On the first day of July in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen's reign in the Ming Dynasty, a group of people in python robes and black gauze had gathered at the east gate of Yanzhou. Inside and outside the gate, there were soldiers wearing mandarin ducks and war coats, holding spears and swords, and they were heavily guarded.
There were many events in the official circles of the Ming Dynasty, but such a big scene today was extremely rare even in Yanzhou, the big city where the Lu Palace was located. The person who came was obviously some big shot!
Because there is not much peace in Shandong recently, people with some wealth are running to big cities. Yanzhou City, which is closest to Nanzhili and close to the canal, is the best place for Shandong gentry to avoid disasters. Even in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, Yanzhou City was attacked by the Qing army who entered the pass and looted, and was slaughtered. Even Zhu Yipai, the king of Lu'an, could not escape. However, in the 17th year of Chongzhen, when the situation became even more chaotic, many officials and gentry who had fled from Jinan Prefecture, Dongchang Prefecture, Qingzhou Prefecture, and even Northern Zhili and Henan gathered in Yanzhou City.
Most of the officials and gentry who gathered in Yanzhou had made up their minds to become the second and third ministers, but they did not expect that the Ming Dynasty would actually give birth to a crown prince who was "the reincarnation of Taizu". It was hard to say whether he would be revived or not, but his life extension was certain. .
Moreover, Shi Kefa, Minister of War in Nanjing, also summoned King Qin's army and marched to Yanzhou in a mighty manner, showing that the Ming Dynasty was still very powerful.
Since the Ming Dynasty is still very powerful, everyone should stop being the second minister and the third minister for the time being, and think about how to curry favor with the high officials gathered in Yanzhou.
That's why Yanzhou Dongguan opened a scene, and well-informed fleeing officials and gentry swarmed in, crowded on both sides of the official road, and started asking each other.
"Look, look, Shi Bu Tang is here! Shi Bu Tang is still laughing, it's not easy! Who are we going to pick up today? It can't be the Holy Lord and Qiantose Master who are here, right?"
"No, where can the Holy Lord and Master Qiantose arrive at the city gate to greet them? Then why don't they go thirty miles out of the city to greet them in the suburbs?"
"Could it be that His Highness King Lu is back?"
"No, no, King Lu lost his vassal and fled. He must first plead guilty to the Holy One and get the will before he can come back."
"Then that elder is here."
"Mr. Ge must be here, I don't know who it is?"
Among these fleeing officials and gentry, there were also some who were rather thick-skinned and did not mind chatting with vulgar warriors, so they approached to build friendship and asked in a low voice: "Which pavilion elder are you welcoming?"
The military attache who was asked didn't hide anything. He smiled and said: "Who is the elder? It's the saint from Qufu."
"The saint of Qufu? Ah, it's Duke Yan!"
"No, why did I hear that Duke Yansheng surrendered to the bandits?"
"Your news is out of date a long time ago. Duke Yansheng surrendered to Donglu in May, and now he is Duke Yansheng of Donglu."
"So today is a welcome, or a battle?"
"I don't know... maybe after an order is given, we will fight!"
The man who came turned out to be the 64th grandson of Confucius, Kong Yinzhi, the great sage of the Qing Dynasty.
Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, is located on the ground of Yanzhou Prefecture, very close to Ziyang, the capital of Yanzhou Prefecture, but it is its own world and is not under the jurisdiction of Yanzhou Prefecture. Since the Yuan Dynasty, the county magistrate of Qufu has been held by the Kong family for generations. A county in Qufu actually became the fiefdom of Duke Yansheng!
Compared with King Lu in Yanzhou City, King De in Jinan City, and King Heng in Qingzhou, Duke Yansheng of Qufu is more like a true vassal king. Not only does he have a high status and cannot be offended, but he also controls the land of a county and tens of thousands of people. . Moreover, the Yanshenggong family also owned a solid city built in the Zhengde period - the original Qufu city was not strong enough and was captured by a peasant uprising army in the sixth year of Zhengde. Therefore, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty ordered the governor of Shandong to rebuild a Qufu city in the southwest corner of the old city of Lu, with the Confucius Temple as the center.
The project of rebuilding Qufu City was very huge. It took two emperors and more than ten years to complete the construction, which cost 36,000 taels of silver. The city is about ten miles in circumference, more than two feet and three feet high, and more than one foot and one foot thick. The city has five gates, and each gate has an urn. There is a moat outside the city, which is more than ten feet wide and deep.
The newly built Qufu City is of suitable size, and there are five urn cities to lean on. It does not require too many troops to defend it. The city wall is made of rammed earth and bricks, which is very strong. Moreover, there is still about three feet between the city wall and the moat, leaving room for further reinforcement.
In addition to his unattainable status and the strong city of Qufu, Yanshenggong's wealth is not inferior to that of any vassal king. The Confucius Temple’s sacrificial land alone amounts to hundreds of thousands of acres!
Moreover, over the past two hundred years, the Yanshenggong family has also used its own privileges to annex or protect millions of acres of land through embezzlement and deceitful transfer. The Kong family farm spread all over Shandong's state capitals. He became the leading landowner in Shandong and even the Ming Dynasty!
And with its fiefdom, people, cities, farmland (wealth) and supreme and inviolable majesty, the Qufu Kong family seems to be an unbreakable force even in the current troubled times.
Not only did the Manchus not attack Qufu when they invaded Shandong, but Li Zicheng, the Dashun who was about to seize the world, was not willing to make an enemy of the Kong family in Qufu. As for the local rebels in Shandong, they once besieged the city of Qufu during the Great Famine in Shandong during the Thirteenth Chongzhen Period. But they didn't dare to fight at all. When Yan Shenggong Kong Yinzhi himself came to the city, the besieged rebels kowtowed to him one after another, and then left to relieve the siege!
Through this siege incident, the high prestige of the Qufu Kong family in Shandong can be seen.
However, Kong Yinzhi was also a very knowledgeable Yanshenggong. Although his family received countless benefits from the Ming Dynasty, he never thought of being loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Their family had survived for thousands of years, but not only Relying on the golden sign of Confucius, they are the only ones in the world who are good at turning from darkness to light in a time of great strife.
They invested in the Jin Dynasty, surrendered to the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, gave Kublai Khan the title of Confucian Grand Master, and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty after Zhu Yuanzhang's soldiers invaded Shandong.
Basically, it’s one lower level and one lower level!
However, this generation of Yanshenggong Kong Yinzhi was not as good as his ancestors in surrendering. In April, he hurriedly surrendered the watch to Li Zicheng who had entered Beijing City, and also played the "Greetings" in Qufu City. The banner of Shuntian soldiers.
Li Zicheng also conveniently made him Duke Yansheng of Dashun Dynasty!
It was originally a good thing, but no one expected that Dashun just went to Beijing for a tour. In the blink of an eye, millions of heavenly soldiers were driven away by the Eight Banners heavenly soldiers, and even the city of Beijing changed hands.
But this doesn’t matter, the two ministers and the three ministers are not different anyway! Therefore, after Yanshenggong Kong Yinzhi learned about the defeat of Dashun, the war between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the fall of Beijing into the hands of the Qing Dynasty, he wrote another "Explanation of the First Entry" and sent it to Dorgon in Beijing. ——Expressed his willingness to submit to the Qing Dynasty.
Without waiting for people from the Qing Dynasty to come, he had people take down the banner with the word "Chuang" on the top of Qufu City, and then put up the banner with the word "Qing".
But then something went wrong again!
Shi Kefa, the Minister of War in Nanjing during the Ming Dynasty, gathered more than 100,000 soldiers from four towns and marched to Yanzhou next to Qufu. He also said that he would fight against the captives!
This scared the Holy Duke Qingyan half to death! Nowadays, Shandong is mainly a mixture of the Ming and Dashun families. The only one who carries the banner of the Qing Dynasty is Kong Yinzhi, the Holy Duke of the Qing Dynasty in Qufu!
Do you mean to fight against the captives by sending troops to attack Qufu? This is terrible!
Fortunately, what Yan Shenggong was worried about did not happen after all. Shi Kefa didn't know what to do with Qing Yan Shenggong? Moreover, when Kong Yinzhi heard that the Ming Dynasty was back, he changed the flag of the Qing Dynasty to that of the Ming Dynasty. From April to now, Kong Yinzhi has changed his court three times, and he doesn’t know if it will happen again. Is there a fourth time?
However, not long after Kong Yinzhi announced that he was a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, an unexpected piece of bad news came from the Denglai Second Mansion.
Dengzhou Xingzai issued an order to confiscate part of the Kong family's farm on the ground of Denglai Second Mansion!
This is tens of thousands of acres of land! All the orders were confiscated, and the bandits were not that ruthless!
Moreover, the confiscation order was issued by the order of Prince Fujun. Will it be executed throughout Shandong in the future? Will all the land owned by Yan Shenggong be confiscated?
This is no joke!
Therefore, "Kong Yinzhi, the Holy Duke of the Great Qing Dynasty" could no longer sit still, and hurriedly sent gifts and famous cards to Yanzhou. He also set a time to visit Shi Kefa and other important officials of the Ming Dynasty in person.
