It is impossible to commit suicide by throwing yourself into the river. At least Peng Ziqin, the governor of Anlu County, De'an Prefecture, will never commit suicide by throwing himself into the river in his life. He is not yet thirty this year, and he is in high spirits. He still wants to become a high school scholar and then become a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, Dashun Dynasty or Qing Dynasty. It doesn't matter who he is an official for. It’s nothing, the key is to have an official position, make money, and be able to honor your ancestors!
But what he never expected was that the three families of Ming, Dashun, and Qing were all going bad!
He went there last time when the Ming Dynasty opened an encyclopedia in Nanjing. He was full of knowledge, and he especially studied the "Book of Rites" and "Spring and Autumn" among the Five Classics - Ming Dynasty scholars often selected one of the "Five Classics" Study hard and use it as your own "classic" to prepare for the imperial examination. There are also some more talented scholars who study both classics. Peng Ziqin was such a great talent who studied both classics.
But he never expected that this time Enke would not take a test on the Four Books and Five Classics, or an eight-legged essay, but a policy essay to determine the winner!
Of course he can also write policy papers! He is also familiar with history books and knows the great principles of the ancients from his mouth.
But the topic of Enkoce's theory was actually the collection of business taxes! This is exorbitant taxation! Peng Ziqin lent his status as a judge to three Anlu businessmen. How could he allow the imperial court to have a treacherous official who exacted excessive taxes? At that time, a group of people with a strong sense of justice started to cause trouble.
As a result, he was grabbed and beaten up by a group of "disgraced scholars" who spoke with northern accents... What a shame!
Fortunately, he was only beaten once, and his reputation as a successful candidate was still there, and Huguang was not the territory directly controlled by the "Black-Hearted Prince" for the time being, so his good days continued for a while.
After hitting a wall in Nanjing, Peng Ziqin did not give up his ideal of taking the exam and becoming an official. Instead, he set his sights on Li Zicheng from Xiangyang Mansion next door - there was a "black-hearted prince" in the Ming Dynasty, and it seemed that he would not last long.
And the Tatars don't know what medicine they took wrongly, and they want to fall into Confucius's fight. It is obviously not a good place for scholars to become officials, so I am afraid that the surname will eventually be Li!
But his good wishes once again came to nothing... Dashun Dynasty actually started a plan to equalize land! They no longer want to do it on the territory of their five existing prefectures. They want to do it in Peng Ziqin's hometown and equalize the land of Peng Ziqin's family.
This is really life-threatening! He didn't care about becoming an official, so he quickly took his family's wealth to Hankou. Before I could take a breath, Da Shuntian soldiers followed...
So Peng Daju and his entire family arrived at Wuchang Fucheng empty-handed, and they started making trouble because they had no money to eat. If he were willing to commit suicide by throwing himself into the river, all the problems would be solved. Why would he be making a fuss?
Now Peng Ziqin and hundreds of Hubei-born scholars and scholars have gathered on the bank of the Yangtze River. They also carried many flags made of tattered fabrics of various colors. There were words on the flags, not embroidered, but large characters written with a brush. Things like "defeat the people and attack the crime", "defeat the Central Plains in the north", "drive out the bandits", "recover Xianling Mausoleum", "swear to kill Li Zicheng" and so on.
It turned out that they were not going to surrender to the Yangtze River, but were going to cross the Yangtze River north to kill Li Zicheng! So they not only carried banners, but also carried murderous weapons - wooden sticks more than two feet long, rulers for hitting children's palms, kitchen knives for cutting meat, and bricks for smashing people's heads! They have both long and short knives, enough for a group fight on the streets of Wuchang.
But if you want to defeat Li Zicheng's Da Shuntian soldiers, no matter how you look at it, it means death!
Guarding the banks of the Yangtze River were soldiers under Liu Kongzhao. They were not the new army to overcome the difficulties, but the remnants of the Nanjing squadron. They were all southerners and looked down upon the scholar-bureaucrats. Of course we cannot just watch thousands of scholars here go to Hanyang to die! So we stopped them and refused to let them go - in fact, they couldn't go without stopping them. There are no ships at Hanyangmen Pier now, how can they cross the river? Swim over?
As soon as Liu Kongzhao's Jiangdu soldiers stopped them, Peng Ziqin and the others had a chance to perform, and everyone was filled with indignation and impassioned.
"We, the scholars from Huguang, are heroes in life, and heroes in death! How can we ignore the elders of Jiangbei and the emperor's mausoleum?"
"We want to go north to fight against thieves. You are also soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. If you don't follow me and go north to serve the country, that's it. Why do you want to stop us?"
Peng Daju wasted no time in stepping forward. He had a good appearance, tall and burly, with a Chinese character face, handsome features, and three strands of beard under his chin, extending to his chest. He looks like a famous minister of the generation, Zhongliang!
Peng Dazhongliang was wearing a Confucian Taoist robe (not a Taoist robe worn by Taoists, but a kind of Confucian robe), and he was holding a kitchen knife in each hand - I don't know where he got it from? He was a civil servant, so if he took two kitchen knives without telling me, could he still be called stealing?
"You soldiers are all paid by the imperial court. Now the bandits who have crossed the river are in Hanyang Mansion. Instead of standing up to kill the thieves, you are preventing us from going north to serve the country. What are your intentions?"
Peng Dazhongliang raised his kitchen knife, pointed at a flag captain of the Wuchang soldiers wearing a helmet, and asked sternly.
The flag captain looked at the rusty kitchen knife, and then at Peng Ziqin, who looked like a loyal minister and good general. He really didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He refused to let anyone beat him, so he had to persuade him nicely: "This Duke Xiaolian (another name for Juren)" ) Stop making trouble, you want to kill Li Zicheng with just two kitchen knives? Then Li Zicheng is so cruel. He kills people without blinking an eye, and eats people without spitting out their bones! If Mr. Xiaolian really wants to serve the country, he should take the Jinshi exam and transfer to the military. Go to the Nanjing Martial Arts Lecture Hall, and from now on you will become an officer in the new army, and you will be able to lead troops to kill bandits."
Nanjing Wushu Hall is the Nanjing Martial Arts School, which changed its name not long ago. Zhu Cihong also issued a special edict to praise the Lecture Hall, and also mentioned the advanced deeds of the three "Confucian scholars" Yan Yingyuan, Xu Ermo, and Qi Yuanbi who exchanged literature for military affairs and joined the army with their pens.
The flag captain, who was born in the Navy of Caojiang, had read books and saw this matter in the notice sent by the above, so he talked about it.
Peng Ziqin thought to himself: If I wanted to have a Jinshi, I would have become a corrupt official... Now everyone is making trouble together, isn't it because they have no family business, no job, and no livelihood?
They are not going to kill Li Zicheng, but they want to eat... and they want Prince Zhu who lives in the Chu Palace to give everyone a good meal!
...
"Your Highness, we can't let those scholars make trouble anymore..."
"His Royal Highness, let the old minister come forward to appease me!"
"Your Highness, the scholar-official lady still needs to sort out her heart..."
In the main hall of the Prince of Chu's Mansion, Yuan Jixian, Qiu Yu, and Fang Gongyue were persuading Zhu Cixiang to try to appease people's hearts. There is also a newly appointed left-behind Liu Kongzhao of Jiangdu who is standing beside him without saying a word, but with a sad face - Prince Zhu is a bit moody, don't order the left-behind department to send troops to suppress it later!
"They just want to go to the Northern Expedition. Why should I appease them? Want to clean them up?" Of course Zhu Cixiang understood what those people were thinking? However, he still pretended to be confused because he understood - he did not want to drive all the landlords, old money and profiteers who came to Wuchang City to death. Although they were not good people, they were also a relatively smart and capable group of people in Huguang.
Smart people are still useful! But Zhu Cixiang doesn't have so many errands to reward them, and he won't regain the lost territory of Huguang for them. Instead, he wants to force them into the market... Even those who have the ability have to force them!
"Sanfu!" Zhu Cixiang said with a smile, "Where is Wu Sanfu? Go find him!"
Wu Sanfu is busy setting up defenses! Zhu Cixiang, a great military strategist, only commands him. How busy he is! Moreover, all the hard work was in vain, and all the credit was recorded in Zhu Cixiang's name.
The officers and soldiers of the guard battalion guarding outside the main hall also served as messengers, and soon someone went to fetch Wu Sanfu from Phoenix Mountain.
Wu Sanfu went to Phoenix Mountain to inspect the artillery positions. Just after he finished his work, he was called back to the Prince of Chu's Mansion. As soon as he entered the hall, before he had time to salute, Zhu Cixi asked: "Third Assistant, is the cannon ready?"
"It's ready!" Wu Sanfu replied.
"Can we fire now?"
"sure!"
Zhu Cixiang nodded, "Okay! Someone is causing trouble at Hanyangmen Pier, and we need to use the cannon on Phoenix Mountain!"
