After arriving in Luling, Zhao Yucheng and others did not take action immediately.
They held a meeting, then dispersed locally and lived in different counties for a period of time. After more than a month, everyone gathered again in Luling to exchange what they saw and heard.
Through communication, they found that this place is really suitable for them to carry out operations.
In short, the region is ripe for rebellion.
Thirty years ago, at the beginning of the Song Dynasty's southern migration, a peasant uprising broke out here due to excessively strict taxes and repeated ravages by the Jin and Song soldiers. It was huge and attracted more than 100,000 people.
The person responsible for putting down this group of rebels at that time was Yue Fei.
After Yue Fei's crusade, the rebels were defeated and the rebellion was suppressed. However, the barrenness and poverty of this land did not change at all, nor did the government's aggressive tax collection.
The people in this land are always brewing with rebellion.
So in the 22nd year of Shaoxing, the Lin'an court's garrison stationed here rebelled. The rebellion swept several state capitals, and the court spent a lot of effort to finally put down the rebellion.
And then there is now.
The severe suffering brought by rebellions and wars to the local people has not been alleviated, and the government's rule remains brutal.
Moreover, there are many mountainous areas in this area, and there is little land suitable for farming. The grain cannot be harvested by many kilograms. People are often forced by the tax collectors to go into the mountains.
Either he will become a fugitive in the deep mountains and forests, and he will live like an uncivilized caveman.
Either you fall into the trap of being a bandit and live a life of licking blood from the edge of a knife. If you are successful, you will eat a lot of meat and drink in a big bowl. If you are not successful, you will not even be able to eat a full meal and you will be pushed out to be used as cannon fodder.
Of course, escapees and bandits are not without risks.
Fugitives have to worry all the time about the government organizing people to search the mountains. If they are caught, they will have to do hard labor. Basically, they have no chance of regaining their freedom.
Bandits are relatively good and have the ability to resist. Generally speaking, they only rob villages and pick weak persimmons. However, if someone accidentally robs something related to the government, the government will send people into the mountains to suppress the bandits and kill them.
Compared with runaways and bandits, homesteaders and tenants are also living people.
After working so hard all year round, most of the income was given either to the government or to the landlords, leaving me with barely enough food and clothing. This was still a good year.
If there was a natural disaster and the grain harvest failed, the bandits would have to choose one of three options and go into exile. There would be no fourth way - if death from starvation was considered one way.
Lu Chengren, deputy director of the General Affairs Department of the Jiangnan West Road Fuxinghui branch, gave the conclusion he drew from his visit to the area.
"The people in this land are basically illiterate and cannot read. I visited many villages and talked with the people. Basically, there are no more than ten people in a village who can read and no more than five who can read and write. Unless there is a local landowning family.
Not to mention, a considerable number of people who work in the city are illiterate, or they only know a few big characters, and their literacy skills are worrying. From the overall observation, people are numb and desperate, and they basically have no resistance. ability. "
Duan Yang, director of the Organization Department, also gave his own views.
"Through communicating with the local people, I think they are either too numb to resist, and there is no chance of success in resisting, or they become bandits, or they escape into the mountains because they don't know there is a better way to resist. Spontaneous and unorganized resistance is meaningless.
Moreover, many people who passively resisted did not attack the powerful local government and landlords after their resistance. Instead, they continued to bully the weak, rob villages, and bully the common people. There was no point in resisting. They were just doing evil without any positive effects. "
Then some members also made speeches, basically talking about what they saw and thought.
Among them, Xu Tong, a member of the Ministry of Military Affairs who Zhao Yucheng was very optimistic about, looked at the problem from a different perspective.
"I think there is a reason why this area is rich in bandits. This area has many mountains and few plains. The mountain roads are rugged. It is particularly difficult to walk a little deeper. Many passages are only large enough for one or two people to pass.
I ran into the mountains when I had free time during this period and found that there are many mountains like this. There are also many valleys in the mountains suitable for campsites. There are also mountain springs on the mountains. As long as there is enough food, it is not enough for three to five hundred people to live on one mountain. question. "
Zhao Yucheng was stunned for a moment, and then laughed.
"We haven't taken action yet, and you've already thought of fighting the Song Army?"
"Sooner or later, although the people here are numb, everyone has anger and resentment in their hearts, and they are very hungry. It's not that they don't hate the government and the powerful landlords, but they just don't see the hope of successful resistance. We just need to let They see hope!”
Xu Tong smiled: "What did your Majesty say? Oh! A single spark can start a prairie fire."
Xu Tong's words made everyone's thoughts clear, and many people's thoughts came alive.
"I think Xu Tong is right."
Du Qi, deputy director of the Jiangxi branch of the Renaissance Association and the most senior Renaissance member here, said: "We are here just for armed struggle, not to do good deeds or open porridge shacks. What we have to do is to build a strong team. , here opens the scene of our revival meeting.
Therefore, we can indeed choose a reliable base first, and we must be able to hold it for a long time. When our strength is not strong enough and our manpower is not enough, we can defeat more with less and defeat the Song army or landlord armed forces that may come to attack at any time. "
Everyone discussed this for a while, and then turned their attention to Zhao Yucheng.
Zhao Yucheng thought for a while and agreed.
"Don't consider other things, first consider the issue of survival. We must survive first, and then we can consider other issues. So I think what Xu Tong said is very reasonable. We should first find a place that can be used as a base, and then purchase the necessary things. .”
So in the next two months, they began to prepare for armed struggle.
Before setting off, everyone wanted to develop the farmers' struggle in the Luling area, but they soon realized that this strategy was dangerous.
Because the Luling area was too close to the Ezhou Army, the most powerful and numerous garrison army in the Southern Song Dynasty.
And just north of Luling, there are Song troops stationed in the Jiujiang area. It is not difficult to mobilize southward to quell the rebellion.
Once these two armies join forces south, they will be able to draw at least more than 100,000 troops. The force used to counter the rebellion will be very large, and it will not be able to resist the insurrectionary army that has just risen.
In addition, there is also a Song Dynasty imperial army stationed in Ganzhou, not far from the Luling area.
It is said that this is because when Ganzhou was still called Qianzhou, a civil riot occurred. That civil riot disturbed Zhao Gou's mother, and Zhao Gou's mother was very frightened.
Zhao Gou was furious and wanted to slaughter all the residents of Qianzhou to vent his anger on his mother. Fortunately, Yue Fei begged Zhao Gou to give up. However, he did not trust the people of Qianzhou from then on and specially sent troops to station.
In the 22nd year of Shaoxing, a garrison rebellion occurred in Qianzhou. After the rebellion subsided, Qianzhou was renamed Ganzhou.
There is the Ezhou Army in the northwest, the Jiujiang Army in the north, and the Qianzhou Forbidden Army in the southeast. If they want to develop in the plain areas of this area, they may not have time to develop, and they will be pacified by the Southern Song Army.
Therefore, once the army gains momentum and has a certain foundation, it must immediately enter the mountainous areas, manage the mountainous areas, and fight against the Southern Song Dynasty's crusade through the mountains. At the same time, it trains its own personnel, educates its own personnel, continues to grow and develop, and waits for the opportunity.
They could not stay in the plains and confront the regular Southern Song army that would arrive soon.
After this strategy was determined, Zhao Yucheng and others were responsible for its implementation.
The base they chose is located in the Luoxiao Mountain District in the southwest of Luling.
