I have a cornucopia

Chapter 306: The Duke of Yan falls, and the Knights are full

The legend of King Yang performing miracles and summoning a magical artifact to block the Yellow River quickly attracted almost all men, women, young and old in the surrounding area in the next few days.

Including the Luoyang area.

You can travel from Luoyang to Kaifeng by water going downstream.

In order to see the miracle and also to get some merit, they brought their own tools and food, and even cleared out all the available materials that could be collected in Luoyang and the surrounding areas, and then rushed to the gap in a mighty manner. Amid the roar of giant bulldozers, Lu Zhenfei organized the construction of a real levee, including the 40,000 Northern Expedition troops that followed Yang Feng to join the project. With their hard work, the gap of more than a thousand meters was quickly closed...

Of course, bulldozers are still important.

After all, the water surface is not wide in this season, and the dry riverbeds on both sides would have required a lot of manpower to extend the embankment across this section, but giant bulldozers can quickly push the soil over.

This kind of large-scale construction machinery is truly a dimensionality reduction attack compared to traditional manpower.

As for the fuel, it's simple.

This one can also burn Yang Feng's low-quality diesel. At most, the failure rate will be higher, but it is originally disposable and will be thrown away when it breaks. Fortunately, there is no failure, so its oil can still be used.

With more than 100,000 people working day and night, in less than ten days, the original gap was reduced to a rapid stream of several dozen meters wide after the middle was narrowed. In fact, it was not Tai Chi, after all, there was an old river channel, and there was even river water flowing in the old river channel. Moreover, due to the siltation of the Yellow River over the years, there was a slight height difference between the upstream and downstream of the gap. As long as the levee was narrowed, most of the river water would go directly to the old river channel and continue downstream.

There are not many people taking the gap.

Then the most critical joint begins.

Amid the cheers of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, King Yang drove a giant bulldozer and towed the trailer of his tractor on the opposite embankment forward on the embankment he had built. He directly dragged the trailer, which was already full of stones, into the rapids and even moved forward for a while in the rapids.

The original rapids were suddenly split into two streams by the combined weight of hundreds of tons.

The ships that had been waiting inside, also loaded with rocks, crashed into the trailers that had turned into reefs one by one, and then the sailors with ropes tied to their bodies and wearing leather bags scuttled the ships as quickly as possible, turning them into corals that grew rapidly on the reefs, increasing the width of the blockage. At the same time, the bulldozer that had completed the towing task began to reverse, and it also reversed straight into the rapids, and even overturned due to the change in the slope below.

When King Yang crawled out of the cab underwater and was dragged out by people on the shore with a rope around his waist, he saw that the embankment had basically been completed.

It was originally several dozen meters wide, so a trailer would be ten meters wide. Although a bulldozer was not as long as it, it was also close to eight meters. The two of them blocked more than half of the road. Moreover, in this era, normal joint closure required continuous throwing of stones and the like, making the speed of throwing faster than the speed of flushing.

But the weight of the two is simply not something that the river can move.

Of course, the ship had to continue sinking.

At the same time, sacks filled with sand had to be thrown in from both sides.

“Finally blocked it!”

Lu Zhenfei said with satisfaction as he looked at the young men who were rushing towards the gap and throwing sacks.

"We need to set a rule in the future. No matter who it is, if they do this again, their entire clan will be killed."

Liu Fangliang, who was watching together, said.

"If they are losers, their entire clan will be exterminated. But if they are winners, who will exterminate their entire clan?"

Lu Zhenfei said.

This answer made the situation a little awkward.

"Someone has to remember their crimes, right?"

Liu Fangliang said.

"History is written by the victors. Believe it or not, it won't last a hundred years. You were the ones who dug the Yellow River and flooded Kaifeng. Real history is not history. In a few decades, those who know it will all be dead, and the things they remember in their heads will be buried in the coffin. Even what is recorded in history books is not history. At most, it is unofficial history. Only history recognized by the government is history.

So who is official?"

Yang Feng patted his shoulder and said.

"Then those wise rulers and benevolent rulers that the scholars talk about may all be fake, and they will actually praise whoever benefits them?"

Liu Fangliang said.

"Who knows, maybe you can trust that they are all decent people and won't make up stories?"

King Yang answered straightforwardly.

"Hold!"

Liu Fangliang answered very straightforwardly.

This made Lu Zhenfei very embarrassed, after all, he was the intellectual here.

After completing the sealing of the Yellow River breach, King Yang continued his journey to Xi'an. In fact, he went to Kaifeng from Fengyang to Xi'an, which was already a waste of time. On the same day he left, he received a letter from Her Majesty the Queen. After all, Duke Yansheng did not make it to Nanjing alive. He breathed his last in Suzhou with curses from outside. Even his corpse could not be sent to Nanjing intact. It was disfigured by the Suzhou gentry to vent their anger. Some people even cut his meat with scissors and ate it. The taste was also quite strong...

This does not count as disobedience.

Her Majesty's decree is that he should not be made difficult and his safety must be guaranteed.

But he died of his own injuries, and it had nothing to do with the Suzhou gentry. Before he died, the gentry at most threw some dirt on his boat. As for after he died, he was already dead. The imperial edict was to ensure that he left Suzhou alive, but since he was already dead, this problem did not exist.

Her Majesty's decree is to ensure the safety of the living, not the safety of the dead.

In short, Duke Yansheng died like this.

Of course, the authorities still would not admit that he was actually in a mess, but only said that his body was transported directly back to Qufu and there was no need to go to Nanjing.

Her Majesty the Queen would inevitably reward his family with some things and give him a posthumous title or something.

But soon after, the censors began to report that the bloodline of Duke Yansheng's family was in doubt, and in order to avoid tarnishing the name of Confucius, they suspended his son's inheritance.

Let’s investigate thoroughly first.

This was also supported by several cabinet ministers including Jin Sheng and most local governors. Although Shandong officials were angry and opposed, they began to back off when the other party said they would conduct a thorough investigation. In short, this matter has entered a state of tug-of-war in the court. However, the succession of Duke Yansheng was indeed suspended. This kind of thing is not special. In the past, there were often cases where the succession rights of princes were temporarily shelved due to various problems after their death. As for the Confucian Knights, because King Yang was in Xi'an, in his absence, the knights on the battlefield in Zhejiang Province unanimously elected Li Zhifang as the acting Grand Master of the Knights. As for the future, they will wait until they return to Shandong to convene a meeting of all the knights.

Luoyang.

“Some things can’t be scrutinized!”

King Yang said to the Minister of War Yang Guanguang who was already waiting in Luoyang.

The latter had been ordered to send Li Zicheng's body to Xi'an to convey the emperor's orders to Li Guo and other remaining generals, or to appease them to prevent them from refusing to recognize Her Majesty the Empress. He also presided over the succession of Qin Wang Li Cihong and eliminated hidden dangers for Her Majesty the Empress. Now he has completed his mission and is preparing to return to Nanjing. After all, since Yang Feng has arrived in Xi'an, there is no need for him to stay there.

"That's right. No matter what happens, as long as someone wants to find out something, they will find out eventually. If they can't find out, they will make it up. In the end, no matter what, it is a disgrace to Confucius. This time they are determined to get rid of Duke Yansheng. In this case, there is no need to be deadlocked. It is better to persuade the Kong family to give up this title, but it cannot be given to the Southern Kong, otherwise we northerners will lose. Since they say that the bloodline of Duke Yansheng is in doubt, and no one believes us when we prove it ourselves, then we should simply not confer the title of Duke Yansheng in the future. The worship of Confucius does not mean that there must be this title. Let the Kong family report that they do not want to inherit it anymore, and transfer all the land granted by the court to the Confucius and Mencius Knights. The Confucius and Mencius Knights will be stationed in the Dacheng Hall, and the Knights will guard the tomb of Confucius in the future.

Of course, you can’t give it all.

After all, the Kong family also had to eat, so half of the more than 200,000 acres of granted land was given to the Knights.

The Qufu County Magistrate was no longer hereditary by the Kong family, and commercial taxes in Qufu were no longer collected by the Kong family.

But Duke Yansheng was still buried with proper ceremony.

From now on, the Kong family will still be in charge of offering sacrifices. Regardless of whether they have a title or not, they will all have to offer sacrifices to their ancestors. Every year, the imperial court will send people to offer sacrifices, and the responsibility of protection will be handed over to the Knights. It was the Knights who originally provided protection over the years, and the Kong family has to rely on the Knights for protection. "

Yang Guanguang said.

Yang Feng smiled slightly.

and so……

Is this because Duke Yansheng fell and the Knights were full?
But this design is really good. After all, there are still some people who are not supporters of the Northern Kong. The Southern Kong is just a doctor of the Five Classics anyway. Besides, they have clearly given up. In this way, neither the North nor the South can be the Yansheng Duke. Ancestor worship is another matter. Originally, the Yansheng Duke family was responsible for guarding the mausoleum. Now that there is a Knights Templar, they are no longer needed.

Besides, what can they protect? They will just kneel down to anyone who comes.

The Knights are more formal.

"Go back and talk to the Tongshan Association and ask them to find a way to persuade the Kong family to agree. I will tell Her Majesty the Queen."

Yang Feng said.

As for how to get the Kong family to agree...

Of course the Tongshan Society has plenty of solutions. If you don’t agree, just die suddenly.

Whoever disagrees will die suddenly. Until they agree, what qualifications do they have to disagree? And the Shandong Tongshan Association will definitely support it, because the powerful people in several prefectures and counties around Qufu have long been eyeing the Kong family's land nearby. The Kong family was granted 200,000 acres of land, but in fact it was more than double that. They also had land in several prefectures and counties around them, but these were actually hidden fields.

Moreover, the Kong family had previously taken a lot of the King of Lu's land and properties into their own home.

Although the latter returned to Yanzhou, the Lu vassal state had long been in ruins, the population had dropped sharply, and the guards were gone. The original land had long been a mess. After all, even in the past, it was a mess. There were a lot of gentry who had secretly entrusted their land to the Lu prince. Not only the Yansheng family, but also the surrounding powerful people had occupied a lot of it. And no one would make decisions for the Lu prince. However, the Lu prince's family did not want to get entangled. Although they suffered great losses, all kinds of restrictions were gone, and there were no officials, so they were freer.

There is always gain and loss!

In fact, most members of the royal family had this mentality at that time. After all, too many of them had died over the years.

After experiencing too many deaths, I know how to be afraid.

Therefore, the princes had already accepted the reality silently. Thanks to Yang Feng, the three people in Shandong were not completely slaughtered, especially the Heng family, which basically did not suffer too much loss, so they could only silently endure the gentry who kept encroaching on their land. In fact, the Heng family had simply split up the family, and each family in the clan lived on a piece of land. Of course, the wealth was his own, but he was often exploited by the Tongshan Society.

He also paid the money honestly.

After all, in the current situation, sudden death is just a matter of words from the Tongshan Association.

However, his submissiveness was praised by the Tongshan Society, so they took him into business and industry, and he lived a wealthy life, not as good as the Prince of De and the Prince of Lu, but he managed to maintain his dignity.

As for those whose fiefs were in the territory of Li Zicheng and the Qing Dynasty, they had no choice but to claim a piece of land in Fengyang. The empress gave them some silver, and then the clan went to the area around Fengyang to open up wasteland and cultivate the land. Some returned to their original fiefs, such as the King of Zhou and the King of Tang. Anyway, returning to the fiefdom was no different from going to Fengyang to open up wasteland. The King of Zhou could not dig his palace out of the mud, and in fact he also opened up wasteland near Kaifeng.

Everyone accepts reality.

From now on, all members of the royal family will become ordinary people with at most a royal title, and then blend into the ordinary people over the years.

The Ming Dynasty completely got rid of this burden.

In short, the Kong family should currently own more than 500,000 acres of land.

But the account book shows only about 200,000 yuan.

Once the Kong family loses the title of Yanshenggong, the extra ones will be immediately taken away by the surrounding powerful people.

So the Shandong Tongshan Association should like this arrangement.

After all, no one in Shandong respects the Kong family.

In this way, the funeral of Duke Yansheng was arranged. King Yang drove his tractor forward. Because there was no trailer, he could easily pass through the Qiaohan Road. This kind of high-horsepower tractor could basically drive on this kind of road as if it were flat ground. After all, people could use horse-drawn carriages in the Spring and Autumn Period, and at most they had to go around the city sometimes.

The city gate cannot be entered.

He led an army of 40,000 and entered Tongguan slowly as if he was on a picnic.

Tongguan.

"What are they going to do, commit suicide?"

Yang Feng looked at Niu Jinxing who came to greet him.

Li Guo didn't come.

Because Wu Sangui raided Huozhou, the defender of Huozhou never thought that he would dare to take the initiative to attack. After all, given the current situation of the Qing Dynasty, it really did not have the strength to take the initiative to provoke a war. As a result, Wu Sangui successfully captured Huozhou and had already attacked Pingyang.

Li Guo led reinforcements to Pingyang.

"If they don't take this opportunity, it will be our turn to attack Taiyuan later."

Niu Jinxing said.

Indeed, since Yang Feng brought the Northern Expedition Army, he must be attacking the Qing Dynasty. For Wu Sangui, it was a blow anyway, so why not take the initiative to attack, take Huozhou first, push the defense line to Huozhou or even Pingyang, and then wait to block Yang Feng's Northern Expedition. And once he took action here, Ajige must also reinforce him, otherwise Yang Feng killed Wu Sangui, and the Qing Dynasty would only have one choice left, which was to flee from the capital.

Jiang Ge will surrender. If he doesn't surrender, his generals will kill him and then surrender.

This is inevitable.

They have no grudge against Yang Feng.

Then Yang Feng went straight north to block Juyong Pass.

At that time, what other options did I have besides clearing out and running away?
"Then let's help him. Order all the troops to cross the river and head north to reinforce Pingyang. It's time to settle accounts with Wu Sangui. Dorgon is dead, Li Zicheng is dead too, what is he still alive for?"

Yang Feng said.

(End of this chapter)