Yang Chao was only quite surprised by Xu Du's rebellion, but seeing that Xu Du had also repeatedly failed in the imperial examination, he could probably guess the reason for his rebellion.

This made Yang Chao think of a figure in history, the Huang Chao of the Tang Dynasty.

The Huangchao family has been a salt merchant for generations, and they are rich.

I went to Chang'an to participate in the imperial examination, and wrote a poem after I fell behind, "To stay on September 8 of the next year, I will kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom, and the incense array will penetrate Chang'an, and the city will be full of golden armor", and then go back to take in the outlaws, and a few years later I really entered Chang'an City.

Xu Du, like Huang Chao, is also a wealthy family, sitting on tens of thousands of acres for two days, and after many unfavorable imperial examinations, he made friends with people in the rivers and lakes with righteousness and wealth, and finally rebelled.

No matter how you look at it, this is a heroic figure who wants to take advantage of the chaos in the world and make a career.

Xu Du is inferior to Huang Chao, in fact, it is a domineering poem.

On the day of Xu Du's funeral for his mother, tens of thousands of people sent the funeral to the funeral, and the head was wrapped in a white cloth to mourn, but the local officials falsely accused Xu Du of rebellion and extorted Xu Du for 10,000 taels of silver, and Xu Du really rebelled.

Of course, such a person, even if the government does not oppress him, I am afraid that sooner or later he will rebel.

After Yang Chao read the Tang Daily, he didn't care much, thinking that such a rabble, that's all, relying on a few heroes to succeed in rebellion, he didn't care too much, so he went home for the New Year with peace of mind.

Last year, because of the king of Qinwang in the north, Yang Chao did not celebrate the New Year at home, so the Yang family was particularly lively this year.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, the firecrackers alone cost a hundred taels of silver, almost letting the male servants at home set off for the whole night.

It's a pity that the Yang family is not prosperous, and the family can't eat much when they set up a banquet, but the servants and mothers-in-law in the family live a nourishing life, not to mention the delicious food and drink. Each person also got a big red envelope.

After Chinese New Year's Eve, in the first month, family and friends began to move around. People come to pay New Year's greetings every day.

Yang Chao did not escape this time as before, but honestly stayed at home with his parents to entertain guests.

The mother wore the official uniform of the second grade. The phoenix crown and the xia veil accepted the arrival of relatives and friends one by one to meet the women, and then raised her hand full of majesty to say "flat", for such a ceremony, the mother enjoyed it very much.

Although Yang Chao did not hide out, his relatives and friends who came this year were much more polite, including his uncle, who was restrained and did not complain like before. It's not that he is satisfied with his son's treatment, but he still has to complain to his sister in private, and say a few words about his nephew's elbow turning outward, after all, Zhao Kang's official position is still lower than Wang Pu and others.

But at least no one said it in front of Yang Chao, Yang Chao's current status is not what it used to be, especially when Haizhou became famous in a war, everyone can see that Feihuang Tengda is just around the corner, so he doesn't want to annoy Yang Chao.

Exchanges in officialdom are also indispensable, and the issue of going to the banquet can be pushed away, that is, Shi Kefa and such a big man can't shirk it. Jin Yiwei calmed down such a powerful person, that is also to give face, and Yang Wencong, who is closely related, also has to communicate in person.

As for the rest. The boss gives gifts, and the subordinates just receive gifts, and Yang Chao doesn't have to come forward.

In less than fifteen, Yang Chao returned to the barracks, because the holiday came, and the military rules formulated by Yang Chao had always taken the initiative to abide by them.

Everything was normal in the barracks, officers and soldiers took turns on vacation, and the full combat effectiveness of the army was always maintained. Liu Kongzhao didn't take the opportunity to make trouble, and of course he is unlikely to be like Yang Chao. directly sent troops to the Xinjiang Estuary Water Camp to make trouble, not mentioning whether he had such strong soldiers. The point is that there is no such guts.

The military system has been running in an orderly manner, and there are not too many problems that need to be solved by Yang Chao, which has formed a machine, as long as sufficient resources are provided, it will continue to run on its own.

The siege of the wharf continued to work, only stopping for three days during the Chinese New Year, because for these refugees, the Chinese New Year is not very interesting, and if they don't start work, they will not get money, they may starve, so they prefer to start work as soon as possible.

Because the head of the white craftsman received a boat rent of 100,000 taels of silver every month, he couldn't wait for the New Year, so he started work on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, and the project continued to work overtime.

Now the whole wharf area, dredging and excavation of the foundation work has been basically completed, Yang Chao's plan is to hire one or two thousand people all year round, with five to ten years to gradually complete the construction, but did not expect the appearance of these refugees, so that Yang Chao got nearly 100,000 labor, although not all are young and strong, but still make the building almost greatly shortened, although the increase of nearly 100 times the labor force did not shorten the construction period 100 times, but it is still greatly shortened, the original maximum of five years to complete the project, this year can be completed in more than February, At the end of this month, most of the chartered ships can be returned, saving nearly 100,000 taels of silver in rental costs.

The construction of the polder embankment on the Yangtze River has also been continuing, there are a few apprentices of the white craftsman staring, the progress of the project is not in a hurry, and later a large number of inexhaustible labor on the wharf was transferred here, the progress of the project here has also been greatly accelerated, now a wall is six or seven miles long, starting from the mouth of the new river, ending at the polder embankment of the Lion Rock has been meandering into shape, but it is still being repaired, and there is no need to wait for the spring flood, it can be completed this month.

The grass seeds sprinkled by the emperor last year made the barren field green this year, although the growth of the pasture grass is not as good as that on the grassland with abundant water and grass, but as a wasteland, I don't care how much output it can have, anyway, it is definitely enough for Yang Chao to raise horses.

The construction of the barracks was completed last year, and facilities such as bathhouses, toilets, and canteens were also added to the new barracks and the Qianzong barracks, which are the same standard as the Zuosi camp.

After a few days in the barracks, just after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Zhang Dawei's fleet finally returned.

After asking about the situation, I knew that they had a smooth journey, although there were also a few water battalions along the river that were not very friendly, and even appeared in Wolf Mountain to forcibly take away their warship, at this time, according to Yang Chao's request, the soldiers on the ship did not hesitate to open fire, at that time it was just a cannon fired into the sky, but it still deterred these disobedient water battalion soldiers and forcibly broke through.

The return journey was much smoother, and no one dared to fight the idea of such a large fleet, you must know that Yang Chao is a general, and most of the cannons are loaded on these eight large ships.

After the first month, all the soldiers and officers who built it returned to the team, and the barracks were completely restored.

But at this time, some bad news came, and Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan. Li Zicheng was proclaimed emperor in Xi'an.

Regarding Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, Yang Chao focused on it.

Through the Tang Daily, we learned that since last year, the situation of the peasant army has undergone some changes. Not in accordance with the previous mobile mode of warfare, but in an attempt to begin to create stable base areas.

First, Li Zicheng was crowned king in Xiangyang, Hubei Province at the beginning of last year. Calling himself "King Xinshun", he appeased the homeless, ploughed cattle, farmed mulberry, and stationed troops in the fields, and at the same time killed Luo Rucai and Yuan Shizhong, and unified the forces.

Then Zhang Xianzhong established the "Great West" in May. The capital is Wuchang, and the management is delegated to govern the place.

The leaders of the two major rebel armies each made this kind of establishment of political power, not intentionally, but after so many years of development, the hearts of the people in the world began to change, and many scholars who had no hope of the imperial examination took refuge in the leaders of the rebel army, obviously these people already felt that the Ming Dynasty was coming to an end, and they were anxious to take refuge in the new master, trying to get the great merit of a founding hero in the future.

It was thanks to the help of these scholars that it was possible for them to establish a regime. The selection of officials has shifted from mobility to a fixed stage of development.

It's a pity that Li Zicheng must first settle down if he wants to conquer the outside, and first attack those disobedient rebel leaders. The subordinates who annexed them naturally couldn't tolerate that there was a Zhang Xianzhong next to him who claimed to be the king.

So Li Zicheng put pressure on Zhang Xianzhong to surrender to him, Zhang Xianzhong could not stand Li Zicheng's oppression, so he could only give up his base near Wuchang and go south to attack Hunan, Yuezhou and Changsha could not stop Zhang Xianzhong's 200,000 army, and the whole Hunan also fell into a situation where the peasant army was raging.

Even before the peasant army arrived in Guangdong, the officers and men in the area around Shaoguan, the gate of Guangdong, fled.

But Zhang Xianzhong never went south to Guangdong. On the contrary, they plundered Hunan, and the places they passed were like locusts crossing the border. Then he killed Sichuan again.

As for Li Zicheng, he marched north, passing through the south of Henan. Then attack Tongguan to the west, in the Tongguan area, the last Ming Dynasty with the art of war and the strategy of the leader of the Wenchen Sun Chuanting, and then invade Shaanxi, unify the whole territory of Shaanxi, after the year in Xi'an called the emperor, the country name Dashun.

Seeing the news of Li Zicheng's proclamation as emperor, Yang Chao knew that history had not changed at all, and then Li Zicheng was afraid that he would have to march eastward, and then accept the surrender of the Ming army step by step, until he finally entered the city of Beijing, and almost encountered no strong resistance.

Yang Chao was a little confused about this, did he just watch the Ming Dynasty fall, or did he raise troops to go north to King Qin?

It's just that Yang Chao knows very well that even if he goes north now, I'm afraid that not only will he not get the support of the Ming Dynasty's civil and military forces, but he will immediately block himself, because most of them don't believe that Li Zicheng will leave Shaanxi soon, and then fight all the way to the city of Beijing, even if Yang Chao tells them, they are also Yang Chao is a psychopath, after all, those who believe in Li Zicheng, that is, those literati who can't be officials, and those who really become officials believe in the Ming court.

And even if he arrived in Beijing before Li Zicheng, Yang Chao didn't believe that his 5,000 men and horses could fight against Li Zicheng's million-strong army, unless the emperor was willing to let Yang Chao enter the city to defend, so as to mobilize manpower and material resources up and down Beijing City, just like Yang Chao did in Haizhou, there was hope that Li Zicheng could be stopped.

But will the emperor let Yang Chao into the city, he didn't let Yuan Chonghuan into the city back then, will he definitely let Yang Chao into the city now?

Foreign soldiers can only be stationed outside the city, this is the ancestral system, when Yu Qian faced the Wara army, you must know that at that time, the Wara army captured the Ming Emperor, it is very likely that the army under the city will directly surrender to Wara, in that case, Beijing has not opened the door to the foreign army, let alone Li Zicheng siege the city.

Of course, Yang Chao also thought of other methods, such as persuading Chongzhen to move the capital, as long as Chongzhen arrived in Jiangnan, he would temporarily give up the north that had been destroyed by the war to Li Zicheng, and with the financial and material resources of Jiangnan, he could still hold half of the country, accumulate strength, and then march north to sweep Li Zicheng and the Manchus in one fell swoop. Or Yang Chao entered Beijing in advance, and when the emperor was unwilling to move the capital, he took the prince out, and took the crown prince to sit in Jiangnan and ascend the throne as the emperor, and the Ming Dynasty could also retain most of the Jiangnan; The third is that as in history, the emperor refused to move the capital, and also refused the prince to go to Nanjing, and the last family all died with the city of Beijing, so Yang Chao had to face the destruction of the Ming Dynasty, and then operate alone to keep the situation in the south of the Yangtze River.

Yang Chao thought about it, it seemed that he had only one chance, and the Ming Dynasty also had only one chance, that is, when Emperor Chongzhen Qinwang issued an order, Yang Chao immediately went north, and entered Beijing before Li Zicheng besieged the city, whether it was to pick up the emperor or the prince, or to gather the strength of Beijing, the largest city, to defend, there was only this one chance to change the fate of the Ming Dynasty.

But Yang Chao felt that the strength in his hand was still a little weaker, and no matter how he looked at it, five thousand soldiers and horses could not determine the general trend.

We have to find a chance to expand the army again! (To be continued...... ）。