The four of them thought in silence for a moment, only to see Shu Guoping, who was on the far left, take a step forward and take the lead in answering: "The prince has a question, and the student doesn't dare not answer!" ”

Shu Guoping said: "The rebellion in the world began at the end of Wanli. First, there are the three major expeditions of the Wanli Dynasty, then the seven hatreds of the Liaodong wild boar skin of the Apocalypse Dynasty, and then the Shaanxi thieves in the early years of the Dynasty. In the seventh year of Chongzhen, the thieves entered Sichuan, poisoned the north and east of Sichuan, and the Kuizhou Mansion was lost; In the ten years of Chongzhen, thieves entered Sichuan, and dozens of big cities changed hands in a blink of an eye; This is the third time in recent years that the thief has entered Sichuan! The arrangement of the officers and troops was at a loss...... Shu Guoping said in a hurry, and then said: "Yang Wenweak (Yang Sichang's character is weak) is self-righteous, and he laid down the so-called 'four elephants and six corners' strategy, and he was proud of the slightest gain. Therefore, I know that Your Majesty will use all the armies of the world to pay those who do not know the soldiers, how can I be miserable! First of all, the sacrifice thief Agate Mountain (more than ten kilometers northeast of Wanyuan City) was defeated, but the Yang thief tolerated the adulterer, making the sacrifice thief resurrect. In a hurry, the Yang thief drove the thief into Sichuan and poisoned the Sichuan people. Offering thieves to attack Luzhou, Luzhou fortified city, surrounded by water on three sides, the supervising army of 10,000 yuan Jiyi used Luzhou as bait to lure the thieves, and the main infantry set up an ambush at Lishi Station. The Yang thief did not listen, and the soldiers in Luzhou were thin, so that the city fell. Shao Jiechun also didn't know the soldiers, and ordered Zhang to divide thousands of weak soldiers into 32 passes in Kuizhou, and the troops were weak; Qin Liangyu is far away in Chongqing, a few days away from Zhang Ling. The thieves gathered the strength of the whole army to attack Zhang Ling, Qin Liangyu Dao was far from being able to save him, Zhang Ling died and Liangyu was undefeated? Qin generals Li Guoqi and He Renlong are arrogant and difficult to control, Chu general Zuo Liangyu raises thieves and respects himself, and Sichuan general Fang Guoan is extremely incompetent, losing his troops and losing his generals, only collecting the remnants of the army and protecting himself! Son of Heaven ......"

It seems that the blood feud in the door cannot be erased in a few days. scolded the superintendent, the governor, and the general soldier, and when Shu Guoping finally mentioned the Son of Heaven, Zhu Pingjin had already put the tea cup up.

"The Son of Heaven is a promising king! The saint worked hard and worked all night, but unfortunately these civil ministers and military generals in the court were all ministers who misled the country! The students thought that in order to defeat the enemy, they must choose a favorable place, wait for Lao Bu to surround him, and wait for the fierce pursuit behind him to throw himself into the net. After cleaning up the fierce tiger, you can easily break through the siege of Yang thieves and return to Chudi. Looking at Chudi, except for Zuo Liangyu, there is no general, and the thief returns to Chu like a fish returning to the sea, and no one can control it! ”

"Ah," Zhu Pingjin gasped, talent. Zhu Pingjin knows the future, and this Shu Guoping's speculation is surprisingly consistent with the development of history! It seems that Shu Guoping's head is still sober and he is not overwhelmed by hatred. Based on Shu Guoping's above speculation, he will also be of great use. However, Zhu Pingjin still has to try him again, see that the problem is easy, and he must be able to solve the problem.

"As Mr. Shu said, what can I do about it?"

"Offering thieves into Sichuan, who are the thieves? Feudal official? Definitely; The people, too. Anti-thief, the gentry are also! Shu Guoping asked and answered himself, it seems that these questions have been thought about in his mind a long time ago, so he was not stumped by Zhu Pingjin, "The gentry, or the officials, or the unpromoted people, or the talents, or the merchants, are all people with families, land, wealth, and power. When the thief comes, the people can run, but they can't run. Ran away, lost people and money. Shu Guoping didn't notice that the faces of the people next to him became paler, so he continued to follow his own train of thought: "The gentry either live in the city or in the countryside, and the upper part is the government and county officials, and the lower is the ignorant people. The thieves entered Shu this time, and the court was defenseless, and the county and countryside knew nothing. Therefore, wherever the thieves and soldiers go, they are all invincible. As long as the imperial court encouraged the villagers to practice their arms, the students thought that in order to protect the township and protect their families, the squires of Shu would gather villages and forts and fight to the death. Ten thieves were killed in one fort, and 100,000 thieves were killed in Wanbao, so even if the thieves drove straight into the castle and had no food and grass, how far could they go? ”

It is indeed a talent, Zhu Pingjin made a decision. The establishment and reliance on the landlords' armed forces to exterminate the peasant army have been done in this way by all dynasties, such as Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, who have done very successfully, and this is a completely feasible measure. Most importantly, Shu Guoping made clear the idea of relying on the landlord class to suppress the peasant army. Before wearing it, Taizu famously said: Who is our friend and who is our enemy, this is the primary question of the revolution. For the sake of the interests of their own class, the landlord class was born the enemy of the peasant army and was Zhu Pingjian's most reliable ally. Oh, the term 'ally' is inaccurate, Zhu Pingjin thought, the contemptible family is the largest landlord in Sichuan, so Lao Tzu is the general representative of the interests of the Sichuan landlord class. Thus, the class position will eventually drive the contemptible people to suppress the peasant uprising, stain it with the blood of the people, and stain its own ...... with the blood of the people. Hey, no, a few days ago, the contemptible people were still on the side of the people as a revolutionary party, representing the fundamental interests of the people and representing ...... Representative...... Is it true that today the contemptible people are on the opposite side of the people? This turn is too big and too fast, and it is no different from being a traitor...... Is it true that the class in which a person is born has a decisive influence on his underlying patterns of behavior? …… Uncle Shu's nephew and nephew, how about the other students he teaches?

After Shu Guoping retreated, Zhu Pingjin looked at Li Chongwen with his eyes and listened to what he could say.

I saw that Li Chongwen lowered his head and didn't say a word, suddenly raised his head, his eyes were red, tears rolled around, his shoulders twitched, he pounced forward, knelt on the ground, kowtowed, and cried: "The student is disloyal and unfilial, greedy for life and afraid of death, and has lost his father and mother." The student really deserves to be peeled and cramped, thundered and slashed on the knife mountain and under the oil pot......"

Before this group of scholars met with the prince, Cao Sanbao didn't have time to find out their detailed experience, but only listened to Master Shu's brief introduction. Seeing that the prince was shocked and inexplicable, Cao Sanbao hurriedly attached it and reported to his master about Li Chongwen's miserable life.

People say that happiness is the same, but there are thousands of misfortunes. This Li Chongwen's suffering journey is a bit different.

Li Chongwen is a native of Zitong County, and he was originally a well-off family. Both parents have only children. Young talents, proud of the spring breeze. In October of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng broke through the Qipan Pass and Chaotian Pass from Ningqiang Prefecture (now Ningqiang County, Hanzhong) and occupied Guangyuan County, Sichuan. After entering Sichuan, all the way south, as if entering no man's land, the forward approached Zitong County.

On that day, Li Chongwen was riding on a high-headed horse, wearing red and hanging colors, blowing a trumpet, carrying a sedan chair as a dowry, and went to pick up his daughter-in-law more than ten miles away from the city. At noon, Li Chongwen took his new daughter-in-law back to the city, and just walked out of Wuli Road, when suddenly there was chaos ahead, and countless people ran past both sides of the welcoming procession. There were also people in the crowd who ran and shouted, "The thieves are coming!" The thieves came like a mountain, and the team to greet the relatives was suddenly chaotic, threw the sedan dowry on the road, and ran away. The swarming rioters robbed the dowry, and even Li Chongwen himself was ripped off his mount and robbed of his horse. He is a weak scholar with bare hands, where can he stop him? He wanted to go back to the city to pick up his father and mother and run again, but he couldn't run anymore after taking a few steps forward. In front of him was a crowd of people with frightened looks, and fear and luck crushed Li Chongwen, so Li Chongwen made a mistake that could no longer be made up - he turned around and lifted the sedan curtain to pull the bride out, took the bride and turned around and fled back to her mother's house, and later ran to the CD. After that, the city of Zitong was broken, and Hou Liangzhu, the chief soldier of Sichuan, died in Zitong Baiqing Dam, and Li Chongwen never saw his father and mother again. In fact, when Li Chongwen escaped, there were only a few thieves in Zitong County, and the people in the county could still go out of the city freely, and if Li Chongwen decisively entered the city, he could also rescue his father and mother.

Oh, it turns out that another one married a daughter-in-law and forgot his mother! Zhu Pingjin had no choice but to gently persuade Li Chongwen with a few words.

Li Chongwen cried: "The student has undergone a great change, and in an instant, his father and mother are separated by yin and yang. The family wealth was gone, and I had to go to the CD house to vote for the teacher. Relying on the help of teachers and classmates, I have survived until now. In recent years, the students were shy in their pockets, and they still had their wives and families to support in the house, so the students had to set up several private schools outside the West Gate to teach a few rural children to make a living. ”

Li Chongwen wiped his tears with his sleeve and said: "The son of the right talent has asked, and the students think that the son says, 'self-denial and revenge are benevolent', and the benevolent are invincible and ......."

Li Chongwen's sour made Zhu Pingjin's heart fire when he heard it. Zhu Pingjin picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip and put it down. He was determined to let Li Chongwen finish his fart, and then send it away gently, lest others accuse him of neglecting the scribes.

Li Chongwen's continued: "...... The people of Shu have been in poverty for a long time. The state and county yamen officials Xu Kuai soap, Shu people called it Ya beetle (DU); The folk heroes are called the Hao beetles by the Shu people; The righteous man of the Jin gentleman's family (godson), the Shu people called the eunuch beetle; The students are happy about life, and the Shu people call them beetles. There is also a beetle, which the students dare not say. ”

Zhu Pingjin felt that there was some meaning when he heard these words, so he said, "Sir, it's okay to say it." ”

"There is also a beetle, which is the minions of the palace, which the Shu people call the beetle. With these five beetles, are the people of Shu bitter? The bandits in northern Sichuan and eastern Sichuan are known as local tyrants, and they are known as the Thirteen Yellow ......"

"Bold!" Cao Sanbao, who couldn't bear it, jumped out.

Li Chongwen knelt down again. Zhu Pingjin reprimanded Cao Sanbao, and said to Li Chongwen in a kind manner: "Although the son of this world is young, he has not lost his morality and has no voice of advice. Mr. Li has something to say, even if it is true! ”

Li Chongwen only said: "The words of students are true. Students are also taught in several villages in the west of the city, and it is difficult for the Chinese family to make up enough for two buckets of rice a year! Shudi's original number is Tianfu, there is no scorching heat in summer, no frost and snow in winter, water and drought do not invade, thousands of vertical and horizontal, two crops a year. Hundreds of miles of fertile fields, as flat as a few seats. Pi and Guan counties are located in irrigation areas, which should be rich and comfortable, but the villagers are so poor, why not? Nine out of ten of the fields have entered Wangzhuang and Juntun, and there are less than one or two private fields. Wangzhuang and Guantian all have the right to be exempt from taxes, so ten percent of the taxes of the imperial court are inherited by one or two people's fields, and the people are not bitter? There is also the heavy rent of Wangzhuang and Guantian, and the people are also deeply suffering. One ding cultivates five acres, which is already the ultimate work. Although there are two seasons per mu in the morning and evening, the early rice is about 1 stone 5, and the late rice is about 2 stone 5, and the total harvest is 4 stone (Note 1). However, the land rent is less than six or seven percent, and two stone four to two stone eight are collected, and only one stone is left per mu and one stone two to one stone six; The land rent is even eighty percent, and there are only eight buckets left per mu, and one bucket of seed grain must be left! In addition to the regular tax, the government also levies additional salaries, training salaries, and expulsion salaries (Note 3), miscellaneous miscellaneous items, and rice in the clan, which is a number of acres per mu. The list goes on and on for the temporary tribes of the government and the government. Since the law of the imperial court in Wanli year, the small people have had to exchange grain for silver...... With the land of Pi and irrigation, the harvest of five acres of one people is not enough for food, clothing, food and clothing. The students saw all these things with their own eyes. If the prince doesn't believe it, the students here have the number of grain collected in several villages in the land of Pi and irrigation in the past three years! As he spoke, Li Chongwen took out a few crumpled pieces of paper from his arms.

Li Chongwen's voice was not loud, but in Zhu Pingjian's ears, every sentence was like thunder. Zhu Pingjin was silent, and his eyes wandered away. Li Chongwen's words reminded him of the old watch in Jiangxi and the old farmers in northern Shaanxi: the beacon smoke in Jinggang Mountain and the candle flame in Yangjialing......

Li Chongwen's voice continued: "Therefore, the students think that the only way for the prince to protect himself is to govern benevolently and win the hearts of all the people in Shu. ”

Cao Sanbao went down the stairs to take the article in Li Chongwen's hand, put it on Zhu Pingjian's table, and silently turned back behind Zhu Pingjian. Zhu Pingjin didn't look at it right away. He already knew the general content, wasn't this a Sichuan version of the "Hunan Peasant Movement Investigation Report" in the late Ming Dynasty?

"'Self-denial and benevolence', Mr.'s words made this son suddenly open. Mr. Li is really talented, the court can't use it, it's really a pearl of Taoism! ”。

Note 1: The annual yield of one mu and one season is taken from this article. But in fact, there is a difference between the north and the south, and the soil is different from the fertile. The less is not counted, and the more are such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Liangguang, and the history contains acres to six stones. The Dujiangyan irrigation area is mostly two seasons, and the yield can reach four stones.

Note 2: At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the tax was so high that the officials forced the people to rebel, and one of the slogans of the uprising was "no food"! Readers who think that the taxes at the end of the Ming Dynasty are too low and the people live in paradise should look up the information on their own and make up for it.

Note 3: Liaoyu, levied in the 46th year of Wanli, after many additional levies, an additional 1 cent and 2 cents per mu; Salary, the levy was levied in Chongzhen for ten years, and the withdrawal was in Chongzhen for twelve years, and the grain was added to the mu in six he, and each stone was converted into eight dollars of silver; Practice, the expedition began in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, 7.3 million taels a year. A total of 16.7 million taels of salary has been raised, more than double the normal annual income.