Is the Qiongmei thief chaos real or fake, what are the causes, and why is it so consistent with the time when the financial crisis broke out in Chengdu Prefecture?

All these issues, both contemporaneous and posterity, have been studied repeatedly.

The earliest document presented to the researcher was a letter from Li Yunyi, the Tongzhi of Qiongzhou and the Governor of Pujiang County, who submitted the Second Taiwan Third Division. The content of these letters succinctly reveals the appearance of the early days of the Qiongzhou Rebellion.

But then why the Qiongmei thieves got out of control and developed into a situation that no one could have imagined: the city was looted, the inhabitants were killed, the wealth was reduced to ashes, and the officials and gentry were reduced to the first rank, and no one could tell why.

The historical facts of the Qiongmei thief may be just like Miss Luo's famous tongue twister: true and false, false and true, true and false when false, true and false when false, and true when false, forever hidden in a fog of time, so that latecomers can't see it clearly and can't touch it.

All of this can be hidden from others, but it can't be hidden from the mastermind behind the Qiongmei thief - Zhu Pingjin, the son of Shu.

……

Time and space shifted, and came to Qiongmei at the end of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen.

Changqiu Mountain is the boundary mountain of Qiongmei and the two states, and is also called the main book mountain, the curtain mountain, the Zonggang mountain or the Changqiu mountain in ancient books.

The Changqiu Mountain Range (also known as the Zonggang Mountain Range) is named after the Changqiu Mountain. It stretches for 300 miles from north to south, the mountains are heavy and steep, and the mountain roads are winding.

Changqiu Mountain is one of the most famous peaks in the mountain range, located thirty miles east of Pujiang County.

From Qiongzhou to Meizhou, the Changqiu Mountains are an insurmountable barrier. As the son of the two Shu people, Zhu Pingjin realized the strategic significance of controlling the Changqiu Mountains early.

At the end of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, when Zhu Pingjin and Liao Daheng, the governor of Sichuan, left Rong to go to Guang'an to attack the bandits and the local tyrants in northern Sichuan, in order to prevent the two states of Qiongmei from taking the opportunity to make trouble, Zhu Pingjin reserved three chess pieces in advance in the two states of Qiongmei.

The first chess piece was to promote the Shehong Zhi County, Li Yunyi, the Qiongzhou Tongzhi and Pujiang Zhi County, who had stooted to take refuge.

Pujiang County is on the shore of the Minjiang River, 60 miles southeast of Qiongzhou, located at the western foot of Changqiu Mountain, in the middle of the two states of Qiongmei. If you control Pujiang County, you will be able to cut off the main communication lines between the two prefectures.

Once Qiongmei rebelled, Li Yunyi, an officialdom traitor, would occupy Pujiang County, cut off the connection with Qiongmei, and facilitate the Protector Army to defeat each one. At the same time, he can also use his official status to stir up trouble politically, shake and disturb the enemy's morale, and disintegrate the enemy from within.

The second chess piece, Zhu Pingjin, himself didn't know how useful it could be.

After Wang Daniu's fourth brother Wang Siniu was injured in Feixian Pass, he returned to the countryside of Qiongzhou and started a congregation organization called the "Red Gun Society". The Red Gun Society is small in scale and loosely organized, but fortunately it is an economic group and does not consume many resources. Zhu Pingjin held the mentality that talking is better than nothing, and continued to give a little support within his ability.

If the first pawn is a trick behind the scenes, and the second pawn is a deceptive stealing move, then the third pawn is a real pawn crossing the river.

This soldier crossing the river is the more than 100 members of the action team led by Wei Shen, the captain of the military intelligence bureau's action team.

Wei Shen's subordinates pretended to be a small group of bandits and occupied an abandoned cottage on the mountainside of Liangfengding in Changqiu Mountain, Mengjiazhai.

Their task is to put on standby and dispatch north if necessary, threatening or even cutting off the fastest line of communication between Qiong and Meizhou.

After Li Yunyi went from Shehong to Ren Pujiang, the two chess pieces were horizontally connected. Wei Shen led thirty or forty people into Pujiang County as the captain of Master Li's family, and lived in the county office. As for the rest of the team members, they continued to be stationed in Liangfengding under the leadership of Liu Jing, the deputy captain of the action team.

However, Liu Jing, who is active by nature, did not sit in a dilapidated cottage and watch the sky. He soon relied on his strength and bearing to subdue the bandit leaders Wang Shaozhou and Wang Shaoqin who were operating in the nearby Mengzi River Valley, and turned more than 100 of their subordinates into his own subordinates.

After the team grew, Liu Jing immediately extended the Changqiu Mountain Range to the north, and successively occupied the Zhulaoding, Dashiyan and other mountains.

At the end of March of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Liu Jing set his sights on the thousand-year-old Taiqingguan on the side of the official road in Qiongmei.

Taiqingguan is located on the top of Changqiu Mountain.

Standing here, the mountains, rivers, plains and fields of Pujiang, Meizhou, Pengshan, Xinjin, Qiongzhou and other prefectures and counties can be seen in full view.

Zhang Daoling preached, opened twenty-four governance, Taiqingguan is one of them, when called the main book of mountain governance. Later, a famous story of the miracle took place here, the rising of the sun, which has since taken root in the linguistic thesaurus of the Chinese people as a symbol of rich imagination.

At the end of the spring of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, this once prosperous Taoist temple still lived in a paradise, and did not know much about the world outside the mountains until a moonless night.

That night, more than 100 bandits climbed over the palace wall like ghosts and occupied Taiqingguan. The frightened Taoist priest fled down the mountain, and of course he had to go into the city overnight to cry to the county magistrate.

The sleepy-eyed Li Yunyi stood high above the lobby and slapped the wood, wow! Where did the thieves come from! It's a pity that this official doesn't have soldiers in his hands, otherwise he will definitely beat him......

The two adults, the chief bookkeeper and the warden, who were standing on the side with sad faces, picked at the while reminding the new official to take office:

Not only do you have no soldiers, but you also have no money and no food. It's good to be able to defend the county, don't be hot-headed for a while, and do something stupid to send troops to suppress thieves!

The discouragement of the two adults, the bookkeeper and the warden, obviously aroused the dissatisfaction of the Tongzhi Lord.

Master Li shoots the shocking wood again, smack! Our ministers, who should be diligent in the king's affairs, how can we sit back and watch the thieves disturb the people! If there are no soldiers, go to the streets! If you don't have money or food, you go to the big merchants in the city to borrow it! With soldiers and money and food, wouldn't it be possible to clear the county border?

was scolded by the officials, and the chief bookkeeper and the warden had no choice but to do so.

However, they are not as confident as their fellow intellectuals.

Lending money to the government has always been a meat bun beating a dog - if there is no return, who would want to be in the gentry in the city?

Without money and food, there will naturally be no soldiers. Even if the conscription is carried out, it will disperse within a few days.

Seeing that the Lord Tongzhi was about to throw out the order, the master bookkeeper and the warden were in a hurry. At this time, they waited for a great savior.

This savior turned out to be the leader of the family who was always with the adults.

The leader of the Ding family opened his mouth to remind Lord Li: It is true that there are no soldiers, no money and no food in this county, but you can borrow it from the state city! Pujiang belongs to the jurisdiction of Qiongzhou, and the soldiers of the Qiongzhou Imperial Office are used in Pujiang, which is a matter of course, what money and food are needed?

As soon as the leader of the family spoke, Lord Li woke up as if from a dream, and hurriedly inserted back the order sign, and instructed Xiao Tong to grind the ink, and he wanted to take a letter of resignation in person, and asked Lord Zhizhou to send troops to suppress the thieves.

At this time, the leader of the family reminded Master Li again: What if Xu Zhizhou refused to send troops under the pretext that the state city was important?

Therefore, Xu Zhizhou in Qiongzhou wants to write there, Li Zhizhou in Meizhou also wants to write there, and the two and three divisions in the provincial capital have to send a letter, and the louder the call, the better.

But now the bandits are in Taiqingguan, which is close to the county seat, what if the bandits take advantage of the night to thin the city?

Therefore, the top priority is not to write a letter asking for help, but to immediately post a notice throughout the city and organize the gentry and common people to defend the city (PI) to prevent thieves from attacking the city!

Presumably, in the face of the threat of bandits, the gentry in the city will not ask for money and die. As long as it takes a few days for reinforcements to arrive in the county, it will not be too late to disband the township soldiers. At that time, Tongzhi was not alarmed in chaos, not chaotic in danger, and with his own strength, he would inevitably reach heaven and enjoy a good reputation......

The leader of this family is really the confidant of Lord Tongzhi, and every word is said to Lord Tongzhi's heart.

Under the order of Lord Tongzhi, the chief bookkeeper and the warden hurriedly went out to arrest the old man of Lizheng Township to deploy and recruit the people, and the leader of this family was even more entrusted by Lord Tongzhi and temporarily served as the commander-in-chief of the city.

The situation after that developed as the leader of the Ding family had judged.

The bandits attacked the city at night and were discovered by the people on duty in the city, so they could only retreat.

The news of the bandits' attack on the city finally attracted the attention of Xu Kongtu, the governor of Qiongzhou. He was afraid that Pujiang would be lost, so he hurriedly sent a deputy Qianhu of the Qiongzhou Office to lead 300 soldiers to Pujiang.

Li Chuandi, the governor of Meizhou, also sent a letter, saying that he was going to send 300 Xiangyong led by Xiucai Li Jing to counterattack Taiqingguan, hoping that Pujiang would send troops to attack Meizhou Xiangyong from east to west, and annihilate this gang of bandits wandering on the border of Qiongmei in one fell swoop.

When Li Yunyi received the letter, he was naturally happy and hurriedly replied to the date of sending troops.

The situation seems to be good, but it ends here.

On the morning of April 1, the Qiongzhou soldiers left the Pujiang River as promised and rushed to Taiqingguan, 30 miles east of the city. The officers and soldiers soon reached the foot of Changqiu Mountain, and then began to attack.

The rocks flying like locusts on the mountains made the offensive very difficult. However, in the face of the fearless spirit of sacrifice of the vast number of officers and soldiers, the bandits still fled.

In the evening, the deputy Qianhu lord who led the army had already stepped in front of the Sanqing Hall of Taiqingguan, and excitedly ordered his subordinates to report the victory to Lord Zhizhou, Lord Tongzhi and Lord Qianhu. At this time, Lord Deputy Chino-sama also felt sorry for a small flaw in the victory:

If he didn't cut a head, he couldn't confirm his exploits, and he couldn't receive his share of the reward with his sons.

The deputy Qianhu Lord of the Qiongzhou Institute thought of the military exploits and the silver reward, but he didn't think of where the Meizhou Township Yong should be with them at the foot of Changqiu Mountain.

It wasn't until the next morning that the drunken deputy Qianhu master was reported by the spies: he found Meizhou Xiangyong in the Dongshan Pass of the official road, but there were no living people, only more than 100 dead people who had been stripped naked.

It is obvious that Meizhou Xiangyong was ambushed by a large number of bandits. Judging by the wounds on the deceased's body, the bandits had a large number of sophisticated firearms, and even small cannons!

It was only at this time that Lord Deputy Qianhu finally realized: it turned out that this empty Taiqingguan was a bait!

The deputy Qianhu who was old in the Rong affair immediately decided to retreat and quickly returned to Pujiang County. But this seemingly correct decision was strongly opposed by his subordinates.

They said, I have worked so hard to recover this Taoist temple, but now I don't have a head to bring back, which means that I have worked hard in vain. Why don't you continue to drink wine and eat meat, and then set off in three hours?

Of course, Lord Vice-Senhu knew what his subordinates meant, because this was also what he really thought in his heart. But he is the leader, and he can't take the initiative to say these things, so he can only pretend that he doesn't know anything.

So he went back to his room to get drunk, while his men went away cheering.

Three hours have passed, and the appearance of Taiqingguan is still majestic, but there is no connotation inside. Even the gold dust on Taishang Laojun's face was scraped off by the greedy soldiers, revealing a shriveled yellow mud.

How can such a sloppy appearance be explained to the veterans who look back? The old Taoists have been waiting in the county government for the good news of Wang Shi's triumph.

At this time, the rich experience of the guards came into play again.

They reported to Lord Deputy Qianhu that we had not carried out the order you had reported yesterday, and that group of stupid civil officials in the county must have thought that we were fighting a multi-fold enemy! You see, our army fought bloody battles all day long, and the thieves fled without support, and at the end they had to set fire!

They are all insiders, and there is no need to talk about any superfluous nonsense.

When the officers and soldiers returned with a full load, the black smoke of the fire on the top of Changqiu Mountain, like a vicious curse, foreshadowed a catastrophe in the future of Qiongmei and Qiongmei.