The night fell, and the dry northwest wind blew strongly at the top of the city.

Looking out from the top of Zhuxian Town, a small town near Kaifeng Fucheng, there are dots of fire all around, as if the Milky Way from the sky has fallen to the ground, forming a large sea of ​​stars.

Those who lit these fires were the hungry people of Henan who gathered in Zhuxian Town. Looking at these dotted bonfires, you can imagine the number of hungry people here!

The reason why there are so many hungry people in Henan is, of course, because of several consecutive years of drought! From the 10th year of Chongzhen to the present, for five years, rainfall in Henan has been very scarce. Compared with normal years, it is at least less.

Seventy or eighty percent!

In the northwest region of Henan Province, where the drought is most severe, many prefectures and counties have not even had a good rain for two or three years.

Many places are so dry that they are almost turning into deserts!

Before this drought, which was like a disaster, Henan had been suffering from disasters for nearly nine years. The old foundation of civil famine preparation had long been gone, and only the official warehouses still had grain - the Ming court seemed to have

Unexpectedly, before the "catastrophic drought" came, he managed to save nearly 100 million stones of life-saving food! About one-third of it was stored in the large warehouse converted from Nanyang Imperial City.

However, it is not easy for the people in Henan to eat these life-saving food, because the Ming Dynasty does not provide disaster relief in vain, but implements the method of "relief with soldiers". If you want to eat life-saving food, then you can join the army and become a military household.

When you become a military household, of course you have to obey the orders of the Ministry of War and the General Council of the Armed Forces, leave your hometown in Henan, and go to cultivate and guard the border - Zhu Youjian is so cunning and cunning. Of course he will not let these military households stay in his hometown.

It’s easy to rebel if you stay in your hometown!

They were all transferred to the frontiers where they were unfamiliar. Even if they rebelled, they would not be able to change the world. Therefore, the new military households in Henan were miserable and left their hometowns, either to go to Guangning and Jinzhou in western Liaoning, or to Luzon, Java, and Occupy in Southeast Asia.

City, or going to Yunnan, Myanmar... are not good places, and if you go there, you can't come back!

Therefore, as long as there is food at home, most people are not willing to become a military household - but this is a good way to accurately provide disaster relief and eliminate corruption.

You can't exchange food for people! If you can't hand over people, the account won't be settled.

And most of the people who were handed over really had nothing to eat.

Of course, there are always exceptions, and there are also those "extraordinary" people who voluntarily join the army in pursuit of fame and wealth. However, they are not ordinary military households, but join hundreds of households and try out hundreds of households.

Because of the use of military aid in lieu of relief, the number of new military households in the Ming Dynasty increased sharply again in the past five or six years. The number of households had already exceeded 1 million, and it was almost over 1.5 million, while the population of military households exceeded 6 million.

!

Of course, it is impossible to lead such a huge army of military households with professional officers who came from the Guards Corps (actually a military academy), nor can they all be led by officers who have gained military merit. Therefore, for hundreds of households, when trying officers of 100 households and below, all officers

The recruitment method for martial arts competitions is to recruit directly from the disaster area - those who have no food to eat will be ordinary military households, and those who are brave will become Sesame Mung Bean officers. There is a way out for both.

If there is a way out, there will be no rebellion...at least there will be no rebellion in Henan.

The hundreds of thousands of hungry people now gathered in Zhuxian Town are the latest batch of Henan military households. They are still under the control of Henan Commander-in-Chief Li Xin, and will later be handed over to the Imperial Army Commander-in-Chief Li Zicheng who will be in charge of military households.

.....Li Zicheng just passed it by, and then this group of people would either break through Guandong, take the west entrance, or go to Nanyang, or go to Yunnan and Burma.

Because he was afraid that hungry people who had already received food to survive would cause rebellion, Li Xin, the commander-in-chief of Henan Province who had just been transferred back to Henan from North Korea three years ago, personally led his troops to Zhuxian Town and watched these "substitute rebels" at the scene.

The city wall of Zhuxian Town was heavily guarded, and clusters of torches were burning. The elite of the Henan Ming Army, armed with armor and strong weapons, were on duty on the city wall. When Li Xin was transferred back from North Korea, Zhu Youjian gave him special permission.

Bring back 1,500 elite soldiers, including 500 cavalry. These are ruthless men who have killed slaves, Japanese pirates, and traitors in Korea. Of course they can hold down the situation.

Because of their intimidation, the "starving military households" around Zhuxian Town were relatively stable, and no one dared to cause trouble.

At this moment, within the city walls of Zhuxian Town, a banquet was being held. A group of men wearing official robes from hundreds of households gathered in a large house, eating and drinking in a tent set up in the yard - this was Li

Li Zicheng, who had just arrived under the throne of Xin, served a drink to welcome Li Zicheng. Hundreds of "starving military households" outside Zhuxian Town also came to eat and drink, and many of them even brought their mothers-in-law.

A stout man with a Xinyang accent who seemed familiar was holding a wine bowl and clinking glasses with people at the tables. Next to him was a charming woman dressed in red, who seemed to be a member of the world, drinking with the man.

, laughing loudly together.

In the hall, Li Xin was drinking with Li Zicheng, Henan deputy general Chen Yongfu, and other senior officials from Henan town or imperial army. He didn't know whether he drank too much or was thinking too much. He was staring at the woman intently.

, and asked in a low voice: "Who is the woman in red?"

"Her name is Red Lady, she was a bandit..." Chen Yongfu said, "What do you call Red Lady on Jigong Mountain!"

The man in green robe next to him is called Feng San, and he is the second in charge of Jigong Mountain in Xinyang. A while ago, Hong Niangzi and Feng San were recruited by Runing, and the bandits under them also filled two hundred households. Hong Niangzi

He Fengsan is an official of one hundred households.

Oh, by the way, that red lady married Feng San a few days ago, Feng San is so lucky!"

"What a pity..." Li Xinxin muttered in a low and inaudible voice, and stopped talking to Chen Yongfu about the Red Lady. Instead, he changed the topic to talk about the military situation in Liaodong and North Korea.

"Have you heard? The King of North Korea is going to marry his daughter to Prince Ning, and he also wants to make the future Princess Ning the royal daughter-in-law... The condition is that we send troops to help North Korea regain its territory!"

"I've heard about it once," Li Zicheng said with a smile, "I heard it from the counselor Gao Jie... It seems that he also talked about Mao Shuai Zhishi and Mao Shuai's youngest daughter Mao Zhenzhen entering the palace as a noble concubine. Mao Jiajun is considered a concubine this time.

My surname is Zhu completely."

Chen Yongfu's eyes were also shining brightly, "This is an opportunity to make great contributions and gain a title!"

"Anything like ennoblement and cracking the earth is a troublesome thing!" Li Zicheng waved his hand, "Just one earl is annoying to death!

It’s better that Mr. Li has not been trapped by a title so far!”

Li Xin said angrily: "That's my bad luck...I never achieve great results." He gritted his teeth, "But I must go to North Korea again this time. Wherever I fall, I get up!"

…

"Long live my lord, Concubine Mao has arrived."

Beijing, Xiyuan, Wansheng Palace. Zhu Youjian, who had just finished processing a large number of memorials and was standing up to stretch his muscles, heard the news from Wang Chengen that Concubine Mao had arrived.

After Zhu Youjian destroyed the Yeerqiang and expelled the Wala, he began to attack Mao's army - Mao Wenlong's Pingliao Army and the Jiliao Army split between Zu Dashou, He Kegang, and Zhao Guangyuan (son of Zhao Lijiao).

They are all relatively powerful warlords. Of course, Zhu Youjian must absorb and digest them as much as possible. Only after digesting them one by one will the Ming court be strong enough!

Mao Wenlong is the easiest warlord to deal with, because most of his family members were killed by Nurhaci, leaving only one son and two daughters. The son is called Mao Chengdou, the eldest daughter is called Mao Dongzhu, and the younger daughter is called Mao Zhenzhu. Among them, Mao Chengdou's age

Very young, nine years younger than Zhu Youjian, he is only 24 years old this year. He joined the Youth Guard Corps in the fifth year of Chongzhen, and later joined the Guard Corps. Since then, he has been serving in the system of the armies in front of the tent, and in Pingliao

He has little influence in the military and has no great abilities.
Chapter completed!