Aunt Chen is back from the world of cultivation

Last year, Chen Qingzhu did not expand externally.

After the land was distributed, she ordered the cabinet to fulfill the decree on the retirement of military households and veterans, and to issue them retirement silver and distribute land.

After the old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers in the army were discharged from the army, new soldiers were recruited and trained.

In addition, he also cleaned up the mountain bandits, water bandits, kidnappers and bullies in the twelve prefectures under his jurisdiction.

This not only strengthened the army's combat capability, but also allowed the people under its rule to live more safely.

The civil and military officials were very busy and remained busy until the end of the year.

The intelligence personnel under Zhang Liu mainly focus on the twelve prefectures under his jurisdiction and monitor the movements of Zhongdu Fengyang.

The remaining energy was also used to train existing members and to expand the enrollment to a small extent.

It was not until October that we gradually learned from some merchants in Fujian Province that towns in Fujian Province had been successively plundered by Japanese pirates since May and June last year.

During the Japanese invasion in October, there were even larger scale lootings.

Zhang Liu hesitated for a long time before reporting this discovery to Chen Qingzhu.

Although judging from his mercenary experience in dealing with people, he should actually gloss over the situation.

After all, the God has said that all the Japanese pirates have been eliminated. Now they are wreaking havoc again. Isn't this a slap in the face of the God?

But after following Chen Qingzhu for so long, his mentality had already changed unconsciously.

He was active among the people and saw how much the lives of the civilians and military households under his rule had changed.

He also came from a poor military family, so he knew how valuable this was.

During his childhood when he was poor and his two brothers starved to death, he had hoped more than once that the gods and Buddhas in the temple would come to save them.

Now, his childhood wish has come true.

He knows better than anyone how such changes are achieved.

It is not only due to the strong support of the gods, but also inseparable from the efforts of every official, clerk and soldier below.

As a member of the group that maintains this peaceful and prosperous era where the people live and work in peace and contentment, if he retreats out of selfishness, countless people will continue to suffer like he did when he was a child.

Moreover, after following the God for several years, he felt that the God would not be such a narrow-minded person.

Sure enough, the God didn't seem to mind at all and just asked him to send someone to investigate and confirm.

Now, more than two months have passed, and the intelligence personnel who went to Fujian Province have returned.

They traveled to various prefectures in Fujian Province and visited in detail all the places that had been attacked by Japanese pirates.

"God, according to reports from our people, the four coastal prefectures of Fujian Province were attacked last year. But this time, the targets were not villages or towns, but county governments and prosperous towns."

"Those pirates didn't plunder food or capture slaves. They only attacked wealthy families. After breaking into their homes, they used cruel means to interrogate them about where their money was hidden. This was very different from the pirates' previous style of behavior."

In the past, the Japanese pirates would rob whatever they saw and loved to kill and burn people.

Nowadays, these Japanese pirates are only interested in money and don’t even care about human lives.

What does this mean?

It only means that they may not have a fixed residence, do not need to grow food, and dare not expose their whereabouts by bringing too many people.

Chen Qingzhu fell into deep thought.

Could it be that she really missed some forces when she was suppressing the Japanese?

Judging from the timing of these pirate attacks, more than one force of pirates was missed, and judging from the recollections of local people, there were quite a few of them.

She had clearly scanned all the inhabited islands on the sea, so how could she have missed so many people?

This is undoubtedly a challenge to the prestige of the God Du'e.

But this also comes with opportunities.

As long as she can deal with the remaining Japanese pirates and operate them well, it will help her take over Fujian Province.

Having made up his mind, Chen Qingzhu ordered:

"Zhang Liu, go to Zheng Yuannai to mobilize two thousand soldiers and then go to the sea to investigate. Even if you have to dig three feet deep, you must dig out these fish that have slipped through the net!"

"Yes!"

Zhang Liu took the order and left.

Two months later, the people who went to investigate at sea had not returned yet, but the Yan family in the capital sent Chen Qingzhu a piece of information.

Yan Rong said in the communication talisman that Emperor Yong'an had found the treasure left by the ancestors of the Great Wei Dynasty, and he suddenly went from being strapped for cash to being wealthy.

Not only did he give many rewards to the concubines in the harem, he also lent one million taels of silver to the national treasury.

Chen Qingzhu didn't think much about it at first.

After all, it is normal for founding emperors or those emperors who created a prosperous era to leave a considerable amount of money to their descendants so that they can provide relief in times of crisis.

She had no intention of taking the money. After all, one would never fall into the same pit twice.

The last time she emptied the treasury, Emperor Yong'an would definitely guard the treasury strictly.

Even if it was her, she would deliberately release the news and set a trap.

She is not short of money now, so there is no need for her to take risks.

It was already May, and it would soon be time for the Japanese pirates to land.

The people who explored at sea have returned, but still have not found any trace of the Japanese pirates.

This gave Chen Qingzhu a headache.

It seems that there is no such thing as one trick to conquer the world.

The last time she acted suddenly, she was able to find the lair of the Japanese pirates without any preparation and wipe them out in a short time.

Now that the remaining Japanese pirates are still around, they must have known what she had done.

In this way, it becomes extremely difficult to find their whereabouts and eliminate them before they land.

Chen Qingzhu did not spend too much time thinking about this matter. After all, she had a group of capable subordinates, and she could leave things to them to solve.

So she held a small court meeting and invited her trusted subordinates to discuss countermeasures.

After everyone’s brainstorming, they finally decided on the strategy of “waiting for the rabbit”:

As long as these Japanese pirates have no intention of retiring, they will sooner or later come to plunder the coast of Wei again.

Under her rule, they probably wouldn't have the guts to come.

Then, only the coastal areas of Shandong and Fujian Province and Guangdong and Guangxi are left.

The area is too large, and she can't possibly have so many people to take care of it.

Even she herself would not be able to catch the Japanese pirates in time in such a vast area.

So we still have to give priority to some areas and abandon others.

Guangdong and Guangxi are relatively poor compared to the first two, and are too far away from the southern capital, so she is unable to reach them for the time being.

Qi and Lu are close to northern Zhili, and the Wei court has its own concerns.

So after all the elimination, the focus still needs to be placed on Fujian Province.

However, this time, the focus should be on the counties and towns in Fujian Province that have not been looted.

It was impossible for her to send a large number of troops to the unoccupied Fujian Province, so she could only attack Chencang secretly.

This time, Zhang Liu personally took his intelligence personnel to contact the wealthy families in each county, asking them to contribute manpower and money to form a joint defense force to patrol and be on guard at all times.

In this way, once they were attacked by Japanese pirates, they could help each other and stop the pirates.

The wealthy are better informed than ordinary people, and most of them have heard of the reputation of Lord Du'e.

They both hated and feared the Lord Du'e.

But in comparison, the Japanese pirates are more terrifying.

In the past, Japanese pirates could only threaten villages or towns. Rich people like them only had to hide in the county town, which was protected by walls and garrisons, and most of the Japanese pirates could not get in.

But now, the Japanese pirates have abandoned the villages and towns and attacked the county town directly, cruelly robbing all the property of those wealthy families.

Even the Lord of Du'e only wanted the land, but the Japanese pirates wanted all their property and even their lives!

The elusive Japanese pirates failed to rob them last year, so their situation became precarious this year.

They have no other choice.

Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, these wealthy families chose to follow the advice of the subordinates of the God of Du'e and contributed money and manpower to form a joint defense army.

Of course, this was done in secret.

After all, Lord Du'e is a traitor, and if he openly communicates with his subordinates in private, he will easily be accused of treason.

This matter must be kept secret from the court.

In addition, they were also afraid that the news would leak out, which would make the Japanese pirates on guard and not come to where they were, and they would have to continue to live in fear all year round.