Ten days ago, Guo Ning repelled the Mongolian pursuers in Ya'er Village and openly declared his Han'er identity to the Mongolian envoys. His words were actually nothing special, but many generals and commanders felt cheerful, excited and excited.
The more knowledgeable people whispered to each other and geared up on the same day. Even those who were ignorant began to feel the atmosphere in the army, and the mood of their companions was obviously different.
Later, Guo Ning gathered with Miao Daorun, Zhang Rou and other powerful people, and immediately came up with a plan to promote the king to the Central Capital, intending to seize the power of the court by taking advantage of the Mongolian invasion. This plan easily impressed the wealthy people in Hebei who heard about it.
The great tycoons are originally daring people, and there are many people who fear that the world will not be in chaos. They each have the strength in their hands, and they are trapped in Tangbo, Hebei. How can they be willing to do so? It's just a gamble, and you won't lose anything if you lose. If you get something, it will be a huge profit!
When Guo Ning introduced them to visit King Wanyan Congjia, and there was a representative of the Right Prime Minister Tu Shanyi, Yizai Chucai, who acted as a guarantee, everyone was enthusiastic and mobilized their forces to join along the way.
After just a few days, the Anzhou Volunteers, whose total number of soldiers did not exceed 2,500, was no longer the main force.
Instead, the Hebei Volunteers expanded rapidly like a snowball, with nearly 6,000 soldiers. Counting the old, weak, women and children accompanying the army, their total number exceeded 10,000, with no less than a thousand war horses, and more than 300 large and small ships along the way.
Even Guo Ning himself did not expect such a momentum beforehand.
This huge team marched quickly along the east-west stretching pond area, spending ten days constantly crossing the complex terrain between lakes and swamps.
Guo Ning personally led the troops as the vanguard, and all the subordinates he gathered at the Xijun River camp accompanied him. Encountering prefectures, counties and military villages along the way, they unceremoniously extorted grain, fodder and supplies, and then quickly crossed over in a swaggering manner.
In the evening of this day, he led his people across Yijin Pass in Bazhou and was about to approach Xin'an County.
The Tangbo area twists and turns for more than 900 miles. In this area, it is restricted by Yishui and Hutuo Rivers, and the distance between the north and the south is much narrower. Guo Ning and others had deliberately marched along the remote road between the rivers and swamps that was rarely visited by people, but they encountered more and more fleeing people on the road.
Some of the refugees were staggering around in small groups, some were lying down or resting on the roadside, and some were scattered in ponds and woods, searching carefully, trying to catch fish or pick up fruits, gorgon seeds and other things to satisfy their hunger.
If you look carefully, you can see that all of them are sallow and thin, and most of them are old and weak. Unless a large group of dozens or more people gathered, there were almost no men in their prime.
Du Shisheng is from Xin'an County. Although he had been away from home for decades, he still cared about her, so he immediately rode over to ask.
After a while, he dropped the bag hanging next to the saddle. After the bag fell to the ground, it spread out, revealing some scones, mixed fruits and other food wrapped inside. The people immediately gathered around and divided the food in the sacks with great joy. Some people turned to stare at Guo Ning and others, with extremely longing expressions in their eyes.
Guo Ning looked at Du Shisheng.
Du Shisheng smiled bitterly.
"If you have plenty of dry food, please give me some more." Guo Ning said to his companions: "Let's hurry up and get to Xin'an tonight, so we can't delay."
At that moment, the servants scrambled to collect two more sacks of food and handed them to Du Shisheng.
Guo Ning led the cavalry and continued moving forward. After riding the horse for most of a moment, Du Shisheng caught up from behind. It seemed that the process of distributing the food was not smooth, probably because someone was robbing him. His clothes were all messed up, as if his bun had been pulled by someone.
"Are all those people from the same hometown as Mr. Jinzhi?" Guo Ning asked.
"Their village is only twenty miles away from my hometown."
Du Shisheng sighed: "The power of the Mongols has not yet extended to this area. These people were forced into the swamp by the officials of the county. The officials of the county said that the Mongolian army was about to attack, and all places would be attacked. They were defending the city, so under the pretext of peace, they robbed them of all their food reserves, but did not allow them to take refuge in the city... So they could only flee to the pond, try to catch fish and shrimp, and survive this situation."
Speaking of this, Du Shisheng suddenly became startled, probably thinking of his family's situation.
After a while, he sighed again.
"During the reign of Emperors Sejong and Zhangzong, Hebei became prosperous and prosperous. The east and west roads of Hebei alone had more than 2 million registered households, accounting for a quarter of the entire Jin Kingdom. Regardless of agriculture, textiles, ceramics, mining Yejudu is prosperous."
"However, after Mingchang and Taihe, the court continued to have political disputes and its finances were on the verge of collapse. In order to maintain the situation, officials at all levels plundered Hebei and Zhongdu day by day. However, floods, droughts, and locust plagues continued, and local The officials often acted recklessly and took advantage of the situation. As a result, the people's hearts were shaken, thieves broke out, and the situation continued for more than ten years."
"When the northern frontier became increasingly distressed, the Jurchens who were originally the backbone of the Jin army suffered heavy casualties and their morale was low. At this time, the court actually believed that the army lacked combat effectiveness because the Jurchens had insufficient land to support their families, so they once again confiscated the land to their daughters. Real person. The result..."
Du Shisheng shook his head repeatedly: "Dajin's land acquisition methods are so cruel and his appetite is so greedy, it is unprecedented in history. The Jurchens' Meng'an Mouke originally owned more than 30 million acres of land in Hebei and Shandong, occupying One-third of the local cultivated land. During the Cheng'an period, Prime Minister Wanyan Zonghao presided over the reclamation of land and gained more than 30 million acres, more than four times the court's plan. In other words, the household registration of Han'er in Hebei, The population is nearly ten times that of the Jurchens, but they only own one-third of the land, deducting a large amount of official land... And the taxes and miscellaneous taxes they bear exceed more than 50 million yuan in one county! Each tax collection When strong men fight, no man over twenty or under fifty will be able to escape!”
"If this is the case, can the people still live? Since ancient times, how could any court have forced the people to this level? How could a court that forced the people to this level be worthy of being called a court?"
When Du Shisheng said this, he was stunned for a long time, and then slowly said: "Mr. Lang, you know that I worked under Prime Minister Xu in my early years. The Jurchen nobles all said that Prime Minister Xu was a traitor. I also watched it with my own eyes. The officials under him are all in disgrace. But they are trying their best to control the floods, change banknote laws, and tax laws. They want to save Dai Jin. The Jurchen nobles are not happy to see this, so what can they do? ?”
The place where Du Shisheng rode his horse at this time was the artificial forest land intertwined with ponds.
During the confrontation between Song and Liao, the Song people planted elm, willow, mulberry, jujube and other trees densely between the ponds. There was a path through the trees, which could only accommodate one cavalry, to restrict the Khitan cavalry. Over the past hundreds of years, the trees have become increasingly dense, and the trees that hug each other are intertwined and blocked.
The cavalry walked among them, the shadows of the trees were thick, the light was dim, there was no wind yet, and it was oppressively hot.
As he was talking, a thorny branch crossing the road in front of him came over. Guo Ning reacted quickly and immediately reached over and pushed his shoulders down. He subconsciously lowered himself down to avoid breaking his head.
He straightened up, looked back with lingering fear, and then turned forward.
After riding the horse for a while, Du Shisheng said again: "In the early years when I was in Zhongdu, I shouted on the street that the world would be in chaos. People either thought that I was deceiving others, or that I was crazy. In fact, I was serious. Lang Jun, Daikin is about to end, and the people are tired of it, no, they even hate Daikin! As we travel along the way, we see it more and more clearly. So..."
He finally gritted his teeth and asked: "I heard that according to Lang Jun's original intention, he wanted to... want to go to Shandong?"
When Guo Ning gathered the crowd for the first time, he discussed with the leaders of the defeated army where to go next. After that discussion, Guo Ning never mentioned this plan publicly again.
At this time, Du Shisheng suddenly said something, and Monk Luo chuckled twice. Li Ting urged the horse up without showing any trace, and looked at Guo Ning's expression.
"That's what I thought at the time." Guo Ning nodded.
"Guo Langjun, do we really have to go to Zhongdu to wade through the muddy water? Is it worth it?" After a pause, Du Shisheng lowered his voice again: "Let's go directly to Shandong, okay?"
7017k
