"Wang San, fish!"

"Eh, Xu Er, you lose it."

On the beach, two young men in simple linen clothes, about twelve or thirteen years old, were picking up fish on the beach, but they had already taken on the burden of finding food for their families.

Picking up small fish and shrimp on the beach is the best way for them to lighten the burden on their families.

Of course, they can also go to nearby towns to do small jobs, for example, the other day they went to carry and unload food.

"Alas......" Wang San, a tall boy, sighed: "After picking up three or five small fish for so long, they are not enough for a pot of soup." ”

"It's good to have food, and we are not allowed to work in the city these days, otherwise we can still weave straw sandals to sell."

Xu Er, a young man looking for fish and shrimp in the shallows, replied, and Wang San also said: "It would be nice if there was such a grain job in the town every day, and we wouldn't have to pick up fish and farm." ”

"You want to be beautiful." Xu Er continued to reply: "Move ten bags to Yiwen, many people in the town are rushing to move, if there is a day, I can earn him alone in a month...... Many! ”

The two chatted about moving grain in the town, but Wang San shook his head and said: "I heard that in Rizhao County in the north, some laborers have a salary of 12 wen a day, and it is estimated that it is enough for my family to have a year's food after a year's work." ”

"That's definitely more than that, I've heard people in the town say that going to the county is at least three taels of silver a year, not to mention eating for a year, it's enough to buy fifteen pieces of cloth."

"That's great, when I grow up, I want to go to the county as a laborer......"

"Don't talk about it, there's no fish here, let's change places."

"Good ......"

The two young men imagined a better life in the city as laborers, but that fantasy was a matter of the future after all, and at the moment they did not catch many fish and shrimp, so they could only return to the town in despair.

As they returned to the town in despair, a torii appeared, and at the end of the road was a small town.

Before they could get close to the town, the two young men saw a number of soldiers dressed in bright armor, and they were leading horses.

It was a horse, and the two young men had not seen a few in a month, but now there were thousands or more, almost occupying the mudflats south of the town.

"Why are there so many ...... who are soldiers?"

"I don't know, I heard that the north side is fighting hard, so it won't hit us, right?"

"Probably not......

The two young men walked into the town in great trepidation, and many soldiers in bright armor glanced at them along the way.

These people are sturdy, even stronger than the Kong Xiucai that Wang San and Xu Er have seen.

As they passed, they could also see many soldiers sitting on horses, holding wooden chopsticks in their hands, and their faces were filled with fine white rice and meat dishes in large bowls.

Wang San and Xu Er looked at the rice and meat dishes, and swallowed greedily.

"How much does your fish cost?"

The two boys were still swallowing, but they heard someone ask them, so they quickly stopped.

Looking back, they were much taller than them, and there were five or six soldiers around them questioning them.

They looked at the man timidly, and finally timidly handed out: "Master, this is the ...... of the two boys to honor you"

The two of them felt pain in their hearts, this was the fruit of their morning's labor, and they had to hand it over before they could eat it.

It's just that if you don't pay it, you can't do it, in the past, I saw the patrol soldiers of Anton Wei in the south asking, they took the initiative to hand it over and get a copper plate, if they didn't pay it or sell it, they would have to be bullied.

"Filial piety? Hahahaha......"

As if he had heard something amused, the man said to a stout soldier who was sitting on a horse not far away to eat:

"Ta lost, did you hear it, these two boys want to honor me."

"I don't know if filial piety is honorable, I only know that if you don't give money, I'll be the first to report you!"

The short man spoke, and the person who heard the sound also sneered: "Naturally, I have to give money, anyway, I have taken a lot of money from Zhucheng, even if I don't have money, I will give Baitiao, my Doer and Qi are not people who eat white food." ”

"I haven't eaten your fish, that is, I'm curious, you make it for me to see if it's delicious, I'll give you five copper plates."

Dol and Qi spoke, and the two boys' eyes widened when they heard this: "Five copper plates? ”

Five copper plates, that can buy two catties and a half of rice to go home, and the two of them can each have one catty and four taels.

"Okay, we'll go home and do it now, and I'll bring it to you later."

Xu Er's mind was bright, and he responded as soon as he spoke, but Dol and Qi pointed to a private house not far away: "I told the master of the house to cook for my people and horses, and you send the fish and use his pots and firewood to make it." ”

With that, Dole and Qi touched it from their bosoms, and after a short time took out a bunch of coins, took out five of them and handed them to the two young men.

"Thank you!"

The two boys took the money excitedly, and carried the three or five small fish to the private house.

When they arrived at the house, they also saw two familiar townspeople.

"Why did you two come here, it's not good here, go home quickly."

The two townspeople also knew these two boys, and cautiously opened their mouths to drive them away, Xu Er told them about it when he saw this, and at the same time said curiously: "Aunt Wang, they are not like Anton Wei's soldiers." ”

"Anton Wei ......" Hearing Xu Er's words, Aunt Wang and her husband glanced at each other, shook their heads and whispered:

"This is the soldiers and horses of the king of Bohai County in the north, who just arrived here an hour ago, and the people of the whole town are cooking for his soldiers and horses."

"Did you give the money?" Wang San asked in a daze, after all, they got five dollars.

"Give money?" The Wang couple had a bitter face: "Where do you dare to ask them......"

"I've heard that all the men under the age of 40 in the town have been summoned to the drying field, and I wonder if they will be arrested to be people's husbands."

"Yes, the court said that the soldiers of Bohai are very brutal and will kill people at every turn."

"Yes, yes, you two boys, be careful, I heard that Master Kong in the town wanted to report to Anton Wei just now, and his head was cut off directly, don't mess with those military masters outside, I think two of them seem to be officials."

The Wang couple sang and harmonized, instilling the news they had heard from the imperial court to Xu Er and Wang San, but Xu Er and Wang San didn't believe each other.

The military master who spoke to them just now was very polite, and he also gave money.

Besides, Kong Xiucai, who doesn't secretly scold him for damning on weekdays, just because he has a relationship with the descendants of Kong Sage, he encloses the beach in Micang Town as his own, and helps the county collect grain every year, I don't know how much they are deducted.

Xu Er remembers clearly that his father once said that Kong Xiucai was still a down-and-out household twenty years ago, and only twenty years have passed, and he has purchased a three-entry and exit yard, and bought six or seven hundred acres of land from the townspeople.

It should be a good thing that this kind of person is killed, why are the Wang couple so afraid of them?

Xu Er didn't have time to think about it, so he and Wang San cleaned up the fish they transferred and brought it out into fish soup.

They worriedly took the fish soup in the clay pot and put it in front of Dol and Qi, who took a sip and frowned: "This fish is not as delicious as the fish in Heilongjiang." ”

"It's over......" Xu Er and Wang San felt tight, they only felt that they couldn't escape the beating today, and they were about to be taken away before they could even cover the five pennies in their hands.

"What are you doing standing here?"

The two were still nervous, but Dole and Qi looked at them in surprise, and then suddenly realized: "What? Don't have enough money? ”

Dole and Qi are both studying and writing in Bohai, but Bohai is a place to eat big pot rice, so even if they have money, they don't know how to spend it, what the price is, and they think that it is not enough to give Wuwen money.

"Enough, enough! We are worried that you will not taste good after drinking, and the two boys will refund the money. ”

Xu Er pulled Wang San and was about to kneel, but Doer and Qi stood up and dodged: "Don't do this, you two boys, people will definitely report me when they see it." ”

"Report?" Xu Er and Wang San didn't know why, and Dole and Qi didn't bother to explain:

"I don't want you to return the money, it's because I haven't tasted it myself and want to drink some, if you get it, you can take the money and leave, I won't return it if it's not good, after all, I asked you to get it."

Dole and Qi tried to chase them away, but they got up happily and fled away.

After running away, they couldn't help cheering, even though there were many soldiers sitting and eating on both sides of the road.

"Make money, make money!"

"Let's go! To buy food, we will each have four taels per catty. ”

"Good!"

The two young men went straight to the grain store in the town a few days ago, but when they arrived here, they saw that the grain here was being transported in large quantities by the soldiers of Bohai.

"What are you two doing?"

The patrol guard found the two boys and stepped forward to interrogate them.

"Come... Come... Come ......"

"Come to buy rice, Master Jun, can you still buy rice now?"

Wang San was speechless, Xu Er stood up and asked when he saw this, after communicating with Doer and Qi, he was no longer very afraid of the Bohai Navy.

At least in his opinion, the Bohai Navy was better than Anton Wei's soldiers, and he was generous.

"Buy rice?" The soldier smiled when he heard this: "Then you are late, we have bought all this rice." ”

"Bought it all?" Xu Er was disappointed when he heard this, but the soldier smiled and said, "Keep the money and wait for a few months to buy it." ”

He looked at Xu Er, thinking of his son who was far away in Bohai, and couldn't help but reach out and pat Xu Er's shoulder.

Seeing this, Xu Er could only divide the five copper coins with Wang, and the extra one was kept by Xu Er.

The two parted ways, and Xu Er happily went home with the money, only to find that the house was empty.

He inquired about the neighbors, but found that the neighbors were also gone, and finally a few children who stayed at home told him that the adults in the family had gone to the creek to work for the Bohai Navy.

When he heard this, he ran to the village stream, and sure enough, he saw thousands of villagers working here.

They wash and steam the rice, then take it out and dry it, and finally steam and dry it tirelessly.

In the crowd, he searched for a long time, and finally found his mother.

"Erlang, didn't you go fishing?"

Xu Li looked at his son in surprise, and Xu Er also told what happened to them when he heard this.

Xu Li smiled happily when he heard this, Xu Er thought that his mother was laughing at his own money, but he didn't want her to laugh: "This Bohai Navy wants to give land to the townspeople in the town, six hundred and seventy-two households, and each family can get one acre of land." ”

"Really?!" Xu Er shouted in surprise, and Xu Li also nodded hurriedly: "Kong Xiucai was killed, and the king of Bohai County said that his field was not clean, so he took it out and distributed it to the people, as for his courtyard, it seems that it was said to be left to the future mayor, but I don't know what kind of official the mayor is." ”

"Anyway, now our family of five has an extra acre of land, and we can produce an extra 200 catties of grain next year."

"Two hundred catties of grain ......," Xu Er muttered, his eyes gradually brightening.

"Yes, two hundred catties of grain, save it for a few years, and you can go to the private school in the county to study."

Xu Li smiled and spoke, and then seemed to think of something, and hurriedly pulled Xu Er and said, "Come, help my mother to steam military rations together, and the salary is ten yuan a day." ”

"So much?" Xu Er's mouth opened wide when he heard this, and then under the pull of Xu Li's family, the mother and son began to make military rations together.

By the stream, the townspeople were talking about steamed rice, and they found that as long as they were working, the Bohai Navy would not say that they were chatting, and even if they were chatting and resting, it would be fine, and the Bohai Navy would at most remind them that they would not beat and scold them like the soldiers of Anton Wei and the Yamen of Rizhao County.

For this small place where the news is closed, they used to rely on merchants, officials and soldiers to obtain information from the outside world, so what they heard most was the cruelty and inhumanity of the Bohai Navy, the ambition of the king of Bohai County, and the mess everywhere they passed.

However, when they actually saw the Bohai Navy, they seemed to find that the Bohai Navy was much better than the officials and soldiers of the Southern Army they came into contact with.

At least the Bohai Navy really gave money to let people work, and they also gave them land, not like the county government and the guard, not to mention the use of conscription to let them work for free, not to mention, they also need to bring their own rations.

Gradually, the townspeople no longer called the Bohai Navy the Northern Soldiers, but directly called the Bohai Navy.

Some of them are bold and will ask the soldiers of the Bohai Navy some trivial things, such as what Liaodong looks like and so on.

Because before going south, Zhu Gaoxu explained to the whole army and publicized the situation in the Bohai Sea as much as possible, so the soldiers were honest about the situation in Liaodong and the Bohai Sea.

For example, all the people serve as soldiers, all the people eat big pot rice, all the people share the land, and so on......

These things make people feel embarrassed to hear.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the three major burdens of the people, in addition to the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes and the land endowment, there was also the conscription that existed every year.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the burden of harsh taxes and regular taxes was lower than that of the Yuan Dynasty, but the burden of forced labor on the common people was more than that of the Yuan Dynasty.

This is not difficult to understand, after all, most officials in the Yuan Dynasty did not care about civil governance at all, so the burden of conscription on the common people was not too heavy, while the Ming Dynasty was the opposite.

Take Zhu Yuanzhang taking Zhu Gaoxu to see the 20,000 tribute students at the beginning, after they were sent to the localities, in just two years, they led all prefectures and counties across the country to open 4,987 pond weirs, 4,162 rivers, and 5,48 piqu embankments......

Each of these projects corresponds to the completion of thousands of projects in the service of forced labor.

Zhu Yuanzhang is for his own rule, but also to let the people live and work in peace and contentment, and not to give birth to chaos.

In the long run, this conscription will at least benefit tens of millions of people, so that they will be guaranteed to harvest in drought and flood for decades to come.

But for now, although the people are also happy, they are also full of resentment.

Therefore, when they heard that Bohai had two catties of grain every day for work, and that the cultivated wasteland was equally distributed to the wasteland pioneers themselves, and that there was no forced labor and excesses in the end, they said in their hearts that it was false that they did not envy it.

As for what they said about the bitter cold of the Bohai Sea, they didn't care at all.

Just as the people of Shanxi and the border fled north to join the Mongols, Mobei is not the same bitter cold, but because farming is a rare skill in Mobei, they can live better when they go to Mobei, at least they will not die of hunger, so many people have fled north to join the Mongols.

Of course, this phenomenon was not much at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, but it was enough to show how heavy the burden was on the people.

They envied Bohai, so when the Bohai soldiers mentioned that they would move people from Shandong to Liaodong in the future, and the government would provide grain, farm tools, and help build houses, many people were moved.

Although there are more than 3,000 people in Micang Town, the cultivated land is actually less than 10,000 mu, and the average division is about 3 acres of land for each family.

Every year, as soon as the miscellaneous taxes and taxes on the fields and the people of the fields are paid, the output left to them can only keep them from starving.

Therefore, after the people of Micang Town heard that Liaodong and Bohai were going to recruit Shandong people to move to Liaodong and Bohai in the future, even if many people began to build relations, they hoped to get such an opportunity.

Of course, more people are actually very cautious and timid, they don't want to be the first birds, they only have a few deep chats with the group of people who are the first birds, and hope that after the other party goes to Liaodong, if it is really as good as Bohai Navy said, then remember not to forget yourself, after all, how were the two of them back then......

Such a situation is constantly playing out in various parts of Rice Cang Town at this moment, and their attitude towards the Bohai Navy has changed in less than two hours.

"Your Highness is clever, in this way, on the road to the south of our army, I am afraid that few people will report the news."

On a low hill not far from the creek in Micang Town, Meng Zhang admired Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting on the horse on the side, but Zhu Gaochu chuckled lightly.

"It's very easy to win over the people, we let them help with the work, give them money, food, and land, and tie their interests to us, so they will naturally not go to the news."

"Like Kong Xiucai's field, they have at least one acre of land for each family, if they go to Rizhao County to complain, and the field will be taken away by the yamen, they won't have time to cry."

"People are not stupid, on the contrary, they weigh the pros and cons more than many of us, because they have to be careful if they want to survive."

Zhu Gaoxu said his opinion, and at the same time asked Meng Zhang: "How is the military ration made?" ”

"The three thousand stone grain in the rice warehouse and Kong Xiucai's house have been moved out, and six thousand buckets of military food should be available today."

Meng Zhang explained, and Zhu Gaoxu also bowed: "Six thousand buckets of military food is enough for the whole army to eat for two days, counting the food we supplied in the north before, it should be enough for us to rush to Yunti Pass day and night." ”

"At that time, what do you think Li Jinglong will think when he learns that we have bypassed Rizhao, Ganyu and Haizhou and arrived at Yunti Pass?"

"I'm going to think we're crazy." Meng Zhang smiled bitterly, and this was what surprised them when they first heard this plan.

Abandoning the people's burdens and going south for 1,500 miles alone, this kind of thing has not never happened, but it generally happens to the rogues, and never appears in the regular army, because the gap in the food required by the regular army is very large, and it is too unstable to rely on robbery alone, and it is easy to run out of food.

However, Zhu Gaoxu was already preparing along the way, so as not to let the Bohai Navy run out of food, but the food also had to be eaten tightly.

Now, they have abandoned the people's burdens and traveled 300 miles south.

Next, they need to continue to travel 300 miles south, which is a total of 600 miles.

Once there is a mistake in a certain link, they will go 600 miles deep into the enemy's territory.

The more important problem is that Sheng Yong's 60,000 soldiers and horses are in Muyang, and the cloud ladder they want to fight is in the southeast of Muyang.

Once they could storm the Yunti Pass, then Sheng Yong would be able to lead the army to Ganyu and Haizhou, cut off their retreat, and clear the walls of the cities.

After this operation, it was difficult to supply the 42,000 horse cavalry of the Bohai Navy with only the grain of the local towns and towns, and their final fate was to run out of food.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu took them out day and night, wanting to suddenly appear in Yunti Pass, and go straight to Tongzhou after capturing Yunti Pass.

Now they are still in Qingzhou Mansion, and Zhu Gaoxu is not clear, but if Li Jinglong knows that he appeared in Rizhao, he will definitely transfer Sheng Yong back to defend the Huai River.

As for Li Jinglong, according to the speed, he should almost arrive in Texas.

Dezhou is 1,200 miles away from the north bank of the Yangtze River along the canal, and at the speed of 80 miles a day, it will take Li Jinglong at least 15 days to reach Jiangbei.

He had to be fast enough to reach Yunti Pass before Sheng Yong returned to the Huai River defense line, and he had to be faster to cross the Yangtze River and take the capital in fifteen days.

"Time is running out ......"

Zhu Gaoxu looked into the air, and at the same time, the news that Zhu Gaoxu's subordinates had disappeared into Zhucheng was also sent to the north through expedited.

Forty miles away from Texas, Li Jinglong got the news on the march.

"Disappear in the cities?"

Li Jinglong frowned, and then asked, "Didn't Yishui and Linqu find any traces of the thief army?" ”

"Didn't find out!" The officials of the thousands of households who came to deliver the message made Li Jinglong have a bad premonition.

"Send someone to Juzhou and Rizhao to inquire and see if the thief army has gone south."

Li Jinglong never thought that Zhu Gaoxu would leave his baggage and go deep into Huai'an, after all, that kind of approach is not realistic in this era.

If Zhu Gaoxu didn't continue to attack the southwest of Qingzhou Mansion, he would definitely go to Juzhou and Rizhao in the south.

Once Rizhao was taken, his intention was obvious, that is, to go south to Huai'an.

However, Li Jinglong is not worried about this, if he wants to take Huai'an step by step, then he must first take Xuzhou, master the canal and then use canal ships to transport grain, and fight one city after another.

The time it took was enough for him to lead an army of 300,000 to the south.

However, if Zhu Gaoxu really wants to go south, although he is sure to stop him, the ministers above the temple ......

"Let people prepare enough ships in Texas, and let Wu Gao, Wu Jie, and Xu Kai continue to hold on, so that the Yanshu people don't have a chance."

"The last general commands!"

Li Jinglong opened his mouth to order, and at the same time prepared to wait for Zhu Gaoxu's news in Texas.

His 100,000-strong army relied on the canal, and if he really wanted to go south, it would only take 12 days to reach Huai'an, which was not much slower than Zhu Gaoxu.

It's just that I don't know why, obviously he has the canal to help, but he is still apprehensive in his heart......

(End of chapter)