"Into your mother's coffin! The thief has not rained or snowed for three months, he wants to die of drought in the coming year, right? ”

Time flies, and with Zhang Xianzhong's scolding, the footsteps of the nineteenth year of the Apocalypse came to the middle of the month.

Standing on the north bank of the Yellow River in Lanzhou Prefecture, Hexi, Zhang Xianzhong scolded at the sky.

There is a reason why he scolded loudly, because the two provinces of Anxi and Beiting were taken, Cao Bianjiao was appointed as the chief soldier of Anxi, and after Cao Meng was appointed as the chief soldier of Beiting, the general soldiers of all places were transferred.

Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, and Li Guo were originally the commanders of the three provinces, but because the Governor's Office wanted to cultivate the Shaozhuang faction, and the interior was worry-free, the Ming Front extended westward to Central Asia, so all three of them were appointed to stay in Anxi and Beiting.

On the military side, Mangui set up four important places in Anxi, and sparse the central government.

These four places are Shule (Kashgar), Xiaye, Anxi (Ili), and Luntai (Urumqi).

Li Zi became the general soldier of Shule, Li Dingguo was the general soldier of Broken Leaves, Zhu Fuju was the general soldier of Anxi, and Li Guo was the general soldier of Luntai.

These four places defend the Wakhan Corridor respectively, defend the Ili River Valley and serve as the four important places of Anxi, Beiting and inland transit, and are also known as the Four Towns of Anxi in the Apocalypse Dynasty.

The soldiers and horses of the four towns have been adjusted, with two battalions of Shaye, three battalions of Shule, three battalions of Anxi, and two battalions of Luntai, totaling 10 battalions and 30,000 people.

As for Beiting, Mangui transferred Liu Zongmin to garrison Xuanchi City, and transferred Rucai and some generals of the new generation from the interior to garrison the four towns of Damo, Jinshan, and Tingzhou, which were the four towns of Beiting, with a total strength of more than 24,000 people in eight battalions.

Anxi and Beiting have a total of 18 battalions, accounting for nearly half of the strength of the Northern Army's Governor's Mansion, with 54,000 troops.

According to the former productive forces, if the Western Regions wanted to feed these 54,000 people, they would have to have at least 300,000 people and one million acres of arable land.

But now, only 60,000 people and 20,000 tractors are enough.

However, it was impossible for the Governor's Office to control the military and political power of the two provinces single-handedly, so in mid-October, Zhang Maocai and He Changshou, senior officials of the Yanshan faction, were transferred to Anxi and Beiting to serve as political envoys respectively.

As the two provinces with the greatest pressure on the land defense of the Ming Dynasty in the future, they were destined to mobilize a large amount of resources of the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, many generals and officials from the mainland were sent to the two places.

Zhu Ciran is not as sophisticated as Zhu Youzhen's methods, but he is thick-skinned.

He simply threw the second-in-command and third-in-command of each party to Anxi and Beiting.

The number of officials in the local yamen alone was as high as 30,000, while the immigrants from the two provinces were only 30,000, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they were one-on-one services.

There are not a few officials in Beijing, but they were kept by Zhu Ciran.

At the end of the month, the officials of the various parties accepted their fate, and even though it was already in the winter moon, they still organized many people to go to the local area, hoping to use these "merits" to exchange the important ministers back to the capital.

Of course, these are all games between civil officials and Zhu Ciran, and they have nothing to do with Zhang Xianzhong.

However, a large number of generals were transferred, and he, the chief soldier of Kaiping Prefecture, was also transferred to Hexi, and was promoted to the chief soldier of Hexi by the way.

This should have been a cause for joy, but since his transfer from Kaiping Province to Hexi, the drought in Hexi has begun to expand.

There were still a few rains in June and July, but after he took office, for three months, there was no rain in the three eastern provinces of Hexi, and the vegetable fields and wheat fields in Lanzhou Camp dried up.

Zhang Xianzhong was busy building water conservancy projects and coordinating with the local yamen.

It was not easy to get the water conservancy right, but when winter came, the drought became even worse.

At this time, not only the Lanzhou battalion was begging for help, but Lintao Mansion, Xining Mansion, and Liangzhou Mansion also suffered from a severe drought, and the military quartermaster flags in various military camps were not produced at all.

As a last resort, Zhang Xianzhong could only lick his old face and write a military situation to Man Gui, making it clear that the soaring prices in Hexi Province could no longer meet the local military camps, so it was necessary to replenish the local Hexi five battalions before they could deliver supplies to Hexi.

Fortunately, Man Gui is not ignorant of the world, he did not criticize Zhang Xianzhong, but replied that he would go to the imperial court and ask the imperial court to send supplies to the battalions.

A major drought made Hexi Province, which had a slight surplus, immediately unable to save effort, and if there was no train in the Ming Dynasty, I am afraid that the troops of the Western Expedition would have to be withdrawn.

Fortunately, the Beijing-Jiajia Railway has been built, and the construction of two railways, Anxi and Beiting, has begun, and the materials from Sichuan, Yunnan, Jiaozhi and Luchuan have been continuously sent to Jiayuguan, and then transferred to the Western Regions.

As soon as Zhang Xianzhong took office, he wrote a letter to the boss of the Governor's Mansion to complain, which seemed to outsiders to be suspicious of looking for trouble.

It's just that Zhang Xianzhong is bitter, there are more than 5 million people in Hexi, once they encounter a major drought, the price of goods will soar seriously, and even the local 15,000 soldiers and horses can't be fed, let alone supply the Western Regions.

Therefore, standing on the edge of the Yellow River, he could only scold God.

Like him, there were also the general soldiers of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, North Zhili, Huguang, South Zhili and other provinces.

The drought is getting worse and everyone can see it......

"Since the beginning of autumn, Longxi has suffered heavy rain and hail, and the affected people are no less than 200,000, and more than 100,000 acres of land are begging for exemption."

"The five prefectures and two counties in the north of the Yangtze River in the south have suffered from drought and famine, please exempt the fields from tomorrow."

"It's the winter of the year, the two Beijings, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hexi, and Shaanxi are in drought, prices are soaring, and the rice is a hundred things."

The drought at the end of the nineteenth year of the Apocalypse was more intense than before, even on the day when it was supposed to snow in the winter month, there was no heavy snow in the land of Yanzhao, and only some snowflakes could be seen sporadically.

As a prisoner, Zhu Ciran can be regarded as experiencing some of the things that Zhu Youzhen experienced at his age.

He couldn't help but feel a headache when he listened to Zhang Xiu's recitation.

In contrast, Sun Chuanting sat calmly on the side, thinking about countermeasures, and the same was true for Yinxi.

"Your Highness, this is a good thing......"

At this time when everyone has a headache, Sun Kewang stood up and said:

"The people of the northern provinces are reluctant to move to the northwest of Anxi and the four provinces of Luchuan, Jiaozhi, Nanzhou in the south, and Guanwai in the north."

"But now that the price of rice has risen sharply, many people who can't survive have no choice but to relocate."

"According to His Majesty's opinion, we should not suppress the price of grain at the moment, but should let it go, and at the same time summon the world to say that the population of the provinces outside the Guanwai, the Western Regions, and the southern provinces is saturated, and the people of the provinces will be relocated by June next year."

As soon as Sun Kewang's words came out, everyone couldn't help frowning.

Sun Chuanting hates this kind of topic that hurts the people the most, and Zhu Ciran and Du Yinxi are the same.

Just before they could attack, Sun Kewang vaguely glanced at their expressions and then continued:

"The five generations of ministers have white bodies, and they know best what the people think."

"The more the court wants them to go, the more they don't want to go, but the court won't let them go, and even the court will shrink their behavior, and they will obediently follow the court."

"Doing this, it seems to hurt the people......" Liu Shun, who was sitting next to him, couldn't help but speak, saying what everyone thought in their hearts.

After all, they have experienced the fourteen years of the reign of the King of Qi, and the King of Qi used the government, mostly lenient to the people and strict with the officials and gentry.

Now the people are suddenly left alone, and they are taking advantage of the drought and famine, which is disgusting.

It's just that in the face of the ideas of Liu Shun, Sun Chuanting and others, Sun Kewang used his personal experience to impress them.

He spread out his hands and motioned for the crowd to look at his hands.

When everyone looked closely, they saw that the hands were covered with calluses, and there were even some traces of chilblains that had healed for several years.

"Your Highness, the calluses and chilblains on the minister's hands were all dropped seven years before the Apocalypse."

Sun Kewang put away his hand and said again:

"At the beginning, His Royal Highness the King of Qi wanted to move millions of people in northern Shaanxi to the Hetao, and how many people resisted one after another, so it can be seen that even if it is the edict of the King of Qi, the people may not necessarily obey it."

"The people are ignorant and ignorant, but they are also diligent and simple."

"They don't dare to go because they don't understand, and Chen's father is such a person."

"Even if His Royal Highness King Qi did this to the people of northern Shaanxi back then, we dragged it out until the great drought in the seventh year of the Apocalypse before embarking on the road of migration."

"Until I arrived in Shuofang, my father was still saying that Hetao was poor, and he would plant land for a few years and return to northern Shaanxi when the drought was over."

"But when they all arrive at the Hetao, after seeing the scenery and aquatic plants of the Hetao, who else will clamore to go back to northern Shaanxi?"

Sun Kewang told his own experience and the people in his eyes, and continued:

"In the minister's opinion, the people are reluctant to go to the Western Regions because they are ignorant and ignorant."

"As long as there is land, cement, and people, in the minister's opinion, everywhere is almost the same, and the people can have enough to eat."

"If His Highness can trust the minister, he can send the minister to any province of Anxi and Beiting."

"The minister asserts that it only takes three years for the minister to make Broken Leaf Town self-sufficient!"

Sun Kewang's bold words made everyone silent, in the Ming Dynasty, it seemed that as long as anyone dared to say that the people were stupid and ignorant, the basic political career was sentenced to death.

This result did not make the officials respect the people more, but the officials were secretly scolding, one in front of them and one behind their backs.

On the contrary, although Sun Kewang scolded the people for being ignorant, he dared to go to the Western Regions and dare to accompany the people of the Western Regions to start from scratch, which was better than many officials.

Sun Chuanting listened to Sun Kewang's words, from disgust at the beginning to recognition, and finally to appreciation.

It can be said that judging from Sun Kewang's governing philosophy alone, he essentially hopes to let the people have enough to eat.

He's flamboyant and ambitious, but that's not a problem.

Because he is flamboyant, ambitious, and proud, he doesn't care what others think of him.

What kind of people are sophisticated, and what kind of compromises seek perfection...... In Sun Kewang's opinion, they all took off their pants and farted.

As long as he can show his merits as an official, then no one can find fault with him, except for those who sit in the highest positions!

Thinking of this, he glanced at Sun Chuanting and Zhu Ciran vaguely.

"You are still a petty official from the seventh rank at the moment, and it is useless to go to Anxi, go out with the hat of the East Palace, and you may be bullied."

Zhu Ciran still has a good impression of Sun Kewang, after all, he can do things, and he does it well, and he doesn't have the "one board and one eye" of most officials, which is very much in line with his appetite.

"After you finish the assessment this year, let's start with the county order of Wanping County."

Zhu Ciran arranged for Sun Kewang to be the county magistrate of Wanping County, which is one of the two counties in Beijing.

His original intention was to let Sun Kewang stay in the position of the Qipin County Order, and gild.

As a result, he didn't think that as soon as he finished speaking, Sun Kewang shook his head and said:

"Xiaguan still wants to go to Anxi, preferably in a poor place."

Sun Kewang knew in his heart that Zhu Ciran, like King Qi, paid attention to real achievements.

Therefore, if he went to a remote place, Zhu Ciran would not forget him, and his achievements could also convince the officials of the DPRK and China.

He has his own abacus, and in the face of his abacus, Zhu Ciran frowned slightly, and then sighed:

"Since you insist on asking for it, then you should go to Anxi Shanshan (Ruoqiang) first."

"Although it was still relatively prosperous in the Han and Tang Dynasties, it was empty after the Northern and Western Expeditions, and there were 300 families who just settled there a few days ago, and it depends on you whether it can develop or not."

Speaking of which, Zhu Ciran also emphatically said:

"Lone doesn't care too much about you, it's your choice."

"Your Royal Highness Xie...... "Hearing that he was assigned to Shanshan County, although Sun Kewang did not show mountains and rivers on his face, he was very happy in his heart.

He is well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of Shanshan County, there are few people, and it is far away from the main town of Anxi, but there are Jimo River and many rivers flowing through the territory.

As long as he develops the local water conservancy well, it will not be a problem for Shanshan County to raise 30,000 people.

Therefore, after thanking him, Sun Kewang withdrew from Chunhe Palace.

It's just that after he left, in the face of his previous proposal, Zhu Ciran thought of the people of Shanxi he saw.

They don't leave in the big drought, but they will only leave if they really don't have anything to eat.

If the "bad roots" of the people are really like this, then Sun Kewang's method is not impossible.

"Your Highness, Lord Sun's suggestion can be taken, but you need to ask His Royal Highness King Qi first."

Sun Chuanting spoke in advance before Zhu Ciran spoke, obviously knowing that Zhu Ciran was already moved.

In fact, not only Zhu Ciran, but also Sun Chuanting are all moved.

Speaking of which, if there is enough money and food, then in the fourteenth year of the Apocalypse, half of the people in the north will be relocated outside the Guan, then the current drought in the north will not be a problem at all.

Now, after so many years, except for Shanxi, Shanhe, and Beizhili, the population of the other eight northern provinces in the north is only more than 9 million.

After calculation, from the seventh year of the Apocalypse to the present, it took 12 years to migrate 9 million, in the final analysis, because Zhu Youzhen loved the people too much at the beginning.

Later, he also recognized this problem and made a "ruthless", but compared to the people of this era, his little change cannot be called ruthless at all.

At the very least, he has to ensure that the people will not starve to death, and that the price of food will be stabilized at a critical moment.

But when they arrived at Sun Kewang and Zhu Ciran, they wanted to use hunger to drive people to the Western Regions and Guanwai.

Sun Chuanting's age is placed here, and he is no longer the completely ideal person he was back then.

In Wusizang for so many years, he has long reflected on the question of why the great drought dragged down the Ming Dynasty as soon as it came.

In the final analysis, it is still King Qi's heart that is too kind.

If he was Emperor Taizu Gao, he would have tied people up and forcibly moved to the local area.

Even if there are those who escape, even if three out of ten people run away, as long as the number of people who move is enough, the people who remain can consolidate the rule of the Ming Dynasty in the local area.

Zhu Ciran and Sun Kewang can be regarded as having learned the "voluntary" phenomenon that Zhu Youzhen pays attention to, and want to use hunger to force the people "voluntary" first.

In this way, even if people still move back to their places of origin, it is not as exaggerated as the 33% flight rate during the Hongwu period.

Therefore, Zhu Ciran quickly drew up the general direction, and then sent the song to the Qi Palace.

After Zhu Youzhen opened it and saw it, he was silent for the first time.

Zhu Ciran planned to cancel the policy of stabilizing grain prices and porridge farms, and set up porridge farms on trains that moved to the Western Regions and the three provinces of Shanyu, Donghai, and Modong, and specially used a train as a kitchen to cook porridge.

In other words, the hungry people only had porridge to drink when they got on the train.

Under such a policy, it is not difficult for Zhu Youzhen to imagine what kind of sky-high grain prices will rise in the north, and how many people will move because they cannot afford to eat.

But he couldn't help but admit that such a policy was much more effective than his migration policy.

Therefore, in the face of this recital, Zhu Youzhen raised his head and said to Liu Shun, who sent the recital:

"There is no big problem with the song, you can approve it, but pay attention to the food and clothing of the people, and let the people on the bus have porridge to drink as soon as possible, and don't starve people to death."

"In addition, there are enough train departures to prepare, and the train speed can be slow, but there are enough trains."

"Yes!" Liu Shunzuo responded, and then withdrew from the carrier hall with a note.

Looking at his back, Zhu Youzhen took a deep breath: "My nephew is doing much better than me." ”

Wang Chengen, who was next to "Your Royal Highness......", was a little unbearable when he heard this:

"It's not that you can't do a good job, it's just that you're too kind to the people."

"Kind-hearted......" Zhu Youzhen chuckled, a little self-deprecating:

"It's useless to be kind, and it can't solve the problem of eating for the people."

"I just hope that in the future, the history books will not record the kindness of my woman." After saying that, Zhu Youzhen looked at the corner.

I saw that in that corner, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old official was recording Zhu Youzhen's words and deeds.

The old ruler has died, and his grandson has inherited his official position and work.

With his age, if nothing else, he will record Zhu Youzhen's life.

Zhu Youzhen's evaluation in later generations depends on the pen in his hand.

Zhu Youzhen leaned back in his chair, his state of mind had stabilized, and he didn't have much to do now.

Now he only waits for Zhu Ciran to grow up, and when there are millions of people in the Qi country, he can go to the Qi country to become a vassal.

At that time, many things will no longer be relevant to him.

He touched the stubble on his chin, and realized that he was almost thirty years old in this life.

Chongzhen hanged himself at the age of thirty-four, and he didn't know how old he would be if Zhu Youzhen lived.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen got up and prepared to go out for a walk, but at the same time, the holy decree issued by Zhu Ciran made the entire capital shake.

The hundred officials and the yamen of the various ministries looked at the holy decree, and they couldn't help but admire Zhu Ciran's decisiveness.

At the same time, they also issued relevant policies and decrees on their various ministries.

First of all, the Soldiers and Horses Division of the Ministry of War began to post notices, telling that all migration channels to Guanwai and the provinces of the Western Regions would be cut off in June next year, and the imperial court would no longer pay out of its own pocket to relocate for the people.

The second is the imperial store, and the relocation division has also begun to post it.

After the propaganda was completed, the regular grain of the household department began to stop being released.

Thanks to the availability of trains, except for Fujian and Guangxi, which are slow to transmit news without trains, all other provinces learned of the content of the new policy in less than 10 days.

In just half a month, the population of the five provinces of Anxi, Beiting, Shanyu, Modong, and Donghai increased suddenly.

From more than 600 a day at the beginning, to more than 3,000 a day, the number of migrants has increased fivefold.

Of course, two-thirds of the people moved to the provinces of Shanyu and Modong and Donghai, and only one-third were to go to the Western Regions.

But even a third, that's more than 1,000 people a day, or 30,000 a month.

The effect of this month is better than that of the previous three months.

Not only that, as the grain from the Changping warehouse began to stop being released, the price of grain in Nanzhili, Shandong, and some parts of Huguang began to rise.

The rise in grain prices has forced many poor people living in cities to migrate, and the population of the five provinces has further begun to increase.

By the fifteenth day of the lunar month, the number of people who had migrated in one day even reached 5,400.

"Worthy of my son!"

In front of the Fengtian Hall (Huangji Palace) in the outer court of the Nanjing Imperial Palace, when Zhu Youxiao smiled cheerfully, he was wearing a coarse linen robe for work at the moment, standing on the construction site of the Fengtian Palace, holding the good news sent by the Migration Division in his hand.

"Yes, yes, Brother Ran is finally a little similar to me."

Holding the music in his hand, Zhu Youxiao, whose skin was a lot darker and had lost a lot of weight, kept nodding with satisfaction.

To be honest, if it weren't for Zhu Youxiao's determination that he was his son, he would have suspected that his son was actually the son of his younger brother.

Now it seems that his son and himself are only different in concept, and their personalities are relatively similar.

Thinking so, Zhu Youxiao took the song to Wei Zhongxian next to him, and then glanced at the Fengtian Hall that was being built, and he nodded with satisfaction:

"It's a good job to relocate, give some things to the East Palace, and you can write a handwritten letter for me to praise this kid."

"Slave and maid order ......" Hearing Zhu Youxiao's words, Wei Zhongxian responded, and then raised his head and hesitated:

"Long live, although His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's move is good, if the grain is not distributed in Changping, then the gentry officials in the three provinces south of the Yangtze River may be dissatisfied......"

"Dissatisfied?" Zhu Youxiao turned his head to look at Wei Zhongxian, and chuckled: "I'm not as good as my younger brother, I admit it, but I'm still the emperor after all." ”

"They are in Jiangnan, and I am also there, if they are dissatisfied, they will all go up to me to give it to me!"

"The matter of migration cannot be changed, those who violate it and those who hinder it will be exiled to Lingbei to shepherd sheep!"

Zhu Youxiao took out the emperor's shelf, which made Wei Zhongxian, who had the backbone, breathe a sigh of relief.

He turned and walked away, ready to take care of the matter.

As for Zhu Youxiao, he led more than 300 craftsmen to build the Fengtian Temple in the Hongwu period little by little, and it seemed that he was enjoying it and was very happy......

(End of chapter)