Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 1044

The street fighting in Nanjing lasted for three days, which surprised Qi Hu a little.You must know that there were very few street battles in ancient wars. Generally speaking, once the city gates are breached, a tough battle is over. Very few generals would mobilize the whole city to resist to the end at the last moment—they defended The common people are too late.After all, it is the common people who suffer the most in the war. In order to defend the city, the defenders must concentrate all the resources of the city, including the youth and food in the city. The discipline of the army is not good, and there is some bullying of men and women. Then, I am afraid that the people hate the defenders more than the enemy. Under such circumstances, who would dare to mobilize the people to fight in the streets?I'm afraid that after the common people get the weapons, they will kill the defenders first, right?But in Nanjing, the Ming army really encountered street fighting, and the fight was quite brutal. Many unarmed scholars climbed onto the roof and threw bricks and stones at the Ming army soldiers. The rebel soldiers occupied some strong buildings and fought to the end. Refusing to surrender, these guys finally let the Ming army find the feeling they should have in fighting.And the Ming army also appeared to be extraordinarily ruthless, as long as they held weapons in their hands, they would kill them all, regardless of whether they were scholars or women and children. For those rebels hiding in the building and resisting, they directly bombarded them with howitzers!They just want to tell the rebellious Jiangnan Gentry Group with bloody facts: Times have changed, and the imperial court will no longer tolerate them, scholar-bureaucrats!

Three days later, the street fighting ended, and the city of Nanjing was already covered with bones. I don’t know how many magnificent houses were bombarded by howitzers, and how many dignitaries committed suicide in despair. The alleys are full of unlucky people hanging themselves, and the whole of Nanjing is like hell.But even so, the Ming army who invaded the city was still stunned by the prosperity of Nanjing, and many soldiers were muttering: "They are so rich, why do they have to go to the opposite side of the empire step by step in order to pay less business taxes? In the end, they even colluded with foreign enemies and almost ruined the entire country? Are they thinking about soybean milk?"

Qi Hu governed the army very strictly. After capturing Nanjing, he immediately set out to restore order in Nanjing City. Any soldiers who dared to disturb the people, regardless of their rank, would be beheaded!The Zhejiang Army and the Huaisi Army, who were equally unruly, were more honest than Sun Tzu in front of him. The burning, killing, and looting that followed the destruction of the city was unthinkable. Not only did they not dare to think wrongly, but they also had to treat those injured in the war. The people were busy helping people repair their houses.At the same time, Qi Hu also led a group of people to search homes everywhere according to the foreign orders listed by the court. As long as they were Jin gentry related to this rebellion, no one could escape.Every time a house was raided, the confiscated property was truthfully announced. At the beginning, the people of Nanjing didn't think it was anything, but soon they were shocked by the series of numbers announced. In the end, the shock turned into anger. Everyone yelled: "Okay, you bunch of sanctimonious guys, you keep saying it's for justice and Han family ethics, but in fact it's all for money! In order to make more money, in order to keep the money you made, you treat us Jiangnan people as What a fool!!!" They couldn't help but be angry. Look at the published figures. A ninth-grade Zhima official has a fortune of tens of thousands. As for those wealthy businessmen who have been dealing in salt, iron and silk for generations, it is even more astonishing. Those figures can make people laugh. Scared out of a heart attack!Looking at this frightening figure, and then thinking about how stingy these guys were during the food shortage in Jiangnan, the people in Nanjing and even the entire Jiangnan felt like they were being played, which made them extremely angry!
The trend of copying homes swept across the entire south of the Yangtze River. As long as they were wealthy businessmen related to the rebellion, none of them would run away. The whole family would be thrown into prison and their property confiscated.It is worth mentioning that it is not their decision whether it has anything to do with the rebellion, but the court's decision. This directly leads to a geometric increase in the number of implicated people. Can't fit anymore.But it doesn't matter, the imperial court has already prepared a large enough prison for them, even if their number doubles a few times, it will still be able to accommodate them.

The Jiangnan rebellion has largely ended so far, and small-scale rebellions still occur from time to time, but they are no longer important.The Ming army only invested less than 6 people in this anti-insurgency battle that lasted for several months, and it was easily settled.The battle scenes are a bit lacking, but the significance of this counter-insurgency war cannot be overestimated:
First of all: through this war, the imperial court completely destroyed the rebellious Jiangnan Jin gentry group, which had been against the imperial court overtly and covertly since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, it had indirectly controlled the entire politics of the imperial court. The power was uprooted. After this battle, the once glorious Donglin Party no longer existed. The most powerful resistance to the Longwu New Deal was destroyed by the court in an extremely brutal way;
Secondly: After the pacification of Jiangnan, the Ming army dug up countless gold and silver treasures from Jiangnan through raids and tax inspections, equivalent to more than 200 million taels of silver, although compared with the record of [-] million taels of silver looted by the Qing army after capturing Jiangnan It's a big difference, but this is exaggerated enough. It is said that Emperor Longwu heard the report while eating, and immediately sprayed the table.Through tax evasion and collusion between officials and businessmen, the Jiangnan Jinshen Group has accumulated astronomical wealth over the past [-] years, which is now all cheaper for Emperor Longwu. This money has laid a solid foundation for the implementation of Longwu's New Deal. The Jiangnan Jinshen Group can also be regarded as the revival of Daming Made a huge contribution --- but this kind of contribution is not what they are willing to do!
The fall of Nanjing City means the curtain call of the Jiangnan Gentlemen Group, which once dominated the fate of the Ming Dynasty. This powerful force withdrew from the stage of history in a tragic way. An old era ended like this, and a new era opened immediately. Abandon the curtain.

While Qi Hu was busy raiding his house, in Guangzhou, thousands of miles away from Nanjing, an astonishingly large fleet raised its sails, and a large number of people and supplies were on board, ready to go to sea.The commander-in-chief of this fleet is still Yao Chonggu, who became famous because of the discovery of Australia, and was named the governor of Australia by the imperial court.Just when everyone thought that he was satisfied and would happily assume the post of governor of Australia and save a fortune for himself and future generations, this guy was preparing for a more difficult voyage. This time he To reach a continent that no one in Asia has ever visited, plant the flag of Ming Dynasty there, and the Spaniards are responsible for leading the way.

Still at the port, members of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce came to see him off.The president of the chamber of commerce took his hand and said earnestly, "Brother, before changing, I would have advised you to accept it as soon as you see it. It is too greedy to find that the credit of the Australian mainland is enough for you and enough for your descendants to feed for several lifetimes." It's not good for you. But now... all I can say is, put all your energy into feeding you, we look forward to seeing you find a whole new world for us!"

Yao Chonggu cupped his hands and said, "Don't worry, it will happen!" Speaking of this, he showed some fascination: "According to Xiyi, it is a flat and vast plain, with a warm and humid climate, many rivers, and rainfall. Abundant, fertile land, suitable for farming and animal husbandry, it is like a paradise! Xiyi is greedy, only looking for gold and silver, turning a blind eye to such treasures, this is God's gift of this paradise to my Han family through the hand of Xiyi People! If I risk my life, I must find that plain!"

All the sea merchants were in awe, and bowed their hands in salute: "Brother Yao, everything is going smoothly! If you need help, just send someone back. As long as you speak, we will definitely do our best to fight for Daming!"

Mrs. Yao came forward with tears in her eyes, handed Yao Chonggu an exquisite sachet, and said, "My lord, you have me at home, so don't worry about me... It's a long way to go, and I'm afraid I won't be able to return home for several years. Take the dirt with you, smell it when you are homesick, and talk about the pain of homesickness..."

A large group of Spanish sailors were watching, wondering.To be honest, they envied Yao Chonggu. The emperor of China was so supportive of his cause that he dispatched six powerful warships to escort him, and at the same time asked the most outstanding craftsmen to manufacture the largest sea for the expedition fleet. There are several ships with a displacement of an astonishing two thousand tons. Even in Spain, where the shipbuilding industry is highly developed, such huge ships are rare.The strong national power of the Ming Dynasty also provided a strong guarantee for this expedition. Canned meat, vegetables, and even fruit canned for two or three years in the cabin were piled up like a mountain, and fresh water was so abundant that the Chinese sailors were so special. I brought a lot of soybeans in the area, and said that after I got tired of eating canned food, I used these soybeans to sprout bean sprouts to satisfy my hunger.The Spanish sailors who gnawed on the maggoted bread and jerky and shuttled between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean were silent and tearful...Your uncle, compared with the jerky and bread we ate, your canned food is simply delicious Good food, okay?It's still not delicious, so you want to grow bean sprouts on the boat?Are you angry with us on purpose?All in all, they envied Daming's strong national power and Yao Chonggu's strong support, but they were puzzled to see so many decent people coming to see him off.Sailing is very hard. Crossing the ocean once can eat all the hardships of three lifetimes, and it is very dangerous. Once you go out, you don’t know if you can return. Those who choose this kind of life are those poor people who have nowhere to go, except navigators. He who has a decent job is willing to be a sailor!So being a sailor is not an enviable profession. On the contrary, it is often despised by others. But looking at the current posture, where is the slightest contempt?On the contrary...

"These Chinese sailors seem to be very respected!" a Spanish sailor whispered, "This is different from Europe, where sailors are the embodiment of dirty, gamblers, and desperadoes, and most people only fear us , despise us, will never respect us!"

"Our fellow shipmates are not like us!" said another Spanish sailor. "They are treated so enviably!"

A smart sailor laughed: "When they return to China empty-handed from that wasteland where there is no gold or silver at all, I wonder if they can still be so respected?"

Many sailors laughed, "I'm afraid no one will pay attention to them anymore, just like what happened to Captain Columbus!"

Throughout his life, Columbus was determined to open up a new route to the East, bypassing the barbaric Turks and establishing a maritime Silk Road with the rich East.It took him several years to win the trust of the King of Spain. The King of Spain assembled a fleet for him out of his own pocket and personally sent him on board, and he also promised to bring back a ship full of gold for the king when he returned.Everyone knows the later story. Columbus discovered the American continent, and the history of the world turned a new page, but he failed to bring back the gold and silver most desired by the Spanish king, and was thrown into prison by the angry king.So now the Spanish sailors are waiting to see the jokes of the Chinese sailors: there is no gold and silver in that land, and this voyage is [-]% loss-making. I don’t know if these sailors will return to Guangzhou after losing all their capital. to welcome them?Looking forward to it!

The Spanish sailors never dreamed that what the Chinese sailors were looking for was not a gold or silver mine, but the vast plain that they mentioned was half the size of the Ming Dynasty...

Saying goodbye to his wife and colleagues, Yao Chonggu strode aboard. Amidst the loud shouts of the sailors, the anchor was pulled up, and the ships sailed out of the port one by one to the vast ocean.Yao Chonggu stood at the stern of the boat, reluctantly looking at the coastline gradually being swallowed up by the intoxicating blue, tightly holding the sachet containing a small package of local soil in his hand, and meditating in his heart:

"I will definitely find that new world!"

(End of this chapter)