The senior officials of the Chengdu imperial court are generally disconnected from the masses and are not willing to have any contact with the masses. Living in their own high-end circles is as happy as living in an ivory tower.
The only thing that makes them unhappy is that the Shu brocade business can no longer be done and there is no money to be made.
But they don't care about people's unemployment, income, and food. In other words, they don't even know. Those who have direct contact with the people are low-level officials and petty officials. Only they know the actual situation.
Whatever the small officials and officials report, they take it as such. It is better to expect them to go into the private sector and have cordial exchanges with the people to find out the actual situation. It is better to expect a sow to climb a tree.
The distance between high-ranking officials and the people is said to be a distance of space, but it can be said to be a distance of class. It is said to be infinitely small, but in fact it is infinitely large.
The lower-level officials are more willing to please their superiors, whitewash peace, and sing and dance to promote peace.
When faced with the emergence of unemployed people on the streets of Chengdu, what I think of is not to solve or report it, but to conceal it. As long as I conceal it from my superiors, then the years will be peaceful and everything will be fine.
So when unemployed people began to appear on the streets, they felt that nothing was happening, so they took no action and did not report to the court what was happening on the streets. Senior officials who were disconnected from the masses did not know anything and only found out later.
When the unemployed people on the streets began to steal and rob on a small scale because they were hungry, a very small number of them felt that they could take action, but most of them were very passive and felt that doing more was better than doing less. Anyway, it was just a few troublemakers causing trouble. , it’s no big deal, just catch him and be done with it.
When unemployed people on the streets formed gangs to commit group crimes and tended to make matters worse, the officials were frightened when faced with the hordes of unruly people and felt that they might be able to do something, but they had too many people. Not enough, many things can no longer be done.
When the rice riots involving more than 1,500 people broke out in Chengdu in July of the sixth year of Hongwu, when seven rice shops in Chengdu were violently robbed by the people, and many grain merchants were beaten to death by the angry people, The lower-level officials realized that they might have been able to do something, but it was too late.
They were helpless in the face of popular anger.
The rice riots in Chengdu soon intensified and broke out.
It was originally a robbery operation involving more than 1,500 people in seven rice stores by several robbery teams. However, after these people robbed the rice grains, other Chengdu residents who were originally afraid of the government's deterrence were also ready to take action. At dusk, Joined the team of Mi Nuo.
The rioting team of more than 1,500 people soon expanded to more than 50,000 people. The whole city of Chengdu was full of teams looting rice grains. At first, they were looting rice grains to survive, but soon evolved into a group that saw everything with the naked eye. The snatching of visible things.
This time 1*M Zhang Si. Many commercial streets and shops in Chengdu were subjected to devastating attacks and looting, and some were even set on fire. During the commotion, many residential buildings were attacked, and some people were robbed and killed. The situation was very chaotic.
The first batch of rice riot activists in Chengdu fled Chengdu because they were afraid of the Chengdu court's retaliation after robbing rice grains. Their escape brought news of the rice riots in Chengdu to surrounding towns.
As a result, the rice commotion expanded.
Chengdu is definitely not the only place where rice prices have doubled. In addition to Chengdu, rice grain prices have risen for three consecutive months in many towns and cities. The momentum is very fierce, and the unemployed industrial and commercial workers in these places have also been hit by rice grain prices. The torture was excruciating.
The news of the rice riot in Chengdu opened the valve of rage in their hearts. Anger began to surge, and people began to attack rice and grain stores.
Those fat-bellied and ugly grain merchants were quickly killed by the angry unemployed. All their grain was robbed and their shops were burned down.
In early July of the sixth year of Hongwu, following the rice riots in Chengdu, rice riots of varying sizes broke out in counties such as Guangdu County, Lingquan County, Pixian County, Jintang County, Jinyuan County, Jiangyuan County, and Pingquan County. A large number of unemployed people participated.
In the past, where industry and commerce were more developed, there were more unemployed people. The more unemployed people, the greater the intensity of the rice riots.
In the beginning, the rice riots were all targeted at rice and grain stores, and then they began to develop into indiscriminate attacks on commercial stores.
Participants ranged from a few hundred to more than a thousand people, and there were also large-scale riots of more than two thousand people in some counties. They looted all the rice and grain shops in the city, killed the hateful grain merchants, and then became red-blooded. He lost his mind, wreaked havoc on the town, and even engaged in zero-dollar shopping.
The government was helpless. Some timid officials even hid in government offices and did not dare to come out. They had no other choice but to send people to Chengdu for help.
By mid-to-late July, the scale of the rice riots further expanded, spreading from Chengdu to Hanzhou, Pengzhou, Huai'anjun, Jianzhou, Longzhou, and Meizhou. All places were affected by the general rise in rice prices. Public dissatisfaction boiled over, eventually leading to rice riots.
Strong sacrifice reads sacrifice. This large-scale and continuously spreading wave of rice riots frightened the upper-level rulers of the Sichuan and Shu regime.
Although they are psychologically far away from the masses, once the public's anger breaks out, they can physically shorten the distance between the upper and lower levels.
It was the first time they faced such a large-scale mass riot, and their hearts were full of confusion, worry and fear.
Zhao Buxi had just ascended the throne and was busy dealing with the army expansion with senior officials. His eyes were focused on major military and national affairs and he had no time to take care of these small things. However, when the small things suddenly expanded into big ones, Zhao Buji also panicked. .
The angry cries of the people in Chengdu could even reach Zhao Buxi's ears.
He quickly consulted with the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty and asked for a way to solve the matter. After everyone discussed it, they directly characterized the matter as a rebellion.
It was people with ulterior motives who were creating rebellion against the Song Dynasty, and against the Song Dynasty court, which had finally been reborn from the ashes. This was a very bad thing and something that could not be accepted under any circumstances.
This is by no means a simple civil uprising, this is a group of rice thieves!
Must hit hard!
So the method proposed by Wu Lin was generally recognized - sending troops to suppress.
It’s not that there aren’t other ways to solve the problem.
For example, one of Ma Yongkang's subordinates mentioned that he had heard a lot of rumors recently that the rioters causing trouble in the city were employees of the original machine households and shops who had lost their livelihoods, because of the textile factories and a large number of The closure of shops left them without a livelihood, and they had no choice but to take to the streets to cause trouble.
Control the big one and control the owl. Originally they just wanted to have food to eat, and the court would just give them a food to eat. In addition, they could use the old method used by the court in the past - once there is a group of refugees who have no livelihood, then recruit them all into the army and control them. It's better than fighting and killing.
"Xiangong Wu needs to expand his army now. Your Majesty has issued an edict to allow these rebels to surrender to the imperial court and be incorporated into the army as appropriate. Then everything will be fine. Why go on a killing spree?"
