The Longkou Command also withdrew from Zhaojiabao, and Mao Yuanyi raised a very serious problem to Zhao Yan - population.

Zhao Yan quickly called Zhang Buyun, who was managing the administration, to inquire about the population.

Zhang Buyun came to Zhao Yan's office and reported to Zhao Yan: "The population of Shandong is only eight million now, most of which are agricultural populations that cannot be withdrawn. These populations must ensure normal food supply. And we need a lot of people. First of all, industrial and commercial development, which inevitably requires a large number of workers, and secondly, external expansion. We must have enough population to occupy Liaodong, North Korea, and at the same time, the population required by overseas colonies. With our current population of eight million, it is already very tense."

"If we do not try to obtain a population source, our expansion will be greatly restricted. The most obvious thing is that we cannot expand the army anymore, and the development of industry and commerce will also be severely restricted."

"Can't reduce the agricultural population?" Zhao Yan asked.

"The only two prefectures in Shandong produce grain. Most of the three prefectures in the West now produce cotton, and the grain produced is less than in the past. Qingzhou prefecture does not produce grain. If the agricultural population is reduced, it may be difficult to deal with it in the disaster year." Zhang Buyun said to Zhao Yan.

"Lord, we must find a way to quickly obtain population as soon as possible. The sailboats returning to California are still waiting for the colonial people to board the ship and set off." Mao Yuanyi said right.

"Keep the California ship first, send a fly-scissor ship to pass a message, and send a temporary stop to the California personnel." Zhao Yan thought for a while and stayed the sailboats returning to California. "We will solve the problem of insufficient population through two aspects. On the one hand, we will launch a war against Japan as soon as possible to capture Japanese slaves. On the other hand, transfer North Korea's troops back to Shandong, and next month, I will personally fight for the thieves."

"Lord, the emperor seems to not want our Shandong to interfere in the fight against the thieves." Mao Yuanyi said hesitantly. Chongzhen was indeed very unlucky. "No need to worry about him, we will suppress us." Zhao Yan waved his hand. Anyway, it is his business to love to suppress or not. What can Chongzhen do to him?

Seeing that Zhao Yan's attitude was very firm, Mao Yuanyi didn't say anything anymore. Although he had a strong sense of loyalty to the emperor, after coming to Zhao Yan for a long time, he also knew that Zhao Yan's actions all meant to prosper the country. In this decadent dynasty, blindly loyal to the emperor could not change the current situation.

Zhao Yan's combat preparations for personally expeditioning the bandits were quickly arranged, and at the same time, the battles began to be prepared in full swing.

After nearly two months of training, the musketeers of Wang Wenyue's second battalion were able to skillfully use rifled guns. Although the rifled gun has a lower firing rate, its range has increased a lot.

At the same time, during the past two months, it was important to adapt to mountain combat. After landing on Honshu Island in Japan, it could adapt to Japan's terrain. Zhao Yan's first offensive target against Japan was Edo (Tokyo), which was the old nest of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Zhao Yan hoped to paralyze Japan's central administrative capabilities in one fell swoop.

Compared with other terrains, Edo's terrain belongs to a plain area. If you add a cavalry battalion to cover it, it is basically impossible to have any accidents.

I heard that Zhao Yan was going to personally fight for the bandits. Han Sheng, who had been thrown in the recruit camp by Zhao Yan since he was taken care of, ran to Zhao Yan's office.

"I have already changed my past. I hope the general will give me a chance to make up for my achievements. Let me follow you, fight against the bandits, and restore peace to the world..." Han Sheng asked Zhao Yan for battle with tears and snot.

"You really want to do this?" Zhao Yan asked looking at him.

"Every sentence of my subordinate is true. If there is a false sentence, it will be struck by lightning." Han Sheng swore. Zhao Yan looked at him silent for a moment, thinking that it would be good to take this guy there. He just set up a sign to slap the thief so that he would not beat the thief and run around and spend his energy.

"Since that's the case, then you can go with me!" Zhao Yan said to Han Sheng.

"General Xie, General Xie." Han Sheng was so excited that he blew his head a few times. Zhao Yan nodded and said to him: "Get up! I won't play this here."

"Yes." Han Sheng stood up happily and said to Zhao Yan: "The subordinate has surrendered."

"Go!" Zhao Yan nodded.

...After discussion, the General Staff finally determined the combat battalions on both sides.

The Second Battalion of the Shandong Army will land in Edo with the assistance of the First Battalion of the Liaodong Army Cavalry and the First Battalion of the Liaodong Army Artillery, and launch an attack on Edo.

As for Zhao Yan's personal expedition of bandits, he mobilized the first infantry battalion of the Liaodong Army and the 8,000 cavalry of the New Battalion, and organized them into the Third and Fourth Battalions of the Shandong Army. He also dispatched the general of the New Battalion of the New Battalion, Han Sheng, to lead the newly formed infantry battalion of the New Battalion to attack the bandits.

This time, the fight against bandits was mainly aimed at training troops and robbing the population.

The strategy was determined, and the war machine was ready to be launched again. After receiving the order, the Korean battalions rushed to the Liaodong Peninsula, and the fleet carried the Second Battalion led by Wang Wenyue and the First Battalion of the Liaodong Army Artillery to Busan. The First Battalion of the Liaodong Army Cavalry also rushed to Busan to take his place.

At the same time, ships were sent to inform the First Fleet to sail to Busan to replenish supplies.

Wang Wenyue was very excited. It was finally his turn to go on the battlefield. Moreover, he was going to fight Edo from Japan. If he didn't grab a slap in Edo, he would have let down the young master's high expectations for him.

Han Sheng was also very excited. He originally thought he was just following him to fight, but he didn't expect Zhao Yan to give him a new recruit from the battalion, so how could he not be excited?

Han Sheng has seen this terrifying war machine in the past two years in Shandong. I am afraid that Zhao Yan's strength will not be able to compete with him in the Ming Dynasty.

Following this owner, there must be soup.

Han Sheng, who figured this out, worked very hard in the recruit camp. He has now become illiterate and memorized the "infantry sect" used by the Shandong Army.

His efforts also received rewards, so Zhao Yan promoted him to battalion commander. If he were some kind of crooked guy, he would have been kicked out of the recruit camp by Zhao Yan.

Zhang obviously opposed Zhao Yan's personal expedition, but in this regard, Zhao Yan never listened to her. A woman naturally did not understand the important surnames.

In-person expedition is the best way to improve prestige.

In the eyes of many Ming elites, the threat of the Qing Dynasty was not as great as that of the thieves, although the Qing Dynasty was stronger than that of the thieves.

This is a very normal phenomenon, because the thieves are everywhere and are targeting the elite, which naturally makes the bureaucratic landlords want to get rid of it and get out of it.

If you want to suppress Chongzhen in fame, you must seize the merits.

If the thief is done with the four and six puppets, then there is no chance for Zhao Yan to show off. Before Yang Sichang's ten-side ambush is done, it is naturally the best way to eliminate the thief with thunder means.

In addition to the mobilization of various corpses, the logistics supply task was not very heavy, because Zhao Yan had long been in Hebei and Huguang cities to stock up on a large amount of sweet potatoes and dried sweet potato flour.

But it is April now, and most of the sweet potatoes are consumed almost all. This thing is not very resistant to storage and can only be stored in the form of dry powder.

Zhao Yan, call Zhao Quan and ask about the situation of each stockpiling of grain.

"Our grain shop in Huguang can currently mobilize one million stones of grain, and one million stones of grain in Henan, but Shaanxi has not yet entered the situation." Zhao Quan reported the situation of the grain shop.

"These food is not enough. This time, if you don't buy the hearts of the people well, wouldn't it be a waste of time?" Zhao Yan said to Zhao Quan.

"We can still draw two million stones of dried sweet potato flour from Yingzhou," said Zhao Quan.

"Transport all this batch of grain to Shaanxi for disaster relief." Zhao Yan thought for a while and said, "and then mobilize one million stones of powder from Shandong to follow the army."

"Young Master, most of the grain in stock has been shipped to Liaodong and North Korea. After this time, the grain in the treasury is only four million stones left. When a large number of refugees pour into Shandong, these stocks may be." Zhao Quan reminded.

"It's okay, the summer harvest has begun anyway, but it will take a long time to get the grain into storage. In addition, we can make a variety of sweet potatoes and try to collect more food during the autumn harvest. This year's food is indeed a bit nervous." Zhao Yan ordered Zhao Quan, "If there is really not enough food, buy it from other places."

"That's all." Zhao Quan nodded.

Famines are generally unlikely to occur. After all, in addition to Shandong's production, there are also grain production in the Lianghuai and Jiangnan. The grain yield in the south even reaches four stones per a year, but the flood is more frequent.

This is why Zhao Yan supports the reform and also specifically reminded Chen Zhongsheng to repair the southeast water conservancy. If the grain output in the south can be increased, the grain pressure in Shandong will also be reduced a lot.

...Since Chongzhen allocated 5 million taels of military expenses last year, the attack on the bandits has indeed had a certain effect. However, because of the bad official environment, the 5 million taels of military expenses allocated was divided up by civil officials and military generals, and not many of them were actually used on soldiers.

Generally, civil officials first divide 30 to 40% of the military pay, and when they reach the military officers, most of them use their servants and their personal food, drinks, and purchase land.

Very few soldiers who are actually regarded as waste, but even this small amount of military pay also plays a role in stabilizing the morale of the army.

If the border troops in Shaanxi could receive such meager military pay in the year of the change of the Yuan Dynasty, they would not have fallen into the current bad situation. After all, the reason why the bandits are powerful is because of too many injustice and indecency in this decadent era, which forced a large number of military and civilians to despair. The military and civilians in despair could only fight to the death.

Chongzhen's five million taels of anti-suppression still played a role, but in terms of combat effectiveness, the officers and soldiers of various groups did not strengthen much. In addition, Hong Chengchou's use of tricks is OK, but in many cases, his ability is not strong.

So after four months of clearing, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong ran out of the encirclement, just like a messing stick, stirring Huguang, which was originally stabilized by Lu Xiangsheng, into a turbid state.

Only Lu Xiangsheng organized the people to settle the lands where they settled were stable. These villages adopted Zhao Yan's management method, and the fighting power of the people was OK. At least it was enough to deal with the attack of the thieves. In addition, the people were stable and unwilling to follow the thieves.

However, these villages are not large. After all, in Huguang, a province occupied by vassal kings, there is really no land to be found for settlement. Lu Xiangsheng has been jailed a lot for this.

Hong Chengchou, who hurriedly led his troops out of Shaanxi, fought several battles with Gao and Zhang in Huguang, and both sides had their own victories and losses.

Gao and Zhang Lianjun were defeated by Zuo Liangyu in Anyuan. Zuo Liangyu was chased by him and encountered an ambush in Dangyang and led only more than a thousand people to break through the siege.

Zu Kuan's Guanning cavalry was a good guy. He could still be controlled by Lu Xiangsheng, but when he reached Hong Chengchou, he was disturbing civilians every few days, and he had no active surname when he went to the battlefield.

The two tiger generals, Cao Bianjiao and He Renlong, are the only confidant generals that Hong Chengchou can mobilize, while Zuo Liangyu is very slippery and often does not obey the order.

Hong Chengchou was very cautious in his actions, and every time he took action, he took personal interests clearly. In March, he ordered He Renlong and Cao Bianjiao to set up an ambush in Qianjiang, and then mobilized other officers and soldiers from various routes to rush to Qianjiang.

This ambush was very successful, and the two parts of Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong were directly separated. The number of the two parts dropped from more than 200,000 to more than 100,000.

Seeing that the situation was wrong, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong hurriedly separated. Zhang Xianzhong headed towards Xiangyang and Jingzhou, while Gao Yingxiang headed towards Nanjing.

Gao and Zhang fled in two groups, causing Hong Chengchou to be in a hurry, so they had to divide more than 100,000 officers and soldiers into two groups and encircle them separately.

The situation in Shaanxi was even worse. Hong Chengchou brought most of the officers and soldiers out of Shaanxi. Sun Chuanting only had more than 4,000 officers and soldiers who could fight. Other officers and soldiers had to defend important towns such as Xi'an, and they could not be transferred at all. For a time, Shaanxi was extremely empty. Shaanxi, which had already been ruined, had a large number of people joined the ranks of bandits.

For a time, bandits rose from all over Shaanxi, and Li Zicheng got 20,000 horses from ethnic minorities in the Xingdusi of Shaanxi. Sun Chuanting said he would surround and pursue him, but he could not help Li Zicheng.

Sun Chuanting's power was restrained by Li Zicheng, and no one in other tribes in Shaanxi could attack. Shaanxi, which was already ruined, was even more ruined under the looting of these bandits, and a large number of people had no choice but to follow the bandits.

However, the organization of those small thieves was very loose, and the military talents of their leaders were not high, so they could not pose a threat to important towns such as Xi'an and Hanzhong.

But only Shaanxi, which is hard-working, is a bad thing and will overturn.

Sun Chuanting asked Hong Chengchou for help, but Hong Chengchou had to distribute 20,000 troops to help Shaanxi. Under the siege of Huguang, he gradually entered a good situation. Hong Chengchou once surrounded Gao Yingxiang with heavy troops.

Unfortunately, because Zu Kuan's Guanning cavalry was absent, Gao Yingxiang got out of the encirclement and headed towards Henan.

As the temperature continued to rise, locust plagues occurred in Henan again. Before Zhao Yan could rescue the disaster, Gao Yingxiang got into Henan.

Its team quickly expanded to 200,000 people.

However, Henan is not as easy to mess around as Huguang. Henan has Zhao Yan's inspection brigade, and there are two inspection brigades in Henan and Huguang. Since most of the bandits entered Huguang, Huguang's inspection brigade has retreated to Henan.

After all, there are only 1,500 people in an inspection brigade. Even if he can fight, it is very dangerous. Before Chongzhen did not allow Zhao Yan to take charge of this matter, Zhao Yan simply retreated the inspection brigade to Henan to prevent the bandits from entering Henan.

Henan and Shandong have frequent commercial exchanges. Henan has the highest salt sales area and the largest population. In addition to purchasing it in Shandong, Henan's cotton production is not lower than that in Shandong. If it is messed up here, it will have a great impact on Zhao Yan's fiscal revenue.

Before Gao Yingxiang fled into Henan, the inspection brigade quickly reported to Zhaojiabao and requested combat instructions.

At this time, Zhao Yan was preparing to personally fight for the bandits. After receiving an urgent report from the Inspection Brigade, Zhao Yan quickly asked someone to reply, asking the Inspection Brigade to hold Gao Yingxiang back and wait for Shandong's support.

(To be continued)
Chapter completed!