"Chu Sheng, I really wronged you as a council member in Zhenhai Fort," Li Zicheng said leisurely: "Accumulate experience well, sooner or later you will get a higher position, but before you leave Zhenhai Fort, you have to find a new council member for Zhenhai Fort!" ”

"My lord......" Chu Sheng was pleasantly surprised, the director of Zhenhai Fort is not even a clerk, at most he is the assistant of the clerk, assisting the clerk in managing the town of Zhenhaibao, and there is no identity security, he may be replaced by others at any time, and he doesn't even need to find a reason to replace him.

If you go further, you will be a clerk, a formal official, and if you can go further...... For him, a man born with mud legs, it was undoubtedly a "dragon gate", and he bowed to the ground, "Thank you, for your support!" ”

"I'm right, but in the end, it's up to you," Li Zicheng chuckled: "If there is a one-armed county governor in Xining, it's a good story, work hard, I'm optimistic about you!" ”

"Thank you, sir!"

Li Zicheng gently picked up Chu Sheng and patted him on the shoulder, "Xining is lacking officials like you who have the people in their hearts, if you meet the right person, regardless of what kind of birth, immediately recommend it to me!" He believes that "people are divided into groups", and the person Chu Sheng likes is at least somewhat similar to him.

"Yes, sir!"

After Li Zicheng and Chu Sheng shared lunch, they did not leave Zhenhai Fort immediately, but patrolled the south side of Zhenhai Fort with Chu Sheng, and finally found a flat land about twenty miles to the southeast.

He asked his soldiers to turn over with the two teeth they carried, and there was indeed loess under the grass stem.

"My lord, can this land be used as arable land?"

"It should be possible, but it is far away from the estuary, it can only be used as dry land, and it should not be a problem to plant wheat and barley," Li Zicheng looked around, together with the gentle slope on the edge, I am afraid that it will exceed 1,000 acres, "Chu Sheng, this place can be turned into a village, without walls, if there are people willing to settle here, they can allocate land to build houses and distribute arable land." ”

"Yes, sir!"

After entering Zhenhai Fort, Li Zicheng summoned Huang Xiaoyun, the chief flag officer who was shepherding sheep here, and saw that Huang Xiaoyun had trained several of his subordinate soldiers well, so he selected a few soldiers, took Huang Xiaoyun as the small flag officer, and asked him to report directly to Wang Anping, the chief flag officer of the rangers, and he took his own soldiers and rushed to Huangyuan County, forty or fifty years away.

Huangyuan County is at the confluence of Huangshui and its tributary Yaoshui River, and the location of the county seat should be on the south bank of Huangshui and the east bank of Yaoshui River.

When Li Zicheng arrived in Huangyuan County, he only vaguely saw some simple adobe houses, but more of them were tents, which were thinner than the army's marching tents.

The people, who had worked all day, had finished their work, and most of them were having dinner, and they were so frugal that they did not even light the lamps, or there were no lamps at all.

Hearing the sound of horses' hooves, the people looked in unison.

He Xiaomi got off the horse and walked into a people's mud room, "Uncle, may I ask, where is your county magistrate Jiang?" ”

"Are you looking for Master Jiang?" The people didn't know where He Xiaomi's origin was, so they hesitated, and finally pointed forward with their hands, "Lord Jiang is in the tent over there." ”

He Xiaomi turned around and saw that the night had shrouded the entire earth, faintly, where could he see the tent of Jiangyuan? Then he said, "Can Uncle send me over?" The right hand took out a piece of broken silver from his arms, and the old man took it, and then he happily led He Mi over.

Jiang Yuan was eating, and when he heard that Li Zicheng had suddenly arrived, he hurriedly dropped the bowl and chopsticks and followed He Xiaomi to see Li Zicheng.

The people who sent He Mi over, seeing that the county lord was polite to He Mi, was afraid, took out the silver just now, and stammered: "This adult, the villain doesn't know ......."

He Xiaomi pushed the silver back, "Uncle, you just take it!" ”

"This ......" The people froze in place, seeing that He Mi and Jiang Yuan had gone away, so they took back the silver, trotted, returned to their home, and hurriedly closed the door.

The soldiers were setting up tents, but Li Zicheng was looking up at the sky with his hands behind his back, as if a huge pie was falling rapidly in the night......

Jiang Yuan hurriedly bowed to the ground: "Subordinate Jiang Yuan, knock to see your lord!" ”

"Ao, Jiangzhi County is here? Hurry up! Li Zicheng turned around, "I heard that Lord Zhixian lives in a simple tent, it's hard!" ”

"Huangyuan County is now difficult at the beginning of everything, and subordinates should live in tents, but adults, it is ...... to travel long distances" Jiang Yuan was originally an inconspicuous quartermaster of Xiningwei, and when Li Zicheng raided Xining, he was no longer on the list of arrests, but he knew a few words, so he was appointed by Li Zicheng as the county governor of Huangyuan.

Although the current Xining has embarked on the road of rebellion, but after all, it has not yet torn its face with the imperial court, and it is also possible for the imperial court to appease and recruit peace in the future.

Jiang Yuan was quite concerned about the matter at hand, and in order to urge the people to reclaim, he lived directly in a tent when there was no city or house.

Li Zicheng laughed, "Jiang Zhixian, when are you going to build the city?" ”

"This ...... At present, it is the spring ploughing season, and there is a shortage of manpower, so it is better to wait for the end of spring ploughing to have manpower, and the subordinates have left the land to build the city. ”

"Well," Li Zicheng nodded slightly, and said: "Huangyuan is not a fortress, there is no need to build a strong city, try to save manpower!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

When Li Zicheng arrived in Huangyuan County, the sky had already darkened, and the people who had cultivated had already finished their work and gone home, and he had not seen the number of people who had been reclaimed with his own eyes, so he was really a little uneasy, "Jiangzhi County, how many people are there in Huangyuan?" How many are engaged in reclamation? ”

"Lord Hui, according to the number of subordinates registered, there are more than 500 households in Huangyuan, with a population of more than 3,000, of which Dingkou is more than 1,000."

Li Zicheng is a little dissatisfied, the current county, although the land area is not small, but the population is too small and not much, Huangyuan County, has been a few months, and began to register a year ago, "Why is the number inaccurate?" Haven't you registered yet? ”

"My lord, my subordinates have basically run all over Huangyuan, but ...... However, in the border area, it is uncertain who belongs to Huangyuan, so it is difficult for the subordinates to give accurate figures."

"Ao," Li Zicheng responded, but frowned slightly, "What is the number of registrations?" Are there still unregistered populations? ”

"Lord Hui, the registered population is basically Han Chinese," Jiang Yuan noticed that Li Zicheng was dissatisfied, and said carefully: "But the Tibetans and a small number of Hui people in Huangyuan, because they are used to grazing, most of them do not want to register as cultivators, that is, Han people, and there are many wait-and-see people, and their subordinates will register them separately!" ”

For the sake of their own interests, the people waited and watched for a period of time, and there was nothing to blame, but the Tibetans refused to register as a Hui person and engaged in reclamation activities, which made Li Zicheng furious, and he forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart and said: "I haven't eaten yet, so I'll have an autumn breeze tonight, and let's talk while eating." ”

"Yes, my lord," Jiang Yuan said, "The subordinates are eating, why don't you go to the subordinates' big tent for some dinner?" ”

"Okay!" Li Zicheng doesn't care if the food is good or bad, he wants to avoid the people nearby.

Jiang Yuan asked the attendant to heat up the cooled meal, a plate of mutton, a stack of green vegetables, and a few white-flour steamed buns, "My lord, time is in a hurry, it's too late to prepare, it's too cold......"

"Haha, I can eat the food that you can eat in Jiangzhi County," Li Zicheng picked up a steamed bun casually and took a bite, "Yes, there are meat and vegetarian," and looked up at the tent again, "It's just that the living conditions are poor." ”

"Adult ......"

"Oh, sit!" Li Zicheng was the main anti-guest, pointed to the opposite side, and sat down first.

Jiang Yuan barely sat down with half of his buttocks, but in his tent, he looked like a guest, and said tremblingly: "My lord, it's a pity that there is no wine to catch the wind for adults!" ”

"I'm not busy with drinking," Li Zicheng swallowed the white-flour steamed buns in his mouth, "Jiang Zhixian said let's see, why don't Tibetans and Hui people register?" Aren't they the subjects of the Ming Dynasty? ”

"My lord, they refuse to register as Han Chinese, and as for farming, they are also skeptical, especially Hui people."

Li Zicheng pondered for a moment and asked, "In the land of the wasteland, how many Hui people are there?" And how many Tibetans are there? ”

"According to the observation of his subordinates, there are about 1,000 Tibetans, but there are not many Hui, about 200."

So much! It is almost as good as the three percent of the Han people, Li Zicheng gasped, he is trying to naturalize the Tibetans, but he doesn't know what the result is, as for the Hui people, naturalization is necessary, but he has not yet had a clear method.

If we try to naturalize them as we did with the Tibetans, I am afraid it will not be easy, because the horror of the Hui people is too cohesive, and more importantly, the Hui people were originally Caucasians, and even if they have been in Han for a long time, they may intermarry with the Han people, but they still obviously retain the characteristics of the Caucasian race, and it may be more difficult to naturalize as Han Chinese than to naturalize Tibetans.

Besides, whether the Han people can accept them from the heart is still one thing.

Li Zicheng has no racial prejudice, in fact, if you want to say excellent, Caucasian or mixed-race, tall and big, more powerful than Han people, if it is farming, it is a good hand.

It is a pity that they are difficult to be used by the Han people, or rather, they are too proud of their own ethnic group, have their own relatively closed circle, and it is difficult to integrate into the Han people, but use the power of religion to absorb and integrate other ethnic groups, including the Han people, and constantly grow themselves.

Expulsion or killing?

Li Zicheng couldn't make up his mind for a while, and the most important thing was that he wanted to maintain the illusion that Xining was still subordinate to the Ming Dynasty, and he couldn't let Xining become the focus of the imperial court.

"I see!" Li Zicheng thought about it for a long time, and only came up with this sentence.

"My lord," Jiang Yuan didn't know the point, "subordinates...... How should subordinates treat these people? ”

"Levy taxes in the original way first, no less at all," Li Zicheng could only start with taxes, and by the way, he could also add some silver to Weili, however, he also knew that they were not businessmen, and taxes would have little impact on them, at most they would vent their anger, "As for the Han people who have not returned to farming for the time being, try to do their work, but they must not be strong, now is not the time to shed blood!" ”

Jiang Yuan had already read something from Li Zicheng's eyes, but he still nodded.

After Li Zicheng returned to the big tent, he asked He Xiaomi to prepare early, and after dawn, he immediately flew a pigeon to pass the book to Wu Ermao, and stepped up his actions, he wanted to take the largest number of Tibetans.