After careful consideration, Li Laiheng decided to obey Li Zicheng's order and return to Kaifeng alone.
This is of course not because of the temptation of Luo Yanqing's beauty, but because there is no need for Chu Chuang to completely cut off from Li Zicheng, and in the current situation, even if they cut off, it would not be of any benefit to Chu Chuang.
Many family members of the old camp of the Chuang Army served as rural officials in Huguang. Although more and more of the junior officers under Li Laiheng were farmers who came from the camp school, the generals at the middle level and above were still mainly from northern Shaanxi.
Not to mention that Li Laiheng is now in the east of Henan, thousands of miles away from his Sanchu base. What's more, Li Zicheng has always trusted him. Although Li Laiheng himself often has some dark thoughts about "split revolution" and "establishing a new central government" in his heart.
He was careful, but in terms of actual actions, he had never done anything that harmed the army.
Under such circumstances, Li Zicheng would never do anything detrimental to him.
With this idea in mind, Li Laiheng left all the military affairs in Guide to Gu Kecheng, Gu Junen, Fang Yiren and Ma Bao. He himself took only Zhang Pizhu's one-mark pro-army and headed west from Guide.
, headed to Kaifeng, preparing to meet King Chuang who had just won a great victory over Xin'an.
Between Guide and Kaifeng, there are several prefectures, counties and towns such as Ningling and Kaocheng that have not been occupied by the intruders. However, these cities are not currently garrisoned by any official troops. The indigenous officials and gentry who originally lived here
, most of them quickly fled to other safe places after hearing the news of Guide's defeat.
On the way to Kaifeng, Li Laiheng ordered Zhang Pizhu to lead the pro-military Biao to capture these prefectures and counties, leaving hundreds of soldiers from the invasion army to garrison there.
Although the remaining troops are weak, because all the officials and gentry in Ningling, Kaocheng and other places have fled, there is no risk of rebellion. In this way, even if only a few hundred people are left to control a few cities, it will not cause any danger. Not to mention this
Several towns are adjacent to Guide City, and they will naturally be handed over to Gu Kecheng and others to take over later.
Just walking west from Shangqiu, the city of Guide Prefecture, the scene along the way was already a chaotic scene of the end of the world, with lonely graves and barren grass. It was not until we approached the border of Kaifeng that the countryside gradually regained its vitality.
After Li Laiheng passed Taoyuanji, he entered Kaifeng Prefecture and soon discovered that although Kaifeng Prefecture and Guide Prefecture were adjacent to each other, they were separated by one prefecture and the weather changed drastically.
The pro-military Tanma Qingqiu rushed back from the front. They had already seen many villages. Although they could not be said to be densely populated, they could still see a vague appearance of peace.
What attracted Li Laiheng's attention the most was that they saw a lot of new fields that had been cultivated on both sides of the road. Judging from the appearance of the field ridges, they should have been cultivated by cattle.
This reminded Li Laiheng of the scene he saw on the road to Luoyang when he followed Li Zicheng to attack Luoyang. At that time, Henan had ten houses and nine empty houses, and most of the fields had been abandoned and had not been cultivated for a long time, so that weeds were overgrown and degraded.
For wasteland.
The people exchange their children for food, but both sides of the road are uncultivated wastelands, which are full of yellow thatch and white grass. Those wastelands used to be cultivated fields that produced countless grains, and the field ridges and boundaries still exist, but because of the lack of
Farming has been reduced to wasteland. At the same time, countless people have become landless refugees. This intense conflict is the root cause of the turmoil in Henan.
Natural disasters certainly had a great impact on the great famine in Henan and Shaanxi, but natural disasters were only the cause. The root cause of the expansion, spread and continuation of this great famine was not famine.
Don’t we pay taxes on those abandoned fields? Of course we still have to pay taxes. But if we still have to pay taxes, why is no one farming? How can we pay taxes if we don’t cultivate the land?
At that time, Li Laiheng asked the refugees on the side of the road. Some hungry people told him that the answer was because they had no cattle and relied on people to pull the plows for a year. The grain they produced was not even enough to pay taxes, and they starved to death when cultivating the land.
, it is better to flee directly.
Fleeing from famine, fleeing from famine, is not escaping famine, but fleeing makes fields become wasteland, and wasteland causes famine.
But why are there no cows?
That is naturally because after Yang Sichang proposed to apportion three rates, Emperor Chongzhen actually dared to believe Yang Sichang's words and used such heavy regulations to pursue proportional and heavy taxes despite the rotten administrative bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty.
This is what Emperor Chongzhen called "temporarily burdening our people for one year." Of course, in fact, since the military situation cannot improve, but continues to worsen, it is impossible to "temporarily burden our people for one year", but has to increase year by year.
Send it down.
In this way, the corvee is too heavy. Once you are assigned to the corvee and you can't afford it, you have to sell the cattle. Once the cattle are sold, the land can no longer be cultivated, so you can only abandon the fields and flee. But if people escape and the tax is still there, then
All the people in the village must pay compensation together. The more people escape, the heavier the tax will be for those who have not escaped. The heavier the tax, the more people will escape. At first, the poor fled, but later even the rich could not bear it anymore, until
Until the whole village fled. In the end, most of the people in the county fled. The villages on the roadside were all in ruins, and the fields were all deserted.
The fugitives couldn't even sell their fields before escaping, because when they bought the land, they also bought the taxes back home. The fields became the roots of trouble, and naturally there was no one to cultivate them. If this vicious cycle continues, it will lead to the complete collapse of Henan's social economy.
The root causes of bankruptcy.
Therefore, although Shaanxi and Henan were also affected by the climate of the Little Ice Age, severe disasters occurred. But disasters were only the cause, and fleeing from famine was the fundamental reason why Qin Yu was hopeless.
Li Zicheng's political skills were not very good, and some of the officials he appointed were only fellow countrymen and contemporaries recommended by Niu Jinxing, and they were nothing more than some down-and-out scholars who could not make it in the official circles of the Ming Dynasty.
But he was still able to quickly reverse the severe famine escape phenomenon after taking control of Henan, and put the overall social economy of the Central Plains on the verge of total bankruptcy on the road to recovery.
Giving cattle breeds, relieving the poor, livestock, and farming are a long-term solution.
This is Niu Jinxing's long-lasting strategy for Li Zicheng. There is no institutional innovation or technological breakthrough. But as long as the terrible wave of desertion in the Central Plains can be stopped, as long as there is a simple and qualified ordinary government, Henan will
It can restore its economic energy and become a major source of invading troops.
"Conquer Heluo to conquer the world...Without the Yellow River Flood Area, can the Chuang Army's operations in Henan really realize Qi Weng's strategy?"
Li Laiheng raised his riding whip, pointed into the distance, and smiled at Zhang Pizhu: "Look, someone is coming to pick us up. The Generalissimo is really well-informed. Let's go over and take a look. Who is this old acquaintance or old friend?"
"
Li Zicheng did not institutionally reform the land distribution in Henan, but he confiscated a large amount of farmland from the vassal palaces and imperial villages. Coupled with the extremely serious wave of desertions in Henan, the original land distribution itself was destroyed.
Therefore, although Li Zicheng did not consciously carry out land reform subjectively, he recruited people to reclaim wasteland and sent old and weak soldiers of the insurgent army and family members of the old camp to develop army and farmland, which invisibly formed a fait accompli of land redistribution.
After Li Laiheng and Zhang Pili entered the Kaifeng Prefecture, their movements were quickly discovered by people from nearby military camps. So not long after, a general of the Chuang Army came forward with a force.
Come and greet.
Zhang Pizhu has recently grown into a heroic young general. He is wearing a robe made of Yangwu blue dye. He takes out a "clairvoyance" from the edge of the saddle of the same color. It was captured by the Huguang army in Wuchang Prefecture.
A telescope, probably given or sold by Jesuit missionaries to high-ranking officials in Wuchang.
"Commander, he is General Erhu!"
"Little Tiger!"
Liu Tichun came at a gallop, and a few drops of sweat slowly fell from the foreheads of the two tigers. It seemed that he had come all the way in a hurry, and he was also very excited. Liu Tichun and Li Guo have been known as Generals Liu and Li for many years.
, Li Guo is a tiger, and his nickname is two tigers. Of course, he regards Li Guo's only adopted son, Li Laiheng, as his nephew in his heart.
Although the friendship between Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun was not deep, he also had great respect for this sincere and backbone general of the Chuang Army. In other words, except for people like Niu Jinxing who always caused extra trouble for Li Laiheng, he had great respect for all the characters in the Chuang camp.
, all at least admire them for their uprightness and lack of otherness.
After Li Laiheng went south to Suizhou, the Huguang Army and the Central Plains Army had been separated for a long time. Among Li Laiheng's pro-army officials, there were many senior Yuancong soldiers from northern Shaanxi, and many of them were also under Liu Tichun.
The veterans of the Chuang Army were familiar distant relatives, brothers, and fellow villagers.
After such a long separation, it was a reunion after both sides had achieved a great victory. There was no pressure from a strong enemy on the outside, but there was an increasingly prosperous development momentum inside.
The two teams, of course, were full of joy and gathered together. Soldiers hugged each other, old acquaintances were talking about their recent victories, and soldiers who had recently joined the army this year were talking about it.
They were all looking at each other with curious eyes.
Li Laiheng squinted his eyes, with a smile on his face. Liu Tichun came to greet him personally, and the touching scene of the old brothers from northern Shaanxi reuniting made Li Laiheng even more convinced that this time the Generalissimo summoned him back to Bian.