Zuo Mengmei sighed faintly: "The great (Nian Dynasty) king lives in the palace and is free every day, but he doesn't know that the mountain rain is already coming outside Jingzhou City!" ”

"How?" Zhu Cizhao hurriedly asked, "Could it be that the prince's brother has done something disobedient and unfilial?" ”

"It's not the prince," Zuo Mengmei shook her head, "It's Li Zicheng!" ”

"Ah, it's the emperor," Zhu Cizhao found a slip of the tongue and quickly changed his words, "Is it a traitor calling?" ”

"Not yet, but soon!" Zuo Mengmei said, "The notice of the traitor has been posted outside Jingzhou...... What did 'eat his mother, divide his mother, and the king came to divide the fields', which made the people of Jingzhou City panic. This morning, Huang Shu, the military advisor of his father-in-law, also came to Jingzhou, and at this time he was discussing with his father, Wang Banban, and the prefect how to deal with the army of King Chuang! ”

"This ......" Zhu Cizhao panicked suddenly, "Sister, let's prepare to run for our lives!" This Li Zicheng is fierce, and the widow can't fall into his hands anymore! ”

Zuo Mengmei looked at her little husband and was a little speechless.

Li Zicheng is fierce, your brother Zhu Cihong is not fierce? Falling into the hands of Li Zicheng may not be ruined, if you rebel and are caught by your brother, do you still want to live?

Since ancient times, it has been the most ruthless emperor's family!

.......

At the same time, Zhu Cizhao, the good brother of Chu King Zhu Cizhao and the world's most filial son, Zhu Cihong, had returned to Jiangbei Camp.

He didn't return to Jiangbei Camp directly from Fengyang Mansion, but went around in a big circle. First along the Huai River to Huai'an Mansion, then along the canal south, to Yangzhou, then turn west, through Yizhen to arrive at Jiangpu County's Jiangbei camp.

Along the way, every time he passed a town of a certain size, Zhu Cihong would hold a huge victory parade. 8,000 to 10,000 heavily armed soldiers of the New Army, fully armed, with pickled Tartar heads hanging on their weapons, passed through the city with murderous spirit, shocking people's hearts!

The Tartars have killed so much, who dares to disagree?

If you don't accept it, come here! Let's see if you're good or Tartar!

In addition to deterring Xiaoxiao, Zhu Cihong also pulled a lot of people along the way - all of them were refugees from the north who were displaced between the Jianghuai River!

Huang Shu is not wrong about one thing, Zhu Cihong's regime is a regime of Han people in exile in the north, and they all went to the southeast with their fists clenched to scrape oil and water. So what Zhu Cihong really trusts is the northerners...... He was from Hunan in his previous life, and he has been working hard in the magic capital, so he doesn't particularly like northerners. But in this life, he knows very well what his basic plate is?

Zhu Cihong's foundation is, first, the Northern Army; The second is NCB!

The Northern Army does not refer to northern warlords like Huang Degong, Gao Jie, and Zuo Liangyu. It was the northern soldiers who were controlled by Zhu Cihong - like the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty in history, Zhu Cihong's Nandu regime now also relies on exiled northerners to serve as soldiers.

And NCB is mainly a maritime businessman. Unlike the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Cihong's Southern Ming Dynasty is now just in time for the Age of Discovery. Wealth and firearms from overseas were very important to Zhu's army.

Therefore, Nanshang is also a major component of Zhu Cihong's regime, and without them, the regime of Prince Zhu would not be stable.

And now is the time to use troops, so of course the northern army dominates, Zhu Cihong has to pay special attention to the northerners and help the northerners refugees in the south as much as possible.

It is certainly unrealistic to dictate land to millions or tens of millions of northerner refugees...... The population of the southeast is already large! It's almost crowded, where can I go to give the field? Although he can seize the land of the southern landlords, he can't drive tenants on a large scale!

That must not provoke a peasant uprising?

However, Zhu Cihong still has to do his best to provide relief and opportunities to serve as soldiers for the northerners!

So when he showed his force between Jianghuai and Jianghuai, he recruited strong men from the north all the way, and got tens of thousands of them, all of which were brought back to the Jiangbei camp - and this Jiangbei camp will soon become a military city for the settlement of northern refugees!

"Chitose Lord, with these tens of thousands of families, there are now almost 120,000 Northern officers and soldiers who have divided their homesteads in Yingtianfu...... The population is no less than 300,000, and it will soon break 400,000! ”

"There are still many refugees from the north coming in a steady stream, Huai'an, Yangzhou, Fengyang, Runing and other prefectures have reported, and the number is probably no less than three or four million!"

"Chitose Lord, in the past few years, there were quite a few northerners who went south, and now there are millions more......"

"Chitose Lord, now there are many northern displaced people in the southeastern state capitals, and many of them have no food and clothing, and no way to beg...... We've got to figure out something, right? ”

The people who were talking to Zhu Cihong about the northern refugees were Wu Xiang, the secretary of the military department, and Li Yan, the commander of the military commander.

The northerners who followed Zhu Cihong to the camp in Jiangbei were handed over to the two of them for resettlement - it was impossible to grant land, but the homestead was still scored, and a little money had to be issued to settle down. Each household must always give twenty or thirty taels.

About forty or fifty thousand, millions of taels of silver were smashed out!

In addition, you have to give some rations, so you can't let people starve to death! Each household is given two stones of rice noodles, which is another 100,000 stones......

Of course, this money and food are not given in vain. Forty or fifty thousand is forty or fifty thousand strong men, all of whom are recruits of the new army!

In addition to the more than 70,000 families that were previously placed in Nanjing, Zhu Cihong now has 120,000 families under his control, with a population of 5.6 million people...... And this number is still growing.

And in the whole southeast, the refugees from the north are conservatively estimated at four or five million!

In addition, many refugees remained between the unoccupied areas of Shandong and Jianghan...... It's all added together, and you can't beat 10 million!

If you add in the number of refugees who fled south in the past few years, the number is even more staggering. And what about the livelihoods of the refugees? How do you feed so many mouths? In addition, there is a "slave mutiny" in the southeast...... It's a headache to think about!

Zhu Cihong pressed his temples, "Is there any news from Zuo Liangyu?" Is he dead? ”

Li Yan replied: "It's not dead, but it's almost there." ”

"Chitose Lord, are you going to use troops against Huguang?" Wu Xiang said, "Only by taking Huguang in our hands can we have enough food to eat!" ”

Zhu Cihong squinted his eyes and said, "How much grain has been stored in the Juntun Division?" If there is not enough food in the military tun division, this battle will not be fought! Huguang not only has to deal with Zuo Liangyu, but also has to deal with Li Zicheng! 100,000 troops were dispatched for at least six months...... In addition to the consumption of people, boatmen, and livestock, some relief rations had to be prepared. If you don't have a million stones of rice and grain, you don't dare to use this soldier. ”

Because of the too many exiles in the north and the impact of the war in Huaibei and Shandong, there is now a bit of food shortage in the southeast.

Now it is the time of green and yellow, so the price of grain in Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou and other places is also very high, and a stone of white rice has been sold to about three taels of silver!

In addition, because of the development of industry and commerce in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty, a large amount of land is used to grow cash crops, so grain has always been provided by the upstream lake.

Once the war breaks out in the autumn and winter, the eastward transportation of grain from Huguang may be interrupted, and the price of grain in the southeast will be even more expensive at that time.

Therefore, the "million stones" reported by Zhu Cihong are still less to say, and they really have to be prepared, and 10 million stones is about the same.

"Millions of stones, where is it?" Wu Xiang shook his head, "The autumn harvest hasn't arrived yet?" The rent will always be collected in November and December, and there will always be 16 million stones! ”

"16 million stones!" Zhu Cihong smacked his lips, "It's all in hand, Pinghuguang's expenses will be settled, and Shandong will not be worried, and it can also relieve refugees and stabilize food prices......"

"Then we'll have to wait until next spring to use troops in a big way, but that's fine." Li Yan thought for a moment, "There are still more than four months...... It should be possible to expand a few more model regiments. In the past few months, we have ordered a large number of guns and gunpowder from the iron factories in Foshan and Anping, which should be able to be delivered when the southeast wind rises next spring. ”

He smiled: "Huguang has thousands of miles of fertile fields and 200 million acres of cultivated land, once we take it, we don't have to worry about the lack of food!" ”