1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 52 Invitation to Reward ([-])

Because of its remote geographical location, Yazhou has been the place where the imperial court dispatched prisoners since ancient times. Very few residents from the mainland moved to this place voluntarily. Therefore, seven or eight out of ten residents near Yazhou are prisoners or officials. Descendants of relatives.There are countless high-ranking officials exiled by the court in this place alone. Since the Tang Dynasty, there have been more than ten high-ranking officials above the deputy prime minister. The dismounting of a high-ranking official often involves several party members. For hundreds of years accumulate.Yazhou actually has the nickname of "the family of the secluded people".In later generations, the local government regarded Yacheng as a famous historical and cultural city for tourism promotion.

But it is precisely because of the large number of officials dispatched here that a strange situation in which social resources are highly concentrated in one place has been formed.Most of these high-level prisoners will be restricted to settle in the city, so that the relevant departments of the court can monitor it, which leads to almost all the cultural people in Yazhou concentrated in the city of Yazhou. There are not only schools, bookstores, but also literati gatherings in the city. Dedicated place.And only dozens of miles away from the city, there is not even a private school to teach children to read.

Out of the envy of civilized life, some wealthy landlords in nearby towns will also take the initiative to move to Yazhou to live, which will gradually raise the price level of Yazhou City in the long run, resulting in an increase in the cost of living in the city, and some people have no money. Landless people can't live in the city, they can only go to a place far away from Yazhou City to open up wasteland to make a living.And these small towns and villages made up of destitute residents cannot even afford teachers and doctors, and their living standards are as low as the action team had seen before.

These newly opened fields are far from the city, so the value of the land is extremely low. Once the farmers need money for a major illness or a small disaster, they are likely to have to sell their houses and sell the land and go bankrupt to borrow money to survive. Over time, the land will slowly It was merged into the hands of a very small number of big landlords.And these rich landlords can use the means of production in their hands to continuously acquire and merge more land, causing more and more farmers to become proletarians.

"The poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer, and the polarization is serious. This is the result of vicious land mergers!" Yan Chujie couldn't help but sigh after listening to Luo Shengdong's introduction.His understanding of the history of the late Ming Dynasty before the time traveled was limited to the little textbook knowledge he learned in school. It was only after Ning Qi joined the team that he often gave popular science to everyone after class. more awareness.But now that I have seen these people's feelings with my own eyes, it just confirms the historical facts that I know.

When Luo Shengdong learned that the next stop of the action team was to go to Nanshan Town, he clearly expressed his opposition.There is only one reason for Luo Shengdong's objection, that is, there is an inspection department in Nanshan Town.

The Inspection Division is a grass-roots administrative agency that integrates the military and the government. It is inferior to the county level in terms of administrative level, and mainly focuses on military and public security functions.Nanshan Town is located in the south of Yazhou, between the mountains. It is a land pass in the southeast of Yazhou, and because the population here is relatively dense, an inspection department has been established to manage the local area.There is even a fort outside Nanshan Town, which is usually used as the station of the inspection department, but it becomes the gate of the garrison defense in wartime.If these people from Chuanzhong appeared in Nanshan Town, they would immediately attract the attention of the inspection department, which might lead to unnecessary trouble.Luo Shengdong didn't want to make any mistakes at the critical moment when he had already arrived at the door of his house, so he made the stakes clear to the Transcendents.

Yan Chujie weighed the pros and cons, and finally agreed with Luo Shengdong's suggestion to temporarily cancel the inspection mission of Nanshan Town, which made Luo Shengdong secretly relieved.The two sides discussed the contact information for the next few days, and then left West Tortoiseshell Island to continue their journey.

In the afternoon of that day, after the two boats sailed past Nanshanjiao one after the other, Luo Shengdong's boat sailed straight into the Ningyuan River, and the Yazhou Water Village was not far upstream from the mouth of the Ningyuan River.The "Flying Speed" docked at the location of Nanshan Port in later generations, and used this place as a camping place for the next few days.This place is about 3000 meters away from the estuary of the Ningyuan River. If something special happens at the Yazhou Water Village, the "Flying Speed" can come and go freely.

In the 45th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, the former division of Shuizhai was established in Yazhou.In the 19th year of Jiajing, according to Cai Jing, the censor of Guangdong and Guangxi, a member of the Yazhou Shuizhai was set up as a military commander, which shows that the central government still paid enough attention to the military defense of this remote area at that time.However, although Yazhou Shuizhai has set up a high-level organization such as generals, the strength of the troops is far from meeting the requirements of the organization.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was not surprising that the generals had tens of thousands of soldiers. After Jiajing, the generals could lead up to three or four thousand soldiers. By the time of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty, the generals usually led one to two thousand soldiers. .However, the size of the army in the Yazhou water village is much smaller than this. The entire water village has less than 600 soldiers and sailors, and only maintains the previous staffing level of the former water village. Arrange according to the usual plan of the Ministry of War.In the end, after various adjustments and compromises, the officer establishment of Yazhou Shuizhai became one member of the general, one member of the commander, and two members of the sentry officer, that is, two members of the hundred commanders. It was canceled, and this kind of wonderful organization can finally be recognized by the Ministry of War, which can be regarded as an extraordinary thing in an extraordinary period.

The predecessor had already been transferred to Qiongzhou Fucheng last month, so Luo Shengdong desperately wanted to keep the seat vacant.As for his competitor Wei Sanzhu, Wei Bai is five or six years older than Luo Shengdong. He doesn't usually show any extraordinary ability, but he is very good at flattering speculative drilling camps - at least Luo Shengdong himself thinks so. .

There is a small general position in the Xinjiang garrison. Naturally, the bosses of the Ministry of War will not have the time to ask questions. The general process is to recommend candidates from the local government, and then the Ministry of War approves and issues the appointment documents.As long as the recommended candidates do not have any serious black history, they can basically be promoted steadily.In peacetime, there is no war to fight, and if you want to be promoted in the army, you can only win relations with your superiors.Although Luo Shengdong was a little winked, he was still a lot worse than his opponent. He knew that he couldn't play Mr. Wei Bai's tricks, so he took the initiative to ask for orders and lead his troops out on patrol, hoping to exterminate a group of pirates. Take the real head back and claim credit.This is the tradition of the old Luo family. Luo Shengdong's father was transferred from the army to the frontier army by cutting off the heads of pirates, and then he was promoted from the chief soldier to the hundred general.

Although it went through quite a lot of twists and turns, Luo Shengdong finally achieved the purpose of this trip, and got more than 20 pirate heads and a ship. Don't look at this number as if it is not big, but this achievement is not a joke You must know that the last time the Yazhou garrison captured more than 20 pirates was in the 14th year of Zhengde, and it has been more than a hundred years since now.At that time, Chen Yaoen, the prefect of Yazhou, commanded Gu Zhengchun, and captured 24 pirates from Boni in the battle.Since then, the defense area of ​​the Yazhou garrison has become smaller and smaller, and several garrison points near Yulin have been abandoned altogether, and the Luhuitou Peninsula has become the pinnacle of the South China Sea pirates going north to Hainan Island.

As soon as Luo Shengdong's boat entered the mouth of the Ningyuan River, it was discovered by a sentry boat patrolling the river.When the outpost came to check, Luo Shengdong appeared on the side of the ship: "Ma Lame, don't look, I didn't give you a reward for this ship!"

The soldier headed by the sentry ship was nicknamed Ma Laipi. Hearing this voice and looking up, he couldn't help but stunned and said, "Mr. Luo Bai! Why did you come back on this ship?"

Luo Shengdong's face was full of energy: "You, Lord Luo, have done a great job this time! Stop talking nonsense, lead the way ahead, I'll go back to the village first! Call the brothers in the evening, Lord Luo is making a reservation for Zuixianju today!"

The lame man responded, and hurriedly yelled at the sailors on the sentry ship to turn the ship around and guide Luo Shengdong, a broad ship, towards the water village.

After the ship sailed into the Shuizhai Wharf and docked, Luo Shengdong took a few of his men, carried the three boxes containing the heads, and went to the military Chinese clerk to report to the army, indicating that he had returned from patrolling, and then went to Participant will invite credit and reward there.However, Luo Shengdong found that the expression on his face after seeing this document today seemed a bit strange. As soon as his heart moved, he quietly stuffed a piece of silver into Zhang Wenshu's hand - this was returned to him together with the military uniform and weapons before leaving. Personal items.

The document was also aware of the matter, and he looked at no one around, and lowered his voice: "Mr. Luo Bai, the inspection department found two deserters outside Nanshan Town the day before yesterday, and they explained that they were people on your ship, and they were sent to you yesterday. Shuizhai came to recognize someone, and it was indeed the group of people you brought out..."

"Hey—" Luo Shengdong couldn't help taking a deep breath.After being defeated and captured, Haihan did count the number of prisoners of war once, and after counting, there were two fewer prisoners, and finally they were listed on the missing list. Still got caught.In this way, wouldn't his defeat in Yulin be completely exposed?Wouldn't it be a fraud to come back this time?
At this moment, Luo Shengdong even had the idea of ​​turning around and running. Taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the sergeant in Zhaizhong, he rushed out with a few cronies, and he should be [-] to [-]% sure that he would be able to escape.As long as he can go to the territory of the Haihan people, his life will be guaranteed.But this idea was only just aroused, and he was forcibly suppressed by himself: "I have suffered so much, and finally got such an opportunity to stand out, how can I give up!"

Luo Shengdong's face showed a trace of grimness: "I have been looking for these two deserters for a long time! This is just right. I chopped off the heads of these two guys to celebrate the merits of Lao Tzu!"

(End of this chapter)