I

  Chapter 336 334 [South Flood and North Drought]

  The imperial palace in Nanjing is already in ruins.

  During the orthodox period, a fire was struck by a thunderbolt, burning down the halls and pavilions such as Jinshen and Huagai. Then there were storms and floods, and only the walls of the imperial city remained, and the rest of the wooden buildings were all rotten.

   Even Nanjing Taimiao was burned down!

  Zhao Han took his wife, children and younger sister and moved into the Nanjing Inner Defense Mansion temporarily.

  The Ming Dynasty had three teams in Nanjing. The Inner Garrison Mansion was the office of the eunuchs and civil servants, and the Outer Garrison Mansion was the office of the generals.

  The last time Nanjing was occupied, all the chief eunuchs were killed, and the ordinary eunuchs remained and were hired by the government to clean up.

  Now, the sign of the Inner Garrison Mansion has been removed and replaced with a new one: Dudu Mansion.

   "Ah, this place is much bigger than Ji'an General Military Mansion!" Zhao Zhenfang ran around in the back house.

  Pan Qimei followed suit. The yard was bigger than she imagined, and it seemed inappropriate to use it to feed chickens.

   With a smile on her face, Fei Rulan directed everyone to move things, and some rooms also had to be cleaned up.

  The relocation of the ruling center from Ji'an to Nanjing is not only due to the issue of title.

   There is another important reason, that is, Ji'an Fucheng is too small. With the expansion of Zhao Han's territory, there are more and more various institutions, and the Ji'an General Military Mansion simply cannot accommodate it.

   "Chief town, there are many eunuchs petitioning outside!" The guard hurried over to report.

  The official government offices and noble gardens in Nanjing City, although not used for the time being, will definitely be useful in the future. The eunuchs who survived were thrown around as handymen, cleaning and maintaining buildings with a meager salary.

  These too heard that Zhao Han moved in, so they joined forces in private and came to petition in unison.

  Zhao Han walked to the gate of the Governor's Mansion, saw a crowd kneeling in the dark outside, frowned and shouted: "Hurry up and disperse!"

A **** climbed up on his knees, kowtowed and said: "The servant bowed to the commander. The commander will be the emperor in the future. In the palace, it is inconvenient for the guards to do things, so we have to use eunuchs. We are all disabled people, please The commander-in-chief is kind enough to stay and serve the commander-in-chief."

   "Are you the leader?" Zhao Han asked.

  The **** thought he had an opportunity, and quickly replied: "Your maidservant's humble name is Yuan En."

   "Arrest this guy to sweep the streets. He will be fined for three months. No salary, only food!" Zhao Han said, turned around and left.

  A group of eunuchs knelt there, looking at each other, not knowing what to do.

  Even if Zhao Han really wanted to use eunuchs one day, he would order them to be summoned instead of a group of eunuchs coming to instigate them.

  …

   Jeju Island.

  Hu Dinggui, Wang Yaochen, Lu Xiangguan, and Chen Tangong looked at the more than 400 horses in front of them, and there was nothing but indescribable shock in their hearts.

   "Isn't this a genius?" Lu Xiangguan exclaimed.

  Hu Dinggui looked at his mount, and then at the horse breed that had just been transported, like a person who has been eating chaff for a long time, suddenly encountering delicacies from mountains and seas.

  500 horses departed from India and were transported to Shanghai. More than 30 horses died, and more than 60 horses were sick. They stayed in Shanghai temporarily for recuperation and treatment. Only 402 good horses were actually transported to Jeju Island.

  These horses were all bought from the Mughal Empire, and they are all Mawari horses.

  The average shoulder height of male horses is close to 1.55 meters, and the average shoulder height of mares is close to 1.53 meters, while the average shoulder height of Jeju Island is only 1.22 meters.

   There is a difference of 30 centimeters!

   These were probably a hybrid of Arabian and Turkmen horses brought to northwest India by invaders.

  During the expansion of the Mughal Empire, several states that possessed such horses fought back and forth with the Mughal army. In the end, relying on internal division and political marriage, the Mughal Empire annexed those states and gave them extremely high autonomy.

  After long-distance transportation, everyone was reluctant to ride, so they were sent to the pasture to recover their energy.

   It was not until ten days later that Hu Dinggui carefully tested the car.

  That feeling is like changing a tractor into a top sports car!

   "Drive!"

  Hu Dinggui was sitting on horseback, galloping, as if flying through the clouds.

  Lu Xiangguan also chose a horse, and immediately burst into pride, he rode his horse to catch up with Hu Dinggui and said: "General Hu, with this amazing horse, you can sweep Mobei!"

Hu Dinggui ran for two laps and stopped, and said: "Let this kind of Tianzhu horse breed by itself first, and if the stallion has enough energy, then choose the best Jeju mares to breed. The horse is born in October, and the pony is one and a half years old If they can be bred, many good horses can be born in five years!"

  Chen Tangong caught up and asked, "How much is this kind of horse?"

  Wang Yaochen replied: "150 taels a horse, guaranteed to be transported from Tianzhu to Macau, and no money will be given to those who died halfway. Zheng Zhilong sent a boat to transfer, and paid another sum of money. It is estimated that each horse cost 160 taels."

   "That's tens of thousands of taels of silver, and I bought hundreds of horse breeds." Chen Tangong said in surprise.

  The reason why it is so expensive is mainly the transportation problem.

  Portugal buys horses and transports them to Macau, and has to bear the risk of the horse dying halfway. They also hired a professional horse breeder to take good care of them along the way, so that the death rate was reduced.

  Hu Dinggui was afraid that the horse would be tired, so he rolled over and kept stroking the horse. He wished he could hug the horse to sleep.

  Mawarima's ears are very cute. The ears are pricked up, and the tips of the ears are rolled inwards, as if they are "compassionate". With muscular body and shiny fur, this is the best war horse in South Asia!

  Zhao Han gave Jeju Island a 2000 quota of cavalry.

   Among them, 1,800 cavalry were all transferred from Datong pawns. With the remaining 200 people, asking Hu Dinggui to recruit from the island is one of the steps to assimilate the islanders.

  The ethnicity of Jeju Island is very complex, including Koreans, Mongolians, and Han. After two or three hundred years of intermarriage, the blood has already been completely mixed, and because of poor treatment, many of them are still criminals, and their sense of identity with North Korea is not very high.

  As long as they are given equal treatment and taught to speak Chinese and write Chinese characters, they can assimilate into their own people in the future.

  Even if Zhao Han wanted to colonize, he would not pursue a policy of extermination.

  The Chinese nation has such an amazing talent for assimilation, why should they learn from the barbaric and **** Westerners?

  Of course, if there are stubborn people, they must still speak with guns.

  …

   "Boom!"

   With a burst of thunder, the torrential rain poured down.

  Lu Xiangsheng studied behind closed doors in his hometown in Yixing, resting and recovering by the way.

  After several years of military career and being imprisoned for another year, Lu Xiangsheng's health is not good.

  Woke up early in the morning, and the heavy rain was still falling.

   This rain has lasted for a day and a night.

  Lu Xiangsheng felt a little bad, and immediately went out with an umbrella. When he came to the small river in the village, the water level had already exceeded the warning line.

  He went home, took his younger brother Lu Xiangjin, and walked to the county government to report the situation.

   Before leaving the village, I saw several officials coming in coir raincoats, knocking on doors from house to house to pass orders.

   "Brothers of the Peasant Association, gather at the ancestral hall at the entrance of the village immediately!"

   "Datong peasants and soldiers, all gather! Gather soldiers, gather soldiers!"

   "..."

  Lu Xiangsheng looked at all this in a daze. The peasant association and the peasant soldiers are all mud legs from the past.

  It took them only half a year to get the land.

  The policy of peasants and soldiers has been adjusted, not every family will be born, and the only child can not be a peasant and soldier. After the family is separated, there is only one strong laborer in the family, so it is not necessary to be recruited as a farmer and soldier.

   Therefore, the number of farmers and soldiers in each village has dropped by at least one-third compared to when Zhao Han first started his army.

   During the slack season, only half a day is practiced every day, and there is only one lunch in the town, and the training speed and treatment are also lower than before.

   At least the peasants and soldiers have to take care of food, but the peasant associations bring their own dry food when doing things!

   Don’t get paid, but bring your own dry food, isn’t it the same as the former government corvée? People should hate it deeply.

   But Lu Xiangsheng soon saw a scene that he would never forget. A large number of members of the peasant association not only went out in coir raincoats by themselves, but also brought their families with them, and even teenagers followed.

  They walked through the rain and gradually gathered into a team, singing songs with high fighting spirit.

  Lu Xiangsheng and Lu Xiangjin followed them, but saw two flags erected at the entrance of the village, one was the flag of the peasant association, and the other was the flag of the peasants and soldiers.

  Wherever they passed along the way, big households were lying behind the door to peek, each with fear in their eyes.

  Last year, the village divided the fields, and there was an army at the beginning. After the peasant association was established, the army immediately withdrew. Some big landlords still wanted to resist the policy, and at the order of the peasant association, countless peasants with hoes on their shoulders arrested the entire family of those landlords for public trial.

  Dare to resist by force?

   Killed on the spot!

   "Brother, they are here to fight the flood." Lu Xiangjin said.

  Lu Xiangsheng nodded and said, "I know, it's just... I feel a little emotional."

   Lu Xiangjin said: "It's really embarrassing."

Lu Xiangsheng sighed: "When I was leading the army in the north, I often heard the name of the king of Zhao. He defeated the local governors several times. I just felt that those governors were incompetent. If I led the troops by myself, I would definitely kill the Zhao thieves. But in this situation , It made me realize that none of the civil servants and military generals of Ming Dynasty can be Zhao Han's opponent."

   "What the people want." Lu Xiangjin said.

Lu Xiangsheng said: "The hearts of the people in the past were the hearts of the scholars and the people. Guishou was ignorant, he didn't know right from wrong, he didn't know the benefits and harms, so he couldn't get his mind together. Haha, this statement is absurd. Guishou is not ignorant, but has nothing to do with them. Zhao Han With Tian Zheng’s desire to gather at the head of Guizhou, this is the real aspiration of the people. After the flood is over, let us brothers also go to Nanjing to see what we can find.”

  The various armies being mobilized were delayed by the heavy rain in the entire Yangtze River Basin.

  Jiangxi, Hunan, and Jiangnan suffered heavy rains, and finally formed a large flood peak in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Susongchang Lake and these big taxpayers were all hit by floods, and countless farmlands along Taihu Lake were submerged.

  Flood in the south, drought in the north!

  Shandong not only suffers from drought, but also suffers from locust plagues, and the whole province is full of migratory locusts.

  Puzhou Prefecture was the worst hit, and all the vegetation was eaten up. The government dug a pit to bury the corpse directly outside the city gate, and the hungry people dug the pit to dig up the corpse, cut up the corpse and ate the flesh. There are also family members who died of starvation, and there are many father and son couples eating each other at the morgue.

   Fortunately, Zhang Guowei was appointed as the Jiangnan Water Conservancy Envoy. Since last summer, he has been building Jiangnan Water Conservancy. And with work as relief, many hungry people survived the famine.

  The damage caused by this year's flood is far lower than that in history.

   "Order to suspend the deployment of troops from all over the country, and all rush to the disaster area to rescue the people!"

   This is the first military order issued by Zhao Han himself after he moved to Nanjing.

  All provinces are flooded, how can we fight across the river?

  (end of this chapter)