Li Zicheng rode on the field road in Chenliu County, looking at the hinterland of Henan Province. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

It was already December 20, and the winter wheat in the field was already quite tall. Looking from Li Zicheng's black barge, he only saw a green field. Obviously, as long as this winter passes, Kaifeng will definitely get a bumper harvest in the coming year.

After Li Yan joined, Li Zicheng's rebel army changed its previous thinking of simple looting and played the slogan of "Juntian is exempt from taxation". Henan's economic situation has been very poor in recent years, but the gentry have no sympathy at all, and still wantonly evade taxes, putting all the heavy taxes on the small peasants. Therefore, Li Zicheng's slogan is very appealing, and the people of Henan are looking forward to the wind. Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses rolled from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, and even reached hundreds of thousands when he attacked Kaifeng.

Relying on these ant-like hungry soldiers, Li Zicheng finally captured Kaifeng and controlled the entire territory of Henan south of the Yellow River.

Li Zicheng started with the slogan of exempting the land from taxation, talking about "equal wealth and poverty, and other noble and low", and after winning Henan, he naturally had to implement this policy. In the past six months, Li Zicheng's team was busy dividing fields in Henan, and they were so busy that they couldn't touch the ground.

The gentry in Henan were almost killed by the invasion army, and the fields of these gentry were naturally taken out and divided. However, there was a lack of administrative personnel in the army, and the division of the fields was very hasty, basically it was that officers at all levels went to the fields and shouted a few times to divide the fields, and Li Zicheng's policy was naturally somewhat distorted when it reached the grassroots level.

It is impossible to have an absolute equalization of wealth and poverty, and those peasants who took the initiative to follow the army to attack the counties naturally got more land. The second is the peasants who are reluctant to join the army and show passivity in the army, and the land is secondary. And because they were far away from the seal, the peasants who were not carried by the army were divided into fewer fields.

However, because there have been too many disasters and famines in Henan in recent years, and the Chuang army has been constantly fighting with the officials and troops in Henan, conquering the city, the production of the entire Henan has been greatly damaged, and the population is only three or four percent before the disaster. As a result, even the worst farmers were given enough land to feed on.

In addition, Li Zicheng's "exempt from taxation" policy has greatly changed the pattern of distribution of interests in agriculture. The peasants no longer have a heavy burden of land burden, so the profits from farming have become very attractive. Even if a family gets 15 acres of thin land, the annual income is more than 10 stone of grain, which can feed a family of three or four.

Therefore, the people of Henan regard King Chuang as a life-saver.

Li Zicheng was stationed on a small mound, and the big banner behind him fluttered in the wind. When the peasants working in the fields saw Li Zicheng's banner and knew that this was King Chuang, they dropped their hoes and sickles and ran over here. They ran to the hillock where Li Zicheng was stationed and knelt down to kowtow to Li Zicheng.

Gradually, more and more people came running. The people of the nearby villages knew that King Chuang was coming, and they rushed over one by one in tattered cotton clothes and kowtowed to the life-saving benefactor. Li Zicheng stopped on the hill for a quarter of an hour, and hundreds of peasants gathered under the hill, all of them full of piety.

Li Zicheng did not speak to the kneeling peasants, but slowly rode down the knoll. The peasants below the hill hurriedly got out of the way and knelt on either side of the road instead.

Li Zicheng was riding slowly on the road in the fields, but more and more farmers gathered from all over the country.

Behind Li Zicheng, Li Yan was a little sullen. Because Li Zicheng wantonly slaughtered the Zhu Ming clan and the gentry and landlords after breaking through Kaifeng, Li Yan has been in a state of depression for several months.

Niu Jinxing looked at Li Yan and sneered,

Song Xiance stroked his beard and sighed: "King Chuang, now the people of Henan are grateful to King Chuang, the so-called rule of Yao Shun, but that's it." ”

Li Zicheng was also a little high-spirited in the peasantry's bowing, he pointed to the surrounding people and fields with his hand, and asked Chen Yongfu: "General Chen, how is Henan under my Li Zicheng's rule?" ”

Chen Yongfu was originally the general soldier of Henan, who defended Kaifeng for several years, and was finally captured by Li Zicheng because he was outnumbered. Li Zicheng admired Chen Yongfu's means of defending the city, and immediately persuaded Chen Yongfu to surrender after breaking the city, and recruited him as a member of the army.

Chen Yongfu arched his hand on the horse and said: "The means of breaking into the king will be admired by the general." Everyone in Henan now has land, and there is no longer the pain of oppression by the government officials, which can be described as a great rule. ”

When Li Zicheng heard Chen Yongfu's words, he laughed and was quite proud.

Chen Yongfu said again: "It's just that the last general is worried. ”

Li Zicheng asked happily: "What is Mr. Chen's concern?" ”

Chen Yongfu said: "Now I have hundreds of thousands of troops, and I consume countless food and salaries every day. Although King Chuang used to get some grain, hundreds of thousands of mouths were consumed day by day, and the millions of stones of grain and straw could not support it for a few years. Since King Chuang has made the people not pay for food, where will our future food come from? ”

Hearing Chen Yongfu's words, King Chuang and the generals and strategists around him all fell silent.

Indeed, because of the policy of not paying grain, Li Zicheng did not make any profit after distributing the land to the peasants. Nowadays, all the food and salaries that maintain the invading army were stolen from the clans and gentry when they conquered the counties. If Li Zicheng's army continued to stay in Henan for another year or two, the entire army would be wiped out because of the lack of food.

Song Xiance groaned and said: "King Chuang, I thought that I could change the non-payment of grain to three years of non-payment. Three years later, all the fields had to be handed over to support the expenses of hundreds of thousands of people in our army. ”

Niu Jinxing shook his head and said, "Definitely! If we hastily change the number of people who do not pay grain to pay grain for three years, the people will definitely be very disappointed. In the future, if I break into the army and attack other places, there will not be so many people to vote. Depending on the spread of our army in the counties and counties of Henan, the situation of the people vying to open the city gate will inevitably cease to exist. ”

Song Xiance retorted and asked, "Does the prime minister have a clever plan to raise food?" ”

Niu Jinxing was stunned and did not speak.

Li Zicheng rode on his horse, pondering this question, but heard Chen Yongfu say: "King Chuang, the last general thinks that now that Henan has been decided, my army can wave to the west and attack Shaanxi!" ”

"Shaanxi's years have also been bad, and the gentry are greedy and insatiable, colluding with the government to brutally exploit the small people, which is the time when the people's resentment is boiling. I broke into the army with a benevolent and righteous army to the west, and the people must eat pot pulp to greet us. If King Chuang chooses 200,000 elites to enter Shaanxi, the 60,000 Shaanxi troops under Sun Chuanting are vulnerable. ”

Hearing Chen Yongfu's words, all the generals of the Chuang army were all happy.

The best survival strategy for the Breakers is to raid, constantly raiding new places. If you sit in one place, there will be problems. Chen Yongfu's suggestion to attack Shaanxi is in line with the appetite of the generals of the army.

And only a general like Chen Yongfu knows the details of the Shaanxi army, and he can tell the number of troops of the Shaanxi army with one mouth.

The generals' eyes lit up, and they all seemed to be ready to do a big job.

Li Zicheng's nephew Li Guo said loudly: "King Chuang, our army has collected more than 2,000 large and small firearms and artillery pieces in Henan, and more than 50 Hongyi cannons. Even if it is facing Sun Chuanting's Shaanxi army head-on, it will never fall behind. ”

Li Zicheng rode on the horse and thought, rubbing the thumb and index finger of his right hand for a long time.

After a long time, Li Zicheng nodded and said: "Attacking Shaanxi is worthy of a clever plan!" I have Mr. Chen, like a tiger with wings! ”