"The battle of Huguang has dragged on so far, although the official army has the upper hand, but the land of the two lakes is still ravaged by the rogues, and the Hubei side has engaged in a plan to teach the land, and the government is unwilling to put things right, and the gentry and merchants in Hubei are finished...... Without the Hubei gentry merchants, we don't know who to find to collect rice! ”

"There are not too many good people in Hunan, Yuezhou and Changde have passed a little fire, and there are still small groups of thieves in many places. In some places, the Diao people also used to make trouble, eat big households, rob big households, burn land deeds, burn debt deeds, and there was a miasma of black smoke......"

"Now I'm afraid that the chaos in Huguang will affect Jiangnan!"

"Affecting Jiangnan? How can it be? The Liukou have fallen behind on Huguang's side......"

"But don't we confiscate much lake rice! If there is no Huguang rice to be transported to Jiangnan, what do Jiangnan people eat? Now there are not only Jiangnan people on the Jiangnan side, but also many exiled northerners, all of whom are suffering like that, if there is no rice to eat, they must not continue to make trouble? ”

"There are still many slaves and maids in Jiangnan who are also ready to move, and they are all very miserable, it's really hard to make trouble!"

"Well, what to do? If you can't receive it, you can't receive it...... In previous years, more than half of the Huguang rice merchants who did business with us fell, and the rest were also greatly damaged, and there was no way to collect enough white rice for us. ”

"What can they do? There is chaos everywhere, and the peasants are reluctant to sell ......"

"I think the world is still going to be chaotic!"

In a restaurant on the bank of the Qinhuai River, a group of rice merchants who had returned from buying rice from Huguang were gathering together, eating wine and discussing current affairs.

Daming's remarks have been forgiving for many years, and the common people have no taboos when they speak, and they dare to say anything, so the news and rumors spread quickly.

And what they're talking about now is the real situation!

Huguang's mess is a bit big...... Of course, for Zhu Cihong, Huguang's current situation is quite ideal.

The gentry and profiteers in Hubei were crushed by Li Zicheng, and they had no ability to prevent Zhu Cihong from eating the fruits of Li Zicheng's land reform victory - Li Zicheng became the head of the grievances again! tossed in Huguang for a long time, and made a plan to settle the field, but the result was cheap Zhu Cihong.

Now Zhu Cihong can use the redemption policy to make the farmers who have obtained land in Hubei pay tens of millions of stone of grain in the next five years!

Moreover, because the land in Hubei is relatively average, and there are no local tyrants and inferior gentry to take care of it, Zhu Cihong's court can still receive more land taxes five years later. If you levy one or two buckets of rice per mu, Hubei alone can get no more than 10 million stones!

Of course, the situation in Hunan is a little worse, but he was picked up by Li Zicheng again, and he didn't come to divide the land. However, the local tyrants and inferior gentry around the Dongting Lake Plain also suffered heavy losses, and it was difficult to resist Zhu Cihong from going to Qingtun to inspect the land. Although it could not be done as thoroughly as in Hubei, there was no problem in looting 10 million mu of military tun and guantian in Changsha, Yuezhou, and Changde.

If you add Wuchang, Huangzhou (which was not occupied by Li Zicheng), and the military tun and official fields on the ground of the three prefectures of Hanyang, 20 million mu have been taken! These 20 million mu are rented according to the method of the Southeast Army Tun Division, and another 8 million stones will be collected in a year (and another 2 million stones are "expenses"). The remaining private fields in the Hunan Prefecture and Wuchang, Hanyang, and Huangzhou can still be made up to a certain extent, and it will not be a problem for the entire Huguang to earn 20 million stones a year in the future...... And that's not even counting the taxes on industry and commerce!

In addition, Zhu Cihong also got a Jiangdu Wuhan Mansion, and he will have a stronghold in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the future.

Therefore, the Battle of Huguang looked "aggrieved", and Li Zicheng pretended to be alive, but in fact, the harvest was very huge.

However, these huge gains are long-term and require a lot of energy to digest...... But a food crisis is about to break out in the southeast half!

The gossip in this tavern is all rice merchants running from both ends of Huguang and Jiangnan, and they are very clear about the problem of food shortage in the southeast.

In fact, the grain in the southeast has not been a day or two, and it began to be short when Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong took turns ravaging Huguang earlier, and it was slightly relieved after Zuo Liangyu recovered the vast half of Huguang.

But this time the matter was big - the previous ravages of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong on Huguang were only aimed at the surface, and several big cities were plundered. And this time Li Zicheng made a land reform, which can be regarded as digging up the roots of the landlord class, and it has been digging for more than half a year, and it is not over yet!

So Zhu Cihong's head still hurts!

The Imperial City of Nanjing, Huangjiang and Su Sheng, the two great imperial merchants, were also reporting to Zhu Cihong about the food shortage in the southeast at this time.

"Chitose Lord, even if some Huguang rice arrives, it can't stabilize the price of rice in major cities and towns in the southeast, and the brown rice on the market has generally risen to four to five taels of silver a stone, and it continues to be bullish!"

"Chitose Lord, there's really no way to do it...... There is no rice! Jiangnan imports no less than 20 million stones of white rice from Huguang every year, and from last winter to now, I am afraid that there are no 10 million stones. ”

"Yes, yes! I can't count on Lake Guangmi this year! Next year will be better, but not much better. Because this year's spring ploughing has been mistaken, the autumn harvest must not be as good as last year. Moreover, the willingness of small peasants to sell rice was not as good as that of the gentry landlords......"

Zhu Cihong was a little puzzled when he heard this, "What do you say?" Why were small farmers less willing to sell rice than the gentry? ”

Su Sheng's nickname is Su Laomi, and his family was originally a grain merchant, so he is very familiar with this matter.

He said: "Small farmers grow rice, it is hard work, and the gentry collect rent but pull the abacus beads, how can the two be equated?" Moreover, the gentry had many places to spend money, and they needed to sell rice for money. Small farmers save, and a big son is eager to smash a few petals, so they prefer to save the rice.

In addition, the gentry's families have enough grain in store, and they are not afraid of famine, and the small peasants are different, they used to have to eat a lot of grain, but now they finally have a surplus, of course, they have to save a little. What can we do about human nature? ”

yes, what can I do? You can't send troops to grab food, right? This is an official coercion and a rebellion against the people......

What can I do?

Zhu Cihong also has a headache when he thinks about it!

Seeing that the two imperial businessmen were at a loss, Zhu Cihong could only wave his hand and let them retreat.

The businessman has no choice, so he can only find an official.

Therefore, in the days when Zhu Cihong returned to Nanjing, he was not even in the mood to discuss internal meditation with Emperor Chongzhen, and discussed methods with the bigwigs of the two governments every day.

It's just that the problem of eating is too big, and the solution is not easy to think of!

......

"Hmph, lift a stone and shoot yourself in the foot!"

At this moment, in a rather elegant small building on the bank of the Qinhuai River, there is a talented man who sees through the eldest prince of Zhu, commenting on the troubles that the eldest prince Zhu is encountering at the moment.

This is the Zuoban superintendent Yu Shi Jikun who returned with Zhu Cihong, who has just bought a house in Nanjing City and is going to live for a long time. Today happened to be the joy of housewarming, so I invited a few friends to have a drink together. The people who came were Huang Zongxi (although he was going to Wuhan to take up his post, but there were still a lot of handover work to do, and the superior of the Qingtian Division was the Ministry of War, and he had to go back to Nanjing to form it), Wang Fuzhi, and Gu Jiang (that is, Gu Yanwu) - all very thoughtful figures!

The reason why they got together was actually Zhu Cihong's arrangement. He didn't want these people to squint around in a few corners, and the trouble was too big. At the same time, I don't want them to become the opposition outside the system - the trouble is even greater!

So he arranged an official position in Nanjing for Gu Jiang, and Wang Fuzhi was originally from Hunan, and he got an errand in the shogunate of Gu Yinxi, and was later recommended by Gu Yinxi to Zuo Mengmei and became the Ji Shan of Zhu Cizhao, the king of Chu.

Zhu Cihong found this person when he checked the official list of the Chu Wangfu, so he brought him to Nanjing, and on the way to Nanjing, Wang Fuzhi befriended Huang Zongxi and Ji Kun.

Hearing Ji Kun's comment, Wang Fuzhi, who was a little thin, stroked his beard and sighed: "Those who are equal to the world are just the world...... The prince can't be the whole world, but he picked the fruit of Li Zicheng's average world, and he can be regarded as a smart lord. ”

Gu Jiang laughed when he heard this: "It's just the world? If it's really that easy, Li Zicheng should sit on the country! ”