Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 227 Liu Zongmin: Why do the government troops keep giving up the popular opportunity and keep biting us?

The bandits in Jiangnan were in full swing, and the distribution of land and tax exemptions by the Integrity Commission and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were equally intense.

Taking Henan as an example, almost all the officials and gentry in Nanyang Prefecture and Ruyang Prefecture were killed or injured, and all the registered fields and hidden fields under their names were found out.

In addition to a portion of the land distributed to the tenant farmers of the two prefectures, another portion of the land that was not distributed was nationalized by the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

For this part of land, the state recruited common people to cultivate and farm. To put it simply, the state, as a large landlord, distributed the land to the common people for living. As long as they paid half of the rent when the rent was due, if there were sons or nephews in the family who joined the army to fight for the country, the rent could be reduced or exempted.

Moreover, if you cultivate the country's land, you naturally won't have to pay any additional taxes.

The ICAC has clearly stipulated that they only have the right to lease and not the right to sublease. This means, to a certain extent, that once discovered, their leasing qualifications will be revoked.

The land belonged to the imperial court, and the people only rented it and had only the right to use it but not the right to trade it. This prevented land annexation to a certain extent.

In addition, the Integrity Bureau will take out 10% of the stolen money from corrupt officials investigated by the two governments and use it to build water conservancy projects and develop farmland irrigation.

At present, famines continue to occur in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, and a large part of the reason is that the water conservancy projects are seriously dilapidated, and all the funds allocated by the court have been swallowed up by these corrupt officials.

Nowadays, we take from the officials and use it for the people.

The people were all excited. There was no need for the Anti-Corruption Bureau to send anyone. Often, as soon as the supplies were transported to the fields, there would be a large number of people waiting there.

Regardless of whether there are people from the Independent Commission Against Corruption supervising them, they work enthusiastically.

Some people were suffering from severe food shortage, their bodies were swollen or even starved to death, but at the moment they didn't care at all. Nothing was more exciting than having their own land.

……

"Oh my god, what on earth is going on? Can't any dynasty or generation copy and repeat the same thing over and over again?"

"There's really no way to survive!"

"Oh my God, please open your eyes and take a look."

The bandits robbed once, the government troops came once, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau came once to divide it up.

This goes on in turns.

The lives of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were like hell, and they had completely lost their previous spirit and energy.

But this is not over yet, there are still characters that have not entered the scene.

That was the vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

The entire Ming Dynasty was working together. While the Anti-Corruption Bureau was carrying out an iron-blooded rectification of the civil service, the Ming Dynasty's vassal states were also heading towards the four southeastern provinces.

It's nothing but the decree of the Ming Emperor: If any of the Ming royal family vassal below the rank of Prince does not leave the palace before October 1st, he will be punished for treason.

If you don't go, not only will you not get the land, you will also be imprisoned and beheaded, forcing these princes and vassals to leave their homes.

Except for the current 36 princes and dukes, all the others went to the four provinces of Huguang, Nanzhili, Jiangxi and Zhejiang to take over the land under their names.

Those who arrive on time can obtain different fields according to their different levels.

The general who defends the country has five thousand acres of land.

General Auxiliary to the State, three thousand acres of land.

General Fengguo, one thousand acres of land.

Lieutenant of the State Defense, 500 acres.

Lieutenant of Fuguo, three hundred acres of land.

Fengguo Zhongjun, one hundred acres of land...

The land will be compensated once and for all, and children born thereafter will no longer receive any compensation.

If you fail to arrive on time after the deadline, you will be deemed to have given up your qualification.

As a result, people from several provinces often saw the sound of horses and carriages and the endless flow of people on the road. They were wearing silk or coarse cloth, but they migrated to several provinces in the south of the Yangtze River as if they had lost their parents.

The sky was gloomy and the autumn rain was accompanied by thunder.

In the bleak rain, the horses pulled the cart forward with all their might. Louder than the thunder was the coachman's shouting, "Gee, gee... No, the wheel is stuck in the ground, you have to get down and help push the cart."

Several princes got off the carriage and pushed it forward with all their strength. They fell to the ground from time to time, which was covered in mud, but they had to get up and continue pushing.

In the dim light and shadow, iron cavalry emerged from the darkness like a black crescent. Everyone's backs turned cold with fear. Just as they were about to run, they realized that it was the government army.

Cao Bianjiao waved at everyone, "Where are you going?"

"In reply to the general, we are heading to Changde Prefecture."

"Changde, that's great. You can slow down the journey. We are going to attack Changde next."

"That couldn't be better."

"Thank you, General. If we had encountered bandits, I'm afraid our whole family would have died in this foreign land."

"Don't worry, wherever the government troops pass, all the bandits and local thieves are killed. Even if you go at night, it will be much safer than before."

The scene of hundreds of thousands of clan members migrating was also a highlight in the history books of later generations:
"Emperor Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang turned the world into his own. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial family alone had a population of more than 100 million, and supporting the royal family was the largest expense of the state. However, Emperor Chongzhen threw the huge burden of the princes of various places to several provinces in the south of the Yangtze River..."

……

At this time, Sun Chuanting was leading his troops and advancing rapidly towards the southeast.

After defeating Li Zicheng's generals Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Yuan Zongde and others, he led his troops southward and defeated a group of bandits entrenched in Xiangyang.

He then divided the troops into two. On one side, led by himself and Cao Bianjiao, they marched eastward to attack De'an Prefecture and Wuchang Prefecture. On the other side, led by Chen Yongfu and Zuo Dabi, they marched southward to attack Changde Prefecture and Changzhou Prefecture.

Zuo Dabi was unwilling, "No, Governor, why are the two of us heading south? Isn't Prince Xin in the east?"

"I'm sending you south to fight Prince Xin. He's in Wuchang Prefecture and Anqing Prefecture. What we need to do is to clear out Changde Prefecture, Yuezhou Prefecture, Changsha Prefecture, and other places, and then form a siege."

"Oh, if you put it that way, then I understand." Zuo Dabi said with deep concern.

Cao Bianjiao looked at the governor deeply, and found that the governor was also looking at him. He naturally understood the meaning.

I know that Prince Xin has a group of his own people under his command, so they know the importance of fighting. On the other hand, those two guys probably don't care about anything and will just attack with all their strength.

Let those two guys attack southwards, while you make a "feint attack" here!
Give the governor some time to deal with Prince Xin's issue.

On the fifth day of October, the government troops led by Zuo Dabi and Chen Yongfu first defeated the sweeping king Zhang Yichuan, and more than 20,000 soldiers were killed.

October fifteenth,

Zuo Dabi and others defeated more than 10,000 people led by Zhang Dashou. In just ten days, they cleared out the bandits in Changde and Jingzhou.

The momentum of the bandits' crazy attack was suddenly blocked.

Zuo Dabi and Chen Yongfu were pleasantly surprised to find that the military achievements in the war to the south were not as meager as they had imagined. The various bandits were wary of each other and could not form a joint force at all.

The reason why he was unable to eliminate these bandits before was mainly because they had spread their business too wide and had not formed a defensive formation around them, so they jumped around left and right. But now, under Sun Chuanting's strategy.

Concentrate your forces to encircle these bandits. Taken individually, none of these bandits can be a match for the government troops.

Some of these bandits even have conflicts among themselves, and it is impossible to expect them to work together. It is enough to just knock down the moles one by one.

Zuo Dabi learned from the previous lesson, concentrated his forces, and launched a fierce attack on one of the parts. After clearing out a point, he continued to move south.

In this case, the bandits would be in trouble. Sun Chuanting's subordinates were supplemented with artillery and muskets, and after many battles, their combat effectiveness was greatly improved.

October 17,

Cao Bianjiao led the government troops across the Han River, captured Xiangyang Prefecture, and defeated the tens of thousands of troops led by Li Yangchun, the Fourth Heavenly King, and made them flee in disarray.

Immediately afterwards, Li Yangchun's trusted general Jiang Dekui asked for amnesty and requested the court to appoint him as deputy general. He was probably tired of fighting and wanted to return home in glory, but Sun Chuanting directly refused and continued to fight. Jiang Dekui made another request, this time he only wanted a lieutenant general, which would be enough for him to receive one thousand taels of silver.

But this time his bid was again rejected by Sun Chuanting.

Jiang Dekui was captured and the 40,000 bandits were directly dispersed.

The war in the north was also progressing at a fast pace.
Denglai Governor Hu Hengtai defeated Yidu Gu and Xiao Qin Wang in Fengyang Prefecture and the south of Huai'an Prefecture, killed tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and hung the heads of these rebel leaders on the city walls.

Before the Anti-Corruption Commission distributes the land, it must allow the people to watch as a warning to others.

The people of several counties in Fengyang expressed their determination to draw a clear line between themselves and the rebels, which resulted in anyone in the counties of Fengyang and Huai'an prefectures being cursed by the people if they spoke for the rebels.

He was afraid that the Independent Commission Against Corruption would take back his land.

Tongren Prefecture,
"This government army is really weird. Why don't they attack Wuchang Prefecture instead of attacking us?"

As the leader of the Eight Vajras under Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin was born a blacksmith. He was tall and had a fiery temper. He rode a black horse with a moon-shaped steed and held a pair of heavy and lengthened ghost-head swords in his hands. But at this moment, he was covered in wounds and was turning around to curse the officers and soldiers in the distance.

As the second-in-command under King Chuang, he could take over the command from Li Zicheng at the critical moment.

Just like this time, Li Zicheng went to Wuchang Prefecture to participate in the anti-king conference because he and Gao Guiying led two groups of troops to attack Xinyang Prefecture and Ruyang Prefecture respectively.

But the result was that his sister-in-law Gao Guiying had no idea about him.

He was defeated by the government troops and fled all the way south to Tongren Prefecture, but he was still unable to escape the pursuit of the government troops.

Originally, considering that the people in the Central Plains were poor and tired, and with the arrival of Sun Chuanting's troops and the land distribution and tax exemption by the Integrity Bureau, many poor people in Henan got land, and they brought their families with them, and no longer wanted to be bandits.

Take himself as an example. He originally had more than 10,000 soldiers under his command, but now only more than 8,000 are left.

It can be said that this area has completely lost the soil for the development of the anti-king, and several gangs of bandits in the surrounding area, such as Liu Dadao and Du Wuku, surrendered to Sun Chuanting.

More rebel troops moved to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, leaving them with only a few troops, which were unable to hold on on their own.

If they continue to stay in this area, it will be difficult for King Chuang's troops to recuperate, grow and develop, and they will also be very likely to be killed by Sun Chuanting.

So Liu Zongmin made the bold decision to lead his troops south to Tongren and Baoqing Prefectures.

This place has not been affected by the war in the past ten years, and the Ming court's military strength is weak. At the same time, it is relatively rich, so the food problem of tens of thousands of mouths under the King of Rebellion can be solved.

But what he didn't expect was that even though he couldn't escape, he was once again surrounded and attacked by the government troops.

Liu Zongmin, who escaped the encirclement again, looked at the map and said, "No... There is obviously something wrong with the route of the government troops."

"What's the problem?" Gao Yigong rushed over on his horse, also covered in dust.

"How about it?"

Gao Yigong took the bag of water and drank it all. "I almost lost sight of you. Fortunately, Lao Qi led his men to divert them. Can you help me check if I am injured?"

Liu Zongmin lifted up his battle robe and said, "Fortunately, you were hit by an arrow in the buttocks, but the wound is not deep."

"Damn it!" Gao Yigong cursed again in anger.

"By the way, you just said that there was something wrong with the route the government troops were taking. What does that mean? Is there an insider?"

"It's more terrifying than the traitor." Liu Zongmin pondered for a long time and suddenly raised his head.

With a gloomy face, he said again: "Write a letter to Prince Chuang, asking him to be careful of this man Xin Wang, who might really have connections with the government troops."

"Ah?" Gao Yigong was stunned for a moment. "That can't be possible. Didn't the King of Rebellion send a message saying that the King of Xin had already conquered Suzhou Prefecture and Yangzhou Prefecture would be captured soon? How could he be in contact with the government troops?"

Liu Zongmin frowned, "Then how do you explain why the government troops ignored the huge opportunity of Wuchang Prefecture and did not move eastward, but instead went south to chase us?"

"The route I chose along the way is unknown to everyone except you and me. Besides, we have been beaten so badly. Is it worth sending so many troops with such a small force?"

Gao Yigong also noticed the problem at this moment, and stared at the map in amazement, "Now that you mention it, I feel a chill down my spine. There is indeed something wrong with the route of the government troops. Why do they have to keep targeting us?"

"Report, there's a letter from King Chuang."

"Quick, bring it here."

Liu Zongmin unfolded the letter and looked at the note. He couldn't help scratching his head, "I don't understand this."

Gao Yigong came closer and after reading it, he said, "Prince Xin actually conquered Hangzhou Prefecture? He killed thousands of officials and gentry? In this case... your previous assumption is no longer valid!"

Combining the situation he had seen along the way, he guessed, "Perhaps, Sun Chuanting's troops are heading south to encircle the troops of Wuchang Prefecture and several prefectures in the southeast, and destroy them in one fell swoop?"

Liu Zongmin's eyes suddenly froze, and he looked at the map again. "What you said makes sense. Send a letter to King Chuang, asking him to come back as soon as possible after attending the anti-king meeting to prevent him from being surrounded by the government troops.

I'll just mention it in a veiled way, and let Prince Chuang test Prince Xin. I always feel like there's something wrong."

"Probing?" Gao Yigong took a deep breath. "Now that the anti-king conference is about to be held, if the news reaches Prince Xin's ears and causes unnecessary misunderstandings, it will be bad."

Liu Zongmin insisted: "Don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of one!"

I may go out for a day tomorrow, and if I come back late, I will take a day off.

(End of this chapter)