Beijing City, inside the Fengtian Temple.

Li Zicheng sat upright, and there were many civil servants and strategists below, standing solemnly, and Li Changmao was standing at the front, his deep voice echoing in the hall, and he was reporting, and his tone was extremely heavy.

"King Qiyu, now, Beizhili has stabilized, and the scattered guerrillas and rebel armies of all sizes have all been absorbed, or included in the city defense camp, or sent home. However, due to the Tartar Disaster, almost the entire farmland in Beizhili was completely destroyed, and all the crops planted were trampled on the appearance. ”

Although he had been mentally prepared for a long time and had some speculations in advance, Li Zicheng was still very shaken, almost unacceptable, that the Qing army had destroyed all the fertile fields in Beizhili.

All of this is summed up in one sentence, that is to say, the entire people of Beizhili will have to rely on Li Jiajun's assistance in the next half a year to survive. Otherwise, it will be a scene where rebel armies large and small are constantly appearing.

As soon as he thought of this, Li Zicheng's brows furrowed, and his heart was extremely heavy, in the next nearly half a year, Beizhili not only did not have any grain output, but also had to invest to maintain the basic life of the people, which would be an extremely heavy and arduous burden.

However, Li Zicheng was relieved when he thought about it, if he thought about it empathically, he was Huang Taiji, and he would definitely do this, destroying everything in the opponent as much as possible and causing damage to the opponent as much as possible.

After all, the destruction of fertile land in Beizhili also aggravated the crisis of the Ming court, and in this era of natural and man-made disasters, the food problem became more tense.

At this time, as the former dynasty's Xiangcheng Bo, Li Guozhen stood up and said respectfully: "Qi Yu Chuang Wang, the crimes of these Tartars can be described as innumerable, with sinister intentions, every time they invade the Guannei, it has always been like this, not only plundering gold and silver property, but also burning everything, allowing war horses to trample on fertile fields, indulging soldiers to burn and slaughter, it can be said that they do all kinds of evil, destroy everything as much as possible, and thus severely damage the agriculture of the previous dynasty in Beizhili. ”

Li Zicheng nodded lightly in response, and turned his gaze to Li Changmao's body, compared to the sinister intentions of the Tartars, Li Zicheng is now more concerned about the future of Beizhili's grain and asked, it is also a matter of stability, and then asked: "Mr. Li, since the fertile land in Beizhili has been destroyed, which means that there will be no harvest in early summer, are you ready to deal with the food shortage, so that the people can temporarily tide over the difficulties and survive until the autumn harvest?" ”

Li Changmao seemed so calm and unhurried, and did not panic, but answered the question and said: "King Qi, although the crops in the farmland of Beizhili are seriously damaged, there are more dead and injured people, according to the news reported by the various state capitals of Beizhili, many places are almost no man's land, and the total population of Beizhili is almost less than half of the original. ”

Everyone was shocked, even if they knew something about the bloodthirsty slaughter of the Tartars, Li Zicheng's heart was also very angry, no one thought that the Tartars were so ruthless, so bloodthirsty and ruthless, not only plundered the population of Beizhili and Shandong about 400,000, killed more people, and almost exterminated the entire population of Beizhili.

For a while, Li Zicheng couldn't help but think of the villages where there were almost no people on the way to Beijing before the breakthrough of Beijing City, and there were almost no people's villages everywhere.

It is not difficult to imagine that the total population of the people of Beizhili can be 300,000. Of course, with the drastic reduction of the population, correspondingly, some of the problems in Beizhili are no longer so serious and easier to solve, especially in the food supply.

At this time, Li Changmao answered Li Zicheng's inquiry positively.

"So King Chuang, remove the grain as seeds, transport the grain confiscated from the eight major profiteers in Shanxi, plus some grain confiscated in Beizhili, and barely be able to survive the most difficult half a year in Beizhili."

Hearing this, Li Zicheng's expression softened a lot, and he groaned for a while, but he still said earnestly: "Well... Li Changmao, in this way, immediately issued a temporary decree, within one year, all the state capitals and counties under our control are prohibited from using grain to make wine, if found, a fine of ten times the gold, if it is repeated, the penalty will be doubled, and the third time, the family property will be directly confiscated! ”

For a while, there were bursts of exclamations in the hall, King Chuang's hand was really ruthless, even if he was rich, he couldn't withstand such a toss, and he didn't dare to use grain to make wine.

Of course, once this decree is implemented, it will undoubtedly alleviate the problem of food shortage, and it will definitely be effective in deterring those who are rich and powerful from easily diverting food for other purposes.

"Yes, King Chuang, his subordinates then drafted this decree, refined it, and announced it to all places!"

Li Changmao agreed heartily, and agreed with this temporary decree from the bottom of his heart, although Li Jiajun confiscated the property of many powerful people, but there are still many rich people, if they are allowed to use grain to make wine, it will undoubtedly aggravate the shortage of food.

After all, if you rely on the direct transfer of food to save the famine, the method will be too one-dimensional, and the effect will be greatly reduced. After all, no matter how much food is withdrawn, it can't be wasted as quickly.

At this time, Song Yingxing walked out of the crowd and said with a long salute: "King Qi, my subordinates don't know if they should say a word?" ”

"Oh~ Song Yingxing, what is the matter? It doesn't have to be that way, but it doesn't hurt to say it! Li Zicheng waved his hand, showing surprise.

"King Chuang, that's the case, since successively controlling Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Beizhili and Shandong, plus the integrated official army and various rebel armies, the total strength of our Li family army is at least about four million, and it is very likely to be even worse."

"Well, yes, it should be more than four million ......" Li Zicheng responded appropriately, showing a thoughtful look, and touched his chin with one hand.

At this moment, perhaps those Ming Dynasty officials who belonged to him were shocked by the number of four million, but the strategists and generals of the Li family army did not feel the slightest surprise, before the large-scale rebellion, the strength of all the base areas combined, nearly two million troops, not to mention that now, so many rebel and Ming troops were absorbed at once?

Four million troops, this is still the most conservative estimate!

Of course, these people who are well aware of this are also very aware that the combat effectiveness of the army of more than 4 million is very large, and more than half of them are old peasants who have left their hometowns, that is, they have made up the number of people, and there is no combat effectiveness at all.

"So King Chuang, his subordinates think that for the sake of people's livelihood and the stability of the world, the Li family army should be disarmed, cut some people to return to their hometowns, and let them farm again."

Although the words are endless, the meaning is endless.

In an instant, Li Zicheng understood Song Yingxing's deeper intentions, disarmament can be said to be a multi-task, not only to reduce Li Jiajun's various expenditures, but also to improve the utilization rate of the land, and in the coming year, the grain can also be greatly increased.

Between one increase and one decrease, the number of fertile fields for growing crops will be doubled, and the grain output in the coming year will also increase substantially, and correspondingly, the financial pressure on the future Dashun Dynasty will also be greatly reduced.

After all, more than four million mouths eat at the same time, and there is no output, no matter how powerful a country is, it will be eaten poor!