The Ming Dynasty had its own reclamation system. Most of the acres reclaimed in border areas were owned by the guards, who were assigned to military households and cultivated by the military households.

Later, the military household system of the guard station was abolished, and the food for the troops stationed in the border areas needed to be transported from other places. Then the Kaizhong method was introduced. After the Kaizhong method was practiced for a while, businessmen discovered a loophole.

They found that transporting food thousands of miles from other places to the Jiubian area was long, wasted, and costly. It was better to open up wasteland to grow food in the Jiubian area, and then supply it to the border towns nearby in exchange for the royalties promised by the imperial court.

Salt lead.

After having this idea, the merchants in Shanyou began to operate like this.

In the Longqing and Wanli years, through their agents in the court, the court finally approved the policy of setting up commercial settlements outside the border military settlements.

Under the guise of merchant villages, they occupied a large amount of unowned land suitable for farming in the border areas, nominally asking the border troops to produce food.

They did this in the beginning, but gradually they discovered that providing food to the border troops in exchange for salt was far less profitable than selling the food directly to the northern captives outside the border.

Later, they even discovered that selling to the Northern captives was not as good as selling to the Eastern captives who were even more short of food and offered higher prices.

In this way, the relationship between Shanyou merchants and the Donglu was gradually established, and they went further and further on the road of collaborating with the Donglu and capitalizing on the enemy.

This time, after the eight families in Zhangjiakou Fort were completely eliminated by Yang Zhen, the land in the merchant villages under their names naturally fell under the control of Yang Guozhu.

There were originally many tenants on these lands, so there was no need to cultivate additional land to recruit tenants. It was most suitable to house the old and weak troops who needed to be eliminated.

With Yang Jie, Yang Lun obtained a large sum of money from the wealthy merchants in Zhangjiakou, and the old, weak, sick and disabled retired from active service, freeing up severance pay.

After the merchant villages of these powerful merchants were confiscated, cultivated land with tenants was allocated to them.

In this way, the lives of the old, weak, sick and disabled sergeants who have served in the Xuanzang Army for many years and their families will have support and protection.

By the end of December in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, brand-new land deeds stamped with the seal of General Zhenshuo began to be issued in batches.

Yang Guozhu did not even have to report to the imperial court, and directly confirmed the ownership of the land under their names by the existing officers of the Xuanfu Army and the demobilized and resettled officers in the name of General Zhenshuo, the Chief Military Officer of the Xuanfu Army.

In early January of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the Xuanfu army's encirclement of land within the jurisdiction of Xuanzhen was finally impeached to the court.

However, after a sealed bullet was delivered to Emperor Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen took no other measures except getting furious in the palace, issuing an edict to reprimand Yang Guozhu, and Liu Yongzuo.

In January of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, news of the defeat of the Southern Army came one after another. The armies led by Dongge University Scholar Yang Sichang were short of food and pay, and their troops began to flee continuously.

The tribe of Chuang King Li Zicheng, who had been on the run and had been hiding for a long time, came out of Shangluo Mountain and suddenly marched into western Henan, and was growing rapidly.

At this juncture, Emperor Chongzhen also began to take action against Yang Guozhu, who had a large number of troops and won the hearts of the military.

Faced with a large number of articles impeaching Yang Guozhu for his land grabs and even his military plunder, he had no choice but to issue an edict to reprimand him.

At noon on the third day of the first lunar month of the 13th year of Chongzhen's reign, when Emperor Chongzhen was worried and worried, Yang Zhen led a large convoy of people and horses from Zhangjiakou, ran over the frozen ice on the Wuxin River, and crossed the welcoming gate outside Songshan City.

The crowd returned to Songshan City in a mighty manner.

From Zhangjiakou to Songshan City, the straight-line distance is not far, more than a thousand miles.

But in the late Ming Dynasty, there were no direct roads, let alone direct expressways.

Although the straight-line distance is more than a thousand miles, the total distance traveled in circles in the icy and snowy wilderness is nearly two thousand miles.

In the final analysis, Yang Zhen underestimated the difficulty of marching and camping in the wind and snow on the grassland in the cold winter.

But the heroic words he spoke in Xuanfu City still rang in my ears, and he could not break his promise no matter what, so despite the difficulties, he gritted his teeth and moved forward.

Fortunately, after they left Zhangjiakou, they were neither attacked by the Duolun tribe's men and horses on the grasslands of the Duolun tribe, nor were they intercepted by the Karaqin tribe's cavalry in the territory of the Karaqin tribe.

When they passed through these two most dangerous areas, they all encountered a snowy and windy climate. The herdsmen of the tribe outside the Great Wall did not come out to graze their animals, and the cavalry belonging to the tribe hid in the yurts in the camp.

Along the way, the main enemy of Yang Zhen and his party, apart from the bad weather, was the endless ice and snow.

Fortunately, they had been to the border once during the summer, and they knew where the roads were and where they could camp.

The most important thing is that they don't have to worry about food and drink, and they have a lot of fur clothing to keep warm.

Before setting off from Zhangjiakou, we carried a lot of dry food, as well as mules, horses, and camels. The water source issue that we were most worried about before became the least of our worries this time.

Therefore, although the troops led by Yang Zhen worked extremely hard and were frightened, there were no dangers along the way, and most of them arrived safely in the end.

The losses along the way were not great. Only a dozen of Yang Dagui and his newly-recruited people froze to death, and several hundred mules, horses, and camels brought from Zhangjiakou were lost. Everything else was pretty good.

At the same time, the gains along the way were very important. They had not yet had time to count the gold, silver, property and various materials brought out from Zhangjiakou, but if they were used in their future recruitment of people for cultivation, expansion of the army and preparations for war, it would be enough to support them for a period of time.

It's time.

In addition, there are two other gains from this trip.

One of them is to thoroughly train the accompanying team.

None of them had ever seen the scene of ice and snow on the grassland in the cold winter, and they were even filled with unknown fear in their hearts.

However, after this trip, both Zu Keyong and Zhang Chen, including Yang Zhen himself, as well as other accompanying generals and soldiers, felt confident.

As long as we are well prepared, what is impossible about marching into Mobei in winter in the future?

Then the other issue is the arrangement of the troops in Qifeng Mountain.

This time, Yang Zhen returned from the grassland outside the Great Wall and passed by the foot of Qifeng Mountain again.

The troops of Liu Wanzhong, the veteran cannon leader of Qifeng Mountain, had previously been assigned to Yang Zhen's command. Although they were only given a salary of one sentry post, they could still be regarded as Yang Zhen's command.

This time I passed by the foot of the mountain and of course I wanted to take a look.

As a result, he sent someone to contact Liu Wanzhong, who immediately took his troops down the mountain and asked Yang Zhen for food relief.

Yang Zhen followed Liu Wanzhong up the mountain and found out that the population of the icy and snowy Qifeng Mountain had nearly doubled compared to that in the summer.

When Yang Zhen went to Qifeng Mountain for the first time, there were only more than 2,000 people in Qifeng Mountain. But this time, there were more than 5,000 people.

At that time, most of the large sum of money for food and supplies that Yang Zhen left to Liu Wanzhong was used to accommodate the refugees in the Pass and continued to open up wasteland and cultivate land in Qifeng Mountain.

However, there was a severe drought in the summer and autumn of Chongzhen's twelfth year. The barren mountains and wastelands he had worked hard to cultivate and cultivated by people lacked water sources. By the end of autumn, there was almost no harvest.

The original food reserves were quickly depleted due to the large number of new troops.

He sent people down the mountain to buy grain in Ji Town, but the price of grain was ridiculously high, and he soon couldn't make ends meet.

From the beginning of winter in November, the group of people on Qifeng Mountain were in trouble, and the population of Xinna began to flee one after another to other mountains.

Liu Wanzhong, who encountered a dilemma, remembered Yang Zhen's promise, and by mid-November, he began to go to Songshan City to fight the autumn breeze.

However, he only had one sentry man at that time. In the absence of Yang Zhen and Zhang Degui, the money and food he could get from Yang Chaojin was very limited.

By mid-December, money and food on Qifeng Mountain were exhausted, and people's hearts were scattered. Liu Wanzhong and his men finally fell into a desperate situation.

This time, Yang Zhen suddenly appeared up and down Qifeng Mountain. For Liu Wanzhong and his subordinates, it was like a savior sent from heaven.

When Yang Zhen went up the mountain and took a look, he realized that he could no longer hold on on his own.

However, Yang Zhen did not bring any extra food with him. In addition to carrying leftover dry food along the way, even the livestock that accompanied the army could be used as military rations. There was no way to help them on the spot.

Therefore, Yang Zhen persuaded Liu Wanzhong to simply follow him to Songshan City and join the newly expanded advance army for the Eastern Expedition.

After several days of hesitation, veteran cannon leader Liu Wanzhong gave up his base at Qifeng Mountain, led most of his men down the mountain, and completely joined Yang Zhen's team.

At the same time, some people who were unwilling to leave, as well as the old, weak, sick and disabled who were not suitable for long journeys, were left behind in the camp on Qifeng Mountain, hoping for a turnaround in the coming spring.

There were only a few people left behind, so it would be easier to provide relief. Yang Zhen left them a sum of money and hundreds of animals to help them tide over the difficulties.
Chapter completed!