Spring rain fluttering, the whole Xi'an Mansion is shrouded in a continuous drizzle, a breeze, the rain silk will go diagonally, in the sky down many looming lines, such rain has been falling for many days, the trees have long been washed clean by the rain, the original languishing leaves, now all raised their heads.

As the saying goes, spring rain is as expensive as oil, and after several years of drought, such a spring rain suddenly comes, which is not only as expensive as oil, but even more precious than gold.

It's been a great year! Farmers who have been planting their fields for many years are more sensitive to the climate than anyone else, and they quickly began to cultivate their own land, hoping to plant some life-saving food for their families in time for this good year.

The streets and alleys of Xi'an Mansion are filled with a jubilant atmosphere.

A group of children played in the light rain, laughing and reciting a limerick poem in a neat voice: "The spring rain is as precious as oil, it rains all over the streets, slips and falls, and laughs at a herd of cows...... Hahahaha...... Hahahaha......"

These children are the children of rich families, so they have time to use this kind of poetry to make fun of the precious rain, and the children of poor families do not have time to read these boring poems, they take the water basin of the house, the water tank, in short, everything that can catch water, and store the precious rain.

Yang He, the governor of the three sides, sat in front of the window of the study, looking at the drizzle outside, and there was a sense of joy rising in his heart. On his desk, a thick stack of letters had been folded open, mostly full of good news.

"The price of rice in Xi'an has doubled in 10 days...... And it continues to decline...... It is estimated that the rice merchants see that this year is good, and the price of grain will drop sharply in the autumn, so they are hurrying to dump their grain stockpiles......"

"More than 300 Huangling Liukou presented the heads of the chiefs to the local officials, begging the imperial court to allow them to return to their hometowns and become peasant ...... again."

"More than 450 thieves in Chunhua broke out in the mountains, killing and wounding more than 200 people, and the rest walked out of the mountains and begged to the officials, also asking to return to their original places and become peasant ......"

"Shen Yikui's army of 60,000 has been sharply reduced to 30,000 troops, and there is still a momentum of further attrition......"

In short, the letters are all good news without exception, but there is no news of Wang Jiayin in the letter, that person and his 36th battalion of rebels have entered the boundary of Shan*xi, and it is not under Yang He's control, and he has no leisure to look at the information of Shan*xi.

At this time, Governor Liu Guangsheng walked in from outside the study, handed over a stack of letters to Yang He's hand, and said with a smile: "Your Excellency, these letters are all good news...... Look, a spy came to report, and even the monolithic Baishui Zhuba Huanglong Cottage has reduced its staff by as many as 2,000 people...... Haha, razing these bandits is only in the middle of a day...... Do we want to ask Hong Chengchou to work harder, take this opportunity to exterminate Shen Yikui, and then return to the army to deal with Baishui Zhuba? ”

Yang He didn't answer Liu Changsheng's words, but looked at the letter, fell into deep thought, and after a long time, he raised his head and said, "Look...... After a rain, many homeless people were willing to return to their hometowns to work as farmers...... It can be seen that they are not extremely vicious, but they have only suffered from drought and have taken risks, and when I look at these letters, I can't help but try to recruit them all back and become good citizens again. ”

"Your Excellency the Governor...... You...... This idea is inevitably naïve...... "Liu Guangsheng once killed Wang Zuohang, who surrendered, together with Du Wenhuan, he didn't like to recruit the rogue to surrender, so he said: "I think that the rogue should be suppressed rather than appeased, and it is the right thing to destroy it quickly while the rogue army is unstable now." ”

"Tens of thousands of rogues are tens of thousands of people...... Besides, as soon as the three armies move, military salaries and rations flow out like flowing water, and I still want to try to appease them first. Yang He drank Liu Guangsheng out, lifted the pen, spread out the paper, and began to write a recital for Emperor Chongzhen.

“…… The thieves always rise because of the famine, and the people are not able to make a living. If the method of encirclement and suppression is used, then the grain will be rewarded, and the cost will be unremitting, and the result will still be incomprehensible, and the punishment will be repeated and uncertain. Dissolved and dispersed, scattered and reunited, and scattered. It will be really almsgiving, so that it can make a living, and then it will be truly dissolved. After the dissolution, it is still necessary to be placed, and the cattle must be given to the cattle breed to return to the agriculture and resume the industry, and then it is called the real placement. If so, the thief has the joy of life, and has no heart to die, so he will be cared for. The situation is established, and the situation is also over. The so-called ministers want to do the real thing of suppression, and there must be the actual cost of suppression...... The situation is too much to suppress, the gold and silver are gone, and there are too many beheadings, and the upper work is peaceful. Spend it on the care, the money goes and the people are there, and if you live a person, you will get a person's surname, steal the people's peace, and ...... the people" (Note: This piece of music is taken from the original text of Yang He's chapter, and I have slightly modified some of the difficult words to understand, so that everyone can understand it at a glance.) ）

After writing it, Yang He was very pleased, sealed this chapter, and instructed Liu Jiayu, who participated in politics in western Shaanxi, to carry this chapter and quickly enter Beijing.

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Chongzhen four years, spring, capital, Huangji Palace!

The civil and military officials knelt under the hall and faced His Majesty the Emperor on the dragon chair with their heads and hearts. At this time, it was the light of the day, the time of the court meeting, Emperor Chongzhen did not sleep all night yesterday, and came to the court meeting early this morning, and his spirit was extremely sleepy, but he still sat straight on the dragon chair, not letting his body be crooked in the slightest.

He didn't dare to lean! Because underneath the dragon robe he was wearing was an old shirt with an ugly patch on the hem of the shirt...... If he sits crookedly, sits leaningly, and lets this patch slip out for the courtiers below to see, then where will he, the emperor's face, go?

Emperor Chongzhen is a very face-saving emperor, so his sitting posture remains unchanged at all.

If you love face so much, why bother wearing these old clothes? He can't help it, the money in his pocket is tight, in the past, at the end of each year, part of the country's taxes would be transferred to the emperor's private pocket, and the money was called the inner money, but in recent years, the internal money has stopped. Liaozuo used soldiers, the silver was spent like flowing water, and the taxes were still not enough to spend, and all the taxes were eaten up by the army, where was the money in the emperor's pocket?

This is not enough, the minister in charge of the silver of the household department cries poor in front of Chongzhen every day, and asks him to open the inner treasury and take some internal money out to save the emergency.

Chongzhen has been gritting his teeth tightly and refusing to allocate funds to the household department, because in this world, only he and the officials in charge of the treasury know that the inner treasury is empty, and he can even use that place as a training ground, and put hundreds of soldiers in it to conduct military drills, and it will definitely not bump into ...... Cough...... It is an obstacle such as stepping on silver.

Emperor Chongzhen, who loves face, didn't dare to say that he had no money in his pocket, it was too embarrassing to do so, so he called back the instructions for the household department's request for internal money. The cost of the palace has been reduced and reduced, but the superficial magnificence must be maintained, so he only makes new coats, and his shirts are all old ones, anyway, those things are worn inside, and others can't see them!

Because of the reduction of expenses, the concubines and concubines also complained a lot, and now he doesn't even dare to accept the extra concubines.

"If there is something to play, there is nothing to retreat from......" The eunuch sang a sentence next to him, this nonsense is a must be sung at every court meeting, in fact, how can there be a court meeting that has nothing to do? The civil and military officials have to find him something to play on the dog's skin.

"Wechen has something to do!" A civilian official stepped forward.

Chongzhen only moved his eyes, and the eunuch next to him would understand, and sang: "Hurry up......"

The civil official kowtowed, saluted, and then stood up, bowed his head, and said in a calm voice: "We arranged for the spies in the Jiannu army to report, on the eighth day of the first month of this year, Jiannu cast the first red-clothed cannon, and the name engraved on the cannon said: Tianyu cheers the general......"

"What? Will Jiannu make cannons? Chongzhen was taken aback, and his body trembled slightly, but he quickly stabilized so as not to reveal the hem of his shirt: "The reason why my Ming soldiers have been able to refuse Jiannu outside the pass is because Jiannu is stupid, he only knows how to shoot arrows on horseback, and our army's artillery is sharp, so it can be rejected outside the city, and now Jiannu can also make cannons, what should I do?" ”

"This ......" the civil official who played the song sighed and said: "Let's just build more cannons, as long as there are hundreds of times more cannons than Jiannu's cannons, why be afraid...... So...... Please also ask the emperor to dial some ......"

"Don't give it!" Chongzhen waved his hand angrily, he didn't have to listen to it to know that the man wanted to ask him for money: "Another person to tell me some good news!" ”

"Your Majesty, Weichen also has something to do." It turned out that he arrived in the capital in the middle of the night, and rushed into the imperial official without even taking a bath to send Yang He's written recital, but it happened to be the time of the court meeting, and the eunuch knew that the emperor was very concerned about the affairs of the Liukou, so he put him in the palace by the way.

"Huh? Aren't you involved in politics in Shaanxi? It's about the rogue again, right? Good news or bad news? If it's bad news, don't say it! Chongzhen said angrily.

"Good news! Definitely good news! Liu Jiayu shouted.

Chongzhen's brows relaxed, and the pressure in his heart lightened a little: "Say it!" ”

Liu Jiayu hurriedly told the story of the spring rain falling from the sky and the sudden reduction of the bandits, Chongzhen was naturally overjoyed when he heard it, and laughed and said: "Tianyu I am Ming, this rain is a little bit, I hope that the trouble of the rogue will be solved." ”

Liu Jia was overjoyed to meet him, and hurriedly presented Yang He's recital with both hands.

Chongzhen took it and immediately looked at it, he saw it quickly, and the nonsense such as greeting the emperor's health in front of the letter was skipped, and the nonsense such as kneeling down to the emperor at the end of the letter was also skipped, and only looked at the middle...... At this look, his face sank: "Hmph, what other good news, it turns out that Yang He also came to me to ask for money......

Liu Jiayu knelt on the ground and said with a bitter face: "Your Majesty, the suppression of bandits is to use military salaries anyway, and this money must be spent. Why don't you take a sum of money out to appease these rogues and let them go home and farm, so that they can pay your taxes in the coming year, and the money sent out will not be recovered? This deal can be done......"

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen knew that this deal could be done, his hand quietly reached under the corner of his clothes, rubbed the patch on his shirt, and sighed in his heart: You can not give other money, but this money ...... It's better to give it, go back and let the eunuch take some official treasures out and sell them, and you can always get a hundred thousand taels, alas!

He sat upright on the mountain and said with difficulty: "I have been thinking about it for a long time, Kou is also my child, and I should caress it...... I paid 100,000 taels of silver, can Yang He dare to guarantee that the bandits will be peaceful? ”

Liu Jiayu was overjoyed and said: "The governor said that the emperor always gave silver, and he promised with his head that he would be able to calm the bandits......"

"That's good!" Emperor Chongzhen said loudly: "Imperial Shi Wu Fu, you accompany my silver on a trip...... Be sure to ensure that all this silver is used to appease the rogue, if anyone dares to covet a copper plate, I will punish him for the nine clans! ”