Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 399 Chaos ([-])

Li Zhengang left that night, and he hurried back to Guo Sheng's camp near Linqing to report back.After he left, Mo Ming immediately summoned the intelligence staff officer and Li Wenchang, the artillery commander who was temporarily acting as the commander of the fortress, to inquire about the situation.

According to the description of the two, Denglai seems to be quite uneasy recently.Not to mention that Laizhou is too far away, Zeng Hualong, the governor of Dengzhou City, has been acting frequently recently. He first convened a meeting of the nobles who ruled the three prefectures and asked them to donate their salaries so that they could recruit soldiers and avenge the "lord and father." ", and "stabilize the countryside".The gentry don't care much about avenging the king and father, they care more about how to stabilize the village, especially the Dengzhou gentry, who has suffered from the people on the east coast, donates generously, hoping that the master of Futai can make decisions for them.

Although the gentry in the counties of Qingzhou did not suffer from the looting by the East Coasters, they were also tossed hard by the Dashun Salary Department.Different families were forced to contribute salaries, ranging from 5000 taels to 3 taels, depending on their land and fame. In addition, they had to pay some fodder, which really cost them their lives.Some landlords tried to distribute these taxes to those self-cultivating farmers. This was a common tax avoidance method for them, but after being reported by those overwhelmed self-cultivating farmers, the property of these gentry was immediately confiscated and the fields were evenly distributed. Original sharecroppers.

Before the arrival of the Shun Army, some landlords who had no fame and could not avoid taxes would collude with the villagers and transfer the taxes they should have paid to the self-cultivating peasants.After the self-cultivating farmers were overwhelmed and went bankrupt, they took advantage of these lands to get these lands under their own names, and so on, and realized the large-scale annexation of land step by step.There are countless such examples in the late Ming Dynasty, more than in all previous dynasties. It can be seen that the collective moral level of the late gentry was the lowest in the late feudal dynasties, and the scale of land annexation was also the most powerful.After the arrival of the Shun Army, these gentry were the first to attack, such as dividing up the money and grain of several clans and big landlords, and at the same time distributing the land equally to the landless peasants. This is also the root cause of their inability to effectively control the situation in Shandong. The reason is—unwillingness to protect the interests of the landlords and gentry.

After Zeng Hualong raised a sum of money, he immediately began to recruit sergeants inside and outside Dengzhou City. At the same time, he also distributed part of the long-overdue military salaries to the soldiers in the city, which slightly restored their morale.However, due to the one-year-long act of attracting refugees in the Yantai area, the number of refugees near Dengzhou City has been greatly reduced. The officers of the Dengzhou Battalion who came to recruit sergeants were very depressed when they saw it.In fact, this situation is not unique to Dengzhou City. The number of refugees in Ninghai Prefecture, Fushan, Wendeng and even Qixia and Laiyang areas near Yantai has been greatly reduced in the past year. The gentry in Dengzhou turned their noses in anger.

But even with all their courage, they didn't dare to ask the people from the east bank to make an argument. They knew very well that the fighting strength of the local warriors at hand was weak, and if they reluctantly gathered to fight the people from the east bank, they would only end up in a miserable end.And the people on the east coast are "sharp guns and guns", "well-founded advance and retreat", and "resolute and courageous to fight". Recognition undoubtedly made them more depressed.Their bravery can't even beat Guo Sheng's soldiers and horses, let alone touch the buttocks of the big tigers of the Dong'an Yi people.

If you offend the people from the east bank, they gather a large group to attack their own Zhuangzi, do you think Zeng Futai will send troops to protect you?So, taking advantage of the fact that the people on the east coast have engulfed a large number of refugees to build villages and forts, and thus have no time to talk to you, it is better for everyone to keep a low profile.Their own tenants are optimistic about their own, and the refugees on the road should not stretch out their hands indiscriminately, otherwise they will cause disasters. This is the experience summed up by the Dengzhou gentry through the lessons of blood and tears.

However, the meeting held by Zeng Hualong was not useless. At least under his overt or covert instigation, the gentry of Denglai Qingsan Mansion had a clearer understanding of the current situation.After seeing troops from all over the country to attack and kill the local officials appointed by Dashun, they were greatly encouraged, and they all said that they would form township soldiers immediately after returning to "purge" the localities.Among them, in Dengzhou Prefecture, the gentry from Zhaoyuan and Laiyang counties were the most determined.

After Li Zhengang left, Mo Ming thought again and again, thinking that Guo Sheng would probably send a large number of "refugees" in the next period of time, and the number would be more than 1 if they were not guaranteed. Yantai Fortress, and even the ports of Heishui, Dabo, and Yuanbo, which are transported to the rear, are too many to accommodate.So, should a group of immigrants be transported to Jinshan Port in Australia in advance?However, he just thought about it and denied this idea. Not to mention whether the Navy is willing to sail southward despite the unfavorable wind direction (southern wind) and bad weather (typhoon) in summer, but at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, the East Coast People have sent 2500 immigrants to Australia from Heishui Port and Yuanbo Port in two batches of [-] people each.This quantity has reached the transportation limit of the transport fleet between Xinhua Fort and Jinshan Port. No matter how much it is, it will just bask in the sun in Australia and cannot be transported away.Therefore, how to resettle these refugees is really a problem.

But let's wait for the team that Guo Sheng came to approach to discuss this issue.At present, the armed rebellion of the local gentry in Shandong is becoming more and more violent, as if they want to return all the anger they have suffered in these days, massacre the local officials appointed by Dashun, and even some local people who have taken over their fields have been brutally killed. slaughter.However, the gentry in Fushan and Ninghai prefectures near Yantai had already been swept by Mo Ming's troops, and they still couldn't play any roles for the time being, which made him quiet a lot for a while.

However, the quietness was short-lived after all. Starting from June 6, Dashun officials from the three places of Denglaiqing fled to Dengzhou in embarrassment one after another.They already knew earlier that there was a Ninghai defense envoy "appointed" by Guo Shuai nearby, with strong troops.This time the Shandong gentry counterattacked, and the attack was extremely fierce. They were weak and weak, and they fled to other places one after another. The local government in Dashun was quickly disintegrated.

And their arrival also brought the latest news from the outside world to Mo Ming and others.In the first ten days of May (lunar calendar), the gentry of Qingzhou rebelled, and the governor of Dashun, Tongzhi, and the defense envoy were killed together, and Yidu County (that is, Qingzhou City) fell.Yao Yingfeng, the general of the Shun Army stationed in Qingzhou, was killed, and his subordinate Zhao Yingyuan only escaped with his own life; Zhao Yingyuan is currently taking in the scattered subordinates in the countryside of Qingzhou, and it is said that he has gained "four hundred and dozens of horses".After the fall of Fucheng, Gaoyuan, Anqiu, Zhucheng, Rizhao and other counties that had vigorously promoted the "land reform" in Qingzhou also fell one after another.According to historical records, Liu Xianqing, the magistrate of Dashun County, and others "cut off the rich and help the poor", "allow the owners to accept farming regardless of the distance of the property", and issued land "book certificates" to the poor; ", tortured "the sons of eunuchs since Wanli", and the "land, cattle, and family members of the gentry, all of which are occupied by small people".

It is doomed to be tragic to force the land reform without strength. This time the gentry counterattacked, and these people either fled or killed, but none of them could stand.In mid-May, Sun Zhiyu, the magistrate of Gaomi County, Laizhou, Dashun, fled to Yantai Fortress with dozens of people in embarrassment, and was taken in by Mo Ming.On the [-]th, Xing, the magistrate of Wendeng County in Dashun, sent someone to Yantai to warn the police, saying that the Laiyang gentry had armed more than a thousand people and ordered to march eastward.

"Nimma, these people really regard me as an official of Dashun!" Mo Ming slapped the table angrily. He really regrets it now. He took over this inexplicable Ninghai defense envoy. Troubled.Yantai of the people on the east coast faintly became a bright lighthouse in the darkness, firmly attracting the Dashun officials who were panicked and bewildered because of the armed counterattack of the gentry.When these people took office, they often "single-handedly took office" or brought "one or two entourages". Now only two or three months have passed, and it is only a ghost to have their own armed forces around them. Therefore, they have failed under the counterattack of the gentry. Instead, they fled to the nearest Dashun control area.On the other hand, Ninghai Prefecture and Fushan Prefecture, which were nominally under the control of Dashun, became natural refuges for Dashun officials from Dengzhou and Laizhou. Some officials from Qingzhou even sneaked here to seek refuge.

But Mo Ming is just talking.Dashun's Dong Xueli and Baibang's political department had only a few thousand people stationed on the front line of Xuhuai, while the so-called four towns of Jiangbei in Nanming with a dozen or 20 soldiers and horses flinched.Later, when the Dashun Army retreated westward, they dared to carry out some symbolic pursuits, but they retreated quickly.When the sporadic cavalry of the Qing army went south, they were frightened out of their wits, startled three times a day, and wanted to escape.Such a trash character, can't we cooperate with them?The landlords and gentry in Shandong originally hoped that Nanming would go north to recover Shandong, but the four Jiangbei towns in Nanming were all mud that could not be supported on the wall, and they could not be counted on. In the end, they were all recruited by Shandong officials sent by the Qing court. Surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

A castle as big as the people on the east bank stands on the other side of Yantai. As long as the Qing court is not blind, it will definitely not let this foreign force go, unless the people on the east bank accept the appeasement of the Qing court—and this is simply impossible.Therefore, if you don't take advantage of the vacuum period of the forces of all parties to gather more forces that are determined to resist the Qing, you will have little chance after the Qing army comes.At that time, the people on the east bank will face the attack of the Qing army alone, and life without help is destined to be very difficult.

On June 1644, 6, Li Zhengang finally returned to Yantai Fortress after disappearing for many days. He was accompanied by 22 cavalry sent by Guo Sheng to escort him, and hundreds of Dashun gathered along the way. The magistrate and his subordinates, who fled in embarrassment after failing in the armed counterattack of the gentry, are now gathered together by Li Zhengang and others along the way.

(End of this chapter)