Great time travel

Chapter 77. Undercurrent in Fujian
In the summer of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Fuzhou City, Fujian Governor's Yamen
In the small study of the back government office where the incense was lit, Zou Weilian, the governor of Fujian Province of the Ming Dynasty, was sleeping on a bamboo recliner, with his eyes closed and his face full of exhaustion.

Fujian governor Zou Weilian, who just passed his fiftieth birthday this year, can only be considered middle-aged at best among the great officials of the Ming Dynasty.Liaodong Governor Sun Chengzong, who has a comparable status, is 69 years old and is still fighting on the front line against the Jurchen soldiers... However, at this time, Governor Zou's complexion is dark, his face is haggard, and his hair is full of hair. White hair, but at first glance, people can almost mistake it for an old man in his seventies.

——No way, his former governor, Xiong Wencan, really left Zou Weilian with a rotten mess that couldn't be worse.With Zou Weilian's insight and ability, he really didn't know how to deal with it, so he could only pinch his nose and eat a vegetarian meal from the dead body, and he would hit the clock for a day as a monk.

Whenever he thinks of this section, Zou Weilian can't help but want to sigh: Why is my life so miserable?

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Since Xiong Wencan took office as the governor of Fujian in the first year of Chongzhen, in order to cooperate with the political mission of the central government to "clean up the remnants of the eunuch party", he has been fighting against the strongest military leader in Fujian Province. Commander of Funing Guard, General Huangshi, the general of Fujian North Road, carried out all-round suppression (because Huangshi was once reused by Emperor Tianqi, and he was relatively close to the nine thousand-year-old Wei Zhongxian)——Although above the court, there is an emperor Master Sun Chengzong and others tried their best to argue, claiming that the current country is in constant war, and the general must not be beheaded for no reason, so Huangshi did not fall into the same fate as Wei Zhongxian, but in the wave of Donglin Party's comprehensive counter-offensive, the Fujian government is not far behind. Not only did they completely stop paying the Funing Army's salaries and rations, but they even allowed the gentry to embezzle the cultivated land of Funingwei in an attempt to destroy this "eunuch minions" step by step.

Unexpectedly, the Funing Army, which had repeatedly defeated the establishment of slaves, was not a soft persimmon that civil officials could knead at will, but a lawless and arrogant soldier.Facing the blatant persecution by the governor's yamen, the Funing Army quickly launched the most intense armed confrontation—the government servants, the servants of the gentry, and Xiong Wencan's "Fubiao" (guards directly under the governor) were all easily defeated by Huangshi .Xiong Wencan, who personally led the team to Xiapu to trouble Huangshi, was unlucky enough to become a prisoner because of an insider who informed him, and was finally forced to sign a lot of documents before being released.

——Xiong Wencan can certainly report to the imperial court that Huangshi rebelled, but the problem is that the Funing Army is stationed in Xiapu, and the interior is impenetrable. Everyone hates the Fujian government and can break through Fuzhou at any time. powerful.Not to mention that Huangshi was the "No. [-] master in the world" who once entered Liaoyang alone to kill Nurhachi. Xiong Wencan really dare not bet that his head is more difficult to cut than Nurhachi's...

After learning from the pain, Xiong Wencan believed that the reason why he suffered such shame and humiliation was because of his lack of armed forces, so he offered extremely generous treatment and recruited Zheng Zhilong, who had been looting the coast of Fujian for a long time before. "Sea Lord", and awarded Zheng Zhilong as "Coastal Defense Guerrilla".

At the same time, Xiong Wencan actively sent people to act in the imperial court, impeached Huangshi and Funing Army for a lot of crimes, and then claimed that in order to appease the pirates and pacify the Fujian Sea, Huangshi's head was needed to establish prestige and give a "sea master" Let's vent our anger... According to Xiong Wencan's plan, he hopes to turn Huangshi into a traitor in one go, and then try to assassinate Huangshi just like Yuan Chonghuan set up a bureau to kill Mao Wenlong in Liaodong before, so that Funing's army will become leaderless and scattered.If the assassination fails, then simply mobilize the southern soldiers and horses, come to the capitals of the six provinces to suppress, and completely remove this thorn in the side in one go.

But the problem is that when Xiong Wencan's memorial was sent to Beijing, it had been three years since Chongzhen. In the area of ​​Xuanfu and Datong, the flames of war are already connected to one another... When the Tartars went south last time, due to the mutiny and rebellion of the Guanning Army, the city of Beijing almost fell, and in the end Emperor Chongzhen could only be hacked into pieces Dushi Yuan vented his anger.Faced with the Tartars breaking through and going south, Emperor Chongzhen didn't know how to deal with it. At this time, he was shocked to see that Xiong Wencan was going to kill the general again in violation of the system. Killed Mao Wen and Long Liwei, and then put Jiannu under the city of Beijing.Xiong Wencan is now saying that in order to calm the sea, he needs to kill Huangshi, who is more famous, to unify his powers. God knows what troubles will happen?
Moreover, the north is in such a state of chaos, and you still want to start a war in the south—you dare to say that you are a loyal minister, who would believe it?

Emperor Chongzhen, who already had a psychological shadow, immediately refuted Xiong Wencan's absurd suggestion. Looking back, he was not at ease, lest Xiong Wencan would not do two things, just like Yuan Chonghuan before, simply forged imperial edicts to kill people, and hurried to Fujian Issued a secret decree, threatening Xiong Wencan with a stern voice, telling him not to forget Yuan Chonghuan's fate of being hacked into pieces...Seeing that the emperor not only did not support him, but also issued a secret decree to threaten him, Monk Zhang Er was puzzled for a while Xiong Wencan also had no choice but to put off the idea of ​​killing Huangshi for the time being, but his petty actions continued one after another, such as implying that the local government gave preferential treatment to Zheng Zhilong and other defected pirates, inciting the gentry and villagers in Fujian, and constantly insulting and harshly treating Huangshi's subordinates.

This kind of all-round suppression and cold violence is really quite difficult. Thanks to the secret blood transfusion from Zhang Wei and Lingao in Taiwan, Huangshi was able to barely maintain the Funing Army from collapsing. There is no more nostalgia for the court, and he has since become the vanguard of Qiongzhou's "Kun Thieves".And the whole of the Funing Army, who had been bullied, was also filled with righteous indignation at the Fujian government, and completely voted for the "Kun Thief". (Zou Weilian's personal understanding)

After such tossing until the autumn of the third year of Chongzhen, Qiongzhou's "Kun bandits" with strong ships and powerful guns swept across the Pearl River, bombarded Guangzhou, and forced the Guangzhou government to sign an alliance under the city. , In one breath, he smashed the Zheng family's soldiers and horses entrenched in southern Fujian, and beheaded Zheng Zhilong's family.Next, Huang Shi led the Funing Army to pretend to go south from Xiapu to rescue, but in fact it was to strangle the remnants of Zheng's army and attempt to dominate Fujian.

Seeing that the tough pirates he had worked so hard to raise were destroyed overnight, Xiong Wencan, who was furious, healed his scars and forgot about the pain, and brought the standard guards out to find Huangshi's troubles, but in the end he was defeated again and became a prisoner for the second time ... Facing Huangshi's invincible army and the reality that the Zheng family's fleet has been destroyed, Xiong Wencan, who had lost all his bargaining chips, was finally forced to bow his head, reach a compromise with Huangshi, and jointly fool the court—Huangshi was promoted to the general army of Fujian because of his "military exploits", and Xiong Wencan He moved to serve as governor of Guangdong, Guangxi and governor of Guangdong, and went to Lingnan to clean up the mess after the invasion of the Kun bandits.

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By the time Zou Weilian, the new governor of Fujian who came to replace Xiong Wencan, finally took office, the situation in Fujian had become unmanageable—the rich commercial ports of Quanzhou, Anping, and Xiamen in southern Fujian had all been controlled by the Funing army.The local governments in southern Fujian were completely evacuated by the "work teams" of the gangsters. The government servants either voted for the gangsters, or were forcibly dismissed or even arrested and imprisoned. County officials who did not cooperate would even be "dead from illness"!The Fujian navy and the local guards in southern Fujian have also been incorporated by the Kun bandits. Apart from wearing a piece of Ming skin, they already look like foreign countries.

And in northern Fujian, where the provincial capital Fuzhou is located, the Funing Army also left behind such a big nail as the old battalion in Xiapu. It made Zou Weilian unhappy to eat and sleep hard...

As a traditional civil servant and scholar-bureaucrat, Zou Weilian certainly couldn't tolerate these lowly warriors acting perversely and domineering over the noble literati.The other officers and soldiers in Fujian Province had already been completely defeated, demobilized, or incorporated by the Funing Army. By the time he took office, the governor's office had neither soldiers nor wealth, and could only control the slap in the center of Fuzhou. A large area—the most fertile southern Fujian has naturally become the territory of Huangshi. As for the vast inland mountainous areas in western Fujian, it has been "dissatisfied with the king" for a long time...

——When historians study the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty, they often only focus on Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others in Shanxi in the northwest, but they don’t know that in the relatively prosperous southeastern provinces, during the reign of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty, the same Public grievances arose, uprisings continued, and wars were frequent: Although it was not like in the north, where there were often armed parades of tens of thousands of people, it was not uncommon for thousands or tens of thousands of people to besiege the county town.

As early as April [-]th, the first year of Chongzhen, a South Jiangxi uprising army led the crowd to break through Anyuan County, robbed the treasury and released prisoners, and announced the founding of the dynasty (many peasant armies like to play house games like this).After being defeated by the Jiangxi government army, Yu Bu fled into Fujian again, and immediately set off a prairie fire.

Although Fujian at that time did not suffer from very serious natural disasters, the people were forced to live in poverty by the imperial court's exorbitant taxes, especially the newly added "Liao Pay" and "Suppression Pay". In fact, with the great prosperity of industry and commerce in the late Ming The scene, such a small tax is just a drop in the bucket, but the problem is that the imperial court's tax collection falls entirely on the peasant households, robbing them of their food and silver, and driving them to do labor, and all the suffering will fall on them.In contrast to desperately squeezing farmers, the imperial court basically did not collect business taxes.The result is that wealthy gentry and merchants do not pay taxes, and farmers who pay taxes have no money.Moreover, due to the corruption in the officialdom at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court set a tax amount of one tael of silver, which was added layer by layer, and in the end it would become a real income of ten taels of silver. How could the peasants who were already in a difficult situation withstand such a squeeze? ?However, the land in Fujian is barren, and the rice produced by an acre of paddy fields can only be sold for more than one tael of silver, but the government's taxes have to receive as much as two taels or even five taels of silver per mu!Not counting the rent to the landlord!
As a result, farmers throughout Fujian had no way out, and they abandoned their fields and fled.In the coastal areas of southern Fujian and northern Fujian, ordinary people can barely make ends meet by fishing and cooking salt, or join the Funing Army as military households to make a living—officials who dare to stretch their hands on the territory of the Funing Army have been cut off .If it really doesn't work, going out to the South China Sea or going to various "sea masters" and "Australian bandits" as far away as Qiongzhou is also a way to survive.

However, in the inland mountainous area of ​​western Fujian, the common people have no other way out except farming, and they live together with ethnic minorities. It works just by talking. Usually, group fights between Tujia and Hakka people are continuous.Faced with such harsh exploitation that does not give them a way to survive, the mountain people in western Fujian simply rose up one after another, uniting with heroes from southern Jiangxi and northern Guangdong, as well as cottage chieftains of the She nationality, across the majestic mountains, repeatedly attacking Jinshen manors and government taxpayers. Card.When the Gannan uprising army retreated into Fujian, the powder keg was completely detonated. Most of Fujian was in the midst of endless anti-tax riots and fell into total chaos.

——No way, the Ming Dynasty is such a deadly dynasty that played itself to death. All the burdens of the whole country are on the peasant households. All the expenses of raising officials and soldiers, and the private benefits from the court to local officials also come from the peasant households Squeeze on the head, so layer upon layer, the people are overwhelmed and go bankrupt one after another, their land is annexed by the gentry who do not pay taxes, and fewer and fewer people can pay taxes, and the farmers who have not yet gone bankrupt will have to bear more and more burdens. The heavier the tax and corvee.If this vicious cycle continues, the country will have no tax to collect and the finances will go bankrupt, while farmers will rise up and fight everywhere.

In the original history, because the southern provinces were relatively richer and richer, and the servants of the landlords and gentry were more powerful, they could withstand the consumption of long-term battles. In addition, the southern mountains were undulating and the roads were rough, making it difficult for the rebel army to maneuver for long distances. The development situation of the southern uprising army is not as good as that of the north. Although it has not been completely extinguished, it is basically suppressed to the extent of avoiding the mountains and forming a village for self-protection, without causing any big waves.Occasionally there was a big disturbance, but it was just a thousand people marching outside the city in arms, and when the officers and soldiers arrived, these people dispersed.

But in this time and space, because of Huang Shi and Xiong Wencan's repeated fighting methods, most of the more effective officers and landlords in Fujian Province were wiped out in private fights with the Funing Army.The remaining armed forces also had to fight against the "Australian forces" represented by the Funing Army, and they simply ignored the peasant uprising army in the inland mountainous areas, forming a military vacuum.The traverser forces represented by Huangshi also have the idea of ​​raising their own self-respect. They once provided a lot of support to the peasant armies in western Fujian, and even directly intervened to support the forces. As a result, the peasant armies in western Fujian fought The ability has made a big leap. Starting from the second year of Chongzhen, Changting, Shaxian, Gucheng, Ninghua and other places in the interior of Fujian have fallen one after another.In February of the fourth year of Chongzhen, a Fujian uprising army broke through Ruijin County in southern Jiangxi, and once again burned the flames of war outside the province.

By the fifth year of Chongzhen in this time and space, the southern Jiangxi, western Fujian, and northeastern mountainous areas of Guangdong in the south of the Ming Empire, Shaxian County in the east, and Ganzhou in the west, roughly corresponded to the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and the Ruijin Central Committee in the 30s. A place as large as the revolutionary base has basically escaped the control of the Ming Dynasty government, and has fallen into a state of total chaos where "thieves are swarming and each occupies a prefecture or county cottage."If it weren't for these insurgents being separated by mountains, not belonging to each other, and in a state of disunity, then the entire south may have entered their attack range!
Faced with such a situation, the existence of the Funing Army has instead become a major backing for the Fujian government to survive-in the case that its own force has been defeated, if there is no Funing Army to deter the "bandits in western Fujian", they will instead bring The Funing army was forced to mutiny, and incidentally provoked the powerful "Australians" in the Fujian Sea. Facing the three-sided attack of the rebels, pirates, and peasants, I am afraid that even the provincial capital Fuzhou will not be able to defend.

At that time, the whole province of Fujian will fall, and it will surely shake the world. No matter how he, the governor of Fujian, thinks, he will be to blame. Everyone in the clan will be unlucky together!

What's worse, even if Zou Weilian risked his life to serve the imperial court and fight against Huangshi, a domineering feudal town, he would not get any support from the imperial court at the moment - because the Dalinghe Battle ended in a disastrous defeat at the beginning of the year, and the imperial court spent a lot of money The tens of thousands of Guanning iron cavalry built with the capital invested in the country actually surrendered to Houjin collectively, which angered the emperor.Sun Chengzong, governor of Liaodong, and Zhou Yanru, the chief assistant of the cabinet, have both resigned and resigned.

As a result, the power of the Donglin Party in the court suffered an unprecedented blow, and it was also rejected by Emperor Chongzhen, and its momentum was not as good as before.However, Wen Tiren, the minister of rites from another faction, took the opportunity to be promoted to the new chief assistant, seeing that a counterattack against the Donglin Party was imminent—Wen Tiren was always narrow-minded and treacherous, and he had flattered Zhou Yanru on the surface before, but secretly Seeking to seize the position of his chief assistant.In the imperial court at that time, anyone who had been around for a few years generally knew Wen Tiren's nature. In other words, everyone knew that he was an expert in manipulating people with small guts.

However, Zou Weilian is not only from the Donglin Party, but also a political enemy with Wen Tiren in the party struggle, and even has a personal enmity with him... What's more, as far as Yu Gong is concerned, with the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Daling River, the entire northern border defense is in danger. On the verge of collapse, a partial division of Jiannu in Liaodong has broken through the pass and went south, rampaging around in Northern Zhili!In such a situation where the imperial capital is in a hurry, neither the emperor nor the cabinet would want to provoke a new war in the south.

In short, Zou Weilian knew very well that if he forcibly dealt with Huangshi at this time, he might not only get no help from the court, but would be beaten up by the cabinet controlled by Wen Tiren, an old enemy, charged with a bunch of crimes, and even dismissed from his post and sent to prison , It is possible to vent your anger on Huangshi!

That being the case, he, the governor of Fujian who doesn't love his father or mother, why bother?It is a day to be able to survive a day!

At any rate, the current situation can barely be maintained, Fuzhou is basically stable, and although the Funing Army is colluding with pirates and being domineering, at least they have no plans to raise the flag to rebel, and the annual official tax can basically be paid in full, but The gray income of officials at all levels has shrunk to a certain extent...but it is much better than those poor mud legs who became bandits and bandits who broke the provincial government and were forced to die in the city.

As for the various evil deeds of the Funing Army in various counties in southern Fujian, such as bullying civil servants, treating gentry harshly, massacring scholars, burning tribute courts, levying commercial taxes, forming grievances against rich families, opening schools and spreading fallacies and heresies... well, as long as they don’t come to Fuzhou, He also had to pretend not to know.

Therefore, three months ago, Zhang Dai, together with a group of Fushe scholars and Donglin juniors, visited Fuzhou and "exposed" to Zou Weilian the "conspiracy" of Huang Shi colluding with the bandits and betraying the imperial court. When the Donglin party members in the court halls in the northern and southern capitals cooperated internally and externally to launch a collective attack on Huangshi, Zou Weilian's head suddenly became dizzy, and he could only slander secretly with a wry smile——Zhang Dai, you rich and idle person, how do you know the pain I am suffering right now?Right now, the governor's yamen is barely able to protect themselves, so how can they deal with the world's top-ranking arrogant soldiers like the Funing Army?
When it was discovered from the mouths of these juniors that the mastermind who instigated this matter was actually Qian Qianyi who was living in seclusion at home, Zou Weilian praised him even more, but cursed repeatedly in his stomach, "...Qian Muzhai, you old man Slippery! Do you want to treat me like a meat bun and throw it to that vicious dog in Huangshi to eat me?"

——Different from those junior members of the Donglin Party who only know how to sing high-profile all day long, Zou Weilian, an old fritter who has been immersed in officialdom for many years, can see through Qian Qianyi at a glance to incite the Donglin Party to launch a political trend and force against Huangshi and the Funing Army Sinister intentions: From the perspective of the Ming court, at this time when the country is unstable and the world is troubled, even if they are determined to eradicate the Funing Army in Huangshi, they should act in secret to minimize risks and turmoil and reduce incidents. Backlash and influence are right. For example, setting up traps and sending masters to ambush and assassinate Huangshi is the real best strategy.

However, for Qian Qianyi, who is currently unemployed at home and eager to make a big contribution to recover himself, this is the best way to deal with the country, but it is the worst way to deal with him—as a helpless A low-level politician without power, he can't get involved in this matter and gain political capital.Even if Huang Shi and his henchmen are successfully eradicated, all the credit and benefits will be divided between the local political groups in Fujian and the Donglin Party members who serve in the court.Therefore, based on the Donglin Party's long-standing tradition of internal strife that makes people vomit blood, Qian Qianyi deliberately chose the most lively, sensational, and most harmful way to deal with the country: that is, to launch a campaign between the government and the opposition. The wave of public opinion and political criticism forcibly forced the Funing Army against Huangshi!Create a big battle against several provincial capitals!
In Qian Qianyi's view, since Huangshi's ambitions have been revealed, he must rebel next, so now he is mobilizing all his forces to impeach Huangshi with great fanfare. Re-enter the emperor's vision.As for the killing of corpses and the displacement of the people in Fujian after the Huangshi uprising?So what's the matter with Qian Qianyi?This is all the responsibility of the governor of Fujian?Anyway, Qian Qianyi will be far away in the south of the Yangtze River at that time. As the saying goes, a dead Taoist friend will never die a poor Taoist—whether it will force the general against the border and bring a catastrophe to the country, as long as he can take the credit for the prosecution in his own hands, he will be fine. Alright... This is the Donglin Party's consistent urgency, and Zou Weilian is well aware of it.

Therefore, in the face of Zhang Dai's impassioned speeches for several days, Zou Weilian just responded vaguely, and finally, after a lot of talking, he finally used the excuse of "the time is not yet ripe" to get Zhang Dai and the others to perfunctory.Then they entertained them with delicious food and drinks, visited mountains and rivers for a few days, and gave them many newly launched "Australia and Song Dynasty products" as gifts, and finally sent back these guys who were purely here to make trouble.

However, what Governor Zou Weilian didn't know at this time was that this matter was far from over...