I'm really not the carpenter emperor

The officials threw down the title deeds and fled. However, the emotions of the people in Baishui County have been completely ignited by this incident, and the depression accumulated over the years broke out at this moment.

They surrounded Wang Er and the man, shouting to go to the county government to seek justice.

The anger in Wang Er's heart could no longer be restrained, and he was determined to lead the hungry people to ask the county magistrate for an explanation, and then asked:

"My man, what's your name?"

The man said: "My name is Zhong Guangdao! Let's go to the county government!"

"Let's go to the county government office!"

……

In March of the seventh year of Tianqi, Nanhaizi.

Zhu Youxiao rode on the white horse that had followed him for many years, with trophies such as hares hanging around him, standing on the cliff, with the wind blowing over his bright yellow iron helmet and face.

Eight years, like a flick of a finger.

Lifting out the eunuchs, purging Donglin, revitalizing factory guards, rectifying the military administration...Zhu Youxiao achieved most of the goals he had thought of.

At this moment, he was holding the rein of the horse with one hand, looking at the setting sun, suddenly looking back, he suddenly wanted to go back to his hometown with warm sunshine.

Unfortunately, this will never be possible.

I don't know if the parents of future generations will miss me at this moment.

Dad, Mom, I... I miss you.

Returning from hunting, he threw the trophies he got into the harem for cooking as usual. Zhu Youxiao returned to Xinuang Pavilion, and before he had time to take off his armor, he heard Wang Chaofu hurried forward.

"My lord, you are back, something happened in Shaanxi."

Zhu Youxiao sat on the throne of Kowloon and heard him continue: "Baishui farmer Wang Er, Zhong Guangdao and others led the hungry people to rebel, broke through the county government, and killed the county magistrate and master."

"There are more and more hungry people gathered in Baishui County. In the past few days, there have been thousands of people. If we don't deal with it, we will fear disaster."

It has to be dealt with, and it has to be handled with care.

This is the first "uprising" organized by the local people themselves. Whether the imperial court recruits security or suppresses it also affects the hearts of other people in the whole world.

Wang Er was the first peasant army leader in the true sense in the history of the late Ming Dynasty. His status was the same as that of Chen Sheng in the late Qin Dynasty. Even Wang Jiayin and Gao Yingxiang were followed by younger brothers who followed him everywhere.

Zhu Youxiao knew that Wang Er would rebel at this time, and he also knew why he rebelled. He thought that he had already issued an order to cancel exorbitant taxes, so that this matter could be avoided.

It seems that they still underestimated the severity of natural disasters at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the methods used by corrupt officials to oppress good people.

Japan has signed the "Treaty of Edo", ceding a large area of ​​territory to the three countries of Ming, Spain, and the Netherlands, and the situation abroad is very good.

Now is the time to turn our attention to the country and clean up this broken old country.

Zhu Youxiao has always been a character who does what he wants to do thoroughly. Thinking of this, he didn't take off his armor at all, picked up the sword on the imperial case, and walked away.

"Your Majesty, what are you going to do?"

"Decree Chen Ce, follow me to Shaanxi!"

Chapter 837 Peaceful Apprehension

Zhu Youxiao left as soon as he said, and the imperial edict was issued to Chen Ce, the governor of the Yongwei Battalion, and the more than [-] people in the Yongwei Battalion quickly followed suit.

The current brave guard battalion is no longer what it was when it was first established.

The Yongwei Battalion has undergone two expansions, and more than [-] people have been selected from the Nine Sides.

In terms of the priority level of armor and ordnance, the Yongwei Battalion is higher than the three major battalions of the capital and the Nine Frontier Army.

After the explosion of the Wang Gong factory, it was being rebuilt, and the position of factory supervisor with the eunuch was abolished, and it was changed to the Military Weapons Department, and the Military Weapons Department dispatched experienced firearms experts to take charge of the management.

The gunpowder and ordnance produced will be sent directly to the Yongwei Battalion. After the Yongwei Battalion selects them, they will be sent to the Nine Sides, and then to other guards and places.

In addition, the Yongwei Camp is also equipped with a dedicated horse farm in the suburbs of Beijing, with more than 1 good horses tributed or purchased from Mongolia.

This time, due to the emergency, all members of the Yongwei Battalion stepped on their horses. A total of more than 2 cavalry and more than [-] horses rushed out of the capital from Yongdingmen and went straight to Baishui County, Shaanxi Province.

Shaanxi, the province with the most severe natural disasters in the late Ming Dynasty, followed by Shanxi, Huguang, Henan, and Shandong. These five provinces in the Central Plains can all be said to be the hardest hit areas for natural disasters and corruption.

Seven years into the apocalypse, the natural disasters caused by the Little Ice Age have become more and more serious.

Since November of the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the whole of Shaanxi has experienced a long drought without rain, scorched vegetation, and thousands of miles of barren land. No matter how much relief supplies the court distributes, it is just a drop in the bucket.

The power of natural disasters is far greater than the current limit of the imperial court's disaster relief. Therefore, although the international situation of Ming Dynasty is getting stronger and stronger, there are still many internal contradictions.

Up to now, most of Shaanxi Province has not had a drop of rain for several months. In early February, Baishui County was again plagued by locusts.

In this case, the famine is even more serious.

But one wave after another, the current epidemic in Shaanxi is prevalent, and almost every household has dead people, those who starved to death, died of disease, and were forced to die by the government.

The more people die, the more everyone vents their anger and wants to rebel against the powerful officials in order to survive.

Baishui County is the area with the most severe corruption in Shaanxi. "People eat each other when the vegetation is exhausted", and the farmers "are exhausted, and there is no hope of saving them from death."

Although Zhu Youxiao had canceled taxes and miscellaneous taxes in the first year of Tianqi, and the expenditure on disaster relief has been increasing year by year.

The Ministry of Household Affairs said that over the years, the imperial court's expenditure on disaster relief and resettlement of refugees had been on par with military expenditure by the end of the sixth year of the Apocalypse.

If this trend continues, disaster relief expenditures will exceed military expenditures this year.

But the facts have proved that the hearts of the people are not enough to swallow the elephant. Even the Hongwu Dynasty, which was full of people, had countless corrupt officials and corrupt officials, let alone the current Tianqi Dynasty.

Zhu Youxiao found that unless it was a form of disaster relief directly managed by the factory guards, almost all disaster relief supplies in other places would be exploited layer by layer, and many local governments still ignored the rules and regulations of the imperial court, took risks, and created clever names.

Exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes and abuse of power are not uncommon nowadays, and the smaller the official, the more he pushes the people.

And the ignorant people, who suffer from such unfair treatment, most of them will vent their anger on the court's inaction, the current emperor's wine pool and meat forest.

Since all the people in the group were cavalry, they left Jifu in only three days and two nights after leaving the capital.

On March [-], they finally arrived at the outskirts of Baishui County.

"Your Majesty, this is Baishui County!" After Chen Ce finished speaking, he ordered around: "Send people to the city to check the situation first."

"Yes!"

As soon as the words fell to the ground, a cavalry soldier from the Yongwei Battalion slapped his horse and walked straight to the city.

It is said that Baishui County has been occupied by rebellious hungry people. Chen Ce was tasked with protecting the emperor, so he had to act cautiously.

In fact, he has already prepared for the worst, which is to fight the hungry people here to calm the situation.

With the combat power and armaments of the Yongwei Battalion, capturing a county town occupied by hungry people is as easy as drinking water.

Of course, this is the last thing everyone wants to see.

After all, the hungry people in Baishui County rebelled because they couldn't survive. They also know what the place is like these days.

This time Emperor Tianqi came down in person, obviously to change the current situation.

Zhu Youxiao took the reins of the horse with one hand and looked around. He didn't find any officers and soldiers on guard at the head of Baishui County.

Baishui County is not big at all, and it is quite small even among the counties in the five northern provinces.

The city walls were all built with rammed earth. After Ren Xuan, some important towns began to rebuild the earth city walls into brick walls. Baishui County was included in this rank because it is located at an important node of the Silk Road.

However, the cost of rebuilding cities and towns across the country was too high. After the Renxuan Second Dynasty, work stopped before and after Zhengtong, and the rest of the dynasties also stopped repairing, and it has not been repaired to Baishui County.

The Baishui County that Zhu Youxiao sees now is just a small town of rammed earth, and the outside of the city is empty, and it looks like a small and impoverished place.

Soon, the cavalry who went to investigate the city returned.

He clasped his fists immediately and said, "Your Majesty, the hungry people in the city are headed by Wang Er and Zhong Guangdao. When they hear that Master Wang is coming, they are willing to give up resistance!"

Chen Ce frowned and asked, "Is this true?"

Seeing the cavalryman nodding, he turned his head and said, "Your Majesty, it's better to let these two rebellious leaders of hungry people go out of the city to meet you."

Zhu Youxiao nodded and said:

"Then let's do this, send people into the city again. Summon Wang Er and Zhong Guangdao out of the city, and tell them what grievances they have, I, the Great Ming Tianqi Emperor, can make decisions for them!"

The cavalryman nodded, then turned around and galloped into the city again, billowing up smoke and dust.

Seeing him leave, Zhu Youxiao rode on the horse and glanced at the city from a distance, frowning, not knowing what he was thinking.

Not long after, human heads began to appear on the top of the city.

A large number of hungry people helped the old and the young came to the city wall, which quickly aroused the vigilance of the Yongwei Battalion. Now it is almost a subconscious action of the soldiers and officers to stand in line.

Without ordering from Chen Ce and Zhu Youxiao, the more than [-] people in the Yongwei Battalion formed a defensive formation, and the shotgunners trotted to the front row to prepare the medicine.

Seeing that the uniform army outside the city was ready to attack, exclamations and loud shouts came from the top of the city immediately.

The hungry people can see that this army with bright armor is the famous brave guard battalion around the emperor. Its combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the frontier troops on the nine sides, and it is simply not something they can resist.

Although many women were terrified, they still turned their children's heads away, not wanting them to see this scene, and there was even a cry of "woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" from the top of the city.

At this time, the cavalryman from the Yongwei Battalion who entered the city at the beginning came out with two people. It was the leader of these thousands of hungry people, Wang Er and Zhong Guangdao.

Neither of them expected that this incident would cause such a big shock that even the emperor was alarmed, so he came to Baishui, a small impoverished county, in person.

When Master Wang arrived at the city, the two had no intention of resisting at all, because it was nothing more than leading these people to die.

The two walked up to Zhu Youxiao, looked at each other, and then knelt down to salute.

Chapter 838 The Death Sentence Can Be Exempted

Zhong Guangdao no longer had the arrogance he had when facing officials, and Wang Er also stood there tremblingly, both of them were frightened by the battle in front of them.

They had never seen such a well-equipped official army, so good that they thought it was an invincible army.

Every officer and soldier in the Yongwei Battalion was covered in armor from top to bottom, holding a steel gun tightly in his hand, and could only see cold faces with no expression through the iron helmet.

Such a chilling atmosphere made the two of them shudder.

As for kneeling, it was a completely spontaneous and unconscious behavior. It was not until Zhu Youxiao opened his mouth leisurely that they were suddenly brought back to reality.

Zhu Youxiao took the rein of the horse with one hand, looked down from top to bottom and said:

"I was in the Forbidden City, and when I heard there was a rebellion in Baishui County, I brought the Yongwei Battalion with me. Do you know what I'm doing here?"

Only then did the two understand the importance the emperor attached to this matter, and they shook their heads in unison.

"I just want to see who has the courage to make Daming and rebel me!" Zhu Youxiao said, narrowing his eyes.

The governor of the Yongwei Battalion, Chen Ce, also snorted coldly, but did not speak.

Wang Er summoned up his courage, gritted his teeth, and said, "Your Majesty, please allow Caomin to explain!"

"Speak."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Wang Erru was pardoned, hunched over, "The reason for everything is that the Baishui County Government collects land occupation tax, and we have to use our land deed to offset the tax."

Zhong Guangdao also said at this time: "Yes, Your Majesty, if you can survive, who is willing to gather a crowd to attack the county government? I hope Your Majesty will see clearly!"

"Nonsense, didn't I cancel all exorbitant taxes in the first year of Tianqi, and exempt them for three years?" Zhu Youxiao's face was full of disbelief.

Wang Er was eager to prove himself and said:

"If Your Majesty doesn't believe it, please go and ask the people in Baishui County. If the grass people lie, the whole county will help the grass people lie and deceive Tianwei!"

Zhu Youxiao thought for a while, nodded and said:

"Zong Guangdao stays here, you go back and tell them to lay down their swords and soldiers, and go out of the city to report the matter in detail. If it is true, it is the local government that collects taxes, and I will definitely give you justice!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!!" Wang Er and Zhong Guangdao didn't expect the emperor to be so reasonable. They looked at each other excitedly and kowtowed continuously.

Wang Er stepped on the tattered straw sandals and ran back to the city. After a while, the people from the top of the city gradually went down to the city and appeared at the city gate step by step.

"Prepare--!"

The Yongwei Battalion immediately lined up, and the officer of the shotgun team trotted forward, commanding the shotgunners behind him to raise their muskets with a command knife, aiming at the people supporting the old and the young at the gate of the city.

A cavalryman stepped forward and shouted loudly: "Here is the Son of Heaven! You all step forward, stop as soon as I say, and continue forward when the time comes, kill!"

When the common people heard the words, they quickly began to discuss, and when they saw the emperor's army leading the army, they gradually stopped discussing.

When they were about a hundred steps away from Zhu Youxiao and his party, the cavalryman suddenly shouted: "Stop! Don't go any further!"

"Anyone who dares to take a step forward will be killed!"

Soon, the people stopped in a panic.

Out of fear, the people all huddled together. A middle-aged man didn't know whether he was pushed out, or what, he staggered a few steps forward, and then fell to the ground.