On the eighth day of August in the second year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Fugu City.
Both inside and outside Fugu City have been hastily cleaned up, and the corpses that were scattered throughout the city have been removed as much as possible. Oh, these corpses were not killed by Zhu Youjian's army in front of the tent, but by the Western thieves entrenched in Fugu City before they escaped!
These Western thieves were said to be peasant uprisings, but they were a mixed bag. They were not all honest peasants. Instead, they were mixed with a large number of rebels, bandits, smugglers, and people who ran their own rivers and lakes. In the words of later generations, they were lumpenproletarians. . Moreover, there is no advanced organization to lead them, or even a common ideal that can unite and inspire everyone.
If the situation is good, this group of people may think about conquering the world and occupying the world, and they may have some rules. But once they encounter a major setback, nothing can restrain them... Just do it as you please!
Therefore, the rebels who fled back to Fugu City from the Yellow River beach all tore off their disguises and started running wild as soon as they entered the city, robbing money, food, and women. Anyone who dared to stop them would be chopped up on the spot.
At this time, there were Wang Jiayin's men remaining in the city, most of whom were locals in Fugu. They are not "roving bandits" but "sitting bandits" who operate Fugu as a base area. Of course, we cannot allow outside bandits to rob our parents... Let the outside thieves rob them all, where can they go to rob them? Oh, to collect protection money?
Just when Zhu Youjian commanded dozens of young warriors to form a formation at the beach of the Yellow River to cover the follow-up troops crossing the river, there was a melee between all parties in Fugu City! The foreign rebels and the local rebels in Fugu fought each other until the two regiments of Ming army troops in front of the tent had completed crossing the river and began to march towards the east gate of Fugu City. The rebels in Fugu City stopped fighting. Then flee with the loot or a wounded conscience. Before I left, I didn't forget to set a fire...it was really murder, robbery, arson, and whatnot, all put together.
The people in Fugu County who survived this catastrophe opened the east gate of Fugu County after all the bandits (including local bandits) ran away, crying and shouting to kill Zhu Youjian's Wang Shi. Welcomed in.
The heavily armed cavalry in front of the tent are now patrolling Fugu City, which is full of ruins. Everyone was so high-spirited that their eyes almost reached the center of their heads. They are in trouble now! They are the most capable soldiers in front of the tent in the world. The Northern Khan, the Eastern Lu, and the Western Bandit are all defeated by them! Moreover, the more they fought, the better they were able to fight. This time, tens of thousands of Western thieves still refused to defend the river beach. He was defeated by Zhu Youjian, the lord of the front army, with 61 warriors (including two civilian officials who helped lift the shield)! And it still collapsed one-sidedly.
It seems that the chaos in Shaanxi is not worth mentioning. Soon, everyone will be able to return to the imperial court!
Following the soldiers in front of the tent across the river were soldiers from Yulin and Shanxi. Their number was small, just over 3,000. They were all personal soldiers of Zhang Honggong, Wu Zimian, Geng Ruqi and Zhang Mengjing. They were all soldiers in this town in the past. He is used to it.
But now they are not even allowed to enter Fugu City, and they camp outside the city. They have to be honest and do not dare to steal the people's things (in fact, there is nothing to rob), let alone go to Zhu Youjian to ask for payment. .....it's almost like courting death!
The four civil and military officials, Zhang Honggong, Wu Zimian, Geng Ruqi and Zhang Mengjing, went to Fugu County Yamenwai early this morning to meet them - this is where the emperor is now.
This emperor is really careless, he just lives in this half-burned yamen, and he eats and drinks carelessly. He just eats the dry food they brought from Datong with a group of big soldiers, and of course there is no woman to accompany him. ... Widow Xu originally accompanied Zhu You to Xuanfu, but she split up in Datong.
Among them, Yang Hao, Liu Yingkun, and Liu Chao escorted Widow Xu and Zhu Yousong, the prince of Prince Fu, through Yanmen Pass and Xinzhou all the way south, and now they have reached Xugou, Fenzhou, Taigu, Qixian, Pingyao, and Jiexiu areas - these places are rich in produce Profiteer! Although the eight great imperial merchants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty all came from there, later generations had a bad impression of Shanxi merchants.
But Zhu Youjian had no choice but to use businessmen from Shanxi merchant gangs. Because the "Business Manager" he chose for himself, Widow Xu, is a Shanxi merchant, so of course the people below must also use the name Shanxi merchant. Businessmen these days have business gangs. If Zhu Youjian forces a group of Cantonese and Fujian people to be given to Widow Xu, and Widow Xu can't command them, the people below won't do well either.
By the way, Zhu Youjian's definition of businessmen is different from that of later generations. Later generations often only regard capitalists as businessmen, but not those who work for capitalists as businessmen. However, Zhu Youjian's views on "scholars, farmers, industry and merchants" are very traditional. In his opinion, in a firm, everyone from Dong Weng to apprentices are all merchants!
What else could it be? They do not farm, nor are they craftsmen, nor do they have any reputation above scholar level, nor are they warriors who can kill people...
Originally, Zhu Youjian didn't believe in businessmen. When he was in power in his previous life, he didn't use businessmen. Instead, he used a group of eunuchs to manage the huge royal industry. As a result... Later, Nizi himself became a profiteer, and he hired a group of profiteers to manage the industry in a sound and impressive manner. Although Zhu Youjian didn't learn how to do business, he still knew the principle of "talking about business and doing business in business"!
Although merchants are treacherous, they are much better than the eunuchs in the palace.
So this time he agreed to Widow Xu's request and asked her to go to the Shanxi merchant base to recruit people - the core competitiveness of Shanxi merchants was not actually abundant capital, but the ability to cultivate business talents from generation to generation.
These days, the Fenhe River Valley area in Jinzhong specializes in merchants. Zhu Youjian must use them if he wants to run the royal industry well.
And here in northern Shaanxi, there are now professionals who specialize in rebelling against thieves and killing people - this is why Zhu Youjian came all the way to Fugu and showed off his best killing skills in the world.
Showing this hand is to shock people!
After calming the hearts of the people, the next step is to recruit all the professionals in Shaanxi who can kill people into the big family of the feudal bureaucratic landlord class.
"Zhang Futai, Geng Futai, Mr. Wu Town, Mr. Zhang Town, I know that Shaanxi and northwestern Shanxi have suffered from severe drought in recent years, and many local people are in dire straits..." In the lobby of Fugu County Government, Zhu The prosecutor is summoning four civil and military officials.
When the emperor said that the people were in dire straits, the four officials all sighed.
The drought in Shaanxi and northwestern Shanxi has lasted for several years. Not only does it show no signs of easing, it is also spreading to Henan and Northern Zhili.
If the drought continues like this, it will not be that the people are in dire straits, but that the soldiers and officials are in dire straits.
Zhu Youjian said: "I came to Shaanxi just because of this endless famine."
Oh, you came to pray for rain...
All four officials understood it!
You are an emperor blessed by destiny, and you will definitely be able to bring heavy rain to the people of Shaanxi and Shanxi!
Zhang Mengjing, the governor of Yansui, said: "Your Majesty, Shaanxi is experiencing drought and little rain this year. The autumn harvest is about to begin. If there is a timely rain, it may be able to slow down. If there is an auspicious snow this winter, , that would be perfect.”
"That's right," Shanxi Governor Geng Ruqi also reported, "Shanxi is also suffering from a severe drought this year, and the harvest is expected to be greatly reduced... Now I'm looking forward to a slowdown next year."
"It can't be slowed down!" Zhu Youjian waved his hand, directly interrupting the thoughts of the two governors. Although he has destiny, it doesn't work when it comes to rain... Nizi is so capable, I didn’t see him calling the shots!
Why can't it slow down?
The four high-ranking officials were all stunned. You, the emperor, don't help praying for rain. Why are you talking so loudly?
Zhu Youjian sighed: "I watched the sky at night and found that the northwest and central plains are still suffering from severe drought! This year's severe drought is nothing, and the drought will be more severe in the next few years."
Zhang Mengjing and Geng Ruqi were both officials who loved the people, so they became anxious when they heard this.
Governor Zhang Da said: "Your Majesty, you came to Shaanxi to provide disaster relief?"
Geng Ruqi also said: "Your Majesty, there is also a disaster in Shanxi. Do you think the extra Liao salary allocated to Shanxi will be waived?"
Zhu Youjian said: "I am indeed here for the famine, and my way to relieve the disaster is to recruit all the brave people from Shaanxi and Shanxi, especially those who are proficient in riding and archery, into the front army and the Yanshan army. ...I am willing to pay a high amount of food and salary, and I can even grant them farmland!"
