"Shi Lu Cheng Xuan is wearing a brocade robe, how do you know that the people are half a cent?

Poured the blood of thousands of families with fine wine, and carefully cut the fat sheep and ten thousand surnames.

Candle tears are dripping with tears of grievance, singing loudly and complaining loudly;

The sheep paid and the jackals herded, and lived up to the court. ”

Ming Feng Menglong "Guangxiao Mansion"

——The dividing line of the word count——

In Chang'an City, which is known as the East Gui and the West Shu, and the South and the North are solid, the most elite and prosperous area.

It is located in Guanglufang, which is located between Daming Palace, Taiji Palace and Xingqing Palace, and spans several streets in a corner of Wang's Mansion Garden; The former prime minister, the face and representative of the Jinyang Wang family, the current white-bodied man Wang Duo, was also wearing a loose gray silk melon back robe, and was eating slowly.

It's just that after being dismissed thousands of slaves and maids, they are still forcibly detained in this house, and all kinds of people of the Wang clan, relatives and doormen, and Qingke who are frightened, panicked, or sad day and night;

Once known as the façade and head of the five surnames and seven hopes, it is best to enjoy luxury and pomp, and every day is not Zhong Ding does not eat and serves dozens of beautiful women around him, alias "Sanle Hall Old", Wang Duo, but at the moment he looks quite calm and calm.

He was sitting on a banquet in front of Wu Daozi's "Ming Emperor's Seal Map", with only a bowl of chicken fat Boto and three pieces of silver cake on the unlacquered wooden plate.

Of course, he really fell into this situation, Wang Duo had some enlightenment, and began to take the means of self-cultivation away from lust and abstinence; It seems to have won the transcendent realm of Mr. Wuliu (Tao Yuanming) in the past, "not to be happy with things, not to be sad about yourself".

Of course, another of his more famous anecdotes has to do with fear of guilt. It is rumored that when he served as the commander of all the Dao camps to conquer Huang Chao, he left the wife of the Cui family, who was also from the five surnames and seven famous families, in the capital, and only brought his favored concubines with him.

As a result, one day, the subordinates reported: "Madame left the capital and came to come, and she was already halfway there." Wang Duo asked in a panic: "The nest thief is gradually approaching from the south, and the lady is rushing from the north in a hurry, and it is about to arrive overnight, what can I do?" ”

From time to time, some staff joked: "It's better to surrender Huangchao." Wang Duo couldn't help laughing. As a result, I didn't expect to be turned into a prophecy.

You must know that he was also one of the promoters who advocated appeasing Huang Shun back then, but he never thought that now that he has turned around, it is the head of the yellow thief who wants to appease him.

That's right, it is the head of the anti-thieves who now occupies Chang'an, Huang Chao, who wants to appease him for use.

Therefore, not only did he send people to guard his mansion on the one hand, and faintly threatened hundreds of relatives from the top and bottom of the He clan, but also asked Zhang Zhifang, the general of Jinwu, who had already surrendered to the thief, to personally come to the door to persuade him, the former hall elder who had been degraded and retired to the house because of the defeat of the deserters.

But he is also the head of the five surnames and seven hopes - the patriarch of King Jinyang in Beijing, and he was one of the few ministers in the world who left the town and entered the cabinet; How can the world's decent model and model be so easily submissive and obedient to a group of vulgar and unliterate grass thieves in the face of adversity.

Even the yellow nest was just a small scholar who landed at the beginning, and in the early years, even if he wanted to stick it under his own door, he would be thrown out immediately by the defense cabinet of the exhibition board, but now he wants to call himself a lonely widow and a "national decency" as a foil and decoration.

However, now that the thief is arrogant and stronger, he can only be half false and half implicit, using some vague prevarication to hang the other party first, and wait for the development and direction of the situation.

Halfway through his meal, an old man with a gray beard and an old black shirt whispered beside him:

"Now in the streets of the city, there are those greedy and forgetful people who live up to the emperor's favor and don't want to serve the country, and they are rampant for a while."

"Those lowly people in the city, just because these thieves executed those Wufang children who were in trouble in the market, and copied the places of many eunuchs and their minions and pawns, they were easily encouraged and celebrated."

"Those Dousheng officials, how can the dynasty treat their generations poorly, but since the thieves are arrogant, they are easily tempted by the petty profits in front of them, and they are bent on the thieves' accounts and rewards."

"The day before yesterday, there were Tongshou, Renshou masters, and horses who ran away in disguise, but they were exposed by their generations and fell back into the hands of thieves. The two horses were chased by thieves on the streets. ”

"There are also ministers Xiao Taichang and Li Shuibu who jointly left the north gate, and were denounced by the despicable people in the workshop and imprisoned on the spot."

Hearing this, Wang Duo couldn't help but feel a certain sad emotion in his heart, and sighed secretly.

Even if these thieves are only targeting the discredited and badly rated eunuchs and their related henchmen; But who can guarantee that they will not be difficult to fill in the future, and continue to do the same thing to their own pillars of the country.

What's more, although there is no lack of confrontation and disputes between these great eunuchs and foreign ministers in ordinary times, they are basically the same in terms of maintaining the authority of the state.

Therefore, now Chang'an City is a dark day of respect and rebellion, morality and mourning, and demons dancing wildly.

However, another major plague associated with the South, the Taiping Thief, is not a fuel-efficient lamp. Although it is said that mercy is not very indiscriminate, it is more inclined to humiliate and cruel and decent people;

In particular, I think that those mud-legged people who open their eyes and redress grievances, and after confiscating the rich surnames and big clan families of the local heads, they are all regarded as lowly slaves and called "labor reform", which is an evil thing that has never been heard of before.

At least in comparison, they are willing to recruit and retain them, the old Yellow Nest of the imperial court, and they can still take into account the existence of Si Wen.

At this moment, a cautious voice sounded outside again.

"Master Qiqi, there is a new palace etiquette envoy Cui Miao, waiting for him in the house."

Wang Duo's heart couldn't help but move, this Cui Miao, who was the assassin of Yuezhou and the observer of eastern Zhejiang, was a small branch of the Cui family of Qinghe in the fifth surname Qiwangzhong, and he was also the first court guard to surrender to thieves; Therefore, it is said that it is also quite a trust of Huang Rebellion.

Thanks to him taking the initiative to come to talk about things this time, I'm afraid that Huang Chao can't wait to do that thing.

——The dividing line of the number of words——

It took a while to take the Xiangyang City Gate Index, but it took more than three days to pacify the participating resistance forces in Xiangyang City.

At least the vigilantes and private soldiers who were on the verge of desperation showed all the fighting spirit and resilience of the two of them when they were on the city walls, in the last resort of resolutely resisting their own homes.

During this period, there was no one who sent a representative to propose conditions for relative preferential treatment and preservation; For example, let them leave the city with the fineness and the tribes, or remove certain families from the blacklist of the Taiping army's liquidation in the future.

For this reason, they even robbed and hijacked the remnants of the defenders who had fled into the inner city and Yacheng, as well as a large number of officials belonging to the Jieya, Yunsi, and Yantieyuan, and controlled many official and private warehouses as bargaining chips and bargaining prices.

It's a pity that Zhou Huai'an, who is in the big swing, can no longer look down on their petty speculation. Only a fool will leave himself with these sandwiched rice-style hands and tails and future troubles when the overall situation has been decided.

Therefore, within a large circle around the radius of the inner city, the mansions of many large families, wealthy families, eunuchs, and wealthy merchants were set on fire, destroyed, and demolished one after another, and the remaining people had to accept the consequences of immediate death if they did not surrender and accept the subsequent judgment.

However, when Zhou Huai'an was embraced by the front and back, most of them stepped into this city that seemed to be dilapidated everywhere after being cleaned up, and he was still in a good mood.

Because it occupies Xiangyang City, Xiangzhou, where several rivers meet, the north-south transshipment hub covered by the mountains and the hope of Dayi; Not only did it mean that the Jianghan Plain in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was under the control of the Taiping army, but it also completely closed the natural gateway that was threatened from the north.

At the same time, it also represents the gradual opening of the road to Guanzhong in the north, and the large army of the Huangchao Righteous Army, which is attacking the city in the Guannei, echoes the north and south and finally connects into a line.

Even to the east beyond the barrier of the Tongbai Mountains, once again threaten the Huaixi states, or along the Yangtze River in the middle and upper reaches of the natural victory, at any time to enter the downstream Jiangdong Liangzhejiang or Huainan coastal unlimited opportunities.

It's just that after laying down Xiangzhou, the key point of going deep into the Nanyang Basin, the Taiping Army is not unable to further take the essence of the Nanyang Basin and even the entire Shannan East Road. However, the corresponding subsequent supply of the front and the consumption of local maintenance were seriously beyond the plan of the Taiping army.

After all, it's already early August around the time of harvest. The consequences of the five-way offensive by the official army are continuing to spread; The territory of Jingzhou is in ruins, and the basic agricultural time has been delayed, so basically do not expect any harvest.

The other prefectures of Yue, Heng and Tan, which were affected by the war and turmoil, also suffered serious production cuts and poor harvests to varying degrees. In order to rebuild the cantonments and workshops in these places, and to avoid large-scale famine and exile in the localities, it was necessary to mobilize a large amount of food from outside the mountains to fill the gap.

There were 167 large and small Zhuangzi under the Tuntian that were affected by the war alone, and one-third of them were completely destroyed or there was almost no place to use them; The rest also have varying degrees of loss and destruction.

Under these circumstances, although the previous victories and gains were supplemented, it was already quite difficult to maintain the stability of the situation in Jingnan, Hunan, and parts of Jiangxi and Jiangdong, and to push forward the work of armed clearance and suppression of rebellion in the localities, and to resettle more tunzhuang and collect the exiled population.

Until these areas are fully digested and controlled, and until the harvest is obtained next year, there is really no way to increase the burden of Shannan Province and even carry out more protracted war operations.

Of course, if Zhou Huai'an followed the practices of those traditional feudal warlords, he would naturally save much trouble and worry. Normally, as long as troops are sent to blockade the borders and junctions, they can leave the people who have nowhere to go in the territory to fend for themselves in the countryside, mountains and forests; Or simply drive the displaced people to eat elsewhere to reduce the burden of maintenance under the rule.

But if Zhou Huai'an wants to turn them into a mobilization base and production capacity under his rule, he needs to invest more resources and manpower; After all, after the expansion of the site and the in-depth clearing of the local area, a large number of relatively qualified and reliable manpower is also needed to ensure the basic execution and administrative efficiency at the grassroots level.

In addition, an invisible benefit of the Taiping Tianmu system has also been reflected in this turmoil. It is to provide a lot of manpower and material support for the local Taiping Army to defend various key points and key areas. Although it is repatriated and resettled afterwards, it also requires a lot of investment.

As for the seven states in Shannan Dongdao, they can't be easily let go; After purging the local forces, following the example of Jiangdong and Zhejiang, he appointed and supported some local garrisons to maintain the situation, so as to continue to exist as a buffer zone with the imperial court and the feudal forces.

Therefore, in the following hottest months in the local area, he had to sit in Xiangyang City. It took a period of time one after another to promulgate the corresponding orders for rewards and punishments, as well as other military repairs, reorganization, replenishment, and transfer, recuperation and recuperation in the post-war localities and relief of the signs of famine, organization of production and self-help, and so on.

(End of chapter)