Please ask me to be the emperor

After Wang Qingzhi said goodbye to Zhang Shun, how could Zhang Shun still sit still? He quickly went to Zhang Shenyan's residence.

Zhang Shenyan was very busy in the room, assigning work to his subordinates one by one, and checking the progress of work everywhere.

Seeing Zhang Shun coming in person, I knew something important must be going on. He quickly said a few words and briefly dealt with the urgent matter, while I sent them off and asked them to come back tomorrow.

Afterwards, Zhang Shenyan was about to come up to greet him, but was caught by Zhang Shun. He smiled and said: "If the matter is urgent, please don't disturb Mr. Zhang. Please avoid some red tape and come with me."

Zhang Shenyan was doubtful, and then followed Zhang Shun to the Red Lady's residence.

Jian'er was guarding outside the door. When he saw Zhang Shun, Zhang Shenyan and others approaching, he quickly saluted and ran in to report.

Ever since the other rebel leaders "Chuang Wang", "Chuang General", "Eight Kings" and "Living Cao Cao" arrived in Luoyang City, in order to avoid being recognized, the Red Lady has already stayed at home. Try to let the servants handle it.

Although there is no one around Zhang Shun now, he is just busy with work, so he comes to her room less often. In this way, she felt much more relaxed.

Now she is six or seven months pregnant, her body is quite tired, and she is lying on the bed to nurse the fetus. When she heard that Jian'er had run away, she reported: "The head of the house and Mr. Zhang came hand in hand, and asked Madam to get up and see him."

When the red lady heard this, she thought it was just a big deal. He quickly tidied himself up, got up and went out.

As soon as Zhang Shun saw the red lady coming out, he hurried over in three steps and two steps at a time. He supported her and scolded: "You are not an outsider, why are you messing around? I just thought that you have some physical inconveniences, so I asked Arrow to pass it through for you." It’s just a letter, how can I care about all these red tapes?”

The red lady was happy when she heard this. She pursed her lips and smiled, then welcomed the two of them in and let Jian'er serve tea.

At this time, Zhang Shenyan couldn't wait to ask: "I wonder what's going on, my lord? He's so solemn about it."

Zhang Shun picked up the tea and took a sip, then smiled and said: "Don't worry, I have something to ask you two to help me with in detail!"

"Speaking of Zhang's ignorance, we learned that the important town in Jiubian is mainly based on wages and silver, and most of the rest of the food comes from his fields. If there is any shortage, he purchases the food himself. I don't know if that is true or not?"

Zhang Shenyan and Lady Hong never expected that Zhang Shun would mention this, and they were a little confused for a moment.

Hong Niangzi was also from the border area, so she couldn't help but smile and said: "I am a womanizer. Although I don't know the details, I heard the rumors are generally good. Although there are some 'opening methods', the theory of 'democracy movement' is basically based on Shipped from the mainland.”

Although Zhang Shenyan didn't know much about this, as an imperial official, he still had some understanding of the border army's operating system.

He did not tell the story: "At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the food for the frontier army was mainly based on grains from military camps and the essence of the people's movement. If the military villages and people's movement were insufficient, merchants would make up for it by paying grains from the central government. During the Jiaqing and Wanli years, the system gradually deteriorated. The natural color has changed to the main color, and the grain received in the Kaizhong has also changed to the silver in the Kaizhong. In the border areas, there is more money and less grain, so they have to buy grain by themselves."

After all, Zhang Shun is a layman. He has heard people talk about "true color" and "different color" many times, and he can't help but be confused. He quickly asked: "Please Mr. Zhang explain it to me in detail. What is true color? What is zhe color? What is kaizhong?"

Only then did Zhang Shenyan remember that Zhang Shun was from a commoner background and didn't know much about many of the court's systems. He then smiled and said: "The so-called 'original color' refers to wheat and rice. At the beginning of the country, taxes were collected, and wheat and rice were collected in summer and autumn, which is called true color. Other forage, cloth and other items can also be converted into rice and wheat, which is called true color. It's 'color'."

"In the Wanli period, Zhang Taiyue, Zhang Ge Lao, oh, even Zhang Juzheng's reforms, they all collected money per acre, and punished the officials. The so-called 'Zese' mostly means accepting silver."

"As for Kaizhong, it is actually the method of Kaizhong. It originally meant that merchants transported a certain amount of grain to the granary in the border areas and obtained salt, so there is a saying of Kaizhong to receive grain. However, later, the powerful and courtiers used it as a way to make profits, and many parties challenged them. If you want salt to lead, the grain you receive will be empty."

"Later, the imperial court simply bought and sold salt, and then used the earned silver as military pay for border towns, so it was called Kaizhong Nayin. As for buying rice, it was called buying grain."

Only then did Zhang Shun understand how the border towns in the Ming Dynasty operated. He couldn't help but smile and said: "I'm sorry for bothering Mr. Zhang. I would like to learn from you!"

"It's just that Zhang Gong once said before that there will be a locust plague after a severe drought. Is this true?"

Zhang Shenyan saw that Zhang Shun had just finished talking about the rations for the frontier army and turned to look at him, not knowing what he meant. He could only continue to respond: "I have experienced it myself, and it has been passed down from generation to generation. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it!"

"Okay!" Zhang Shun couldn't help but laugh, "I heard Lu Weiqi say before that the Grand Canal transports grain from the south of the Yangtze River to the capital for only four million dan per year. Assume that the frontier army has 500,000 troops."

When Zhang Shungang said this, Zhang Shenyan couldn't help but interrupt and said: "At the beginning of the country, the Nine-Border Army had as many as 850,000 troops, but now it is probably less than 600,000."

"Okay, let's calculate it based on 600,000." Zhang Shun obeyed. Since he had a rough figure, he didn't need to estimate the data himself. "Assuming that the border army is short of half of the food, it still needs to purchase 1.2 million shi of food every year." .”

"The current situation is not good, natural disasters continue, and many places are in danger of famine. Not to mention that Shaanxi has been suffering from famine for many years, and the people are in dire straits. Last year, Shanxi was ravaged by rebels, officers and soldiers, and for a while it was no longer as prosperous as it was back then. "

"The land of Henan is not only suffering from military disasters this year, but also a severe drought in the entire province. If the locust plague occurs again next year, not to mention the food and grass for the border army, I am afraid that the food will not be far away. In this way, the entire north can only rely on Shandong , Beizhili grain support."

"And the grain from Northern Zhili and Shandong is not enough to support the capital. Next year, four million dan of grain will need to be transported from the south of the Yangtze River. How can there be surplus grain for him?"

"Moreover, Mongolia and the Jin Kingdom are already short of food, so they often smuggle food from the border areas to avoid famine. If the entire north is suddenly short of millions of dan of food, what will be the consequences?"

Zhang Shenyan and Lady Hong couldn't help but widen their eyes when they heard this, and were speechless for a long time. Zhang Shun's analysis may seem simple, but in fact, based on big data, he estimated the food gap in the entire north of the Ming Dynasty.

This set of techniques was originally a common technique used by netizens in forums after they entered the information society, and Zhang Shun learned all about it.

In ancient times, due to backward information, methods like this kind of big data analysis only existed in the hands of a few high-level people.

Even people like Zhang Shenyan and Red Lady, how could they expect this?

It's like being in a high position, analyzing the situation of the upcoming food shortage in the north from head to toe.

How come Zhang Shenyan and Lady Hong still don’t understand Zhang Shun’s plan? He actually wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to speculate on food and play the trick of "hoarding", changing from a real military war to an "economic war" and a food war with swords and swords.

No matter how sharp your swords and spears are, no matter how skillful your bow and horse are, no matter how strong your martial arts skills are, no matter whether you are a frontier army, Mongolian or Jurchen, without three meals a day, no matter how tough you are, you can only lie down on the ground and call me "Grandpa". "!

In fact, the real situation is more serious than Zhang Shun imagined. In July and August alone, the Qing army looted Xuanfu, Datong and Shanxi, taking away a lot of grain and livestock, and causing a big blow to local agriculture.