To the west of Gucheng, on the east bank of the Beihe River, in a valley in the remnants of Daba Mountain, countless soldiers of the Ming army are busy around a huge waterhole.

They surrounded all the streams that flowed into the waterhole with cofferdams, and built a small dam on the tributaries of the waterhole that flowed into the North River, and at the same time dug huge pond-like pits in various low-lying places around the waterhole, and then took buckets and basins and threw water out, as if they wanted to dry this huge waterhole and harvest the fish and shrimp inside.

Zhang Bin looked at the busy figures of his soldiers and couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "This Zhang Xianzhong really knows how to hide silver." ”

Indeed, if it weren't for Zhang Cha, Zhao Ru and others holding binoculars, leading their elite squads, and always keeping an eye on the surroundings of Gucheng, who would have thought that Zhang Xianzhong would sink the silver into such a crystal clear pool.

Zhao Ru proudly pointed to a high mountain in the distance and said: "Hehe, he must not have imagined that I was holding a telescope over there to watch his every move, he was really cunning, he actually asked people to fish out the stones in the pool, and then sink the gold and silver, and spread the stones on it, and then sent another group of people to bury the boxes containing gold and silver everywhere, if the people who heard the wind ran to dig everywhere, and all the empty boxes were dug out, I don't know how to feel, hahahaha." “

Before Zhang Bin could speak, Liu Wenxiu on the side couldn't help but ask: "When he used a small boat to dig stones and transport gold and silver, he must have used a lot of people, so many people know this secret, isn't it in vain to do this?" ”

Before Zhao Ru could speak, Zhang Bin shook his head and sighed: "I'm afraid those people won't have a chance to tell this secret." ”

Liu Wenxiu had also been with Zhang Xianzhong for a while, he may not have seen Zhang Xianzhong's murderous side, he said a little incredulously: "Really? ”

Zhao Ru nodded and said: "Really, all those people were killed and thrown into the river to feed the fish, Zhang Xianzhong killed those people before letting people come over and bury treasure chests everywhere." ”

"Hiss", Liu Wenxiu couldn't help but gasp when he heard this, Zhang Xianzhong was so cruel, he really didn't expect that at that moment, he felt that Zhang Xianzhong seemed to be a good person.

Zhang Bin shook his head and sighed: "Originally, the vast majority of anti-thieves were starved and had no choice but to rise up, but when they got used to using looted wealth to satisfy their selfish desires, they changed and became rogues, and they were no longer ordinary people who simply wanted to live." Don't talk about this, Zhao Ruyou took Wenxiu and his 10,000 men to dig out those boxes, this piece of gold and silver is not easy to move ashore, and it is not easy to load the ship. “

At this time, the water on the periphery of the waterhole had gradually dried up, and the soldiers in the waterhole had to stand in rows by relay, passing buckets of water from the middle to the periphery to be emptied, and the bottom of the waterhole was slowly exposed.

Look at this time, this waterhole is still normal, the fish and shrimp are jumping around, the bottom is full of stones, and there is no gold and silver to be seen.

The 10,000 men under Ai Nengqi were busy all morning, and the water in the waterhole was finally almost exhausted, and the soldiers put all the fish and shrimp in it in buckets on the shore, and Feng Shuangli began to command his 10,000 men to use bamboo baskets to clean the stones at the bottom of the bullets.

Feng Shuangli's tens of thousands of soldiers were busy for nearly an hour, scraping off the stones at the bottom of the pond two or three feet thick, and the bottom of the pool finally revealed countless yellow and white light, Zhang Xianzhong's buried gold and silver were finally found, and Zhang Bin couldn't help but smile on his face.

After a day of cleaning, Zhang Xianzhong's buried gold and silver were all dug up, there were more than 5 million taels of silver alone, and tens of thousands of taels of gold.

This time it was really a big fortune, if other officials commanded the army, it was estimated that at least more than 30% would be embezzled, but Zhang Bin did not take a penny, and all of them were transported to the Xiangyang Mansion Treasury by boat and sealed.

Immediately afterwards, he wrote a letter of recital, he made a summary report on the first battle of Huguang, wrote all the situation on the recital, and immediately ordered the post station to be sent to the capital for 800 miles urgently.

Chongzhen only felt that his face was burning at this moment, and as soon as he made a mental operation, he suppressed Zhang Bin, and Huguang's good news kept coming.

In less than half a month, Zhang Bin took the capital of Huguang, the important town of Wuchang, and the thief chief Luo Rucai led more than 50,000 people to submit to the imperial court;

In less than ten days, Zhang Bin recovered the entire territory of Wuchang Mansion and Chengtian Mansion, and the thief chief Zhang Xianzhong fled in despair;

In less than ten days, Zhang Bin conquered Xiangyang, a large number of heroes in the world, captured more than 50,000 thieves, and recovered the entire Xiangyang Mansion.

In less than a month, the crisis in Huguang was lifted, and at this time, Chongzhen really didn't know whether to celebrate or keep silent.

If it were someone else who achieved such a brilliant result, Chongzhen would definitely celebrate it, but it was Zhang Bin who achieved such a result, he was really embarrassed, he had just suppressed others in the court, this result was simply a slap in the face, if he celebrated again, where would he put his face!

Just when he didn't know what to do with those good news, Zhang Bin sent another twist and turn, he actually caught up with Zhang Xianzhong's main army, captured more than 80,000 thieves, and seized more than 6 million taels of silver, tens of thousands of taels of gold, and more than 1 million stones of grain, Zhang Xianzhong only led less than 20,000 people to flee west in embarrassment and fled into the depths of Daba Mountain!

Chongzhen is really surprised, he is surprised that Zhang Bin has made great contributions again, he is afraid that he can't suppress it, he is happy that Zhang Bin has captured so much silver and grain, and the food and salary of the hundreds of thousands of troops in the five northwest provinces will not worry about him for at least this year.

At this time, he had to admit that Zhang Bin was really a rare capable official, no matter what he was asked to do, he could surprise himself, but unfortunately, such a person is not the same heart as himself!

Of course, Zhang Bin will not be stupid with Chongzhen wholeheartedly, and give a good Daming country to Jiannu for nothing.

Immediately after that, he made a detailed analysis of the situation in the five northwestern provinces and put forward a series of suggestions.

He suggested that a camp of governors of the five provinces should be established in Xiangyang to coordinate and manage the affairs of the five provinces to suppress thieves, and that all the seized gold, silver and grain be stored in Xiangyang as food, and at the same time a grain depot should be established in Xiangyang, where grain and grass should be hoarded and gold and silver should be stored for the use of the army of thieves in the five northwestern provinces;

He also suggested that the five northwestern provinces be exempted from the Liaoning, expropriation, and training salaries, because the silver seized this time was more than 6 million taels, and the five northwestern provinces' Liaoning, expropriation, and grain salaries in one year combined were less than 2 million taels, and these more than 6 million taels were enough to offset the three years of Liaoning, expropriation, and training salaries in the five northwestern provinces, and after three years, he was bound to finish the elimination of the thieves, and there was almost no need to collect the Liaoning, expropriation, and training salaries in the five northwestern provinces.

He also quoted Yang Sichang's strategy of "protecting the people to be able to sweep the couges", and explained in detail the harm of the levy, expropriation, and training of salaries to the five northwestern provinces and the reasons for the easy resurgence of thieves, and implored Chongzhen to exempt the five northwestern provinces from the salaries, expulsions, and training of salaries.

In the end, he also asked Chongzhen for instructions on whether to lead the army to continue westward to pursue Zhang Xianzhong or turn north to Guanzhong to clean up Li Zicheng.

Chongzhen took this recital, his mood was extremely complicated, I have to say that he still wants to be a good emperor in his heart, but his ability is limited, his emotional intelligence is in arrears, and his personality is even more flawed, so he makes a mess of things, however, he also has some advantages, such as diligence, such as thrift, and for example, he has the courage to admit mistakes, even if he loses face, he doesn't care!

Zhang Bin's suggestion is very good, and the strategy of "protecting the people can swing the Kou" was put forward by Yang Sichang, and he also agrees with it very much, isn't it just a shame, what is this, for the sake of Daming, he is not afraid of losing face.

The next morning, after the end of the recital session, he personally announced that the court would exempt the five northwestern provinces from Liao's salary, expulsion and training!

As soon as he said this, he could make the civil and military ministers below thunder, how short of money the imperial court was at this time, and all the officials present knew that their salaries could not be paid on time, and they were also exempted from the Liaoning, suppression, and training salaries of the five northwestern provinces!

This is a good thing, everyone knows it, but after the five northwest provinces are exempted from the salary, expulsion and training of the five provinces, what will happen to the food and salary of hundreds of thousands of imperial court troops, what will happen to everyone's money, there will always be people who want to drink the northwest wind, Chongzhen will not want them to drink the northwest wind!

At this time, there was a serious polarization in the thinking of the DPRK and Chinese officials.

Those honest and honest officials are thinking that this is a good thing, even if they tighten their belts and even really drink the northwest wind.

Those corrupt officials are thinking, isn't this sick, although they are not short of money, but, who wants to work for nothing, although that little money is not much, it can support part of the expenses of their mansion, why not!

Sometimes, the more greedy people are, the more stingy they are, and the more greedy people are, the more selfish they are, because if they are not stingy and selfish, how can they think of ways to harm others and benefit themselves, and harm the public and private interests!

Just when everyone was thinking about it, Chongzhen directly signaled, and the official of Honglu Temple read the two copies of the two folds sent over in the past two days in public.

At this time, almost all the courtiers showed a surprised expression, it turned out that Zhang Bin had seized so much gold, silver and grain, it turned out that this money did not need to be picked in their money, this kind of good thing, then what else is there to say.

The honest and upright officials strongly agreed, praising Zhang Bin for the country and the people, and praising the emperor's wisdom.

The corrupt officials also put away their little belly chicken intestines, and pretended to echo it, anyway, they don't have to pick from them, show it in front of the emperor, who wouldn't!

This exemption from the five northwestern provinces of Liao, the suppression of salaries and the practice of salaries was finally unanimously approved by the courtiers, and everyone did not seem to have a trace of ridicule for his suppression of Zhang Bin's intentions, but shouted "The emperor is wise".

Chongzhen couldn't help but wonder, what the hell is going on with these people, don't they know that they are deliberately suppressing Zhang Bin?

No one asked for credit for Zhang Bin, for Zhang Bin, or even for Zhang Bin!

Of course, everyone knows it very well in their hearts, but no one will touch his head because of this.

The honest and upright official thinks that the emperor has finally been wise, so why mention those unpleasant things to ruin his interest.

Corrupt officials and corrupt officials have nothing to do with themselves, hang high, besides, he agrees with the emperor's suppression of Zhang Bin, and the suppression is good, Zhang Bin is a mortal enemy with these corrupt officials and corrupt officials.

As for Zhang Bin's henchmen, they have all been warned, and they are patient in everything and waiting for a turnaround.

They don't know what this turnaround is, but they believe that Zhang Bin will definitely bring a turnaround to everyone.