Chongzhen Wiretapping System

Chapter 318 Who is Amitabha

If this incident happened in the past, it would definitely cause an uproar.

Not to mention anything else, let's not talk about how powerful Shihlin is on the Jiangnan side.The salt merchants also keep a lot of pens, and when the time comes, they will criticize them with words and pens, and believe it or not, they will be able to scold the court into shit.If that's the case, it doesn't matter, if you scold you, I'll copy mine.

However, there will be civil uprisings here in the south of the Yangtze River. If you dare to attack the interest groups represented by salt merchants, they will be able to instigate civil uprisings and drive desperadoes who sell salt to make trouble.At that time, it's really hard to say what kind of chaos will be in Jiangnan.

In fact, even when inspecting Shanxi merchants in the north, they were very cautious. It was only after Emperor Chongzhen had a direct army that he could truly control and laid a big plan that he dared to attack Shanxi merchants.

However, it is precisely because of the examples of Shanxi merchants in the north that more or less demonstrate the methods of the imperial court.

Then, the civil uprising in Changshu was suppressed by the eunuchs in charge of Nanjing. Qian Qianyi, the leader of Donglin, and others, no matter how many connections and backgrounds you have, were directly designated as treason by the emperor, and there were more than 100 black hats who fell from the horse. , This is a completely different result from the civil uprising in Wanli.

In addition, during the flood in the south of the Yangtze River, the imperial court did everything possible to relieve the disaster, which greatly strengthened the imperial court's prestige among the people.Even if some people want to bewitch, it is impossible for the common people to follow.

Right from wrong, good from bad, most people can tell the difference.

As a result, the officialdom and the people were either frightened or out of gratitude, and not many people opposed the imperial court's large-scale action against the big salt merchants.

That's why, this Jiangnan operation did not touch the elite army under the Yumajian, but the Jinyiwei dispatched to coordinate with the local army, and it was implemented.

It can also be seen from here that the imperial court's control over the local area is slowly recovering again.

Of course, there must be some people who have doubts about such a big matter.The salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River are so far away from Liaodong, how did they get through with captives?

Before these doubts spread, Jin Yiwei issued an announcement, explaining how Le Qingsheng and Jianlu people colluded, finally reached an agreement, and shipped the first batch of goods. As proof.The people who participated in it had Wu Zhong's inner strength, so they were naturally captured by Jin Yiwei one by one.

The matter of the salt merchant's cooperation with captives progressed very quickly, and related memorials were delivered to the imperial court soon.Then Emperor Chongzhen became angry, saying that the salt merchants and the Yandao Yamen sucked the people's fat and the people's ointment. The old salt administration had reached the point where it had to be reformed.A signal was sent to the whole country, and the salt administration was quickly reformed.

In the past, most of the revenue of the imperial treasury came from the salt tax.Therefore, the general emperor does not have the courage to do this, for fear that even the original amount of salt tax will be lost.However, this obviously does not include Emperor Chongzhen.

He has already thought about how to reform the salt administration.However, if the big salt merchants were caught and launched immediately, then anyone would feel that the emperor had planned it long ago, and then deduce that those big salt merchants were actually scapegoats, just blocking the emperor's way of reforming the salt administration.

Therefore, if you want to look good, you can't rush to introduce it, let the ministers have a discussion process, and finally the Emperor Chongzhen will guide him to introduce the salt policy he wants.

When all parts of Ming Dynasty were guessing what the new salt administration would be like, on the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Lushun, which was famous in later generations, was very calm, as if it was no different from usual.

In the past, when Ming Dynasty wanted to pass through Liaodong, all the materials supplied to Liaodong were shipped by sea. They would start from Dengzhou or Tianjin and then land in Lushun.

Because of the importance of the location of Lushun, during the Hongwu and Yongle years, the Ming Dynasty set up many important military towns on the Liaodong Peninsula, and established a defense system centered on Jinzhou and Gaizhou.

In Jinzhou, it was where the Liaodong Capital Commander Division was located, and later, it became the Jinzhou Guard Commander Division Governance Office.

And Lushun is a thousand households under Jinzhouwei. In the original time, only trees were used as fences, and a wooden fence city was built for defense.Later, due to the defense against Japanese pirates, the position of Lushun became more and more important. In the tenth year of Yongle, under the auspices of Xu Gang, the commander of the Jinzhou Guard, Muzha City was changed into a brick city, and it was divided into two cities, the north and the south.

Among them, the north city is surrounded by one mile and 180 steps. The wall is one foot and two feet high and two feet wide.There are two city gates, "Jinghai" in the south and "Weiwu" in the north.

The southern city is slightly larger than the northern city, with a circumference of [-] paces per mile, a wall of [-] zhang [-] chi high and a width of [-] zhang [-] chi.The same two city gates, "Tongjin" in the south and "Renhe" in the north.

However, with the passage of time, corruption prevailed in the Daming Guard, and military households fled. Therefore, in the 44th year of Jiajing, Nancheng had to be abandoned.When Beicheng was captured by the Qing Dynasty a few years ago, they demolished it.

In other words, there is not even a city in Lushun with such an important location.More precisely, not only were there no cities, there were no people.There was an order in the Qing Dynasty that Pianjia was not allowed to go to sea.

However, this order was loosened after King Zhishun Shang Kexi arrived in Jinzhou.At least the warships that were almost abandoned in Jinzhou have begun to be repaired again, and the sailors have been regrouped to start training.

No, even Lushun, which has had few people for many years, has many people here.

Most of them are migrant workers, or Han slaves. There are about 1000 people. Under the supervision of the Tartars, they are cleaning up the ruins of the northern and southern cities of Lushun.Among them, Beicheng has been cleaned up for more than a month, and the city can already be seen again.

On a section of the city wall that has been restored, a Tartar general, surrounded by a group of subordinates, scanned everything in front of him.He suddenly sighed and said, "This manpower is still too small!"

This person is none other than Ban Zhifu, one of Shang Kexi's confidant generals, who was sent by Shang Kexi to rebuild Lushun City.Because Shang Kexi, as the naval commander of Dongjiang Town back then, naturally knew the importance of Lushun.Since there is going to be something to do in the future, Lushun City must be rebuilt.

"My lord, I don't know what the imperial court is up to. Why did it demolish a good city in the first place!" One of his men heard this and complained.

Before Ban Zhifu could answer, the other person had already replied with resentment: "What else is there, isn't it because they are afraid of the sea! Those of them, who would dare to go into the sea!"

Although he did not say clearly what he was referring to, everyone present knew that he was referring to the Jurchens in Jianzhou.

Ban Zhifu frowned when he heard this, and immediately reprimanded him: "Enough is enough, stop talking nonsense!"

Naturally, these were all his confidantes, all his old subordinates, and it was impossible for him to punish him just because he complained about his master.

After a pause, he still explained: "What should be said and what should not be said, you have to have a sense of proportion. If the prince hears later, he won't let you off so easily. Do you understand? "

When his men heard this, they immediately became awe-inspiring.Because they knew that Ban Zhifu wasn't trying to scare them. Back then, their commander was conferred the title of King Zhishun by the emperor. Such a great favor also made their former commander, the current prince, very grateful.If you want to speak ill of the master in front of him, even if it is not intentional, you might be severely punished.

In fact, they are also aware of this point, so they hold back some of the anger they usually receive in their hearts, and now they just take the opportunity to vent it out for an excuse.

Shang Kexi was valued by Huang Taiji, but it didn't mean that they, ordinary Han soldiers, would not be discriminated against by Jianzhou Jurchen and Mongols.

Ban Zhifu obviously knew this too, and after explaining a sentence, he changed the subject, frowned and said, "I'll go back to Jinzhou tomorrow, and I need more manpower, otherwise Lushun City will not be able to complete the project." I know when it will be delayed. The prince said that the navy should be transferred here before July, after Lushun City is built."

Hearing this, his subordinates became a little curious, and asked again: "My lord, seeing that the prince is rebuilding warships, training sailors, and rebuilding Lushun City, shouldn't it be, Daming Navy?" Are you going to call me?"

"Nonsense!" Another subordinate immediately denied it without hesitation, "Dongjiang Town is gone, do you think there is any navy in Daming? If there is a navy, there will be no movement? This is all in the past how many years?"

"Yeah, the imperial court is corrupt..." Another subordinate immediately wanted to continue the topic, and when he saw Ban Zhifu's eyes turned over, he immediately came to his senses and quickly argued, "I mean the imperial court is corrupt, the emperor is stupid, and the treacherous officials are in power. , where did the money come from to build the ship? Just like the bears in the Ming Dynasty, aren’t we all dead-hearted? How could we still fight over it? Amitabha!"

Hearing this, remembering the past, these Liaodong Han people who were once soldiers of Dongjiang Town were silent for a while: the past is too painful to look back on!
But then, a person standing a little behind moved forward a little bit, showing a gossip look, lowered his voice and said: "It is said that this time the Qing army entered the pass and suffered a big defeat."

"Don't talk nonsense, how is it possible!" Immediately someone retorted, "Didn't you see that so many people and animals were robbed back? It was more than ever before! Oh, by the way, and the feudal king was brought in at once, How could this be a losing battle!"

"Yeah, if you really want to lose the battle, the emperor will definitely be furious, and I haven't seen anyone punished!"

"I really heard that they lost the battle. Those Jurchens have many widows, don't you know?"

"I think women are thinking too much, all nonsense!"

"..."

Ban Zhifu's status is higher than these people, so he naturally knows more than these people.According to the information he has learned, the defeat of the Qing army should be true.However, he didn't understand the specific situation. The reason why the people below didn't know was that the emperor deliberately dealt with it in a low-key manner.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help frowning. Regarding this point, he couldn't understand it. How could the Qing army be defeated when it was so powerful?Could it be that he got carried away because he played too smoothly?

After much deliberation, Ban Zhifu couldn't think of any other possibility.Because in his impression, Da Ming's incompetence is actually similar to what his subordinates said.

Back then, Shang Kexi was just a naval commander in Dongjiang Town, his status was even lower, and he was only in Liaodong, so his vision was naturally limited.Although Shang Kexi became king later, he was also restricted. Shang Kexi basically had no way of knowing about Daming, let alone him.

In fact, most people in Liaodong at this time still had the same impression of Daming as before.

Most people don't know what happened in the pass.Only those leaders among the Jianlu can understand that the Ming emperor suddenly became powerful, and on the Qing side, without the Shanxi merchants, they encountered difficulties.

Ban Zhifu listened to their chatter for a while, then interrupted them and said: "That's enough, don't care about things that you shouldn't care about. Keep an eye on all of you. There are just a few people. If someone escapes and delays the construction period, Those are all going to get a military stick!"

As soon as his men heard this, they immediately agreed. Then, another man said with a playful smile: "Sir, even if they are allowed to escape, where can they escape?"

"Yeah, maybe they can swim to Dengzhou, haha!"

"Even if someone escapes, it's not normal to report the loss of illness and death later. My lord will go to see the prince tomorrow, just need more manpower."

"..."

Seeing that they didn't seem to care, Ban Zhifu grimaced and said: "This time the imperial court allocated not many supplies to the lord, and the lord said to be careful. I don't know how much I can get when I go back this time." If you dare not be careful, believe it or not, I will deal with you with military law!"

Seeing him getting angry, these subordinates didn't dare to smile, and quickly promised that they would be careful.

But looking back, looking at those skinny Han Chinese, remembering the little food that was allocated, many of them lost confidence.They didn't believe that if Lushun City was to be repaired, how many of these people would survive.

In fact, to carry out heavy physical labor, that little food is actually not enough to eat at all.It is necessary to send out a team of soldiers to catch fish on the beach and replenish food.But even so, there are still people who die every day.

Time passed slowly, and soon it was evening.The sun was setting, dyeing the western sky red.

The Han slaves who worked were driven back to the half-built city by groups of these fake Tartars. They were surrounded by city walls, so it was much more convenient to guard them.

But not all the Han slaves were driven back, and a group of them carried their corpses to a nearby low cliff, planning to throw those companions who were exhausted to death today into the sea.And another group of Han slaves were driven to the beach, taking advantage of the low tide in the evening, to pick up more edible seafood.

The day seemed to pass again, and it was no different from usual.

After the light got darker, one of the Han slaves who were gathering seafood in groups at the beach suddenly whispered to his companion in front of him: "Brother, do you really want to escape tonight?"

(End of this chapter)