Dashun Yongchang

Zuo Liangyu understood what Huang Shu said, and now standing on Nandu's side was thankless, and Ma Shiying would not be grateful to him at all.But if it is ignored, and the southern capital is captured by Li Zicheng, Li Zicheng, who holds the prince as a banner, can unite the forces of the southern provinces to encircle and suppress him. This is obviously a dead end.

When Zuo Liangyu was silent, Huang Shu couldn't help but tentatively said: "Master Hou, actually think about it, we can publish this announcement according to Li Zicheng's intention, does Nandu still dare to offend us now?

Although we don't need to do anything, if the prince succeeds in taking control of the Southern Capital, we will also be the heroes of the strategy.If the crown prince can't take control of Nandu, Nandu must be seriously injured, and he must do his best to appease Lord Hou.

Besides, Jiannu occupied Beijing. If their intentions were not limited to Hebei, then they would definitely go south after autumn.Autumn is the harvest season, and the army does not have to worry about food problems when they go south.At that time, Li Zicheng and Jiannu will fight again, no matter who wins, Lord Hou can be a fisherman. "

Zuo Liangyu, who was sitting in the shadow, thought for a long time, accepted Huang Shu's suggestion, and decided to stand still and wait for changes in the north.On the 8nd day of August, Zuo Liangyu approached Governor He Tengjiao and asked him to jointly write a letter to Nandu with himself, asking Emperor Hongguang to abdicate, and then called all important officials and clans to discuss the ownership of the throne.

He Tengjiao refused, and he persuaded Zuo Liangyu: "Even if the crown prince is more legitimate to inherit the throne, how can we ministers write a letter to ask the current emperor to abdicate? We have all sworn allegiance to Emperor Hongguang..."

Zuo Liangyu persuaded He Tengjiao not to move, so he detained him in his own mansion, and then asked Huang Shu to go to the governor's yamen to find the seal, and then made a public letter to Nandu in the names of the two.Yuan Jixian, governor of Jiangxi Province in Nanchang, was shocked when he saw the letter. He couldn't help saying to the people around him: "The world is full of troubles."

When public opinion in Jiangnan was boiling, Li Zicheng had no time to pay attention to the movements of these southern military and political officials. He was busy discussing Xuzhou's water conservancy projects with local gentry in Xuzhou.It is said that when Li Zicheng met these Xuzhou gentry on the first day, the emotions of both parties were quite agitated, and the conversation almost collapsed.

The one who angered Li Zicheng was naturally Yan Ermei, a Juren from Xuzhou who claimed to be a loyal and righteous man of the Ming Dynasty. Even though Li Zicheng intended to release him, Yan Ermei, who was released from prison, had no intention of bowing to Li Zicheng. The peasant army yelled at him, but Li Zicheng was still able to hold on, but the generals around him couldn't help but want to send this juren back to the west.

When Li Zicheng saw this, he dropped the teacup in his hand, pointed at Yan Ermei and scolded angrily: "The people in the world are divided into scholars, farmers, businessmen, and scholars. The scholars rule the world for the emperor. The farmers provide food for the emperor, and the workers provide clothes and housing for the emperor. Merchants are responsible for the circulation of department stores. This is called performing their duties.

But in today's world, scholars do not rule the world for the emperor, but seek property for their own families. Once a poor scholar is elected, he will jump the dragon's gate, and he will no longer be among ordinary people.You scholars, enjoy the fruits of the labor of farmers, workers and businessmen, but end up making the people who rule the world miserable, and complain why the people rebelled and ruined your prosperity?

Yes, you have to spend 10 to 20 taels of silver for a meal at home. If you want to buy a singer or dancer, you can easily pay 2 or 300 taels. In order to win a smile from a beautiful woman, it is not too much to lose money .But did you create this wealth yourself?You have never created any wealth for this country, and you still enjoy the greatest preferential treatment in this country.

You want to treat the people like you want to beat the bone and suck the marrow, but if the country wants to collect a tax of one tael of silver from you, you will cry and curse the court.In this way, what is the difference between you and the weeds in the field?In addition to crowding out the nutrition of rice and wheat, it can neither bear fruit to fill the stomachs of the people, nor can it be transplanted into the garden to make people pleasing to the eye.

My family has been a farmer for ten generations, so I know very well that when there are too many weeds in the rice fields, we must clean them up, otherwise the harvest will be bad.Today I summoned Xuzhou gentry to discuss how to govern Xuzhou, not to debate whether I have morals with you idle weeds.If you don't want to contribute to the people of Xuzhou, then get out, don't hinder others from contributing to the people of Xuzhou..."

Chapter 109 Unknown History Part Three

Although Yan Ermei was not convinced and was called a weed by Li Zicheng, several squires led by Wan Shouqi dragged him aside, and Wan Shouqi, who had become friends with him, desperately whispered in his ear: "Listen to what your Majesty said , don't be reckless..."

After staying in prison for many days, the weak Yan Ermei struggled and could only stand aside with a livid face, wanting to refute Li Zicheng's words after listening to them.It's just that he didn't wait for such an opportunity, because Li Zicheng then asked the Xuzhou gentry present a question, and then the gentry split up, and no one listened to what Yan Ermei wanted to say.

The question Li Zicheng asked the Xuzhou gentry that day was: "Should the water conservancy management in Xuzhou protect the people or the shipping?"

After this question, whether it was those gentry who really wanted to take refuge in Dashun, or those who pretended to want to take refuge in Dashun, they couldn't sit still immediately, and they began to attack each other internally.

Because the question Li Zicheng asked is a question left over from the history of Xuzhou. As the intersection of the Yellow River and the Canal, every year when there is a flood or drought, the local government will discuss this problem, but no matter how the local government discusses it, it is very difficult. It is difficult to change the decision of the imperial court to guarantee shipping. After all, the water transport of 400 million shi and the civil movement of tens of millions of shi have to go northward through the Grand Canal. Compared with the overall situation in Beijing, the loss of Xuzhou is not worth mentioning in the eyes of the imperial court. .

But now that Li Zicheng has even lost Beijing, he naturally has no pressure on water transportation. He only needs to ensure that the waterway to Jining is unimpeded, so that the transportation volume going north will be greatly reduced.Therefore, he can also make certain adjustments to the Ming Dynasty's policy of only emphasizing canals and disregarding localities.

As for why there are supporters of shipping protection among the local gentry in Xuzhou, because these supporters are businessmen living in Xuzhou. The reason why they moved to Xuzhou is because of the convenience of shipping in Xuzhou, which can make their careers develop better. .That's why the local residents are generally poor, but the Hubu Mountain is full of luxury houses.

Therefore, the local gentry has taken advantage of the outsiders, and the Xuzhou people have long been angry because they rely on the canal and the Yellow River to suffer disasters every day. It's just that these foreign gentry hand over gold and silver to the court officials, and even after they are officials, they are powerless. To resist can only launch some public opinion offensives among the people.

When Li Zicheng stated that he wanted to represent the people of Xuzhou to propose water conservancy management, the fragile alliance within the Xuzhou gentry collapsed. The local gentry could not miss such a golden opportunity, because once the water conservancy project was built, it was difficult to improve it.Moreover, the reason why the local gentry have appeal among the local people is that at least on the surface they want to safeguard local interests, otherwise they will inevitably be cast aside by the local people.

The matter of "people copying Dong Huan" means that the Dong family failed to gain the support of the folks. As a result, famous families like Dong Qichang were all driven out of their hometowns by the folks, and the court could do nothing about it.Therefore, when Li Zicheng raised this issue, the local gentry could only declare that they wanted to protect the people, which was naturally unacceptable to those foreign gentry who were mainly engaged in business, because their interests were directly damaged.

Even Yan Ermei, who wanted to stand up and refute Li Zicheng, couldn't say a word in the face of this issue. Everyone should unite to deal with the intruders first, and then consider the issue of people's livelihood.Because Yan Ermei is a local, if he talks about the overall situation with Xi Ni on this issue, he will offend the village first.

Therefore, the meeting between Li Zicheng and the Xuzhou gentry changed from a confrontation between the two sides to a struggle among the gentry. Although everyone knew that the Dashun regime was not good for the gentry, at this moment they had to surrender to Li Zicheng for the benefit of the small group. In order to seek Li Zicheng, he is biased towards himself.From the opposite of the gentry to the arbiter of the gentry and the common people, Li Zicheng naturally took control of the situation.

When the gentry were fighting hard, Li Zicheng suggested to send personnel to survey the surrounding terrain of Xuzhou, and then plan water conservancy projects according to the terrain and the direction of the water system. After the new water conservancy project planning is completed, the beneficiary areas should compensate the damaged areas. Xuzhou should establish a council to discuss issues such as project planning, project fundraising, and compensation plans.

The gentry in Xuzhou were not dissatisfied with Li Zicheng's proposal. After all, if Li Zicheng was to send someone to preside over these affairs, they were not sure which side Li Zicheng's people would lean towards.Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Zicheng also proposed that the council should assist the Dashun army to complete two tasks, destroying bandits and persuading the people to move.

If Li Zicheng raised these two questions at the beginning, the gentry in Xuzhou felt that these were not their own business, so they would definitely deal with it and let it go.After all, there are still people who support the extermination of the bandits, but letting the people relocate is an offending job, and it is too helpful for Li Zicheng to do things. What if the Dashun regime is gone?

But now that the council is taking the lead, the gentry can disperse their responsibilities, and through the council's cooperation with the Shun army, Li Zicheng can be regarded as sinking the influence of the Dashun regime to the countryside.With this organization, he no longer needs to pay attention to the movements of a few or a small group of gentry, because the council will actively suppress those gentry who oppose the resolutions of the council.

As for the traditional Chinese centralized dynasty, after the gentry in Shandong and Hebei rebelled against Dashun one after another, Li Zicheng had already understood that the feudal dynasty in which the imperial power did not come down to the county could not be called centralized power, but a feudal republic of gentry.When the policy of the central government is in the interests of the gentry, the policy of the central government can be implemented, and when the policy of the central government is not in the interest of the gentry, the policy will disappear.

Therefore, after the Dashun regime was shaken, the local officials representing the Dashun regime were immediately killed by those rebellious gentry. This is the most prominent feature of feudal society. When the gentry took the initiative to mobilize the people to defend the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty could last for a while, but when the gentry were unwilling to contribute to the dynasty, those people who spontaneously defended the Ming Dynasty were wiped out by the local gentry first.

For a soul who has been educated in orthodox materialist philosophy, life and survival are still clearly distinguished. Worshiping idols is life, and protecting oneself is survival.Just like these gentry, Emperor Chongzhen who raised Liao's salary was a foolish emperor, but when the peasant army who chased stolen goods and paid for money appeared, the dead Emperor Chongzhen became a strong emperor.

Therefore, in order for the Dashun regime to survive, someone would not mind using any means.The democratic system of the bourgeoisie is just one of them. Democracy is a political system first, and a political idea second. However, some people try their best to emphasize the political idea of ​​democracy and downplay the political system of democracy. right.

Given the current weakness of the Dashun regime, democracy is really an advanced political method for a regime that cannot even immerse itself in the countryside.Why couldn't the Dashun regime take root in the countryside?Because Dashun did not popularize Mandarin, nor did it popularize education, so it is easier for you, a person from Shaanxi, to go to Hubei or Shandong to convince the people that you represent their interests, rather than convince them that you are the savior of the world.

This is the fundamental reason why Shaanxi generals wanted to go back to Shaanxi when Beijing withdrew troops, and Henan soldiers wanted to go back to Henan, because they didn’t have to worry about language issues in their hometowns, and they also understood the character of the local people. After all, everyone was in a similar environment. down life.But when they go to other places, they are as obvious as goats among a herd of sheep. They have little chance of escaping after losing a battle, because outsiders will not be protected in this era of squires.

Now that Xuzhou has been determined to be the center of gravity of the struggle between Dashun and the Manchus, Li Zicheng had to let the Dashun regime take root here as soon as possible, instead of treating Xuzhou as a strategic point for the struggle between the Shun army and the Qing army land.Only when the people of Xuzhou regard the Dashun regime as their own and the Qing army as outsiders, can Dashun win the full support of the local government and replenish as much manpower as it consumes, and any invaders cannot afford a war of attrition.

As a materialist, one does not believe in miracles, but believes that people can perform miracles, as it has been proven in the hereafter.Someone doesn't want to use his own head to prove this conclusion is wrong, so using any means to gain the support of the people is the current top priority of the Dashun regime.

Compared with this important task, it was just a surprise for Li Zicheng that the Ming army and rebel army in Henan and Jianghuai areas surrendered to Dashun one after another.It’s just that he didn’t expect that Jin Shenghuan and Huang Degong from the south would surrender after only sending a few people, Ding Kuichu from Guide Yongcheng, Wang Zhigang from Guide General Soldier, Zhang Jinyan, Governor of Henan Province in Ming Dynasty, Chen Qianfu, Supervisor of Henan Province, Chen Qianfu, Bu Congshan, the general soldier in Henan, Yuan Shu, who participated in politics in Henan and patrolled Daliang soldiers, Xu Dingguo in Suizhou, and Cao Ying in Suzhou also declared their allegiance to the prince one by one.

Of course, this is not just because of the prince's appeal, but because Yuan Zongdi's troops set out from Xiangyang to repel Liu Hongqi's troops in Runing, and then arrived in Bozhou in July. Caught in the east-west attack of the Shun army, after Huang Degong issued a proclamation, it was impossible for the four towns in Jiangbei to rescue the Ming army in Henan and southern Xuzhou. These Ming troops faced the choice of being wiped out by the Shun army or fleeing. Most people chose to be loyal to the prince.

Li Zicheng, who was straightening out his relationship with the people of Xuzhou, was naturally happy to hear the icing on the cake. The surrender of these Ming army generals and border ministers further eased the relationship between the people of Shandong, Henan, and Huaibei and the Dashun regime.After all, so many famous ministers and generals have joined the Dashun Army, so it can be seen that the prince is indeed real.

Lu Zhenfei and his group entered Xuzhou City precisely under the circumstances that the people gradually turned their hearts towards the Dashun regime.In fact, they were escorted into Xuzhou City, because the Dashun officers and soldiers who guarded the city immediately became angry when they heard that Lu Zhenfei and others had reported themselves to their families. Except for Shandong General Qiu Lei, Lu Zhenfei and Wang Xie could be described as It is Xuzhou Shunjun's biggest enemy.

Chapter 110 Unknown History Part [-]

Zhou Shigui, the left deputy supervisor of the Department of Examination and Punishment, who was returning from outside the city, saw a group of soldiers at the gate of the city beating up two people who looked like Ming officials.

The gate guard came forward to defend Zhou Shigui. These two people were the former governor of Huai'an and the former Huai'an Hedao. They had deceived the soldiers of our army in Suqian in the name of surrender, which caused hundreds of Shunjun brothers to be attacked by the Ming army. His His brother also died unfortunately.Boss Shao said to Zhou Shigui: "...if my brother died on the battlefield, it would be bad for him, but these two thieves are too low-minded. They asked us to send people to take over Huai'an in the name of surrender, but they attacked Huai'an in the end. It's too unfair for my brother to die without us, I just don't accept it."

Zhou Shigui looked at him with a stern face and said: "If you catch them on the battlefield to take revenge, I would respect you as a hero, but it turns out that someone else came to the door by yourself. Are you doing this to discredit Your Majesty? Who is your deputy?" ? After handing over the mission to him, go and punish Xiaoqi yourself to receive the punishment. Do you have any objections to this?"

Mr. Xiao was silent for a few seconds, then he replied dejectedly to Zhou Shigui: "I have no objection for a lowly position."

Watching Mr. Shao retreat to the side, explain a few words to the people around him, and then walk towards the city, Zhou Shigui turned his head to look at the two Ming officials who were beaten. Go up and help the two with bruised noses and swollen faces.

Zhou Shigui looked at the two of them for a while and then said to the people around him: "Take them to the Marshal's Mansion, and let His Majesty decide."

With the young and strong Wang Xie standing in front of him, Lu Zhenfei was not seriously injured. He tidied up his dusty clothes, then stopped in front of Zhou Shigui and said, "I didn't come to see Emperor Yongchang, I’m here to pay respects to Emperor Daxing. Emperor Yongchang’s edict to the world to let the officials and gentry come to pay respects to Emperor Daxing, is it just a lie?”

Zhou Shigui replied angrily: "If you officials really cherish Emperor Lie, why did you wait until Emperor Lie's Zi Palace arrived in Xuzhou before you came to worship? When you trapped and killed the officers and soldiers of this dynasty, why didn't you remember that Emperor Lie and the crown prince were still in the north? Naturally, I will not stop those squires who live in seclusion from coming to worship, but for vicious thieves like you, it is up to His Majesty to decide whether the Emperor Lie wants to accept your worship..."

Li Zicheng's Marshal's Mansion was located in the Xuzhou Wei Department Yamen in the southeast corner of the city. The officials of the Xuzhou Wei Department moved to the Xuzhou Zuowei Order in the southeast of the city, and the two Wei Department offices were merged, and this became the official office of Bai Bangzheng.

After Li Zicheng arrived in Xuzhou, he decided that the Marshal's Mansion would not go south, so Bai Bangzheng gave up the yamen of the Xuzhou Wei Department and established the Marshal's Mansion here.According to the pattern of Zuo Wen You Wu, the Privy Council, the General Staff Headquarters, and the Military Council were set up in the west wing of the Guard Office, while the Secretariat and the Civilian Government were set up in the East Wing of the Guard Office. The backyard is divided into two halves for the daily office and meeting personnel, one half is set up as a guard barracks, and the other half is assigned to the Statistics Department.

With Shandong, Henan officials and rebels coming to vote one after another, the statistics office also absorbed a large number of personnel.Among them are depressed scholars, sons of officials or generals who are taken hostage, and some local gentlemen.Therefore, the number of people directly managed by the statistics office has exceeded 300, which does not include the management staff in the women's battalion.

Therefore, Li Zicheng promoted the statistics office to the statistics department, further clarified the responsibilities of this institution, investigated the political, economic and other situations in various places and the focus of public opinion, and collected various types of intelligence including overseas.

After the statistical office was upgraded, Chen Yuanyuan, Pan Zhai, and Xu Shanchi were no longer unemployed personnel who temporarily helped Li Zicheng handle the women's camp and other affairs, but officials who were officially awarded the seal. The status of the director was compared with that of the secretary of the secretariat Long, almost the treatment of officials of the sixth and seventh ranks of the Ming Dynasty.

The Department of Statistics has an internal and external office. The internal office is composed of women and is responsible for file management and data collection, analysis, and submission. The external office is composed of men and monitors and analyzes information from various places.At this time, three departments in Shandong, Henan, and Huainan had just been established, and young people such as He Duiji, Li Sicheng, Xu Ye, Song Zhengyu, Gong Mengren, and Wang Mingde had enriched them.

With the establishment of the Marshal's Mansion in Xuzhou, the various agencies under the Marshal's Mansion gradually played a role. The Marshal's Mansion temporarily left the period when war was the main task, and turned to the period when building local order was the main task.

When Zhou Shigui escorted Lu Zhenfei and others to the Marshal's Mansion, Li Zicheng was discussing with Yang Chengyu, Gu Jun'en, Wang Zeyao, Zhang Jiayu, Zhou Lianggong, Gong Weiliu, Jiang Chen and other civil government officials in the second hall about the settlement and migration of the people to the south.

Li Zicheng, who was standing in the hall and walking back and forth, said to these officials while thinking: "...According to the latest statistics, there are at least 30 people who migrated from Hebei to the South. Calculated based on the ration of 3 shi per person per year, that is 90 shi of grain. This is still under the condition that they can obtain land to cultivate or get jobs in the south, otherwise the Marshal's Office will continue to distribute rations to them.

Then, there are at least 30 people in the current headquarters of our army plus the officers and rebels who have joined our army in Hebei, Henan, and Shandong. These people still have their families to support, so each person’s annual ration should not be less than 10 shi. This is 300 million shi, plus the rations of the Marshal's Mansion and officials from all over the country, 400 million shi a year, which is the basic need.

The place we can really control at present is a rectangular area west of Mount Tai in Shandong and east of Shangqiu, north to Dezhou, south to Suzhou and Suqian.Everyone should know that Henan has been smashed to pieces a long time ago. Henan Prefecture and Nanyang Basin have almost become no-man’s land. Because the Yellow River was dug up near Kaifeng, it is still a muddy pond.

That is to say, the area from Runing to Shangqiu in the southeastern part of Henan is still inhabited, but there are many villages. Before our army has gained complete control of Henan, these villages will not provide us with much food. They can hold their own territory It would be nice not to mess with us.

The Qing army entered the customs twice in the 12th year of Chongzhen and 15th year. The Jinan, Dongchang, and Yanzhou prefectures in Shandong were all breached, and a large number of people and livestock were lost. Qingzhou, Laizhou, and Dengzhou prefectures have always been economically backward. In the current situation, collecting land taxes from Shandong will only push the Shandong people to the Manchus.

Therefore, as far as we know, the total amount of grain harvested this year should be 1200-1400 million shi, which is less than 15 shi if it is collected according to the method of 1 tax 87.However, because the tax is collected using a whip method, every stone of rice is converted into silver for 5 yuan, which is less than 44 taels. However, due to the war, the price of food in various places is skyrocketing. The price of rice has exceeded 1 taels.

If we collect two taxes on silver as in the past, then even if calculated at the price of 1 tael per shi, there will be a gap of 360 million shi for grain; if we collect tax in kind, the gap will be 313 million shi.

But is there really a shortage of food in Jiangnan, Jiangxi, Huguang and other places?In fact, there is no shortage of food.According to what we have learned about rice cultivation and imported rice in the eight prefectures of the south of the Yangtze River in the past 20 years, the eight prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River hardly ate foreign rice 20 years ago, that is, only Jiangxi rice and Changsha rice were in Nanjing in the past 10 years , Sales in Suzhou.

So the real problem is that the shipping on the Yangtze River has been artificially cut off, making it difficult for food from Huguang, Jiangxi and other places to go down the river.

Whether our Dashun regime can survive in Xuzhou does not lie in how to stop the Manchu Qing from going south, but in opening up the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River waterway.Otherwise, millions of people will encounter survival crisis. In order to survive, they must go south. Once our army goes south, the Jianghuai land will be safe to defend, and the southern trade system will be further destroyed. It is more difficult to get enough resources to resist the Manchus behind.

This is a vicious circle. We destroyed the old economic system, but we did not have time to build a new economic system. Under the persecution of the Manchus, we had to continue to plunder southward for more supplies, and finally became a way for the Manchus. pioneer.When we plundered the entire south, the south would be torn apart, and it would be difficult to build a base against the north..."

Regarding the current situation analyzed by Li Zicheng, all the officials present deeply agreed. Although they would not look at this issue from an economic point of view in the past, after all, under the imperial power system, they did not need to consider the economy, but only how to deal with it. Solve the problem, but it doesn't mean they don't understand the importance of the economy.

Especially some officials from the south, they have an intuitive feeling for the economic activities in the south of the Yangtze River. They know how many people in the south have completely divorced from agricultural activities and completely rely on selling their labor for food.These handicraftsmen who have separated from agricultural production are actually very dependent on the economy. Once the economy in the south of the Yangtze River collapses, these people will almost stop talking.

It's just that all political actions in the past revolved around imperial power. Even if such political actions were harming the foundation of the country, it was still worthwhile in the eyes of the emperor.Because the country exists for the emperor, not the emperor for the country.Therefore, whether the emperor will give birth to an heir is a major national issue, and the prohibition of foreign trade in coastal areas in order to prevent Japanese pirates is just an insignificant matter.

Therefore, for the former, the bureaucratic groups can unite to fight against the imperial power, but for the forbidden sea or the opening of the sea, it only needs a word from the emperor to decide.Li Zicheng was the first emperor who jumped out of the imperial system and looked at the significance of a country's existence from the perspective of economic activities. This surprised the officials present, but also faintly excited them.

However, only Zhang Jiayu, Zhou Lianggong, Gong Weiliu, and Jiang Chen were able to discuss this issue with Li Zicheng. In concept.Although Zhang Jiayu, Zhou Lianggong, and Gong Weilu realized from their own life experience that industry and commerce may not be the end, they still think that agriculture is fundamental.But Jiang Chen went a step further, thinking that the world today is not short of supplies, but short of money, so we should restore precious banknotes to speed up the circulation of goods, then the market will prosper and there will be no shortage of supplies.

Chapter 111 Unknown History [-]

Through discussions on solving the current predicament of the Shun army, Li Zicheng and the officials of the civil government gradually reached a unified opinion. Obtain food from Jiangxi and Huguang; the second is to take Huaiyang and Fengyang first, and force the so-called four towns in Jiangbei to surrender or retreat to Jiangnan, so that they cannot cut off the canal passage behind the Shun army.

With these two points of consensus, Li Zicheng can then let the civil government do things without having to worry about the officials below fighting in order to maintain the military orders of the gentry and the Marshal's Mansion. This will be a great waste of his insistence on going south Time to win.Li Zicheng had just decided on the general direction and was about to talk about some details, but Zhou Shigui brought Lu Zhenfei and his party over here, so he had to interrupt the meeting and go to the lobby.

Li Zicheng, who was standing on the steps, saw the three people standing below, and asked Zhou Shigui in a small voice in astonishment: "Who beat them?"

Zhou Shigui briefly described what he saw at the city gate. Li Zicheng nodded when he heard that he asked the officer who committed the crime to receive the punishment by himself, and stopped asking further questions.

After sizing up the three of them for a while, Li Zicheng asked the oldest one, "You must be Lu Zhenfei, the former governor of water transportation. You are a scholar. Why don't you know the reason why the two countries don't kill each other when they fight?"

When going north from Suqian, Lu Zhenfei has been observing the situation of the Shun army, because he did not expect that Li Zicheng would choose to go south instead of fleeing back to Shaanxi when he was forced to evacuate Beijing, and he did not expect that after the emperor was elected in Nandu He will be dismissed from his post, which makes him who wants to defend Huai'an's line of defense for Nandu lose his position.

What disappointed him even more was that Nandu actually handed over Jiangbei to the four towns.Yangzhou to Huai'an is the location of the Lianghuai Salt Industry, and it is also a land of fish and rice. It is one of the best areas in the south of the Yangtze River. When he has controlled the situation in Huaiyang, he handed over this area to the military town for management. An army with plenty of food and salt?

Fengyang Mansion is where the Central Capital is located, and it is also where the Imperial Tomb of the Ming Dynasty is located. Luzhou Mansion is the place where the dragon flourished in this dynasty, and it is also the gateway to Nanjing. Handing these two places to Junzhen not only loses political points, but also affects the safety of Nanjing. It's hard to be independent.

From Lu Zhenfei's point of view, Huaiyang Fenglu should be managed by Nanjing itself, and then arrange the four towns in Shandong and Henan, which can not only restore the order in Shandong and Henan, but also control the four towns through the money and grain from the south, and then the southern capital can be controlled by Jiangbei. Refugees organize and train the new army, and if the army is successful, they can use the four towns as the forerunner to take the Northern Expedition to recover Hebei. If it is not good enough, they can also unite with Chu Town to take back Jingzhou, Xiangyang, Nanyang, Luoyang and other places, and completely bring the Central Plains under control.

However, Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying were not enough to talk about big things. They actually divided the Jiangbei portal and the land of money and grain to the four towns. As a result, Li Zicheng's army had not passed Xuzhou, and Jiangbei was already in chaos. In order to compete for Yangzhou, the four towns first broke out. .

As he expected, the first thing Liu Zeqing did after occupying Huai'an was not to go north to recover Shandong or Henan, but to blackmail businessmen to build a mansion for him first.Liu Zeqing abolished all the group training organized by the gentry in Huai'an, because Liu Zeqing was worried that the gentry would use these group training to deal with him, and secondly, he wanted the gentry to keep the money for raising the group training for himself.

However, he ordered the gentry to go out to the silver and the two major regiments to train not only to deal with the northern soldiers going south, but more importantly, to appease the hearts of the Huai'an water workers.Most of the [-] Cao Jun in the Canal are in Huai'an, together with civilian husbands and Yan Ding Yu Ding, if the Canal does not resume water transportation for a day, there will be more than [-] people in Huai'an without food and clothing. Once the northern soldiers go south, these people will be the most unstable in Huai'an factor.

If Li Zicheng just went south by himself, then Huai'an could still defend Huai'an relying on Liu Zeqing's army, but now Li Zicheng has brought the crown prince to go south. With the people in Huai'an fluctuating, there may be no one who will open the door to surrender. Then from Huai'an to Yangzhou is a smooth journey , Gao Jie, who is at war with Yangzhou people, will stick to Yangzhou?

Once Yangzhou was lost, even Huang Degong's verbal surrender would become a real surrender, because the door of Nanjing had been opened, and it was impossible for him to betray the prince to defend Emperor Hongguang.If Li Zicheng was to serve the crown prince across the river, Daming would really be doomed.As a loyal minister of Daming, he doesn't care who is the emperor, but he can't bear the death of Daming so useless.

This is the reason why he went north instead of going south. His family had already been placed in Jiangnan, which was also the main reason why he was impeached and resigned by Liu Zongzhou. If he just wanted to protect himself, going south was actually the safest way.

But now he chose to go north, in fact, for two purposes, to get a glimpse of the reality of the Shun army, and to see whether the Shun army is capable of going south; the second is to see whether the prince can take on the important task of revitalizing Ming Dynasty.

During this journey, although he didn't see the whole leopard, he still noticed that the place under Shunjun's rule should be much more orderly, and the people of Xuzhou were not timid. Pleading for people like himself, this means that the relationship between the people of Xuzhou and the soldiers of the Shun Army is more harmonious than the relationship between the people of Daming and the officers and soldiers of Daming.

And when he was being beaten, Lu Zhenfei could also feel that the soldiers of the Shun Army were quite measured. The officers could stop the soldiers as soon as they gave an order, and none of them dared to make trouble. Inflict punishment at will.Daming no longer has an army that can do these two things.

Even the Huang Degong Department in the four towns, because the soldiers did not invade the rich and powerful families, they were already called not disturbing the people, but the soldiers of the Huang Degong Department were not so friendly to ordinary people.As for Liu Zeqing, Gao Jie and other troops, they have already started to kill civilians at will. They are worse than the bandit army in the eyes of the common people.

Gao Jie's men fled from Shanxi to the south. In order to obtain supplies in the city, they even pretended to be bandit troops. As a result, Gao Jie's subordinates killed and set fire around the city for the people in the city to see. Military discipline can't be this bad.

Lu Zhenfei originally thought that this rumor was just nonsense, but seeing Shun Jun's behavior today, he truly believed that it was not a joke, but might indeed be the truth.

Although these thoughts were passing through my mind, but in front of Li Zicheng, Lu Zhenfei replied calmly: "I only know one country, but I have never heard that there are two countries. As an official of Ming Dynasty to destroy bandits, isn't it Is it my duty?"

The soldiers of the Shun army on the side were immediately angry. Although Emperor Yongchang did not ascend the throne in Beijing, he broke the city of Beijing anyway. He also called them bandits. Isn't this insulting them as a group of bandits?

In the eyes of many soldiers of the Shun army, since they have broken through the city of Beijing and Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide, then the Ming Dynasty should be regarded as the end, and now it is the world of Dashun, so they are naturally the founding heroes of Dashun and not some bandits up.Even though they don't know what the Monkey King is, they still know that Lu Zhenfei is exposing their old background, it's really nothing.

It's just that Li Zicheng still watched Lu Zhenfei calmly, and was not angered by his words, so the soldiers of the Shun Army nearby only dared to glare and did not dare to do anything else.If before Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng relied on his indomitable rebellious spirit to win the respect of the rebels, and relied on the Shaanxi Township Party to suppress the rebellious forces in the rebels, then after Shanhaiguan, everyone respected Li Zicheng because Emperor Yongchang was able to point out Dashun future, and make rules that can convince everyone.

For example, the soldiers of the Shun Army who surround Li Zicheng now are very clear about their responsibilities, knowing that there is no room for them to intervene in such occasions, they did not have such awareness in the past.Although the peasant army laid the foundation and established the country in Xi'an, Li Zicheng also got many scholars to formulate rules to control everyone, but the rules of those scholars mainly made everyone submit to the imperial power and the civil officials representing the imperial power.

This kind of scholar's rules actually made the generals of the peasant army extremely dissatisfied, because they had fought with Li Zicheng for several to ten years, and they knew almost nothing about Li Zicheng's big and small things. They admitted that Li Zicheng was the leader, but really It is difficult to accept the process of Li Zicheng's sudden transformation from a big brother to an emperor.

What made it even more difficult for them to accept was that they followed Li Zicheng's bloody rebellion. As a result, a few literati formulated some nonsense rules and were about to climb over their heads. Is this still the King Chuang they respect?

And Li Zicheng, who returned from Shanhaiguan, set up a military council house, so that the generals of the peasant army, big and small, could speak freely, and the personnel in the army could be put into public opinion, which immediately smoothed out the dissatisfaction of these generals.Naturally, no one would dare to offend the military discipline formulated by the Military Council, because violating military discipline is against the Military Council, and no one will feel that being punished is unjust.

With such an understanding, the whole army naturally began to take the initiative to study the newly formulated military discipline, and began to respect the newly established institution of the Merit Examination and Disciplinary Department.Li Zicheng didn't realize this change. He just felt that everyone was more disciplined in the meeting now. It was no longer like a tea party where they said whatever came to mind and couldn't figure out the point at all.

As the soul of the era of industrial society, he really can't bear that kind of disorder. Maybe some people think that the reform of the military system is very difficult, and even the reform of the military system cannot be carried out during war.These people are probably liberal arts students. The purpose of the military system reform is to strengthen organization and improve combat efficiency. basis for reform.The army itself is an organization that turns undisciplined civilians into disciplined fighters. An army that cannot make changes in battle can only be said to be an organized group at all.

And Li Zicheng was indifferent to Lu Zhenfei's words, because he had received the education that "rebellion is justified, revolution is innocent", so calling him a bandit, he didn't think it was exposing his old background at all.

Chapter 112 The Struggle Between Two Classes

While Li Zicheng silently stared at the three people under the steps, the three standing under the scorching sun, Lu Zhenfei and Li Zicheng looked at each other upright; Wang Xie, who had one black eye, stood with his head held high and his chest held high. Beside Zhenfei, he was not afraid of the malicious and slow gazes around him. As for Qiu Lei, who was unharmed, he subconsciously moved to the side, leaving a little distance between the two of them.

"Haha..." Li Zicheng suddenly burst out laughing. The people up and down the steps were confused for a while, and looked at Li Zicheng, but Li Zicheng stopped laughing and said contemptuously to Lu Zhenfei: "The so-called thief, don't you?" People who do not want to support themselves, but try to embezzle other people's wealth by means of violence or fraud.