Number of People

  Chapter 2109 Guizi Juan There is no cooking without rice, but also a fire

  Pan Ruzhen's staff guessed the situation was not very accurate.

  Feng Ziying didn't feel too much pressure when the rebellious army entered Jin, because it was basically a foregone conclusion before he entered Shaanxi, and the court couldn't blame him.

  In the eastern counties of Xi'an Prefecture, Hancheng, Chengcheng, Heyang, and Baishui have long been surrounded by rebellious troops, and the situation has long been out of control.

The only thing Xi'an Prefecture can do is to suppress the rebellious army as much as possible to the east of the Tongguan, Pucheng, and Huazhou lines, so as to avoid the crisis of Xi'an City. In addition, Tongguan must be defended. There can be no loss.

  Even the court did not send a letter to Feng Ziying, or Feng Ziying had not had time to receive the letter from the court.

  But after knowing this situation, Feng Ziying still realized that the situation was getting out of control.

In his impression, it was northern Shaanxi that first ignited the uprising fire in the late Ming Dynasty in the previous life, but when the uprising in northern Shaanxi quickly spread to Shanxi, the situation in Shanxi changed, and almost all the leaders of the rebel army who were famous in the late Ming Dynasty They came from the Thirty-Sixth Battalion in Shanxi. Although almost all of them were from Shaanxi, such as Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, etc., it was the rebels in Shaanxi who were getting lonely day by day.

  The location of Pingyang Mansion is very important. If it falls to the three provinces, once it falls, it will affect Luze Prefecture and Huaiqing Mansion, causing turmoil in the Central Plains.

  The problem is that he is too busy to take care of himself now, and there is no other better way than writing to the court to ask Shanxi Town and Taiyuan Town to send troops south to suppress and suppress Fu.

   Not only is he too busy to take care of himself, he is even sitting on the fire himself now.

Although the situation around Wubao, including Suide, Mizhi and Jiazhou, has basically stabilized, this does not mean that there will be no problems in these counties. If the food problem of the hungry people is not solved, the hungry people will become mobs, and then Become a rogue bandit who loots and robs houses.

  Although the large rebellious army was basically wiped out and appeased in the offensive and defensive battle of Wubao, the scattered rebellious army fugitives and some small rebellious troops that did not arrive in time still exist in these places.

Feng Ziying got the news that these small groups of rebels and fugitives were fleeing southward and westward one after another. The southward direction was towards Qingjian and Yanchuan, where the rebellious army was powerful, and the westward direction was intended to pass through Anding to Bao'an. Even the Qingyang Mansion joined the Qingyang Rebel Army.

  He doesn't have the energy to chase down these fleeing rebels now. There are still many things to do before him. The most important thing is to find a way to settle and digest these rebellious soldiers, or mobs and hungry people.

  If you don’t give them a way to eat, you can either kill them all, or let them regroup and become a chaotic army.

  Part of it can be digested by setting up a guard army, but this is tens of thousands of people. Although thousands were wiped out in the siege battle, there are still more than 12,000 border troops and rebellious troops that need to be digested and reorganized.

"It's not just a matter of more than 10,000 people. According to the information obtained from Master Xia's investigation, more than 600 people died of starvation in Wubao alone this month, and as time goes by, this tragic situation will become more serious. Seriously, that is to say, if there is no solution, by this winter and next spring, more than 70% of the people in Wubao County may become mobs, which is more than 20,000 people,..."

Wang Wenyan's hoarse voice echoed in the hall, "This is just Wubao, the smallest county in Yan'an Prefecture, and the county with the worst drought. Jiazhou has more than 30,000 people, Suide has more than 60,000 people, Mi There are more than 50,000 people in Zhizhi, more than 20,000 people in Anding in the west, and more than 40,000 people in Qingjian in the south. I dare not say that these people will become mobs, but even if half of them cannot survive, this is one hundred thousand people. All of you..."

Feng Ziying half-closed her eyes, "In classical Chinese, this is only half of Yan'an prefecture. Maybe Fushi, Ansai and Ganquan are in better condition, but what about these counties in the south? The drought is better than in the north, but why are there more rioters? Worse? They have even crossed the river, disrupting Pingyang Mansion."

   "My lord, this is complicated. Every place has different situations. In short, there are both objective and subjective things." Wang Wenyan didn't answer this question directly.

If we want to talk about it, we can’t finish it in one day. What we want to talk about now is to solve these problems in the north. Only by stabilizing the northern part of Yan’an Mansion can we have a stable rear. Otherwise, if you really want to encounter this kind of siege every time, it will always be over once.

   Regarding Wang Wenyan's cunning, Feng Ziying snorted softly, and didn't say any more. With Pan Ruzhen here, it was embarrassing to say it clearly.

   Solving the problem of the rebellious and hungry people is nothing more than relief, suppression, and appeasement, but the former is to cure the root cause, and the latter two are to treat the symptoms.

  The key is that no one knows how long God will toss this northern land. The drought continues, and the relief cannot continue forever. Then I really can only run south in one breath, to a place where I can survive and have food.

   "Zhen Pu, you are the magistrate of Yan'an, and you are most familiar with the situation in this prefecture. How do you think the current situation should be dealt with?" After a few days of contact, Feng Ziying and Pan Ruzhen also quickly became familiar with each other.

Although Auntie Mizhi, who was specially selected by Pan Ruzhen, was still in Fushi and had not yet been sent to Feng Ziying's inner house, Pan Ruzhen himself felt that he still lacked a strong friendship with the governor, but Feng Ziying felt that this person was well-behaved and organized. Maybe he is a little weaker in integrity and too enthusiastic about his career, but this is not a bad thing, it is even a good thing for himself, as long as he is willing to do things for himself, he will not hesitate to give the other party some better prospects.

"My lord, I have been in Yan'an Mansion for four years, and I have inspected most of the prefectures and counties under my prefecture. If three years ago, the prefectures and counties in my prefecture were in dilapidated conditions, and the people were poor and could only make a living. I would have thought How to solve the livelihood problem of the rural people, but the financial resources of the government are limited, the annual tax is indispensable, and most of them have to be transferred to Yulin Town, which is indispensable in a short period of time, otherwise..."

   Otherwise, the responsibility for the mutiny of the Yulin Army will be held on his head. He absolutely dare not bear the responsibility. Once held, it will almost cut off his official career.

   "The imperial court should have exempted Yan'an Mansion from taxes since last year, right?" Feng Ziying frowned.

"Yes, the imperial court has exempted it since last year, but in the past few years, various disasters have continued in northern Shaanxi, and the people have long been in dire straits. Their families have no overnight food, and if they are slightly sick, they can only sell their sons and daughters..." Pan Ruzhen laughed at himself He said, "Say a blunt word in front of the governor. Once a disaster hits northern Shaanxi, even boys and girls will not be able to sell at a high price. If parents want to sell more money, they would rather cross the Yellow River to Hedong." Baode, Xizhou, Jizhou, and Yongning, my servants told me that Datong and Taiyuan are the best places to sell, but they are too far away, so Puzhou and Linfen are the next best thing, which is not bad..."

"But many people can't do it even if they want to take their children to Hedong to sell, and there are countless people who starve to death halfway..." Pan Ruzhen looked sad, "You said that under such circumstances, the people will either starve to death, or break the law and cause chaos. And die, how to choose?"

"Could it be that the gentry in this government have no benevolence and goodwill? Relief for the people is a natural obligation of the gentry, otherwise why would the gentry be a gentry, and where did the preferential treatment given by the court come from?" Feng Ziying's tone remained unchanged, " As far as I know, there are quite a few big gentry families in this prefecture. There are four major families in Fushi alone. Qingjian is also supported by the Xiaojiu family. There are also merchants gathered in Suide and Mizhi. I think the situation in the south is the same. Needless to say, the grain households and grain merchants are one, and they are desolate places like Baoan and Anding. The luxurious family celebrated their birthday. How much grain is there in Wanshi?"

One sentence left Pan Ruzhen speechless. He knew that Feng Ziying was referring to the Gu family, the head of the security gentry. The magistrate of Bazhou prefecture, Gu Yansheng's 80th birthday, although he didn't go, he sent someone to give a generous gift.

The Gu family is the largest family in Bao'an, owning hundreds of hectares of fertile land, and is also the largest grain merchant and grain household in the local area. Even the magistrate of Bao'an County has to look up to him. Although he is not afraid of the other party as the magistrate of Yan'an, he can't take it easy in many cases. To tear faces with each other, the local government still has to rely on these gentry in many matters.

Seeing that Pan Ruzhen lowered his head and dared not speak, Feng Ziying calmed down a little, "Zhenpu, in all counties and counties of Yan'an Prefecture, which county does not have ten or eight wealthy gentry families, and there are many tyrannical people, among them are the powerful, the right and the evil gentry. There are countless means of stealing and looting, I believe you know better than me,..."

Feng Ziying paused again, "I also know that relying on relief alone is a temporary cure, not a root cause. I know the current financial resources of the imperial court. There are chaos everywhere, and the imperial court is overwhelmed. What about Shaanxi? There are too many expectations on the imperial court, the greater the hope, The more disappointed I am, I will tell you the truth here, and the court gave me 300,000 taels of silver, hehe, according to the current price of grain in Shaanxi, how much corn can 300,000 taels of silver buy?"

Pan Ruzhen's bitterness is unspeakable. Three hundred thousand taels of silver is difficult to deal with Yan'an Mansion. If the price of grain in previous years was good, three hundred thousand taels of silver can still do something, but now it has been dry for three years Well, food prices have already skyrocketed, and three hundred thousand taels of silver is not enough.

But he also knew that what Feng Ziying should tell the truth was that the imperial court's financial difficulties could not be concealed from the officials, and anyone with a little connection in the imperial court would be able to know that Feng Ziying could be given 300,000 yuan because of the dire situation in Shaanxi. , and also has high hopes for Feng Ziying, hoping that he can cook without rice.

  (end of this chapter)