Ming Taizi's Total War

Chapter 78
The entertainment life of the ancients was very scarce. Wang Ruoyuan's incident was like pouring water into a hot oil pan, and it immediately exploded.

In the streets and alleys, in the inns and teahouses, there are people talking about scholars joining the army.

"Brother Xu, have you heard? Jinshi Enke actually asked the emperor in the palace to tell the emperor that he should not be the master of the Hanlin Academy, and he is going to join the army as a soldier." Feng Huzi is a frequent visitor to the teahouse. When he saw an acquaintance coming, he pulled Watch him sit down and talk about the latest news in the city.

"I heard that as soon as Wang Jinshi went to join the army, the emperor gave him command and prefects. The official position of editorial editor of the Imperial Academy really skyrocketed."

The person named Brother Xu by Feng Huzi is a scholar named Xu Ruogu, who lives in Henan Province. He is the son of a landlord family in the outskirts of Luoyang. He didn't want to travel thousands of miles across the war zone to Jinling, a place of wealth in the world.

Last year Li Zicheng defeated Sun Chuanting's Qin soldiers in the Henan government, set up government offices in the Central Plains, appointed officials, arrested Ming court officials, forced scholars to work for them, and even forced landlords to hand over money and food to help the military.

This is nothing, in order to give the landless poor a piece of cultivated land, Li Zicheng forcibly snatched the land from the landlords and distributed it to the poor without land, allowing them to live and work in peace on the land of the landlord.

Xu Ruogu's father, Mr. Xu, refused. He was a petty official when he was young, how could he bear such a shame and humiliation, take up the servant's waist knife and want to fight against the officials sent by the Henan Province of the Dashun regime.

Facing Dashun who was killed from the mountain of corpses and sea of ​​blood, the old man's fate can be imagined. He was hacked to death by the officials on the spot. Fortunately, they were reasonable and didn't do anything to the rest of the Xu family, otherwise Xu Ruogu would have been sitting on the ground today. Not here.

But, there is no need to think about their family's land property, all of them belong to Dashun, and they are distributed to the landless poor. When they think of those mud-legged people, they used to kneel aside or hide far away when walking on the road. After planting their field, the Xu family felt heartbroken.

But they didn't have the strength to resist. If they were not careful, the whole family's lives would be in danger, so Xu's mother quickly took out the money from home and asked her servants to escort her son to Jinling, where it was safe and prosperous.

As for Xu's mother herself, she naturally stayed in her hometown. Although she lost all her land, her ancestral house was still here, and the Xu family's ancestral hall and the memorial tablets of her ancestors were even in the mourning hall. She had to stay and offer sacrifices.

"If one day, I can also be named on the gold list, be appreciated by the emperor, and become a moderate official, then I will have no regrets in death." Xu Ruogu said with an intoxicated expression on his face.

Learning the art of literature and martial arts, as well as the emperor's family, has always been the highest ideal of Chinese scholars. Even eunuchs with physical disabilities always want to drill into the palace. It can be seen how important the word "emperor" is in people's hearts.

"Brother Xu, I see that there are recruiters on the street. Why don't you try it. Anyway, even the master Jinshi and the emperor's disciples have gone to serve as soldiers. Compared with them, we are nothing."

"I'm afraid that a single hair plucked from someone's leg will be thicker than our waist."

Seeing Feng Huzi holding the teapot in his hand, he casually said to himself, Xu Ruogu was thoughtful, and he thought to himself, yes, the master Jinshi, the disciple of the emperor, this is the real scholar, compared with others, what am I? Woolen cloth?

I am a young scholar, and I can't even be an official. Even if I want to enter the government, I can only be a knife and pen official, or the master of some corrupt officials and stupid people.

Now that the emperor appreciates us, gives us the opportunity to join the army, and allows us to become officers, why should I be so noble?Is it possible that he has to starve to death in Jinling City under the reputation of being a scholar?

After going south for many days, Xu Ruogu's money was almost exhausted. Hearing what Feng Huzi said today, he finally decided to join the army.

Xu Ruogu, who made up his mind, slapped the table and stood up and said.

"Okay, I'm going to join the army right now, maybe one day I can lead troops back to Henan Mansion, drag all the trespassers and fake officials who drove my father to death out of the yamen, and hang them on the city gate."

"By the way, Brother Feng, how about you?"

Feng Huzi and Xu Ruogu met in Jinling. Xu Ruogu came to Jinling a few months ago and got separated from some of his servants. He was about to be bullied by some local hooligans in Jinling. With a scabbard, beat the crap out of those bastards.

From then on, Xu Ruogu and Feng Huzi became friends. Although the two of them were a down-and-out son and a knight-errant, they got along very well because they were both born in the northern country and had been through wars for a long time.

"Me, I have been wandering around and don't like to be restrained by others. I won't go to this army." When Feng Huzi heard Xu Ruogu ask this, he knew that he wanted him to join the army with him.

"That's a pity. Brother Feng is good at martial arts. It's a pity that he didn't join the army and fight for a fortune on the battlefield."

"Haha, in the army, are you the same as a person from the world like me?"

"Let me tell you, ordinary soldiers, I can still fight three or five, but if seven or eight people come at once, I will definitely be defeated. If I don't trade my life for my life, I can't even injure them."

"On the battlefield, tens of thousands of people listen to the orders of one person. When they advance, they advance together, and when they retreat, they retreat together. Thousands of people are shoulder to shoulder, leg to leg, not to mention moving and turning, even if they turn their heads, they can't do it. .”

"Although I am skilled in martial arts, when I go to the battlefield, I can't play a bigger role than those recruits."

Although Feng Huzi is a knight-errant, he has a certain understanding of military affairs, at least better than a young master like Xu Ruogu who only knows how to read sage books.

"Well, since Big Brother Feng said so, I will bid farewell to Big Brother from now on. As soon as I join the army, I will be assigned by the imperial court, and I will no longer be able to drink and sing with you like in the past."

Ever since the news that Wang Ruoyuan was not a civil servant but a military officer spread in Jinling City, there were people like Xu Ruogu everywhere, but there were very few Juren, and they were all young talents.

It's no wonder that Juren is called a master, and his status is very different from that of a scholar. He has the status of being an official directly, of course, the premise is that there is a suitable vacancy.

But even if you don’t become an official or do anything, there will still be profiteers who seek the privileges of Juren, attach themselves to him, and give Juren a lot of benefits in exchange for not being exploited by the government, and usually have a protective umbrella on their heads .

As a privileged class, juren has many connections with the government, and some well-connected juren even have friendship with many officials. Scholars have a good face and value the friendship of classmates.

(End of this chapter)