Great time travel

Chapter 8, 27 Moments in the Four Years of Chongzhen ([-])

PS: Several bugs in the ancient text part of the previous chapter have been corrected, thanks for the reminder and attention of enthusiastic readers.

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Eighth Moment: Lurking Tentacles

In December of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Lunan Plain
The goose-feather-like snow in the northern country is falling, the rivers, lakes and ponds are all frozen, and the sky and the earth are silvery white.The terrible blizzard once again swept across the land that was already desolate due to frequent natural disasters, and swept away the hard-working people who were barely struggling to survive.

On the snow-capped desolate wilderness, countless small and large groups of teams are passing by, many of them are supporting the old and the young. One by one white grave bags.But the people walking ignored them. Occasionally some relatives and friends cried for a while, but they had to stand up and continue on their way. The precarious and cheap life made the parting of life and death seem so deserted.

——When the Tunpu farm in Dengzhou Town was thriving, and the military peasants who had finished a year of hard work were warming up in the warm room while thinking about how many new year’s goods they should go to the sales office (supply and marketing cooperative), Shandong Province Most of the other places are full of tragic scenes of devastation and people's livelihood: natural disasters and water conservancy projects that have been in disrepair during the Little Ice Age have caused the yield of crops to drop to a tragic level, and the fierce landlords and servants. They also took away all the little grain harvest, leaving no way for the farmers to survive.

As a matter of fact, the "Liao pay" apportioned by the Ming court for the Liaodong war is not too much in terms of numbers, but it has swelled to the point that farmers cannot bear it under the pressure of corrupt officials at all levels. to the point where—the grain to be expropriated in the end is actually more than the entire output of the field!When the New Year's bell is about to ring, those farmers who have empty houses and empty stomachs can only bid farewell to their homes with tears in order to see the new year's sun and not starve to death at home. , braved the cold wind and embarked on the long and unpredictable road to escape.

In the freezing weather, these starving people who fled famine at a loss staggered forward in groups on the road without an end, leaving corpses constantly along the way, and they went aimlessly towards the county seat, prefectural city or any city in any place ——Even the most ignorant victims of disasters vaguely know that only in the cities can they have a chance of survival.Otherwise, even if they are not starved to death, they will be frozen to death. If the local city cannot accommodate them, they will have to leave their homes and flee to those more distant states and counties to try their luck... Countless people are driven by hunger and cold, forced to survive The flow of refugees is slowly creeping across the continents in southern Shandong. People die every day, and people join in every day. Wherever they go, it's like locusts passing through. Everything is eaten up— ―From bark and grass roots to animals and even human corpses, they will not be spared.

The rich rural households in the villages and towns along the way had already fled after hearing the alarm—they either entered the relatively strong prefectural and provincial capitals, or fled to the farther and more stable Jiangnan. After a bunch of riots such as "White Lotus Sect" and "Wenxiang Sect", this place has become very dangerous, and many wealthy people have fled to the provincial capital or Jiangnan to "escape the hustle and bustle".

Villagers in other villages and towns built walled villages and practiced courage... Those hands that used to hold hoes are now tightly holding whistle sticks and wooden guns, and are vigilantly watching the refugees passing by the villages and towns We -- the victims who are starving and red-eyed generally have the consciousness of "die before they are full", and the little food accumulated in the villages and towns is not enough for their own families!On the verge of life and death, anyone's heart will become as cold as steel.

Those landlords and local tyrants who did not go to other places to "escape the hustle and bustle" also brought their servants, long-term workers, bows and arrows and big knives, and stood on the wall of the village.Her body, which was originally dressed in silk and satin, was now wrapped in hastily made padded armor.On the one hand, it is to supervise Xiangyong not to slack off, on the other hand, he must also try his best to show that he "leads by example"-after all, he is the person with the most wealth in this village.Once the stockade is broken, those paupers who have been exploited to the point of penniless may not have much to lose, at most they will flee famine with the refugees.But these landlords and local tyrants don't even talk about family property, and they may not even be able to keep their wives and children and their lives!When life and death are at stake, how can you be a coward?
In the whistling wind and snow, what you Xiangyongs saw in their eyes were the dark refugees outside, but what they thought of in their minds were all kinds of horrible news from the past few days: which villages and villages were eaten by refugees, who Everyone's belongings were robbed, and everyone's family was killed by refugees——the richest landlord in the village, a fat man over fifty years old, turned his head around, watching the villagers shrank their necks one by one. Frowning, he had no choice but to grit his teeth, stamped his feet and shouted: "...all of you, watch carefully! I'll have dinner as a reward, and you can eat whatever you want in a box of pork, white noodles, and vegetables!"

After a moment of silence, there was a burst of shouts of "Thank you for the reward!" on the wall of the village.

Then, under such generous rewards, all the townspeople became a little more energetic, like singing in an opera, and roared one by one in tune:
"...Everyone, hold on to your knives and guns!"

"...hold it tight!"

"...The stockade is firmly held!"

"...Hold on tight!"

……

Scenes like this are repeated several times a day in many villages in Lunan.On weekdays, don’t talk about giving it to long-term workers and farmers, even the white noodles and pork that the landlords themselves are reluctant to eat, these days they have to spend all their money and use it as a reward to buy people’s hearts.

However, while these big landlords feel distressed, fearful and worried, they are also secretly happy.With the sweeping of the refugees all the way, many fertile fields are becoming unowned one after another.For some ambitious people, it is a good opportunity to expand their industries. As for the farmers who cultivate the land, they will not die. After the snowstorm passes, those who have not starved to death will always come back in the spring of the next year Continue to work for the old man.

Of course, the premise is that these big landlords can survive this test. Before that, they were not "eating big households" by refugees and died in the riots.

——At this desperate moment when honest peasants have turned into man-eating monsters, no matter whether it is a state, county or prefectural city, those officials and gentlemen who usually show off their power are usually unwilling to interfere with the actions of refugees and cause trouble for themselves: as long as the refugees There was no rebellion, no siege of the county seat, even if a few big landlords in the countryside were killed and a few villages were slaughtered, it would not be a big deal.Unless the sufferer has an unusual background, the government will only make them feel unlucky.Those big households who stayed in the countryside, if they wanted to keep their lives and property, they had no choice but to lead the way by themselves.

But even if every big family in the countryside understands this truth, many villages will always be breached every year when refugees cross the border—some are small villages with few strong men, who cannot withstand the siege of a large number of hungry people, and some are landowners and local tyrants who are stingy. Excessive wealth and exploitation made Shouzhai Township bravely turn against the water... When the hungry people swept away the fish, meat, rice noodles, gold and silver in the village, leaving a piece of ruins and walking away, the surrounding landlords will be like vultures He swooped up and happily divided up all the fields under the name of the original owner of the village, making a family of gentry disappear from then on.

In the desperate Central Plains at the end of the Ming Dynasty, such scenes continued to happen year after year. Whether they were landlords, tenants or self-cultivating farmers, they could only struggle between survival and death. Looking at each other's corpses, to win a little short-term satisfaction... It seems that the world has become a huge wooden barrel for raising Gu, and no one knows what will crawl out of the barrel at last...

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The junction of Sulu, Haizhou City
Although the huge Central Plains China from Shaanxi, Gansu to Qilu has been exploited by conscientious officials and gentry in the Ming Dynasty, and thousands of villages and households have no cooking smoke, thanks to the close proximity of the Huaibei Salt Field In this cornucopia, the lives of the people in Haizhou seem to be barely passable.

Therefore, Haizhou City in the twelfth lunar month of this year has not yet closed the city gates to prohibit refugees from the north from entering the city. Get organized and be ready to "suppress" the hungry people at any time.At the gate of the city hang a few human heads that are used to kill a hundred people—they are always bloody fresh goods, and there are a few more hastily built sheds outside the city, boiling pots of clear, musty "gruel" ".It’s just such gruel, not every refugee gathered nearby can eat it. There is a fixed number of how many “chips” the government servants give to the hungry people every day. He was starved to death and fell down.

However, with the gathering of hungry people, another kind of prosperous trade also appeared near the porridge shed.Renyazi from Xuzhou, Yangzhou, and even further away from the 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.Some people wandered among the crowd, looking for someone who could be bought.Boys and girls are the first targets, followed by attractive young women.In this way, the population with grass marks was continuously loaded onto mule carts, and then transported one by one to the banks of the canal to be loaded on ships, and then transferred along the Grand Canal to various places for sale.

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

——Among the noisy noise of Xixi Rongrong, due to the sharp deterioration of the situation in southern Shandong not long ago, Zhang Yingchen, a special commissioner who had just retreated from Yizhou, Shandong to Haizhou, crossed the Senate and went north, and called himself "Rooting Spring" , wearing a Taoist uniform, wrapped in a cotton robe and a dog-skin jacket, riding a little donkey, followed by two young Taoist boys who had just been recruited, walking through the crowd gathered near the gate of Haizhou City.From time to time, he bowed his head to the people around him - in recent days, he has been practicing medicine here in Haizhou to help people, and he already has the reputation of "living god".Not only the refugees, but also many government servants and village warriors who maintained order around the porridge field received his medical treatment. Even if they did not respect him as a god, they were at least polite to him.

"...Daoist, I have already let the child take the medicine you gave me last time, and it really stopped the diarrhea. You are a living god—" A government servant with a smile stopped his way, holding his hand. A child, "... Please let me see if there are any other problems..."

"...Oh? Since the diarrhea is stopped, life is not a problem." Zhang Yingchen said with a smile very gracefully, "...Pundao has something to do now, come back and show your child. You first take this bag Give him the medicine, it will have some nourishing benefits..."

Amid the thousands of thanks from this yamen servant, Zhang Yingchen walked over calmly, and he was almost overwhelmed with such things along the way, even Dian Shi who came to the porridge market from time to time and the leader of the county's bravery. Zhang Yingchen often has to be courteous.

——In fact, when Zhang Yingchen first came to Haizhou City, the officials and gentry here were very wary of him——In ancient Chinese society, after encountering natural disasters, there were often various cults It is a great opportunity to carry out propaganda and fool believers.

According to the experience accumulated by the Chinese feudal ruling class in the history of thousands of years.Those monks, Taoists and gods who appeared after the catastrophe aimed to practice medicine and preach, so almost seven or eight out of ten had the intention of "conspiring against others", and in recent years in Shandong and Huaibei, there are also It is true that the White Lotus Sect and the Wenxiang Sect are rampant, and various "religious chaos" of various sizes continue, so that the vigilance of the government has not been relaxed.

——There are many kinds of Huidao sects on the ground in Shandong, the largest ones are Wenxiang Sect and Luo Sect, and there are even more names of various tribes and Huidao sects.Wen Xiangjiao is very famous and powerful.Xu Hongru, the leader of the White Lotus Sect, is a disciple of Wang Sen, the leader of Wenxiang Sect in Jizhou, Hebei.The White Lotus Sect has been operating latently in Shandong for more than 20 years, with more than 200 million disciples.Intertwined, powerful.After the failure of the uprising in the second year of Tianqi, the White Lotus Sect suffered a heavy blow in Shandong.However, the strength of the remnant party still exists, and it continues to lurk in activities. In the second year of Chongzhen, it besieged Laiyang. In the same year, Zhu Bingnan, the remnant party of Bailian, also attacked the government in Suizhou, Henan.As for the Luo religion, it was born and bred: the ancestor is Luo Qing from Shandong, who has strong strength in the water transport soldiers and has many branches.

For these Shandong rebels, Haizhou, which is rich in salt fields, is located next to Shandong, and it is naturally a big piece of fat that they covet in their eyes.Just in the last month, there have been several so-called "Taoist priests" or "monks", as well as so-called "divine witches" who do not have any religious attire, and have aroused local attention in Haizhou because of their strange behavior. The attention of the government quickly disappeared completely under the attack 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 if they find suspicious people, they will be arrested and tortured. common practice.What's more, now is an extraordinary period. Many people have their heads beheaded or tortured to death in the yamen just because of their suspicious words and deeds.

Zhang Yingchen, a Taoist priest who traveled through, was able to avoid the above-mentioned bad luck in the severe storm in Haizhou City. First, he benefited from his formal medical school education and rich medical practice experience in the 21st century. All kinds of medicines are even more clever; secondly, with the help of the Transmigration Group, he has a formal official Taoist certificate, plus a famous card that he got from a certain gentry's house through his relationship before--these two things are protecting him. Plays a big role in his safety.Moreover, he was always very careful when treating diseases and practicing medicine. He usually only said things like doing good deeds and accumulating virtue, and never engaged in "subversive and anti-government instigation"... So over time, the government and the gentry gradually treated him not worried.

Then, these days, Zhang Yingchen wandered around in the "people's market" outside the city gate all day long, and his behavior of constantly buying "cute boys" also provided him with a good cover invisibly-letting many people with dirty minds The guy suddenly realized that this sanctimonious "Rooting Spring" was actually the same as those nunneries that were actually "role-playing brothels" in the late Ming Dynasty. Being willing to cure diseases and save lives seems to have a bit of compassion and conscience... In this chaotic world of moral depravity, it is really rare.

——As a transmigrator who seems to be born to change the world, the reason why Zhang Yingchen behaved so low-key in Yizhou and Haizhou is because the job assigned to him by the Senate was not to engage in cults in Shandong to incite the people. Change and "religious chaos", and even collecting population are only optional side tasks.His real goal in going north this time 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 visit to the Northland was to examine the activities and instigation capabilities of local organizations such as the White Lotus Sect, Luo Sect, and Wenxiang Sect. Now it seems that these traditional anti-government organizations of the Ming Dynasty did have some However, although the local government has no intention or power to provide disaster relief, it has paid great attention to it-after all, it has been less than ten years since the White Lotus Sect Rebellion that swept Shandong during the Tianqi Years, the vitality of the sect organization has not yet recovered, and the vigilance of the local authorities has not yet recovered. Still, it is not so easy to use religious means to incite the people.

Generally speaking, until the Hou Jin army breaks through the pass and goes deep into Shandong, or the Shanxi peasant army fights across the Central Plains, Shandong is not expected to be in chaos.

Secondly, it is natural to examine Dengzhou Town at the tip of the Shandong Peninsula. This local group with obvious traces of traversers has much strength in Shandong, how many traversers in the group, how much loyalty to Daming, and how much it treats. What is the attitude of one's 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 going north this time. He was in the northern Linyi area before Intelligence collection work, but as the situation in southern Lunan deteriorated day by day, if Zhang Yingchen stayed in Yizhou, he might be in danger of being besieged by refugees and destroyed, so he retreated south to the relatively safer city of Haizhou.

Then, Zhang Yingchen, who stayed at the Haizhou intelligence station leisurely and peacefully, was attracted by the increasingly prosperous population trade outside the Haizhou city gate. He has been buying young girls for the past few days, and is going to ship them back to Hainan Island by liaison ship. It is more or less a supplement for the people who have long been desperate for labor, and it is also conducive to the diversification of the population under the Senate... Unfortunately, the funds at hand are really limited. For example, today he encountered a few inserters near the city gate The young man who sells himself looks handsome, and Zhang Yingchen is quite moved at first glance, but he has already recruited more than ten people at this time, and he spends a lot on food and drink every day, and the price of food in Haizhou is still high. Climbing steadily, I really dare not take in more boys.

"...Hey, when will the owner of the deer send the money, otherwise the good population resources will be taken away by this group of people." Zhang Yingchen sighed in a low mood, thinking so secretly in his heart, riding He followed the donkey 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 Taoist Huoju (who can't help marrying and giving birth) lives and barely makes ends meet.Zhang Yingchen rented a Taoist house for only a few pennies, and used it as a temporary base for his activities in Haizhou City.As for the real Haizhou Intelligence Station compiled by the Senate, it was set up outside Haizhou City——on the Huaguo Mountain in "Journey to the West", where Monkey King and Sun Monkey hatched!
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Huaguo Mountain (the original official name was Yuntai Mountain or Cangwu Mountain) in Haizhou (later Lianyungang) had not gradually become connected to the land in the west due to sedimentation and coastline expansion as in modern times. , but still as described in "Journey to the West", it is an island standing in the sea, separated from Haizhou by a vast ocean.The terrain on the island is rugged, with many mountains and few flat lands. Even if there is only a little flat land, most of them are 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 due to the widespread spread of "Journey to the West", this once unknown Huaguo Mountain has gained some popularity in the society at this time, but the tourism industry in the Ming Dynasty cannot be compared with the modern one after all, and the troubled times in the late Ming Dynasty are even more unsuitable. Traveling in the mountains and playing in the water, so Huaguo Mountain was still desolate during the reign of Chongzhen.

However, for the Hainan Island Lingao Senate, which uses the fleet as its mobile force, this island is an excellent forward base. First of all, it is relatively remote and unnoticed.Secondly, in wartime, as long as a small number of naval ships are used as the backbone, the safety of the entire island can be ensured.The towering cliffs on the island can be used to set up guard posts. Although the island itself is not rich in products, the most critical fresh water for the navy is quite sufficient-the Huaguo Mountain is full of gurgling streams and springs, as described in "Journey to the West" The famous "Water Curtain Cave" is not fabricated.

Therefore, Lu Wenyuan, who was ordered to go north to set up an intelligence station, bought a manor on the island of Huaguoshan, called "Monkey King Village", as the tentacles of the Senate advancing to the north-in the early stage, he collected information from the Sulu area. Information, small-scale sales of goods and opening up contacts.When the time is right, it can be transformed into a relay station for the Senate to launch the northern mainland strategy, 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, it is still a certain distance from Haizhou City, so it is difficult to get a more realistic first-hand information.So after Zhang Yingchen withdrew from Yizhou, he stayed in the Monkey King Village in Huaguo Mountain for a few days, feeling that he couldn't be idle, and came to Haizhou City to find a temporary residence... In order to be thrifty, he settled down the way It looked dilapidated, the first dilapidated house I entered used to be inhabited by beggars, but now it is full of teenagers and girls that Zhang Yingchen recently purchased, all of them were so hungry that they were out of shape.Zhang Yingchen went in from the narrow alley, and when he got to the back, he saw Taoist Huoju and his wife chopping firewood, 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, but to Zhang Yingchen's surprise, he saw the figure of the owner Lu Wenyuan in the room.

"...Rare guest, rare guest! Master Lu, you are not your monkey king in Huaguo Mountain, and those Shandong girls who play with you, why do you have the leisure to come to this broken Taoist temple in Pindao?" Zhang Yingchen While hurriedly calling Daotong to pour tea to treat the guests, he still didn't forget to say something bad to him.

"...What's the matter? Naturally, it's a financial disaster! For the sake of more and more refugees, the Futai master called a meeting of the local gentry. First, he cried for poverty as usual, and then he ordered everyone to 'donate enthusiastically', even me, a foreigner on the island. People, they were forced to apportion 50 taels of silver!"

Master Deer took the tea bowl and said angrily, "...I also went to the porridge place just now and saw that the porridge pot was so sparse that people could be seen, and it was mixed with an unknown amount of silt and grass. Ye, the rice and wheat that were put in also smelled musty... Tsk tsk, if I donated 50 taels of silver to the Yamen, if five taels of silver can be used to help the victims, I should be thankful! That's not counting them What about the disaster relief silver taels obtained from the imperial court!"

——Since ancient times, relief after natural disasters has always turned into a feast for the grassroots in power. There is not one in ten, but we still have to continue to allocate, otherwise natural disasters will arouse civil uprisings-in many cases, no matter how much money and food are allocated, it will also arouse civil uprisings.An important difference between the so-called prosperous age and the end of the world is that in the prosperous age, even if the relief supplies were deducted layer by layer, the victims of the disaster could still get some in the end.And in the last days, it became a bureaucratic group that completely swallowed all the appropriations and materials, squeezing the common people so that they could not survive, and finally aroused a civil uprising that made the emperor hang himself to top the vat.

"...This is the decline of administrative ability!" Zhang Yingchen commented, "...when a feudal dynasty was in its heyday, the institutions can generally maintain normal operation, and the degree of corruption of officials has not affected the ability of administrative execution. But when In the later period of the dynasty, as corruption became more and more serious, the executive ability of the administrative system also declined. At the end of the period, the entire country would enter a state of anarchy, let alone the victims of disasters, and even the army had to live by looting houses. Even if the enemy soldiers besieged the city and the blades were up to their necks, the civil servants still did not forget about corruption and embezzlement..."

——Anyone who has read the story of Li Zicheng probably knows the cruel story of the "Fu Lu Banquet" in the late Ming Dynasty: At that time, Li Zicheng gathered a peasant army to besiege Luoyang, trying to seize the countless gold, silver, grain and rice hoarded by the Fuwang Mansion in Luoyang City.Although Luoyang's city walls and fortresses are very strong, the defenders owed half a year's salary before the war. Naturally, they complained to the Luoyang government and Fu Wang Zhu Changxun behind them, and they all said angrily: "Luoyang's palace is richer than the imperial palace, and Shenzong consumes the world." How unfair it is for the king to make us rich and rich, but let us go to war on an empty stomach and kill the thieves!" The morale of the army was extremely unstable for a while.

Faced with such a situation, just as the courtiers of the Ming Dynasty wanted the emperor to allocate internal funds when they were short of money, Luoyang civil and military officials were also stingy, hoping that King Fu would be loyal to the emperor, patriotic and generous. After unsuccessful visits to appeal for donations, Lu Weiqi, the former Minister of the Ministry of War who lived in seclusion in Luoyang at that time, was invited to enter Fuwang's mansion many times to persuade Zhu Changxun to open the treasury to relieve the hungry people and reward the soldiers.It's a pity that it was said that King Fu was addicted to money at that time, so he didn't listen at all.In the end, the defenders became resentful because of resentment, and after only one day of fighting, they defected and surrendered to Li Zicheng, and Luoyang fell.

After Li Zicheng captured Luoyang, he caught King Fu who had failed to escape, and ordered his men to tie up the three-hundred-jin fat prince, strip him, and wash them. Throw them into a large cauldron together and cook them into minced meat, which is called "Fu Lu Banquet" for the soldiers to share. Since then, Fu Wang Zhu Changxun has become the laughing stock of literati, as if the fall of Luoyang was all his crime.

But the actual situation at that time was not like this. On the eve of the outbreak of the Battle of Luoyang, although Fu Wang was indeed evasive and refused to pay at the beginning, he finally donated 3 taels of silver under the repeated persuasion of Lu Weiqi, the former minister of the Ministry of War.Coupled with the donations of other gentry in Luoyang City, they finally got 5 taels of silver and one thousand shi grains and rice.When this batch of money and food was delivered, the officers and soldiers defending the city of Luoyang cheered and cheered immediately, and their morale was greatly boosted.

But the problem is that even at this time when the soldiers are in danger and the battle is fierce, Luoyang civil and military officials still haven't forgotten about the money and food, and even embezzled it more fiercely than usual-5 taels of silver have just been obtained, and the Luoyang sub-road inspector Wang Yinchang So 1 taels were left, and Wang Shaoyu's general soldiers also withheld 1 taels, Lord Feng, the prefect of Luoyang, swallowed 8000 taels, and Luoyang Tui Guanwei took 3000 taels...It was discounted by 4000% and 5%, and sent to the city guards In the hands of more than 8000 officers and soldiers, only 5000 taels of [-] taels were left in the account, and several small officers conspired to swallow another [-] taels. In the end, each officer and soldier was only allocated a mere few taels of silver!
However, all the officers and soldiers had known about the 5 taels of silver raised by the government before, and they were all eagerly waiting for this unprecedented reward.Looking at it now, even though it was the critical moment when the rogue soldiers were approaching the city, the superiors still treated him so harshly, so under the huge gap between falling and falling, everyone was naturally so angry that everyone cursed and full of resentment.Then, because of the unequal distribution of money among the various battalions, internal strife broke out on the city wall to grab the money, and even killed people with knives.Li Zicheng took the opportunity to attack fiercely, and the defenders naturally surrendered and fled...

——Perhaps, the reason why the Fu Wang Zhu Changxun refused to pay at the beginning is probably because he knew that with the death-defying nature of the stupid officials in Luoyang, even if they were given more silver taels, even if the knife was already on the neck, they would not be able to pay. They will only use it to fill their own pockets, but they still refuse to spend it on wars!
However, during the Chongzhen period, the civil servant class of the Ming Dynasty was full of countless death masters, but the gentry and local tyrants below were also very good at using various postures to kill.For example, when rogue bandits were rampant in Henan, once a certain county was about to be besieged by the peasant army, a certain gentry in the city knew the news in advance and hoarded a lot of grain in the city, planning to sit on the ground and raise prices after the siege began. To make a fortune... Who would have thought that after the siege began, the county magistrate's official document sealed up the grain warehouse and transported all his grain to the yamen.

Hearing the news, the gentry, in a state of desperation, took advantage of the fact that the peasant army was in a hurry to attack the city and the county magistrate was forced to bring all the soldiers to the city to deal with the battle, and brazenly mobilized his servants to set fire to the county government in an attempt to retake the food.But at that time, the defenders were already under the strong attack of the peasant army. They were on the verge of falling, and when they saw the fire behind them, their morale collapsed immediately, and the army collapsed... As a result, it took less than an hour for the gentry to take back the food from the yamen. , the county town fell into the hands of the peasant army, his whole family was killed by the peasant army, and the food was naturally accepted by the bandit leader...

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

In general, the ruling class of the Ming Empire during the Chongzhen period, from the cabinet ministers to the country gentry, were mostly top-notch fanatics of death-defying sports. He played tricks until he reached an unimaginable and insane transcendent realm—otherwise, he wouldn't have brought such a huge super empire with rich resources and prosperous business to such a tragic fate in one breath.

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

"...Old Deer! Regarding the sporadic information collected in Dengzhou Town in the past few months, I have preliminarily sorted it out in the past two days, and I have written a summary. For the time being, the only traveler whose identity can be determined is Dengzhou Town. It is only Chen Xin, the chief soldier of the state town, and Liu Minyou, his civil affairs director. It is very likely that he also traveled through time. As for whether there are other time-travelers in Dengzhou Town, it is really impossible to find out. up.

The sphere of influence of Dengzhou Town has now covered the tip of the Shandong Peninsula. Almost the entire Ninghai Prefecture has been managed by Chen Xin into a private kingdom, and there are many scattered enclaves in Dengzhou and Qingzhou.In Wendeng County and Weihai, the most powerful places in Dengzhou Town, the local people only know that they belong to a certain fortress in Dengzhou Town, and they don’t care about any prefectural and county government offices... Although the standing establishment of the Dengzhou Army is even counted. No-name should also not exceed 1 people, but the population completely controlled by Dengzhou Town is estimated to have reached more than 15, and it is still expanding at a snowballing speed.

From the point of view of equipment and tactics, although the Dengzhou Army is far superior to most Ming armies of this era, the weapons such as spears, muskets, and artillery used, as well as the methods of using these weapons, still have not surpassed the 30-year war in Europe. The level of the Spanish phalanx of the era.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 power of Dengzhou Township lies in its logistics mobilization system - it is a system similar to the Red Army base area system during the Agrarian Revolutionary War in our country, which can guarantee the basic life of the bottom population while , to squeeze out the war potential of a place to the greatest extent..."

While Zhang Yingchen was talking, he dug out a few densely written white papers from a box and handed them to Lu Wenyuan, "...this report, please let the liaison ship bring it back to Hainan Island next time." Go! Having said that, I asked someone to tell you last time, asking you to bring some money, you must have forgotten! I have been in the "people's market" at the gate of the city for the past two days. Hand, missed a lot of good seedlings..."

"...I still have some money, but you probably don't have time to buy any more people. You should hand this report over to the Lingao base camp yourself!" Lu Wenyuan shook his head, but did not take over Zhang Yingchen. The report paper handed over, "...According to the urgent instructions of the Senate, all the elders in the enemy-occupied area must withdraw to Lingao as soon as possible. The gates of the city are not yet closed, we will try our best to bring the people you bought back to Huaguo Mountain today, and then we will take the 'Lichun Ship' to set anchor and head south tomorrow morning!"

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

"...Of course it's because something big happened to our rear - the diplomatic fleets of the Australians, the Chinese Americans, and the East Coast countries are all crowded in Batavia at present, scaring the Dutch half to death, and they will soon be together My son is coming to visit Gao! Before the Senate straightens out the relationship with these "traveler compatriots" and discusses with each other a cooperation plan, at least a way of peaceful coexistence, the northern affairs can only be put aside for a while. "

Lu Wenyuan sighed and said, "... Huangshi's previous plan to go to Liaodong to hunt people has also been urgently stopped. The single ship 'Lichun' went north this time, and it was here to pick us up, otherwise it might We can't catch up with Lingao's conference...so let's move faster."

"...I actually have nothing to clean up here. Those cheap and clumsy things can simply be thrown to the landlord. You just need to bring those people from the outer courtyard..." Zhang Yingchen first looked around the temporary rented house. Then he said with a little hesitation, "...But with just a dozen people on board the Lichun ship, your Zhuangzi doesn't seem to have much cargo...isn't it a bit too wasteful?"

"...It doesn't matter. In the past few days, some Jiaozhou refugees have just floated to Huaguo Mountain in a few broken boats. They are cold, hungry, and half dead. After they were rescued from the sea by people in my village, those refugees expressed their willingness to sell themselves. , they have all been shaved and purified now..."

Lu Wenyuan replied casually, "... plus a dozen people on your side, you can almost make up a boat..."

"...Jiaozhou?" Zhang Yingchen frowned when he heard the words, "...I heard that there was a battle there just now. These people are not the rebels who fled, right?"

"...Who knows? But even if it is, what does it matter? Haven't we recruited too few bandits and pirates over the years?"

Lu Wenyuan curled his lips disapprovingly, "...Anyway, as long as you get people to Lingao, there are plenty of ways to get them to work obediently..."

sex

Outside the city of Haizhou, the private port of "Monkey King Village" in Huaguo Mountain, the steam-sail hybrid warship/armed merchant ship "Lichun" under the jurisdiction of Lingao Senate on Hainan Island

In a gloomy cabin that fluctuates slightly with the waves, Li Meng, the salt lord who reported in the palace of the Ming Dynasty that "bewitching traitors and causing trouble in Jiaozhou", finally woke up in a daze. , but his own life, at any rate, can be saved.

It's just a pity for those good brothers who died in battle!He sighed like this, and wanted to stretch out his hand to straighten his hair, but he only touched his bare scalp.

"...Brother Li, you're awake, come on, drink some water! Take a few more bites, and I'll bring you your breakfast..."

A familiar voice rang in his ears, and Li Meng struggled to sit up from the pile of straw, and saw his best buddy Zhao Neng, who also shaved his bald coat and wore a blue cloth dress, smiling honestly , while handing himself a bamboo tube and a piece of black multi-grain pancake, he was still muttering, "...Speaking of which, the owner we voted for this time is also generous, and they really open three times a day. Dinner! Give us new clothes to wear! But why do you want us to shave all our hair? Could it be that because the elder is a monk, we should all be young monks?"

"...Hey, people are under the eaves, dare not bow their heads. Now that our lives belong to others, what are we talking about? Hair? Be a little novice! Just be a little novice! Just control our food and clothing, shave What's the point of having a bald head? Remember that Zhu Yuanzhang also became a monk back then, didn't he?"

Although he said so, the thoughts in Li Meng's heart were far less calm than what he said just now—recalling the iron chimneys and drifting soot on the ship before, and the roar of the turbines, In fact, Li Meng's heart had already been alarmed, and he was very shocked!
All of the above-mentioned things that I have seen and heard are clearly not things that should have appeared in the late Ming Dynasty!What exactly is going on? !What kind of world did I come to? ! !While munching on the multigrain cake, Li Meng fell into silent thinking...