Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 597 Er Fan
Wang Rong and Wang Jinwu nodded silently. Although they were not in Shaanxi, Shanxi was not far from Shaanxi, and the situation reported from Shaanxi was indeed true.

Natural disasters have a huge impact on the Northwest. In fact, it is not limited to Shaanxi, but all the provinces in the Northwest are affected, even Shanxi is the same.

In recent years, Zhu Shenzui has been reclaiming wasteland, cultivating farmland and storing grain in Luzhou Wei, especially in Zhaowuling and Yangtoushan. They did not understand why he did this before, but now they understand.

Food is the most important thing for people. Without food, they will starve to death. Once people are forced into a desperate situation, they will naturally do anything to survive. This is also the reason why the bandits first appeared in Shaanxi.

"As for the second one!" Zhu Shenzhui stretched out his second finger: "It's a man-made disaster."

"Natural disasters are one, and man-made disasters are another. As mentioned before, the continuous taxation by the imperial court and the closure of post stations are also important reasons. Take Gao Yingxiang's subordinate Li Zicheng for example. I heard that Li Zicheng was originally a postman. It was because of the imperial court's closure that he lost his job and eventually became a bandit."

As for Li Zicheng killing Han Jiner and then going to the border army to serve as a minor official under a false name, Zhu Shenzhui did not mention these things. Because this is not important, the key point is that Li Zicheng lost his job, and then these things happened, and he finally became a bandit.

"Under the natural disaster, taxes not only did not decrease, but increased. The common people could not survive, how could this be tolerated? Add to that the droughts that have been going on for years, the land has been barren for thousands of miles, and people have even exchanged their own children for cannibalism. How could there be fewer bandits?"

"So I said, it's not difficult for Boya to defeat the bandits or even wipe them out in Shaanxi. After all, these bandits are not soldiers, but ordinary people who can't survive. But it's not easy to completely solve the bandit problem. If we can't solve the Shaanxi problem, reduce taxes, allocate funds and grain to let ordinary people survive, even if we wipe them out, bandits will pop up again."

"Unless you have the ability to kill all the people in Shaanxi, then naturally no one will continue to rebel. But is this possible? Let's not talk about who dares to do this? Even if you risk the world's condemnation, can you kill them all? Wildfires cannot be extinguished, and spring breezes will bring new life. The issue of bandits is not a military issue, but a political issue. If you can't solve the latter, how can you succeed if you only talk about the former!"

Zhu Shenzhui's words made Wang Rong and his son ponder, especially Wang Rong, who felt that it made a lot of sense.

Zhu Shenzhui was right. This was indeed not a military issue but a political issue. It was not only about taxation, but also about land annexation and a series of other issues. If these problems were not resolved, it would be useless even if Sun Chuanting killed more bandits or even wiped out Gao Yingxiang.

Although the problem was before everyone, no one present could solve it. Even Emperor Chongzhen, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was like this. Could it be that Emperor Chongzhen really didn't know?

Although Emperor Chongzhen was not as good as his brother Emperor Tianqi, he was not stupid. Although he did many wrong things after he ascended the throne, at least his IQ was still online. Moreover, he was the only emperor since Zhu Yuanzhang who was particularly diligent. He only slept for a few hours a day and spent most of his time dealing with government affairs. Even if others did not tell him about the situation in Shaanxi and the world, he could still perceive something from some memorials.

But the problem was that Emperor Chongzhen had no choice. The Ming Dynasty was now almost terminally ill, and he did not have capable people like Wei Zhongxian. Moreover, his character flaws made him stubborn and self-righteous, resulting in his subordinates lip service and hypocrisy.

It's not that Emperor Chongzhen didn't see these problems, but he simply couldn't change them. He now only hoped to solve the Jiannu problem in Liaodong as soon as possible. As long as the problem was pacified and the external threat was resolved, he would be able to deal with the internal affairs, especially the rebellion and disasters in the northwest.

Emperor Chongzhen's practice was actually like drinking poison to quench thirst. He knew very well that drinking the poisoned water would be fatal, but he had to drink it because he would die of thirst if he didn't. The self-deceiving Emperor Chongzhen placed his hope on first making the people suffer, solving external problems as soon as possible, and then turning around to deal with internal problems.

But he never expected that external problems were not so easy to solve. His current approach not only failed to quickly solve the problem, but also caused the rebellion in the northwest to continue because of the continuous increase of Liao tribute. In addition, he dealt with Wei Zhongxian as soon as he came to power, which made the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty more serious. The taxes below could not be collected at all, and he could only continue to find ways to get money from the people. Instead of alleviating the situation, it made it worse.

Although Sun Chuanting was talented, he could only do so much. Zhu Shenzhui was not optimistic about his performance in Shaanxi. Even if Sun Chuanting led his troops to wipe out the bandits, the fundamental problem would not be solved. The bandits would continue to emerge after being wiped out. This was almost an unsolvable problem.

Faced with such a situation, everyone could only sigh and shake their heads in silence. However, Wang Rong's heart was slightly moved. If the situation continued to deteriorate, then the problems of the Ming Dynasty would become more and more serious. Doesn't this also mean that Zhu Shenzhui's opportunity has come?
In front of Wang Jinwu, Wang Rong was not in a position to ask directly, so he could only hint at Zhu Shenzhui. Zhu Shenzhui knew Wang Rong's intention, but smiled and said that he had not thought about it yet, and it was too early to talk about it now.

Hearing his answer, Wang Rong was thoughtful, as if he understood something, and stopped asking. A few days after Sun Chuanting went to Shaanxi, in Shengjing, Liaodong, that is, Shenyang, the famous Han minister and strategist of Huang Taiji, Fan Wencheng, entertained a man in his mansion. Although this man was there, he was wearing Ming Dynasty clothes and was talking to Fan Wencheng in a familiar manner. It seemed that the two had known each other for a long time.

The man who was talking to Fan Wencheng also had the surname Fan, and he was Fan Yongdou, the head of the Fan family among the Shanxi merchants.

Last year, a big incident happened to the Fan family in Jiexiu. A group of strong men who came from nowhere broke into the Fan family compound and killed all the men in the Fan family's old house in Jiexiu. Even many women in the Fan family were killed.

That would have been fine, but this group of people also emptied out almost the entire Fan family's home. When they left, they set fire to the Fan family compound, almost burning it down to the ground. The Fan family's savings of many years were wiped out in one day, causing heavy losses.

After learning the news, Fan Yongdou hurried back to Jiexiu from Zhangjiakou. When he saw the tragic situation in the Fan family compound, he almost fainted on the spot. When he woke up slowly, Fan Yongdou vomited blood and fell ill. Later, after being treated by a good doctor, he gradually recovered after half a year.

The loss suffered by the Fan family was simply unimaginable. It is no exaggeration to say that the Fan family was severely damaged by this.

Fortunately, Fan Yongdou had already divided the Fan family into two, one half in his hometown of Jiexiu and the other half in Zhangjiakou. Although the Jiexiu hometown suffered this incident, the Fan family in Zhangjiakou remained intact, which prevented the Fan family from falling into despair.

Afterwards, Fan Yongdou used his connections and spent a lot of gold and silver in an attempt to find the culprit who looted his hometown in Jiexiu. However, after much investigation, he only found a suspected case of bandits, and in the end, none of the thieves who had sneaked into Fan's house were caught.

Although the case had been attributed to bandits, Fan Yongdou did not believe it was really the bandits. Even if the government produced some evidence to prove it, Fan Yongdou still did not believe it.

In Fan Yongdou's opinion, this case was very strange and it was unlikely to be caused by bandits, because it was impossible for them to act so meticulously, let alone sneak around the government to Jiexiu in this way, take over the Fan family compound in one fell swoop, and plunder the Fan family.

Fan Yongdou felt that there might be someone else who committed this crime, and he thought that it was more likely that the local guards colluded with their peers in Shanxi merchants. After all, since Fan Yongdou took over the Fan family, the Fan family has made more and more money, and its status in Shanxi merchants has become higher and higher. Moreover, since he colluded with the Jiannu, in order to monopolize the business and attack opponents, he has done a lot of things against his peers in Shanxi. Even though Fan Yongdou was extremely careful in doing these things and never gave anyone a handle, he did it. This is real. In the crackdowns and small actions of the Fan family, many Shanxi merchants have been unlucky or even had their families destroyed in recent years.

Judging from his own experience, Fan Yongdou would certainly think in this direction. But for a moment, he couldn't figure out who was secretly attacking the Fan family, and who was the real enemy? He had done a lot of bad things, and he had more than one or two enemies. He was very suspicious of this one, and he also thought it was possible to be the other one. In this way, he was a little confused about who was the one who attacked. But even so, Fan Yongdou still insisted on his own idea. The result of the government was simply nonsense, and his guess was the truth.

"Brother Fan, it's really hard for you to come here in person this time. The Khan was urging me a few days ago. Thanks to Brother Fan's timely return, I can finally give an explanation to the Khan." Fan Wencheng said with a smile. Although he was facing just a businessman, Fan Yongdou was not an ordinary businessman. As early as the Nurhaci period, Fan Yongdou had been a guest of honor of the Later Jin Dynasty. Even the old Khan was very polite to him.

Although Fan Wencheng was Huang Taiji's counselor and trusted Han minister, he did not dare to take the lead. To be honest, his status as a Han minister was not high, and he was not a member of Huang Taiji's political core at all. You must know that although Huang Taiji was the Khan, the Manchus still respected the Eight Banners. The powerful factions in the Eight Banners and those nobles with military forces were the real people.

From this point of view, Fan Wencheng was at best Huang Taiji's personal advisor or mentor. Although he had a certain status as an official, he was just a bondservant in the eyes of the Manchu nobles. If Huang Taiji had not valued and promoted Fan Wencheng, who would have taken Fan Wencheng seriously?

"Mr. Fan, you are too polite." Fan Yongdou was born into a merchant family. Although he knew that Fan Wencheng's status here was not high, he was still someone close to Huang Taiji, and he even addressed him as Mr. in private. There was no harm in making friends with such a person. Businessmen make money by being friendly, so why offend others?
"I should have come a long time ago, but something happened in my hometown of Jiexiu and delayed me. This is my fault. I would like to trouble Lord Fan to inform the Khan that I am willing to reduce the price of the goods by 30% as an apology."

"Brother Fan, you are so polite. I will convey your opinion to the Khan. I believe the Khan will not blame Brother Fan. By the way, Brother Fan, have you verified the incident in Jiexiu? Has the thief been caught?" Fan Wencheng asked with concern.

Fan Yongdou shook his head slightly and sighed, looking very pessimistic. Seeing his expression, Fan Wencheng Xinyong immediately felt relieved.

(End of this chapter)