An army of 40,000 tigers besieged Huai'an City under the leadership of Li Zhi

Huai'an Mansion is a big city in the north of South Zhili, choking the transportation of water, salt transportation, river engineering, Rongguan, the machine of the post station, and Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou and called the "four major cities" on the canal line. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoHuai'an is not only rich in the market, but also very prosperous in culture. For more than 200 years in the Ming Dynasty, there were more than 100 Jinshi in Shanyang County, where Huai'an Prefecture was located.

In the city of Huai'an, there are countless gentry from the rich side.

"Zuo Liangyu and Wu Sangui rats, they don't dare to face the edge of my tiger army." Zhong Feng looked at the people guarding the wall and sneered. "But these gentry are really fighting to the death in order to protect their tax-exempt rights. The second town of Jiangbei has retreated to Yangzhou, and these local gentry have no protection from the Jiangbei army, but instead self-employed people to defend the city. ”

Zuo Liangyu and Wu Sangui did not dare to face Li Zhi, and retreated all the way south from Gaoyouzhou, and had already retreated to Yangzhou.

The gentry of Huai'an were unwilling to hand over the city of Huai'an, on the contrary, they temporarily organized 20,000 people to guard the city wall to make a last stand.

This situation did not surprise Li Zhi, after all, Li Zhi wanted the lifeblood of the gentry.

In fact, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the landlords who made their fortunes by fine management and proper management basically no longer existed. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the social order was chaotic, the officialdom was corrupt, and the landlords who had no power and fame seemed to be childish and golden, and they were swallowed up by the powerful gentry in a few clicks.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the phenomenon of people taking advantage of the people was very serious. Most landlords made their fortunes by embezzling other people's fields by virtue of their fame and power. The use of tax exemption to attract people to donate was the norm for landlords to make a fortune in the late Ming Dynasty.

Li Zhi abolished the tax exemption of the gentry and made it impossible for the gentry to exploit the peasants who donated their land through court law, which for the gentry almost abolished the vast majority of their economic resources. Without economic resources, how can gentry families with dozens or hundreds of people live? It's for their lives.

In the original history, even if the Taqing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, Yangzhou Jiading and the three massacres in Jiading were full of heads, and they did not dare to deprive the gentry of their right to tax exemption. Because the Manchu Qing knew that if he cut off the gentry's financial route, the gentry would play with him, and the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty would be planted all over the country at once.

The policy of the gentry receiving grain in one piece was implemented in the Yongzheng Dynasty for a few decades, and it became invalid again in the Qianlong Dynasty.

In fact, the gentry at the end of the Ming Dynasty were by no means weak and bulliable characters.

In the history that has not changed before, in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng Dashun regime has entered Beijing. At the beginning, the gentry of the world thought that once Li Zicheng became emperor, he would definitely open the imperial examination and use civil officials, and continue to rely on the gentry to rule the world. At that time, Li Zicheng's government expanded its territory almost by rumor. As soon as Li Zicheng sent a document to the county government, the gentry of a county began to be loyal to Li Zicheng and immediately joined the Dashun regime.

However, when Li Zicheng entered the capital and began to torture the officials of the Ming Dynasty and force the officials to hand over the embezzled money, the gentry of the world immediately turned their faces. The vigorous Nanming regime was organized. At that time, the Southern Ming regime even proposed "Lianyu Pingkou", that is, to unite with the Manchus to attack Li Zicheng, and give up all the bottom line to strangle the peasant army.

It can be seen that it is not right that the gentry at the end of the year are spineless, and once their interests are touched, they will try their best to resist.

The gentry of Huai'an decided to fight to the death at the last moment and must guard their own interests. For the sake of tax evasion and the benefits derived from it, they are free. At this time, the city wall was not only full of people recruited by the gentry, but also many gentry and their children went into battle in person to boost morale on the city wall.

Of course, in front of the Tiger Army, this kind of struggle is ridiculous.

Li Zhi gave an order, and more than 1,000 sniper rifles were aimed at the head of the northern city wall.

Crackling gunshots rang out, and screams rang out one after another on the city walls. In the flying blood foam, hundreds of defenders of the city fell.

Li Zhi saw a man wearing a scarf on his head shot in the forehead through the telescope, fell back without saying a word, and died. The big people who call back and forth on weekdays are things that can be solved with one bullet in front of a sniper rifle.

Where have the rabble on the walls seen such a shooting? One by one, they panicked and hid behind the battlement wall.

However, it was useless to hide in the battlement wall, because Li Zhi's cannon began to tear down the wall.

Two hundred cannons aimed at the middle of Huai'an's northern city wall and began to bombard indiscriminately. Solid iron shells rained down on the bricks, quickly smashing the bricks and the rammed earth beneath them. The smashed dust poured like liquid into the moat at the foot of the city wall, and at the back it blocked half of the two-zhang wide moat.

It only took two hours for the cannon to smash a two-hundred-meter-long gap in the north of the city.

As long as Li Zhi's baggage team came up to fill the moat in front of this gap, Li Zhi's army could attack the city.

However, just as Li Zhi's baggage team pushed a cart up to fill the earth, the rabble on the city wall collapsed. Although the gentry were indeed willing to spend silver this time and gave enough to the people a few taels of silver, no one's life could be bought for a few taels of silver. Only a bang was heard, and the defenders on the north wall fled from the city wall with a shout.

The chaos soon spread to the other three walls, and in the end all the people ran wildly. They hid in the city and were worried about being pulled out by Li Zhi, so they opened the south gate of the city in a panic and fled outside the south of the city.

The rich Huai'an City suddenly opened its door and was nakedly displayed in front of the Tiger Army.

The Tiger Ben Army didn't bother to chase down those people who fled for their lives, but entered Huai'an City with neat steps. Dressed in shiny half-body armor, armed with sophisticated rifles, and sturdy leather boots, the soldiers entered the city of Huai'an one by one.

"The Jinguo Gonghu Ben Army was ordered to march south, and the soldiers arrived, only the criminals did not disturb the civilians!"

"Whoever sponsors Qian Qianyi to form the second town of Jiangbei will be killed!"

"Organize the people to block the people of Jinguo Gong from entering the city, kill!"

"The rest of the people, businessmen, landlords, and landlords Hu Ben Junqiu have not committed any crimes, and they are staying at home, so don't come out to make trouble!"

Surrounded by the guards, Li Zhi rode into Huai'an City on the royal wind.

Huai'an City is quite wealthy, and the buildings are lined up one after another, which looks very prosperous, which provokes Li Zhi to take a few more glances before and after.

Zhong Feng rode beside Li Zhi and said loudly: "Grandpa Guo, this Huai'an Mansion has a population of one million, and the two towns in the east and west of Jiangbei are hiding in Yangzhou and dare not fight us, so they gave us this million people at once." ”

Zheng Kaicheng said: "But the Son of Heaven has clearly ordered us not to control the land of Nanzhili for a long time. ”

Zhong Feng snorted coldly and said, "The soldiers will block the water and cover the earth, there is always a way to deal with the Son of Heaven." How can you let this prosperous and rich Huai'an City go home empty-handed? ”