Chapter 180 Starting anew

Author: Luo Xiaoming

In seven days, Chen Wang inspected the five thousand-household stations under the jurisdiction of Hanzhong Guard.

To be precise, there should be three thousand households and two destroyed ones.

Because two thousand households have been destroyed by the war.

The Hanzhong Guards now only have three thousand-household offices at the front, center and right.

Almost everything in the two thousand-household houses on the left and back was destroyed, leaving only piles of ruins.

Several years of war, constant recruitment, and constant dispatch.

Up to now, Hanzhong Wei has actually become a place for thousands of households in Hanzhong.

From the above point of view, the ordinary local guards are nothing more than a pile of consumables and cannon fodder.

Lu Shi and Zhang Yuan did not break through several big cities. The wealthy gentry in Hanzhong and Baocheng still occupied a large amount of land and had considerable power.

In fact, sometimes you can also look at the Ming army the way you look at rogues.

In the order of the Ming army, the guard militia was equivalent to the hungry soldiers, the ordinary camp soldiers were the infantry and horse troops, and the servants of each general were the elite cavalry.

There is not much difference between the two.

Chen Wang was half-kneeling by the water, staring at the Han River rushing eastward in front of him.

The ninth year of Chongzhen was considered a good year for the Ming Dynasty.

Although Jiannu broke into the Great Wall, surrounded the capital and ravaged the territory.

However, Gao Yingxiang's death caused the protracted civil unrest in the pass to cease.

Countless bandits surrendered, and the tide of popular uprising disappeared for a time.

But the ninth year of Chongzhen was not a good year for Hanzhong Mansion.

Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong entered Hanzhong Mansion one after another, and the war burned through almost half of Hanzhong Mansion.

What made matters worse was famine.

Hanzhong Prefecture was also affected by the Shaanxi drought, and drought occurred in a large area.

The water level of the Han River has dropped to its lowest level in more than ten years.

"Although there were no military or man-made disasters this year, the overall harvest was not high."

Wang Yuankang stood behind Chen Wang, looking at the Han River flowing in front of him, and couldn't help but sigh.

He followed Chen Wang through three guard posts, traveled hundreds of miles, and almost understood Chen Wang's temperament. He was no longer as trepidatious and afraid to say a word as he was at the guard post before.

When inspecting the guard station, Chen Wang even went down to the fields to observe the crops and questioned old farmers and craftsmen. His attitude was extremely gentle and not as arrogant as when he was at the official office.

Wang Yuankang's eyes slowly swept across the fields by the water.

Although rogue bandits also broke into Hanzhong Prefecture this year, most of them wreaked havoc near Xing'an Prefecture. Later, they invaded Hanyin and Shiquan areas.

However, the minions of the rogue bandits only extended to Xixiang and Yangxian at most, and did not threaten the surrounding areas of Hanzhong Prefecture.

The most serious impact on the harvest in the fields this year was the sudden drought.

The streams in many places have stopped flowing, and if you want to get water, you can only go far away to get water.

In other words, the farmland around the Han River can still be properly irrigated, so that the river will not dry up like in northern Shaanxi. Not to mention the crops, even people and animals will not have enough water to drink.

Everything is a disaster, everything is helpless.

"I heard that there is another locust plague in the north, and the places that are not affected by drought are also having a hard time..."

Wang Yuankang shook his head worriedly and sighed.

He was in charge of the farming and military inspection in the guard station, and he also knew what kind of life the people below lived.

"I really don't know when this year will end..."

Chen Wang leaned down and took out a little bit of soil. There had been no rain in the past few days, and the soil on the river bank had become extremely dry.

Chen Wang has the answer to Wang Yuankang's question.

More than ten years later, soon after the Qing troops entered the Pass, the temperature in the north began to gradually rise, and the frequency and intensity of famines were greatly reduced...

"If you have time to sigh and pray, why not think about how to solve the problem."

Chen Wang put down the soil in his hands, patted each other with his hands, patted the remaining soil on the ground, and stood up from the ground.

From the ninth year of Chongzhen to the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, during these four years, the drought area will gradually expand to the entire northern China.

Then the drought will reach its peak in the 13th year of Chongzhen. The Fen River in Shanxi will stop flowing, Linfen will even have constant wind and haze in summer, and large-scale sandstorms will sweep almost half of the north.

Many rivers in the North Zhili region have dried up, and locust plagues and epidemics have occurred in most prefectures and counties in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan along with drought.

And the most serious thing is that the drought area has begun to move southward, and Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and even Sichuan provinces have begun to be affected by the drought.

The people's food, vegetation, roots and bark are all gone, and their wives are thrown away to sleep with the dead...

"If you take a closer look at where droughts occur in Northland each year, you'll notice one thing."

Chen Wang glanced at the Han River flowing eastward in front of him, then turned to look at Wang Yuankang and said.

"The drought in the Northland has lasted for nearly ten years now. Not only does it show no sign of letting up, but it is also gradually moving southward."

In this era, Hanzhong Mansion is not actually a truly peaceful land.

In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, there was a summer drought in Hanzhong, locusts in autumn, all the crops and seedlings were gone, and there was a great famine.

In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, there was a severe drought, people ate each other, and all vegetation was destroyed.

Even if the fields are harvested this year, it is already past the planting season.

You need to wait for the spring of the second year, that is, the spring of the tenth year of Chongzhen, before sowing.

Fortunately, there are still two years until the drought in Hanzhong Prefecture reaches its peak.

Although there is a drought in Hanzhong Prefecture this year, it is not serious.

Although the harvests of crops in various parts of Hanzhong Prefecture have been slightly reduced, the reductions are not significant, and there is no such thing as no harvest like in northern Shaanxi.

Wang Yuankang's expression froze slightly. His first reaction was that Chen Wang was worried and subconsciously objected.

"How can this be..."

But before he could say the word "Neng", Wang Yuankang's expression froze slightly, and he remembered something.

Just at the beginning of this year, Nanyang Prefecture in Henan Province suffered from a severe drought. The situation was much worse than here, and many places had almost no harvest.

Nanyang Prefecture is not far from Hanzhong Prefecture, and the drought has even spread to the Yunxiang area...

A feeling of panic suddenly surged from deep in Wang Yuankang's heart.

The drought is indeed moving southward, year after year, gradually.

The change in Wang Yuankang's expression did not escape Chen Wang's eyes, and Chen Wang knew that his words were remembered by Wang Yuankang.

To be honest, most of the military academies in the entire Hanzhong Guard are full of people with nothing to lose, but Wang Yuankang cannot be counted in this case.

During the inspections in the past few days, Wang Yuankang had almost a good understanding of the conditions of the fields and the conditions of the various guard posts.

Every time Chen Wang asked a question, Wang Yuankang could answer it.

It's not like conductor Tan Yingfeng who doesn't know what to ask and hesitates and doesn't know how to answer.

The commander Li Shiqi's abilities were mediocre, so he only had the courage to lead his servants into battle in person, which was worthy of praise.

It's okay to be a general manager in the army, but to be a commander is obviously beyond your capabilities.

Another conductor, Yang Mingcai, also had little ability. He spent most of his time fishing in troubled waters and following Tan Yingfeng's lead.

"Except for the regular soldiers in the Hanzhong Mansion who were assisting in the defense of each city, all the other people who were pretending to be soldiers were dismissed."

Chen Wang got on the horse, pulled the reins, looked at Wang Yuankang condescendingly, and ordered.

Zhang Xianzhong and other troops are now heading east in a big way, while Li Zicheng is trapped in Gongchang Mansion. Although the course of history has changed a lot due to his arrival, Hanzhong Mansion will be safe at least for this year.

Disbanding all those who are cheating can save a lot of money and food, and temporarily alleviate Hanzhong Wei's current difficult financial problems.

"The threat of rogue bandits is getting worse day by day. In the end, the two houses with thousands of households on the right were destroyed. Reconstruction is urgent. I will help deal with this part of the matter."

Chen Wang held the riding whip in hand. After understanding the specific situation of Hanzhong Wei, he already had a plan in mind.

"Go back and tell Tan Yingfeng that the three Qianhu residences in the front, center and left are currently under the old rules and are still under his control."

There are a lot of messy stalls in Hanzhong Mansion at the moment, and the interior of Hanzhong Guard is also in chaos.

The scope of the fields has been determined and difficult to change. Trying to acquire a large amount of fields around places like Hanzhong, Nanzheng, and Baocheng is tantamount to wishful thinking and pulling teeth from the tiger's mouth.

Most of the fields in these places have been divided up by the wealthy gentry there, so how can they allow other people to intervene.

Even when King Rui came to the vassal and Wangzhuang was first set up to collect the fields, the officials who implemented them spent a lot of effort to seize a lot of fields.

Chen Wang is not ready to go against the local wealthy gentry and noble officials now.

Now he is just an ordinary deputy commander. He has some power and status in the army, but when placed in the court, he is nothing more than a small shrimp.
To be continued...