"This is the intelligence detected by Jinyiwei in Shaanxi, at present, there are a total of twelve large-scale thieves in Shaanxi, most of them are composed of defeated troops of Salhu who dare not return to the border pass, and the scale is more than 100 people. The largest group of thieves numbered more than 300 people. There are also dozens of thieves, ranging from more than a dozen to dozens of people. ”

In this operation, Lu Xiangsheng served as the commander-in-chief, and the four cavalry divisions came to Shaanxi in complete secrecy.

"Previously, the government and border army in northern Shaanxi had been under full martial law and fully cooperated with the imperial court's encirclement and suppression action." Lu Xiangsheng took out all the information collected by the Jinyi Guards before the battle.

In recent years, Jinyiwei has done a better job than Dongchang, that is, in various military and national security intelligence. In contrast, Dongchang pays more attention to the collection of economic intelligence, especially where there are fat sheep. Wei Zhongxian understands very well that he can't do intelligence work, but he knows that the emperor values money bags.

Tian Ergeng understood that as long as he did a good job of military and information related to the safety of the imperial court, his credit would be indispensable. As a result, Jinyiwei and Dongchang have more and more tacit understanding in terms of intelligence focus.

"In this operation, we are going to lay a net to make sure that no one escapes." After Lu Xiangsheng gave the action orders to the troops present one by one, he said solemnly to everyone.

According to Lu Xiangsheng's arrangement, 20,000 cavalry and 5,000 officers and men of the garrison brigade will form hundreds of clearance squads to carry out an all-round encirclement and suppression of thieves in various areas.

"Yes." The officers present stood up one after another.

"Action!"

The action began, and this time the court was in earnest. There were nearly 30,000 troops, and most of them were extremely mobile cavalry. Began an all-out attack in northern Shaanxi.

The official road was full of smoke and dust galloping horses. The merchants were all stunned. Absolutely unaware of what was going on. But they didn't walk long on the official road before they encountered the inspection checkpoint of the local government.

Martial law has been imposed in northern Shaanxi, and local people in cities and towns are not allowed to go out for half a month, unless it is necessary, but they must also pass the government's review.

Passing caravans and passers-by are also the objects of key inspections.

At the same time, a wanted notice was posted in northern Shaanxi, and any suspicious person found in the village should be reported immediately, which is simply an exaggerated and extremely exaggerated clearance operation.

For a little bit of a thief. made such a big move, which made many people incomprehensible, and even Lu Xiangsheng, who was in charge of commanding the operation, only thought that he was training.

Zhu Youxiao naturally couldn't tell them. These thieves were the deadliest fuse in the late Ming Dynasty.

That's right, it's a dangerous group like a fuse.

If it shows that the violent social contradictions at the end of the year, and the border troops and victims who cannot survive under natural disasters are powder kegs, then these thieves are the fuse. This fuse ignited the powder keg, and with a bang, the Ming Dynasty exploded into the western sky.

This clean-up operation is simply scraping the ground.

Not to mention the martial law in northern Shaanxi, a large number of troops have also been invested. Out came four divisions of cavalry, one garrison mixed brigade. Soon, even the northern Shaanxi border army joined in.

What are you doing?

Most of them came for a picnic, and they didn't even see a hairy thief in the whole process.

The thieves were miserable. Most of the thieves were killed by the cavalry of the Central Army before they could react, and in the face of these heavily armed cavalry, most of the thieves knew each other very well and surrendered obediently. Those who resisted were killed on the spot, and only a few thieves escaped.

At the same time, some thieves escaped the first wave of liquidation because they were committing crimes on the go.

However, the next thing they faced was the officers and soldiers who searched for them all over the mountains, and such a battle simply scared them.

In this search and arrest activity, a group of thieves were caught.

However, some thieves can't really get out of any ditch where they hide. However, some of the thieves went crazy with hunger and ran into some villages and towns, only to be caught.

Nearly a month later, the thieves in northern Shaanxi were basically wiped out.

More than 1,300 thieves were captured in this operation, most of whom were Salhu deserters with certain military qualities.

These deserters behaved very badly after falling into the grass in Shaanxi. In the event of a natural disaster, they will coerce the victims to raid towns and villages, causing extremely serious damage to local production.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the thieves were able to become big in Shaanxi, mainly because these deserters were using stirring sticks, and at the same time, the military salaries could not be paid, and the border troops who could not survive were also robbing the rich people.

After nearly a month of encirclement and arrest, these thieves were basically wiped out. The remaining fish that slipped through the net were also scared to the point of urine, and they didn't dare to come out to commit crimes again for a while.

Since the beginning of last year's reform of the border army's salary, now each border army can get half a stone of grain a month, 1.5 stone of grain in the month of La, and 7 stone of grain throughout the year. Save a little food, and the whole family will not starve to death. If you recruit something to do, it will be easier to eat and clothe yourself.

Although the land of the border army is still heavily occupied, at least life is much better.

After the results of the settlement were reported to Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youxiao immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and then wrote the word 'beheading' on the handling of those thieves, and then sent it to the command for execution.

These thieves are unstable factors, and naturally they are cut to make people worry. At the same time, it can also deter the remaining thieves and completely eliminate the existence of thieves.

Why were those peasant armies repeatedly defeated at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but they were able to recover quickly? When Li Zicheng was the most depressed, there were only a few dozen people left.

The secret lies in those backbones.

The backbone elements were routed and scattered. But as long as the banner of the leader does not fall, they can bring a group of people back to their command immediately after the war.

If the leader is destroyed, they can also set up their own doors, or take refuge in other bandit leaders.

Those backbone thieves are the ones who need to be eliminated the most. During the Chongzhen period, Hong Chengchou killed and surrendered, although it was immoral, but from this point of view, Hong Chengchou did not do anything wrong.

In the final analysis, Chongzhen has no experience in managing the country, and he doesn't understand civil affairs. He abolished Jinyiwei and Dongchang again, and lost his most important eyes and ears. was played around by a group of Donglin parties, and finally forced the people to rebel step by step.

When both the army and the people joined the army of thieves, the thieves had a sharp change in their combat effectiveness, and to a certain extent, they could indeed be called a peasant army.

Now the powder keg of the border army has been temporarily subsided, and the fuse of the thieves has also been cut. The people of northern Shaanxi are left, the Loess Plateau is getting poorer and poorer, and the people's livelihood in northern Shaanxi is indeed too poor.

Zhu Youxiao's immediate thought was immigration, and he was constantly implementing this policy. How to say that there are still four years to serve as a buffer.

Four years later, a rare drought will break out in Shaanxi, and as long as the imperial court immigrates enough people from northern Shaanxi during this period, it will be no problem for the imperial court to provide relief at that time, and it will be impossible for the thieves to make trouble.

At the same time, within four years, it is also the top priority to comprehensively solve the problem of the border army in Yansui Town.

With these plans, Zhu Youxiao soon began to take precautions, first of all, to set up strategic reserve warehouses in Yan'an, Mizhi, Suide and other places, and the imperial court began to gradually increase the grain stock in these warehouses in a planned way, and it is expected that the grain stock will reach 1.5 million stone in four years.

At the same time, it is planned to immigrate from northern Shaanxi to no less than 300,000 people every year, and more than 1.2 million in four years.

In accordance with the goals set by Zhu Youxiao, the cabinet has a new focus of work.

The six departments of the imperial court have been running well during this time, and the work efficiency has been greatly improved. As for the party strife, it has calmed down a lot, mainly because the reactionaries of the Donglin Party have been suppressed.

Although Ye Xianggao made a comeback, he was already regarded as a traitor by the Donglin Party. The rest of the Donglin Party officials who were imprisoned were also dealt with by Zhu Youxiao in various ways in the third year of the Apocalypse.

Some of them were sent to Guizhou to teach by Zhu Youxiao, and these officials were indeed top-notch in terms of culture if they were able to be admitted to the imperial examination. It just so happens that there is a shortage of teaching gentlemen in Guizhou, and it is also a waste to exile these Donglin Party criminals to teach in Guizhou.

There are also some 'lackeys' who are willing to become Zhu Youxiao's 'lackeys', and they show their loyalty to Zhu Youxiao, so they were released and returned to serve in the imperial court, with the reputation of 'wearing guilt and making meritorious contributions'.

The entire court was grasped by Zhu Youxiao step by step, and now Zhu Youxiao is no longer the one who first ascended the throne. What is he going to do, there are only a few left in the court who dare to jump out against him.

Recently, the most discussed issue in the court is naturally the issue of levying a commercial tax in Guizhou, although some officials jumped out to oppose it, but in the end it was also not resolved.

The imperial court levied commercial taxes in Guizhou in the name of insufficient salaries, and a group of lackeys of the emperor were echoing, how could they object?

Of course, Guizhou is only a remote province, and the imposition of commercial taxes does not actually violate the interests of the Donglin Party representative class, and the wave of opposition is not too fierce.

In fact, it is true that the collection of commercial tax in Guizhou does not collect much silver, but this is obviously a tentative act by Zhu Youxiao.

The Donglin Party did not take drastic actions to oppose it, which made Zhu Youxiao recognize the class bottom line of the Donglin Party.

Obviously, as long as the commercial tax is not levied in Jiangnan, these Donglin parties will make a fuss. But if you want to levy a commercial tax in Jiangnan, that's two words.

After Zhu Youxiao levied the commercial tax in Guizhou, there were no other major moves.

His strategic goal is very clear, to take Liaodong first to solve the external trouble. Then open up Liaodong as a production base for commercial grain in the Ming Dynasty, so as to stabilize the situation in the Ming Dynasty, and then expand the scope of commercial tax collection, and attack the current vested interest class.

Therefore, in the three years of the Apocalypse, Zhu Youxiao was stepping up military training, and began to continuously transport war materials to Liaodong, striving to exterminate wild boar skins in the next two years.

Before that, because most of the troops were deployed in Liaodong, many phenomena still needed to be patient. (To be continued......)