July of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Huangzhou.

Liu Jun stood on the school review platform and watched the teams walk through the school field in turn. After returning to Huangzhou, Liu Jun began to gather the soldiers and horses left behind in Huguang to Huangzhou for a new round of reorganization and redress. Up to now, the six divisions and eighteen associations of the three towns of Huguang have completed the reorganization.

After more than half a month of intensive training, the newly dressed soldiers and horses of the various associations were reviewed by Liu Jun together.

Behind Liu Jun, Yao Minggong, Yuan Jixian, Yang Tinglin, Huang Daozhou and other officials accompanied the review. In the eyes of Yao Minggong and other civilian officials, these Xiangchu New Army wearing blue robes and red uniforms on the school field are all energetic and rare. However, in Liu Jun's opinion, these people still have only one shelf. Thanks to the fact that there are many veterans in the various departments, otherwise, even those two muscles and bones would not be able to stand up.

"After the reorganization is completed, these soldiers and horses will be pulled out of Liaodong for practical training."

The morale of the new army is very high, and in particular, this reorganization is tantamount to a large-scale promotion, especially the high-ranking generals have been greatly promoted at once. Originally, the three towns of Huguang only had two general soldiers and three deputy generals. But this time, there is Liu Jun, the chief officer of the three general corps, six deputy generals and eighteen staff generals other than the commander, not counting those generals above the deputy rank, and there is also a group of senior chief officers of the Beiyang Naval Division, three deputy generals and nine staff generals, all of whom were also promoted from among the officers of the nine-headed bird.

Up to now, the Chu army has initially formed a strong force, and they are all high-ranking officers who have been single-handedly raised by Liu Jun, and they are undoubtedly very loyal to Liu Jun, but Liu Jun feels that it is not enough. At least for now, if he wants to raise the flag, it is estimated that more than half, or even seventy or eighty percent of the officers, will not follow.

The ethical concept of loyalty and filial piety for thousands of years has been deeply imprinted into the hearts of Chinese. Now the surface of Daming still looks very good, and it has not collapsed at the end of the world.

Liu Jun hid his ambitions very well, and only did not say anything. Advance towards the goal, train the army hard, and strengthen control, and naturally there will be a day when the melon will be ripe.

At the same time as the promotion of many officers. Liu Jun also brought back many Western mercenaries and arranged them into the army. These people are more similar to Liu Jun's mercenaries, equivalent to his private soldiers rather than the mercenaries of the imperial court. They took Liu Jun's money, and they didn't have any loyalty to the king, and some were just loyal to their employers.

Most of these people were experienced soldiers from Europe, and Liu Jun did not directly appoint these people as officers, but gave them the rank of officer, and let them serve as staff assistants to the battalion and company commanders, as well as training officers in the company. Specialized in training soldiers and horses, providing tactical planning, etc.

This is the same as the duties of non-commissioned officers in the U.S. military, they are not officers or soldiers, and they are a group of elite soldiers with the most experience.

Liu Jun also firmly planned that the nine-headed bird soldiers would also go through such a stage in the future, and a soldier enlisted in the army was just a private. When he completes his three-month recruit training, he is promoted to a third class. And a year later, he was able to become a private. But for a private to be promoted to a first class, in addition to two years of service. He also has to master the specialized skills of his own class, such as a firecracker. He had to pass the shooting test in order to be promoted to private class after the end of his service, and if he did not pass the technique, he could not be promoted.

Qualified technology, coupled with meritorious service, can shorten the time for early promotion.

And in order to be promoted from private 1st class to private 1st class, you need to be more than qualified. It has to be outstanding, very good. When these soldiers become privates of the first class, they have the opportunity to become junior officers, to be the lowest-ranking non-graded squad leader, to become the leader of a combat group. Promoted to corporal.

Further up, you can be promoted to sergeant and sergeant, and become platoon commander and team commander, two military positions with no rank at the same level. The team commander is the company's chief officer. However, there are still three senior sergeant ranks between the sergeant's team chief and the battalion commander of the right captain, and each team commander must first be promoted to the third sergeant major, first become the staff assistant of the company hundred general, and then be promoted to the second sergeant major and become the deputy of the company hundred general. He was then promoted to the rank of sergeant major and became the general staff officer of the battalion general.

Only after the work experience of these three senior non-commissioned officer ranks can he be promoted to a company hundred generals and officially promoted to a nine-rank military attaché.

The duty of the officer is to command, and the training and management of the army will be attributed to the sixth-grade non-commissioned officers of the junior and senior ranks, who will become the backbone and backbone of the nine-headed bird, and the officers will be the heads.

After the parade, Liu Jun drank tea with a group of officials in Huguang.

While speaking, from Yuan Jixian, the governor of the two lakes, down to Yang Tinglin, the supervising army, including the eunuch Wang Kun and others, they all looked worried. Huguang's summer grain has been harvested, but the harvest is worrying. Due to the drought that has been in place since the beginning of spring, the yield has been greatly reduced, and although the government has also organized rescue methods such as drilling wells and dams, a large number of crops have finally dried up.

"In the entire two provinces, grain production has decreased by 60 percent." Yuan Jixian sighed.

Huang Daozhou also sighed and said, "Our tuntian is slightly better, with a fifty percent harvest. This year's tuntian could not meet expectations, and the tuntian rent had to be reduced. ”

Huguang is the granary of the world, rich in water conservancy, and only barely reached four or five percent of the harvest, such as Henan and Shaanxi, which are already arid places, and we can see how bad the situation is.

The people take food as the sky, and the wars of the imperial court over the years have long exhausted the warehouse, and they can't bear the slightest famine. With the famine, the domestic situation that has already stabilized the people will inevitably make waves again.

"The rent is reduced by half and is levied at half. In terms of private land, I suggest that only 40% of the land be collected, and for those places where the disaster is severe, it will be levied according to the actual situation, and it is best to avoid it. In particular, there is no way to engage in any joint sitting. Although Liu Jun is only a governor, he is also a governor in Huguang, and even because he has the rank of minister, the sword of the emperor of Shangfang, the banner of the king's order, and the golden arrow, he has the right to interfere in all aspects of military, civil and judicial affairs in Huguang.

Huguang is Liu Jun's base camp, although he is still not strong in control, but he doesn't want chaos here. In a mess, the control will only weaken more and more.

In the past, the imperial court levied grain, and the favorite thing to do was to give the tax package to the grain chiefs below, the grain chiefs were responsible for the grain collection and escort of 110 households, and the first chief was responsible for ten households. This kind of system makes it so that in the event of a famine, if one family escapes, the first chief has to make up for it himself, and if many people flee, then the grain chief and the first chief can't make up for it, so the other remaining people have to make up for it.

This system is so domineering and ruthless that although on the surface it seems that the imperial court's grain collection is guaranteed, it often forces people to flee together.

After a whip law, the levy of grain was changed to silver, but this domineering taxation system remained unchanged. If Huguang does not change this tax method this year, it may cause a huge storm of escape.

"Taxes should be reduced according to the disaster situation, and collected according to households, and as much as they could be levied first, and no forced levies should be carried out, and no joint taxes should be levied. In addition, this year, no silver will be levied on grain and peasants, and all grain will be levied by the officials, and people will be sent to the countryside to collect grain and escort it, and no additional fire consumption will be allowed. ”

"In addition, in addition to land rent and taxes, the government pays money to buy as much grain as possible from the people, and prohibits the grain from Huguang from leaving the two provinces." This was done to prevent those grain merchants from taking advantage of the opportunity to rush to buy grain and squeeze the people. Although it is convenient to collect cashiers, the people have to sell the grain to the grain merchants for silver, and this is an opportunity for profiteers to squeeze the people.

"In places where the disaster is severe, the government has to provide relief and provide food to help the people. However, we must not simply distribute grain, but also take the opportunity to organize the people to build water conservancy, repair the city, and provide relief through work. In short, we must start from maintaining stability at present, and we must not let the people flee or let them flow. As soon as the victims of the disaster move, they will soon become bandits, especially now that there are still many bandits hiding in various places, and if one is not well controlled, the spark will burn again. ”

Yuan Jixian nodded, "What Chu Guogong said is right, the top priority is to control stability. However, it takes a lot of money to buy food from the people. ”

"This is not a problem, Sihai Bank will borrow a sum of money from the government to buy grain from grain farmers. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the control of grain, buy grain, set up grain sales points in various cities, and sell grain at a fair price, but this grain must be supplied in rations according to household registration. Must be registered for sale, with a limited number per person per month. ”

"In addition, it is forbidden for grain to go out of the boundary between the two lakes, and if necessary, we can also forcibly purchase grain from the grain merchants in the two provinces to supply the people at a low price." Liu Jun's words were already a little murderous.

"I'm afraid this is inappropriate, right?" As the governor, Yuan Jixian was also a little worried.

In these days, those who can do the grain business are generally big landlords and powerful nobles, and these people are not very moving.

Liu Jun didn't care, the more disaster the year, the more the so-called landlords and grain merchants made waves. Liu Jun can't manage and doesn't want to care about other places, but in the two lakes, everyone must tide over the difficulties together and help each other in the same boat.

"We can buy it at an affordable premium, and it's okay to give more money, but we have to get food. At the same time, please also ask the inspectors to supervise more, and strictly prohibit officials from taking the opportunity to embezzle and collude with the upper and lower levels. Whoever dares to reach out to the granary shall cut off his hand, not only his hand, but also his head. ”

With the Huguang New Army here, who dares to come nonsense, Liu Jun will never be polite, and there is nothing to be polite at this time. If you really let those people have nothing to eat, run around, incite the gangsters to organize, and make chaos everywhere, then is the time to really regret it. The rebellion of the displaced people at the time of the apocalypse was barely calmed down until this year, but it still hasn't been cleared up.

If a catastrophe is not well controlled, everything will be wasted.

"In a few days, a new army will be withdrawn from Liaodong to rest, and they will be stationed at that time, whoever dares to make trouble, they will sweep him away, you just let go and do it, they will support and cooperate with you."

Although the imperial court asked Liu Jun to transfer the soldiers and horses of the two towns left behind in Huguang into Liao, Liu Jun also agreed, but Liu Jun would not really leave his hometown undefended. The tens of thousands of soldiers and horses left behind were transferred, and at the same time, he would first transfer troops from southern Liaoning to return to garrison in the name of rest. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you Qin Feng Han Soul for your support!