The Longkou command also withdrew to Zhaojiabao, and Mao Yuanyi raised a very serious problem to Zhao Yan - population.

Zhao Yan hurriedly called Zhang Buyun, who was in charge of administration, and asked about the situation in the population.

Zhang Buyun came to Zhao Yan's office and reported to Zhao Yan: "The population of Shandong is only 8 million now, and most of them are agricultural people who cannot get out, and these people must ensure a normal food supply. And we need a very large number of people, first of all, industrial and commercial development, which will inevitably require a large number of workers, and secondly, foreign expansion, we must have enough people to occupy Liaodong, Korea, and at the same time the population needed for overseas colonies. With our current population of 8 million, it's already very tense. ”

"If we do not try to obtain a source of population, our expansion will be greatly restricted, the most obvious is that we will not be able to expand our army, and the development of industry and commerce will also be severely restricted."

"Can't cut the agricultural population?" Zhao Yan asked.

"Shandong only Denglai two provinces produce grain, the three western provinces now mostly produce cotton, the grain produced is less than in the past, Qingzhou government also does not produce grain, if the agricultural population is reduced, once the disaster year, I am afraid it will be difficult to cope." Zhang Buyun said to Zhao Yan.

"My lord, we must find a way to get the population quickly as soon as possible, and the sailing ship returning from California is still waiting for the colonists to board and depart." Mao Yuanyi said yes.

"The California ship will be kept for now, and a clipper ship will be sent over to send a letter to stop the dispatch of personnel to California for the time being." Zhao Yan thought for a while, and left the sailing ship back to California first, "The problem of insufficient population, we will solve it through two aspects, on the one hand, we will start a war against Yuben as soon as possible to capture the Japanese slaves." On the other hand, the DPRK's troops will be transferred back to Shandong, and the next month the official will personally recruit the thieves. ”

"My lord, the Holy One doesn't seem to want us Shandong to interfere in the matter of suppressing thieves." Mao Yuanyi said hesitantly, Chongzhen is indeed very no, "Don't worry about him, we will suppress us." Zhao Yan waved his hand and said, anyway, it's his business whether he likes to suppress it or not, what can Chongzhen do with him?

Mao Yuanyi saw that Zhao Yan's attitude was very resolute, and he didn't say anything anymore. Although his loyalty to the monarch is relatively strong, he has been under Zhao Yan for a long time, and he also knows that what Zhao Yan does has the intention of rejuvenating the country. In this decaying dynasty, blind loyalty to the monarch cannot change the situation.

Zhao Yan's preparations for the battle to personally recruit the thieves were quickly arranged, and at the same time, preparations for the battle also began to be in full swing.

After nearly two months of training, Wang Wenyue's second battalion was able to skillfully use rifled guns, and although the rate of fire of rifled guns was lower, the range of fire had increased considerably.

At the same time, during these two months, the focus was on adapting to a mountain battle, and after landing on Honshu Island, it was able to adapt to the local shape. Zhao's first target of attack on Saymoto was Edo (Tokyo), the former home of the Tokugawa shogunate, and Zhao Yan hoped to paralyze Saymoto's central administrative capacity in one fell swoop.

Compared to other terrain, the terrain of Edo is a plain area, and it is basically impossible to have any accidents if you transfer a cavalry battalion to cover it.

Hearing that Zhao Yan was going to recruit the thieves himself, Han Sheng, who had been thrown by Zhao Yan in the new barracks since he was appeased, ran to Zhao Yan's office.

"My subordinates have already changed their ways, I hope that the general will give his subordinates a chance to make up for their mistakes, and let his subordinates follow your saddle before and after the horse, enter and suppress the thieves, and return the world to a peaceful ......" Han Sheng asked Zhao Yan to fight with tears and snot.

"Do you really want that?" Zhao Yan looked at him and asked.

"The next sentence is true, if there is a false, it will be thundered by the sky." Han Sheng swore solemnly. Zhao Yan looked at him and was silent for a moment, thinking that it would be good to take this guy there, just to set up a signboard to appease the thieves, so as not to beat the thieves and waste their energy.

"In that case, then you can go with it!" Zhao Yan said to Han Sheng.

"General Xie, General Xie." Han Sheng was so excited that he snorted a few times, Zhao Yan nodded, and said to him, "Get up!" I'm not interested in this here. ”

"Yes." Han Sheng stood up happily and said to Zhao Yan, "That subordinate has retired." ”

"Go ahead!" Zhao Yan nodded.

…… After deliberations, the General Staff finally determined the operational battalions on two fronts.

The 2nd Battalion of the Shandong Army, with the assistance of the 1st Cavalry Battalion of the Liaodong Army and the 1st Artillery Battalion of the Liaodong Army, landed in Edo and launched an attack on Edo.

As for Zhao Yan's personal expedition to the thieves, he mobilized the first battalion of the infantry of the Liaodong Army and the 8,000 cavalry of the new battalion, which were organized into the third and fourth battalions of the cavalry of the Shandong Army.

The purpose of this attack and suppression of the thieves was mainly to train troops and rob the population.

The strategy is certain, and the war machine is ready to be launched again. The Korean battalions received the order and rushed to the Liaodong Peninsula one after another, and the fleet carried the second battalion led by Wang Wenyue and the first artillery battalion of the Liaodong Army to Pusan, and the first cavalry battalion of the Liaodong Army also rushed to Pusan to take position.

At the same time, ships were sent to inform the First Fleet to sail to Pusan for replenishment.

Wang Wenyue was very excited, it was finally his turn to go into battle, and he was going to fight Edo in the Wa Kingdom, and if he didn't grab it in Edo, it would really be a disappointment to the son's high expectations for him.

Han Sheng was also very excited, originally thought that he was just following the battle, but he didn't expect that Zhao Yan also gave him a battalion of recruits, so how could he not be excited.

In the past two years in Shandong, Han Sheng has seen this terrifying war machine. I'm afraid that Zhao Yan's strength, Quan Daming combined can't match him.

Following this master, there is definitely soup to drink.

Han Sheng, who figured this out, was very energetic when he was in the new barracks, and now he has gotten rid of illiteracy and is familiar with the 'infantry classics' used by the Shandong army.

His hard work also paid off, Zhao Yan promoted him to battalion commander, if it was any crooked melon and cracked dates, he would have been kicked out of the recruit camp by Zhao Yan.

Regarding Zhao Yan's pro-recruitment, the Zhang family obviously has objections, but in this regard, Zhao Yan has never listened to her, a woman from a Taoist family, naturally does not understand the important surname.

Pro-conscription is the best way to increase prestige.

In the eyes of many Ming elites, the Manchu was not as much of a threat as the thieves, although the Manchus were stronger than the thieves.

This is a very normal phenomenon, because the thieves eat big households everywhere, and the spearhead is directly aimed at the elite, which naturally makes those bureaucratic landlords want to get rid of them quickly.

If you want to suppress Chongzhen in terms of fame, you have to grab credit.

If the thieves are letting the four positive and six puppets be finished, then there will be no chance for Zhao Yan to perform, and before Yang Sichang's ten-sided ambush is completed, it is naturally the best way to sweep away the thieves with thunder.

In addition to the mobilization of various corps, the task of logistics and supply is not very heavy, because Zhao Yan has long hoarded a large number of sweet potatoes and dried sweet potato flour in Hebei and Huguang cities.

However, it is already April, and most of the sweet potatoes have been consumed, and this thing is not very shelf-stable, so it can only be stored in a powdered and dried way.

Zhao Yan, you called Zhao Quan and asked about the situation of the various grain hoarding areas.

"Our grain store in Huguang can mobilize 1 million stone of grain at present, and 1.2 million stone of grain in Henan, but Shaanxi has not yet entered." Zhao Quan reported on the situation of the grain bank.

"These grains are not enough, this time to suppress the thieves, it is not good to buy people's hearts, wouldn't it be a trip in vain." Zhao Yan said to Zhao Quan.

"We can also extract two million stones of dried sweet potato flour from Yingzhou." Zhao Quan said.

"Ship all this batch of grain to Shaanxi for disaster relief." Zhao Yan thought for a while and said, "Mobilize another million stone powder from Shandong to accompany the army." ”

"Childe, most of the grain in the inventory has been shipped to Liaodong and North Korea, and this time it will be adjusted, there are only four million stones left in the treasury, and when a large number of displaced people pour into Shandong, these stocks are afraid." Zhao Quan reminded.

"It doesn't matter, anyway, the summer harvest has begun, but how long will it take for grain to be put into storage, and let people grow more sweet potatoes and strive to harvest more grain during the autumn harvest, this year's grain is indeed a little tight." Zhao Yan instructed Zhao Quan, "If you don't have enough food, buy it from other places." ”

"That's all it can be." Zhao Quan nodded.

Famine is generally unlikely, after all, in addition to the output of Shandong, Lianghuai and Jiangnan also produce grain, and the grain yield per mu in the south even reaches four stones a year, but floods are more frequent.

This is why Zhao Yan supports the reform, and especially reminded Chen Zhongsheng that if the grain output in the south can be increased, the grain pressure in Shandong will also be reduced a lot.

…… Since Chongzhen allocated 5 million taels of military spending last year, it has indeed had a certain effect on the invasion of thieves, but because of the bad officialdom environment, most of the 5 million taels of military expenses allocated have been divided by the military generals of Wenchen, and not much is really used on soldiers.

Generally, Wenchen first divided three to forty percent of the military salary, and when it came to the military attaché, most of it was used on the family and personal food, drink, gambling, and purchase of land.

Very few of them really fell into the hands of soldiers who were regarded as waste, but even this small amount of military pay also played a role in stabilizing the morale of the army.

If the border army in Shaanxi could receive this meager military salary in the year of the Yuan reform, it would not have fallen into the current bad situation, in the final analysis, the reason why the thieves are powerful is because there are too many injustices and injustices in this decadent era, forcing a large number of soldiers and civilians to despair, and the soldiers and civilians in despair can only fight to the death.

Chongzhen's salary of 5 million taels still played a role, but in terms of combat effectiveness, the officers and soldiers of all walks of life did not strengthen much. In addition, Hong Chengchou is okay with the use of the plan, but in many cases, the ability is not strong.

Therefore, the clean-up was carried out for four months, but Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong escaped from the encirclement, just like a-stirring stick, stirring up Huguang, which was originally stabilized by Lu Xiangsheng, into muddy.

Only Lu Xiangsheng organized the people to reclaim the land is quite stable, these cantonments adopt Zhao Yan's management methods, and the combat effectiveness of the people is okay, at least it is enough to deal with the attack of the thieves, and the people are stable, and they are not willing to follow the thieves.

However, these cantonments are not large, after all, in Huguang, a province where the land is occupied by vassal kings everywhere, there is really no land to reclaim, so Lu Xiangsheng has not been scratched a lot.

Hong Chengchou, who hurriedly waved his army out of Shaanxi, fought several battles with the Gao and Zhang coalition forces in Huguang, and both sides had their own victories and defeats.

The combined forces of Gao and Zhang were defeated by Zuo Liangyu in Anyuan, and under the pursuit of Zuo Liangyu, they were ambushed in Dangyang and only took more than 1,000 people to fight out of the encirclement.

Zu Kuan's Guanning cavalry is a soy sauce cargo. In the hands of Lu Xiangsheng, he can still be controlled, but in the hands of Hong Chengchou, he is harassing civilians for three days and two ends, and he has no positive surname on the battlefield.

Cao Bianjiao and He Renlong, the two tiger generals, can be regarded as Hong Chengchou's henchmen who can only be mobilized, while Zuo Liangyu is very slippery and often does not listen to orders.

In March, he ordered He Renlong and Cao Bianjiao to set up an ambush in Qianjiang, and then mobilized other officers and soldiers to rush Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong to Qianjiang.

This ambush was very successful, and the two divisions of Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong were directly dispersed, and the number of the two divisions dropped from more than 200,000 to more than 100,000 each.

Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong saw that the situation was not right, and hurriedly separated, Zhang Xianzhong went in the direction of Xiangyang and Jingzhou, and Gao Yingxiang went in the direction of Nanjing.

Gao and Zhang split into two routes, making Hong Chengchou in a hurry, so he had to divide more than 100,000 officers and soldiers into two roads and separate them to encircle him.

The situation in Shaanxi was even worse, Hong Chengchou took most of the officers and soldiers out of Shaanxi, Sun Chuanting only had more than 4,000 officers and soldiers in his hands, and other officers and soldiers had to defend Xi'an and other important towns, and they could not be transferred at all.

For a time, thieves broke out in various parts of Shaanxi, and Li Zicheng got 20,000 horses from ethnic minorities in Xingdusi, Shaanxi.

And Sun Chuanting's power was restrained by Li Zicheng, and no one from other parts of Shaanxi had anyone to suppress them, and Shaanxi, which was already in tatters, was even more dilapidated under the looting of these thieves, and a large number of people had no choice but to follow the thieves.

However, the organization of those small bandits was very loose, and their leaders were not very skilled in military affairs, so they could not pose a threat to important towns such as Xi'an and Han.

But Shaanxi, which only Sun Chuanting is working hard for, is not good and will overturn.

Sun Chuanting repeatedly asked Hong Chengchou for help, and Hong Chengchou had no choice but to send 20,000 soldiers and horses back to Shaanxi. In the encirclement of Huguang, he gradually entered a good situation, and Hong Chengchou once surrounded Gao Yingxiang with heavy troops.

It's a pity that because Zu Kuan's Guanning cavalry deserted, Gao Yingxiang got out of the encirclement and went all the way to Henan.

As the temperature continues to rise, Henan is once again plagued by locusts. Before Zhao Yan had time to provide disaster relief, Gao Yingxiang went headlong into Henan.

Its ranks quickly grew to 200,000 people.

However, Henan is not as easy to mix as Huguang, Henan has Zhao Yan's inspection team, and it is the two inspection teams of Henan and Huguang, since most of the thieves entered Huguang, Huguang's inspection team retreated to Henan.

After all, there are only 1,500 people in an inspection brigade, and even if they can fight in the face of a brigade of thieves, it is very dangerous. Chongzhen didn't let Zhao Yan take care of this matter before, and Zhao Yan simply withdrew the inspection team to Henan to strictly prevent thieves from entering Henan.

Henan and Shandong business exchanges are very frequent, Henan is the area with the highest salt sales, the population is also the largest, Zhao Yan needs cotton, in addition to buying in Shandong, Henan's cotton output is not less than Shandong, if there is chaos here, it will have a great impact on Zhao Yan's financial income.

Before Gao Yingxiang entered Henan, the inspection brigade quickly reported to Zhaojiabao and asked for operational instructions.

At this time, Zhao Yan was preparing to recruit the thieves in person, and received an urgent report from the inspection team, Zhao Yan hurriedly asked people to reply, asking the inspection team to drag Gao Yingxiang and wait for Shandong's support.

(To be continued)