Xu Xiake was invited into the General Military Mansion. While eating cakes, he said: "In the beginning, only the remaining troops of the sweeper king entered Liuyang and Chaling counties in Huguang from Jiangxi. The magistrate of Liuyang, the son of Feng Menglong, was considerate of the people and dedicated his lives to the people. There was a hero.
His name is Wang Hui, he is brave and good at fighting. Therefore, the bandits who broke into Liuyang did not cause any trouble."
"I know that." Zhao Han is still very concerned about the border situation between the two provinces.
Xu Xiake added: "The magistrate of Chaling County took office this spring and became an instant hit. It was rumored that in order to buy an official position, he borrowed thousands of taels of Beijing debt (usury) and immediately exploited the people after taking office. As soon as the remnants of the sweeping king arrived, the people of Chaling responded one after another.
, captured the county seat in ten months. Then, they captured You County, with 20,000 thieves. The thieves from Yongning County escaped into Ling County (Yanling), and after capturing the county seat, they followed the thieves from Chaling. The former attacked
Hengshan, the latter attacked Anren, both destroyed the city and grew stronger."
"They can really mess around." Zhao Han sighed.
The bandits, who had been severely beaten in Jiangxi, escaped into southern Hunan and quickly occupied five counties.
Xu Xiake continued: "After capturing Anren, the bandits on the south route gathered tens of thousands of troops, crossed the mountain gorge, and made a surprise attack on Leiyang. The bandits on the north route sent troops from Hengshan, and the bandits on the south route sent troops from Leiyang. They attacked Hengyang from the north and the south. The prefect of Hengzhou abandoned the city and fled.
, King Gui also fled far away with his clan."
Zhao Han asked: "What is the name of the leader of the thief?"
Xu Xiake said: "The number one thief on the north route is 'Ruyunlong', and the number one thief on the south route is 'Little Overlord'. After they captured Hengyang, the two men divided the spoils unevenly and had a fight in Hengyang. Little Overlord was defeated and returned to Leiyang.
, went south to capture Yongxing. The leaders of Ruiyunlong were also at odds with each other, and one bandit leader established himself as the "Chu Overlord". The Chu Overlord led his troops away and captured Qiyang. Ruiyunlong did not want to make progress, and took concubines in Hengyang. There was another thief.
The leader was dissatisfied and led his troops directly to Shaoyang, calling him 'Ma Wang Ye'."
Good guy, there is endless internal strife and the rebels are divided into four groups.
"Has Shaoyang been defeated too?" Zhao Han asked.
Xu Xiake shook his head: "The prefect of Baoqing stood firm in Shaoyang and sent orders to all counties to recruit troops to fight against thieves. There was a hero named Liao Sheng from the Liao family of Longhui, who recruited three thousand village warriors and defeated tens of thousands of thieves outside Shaoyang City. Lord Ma led his troops
Everyone fled in panic and hid in the mountains and became bandits. At that time, I was trapped in Shaoyang City."
"What about the thief who entered Yunlong?" Zhao Han asked.
Xu Xiake said: "Liao Sheng led 5,000 troops to attack Hengyang. Rui Yunlong led 30,000 thieves to attack. Liao Sheng was brave and defeated them in one battle. Rui Yunlong was defeated and fled. When I left, Liao Sheng was besieging Hengyang City.
Ruyunlong defended the city and did not dare to fight."
Good guy, this Liao Sheng is quite fierce.
First three thousand fought against ten thousand, then five thousand against thirty thousand, and they both won in one fight.
Xu Xiake said: "Although Liao Sheng defeated the rebels twice, they also caused the rebels to flee. Now there are bandits everywhere in the mountains. As long as I go into the mountains, I will be robbed, even by water, so I have to go south.
, I planned to go straight over the mountains and ridges to Guangxi. Unexpectedly, chaos broke out in the south, the Miao people (actually Yao people) rebelled, and the little bully wreaked havoc in Jingnan. I had no choice but to return to the north and escape all the way back to Jiangxi."
"Who is this Liao Sheng?" Zhao Han asked.
Xu Xiake said: "I only know that the Liao family is a giant of the Longhui family, and they own the whole country and even half of the county."
"That's how powerful the place is." Zhao Han said.
If Zhao Han had carefully studied the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty, he would definitely know Liao Sheng.
Historically, after the Qing army captured Shaoyang, Liao Sheng spent all his wealth to raise an army and actually recruited tens of thousands of local warriors. They followed Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo to fight successively. It was not until King Gui fled to Burma that Liao Sheng realized that it would be difficult to regain his Ming Dynasty, so he disbanded the army and returned to his hometown.
Seclusion.
While Zhao Han was chatting with Xu Xiake, Liao Sheng had already recaptured Hengyang and put the thief's head into Yunlong Xiao's head for public display.
Furthermore, Liao Sheng took the initiative to conquer the Overlord of Chu, forcing the Overlord of Chu to flee south, and defeated a total of 60,000 thieves. Although they were all a mob, Liao Sheng's men were also local warriors, and the number of troops was only a few thousand.
It's a pity that such a fierce man comes from a giant clan and will most likely be his enemy in the future, because Zhao Han wants to divide the land.
Zhao Han presented a few taels of silver and arranged for Xu Xiake to rest. He immediately called Pang Chunlai and Li Banghua to discuss the matter.
After hearing what Zhao Han said, Pang Chunlai said: "This person is nothing to worry about. As long as you defeat him once, you will immediately go to his hometown to divide the fields. He can't even recruit local heroes."
"Indeed." Zhao Han couldn't help but smile.
The disciple soldiers under Liao Sheng were willing to fight with him because they were afraid of the rebellion.
However, Zhao Han went to divide the fields. As long as he won a victory, he could divide the land affairs and disintegrate the villagers, leaving Liao Shengtu with money and food but unable to recruit troops to fight.
Li Banghua said: "In fact, if we send troops from Jiangxi, Huguang will be easier to fight, and we will definitely be invincible."
"Why do you say that?" Zhao Han asked.
Li Banghua said: "Jiangxi fills Huguang. There are many Jiangxi people in Huguang. They can understand Jiangxi dialect. There is no language barrier between missionary groups and farmers' associations."
The filling of Huguang in Jiangxi began in the time of Zhu Yuanzhang and lasted for more than 200 years during the Ming Dynasty.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the government organized Jiangxi people to migrate to Huguang.
Then the taxes in Jiangxi were too heavy, and a large number of people in central Jiangxi fled to Huguang to reclaim wasteland.
Qiu Jun, a cabinet minister in the mid-Ming Dynasty, even said: "Most of the people in Jiangxi have moved to Huguang."
According to later research, during the entire Ming Dynasty, 78.5% of Hunan’s immigrants came from Jiangxi, of which Ji’an Prefecture accounted for more than half. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, among the millions of refugees in Hubei, 690,000 were from Jiangxi.
This has led to the prevalence of Jiangxi dialect in some areas of Huguang, which has a tendency to replace the local dialect of Huguang.
Moreover, Jiangxi people have brought a "litigation style" to Huguang, and they like to litigate at every turn, causing Huguang magistrates and counties a lot of headaches.
Zhao Han thought carefully and said: "We must send troops in advance. Guangdong and southern Hunan are full of bandits. If we let them wreak havoc, how many people and wealth will be lost."
Pang Chunlai said with a smile: "If we send troops in advance, Si Cai (Fei Chun) will probably have a headache."
"After next summer's harvest, we will send troops to Hunan and Guangdong, and this winter we will occupy all of Jiangxi," Zhao Han said. "The number of regular troops will increase to 16,000!"
In the past, there were only 8,000 regular soldiers, and peasant soldiers were often used to fight.
But to fight across provinces and leave Jiangxi, it would be too unethical to continue to treat peasants and soldiers.
"The number of regular soldiers will be doubled, but the money and food will not be enough." Li Banghua reminded.
Nowadays, there are three major financial expenditures. The first is official salaries. Town-level officials consume too much money. The second is military expenditures, including the continuous building of military equipment. The third is disaster relief expenditures. There have been severe disasters in many places this year. Not only must we provide relief to the people, but we must also
Tax exemptions and reductions as appropriate.
As for education expenditure, it is not ranked high.
Pang Chunlai also said: "There will be a big disaster this year and we cannot raise taxes."
Zhao Han said with a smile: "Issuing bonds, borrowing money and grain from the people, with an annual interest of two cents, and repaying it within five years."
"Is this possible?" Li Banghua was a little confused.
Pang Chunlai was also confused, because when the Ming Dynasty court and government needed money and grain, they directly levied taxes, so why did they need to borrow money from the people?
"Let's give it a try." Zhao Han said.
A month later, officials at all levels began to take action, and farmers' associations also conducted publicity in the countryside.
The reason is that there was a big disaster this year. Although the people affected by the disaster were treated lightly under Zhao Han's rule, the disaster was serious in the government's territory. Mr. Zhao did not want the people to suffer, so he allocated money and food for relief, resulting in insufficient money and food. Now like the people borrowing money and food, the annual interest rate is two
points, repayable within five years.
When the news came out, the people talked a lot and thought it was very strange.
I have only seen the government exploiting the people, but I have never seen the government borrow money from the people.
It's just strange. No one, including the gentry, thought that Zhao Han would default on his debt.
The prestige that Zhao Han has built up over a long period of time has come into play. On the other hand, the people will also think, if Zhao Han really wants to default on his debts, why not directly raise taxes? Or directly assess miscellaneous taxes, and borrowing money and grain without repaying them is purely unnecessary.
In the Ming Dynasty, local officials suppressed thieves by directly imposing miscellaneous taxes.
Wucheng Town.
Together with Jingdezhen, Zhangshu Town and Hekou Town, it is known as the four famous towns in Jiangxi.
Although it is said to be a famous town, it is actually a big tax town, and Wucheng Town is also a battleground for military strategists.
Since Zhao Han is developing in Nanchang Prefecture, he naturally wants to occupy Wucheng Town. Firstly, he will increase tax revenue, and secondly, he will control Poyang Lake.
Several Jinyiwei spies, wearing ordinary clothes, landed in Wucheng Town to rest.
They were sent by Chongzhen. In addition to investigating the movements of the Zhao thief, they also wanted to collect the Zhao thief's policy strategies. Chongzhen felt that if the Zhao thief could develop and grow, there must be something special about him, and perhaps he could learn a few tricks.
After arriving at Wucheng Town, these Jin Yiwei spies selected an inn and immediately dispersed to gather information.
A spy came to the outside of the town and saw a large number of people, either in small boats or carrying food on their shoulders, taking food to the warehouse outside the town.
The spy came forward and heard the news: "Are you paying for food?"
As the people walked, they said: "We have finished collecting the grain a long time ago. Due to the disaster this year, the land tax has been reduced by 35%. The reduction here is relatively small. I heard that some villages in the mountains were so drought that they lost their harvest. Not only did they not have to pay the grain, but the government
We also poured relief food."
"Then what are you doing?" The spy was even more confused.
The people laughed and said: "The government is reducing taxes and providing disaster relief. The money and food are not enough, so we have to borrow from the people and pay two cents of interest."
"Aren't you afraid that the government will default on your debt?" the spy asked confusedly.
"Only the emperor will default on his debts, Mr. Zhao will not," the people said.
The secret agent was shocked: "The government you are talking about is Mr. Zhao?"
The people laughed and said, "Besides Mr. Zhao, which government office is there in Nanchang? Mr. Zhao is kind-hearted and doesn't want to see the people suffer. He has used up all the food for disaster relief. We people must help."
The spy immediately returned to town and told his friends what had happened.
The next day, they continued south and soon discovered the same situation. People everywhere took the initiative to lend grain to the "government".
However, there were very few gentry, especially grain merchants, who would not lend out a grain of grain.
Because of the severe drought in southern Zhili and Zhejiang, they took the opportunity to stock up and plan to transport it there next spring. They are not selling it now because the price of food is not at its highest point. They let the people in Jiangnan prefectures starve to death. By next spring, food prices will inevitably rise again.
skyrocketing.
Instead of lending grain to Zhao Han, grain merchants went to the countryside to buy grain at high prices so that they could make a lot of money next year.
Some people who were greedy for money therefore refused to lend grain to Zhao Han and took the opportunity to sell their surplus grain to grain merchants at high prices.
Of course, as long as Zhao Han does not come forward to attack, the grain merchants will not oppose Zhao Han. Because Zhao Han has brought stability, especially this year's disaster relief, Jiangxi has maintained its grain income, and they can buy more grain and transport it to the various prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River.
.
Businessmen like social stability, and they sincerely support Zhao Han.