In the first year of Chongzhen, Shaanxi was famined and hungry. Ma Maocai, who was born in Majiagou, Ansai County, Yan'an, was ordered to go to Shaanxi to investigate. Seeing the miserable scene of eating people in his hometown, he wrote the story along the way into "Bichen Great Famine Memorial". On May 18, the disaster situation was reported: Yan'an Prefecture, the city had no rain last year, and the grass was scattered with scorched. People competed to collect grass in the mountains for food. After the weeds were gone, they peeled the bark and ate. When the bark was gone, they dug stones in the mountains to eat. The stones were cold and fishy, ​​and they would eat enough. After a few days, they would swell and fall and die. .The hungry people gathered together to be "thieves". Instead of waiting for death to hunger, it is better to die for "thieves". Those who burned human bones as firewood and cooked human flesh to feed, but those who eat people died of red and swollen faces and dryness within a few days. So, the dead pillow was filled with stench and smelly smell. Several pits were dug outside Ansai County, and each pit could accommodate hundreds of people. How many people were not as good as burying? This is like this in a small county, and one big county can tell that one place is like this, and another place can tell that the people are not connected to each other. How can the people become "thieves" without being tied to each other. And the famine is even worse than Qingyang and north of Yan'an.

Kings of Sanshui and Kings of Daliang rose up to survive. Although they died one after another, the number of people who rose again was numerous. On the eighth day of the leap month of the second year of Chongzhen, more than 7,000 rebels attacked Sanshui, and the guerrilla Gao Conglong was defeated and killed, and more than 2,000 officers and soldiers were injured.

Perhaps the current Ming officials did not take these things seriously, but Li You knew that this was a more serious problem than Jiannu. More than ten years later, the leader of the rebel army, Li Zicheng, who came out of Shaanxi, entered the capital. Emperor Chongzhen hung on the crooked tree in Coal Mountain. All civil and military officials were arrested by Li Zicheng and tortured. The Ming Dynasty lost its status as commanding the world.

So now that I have come to Shanxi and are close to Shaanxi, I should go over and take a look no matter what. The reason why refugees in Shanxi are everywhere is three parts natural disasters and seven parts man-made disasters. The arrival of the Little Ice Age has led to severe droughts in Shaanxi for years and poor grain harvests. However, if it were just these, the imperial court needed to transfer food relief from other places, it would not cause such consequences in the future.

However, the Ming Dynasty has been going on for more than 260 years. The court has been corrupt and cannot take on the heavy responsibility of relieving the victims. In addition, the Jiannu rebelled against Liao pay one plus another. Logically speaking, Jiangnan is a rich place, and Liao pay should be the one they should bear the big responsibility. However, due to the prosperous literary style of Jiangnan, more than half of the Jinshi admitted to the previous years came from Jiangnan. In order to protect the interests of their families, these people threw Liao pay to the already poor Northwest. The Liao pay one plus another, and the people gradually lost their support. Later, even the output of one acre of land was not enough to pay the additional pay. The people in the northwest had no other choice except to rebel.

Fortunately, the current situation has not deteriorated to that point. In the future, only Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others have already started to rebel. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong who destroyed the Ming Dynasty have not rebelled yet, and the chaos in Shaanxi has not yet begun. Li You still has time and opportunity to eliminate the disaster invisibly. What Shaanxi needs now is life-saving food, but after confiscating the family wealth of the eight major traitors, Li You is not short of this food. The only thing he cares about now is whether the food can be distributed to the victims in full.

So just like confiscating the property of the eight traitors, he would never hand over this task to the local officials. Instead, he had to complete it himself, defeating Huang Taiji and confiscating the remaining power of the eight traitors. Li You brought his troops to sweep away the refugees in Shanxi, and then entered Tongguan to come to Shaanxi, summoning local officials to inquire about the specific situation.

The three-sided governor Yang He, governor Liu Guangsheng and other Shaanxi officials welcomed Li You into Xi'an, and took the lead in congratulating Li You's imperial command in personal expedition to defeat Huang Taiji. "I am congratulating Your Majesty for defeating the Eastern Captains. Your Majesty's martial arts are chasing Taizu, Chengzu, and I am congratulating Your Majesty and congratulating the Ming Dynasty!" After that, the ministers bowed and praised him.

"Okay, compared with Jiannu, I am more worried about the refugees in Shaanxi. Jiannu is a barbarian. I can lead a large army to attack Liaodong and kill them all, but the refugees in Shaanxi are my people." It is obvious that the same method cannot be used to deal with the two.

"Your Majesty is kind. I think I can use the refugees in Shaanxi to solve the problem of suppressing and pacifying the people." Yang He's three-sided governor was not useless. He was clear about the situation in Shaanxi and also figured out a set of self-feasible plans. "When thieves arise, they are always famine and the people are living in poverty. Therefore, they should focus on recruiting and pacifying and pacifying as the auxiliary."

"It's just that Shaanxi is not rich enough now, and there is a lot of money and food required to suppress and pacify. The money and food in Shaanxi, Shanxi and Gansu alone may not be enough, and they still need the support of the court." After Yang He finished speaking his strategy, he began to cry to the court. In the original history, Yang He relied on the 100,000 treasury of gold distributed by the court, 50,000 silver and 20,000 stones of grain donated by the vassal kings to implement the pacification policy, which did play a certain role. However, because the money and food were too small, it was unsustainable and eventually failed.

"What I did is at this time. The confiscation of the Eight Great Masters' property is more than enough to support the requisition of refugees. In addition, since the Donglu has been severely damaged by my energy, I think the increase in Liao pay should be stopped." If the Guanning Army could not even deal with the remaining strength of Huang Taiji, it would be useless to ask them. "Also, since there is disasters in Shanxi and other places, the money and food that should be paid to the court can be temporarily exempted. Yang Aiqing and you may wish to make a list."

Since ancient times, tax reduction and exemption from disasters has been a reasonable means. However, it is hard to say whether the benevolent government of the court can really reach the hands of the people. So Li You and the others thanked him and warned, "I will treat the people of the Ming Dynasty well, but if someone wants to take the opportunity to make a fortune, don't blame me for turning against me."

Now, officials in Shanxi are not good for being peeled by Li You and placed in the local Chenghuang Temple. I believe that officials in Shaanxi should know these things. If they still hold on to the idea of ​​losing money and dying for food, then Jinyiwei and Dongchang will teach them how to be human.

Yang He, Liu Guangsheng and others happily went down to make various preparations, while Li You called the leader of the Jinyiwei who accompanied him, "In addition to helping me stare at these officials recently, you also need to handle another thing quickly." After that, Li You handed over a list, "You can find out all the people above and take them to Xi'an, and I will reward them with official positions."

The first two names on them are Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and the rest are rebel leaders with similar identities as theirs. If these rebel leaders who are making trouble in the future can use them for themselves, then even if someone continues to cause trouble in the future, can the disaster be less serious?
Chapter completed!