"Your Majesty, we are here in Shishou County. This is Shishou Mountain. As long as the general cannon captured in Jiangling is moved up, we can lock the Yangtze River waterway. This river is the Huarong River..."
Gu Junen was currently in the Shishou County Government Hall, explaining the terrain of the battlefield to Li Zicheng in front of a map he had found from the Shishou County Government Office.
Shishou County and the nearby Shishou Mountain, as well as the port that guards the junction of the Huarong River and the Yangtze River, are now occupied by Dashun troops crossing the river.
The deployment of the Ming army in the above-mentioned areas was fictitious. Although local officials were ordered to launch regiment training, the Dashun army divided their fields in Jiangbei, causing the poor peasants in Shishou and Huarong counties across the river to become red. With eyes on Chuang Wang, it’s good that they didn’t stage an armed uprising. How can they hold team training with them?
Moreover, the landlords and gentry in Shishou and Huarong counties have also fled - except for Huang Shu, who really offended Zhu Cixiang, where are the landlord class intellectuals who have joined Chuang Wang now? Seeing that all the rich and wealthy landlords in the north of the Yangtze River had gone bankrupt and came to the south of the Yangtze River empty-handed to beg for food, the landlords, rich peasants and profiteers in Shishou and Huarong counties all ran to Wuchang Prefecture with their wealth. Without this group of monsters and monsters, how can the regiment train and arm itself? When you pull them together, you become a peasant self-defense army...
Therefore, there were only a few of He Tengjiao's Fubiao soldiers in Shishou and Huarong counties. In the two counties, plus the two important places of Shishou Mountain and Diaobangkou, there were only less than 2,000 people in total. King Chuang's tens of thousands of troops came to attack, and of course they collapsed at the first touch.
"Huarong River?" Li Zicheng heard a very familiar name and asked with a smile, "Is Huarong Road nearby? Cao Cao almost had Guan chopped off there!"
"Your Majesty, the Huarong Road is not in the south of the Yangtze River, but in the north of the Yangtze River," Gu Jun'en said. "It now belongs to Jianli County. When Cao Cao ran from Wulin to Jiangling, the Huarong Road was the closest, but he had to pass through a swamp. As a result, he encountered mud. , the road was impassable, so the soldiers were ordered to cut reeds and wormwood to fill the road. The poor soldiers were trampled by others and got stuck in the mud, and many people died."
"We all know this, but it turns out that the man named Cao met the man named Guan on Huarong Road," Liu Zongmin interjected, beaming, "But the man named Guan is loyal and Cao Cao is kind to him, so he can't be chopped off with a knife. , let Cao Cao live... If it is Guan Yunchang, I will chop off the man named Cao with one knife!"
Gu Junen couldn't laugh or cry when he heard it. Those were all made up by Luo. Why did you, the general, believe it?
Li Zicheng chuckled: "Then it was you who led the men to hack Cao Cao to death?"
This Cao Cao is not that Cao Cao, but Luo Rucai, the leader of the bandits who is attached to Li Zicheng. Because he is cunning, he got the bandit name of Cao Cao. It's a pity that no matter how scheming he was, he couldn't calculate Li Zicheng. In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, he was killed by Li Zicheng and annexed the team.
While several people were joking, a voice came from outside the door: "Your Majesty, Mr. Liu, the uncle of Guangshan, captured the magistrate of Shishou County and said that he had an urgent military affairs report."
Guangshan Bo Liu Ye is Liu Tichun. He is a veteran general under Li Zicheng. He is worshiped by General Guoyi of the right camp. He led troops to attack Shishou and Huarong counties.
"How can a county magistrate have any important military affairs?" Liu Zongmin shook his head with disdain on his face.
Gu Junen said to Li Zicheng: "Your Majesty, why don't I go and ask."
Li Zicheng agreed without much thought, and also ordered: "If this county magistrate asks for an official, you will give him one... There are fewer scholars seeking refuge with us these days. They are all from Shaanxi, There are almost no scholars or officials who came from exile in Zhongzhou who know the local situation in Jingchu."
"According to the order."
Gu Junen responded, turned around and left. But after a while, he saw Gu Junen coming with a few soldiers and escorting a white-faced official in a green robe. This man was about thirty years old, fair and fat, with a long hair. Wearing a goatee and a face full of fear, he sat down on the ground after being escorted, still trembling and cursing: "Niang Xipi's robber, Ni (me) Tao Xingjin will not surrender, he will not surrender..." .”
He spoke in Zhejiang Mandarin, with some dialects mixed in. Li Zicheng found it difficult to listen, so he asked Gu Junen: "Second Military Advisor, what's going on? Is he surrendering or not?"
Gu Junen shook his head, "Your Majesty, it's not good..."
Bad again? Li Zicheng's heart trembled, why is it bad again? What happened again? Could it be that Xiangjing City was lost?
"What's wrong?" Li Zicheng asked hurriedly.
Gu Junen pointed at the fat magistrate beside him, "Your Majesty, ask him!"
"You magistrate, tell me quickly," Li Zicheng shouted angrily, "Did the Zhu thieves destroy Xiangjing City?"
"No, no, no, no... I don't know." The magistrate just shook his head.
"Tao Zhixian," Gu Junen interjected, "how did the Zhu thieves punish the gentry and profiteers who fled to Wuchang on the riverside?"
Tao Zhixian was stunned, but he didn't think this was a military secret - everyone in Huguang Jiangnan who was well-informed knew it.
"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince took out the official land in Wuchang Prefecture in exchange for the land deeds of Jiangbei landlords. One acre of official land in Wuchang Prefecture will be exchanged for 20 acres of Jiangbei land deeds... and after the land exchange, the Jiangbei landowners must register. Wuchang. His Royal Highness will also expand Wuchang City to accommodate them in the city.
In addition, all the people in the occupied areas in Jiangbei were demoted to the rank of scholar, and the land in Huguang was also required to be inspected, and the officials and gentry were required to pay the grain together. "
Li Zicheng still didn't quite understand and looked at Gu Junen.
Gu Junen raised his voice: "Tell me what the prince is going to do with the land in Xiangjing, Nanyang, De'an, Chengtian, Hanyang, Jingzhou and other prefectures?"
Tao Xing, the magistrate of Jintao County, was a little angry when he saw Gu Junen, and quickly replied truthfully: "The Crown Prince has issued an order to plan and grant farmland in Xiangyang and Nanyang Prefectures. At the same time, he also admitted that the rogue bandits were in De'an, Chengtian, Hanyang, Jingzhou Jiangbei and other places. The plan is to teach the land orally, no matter who owns the land, after it is recovered in the future, it will not matter. The farmers who get the land only need to pay a small amount of land redemption rice in the next five years to get the official title deed... "
What? What? Li Zicheng's face was turning green and his lips were trembling slightly. He had been in the world for many years and had seen many cruel, shameless and despicable villains, but none of them could compare with Zhu Cixiang, the bastard prince... He was a prince. ! The prince of a scholar-official landlord, the king of his family, allocates land to the peasants. If he, the prince, takes back the land, he should return the land to the scholar-official landlord! He should make the decision for the scholar-bureaucrats!
How could he admit the results of Dashun's equalization of land... He was taking advantage of others!
"Uh, uh, I always thought I was meeting a treacherous and cruel Ming Dynasty prince," Li Zicheng stamped his feet, "I didn't expect to meet a robber prince who was ruthless and evil!"
"Your Majesty," Liu Zongmin was still confused and asked, shaking his head, "The prince of the Zhu family didn't take advantage of others... He didn't swallow up the land that we all left, so why did he take advantage of others?" Already?"
Li Zicheng pressed his forehead and thought: Who are the people under his command? He is clearly a wise and powerful founding emperor, why can't he meet a group of civil servants and military generals who are really talented as kings and assistants?
All the people under my command are fucking stupid!
I don’t know if Zhu Cixiang has many talents? Thinking of this, Li Zicheng suddenly pointed at Tao Zhixian, who was sitting on the ground shivering, "Tell me, I'll let you go if you agree, but if you make a mistake, I'll pull you out and kill you!"
This county magistrate named Tao Xingjin is really unlucky... He is just a civil servant. He had no chance to become an official, but his family is rich, so he spent money to buy a county magistrate and sent him to Shishou. It’s up to the county to “recover the costs.” But I never expected that before a county magistrate had finished his work, the general situation of the world would change drastically.
Originally, he could have given up his official position and fled, but he was reluctant to spend the money to buy an official position... But now, being an official would put his life in danger!
In order to survive, Tao Zhixian had no choice but to confess honestly, "Well, Nani (I) said...this, land plus farmers are an industry, and uncultivated land is nothing!" His Royal Highness did not blackmail the land of the gentry and landlords, but blackened the land and the tenants together!"
