Chongzhen four years, early spring!

Today's spring seems to have come a little earlier than last year's, although the weather is cold and the general environment has not changed, but some small changes have been captured by sensitive farmers. The temperature in Huanglong Mountain seems to be a little warmer than it was this time last year, and many small trees are starting to sprout.

When Zhu Yuanzhang led a group of henchmen and soldiers to inspect from the top of the cottage, several old farmers smiled at him and said, "Brother Zhu...... Judging by the weather these days, today may be a good year. ”

"Good years?" Ma Xiaotian, who was following Zhu Yuanzhang, couldn't help but smile and said, "Where did you get a good year?" Anyway, it's drought year after year......"

"No, the little old man has been planting fields for decades, and I can feel the slightest change in the weather." An old farmer smiled and said, "Look at this day, I'm afraid it's about to rain......"

"Is it raining? That's good! Zhu Yuanzhang replied casually.

At this time, a sentry on the distant mountain road ran over quickly: "Brother Zhu...... There are a lot of people coming down the mountain, saying that they are coming to join our ......."

"Someone else coming in?" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and waved his hand: "Then I'll pick it up." ”

In recent months, because Wang Jiayin has entered the territory of Shanxi, the rebel army in the eastern part of Shaanxi has been in a state of leaderlessness, and the rebel army in the west can also go to the West Road rebel army led by Shen Yikui, and the small rebel army in the east, after losing Wang Jiayin's protection, can only come to Zhu Ba's cottage.

In the past three days, Zhu Yuanzhang had to go down the mountain to welcome a group of people coming up, sometimes as many as hundreds, sometimes as few as a few. Thousands of people have been accepted...... Surrounding the main village of Huanglong Mountain, Zhu Yuanzhang now has a large area of hills, and hundreds to thousands of people are stationed on each mountain. As far as the eye can see, the Huanglong Mountain is more lively than the white water outside the mountain.

It is also really troublesome to co-opt these rabble, you must know that when these people first came up the mountain, their behavior and style were no different from ordinary rogues, and Zhu Yuanzhang had to spend a long time to make them learn to abide by military discipline and correct their bad roots and surnames of burning, killing and looting.

Fortunately, the population base of the cottage is quite large now, so it will not encounter great resistance to correct it.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, if you have a hundred men under your command and you kill one of them to kill the rooster and the monkey, it will cause the other ninety-nine to run away and no longer consider you the leader. But when you have 10,000 men, killing 100 of them to kill the monkeys will make the other 9,900 people tremble. I don't need to say much about the reasons for this, everyone will understand it if you think about it carefully.

Because the number of Zhu Yuanzhang's cottage has now exceeded 5,000, and it is still growing towards 10,000, so the trick of killing chickens and respecting monkeys can also be used, in order to make the new rogues on the mountain honest, Zhu Yuanzhang really made a heavy hand, and beat several people who violated military discipline with hundreds of military sticks, and beat them to death, which made others dare not violate military discipline again.

Ma Xiaotian heard that someone was coming to join the gang again, so he smiled and said: "There are some ignorant reckless men who are going to be beaten, haha, let's go, let's go and see the excitement." ”

Ma Xiaotian followed Zhu Yuanzhang to the gate of the mountain, wondering in his heart, how many people will come to vote this time? He lay on the edge of the cliff, looked down, and suddenly gasped, only to see that at the foot of the mountain, densely packed with human heads, there were thousands at a glance, and there were many in the woods and ravines......

"Wow? What's going on? Ma Xiaotian was taken aback: "Are these here to join us, or are they here to attack the mountain?" ”

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was standing in front of him, looked downcast: "Look carefully, these people don't have weapons in their hands, they are not here to attack the mountain, they are indeed here to vote for us......"

Ma Xiaotian took a closer look, and then he put his mind at ease: "Wow, there are too many this time, I'm afraid there are more than four or five thousand...... Why did so many people suddenly come to join us? ”

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed lightly: "It should be...... At the end of last year, the news of the levy began to play a role. ”

An additional three cents of silver will be charged per acre of land!

This may seem like a small number, but ...... What fell on the heads of the people was a heavy stick! The first reaction of the people who couldn't survive and looked forward to the tax exemption of the imperial court when they heard the news was definitely not a question of how much three cents of silver was, but: The imperial court should give me tax exemption, why should I be taxed? This won't let me live, right?

Despair! Deep despair!

This wave of despair swept across Shaanxi, once again turning countless good citizens into outcasts......

"Xiaotian, you go and call Li Chujiu, and all the leaders in the cottage are called, there are too many people in the mountains this time, one or two people can't control it, and the other ...... Let everyone be ready, in the next few days, a large number of people will pour in to join us. ”

He paused, and then said, "Also, check our food stockpile...... Our food is definitely not enough to cope with the outbreak-like growth, and we need to quickly calculate how long the grain storage can last, and I have to find a way to get food. ”

"Yes!" Ma Xiaotian hurriedly ran away, and after a while, he called Li Chujiu, Wang Er, Desperate Sanlang, Miao Mei, and even Ying Shanhong and others, and a group of leaders went down the mountain together, each of whom was responsible for receiving hundreds of villagers who came to take refuge.

It was busy until midnight that day, Li Chujiu counted out the heads, this time there were more than 4,000 people who came to take refuge in the cottage, and many of them were the kind of people who had a little family capital, not like those who went up the mountain at the beginning. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that with the perverse actions of the imperial court and the aggravation of natural disasters, there would be more and more people willing to join the rebel army, and their composition would become more and more complex, and they would no longer be all poor peasants as before.

The population of the cottage climbed from about 5,000 to 10,000 in an instant, and this sudden increase in population made all the leaders a little caught off guard, Li Chujiu was even more worried about his white hair, and he kept pulling the account book: "It's not enough, our food ...... Alas...... I can't hold it for half a year...... This time there are too many people. ”

"Don't worry, this group of people actually has a certain economic strength, and they can survive for a while by relying on the food they brought up the mountain." Zhu Yuanzhang patted Li Chujiu's shoulder: "But we also have to increase our income, in the past, we only collected taxes in Baishui and Chengcheng, that was because our strength was not enough, but now that there are more people, our strength has also increased, and all the cities around Huanglong Mountain can be included in the scope of tax collection...... Luochuan, Pucheng, Huangling, Yichuan...... I'm going to have to go for a walk. I will arrange a new task for Wang Er and the Generalissimo to go out of the mountains to collect taxes in more places! ”

"But...... In this way, it will be a big trouble! "Li Chujiu is a logistical person, he never goes to the battlefield, and his courage is not as strong as Wang Er and Desperate Sanlang, and when he heard that the scope of tax collection was going to be expanded, he was a little scared.

"Brother Zhu, you said that if you make too much trouble, it will attract the attention of the imperial court, haven't we been keeping a low profile and avoiding the eyes of the imperial court? If you bring in all the surrounding counties, I'm afraid that there will be a lot of trouble...... What should I do if Hong Chengchou calls? Li Chujiu said worriedly.

Li Chujiu's worries were reasonable, and Zhu Yuanzhang nodded at him: "Yes, you have also grown up and know how to think about problems in this way." ”

"But...... Zhu Yuanzhang smiled: "If you want to be a thief for a lifetime, you can indeed keep a low profile, but we don't want to stay in the mountains like this for the rest of our lives, right?"...... Sooner or later, you have to go through the world of flowers, and now is the time to take this step bravely. ”

"Is it a good time now?" Li Chujiu was a little curious.

"There's no better time than now." Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "Wang Jiayin went to Shanxi, which made the eyes of the imperial court scattered, and no longer stared at Shaanxi. And the order to increase taxes has brought us a better mass base...... If the officers and soldiers want to deal with us, I'm afraid it won't be so easy. ”

"You know the gods, right?"

"Of course I know, I heard that he is near Qingyang in the west, pulling a team of tens of thousands of people, and he is the largest rebel army after Wang Jiayin left."

"That's right!" Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "Think about it, in our small village, more than 4,000 people will come to vote in one day, will there be fewer people over there who will vote for God?" ”

"Huh? That's right! Shen Yikui's momentum is much greater than ours, and there should be more people who vote for him than those who vote for us. Li Chujiu suddenly realized: "I understand what Brother Zhu means, although Wang Jiayin is gone, but we still have Shen Yikui in the west to attract the attention of the imperial court, and it should be no big problem to expand at this time." ”

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang still has a lot of ideas to say!

Wang Jiayin's departure from Shaanxi * West was just a trivial matter in the eyes of people at this time. But Zhu Yuanzhang, who is familiar with history, knows that this is not a trivial matter, but a major event that shakes the world, in the next few years, the rebel army will connect several cities, disrupt Shanxi, enter Hebei, fight Sichuan, and disrupt the world. The whole world is rotten, enough for them to be nerve-wracking.

For many years to come, Shaanxi will not become the focus of the imperial court's attention, and it will not be until Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong return to Shaanxi and Western Shaanxi again, and then the imperial court's eyes will turn back to see this place.

If this vacuum period can be grasped well, Zhu Yuanzhang will get excellent development opportunities, and maybe the strength in his hands will be more than doubled. If Zhu Yuanzhang wants to get out of the cottage and win the world, he must not give up this opportunity.