Please ask me to be the emperor

There is a saying that "Listening to your words is worth ten years of reading."

After Han Lin's explanation, Zhang Shun initially established biological knowledge about locusts, except of course the sentence "fish and shrimp eggs turn into locusts".

The growth process of locusts roughly goes through three stages: "egg", "fly" and "worm". The three strategies of upper, middle and lower recommended by Han Lin are actually aimed at eliminating the three morphological characteristics of "eggs", "flies" and "worms" respectively.

Eggs and insects are easy to understand. As for what locusts are, Zhang Shun is also a little confused. In line with the mentality of asking if you don't understand, after Zhang Shun asked shamelessly, he realized that the so-called "locusts" were actually small locusts.

When locusts first hatch, their body length is roughly between two and four millimeters. Its wings have not yet grown, it cannot fly, and it does not do much harm to crops. This is a good time to eliminate the budding locust plague.

To continuously eliminate these locusts from the three stages of eggs, nymphs and worms, naturally requires a lot of manpower and material resources. Without a certain degree of grassroots organization, naturally nothing can be accomplished.

Only then did Zhang Shun understand the reason why Zhang Shenyan raised this matter seriously. This kind of organization and structure involving the grassroots level of the political power, without Zhang Shun's permission and strong support, Zhang Shenyan alone would not be able to achieve it.

Thinking of this, Zhang looked around and asked: "In this case, getting rid of locusts is a top priority for the rebels. But where will the manpower come from? How many grassroots officials are needed? How much money and property are needed?"

Zhang Shenyan had been prepared for a long time, so he was quite confident. But he also wanted to take the opportunity to see what Han Lin was capable of, so naturally he didn't speak and just stayed for a while.

Han Lin had learned how to defend the city from Xu Guangqi, and his organizational skills were not low. Although he was unprepared, after thinking for a while, he came up with a few ideas.

He couldn't help but continue: "The best strategy does not require much manpower. It just requires King Shun to send officials everywhere to tell the people: During the slack time of farming, they can be used as corvees and the important places can be dug and buried."

"As for the method of the middle strategy, one is reward and the other is nourishment. The so-called rewarder can purchase grains and copper coins. Anyone who turns in a fight of locusts can pay a certain amount of grain money. The so-called nourisher requires King Shun to spend money. The hatching ducks are bought elsewhere. They form groups of three to five and are specially used for grazing in fields and swamps. Now you can not only have something to eat, but also get rid of flies and locusts, killing two birds with one stone."

"As for the method of making the lowest policy, we can also use the wisdom of the middle policy, just by using examples. They should be among the local leaders and people with high morals and respect in the countryside. As a foreigner, it is easy for the rebels to choose their official positions, but it is difficult to win the hearts of the people."

"In the Ming Dynasty, ten households were assigned one head of Jia, and one hundred and ten households were each one mile long. One mile was divided into ten households with ten heads of Jia. They all served for ten years, and their prestige gradually grew over time. For more prestigious families, several To be acting as the head of the village is to be considered a powerful and powerful person."

"If the rebel army cannot obtain the consent of these village chiefs, leaders, and highly respected people, the matter will not be accomplished!"

Zhang Shun understood it as soon as he heard it. This is called "The king of hell is easy to deal with, but the devil is difficult to deal with." When the rebel army captures a place, if a large official among them disobeys even a little bit, they can overwhelm them and kill them with swords and guns.

However, the rebels have limited manpower and limited energy. If they cannot reach a contract with the grassroots leaders, leaders, and respected people in the countryside, things will not work out.

If we follow the method of targeting officials and large households and use military force to suppress them, the grassroots level is too scattered and it is not worth spending so much energy and time.

If there is a solution, it is not impossible. The "law of land reform" of later generations, "attack the local tyrants and divide the fields", is naturally foolproof. Just clean up and sort out the base layer, and you can have a completely new look.

However, Zhang Shun has not yet made up his mind to take such a radical path. This is not because Zhang Shun and the powerful gentry cherish each other, but because he does not have those revolutionary martyrs who have succeeded him, but the enemy he faces is no less powerful than the opponents of the previous revolutionary martyrs.

The unified imperial court that can still mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, the Manchu Qing Dynasty who are eyeing him outside the pass, and other rebel heroes who share the same bed with him are all difficulties that he will face now and in the future.

But if he does nothing but be the founding emperor who is no different from previous dynasties, is this what Zhang Shun wants?

No, Zhang Shun wants more!

Zhang Shunbian responded: "It is the duty of the village chiefs, chief ministers and respected people in the countryside to ask for orders for the people! I am going to prepare a banquet in the past two days. I will first invite the nearby village chiefs and respected people to appease them. It shows that the rebel army loves the people and is loyal to the emperor."

"By the way, I would like to inform the villagers that the locust drought and other disasters are detrimental to the national economy and people's livelihood. We must work together to unite as one and overcome this difficulty! I just don't know who among you can help me?"

Zhang Shenyan, Song Xiance, Governor Zhang and Han Lin look at each other. We are all outsiders, so it is not easy to start this matter.

Fortunately, Song Xiance had been hanging out in the countryside for a long time and had some experience. He was about to recommend himself, gritting his teeth.

Unexpectedly, a person Zhang Shun did not expect stood up and asked for his orders: "If King Shun can trust Lu, Lu is willing to be a pioneer!"

Who do you know this is? He was really Lu Weiqi, the former Minister of War in Nanjing!

Zhang Shun couldn't help but chew his teeth and thought: Lao Lu, what's going on with you? I know that you have always been submissive to me, but secretly have many collusions with the gentry in the city. What do you mean by jumping out now? Are you prepared to take this opportunity to cause trouble, or are you prepared to follow me all the way to the dark side?

In fact, Zhang Shun didn't know that not only was he entangled, but Lv Weiqi, the former Minister of War in Nanjing, was also entangled.

Originally, he wanted to fight to the end and meet Zhang Shuntu sooner or later. It's just that now the entire Henan Prefecture is facing the threat of drought and locust plague. As a person from Henan Prefecture, he can't bear to watch the whole government suffer disasters and sit back and ignore it, right?

He even vaguely felt that thanks to the rebel army's capture of Luoyang City, it fell into the hands of King Shun. If the original Ming Dynasty officials were in charge of Henan Prefecture, I am afraid that after this natural and man-made disaster, Henan Prefecture would have to exchange sons for food!

Heaven and man have been fighting for a long time in their hearts, but Lu Weiqi couldn't decide for a long time. Seeing Zhang Shun asking questions, he simply expressed his feelings. It’s up to you whether you use it or not, and it’s up to me whether you say it or not. How is Henan Mansion? Just leave it to fate and I can feel at ease!

Zhang Shun was such a good guy, he reacted very quickly and quickly gave Song Xiance a wink.

Song Xiance didn't know about Lu Weiqi's contradiction. He just said that Zhang Shun didn't want to use this person. He quickly stood up and said: "Song is also willing to go. Please give King Shun more consideration."

Zhang Shun then smiled and said: "Since Mr. Lu and Mr. Song are interested, why not let you two take charge of this matter? Mr. Lu is highly respected and a local surname. Mr. Lu should be the leader, and Mr. Song will assist him. Is this good?"