"You can gather tens of thousands of troops in half a month?"

Yang Feng's face was slightly cold, and even though he was mentally prepared, he was shocked.

In history, Li Zicheng was forced into a corner by officers and soldiers several times, and was beaten to only dozens of people, but it didn't take long to make a comeback and reorganized tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people to continue rebelling, relying on their terrifying ability to carry on.

Whenever the bandits went, they destroyed all the local people, wrapped all the local people into his team, and destroyed all the production materials and houses. The people who had lost everything had to join Li Zicheng's team helplessly.

After all, in this era of low productivity, people who have lost their houses and food have no way to survive alone. If they want to survive, they have to join the bandits, and there is no other way.

Therefore, Yang Feng always believed that the bandits in the late Ming Dynasty were actually a group of locusts, who only knew how to destroy but not build. Whenever they destroyed all one place, they would run to the next place to continue to destroy until they destroyed everything.

Zhu Youxiao said in a deep voice: "My dear, you can't let them develop like this, otherwise even if they can be wiped out in the future, the losses caused will not be something we can bear."

"It's true." Yang Feng also held the same view on this point. "Your Majesty, I still say the same thing about the bandits. I have to use it and limit it. Otherwise, it is easy to have a big slack. Don't worry, before coming, I have already issued an order to the Jiangning Army who stayed in Mengjin. At this moment, they should have set out to suppress the bandits."

"Well... I'm so relieved since my dear arrangements have already made it." Hearing that Yang Feng was prepared, Zhu Youxiao's heart was overwhelmed, but Yang Feng immediately heard him say: "My dear, based on the information sent below, the reason why the bandits were able to capture several county towns so quickly was because a song spread among the bandits during this period. Many people in Henan Prefecture joined the bandits one after another after hearing this song, so their momentum was particularly fierce."

"Ballad?"

Yang Feng's face changed slightly.

Zhu Youxiao continued: "I remember the song "What is the bitterness of locusts and droughts in the past year? The rice price has increased several times, and the people are living in miserable life..."

"Eat and wear damn, open the door to welcome the King of Chuang. The King of Chuang will not pay food when he comes." Open the door early to worship the King of Chuang, and everyone will be happy to discipline everyone." Yang Feng next to him sang again.

"Yes, it's just a few songs." Zhu Youxiao nodded repeatedly, "I don't understand. Are the people all fools? Why do you even believe such stupid songs?"

Yang Feng shook his head helplessly: "Your Majesty, if such songs were naturally not available during the Taiping period, there was no market for them. However, in recent years, the Ming Dynasty was in a poor drought. Even though there were high-yield seeds provided by Weichen, the output of grain still did not increase much.

And the most important thing is that the landlords and gentry are fueling the fire. It can be said that the current wave of refugees is caused by natural disasters and man-made disasters. For the people who are about to survive, no matter how ridiculous this song is, these people will subconsciously choose to believe him. Can you understand?"

Zhu Youxiao nodded with a wry smile: "I understand that these songs are like the last straw for the poor people. No matter how ridiculous they are, those people are willing to believe him. It is all my fault. I have not managed the Ming Dynasty well, and to this day there are so many people who are not covered in their bodies and food, so that they can easily bewitched by the thief."

"Your Majesty is too harsh on yourself." Yang Feng shook his head and said, "Although Your Majesty is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the governance of the Ming Dynasty cannot be achieved by Your Majesty alone. It depends on the officials, gentry and everyone in the entire Ming Dynasty to manage the Ming Dynasty well, so you don't have to fight against everything on your shoulders. In fact, Your Majesty has done a good job."

Yang Feng did not lie. In his opinion, Zhu Youxiao had done a good job, at least much better than the hardworking, stupid and suspicious next emperor in history.

Although there is a wave of tides in the Ming Dynasty now, overall, the Ming Dynasty is much more stable than before.

First of all, the Ming Dynasty's mortal enemy, the Qing Dynasty, had been swept into the garbage dump of history, so that the external enemy of the Ming Dynasty had been removed. Without the Qing Dynasty, the mortal enemy who was eyeing the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong, the Liao Dynasty, which had dragged down the Ming Dynasty's finances in history, could be stopped.

Not only that, due to the establishment of Fujian Customs, the Ming Dynasty's finances had fundamental changes, increasing from more than 6 million taels in the fifth year of the Tianqi period to more than 15 million taels. This was only the fiscal revenue, not including the six or seven million private money sent to Zhu Youzhan's treasury every year by the Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty.

For ordinary people, they are not panic when they have food in their hands, and the same is true for a country. With silver in their hands, they can naturally do a lot of things. So on the surface, the bandits are coming in a raging manner, but in fact, as long as the court's finances are not exhausted, there is no need to worry about being overthrown.

Facing Yang Feng's comfort, Zhu Youxiao was still not in good mood. He sighed and said, "Do you know, I can't even sleep well these days. I hope to use the bandits' hands to sort out the local tyrants and evil gentry who have been entrenched in Jiangnan for hundreds of years as my beloved said, but I am also worried that the bandits will cause too much trouble. Even if the bandits can be wiped out, the entire Jiangnan will be destroyed. Can you understand my mood?"

"I understand!"

Yang Feng nodded slightly, and he could understand Zhu Youxiao's contradictory mood. On the one hand, he hated the mixed-rooted landlords and gentry forces in the Jiangnan territory and wanted to uproot them, but he was afraid that Jiangnan would be ruined in this process. After all, it was the most prosperous place in the Ming Dynasty.

However, Yang Feng has a different view on this.

"Although I can understand your Majesty's feelings, your Majesty should also know that under the hundreds of years of management of those merchants, gentry and landlords, it is not an exaggeration to call it the country among the country in Jiangnan today.

The imperial court's government orders could not be implemented in the Jiangnan area at all. They obeyed the slander, falsely reported taxes, and even dared to kill tax collectors sent by the imperial court to collect taxes. They dared to do anything for money. What is the benefit of such Jiangnan to the Ming Dynasty?

Yes... The taxes from Jiangnan did occupy half of the Ming Dynasty, but because of this, they were fearless and dared to bargain with the court, refused to enforce the imperial decrees, and even made a joke that the tea tax was only 16 taels a year. If such a bad habit is not cleared, where is the majesty of the Ming Dynasty? Where is the king's law?"

Looking at Yang Feng who was making a frank comment, Zhu Youxiao took a deep breath and smiled bitterly: "You are right, and I will not stop you. I just hope that while cleaning up those slags, I can leave a little more vitality to Jiangnan."
Chapter completed!