"What did you say?"

Yang Feng suddenly turned around, and two hot gazes suddenly stared at Song Ye's face, as if he was about to shoot his face through two holes.

In Song Ye's opinion, his eyes were almost stabbed. Even though he claimed to be brave on weekdays, he was so scared that he stammered: "National... Duke, villain... villain means... although those bandits still have to work in the cold winter, at least they still have food to eat. When they are sick, doctors will treat them. Compared with their original days, they are simply a world. Duke... villain... did you say it wrong?"

"No... you said it's right, you're too right!"

Yang Feng's face suddenly turned a little red, and his heart was turning quickly.

In fact, the reason why the Ming Dynasty produced so many bandits was mainly due to the role of the landlord class in fueling the fire.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the population of the entire Ming Dynasty was only about 50 million. After nearly three hundred years of rest and recuperation, the population of the Ming Dynasty grew rapidly. During the Tianqi period, the population of the Ming Dynasty was officially given by the Ming Dynasty was about 100 million, but Yang Feng believed that this number was still severely shrinking.

Due to the backwardness of information and production technology, and the serious situation of landlords and gentry slaughtering slaves, Yang Feng believes that the population of the Ming Dynasty is not only 100 million officially announced by the imperial court, and it is reasonable to add at least 40 to 50 million.

So the question is, can the Ming Dynasty afford 150 million people today?

To be honest, I can't afford it.

As the saying goes, productivity determines the population.

Not to mention the Ming Dynasty with low productivity, even in the 21st century, nearly one-nine of the world will still be there, or about 800 million people will not be able to eat enough.

Even though Yang Feng brought so many high-yield seeds from modern times to the Ming Dynasty, the shortage of food in the Ming Dynasty was not fundamentally solved, and the land problem was still a rope tied to the Ming Dynasty's neck.

In order to solve this problem, the landlords and gentry of the Ming Dynasty adopted the method of driving out the farmers who had lost their land and letting them starve to death and freeze to death. This practice also led to the outbreak of large-scale refugees in the late Ming Dynasty and eventually ruined the entire Ming Dynasty.

However, in Yang Feng's opinion, the practices of these landlords and gentry were really stupid. The population has always been the most precious wealth of a country. How could it be ruined like this?

"Since those landlords and gentry regard the farmers who have lost their land as a burden, then what we have to do is send these people out, whether in Taiwan or Southeast Asia, and they can even send them to Australia or even America if they have the opportunity in the future. Not to mention tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of people are not too many."

Yang Feng quickly made a decision in his heart, and he quickly called Gou Xingma.

"Lao Gou, let me ask you, how many prisoners we have in our hands, how many of them are the old and the young and strong?"

Gou Xingma said without hesitation: "Your Majesty, we have captured more than 167,400 prisoners now, of which half are the elderly, weak, sick and disabled, and there are only about 50,000 young and strong people."

"Fifty thousand people."

Yang Feng thought for a while, "I understand, please prepare. In two days, you and Yan Di and each led their troops to take these prisoners to Jinling. I will order the Fujian Navy to send ships to take all these prisoners to Fujian."

"Master, do you want all these people to be sent overseas?"

Gou Xingma can be said to have heard the string song and know the elegant meaning, and immediately understood Yang Feng's intention.

"Yes." Yang Feng nodded: "Those gentry and men regard these refugees as burdens, but I don't think so. In my opinion, these people are of great use. Now overseas development is imminent, and people are needed everywhere. The Taiwan prefect and the Ming garrison in Luzon are shouting that there are shortages of people every day. Now they are sending these people over. They don't know how much thanks to us. However, there are still too few people alone, not enough... not enough!"

Speaking of this, Yang Feng frowned, "No, I must go back to the capital and report some things to Your Majesty."

"What, go back to Beijing?"

Gou Xingma was stunned and thought to himself: "Dude, we are now under the order to eliminate the bandits. You are going to return to Beijing less than three months after coming out. What are you doing?"

Yang Feng was not in the mood to pay attention to the thoughts in his subordinate. At this moment, he had a bold idea in his mind. If this idea was realized, the stubborn disease that had troubled Ming Dynasty for many years would be greatly alleviated. However, this idea required strong support from Zhu Youxiao, otherwise it would be impossible to achieve it with his own strength.

Anyway, most of the main forces of the bandits led by Gao Yingxiang have been wiped out, and the remaining ones have fled in scattered and they still cannot have any climate for the time being. Those bandits who stayed in Shanxi and Shaanxi can be wiped out by Lu Xiangsheng and his new army. It is not very useful to stay here. So I might as well go to the capital to tell the emperor about his ideas. As long as he can get his support, Yang Feng believes that at least 60% to 70% of them will be able to succeed.

He thought of it and did it. After Yang Feng finished dealing with these things, he led his five hundred personal soldiers to head straight towards the capital...

Just as the spies of the Jiangning Army were searching for Li Zicheng's whereabouts, the guy who was known as the immortal Xiaoqiang in history did not go far, but took his nephew Li Guo and hundreds of subordinates to the vicinity of Kaifeng Prefecture, Henan.

Li Zicheng is indeed a famous escape expert in the late Ming Dynasty. After he led his troops across the river that time, he did not flee north to Shaanxi or Shanxi as others expected, but secretly ran to Kaifeng Prefecture, which was not too far from Luoyang.

It has to be said that Li Zicheng is brave enough. As an ancient capital that is as famous as Luoyang, Kaifeng Prefecture has naturally flourished four. Moreover, Kaifeng Prefecture now has at least six or seven thousand Ming troops stationed. If it is discovered, Li Zicheng's hundreds of people would probably not be able to escape even if they want to.

However, it cannot be said that anyone who can leave traces in history is either extremely courageous or lucky. Li Zicheng belongs to both.

Kaifeng is still prosperous today, but it has not yet developed into the scattered worlds as in later generations. There are still many barren mountains and ridges around Kaifeng today.

Li Zicheng took Li Guo and hundreds of remnants to Qi County, Kaifeng Prefecture.

Qi County in this era was just a small county town. After leaving the city wall, there were wilderness ridges everywhere. Today, Li Zicheng settled on a pheasant mountain less than 30 miles from Qi County.
Chapter completed!