stubborn thief

Liu Shizi belongs to people who sit at home, and the pot comes from the sky.

If it hadn't been for Emperor Chongzhen's imperial letter to question the expansion of the Marshal's Mansion, Liu Chengzong would have no idea that the Marshal's Mansion had expanded to Jingning Prefecture.

As a matter of fact, he had to write to Wang Wenxiu to inquire about the situation, because when he received the imperial letter, Liu Shiren was already in Nangqian County of Kangning Prefecture.

Since Yang Qi led the army to Monan, and Wang Wenxiu led the army to station in Lintao to guard against Gongchang, Liu Chengzong devoted all his energy to the major event of locust extermination. At the beginning, he formulated a system to face locust disasters in Lanzhou. Township officials were summoned to Lanzhou to preside over the locust extermination work in Lintao Prefecture.

In just over ten days, 20 soldiers and civilians in the entire Lintao Prefecture were mobilized, and the people turned over almost all the land. The soldiers trampled the fields with horseshoes, and scattered all the rocky beaches Lime, sprayed with drugs, and took this opportunity to open up more than 2 mu of wasteland. The government collected 18 catties of dried locusts from the people, and the locust extermination was a great success!
Just when Liu Chengzong finally thought he could sit back and relax, the reality slapped him hard.

First, Feng Ru, who was stationed at the Qianhu Station in Gulang, sent someone to report that the grain they planted on the Wuwei Oasis was wiped out by the locust plague that swept past. Feng Ru's camp of more than [-] soldiers only protected There are less than a thousand acres of fields near Gulangsuo.

Immediately afterwards, the locusts revived, and the swarm of locusts that covered the sky and the sun attacked Hehuang again. This time, the locusts were so hungry that they even ate beans.

The most important thing is that according to the official report of the Marshal's Mansion, this batch of locusts did not come from the east, but from the west, to be precise, the southwest, the direction of Qinghai.

The whole of Hehuang was in a hurry to catch locusts. The herding camps in Golmud, Chuandan, and Tusi soldiers in Ulan Dulan arrived late, reporting that the overwhelming locust plague was spreading in Qinghai.

Since the beginning of the army, Liu Chengzong, who has been invincible and invincible for several years, was stunned by the locust plague. For the first time, he smoked a plain porcelain pipe and sat on the tall stone steps of the Marshal's Mansion. Full strength.

He never imagined that the biggest crisis since the uprising was not those incomparably powerful enemies and opponents, but the humble little locusts.

When there was a locust plague in Hexi, he could kill all the locusts, because there were nearly a million people in Hexi under his rule. Gone.

But in the vast land of Qinghai, he is really incapable of fighting locusts.

What's more, at the beginning, he didn't expect that the locusts would go there, because there was no one, no one had no fields, so what did the locusts eat there?

But he forgot that if humans can eat each other, locusts can also eat each other.

As long as the base is large enough, locust swarms can sweep across large areas of foodless land and lay eggs in suitable places.

After figuring this out, Liu Chengzong dropped the plain porcelain pipe, regained his fighting spirit and ordered Yubayashi to ride a horse, and embarked on the road to Kangning Mansion to preside over the extermination of locusts.

While he was still on the road, letters of help from the seven counties of Kangning Prefecture also arrived. Facing the sudden plague of locusts, Qiaojuan, who was born as a scholar, showed extraordinary talents, stabilized the situation in Kangning Prefecture by himself, and formulated a very decent plan. But even so, Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi are still pessimistic about the harvest in the coming year.

Because Kangning is different from Hexi, the sparsely populated Kangning Mansion is not capable of launching a large-scale war of annihilating locust eggs like Hexi. There are a large number of insect eggs in the ground. Even if they can escape the locust plague this autumn, they will not be able to escape the locust plague next spring. .

In particular, the regional environment of Kangning Prefecture has led to too few types of food crops that can be grown in the fields here. Generally, there are only three types, wheat, barley, and peas. Needless to say, the first two, locusts especially like to eat, even the last pea , It is also a good meal for the hungry locust swarm.

When Liu Chengzong arrived in Nangqian County of Kangning Prefecture, Kangning had already endured the first wave of locust plagues. The magistrates of the seven counties and leaders from all over the country submitted reports to the Kangning Prefecture. It was all eaten up, and the most terrible thing was the grassland, which was the pillar of the Kangning Mansion's animal husbandry, and it was also eaten up piece by piece.

When Liu Chengzong checked the archives in the government office, Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi were accompanied by him so ashamed that he couldn't lift his head - from top to bottom in the Kangning Mansion, there was nothing they could do about this situation.

This has nothing to do with their personal talents. The land's ability to resist such disasters is basically zero. Liu Guoneng's locust control measures can be taken to Hexi, and the locusts in the territory can be basically wiped out without causing major social turmoil. ; but this set of things in Kangning Mansion has basically the same function as ordinary people worshiping Liu Chengzong's statue at home: useless.

The eggs cannot be killed. In April next year, locusts will crawl out of the river valleys and beaches, repeating two or three waves, and the harvest will be over.

"Why are you so sad, the plague of locusts will definitely not be eradicated." Liu Chengzong sighed, flipped through the official documents to greet the two to sit down at ease, then raised his head and asked: "If the seven counties in Kangning Prefecture are exempt from grain tax next year, the government will How much food can we give to help the people?"

The scientific method of exterminating locusts is useless, and only the political method of disaster relief can be used.

"Free food?"

Liu Guoneng was so anxious that he just wanted to bite his nails. It's not that he didn't think about the food exemption.

Although Kangning Mansion has never paid food to the Marshal's Mansion due to road consumption, until Liu Chengzong captured most of Gansu and established the Gansu Governor's Mansion, the seven counties of Kangning Mansion were the places with the heaviest taxes in the Marshal's Mansion.

Corning's grain tax is [-]%, and because of the small number of cultivated fields, large population, and low yield per mu, the burden on the people has always been heavy.

Liu Guoneng thought and thought, but still shook his head in embarrassment and said, "Marshal, I'm afraid it will be difficult to avoid food..."

"The difficulty lies in the military supplies, right?"

Liu Chengzong flipped through the official documents and files, and he already knew the difficulties of the Kangning Mansion.

The environment in Kangning Mansion is difficult and objective. There are only 20 people living on the vast land. They rely on the criss-crossing river valleys to survive. The transportation is inconvenient and the people are generally low-educated. The strong and laboring children were given to the temple.

Building bridges and roads, digging wells and repairing dams, setting up sociology, breaking superstition, disseminating medicine, improving seed selection, and distributing agricultural machinery, all these have caused the government to have higher administrative expenses on this land.

On the other hand, the long feudal small country with few people made the old aristocracy have a strong ruling power over the local area, and the trend of restoration has always existed. After the locust plague occurred, 300 old aristocrats who were demoted to common people were supported. [-]. Two subordinate chieftains raised troops—the largest raised troops with a scale of [-] people, and the smallest restoration gang had only [-] people.

Naturally, the old aristocrats were dissatisfied with the status quo, but Liu Chengzong also had to admit that the aristocrats were deeply rooted in this land, and there was a certain foundation of public opinion.

On the other hand, it is also one of the military responsibilities of the Kangning Mansion to blockade and guard against Uzbek.

Therefore, Kangning Prefecture has the requirement to maintain a large number of garrisons. There is a Kangning Camp stationed in Nangqian County, and there are also thousands of households set up at five junctions of six counties other than Nangqian, with a total force of [-].

Numbers don't sound like much.

However, Liu Chengzong built the army by himself, and he is a rare expert in the world on the issue of military-local relations and the proportion of people who are out of production. Although the Marshal's Mansion has long studied and set rules, it has never been done. He is clear in his heart that peace The number of officers and soldiers in a state cannot exceed 5.00% of the total population, and even in a state of war it cannot exceed [-]%.

In all dynasties, except for the Great Qin that dragged itself down, the number of standing armies was almost one percent of the total population.

One-half of the 20 people are women, and among the remaining [-] men, only [-] to [-] are elderly, children, and disabled. , One more soldier means one less Gu family.

On this basis, Kangning Mansion maintains a standing army of 600 people. Even if the Guards Army only distributes half of their food, it is still an extremely heavy military service burden.

What's more, at this time, the strength of the Kangning Mansion was not [-], and Qamdo also stationed [-] guest troops from Li Laozhen's department and [-] new troops from Feng Shuangli's department.

For military rations alone, Liu Guoneng has to get [-] shi of grain a year. Where does he get [-] shi of grain?

He and Yang Dingrui, the two prefects, frantically reclaimed wasteland. Up to now, Kangning Prefecture only has 67 mu of cooked grain land, 25% of the grain tax, and one mu of land can collect [-] catties. It is a deficit every year. Kangning has always relied on Earned by government-run trade.

Either the commercial tax, or the local government collected the tax in kind and resold it directly to others. Salt from the salt field, ghee from livestock, and various goods pulled from Juerwan were resold to Changhexi to exchange grain and tea with Tusi Muya, and then resold them. The tea is brought to Qamdo and sold into Uszang to exchange for livestock, and then taken to the west of Changhe for sale.

Left hand to right hand, right hand to left hand, and back and forth, it takes a year to balance the accounts.

Theoretically, if there is no locust plague, and the harvest of autumn grain next year will be the first time for Kangning Prefecture to be self-sufficient, and the water conservancy and reclaimed wasteland that Yang Dingrui presided over when he was the prefect are all in the process of accumulating, 12 mu of raw land will become mature land next year. In the next year, 16 mu of raw land will become mature land, and they can already see the dawn of a normal livelihood.

Even if there is a plague of locusts, Liu Guoneng can still live.

But Liu Chengzong said that he would be tax-free.

With such a big shortage of soldiers and food, even if Liu Guoneng jumped into the sky, he would not be able to change it.

He said: "Marshal, you can collect food first next year, and then help the people affected by the disaster..."

Kangning Mansion is too poor, the environment is poor, the people are poor, and the government is also poor. No matter how talented you are, no one standing in the position of magistrate can be divorced from reality. The reality is that as the leader of the Kangning government, he needs to work hard for development. compromise.

The poor ravines are full of old aristocrats digging caves and waiting for restoration. The food for soldiers cannot be cut off. If it is cut off, it will give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it. The government must have food, but the government has no food. The situation of isolation can only get worse.

Liu Chengzong understood what he meant, and first collected the grain, and then distributed the grain for relief, which meant to fulfill his duty.

But Liu Shizi is not the magistrate of Kangning. He has powers that others do not have, so he naturally has a solution that others do not: "Free food, go to war."

Both Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi are stupid. In this place of Kangning Mansion, the neighbors around are stuffed with one another and the other is poor. Who are you fighting with?What's more, the problem itself is caused by the lack of food. If the war starts, will there be more food that is not needed?
Liu Chengzong was different from them, when he said the word "start war", the depression in his heart was gone, and he just felt unobstructed.

"Our current problem is that the Kangning government will not say that there will be no harvest next year, but will reduce production by [-]% or more. If we insist on harvesting grain, the people will only have a harvest of [-] catties or less per mu of land, and they will definitely not be able to eat enough. .”

"But without collecting food, the rations of the more than [-] garrisons in Kangning cannot be solved, so my idea is to increase income and reduce expenditure, send the army out to eat and fight the enemy, and cut off the largest part of the Kangning government's expenditure next year, so that even if the locust plague rises, there will be no problems. Do your best not to hurt the people.”

Liu Shizi didn't even believe what he said, so he just shook his head and jumped over without saying this.

Given the environment of Kangning Mansion, it is impossible to prevent locust disasters before they happen, and it is impossible not to harm the people, it is nothing more than a matter of the degree of loss.

But the lethality of the locust plague is only one or two Liu Chengzongs at best, and the blood bars of the people can only withstand the attack power of three Liu Chengzongs, so as long as he is willing to waive the food, the people can still survive half of their lives.

However, food exemption is only an expedient measure. If the locust plague problem cannot be resolved next year, and there will be locust plagues in the year after, Kangning Mansion will still have a hard time.

The current situation has become so difficult, for Liu Shizi, it is nothing more than taking one step at a time.

Although Liu Guoneng has been away from the battlefield for a long time, as a weapon of mass destruction in the Marshal's Mansion, he is not afraid of troubles. After pondering for a moment, he asked: "Then who is the Marshal planning to declare war on?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head inscrutablely and said: "No, it's not that we declare war on others, but let others declare war on others. We are only responsible for helping them fight."

In fact, he is afraid of losing money, and he is not afraid of losing money in a few battles. Even in the land of Corning, after investing a lot of human resources, he can recruit soldiers and train officials, and he can recover a lot of costs.

But the little local emperors around the Kangning mansion can’t do it. They are all little hedgehogs. They can’t eat meat when they are hunted down, and they have to invest a lot of manpower and material resources. Now the north has won Gansu and established the Marshal of the two governors’ mansions in Monan, Gansu The government has no spare capacity to invest in manpower.

"First of all, the old chieftains left in the territory. How much food and wealth they have, the Kangning government government has estimated, summoned them, borrowed money and food from them in the name of the marshal's mansion, and tided over difficulties together. The money and rations paid will be repaid in batches of ten years, leaving enough for their clan’s daily needs, and I will give the rest to me.”

"Those who are willing to borrow, the clan's children will draw up a list and send it to Lanzhou. Regardless of the size of the family or the amount of borrowing, they will be treated equally. In the future, officials or chieftains in places other than Kangning Mansion will be sent first. Among them, the talented and good ministers will stay in my Habayashi rides to do things."

"Those who are penniless, they will return to the land next summer and be reduced to common people, and I will pay back their debts with their property. This is one of them."

"Secondly, Muya in the west of Changhe has a feud with the chieftains of Shenbian and Lengbian. He should take revenge. My army helped him cross the Dadu River. If he wants to fight, he can declare war with the chieftains of Lijiang Mutian and Jinchuan. At that time, part of the rations of the [-] troops was paid by him, and the wealth of the nobles in the lands that were captured was my war profit, and the surrounding lands were handed over to him as the chieftain territory in the west of Changhe."

"The third is the aristocratic manor in Uzang. The three brothers of the Huoluochi family sent my army to Tibet to help them build castles. By the way, they razed those manors. The war profits belong to me, and the land belongs to him."

After all, Liu Chengzong looked at Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi: "The plague of locusts is huge, and we can only do our best, but these opponents are not difficult to deal with. With the strength of the two of you and the Kangning government's heavy troops, it should be no problem to fight a soldier with enough food. Come down?"

good evening!