Chapter 154, the turbulent Jiangnan (middle)

Therefore, seeing that the livelihood of the citizens of Jiangnan is now miserable day by day, the government should have given itself the anointing silver and rice grain subsidies for a few months, because it has only been a few years, for the leader of the Restoration Society, Zhang Pu, wrote the "Five People Tablet", and used the Suzhou people to become famous The deeds are still fresh in the memory. for the sake of heaven", repeat the Suzhou anti-tax rebellion in the sixth year of the Apocalypse, and ask the government for justice, at least let yourself have some benefits.

However, they forgot a very important point, the Suzhou civil uprising in the sixth year of the Apocalypse, what they opposed was the dictatorship of the eunuch party, and there was also the boycott of the imperial court's taxation of Jiangnan industry and commerce. But today's Nanjing Imperial Court is the monopoly of the Donglin Party, how can they be allowed to jump up and down like poor scholars?

So, just like the poor Americans who got carried away with the human rights and freedoms they preached on weekdays and recklessly went to "occupy" that Wall Street, these small-character Suzhou scholars also seriously underestimated the ferocity of the Donglin Party, and dared to go to the street without anyone behind their backs. In the future, it may be as beautiful as the sky is like Zhang Pu.

Unexpectedly, three days later, the Nanjing Imperial Court's disposition was unprecedentedly severe, and the cabinet actually ordered to send the newly formed Beijing Camp Forbidden Army, and hurried to Suzhou, where the street shot the troublemakers with bows and crossbows, and then the swords and axes were all on the way, and all those who could not avoid it were cut into meat sauce!

Because the place where the scholars and talents broke the boot formation was not only in Suzhou, but in Zhenjiang, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Songjiang, Changzhou, Nanjing and other places, so under the bloody strangulation of the imperial court officials and soldiers, thousands of people were hacked to death on the spot, and the Confucius tablet was thrown all over the street. After the incident, more than 600 talents and more than 150 people were dismissed, and more than 80 relevant officials were dismissed and dismissed.

However, those scholars who can only let off their mouths, have no power to restrain chickens, and have not succeeded in rebellion for ten years, are quite easy to suppress for the imperial court, but the unemployed workers and bankrupt peasants who are so poor that they only have one life left are very head-scratching.

In the face of the gentry thugs and errand officials who came to suppress the trend of grabbing rice, the anger and despair that had accumulated in the hearts of the citizens of Jiangnan for most of the past half a year suddenly broke out like a torrent. These people, who had been starved and thin, were dying, and they didn't know where they got the strength and courage to fight with the officials, even if they were beaten with iron rulers and sticks, they clung to the rice bags they grabbed and refused to let go.

In the rural villages south of the Yangtze River, the tax collectors who came to pay the poll tax were also besieged by angry villagers, and many of them were beaten to death.

In the face of the threat of death, the once high-ranking government seems to have become less terrifying.

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In the cabinet room of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, Zhou Yanru, the first assistant to the cabinet, was facing the military intelligence report flying like snowflakes, his face full of sadness.

Seeing that the situation in the market is getting worse day by day, his hair is also gray one after another. Nowadays, the territory that the Yonghe Emperor's court in Nanjing can really manage is only the size of a palm, Anqing in the west, Songjiang in the east, Chuzhou in the north, and Jiaxing in the south. Now trapped in Quzhou, the governor of Zhejiang, who is in a dilemma, is actually lonely behind the enemy.

But at present, the foreign enemies of all parties have not further attacked, and this land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River, which is known as rich, has become a mess of its own.

The demons of the Wenxiang Sect in Jiangbei were beaten to ashes by the Eight Banners Jiannu, and they basically posed no threat to Jiangnan. And Liaodong Jiannu has just arrived, and has not yet gained a firm foothold in Lianghuai, so he will not soon try to cross the river to the south. As for the Australian thieves in the south, they also stopped after occupying Hangzhou. Although the abolition of Emperor Chongzhen in Huguang upstream has made a vigorous effort to raise salaries and recruit troops, there has been no sign of sending troops so far.

However, although the foreign enemies of the Quartet did not invade on a large scale for the time being, the sparks ignited by the rice rush from Suzhou and Songjiang have already burned the entire south of the Yangtze River, and all the towns, towns and counties have been involved in the whirlpool of riots! In these industrially and commercially developed cities, the devastating economic depression has lasted for more than half a year, and the streets are full of unemployed citizens on the verge of starvation. Therefore, it is often the case that tens of thousands of hungry people can gather and riot and loot any shop in the street, especially the grain store, as soon as someone raises their arms. Although the local government and the gentry are desperately suppressing it, in front of hundreds of thousands, millions of crazy people who are suffering from hunger and poverty, it is simply a mantis arm.

Of course, in the absence of the leadership of advanced revolutionary ideas, these riots initially remained at a low level of "grabbing food for survival". However, as time went on, more and more people with political ambitions joined these riots and served as the core backbone of the various chaotic parties. Among them are not only gang bosses, liars, but also delusional landlords and gentry, and even some down-and-out scholars who are good at fooling. Under the leadership of these folk intellectuals and the urban and rural real power factions, the Jiangnan Minun Rebellion soon showed a terrible trend of changing from grain grabbing to rebellion!

What's worse is that since the fall of Beijing, the Cao Yun that lasted for 200 years was automatically abolished, and as a result, the Cao Gang that controlled the canal also went bankrupt, just like Chongzhen's early years of dismantling the world's post guards, and instantly created hundreds of thousands of unemployed strong men in Jiangnan and Jiangbei, but these people because they have been engaged in the transportation industry for a long time, they also have a high level of organization and a clear command system, as long as a little training, it is a counter-rebellion army!

Before, most of the Cao Gang in Jiangbei had already voted for the Smelling Fragrance Sect demons, causing countless troubles to the thieves and the official army. The Cao Gang in Jiangnan first actively engaged in the criminal industry, which caused the rapid deterioration of the public security situation in the Jiangnan area, and now it has become an important leading group in the previous rice grabbing riots, making all the prefectures and counties full of chaotic people.

In desperation, Zhou Yanru, who was under tremendous pressure both physically and mentally, had no choice but to be ruthless, temporarily ignoring the defense in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and mobilizing Lu Weiqi, the only mobile field unit under the name of the Nanjing Imperial Court, who could still fight, with more than 10,000 "elite soldiers" withdrawn from the Yangzhou battlefield, to rush to Suzhou, Songjiang and other places to quell the chaos. At the same time, he ordered the governor of Zhejiang, who was trapped in Quzhou, to abandon the mountainous areas of western Zhejiang, and led the remnants of Zhejiang soldiers to rush to Nanzhili to participate in the suppression of the rebellion. After an extremely bloody killing, the anxious Nanjing small court finally temporarily suppressed these chaotic parties that had not yet had time to become a climate, but it also caused even greater damage to the economy and people's livelihood in these areas.

After all, the saying that "thieves come like combs, soldiers come like grates, and officials come like shavings" is not an exaggeration in the late Ming Dynasty!

In mid-May, a rice-grabbing rebellion broke out in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, killing more than 10 people, including those who raised people, showed talents, and retired eunuchs.

In late May, Zhejiang Hainingwei mutinied, and the rebellious army expelled Hangjiahu and the commander of the guard, plundered Haiyan and Haining counties, and colluded with Hangzhou thieves to help foreign aid against the chaos. At that time, the southern Zhili was in turmoil, and the officials and troops were unable to advance, so they retreated to Jiaxing Fucheng.

At the beginning of June, the governor of Zhejiang led more than 3,000 Zhejiang soldiers, and trained more than 10,000 people with the Yongtuan of Northern Zhejiang Township to suppress the Haining guards. After several engagements, the rebels dispersed, the head of the thieves was killed, and the rest fled to the seashore, and the governor personally led the officers and troops to pursue the victory, but unexpectedly, the thief warships actually arrived at the port of Haiyan County, sent artillery to bombard the positions of the officers and soldiers, and sent the elite to land and counterattack. The officers and troops were defeated, the governor of Zhejiang was killed in the artillery, and the remnants of the Zhejiang soldiers retreated to Nanjing.

At the end of June, the villagers of Changzhou resisted taxes by force, and the local government was unable to suppress them, so the imperial court sent the Beijing camp to beg for it, and more than 3,000 thieves were killed before it was pacified.

At the beginning of July, Chen, the leader of the Cao Gang in Taicang Prefecture, coerced tens of thousands of traitors to cause an incident, expelled Kunshan County Order, and entrenched himself in Kunshan County to rebel. At the end of July, the two prefectures of Suzhou and Songjiang sent troops to suppress the army, and the whole army was annihilated. On the contrary, the thieves broke Jiading again, and after killing the order of Jiading County, they plundered back, and the fierce flames were blazing.

On the third day of the first month of August, Lu Weiqi, the secretary of the Ministry of War, swore to go to Kunshan, led the capital to stay in the capital camp and 30,000 soldiers of Zhejiang, Xiangyong, regimental training, and guards, surrounded Kunshan County, bombarded the city with red-clothed cannons, and broke the city after ten days of strong attack. Afterwards, the official army plundered Kunshan County and beheaded 9,000, and Lu Weiqi ordered to build a Beijing Temple outside the east gate to show off his martial arts and deter the traitors......