Daming kill

Chapter 227 Wuchang Weird
Although history had many deviations from the moment Li Ping appeared, the powerful inertia and corrective force of the historical wheel also made many events continue to run wildly along the original track.

Just like the fall of Wuchang.

After Zhang Xianzhong crossed the river from Yadanzhou, Li Ping, who was in a state of anxiety, quickly determined that he was not Zhang Xianzhong's primary target for the time being, but he didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.

Once Zhang Xianzhong successfully captures Wuchang, his strength will undoubtedly become stronger, and Li Ping's situation will become more dangerous and there will be no escape.

But he can't do anything now, he can only watch the grotesque and bizarre scenes before and after Wuchang was captured.

It was not only dazzled, but also dumbfounded.

After Li Rujing crossed the river, Cui Wenrong, the brave and resourceful general in Wuchang City, handed over Hongshan outside the city to a lieutenant surnamed Hu for defense, and then ran back to the city to find He Fengsheng.

Cui Wenrong believes that Zhang Xianzhong's main force is currently in Jiangbei, and Wuchang County has been lost, so the only north gate of Wuchang City, Wusheng Gate, will become the key point to defend against the enemy.

Cui Wenrong is determined to defend himself.

He Fengsheng agreed with Cui Wenrong's opinion and was determined to defend Wushengmen together with him.

For such an important military matter, Cui Wenrong did not look for official officials in Wuchang City, but an old official who was at home. All kinds of mysteries in the fall of Wuchang were fully unveiled.

Sure enough, Zhang Xianzhong's main force crossed the river at Yadanzhou soon, and then arrived at the foot of Wuchang City on May 29 according to the original historical track after rectification and regrouping, and first launched an attack on Wushengmen.

Because of Cui Wenrong and He Fengsheng's perseverance, Wushengmen was safe for a while.

But at such a critical moment, Wang Yangji, the highest-ranking military supervisor in Wuchang City, insisted on leaving the city under the pretext of going to Hanyang on business, and Fu Shangrui, the promotion officer of Wuchang Mansion, was walking with him.

Although the county seat of Hanyang County, which only relies on the Hanshui River, is occupied by Zhang Xianzhong's peasant army, and the vast countryside to the south is still under the control of the army, it is too strange for Wang Yangji and Fu Shangrui to go to Hanyang now!
Fools know what they want to do.

They probably ran away, because the prefectures and counties south of Hanyang are still under the control of the government.

As soon as Wang Yangji and Fu Shangrui ran away, the hearts of Wuchang City were completely chaotic.

Soon, Zhang Qizai, who had gone out of the city to secretly vote for Zhang Xianzhong, seized the opportunity and led the soldiers of the Chu government to open the two gates of Baoan and Wenchang, and the peasant army who had secretly approached these two gates flocked into the city.

Zhang Xianzhong and Zhang Qi cooperated brilliantly in one north and one south, and performed a sound of east and west.

Although Shi Xu Xueyan, the governor of Chu Palace who directly governed the soldiers of the Chu Palace, was caught off guard, he still bravely chose to fight hard, and even resisted desperately when his left arm was broken, but he was killed in the end.

Because Xu Xueyan seriously interfered with the surrender of the part of the Chu soldiers who wanted to surrender and failed to get them to surrender the city at the first time when Zhang Xianzhong attacked the city, those Chu soldiers who were eager to surrender and show off hated them very much. he.

Xu Xueyan was dismembered even though he was dead.

And the two city gates were opened, and Wuchang City fell within a day.

Cui Wenrong, who continued to resist resolutely after the city was broken, was soon killed by the peasant army with spears, while He Fengsheng was captured.

But the peasant army did not make things difficult for He Fengsheng, and even sent him to Zhang Xianzhong.And Zhang Xianzhong also respectfully called He Fengsheng his husband and released him unconditionally.

Under Xu Yixian's suggestion, Zhang Xianzhong decided to change his previous attitude and treat all Wuchang officials and intellectuals with courtesy.

However, He Fengsheng didn't appreciate it.

He hurried back home, put on his clothes, bowed to the north, and then his family boarded a boat and sailed to Dunzi Lake (now Ziyang Lake). He dug through the bottom of the boat in deep water, and 12 members of his family drowned in the water.

At the same time, Zhu Shiding, a guerrilla in the city, was also captured and forced to serve as the commander-in-chief of the peasant army. Zhu Shiding resolutely refused, and the angry peasant army cut off his left and right hands and discarded him by the river.

Zhu Shiding is also a ruthless man. He tied grass to his arms and died after writing a book.

Although after Wuchang City was broken, Shen Shouchong, Tongjuan Li Yuying, Magistrate Zou Fengji, Zhijiayu County Wang Liangjian, Gongsheng Huanggang, Feng Yunlu, Zhusheng Wang Biyan, Xiong Wen, and Mingrui all died.

However, loyal officials and literati were still in the minority, and most of them chose to survive and surrender, or even actively cooperated with the peasant army. In the early Qing Dynasty, literati once lamented that "the whole Chu fell, and the dead were very few."

Zhang Xianzhong spared the officials and intellectuals in Wuchang, but he did not intend to spare the Ming clan.

The 70-year-old King Chu was dumbfounded this time.

As the emperor's great-grandfather-level clan (the King of Chu and Ming Muzong Zhu Zaiyi were of the same generation), the old Zhu Huakui kowtowed tremblingly to Zhang Xianzhong to survive, begging him to spare his life.

But how could Zhang Xianzhong, who burned the ancestral mausoleum of Fengyang of the Ming Dynasty, killed King Xiang Zhu Yiming, and hated the royal family of the Ming Dynasty, let him go.

Zhang Xianzhong, who likes to play with flowers, directly put the king of Chu into a big pig cage, then threw him into the Yangtze River and drowned him alive.Then, Zhang Xianzhong killed all the clans of Daming in Wuchang City, and then burned down the Chu Palace, which lived halfway across the city.

From the ancestral mausoleum of the Ming emperor in Fengyang, to Xiangwang's mansion in Xiangyang, to Jingwang's mansion in Qizhou, and now to the current Chuwang's mansion, Zhang Xianzhong seems to have a special habit and stubbornness in burning the old Zhu's house.

At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong, as always, maintained a simple hatred for the big landlords who had a lot of money and were generally hated by the majority of laborers, and continued to take selective and bloody suppression actions.

Why is it selective.

That is, they didn't kill all of them, but under Xu Yixian's suggestion, they kept a small number of people who were very knowledgeable and helpful to help them rule.

This is a policy that started in Macheng.

Liu Qiao of Macheng, a Jinshi in 1592, served as the governor and palace guard, and was the patriarch of the Liu family, one of the largest slave-holding families in Macheng.

The elderly Liu Qiao, through Zhou Wenjiang, a local student who was appointed as the prefect of Changsheng Prefecture (Zhang Xianzhong changed the name of Macheng), offered Zhang Xianzhong his two beautiful concubines and tens of thousands of gold and silver, and agreed to cooperate with him to successfully keep him. killed.

Zhang Xianzhong is different from Li Zicheng's hardship and simplicity. He is very beautiful, and he is also very happy to enjoy the family members of the powerful class, and then he is a gift, which makes him feel a special kind of happiness.

When he was in Gucheng, he readily accepted that a student named Ao in Gucheng gave his younger sister (female number) as his wife out of flattery.

This is a distorted hobby, and it is also the favorite thing for the people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty to do after they turned their backs. Zhang Xianzhong is not exempt from it.

But for some unknown reason, while killing the clan and selectively killing the big landlords, Zhang Xianzhong did not spare the businessmen in Wuchang, and even burned down the entire bustling commercial center of Hankou. When Yu left Wuchang, he only burned the wharf much harder.

Maybe Zhang Xianzhong was cheated out of his psychological shadow by the businessmen, maybe he felt that the businessmen were all profiteers who hoarded, which was very unfavorable to his current desire to rule and establish political power.

Anyway, from the tens of thousands of clans of the Ming Dynasty to the big landlords who were not active enough to flatter, to countless unlucky businessmen (should not include small businessmen and peddlers), Wuchang blood flowed like a river.

It is even recorded in "Ming History Zhang Xianzhong Biography": From Yingwuzhou to Taoist Fu, the river is covered by floating scorpions, and the people are fat and fat for more than a month, and the fish and turtles are inedible.

What do you mean?
That is, a thick layer of human oil has accumulated on the surface of the river, and all the fish and turtles have become eaten by humans.

This is likely to be an exaggeration, but it should also be considered part of the historical facts.

Regarding Zhang Xianzhong's killing spree in Wuchang, many people think it was a slander by the Qing Dynasty.Zhang Xianzhong wants to establish a rule, and it is impossible to kill any more.

But there is a place in Hankou called Xiaozili.

It was at that time that a young blacksmith insisted on living in the thatched hut next to his father’s grave because he wanted to honor his father’s filial piety. Zhang Xianzhong was moved, so he gave the young blacksmith a small flag to stick on the hut for safety.

When other common people knew about it, they ran to build houses in the thatched hut next to the young blacksmith's father's grave, and a street and alley formed from this was called Xiaozili.

From this point of view, many people died in Wuchang, and certainly not all of them belonged to the clan. Hankou, where most of them were businessmen, must have been miserable. At least the common people were frightened and abandoned their original homes. They couldn’t tell who would die. To be killed and who will not be killed.

And if Zhang Xianzhong is very friendly to Hankou, there is no need to give the young blacksmith a small flag.

At the beginning of the year, Zuo Liangyu mainly targeted ordinary people in Wuchang, and a few months later, Zhang Xianzhong mainly targeted the wealthy class. In the past six months, Wuchang has completely come to a stage where all the people are not immune to each other's misery.

However, Zhang Xianzhong was taken aback by the search before the burning of the Chu Palace. Zhang Xianzhong never imagined that he would confiscate millions of gold, silver and jewels from the Chu Palace, and even assembled hundreds of vehicles without loading them. use up.

Even the well-informed Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help being dumbfounded by the wealth and stupidity of the King of Chu.

It was Wang Guozi who married Zhu Fengde, the daughter of the King of Chu, and ran out of Wuchang ahead of time. After Zhang Xianzhong left Wuchang, he returned to the ruins of the Prince of Chu’s mansion, and then dug out the county from the rubble under the guidance of the former princess Mao Wenhua. Before the Lord committed suicide, he hid the two boxes of gold, silver and jewelry left to him.

With these two boxes of gold, silver and jewels, Wang Guozi not only buried the princess lavishly, but also bought [-] mu of land on the side of the Hongshan Mountain and renamed it "Zhufeng Village". He lived a very prosperous life.

The wealth of the king of Chu can be seen.

Anyway, in the end Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help but look up to the sky and ridicule: "There is so much gold and silver that I don't know how to guard, Zhu Huzi is really mediocre!"

Then, Zhang Xianzhong soon heard about the big households in Wuchang who hid boats and food in the rivers and lakes, so he immediately divided his troops into three groups to find and intercept them.A total of more than 1000 ships of large households were intercepted, and the grain and supplies obtained were huge.

This also strengthened Zhang Xianzhong's determination to continue working as a rich and unkind landlord in Wuchang.

It was supported by the rich confiscation of the Chu Palace, the seizure of the assets of the merchants, and the discovery of a large amount of grain and supplies hidden on board by the big households. Zhang Xianzhong, who suddenly found that he did not have to worry about military supplies, decided to open a warehouse to release grain to win the hearts of the people.

This is one of the few grain distribution experiences in Zhang Xianzhong's life, and the last time was in Xiangyang.

Then this move was warmly welcomed and enthusiastically supported by the poor people.

Then, Zhang Xianzhong decided to learn from Li Zicheng.

He set up two large banners in front of the gate of the Chu Palace, which read: "Heaven and people return, recruiting talents."Then at the nine gates of Wuchang, two large flags were erected on each side, with the words: "The world is quiet, and the power is everywhere."

Then Zhang Xianzhong proclaimed himself King of the West.

Li Zicheng did not proclaim himself emperor, and Zhang Xianzhong did not dare to formally proclaim himself emperor, and only held a small ceremony at the Yellow Crane Tower.

Then, Zhang Xianzhong changed Wuchang to Tianshou Mansion, Jiangxia County (the county where Wuchang City is located) to Shangjiang County, cast "Xi Wang Zhi Treasure" copper coins, and set up "Five Mansions and Six Ministries".

Further down are rewards for meritorious deeds and appointment of officials to make wishes that everyone should know.

Xu Yixian was awarded Prime Minister Zuo and Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment, Pan Duao's son was awarded the Minister of Rites, Li Shirong, the Luotian student who advised him to seize Wuchang, was awarded the governor of Huguang, and Zhang Qizai, who opened the two gates of Wuchang, was appointed as the former commander of the army.

Zhou Wenjiang, the magistrate of Macheng, was awarded the Minister of the Ministry of War, and Zhang Yize, a student who gathered thieves and bandits before Zhang Xianzhong attacked Huangzhou Prefecture, was awarded the Huangzhou Tour Envoy (formerly Huang Qi Tour Envoy, because Li Ping had to patrol) land sharply reduced)...

There are many other appointments, because everyone is not familiar with them, so I won’t repeat them one by one. Anyway, Zhang Xianzhong has given enough reciprocation to all those who took refuge in him.

Moreover, most of these people who have been promoted to high positions in the new regime are formerly small people, and they are people who will almost never get an official position in the official system of Ming Dynasty.

And this has become the most advantageous weapon and the deadliest poisonous arrow for Zhang Xianzhong's new regime.

After the political system was basically established, Zhang Xianzhong then began to appoint intellectuals who had defected to him to organize the examinations just like Li Zicheng, and it was more grand and formal, exactly like an imperial country should look like.

At the same time, it is to divide the troops to recruit the rebels and expand the territory. The new regime needs land and population, and it needs the unity of all people.

But Dazhi County and the entire Xingguo Prefecture, which are close at hand, naturally became the most unsightly and most influential places for the authority of the new government.

Notes:

In the Zhang Xianzhong regime, a man named Shen Huilin was appointed as the county magistrate of Hanyang. Some sources believed that he had informed Pan Duao of the secret of sneaking into Wuchang City and caused Pan Duao to be captured and killed by the government.

This part of the information holds that Zhang Xianzhong did not care about Shen Huilin and appointed him as the county magistrate, which shows Zhang Xianzhong's generosity and ambition.

But I personally think there are too many contradictions, especially what is the significance of Pan Duao sneaking into Wuchang as a military adviser?Therefore, it is still inclined to some historical records that Pan Duao was killed in Huangnigang in Qianshan, Anhui.

Therefore, this article does not use Shen Huilin to explain the characteristics of Zhang Xianzhong's behavior in Wuchang.

(End of this chapter)