Chapter 8, Twenty-seven moments in the four years of Chongzhen 8 s: Several bugs in the ancient prose part of the previous chapter have been corrected.
Thank you to the enthusiastic readers for their reminders and attention.
The Eighth Moment: Lurking Tentacles December of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Lunan Plain The goose-feather-like heavy snow in the North is rustling down, all the rivers, lakes and ponds are frozen, and the sky and the earth are silvery white.
The terrible wind and snow once again swept across the land that had become increasingly desolate due to frequent natural disasters, and also swept away the hardworking people who were barely struggling to survive.
In the snow-covered desolate wilderness, countless small and large teams are moving forward, including many people supporting the elderly and the young.
Along the way are filled with corpses that have died of freezing and starvation.
Snowflakes and ice have accumulated on them, turning them into corpses.
Each white grave bag.
But the people walking ignored them.
Occasionally, some relatives and friends cried a little, but they had to stand up and continue on their way.
The precarious and cheap life made the separation between life and death seem so deserted.
When the Tunbao Farm in Dengzhou Town was in full swing, the military farmers who had finished their hard work for the year were warming themselves by the fire in the warm house while planning how many New Year's goods they should go to the sales department's supply and marketing cooperative.
In most other places in Shandong Province But there are mourners everywhere and people are in dire straits.
The miserable scene: the continuous natural disasters during the Little Ice Age and the long-term disrepair of water conservancy projects have reduced the yield of crops to a miserable level, while the fierce landlord servants and government servants have taken away all the little grain harvest.
Leave without leaving any way for farmers to survive.
In fact, the "Liao wages" allocated by the Ming Dynasty for the Liaodong War were not that much in terms of numbers.
However, due to the increase of corrupt officials at all levels, they had already expanded to the point where the peasants could not bear it.
The amount of grain that will eventually be collected is actually more than the entire crop in the fields.
The production still has to wait until the New Year's bell is about to ring.
Those farmers whose houses are empty and whose stomachs are also empty, in order to still see the sun in the new year and not starve to death at home, they can only eat rice one after another.
I bid farewell to my home with tears, and braved the cold wind to embark on the long escape road with an uncertain future.
In the cold weather, these hungry people fleeing famine in groups staggered forward on the road with no end in sight, leaving corpses along the way.
They headed aimlessly towards the county seat, prefectural city or any city.
——Even the most ignorant disaster victims vaguely know that only in the city can they have a chance of survival.
Otherwise, they will freeze to death even if they do not starve to death.
If the local city cannot accommodate them, they will have no choice but to leave their homes and flee to more distant states and counties to try their luck.
Countless refugees are driven by hunger and cold and forced to survive. , just like this in Lunan The various continents are slowly squirming.
People die every day, and people join in every day.
Wherever they pass, it is like locusts passing through.
Everything is eaten up - from bark, grass roots to animals and even It's a human corpse, so no one can be spared.
The wealthy rural households in the villages and towns along the way had already fled after hearing the alarm - they either entered the relatively strong prefectures and provincial towns, or fled to the more distant and stable Jiangnan.
After a lot of civil unrest such as the "White Lotus Sect" and "Wenxiang Sect", this place has become very dangerous.
Many people with assets have fled to the provincial capital or Jiangnan to "escape".
Villagers in other villages and towns have built village walls and practiced village bravery.
Those hands that once held the hoe handle are now holding whistle sticks and wooden guns tightly, and they are vigilantly paying attention to the refugees passing near the villages and towns - - The victims who are starving and red-eyed generally have the consciousness of "eat until they are full", and the little food accumulated in the villages and towns is not enough to feed their families.
On the edge of the line between life and death, anyone's heart will Become as cold and hard as steel.
Those landlords and tycoons who did not go to other places to "escape" also brought their servants and long-term workers, holding bows, arrows and swords, and stood on the wall of the village.
The body that was originally dressed in silk and satin was now wrapped in hastily made cotton armor.
On the one hand, he must supervise Xiang Yong not to slack off, on the other hand, he must also work hard to show that he "takes the lead" - after all, he is the person with the most wealth in the village.
Once the stockade is broken down, those paupers who have been exploited until they have nothing to live on may not suffer much loss.
At most, they will just flee with the refugees.
But these landlords and tycoons, not to mention their family property, may not even be able to protect their wives, children and lives.
How can they tolerate you being a coward in this life-and-death situation?
In the howling wind and snow, what the village heroes saw in their eyes were the darkness of the refugees outside, but what they thought of was the various horrific news that came in the past few days: Which village, town, which stockade was eaten up by the refugees, and who Everyone's belongings were robbed, and everyone's family was killed by the refugees - ―The richest landowner in the village, a fat man over fifty years old, turned his head around and looked at the village heroes around him who were shrinking their necks and frowning.
He had no choice but to grit his teeth and stamp his feet.
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He said in a voice: "Please be careful and have a treat tonight.
You can eat whatever you want from the box of pork, white noodles and vegetables."
After a moment of silence, there was a chaotic roar of "Thank you, Master!"
from the wall of the village.
Then, under such a generous reward, all the local heroes became a little more energetic, and they roared in tune as if they were singing: "Everyone, hold your sword and gun tightly."
"Hold it tight" "The village is securely held" "Hold firmly" Scenes like this are repeated almost every day in many villages in Lunan.
On weekdays, not to mention giving food to the long-term workers and farmers, even the white flour and pork that the landlords themselves are reluctant to eat, in these days, they have to spend their money and use them as rewards to win people's hearts.
However, these big landlords, while feeling distressed, frightened and worried, were also secretly happy.
As the refugees sweep away the land, many fertile fields are being turned into unclaimed land.
For some ambitious people, it is a good opportunity to expand their industry - as for the farmers who farm the land, they will not die.
After the storm and snow pass, those who have not starved to death will always come back in the next spring.
Keep working for the old man.
Of course, the premise is that these big landlords can survive this test and have not been "eaten" by the refugees before and died in the riots.
At this desperate moment when honest farmers have turned into man-eating monsters, no matter in prefectures, counties or prefectures, those officials who usually show off their power are usually unwilling to interfere with the actions of the refugees and cause trouble for themselves: as long as the refugees do not get up On the contrary, if the county town is not besieged, even if a few large rural landowners are killed and a few villages are slaughtered, it will not be considered a big deal.
Unless the victim has an unusual background, the government will simply make them consider themselves unlucky.
For those big families who stayed in the countryside, if they wanted to save their lives and property, they had no choice but to lead the way.
But even if every big family in the countryside understands this truth, when refugees cross the border every year, many villages will still be attacked.
Some of them are young and young, and they cannot withstand the siege of a large number of hungry people.
Some of them are landlords who are stingy with their property. , Excessive exploitation, making the villagers who defended the village brave After the hungry people swept away the fish, meat, rice, noodles, gold, silver, and soft goods in the village, leaving behind a ruin, the surrounding landlords would swoop up like vultures and happily take away the fields under the name of the original owner of the village.
It was completely divided and a family of Jin gentry disappeared.
In the desperate Central Plains at the end of the Ming Dynasty, such scenes kept happening year after year.
Whether they were landlords, tenants or farmers, they could only struggle between survival and death, suffering in this purgatory while devouring infinite greed.
Looking at each other's corpses to gain some short-term satisfaction, the world seems to have turned into a huge voodoo barrel.
No one knows what will crawl out of the barrel in the end.
At the junction of Sulu and Sulu, Haizhou City Although the vast Central Plains China from Shaanxi and Gansu to Qilu had been exploited by the conscientious officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty, and thousands of villages and households had no smoke, they benefited from the nearby Huaibei Saltworks.
In this cornucopia, the lives of the people in Haizhou seem to be barely tolerable.
Therefore, in the twelfth lunar month of this year, Haizhou City has not yet closed its city gates to prohibit refugees from the north from entering the city.
However, just in case, the city has also set up a training camp to guard the young men in Guanxiang and nearby villages.
Organized and ready to "suppress" hungry people from causing rebellion.
Several human heads were hung at the gate of the city to serve as a warning to others - always fresh and bloody.
There were a few more hastily built sheds outside the city, where pots of "gruel" with a musty smell and clearly visible bottoms were cooked. ".
Just like this gruel, not all the refugees gathered nearby can eat it.
There is a fixed number of "chips" that the government servants give to the hungry people every day.
The hungry people who don't get their turn can only starve.
I'll starve to death.
However, as hungry people gathered, another prosperous trade also emerged near the porridge shed.
People from Xuzhou, Yangzhou and even farther south hid in sedan chairs and mule carts, carefully calculating how much "prey" they could get and how much benefit they would give to their local counterparts.
Some people were wandering around the crowd, looking for someone to bribe.
Young men and women are the first targets, followed by attractive young women.
The people with grass tags were loaded onto mule carts one after another, and then transported one by one to the canal, loaded onto ships, and then transferred to various places for sale along the Grand Canal.
In this abnormally prosperous population trade, even some forces from the most peripheral areas of the Ming Empire quietly participated.
Amidst the bustling noise, in view of the sharp deterioration of the situation in southern Shandong not long ago, Zhang Yingchen, the special commissioner who had just retreated from Yizhou, Shandong to Haizhou, crossed the Senate and headed north.
Zhang Yingchen, who claimed to be the Taoist priest, was wearing a Wearing a Taoist uniform, wrapped in a cotton robe and a short dog-skin jacket, he rode a small donkey, followed by two newly-acquired Taoist boys, and walked through the crowd gathered near the Haizhou City Gate.
From time to time he nods to the people around him - in recent days, he has been practicing medicine and helping people here in Haizhou, and has already gained the reputation of "living god".
Not only the refugees, but also many of the government servants and village warriors who maintained order around the porridge were treated by him.
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Even if they did not treat him with respect like a god, they were at least polite to him.
"Taoist Priest, I have let the child take the medicine you gave me last time, and it really stopped the diarrhea.
You are really a god-" A smiling government servant blocked his way, holding a child in his hand. , "Please check again to see if there are any other problems."
"Well, since the diarrhea has been stopped, life is not in the way."
Zhang Yingchen said with a graceful smile, "Pindao has something to do now.
Come back and show it to your child.
You give him this packet of medicine first. , somewhat nourishing benefits.”
Zhang Yingchen walked over graciously to the yamen servant's endless gratitude.
He was almost overwhelmed with such things along the way.
Even Dian Shi, who came to inspect the porridge from time to time, and the head of the county Yong, saw Zhang Yingchen often had to be polite.
In fact, when Zhang Yingchen first came to Haizhou City, the officials and gentry here were very wary of him.
In ancient Chinese society, when encountering natural disasters, various cults often carried out propaganda and deception.
Great opportunity for believers.
Based on the experience accumulated by China's feudal ruling class over thousands of years of history.
Those monks and Taoist priests who appeared after the great disaster were for the purpose of practicing medicine and preaching, so almost seven or eight out of ten had "unruly" intentions.
In recent years, in various places in Shandong and Huaibei, It is true that the White Lotus Sect and the Wenxiang Sect are rampant, and various "religious chaos" continue, which makes the government's vigilance never relax.
There are many kinds of Huidao sects in Shandong.
The big ones include Wenxiang Sect and Luo Sect.
As for the various tribes and Huidao sects, there are even more names.
The Wenxiang Sect is very famous and has the greatest power.
Xu Hongru, the leader of the White Lotus Sect, is the disciple of Wang Sen, the leader of Wenxiang Sect in Jizhou, Hebei Province.
The White Lotus Sect has been operating latently in Shandong for more than 20 years, with more than 2 million followers.
Intertwined and powerful.
After the failure of the uprising in the second year of Tianqi, the White Lotus Sect suffered a heavy blow in Shandong.
However, the strength of the remaining party still existed and they continued to lurk.
In the second year of Chongzhen, they besieged Laiyang.
In the same year, the remaining party of Bailian, Zhu Bingnan, also attacked the government in Suizhou, Henan.
As for Luo Jiao, he was born and raised: the founder was Luo Qing, a native of Shandong.
He had strong strength among the canal transport soldiers and had many branches.
For these Shandong rebellious parties, Haizhou, which is rich in salt fields, is located next to Shandong.
It is naturally a piece of fat that they covet in their eyes.
Just in the past month, there have been several so-called "Taoist priests" or "monks", as well as so-called "divine witches" without any religious attire, who have caused trouble in Haizhou due to their strange behavior. government Note that they soon disappeared completely under the attack of the government and the gentry.
You must know that the Ming government in this time and space had no concept of human rights at all.
It was a common practice for officials everywhere to arrest suspicious people and torture them.
What's more, these are extraordinary times.
Many people have their heads chopped off or are tortured to death in yamen just because of their suspicious words and deeds.
Some unlucky ones die in dark prisons or in cages at the entrance of yamen.
The reason why Zhang Yingchen, a time-traveling Taoist priest, was able to avoid the above-mentioned misfortune during the severe attack in Haizhou City was firstly due to his formal medical school education and rich medical experience in the 21st century.
His medical skills are relatively advanced.
Various medicines to carry Secondly, with the help of the time-traveling groups, he had a formal official Taoist certificate, plus a name card that he had obtained from a certain gentry's family through connections - these two things were protecting him.
Plays a big role in safety.
Moreover, he was always very careful when treating diseases.
He usually only said words such as doing good deeds and accumulating virtue, and never engaged in any "subversive anti-government instigation."
So as time went by, the government and the gentry gradually became relieved of him. .
Then, Zhang Yingchen spent the whole day wandering around the "human market" outside the city gate, constantly buying "cute boys", which invisibly provided him with a good cover, which made many dirty guys suddenly realize , thinking that this sanctimonious "stealing spring" is actually just Just like those nunneries in the late Ming Dynasty that were actually "role-playing brothels", they were just human traffickers in the guise of wandering Taoist priests, but they were actually willing to treat illnesses and save people, and seemed to have some compassion and conscience in such a morally corrupted environment.
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In troubled times, it is already rare.
As a time traveler who seemed to be born to change the world, the reason why Zhang Yingchen behaved so low-key in Yizhou and Haizhou was because the job assigned to him by the Senate was not to start a cult in Shandong to incite civil unrest and civil unrest.
"Religious chaos" and even collecting the population are just optional side tasks.
His real goal in going north this time was to collect intelligence.
First of all, one of Zhang Yingchen’s main purposes for going deep into the North was to examine the activities and instigation capabilities of local organizations such as the White Lotus Sect, the Luo Sect, and the Wenxiang Sect.
It now appears that these traditional anti-government organizations of the Ming Dynasty did have some activities, but even though the local government has no He was powerless to provide disaster relief, but he paid great attention to it - after all, it was less than ten years since the White Lotus Rebellion that swept through Shandong during the Tianqi Years.
The vitality of the sect organization had not yet been restored, and local vigilance was still there.
It was necessary to use religion to It is not so easy to incite the people by means.
Generally speaking, Shandong will probably not be in chaos until the Jin army breaks through the border and penetrates deep into Shandong, or the Shanxi peasant army fights across the Central Plains.
Secondly, it is natural to investigate Dengzhou Town at the tip of the Shandong Peninsula.
How much strength does this local group with obvious traces of time travelers have in Shandong?
How many time travelers are there in the group?
How much loyalty is there to the Ming Dynasty?
What is the attitude of one's own forces so that the Senate can have the information when formulating the next response strategy?
More factual basis is the real core of Zhang Yingchen's work going north this time.
He previously carried out intelligence collection work in the Linyi area further north.
However, as the situation in southern Shandong becomes increasingly dilapidated, if Zhang Yingchen continues to stay in Yizhou, Perhaps there was a danger of encountering refugees besieging the city and destroying everyone, so they retreated south to the relatively safer Haizhou City.
Then, Zhang Yingchen, who was leisurely staying at the Haizhou Intelligence Station, was attracted by the increasingly prosperous population trade outside the gate of Haizhou City.
He continued to acquire boys and girls in the past few days, preparing to transport them back to Hainan Island through liaison ships.
For the Chuan people who have been extremely thirsty for labor for a long time, it is also a supplement to some extent.
At the same time, it is also conducive to the large population under the Senate.
Unfortunately, the funds on hand are limited.
For example, today he met a few young people near the city gate who were selling goods for sale.
They were handsome and attracted Zhang Yingchen at first sight.
However, he had already collected more than ten People spend a lot of money on food and drink every day, and the price of food in Haizhou is still rising, so we really don't dare to take in more boys.
"Hey, when will the owner of the deer village send the money, otherwise all the good population resources will be taken away by this group of people."
Zhang Yingchen sighed emotionally, thinking secretly in his heart, riding a donkey Returned to a Taoist temple in Chengguanxiang.
This place is said to be a Taoist temple, but in fact there are no serious Taoist priests.
There is only a fire dweller Taoist who can't help but marry and have children.
He can barely make ends meet.
Zhang Yingchen only spent a few small sums of money to rent a Taoist house as his temporary base of activities in Haizhou City.
As for the real Haizhou intelligence station organized by the Senate, it was set up outside Haizhou City on the Huaguo Mountain where Sun Wukong and Monkey were hatched in Journey to the West.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the original official name of Huaguoshan in Lianyungang in Haizhou was Yuntai Mountain or Cangwu Mountain.
It did not gradually become connected to the land to the west due to sedimentation and expansion of the coastline as in modern times, but it remained As described in Journey to the West, it is an island standing in the sea, separated from Haizhou by a vast ocean.
The terrain on the island is rugged, with many mountains and little flat land.
Even the little flat land is mostly dominated by saline-alkali land and sandy land, which cannot be cultivated.
Therefore, except for a few fishermen and one or two extremely dilapidated Taoist temples, there is almost no human habitation.
Although the once unknown Huaguo Mountain has become somewhat famous in society due to the widespread spread of Journey to the West, the tourism industry in the Ming Dynasty cannot be compared with modern times, and the troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty were even less suitable for mountain tourism.
Playing with water, so Huaguo Mountain was still desolate during the Chongzhen period.
However, for the Hainan Island Lingao Senate, which uses the fleet as a mobile force, this island is an excellent base for advancement.
First of all, it is relatively remote and unnoticed.
Secondly, in wartime, as long as a small number of naval ships and a small number of troops are used as the backbone, the security of the entire island can be ensured.
Warning posts can be set up on the towering cliffs of the island.
Although the island itself is not rich in natural resources, fresh water, which is most critical for the navy, is quite abundant.
Huaguo Mountain is full of gurgling streams and springs.
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The "water curtain" in the description of Journey to the West Hole” is not made up.
Therefore, Lu Wenyuan, who was ordered to go north to set up an intelligence station, built a manor on the island of Huaguoshan, named "Monkey King Village".
It served as the Senate's early tentacle to advance into the north to collect intelligence on the Sulu area.
Mainly selling products on a small scale and building connections.
When the time is right, it can be transformed into a relay station for the Senate to launch its offensive on the northern continent, similar to Hong Kong Island and Zhoushan during the Opium War.
However, although the manor on Huaguo Mountain is safe and concealed, easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is still a certain distance from Haizhou City, making it difficult to obtain first-hand dynamic information more effectively.
So after Zhang Yingchen withdrew from Yizhou, he stayed at the Monkey King Village in Huaguo Mountain for a few days.
He felt that he couldn't stay idle anymore, so he came to Haizhou City to find a temporary residence.
In order to be thrifty, the Taoist temple where he settled looked like It was dilapidated.
The first dilapidated house that we entered used to be inhabited by beggars, but now it was filled with the boys and girls that Zhang Yingchen had purchased recently.
They were all so hungry that they were out of shape.
Zhang Yingchen went in through the passage, and when he got to the back, he saw the Huoju Taoist and his wife chopping firewood.
He gave a cursory hello to the landlord and went to the small yard where he lived.
At the gate of the courtyard, a Taoist boy heard the sound and immediately came over to greet him.
But to Zhang Yingchen's surprise, he also saw the figure of the owner of the village, Lu Wenyuan, in the room.
"Rare guest, rare guest, Mr.
Luzhuang, if you don't serve as your Monkey King in Huaguo Mountain and play with your big girls from Shandong, why do you have the time to come to this broken Taoist temple in Pindao?"
Zhang Yingchen greeted him quickly.
The boy poured tea to entertain the guests, while not forgetting to say a few insulting words to him.
"Of course it is a disaster that will lead to financial losses.
In order to face the increasing number of refugees, Mr.
Futai convened a meeting of the local gentry.
He first cried out for poverty as usual, and then ordered everyone to donate enthusiastically.
Even me, a foreigner on the island, was forced to share the expenses.
Fifty taels of silver" The owner of Deer Village took the tea bowl and said angrily, "I went to the porridge place just now, and I saw that the porridge pot was so thin that you could even see the silhouette of a person, and there was also an unknown amount of mud, sand, grass and leaves mixed in.
The rice and wheat that were put in were also It all smells musty.
If only five taels of the fifty taels of silver I donated to the Yamen could be used to relieve the victims, I would be thankful.
This does not include the disaster relief silver they obtained from the court. " Since ancient times, relief after natural disasters has always turned into a feast for those in power at the grassroots level.
This has become an open secret, and even the emperor has no choice but to do it - knowing full well that if the relief money and food are allocated, they will be exploited at all levels and go into the hands of the victims.
Even if you don’t save one out of ten, you still have to continue to allocate money, otherwise natural disasters will trigger civil unrest.
In many cases, no matter how much money and food is allocated, it will still trigger civil unrest.
An important difference between the so-called prosperous times and the apocalypse is that in the prosperous times, even if disaster relief supplies are withheld at all levels, the victims can still get some in the end.
At the end of the day, the bureaucracy completely swallowed up all the funds and materials, squeezing the people to the point where they could no longer survive, and finally provoked a civil uprising and made the emperor hang himself.
"This is the decline of administrative capabilities," Zhang Yingchen commented.
"When a feudal dynasty was in its prime, institutions could generally maintain normal operations, and the degree of corruption among officials had not affected administrative execution capabilities.
But in the late dynasty, as the Corruption is getting worse.
The execution ability of the political system will also decline.
At the end of the period, the entire country will enter a state of anarchy.
Not to mention the victims, even the army will have to live by robbing homes, even if the enemy soldiers surround the city and put their swords to their necks.
However, civil servants still do not forget corruption and embezzlement.”
Anyone who has read the story of Li Zicheng probably knows the cruel story of the "Fu Lu Banquet" in the late Ming Dynasty: At that time, Li Zicheng gathered a peasant army to besiege Luoyang, trying to seize the countless gold, silver, grain and rice hoarded by Prince Fu's Mansion in Luoyang City.
Although Luoyang's city walls and fortresses were very strong, the defenders had already owed half a year's military pay before the war.
Naturally, they complained against the Luoyang government and Prince Fu Zhu Changxun behind him, saying angrily: "The Luoyang palace is rich in palaces, and Shenzong consumes the world.
We use our wealth to enrich the king, but let us go to war on an empty stomach and die at the hands of thieves, how unfair it is."
The morale of the military was extremely unstable for a while.
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Faced with this situation, just as the courtiers of the Ming Dynasty wanted the emperor to allocate their internal funds when they were short of money, the civil and military officials of Luoyang also spent their own money, hoping that King Fu would be loyal to the emperor, patriotic, and generous.
It was the Luoyang magistrate and the commander-in-chief who went to Prince Fu's Mansion to solicit donations.
After no success, they invited Lu Weiqi, the former Minister of War who was living in seclusion in Luoyang, to visit Prince Fu's Mansion many times to persuade Zhu Changxun to open the palace treasury to help the hungry people and reward the soldiers.
Unfortunately, it is said that King Fu was as greedy for money as life and did not listen at all.
In the end, the defenders turned against each other out of resentment.
After fighting for only one day, they rebelled and surrendered to Li Zicheng.
Luoyang fell.
After Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang, he captured Prince Fu who failed to escape.
He ordered his men to tie up the three hundred kilogram fat prince, strip him naked and wash him.
He also got several sika deer from the garden of Prince Fu's mansion and slaughtered them.
The king of Fu was thrown into a big cauldron together and cooked into minced meat, which was called the "Fulu Banquet" for the soldiers to share.
From then on, King Fu Zhu Changxun became the laughing stock of the literati, as if he was to blame for the fall of Luoyang.
But the actual situation was not like this at that time.
On the eve of the Battle of Luoyang, although King Fu was indeed reluctant to pay at first, he finally donated 30,000 taels of silver after repeated persuasion by Lu Weiqi, the former Minister of War.
Coupled with the donations from other gentry in Luoyang City, we finally collected 50,000 taels of silver and 1,000 stones of grain and rice.
When this batch of money and food was delivered, the officers and soldiers defending the city in Luoyang immediately burst into cheers and their morale was greatly boosted.
But the problem is that even at such a time when the soldiers were in danger and the war was fierce, the civil and military forces in Luoyang still did not forget to squander the money and food, and even withheld it even more fiercely than usual.
As soon as the fifty thousand taels of silver were obtained, Wang Yinchang, the Luoyang sub-inspector, left After betting 10,000 taels, Wang Shaoyu also deducted 10,000 taels.
Feng Da, the prefect of Luoyang, The man swallowed 8,000 taels, and Luoyang Tui Guanwei took 3,000 taels at a 70% discount and distributed it to the more than 4,000 officers and soldiers guarding the city.
The 50,000 taels of silver in the account were only eight thousand taels.
Two, several petty officers conspired to steal another five thousand taels.
In the end, each officer and soldier received only a few coins.
However, all the officers and soldiers had already known that the government had raised fifty thousand taels of silver, and they were all eagerly waiting for this unprecedented reward.
At this time, I saw that even though it was the critical moment when the bandits were approaching the city, the superiors were still treating me so harshly.
Therefore, under the huge gap, everyone was naturally angry and cursed, full of resentment.
Then, due to the uneven distribution of silver among the various battalions, internal strife broke out on the city wall over the money, and even people were killed with knives.
Li Zicheng took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack.
Naturally, the defenders surrendered and fled.
Perhaps the reason why Zhu Changxun, the lucky king, refused to pay at the beginning was because he knew that with the death-seeking nature of these faint-hearted officials in Luoyang, no matter how much money they were given, even if the knife was put to their necks, they would only Use it to line your own pockets, but you still don't want to spend it on war.
However, during the Chongzhen period, the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were indeed filled with countless masters of committing suicide, but the wealthy gentry below were also very good at committing suicide in various ways.
For example, when bandits were rampant in Henan, a certain county town was about to be besieged by the peasant army.
A certain gentry in the city got wind of the news in advance and hoarded a lot of grain in the city.
He planned to raise the price after the siege began and sell the grain at sky-high prices to make a huge profit.
Unexpectedly, after the siege of the city began, the grain warehouse was sealed off by an official document from the county magistrate, and all his stored grain was transported to the Yamen.
After hearing the news, the Jin gentry was so angry that he took advantage of the peasant army to attack the city and the county magistrate was forced to bring all the soldiers to the city to deal with the war.
He brazenly mobilized his servants to set fire to the county government office in an attempt to regain the grain.
But at that time, the defenders were already under the strong attack of the peasant army.
They were overwhelmed and crumbling.
When they saw the fire behind them, their morale immediately collapsed, and the army was defeated.
As a result, the Jin gentry took back the grain from the Yamen.
Less than an hour later, the county seat He fell into the hands of the peasant army.
His whole family was killed by the peasant army, and the food was naturally accepted by the bandit leader.
It can be seen from this that how miserable the situation of Emperor Chongzhen must have been in the face of such a group of courtiers and gentry who were keen on seeking death from top to bottom.
Even if he wants to change this situation, the courtiers may not cooperate.
Don't think that those civil servants with no bottom line will only commit suicide and will not kill the king.
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Generally speaking, during the Chongzhen period, the ruling class of the Ming Empire, from the cabinet ministers to the rural gentry, were mostly top-notch enthusiasts of the death-seeking movement, and they had mastered the art of seeking death with great skill.
Otherwise, such a huge super empire with rich resources and prosperous industry and commerce would not have such a tragic fate.
Of course, this is the misfortune of the Ming Dynasty and the catastrophe of the Chinese people, but it is also an opportunity in the eyes of careerists of all walks of life.
Unfortunately, in this time and space that has been pierced by travelers from all walks of life, there are attempts to compete for the legacy of the Ming Dynasty.
Or, it seems that it is a bit too much "Old Lu, regarding the sporadic information on Dengzhou Town that I have collected over the past few months, I have sorted it out in the past two days and have written a summary.
For the time being, the only person who can identify the time traveler over there is the president of Dengzhou Town.
Bing Chen Xin himself, and his civil affairs supervisor Liu Minyou, are very likely to have traveled through time.
As for whether there are other time-travelers in Dengzhou Town, there is really no way to find out.
The sphere of influence of Dengzhou Town now covers the tip of the Shandong Peninsula.
Almost the entire Ninghai Prefecture is managed by Chen Xin as a private kingdom, and there are many sporadic enclaves scattered in Dengzhou and Qingzhou.
In Wendeng County and Weihai, where Dengzhou Town is the most powerful, the local people only know that they belong to a certain camp in Dengzhou Town, and no longer care about the state or county yamen.
Although the standing establishment of the Dengzhou Army even includes miscellaneous names, There should be no more than 10,000 people, but the population completely controlled by Dengzhou Town is estimated to have reached more than 150,000, and it is continuing to expand at a snowball speed.
In terms of equipment and tactics, although the Dengzhou Army was far superior to most Ming armies of this era, the weapons such as spears, muskets, and artillery used, as well as the methods of using these weapons, still did not surpass those in Europe for thirty years.
The level of the Spanish Grand Square during the war.
It looks similar to the firefighting battalion Huang Shi trained on Changsheng Island in Liaodong, but the number of artillery seems to be more sufficient.
In my opinion, the real strength of the force in Dengzhou Town lies in its logistical mobilization system, which is similar to the Red Army base system during the Agrarian Revolutionary War in our country.
It can ensure the basic life of the bottom population while maximizing To the greatest extent possible, the war potential of a place is squeezed out.”
While Zhang Yingchen was talking nonchalantly, he took out a few densely written pieces of white paper from a box and handed it to Lu Wenyuan, "I ask you to have this report taken back to Hainan Island by the liaison ship next time.
Having said that, you must have not forgotten what I asked someone to tell you last time, asking you to bring some money.
In the past two days, I have been in the market at the gate of the city.
I have missed a lot of good things because I didn't have enough money.
Seedlings” "I still have some money with me, but I'm afraid you don't have time to buy more people.
You should hand this report to the Lingao headquarters yourself."
Lu Wenyuan shook his head and did not take the one handed by Zhang Yingchen.
The report reads, “According to the emergency instructions of the Senate, the enemy-occupied areas All the elders must withdraw to Lingao as soon as possible.
The Beginning of Spring has secretly arrived in the waters near Huaguo Mountain.
You quickly pack your luggage.
While the city gate is still closed, we will try our best to take the people you bought back to Huaguo today.
Mountain, and then take the Lichun to weigh anchor and head south early tomorrow morning.”
"What?"
Zhang Yingchen's eyes widened in disbelief, "Why did the Senate issue such an order?"
"Of course it's because something big happened in our rear.
The diplomatic fleets of the Australians, China, the United States, and the East Coast countries are all crowded in Batavia, scaring the Dutch half to death, and they will soon come to visit Gao together.
Until the Senate straightens out its relationship with their fellow travelers and works out a cooperation plan, at least a way to coexist peacefully, we can only let things go in the north."
Lu Wenyuan sighed and said, "Huangshi's previous plan to go to Liaodong to find people has been urgently stopped.
The Beginning of Spring went north this time as a single ship, specifically to pick us up, otherwise it might not be able to catch up with Lingao.
The conference next to us is being held, so we have to move faster.”
"I actually have nothing to deal with here.
I can just leave those worthless and clumsy things to the landlord.
I just need to bring those people in the outer courtyard with me."
Zhang Yingchen first looked around the shabby temporary rented courtyard.
Then he said with a slight hesitation, "But with a Lichun ship carrying so many dozen people, your village doesn't seem to have much cargo.
Wouldn't it be a bit wasteful?"
"It doesn't matter.
In the past few days, some Jiaozhou refugees happened to have floated to Huaguo Mountain in a few broken boats.
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They were cold, hungry, and half-dead.
After being rescued from the sea by people in my village, those refugees expressed their willingness to sell themselves.
Now, They have all had their heads shaved and purified.”
Lu Wenyuan replied casually, "With the dozen or so people on your side, we can almost make up a boat."
"Jiaozhou" Zhang Yingchen frowned when he heard this, "I heard that there was a battle there just now.
These people must not be escaped rebels."
"Who knows?
But even if it is, what does it matter?
Are there still a few bandits and pirates that we have recruited over the years?"
Lu Wenyuan curled his lips disapprovingly, "Anyway, as long as we get people to Lingao, there are many ways to make them obedient and work."
Outside Haizhou City, there is the private port of "Monkey King Village" in Huaguoshan, and the steam-sail hybrid warship and armed merchant ship "Lichun" under the jurisdiction of the Lingao Senate of Hainan Island In a dark cabin that undulated slightly with the waves, the salt lord Li Meng, who was reported in the Ming Dynasty's palace newspaper as "bewitching traitors and causing trouble in Jiaozhou", finally woke up in a daze, although he felt a few scars on his body and some vague pain. , but my life can be saved at least.
It's just a pity for those good brothers who died in the battle.
He sighed and wanted to reach out to comb his hair, but he only touched the bare scalp.
"Brother Li, you're awake.
Come on, have a drink of water and eat a few mouthfuls of food.
I've brought you breakfast."
A familiar voice rang in his ears.
Li Meng struggled to sit up from the straw pile and saw his best friend Zhao Neng, who had also shaved his head and was wearing a blue cloth, smiling honestly. , while handing himself a bamboo tube and a piece of dark multi-grain pancake, he Still muttering naggingly, "Speaking of which, the employer we invested in this time was quite generous.
He actually provided us with three meals a day and gave us new clothes.
But why did he insist on shaving all our hair?"
Could it be that because the eldest master is a monk, he wants us all to be novice monks?"
"Hey, people don't dare to bow their heads when we are under the eaves.
Even our lives now belong to others, so what else can we say about our hair?
If you are a novice monk, just be a novice monk.
As long as you take care of our food and clothing, you can shave your head and you will be fine."
Why do you remember that Zhu Yuanzhang was a monk back then?"
Although he said this, Li Meng's thoughts in his heart were far less calm than what he just said.
Recalling the iron chimney and drifting soot he saw on the ship before, as well as the roar of the turbine he heard, Li Meng In fact, alarm bells were already ringing in my heart, and I was shocked.
Everything I saw and heard above is clearly not something that should have appeared in the late Ming Dynasty.
What the hell is going on?
What kind of world have I come to?
Li Meng was chewing multigrain cakes and fell into silent thinking. oshow7: