In seven days, Chen Wang inspected the five thousand-household offices under the jurisdiction of Hanzhong Guard.
To be precise, there should be three thousand households and two destroyed ones.
Because two thousand households have been destroyed by the war.
Hanzhong Wei now only has three thousand households in the front, middle and right places.
Almost everything in the two thousand-household houses on the left and back was destroyed, leaving only piles of ruins.
Several years of war, constant recruitment, and constant dispatch.
Up to now, Hanzhong Wei has actually become the Hanzhong Thousand Household Office.
From the above point of view, the ordinary local guards are nothing more than a pile of consumables and cannon fodder.
Lu Shi and Zhang Yuan did not break through several big cities. The wealthy gentry in Hanzhong and Baocheng still occupied a large amount of land and had considerable power.
In fact, sometimes, you can also look at the Ming army the same way you look at rogue bandits.
In the order of the Ming army, the guard militia was equivalent to the hungry soldiers, while the ordinary camp soldiers were the infantry and horse troops, and the servants of each general were the elite cavalry.
There is not much difference between the two.
Chen Wang was half-kneeling by the water, staring at the Han River rushing eastward in front of him.
The ninth year of Chongzhen was considered a good year for the Ming Dynasty.
Although Jiannu broke into the Great Wall, surrounded the capital and ravaged the territory.
However, Gao Yingxiang's death caused the protracted civil unrest in the pass to cease.
Countless bandits surrendered, and the tide of civil unrest disappeared for a time.
But the ninth year of Chongzhen was not a good year for Hanzhong Mansion.
Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong entered Hanzhong Mansion one after another, and the flames of war burned through almost half of Hanzhong Mansion.
What made matters worse was famine.
Hanzhong Prefecture was also affected by the Shaanxi drought, and drought occurred in a large area.
The water level of the Han River has dropped to its lowest level in more than ten years.
"Although there were no military or man-made disasters this year, the overall harvest was not high."
Wang Yuankang stood behind Chen Wang, looking at the Han River flowing in front of him, and couldn't help but sigh.
He followed Chen Wang through three guard posts, traveled hundreds of miles, and almost understood Chen Wang's temperament. He was no longer as trembling and afraid to say a word as he was at the guard post before.
When inspecting the guard station, Chen Wang even went down to the fields to observe the crops and questioned old farmers and craftsmen. His attitude was extremely gentle and not as arrogant as when he was at the official office.
Wang Yuankang's eyes slowly swept across the fields by the water.
Although rogue bandits also broke into Hanzhong Prefecture this year, most of them wreaked havoc near Xing'an Prefecture, and later invaded Hanyin and Shiquan areas.
However, the minions of the rogue bandits only extended to Xixiang and Yangxian at most, and did not threaten the surrounding areas of Hanzhong Prefecture.
The most serious impact on the harvest in the fields this year was the sudden drought.
The streams in many places have stopped flowing, and if you want to get water, you can only go to very far places to get water.
In other words, the farmland around the Han River can still be properly irrigated, so that the river will not dry up like in northern Shaanxi. Not to mention the crops, even humans and animals will not have enough water to drink.
Everything is a disaster, everything is helpless.
"I heard that there is another locust plague in the north, and the places that are not affected by drought are also having a hard time..."
Wang Yuankang shook his head worriedly and sighed.
He is in charge of the farming and military inspections in the guard station, and he also knows what kind of life the people below live.
"I really don't know when this year will end..."
Chen Wang leaned down and took out a little bit of soil. There had been no rain in the past few days, and the soil along the river bank had become extremely dry.
Chen Wang had an answer to Wang Yuankang's question in his mind.
More than ten years later, soon after the Qing troops entered the Pass, the temperature in the north began to gradually rise, and the frequency and intensity of famines were greatly reduced...
"There is time to sigh and time to pray, so why not think about how to solve the problem."
Chen Wang put down the soil in his hands, then clapped his hands together, patted the remaining soil on the ground, and stood up from the ground.
From the ninth year of Chongzhen to the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, during these four years, the drought area will gradually expand to the entire northern China.
Then the drought will reach its peak in the 13th year of Chongzhen. The Fen River in Shanxi will stop flowing, Linfen will even have constant haze in summer, and large-scale sandstorms will sweep almost half of the north.
Many rivers in the North Zhili region have stopped flowing, and most states and counties in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan have experienced locust plagues and epidemics along with drought.
And the most serious thing is that the drought area has begun to move southward, and provinces such as Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and even Sichuan have all begun to be affected by the drought.
The people's food, vegetation, roots and bark are all gone, and their wives are left behind to sleep on each other...
"If you look closely at where droughts occur in Northland from year to year, you'll notice one thing."
Chen Wang glanced at the Han River flowing eastward in front of him, then turned to look at Wang Yuankang and said.
"The drought in the Northland has lasted for nearly ten years now. Not only does it show no sign of letting up, but it is also gradually moving southward."
In this day and age, Hanzhong Mansion is actually not a truly peaceful land.
In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, there was a summer drought in Hanzhong, locusts in autumn, all the crops and seedlings were exhausted, and there was a great famine.
In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, there was a severe drought, people ate each other, and all vegetation was destroyed.
Even if the fields are harvested this year, it is already past the planting season.
You need to wait for the spring of the second year, that is, the spring of the tenth year of Chongzhen, before sowing.
Fortunately, there are still two years until the drought in Hanzhong Prefecture reaches its peak.
Although there is a drought in Hanzhong Prefecture this year, it is not serious.
Although the harvests of crops in various parts of Hanzhong Prefecture have been slightly reduced, the reductions are not much, and there is no such thing as no harvest like in northern Shaanxi.
Wang Yuankang's expression froze slightly. His first reaction was that Chen Wang was worried and subconsciously objected.
"How can this be..."
But before the word "Neng" could be spoken, Wang Yuankang's expression froze slightly, and he remembered something.
Just at the beginning of this year, Nanyang Prefecture in Henan Province suffered from a severe drought. The situation was much worse than here, and many places had almost no harvest.
Nanyang Prefecture is not far from Hanzhong Prefecture, and the drought has even spread to the Yunxiang area...
A feeling of panic suddenly surged from deep in Wang Yuankang's heart.
The drought is indeed moving southward, year by year, gradually.
The change in Wang Yuankang's expression did not escape Chen Wang's eyes, and Chen Wang knew that his words were remembered by Wang Yuankang.
To be honest, most of the military academies in the entire Hanzhong Guard are full of people with nothing to lose, but Wang Yuankang cannot be counted in this case.
During the inspections in the past few days, Wang Yuankang had almost a good understanding of the conditions of the fields and the conditions of the various guard posts.
Every time Chen Wang asked a question, Wang Yuankang could answer it.
It's not like conductor Tan Yingfeng didn't know what to ask and hesitated and didn't know how to answer.
The commander Li Shiqi's abilities were mediocre, so he only had the courage to lead his servants into battle in person, which was worthy of praise.
It's okay to be a general manager in the army, but as a commander, it's obviously beyond the capabilities.
Another conductor, Yang Mingcai, also had little ability. He spent most of his time fishing in troubled waters and following Tan Yingfeng's lead.
"Except for the regular soldiers in the Hanzhong Mansion who were assisting in the defense of various cities, all the other people who were pretending to be soldiers were dismissed."
Chen Wang got on the horse, pulled the reins, looked at Wang Yuankang condescendingly, and ordered.
Zhang Xianzhong and other troops are now heading east in a big way, while Li Zicheng is trapped in Gongchang Mansion. Although the course of history has changed a lot due to his arrival, Hanzhong Mansion will be safe at least for this year.
Disbanding all those who are cheating can save a lot of money and food, and temporarily alleviate Hanzhong Wei's current difficult financial problems.
"The threat of rogue bandits is increasing day by day. The two houses with thousands of households on the back and right have been destroyed. Reconstruction is urgent. I will help deal with this part of the matter."
Chen Wang held the riding whip in his hand. After understanding the specific situation of Hanzhong Wei, he already had a plan in mind.
"Go back and tell Tan Yingfeng that the three Qianhu residences in the front, center and left are currently under the old rules and are still under his control."
There are a lot of messy stalls in Hanzhong Mansion at the moment, and the inside of Hanzhong Guard is also in chaos.
The scope of the fields has been set and difficult to change. Trying to acquire a large amount of fields around places like Hanzhong, Nanzheng, and Baocheng is tantamount to wishful thinking and pulling teeth from the tiger's mouth.
Most of the fields in these places have been divided up by the wealthy gentry there. How can they allow other people to intervene.
Even when King Rui came to the vassal and Wangzhuang was first set up to collect the fields, the officials who executed them spent a lot of effort to take away a lot of fields.
Chen Wang is not ready to go against the local wealthy gentry and gentry officials now.
Now he is just an ordinary deputy commander. He has some power and status in the army, but when placed in the court, he is nothing more than a small shrimp.
In the past few years in Jiubian and the past few years in Guan Nei, which year has not killed or injured a few deputy generals and a bunch of generals from guerrilla attacks?
Chen Wang's mind was very clear. He knew that there were things that Sun Chuanting could do, but it was absolutely impossible for him to do them.
Moreover, in history, Sun Chuanting, as the governor, held great power and wielded the power of victory and rebellion.
It also took a full year to barely complete the additional training for the four guards in Xi'an and recruit new sergeants.
Later, because of this matter, he offended most of the wealthy gentry in Xi'an. In the end, he encountered a large-scale attack in the court, and was unjustly imprisoned.
Chen Wang didn't want to end up in the same fate as Sun Chuanting.
"I will send people to inventory the farmland at the end of October and take over the camp operations and military inspections."
The three front, center and left guards of the Hanzhong Guard have limited fields and limited numbers. The interests among them have already been divided, and one move can affect the whole body.
There is no way to completely sort out the problem, but it is totally worth the loss.
Time is running out, and now that we are fully prepared, we only have two years for peaceful development.
Chen Wang didn't want to waste time in too many unnecessary places.
Anyway, the two Qianhu offices on the back and right of Hanzhong Wei no longer exist.
It is much easier to break things down and build them up again than to patch things up on the original basis, and you will encounter fewer constraints.
