The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 370 Crucial
Zhending famine, severe wind and haze in Zhejiang, severe wind and haze in South Zhili, flood and famine in western Zhejiang.

Nan'an earthquake, Hui'an earthquake, Tong'an earthquake, locust plague in Beijing.

In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, the Ming Dynasty was in turmoil, and everything you could see was dilapidated.

The border troubles in Liaodong are tense, and the rogue bandits in the mainland are gaining momentum again.

Ten thousand soldiers marched into southern Zhili and besieged Xuzhou, shocking both the government and the public.

Yang Wenyue also received reprimand from Chongzhen.

As an important town in the northern part of South Zhili, Xuzhou cannot afford to lose anything.

Yang Wenyue could explain the fall of Guide Mansion by using the excuse that he was still on the march and lack of time.

But now Xuzhou is just around the corner. If Xuzhou falls, the black veil on Yang Wenyue's head will not be saved no matter what, and he will always be nailed to the pillar of shame in history.

Yang Wenyue has been ups and downs in the officialdom for many years and naturally knows it.

After experiencing the defeat in the first battle of Fangcunji, Yang Wenyue issued an order to recruit soldiers and horses from various towns in Shandong to come in for reinforcements.

And now Hou Xun has also entered Fengyang, the central capital.

Zuo Liangyu chased Zhang Xianzhong all the way east, toward Wuchang Park.

To the east of Wuchang is the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo, which is now so powerful that it has won successive battles.

All things have pointed to South Zhili.

A storm that can affect the entire South Zhili, even the South China, and even the whole of China is gathering momentum in South Zhili.

Historically, this storm occurred in Henan.

But now the civil uprising in Henan has been temporarily suppressed because of Chen Wang, and is gradually becoming stable.

The center of the storm has become Nanzhili.

The siege of Xiangyang is still going on. Xiangyang, an important town on the Han River, gives Chen Wang enough reasons to stay in Xiangyang.

Zigai Mountain, Hanzhong Army Camp, Chinese Army Watchtower.

Chen Wang sat under his commanding officer and looked at the document in his hand.

This letter is a document just sent from Hanzhong Mansion.

"The drought in Hanzhong Prefecture is severe, and the rainfall is half less than last year. When I left Hanzhong, the water level of the Han River had already dropped very seriously."

Chen Gong stood near, his expression solemn and his brows furrowed, reporting to Chen Wang the situation in Hanzhong Mansion.

Since the early years of Chongzhen, natural disasters have continued to occur in various places, becoming more frequent, more serious, and farther south every year.

The drought locust disaster first affected Shaanxi and then gradually expanded.

Drought locust disasters have also begun to occur in Shanxi, Beizhili, Shandong and other places.

Later, Henan, Huguang, and even southern Zhili were affected, and Hanzhong Prefecture was also affected by the famine.

"With the water conservancy projects built before and the deep wells dug, there is no problem in ensuring the livelihood of soldiers and civilians in various health stations, but this year's harvest may be very poor."

The current situation in Hanzhong Mansion is not good. Some smaller tributaries of the Han River have even been cut off. Only the land on both sides of the Han River has been less affected.

Chen Gong looked at Chen Wang and admired Chen Wang's foresight even more.

At first, Chen Wang had people go to various places to build water conservancy projects, collect water and dig wells, which cost a lot of money. He still felt that it was a waste of money.

But now it seems that if Chen Wang hadn't persisted, this drought would have caused a serious disaster in Hanzhong Mansion.

Chen Wang put down the documents in his hands. The investment of more than 200,000 taels of silver finally paid off.

As long as we survived the thirteen-year drought in Chongzhen.

In the next hundred years, Hanzhong Prefecture will no longer be troubled by drought, and will only be threatened by floods in the future.

But now there are so many water conservancy projects in Hanzhong Prefecture that flooding is impossible.

In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the number of acres controlled by Chen Wang in Hanzhong Prefecture had reached more than 1,800 hectares, not counting the acres controlled by Qianhu in Mian County and Xing'an.

Of course, these acres are not all under the name of the health center.

Most of the acres are either hidden fields or occupied under other names, and there is basically no need to pay taxes.

In addition to various industries in Hanzhong Prefecture, such as mines, woodlands, lakes, etc.

By the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Hanzhong Mansion alone could support all the soldiers and horses under Chen Wang's command.

"This year's famine has been severe and has spread widely. According to reports from the Supervision Office, severe drought has occurred in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan and other places, and it has also been accompanied by extremely serious locust disasters."

"The famine in Shaanxi is the most serious. There is no grain and rice for sale on the market. The war situation in Shaanxi seems to have been affected..."

Historically, the two years when the power of the Ming Dynasty took a turn for the worse was the thirteenth and fourteenth years of Chongzhen.

The drought reached its peak in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen.

A severe drought in Henan has spread throughout the province. All grasses have dried up. The water in Luo River is not deep enough to fill a foot. All vegetation, trees, animal skins, insects and flies have been eaten up. Many people have died of hunger, and the land has been desolate.

There has been a severe drought in Shandong for consecutive years, and there is a great famine in the world. People are eating each other, and thieves are destroying the cities.

Drought locusts in Jiaxing and Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and drought in Zhuji.

There are even tragedies of cannibalism occurring in large dry areas of Gansu.

Shaanxi, as a disaster area for a long time, has been more severely affected than other places.

After eating all the veneer and stone noodles, the father and son cut each other apart, and nine out of ten died...

This is the description of Shaanxi during the 13th year of Chongzhen.

"The war situation in Shaanxi?"

Chen Wang's eyes moved slightly. He had never paid attention to the battle situation in Shaanxi. ,

"Tell me about the situation."

Chen Wang only remembered that Li Zicheng was chased all the way to Lintao Mansion by Zheng Chongjian.

Zheng Chongjian led Shaanxi's troops into the suppression campaign for a long time, but achieved little, and spent most of the time in a stalemate.

"The new chieftain of the Songpan Weiqiang people seems to have become the chieftain because of Li Zicheng's help."

"After Li Zicheng formed an alliance with the Qiang tribe in northern Sichuan, he united the Qiang troops to march into Qinghai."

"When Li Zicheng came out of Qinghai again, the Mongolian tribes in Qinghai also joined Li Zicheng's command."

"Tangbao from Shaanxi described that Li Zicheng now has as many as 50,000 soldiers, all of whom are cavalry. They come and go freely and are difficult to control. Therefore, several campaigns ended in failure. In fact, the western part of Lintao Prefecture has been abandoned."

Shaanxi's suppression campaign was in complete disarray. All the soldiers and horses that entered the suppression campaign had withdrawn, and only important checkpoints were fortified to prevent Li Zicheng's troops from marching eastward.

"Qiang people, Mongolia..."

Chen Wang looked solemn. Chen Wang was not surprised that Li Zicheng and the Qiang tribe could unite.

When he was in northern Sichuan, Li Zicheng went north to escape pursuit, gained the trust of the Qiang people through trade, and later recruited a group of Qiang cavalry.

Later, the old chieftain of the various Qiang tribes in Songpan Wei died of illness, and various tribes in the Wei Dynasty fought endlessly for the successor.

At that time, the various ministries that sent the order to suppress the troops only sent a small number of local soldiers to fight. It can only be said that Li Zicheng seized the opportunity and supported one of them to rise to power at this time, using it as a bargaining chip in exchange for the support of the Qiang people.

Although the support of the Qiang people strengthened Li Zicheng's power, it was not enough to give Li Zicheng a chance to cross Longmen.

However, the support of the Mongolian tribes in Qinghai was enough to increase Li Zicheng's power to a higher level.

The changes in the offense and defense of the Shaanxi Suppression Bureau confirm this point.

"Qinghai Mongolia..."

Chen Wang frowned. He originally thought that Li Zicheng would have difficulty persisting.

After all, Chen Wang knows the situation of Shaanxi in history only too well.

Shaanxi has been hit by disasters for many years, and many places have empty houses. Li Zicheng's being trapped in Shaanxi is actually the same as waiting for death.

But Li Zicheng actually found a way to survive in the midst of death.

The Mongolia conquered by the Qing Dynasty were actually only the Mongolian tribes in southern Mongolia.

Since the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolia has actually been in a state of division.

In the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign, Lin Dan Khan marched into Qinghai, hoping to go to Tibet and form an alliance with Chaoketu Taiji, Zangba Khan in Tibet, and Baili Chieftain Yuedun Dorji in Kham.

Because they do not believe in Yellow Religion, they are called the "Anti-Yellow Religion Alliance".

Lin Dan Khan tried to use this alliance to make a comeback and ordered the Mongolian tribes to continue fighting against the Houjin Dynasty at that time.

Unfortunately, Lin Danhan did not reach Qinghai and was infected with smallpox on the way. He died in a foreign land in August of the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign at the Great Grass Beach of Xilatala.

Later, Monan Mongolia, which lost its Great Khan, was annexed by Hou Jin Dynasty. Huang Taiji relied on the jade seal in the hands of Lin Dan Khan to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor and establish the Qing Dynasty.

The leader of Qinghai Mongolia at this time should be called Borjijin Tulubaihu.

Many people may have never heard of this name, but many people know his other title - Gushi Khan.

Gushi Khan was the leader of the Oirat Mongolian Heshuote tribe and the founder of the Heshuote Khanate.

He led the tribes under his command to conquer the north and south, established the Heshuote Khanate, and occupied the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Chen Wang remembered that it was this year that Gushi Khan attacked Baili Chieftain in Kham District. The following year he raised troops to enter Houzang, eliminated the Zangba Khan regime of the Kadam sect, and took possession of all Tibet.

Li Zicheng now actually has a relationship with Gushi Khan and gets support.

Chen Wang looked solemn, because the impact of the appearance of his butterfly was far beyond his original expectations.

The consecutive battles and victories in Tibet and Qinghai probably ignited Gushi Khan's ambition.

The decline of the Ming Dynasty gave Gushi Khan a different thought.

The reason why Gushi Khan supported Li Zicheng was probably because he wanted Li Zicheng to serve as a pawn to open the way into China.

"The annual funding for the Supervision Office will be increased by another 30,000 taels, allowing Hu Zhili to continue to expand the Supervision Office and expand the scope of supervision."

The current situation is that there are still traces of Songjin, but other places and things have long been changed beyond recognition.

Chen Wang's advantage as a historical prophet is becoming less and less, and now it is even close to disappearing completely.

This moment is when different information from the outside world is most needed.

The more information you know, the more you can correctly understand the current situation and make the most correct decision.

"The changes in Shaanxi will not affect us here for the time being, but we must take precautions in advance."

Chen Wang moved the document away a little, glanced at the map on the desk in front of him, and asked.

"How is the repair status of the checkpoints in Hanzhong Mansion?"

"The checkpoints in the mansion have been repaired, and all the checkpoint walls have been raised uniformly. The renovated checkpoint walls use the same fortifications as the bastion. The soldiers and horses guarding the checkpoints are all direct descendants of the arrangement. Don't worry, brother."

Chen Wang nodded. As the basic base of Hanzhong Mansion, he naturally attached great importance to it.

Since the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign, checkpoints have been set up in various places, and bastions have also been built in many strategic locations.

These bastions have a large amount of food and grass stored in them. As a fulcrum, they can help control the entire Hanzhong Mansion.

"The military expansion in Hanzhong Mansion has almost been completed."

Chen Gong took out another document and placed it on the desk.

"There are two thousand-household guard stations in Mioxian County and Xing'an, and there are five thousand-household guard stations under Hanzhong Guard. Now there are nearly 40,000 military households, including 9,000 regular soldiers."

Naturally, the actual number of people in the Hanzhong Prefecture's internal health center cannot be reported.

The actual number of regular soldiers and military households is completely far higher than that of guards in other places.

At this time in the late Ming Dynasty, it was no different from a fantasy that the guards could be fully staffed, let alone surpassed.

Nowadays, the biggest reason why there are so many military households in the internal guard of Hanzhong Mansion is because the world is too chaotic.

In the 12th year of Chongzhen, Hanzhong Prefecture was affected by drought, and many people went bankrupt and left their homes.

So Wang Yuankang took the opportunity to expand the guard base and hook the refugees into the guard army.

If you can have a full meal in times of famine, how can you care about other things?

So even if they know that they want to be a military household, many people can't take care of that much.

In addition to the bankrupt people in Hanzhong Mansion, many refugees who fled from Henan and Yunyang were also gathered into the guardhouse.

Because of the large number of people, naturally not all of them can be given official military status.

So Wang Yuankang came up with a way to record it in two volumes, Yin and Yang.

The Yang Register is the military register placed under the sun and must be reported to the Dusi and the imperial court.

The Yin Book is within the Hanzhong Guard and is not known to the imperial court and the capital.

The extra common people who were absorbed into the guardhouse also had military status, but the military status was only recorded in the Yin register, and there was no such person in the Yang register.

"As for the battalions, each battalion has expanded its recruitment by half, using the name of auxiliary troops. They are trained in fortresses in various places. It is claimed to be more than 2,000 people, but in fact, the recruitment of 5,000 people has been expanded in total, and it has been completed some time ago. Basic training.”

Chen Wang took the document handed over by Chen Gong.

The number of troops in Hanzhong was 13,400, which had been fully recruited for a long time. At the beginning, there were almost 14,000 people.

"With the addition of the 5,000 newly recruited soldiers and the 9,000 regular troops from the garrison, the total number of troops under our town has now exceeded 30,000."

"If we include the 12,000 soldiers of the Sixth Battalion of Huguang and the 3,000 soldiers of the Yunyang Prefecture, we already have more than 40,000 soldiers and horses under our command."

Chen Gong stepped forward a little, unable to conceal his excitement, and his voice became much louder.

Forty thousand soldiers and horses, no matter where they are placed, are already a decisive force.

Excluding these directly subordinate soldiers and horses, Chen Wang currently has 30,000 Henan soldiers and horses under his control.

However, the troops and horses in Henan were only under Chen Wang's control, and their control was much weaker than that of Hanzhong Town and Huguang Sixth Battalion.

If you want to completely control the troops and horses in Henan, there are still many things and troubles that need to be solved.

But all this is only a matter of time.