"Since that's the case, then Mr. Xu will follow our army. But you are responsible for your safety. If our army leaves tomorrow, you should come to the county government office early in the morning to wait."

Kong Youde always felt that this guy was a bit different. Judging from his expression and expression, he didn't look like a 25-year-old boy at all. It only means that there must be other reasons for him to do this. Fortunately, he doesn't need to take him for a long time. His next goal is Shanghe. When Shanghe is beaten down, he will get out of here.

"Thank you, General Kong. I will definitely not cause trouble for the general. I will say goodbye." After that, he took his several of his subordinates back to the inn.

"Staff Officer Qin, what do you think of this Young Master Xu?" Kong Youde asked as he looked at the young man's departure.

Qin Zhiyuan had been standing by the side just now and didn't say much, but he listened to all these words.

"General, according to his subordinates, Mr. Xu's purpose is not just as simple as seeing the war, but also other purposes." Qin Zhiyuan has been in the officialdom for many years and has only come out a little.

"In your opinion, what purpose does he have? Are he enemies or friends to our army?"

Qin Zhiyuan pondered for a while, then said, "My subordinates can't guess his purpose yet, but judging from his appearance, there should be no malice. The general might as well talk to him tomorrow, and he would not be able to learn any useful news from it."

"Well, he only has a few people, and he can't have any impact on our army. Even if he informs the court, it will be useless if the court does not mobilize the army." Kong Youde also felt that he had no malice, but his purpose was not as simple as it was. Then he turned around and said, "Li Yangxing, send a few smart people to follow and see if he can find out what news. It's best not to let someone show it."

"Subordinates obey"

Li Yangxing has been with Kong Youde for a long time. Although Bai Yunlong and Meng Youcai have both gone to lead troops and he is a little envious, he still decided to do his job well first. He believes that the general will never treat him unfairly.

If the general's great things he planned could be accomplished, his future status would definitely not be too low.

Sometimes he couldn't help but imagine that the Ming Dynasty court has now shown its decline, mutinies and civilian changes have been endless since the beginning, and there are Tartars rampant outside the pass. Although the court can barely deal with it now, there are already signs of a dynasty setting sun, and maybe one day it will collapse suddenly.

His general is also an ambitious person, and it is easy to see that if one day his general can ascend to that throne, as the captain of his personal soldiers, he can at least become a Duke and marquis.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little excited, but he still had to complete the things in front of him first. After receiving the order, he immediately arranged for people to monitor him.

The next morning, Kong Youde woke up early, not because of insomnia, but because he was in a good mood yesterday and was sleeping soundly.

Thinking of yesterday's gains, he wanted to laugh. As Qin Zhiyuan analyzed, such a county town that was less than one-third of Ling County could actually plunder 140,000 taels of silver.

We have already gained something from Wuqiao. You must know that the reason why Wuqiao can find so much money is entirely because Wuqiao County is not far from the canal, and it is only through the canal that we can raise so many wealthy businessmen.

Just like Shijiazhuang in later generations, in fact, in the early 20th century, Shijiazhuang was a very ordinary small village like Zhaozhuang, Wangzhuang and Licun. There were at least dozens or even hundreds of villages across the country. Because it was the intersection of Zhengtai Railway and the Jinghan Railway, it had been exerted from a small village to a provincial capital.

In this era, the role of canals is similar, but due to the many cities along the canal, the benefits are dispersed. Despite this, the cities along the canal are generally much richer than other cities, and Wuqiao is no exception.

Deping gained more than Wu Qiao. The reason is that, as Qin Zhiyuan analyzed, many wealthy families in Shanghe in Linyi chose to go north to Deping in order to avoid Kong Youde's army, and were caught.

Moreover, there were many refugees in the city, basically farmers who had no land. They could do whatever they wanted as long as they were given food and let them do. Even if they were rebelling, Kong Youde sent people to recruit a lot of people and expand the army.

Although these peasants lived a hard life before, they could still survive. However, in the late Wanli period, after Nurhaci's army was in charge of the Liaodong war, the court imposed Liao pay on the basis of the original tax, and the farmers' lives became even harder. Many land farmers were forced to become tenants, slaves, or refugees, and hungry people.

It seems that the Liao salary of nine cents per mu of land is not much, it only accounts for about 10% of the harvest per mu, and it should not cause such great harm.

However, the problem lies in the nine cents of silver. The court collected silver instead of grain, and the farmers did not have much silver, so they could only sell grain to obtain silver.

When the grain harvest is bumper, a large amount of grain is sold into the hands of grain merchants, and grain merchants will politely lower the price. As an absolutely vulnerable group, farmers cannot compete with these grain merchants with official backgrounds and have to pay the money and can only sell grain at a low price.

In this way, 10% of the grain was not enough at all. Generally, 20% to 30% of the grain was needed. In addition, there were also various taxes and additional taxes. Generally, farmers were satisfied with their own harvest.

Farmers are the group that can tolerate the most. Even so, there was no large-scale rebellion. It was not until the Tianqi period that there were many natural disasters and taxes were still collected. Shaanxi, where the most severe natural disasters occurred, large-scale civil unrest broke out.

Because of the need to wipe out the peasant army, Chongzhen sent additional funds to suppress the peasant army. In other places where the disaster was not serious, such as Shandong, Shanxi, and Henan, many farmers went completely bankrupt. In order to evade the court's taxes and increase funds, they became refugees and evade from all over the country.

This also led to the fact that the peasant army could not be wiped out at all, and they killed one after another, endlessly until the 17th year of Chongzhen captured Beijing.

These refugees in the city are all young and old, and they are basically brought out with their families. In the midst of hunger and cold, many people have frozen to death, and there are many people selling their children and daughters for this.

When they learned that the rioters were sieging the city, these refugees were excited. The rioters must need manpower. As long as they join in, they don’t have to worry about being starved to death. Even if they are beaten to death by the official army, it is better than starving to death.

Of course, Kong Youde could not accept it all, and only recruited less than 2,000 refugees in his prime, and each of them paid two taels of silver in advance so that they could resettle their families.

Thinking that he now has an army of more than 5,000 people, Kong Youde has greater confidence. Even if these two thousand are refugees and have no combat effectiveness, he can transport supplies. If there are small wars, they can participate, and they will be able to fight for a few battles.

As soon as he walked out of the county government, he saw Xu Ermo had been waiting. Just now, Li Yangxing reported that after Xu Ermo went back yesterday, he did nothing but read books, and he didn't know what he was reading.

Kong Youde didn't think much about it. He had already agreed to him yesterday and took him straight to the military camp.
Chapter completed!