Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2514
Wen Tiren said: "You may not have to blindly conscript and exterminate them. They are pirates as well as merchants. It is unknown if Xiong Wencan can follow Zheng Zhilong's example to increase and suppress military disasters. ..."

An hour later, Wen Tiren sat in the big sedan chair with his eyes closed to rest his mind. The sedan chair was very stable, and there was a sense of leisurely rhythm in it, which made him a little drowsy. He felt the weakness of this empire, but it It still maintains a huge size, and Wen Tiren never thought about its collapse. Even with its huge skeleton, it can crush those provocateurs who keep appearing. Donglu can cross the side wall, but cannot occupy the pass. It's just a plague of locusts passing through the border. Although the newly emerged Kun bandits have occupied Guangdong, in Wen Tiren's view, they are just Binhai drifters. He breathed a sigh of relief, as long as I still sit in this position, everything will be fine.

The concierge of Wen's mansion, the butler of Wen's mansion returned a gift list to Xiong Wencan's messenger, saying: "My lord has always been courteous, and the ceremony is too heavy to bear. When the envoy returns, he will only tell Xiong Du that the entrusted matter has been fulfilled. Please don't come again. "

The side door of Wen's mansion was slammed shut, leaving behind a group of people walking away on the street.

In Beijing, the flying sand is dancing, the sun is gray, and the dust and wind are blowing up the ashes and fallen leaves, bringing the loneliness and loneliness of the city.

In the twelfth lunar month of the ninth year of Chongzhen (January 1637), one of the most severe cold waves in the Little Ice Age rushed down from Siberia, and the mountainous areas of northern Guangdong ushered in another heavy snowfall.After passing the Zhuji Lane on the side of Dayuling, it is already covered in silver.Since Zhang Jiuling organized the excavation of the Dayuling New Road during the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, it has been the only way for merchants from the north and the south to travel here.From Guangdong to Jiangxi, there are two passages: Meiling Road on Dayu Mountain and Wujing Road northeast of Nanxiong.Meiling Road is further divided into Hengpu Road, Xiaomeiguan Road and Dayuling New Road, all leading to Nan'an (Dayu) forward, while Wujing Road goes east to Nanye (Xinfeng).

A group of merchants carrying burdens, sitting in sedan chairs, and leading donkeys and horses crossed the ancient Meiguan Road, went to Zhongzhan Village for a short rest, and then hurried on the road again, and did not stop until Zhuji Lane.Some returned to Meiguan after unloading and handing over here, and some continued to march to Tiannan No. [-] City, which is where their wealth is.

Zhuji Lane has flourished since the Tang and Song Dynasties. There were originally three streets and four alleys, with more than 1000 households, relying on the merchants and porters who came from south to north.But now it seems to be in decline, not as good as it was in its heyday, when there were many more soldiers patrolling with guns.Dayuling used to be the main land channel for trade between Jiangxi and Guangdong. The goods transported from the north to the south were mainly medicinal materials, grains, gold and silver, while the goods transported from the south to the north were mainly Guangyan salt and ironware. Baituo, there are thousands of people who cross the north every day."Since the Senate opened the sea route, goods from Jiangxi went directly to Guangzhou by water, and the price was half that of land transportation. As a result, the number of business travelers on this commercial road has been greatly reduced. Losing the source of food and clothing, life is not settled, many people have nowhere to go, one after another they fall into bandits, and even Nanxiong City, which has always been prosperous, is gradually showing signs of decline.

After the Central Route Army of the Senate Army captured Nanxiong County, the front of the soldiers had passed Meiling, and it was said that the scouts had arrived at the city of Ganzhou.However, although the Australian soldiers are fierce, they are at the end of their strength here.However, within a few days, they withdrew from the boundaries of Jiangxi one after another, occupying only two exits of Meiling Road: Nan'an and Nanye.

Although the Wuling area is now like the North and the South, the roads are not blocked, and the people and businessmen on both sides can pass smoothly.The reason is nothing more than that whether it is Australians or Ming Dynasty officials and gentry, they all need this channel to maintain trade and personnel flow.So not long after the retreat.The local Australian officials reached an agreement in private with the local gentry in Lingbei, and the other party promised not to restrict trade, in exchange for the Senate not to invade and harass Jiangxi.

At this moment, in the tea shed next to the newly renovated Guan Road, a literati dressed in Ming Dynasty looked sad, thinking of a poem written by his teacher Huang Gongfu when he passed by, and expressed his feelings: "The way to Changting is Zhuji. Watching the sun and feeling the wind. The people gather in the village of Bianhu, and the horses are galloping on the shoulder-to-shoulder road."

"My lord, what does this poem mean?" asked the boy who was following him.

The literati said: "Hey, it's just lamenting the prosperity of the year, so don't mention it."

The businessman who passed through the customs with him was resting under the tea shed. Seeing him sighing, he comforted him: "Old man, there is nothing to be impressed with. Last year, the Song and Ming Dynasties fought, and bandits ran rampant. This Yuling road was cut off for a year! Everyone There is almost no food to eat. Fortunately, the fighting subsided quickly, and the Fubo army was able to suppress many bandits. Now that the ground has calmed down, we can resume our old business and earn a living."

The literati shook his head and sighed: "I have pity on me who has been supporting scholars in the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years. I didn't expect that all the cities in the south of the sky would change hands in one dynasty, and all I raised were wine bags and rice bags!"

The businessman rubbed his icy hands, then took a breath of hot air to keep warm, and said, "I think Da Song is not bad, at least..."

The literati snorted coldly, thinking that businessmen are really the kind of people who see profit and forget righteousness. It is unfilial to run around for profit and not serve their parents.

Seeing his displeasure, the businessmen said to each other: "You only know that business is prosperous, but you don't see how difficult people's livelihood is. This place is located at the junction of the three provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong. There are thousands of mountains, deep streams and caves, and political and religious estrangement. Zhu Ming is an orthodox As far as Chongzhen, there have been riots in the countryside almost every other year for more than a hundred years. After the Song Dynasty came, the bandits surrendered, died and fled. Although the business between the north and the south is not as prosperous as before, making a living is easier than before. .”

Another person answered: "Yes, in the first year of Chongzhen, Su Jun, a bandit from Xingning, gathered a crowd to plunder neighboring counties in the three provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong. After a long time, they rebelled again. After Su Jun was killed, thousands of people including Zhong Lingxiu from the remaining party rose up in the third year of Chongzhen and robbed Huichang, Wuping, and Chengxiang. Those who can defend the land, build fenced houses to avoid chaos, and whatever is a fence36 is a stronghold71.

"There are more than ten passes in Nanxiong alone to keep bandits out."

The young man was a little curious, and asked: "In that case, then... what secret technique did Song Bing use? Can it eliminate this century-old banditry?"

"Little brother, you don't understand now. Are there natural bandits in the world? Zhu Ming's suppression of bandits has nothing to do with it. It's like putting out a fire with a salary. If the salary is not exhausted, the fire will not go out."

"You said it." The boy reminded.

The businessman smiled meaningfully and said in a low voice: "Most bandits are nothing more than civil uprisings caused by the oppression of the same clan by their tyrannical power and oppressing people of other clans. Ah, beat the local tyrants and evil gentry, pay off blood debts, and clear the fields. Those who resisted in the corner will either die, and those who survived are said to have been exiled to Nanyang."

The literati sneered and said, "Hahaha, I wonder why, it turned out that Kun... Song Bing became the bandit leader here."

"Speak carefully, speak carefully." The businessman carefully looked around, making sure that there were no officials to rest assured.

The literati said: "Every man is innocent, but he is guilty of carrying a jade. Seizing people's property and dividing people's fields, how is this behavior different from bandits?"

Another businessman said: "Since ancient times, 'prosperity, the people suffer; death, the people suffer', you and I are in troubled times, I must have heard the saying 'bandits pass like a comb, soldiers pass like a grate', the people are not only afraid of bandits, but also hate officers and soldiers. Only the Fubo Army of the Great Song Dynasty did not engage in rape, plunder, killing good men and pretending to be meritorious. Along with the military disaster, the epidemic disease also became popular. In the past two years, the pox epidemic in northern Guangdong has raged, and every village wears filial piety. Fortunately, the government has vaccinated , now everyone in the border villages has been vaccinated, and they no longer suffer from the pain of parting. If the bandits are like Song Dynasty, what about the bandits?"

The literati stopped talking, and he and the boy also went through the so-called "purification" isolation when they went through the immigration process in Nan'an, and were poked a few times on the arm by the short-haired woman in white with a needle she had never seen before. , Waiting for the pox on the upper arm before being allowed to enter the customs, and a "vaccination certificate" was issued.

Merchants are still talking about the previous war with joy.

"Fubo's soldiers attacked Nanxiong, Nan'an, and Nanye City as if they were destroying the dead. Ganzhou was shaken. At this time, the miners in Linwu also rioted and responded. The bandit soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were beaten to the ground..."

Another person laughed and said: "Hey, the governor of Nangan heard that 'Kun thieves can't be defeated if they are less than a thousand'. He was so frightened that he closed the city gate tightly and almost hanged himself."

"The city of Ganzhou is strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack. I haven't heard that the Fubo Army has attacked Ganzhou. It's just that more than half of the southern Ganzhou governor's area was lost. Chongzhen was so angry that he was thrown into prison in a fit of anger."

……

Listening to the performance storytelling by the merchants, the literati raised their heads and closed their eyes.Three years ago, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he rode a drunken horse with his friends in Guangzhou and visited the Lantern Night Market. He had a great time.It happened that Huang Xi, the magistrate of Nanhai County, was on a tour. He had no time to evade, but was scolded loudly by the yamen servants, and he refused to dismount. Huang Xi was very angry and ordered his horse to be taken away.He was proud of his talent and pretended to be a generation of romantic talents. He sarcastically said: "Riding a donkey is worthy of the Huayin Order. If you lose a horse, you will be the same as the old man." Therefore, he offended the county magistrate.

Huang Xishangzuo stripped him of his reputation, and even punished him.It was useless for his father-in-law to intercede with Liang Yuanzhu, a shortcut from Yunnan, so he had to flee to Guangxi. Since then, he has wandered all over the world, with footprints all over Guangxi, Hunan, and Jiangxi.

Last year, he suddenly heard that the Kun bandits had rebelled and captured Guangzhou without bloodshed. He was worried about the safety of his family and wanted to go back to his hometown to organize volunteer soldiers to serve the court, so he tried his best to return to Guangzhou.I just hate that Kun thief broke the Dayuling trade road, and the interrogation was very strict, and he was never allowed to return.When I am in a dilemma, wandering worry and anger, I occasionally get help from noble people.Only then did they settle down for the time being.Half a year later, Pan Heng heard that the Kun bandits seemed to have reached a tacit agreement with the Jiangxi region, that there would be no peace and no war, and that the trade route was reopened, and then they embarked on the road back home.

This time, what will be waiting for him?
(End of this chapter)