The Ming Dynasty started with caution

Hainan, Qiongzhou Prefecture.

Xu Jinzhong and Li Kang stood in the cornfield, looking at the green corn buds, and their eyes exchanged wildly.

"Are you done yet?" Xu Jinzhong wondered.

Li Kang shook his head: "I don't know either."

I have never planted corn, so I can’t tell when to pick it. Looking through Brother Gao’s letters, it doesn’t say when to pick it. I guess Brother Gao doesn’t know either.

"Pick one and try it?" Xu Jinzhong suggested.

Each one is worth eighty taels of silver. It is wasted if it is not ripe, but there is no way to judge if it is not picked. Li Kang was heartbroken and broke off one.

Xu Jinzhong and Haihan came over.

Li Kang pulled off the white threads on the corn and peeled off the green husks layer by layer, revealing small sections of corn. The kernels were not as hard and yellow as when they were planted.

"Try to lower your rank?"

He peeled off a piece and put it into his mouth to chew. After biting it, the sweetness spread in his mouth. It was so tender that it was indescribable.

Li Kang looked dull: "It's delicious!"

The sergeants and refugees from the field camp on the side swallowed their saliva.

After nearly two months of hard work and careful service day and night, who wouldn’t want to try this rumored golden fruit?

"Sir, can we have a taste?" the pro-jun asked covetously.

Xu Jinzhong kicked him over: "What a grandson! This is not enough to transport him back to the court. Let's pick off the king's head!"

The pro-jun had a sad face and went to pick coconuts.

Turning around, Xu Jinzhong smiled, broke off a few pills, and threw them into his mouth, "It's so sweet!"

A touch of sweetness, an indescribable taste.

It can't be harvested yet. Li Kang knew after thinking about it that this corn was smaller than the ones he planted.

"Wait a little longer!"

At this moment, a soldier ran over and said anxiously: "Sir, the chieftain's spies are here again."

The soldier went to pick coconuts. Unexpectedly, there was a man on the coconut tree.

"Has anyone been killed?"

"Run away!"

Xu Jinzhong secretly secretly ordered his troops to guard the area day and night, firstly to prevent the refugees from stealing corn from the fields at night, and secondly, to prevent the chieftain from raiding the area.

It's winter. Tusi is not good at farming and relies on fishing to make a living.

There is a vast area of ​​staple food grown here, and it is normal for the toast to have thoughts.

Among the three prefectures and ten counties in Qiongzhou Prefecture, the most numerous chieftains are the Li chieftains.

In Qiongshan, five miles away, there is a huge Tusi village, governed by a cave head named Li Yin.

Qiongzhou Prefecture implemented the Lijia system and had to pay taxes based on population.

However, there were few cultivated fields, and the Li people were not good at farming. As a result, taxes became onerous, resulting in many illegal households.

Xu Jinzhong went to the Yamen to check the household register. There were more than 3,000 people in this village, but the actual number was probably more than 10,000.

"Go back to camp!"

Three hundred households followed Xu Jinzhong into the camp.

There was a simple tea table, and a map of Hainan hung on the wall. The court did not give any orders, and the mountains were high and the emperor was far away, so Xu Jinzhong simply became a general himself.

"Send a message to the chieftain of the Miao people tomorrow and ask them to keep an eye on the Li people."

There are Li people, Miao people, Han people, etc. living in Hainan. The Li people are the largest chieftain force in Hainan.

The Miao people are small chieftains in Hainan and often have disputes with the Li people.

Xu Jinzhong wanted to attack the Li people, but he sent troops without any name. If word of this reached the court, he would be regarded as bullying the people.

He once asked Haihan to go to Qiongshan to make peace, but these chieftains only wanted the golden fruit and this land.

At night, there were torches around the cornfield, and if there was any movement, the guards on the beacon tower could clearly see it.

Suddenly, a cold arrow shot towards the high platform, and the soldiers fell down.

A group of chieftains were holding coconut-chopping knives, harpoons, and carrying bows and arrows. They slowly approached the camp under the cover of night.

He raised his bow and arrow, aimed at the soldiers on the beacon, and shot a cold arrow. Another man fell down.

Woo~

A low sound of horns resounded through the military camp.

Xu Jinzhong was in a daze and woke up immediately when he heard the horn. He put on his black iron uniform and ran out. The people on the beacon in the distance were long gone.

"Tuntian camp, set up military formations!"

After hearing the order, the sergeant picked up his shield and formed a mandarin duck formation.

The surrounding lights were bright, and the chieftains rushed in over the crossbar with machetes and harpoons in hand.

Li Kang hurriedly shouted: "Don't fight in the cornfield!"

If he had known that these chieftains had different intentions, he would have taken action first. Xu Jinzhong would also have a headache.

"Go and call the Miao chieftain!"

There are only a thousand sergeants in the field camp. Including the thousand selected from the refugees, only two of them have been trained. The remaining refugees are all farming on weekdays. They are afraid when they see the bright machetes.

Zhang Qing from a hundred households grabbed Haihan, mounted his horse, and ran towards the depths of the night.

"Take a knife. If anyone rushes here, kill him!" Xu Jinzhong put the knife on his back and drove his horse to the gate of the military camp.

He didn't know the strength of the troops yet, and he couldn't guarantee that no chieftain would rush in.

Li Kang held his sword and stood in front of the refugees, "I will return to Beijing in more than a month. I will lose my land. No one among us can explain to the court. If I die in the battle, I will beg the court for compensation. If I escape, I will The official deleted him from the household register and punished him as a deserter."

If the deserter is caught, he will be exiled thousands of miles away.

The refugees did not dare to be careless and picked up their daily farm tools one after another.

At the gate of the camp, Xu Jinzhong rushed in front. Someone was always shooting cold arrows, and there were more than a dozen arrows nailed to the wooden shield.

Roar all day long.

Xu Jinzhong found that the crop fields were badly damaged and corn was planted in the camp. As long as the camp could be held, he had nothing to worry about.

The Li people had never seen a formation before, especially such a strange formation. They advanced and retreated at the same time, in an orderly manner. The flying spears killed people.

In an instant, more than twenty people were lost.

"Thousands of households, there are Li people behind the camp!" The soldiers came up to report.

Xu Jinzhong cursed secretly and rode his horse back. Behind the camp was a small rocky mountain, and the Li people climbed up around the cliff.

The timid refugees retreated in fright, and Li Kang drew his sword to fight. The bold refugees hit them with farm tools, but they could not stop the Li attack.

At this moment, Xu Jinzhong galloped back with a team of more than a dozen people, and the situation improved.

"I guess there are at least three thousand Li people who attacked at night. If you don't take up arms, I can't save you!" Xu Jinzhong angrily scolded the refugees hiding in the cornfield.

An hour later, the Miao people arrived.

Armed with harpoons and curved sickles, they were more ferocious than the Li people and beat the Li people back.

In the second half of the night, the camp gradually calmed down.

More than a hundred people were killed or injured among the refugees and soldiers from the field camp. The Li people took the initiative to attack. Xu Jinzhong decided to take people to kill the local official Li Yin tomorrow and take over his land.

Li Kang rode a fast horse to the Yamen of Qiongzhou Prefecture.

"You said there was chaos in the camp last night?" Li Tingyu opened his mouth slightly in shock.

"Your Majesty, please quickly order someone to send the memorial to the Chief Envoy of Guangdong!" Li Kang said.

Conquering chieftains was a major event and required reporting to the court.

Hainan is under the jurisdiction of the Chief Envoy of Guangdong. He rides to the capital and passes at the inns along the way, which is faster than sea ships.

Li Tingyu did not dare to neglect and quickly arranged for someone to send the letter to Guangdong.

…

It’s Chinese New Year in Beijing.

Your Majesty is happy this year, and everyone in the government and the public will have a five-day rest.

There was heavy snow and wind, and the city was filled with joy. Yan Chengjin ordered people to kill a running sheep and roast the whole sheep around the stove.

There are no condiments these days, so mutton meals are cheaper than pork.

"Why is this salt yellow?"

He Neng said cautiously: "Master, I have tasted it and it is not poisonous."

Yan Chengjin felt a little relieved, but he didn't sprinkle it on the mutton.