Chapter 8, twenty-seven moments of Chongzhen's four years

e: If the ancient text part of the previous chapter has been corrected in Bhg, thank you for the reminder and attention of enthusiastic readers.

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The eighth moment: the lurking tentacles

In December of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Lunan Plain

The goose-feather-like snow falls in the north, the rivers, lakes and ponds are all frozen, and the sky and the earth are silvery white. Once again, the terrible wind and snow swept across the land, which was already becoming increasingly desolate due to frequent natural disasters, and also swept away the toiling people who were struggling to survive.

On the snowy desolate wilderness, countless scattered processions of large and small are marching, many of them supporting the old and the young, and the corpses of those who have froze and starved to death are poured along the way, and the snowflakes and ice cubes have been piled up on them, turning into white graves. But the people who walked did not pay attention to them, and occasionally some relatives and friends cried a little, and they had to get up and continue to walk.

-- While the Tunpu Farm in Dengzhou Town was thriving, and the military peasants who had finished a year's hard work were roasting in their warm houses while calculating how many years of goods they should go to the store department (supply and marketing cooperative) to buy, most other places in Shandong Province were full of miserable scenes of mourning and misery: the natural disasters and water conservancy projects that had fallen into disrepair during the Xiaoice River period had caused the yield of crops to fall to a tragic point, and the fierce landlords and officials were as fierce as tigers. They also took away all the little grain harvest they had, leaving no way for the peasants to survive.

In fact, the "Liao salary" apportioned by the Ming court for the war in Liaodong is actually not much if it is calculated only in terms of numbers, but under the layers of corrupt officials at all levels, it has swelled to the point that the peasants can not bear it -- the grain to be levied in the end is actually more than the entire output in the fields, and when the New Year's bell is about to ring, those peasant households with empty houses and empty stomachs, in order to see the sun of the new year instead of starving at home, can only say goodbye to their homes with tears one after another. Braved the cold wind and embarked on a long road of escape with a predictable future.

In the cold, these hungry people who fled the famine in a daze, staggered along the road with no end in sight, leaving corpses along the way, and they wandered aimlessly towards the county seat, the prefecture city, or the city of a qiē place - even the most ignorant victims vaguely knew that only in the city could they have a glimmer of life. Otherwise, if they don't starve to death, they will be frozen to death, and if the local cities can't accommodate them, they will have to leave their hometowns and flee to those more distant states and counties to try their luck, and countless refugees who are driven by hunger and cold and forced to survive are slowly wriggling on the big 6 in Lunan, and people die every day, and people join every day, and everywhere they go, it is like locusts crossing the border, and every qiē is eaten up - from the bark and grass roots to the corpses of animals and even people, none of them are spared.

The big rural households in those villages and towns along the way have fled after hearing the alarm -- they have either entered the relatively strong prefecture and provincial capital, or fled to the more distant and more stable Jiangnan, since the various parts of Lunan indirectly made a bunch of civil unrest such as "White Lotus Sect" and "Wenxiang Sect" in the year of Chongzhen, this place has become very dangerous, and many people with assets have fled to the provincial capital or Jiangnan to "flee".

In other villages and towns, villagers have built walls and practiced village bravery...... Those who used to hold the handle of the hoe now hold the whistle stick and the wooden gun tightly, vigilantly watching the refugees passing by the villages and towns - the hungry and red-eyed victims generally have the consciousness of "eat enough and die", and the little food accumulated in the villages and towns is not enough for their own families to eat.

Those landlords and tyrants who did not go to other places to "escape" also took their own families and long-term workers, armed with bows and arrows and big knives, and stood on the wall. The body that was originally dressed in silk and satin is now wrapped in cotton armor that was made in a hurry. On the one hand, it is necessary to supervise the village to not slack off, and on the other hand, it is also necessary to strive to show that he is "the first soldier" - after all, he is the person with the most wealth in this village. Once the stockade is broken, those poor people who have been exploited to the point of having nothing to do may not have a big loss, at most they will follow the displaced people to escape the famine. But when these landlords and tyrants don't have family property, and even their wives and children and lives may not be able to save this kind of life and death, where can they tolerate you to be a soft egg?

In the howling wind and snow, what you Xiangyong saw in your eyes was the black and oppressive homeless people outside, but what came to mind was all kinds of terrifying news that came a few days ago: which village and which village was eaten by the refugees, who and whose belongings were robbed, and whose whole family was killed by the refugees -- the richest landlord in the village, a big fat man over fifty years old, turned his head around, looked at the villagers around him one by one shrunk his neck and frowned, so he had to grit his teeth and stomp his feet and roared: "...... Show me a tight night to eat, pork and white flour boxes to eat as you like"

After a moment of silence, there was a chaotic roar of "Thank you" on the wall.

Then, under such a generous reward, all the townspeople also had a little spirit, as if singing, and roared one by one:

“…… Everyone's knives and guns are tight."

“…… Hold it tight."

“…… The stockade is well guarded."

“…… Keep it secure."

Scenes like this are repeated several times a day in many villages in Lunan. On weekdays, don't say that they are eaten by long-term workers and farmers, even the white noodles and pork that the big landlords themselves are reluctant to eat, and they have to spare their blood and take them out as a reward to buy people's hearts.

However, these big landlords, while feeling distressed, fearful and worried, secretly have a little joy. As the displaced people swept all the way, many fertile fields were becoming borderlands. For some ambitious people, it is a good opportunity to expand the industry - as for the peasants who cultivate the land, they will not die, and when the wind and snow have passed, those who have not starved to death will always return to live for the old man in the spring of the following year.

Of course, the premise is that these big landlords can survive this hurdle, and they have not been "eaten by the refugees" before this, and they died in the riots.

-- At this desperate moment when honest peasants have turned into man-eating monsters, whether it is a prefecture or a prefecture, or a prefecture, those officials and men who usually flaunt their might and power are usually reluctant to go to the actions involving refugees, thus causing trouble for themselves: as long as the refugees do not rebel and do not besiege the county seat, even if they eat a few large landlords in the countryside and slaughter a few villages, it is not a big deal. Unless the bitter lord has an extraordinary background, the government will only make them consider themselves unlucky. Those big families who stayed in the countryside, if they want to keep their lives and property, they have to go out and lead the team by themselves.

However, even if every big family in the countryside understands this truth, every year when the displaced people cross the border, there will always be many villages that are breached -- some of them are small and strong, and they are really unable to withstand the siege of a large number of hungry people, and some of them are the landlords and local tyrants who are stingy with their wealth and goods, and they are too exploited, so that the villagers who defend the villages are brave enough to fight against the water...... When the hungry people swept away the fish, meat, rice, flour, gold and silver in the village, leaving a piece of ruins and left, the surrounding landlords would pounce on them like vultures, happily dividing up the fields under the name of the original owner of the village, so that a household of gentry disappeared forever.

In the desperate Central Plains at the end of the Ming Dynasty, such scenes continued year after year, and landlords, tenants, and yeoman farmers could only struggle between life and death, constantly tormenting in this purgatory, and at the same time infinitely greedily devouring each other's corpses to win a little temporary satisfaction...... It seems that the heaven and earth have turned into a huge Gu cultivation barrel, and no one knows what will come out of the barrel in the end......

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The junction of Sulu, Haizhou City

Although the vast Central Plains Shenzhou from Shaanxi and Gansu to Qilu has been exploited by the conscientious officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty at this time, and thousands of villages and households have no cooking smoke, but thanks to the cornucopia of Huaibei Salt Farm close at hand, the life of the people of Haizhou seems to be barely passable.

Therefore, Haizhou City in Layue this year has not closed the city gates and forbade refugees from the north to enter the city, but just in case, the city has also set up a practice of Yong, organizing Ding Zhuang in Guanxiang and nearby villages, ready to "suppress" the hungry people at any time. At the gate of the city, there are a few heads for killing a hundred people - always bloody fresh goods, and there are a few hastily built sheds outside the city, boiling a pot of "gruel" with a clear bottom and a musty smell. It is such a gruel, not every refugee gathered in the vicinity can eat it, and there is a fixed number of "chips" given to the hungry people by the officials every day, and the hungry people who can't take their turn can only starve, and they will starve to death and pull down if they can't take their turn.

However, with the gathering of hungry people, another flourishing trade also emerged near the porridge shacks. People from Xuzhou, Yangzhou and even farther south of the Yangtze River hid in sedan chairs and mule carts, carefully calculating how much "prey" they could get and how much benefit they would give to their local counterparts. Others wander through the crowds, looking for someone to buy. Boys and girls are the first targets, followed by young women with good looks. In this way, the people with straw sticks were loaded onto mule carts, and then truckloads were carried to the canal banks to be loaded on boats, and transported along the Grand Canal to various places for sale.

In this deformed and prosperous human trade, even some forces from the most marginal areas of the Ming Empire quietly participated.

-- In the midst of the bustling noise, in view of the sharp deterioration of the situation in southern Lunan not long ago, Zhang Yingchen, who had just retreated from Yizhou in Shandong Province to Haizhou, passed through the Senate and went north to pass through the Senate, and Zhang Yingchen, who called himself "Thief Quanzi," was wearing a Taoist uniform, wrapped in a cotton robe and a dogskin jacket, riding a small donkey, followed by two young Taoist boys who had just been collected, and walked through the crowd gathered near the city gate of Haizhou. From time to time, he greets the people around him - in recent days, he has been practicing medicine here in Haizhou, and has already earned the reputation of "living immortals". Not only the refugees, but also the officials and villagers who maintained order around the porridge field also received medical treatment from him, and even if they did not respect him like a god, at least they were polite.

“…… Dao Chief, I have already let the child take the medicine you gave last time, and sure enough, the diarrhea has stopped, you are really a living immortal--" A smiling official blocked his way, still holding a child in his hand, "...... Please see if there are any other problems......"

“…… Oh? Since the diarrhea has stopped, his life is no longer in the way. Zhang Yingchen said with a graceful smile, "...... Poor Dao has something to do now, come back and show your children. You give him this packet of medicine first, it has some nourishing benefits......"

In the gratitude of this servant, Zhang Yingchen walked over with charity, and he was almost overwhelmed with such things along the way, even if it was the classic history that came to the porridge field from time to time to inspect and the township leader of the county, he often had to be polite when he saw Zhang Yingchen.

-- As a matter of fact, when Zhang Yingchen first came to Haizhou City, the officials and gentry here were originally very wary of him -- In ancient Chinese society, whenever a natural disaster occurred, it was often a great opportunity for cults of all stripes to carry out propaganda and fool the followers.

According to the experience accumulated by the Chinese feudal ruling class over thousands of years of history. Those monks, Taoists, and gods who appeared after the catastrophe were for the purpose of practicing medicine, so almost seven or eight out of ten had an attempt to "plot against the law", and in Shandong and Huaibei in recent years, it was indeed the White Lotus Sect and the Wenxiang Sect that were rampant, and all kinds of "religious chaos" of all sizes continued, so that the government's vigilance has not been relaxed.

-- There are many kinds of sects on the ground in Shandong, including the Wenxiang Sect and the Luo Sect, and the various tribes and sects are even more numerous. The Smelling Fragrance Sect is very famous and powerful. Xu Hongru, the leader of the White Lotus Sect, is the apprentice of Wang Sen, the leader of the Wenxiang Sect in Jizhou, Hebei. The White Lotus Sect has been operating in Shandong for more than 20 years, with more than 2 million disciples. It is intertwined and powerful. After the failure of the rebellion in the second year of the Apocalypse, the White Lotus Sect suffered a heavy blow in Shandong. However, the strength of the remnants of the party still exists, and they continue to lurk their activities, Chongzhen besieged Laiyang in the second year, and in the same year, Zhu Bingnan, the remnants of the White Lotus party, also attacked the official government in Suizhou, Henan. As for Luojiao, it is even more native: the patriarch is Luo Qing, a native of Shandong, who has strong strength in Caoyun soldiers, and there are many of its tribes.

For these Shandong rebels, Haizhou, which is rich in salt farms, is located next door to Shandong, and is naturally a big piece of fat meat that they covet in their eyes. In the past month, there have been several so-called "Taoist priests" or "monks," as well as so-called "Shenhan witches" and other figures who have no religious attire, which have attracted the attention of the local government in Haizhou because of their strange behavior, and soon disappeared completely under the blows of the government and the gentry -- you must know that the Ming government in this time and space has no concept of human rights at all, and it is the common practice of local governments to arrest and torture suspicious characters before saying that. What's more, these are extraordinary times, and many people have been beheaded or tortured to death in the yamen just because their words and deeds are suspicious, and some unlucky people have died in dark prisons and in cages at the entrance of the yamen.

The reason why Zhang Yingchen, a Taoist priest who travels through the city, was able to avoid the above-mentioned doom in the severe storm of Haizhou City, firstly, was due to the formal medical school degree and rich medical experience in the 21st century. Second, with the help of the Crossing Group, he has an official Taoist priesthood, plus a name post from a gentleman's house that he had previously gotten from a gentleman - these two things play a big role in keeping him safe. And he is always very careful when treating diseases and practicing medicine, generally only saying things like doing good deeds and accumulating virtues, and never engaging in any "subversive ** instigation...... So after a long time, the government and the gentry gradually became relieved of him.

Then, Zhang Yingchen wandered around the "human market" outside the city gate all day these days, constantly buying "cute boys", which invisibly also provided him with a good cover - so that many people with dirty minds suddenly realized that this sanctimonious "spring thief" was actually the same as those nunnery that were actually "role-playing brothels" in the late Ming Dynasty, but he was just a human trafficker dressed in the skin of a traveling Taoist priest, but he was really willing to cure the disease and save people, and it seemed that he still had a little compassion and conscience... In such a chaotic era of moral decay, it is already really rare.

-- As a traverser who seemed to have been born to change the world, the reason why Zhang Yingchen was so low-key in Yizhou and Haizhou was because the work assigned to him by the Senate was not to engage in a cult in Shandong to incite any kind of popular rebellion and "religious rebellion," and even collecting the population was just a dispensable side task. His real goal in this trip north has always been only one, and that is to collect intelligence.

First of all, one of the main purposes of Zhang Yingchen's in-depth study of the north is to investigate the activities and incitement ability of the local White Lotus Sect, Luo Sect, Wenxiang Sect and other organizations, and now it seems that these traditional ** organizations of the Ming Dynasty do have some activities, but although the local government has no intention or ability to provide disaster relief, it is very concerned about this - after all, it has been less than ten years since the White Lotus Rebellion that swept Shandong during the Apocalypse, and the vitality of the sect organization has not yet recovered, and the local vigilance is still there. It is not so easy to use religious means to stir up the people.

In general, it is estimated that Shandong will not be in chaos until the Houjin army breaks through and penetrates into Shandong, or the Shanxi peasant army crosses the Central Plains to fight.

Secondly, it is natural to investigate Dengzhou Town, at the tip of the Shandong Peninsula, this local group with obvious traces of traversers, how much strength it has in Shandong, how many traversers there are within the group, how much loyalty there is to the Ming Dynasty, and what is the attitude towards its own forces, so that the Senate can have more factual basis when formulating the next response strategy -- this is the real core of Zhang Yingchen's work in the north, and he used to carry out intelligence gathering work in the Linyi area further north. However, as the situation in southern Lunan deteriorated day by day, if Zhang Yingchen continued to stay in Yizhou, he might be in danger of being besieged by displaced people and burning jade, so he retreated south to the relatively safe city of Haizhou.

Then, Zhang Yingchen, who stayed at the Haizhou Intelligence Station for leisure, was attracted by the increasingly prosperous people outside the Haizhou City Gate, and continued to buy teenagers and girls for several days, preparing to transport them back to Hainan Island by guò contact ship, which was more or less a supplement for the long-term extremely thirsty for labor, and it was also conducive to the diversification of the population under the rule of the Senate...... It's a pity that the funds at hand are really limited, for example, today he met a few teenagers near the city gate who were selling themselves, handsome and handsome, which made Zhang Yingchen quite excited at a glance, but he had already collected more than ten people at this time, and it cost a lot to eat and drink every day, and the price of food in Haizhou was still rising, so he really didn't dare to accommodate more boys.

“…… Alas, when will the owner of the deer farm send the money, otherwise the best population resources will be taken away by this group of people. Zhang Yingchen sighed lowly, thinking so secretly in his heart, and rode back to a Taoist temple in Chengguanxiang.

This place is said to be a Taoist temple, but in fact there are no serious Taoist priests, only a fire dwelling Taoist (who can't help marrying and giving birth) lives and barely makes a living. Zhang Yingchen only spent a few small bucks and rented a house in the Taoist temple as his temporary activity base in Haizhou City. As for the real Haizhou intelligence station under the establishment of the Senate, it is set up outside Haizhou City - on the Huaguo Mountain where the monkey of Sun Wukong and Sun Wukong hatched in "Journey to the West".

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Huaguo Mountain (formerly known as Yuntai Mountain or Cangwu Mountain) in Haizhou (later Lianyungang) had not yet become connected to the six places in the west due to sediment accumulation and the expansion of the coastline as in modern times, but was still an island standing in the sea as described in "Journey to the West", separated from Haizhou by a vast ocean. The terrain on the island is rugged, with many mountains and little flat land, and even if there is only a little flat land, most of it is mainly saline-alkali land and sandy land, which cannot be cultivated. So apart from a few fishermen and one or two extremely dilapidated Taoist temples, there are hardly any people. Although because of the wide spread of "Journey to the West", this once unknown Huaguo Mountain has become somewhat well-known in the society at this time, but the tourism industry in the Ming Dynasty cannot be compared with modern times after all, and the chaotic times at the end of the Ming Dynasty are even more unsuitable for sightseeing, so Huaguo Mountain in the Chongzhen period is still desolate.

However, for the Lingao Senate on Hainan Island, which uses the fleet as a mobile force, this island is an excellent base for advancement, and at first it is relatively remote and unnoticeable. Second, in wartime, as long as a small number of naval ships are cooperated with and a small number of troops are used as a basis, the security of the entire island can be ensured. The island's towering cliffs can be set up to guard posts, and although the island itself is not abundant, the most critical fresh water for the navy is quite abundant - Huaguo Mountain is full of gurgling streams and springs, and the "water curtain cave" described in "Journey to the West" is not made up.

Therefore, Lu Wenyuan, who was ordered to set up an intelligence station in the north, bought a manor on the island of Huaguo Mountain, called "Monkey King Village", as the tentacles of the Senate to advance into the north -- in the early stage, it was mainly to collect intelligence in the Sulu region, sell goods on a small scale, and open up contacts. When the time is ripe, it can be transformed into a relay station for the Senate to move the Northern Big 6 Raiders, similar to Hong Kong Island and Zhoushan during the Opium War.

However, although the manor on Huaguo Mountain is safe and hidden, easy to defend and difficult to attack, after all, it is still a certain distance away from Haizhou City, and it is difficult to understand the first-hand dynamic information more effectively. Therefore, after Zhang Yingchen withdrew from Yizhou, he stayed in the Monkey King Village in Huaguo Mountain for a few days, feeling really idle, and came to Haizhou City to find a temporary residence...... In order to be diligent and thrifty, the Taoist temple where he settled looked dilapidated, and the first dilapidated house he entered used to be inhabited by beggars, and now it is crowded with teenagers and girls that Zhang Yingchen recently purchased, all of them were so hungry that they lost their shape. Zhang Yingchen entered from the mezzanine, and when he got to the back, he saw that the Huoju Taoist and his wife were chopping wood, so he said hello to the landlord and went to the small courtyard where he lived.

At the gate of the courtyard, a Taoist boy immediately came to greet him when he heard the sound, but to Zhang Yingchen's surprise, he also saw the figure of the owner of Lu Wenyuan in the house.

“…… Rare guest, rare guest, deer owner, you are not the monkey king of Huaguo Mountain, playing with your Shandong girls, why do you have the leisure to run to this broken Taoist view of the poor road? Zhang Yingchen hurriedly beckoned Dao Tong to pour tea for the guests, but he didn't forget to hurt him two sentences.

“…… What's up? Naturally, it is a disaster to break the fortune In order to more and more displaced people at present, the Lord of Futai convened a meeting of the local gentry, first crying poverty as usual, and then ordering everyone to donate enthusiastically, even I, a foreigner on the island, was forced to apportioned fifty taels of silver."

The owner of the deer farm took the tea bowl and said angrily, "...... Just now I went to the soup kitchen, and I saw that the porridge pot was so rare that it could show the figure of a person, and it was mixed with I don't know how many mud and grass leaves, and the rice and wheat put in it were also a musty smell...... Tsk, the fifty taels of silver I donated to the yamen, if five taels of silver can be used for relief of the victims, it should be thankful, this is not counting the relief silver they got from the imperial court."

-- From ancient times to the present, it has become an open secret that relief after natural disasters will eventually become a feast for those in power at the grassroots level, and even the emperor has no choice but to do anything about it. An important difference between the so-called prosperous times and the last days is that in the heyday, even if the disaster relief materials have been withheld at various levels, the victims can still get some in the end. In the last days, it became a bureaucracy that completely swallowed up a number of appropriations and materials, squeezed the common people to the point that they could not survive, and finally provoked a popular uprising and let the emperor hang himself.

“…… This is the decline of administrative ability," Zhang Yingchen commented, "...... When a feudal dynasty was in its prime, the institution could generally maintain normal operation, and the official performance had not yet affected the administrative execution ability. But in the later period of the dynasty, as the government became stricter and stricter, the executive capacity of the administrative system also declined. At the end of the period, the whole country will enter a state of anarchy, not to mention the victims, and even the army will have to live by robbing homes and houses, even if the enemy soldiers are besieging the city and the blades are up to the neck, the civil officials still do not forget to embezzle and deduct ......"

-- Anyone who has read Li Zicheng's story probably knows the cruel story of the "Fulu Banquet" at the end of the Ming Dynasty: At that time, Li Zicheng gathered a peasant army to besiege Luoyang in an attempt to seize the countless gold, silver, grain, and rice hoarded by the Fuwang Mansion in Luoyang City. Although the walls and fortresses of Luoyang are very strong, the defenders have already owed half a year's military salary before the war, and they naturally complained about the Luoyang government and the blessed king Zhu Changxun behind them, and said angrily: "The Luoyang palace is rich in the palace, and the gods spend the world's wealth to fat the king, but let us go to war on an empty stomach and kill the thief, how unfair" The military heart was extremely unstable for a while.

In the face of such a situation, just as the Ming Dynasty ministers wanted the emperor to allocate internal funds as soon as they encountered a shortage of money, Luoyang Wenwu was also a dime a dime, and hoped that King Fu would be loyal to the monarch and patriotic and generous - first the prefect of Luoyang and the general army went to King Fu's Mansion to solicit donations, and after failing to do so, they invited Lu Weiqi, the former military secretary who lived in seclusion in Luoyang at that time, to enter the Fu Wang's Mansion many times and persuade Zhu Changxun to open the treasury to help the hungry people and reward the soldiers. It's a pity that it is said that King Fu was greedy for money at that time and did not listen to it at all. In the end, the defenders of the guide zhì were resentful and hated, and after only one day of fighting, they mutinied and surrendered to Li Zicheng, and Luoyang fell.

After Li Zicheng broke through Luoyang, he caught King Fu who failed to escape, and ordered his subordinates to tie up this 300-pound fat prince, strip it and wash it, and get a few sika deer from the garden of King Fu's mansion to slaughter, and throw them into a big ding with King Fu to cook into minced meat, called "Fu Lu Banquet", for the soldiers to share -- from then on, King Fu Zhu Changxun became the laughing stock of the literati, as if the fall of Luoyang was his sin.

But the actual situation at that time was not the case, on the eve of the outbreak of the battle of Luoyang, although King Fu was indeed unwilling to pay at first, but under the repeated persuasion of Lu Weiqi, the former secretary of the military department, he finally donated 30,000 taels of silver. Coupled with the donations of other gentry in Luoyang City, he finally got 50,000 taels of silver and 1,000 stones of grain and rice. When this batch of money and grain was delivered, the officers and soldiers defending the city in Luoyang immediately thundered with joy and their morale was greatly boosted.

But the problem is that even when such soldiers were in danger and fierce, Luoyang Wenwu still did not forget to run out of money and food, and even deducted it more fiercely than usual - as soon as 50,000 taels of silver arrived, Wang Yinchang, the Luoyang Sub-Inspector, left 10,000 taels, Wang Shaoyu's general soldiers also deducted 10,000 taels, Luoyang Prefect Feng swallowed 8,000 taels, and Luoyang Tuguan Wei took 3,000 taels...... After a lot of deductions, when it reached the hands of the more than 4,000 officers and soldiers defending the city, only 8,000 taels of silver were left in the accounts, and several petty officers conspired to swallow 5,000 taels, and in the end each officer and soldier was only given a few cents of silver

However, all the officers and soldiers already knew about the fact that the government had raised 50,000 taels of silver before, and they were all waiting for this unprecedented reward. At this time, even if it was already a critical juncture for the rogue soldiers to come to the city, the bosses were still treating themselves so harshly, so under the huge gap that fell together, everyone was naturally angry and full of resentment. Then, because of the uneven distribution of silver between the battalions, the defenders of all walks of life broke out infighting on the city wall for the silver, and even killed people with knives. Li Zicheng took the opportunity to wave his division and attack, and the defenders naturally surrendered and fled......

Perhaps, the reason why the blessed king Zhu Changxun refused to pay at the beginning was probably because he knew that with the deadly nature of these dumb officials in Luoyang, even if they gave them more silver taels, even if the knife had been put on their necks, they would only use it to fill their own pockets, and still refused to spend it on the war

However, the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen period were certainly full of countless masters of death, but the gentry and local tyrants below were actually very good at dying in various postures. For example, when the Liukou were rampant in Henan, there was a time when a certain county town was about to be besieged by the peasant army, and a certain gentry in the city knew the news in advance, and hoarded a lot of grain in the city, preparing to sit on the ground and raise the price after the siege began, and sell sky-high grain through guò to make a lot of money...... Unexpectedly, after the siege began, the grain store was sealed by an official document from the county order, and all his stored grain was transported to the yamen.

When the gentleman heard the news, he was so angry that when the peasant army was attacking the city and the county commander was forced to bring all the soldiers to the city to deal with the war, he brazenly mobilized his family to set fire to the county government in an attempt to regain the grain. But at that time, the defenders were already under the strong attack of the peasant army, and they were crumbling and crumbling...... As a result, less than an hour after the gentleman recaptured the grain from the yamen, the county fell into the hands of the peasant army, and his whole family was killed by the peasant army, and the grain was naturally laughed at by the leader of the rogue army......

It can be seen from this that in the face of such a group of courtiers and gentry who are keen on death from top to bottom, how tragic the situation of Emperor Chongzhen should be. Even if he wants to change this situation, the courtiers may not cooperate - don't think that those courtiers with no bottom line will only die, not kill the king

Generally speaking, the ruling class of the Ming Empire during the Chongzhen period, from the cabinet ministers to the rural gentry, were mostly first-class fanatics of the death movement, and they simply played such a thing as death with skills and tricks, until they reached the unbelievable and frenzied mortal realm -- otherwise, they would not have given such a tragic fate to a huge empire with rich resources and prosperous industry and commerce.

Of course, this is of course the misfortune of the Ming Dynasty and the catastrophe of the Chinese people, but it is also an opportunity in the eyes of careerists from all walks of life - unfortunately, in this time and space that has been worn into a sieve by people from all walks of life, it seems that there are too many competitors who are trying to compete for the legacy of the Ming Dynasty......

“…… Lao Lu, about the information on Dengzhou Town that I have collected sporadically in the past few months, I have preliminarily sorted it out in the past two days and have written a summary. The traversers who can probably determine their identities over there are only Chen Xin, the chief soldier of Dengzhou Town, for the time being, and Liu Minyou, his civil supervisor, and it is very likely that they have also traversed, as for whether there are other traversers in Dengzhou Town, it is really impossible to find out.

The sphere of influence of Dengzhou Town has now covered the tip of the Shandong Peninsula, and almost the entire Ninghai Prefecture has been run by Chen Xin as a private kingdom, and there are many scattered enclaves in Dengzhou and Qingzhou. In Wendeng County and Weihai, where Dengzhou Town is the most powerful, the local people only know that they belong to a certain tunbao in Dengzhou Town, and no longer pay attention to the yamen of any prefecture and county...... Although the standing strength of the Dengzhou Army should be no more than 10,000 even if you count the miscellaneous cards, the population of Dengzhou Town, which is completely controlled by the town, is estimated to have reached more than 150,000, and it continues to expand at a snowballing rate.

In terms of equipment and tactics, although the Dengzhou Army was far superior to most Ming troops in this era, the weapons used such as spears, muskets, and artillery, as well as the way in which they were used, were still not as good as the Spanish phalanx during the Thirty Years' War in Europe. It looks similar to the fire battalion that Huangshi trained on Changsheng Island in Liaodong, but the number of artillery seems to be more sufficient. In my opinion, the real strength of Dengzhou Town lies in its logistical mobilization system -- it is a system similar to that of the Red Army base during China's Agrarian Revolutionary War, which can squeeze out the war potential of a place to the greatest extent while ensuring the basic livelihood of the population at the bottom......

Zhang Yingchen chattered as he took out a few densely written white pieces of paper from a box and handed them to Lu Wenyuan, "...... This report, please let the liaison boat take it back to Hainan Island next time, anyway, I asked someone to tell you last time, let you bring some silver, have you forgotten that in the past two days, I have been at the gate of the city in the 'people's market, in the past two days, I have missed a lot of good seedlings because the money is not available......

“…… I've got some money with me, but I'm afraid you don't have time to buy any more people. It's better for you to hand over this report to the Lingao base camp yourself," Lu Wenyuan shook his head and didn't take the report paper handed over by Zhang Yingchen, "...... According to the urgent instructions of the Senate, all the veterans in the enemy-occupied area must withdraw to Lingao as much as possible, "The Lichun has secretly arrived in the sea near Huaguo Mountain, you hurry up and pack your luggage, while the city gate is not closed, we will try our best to rush back to Huaguo Mountain with these people you bought today, and then take the 'Lichun' early tomorrow morning and anchor southward"

“…… What the? Zhang Yingchen's eyes widened in disbelief, "...... Why did the Senate give such an order? ”

“…… Because, of course, there was something big going on in our rear—the Australians, the United States, and the diplomatic fleets of the East Coast countries were now crowded into Batavia, and the Dutch were scared half to death, and then they were soon to come together to visit the Senate to straighten out relations with their fellow travelers, and to negotiate with each other a plan of cooperation, or at least a way of peaceful coexistence, and the affairs of the North would have to be put aside for a while. ”

Lu Wenyuan sighed and said, "...... Huangshi's previous plan to go to Liaodong to fish for people has also been urgently stopped. "Lichun, this time the single ship went north, it is specially here to pick us up, otherwise it may not be able to catch up with the conference on the Lingao side...... So let's move a little faster. ”

“…… I actually don't have anything to clean up here, those worthless stupid things, just throw them to the landlord, just bring those people in the outer courtyard......" Zhang Yingchen first looked around the temporarily rented broken yard, and then said with a little hesitation, "...... But a Lichun ship carries such a dozen people, and your Zhuangzi doesn't seem to have any goods...... Wouldn't it be a little too wasteful? ”

“…… It doesn't matter, in recent days, some Jiaozhou homeless people have just floated to Huaguo Mountain in a few broken boats, one by one, cold and hungry, half-dead, after being rescued from the sea by the people in my Zhuangzi, those homeless people have expressed their willingness to sell themselves to take refuge, and now they have all shaved their heads and purified......"

Lu Wenyuan replied casually, "...... Add in a dozen or so people on your side, and you'll be able to get together a boat......"

“…… Jiaozhou? Zhang Yingchen frowned when he heard this, "...... I heard that there was just a battle over there, so these people shouldn't be fleeing rebels, right? ”

“…… Who knows? But even if it is, what does it matter? Aren't there still fewer bandits and pirates that we have recruited over the years? ”

Lu Wenyuan pursed his lips disapprenously, "...... Anyway, as long as you get people to Lingao, there is a way to make them obedient and obedient......"

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Outside Haizhou City, Huaguoshan "Monkey King Village" private port, Hainan Island Lingao Senate under the jurisdiction of steam-sail hybrid warship/armed merchant ship "Lichun"

In a dark cabin with a slight undulation of the waves, Li Meng, the salt lord who reported in the Ming Imperial Court Mansion as "bewitching traitors and causing trouble in Jiaozhou", finally woke up groggy, although he felt a few scars on his body, and there was still some faint pain, but his life was finally saved.

It's just a pity that those good brothers who died in battle, he sighed like this, and wanted to reach out to straighten his head, but he only touched his bare scalp.

“…… Brother Li, you're awake, come, drink a few more bites, I've brought your breakfast......"

A familiar voice sounded in his ears, Li Meng struggled to sit up from the straw pile, and saw that his iron buddy Zhao Neng was also shaved and wearing a blue cloth robe, and was smiling honestly, while handing himself a bamboo tube and a black multigrain cake, and muttering in his mouth, "...... Speaking of which, the owner of our vote this time is also generous, and he really opens three meals a day and gives us new clothes to wear, why do you want us to shave our heads? Could it be that because the eldest master is a monk, we all want to be little novices, right? ”

“…… Hey, people are under the eaves, don't dare not bow their heads, we are now even someone else's life, what else to say? When you are a little novice, you can be a little novice, as long as you take care of our food and clothing, what is there if you shave your head? I remember that Zhu Yuanzhang also became a monk back then, didn't he? ”

Although he said this, the thoughts in Li Meng's heart were far less calm than what he had just said - recalling the iron chimneys and the soot that he had seen on this ship before, as well as the roar of the engine he heard, Li Meng's heart had already been alarmed, and he was shocked

The qiē that I have seen and heard above is clearly not something that should appear in this era at the end of the Ming Dynasty, what is going on? What world did I come into? Li Meng fell into silent thought while chewing on the multigrain cake......

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