Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 261 The military and civilians are in trouble

"Wang San, fish!"

"Hey, Xu Er, please throw it away."

On the beach, two young men in simple linen clothes were picking up fish on the beach. They were only about twelve or thirteen years old, but they had already taken on the responsibility of finding food for their family.

Picking up some small fish and shrimps on the beach is the best way for them to reduce the burden on their families.

Of course, they can also go to nearby towns to do small jobs. For example, a few days ago they went to unload food.

"Alas..." Wang San, a tall boy, sighed: "After picking up for so long, there are only three or five small fish, which are not enough for a pot of soup."

"It's good if we have something to eat. We are not allowed to work in the city these days, otherwise we can still make straw sandals to sell."

Xu Er, a young man looking for fish and shrimp in the shoal, replied, and Wang San also said: "It would be great if jobs like that in the town could provide enough food every day, and we wouldn't have to collect fish for farming."

"You have a good idea." Xu Er continued to retort: ​​"You can carry ten bags for one penny, and many people in the town are rushing to move them. If we do it every day, I can earn a penny by myself in a month...many! "

The two were chatting about moving food in the town, but Wang San shook his head and said: "I heard that in Rizhao County in the north, some laborers earn twelve cents a day. After working for a year, it is estimated to be enough for my family." Year’s worth of food.”

"It must be more than that. I heard people in the town say that you can go to the county for at least three taels of silver a year. Not to mention food for a year, it is enough to buy fifteen pieces of cloth."

"That's great. When I grow up, I will also work as a laborer in the county..."

"Stop talking, there are no fish here, let's change places."

"it is good……"

The two young men daydreamed about the beautiful days of working as laborers in the city, but such fantasies were things in the future. At the moment, they didn't catch many fish and shrimps, so they could only return to the town dejectedly.

When they returned to the town dejectedly, an archway appeared. At the end of the road to the archway was a sizable town.

Before approaching the town, the two young men saw many soldiers wearing bright armor, and they were leading a horse.

Those were horses. The two young men would not see a few in a month, but now there were thousands or even more, almost occupying the tidal flat in the south of the town.

"Why are there so many soldiers..."

"I don't know. I heard that the fighting in the north is fierce. They won't hit us here, right?"

"Probably not..."

The two young men walked into the town extremely anxiously. Many soldiers wearing bright armor glanced at them along the way.

These people were strong and strong, even stronger than the Kong Xiucai Wang San and Xu Er had ever seen.

When they passed by, they could also see many soldiers sitting on the mat, holding wooden bowls and chopsticks in their hands, and there were fine white rice and meat dishes in small bowls with large faces.

Wang San and Xu Er looked at the rice, meat and vegetables and swallowed greedily.

“How much does your fish cost?”

The two boys were still swallowing when they heard someone asking them, so they stopped quickly.

Looking back, I saw a man who was much taller than them and followed by five or six soldiers asking them questions.

They looked at the man timidly, and finally timidly handed it out: "Sir, these two boys are here to honor you..."

The two of them felt heartbroken. This was the fruit of their work all morning, and they had to hand it over before they even got it into their mouths.

It doesn't matter if you don't hand it over. In the past, when you saw the patrol soldiers of Anton Guard in the south asking, they would get a copper plate if they voluntarily handed it over. If they didn't hand it over or sell it, they would be bullied.

"Filial piety? Hahahaha..."

The man seemed to have heard something funny, and said to a short, stocky soldier man who was sitting on a horse and eating not far away:

"The tower is lost, did you hear that? These two boys must respect me."

"I don't know whether you are filial or not. I only know that if you don't pay me, I will be the first to report you!"

The short and sturdy man spoke, and the people who heard the voice also laughed and said: "Of course I have to pay. Anyway, I took a lot of money from conquering Zhucheng. Even if there is no money, I will give it in vain. I, Dole and Qi, are not freeloaders."

"I've never eaten your fish before, so I'm just curious. Cook it for me to see if it tastes good. If it tastes good, I'll give you five coppers."

Dole and Qi spoke, and the two boys' eyes widened when they heard this: "Five copper coins?"

With five copper coins, you can buy two and a half kilograms of rice and take it home. The two of them can each buy one kilogram and four taels of rice.

"Okay, let's go home and do it now, and we'll deliver it to you later."

Xu Er had a bright idea and responded immediately, but Dole and Qi pointed to a private house not far away: "I made an agreement with the owner of that house to cook food for my people. You send the fish and use it." His pots are made of firewood.”

After saying that, Dole and Qi touched from their arms and soon took out a bunch of money. They took out five coins and handed them to the two young people.

"Thank you!"

The two boys excitedly took the money, carried the three or five small fish, and headed towards the house.

When they arrived at the private house, they also saw two familiar townspeople.

"Why are you two guys here? It's not a good place to be here. Go home quickly."

The two townspeople also knew these two boys and cautiously opened their mouths to drive them away. When Xu Er saw this, he told them what had happened. At the same time, he said curiously: "Aunt Wang, they don't look like the soldiers of Anton Guard."

"An Dongwei..." After hearing Xu Er's words, Aunt Wang and her husband looked at each other, shook their heads and whispered:

"These are the soldiers and horses of the King of Bohai County in the north. They just arrived at our place an hour ago. The people in the whole town are cooking for his soldiers and horses."

"Did you give money?" Wang San asked blankly. After all, they got five dollars.

"Give me money?" Wang and his wife said with a bitter face: "How dare you ask them for it..."

"I heard that all the men under forty in the town have been called to the drying area. I wonder if they will be arrested as civilian husbands."

"Yes, the court said that Bohai's soldiers are very cruel and will kill people at every turn."

"Yes, yes, you two boys, be careful. I heard that Mr. Kong in the town had his head cut off just now when he tried to report a message to Anton Wei. Don't mess with those military masters outside. I think there are two of them who look like An official."

The Wangs and Mrs. Wang sang in harmony and told Xu Er and Wang San the news they had heard from the court, but Xu Er and Wang San looked at each other in disbelief.

The military man who spoke to them just now was very polite and even gave them money.

Moreover, Kong Xiucai, who would not secretly scold him for his death, just because he had some relationship with the descendants of Kong Shengren, he encircled the beach in Micang Town as his own, and used it to collect grain for the county every year. I know how much I deducted from them.

Xu Er remembered clearly that his father once said that Kong Xiucai was a poor family twenty years ago. In the past twenty years, he had built a courtyard with three entrances and bought six houses with coaxing and coaxing from the townspeople. Seven hundred acres of land.

It should be a good thing if such a person is killed. Why are the Wangs so afraid of them?

Xu Er didn't have time to think too much, so he and Wang San cleaned up the fish, made it into fish soup and took it out.

They anxiously placed the fish soup in the clay pot in front of Dole and Qi. Dole and Qi took a sip and frowned: "This fish is not as delicious as the fish from Heilongjiang."

"It's over..." Xu Er and Wang San felt nervous. They felt that they would not be able to escape a beating today, and the five cents they received would be taken away without even being able to keep warm.

"What are you doing standing here?"

The two of them were still nervous, but Dole and Qi looked at them in surprise, and then suddenly realized: "What? Not enough money?"

Dole and Qi both studied and wrote in Bohai, but Bohai was a place where everyone ate from a big pot, so even if they had money, they didn't know how to spend it or what the prices were, and they thought five cents was not enough.

"That's enough, that's enough! We're worried that you won't taste it after drinking it, so the two of you will refund your money."

Xu Er pulled Wang San and was about to kneel down, but Dole and Qi stood up and avoided: "You guys, don't do this. If anyone sees it, they will definitely report me."

"Report?" Xu Er and Wang San didn't know why, and Dole and Qi didn't bother to explain:

"I don't want you to refund the money. I haven't tasted it myself and wanted to drink it. If you make it, just take the money and leave. If it doesn't taste good, I won't refund it. After all, I asked you to make it."

Dole and Qi wanted to drive them away, but they got up happily and left as if running away.

After running far away, although there were many soldiers sitting and eating on both sides of the road, they couldn't help but cheer.

"Make money, make money!"

"Let's go! Go buy food. Each of us has a pound or four taels."

"well!"

The two young men went straight to the grain store where grain was stored in the town a few days ago. However, when they arrived here, they saw that the grain here was being transported away in large quantities by Bohai soldiers.

"What are you two doing?"

The sentry patrol noticed the two boys and stepped forward to interrogate them.

"Come...come...come..."

"I'm here to buy rice, Master Jun. Can I still buy rice now?"

Wang San was hesitating and speechless. When Xu Er saw this, he stood up and asked. After communicating with Dole and Qi, he was no longer very afraid of the Bohai Navy.

At least in his opinion, the Bohai Navy had better soldiers than Anton Wei, and they were more generous with their attacks.

"Buy rice?" The soldier smiled when he heard this: "Then you are late, we have bought all the rice."

"Have you bought them all?" Xu Er was disappointed when he heard this, but the soldier smiled and said: "Save the money and wait to buy it in a few months."

He looked at Xu Er and thought of his son who was far away in Bohai. He couldn't help but reached out and patted Xu Er on the shoulder.

When Xu Er saw this, he could only divide the five copper coins with Wang, and Xu Er kept the extra one.

The two parted ways, and Xu Er happily returned home with the money, only to find that there was no one at home.

He curiously asked the neighbors around, but found that the neighbors were also missing. In the end, the few children who stayed at home told him that the adults in the family had gone to the creek to work for the Bohai Navy. Hearing the words, he ran towards the creek in the village, and then he saw thousands of villagers working here.

They washed and steamed the rice, then took it out to dry, and finally steamed and dried it again, repeating it tirelessly.

He searched for a long time in the crowd and finally found his mother.

"Erlang, didn't you go fishing?"

Mrs. Xu Li looked at her son in surprise, and Xu Er also told what happened to them.

When Mrs. Xu and Li heard this, she laughed happily. Xu Er thought his mother was laughing at him for making money, but he didn't expect her to laugh and said: "This Bohai Navy is going to distribute land to the townspeople, six hundred and seventy-two households. Each family can get one acre of land.”

"Really?!" Xu Er shouted in surprise, and Mrs. Xu Li nodded quickly: "Kong Xiucai was killed. The king of Bohai County said that his fields were unclean, so he took them out and distributed them to the people. As for his yard, It seems to be left to the future mayor, but I don’t know what kind of official the mayor is.”

"Anyway, our family of five now has an extra acre of land, and we can produce an additional 200 kilograms of grain next year."

"Two hundred catties of grain..." Xu Er murmured, his eyes gradually brightening.

"Yes, if you save two hundred pounds of grain for a few years, you can go to a private school in the county."

Mrs. Xu Li smiled and spoke, then she seemed to think of something, and quickly pulled Xu Er and said: "Come, help me steam the army rations with you. The day's wages are ten cents."

"So much?" Xu Er opened his mouth wide when he heard this, and then under Xu Li's pull, mother and son started making military rations together.

By the stream, the townspeople were chatting and laughing. They found that as long as they were working, the Bohai Navy would not accuse them of chatting, and even if they chatted and rested, it would be fine. The Bohai Navy could only remind them that they would not They were beaten and scolded like the soldiers of Anton Guard and the yamen of Rizhao County.

For this small place with little information, they used to rely on merchants, government servants and soldiers to obtain external intelligence. Therefore, what they heard most was that the Bohai Navy was cruel and unkind, and the Bohai County Prince was ambitious, and everything he passed was a mess. .

However, when they actually saw the Bohai Navy, they seemed to find that the Bohai Navy was much better than the government officials and soldiers of the Southern Army they had come into contact with.

At least the Bohai Navy paid people real money to work, and allotted land to them. They would not use corvees to make them work for free like the county government and health centers did, and they also had to bring their own rations.

Gradually, the townspeople no longer called the Bohai Navy "Northern Soldiers", but directly called the Bohai Navy.

Some brave ones will even ask the soldiers of the Bohai Navy some trivial matters, such as what Liaodong is like.

Since before going south, Zhu Gaoxu had instructed the entire army to publicize the situation in the Bohai Sea as much as possible, so the soldiers spoke freely about the situation in Liaodong and the Bohai Sea.

For example, all the people serve as soldiers, all the people eat from one big pot, all the people have equal land, etc...

These things make people feel sad to hear them.

The three major burdens on the people in the early Ming Dynasty were, in addition to exorbitant taxes and land taxes, the corvee that existed every year.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the burden of exorbitant taxes and official taxes was lower than that of the Yuan Dynasty, but the burden of corvee work on the people was greater than that of the Yuan Dynasty.

This is not difficult to understand. After all, most officials in the Yuan Dynasty did not care about civil governance at all, so the burden of corvee work on the people was not too heavy, while the opposite was true in the Ming Dynasty.

For example, when Zhu Yuanzhang took Zhu Gaoxu to see the 20,000 Gongsheng students, in just two years after they were decentralized, they led all the prefectures and counties across the country to open 4987 ponds and 416 rivers. Twelve places, 5,448 Piqu embankments...

Each of these projects represents a project that was completed by the labor of thousands of people.

Zhu Yuanzhang did it for his own rule, but also for the people to live and work in peace and contentment and not to cause trouble.

In the long run, this corvee can at least benefit tens of millions of people and ensure drought and flood harvests for decades to come.

But looking at the current situation, although the people are happy, they are also full of resentment.

Therefore, when they heard that Bohai was given two kilograms of grain for daily work, and that the reclaimed wasteland was evenly distributed among the land builders, and that there were no corvees and exorbitant taxes in the end, they said it was a lie in their hearts that they were not envious.

As for the bitter cold in the Bohai Sea, they don't care at all.

Just like Shanxi and border people fleeing north to seek refuge with the Mongols, Mobei is not as bitter and cold. However, since being able to farm is a rare skill in Mobei, they can live a better life in Mobei and at least they will not die of hunger. Therefore, many Everyone fled north to join the Mongols.

Of course, this phenomenon was not too common in the early Ming Dynasty, but it was enough to show how heavy the burden was on the people.

They envied the Bohai Sea, so when the Bohai soldiers mentioned that they would move people from Shandong to Liaodong in the future, and that the government would provide food, farm tools, and help build houses, many people were moved.

Although there are more than 3,000 people in Micang Town, the cultivated land is actually less than 10,000 acres. Evenly divided, each family only has about three acres of land.

Exorbitant miscellaneous taxes and land taxes were paid every year, and the output left to them was just enough to survive starvation.

Therefore, after the people of Micang Town heard that Liaodong and Bohai would recruit Shandong people to move to Liaodong and Bohai in the future, many people started to build relationships, hoping to get such an opportunity.

Of course, more people are actually very cautious and timid. They don't want to be the ones who stand out, so they only have a few deep conversations with the people who are the ones who are the ones in the spotlight. They hope that after the other party goes to Liaodong, if they are really like what the Bohai Navy said, So good, then remember not to forget yourself, after all, what happened to the two of them back then...

Situations like this are happening all over Micang Town. Their attitude towards the Bohai Navy has changed in less than two hours.

"Your Highness is wise. As a result, few people will be able to tip off our army on its way south."

On a low hill not far from the creek in Micang Town, Meng Zhang admired Zhu Gaoxu who was sitting on a horse next to him, but Zhu Gaoxu nodded lightly with a smile.

"It's easy to win over the people. We ask them to help with work, give them money, food, and land, and tie their interests to ours. Naturally, they won't tell the truth."

"Like Kong Xiucai's field, each of their families was allocated at least one acre of land. If they went to Rizhao County to file a complaint, they would not have time to cry when the land was taken away by the Yamen."

"People are not stupid. On the contrary, they weigh the pros and cons better than many of us, because they have to make careful calculations if they want to survive."

Zhu Gaoxu expressed his opinion and asked Meng Zhang: "How is the production of military rations going?"

"Three thousand tons of grain have been moved out from the rice warehouse and Kong Xiucai's house. We should be able to get six thousand tons of military grain today."

Meng Zhang explained, and Zhu Gaoxu also nodded: "Six thousand buckets of military rations are enough for the entire army for two days. Counting the food we previously supplied in the north, it should be enough for us to travel day and night to Yunti Pass."

"When the time comes, what do you think Li Jinglong will think when he learns that we bypassed Rizhao, Ganyu and Haizhou and went straight to Yunti Pass?"

"They will probably think we are crazy." Meng Zhang smiled bitterly, and this was why they were surprised when they first heard about the plan.

Abandoning civilians' baggage and marching 1,500 miles south alone, this kind of thing has happened before, but it usually happens to rogue bandits, never to regular armies, because the regular army has a huge shortage of food. Relying on robbery is too unstable, and it is easy to run out of food.

However, Zhu Gaoxu has already made preparations along the way so that the Bohai Navy will not run out of food, but the food must be eaten tightly.

Now, they have abandoned the people's baggage and traveled three hundred miles south.

Next, they need to continue going south for three hundred miles, totaling six hundred miles.

Once there was a mistake in a certain link, they would go six hundred miles deep into enemy territory.

The more important problem is that Sheng Yong's 60,000 troops are in Muyang, and the ladder they want to fight is in the southeast of Muyang.

Once they fail to attack Yunti Pass, Sheng Yong can lead the army to Ganyu and Haizhou to cut off their retreat and make the cities strong and clear.

After this operation, it was impossible to supply the 42,000 horse and infantry cavalry of the Bohai Navy with the food of local towns and villages alone. Their final end was to run out of food.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu took them out day and night, hoping to suddenly appear at Yunti Pass, seize Yunti Pass and go straight to Tongzhou.

Now they are still in Qingzhou Prefecture, and the other person Zhu Gaoxu doesn't know, but if Li Jinglong knew that he appeared in Rizhao, he would definitely transfer Sheng Yong back to defend the Huaihe River.

As for Li Jinglong, judging by his speed, he should have almost arrived in Texas.

Dezhou is a total of 1,200 miles away from the north bank of the Yangtze River along the canal. Judging from the infantry's speed of eighty miles a day, it would take Li Jinglong at least fifteen days to reach Jiangbei.

He must be fast enough to reach Yunti Pass before Sheng Yong returns to the Huaihe defense line. He must be faster enough to cross the Yangtze River and capture the capital within fifteen days.

"Time waits not for us..."

Zhu Gaoxu looked into the sky, and at the same time, the news that Zhu Gaoxu's troops disappeared in Zhucheng was also sent to the north by express.

Forty miles away from Texas, Li Jinglong got the news on the march.

"Disappeared in Zhucheng?"

Li Jinglong frowned, and then asked: "Didn't Yishui and Linqu find any traces of the rebels?"

"Never found it!" The Qianhu official who came to deliver the message bowed, which gave Li Jinglong a bad feeling.

"Send people to Juzhou and Rizhao to inquire and see if the rebel army has gone south."

Li Jinglong never thought that Zhu Gaoxu would leave his luggage and go deep into Huai'an. After all, such an approach is not realistic in this era.

If Zhu Gaoxu had not continued to attack the southwest of Qingzhou Prefecture, he would definitely have gone to Juzhou and Rizhao in the south.

Once he captured Rizhao, his intention became obvious, which was to go south to Huai'an.

However, Li Jinglong is not worried about this. If he wants to take Huai'an step by step, he must first conquer Xuzhou, control the canal, and then use canal ships to transport food and conquer cities one by one.

The time spent in this way was enough for him to lead an army of 300,000 people south.

However, if Zhu Gaoxu really wants to go south, although he is sure to stop him, the officials above the temple...

"Let people prepare enough ships in Dezhou, and let Wu Gao, Wu Jie, and Xu Kai continue to hold on, so as not to let the common people of Yan take advantage of the opportunity."

"The last general takes command!"

Li Jinglong gave the order and was ready to wait for news about Zhu Gaoxu in Texas.

His 100,000-strong army relies on the canal. If it really wants to go south, it will only take 12 days to reach Huai'an, not much slower than Zhu Gaoxu.

I just don’t know why, even though he has the help of Canal, he still feels uneasy...

(End of this chapter)