It wasn't until a few days later that Wu Zongrui understood what Xu Fo's sentence "the flowers are about to bloom" meant, and it turned out to be an allusion to Liu Yin.

Liu Yin was born in the forty-sixth year of Wanli. He was already thirteen years old and fourteen years old. He was tall and graceful. When he looked at Wu Zongrui, his eyes were full of love.

However, Wu Zongrui felt that Liu Yin was still too young. At the age of thirteen, he had just entered junior high school a few hundred years later. According to the legal provisions of a few hundred years later, girls under the age of fourteen were classified as prostitutes.

Wu Zongrui was unwilling to touch the bottom line, even though such a bottom line did not exist in Ming Dynasty.

Wu Zongrui could only choose to avoid or ignore Liu Yin's message.

The matter of the official and gentry families in Chuzhou was settled very satisfactorily. Zeng Yongzhong did not know what means he used to make the official and gentry families in Chuzhou obey. He donated a total of 120,000 taels of silver and 20,000 shi of grain. Of course, there were

The Mei family gave out 50,000 taels of silver.

What surprised Wu Zongrui was that the other official and gentry families in Chuzhou did not add insult to injury to deal with the Mei family.

Most of the 120,000 taels of silver and 20,000 shi of grain were transported to Huai'an, leaving some in the state government. This sum of money and grain was enough for Liao Wenru to expand the Xinyi Gang's guard team on a large scale.

In fact, Wu Zongrui is a little worried about the expansion of the Xinyi Gang's guard team. According to the determination of the Water Transport Governor's Office, the Xinyi Gang is under the direct control of the imperial court. The Xinyi Gang's escort team is also the water transport army and is directly controlled by the imperial court. As long as

Unless the number of people in the escort team exceeds a scale that shocks the outside world, the problem will not be too big.

The total number of water transport soldiers under the control of the entire Water Transport Governor's Mansion exceeded 30,000, and there was no response from the imperial court.

It should be said that Wu Zongrui made the best choice and found the best cover when it came to expanding his own armed forces. As long as he was given enough time, he would be able to train an army that would shock the world.

Arriving in Chuzhou, Wu Zongrui established himself as quickly as possible and gained extraordinary prestige among the government.

In fact, when Wu Zongrui was acting in government affairs, he also knew that he had to favor the official and gentry families in many cases. Some minor and minor matters could be resolved internally, although this was somewhat unfair to ordinary people.

Absolute fairness does not exist, even hundreds of years later.

The Ming Dynasty was already terminally ill and there was no cure unless fundamental changes were made. However, fundamental changes meant a change of dynasty and a sudden collapse of the Ming Dynasty. Only on top of the ruins could a brand new dynasty be created.

Wu Zongrui understands this truth, so he will not pursue fundamental changes at all because the time is not yet ripe.

For example, the problem of annexing land cannot be solved at present. According to the yellow list held by the Ministry of Household Affairs, the cultivated land of the Ming Dynasty is less than four million hectares, less than half of the total land measured by Zhang Juzheng. According to historical records, after the Qing Dynasty took control of the Central Plains, it had

A comprehensive survey of the land showed that the actual land exceeds 12 million hectares, which means that two-thirds of the country's land has been annexed by official and gentry families.

With land annexation reaching such a scale, what hope does the Ming Dynasty have?

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of March, and Chuzhou had been very stable. Nothing major happened, and the official and gentry families were also calm.

Wu Zongrui actually had a lot of free time. Most of the things in the government office were left to Zeng Yongzhong to take care of. April was about to enter the season of spring tax collection. I am afraid it will be busy for a while. The entire Chuzhou needs to be taken care of throughout the year.

Land taxes of more than 80,000 taels of silver were collected, and all of these land taxes were turned over to the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing.

Wu Zongrui and Zeng Yongzhong discussed that the three counties under the jurisdiction of Chuzhou were not allowed to levy any other taxes except court taxes. The money that the county government needed to spend should be solved by the state government, and the burden could not be transferred to the people.

superior.

As the governor of Chuzhou, this is all Wu Zongrui can do for the people.

Seeing that the time to take a rest is coming, Wu Zongrui is also ready. When taking a break this time, he must go back to Nanjing to see that Chen Lingyan has been pregnant for half a year and is only more than three months away from the expected date of delivery.

, Yuhuan has been pregnant for nearly two months. Pregnant women actually need a man's care. Unfortunately, Wu Zongrui is in Chuzhou and cannot be with her every day. He can only go home to see her when she is resting.

As soon as he entered the official office, Zeng Yongzhong came over.

"Sir, the imperial newspaper has arrived, as well as a letter from you."

Zeng Yongzhong indeed kept his promise and rules. When he was in the state government office, he called Wu Zongrui "sir".

"I know, sir, I'm afraid you'll be busy for a while. I'm worried that the county government is secretly increasing taxes, or it has to collect more taxes from the people. It's the lean season, and many farmers can't pay their land taxes at all. I think

I'm afraid, sir, I'm going to visit Quanjiao County, Lai'an County and other places."

"That's natural. Don't worry, sir. I will go down there to take a look at the beginning of April. Farmers in some places are unable to turn in the spring field tax for a while. They can postpone it for a while. The spring field tax collection will not be completely completed until the end of June. My suggestion is that the final

Fortunately, the spring field tax will be collected on a large scale in June, when the grain harvest in some places has already begun."

"Sir, what you said is right. I think the same way, but the appearance still needs to be made, so that no one can find fault with us and cause trouble for us."

"What you are worried about, sir, is that when the land tax begins to be collected in the spring, the censor from the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate may take notice. Chuzhou is the closest to Nanjing, and the censor will definitely come."

"Sir, don't worry. Even if the censors from the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate come and want to cause trouble, I can handle it. I hate these censors the most. There are also those in the six subjects. They don't seem to have anything serious to do."

If you do it, you will open up a mouth. You clearly don’t know the specific situation below, but you will put on an arrogant air and impeach if you don’t like it. This will make colleagues at all levels timid and afraid to do things at all.”

"Sir, please be careful. These words must not be heard by those censors, otherwise they will spare no effort to impeach you."

"Sir, don't worry. I have my own sense of propriety. I just want to talk in front of you and vent my grievances."

"That's good. Sir, you still have to put the overall situation first."

After Zeng Yongzhong left, Wu Zongrui did not read the imperial newspaper first, but picked up the letter.

It was actually a letter written by He Fengsheng.

Wu Zongrui couldn't wait to open it.

He Fengsheng was transferred from the Nanjing Imperial College to the capital as the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, and stepped into the pinnacle of power in the Ming Dynasty. Although he has not yet entered the pinnacle of power, he is already very close. At least for matters that happen in the imperial court, he is very close.

clearly.

Wu Zongrui read He Fengsheng's letter three times, and then fell into a long silence.

His memory was wrong. The Houjin Tatars led by Huang Taiji, known as one hundred thousand people, were still plundering the Gyeonggi area. The four cities of Luanzhou, Qian'an, Yongping and Zunhua were all occupied by the Houjin Tatars. The imperial court's

The army, as well as the army assisted by the local government, suffered defeats one after another and did not dare to engage in a head-on battle with the Houjin Tatars. The main task of the Houjin Tatars had shifted from attacking cities to plundering people, money and food.

The Guan Ning cavalry led by Yuan Chonghuan rushed to the aid of the capital and temporarily relieved the crisis in the capital. However, the number of Guan Ning cavalry was too small and they were unable to compete head-on with the Houjin Tatars. It made sense to defend the capital, but they wanted to attack the Houjin Tatars.

Night story.

The Tong Bao did not mention these things at all, but He Fengsheng's letter did not conceal anything.

When Zeng Yongzhong came in, Wu Zongrui was still deep in thought.

"Sir, what's wrong?"

"Oh, sir, here you go, sit down. This is a letter from Mr. He from the capital. You should also read it."

Zeng Yongzhong took the letter and looked at it carefully.

Within a few minutes, Zeng Yongzhong put down the letter, his face clouded.

"Sir, the situation in the Gyeonggi area is very critical. The emperor seems to have lost confidence. He appointed the crown prince last month, but I think the situation has not reached the point of despair. Besides, Mr. Sun presided over the general trend of resisting the Tatars of the Later Jin Dynasty. I believe that the Later Jin Dynasty

It is impossible for the Tatars to be stationed in the Gyeonggi area for a long time."

Zeng Yongzhong nodded slightly.

"Your Majesty is right. The Tatars of the Later Jin Dynasty have no intention of attacking the capital. It is impossible for a mere hundred thousand people to capture the capital. Moreover, the Tatars of the Later Jin Dynasty have no foundation for long-distance attacks. They cannot persist for a long time. I hate it.

, if the imperial court had adopted Lord Xiong’s suggestion, it wouldn’t have been like this.”

"Sir, you don't need to think so much. The Houjin Tatars entered the customs in November last year and plundered the Gyeonggi area. It has been more than five months now. They were able to hold on in the Gyeonggi area and also occupied Zunhua and other cities.

It’s not simple anymore. I think the imperial army is still too weak. It’s unreasonable for the Tatars of Houjin to be in an uninhabited territory in the capital area.”

"Sir, the Houjin Tartars are indeed brave. Their cavalry is extremely powerful. No wonder the imperial army is unable to cope with it."

"Sir, do you know that Houjin's Tatar cavalry is very powerful?"

"I once heard Master Xiong say that when Master Xiong was running Liaodong, he wrote several letters and wanted me to follow him to Liaodong. I didn't agree at the time. Master Xiong said in the letter that two thousand sergeants from the Ming Dynasty.

No match for the two hundred Houjin Tatars."

"That's it. No wonder the situation in Gyeonggi is so critical."

"Houjin Tartar grew up on horseback and was used to fighting on horseback. I, the sergeant of the Ming Dynasty, almost did not have such cavalry. Even the Guanning cavalry, its sergeants were mainly Mongolian cavalry. In recent years, if not

With a strong city, the losses in the Gyeonggi area may be even more severe."

After Zeng Yongzhong finished speaking, Wu Zongrui did not speak, and the room fell into silence.

Wu Zongrui did not understand the true combat capabilities of the Houjin Tatars. He only knew that the Houjin Tatars were unusually brave. If the Ming army had not relied on solid cities and sharp artillery, it would have been impossible to resist the attack of the Houjin Tatars.
Chapter completed!