Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 139 Jiangyin
Changzhou, Jiangyin.

The ancient Yanling Mausoleum borders the Yangtze River in the north and Changshu in the east.

Changzhou is an important place in the south of the Yangtze River. Yixing in the southwest is connected with Yingtianfu and Guangdezhou, and it faces Taixing and Zhenjiang in Yangzhou in the northwest.

Canals run across the territory, the Yangtze River is to the north, and Taihu Lake is to the southeast.

Among them, Jiangyin County alone has 110 mu of land, 140 miles from east to west, and [-] miles from north to south.It transports more than [-] stones of grain and more than [-] taels of silver every year. It is a prosperous city in the south of the Yangtze River.

Huangshan Port is also connected to the ocean, so it can be reached in one day with a smooth wind.

Such a treasure land in the south of the Yangtze River was also full of disasters in the late Ming Dynasty. Affected by the small ice river, it was only in the Chongzhen Dynasty, and there was no rain in autumn and winter in the second year of Chongzhen.Three years, two wheat and ashes, all vegetables are damaged.Five years, summer drought.In six years, the tide rushed to the bank of the polder, hurting people.In September, the wind changes, and the fields are swept away.Seven years, summer drought, wheat fall, autumn, heavy rain, loss of rice.In ten years, the wheat will be exhausted, and the caterpillars will eat the grass. In the 11th year, there was a strong wind, wheat damage, autumn, drought, locusts, and the fields became empty. 12 years, drought, locusts.

In 14 years, drought, big locusts.

In the first year of Hongguang, there was a severe drought.

In April, the city of Jiangyin learned of the great changes in Beijing. There were scoundrels in the market, who took advantage of the opportunity to create chaos. The towns looted, burned, and killed people like grass. Then many servants, tenants, and hungry people followed suit and looted everywhere. The county magistrate had no choice but to order the gentry and elders from all over the country to mobilize the tribesmen and form village braves to defend themselves and protect the people.

He also invited well-known gentlemen from the villages in the county to go to each township to understand their interests.

Yan Yingyuan, the official historian, rode alone to the port to appease the local riots.

In May, King Fu was escorted to Nanjing by Shi Kefa and others to ascend the throne, and the turmoil in Jiangyin had just settled down.

When the Qing army went south, Chen Mingyu, the Dianshi, Hong Houdun, the governor, Zhou Ruilong and other people who had come forward to quell the turmoil in the previous turmoil called the gentry in the county to worship cards and gather for a meeting. , but the final matter is undecided and cannot be achieved.

In a blink of an eye, Nandu was destroyed and Hongguang was captured.

When Liu Guangdou, a censor from Wujin, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Duoduo ordered him to return to his hometown to appease the counties in Changzhou. The recruitment notices were issued, and all counties joined him one after another, but Jiangyin did not reply.

Liu Guangdou sent someone to persuade him to surrender.

The county magistrate Lin Zhiji, the general Zhang Su, Haiphong Cheng Yi, the county magistrate Hu Xuedong, the school envoy Zhu Guochang, and the soldier Ma Mingting all resigned in fear of the strength of the Qing army.

There are no officials in the county, and everyone recommends the chief bookkeeper, Mo Shiying, to be the magistrate of the county.

But Mo Shiying turned around and ordered his servant to quietly bring Liu Guangdou's surrender with the seal and account books. After receiving Liu's appreciation, he secretly smuggled away the silver in the yamen treasury and offered it, and bought a horse to offer to Afu. claim to be.

Unexpectedly, the Qing people appointed Fang Heng from Henan to serve as county magistrate. This Fang Heng was very young, but he was born as a Jinshi. Sent to Nanjing.

Immediately afterwards, the order to shave the hair was issued.

Zong Hao, the prefect of Changzhou, also dispatched four soldiers to supervise and shave their hair, and lived in the procuratorate, acting as a domineering and blessing.

"Leave your hair but not your hair, let your hair not your head."

Although Fang Heng is old, he puts on a great official position.

All the gentry gathered again, He Mao, Uncle Xing, Zhou Shun, Xing Ji, Yang Fang, Xue Yong, Yang Qi, Ji Mao, Xin Rong, all the gentry gathered for a meeting. The last time Beijing fell to Jiangyin riots, it was They came forward to recruit Xiangyong to put down the mob.

"How can the body, hair and skin be shaved off by the parents?"

"You can't shave your hair!"

The two capitals fell, Chongzhen hanged himself, and Hongguang was captured. All the officials in Jiangyin ran away, but these local gentry escaped and the monks could not escape the temple. Easy to wear.

So all the gentry came to the county government office to see the magistrate Fang and ask for a haircut.

Fang Heng is a Jinshi of Yike. Before the Qing army captured Henan, he ran to join him early and followed Duoduo all the way to Nanjing. In the end, he only appointed a small official of Jiangyin county magistrate, and he kept holding back his anger. Seeing that these Jiangyin squires were still so disobedient, they cursed.

He Mao is over 70 years old and is very famous in the village. He was also a fourth-rank official back then. He was scolded by a young man, so he was very annoyed, so he scolded Fang Heng with his crutches, "You are also a Jinshi of the Ming Dynasty. Wearing a black gauze hat and a round-necked official gown, but running to be the magistrate of the Qing Dynasty, you are not ashamed or ugly?"

Being pointed at his nose and scolded, Fang Heng became even angrier, but knowing that He Mao was old and prestigious, and his family was powerful, he endured it for a while, and flung his sleeves away.

He Mao was humiliated and couldn't help being angry.

So he sat directly in the yamen, leaning on a cane and said, "This world is getting worse and worse."

"Unexpectedly, the county magistrate here doesn't allow oil and salt, so we must shave our hair?" Zhou Shun said.

This group of squires are all well-known, many of them are the patriarchs of the big clans, and several of them, like He Mao, have served as officials in the court. Now that they are old, they are almost in the coffin. Thinking that if it can be guaranteed, then it will conform to the current situation.

But now it is unexpected that their faces are so worthless, and they are so insulted by a young man.

"I heard that the two prefectures of Su and Song have been restored. Governor Shen Youlong Su Song is stationed in Songjiang, Governor Wang Yongzuo Su Song is now stationed in Kunshan, and Jiangnan Admiral Zhu Wu led the army in Jiahu. Now Admiral Huang Fei and Chief Soldier Wu Zhikui Gather troops to attack Suzhou, I don't know who belongs to this world, yet." said a villager.

"It's better to drive away this Fang, and then we gather troops to guard Jiangyin, and wait for the imperial army to recover Jiangnan!"

He Mao was a little hesitant, he actually believed that the Ming Dynasty was exhausted, otherwise he wouldn't have come to this yamen today to be insulted by a junior.

"The king of Yiyang is in Chongming, not like the lord of Zhongxing." He Mao just said that the reputation of King Yiyang is very bad in the south of the Yangtze River. The common people forced donations from the big gentry.Their reputation is not even as good as the water bandits in Taihu Lake.

At any rate, the water bandits on Taihu Lake still follow the rules of the rivers and lakes, even if they kidnap, they are mostly just asking for money, but the soldiers of King Yiyang don't follow any rules.

Everyone usually guards against these people just like guarding against thieves.

"After the King of Lu raised his righteousness in Taiwan, he was aggressive. It is said that Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Huguang, Jiangxi and other places have read the imperial edict and presented their congratulations to the court. I think King Lu will rejuvenate Daming." Another villager said.

Jiangnan water town, with convenient transportation and smooth information.

These villagers are not only famous scholars, but also often powerful local landlords, and even run businesses concurrently. All of them have relatively smooth information, and even each family now has a team of village warriors. This is Jiangyin after the fall of Beijing. After the riots, the gentry recruited and formed them, and they have not been disbanded until now. Many teams of big families are even very capable and well equipped.

A group of gentry chatted for a long time in the county government office, and finally felt that the situation of the Ming army's Northern Expedition is very good now, not to mention returning to Beijing, at least there is hope to restore Jiangnan.These people are all famous in the local area, and usually enjoy all kinds of privileges given to them by the Ming Dynasty, but now a small county magistrate in the Qing Dynasty despises them so much.

"Secretly send people south to pay homage to Lu Jianguo, and ask Governor Shen, Governor Wang, and Admiral Zhu to send troops to help. Our families will send troops and pay, and gather the people in the city to guard Jiangyin together, waiting for reinforcements!"

He Mao had the highest prestige among the crowd, and he made the final decision.

So it was agreed that each of them would go home.

Early the next morning.

More than a hundred children from each family took to the streets of Jiangyin. The scholar Xu Yong gathered the crowd and shouted, "You can cut off your head, but you can't shave your hair!"

Respondents gathered, countless Jiangyin people gathered, shouting that the head can be cut off, and the hair cannot be shaved.

Fang Heng heard the commotion outside in the county government office, asked, and learned that the commotion was due to the hair-shaving order, so he said dissatisfiedly, "I really don't know how to live or die."

He called the county clerk and asked him to copy the hair-shaving order and post it everywhere in the city.

The clerk took up a pen to copy, and when he could not keep his hair, he couldn't keep copying, so he threw the pen on the ground angrily, and angrily tore up the notice, saying, "If you die, you will die!"

After all, he kicked over the desk, flung his sleeves out of the office, and quit.

When Fang Heng heard this, he angrily ordered his servants to take down the scribe, "Give my master forty sticks!"

Dianshi Chen Mingyu and others hurried forward to stop him, and persuaded Fang Heng to stay.

"All these slaves should be beheaded!"

When Chen Mingyu heard this, all of them resigned with livid faces, and the yamen was deserted for a while.

The clerk over there also joined the meeting after leaving the Yamen, and told Fang Heng that he planned to catch some typical cases after the three-day deadline of the hair-shaving order.

Hearing this, all the scholars were furious.

At this time, He Mao and the others also sent their sons to contact the North Gate boys. The boys from the North Gate were good at fisting and kicking. With knives and guns, people beating gongs and drums gathered together.

Ji Shimei, Ji Congxiao, Wang Shi, He Chang, and He Tai, led by five people, walked along the street all the way, firing guns continuously.

As the gunshots rang out, more and more people gathered. At the same time, people from various townships began to come one after another. When they arrived in front of the county government office, more than ten thousand people had already gathered.

Fang Heng was in the Yazhong hall, shivering with fright, and wanted his servants to go out to drink and disperse the crowd, but the twenty servants, although they had delicious food and drinks, they pretended to be tigers when they came, but now let them go out to face the excitement. Thousands of people have no guts at all, their heads are shaking like drums, no matter how much Fang Heng urges them, they just refuse to move.

A servant of the pseudo-prefect came to Jiangyin to deliver a letter to Fang Heng. He felt that the prefect's name could bluff the public, so he volunteered to go out, stood at the door, cursed everyone, and shouted to report that the prefect sent troops to kill these rebels.

Ji Shimei stood in front of the crowd, looking at the slave with disdain, "The dog slave is so arrogant, let's kill this barking dog today!"

After that, he stepped forward, grabbed him and dragged him over, knocking him to the ground.

All the teenagers gathered together and kicked wildly. In a short while, the servant of the false magistrate was beaten to death on the ground. Everyone shouted and prepared to take the opportunity to break into the yamen.

Master Mo stood guard at the door and took off his official robe and fled in fright. Fang Heng's servants quickly blocked the door. Fang Heng stood behind the door and shouted tremblingly, "Everyone calm down, this county will go to the magistrate and Jiang Ning Letter, requesting that Jiangyin be exempted from shaving hair, everyone calm down, calm down."

(End of this chapter)