stubborn thief

Chapter 484

In the Taozhou Guard Army and Civilian Command and Envoy Division, there is a Zhuoni official village on the bank of the Tao River surrounded by mountains and forests, and Zhang Xianzhong is currently hiding here.

The surname of the chieftain in Zhuoni's official village is Yang, which was bestowed by Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty. He was originally one of the leaders of the many Fan tribes in Taozhou. The Uncrowned King.

This generation of chieftains is called Yang Guolong, who is very young. He only inherited his position in the last years of Tianqi. In the imperial court, Yang Guolong is a very ordinary chieftain, so ordinary that he is a bit useless; the great toast.

Living in this era is a great misfortune. It has only been nine years since Yang Guolong inherited his father's position as chieftain, and he encountered more problems in nine years than many of his ancestors did in a lifetime.

At the beginning of his succession, the drought in Shaanxi led to a massive uprising. After Wang Daliang's defeat, defeated soldiers and bankrupt peasants poured into the chieftain's territory; then Liu Chengzong entered Hehuang and fought with the court year after year.

The influx of Han Chinese into both sides of the Tao River brought difficult problems to the chieftain on the one hand, and on the other hand brought technology and ideas from outside the mountains to the Fanmin. This earth-shaking change could easily bring changes to the chieftain's territory.

When Yang Guolong's ancestors visited the Sakya Pai Geshe in the Yuan Dynasty, they used the metaphor of "meeting the flood peak" to describe the situation. At this moment, for Yang Guolong, he also saw the flood peak rolling from the high mountain.

No one can know that in this chaotic era when soldiers and horses from all directions are like a torrent, Yang Guolong does not know the general trend of the world, but he knows that blocking the torrent with the power of the chieftain will only smash his bones, and only the chieftain who joins the trend and follows the trend can prosper prosperity.

But everyone understands the truth, and who can tell which is the torrent and which is the countercurrent?

Therefore, he was determined to wait for the dust to settle. Taking advantage of the civil strife in Ming Dynasty and having no time to take care of border affairs, he defended the land from the outside and defended himself from the yin and yang, and conquered dissidents and annexed weak neighbors internally.

For the bankrupt peasants and Han rebels who fled to Taozhou, Yang Guolong did not refuse them. He allocated wasteland for them to cultivate and cultivate. In just a few years, Han people accounted for one-tenth of the total population of Zhuoni Chieftain.

In the year of the Hehuang War, Yang Guolong mobilized his troops with great fanfare as soon as the imperial court's order arrived in Taozhou. State.

Since then, Yang Guolong has never chosen a side between the Marshal's Mansion and the Ming court, taking advantage of the location where the emperor is far away, Taozhou's infrastructure is poor, and the roads are difficult. Conscription was used as an excuse to buy soldiers, horses and fields from surrounding tribes and local chiefs, and mobilize soldiers and horses.

But after mobilization, the army will never be able to get out of Taohe.

At that time, Zhuoni chieftain still had three types of land policies, which were Bingma Tian, ​​Yamen Tian, ​​and Xianghuo Tian.

Among them, the grain tax of the people who cultivated the soldiers and horse fields was not high. The household was the unit, and each household paid a bucket of grain, a cart of grass, and each village handed over a live pig, but each household had to undertake military service.

There are two types of yamen fields, one is distributed to the subjects, and the same proportion of grain is paid. They have to bear the labor and miscellaneous labor of the chieftain's yamen, but not military service.The other is given to the clan or head of the chieftain, who belong to the small feudal lords, and each collects their own taxes.

The incense field is the private property of the monastery
By means of buying soldiers and horse fields, marriages, sending troops, and wars, Zhuoni chieftain's territory is getting bigger and bigger, and there are more and more chieftain soldiers, but they are either building roads or building bridges, and later repaired water holes and city walls. , passes, and embankments, renovating the siege of Zhuoni by Yang Guolong's grandfather Yang Zhenxiu.

Until the resurgence of the war this year, the local soldiers in the Nizhai were unable to repair it, so they built a King Gesar Palace. The statue enshrined in it is Lord Guan, which belongs to the new architectural style combined with Han and Tibetan led by Chieftain Zhuoni.

His territory faces west from Chieftain Chen of the Marshal's Mansion in Bajiao City across the mountain; to the east it reaches Minzhouwei; to the north it faces the Marshal's Mansion's Lintao Brigade garrison across the mountain; to the southeast it directly borders on the territory of Songpan's chieftain.

However, the expansion of the territory will inevitably cause Yang Tusi's territory to suffer a greater impact.

First of all, in terms of religion, they have believed in the Sakya sect for hundreds of years, but the turmoil in Kangning Mansion caused intermittent monks to escape to Taozhou by crossing the snow-capped mountains and grasslands.

This in itself should be a good thing for Chieftain Yang, although the spread of various sects has brought huge hidden dangers to the chieftain's rule, and leaders from all walks of life are also fighting openly and secretly for converting to different sects, and a large amount of land and wealth have to be shared with the monastery... But monks, means knowledge.

Monk means not only Confucian classics, but also characters, woodblock printing, medicine, pharmacy, astronomy, and laws.

For the entire Tusi territory, knowledge has been the most precious thing for hundreds of years, and the entire Tusi territory has paid an unimaginable price for this.

Starting from paper, paper is necessary for people to be able to read and write. Zhuoni’s territory has a shortage of paper. For a long time, it has been purchased from places such as Lintao, Longxi, and Qin’an. Printing a book requires a lot of money.

And maintaining the temple requires an unimaginable cost. Regardless of the wealth occupied by the temple, a large amount of copper is needed for the golden roof and Buddha statues required for the construction of the temple. The Zhuoni territory neither produces copper nor masters smelting technology. There are mountains in the west, south, and east without roads.

The copper roofs and Buddha statues of each temple have to be purchased from the Monk Temple outside Zhangjiakou, and then transported all the way back.

For the sake of knowledge, no matter how high the price is, it is not hesitating. This has been done for hundreds of years.

However, in Yang Guolong's generation, there was a small problem in Zhuoni's territory. There were thousands of Han people in his territory, all of whom were rebels in Shaanxi or who had taken refuge in Lanzhou. They had fields on both sides of the Tao River, formed four market towns, established Fourteen villages.

In the past, there were often Han people who escaped the government's taxes and corvee and ran into the mountains to become natives, but they were all alone. When they went to the mountains and followed the customs, they became natives. At best, they were craftsmen with more skills and could not cause much influence.

But this time they gathered in groups, and some even brought their families into the mountains to form villages, which is different.

Almost on the first day of the formation of the village, paper mills, brick kilns, coal kilns, carpentry workshops, blacksmith shops, medical halls, printing halls, etc. all popped up. Every household was farmed by men and women weaved, and copper ware was continuously produced. , iron, wood, pottery, farm tools, paper, scrolls, textiles and even clothing and weapons.

There was also a scholar who encouraged him to fund and set up a tusi court school.

The knowledge that monks can provide is no longer valuable, but the wealth, land and population they occupy are so dazzling!
At this time, Yang Guolong was only suspicious of the significance of the existence of the temple, but at least it was a little bit of religious fame to make offerings to the monks, so as to expand the meaning of political influence, so he didn't make up his mind, after all, it was a centuries-old tradition, and It doesn't necessarily have to be broken with him.

Just like the only way to recognize who is the real dragon emperor is to wait for the torrent to turmoil, Yang Guolong also has the same view of the temple.

Then the foreign aid from various sects disappeared, and the monks who went to Uzang to worship never came back. The monks who wanted to follow in their footsteps found that the road to Tibet was cut off, and it was cut off in all directions.

They crossed the snow-capped mountains and crossed the grassland, waiting for them were the Mengji fans from the Marshal's Mansion who were wandering in Bajiao City; they entered Sichuan with difficulty and went straight to Yazhou, waiting for them were the Mingjia fans from the Marshal's Mansion who were working in Jianlu.

At that time, Yang Guolong hadn't realized the seriousness of the problem, and everyone in the Tusi Yamen just felt that they were outdated. What kind of sect is this Marshal's Mansion that is so popular?

After all, for chieftains and chieftains in a closed environment, this sense of backwardness is an indispensable experience in life.

Waiting can always produce bright flowers. Various sects did not let Yang Guolong wait too long. The Heshuote Guoshi Khan, who respects the Gelug Sect, led an army to Qinghai. At that time, Yang Guolong announced on the spot on the side of the mountain that the whole territory had converted to the Gelug sect.

Nawusi Tibet is far away in the sky, but the Mongolian soldiers of Guoshi Khan are close at hand.

As a result, the comprehensive conversion has not yet been completed. The Marshal's Mansion sent troops to defeat and incorporate the Oirat coalition forces. It was not until then that Yang Guolong realized that there was a possibility that the Marshal's Mansion cut off the road to Tibet.

The existence meaning of the temple is completely gone, and the Zhuoni chieftain's territory has been completely surrounded by these Han people who believe in their ancestors.

An unimaginable behemoth, with the appearance of Dunta Ulus, was shown in front of Chieftain Yang Guolong. He also carefully watched the growth of the monsters entrenched around him, and carefully selected wisdom that was beneficial to him.

The rapid prosperity and development brought by the Han people to the Tusi territory also caused the feudal Tusi economy, which had been protected by the Ming Dynasty for a long time, to be impacted by the idea of ​​equality from the rebels.

When the Marshal's Mansion began to equalize the land, Yang Guolong had already ruled the entire Taozhou. The small Bazhai 3 people, under rapid expansion, became a big chieftain with 28 villages, 370 tribes, and 12 people. There are 200 Fanbing and Han soldiers at the pass in all directions.

Although he did not express his surrender to the Marshal's Mansion from the beginning to the end, he sent a leader to Hezhou to spy on the Marshal's Mansion's cultural, economic and land policies in Hehuang, and even bought it from the people. Potatoes and corn grown in Hehuang.

Just last autumn, one month after the huge harvest in the Hehuang subdivision land, Taozhou Zhuoni Tusi directly transferred the Marshal’s mansion’s land equalization policy and administrative divisions. Ten townships and [-] baos distributed the land to Fanmin for collective farming in units of xiangbao.

It's not that Yang Guolong couldn't resist the pressure of the people, so he just copied everything in a daze.

Instead, he took the land policy of the Marshal's Mansion for a whole month, and he agreed with Liu Chengzong's policy from the bottom of his heart, and thought that it was more efficient than the feudal chieftain's economic exploitation of the subjects... Everyone was very happy.

His family planted more than ten acres of land, and he could collect a bucket of grain a year, which was less than fifty catties.

But Liu Chengzong only used a little money, and the expropriation of an acre of land cost almost fifty catties. If you give you the money, you have to buy other things from the government, and the money goes back. What kind of exploitative efficiency is this?
No wonder people can support tens of thousands of standing troops with 12 farmers, but he can only support 12 standing troops with [-] people.

Yang Guolong was puzzled for a long time. He felt that it was impossible for everyone to be happy, otherwise the ancestors would have done this long ago. It was not until he studied carefully for a long time that he realized that the threshold required to exploit the people in this way was very high.

With just one iron farm tool, [-]% of the chieftains have been persuaded to leave. There is no need to consider the technical thresholds of farming, mining, and production. With the cooperation of professionals.

Even with the currently highly prosperous Zhuo Ni Chieftain, many places can't keep up, but all this is too tempting for Yang Guolong.

The most important thing is that this kind of collective labor and planned production in units of villages according to the terrain is completely consistent with the chieftain economy. Farmland is used for grain and pigs, pastoral areas are used for butter, cattle and sheep; forest land is used for wood, charcoal and local products; A village that produces iron will pay 20 catties of iron ingots a year, and a village that produces gold will pay [-] taels of gold a year.

The leaders of the Zhuoni domain are experts at planning these things!
It's all a perfect match.

After all, Liu Shizi himself is a big chieftain, and the whole of Hehuang is actually the product of a high degree of centralization after he defeated landlords, monks, officials, and chieftains through war.

Yang Guolong even wanted to learn from the Marshal's Mansion to promote pox vaccination, and hired a pox doctor from Qinzhou at a high price, but he was unlucky, the pox doctor only planted three people and one died, and fled back to Qinzhou fearing the crime, Yang was so angry The toast yelled.

No matter what, Zhuoni chieftain allotted all the land in Taozhou this year, watched the spring plowing in the official village, and waited happily for the autumn harvest to exploit the people. Then he suddenly realized a problem: the land equalization to buy taxes requires money.

Even if the money can be returned to the chieftain through economic means, a large amount of silver is needed in a short period of time. The Zhuo Ni chieftain family has some property, but where can they get more than 20 taels of silver to buy food?

Just when Yang Guolong was in panic about the large amount of silver, the war outside the pass attracted his attention.

There were 10,000+ rebels there. These people broke through dozens of county towns on the Western Expedition Road, and brought a lot of gold and silver with nowhere to spend. Yang Guolong knew that his opportunity had come.

The various leaders of the rebel army usually have no intention of making enemies with the chieftain. As long as the chieftain does not send troops, they are also happy to stay out of the river and concentrate on dealing with the government and the army. However, there is a special leader here, that is, Zhang Xianzhong, the Eighth King of Xiying .

Because everyone else has family members and civilian husbands, only Zhang Xianzhong implements the policy of absolutely elite soldiers. His civilian husbands are all forced to recruit on the spot, and they will be sent away when the goods are shipped, and they will never support idlers.

This method worked well in the past, but when he reached the western section of the Qinling Mountains, there were no cities or villages for him to plunder, and he was surrounded by friendly troops who did not lack money. The situation became embarrassing. He lacked everything except nothing. Gold and silver.

It is true that the chieftains cannot enter the mountainous areas where birds do not shit, otherwise Zhang Xianzhong will starve to death, so he must be beaten.

Zhang Xianzhong and Yang Guolong saw each other right now, but Yang Guolong didn't have any food at the moment, and he wanted to keep Zhang Xianzhong until autumn, so he sent someone to contact Zhang Xianzhong and allowed his two battalions to be stationed in the chieftain's territory outside the pass and invited him to enter the territory.

After some discussions, they hit it off, and Zhang Xianzhong immediately wrote a letter to Liu Chengyun, requesting to take a rest at the Hezhou Guard, and was willing to help fight the war, anyway, he also needed to fight the army to grab some food.

The most important agreement in the negotiation between the two was that after Zhang Xianzhong garrisoned Hezhou Wei, he would wait until the autumn harvest and use silver half the market price to buy [-] shi of grain, herbs, paper, and utensils. Buying Fu in the same land was revitalized.

　good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)