Chapter 153, the Turbulent Jiangnan (I)

The blazing sun in the middle of summer, projecting between the narrow and winding old streets and alleys of the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, could not bring a trace of comfort and warmth to the hungry and unemployed workers, the earliest members of China's proletariat, who were now struggling with the death line in the streets and alleys.

Just as later history textbooks said, the Jiangnan region at the end of the Ming Dynasty was densely populated, with prosperous cities, prosperous industry and commerce, and early capitalist germs had already appeared. Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, the four big cities of the population of the population, at that time is said to be around one million, known as "the world's merchants, Wuzhong Jinling two ten accounted for seven, Fujian accounted for three, even if the north is the capital of Beijing, it is not comparable."

In addition to the development of commerce, large-scale handicraft textile workshops have also generally appeared in the Jiangnan area, such as silk from Susonghu, bookstores from Hangzhou, and especially cotton cloth from Songjiang, which are marketed all over the world. Its workshops employed up to several thousand, forming a large urban working class.

However, since the natural economy of male ploughing and female weaving has developed into a capitalist market economy of mass production, it is natural that it cannot do without the origin of raw materials and the sales market. At the same time, with the increase of non-agricultural population and the development and growth of industrial and commercial cities, it is also necessary to obtain more grain from rural grain-producing areas, so by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the grain in the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River has been unable to be self-sufficient, and it has to rely on external imports.

As a result, during the six-year war in Chongzhen, the early capitalist economy in the Jiangnan region suffered a devastating blow.

Because the demons of the Wenxiang Sect began to plague Jiangbei last year, from Jining, Shandong all the way to Yangzhou, there is no hope for the cotton planted in Shandong and Lianghuai;

After capturing the seaports of Zhoushan, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Wenzhou and other eastern Zhejiang regions, the Australian thieves used the Shengsi Islands as a base to launch a long-range blockade at the mouth of the Yangtze River, intercepting and detaining any ships that dared to go to sea, and cutting off the overseas export channels of Jiangnan products.

After the loss of the overseas market, because Emperor Chongzhen came to Huguang and prepared to crusade against the puppet emperor of Jiangnan, he issued an order to seal the river, which not only made the industry and commerce in Jiangnan lose the inland market in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, but also made the major cities in Jiangnan no longer able to obtain the grain and rice supply of Huguang!

With the destruction of the life-threatening raw material production areas, sales markets, and grain import channels in a short period of time, the entire Jiangnan region suddenly fell into an unprecedented economic crisis. Songjiang's cotton spinning industry lost its cotton supply and was forced to shut down, and the products of other handicraft workshops quickly accumulated in large quantities and could not be absorbed in the local market. As a result, all of a sudden, the workshops and workshops in various cities in the south of the Yangtze River went bankrupt, and thousands of citizens lost their jobs en masse.

What's even worse is that the hundreds of thousands of war refugees who poured in from the two directions of Jiangbei and Zhejiang dealt a fatal blow to the small imperial court in Jiangnan, which was already overwhelmed. However, now a large number of refugees have poured into Jiangnan, resulting in an increase in the number of people who need to eat, while the original food import channels have all been cut off! To add insult to injury, even in this situation where the whole society is like a powder keg, those treacherous grain merchants with deep backgrounds are still hoarding grain and rice, creating rumors, and frantically hyping ...... As a result, even after the summer grain went on the market, the grain prices in major cities in the south of the Yangtze River were still as high as more than eight taels of silver per stone of brown rice!

However, despite the fact that the people of Jiangnan were already so overwhelmed, the small court of Emperor Yonghe in Nanjing would continue to conquer violently: in the face of Emperor Chongzhen, who was fighting in Wuchang, the entire Nanjing court had reached a consensus that the army must be expanded as soon as possible in order to protect itself! However, even at such a moment of life-and-death stakes, the landlords and gentry of the Jiangnan Donglin Party, the wealthy merchant group, are still hard to give up their good money, and they are not pulling out a dime.

In the end, Zhou Yanru, the cabinet chief assistant of the Yonghe Emperor's court in Nanjing, had no choice but to re-hit the idea on the heads of the Shengdou Xiaomin, who were already struggling on the verge of death, mainly in the form of a poll tax, and assigned the fund-raising task of apportioning grain and salary layer by layer, and then considering the pervasive corruption and exploitation of officials at all levels, it has become a very terrifying astronomical number when it falls on the people.

In this way, on the one hand, a large number of citizens are collectively unemployed and have no income, on the other hand, food prices are skyrocketing, and in addition, a large number of war refugees are pouring into the shrinking "safe haven" of Jiangnan to compete with the locals for food that is not enough to eat in the market...... In addition, the imperial court is still frantically apportioning new military expenses, which makes the people in dire straits even worse. Finally, the powder keg of the entire Jiangnan was finally detonated!

A large-scale popular uprising that swept almost the entire Jiangnan broke out vigorously in the summer of the sixth year of Chongzhen!

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“…… Grab the rice! Grab the rice! Let's grab the rice together! ”

“…… People who don't want to starve to death go and rob those profiteers to eat big households! ”

“…… Wait! Let's go! Let's go! ”

……

The entrance of one of the largest grain stores in Suzhou was crowded with unemployed weavers in ragged clothes, everyone was so hungry that their faces were yellow and thin, but their eyes seemed to be breathing fire! At this time, these desperate unemployed people are rushing into the store, carrying a bag of rice and wheat and walking out. The shopkeepers, their buddies and their bodyguards who tried to stop them were beaten to the brink by the swarms of hungry people. Bags of white rice were scattered all over the streets.

In any era, in any country, hunger will give people unprecedented strength, especially when they are desperate, so these hungry people, no matter how law-abiding they are on weekdays, will also be driven by the desire to survive, their poverty, anxiety and resentment, all turned into unprecedented courage, with their fists and even their lives, to fight for a chance to fill their stomachs and survive!

Seeing this, a discerning grain store guy hurriedly ran to the yamen to move the rescuers. Unexpectedly, as soon as I ran outside the yamen of the Suzhou prefect, I saw a group of Xiucai wearing square scarves and straight shirts, who were setting up a formation of broken boots outside the yamen, blocking the gate of the official mansion, and spitting and scolding. Although there are also messengers with water and fire sticks and guards carrying knives and guns in the yamen, and they are never soft in suppressing the draft people on weekdays, but now they are very afraid of these talents with fame on their bodies, and instead of daring to greet them with their swords and sticks, they retreat in fear.

When those Xiucai and Tong Sheng saw this, they were even more bold, and shouted in their mouths: "...... It is this dog official who is corrupt and perverts the law, colludes with profiteers, and makes us Suzhou people unable to afford to eat rice and wear clothes! Like such a traitor, everyone might as well rush in and kill them, and eliminate a big harm for the court! ”

Immediately, someone in the team responded: "...... That's right, today we are storming this prefect's yamen, which is a feat of petitioning for the people and eliminating traitors for the country! …… Exactly, the 100th anniversary of the national dynasty and the national death festival is today! Let's do it together! ”

For a while, all kinds of rubble mixed with old vegetable skins flew towards the prefect's yamen like a heavy rain, forcing those officials and guards to quickly close the gate as shrunken turtles. As soon as the door was closed, a fluttering sound was heard outside, and it seemed that countless rubble and masonry were falling on the door. One of the officials retreated a few steps slowly, and was hit on the forehead by a stone, and immediately blood flowed for a long time, and he looked terrible.

Unexpectedly, despite the fact that the Suzhou prefect's yamen had given in like this, these mad dog-like scholars still refused to give up, and actually scolded loudly across the courtyard wall, while continuing to throw stones into the yamen over the wall in ping-pong, and some even threw lit torches into it!

In the cities south of the Yangtze River at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the sense of resistance in society was very strong, and it was not uncommon for scholars to organize anti-tax and attack the government. It was recorded in the notes of the scholars of the time, "...... (Jiangnan) Shilin ethos, likes to gather and insults Yousi. "In short, it is said that these restless students often like to organize troubles in the neighborhoods, and expand their influence through songs, dramas, and novels, launching public opinion attacks and mass movements against the government, and even leading prostitutes, hawkers, workers, and idlers on the street to storm the yamen together, make a big fuss, and even set fire to the houses, and finally achieve the goal of forcing the government to make concessions or force officials to step down."

This kind of situation where scholars take the lead in making trouble happened almost every year in Jiangnan at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Because the scholars were a privileged class, most of the officials did not dare to suppress them bloodily, and the end result was often a compromise and concession by the government, while the leading scholars gained fame and fortune.

Even the early Donglin Party and the Fushe were founded, and their initiators used this mass movement to gain prestige. For example, Zhang Pu, the leader of the Restoration Society, once wrote the "Five People Tablet" for the five victims of the Suzhou Civil Rebellion in the sixth year of the Apocalypse, which moved the world for a time.