Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 27 Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him with admiration

Zhang Cheng then led people to Yang Yuangao, and after Yang Yuangao bought a batch of grain on his order, he began to give porridge to the hungry people outside the city.

Nowadays, Chuzhou is experiencing a severe drought and war, and Chuzhou City is an important town. Many wealthy gentry and wealthy businessmen gather here, so many hungry people come to Chuzhou City to beg for food.

It's just that the Yuan court officials didn't care much and couldn't control it. They only closed the city gate tightly, so that most of the hungry people could only gather outside the city and wait to starve to death.

When Zhang Cheng started to take charge now, he not only didn't want to see so many people starving to death, but also wanted as many people to survive as possible. He also wanted the rebels to relieve their inner mania in this way.

He hopes that the endorphins generated through this kind of military-civilian interaction can restore peace to the hearts of the rebels, so that their inner thoughts of destruction will completely disappear, and they will only want to build, and even like an orderly and warm life.

Only civilization can eliminate barbarism.

If Zhang Cheng wanted to stop the rebels from destroying them, he could only use some of the experiences of the civilized army he had learned in later generations to help the rebels use more civilized methods to reduce their more barbaric thoughts.

People of this era may not think of these methods because they don't know them, but since Zhang Cheng knows it, he naturally has to do it this way.

Otherwise, Chuzhou City will only face a massacre or large-scale looting.

With Zhang Cheng's arrangement, although Chuzhou City was captured by the rebels, it ushered in a more orderly and peaceful atmosphere, instead of becoming a human purgatory where killings and cries were everywhere.

Because, before Chuzhou City was conquered by the rebels, the Yuan soldiers stationed in the city actually did not maintain order very well, and their military discipline was also very bad. They often robbed the people, not to mention the public works of relieving the hungry and investigating epidemics.

After all, due to the tax farming system implemented by the Yuan Dynasty and the extravagant desires of the upper-class Mongolian nobles, Yuan soldiers no longer had enough food and wages, and local government offices were also financially strapped, so they naturally abandoned many public functions of maintaining the ruling order.

Therefore, after Zhang Cheng made the rebels behave in a civilized manner, the soldiers and civilians felt that Chuzhou City was full of vitality after being captured by the rebels.

The streets, which were stinking with hunger and death, were swept clean.

The hungry people outside the city began to receive a piece of hot porridge instead of eating corpses. The order of commodity trading also began to be restored. Some areas where epidemics occurred were also sealed off, and people who contracted the epidemic were also concentrated in He was in a place, waiting to be treated.

Although the rebels were still bandits in the eyes of many gentry who valued etiquette and order, in the eyes of the common people and some gentry who did not value etiquette and order, they were no longer de facto bandits.

To know.

In history, at the same period, Zhu Yuanzhang's army also carried out a large-scale looting after capturing Chuzhou City, and robbed all the women in Chuzhou City.

For this reason, there is also a period in history about Zhu Yuanzhang learning from the people that his wife and daughter were taken away by the rebels after he captured Chuzhou, so he ordered the women who already had husbands to be returned.

But in this life, the rebels did not carry out large-scale plunder, but maintained order, which naturally gave the soldiers and people in the city a different perception.

At this time, Yang Yuangao was assisting Zhang Cheng in giving porridge to the hungry people, and once again lamented to his son Yang Bi: "This Zhang Jianjun knows how to conquer the country, but he doesn't know who his master is, so he is so young." You know how to make your soldiers better at fighting for the world at a young age, and even said that 'a single spark can start a prairie fire'."

Yang Benze said: "Haier didn't expect that these three hundred rebels would be willing to listen to his arrangements."

"They are good people who have been forced to rebel. They are actually confused as to whether they should destroy the world or save it. As the saying goes, people's hearts are like water, and people's movements are like smoke. As long as they are guided and followed the law, they can naturally transform from thieves to officials. .”

"As a father, I really hope that these people can really become the spark that starts a prairie fire in the future."

"But I'm afraid it's difficult. To start a prairie fire, you need a constant spark. Who has the ability to keep a spark alive?"

"Can he supervise the army?"

"Even if he has this intention, will his coach be willing to do it?"

After Yang Yuangao replied happily, he looked at the brand-new Chuzhou City and muttered to himself.

Zhang Cheng was very happy to see that after the rebels captured Chuzhou City, they did not turn into thugs who only knew how to massacre and loot, but instead made the city more orderly and vibrant.

He knew that this meant that the three hundred rebels were not only capable of conquering a city, but were also changing to be able to manage a city, and they had not turned into minions of the powerful gentry, becoming a military force to maintain order in their interests.

But Zhang Cheng knew that this was just the current situation.

Because if he keeps these 300 nominal troops like this, after conquering a city, without killing or looting, or accepting bribes from the gentry, then he must make it possible for these 300 nominal troops to conquer the gentry without killing and looting. Only through the bribery of Hao You can we obtain the material and spiritual rewards after risking our lives to attack the city.

First of all, in terms of material, he must have enough food and salary, and he must also have enough silver rewards after his great achievements and enough pension money for his comrades after they die in battle.

Secondly, spiritually, they must gain a sense of honor after doing this, be respected and praised by society, and feel more respected in life.

And these naturally require a certain amount of money and food income to achieve, as well as a group of talents who are willing to preach the virtue of observing discipline and obeying orders. The former can obtain income by collecting taxes and expanding production, while the latter needs to spend its own money to cultivate talents and develop like-minded talents.

All these require Zhu Yuanzhang to come to Chuzhou City to determine how to collect taxes and expand production, as well as how to cultivate and develop talents. He alone has no say.

Because he was sent by Zhu Yuanzhang to lead people to capture Chuzhou City, and he also used Zhu Yuanzhang's power to make the three hundred rebels listen to his command, so if Zhu Yuanzhang disagrees with Zhang Cheng who does not accept donations from the gentry and powerful rightists but only wants to It is useless to establish the governance model of the tax system and the industrial and commercial system by oneself, even if he has established the tax system and the industrial and commercial system now.

If Zhang Cheng wants to have the final say on his own, he must leave Zhu Yuanzhang and his people aside and recruit and train his own people from scratch, which is equivalent to being a leader and rebelling independently.

But since Zhang Cheng can go back at any time, and he has little interest in becoming king and hegemon in this world, he doesn't think it's very interesting to be the emperor in this era of power.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng did not plan to rebel independently. He only planned to experience the process of conquering the country with Zhu Yuanzhang and see if he could make Zhu Yuanzhang do better than he did in history.

Just as he couldn't do it, he would rather let many innocent people die tragically, but he would serve the world for his own benefit, Zhang Cheng couldn't do it, and he would rather have no freedom at all, but he would also serve the world for the common good. Therefore, Zhang Cheng didn't want to take this lead and offend the world. The landlord class was only willing to support Zhu Yuanzhang in doing this.

After all, Zhang Cheng knew that there were not many emperors in history who were very happy. Those who could really make the world applaud and be happy alone were very rare.

What's more, Zhang Cheng didn't quite feel that he, a person who didn't do well in the modern world, was really powerful in this era in ancient times.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng only intends to intervene in this world when he has the opportunity, such as tearing off some people's disguises by speaking outright, changing some bad situations through some actions, and making Zhu Yuanzhang and others in this era better than in history. And he also gained some benefits.

anyway.

The three hundred rebels under Zhu Yuanzhang who are now following him to attack Chuzhou City have indeed made progress.

Shortly after Zhang Cheng, Hua Yun and others came to test Chuzhou City, Zhu Yuanzhang also came to Chuzhou City with his army.

Just because the army had a lot of important supplies and many non-combatants accompanying them, they had to rest several times along the way, and they mostly walked, so the marching speed was very slow.

On the way to Chuzhou, Zhu Yuanzhang told Li Shanchang and Feng Guoyong about his arrangements for Zhang Cheng to supervise the army Hua Yun, Tang He and other departments, and said:

"We sent Mr. Zhang to supervise the army not only because Mr. Zhang has always been a person who cares about the people, but also because we hope that he can see more of the miserable plight of the people and let him know whether he should have any thoughts in this chaotic world. With a leisurely mind, perhaps the tragedy of several of our own relatives starving to death is not enough to move him, a son of a noble family who grew up in fine clothing and fine food, and some of the desolate scenes in his hometown do not make him feel that natural disasters and man-made disasters are related to him."

"The superior is wise!"

"What you see on paper is ultimately shallow, but you know that you have to practice it. Although Mr. Zhang has a family background, if you want to know the way of a gentleman, you must practice it personally, and perhaps you will have the heart to become a sage."

Li Shanchang agreed at this time.

Feng Guoyong frowned at this time and said: "This method is indeed excellent, but these are troubled times after all, and although Mr. Zhang is unruly and easy-going, he is actually very talented. Once he encounters a strong enemy on the road and falls into the enemy's hands, he will Becoming someone else's minister is not a good thing for us."

"Brothers of this country don't have to worry."

"We have told Tang He and Tang Shengzong to ensure Mr. Zhang's safety at all costs. If they encounter a strong enemy, they would rather not fight than decisively bring Mr. Zhang back."

"What's more, Mr. Zhang is just a scholar after all. Once he encounters a strong enemy, how can he have the courage to retreat from the enemy? He will probably only urge to withdraw and move closer to the army."

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.

After hearing this, Feng Guoyong raised his hands and said yes.

As it approached noon, Zhu Yuanzhang and others actually learned from the cavalry sent back by Tang He that Zhang Cheng and others had encountered thousands of enemy soldiers.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang had already made psychological preparations for Zhang Cheng and others to encounter unexpected events on the road, after hearing the news, he still looked a little panicked and hurriedly asked the cavalry in a crooked armor under his horse: "Then, they Can you withdraw immediately? Is Mr. Zhang okay?"

"Mr. Zhang said that when we meet on a narrow road, the brave will win, so Hua Baihu agreed and rushed towards the enemy soldiers first, and then defeated the enemy soldiers. Now that he is sending me back, I only need to tell the young master to rest assured. If you encounter a defeated army, don't worry about them. They will We have successfully been ordered to trial the attack on Chuzhou City."

After the cavalry returned, Zhu Yuanzhang fell into deep thought: "The brave one wins when we meet on a narrow road?"

"I never thought that Mr. Zhang, a scribe, would be so courageous! We have to look at him with admiration."

Zhu Yuanzhang then said something with a smile.

Not long after, another cavalryman rushed back and said: "Mr. Zhang and Hua Baihu have captured Chuzhou City. Mr. Zhang personally beheaded the gold medal-wearing Daru Hua Chima and lost his place!"

(End of this chapter)