The convoy carrying the goods soon arrived in Yulin.
Some old thieves knelt on the ground to bid farewell to Li Zicheng, and went their separate ways to their hometowns.
But they all chose a son to follow Li Zicheng to Nanjing. It was not only going to Nanjing to study in the military academy to have a better future, but it was also similar to sending hostages to Nanjing.
Li Zicheng observed the scenery along the way and said: "Compared to before, there are still too few people here."
The envoy Zhang Yunyi wanted to roll his eyes after hearing this. Yulin area is sparsely populated. Who the hell is responsible for this? You have the nerve to say this!
Zhang Yunyi curled his lips and said: "The imperial court's immigration and reclamation has restored a large number of people. Counting soldiers and their families, there are already more than 80,000 people in Yulin territory."
"It's a pity that a lot of land is left uncultivated," Li Zicheng said.
Yulin is close to the Mu Us Desert. In the northern area of Yansui alone, 3.45 million acres of land were reclaimed during the Ming Dynasty, of which more than 1 million acres were military fields. To be honest, it caused some damage to the ecological balance.
Nowadays, the population has dropped sharply, and many fertile fields cultivated in the Ming Dynasty have turned into grassland again.
There is simply no way to cultivate it. If all the land is divided into fields, including urban residents, each person can get an average of sixty or seventy acres. The excess land can only be left uncultivated. Some farmers even raise horses and sheep. Anyway, there are crops everywhere.
Wasteland full of weeds.
Li Zicheng asked: "Like the old Ming Dynasty, did the new dynasty also organize soldiers and their families into military households?"
Zhang Yunyi explained: "There were no military households in the new dynasty, and all the households here were civilian households. The reason why the family members were immigrated here was just to solve the homesickness of the soldiers. The army of the new dynasty in Datong first organized and trained peasant soldiers in the countryside. Only
Only the best peasants and soldiers can join the army and become the Datong Army. Those who are over 35 years old and have not been promoted to non-commissioned officers will be forced to retire and recruit peasants and soldiers to join the army."
Li Zicheng also sent people to inquire about this kind of thing, but he still refused to believe it.
Li Zicheng asked: "Soldiers over 35 years old must be discharged from the army. How much severance pay must be paid every year?"
"It's not a lot. They are discharged one after another, and most of them are not discharged at once. They only get a few tens of thousands of taels of severance money every year." Zhang Yunyi said with a smile.
Li Zicheng was speechless and didn't want to talk anymore for a moment.
The peasants and soldiers are first organized and trained, and the best peasants and soldiers are selected to join the army. Those over 35 years old are forced to retire. It is completely conceivable that the quality of the soldiers of the Datong Army is so high that it is simply not something that the traditional army can compete with.
Zhang Yunyi continued: "There are too many peasant soldiers in the country. His Majesty took pity on the hard work of farmers and has reduced the number several times. Today, there are probably 1 million peasant soldiers, and at the most, there were 3 million peasant soldiers."
Li Zicheng had seen peasant soldiers in Hebei, and their combat effectiveness was not as good as that of his old camp, but they were stronger than ordinary Dashun soldiers.
What is the concept of 3 million peasant soldiers?
My scalp goes numb just thinking about it.
Even if there are only 1 million peasants and soldiers left now, if a war really breaks out, hundreds of thousands of troops can be drawn out at any time. After long-term training, an army can be formed through simple training. Who in the world can stop it.
Night was coming soon, and everyone was resting in a village near the river.
This is the river valley leading from Yulin to Mizhi. The village is not very big, with only a few dozen households.
The village chief invited them to have dinner, but Zhang Yunyi shook his head and refused, and only asked his entourage to go into the village to buy some meat, eggs, vegetables.
Soon, the village chief came with the villagers, carrying a basket of eggs, a few chickens, ducks and many vegetables. Zhang Yunyi paid with official tickets, and the villagers were happy because the price was relatively high.
"What is this?" Li Zicheng asked, pointing to the official ticket.
Zhang Yunyi explained: "It is commonly known as banknotes among the people, and there are two types: official tickets and military tickets. Officials receive official tickets for salary, and soldiers receive military tickets for military pay. The notes from Shaanxi can be exchanged for money and food at banks in Fujian."
"
Li Zicheng was extremely puzzled: "This is printed on paper. Are the officials and soldiers willing to accept it?"
Zhang Yunyi laughed loudly: "Even the common people are willing to accept it. Even though it is printed on paper, it can be worth real money when you get it to the bank."
Li Zicheng asked: "Are there no strongmen who forge bills?"
"Yes," Zhang Yunyi said, "because of counterfeiting bills, hundreds of people have been killed. And even if they are forged, they can only deceive stupid men and women. From paper to ink to official seals and dark patterns, every kind of bill has it.
Nine layers of anti-counterfeiting measures.”
Li Zicheng said: "Isn't it just like the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes? In the future, more and more will be printed, and no people will accept them."
Zhang Yunyi explained: "It's different. Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes are only printed but not collected. Once they are worn out, they are useless. If the banknotes from my Datong court are too worn, banks from all over the country will hand them over, destroy them and then print new ones.
You can print as much as you want to destroy, but never print more. If the bill is torn, as long as it can be pieced together into a whole piece, you can go to the bank to exchange it. In addition, if you want to add more bills, you must keep an account of the additional issuance. Every additional issuance, there will be
Corresponding money and grain reserves. From the time His Majesty launched the army to now, only more than 36 million shi of notes have been printed."
Official tickets and military tickets are now all based on grain, and the denomination is not how much it is worth.
If you want to exchange it into money in another place, convert it according to the local official price of grain. This is to balance the situation in various places and prevent officials and soldiers in some places from suffering losses.
But loopholes have emerged. Some bright-minded businessmen, when doing business in various places, conveniently bought bills at high prices and took them to banks in Jiangnan to exchange them for silver coins. Because the price of food is the highest in Jiangnan, the bills can be exchanged for more silver coins. Merchants
Treat bills as securities.
The impact is not huge because only so many tickets have been issued.
The cabinet, the Ministry of Finance and the bank are already discussing whether they can print some currency notes with the face value of "Liang", "Qian", "Guan" and "Wen" without being linked to grain.
Niu Jinxing held a note in her hand and remained silent for a long time.
As Li Zicheng's military advisor and prime minister, he was much more knowledgeable than the elder. He could imagine that once a powerful enemy appeared in the grassland, the Datong court would not only be able to send hundreds of thousands of troops, but also frantically print money to use as military pay. At worst, there would be a war.
After the battle is over, slowly take it back.
This kind of operation cannot be imitated.
It must rely on the reputation of the court and the banking system. If Li Zicheng dares to do this, the first people to cause trouble will be the officials and soldiers. If there is no cause for trouble, the officials and soldiers will quickly use it to force the people to accept this kind of money. Finally,
It will inevitably lead to widespread resentment among the people.
"I'm going to the village to have a look." Li Zicheng said.
Niu Jinxing, Zhang Nai and others also followed and met some people at the entrance of the village.
It was getting dark, and the villagers gathered there to eat and chat after a hard day's work.
Li Zicheng walked up to a villager who was holding a big bowl with half a bowl of wheat porridge left. Wheat bran could be seen vaguely in the wheat porridge, as well as certain vegetables, and there were even sporadic oil splashes floating on the surface.
holding some kind of round spherical food.
"What is this?" Niu Jinxing asked, pointing to the spherical food.
The villager laughed and said: "The government calls them potatoes, but here we call them yam eggs. You don't need to pick the land for these things. There are many mountains in the village. You can just find a piece of sloping land to plant them."
Niu Jinxing asked: "Don't you eat at noon (three or four o'clock in the afternoon)? Why do you eat when it's almost dark?"
The villager said proudly: "We only eat two meals a day in the middle of the afternoon. In our village, we have already eaten three meals a day. Every household is like this!"
Ox Venus is silent.
This village is really moist. Due to the vast land and sparse population, although there are still quotas for allotment of land, as long as you have extra labor, the government will not care about opening up wasteland to grow grain. However, the government will not issue land that exceeds the quota.
Accordingly, the land tax will not be paid. When the children reach the age of twelve, they can go to the government to register their household registration and be given priority in the land they have reclaimed. Only at this time can they actually receive the land deed.
The village is located in a river valley. Wheat is grown in the good fields next to the river, and potatoes are grown in the barren mountains. Every household has a lot of surplus grain.
Let alone three meals a day, they can afford four meals a day.
Niu Jinxing and Li Zicheng looked at each other and sighed, neither saying much.
Niu Jinxing continued to walk forward, but he offended someone's dog, which barked at him "woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof".
Turning around and looking at the wheat fields outside the village, Niu Jinxing was in a trance and said to himself: "There is traffic on the streets, chickens and dogs hear each other, and the people have enough food. This is not a paradise. This is a poor borderland, but is there a paradise in the borderland?"
"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
The villagers had finished their dinner, but they did not disperse. Instead, they gathered together and continued to laugh.
It seemed that some villagers had moved from the south. They were very interested and even sang a southern ditty, which attracted a burst of cheers and cheers.
At some point, Li Zicheng walked up behind Niu Jinxing and muttered: "If the Ming Dynasty had such a day, why did you rebel in the first place?"
Niu Jinxing lamented: "Now that the Holy Emperor is alive, who can compare with the dirty Ming Dynasty?"
Niu Jinxing had a great reputation in the Ming Dynasty and was considered a small landowner. He was framed by relatives of the wealthy gentry, saying that he was resisting tax arrears and seizing women. As a result, he was deprived of his fame and was exiled to Lushi County to serve in the army. His family's land was also used by this
The wealthy gentry's relatives took possession of it.
If I had lived in the new dynasty of Datong, I would definitely not have rebelled. I would have devoted myself to taking the Jinshi examination, and maybe I would have been in power long ago and have a family full of children and grandchildren.
The next day, continue southbound.
We encountered several such villages along the way, which can be described as "peach paradises" everywhere. When they reached Mizhi, Li Zicheng finally broke through. This was his hometown, and the villagers were equally happy and prosperous.
He returned to his birthplace, where he no longer had any old friends.
It was not easy to find one, but the other party regarded him as a snake and a scorpion, and ran straight to the leader of the peasant soldiers in the village: "Gather your troops quickly, the intruder is back, don't let him harm the village!"
Li Zicheng faced the dozen peasants and soldiers, then looked at his old neighbor, hesitated to speak, turned and left.
He went to Zhang Yunyi and said: "I went to Nanjing and told the emperor to let me settle in the south."
This King Chuang had no shame to return to his hometown. In the eyes of his hometown people, he was a complete disaster. At least, the people who lived a good life in the new dynasty of Datong completely regarded Li Zicheng as a disaster.
Once upon a time, he was a hero who led the villagers to resist tyranny.
