Although the Ping Navy offered ships, saying that they could enter the river from Poyang Lake and sail upstream to Dongting Lake, Shao Shude still refused.
He decided to take the overland route, passing through Hongzhou to the west, passing through Tanzhou, and then heading north to Yuezhou.
Before leaving, of course, we had to meet with officials from Jiangxi Province and Hongzhou. In addition, the officers and soldiers of the Forbidden Army practiced again in Dayou, Hongzhou for two days, leaving behind some majestic military power.
It is said that the Imperial Army officers who accompanied us were really miserable not being able to celebrate the New Year at home last year, but they ate and drank along the way and occasionally "trained" with the local state soldiers, but they were quite comfortable and didn't have much to complain about.
The big businessmen of Hongzhou also jointly donated 200,000 yuan and 300,000 bolts of silk, which can be described as a huge loss - even if dozens of people contributed, it would be a lot for a family.
The slander in his heart is naturally unavoidable. The saint came all the way from the south of the Yangtze River and heard that businessmen from various states were "happy to donate."
Not only will you not lose money, you may even make a fortune. If you start this way, future generations of emperors will follow suit and come to Jiangnan from time to time. Is that okay?
But there is nothing we can do now.
The officers and soldiers of the Forbidden Army who were practicing were like gods of murder. The state soldiers they had once been so ingratiating with went up to practice and were defeated almost immediately.
They knew that the state soldiers were not good enough and could not defeat the imperial army, but they did not expect that the gap was so big. With such little skills, they did not know how to clean up bandits and water bandits in ordinary times. Could it be that they relied on large numbers of people and sophisticated equipment?
At this time, there are also people who are heartbroken that the various belongings they have given to the officers of the state army are just feeding the dogs and are of no use at all. If mountain bandits and water bandits are rampant in the future, they may not be able to protect them - don't worry about the mountain bandits, the water bandits in Jiangxi
There are really many people. Many people farm during the day and steal at night. It is not an exaggeration.
Shao Shude was very satisfied with the obedience of officials and businessmen.
Donate it, he will feel at ease. I will create the best business environment for you businessmen, and even promote some people from the Bohai Trading Company to become officials. What about collecting some money?
Besides, the money will eventually be used in Jiangnan. Except for the rewards from the Forbidden Army, most of the money will be used to purchase supplies nearby in Jiangnan and used as immigration expenses - mainly used in Qianzhou in Jiangxi, Shaozhou in Lingdong and the states in Huguang.
.
The meat is rotten in the pot, and after spinning around, it might still come back to you, so why bother?
On June 24, after giving some final instructions on immigration matters, Shao Shude left Hongzhou and headed southwest, arriving in Liuyang County in early July, and then headed west to Changsha County, where Tanzhou was located.
It was fine when we were in Hongzhou, but the further west we went, the more dilapidated the post road became. Well, it was obviously temporarily repaired, but the foundation was so bad, how could it be better if it was repaired again?
Shao Shude no longer rides a horse because he is too tired and lacks energy. Most of the time he sits in the carriage and opens the curtains to watch the scenery. When he gets really bored, he will get down and ride the horse for a while and walk around.
After entering Tanzhou, the post road became more and more dilapidated, and the overall feeling for him was not very good.
The population size of a place can actually be seen from the size and number of villages. When I was in Youzhou, there were eight counties and 96 townships in the area, which exceeded the number during the Tianbao period. You can make a rough judgment from this.
Even if the population of Youzhou in the late Tang Dynasty was not as large as that of Tianbao in its heyday, it would not be much worse.
But that's not the case in Tanzhou.
The size of the villages is very small, some even only have more than ten households, and the distance between them is also very long. What is this? It is a vast land with sparsely populated areas.
"Xiao Qing, the number of immigrants from Zhengshitang to Hunan is not enough." Shao Shude said while walking on the post road with few pedestrians.
Yes, the focus of the imperial court's immigration was not Hunan. After all, Yuezhou and Ezhou, which are closest to the Central Plains, had very few people. During the Tianbao period of the former Tang Dynasty, there were only tens of thousands of people in Ezhou and Yuezhou.
The nearly 200,000 people in Tanzhou are still much less.
This population distribution sounds incredible, but if you look at the local topography, it is very normal. There is no other reason. The water is vast, the lake surface is very large, floods occur frequently, and the population is naturally small.
Never look at Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake from the perspective of future generations.
Take Poyang Lake as an example. In ancient times, the lake surface was so wide that it even crossed the Yangtze River and was connected to Shuzhou in the north of the Yangtze River. After thousands of years of vicissitudes, the lake surface gradually shrank and a large amount of fertile farmland was silted out.
Dongting Lake is very similar to Poyang Lake. The vast expanse of blue waves cannot describe its vast area. On the islands in the lake, there are so many bandits. They once captured Yuezhou. The brothers Deng Jinsi who thought they were governors were born as water thieves, and Du Hong, the governor of Eyue
But there is nothing you can do about them, they can only pinch your nose to help you correct your identity, this is evident.
It was Shao Shude's father-in-law Zhe Zongben who really caused the Dongting water thieves to suffer. A considerable part of the Zhe family moved south from Linzhou in Guanbei and moved to Hubei and Yuezhou. Later, with Wei Shengjun as the backbone, they carried out a large-scale extermination
Killing the Dongting water bandits finally put an end to the banditry.
However, I heard that the Dongting water bandits have resurfaced in recent years. At this time, Huguang Road is mobilizing more than 10,000 state soldiers to encircle and suppress them by boat, cleaning them island by island. Even the people in surrounding counties who have colluded with the water bandits have been arrested.
Large numbers and unprecedented intensity.
But water bandits are easy to kill, but changing the natural environment is not so easy. It will take time for Hubei and Yuezhou to develop.
"If your Majesty wants to enrich the Hunan household registration, I will ask the Ministry of Household Affairs to supervise the matter." Xiao Zang replied.
Shao Shude glanced at him and said with a smile: "But he's not that anxious."
"Yes." Xiao Yu didn't know why, but he still responded.
"Let's immigrate to Liaodong first." Shao Shude laughed and said.
In fact, he just saw such a desolate scene and subconsciously asked. But after thinking about it, he felt that it was nothing.
This is a natural population pressure relief valve!
According to the standards of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hunan and Hubei could support tens of millions of people. At this time, they could only support more than two million people, which was not much better than virgin land. There was too much unused space.
"But there is something that needs to be done first." Shao Shude said again.
"Please give me your Majesty's instructions." Xiao Yu said.
"The imperial court must have enough public land in its hands. Even if it is mountains, forests, rivers and swamps, it must be clearly regarded as public land." Shao Shude said: "In addition, the post roads, dams, ditches, and ponds will move first. There will be movement.
It shouldn’t be too big, just a little bit stylish.”
"According to the order." Xiao Yu responded.
Shao Shude then stopped talking and concentrated on looking at the scenery of Hunan.
I think back then, when the King's army attacked Ma Yin, there were many battles in this land.
He did not personally command, but he saw from various military reports that Ma Yin's troops were quite capable of fighting, and even took advantage of them several times. When they finally surrendered, they were not completely at the end of their rope, and they were beaten.
After a meal, we made an emergency landing.
Now that the traces of the war have dissipated and the people have returned to a peaceful life, it is open to question whether they still hate the imperial court in their hearts.
But - who cares! There are only a few people in Hunan? If Ma Yin and others can establish a foothold in Jiangdong and Jiangxi, how can they go as far as Hunan?
In the cities, towns, townships, and villages that we passed along the way, all the people knelt down beside the road, shouting long live the mountains.
After Shao Shude watched for a while, he returned to the carriage with confidence and went about his official duties.
The Taifeng Kingdom sent envoys to Luoyang to report to Silla that the two countries of Baekje had taken in Taifeng's "rebellious ministers" and other illegal situations, and requested that they send troops to fight against them.
After learning that the Taifeng envoys had entered the capital, envoys from Silla and Baekje came one after another, accusing Gongyi of being ambitious, constantly causing trouble, and having evil intentions.
In a word, Taifeng, the relatively strongest country, wanted to annex Silla and Baekje. Those two countries were not fools, so they banded together to accuse Taifeng. Of course, Baekje and Silla also had conflicts, and the former had many frictions.
things, trying to occupy more Silla lands.
Shao Shude didn't expect these guys to be so annoying.
The Donglai Town Army of Daxia is already in place, why don't they stop?
He now regrets asking Wang Jian to leave.
As soon as this guy with great achievements left, Gong Yi seemed a little unscrupulous. Not to mention the great purge a while ago, many officials and generals fled to Silla and Baekje. Then a rebellion broke out in the country, which was quelled at the beginning of the year.
How long will it take? Will we go south to attack the other two countries again? Are we so persistent?
Baekje is also a fucking idiot.
The strength itself is not enough. Instead of uniting with Silla, I want to eat them first, strengthen my own strength, and then confront Tai Feng. Zhen Xuan also doesn't think about it, will Gong Yi give you this opportunity?
The three countries on the Korean peninsula are not stable at all, and there is a possibility of chaos.
After thinking about it, Shao Shude decided to send an envoy to make another trip to reprimand the Three Kingdoms.
The Donglai Town Army must be prepared for battle to prevent a sudden war from breaking out and being caught off guard.
As for the northern border of Taifeng Kingdom, he has not yet decided whether to recruit soldiers. After all, it costs money. If he recruits a few more times, the soldiers will be taxed.
After much deliberation, I'd better wait and see the situation first. If that doesn't work, recruit more than 20,000 imperial soldiers and gather them in Lezhou to give Gong Yi some clues - Yin Xuan, the surrendered general of Goryeo, found out that there was Tai.
Feng Xizuo sneaked into Lezhou and tried to hook up with the local wealthy families. By then, he might be able to take care of them all.
After dealing with the affairs on the peninsula, he took a look at the situation in Liaodong.
The focus of the court's work in the local area is still to provide troops for the government soldiers. The Tianwei Army has been divided, but the troops are not enough and still need to be solved.
Shao Shude learned that the people in the Privy Council sighed and patrolled around with knives, but they couldn't find anyone who rebelled.
In the end, it was Rokuro who solved the problem.
He went directly to Shu and asked for the garrison troops and Yunnan Daozhou troops to join forces with his Dian soldiers and horses. On the pretext of repairing the post road from Kunzhou to Jiaozhou, he vigorously liquidated the Dongcuan tribe and captured many of them.
It just so happened that during this trip to the south of the Yangtze River, a large number of people who had colluded with the gangsters were also cleared out and sent to Liaodong. In the end, I calculated that there were still more than 20,000 households left. I couldn't help but sigh, it was too difficult.
On July 17, Shengjia arrived in Changsha County, Tanzhou, and announced his official entry into Hunan.