There was a heavy wind and snow outside the gate, but the road ahead was not unfamiliar to them.

Zhang Chen and Yang Dagui have already passed through this place many times.

The cavalry under Zu Keyong's command are also no strangers.

Although Zu Keyong's heavy cavalry troops, Yu Lewu and Ao Rijin, were left at the station outside Songshan City to train new recruits and did not come, the former horse thieves under Ao Rijin who became heavy cavalrymen,

But he was very adaptable to such weather, and at this time he became a scout exploring the road.

In addition, Yang Dagui, the former horsemen, coachmen, and porters recruited by Jiali Zhu and the others also came in handy at this time, driving the camel team and the carriage, running through the wind and snow without hesitation.

Even the mules, horses and camels showed no fear of the snow and wind.

The weather was cold, the ground was frozen, and the rivers were also frozen, which actually made things easier for their group. The heavy cart was no longer a burden to move forward, allowing them to maintain a fairly fast speed.

In this way, on November 22, the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen took the troops who had been in the customs for some time and returned to the border with high morale and rushed into the wind and snow.

The day after Yang Zhen led his troops to leave, that is, November 23 of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the Zhangjiakou fortress was destroyed by Saibei thieves on the 21st, and recovered by Xuanfu soldiers Yang Lun on the 22nd.

The Tang newspaper was delivered quickly by horse to the hands of Liu Yongzuo, the governor of Xuanfu, and Yang Guozhu, the commander-in-chief of Xuanzhen.

The Tang newspaper submitted by Yang Jie was of course written in accordance with Yang Zhen's instructions.

After Yang Guozhu saw it, he naturally knew what was going on. Both Yang Jie and Yang Lun had already reported to him their respective involvements.

He was very pleased that Yang Zhen left three houses for him, and also asked Yang Lun to go through them again and pick up the food, property, and supplies that were difficult to take away.

In order to avoid leaving anything unfavorable to himself, Yang Guozhu said nothing plainly and made no demands.

But Yang Zhen understood everything, and the large amount of supplies left for him exceeded his expectations.

He originally knew that those wealthy merchants had money and goods, and had saved a lot of supplies, which could even be used for military expansion and preparation for war. However, after raiding the homes of those wealthy merchants, he truly realized what these people were hoarding.

How many things were taken.

He was very happy, so after Yang Jie conveyed the words Yang Zhen told Yang Jie, Yang Guozhu had no objection and agreed to them all.

After all, the Zhangjiakou Fort was destroyed and robbed, and someone had to take responsibility, so Yang Jie had to be demoted and transferred.

However, Yang Lun led his troops to rescue in time, so that the merchants and civilians in Zhangjiakou Fort City did not suffer too much losses. The thieves outside the city who broke into the city heard the news and ran away. This credit cannot but be rewarded.

After Yang Guozhu, as the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu Town, expressed his opinion on this matter to Liu Yongzuo, the governor of Xuanfu, Liu Yongzuo immediately agreed.

For Liu Yongzuo, the most important thing was to recover the lost fortress of Zhangjiakou. If it was taken over by thieves and the soldiers and horses of Xuanzhen could not take it back, it would be a big trouble.

But now, the panic when he first heard that Zhangjiakou Fort City was breached suddenly turned into the joy of Zhangjiakou Fort City being recovered, and he didn't care so much about other things.

The profiteers who were greedy for their wealth and were ruthless died. People were killed, their property was robbed, and their warehouses were burned and looted. They deserved it.

As a result, these matters in Zhangjiakou were reported all the way to the capital court as Yang Zhen said.

Emperor Chongzhen was busy dealing with the military defeats coming from the hinterland of Huguang, and dealing with the civil strife in the court, and he really had no time and power to pay attention to such an inconspicuous thing in Xuanzang.

A few days later, when he saw the joint report signed by Yang Guozhu, the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu, and Liu Yongzuo, the governor, which had been submitted intact by the General Affairs Department, the Cabinet, and the Supervisor of Ceremonies, he immediately approved:

"Yang Jie was demoted to a third rank and allowed the town's request. He was ordered to still lead his troops and move to Dushikou as a garrison to see the consequences.

"Yang Lun was promoted to the third level for his merits in regaining Zhangjiakou Fort. He granted the request of the town and immediately transferred Zhangjiakou to the position of deputy general.

"If there is a secretary in Xuan Town, please tell Jin Haibo and Yang Zhen immediately not to stay outside Xuan Town, not to have any border quarrels with the Northerners, and to have them rush back to Liaozuo with their troops and horses to properly deal with the important matters of relocation and defense."

Not long after Yang Zhen left the capital, a large number of bandits from Huguang surrendered and rebelled to seize the city. Yang Sichang's military governor pursued them and was exhausted. More and more reports were reported to the capital court.

When Emperor Chongzhen was panic-stricken and anxious, he occasionally thought of the strategy Yang Zhen had mentioned before, and found it quite reasonable.

When the Central Plains of Huguang became a mess, what he feared most was that this winter the Donglu were uneasy and would come again to invade the capital.

The Eastern and Northern captives invaded the border areas as soon as winter came. Emperor Chongzhen already knew this very well.

Therefore, he was most afraid that at this time, the eastern and northern captives would cooperate with the internal and external forces to attack the border again.

When he thought of what Yang Zhen said, that after Yang Zhen moved to Jinzhou, Lushun and other places, he would attack the Donglu from behind and deter them from invading, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't wait to do this.

Therefore, what he had hesitated before became very determined and urgent in less than ten days. The previous decree to reward Yang Zhen and his generals had not yet reached Songshan, and the new urge to Yang Zhen and his generals had not yet reached Songshan.

The latest order of his troops to quickly cross the sea and move the defense has already arrived at Shanhaiguan.

Of course, no matter how urgent Emperor Chongzhen's mood was, there was nothing he could do. Things had to be done step by step.

In particular, by the time Emperor Chongzhen's decree was delivered to Xuan Mansion and then to Zhangjiakou, more than half a month had passed, and Yang Zhen and his men were no longer around Xuan Town.

Naturally, people like Xuan Zhen had no way of going to him to convey Emperor Chongzhen's will, so the matter was settled.

At the same time, after this incident, Yang Guozhu also understood more things and thought about more things clearly.

He no longer expels the refugees, refugees, and disaster victims who entered Xuanfu Town from Datong and Shanxi, and no longer worries about being resettled, or worries about trouble.

After reaching several conditions with Liu Yongzuo, the governor of Xuanfu, he began to fully support Liu Yongzuo's work of recruiting and rehabilitating people.

One of the conditions is to first delineate the unowned wastelands in the Xuanfu area that are suitable for farming, and directly distribute them to the Xuanfu army officers and soldiers as property, so that a large number of Xuanfu army officers and soldiers can become the landlords of these farmable wastelands.

.

All the refugees recruited and resettled by the Xuan Mansion will directly become tenants of the Xuan Town officers and soldiers assigned to the land on whichever piece of land they are placed.

In this way, the soldiers of the Xuanfu Army not only faced the hardships of reclaiming wasteland but also had a relatively stable source of livelihood.

In doing so, it would not infringe on the interests of the existing landlords and gentry within the Xuanfu jurisdiction, and at the same time solve the survival difficulty of the Xuanfu army.

Yang Guozhu has always wanted to do this in the past, but he has always followed the rules. He is not even as courageous as Liu Yongzuo, the governor of Xuanfu. He has always been afraid that someone would impeach him for inviting military morale, Shi En's subordinates, and forming a clique, so he has never dared to propose such a thing.

Require.

Now, he found that the soldiers and horses in his hands were his greatest capital. In the territory of Xuanfu Town, he could do whatever he wanted.

In particular, if he wanted to firmly control the Xuanfu army in his own hands, he had no other better way than to make his own decision and allocate to them the unowned land of the Xuanfu.

In December of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the weather in Xuanfu Town was freezing cold, but all the troops in the Xuanfu Army were very busy.

After Yang Guozhu put forward his request, Liu Yongzuo did not object. However, when he was still hesitating whether to write to the court to make this request, Yang Guozhu had already issued an announcement.

The officers and soldiers of the Xuanfu army were stationed in various places, and they specially selected the wasteland that was close to the river, flat and suitable for farming in their respective flood areas, and quickly made the land division a fait accompli.

Yang Guozhu, the general of the Xuanfu Army, issued a proclamation, instructing his men to circle the wasteland and then distribute it to the officers and men in his camp according to the rules set by Yang Guozhu.

In this way, in just over half a month, the Xuanfu Army's generals, guerrillas, commanders, guards, Qianzong, and generals became landlords of varying sizes within the jurisdiction of Xuanfu, and ordinary army sergeants also

He became a small landowner.

Then, there was no need for Xuanfu Governor Liu Yongzuo's earnest persuasion. From Yang Guozhu down, all the troops in Xuanzhen began to consciously and proactively take up the task of recruiting and settling the people.

Of course, this was not Yang Zhen's idea.

If it were Yang Zhen, he wouldn't do this. If you allocate large amounts of land to army officers, you can win over the morale of the army in the short term, but in the long run, the gains outweigh the losses.

After the land was given to the army officers and turned into military fields, these people did not pay taxes or grain.

After the tenants took over the land, they paid rent, but the rent was given to the generals and soldiers of the Xuanfu Army, which did not mean it was given to Yang Guozhu.

The money and food that Yang Guozhu should distribute to his generals, commanders, and soldiers will not be reduced because of this.

Therefore, Yang Guozhu's approach of dividing the land among the soldiers could not actually solve the long-term development problem of the Xuanfu Army.

If it were Yang Zhen, he would rather allocate farmland to the refugees, and then let them pay grain to support the troops on time from their own output according to the number of acres of land allocated.

However, this is just Yang Zhen's idea. He can't care so much about what others want to do now.

However, although Yang Zhen's trip to the Xuanfu was short-lived, his unconstrained ideas gave Yang Guozhu great inspiration.

Especially after Yang Zhengen eliminated the eight profiteers in Zhangjiakou, another very rare opportunity was created for Yang Guozhu.

That was the issue of the elimination and resettlement of the thousands of old and weak soldiers in the Xuanfu Army under his command.

Originally, to resettle these people, we needed money, food, and land. Now we have both money, food, and land.

The most important thing is that the land is still mature land, not the kind of wasteland that needs to be cultivated and then tenanted.
Chapter completed!