The palace walls of Prince Fu's Mansion are majestic and tall, and the corridors in the palace are long and winding. The gardens on both sides are full of strange-shaped Taihu stones and exotic flowers and plants bought from Suzhou and Changzhou.
After Li Laiheng made all arrangements for "King Tiande", he received a report from Guo Junzhen, saying that Li Xianfeng's two battalions of troops had withdrawn more than ten miles to the north. Only then did he finally let go of the pressure and have the time to go around Fu Wang's Mansion.
Turn around and take a look.
A short distance further from the cloister, there are a large number of various houses in the palace. Some are small woodsheds for servants and helpers, some are boudoirs for maids and other folk women occupied by King Fu, and some are boudoirs.
It is the mansion where other lower-level clans in Prince Fu's Mansion and the ministers who serve them live.
Now all these houses have been requisitioned by Li Laiheng to house the celebrities he invited from all over Luoyang City.
In order to match the script of "King of Tiande", Li Laiheng also used the name of Tiande King Li Ziquan to forcibly tie these gentry to Prince Fu's Mansion and keep them under guard.
He estimated that after such an incident, these village sages would never forget that there was a Tiande King in the army.
Even if Henan Inspector Gao Mingheng wants to expose the truth about "King Tiande", with the witnesses of these local celebrities detained in Prince Fu's Mansion, Li Xianfeng can always fight Gao Mingheng.
What's more, since the fourteenth year since entering Chongzhen, in just one or two months, the army and the army have suffered disastrous defeats, and even lost world-famous cities like Luoyang and Xiangyang.
What kind of character is Chongzhen? He is a more conceited character than Li Laiheng and is never willing to admit failure.
King Tiande was not only the straw for Li Xianfeng, but also the straw for Emperor Chongzhen.
Li Laiheng could even imagine how excited Emperor Chongzhen would be when he got the news that Li Xianfeng had captured and killed Li Ziquan, the king of Tiande. This "holy emperor" would probably try every means to set Li Xianfeng as a model to boost morale.
Under such circumstances, if someone wanted to reveal the truth about "King Tiande", wouldn't that be a slap in Chongzhen's face?
"Mr. Liu, you were willing to take the risk and go to Li Xianfeng's camp to speak for us, which really helped us a lot. The gold, silver and Song Dynasty engraved editions you gave us were just a small reward. I will return them in the future."
I will help the old gentleman carefully collect some novels from the Tang and Song Dynasties as a return gift."
Walking with Li Laiheng in the corridor of the Fuwang Mansion Garden were Liu Jingting, Fang Yiren and Gao Yigong. Liu Jingting was disrespectful to Li Laiheng for his many thanks. His beard was long, thick and white, but his expression and eyes were smart and lively.
, showing a very humorous expression.
Liu Jingting replied: "It is said that when the garden of Prince Fu's Mansion was built, someone wrote four lines of poems on the rockery pavilion to satirize Prince Fu. Some said it was written by a wandering monk who was passing by, and some said it was conscripted.
Some people who were proficient in writing wrote the poem, and some people who did good things in Luoyang City wrote a poem out of righteous indignation. At that time, those who built palaces and repaired gardens transported bricks, tiles, wood, Taihu stones and exotic flowers.
Damn it, there are more than 5,000 people in the chaos, who can see clearly? So we haven’t found out the truth.”
"When I was studying in the south of the Yangtze River, I heard someone from the Fushe talk about this." Fang Yiren recalled briefly.
Li Laiheng and Gao Yigong were both curious. Gao Yigong asked: "Those four lines of poetry must be deeply popular with the people. How did you write them?"
Fang Yiren recited: "The palace has been renovated to serve the people, and the blessed king has not arrived in Zhongzhou to be poor. The melodious music from the high place is solemn and majestic, and the exquisite mountains and rivers belong to human beings."
Liu Jingting nodded and praised: "Mr. Fang's extensive knowledge and strong memory are indeed these four sentences. I guess no one who is proficient in writing would ever write such a good poem. Look at how indignant this sentence 'The King of Fortune has not yet reached the poverty of Zhongzhou'
Powerful. If I didn’t feel deeply and hate deeply, I couldn’t write this sentence.”
"The word 'strong' in the third sentence and the word 'kan' in the fourth sentence are both used very well. Looking carefully at the poetic meaning of the fourth sentence, the four words 'landscape and exquisite' not only clearly refer to King Fu's garden, but also allude to the world.
country."
Gao Yigong was very angry after hearing this. He cursed: "There are so many blood feuds between King Fu and the people of Luoyang. No wonder the marshal attacked Luoyang so effortlessly. It's a pity... It's a pity that the marshal forbids us from killing the civil and military officials in Luoyang."
.”
Halfway through, he looked at Li Laiheng and said, "Laiheng, do you also prohibit the killing of those squires detained in the palace? What a pity!"
Li Laiheng lowered his voice and slowly explained: "The marshal has ordered us not to kill Ming Dynasty civil and military officials, rural sages and gentry at will. What's more, if we kill dozens or hundreds of rural gentry in Luoyang, it will not help the overall situation.
, if you want to kill..."
"If you want to kill, you have to kill someone big!" Li Laiheng smiled solemnly, showing most of his teeth. Fang Yiren was shocked when he saw it, and felt a chill on his back. He couldn't help but tremble several times.
Li Laiheng later said to Liu Jingting: "I would like to thank the old man for his help with the Yufu matter. Now that Zhongzhou is in chaos and we are about to withdraw from Luoyang, I wonder where the old man will settle next?"
Liu Jingting stroked his beard and said with a smile: "I am too old to follow the young general to Xiong'er Mountain and live in seclusion in Funiu Mountain. I have already prepared to go to Jiangbei or Huguang, and maybe to Wuchang and Huai'an."
Li Laiheng also knew that Liu Jingting had no strong intention to join the rebel army. He helped him with King Tiande's matter, mostly out of sympathy and goodwill for the rebel army.
This basic goodwill is still far from enough to make him join the Chuang Army.
Li Laiheng didn't take it seriously and instead asked Fang Yiren to arrange some arrangements for Liu Jingting.
After seeing off Liu Jingting, Li Laiheng sat on a seat in the corridor and said to Gao Yigong: "It is not surprising that the rural sages in Zhongzhou currently occupy a few hundred hectares, and as many as thousands of hectares. When we free up our hands,
We must find a way to deal with these guys."
Fang Yiren didn't know what he was thinking, and then said: "Jiangnan is said to be rich, but in fact there is a huge gap between rich and poor. Taking Suzhou as an example, only one-tenth of the people have land, but nine-tenths are tenants.
.”
After Li Laiheng snorted, he continued: "Henan has so many close vassals that the land problem is more serious than in the world. The local gentry and village sages often have thousands of livestock and servants.
Assassins are rampant in every county. They usually seize people's fields, houses, and women. They do everything they can to kill people. When they are having fun, they kill people in the city during the day, and no one dares to question them."
He clasped his hands in front of his chest, looked at the rockery rocks in the garden, and said: "Where there is soil, there must be power, and where there is power, there must be soil. There is no land without tyranny, and there is no gentry without inferiority. This is a certain principle, and every old crow is as black as
, There are only enlightened rural virtuous individuals in the world, but there is no group of awakened rural virtuous people.”
Gao Yigong nodded repeatedly and said angrily: "When the Chuang army is free, we must deal with these scum! Countless people have worked hard all year long and cannot have enough to eat. They are heavily in debt and sell their wives and children.
During the famine, groups of people fled together, starving to death on the road. The greatest injustice in the world is the land and the country gentry. If we don’t deal with this person, the world will not be peaceful."
Fang Yiren was from a well-known family in Tongcheng and came from a wealthy gentry family. When he heard the hatred in Gao Yigong's words, he naturally couldn't help but feel frightened.
However, Hei Xiucai was quick in thinking. He didn't wait for a while before he came up with an idea and said to Li Laiheng: "The root cause of the great chaos in the world is the uneven land. In the future, the invading army can refer to the ancient plans to dictate the land system and observe the modern land occupation."
To eliminate the disadvantages of the land, we must take drastic measures to equalize the land, make a fundamental plan, and eliminate the source of disasters. If we can do this, we will truly save the people from fire and water. The knowledgeable people among the scholar-bureaucrats in modern times also fully understand that the disadvantages of uneven land are the most common problem in the world.
The crux of the great chaos was the idea of equalizing land in an attempt to relieve the people's plight."
Li Laiheng looked at Fang Yiren with a playful smile and said, "Isn't it unrealistic to hold a knife in the hands of people with land and cut their own flesh and bleed their own blood?"
After Li Laiheng arrived in Henan, he saw such a huge group of refugees near Luoyang, and he became more concerned about the problems of land inequality and the gap between rich and poor. He didn't want to take too big a step yet, but he had to deal with the sages and gentry in the countryside.
How to establish local rule afterwards, Li Laiheng actually had a set of methods proven to be effective by the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
The specific implementation of this method may require some reforms based on the more advanced experience of later generations, but the overall framework must be effective.
Thinking of this, Li Laiheng waved his hand and told Gao Yigong and Fang Yiren that they would no longer discuss this issue.
He continued: "Guo Junzhen sent an urgent report, saying that the war situation in Kaifeng was not optimistic. After Marshal Du left Ruzhou, he hurried away at night and arrived at Bianmen. Unfortunately, Qi Weng's plan to deceive the city was discovered by the patrolman Gao Mingheng.
, the vassal king in the city, King Zhou, also hurriedly moved out a large amount of silver from the palace to save his life, and encouraged the desperadoes to compete."
"Yuan Zongdi dug holes in the city wall to attack, but the Kaifeng defenders used hanging towers to break through. Uncle Yufeng rushed to build more than a hundred ladders to attack, but they were also defeated by the army with artillery."
Li Laiheng clapped his hands and concluded: "The siege of Bian by Marshal Du is unfavorable, and the governor of Baoding, Yang Wenyue, leads the general Hu Dawei Division to cross the Yellow River and go south at night. Li Xianfeng should have also received this news, which may influence his decision-making
It had a big impact.”
Gao Yigong frowned and asked: "Laiheng, do you mean that Li Xianfeng will terminate cooperation with us because of the unfavorable offensive of the Chuang Army?"