I

  Chapter 289 287 [Yuan Jun]

  Zhang Guowei is a member of the Donglin Party. He just came to Nanjing this spring to serve as Minister of the Ministry of War.

  The rise of Zhao Han in Jiangxi led to major changes in provincial officials. Moreover, the shortage of food in the south of the Yangtze River is even worse, and the famine is even more serious. The Minister of the Nanjing Household Department and the Superintendent of Grain have changed several times.

   Those who are replaced, either go back to their hometown, or go to prison for questioning.

  At this moment, many cities in the south of the Yangtze River began to recruit soldiers to defend the city. Firstly, he was afraid that Zhang Xianzhong would attack the Yangtze River, and secondly, he was afraid that Zhao Han would send troops suddenly.

   As for combat power, well...it's hard to say.

  Let’s start with a story—

  In the 34th year of Jiajing, about 70 Japanese pirates landed from the coast of Zhejiang and moved to three provinces within 80 days, killing and injuring thousands of people, and finally left.

  During the period, two Japanese pirates were captured and more than ten people were beheaded and killed.

  It's a pity that this kind of record has nothing to do with officers and soldiers. It turned out to be ordinary people in Wuhu who stood on the roof and threw lime jars, beating the Japanese pirates and fleeing.

  The more than 50 Japanese pirates who survived went to attack Nanjing, which had a garrison of more than 100,000 troops.

  Of course, not all of the more than 100,000 officers and soldiers are in Nanjing. Some are guarding the imperial tomb, and some are farming in the outskirts of the city. Anyway, the number of soldiers on paper is more than 100,000.

   Zhu Xiang and Jiang Sheng, the two Nanjing guards, took the initiative to lead troops out of the city to crusade. Because the weather was too hot and the Japanese pirates did not come, the officers and soldiers disarmed one after another to enjoy the shade, and the officers were still drinking wine under the tree.

   More than 50 Japanese pirates came suddenly, and the officers and soldiers fled immediately in fright, falling into the ditch trap they had dug in advance.

  In this battle, the Ming army suffered more than three hundred casualties.

  The two leading generals, Zhu Xiang was killed and Jiang Sheng was seriously injured.

  The whole city of Nanjing was under martial law, and soldiers were recruited to resist the Japanese pirates. Until more than 50 Japanese pirates left for a few days, Nanjing was still under martial law, for fear of being killed by the enemy.

  After the Jiajing Japanese Insurrection subsided, decades passed, and Jiangnan was even more emptied of military equipment.

  It is said that the prefectures, states and counties recruit soldiers to defend the city, but where do the local governments have money?

  Even if there is money to recruit soldiers, there is no food to support them.

  All the money and food in Jiangnan have been shipped to Beijing!

  For example, in the city of Nanjing, tens of thousands of new troops were temporarily trained. Most of them are civilian husbands recruited forcibly, and some of them are civilians in the city on rotation. Anyway, they can make up the number with a bite of food.

  Several men with swords on their backs stood there, but the Minister of the Ministry of War of Nanjing dared not catch them.

   After arresting these people, what will Thief Zhao do if he doesn’t sell food?

  The anger of the people in the whole city must be burned on Zhang Guowei.

   Zhang Guowei thought about it. Anyway, the Nanjing government treasury has no money, so he went to invite nobles and gentry to buy food, and let the Fushe scholars in the city be witnesses.

  As long as the nobles and gentry bought food, Zhang Guowei would not be afraid of being impeached as a traitor.

  As long as the scholars of Fushe testify, Zhang Guowei will not be afraid of causing public resentment if these honorable gentry who buy food dare to hoard it and sell it at a high price.

   Moreover, people can also use public grievances to force honorable gentry to open warehouses to release grain!

  Two days later, nobles, gentry, and tyrants around Nanjing City came to hear the news with silver.

  Nanjing Wharf.

  The general of the anti-thief navy, Liu Shunyi, stood at the pier and shouted: "There are fifteen boats of grain today. The rice is six renminbi per shi, and the bract grain is three renminbi per shi."

so cheap?

  A man in brocade suddenly asked his attendants to beat the gong, and then shouted: "Shut up, shut up, don't snatch, my family will buy five big boats of rice first!"

   Everyone dared not speak, they were afraid and angry.

  The speaker is a servant of Duke Wei.

  Liu Shunyi smiled and said, "Each family can buy at most one boat."

  Duke Wei’s servant immediately said, “I will pay you one or two taels of silver for every stone of rice!”

  Liu Shunyi shook his head: "I don't sell it for one tael, but only for six dollars."

   There was an uproar all around.

  The house slave laughed and said, "Hey, I've never seen such a transaction. It doesn't sell for a tael of silver per stone, but only sells it for six dollars. Is it hot to deal with too much money?"

Liu Shunyi bowed his hands to everyone: "My friends, there is not much food in Jiangxi. The more than ten boats of food at present are all collected by the people in Jiangxi. King Zhao Tianwang can't bear the hunger of the people in the south of the Yangtze River, so he specially asked me to transport them. That’s it for the grain. The rice is only six qian ren per stone, and the grain merchants buy it and grind it into white rice, so you can figure out how much you should sell it for!”

"it is good!"

   "Zhao Tianwang is righteous!"

   Liu Shunyi turned around again, and said to Wei Guogong's servant: "If you want to buy it, you can buy it, you can only buy one boat!"

  The house slave looked at the guns on the ship, looked at the fully armed sailors, gritted his teeth and said, "One ship is one ship, the biggest one!"

  The city gates of Nanjing are closed, and the rebels are on the river.

  However, there are many coolies on the wharf who are hired to carry food on board the ship, and the rehabilitated scholars and the people outside the city watch the whole process of doing business with the nobles and the rebels.

  The scene is a bit weird, and it is particularly outrageous.

   Officers, soldiers and sailors also came, as well as many tank ships and tank troops. They obviously have a large number of ships, but they dare not attack the anti-thief navy, and even hide far away for fear of being beaten.

   Liu Shunyi sneered with disdain, and would write down how much food he bought in a small notebook.

  Whoever sells food at an outrageous price will definitely be liquidated in the future!

  Huang Zongxi shook his head and said with emotion: "The morals of the world have collapsed, the universe has been turned upside down, it is really..."

   "Hey, I don't want the price of food to fall, I just want the price of food to stop rising." Gu Gao sighed.

  Gu Gao is the son of Gu Xiancheng, the founder of the Donglin Party. Gu Xiancheng’s family only has a few hundred acres of land. If the landlord can keep 20 mu of land, the Gu family is really not afraid of being divided.

  Donglin Party was founded with a very simple purpose, which was to save the country, and most of its members were small and medium-sized landlords.

  After the big commotion, all parties joined in one after another, resulting in mixed fish and dragons, and became political tools of big landlords and big businessmen.

  Fushe is just the opposite.

  When Fushe was established, most of them were big landlords and businessmen. After the organization expanded, countless poor scholars joined, and the number of small landlords and small businessmen increased rapidly.

  Wu Yingji suddenly said: "Before the summer harvest, it must rise to two taels of silver per stone!"

  Chen Zhenhui said: "Indeed."

   "I want to join the bandits in Jiangxi, can you go with me?" Wu Yingji asked.

  Gu Gao said: "I also want to go to Jiangxi, not to follow the bandits, but to observe their governance."

  Huang Zongxi said: "Then let's go together."

  Wu Yingji had already made up his mind and advised Zhao Han to take down Nanzhili and Zhejiang immediately.

  This gentleman comes from a wealthy family, not only can he get along well in Fushe, but he also likes to make friends with gangsters.

  Based on my years of experience in the rivers and lakes, I wrote "Jiangnan Bandits Discussion", discussing and summarizing how to eliminate bandits. He also wrote "Jiangnan Affordability Discussion" to discuss how to stabilize prices. Anyway, many of them are very practical articles.

  Wu Yingji swaggered over and said to Liu Shunyi, "I want to follow the thief."

  Liu Shunyi corrected: "It's to join the rebel army."

   "It's all the same," Wu Yingji said with a smile, "I'm too lazy to find a boat, so let me use a military boat to take me for a ride."

  Liu Shunyi cupped his hands and said, "Sir, please get on board."

   Seeing Wu Yingji go on board, Gu Gao and Huang Zongxi also ran to follow.

  Zhang Guowei, Shangshu of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, is standing on the tower at the moment, watching the three Fushe soldiers board the pirate ship from a distance, his facial expressions are incomparably wonderful.

   The food on board, as well as porcelain and other goods, were transported for two days and sold to Nanjing gentry and merchants.

  After the warship unloaded, it immediately dragged the giant wood to Shanghai, where Zheng Zhilong's own ship helped transport it to Guangdong.

  Zhang Guowei watched the anti-thief fleet leave, and sat down weakly.

  He looked at the sky, and there were dark clouds, as if it was going to rain.

  It would be great if it rains, which means that the drought is not serious this year.

  In history, Zhang Guowei was widely known as a martyr against the Qing Dynasty, but his real identity was a water conservancy expert. How much he wants to subdue the war and build water conservancy in a down-to-earth manner, even if he works hard, he enjoys it.

Shanghai.

  Watching the Jiangxi naval division hand over the giant tree to the Zheng family's ship, Wu Yingji said: "Zheng Zhilong has colluded with Jiangxi, and the whole province of Fujian may be taken within ten months."

   "It would be best to take down Jiangnan!" Huang Zongxi said angrily.

  Huang Zongxi's resentment towards Chongzhen, although it has not accumulated to the peak, has already cursed countless times in secret.

  Amidst this kind of resentment, his thinking gradually changed, but it has not yet been systematically written into an article. He feels that the evaluation of the order and chaos of the world is not based on the rise and fall of a single family name, but on the joy and sorrow of all people.

  As long as the people are happy, it doesn’t matter if the dynasty changes!

   Zhao Han's "Family, Country and Tianxia Theory" was written in Huang Zongxi's heart. Moreover, there are many contents that Huang Zongxi did not expect. After reading the article, he suddenly felt enlightened.

  Back in the cabin, Huang Zongxi read "Family, Country, and World" again, and suddenly began to write the manuscript.

   "Yuanjun"!

   "At the beginning of life, each person is selfish, and each person has his own interests. There are public interests in the world, and there is no way to promote them..."

  Since the existence of human society, people have been selfish.

  No one initiates a cause that is beneficial to the public; no one rejects a thing that is harmful to the public.

  If there is such a person who does not seek personal interests, but only seeks the interests of the world, does not seek personal avoidance of harm, but makes the world avoid harm. Then he must have worked a million times harder and paid a million times harder, but he himself does not enjoy the benefits. Ordinary people would not do it... This has been the case throughout the ages, and the three generations of saints are not exempt.

  Three generations later, the monarchs regarded themselves as the masters of others, attributed the benefits of the world to themselves, and attributed the harm of the world to others. It also makes people in the world dare not be selfish, and regard their own self-interest as the public interest of the world. Maybe you will feel ashamed at first, but after a long time, you will feel at ease.

  Huang Zongxi's "Yuan Jun" was influenced by Zhao Han's "Family, Country and World", and wrote much more in-depth than the original history.

  He compared the country to a big business, the emperor is the general manager of the company, the officials are the second shopkeeper, the third shopkeeper and the semicolon shopkeeper, and all the people in the world are shareholders of the company.

  A company name is the name of the shareholders, and the world is the world of the people in the world.

  If the emperor and officials are incompetent, they should all be replaced. This is the most reasonable way, just as shareholders have replaced many shopkeepers. In today's world, the big shopkeeper and the second shopkeeper are actually trying to seize the property of the shareholders, and they have to starve the shareholders to death before giving up.

  Only those foolish little Confucians will stick to the righteousness of the monarch and his subjects, thinking that the relationship between the monarch and his subjects is inherently unchanged.

  A true great Confucian should understand the truth: the people are more important than the country, and the country is more important than the king!

   After finishing writing "Yuan Jun", Huang Zongxi gave it to Gu Gao and Wu Yingji.

   After watching it, the two of them were inexplicably horrified.

  Wu Yingji said: "This article must not appear in the world, otherwise which monarch can tolerate it?"

   "Burn it quickly, or you may be killed!" Gu Gao advised.

Huang Zongxi said with a smile: "The meaning of this article comes from "Family, Country and Tianxia", but I wrote it more openly. If Zhao Han from Jiangxi can tolerate it, then this person must be the master of enlightenment through the ages. He can't stand it, that's a deceitful person, it's better to kill me, so that the world can see his true colors."

   (The temperature dropped suddenly, I caught a cold, and my throat and nose were uncomfortable. There are only two updates today.)

  (end of this chapter)