The last to come out is often the most important. Sun Hong was the last person to appear.

In the dead of night, frogs chirp. Sun Hong walked quickly into the simple wooden house, and immediately knelt down and bowed.

"I haven't seen you for a few months, and Mr. Sun has lost weight again!" Shizi Road.

Shizi's simple care almost made Sun Hong cry.

In early April, Sun Hong's wife and concubine were beaten by scholars at the entrance of the governor's office, and happened to be met by Sun Hong, who was returning home to visit relatives. He was furious and ordered Wang Erniu to kill someone, and the prince came forward for him, ensured him to pass the test, asked Doctor Luo to treat his injuries, and took them to the palace to avoid the limelight. Sun Hong was grateful to Dai De for this, and since then he has abandoned the idea of working in the palace to earn money and support his family, and instead devoted himself to Zhu Pingjin to make a career in the Shu Palace. Zhu Pingjin wanted to open up the situation in Jiading Prefecture in southern Sichuan, so Sun Hong volunteered to take the propaganda team to Jiading Prefecture to cooperate with Tang Mo to carry out propaganda and collect contributions.

Jiading Prefecture is a very important place, and Zhu Pingjin set his sights on it as soon as he took Yazhou.

"Yu Gong" said: "Minshan guides the river". The geographers of the Ming Dynasty confirmed that the Minjiang River is the source of the Yangtze River in the "Unification Chronicles of the Ming Dynasty", so Jiading Prefecture became the first city of the Yangtze River.

Jiading Prefecture itself is a large wharf, and grain ships carrying thousands of stones can move unimpeded. Along the river, facing half of China, all the way to chop the waves, smooth wind and water, within ten days the grain ship can go directly to Shanghai County. The so-called battleground in military topography is a place like Jiading Prefecture.

In addition to the military justification, the agricultural justification is more sufficient. Sichuan has three major impact plains, in addition to the Chengdu Plain, which has the largest area and the best conditions, there are also the Fujiang Plain in Mianzhou and the Qingyi River, Minjiang River and Dadu River Plain in Jiading Prefecture. These three plains are interconnected to form the West Sichuan Plain or the Chengdu Plain in a broad sense. The impact plain where Jiading Prefecture is located is roughly triangular. The two vertices in the north and south are Jiajiang County and Emei County, and the apex in the southeast is the Wutong Bridge in later generations. On this triangular plain, millions of acres of fine paddy fields and dry fields are distributed on both sides of the Minjiang River, Dadu River and Qingyi River, which is an important traditional farming area in Sichuan.

Against the backdrop of setbacks in the Shu Wangfu's land donation policy in various parts of Sichuan, the difficulty of Sun Hong and Tang Mo's work in Jiading Prefecture can be imagined. As soon as Sun Hong arrived, he did not sit in the state city as a cross-legged boss and eat warped-foot beef, but sank headlong into the county and rural towns.

From April to June, in more than two months, Sun Hong and the propaganda team's footprints stayed in Emei, which has beautiful scenery and is known as the "show of the world", in Wutong Bridge, which is rich and rich because of salt, and is known as "Jin Qianwei", and in the mountains and rivers of six counties in Jiading. Eating and sleeping all the way, the hard work is very well known.

According to Tang Mo's report, nearly 60,000 mu has been collected from Jiading Prefecture's donation. That's a remarkable achievement!

You must know that this figure is almost twice the total amount of cultivated land donated in Qiongzhou, Meizhou, Hanzhou, Jianzhou, Zizhou and other places. And if there is a large map, you can see that these 60,000 acres of land are dotted and scattered in the gaps of the gentry grange in Jiading Prefecture.

At a glance, it can be seen that the process of receiving the offering is almost like pulling teeth in the mouth of the gentry!

In addition to widely publicizing the land policy of the royal government, Sun Hong also followed Zhu Pingjin's secret instructions to buy 1,500 poor and helpless young men in various parts of Jiading Prefecture as a supplementary source of troops for the caravan. A few thousand recruits had already been transferred to Songlin Mountain a month ago, and nearly 200 people had supplemented Tan Sigui's Fifth Company, which had passed through Yazhou to Luzhou, and Wang Jing's Jiading Prefecture Cadre Guarding Squadron, and nearly 300 people had supplemented the Grassroots Guarding Squadron in Yazhou, Pengshan, Shuangliu, and other counties.

Sun Hong's achievements in Jiading Prefecture were one of the reasons why Zhu Pingjin met Sun Hong alone. The more important reason is Sun Hong's civilian background.

In his first recital, Sun Hong proposed to hold high the great banner of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang to prove his political shrewdness. He has no fame, he was born in a poor family, and he is mixed in the market, which is an outlier in the ranks of senior cadres under Zhu Pingjin. Therefore, Zhu Pingjin regarded Sun Hong as a very important balancing force, deliberately wooed him, and gave him a real power that many people, including Sun Hong himself, may not be aware of - the right to recruit troops. At present, there are nearly 3,000 soldiers in the caravan, and two-thirds of the soldiers who Sun Hong participated in or personally selected. The remaining 1,000 were personally selected by Zhu Pingjin and his brother-in-law Luo Jingyun.

Every ordinary soldier, as well as the non-commissioned officers and officers who grew up from these soldiers, their belief and loyalty to Zhu Pingjian is the foundation of Zhu Pingjian in the army!

"Mr. Sun has worked hard these days! Jiading Wangzhuang has grown from scratch, from small to large, and Mr. Sun has made great contributions! The quality of this batch of Jiading soldiers is also good! ”

Zhu Pingjin first fully affirmed Sun Hong's work in the early stage, and then pondered for a moment, considering how to express the following words in order to clearly convey his meaning.

"Now the gentry in Shu have a lot of resistance to the policy of dedicating the land of our palace! For three hundred years, the country is in trouble, these people are still obsessed, and they are unwilling to work together with the son of the world to tide over the difficulties! Hey, and what can I do!

The son of this world was also indignant: since these gentry are so ignorant, then the son of this world might as well let them go! When those thieves and bandits come, kill them all and rob them all! But this son thought about it again, the thieves and bandits came, and it was not the gentry who hurt the most, but the innocent people! This son is now catching mice in a porcelain shop - this can't be touched, that can't be touched, a dilemma! ”

The meaning of Shizi's words is not difficult to understand. Regarding the question of the gentry, Sun Hong once seriously thought about it in the mountains and wilderness of Jiading. There are only two monarchs and ministers in the camp, and it is a good opportunity to speak out. So Sun Hong said bluntly:

"The gentry don't know what to do, the minister is in Jiading Prefecture, and he has a deep understanding! Chen and Mr. Tang received donations in Jiading Prefecture, and there were always dozens of rogue hooligans near the public office every day! The ministers inquired in all directions, and learned that it was hired by the gentry in the city, and there was a family member of Jinshi Luo Guoxian (Note 1). They didn't dare to come forward themselves, so they used such indiscriminate means! The minister took the propaganda team to Qianwei County, and they also hired people to pretend to be bandits to rob. Fortunately, Wang Erniu was alert and led the guards to kill a few, which scared them away! ”

"How dare you be so rampant!"

Zhu Pingjin slapped the table and was really angry.

"The reason why Weichen didn't dare to report in time was because he was afraid that the son of the world would have a murderous intention!" Sun Hong arched his hand and said.

"In that case, has Mr. Sun taught me?"

"Does the prince know the story of Han Guangwu?"

……

The Han Guangwu mentioned by Sun Hong refers to Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

This Han Guangwu is not only known to Zhu Pingjin, but also to many Sichuan people. During the Three Kingdoms period, Sichuan was the stronghold of the Shu Kingdom.

Shu is just what the world is called. In fact, the real country name of Shu is "Han", and it is known as "Shu Han" in history. Shu Han Guozuo is the inheritance of the Eastern Han Dynasty; Emperor Liu Bei of the Han Zhaolie Emperor was the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of Shu, famously said in his famous article "The Later Teacher": Han and thieves do not stand together, and the royal industry is not partial! The "Han" here also refers to the Eastern Han Dynasty handed down by Liu Xiu.

Liu Xiuyuan is a native of Nanyang, Henan, a distant branch of the Western Han Dynasty, and his father Liu Qin was a county magistrate. XIN MANG USURPED THE HAN DYNASTY, LIU XIU AND HIS BROTHER LIU ZHU (YAN) LED THE NANYANG CLAN TO RAISE TROOPS, AND LATER JOINED THE GREEN FOREST ARMY, ESTABLISHED THE FIRST EMPEROR LIU XUAN, AND BROKE THE 420,000 CONQUEST ARMY OF XIN MANG IN THE FAMOUS BATTLE OF KUNYANG, MAKING THE FIRST CONTRIBUTION TO THE DESTRUCTION OF XIN MANG. After that, his brother Liu Xuan was killed by Emperor Gengshi. Liu Xiutao was in obscurity and was ordered to raise troops in Hebei, starting a new journey on his road to hegemony.

On the way to Hebei, his close friend Deng Yu suggested to Liu Xiu: "Recruit heroes, please the hearts of the people, and establish the cause of ancestors." To save the lives of all people, with the concern of the public, the world is not enough! Deng Yu's meaning was to hope that Liu Xiu would show his intention to revive the Han Dynasty, promote Confucianism and worship integrity, actively strive for the support of the Hebei family and the clan surnamed Liu, save the people, release slaves and prisoners, encourage farming, and compete with the peasant army and other separatist forces for the hearts of the people.

Since then, Liu Xiu broke the bronze horse, lowered the red eyebrows, won Longwangshu, rejuvenated the Han world, and Deng Yu's discussion ran throughout.

"The Eastern Han Dynasty was proud and strong, so the local Haoqiang wantonly annexed the land, and eight or nine out of ten of the land of a county and a county went into the private pocket of the Haoqiang, and the land of the people was less than one or two. It is difficult to collect government taxes, it is difficult to carry out the order of Dutian, and the officials have hundreds of millions of debts, and there will eventually be chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty. Mr. recalls the story of Guangwu, I don't know what to do, please be bold to tell it. Zhu Pingjin calmly said to Sun Hong.

"The son of the world must not blind himself to the rest." Seeing that there was no trace of waves on the face of the prince, Sun Hong took a reassuring pill and spoke boldly, "At the beginning of Han Guangwu's army, there were few major generals and few soldiers, and the soldiers were simple and ugly. However, a few years later, he was proclaimed emperor and rejuvenated the Han Dynasty. Why? Just take advantage of the situation. Land annexation has become a trend in the late Western Han Dynasty, and Han Guangwu is not the initiator. The local pride has become strong, and if it goes with it, it will prosper, and if it goes against it, it will die. New reckless, rotten Confucian scholars! I don't know the world's affairs, I go against the trend, retro restructuring, and I implement Jingtian, the world is in an uproar, and I will die in Jintai in a few years, and I will be the laughing stock of the world!

This positive and negative may be a reference for the world! ”

"Sir's intention, is it to let this son stop the land contribution?" Zhu Pingjin already had some anger in his heart, "Don't you know, sir: without a dedication strategy, the foundation of my caravan and village team will be lost, and it will collapse in an instant?" ”

Seeing that the prince looked uncertain, Sun Hong knew that the prince had misunderstood, so he hurriedly explained:

"Definitely! The donation of land is the pen of the son of the world, how can it be said lightly? Taking the 60,000 mu of cultivated land collected by the minister in Jiading Prefecture as an example, only one percent of the contribution fee will reach 12,000 to 14,000 stone at the age of one year, which is enough to raise 2,000 elite soldiers. In this way, the palace has thousands of hectares of fertile land, and it can raise 100,000 strong troops. This is the capital to pacify the world, how can it be handed over! The original intention of the minister is that those gentry, since the prince can't kill them all, why not soothe them and use them for my use? ”

"How can I use the gentry with my care? This son is reckless, Mr. Sun might as well say it clearly! ”

The prince repeatedly asked Sun Hong to say what he said, Sun Hong gritted his teeth, and finally poured out what he thought in his heart:

"The minister looks at Han Guangwu, and the lord of chaos is also the one who sets things right! Renaming the teaching, revitalizing Confucianism, Shen Qi Festival, and respecting the humble, reproducing the prestige of Han officials, the order is like that, and the world is thus centered; Let the gentry, release slaves and maids, provincial criminal law, and light labor, and the world will benefit from it. With these two, the world is decided! Today, the phenomenon of chaos has appeared. Liaodong Tartar, repeatedly knocked. The Gyeonggi area was plundered; Thieves in the Central Plains, repeatedly defeated the official army, and killed the vassal king! There was also a great hunger, cannibalism, and the cities were empty, and the bones covered the wilderness. The court was panicked and helpless, only knowing how to increase the salary; The soldiers will be lazy, defeated repeatedly, and only know how to plunder and harass the people!

The minister thought that the Yan Fan was exhausted!

My Shu people, although they are in the southwest corner of An, have been full of troubles. Thieves, thieves, thieves, bandits, and rioters, each taking advantage of the situation, has been repeatedly suppressed. This sincerity is the time of life and death of my Shu Domain! The prince bears the three-hundred-year-old virtuous name of Shu Mansion, is talented, heroic and decisive, treats soldiers well, and is compassionate to the people. There are toasts on the outside, and people on the inside. The treasury is full, the soldiers are full of food, and this sincerity is when my Shu domain is promising! ”

Another person who clearly proposed that Zhu Pingjin would rebel against the upper position!

How many are these?

Zhu Pingjin secretly thought, He Youyi counted one, Zheng Anmin counted half, and Sun Hong was added by one, a total of two and a half.

When the day I raise the flag, how many people can come forward to persuade him?

Note 1: Luo Guoxian, a native of Leshan. According to the history of the Ming Dynasty, Luo Guoxian was appointed as the governor of Yunnan and died in Qujing.