Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 128 People cannot live forever, but their spirit can

Chen Gu stood on the high platform, looking at the crowd with sad faces, and he felt uncomfortable as well.

“For so long, even though we haven’t said it, I believe everyone already knows what we do. Well, today I will formally introduce ourselves to you.

My name is Chen Gu. My master’s name is Liu Guanzhang, and I am a descendant of Liu Tichun, one of the thirteen anti-Qing heroes in Kuidong a hundred years ago. Liu Tichun was once the Right Guoyi Cavalry Captain of the Dashun Dynasty, and was conferred the title of Earl by King Chuang.

It was the Dashun Dynasty that proposed the policy of equal distribution of land and exemption of taxes."

Is Li Zicheng a good person?

This is a very controversial issue. The conclusion of the Qing Dynasty was naturally not good. Zhang Tingyu, who compiled the history of the Ming Dynasty, commented: The disaster of bandits has always existed in all dynasties, and it reached its peak with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the late Ming Dynasty. There is no such cruelty recorded in the history books.

Another great man said: "At that time, there was a great famine in northern Shaanxi. Zicheng took the opportunity to rise up and went to Shanxi, Zhangjiakou, Nankou, Tumubao and other places, and later to Beijing, but was finally defeated by the Qing army... Later, Sangui led the Qing army into the pass, forcing him to have no way to go.

This shows that Li Zicheng represented the interests of the peasants. However, their actions were mostly riots, which was the main reason for their failure.

Our previous rebel leaders all became corrupt, and those who became emperors were not good, but Li Zicheng was always good, and the people praised him because he represented the interests of the peasants and rebelled against the landlord class. "

So who should we trust?
In any case, Chen Gu definitely didn't believe what Zhang Tingyu said.

Moreover, Li Zicheng's equal distribution of land and exemption of taxes was also the political slogan that Chen Gu needed. Since it was impossible to achieve complete equal distribution of land and exemption of taxes, at least the land needed to be divided as equally as possible and taxes needed to be reduced as much as possible in order to gain the support of ordinary people.

The rule of the Qing Dynasty is now generally stable. It is difficult for Chen Gu to gain the support of the gentry and the wealthy families in his rebellion. The only people he can win over are the proletariat at the bottom.

Therefore, gaining the maximum support from the lower-class proletariat naturally became Chen Kuai's political program, and what most attracted the proletariat was the equal distribution of land and exemption of taxes.

Most of the people in the audience actually didn’t know who Liu Tichun was, and they didn’t even know Li Zicheng, but they understood the four words “equal distribution of land and exemption of taxes”.

The local people of Fobao are all tenants and have no land of their own. Except for a few goldsmiths like the Wu family, the situation of others is almost the same. In any case, they all have no assets of their own and are struggling to survive at the bottom of society.

If I could really have my own land, let alone being exempt from taxes, paying half of the taxes would be good too!

"Of course, practical experience has proven that completely equal distribution of land and tax exemption is not feasible. Equal distribution of land is better, but if tax is completely exempted, the army will not be able to be supported, and without the protection of the army, others will take away everything we have. Everyone should understand this principle.

Therefore, after we came to Fobao, we still collected 30% of your land rent, and this share is actually a tax.

I have recently led you to open up wasteland, and I have promised that I will not collect rent from you within three years. After three years, I will collect 10%, after five years, I will collect 20%, and after ten years, I will collect 30%. This is actually also a tax."

Everyone nodded. It was indeed impossible to completely exempt taxes. After all, not everyone could farm. Even a village needed people patrolling to prevent thieves and wild beasts, let alone the imperial court.

The 30% tax was acceptable to everyone. And although Chen Ju collected their taxes, he gave them a lot of work to do during the slack season. Men could repair houses and roads, while women could help make clothes and cook for the army. These were all profitable jobs, and the wages were quite good.

Chen the Executor did not make them work for free, which is the so-called corvee labor, now it seems to be called Dingyi.

After Chen Gu came, everyone's life became better. During the busy farming season, people even had the confidence to ask Chen Gu to buy more pigs and slaughter them, because everyone wanted to eat meat and spent their own money to buy meat!

"I, Chen Gu, thought I could lead everyone to live a good life. Unfortunately, the imperial army is coming. Originally, we were not afraid of the imperial army. Although the imperial army has more people, we are not pushovers.

Although we are few in number, we are very powerful. We have surrounded our homeland and are determined not to be bullied by the imperial court any longer. We can resist and eventually drive away the imperial court's army.

Everyone should have heard the sound of gunfire these days. That's because the imperial army is not far from us. The imperial army of more than 10,000 is stationed in Tanghe Field, but after fighting for several days, the imperial army has not yet entered our Fobao.

Don't they want to?

Of course not. That’s because although they have more people, they can’t beat us. It’s because the mountains are high and the roads are slippery so they can’t get in. It’s because our soldiers are well-trained and more powerful than the corrupt imperial army.

But now we have to evacuate because the court used despicable means. They drove our fellow villagers nearby to build roads for them. Those people are all from the nearby area. Not only do they speak the same language as us, but there may even be your relatives and friends among them.

Therefore, we cannot kill them all, and we cannot kill them all. After killing all the people now, the imperial army will capture more people.

Therefore, we have to evacuate the Buddhist treasures. The Qing Dynasty court is inhumane. Wherever the court army passes by, no one will be left alive, let alone people!
But don't worry, the evacuation is only temporary. We will fight back one day because our army is more powerful than the imperial army. They have more people now, but we will have more people than them in the future.

Because the majority of people in this world are poor people like us. As long as all of us stand up and resist, we can drive out the Qing Dynasty one day. Then we can establish a court that truly distributes land equally and exempts taxes.

Establish a court where everyone has land to farm, clothes to wear, houses to live in, food to eat, and even meat occasionally, where the elderly have someone to rely on, and where children have books to read. "

"salute!"

Yunhua stood straight, saluted Chen Jue with excitement, and then shouted: "Long live Shao Shantou!"

"Long live Shaoshantou!" Everyone became excited and shouted several times in succession.

Chen Gu stretched out his hand to press it, and said with a smile: "No one can live to be ten thousand years old, a hundred years is not enough.

But our spirit of pursuing equal distribution of land and exemption of taxes can live for ten thousand years, and our army composed of our sons and daughters can also live for ten thousand years, because even if we die, our descendants will continue to join our cause.

Until ten thousand years!"

(End of this chapter)