Chapter 130 Governor Zhang Hao arrives in Henan

Late autumn, Henan, Henan Prefecture, Yongning County.

A light cavalry of hundreds of people entered Yongning County in the snow.

"Governor General, should we notify the magistrate of Yongning County first?"

The person who spoke was Yuan Zhenyu, the leader of Zhang Hao's personal guard.

Originally, Zhang Hao had a thousand personal guards in Shanxi. This time he came to Henan and brought a hundred of them, and the rest was given to Wu Zetian.

"Need not."

Zhang Hao said: "Let's look around and find out the specific situation. Zhenyu, follow me, and others follow me. Don't let people see that we are together, otherwise we will think we are thieves."

They did not wear armor and were all casual clothes, but they carried weapons such as swords and flintlocks.

The flintlock rifle was made by Zhang Hao in Shanxi. At present, there are not many of them, and there are only a few hundred of them, and the remaining workshops and flintlock rifles were handed over to Wu Zetian. Of course, Zhu Youjian also knew about this. He built a firearm workshop in Shanxi to assemble some of the troops.

It was morning, and there was about an hour before noon.

Some farmers can be seen digging sweet potatoes in the fields.

Zhang Hao stepped forward and spoke, "Brother, I think your sweet potatoes are good, it's a good harvest."

In front of him was a middle-aged man digging sweet potatoes.

Seeing that Zhang Hao was like a passing scholar, he lost his guard and replied: "Yes, it's not bad. The government asked to plant it this year, so it's okay, otherwise it would be difficult to have this winter."

Zhang Hao stepped forward to help him clean up the sweet potatoes. The middle-aged man was surprised and thought to himself that this scholar was not bad.

Zhang Hao did this and made middle-aged men feel close.

The middle-aged man asked, "I think the young master is a scholar, why did he come to this country?"

Zhang Hao replied: "I came from Lu's County and planned to go to Luoyang."

The middle-aged man said, "Luoyang, I have been there before, it is a good place."

Zhang Hao began to ask some questions he wanted to know: "This year, if it weren't for the rain, many people would have gone hungry if they hadn't planted corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes?"

The middle-aged man nodded: "Thanks to the county's forced corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes, you don't have to go hungry if you have these. Moreover, these things taste good, and the government finally did a good thing this time."

Zhang Hao asked again: "Brother, do you have a lot of corn and other things here? There are very few families in Lushi County who plant it. They think it is coarse grains for animals to eat and are unwilling to plant them."

The middle-aged man sighed, "It's all the same. The rich families have a lot of land, good land, and water. Of course, they don't worry about the heavens' work. We poor people are different, and there is no comparison.

However, this year, the harvest of staple food is much smaller. The wealthy families are not afraid of having no food. But the tenants are suffering. The harvest is less, and they can get less food. I think some people will starve to death, alas..."

Tenants are farmers who farm for landlords. They do not have their own land and help landlords farm. After harvesting, they can get some food and barely make a living.

The landlords gave them food in proportion, and the harvest was much better, but the harvest was less if they were not good. The landlords did not plant crops such as corn, and the staple grain yield was severely reduced, and the tenants were suffering.

Moreover, there are many tenants in the Ming Dynasty. Most of the tenants who became refugees due to famine were the first to become refugees. The landlords would not support them without harvest.

Zhang Hao has been in Henan for several days, and he has learned about the same situation in the past few days.

The government forced the planting of corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Ordinary people with land had no choice but to plant them, but it turned out that it was a blessing in disguise.

But those lands are planted very little or not, and they are related to the interests of local officials, so the government naturally has no way to deal with them.

It is also difficult for landlords to starve during natural disasters, and the ones who go hungry are their tenants. The famine harvest is not good, and many landlords will squeeze the tenants more, making the tenants less food available.

After chatting with the middle-aged man for about a stick of incense, Zhang Hao left and walked all the way to Yongning County. He found some wealthy families on the way, but he would rather panic than grow sweet potatoes.

"If you don't want to farm for the Cui family, get out of here. No one will keep you. See if you will starve to death if you don't have land!"

When I passed by a manor, I happened to meet Zhuang Ding cursing some tenants.

Because these tenants have little harvest this year, the landlords have squeezed them, and they can't even pass the food they get in winter. They complained and resisted, but they didn't expect that the landlord Cui family would drive them away directly.

Although you can go to other landlords to farm, just like changing a new job, you may be depressed by your income. If the tenant seeks landlords to farm again, you may be exploited even harder by your new owner!

"We just complained and didn't want to leave."

"I just regret it now? It's too late! Get out of here!"

The Zhuang Dings meant that they had the Cui family and would not let these people stay.

The year was not good, so the landlord lay off employees and let the remaining tenants do the work of several people, and he gained more benefits.

Therefore, when the year is not good, the landlords will directly "laid off" many tenants and hire some when the year is good.

The more than a dozen tenants made a request no matter how they requested it, so they had to go home in the end. See if they could find land farms at other landlords' homes, but this year, many landlords "laid off employees" and it is probably difficult to find.

If you can't find the land to plant, the family will go hungry and have to go to other places to survive, so they become refugees.

Landlords are an important driving force for the emergence of a large number of refugees in the famine year and must bear important responsibilities.

The culprit is of course the court, but the court is incompetent in governance.

Zhang Hao did not come forward to stop him. With his power, the Cui family could completely leave these tenants, but he could not treat the symptoms. Moreover, after he left, these tenants would definitely not have a good life.

To solve the problem, we still need to start from the fundamentals.

When passing Yongning City, Zhang Hao did not go in, so he continued to rush forward and patrol the situation while rushing.

Half a month later, Zhang Hao arrived at the provincial capital of Henan, Kaifeng Prefecture!

Then he went to the governor's yamen with a seal and other items that prove his identity. Henan now has a governor. Zhang Hao is the governor of Hebei, Henan and Shandong, and he is able to take charge of Henan.

"It turns out that the Governor General has arrived. I don't know that the subordinates should have gone out of the city to greet him."

The governor's name is Ma Defu, a man in his fifties, saying some polite words.

He had already received news from the court and his superiors, and knew that Zhang Hao was the governor and came back soon to take office, and also learned a lot of information about Zhang Hao.

The task given to him by the governor Ma Defu was to stumbling Zhang Hao openly and secretly, so that he, the governor, had no one to be able to do it.

Although Ma Defu's smile is now, this person is just a smiling tiger.

Zhang Hao didn't be polite to him: "Let Sansi and Kaifeng Prefecture and others come here tomorrow, I have something to say to you."

The three departments, the governor's envoy, the Censor's envoy, and the Command's envoy, were in charge of the civil affairs, criminal prisons, and military power. They were also subordinate institutions of the governor Ma Defu.

Ma Defu smiled and said, "It's really a coincidence that they didn't know that the Governor was here so soon. It's time to patrol other places. It will take some time to come. I'll ask the Governor to explain."

What surprised Ma Defu was that Zhang Hao was not angry and agreed: "It seems that they are all good officials who are dedicated. Since that's the case, let them do their jobs first and then come over."

In this way, Ma Defu felt that Zhang Hao was not easy to deal with: "The Governor understands his subordinates, and they must be grateful. I will arrange someone to notify them now, hoping that they can come as soon as possible and not let the Governor wait for a long time."

...
Chapter completed!