Chapter 82 Shandong Radical Changes (II)

In the south of Shandong, on the banks of the Grand Canal, Jining City

Although the northern provinces this year and last year have always had a bad year, natural disasters, military rebellions, banditry, starvation, and captives...... There are all kinds of bad news coming from all sides, but next to the Grand Canal, a golden waterway flowing with wealth, the people of Jining can barely get by. While the people in other places were miserable because of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, gentry exploitation and various natural disasters, Jining has been prosperous and developed because of Cao Yun, and there are many officers and soldiers stationed in the city, which can gather enough people to practice, even if a large number of displaced people occasionally pass by, they only dare to avoid Jining and go elsewhere.

However, at this time, Jining City is still in the haze of war after all. Even the towering city walls, the wide moat, the various garrisons on the city, and the relatively strong soldiers could not make the gentry in Jining feel at ease enough.

Because, this time, there are too many homeless thieves who were instigated by the Wenxiang Sect to besiege Jining.

Looking out from the top of the city, I saw that there were people everywhere in the black, and I couldn't even see the edge. Due to the prolonged drought and no rain in various parts of the Central Plains, the farmland cracked and the roads were dusty. With so many people acting together, the dust rolled up was already like a sandstorm. The vast majority of them are naturally unkempt, ragged, holding sticks and stones, and staring at the famine, but there are also many strong men with sturdy figures, armed weapons, and quite orderly movements. There were even a small number of riders on freshly clad and angry horses, weaving through this unprecedentedly large army of displaced people. In addition, there are many craftsmen and strong men who use the walls along the way to tear down the houses, unload the timber obtained from the beams and pillars, and bundle and manufacture various siege equipment on the spot.

However, unlike the ordinary exile traitors, among the exiles besieging Jining at this time, there were quite a lot of artists dressed in red and hanging colors, holding various gongs and drums, as well as flags, ribbons, incense and candles for the table, and even prepared a special cart to pull the statues of the gods, organize worship and lectures all day long, and also distribute some bran cakes mixed with salt to the believers...... Although it is a coarse grain, it is already a delicacy in the eyes of the exiled and hungry.

-- This is another large-scale uprising of the Wenxiang Sect after ten years since Xu Hongru's mutiny in the second year of the Apocalypse.

Wenxiang Sect, is a branch of the White Lotus Sect that appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, (China is called a certain religion, giving people the feeling that they do not belong to each other, in fact, the relationship between Wenxiang Sect and the White Lotus Sect, probably the same relationship between Protestantism and Catholicism, worship are almost the same gods), originally founded by Wang Sen in the Wanli period, after Wang Sen's death, his son Wang Haoxian and Wang Sen's apprentice Xu Hongru continued to preach. After 20 years of underground development, the Wenxiang Sect has reached 2 million believers in Shandong, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei, and Sichuan.

Seeing that the sect already had such a huge force, the sect leader Xu Hongru rebelled in the second year of the Apocalypse, and the rebels were once huge, gathering from all directions, gathering tens of thousands, attacking important towns, cutting off luck, invincible, and shaking the world for a while. But then they lost one after another in the ensuing battles, fully exposing the true nature of these people as a rabble, often using the fact that tens of thousands of sectarians were crushed by hundreds of officers and soldiers. In the end, Xu Hongru was defeated and killed, Wang Haoxian fled south to Yangzhou and was killed, and the Wenxiang Sect suffered a heavy blow, and internal divisions also broke out, and they were forced to stop fighting for a while.

After the defeat of Xu Hongru's rebellion in the second year of the Apocalypse, the Wenxiang Sect has always been a major problem for the Ming Dynasty to focus on the crackdown, but the vitality of the Wenxiang Sect rooted in the local area is very tenacious, although the imperial court severely suppressed it, but the Wenxiang Sect has never stopped its activities, but it has been much more low-key.

In the Chongzhen period, the world's military disasters became more and more fierce, and the imperial court was no longer able to suppress the Wenxiang Sect, so the Wenxiang Sect, a rebellious professional household, revived. Especially in the three years of Chongzhen, the fourth year of Chongzhen, and the fifth year of Chongzhen, from Shandong to Henan to Shanxi and Shaanxi, the entire Central Plains has suffered a major drought for three consecutive years. There is no grass in the wild, and ten rooms are empty. Therefore, there are those who are worth five dollars of silver, there are those who cannot raise rice for a day of work, there are those who pick grass roots and leaves to satisfy their hunger, there are husbands who abandon their wives and mothers abandon their children, there are those who sell one child and do not have enough food, there are those who hang themselves in the forest and fill the ditches, there are those who starve to death on the side of the road, there are those who beg for quail clothes and vegetables, there are those who die by pillows, there are those who flee from mud doors, and there are those who eat flesh and blood. ”

In the summer of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the embankment of the Yellow River burst at Mengjin, and countless villages and towns turned into Zeguo, which further aggravated the suffering of the people in the Central Plains.

In spite of such a tragic natural disaster and the loss of crops, the excesses and miscellaneous taxes of the court officials and the usury of the landlords and gentry could not be reduced in the slightest, and they continued to weigh heavily on the shoulders of the common people, and there was even a tendency to get worse...... In the vast fertile soil of the Central Plains, thousands of villages and households have no cooking smoke, the dead trees that have been stripped of their bark are full of peasant women who have hanged themselves to commit suicide, and even the dead bodies can be seen everywhere on the roadside where even the weeds have died.

Such a tragic and desperate situation made the people desperate for any most illusory salvation, so the followers of the Wenxiang Sect once again snowballed, almost comparable to when Xu Hongru raised his army ten years ago. Recently, a certain secret force generously donated money to fund a large amount of ordnance and food for the Wenxiang Sect - so Wang Ke, the new leader of the Wenxiang Sect, decisively ordered the sect to launch the sect again in Shandong and rebelled!

At this moment, hundreds of altar owners, incense stickers, and scripture preachers are walking back and forth among the ignorant hungry people, preaching and encouraging them:

“…… The apocalypse is coming! In the past three years, Henan has been thousands of miles of red land, and the crops have not been harvested. The east side of Shandong is close to the sea, and it is a little better to get the care of the Dragon King, and the drought in these provinces in the west of us is as heavy as Henan next door! But God's drought is not the most terrible, the terrible thing is that the imperial court not only did not provide relief, but there were only endless harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes everywhere in the world. The officials and servants are desperately urging, and they kill people at every turn, which is really a hardship for the people! ”

“…… In such an apocalypse, the people of the world are so miserable that they can't survive, and we in Shandong are just as miserable! The crops have been harvested for several years, and the court's harsh taxes are still unabated! Those rich landlords don't pay taxes, but they squeeze us poor people to death! ”

“…… The total tax and rent that each household has to pay is several times more than all the crops produced in the field, and farming is tantamount to suicide! I want to sell the land but I can't sell it! The few acres of land that the ancestors of the small people had saved for generations were pressed by the black-hearted gentry to the price of five taels of silver for a hundred acres of land! And that's still good land! No one wants the next little field, and they don't dare to plant it, because after planting crops, they have to pay ten buckets of grain for one bucket of grain! This earth-heavy tax, salary, and salary will all come out of our small people's fields, forcing everyone to abandon the fields! ”

“…… Those officials who collect taxes and collect grain come to the village, not to mention the serious official taxes, just their benefit fees, they will cost dozens of dollars at a time, the poor people have no money in their pockets, and the fields cannot be sold at a price, no one cares, they can only sell their children first and then pawn the fields, those big people who buy land are black-hearted, and they can only get 100 wen per mu of land in disaster years, this little money is not enough for officials to buy wine and food, if they come more than a dozen times a year, everyone has to be forced to die! In order not to go to prison and wear a flail into the station cage, we poor people can only borrow usury, but where is this usury to borrow casually? It's like going to jail at home! I don't care about the meal yet! ”

“…… As far as the eye can see, all counties are ten rooms and nine empty, and there is no smoke and fire in the morning and evening. Even if you tighten your belt and hand over all the salaries and grains, what can you do? All day long is eaten leaves and grass roots, it is already a blessing to be able to put some rice bran bran in it, but there is no clothing to wear, there is no food to eat, all the money and food have been scraped clean by the officials, and then this is not counted, the local officials and powerful people will take the opportunity to encroach on your fields, take away your children and mothers-in-law, and blast you out of the shack, so that you have nothing left! Either starved to death on the side of the road, or was beaten to death under the sticks of large families! ”

“…… We are all poor people who can't survive under the pressure of the government, and we just want to gather together and ask for a way to live! As long as you burn incense and believe in faith, worship Maitreya Buddha, the lifeless old mother, listen to the words of the sect, and break the way of this world, everyone can be saved, and you can enter the land of bliss when you die, and you don't have to be tortured by such suffering anymore! It's not that we want to be thieves, it's that this apocalyptic catastrophe forces us to pick up swords and guns and fight for our lives! ”

Although the eloquence of these "scripture transmitters" can only be said to be average, those hungry people with vegetables and thin bodies can still all listen to them, some people are full of anger, gritting their teeth, and some people are so emotional that they can't help but have tears in their eyes and can't help wiping the corners of their eyes.

There is no way, this is the case in Shandong now, the continuous floods and droughts, the taxes and servitude of the imperial court, have long made Shandong full of desperate people, and even the small landlords can no longer survive - they have to sell their children for a few mouthfuls of coarse grain to satisfy hunger; In order to pay the land rent and taxes that will never be paid, they lost all their qiē, and even the bodies of their relatives buried in the ground were dug up and eaten by the even more hungry homeless people...... Originally, they were just wandering like walking corpses, living for a day if they could, and dying wherever they could if they couldn't live, but Fang Cai's speech was like a long needle piercing into their hearts, reminding these numb people of their grief in the past.

Oh, yes! Thinking about the endless taxes and miscellaneous taxes, thinking about the fields that have no harvest for several years, and thinking about the family members who are constantly starving to death and dying, many people suddenly find that from the time they were born to the present, they seem to have never lived any comfortable and peaceful days, and they are tormenting every day every month of the year, thinking about how to live, but they still can't live! On the one hand, it does not rain in God, and on the other hand, there are the salaries and salaries sent down by the imperial court to cramp and peel the skins, and the scourge of such ramps and extortion is even more than that of the drought and locust plague, which not only makes people starve to death, but also makes people sell their sons and daughters and sell their land, and carry usury that has not been clean for several lifetimes -- what is this dark and unscrupulous world? What is not the Great Tribulation?

Therefore, listening to the gods and men who preached the scriptures talk about the end of the Dharma era, what catastrophe is coming, not to mention that those who originally believed in religion were fascinated by the listen, and the newcomers on the way were also very convinced, this day is coming to an end, about to reach a desperate situation, what catastrophe is coming, this time and again drought, locust plagues, government taxes, and gentry rent collection, isn't it a catastrophe? This is the end times! In such a situation, in such a year, who can still live? Who cares about peace? Who cares about the royal law? It's not bad to think about rebellion, and you don't have to pay anything when you mess up! Anyway, there is nothing in this world that makes them nostalgic, so just fight hard before these dozens of catties of meat rot and pull more people down to the funeral!

Taking advantage of the high sentiment of the people, those gods and goddesses began to send talisman water and sprinkle incense ashes everywhere, saying that it could make people not sick, and they were still shouting:

“…… The catastrophe is coming, the immortal kingdom on earth will come to the world, whoever contributes to doing things, who forgets to die, will be able to enter the land of bliss, and will be blessed by the gods and Buddhas......"

“…… The city of Jining in front of us has a fraction of the grain in the whole world, and if the city is broken, we can eat enough every year......

“…… opened Jining City, everyone eats enough, eats meat every day, and there are beautiful mothers-in-law sleeping ......"

If you say this in peacetime, I'm afraid there won't be too many people who will join in, but at this time, everyone has become a desperate person who seems to be drowning and dying, even if there is a straw thrown down, they have to throw it down and grab it, not to mention that this smelling incense sect does allocate food to help everyone, as long as you join the church and burn incense, you can eat a little bit every day, don't think about being full, barely starving to death, but this is a way to live. In contrast, neither the government nor the gentry had a single grain to come up with—at this time, who did the hungry people believe in if they didn't believe in the incense religion?

Well? Probably die? They don't care anymore, the endless suffering has long since dried their tears. What if you die? This bitter day has finally come to an end, and we can finally get out of the sea of misery -- when a person is not even afraid of death, there is nothing to care about.

So, under the encouragement and urging of the Smelling Fragrance Sect, thousands of homeless people shouted in a frenzy:

“…… Maitreya descended into the world, the Kingdom of God in the West! ”

“…… Vacuum hometown, no biological mother! ”

“…… Jining City was opened! There is no end to food! ”

-- No matter how docile the people are in ordinary times, they will become hideous and terrifying when they are in a desperate situation, and one or two poor men will naturally not be able to do much of it, but if they gather tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even more people, it will be a vast force like the collapse of the heavens and the earth!

Looking at the excited appearance of these disaster victims and displaced people who were in tattered clothes, the hardcore members of the Wenxiang Sect and the big and small leaders hurriedly struck while the iron was hot, picked out the young and strong among them, and each of them was given half a coarse grain cake and a bamboo gun, ready for them to take the lead in attacking the city. Others were given sacks full of dirt and prepared to fill the moat with the defenders' arrows and rolling stones......

As the descendant of the Wenxiang Sect, thousands of "Fengjiao Warriors" with bright clothes and armor supervised the battle behind the cannon fodder. And what made the defenders of the city even more frightened was that there were actually a few heavy cannons, which were slowly pushed over by the thieves of the Smelling Fragrance Sect - where did the demon thieves get such militaristic weapons?!

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Under the thatched roof of a tea shed more than two miles away from Jining City, the sect leader Wang Ke and the dignitaries of the Wenxiang Sect sat opposite each other, watching from a distance the hundreds of thousands of displaced people under the command of the sect members, squirming in the dark, ready to gnaw Jining City with their lives and flesh.

Faced with such a big scene, Wang Ke was complacent for a while: "...... Ladies and gentlemen, now the situation is very good, the people everywhere are suffering deeply, they are waiting for the Sect to come forward to take them out of the sea of suffering, and the government is already in a hurry, and it is difficult to take care of the beginning and the end. ”

Although the sect leader looked full of confidence, several sect elders seemed to be a little lacking in confidence, and they exchanged a few glances with each other, and finally one of the elders with the highest rank stood up and spoke, "...... Sect Leader Qiqi, with all due respect to his subordinates, although our army is responding to every call and making great momentum at the moment, after all, it has not really fought any tough battles. And those guys who sent us money, food, and weapons before are probably not well-intentioned......"

“…… Hehe, I know all this, they don't expect us to succeed at all, they just want this sect to make trouble on the ground in Shandong, and add a little blockage to their opponents in the court! But...... So what? ”

Wang Ke snorted coldly and explained calmly, "...... In recent years, the Ming Dynasty has been harsh on taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and it has been a heavy drought for many years, and now it is the mouth of the Yellow River. Hundreds of people are suffering, in order to seek liberation, are all burning incense and devout in their own religion, as long as they let it go, there will be thousands of poor people immediately respond, not to mention sweeping the world, at least sweeping the Central Plains is no problem.

Those big officials in the court treat us as pawns, why don't we treat them as monkeys? No matter what plan they had in mind, the ordnance and food they sent were real! And the news that Jining City has a lot of food and weak garrisons is also true! As long as we break the canal hub of Jining City, we will have countless gold and silver treasures and at least millions of stone of grain in our hands. With so much food, we can light a fire on the ground of the Central Plains, so that those ordinary people who can't survive can move and lay a big territory! Instead of huddled in one place and waiting for death like Xu Hongru ten years ago! At that time, those court officials who pretend to be smart, even if they have thousands of schemes and conspiracies, what can they do to me? ”

After explaining like this, looking at the few sect elders who had experienced the fiasco of Xu Hongru's rebellion, they still looked like they were not confident, Wang Ke could only sigh and shake his head, and gave an order...... Let the artillery fire a few times first, and then all the drums will beat the siege! ”

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In July of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the Wenxiang Sect once again rebelled in Shandong, gathered hundreds of thousands of hungry people to cut off the canal, besieged Jining, and the world was shaken. After six days of fierce fighting, Jining fell. The thieves plundered the city, seizing grain, grass, baggage, gold and silver. Immediately, the sect leader Wang Keqin led a large army south along the canal, claiming to be 500,000 people, and went straight to Xuzhou. He also sent a detachment into Henan, and wantonly coerced the hungry people in Henan along the way to make trouble.

The terrain in the eastern part of Henan is gentle, and there is a lack of geographical conditions for forming villages, and the victims gathered on the plains are easy to be killed by the Ming army. However, when the Ming army was unable to attack, the ensuing backlash of the victims was also very strong. When the Henan officials and soldiers were transferred to Beijing by the order of King Qin, the "bandit situation" in the province deteriorated rapidly -- at this time, Henan was already full of displaced people, and there were desperate and crazy people everywhere, and as soon as the Wenxiang Sect bandits entered the province and incited, in an instant all counties were full of bandits, Kaifeng and Guide were in a state of emergency, and the situation in the whole province was almost irredeemable.

At the same time, several streams of Liukou in the northwest also crossed the river to the east, and entered Henan through Shanxi......