Sichuan, Chengdu Prefecture. The tenth day of the third month of the fifth year of Chongzhen reign in the Ming Dynasty.
With the impassioned singing of "How can I say that I have no clothes? I share the same robe with you", and with the rumble of the hoofbeats of war horses, the triumphant army of the Emperor of Heaven is entering the city of Chengdu, which seems to have returned to the peaceful and prosperous age. . People from Sichuan, wearing bright clothes that they were reluctant to wear during the Chinese New Year, crowded both sides of the street and lined up from the official road outside the south gate of Chengdu to outside the imperial city of Chengdu.
Seeing the emperor's banner coming, the people on both sides of the road bent down and bowed.
These people in Sichuan used to only know that the sky is high and the emperor is far away, but now they finally know how powerful Zhu Youjian is. The thieves She Chongming, An Bangyan, An Wei, She Shehui, An Wugong and other thieves who have wreaked havoc on Sichuan and Guizhou for more than ten years and killed more than one million people have all lost their heads... This is really hard work. It has to be neat and tidy!
With such an emperor in the Ming Dynasty, maybe he could really create another prosperous age!
Zhu Youjian and Qin Liangyu were half a horse away from each other, surrounded by a large group of guard cavalry. He returned majestically as a victor to the capital of Bashu that had been plagued by the She'an Rebellion for more than ten years. Looking around, this big city, which was glorious and prosperous during the Tang and Song Dynasties and was known to be prosperous and prosperous, now looks not very prosperous no matter how you look at it.
Most of the buildings on both sides of the street are bungalows, and "tall buildings" with more than two floors are rare. Except for the government palace, there are not many luxurious buildings in the city. There were crowds of people on both sides of the street, but the roads were a bit narrow. The whole city showed a scene of depression. It seemed that the She'an Rebellion had a great impact on Sichuan's economy and people's livelihood.
During this period, Zhu Youjian traveled back and forth to Chengdu, Chongqing, Zunyi, Xuzhou, Yongning, Shuixi and other places. Most of what he saw and heard was desolate. It's not like a piece of white land, but this land of abundance is indeed a bit unworthy of its name.
It seems that it is unrealistic to ask Sichuan people to pay tens of millions of dan for food a year, but we can get more hungry people from Shaanxi and the Central Plains to come to Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan for reclamation.
Moreover, it is not easy to transport millions of stones from places like Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan. In comparison, it is more practical to fill in more people from Shaanxi and Henan.
Of course, Sichuan’s land tax still needs to be added!
After all, it costs money to move hungry people from Shaanxi and Henan to Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan. Sichuan people have to pay for this money and food!
The triumphant team headed straight for the imperial city of Chengdu. King Zhu Zhishu of Shu had packed up his gold and silver, took his family, eunuchs, servants, and more than 1,000 pure army guards, left the palace in Chengdu, and set foot on It was a long and slow journey to the north to Guanlong.
Once the King of Shu left, the hundreds of farms belonging to the King of Shu's palace belonged to Zhu Youjian - this was a huge fortune! In Chengdu, where the Shu king’s farms are concentrated, nearly 70% of the fertile land belongs to the Shu king!
These lands have now become imperial fields, and the cabinet has no control over how much rent the imperial fields charge!
And the land in Chengdu Prefecture is so good! Most of them are fertile paddy fields, which can yield more than three stones of millet per mu. If left in the hands of ordinary landowners, the rent would not exceed even one stone!
Zhu Youjian had already made an agreement with Qin Liangyu to divide the farm under the name of the Prince of Shu into two, build the left and right royal farms in Sichuan, and then contract it out to the general managers of Qin and Ma... This is a good job, and it can be considered a right choice. A reward for the loyalty of the Qin and Ma families. Moreover, managing a farm and collecting rents cannot be done by knowing how to settle accounts and do business.
You must have a knife in your hand!
Widow Xu's Shanxi profiteer group was able to manage the Huangzhuang in Henan and Shanxi, and also slowly take over the Huangzhuang in North Zhili, because Zhu Youjian stationed Zhangqian troops in Bashang, Tongguan, and Luoyang, and the Eighth Route Army in North Zhili The mansion is Zhu Youjian's basic base.
But the situation in Sichuan is different. It is impossible for Zhu Youjian to place the two armies in front of the tent and in front of the palace in Sichuan. As for the Shaanxi military households who were brought to Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan by Zhu Youjian, they are now hard to stop being put to great use. After all, they are just an army of hungry people, and their equipment and training level are very poor. The most important thing is to arrange them properly. While settling these begging soldiers, Zhu Youjian also planned to use them to occupy more territory in Sichuan and Guizhou - after all, more than ten years of war had reduced the population of Sichuan and Guizhou a lot, freeing up a lot of territory.
To this end, Zhu Youjian plans to establish fifty imperial guards with thousands of households, which will be placed in Chongqing Guard, Zunyi Guard (not Bozhou Guard), Guiyang Guard, Yongning Guard, Chishui Guard, Bijie Guard, Pushi Guard, Weiqing Guard, Pingba Guard, Longli Guard, Xintian Guard, etc. fell under the control of the Sichuan and Guizhou Military Guards controlled by Zhu Youjian - except for the Chongqing Guards, the other military guards suffered heavy losses due to the She and An Rebellion, and military households either fled or fled. Or died, the population also dropped sharply, and a large amount of land was abandoned. This can be regarded as making room for Zhu Youjian's begging soldiers!
With these territories, Zhu Youjian can establish a number of new military camps directly belonging to him.
These new military camps are called the imperial guard army, with a thousand households as the most basic unit. They implement a system in which soldiers in the field do not receive food, and their treatment is better than that of the traditional field system. However, the two armies in front of the tent and in front of the palace are still incomparable, and we cannot expect them to grow into strong troops in a short period of time.
Therefore, Zhu Youjian will have to rely on the Ma and Qin families of the Shizhu family to maintain peace in Sichuan and even the southwest for a long time to come.
Of course, they had to run the Zhuangzi that they obtained from the King of Shu.
Zhu Youjian has already discussed with Qin Liangyu. Zhu Youjian doesn't care how much the Qin and Ma families charge. He collected accounts according to the standard of five measures of millet per acre, regardless of whether there was a good or bad harvest, and he did not take the millet (it was too inconvenient to transport it from Sichuan), but directly converted it into silver, gold, Sichuan saltpeter, Yunnan copper, etc. All of them are sent to Beijing - from this amount alone, Zhu Youjian can get an income equivalent to more than two million taels a year!
If a huge natural disaster were not approaching the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youjian would be satisfied if he could get these two million from Sichuan, plus the annual land tax of 1.08 million from Sichuan Province.
But not now!
The Ming Dynasty is facing calamity, the world is in trouble, and the emperor still has to work hard to beg for food!
...
"Before, everyone said that Sichuan was harmed by the An and She thieves, and they had to supply hundreds of thousands of bandit-suppressing troops on the front line. They had too much time to take care of themselves, so they were unable to help the disaster-stricken Shaanxi and Henan... Now you Did you see it? The heads of An Bangyan, She Chongming, An Wei, An Wugong, She Shehui and others are all neatly placed here! The evil has been eliminated, and Sichuan is the land of abundance again, right?"
In the Prince of Shu's Mansion, Zhu Youjian pointed to a row of heads, where they were worth talking about. But what he meant was just one thing: I need to pay more!
"Your Majesty," Zhang Lun, governor of Sichuan, said, "the evil in Sichuan has been eliminated, but its vitality has not been restored yet!"
Zhu Youjian asked: "Zhang Futai, what is vitality?"
"Of course it's all about the industry and agriculture," Zhang Lun said. "Long Live the Lord has also seen the situation in Chengdu and Chongqing... With such a depression, this country of abundance is really in vain!"
"The depression of the big city is just due to the sluggish industry and commerce," Zhu Youjian said. "The taxes collected by this dynasty from industry and commerce are very small. The foundation of this dynasty's wealth is agriculture! The foundation of Sichuan's land of abundance is also agriculture... Can the two thieves She and An destroy the fertile soil of Sichuan?"
Yes, She Chongming and An Bangyan could smash the houses of Sichuan people, but also the land of Sichuan people? How much strength does it take to destroy a piece of land?
"But there is land but there is no one." Zhang Lun spread his hands, "It's useless! Long Live Lord has also seen that there are many wastelands all over Sichuan!"
"There are people, there are people!" Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "Shaanxi and Henan have suffered from disasters for many years. The sky does not provide food and the people are in dire straits. They have to come to Sichuan to make a living. Isn't there land and no one here in Sichuan? Governor Zhang, let's Let’s check carefully to see how much land is left uncultivated... I will definitely find a way to find people for Sichuan!”
Hearing this, the officials in the room were all stunned: It's all Zhang Lun's nonsense. Now begging for food has become asking for land!
