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Zuo Liangyu pulled out the camp and fled to the east, and the place where he passed was "burned to the house, razed the well stove, the chickens and dogs were left nowhere to go, and they were empty for thousands of miles." The next day, the rebels entered Xiangyang. When the news reached Jingzhou, Zhu Changrun, the king of Minghui, Chen Ruimo, the governor of Biyuan, and "the civil and military divisions absconded at night on the eighth day of the first month, and there was no one at the city gate." ”

On 14 June, the peasant army occupied Jingmen Prefecture and advanced towards Jingzhou. The people of Jingzhou slaughtered pigs and sheep, and held banners to welcome the rebels. On the 16th, the rebels entered Jingzhou and killed the whole family of Zhu Yan, the king of Xiangyin of the Ming clan. Li Zicheng immediately ordered his generals to divide their troops into Zaoyang, Yicheng, Gucheng, Guanghua and other counties.

After the rebels occupied Xiangyang and Jingzhou, the brigade continued to march to Chengtian and joined up with Yuan Zongdi's headquarters there. Prepare to work together to capture Chengtianfu.

Chengtianfu, now Zhongxiang County, Hubei, the father of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, Xingxian Wang Zhu Youqi sealed here. The absurd emperor Ming Wuzong, who was famous and nonsense in the literati, had no son after his death, so Zhu Houxi, the son of King Xingxian, succeeded to the throne. Therefore, Zhongxiang was regarded as the "land of dragon diving", and it was the location of the tomb, so it was upgraded to Chengtian Mansion and set up two guards to defend Chengtian and Xianling.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the storm of the peasant uprising swept the land, the imperial court moved the general army of the province to garrison, and transferred the general army of other provinces to assist in the defense, so that the governor and the governor of the province sat in Chengtian to protect the mausoleum. Although there are heavy troops here, they can't screw the hearts of the people

What made Song Yihe, the governor of Huguang, extremely frightened, was that the invincible thieves who were all over Huguang changed the usual style of galloping thousands of miles, but slowly advanced, step by step. Every time a prefecture or county is captured, a notice is posted announcing the implementation of the so-called new tax system and the implementation of a unified progressive tax system. Meantime. According to the method of the Jiajing period, the method of raising the standard of preferential treatment and exemption was adopted for the official gentry families in order to pacify the official gentry and landlords who were reluctant to abandon large fields and flee.

Although according to the preferential and exemption rules in the Jiajing period, they could only be exempted from taxes and labor for a maximum of 100 mu of land, but with Zuo Liangyu's army acting as a negative instructor for the peasant army in front, these officials and gentry could only pinch their noses and stubbornly admit this system. And according to the number of acres of their own land, they will pay the money and grain in full.

Therefore, when Yuan Zongdi's men and horses marched unhurriedly on the land of Jingchu, everywhere they went, some residents from all over the country wrote "Welcome to the king" on the gate, and some opened the gate of Chengguan to prepare to welcome the righteous army into the city.

All this made Governor Song Yihe, Inspector Li Zhensheng, Chief Soldier Qian Zhongxuan and others worried, especially when someone copied a notice posted in Jingmen Prefecture to them, it was even more frightening that the three adults were not possessed.

""Suppressing the Soldiers and the People" is for the suppression of the soldiers and the people: the Ming Dynasty was unkind and favored the eunuchs. Heavy science, tax corruption, heavy punishment, can not save the people; The Japanese army ran out, plundered people's property, raped people's wives and daughters, sucked the marrow and stripped the skin. The 10th generation of this camp is good at farming, and he is eager to prosper the teacher of benevolence and righteousness. Save the people. Ling Dingchengtian and De'an came to Jingzhou in person. Dispatch Notice: Where the GIs went. Let not the people be dismayed, but be at peace. The government money and food system, listen to the deployment of government officials in various places, and do not let the people have the pain of hanging upside down. There were those who killed good people in each battalion, and the whole team was beheaded. Ermin has a long voice to welcome my king's teacher, and he will be used immediately, and the rest will not be subdued. Jade is inseparable. This is the case. ”

"The thief wants to hypocrisy benevolence and righteousness, and buy people's hearts!"

"I'm not afraid of thieves killing and burning, I'm afraid of thieves opening a mansion!"

After the three adults gathered together and discussed, they immediately took advantage of the fact that Zuo Liangyu's army had not arrived and the river was still calm. Pick up the public and private matters at hand and deal with them urgently!

Send someone to go east to Nanjing by boat, and then send the emergency to Beijing as soon as possible, and ask the imperial court to send a large army to come quickly, otherwise, the land of Jingchu will be lost, and the mausoleum will be shaken!

At the same time, all the money and grain from the provincial treasury were loaded onto the ship, and under the pretext of ensuring that the grain and salary were safe, he sent henchmen to transport hundreds of thousands of taels of silver and nearly one million stone grains and rice eastward to the front line of Nanjing and Shanghai, and deposited them in several money houses in Shanghai's commercial and trade districts.

Such a document was naturally sent to Chongzhen's study by the cabinet as soon as possible, asking for the emperor's will.

Several bigwigs in the cabinet watched their noses, noses, mouths, and mouths, and listened to the emperor wandering helplessly and losing his temper.

And no wonder. Chengtian Mansion, De'an Mansion, Jingzhou Mansion, and Xiangyang Mansion are not only slightly lighter in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, which is full of disasters and wars, but also one of the several areas where money and grain can still be collected, especially Chengtian Mansion, which is the location of Chongzhen's ancestral tomb.

Compared with the ancestral tomb of Fengyang's hometown, the filial piety tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang in Nanjing is the chief ancestral tomb of the Ming Dynasty clan, and the Xianling Tomb of Zhongxiang County, Chengtianfu is a genuine ancestral tomb of Chongzhen! If there is something happening here, I am afraid that Zhu Youzhen will not be able to cry in the Fengxian Hall in Mai and Suyi to get the forgiveness of his ancestors and himself.

What's worse is that the thieves have begun to set up officials in the occupied areas to collect money and grain. No longer mentioning the demagogic practice of exempting people from taxation for three years, but came up with a real clause, compared with the previous Ming court's set of preferential treatment of scholars and gentry as long as they have merit and fame, basically no obligation to bear any obligations, Li Zicheng put forward this set, obviously approved by the majority of Shengdou small people.

"Cancel the preferential treatment of the Wanli Emperor to the scholars and gentry, the eighty acres of preferential and exempt fields for students and supervisors have become two stones and two people for free, and the current Jiake Jingguan has 10,000 mu of free land, and the following decrease has become 30 stone of Jingguan first-grade exempt grain and 30 ding of people, and the following decreases." These rules and regulations have long been well-known in the land of Jingchu.

"The land that was originally sacrificed to avoid the evil government of Wanli was allowed to be retrieved by the original owner. If the person who has been offered dares to stop him, he shall be deprived of his fame and his name shall be deprived of his meritorious service, and the rent obtained from the date of surrender shall be refunded with interest. ”

What do you mean?! That is to say, the land of your family, in order to avoid the evil government of a whip law, was donated to the names of those who have meritorious names and official positions, and now you can take it back justifiably. If these people dare to talk crookedly in front of you, you can let him pay you back the rent he has collected from you all these years. As for whether or not I'm here to hold him accountable, it has nothing to do with you.

This method is undoubtedly the most powerful! It's even more powerful than the fire cannons of the Dragon and Tiger Battalion!

In the 24th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the "Rules for Preferential Exemption" stipulated that Beijing officials were exempted from 30 stone of grain and 30 ding of people. The following decreases to six stones of nine excellent exempt grains and six dings of people; halving of foreign officials; lifting, prison, and student preferential and free food two stones, two people; Seven out of 10 of this product is exempt. (Note: "Jialong's new case is attached to Wanli?") The "New Regulations on Preferential Exemption" in the 38th year of Wanli stipulates that the current Jiake Jingguan is exempt from 10,000 mu of land for one product, and the following is decreasing, and 2,700 mu for eight products; halving of foreign officials; Six-tenths of this product is exempt; The maximum amount of land can reach 3,350 acres, and the field of 1,200 acres can be 1,200 acres; Eighty acres of preferential and exempt fields for students and supervisors. (Note: Yao Zongyi: "Changshu Private Chronicles" volume 3.) Enslavement? Now I know why Mr. Fan Jinfan went crazy after learning that he was lifted, right? Real economic benefits!

For example, if you are moving bricks on a construction site, and suddenly someone tells you that the two-color ball you bought has won hundreds of millions of prizes, it is strange that you are not crazy!

"Diao Min! A bunch of Diao people! Completely forgot the virtue of hundreds of years of benevolence of the imperial court! ”

"Zuo Liangyu is incompetent! Piff! ”

"The land of Jingxiang! My Dean! O anointed land of me! ”

"Imperial Tomb! The Imperial Tomb of Chengtian! ”

Chongzhen, who was hoarse, banged on the table behind the bookcase, throwing the pen and ink inkstones on the table everywhere, and several cabinet bigwigs didn't dare to say anything if ink was splashed on their robes.

"Your Majesty, the minister is the soldier, in charge of the military department. Lost land and lost teachers again and again, and the ministers are guilty! Please punish the emperor! Zhang Guowei, who succeeded Chen Xinjia as the secretary of the military department, the most life-challenging position in the Chongzhen Dynasty, knelt down in front of the book case and sincerely pleaded guilty.

It didn't matter if he was guilty, Xue Guoguan, the head of the cabinet, Fu Yongchun, the secretary of the household department, Wei Zaode, Chen Yan and others immediately knelt down, claiming that they were incompetent and guilty. Please punish the emperor.

"I won't punish you today! I only need one way to make Li Chuang unable to enter Chengtian. Can't harass the mausoleum! Then order the left army to return to the division and recover all parts of Xiangyang! ”

Several people glanced at each other, and they all looked at the emperor's thoughts. At present, if the Mausoleum of the Chengtian Emperor is lost, it means that the Ming Dynasty will not even be able to keep the place where it claims to have the legitimacy of the succession of the heavens. This is a big political failure. Needless to say, economically, the four prefectures of De'an are all grain-producing areas and densely populated. is guarding the Yangtze River and the Han River, if he is really used by Li Zicheng as a nest for rebellion, then he is in the upper reaches, and he is afraid that the threat to the old Zhu family is no worse than Chen Youliang back then! Militarily. Condescendingly, there is no need for any powerful sailors, only need to requisition civilian boats, go down the river to the east, Wuchang, Jiujiang, Anqing, Wuhu everywhere is not dangerous to defend! I'm afraid that the banner of the rogue will rush all the way to the city of Nanjing!

Nanking! Absolutely not!

In the past few years, whether it is the Donglin Party or not, everyone has quietly purchased fields, built houses, and added industries in various places in the south of the Yangtze River, especially in Songjiang Prefecture and Shanghai County. In order to be optimistic, there is the Yangtze River natural risk as a barrier. No matter how strong the thieves' soldiers and horses are, they can only operate in the north of the Yangtze River, and they will definitely not be able to cross the Yangtze River for half a step!

What's more, there are still sailors in the river who stayed behind in Nanjing to guard the yamen and the Nanyue army to patrol back and forth! Even if there are thousands of thieves, they can only look at the river and sigh. However, now that the upper reaches of Xiangyang are lost, it will inevitably affect all parts of the south of the Yangtze River.

"Your Majesty. The ministers thought that the purpose of Chuang Cao Huige and others was to storm Xiangyang with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and millions of them, and their purpose was nothing more than to go south to eat. On that day, Hou Sui once said, 'Those who come from the thieves in the countryside all say millions, and now there are 500,000 people and 100,000 horses, and the eclipse of people is one liter, and the eclipse of horses is three liters, which means that everywhere you go, you will get 8,000 bells of millet every day. The Central Plains is thousands of miles away, and there are no people, how can we support these many people? This generation went south for nothing more than food and grass. ”

"From the battle report issued by Zuozhen, it can be seen that the elite thieves of Chuang Cao Huige and other departments all went south to Huguang. Henan's heart is bound to be empty. The ministers thought that they could order the governor of the three sides, Sun Chuanting, to go out of Tongguan to tiptoe behind, attack his back road, and slaughter his family's little women and children. The thief army is panicked, and it is bound to return to the division to save the fundamental place. At that time, the elite of the Qin army trained by Sun Baigu can just wait for work. If this battle goes well, the thief will inevitably lose his vitality! ”

"Your Majesty, the minister is in charge of the household department, and he knows very well the difficulties of finance, taxation, money and food. Now there is a famine everywhere, and the land is abandoned a lot, and the things that can be done in various places can be done. The minister called it the eight things of Tuntian, one is the military tun. The army buys the official tun, the people occupy the military land, and the leaves are passed down from generation to generation. Don't ask. However, the registration report is for explanation, that is, to change the true color of the levy. The second is Mintun. Where there is no arable land, show the recruitment of military and civilian businessmen, willing to donate funds to reclaim, that is, to give the post for eternal industry. The third is Bingtun. If there is something to do, use troops to fight, and if there is nothing to do, use soldiers to plow. It still defends the city with seven points, and grows with three points. The fourth is Shangtun, and the title is awarded according to the number of reclamation fields. The fifth is Shuitun, summoning the southerners of water conservancy, and passing its original time, so that there is no open land, and the water has no profit, and it will start after three years. The sixth is Lutun, choosing a barren land. The tree is a mulberry date, whatever it wants, and it will never be a family. Seven for the crime to abolish the tun. The eighth is to set up officials, and the special ministers are in charge of the affairs of the cantonment, and the cantonment officials are divided into divisions, and the officials are lenient and the years are late, so that they can act cheaply. There is no wilderness and no wanderers. Not for years. Then the food is sufficient, and the thieves can be determined! ”

Fu Yongchun's method also discovered the root cause of the current chaos, that is, the large number of land annexation and concentration, the state could not collect money, grain and taxes. However, this set of schemes. But it is also a castle in the sky built on the beach.

If nothing else, where do the farm tools, rations, seeds, and houses come from? To put it nicely, three years later, the department began to collect money and food, but I am afraid that it will not wait until three years. It has just been turned from a ripe wasteland into a grain field, and it has been invaded by big households!

In the spring of this year, there was a severe drought in Taicang Prefecture, and the rice money was 110 Wen, and the people had child eaters. The relics of the temple and the Longfu Temple set more than 1,000 hungry people, the day of death is not a sage, the tax grain is urgent, the rice is one-third, the wheat is discounted, one or two or five dollars per stone. Winter rice is four taels per stone, starving to death, and floating corpses are rolling in the river. At the entrance of the city gate and alley, a hundred and ten children were abandoned, or someone led them away, or regarded them as dead, and abandoned them in the graves, or gathered and burned them, or dug pits and buried them, and there were countless covers. Fortunately, those who did not die, peeled the bark of the elm tree for bread, the bran bark for porridge, and looked at the village, the bark was stripped away, and it was a famine that had not been seen for decades. Huzhou drought, flying locusts cover the sky and go down, where it is gathered, the seedlings and reeds stand up, the people cut the bark and sawdust mixed with chaff to eat, or dig the white mud in the mountains for food, the name is Guanyin powder. On the left side of Hanshan, the place name Liang Village, hundreds of strongmen gathered to make a rebellion, fortunately it was extinguished in a few days, but the plague followed, but the government not only did not give free money and food, but severely punished and urged the department. The price of rice in Wu County, Suzhou Prefecture is as expensive as 323 coins per stone of silver, and 222 coins of wheat stone. The people are struggling to eat, they are displaced, the old children abandon the roadside, the urban and rural houses are dumped in the air, and the dead are resting on their backs. Taicang, Huzhou, Suzhou and other places are known as the land of ointment, and the rich areas are all like this, and it is clear to think about other places.

If you can't even talk about disaster relief, what can you talk about cultivating wasteland? This is tantamount to not even having to eat, but saying that everyone will persevere, endure the labor pain, and after a few years, we will have four dishes and one soup or even eight dishes and eight bowls to eat!

Regarding Fu Yongchun's opinion, Chongzhen only smiled bitterly, "Since Qing has this intention, you can make a piece of Chen for me to see." ”

However, Xue Guoguan's eyes flashed, and he said slowly: "Your Majesty, the minister intends to order Liang Guogong, Xinjian Bo, Xu Gongye and others to march west along the river to the front line of Anqing to fortify. One can receive the left soldiers and horses, and the other, the Liang Guogong Naval Division, has always been known as the elite, and the vertical and horizontal waves are invincible, so that its naval division can accept the control of the Zuoping thief, and set up a naval division camp in Xiaogushan in Anqing. Defend against upstream thieves and go east! ”

"Accurate!"

Chongzhen immediately made a decision and ordered Yousi to handle the matter. He was confused, he thought that a holy decree could make the nobles of Nanjing and Li Shouhan's sailors obediently listen to Zuo Liangyu's temperance orders?

However, the will of this sailor to march west to Anqing and defend against thieves from going east has been fully implemented in Nanjing. Dozens of gunboats, large and small, marched west along the river, but they were also quite majestic.

At the same time, a decree ordered Ma Shiying, the governor of Lufeng's military affairs, to deal with Zhang Xianzhong, the eight kings of Xiying, who were currently capturing Luzhou and trapping Wuwei, Lujiang, and Chaohu.

Since the Chinese New Year, the fortune of the eight kings has completely turned over, first killed the general army of the Beijing camp Sun Yingyuan, and then defeated the general soldiers Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo of the commander of the eunuch Lu Jiude, and beat Huang Degong and Huang Chuangzi to hide in Dingyuan City. Let Gao Douguang, the governor of Fengyang, be punished for losing five cities.

Under the recommendation of Wang Xigon, a waiter of the Ministry of Rites, Ma Shiying was appointed as the governor of Fengyang in the name of a soldier.

In the Di Bao and Jiangnan Times, the imperial court decree and Shilin's comments were published, and the trilateral governor Sun Chuanting went out of Tongguan to capture the place where the thieves were entrenched. For this, the government and the opposition are full of praise.

"The Liang Guogong Water Division marched west to prevent the thieves from poisoning the south of the Yangtze River in Anqing, the Zuoping thief army was stationed in Wuchang and was ready to recover the land of Jingxiang at any time, the governor of Huguang and Song Dynasty defended the heavens and attracted the thieves to heavy troops under the fortified city, and the governor of Sun Baigu led the elite to the back of the thieves, and the armies of all roads were encircled, so why worry that the thieves would not be destroyed?"

In the teahouse of Confucius Temple in Nanjing, several Tsing Yi scholars were shaking their heads and reading the newspaper in their hands.

"Sun Baigu's soldiers and horses are out of Tongguan?" A scholar who was born with a snarky appearance snorted rather disdainfully, "What is the difference between what this person did in the land of Sanqin, and what is the difference between what he did and the traitor of Liang Guogong?" The thieves still know how to leave some dignity for the scholars, but they have nothing! ”

What he said was that Sun Chuanting and Li Huayu implemented the system of paying grain as one errand in each autonomous office. In Shandong, even the Confucian family in Qufu also received a tax bill from the tax collector, which clearly indicated the amount of money and grain that should be paid by the Yansheng Mansion according to the unified progressive tax system.

"Humph! Fortunately, the ministers of the DPRK and China ordered Liang Guogong to expand the scope of the Shanghai Trade Zone in order to facilitate the strategy of relief for the victims. ”

Several companions next to him exchanged glances with each other, and they were very disdainful of this person's remarks.

"Young master, young master! Do you still drink tea here? There's a letter from home! Something is wrong! The servant of Xiucai ran sweaty, rushed into the teahouse and stuffed a letter into Xiucai's hand.

"The day before yesterday, the ship brought a letter from the young grandmother of the family!"

Xiucai's family letter clearly states that this time the scope of the trade zone was expanded, and with a stroke of the pen, almost the entire Shanghai County and the neighboring Jiading, Qingpu, Baoshan, Yangshupu and other places were forcibly included. Hundreds of acres of fields in the name of Xiucai's family and nearly 1,000 acres of barren beach outside the city immediately became treasures, and countless people came to the door to buy, and the women in the family were overwhelmed, lest one be disposed of properly, either they suffered a big loss, or offended the big man.

So, please go home quickly after seeing the letter!

After reading the letter, Na Xiucai immediately followed the teachings of the saint, the sword and the foot, and walked away.

"Senior brother, senior brother, there will be a few great Confucian talents to preach in the academy tomorrow, why did you leave?"

"his grandmother's great Confucian genius! It is important for Lao Tzu to go back and get rich! ”

That Xiucai didn't look back, just ran wildly. (To be continued......)