Xie Lin said: "General Qiqi learned that no less than 20,000 people have gathered outside the city in these days, and Linqu is a small city after all, and it is still dedicated to the large army in the morning and evening, and it consumes a lot every day. ”

Yu Zhilong, Fang Xue, Wu Side and others couldn't help frowning after hearing this. If it weren't for Yu Zhilong's thought that he had to leave some daily expenses for the county government, he specially asked Liu Zhengfeng to agree, but I am afraid that the operation of the county governance these days would have been paralyzed.

After all, those errand servants also have to support their families, and although there are not many local officials, they are familiar with the place and are indispensable in going up and down. The role of these people cannot be replaced by others, so after Yu Zhilong entered the city, he tried not to make major personnel changes, almost all the personnel were retained, and even in order to stabilize his heart, he also specially issued double the monthly salary. And now the number of people who are attached to it is increasing day by day, far more than expected, and now there are more monks and less porridge, and they will always sit and eat empty for a long time.

Fang Xue is in charge of the heavy allocation of the Jing'an army, and is naturally familiar with the daily use, and then said: "Our department now has a total of more than 4,000 people, the original cavalry team of more than 300 people, has now expanded to 500 people, the army mules and horses have also greatly increased, the daily consumption of forage and bean cakes is a major item, plus the post-war reward soldiers, even if our department tries to save as much as possible, it can't stand long-term use." If there is no foreign food, there will be a food shortage at the beginning of spring next year! ”

In the fourth year, the Yellow River overflowed and broke the embankment at the Baimao Embankment and the Golden Embankment. Cao, Pu, and Ji were all affected, and the people were miserable. In July, Yidu coastal salt disciple Guo Huo gathered the crowd, and the momentum was great, and there was no difference for a while. In August, it rained again throughout Shandong, causing the people to eat each other. In the townships and counties where Zhao Shi and Yu Zhilong lived, a large number of hungry people migrated or died of starvation.

"Cannibalism."

Cannibalism! Misery of the people!

The history of the Yuan Dynasty in later generations has been repeatedly recorded, but what can be recorded in history shows how far the food shortage has reached at that time!

In the more than ten years since Emperor Yuan was in power, there have been many cases of cannibalism in various places in the abdomen alone.

Thinking of the taste of hunger, except for Xie Lin, everyone here has a deep understanding that every year during the spring famine, the whole family goes out to beg for a living, all walks of life and counties. When the spring famine is severe, there are groups of hungry people on the road. When the green yarn tent is raised, less than half of the people can return to their hometowns alive one after another. Most of the people who can't come back are buried in a foreign land! If you encounter a year of catastrophe, it will be difficult to survive without three or four years!

As for the poor people who remained, in order to find food, they had to dig wild vegetables and eat tree bark everywhere, and the people were so hungry that their eyes were green and their bodies were swollen, and they did not dare to move much, so they could only lie at home and die.

In order to fill the belly, many people even eat Guanyin soil. It is difficult to pull out that thing after eating, and if you eat too much, your stomach will be round, and you will end up rolling on the ground in pain, moaning, and many people will die of swelling, and the uncomfortable taste is tantamount to punishment!

Yu Zhilong, Zhao Shi, Wu Side and other families all had people who died of hunger, and if they were not really hungry and cold, and there was no way out, they would not have embarked on the road of rebellion.

Xie Lin saw that Yu Zhilong was silent, and then said: "Subordinates and Brother Fang Xian have paid attention to the use and inventory of other armies, except for Liu Qi and Qin Zhanshan, the situation of the other armies is also worrying, it is found that the daily consumption of each army is too much, and the management is lax, I am afraid that it will be good to have three months!" ”

Fang Xue hesitated for a moment and said: "At present, there are a lot of people of all kinds inside and outside the city, and most of the people in the jurisdiction of our army have a temporary place to live, and all the military dependents and original households have been divided into acres and mountains and forests, but the situation of other departments of the Shuntian Army is different. ”

"What is there that cannot be said?" Yu Zhilong saw that Fang Xue was spitting and spitting, and said strangely, "You can do it." ”

"The other generals also contributed some money and food to help the people, but they focused more on military affairs and did not care much about the people's livelihood, and that's it, but I heard that some people assigned many good fields outside the city to their own names and recruited tenants. Although the tenant rent is less than that of the large Tartar households, after all, it is contrary to the original intention of King Shun and General Fei. "Fang Semester Ai Ai Dao.

Yu Zhilong frowned and asked, "Can you see it in person?" ”

"Don't dare to hide it from the general, my subordinates have personally interviewed those tenants, and this is indeed the case."

Yu Zhilong turned his head to look at Xie Lin, Xie Lin knew what he meant, nodded and said: "It is mainly done by General Liu Qi and General Qin Zhanshan, and now there are as many as 3,000 acres of land under his name, and there are no less than 4,000 acres of mountains, forests and rivers." King Shuntian now has hundreds of acres under his name. A field deed and so on are registered in the county office, so the subordinates know it. ”

Yu Zhilong was speechless for a while, and said for a while: "I'm afraid that the donations of each household will inevitably be detained a lot by the two of them in private!" ”

The collection of donations from major households was assigned by Liu Zhengfeng, and operated by his subordinates and Liu Qi, etc., and the county government did not cooperate with anyone, but only provided a list and its address. However, Xie Lin had a heart, and once asked his cronies to watch from the sidelines, and then went to various houses to inquire, and generally knew the amount of money. After paying close attention to the actions of the executor, he found that a lot of property was directly detained by Liu Qi and other generals.

"As you say, this number is roughly estimated to be around forty percent." Schelling gave a brief account of the day.

"The division of land and the establishment of a deed are related to the hearts of our army and the people, and it is the foundation of the army. How can we last long in this way? Yu Zhilong sighed.

Wu Side listened and said: "Why should the general be angry with him, then Liu Qi and the others were originally born as thieves, and for their own interests, how many things have happened along the way!" Even when the big boss was there, he was only a little more restrained, so what should he do? ”

Seeing that there were no outsiders on the left and right, Wu Side said again: "The general has great ambitions, and he will gallop the army in the north sooner or later, if such miscellaneous things are self-introspective, it is fine, if he provokes Lao Wu, he will not be able to see blood!" ”

"Be careful! It's just that this matter will inevitably damage the kindness of our army, but the land of a county is beginning to appear, if it occupies the road house, what should it do? ”

After Yu Zhilong finished speaking, he thought about it and said to Xie Lin: "Xie Xiancheng has been bothering a lot in the past few days, urging people to build more houses as soon as possible, this frost is coming, no matter what, the houses must be built before winter!" ”

"General rest assured, his subordinates will do their best!" Xie Lin said, "It's just that now there are 20,000 people outside the city, and the number of huts that need to be built is quite large, and the manpower and materials are short, so it is not easy to complete it as soon as possible." ”

Seeing that Xie Lin was embarrassed, Fang Xue stepped forward and proposed: "You might as well divide some people into each village, you can temporarily borrow it for a winter, and at the same time let the village work together, use more rocks and wood to help him build a house, and the borrowed person will help the villagers plow the land for cooking, and feed the cattle and horses." ”

When Xie Lin heard this, this method was good, and then said: "This method is very good, at present, there are many people in the army in various villages, and the labor force in the family has been reduced. It's just that the county still needs to subsidize some silver taels and rations for them, after all, these homeless people almost came in vain, and if they didn't have funding, they would have a hard time. ”

Yu Zhilong listened to the good method, thought about it, and asked: "I don't know how much silver my department still has, and it has been used a lot in various places recently, how long can it be supported?" ”

Fang Xue replied: "There are still about 100,000 taels of silver, and it will be sold out in no more than three months." ”

"At present, the surge in foreign population, all kinds of materials are difficult to be comprehensive for a while, and a county alone can not meet the long-term demand, and now the prices of rice and firewood, salt, cloth, etc. in the city have risen by two percent, and now the winter is coming, if there are no effective measures to improve, then the price will soar and become a settlement." Schelling continued.

Wu Sideqi said: "We have silver taels and yuan bills in our hands, are we still worried about not being able to buy things?" ”

Xie Lin smiled and said: "In the past, all the logistics were unhindered, and the local shortage of things was transported by merchants from other places, but now the roads everywhere are blocked by Tartars, and the materials cannot come in or go out, and even if the county has more grain, rice, oil and salt, it can't withstand such consumption; If there is little on the market, the people are naturally willing to pay more for silver and buy it first, and the merchants seek profits, hoarding or raising prices, and other things are common means, so that prices will inevitably be raised. High prices also induce people to chase after them, which leads to higher prices, and the two help each other, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. If there are no effective measures, it will be a dead end. ”

"Who dares to take the opportunity to rob the people of fat and ointment, Lao Wu is the first to cut off his head!"

"This county has thought about it before, and has done it, but the final effect is really—" Xie Lin smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Businessmen are profit-seeking, and it is natural for them to intervene, and even some powerful and rich people will take the opportunity to intervene, and they will not stop if they don't make a lot of money." At that time, the county's Daru Huachi beggar used his power to accumulate wealth, and in just a few years, he was able to gather more than 5,000 mu of fertile land, and the total number of acres of land of other large Mongolian households was not less than 30,000 mu. The county has also planned to issue a circular stipulating the market price and strictly prohibiting merchants from raising prices without permission, but those who violate it will be flogged or detained, or confiscated from their homes, but this law can only be used for a while, and cannot cure the fundamentals. And the big and powerful people in Mongolia are not able to be governed by Xie, so they can only try to ask for emergency supplies from neighboring counties, but unfortunately the turnover is slow and constrained by others, and the effect is often not good. ”

Wu Side scratched his head and said, "If even the government is helpless, will you just watch the people suffer?" Schelling was speechless.

Yu Zhilong never thought that he would actually take an economics class today. I paid more attention to the military a few days ago, and I was really negligent about this matter!

The laws of economic operation and economic leverage are a university question, Yu Zhilong is not a jack of all trades, only a general idea, and a rough person like Wu Side is even more of a layman!

Yu Zhilong turned his head and asked Sun Xing behind him: "Has the situation of businessmen from other counties coming here changed in recent days?" ”

After Sun Xing sent Zhu Delu away, he had already turned around and was always behind Yu Zhilong. Listening to Yu Zhilong's inquiry, he thought for a while and said: "Since before the war, the number of merchants who come and go here has been greatly reduced, but there are still some, and the business travelers who come here in the past few days after the war have basically disappeared, and most of the people who come to the city to sell goods are locals from outside the county. ”

According to the scout, the government of Yidu and Juzhou has banned merchants from taking the official road of Linqu, and as Xie Xiancheng said, the control of rice and salt is even stricter. Only a few small traders were able to steal the path and bypass the pipe card and get here, but there were not many of them. Sun Xing said again.

"The official road is blocked, the trade route is blocked, and in the long run, the people's livelihood will be helpless!" Yu Zhilong frowned.

"There's a capable man in the Tartars!" Yu Zhilong was silent for a while, thinking of the previous discussion of the generals, and felt more and more serious about the situation.

Yidu Lu did this to force the Shuntian army to take the initiative, but now that the war has just ended, both strength and preparation are insufficient.

"What is happening in the North and South Tartars?" Yu Zhilong inquired.

"The official road outside Yidu City has been set up by the Tartars more than a dozen camps, the big ones are thousands of people, the small ones are hundreds, relying on each other, and the surrounding Han army and righteous army are constantly stationed in the city. The total number is no less than 10,000 people! Sun Xing replied.

"As for the south, the Han army of Juzhou has already set up a camp, guarding the mountains and rivers, and there are no less than 2,000 people." Sun Xing continued.

Yu Zhilong and Wu Side were speechless for a while. The first thing in the march is the logistics burden, and now the Tartars have directly turned the people of the entire Linqu County into a big burden, which is a conspiracy and has to be broken. The longer this matter drags on, the worse it will be for you.

Yu Zhilong felt quite powerless at this time, as a whole of the Shuntian Army, after the various departments had a foothold, the suspicion between the leaders was obviously expanding, but he was completely hastily created in terms of governance, economy, intelligence, propaganda, and soldier training, and there was a serious shortage of talents at hand. Fortunately, he recruited Xie Lin and Mingxiong, two talents, and shared a lot of responsibilities in governing politics and soldier training, otherwise it would be useless to rely on himself and Zhao Shi and others to have gray hair!

Yu Zhilong stood up and paced back and forth in the hall, everyone knew that he was thinking about the way forward, and they all waited quietly. After the war, whether it was military or political, there were many things, and Yu Zhilong gradually formed the habit of pacing and thinking.

Yu Zhilong paced to the door of the tent again, looked at the neatly arranged tents around him, and listened to the sound of the drill order in the distance, Yu Zhilong pondered for a long time, and when the tea in everyone's cups was almost cold, he finally made a statement to order Sun Xing to announce that the generals would come over one by one to discuss the matter.

"Immediately summon Zhao Shi, Qian Zheng, Ji Xiancheng, Chang Zhi, Mu Chun, Luo Cheng, Hou Ying, and Mingxiong to discuss here!" Yu Zhilong finally spoke.

"Spread Ming Shijie and Guo Fengrong again!" Yu Zhilong continued, Sun Xing received the order, and arranged for the heralds to immediately ride horses and give the order separately.

Xie Lin, Fang Xue, and Wu Side glanced at each other a few times, feeling that Yu Zhilong seemed to be about to make some big moves.

Not long after, Zhao Shi and others rushed to the big tent, divided into two sides, Ming Shijie and Guo Fengrong were led to the side of the small tent to wait, when the personnel arrived, Yu Zhilong ordered all the idle people to retreat, the soldiers were strictly guarded, and it was strictly forbidden to enter and exit without permission. A group of people discussed for nearly an hour, and after the generals returned to the camp, Yu Zhilong summoned Ming Shijie and Guo Fengrong in, and discussed it carefully for half an hour.