At the end of February and the first half of March of this year, the Qing court in the north finally chose to temporarily collect troops to recuperate, suffer the people from within, and properly tap the potential to rebuild their armaments.

This is of course very effective for the rapid rearmament of a regime, but it is also like drinking water to quench thirst, and it greatly loses the people's support.

Fortunately, Dolgon also knew what he was doing, so he didn't expect to win the hearts of everyone in the north from beginning to end.

He just had no choice but to pull and dozen, feed the people he wanted to win over, and then offend the people who had already offended to death, and force him to cut off the roots, break the bones, squeeze the marrow, and cut off the children and grandchildren.

After the above-mentioned measures were implemented step by step, the first reaction was that the offensive of the Azigna army from Henan to Huguang was completely stopped.

The two red flags, which had been slightly damaged, were pulled back to the hinterland of Henan to recuperate, replenish the source of troops from the eight banners of the rear reserve, and re-train.

】

Abatai in Huaibei also transferred to rest and recuperate, eating on the spot, and the reserve members of the two white flags in the rear, as well as the backbone of the two white flags transferred from the two yellow flags to rebuild the two white flags, also chose to go directly south to Huaibei and reorganize into an army.

Dolgon knew very well that the Central Plains today, in this era of unusually cold and natural disasters, must be colder and poorer the further north they go.

In the case that there is absolutely not enough food to eat, and some people have to be squeezed to death internally, or even cannibalism, it is very important to reduce transportation losses.

Therefore, even if the army does not fight, it should dedicate a large part of the population to the southerly areas and deploy it, so as to eat grain on the spot, so as to save the trouble of transporting grain to the north.

In an era when the economic chain of Caoyun was broken, a place like Beijing was not suitable for a population of more than two or three hundred thousand. Therefore, those recruits of the green battalion recruited from Beijing, Tongzhou, Tianjin and other places and dock workers must also be transferred out of the vicinity of Beijing and deployed to the south.

Just gave them a picture cake that "as long as the war is won in the future and the Qing Dynasty wins the world, they will naturally be allowed to return to Beijing to live in Beijing for generations", so that these spirits who are unwilling to leave Beijing will drift north and choose to work for the Qing Dynasty.

In contrast, although Huaibei was the front line that was repeatedly tug-of-war last year, it is still better than Hebei and can feed more people.

……

The words are divided into two ends, while the Qing court is perverse and the war potential is brutally squeezed internally, the Ming court in the south, as the enemy's military pressure is reduced, it is rare to enter a period of recuperation.

Although the Southern Ming Dynasty also suffered a great loss of armaments and materials due to the previous continuous battles, it was difficult to support the Northern Expedition, but the money and grain situation was still much better than that of the Qing Dynasty.

It's just that everyone from the emperor to the important ministers of the cabinet is more benevolent, and they can't bear to let the people starve to death on a large scale, and it is strictly forbidden to eat people, so it is necessary to digest the results of the war, rectify the interior, strengthen production, and breathe a sigh of relief.

The Huainan battlefield returned to calm at the end of February, and the Ming army immediately organized military camps and displaced people to resume production as soon as possible.

And the last truce battlefield is Nanyang Mansion in Henan,

Zhu Shuren's cousin, Zhang Huangyan, the former Huguang military commander, led the army to defend the lonely city, swore to resist, and withstood the offensive of Azig from October last year to the present, and defended it for more than five months.

It can be called the seventeenth year of Chongzhen to the first year of Longwu, the strongest hero city on the battlefield of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Not only did it far exceed the record of Jiangyin City in this time and space, but it even surpassed the Jiangyin in parallel time and space that was guarded by Yan Yingyuan for three months.

At the end of the battle, the Qing army had a total of 20,000 or 30,000 casualties under the city.

Coupled with the part that was lured by the enemy and annihilated in the previous sports battle, as well as the wounded, Azig's losses definitely accounted for thirty percent of his total strength in the south!

Of course, this loss of thirty percent is much better than the direct destruction of more than eighty percent on Duoduo's side, relying on the foil of his peers, Azig can be said to be a "small defeat and victory".

In addition to Zhang Huangyan, Fang Yizhi and other Huguang generals defended the Hanshui-Xiangyang defense line in the rear, which was also remarkable, and did not give any chance to the Qing army who later tried to temporarily build a ship on the north bank of Hanshui.

After all, in the early days of the Huguang Campaign, the Qing army only expected to capture Nanyang and then send ships from the north south from the Baihe River to force the Han River.

Later, as the battle lasted for more than two months, especially after learning that Duoduo's side had also suffered an accident, Azig, who was eager to cross the Han River, had already given up the initial idea and began to do everything possible to build ships directly on the north bank of the Han River.

In the next few months, it will be completely too late to build a new ship. Once it was discovered that there might be a shipyard of the Qing army in any county on the north bank, or another river crossing assembly, it had to find a way to harass and destroy it by waterway, so as to prevent the Qing army from gradually gathering enough naval forces.

In these continuous reconnaissance and destructive operations, the generals of Huguang were all decent, and Fang Yizhi was also diligent, and in the end, he was not caught by Azig.

In the end, with the end of the Nanyang-Hanshui series of battles, it was confirmed that Azig had withdrawn and the good news was sent to Nanjing, and the Longwu Imperial Court of course did not hesitate to reward the soldiers of these heroes.

Zhu Wenzhen, Li Dingguo and others, the generals who made the greatest contribution in the defense of the city, received the largest reward, Zhu Wenzhen was already a general soldier, and now he has also been crowned a count of the first class.

Li Dingguo's original rank was still low, but after this battle, he was officially promoted to the chief soldier, and was rewarded with 1,000 taels of gold, 20,000 taels of silver, and the soldiers of each department were also rewarded.

The other rear generals can more or less be promoted by one and a half levels.

In terms of civil officials, Zhang Huangyan, who has made the greatest contributions, has also been promoted from military preparation to the newly established "governor of Anhui and Henan", and the governor's jurisdiction includes Nanyang Mansion and Xinyang Mansion in Henan Province, as well as the two prefectures of An and Lu in Nanzhili, plus Xiangyang Mansion, Suizhou Mansion and Huangzhou Mansion in Huguang.

Basically, it is similar to the jurisdiction of Zhu Shuren when he first served as "Anhui Fu" a few years ago, but there are slight differences. The main reason is that there are fewer Nanzhili and Jiangxi Prefectures on the south bank of the Yangtze River than Zhu Shuren's governor's jurisdiction, and Nanyang in Henan is added.

In the original peaceful era, of course, the Ming Dynasty did not set up a governor like this, but now it is a period of war and peace, and the rest of Henan Province has not been recovered, so it is specially set up in this way for the needs of military defense. It is equivalent to letting Zhang Huangyan be in charge of the northern defense line in the south direction of the Huguang River from now on.

According to the division of the east, west, and middle border defense of "Yang, Jing, and Yi" in the south since ancient times, Zhang Huangyan will be in charge of the middle route army in the future, accounting for one-third of the northern border defense of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Huang's speech was only two years older than Zhu Shuren, who was 24 years old and became the governor of the three provinces.

So now that the siege is over, Zhang Huangyan is only twenty-seven years old, and he wants to be a governor at his age, which is unbelievable in the eyes of ordinary people.

However, the real credit of the people is there, and there is a more rebellious example of Zhu Shuren breaking the precedent in the front, Emperor Longwu Zhu Changshu personally suggested that Zhang Huangyan be promoted to governor at the court meeting, and no one jumped out to oppose it, and this matter was passed.

After Zhang Huangyan was promoted to governor, Fang Yizhi, who had a slightly smaller credit than him, was better in officialdom and had a better career background, and was also promoted to "Huguang Governor", and no one in the cabinet and the Ministry of Officials objected.

After all, Zhang Huangyan is an official career who has made meritorious contributions to the office, and Fang Yizhi is a serious two-list jinshi into the office. Wisdom above his age is also more suitable for reuse, he is already thirty-three years old, and the old Zhang Huangyan is six years old.

Of course, because Zhang Huangyan's jurisdiction occupies the three prefectures of Huguang, Fang Yizhi's governor area should deduct Xiangyang, Suizhou, and Huangzhou on the basis of the traditional Huguang governor, that is, all the land of Hanbei and Jiangbei. The governor's yamen continued to be located in Wuchang.

……

Throughout March, after the Nanjing Imperial Court had completed the truce and dealt with all the officials who should be rewarded,

The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were originally worried that the young and ambitious ministers and famous generals would take up the throne, and they would make drastic changes to the new officials.

But the follow-up actions of Zhu Shuren and Zhang Huangyan, Fang Yizhi and others made everyone breathe a sigh of relief. Because in the spring of this year, the imperial court did not toss any political reforms and military and industrial construction.

It's just to rest with the people, encourage production, persuade farmers to expand land reclamation, and focus on resettle displaced people from the north-

With the exhaustion of Dolgon in the north and the internal demarcation of "the key points and the suffering of some people", the tide of displaced people from Huaibei to Huainan naturally could not be suppressed.

Within 100 miles of the north bank of the Huai River, there were even many contiguous no-man's lands, and the people of Huaibei who could not bear the oppression fled directly south to live in the area controlled by the Ming Dynasty, even if they didn't want a house.

With such a large population, of course, the imperial court should also resettle it carefully, basically first try to resettle it in the Juntun area of Huainan as much as possible, planting taro and water chestnut lotus root in the muddy low-lying area, and planting potatoes in the rugged area, so as to strive for self-sufficiency as soon as possible.

Those who were still not enough to be resettled, so they had to organize transportation to the south to further reclaim the land and tap the potential, or to resettle in Zhenjiang Mansion and Changzhou Prefecture, which had just been poisoned by the war and slaughtered most of the population.

Considering the damage caused by last year's war, Zhu Shuren knows very well that the workload of spring plowing this year will be particularly large, for example, many destroyed fields need to be rebuilt and reopened, and the labor intensity is much greater than in normal years. At this time, it is natural that the people cannot be tossed, and all other industrial construction is suspended, so they concentrate on farming.

It is estimated that the continuous farming after spring ploughing will last until the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and then the summer harvest in some areas is relatively early, and it is necessary to double grab and sow new seeds. Basically, after this wave of busyness, we can consider other things such as large-scale demolition and construction, mining and factory construction, and requisition of people's labor.

……

Of course, while resting with the people, Zhu Shuren is not doing nothing. Just because he doesn't toss the people doesn't mean he won't toss officials and landlords.

Taking advantage of the recuperation in the past few months, Zhu Shuren took the opportunity to put a reform of internal politics and theory on his daily basis, that is, to take advantage of the resettlement of displaced people while thoroughly investigating the actual situation of land and population in several provinces directly under the central government in the south.

This kind of thing, theoretically, the Ming Dynasty would have done it every few years, but since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it is basically thunder and rain.

The actual population is difficult to check thoroughly, and there are only tens of millions of people on the books until the end of the year, and in fact, the ghosts know that those numbers are fake.

The land area is even more of a lake, and all kinds of land are donated to corrupt officials and gentry who enjoy tax exemptions, and the pressure of land tax is apportioned to the unprivileged people who are becoming more and more unsustainable.

In fact, no one knows how much taxable land should be in each province, and how it will be apportioned and passed on.

And this time, Zhu Shuren came with an excuse and an opportunity, so he planned to take action against this stubborn disease.

When he heard about Zhu Shuren's proposal, Shi Kefa, who was also in the cabinet, was naturally surprised.

Shi Kefa himself is still very upright, and he also knows that in this autumn of national disaster, everyone should be in the same boat, share the same hatred, and contribute to the world of the Han people.

But he also knew that with his experience with the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty, he thought that this matter would cause great resistance.

So out of public interest, he asked Zhu Shuren to think about it again, not because he didn't do it, but whether he could postpone it:

"Please think about Zhang Juzheng's precedent for His Royal Highness the King of E, although this kind of thing is beneficial to the country, but the current implementation will lead to the separation of people's hearts? The imperial court had just repelled the Tartars once, and there were many gentry on all sides. ”

Zhu Shuren thought better than Shi Kefa, and he analyzed straightforwardly: "Gu feels that the time is just right now!" Best for cutting through the mess with a quick knife!

First of all, the imperial court has achieved a great military victory, and the military power is completely united, just to purge the stubbornness internally! Whoever dares to resist will take advantage of the aftermath of the victory in the foreign war and directly kill a few thorns!

What's more, a thorough investigation of the population of the fields and acres is a law of the imperial court, and they want to resist, and they don't even occupy the name of righteousness! Originally, it was nothing more than passive resistance by fleeing the population, abandoning the land, and having no one to pay taxes.

Now in the north, because of the tyranny of Dolgon, countless displaced people have gone south, and the imperial court has to settle hundreds of thousands or even millions of displaced people in the future. The people in the south are willing to flee to resist taxes in order to avoid being thoroughly investigated and hidden, so they will not return to their hometowns in the future! Anyone who finds a fugitive and resists will be regarded as having no such person, and the land will be redistributed by the imperial court to the displaced people for cultivation! ”

After hearing this, Shi Kefa was silent for a long time, and after thinking about it, he sighed: "In this way, it is not unreasonable. Indeed, originally my Ming Dynasty court was a little bit of a 'competition with the people', the gentry were united and confrontational, and it did not end well, and Zhang Juzheng was also dead in the year.

At the beginning, so many people responded to the thieves, and even responded to the Tartars, because they felt that the first emperor treated the people harshly...... Maybe I hope that the thieves and tartars will be better.

But now, the tyranny of the Tartars and the indiscriminate killing of innocents by thieves and thieves have long been known to the world, not to mention that the thieves and thieves have long been completely wiped out. Scholars all over the world have a comparison, and they may be able to know that this world is difficult, and the will of heaven is like this, and Daming is already the most benevolent. At this time, if you make a move, maybe the resistance can be minimized. ”

Shi Kefa said while sorting out his own thoughts.

After mutual inspiration with Zhu Shuren, he figured it out: the Ming and Qing dynasties were a worse world!

In the words of later generations, it is distance that produces beauty.

It's like a group of people who have never been abroad on the Internet in later generations, and the life of the American emperor is so much better there, and they can earn tens of thousands of dollars a month by washing dishes (it is also said to be a knife).

And in the same way, there are a large number of low-level slings in the United States, who have never gone abroad, and they spray the American imperialism there, saying how completely poverty has been eradicated in China.

But in fact, no matter which country the sling goes to, it is not as happy as it is (unless there is really a way to naturalize the four Nordic countries). Which major power in the world is likely to make life completely comfortable for the poorest at the bottom? Inexistent.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, many people also thought that the society they lived in was terrible at the beginning, and it couldn't be worse. It wasn't until he was really abused by the three parties in turn that he found out that the Tartar was a little more brutal, and Da Ming was okay.

Zhu Shuren saw that Shi Kefa had already figured out this truth, so he smiled slyly and said: "So, this time, in fact, Duoduo helped us, although the means were very cruel and the losses were very heavy, but we were able to cut through the mess quickly-

Before Duoduo came, who in Jiangnan would believe that 'the Tartars will force everyone to shave their heads'? The gentry in the world don't believe it, but they will think that this is slandering the Tartars, and in order to facilitate the court to loot more from the people!

But now, they have to take the real thing! If there were no Da Ming, they would all have to shave their heads! For those gentry, they were ruthless by Qingzhang Yintian and hidden households, or they were shaved by the whole family! They know how to choose!

Lone has already planned it, and let people write a song in advance, which will be funded and disseminated by the imperial court, and the slaughter of Yangzhou, the rebellion of the righteous people in Changzhen, and the cruel slaughter of the righteous people who do not shave their hair will be more typical, and they will be sung all over the world.

A two-pronged approach may minimize resistance. ”

When Shi Kefa heard this, he couldn't help but gasp slightly.

Lord E, this is a complete understanding of the propaganda war.

And the record books mentioned by Zhu Shuren were actually written privately by him and his fourth concubine Bian Yujing in the past two months. Bian Yujing was originally in Qinhuai Bayan, and he was known for being good at writing Kunqu opera singing books.

A few years ago, Zhu Shuren also asked her and Fang Ziling to cooperate with Li Zicheng's thief army, "How are the golden scales a thing in the pool, when you meet Luo/Ma, you will turn into a dragon, become Luo/Ma, and defeat Luo/Ma". The effect was really good, and once caused an estrangement between Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai's old department, and they did not cooperate well during the Kaifeng Campaign, and they were suspicious of each other.

Therefore, Bian Yujing can be regarded as a veteran who is more familiar with the cultural and entertainment propaganda front in this era, and letting her continue to be in charge of these tasks can be regarded as realizing the value of her life.

……

After the opinions of the DPRK and the Central Cabinet are unified, it is natural that the specific policies in the follow-up will be swift and there will be no room for hesitation.

The money, food, and armaments of the southern provinces were originally in the hands of Zhu Shuren, and his father was also the head of the household department, in fact, this matter did not need Shi Kefa to handle it directly.

Obtaining Shi Kefa's support is nothing more than to better unite the opinions of the central government, and at the same time to obtain more guarantees in the selection of officials to implement policies.

After all, Shi Kefa's officials still have the right to promote and evaluate the merits of officials in the world. In the past two years, those who have failed to thoroughly investigate the work of hidden fields and hidden households will be transferred to and demoted.

Anyway, now the officials in the world are superfluous, and when the north fell before, not all officials chose to directly surrender to the Tartars to be traitors, and there were many people who did not want to be traitors and fled south, even if they could not get their real posts for the time being.

For this kind of official who has been screened and tested and has national integrity, the imperial court will certainly not treat him badly. At present, if the southern magistrates are not effective, they can immediately let these officials who have fled from the south and the north who refuse to mourn the festival take over.

Under such multiple pressures, coupled with the fact that Wang Duo and Qian Qianyi had brought a handful of Donglin to shake the traitors and surrendered, they were purged by Zhu Shuren. This time, the work of thorough investigation of land and population has made it much less resistant.

Only a very small number of those who resisted openly and secretly were directly wiped out by Zhu Shuren's military might of great victory. After a few examples, combined with propaganda efforts to brutally shave the hair of the Tartars, within a few months, the resistance was almost completely disintegrated.

The Ming Dynasty was founded for so many years, but when Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, he did not clear the land so efficiently and smoothly.

In just a few months, the taxable fields in the southern provinces on the books of the imperial court were more than half of those in the last years of Chongzhen! I don't know where so many fields fell from the sky!

In terms of population, Zhu Shuren originally estimated that there would be 130 million or 40 million people in the last year of Wanli, how could it be only 60 or 70 million as the official household registration statistics of the imperial court?

By the time Chongzhen ascended the throne, there should be close to 100 million two, and since then, even if there have been disasters, wars, plagues, and slaughters for many years, millions of millions of people have been reduced every year, and there should be a small 90 million or 80 million when Chongzhen died.

Now after a thorough investigation, this figure really confirms Zhu Shuren's guess - the figures of the first year of Longwu show that the southern provinces of the Ming Dynasty, except for Yungui, which has not yet been fully controlled, should have a total population of 48.7 million. If Yungui is also counted, the total should be between five thousand two or three million.

Of these 48.7 million miles, the most populous is Nanzhili, with a population of 11.6 million.

It is followed by Huguang, with about 8.2 million. (A small half of the Hunan area was killed by Zhang Xianzhong, but Zhu Shuren has been farming there for many years, and the resettlement of displaced people has been quite effective, so it has risen a lot)

Sichuan again, about 6.5 million (this is also the number after being briefly slaughtered by Zhang Xianzhong for half a year, originally more).

Again, Zhejiang, about 5.1 million.

Jiangxi again, about 4.4 million.

Again, it is two Guangzhou, with a total of 4.7 million.

Finally, there is Fujian, with only 2.2 million.

In addition, only two prefectures in Henan Province were controlled by the Ming court, and only one prefecture in Shaanxi was controlled, and the two occupied areas had a population of 600,000 and 150,000 respectively.

Of course, this is by no means representative of the actual population size of Henan and Shaanxi, after all, more than half of them are still under the control of Tatar and Wu Sangui.

Finally, there is the Denglai area controlled by Liu Zeqing in Shandong, and now because it is isolated behind overseas enemies, it is definitely impossible to rectify internal affairs in accordance with the unified decree, Liu Zeqing is like a local emperor, and the data can only be calculated according to his report, with only a few hundred thousand people on the books.

All these figures add up, and they are actually less than 44 million. Compared with the 48.7 million people finally counted by Zhu Shuren, there is a difference of 5 million people!

And these five million people are the biggest result of this population and land clearance, because after investigation, it was found that these are the landless people in the north who have been flowing south in the past few years!

And so far, it has not been properly resettled by the south, and it has not been able to buy its own land, or it has been hidden by the southern gentry and used as invisible labor!

But all immigrants who have a little money and buy a land and a house in the south will still be registered by the government.

Zhu Shuren investigated thoroughly, and only then did he know that there were so many people in Daming who fled from the north to the south, and they had been invisible people for many years! Even some Chongzhen fled south in the second year, and they have lived in Jiangnan for fifteen or sixteen years, but it has never been reflected in the official bills.

Five million homeless people, invisible people! Counting the other rich peasants, middle peasants, and gentry who were not invisible but also went south, I am afraid that there are also millions.

It can be seen that the population of the north has been hollowed out because of the disasters for many years, all added up, in the past 20 years, almost 10 million people in the north who could not survive have gone south, and they have arrived in the south alive and have lived until now, and those who died on the road or after emigrating have not been counted.

……

Zhu Shuren took advantage of Duoduo's peers to thoroughly investigate the population fields and integrate internal dispatch capabilities in the south, while Dolgon actually did similar things in the north.

It's just that Dorgon's operations belong to the "basic operations when changing dynasties" - which dynasty and which generation established the country are not re-examined and accounted for by the population.

Even if Liu Bang directly asked Xiao He to take the account book of the Qin Dynasty, he had to check it again, not to mention that the Ming Dynasty account book in Beijing that Dolgon got was a pile of bad debts.

And Dolgon's methods of checking the population and fields are also much more rude, he does not just want to build a green camp, pull a strong man, but also enclose the land, just use a knife to complete these tasks. And the time when he started it was actually earlier than Zhu Shuren, and he started to do it last year.

After Dolgon's butcher's knife inventory, it was finally calculated that the total population of the northern provinces was now only 19 million.

Among them, there were 900,000 Manchus and nearly 1 million Mongols, and these two parts together were considered the ruling nations, accounting for 2 million.

There are also two million Liaodong Han people outside the original Guan, that is, the old Han people who have served the Later Jin/Qing Dynasty since the Nuer Hachi and Huangtaiji periods.

This part of the people is equivalent to the "auxiliary ruling class" that was bought by the British in the history of India, and they are the tools of Han to control Han.

In addition, the surrender of the thieves, the surrender of the Ming army, the new conquest of the green camp, and the newly raised Han people after entering the customs were covered by hundreds of thousands, plus all the families of these people, there are also nearly one million.

In the end, there were only 14 million Han people left who were purely forced by the ruling class and used to suffer the common people, and the rest were either killed, starved to death, died of plague, or fled to the south.

Two million ruling nations, three million auxiliary ruling Han people, and suppressing 14 million pure oppressed Han people together, this oppression intensity has to be said to be very high.

The only good news is that after so many years of repeated land washing, the north has finally entered a state where the land is vast and sparsely populated, and everyone has land to plant, at least it will not be unable to sell if you want to.

However, the quality of the fields is due to destructive reclamation, no one repairs water conservancy, and adheres to long-termism, resulting in very low fertility and soil erosion.

The Zhu Shu people in the south, in order to resist the short-sightedness of the displaced people and not engage in water conservancy and destruction of reclamation, but they did not make less effort, but where could Dolgon in the north have such a slow and meticulous art of rule?

Of these 14 million Han Chinese, there are about 4.2 million in Beizhili, 3.5 million in Shandong, 1.7 million in Shanxi, 2.3 million in Henan, 1.9 million in Huaibei, and 300,000 in Shaanxi.

In terms of population, Dolgon's human resources are about one-third of those of Zhu Shuren. But he has no choice, only to rely on this limited basic market, and strive to turn the tables in the future.