For six days, all nineteen talented people Xiao Minggan found inquiry visited. Eleven of them had a great conversation with Xiao Minggan, and under Xiao Minggan's pillar, they were able to continue to plunge into the areas they were interested in, and they all agreed to write a book for Xiao Minggan.

Of course, there are also several colleagues like Cheng Dan who are very cold to Xiao Minggan's visit. Although they are also people with real talents, Xiao Minggan cannot be friends with them. What's more, although they are talented in a certain aspect, they are purely someone's hobby, their subjective thoughts and their conservativeness.

Of course, there are also two people who are purely bragging and have almost no real skills. Xiao Ming doesn't want to pay attention to such people.

After a few days of visit, Xiao Minggan and the other four left Suzhou. At this time, the case of the White Lotus Sect bandits had not been handled.

In the past few days, under the attack of the Jinyiwei in the entire Jiangsu and Zhejiang region, the forces of the White Lotus Sect were almost uprooted. How big is more than 400 White Lotus Sects killed, and more than 2,000 are arrested. For a time, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region was in panic.

As the main hero of this case, Captain Guo Rong and the Captain Guo were also dizzy. Because of her father's background, she was allowed to participate in the Jinyiwei operation. When she returned to Suzhou City and remembered Xiao Minggan, she found that Xiao Minggan had left Suzhou. In this way, the first contact between Guo Rong and Xiao Minggan ended like this. When they met for the second time, they were both shocked.

Fireworks are in Yangzhou in March. Xiao Minggan doesn’t know if Yangzhou in the Tang Dynasty is really very desirable, but Yangzhou in April of the 41st year of Wanli was in ruins in Xiao Minggan’s eyes.

Green grass, willows, warm wind, clear water, these spring scenery that should have appeared in the eyes of the world, but Yangzhou at this time was nothing. The green grass was eaten by groups of refugees, and when the willows were only left with bare trunks, they no longer had the vitality to sprout out their buds.

The spring breeze mixed with dust and stinky smell blows the turbid small pond. The waves that are rolling up make people think of cesspools. Even the thin West Lake makes people really unable to attract the interest of visiting.

The refugees were everywhere, which was the biggest impression of Xiao Minggan and the other four of them about Yangzhou at this time. The refugees in ragged clothes and pale faces dragged their children to no family to ask for a bite of food. The hungry and anxious children cried loudly, but what could those adults do?

They were not natives in Yangzhou, but escaped from Anhui, Henan, and Shandong to the north. They traveled nearly a thousand miles to Yangzhou, a prosperous place in Jiangbei, just to survive.

Chen Yuanyun could no longer maintain his optimistic hippie attitude, because he felt that in such a situation, he would still talk and laugh, and that was a heartless person.

"The refugees from thousands of miles away are reborn and eat. The descriptions in the book are too pale. I never thought that the refugees would be like this." Chen Yuanyun said choked, and he was completely shocked.

How could this scene make him believe that it would happen in the Ming Dynasty, where the country was still strong, and how could he believe that when the people in Jiangnan could barely eat enough, there would be so many hungry refugees in Yangzhou, a river separated by a river.

"This is not the worst. Brother Chen, don't forget that this is Yangzhou, Yangzhou in April. In Anhui, Henan, Shandong and other places where disasters are occurring, the people there are even more miserable.

Since the end of Jiajing, disasters have been frequent in the north of the Ming Dynasty. Especially in recent years, these places have never stopped disasters. Think about what the lives of those people who do not have their own land would be like under such circumstances.

Brother Chen, do you know? Over the years, the number of refugees in the Ming Dynasty has reached millions every year, millions of refugees, which can make any state prefecture a barren land.”

Looking at the scene in front of him, Xiao Minggan felt very upset, but he had no choice. He did not have the ability to save them all. With the current ability of Taiwan Island, he could not afford the consumption of even more than 500,000 people.

"Don't the court provide relief to them? With so many refugees, how many people will die?" Chen Yuanyun asked with a little expectation and a little scared.

Xiao Minggan knew what Chen Yuanyun was looking forward to, and even more so what he was afraid of. But he had to attack Chen Yuanyun.

"Relief, of course, relief. The court will have hundreds of thousands of taels of relief every year. But Brother Chen, how useful is hundreds of thousands of taels for millions of refugees? Moreover, it has always been a custom in the Ming Dynasty officialdom. The relief funds of 500,000 taels left after leaving Beijing, less than 400,000 taels left. When they go to various provinces, 20% will be left, and then the government offices of each state will be left to 20 or 30%. In the end, the 100,000 taels left to the hands of the victims is very good, and those officials have discovered their conscience."

Xiao Minggan said with a sneer. This is a common phenomenon in the entire feudal officialdom. However, this common phenomenon was revealed in the late Ming Dynasty and its harm was the most obvious.

"These damn corrupt officials, they are massacring."

"No, the real culprit is not those who embezzle, the real culprit is the annexation of land. The 100,000 dragon sons and grandsons, a large number of officials, gentlemen and gentry who do not have to pay taxes occupy up to 80% of the land in the Ming Dynasty, while the ordinary people who looked at it did not have any land of their own.

The land of the people was occupied on a large scale, resulting in a large number of landless people. Fortunately, when a famine occurs, the landlords often do not collect less land rent because of the famine. In addition, the taxes from the court are completely suppressed on ordinary people, so that the people will not only not get any gains after working hard for a year, but will instead owe a lot of debts.

In this way, in the years of famine, the people who really cannot survive will leave the land without any hope and gather into a large number of refugees." Looking at the miserable scene in front of him, Xiao Minggan calmed down a little and continued.

"Brother Chen, even in the driest place, if the water conservancy is done well, the harvest in the fields can still make the people live. But the reality is that officials are not at all interested in renovating water conservancy, and the people are not at all interested in farming land that has no harvest for them. This is the fundamental reason for the formation of refugees."

"Yes, why are you still farming without harvest? And this situation can only become more and more serious. Those who occupy the land will not spit out the land again. Even if the emperor thinks, it is impossible. If this situation cannot be improved, it will not take twenty years. Even with the support of Jiangnan, the Ming Dynasty will exhaust its vitality."

Chen Yuanyun has already seen that relying on the Ming Dynasty itself, there is no possibility of solving such a problem. If such a problem is not solved, even if large-scale natural disasters no longer occur, it will only allow the Ming Dynasty's national fortune to be barely extended for decades.

"Brother Yuan, should we help these refugees?" Suddenly, Chen Yuanyun turned to Xiao Minggan and said.

"Brother Chen, how do you know I didn't help them? I think you should see those who recruit refugees. They are my family members, and this is the limit I can do."

Of course, Xiao Minggan wanted to transport all these refugees to Taiwan Island, but he did not have the ability. Not to mention that in the process of immigration, he needed to use various excuses to avoid arousing the suspicion of officials from all over the Ming Dynasty. Even Taiwan Island itself could not absorb too many immigrants.

With the tens of thousands of people in Taiwan under Xiao Minggan's control, it is already the limit to digesting more than 300,000 people this year, and this is still under the premise of purchasing a large amount of grain. Only after this year can Taiwan digest the power of refugees to allow Xiao Minggan to absorb immigrants without any scruples.

"Brother Yuan, do you want to rebel?" Chen Yuanyun suddenly asked in a low voice after a while.

After such a long time of getting along, Chen Yuanyun keenly realized that Xiao Minggan was strongly dissatisfied with many people in the Ming Dynasty, especially the scholar-official class. Moreover, his behavior was not like a simple scholar-in-law, and no scholar could even support others everywhere.

Today, Xiao Minggan told him again that his family was absorbing refugees. Through various signs, Chen Yuanyun found that Xiao Minggan was gathering huge people's strength and talents. Isn't he going to rebel, can there be any other explanation?

"Brother Chen, I said that rebellion in the Wanli Dynasty would only be a farce that harms the country and the people. So I can tell you with certainty that I am not a rebel of the Ming Dynasty, at least not now."

When Xiao Minggan heard Chen Yuanyun's words, he was stunned at first, but then he reacted. His performance was indeed not what a normal scholar-in-law should have. Chen Yuanyun could see that these were normal.

"Then why do you think your family is recruiting so many refugees? Don't tell me that your family has too much money to spend. It's just that you are making a good heart." Chen Yuanyun said disbelief.

"Hehe, Brother Chen, didn't you find that this place is not a place to discuss these?" Xiao Minggan looked at the surrounding environment. Although the place where they were was a relatively open place, people passed by from time to time a few meters away.

"Okay, let's find a secluded place to talk. I really want to know Brother Yuan's true identity and the real purpose of this so-called study tour." Chen Yuanyun just suddenly had some insights and blurted out, and now he has realized that such things really need to be discussed without anyone.

So the four of them left here. After they just left, a person walked out of a corner not far from where they were standing. After a closer look, it turned out to be the maid next to the Saint of White Lotus, Xiaoling...
Chapter completed!