Li Zicheng spent half a day to persuade the captured officials that Huang Shu was looking for death and life at first, and wanted to die for Kaifeng, but under the persuasion of Gao Mingheng and Wu Shijiao, he agreed to observe for a period of time, and if the Heavenly Mandate Army was not as Li Zicheng said, he would still be martyred.

Wu Shijiao was reappointed as the prefect of Kaifeng, responsible for restoring order in Kaifeng City, except for the grain shops, the rest of the shops should also be restored as soon as possible;

Su Maozhuo is the tax officer under the prefect, according to the law of the Mandate of Heaven, responsible for the taxation of Kaifeng Prefecture, at present, Kaifeng City is too barren, all agricultural taxes, industrial and commercial taxes, exempted within one year;

Huang Shu was appointed as an independent judge of Kaifeng Prefecture and independently exercised the power to adjudicate criminal and civil cases.

Wu Shijiao knows his responsibility, and in Kaifeng at present, there must be enough food, and without food, how can we talk about shops and order? He said cautiously: "Governor, in addition to restoring order, what else do your subordinates do?" ”

Li Zicheng didn't speak, but took out a folded white paper from his arms and handed it to Wu Shijiao, Wu Shijiao unfolded it and took a look, all of which were the work to be done at the moment:

In the past few months, Kaifeng City has undergone great changes, the population in the city has decreased significantly, and it must be re-registered.

The people who were originally stationed outside the city must return to their homes, and the Kaifeng Prefecture will redistribute the land to them according to the law of the Mandate of Heaven, about twenty acres per ding, and if the land that has been cultivated outside the city is allocated, there is no need for compensation, and the harvest belongs to the people;

Relief food in the city will continue to be distributed, but the people who receive it must be people who have run out of food and cannot afford to buy food.

The elderly, weak, women, and children who had fled the city and were taken in by the Mandate of Heaven Army, after finding out their families, returned to their families, or engaged in business in the city, or received farmland outside the city, and must be properly resettled.

During the period of service, the government distributed enough grain, half of the refined grain and half of the coarse grain, and the content of the conscription was to widen the official road between Zhengzhou and Xuzhou and from Xuzhou to Kaifeng......

Wu Shi made it clear that these articles were basically related to grain, disaster relief grain, cultivated seeds, etc., which required a large amount of food, he glanced at Li Zicheng, and still couldn't help but say: "Dadu Governor, Kaifeng City originally had more than 378,000 mouths, and now the population has been greatly reduced, but no less than 200,000, although the people in Kaifeng City have been diverted, but still need a lot of food......

"Food problem, Wu Governor don't worry, that's the matter of the Governor of Bendu," Li Zicheng has already set his eyes on the various palaces in Kaifeng City, after the Heavenly Mandate Army entered the city, it has already controlled the palace, but most of the people in Kaifeng have already run out of food, he has no time to take care of the affairs of the palace, and when the order in the city is initially restored, it is time to start with the palace," Wu Governor's Mansion first listed the amount of food needed daily and monthly according to the specific situation, and the Heavenly Mandate Army would distribute it to Kaifeng Mansion in time," paused, and said: "The current food is used to save lives, Governor Wu must check it, if anyone has a crooked mind...... In extraordinary times, there is only one law of the Mandate of Heaven: Kill! ”

"My subordinates understand!" Wu Shijiao wiped his forehead, which was almost sweaty, and said: "The Metropolitan Governor, his subordinates understand the handling of the grain problem by the Metropolitan Governor, but the matter of expanding the official road ......"

Li Zicheng is already preparing to build a cement avenue in Henan, and it may be difficult to play the strategic role of the cement avenue for the time being, but such a miracle can gather the popularity of the Heavenly Mandate Army in Henan, and it can be in the same vein as the "receiving from heaven" that the Heavenly Mandate Army has always propagated, and it can also exert the strength of young and strong.

He had already sent an order to Lanzhou, asking Lanzhou to send a road construction team to Henan to carry out technology, at this time Wu Shijiao asked about the road, he just smiled faintly, and said: "Wu Governor's Mansion will implement it first, and you will be able to see the role of this official road in the future." ”

Wu Shijiao, Su Maozhuo, and Huang Shu all served in Kaifeng Mansion, and their responsibilities were clear at present, and there were still many things they needed to do in Kaifeng, so they left the governor's yamen first.

At this time, only the governor Gao Mingheng and the political envoy Liang Bing of Zuo Bu remained.

Liang Bing is already seventy years old, but his body is tough, and his mental state is still very good, Li Zicheng took a fancy to his status as a jinshi, and he had a certain influence in Shilin, so he stayed in the temporary governor's mansion and served as a civil deputy envoy.

Compared with Liang Bing, Gao Mingheng is the governor of Henan and is more famous, Li Zicheng has a little thought, hoping that Gao Mingheng will be the governor of Henan Province under the Mandate of Heaven and be in charge of the entire Henan Province.

Gao Mingheng politely rejected Li Zicheng's invitation on the grounds of old age and lack of energy and limited ability.

Li Zicheng knew in his heart that Gao Mingheng had just agreed to join the Heavenly Mandate Army, and there were still some thorns in his heart, in his mind, the Heavenly Mandate Governor's Mansion was not even a local secession regime, even if it was not a rogue, it was not much better than a rogue.

If Gao Mingheng knew that the Mandate of Heaven Army had already established provinces in Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan, and that there was also a Hexi Governor's Mansion, I don't know what he had in mind?

Li Zicheng did not force it, Gao Mingheng would know the current situation of the Heavenly Mandate Army sooner or later, and there was no need to rush it. The current Kaifeng Prefecture, the economy and people's livelihood are in a depression, and the people can't even eat enough, so they can't move the temporary governor's mansion for the time being, and they don't have to be the new capital, so they should accumulate for a period of time first.

Gao Mingheng was able to initially accept the Heavenly Mandate Army, which already made him very satisfied.

Li Zicheng did not appoint a new position to Gao Mingheng, but only asked him to inspect inside and outside the city to supervise the implementation of various laws in Kaifeng Mansion, of course, Li Zicheng also sent a complete set of laws to Gao Mingheng, so that he could look at it at his leisure, and it was best to put forward some amendments.

According to Li Zicheng's order, Li Xin reorganized the prisoners of war in Kaifeng City, recruited a small number of young and strong, and combined them into a regiment, and the rest of the social soldiers and volunteer social soldiers were all disbanded and returned to civilian status.

The reorganized regiment, with Gao Lu as the commander and the rank of a thousand households, was the fifth regiment of the fourth battalion.

More than 1,000 war horses were found in Kaifeng City, and they were allocated to the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Battalion, and Gao Qian's troops reached 3,000 households.

After all this work was over, Li Zicheng put his mind on the palace in the city.

According to the information provided by the prefect Wu Shijiao, in Kaifeng City, there is one prince, 40 county kings, 180 Zhenguo generals, 464 auxiliary generals, 690 Fengguo generals, 725 Zhenguo lieutenants, 185 auxiliary lieutenants, and 4 Yibin Mansions.

Li Zicheng made a preliminary calculation, from the prince to the guest of honor, it turned out to be more than two thousand!

If you add the slaves and guards in each palace, based on an average of ten people per house, there are 20,000 people, plus the people who are dependent on the palace and slaves on the periphery, Kaifeng Mansion is 370,000 people, and these people probably account for more than half!

There were at least 200,000 people attached to the royal palace, and they not only occupied the most important wealth in the city, but also did not need to pay taxes, so it is no wonder that the imperial court was depleted.

Whose fault is this?

Did the people who formulated the national policy think about the massive increase in the population of the palace?

The palace has land and money, and can marry the most beautiful woman in Kaifeng, but the number is not limited, and the speed of population reproduction far exceeds that of ordinary people......

Fortunately, all this is coming to an end, and wherever the Mandate of Heaven army goes, it is the end of the palace.

Before Li Zicheng came to Henan, he thought that there was a great drought in Henan, money and food were scarce, and if the Mandate of Heaven Army wanted to survive and develop in Henan, it must rely on the money and grain of the palace.

The more palaces in Kaifeng, the more money and food will be gathered, and the faster the development and growth of the Heavenly Mandate Army will be.

Among these palaces, the largest and richest is naturally located in the west of Kaifeng City, however, Li Zicheng has no interest in visiting, and visiting will only make him angry, he just looked at the amount of money and grain confiscated by each palace, so that he knew it.

All the palaces were raided, including Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou, and all the men were imprisoned in the barracks.

Thousands of wives and concubines and daughters of the royal palace are temporarily detained, and women of the right age are selected from them, and the officers of the Heavenly Mandate Army are married, and the officials of a thousand households are above a thousand households, and all those who have no wives are candidates.

The original servants and servants of the royal palace, after allocating a certain amount of property, let them fend for themselves, and if there is really no way out, they can help the Heavenly Mandate Army to do some miscellaneous labor, and they can also be allocated land and classified into the civil register.

Most of the merchants in Kaifeng City are the property of the palace, and the palace is the proprietor behind the scenes.

In the face of hard facts, coupled with murderous pro-soldiers, how can merchants lie? Besides, the palace has collapsed, these merchants have lost their support, and now all the food in the city depends on the supply of the Mandate of Heaven Army, in case they annoy the Mandate of Heaven Army and run out of food, they can only wait at home to die.

Although the merchants were unwilling, they were also forced to hand over the property deeds of the shops and the accounts of the shops.

Li Zicheng looked at them one by one, and all merchants with an annual income of less than 1,000 taels directly summoned them in the small hall next door.

Looking at the suspicious merchants, Li Zicheng smiled secretly in his heart, he put the deed and accounts on the square table in front of him, and said with a smile: "The shops will be given to them, but the merchants with an annual income of more than fifty taels, from now on, must pay taxes in accordance with the laws of the Mandate of Heaven, tax-free this year, but must pay taxes according to the standard of fifteen taxes and one next year, those who are willing to abide by the laws of the Mandate of Heaven can get back the deeds and accounts now, from now on, these shops will belong to you!" ”

"Ah......" The merchants were surprised, although the commercial tax of the fifteenth tax was a little distressing, but compared with the whole shop, it was a drop in the bucket.

What if the shop is owned by you, and you pay some business taxes? The rent to the palace on weekdays is at least thirty percent, and these shops will be their own in the future and can be passed on to their children and grandchildren......

"The shop is for you, but you must abide by the laws of the Mandate of Heaven, especially the commercial tax, if anyone dares to evade taxes, the government can take back the shop at any time," Li Zicheng's voice turned, and he said coldly: "Also, the current situation in Kaifeng City, you also know, if anyone dares to exploit the people excessively and make trouble in secret, then don't think about staying in Kaifeng!" ”

"The villain doesn't dare!"

Li Zicheng waved his hand and asked the merchants to get their own deeds and accounts to go to the government office for registration, and he turned around and went to the original hall, at this time He Xiaomi had already sorted out the accounts of the remaining large merchants.

Li Zicheng looked at them one by one, and when he saw the end, he looked a little disappointed. He left these large merchants to see if any of these merchants had any key technologies or key departments, and if they could see it, they would be levied, and the vital parts needed to be in their own hands.

However, these merchants are ordinary circulation-type merchants, that is, they earn price differences through buying and selling, but they are larger in scale and have a wider range of business channels, and are not engaged in production.

Li Zicheng suddenly lost interest, returned the deed and accounts to them, and instructed them to continue to operate, and if necessary, they could cooperate with the Heavenly Mandate Army, of course, the commercial tax that should be paid should not be less.

The commercial tax will not be levied until a year later, and now the people in the city are unstable, so there is no need to publicize it for the time being, Li Zicheng secretly instructed the tax officer Su Maozhuo to hype up the "Industrial and Commercial Law" to the merchants after more than half a year, before the commercial tax is collected.