Forty thousand tiger troops, led by Li Zhi, surrounded Huai'an City.
Huai'an is a large city in the north of South Zhili. It has water transportation, salt transportation, river engineering, Guanguan, and post office. It is called the "four major cities" along the canal line with Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. Huai'an is not only prosperous but also prosperous.
The culture is also very prosperous. For more than 200 years in the Ming Dynasty, there were more than 100 Jinshi in Shanyang County, where Huai'an Prefecture is located.
In Huai'an City, there are countless wealthy gentry.
"Zuo Liangyu and Wu Sangui are like rats. They dare not face the sharp edge of our fierce army." Zhong Feng looked at Minzhuang guarding the city wall and sneered. "But these gentry are really willing to die in order to protect their tax-free rights.
.The two towns in Jiangbei have retreated to Yangzhou. The gentry in these places no longer have the protection of the Jiangbei army, and instead employ themselves to defend the city."
Zuo Liangyu and Wu Sangui did not dare to fight Li Zhi, so they withdrew all the way south from Gaoyou Prefecture and had already retreated to Yangzhou.
The gentry of Huai'an were unwilling to surrender the city of Huai'an. Instead, they temporarily organized 20,000 people to guard the city wall in a last-ditch effort.
This situation did not surprise Li Zhi, after all, Li Zhi wanted the lifeblood of the gentry.
In fact, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the landowners who made a fortune by relying on careful management and proper management basically no longer existed. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the social order was chaotic, the officialdom was corrupt, and the landowners without power and fame were like children passing through the market with money, and they were eliminated in a few moments.
The powerful gentry annexed it.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the phenomenon of plundering and plundering among the people was very serious. Most landowners relied on their fame and power to embezzle other people's fields to make a fortune. Using tax exemption rights to attract unruly people to donate was the norm for landlords to make a fortune in the late Ming Dynasty.
Li Zhi abolished the tax exemption rights of the gentry and passed court laws so that the gentry could not exploit the farmers who donated their fields. For the gentry, it almost abolished most of their economic sources. Without economic sources, the gentry could easily have dozens or hundreds of people.
How can families live? This is killing them.
In the original history, even if the Qing Dynasty took over the Central Plains and the Yangzhou Jiading Massacre was full of people, they did not dare to deprive the gentry of their tax-free rights. Because the Manchu Qing knew that if it cut off the gentry's financial path, the gentry would
If you risk your life with him, the banner of anti-Qing and restoration of Ming will be planted all over the country.
The policy of paying grain to both officials and gentry was implemented for only a few decades in the Yongzheng Dynasty, but became invalid again in the Qianlong Dynasty.
In fact, the gentry in the late Ming Dynasty were by no means weak characters who could be bullied.
In the original history that has not changed, the Li Zicheng Dashun regime came to Beijing in the 17th year of Chongzhen. At first, the gentry all over the world believed that once Li Zicheng became emperor, he would definitely open the imperial examination and appoint civil servants, and continue to rely on the gentry to rule the world. At that time, Li Zicheng's government expanded its territory
It was almost determined by a message. As soon as a document from Li Zicheng was sent to the county government, the gentry in a county began to be loyal to Li Zicheng and immediately joined the Dashun regime.
However, when Li Zicheng entered the capital and began to torture the officials of the Ming Dynasty and forced them to hand over the stolen money, the gentry all over the world immediately turned their backs. The vigorous Nanming regime was organized. At that time, the Nanming regime even proposed "uniting the captives to quell the bandits"
, even if they united with the Manchu Qing Dynasty to attack Li Zicheng, they would give up all bottom lines and strangle the peasant army.
It can be seen that it is wrong to say that the gentry at the end of the explanation have no backbone. Once their interests are touched, they will try their best to resist.
The gentry in Huai'an decided to fight to the death at the last moment and must defend their own interests. For the right to evade tax and the various benefits derived from it, they risked their lives. At this time, the city walls were not only filled with people recruited by the gentry.
, and many gentry and disciples personally went into battle to boost morale on the city wall.
Of course, in front of the Tiger Army, this kind of struggle is ridiculous.
Li Zhi gave an order, and more than a thousand sniper rifles were aimed at the head of the northern city wall.
The crackle of gunshots rang out, and screams suddenly rang out from the city walls. Hundreds of city defenders fell down amid the flying blood foam.
Li Zhi saw in the telescope that a man wearing a Confucian scarf was shot in the forehead. He fell back without saying a word and died. A big shot who usually swarmed around could be killed with a single bullet in front of a sniper rifle.
things.
How had the mob on the city wall seen such a shooting? Everyone panicked and hid behind the wall.
But it was useless to hide behind the walls, because Li Zhi's cannons began to demolish the walls.
Two hundred cannons aimed at the middle section of the north city wall of Huai'an and began to bombard the city bricks indiscriminately. The solid iron shells hit the city bricks like a heavy rain, and soon collapsed those city bricks and the rammed earth underneath them.
The smashed dust poured like liquid into the moat at the foot of the city wall, blocking half of the two-foot-wide moat behind.
It only took two hours for the artillery to blast a 200-meter-long gap in the north of the city.
As long as Li Zhi's baggage team comes up to fill in the moat in front of this gap, Li Zhi's army can attack the city.
However, just when Minzhuang, Li Zhi's baggage team, came up with a cart to fill the soil, the mob on the city wall collapsed. Although the gentry was indeed willing to spend money this time and gave Minzhuang a few taels of silver, but whose life
They couldn't be bought with just a few taels of silver. Just hearing a bang, the defenders on the north wall screamed and fled down the wall.
This chaos soon spread to the other three city walls, and finally all the people ran away. They hid in the city and were worried about being caught by Li Zhi, so they opened the south gate in panic and fled to the south of the city.
The prosperous city of Huai'an suddenly opened its doors, nakedly displayed in front of Huben's army.
The Huben army did not bother to chase down those fleeing Minzhuang, but marched neatly into Huai'an City. The soldiers wore shiny half-body armor, held sophisticated rifles, and wore sturdy leather boots, lining up one by one.
Entered Huai'an City.
"The Duke of Jin's Hu Ben army was ordered to march southward. Wherever the soldiers arrived, they only arrested the criminals and did not disturb the civilians!"
"Anyone who sponsors Qian Qianyi to establish the Second Town of Jiangbei shall be killed!"
"Anyone who organizes the people to block the Duke of Jin from entering the city will be killed!"
"The rest of the people, merchants, landlords, and the army will not offend in the autumn. They should stay at home safely and don't come out to cause trouble!"
Surrounded by his personal guards, Li Zhi entered Huai'an City riding on the wind-walking horse given by the emperor.
Huai'an City is quite prosperous, and the buildings are lined up row upon row. It looks very prosperous, which made Li Zhi look around a few times.
Zhong Feng rode beside Li Zhi and said loudly: "My lord, this Huai'an Prefecture has a population of one million. The East and West Towns of Jiangbei are hiding in Yangzhou and do not dare to fight with us, so they gave us these one million people in one fell swoop.
.”
Zheng Kaicheng said: "But the Emperor has explicitly ordered us not to control the land in southern Zhili for a long time."
Zhong Feng snorted coldly and said: "If the soldiers come to cover up the water and the earth, there will always be a way to deal with the emperor. How can we let this prosperous and prosperous Huai'an city return empty-handed?"
