Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 114 Rectifying Bijie
"My lord, the front is Bi Jiewei's residence."

On November [-]th of the first year of Taichang, when Jiangnan and the imperial court were quarreling, a group of people arrived from Bijiewei, Guizhou, southwest.

Although the tall man on horseback was wearing Taoist robes, judging from his physique, he looked more like a general.

This person was exactly Sun Chuanting who was transferred by Zhu Youjian to Bijiewei for training, and there were more than [-] people around him, all of whom were soldiers from the Sun family sent by the Sun family to help him.

In the distance, between the mountains, on the narrow plain, a city rose up.

From a distance, the city wall is two feet high and built with local gray and white stone, which looks very hard.

The structure of this city was studied by Sun Chuanting long before he went south.

Bijiewei is located on the northwestern border of Guizhou, facing Sichuan across the Chishui River in the north, and adjacent to Zhenxiong Mansion in the west.

Bi Jiewei had one guard and one house under his command, [-] military households, and [-] mu of military farmland.

Just comparing the Central Plains and the Jiangnan and Hebei areas, Bijie’s army stationed seed grains have not been paid since five years after the orthodoxy.

Because there is not much arable land and it is located in the southwest, no ministers and emperors care about it.

Sun Chuanting pointed at the city wall of Bijiewei with his horsewhip and said: "The city wall of Qixing Pass was raised to two feet high when guarding against Yang Yinglong, and it was thickened to one foot and seven feet. It is very strong."

"This city wall is six miles long, and there are [-] households living in it, with [-] people."

"Among them, there are [-] civilian households and [-] military households, but these are old calendars from the Yongle period."

Seeing that Sun Chuanting knew so much about Bi Jie, the soldiers of the Sun family on the side said:
"According to what your lord said, the number of people at Qixing Pass should be far more than what is written on paper? How dare I wait for more than [-] people to enter the city and announce the abolition of Bi Jiewei?"

"Why don't you dare!" Sun Chuanting snorted coldly and said:

"I'm entrusted by His Highness and Long Live, how can I be afraid that Bi Jiewei's husband will fail? Drive!"

After all, Sun Chuanting rode his horse along the road and rushed towards Qixingguan City in the narrow plain.

When they descended from the narrow mountain path, they could see the plain as far as they could see.

In Yunnan and Guizhou, the plain between the peaks of this plateau is called Bazi, and Bijie Bazi is a plain.

It's just that on this plain, there are still some low hills and sloping land. The land that can be regarded as flat is only more than three million mu.

But even so, wherever Sun Chuanting and the others passed by, as long as they were slightly flat, fields had been reclaimed.

Even some low mountains and hills have been reclaimed into terraced fields, and the terraced fields are all in a dry state, waiting to be watered before planting in the next year.

Some people in ragged clothes, wearing simple coarse clothes and not even cotton stuffing, are digging the fields, hoping to freeze the pests hidden in the fields to death.

Seeing Sun Chuanting and the others, who were so handy, they all cast envious eyes.

"The arable land in Bijie is probably no less than four million mu..."

Looking at the scene in front of him, Sun Chuanting's heart sank, and he also thought about how to deal with the things that need to be dealt with when the guardhouse is abolished.

They were too ostentatious, and they were riding northern horses, so it was obvious that they were not natives of Guizhou.

Therefore, when they came to the Qixingguan city gate, they were stopped by six guards without any surprise.

"you……"

"I'm going to punish you according to the division of the Procuratorate Division, and ask you to command the envoys to come out."

Before the soldiers of the guard could speak, Sun Chuanting directly showed his official seal.

This approach stunned the six guards for an instant. After reacting, the little banner officer bowed and said:

"My lord, please wait a moment, and I will tell the commander right now, my little one."

The Xiaoqi officer's spoken language was impolite, and he didn't even understand all kinds of officialdom. Such a reply made Sun Chuanting even more confident in taking down Bi Jiewei.

If you don't understand, you don't practice, and this group of guard soldiers are all wearing worn-out mandarin duck battle jackets, and the weapons in their hands are even simple spears. Even the little flag officer is wearing a thick-backed hatchet around his waist. .

It's not difficult to guess that Bi Jiewei has been neglected for many years since Yang Yinglong put down the chaos, and the soldiers and horses in the city may not even have a few complete sets of armor.

Sun Chuanting was even more confident, and simply got off his horse. With his height of nearly two meters, those guard soldiers in their early [-]'s were desperate.

"Somewhat short, but with a big frame. If you practice hard, you should be able to become a good soldier."

When the guards were desperate, Sun Chuanting looked at their skeletons and nodded secretly to their skeletons.

In this way, after a quarter of an hour passed, Sun Chuanting vaguely heard the sound of horseshoes.

He looked into the city, and as expected, he saw a middle-aged man in ordinary clothes riding a black horse coming towards him.

Behind him, there are more than [-] soldiers in cotton armor, all riding horses, but the horses are a bit short.

"This should be Shuixima in Guizhou..."

When he saw the horse, information about Shuixi horse appeared in Sun Chuanting's mind.

"Shuixi Horse" is a fine breed cultivated in the Guizhou plateau ecology. It is small, flexible, has good endurance, runs fast, and carries a lot of weight. It is especially suitable for mountainous areas.

Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, this horse has been a tribute to the court in the Shuixi area, and the number of tributes has reached as many as 30 times.

They are less than five feet tall, much shorter than the bred northern war horses.

"Bi Jiewei Commander Lin Lang, I don't know..."

Getting off his horse, Lin Lang bowed to Sun Chuanting, but without waiting for him to ask, Sun Chuanting directly took out the imperial decree from his arms and shouted:

"Lin Lang accepts the order!"

As soon as the four words appeared, Lin Lang stayed where he was, and only reacted after being reminded by the people behind him, and quickly knelt down to accept the order.

"Sun Chuanting, the magistrate of the seventh rank of Shangqiu, was promoted to the inspector of Guizhou, the inspector of the sixth rank, and the military guard of Bijie, and the abolition of Bijiewei."

"Lin Lang, the former commander of Bijiewei, was transferred to Longliwei to serve as the commander, and he will only take office on the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month in the first year of Taichang!"

"What?!" Hearing this, Lin Lang couldn't help but look up, and looked at Sun Chuanting in disbelief.

His Lin family had served as commanders in Bi Jiewei for more than fifty years, and they managed to gain a firm foothold and take care of all the benefits, but the imperial court ordered them to start all over again?

"Commander Lin, accept the order..." Sun Chuanting's face was flat, and what he relied on was the imperial order in his hand.

Unless Lin Lang dared to disobey the imperial decree, he had to leave.

Of course, Sun Chuanting hoped that he would disobey the imperial decree, so that he could attack Lin Lang on the spot.

Sun Chuanting, who was nearly two meters tall and weighed more than two hundred catties, was confident that he could defeat Lin Lang, who was five feet tall, in a few breaths.

In Sun Chuanting's daydream, Lin Lang's face turned pale for a moment, and he could only weakly accept the imperial decree: "Lin Lang, accept the imperial decree..."

Seeing that he chose to accept the order, Sun Chuanting felt a little regretful, and then said with a cold face:

"Commander Lin can take his relatives to Longliwei. As for Bi Jiewei, everything needs to be kept, including the yellow book."

"..." As soon as these words came out, Lin Lang's face became even more ugly.

After the yellow book was handed over, as soon as Lin Lang led the people away, Sun Chuanting made a big stroke, and Bi Jiewei's army field belonging to his Lin family would be gone in an instant.

This is abolition, not as simple as changing a commander.

As long as it is abolished and transferred away, his Lin family's military farmland will be gone.

Lin Lang was very unwilling, but what could he do?Right now it is the Tianqi Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty is in full swing, and among the guards under him, there are only a hundred servants who can fight.

He looked at Sun Chuanting, and behind him more than [-] Shanxi burly men all over five feet five in color, and finally he could only sigh and say:
"The yellow books will be handed over to the inspectors later, but if the more than [-] military households of Bijiewei know that the guards have been abolished and the military farms will be taken back, I'm afraid..."

Lin Lang was the commander of the guards that his grandma didn't love and his uncle didn't love. It was impossible for him to play any tricks like the generals of the battalion and the gentry and civil servants in Huaibei.

If he dares to play tricks now, soldiers and horses from Guiyang will come to suppress the rebellion tomorrow.

Therefore, at most, he would disgust Sun Chuanting.

However, Sun Chuanting was not moved by his method at all, and just shouted loudly:
"The imperial court wants to abolish Bijiewei, distribute the general farmland to military households, and cancel the household registration of military households, not to take back the military farmland!"

"It's over..." Lin Lang gritted his teeth when he heard Sun Chuanting being so stubborn.

He didn't expect Sun Chuanting to be so courageous, daring to make this kind of thing public.

"Commander Lin, please go on the road..." Sun Chuanting said meaningfully, which immediately made Lin Lang's veins twitch, but he faltered again in the next second.

He was afraid of death, so he could only take his hundreds of servants to prepare to leave. After they left, Sun Chuanting told the ten Sun disciples:

"There is a military horse farm at the foot of Longpan Mountain to the west of Qixingguan City. You take people to guard it, and don't let them take the horses away."

"Yes!" Hearing this, ten soldiers rode their horses towards the horse farm.

Since there were less than [-] days left, Lin Lang could only hastily greet the people of the Lin family to prepare to move.

"My lord, the inspector sent someone to the horse farm!"

"What?!" Just as Lin Lang was returning home and calling for someone to greet him and prepare to move, the small official from the military horse farm ran into Lin's mansion, calling out to Lin Lang out of breath.

Lin Lang immediately felt bad when he heard the words, and immediately led his people to the horse farm.

At the same time, when he led people to the horse farm, as soon as Sun Chuanting got the news, he led people to raid the command post directly, and snatched the yellow book and fish scale atlas.

When Lin Lang took people to the horse farm, his face immediately turned pale when he saw the soldiers of the Sun family at the door.

The military stud farm was guarded, which meant that he couldn't take a horse from here.

Although there are not many horses in the military stud farm, they are worth tens of thousands of taels of silver...

Thinking of this, Lin Lang had a toothache, and when he was about to return to Qixingguan City, a servant galloped from a distance on a horse and shouted:

"My lord, the patrol led people to forcibly break into the command post, and took away the yellow book and the fish scale album."

"Idiot! You won't stop him?!" Lin Lang cursed upon hearing this.

There are fifty or sixty people in the command post, and there are only a dozen people around Sun Chuanting. If they want to stop them, Sun Chuanting will definitely not be able to get in.

"This..." The servant showed embarrassment, how could they dare to block the way to inspect the censor?Isn't that courting death...

Don't mention them, Lin Lang will also be implicated at that time.

This principle, Lin Lang also realized after getting angry, he only felt that the general situation was over, and now he only hated himself for not training more servants, otherwise he would not have been so manipulated by Sun Chuanting.

"Fortunately, I have already moved the silver from the treasury to my home..."

Lin Lang thought of the [-] taels of silver at home, and suddenly heaved a sigh of relief.

Even without the land, with this batch of money and servants, he can still go to Longliwei to develop, but it will take some time.

"Let's withdraw all our people from the command post, and I'll see how he reorganizes his military equipment."

Lin Lang spoke angrily, but his servants had no choice but to follow suit.

There is no way, the means of the two are far too different, Lin Lang is just a dude who inherits the command post of his family, at most he invades the army's farmland and develops new fields for his own pocket.

Facing Sun Chuanting, who even Shangqiu County has been rectified into obedience, what can Lin Lang do?The ranks of the two are quite different.

Reluctantly, Lin Lang asked someone to move out of the command post, while Sun Chuanting led more than a dozen family soldiers and posted notices around the city.

The content is very simple, that is, the guards are about to be abolished, and after the army settles the fields, they will be distributed to Dingkou according to the head.

In addition, those who intend to join the army will be allocated an extra ten mu of land.

Almost when the people of Qixingguan City did not react, Qixingguan City changed hands.

Lin Lang began to pack up his things and prepare to leave. As for the hereditary military military officers such as Qianhu, Baihu, and Zongqi in Qixing Pass, they ran towards the command post in a vain attempt to visit Sun Chuanting.

However, the abolition of Bijiewei has become a foregone conclusion. The military households in the former guards have to be re-measured and cataloged.

Perhaps these former Qianhu, Baihu, and Zongqi families have opened new fields, but Sun Chuanting does not need their new fields.

All he wanted was the [-] mu of military farmland belonging to Bijiewei, and the other thing was to measure all the civilian land in Bijiewei and collect taxes normally.

He didn't do everything right, which gave Qianhu, Baihu, and Zongqi a way out.

Bijiewei has developed for two hundred years, and the military farmland has accounted for less than 10% of the farmland, and more of it is civilian farmland.

For Qianhu, Baihu, and Zongqi, the military household system has been abolished, so there is no need to lead troops to fight and no longer need to support family members.

Although it is a bit painful to hand over more than [-] mu of army farmland from his hands, it is better than Sun Chuanting turning his face and calling Guiyang's soldiers and horses to suppress them.

So, in the next five days, Sun Chuanting successfully recruited more than a hundred subordinate officials with the one thousand taels of silver he had withdrawn from Shangqiu County.

Moreover, he also used ten acres of land as a soldier, another ten taels of silver a year, and the payment of military pay next autumn as a temptation. In ten days, he recruited more than [-] people.

Next, he still needs to measure the acres of land, and then abolish the thousand households in Laoyaguan, Guihuayi and other places.

Winning Qixingguan is just the beginning, the key is how to use Bi Jiewei's resources to train a team to resist the extravagant Chongming who may rebel in the north...

------

"It's not bad..."

On the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, when Zhu Youjian's voice sounded in the backyard of the Imperial Horse Prison in Yanshan Daying, it also meant that he knew all the news.

He was sitting on the main seat, next to him were handwritten letters from Hong Chengchou, Wu Aheng, and Yang Wenyue, and he was holding a handwritten letter from Sun Chuanting.

These handwritings are all handwritings they have experienced in various places, and they are also very smart, knowing that they have no background, so they express their closeness to Zhu Youjian in their hearts.

In other words, this group of people has become Zhu Youjian's people.

"Your Highness, from this point of view, among them, Hong Chengchou is the most capable."

Zhu Youjian put down Sun Chuanting's letter, and Wang Chengen who was beside him suddenly spoke.

"Hmm..." Hearing this, Zhu Youjian glanced at Hong Chengchou's letter.

I have to say that although the old thief Hong Chengchou is not firm in his stand, he is not capable. He is one of the few generals who led hundreds of thousands of troops and Hou Jin in the [-] years of Tianqi and Chongzhen.

Compared with Sun Chuanting's experience, Hong Chengchou's experience is more relaxed.

He arrived in Chongqing Mansion early, just as Xu Keqiu, the newly appointed governor of Sichuan, wanted to reorganize his military equipment, so Hong Chengchou received Xu Keqiu's order just after he took office.

Xu Ke asked the prefect of Chongqing to allocate five thousand taels of silver and two thousand stones of grain, and asked Hong Chengchou to rectify the military equipment of Chongqing government. Not only Hong Chengchou, but also Wu Aheng of Hejiang and Yang Wenyue of Jianwu received Xu Keqiu's order.

Wu Aheng received [-] taels of silver and [-] shi of grain from the Luzhou government, and Yang Wenyue received [-] liang of silver and [-] shi of grain from the Xuzhou government.

It can be said that, compared with them, Sun Chuanting can be said that grandma does not love, and uncle does not love.

The governor of Guizhou was abolished, and only Chengxuan was appointed as the political envoy. However, Guiyang was very poor and could not help Sun Chuanting at all.

This is why Sun Chuanting did not go to Guiyang for help, but chose to enter Bijie alone.

But for now, it seems that without Guiyang's help, he is still doing well.

Although he has not taken people to measure all the acres in Bijie, but according to the situation in Bijie mentioned in the letter.

There are [-] mu of military farmland, plus [-] to [-] million mu of land tax. With the current tax and additional distribution, it is still possible to collect [-] stone land tax.

[-] shi of grain, leaving [-] shi as military rations, and then selling [-] shi of grain, at the price of grain in Guizhou, it can be sold for about [-] taels of silver.

There are still some stretches...

Zhu Youjian stroked his chin and stood in Sun Chuanting's situation, thinking that Bi Jie could support six thousand soldiers at most, after all he had to build armor and ordnance.

Six thousand soldiers, if you add Yang Wenyue, Wu Aheng, Hong Chengchou, and Qin Liangyu who returned to the stone pillar, then you should be able to get [-] soldiers.

Thirty thousand people can at least withstand She Chongming's rebellion, which means that the situation in the southwest has changed from a very dangerous situation to an ordinary one.

After that, as long as She Chongming gave Sun Chuanting and the others more than half a year, this matter would be completely controllable.

If She Chongming does not rebel at that time, Zhu Youjian will ask the Ministry of War to transfer She Chongming to the north, and ask him to go to Liaodong to aid Liaodong.

In short, if he rebels, suppress him, and if he doesn't rebel, let him and Nurhachi dog bite the dog.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian frowned, and then said to Wang Chengen:

"Cheng En, ask Lu Jianxing to go to Sun Chuanting to collect grain, and how much money is there in the Yumajian's treasury?"

"Back to His Highness, when the servants handed over to Admiral Cao, there were still [-] taels." Wang Chengen responded:
"More than half a month has passed, and there are [-] taels left."

"Among them, the repair of Qingling Mausoleum cost [-] taels, the honeycomb coal kiln purchased [-] taels of raw materials, the seven guards and one battalion cost [-] taels, and the monthly salary taught by Yanshan was [-] taels."

"The other two thousand three hundred and sixteen taels are iron materials purchased by the Ordnance Institute and the Artillery Factory."

"They also made gun models and drill guns according to His Highness's drawings, and bought [-] jin of iron materials."

"Study the rifling mentioned by His Highness, in addition to improving the Lumi blunderbuss, I also helped build [-] farm tools."

Wang Chengen said so, and Zhu Youjian also said: "In addition to the seven guards and one battalion, how many people have been recruited now?"

"Returning to Your Highness, in the name of civilian husbands, I have recruited more than [-] people, but Huairou and Miyun's fields have already been distributed. If there are still people coming, then..." Wang Chengen looked at Zhu You check.

His meaning is obvious, and there will be no land for anyone who comes later.

Such a hint is not a big problem for Zhu Youjian, he calmly said:

"How's the South Field going?"

"Return to Your Highness." Wang Chengen responded:
"There are too many acres in the south field, and the measurement has not been completed until now, but there is good news that Admiral Cao has sold the first batch of [-] sheep and [-] poor horses that went south."

"The price of sheep is higher than expected. In Suzhou, a sheep costs four or two yuan. Counting the cost of briquette and forage, one sheep earns three or two or three yuan."

"The price of the nanny horse is also very high, thirteen taels a horse, and some students in Suzhou bought it up as soon as they got off the pier."

"Together with sheep and horses, we sold a total of [-] taels."

"According to this price, the [-] sheep and more than [-] horses are all sold out, and there can be at least more than [-] taels of silver."

Speaking of this, Wang Chengen couldn't help laughing. This is probably the only thing he was happy about after he took charge of the North Field and felt the financial pressure.

As for Zhu Youjian seeing that Wang Chengen smiled, he also laughed.

After all, it only cost less than [-] taels of briquette to exchange these livestock. After going south to trade, they can actually earn six or seven times the profit. It is normal to be happy.

But after he was happy, Wang Chengen said another good thing to Zhu Youjian with a smile on his face.

"Your Highness, there is one more thing to tell you."

"Finish." Zhu Youjian was a little curious, what was worth Wang Chengen's happiness for so long, but he would know in the next second.

Wang Chengen smiled and said to Zhu Youjian: "Your Highness, Qi Yuanfu, the deputy commander-in-chief, led eight thousand Zhejiang soldiers to abolish the four guards and three guards, and by the way, got six hundred yin of salt from the group of grain merchants, gentry, and guard officers. Yin and [-] Yin tea."

"Six hundred salt quotations?" Hearing this, Zhu Youjian frowned slightly, not knowing why Wang Chengen was so excited, and Wang Chengen explained to Zhu Youjian how profitable the exchange of salt quotations was.

In the Ming Dynasty, for every 300 catties of salt, [-] catties equaled [-] catties.

Most of the salt in the coastal area of ​​Daming is seven to eight yuan a catty, which seems not expensive, but if it is sold to the Mongolians, it can be sold for thirty yuan per catty.

Of course, this is only a converted price. In the end, the salt will be converted into silver together with the Mongolian horses as a transaction.

Eighteen thousand catties of salt can be sold for [-] taels of silver in the mutual market. According to the price of [-] taels of a Mongolian medium horse, it can be exchanged for [-] medium horses.

In other words, after the salt was brought into his hands, Zhu Youjian had another trade item in the mutual market.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian's eyes lighted up. According to his relationship with the good emperor brother, he could directly ask the good emperor brother for salt.

This kind of thing, he has too many seniors who have done this kind of thing...

(End of this chapter)