Outside the Dasheng Fort in the northwest of Jinzhou.

A group of Qing soldiers pushed a group of ragged women and children to the front of the pit. The officer leading the team looked at these Ming people with cold eyes, shook the whip in his hand vigorously, and whipped a prisoner who was digging a little slower.

A woman with a baby in her arms held her child tightly in her arms, her haggard face revealing deep trepidation.

"You're a bunch of garbage, superfluous garbage!" The officer shouted loudly, "You always want to ride on the head of our Jurchen to be powerful and lucky, for the ambition and selfishness of your emperor, you have launched aggression against our Qing Dynasty again and again, resulting in the lives of countless innocent people outside the Guan, for those brothers and sisters who are still in the war in Liaodong, for those Manchu and Mongolian brothers who are still doing hard labor in Taiwan, I, Feng Shen'e!" On behalf of all the Manchu and Mongolian people who were oppressed by the barbaric Southern Ming Dynasty, you will be executed! ”

With a wave of his hand, he ordered the Qing army to push the old and weak women and children into the deep pit, and let the Ming prisoners of war who had just dug the pit start filling in the soil.

For a while, the sound of crying was everywhere, and some women struggled to rush to him, kowtowing and begging for mercy, hoping that he would show mercy and at least spare the children who were still nursing.

"Spare these kids? So that when they grow up, they will come back to invade and kill my Qing people? Feng Shen exclaimed, "Have you ever thought about our children? My child was not weaned before he died, but your husband rushed into my village, broke into my house, ** my wife, and threw my son, who was crying on the side, into the fire in the hearth. After my wife was **, she was also taken back to Ningyuan, and was sold to a slave trader by your husband for twenty silver dollars and shipped to Taiwan, and I will never see her again in this life. My family is all thanks to you hateful Nanban, and my family is ruined. ”

He turned. shouted to the soldiers, "Buried, no one is allowed to fall, all of them are buried alive!" ”

Zhao Xiaosi hid not far away, witnessing the tragedy with his own eyes, and watching dozens of captured Ming army captives dig a big pit. Then the women and children of the Ming army who were captured by the Qing army from nearby villages were buried alive in the pit. Those prisoners of war who buried their compatriots' wives and children alive were finally taken away and became the coated servants of the Qing army.

Looking at all this, he was powerless, just like when he saw his family being killed by the Qing army.

"Brute!" Zhao Xiaosi cursed secretly, forcing himself to close his eyes and plug his ears, but the bursts of desperate wails pierced deep into his brain. When the Qing army escorted the prisoners away, Zhao Xiaosi walked out. Standing in front of the big pit that had been filled, he knelt down and kowtowed to the more than 100 compatriots who were buried alive here, "I swear, I will definitely avenge you!" ”

After kowtowing, Zhao Xiaosi went all the way to the west.

The ninth day of November in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen.

Yesterday, the news of the defeat in western Liaoning reached Huguang, and the price of rice in Wuchang had soared to ten silver dollars a stone.

Since the Duke of Chu was transferred out of Huguang, he was transferred to the governor of Liaodong. At the same time, after the Chu army in the eighth and ninth towns was also transferred out of Huguang and stationed in Liaodong, the price of grain in Huguang had risen somewhat uncontrollably.

This year was followed by a drought and then a locust plague. Huguang only received less than half of the summer grain, and the autumn harvest was even worse, with no grain harvest in many places, and the grain harvest in the two provinces was less than 30 percent of the year. In many parts of the neighboring provinces of Henan and Shaanxi, there is almost no harvest, and a great famine is just around the corner.

At this time, the imperial court drew the elite of the Central Plains to fight outside the pass, and the Central Plains region, which was already quiet. Started to stir again. Li Zicheng in Shangluo Mountain, Luo Rucai in Daba Mountain, and the two tributaries began to take advantage of the famine year to fan the flames everywhere and rekindle the ashes. In order to make a comeback.

Now the two tributaries have re-established their banners and are operating in the areas of Shangluo and Hanzhong.

In the face of this famine, although the imperial court has exempted the three salaries this year, some local officials are still collecting these additional levies. Some officials were simple and rude when they cleaned up the guards and rectified the tuntian fields in accordance with the will of the imperial court, and took the opportunity to fish the common people, causing the people's resentment to boil.

Huangzhou, Times Newspaper.

Zhang Dai, the editor-in-chief of the Times, stared at the many articles on the table, closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then opened them again, shook his head and sighed, "It's all this time, but the local government is becoming more and more corrupt, how can state affairs be good?" ”

The articles in front of him were all manuscripts handed in by the editors of the Times, and they were written by the reporters of the Times on the current affairs gathered by the reporters.

Since the separation of Jiangnan Qianzhuang, the Times has hired Zhang Dai, a well-known literati in Jiangnan, as the editor-in-chief. Although Zhang Dai's reputation is mixed, he is also proficient in history, classics, science, literature, primary school and geoscience.

Zhang Daibo has a lot of information, and the subset of history should be known; Astronomy and geography are not dabbled. Although he didn't have a fame, he had the ambition to write. And Zhang Dai is not only talented, he also has a wide range of knowledge, especially walking in all directions, footprints all over the world, and his vision is also very broad.

At the beginning, Li Chunjiang introduced him to Liu Jun, and later Liu Jun met Zhang Dai in Nanjing, and after some talking, Liu Jun felt that Zhang Dai was very suitable for the candidate of editor-in-chief of Ming Pao.

When Liu Jun proposed to Zhang Dai the direction of running his own newspaper, Zhang Dai was very interested in the novelty of the Times. The Times is different from ordinary books and poetry collections, which are published every five days and publish current affairs, including politics, military, economy, and people's livelihood. Zhang Dai was very interested in this kind of novelty.

Once Zhang Dai was selected, he had a detailed discussion with Zhang Dai about the purpose and direction of the newspaper, and then handed over the Times to Zhang Dai.

According to the newspaper policy described by Liu Jun, Zhang Dai quickly launched the expansion of the Times with the original color newspaper team. The headquarters of the Times was established in Huangzhou, and then branches were set up in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Henan, Nanzhili, Shandong, and Sichuan provinces. He personally recruited a group of editors and a large number of reporters, and also used his connections in Shilin to invite many celebrities as special reporters to write articles for the newspaper.

In order to maximize the influence of the Times, he divided the newspaper into eight sections, each with an editor-in-chief, and several editors with many reporters and special correspondents to organize the content. After checking the layers at all levels, it was finally decided by Zhang Dai in a unified manner.

The five-day issue of the newspaper will be arranged the day before the release. It was then distributed by fast horses to various branches in the seven provinces. Printing is carried out half a day in advance by the bureaus at the printing plants in the province before being distributed to several major prefectures and cities in the province. On the day of release, it can be quickly spread.

Because Zhang Dai strictly follows Liu Jun's policy of handling newspapers, the content of the Times is closely related to current affairs, and all major events in the world are covered, so that one newspaper is in hand. Everything in the world is known. Moreover, the Times also pays attention to advertising, publishing a lot of content on people's livelihood and economy, and there are advertising positions in the cracks and other places.

This newspaper can be said to be suitable for all ages, whether it is an official, a scholar or an ordinary businessman, everyone can see what they want to read.

Originally, the newspaper used to sell up to 5,000 copies, but now after the name change is changed to the Times, the scale of the Times has expanded rapidly. Branches were set up in seven provinces, and the distribution covered almost half of the Ming Dynasty, and the sales of each issue reached more than 10,000 copies.

This sales quantity is constantly rising.

"Zuo Liangyu, the general soldier of Henan, forcibly issued lottery tickets in Henan, and distributed forced sales of lottery tickets to various prefectures and counties, looting people's wealth in disguise, and the people's resentment was boiling."

"Shaanxi officials have serious problems in cleaning up the tuntian fields in Shaanxi, and in the process of cleaning up the tuntian fields of the health center, the officials wantonly embezzle the fields of the health center. The fields of the former guards were seized, but there was no resettlement. The officers and military attaches of the Shaanxi Guard Station were all disgruntled, and the situation was tense. ”

"Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Shandong, Hebei, and Nanzhili provinces have found that grain merchants are stepping up their hoarding of grain, and grain prices are rising steadily, Shaanxi rice costs 16 silver dollars per stone, Henan rice costs 15 yuan per stone, and grain prices in the two lakes are low. But it also rose to ten silver dollars, and it was difficult to buy food even if there was money in various places. ”

"The thief Li Zicheng has come out of the mountain again, and has already attacked several towns, many hungry people have responded, and there are many officers and military households of the former guard station. also defected to the thieves. ”

"Cao Cao and Luo Rucai also began to operate in the Hanzhong area, plundering everywhere."

Zhang Dai's eyes swept over the enveloped newsletter, let out a long sigh, and spit out words that shocked several editors-in-chief, "The world is going to be in chaos again!"

"As soon as the news of the defeat in Liaoxi came back, those bandits jumped more and more happily." One of the editors-in-chief sighed.

"It coincided with the disaster year, and the defeat of the troops outside the Guan, the elites from all over the country have been transferred to the Guanwai, and now the Guanwai is defeated, and the emperor urgently dispatches the elites from all over the country to the Guanwai, this heart is empty, I am afraid of the sparks, and it will become a prairie fire in a blink of an eye."

"The tenth town is about to be transferred to Guanwai, and the stability of the two lakes will not be able to be maintained."

Zhang Dai shook his head, "The tenth town is gone, and the two lakes won't change much for a while." Our two lakes are different from other provinces, and there are still many militia townspeople, if you add the security team of the Four Seas Bank, etc., a small group of bandits is not afraid. I'm afraid that Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai and others will take advantage of the situation to grow stronger, and then they will come to attack Chudi. ”

A good scripture is in the hands of a crooked-mouthed monk, how can he still read a good scripture? It turned out that it was a great thing to clean up and rectify the guards and tuntian. The guard post is now useless, unable to protect the territory and the people, defend the homeland and defend the country, but still occupy a large amount of land, which is still occupied by the officers of the guard.

In view of this, Liu Jun proposed to reorganize the new army, remove the guards, and clean up the tuntian. The tuntian occupied by the officers of the guard station was cleared out, and then distributed to the military households, and the output of the tuntian was used to support the new army. This is an excellent plan, and it has worked well in the two lakes, but as soon as it arrives in other provinces, it immediately changes.

Especially in Henan, Shaanxi, and other places, those officials and local tycoons colluded with each other to divide up most of the tuntian fields cleared from the military attachés of the guards. The military attachés of the guard post were cleared and confiscated, but the military households still did not receive the land, but only transferred the land from the hands of the officers of the guard post to the hands of local officials and local tycoons.

The officials and local tycoons were full of fat, but the military attachés of the guards were the biggest losers, and even the tenants and military households of the original officers needed to share the land from the new landlords and were subject to a layer of exploitation.

The imperial court did not get any real benefits in the rectification and cleaning of these places, but made the military attachés and military households of the guards become dangerous because they were not properly resettled.

There are also lottery tickets, and the lottery tickets of the two lakes provided a lot of military salaries and food for the new army at that time. But now in other places, lottery tickets have become a tool to collect money, and even chief military officers such as Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong, who have always been domineering, have used this to forcibly distribute lottery tickets to the gentry and people in various prefectures and counties, which has become a disguised levy.

Originally, the imperial court had stopped collecting the three salaries, but now many places are still collecting these three salaries. Where the money went, it naturally fell into the hands of those corrupt officials and corrupt officials.

In the eyes of Zhang Dai and others, the corruption in the Ming officialdom is already too serious and rotten to the roots. No matter how good the policy is, when it comes to the bottom, it is seriously out of shape. The situation is better in the two lakes, but elsewhere, it is completely out of control.

Today, state affairs are no longer just a matter of one issue.

It's from the inside out, from the top to the bottom, and everything goes wrong.

"I hope that the Duke of Chu can defeat the Qing army and relieve the siege of Jinzhou, and the soldiers and horses of the towns that aid Liao can return as soon as possible, otherwise, the situation in the Central Plains will just get out of control."

Liaodong, Haizhou.

In just a few days, Jingshi has issued three holy decrees to Liu Jun.

"With the position of governor of Beijing, plus the rank of Zhu Ciye Governor, the governor of the towns of Liaodong and Liaoxi, and the control of the soldiers and horses of the towns in Liao, and the full command of the armies to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, and the governors and soldiers outside the customs listen to moderation!"

"Minister Zhu Ciye takes the order!"

After receiving the holy decree, Liu Jun immediately became the commander of the soldiers and horses in Liaodong, and even directly became the boss of Fu Zonglong and Fan Zhiwan. This time, it was the real boss, the emperor, who announced it by decree. Before, Liu Jun nominally belonged to the two of them. But now, Liu Jun, a military general, has been added to the rank of superintendent, and he is really above the superintendent.

"Meet the Overseer!"

Fu Zonglong took the lead in stepping forward and bowed to Liu Jun. Fu Zonglong's salute, Fan Zhiwan had to step forward to salute, and Fu Shan, Zhang Shan and other Chu army generals were even more happy to come forward to greet him loudly.

"Excuse me." Liu Jun stretched out his hand to help.

After seeing the ceremony again, Liu Jun's position as Supervisor was also officially established.

Fu Zonglong sat back in his position, "Saving soldiers is like fighting fire, I don't know when we will send troops to rescue Jinzhou?" ”

Liu Jun's words were astonishing, "The Qing army under the city of Jinzhou is heavily gathered, and it is not a superior strategy for us to rush to the rescue." Ben Shuai thinks that at present, the defense around Shenyang is empty, and we should continue the previous plan and continue to attack Liaoyang in the north. ”

"Wai Wei begging Zhao?" Fu Zonglong asked in surprise.

"That's right, instead of attacking the Qing army in Jinzhou, which is full of heavy troops, it is better to attack Liaoyang, which is empty, we will save it, and the siege of Jinzhou will be solved by then!" (To be continued.) )

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