Liu Chengzong never dreamed that the imperial governor of Gansu would come to his administration to observe the people's sentiments.
Bai Yiqing did not leave Yehu Fort. He changed his name to Yuan Su and pretended to be a Juren from Liangzhou Wei. He was going to Lanzhou to teach students. After listening to Yehu Fort's words, he became very interested in the Marshal's Mansion.
He said that he hoped to find out more information so that he could tell his friends in the future to avoid misunderstandings and confrontation with the Marshal's Mansion.
The simple General Manager of the Marshal's Mansion was caught by these remarks, and he led the imperial governor of Gansu up the winding riverside mountain road to his home base, Yehu Castle.
He was originally the chief executive of Hekou Dongguan, why did he come to station sixty miles away? Isn't that to protect the virtuous reputation of the commander-in-chief and prevent the scum of the officers and soldiers from ruining the reputation of the commander-in-chief?
Now there is a scholar who is curious about them and is willing to understand them. In the future, he will go to Lanzhou to help the commander spread his reputation. Isn't this a great thing for him?
Yehu Fort is not large in size. It is built on the mountain highland on the east bank of Zhuanglang River. It is a small rammed earth city with four enemy towers at the four corners and a wall of one foot and eight feet high. A two-foot-high platform was dug out of the mountain. To go up to the fort, you must first circle twice within the range of the crossbow firearm.
Easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Bai Yiqing entered the castle, looked left and right, and felt that the castle was unscathed. It was just that the rammed earth in some parts of the city wall was of different colors, but that was obviously not a recent incident.
This made him curiously ask: "General, look at this fort, doesn't it look like there has been a war?"
Earlier, Mr. Bai was very arrogant, and that was because he was as tall as a man who didn't ask for help. But now that he has a need for Bai Yiqing, the arrogance no longer appears in his expression. On the contrary, he has become very kind.
Throwing off the reins and handing them to Minzhuang who was coming up from the fort, Mr. Bai took off the red lacquered helmet with the word "yong" on his head and held it under his ribs. He raised his finger and pointed at Bai Yiqing, and said with a smile: "No hurry, come up with me."
With that said, he led Bai Yiqing to the fort wall, stood on the high ground, and had a panoramic view of the Zhuanglang River Valley. Facing the mountain wind, President Bai stretched out his arms and pointed around and said: "Look at this place, it's so damn beautiful! "
Twenty or thirty miles south of the castle is Kushuiyi. Directly west of Kushuiyi, dark red gravel rises from the ground on the strange terrain. The steep and tall peaks complement the blue sky and white clouds, forming a magnificent and beautiful Dan. Xia landform.
President Bai pointed to the land between Kushuiyi and Yehubao, but the joy on his face gradually faded, and he said with melancholy: "From Kushuiyi to the north, this river valley is three to four miles wide and thirty to forty miles long. They are all good lands for growing food, and the harvests can be much higher than those in my hometown!"
After saying that, he turned to look at Bai Yiqing: "You are a knowledgeable Liangzhou Juren. The Zhuang Langwei Banner Army has more than 100,000 acres of good military farmland. Why do you still need to intercept passing merchants and deduct road taxes to make a living?"
"This..." Bai Yiqing shook his head and said, "Maybe there are bad people, and the flag officer has evil intentions?"
"you are right."
Mr. Bai nodded and said: "There are indeed bad people, but it's not just flag officials. Let me tell you, in these thousands of hectares of land, there are palaces, generals, and officials, but there is no army to farm, not even an acre of land. .”
"The Banner Army doesn't have any farmland in this acre, but they farm these lands. You are knowledgeable. Can you tell me why the Banner Army wants to fight me to the death in this fort? They have three families including their families. There were more than a hundred people, but I only brought fifty-five people with me. After being surrounded at the foot of the mountain for half an hour, they ran away."
Mr. Bai was very proud and waved his hands in front of him in an understatement: "Not a single arrow was shot, not a single blunderbuss was discharged, they all ran away."
Bai Yiqing took a breath, pursed his lips and gritted his teeth. He knew that his face must be very ugly at this time.
Things are not exactly what the handsome man said. It's not that extreme.
He knew that there was Zhuangzi of Su vassal here, and King Su had more than 300 hectares of renamed fields, two waterwheels, and a boat mill here. He also knew that there were fields for generals, officials, and wealthy families, but there should be 600 hectares of land here. Qing army garrisoned the fields.
Every time he checked the accounts in the past, Zhuang Langwei had no problems.
He didn't know if his officials knew or didn't tell him, or if they were also kept in the dark, or if the low-level officer of the Marshal's Mansion in front of him was deceiving him, or if everyone was deceiving him.
In any case, Gansu's military problems were much more serious than he imagined.
In order to avoid losing his composure, Bai Yiqing changed the subject and asked Mr. Bai: "Jiang Ye just mentioned his hometown. Isn't Jiang from Hehuang?"
"He Huang?"
Mr. Bai smiled: "Do you know Yanchuan? Yanchuan of Yan'an Prefecture."
Bai Yiqing nodded and looked at Mr. Bai with a different look: "General and Marshal Liu are from the same hometown?"
Of course he knew about Yanchuan. He had participated in politics in Shaanxi since the first year of Chongzhen. He often saw Liu Chengzong in the newspapers, and he had been a close friend for a long time.
The newspaper was Di Bao, and the appearance of Liu Chengzong's name was often accompanied by huge destruction. Either the post station was demolished, or the army was destroyed. They would appear in the west and cause trouble in the east, making it difficult to sleep peacefully.
"I'm not from the same hometown. It's a little further away in Yan'an." Mr. Bai shook his head, then smiled and said: "Don't always call me a general. I'm not a general. If I hadn't voted for the handsome man, I would have been just a Yan." Sichuan miners."
"My name is Jing Xiaoliu, the general manager of Dongguan Town of Shuai Mansion. I live in Jingjiagou, Yanchuan. It doesn't hurt to let you know. Anyway, my family members are dead because of the good deeds you said the generals did."
Bai Yiqing's expression was not so much surprised as expected, and he said: "The officers and soldiers killed good people and took credit for their merits, Du Wenhuan?"
He remembered very clearly that in the fourth year of Chongzhen's reign, Du Wenhuan was imprisoned and deprived of his position because his subordinate Li Chongrong killed 199 good people in Yanchuan and pretended to be bandits.
Unexpectedly, Jing Xiaoliu laughed, shook his head and said, "What you are talking about happened in the winter of the third year of Chongzhen. We did not last until the third year at all."
As he spoke, Jing Xiaoliu's eyes lost focus, with a look of reminiscence on his face, and he said: "My hometown, Jingjiagou, is a poor place with not many fields. It takes more than ten miles of winding along the ridge to get there." Shangguan Road, but there are coal mountains and iron mountains, as well as pasture and medicinal materials.”
Speaking of the situation in his hometown, Jing Xiaoliu had a regretful smile on his face: "In the second year of Chongzhen, probably a little earlier than this time, there was an uprising named Monk Wang in our place, which made a lot of noise, but our little boy Being in a remote mountainous area, I just feel that there is a severe drought and life is miserable."
"Then it rained to keep the moisture for farming. People worked hard to dig coal and iron, and dug out the seeds that had not germinated last year. They said that the price of food would definitely come down next year. But the handsome man attacked Yan'an Prefecture and demolished the inn all the way to Yan'an. Sichuan."
Even now, Jing Xiaoliu still has a look of despair when mentioning this matter: "The handsome man came and helped us resist the tax, drove away the government servants sent by the government, and helped us destroy the grain chief's house. It was a good few days, but when the handsome man came, so did the officers and soldiers... I will remember that day for the rest of my life."
Bai Yiqing looked at the little thief leader in front of him in his impression, and found it incredible to hear him talk about this.
When the bandits arrived at Jingjiagou, Jing Xiaoliu felt that they had had a good few days; when the officers and soldiers arrived at Jingjiagou, Jing Xiaoliu was extremely frustrated.
Jing Xiaoliu raised two fingers: "At that time, Hou Guanjun was not bad, indeed not too bad. The court ordered them to suppress thieves, but they didn't have much military rations. There were thieves in the county and they couldn't afford it, so they had to go to the village. Raise food, two hundred officers and soldiers, they only want food."
Jing Xiaoliu clapped his hands, with a relaxed and complicated smile on his face, and raised his chin slightly: "I ran a long way up the mountain road to report to the handsome man, and the two hundred officers and soldiers were wiped out. Later, their guerrilla general was also killed. The handsome man has suppressed them."
Bai Yiqing was at a loss for words as he listened to the old events that happened in northern Shaanxi. Before that, he thought Jing Xiaoliu was an officer with military background, but he didn't expect... that he was just a ruthless person.
"Why? How much food have the officers and soldiers confiscated from you? Why do you hate them so much?"
"I don't hate them. They didn't steal much food. Maybe a thousand catties? And a few horses."
Jing Xiaoliu spoke calmly, but Bai Yiqing involuntarily took half a step back, even looking at Jing Xiaoliu in the wrong way.
Bai Yiqing didn't understand that he was a Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli. His official career was more of a civilian official in the army than a civilian official.
He first took up his duties in the Ministry of War. In the second year of the Apocalypse, Emperor Xizong specially ordered him to be in charge of Shanhaiguan and other departments. Later, he went to Shaanxi to manage the two military armaments in Xining Pass, and now he is the governor of Gansu. It can be said that he has ten Most of the remaining years of his political career have been related to the military.
He only served as the magistrate of Zhangde Prefecture in Anyang, Henan for a period of time. At that time, he came into contact with the people of Henan.
The times at that time were not good, and the imperial court needed money to fight wars in all directions. Wanli levied an additional nine cents of silver in places other than Guizhou, and it was not until his death that he used a posthumous edict to remove the mine supervisors who were causing trouble everywhere.
But the people were not like this at that time.
It is a natural rule to pay taxes and grain to the imperial court; wherever the officers and soldiers near the front line go, there is no need to apportion, and the gentry will bring one or two meals on behalf of the people, which is also what the people want.
Later, he went to Shaanxi to serve as an official. He first prepared the troops in Xining and then took charge of the inner roads. When he was in Xining and Guanzhong, he also saw the peace and security of the people. Especially in Sanyuan County at that time, the people of the gentry and the people worked together as one, making guns and cannons to protect the countryside. The thieves who came down from the north beat me to pieces.
Why did it end up like this when we arrived at Jingjiagou in Jingxiaoliu? It seems that the thieves are much closer than the officers and soldiers.
Just for seven or eight kilograms of food, just this little food, and the tip-off cost the lives of hundreds of officers and soldiers?
What a cruel heart!
"It was the third year of the severe drought in northern Shaanxi. We had stopped eating food for a long time."
Jing Xiaoliu said softly: "There has been no harvest in the mountains for two years. I borrowed everything I could and sold everything I could sell. My aunt went to the mountains to be a beggar and my uncle went to the mountains to chew tree bark. We should have escaped from the crisis long ago. It happens that it rains in Yanchuan, so I want to try to rely on seeds... They steam their nests and cook noodles, shouldn't they die?"
Bai Yiqing was speechless.
In fact, before this, he had always believed that the root of the problem lay in the decline of Ming Dynasty's morality and etiquette.
Morality and etiquette are not some invisible and intangible fantasy. To put it bluntly, they are axioms that exist in the hearts of everyone in the entire society.
There are no axioms in the Ming Dynasty now, only everyone's principles. People with different identities have their own difficulties and principles, and they all go their own way in violation of the axioms.
But now it seems that the decline of morality and etiquette is not the underlying cause but the symptom.
What is the underlying reason and what Bai Yiqing wants to do, but he cannot find out from everything he is accustomed to.
Even as the governor, he could not single-handedly reverse the decline of Gansu. To put it bluntly, he could not even do something as simple as establishing a Qing military camp.
On the surface, the Qing military garrison should be supported by the army, but in fact, the people in power in the army are his targets for the Qing garrison.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask Jing Xiaoliu: "General Jing, how does the Marshal's Office solve the problem of military rations? I think you don't collect road tax and just attack Lanzhou?"
Jing Xiaoliu glanced at him, thinking that this old man was still very concerned about the affairs of the Marshal's Mansion, and sneered: "You can expect to move things from Lanzhou wherever you go. The Marshal's Mansion is poorer, but the governance of the officials and gentry is better than the Qingming Dynasty. too much."
Speaking of this, he glanced at Bai Yiqing and said, "Mr. Yuan, could it be that you want to find an official position in the Marshal's Mansion? The Marshal's Mansion is in a period of employment. You are a member of the imperial court. You will definitely be able to show off your talents here. "
When Bai Yiqing heard this, he suppressed his laughter. This was too funny. It was understandable that the general's troops surrendered because of the collapse. The imperial court had given him the responsibility of a border official. Even if he died, he would have to die in office. How could he defect to the Marshal's Mansion?
However, these words opened a window for him. Since the Marshal's Mansion is employing people, and now there is a little boss like Jing Xiaoliu, why doesn't he take advantage of the situation, recruit a few students, and use the space at the Marshal's Mansion?
He smiled and said: "The villain is already very old. I am afraid that it will be difficult for him to serve for a few years if he joins the Marshal's Mansion. However, there are some students who cannot fill the real vacancies in the court. If the Marshal's Mansion is really like what the general said, the officials will be able to learn from the Qingming Festival. The people can show off their talents, and I would like them to try it.”
When Jing Xiaoliu heard this, his eyes lit up and he said happily: "That's the best thing. Let them come to me when they come, and I will introduce them to them."
"but……"
"But what?"
Bai Yiqing pretended to be in trouble and asked with concern: "I heard that the Marshal's Mansion drove out all the rich gentry and killed them all. Will they get any benefits if they go there?"
"Whoever killed them all, the wealthy gentry in Hehuang all ran away by themselves before the war started." Jing Xiaoliu laughed and glared: "Is this what the court said about the Marshal's Mansion? The Marshal's Mansion did punish some rich people who were unkind to their wealth, and they also We have killed some gentry, but those people deserve to die. I won’t tell you what bad things they have done. They killed hundreds of people, so we just killed one of them. Is it still wrong?”
"Those big families who own tens of thousands of acres of land, their family of a dozen or so live well, but hundreds of other common people can't have enough to eat. So what if the Marshal's Mansion takes over their fields and spares their lives? "
Jing Xiaoliu opened his hands and said: "There are also some big families left in Hehuang. They have farmed and studied for generations and treated their tenants well. Even though the marshal took over their land, they still make suggestions and design channels in the countryside and towns. People respect him very much.”
"Some people are just lying on the ground, sucking human blood and eating people's wives and daughters. The tenants got up and beat him to death without the command of the commander. He even complained to the Lord of Hell and ignored him!"
Not to mention, Bai Yiqing, the governor of Gansu, was excited when he heard this, and his heart seemed to be on fire. He wished he could go back to Gansu to incite the tenants to kill such a bastard.
Not only did he listen with fascination, he even had a plan in his mind. He had to use extraordinary methods in emergency situations. He had no way to deal with those who occupied the military camps in Gansu through conventional means.
He has already seen that the Marshal's Mansion has not actually solved any problems, but a war of sufficient intensity has almost solved the problem.
This made him make up his mind to get a few students from Lanzhou and Gansu and stuff them into the Marshal's Mansion.
If you go in, you can inquire about the Marshal's Mansion; if you retreat, you can do some advanced studies and recruit some talents to come back. If you are successful in learning, you can also solve the problems in Gansu... The bad thing about Gansu is that there are neither rebels nor troops who obey his orders.
But he can create, but he doesn't know yet whether it will be a battalion that obeys his orders, or a rebel army.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Good evening!
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