Liu Shizi belongs to people who sit at home, and the pot comes from the sky.
If Emperor Chongzhen had not sent an imperial letter specifically regarding the expansion of the Marshal's Mansion, Liu Chengzong would not have known that the Marshal's Mansion had expanded to Jingning Prefecture.
In fact, regarding this matter, he had to write to Wang Wenxiu to inquire about the situation, because when he received the imperial letter, Liu Shiren was already in Nangqian County, Kangning Prefecture.
Since Yang Qi led the army to Monan and Wang Wenxiu led the army to Lintao to guard against Gongchang, Liu Chengzong focused all his energy on the major matter of exterminating locusts. At the beginning, he formulated a system for facing the locust plague in Lanzhou. At that time, he could also control the locusts in Hehuang. Township officials were summoned to Lanzhou to take charge of the locust extermination work in Lintao Prefecture.
In just over ten days, 200,000 soldiers and civilians in Lintao Prefecture were mobilized. The people plowed almost all the land, and the soldiers trampled the fields with horse hooves, and sprinkled all the rocky beaches and mountains. Lime was applied, chemicals were sprayed, and more than 20,000 acres of wasteland were cleared. The government collected 180,000 kilograms of dried locusts from the people, and the locust eradication was a great success!
Just when Liu Chengzong finally thought he could sit back and relax, reality slapped him hard.
First, Feng Yu, who was stationed at Gulang Guards Qianhu Station, sent someone to report that the food they planted on the Wuwei Oasis was completely destroyed by the locust plague that swept through. Feng Yu's camp of more than 5,000 soldiers only protected it. There are less than a thousand acres of farmland near Gulangsuo.
Immediately afterwards, the locusts reappeared, and the blinding swarms attacked Hehuang again. This time the locusts were so hungry that they even ate beans.
The most important thing is that according to the official document of the Marshal's Office, these locusts did not come from the east, but from the west, to be precise, from the southwest, towards Qinghai.
The whole of Hehuang was busy catching locusts, and the chieftain soldiers from Golmud, the Tuenmu camps in and out of Huidan, and Ulandulan arrived belatedly to report that an overwhelming locust plague was spreading in Qinghai.
Liu Chengzong, who had been invincible and invincible for several years since he raised his army, was stunned by the locust plague. He smoked his bisque pipe for the first time. He sat on the tall stone steps of the Marshal's Mansion and looked up at the sky, as if he had been smoked. Full body strength.
He never imagined that the biggest crisis since the uprising was not those extremely powerful enemies and opponents, but the humble little locusts.
When there is a locust plague in Hexi, he can kill all the locusts, because there are nearly one million people in Hexi under his rule. Even if tens of millions of locusts come, it is just one person catching and killing dozens of locusts, and the terrible locust plague will be over. Gone.
But in the vast Qinghai, he really has no ability to fight locusts.
What's more, he didn't expect the locusts to go there at the beginning, because there was no one there, no one, and no fields. What would the locusts eat there?
But he forgot that if people can eat each other, locusts can also eat each other.
As long as the base is large enough, locust swarms can sweep across large areas of food-free land and lay eggs in suitable places.
After figuring this out, Liu Chengzong threw down his bisque pipe, regained his fighting spirit and ordered Yu Lin to prepare his horse, and embarked on the road to Kangning Mansion to preside over the locust extermination.
While he was still on the road, letters for help from the seven counties of Kangning Prefecture also arrived. Faced with the sudden locust plague, Yeng Yeng, who was a scholar, showed extraordinary talents and single-handedly stabilized the situation in Kangning Prefecture and formulated very appropriate preparations. Locust strategy, but even so, Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi are still pessimistic about the harvest in the coming year.
Because Kangning is different from Hexi, the sparsely populated Kangning Prefecture does not have the ability to launch a large-scale annihilation war against locust eggs like Hexi. There are a large number of eggs left underground. Even if they can escape the locust plague this fall, they will not be able to escape the locust plague next spring. .
Especially the geographical environment of Kangning Prefecture, there are too few types of food crops that can be grown in the fields here. Generally, there are only three types, wheat, highland barley, and peas. Needless to say, the first two are not mentioned. Locusts especially like to eat them, even the last peas. , even for the hungry and anxious locust swarms.
When Liu Chengzong arrived in Nangqian County, Kangning Prefecture, Kangning had already suffered the first wave of locust plague. The magistrates of the seven counties and local leaders submitted reports to the Kangning Prefecture. The official documents were full of devastation. In many places, even seeds and grass stalks were destroyed. They were all eaten up, and the most critical thing was the grassland, which was the backbone of the livestock industry in Corning Mansion. They were also eaten up piece by piece.
When Liu Chengzong was checking the files in the government office, Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi were beside him and they were so embarrassed that they couldn't even raise their heads - the Kangning Mansion was helpless from top to bottom to deal with this situation.
This has nothing to do with their personal talents. The resistance of this land to this kind of disaster is basically zero. The locust extermination measures Liu Guoneng has come up with can basically kill the locusts in Hexi without causing major social unrest. ; But this set of things in Kangning Mansion has basically the same effect as people worshiping Liu Chengzong's statue at home: useless.
If the eggs cannot be killed, the locusts will crawl out of the river valleys and floodplains in April next year. After two or three waves, the harvest will be complete.
"Why are you so sad? The locust plague will definitely not be extinguished." Liu Chengzong sighed, turned over the official document and asked the two of them to sit down. Then he raised his head and asked: "If the seven counties of Kangning Prefecture are exempted from food tax next year, the government will How much more food can we provide to help the people?"
The scientific method of exterminating locusts is no longer useful, and only the political method of disaster relief can be used.
"Free food?"
Liu Guoneng was so anxious that he wanted to bite his nails. It was not that he had never thought about exempting himself from food.
Although Kangning Prefecture never paid food to the Marshal's Mansion due to road consumption, until Liu Chengzong captured most of Gansu and established the Gansu Governor's Mansion, the seven counties of Kangning Prefecture were the places where the Marshal's Mansion paid the heaviest taxes.
Kangning's grain tax is 30%, and because there are few cultivated fields, a large population, and low yields per mu, the burden on the people has always been heavy.
Liu Guoneng thought about it again and again, but still shook his head in embarrassment and said: "Commander, I'm afraid it will be difficult to avoid food..."
"The problem is the food supply, right?"
Liu Chengzong flipped through the official documents and already knew the difficulties of Kangning Mansion.
The environment in Kangning Mansion exists objectively. It is a vast area with sparsely populated areas. There are only 200,000 people on this vast land. They rely on the criss-crossing river valleys to survive. Transportation is inconvenient and the people generally have low levels of education. They are still keen to grow. Give it to the temple for strong laboring children.
Building bridges and roads, digging wells and dams, establishing social sciences, eradicating superstitions, spreading medicine, improving seed selection, and distributing agricultural machinery all caused the government to have higher administrative expenses on this land.
On the other hand, the long feudal small country with a small population gave the old aristocrats strong dominance over the local area, and the trend of restoration has always existed. After the locust plague alone, 14 old aristocrats who were demoted to civilians were supported in seven counties. , two small chieftains who surrendered raised armies - the largest raised an army of 300 people, and the smallest restoration group only had 13 people. The expression in the official document was generally "the stupid thieves who robbed the road".
Naturally, the old aristocrats were dissatisfied with the status quo and were motivated by profit, but Liu Chengzong had to admit that the aristocracy was deeply rooted in this land and had a certain basis of public opinion.
On the other hand, blockade and defense against Uzang is also one of the military responsibilities of Kangning Mansion.
Therefore, Kangning Prefecture has the requirement to maintain a large number of garrison troops. There is a Kangning Camp stationed in Nangqian County, and Qianhu Stations are set up at the five junctions of six counties outside Nangqian, with a total strength of 8,600.
The numbers don't sound like much.
However, Liu Chengzong established the army by himself and was one of the few experts in the world on the issues of military-civilian relations and the proportion of unemployed people. Although the Marshal's Office had long studied and set rules, but never implemented them, he knew in his heart that peace The number of officers and soldiers cannot exceed 3% of the total population in a state, and cannot exceed 5% even in a state of war.
In all dynasties, except for Da Qin, which brought it down, the number of standing armies was almost one percent of the total population.
One-half of the 200,000 people are women. Among the remaining 100,000 men, there are only 30,000 to 50,000 elderly, children, and disabled people who meet the standards of a standing army. These people are also the strong labor force that supports the family. The backbone, one more soldier means one less Gu family member.
On this basis, Kangning Mansion maintains a standing army of 8,600 people. Even if the guard army is only given half of the grain, it will still be a heavy military service burden.
What's more, the strength of Kangning Mansion at this time was not 8,600. Qamdo also stationed 3,000 guest troops from Li Laojie's tribe and 3,000 new troops from Feng Shuangli's tribe.
For military food expenses alone, Liu Guoneng had to get 70,000 shi of food a year. Where would he get 70,000 shi of food?
He and Yang Dingrui, two prefects, went crazy to reclaim wasteland. So far, Kangning Prefecture only has 670,000 acres of cooked grain land. With a 30% grain tax, one acre of land can yield 25 kilograms. Calculated, it is in deficit every year. Kangning's military rations are It has always been earned through official trade.
Either the commercial tax or the tax in kind collected by the local government was resold directly to others. The salt from the salt farm, the ghee of livestock and various goods brought from Kurwan were resold to Changhexi to exchange for grain and tea with Tusi Muya, and then The tea was brought to Qamdo and sold to Uzang in exchange for livestock, and then to the west of Changhe River for sale.
The left hand pours into the right hand, the right hand pours into the left hand, and so on, until the end of the year can the account be evened.
Theoretically, if there is no locust plague, next year's autumn grain harvest will be the first time that Kangning Prefecture will be self-sufficient. Moreover, the water conservancy and reclaimed wasteland that Yang Dingrui presided over when he was the prefect are in the process of accumulation. Next year, 120,000 acres of raw land will become Cultivated land, 160,000 acres of raw land will become mature land in the next year, and they can already see the dawn of a normal livelihood.
Even if there is a locust plague, life can still be lived for Liu Guoneng.
But Liu Chengzong said it would be tax-free.
Liu Guoneng couldn't change such a huge shortage of military supplies even if he jumped to the sky.
He said: "Commander, we can first collect food next year, and then we can help the people affected by the disaster..."
Kangning Mansion is too poor. The environment is poor, the people are poor, and the government is also poor. No matter how talented he is, no one in the position of prefect can escape from reality. The reality is that as the leader of Kangning government, he needs to work hard for development. compromise.
The poor ravines are full of old aristocrats who are waiting for restoration in caves. The military supply cannot be cut off, otherwise it will give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it; the government must have food, but if the government does not have food and water conservancy, building roads and bridges will be a mirror image, and trade routes will be in vain. Cutting off the situation will only get worse.
Liu Chengzong understood what he meant. He collected the grain first and then distributed grain relief, which meant fulfilling his obligation.
But Liu Shizi is not the prefect of Kangning. He has power that others do not have, so he naturally has a solution that others do not have: "Free food and start a war."
Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi were both dumbfounded. In Kangning Mansion, the neighbors are crowded and poor. Who are you going to start a war with? What's more, the problem itself is caused by lack of food. If we start a war and mobilize troops, more food will be unnecessary?
Liu Chengzong was different from them. When he said the word "war", the depression in his heart disappeared and he only felt relaxed all over.
"Our current problem is that the Kangning government will not say that there will be no harvest next year, but will also reduce production by 30% or more. If we continue to insist on harvesting grain, the people will only be left with a harvest of 30 kilograms or less per acre, and they will definitely not have enough to eat. .”
"But if we don't collect food, the food supply for the more than 8,000 troops stationed in Kangning cannot be solved. So my idea is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, send the troops out to fight the enemy, and cut off the largest part of the Kangning government's expenditure next year. In this way, even if the locust plague rises, there will be no shortage of food. Try not to hurt the people as much as possible."
Liu Shizi didn't believe what he said, so he just shook his head and jumped over without saying anything.
Given the environment of Kangning Mansion, it is impossible to prevent the locust plague before it happens, and it is impossible not to harm the people. It is just a matter of the degree of loss.
But the destructive power of the locust plague is at best one or two Liu Chengzong. The people's health bar can only withstand the attack power of three Liu Chengzong, so as long as he is willing to give up food, the people can still have half of their lives.
However, the food exemption is only a temporary measure. If the locust plague problem remains unresolved next year and there is another locust plague the year after that, the life of Kangning Mansion will still be difficult.
The current situation has reached this point, and for Liu Shishi, it is nothing more than taking one step at a time.
Although Liu Guoneng has been away from the front line of the battlefield for a long time, he is not afraid of the marshal's weapons of mass destruction. He pondered for a moment and asked: "Who is the marshal planning to declare war on?"
Liu Chengzong shook his head inexplicably and said: "No, we don't declare war on others, we let others declare war on others. We are only responsible for helping them fight the war."
In fact, he is afraid of losing money in battles. He is not afraid of fighting a few losing battles in normal times. Even in the land of Corning, after investing a lot of human resources in recruiting and training soldiers and training officials, a lot of costs can be recovered.
But the same cannot be said for the little local emperors around Kangning Mansion. They are all little hedgehogs. They can't eat the meat when they are killed, and they have to invest a lot of manpower and material resources. Now the north has taken over Gansu and established two marshals for the governor's office in Monan, Gansu. The government has no spare capacity to invest any more manpower.
"First of all, there are the old chieftains who remain in the territory. The Kangning Mansion Yamen has estimated how much grain and wealth they have. They summoned them and borrowed money and grain from them in the name of the Marshal's Mansion to tide over the difficulties together. They borrowed ten and paid back thirteen. The money and grain will be repaid in installments over a period of ten years, leaving enough for their clan’s daily needs, and I will take out the rest.”
"For those who are willing to borrow, the clan children will prepare a list and send it to Lanzhou. Regardless of the size of the family or the amount of the loan, they will be treated equally. In the future, if there is a need for exiled officials or chieftains in places other than Kangning Mansion, they will be dispatched first. Among them, the most talented and good ministers will stay with me. Yu Linqi does things."
"Those who have nothing to lose will be demoted to common people next summer, and I will pay their debts with their property. This is one of them."
"Secondly, Muya from the west of Changhe River has a feud with the chieftains from Shenbian and Lengbian. It's time for him to take revenge. My army will help him fight across the Dadu River. If he wants to fight, he can declare war on King Mutian of Lijiang and the chieftains of Jinchuan. At that time, he provided part of the military supplies for the eight thousand troops, and the nobles' property in the captured areas was used as a profit for me, and the surrounding land was given to him as the chieftain's territory west of the Changhe River."
"Third, it's the noble manor of Uzang. The three brothers of the Huoluochi family asked my army to go into Tibet to help them build a fort. By the way, those manors were leveled. The profits of the war belong to me, and the land belongs to him."
After saying that, Liu Chengzong looked at Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi: "The locust disaster is huge, we can only do our best, but these opponents are not difficult to deal with. With the strength of the two of you, combined with the heavy troops of Kangning Mansion, it should be easy to fight a well-fed army." Come on?"
Good evening!
