The main building of Danba Manor, the sunroom next to the bedroom.
It is located in the center of the third floor of the main building. There is a large balcony outside that connects to the corridor. Sunlight can also shine into Master Danba's living room during the day.
Liu Chengzong frowned in his sleep and reached out to fumble around on the bed. His brows slowly relaxed until he grasped the handle of Yan Ling Dao.
Not long after, he sighed and opened his eyes. He hugged Yan Ling Dao and wrapped himself in a blanket and leaned against the window. He opened the silk curtains. It was still dark.
Danba Manor has become a large military camp. The fields within the wall are full of tents. The night sentries have bonfires in twos and threes, and the color is blurry and dim.
After putting on his clothes, Liu Chengzong opened the door and walked into the hall. He stood at the door and looked back at the comfortable bed with complicated eyes.
The oil lamp in the hall has been on for half a night, and the incense used by the Lion Army's night watch soldiers has burned to the bottom. Fan Sanlang is sitting on the couch half covered with a blanket, and the small table in front of him is filled with muskets, daggers and other things.
There is also a matchstick and bird gun on the side, like an arsenal.
When Liu Chengzong came out, Fan Sanlang was taking out the mold filled with lead liquid from the charcoal basin and placing it on the stone pot to cool. He was obviously surprised when he woke up: "The commander is up so early? The window sill is drying water and it is not cool yet."
Liu Chengzong nodded in confusion, sat on the couch in the hall with warm water, looked at the dark balcony, woke up and said: "The bed is too soft, I can't sleep... What time is it?"
In fact, not only was he not used to sleeping, he was also under a lot of pressure.
The entire territory of Nangqian has been recovered, and the battle line has been pushed to the Baili border, but war has never been the goal.
He wanted to win the hearts and minds of the people, mobilize Nangqian's population for his use, and at the same time further increase the soldiers' sense of honor, which was difficult.
The Lions have a strong sense of honor.
In the war in Shaanxi, everyone was like a hero. They joined the Lion Army for a mouthful of food. However, during the war, they distributed excess food to the people, traded fairly with people, and judged the rebels as protectors. , will be loved and respected by the people.
This love and respect, in turn, further strengthens the soldiers' sense of honor.
But there is no such link here.
This made him unable to stop thinking even in his sleep.
Fan Sanlang glanced at Gengxiang: "It has just struck four o'clock, and there is still an hour before dawn."
The point they were talking about was the beat of the bangzi on the night patrol.
While cutting the lead bullets that had solidified in the mold, Fan Sanlang said: "There are three things happened at night. I sent people to spread the news and it has been reduced to two mountains. If the leader of the thief is still on the mountain, I can catch it today."
"Tang soldiers said that the other side did not send more troops to the valley, but there were hunters entering the mountains; the defenders stationed in Nangqian found three more monks who could speak Chinese and were sending them to the front..." Fan Sanlang reported the situation at night: "A few letters came from home, but they were not marked red, so I didn't call you."
After saying that, she raised her head and looked at the sleepy Liu Chengzong: "Would you like to sleep a little longer?"
Liu Chengzong shook his head, took the letters, picked up the oil lamp, and said, "I'm not going to sleep anymore. Let me read these letters."
The letter was very long and was sent by someone sent by Yang Dingrui. It summarized the recent situation in Haibei, including small things such as how many guns and artillery were built and how many things were sold.
In addition, there was news from the east. Yang Yanchang and Ren Quan'er both wrote to him.
Liu Chengzong became more and more silent as he watched. Fan Sanlang saw that his face was complicated and waited until he finished reading before asking: "Commander, what happened?"
He shook his head, put down the letter, leaned back on the cushion and sighed. After a moment, he said: "The imperial court is providing disaster relief in Shaanxi, and it is a drop in the bucket... You should take a nap to catch up on your sleep."
The letter stated that the emperor sent his imperial censor Wu Gang to Shaanxi to provide disaster relief with one hundred thousand taels, and appointed Shi Kefa, an official from the Xi'an Prefecture, to be in charge of disaster relief matters.
This news was nothing to Shanxi native Fan Sanlang.
She obeyed the instructions and put the three loaded muskets aside, facing the wall to prevent accidental contact. She waited for dawn to knock off the gunpowder, leaned on the cushions, wrapped herself in a blanket and closed her eyes.
The hall was quiet for a while.
Reading Yang Dingrui's letter made Liu Chengzong feel complicated.
But the autographed letter between Yan'an War God Yang Yanchang and Commander Ren still made him feel more cordial.
Seeing these letters, he couldn't stop smiling.
It is very difficult for Yang Yanchang to report a job to Liu Chengzong now. The purpose of writing this letter is to cry out for poverty.
Yang Yanchang said that he paid special attention to this batch of disaster relief funds, but there were too many troops in Shaanxi eyeing this batch of disaster relief funds, and the generals of the Yang family were busy waging wars of words with the officers in Guanzhong and Yulin in their official documents.
The letter introduced the so-called generals of the Yang family. Yang Yanchang used the word "his own family". Liu Chengzong looked at the names mentioned and found that they were all the mainstays of Yan'an's resistance to the bandits.
No, he is the mainstay of the resistance against Liu Thief.
General Yang Yanchang, Commander Ren Quan'er, Shi Wanzhong Qianhu, Chen Ruji Qianhu, Lu Bin Qianhu... are all important figures in Yan'an Prefecture.
Speaking of which, no matter from his perspective or from the court's perspective, he raised these people.
It's just that in his own place, he was raised and raised; in the imperial court, these people were military generals who made their fortune by fighting against him.
After the Yan'an giant bandit Liu Chengzong fled to Qinghai, the people in Yan'an Mansion were loyal to their duties, which greatly improved public security and received rewards and promotions one after another.
Yang Yanchang's goal was to withhold 5,000 taels from the disaster relief bank and pay the Yan'an camp's unpaid wages.
After the Liu family moved westward in a big way, the life of the God of War was not easy. The newly formed Yan'an camp began to owe wages again, and he could only survive by relying on the financial support of Gao Yingxiang, the farming king in Lion Bay.
Yang Yanchang said in the letter that Liu Chengzong was of great help to the local area.
It is said that last year, the situation in Shaanxi deteriorated rapidly. Liu Chengzong had a successor in the north. A brother of the Shen family came out of the Ningsai camp. He also used arrears of pay and aid to the Liao border troops as the main force. He was very arrogant and attacked cities and territories.
However, the two brothers' route was to shave off their hair, change their clothes, and fully transform themselves into soldiers. They dressed up to lean closer to the Mongols, and they could freely come in and out of the border wall as if they were in an uninhabited land.
After the imperial court began to provide disaster relief, bandits from Shaanxi entered the Jin Dynasty in large numbers, and the brothers of the Shen family went west to fight, and their troops were directed towards Pingliang.
However, since Liu Chengzong had already fought once in the west, the defenses of each city had been strengthened, making it difficult for them to cross Qingyang and enter Yan'an Prefecture.
Under the long-term control of the Liu family, Gao Yingxiang, Yang Yanchang, Ren Quan'er and others, Yan'an Mansion has become a strange place in the Ming Dynasty.
It is said that there will be no thieves now, and taxes should be collected.
However, the Zanli merger in the middle counties was managed by Liu Chengyun. The people were originally half civilians and half thieves, and had no good impression of the government and army.
After Liu Chengzong left, the commander Ren Quan'er sent many leaders of the people to the local area in the name of training the people's strength, and conducted war escape drills for the people every now and then.
In name, it is an escape exercise, but in fact it is a tax evasion and hiding from soldiers. They connect in various places and have a simple means of transmitting news.
When the army entered Qingjian during the day, the monkeys were released in groups in each village. In two quarters of an hour, all the people, livestock, chickens, ducks, and food in a ten-mile radius were withdrawn into the mountains. Not even chicken feathers were given to the officers and soldiers. remain.
It was easier to march into the army at night. When an old man cracked his whip on a hill, the sound could be heard in the next village.
This puts higher demands on the human resources of the villages in Yan'an Prefecture, but the people have calculated that it is suitable. Each village only needs a few young people to observe the situation all day long, and the entire village can be exempted from taxes and grains, which is very worthwhile.
Of course, this set of equipment not only protects against officers and soldiers, but also against thieves.
Ren Quan'er said in the letter that he practiced this for no other reason. Chief Liu said that no one should try to rob the people of their things.
Of course, Chief Ren was also worried in his letter.
He wrote for three purposes.
First, in order to convey the good news to Chief Liu, he was promoted again because of his meritorious service in protecting the local area, and is now the commander of the Yan'an Guard.
The second is to ask when Chief Liu will come back. The 3,208 loyal Yan'an flag guards under Chief Liu are always ready to hold high the banner with Liu's name.
Third, ask yourself if this is the right thing to do.
The current situation is that even if Liu Chengzong comes back, it may be difficult to collect food in Yan'an Mansion.
Originally, Ren Quan'er could fill up the Yan'an Flag Guard Army, but later he found that it could not be filled up. After several years of famine and two years of war, there were no rich families in northern Shaanxi.
The current commander lost his biggest means of generating income. He could not support the 5,600 soldiers relying on the military fields of the guard station and the Ansai Wangzhuang left by Commander Liu.
He wanted to find a solution from the people, but after half a year of intensive exercises, he suddenly looked back and realized that he could not raise food in Yan'an Mansion.
As long as he doesn't ask for food or money from the people, he can walk sideways in Yan'an Mansion, like a big tree with deep roots, and no disturbance in this land can be hidden from him.
If you want to ask the people for money or food, you can always get it the first time.
But when he led his troops through those villages again, the villages were empty and there was nothing there.
Afterwards, I sent people to ask, but the surrounding villages all said they didn't know. They saw a lone tree falling on the mountain in the middle. They only knew that soldiers had entered, but they didn't know that it was the commander's soldiers!
It took Ren Quan'er a long time to figure out that he had carried out Chief Liu's intentions to the end, and the people's escape training was very successful.
No one can collect money or food from this free land, including himself.
This letter made Liu Chengzong dumbfounded. He really didn't expect that a casual sentence he said at some time would make Ren Quan'er achieve this level.
Wang Ziyong's reply was much simpler. Wang felt uncomfortable being an official in the imperial court. The imperial court believed that Cao Wenzhao's Guan Ning Army took over the Liang Dynasty, and Wang Ziyong's grain escort team was partly responsible for not keeping up.
The current situation in Yan'an Mansion is that it is difficult for Wang Ziyong to recruit people for Liu Chengzong, so he plans to bring some people over himself instead of working for the court.
Putting down the letter, Liu Chengzong became excited.
These forces from northern Shaanxi encouraged him to continue thinking about what people want and how to get what they want.
In fact, it is very difficult in northern Shaanxi. There are natural and man-made disasters there, and people's living standards have declined rapidly and seriously. Everyone is aware that something is wrong. Dissatisfaction is like a boiling pot, and one day the lid of the pot will be opened.
They have no choice. Countless people are tearing each other apart, fighting for the hope of survival. The old order has long since collapsed.
Some people think there is something wrong with their lives and they need to find ways to change it.
Some people think that something is wrong with their country and they need to find ways to protect it.
In the establishment of the new order, he was just one of them. He chose one side and was never alone.
Although the empire's strength was expected by him, after all, there were more of them and fewer enemies. The biggest difficulty for people was food rations. Food rations made it much easier for people to make any decision.
The hungry people and soldiers in Shanxi and Shaanxi are like desperate ants in a hot pot, scurrying around but unable to get out of the pot.
People can no longer imagine how bad life can get. Everyone wants to cross the threshold, but they dare not.
Therefore, people like him are needed to lead the people to find a way out of the hot pot despite being wanted for a reward. As long as he says there is a way, some people will be willing to follow him.
In difficult times, there is always hope.
Here, it's much more difficult.
At first, Liu Chengzong wanted to put himself in the position of a savior. After seeing what happened to the slaves, he even felt a bit like a savior and looked down on this place.
But after marching all the way, he is trying to understand and analyze this place.
The opponent's military strength was not strong, but the old order was extremely strong. The biggest difference from northern Shaanxi was that people's living standards did not decline before he came.
Nobles have the living standards of nobles, and slaves have the living standards of slaves. This has been the case for hundreds of years, and people are good at living under this order.
Even if they are slaves, abiding by the slave's rules and completing the slave's work makes them comfortable, so they feel relaxed while enjoying the hardship.
In other words, people don't need him.
Even Chaba and Duiqiong, who were still with the nobles, had their living standards dropped because of his arrival.
In order to fight with him, the nobles had to provide food and troops to every household, which made the already poor life even worse.
The people in Shaanxi hated Hou Jin for raising taxes, and the people here would also hate him for sending troops and paying for food.
He cannot look down on others from a high position, as if the things he gives are good, and if others do not appreciate them, they are ungrateful.
Invite the sheep to the bed and push the people into the pen. If the people feel uncomfortable, the sheep will also feel awkward.
Just like this thickly-matted bed in Danba Manor, it was more comfortable than the simple bed in the Chinese army commander's tent, but he didn't need it.
Based on this kind of thinking, Liu Chengzong gradually found the trick and constructed his next strategy in his mind.
The general external direction is to capture all the land that can be conquered, but in war, different local nobles need to have priorities.
For the nobles who have surrendered to you, you can give them appropriate power, or use a knife to cut their flesh, giving them hope of sleeping overnight.
But for an enemy who is preparing for war on the one hand and hopes to negotiate peace on the other, his entire family must be uprooted as soon as possible.
The longer it takes, the heavier the burden and pressure will be on the nobles' subjects, the more obvious the decline in living standards will be, and the more they will hate themselves.
In the end, even those who wanted to free the slaves would be in the dilemma of being opposed by the slaves.
But if it starts quickly enough, because the burden placed on the common people by the nobles is not enough, when the war is over and the slaves' private property and life safety are protected, the resistance to change will be much smaller.
Liu Chengzong stood up silently, took off the blanket and covered Fan Sanlang, turned around and walked towards the balcony in the darkness.
It's going to be daybreak.
