Chapter VIII Torture

Jiangnan is just a little snow, a thin layer of snow, just an embellishment between the mountains, but in Xi'an, it is a heavy snowfall.

However, by this time the real heavy snow had passed, and the snow-white color filled the entire land, and there was no edge visible at a glance.

It's just a long procession, coming out of the city of Xi'an, although it is winter and snow, but everyone is very popular.

Li Zicheng did not ride a horse, but let Zhang Nai lead the horse to walk behind, although he was already an emperor, but there was almost no difference except for a bright yellow cloak, and he was still an old felt hat when he marched. A pair of armor that has been worn for many years.

There are also quite a few scratches from the sword on it.

These are all traces left by his years of fighting.

In the last few months of Chongzhen's sixteenth year, Cao Ying drew Jiangnan. But Li Zicheng was not idle, and the entire northwest was under Li Zicheng's control during this period of time. And it seems that Luo Rucai's victory stimulated Li Zicheng, so on the first day of the first lunar month, Li Zicheng did not rest, but the army rushed to the city, and the troops were divided into two routes.

One route was led by Li Zicheng to attack Shanxi, from Shanxi to Beijing, and from Henan to Hebei and Shandong. The two parties agreed to meet in Beijing. This route was led by Yuan Zongdi.

"Your Majesty, now that the snow has not melted, let's let the soldiers rest before leaving." Li Xin came up and said.

Li Zicheng swept over the traces of many wrestlings along the way, sighed and said, "It's okay." ”

Zhang Nai immediately got on his horse and shouted everywhere: "Your Majesty has an order, rest on the spot." ”

The sound of shouting came, and it reached Li Zicheng's ears far away.

Li Zicheng rubbed the snowball on the rocks on the side, claws in his hands, and took a bite of it, only to feel that his mouth was full of coldness, and said, "Strategist, am I in a hurry?" ”

Li Xin said: "Your Majesty does not need to be like this, the general situation is still under our control. ”

Li Xin's implication is that Li Zicheng is a little anxious.

"I really didn't expect that Luo Rucai could still have such ability, and Jiangnan was so easy to get into his hands. I really hate that I didn't listen to my husband's opinion at the beginning. Li Zicheng said.

"Your Majesty, it's useless to think about it so much." Li Xin said: "If Jiangnan falls into the hands of Luo Rucai, it may not be beneficial to us, and now, the people of the entire north are panicking, even the hearts of scholars and doctors are not in the imperial court." Our army has just left Xi'an, and I have already received letters from many prefectural and county officials in Shanxi, and I am sure that this way to Beijing will only take three or two battles. ”

"That's fine." Li Zicheng said.

But no matter what Li Zicheng thought in his heart, he was a little uneasy, but he also knew that now he was actually not capable of interfering in the south

Things that are ready to be sent have to be sent, and the strategic turn that is so easy.

Li Zicheng could only comfort himself that after taking Beijing as soon as possible, he would come to solve the problem in Jiangnan.

"Your Majesty." Niu Jinxing walked over from a distance and said, "Your Majesty, the military salary has been raised." ”

Li Zicheng laughed and said, "Oh, how did you do it? ”

Li Zicheng's army was only a lot more than Cao Ying's army. To feed hundreds of thousands of troops, for Cao Ying, who occupies the south of the Yangtze River, he can also choose to scrape the ground, but Li Zicheng can't choose it.

"The minister has set a quota for the counties, 20,000 or 30,000 taels for small counties, 780,000 taels for large counties, and more than 100,000 taels for the capital city, and since the expedition, 3 million taels of military salaries have been raised, which is enough to hit the city of Beijing." Niu Jinxing said.

When Li Xin heard this, he gasped.

This amount, in fact, is not too much during the Taiping period, Henan Taiping years, a small county paid about 20,000 stone of taxes. But what year is it now, the place occupied by Li Zicheng is a dilapidated northwest, and this amount is a bit amazing.

"Your Majesty, with such a heavy conquest, I am afraid that the people's hearts will be lost." Li Xin said.

"I am from a poor background, how can I not be considerate of the people?" Li Zicheng laughed and said: "This is not a tax, it is just a salary." ”

"Torture?" When Li Xin heard this, he felt even more chilled in his heart, and said: "In this way, I am afraid that I will offend the gentry of the world." ”

Li Zicheng said with a little cruelty in his smile: "And aren't the gentry of the world afraid of offending me?" ”

Li Xin was cold, and he didn't dare to speak.

Fundamentally, Li Xin and Li Zicheng are different.

Before Li Zicheng started his family, in order to eat a mouthful of food, he took his brothers to the mountains to hunt, went to the fields to dig mice, and ate grass roots. On the one hand, it is difficult to survive, and life is unobtainable, on the other hand, there is no luxury and unlimited luxury.

If Li Zicheng has no hatred for these people, it is impossible.

Therefore, Li Zicheng operated on these people without any psychological burden.

But Li Xin is different, his family is a wealthy family, and he has to go to the camp as a last resort. He knows very well that under the current situation, if a county scrapes 20,000 or 30,000 taels of silver, I am afraid that the gentry in the county will be empty, this is not Jiangnan after all.

Even if Jiangnan is a small county, if it really wants to be scraped like Li Zicheng, it may not be possible that there is no one million taels in a county. But the family foundation in the north has long been exhausted in one natural and man-made disaster after another.

Li Zicheng felt that he had rested enough, and ordered to continue the march.

Li Xin grabbed Niu Jinxing's hand and said, "Prime Minister Niu, why don't you persuade Your Majesty to do such a move?" ”

Niu Jinxing's face turned cold and said: "Why don't you persuade you, hundreds of thousands of troops want to eat, and Your Majesty will be tax-free for three years, so you can't lose your trust."

People, you have to come with silver, Xiangyang does have some silver, but you don't know how much food is consumed from Xiangyang to the front line. ”

As soon as he talked about this, Niu Venus was full of anger.

Didn't he know that it was bad? But as the big boss of the entire camp, what can he do in the face of a hole like the sky? broke into the camp and won the battle, and a large number of former officers and soldiers were absorbed, and it was not okay not to give money. It is not good to give the silver to the army without giving the old brother silver, and the northwest is not a rich place. Bull Venus was almost white-headed.

Originally, he was not much in favor of the torture policy, but now, he doesn't care about anything, as long as he can get him money, it is a good way.

"But in this case, I am afraid that the local gentry will rebel against the imperial court?" Li Xin said.

"Look at their hard heads, but my knife is fast in the camp." Niu Jinxing said: "Li Junshi, don't be too sentimental, change the dynasty, don't kill people that year, kill for two or three years, and after you start collecting taxes, it will naturally be too peaceful, and you don't need to torture your salary." ”

Li Xin didn't know what to say for a while.

He naturally dislikes this policy, not that he has a good impression of many gentry, as a member of the gentry, he naturally knows that many people have no bottom line. I don't know how many things that hurt nature and reason, but is this kind of indiscriminate policy really right?

Li Xin didn't have an answer for a while, he let go of Niu Jinxing.

In fact, Li Zicheng also knew that Li Xin was opposed, so this matter bypassed Li Xin and let Niu Jinxing handle it, after all, above the authority, the governance of logistics affairs was originally the business of Niu Jinxing, the prime minister. Li Xin, a military general, was originally responsible for marching and fighting.

"Can a strong soldier really win the world?" Li Xin was asking himself: "Or is it just a matter of being strong and strong to fight the world?" ”

Li Xin looked at the pale sky, corresponding to the snow-white earth, and in the snow-white earth, there was a headless and tailless flow of people, there was no forward in front of it, and no rear guard in the back, it seemed that from ancient times to the present, this has always been the way the army has done this.

Li Xin let go of his gaze, looked from a distance, and saw a trace of black line spreading away from a few miles away. If this army is parallel, hundreds of thousands of troops will naturally march separately, like a torrent to hide through the Guanzhong Plain.

Such a large army cannot be called strong soldiers and horses, what kind of army can be called strong soldiers and strong horses.

But is it enough to be strong?

Li Xin faced the cold wind in the northwest, and the snowflakes that Ren didn't know where to roll up hit his face, cold. It seems to be about to freeze.

He didn't have an answer. He only sighed softly and said, "This can only be the case, and I hope that the future situation will be as Prime Minister Niu said." ”

Torture politics is only a last resort and the only choice to break into the financial predicament, even if you see the harm.

：。 ：