I

The convoy, loaded with goods, soon came to Yulin.

Some old thieves knelt on the ground to bid farewell to Li Zicheng, and went their separate ways to their hometown.

But they all chose a son and followed Li Zicheng to Nanjing. Going to Nanjing to study in a military academy will have a better future in the future, and it is also similar to sending hostages to Nanjing.

Li Zicheng observed the scenery along the way and said, "Compared to before, there are still too few people here."

The envoy Zhang Yunyi wanted to roll his eyes when he heard that, the Yulin area is sparsely populated, who the hell caused it? How dare you say this!

Zhang Yunyi curled his lips and said: "The imperial court has resettled and reclaimed many people. Counting the soldiers and their families, there are more than 80,000 people in Yulin."

"It's a pity that a lot of land is left uncultivated." Li Zicheng said.

Yulin is next to the Mu Us Desert. In the northern part of Yansui alone, 3.45 million mu of land was reclaimed in the Ming Dynasty, of which more than 1 million mu of military land was cultivated. To be honest, it has caused some damage to the ecological balance.

Now that the population has dropped sharply, many fertile fields reclaimed in the Ming Dynasty have turned into grasslands again.

There is simply no way to grow them. If all of them are used to divide the fields, including urban residents, each person can be divided into an average of 60 to 70 mu. The extra land can only be left unused. Some farmers also raise horses and sheep. Anyway, there are barren fields full of weeds.

Li Zicheng asked: "The new dynasty is the same as the old Ming Dynasty, and the soldiers and their families are also classified as military households?"

Zhang Yunyi explained: "There were no military households in the new dynasty, and all of them were civilian households. The reason why the family members immigrated here was just to solve the homesickness of the soldiers. The army of the Datong New Dynasty first trained farmers and soldiers in the countryside. Only Only the best peasants and soldiers can join the army and become the Datong Army. If the Datong Army is over 35 years old, if they have not been promoted to non-commissioned officers, they will be forced to leave the army and recruit farmers and soldiers."

Li Zicheng also sent someone to inquire about this kind of thing, but he still refused to believe it.

Li Zicheng asked: "Soldiers over the age of 35 must be discharged from the army. How much is the annual severance pay?"

"It's not a lot. They have been discharged one after another, and more than half of them are not discharged at once. It's only tens of thousands of taels of dismissal money every year." Zhang Yunyi laughed.

Li Zicheng was speechless and didn't want to speak any more for a moment.

The peasants and soldiers were trained first, and the best peasants and soldiers were selected to join the army. Those who were over 35 years old were forced to leave the army. It is entirely conceivable that the quality of the soldiers of the Datong Army is so high that it is simply not something that the traditional army can compete with.

Zhang Yunyi continued: "There are too many peasants and soldiers in the whole country. Your Majesty is sympathetic to the hard work of the peasants, and has reduced them several times. Now, there are probably 1 million peasants and soldiers, and at most there were 3 million peasants and soldiers."

Li Zicheng had seen peasants and soldiers in Hebei, and their combat effectiveness was not as good as his old battalion, but they were stronger than ordinary Dashun soldiers.

What is the concept of 3 million peasants and soldiers?

Just thinking about it makes my scalp tingle.

Even if there are only 1 million peasants and soldiers left, if a major war really breaks out, hundreds of thousands of troops can be pulled out at any time. They all go through long-term training, and they can become an army with simple training. Who in the world can stop them.

As night fell, everyone was resting in a village by the river.

This is the river valley from Yulin to Mizhi, and the village is not very big, only a few dozen households.

The village chief invited them to eat, but Zhang Yunyi shook his head and refused, and only let the entourage go into the village to buy some meat, eggs and vegetables.

Soon, the village head brought the villagers over with a basket of eggs, some chickens, ducks and many vegetables. Zhang Yunyi paid with official tickets, and the villagers were overjoyed because the price was relatively high.

"What is this?" Li Zicheng asked, pointing to the official ticket.

Zhang Yunyi explained: "The folks are commonly known as tickets, and there are two types: official tickets and military tickets. Officials receive official tickets as salary, and soldiers lead military tickets as military pay. These Shaanxi tickets can be exchanged for money and food in banks in Fujian. "

Li Zicheng was very puzzled: "This is printed on paper, officials and soldiers willing to accept it?"

Zhang Yunyi laughed loudly: "Even the common people are willing to accept it. Although it is printed on paper, it can be equivalent to real money in the bank."

Li Zicheng asked: "Aren't there any tyrants who counterfeit banknotes?"

"Yes," Zhang Yunyi said, "because of the counterfeit banknotes, hundreds of people were killed back and forth. And even if they were counterfeit, they could only fool fools and foolish women. From paper to ink to official seals and dark patterns, every kind of banknote has Nine layers of anti-counterfeiting means."

Li Zicheng said: "Isn't it just like the Daming banknotes? In the future, more and more will be printed, and no common people will accept them."

Zhang Yunyi explained: "It's not the same. Daming treasure banknotes, just print them and don't accept them, and they are useless if they are worn out. The banknotes of my Datong court are too old, and all banks will hand them in. After they are destroyed, they will reprint new ones. Destroy and print as much as you want, and never print more. If the bills are torn, as long as they can be put together into a whole sheet, you can also go to the bank to exchange them. In addition, if you want to add more bills, you have to keep an account of how many additional bills are issued. Corresponding reserves of money and food. From the time your Majesty raised his troops to the present, only more than 36 million stone notes have been printed."

Official tickets and military tickets are now all in grain, and the face value is not how much it is worth.

If you want to exchange it into silver in other places, you can convert it according to the local official price of grain. This is to balance the situation in various places, so that officials and soldiers in some places will not suffer.

But there has been a loophole. Some bright-minded businessmen, when doing business in various places, bought notes at a high price and took them to banks in Jiangnan to exchange for silver. Because the price of grain in Jiangnan is the highest, and the bills can be exchanged for more silver, merchants operate the bills as securities.

The impact is not too great, because only so many notes are issued.

The cabinet, the Ministry of Finance and the bank are already discussing whether it is possible to print some currency notes with denominations of "Two", "Qian", "Guan" and "Wen" without linking to grain.

Niu Jinxing held a ticket in his hand and remained silent for a long time.

As Li Zicheng's military adviser and prime minister, he has much better knowledge than the boss. He could imagine that once a strong enemy appeared on the grassland, the Datong court would not only mobilize hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but also print banknotes frantically as payment for the army, and at worst, slowly withdraw them after the battle.

This kind of operation cannot be imitated.

It must rely on the reputation of the court and the banking system. If Li Zicheng dares to do this, the officials and soldiers will be the first to make trouble. If there is nothing to make a name for, the officials and soldiers will rush to use it, forcing the people to accept this kind of bills, which will inevitably lead to complaints among the people in the end.

"I'll go to the village to have a look." Li Zicheng said.

Niu Jinxing, Zhang Nai and others also followed, and met some common people at the entrance of the village.

It was getting dark, and the villagers gathered there after a tiring day, eating and chatting.

Li Zicheng walked up to a villager who was holding a big bowl, and there was still half a bowl of barley porridge left. Wheat bran can be vaguely seen in the porridge, as well as some kind of vegetables, even sporadic oil flowers floating on the surface, and some kind of round spherical food.

"What is this?" Niu Jinxing asked, pointing at the spherical food.

The villagers said with a smile: "The government says it's potatoes, but we call it yam eggs here. You don't need to choose the land. There are many mountains in the village, and you can grow them on any sloping land."

Niu Jinxing asked: "Didn't you eat at Weishen (three or four o'clock in the afternoon)? Why do you only eat when it's getting dark?"

The villagers said triumphantly: "We eat in the middle of the afternoon, and only eat two meals a day. In our village, we have already eaten three meals a day, and every household is like this!"

Niu Jinxing was silent.

This village is really moist. Due to the vast land and sparse population, although there is still a quota for allocating land, as long as you have extra labor, the government will not care about opening up wasteland and growing grain. However, the government will not issue land deeds for land exceeding the quota, and correspondingly will not allow land taxes to be paid. When the children reach the age of 12, they can go to the government to apply for household registration, and they will be given priority to the land they reclaimed. Only at this time can they actually receive the land deed.

The village is also located in a river valley. The good fields next to the river grow wheat, and the barren mountainous land grow potatoes. Every household has a lot of surplus grain.

Not to mention three meals a day, they can afford four meals a day.

Niu Jinxing and Li Zicheng looked at each other, each sighing, without saying much.

Niu Jinxing continued to walk forward, but he didn't know who's dog was offended, and he barked "Wow, woof, woof". Alarmed by the barking of the dog, the sound of "clucking and clucking" came from the nearby chicken coop.

Turning around to look at the wheat fields outside the village, Niu Jinxing was in a daze, and said to himself: "The traffic in the fields, the chickens and dogs hear each other, and the people have enough food. This is not a peach garden? This is a poor border area. Is there a peach garden in the border area? "

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The villagers had already finished their dinner, but they did not disperse. Instead, they gathered together and continued talking and laughing.

It seems that some villagers moved from the south, and they sang a little song from the south when they were full of interest, which attracted a burst of applause.

At some point, Li Zicheng walked up behind Niu Jinxing and muttered, "If Daming had such a life, why did you rebel in the first place?"

Niu Jinxing said with emotion: "There is a holy emperor alive today, how can the filthy Ming Dynasty compare?"

Niu Jinxing has a reputation for raising people in Ming Dynasty, and he can be regarded as a small landlord. He was framed by the relatives of the wealthy gentry, saying that he resisted tax arrears and took women by force, so he lost his fame because of this, and was exiled to Lushi County to serve as an army. The relatives of the rich gentry also took his land.

If I lived in the new dynasty of Datong, I would definitely not rebel. If I went to the Jinshi examination wholeheartedly, I might have been in power and full of children and grandchildren.

The next day, continue southbound.

There are several such villages along the way, which can be described as "Taoyuan" everywhere. When he arrived in Mizhi, Li Zicheng finally broke the defense. This is his hometown, and the villagers are also happy and prosperous.

He returned to his birthplace, where there were no old friends.

After finally finding one, the other party regarded him like a snake and scorpion, and ran straight to the head of the peasants and soldiers in the village: "Gather the soldiers quickly, the intruder is back, don't let him harm the village!"

Facing the dozen or so farmers and soldiers, Li Zicheng looked at his old neighbor, hesitated to speak, turned and left.

He found Zhang Yunyi: "Go to Nanjing, tell the emperor, let me settle down in the south."

This King Chuang has no face to return to his hometown. In the eyes of his hometown people, he is a complete disaster. At least, the people who lived a good life in the new dynasty of Datong completely regarded Li Zicheng as a scourge.

Once upon a time, he was a hero who led the villagers to resist tyranny.