At the end of 1666 AD, with the Ming Emperor Zhu Cixi stationed in Wuhan and the Dashun Emperor Li Laiheng announcing his personal expedition, the originally peaceful land of China was suddenly shrouded in the clouds of war.
The two Chinese regimes, which have been at odds for more than 20 years, have reached the point where they must decide the outcome.
After all, the rule of the game in China since ancient times is that if divisions last, they must unite... If we count from the Wang Er uprising in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the struggle between Dashun, the "peasant uprising regime" and the Ming Dynasty has lasted for almost 40 years!
The peasant heroes who rose up in the past have now grown into very large feudal bureaucratic landlords - each of the eight political kings can rent 80,000 shi a year, which is almost 100,000 to 200,000 acres. This amount is like The princes of the Ming Dynasty now own more than ten or twenty times as much land!
I wonder if they will be praised as the leaders of the peasant uprising in the history books of later generations?
However, at the end of 1666, the leaders of the Dashun court in Kunming did not realize that they had turned into what they hated most... and shamelessly sent out many craftsmen with new versions of " "Welcome to the King of Chuang" posters were distributed everywhere.
The emperor Li Laiheng also declared on the poster: "Welcome King Chuang, equalize the land, bring wealth and prosperity, and share peace and happiness!"
After a small number of "Welcome to the King of Chuang" posters appeared on the streets of Jingzhou Prefecture, Xiangyang Prefecture, and Wuhan Prefecture, they immediately caused a shock. Except for the Wuchang area of Wuhan Prefecture, these three prefectures were all briefly notified by the Dashun Dynasty. Among them, Jingzhou and Xiangyang Prefectures also experienced different versions of land equalization.
Li Zicheng's land equalization in Jingzhou Prefecture was to give all the land to the farmers, but in Xiangyang Prefecture it was exactly the opposite, and he gave all the land to the old soldiers of Dashun.
Therefore, the people in the two places had completely opposite attitudes towards the propaganda and detailed works of Dashun Dynasty. In Xiangyang Prefecture, Dashun's detailed works became like street rats. In a short period of time, they were arrested in large numbers and sent to Wuhan Prefecture. Waiting to lose your head!
In Jingzhou Prefecture, Dashun's meticulous work was much more lucky. The common people still remembered Li Zicheng's benevolence and righteousness...and there were still many poor farmers who had not kept their land for various reasons after the Dashun army left. I miss King Chuang, so the situation is a bit turbulent!
However, there is only some turmoil here in Jingzhou Mansion, and a major chaos is impossible!
Because Hubei's industry and commerce have developed rapidly in the past 20 years, absorbing a large number of bankrupt farmers, and the development of the New World and Nanyang has also provided a stage for those bankrupt farmers who are most willing to give it a try to get ahead.
In addition, due to the improvement of agricultural productivity and the inflow of agricultural products from the Central Plains, Liaoyang, Huaihe River Basin, Ca Mau, Siam and other places, the eight provinces of Fujian and Guangdong, which are densely populated and have developed industry and commerce, such as Sijiang, Two Lakes and Fujian, have sufficient food supplies. Let the governments in various places have certain relief capabilities...Farmers will not rebel because they are bankrupt, they will only rebel because they have no food to eat!
If bankruptcy was the reason for rebellion, then there would be no way for a capitalist society to emerge - any business has a process of survival of the fittest, and the majority will be eliminated after all. If everyone rebelled, the world would have been in chaos.
Of course, another important reason why Jingzhou Prefecture did not cause trouble was that the Ming army now has extremely strong suppression capabilities.
With a snap, the Emperor Zhu Cixiang had already thrown a stack of "Ying Chuang King" posters collected by Jin Yiwei and Dongchang onto the table. Now the Ming Dynasty's secret service has resumed the situation where Jinyiwei and Dongchang restrain each other. Jinyiwei is in charge of the outside and Dongchang is in charge. However, Dongchang is a newly opened yamen after all. It cannot be compared with the already huge Jinyiwei, so the "inside" of Dongchang currently only focuses on Yingtian Mansion and Wuhan Mansion, at most around the two capitals of Ming Dynasty. A little bit of power.
The two prefectures of Jingzhou and Xiangyang are located around Wuhan, so they have the power of Jinyiwei (mainly) and the power of Dongchang (auxiliary).
With the efforts of these two special agencies, hundreds of Dashun spies have been arrested these days, and thousands of posters have been seized... It must be said that under the leadership of Liu Wenxiu and Song Xiance, , Dashun’s secret service is quite powerful.
However, Zhu Cixiang's response to this post was a sneer.
"This group of bandits have turned into bandits. They have already eaten up all the land in Sichuan and Yunnan. Now they want to use the equalization of land to make a fuss and incite the people of the Ming Dynasty to rebel... Do they really think that others are fools? "
Wu Meicun, a Hanlin scholar who also majored in national history, also held a poster and turned it over and over, seemingly not reading it. After a while, he laughed: "If anyone really believes it, they can be captured and sent to the northwest to be exiled... ...His Royal Highness the King of Dai has been sending memorials every now and then to ask for people, but there is no one in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment."
Nowadays, the bad guys of the Ming Dynasty... those who are caught, as long as they are not heinous, are basically hot commodities! The Twelve Principalities in Southeast Asia, the Kingdom of Luzon, and the Kingdom of Dai in the northwest are all vying for it!
Therefore, the prisons of the Ministry of Punishment are always empty, and there are many more jailors than prisoners.
Zhu Cixiang snorted: "That won't make Li Laiheng too proud... We have to mess with him too!"
"I have already written a ballad "Welcoming the Ming Dynasty"."
"Really?" Zhu Cixiang asked, "How did you sing it?"
"That's how it is sung," Wu Meicun really started singing, "eat his mother, wear his mother, open the door to welcome King Ming, no food will be paid when King Ming comes, no service will be given when King Ming comes, no tribute will be paid when King Ming comes, When King Ming comes, the imperial examinations will be held, and when King Ming comes, land will be divided... In the morning, people seek promotion, and in the evening, they seek marriage. It is difficult for Sichuan people to make a living these days. Open the door early to pay homage to King Ming, and everyone will be happy!"
"Why are there still land divisions?" Zhu Cixiang frowned, "Mr. Wu (Wu Meicun was Zhu Cixiang's official lecturer in the early years), you can't make it up! And... you "Yingming King" Why does it look a bit like "Welcoming the King"?"
Wu Meicun smiled and said: "Your Majesty, I modified it based on "Welcome to the King of Chuang", of course it is similar."
Zhu Cixiang was a little speechless. You returned to the three Jiangzuo families. For such a great talent, you copied Li Zicheng's?
"As for dividing the fields..." Wumeicun said with a smile, "it doesn't have much to do with His Majesty."
"Why doesn't it matter?" Zhu Cixiang asked, "Isn't it me who is King Ming?"
"Your Majesty, this King Ming may also be the King Ming of Manichaeism..." Wu Meicun said with a smile, "This "Welcome the Ming King" is not necessarily "Welcome the Ming Dynasty"!"
"I see..." Zhu Cixiang always felt something was wrong and looked at Zhu Chunjie again.
Zhu Chunjie said: "Your Majesty, this Ming Wang can be your Majesty, or he can be the Ming Wang of Manichaeism... The reason why this name is used is to facilitate the spread of the White Lotus cult in Sichuan. The rogue bandits are very strictly controlled in the country, even if they are Jin Yiwei has no way to spread the word "Yingming King" and can only rely on these monsters."
"Can those monsters really cause trouble?" Zhu Cixiang asked again.
Zhu Chunjie shook his head and said: "I don't know... things like civil unrest sometimes depend on the weather. If there is a disaster in Sichuan, chaos may break out. If everything goes smoothly, then the bandits are lucky." ”
Zhu Cixiang snorted: "I don't believe these people can always be lucky!"
Of course, it is impossible to be lucky all the time, because disasters in Sichuan have been brewing for a long time.
This disaster is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster! And it’s not just one man-made disaster, but several man-made disasters combined.
The biggest man-made disaster is the crowd! Although the Dashun Dynasty gradually became the most hated by Li Zicheng, Li Guo and others, compared with the Ming Dynasty during the Tianqi and Chongzhen years, the Dashun Dynasty was still much stronger. Dashun can maintain stability within the territory, and can also limit the exploitation of farmers by the soldiers... At least during Li Guo's reign, restrictions existed.
In addition, Li Guo also strictly suppressed business so that farmers and soldiers could maintain a low level of "satisfaction", so that most people could live in poverty and contentment. Although they are very poor economically, they are still relatively happy mentally, and their lack is not enough to inhibit population growth.
So in the past 20 years, Sichuan's population has been growing at a relatively high rate...
