Chapter 2, Twenty-seven moments in the four years of Chongzhen (2) (Continue to update the 10,000-word chapter, please vote and reward for encouragement)
The second moment: the mental journey of the former hero
South China, Fujian, Quanzhou
While the wind is freezing in Beijing and the dripping water turns to ice, Quanzhou in the south is still as warm as spring.
Since the Tang Dynasty, Quanzhou has been an important port in the southeast, with an endless stream of merchants and merchants from the Western Regions. After the Song Dynasty, Quanzhou further became China's most important shipping port. It was known as the "City of Light" because of its brilliant lights. The goods of the Song Dynasty set sail from here and were shipped to Vietnam, Thailand, India and other places, and even were exported to Baghdad. and Egypt before being resold to Europe by Venetian merchants.
Unfortunately, the Mongolian and Yuan invasions followed, and the sun set over Yashan, plundering all the wealth accumulated by the Song Dynasty over the past hundreds of years. After the brutal war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the country had almost no currency that could be used for transactions. Among the taxes collected by Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang every year, the amount of silver was only one hundred thousand taels. In the face of a serious shortage of hard currency, China's domestic trade almost degenerated into barter in the early Ming Dynasty, and taxes almost completely turned into in-kind taxes. Against this historical background, the trade hub of Quanzhou also declined rapidly, and commerce once shrank to the point of almost disappearing.
However, in the late Ming Dynasty in the 16th century, with the advent of the Age of Navigation, Quanzhou Port was once again a scene of thousands of sails racing by and hundreds of boats vying for water - today's Quanzhou is at its peak of prosperity, and the streets and alleys are Merchants from the north and the south were everywhere. They talked loudly on the streets with various accents from the south and the north, and occasionally foreign barbarian dialects. Even white people with blond hair and blue eyes and black people with charcoal skin could be seen everywhere. The monks at the Kaiyuan Temple in the city were banging wooden fish, and the Prime Minister was solemnly reciting scriptures; the muscular man in front of the street snack shop was shirtless, waving the wooden stick and smashing the fish balls, making a loud crackling sound... Looking around the market, there is a peaceful scene of bustling, prosperous and prosperous life everywhere.
In the 40th year of Wanli's reign, the Spanish in Manila wrote: "...the Maritime Silk Road is becoming increasingly prosperous, and there is an endless stream of Chinese merchant ships heading to Manila from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, forming a maritime channel. At first glance It seems that one can almost go from ship to ship Jump across the strip and go from Manila to Quanzhou. "Although pirates in the Taiwan Strait have become more and more popular since the Ming Dynasty entered the Tianqi period, maritime trade has continued to prosper and develop, as long as the "City of Light" in Quanzhou is mastered. , you can get a cornucopia of gold and silver that can be harvested continuously.
But the strange thing is that the dull Ming court in Zhuan Yu, far away in Beijing, still thinks that this is a barren land. The annual tax received from the whole province of Fujian is only a measly 600,000 taels of silver - and this alone is In Quanzhou, there are dozens of wealthy businessmen with a net worth of more than one million taels of silver...
In short, since the "coastal defense guerrilla" Zheng Zhilong was defeated and killed in the attack of the "Kun Bandits" last year, Marshal Huang Shihuang, who took advantage of the situation to sweep the whole of Fujian, moved his base from Xiapu in northern Fujian to Quanzhou in order to control this trade. Important land, raise enough military pay - although he no longer needs to worry about the actual taxation, but if he wants to make those maritime merchants obediently pay, the military deterrence of 10,000 Funing troops is indispensable.
At this moment, on a three-story building in the back house of the Fujian General Army Corps, Marshal Huang Shihuang, who had just won the battle against the Shimazu family of Satsuma Domain and had just returned from Japan in triumph, was enjoying the refreshing sea breeze and the twilight of the setting sun. A heartwarming family dinner.
The dishes on the table are very simple, with only four items: leek boxes, taro buns, fried meat rolls, and then fish balls stuffed with pork. This is a famous dish in Fujian - different from those in the north that rely on adding flour. The shaped meatballs are different. People in Fujian like to use sharks and other fish with sticky meat to make meatballs. They are said to be so elastic that they can jump three feet high when thrown on the ground. After adding the pork filling, you have the crisp texture of fish balls and the rich and mellow flavor of pork balls... The above-mentioned dishes are all very common in the Fujian market. Only the drink that goes with the food is special, not the traditional rice wine. Or liquor, but a bottle of kvass: a low-concentration Russian alcoholic drink with a sweet and sour taste, made by the group of travelers from Hainan Island.
Huang Shi, who had eaten enough shabby Japanese food recently, was happily eating the hot meatballs made by his wife while admiring her singing voice.
"...Who cut the time into fireworks, and saw all the prosperity in one moment;
Who cut the years into pieces and saw through the mortal world in an instant;
Who interprets youth into sand paintings? Looking back suddenly, I see all the exaggeration..."
The former Second Sister Zhao, now the wife of the General Soldier of Fujian Province, Zhao, was wearing a water-blue silk skirt, leaning against the window railing of the small building, smiling and singing the song "The Bandit of the South China Sea". "New Song", her appearance has lost the youthfulness of a young girl, and has gained a bit of the grace of a mature lady.
Originally, in the traditional Chinese concept, singing was a humble thing. The recognition of singing by the upper class only began after the Qing Dynasty. After the Manchus ruled China, the barbarians had a morbid fascination with the literary form of drama because their blood had not faded away. From princes and nobles to ordinary Eight Banners people, they became obsessed with opera not long after entering Beijing. Many Manchus liked to sing a few lines when they had nothing to do.
The formation of various customs in ancient society was usually a top-down process. Since the Manchu rulers liked singing, this affected the habits of the entire Chinese society. Although the people of the Qing Dynasty still regarded the folk art industry as It's a humble job, but occasionally I can sing a few lines of opera, which has become a more elegant thing. But in the earlier Ming Dynasty, except for a few wild and wild people, the entire Chinese society not only regarded the folk art industry as a despicable industry, but also believed that singing was a despicable thing that only actors and actresses could do. Those rich ladies are determined not to do it easily.
However, in the previous spring of the second year of Chongzhen, Huang Shi and the Funing Army were attacked and ostracized by the entire Fujian officialdom and even the Beijing court, and were almost on the verge of falling apart. When they were in the most dangerous situation, Huang Shi once took his wife Zhao and his newborn daughter Huang Qin was quietly sent to Lingao to avoid trouble, and was entrusted to the care of "people from home" (five hundred people from across the country)... Zhao Ermei's brother, Zhao Yingong, the general magistrate of Juehua Island, had already been killed because of Huangshi. And was hit, Yu Chongzhen died in office at the end of the first year in an unknown manner. It was said that he "died of depression", so there was no hope - as a result, on the side of the Lingao time travellers, Zhao Ermeizi because of Because of Huang Shi, Huang Shi enjoyed high standards of treatment, and was exposed to all kinds of modern lifestyles. He also learned that his husband was also a "thief" leader, so he deliberately imitated and learned, and soon all kinds of speech and behavior were like those of the time traveler. Closer.
——Before Lingao Zhong traveled through time, Huangshi was naturally just an ordinary soy sauce group. But after time travel, in view of the fact that Huangshi has been operating in the late Ming Dynasty for ten years, not only has he worked hard and achieved huge personal power, but also has more valuable connections, reputation, influence, and extremely rich war experience. There was an internal split (Huang Shi also had many friends among the members of the army), and CEO Wen Desi had no choice but to hold his nose and delegate power, giving Huang Shi the title of a formal member of the executive committee, and was later promoted to the vice chairman who led the army's construction. One of the five giants on the executive committee.
For example, if we compare the forces of Lingao Travelers to the Soviet Union, if Wen Desi is the forever glorious, great and correct Comrade Lenin, then Huangshi is the "Red Army" who switched to the Bolsheviks with a large number of people after the February Revolution in Soviet Russia. "Father" Trotsky - the first batch of indigenous troops in Lingao Chuanchuan, Huangshi also sent trusted officers to help with training. Many soldiers were simply sent from the Funing Army... Let's get back to the point. According to legend, due to the "Kunfeng" that had been immersed in Lingao for nearly two years, it was not until the autumn of the third year of Chongzhen, that is, more than a year ago, that Huangshi finally stabilized the situation in Fujian and brought his wife and children back from Hainan Island. , he was shocked to find that his wife had naturally worn a pink women's casual dress, and his two-year-old daughter Huang Qin had also put on Western-style children's clothing and cute red leather shoes... Of course, Huang Shi was still happy to see this.
"... Bang bang bang! Madam really has a good voice, and her singing skills are becoming more and more exquisite every day. This song is really the sound of nature!"
After the song was sung, Huang Shi applauded vigorously, "...Hey, it's a pity that our husband and wife finally reunited last year. Next, we will gather less and stay apart more. First, we will attack the remnants of the Zheng family, and then we will go on an expedition to Ryukyu and Japan, After the victory, I had to rush to Lingao for a meeting. I was so busy that I didn’t even touch the ground. It was only now that I heard my wife’s heavenly voice. It’s a pity that I’m going to Liaodong again in two days... …”
"...Haha, how can you say it so exaggeratedly? It's just a few words when you have nothing to do." Although she knew that Huang Shi was trying to flatter herself, Mrs. Zhao couldn't help but blush slightly, "... When you were in Japan, no one entertained you to watch singing and dancing?”
"...Well, when I was in Japan, a few famous Japanese people, um, the princes from Japan, entertained me to watch some 'Noh drama' and listen to some 'Saru Gaku'... It's a pity that I only listened to them singing. My heart goes crazy when I hear the sound of my voice. That voice is really more unbearable than the howling of a wolf..."
When mentioning Japanese Noh theater and Sarugaku, Huang Shi immediately showed a sad expression, "...When I was in high school, my whole mind was focused on the quarrels at the meeting, and I didn't have any intention of having any entertainment... …By the way, I brought some new things from Qiongzhou this time, come and try them!”
As he said this, he took out a small iron box, which contained many small dark chocolate squares. Not long ago, a Dutch merchant ship tried to traffic a small batch of American cocoa to Lingao. Make it into chocolate sauce. Since the amount of chocolate was too small, peanuts and walnuts were mixed in, and finally some brownies the size of sugar cubes were made. Since the quantity of cocoa is not large, each elder can only get one box. After Huang Shi got the box of chocolates issued to him, he couldn't bear to taste them, so he brought them back as a gift to his wife.
Looking at these strange little black squares, Mrs. Zhao curiously picked up a small piece and took a bite. She immediately beamed - the aroma of caramel and peanuts perfectly combined with the smooth texture of chocolate, and the taste was immediately satisfying. He conquered this young woman who was only twenty-five years old.
"...By the way, how was the situation on the ground in Fujian during the time I was away from home?" Huang Shi asked while continuing to eat the meatballs.
If it were in the court of Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian, concubines in the harem were strictly prohibited from interfering in government affairs, not even talking about it, and offenders would be killed immediately. But for Huangshi and Kun Thief, "women can hold up half the sky" is no joke - otherwise, just wait for those female elders to go crazy!
According to Huang Shi, if he can't even trust his wife, who he lives with day and night, then how many people in the world can he trust?
"...It's not very good. Ever since those work teams started going to the countryside to collect food and land, there have been constant conflicts. Even trying to get back the original military land of the Funing Military Guard Station was difficult. At the beginning of the year, We only release There was just a hint of rumors that they wanted to marry a farmer, but before they even took action, hundreds of talented people poured into Quanzhou City, holding the memorial tablet of Confucius's most holy teacher and took to the streets to set up a formation, almost breaking into the Yamen. ! ”
——The "broken boots formation" of scholars in the Ming Dynasty was not a very civilized protest march, but more similar to the square movements and color revolutions of later generations, with the goal of overthrowing the political power (although it was only the local government), relying on the gentry With human privileges, you can do whatever it takes to beat up officials or burn down government offices!
"...How dare you come to our doorstep? I must have already gone to Ryukyu at that time. What happened next?" Huang Shi asked curiously.
"...What else could be done? Jin Qiude immediately took a battalion of freshly shaved recruits to the streets and fired a volley of guns at these scholars. Nothing happened. But only eight people died, Confucius' Holy sage The master's tablets were scattered all over the street and disappeared without a trace! What about the scholarly demeanor and iron-clad character? In terms of courage, these fake Taoists are not even as good as those wealthy locals who form a stronghold in the countryside! "
The second sister Zhao, who is a mother, curled her lips and said disdainfully - since her brother who was the general judge died in an unknown way, and she received a lot of "defeat Kong Laoer" from the "Kun thief" in Lingao. After her education, combined with her personal experience and her husband's position, she no longer had any respect for these hypocritical "Wenquxing", but fully agreed with the "Kun Thief"'s extreme view of the Ming Dynasty scholars: waste and moths That’s all!
Huang Shi felt it was normal after hearing this - although scholars in the Ming Dynasty prided themselves on being arrogant, those gentle and strong men like Zuo Guangdou during the Tianqi period who were fierce and willing to endure torture were, after all, only a very small minority among a very small number, and the majority of people were at best at best. That is, the courage to make a peace punch. If scholars in the Ming Dynasty were as keen on being suicide bombers and self-destruction as some lunatics in later generations who believed in Allah, how could the Manchu Qing Dynasty have conquered the world for three hundred years?
"...Right now, we haven't dispatched a working team to the whole of Fujian. We have only cleared two areas near Xiapu and Quanzhou, and we have already had to let one county magistrate and two county magistrates 'died' of illness. Scholarship candidates and so on are more Did he kill him? How much do you know? In the end, we had to fabricate a plague to get over it, but there are still gentry who are determined to go against us. They obviously have a lot of money, but they don’t even want to pay a penny in taxes!”
Speaking of this, Mrs. Zhao couldn't help but let out a long sigh, "...Hey, in Liaodong and Changsheng Island, everyone knows that those with braids are enemies, and those with long hair are our own people. In Fujian, however, There are enemies everywhere. Some people know that you have just saved their lives. Not only will they not be grateful at all, but they will stab you in turn, which is even more confusing! Yes, the agricultural cooperation group sent agricultural technicians to several villages last year to promote high-yielding seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, and agricultural machinery for free, which doubled the yield per mu of landowners. However, by the time taxes were collected, the yield was still more than half. They all denied it and even tried to kidnap the agricultural technicians as hostages! I really don’t know how they developed their consciences.”
"...How does a conscience grow? This group of people has never had any conscience at all. How can it grow?" Huang Shi snorted coldly and said murderously, "...Neither do I, nor the Executive Committee of the Senate. The exorbitant taxation is just to make them pay taxes according to the number of acres of land. They actually dare to make trouble with open fire. It's really a toast but not a penalty! They like to risk their lives for death, so how can I deny their wishes? No matter if you are the top scholar or the top pick, whether you are a retired minister or a retired minister, I will confiscate your property and wipe out your family, and then hold a public trial to divide the land and appease you? People's hearts, and then report a pirate attack, the whole family will be wiped out! Let's see if their heads are as strong as this commander's knife!"
When he said these decisive words, Huang Shi's heart was filled with a malicious joy, as if all the grievances of the past had been swept away.
In the past, Huangshi was very young and looked down on the ancients. He felt that with his knowledge beyond his time, he would be able to play with them, and he even set up earth-shattering ambitions: to seek dynasty and usurp the country, to flaunt the annals of history, to wake up the people. The power of the world, drunk and lying on the knees of a beautiful woman... As a result, on the battlefield of Liaodong, facing the Houjin Eight Banners and the Donglin Civil Service, a pair of internal and external enemies, Huang Shi finally found that he was so powerless. Just like Sun Monkey facing the Tathagata Buddha's five-finger mountain, Huang Shi felt that no matter how hard he jumped, he could not escape the opponent's calculations, and no matter how hard he struggled, he could not reverse the decline.
——No matter how many battles you win on the front line and how embarrassed you push the enemy, those civil servants at the back who don’t know how smart they are are capable of ruining the entire battle situation overnight and losing troops and territory. The accusation was once again placed on the military attache!
This indescribable sense of loss makes Huang Shi often want to point at those civil servants and shout: If you don't make trouble for your own people, will you die?
But it was no use. The various pig teammates headed by civilian officials were still determined and happy to cause trouble for their own people and give points to the enemy.
After a while, Huang Shi gradually discovered that no matter how high-sounding and patriotic they said, the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty did not regard the military attaches as their own, but as enemies more dangerous than the slaves!
Therefore, they incorporated the empire's war machine into the so-called supervisory system: the civilian supervisors were responsible for the overall strategy of the land, the deployment of troops, and when and where to fight the enemy, all were decided by the civilian officials; Eunuchs are responsible for the supply of food and grass for the entire army, the payment of military pay, and the transportation and distribution of various baggage and weapons; the specific tasks of siege, defense, formation of troops, and defeating the enemy in the field are all the work of military attachés.
From a civilian perspective, this is really a wonderful military system. If a war can be won, the first contribution will naturally be made by the civil servants responsible for strategy. China has highly emphasized the decisive role of strategy since ancient times, especially civilian officials; people are Iron and rice are steel. If you don't eat one meal, you will feel hungry. After the victory, the eunuchs who supervise the army will naturally receive a lot of credit; while the generals' credit will only be calculated based on their heads. And if defeated. At this time, the civil servants did not recognize the great guiding significance of strategy. The military general must bear the blame for the defeat, because the military general was the one who specifically commanded the battle process. It must have been the gang of Qiu Ba who messed up the good plan; if the military general died in battle, Well, the civil servants can usually pass the responsibility to the eunuchs who supervise the army. It must be that these eunuchs embezzled armor and military pay, or they did not send enough food and grass to the army out of their instinctive habit of harming others, which caused the problem. fail.
In short, no matter whether the war is won or lost, civilian officials only receive rewards but no punishment, but military attachés often do not even receive military pay and can only survive by robbing families and homes, thus acquiring a stigma. Civil officials can impeach and criticize in the name of justice, and re-defeat military attachés who have performed meritorious services.
Since the end of Wanli, border incidents have been frequent, and the court has had to rely more and more on military commanders. In the eyes of the gentlemen in the court, the generals are like the Monkey King who is trapped under the Wuzhi Mountain and is about to jump out. Therefore, the more capable the generals are, the more the gentlemen will attack them. Put a seal on the top to suppress the temper that has been grinding for five hundred years below. As the saying goes, you must first settle the internal situation when fighting foreign countries. If you do this, you can win the foreign war!
Not to mention that the weapons handed out are all fire blunderbuss that explode after three shots, and Yanling knives that curl their blades after two cuts... They are basically going to kill you!
Therefore, as a military general, whether Huang Shi is trying to save the country or nation, or to realize his personal ambitions, as long as he continues to play within the extremely unfair rules they set, he will never have any hope of success. Only by overthrowing everything that is corrupt and corrupt, and establishing a new, more advanced social system, may there be some chance of saving the destiny of the nation!
With Huang Shi's ability, at most he can achieve the former; but combined with the power of the five hundred people from Shang Lingao, the latter may be possible.
Therefore, when the five hundred time-travelers came to this world, Huang Shi chose to return to the collective without hesitation, even if he couldn't be the boss, it didn't matter.
However, no matter what kind of social change it is, it will inevitably cause the dying struggles of vested interests and all kinds of whining and howling.
After the meal was finished and Mrs. Zhao was taking away the leftovers, Huang Shi's personal guard sent a letter from Zou Weilian, the governor of Fujian. Huang Shi frowned, lit a candle, and opened the envelope to take a look. , only to find that there was no text inside, only two notes. One of them said, "The title of Marquis is not my intention, I hope the sea will be peaceful", and the other one said, "The inner treasury will be burned to ashes, and the public minister's bones will be trampled in the street." But both the notes were stamped with Zou Weilian's seal of governor.
"...Even though you already know that there is nothing you can do to me, you still use such riddles to question me. Do you want to be Qi Jiguang or Huang Chao? Haha, this stubborn old man!" Huang Shi smiled faintly, Just as he was about to say something more, he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of bells. Looking back in confusion, I realized that as the sun set in the west, various temples in Quanzhou City were ringing loud bells, and clergy of different religions were singing loudly, waving their arms to the sky, expressing their feelings. Infinite praise and reverence for God.
——Since the Ming Dynasty lifted the sea ban, merchants from all over the world have come to Quanzhou for trade. By the Tianqi period, the total number of Arab and European merchants who chose to settle here had exceeded tens of thousands. For decades, in addition to traditional Chinese temples, Quanzhou City has , and new mosques and churches were built. As for the Quanzhou Port, it was full of ships from all over the world. Although the sky was getting dark, the market was still bustling, with candles lit in the shops and a large number of citizens and business travelers lingering on the streets.
On the street outside the headquarters of the Fujian General Army, men and women with happy smiles on their faces passed by in an endless stream, and from time to time you could hear the laughter of children. People on the street, happy, serene, peaceful and carefree, at the entrance to the harbor. A late sailing ship is slowly sailing to the berth, and the sail is gently lowered. If you listen carefully, you can seem to hear the joyful singing of the sailors on the ship because they have arrived home...
Looking down at the bustling street scene from the top of the building, Huang Shi knew in his heart that if he could not change this time and space, the streets would be full of people in at most twenty years. Whether they are white-haired old men or innocent and lovely children, whether they are energetic young men or happy young girls, on average two out of every three people will be killed...
Such a tragedy will not only happen in Quanzhou, but the entire land of China will be plunged into a pool of blood. Hundreds of shipyards along the coasts of Fujian and Zhejiang will be burned together with the ships. Every living person within thirty miles of the coast will be burned. Brutally killed...
Why does our nation have to suffer such a disaster? Why are our defenseless people being killed? Why should our civilization endure such a reversal?
Who is appeasing the traitors and endangering the tigers? Who is betraying our country and pushing our people into misery?
Those sanctimonious Donglin gentlemen may blame everything on bandits and fate. But Huangshi would never think so:
——Throughout the ages, no matter which group, organization, country or class it is, their collapse starts from within. To use the words of Jia Tanchun in "A Dream of Red Mansions": Just make trouble, make trouble as hard as you can. Outsiders didn't copy it, you copied it yourself first.
——The direct cause of the collapse of the Ming Dynasty was the financial collapse, and the financial collapse of the Ming Dynasty was due to the unscrupulous embezzlement of national interests by the landlord bureaucracy. In the early stage, reforms could be carried out to alleviate the problem, but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, no matter what tax policy the court adopted, it could no longer guarantee the interests of the country. Because the Ming Dynasty relied on this completely rotten and sick landlord bureaucracy to manage the country. This is like using a mouse to look at a granary or a greedy cat to look at a fishing ground. In any case, it is impossible to avoid the end of national interests being embezzled by the landlord bureaucracy.
From Huangshi's perspective today, the upper echelons of the Ming Dynasty, including clans, nobles, landlords and bureaucratic groups originating from landlords, these vested interests used their power to continuously erode the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, even in the face of peasant uprisings and foreign invasions. Under such circumstances, they still do not consider the overall interests of the country at all, and will only continue to plunder unscrupulously, almost to the extent of both psychological and physical abnormalities - their crimes have caused the country to overthrow, civilization to be annihilated, and the people to suffer! For these national sinners who have ruined China's destiny, no matter what fate they end up with, we are too kind to them. Even if we use Hitler's method of treating the Jews to kill them, that has to be called a revolutionary humanitarian spirit.
For these people, Huang Shi has secretly sentenced them to death in his heart - if they are unwilling to change their ways in time.
"...I have never been a murderous person, and I have never betrayed this country. Ever since I was literate in elementary school, my teacher taught me: Always love your nation and the people of the motherland. Even if I am broken into pieces, I will We cannot stand on the opposite side of hundreds of millions of people..."
Looking at the note from Zou Weilian, the governor of Fujian, Huang Shi, the hero of the Ming Dynasty who had repeatedly defeated slaves and "killed Nurhachi", said silently to himself.
——The hero has the hope of ruling the country and the country, and the devil has the ambition to sweep the world.
Really, for a while, I actually wanted to be a hero, to revive the Ming Dynasty and create peace for all ages.
But the cruel reality forced me to be a demon king who overthrew the Ming Dynasty.
I once won many battles in Liaodong, played triumphant songs, and almost forced Jiannu into a desperate situation where he was besieged on all sides. However, Emperor Chongzhen, Yuan Chonghuan, the warlord Guan Ning and the Donglin Party civilian clique failed me in their bloody battles and failed those warriors who sacrificed their lives heroically. In just one or two years, they ruined the good situation and left those close to them behind. The collapsed Hou Jin regime once again resurrected, causing countless innocent people to die miserably.
Even if Emperor Tianqi did not die so early, if he continued to trust and reuse me, as a military attache, I might be able to quell the She'an rebellion, pacify the Fujian and Guangdong bandits, deal a devastating blow to the slaves, and dig out the imperial body. One after another, it is of no use - countless corrupt officials who are as shameless as moths will continue to do evil and once again make the motherland riddled with holes. Countless hungry and cold-blooded people in the Central Plains still cannot be exempted from the increased taxes, and the country still has no money to relieve the victims, regulate rivers, or pay soldiers.
When the people of the world are still forced to endure it no longer and are forced to rise up...will I still wield the butcher's knife against the hungry people?
The army I built with my own hands will never be used to slaughter innocent people. I would rather slash the butcher knife at the group of sinful and corrupt hypocrites in the court!
Today you are no longer outstanding members of the Chinese nation, but sinners who hinder the Chinese nation's reform and self-rescue!
Now, the time for the final judgment is not far away. In the face of the slowly rolling wheel of the times, you must either give up your former privileges and keep pace with the times, transforming from parasites into operating agricultural capitalists. Or just let me die!
I once fought for the Ming Dynasty and China in Liaodong, and now I still have to fight for this land and the people on this land!
Of course, the new system that we time travelers can bring to the Ming Dynasty is also not perfect. Perhaps there are some critics who are full of moral obsession but never do practical things. In this era, they are the hypocrites of the Donglin Party who flaunt "awe-inspiring righteousness". They will accuse us "thieves" of betraying ethics and "violating morals." , "Shameless and obscene" And so on... Thinking of the various speculations and condemnations about "sexual immorality" in the notes of some scholars recently collected, Huang Shi couldn't help but want to laugh: Who among you "gentlemen" doesn't have three wives and four concubines? , when you were thirteen or fourteen years old, you had a girl from your intercourse sleeping with you? You actually have the nerve to accuse those time traveler veterans who only have two or three personal maids at most?
Moreover, no matter how extravagant or even decadent the private lives of the Lingao elders are, at this moment they represent the development requirements of China’s most advanced productive forces, the direction of China’s most advanced culture, and the most advanced culture in China. The fundamental interests of the people!
Only our Senate can put China on the right path of the industrial revolution ahead of schedule. We can even rely on technological advantages that are more than four centuries ahead of our time, so that the people of Ming Dynasty can greatly reduce the pain of the industrialization process and enjoy the benefits of the industrial revolution in advance... Continued No matter whether we adopt the line of capitalism, imperialism or socialism, or imitate the United States, Germany or the Soviet Union, we will at least be much stronger than the desperate Ming Dynasty we have now!
——People change. Huang Shi, the commander-in-chief of Fujian in the fourth year of Chongzhen, is no longer the loyal and brave general in the Tianqi years, but a vanguard of rebels who has decided to break with the Ming Dynasty. Now, just because of the The time to rebel has not yet come, so we just continue to wear the skin of Ming Dynasty for the time being.
However, as a person with feelings, this does not mean that Huang Shi can completely forget everything in the past.
For example, those old friends who fought side by side in Liaodong, and the soldiers and civilians of Dongjiang Town who struggled with hunger and cold... According to some sporadic news from the north over the years, as well as some occasional letters from old friends in the north, Huang Shi knew very well that since Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan, Dongjiang Town, which was alone behind enemy lines, had fallen into endless internal strife and famine. The supply of wages and food was also intermittent, which was more difficult than in Mao Wenlong's era. The generals in various places were demoralized and only knew about corruption and looting, and no longer had the ambition to protect the Liao people and restore the Liao land.
Under such circumstances, the livelihood of the soldiers and civilians in Dongjiang Town was naturally even more difficult, and there were starvation deaths almost every month of the year.
Although since Sun Yuanhua, a Christian Westernization governor of Denglai, some Dongjiang troops and Liao people who could not survive were withdrawn to Dengzhou, Shandong for resettlement, Huangshi's sworn brother Kong Youde was one of the generals who retreated south. However, Shandong has also suffered from constant disasters in recent years, and its life is very embarrassing. After the sudden influx of so many Liao soldiers and people, the competition for land and jobs immediately triggered fierce conflicts between Liaodong and Shandong locals in Dengzhou - the massive Dengzhou Rebellion in history. , it broke out against this background of ethnic division and opposition.
Kong Youde's recent letters to Huangshi are full of resentment at the various exclusions of Shandong locals, as well as complaints that the soldiers and civilians of Dongjiang Town starved and fought bloody battles with the Tartars in Liaodong, and were ostracized and hostile by the locals in Shandong. I really don’t know who we are fighting for... In the letter, there is even a vague intention to go to the south and join Huangshi if we can’t stay in Shandong anymore...
In fact, Huang Shi, who was also born in Dongjiang, was naturally not untouched by the tragic experiences of the soldiers and civilians in Dongjiang Town in the past two years. In the early years, it was difficult to protect itself and there was no other way. Now that it has been stationed in Quanzhou and exerts pressure on the whole of Fujian, Huangshi naturally wants to win over the Dongjiang soldiers and civilians. After some struggle, out of the extreme desire for population and labor, Huangshi And Huangshi has repeatedly promised that he can rely on his own prestige , peacefully resolved the recruitment problem in Liaodong, the Executive Committee of the Lingao Senate finally passed Huangshi's Dongjiang Town military and civilian recruitment plan, preparing to go north to seize North Korea's Jeju Island as a springboard and relay station, and then start from the remaining Liaodong islands in Dongjiang Town Transport hungry people south. At present, a fleet has been assembled in the Penghu Islands. Just waiting for Huangshi to finish handling some of the general affairs accumulated in Quanzhou, he will lead the team north to Liaodong to recruit Dongjiang soldiers and civilians.
However, the soldiers and civilians of Dongjiang Town in Liaodong finally have a way to go to the south, but what about those who have already fled to Shandong? Do we really want to sit back and watch Kong Youde being ostracized in Shandong, and eventually embarking on a mutiny and rebellion, and being defeated and surrendering to Liaodong as a slave?
Huang Shi thought hard for a long time, but still couldn't think of a suitable solution, so he had to sigh, take out the ink bottle, paper and quill from a stationery bag he carried with him, and under the candlelight and twilight, he began to write to Kong Youde Reply to the letter... But after just a few strokes, he stopped writing again I won't write it anymore - I don't know how long it will take to receive this letter after I sent it. Anyway, I will take a boat to the north in a day or two, so I will try to find a way to secretly meet Kong Youde and several other old acquaintances when I pass through Dengzhou. Let’s find out their thoughts and bottom line in person once and for all! But what Huangshi still doesn’t know at this time is that not to mention Shandong, even the rescue of the soldiers and civilians of Dongjiang Town in Liaodong has been forced to come to an end. According to the latest decision suddenly made by the Lingao Senate, the people who went north to Liaodong for shelter this time have been forced to give up. The operation for the hungry people in Dongjiang Town has just been urgently canceled...