Xu Xiake was invited into the General Soldier's Mansion, and while eating cakes, he said: "At first, only the remnants of the sweeping king entered the two counties of Liuyang and Chaling in Huguang from Jiangxi. Liuyang Zhixian, the son of Feng Menglong, is also sympathetic to the people, and the soldiers are alive. There is a heroic man named Wang Hui, brave and good at fighting. Therefore, the bandits who jumped into Liuyang did not set off any waves. ”

"I know that." Zhao Han is still very concerned about the border situation between the two provinces.

Xu Xiake said again: "Chaling Zhixian County, I will take office this spring, and I will be in one fell swoop." It is rumored that in order to buy officials, he borrowed thousands of taels of silver in Beijing bonds (usury), and immediately exploited the people after taking office. As soon as the remnants of the sweeping king arrived, the people of Chaling responded one after another, and captured the county seat in October. Then, he captured Youxian and had 20,000 thieves. The thieves of Yongning County escaped into Yanxian County (Yanling), and after capturing the county seat, the thieves of Zunchaling were the mainstay. The former attacked Hengshan, and the latter attacked Anren, both of which broke the city and grew stronger. ”

"They can toss." Zhao Han sighed.

The thieves who were beaten all over Jiangxi quickly occupied five counties after escaping into southern Hunan.

Xu Xiake continued: "The thieves on the South Road, after capturing Anren, had tens of thousands of troops, crossed the mountain gorge, and attacked Leiyang. The north road thieves sent troops from Hengshan, the south road thieves sent troops from Leiyang, the north and south attacked Hengyang, the prefect of Hengzhou abandoned the city and fled, and King Gui also fled with the clan. ”

Zhao Han asked, "What is the name of the thief leader?" ”

Xu Xiake said: "The first thief on the north road is 'Yunlong', and the first thief on the south road is 'Xiaobawang'. After capturing Hengyang, the two shared the spoils unevenly, and they also fought in Hengyang. Xiaobawang was defeated, retreated to Leiyang, and went south to capture Yongxing. The leader of the Yunlong is also at odds, and there is a thief who stands on his own, called 'Chu Overlord'. The overlord of Chu left with his troops and captured Qiyang. Zhuyunlong did not want to forge ahead, and recruited concubines in Hengyang. Another thief was dissatisfied, and led his troops to take Shaoyang, called 'Ma Wangye'. ”

Good guys, this is infighting, divided into four anti-thieves.

"Shaoyang also beat down?" Zhao Han asked.

Xu Xiake shook his head: "The prefect of Baoqing adheres to Shaoyang and orders all counties to recruit troops to fight thieves. Long back to the Liao clan, there is a hero named Liao Sheng, who recruited 3,000 villagers and defeated tens of thousands of thieves outside Shaoyang City. Ma Wangye fled in a hurry with his subordinates, hid in the mountains and became a bandit, and I was trapped in Shaoyang City at that time. ”

"What about the thief's head into the cloud dragon?" Zhao Han asked.

Xu Xiake said: "Liao Sheng led 5,000 troops to Hengyang, and Zhuyunlong led 30,000 thieves to attack. Liao Sheng was brave, broke it in a battle, and the dragon was defeated and fled. When I left, Liao Sheng was besieging Hengyang City, and Zhuyun Long held on to the city and did not dare to fight. ”

Good guy, this Liao Sheng is fierce enough.

First 3,000 to 10,000, then 5,000 to 30,000, and all of them were won in one battle.

Xu Xiake said: "Although Liao Sheng broke the anti-thieves twice, it also caused the anti-thieves to scatter and flee, and now there are bandits everywhere in the mountains. As long as I entered the mountains, I would definitely be robbed, and even by water, I had to go around to the south, intending to go straight to Guangxi over the mountains and mountains. Who knew that there was also chaos in the south, the Miao people (actually the Yao people) rebelled, and the little overlord ravaged Jingnan, so I could only return to the north and flee all the way back to Jiangxi. ”

"Who is this Liao Sheng?" Zhao Han asked.

Xu Xiake said: "I only know that the Liao family is a giant clan of Longhui, Tianlian Qianmo, and half of the county are owned by it. ”

"That's the local powerhouse." Zhao Han said.

If Zhao Han had carefully studied the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty, he would definitely know Liao Sheng.

Historically, after the Qing soldiers captured Shaoyang, Liao Sheng scattered all his wealth and raised troops, and even recruited tens of thousands of village warriors, and successively followed Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo to fight. It was not until King Gui fled to Burma that Liao Sheng knew that it was difficult to regain his sight, so he disbanded the army and returned to his hometown to live in seclusion.

When Zhao Han was chatting with Xu Xiake, Liao Sheng had already recaptured Hengyang and showed the head of the thief to the public.

Moreover, Liao Sheng took the initiative to conquer the overlord of Chu, and beat the overlord of Chu to flee southward, defeating 60,000 thieves before and after. Although they are all rabble, Liao Sheng's command is also a village warrior, and the number of troops has always been only a few thousand.

Such a fierce person, it is a pity that he was born in a giant clan, and most of them will be enemies in the future, because Zhao Han is going to divide the fields.

Zhao Han gave a few taels of silver, arranged for Xu Xiake to rest, and immediately invited Pang Chunlai and Li Banghua to discuss the matter.

After hearing Zhao Han's story, Pang Chunlai said: "This person is not worried, as long as he defeats him, he will immediately go to his hometown to divide the field, he can't even recruit a villager." ”

"Indeed." Zhao Han couldn't help but laugh.

The soldiers under Liao Sheng's command were willing to fight with him because they were afraid of the thieves raging.

And Zhao Han ran to divide the fields, and only needed to win a victory, he could use the division of the fields to disintegrate the villagers, so that Liao Sheng had money and food but could not recruit troops to fight.

Li Banghua said: "Actually, if we send troops from Jiangxi, Huguang will be easier to fight, and it will definitely be like a bamboo. ”

"Why?" Zhao Han asked.

Li Banghua said: "Jiangxi has filled Huguang, and there are many Jiangxi people in Huguang, who can understand Jiangxi dialect, and there is no language barrier for the mission group and the peasant association. ”

Jiangxi's reclamation of lakes began in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang and has been running through the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the government organized Jiangxi people to migrate to Huguang.

Then Jiangxi was overtaxed, and a large number of people in Jiangxi fled to Huguang to reclaim the famine.

Qiu Jun, a cabinet minister in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, even said: "Most of the people of Jiangxi moved to Huguang. ”

According to later research, in the entire Ming Dynasty, 78.5% of the immigrants from Hunan came from Jiangxi, of which Ji'an accounted for more than half. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, among the millions of displaced people in Hubei, 690,000 were from Jiangxi.

As a result, Jiangxi dialect prevailed for a time in some areas of Huguang, and there was a tendency to replace the local dialect of Huguang.

Moreover, Jiangxi people also brought "litigation style" to Huguang, and they liked to fight lawsuits at every turn, which made Huguang Zhixian very headache.

Zhao Han thought carefully and said: "We must send troops in advance, Guangdong and southern Hunan are full of thieves, if they are allowed to wreak havoc, how much population and wealth will be lost." ”

Pang Chunlai said with a smile: "If you send troops in advance, Si Cai (Fei Chun) is afraid that he will have a headache." ”

"After the summer harvest next year, troops will be sent to Hunan and Guangdong, and this winter will occupy the entire territory of Jiangxi," Zhao Han said, "and the regular army will be expanded to 16,000 people!" ”

Before, there were only 8,000 regular soldiers, and many times they fought with peasant soldiers.

But it would be too inauthentic to leave Jiangxi across provinces to fight and always give peasant and soldier treatment.

"The regular soldiers have doubled, and there is not enough money and food." Li Banghua reminded.

Nowadays, there are three major financial expenditures, one is that officials are too expensive, and town-level officials are too expensive; second, military spending, including the continuous construction of military equipment; The third is disaster relief expenditures, which are devastating in many places this year, not only to help the people, but also to reduce or reduce taxes as appropriate.

As for the cost of education, it is not on the list.

Pang Chunlai also said: "This year's catastrophe cannot raise taxes. ”

Zhao Han said with a smile: "Issue bonds, borrow money and grain from the people, with an annual interest rate of two cents, and pay off within five years." ”

"Will this work?" Li Banghua was a little puzzled.

Pang Chunlai also didn't understand, because the Ming court and government needed money and grain were directly taxed, so where could they borrow money and grain from the people?

"Give it a try." Zhao Han said.

A month later, officials at all levels began to take action, and the peasant associations also carried out propaganda in the countryside.

The reason is that this year's catastrophe, although Zhao Han was lightly affected by the disaster, but the territory of the government was seriously affected. Mr. Zhao did not want the people to suffer, so he allocated money and food for relief, resulting in insufficient money and food. Now it is like a people borrowing money and grain, with an interest rate of two cents a year, and repaying it in five years.

When this news came out, the people talked about it a lot, and they all felt very strange.

I have only seen the government exploiting the people, but I have never seen the government borrowing from the people.

It's just unusual, including those gentry, no one thinks that Zhao Han will be in debt.

For a long time, the prestige that Zhao Han had built up was working. On the other hand, the people will also think, if Zhao Han really wants to repay the debt, why not directly raise the tax? Or directly apportioning miscellaneous taxes, borrowing money and grain without repaying it is purely redundant.

The Ming magistrate's suppression of thieves is to directly apportionment miscellaneous taxes.

Kure Township.

Here and Jingdezhen, Zhangshu Town, Hekou Town, and known as the four famous towns in Jiangxi.

It is said to be a famous town, but in fact, it is a big tax town, and Wucheng Town is still a place where soldiers must fight.

Since Zhao Han is developing in Nanchang Mansion, he naturally wants to occupy Wucheng Town. The first is to increase taxes, and the second is to control Poyang Lake.

Several Jinyi Wei spies, dressed in ordinary clothes, landed in Wucheng Town to rest.

They were sent by Chongzhen, in addition to exploring the Zhao thief's movements, but also to collect the Zhao thief's governance strategy. Chongzhen felt that if Zhao Thief could develop and grow, he must also have something extraordinary, and he might be able to learn a few tricks.

After these Jinyi Wei spies came to Wucheng Town, they selected an inn and immediately dispersed to listen to the news.

When a spy came to the outside of the town, he saw a large number of people, either in small boats or on their shoulders, carrying all the grain to the warehouses outside the town.

The spy came forward and heard the news: "Are you paying for food?" ”

As they walked, the people said: "The grain has already been paid, and this year there was a disaster, and the land endowment has been reduced by three and a half." We have heard that some villages in the mountains have been so dry that they have no harvest, and not only do they not have to pay grain, but the government also pours relief food. ”

"And what are you doing here?" The agent was even more puzzled.

The people laughed and said: "The government is reducing taxes and disaster relief, and the money and food are not enough, so I have to borrow from the people and pay back two cents of interest." ”

"Aren't you afraid that the government will pay off your debts?" The agent said confusedly.

"The emperor will repay the debt, but Mr. Zhao will not." The people said.

The secret agent was shocked: "The official mansion you are talking about, is that Mr. Zhao?" ”

The people laughed and said: "In addition to Mr. Zhao, which official government is there in Nanchang?" Mr. Zhao has a good heart, he can't see the people suffering, and the disaster relief has run out of food, so we ordinary people will definitely help. ”

The spy immediately returned to town and told his friends what had happened.

The next day, they continued southward and soon found the same situation, with people everywhere offering to lend grain to the "government".

However, there were few gentry, especially grain merchants, and they would not lend a grain of grain.

Because of the drought in Nanzhili and Zhejiang, they took the opportunity to hoard Juqi and planned to ship it over next spring. The reason why they don't sell it now is because the price of grain is not yet at the highest point, and they let the people of the Jiangnan provinces starve to death, and when they wait until next spring, the price of grain will inevitably skyrocket again.

Instead of lending grain to Zhao Han, the grain merchants also went to the countryside to buy grain at a high price, and they could make a lot of money next year.

Some people who were greedy for money did not lend grain to Zhao Han, and took the opportunity to sell the surplus grain to grain merchants at a high price.

Of course, as long as Zhao Han does not come forward to attack, the grain merchants will not oppose Zhao Han. Because Zhao Han brought stability, especially this year's disaster relief, so that Jiangxi kept its grain income, they could buy more grain and transport it to the Jiangnan Prefectures.

Businessmen like social stability, and they sincerely support Zhao Han.

It's a weird phenomenon.