Li Zicheng, who retreated to Shanxi, suddenly found that life was not easy.

This time, 400,000 rebels went on the expedition, the purpose was to take the north and the capital, so that the strength of the rebels could be completely strengthened, but the expedition needed a lot of food, and there was a lot of food in the early preparations, which was enough for the cost of the expedition.

The autumn harvest season has not passed for a long time, and all the grain that should be levied has been collected, and it is definitely not possible to continue to collect grain, which will lead to chaos in Henan and Shanxi, not to mention that almost all the rich people have gone to Shaanxi, and those who remain are either poor people who cannot travel far, or people who support the righteous army, continue to collect grain, maintain the expenses of the righteous army, so that these people are too burdened and cannot survive, then the righteous army will lose support.

In the past, these things were basically handled by Gu Junen, Li Zicheng rarely worried, he was mainly concerned about the combat effectiveness, scale, operational purpose and deployment of the righteous army, etc., now the food problem is urgently in front of him, Gu Junen can't think of a good way, so Li Zicheng needs to start thinking about it.

Li Zicheng is very clear about the taste of lack of food, it turned out that he was a post officer at the post station, with a fixed job, and later because the imperial court abolished the post station, Li Zicheng lost his job, life was unsustainable, and he felt the taste of starvation, so he resolutely joined the ranks of the righteous army, and the righteous army was able to maintain until now, and the scale is getting bigger and bigger, because there are too many hungry people.

The rebels must not be short of food, otherwise they will not be able to sustain themselves.

Shanxi and Henan, which are also places where disasters and famines have been repeated, have been slightly better in the past two years, but the common people have not recovered at all, and the rebels have collected grain. It has already caused a lot of ordinary people to suffer, and it will definitely not work to collect it again, if it is excessive, it will cause the people to rebel against the righteous army, and Li Zicheng cannot bear such a situation.

Li Zicheng, who was desperate, looked to the south.

The riches of the South. Li Zicheng has heard of it, and Gu Junen also said on the side, although he has not been to the south, presumably these rumors will not be false, not to mention the south, even in Shaanxi, which is controlled by Zheng Jiajun, the people are stable, and nearly ten years have passed, and the population of Shaanxi has become more and more. But no one rebelled, not even the bandits disappeared.

Leading the righteous army to the south to grab food, that is the practice of looking for death, Li Zicheng will never do it, the south is controlled by the Zheng family's army, the Zheng family's army is strong, this strong Zheng family's army, don't be forced to a desperate situation, don't provoke.

All that's left is to pay for food.

Such a deal. The rebels had never done it before, and it used to be mobile warfare. There is no fixed base area, and all grain is forcibly expropriated or directly robbed, and now that there are fixed areas, the grain issue must be considered.

In fact, when the rebels occupied Henan and Shanxi, the biggest problem they often encountered was food.

Li Zicheng couldn't think of a good way. He couldn't have conjured up food.

The idea of buying grain from the south was first thought up by Gu Junen, but what Gu Junen said was more vague and did not mention it directly, and now Li Zicheng, who is desperate and can't think of a good way. The only thing that comes to mind is to buy food.

After Li Zicheng and Gu Junen discussed secretly, they finally decided to go to the south to buy grain.

The representative sent by the rebels was Li Guo, Li Zicheng's nephew.

Li Guo has always been very low-key, in fact, when Li Zicheng began to rebel, the only person who followed him was Li Guo, but after so many years, Li Guo's status in the rebel army is obviously inferior to Gu Junen, and even inferior to Liu Zongmin.

But this is only a superficial phenomenon, Li Guo may not be so prominent in the righteous army, but in the eyes of Gu Junen, Liu Zongmin and others, it is extraordinary.

This time, Li Zicheng sent Li Guo to the south on his behalf, to be precise, to buy grain in Nanzhili, just to let Li Guo really show his talents.

Before Li Guo set off, Li Zicheng had a full day of secret discussions with him.

When Li Guo set off, he was carrying a ticket stub from Hongmen Qianzhuang.

This is not a strange thing, the ticket stub of Hongmen Qianzhuang has long existed in the capital, and Beizhili is even more common, and the ticket stub of Hongmen Qianzhuang is regarded as something as valuable as gold and silver by the north.

Li Guo arrived in Nanjing in mid-October, the road was quite smooth, he pretended to be a businessman, and the covering soldiers pretended to be an entourage, the north of the Ming Dynasty was completely chaotic, and the government's road guide had no effect, plus Zheng Xunrui's control of the south, there was no need for road guidance and other things, so Li Guo was smooth along the way.

During this period, he also met some bandits, but the guards around Li Guo were not vegetarians.

Entering from Henan to Nanzhili, Li Guo has been stunned by the peace and wealth of Nanzhili, compared with Nanzhili and Beizhili, it is simply a sky, an underground, Beizhili is mourning all over the wilderness, many places are uninhabited for hundreds of miles, and the pedestrians on the official road of Nanzhili are bustling, and you can't see people with vegetables.

This made Li Guo think that he was wrong.

After entering Nanjing, the prosperity of Nanjing made Li Guo even more at a loss, although he was Li Zicheng's own nephew, he followed Li Zicheng to conquer all the year round, rarely went to prosperous and rich places, and did not experience a comfortable life.

This made Li Guo feel the horror of Zheng Xunrui, and he also vaguely understood why Zheng Jiajun was so strong.

Although Li Guo thought that everything he had done was seamless and his actions were very secretive, after they entered the inn, someone soon came to the door, and the person who came to the door reported that it was someone from the Zheng Jiajun Investigation Bureau.

Li Guo and the guards around him will not resist, they came to Nanzhili to buy food, and they originally wanted to see Zheng Xunrui, or they were not qualified to meet Zheng Xunrui, and they could see someone who could call the shots.

After being taken to the Zheng Jiajun barracks, Li Guo quickly revealed his identity and told the purpose of coming to Nanzhili.

Li Guo was still very smart, although he felt strange that Zheng Jiajun had mastered his whereabouts so quickly.

Nanjing Military Department.

Zhou Yanru, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, Xu Wanghua, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, Yang Tingshu, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Zheng Jinhong, the secretary of the Criminal Department and the chief soldier of the Zheng Family's army, were gathered in the wing, and they were discussing the matter of Li Zicheng sending personnel to buy grain.

Li Zicheng actually sent people to Nanzhili to buy grain, which surprised everyone, so the debate was also very fierce.

Zhou Yanru and Yang Tingshu were fiercely opposed to selling grain to the Liukou, Nan Zhili was not short of this money, there was no need to sell grain to the Liukou, as for Li Guo, the representative sent by Li Zicheng, it would be over if he was arrested.

Xu Wanghua and Zheng Jinhong did not express their position, neither for nor against.

This has also become a norm, no matter what happens, Xu Wanghua and Zheng Jinhong are considered from Zheng Xunrui's point of view, and there is no concept of the emperor and the court in their minds at all.

Zhou Yanru and Yang Tingshu are a little different, the two Jinshi from the two lists, Zhou Yanru and Zheng Xunrui, are still the champions of the palace test, in their minds, the shadow of the emperor and the court cannot be completely erased, when encountering anything, while considering the interests of Zheng Xunrui, they must also think of the emperor and the court.

Zheng Xunrui also acquiesced to the existence of this situation, he knew very well that it was impossible to eliminate the loyalty of the scholars in the world to the Ming Emperor and the Ming Dynasty in a short period of time, this is something that cannot be done, and the ministers around him cannot be completely absolute henchmen, there is no such perfect thing in this world.

It is also normal for such disagreements to arise every time there is a discussion.

After Zhou Yanru and Yang Tingshu expressed their positions, Zheng Xunrui looked at Xu Wanghua and Zheng Jinhong, he knew that the two of them were a little embarrassed, and they traded with Liukou, and it was definitely not good to say such a thing.

"Lord Zhou and Lord Yang have made it clear that they don't approve of trading grain with the rogues, but I don't see it that way."

As soon as Zheng Xunrui's words came out, Zhou Yanru and Yang Tingshu's faces changed slightly.

"Don't worry, you guys, what you said makes sense, Nanjing is not short of this money, and there is no need to rely on such a transaction to maintain, but there is one thing I remind you two adults, Henan and Shanxi, which are controlled by the Liukou, are not only Liukou, there are still many people here, and they are all poor people at the bottom."

"The wars and famines in the north over the years, I don't say much about the consequences, some time ago I agreed to restore the Cao Yun, not thinking about the emperor and the court, but thinking of so many people in the capital, if we stop the Cao Yun, I believe that the real suffering, or the people."

"The situation in Shanxi and Henan is the same, if we don't agree to trade grain with Li Zicheng, then Li Zicheng, who is desperate, will only stretch out his hand to the people, and in the end it will be the people at the bottom who will suffer first."

"For so many years, I have been doing things in Shaanxi, Nanzhili and other places, the first thing that comes to mind is the people, only let the people settle down, so that they can be fed and clothed, we can do other things, our so-called country is strong, if the people are not fed and clothed, the so-called strong is not a joke."

"The state is people-oriented, this sentence all the officials in the south must remember that everything they get is given by the people, without the people to grow food, the officials have nothing to eat, without the people to weave, the officials have nothing to wear, and if the officials do not do things for the people, then go home and farm."

"This transaction, the household department is responsible for the operation, and I don't see that Li Guo."

"But there is one thing to tell Li Zicheng, if the grain is traded, there are still a large number of people in Henan and Shanxi starving to death, then don't blame me for being rude."

Zheng Xunrui's attitude is very clear, agreeing to the transaction, and the specific details will be operated by Xu Wanghua, of course, the matter still needs to be kept secret and cannot be leaked.

Although the reason Zheng Xunrui said was for the people, Xu Wanghua, Zheng Jinhong and others understood that there were other reasons for this. (To be continued.) )