Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 607: Emperor Yanping Passes Away

Yang Mingzhao naturally didn't know that the prefect had fallen ill, so he sent people to the city to inquire about the news. However, after more than two months of inquiries, there was still no movement in the prefectural government.

This made Yang Mingzhao a little confused.

"Why don't the government come to suppress the bandits?"

"Could it be that the prefect doesn't know yet?" Chen Buyu guessed.

Yang Mingzhao said: "He is not deaf, how could he not know?"

"Why is that?" Chen Buyu was also puzzled.

It's right that they find it confusing, because they naturally don't understand the thought processes of those officials.

Not to mention Su Muye, almost all officials in Bashu are now in a state of lying down.

When the first wave of rioters came out to cause trouble, they were still thinking about responding actively. They conscripted soldiers from the garrisons and recruited local militiamen to actively participate in the cause of suppressing the rebellion.

However, successive defeats completely crushed their enthusiasm.

The first to start the rebellion was the Black Tiger King, who withstood all the pressure and drove the government's army of rebels away.

It’s not that the Black Tiger King is very powerful, it’s just that the government’s army to suppress the rebellion is too bad.

When tens of thousands of soldiers and militiamen went to the battlefield, they couldn't even get enough food to eat. And we still expect them to put down the rebellion?

At that time, the Black Tiger King only brought a few hundred fierce old thieves to disperse the army of tens of thousands.

Later, a Nine Heavenly Kings emerged. The three government offices in Bashu felt that it was difficult to suppress the rebellion on their own, so they thought of bringing in the Shunan Xingdusi to help suppress the rebellion.

Ma He, the commander of the Southern Shu Xingdusi, did come with thousands of troops to quell the rebellion, but he demanded money and food before the battle even started.

The three government offices in Bashu could only hold their noses and pay money and food, but Ma He led his army forward, marched for a year, occupied four counties, and then stopped moving.

Ma He continued to ask for money and grain, but the Sansi Yamen refused to give them to him, so he went to collect the money and grain himself.

In this way, the four counties became Ma He's territory.

In name he was still the commander-in-chief of the Shu'nan Xingdusi in the court, but in reality he had become a local emperor in Shu'nan.

As for why the court did not send troops to quell the rebellion, it was because the court had forgotten about it.

At first, some people in the court said that there were rioters in Bashu, but later, all the civil and military officials in the court were busy fighting, and no one paid attention to the situation in Bashu.

Emperor Yanping has been ill for the past two years and he is powerless to handle many state affairs.

After all this, no one in the court paid attention to the rebels in Bashu anymore.

Since the imperial court didn't care, the officials of Bashu had no choice but to lie down.

So the situation has become what it is now.

At first, Yang Mingzhao was still on guard against the government coming to quell the rebellion, but later he found that not only was there no movement in the prefectural yamen, but even in the three yamen of Bashu, there was no movement at all, so he felt relieved.

Of course, he still arranged people to keep an eye on the Sansi Yamen and the Kuizhou Prefecture Yamen, but he was no longer overly nervous.

In the lobby of the county government office.

"Since the government won't attack us, we don't need to rush to expand. Let's manage Taiping County first!"

Yang Mingzhao said.

"Young Master, aren't we going to continue expanding? With our strength, we can definitely capture another county!" Chen couldn't help but said.

Yang Mingzhao shook his head and said, "Without a stable foundation, it is useless to occupy more territory. What we need to do now is to lay a solid foundation!"

"First, we need to recruit scholars. We still have too few scholars under our command. We don't even have enough clerks in the county government."

"Only with enough clerks can we formulate systems, set tax amounts, and then collect taxes!"

"For the time being, we will cancel all the exorbitant taxes and corvée labor, and only keep the land tax and business tax!"

"Second, we need to build water conservancy projects. Many canals in the countryside have not been repaired for a long time, and many of them have become clogged. If we want to feed the people, we must ensure that they have a good harvest!"

"The importance of water conservancy is self-evident, so next we will organize the people to build canals."

"We don't need to contribute money or grain for this. I believe that as long as we take the lead, the people will participate enthusiastically. After all, this concerns their harvest!"

"Third, we need to restore the operation of the salt wells, tea workshops, and medicinal materials workshops, and open up trade routes to ensure that we can obtain more silver and money."

"The salt wells cannot be shut down. Many households still rely on the salt wells for their livelihoods. We need to resume production at the salt wells as soon as possible!"

"Similarly, tea and medicinal materials must be restored. Not only must production be restored, but trade routes must also be opened up. Otherwise, the tea and herbs grown by tea farmers and medicinal farmers will be meaningless!"

"It's not easy for us to go to Kuizhou Prefecture, but we can go to Longnan."

"The fourth training session. We only have 700 strong men. This is obviously not enough! But we don't need too many troops right now. If we recruit too many strong men, it will affect the people's farming!"

"So I decided to recruit another 800 young men, a total of 1,500 people, to establish the Taiping Army. Uh, the Taiping Army is the name of our army."

"In addition to recruiting young and strong men to join the army, we also need to form a group of peasant soldiers, who are similar to the soldiers in the garrisons. They will farm during the busy farming season and train during the slack season!"

"We will train in villages, with 30 to 50 strong men in each village. If we need to fight against the imperial court's rebellion-suppressing army, we can gather tens of thousands of troops at any time!"

"And if the Taiping Army needs to expand in the future, we can also select personnel from the peasant soldiers!"

"In addition to these, we also need to build our own forging workshop to forge weapons and armor. We don't have the ability to forge iron armor for the time being, but we can use rattan armor!"

"besides……"

Yang Mingzhao said a lot of things in a row, and everyone below nodded repeatedly.

Occupying Taiping County does not mean that they can be worry-free. They have more things to do next.

Although there are many things to do, everyone feels very motivated.

They are now a startup team, and in the early stages of starting their business, each of them is very passionate about their next venture.

And now that they have achieved certain results, they are even more enthusiastic.

Therefore, they all felt very energetic afterwards, except Wu Zheng, who even felt a little bored.

However, Wu Zheng did not leave. It was not because he did not want to leave, but because he really could not leave.

He could ignore Yang Mingzhao's mischief, but he could not ignore Yang Mingzhao's safety, so he could only follow Yang Mingzhao in mischief.

With a team and a territory in place, Yang Mingzhao and his group focused on developing their business quietly.

Just as they were growing up, Emperor Yanping finally succumbed to the cycle of life, aging, sickness and death, and passed away on November 8, the 20th year of Yanping.

After Emperor Yanping passed away, Crown Prince Chen Zhaojun ascended the throne and named the reign title Jianxing.

As the saying goes, every emperor has his own ministers. When the new emperor ascended the throne, he immediately made drastic adjustments to the court.

Unfortunately, all Emperor Jianxing's actions will be in vain.

Or maybe it was God's will to destroy Darong.

In the first year of Jianxing, there was a severe drought in Longyuan, Longxi and Longnan. The land was barren for thousands of miles and all crops were gone. Many people fled and twelve or thirteen people died of epidemics due to hunger.

Due to the severe drought, bandits emerged everywhere, sweeping away hundreds of thousands of starving people and looting money and food everywhere.

In just a few months, the three provinces became a land of chaos and war.

The first year of Jianxing, that is, the fourteenth year of Xingyue, mid-July.

In the vast Wanshan Mountains, Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi stood on the peak, overlooking the thousands of miles of Longyuan hills.

Everywhere you look, it's all earthy yellow.

Since the beginning of autumn last year, there has been almost no rain in Longnan. There was no snow in winter, no rain in spring, and only a light rain in summer. Not to mention the crops, even the weeds died.

Many rivers have dried up, and some small rivers have even dried up.

Yang Zhengshan turned his head and looked towards the depths of Wanshanling. There were patches of green between the overlapping mountains, but they looked listless!

"Husband, when will it rain?" Yu Qingyi said with a heavy heart.

Yang Zhengshan raised his head and looked at the clear sky. "Three months later! Haha, a little rain!"

His face looked quite ugly because he had sensed that the drought would last for three years.

That means this is just the beginning.

A drought lasting three years, with some rain in between, but nothing to help.

Most people can't even survive this year, let alone the severe drought in the next two years.

"Do you want to take care of it?"

"How can I care? You and I are just human beings, not gods!" Yang Zhengshan said somewhat dully.

He can only sense the celestial phenomena, but cannot change them or call the wind and rain.

As for the spiritual spring water in the space.

Don't joke, there is a lot of spiritual spring water in the space, but that is relative to humans. Compared with the thousands of miles of barren land, the spiritual spring water in the space is just a drop in the bucket.

Longnan’s current problem is not that there is no water to drink, but that there is no rain to irrigate the farmland and no food to fill the stomach.

With such a severe drought, not only himself, but even the imperial court was powerless to do anything.

At this time, a large number of hungry people were pouring into Wanshanling because there was still food there.

Leaves, bark, grass roots, etc., these will become food for the people to fill their stomachs.

"Let's go!"

Yang Zhengshan turned and walked towards the forest.

Yu Qingyi looked at the dry land with some worry, but finally left helplessly.

Yang Zhengshan did not do nothing. He still sprinkled a lot of spiritual spring water in the mountains.

These spiritual spring waters can make the grass and trees in the mountains grow more luxuriantly, and perhaps some people can survive by relying on these grass and trees.

The two wandered around the edge of Wanshanling for a long time, leaving behind a large amount of spiritual spring water.

But they left after all.

Faced with such a great disaster, they also seem powerless.

Yang Zhengshan has some kindness in his heart, but he is not a saint. The most he can do is what he can do. Anything more would be beyond his ability and psychological range.

In his opinion, in the face of such a natural disaster, it is enough to do one's part.

There are so many sufferings in the world, but he is not a living Bodhisattva who saves people from suffering.

They went deep into Wanshanling and then walked out of Wanshanling and entered Bashu.

Well, they passed by the west of Taiping County. They had heard that there were rebels in Taiping County, but how could they have imagined that their own sons were actually rebelling!

So they just missed it.

It would be very interesting if they met Yang Mingzhao.

Unfortunately, they plunged into the mountains and hills in the west of Bashu.

The two men went all the way south, left Dayong from Yunling Town, entered the Toungoo Dynasty, and then continued south from the Toungoo Dynasty and entered the Ilan Dynasty, a subsidiary dynasty of the Temple of the God of War.

The Ilan Dynasty and Dayong had very different customs. The biggest feature of the Ilan Dynasty was the pagodas that could be seen everywhere.

"Should we go to the Martial God Temple to have a look? It is said that there are countless masters in the Martial God Temple and the martial arts are flourishing."

Yu Qingyi suggested as the two were walking in the mountains in the east of the Yilan Dynasty.

Yang Zhengshan glanced at the surrounding vegetation and said casually, "Aren't you afraid of being beaten to death if you go to the Martial God Temple?"

"What should I be afraid of with you here?" Yu Qingyi was very confident in Yang Zhengshan.

"Haha~~"

Yang Zhengshan felt very happy about Yu Qingyi's flattery.

But he still said: "Forget it, our relationship with the Martial God Temple is not good. If the masters of the Martial God Temple besiege us, it will be troublesome!"

Back then, they helped Xue Qiaoer, Grandma Xue and others to block Chai Wujie from the Temple of Martial God. Although this happened fifteen or sixteen years ago, if they met Chai Wujie again, they might really be besieged by the Temple of Martial God.

Yu Qingyi said: "It is said that the Martial God Temple has two kinds of spiritual fruit trees! We have the light spiritual fruit, but we don't know what the other one is yet!"

"Uh!"

The spiritual fruit is still very tempting to Yang Zhengshan.

"Then let's go take a look!"

"Go and take a look. If there is a chance, grab some and run!" Yu Qingyi said with some excitement.

The longer Yu Qingyi plays outside, the more relaxed his personality becomes.

His gangster temperament, which had been hidden, gradually returned, and his desire to stir up trouble became stronger and stronger.

To put it simply, Yu Qingyi just wanted to pick a fight!
Most martial artists in the martial arts world probably have this bad habit: they feel itchy if they don't fight for a few days.

In the past, Yu Qingyi had to consider her identity and suppressed those underworld habits deep in her heart. Although she is older now, her temperament has become more casual, and those underworld habits have emerged again.

Yang Zhengshan looked at the excited Yu Qingyi and couldn't help laughing.

Who says that old couples will get tired of each other? He felt that Yu Qingyi was still very beautiful and still made his heart beat faster.

After more than 30 years of being together, I still don't feel bored. On the contrary, sometimes I still feel a little excited.

"Come on, your husband will take you to the Martial God Temple to have some fun! If they dare to attack us, your husband will beat them till they are left with their teeth all over the floor!"

"My husband is so mighty!" Yu Qingyi said with a smile.

"Haha~~"

Yang Zhengshan suddenly felt like he was taking a girl to a dungeon, a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Afterwards, the two of them walked towards the Temple of Martial God.

There are many spiritual springs here and there are no animals or plants in the space. The two collected the animals and plants they encountered while they were on the road.

They picked up a lot of interesting things along the way.

I didn’t come across any wild spiritual fruits, but I did come across several precious medicinal herbs.

At this time, the Lingquan space has changed a lot. There are many more plants between the mountains, and it looks lush and green. Although there are no tall trees, it is no longer as desolate as before.

On the central plains of the south, both sides of the river have turned into grasslands.

Trees grow slowly, but weeds and shrubs grow very fast. As long as there are enough seeds, tens of thousands of acres of land can be turned into green grassland in just a few months.

Yang Zhengshan moved most of the animals to the foot of the mountain, and the plain has become full of vitality.

(End of this chapter)