The streets of Macheng have been cleared by the intruders and burned down due to the war. The looted shops have also been slightly tidied up and cleaned. Originally, there were some green-skinned scoundrels who pretended to be the intruders and were doing evil in the city. At this time,
They were all arrested by the red team.
When Li Laiheng entered the city, the roads were clean. Inside and outside the city gates, and on both sides of the streets, there were people who had been recruited into the regiment and rural soldiers. The crowds were densely packed. There were also many signs with "Fengtian Advocacy Camp" and "Huguang Jiedu" written on them.
The banner of "Shi Li" was placed on the city wall. The north wind blew and the flags were flying, which further highlighted the majesty of the troops entering the city.
Walking a little further forward, there is a large group of rural sages who can be called "crested gentry" and "green gentry".
The vast majority of them were fighting with each other, kneeling on the ground, fearing that Li Laiheng would see even a hint of dissatisfaction. Only a few gentry responded in time and cooperated with the red team's actions.
Being able to stand in the crowd, with a little helplessness and a little hope on his face, he welcomed the invading soldiers into the city.
Guojun Town, Gao Yigong, and Hao Yaoqi were ordered to lead their troops to pursue the defeated army as far as Qishui, Luotian and other counties. Along the way, they also captured all the remaining enemies in Huang'an and Macheng.
Sweep it clean.
Therefore, those who followed Li Laiheng into the city were mainly Fang Yiren, Bai Wang, and Zhang Pili. They all gathered around Li Laiheng, some were whispering to each other, and some, like Fang Yiren, looked at
The gentry kneeling beside the road showed subtle expressions.
The welcome ceremony for the soldiers and civilians of Macheng was organized by the Red Team with strict pay.
He asked all the people in the city to put up yellow paper with the four characters "Fengtian Advocate for Justice" on their doorsteps. He also brought a group of relatively reliable rural warriors to centrally monitor most of the gentry in the city. Except for a few early surrenderers and collaborators,
Most of the gentry could be regarded as "gentle and polite" and were forced to bow their heads to the bandit leader who was worthless in their eyes.
The situation is stronger than the people.
Fortunately, Hao Yaoqi was still on his way to mop up the remnants of the enemy, otherwise Li Laiheng might have asked Hao Yaoqi to prepare the clamping sticks, clamp what should be clamped, kill what should be killed, torture and pay, hold a public trial, and use both soft and hard methods to arrest him.
, in an instant you can make the celebrities in front of you cry for your father and mother.
It's just that the Chuang army has not yet consolidated its occupation of Huang'an and Macheng counties, and Li Laiheng has not yet completed the thorough digestion of the newly recruited Tuan Yong, rural soldiers, and official army surrenders, so at this time he has not yet revealed his ferocious power in front of the gentry.
of minions.
Even so, Fang Yiren still showed an expression of pity and regret for the gentry sons kneeling on both sides of the street, and perhaps there was a bit of schadenfreude in it.
Song Xiance once said that the source of chaos in the world is the gentry. Hei Xiucai used to be very indifferent to this statement. However, the longer he followed Li Laiheng, the more he understood the shape of the grassroots society in the Ming Dynasty.
These gentry, countrymen, and sages mourned their misfortune and lamented it, which became more and more intense.
It's okay if you can't strengthen yourself and serve the country. What's the matter with always putting out fires with a salary?
The country of the Ming Dynasty has already become a pile of firewood, so why do you bother to light it again and again?
Tianjie tramples all the bones of the prince!
How can such a group of people change? Only Hao Yaoqi's cudgel, Li Laiheng's public trial, and only death can make you change.
Don’t you know the disaster of Huang Chao? Even if you don’t die at the hands of the rogue Huang Chao Zhu Wen, can you escape the butcher knife of Shatuo Khitan?
The clear and turbid currents of Baima Post are still surging, but it is a pity that the scholar-bureaucrats still do not have long memories. Although Fang Yiren can be regarded as a high-class noble family, but when he looked at the rows and rows of kneeling gentry on the streets of Macheng, he only felt that
I can lament the cycle of heaven and the rolling turbid currents, and I just hope that the world will not repeat the mistakes of the Five Dynasties.
He did not expect that the mistakes of the Five Dynasties would actually be a luxury for the late Ming Dynasty.
When the imperial courtiers, bureaucrats, and scholar-officials all become corrupt wolves, all the world wants is a complete liquidation.
If you are lucky, Huang Jin, Cao Cao, Huang Chao and Zhu Wen will be the scavengers; if you are unlucky, there will be Shi Le, Er Zhurong and Hou Jing to complete this work.
It is a pity that the world in the late Ming Dynasty finally fell to the worst option, leaving Wushu and Temujin to come to this liquidation, and it was a more tragic liquidation than Jingkang.
Li Laiheng rode past the kneeling rows of well-dressed nobles, without even turning away his peripheral vision. His heart was no longer in Macheng, but flew to Xiangyang, to Chengtian, and even to Wuchang.
According to the policy of the three Chus, is it successful?
Bells rang on the city tower, followed by countless horns and conch shells, and the sound of drums and horns filled Macheng. There was a roar of people. The soldiers who broke into the city and the brave officers and soldiers who returned from the countryside all shouted loudly, "Long live the Commander-in-Chief!"
"Long live the Marshal", "Long live Mr. Li".
Then the faces of the bewildered people, citizens, and farmers gradually showed a little joy. Some people began to ask their friends around them, saying: "Is it true that there is no tax exemption for three years? Is King Chuang coming?
Is it really true to pay for food? Don’t try to deceive me. Is there such a good thing in the world?"
"But is King Chuang actually so young?"
The people of Macheng were still surprised by Li Laiheng's youth. Not only Li Laiheng, but also many people around him, including Zhang Pixiu, who looked more immature than Li Laiheng, and Fang Yiren, who looked in his twenties. With so many young faces,
His energetic appearance made even the people in Macheng unbelievable.
A citizen who was familiar with the situation of Suizhou's invading army patted the questioner on the back and said sarcastically: "Hey, why don't you know about this? This is not the King of Chuang. The one who leads the Suizhou invading army is Xiao Li...
…It’s Little King Li!”
He said this with a sigh of relief, almost using the title of "Little Li Thief" that the officers and soldiers called him, but he also changed it in time and called him "Little Li Wang": "Have you heard of Mr. Li from Henan? Prospering Renyi in Henan
The soldiers opened warehouses everywhere to stock up on food, saving lives from fire and water, and did not kill, rape or plunder. My old uncle who was a businessman in Nanyang said that Mr. Li was descended from the Tiangang star and would lead a group of heavenly soldiers.
You will clean up the remaining mountains and rivers in the world."
The citizens are very suspicious of all the absurd legends about "Mr. Li". However, in the face of the invading army troops entering the city, people are more inclined to change their situation to a more optimistic one.
To imagine in this direction, you will be more willing and easier to accept the story of "Mr. Li".
No matter what, it is better to fall into the hands of Mr. Li, who is promoting benevolence and righteousness, than to fall into the hands of little thief Li who cannibalize people.
Fang Yiren approached Li Laiheng's side. He looked at the different expressions of Macheng's soldiers and civilians. He also had mixed emotions. He sighed and asked: "The jute is in my hand. Deputy Ambassador Gao, General Guo is chasing me."
In the north, most of the more than 10,000 officers and soldiers gathered by Song Yihe would find it difficult to escape back to Wuchang. In this way, north of the Yangtze River, the mobile strength of the officers and soldiers can be said to be very few, and I am afraid that there will not even be many defenders left. Xiangyang, Chengtian
, Anlu, and Huangzhou are all within the reach of our army and can be taken at any time. I wonder what the government wants?"
"Leshan, take a look." Li Laiheng did not answer directly, but pointed to the people of Macheng on both sides of the road and said, "We have saved the people of Macheng from the butcher's knife edge of the army, but judging from their expressions, they are still...
People's hearts are not yet attached, so what I want is to focus on stabilization, implement the policy of paying grain to tenants on a larger scale, equalizing land and exempting from taxes, and the suppression of the gentry and landlords must also be strengthened."
Fang Yiren acknowledged the importance of land reform to the army, but he also had lingering fears about Li Laiheng's extreme actions. If the Suizhou system was continued to be maintained on a larger scale, large-scale resistance from the gentry class could be foreseen.
"Most of the gentry in Suizhou were killed or arrested. Naturally, there was not much resistance when the governor of the palace promoted land equalization. However, the dense population of Juma and the prosperity of well-dressed scholar-bureaucrats are not comparable to Suizhou. Let alone the invading army if they capture Xiangyang, Chengtian and other famous cities
It's a large county, with clouds of crowns and ribbons, and more than tens of thousands of property owners. I'm just worried that although the palace owner has good intentions, he will put the invaders on the fire and do things too hastily, making us besieged on all sides and arousing a swarm of people in the city.
"
The land and population of Suizhou occupied by the intruders were far less than that of Huangzhou Prefecture. Huangzhou Prefecture was Huguang Prefecture, which was much richer than De'an Prefecture where Suizhou was located, with a household registration of more than one million, and the number and strength of the gentry
They were much stronger than those in Suizhou, and only then did Shen Zhuang's army gather more than 10,000 people.
Although the Shenzhuang Military Revolution helped Li Laiheng disintegrate part of the power of the jute gentry, it also caused a large group of gentry to either be captured without help or forced to join the rebel army in Macheng.
However, after being tempered by the Jute War, the local gentry also gained more profound military experience. Their influence in the countryside has not yet been cut off. If, like in Suizhou, they resolutely promote the sharing of grain among tenants and equalizing land without paying taxes,
policy, Fang Yiren was indeed worried that the likely large-scale rebellion would occur in the future, which would make Li Laiheng unable to cope with it.
What's more, although Li Laiheng began to build a Suiying School, he also initially trained a group of grassroots cadres who could replace subordinate officials through Suizhou's sharecropping and grain distribution.
But such a group of people can barely rule Suizhou. If they are dispersed to Huangzhou Prefecture, where the land is wider and the people are more numerous, wouldn't it be even more powerless?