Daming kill

Chapter 266
On the first day of November in the 16th year of Chongzhen, Li Ping had just finished inspecting the shipyard under intense construction when he ran into Song Baolai who came to him to discuss matters.

Although it was only ten days since the main force of the infantry returned to Yuezhou triumphantly, and although Li Ping had already announced to everyone that Yuezhou was to be built as his hometown, the faces of the two people walking and chatting along the shore of Dongting Lake were completely different. There is no trace of the joy that a winner should have and the high spirits that are ready to show off.

Only endless troubles.

Zhang Xianzhong's weak water force successfully attacked Yan Ming's fleet and burned Nanjin Port. Before the attack, Hun Tianlong managed to let a large number of men sneak into the city and create chaos. Hun Tianlong quickly found and gathered thousands of soldiers scattered in many places and then returned The rapid development and growth to tens of thousands of people, etc., made Li Ping realize with worry that the poor in the entire southern part of Huguang had extensive and firm support for Zhang Xianzhong.

Moreover, this broad and firm support cannot be reversed in a short period of time by Li Ping's excellent military discipline and goodwill by releasing a large number of local ordinary prisoners of war.

Zhang Xianzhong's strategy of "searching rich houses, distributing wealth to help the poor, distributing millet to relieve hunger, exempting money and grain for 3 years" and "dividing fields and land" that Zhang Xianzhong started in Wuchang is very simple but the most effective. The killer weapon Li Ping couldn't learn, nor could he do it.

Although the food in Li Ping's hands is not too tight, it is not too much, especially now that he still has tens of thousands of mouths to manage. It is hard to say whether he can guarantee himself to feed himself before the next crop of food is planted and harvested.

And yesterday, Huang Shu sent the magistrate temporarily in charge of Yuezhou sent from Wuchang, which means that the large number of fields that Li Ping has not recovered from the civilians will return to the original land regardless of whether he died or not. Or where the gentry and dignified masters who ran away did not run away.

And this is bound to cause another turmoil in the hearts of the people.

What's more, Li Ping also needs land, and it is a very large amount of land, especially a large amount of fertile land. At the same time, he also needs a large number of houses to accommodate Song Baolai's huge security camp, which has far exceeded the size of the army.

It is impossible for Li Ping to let the security camps who are all living in the city give up the houses that have already occupied the magpie's nest, and it is impossible for the security camps to go to remote areas far away from the city to open up wasteland, farm, produce and build houses.

It is of course possible to coordinate and continue to seize some.

However, in a prefectural city like Yuezhou where there are a large number of local officials and the original powerful class and continue to occupy a dominant position, under the premise that Li Ping has not planned to rebel, there will not be many coordination and occupation, and it will definitely not be enough. need.

This is almost completely different from the situation in Fuchi.

Li Ping and Song Baolai were also very troubled by this. Now they have fully understood the meaning and necessity of violent revolution, and also understand that it is difficult to find a solution to both situations in class antagonism.

But so what?The problem is still not resolved!

Today, Song Baolai’s coming to find Li Ping is still the same thing. The site selection of various workshops and preparations for large-scale planting, including fixing everyone’s future residence, etc., can’t get around one core factor:
land!

The new magistrates who arrived yesterday have made the issue looming.

And it is conceivable that with the arrival of local officials and the further spread of news of Li Ping's victory in Baishui, a large number of gentry and dignitaries, including wealthy households, who had fled the war will also return to their homes.

The contradiction will be further expanded!
But Li Ping couldn't think of any good solution for the time being.

In particular, he still needs to focus his most energy on the military, on the possibility of fighting against Zhang Xianzhong, but it is still possible to counterattack again.

In recent days, another major event has occurred.

Zhao Jin defeated Zhang Qizai's troops who had marched into Jiangxi in Yuanzhou, beheaded Zhang Qizai, and sent his head to Wuchang.

This time Zhang Xianzhong only had two roads left, one north and one south.

Although they suffered heavy losses, according to the reconnaissance information they just received, Zhang Xianzhong, who had fled back to Changsha, was reassembling a large number of troops. His adopted son and second son Li Rujing, who was in Hengzhou Prefecture, had also led his subordinates to Changsha to join Zhang Xianzhong. The Xiangjiang River is full of boats.

In addition to this trip to the south, Li Ping's overly conservative use of the naval battalion allowed Zhang Xianzhong to take advantage of the loopholes. He was actually played a beach landing behind his back and almost stole his home.

This was a great shame and humiliation to Li Ping, a latecomer.

Therefore, trying to quickly control the too vast Dongting Lake has become one of Li Ping's current important tasks.

Eight hundred miles of Dongting Lake is not a joke. Even in the Qing Daoguang period, the water area of ​​Dongting Lake in the wet season was about 6000 square kilometers.

That's why Li Ping attached great importance to shipbuilding, and even came to see it if he was in a hurry.

But shipbuilding is not something that can be accomplished overnight!
Freshly cut wood cannot be used to build warships and even slightly larger transport ships, but needs to go through a series of processes such as drying and drying before it can be used, and this time is calculated in years.

At present, Li Ping can only dismantle the collected fishing boats and a small number of small sand boats brought to him by businessman Xu Keran, but even this most helpless method has many problems.

Except that Hun Tianlong burned many fishing boats and transport ships almost clean with a torch, resulting in a serious shortage of raw materials, the most fundamental thing is that the wood itself is not good.

Most of the wood used to build small sand boats, especially fishing boats, is very ordinary light wood, which is completely unsuitable for building large boats, and there is no guarantee of firmness and durability.

This also caused the conversation between Li Ping and Song Baolai to become more and more angry.

"Have you thought about the matter with Qian Ying?" Li Ping decided to say something happy to change his mood.

Now Song Baolai brings Qian Ying with him for almost everything, and often only takes her with him, even a fool knows that there is a situation between the two of them.What's more, Zhao Lanyue, who likes to hear gossip, will not let go of the big news that the relationship between the two suddenly began to heat up sharply and qualitatively.

"Think about it. She's not like any other woman I've seen here, or any woman I've ever had access to.

Qian Ying is not only beautiful, but also gentle, virtuous, caring and intelligent.The key is that she still worships me, sincerely worships me.I like her and love being taken care of by her. "Song Baolai said that Qian Ying's eyes immediately began to shine, and his expression was full of sweetness.

"She's not bad, you picked up a treasure." Li Ping sincerely wished.

But Song Baolai suddenly twisted his head, looked at Li Ping meaningfully and said, "Didn't Zhao Lanyue tell you that I picked up a treasure? I've always been curious about what happened to you two? It's so unexpected! Don't you You know, my jaw almost dropped in shock."

Some things don't need to be announced, especially feelings. Once a substantial change occurs, it will be very different immediately, and it will be difficult to cover up.

Of course, the key point is that Li Ping and Zhao Lanyue didn't want to hide it anymore.

Although he had a premonition, Song Baolai was still extremely shocked when he found out that Li Ping and Zhao Lanyue were together without any shyness.
"It's nothing. Just like you, we are interested in each other, so we are together." Li Ping said with a smile.

"Very good, now Zhao Lanyue is finally able to be subdued by someone, haha." Song Baolai suddenly laughed.

Song Baolai cautiously didn't mention Gao Lei, and Li Ping naturally wouldn't mention it either, so the two of them could only have fun and joke with each other.

Seeing the two people in front suddenly laughing and poking each other back and forth, Qian Ying, who followed not far behind and heard her name being said, lowered her head in embarrassment.

In fact, she's been pretty awkward along the way.

Because walking side by side with her was Zhang Qing, the commander of Li Ping's guard battalion.

The Guard Battalion is a newly formed force after Li Ping returned to Yuezhou. It is responsible for the security work of core figures such as him and Song Baolai. All members have been strictly selected, especially loyal and reliable.

This is also a major adjustment made by Li Ping to the security work.

Of course, the ranks of officers and soldiers of the guard battalion are all higher than those of ordinary troops, that is, they have high ranks and low assignments.

"Officer Song is a nice person. We can rest assured that you follow him. After all these years of hard work, you should be loved by a man. Don't worry, no one will say anything wrong with you." Zhang Qing finally decided to say something.

He felt that if he continued to remain silent, he would put more pressure on the woman beside him.

And these words are also his sincerity.

Years of living in the open frontier fortress made Zhang Qing open to many things and mature in thinking.

It was like he had heard the name Huang Shu again for the first time in the past few days, and he had confirmed that this Huang Shu was the original official from Kaifeng Mansion, who he thought was the culprit who dug up the Yellow River and caused his mother's tragic death.

Although Zhang Qing wanted to run to kill him immediately, he still held back.

He knew that now was not the time to kill Huang Shu, and he also knew that he could not just seek his own pleasure and cause trouble for Li Ping and his many brothers.

"He promised to marry me, and he doesn't mind if I'm a few years older than him." Qian Ying lowered her head in a mosquito-like voice, probably worried that Zhang Qing might misunderstand her as a frivolous woman.

Zhang Qing first expressed his kindness with a nod, and then solemnly said: "Sister-in-law, this is the last time I call you that. I sincerely hope you are happy, and I believe Xiaoying thinks so too. And I also believe that Chief Song will marry you You, it doesn't matter if you are a wife or a concubine, as long as you are happy."

Qian Ying blushed and glanced at Zhang Qing, then lowered her head and whispered, "Thank you!"

When Li Ping returned to his residence at night, Zhao Lanyue was waiting for him, and then he cooked for him and made his favorite noodles.

Since that day, the relationship between the two has grown by leaps and bounds, and Zhao Lanyue has to squeeze time to run to Li Ping almost every day.

In the middle, Zhao Lanyue also watched Gao Lei's reaction for two days, but after Gao Lei simply said a word of blessing, she continued to ignore the wounded soldiers every day, and continued to avoid meeting Li Ping.

Zhao Lanyue knew that although Gao Lei hadn't given up completely, she was determined to give up.

So she let go.

When Li Ping sighed and was stuttering, Zhao Lanyue looked at Li Ping with her chin in her hands and asked, "What are you going to do with that Yang Ming?"

After Li Ping beheaded Huntian Long, Yang Ming quickly passed on Shi Ming's news, and argued that he was late because he wanted to find out more details.

But because Yang Ming himself continued to stay in Wuchang, he did not come to Yuezhou to make a statement in person, and the so-called more details only explained the reason for the sudden increase in banditry in Anqing Mansion.

Zhang Xianzhong's rapid defeat in the area north of the Yangtze River in Huguang and the sudden increase in the government's power in this area forced a large number of Zhang Xianzhong's defeated troops and local bandits who had no time to retreat to the south of the Yangtze River to flee to the Yinghuo Mountains to meet the government's weak strength again. Fleeing in the fringe areas of South Zhili.

Taihu County, which is rich in mountains and rivers and popular among the people, was once the main gathering place for these defeated army and local bandits.

This is also the main reason why Wu Xueli, who initially had five thousand soldiers, went to suppress and failed.

However, Shi Ming's strong presence in Taihu County and his brutal killing policy made it impossible for these defeated local bandits to stay any longer, so they had no choice but to continue fleeing northward.

And in order to survive, they also teamed up with a large number of defeated bandits and rioters who had to run away in Taihu Lake to hold a group together.

These are the important reasons why the banditry in Anqing Mansion suddenly increased and even became critical.

Yang Ming's defense was very pale, and Li Ping was not stupid, so of course he couldn't believe it.

But he didn't say anything.

Moreover, Li Ping already roughly understood why Shi Ming did this, and Zhao Lanyue explained it very clearly.

In Zhao Lanyue's eyes, Shi Ming is an ambitious person who is unwilling to be subordinated to others.

One of the important reasons why Shi Ming appointed a financial director in his kind of company was to make the company more formal and have greater development.

The hiring of Zhao Lanyue even relied heavily on her university brand and professional ability. Zhao Lanyue actually got the position after going through a rigorous recruitment competition.

As for how Zhao Lanyue got that kind of job at such a young age?The main reason is that Shi Ming's company can't recruit real industry leaders with both academic qualifications and rich experience. Of course, there are also factors of Shi Ming's good face.

Shi Ming needs Zhao Lanyue to take on a considerable part of the secretarial work, and serve as his appearance and show off to the outside world.

Similarly, only Zhao Lanyue, who needs money, can bear these.

Zhao Lanyue believes that based on her understanding of Shi Ming, it is unlikely that Shi Ming took such a big taboo to seek refuge with Governor Lu Daqi, and there must be other stronger backers.

Li Ping also agrees with this point of view.

"I haven't made up my mind yet, let's just ignore him for now. Since we can't find someone more suitable than Yang Ming, we can only continue to use him. And ignoring him is also a sign of our warning and attitude. "Li Ping said after thinking about it.

"Alright."

Seeing that Li Ping had carefully considered her reminder, Zhao Lanyue didn't say any more, so she just continued to smile and watch Li Ping eat.

The next day, as soon as Li Ping got up in a daze, Ma Yong rushed to look for him.

He had just received a reconnaissance report that Zhang Xianzhong's fleet suddenly entered Dongting Lake from the Xiangjiang River, and then Zhang Xianzhong's entire army that was still assembled also advanced westward along Dongting Lake by land and water.

At the same time, Huang Chengdong also sent them a secret letter with only two words.

Sichuan!

(End of this chapter)