I have a cornucopia

Chapter 285 Thieves, all thieves!
Yang Feng's failure to save the Jiangnan gentry and Li Zicheng left only one choice: fight to the end...

But first they have to face Gao Jie.

Zhenjiang.

Zhang Jiuzheng, a local celebrity, looked at the mighty grain ships coming from the direction of Jingkou with confusion.

But he didn't find it unusual.

At this time, the canal in Yangzhou thawed, and the grain ships that were originally stranded in Yangzhou were heading south in large numbers. Although the grain transport to the capital had been cut off, and a large part of the transportation to Shandong was also transported by sea, the transportation from Jiangnan to Huaiyang was still prosperous. After all, it was still the most stable mode of transportation, not to mention Huai salt and cotton.

This is becoming increasingly important.

Now the grain planting area in Jiangnan is constantly expanding...

Growing crops is more profitable!

The grain supply from Huguang to the downstream had been cut off by Li Zicheng, and even if it had not been cut off, the price would have become increasingly expensive due to the tax collection at the checkpoints set up in Huangzhou.

As for Jiangxi, it took the opportunity to raise prices. After all, whoever has surplus grain is the boss these days.

Under such circumstances, the gentry in Jiangnan finally understood the pain of being strangled by others, so a large number of original cotton fields were replanted with rice, and a large amount of cotton for the textile industry was purchased from outside. After all, the advantages of the textile industry in Jiangnan were the large number of industrial workers and convenient hydraulic machinery, which was difficult for others to match. Although the cost of purchasing raw materials from outside increased, the price of cotton cloth could also increase. This thing was controlled by them, so there were naturally many ways to make up for the losses.

But it’s different with food, because that is controlled by others and they have no say in it.

Therefore, cotton from southwestern Shandong and northern Jiangsu became an important raw material for the Jiangnan textile industry.

Of course, it has been like this in the past.

It was just that the world was in chaos, which destroyed this cotton-producing area. However, in recent years, with the stability of this area under Yang Feng's control, a large amount of wasteland was reclaimed, and cotton production began to increase continuously...

But more importantly, new crops such as sweet potatoes and corn and the food provided by fisheries allowed some land to be used to grow cotton.

"These ships are not right. The ones coming out of Yangzhou at this time are all empty, but the ones coming to the south to load cargo all look full."

The servant beside him said.

Zhang Jiuzheng was the supervisor arranged by the Zhenjiang Elders Association at the dock. In fact, he was responsible for collecting tolls. Now, each prefecture in Jiangnan had its own Elders Association, and no one could control each other, so all places blocked the road and collected tolls. After all, the endless flow of merchant ships on the canal represented an endless flow of silver, and the Elders Association would certainly not miss it because it was very expensive to raise a group.

Originally, tolls were collected at the county level, but in the end, because they were too cruel, the Elders Council ruled that only the prefecture level could collect them.

It's like the German princes.

According to history, Zhang Xiangxian, who should have become the top scholar in the Qing Dynasty last year, also discovered this anomaly.

But he didn't think much about it after all.

Just as he was slow to react, the first canal boat began to approach the dock. Several sailors on board were busy, and there was nothing unusual to see...

"Don't worry!"

Zhang Jiuzheng patted his servant on the shoulder and said.

But the next moment, flames burst out from the stern of the canal ship.

A bullet hit him in the chest. Zhang Xiangxian lowered his head in shock, looking at the blood gushing out of his chest. In the poop, accompanied by shouts of killing, the soldiers who had been hiding for a long time swarmed out and rushed to the dock in shock on the shore. The only feeling Zhang Xiangxian had at this moment was that he was a little cold, and his body was falling. Before the whole world turned black, he finally understood the shouts of those soldiers...

"Eliminate the traitors and suppress the rebellion, obey the will of Heaven and quell the rebellion!"

……

A quarter of an hour later.

Li Benshen looked at the occupied Zhenjiang city gate with pride.

At his feet was the dead body of Zhang Xiangxian.

The raid was extremely successful. Although the Zhenjiang militia left a thousand men to guard the city, they had no time to organize a resistance after landing because they had never thought that anything would happen. After all, the Zhenjiang city gate was only a few steps away from the dock, and there was a commercial area outside the city. Even the militia guarding the gate had not figured out what was going on before the first soldiers to land had already arrived at the gate.

Li Benshen brought his servants with him. They might not be as good as the militiamen in handling firearms, but they could crush the militiamen in hand-to-hand combat.

Li Benshen looked at the troop transport ships that were still crossing the Yangtze River behind him.

At this time, the defenders of Jiaoshan Fort had already opened fire.

However, only a few of the cannons on the artillery batteries whose main target was downstream could point at this side.

The few shells created columns of water among the fleet on the river.

He calmly took out a piece of paper and looked at the names written on it...

"Pass the order down. In addition to these people and their families, all other elders and local sages in the city will be executed and their property will be confiscated. Also, tell these people to hurry to the government office and wait. We will also divide the land deeds and burn the body deeds. We are the king's army, the king's army that exterminates traitors and rebels, and quells the rebellion in accordance with the will of heaven."

He said.

The surrounding soldiers burst into laughter.

"What are you laughing at? We are in the midst of a difficult situation!"

Li Benshen shouted.

But then he laughed too.

Because Gao Jie was stationed in Huaiyang and his men often went to Zhenjiang, the common people were relatively familiar with them. Then the soldiers began to shout at the panicked people. After confirming that it was true, the surroundings turned into cheers. Soon, surrounded by them, Li Benshen entered Zhenjiang City as if Li Zicheng entered the capital. At this time, the soldiers who entered the city first had brought the first batch of captured elders and local celebrities to him. Because the incident happened so suddenly, nearly half of the elders and local celebrities of both the Zhenjiang Elders Association and the Dantu Local Celebrities Association did not have time to run away. In fact, many of them did not know at all and were arrested on the way to the meeting.

"Thieves, you thieves!"

An old man howled as if he had collapsed.

It really collapsed.

After all, there is Shandong's Jingnan Army in the south, Li Zicheng's army upstream, and now Gao Jie has also joined the Jingnan Army.

These bastards are just trying to steal their money.

Over the years, they had tried their best to organize group training and serve these hungry wolves, just to escape this disaster, but now everything was over, and they finally became the target of these robbers. And not only these robbers, but also the surrounding unruly people were obviously waiting, like wild dogs following lions, waiting to enjoy their flesh and blood.

God!

What kind of world is this!
"Oh God, please open your eyes!"

Another elder wailed. "It was only because the heaven opened its eyes that Master Wang came to save us."

A rogue citizen kicked him and shouted.

"You bastards, you have been blessed by my family for generations, but now you are in league with these thieves. Do you have a clear conscience?"

Another elder shouted angrily.

"The masters collect rents, taxes, and loan sharks, forcing families to break up. This is a great favor from the masters!"

The troublemaker said.

In fact, the oppression of local gentry has become increasingly severe in the past two years...

The militia spent a huge amount of money every year, it can't be that the gentry really paid for it? The gentry took the lead, and the common people paid contributions, or even added it to the taxes. Although the emperor's Liao salary and the like were gone, the various contributions levied by the local governments were increasing. Moreover, with the militia in hand, the gentry were not afraid of resistance from the unruly people. In the past, there were even rebellions by slaves and tenants, but they were all suppressed in the past two years. After all, in front of the militia's volley guns, the unruly people with only farm tools could not cause any trouble.

If volley guns are not enough, there are still cannons!
Even the scholars who originally lacked military power now carried flintlock rifles.

If any unruly person dares to cause trouble, he will be shot.

The local officials have become dogs of the elders and local sages, and even the imaginary honest and upright officials have disappeared.

In the past, there was Hai Rui who stood up for the people. If there really was a Hai Rui now, he would not survive more than three days and would be directly killed. Although the association of elders and local celebrities do do some charity, the wool still has to come from the sheep, and that too has to be apportioned and donated. In the end, the peasants are forced to pay the donations under the force of the militia, and then the elders and local celebrities manipulate the money into their pockets.

As for the money paid by the elders and local celebrities, it will of course be returned in full.

All this is inevitable.

The militia system did strengthen local military power, but the strengthening of local military power also completely unlocked the power of the gentry.

In the past, at least there were court laws, and local officials still had some restrictions on gentry. After all, imperial power and gentry power were not one and the same, and the Ming Dynasty was not a country where the emperor and the literati shared the world. Although this was the case in fact, there were still some restrictions on each other. Now local officials just come to kneel and beg for food, serve the elders and local sages well, and then leave with the leftovers after their term of office.

There are also quite a few leftovers.

Of course, the elders and wise men of the village will not empathize with the unruly people.

They were still cursing.

But cursing could not change their situation. Li Benshen's soldiers dragged them to the government office, pressed them to the ground one by one, and then pulled the trigger at the back of their heads. The bodies of these elders and local sages fell down in the sound of gunfire. The prefect and the magistrate of Dantu were also dragged here and shot at like the elders and local sages. Then the unruly people who cheered and rushed into the government office found various documents from them, mainly the tails of various contracts, and set a blazing fire in front of the government office. But this was not enough, and they also went to the homes of these elders and local sages to search them. The carnival-like unruly people led Li Benshen's soldiers and rushed to the mansions...

Nanjing.

"Thieves, they are all thieves!"

Liu Zongzhou, who received this bad news, roared like he was in despair.

He was at the Longjiangguan Wharf at this time. In front of him was the Zhejiang militia that had just arrived. The latter planned to receive some reinforcements in Nanjing. This was necessary because they had abandoned almost all their baggage during the previous retreat and could not go into the battlefield without reinforcements.

Nanjing had sufficient supplies, and in order for them to successfully retake eastern Zhejiang, Prime Minister Liu quickly mobilized supplies for them.

At this time, the war situation in Zhejiang was collapsing.

The main reason was that the unruly people finally realized that Yuyao had been captured. The unruly people in the city secretly opened the city gate for the Jingnan Army. The local warriors turned against the Jingnan Army, and Sun Jiaji and others abandoned the city and fled to Shaoxing at the last moment. However, the vanguard of the government army led by Zhang Mingzhen arrived in Jinhua, but because of the strong Jingnan Army, they dared not move forward. After all, his subordinates were government troops, and the government troops were the weakest in these years, so he only temporarily saved Jinhua. This was not a big problem, after all, the Jingnan Army had no interest in Jinhua. In Liu Zongzhou's view, as long as the Zhejiang militia returned, although it was hard to say whether the lost territory could be recovered, it would be no problem to keep Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Lake. If the speed was faster, Shaoxing might be saved.

After all, Shaoxing now has gathered all the resistance forces in eastern Zhejiang.

But be quick.

It's hard to say what will happen if it's too late.

He is from Shaoxing, and his disciples suffered a heavy blow this time. If Shaoxing cannot be saved, it will really destroy the local cultural heritage.

however……

Gao Jie gave him a heavy blow.

Gao Jie raised the banner of the Jingnan Campaign, landed and occupied Zhenjiang.

This actually cut off the possibility of Zhejiang militia returning to Zhejiang by water.

Unless they go and open Zhenjiang first.

"Go to Zhenjiang, take back Zhenjiang, and cut these thieves into pieces!"

Prime Minister Liu roared.

"Mr. Jishan, calm down. We only have 30,000 troops, while Gao Jie's army has at least 40,000. Even if some of them cross the river, there will be no less than 20,000. Moreover, we have a strong city. It will take several months to attack Zhenjiang, and Shaoxing cannot wait for several months. Our only option now is to go to Huzhou by land.

If you travel light and travel day and night, you can reach Huzhou in seven or eight days, and then take a boat south, and you can reach Shaoxing in half a month at most. "

Zheng Zunqian quickly stopped him from convulsing, but it was obvious that he no longer respected Prime Minister Liu.

In fact, these young people have also discovered that Liu Shoufu seems to be more famous than real, just like Qian Qianyi. In the past, he was a great scholar, a demigod admired by Zhejiang scholars, but now it is obviously not the case. He is just a big shot. Not only was he fooled by Yang Feng, but he also made stupid moves one after another. He knew that Gao Jie was not safe, but he did not take any precautions. Now everything is in chaos, and he even wants to use the precious militia to fight against the city?

How many people will die then?

Zhejiang only has 30,000 fresh troops. Instead of rushing to Zhejiang for rescue, they go and ram the city wall?

Brain seizure?
In fact, it is not just Liu Daru. In the eyes of these scholars who have experienced years of war and have truly grown up, whether it is the Senate or the Elders' Council, these old people are really more in name than in reality, and they are not really capable enough. This is similar to the Confucius and Mencius Knights in Shandong. These young generations who have grown up have nothing in common with the old people, and they have less and less respect for these incompetent old people.

They know nothing and have no practical talent at all except intrigue.

All the trouble we have now is caused by these rubbish.

Zheng Zunqian, Xu Du and others did not wait for Prime Minister Liu's order and directly ordered the landing.

Liu Shoufu...

He could only sigh.

At this moment, there was a commotion on the warships crowded at the dock. Liu Zongzhou, Xu Du and others raised their heads and saw more warships going down the river. There were large gunboats in front of them, and they seemed to be endless on the Yangtze River. These were the retreating Susongchang militia. Although they arrived in Nanjing two days later than Xu Du, they followed closely. However, they did not dock, but passed directly under the city of Nanjing.

Liu Zongzhou and others stood on the dock of Longjiang Pass with complicated expressions, looking at the warships that kept passing behind their own warships...

The latter didn't even greet them.

They have become strangers to each other.

(End of this chapter)