Look, look...a corrupt official in the Ming Dynasty also had such knowledge!
Li Zicheng was a little desperate. He turned and looked at Liu Zongmin, do you understand?
Mr. Liu Dahou was still confused, "How come farmers are property? They are not houses or land, they are living people!"
Still don't understand... Li Zicheng turned his head again and looked at Tao Da's corrupt officials fiercely.
"Farmers are of course an industry, not much different from land and real estate. It's just that they can't be bought and sold openly..."
Tao Xingjin paused and then said, "Anyway, it's just this peasant land. In the past, the landlords had eaten up and left some to the court. Now the gentry and landlords on the ground in Jingzhou Prefecture, Chengtian Prefecture, Xiangyang Prefecture, and De'an Prefecture have asked you to finish the sweep."
The prince and his nobles from the northern mansion blacklisted the rest, so the households and farmland became the property of the imperial court. In the past, the imperial court could only receive more than 2 million shi of white rice as land tax in Huguang. If there were no gentry and landlords to follow, To share the fertilizer, I'm afraid each government will cost more than 2 million, and the farmers may have to pay less than when they originally worked for the landlords. Isn't this just a joy for everyone..."
What Tao Xingjin points out is an unspoken rule that everyone knows about landlords, literati and bureaucrats - most farmers work as cattle and horses. They are laborers attached to the land, not the owners of the land. Even if they have land deeds, it is of no use. It is also the food of the powerful gentry and the government.
The scholar-officials and the court were the owners of the farmers and the land, but the shares between these two aspects were not equal. The scholar-officials felt that they had 90%, maybe 95% of the share. The imperial court only accounted for five to ten percent!
Of course, this is not only the perception of scholar-officials in Southeast Huguang, Fujian and Guangdong, but also the scholar-officials and nobles in Beijing!
It's just that those northern nobles lost their property and arrived in the south of the Yangtze River empty-handed, so they followed Zhu Cixiang and wanted to eat the share of the southern scholar-officials and then get a share from it... Who would have thought that the Beifu Army General was something A revolutionary warrior is almost as wise as Emperor Chongzhen.
Zhu Cixiang is a smart man, so he has been working hard to satisfy the selfish interests of the Beifu Group while also fighting for the largest share for himself.
He brought his troops to Huguang this time just to grab money, which is similar to Li Zicheng. But the difference between him and Li Zicheng is that he also needs the existence of the powerful gentry groups in Southeast, Huguang, Fujian and Guangdong.
It will not work to destroy them all and form the Beiren Group to unify the southeast... because the Beiren Group is more conservative, more backward, and more feudal than the gentry and powerful gentry in Southeast, Huguang, Fujian and Guangdong.
People such as Wu Xiang, Wu Sanfu, Li Yan, Hao Yaoqi, Feng San, Zhu Chunchen, Zhu Chunjie, Li Guozhen, and Zhang Shize are, to put it bluntly, feudal military aristocrats. If he relied entirely on them, Zhu Cixiang would not be able to lead Ming Dynasty out of the cycle of the cycle. .
The gentry in Southeast, Huguang, Fujian and Guangdong are powerful, because their environment has reached the embryonic stage of capitalism, and they have relatively easy access to Western knowledge and technology. They actually have talents.
For example, the Ningbo native Tao Xingjin in front of Li Zicheng is a talent!
Li Zicheng looked at Tao Zhixian and nodded approvingly. Prince Zhu Thief was indeed full of talents!
"Detain him first," Li Zicheng ordered, "and give him an official position later."
Talents cannot be let go, they must be captured and taken to Sichuan to serve as officials!
Tao Xingjin became anxious when he heard this: "Your Majesty, spare your life, Your Majesty, please spare your life! The little one has an eighty-year-old mother and a three-year-old child, but we can't... we can't follow the King to Sichuan!"
"Wait a minute," Li Zicheng waved his hand to stop the old soldier who was about to capture Tao Dazhi, "Tao Zhixian, how did you know you were going to Sichuan?"
Tao Xingjin was stunned again and again - everyone knows this! Who doesn't know that if you can't survive in Huguang, you will go to Sichuan to grab Zhang Xianzhong's foundation?
"Your Majesty," Tao Zhixian stammered and explained, "Isn't this obvious? Hankou has been captured by Mr. Wu (Wu Sanfu), and the poor farmers in Xiangyang and Nanyang have been incited again. Your Majesty, How can we still gain a foothold in Huguang? Now the Sichuan thieves and the army are fighting fiercely. Isn’t it time for the king to reap the benefits?"
"Nonsense!" Li Zicheng said with a straight face, "How can I be a fisherman? I want to go to Sichuan to help Daxi Lao Zhang fight against the red bandits. He will not take Lao Zhang's territory."
Tao Zhixian whispered: "Your Majesty, Ni (I) have also read "Three Kingdoms" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms"..."
Li Zicheng sighed, this is really...why doesn't the book "Three Kingdoms" teach people how to do it better? It's all conspiracy and conspiracy, and it has corrupted people's hearts! Well, if he were to dominate the world, he would definitely ban these books!
"Go down, go down... keep him in good custody, don't let him escape!" Li Zicheng felt extremely bad when he thought that thousands of people knew how Uncle Liu Huang tricked Liu Zhang. He didn't want to talk nonsense with Tao Xingjin, so he waved his hand and had people take him off.
Of course, he cannot be released, and he will still be an official for him when he gets to Sichuan!
When he was feeling extremely depressed, Li Guo, who was staying in Jiangling, sent someone to deliver an urgent military report to Li Zicheng.
Zhu Cixiang's 20,000-strong army has crossed the Yangtze River and detoured westward from Jiangling City to Huya Mountain!
"Huya Mountain?"
Li Zicheng took in a big breath of hot air (it was a hot day and there was no cooling), and beads of sweat appeared on his big forehead.
It's not that Lao Li likes to be surprised, but Zhu Cixiang's move is extraordinary this time. He wants to seize Jiangling City. Li Zicheng doesn't panic anymore. Because there is nothing of value in Jiangling City, but it has some political symbolic meaning.
The materials moved from Jiangling City, including grain, gold and silver, cloth, ordnance (good stuff accumulated by Zuo's army), carriages and horses, were all moved to the Huya Mountain Camp for storage.
It can be said that Huya Mountain Camp is Li Zicheng’s fundamental place in Jingzhou Prefecture!
Moreover, the Huya Mountain area was also the main route for Li Zicheng to enter Sichuan westward. It cannot be said that it was a must-pass, but entering Sichuan through Huya Mountain, a mountainous area called Xiaoting in ancient times, was definitely the most convenient way for Li Zicheng, who placed his main force in Jingzhou.
Zhu Cihong attacked Huya Mountain as soon as he took action. This was to block Li Zicheng's way of advancing westward!
"Your Majesty," Liu Zongmin was also worried, "We can't let the Zhu thieves seize Huya Mountain, otherwise all our hundreds of thousands of brothers will end up in ruins!"
"Your Majesty, it's still too late to return to the army immediately," Gu Junen also said, "We have a large cavalry team, so we can let the cavalry team go ahead. It can take up to two days to reach Huya Mountain. There are not many defenders on Huya Mountain, and the Marquis of Jiangling still has Reinforcements will be sent out, and they can hold on for a few days..."
Grandma Qin Liangyu said it right. After becoming emperor, Li Zicheng was indeed not as liberal as in the past because he had too many interests to protect. We need to defend here and defend there. The limited troops will naturally disperse, and there will be fewer troops that can be used to kill people with swords.
For example, there are currently only more than 30,000 elite soldiers (excluding auxiliary troops) from the old battalion following Li Zicheng. After absorbing Zuo Mengeng's remaining troops, the total number of Li Zicheng's old battalion soldiers has reached 110,000.
In addition to the 30,000 people Li Zicheng brought with him, Xi'an Prefecture and Fengxiang Prefecture also left 24,000 to 5,000 people. Xiangyang, Nanyang, Yunyang, Hanzhong, De'an, Chengtian and other six prefectures left about 25,000 people. Hanyang The government has 10,000 people, and Jiangling (including Huya Mountain) has about 20,000 people.
"No," Li Zicheng thought for a while and then shook his head, "We can't go back to Huya Mountain!"
Liu Zongmin asked anxiously: "Your Majesty, what should we do?"
Gu Junen asked: "Are we going to attack Wuchang Mansion?"
"Don't attack Wuchang," Li Zicheng waved his hand, "Wuchang Mansion has at least 15,000 new troops of the Zhu Thief, and there are 20,000 to 30,000 naval troops nearby. We can't attack them... Uh-huh, uh-huh. Go find the red thief and fight to the death!"
"A fight to the death?" Gu Junen asked, "Where to go?"
"Go to the police!" Li Zicheng snorted, "If he attacks Huya Mountain, he will attack the police! He will attack the red thieves' retreat!" He paused, "Send an order to Li Guo, telling him to abandon Jiangling and capture the whole country." Move the troops to Huya Mountain!"
