Those Things in the Ming Dynasty Part 1 The Great Emperor Hongwu _ Chapter 3 Embark on a journey
In the eleventh year of Zhizheng (1351), God finally gave the last straw to the Yuan Dynasty, and the end of the Yuan Dynasty came.
Our mystery has also been revealed. Now it seems that Tuotuo's insistence on regulating the Yellow River is good, but he does not understand the painstaking efforts of those who oppose it, and he does not understand the extremely corrupt officials of the Yuan Dynasty. Now he
I'm finally going to taste the bitter fruit.
When the Yuan Dynasty ordered 170,000 workers along the coast to build river embankments, officials at all levels were extremely excited. First of all, the wages allocated by the emperor to build the river could be deducted, and the rations of the migrant workers could be deducted, since they did not eat or drink anyway.
It doesn't matter to me, this is a huge amount of income; the cost of the project can also be deducted, anyway, the Yellow River flooding will not drown officials like myself.
This is the person in charge of river affairs. So how do those who don't care about river affairs make money? It's actually simple. Since the project is so big, there must be a quota for corvee labor. Find dozens of people, go to various villages, and take away the men they see. The reason?
Build the river embankment. Don’t want to go? Bring the money.
No money? Take whatever valuables you have with you!
Poor Tuotuo, a good theorist but not a practitioner.
The old trick came into play. When the migrant workers dug into Shandong, they dug out a stone man with one eye from under the river. On the back was carved: Stone man with one eye, instigating rebellion across the Yellow River. The migrant workers suddenly discovered that this was exactly what they wanted.
It was the lyrics they had been singing on the construction site for several years. It moved people's minds.
This is really an old trick. It can be programmed into a computer. Before the uprising, there is always some kind of feudal superstition, but there is nothing you can do about it. People just follow this trick.
What happened next seemed to be natural. A few days later, Han Shantong and Liu Futong revolted in the place where Zhu Chongba had begged for food (Yingzhou, today's Fuyang, Anhui). Their uprising was no different from previous uprisings, as usual
They wanted to set up a religious organization, this time it was the White Lotus Sect. Of course, since they dared to revolt, their identities should be different, so Han Shantong, who might have been a poor peasant for eight generations, suddenly changed his surname to Zhao and became the royal family of the Song Dynasty, and Liu Futong also became General Liu Guangshi
's descendants.
Their fate was similar to that of the peasant leaders in every previous uprising. When they rebelled, they were suppressed, and the latecomers prevailed. This seemed to be the fate of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang.
Although their form of uprising is nothing new, it does not hinder their greatness and status in history. In history books, it will be recorded forever: In 1351 AD, Han Shantong and Liu Futong were the first to rebel against the feudalism of the Yuan Dynasty.
The banner of domination.
Since ancient times, it has been difficult to establish a dynasty, but it is relatively easy to destroy one. It is not without reason that there is a saying that "everyone will push down a wall, break a drum and beat it".
In the Yuan Dynasty, a dynasty that divided people into four levels, the highest-level Mongolians killed the lowest-level Southerners. The only punishment was to compensate a donkey. If they encountered someone like an idle migrant worker, they might even lose the donkey.
Save it. The thinking of the Mongolian nobles seems to be very strange. Even after they occupied China, they still seemed to regard themselves as guests. They could grab and take whatever they wanted from the host's house. It was none of their business anyway. To them
In my mind, these southerners can only endure their torture.
But they are wrong, these slaves will rise up and resist. When the anger and dissatisfaction exceed the limit, when even surviving like a dog becomes a luxury, resistance is the only way. Resistance is for survival.
The fire finally caught up and started a prairie fire.
In just one year, dozens of riots occurred in the seemingly powerful Yuan Empire, and millions of people participated in the uprising. Even the invincible Mongolian cavalry was no longer as brave as it once was and was unable to save the crisis.
.The Yuan Empire is like a rotten wall, it will fall down if it is kicked again.
At this time, Zhu Chongba was still ringing the bell in the temple. Judging from various signs, he had no intention of joining the rebel army. Although he had a sworn hatred with the Yuan Dynasty, for an ordinary person, Zhu Chongba,
Rebellion involves risks, and if caught, one will be decapitated, which forced him to think carefully.
In many books, Zhu Chongba is portrayed as a born hero, so in such scripts, as soon as Zhu Chongba, a born hero, heard about the uprising, he immediately went back to the temple to get fucked and defected to the rebel army, showing that
His complete revolutionary nature and so on.
I think this is not the real Zhu Chongba.
As a normal person, he would never be so rash when making a choice that might cost him his head. If Zhu Chongba is really such a reckless person, he is not a real hero.
The real Zhu Chongba is a fearful person. He has suffered great pain and has a deep hatred for Yuan, but he also knows that life is precious. Once he chooses to rebel, there is no turning back.
Knowing the difficulties and pain you may face, constantly struggling in the fear of death, and still being able to defeat yourself and choose this path is the real courage.
This kind of Zhu Chongba is the real hero, a hero who defeats himself and is not afraid of death.
Zhu Chongba's life in the temple was boring and regular, but this boring and regular life was disrupted by the raging fire of the uprising. Ironically, it was not the rebels who disrupted all this, but the rebels.
Those Yuan officials.
In the battle to suppress the uprising, if you lose the battle, you will be punished by your superiors, but the task of suppressing the uprising must be completed, so the officials of the Yuan Dynasty resolutely decided to attack the common people; since they could not defeat the uprising
If you want to defeat the army, then take those common people who can be bullied into custody and kill them as rebels.
From this perspective, the corrupt officials of the Yuan Dynasty really spared no effort and made great achievements in overthrowing the rule of the Yuan Dynasty.
At this time, the situation before Zhu Chongba became serious. If he did not go up in rebellion, he would probably be captured by an official and killed as an insurrectionist, and then named Zhang San or Li Si. However, there were also many risks of defecting to the insurrectionary army.
The big risk is that once the Yuan army is defeated, their lives will not be saved.
At this moment, a letter completely changed his fate.
His childhood friend Tang He wrote a letter to him. The content of the letter was that he had become a member of the uprising army, and hoped that Zhu Chongba would also join the uprising army and seek wealth together. After Zhu Chongba read it, he did not move.
He burned the letter because of his sensuality. He was not mentally prepared to participate in the uprising.
However, at night, his senior brother told him that someone already knew about him reading the rebels' letters and was going to report him.
Zhu Chongba was finally forced to a dead end.
What followed was painful thinking and decision-making. Zhu Chongba had three options in front of him: first, stay in the temple; second, escape; third, rebel.
Zhu Chongba was also undecided, so he found a person and asked him for his opinion. This person was called Zhou Dexing, and we will mention him frequently later.
Zhou Dexing didn't seem to have any good ideas. His advice to Zhu Chongba was to divine (what is this idea) and see which way is suitable.
The result of the fortune-telling is "it is unlucky to escape, but it is not a good idea to fight with the evil", which means that it is unlucky to run away and stay here, but it may be okay to rebel.
Zhu Chongba knew that he had no way out. He just wanted to live an honest life, cultivate two acres of land, and honor his parents, but he couldn't do it. His parents were burdened with heavy land taxes and corvees, and they worked diligently every day.
, and ended up with his whole family ruined. He hid in the temple just to make a living, but now he is being reported, and he may lose his head.
fed up.
Then go against it! Go against him!
No one is willing to fight or sacrifice their lives, but being forced into danger is their only fate.
So I think the peasant uprisings in Chinese history are indeed worthy of recognition. They may not be so kind, and they may have their own plans, but they really have no choice.
In this way, Tang He became Zhu Chongba's first comrade-in-arms. He will accompany Zhu Chongba on this arduous road in the days to come.
However, Tang He would never have imagined that he would be the only one to accompany him throughout this journey.