Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 220 The deeper the love, the deeper the hatred! Kill!

Qin Bolu and others waited at the door until noon. The sounds of soldiers and horses on the street gradually became sparse, and several "great scholars" could finally not stand it. In addition, many servants in the house had run away, so the old woman had to go to the kitchen to make fire and cook the meal herself.

The rice was cooked, but everyone looked at each other and for a moment no one dared to pick up their chopsticks.

"Master, that's not the case..." Qin Bolu's wife took out her gold and silver jewelry, broke them into small pieces, and handed them to her sons, "You guys, keep some on your body in case of emergency."

As he spoke, he found some tattered clothes and blue shoes from under the box and said, "Put them on. I heard that the bandits don't kill the poor."

"What's the point? I don't believe the peasant army will kill us scholars!" Qin Bolu stiffened his neck. "We have taught thousands of students in Donglin Academy over the years, if not 10,000, right?"

He spoke firmly, but in the afternoon, Qin Bolu still asked his family to climb onto the roof to take shelter. When they got there, they found that several wealthy families nearby had already occupied the roof and the gutters on the roof.

Wandering,
An arrow fell in front of everyone, and the feathers at the tail shook, making a "buzzing" sound.

When he looked up, he saw a general of the peasant army.

The person who came was Li Dingguo. He saw at a glance that there were many people hiding here, and seeing that this courtyard was also a wealthy one, he abandoned the few small fish on the street and climbed onto the roof with his men.

Soon, dozens of peasant soldiers surrounded the people on the roof. Some people wanted to run, but were hit on the back by the peasant soldiers and fell down screaming.

The corpses were splattered and fell from the roof, and the splashing blood dyed the white window paper into plum blossoms.

Li Dingguo and his men had just fought a battle with a wealthy family's death squad, resulting in many casualties. They were now bloodthirsty and would kill anyone who dared to make any unusual movement.

Suddenly, everyone was afraid to run away and trembled, not knowing what to do.

Qin Bolu was so scared that he quickly came down from the roof and trotted to Li Dingguo, "Your Majesty, we are not corrupt officials, but scholars."

"I am the headmaster of Donglin Academy."

Several other people also quickly echoed: "I am a senior from Donglin Academy."

"I am also a teacher at Donglin Academy..."

"Your Majesty, now that you have occupied Suzhou City, you will need to write documents, manifestos, and record accounts, etc. We can do it for you." Qin Bolu, the president of Donglin Academy who had just spoken, spoke again.

At this moment, this group of scholars no longer had any of the toughness they had yesterday when they were talking with the officials and gentry.

They all bowed their heads and groveled, wishing they could lick Li Dingguo's shoes.

Only one person had an unhappy expression on his face. He was Bi Baoyou, a senior from Donglin Academy. He wanted to say something but was stopped by Qin Bolu.

But Li Dingguo's eyes were as cold as a hawk, "Donglin Academy? But why did we hear that the Donglin Party is not a good thing?"

"You people, who shout 'clean stream' every day, secretly form gangs based on regions and high-ranking officials as leaders, and fight with the Xuan Party, Zhejiang Party, Chu Party, and Qi Party in the court with great pleasure, which has caused great harm to us, the people."

"That's right. You enriched yourselves, the officials and gentry colluded with each other, and opposed the imperial court's taxation on industry and commerce, and opposed the taxation on minerals. As a result, all the taxes fell on us farmers. If it weren't for you... would I have rebelled?"

Li Dingguo and his subordinates looked at each other. They were born as peasants, but after so many years of rebellion, they had their own understanding of the political situation of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, Prince Xin had said more than once that the Donglin Party was harming the country, so they did not have the slightest good feeling towards the Donglin Party, a group of bureaucrats and gentry, but instead had extreme hatred for it.

"Take them back and check if they have other businesses behind them and if they have done anything to oppress the people. If you find any evidence, kill them without mercy!!"

The subordinates took out a rope and tied it around Qin Bolu's neck. Not only him, but everyone present was tied up.

All the great scholars in Donglin Academy were stunned in an instant.

"Walk."

Dozens of people had long ropes tied around their necks, with the ropes hanging from each other like beads on a string, and were driven to the Suzhou prefectural government office.

Qin Bolu was driven to the street, his pupils suddenly dilated, and he saw the street was full of dead bodies.

Some were shot by arrows, some were hacked to death by swords and spears, some were trampled by horses' hooves, some were stepped on by people's feet, their blood and brains were splattered on the ground, and the fields were filled with cries.

When passing by a ditch, it was filled with corpses. It was impossible to distinguish arms and legs, and blood mixed in the water. It was also impossible to tell which was blood and which was water!
"It's over, it's completely over." Qin Bolu was instantly terrified.

Bi Baoyou, a senior from Donglin Academy, was so panicked that his body froze. As he was tied up with ropes, his step became weak and he fell instantly, covered in mud. However, his fall dragged down others as well, and they all fell with him.

Seeing this, a peasant soldier came over with a whip and hit him directly, "What do you want to do, you bastard? You don't want to live anymore, right?"

"You are ignorant..." Qin Bolu lay on the ground with his neck stiff, unable to shout or curse. Others who wanted to stand up were dragged down by him and fell down again.

"I am a great scholar, you can't do this to me."

A small leader of the rebel army was so angry that he pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the stomach, "Great scholar? You have one more life than others, so what?"

Bi Baoyou grasped the handle of the knife, his eyes wide as a calf's, in disbelief.

It was not until this time that some people seemed to realize that scholars... were not so noble in the eyes of the bandits.

The little leader wiped the knife on Bi Baoyou's body and spat, "In prosperous times, being a great scholar can make a living, but in this fucking chaotic world, you still want to scare me with the title of a great scholar? I tell you, it won't work!"

……

September 23, Wuchang Prefecture.

Chongzhen was playing chess with an old blind man.

"A few days ago, news came that Hangzhou City had been besieged by Shi Daoshen. What's the situation now?"

"Reply to the king, Shi Daoshen has been attacking the city for three days. I think it will be captured soon."

"It seems that Shi Daoshen is more skilled than others."

"Report!" Suddenly, a messenger ran into the mansion and shouted, "General Sun has broken through Suzhou City!"

"Suzhou City has been broken!"

"Oh?" Chongzhen raised his head suddenly. He expected that Hangzhou City could hold out for some days. However, he was surprised that Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo made such a fast progress.

"Prince Xin!" The messenger handed the letter to Prince Xin, who only glanced at it for a few seconds. His smiling expression suddenly changed, "What is a great treason and a great evil? This is a great treason and a great evil..."

Chongzhen suddenly threw the tea bowl in his hand to the ground, and debris flew everywhere.

The old blind man felt something was wrong and asked his apprentice to read the contents of the letter to him.

"Yes, Master... Suzhou Weaving Factory was captured by Li Dingguo, and more than two million taels of silver were seized from his home, along with countless other gold, silver, and jewelry..."

There is no guarantee that Chongzhen's anger will not be dissipated. The court has already been in such a difficult situation. You have millions of huge sums of money in your hands. Is this the Ming Dynasty under your rule?
No wonder the Ming Dynasty fell. How could such a Ming Dynasty not fall?

Who died?

"Kill... Kill all the young and strong men in his clan, and send their wives and daughters to the Jiaofang Division."

Chongzhen did not have the intention to punish only the main culprit. As a vested interest, it was impossible for him alone to benefit from the millions of taels embezzled by his family elders. His sons, nephews, wife and daughter also sucked the blood of the people in the south of the Yangtze River.

Since we want to eradicate evil, we must eradicate it completely.

"Prince Xin, what about those people from Donglin Academy?"

Chongzhen looked at the confessions of these "great scholars" and the miners in the letter and said coldly, "Kill!"

"Yes!"

...When Chongzhen's order reached Suzhou, the bloody storm could no longer be concealed.

Bloodshed and killing became the music of this city in the next two days.

The killing and bloodshed during that period cannot be described in detail... but in terms of time, the killing lasted for four consecutive days before the madness gradually subsided and it was time to clean up.

Almost all the merchants, gentry, and officials in Suzhou city did not escape.

They were all slaughtered.

The shouts and cries of killing rang out from morning to night, and from night to day.

The streets were lit up with fire as bright as day, and the peasant army was patrolling back and forth.

Many people waited for a long time before they could cross the street and get to the small road.

On the way, they met other civilians or refugees, and they were terrified when they came into physical contact.

A few gentry of good reputation were released, but the whole group looked like fools.

In just a few hundred steps, there were crows pecking at food, well-fed wild dogs, blood that had dyed the river red, discarded shoes, body parts left on the roadside, corpses piled up, and flames that had not yet been extinguished all around.

He did not return home until after 5 p.m., and seeing his wife and children there, they all cried and told each other about the tragic scenes they had seen in this chaos, sighing endlessly.

In addition to these officials and gentry, the most casualties were the death squads and guards of the wealthy families. Because of their resistance, they faced the most severe and fierce attacks.

Once everything is settled, these things in the program will slowly unfold their functional side.

……

"Bang, bang... Everyone came out and went to the Suzhou prefectural government office to divide up the food and land."

"The land is divided!"

The poor people on the street looked outside through the cracks in their doors.

I saw that the masters who used to be high and mighty were now being dragged by ropes. There were men and women among them, all wearing silk, and their walking postures were extremely ugly.

The entire Suzhou Prefecture was filled with terrifying blood and violence, but as the peasant army's gongs sounded, people gradually began to come out of their homes. Seeing that the peasant army really would not harm them, they dared to walk towards the prefectural government office in Suzhou City.

At first there were only a few people, and then groups of people came. They were dressed in rags, looked pale and thin, and they even staggered when they walked, but at this moment they burst out with tremendous power.

Land is the people's primitive impulse.

Outside the prefectural government office,
In the past, the streets of Suzhou were filled with rich businessmen, officials, gentry, wealthy sons, and scholars in gorgeous clothes, but now they are filled with poor peasants.

"Don't crowd, come one by one. Suzhou Prefecture has a lot of land, let's enthronize first."

"Bang~"

With the sound of a musket, the people who had been fighting and crowding together just now calmed down instantly. They suddenly realized that the people in front of them were bandits and began to line up to receive food.

After receiving the food, some people who had wanted to follow King Xin from the beginning stayed and asked to join, but were temporarily incorporated into a team that maintained order in the city.

One of them was named Li Mingci. He was young, his parents had died early, and he had heard a lot about Prince Xin’s deeds.

He followed the team, pulling a wooden cart to clean up the corpses in Suzhou City...The first place they arrived at was the ditch behind the house of a famous wealthy family in the local area.

There were piles of corpses inside, all filled up with corpses, hands and feet lying on top of each other, blood mixed in, turning into a variety of colors...

"Ugh!" Li Mingci vomited all of a sudden.

"Dead, all dead!"

He knew this wealthy family, and the old man... was the most prestigious official in their area. In the past, he dared not even look at such people, but now, all of them died here with horrible faces.

There is also one, whose surname seems to be Qin, and he is a great scholar in this area.

……

capital,

Zhu Changgan was discussing the next work with Sun Chengzong in the Grand Council. The pro-Manchu elements in Korea had been purged, and the next step was long-term and continuous work.

There is another item, which is the distribution of vassal states.

It sounds very simple, as if all they had to do was to gather these princes and vassals and run to the homes of the officials and gentry who had been driven away, take away whatever they could, rob whatever they could, and then drag the officials and gentry out and kill those who should be killed and release those who should be released, and that seemed to be the end of it.

Even if there are difficulties, it is just a matter of going in with a white knife and coming out with a red knife.

Can violence solve it?
But many problems have been solved fundamentally. Take the crackdown on corrupt officials, gentry, and bullies for example. These people are limited. When they hear news that is unfavorable to them, they will run away with their wives early. How can they wait for you to come and beat them?
It is also difficult to collect evidence. Without evidence, simply killing people will inevitably cause chaos.

This is also one of the important reasons why the ICAC has been making very slow progress in the South.

There is another key issue, that is, if we kill a few officials and gentry, their property is not enough to be divided up. But if we target those small landlords... there will be a problem. It is difficult to identify them. No one will label himself as a bad gentry.

Moreover, the Anti-Corruption Bureau has to carry out cross-regional crackdowns, which makes it more difficult to identify corrupt officials and evil gentry.

"Your Majesty, the Imperial Guard has a secret report!" Wang Chengen came in holding a bamboo tube.

Zhu Changgan looked at the label tied on it, his pupils shrank, and he reached out to take it and unfold it.

"In Suzhou, nearly 3,000 officials, gentry and wealthy businessmen were beheaded; blood flowed like a river in Suzhou, and the ditches were filled with corpses..."

Looking at these words, Zhu Changgan was surprised.

The city of Suzhou was actually cleansed by Chongzhen in such a way. Before this, he had thought that Chongzhen might kill some corrupt officials, but he could never have imagined that the cleansing would be in such a brutal way.

A few days ago, he even heard Wang Chengen say: If the officials and gentry suffer any more, I will bear the bad reputation. ?
"Maybe this is what it means when love is deep, hatred is deep?!"

At the beginning, Chongzhen was so dependent on these civil servants in Jiangnan and believed their slander. When the true face was revealed, he was so disappointed and angry in his heart.

When they take action, they become even more unscrupulous.

Zhu Changgan scratched his head and murmured, "This guy... after putting down the burden of being an emperor, he really is letting himself go more and more. The key is that his own shortcomings seem to be improving little by little?"

The biggest problem was that Chongzhen no longer cared about his own "holy name".

For a person who dares to bear a bad reputation, the decisions he makes will be more lethal than before.

"But... now the problem is easy to solve."

With the bandits taking action, the pressure on the court was suddenly reduced a lot. Even if some small gentry were accidentally injured, it had nothing to do with the Ming court. However, it basically cleared out the officials and gentry in these areas, laying the foundation for the subsequent reconstruction.

Just as he was thinking, another eunuch came in, "Your Majesty, the Denglai Navy has sent a report of the battle. Kong Youde of Pi Island hopes to negotiate with the Ming Dynasty about recruiting him."

"Oh? You can't stand it?" Zhu Changgan looked at the words above and couldn't help laughing. "He wants to be the second Mao Wenlong. He only listens to orders and not propaganda?"

"Tell Zheng Hongkui that the attack was too weak. Let him beat me hard, and change the frequency of bombardment from once a week to once a day."

"Yes!"

……

Thank you all for your support. I have to go out for something today. If I come back early, I will update another chapter!
(End of this chapter)