"Sorry, let Eunuch Xi wait for a long time."

Chen Yichen got off the carriage, bowed toward Xining, and greeted him with a little "apologetically".

"It's okay, our family has just arrived."

Compared to Chen Yichen, he even got off the carriage, but Xining simply sat in the sedan chair and didn't get off.

Yesterday, he deliberately showed goodwill to Chen Yichen, which gave him enough face to Xining. You should know that in the past, when he left the local military supervisor, the civil and military ministers were all humble to him.

Chen Yichen was still one step late, and it was rare to have no face according to Xining's personality.

"The journey here is long, I don't know which route Xi's father-in-law plans to take to enter Fujian."

Chen Yichen looked at Xining's lazy look and couldn't help asking.

There were two ways to go to Fujian in the Ming Dynasty. One was the traditional Dabeiling Post Road, also known as the "Zhuangyuan Ancient Road", which was the only way for Fujian students to go to Beijing to take the exam.

From the capital to Shandong, then to Jiangsu, then through Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and finally into Fujian.

Walking the Dabeiling Post Road takes a long time, as short as three or five months, as long as one or two years. The advantage is that this is a commercial road opened by merchants, which is relatively prosperous along the way, and you can also get various places. The hospitality and filial piety of the government.

Another is the traditional waterway, which goes directly to Hangzhou along the Grand Canal of Beijing and Hangzhou, and then enters Fujian from Zhejiang.

The advantage is the speed, and the disadvantage is that it is not easy to make money all the way.

Looking at Xining's attitude, Chen Yichen guessed that he was going to take the land route, otherwise wouldn't the twelve-carrying sedan chair be in vain?

However, the facts proved that Chen Yichen was wrong. After hearing his inquiry, Xining replied in dissatisfaction: "Chen Hanlin is the leader of the Ming Dynasty. He should understand the principle that soldiers are the most important. When going to Fujian, we should quickly quell the rebellious people. , and then return to the capital as soon as possible to announce His Majesty.”

"Which path is there to go, do you still need to ask?"

If Chen Yichen was rushing to Fujian to stabilize the situation, then Xining could be described as the four words "returning back is like an arrow". Before he even set out, he thought about how to come back in advance.

After all, Xining has been out of town for many years and has finally returned to the capital from Liaodong to serve as the eunuch in charge of the seal, and is preparing to get closer to the emperor.

As a result, Wang Zhen was disturbed by it. Before his butt was hot, he had to go to Fujian to quell the rebellion. How could he be willing?

"What Master Xi said is very true, and the lower officials will receive the education!"

Chen Yichen quickly bowed and praised him, which was simply an unexpected surprise. Unexpectedly, Xining really had a career-oriented attitude.

"Chen Hanlin, then let's go."

"yes."

Chen Yichen nodded, then turned around and returned to his carriage, and the group rushed towards the Tongzhou Wharf.

...

Xu Fengyuan, the current county magistrate of Changle County, Fuzhou Prefecture, was in the backyard study room. In order to ensure concealment, he specially instructed the county magistrate to not be rash without his permission. Come in.

Because it was not someone else who came, it was Ye Zongliu, the leader of Fujian miner!

"Captain Ye, I heard that you have captured Jianning, an important town in northern Fujian. Can you take this matter seriously?"

Before Ye Zongliu could speak, Xu Fengyuan started asking in a hurry.

You should know that for the court, killing officials and rioting is called thieves, and without a base, it can only be called bandits.

However, the nature of siege and land has completely changed, and it can be defined as a rebel army!

Xu Fengyuan couldn't believe how a small conflict between a servant and Lu Ding evolved to this kind of scene today.

If this continues, Ye Zongliu and others have no way to go.

Or, it’s impossible to look back now!

Faced with Xu Fengyuan's anxious inquiry, Ye Zong nodded in a complicated manner and said, "Yes, Jiang Lutou has led brothers Ludding to capture Jianning Mansion."

To be honest, it was an unexpected gain for Ye Zongliu and others to capture Jianning Prefecture, an important town in northern Fujian. They had no intention or strength to attack the city, and just wanted to take a detour and escape the blockade of the official army.

It may be that the defenders of Jianning Prefecture were recruited and encircled, causing the entire city to be vacant in defense. It may also be that the prisoner and killing of the Fujian Provincial Secretary Zhu Yuan had a great psychological deterrence to local officials.

Anyway, seeing the arrival of the rebel army, the officials of Jianning Prefecture chose to flee. Jiang Fucheng took down a city without any effort.

But what followed were all kinds of realistic problems. The city was controlled by itself and others, but how could it be kept?

This is why peasant uprising troops often ended in failure for thousands of years.

Because in most cases, they faced the harsh exploitation of the government and were forced to make a survival struggle, lacked clear guiding ideology and goals, and even did not know what they would do in the end.

A large group of people did not prepare in advance to start a hasty rebellion, and then took one step at a time to confront the encirclement and suppression army. Even if they could achieve some success in the early stage, they would soon fall into a confused state and there was no next step.

Direction.

This is true for Ye Zongliu and Jiang Fucheng now. They captured Jianning Mansion City, and then they didn't know whether to defend or abandon the city to avoid confrontation with the imperial army.

Reasonably, with the strength of Fujian miner Lu Ding, he is far from reaching the level of siege in cities and plundering land. The most correct choice is to abandon the city and continue to fight guerrilla warfare.

However, the temptation to capture the city was simply irresistible to many illiterate uprising troops, and some even cheered for the possibility of breaking the land and tyranny to be king.

Little did they know that trapping the city was the beginning of the demise of many peasant uprisings.

Ye Zongliu had no ambition to break the ground and bound the border. He chose to cooperate with Jiang Fucheng to kill officials and rebel just out of loyalty and anger.

After all, if there were no miners such as Ye Zongliu and others to join the battle to support them, the fate of thousands of Ludians in Youxi after being besieged by officers and soldiers would be to be killed on the charge of traitors!

Therefore, Ye Zongliu did not agree to defend Chicheng, but in the process of deciding whether to give up, the situation in Fujian suddenly changed, and the rebels bloomed everywhere!

First of all, in Chuzhou, Fujian, Ye Zongliu's friend Tao Deer led an uprising of more than a thousand peasants. He was controlled in a very powerful way in a short period of time, and the border areas and major transportation routes of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces were controlled.

Immediately afterwards, a tenant farmer named Deng Maoqi led the tenants to launch a riot in Sha County, Fujian, and put forward the slogan of "robbing the rich and helping the poor", which attracted the response from nearby farmers and instantly pulled up more than 10,000 teammates.

In addition, Deng Maoqi, a man who was "brave and wise", had long gathered tenants to fight against rents for a long time before the uprising. He had rich experience in leadership and organization, which led to the combat effectiveness of his peasant army being improved by more than one level.

The local government in Shaxian County was no match for Deng Maoqi. He later came from above to occupy Chen Shanzhai and directly set up an official office to swear all over the world, calling himself the "King of Shattering" and trying to wipe out all the injustice in the world!

The birth of these rebel troops greatly encouraged the miners and Lu Dings who occupied Jianning Mansion City. It seemed that the Fujian official army was no longer afraid, and there was no need to hide from them and flee everywhere. The momentum of persistence became the absolute mainstream

.

Defending the city means reserveing ​​enough food and grass for war. However, before the Jianning officials fled, a fire directly burned the warehouse of the government office, resulting in the surplus grain of the entire Jianning Mansion being only enough for half a month to eat.

In addition, Fujian suffered Japanese turmoil at the end of the ninth year, Zhengtong suffered heavy floods in ten years, and Zhengtong suffered severe droughts in eleven years. Natural disasters and man-made disasters continued to cause trouble, and the people were struggling to survive, and there was no surplus grain in their hands. They could not even collect them from the surrounding areas of the city.

Having said that, if it weren’t for the serial natural disasters and man-made disasters, the situation in Fujian would not have collapsed to such an extent. It can only be said that there will be a cause and a result.

After Ye Zongliu thought about it, only Xu Fengyuan could alleviate the crisis of miners' furnaces and grains in Fujian.

In recent years, it has made great profits in smuggling trade with Japanese pirates. In addition, after Xu Feng was the magistrate of Changle County, he did work diligently to benefit the people, stored sufficient rice and grain, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, which was highly praised.

So there was such a strange scene, and the thief in the court was about to ask the court to order officials to borrow food...

"Captain Ye, do you know the consequences of capturing the city?"

Xu Fengyuan was shocked. He really didn't expect that Ye Zongliu had come to this point in just a few days.

"I know what, so what if I don't know?"

"Brother Xu, you also know our past identity and planning, and there is no turning back when you draw the bow."

Ye Zongliu didn't want to discuss those things about "regret" anymore. Zhengtong had already made up his mind after nine years of hard work, and it was just a three-year-old rush to raise an army.

"The Fujian Provincial Administration has issued official documents to the prefectures and prefectures to inform the court of riots in Fujian. If nothing unexpected happens, the imperial army will soon arrive. Will Chief Ye really take this dead end?"

"The general comes to block the water and soil. Ye is here today and only asks Brother Xu to help us with the last one."

"In the future, everyone will live and die without intercourse!"

In fact, Ye Zong had a premonition about the final result. He didn't want to implicate Xu Fengyuan too deeply, and this might be the last time he asked each other.

After several years of business, Xu Fengyuan respected Ye Zongliu from the bottom of his heart. Listening to the other party's decisive tone, he knew that it would be meaningless to say anything else at this point.

So he sighed and replied, "Captain Ye said, as long as he can do his best, he will do his best."

"I need Brother Xu to send a ship along the Min River to transport food and grass. When the Japanese imperial army will fight in the future, our brothers will be able to stand firm and fight against each other."

Ye Zongliu had known that Xu Feng had come to Fujian to work. In addition to running the Japanese slave smuggling trade with him, he also received the order from Shen Yichen to collect drying wood at Taiping Port in Changle County and prepare to build a large seaship.

Although the sea boats are progressing slowly, Xu Feng vigorously developed shipping in Changle County during his tenure as county magistrate, and adopted the policy of turning a blind eye to fishermen who violated the ban to go to sea.

As a result, except for the Xiaban sea ships built by Guo Yan, the co-magistrate of Fuzhou Prefecture, which may have an advantage in the number of ships and tonnage in the entire Fujian region, the shipping transportation in Changle County is not as prosperous as that in Changle County.

In addition, Taiping Port here was once the foreign land where the eunuch of Sanbao Zheng He went to the West, and his historical origins were profound.

Chen Yichen arranged for Xu Fengyuan to be the magistrate here, which was considered to have made plans long ago.

"Captain Ye is not greedy for life and death, but he is very familiar with the use of ships to transport food and grass to Jianning. It is probably not a moment since the entire Fujian people know it."

Ye Zongliu is now defined by the court as the leader of the thief, and officials of all major and small in Fujian Provincial Administration have set their sights on him.

Officials can collude with bandits, but they must not have any involvement with the rebels, otherwise they will be dismissed from office as soon as possible.

"There is no need to be transported to Jianning. Just find a remote dock to unload the goods. Ye will arrange for the handover."

The rebel army has never been short of manpower. In recent years, there have been complaints in Fujian. As long as the harvest is relaxed, countless poor peasants will join the rebel army.

Ye Zongliu only lacks food and armor!

You should know that any dynasty in ancient times had almost no restrictions on weapons, and could travel to the world with a sword.

However, hiding armor privately is a serious crime of treason.

Of course, the old face of the grain and grass, the leaves of the zodiac, could not speak out for his old face and ask Xu Fengyuan to help him.
To be continued...