chongzhen was overjoyed after receiving the news that Sun Chuanting led the Qin army to gather and wipe out Gao Yingxiang's troops and achieved a great victory in Heishuiyu.

After the destruction of Gao Yingxiang's tribe, the only major thieves in Shaanxi are the Scorpion Kuai Tuoyangkun, Zhang Miaoshou, Li Zicheng and other tribes entrenched in northern Shaanxi, as well as Ma Jinzhong, Huntian King, and Renyi who are active in the west of Fengxiang Mansion. Wang et al.

Although Hong Chengchou did not achieve considerable results, the biggest benefit was to isolate the rogues in northern Shaanxi from the Central Plains, so that the rogues' character was not fully utilized, and Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong did not receive strong support.Coupled with Lu Xiangsheng's ability, the large-scale banditry that once corrupted the Central Plains in history did not appear.

However, Ma Jinzhong and others in the Fengxiang Mansion area did not have too much ambition, nor did they have a broader strategic vision. They had not considered raiding Hong Chengchou's tribe in northern Shaanxi from behind to relieve the pressure on Tuo Yangkun and others.

This is because although there are as many as 10 thieves, they lack a heroic hero who can respond to everyone, so the thieves basically fight on their own.

Although Gao Yingxiang gained a great reputation in the Central Plains, many bandit leaders in Henan led their troops to defect to him, but the thieves in Shaanxi did not buy him.There are only Li Zicheng and others who are close to him, and it is mainly because of the factors of the township party.Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng both belong to the Yan'an prefecture, although one is Ansai and the other is Suide, but one prefecture is considered to be very close to the township party.

Now Gao Yingxiang, who caused the court the most headache, has been arrested, and the remaining thieves are a mess, just look for opportunities to defeat them all.

This big victory is a powerful deterrent to the rogues in northern Shaanxi, because they know Gao Yingxiang's strength best.Now that there are more than [-] cavalry and nearly [-] elite infantrymen of the old battalion, and nearly [-] Chuang Wangs have all been wiped out, the remaining bandit chiefs should also weigh their own weight.

Now it is time to take advantage of the power of this great victory and use a two-pronged approach to suppress and appease the thieves.Forgive the thieves who intend to surrender, and resolutely attack the stubborn thieves, especially Li Zicheng's generation, they must not be let go, they must be killed.

Chongzhen thought about it for a long time, and after ordering the four treasures of the study to be prepared, he picked up a pen and began to write the imperial edict.

The Emperor Fengtian Chengyun issued an edict saying: I uphold the way of heaven, nurture all directions, and regard the soldiers and civilians of the world as my own children.Today there are many disasters, resulting in hunger and cold, those good people are trapped in ignorance, but they are coerced and bewitched by evil thieves, and they gather people to fight against the court.There are also corrupt officials and evil officials, who cause harm to the local area and make the people angry.Although I live in a deep palace, I know the details.Now Chuangni bowed his head, and his followers were scattered, only one or two of the northern Shaanxi thieves were left.I have already dispatched soldiers to carry on the remnant bravely to suppress them. At that time, everything will be destroyed, and I cannot bear it in my heart.Today, a decree is issued, and officials are dispatched to express the way of life.If there are those who repent and confess their sins, they will all be regarded as refugees, and the local officials will be asked to find out their place of origin one by one. , The heart of anti-side will disappear forever.The local officials should properly accommodate the people who have returned home, and I will also send the censors and those in brocade clothes to inspect all sides, and any officials who commit evil will be arrested and imprisoned immediately.This is it.

The thieves can't be killed. If you want to eliminate the thieves from the root, you must take care of the hearts of the people and the clarity of the government.This imperial decree not only expressed sympathy for ordinary thieves, but also showed that the imperial court would not allow the existence of evil officials who failed to succeed, and dispelled the people's fear of being retaliated by the government after returning home.

As for some Anjia silver, it is nothing compared to the millions of taels of silver used to suppress thieves every year. Chongzhen is really not bad at the moment.Successively copied Chengyi Bo, Shanxi Merchants, Xuanfu civil servants and military generals, Zhu Chunchen and Li Guozhen, etc., and got millions of cash, as well as various shops, materials and fields, plus the profits of the Four Seas Commercial Bank and the profits from selling salt. , It will be able to support various expenses in the next few years.

Of course, no one thinks too much money, right?Besides, it is not enough to have money now, but also to have food.You can’t have braised big ingots and steamed silver dumplings when you’re out of food, right?Can you bite?Could it be that your teeth are inlaid with drills?

Chongzhen estimated that Zheng Zhifeng in Beijing would definitely write a letter to tell his brother that Zheng Zhifeng, who was not optimistic about the traditional walls of the Ming court, had definitely changed his attitude now. One can see the clues.

A few days ago was Empress Yi'an's birthday.Empress Yi'an Zhang Yan, who has a calm personality and doesn't like extravagance, just had a simple meal to celebrate her birthday in the company of Chongzhen, Zhou Hou, Tian Guifei and others, and few people outside the palace know about it.Although Zheng Zhifeng has not been in Beijing for a long time, but he has money to open the way, so he has a very good relationship with the officials who hold real power in various key departments.He didn't know where he heard about it. The next day, Zheng Zhifeng donated 10 taels of silver to the imperial court on the grounds of celebrating Empress Yi'an's birthday, and asked the imperial court to exchange the silver taels for grain in the name of Empress Yi'an to help the poor in the capital. No one to rely on.

If the pirates acted so directly and straightforwardly, it stands to reason that doing so was against the rules, but they were not doing bad things.In Zheng Zhifeng's own words: I am a rough person, but I have the heart of a child.

Chongzhen, who got the news, could only accept Zheng Zhifeng's request dumbfounded.Although he was not allowed to see him, he still commended Zheng Zhifeng by word of mouth, and asked the Zheng family to continue to purchase large quantities of grain and send it to the capital, and the court would buy it with cash.Zheng Zhifeng patted her chest to assure that there was no problem. The affairs of the court were the affairs of the Zheng family, and she almost missed saying that the people of the court were the people of the Zheng family.

After finishing writing, Li Erxi took out the jade seal, turned around and ran out of the hall as soon as the ink was dry.While watching Chongzhen's writing, he knew the importance of this imperial decree to announce to the world, so he personally sent it to the Jinyiwei Yamen, urging Luo Yangxing to send someone to Shaanxi immediately.

Seeing the back of Li Erxi leaving in a hurry, Chongzhen nodded in satisfaction, this kid became more and more discerning, he stretched his arms and waist to soothe his body.

The reconstruction of the Beijing Camp was in full swing. With the support of Chongzhen, Xue Lian and Wei Shichun carried out drastic reforms to the Beijing Camp.The Beijing Camp, which has 20 people in name, actually has less than half of its soldiers, and tens of thousands of them are old and weak soldiers.

After careful selection, the Jingying retains a total of more than 3 combat troops, which is a little more than Chongzhen's expected 5000 people, and this is not a problem.The Beijing camp also took advantage of the trend to expand to 1 people.All personnel related to Zhu Chunchen and Li Guozhen in the Beijing camp were cleared and returned home. There were more than [-] old and weak people who were eliminated. Multiple people are a big problem.

Most of the old and weak soldiers spent their whole lives in the Beijing camp, with no personal skills and no food left in their families.Many people are old bachelors. If they are left alone, they will either become beggars sleeping on the streets or become one of the refugees, which will become a hidden danger to society.But how to accommodate so many people?Yang Sichang, the new minister of the Ministry of War, had no choice but to throw the problem to the cabinet.

All the members of the cabinet were not very clever, and after thinking for a long time, they had no choice but to hand over the problem to Chongzhen.You are the emperor, the people of Ming Dynasty are your people, you can't let your son starve to death, can you?

It doesn't matter to Chongzhen, in the former Huangzhuang that Liu Chao was in charge of, the young and strong have been mobilized to form several well-drilling teams, and those with strong ability will be selected as team leaders, and they will take their teams and disperse them to various states and counties in Shuntian Prefecture. Carry out well drilling operations, so that the labor force for farming in Huangzhuang will be greatly reduced.

Drilling a well is not something that can be done in a short period of time. In the age of relying entirely on manpower, it takes as little as a month to as many as several months to dig a deep well in the field.Suncheon Prefecture alone is enough for them to work, not to mention the prefectures and counties in the Gyeonggi area.

After the young and strong were taken away, the women of Huangzhuang became the main labor force in the fields.

They have to take care of the elderly and children at home, manage the fields, and do housework at home, so they don't have enough energy.What's more, there is also a workshop in Huangzhuang, which can get ready-made money every month, which is faster and more worry-free than handling the fields.

The women in the village who were originally in the workshop had to quit their jobs because they were too busy. Now the workshop is basically dominated by women from other places.This made many local women jealous and dissatisfied, but they couldn't have it both ways, and they could only watch their families go to the market to buy goods with a smile on their faces at the end of the month.

After Chongzhen recruited Liu Chaoyi, Liu Chao, who was worried about the lack of labor, immediately expressed his willingness to accept these eliminated soldiers.Huangzhuang was originally short of manpower, and now it can barely maintain it, but the hundreds of thousands of acres of land that Zhu Chunchen and Li Guozhen returned to Huangzhuang after being seized are too short of manpower.

Because of his outstanding achievements in managing Huangzhuang, Liu Chao has been promoted to the position of eunuch as the management supervisor of Huangzhuang. This eunuch is the leader of the fourth grade. Even if he enters the palace, he will be honored as father-in-law.

The energetic Mr. Liu is worried that the grain production in Huangzhuang will decrease this year, which is just right. Although there are more than 1 soldiers who have no combat effectiveness, at least they have developed the habit of obeying and obedient soldiers in the army, just to reclaim wasteland, serve pigs and sheep, and grow crops.

This time Sun Chuanting made a great contribution, but considering that although Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, has not made any meritorious service recently, he has been running around with a pitifully small army to fight fires for several years, Chongzhen did not raise Sun Chuanting's rank , I believe he can understand his painstaking efforts.

Because Sun Chuanting was originally the Minister of the Ministry of War, this time he will be promoted to the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, equal to Hong Chengchou.But after all, Sun Chuanting had only served as governor for more than a year, so promoting too quickly would easily cause unnecessary controversy, so we should wait until Shaanxi is completely pacified.At that time, Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng will be able to award the title of bachelor, and Sun Chuanting will not have much criticism for his promotion.

However, not rewarding meritorious deeds will chill the hearts of the heroes.Since meritorious service cannot be rewarded directly this time, let the Enyin family.

So Chongzhen wrote another imperial decree, specially bestowing Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng's mothers as second-rank wives, and their original spouses were both third-rank Shuren; specially bestowing Sun Chuanting's mother as second-rank wife, and their original spouses were fourth-rank Gongren, which is fair.If the other important ministers are dissatisfied, well, you go and replace the three of them and go to the front line to suppress the thieves, don't you dare?
Sun Chuanting achieved good results in farming and raising soldiers near Xi'an Prefecture, and the summer grain harvest in the ninth year of Chongzhen's ninth year was a bumper harvest.Due to the substantial reduction in tenant rent, after the court taxes were paid, the farmers' families basically had surplus food, which prevented the situation of joining bandits because of lack of food.

Chongzhen asked Sun Chuanting to quickly expand the successful experience to the entire Xi'an Prefecture this year.The talents displayed in it should be used boldly without sticking to one pattern, and don't have to stick to identity.Whether it is a talented scholar, or a scribe who is proficient in literature and ink but has rich experience in governing the local area, those who should be promoted should be promoted and those who should be reused.There is no need to worry about courtiers attacking and literati denouncing, everything is on the emperor's shoulders.

At this time, the Chief Envoy of Shaanxi Province was not as small as Shaanxi Province in later generations.The Shaanxi chief envoy includes the current territories of Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Gansu. The governor of Shaanxi is a veritable official of the frontier.

The area occupied by Xi'an Prefecture is also several times larger than that of later generations, and [-]% of the population of Shaanxi is concentrated.If the entire Xi'an Prefecture is governed well, it will serve as a good example for future prefectures and counties to farm and support the people.

Civil Affairs Sun Chuanting can let go, all he has to do is go north to cooperate with Hong Chengchou, and work together to wipe out the thieves in northern Shaanxi. Chongzhen clearly instructed in the letter to the two that the rest of the thieves can be surrendered, but Li Zicheng, the intruder, cannot be surrendered. If you die, you must see a corpse. Only a physically eliminated Li Zicheng is the best Li Zicheng.

　I'm sorry, I've become addicted to writing imperial decrees recently. This is not irrigation. It is a necessary means to be an emperor. How can I speak plain words all day long?It's not a brain-dead palace fighting drama, wearing a prince's costume hundreds of years ago, and speaking nonsensical words in the tone of the 21st century. Could it be that 14 billion people have collectively traveled back?That's right, I'm talking about North Korean TV dramas.

　　The one who was suppressed last time was Ma Shizhong, this is Ma Jinzhong, both belong to a certain sect in Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)