It seems that between the imperial court and the thieves, it is going to be a pot of porridge again, and not only the north, but even provinces such as Huguang, Nanzhili, and Sichuan are inevitably involved in the battle.

But the imperial court will only "raise the soup to stop the boiling", will not "draw wages from the bottom of the kettle", only kill the thieves, the war will never stop, kill a batch, and another batch will appear, until the officials and soldiers slack, there will always be an omission......

If you can't give the people a way to survive, no matter how many holy decrees Chongzhen makes, it will be in vain in the end, Chongzhen grew up in the palace since he was a child, is it true that civil and military officials don't eat fireworks in the world?

Such a Ming Dynasty is simply unreasonable if it does not perish!

What Li Zicheng wants most now is to accelerate the demise of the Ming Dynasty, end the war as soon as possible, and begin to rebuild the Huaxia in his heart, but does the current Heavenly Mandate Army have this ability?

If we want to increase our strength, there is only one way to expand the army, but the expansion of the army requires food, silver, and all kinds of firearms......

Li Zicheng frowned, pacing alone in the study, but still gave up the idea of expanding the army again, the Mandate of Heaven Army is a relatively regular army, different from rogue-like thieves, if the pace of expansion is too fast, the combat effectiveness will decline.

Moreover, there are too many soldiers, and the military pay cannot keep up, although the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Office has issued paper money for internal use, but it is impossible to print and issue paper money without restrictions, even if it is not necessary to strictly abide by the laws of economic operation, and store the same amount of precious metals such as gold and silver, it may also cause prices to rise and cause panic among the people.

You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, and you can't eat it in one bite to become fat.

The number of the Mandate of Heaven can only be limited to the amount of terrestrial bearing, unless there is an input of money from the outside world.

Li Zicheng's heart suddenly moved, he had already considered this kind of problem, but the time was not ripe and he could not implement it.

Entering Guanzhong in the east and Bashu in the south can not only obtain food and silver, but also expand the territory of the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion, enhance its own comprehensive strength, and feed more soldiers.

Comparing Guanzhong and Bashu, Li Zicheng is more and more inclined to Bashu.

The Guanzhong Plain is larger, and it can be connected with Longyou, but now the whole of Shaanxi has been made into a miasma by thieves, even if the Guanzhong Plain is taken, it will take at least two years to resume production, and in these two years, the Mandate of Heaven must invest a lot of food and silver.

And these are the weaknesses of the Mandate of Heaven Army, otherwise he would not be in a hurry to issue banknotes.

There is also a bad place in Guanzhong, that is, it is completely exposed under the nose of the imperial court, between Guanzhong and Jingshi, there is only one Shanxi province apart, once the imperial court finds that Guanzhong has fallen into the hands of the Mandate of Heaven, it will fight hard to take it back, that is the western barrier of the Ming Dynasty, it is okay to make a small fuss, and if you want the old life of the imperial court, Chongzhen will never agree.

Bashu is more suitable for the current Mandate of Heaven military governor, the south has enough rain, the Chengdu Plain is suitable for farming, can produce a large amount of grain every year, its own agriculture, industry and commerce are relatively perfect, although there are thieves harassing, but the foundation is still there, the root is not destroyed.

If the Mandate of Heaven Army can quickly take Bashu and reduce the negative impact of the war itself on Bashu, production will soon be resumed.

Bashu also has a huge advantage - the Yangtze River, which is the golden waterway that Li Zicheng dreamed of.

However, the south of Bashu, there are also disadvantages, one is between Longyou and Bashu, separated by Shu Road, the transportation link is extremely inconvenient, it is difficult for the two places to be connected into a unified whole, if one place is attacked, the other place is difficult to rescue in time.

Another point, although Sichuan is a province of the Ming Dynasty, but in addition to the core area of Bashan Shushui, there are many foreign races living on the surrounding highlands, they have not yet been civilized, once the Mandate of Heaven army goes south, if you want to control the whole province of Sichuan and master the transportation arteries, you must spend great efforts to conquer, and there may be long-term, small-scale battles.

To solve these problems, it is necessary to draw on the strengths of others, and he decided to convene a meeting to discuss these issues.

On 20 October, Li Zicheng summoned Liang Wencheng, Shen Dao, Guo Shijun, Li Guo, and Song Wen to hold a secret military meeting at the Dadu Governor's Palace.

After the meeting, Li Zicheng sent a secret letter to Wu Ermao, who was far away in Sichuan, and asked him to start preparing immediately.

Now that winter has entered and the autumn harvest has long ended, the people may be busy with farming and reclamation, but the officials have been idle, and Li Zicheng's decision to carry out ideological education for the officials is actually brainwashing.

The Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion has not been established for a long time, and the foundation is not enough, otherwise, there should be a special agency for such work.

The territory of the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion, although it is mostly a desert land, but the area is very large, and it is very inconvenient to gather the officials, and the first batch only convenes the chief officials of Lanzhou, Gongchang, Taozhou, and Longnan, and then goes to Xining after the beginning of the year.

Lanzhou and Xining are the centers of the Mandate of Heaven, as for Ganzhou, Suzhou, and Liangzhou in the Hexi Corridor, let's talk about it when we have time, the Hexi Governor's Mansion is still in its infancy, and most of the officials are just naturalized Mongolians, and Li Zicheng has no plans for the time being.

Li Zicheng immediately summoned the chief officials of the prefecture and county, and asked them to immediately rush to Lanzhou Mansion for a three-day training, and at the same time summoned a group of graduates of Xining High School, and selected four of them: Liu Kui, Li Jia, Wang Gui, and Zuo Gua, who followed him to temporarily serve as clerks.

The place of training was placed in Lanzhou High School, and the trainees were the prefects and counties of the four prefectures, and the governor of Gansu Province, Mei Zhihuan, was not in the plan, but he had to attend the lectures, so he had to follow him.

Dozens of middle- and low-level officials under the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Office, like primary school students, sit on the desks and stools commonly used by students, most of them are officials of the imperial court who have been retained, and the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion does not have enough talent reserves, so it can only rely on them to build a grassroots framework.

Li Zicheng in Liu Kui, Li Jia, Wang Gui, Zuo hexagram four people, head held high into the classroom, Liu Kui handed over the pre-prepared script, Li Zicheng took it, casually threw it on the table, first glanced at everyone with his eyes, and then said lightly: "Everyone here today, there are Mr. Mei, the governor of Gansu Province, and the chief officials of various prefectures and counties, you are all the main party of the government, and you are the parents of the people. What is the difference between the officials of the Mandate of Heaven and the officials of the imperial court? ”

The audience was silent, and someone looked at Mei Zhihuan from the corner of his eye, but Mei Zhihuan squinted and didn't move, looking like an old monk in a settled position, obviously without the meaning of answering.

Li Zicheng estimated that now is the beginning, and the officials are a little restrained in front of them, even if they have something to say, it is difficult to open their hearts for a while, so they said: "This topic is very big, if you want to talk about it, I am afraid that I will not be able to finish it in three days and three nights, then let me ask you, what are you joining the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion and tying to the same chariot with the Mandate of Heaven Army?" ”

Why? In everyone's heart, I'm afraid they have their own answer!

Maybe they were forced, the Mandate of Heaven army raided Longyou, they didn't have time to escape, and they stayed in a daze after being captured; Maybe it's just for the sake of eating, but now only the territory of the Heavenly Mandate Army has a peaceful scene; Maybe it was a spy sent by the imperial court......

No matter what their original purpose was, in the territory of the Mandate of Heaven, officials can only have one goal!

He didn't believe it, couldn't he warm the hearts of these officials by creating such a good situation? If they are anti-bone boys who are born without conscience, then they can only be eliminated, and the existence of such people is not needed in the territory of the Heavenly Mandate Army, or even in this world.

"Dadu Governor ......" has a magistrate who wants to say it but doesn't dare to say it, and he is hesitant.

"If you have anything to say," Li Zicheng relieved his ideological doubts, "You are here to be trained, you are students, it doesn't matter if you are right or wrong, and the governor of Pontus does not care, if you have any ideas, even if you say it, if there is something wrong, you can correct it." ”

Li Jia and Wang Gui served as recorders, and Li Zicheng's conversations with the officials, they needed to record them one by one, and then go back and sort them out, these contents would not be used as the basis for punishing officials, but Li Zicheng needed to know what misunderstandings there were in the officials.

The official of the "Metropolitan Governor ......" was encouraged, and then said: "His subordinate Hong Yingxi, who was originally the magistrate of Zhangxian County, suddenly arrived from the Heavenly Mandate Army, and his subordinates became prisoners of war of the Heavenly Mandate Army......

"Haha......" Everyone laughed, but behind the smile, there was a little sadness, how many of the officials present were once prisoners of war of the Mandate of Heaven...... Not only were they not punished, but they were also given the opportunity to be trained in front of the Grand Duke...... I'm afraid the court has forgotten about them a long time ago!

Li Zicheng waved his hand and signaled everyone to be quiet.

"Subordinate...... The subordinates originally thought that the Heavenly Mandate Army, like those thieves, came to Longyou just for food," Hong Ying showed his way out, "but seeing that the Heavenly Mandate Army was strict in discipline and really did not take a stitch from the people, the subordinates understood that the subordinates met Allah, and the subordinates knew how to be officials in the future." ”

"Haha," Li Zicheng laughed, "how does Hongzhi County plan to be an official?" ”

"There are no more than two things to be an official, one is to complete the tasks assigned by the government, especially the taxation," Hong Yingxian squinted his eyes and talked eloquently, "In addition, I care about the suffering of the people, and the people in Shaanxi are changing because the people have no food to eat. ”

Hong Ying suddenly thought that the current Heavenly Mandate Army, from the perspective of the imperial court, was a thief, so he shrank his neck in fright and did not dare to speak again.

Li Zicheng put down the dry speech and began to teach in the form of a conversation, just to shorten the distance between him and the officials, so that they can say their true thoughts, so that they can prescribe the right medicine, for these subsections of Hong Yingxian, naturally he will not care, he laughed, and said, "Hong Zhixian's mind, the people are the first, the general direction is right, 'for the official term, for the benefit of one party', that's the truth, right?" ”

Everyone saw that Li Zicheng was pleasant, not the appearance of killing people at every turn as in the legend, and their courage was strengthened, since Hong Yingxian had started, how could others be willing to lag behind?

"According to the subordinates, taxes should be levied according to the actual income of the people, and those with high incomes should be levied more, and those with small incomes should be levied less......"

"In fact, it is not enough to let the people have enough food and clothing, we should let the people have a small amount of surplus money in their hands in case of emergency!"

"The Metropolitan Governor loves the people like a son, and his subordinates have seen ......"