The spring rain was drizzling, and the entire Xi'an Prefecture was shrouded in the drizzle. When the breeze blew, the raindrops walked slanted, pulling down many lines in the sky. Such rain had been falling for many days, and the trees had been washed clean by the rain. The leaves, which were originally sluggish, have now raised their heads.

As the saying goes, spring rain is as precious as oil. After several years of drought, such a spring rain suddenly came. It is not only as precious as oil, but even more precious than gold.

This year is a good year! Farmers who have planted fields for many years are more sensitive to the climate than anyone else. They quickly began to gather their own land, hoping to rush for this good year to plant some life-saving food for their own homes.

There was a sense of joy in the streets and alleys of Xi'an Prefecture.

A group of children were playing in the rain, laughing and reciting an oil poem in a neat voice: "Spring rain is as precious as oil, falling down the street, slipping and wiping the bachelor's degree, laughing a bunch of cows... Hahahaha... Hahahaha..."

These children are children of rich families, so they still have time to use this kind of poetry to tease the precious rain. Children of poor families do not have time to recite these boring poems. They hold the water basins and water tanks at home, and in short, everything that can collect water will store precious rain.

Yang He, the governor of the Three-sided side, sat in front of the study window, and looked at the drizzle outside, and felt a sense of joy in his heart. On his desk, a stack of thick letters had been folded, and there was probably some good news on it.

"The rice prices in Xi'an Mansion have doubled within ten days... and are still falling... It is estimated that the rice merchants have seen that the year is good, and the grain prices must drop sharply in autumn, so they are speeding up to dump their own grain stocks..."

"More than 300 Huangling bandits presented the heads of the leader to the local officials, begging the court to allow them to return to their hometowns and become farmers again..."

"More than 450 bandits in Chunhua, fire broke out in the mountains, and more than 200 people were killed or injured. The rest walked out of the mountains and begged for surrender from the officials, and also demanded to return to their hometowns and become farmers..."

"Shen Yikui's 60,000 troops suddenly reduced his troops to 30,000, and there is still a momentum of continuing to reduce troops..."

In short, the letters are all good news without exception, but there is no news about Wang Jiayin in the letters. The man and his 36th Battalion Rebel Army had entered the boundary of Shanxi and were not under Yang He's jurisdiction. He had no leisure to go to see the information about Shanxi.

At this time, the Governor Liu Guangsheng walked in from outside the study room, handed a stack of letters to Yang He, and said with a smile: "Governor, these letters are all good news... Look, a spy came to report that even the iron-clad Baishui Zhuba Huanglong Village had reduced the number of people by 2,000 people... Haha, it only took a day and night to level these bandits... Should we ask Hong Chengchou to work harder and take this opportunity to wipe out Shen Yikui, and then return to the army to deal with Baishui Zhuba?"

Yang He did not answer Liu Changsheng's words, but looked at the letter and fell into deep thought. After a long time, he raised his head and said, "Look... After a rain, many bandits were willing to return to their hometowns to serve as farmers... It can be seen that they are not vicious people, but they are just suffering from drought and take risks. When I looked at these letters, I couldn't help but want to recruit them all and become good people again."

"Governor...you...this idea is insulting..." Liu Guangsheng and Du Wenhuan killed the surrendered Wang Zuoguai. He didn't like to surrender the bandits, so he said: "I think it's right to suppress the bandits rather than to appease them. Taking advantage of the unstable spirit of the bandits now, it's the right thing to destroy them."

"Ten thousand bandits, tens of thousands of people... Killing them will hurt the harmony of heaven. Moreover, when the three armies move, the military pay and military rations flow out like flowing water. I still want to try to recruit Liu Guangsheng first." Yang He drank Liu Guangsheng, picked up his pen, spread the paper, and began to write memorials to Emperor Chongzhen.

"... When thieves arise, they are always due to the extreme famine and the people are not living. If the method of encirclement and suppression is used, they will reward food and reward, and the expenses will not be spent. The result is that they will not be punished. They will be repeatedly suppressed and unresolved. They will be disbanded and dispersed, and they will not be dispersed. They must provide real relief to make their lives worthwhile, and then they will be called true dispersal. After disbanding, they must be planted, and they must be given real cattle seeds to return to agriculture and resume their business, and then they will be called true dispersal. In this way, the thief will have the joy of life and have no desire to die, and they will be readily carried out. The tutoring bureau is established, and the tutoring bureau will end. The so-called "I want to do the tutoring bureau to be effective, there must be a tutoring fee for the tutoring... Moreover, if the tutoring is spent, the gold and silver will not be returned, and there will be too many beheads, and the superiors will be harmonious. If the tutoring bureau is spent, the people will live, and one person will live, and the people will be safe. It is of great benefit..." (Note: This memorial is taken from the original text of Yang He's memorial. I have slightly modified some of the difficult words to understand, so that everyone can understand it at first glance.)

After writing, Yang He was very happy and sealed the memorial and ordered Liu Jiayu, the deputy general of Shaanxi and Xi, to bring this memorial to Beijing and meet the monks quickly.

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In the fourth year of Chongzhen, the spring of the capital, the imperial palace!

All civil and military officials knelt down in the hall, and they all faced the emperor on the dragon throne with their foreheads. It was the light of the sky and the time for the court meeting. Emperor Chongzhen did not sleep all night yesterday and came to the court meeting again early this morning. He was extremely sleepy, but he still sat straight on the dragon throne, not letting his body be tilted at all.

He didn't dare to slant! Because under the dragon robe he was wearing was a somewhat old shirt, and an extremely ugly patch was put on the hem of the shirt... If he sat in a slant and slant, the patch was slid out and the ministers below saw it, where would he put his emperor's face?

Emperor Chongzhen was an emperor who wanted to be very respectful, so his sitting posture remained unchanged at all.

Since he is so proud of his face, why should he wear these old clothes? He has no choice. The silver in his pocket is tight. In the past, at the end of every year, a part of the national tax would be transferred into the emperor's private pocket. The money was called the treasury, but in recent years, the treasury has been stopped. Liao Zuo used troops and spent the silver like flowing water. After adding taxes, it was still not enough to spend it. All the taxes were eaten up by the army. Where could there be money transferred into the emperor's pocket?

That's not enough. The minister in charge of money from the Ministry of Revenue cried in front of Chongzhen every day, asking him to open the treasury and take out some treasury to rescue him.

Chongzhen kept gritting his teeth and refused to allocate funds to the Ministry of Revenue, because only he and the officials in charge of the warehouse in this world knew that the warehouse was empty and could even use that place as a training ground, put hundreds of soldiers in it to conduct military formation exercises, and would never bump into... cough... it was an obstacle like stepping on silver.

Emperor Chongzhen, who was concerned about face, dared not say that he had no money in his pocket, and it was too embarrassing to do so, so he would approve all the memorials requested by the Ministry of Revenue to "not give" and then call them back. All the expenses in the palace were reduced and the magnificence on the surface must be maintained, so he only made new coats and used old shirts. Anyway, the thing was worn inside, so others couldn't see it!

Because of the reduction of expenses, the concubines of the Later Office also complained a lot. Now he doesn’t even dare to accept the extra concubines. If he adds more people in the palace, what money will he use to support him?

"If you have something to report, you will leave the court..." The eunuch sang aloud next to him. This nonsense is a must-sing for every court meeting. In fact, there is no court meeting? The civil and military officials must find some things to report to him.

"I have something to do to report!" A civil servant stood up.

Chongzhen only moved his eyes, and the eunuch next to him was relieved and sang: "Come on the quickest..."

The civil servant kowtowed and bowed, then stood up, lowered his head, and his voice calmly said: "We will arrange for the spies in the Jiannu army to repay. On the eighth day of the first lunar month this year, Jiannu cast the first red cannon, and the cannon was engraved with the name: Tianyou cheers for the powerful general..."

"What? Jiannu can build cannons?" Chongzhen was shocked and his body trembled slightly, but he quickly stabilized to avoid revealing the hem of his shirt: "The reason why my Ming soldiers could keep Jiannu from outside the pass was because Jiannu was stupid and only knew how to ride horses and shoot arrows, while our army's cannons were sharp, but they could keep them outside the city. Now Jiannu cannons cannons cannons, what should we do?"

"This..." The civil servant who submitted the memorial sighed and said, "We just need to build more cannons. As long as we have hundreds of times more than Jiannu's cannons, why not be afraid of it... So... please let the emperor put some in..."

"No!" Chongzhen waved his hand angrily. He knew without having to finish listening. The man wanted to ask him for the treasury: "Speak some good news to me if you change me!"

"Emperor, I have something to report to me." Liu Jiayu, the political assistant in Shaanxi who was kneeling in the hall, came out. He was covered in dust and looked like he had crawled out of a mud pit. It turned out that he had arrived in the capital in the middle of the night and rushed in without even taking a shower. The emperor wanted to deliver the memorial written by Yang He. As a result, it happened to be time for the court meeting. The eunuch knew that the emperor was very concerned about the bandits, so he put him in the hall.

"Hmm? Are you not participating in politics in Shaanxi and Xi? Is it about bandits again? Good news or bad news? If it is bad news, it's better not to say it!" Chongzhen said angrily.

"It's good news! It's definitely good news!" Liu Jiayu screamed.

Chongzhen relaxed his eyebrows and felt a little less pressure: "Tell me!"

Liu Jiayu quickly told me about the sudden reduction of the spring rain from the sky, and the bandits' troubles suddenly became less. Chongzhen was naturally very happy when he heard this and laughed: "Heaven is the Ming Dynasty. When this rain comes, I hope the bandits' troubles will be resolved."

Liu Jia was happy to meet him, so he quickly presented Yang He's memorial with both hands.

Chongzhen took it and immediately looked at it. He read it very quickly. He skipped and said nonsense in front of the letter to greet the emperor's health. He skipped and said nonsense in the letter to the emperor's kneel and said nonsense in the end of the letter, but looked only in the middle... When he saw it, his face darkened: "Hmph, why are you talking about good news? It turns out that Yang He also came to ask me for money..."

Liu Jiayu knelt on the ground and said with a bitter face: "Your Majesty, the suppression of bandits requires military pay anyway. This money has to be spent. If we suppress all the bandits, we will actually suppress all the people. Who will pay you taxes? Why not take the money to appease these bandits and let them go home to farm and pay taxes to you next year? Isn't the money paid back? This deal can be done..."

Of course, Emperor Chongzhen knew that this deal could be done. His hand quietly reached under the corner of his clothes, rubbed the patch on his shirt, and sighed in his heart: You can not give other money, but this money... I should give it to you. If you turn around, let the eunuch take some treasures from the official and sell them, you can still get a hundred thousand taels, alas!

He sat upright and said with difficulty: "I have been thinking for a long time, and the enemy is also a child, so I should comfort him... I paid 100,000 taels of silver. Can Yang He guarantee that the bandits will be peaceful?"

Liu Jiayu was overjoyed and said, "The Governor said that the emperor always gave money. He used his head to guarantee that the bandits would be dealt with..."

"Okay!" Emperor Chongzhen shouted: "Censor Wu Xuan, please accompany my money... Be sure to ensure that all this money is used to recruit bandits. If anyone dares to be greedy for a piece of copper, I will kill his nine clans!"
Chapter completed!