393 grain is the needle of the sea

[Today's chapter is presented, a big chapter of 5,000 words, please collect and subscribe!! ] 】

"Hehe, Xu Zhizhou is really a good official! Then it's better to do this, this time the matter of getting food, I won't bother Xu Zhizhou, and the official will do it for me. ”

After listening to Xu Taixin's words, Li Zixiao felt ridiculous in his heart.

He didn't have to think about it to know that at this time, the grain merchants in Ruzhou City were all hoarding a lot of grain and driving up the price of grain.

This Xu Taixin was also too soft-hearted, and even accepted the coercion of the grain merchants in the city, and the mining rights of the mine were exchanged for grain, which was simply aiding and abetting.

Xu Taixin heard Li Zixiao's words, and then looked at Li Zixiao's cold eyes, and couldn't help but feel excited, he immediately thought of Li Zixiao's series of nicknames.

The "butcher" and "executioner", killing people without blinking, etc., he killed all the big households in Yongcheng County, carried out land reform in Xuzhou, and wiped out half of the local big households, which has long been spread.

Although Ruzhou is far away from Xuzhou, Xu Taixin, as a governor, still has some channels to get news.

Although, the rumors are getting more and more outrageous, and some people even say that Li Zixiao killed all the big families in Xuzhou and collected tens of millions of dollars.

Of course, Xu Taixin doesn't believe this kind of rumor.

But he still knew that Li Zixiao's methods were tough, and if he was really allowed to go to Ruzhou to collect grain, most of the grain merchants and landlords in the city who hoarded grain would suffer.

"No, no, I'll figure it out by myself and try my best to get a batch of food." Xu Taixin hurriedly waved his hand.

"Not to do your best, but to do so, and I will only give you three days, and after three days I must see at least ten thousand stone of grain.

, otherwise more than 100,000 people in Yiyang County will be starved to death. Li Zixiao said in a resolute tone, not giving Xu Taixin the slightest chance to refute.

Because, at this time, although Li Zixiao had a batch of grain taken from the hands of the rebellious army, it could not fill the mouths of more than 100,000 people in Yiyang County.

You must know that Tian Jianxiu completely scraped the skin in Yiyang County, and they almost snatched away all the rations of the people in Yiyang County.

There is no need to think about it, as the news of his recapture of Yiyang from the hands of the rebellious army spreads, a large number of homeless people who have no food to eat will surely flock to Yiyang County.

At that time, the existing grain in Li Zixiao's hands may be able to support ten days and half a month, and how will these people live in the future.

It is not spring yet, and if Li Zixiao wants to gain a foothold in Yiyang, he must raise food for the people of Yiyang for the next half year.

Before the war, Li Zixiao had already purchased a large amount of grain in Xuzhou, but it took a long time to transport it from Xuzhou to Kaifeng, and then from Kaifeng to Ruzhou.

Li Zixiao needs a batch of grain, and through this window period, he can only pick it from the mouths of the big households in Ruzhou City.

Ruzhou, in Li Zixiao's planning, in the next period of time, he will find a way to completely control it and build it into a bridgehead to resist the army of thieves.

Even if Li Zixiao returns to Xuzhou in the future, he will send his powerful generals to garrison it, because Li Zixiao does not allow Li Zicheng to get involved in Kaifeng Mansion.

In other words, at least in the next year, he will have to spend his blood in Ruzhou.

For this reason, Li Zixiao had prepared 100,000 stone of grain in advance, and Qian Guangyuan was still buying grain in Xuzhou, which would be delivered one after another.

Moreover, Li Zixiao's investment in the Ruzhou realm will not see benefits in a short period of time.

However, at most, a year later, Li Zixiao's investment in Ruzhou will be richly rewarded, because at that time he can not only get Ruzhou, but also control Kaifeng logically.

Therefore, at this time, Li Zixiao planned to spare no effort to invest in Ruzhou.

"Why hasn't Xu Zhizhou left yet?" After Li Zixiao saw that Xu Taixin should respond, he didn't leave for a long time, and asked.

"General, you haven't given me the silver yet?" Xu Taixin said with a smile.

"What silver? If the ruler has money in his hand, will he still need you to raise food? Li Zixiao said angrily.

"There is no silver, how can you let the lower officials go to the city to raise food, the ordinary people in Ruzhou City don't have much food in their hands, and if they forcibly expropriate food, it will cause resentment among the people.

If you want to raise food, you have to buy it from those grain merchants, but if you don't have money, how can people sell it, and the price of grain in the city is more than three times what it used to be. ”

Xu Taixin said this, which made Li Zirui annoyed for a while, and at the same time, he could also see that this Xu Taixin still had the ability, but he was too pedantic for officials.

"Whoever asked you to go to the ordinary people in Ruzhou City to forcibly collect grain, you can first purchase a batch of grain from the grain merchants in the city.

Half a year later, the state government collects taxes, or receives relief money and grain from the imperial court, and is paying those grain merchants!

If it really can't be done, they forcibly requisition a batch of grain from those big families in the city, and they have no shortage of food in their hands. ”

As soon as Li Zixiao said this, Xu Taixin was directly angry, and scolded Li Zixiao angrily: "Lord Li, how can you do this."

How can you casually forcibly levy grain from the big families in the city, the ancestral legal system, those big families of the scholar clan do not need to pay food, and forcibly requisitioning them is even more contrary to the imperial court decree. ”

"Damn, this rotten man."

When Li Zixiao heard this, he directly wanted to kick this Xu Taixin, Li Zixiao didn't expect him to be able to say such an amazing remark.

According to his meaning, the ancestors have long left a decree, the big families of the Ming Dynasty do not need to pay taxes, and they can't be forcibly levied, if you want to levy it, you can only levy those ordinary people.

Otherwise, you will use the silver to purchase from the grain merchants in the city, and you have to follow the price that those grain merchants have raised up, you say that this Xu Taixin is pedantic or not pedantic.

Originally, Li Zixiao saw that this Xu Taixin was able to lead the soldiers and civilians in Ruzhou City, and under the attack of the chaotic army, he held Ruzhou for half a month, and he had the intention of subduing him in his heart.

But at this time, how could Li Zixiao still dare to use him, and even Li Zixiao had already made up his mind, and then he sent news to Lu Xiangsheng and immediately withdrew this Xu Taixin.

In the end, if he can appoint a person from Li Zixiao to serve as the governor of Ruzhou, even if he can't, at least he must send a governor of Ruzhou who knows how to be flexible and unconditionally cooperates with his actions.

Li Zixiao held back his anger and said, "You just use the method I said, go back and try it, and then talk about it if it doesn't work." ”

"Okay, old man, I'll do it." Xu Taixin said helplessly.

But Xu Taixin really didn't have much hope, he didn't have any silver in his treasury, and even a few mines were mortgaged to those merchants some time ago.

Now he can't get anything out of it, exchanging food from those grain merchants, and as for the disaster relief money allocated by the imperial court, he has never seen it.

It would be a fool's dream to expect these grains to be paid in advance, and then to pay them the silver when the court taxes were collected in the future.

Most of the grain merchants in Ruzhou City are large local households, and Xu Taixin knows too well what their faces are.

At this time, he only hoped that Li Zixiao's name could deter these large grain storage households, so that they agreed to advance a batch of grain to the government and pay the silver after half a year.

Subsequently, Li Zixiao didn't care about Xu Taixin anymore, and rushed to Yiyang County with the team.

When Li Zixiao arrived in Yiyang County, he could still vaguely hear the scattered gunshots in the city, and he drove directly into the city with the team.

As soon as he entered the city, Li Zixiao saw several corpses lying at the gate of the city, blood splattered everywhere, and they were cut to death by the cavalry.

Judging from the costumes on these corpses, most of them were the rebel army remaining in the city, and most of the rebel troops left in the city did not receive the news of Tamihide's defeat.

When Luo Chao and Qi Wei led the cavalry battalion and felt Yiyang, they happened to bump into them and became unlucky ghosts under the knife.

"Zhao Teng, go find out if the county magistrate in the city is still alive, if he is dead, inquire among the people in the city, select a few people with high prestige to come out, and temporarily deal with the civil affairs in the city.

Let the officers stationed at the four city gates not allow anyone to enter or leave the city for the time being, and those who dare to break through will be killed, and all the displaced people who are pouring outside will be allowed to wait outside the city for the time being. ”

Li Zixiao said to the guard officer next to him.

"Yes, General, my subordinates will do it." Zhao Teng left with a team of soldiers.

"Let Qi Wei and Luo Chao come to see me."

Soon, Qi Wei and Luo Chao rushed to meet Li Zixiao.

"How? Are there any remnants of bandits in the city? Li Zixiao asked directly when he met.

"General Qiyu, we have cleared most of the neighborhoods in the city, killed more than 300 diehard rebels, captured more than 2,000 people, and basically controlled Yiyang.

And we have issued notices along the streets, all the people are allowed to stay at home, not to go out at will, but at this time, there are basically no good people who wander around outside. ”

Qi Wei reported.

"Well, you have done a good job, our army is going to be stationed in Yiyang for the time being, do you think it is suitable for garrisoning there?"

"General Hui, there are several large families in the city, those houses have been killed by the rebels, and now they are basically empty, you can choose one of the suitable ones as our garrison."

Luo Chao said.

"Okay, then listen to you, find a house far away from the people and station, before dark, according to the street every day, each choose a captain.

Responsible for managing the people in the vicinity, and establishing the management system in the city as quickly as possible, which is temporarily in charge of Dong Zhuo.

Dong Zhuang, let me ask you, what are you going to do? ”

When Dong Zuo heard that this was Li Zixiao testing him, he thought about it and said seriously: "At this time, the rebels in the city have been wiped out, and the first task is to stabilize people's hearts.

At this time, the people are most worried about what they have not eaten.

The first thing that the subordinates had to do was to issue a circular asking each household to send one out of the household to register with the county government and take the opportunity to receive the 10-day rations.

In this way, there will be no more chaos in the city in a short time, leaving us more time to re-establish a complete management system.

But after that, if the general wants to completely control Yiyang, he still needs food, which is the real Dinghai Divine Needle. ”

After Dong Zhuang listened, his eyes stared at Li Zixiao, and he was very worried.

Dong Zhuang understood Li Zixiao's purpose of testing him, at this time, what Li Zixiao's subordinates lacked most was civil affairs talents, if he passed the test, Li Zixiao would most likely soon let him go to the local area and serve as the civil affairs chief of a place.

After Li Zixiao took control of Xuzhou, on the one hand, he retained the bureaucratic system of the previous Ming Dynasty and did not destroy it for the time being.

But that was only a stopgap measure, he needed a stable transition, and sooner or later Li Zixiao would replace these old bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty after testing them.

However, what Li Zixiao's subordinates lacked most was reliable civil affairs talents, even after he became famous, many scholars came to join him, but they were far from meeting his needs.

Moreover, most of the people who came to join him were poor scholars, or some scholars who failed to make the list, and came to try their luck.

Like those scholars from big families, basically no one came to Li Zixiao, after all, his land reform policy touched the interests of all the big landlords in the world.

Unless, one day, Li Zixiao reveals his intention to dominate the world, and there is hope to ascend to the throne of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, maybe those scholars from big families will come to him.

Fortunately, Li Zixiao suppressed a number of local large families through land reform in Xuzhou, but also attracted a group of local families, such as the Wei family, the Qiu family, the Liao family, etc.

These families have sent their children to join the White Dragon Army or work in the government, which can be regarded as alleviating the dilemma of the shortage of civil affairs talents under Li Zixiao.

During this time, Li Zixiao was actively sending some literate and managerial officers from the White Dragon Army to serve as civil affairs officials in the local area.

Even, Li Zixiao has been implementing the policy of being injured and retiring soldiers and serving as the commander of the fort in grassroots villages and towns.

These retired White Dragon soldiers may have average ability, but they are absolutely loyal to Li Zixiao, which is enough for Li Zixiao.

These retired White Dragon soldiers, even if they don't know anything, as long as they can stabilize the local situation, it is enough.

This period is the most difficult period for Li Zixiao, as long as he waits for another year or two, then he will continue to climb up and reach a high position.

even showed his ability to save the country and help the community, or when some discerning people saw that he had the potential to dominate the world, he would not worry that no one would come to him.

"Well, your method is good, so let's do it!" After listening to Dong Zhuang's words, Li Zixiao said.

"In addition, send someone to send a letter to Lord Lu and the governor of Kaifeng, saying that we will defeat the thief Tian Jianxiu and recapture Yiyang, and we are sending troops to encircle and suppress Tian Jianxiu.

The situation in Ruzhou, if nothing else, can be regarded as calm for the time being, Tian Jianxiu is just a lost dog and can't get up in a short time.

However, at this time, there were many disaster victims in Ruzhou, and if these victims were not properly dealt with, the field thieves would soon come back to life.

Therefore, I hope that Kaifeng Prefecture will transport the food we need to Ruzhou as soon as possible to relieve the victims. ”

Li Zixiao said to the clerk on the side, who was recording Li Zixiao's order, and then sent a herald to deliver the letter.

"General, I'm afraid that Lord Lu and Governor Li of Kaifeng won't be able to give much food to the people of Ruzhou except for sending you a commendation order.

Before, Lord Lu and Governor Li promised to provide us with half a year's supply of grain and grass, which is estimated to be the limit of what Kaifeng Mansion can do. ”

Xu Wei on the side said to Li Zixiao at this time.

"Well, what the old general said is right, I didn't expect Kaifeng Mansion to really allocate much relief food to us, but this kind of thing still has to be done, and it is a piece of food that can be delivered.

The 100,000 stone of grain I prepared in Xuzhou will be sent in batches, Zilong and they have the new 'customs clearance secret letter' from Lord Lu in their hands, and no one will dare to make things difficult for them along the way.

The most important thing is that there is no chaotic army in Kaifeng Mansion now, at least we have a safe back, and we will have food soon.

As long as the food arrives, I will hold the handle of the knife in one hand to exterminate the bandits, and hold the grain bag in the other hand to quickly calm the people's hearts, and when I lay down a land, I will pacify a place.

Within two months, I want Ruzhou to be completely controlled by me, so that I have to make good use of the wild dog Tian Jianxiu. ”

Li Zixiao said, his eyes became deeper, he didn't send people to chase and besiege Tian Jianxiu, there was a reason.

Tian Jianxiu, the lost dog, is still of great use to Li Zixiao.

If there is no bandit trouble in Ruzhou City, then he will enter other counties in Ruzhou under what name.

Next, Li Zixiao expected that Tian Jianxiu would not leave Ruzhou in disgrace, otherwise he would see what Li Zicheng would say.

Tian Jianxiu must still be thinking about making a comeback, and next, wherever Tian Jianxiu goes, Li Zixiao will send troops to chase him, and he will get the defense power there first.

According to Li Zixiao's plan, Tian Jianxiu will be his 'pioneer' next!

It just so happened that Tian Jianxiu was in a disaster, and Li Zixiao went over to recover immediately, don't the rebel army like to take those big landlords!

That just cleared the way for Li Zixiao, and when Li Zixiao from the province arrived, these guys joined forces to block him.

It is best that Tian Jianxiu can kill all the places he goes to, all the big landlords, so that Li Zixiao will not encounter obstacles when he implements land reform there.

Li Zixiao has enough grain in his hands, and then implements land reform in various places.

Li Zixiao dared to guarantee that after half a year, Ruzhou would only hear his voice alone, and he could directly ignore the imperial court.

…………………………………………

Li Zixiao's side, when he had just entered Yiyang and was anxious to stabilize the situation.

All the way to the south, Tian Jianxiu, who fled to the Kongtong Mountains, was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief at this time.

At this time, Tian Jianxiu was extremely embarrassed, and there were only more than a thousand rebels around him, and they still followed him.

Fortunately, he then sent people out of the mountain, and successively recalled many of his subordinates, so that his soldiers reached more than 4,000 people.

"Sixth, send someone to find out, what is the origin of this official army that ambushed us, is it Li Zixiao's Xuzhou army?"

Two days later, Tian Jianxiu asked Jin Laoliu, who was sent out to inquire about intelligence.

"General, you guessed it right, the one who ambushed us was Li Zixiao from Xuzhou, and he had already entered Yiyang at this time." Jin Lao Liu replied.

"Hmph, this damn Li Zixiao, he didn't stay well in his Xuzhou, he actually came to Ruzhou to do bad things for Lao Tzu, sooner or later Lao Tzu will kill him with his own hands."

Tian Mixiu roared angrily.

"General, do you think this Li Zixiao will continue to go north and attack King Chuang, you must give King Chuang a wake-up call." Jin Lao Liu suggested in a low voice.

"Well, I know this, I have already sent someone to inform King Chuang, presumably King Chuang already knows now."