I

early morning.

Several helpers were clearing the snow, and Liu Zhu, the deputy captain of the guard, hurried over.

"In the main town, some people came to send winter sacrifices, but they all said they didn't want them, and they still refused to leave." Liu Zhu had a frown on his face when he spoke, but there was pride in his tone.

Winter livestock is a way for landlords to exploit tenants. Taking advantage of the winter solstice festival, they force tenants to give gifts, and they must be poultry and livestock.

Now, the military households near Fucheng have completely turned around after dividing their fields, and took the initiative to bring gifts to Zhao Han to celebrate the winter solstice.

Zhao Han said: "Go and tell the people clearly that you are not allowed to give gifts to officials. If you insist on giving them, let them send them to the almshouse. If you put down the winter animals and leave, they will also be sent to the almshouse." "

"Yes!" Liu Zhu trotted away.

There are almshouses in every town. They are not large in scale and run well. They have work all year round, such as making cloth shoes for soldiers, sewing some military cotton-padded clothes, etc. Many urban homeless people also make shoes and sell them to the General Military Mansion.

Fei Rulan held a big cloak in her hand and chased after her, shouting: "Put this on, it's very cold today, but don't catch a cold!"

Zhao Han smiled and turned around. Fei Rulan had already walked up to him and quickly helped Zhao Han put on the cloak.

This is a kind of double-breasted blouse. Fei Rulan sewed a goose feather cloak with her own hands. After Zhao Han put it on, he felt warm and light, quite like a down jacket.

Walking to the front yard of the Yamen, Li Banghua had returned from Jishui and was waiting for the meeting.

As we have said before, the largest number of people in the county examination in the Ming Dynasty was in Linchuan County, Jiangxi Province. Tens of thousands of people took part in one examination, and all of them were schoolchildren and children who failed to pass the examination.

The quality of scholars in Jishui County is higher, but due to the area of ​​cultivated land, there are not as many scholars as in Linchuan County. However, in Jishui, which has a total of 120,000 people (excluding the county seat), there are four to five thousand scholars who have read the Four Books and Five Classics. Counting those who are literate in the hundreds, the number can exceed 10,000. Even some of the tenant farmers can recognize a few words. .

By the way, serious land annexation in the late Ming Dynasty led to a decrease in the number of scholars in Jiangxi, and the number of Jinshi was also much smaller than before.

In the middle and early Ming Dynasty, a large number of poor children in Jiangxi passed the Jinshi examination. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were very few Jinshi from poor families in Jiangxi.

After Li Banghua came forward to call for help, countless low-level scholars took refuge, and the "talent" has exploded.

In order to prevent cheating in the land allocation, scholars from Jishui County were transferred to Anfu County to assist in the land allocation. The scholars from Anfu County were transferred to Jishui to help divide the fields.

It was often a missionary officer who, with a few newly recruited scholars, would go to each village to organize the distribution of fields. Under such circumstances, the work of dividing the fields in the two counties was quickly completed, and then the peasant associations of the two counties were formed.

"Headquarters!"

Everyone stood up.

Zhao Han raised his hand and said: "Everyone, sit down and talk about the situation."

Chen Maosheng was the first to speak: "Now we have no shortage of scholars, especially children and schoolchildren. There are so many people who have studied the Four Books and Five Classics that they have no job to arrange them. However, many of them do not believe in the unity of the world and often do not follow the rules. . I think Bailuzhou Academy should be renamed Datong Academy, and classes should be given to well-behaved scholars, and they should be assigned positions after graduation!"

Li Banghua immediately said: "I agree to run a school to teach Datong Thought, but Bailuzhou Academy cannot change its name, otherwise it will definitely arouse resistance among the scholars."

"There is no need to change the name of the academy." Pang Chunlai also said.

"Then I won't change it." Zhao Han smiled.

All serious scholars have feelings for Bailuzhou Academy, which is a place where Wen Tianxiang and many other sages came from.

Chen Maosheng could only sit back. He was an actor and his thoughts were very radical.

Zhao Han thought for a while: "I will be the president of the academy, but I will only go there to give lectures occasionally. Mr. Li is the deputy president of the academy, and he also comes to visit when he has time. Chen Maosheng is the director of academic affairs and is in charge of the specific affairs of the academy. . By the way, the Wangzhi County magistrate has traveled around the countryside and feels a little awkward returning to the capital, so let him go to the academy to be a professor."

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The crowd burst into laughter.

The former magistrate of Luling County, Wang Tiaoding, was willing to be a thief, but not willing to be a thief. It was very uncomfortable to be hesitant.

However, Wang Tiaoding and Ouyang Zheng jointly wrote a theoretical article - "On the Distribution of Fields in Datong".

The angle of entry into the discussion is very tricky, originating from the sentence of "Laozi": The way of heaven is to make up for the deficiency when there is more damage; the way of man is to make up for the deficiency when it is not enough. Who can have enough to serve the world? There is only the Tao.

What does it mean?

Landlords continue to annex land, which is a human way and a necessity of human nature. Zhao Han presides over the distribution of fields, which belongs to the way of heaven and is doing justice for heaven. Those who can serve the world with more than enough can be called "righteous people", and Zhao Han and his officials are considered "righteous people".

This article is very mysterious and cannot be understood by ordinary people, but it is very convincing to scholars.

Those lower-class scholars who had benefited from it highly praised "Lun of Datong Land Distribution". With this article, they completely let go of their psychological burden and happily went to divide the fields, because dividing the fields was done in accordance with the law of heaven.

The vulgar slogans shouted by Chen Maosheng are specifically aimed at ordinary people.

The articles written by Wang Tiaoding and Ouyang Zheng were specifically aimed at the scholars of the world.

Unfortunately, neither of them dared to sign their real names when they wrote the article. One goes by the alias Wang Fan, and the other goes by the alias Ou Zhen, and they are as sneaky as a thief.

Wang Tiaoding and Ouyang Zheng were both child prodigies. The former was born as a Linsheng at the age of eleven, and the latter was born as a Linsheng at the age of thirteen. As expected, Zhao Han was very knowledgeable after reading the article. He personally recommended them and recruited both of them into the Datong Association.

As for the "On the Distribution of Fields in Datong," all members of the Datong Association must read it, and it is best to memorize it in full.

After making such a big move, Ouyang Zheng happily became the county magistrate, but Wang Tiaoding was unwilling to take up the actual position. Then just go to the academy and become a professor, let him teach the students the thoughts of Datong, and he can specialize in theoretical research in the future.

After talking about the academy, Li Banghua said: "There are too many scholars waiting to become officials. I think we can capture the entire Ji'an Prefecture! At least, we must capture Taihe County and half of Wan'an County. In this way, we can By arranging surrendered scholars to serve as officials, we can also make our land use mountains and rivers as a city!"

Zhao Han didn't want to expand too quickly, but he had received a secret report from Xu Ying that Taihe County and Wan'an County must be included in the territory.

Only by capturing the two counties in the south can we completely occupy the Ganzhong Basin, making our territory surrounded by mountains.

Sometimes, we can't just look at internal affairs, but also consider military issues. Li Banghua thinks from the overall war situation.

"Have you contacted the rebels in Longquan County?" Zhao Han asked.

Xiao Huan is not only in charge of clean government affairs, but also temporarily in charge of intelligence work in the territory. He immediately stood up and said: "I was about to report this matter and have already contacted the Longquan Rebel Army. The leader of the Longquan Rebel Army is called Fang Shengchang. His great-grandfather used to be the Deputy Baihu of Longquan. By his generation, his family had fallen into decline. This man had been educated for several years. , dropped out of school because his family was poor. Although he captured Longquan County, he was afraid of government encirclement and suppression, so he was willing to join us."

Zhao Han smiled and said, "Very good. Once Taihe and Wan'an counties are captured, we will immediately send people to take over Longquan County and connect the southern territories together."

Chen Maosheng couldn't help but said: "Headquarters, are we expanding too fast? Many scholars are not obedient at all. If they are sent to various counties to serve as officials, there will definitely be a lot of corrupt officials."

Zhao Han sighed and said: "The tree wants to be quiet but the wind is not stopping. I also want to develop slowly, but the court does not give me a chance. The emperor already knows about Jiangxi. The officers and soldiers of Guangdong and Fujian provinces are likely to cross the border next year." Send troops to the border!"

Everyone was immediately shocked, including Fei Ruhe, who had just returned from Anfu County, and couldn't help but feel guilty.

In the encirclement and suppression campaign in three provinces, tens of thousands or even 100,000 troops may be sent. Can we really withstand it?

Only Li Banghua and Pang Chunlai were still relaxed, sitting there laughing.

Li Banghua said: "There are many rebels in the mountains in western Fujian and southern Jiangxi. The officers and soldiers of Fujian and Guangdong provinces must clear out the rebels there before they dare to come north to attack us."

Pang Chunlai said: "With the temperament of the Ming Dynasty's officers and soldiers, it will take at least half a year to unite the two provinces to send troops. If there are constraints, it will take more than a year to mobilize troops, and the large amount of food and grass will be enough for them to have a headache. This is I'm afraid that before the Southern Jiangxi Rebel Army is wiped out, war will break out in Fujian and Guangdong."

"Mr. Pang's words make sense." Li Banghua agreed.

In Fujian and Guangdong provinces, first of all, there are very few regular troops, and the navy is barely decent. If you want to come to Jiangxi to suppress bandits, you will have to recruit new troops and train them, and the province will have to raise its own food and grass.

There is still a war in the north, and the court is pressing for food and tax collection.

The officials of the three divisions in Guangdong and Fujian not only had to deal with the court's tax errands, but also provided money and food to recruit troops for war. Where did they get so much money and food? At that time, the exploitation of the people will definitely be intensified and countless farmers will inevitably rebel.

After listening to Pang Chunlai and Li Banghua's explanation, everyone felt relieved and no longer so afraid of encirclement and suppression by officers and soldiers.

Fei Ruhe suddenly said: "When I was in Anfu County, some rebels who escaped from Pingxiang joined the army and brought some important military information. When the prefect of Yuanzhou conquered the Pingxiang rebels, he had thousands of archers under his command."

"Really?" Zhao Han was very surprised.

Fei Ruhe said: "I sent someone to Yuanzhou to inquire about the news again, but it was Tian Younian, the governor of Yuanzhou, who heard that the Tatars were besieging Beijing, so he started recruiting craftsmen to make bows. He recruited more than ten people from the weapons station of Nanchang Guards He was a craftsman and ordered the local craftsmen in Yuanzhou to learn from him. In the autumn of the fourth year of Chongzhen, he had made 500 pairs of bows and arrows. They were all sent to the capital to present to the emperor. I heard that he was praised by the emperor and gave him money to continue making bows."

"What a talent." Zhao Han sighed.

Fei Ruhe continued: "Yuanzhou Wei has its own weapons workshop, and he also recruited some craftsmen from Nanchang. Now there are hundreds of bow makers in Yuanzhou. They can make hundreds of bows and tens of thousands of arrows every year. Some were transported to the capital, and some were kept for his own use. This man had more than three thousand soldiers under his command, of which one thousand were archers."

Pang Chunlai suddenly sighed: "It seems that our strong enemies are not Li Maofang and Wang Siren who were suppressing thieves in Duchang, but Tian Younian, the prefect of Yuanzhou. This man has been training for at least a year. He is not a makeshift beggar soldier. No wonder The rebels in Pingxiang were easily wiped out by him."

"If the rebels in Duchang are wiped out," Li Banghua said, "Tian Younian will probably lead his elite troops and follow the governor south to attack us."

Yuanzhou is just north of Anfu County. At first glance, it seems to be a very close neighbor, but there are mountains in the middle, so it only needs to defend a few important roads.

If Tian Younian was smart, he would not have come over the mountains. In that case, he would probably be ambushed and defeated, and he would probably have to go by water with Governor Li Maofang.

Pang Chunlai said: "We can't wait for others to attack. We don't have a pair of armor. We will be at a disadvantage when encountering thousands of archers."

"Then take the initiative!"

Zhao Han stood up and said: "We will attack Yuanzhou first. We will not occupy the city or divide the fields. We will simply destroy Tian Younian's elite. It would be even better if we could 'invite' the bow-making craftsmen back!"