Jiangling Fucheng is covered with ice and snow, and is covered with silver makeup.
It was so cold during the Little Ice Age! Even Jiangling, Hubei Province, located on the bank of the Yangtze River, has experienced continuous blizzards in the past few days, and the temperature has dropped to below freezing point. Even large areas of floating ice have appeared on the mighty Yangtze River...it looks like it will freeze over!
Not to mention the temperature, Zhu Heji and his Guangdong and Fujian soldiers who were used to warm climates couldn't bear it, so they had to winter along the Yangtze River. Even President Wu Sangui, who had grown up in the bitter cold outside the Guanhai Pass, was also It was freezing.
He has lived in Kunming, which has warm winters and cool summers, for these years, and has become accustomed to warm winters. In addition, he is old and lacks Yang Qi. When winter came, he suddenly caught a cold without noticing, and he coughed for half a month. It didn't feel better until these two days.
However, after recovering from his illness, Wu Sangui did not dare to show off anymore. He did not even dare to go outside to see off generals such as Wu Yingqi, Wu Shicong, Wu Guogui, Ma Bao, Wang Pingfan, Gao Dejie, and Liu Xuanchu who were going on the Northern Expedition. There were two tables in a warm lobby of the Presidential Palace.
Now that the banquet has ended, President Wu is sitting on a "presidential chair", giving instructions to several generals who are about to lead an army of 100,000 in the Northern Expedition!
His eldest son Wu Yingxiong, son-in-law Guo Zhuangtu, and close friends Fang Guangchen and Wan Sitong were accompanying him, creating a scene of harmony and unity.
"Ying Qi, Guo Gui, Shi Cong..." Wu Sangui looked at the coach, deputy commander and vanguard general of this Northern Expedition and said seriously, "You three should remember it... I just want to Beijing city!
Just Beijing! You don't care about anything. You don't divide your troops, you don't defend the city, and you don't attack the enemy's fortified city. Just fight all the way to Beijing.
Unless the main force of the Qing Dynasty comes to seek death on its own, there is no need to pay attention to it. For the city where Qing soldiers are stationed, just go around it. The cities captured along the way do not need to be divided into separate troops to guard, they can just be handed over to the local powerful or officials who have taken refuge with us. "
"Dad, with such a strategy, is the retreat too empty? Will Nanjing..." Wu Yingqi asked before he understood his father's "strategic thinking".
"What can the one in Nanjing do?" Wu Sangui twirled his beard and looked at Wu Yingqi with a smile, "Ying Qi, should you know what happened at the consultation meeting held by Zhu San and his son in Nanjing?"
"Nanjing Council?" Wu Yingqi was stunned. He seemed to have heard of it, but he didn't know what it was for.
Wu Sangui shook his head. This son can fight, but he really knows nothing about political matters, and he has no interest... He was also present when Vance gave the report yesterday. But now it seems like I haven't heard anything.
"Boss," Wu Sangui glanced at the boss Wu Yingxiong, "Go ahead!"
Wu Yingxiong smiled and said: "Zhu Heji announced at the Nanjing Consultative Assembly that land will be equalized in the three provinces of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang. He also announced that he would gradually abolish the imperial examinations and replace them with schools. He also announced that he would gradually strengthen the collection of commercial taxes."
"Is there anything wrong with this?" Wu Yingqi thought for a while, "Aside from abolishing the imperial examination, which may be a bit wrong, we are also doing things like land equalization and business tax collection!"
Wu Yingxiong smiled and said: "We are indeed equalizing the land, but our equalizing the land does not harm the interests of the landowners...at least not on the surface. As for the commercial tax, of course we have to collect it, but we can collect it. It’s very rough, and there are many people who can get it reduced or exempted.”
Wu Zhou held an empty Sichuan in his hands. Of course, he did not need to cut off the landowners' fields to equalize them... Although the tenants were turned into self-cultivated farmers, the landowners could not rent out their land, so they had to cultivate it themselves.
But the earth is still there after all!
As long as you have more sons, they will come in handy in the future.
However, although the per capita cultivated land area in Southern Zhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi under the rule of Zhu Heji was not small, with eight acres if not ten acres, the average per household was the level of a rich farmer - a family of five was allocated forty acres of paddy fields. Absolutely happy! But after all, there are no large tracts of unowned vacant land to allocate. Therefore, the equalization of land in South Zhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi must be equalization, and many big landowners will inevitably lose their land!
In addition, the industry and commerce in the territory under Wu Zhou's rule were very underdeveloped!
Therefore, Wu Zhou did not attach great importance to commercial taxes, and naturally he would not offend the scholar-bureaucrats in the country for a small amount of commercial taxes.
Wu Yingxiong continued: "But the most offensive move of Zhu Heji this time is to gradually abolish the imperial examination! He not only wants to gradually abolish the imperial examination, but also opens schools widely and promotes education... He wants everyone to be able to There are books to read, so that all talented and intelligent people have the opportunity to study and improve. This is to dig out the roots of scholar-bureaucrats!"
In fact, in the era of advancement through imperial examinations, those who can truly reach the level of high school Jinshi are those who are particularly smart and academic.
However, the monopoly of land and educational resources by the scholar-bureaucrat class also prevented a large number of smart children from poor family backgrounds from competing for their upward path.
In addition, the imperial examinations focused on liberal arts, and it was easier to "fix" the eight-part essay, so the scholar-bureaucrat class who monopolized land and educational resources was easy to "solidify."
This is similar to the elite private education and the joyful public education in some later countries.
Wu Yingxiong added: "Moreover, Zhu San and his son have rarely recruited Qing captives and generals since they launched their army in Guangdong... and they often execute captured Qing captives. They are especially harsh on those who become bannermen!"
Although there was the exception of the Battle of Purple Mountain, the military officers and defenders of the Qing Dynasty still knew who to turn to when the Qing Dynasty lost its deer. Therefore, the second brother just went north without occupying the prefectures and counties. As long as the second brother's army can approach Beijing, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, and Shanxi will all be determined! "
Wu Sangui nodded after listening to his eldest son's analysis and said to his second son, "Second son, do you understand?"
Wu Yingqi nodded heavily: "I understand... Dad, brother, just wait for the good news in Jiangling! My army of 100,000 marches from Xiangyang north to Beijing, which is only two thousand miles away. It takes only one and a half months to cover fifty miles in one day." We’re here! If Kang Mazi still dares to fight to the death, hum...send him back to the west, and then everyone in the world will be named Wu!"
Wu Sangui laughed loudly after hearing this, "Okay, I'm waiting for your good news as a father!"
Wu Yingxiong also laughed in response to the situation, "Second brother, Brother Yu is also waiting for your good news!"
...
On the Monan grassland north of the Great Wall, the climate this year is still as cold as ever. A heavy snowfall at the beginning of winter caused thousands of miles of ice to fall. Thousands of miles of snow drifted, leaving only a vast expanse of white between the sky and the earth. The cold wind blew past, and the vastness above the wilderness looked like fog. The few rivers that meandered on the grassland had long since frozen into a single piece by December. They were as hard as iron. They had to be smashed with a big hammer to break off some of them and burn them in cow dung and an iron pot. to use.
For the herdsmen of the Chahar Banners who are located north of the Great Wall, on the Monan grassland and the Liaohe Hetao grassland, such cold is definitely very unbearable... Because of the regulations of the Qing Dynasty, they now have no There is no way to drive livestock to warmer places in the south to escape the cold before winter comes. It is also difficult to obtain supplies from Han Dynasty through robbery or trade to survive the winter. They can only suffer year after year.
However, this winter is a rare exception. The herdsmen of the Chahar Eight Banners and Chahar Banner (Chahar Eight Banners and Chahar Banner are two systems) who were originally divided into various places by the Manchu Qing court and were strictly prohibited from large-scale migration. Somehow a large number of them were concentrated in the area north of Zhangjiakou, belonging to the Chahar Xianghuang Banner among the Eight Chahar Banners.
On the snow-covered grassland outside the mouth, yurts are gathered together, probably numbering in the tens of thousands!
And in the middle of these tens of thousands of yurts is a particularly dazzling and huge golden-domed tent!
In front of the golden-domed tent, a Chahar Eagle flag was erected that still fluttered tenaciously in the wind and snow!
This blue eagle flag is not the symbol of the Chahar Eight Banners or the Chahar Zhasak Banner. It belongs to the glorious Chahar Central Ten Thousand Households in the eyes of the Mongolian people. It can also be regarded as the symbol of the Mongolian Khan. !
