Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 159 The Enemy of Destiny
Beginning in the second half of the third year of Chongzhen, the peasant uprising army in Shaanxi entered a relatively peaceful period.

Yang He has been in Shaanxi for three years, and one year of disasters is worse than one year. On the one hand, his strength is limited. Regardless of military ability or military strength, Yang He is not enough to put down the rebellion in Shaanxi. On the other hand, Yang He's idea is that the country needs to consolidate its foundation Peiyuan, the three major expeditions of Wanli, the disastrous defeat in Liaodong, the political purge after the struggle with the eunuchs during the Tianqi period, the unlucky scholar-bureaucrats, the treasury or the small people, they are already in a weak state at this time, and they all need warming up, not trying to be quick The drastic deforestation.

For this reason, Yang He wrote a letter to Emperor Chongzhen, proposing a policy of giving priority to appeasement and supplementing pursuit and suppression. Among them, two sentences in Yang He's memorandum particularly moved Emperor Chongzhen.

Yang He believes that no matter recruiting or exterminating, it needs to spend a lot of money, but the effect is completely different. The money spent on exterminating will not be returned once the gold and silver are gone. Besides, too many beheadings will hurt the peace!Spending money on recruiting, spending money can keep the people, and every person who survives will gain another life. Putting the labor force back into production, there will be tax returns again, and stealing the people's peace, what a benefit!
No matter how you look at it, sustainable development is more appropriate. After receiving the memorial, Emperor Chongzhen even claimed that it was true. This long-term mobilization of supplies to help the north has the courage, so from the very beginning, Yang He's recruiting plan was destined to go bankrupt.

But at this time, Song Qingshu enjoyed the convenience of this policy. After revealing his desire to appease Lin Zecheng, the county magistrate was more active than anyone else. The appeasement can be of great merit and can offset his crime of losing the city, and he still has money Take it, even if you are not active, there are three official documents in a row, one for the three governors' mansions, one for Du Wenhuan, the commander-in-chief who is chasing after him, and one for Yansui governor Hong Chengchou. After rushing out, the effect was immediately revealed.

Behind, Du Wenhuan's frontier army, who had been chasing after him, stopped in Dang County, kept a distance of two days from Song Qingshu's army, and stopped chasing, and turned his attention to another large peasant army in Qingjian, Wang Zuogua. body.

For 50 taels of gold, you can buy several days of repair time. This deal is really worth it!

In order not to irritate the government, Song Qingshu also strictly controlled the team. Everyone set up a big camp in the southeast of the county. Except for those who were transferred by Song Qingshu's order, they were not allowed to leave the camp. All the men gathered together to continue training, old and weak vassals They also dispatched production tasks. The military creed of ancient Rome was that soldiers should never be idle, and accidents would easily occur if they were idle. Song Qingshu was deeply concerned about this.

A while ago, the Yan'an Mansion took in more than [-] businessmen who had been robbed and had nowhere to go. These people have come in handy now. Although there is no Internet these days, the businessmen form a circle of their own, and they are more or less familiar with each other. There is a connection, and this connection solves a big problem.

Just like now.

"Move, move all inside!"

Thirty or so large carts were parked at the entrance of the camp, and the old head Liu from the grain store in Yan'an Mansion waved his hands in an extraordinary manner, and the peasant army in paper armor rushed in to resist. Nowadays, the grain in Shaanxi is priceless. Yes, but with the old relationship of the old head Liu, he still got more than 300 dan of various kinds of brown wheat and sorghum rice. Although it cost more than 300 taels of silver, Song Qingshu who robbed four or five counties really didn't care about it Little money.

"You did a good job. In the future, the boss will grant you the position of the head of the stupid business. In the future, the world will be peaceful. I will give you money and reopen a big grain store for you, and let you be the big shopkeeper!"

This is purely a false promise, but Song Qingshu waved his hands in a very demure manner, and the still grateful old Liutou and his silly son Xiao Liutou were so grateful that they kowtowed repeatedly: "Thank you for your cultivation!"

People are jealous, looking at old Liu Toufei Huang Tengda, shopkeeper Zhao in the restaurant, boss Xu who sells cloth, and Zhu Laoliu who runs a grocery store are all jealous with envy. Entering the city, I went to the former Kansai.

At the gate of the city, Tang Ruowang, a foreign monk, stood in front of the official bulletin board without losing the opportunity, holding up a big cross cane and loudly proclaiming the gospel of God. Song Qingshu was quite interesting, and specially got more than 100 old men and women to kneel and worship piously. He said that worshiping God can cure all diseases, and the one who said that he believed in God had a grandson, which attracted a group of Yichuan County residents to follow and worship in a daze.

This Liu Zongmin led a few blacksmiths to mess with each other, and got hundreds of catties of cast iron, and even got a few pieces of cowhide. Rubbing his hands, Liu Zongmin nodded with a silly smile.

"Now we can play a few sets of leather armor!"

In fact, leather armor is often easier to use than iron armor. It is lighter, warmer, and stronger. It is more stylish than paper armor. Unfortunately, when Liu Zongmin was sharpening his hammer, Song Qingshu shook his head mercilessly behind.

"no!"

"Why!"

"There is no shortage of armor! Now buy some tricycles for me!"

Seeing Song Qingshu swaying out the door with his hands behind his back, Liu Zongmin couldn't help but draw a big middle finger.

…………

In the blink of an eye, more than three days passed. In the Peasant Army barracks, five three-wheeled bicycles were running fast on the camp playground. Liu Zongmin was at the front, followed by dozens of soldiers and a dozen children. Excited Shouting, the group of people played like children.

Seeing that a lot of cotton cloth was thrown on the ground, and the car was full of people, Song Qingshu shook his head helplessly, called a few soldiers, and went out again.

The results of these three days are not small. Almost 3000 taels of silver were spent, and a small five hundred dan of food was stockpiled. In these days, nothing is as important as food!Then I hoarded various medicinal materials. Chen Qingzhi, the shopkeeper of Chen Jisheng Medicine Store, who was taken in by Yan'an Mansion, happened to be able to see a doctor, and there was no shortage of military doctors in the army. Besides, there were some cotton cloths, some salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea leaves, etc. , in short, the basic survival can be considered to be able to deal with it.

But there is one thing that cannot be bought in the market, and that is gunpowder!More than 20 cannons were fired in the siege of the city, and the shooting was very cool. The gunpowder was used up by almost one-third. I don’t know how much this thing will be used to go to Shanxi. Fortunately, there is also a There is no shortage of these things in the Avenue Hall where the incense is very strong, and where there are Taoist priests.

It still takes three days to go to Hancheng, and there are only a few days left before Wang Jiayin promises to hold Hancheng before he leaves. Moreover, according to Lin Zecheng, the official mission sent by the trilateral governor's office to receive the inspection team is coming soon, and the time is not up. Too many, go out today to deal with the gunpowder, and after two days of rest, Song Qingshu plans to turn against the magistrate of Yichuan County and continue to move forward with his troops.

I rode a horse for more than two miles, and things went smoothly. At first, the temple wished to see that Song Qingshu and his party were rogues, and they kept making decisions, but the 500 taels of silver swung in front of my eyes. Immediately straightened, not only gave Song Qingshu more than a dozen sacks of sulfur and bitter nitrate used in alchemy in Guannei, but also gave almost a sack of small pills.

Anyway, this thing contains lead exceeding the standard, and it's quite heavy, so Song Qingshu didn't pick one when he pulled it back and fired it with lead.

Even after spending three days, everyone in this county knew that there was someone like Song Qingshu. He led his subordinates to carry saltpeter and sulfur, and rode triumphantly on the street. Someone called Song Ye every now and then. It's quite beautiful, but when wandering through the main street of the county and passing by a shop unexpectedly, Song Qingshu's eyes suddenly straightened.

"You idiot, give me 200 taels of silver! Send your things back to the camp first, and I'll go back later."

After receiving a bag from the soldiers, Song Qingshu walked towards the shop without riding any horses.

Half an hour later, with a box in his arms, Song Qingshu really had the impulsiveness of a young man when he was in love. He rushed out of the city with great interest, and returned to the gate outside. The two guards guarding the gate immediately knelt down on one knee, respectfully He saluted and said, "Your master!"

"Where is the head of the red lady? Do you ever know?"

"Back to the boss! The red boss is in the stables, but..." Speaking of this, the guard on the right couldn't help hesitating for a moment, and Song Qingshu was taken aback.

"Just what?"

At this time, the gatekeeper on the left was eager to ask first.

"Master, I heard that we are going to be recruited by the government, is it true?"

Immediately, Song Qingshu's face darkened violently, and his heart skipped a beat. Song Qingshu asked angrily, "Nonsense! You are also an old man at Funiu Mountain. You don't know what the government is doing? What kind of advice? Ask a ghost, Who told you?"

While yelling and cursing, while thinking in his heart, Song Qingshu scolded little radish like hell, why doesn't this bastard have a clue, how can he talk nonsense about such an important matter?
Song Qingshu's gloomy complexion also startled the two gatekeepers, he quickly knelt down and kowtowed, and begged for mercy in fear: "Don't be angry, the master, we, we also listened to what the scholar said, we knew that these scholars were full of bad things, and it was true !"

"What scholar?"

"Back to the head of the family! Today, a scholar broke into our barracks and was detained by the brothers. Now he is in the stable with the head of the red family."

A little bad feeling suddenly appeared in his heart, he didn't even care about the guards, Song Qingshu hurriedly ran towards the camp with the box in his arms.

More than 1000 horses were all tied up in the northwest of the camp. If the officers and soldiers attacked, the cavalry would resist immediately, because it was a temporary camp, and the so-called stables were fenced to keep the horses inside. The vassal starving people are plucking grass to feed the horses nearby, and Hongniang Xing can be seen standing next to a horse from a distance, not knowing what to laugh at.

Feeling relieved, Song Qingshu took three steps in parallel and walked up quickly, waving his hands while walking and shouting: "Hong'er!"

Unexpectedly, at this time, another scholar stood up beside the horse, his hands seemed to be still stained with blood, but Xing Hongniang didn't pay attention to herself immediately, but wiped the sweat of the scholar with a handkerchief first.

For a split second, Song Qingshu felt a wave of anger rising from his heart...

(End of this chapter)