"Eat his mother, wear his mother, open the gate to welcome King Chuang, and divide the fields when King Chuang comes!
Rent is heavy and interest rates are high, making it difficult for poor people to make a living these days. Open the door early to pay homage to King Chuang, don’t pay the rent and don’t repay debts, discipline everyone with joy…”
On the first day of November in the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, songs to welcome King Chuang once again rang in the mountains and fields outside Jingmen Prefecture.
This means that the army of Chuang King Li Zicheng, welcomed by the poor farmers, has marched into the land of Jingmen Prefecture under the rule of Zuo Liangyu, the governor of Hubei Military Affairs of Hubei Province.
Jingmen Prefecture is a subordinate prefecture under Chengtian Prefecture and is also the northern gate of Jianghan Plain. The terrain of the city of Jingmen Prefecture is very dangerous. To the west of the city is the remnants of Jingshan Mountain, to the east of the city is a low hill called Pagoda Mountain, and not far to the north of the city is Quanshui, a tributary of the Han River.
In addition to the difficult terrain, Jingmen City is also located at the junction of the fertile Jianghan Plain and the Jingxiang Mountains. To the north of Jingmen Prefecture, there are large areas of mountainous hills and mountains, all the way to the vicinity of Xiangyang Fucheng and the Han River (there are also large areas of fertile flat land around Xiangyang Fucheng and along the Han River). To the south of Jingmen Prefecture is the fat and oily Jianghan Plain.
Before Li Zicheng defeated Shanhaiguan, Jingmen Prefecture was once the territory of the Dashun Dynasty. Li Zicheng also set up a Jingmen Army in this area and sent out military envoys. However, Li Zicheng did not work hard to manage this land. After the Battle of Shanhaiguan, in order to concentrate on confronting the Qing army, Li Zicheng gave up his Jingmen Army. Zuo Liangyu's army took advantage of the opportunity and occupied the entire Chengtian Mansion, including Jingmen Prefecture. Heavy troops were also deployed in Jingmen Prefecture to prevent the Dashun Army in Xiangjing Prefecture in the north from moving south again.
During the more than a year that Zuo Liangyu's troops occupied Jingmen Prefecture, this already strong city was further reinforced. The rammed earth city walls were much taller and thicker, and the trenches on all sides of the city were also widened and deepened, and filled with water. Three fortresses were also built on Pagoda Mountain in the east of the city to protect Jingmen Prefecture City.
Nowadays, the Jingmen Prefecture City is once again shrouded in the atmosphere of war. All the city gates are closed during the day. Only the south gate is open for a few hours every day. They dare not open the whole door, only half of it, so that the load of firewood can enter the city. There is always a group of soldiers standing at the city gate, ready to close the door and waist bars to block the city gate at any time.
Why is it Tuan Ding? Where did Zuo Liangyu's heavy troops go? Of course, the heavy soldiers had already rushed to Jingzhou Mansion with the looted property.
The person Zuo Liangyu sent to serve as a human shield in Chengtian Mansion was Jin Shenghuan, a powerful figure in the Zuo Army. The Zuo Army always had two factions, the Liao and Shaanxi factions. The former was the direct descendant of Zuo Liangyu and Zuo Mengeng, the father and son of Zuo Liangyu. , are all old brothers Zuo Liangyu brought up when he was serving in the Ji Liao Army. The latter were rogue traitors recruited during the hunt for rogue bandits, most of whom were from Shaanxi. Jin Shenghuan was a big brother-level figure in the Shaanxi clique who was born as a rogue bandit.
Because before and after the fall of Beijing in the 17th year of Chongzhen, he was asked by Lu Zhenfei to help defend Huaihe. When he returned to the defense, he took away part of the Huaiyang regiment training army that was adapted from the grain transport army, so he was very strong. I don’t buy Zuo Liangyu’s account anymore. That's why Zuo Liangyu sent a Chengtian Mansion guard general and threw him to the front line to serve as a human shield for more than a year.
However, Jin Shenghuan had a very comfortable life for more than a year. He did not fight with the Dashun Army and was busy doing business. Especially after Li Zicheng began to enclose and grant farmland, business became even better - Li Zicheng's old soldiers became landlords, and their spending power naturally increased greatly. The five prefectures of Xiangjing, Nanyang, Yuanyang, Hanzhong, and Xi'an did not have any industry or commerce to meet the needs of Dashun landlords, so they naturally had to trade with merchants in Huguang.
Jin Shenghuan was another money-minded man and opened a mutual market directly at Lexian Bridge where Jingmen Prefecture and Yicheng County of Xiangjing Prefecture intersected. And sell everything! Not to mention the fine iron produced in Xingguo Prefecture, even the turtle-dove-footed muskets shipped all the way from Guangdong could be bought in the Lexianqiao Mutual Market as long as Li Zicheng's people could afford it.
So over the past year, Jin Shenghuan has made a fortune, and millions of dollars have been made!
After becoming rich, Jin Shenghuan naturally became more fearful of life. As early as when the new version of "Ying Chuang King" began to be sung in the countryside of Chengtianfu, he began to arrange an escape route for himself.
After King Chuang began to gather his "old camp leaders", Jin Shenghuan, the general garrison of Chengtian Mansion, led his troops to retreat to Jingzhou Mansion, leaving the defense of Chengtian Mansion to the regiment coached by the local landlord Lao Cai.
Therefore, those who are now staying in the city of Jingmen Prefecture are the local landlords in Jingmen Prefecture. The landowners and gentry from the four townships of Jingmen Prefecture also took refuge in this fortified city with their families.
When King Chuang's army attacked last time, most of the gentry and landowners in Jingmen Prefecture did not go into the city to escape. At that time, most of them took refuge in earthen castles in the countryside - most of the gentry and landowners had some clan power to rely on. When the peasant army attacked before, as long as they gathered some strong men of the same clan and clan and found a remote and dangerous place to build a bunker to hide, they would probably be able to get through it.
But something is wrong this time. This time, instead of "three years' free grain", they are equalizing land according to population and defaulting on debts... And "high rent and heavy interest" have always been the two major problems for poor and lower-middle peasants. hatred. Li Zicheng now not only wants to divide the land, but also cancel the debts of the poor and lower-middle peasants.
Now the people are really happy!
Therefore, few landlords dared to stay in the countryside, and they all came to Jingmen Prefecture. Only when they entered Jingmen Prefecture did they realize that Jin Shenghuan's troops had already fled, and only a group of landowner regiments headed by Jing Muqing, a local wealthy celebrity in Jingmen Prefecture, were barely holding on to the city.
This Jing Muqing has read a lot of military books and served as a staff member in Sun Chuanting's army, so he still has some skills.
Now in Jingmen Prefecture, there are regiments patrolling the streets no matter day or night. Every evening, in addition to the regiment going to the city, every household in the city would go out to the city and bang the clappers all night long.
The martial law notices of Jingmen Tuanlian Yamen are posted everywhere. In the original Zhouyamen, there are many bloody human heads hanging on both sides of the screen wall in front of the current Tuanlian Yamen. It is said that they were caught and killed by spies who sneaked into the city—— Only God knows whether he is a real spy or not! However, the people in the city were frightened, public security was guaranteed, and every household was willing to send men to the city.
However, what can be slightly stabilized is within the Jingmen city, and outside the city, there is already a scene of joy to welcome King Chuang.
Li Laiheng, who drove in by land, now feels a little more like "Shun Taizong". He led three thousand "old camp warriors" and the same number of auxiliary soldiers (all tenants of the old camp warriors) to act as Li Guo's vanguard. They were walking mightily on the official road from Lexianqiao Mutual Market south to Jingmen Prefecture City. Along the way, we didn't meet anyone who resisted the Ming army, but we met many poor people who were welcoming King Chuang, helping the old and the young, singing songs, and everyone looked happy.
Obviously, the latest version of "Ying Chuang King" has achieved good results - compared with not paying the emperor's food, dividing the land without paying back the debt is a great thing that people want!
Several scouts Pegasus arrived in front of Li Laiheng. The leader was a strong man wearing blue cloth-covered iron armor. After enclosing the land to equalize the land, most of the "old camp warriors" of the Dashun Army purchased some armor and equipment, and their equipment was also more advanced than before. Things were much better in the past, so the scout named Chen Zhong got himself a cloth-faced armor.
"Chen Laosan," Li Laiheng recognized Chen Zhong and asked with a smile, "What happened? Did the Ming army in Jingmen Prefecture escape?"
"General Huizhi," Chen Zhong cupped his hands on horseback, "The city gates of Jingmen Prefecture are tightly closed, and there are various flags and soldiers patrolling and guarding the city walls."
Li Laiheng smiled and said: "This Dou Su (Jin Shenghuan) is so brave, he dares to fight against the great Shun Tian soldiers!"
"General Zhi misunderstood, he is not a man with a bushel of millet," Chen Zhong said with a smile. "My subordinates captured a soldier who was leaving the city and asked about it, and found out that the person guarding Jingmen Prefecture was a Jingju man from the mouth of the Zhanghe River. Because he pulled up After acquiring thousands of regiment men, a bushel of millet was used as a regimental training officer. Now that a bushel of millet has escaped, Jingju people have entered the city of Jingmen."
