Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 224 Qin Liangyu comes out of the mountain (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

The grain speculation incident in Jiangnan had a great impact, especially a large number of noble gentry who were beheaded and their homes confiscated, which quickly stabilized the south.

The gentry in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian who had just declared their allegiance to the Hongguang court were also much more honest. The "Hongguang New Deal" was implemented in these places very smoothly.

Li Xianzhong appointed Sun Chuanting as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and temporarily placed Taiwan under the rule of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Sun Chuanting's main task was to restore production in Guangdong and Guangxi, recruit and train new troops, and prepare for the next campaign against Annan and Manila.

Although Zheng Zhilong and Liaodong Bank made a lot of profits, the biggest gains were actually made by Huizhou merchants.

Although the direct profit was not much, the Suzhou businessmen were greatly weakened this time. They not only took the opportunity to seize the market, but also took over many industries at a low price.

As a result, Huizhou merchants took control of many silk workshops.

They originally controlled the porcelain in Jingdezhen, but now they also have a place in the silk and cloth in Suzhou.

Huizhou merchants also became a new supplier to East Ryukyu and began to participate in overseas trade.

It has opened up a new market for them, which is also the dividend brought by successfully joining Li Xianzhong!

After this battle, the imperial court imposed maximum price limits on bulk products such as salt, grain, and alcohol.

The imperial chamber of commerce in the same industry imposed maximum selling price limits based on regional differences.

Once the price limit is exceeded, the court will impose sanctions!

In this way, the possibility of malicious speculation is basically eliminated!

After Li Xianzhong set out from Nanjing in April, he has been confronting Zhang Xianzhong's troops in Wuchang.

It is said to be a confrontation, but in fact Wuchang does not pose much of a threat.

Because the Liaodong Navy completely controlled the Yangtze River waterway, Zhang Xianzhong's Great Western Army was unable to threaten Wuchang on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

The main point of contention between the two sides is Hanyang, north of the Yangtze River.

When Chen Qiyu led thousands of remaining soldiers to flee from Xiangyang to Wuchang, he naturally abandoned Hanyang and defended Wuchang City with all his strength.

Therefore, Zhang Dingguo's troops were allowed to occupy Hanyang.

Afterwards, Mao Wenlong led 30,000 troops to Wuchang. Naturally, he, the newly appointed governor of Huguang, could not let Zhang Xianzhong fight in Wuchang.

The Liaodong Army relied on the powerful firepower cover of the navy's naval guns to easily recapture Hanyang.

Just as Mao Wenlong was preparing to make persistent efforts to fully recover the areas north of the Yangtze River, Li Xianzhong's order came.

Mao Wenlong was ordered to go south and occupy Yueyang and Changsha first to prevent Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi Army from entering Jiangxi.

So Mao Wenlong had to give up the Hanyang he had just captured.

Speaking of which, this was a hole Li Xianzhong dug for himself.

At the beginning, he wanted to let Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and other peasant armies open up the situation.

The "Field Dividing Policy" was a killer weapon for them, which enabled the people of Huguang to obtain a large number of land deeds signed by Zhang Xianzhong.

Now that Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi regime has been established, these people holding land deeds naturally support the Daxi regime.

As long as Zhang Xianzhong called, the pie he drew for them earlier would become a reality.

This caused the Huguang area to fall rapidly.

Nowadays, only Wuchang and Huangzhou are left in the entire Hubei Province that have not been completely captured by the Daxi Army.

Even the Hunan region is falling rapidly.

Therefore, Li Xianzhong only adopted some bills to restrict land annexation. For example, for those who own more than 3 acres of land and then purchase land, the deed tax on the transaction will be increased significantly from 100% to 300%; for those who own more than acres, the deed tax will be increased to %.

Basically put an end to the desire of these large landowners to annex land again.

Then he took a lot of land into his own hands through killing, ransacking homes, and forcing donations.

These imperial official lands were leased to farmers at relatively low prices, which also restricted landlords from using their fields to charge high rents to a certain extent.

After all, there is a large amount of cheap government land for rent. Naturally, if the landlord’s land is expensive, no one will be your tenant.

Moreover, now that "the gentry pays the grain as one body", the common people no longer need to list their land in the name of the gentry to evade taxes.

Although the Ming Dynasty did not have the concept of inheritance tax, Li Xianzhong stipulated that the transfer of land deeds and land deeds must pay deed tax.

The ordinary deed tax is very low, only 3%, but he stipulated that all land deeds and land deed inheritances with a market value exceeding 1 taels must pay a 10% deed tax.

This 10% is equivalent to inheritance tax!

Therefore, it is a huge impact on the traditional landlords and wealthy people.

Hoarding large amounts of land has become unprofitable.

However, Zhang Xianzhong, who held the "Field Dividing Policy" as a killer weapon in Huguang, was still very popular.

In addition to conquering Xiangyang and killing Queen Xiang earlier, he also killed King Zhu Fengquan of Shu in Chengdu, King Zhu Qiying of Min in Wugang, King Zhu Youfan of Jing in Qizhou, King Zhu Youdong of Ji in Changsha, and King Zhu Rong of Changde. Yu Xun and Jiang Ling killed King Hui Zhu Changrun.

Although it is not as good as Li Zicheng's killing of ten vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty, he has great potential to catch up.

When Mao Wenlong regained Changsha, Zhu Changying, the king of Gui in Hengzhou, almost cried and begged Mao Wenlong to march into Hengzhou to protect himself.

In order to express his sincerity, he was willing to follow the example of King Lu and King De in retaining only 10,000 acres of farmland, and the rest of the land was dedicated to the court.

Under the leadership of King Gui, Chu King Zhu Huakui of Wuchang, Yi King Zhu Youben of Jianchang, and Huai King Zhu Changqing of Raozhou all expressed their willingness to donate their land to support the "Hongguang New Deal".

So far, except for the King of Zhou who surrendered to Li Zicheng, all the remaining vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty have handed over their farmland.

Li Xianzhong successfully recovered a large amount of land from the Ming Dynasty clan kings.

Zhang Xianzhong's "Field Dividing Policy" hardly left any way for the gentry in Huguang to survive, causing them to all turn to Li Xianzhong.

After all, Li Xianzhong only wanted their money, while Zhang Xianzhong not only wanted their money and land, but also their heads!

This is the first time that the Liaodong Army has been actively welcomed by the gentry since it went south!

However, the current situation in Huguang is not very optimistic. Zhang Xianzhong's Great Western Army has 350,000 strong troops.

Li Xianzhong stayed in Wuchang for two months without moving troops. First, he needed to observe the situation in Jiangnan. If there was a mutiny in Jiangnan, he had to return to the army in time.

Therefore, he could not get into a melee with the Daxi Army at this time, lest he would not be able to get out in time in the future.

Second, he focused his energy on Hunan, where the enemy's defense was weak. He first cut off Zhang Xianzhong's passage south from Huguang to prevent him from flowing to Jiangxi or even Guangxi and causing harm to these places.

In the past two months, Mao Wenlong's 3-strong army has successively recaptured Baoqing, Yongzhou, Changde, Yuezhou and other places, almost driving Zhang Xianzhong's forces out of Hunan.

On June 6, Mao Wenlong defeated Zhang Wenxiu's troops at Jiuxi Guards in Yuezhou, annihilating more than 20 elite members of the Great Western Army, and then went all the way north to occupy Shimen, Gong'an, Yidu and other places, and approached Jiangling, the important town of Huguang.

This forced Zhang Kewang to withdraw his troops from the Wuchang front line and return to defend Jiangling to prevent the Ming army from taking advantage of the situation to cross the Yangtze River and threaten their rear.

At the same time, Zuo Liangyu also led 2 people from the Luzhou and Anqing areas to invade Huguang and regained Huangzhou Prefecture in one fell swoop.

Zhang Dingguo was keenly aware that something was wrong in the atmosphere.

Although the Ming army did not make any major moves on the Wuchang front line, it only relied on its naval superiority to continuously bombard Hanyang and consume its own effective strength.

But the Ming army had already begun to move on his flank. Although it was still far away from Wuchang, he clearly felt the pressure.

Also, the navy of the Ming Army was too powerful, and fighting along the Yangtze River, the Daxi Army had no chance of winning.

Therefore, Zhang Dingguo decided to abandon Hanyang and retreat to De'an Mansion.

However, at this time, the Daxi Emperor Zhang Xianzhong had personally come to Chengtian Mansion to take charge.

Chengtian Mansion was the original Anlu Prefecture. After Emperor Jiajing soared in Anlu, the place was renamed Chengtian Mansion.

It is located between Jiangling and Wuchang.

This is also the reason why Zhang Xianzhong chose to take charge of Chengtian Mansion, so that he can take care of both sides.

After Zhang Wenxiu lost 2 main troops in Yuezhou, the Great Western Army still had 33 troops.

Among them, Zhang Nengqi led 5 people to garrison Fudi, Sichuan, and the defeated Zhang Wenxiu led 3 people to garrison Kuizhou to choke the entry into Sichuan.

"Cao Cao" Luo Rucai led 3 people to garrison in Xiangyang.

Zhang Kewang and Zhang Dingguo each led 6 troops to garrison Jiangling and attack Wuchang.

Zhang Xianzhong himself led an army of 10 to Chengtian Mansion.

After receiving Zhang Dingguo's request to evacuate Hanyang and retreat to De'an, Zhang Xianzhong began to hesitate.

He said: "Zhang Guoshi, what do you think about this matter?" Zhang Jiao was made a national master by Zhang Xianzhong after he presented the killer move of "Field Dividing Policy" to Zhang Xianzhong.

However, Zhang Xianzhong was different from Li Zicheng. He was very suspicious and almost did not trust advisers.

If Zhang Jiao's "field division strategy" hadn't been of great use to him, he probably wouldn't have kept his only adviser.

Zhang Jiao knew that Zhang Xianzhong was suspicious, so he had to tell the truth, so he said: "The Marquis of Zhenxi has been confronting the Ming army on the front line, and he should know the situation. Judging from the current situation, the Ming army has indeed begun to attack Jiangling, Wuchang, etc. The ground advanced."

"It is safer to retreat to De'an!"

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong said nothing and retreated to De'an. This scene seemed a bit familiar.

Last year, he retreated hastily from Wuchang City and was stalked by Cao Wenzhao's cavalry all the way, almost unable to escape.

If Zhang Kewang hadn't taken the initiative to divert the pursuers away, he probably wouldn't be the Great Western Emperor today.

While Zhang Xianzhong was hesitating, a sergeant suddenly came to report that the Marquis of Zhendong had arrived.

Isn't Zhang Kewang stationed in Jiangling? Why is he here?

I saw Zhang Kewang saying: "See my father, my son and I are here for Hanyang!"

"Does the third brother want to give up Hanyang?"

Zhang Xianzhong said: "Dingguo does have this intention!"

Zhang Kewang said: "This must not be done. Now the north bank of the Yangtze River is still under my control in Daxi. Although Zuo Liangyu occupies Huangzhou, he has only 2 troops in total, which will not threaten the third brother's flank!"

"But if we voluntarily abandon Hanyang, the Ming army will take advantage of the situation and cross the Yangtze River in large numbers."

"Once Wuchang is no longer contained, the Ming army's warships will go down the river and capture Jiangling. By then both De'an and Jiangling will be attacked by the Ming army, and we will face the risk of total collapse!"

"At this time, the best policy is to stick to Hanyang. I suggest adding more troops to Hanyang!"

From Zhang Kewang's perspective, his analysis was not wrong. Once Zhang Dingguo retreated, his Jiangling would be in danger.

Now they all look at the problem from their own perspective, so in the end Zhang Xianzhong still has to make his own decision!

As an undercover agent of the Intelligence Department, Zhang Jiao certainly hoped to attract Zhang Xianzhong's main force to the Wuchang area.

If he runs back to Sichuan, it will be even more difficult to eliminate him!

He said: "Your Majesty, I, Da Xi, are fighting a decisive battle with Li Xianzhong in Huguang. Li Zicheng's Da Shun can't watch the battle from the other side!"

"Wei Chen is willing to go to Luoyang to persuade Li Zicheng to send troops to threaten Fengyang. This will definitely make it difficult for Li Xianzhong to take care of both!"

Zhang Kewang also said: "What the National Advisor said is absolutely true. If Li Zicheng can send troops, our chances of winning in defending Huguang will be greatly increased!"

Huguang is the place where Zhang Xianzhong made his fortune. If you ask him to give up directly, he will naturally be reluctant to do so.

Especially Xiangyang, which was besieged by the Ming army for a year without losing it.

In the end, Zhang Xianzhong decided to personally lead an army of 8 to support Hanyang.

As a result, the Daxi Army on the Hanyang front reached 14 people.

Seeing Zhang Xianzhong personally leading the army, the Ming army naturally wanted to cooperate.

Zuo Liangyu sent light cavalry to sneak attack Xiaogan north of Hanyang, but was repulsed by the Daxi Army. Then the Daxi Army took advantage of the situation and captured Huangpi County in Huangzhou Prefecture, completely consolidating Hanyang's flanks.

Naturally, it was impossible for Li Xianzhong to waste two months in Wuchang. Mao Wenlong's 30,000 troops attacking all the states in Hunan naturally attracted the attention of Zhang Kewang and others.

In fact, Mao Wenlong was just covering up for Zhang Zhiji.

To be precise, it just opened a channel for him.

In just over a year, it was impossible for Zhang Xianzhong to control the entire Sichuan.

Sichuan still has considerable chieftain power, and these people at least superficially submit to the Ming Dynasty.

Li Xianzhong also understood that it would be easy for him to regain Huguang at this time. With a hundred thousand troops and the help of the Liaodong Navy, Zhang Xianzhong's hundreds of thousands of horses were simply not enough.

But if Zhang Xianzhong was allowed to escape back to Sichuan, with his cunning, the dangers of the mountains and rivers, and the desperate fighting of Zhang Kewang, Zhang Dingguo and others, the pacification of Daxi would definitely be far away, and it would not be impossible to even do it in a year or two.

So he decided to give Zhang Xianzhong a beating.

His goal is Kuizhou, and he wants to trap Zhang Xianzhong in Huguang.

He was not sure about the other chieftains, but Ma Xianglin and his mother Qin Liangyu from the Shili Xuanwei Division must be loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

They also have a white-pole soldier in their hands.

The location of Shili Xuanwei Division is also very critical. It is to the south of Kuizhou and next to Wanxian County.

Therefore, Mao Wenlong's approach to Jiangling was just a cover.

While Zhang Kewang was defending Jiangling, Zhang Zhiji and Cao Bianjiao had already led 1 people from Wuchang for two months.

During this period, they did not take the main road, but plunged into the mountains of northwest Hunan.

Starting from Yongdingwei, we entered the territory of a large number of chieftains such as Yongshun Xuanwei Division, Baojing Prefecture Xuanwei Division, and Youyang Xuanwei Division.

Zhang Zhiji and others carried Emperor Hongguang's imperial edict to re-canonize these chieftains and rewarded them with gold and silver along the way.

These chieftains originally disliked Zhang Xianzhong's burning, killing and looting, so naturally they could not wear the same pants with him.

Anyway, they are all loyal to the Ming Dynasty. As for Emperor Chongzhen or Emperor Hongguang, they don't care at all.

After these chieftains obtained a large amount of gold and silver, they not only sent out guides, but also sent troops to assist in the battle.

So when Zhang Zhiji and others arrived at Shili Xuanwei Division, they already had a combined armed force of 1 people!

The sudden appearance of this army really shocked Qin Liangyu.

Qin Liangyu was also very excited after learning about Zhang Zhiji's intention.

But Ma Xianglin on the side looked troubled!

He said: "When the Xian bandits entered Sichuan, our Baigan soldiers sent troops to stop them. Unfortunately, now we are surrounded by the Xian bandits and it is very difficult to supply supplies."

"If you can't even feed your five thousand people, how can you feed so many troops?"

Zhang Zhiji said: "The reason why we walked for so long two months is that we carried a lot of food and equipment with us."

"Your Majesty has fought hand in hand with the white-armed soldiers, and he knows very well the difficult situation you are in!"

"So I specially ordered the governor to bring 1000 pieces of heavy cloth cotton armor, Rumi guns, and shi of food!"

Ma Xianglin said excitedly: "Are these equipments for us?"

Zhang Zhiji nodded and said: "Your Majesty knew in Liaodong that the Baigan soldiers' Baigan guns are indestructible, but your armor is not."

"The prince said that if the white soldiers can wear these heavy cotton armors, their combat power will be greatly increased!"

At this time, both Ma Xianglin and Qin Liangyu were very moved.

They sent troops many times to help the Ming Dynasty. Whether it was Sichuan, Bozhou, or even Liaodong, a lot of blood of white pole soldiers was shed!

Although the imperial court also rewarded them with money, food, and titles, it never took the initiative to provide them with weapons and equipment.

Qin Liangyu said: "The main road in Kuizhou has been blocked by thieves. Did you transport these things over the mountains to get here?"

Zhang Zhiji said: "Actually, the prince wanted to bring hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to Mrs. Qin and Ma Xuan as envoys to show the court's gratitude to you, but this mountain road is really difficult!"

"If a few chieftains hadn't sent a large number of tribesmen to help us carry it, we probably wouldn't have been able to transport it in another month!"

Qin Liangyu naturally knows very well the virtues of his neighbors. They send people and troops. I am afraid that the young master in front of him, Zhang Zhiji, has a lot of money.

Qin Liangyu said: "It is our duty to serve the Ming Dynasty. When Quanzi was in Liaodong, thanks to the Liaodong prince sending troops to contain the main Tatar force, he was able to escape. I haven't thanked the prince yet, how can I be worthy of the prince now? Such praise!”

In fact, Ma Xianglin defended Kuandian Fort for three months and even lost one eye. He was quite complaining about Li Xianzhong's Liaodong Army's failure to save them!

However, I was relieved later when I learned that Li Xianzhong used their containment to defeat the Tatars on the northern front.

Qin Liangyu also said that Li Xianzhong's approach of surrounding Wei and rescuing Zhao should have been the best choice at that time.

Qin Liangyu is 58 years old this year. Years of fighting have left her with injuries.

However, in order to serve the Ming Dynasty, she decided to go out again and help Zhang Zhiji and others capture Kuizhou!

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(End of this chapter)