Chapter 161: Guzhai Castle
Li Shizhong reminded in a roundabout way that the Emperor Sheng himself also found something wrong, and it was the heavy rain that Yan Minwang mentioned in the military newspaper that continued all day long. Especially the sentence "According to the villagers, this has been the case for many years in this area. Although it is beneficial to the farmers and mulberry trees, it is a big hindrance to the military..." made the Holy Emperor's heart skip a beat: Hasn't Gansu Town been reporting droughts and asking the court for relief?
Gansu was originally a military town. In order to strengthen management, the Yingzong Dynasty established the post of governor. Xi Junyu, the current governor of Gansu, was originally the left deputy censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Soon after taking office, he reported the disaster again and again and asked the court for relief just like his predecessor.
Money is needed everywhere in the court, and even the salaries of the branch clans cannot be paid. How can there be so much spare money for disaster relief? However, the imperial court also knew that the folk customs in Gansu and Shaanxi were strong and they had to be given some. Otherwise, if a civil commotion broke out, it would be no joke, so they would allocate some from time to time.
In the Ming Dynasty, the situation in various places can be roughly divided into three levels. The first place is naturally the land of plenty like Huguang and Liangjiang. No matter what, life for both officials and people will always be much better compared to other places. The second category is Shandong, Henan and Guangxi, which is less than the top and more than the bottom. The third category is poor frontier fortresses like Gansu Town. However, things cannot be absolute. In some extremely poor places, officials' lives are actually better than those of their colleagues in many places: because they are so poor, the government's allocation has become customized - if there is allocation, of course there will be money to be made. , the standards for the official assessment of major plans will also be much looser. Other places must assess the completion rate of economic indicators. In such places, if there are no large groups of people starving to death or large-scale civil unrest, they can be considered very good.
In the impression of most people, mentioning Gansu means a sky full of yellow sand.
It’s no wonder that “the plain sand is as yellow as the sky”, “the windy sand outside the Great Wall is still cold”, “the yellow sand wears golden armor in a hundred battles”, “the spring breeze never reaches Yumen Pass”... From the Holy Emperor to hundreds of officials, they all read these famous When I grew up with the poems, this kind of picture was in my mind subconsciously. Therefore, every time the local governor asked for relief, more or less some would always be given.
Until the year before last, Xi Junyu came up with a good idea.
Xi Junyu's idea was to start a "prison donation program".
The dynasty was known as "the Holy Emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats rule the world together", and scholars enjoyed many courtesy. For example, if you have the reputation of being a scholar, you can "see officials without worshiping", you can "study" everywhere without the need for guidance, you can be exempted from taxes and labor, etc.
The highest institution of learning in the Ming Dynasty was the Imperial College, and the students there were called "Jiansheng." Governor Xi was moved by the idea of supervising students.
In the Ming Dynasty, there were several sources of prison students.
Juvenile examination: If you fail the imperial examination and are recommended by the Hanlin Academy, you can go to the Imperial Academy to study.
Gongjian: The best local students (scholars) recommended by local officials of prefectures, prefectures, and counties enter the prison for further study.
Enjian: The children of meritorious officials specially approved by the Holy Emperor are put into prison.
Yin Prison: Children of officials of third rank or above are admitted to prison.
Donated prison: also called regular prison, people donate property in exchange for admission to prison.
To put it simply, if you lived in poverty for ten years, worked as a farmer in the morning, ascended to the emperor's hall in the evening, and directly entered the Ming Dynasty system in one step, you would naturally have a virtuous ancestor. But most people won't be so lucky. How to do it? To continue further studies. The best place for further study is naturally the Qingbei, oh, it was called the Imperial College in the Ming Dynasty. Who can enter? They are just the best among the farmers. However, when you go in, you realize that many of your classmates are completely different from you: some are recommended students from the local area (Gongjiao), some have great parents (Yinjiao), some have rich families (Donation Prison), and some have Many of them are international friends who can't even speak Chinese - Ryukyu, Annan (this guy's skin is so dark), Korea and other vassal countries have quotas for the Imperial College!
This scene seems a bit familiar...
In fact, the so-called prison student is more of a status qualification. It does not necessarily require you to actually go to the Imperial College to study. You can do whatever you want. Scholars already enjoyed a lot of privileges, and supervisors who were even better than scholars would have even more conveniences in life. In addition to the preferential treatment for scholars such as exemption from taxes and corvee, they also include: Theoretically qualified to be an official - of course, for ordinary people, it is only theoretical, take your time, there may be hope after waiting for thirty to fifty years, but for those Those with strong family backgrounds can enjoy publicly funded medical care if they comply with the procedures. If you are sick, the government will send people to treat you, and you will be exempted from various criminal nuisances, etc. In addition to tax exemption and exemption from military service, the last item is also very affordable: one of the important ways for the Ming Dynasty's servants to make money is to expand the case. It doesn't matter whether you are guilty or not, as long as you have some involvement, arrest them all! You entered the prison in a daze. Of course you want to get out as soon as possible. What should you do? You don’t need me to teach you, right? And once they have the qualifications to supervise students, the servants will not dare to do anything wrong.
Xi Junyu proposed a perfect solution to the court: if a wealthy household pays one hundred stones of wheat beans to the government, you will be granted the qualification to supervise students. Wheat beans were brought into the government service, and when disaster struck, the government would use these things to provide relief to the victims.
This method was praised by all the officials in the imperial court: Gansu is a bitter cold land with long drought and no rain, and the land is barren with yellow sand all over the sky. This is obviously a move to benefit the people! The proposal was easily approved. In the past few years, although Gansu Town has reported that it has suffered from severe droughts that have spread to most areas, in the past three years, the court has only allocated a total of more than 500,000 taels, and it has survived smoothly, saving more than twice as much as before.
But why did the military newspaper commanded by Yan mention that the locals said that it had been raining in this season for many years, and there were still mulberry trees? !
In fact, no one really believes that things are 100% as Xi Junyu said. If you think so, you will be underestimating the court's understanding of these officials. Not only the emperor's border patrol censor, but also the Ministry of Household Affairs sent personnel to actually inspect the granary in Gansu Town, and the conclusions they reported back were that "the grain in the granary is indeed stored." You can't help but believe it. For this reason, the Holy Emperor also specially rewarded Xi Junyu's legitimate son with the honorary title of Imperial Guard Envoy.
Several fast horses galloped out of the capital, heading west, straight to Gansu Town. These are the Dongchang minions sent by Li Shizhong's father-in-law.
Qin Taiping, who still had half a breath left, had been hanging in the air for most of the day.
Qin Taiping was a small leader of the auxiliary army of Ganzhou Youwei Guzhaibao (now Linze County, Gansu). The boss of Guzhaibao was Baihu Wei Dadao. As the saying goes, Taoist lives up to his name, but if you see Wei Baihu, you will never think of any majestic sword. Instead, you will think that there is a big meat ball in front of you - like the surrounding Jing'an, Pinglu, Banqiao, Willow... Like other hundreds of households in each fort, Wei Baihu's military position is raided. This group of officers who are listed in the Ming Dynasty's military rolls, regardless of their names, are very deceiving. They were all here two or three generations ago. Become small and medium-sized landowners.
The Torgut tribe near Yijignai is a branch of the Wala. In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, all outside the border wall are Mongolian Tatars, but they themselves do not see it that way. For example, the Wara people usually call themselves Oirat (another pronunciation of Wara) people rather than Mongolians. The Mongolian compatriots divide themselves into two parts in a broad sense: the sons of the grassland and the sons of the forest. Wara means forest in the Oirat language. . In a narrow sense, there are also various tribes. In his early years, he was afraid of being beaten by Chengzu, so he paid tribute and asked for a title. Among the tribes in Mobei, only Wala could obtain bows, knives, firecrackers and other military supplies from the Ming Dynasty. Although the quantity was pitiful, it was an obvious preferential treatment. When he arrived, he had an enmity with the Yingzong generation and fought several major battles: the Battle of Yijinai in the third year of Zhengtong, the Battle of Fengzhou in the sixth year of Zhengtong, the Battle of Yikeresu in the ninth year of Zhengtong, and the most famous one The civil engineering changes that took place in the 14th year of orthodoxy. Maybe it was because of his good drinking ability or his good eloquence. After Yingzong was captured, he and Ye actually drank and became buddies, and then they were sent back to the Ming Dynasty! Then, Nangong was restored and became a strange man* who became emperor twice in history. Not long after, the relationship between the two families was reconciled again - in fact, even when they were at odds, most of the wars were not fought along the border walls here. Therefore, the countless fortresses in Xingdusi and Gansu Town in Shaanxi only existed in the Ming Dynasty Military Department. On the map, in fact, they no longer have military significance. Qin Taiping's father gave him such a name, which is obviously a good expectation for the future.
The heavy rain a few days ago didn't cause any problems. It would clear up tomorrow, so Qin Taiping let the sheep out of the pen to eat grass and get some air. Unexpectedly, dark clouds suddenly gathered and a sudden thunder caused the sheep to scatter in fright. Qin Taiping had to lead his men to search everywhere. The heavy rain never ends, and the heavy rain comes and goes quickly, but there is still one sheep that will never come back - that sheep ran too far, and by the time Qin Taiping came to find him, it had already been set on the fire by the soldiers of Shaheyi. Only half of the shelf was left.
It was already midnight when he came back, and early the next morning, Qin Taiping was hung up and beaten by Wei Dadao, who was furious after hearing the news.
After a few blows, someone came up and said something to Mr. Wei. Mr. Wei was startled, then he ignored Qin Taiping and disappeared. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Qin Taiping would never have believed that this meat ball could run so fast! Immediately, Mr. Wei and his family hitched up their car and drove hurriedly towards the northwest high platform, leaving behind all the half-human and half-ghost military household auxiliary soldiers.
The auxiliary soldiers were looking forward to seeing Master Wei's motorcade disappearing out of sight, so someone wanted to free Qin Taiping. But at this moment, there was a chaos outside, with cries and shouts of killing everywhere. Everyone suddenly broke up and ran away, and no one cared about him anymore...
Qin Taiping was finally let go. A big face with a messy black and yellow beard came closer and said, "Your baby is hung like a donkey ball. What's going on?"
The accent was from Ningxia, so Qin Taiping stammered and told what happened. The bearded man asked again: "Where is Shaheyi? How many people are there?"
Knowing that there were only about twenty postmen not far to the south, the bearded man waved his hand, and there was a noisy sound of horse hooves, and dozens of horsemen rushed towards them with whips raised.
The bearded man extended his hand behind him, and a guard took out a bun from his arms and handed it to him. "My surname is Zhang. You can call me King or Marshal. Come with me and let's kill that donkey-ri Wei Dadao!" Qin Taiping, who was wolfing down the hard buns, nodded heavily.
Yan Minwang has returned home with the Taozhou Guard's pursuers. Xi Junyu, the governor of Gansu, and the senior officers of the Five Guards of Ganzhou... Oh, well, the landlords, apart from huddled in a few strongholds such as Gansu Town, Suzhou Guard, and Zhenyi Suo, Zhang Hu has no worries. The Shaanxi Xingdu Division captured all directions, but there was no way.
Zhang Hu rescued Qin Taiping, and Qin Taiping took Zhang Hu to find the food hidden by Wei Dadao. Immediately under Qin Taiping's guidance and persuasion, Fuyi Fort, Pingchuan Fort, 4567 Dam Fort... dozens of fortresses fell without a fight.
After hearing Qin Taiping's experience, Zhang Hu decided not to kill indiscriminately. The serfs and military households who could no longer bear the bullying of military leaders at all levels had no other choice and joined Zhang Hu's command. In addition to the military households in various forts, more poor peasants with civilian registration joined in. In ten months, Zhang Hu's group has expanded to nearly one hundred thousand people, among whom there are always seven or eight who can serve as soldiers. Thousands of people. Although there is not as much gold and silver as in the Central Plains, grain, cattle, sheep, mules and horses are far more abundant.
Zhang Hu, who was a blessing in disguise, was no longer Wu Xia Amen. Even if Sun Jie came back, he would never be able to win in a single battle.
*There was another person in history who actually served as emperor three times. Do you know who it is? Don't rush to Baidu, think carefully, you must have heard of this name - Tip, don't guess too far ¬^_^
