Chapter 1073 Dirty Work

Five days later, Yun Zheng met Dugu Ce in Lingzhou.

Dugu Ce brought fewer people with him, but he arrived in Lingzhou one day earlier than them.

"Don't you say something?"

On the city wall of Lingzhou, Yun Zheng looked into the distance and asked Dugu Ce beside him indifferently.

Dugu Ce opened his mouth slightly, turned around and faced Yun Zheng: "I am guilty, please punish me, Your Highness!"

"Stop talking nonsense!"

Yun Zheng turned his head and looked at Dugu Ce, "I don't have time to discuss with you whether you are guilty or not. I want to know the true situation of the Northwest Protectorate!"

Is this the real situation?

Dugu Ce smiled bitterly.

I think Your Highness should have asked about this during your journey, right?

Ugh!

Dugu Ce sighed inwardly and spoke slowly: "According to the predictions of this general and officials at all levels of the Northwest Protectorate, when the new grain is harvested, the population of the entire Northwest Protectorate will drop sharply by 350,000 to 400,000, most of whom are the elderly and the weak..."

Thirty-five to four hundred thousand people!

Yun Zheng's heart twitched hard.

This number is much larger than he expected.

He originally thought that if about 200,000 people starved to death here, that would be enough.

Yun Zheng fell into a long silence.

After a long while, Yun Zheng asked with a complicated expression: "We have transferred so much food here, is there still such a big gap in food?"

Dugu Ce replied: "The food shortage is one thing, and there are also various diseases, plus... I deliberately condoned bandits and nobles from all over the place..."

Both the Northwest Protectorate and Shuobei did require a large amount of labor.

But, we don’t need so many old, weak and sick people!

Reducing the number of elderly, weak, sick and disabled people can reduce their burden.

In fact, there is still a lot of food in Yufeng City.

Even if we increase our disaster relief efforts, it should be able to barely hold out until the autumn harvest.

But Dugu Ce did not do so. Each household of the disaster victims could have been given two dou of relief grain, but he only gave one dou. Even with this one dou, some officials in some places still embezzled money.

Dugu Ce turned a blind eye to this.

He planned to wait until the autumn harvest was over before settling accounts with those corrupt officials.

Listening to Dugu Ce's words, Yun Zheng couldn't help but laugh at himself.

There is nothing wrong with Dugu Ce doing this.

This is what he taught Dugu Ce to do when they conquered Qiuchi.

"Any more?"

Yun Zheng turned his head again and looked into the distance.

"besides!"

Dugu Ce replied: "I also sent people to secretly stir up conflicts between the natives of Qiuchi and Dayue. Several violent clashes broke out between them, and many people died."

"In addition, there were several small-scale epidemics that broke out in the former territory of Dayue. I ordered people to disguise themselves as bandits and massacred the town..."

As he spoke, Dugu Ce's voice gradually became quieter.

He did not report these things to Shuofang.

Yun Zheng opened his mouth slightly and asked again: "Who taught you these? Was it father?"

Dugu Ce lowered his head: "Your Majesty taught me a little, but it was my own decision to massacre the town where the epidemic broke out. I was afraid that the epidemic could not be controlled, and I did not want to spend a lot of manpower to control the epidemic, so..."

"Why don't you report these?" Yun Zheng still looked into the distance and asked calmly.

Dugu Ce: "I am worried that Your Highness will be lenient after knowing the situation. I plan to report it to Your Highness all at once after we have overcome the difficulties. By then, it will be a done deal. No matter how Your Highness wants to deal with me, I will accept it..."

"You are considerate of this king."

Yun Zheng sighed softly, then said seriously: "But no matter what your purpose is, you must be punished for not reporting it! Fine one year's salary to serve as a warning to others!"

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Dugu Ce bowed and saluted.

Compared with all the rewards Yun Zheng had given him, a one-year salary deduction was almost negligible.

"If it happens again, it won't just be a one-year salary deduction."

Yun Zheng glared at Dugu Ce and said, "We haven't seen each other for a year. You have worked hard this year and made great contributions. I will toast you a few glasses tonight!"

"Your Highness, I can't do that." Dugu Ce waved his hands quickly, "I have no merit..."

"Whether you have made any contribution or not, I know it clearly in my heart."

Yun Zheng interrupted Dugu Ce and said, "You have done a lot of dirty and tiring work this year. When the current crisis is over, let Dugu Xin guard Somai!"

Guarding Somai?

Dugu Ce's eyelids twitched suddenly.

Somai is the northern gateway of the Northwest Protectorate. Beyond Somai is the territory of Guifang and Mondo.

Based on his understanding of Yun Zheng, Yun Zheng would sooner or later take action against the half-dead Gui Fang.

Your Highness, by letting your son Dugu Xin guard Somai, isn't that equivalent to giving credit to his son?

At the same time, this is also His Highness expressing his trust in me.

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Dugu Ce did not reject Yun Zheng's kindness and bowed.

"Okay, that's it!"

Yun Zheng waved his sleeves lightly, "It just so happens that you are here too, let's go inspect Lingzhou's defense together!"

"Yes!"

Dugu Ce gladly accepted the order.

Yun Zheng led Dugu Ce to the foot of the city wall and said, "Lingzhou is an important place both from a trade and strategic perspective. We can focus on its development in the future."

"I have thought about this before."

Dugu Ce replied: "But the problem is that Lingzhou is surrounded by mostly desert and semi-desert land. It is really difficult to develop Lingzhou..."

"That's a problem."

Yun Zheng nodded, and suddenly asked, "What about the mineral deposits? Have you sent people to explore for mineral deposits around Lingzhou?"

"We haven't explored around Lingzhou." Dugu Ce replied, "However, I have sent two teams to explore the upper reaches of Yudai River and the plain of Suole River respectively. According to the current exploration situation, there are probably gold mines in these two places!"

"Gold mine?"

Yun Zheng's eyes lit up, "When will there be a result?"

This is good stuff!

If there were gold mines with rich reserves, we could even launch an economic war against Xiqu and directly destroy Xiqu's monetary system!

"There should be results within a month."

Dugu Ce replied: "We have already panned out a small amount of gold, but we haven't found the vein yet. Many things are still uncertain at the moment."

"We can hurry up on this matter."

Yun Zheng said, "We also need to explore more saltpeter mines and iron mines. Northwest Protectorate is so big, it is impossible that there are only those few mineral deposits..."

Copper mines, silver mines, coal mines...

As long as it's a mine, it's all good stuff.

They now have plenty of labor, but what they lack is abundant mineral reserves!

In some places where agriculture or animal husbandry cannot be developed, then develop the mining industry!

"The general will remember it!"

Dugu Ce solemnly agreed, and then said to Yun Zheng: "When your highness goes to Sawtooth Ridge, you can go northwest of Lingzhou. We have built a stone bridge upstream of Yudai River, which can greatly shorten the journey from Lingzhou to Yiwu."

"it is good!"

Yun Zheng nodded, and followed Dugu Ce to inspect the defense of Lingzhou while chatting about the development of the Northwest Protectorate.

Although Dugu Ce would report the situation here to Shuofang regularly, it was impossible for him to report in such detail.

After some casual chatting, Yun Zheng felt that there was still a lot of room for development in the Northwest Protectorate...