Great time travel

Chapter 153, The Chaos of Jiangnan

The scorching sun in midsummer casts on the narrow and winding old streets and alleys of the Jiangnan water town, but it cannot bring a little comfort to the hungry and unemployed workers—these earliest members of the proletariat in China are now The streets and alleys are struggling to death.

As stated in the history textbooks of later generations, the Jiangnan area in the late Ming Dynasty was densely populated, with prosperous cities, prosperous industry and commerce, and the early sprouts of capitalism had already appeared.Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou, the four major cities, were said to have a population of about one million at that time, and they were called "the capital of merchants in the world. The two places in Wuzhong and Jinling accounted for seven out of ten, central Fujian accounted for three out of ten, and Beidi Even the capital is incomparable."

In addition to commercial development, large-scale handicraft textile workshops also appeared in the Jiangnan area. Silk from Susong Lake, bookstores in Hangzhou, and cotton cloth from Songjiang were sold all over the world.The maximum number of employees in its workshops can reach several thousand, forming a large number of urban working class.

However, since the natural economy of men farming and women weaving has developed into a capitalist market economy of mass production, it is natural to be inseparable from raw material production areas and sales markets.At the same time, with the increase of the non-agricultural population and the growth of industrial and commercial cities, more grain was needed to be obtained from rural grain-producing areas—so, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River could no longer be self-sufficient in grain and had to rely on external input up.

Therefore, during the six-year war in Chongzhen, the early capitalist economy in the Jiangnan area suffered a devastating and tragic blow.

Because the Wenxiangjiao demons have caused troubles in Jiangbei since last year, from Jining, Shandong all the way to Yangzhou, the cotton grown in Shandong and Lianghuai has no hope;
After capturing Zhoushan, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Wenzhou and other seaports in eastern Zhejiang, the Australian bandits launched a long-range blockade at the mouth of the Yangtze River based on the Shengsi Islands, intercepting and detaining any ships that dare to go to sea, and cutting off the overseas export of Jiangnan products. channel;

After the loss of overseas markets, because Emperor Chongzhen came to Huguang to prepare for the crusade against the false emperors in the south of the Yangtze River, he issued an order to seal off the river. As a result, not only the industry and commerce in the south of the Yangtze River lost the inland market in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, but also the major cities in the south of the Yangtze River could no longer Get Huguang's grain and rice supply!

As the life-threatening raw material production areas, sales markets, and food import channels were all destroyed in a short period of time, the entire Jiangnan region suddenly fell into an unprecedented economic crisis.The cotton spinning industry in Songjiang lost its supply of cotton and was forced to shut down. The products of other handicraft workshops also quickly accumulated a large number of products, which could not be digested in the local market.So all of a sudden, workshops and workshops in various cities in the south of the Yangtze River went bankrupt, and thousands of citizens lost their jobs collectively.

What's more terrible is that hundreds of thousands of war refugees poured in from Jiangbei and Zhejiang, and dealt a fatal blow to the Jiangnan Communist Party, which was already overwhelmed. The land, the rice production in the south of the Yangtze River, is no longer enough for the local people to live.However, now that a large number of refugees are pouring into the south of the Yangtze River, the number of people who need food continues to increase, while the original food import channels have all been cut off!To make matters worse, even in such a situation where the entire society is like a powder keg, those cunning grain merchants with deep backgrounds are still hoarding grain and rice, making rumors, and hyping wildly... As a result, even after the summer grain is on the market, all the people in the south of the Yangtze River The price of grain in big cities is still as high as eight taels of silver per stone of brown rice!

However, despite the overwhelmed people's livelihood in the south of the Yangtze River, the Emperor Yonghe in Nanjing will continue to extort violently: Facing the Emperor Chongzhen who is raising troops in Wuchang, the entire Nanjing court has reached a consensus that the army must be expanded as soon as possible. Try to protect yourself!However, even at such a moment of life and death, the Jiangnan Donglin Party's landlords, gentry, and wealthy merchant groups are still reluctant to part with good fortune and do not give up a hair.

In the end, Zhou Yanru, the chief assistant of the cabinet of Emperor Yonghe in Nanjing, had no choice but to refocus his idea on Shengdou Xiaomin who was already struggling on the verge of death. The distribution of each level is increased, and considering the pervasive corruption and exploitation of officials at all levels, when it falls on the common people, it has become a very terrifying astronomical figure.

In this way, on the one hand, a large number of citizens are collectively unemployed and have no income; The food that wasn't enough to eat...and the court's crazily apportioning new military expenditures made the people in dire straits worse.Finally, the powder kegs of the entire Jiangnan were detonated!

A large-scale civil uprising that swept almost the entire south of the Yangtze River broke out vigorously in the summer of the sixth year of Chongzhen!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"... Grab the rice! Grab the rice! Let's grab the rice together!"

"...People who don't want to starve to death, just go and rob those profiteers and eat the rich!"

"...Wait for me! Go together! Go together!"

……

The entrance of the largest grain store in Suzhou City was crowded with unemployed weavers in ragged clothes. Everyone was starving and emaciated, but their eyes seemed to be on fire!At this time, these desperate unemployed are swarming into the store, carrying a bag of rice and wheat, and walking out.The shopkeepers, clerks and bodyguards who tried to stop them were all beaten and bloody by the flock of hungry people.Bags of white rice were scattered all over the street in a mess.

——In any era and in any country, hunger will give people unprecedented strength, especially when they are desperate. Then these hungry people, no matter how law-abiding they are on weekdays, will also be driven by the desire to survive. Turn your poverty, anxiety, and resentment into unprecedented courage, use your fists and even your life, to fight for a chance to survive with a full stomach!
Seeing this, a winking clerk from the grain store hurried to the yamen to fetch reinforcements.Unexpectedly, as soon as he ran outside the yamen of the prefect of Suzhou, he saw a group of scholars wearing square scarves on their heads and straight skirts.Although there are guards with water and fire sticks and guards carrying knives and guns in the yamen, they are never relentless in suppressing drafters on weekdays, but now they are very afraid of these scholars with fame, and they dare not use knives. Stick greeted him, but backed away timidly.

When those scholars and Tongsheng saw this, they became even more courageous, and shouted: "...it is this dog official who corrupted the law and colluded with profiteers, making us Suzhou people unable to eat rice and wear clothes! It seems that this kind of traitor is the culprit." , everyone might as well rush in and beat him to death, so as to eliminate a great harm for the imperial court!"

Immediately, someone in the team responded: "...That's right, today we stormed the magistrate's yamen, that is a feat of petitioning for the people and eradicating traitors for the country!" The festival of death is today! Let's smash it together!"

All of a sudden, all kinds of soil and rubble mixed with old vegetable skins flew towards the magistrate's yamen like a downpour, forcing the officials and guards to close the gates and act like turtles.As soon as the door was closed, there was a thumping sound from outside, as if countless rubble and bricks were smashing on the door.One of the yamen servants retreated a few steps slowly, and was hit by a stone on the forehead, and blood flowed out immediately, which looked terrifying.

Unexpectedly, even though the yamen of the prefect of Suzhou had given in so much, these mad dog-like scholars still refused to give up. The torch is also thrown in!

——In the Jiangnan cities at the end of Ming Dynasty, all kinds of resistance consciousness in the society was very strong, and it was not uncommon for scholars to organize tax resistance and attack the government.It was recorded in the notes of the scholars at that time, "... (Jiangnan) Shilin atmosphere, like to gather together and insult Yousi. Good at compiling scripts and contemporary essays, satirizing officials and officials for their viciousness, especially in Wuzhong"—in short, it is It is said that these restless students and talents often like to organize troubles in their neighborhoods and neighbors, and expand their influence through songs, dramas and novels, launch public opinion attacks and mass movements against the government, and even lead prostitutes, hawkers, workers and street people The idlers stormed the yamen together, fought a lot, even set fire to the house, and finally achieved the purpose of forcing the government to make concessions or force officials to step down.

This kind of situation where scholars took the lead in making troubles occurred almost every year in Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty.Because scholars are a privileged class, most of the officials dare not suppress bloodyly, and the final result is often that the government compromises and retreats, while the leading scholars gain great reputation and gain both fame and fortune.

Even the founders of the early Donglin Party and Fushe used this mass movement to gain popularity.For example, Zhang Pu, the leader of Fushe, once wrote the "Steles of Five People" for the five victims of the Suzhou civil uprising in the sixth year of Tianqi, and became famous all over the world for a while.