readx; Zhu Youzhen arrived at Dongping Mansion with Hao Yongzhong's 10,000 cavalry. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info▲∴ Ding▲∴ Point▲∴ Xiao▲∴ said that together with the 5,000 cavalry of Li Laiheng's department who had arrived before, and Lu Xiangsheng's 5,000 Tianxiong army, 20,000 troops gathered around the projectile city of Dongping Mansion, and the sound of war horses neighing was heard all day long.

But Zhu Youzhen was in no hurry to continue the march. In addition to luring the main rebel force into confronting the official army in the Zhengzhou area according to the top-secret plan agreed in advance, creating an opportunity for a sneak attack on Luoyang, two practical difficulties were also restricting the movement of the army.

First of all, it is the middle of winter, and there will be snow every now and then, and the already dilapidated official road will become even more difficult to navigate after being covered in snow and ice. Although there were 20,000 cavalry, Zhu Youzhen did not intend to consume them in positional battles, but hoped that the rear army, that is, Meng Gong's 5,000 infantry, would be the main attacking force.

However, due to the road conditions, and the fact that the firearms troops needed far more baggage than the cavalry, now Meng Gong's troops only marched to Zhending Mansion, and it would take at least two days to reach Guangping Mansion, and it would take even longer to drive to the north bank of the Yellow River, and Zhu Youzhen could only wait anxiously.

Second, the greatest practical difficulty facing the army is the lack of food and grass. After the defense of Beijing, both the government and the people in the Beizhili area had greatly reduced their grain stocks, and the imperial court had to bear the food of hundreds of thousands of refugees whose homes were destroyed, so the food was already extremely scarce, and there was no excess food at all.

But fighting the rebels, especially the bandits, is another arduous and long process, and if there is no food in the army, it is simply impossible to sustain a day. Therefore, what Zhu Youzhen has been racking his brains for the most these days is how to raise enough grain and grass.

After pondering for a long time, he finally came up with the method of "borrowing grain". This method was conceived by him with reference to the historical facts of our army borrowing grain from the people during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation. There are several obvious benefits to this approach:

First, the problem of the source of food has been solved. In the past, there were only two normal sources of military rations: one was to transport them from the rear, and the other was to transfer them from the local government grain depots. But now, no matter where it is, the grain depot is empty, and there is no grain to adjust at all, so we can only look at the people, and the living can't let the urine suffocate to death.

Second, it is to borrow grain rather than forcibly expropriate. In the past, under certain special circumstances, the official army also requisitioned grain from the people, but it was all forcibly requisitioned, in other words, it was occupied for nothing, and the common people did not receive any compensation. Although it is a last resort, after all, it harms the interests of the people and is easy to cause resentment. Now it has been changed to borrowing grain, since it is borrowed, it will have to be repaid sooner or later, and it is relatively easy for the people to accept.

Third, it is the army that directly borrows grain from the people, rather than letting the local government do it again. This happened in the past: the government used the official army as an excuse to raise food and salaries, and levied in the countryside, but only part of the food and salary collected was used in the army, and the rest was embezzled by the officials below. During the Apocalypse, because of the additional levy of the "three salaries", many such things happened, which was very easy to provoke the people's uprising, and many of the current thieves began to rebel at that time. And the officials and soldiers directly borrowed grain, and these officials could not participate, which also reduced the opportunity for fraud.

Fourth, the main target of grain borrowing is the rich gentry, not the poor people. Zhu Youzhen knew very well that ordinary peasant households already bear a heavy burden due to problems such as land annexation and forced labor, and in addition, the gentry are exempt from paying grain, and if they borrow grain from collecting land taxes, the burden on ordinary peasant households and tenant households will be even heavier, and those large households will do everything possible to evade it, and not only will they not be able to borrow much grain, but on the contrary, they will cause more serious problems.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen limited the objects of grain borrowing to those gentry, landlords, and wealthy businessmen, don't you have to pay grain? It doesn't matter, I won't let you pay food, you can always borrow food, right? But if you borrow it, you have to borrow it, and if you don't borrow it, you can't do it, and it will be carried out by the army, and there is no room for accommodation.

But Zhu Youzhen also expected that this would definitely cause great dissatisfaction among the wealthy gentry. In order not to intensify the contradictions, unite all forces that can be united as much as possible, put down the rebellion as soon as possible, and stabilize the situation in the Central Plains, Zhu Youzhen still adopted several necessary measures.

First of all, not everyone in the army has the right to borrow food. Zhu Youzhen gave this power to Lu Xiangsheng alone, and all the borrowing of grain must be handled by him. In addition, the IOUs in quadruplicate make the borrowed grain as standardized as possible, and it is clear how much grain the lender borrowed at what time, as long as the Ming Dynasty does not lose the country, it will always be well documented.

In this way, to a certain extent, the borrowers of grain are reassured, and the confusion caused by the loss of IOUs and too many people handling them has also been avoided, as well as the problem of people with ulterior motives forging IOUs to fraudulently receive food. Of course, in this way, Lu Xiangsheng worked much harder, and he had to shuttle non-stop between prefectures, counties, villages and towns every day, and could not return to the camp until late at night.

Second, borrowing grain or wages is not in vain, but has interest. Although there is no time to repay, the longer the time passes, the more interest will be. In this way, those big families are tantamount to lending these grains and salaries, and they are lending to the imperial court, and they will never be in bad debt. When the situation is stabilized, the imperial court will definitely return these arrears with interest, and Zhu Youzhen believes that with those crops in the New World, it will not be too difficult to do this.

Third, all the big households who borrowed grain were invited by Lu Xiangsheng to a banquet, and the amount of money borrowed was announced on a list, and a "certificate of award" was issued. This "certificate of merit" was not a large road item issued to elementary school students, but a banner that was sent back to Beijing after statistics, and was handwritten by the cabinet ministers and the middle school scholars.

You must know that these people are all famous all over the world, and if you want to ask them for words, you must be acquaintances, otherwise you won't write for silver. After getting this banner full of beautiful words, the borrower can frame it and show it off.

That's not all, Zhu Youzhen ordered the officials and officials in various places to parade through the streets with a red list and beat gongs and drums, so that the local people all knew about the good deeds of these rich gentry. To put it bluntly, all these measures are to put gold on the faces of these people, so that they can obtain a sense of psychological satisfaction or compensation, so as to reduce the resistance to borrowing food.

Not to mention, this trick is quite effective. Many big households originally had a bitter gourd face after being "borrowed", but the surrounding villagers saw that they were all full of praise, and these people were reluctant in their hearts, and they had to pretend to be righteous and strict, saying how they took the initiative to borrow grain in order to let the officials and soldiers quell the rebellion as soon as possible. After this is promoted, it will be much easier for Lu Xiangsheng to do things, and even smart people know that they can't hide, so they simply take the initiative to come to the door to borrow food.

Of course, military deployment is no less important than logistical issues. Two days later, with the arrival of Meng Gongbu, the army finally began to cross the Zhanghe River and march towards Henan. Zhu Youzhen breathed in the cold air by the river, but he seemed to have smelled the bloody smell of war!