At dawn, Song Zhenzong commanded the main force of the caravan and the Tusi soldiers to ruthlessly pull the net to kill the remaining rebels in the city. The rioters were caught off guard, driven by the officers and soldiers on three sides, and rushed towards the south gate, the last escape route, in a panic.

Sun Tzu's Art of War said: Siege three must be que" (Note 1). It means that it is necessary to let go of the encirclement on all sides to prevent the enemy from having no way to escape, so he has to turn around and fight for his life. FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, THIS SAYING HAS BEEN REGARDED AS A GUINIE BY SOLDIERS. However, the caravan that went into battle for the first time added a "void way to survive and set up a secret pocket" after Sun Tzu's iron law of surrounding Sanbique!

The rioters fled to the South Gate, and the streets of the South Gate were tightly blocked by people carrying all kinds of baggage. A large truck with a full load was rolled across the road, overturned by an angry crowd, causing even more congestion.

It is impossible for those who fled in panic to know that out of the city gate cave at the south gate, it was the real hell! The wooden bridge over the river had already been burned, and the caravan and Tusi soldiers captured the south gate tower along the city wall, condescendingly throwing bows and arrows and bricks and stones at the rebellious people passing by. The Tusi cavalry was deployed on both sides outside the southern city, with dozens of men and horses attacking in turn, bringing back charges along the open space between the city wall and the Lijiang River, and harvesting countless cheap lives.

Corpses were everywhere outside the city, and those who came after were terrified. The rebels did not dare to run anymore, so they had to hide in the doorway and wait for fate to come. Those unlucky people who failed to hide in time in the city gate cave were either cut off their heads by the Tusi soldiers and robbed of their burdens, or begged the caravan to surrender and begged for their lives and were tightly tied up with hemp ropes......

Wang Guochen and others arrived, but Zhu Pingjin did not meet them at the first time. Song Zhensi found a few intact empty houses under the city walls and locked them up separately. By the time Song Zhenzong sent people to report on the overall situation, the sky in Yazhou was already shining.

Spring is bright and everything is recovering.

At the head of the East Gate of Yazhou, Zhu Pingjin changed back into the big red dragon robe of his prince's son, sat on a Taishi chair that he didn't know where to go, and comfortably basked in the warm spring sun.

The rioters are a rabble that seems to be extremely vicious, but in fact they are vulnerable. Now that the overall situation has been decided, the next step is how to swallow this Yazhou city. He picked up the teacup in front of him and took a sip, savoring the fragrance that remained between his tongue and teeth. The warm aroma is mixed with a little bitterness, which can suppress the restless fire in the human body and prevent people from losing their rationality.

Interrogating the rioters, it was learned that the prefectures and counties around Chengdu Prefecture were now in chaos. The three county towns of Pengxian, Xinfan, and Chongning have been occupied by the rioters. Some of the rebels have become rogues, and with the help of the local rebels, they went south through Shuangliu and Chongqing, first attacking Qiongzhou and then Yazhou. Among the chaotic people, there were even the sergeants of the Chengdu Five Guards.

Zhu Pingjin is worried about a lot of things now, worried that the left guard of the palace will rebel, worried that Chengdu Mansion will be attacked by the rebels, worried that the rebellion will spread to the whole Sichuan, and worried that Sun Hong will meet an accident...... But what he is most worried about now is his wife's safety. He is now in a hurry to return to Chengdu Mansion. But he is the commander of the whole army, and his composure is the composure of the army's heart. Before the matter of Yazhou is settled, he will never be able to evacuate in a hurry.

After thinking through things, Zhu Pingjin's heart gradually calmed down. He called Cao Sanbao and asked, "Cao Banban, everything has been shipped?" ”

Cao Sanbao was in charge of collecting the refugees, and he was tired last night for most of the night, and only rushed back today. Maybe it's because people are in good spirits on happy occasions, and he is still in good spirits today.

He replied: "The slave maid was escorted to Bifeng Gorge first. In fact, Wangzhuang in Mengyang Town is not bad, but the slave maid feels that it is too close to the main road. In case of disturbance by the people, the dealer will talk more...... Mr. Shu has more stuff there. He reported the news that the Fan family had more than 1,000 hectares of land! Yazhou has the most, and the rest of the famous mountains, Yingjing, and Hongya counties have them. Among them, there are more than 50,000 acres of high-quality fields on both sides of the Tsing Yi River, and the rest are mostly dry fields and tea mountains! The Fan family also seized more than 8,000 taels of gold, 170,000 taels of silver, and 100 catties of gold, silver and jade jewelry!

The news just came that we also copied dozens of shops of the Fan family in and out of the city, including salt shops, grain shops, tea shops, bookstores, oil pressing, cotton cloth, silk, leather, copper and iron, silk paper, tailors, winemaking, farm tools, chariots and horses, inns, green houses, wine shops, tea shops, and so on. For grain alone, the four grain stores in the city stored more than 30,000 stones. I heard that there are two grain depots on the village outside the city, and I don't know how much grain there is.

Lord Shizi, it's not a slave to boast, this Fan family is richer than you! Other rebel officials and rebel people's homes, Mr. Shu is still searching. I can only hate the greed of the ministers of the Zhizhou Kingdom, and there is a huge Yazhou Guangying warehouse, and there is not even a grain of grain ...... it."

The abundance of harvest in Yazhou greatly surprised Zhu Pingjin. A hasty encounter allowed him to get the funds he needed to build his army.

According to Zhu Pingjin's understanding, the foundation of a political power can be roughly divided into three aspects: political, economic, and military. The collapse of a regime is largely nothing more than political bankruptcy, economic collapse, and military defeat. One of the three could bring about the collapse of a dynasty. The fall of the Ming Dynasty was a combination of all three.

Political intersecting and extreme corruption, the astonishing inefficiency and complete failure of the fiscal and taxation system, the repeated blows of internal and external enemies militarily, coupled with natural disasters for more than ten consecutive years, gradually hollowed out the foundation of the Ming Empire. After struggling to support it for 17 years, Emperor Chongzhen was finally unable to return to heaven, and finally hung himself on the southeast branch, leaving behind a lethal political last word, so that China's literati and doctors elite will forever remain in the memory of history with a disgraceful image.

To save this dynasty, it was necessary to rebuild the military system. The reconstruction of the fiscal and taxation system is as important as the reconstruction of the military system. The army is a gold-swallowing beast, and war is a bottomless pit. The timely distribution of salaries and military funds, the timely replenishment of weapons and ammunition, and the timely supply of logistical materials are the necessary prerequisites for the combat effectiveness of an army. Without the support of a strong fiscal and taxation system, Zhu Pingjin could only pay out of his own pocket and go bankrupt sooner or later; Without the support of a strong fiscal and taxation system, the army will mutiny and the war will be lost!

However, the fiscal and taxation system does not exist in isolation. It is based on the level of social and economic development, and depends not only on the efficient organization and system of finance and taxation, but also on the total amount of economic resources directly controlled by the state. This is the reason why the war mobilization capacity of countries with a planned economy is greater than that of countries with a market economy.

An ideal political and economic system that serves the war in an all-round way can be simply understood as a militaristic system, such as the all-people "ploughing war" of the Great Qin Empire. The militaristic system can maximize the concentration of military resources and greatly stimulate military potential in the short term, but once the war is over and enters a period of peace, it will lead to the disorder of the economic system due to its huge side effects, which will then lead to social unrest and even the demise of the dynasty.

With Zhu Pingjin's current status and ability, he will not and will not be able to swallow the stimulant of the militaristic system. The only thing he can do is to carefully plunder and accumulate economic resources that he can fully control within the existing social framework, and use this to transform them into the financial basis for rebuilding the military system, gradually becoming bigger and stronger, until he builds a military force sufficient to survive and expand in the chaotic times of the late Ming Dynasty.

Even so, the amount of money needed is staggering.

He had carefully calculated the cost of the army: a full infantry battalion of about 750 to 800 men, including military salaries, equipment, supplies, battle rewards, casualty pensions, and so on, at least 50,000 taels of silver per year. If the troops are fully firearmed, plus the consumption of equipment and training, military spending will be increased by 20,000 taels per year. If you count the high-intensity warfare, the annual consumption of an infantry battalion of 100,000 taels cannot be stopped at all!

According to the agreement reached between Zhu Pingjin and Tianquan Tusi, the first battalion of the Tusi soldiers asked Zhu Pingjin to be responsible for the supply of food and salary, plus the half of the battalion that Zhu Pingjin had just trained, and the platoon of people recruited by Wang Daniu, the military expenditure of the caravan this year is expected to be about 80,000 taels of silver. At present, the amount of silver seized in Yazhou has reached more than 200,000 taels, and it is estimated that it can reach 300,000 taels when converted into available grain and materials. This figure means that Zhu Pingjin can expand the army this year, at least by one to two times the number of troops.

Nearly 10,000 taels of gold were seized, and Zhu Pingjin was not ready to use it for the time being. The gold and silver exchange ratio of the Ming Dynasty was extremely unreasonable. In the early years of the Apocalypse, it once fell to 1:4 or 5, and the current gold price has rebounded, but it is still hovering at a low level of 1:8 or 9, while the gold-silver ratio in Europe during the same period is at least 1:12. Sichuan is a major gold-producing province, and the mountainous areas of western Sichuan are gold mining meccas. In those barren and harsh gold panning places, Tusi forcibly requisitioned sand gold from the gold diggers, and the gold and silver exchange ratio was even less than five!

The huge regional difference in the price of gold and silver once led to the flow of most of the huge amount of silver mined in the world, including Japan and the Americas, to China, so that later generations of economic historians called the Ming Dynasty a "silver black hole". But Zhu Pingjin knows the future: the ratio of gold and silver resources proven on the earth is about 1:16. In the next 100 years, the world's gold and silver prices will fluctuate on this basis. With the end of the impact of silver mining in the Americas on the international currency market, the production conditions of grain, cotton cloth, and other major local agricultural products will continue to deteriorate, and in the next few years, the international silver price will continue to fall sharply against the price of major agricultural products, and the gold-silver ratio is expected to quickly rise to the level of Europe. At present, we will continue to secretly collect and store gold, and then sell gold, which is expected to make huge profits.

As for folk luxuries such as jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, my mother may not be able to look down on them. Zhu Pingjin plans to let his wife pass by, choose a few at random, sell the rest for cash, sell them in the market, and then turn them into grain reserves.

As the saying goes: "Collect antiques in prosperous times, hide grain in troubled times". Food, the basic material for human survival, Zhu Pingjin has a strong premonition that it will decide the fate of himself and the Ming Dynasty in this era!

After listening to Cao Sanbao's report, Zhu Pingjin proudly tapped the coffee table with his knuckles and said with a smile: "If you want to come quickly, you have to suppress bandits!" What are bandits, what kind of bandits are those poor haha in the mountains and forests? The real bandits are in the courtyard of the deep house, in the Yamen public house! ”

The master and servant smiled happily. Zhu Pingjin instructed: "Tell Mr. Shu and let him take care of things first!" The money is still in the hands of your own family sooner or later, and the meat is rotten in the pot! This son will find a family member who knows how to operate and manage well, and will make this asset a good life. Hey, after that Fan quality surrendered, didn't he want to change his Fan surname to death? ”

"Exactly! That Fan Zhen wants to follow your surname! ”

"He's so ignorant, how can he deserve this country's surname?" Zhu Pingjin shook his head, glanced at Cao Sanbao again, and said, "The Fan family doesn't know if there are any descendants!" Regardless of thirty-seven twenty-one, let the Zhizhou Yamen sentence all the assets of the Fan family to his name, and then allow him to change his surname! Cao Banban, you only have two righteous sons, Wang Sizhong and Li Sixian, do you have any brothers and sisters outside? ”

"The slave and maid were picked up by the father-in-law on the side of the road, and they entered the palace since they were young. No one knows the name of the slave's family, even if there are brothers and sisters. ”

"Then change Fan Zhen's surname to Cao Zhen, let him have children, and continue the incense for you! This son is only afraid that once the fan quality gains power, he will be a little unable to control it. You have to show the majesty of your father-in-law, and beat him from time to time, so that he can remember the word 'loyalty'! ”

The overall situation of Yazhou has been decided, and the ministers of the Zhizhou Kingdom are naturally the first objects of Zhu Pingjin's meeting. After Wang Guochen was coerced by Zhu Pingjin, he knew that his fate was in the hands of the prince, so he immediately chose to take refuge in himself, and he had no integrity as a literati doctor. Zhu Pingjin ordered Wang Guochen to immediately write a letter to move all the family members and relatives in Xi'an Mansion in Shaanxi Province to Chengdu Mansion and allocate a better Wangzhuang for resettlement.

YAZHOU GUARDS ALL FIVE HUNDRED HOUSEHOLDS, TWO STATE CITIES, AND ONE EACH IN LINGUAN, MINGSHAN COUNTY AND YINGJING COUNTY.

Zhu Pingjin borrowed the article jointly signed by Wang Guochen and Deputy Chen Qianhu to occupy the two vacant positions of 100 households.

Feixian Guan Peng Yuanke's position began to prepare to give Gao Antai as promised, but as a result, he was willing to continue to follow Zhu Pingjian, so he had to be replaced by his entourage leader Gao Qingxi.

A hundred households in Yazhou City were given to Chen Youfu, based on one company and one platoon plus four companies and three squads, and the army was expanded into the fifth company of the fully organized caravan, stationed in Wumen, and actually controlled the state city. Chen Youfu, the commander of the fifth company, and Wang Sizhong, the superintendent of the army. Chen Youchuan is a Fuchuan eastward refugee, of course, he has no military registration, so he fraudulently used the name of Chen Youfu, a relative of Chen Deputy Qianhu, who does not know which generation.

The four companies stationed in Bifengxia were based on the four squads that were stationed, expanded the source of troops to full strength, and acted as the commander of the fourth company and the company supervisor Song Zhensi, garrisoned the Bifengxia base, undertook the task of training recruits, and served as a reserve in the direction of Yazhou. Yazhou experienced a great turmoil, and many people were displaced, so Zhu Pingjin arranged for his subordinates to buy more people who sold their bodies and make up for the fourth and fifth companies.

In addition, Zhu Pingjin also borrowed the hand of Wang Guochen to recommend two great heroes to the three divisions and two Taiwan yamen in Sichuan Province to quell the rebellion in Yazhou: first, Tianquan raised Gao Dengtai as the candidate official for the county order; The second is that He Youyi, the supervisor of Baoning Mansion, is the deputy envoy of Feixian Pass from the nine products.

After some layout, Yazhou, an ancient city known as the "throat of western Sichuan" and the "gateway to Tibet", really fell into the hands of Zhu Pingjin.

The state city is connected with the suburbs of Bifeng Gorge, Mengding Mountain Wangzhuang, as well as Tianquan, Feixian Pass and other actual control areas. It is less than 100 miles away from Qiongzhou in the north and 280 miles away from Chengdu Prefecture; Through the Tsing Yi River Valley, it connects the Kham Tibetan area in the west; Descend the Tsing Yi River, peep into Meizhou and Jiading Prefecture in the east; In the south, through Yunnanyi Avenue, the waist cut off the connection between the Sichuan Capital Division located in Chengdu Prefecture and the Sichuan Xingdu Division located in Jianchangwei.

In the next step, Zhu Pingjin still has to solve the land problem that he has been thinking about for a long time. After thinking for a moment, Zhu Pingjin nodded to Cao Sanbao. Cao Sanbao waved the dust and shouted loudly at the head of the city: "Xuanya Prefecture student Hong Qihui Jin see!" ”

Note 1: Que, general shortage.