At the end of April of the fourth year of Chongzhen, the people of Jindingshan and Jiangduhebao received news that the battle in the eastern meandering river finally came to an end. After a long confrontation with Wang Jiayin, on the 18th of April, the general Cao Wenzhao, Li Bei, Ma Ke, Cao Bianjiao, Ai Wannian and others launched a general attack on Wang Jiayin. (Note 1)

After a devastating offensive, the officers and troops won a great victory. In total, more than 1,600 beheadings were decapitated, and thousands of livestock equipment were confiscated. The main force of the thieves entrenched in Yansui East Road has been completely defeated, but it is a pity that the official army failed to kill Wang Jiayin, and the thieves who ravaged the river meander escaped again.

All the leaders who received the news couldn't help but sigh at their luck, but fortunately they had already chosen to settle in March. Otherwise, the main force of the official army is likely to turn around and clean up Shen Yikui and the others at this time. Although everyone thinks that Shen Yikui is not weaker than Wang Jiayin, and may even be stronger, no matter how strong he is, he can't compare to the official army.

Now that the result is that there is no need to worry about the killing of the officers and soldiers, it is indeed a fortunate thing to have obtained the official position. However, the three Zhang brothers had some other regrets in their hearts, because Yang He's promise to restore Zhang Mengcheng's reputation had not been fulfilled for a long time. The three brothers had no choice but to continue to wait for further news while they were busy with the trivial matters at hand.

Now there is no need to worry about the officers and soldiers in Jinding Mountain, so everyone is at ease, and now even the cavalry training that has always been valued in the village has stopped.

At present, the armed forces of the cottage are all under the leadership of Zhang Mengcheng and other leaders, and are busy with the construction of agricultural and water conservancy facilities in various places around it. Because many people in Jinding Mountain have noticed that the northern Shaanxi area, which has been dry for several years, seems to have signs of rain in the near future. In the heavy snow of the previous winter, many people faintly saw the signs of an eye-opening day.

This good omen was not only discovered by the former bandits of Jinding Mountain, but also by people in other Baoan counties and even other places. Now that the Shenyi Kui tribe in the west has been pacified, and Wang Jiayin in the east has been defeated, the current situation in Shaanxi has reached a node, as long as the government can work hard, Shaanxi's public order can be completely restored.

Yang He, the governor of the three sides, naturally noticed that the natural disasters in Shaanxi were easing down, and he wrote in a note to Emperor Chongzhen: "The rain and snow are in season this year, and the ministers' roads are green, like the image of a good year. If the thieves are disbanded and returned to the peasants, there is still hope for peace. Otherwise, there will be chaos. (Note 2)

Now the reason why Yang He is anxious to appease the thieves in various places is to let the hungry people from all over the country return to their hometowns to resume production as soon as possible. As long as the people have food, they will naturally be able to restore calm to the chaos in various places.

Don't take advantage of this time of God's grace to try to restore order everywhere in Shaanxi. It will only make the situation of food shortage in Shaanxi continue to worsen, leading to the thieves and chaos that have lasted for several years becoming more and more out of control.

It is unclear how the imperial court will react to Yang He's request for money and grain again, and whether it will be able to allocate further money and grain. At least the results of the court's bargaining for several years will not be retracted, and it has finally allocated 100,000 taels of silver to Shaanxi.

The newly appointed Inspector Wu Fu was originally working in Henan. The holy decree that he was appointed to relieve Shaanxi was issued on the 26th day of the first month of the fourth year of Chongzhen, and limited to the conditions of the times at that time, Wu Fu only received the holy decree later. Moreover, he only set off from Henan to Shaanxi on the ninth day of February.

Then he arrived at Tongguan on the 27th, and arrived in Xi'an on the 2nd of March. Fortunately, he asked the Holy Lord in advance to strictly order the other yamen to be sure to transport the money and grain to the relief in early March, so the relief money was also transported to Xi'an on the fourth day of the first month.

Although Wu Fu worked hard to hurry, and even rode a horse as a civil official to travel 130 or 40 miles a day, the speed of the disaster in Shaanxi was still a little slow.

Wu Fu learned through the local gentry in Shaanxi that the disaster in Shaanxi was even more serious than he thought, and that the catastrophic disaster in Shaanxi, which had lasted for several years, had only now received relief from the central government, which was really a place where the Ming Dynasty should feel ashamed and guilty. Although the imperial court had already made a big mistake, it was not too late to make amends, and he immediately began to give money with the money in his hand.

However, another embarrassing problem also needs to be faced by Wu Fu, the 100,000 taels of silver allocated by the central government is too little for the disaster in Shaanxi. Although Wu Fu also cried to Emperor Chongzhen that he was poor, the Shengshang, who had to deal with the empty treasury and had to deal with the eastern captives, still did not choose to further allocate money and grain.

The central government, which could not transfer more money and grain, granted Wu Fu the right to "instruct the prefectures and counties to take various measures to try to make money to support the poor." Although this is suspected of the central government pushing the responsibility for relief back to Shaanxi, it has somewhat made Wu Fu more open to relief. He kept calling on the gentry in Shaanxi and even the princes in the palace to donate enthusiastically, which finally increased the money and food on his hands. (Note 3)

No matter how bad the situation was, Wu Fu could only cheer up and use his limited money and food to restore the broken territory in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty. As for whether he will meet with the security guards or the Zhang family from Ningsai, these are all secondary matters for now.

Due to the previous chaos, the land in many places in Baoan County was uncultivated. At this time, Jinding Mountain occupied a lot of land for cultivation. Some of the hungry people even planted in the vicinity of Ningsai Fort have defected to the area around Jinding Mountain for agricultural production. Because Jindingshan has the accumulation of previous thieves, and Zhang Mengcheng's careful planning. Coupled with the organization cultivated up and down the cottage during the original thief period, the reclamation around Jinding Mountain is very hot.

Judging from the enthusiasm for production that is being shown now, thousands of men, women, and children in Jindingshan's sphere of influence this year at least do not have to worry about people starving to death. If God does open his eyes in the days to come, then maybe everyone will be lucky enough to get a pretty good harvest.

It's just that now there are some very hateful scum that have caused trouble up and down Jinding Mountain, and some thieves who are not willing to cultivate honestly, but are very arrogant and begin to burn and loot everywhere in Baoan County. The reclamation site of Jinding Mountain was also plundered by these people, and not only food and property were lost, but even casualties occurred.

For these short-sighted miscellaneous people, the leaders of the few leaders guarding Jinding Mountain naturally will not have the slightest leniency. The other leaders who remained in Jinding Mountain, including Zhang Mengcheng, the teacher in the village, took up their weapons again, and they began to hunt down these bastards.

PS: Note 1: The time is taken from "Huailing Liukou Always Record". In "Chongzhen's Long Edition", this matter is also after the Xinyou entry. In addition, after writing "Xia April Jiachen Shuo" in Huailu, there is a saying that he has not been (16th) God Yikui was appeased. There is this statement in "Guoyu", "Chongzhen Record", "Liukou Zhi" and "Pingkou Zhi". However, the author also found in "Yang He's Confession to the Imperial Prison" that Shen Yikui personally met Yang He on March 16, and Yang He dismissed all the thieves in Heshui County on the 29th. Yang He is the person who personally presides over the soothing of God, and his statement is the most authoritative. Therefore, other historical materials that record the April Jiwei (16th) to appease the gods should mistakenly record the events of March as April.

Note 2: From "Yang He, the Governor of the Three Sides of Shaanxi, Entitled Buxin Recruiting Surrender", the specific time when Yang He wrote this memo is unknown, and it should be after that. However, Yang He's observations should have been noticed at the time, and most of them had similar performances before. In fact, in Wu Fu's recital and other historical materials, you can find a record of Chongzhen's four-year natural disasters that began to ease, and the thieves in Shaanxi have not always been forced by natural disasters.

Note 3: After that, the impoverished Shaanxi donated a total of 36,006.37 taels of silver and 3,112.6 stones of miscellaneous grains with the efforts of the gentry at all levels and the clans of Shaanxi. Compared with the 100,000 taels of silver allocated by the central government, this figure is already a considerable number.