Entering Mizhi County, Zheng Xunrui was accompanied by a hundred nurses, the reason why there were so many people entering the county, the main thing was to take out cotton armor and bows and arrows, and quickly provide them to Yang He, so that the guards who went to attack could wear cotton armor, so that safety could be more guaranteed, of course, so many people entered the county seat, there was still some shock.

Mizhi County is not big, and Jiangning County is not comparable, the poorest in Yan'an is Fugu, Shenmu and Mizhi three places, these places produce the largest number of rogues, this is mainly due to the famine for three consecutive years, especially the famine in the second year of Chongzhen, starved to death many people, but also produced a large number of rogues.

The war horse walked slowly on the street, and Zheng Xunrui felt a chill.

This cold air comes from the county seat and from the people of the county.

He didn't feel any vitality, as if the whole county was full of old people in the twilight, although on both sides of the street, there were people who stopped to watch and salute, but these people's demeanor was numb, in the county, the tense atmosphere has not completely dissipated, because of the large-scale appearance of the Liukou, almost every county in Shaanxi has a garrison yamen, the number of sergeants is more or less, more than a thousand, and as few as two or three hundred, these people are responsible for guarding the city when the state and county are attacked by the Liukou, The soldiers guarding the yamen in the city were still guarding all over the street.

Most of the shops are closed, when the war is in chaos, very few shops are willing to open the door, once they encounter gangsters, they are mostly stolen and robbed, it is better not to open the door, of course, if the city is breached, these shops are the first to suffer, people don't care whether you open the door or not, smash the door and go in to grab something.

Mizhi County is the hardest hit area by the Liukou, and the famous Li Zicheng is from Mizhi.

Maybe it was because he saw Zheng Xunrui's look very bad, Song Renhong spoke carefully.

"My lord, Mizhi County has suffered disasters for three consecutive years, coupled with the wanton raids of the rogues, there have been a large number of displaced people ......"

"The official knows this, needless to say, the official asks you how many households and population are left in Mizhi County."

Song Renhong's face showed a look of embarrassment, if he hadn't seen Zheng Xunrui's methods before, he would have said the number very fluently, but he had just seen the prefect's fortitude and decisiveness, he didn't dare to lie, if he was seen through by the prefect, he would not have good fruit to eat.

"My lord, Chongzhen made statistics at the end of the second year, and there are still 15,000 households and more than 30,000 people in the county."

"Oh, this official remembers that in the first year of Chongzhen, the number of households counted was more than 30,000, more than 70,000 people."

"This, years of famine, coupled with the rebellion of the rogues, the population and the number of households have been greatly reduced."

"This official listens to you, from the second year of Chongzhen to the present, there has been no statistics on the number of households and population, is this the case?"

"Indeed, this is a dereliction of duty on the part of the lower officials, please forgive me."

"You don't need to ask for the guilt first, tell me what the reason is, whether it is that the Liukou has been ravaging Mizhi County, and it cannot be counted."

"My lord is right, the drought in the second year of Chongzhen, a large number of displaced people appeared, many displaced people joined the liukou, the imperial court sent a large army to encircle and suppress many times, Mizhi County has become one of the most severely affected places, this matter of household number and population statistics, can not be done at all."

Zheng Xunrui's body trembled slightly, when the courtyard was marching on the official road before, he almost didn't see any people, he thought that most of the people were hiding at home, afraid of being implicated, but now it seems that the analysis is wrong, it's not that the people don't come out, but there are not many people in this area, I'm afraid most of them are starving to death or joining the ranks of the rogues.

Think about it, Chongzhen two years of Yan'an Prefecture drought, of which Fugu, Shenmu, Mizhi, Jiazhou and Suide are the strictest, Yan'an Prefecture Governor Ma Maocai wrote to the imperial court, saying that there is no rain in the area under the jurisdiction of Yan'an Mansion throughout the year, the grass and trees are scorched, the common people dig the puffy grass in the deep mountains for food, after the puffy grass is dug up, peel the bark to eat, after the bark is eaten, can only go to the mountains to dig Guanyin soil to eat, Guanyin soil can not be digested, many people belly distended, painful death.

In the end, the famine was carried out, and the common people dug up the people who had died of hunger, and the bones were burned as firewood, and the meat was cooked and eaten, but the result of eating human flesh was even more severe, and the people who had eaten human flesh did not have a few days, their eyes were red, their whole bodies were swollen, and they died of pain.

At that time, Ma Mao used one word to describe it, that is, thousands of miles of red fields, and almost no people can be seen.

Under such circumstances, the Liukou was produced on a large scale, and Chongzhen reached the ** in the second year, and the imperial court began to attach great importance to it, and appointed Yang He, the right capital, as the governor of the three sides, and stationed in Shaanxi to exterminate the Liukou on a large scale.

Famine, war, and natural disasters can all combine to kill most people in an instant.

Zheng Xunrui's face gradually turned cold.

"Lord Song, this official predicts that the statistics at the end of the second year of Chongzhen are also false, at that time, the imperial court was exterminating the Liukou on a large scale in Xi'an Mansion, Yan'an Mansion and Qingyang Mansion, and when the army was in chaos, how could the county government count the population, and it was too late to supply the army."

Song Renhong's body trembled slightly and lowered his head.

"My lord, there are indeed no statistics."

"Up to now, the remaining population of Mizhi County is probably less than 10,000."

Song Renhong didn't speak, obviously acquiescing.

Zheng Xunrui's heart began to sink, and a cold feeling came to his heart, he originally thought that he could vigorously promote sweet potato cultivation in all parts of Yan'an Prefecture, supplemented by maize, and solve the problem of famine in one to two years.

At the same time, the Liukou are still looting everywhere, without the slightest intention of stopping, Yang He once advocated the policy of appeasement, completely failed, most of the Liukou who were appeased in various places were stationed in the yamen in various counties, the equipment was replenished to a certain extent, and the grain was also looted, at this time, the power was even stronger, and all parts of Yan'an Mansion could not be stable at all.

Hong Chengchou's policy of exterminating the rogues is completely different, focusing on killing, and rarely letting go of the surrendered rogues, who knows if there will be innocent homeless people who will become unjust souls in the process of fighting.

Judging from the twists and turns of Yang He and Hong Chengchou, starting in June, the rogues who surrendered and rebelled came out one after another, and the army began to exterminate the rogues on a large scale in Qingyang and Yan'an Mansions, which meant that the tragic killing began again.

Where are the people who are already struggling on the line of death?

The word "no man's land" came to mind.

The county government is in the south of the city, from the city gate to the south of the city, I have traveled through most of the county, and there are not many people to see, and the whole county is lifeless.

"Lord Song, how many people are there in the county?"

"Last year and this year, many gentry and wealthy families have moved away, and the current population of the county is less than 3,000 people."

Zheng Xunrui felt that his teeth were cold, he was almost scolding, the drought in Shaanxi in the second year of Chongzhen, this situation was actually reflected in the second half of the first year of Chongzhen, at that time, what was Ma Maocai, the prefect of Yan'an Prefecture, doing, what was the imperial court doing, and he was able to take out the silver to train the Denglai New Army, and he could give Yuan Chonghuan a lot of silver, why couldn't he help the people who were struggling on the death line, and the ignorant Donglin Party combined with the merchants in the south to become a community of interests, and they proposed to the emperor to build a community, The increase in agricultural taxes and the exemption of trade taxes led to a significant reduction in the income of the imperial court, which completely lost hope for the people who suffered from famine.

What is even more infuriating is that the Donglin Party not only built a system to increase agricultural taxes, but also imposed a large-scale collection of agricultural taxes in arrears over the years, and this policy was quickly implemented.

At the end of the third year of Chongzhen, agricultural taxes increased, and the trade tax almost no longer existed.

The evil fruit came out in Yan'an Mansion, known as the seventy-two battalions of the Liukou, most of the leaders are from Shaanxi, and most of them are from Yan'an Mansion, these Liukou are still their own battalions, there is no unified force, the combat effectiveness is not strong, except for the army that can accommodate the mutinous soldiers, the rest is a rabble, can not attract the special attention of the imperial court, but once they form a joint force, have a good combat effectiveness, after uniting, they will become the decisive force to overthrow the Ming Dynasty, At that time, the gods could not save the Ming Dynasty.

The court information I saw, there were 370,000 households in Yan'an Mansion, 1.04 million people, I don't know which dynasty and which generation's situation, and now it would be good to be able to leave one-tenth of it.

The area of Yan'an Mansion is very large, more than 40,000 square kilometers, in Shaanxi, the area under its jurisdiction is only smaller than Gongchang Mansion, or even larger than Xi'an Mansion, such a vast place, there may only be more than 100,000 people, that is not thousands of miles of uninhabited, what can be used to describe it.

Another thought also appeared in Zheng Xunrui's mind.

Attacking Mizhi County and Jiazhou Prefecture without mud is not a matter of boldness, but in addition to attacking the county seat, there is no need to attack in other places, there are no people, there is no need to attack, and there is no supply of grain and grass.

There is another problem, on such a vast land, there are many mountains, and the rogues are naturally able to come and go freely, and if they win, they will fight hard, and if they can't win, they will run with the advantage of being familiar with the terrain, and the officers and soldiers who are not so strong in combat will naturally not be able to catch up, so the rogues can always be wreaked havoc in Shaanxi.

When the Liukou entered Shanxi on a large scale, it was also the time when Shanxi suffered a severe famine.

Zheng Xunrui faintly saw the reason why Liukou always existed, this is not the situation recorded in the historical materials, if he understood it according to the records of the historical materials, he would not be able to cry now.