When Li Zicheng entered Lanzhou City, he went straight to the barracks, and the army has always been under his own direct control, which is the most reassuring and safe place.

After inquiry, Gansu Governor Mei Zhihuan arrived in Lanzhou in the afternoon, and Li Zicheng asked He Xiaomi to invite him to come over for dinner.

After a while, Mei Zhihuan followed He Xiaomi to the barracks, saw Li Zicheng, and immediately bowed to the ground, "Subordinate Mei Zhihuan, knock to see the governor!" ”

"Mr. Mei is welcome, please get up quickly!" Li Zicheng left his seat, helped Mei Zhihuan up, and asked him to sit opposite, and He Xiaoxiao cleverly served tea.

"Dadu Governor ......" Mei Zhihuan sat down, his eyes have been fixed on Li Zicheng's face, that day he abandoned the wife of the Beijing Division, and returned to Li Zicheng, it was really a last resort, Ganzhou City was broken, the army was defeated and captured, he thought he was dead.

What Li Zicheng can impress him is not sincerity, not the future, but the Xining rifle, from the Xining rifle, he vaguely feels that there are many unknown secrets hidden in this young man's body.

But today, Li Zicheng went east to Longyou, less than half a year, Longyou was well organized, he came to Lanzhou today, has been around inside and outside the city, where are there thieves, the shadow of war? It's only been half a year......

Li Zicheng knew that his heart was not calm, so he smiled and said: "If Mr. Mei has anything to say, just say it directly!" ”

Mei Zhihuan arched his hand, "Congratulations to the Metropolitan Governor, congratulations to the Metropolitan Governor!" ”

"Rejoice, rejoice!" Li Zicheng laughed, also gave his hand, and returned the salute.

"Metropolitan Governor, there is a question for his subordinates," Mei Zhihuan arched his hand again and said: "My subordinates couldn't find the answer originally, but after coming to Lanzhou, they knew that the Metropolitan Governor already had an answer, so the old man couldn't wait and wanted to ......."

"We are already our own people, if Mr. Mei has any questions, just ask directly, I should know everything!" Li Zicheng said in his heart, at this time, you will never doubt my determination to rebel, right?

"Then the old decay is presumptuous," Mei Zhihuan arched his hand again, and said: "The governor of the capital thinks that the imperial court can solve the thieves in Shaanxi if he suppresses or appeases?" ”

It turns out that he still cares about the imperial court, is it in Cao Ying's heart in Han? Li Zicheng picked up the tea cup, took a sip, and said, "Can't!" ”

"Can't? Why? Mei Zhihuan's eyes widened, as if the imperial court was slaughtering his wife, "The old man originally thought that maybe the imperial court would be hollowed out by these thieves sooner or later, and Daming would be ...... But after the old man came to Lanzhou, he found that the inside and outside of Lanzhou City was already peaceful, although the people were barren, but they had already passed the famine period, and it was only half a year...... The Metropolitan Governor can do it, why can't the imperial court do it? ”

This Mei Zhihuan, the hunch is really a bit right, Daming is a thief who died in Shaanxi, so to speak, Li Zicheng is also a thief, but Mei Zhihuan is on the matter, he is not angry, and said with a faint smile: "Mr. Mei is from Shilin, he is very familiar with the imperial court, and in today's imperial court, does anyone really care about these people who have become thieves?" ”

"Didn't Yang He, the original governor of the three sides, advocate pacification?"

"Yang He advocated appeasement and gave hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to the thieves, as well as tens of thousands of stones of grain," Li Zicheng already knew these facts from Wang Anping's message, "However, after the thieves returned to the people, they had nothing to do, no matter how much silver and grain they had, there would be a time when they ran out, once the silver and grain were gone, what way did the people have to live except to become thieves again?" ”

"This ......" Although Mei Zhihuan didn't know how to solve the problem, he could still understand what Li Zicheng meant.

"That's why I said, whether it's 'suppression' or 'fusing', the imperial court can't solve the problem of thieves in Shaanxi!" Li Zicheng first made Mei Zhihuan desperate for the imperial court, so that he could do things for himself with all his heart.

"Then why can the Metropolitan Governor solve it?"

"Because I am not the imperial court, but like the thieves, I was born in an ordinary people's family, I know the needs and sufferings of the people," Li Zicheng smiled faintly, "The Lanzhou that Mr. Mei saw is a way to solve the problem of thieves, not only Lanzhou, but the entire Longyou, as long as they survive this winter and next spring, and wait until the winter wheat harvest, they can achieve the goal of everyone's food, clothing, housing, and land!" ”

"Old and stupid, I still hope that the Metropolitan Governor will teach you," Mei Zhihuan got up and gave Li Zicheng a deep bow, "Since the Metropolitan Governor can solve the problem of eating for the people of Longyou, why can't the wealthy imperial court solve it?" ”

Affluence? Li Zicheng scoffed, the imperial court tax is indeed huge, but the expenses are even more huge, it is said that the vast majority of the annual tax revenue is used for the war in Liaodong, regardless of whether Liaodong can fight the Tartars, but the main officers are fat!

Such a thing, even if it is said, Mei Zhihuan may not believe it, Li Zicheng decided to start from the root, "Mr. Mei thinks that there are thieves in Shaanxi, what is the root cause?" ”

"Great drought, Shaanxi has been a big drought for three consecutive years!"

"Yes, the thieves are caused by the great drought in northern Shaanxi, and there is no sign of improvement so far, so even if the imperial court has the intention to resettle the victims, it is also a lack of arable land, and Longyou's method will not work in northern Shaanxi!"

"Because of the drought, northern Shaanxi has lost a lot of arable land, so the people have no land to cultivate," Mei Zhihuan suddenly realized, thought for a moment, and said: "Then the imperial court can move the disaster victims in Shaanxi to other regions, as long as part of the cultivated land can be evened out, the people will not ......."

"The problem is that the imperial court can't even cultivate land at all," Li Zicheng wanted to rely on Mei Zhihuan, so he planned to say a few more words to make him completely dead to the imperial court, "Throughout history, every dynasty, even if there is no foreign invasion, has only existed for two or three hundred years, what does Mr. Mei think?" ”

Mei Zhihuan went through the various dynasties in his brain, and on average, it was indeed only two or three hundred years, but he couldn't find the reason for it for a while, so he said: "Why? ”

"Land annexation," Li Zicheng said in a deep voice: "Every dynasty rises, the emperors and fathers slaughtered a large number of families of the previous dynasty, and distributed the land they occupied to the ordinary people, and the new dynasty will be increasingly consolidated, but after the new dynasty rule is stable, there will be new families, they will gradually encroach and plunder the land of ordinary people, when a large number of people lose their land and have no way to live, they will uncover the uprising, and finally overthrow the old dynasty and establish a new dynasty!" ”

"......" Mei Zhihuan's eyes were introverted, and he didn't look at it, and now he was thinking about what Li Zicheng said.

"Unlike other dynasties, the Ming clan is even more of a tumor," after Li Zicheng finished speaking, he thought of the word "tumor", but he didn't explain it, with Mei Zhihuan's knowledge, he should be able to guess, "After two or three hundred years of reproduction, the clan should now be no less than 100,000 people, right?" They don't have to do anything, and they are given a lot of arable land, and there is so much land in the whole country, and there is more and more arable land for the clans and families, and the land of the people is naturally getting less and less, and the population of the people is also growing......"

“……”

"If the imperial court wants to appease the victims of the disaster in northern Shaanxi, it must take out cultivated land, but who will take out this cultivated land? Is the clan and the family willing? Will the court force them to take it out? Li Zicheng took another sip of tea, and finally said faintly: "So, I said, the imperial court will never be able to solve the problem of thieves in Shaanxi, it will only get worse, and in the end, the foundation of the imperial court will be shaken!" ”

The prosperity and demise of the dynasty, the reason will not only be the land, but also foreign invasions, military systems, natural disasters, corruption, etc., and even the personal ambition of the ministers, is also an extremely important reason, when all the factors are concentrated in a certain period of time, the contradictions can not be reconciled, the old dynasty will perish in the contradictions, and the new dynasty will replace it.

But the fundamental contradiction is still land annexation, and the rest of the contradictions only exacerbate this main contradiction and accelerate the change of dynasty.

Li Zicheng didn't teach Mei Zhihuan, but just picked out the main aspects and told him: The Ming Dynasty is already declining, and it is a matter of time before the generation is replaced, which is the natural law of historical development!

Mei Zhihuan obviously didn't think about it so much, a Shunmin like him would never study the law of the demise of a dynasty, let alone study the demise of the Ming Dynasty, which was simply a great rebellion.

After listening to Li Zicheng's words today, he was stunned, but what he really couldn't understand was why Li Zicheng, who was young, had such insight? Is it really sent by God......

In the Ming Dynasty, there were very few Han people who believed in religion, but every time they encountered something incomprehensible, they asked for help from religion, or used religious knowledge to explain those nihilistic phenomena, and Mei Zhihuan was no exception.

When Li Zicheng finished solving his puzzles, his eyes when he looked at Li Zicheng were already full of strange colors, but then they were a little dim, but unfortunately he was too old to ......

It happened that the soldiers served the meal, Li Zicheng laughed and said, "Mr. Mei, let's talk while eating, we ran for a day, I'm hungry!" ”

"Yes, yes, talk while eating!"

Li Zicheng devoured it, first solved a white-flour steamed bun, and drank half a bowl of hot soup before stopping the bamboo chopsticks and saying, "Mr. Mei, do you know, why did I let you come to Lanzhou?" ”

Mei Zhihuan chewed a few times, swallowed the steamed bun in his mouth with hot soup, raised his head and said, "What, didn't the Metropolitan Governor let his subordinates come down to Longyou to investigate?" ”

Inspect? Is the green topography of Ganzhou comparable to that of Lanzhou? Li Zicheng smiled faintly and said: "Mr. Mei is knowledgeable, and he has to listen to Mr. Mei's long-distance travel, just to listen to Mr. Mei's opinion, we will take down Longyou, how to govern it next, so that the people can have enough food and clothing!" ”

"The Metropolitan Governor, his subordinates are dull, from the perspective of Lanzhou, Longyou has entered the recovery period, isn't it good now?" Mei Zhihuan listened to Li Zicheng's words and nodded slightly, "Even if you let the secretary come to Longyou, it's just that!" ”

"Mr. Mei has won the award," Li Zicheng arched his hand and said with a smile: "According to my estimate, once the winter wheat harvest period is passed tomorrow, the people of Longyou may be able to have enough food and clothing, but ...... Are the hundreds of thousands of people in Longyou just staying at the stage of abundant food and clothing? ”

"What does the Metropolitan Governor mean......" Mei Zhihuan finally understood, "The Metropolitan Governor is going to re-plan Longyou?" ”

Li Zicheng nodded, "Establish a province, what does Mr. Mei think?" ”