Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 101 Chongzhen: "Why are you rebelling?"

The younger children were running desperately in the mud, while their parents were sharpening their knives and guns, laughing, and cursing... There was a woman washing clothes by the river not far away, laughing, cursing, and laughing all mixed together.

Not far away there were boats approaching the lake, and the "rebels" were carrying goods up and down.

Chongzhen suddenly fell into this peaceful rural atmosphere from the Xiangyang Palace, and he was unable to adapt until almost noon.

His mood gradually calmed down from fear, grief, anger, and luck.

When he looked down again, he saw a group of children with wide eyes, all looking at him.

They were the children in the village, and his students.

Although Hong Niangzi became a bandit, she usually robbed the rich to help the poor and killed officials, landlords, and wealthy businessmen of the Ming Dynasty.

But she looked up to scholars, because Hongniang believed that if one wanted to stand out, one had to become a scholar.

Officials, landlords, and wealthy businessmen were considered unforgivable criminals and deserved death in the eyes of the peasants, but it was different for scholars.

They are people who read the books of saints.

For thousands of years, the values ​​of Confucian rule have been deeply rooted in everyone's heart. Even farmers who cannot read a single word believe that only by reading and writing can one accomplish great things.

So Hongniang kept Chongzhen and his son.

Let him stay and be a teacher to these children.

Chongzhen's mouth twitched, and he took out a book, "Well... my last name is Zhu, and today I will tell you about the Three Character Classic..."

The children below were bustling about, not taking the gentleman in front of them seriously at all. One of the older children even asked Chongzhen directly:
"Hey, Master, have you ever been to the capital? I heard that the dog emperor lives in the capital, and there are many dog ​​officials. Have you seen them?"

"That's right. I heard that they can eat whatever they want, flying in the sky or crawling on the ground, and they can sleep with any girl they like. Is that true?" asked the tallest woman, stiffening her neck.

"Master, do you want to be an official in the future?"

“……” Chongzhen’s body suddenly froze, his expression stiff, and he didn’t say anything.

At this time, King Xiang came in from outside carrying a bag of rotten rice. Hearing the children's cries, he ran over and said to the children:
"It's different. Even if you are an official, you should be a good official."

"How does that saying go... Your master's ambition is to establish a mind for heaven and earth, to establish a destiny for the people, to carry on the lost knowledge of the ancient sages, and to bring peace to the world for all generations!" said Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming.

A child asked, "Master, what does it mean to establish a mind for heaven and earth, to establish a destiny for life, to carry on the lost knowledge of the past sages, and to bring peace to the world for all eternity?"

Chongzhen remained silent, looking at the child in front of him with red eyes. Even he himself could not tell what kind of emotion was in his heart.

……

At noon, Prince Xiang Zhu Yiming steamed the rice and ate it with some dry vegetables. "My son, eat a little. How can you not eat?"

Chongzhen listened attentively to what the people around him were saying and laughed.

Red Lady came over at some point and said, "I heard about what happened in the school. I want to apologize to you on behalf of the students."

“……” Chongzhen didn’t say anything. He hadn’t eaten anything from last night till now, but he just didn’t want to eat.

"Why are you rebelling?"

Hong Niang sighed, "Since the third year of Chongzhen, Henan has suffered from severe droughts for consecutive years, crop failures, and high rice prices. In many areas, people have eaten up all the grass roots and leaves, and countless people have starved to death on the roadside.

However, the imperial court still regarded Henan as an important area for taxation. In addition to the regular taxes, there were additional levies, in addition to the additional levies, there were also long-standing arrears of taxes, and in addition to the arrears of taxes, there were also advance levies and temporary levies. "

"The land is covered with yellow dust, and almost no one lives in any village. Bones are seen everywhere, and ghosts cry every night. The ears can hear the sound of wind and cranes, and all the eyes are filled with desolation and misery."

"Fortunately, we can barely make ends meet, but the government officials and local thugs still come to persecute and ravage us.

Two years ago, my senior sister was favored by a landlord and was insulted. She hanged herself in front of me. "

"Master told us that if we want to survive, we have to become thieves and rely on them." Lady Hong sighed, "I think you all know what happened next."

Corrupt officials and landlords were executed, and granaries were opened to release grain, and "Red Lady" became famous.

Chongzhen couldn't help but frown.

Two years ago, that is, the seventh year of Chongzhen?
No one has ever reported to me that the drought in Henan has reached such a serious level?

But there is one thing he remembers clearly.

In November of the seventh year of Chongzhen, a large number of rebels in Shaanxi took advantage of the cold weather and the frozen Yellow River to suddenly cross the Yellow River and enter the heartland of the Central Plains. By the time the Ming army reacted and wanted to pursue them, it was too late.

He even issued strict orders urging, "The governors and military supervisors of Henan and Shanxi should urge Zuo Liangyu and other troops to pursue the enemy together, and strictly order the officials of the prefectures, states, and counties to encourage the local soldiers to block and defend on their own."

But now the rebels are like fish in the lake,

In a matter of months, the army had spread to almost every prefecture and county in western Henan, causing great unrest among the emperor and his ministers. Henan was a strategic military hub, bordering the two capitals and five provinces. If Henan was in chaos, the rest of the country would be in jeopardy.

In order to unify power and concentrate military forces from various provinces to suppress the peasant army, Emperor Chongzhen accepted the advice of court officials and established a governor-general of five provinces to oversee the military affairs of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Huguang and Sichuan, and to be responsible for encircling and suppressing the peasant armed forces.

Unified leadership in suppressing and killing peasant rebels.

But even though armies from several provinces were approaching, the peasant army split into several groups and moved in different directions, avoiding the elite Ming army and marching westward and southward.

They entered Huguang and approached Xiangyang, Yingshan and other prefectures and counties. However, because the Huguang soldiers were guarding tightly, the rebels fled to the borders of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan and other provinces. Could it be that...

Chongzhen looked up suddenly, "Are you the Chuang Wang's team?"

"We are not Chuang Wang's men yet, but we have made contact with him..."

Hongniang looked very heroic, but she was interrupted when she was halfway through her words.

The big iron man Lukeshan ran in from outside and said, "Senior sister, it's bad. Brother Li Yan has been arrested by the government."

"Hmm?" Hongniang stood up suddenly. "Tell me clearly, where was Brother Li Yan arrested?" "The Qi County government arrested Brother Li Yan for the crime of "conspiracy to rebel". He has been thrown into prison and will be taken to Xinyang Prefecture soon." Lukeshan replied, panting heavily.

Li Yan,

The Qi county juren was from a wealthy family. He was a righteous man and had donated grain to help the hungry people, so he enjoyed a high reputation in the village.

When Hongniangzi led the rebel army to attack Qi County for the first time, she received great assistance from Li Xin, so Hongniangzi respected him very much. Later, the two became very close and admired each other. Hongniangzi was even ready to marry him, but he left without saying goodbye.

She sent several groups of people to the Li family, trying to call him back, but was rejected every time. Now she suddenly heard that he was arrested by the government, and she was immediately furious.

"go!"

Hongniang had no time to care about the teacher. She turned around and walked out with Lukeshan.

……

Chongzhen was stunned for a while, then lowered his head and murmured: "Why rebel... Why rebel!"

At this time, several parents of the children came over to apologize.

Hearing Chongzhen's words, his face turned bitter.

One of them said: "If there is a way to survive, we would not dare to revolt."

Chongzhen raised his head and looked at the other party, "Why is there no way to survive?"

The man put down the things in his hand and said, "My family used to have a few acres of thin land, and we were hardworking farmers. With my wife and I managing the business, our life was poor but still manageable."

"But since the third year of Chongzhen, there have been droughts and locust plagues. After working hard for a year, not only did I get nothing, but I also owed the government several taels of silver."

"The emperor's wedding will increase taxes, Liaodong's military deployment will increase taxes again, and the court's suppression of bandits will increase taxes yet again..."

"As a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, I think it is my duty to pay taxes to the court. I think the bad years will soon be over, and when the good years come, life will be better."

"I have no choice but to borrow money from the rich man."

"But later we discovered that the situation that year was actually the best. In the following years, each year was worse than the previous one. Two years ago, the crops in the fields were completely destroyed."

"Let alone steamed buns, we couldn't even have porridge at home. In such a disaster year, the emperor not only did not reduce taxes, but instead added a tax on top of the Liao tax."

"I didn't know how the five hundred copper coins I borrowed from the landlord turned into one tael of silver, then one tael became two taels, then two taels became ten taels. Finally, the landlord showed mercy and used his few acres of land to pay off the debt."

"Then since you don't have any land and don't have to pay taxes, you can still survive as a tenant, right?" Chongzhen couldn't help but ask.

The man smiled bitterly, "I thought so at first, too. I thought I could become a tenant farmer by my own efforts, but I didn't expect that the government had been in cahoots with the rich. In the end, I found out that the land was theirs, but the tax still fell on my head."

"So some people couldn't bear it and fled to other places."

"As a result, the government told us that the remaining tax silver could not be changed, and the mercury of those who escaped would be shared equally by the remaining people."

"So, taxes increased by another 20%. If there was no grain, people would eat bran. If there was no bran, people would eat rice bran. People would go to the fields to dig wild vegetables. But in years of drought and disaster, where would wild vegetables be found? Even tree bark was snatched away."

"Tree bark?" Chongzhen was finally moved and asked in astonishment, "How do you eat that?"

The wrinkled old man shook his head and said, "I can see you've never eaten it before. You definitely can't eat it straight up, but you can grind it into powder... But that stuff is hard to digest. It stays in your stomach and you can't poop it out. At first I thought drinking some water would relieve it."

"But once I drank the water, my intestines almost burst. The pain was so severe that I banged my head against the wall. In the end, I had no choice but to dig it out from the bottom..."

"Later, there was even no tree bark left to eat. My wife said Guanyin soil was edible, and I scolded her for being stupid. If you eat that, your stomach will burst and your intestines will rot, and you will die in a few days."

"But...but then one day, I found that no matter how hard I pushed, she wouldn't move, and her belly was harder than a lump of earth."

"I asked my cousin next door to help bury the body, but the body was stolen not long after it was buried..."

The old man wiped his turbid tears and said, "There were seven people in my family, five of them died, leaving only my son and I. I took him with me, and followed the refugees in a daze, thinking that we could go to the south, find a big city, and maybe find a way to survive."

"Until one day, a group of soldiers passed by us and attacked anyone they saw. They slaughtered us wantonly... We knelt down and kowtowed to them, hoping that they would spare our lives."

"But when we got closer and looked at their armor, we suddenly realized that they... were the Ming Dynasty's official troops!"

"The armor worn by the Ming army and the horses they rode were donated by us one by one, but they..." The old man continued with a self-deprecating look on his face, "We were dragged into the city by them with ropes. They didn't dare to fight the rebels, but instead used us refugees to gain their military merits."

"I thought it was a deadly situation, but then I heard shouting outside. It turned out that the government troops were defeated by the rebels."

"Four months, a full four months, I finally had a full meal for the first time, and the second in command asked me if I wanted to join the rebel army."

"I said that rebellion would cost you your head."

The second in command said: "Why did the soldiers arrest you? Because you are already a traitor. In their eyes, if you don't wait to die obediently, you are already a traitor."

The old man said something both crazy and pathetic, "You asked why we rebelled, didn't you? This is why!"

Chongzhen's scalp tingled and his fingers trembled as he listened.

He slowly twisted his body and looked at the silent people around him, "Why are you..."

Suddenly I realized that several students' parents were in tears.

They put down what they were holding, turned away with red eyes.

The old man didn't say anything because those words were even more terrifying.

"Exchange children for food, split bones for cooking..."

But this is not just something that happens in storytelling, it is something that really happened to these people.

　There is another chapter around 9pm

　　
　
(End of this chapter)