After pacifying the Wu Yue Kingdom and the Tang Kingdom in the south of the Yangtze River, the entire Great Zhou War Machine was fully preparing for the upcoming Northern Expedition or Western Expedition.

According to the operational plan of the General Staff Division, the order of unifying the whole country should be to first march westward, and then to the north to Jinyang.

After all, the Liu Han forces in Jinyang were backed by hundreds of thousands of Khitans with armor. If the Qiang Han Dynasty sent troops to attack Jinyang, as long as Yelu Hugo was not a fool, he would definitely send troops to reinforce Jinyang.

In layman's terms, if you go outside, you must first settle inside!

The western conquest of Shu was to take the land of fish and rice in Shu, and the other was to take the production area of fire and salt. As long as the Shu State is destroyed, it will be very conducive to the self-sufficiency of food and the continuous use of artillery, which can be said to be a matter of killing one stone.

A month later is the birthday of Empress Dowager Xue, although Li Zhongyi did not make a big noise, but how can the concubines in the palace have countless hearts?

Li Zhongyi's women were all digging out their hearts to prepare birthday gifts, and the news soon spread from the palace to their parents' homes, and from their mother's homes to the officialdom of the entire capital.

Today's Empress Dowager Xue is not only the biological mother of today, but also has shared life-and-death tribulations with today, and the relationship between mother and son can be described as extremely deep.

Li Zhongyi's own life is not particularly frugal, but it has absolutely nothing to do with luxury. What's more, Li Zhongyi is not short of money.

Not to mention that Li Ji Grain Store monopolized the grain business in the country, Li Ji Money Village alone made a lot of money in the palace.

On weekdays, the civil and military officials in the court, even if they want to pat Li Zhongyi's sycophants, they can't find a suitable excuse and way.

Now, just in time for Empress Dowager Xue's birthday, how can everyone not sharpen their heads and buy gifts?

Since monopolizing the grain business throughout the country, there have been constant reports of smuggled grain shipments in various places, leading to the outbreak of armed conflicts.

Li Zhongyi naturally knew in his heart that his policy of monopolizing the grain business had ruthlessly touched the cheese of the rich people everywhere, and it was too normal to be violently counterattacked.

After the monopoly of salt and iron, no matter which dynasty it is, the sale of illicit salt has been repeatedly prohibited.

Now, after the grain business is monopolized by the imperial court, it is equivalent to leaving the large and small grain merchants in the country without a way to live.

"Capital, escaping turmoil and strife, is timid by nature. This is true, but not the whole truth. Capital is afraid of no profit or too little profit, just as nature is afraid of a vacuum. As soon as there is a proper profit, capital is emboldened. If there is a 10% profit, it is guaranteed to be used everywhere; With a 20% profit, it becomes active; With a 50% profit, it takes risks; For the sake of 100% profit, it dares to trample on all human laws; With a 300% profit, it dares to commit any crime, even risking hanging its head. If unrest and strife are profitable, it encourages them and strife. The smuggling and slave trade is proof of this. ”

To put it bluntly, if the previous imperial power is not lower than the county, no matter how strong Li Zhongyi is, he will not dare to monopolize the grain business.

However, the transfer of Tingzheng and Muramasa is being rolled out across the country. The main source of strength for the gentry to oppose the imperial court was to use their real power to rule the countryside and incite ignorant and illiterate peasants to revolt.

When the ruling power and military power in the countryside were gradually mastered by the pavilions and village officials, the so-called big squires who could call the wind and rain became fish and meat on the chopping board.

The policy of monopolizing the grain business adopted by Li Zhongyi was, in fact, a clarion call for the agrarian revolution in the countryside.

The great squires either obediently obeyed the policy and limited their possession to no more than five hundred acres. Or, they will take the initiative to jump out, wrestle with the imperial court, and then be wiped out by the forbidden army of the imperial court.

That's right, this is actually Li Zhongyi's trick, and the policies are all on the surface, so I don't accept the war!

Last month, there were hundreds of incidents of violent grain trafficking in various localities, and without exception, they were all wiped out by the troops stationed in various localities.

The most profitable part of the grain business is actually in the county or state town. The county seat and the state town were the areas most tightly controlled by the imperial court garrison. As long as the garrison controlled the smuggling routes of grain, it was tantamount to choking the lifeblood of the squires.

As the saying goes, long pain is better than short pain. When the rebellious energy accumulated by the squires was seriously weakened, they could only obediently obey the policies of the imperial court, and did not dare to make mistakes.

"The inspection envoy, the remnants of the thieves have fled into the mountains."

Wang Congjun nodded, pointed to the village on the left, and said lightly: "Let the people in the nearby villages follow us, and those who do not obey will be punished as thieves." ”

"Whoa." The subordinates carried out the order, and Wang Congjun kept standing quietly with his hands behind his back.

Wang Congjun was originally the head of the third army of the imperial forbidden army, and after being ordered to change positions, he became the inspector of Luoshan County, Shenzhou.

According to the military establishment of the imperial court, the state city has a general manager of soldiers and horses, and the county seat has a patrol envoy. The inspection envoys held the military power of the whole county, not only the garrisons in the county town, but also the township troops in the pavilions and villages in the county.

In order to exterminate the bandits in this place, Wang Congjun transferred 100 officers and soldiers in the county town and half of the township army in the county, forming a huge team of more than 700 people to suppress bandits.

With Wang Congjun's experience in suppressing bandits, the villages close to the bandits' dens, even if they are not all bandits, at least they are inextricably linked with the bandits in the mountains.

Therefore, Wang Congjun ordered the entire village near the side of the bandit nest mountain to be relocated.

The bandits on the mountain were actually a team privately organized by the local squire Zhang Daguan to sell illicit salt and grain, and they had been crippled.

Today, Zhang Daguan has become a ghost under the knife, and the Zhang family's thousands of acres of fertile land have become the emperor's own land.

According to the policy of the imperial court, the villagers who were close to the bandits' dens were to be relocated to the original territory of Zhang Daguanren and temporarily became the emperor's tenant farmers until the remnants of the bandits on the mountain were completely exterminated.

It was difficult to leave their homeland, so when they heard the news of the relocation, the villagers began to cry endlessly.

Wang Congjun was unmoved, and strictly ordered the villagers to move out, otherwise they would all be punished as gangsters.

The bandits fled into the mountains, but when they could not grow food in the mountains, they would inevitably come out of the mountains to grab food.

The villages near the mountain side will surely become a meal for the bandits if they are not forcibly relocated.

According to Wang Congjun's understanding, most of the villagers who don't want to move are inextricably linked to the bandits in the mountains and forests, in addition to the ideological problem of not being able to leave their homeland.

Therefore, the villagers must be relocated, which is the rule set in the bandit control manual.

However, how could the arms be twisted over the thighs, and under the threat of force, the villagers were forced to embark on the road of relocation with cattle and dogs, carrying large bags and small bags of things.

After the villagers were driven to the road, Wang Congjun ordered the conscripted township soldiers to rest in place, and the officers and soldiers of the Xiang brought out of the county town rode horses to monitor the roads near the entire mountainous area.

After the surrender of the Dangxiang people in the northwest, the court in the Central Plains was not short of horses, and in the case of Wang Congjun's subordinates, he brought out the county town with a hundred van troops, a total of 130 horses.

The bandits who fled up the mountain were only 250 at best, and with 100 cavalry against more than 200 bandits, it was in the region, and no matter how Wang Congjun calculated, it was impossible for him to lose.

In fact, just as Wang Congjun expected, the bandits on the mountain knew that they could not resist the surprise attack of the cavalry, so they simply did not dare to go down the mountain in order to save their lives.

The bandits on the mountain refused to go out of the mountain, which had long been expected by Wang Congjun, think about it from another perspective, if he was the leader of the bandits, he would definitely not dare to go down the mountain at this time.

The main reason why he did not go into the mountains to suppress the bandits was that Wang Congjun lacked confidence in the recruited township soldiers.

How can I say that after the training of the pavilions and villages, these township troops have basically possessed the ability to fight on the plains.

However, the difficulty of going into the mountains to suppress bandits is not ordinarily high for the township soldiers who are only good at obeying orders and rushing to kill.

What's more, Wang Congjun's hands are seriously short of archers, and among the mighty 700 men, there are no more than 20 people who can shoot arrows.

In the mountains and forests, the spears in the hands of the township soldiers are basically useless. With just a few archers, the bandits were enough to fight an invisible attack with the troops entering the mountains, and gradually drag the troops down and down.

It is very clear in the manual for suppressing bandits that it is better not to go into the mountains than to cause too many casualties to the troops.

Although, it is cheap for the imperial court to raise a soldier of the township army. However, once a soldier of the township army dies in battle, he must enjoy the bereavement treatment of the officers and soldiers.

Therefore, Wang Congjun felt a little unaffordable. After careful consideration, he decided to adopt the methods in the handbook on suppressing bandits to relocate all the villagers near the bandits' dens.

In this way, the bandits who have lost their source of supply will inevitably be dragged down and thin.

As for the resettlement of the relocated villagers, in Wang Congjun's view, this is not a problem at all.

Since coming to Shenzhou, there have been as many as ten big squires who were beheaded by Wang Congjun. According to the policy of 30 taxes and 1 day, the 10,000 hectares of grain fields obtained by the raided families were leased to the relocated peasant households for cultivation.

After the seven villages near the bandits' den were all relocated, Wang Congjun gave an order to return to the city with a victorious squad of the bandit army.

Wang Congjun is playing Yangmou. After all, the nearest village to the bandits' den is also more than thirty miles, and it is in the plains.

The most important thing is that there are many officials and soldiers in the imperial court. In the plain of thirty miles, as long as the bandits were discovered by the official army, they would no longer be able to escape into the mountains.

Before leaving, Wang Congjun decisively ordered the village to be set on fire and the well to be filled. The bandits must not be left with resources to use, especially food.

The handbook on the suppression of bandits makes it very clear that the most important task in the operation of suppressing bandits is to cut off the supply of food, salt, and materials to the bandits.