Chapter 1: A People's Husband in Bamboo Creek (Part 1)
"Hey, you bastard, how dare you throw your master's treasure to the ground!"
Outside the city gate of Zhuxi County, there was a loose group of officers and soldiers, each wearing a sword at his waist. The man wearing a helmet at the head was whipping a civilian husband next to him.
The husband's name was Li Chong'er. He was originally from a good family in Mizhi County, northern Shaanxi Province. He was drafted by the army for several months and was already exhausted. He looked extremely thin, as if he had been hungry for several days.
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Li Chonger was originally carrying a load of broken property for the helmeted general, but he couldn't bear it and all of it fell to the ground. This made the general furious and whipped him in the face.
Li Chonger hurriedly packed up the belongings scattered on the ground. He was in pain, but he felt no pressure in his heart. He could still criticize these useless officers and soldiers for searching the mountains outside the county. He said they were looking for something from Shaanxi.
The wandering thieves didn't find a single hair in the end. Instead, they killed and looted dozens of families of refugees living in the mountains, robbed a lot of people's property, and still managed to show off their power.
"When will these dog officers and soldiers be killed?"
Li Chonger cursed in his heart, but there was nothing he could do about it. When he first crossed over, even though he had no father or mother, he was still considered a good family son in Mizhi. Unfortunately, something happened to the clan soon after, and he was unable to help him.
, he soon became a slave laborer.
It is now the twelfth year of Chongzhen, and the world is in chaos. Drought, locusts, bandits, soldiers, and natural disasters are constant. If you can survive, you are already very lucky.
The work of this civilian husband is really not done by humans. He can't have a full meal for several days, and he is easily beaten by the officers and soldiers.
He looked at the prisoner in front of him who was thrown to the city gate by the officers and soldiers. He was the only real bandit captured by the Qin army during the mountain search. The eyes of this bandit were much more lively than Li Chonger's at this time.
, he was stabbed in the back, and he was afraid that he would not survive for a few days, but he still looked unruly. He thought that in a few years, these thieves would enter Yandu and trample the bones of public ministers all over Tianjie. Li Chonger
I actually felt a little bit of joy in my heart.
"Thief, please kneel down for me!"
The officer and soldier kicked the captured thief to the ground, but the thief showed no sign of surrender. His legs were extremely strong, and he pushed himself to the ground with one knee.
"How dare a gangster fight against me!"
The officers and soldiers were so angry that they pulled out their sabers, intending to chop the thieves to death with one blow. Li Chong lowered his body and carefully advised the officers and soldiers, saying: "Master... this is the leader of the bandits.
It's very valuable. The county master definitely wants to live, so why bother dirtying the master's sharp knife."
The officer and soldier probably thought that it would not be easy to capture a real thief alive, so he put the knife back into its sheath. But then he stared at Li Chonger again, smiled evilly, and said, "Hey, you kid is trying to excuse a thief, I think it's 80%
He is a traitor, so he should be taken to the county jail together!"
Li Chonger was shocked. He knew the fine tradition of officers and soldiers "killing good people and taking credit for their merits." He knew that the officers and soldiers were definitely not joking when they said such things. No one would care if a civilian like him was killed casually.
of.
He hurriedly knelt down, kowtowed repeatedly, and shouted: "The master acts as a duke, and the young man serves the master in front of and behind the horse. How can he have anything to do with the thief!"
"Hmph." The officer and soldier snorted coldly, stepped on Li Chonger's back and said, "If you respect me well, it will be fine... You know, respect me well!"
This so-called filial piety naturally requires Li Chonger to offer something. But what can he do as a mere civilian with no money left?
Li Chonger couldn't care less about the humiliation of being stepped on his back, and had a splitting headache. At this moment, the thief who was kneeling on the ground suddenly exerted his strength, broke free from the two ropes that were hastily tied around his body, and jerked forward.
Rushed over.
The thief's eyes were unruly, full of wild and untamed murderous intent. He roared and bumped into the officers and soldiers, but first he hit Li Chonger, who was kneeling in front of the officers and soldiers, and both of them fell to the ground.
"Bitch thief! You still want to mess with me!" While the thief was blocked by Li Chonger, the officers and soldiers quickly pulled out their sharp knives, rushed forward, and chopped off the thief's head with one knife, causing blood to be splashed all over the street.
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The headless body of the bandit fell on Li Chonger's body. He gasped for air, pushed the body away, and repeatedly shouted, "It's okay, sir," and "It's okay, sir."
The officer and soldier wiped the long knife stained with human blood on his clothes and said to Li Chonger: "You still have some eyesight, get out of here."
Li Chonger knelt on the ground, but was secretly frightened. He felt something cold in his arms. When he was pressed by the corpse of the bandit just now, he reached into his arms and touched it. It was clear that
I felt that it was a short knife. Could it be that the bandit slipped it in quietly when he knocked him down?
At this time, more and more people from the surrounding counties were gathering, and they were not just watching the fun. The people in Zhuxi County were already hungry, and everyone's eyes turned green. When they saw the bandits being killed, they swarmed up and started fighting.
They snatched the corpse of the thief, and a few people even chewed the corpse on the street.
These ordinary people who have lost their minds due to extreme hunger are like the filthiest beasts at this time.
They scrambled over each other as if they were snatching a delicacy...
When people are extremely hungry, all moral laws become empty words.
Zhuxi County is located in Yunyang Prefecture at the junction of Hubei, Chongqing and Shaanxi. The Yunyang mountainous area is densely covered with hills, and there are many valleys and terraces that can be cultivated in the valleys.
However, since last year, the Central Plains has been suffering from drought and locust raging, and it has not improved at all this year. The land in the Yunyang area was already very barren, but due to this disaster, the price of rice and wheat per bucket has increased to more than a thousand dollars, let alone
Ordinary common people, even those from luxurious and wealthy families, have to eat both wild vegetables and wild vegetables in order to be full.
Zhuxi County is a low-level evil county in Yunyang Prefecture. Last year's grain harvest was barely a quarter of previous years. County residents competed for human breasts, which has long been a common occurrence.
Since Li Chonger arrived in Zhuxi, he has seen this scene of fighting to eat the corpses of thieves many times. From the initial nausea to the current numbness, all he can control is not to let himself participate in it.
There were even times when Li Chonger was extremely tired and hungry from the heavy hard labor, and when he looked at the starved corpses in the wilderness, he would also... think about it carefully.
Even Li Chonger himself felt shuddering.
Changing children and eating them, these four simple words in history books are such a cruel and terrifying scene in reality.
In the past few days, Li Chonger has seen parents cannibalizing their children, and he has also seen children cannibalizing their parents. As for friends and neighbors, there are also a few who cannibalize each other.
In Zhuxi County, at night and in the middle of the night, when he was wandering, he could always hear cries for help when he was half asleep and half awake. However, in the morning, he could always see abandoned people on the streets.
human bones.
Is this hell on earth?
No, this is just a very ordinary scene during the Ming Dynasty in the twelfth year of Chongzhen.
When hell becomes a daily routine, Li Chonger really wants to cry bitterly. Although I am a big fan, why am I so unlucky? Are there any time travelers in the world who are worse off than me?
It's a pity that I spent all day cleaning up Chongzhen in forums and Q&A sharing websites. Now I have really traveled to the Ming Dynasty, and I have to clean up the mess at a cannibal scene.
Just as the county residents had finished eating and drinking and dispersed, another civilian husband who had a good relationship with Li Chonger, Bai Youcai, who was also from Mizhi, came over and spoke in northern Shaanxi dialect with a mysterious look on his face, "Houba,
I know this person."
"What nonsense are you talking about, Mr. Gai? This person is a bandit." Li Chonger was stunned for a moment, then he remembered that the bandits that have been circulating around Yunyang recently are said to have come from Shaanxi. That's right.
It is indeed possible to know Bai Youcai, who was born in northern Shaanxi.
Bai Youcai was also from Mizhi. After he was captured and made a peasant husband, even his mother-in-law and aunt ran away with him. Therefore, he was ridiculed by people around him and called him Gailao. In the northern Shaanxi dialect, Gailao is considered a person of no great importance.
It's a curse word, and it's the kind of mother-in-law man who has no backbone.
"I know, that man's surname is also Li, and he is from our village. I look familiar to him, and as soon as I hear his words, I know that he is indeed my fellow villager."
Bai Youcai helped Li Chonger clean up the mess while recalling it. He didn't have anything else on his mind. He probably just saw the fellow villagers he once knew become bandits, were captured and killed by officers and soldiers, and finally became a bunch of hungry people.
After lunch, I couldn't help but sigh.
The speaker is unintentional, but the listener is intentional. Li Chonger, who was tortured to the point of being half crazy by the life of a civilian, heard something different from it.
Li Chonger lowered his voice, got close to Bai Youcai, and asked: "From your village? I don't know where you are from, Mr. Gai? Are you from the Qianqian Village?"
Bai Youcai turned around, glanced at Li Chonger, and replied: "Yes, Mizhi moved to the village. Why, have I told Houwa before? Why can't I remember this?"
Mizhi Li Jiqian moved to the village.1
These words immediately activated Li Chonger's numb nerves. He was too familiar with this place. Anyone who has a little knowledge of Ming history should have heard of this place name: because this was the number one leader of the peasant uprising army in the late Ming Dynasty.
Leader, the birthplace of Li Zicheng.
Bai Youcai's unintentional remark immediately made Li Chonger connect the Shaanxi thieves outside Zhuxi City with Li Zicheng, the king of the world in the late Ming Dynasty.
In the twelfth year of Chongzhen...
If history had not changed, regardless of whether the Tongguan Nanyuan War existed or not, whether Li Zicheng's Eighteen Riders of Shangluo were real history or folklore, Li Zicheng was indeed at the lowest point of his life at this time.
And not long after, Li Zicheng led the dragon out of the sea, rushed into the land of Zhongzhou, and at least within a few years, he was invincible, and almost had the tendency to rebuild a new dynasty.
Li Chonger couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart, and he held the sharp knife hidden in his arms tightly. This poor young boy who he traveled to would never become a starving corpse on the roadside, nor would he die as a
As a civilian husband, he died of overwork.
He wants to eat, eat a very full meal, and then, if there is a chance, he will use Li Zicheng outside Zhuxi City to retaliate for all the abuse he has suffered...
Yes, there is still the world, and he still has great ambitions. The scene in Zhuxi County made Li Chonger truly see how cruel the troubled times are. If history does not change, the Manchus entering the country in the future will be even bloodier than the scene before him.
The scene, which is a hundred times crueler, will be shown all over the world.
No matter what, he must seize this opportunity. Whether it is to have enough food, to retaliate against the officers and soldiers who whipped him, or for a more lofty goal, he must live and stand up as a man who lives for survival.
At that time, he was just a numb walking corpse, but when a person lives for hope, he will do things that no one can think of.
A great man once said, seek peace through compromise, and peace will perish; seek peace through struggle, and peace will survive.
Only by living towards death can we truly survive in this unprecedented chaotic world.
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1. There are two versions of Li Zicheng’s birthplace: Mizhi Li Jiqian Village and Mizhi Li Village. However, no matter which version, it cannot prove that Li Zicheng is a Dangxiang person. There is no reliable evidence that Li Zicheng ever identified himself with the existence of Dangxiang people.
relation.
There is no other evidence for the claim that Li Zicheng was a Dangxiang person, except that the Qing Dynasty's "History of the Ming Dynasty" and the book with the same historical source stated that he declared Li Jiqian as the ancestor after he ascended the throne.
The "History of the Ming Dynasty" records that "in the first month of the seventeenth year, Geng Yinshuo, he became the king in Xi'an. He took the country's name Dashun, changed it to Yongchang, and changed his name to Zisheng. After his great-grandfather, he added a posthumous title and named Li Jiqian.
"Taizu", this entry comes from the Hanlin Review of Mao Qiling in the Kangxi Dynasty.
In Mao Qiling's "Hou Jian Lu", he claimed that when Li Zicheng came to the throne in Xi'an, he once regarded Li Jiqian, a party member, as his ancestor.
But the problem is that when Li Zicheng became emperor, Mao Qiling was living in the south of the Yangtze River and had no contact with the Chuang Army. Except for Mao Qiling's "Houjianlu" and "Luqiao Jiwen" which excerpted this paragraph from "Houjianlu",
There is no mention of Li Zicheng in early Qing historical materials such as the records of those who witnessed the Jiashen Incident, Wu Weiye's "Sui Kou Ji Lue", Dai Li's "Huailing Bandits Zhi Ji Lu", Peng Sunyi's "Pinging Bandits", Zhang Dai's "Shikui Shuhou Ji" and other early Qing historical materials.
Records of Li Jiqian as his ancestor.
It stands to reason that conferring the title of Taizu and establishing an ancestral temple was a top priority in ancient dynasties, and it would inevitably be announced to the world. In fact, Li Zicheng did indeed publicize the edict of consecrating several generations of close relatives as emperors and ancestors. But only the posthumous title was announced to the world.
Except for a solitary piece of evidence in "Houjianlu", there is no historical evidence that Li Jiqian became Taizu.
Moreover, "Hou Jian Lu" itself creatively counted the number of people Zhang Xianzhong slaughtered in Shu to 60 million, which is very strange. The credibility itself is already very low. Therefore, there are three things about Li Zicheng's posthumous title of Taizu to the party member Li Jiqian.
There is no record. I am afraid that there is a high probability that Mao Qiling made it up based on hearsay.