Chapter 235 Riot
Guanghe six years, August 10th, Juan County.
At this time, the city head of Juan County had already been replaced by the apricot-yellow flag of Taiping Road. The original Han family's flag became another collection of the Taishan Army.
Since the siege of the city in July, Juan County had no reinforcements outside and no soldiers inside. Finally, it could no longer bear it and chose to surrender to Dong Fang outside the city.
Since the Taishan Army was divided in May, Dong Fang's Army began to establish base areas in the countryside of Juancheng and Linqiu counties, and now it has finally achieved something. Linqiu County was captured in June, and Juancheng passed through the city because there was a waterway connecting the river to Juye Ze. Juancheng also relies on this waterway to receive a steady stream of supplies from Jiyin County, and it has persisted until now. If Dong Fang hadn't later installed wooden fences in the southern section of the waterway to block the supply route, Juan County might have been able to hold on for much longer.
The field allotment officials sent from various places have successively sent up the latest field allotment results. It’s a mixed blessing! Many powerful people in Wubi chose to offer their fields to the field division team to avoid disaster because they had learned from the past and were weak.
This method of dedicating land is very good. After all, it is not stained with blood. Many field officials also prefer this method in their hearts. They are also human beings. Seeing those local tycoons who cried so hard that they actively repented, they also became soft-hearted. Anyway, the final result is almost the same, the ground has been collected. Therefore, land allotment officials encouraged and even forced rural tycoons to hand over their fields through land offerings.
Originally, Dong Fang also thought this method was good. Having been in the Taishan Army for a long time, he certainly knew the importance of dividing the land to Huang Tian's career. There is no doubt that land is the most important thing for all Guizhou people. It is the source of food and clothing for everyone. In the past, it was precisely because Guizhou leaders only owned a small amount or even no land that they were chronically poor and could only be reduced to servants. Therefore, as long as the Taishan Army can help the Guizhou leaders satisfy their desire for land, they can gain their support, and the Taishan Army can gain a foothold in the countryside.
The reality is indeed this. All Wubi and Qiuluo whose fields were divided have become helpers of the Taishan Army. The Han army had no foothold in the countryside. It was precisely because of this that Dong Fang's regiment took root in Juancheng and Linqiu counties in just two months.
In addition, as a Confucian scholar, Dong Fan had the ideal of letting farmers have land, and what the Taishan Army did was exactly the right way. But he still felt that compared to violent land division, it was not impossible to obtain land from rural tyrants in a peaceful way. The head of Guizhou can live if he gets land, and the local tycoons can live if they honestly hand over the land. Isn't this pretty good?
Although in the past, during the land distribution process, according to the regulations, typical individuals must be held in public trial and hanged. But Dong Fang feels that policies need to be adjusted according to different forms.
Just like the current land policy, Dong Fang knew about several changes. When the Taishan Army first divided the land, it confiscated all land, including the homesteaders. At that time, there were no homesteaders in the Xueshibi and Taishan areas, so there was no problem. But later, after the fields were divided in Laiwu area, there were a large number of homesteaders here. According to the past division, the Taishan Army obviously became the enemy of these people. Therefore, the policy at that time was urgently adjusted and became only divided between rural tyrants and clan land.
There was also the cooperative farm that Qu Kui experimented with before, which also achieved a lot of harvest, but was finally stopped by Qu Kui.
Why? It's because the land in the cooperative farm belongs to the Taishan Army. No matter how well they work on this land, what's the difference from working as vassals for the local tycoons in the past? Then the matter was put on hold.
Therefore, in Dong Fang's view, his current method of obtaining land by asking landlords to donate their land was also a way of taking advantage of the situation.
But in the opinion of Gao Sheng, the chief priest who assisted Dong Fang in handling the land allocation matters in Juancheng and Linqiu, this was wrong.
Although Gao Sheng joined the Taishan Army later than Dong Fang, he saw the underlying purpose of Qu Shuai's insistence on dividing the land, which was to compete with the local tycoons for the vast countryside of Guizhou.
It turns out that the Taishan Army's way of fighting for the head of Guizhou was to divide the fields. But the land offered by the local tycoons seemed like a gift to Guizhou.
Previously, the Taishan Army's propaganda was that the local tyrants cleverly seized the land of the Guizhou leaders, and then they could use liquidation and public trials to seize the land justly and use it to compensate the Guizhou leaders. But now it has become morally noble for local tycoons to offer their fields. Now, the leaders of Guizhou no longer despise the local tyrants in the past, but instead feel that they are indebted.
What's more, although these wealthy people who used to dominate the countryside donated their land, they can get it back smoothly with their past information and prestige.
Gao Sheng himself learned that many rural tycoons who originally offered their land secretly forced the Guizhou leaders to return the land to them through private intimidation and manipulation of rural public opinion. What's the use of dividing the fields like this?
Of course, the most important thing is what he and Dong Fang emphasized:
"If these local tycoons don't die, will the settlement listen to us or those local tycoons?"
In short, Gao Sheng himself is very determined. There must be blood and enmity in this matter, so that the head of Guizhou will follow the Taishan Army.
Gao Sheng actually came from a powerful family background, but he was a bit of a cool official after all, and he understood the importance of iron-blooded methods very well. Even, in order to cut off the moral superiority of the rural tyrants in the countryside, he personally wrote a ballad and asked the yellow scarf men in Laoying to sing in the countryside.
Huang Jin Lang was the Lang Jun who Zhang Chong ordered Dong Fang to select from the young man in the old camp to teach him writing and martial arts. He was a reserve talent for the Taishan Army.
When these yellow scarf men go to the countryside, they especially like to sing to the working Guizhou people on the fields:
"What is black? The powerful and greedy local people. What is white? The bones of the powerful Guangsha Guizhou people. What is red? The powerful people's ribbons carry the blood of Guizhou people. What is yellow? The powerful Qiangu Guizhou people's faces."
But Dong Fang didn't take Gao Sheng's reminder seriously and asked:
"Aren't you and I also the descendants of powerful people, and now we have joined Taiping Dao? You and I can do it, so why can't those local tyrants do the same?"
Seeing that Dong Fang insisted on this, Gao Sheng could not persuade him, so he could only let more of the yellow scarf men go to the countryside, trying to use propaganda to stimulate the consciousness of the Guizhou leaders.
So, on August 10th, Yang Wazi and Yang Gousheng went to the countryside again with eight friends. This time, they were going to the Han family where Jiao Yong was responsible for dividing the fields. They will go there and sing folk songs again.
It was August and autumn had already entered.
Yang Wazi and Huang Jinlang walked on the official road, sweating but in high spirits. The fields on both sides of the road are already full of busy farmers. Some people are growing wheat, and they are harvesting it with a smile on their face. But most of them are immersed in planting millet and millet in their own fields. Some who have planted their own vegetable fields also plant some turnips and green onions. Without these two things, the Yanzhou people can hardly eat.
Yang Wazi and others looked at this busy work and were full of energy.
I think back then, their parents were so secure and prosperous, but the corrupt officials and local tyrants worked together to rob them. Their parents could only join the Taiping Road to protect each other. In the end, my father died in the uprising in April.
But this time, Yang Wazi and others will protect this pure land.
——
Yang Wazi and others walked all morning and finally arrived at Han's Wall.
Just as they were about to look for Jiao Yong and follow his arrangements, they heard the old man outside the door say that Team Jiao was going to arrest people with the field guards.
After careful inquiry, it turned out that two nearby clans were fighting over water and weapons. The people in Juancheng are strong and strong, and each clan still maintains the tradition of living together. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, in order to expand the government's ability to govern, local governments have generally been divided. The big clan will tear down the small clan, and the small clan will tear down the small households. But the Juancheng area is different because it is a yellow flood area. Several times in this dynasty the river changed its course and flooded, causing great disasters here.
When there is a major disaster, it is naturally easy to gather together to protect the family. A small family has no ability to avoid natural disasters and subsequent man-made disasters. The Taishan Army encountered this problem when they divided the fields in this area. However, at that time, there were many conflicts within these clans. The field division team took advantage of these conflicts to pull one group over and fight another group, which was not a big problem.
But once there is a struggle between clans, such as fighting for water, these clans will suddenly unite, and even bypass the field protection teams on their respective dock walls and organize directly. They form teams directly based on clan seniority, and they can fight privately with other clans with big sticks and rakes in hand.
Previously, Gao Sheng had sent a message to the team leaders of each camp, asking them to be more careful about large-scale private fights that broke out between clans. Everyone was ordered to do so, and although they were conscious, they didn't take it too seriously.
But no one expected that a riot that swept the entire Juancheng would start from this small fight for water.
At first the fight took place from the two walls next to Han's wall. They were both near a ditch. This ditch was drilled from a tributary of a large river. Although the water volume is not large, it is enough to irrigate life nearby. The wall upstream has the surname Sun, and the wall downstream has the surname Zhao.
Although the water was sufficient, Sun was used to being domineering in the upper reaches, and the fence was cut off several times. The reason why they can be so arrogant is because the officials who presided over the construction of this ditch were the ancestors of the Sun family, so the Sun family naturally believed that this ditch belonged to them. But the water supply was often cut off on the Sun side, and the Zhao family downstream was unhappy. Over the generations, the two tribes have sacrificed their lives for this ditch.
On August 9, late at night, a fierce armed fight finally broke out between the two tribes.
During the day, Sun once again blocked the ditch. But at night, the Zhao family, who had just finished harvesting wheat, rushed into the ditch in the dim moonlight. Not only did they remove all the earth and rocks blocking the ditch, but even the Sun family members who were guarding the water were beaten.
But no one expected that this man died.
During the day of the next day, the Sun family knew about this. The crowd was so excited that more than 70 powerful clan leaders from the Sun family wall led them to the Zhao family wall and killed three people directly.
Speaking of the patriarch of the Sun clan, he was originally supposed to be set up as a model by the field division team that settled there. But because this man was alert and dedicated his land to the Taishan Army in advance, not only was his family safe in the end, but he was also recruited into the field division team because he was good at farming.
When Sun's troops saw that they had killed someone, they were all frightened and withdrew. But on the way, he was stopped by the Zhao people who were catching up behind him. After that, both sides fought bloody battles. After half an hour of fighting, more than ten people died, and everyone was injured, so they had to go back.
Originally, although this matter was serious, it was still only a matter between Sun and Zhao. But Sun didn't know what method he used. An unknown team directly attacked and killed Zhao's retreating tribesmen.
More than forty people were killed.
Then rumors spread everywhere in Juan County that the Taishan bandits were going to capture everyone and fight against the Han army. Anyone who was found running away would be killed. The corpses blocked the river. How miserable. There are also many people who say that these Taiping Taoists steal children and use them to sacrifice their Huang Tian. There were also rumors that these Taiping Taoists knew sorcery, and anyone who offended them would be cursed to death with talismans.
These rumors appeared suddenly and made people panic. Some people wanted to explain to the Taishan Army, but they didn't know what to say, because many children had been lost recently, and some people who had settled in the entire Qiu suddenly died suddenly, and no one knew what happened. Some people said that they offended a young general of the Taishan Army and were cursed to death.
The leaders of the field protection troops in various places were all former members of the collision team. They immediately realized that something was wrong and quickly gathered troops to capture the patriarch of the Sun family.
But this man also died, in the home of Sun's field guard general. At this moment, Sun's clan members, under the influence of someone who was interested, rushed into the field guarding team.
To be honest, everyone is on alert for outsiders like Taishan Army. They speak another language, dress differently from them, and even lift up some people they consider very lowly as soon as they arrive. Those who are lazy and lazy just rely on flattering these Taishan troops and ride on their heads.
In short, the anger was already there, and it just exploded at this moment.
At the same time, these elders in the clan were also encouraging, they said:
"Before these demon thieves came, our Sun family wall was very peaceful, unlike now where we are in so much trouble."
"Did those demon thieves allocate the land to you? It was given to you by us because we saw the hardships of our tribe. What does it have to do with those demon thieves?"
"These demon thieves are rebelling. If you follow them, you will be dead. As long as we defeat them, not only will the land originally allocated belong to you, but even the imperial court will reward us."
"My clansmen, all join me, fight these demon thieves, and avenge the old clan leader!"
This sentence ignited the anger of the Sun clan members. They, men, women, old and young, came out together, holding big sticks and hoes and roaring over.
The field guards who were originally going to suppress the riot also gave up their resistance.
After all, these field guards were also members of the Sun family two months ago. Facing the strong pressure from the clan, even if he did not defect, he would step aside and not dare to fight.
In the end, the field division team and the field protection team who were in charge of Sun's wall were all stoned to death. His body was hung on the old locust tree outside Sun's wall, with his body hung around his neck:
"Demon thief, damn it!"
The same situation is happening all over Juan County. The violent mob broke into the public office and massacred the Taishan Army's field division team and its leader.
The returned Tanma continuously sent information from various places to Juancheng.
At this time, Dong Fang and Gao Sheng finally realized that something was wrong and someone was behind it!
(End of chapter)