My life skills in Daming Liver

Lin Deyang saw the opportunity and immediately sent artillery to bomb Jianmen Pass.

The Jianmen defenders already had no will to fight, and they were violently bombarded by artillery fire, and they even lost their will to resist.

News of the fall of Chengdu spread crazily in Jianmen Pass. Finally, Lu Guangzu, the guard of Jianmen Pass, led the main force of his direct line to withdraw. The mutinous soldiers opened the door and welcomed Lin Deyang into Jianmen Pass.

Lu Guangzu led his soldiers and quickly went to Langzhong, where he met Jiang Dongchen who was also distressed.

Jiang Dongchen was shocked when he saw Lu Guangzu and asked quickly:

"General Lu Shen! Jianmen Pass?"

Lu Guangzu knelt directly in front of Jiang Dongchen and said:

"My Lord Governor, I have betrayed your trust! The sword gate is lost!"

Upon hearing the news, Lu Guangzu was dizzy and almost lost his balance.

He held the edge of the table and said:

"Jianmen Pass is lost, how many soldiers did you bring back?"

Before entering Langzhong, Lu Guangzu had already counted the number of soldiers and immediately said: "There are still less than 8,000 people."

Jiang Dongchen was dizzy again. The Jianmen defenders originally numbered 20,000 people, and they relied on natural dangers to block the new southeastern army.

Now there are only 8,000 people left. These people are not even needed to go to Chengdu to quell the rebellion, not to mention blocking the southeastern army at Jianmen Pass.

Moreover, after breaking through Jianmen, the entire Sichuan plain is completely undefendable. What can I do to resist the army from the southeast?

When the war reached this point, Jiang Dongchen also knew that the situation was over.

He looked at Lu Guangzu and said:

"The soldiers in Sichuan are war-weary to begin with. This is not General Lu's problem, it's my problem."

Jiang Dongchen seemed to have aged ten years suddenly. He looked at Lu Guangzu and said:

"You lead the army to surrender."

"Lord Governor!"

Lu Guangzu looked at Jiang Dongchen, who said dejectedly:

"Even if we don't surrender, it will only increase casualties. Is it possible that eight thousand soldiers will be buried with me?"

After Jiang Dongchen finished speaking, he left Lu Guangzu in the Mingtang while he turned and walked into the study.

The study room was filled with various documents. Jiang Dongchen divided the corresponding materials and then wrote three more letters.

The recipient of the first letter is Gao Gong. Jiang Dongchen and Gao Gong took the imperial examination in the same year, and Gao Gong was also Jiang Dongchen's candidate. This is Jiang Dongchen's letter of thanks to Gao Gong, and it also tells what happened during his rule of Shu over the years. things.

The second letter was left to the general of the New Army in the Southeast. It contained his experience in governing Sichuan and the situation of the powerful families in central Sichuan.

The third letter was left by Jiang Dongchen to the Ming court.

In the letter, Jiang Dongchen summarized the reasons for the failure of the Ming Dynasty.

Jiang Dongchen already had the intention of taking death, so the content of his letter was also unceremonious.

First of all, there is corruption in the administration of government. Officials are all thinking about making profits and have no intention of serving the country and the people.

Then there is the lack of authority in the central government, which results in governors in various places having to fight on their own and distrusting each other because of the struggle for power.

The first two points can be considered clichés, and the last point is Jiang Dongchen’s thinking after many years in politics.

"My minister Jiang Dongchen came to the table with tears in his eyes. Gai Dongnan was able to sweep the world. For this reason, he made three appointments with the soldiers!"

"In the pre-Qin period, those who could read were the sons of ministers, and those who ate meat were scholars. If you could win scholars, you could conquer the world. Only if Qin could win the scholars of the world, would the King of Qin conquer Liuhe."

"During the Han Dynasty, people studied in aristocratic and powerful families, and served as scholars for many generations. Due to the strength of the Han Dynasty, the Han emperor had to compromise with the powerful in his later years. Without these powerful and powerful families, it would be impossible to govern the world."

"Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, people have studied in poor families. I was born in a poor family in the local area. I was able to pass the imperial examination and become a high official in the border areas."

"When I was a county magistrate, I had to meet with the local landlords and squires wherever I went. Only with squires can we govern the countryside. Only if we can govern the township can we manage millet. Only if we can manage millet can we complete the court's land tax and tax and have people to support the construction. Countryside.”

"When it comes to administration of education and government, it is better for me to be the son of a country gentry."

"But times have changed now."

When writing this, Jiang Dongchen felt bitter in his heart.

"The changes in urban and rural areas are actually the biggest changes in the past thousands of years."

"In the past, taxes were in the countryside, scholarship was in the countryside, and soldiers were in the countryside."

"Today, taxes are in the city, scholarship is in the city, and soldiers are in the city."

"As for the officials of the Ming Dynasty, they are mostly good at governing the countryside but not the city. They are mostly proud of talking about farm affairs and ashamed of talking about industry and commerce. This is the beginning of the Ming Dynasty losing the heart of the world."

After Jiang Dongchen wrote these, he placed the three letters on the table, returned to the back house, took out a musket, put it against his throat and pulled the trigger to commit suicide.

After Jiang Dongchen's death, Lu Guangzu was in grief, but since the Ming court's Sichuan governor was dead, there was no need for others to resist.

Lu Guangzu collected Jiang Dongchen's body, sealed up the governor's office in Langzhong, and then led his troops to surrender to Lin Deyang, who was rapidly marching south.

After receiving the surrender of the Sichuan Army, Lin Deyang ordered his subordinates to advance towards Chengdu, spread the news that Jiang Dongchen had committed suicide and Jianmen had been lost, and forced Chengdu to surrender.

Sure enough, the news reached Chengdu, and the civil and military forces left behind in Chengdu lost their will to resist and opened the city gates to surrender.

Once Chengdu surrendered, the entire core area of ​​Sichuan was in the hands of Southeast China. By this time, the war situation had been decided.

Jiang Dongchen's official reputation in Sichuan is good, his personal ethics are also very good, and his family has no surplus wealth.

Southeast has always been kind to such Ming officials. Lin Deyang personally returned Jiang Dongchen's body to his family, and also subsidized funeral expenses in accordance with Southeast regulations.

The manuscripts of letters left by Jiang Dongchen to his family were also handed over to them by Lin Deyang.

Lin Deyang also accepted the letters he wrote to Gao Gong and Southeast.

His last letter to Ming Ting, Lin Deyang was in trouble.

If the Grand Governor Su Ze personally commanded the battle, Lin Deyang would definitely hand this letter to the Ming court based on Lin Deyang's understanding of Su Ze's demeanor.

But he did not have this right. He could only seal the letter, and then have it sent down the Yangtze River, and handed it over to Nanjing, where he would leave it to the Governor to make a decision.

At the same time, Su Ze was also discussing urban and rural issues with the cabinet.

Xu Wei stroked his beard and said:

"The city is the foundation of our southeast. Nowadays, most of the taxes in the entire southeast come from banknote tariffs and ship taxes, and these taxes all come from the city."

"Most of the soldiers are also urban literates. Cities are absorbing large numbers of rural people, and several large cities are expanding in size."

The theme of this meeting is urbanization. Urbanization in the southeast is on the rise. A large number of rural people are moving into cities, which has also brought a lot of new problems.

However, most cabinet members are very happy with urbanization. Compared with the more vast rural areas, the southeastern government prefers big cities.

The officials and staff in the southeast, as well as most of the soldiers, also came from the city.

But Su Ze said seriously: "Cities are indeed important, but next we should pay more attention to rural issues."