Song Xianggong's words, Zhou Shixiang recognized very much, in his previous life, he knew a famous saying, that is, war is fought by logistics, and there is no hope of victory in a war without logistics support. In this era, this sentence can be directly summarized as follows: The war at the end of the Ming Dynasty was the war of grain.

The rebellion of the displaced people during the Chongzhen period was, in the final analysis, that the people were so hungry that they couldn't stand it, and in order to survive, they could only take up arms to build an official rebellion. The same was true of the Manchu rebellion outside the Guan, and in order to be well fed, they had to fight the Ming idea, which was richer than them. After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the most important reason why the north was pacified by them in a short period of time was that the population of the north was gone!

When there are fewer people, there will naturally be enough food to eat. If there is food in the stomach, the common people don't ask you whether you are the Han court or the Hu court, whoever can fill our stomachs is the court!

Although many people in his previous life advocated Manchu rule, Zhou Shixiang, who was immersed in the scene, simply believed that the Manchus were able to steal the Central Plains and quickly stabilize the situation because of their numerous massacres on Han Chinese territory.

The massacre was not because of the Han resistance, but because they had no food!

The Manchus were unable to provide food to the Han people, but they were afraid that they would be too hungry to resist, so they simply killed them all. In this way, there are no people, and no matter how little the production in the field is, it is enough for the rest of the people to fill their stomachs, so that the Manchus do not need to carry the heavy population burden of the Ming Dynasty, and they no longer have to be afraid of re-taking the old road of the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

The Qing army was able to fight because they could eat enough, and if the Taiping army wanted to defeat the Qing army, they also had to fill their stomachs with soldiers. Only well-fed soldiers will have the strength to go to battle, and only well-fed soldiers will chant to let them fill their stomachs to be good.

Whether it is Zhou Shixiang's past life or this life, these five words are derogatory words, often describing people being ungrateful, but when placed in the army, these five words can decide everything.

Why was the Taiping Army able to recruit 6,000 new recruits. Could it be that these recruits are all cherished by their family and country, and they have a deep blood feud and want to share the sky with the Manchus? Obviously not, they came to serve as soldiers in order to eat the military rations of the Taiping Army, to reduce the burden on their families, and at the same time to obtain benefits from the Taiping Army for their families. If the Taipings could not feed them, they would be dissatisfied and suspicious of the policies implemented by the Taipings in Xiangshan, and eventually, they would abandon the Taipings. even turned around and bit the Taiping Army.

That's how the human heart is.

Zhou Shixiang never had the luxury of expecting that there would be many righteous soldiers among these recruits who really opposed the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty, so he had to solve the problem of military rations. Hugh said that there was a two-month period of food shortage, not even a day. It is necessary not only to ensure that there is rice, but also to ensure that meat can be eaten from time to time, and at least the soldiers must have enough strength to participate in training and have enough confidence to go to the battlefield.

Zhang An brought information from Zhaoqing that Beijing was going to set up a city in Guangzhou, and at the same time, he also spent a lot of money from Tang Sanshui to get the details of the Qing troops stationed in various parts of Guangdong.

By March at the latest, the Manchurian Eight Banners from Beijing will arrive in Guangzhou, and by that time. Shang Kexi, who has been holding back in Guangzhou, will definitely come out of the hole, and now it is difficult for Zhou Shixiang to judge whether Shang Kexi will fight Xinhui first or sweep the Taiping army in Xiangshan first. However, no matter which direction Shang Kexi chooses first, it is not a good thing for the Taiping army.

Zhang An was able to squeeze Tang Sanshui's utilization value to the maximum, which surprised Zhou Shixiang. This ambassador of the Military Intelligence Department, which he set up on a whim in Luoding, is really impressive.

Zhou Shixiang asked Song Ying to accompany Zhang An around the townships of Xiangshan, and then took out 600 taels of gold from the public treasury and handed it to Zhang An, and he asked Zhang An to develop the intelligence network to Guangzhou City after returning to Zhaoqing, and immediately established two secret communication channels with Xiangshan.

The first passage is through Guangzhou to Xiangshan. The second is to go to Xiangshan via Xinhui. Zhou Shixiang told Zhang An that these two secret communication channels must be mastered by the most trustworthy people, and the intelligence officers on the two lines cannot know the existence of the other party. The same piece of information must also be transmitted to Xiangshan through two lines at the same time, so that even if one of them has a problem, the other side can send the information.

Zhou Shixiang was just an ordinary soldier in his previous life, and he didn't know much about intelligence and the construction of intelligence networks, intelligence personnel training, etc., but his underground struggle dramas from movies and television are definitely the most valuable intelligence knowledge of this era. Therefore, he took two days to teach Zhang An and Song Ying everything he knew about the intelligence front, and transferred eight veterans who had followed the Taiping Army since Luo Ding to Zhang An to bring them back to Zhaoqing in order to strengthen the power in his hands.

After learning that Zhang An and Tang Sanshui had a rice shop, Zhou Shixiang asked Zhang An if he could secretly transport some of the grain to Xiangshan, in this regard, Zhang An was a little embarrassed, after all, Zhaoqing and Xiangshan were too far away, and there was Guangzhou City in between, so it would definitely not work to blatantly transport grain to Xiangshan. But Zhang An still promised to go back to Tang Sanshui to see if he could transport grain to Xiangshan through Xinhui.

Xinhui is now guarded by Chen Qice's sailors and Zhenguo general Zhu Tong and others, they are also very short of food, if Zhang An really secretly transported grain from Zhaoqing through the Tang San waterway, Zhou Shixiang is sure that Chen Qice and Zhu Tong will definitely want to get a piece of the pie. This is not to say that Chen Qice is greedy, but forced by reality.

Zhou Shixiang asked Zhang An to go back and think of a way, if it really didn't work, forget it. If Tang Sanshui agreed to help, the grain could really be transported to Xinhui, and then he would discuss the matter with Chen Qice and them. No matter what, they can score some of them, after all, they are also difficult, and they have to point to the national water division to transport the grain across the river.

After Zhang An left, Zhou Shixiang was discussing food matters with Liao Ruixiang and Song Xianggong for two consecutive days.

After the establishment of the township offices, the first order received by the township chiefs was to go to the villages to collect the tax grain of the tenth year of Yongli, saying that it was to collect the tax grain of the tenth year of Yongli, that is, this year's tax grain, but this year's New Year has passed, and this spring ploughing has not yet begun, so in essence, the Taiping Army is collecting the money and grain of the ninth year of Yongli.

In the ninth year of Yongli, that is, the thirteenth year of Shunzhi, Sun Wenzheng, the county governor of Xiangshan appointed by the Qing Dynasty, had already levied two seasons of money and grain, and because of the need for the siege of Xinhui, he levied again. I thought that the Taiping Army was going to levy this year's summer grain, but what I didn't want to levy was last year's autumn grain, which made many farmers who had just tasted the sweetness from the Taiping Army very dissatisfied.

Soon, however, an official letter came from the county, asking each township to immediately check the population in its jurisdiction, and re-register it as a yellow register and send it to the county. At the same time, all the Dingkou registered in the Yellow Book will no longer be sent to the government for conscription, not only that, but in the future, the government needs to levy and send people to build roads and bridges, dig ditches and build ditches, and travel and transport are different from before, not only do they not need to bring their own tools and rations, but provide food and shelter, and after completion, they can also settle the service money at the price of 6 wen a day.

Along with the carrots, there are also big sticks, and those who do not cooperate with the government's registration and registration will not only be exempted from forced labor, but also have to increase the land tax. (To be continued.) )