Chapter 503: The Final Battle (4)
Officials at all levels in Juzhou, the days are the saddest, speaking of which they are all officials of the Great Yuan court, but with the Ming army occupying Haizhou, Yizhou and Tengzhou and other places, Juzhou has become extremely dangerous, at the end of the battle in Lianshui County, the army of Zhengnan was all wiped out, and the army led by Prince Hedan did not deploy heavy guards in Juzhou after retreating to Jinan Mansion, which made the officials at all levels in Juzhou feel completely abandoned. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
The people of Juzhou, the performance is even more obvious, the family has a little money, long ago left with the soft, or went to Dadu, or simply chose to go to Kaifeng Mansion, and the people who were forced to stay in the local area were ordinary people who couldn't think of any way.
Everyone knows that the fighting is tragic, and the local people are also the most unlucky.
But those officials are even more unlucky, the people can also choose to dodge, bad luck is to lose their lives, the officials know the danger, and do not dare to dodge at will, otherwise even if they escape the impact of the fight, they will not be able to escape the punishment of the court.
For a period of time, many officials are trying to find a way, the purpose of which is to leave Juzhou, but there are very few officials who can find a backer, and most of the officials are looking forward to sighing, there is no way at all, and some officials, especially officials, simply choose to resign from their posts.
Of course, some officials who rely on the government to make a living will also think of other ways, that is, to secretly defect to the Ming court, you must know that the Ming army often sends sergeants to Juzhou to investigate, and when these Ming troops go deep into various places to investigate, there are many local officials who take the initiative to choose to get close to them, and even directly provide information they know.
No one has to report and denounce such a situation, anyway, there is not much way out for everyone, rather than choosing to wait for death, it is better to give it a go, maybe you can get the best ending.
Most of those officials who can find connections are directly looking for Ahma, the left prime minister of the court.
Ahmad is a Semu person, compared to those Mongolians, it is easier to approach, and Ahma is greedy for money, which also allows officials to send out silver, but at such a critical moment, the silver is not of much use, and people Ahma will not look at it, so some officials, especially the local officials, gritted their teeth and took out a large amount of silver, and asked someone to give it to Ahma, the purpose is to think of being able to leave Juzhou.
Of course, it is impossible for these chief officials to let their own silver be gone, the wool is out of the sheep, they have intensified their exploitation of the people, and have adopted various means, and even some big businessmen who have a good relationship with the government on weekdays have not escaped, and the businessmen themselves have left, and there are always people in the mansion, if they can't get out the money, the government will break into the door and enter the house to search for money.
There are many reasons to collect money, and the left prime minister Ahma has already added a lot of taxes, all of which are used to spend money on the expedition of the army, and the local government can also increase other taxes on the basis of these taxes, where soldiers are needed to garrison, a lot of expenses are needed, and so on.
Seeing that the autumn harvest season is approaching, the government is even busier, which is a great opportunity to collect money.
Wave after wave, stubble after stubble, the officials who have left Juzhou will not continue to exploit the people, and it is impossible to stretch their hands so long, but the officials who have not left this place and want to leave will have to desperately squeeze the people, so that they can send out the silver and guarantee to leave this ghost place.
For a while, the entire Juzhou became a miasma, and even those ordinary people who couldn't think of much way to leave here gritted their teeth, saying that their homeland was difficult to leave, and if they were not forced to have no choice, who would choose to leave.
The people's hatred of the government has reached the point where it is almost about to explode, even those businessmen who have left the local area, after being looted at home, they are also gnashing their teeth at the government, some businessmen who have a relationship with the capital want to find a good relationship to protect themselves, but unfortunately their opponent is Zuo Prime Minister Ahma, as a businessman It is impossible to turn the tables, so some businessmen who have entered the capital choose to leave Dadu and go to Kaifeng Mansion, which is equivalent to the businessman choosing to support the Ming Dynasty.
These circumstances are clear to Ahma, the left prime minister of the Great Yuan Court, although he is not particularly clear about the details.
However, Ahmad will not intervene in it, his task is to collect money, the adjustment of several officials in Juzhou, this is not a matter at all, in recent times, the pressure of Ahma is also huge, the place where taxes can be collected is gradually shrinking, but the expenses of the imperial court are getting more and more, especially this expedition, the emperor is driving in person, and the money and food must be guaranteed, so Ahma tried every means to increase taxes, try to gather money, and ensure the expenses of the army.
Ahma's measures have also been supported by Prince Mogo, and now the biggest thing is to ensure the cost of the army, and the rest of the things are put aside for the time being, although there are many people who are dissatisfied, but this is nothing, they are ordinary people and businessmen, if these people do too much, then let the army suppress it, anyway, the money and grain need to be taken out, what do you think sometimes, since the court has encountered such a situation, then these businessmen should take out all the money support, you must know that there is no protection of the courtWhat kind of business can these businessmen do?
Ahmad was originally intensifying the collection of taxes in other parts of the Central Plains, but Prince Moge actually signaled that most of the capitals also needed to collect taxes, so as to ensure the expenses of the army.
Over the years, Ahma has tried his best to collect taxes from the locality, but he has not moved in two places, that is, the Mobei grassland and Dadu, these two places can not be moved easily, after all, many powerful people are gathered here, especially those Mongolian magnates.
If you inadvertently offend those Mongolian magnates, even if Ahmad gets the emperor's trust, it will inevitably encounter calculations, Ahmad is very clear about the affairs of the court, some Mongolian magnates can never be offended, don't say that he Ahma, even if it is the emperor, when dealing with the affairs of Mongolian magnates, they are very careful.
Prince Kehedan's order has been issued, and Ahmad has no choice but to carry it out.
Ahmad also knew that the imperial court was already overstretched, and it was almost impossible to open the pot, with the eyes of the war, the situation of the Mongolian iron cavalry relying on conquest to raise money and grain in the past was rare, after all, this could not ensure the supply of food and salary, in case of difficulties in this grain and grass, the gods in the sky could not recover the rout.
In fact, for so many years, in order to be able to maintain the expenses of the Mongolian army, Ahmad has tried all the ways, many businessmen and people, has been overwhelmed by heavy taxes, which will inevitably lead to the following turmoil, fortunately, the Mongolian iron horse is extremely brave, no one dares to blatantly rebel, so Ahma's policy of increasing taxes can continue to be implemented, but now the situation is a little different, a large number of merchants who can not afford to pay taxes, have left Dadu, leaving Yanjing and Daimyofu and other places, Go to Kaifeng Fucheng, or simply go to Sichuan and other places, which leads to a significant reduction in the taxes that Ahma can receive.
This time the situation was even worse, with an army of nearly 400,000 on the march and a huge amount of food and grass needed, Ahma had done his best to ensure the cost of the army, but many times, he was still too worried to sleep.
Faintly, Ahmad is also worried, if this situation continues for a long time, no one can bear it, and once there is turmoil in various places, the situation will be even more difficult to maintain.
Therefore, the prince of Moge issued an order, Ahma is also very careful, in the Mobei grassland to levy taxes, it is impossible, after all, the Mobei grassland is unstable, and there is a large army under the command of Haidu, the rest is to collect taxes in Dadu, Ahmad requires all levels of government, when collecting taxes, verify the identity of the merchant in detail, if there is no businessman to rely on, you can rest assured that you can boldly increase the tax, if there is a businessman behind the relationship, do not increase the tax for the time being.
Wu Shaogang was well aware of the increasing taxation of the Great Yuan Imperial Court, and the Intelligence Bureau also focused on collecting information in this regard.
It is not very difficult to obtain this information, and it does not require much effort, let alone much risk, but Wu Shaogang attaches great importance to this information, and whenever he receives information in this regard, he looks at it very carefully, and he will also make special marks.
In order to maintain the expenses required for the expedition, the Great Yuan court did not hesitate to impose heavy taxes on the people, even to the point of ignoring the lives of the people, which was originally a sign of the end of the world, and the Mongolian army had often conquered before, but there was no problem because of the heavy taxes, that was because the Mongolian army would slaughter the city every time it captured the city, and it would be unceremoniously exploited, which supplemented the cost of military salaries from one side, and the Great Song Dynasty was weak, and a large amount of wealth was robbed by the Mongolian army, but now the situation is different, the Ming army is strong and tough, So that the Mongolian army no longer dares to plunder places at will.
In the process of conquering the south, the army plundered a lot of wealth, and the Ashu at that time could be described as rich and rival the country, but unfortunately, all these wealth fell into the hands of Wu Shaogang, including a large amount of grain and grass, with the support of these money and grain, the 300,000 army that entered Shandong could be maintained for a long time.
Wu Shaogang will not increase the burden of the people without limit because of the large-scale conquest, especially the burden of the people in Lianghuai, Jingxi Road and Jinghu Road, the people in these places have encountered the invasion of war, and they need the help of the government, and continue to exploit and inform them that they will be cornered.
The south is relatively stable, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan and other places, it is even calmer, on the other hand, the place occupied by the Dayuan court, the people are already complaining, so the battle has not yet begun, and the Ming court has occupied an absolute advantage.