Chapter 2109 Gui Zi Juan: If you don’t have rice to cook a meal, you still need to make a fire
The guess made by Pan Ruzhen's staff was not very accurate.
When the rebels entered the Jin Dynasty, Feng Ziying did not feel much pressure because this was basically a foregone conclusion before he entered Shaanxi. If the court wanted to blame him, he could not be blamed.
The counties in the eastern part of Xi'an Prefecture, Hancheng, Chengcheng, Heyang and Baishui, have long been invaded by rebellious armies, and the situation has long been out of control. Whether the county towns fall or not depends purely on the offensive of the rebellious armies.
The only thing the Xi'an government can do is to suppress the rebels as far as possible east of the Tongguan, Pucheng, and Huazhou lines to avoid crisis in Xi'an City. In addition, Tongguan must be defended, which is the key pass for Qin to enter the Central Plains. There can be no mistakes.
Even the imperial court did not send a letter to Feng Ziying, or Feng Ziying had not had time to receive the letter from the imperial court.
But after learning about this situation, Feng Ziying still realized that the situation had a tendency to get out of control.
In his impression, it was northern Shaanxi that was the first to ignite the uprising in the late Ming Dynasty. However, when the uprising in northern Shaanxi quickly spread to Shanxi, the situation in Shanxi changed completely, and almost all the famous rebel leaders in the late Ming Dynasty were They came from the 36th Battalion of Shanxi. Although almost all of them were from Shaanxi, such as Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, etc., the rebels in Shaanxi became increasingly lonely.
Pingyang Prefecture is in a very important position, straddling the key passes of three provinces. Once it falls, it will affect Luze Prefecture and Huaiqing Prefecture, causing turmoil in the Central Plains.
The problem is that he has too much time to take care of himself now, and there is no other better way than writing to the court asking Shanxi Town and Taiyuan Town to quickly send troops south to suppress and suppress.
Not only is he too busy to take care of himself, he is even sitting on the flames of the fire.
Although the situation around Wubao, including Suide, Mizhi and Jiazhou, has basically stabilized, this does not mean that there are no problems in these prefectures and counties. If the food problem of the hungry people is not solved, the hungry people will turn into mobs, and then Become a rogue bandit who robs homes and homes.
Although the large groups of rebel troops were basically wiped out and mobilized in the battle of Wubao, the scattered deserters of the rebel army and some small groups of rebel troops who did not have time to arrive still exist in these places.
Feng Ziying received the news that these small groups of rebels and deserters were fleeing south and west. To the south was Qingjian and Yanchuan, where the rebel forces were strong, and to the west they were intending to pass through Anding and go to Bao'an. They even joined the Qingyang rebel army at Qingyang Mansion.
He now has no energy to chase down these fleeing rebels. There are still many things that need to be done in front of him. The most important thing is to find a way to settle and digest these rebel soldiers, or in other words, the hungry mob.
If you don’t give them a way to eat, you will either have to kill them all, or you will have to allow them to regroup and become a rebel army.
Part of it can be digested by establishing a guard army, but this is tens of thousands of people. Although thousands were wiped out in the siege, there are still more than 12,000 border troops and rebel troops that need to be digested and reorganized.
"It's not just a problem of more than 10,000 people. According to the information obtained by Mr. Xia's investigation, more than 600 people have starved to death in Wubao this month alone, and as time goes by, this tragic situation will become even worse. Seriously, that is to say, if there is no solution, by this winter and next spring, more than 70% of the people in Wubao County may become rioters, which is more than 20,000 people,..."
Wang Wenyan's hoarse voice echoed in the hall, "This is just Wubao, the smallest county in Yan'an Prefecture, and the county with the worst drought. Jiazhou has more than 30,000 people, Suide has more than 60,000 people, and Mi There are more than 50,000 people in Zhi, more than 20,000 people in Anding in the west, and more than 40,000 people in Qingjian in the south. I dare not say that these people will become mobs and rebels, but even if half of them cannot survive, this is still 100,000 The crowd,…”
"Sir, this is complicated. Every place has different situations. In short, there are both objective and subjective." Wang Wenyan did not answer this question directly.
I can't finish it in one day. What I want to talk about now is to solve these problems in the north first. Only by stabilizing the northern part of Yan'an Prefecture can we say that we have a stable rear. Once something happens, the Yulin Army can also move smoothly. If we go south, otherwise, we will encounter this kind of siege by the insurrectionary army every time, and the game will be over at some point.
Feng Ziying snorted at Wang Wenyan's treachery and said nothing more. With Pan Ruzhen here, she made it clear that it was embarrassing.
To solve the problem of disorderly and hungry people, there is nothing more than relief, suppression, and recruitment. However, the former is to treat the root cause, while the latter two are to treat the symptoms. No matter how well the latter two are done, in the end they have to fall back on the first one.
The key point is that no one knows how long God will continue to torture this northern land. The drought continues and the relief cannot continue forever. Then we really can only run south in one breath, to a place where we can survive and have food to eat.
"Zhen Pu, you are the prefect of Yan'an and are most familiar with the situation in this prefecture. How do you think we should deal with the current situation?" After a few days of contact, Feng Ziying and Pan Ruzhen quickly became familiar with each other.
Although Aunt Mi Zhi, who was specially selected by Pan Ruzhen, was still being treated and had not yet had time to be sent to Feng Ziying's inner house. Pan Ruzhen himself felt that he still lacked a good relationship with the governor, but Feng Ziying felt that this person was well-behaved and organized. Maybe he is a little lacking in integrity and is too enthusiastic about his official career, but this is not a bad thing. For himself, it is even a good thing. As long as he is willing to do things for himself, he will not hesitate to give the other person a better future.
"Sir, I have been in Yan'an Prefecture for four years, and I have visited most of the prefectures and counties in my prefecture. If it were three years ago, the prefectures and counties in my prefecture were in dilapidated condition, and the people were extremely poor, and they could only make a living. I would have thought How to solve the livelihood problem of the rural people, but the government's financial resources are limited, and annual taxes are indispensable. Most of them have to be transferred to Yulin Town. This is indispensable, otherwise..."
Otherwise, the responsibility for the mutiny of the Yulin Army would be pinned on him. He would never dare to bear this responsibility. Once he was pinned, his official career would almost be cut off.
“The imperial court should have exempted Yan’an Prefecture from taxes since last year, right?” Feng Ziying frowned.
"Yes, the imperial court exempted it from the ban last year, but in the past few years, various disasters have continued in northern Shaanxi. The people have long been in dire straits. Their families have no overnight food. If they are slightly sick, they can only sell their sons and daughters..." Pan Ruzhen laughed at himself. He said, "To put it bluntly in front of the governor, once disaster strikes in northern Shaanxi, even boys and girls will not be able to sell for a high price. If their parents want to sell them for more money, they would rather cross the Yellow River and go to Hedong." Baode, Xizhou, Jizhou, and Yongning. My servants told me that Datong and Taiyuan are the most affordable places, but they are too far away, so I settled for Puzhou and Linfen, which are not bad..."
"But many people want to take their children to the east of Hedong and sell them, but they can't do it. How many people have died of starvation on the way..." Pan Ruzhen looked sad, "You said that in this situation, the people will either starve to death or break the law and cause chaos. And death, how to choose?”
"Don't the gentry in this government have any kindness or good intentions? It is the gentry's natural obligation to help the people. Otherwise, why would the gentry be a gentry, and where does the preferential treatment given by the court come from?" Feng Ziying's tone remained unchanged, " As far as I know, there are quite a lot of big gentry families in this province. There are four big families in Fushi alone. Qingjian is also supported by the Xiaojiu family, and there are also merchants from Suide and Mizhi. I think the situation in the south is similar. Needless to say, grain farmers and grain merchants are one body, even in desolate places like Baoan and Anping. The luxurious family celebrated their birthday by hosting a banquet for eighty tables and spending tens of thousands of taels of silver. According to the current price, they bought one Do you have enough Wanshi grain?"
The question left Pan Ruzhen speechless. He knew that Feng Ziying was talking about the Gu family, the head of the security gentry. The head of the Gu family, Gu Yansheng, was the in-law of Lin Jin, the chief envoy to the government, and his son was also a juren. He is now in Baoning, Sichuan. As the county magistrate of Bazhou, it was Gu Yan's eightieth birthday. Although he didn't go, he sent someone to give him generous gifts.
The Gu family is the largest family in Bao'an, owning hundreds of hectares of fertile land, and is also the largest grain merchant in the area. Even the magistrate of Bao'an has to look up to him. Although he, as the magistrate of Yan'an, is not afraid of the other party, there are many times when he cannot easily After breaking up with each other, the local government still relied on these gentry for many matters.
Seeing Pan Ruzhen lowering his head and not daring to speak anymore, Feng Ziying calmed down a little and said, "Zhenpu, among all the prefectures and counties in Yan'an Prefecture, which one does not have ten or eight wealthy gentry families? There are many tyrannical people, including right-wing and evil gentry. There are countless ways to plunder and plunder, and I believe you know better than me..."
Feng Ziying paused again, "I also know that relying on relief alone will only treat the symptoms but not the root cause. I know that the current financial resources of the imperial court are very important. There are chaos in various places and the imperial court is overwhelmed. What about Shaanxi? Counting too much on the imperial court, the greater the hope. The greater the disappointment, I will tell you the truth here, the court gave me 300,000 taels of silver, haha, according to the current grain price in Shaanxi, how much corn can 300,000 taels of silver buy?"
Pan Ruzhen was unspeakably bitter. Even dealing with Yan'an Prefecture was difficult with 300,000 taels of silver. If the price of food were based on the previous years of good harvests, 300,000 taels of silver could still do something, but now there has been a drought for three consecutive years. , food prices have already skyrocketed, and 300,000 taels of silver are no longer enough.
But he also knew that Feng Ziying should be telling the truth. The government's financial difficulties could not be hidden from the officials. Anyone with some connections in the court would know that if he could give Feng Ziying 300,000 yuan, that was because the situation in Shaanxi was so bad. , and also has high hopes for Feng Ziying, hoping that he can skillfully make a meal without straw.
(End of this chapter)