Lu Ming

Chapter 518
After the Battle of Fotouzhai in Beishan, the Pioneering Army split up and attacked again. For a while, the bandits, large and small, fled, killed, and surrendered. The banditry in Zengcheng area was quickly cleared up. Known by the locals at night.

Regarding the suppression of bandits, the landlords who had collected first-hand information were especially shocked when they sent people to observe the scene.In their memory, it has been a long time since there has been such a strong army with sufficient military expenditure, high morale, and the courage to fight at the grassroots level of the Ming Dynasty.

And the most troublesome thing is that the army, which consumes so much money and food, is not used to defend the frontier against foreign enemies, but bows down and runs to the countryside to do the money-losing business of suppressing bandits.

Yes, anyone can see that this bandit suppression is a real loss-making business.As far as the income of the bandit den is concerned, even if the dead and the living are counted, it is not enough for the expenses.

Then, the commander-in-chief surnamed Cao sent his own private soldiers to suppress the bandits, probably with other meanings. Isn't it because the magistrate of Gu County loves the people like his son?How old is such a scumbag like him?Can you invite such a strong soldier to fight back?

After making rational judgments, some knowledgeable and discerning figures among the local gentry could not help but have some subtle feelings about the sudden appearance of the bandit suppression.

Soon, the premonition of the wise man was verified—within one month after Fotouzhai, several landlords who had colluded with bandits were uprooted.

Some of these powerful gangsters have always colluded with the bandits, and some are simply the black background of the bandits. They are not good things to do evil and sell stolen goods on weekdays.

In fact, these bullies have long been notorious in the local area, but the government has always been weak and powerful, so that no one in this generation can govern.

Then this time, Kangxi Cao Zongbing came.

After the captured bandits confessed, these bullies were immediately put on the blacklist, and when the Pioneering Army was free, they immediately sent troops to surround the village and break down the door to arrest people.

The servants and villains raised by the local tyrants and bullies have the same combat effectiveness as the bandits, so they are naturally not the opponents of the pioneering army.As for the dealers, after seeing the government flag and the large number of officials on the opposite side, they will not be interested in rebelling: honest people naturally have accounts in their hearts.

After the village was broken, everyone inside was charged with "bandit gangsterism".Among them, the main characters were arrested and sent to the county government prison for trial, and the servants were arrested and sent to Huangpu to board the immigration boat.

Since Cao Neigui has now climbed to the top of the Ming Empire, the bureaucratic system in Guangdong has no restrictions on him.In this matter, the gentry allies of the bully and local tyrants wanted to use the traditional network and political shield at first, but found that they couldn’t use it—once the general soldier was involved, all the bright and dark actions were completely lost. utility.

With an extra powerful force "suppressing luck" behind it, the judicial procedures of the Ming Dynasty began to run at an unprecedented high speed this time.

The magistrate of Gu County, who has always been mediocre, was very busy with hearing cases again and again in the next few days.During this period, Mr. Gu changed from normal, became just, strict and resolute, hated evil as much as hated and defied the powerful. In the courtroom, three woods and sticks were flying together, boards and fingers were shared, and the screams were endless.Several families of bullies and local tyrants were interrogated to collect statements like grassroots people, completely powerless to resist.

After that, the official documents at the prefecture and county levels were forwarded, and along with the numerous crimes collected, soon, the official document of Qiu Hou Wen's execution was submitted to the Beijing Ministry of Criminal Justice for review.

To a certain extent, the deep-seated shock caused by the removal of these bullies, at least in the Zengcheng area, surpassed the suppression of bandits.

The local gentry suddenly discovered a huge force in this matter.The frightening thing is that this power seems to belong to Daming, but it is completely out of their control, and it can smash the old men to pieces at any time, which makes some people worry.

In fact, the gentlemen are right to be worried.

For this earth-shaking social transformation initiated by the time-travelers, suppressing bandits can only be regarded as a warm-up.After the first stage of bandit suppression, by the way, knocking the mountains and shaking the tigers, tidying up the gentry, and letting the other party know the benefits, this is what the title should mean.

When all potential opposition forces have been attacked or deterred, the next step is the highlight of social transformation: population migration.

Throughout history, people have come across a phrase at some point in time: ten rooms and nine empty rooms.

Yes, whenever there are natural disasters and man-made disasters, when there is a change of dynasty on the land of China, the word ten rooms and nine empty spaces will always appear in the foreplay.

In fact, this is not a natural or man-made disaster, but a natural law, because the real population carrying capacity of the Central Plains is only one-tenth of that at the end of the dynasty.

Before modern three-dimensional reinforced concrete cities, the entire human society was flat for thousands of years.People live in flat houses, and only emperors and lords can live in palaces and castles.

The land carrying capacity of the entire ancient society was very low.In urban areas, the population level of one million is already considered a super city.Even so, population erasure killers like plague and dysentery still occurred frequently, which objectively hindered the ancients from expanding the city.

The same goes for rural areas.Thanks to low productivity, the ancient land carrying capacity was very low.In rural areas, if the arable land area of ​​a family of three is less than 10 mu, they are actually malnourished and belong to poor households.

However, in the later period of the dynasty, when the population exploded, tenants with five or six people often did not even have three acres of land—this is already considered abject poverty. The living conditions of these people are extremely bad. Rebel or die.

Then, conflicts caused by insufficient resources broke out, and society began to reshuffle.Whether it was Li Zicheng, the Tartars, the killing of each other, or the invasion of foreign enemies. In short, social conflicts will not be resolved until the population of the entire land is reduced to one-tenth of what it was before.

So what about after dropping to one-tenth?Ten rooms are empty, a new dynasty is established, "people's minds are settled", Mingjun is born, and everyone begins to cycle happily again.

This is actually the essence of dynastic change: In ancient times, the population of the entire Central Plains dynasty could not exceed 2000 million people. Once it exceeded, resources were insufficient, as in the late Ming Dynasty when the population exceeded 1 million people, they would definitely kill each other until Once the population is below 2000 million again, the contradiction will disappear.

When this situation of the end of the world is condensed to the land of Zengcheng County, it is reflected that bandits are everywhere, all industries are withered, and the people are in dire straits.

Therefore, the people who travel through the world know one thing very well: without resolving the fundamental contradictions in society, it is useless to rely on the so-called suppression of bandits, because there will always be extremely poor landless peasants who will turn into bandits.And this kind of person can't be killed enough, they will starve to death, do they still care about bullets?

Therefore, after the first round of deterrence, Ding Liqiu, the mayor of the Guangzhou Special Zone, made a special trip to Zengcheng County at the end of 1630 to preside over and promote a far-reaching social experiment under the rule of the Ming Dynasty: corvee.

(End of this chapter)