Zhong Xiang's roaring voice reached everyone's heart. They are all poor people. Even if their lives are a little better now, they don't have to worry about starving to death.
But they are still poor people.
They are all too aware of how difficult their lives are.
They had finally found a way to fool around the current taxes imposed by the imperial court. Once the imperial court increased taxes again and increased the taxes layer by layer, the day would become dark again.
But will the court stop imposing additional taxes...
The characteristics of the Song Dynasty are that other dynasties will find ways to reduce and reduce taxes, but since Taizong Gaolianghe Racing, if you don't increase taxes these days, you will not be able to support the Song Dynasty.
This time of increasing taxes made the people of the Song Dynasty really feel no sense of happiness.
What should I do if I want to survive?
There is a way, that is, not to be a commoner with muddy legs, or to study hard to gain fame, become a Jinshi, and become an official.
Or rise up and kill people and set fire to them!
Obviously, what Xiang Zhong is calling for now is not the first one.
"Sage Tian, what do you say we should do? We listen to the Great Sage!" A young man in the crowd spoke first. He was different from the old man in the crowd who was still hesitant.
Young people are always full of vigor, and they don't want to spend their lives in such grievances.
Young people, you should give it a try. If you become the minister of Conglong, wouldn't you make a big profit!
With this idea, more and more young people joined in, without even waiting for Zhong Xiang to say more.
However, Zhong Xiang was able to reach this point naturally not just by relying on his words.
He raised his hands to suppress his voice.
"Don't make any noise for now. A certain family brought you here today not to make you work for me.
Over the years, the Song Dynasty court has continuously collected taxes, which has made us exhausted. We have no ambitions, let alone those rebellious officials and traitors!
All of you here are my sisters and brothers, Zhong Xiang, and you are all my closest relatives, Zhong Xiang.
I won't let you sacrifice your life for my selfish desires. What I want to do is lead you to find the real way out!
In today's court, even the laws have to distinguish between the rich and the poor, which is not a good law.
If I were allowed to practice the Dharma, I would be equal to the noble and the humble, the rich and the poor.
And if I become something big, I should give the people of the world a way to survive and a way out.
Equalizing wealth and poverty cannot be as simple as a simple slogan. We Manichaean believers must achieve universal unity!
Before, I, Mr. Zhong, built Manichaeism here. When I told you my first goal, no one believed me. I don’t know how many people thought that I, Mr. Zhong, was just a liar who only tried to swindle money.
But now, I, Prime Minister Zhong, have not deceived you, and Manichaeism has not deceived you either.
Today, a certain family has given you a second choice, whether to follow Manichaeism towards universal unity, or to continue waiting here for the Song court to defeat the Jin people one day.
One day I will be able to discover it with my conscience!
The choice is in your hands, why continue to follow me, Mr. Zhong, to stay here? If you don’t want to, you can leave! "
After Zhong Xiang finished speaking, he actually asked people to move out of the way. There was no obstruction between here and the ferry. If someone stood up and left here at this time.
Then he is really gone.
Zhong Xiang, who cares about his reputation, dare not kill anyone in public.
Once they enter the water, these people who have lived in the water for many years can really run away without any problem.
Silence, continuous silence, no one took the initiative to respond this time, even the young man who had been shouting just now was silent.
This made it clear that they wanted to rebel. Although what Zhong Xiang said was really tempting and really moved their hearts,... this matter was still too big after all.
They are considering it!
Yes, these people are considering, not fearing and worrying.
Zhong Xiang was not surprised by this, because he had already expected this when he made this decision.
The Song Dynasty may also know that it is not kind to the people, so when the people rebelled, they acted very benevolently.
If there is a rebellion among the people, the first thing to do is not to completely annihilate them, but also to recruit them to surrender and appease them.
Even if they win the battle, they still have to be recruited and appeased, and then used as the "Hunan Army" to guard various places and perform other kinds of corvee labor.
This may also be one of the major reasons why the Song Dynasty's armaments were lax and costly. Now the Hunan Army system has collapsed, but these people don't know this yet.
They also thought that if they lost the rebellion, they would have to leave their hometown and join the Hunan Army. They needed to consider whether it was appropriate.
A stick of incense passed, but no one left. Zhong Xiang knew that the matter was done.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for the young man who first supported him to stand up.
"I said, I listen to the Great Sage!"
With one sentence, the atmosphere in this scene was on fire. More and more people stood up. Their belief in the great unity of the world finally made them choose to follow their Great Sage Tian again.
They want to create a world of their own!
In the second year of Jingkang, Zhong Xiang, the Dongting Lake bandit and the new leader of Manichaeism, raised the flag of rebellion and issued the slogan of equalizing wealth and poverty.
Immediately afterwards, the nineteen states in the south of the Yangtze River, including Ding, Li, Tan, Yue, and Chen, all responded. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses gathered in the land of the south of the Yangtze River. For a time, the banner of Manichaeism resounded throughout the land of the south of the Yangtze River again.
Immediately afterwards, Kong Yanzhou, the general under Zongze, was defeated because he was betrayed by Du Yu in a previous battle with Jin Wushu. After being plundered along the way, he also came to the south of the Yangtze River to hang out.
As a result, the two sides did not agree with each other and started fighting.
This general who had made great contributions to Zhao Huanli was captured alive on the spot, and then brought to the front of Prime Minister Zhong. He told Prime Minister Zhong about all the current situation of the Song Dynasty court at the fastest speaking speed in his life.
At this time, the Song Dynasty court was much more miserable than what they heard.
The Hebei road was in ruins, Zongze was defeated, half of the Central Plains had been lost, the Shandong and Hedong roads were in chaos, and the imperial court could only use one army after moving the capital.
It's not that the imperial court has no troops, it's that the imperial court has no food.
The soldiers of the Song Dynasty were also human beings, and they had to eat, drink, and have sex. Moving the capital was a big project. After the capital was moved, the court was short of food, money, silk, and even luggage.
The only thing that can be regarded as wealth in the Song Dynasty is the more than 10,000 war horses that have been saved with great difficulty.
Most of these war horses were taken away by Yue Fei, and the rest were delivered to Han Shizhong. The situation on Hedong Road was even more chaotic than that on Hebei Road, and it would be difficult to survive without the cavalry.
In addition, it is already very difficult for the various armies to barely operate now. Han Shizhong, Guo Yaoshi, and Wang Yuan have all begun to engage in a half-war and half-farming mode.
The field armies of Yue Fei and Zongze were almost consuming the Song Dynasty court.
Kong Yanzhou was very eloquent and told Prime Minister Zhong everything he knew, even picking out the ones he liked.
Zhong Xiang and others were indeed shocked after hearing the news. The shock was followed by ecstasy.
The imperial court has no soldiers and horses to mobilize, which means that their opponents now are only these soldiers and horses in the south of the Yangtze River.
Although Jiangnan is also an important town, Prime Minister Zhong is not afraid of them!
"This is a God-given opportunity. Today we will occupy the south of the Yangtze River and separate half of the country. This is a God-given opportunity. Brothers, the time has come for the world to be unified!"
Following Zhong Xiang's roar, hundreds of thousands of Manichaeans expanded crazily under his leadership, constantly attacking cities and villages, and rising rapidly.
At the same time, Zhao Kai and others also immediately asked the court to suppress and appease them, and even recruit them to surrender.
In addition to eliminating Wang Anshi's Qingmiao method, he also sent several waves of envoys to Zhao'an, but they were all driven back in the end.
Cheng Changyu, the governor of Dingli Town and the governor of Dingzhou, led the navy to attack the water village of Xia Cheng, the general of Zhong Xianghui and Love, by car, boat and loach boat. As a result, he was ambushed and surrounded as soon as he arrived at the mouth of the Junjiang River.
This battle resulted in a huge defeat, and countless boats and baggage fell into the hands of the enemy. After Xiang Zhong captured the government vehicles and ships, he immediately sent people to cut down pine, fir, camphor and other wood in the Ding and Li areas to build large carriages and ships. , tightly fortified.
With Dongting Lake as the foundation, they fought on both land and water, and fought on land and water. They not only gained the advantage in water warfare, but also gained the prosperity of silkworms in the fields. Their strength increased day by day. In just a few months, they defeated nearly 1.5 million soldiers and horses.
And this number is still increasing.
Zhao Kai's order was issued in a timely manner, but the situation in Jiangnan was a plot calculated by Nian Han, and it was already too late for them to get it.
After several consecutive battles, the Song Dynasty's troops stationed in the south of the Yangtze River all returned defeated.
First, Zhao Kai sacrificed his family fortune to gather together a group of forbidden troops to send troops again. Wang Yu, the envoy of Jingnan, Tanding and Liyue, commanded the forbidden troops, imperial troops, and Shenwu troops, totaling 35,000 people.
At the same time, he was also allowed to control the system of Jingtan, establish a naval force, control the entire Wu population of more than 10,000 people, hundreds of warships, and control Cui Zeng and Gao to enter and exit Dongting Lake.
As a result, as soon as this guy arrived in Yuezhou, he met Yang Yao, the general under Zhong Xiang's command. The two sides fought hand to hand. As a result, they were defeated because of the small boat and retreated to the bridge entrance.
In desperation, Wang Yu was not a fool. He immediately changed his direction and found Cui Zeng, Wu Quan and others to set up positions at Fushan, Dongting Hukou, Paikou and other places in Yuezhou. He led more than 10,000 Shenwu troops to Dingzhou.
In Dingzhou, they reunited with the naval forces of General Cheng Changyu in an attempt to attack from both sides and annihilate Yang Yao and even Zhong Xiang behind him in one fell swoop.
As a result, although his strategy was good, Yang Yao was still considered a real famous general. Wang Yu had already seen his intention when he made the move.
They directly targeted the villages upstream of Jianbi, moved people, old and young, and livestock to hide in Yougang, and used some vehicles and ships to appear in the empty villages to contain the exhausted Song army upstream, leaving them busy with their own affairs.
At this time, another suspicious force was sent, and several large ships were sent with thousands of troops to go straight downstream without flags and drums, and annihilated Wang Yu's branch troops in one fell swoop.
Even this Wang Yu was almost beheaded on the spot, it was so miserable.
After experiencing this great defeat, Wang Yu regrouped again and led his army with Cheng Changyu out of the mouth of the Xiajun River, advancing both by land and water. This time he wanted to encircle the rebel water villages one by one.
It has to be said that although Wang Yan cannot defeat Yang Yao in terms of fighting skills, his ability is definitely not ordinary.
But his plan was seen through by Yang Yao again. He strengthened the wall and cleared the country in advance, and evacuated all the people and soldiers in the water village. Wang Yu gained nothing after all this trouble.
On the contrary, it cost countless money, food and equipment.
When Wang Yu found out that he had nothing to gain, he could only choose to evacuate this place and slowly figure it out.
But at this time, Yang Yao suddenly led his army to kill him. Unfortunately, Wang Yu and General Cheng Changyu had no idea that there was such a plan.
For a time, the soldiers and horses were in chaos. One of them was captured by Yang Yao downstream. Not to mention, Yang Yao went back and forth and rushed to kill all the boats. Cui Zeng, Wu Quan and their subordinates were all knocked down. A lifetime to return.
The losses in this battle were even more severe.
After Wang Yu experienced a great defeat, he could not catch his breath for a while, and he did not dare to attack again until several months later next year.
As a result, Yang Mo took advantage of the surge in the river and led his chariots, boats and naval forces out of the lake to counterattack, wiping out the defenders left by Wang Yu in Shemu Village. This time Zhao Kai, Yu Wenxuzhong and others were able to react.
This time it’s not another Fang La, it’s probably another Jin!
Zhao Kai immediately appointed Zhang Jun, who was staying in the south of the Yangtze River, as the commander-in-chief of all the troops, and led the troops from all over the south of the Yangtze River to kill them all. At the same time, Li Gang also led the guards straight into the south of the Yangtze River, and joined Zhang Jun's troops to attack Dongting Lake.
As a result, this time, they did not come back defeated.
However, it was a loss of troops and generals. Even Li Gang no longer talked about raising the world's soldiers to fight to the death with the Jin people. He underestimated the heroes of Jiangnan.
