Li Zicheng was riding on a field road in Chenliu County, looking at the vast hinterland of Henan.
It was already December 20th, and the winter wheat in the fields had already grown quite tall. Looking from Li Zicheng's black horse, he could only see a lush green field. Obviously, as long as this winter is over, Kaifeng will be the best in the coming year.
Can get a good harvest.
After Li Yan joined Li Zicheng's rebel army, they changed their previous idea of simply looting and adopted the slogan "equalize land and avoid taxes". Henan's situation has been very poor in recent years, but the gentry has no compassion for others and still evades taxes wantonly.
, putting all the heavy taxes on small farmers. Therefore, Li Zicheng's slogan was very appealing, and the people of Henan came to vote. Li Zicheng's troops increased from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, and even reached several tens of thousands when he attacked Kaifeng.
One hundred thousand.
Relying on these ant-like hungry soldiers, Li Zicheng finally captured Kaifeng and controlled the entire territory of Henan south of the Yellow River.
Li Zicheng started with the slogan of equalizing land and exempting taxes, which talked about "equalizing the rich and the poor, equaling the high and the low". After winning Henan, it was natural to implement this policy. In the past six months, Li Zicheng's team was busy dividing the fields in Henan, and they were so busy that they could not move.
.
Almost all the gentry in Henan were killed by the invading army, so the fields of these gentry were naturally divided. However, the invading army lacked administrative personnel, and the distribution of the fields was very hasty. Basically, officers at all levels went to the fields and shouted a few times.
After the land was divided, Li Zicheng's policies were naturally distorted at the grassroots level.
Absolute equalization of wealth and poverty is impossible. Those farmers who took the initiative to follow the army to attack counties will naturally be allocated more land. The second is the peasants who reluctantly join the army, and the peasants who were passive in the army will get the next best land. And those who left because of their departure
Peasants who were further away from the border and were not taken by the invaders to join the army would have less land to divide.
However, because there have been too many famines in Henan in recent years, and the intruders continued to fight with the government and army in Henan, conquering cities and territories, the entire production in Henan was greatly damaged, and the population was only 30 to 40% of the pre-disaster population. Therefore, even in the final
Poor farmers were also allocated fields that were enough for food and clothing.
Coupled with Li Zicheng's "tax-free" policy, it has greatly changed the distribution pattern of agricultural benefits. Farmers no longer have heavy land tax oppression, so the income from farming has become very attractive. Even if one family is allocated ten
With five acres of thin farmland, the annual income is more than ten kilograms of grain, which can support a family of three or four people.
Therefore, the people of Henan regarded King Chuang as their savior.
Li Zicheng stationed his horse on a small mound, with a large flag with the word "Chuang" behind him fluttering in the wind. When the farmers working in the fields saw Li Zicheng's flag, they knew it was King Chuang who was coming, so they dropped their hoes and sickles and ran towards it.
Come here. They ran to the hill where Li Zicheng was stationed and knelt down to kowtow to Li Zicheng.
Gradually, more and more people ran over. The people in the nearby villages knew that King Chuang was coming. They rushed over one by one wearing tattered cotton clothes and kowtowed to the savior. Li Zicheng stopped on the hill for a quarter of an hour.
Hundreds of farmers gathered at the foot of the hill, all of them with pious faces.
Li Zicheng did not speak to the kneeling farmers, but slowly rode down the hill. The farmers under the hill quickly gave way to the road and knelt on both sides of the road instead.
As Li Zicheng rode slowly on the field road, more and more farmers gathered from all over the country.
After Li Zicheng's death, Li Yan was a little depressed. Because Li Zicheng massacred Zhu Ming's clan and gentry and landlords after conquering Kaifeng, Li Yan had been in a depressed state for the past few months.
Niu Jinxing looked at Li Yan and sneered,
Song Xiance stroked his beard and sighed: "King Chuang, now the people of Henan are grateful to King Chuang. The so-called rule of Yao and Shun is nothing more than this."
Li Zicheng was also somewhat energetic when the farmers were kneeling in obeisance. He pointed at the people and fields around him and asked Chen Yongfu: "Mr. Chen, how is Henan under my rule, Li Zicheng?"
Chen Yongfu was originally the commander-in-chief of Henan Province. He defended Kaifeng for several years and was finally captured by Li Zicheng due to being outnumbered. Li Zicheng admired Chen Yongfu's method of defending the city and immediately persuaded Chen Yongfu to surrender after breaking the city and recruited him as a member of the invading army.
Chen Yongfu raised his hands on horseback and said: "I will always admire King Chuang's methods. Now everyone in Henan has land, and there is no longer the pain of oppression by government servants and slaves. It can be said to be great governance."
Li Zicheng laughed loudly and felt quite proud when he heard Chen Yongfu's words.
Chen Yongfu added: "It's just something the general is worried about."
Li Zicheng asked cheerfully: "What is Mr. Chen worried about?"
Chen Yongfu said: "Now I have an army of hundreds of thousands, and I consume countless amounts of food and wages every day. Although King Chuang got some food before, but the hundreds of thousands of mouths are consumed day by day, even the millions of stones of food and food cannot support it.
A few years ago. Since King Chuang has made the people refuse to pay for food, where will our future food and wages come from?"
After hearing Chen Yongfu's words, King Chuang and the generals and counselors around him fell silent.
Indeed, because of the policy of not paying grain, Li Zicheng did not make any profit after allocating the fields to the farmers. The food and salary that maintains the army today were all stolen from the families of the clan and gentry when he conquered the counties. If Li Zicheng's army continues in Henan
After a year or two, the entire army will be wiped out due to lack of food and pay.
Song Xiance pondered and said: "King Chuang, I thought we could change the non-payment of grain to three years of no grain payment. After three years, each family's land will have to hand over land tax to support the expenses of hundreds of thousands of our Chuang army."
Niu Jinxing shook his head and said: "No! If we rashly change the non-payment of grain to three years of grain payment, the people will definitely be very disappointed. In the future, when my Chuang Army attacks other places, there will never be so many people coming to vote. My Chuang Army is in various counties in Henan.
The situation of people rushing to open the city gates first according to the county's proclamation will definitely no longer exist."
Song Xiance retorted and asked, "Does the Prime Minister have any clever ideas for raising food?"
Niu Jinxing was stunned for a moment and said nothing.
Li Zicheng was riding on his horse, thinking deeply about this problem, when he heard Chen Yongfu say: "King Chuang, I think that now that Henan has been decided, our Chuang army can move westward to attack Shaanxi!"
"The situation in Shaanxi has also been bad these years, and the gentry are greedy and collude with the government to cruelly exploit the common people. This is the time when the people's resentment is boiling. I will march westward with the army of benevolence and righteousness, and the people will definitely come to welcome me. Chuang
If the king selects 200,000 elite soldiers to join Shaanxi, the 60,000 Shaanxi troops under Sun Chuanting will be vulnerable to a single blow."
After hearing Chen Yongfu's words, all the generals of the Chuang Army were happy.
For the Chuang army, the best survival strategy is to loot and constantly plunder new places. If you sit in one place, there will be problems. Chen Yongfu's suggestion of attacking Shaanxi is in line with the appetite of the generals of the Chuang army.
Moreover, only retired generals like Chen Yongfu knew the details of the Shaanxi army and could tell the Shaanxi army's strength figures with just one mouth.
The eyes of all the generals were shining brightly, and they were all gearing up, as if they were all ready for a big fight.
Li Zicheng's nephew Li Guo said loudly: "King Chuang, our army has collected more than 2,000 large and small firearms and artillery in Henan, and more than 50 Hongyi cannons. Even if we are facing the enemy directly against Sun Chuanting's Shaanxi army, we will never fall behind.
Downwind."
Li Zicheng was thinking while riding on his horse, rubbing his right thumb and index finger for a long time.
After a long time, Li Zicheng nodded and said: "It is indeed a clever plan to attack Shaanxi! I have General Chen, who is like a tiger with wings!"
