Zhang Chu initially pacified the Houjin forces outside the Guan, and when he turned his attention to the Guannei, the Guannai was already in flames of war. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

When Li Zicheng led his team out of Beijing, it was not a retreat at all, not even a rout, but a real escape.

When Li Zicheng's people were in Beijing, they had already begun to die in large numbers, throwing a large number of corpses in the city, and when they escaped from the city, they kept throwing corpses along the road, and only a few of the hundreds of thousands of people who had entered Beijing died in the end. What is even more terrifying is that because Li Zicheng and his team escaped from Beijing, they spread the epidemic to the people along the way and Li Zicheng's left-behind troops, so that the number of newly infected people continued to increase. Li Zicheng thought that it was the evil disease brought to the people by the city of Beijing, so he was determined to stay away from this terrible city, so he fled south with his men and horses.

And Li Zicheng was closely pursued by Guan Ningjun, who entered the city of Beijing. Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou thought that the corpses in the city were piled up and caused miasma, and at this time Li Zicheng's army had fled far away, so they left a small number of men and horses and the prince in Beijing, Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou took most of the army out of Beijing to receive the territory discarded by Li Zicheng outside the city.

In the eyes of other local forces, the whole scene was the scene of Li Zicheng's defeat and escape by Wu Xiang's Guan Ning army, so many people also wanted to come over and get a piece of the pie. At this time, Li Zicheng really had no combat effectiveness, and was defeated and retreated by the officials, troops and landlords in various places, and Li Zicheng's territory was constantly occupied. Fortunately, in the end, they came up with a way to isolate the sick from the healthy, and set up a special battalion for the sick and let them wait there for death, which stopped the spread of the epidemic, and the troops regained a little combat effectiveness and gained a foothold in Henan again.

Wu Xiang's Guan Ningjun struggled outside Beijing, and only controlled the epidemic after losing almost half of its men, but the rest of the people did not dare to move casually anymore, for fear of inviting another epidemic.

At this time, something happened that made Wu Xiang very annoyed, and the prince who remained in the palace of the capital was gone. Originally, the prince was in the palace, the palace gate was closed, and it was very safe to not interact with the outside world, but due to the outbreak of the plague, outsiders were not allowed to enter the palace, but in this case, the prince disappeared, and this matter eventually became a mystery, and Wu Xiang lost the prince and lost the legitimacy of the Ming Dynasty. This also gave other people an opportunity, and many people in the south began to want to establish a vassal king to command the world.

In this case, Zhang Chu came to Shanhaiguan with his army. When the Guan Ning Army, who remained at Shanhaiguan, saw the artillery set up by the security army outside the city, they immediately sent people outside the city to welcome the security army to take over the defense of Shanhaiguan. Everyone is a Ming person, and everyone is willing to make progress together under the leadership of Zhang Dashuai. Although the Guan Ning army was reluctant to give away their territory, the artillery outside the city persuaded them. Moreover, the security army at this time was already a god-like existence in the eyes of Guan Ningjun. The Guan Ning army fought with the Houjin people for many years and was abused by the Houjin soldiers for many years. If the security army is used to fight the Guan Ning army, the Guan Ning army knows through a simple analogy that he is not the opponent of the security army at all, so it is better to choose to surrender.

Zhang Chu drove into Shanhaiguan with the security army, reorganized and transformed the Guanning army in the city, and then firmly controlled this strategic place.

Zhang Chu had no good way to deal with the outbreak of plague in the Guannei and had no choice but to set up a quarantine area in Shanhaiguan to gather all the refugees who had escaped from the customs to observe and release them after ten days without any symptoms.

Also under the care of the security army were the Ming troops in Datong and Xuanhua. When Li Yi led the security army to the city, the Ming army in the Xuanhua area made the right choice and happily joined the security army, at this time Emperor Chongzhen died, the Ming army died, the Ming army had no object of allegiance, and the security army also promised that if the Ming army surrendered and accepted the reorganization, it would pay food. The Ming court is gone, and no one will give food and salary to the Ming army, and at this time, there is such a powerful force as the security army willing to accept them, of course they can't ask for it.

Zhang Chu successfully controlled the first line of the Great Wall in the north, and also united his own forces, he ordered the pace of expansion to be temporarily stopped, and he needed to stop and digest the fruits of victory.

Victims in Shanxi and Shaanxi have finally received good news after years of struggling on the death line. Zhang Chu and Zhang Dashuai eliminated the Houjin outside the pass and married the Mongols, and now there are no enemies of the security army outside the Great Wall.

In order to relieve the victims, Zhang Dashuai decided to allow the victims to earn a living outside the border wall. In addition, as long as the victims have registered with the security forces, they can join the security forces' farms. Some of these farms will graze on the grasslands, while others will be cultivated in the black soil of the northeast.

What's more, all the seeds and tools on these farms were provided by the security forces, and the victims joined the farms and immediately became farm workers, and they could receive life-saving food at that time. As long as the victims are ordered to go to the place where the security forces recruit workers, they will have the strength to work and survive.

The security forces gave the victims a much better way to survive than the days when they rebelled and drank blood. As soon as the news broke, a large number of victims rushed to the recruitment office of the security army with their families. Later, there were even small groups of rebels under the leadership of the leader who came directly to ask to change careers and become workers, but they stopped doing this rebellion, and it was more practical to be peasants.

Beyond the border wall, there is a vast area of land that is fully capable of accommodating a large number of refugees, and the most difficult problem is the food problem. Zhang Chu organized various farms to plant some crops with short growing seasons for emergencies, and used the fleet to transport large quantities of grain from the south to the northeast by sea.

In order to ensure that everyone was not starved to death, Zhang Chu forcibly introduced a ticket system in areas outside the Great Wall. Zhang Chu was the first to establish a system for the distribution of goods by the security forces, and security stores were set up in every populated area, which were responsible for the purchase of agricultural products and cattle and sheep from farms in various places. Grain and other important materials are designated as monopolies, and unified purchase and sales are implemented. All the food produced on the farm is purchased by the security store and then sold. Residents and farm workers under the administration of the Security Forces receive food stamps on a monthly basis, which must be purchased in the security shops exclusively operated by the Security Forces, which must be purchased with both food stamps and money.

This ensures that food is distributed equally to the greatest extent possible, and some people do not get more than they need, even if they have the money. Everyone doesn't have enough to eat, but they can starve to death as little as possible.

In the process, Zhang Chu also discovered another benefit of the grain stamps, through the unified sale of grain, the security army strengthened its control over the ethnic groups outside the Great Wall. Although large quantities of grain were transported outside the Great Wall, most of the residents who had lived outside the Great Wall joined the farms of the security forces or farms controlled by the Baojia system, because only in this way could they obtain food stamps in exchange for food. Even some long-term nomadic tribes can only sell their cattle and sheep to security stores in exchange for food stamps, and then buy grain. They could not afford to stiffen their relationship with the security generals.

Of course, all these are temporary measures, and if we want to truly solve the problem of eating that has plagued the Chinese for thousands of years, we must ultimately rely on effectively increasing grain production.

When Zhang Chu was worried about the food of the victims, the soldiers came in and reported him a good news, and the person he was looking for had been found. (To be continued.) )