After Chu King Zhu Huakui killed Luo Zun, he did not feel much joy, but a little disappointed. He did not expect that the rebellion would turn out like this. The court knew so quickly that he was going to rebel, and even played a clear card against him to prevent him from rebelling. I believe he will collude with the governor to rebel and force him to kill Luo Zun.
Because if he didn't kill Luo Zun, Luo Zun would kill himself in order to prove his innocence.
Even if the Prince of Chu's Palace gave up on his rebellion, Luo Zun would still come up with some evidence that could prove that he was going to rebel. Otherwise, he would never be able to clear away his possible collusion with the Prince of Chu's Palace and be suspected by the emperor.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun now made his affairs with Luo Zun and others public, which really made the King of Chu regret that he had conspired with some literati to rebel.
But the arrow had to be fired, and he could only continue on the road of rebellion.
However, the King of Chu's rebellion, which no civil servants dared to secretly support, became very difficult at the beginning. The left and right envoys and inspectors in Huguang were unwilling to support his rebellion, and he had to order their executions.
Deputy Military Envoy Li Hualong and Inspector Wu Yuexiu even joined forces with Governor Biaoying guerrilla Cao Xibin to come from Jingzhou to attack Wuchang.
The King of Chu had to lead his troops to attack Huangzhou by ferry. Fortunately, Zhang Gang, the magistrate of Huangzhou, was afraid of death and decisively chose to surrender, allowing him to successfully march to Qizhou.
But after he passed through Qizhou, he encountered the stubborn defense of Yuan Changzuo, the governor of Jiangxi, and Xu Yiwei, the prefect of Jiujiang. Yuan Changzuo even asked his own camp to attack Wu Ding as a guerrilla at night, which defeated the 30,000 soldiers gathered by the King of Chu. He had to Return to Qizhou.
"Now we have pursuers behind us and stubborn enemies in front of us. Isn't it true that Zhu Yijun has already aroused the wrath of heaven and people?! Isn't it said that the bureaucrats in the world have long hated the harsh government for a long time? Isn't it true that Wang Gu's righteous teacher is like the gentle rain?"
"How come every one of them would rather die than surrender, or fight to the death rather than surrender, but just one magistrate Zhang still had to surrender because he had insiders who cooperated with Kaicheng."
Because the attack was not going well, after the King of Chu returned to Qizhou, he asked Wang Bihe and Zhu Yunqian with a depressed look.
He was not yet twenty, but he did feel that the voices of the scholars he heard and the performances of the scholars he saw were different, and he was also puzzled.
At this time, Wang Bihe could only persuade the King of Chu: "Your Highness, please do not be impatient. The sage said, 'Therefore, when heaven is about to assign a great responsibility to a person, he must first strain his mind, strain his muscles and bones, starve his body and skin, and deplete his body." , His behavior was chaotic, so he was tempted and endured, and he was unable to do anything.' Now this is just a test from God to His Highness. Yuan, Xu, Li, Wu and others are just a few. They can be the partisans of treacherous ministers. Naturally He is a villain, so naturally he will not fully support our King of Chu in raising an army, especially when the general situation is not clear."
The King of Chu asked again: "Why do so many of the local officials in Wuchang and Huangzhou refuse to follow the righteous army? They even form strongholds to protect themselves, and even persuade Gu Gu to withdraw his troops and commit suicide in order to apologize for their sins!"
"When Zhang Juzheng was clearing land, he didn't see them forming a stronghold and not being allowed to clear the land. Why, now that the king is doing justice, are they all so stubborn and refusing to give up food or people? They refuse to sell food to the orphans, and even send the orphans to the The envoys who went there were all detained."
Wang Bihe said: "They are also waiting and watching. In their hearts, they hope that His Highness will succeed in approving the peace. But for the sake of the safety of the family, they dare not openly support it. They even have to oppose it openly. Please forgive them."
"Then who will understand Gu?!"
The King of Chu scolded and asked, "We have been attacking Jiuzhou for three days, and even defeated Qizhou by his night attack. Since they all hate Zhu Yijun so much and hate the harsh government, they should all stand up and support Gu Yingying." Gu is the one, why are all of them not only silent but also condemning Gu!"
As he spoke, the King of Chu photographed a newly obtained folk tabloid in front of Wang Bihe, which published content in which civil officials such as Li Hualong and Yuan Changzuo advised him to surrender and commit suicide and even denounced and scolded him.
Wang Bihe only glanced at it without looking at it. He just said sternly to the King of Chu: "Your Highness! Please calm down. You must know that when Chengzu was in trouble, it was not so smooth at the beginning. When Taizu made a living on his own, , there are only eighteen followers, but now His Highness has tens of thousands of elite soldiers, hundreds of counselors, and dozens of clan members, so what should you be afraid of?!"
Young people are still easy to fool. After Wang Bihe gave such a serious scolding, the King of Chu not only did not feel offended, but was actually quite relieved. So he nodded and asked: "Do you think we can really succeed in appeasement?"
"It all depends on man!"
Wang Bihe replied: "Back then, Taizu and Chengzu didn't know when they would succeed when they started their army."
King Chu asked again: "Then what should we do now?"
"Although Luo Jingyang did not surrender to us, the motto he mentioned before is still very good. We should now accumulate food and grass, recruit more strong soldiers, and win people's hearts."
"To be specific, we should stick to Wuchang and Huangzhou now, strengthen our troops, and abolish the harsh government."
Wang Bihe said.
After hearing this, the King of Chu asked: "Where did the strong soldiers come from, and where did the money and food come from?"
"Your Highness, please come out of the palace to raise money to recruit strong men from all over the world."
Wang Bihe said.
The King of Chu pointed to the golden throne under him and said: "Except for the golden throne given by Taizu, there is nothing else of value. If you really need to pay for the money from the palace, you can use it to turn it into silver."
Naturally, Wang Bihe would not destroy the golden throne, so he had to say: "Then we can only increase rents and taxes on the common people."
"How can this be done!"
"Wouldn't it mean that the common people were forced to starve to death and rebel against the orphans? If the orphans did not rebel, they would not have died of starvation, but they would have died of hunger after raising an army alone?"
The King of Chu was a little hard to make up his mind.
Wang Bihe said: "Your Highness, the common people will not starve to death due to increased taxes and rents, because they can sell their land, bring their families to settle in the city, and then be recruited to become the prince's voluntary soldiers. !”
Wang Bihe said, "Originally, there are not many young refugees who can be recruited as soldiers, because Luo Jingyang is an official, so to recruit soldiers, we really need to force the people to lose their property. Now, with the reform of taxes, To force them to join the army, even if it is to recruit part-time soldiers, the dilemma will be solved!"
"So, we have not only the money and food to recruit soldiers, but also the sources of soldiers!"
After Wang Bihe said this, he looked at King Chu.
The King of Chu couldn't help but ask: "After the expansion of the army, the military expenditure is not a small amount. In the early stage, it can be supported by the money and food obtained from Wuchang and Huangzhou. But when the people's interests of these two governments are finally exhausted, what will happen in the future?"
"As for the cost of raising troops in the future, it will naturally depend on the people of the new land. After His Highness's peace is successful, the people's taxes will be reduced and we can rest and recuperate."
"In order to overthrow the tyranny and restore peace to the world, the people must suffer first. After all, everything must be bitter first before it can be sweet."
Wang Bihe replied.
After hearing this, the King of Chu nodded and said: "You can be said to be a lonely son, so just do this to change and recruit at the same time!"
…
So, next, the people in Wuchang and Huangzhou were given an increase of five cents in name and an additional twenty years of regular tax. Collect its taxes.
For a time, the number of homesteaders selling their land increased significantly, and the local gentry took the opportunity to acquire large amounts of land at low prices.
On this day, Zhou Changning, the student minister, smiled and said to his father, Zhou Xishou, the minister who became an official official: "Father, it is really good for His Royal Highness the King of Chu to rule Wuchang. He does not charge us any land tax or dingyin, and it is more convenient for us." With regard to the land, my son wants him to take over the world!"
(End of chapter)
