Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 68
Chongzhen has been in a good mood ever since Jin Yiwei, a thousand-household office, left Beijing for work in Zhangjiakoubao.

Because it has been almost a year since I came to Daming, and my first pot of gold in this world is about to be obtained, and the internal funds that are about to bottom out will soon be filled up. There will also be a proper share of the profit, and Hou Xun, the Minister of the Household Department, is also conscientious. For the sake of his son Hou Fangyu, who is very famous in later generations, it doesn't matter if he gives the old man a few more 10 taels. After fifty years, Hou Shangshu, who will be regarded as a middle-aged man in later generations, will be as worried as 70 years old.

Recently, good news has been coming one after another. Lu Xiangsheng wiped out tens of thousands of bandits in the First Battle of Chuzhou, and told Chongzhen Shangben that he was on the way to pursue Gao Yingxiang. Zhili territory.

Good news also came from Sun Chuanting, who was training soldiers in Tuntian, Shaanxi. The well-drilling team sent by Chongzhen from Huangzhuang made great contributions. Although the rainfall in Shaanxi was still scarce last year, under the hard work and technical guidance of the drilling team, Sun Chuanting built Dozens of well-drilling teams of varying numbers were assembled. At the same time, the Military Weapons Supervisor was in charge of the workshop of civilian agricultural tools, using high-quality iron materials to forge a large number of agricultural tools such as shovels, picks, and shovels, and delivered them to the governor of Shaanxi. Yamen, these agricultural tools have greatly improved production efficiency. Now there is a deep well for every [-] mu in the farmland, and the water output is enough for use. The crops in the field are growing gratifyingly. If there is no accident, it will be a rare bumper year.

Although Shaanxi has been in drought for a long time, it did not have the situation that the large-scale industrialization of the later generations led to the groundwater cut-off. Small, but the flow has not stopped. Sun Chuanting organized a large number of farmers to dig ditches and build water trucks during the slack season. They used the silt cleared from the river to fertilize the fields and used water trucks to irrigate. Although the amount of water is not very large, it is also suitable for well irrigation. A great addition.

Getting rid of the status of military households and eliminating the farmers who had been exploited and squeezed by their superiors for a long time, they burst out with great enthusiasm and enthusiasm for production. According to Chongzhen's intention, Sun Chuanting strongly encouraged and supported farmers to open up wasteland and farm, and announced that all newly opened land would be reclaimed within three years. Rent-free tax, tax payment according to thirteen after three years, and providing seeds for farmers to open up wasteland and dig wells for free, these few measures made all farmers collectively fall into a state of madness, and almost all families worked day and night during the slack season Opening up one more acre of wasteland means more food to eat. With food, there will be capital to marry wives and aunts and have children. If there are more children, there will be endless generations of children and grandchildren.

In addition to cultivating wasteland and farming, many brothers in the family chose to sign up for the army. The salary of one tael per month was a net income. It is provided by the imperial court. As long as you don’t get into the bad habit of gambling, the money will be sent to the family every month. The family will not only lose a strong laborer to eat, but also have a huge income. It is a good thing that a bachelor married a woman with a house. This is a good thing that I didn't even dare to think about; Apart from being happy, he even regarded the governor who brought them a good life as a god, and Sun Chuanting's reputation was in full swing around Xi'an Prefecture.

Some hungry people flocked to Xi'an after hearing the news. Fortunately, Sun Chuanting had a large amount of confiscated food. As long as there was no large-scale influx of hungry people, there would be no problem maintaining the food until this summer.

Cui Shisheng, Xie Renxing, Yang Mingsheng and others learned a lot of political knowledge in the process of digging wells, repairing canals, opening up wasteland and farming. The angry few people in the original book fully experienced the hardships and poverty of the peasants, and accumulated enough political experience. Good experience, Sun Chuanting also consciously separated several people to exercise their ability to be independent, and when the time is right, he will go to the emperor and the court to let them become officials and benefit one side.

Due to the large number of people who signed up for the army, Sun Chuanting, who originally planned to recruit 1 people to form the Qin Army, expanded the number to about 5000 after selective selection. Unable to command so many soldiers, Chongzhen urgently dispatched Zhou Yuji, who was far away in Shandong, to Shaanxi to serve as the deputy commander-in-chief of the newly formed Qin Army and take charge of the entire army. Chongzhen still wanted to hold important armed forces in his own hands. Zhou Yuji has already proved his loyalty with practical actions. Chongzhen is still very relieved when this team is handed over to him, and Zhou Yuji has outstanding ability, so he is not afraid of failing to lead the team.

There are chief generals, but the new army lacks a large number of grassroots military attaches. Frontline officers like Qian Zong, Ba Zong, and Dui Zheng need veterans with rich actual combat experience. Army command is a very complicated skill. Jin Drumming the flag, ordering the queue, responding to the battle, etc., all must be commanded by a calm and calm general with outstanding adaptability.

In order to make up for these vacancies, Sun Chuanting sent a letter to Hong Chengchou for help. Hong Chengchou transferred more than a hundred of Zuo Liangyu's subordinates to Sun Chuanting's office to serve as grassroots generals in the new army. Chongzhen selected several people from the Ministry of War and Jin Yiwei to serve as military discipline officers in the Qin Army. , used to supervise the army's daily and combat discipline, and to verify the results and achievements of the battle, so as to prevent generals from corrupting the credit of the soldiers. This is a new thing that has never existed before.

Many armies used to have eunuchs supervising the army, but eunuchs thought they came from the palace and represented the emperor. When they come to military affairs, they should be a transcendent existence. In the army, from the commander in chief to the soldiers, they have to listen to themselves. Therefore, they are basically extremely arrogant, beating and scolding generals and soldiers, randomly changing military orders, and interfering with the commander-in-chief's command. All the generals are very dissatisfied with this, but they dare not speak out. one of the reasons.

Since the beginning of this year, Chongzhen has recalled some of the eunuchs who supervised the army one after another. Although this matter was welcomed and supported by the generals, it also aroused doubts from many courtiers. They dare not have other thoughts, because the eunuchs can send a report to the emperor at any time, and report the abnormal behavior of the army and generals. It's hard to tell.

Of course Chongzhen was aware of the pros and cons here, and the reason why he recalled the military eunuchs was to prevent the eunuchs from raising the potential rate of tens of thousands of horses in history, sitting and watching the scene of Xuanda governor Lu Xiangsheng being surrounded and killed by the Qing army at a distance of tens of miles. Appear.

The Ministry of War sent people to monitor military discipline as representatives of the imperial court, while Jinyiwei sent personnel to represent the emperor, and Chongzhen ordered that the Ministry of War and Jinyiwei personnel only manage military discipline and record the performance of generals and soldiers in daily and combat, and have no right to intervene in the battle of the general. Command, in this way, avoids laymen leading experts, and makes the general focus more on combat command.

Sun Chuanting has no doubts about the placement of the supervising army. He believes that this is what it should have been. As a civil servant, he is very disgusted with the fact that some generals kill the good and pretend to be meritorious, and turn a deaf ear to the imperial court's orders. It was not eunuchs, but the Ministry of War and the emperor's pro-army supervised at the same time, which showed the importance attached to the court and civil officials.

(End of this chapter)