In ancient times, Yanling was adjacent to the Yangtze River in the north and Changshu in the east.
Changzhou is an important place in the south of the Yangtze River. Yixing is connected to Yingtianfu and Guangzhou in the southwest, and faces Yangzhou Taixing and Zhenjiang in the northwest.
The canal crosses the territory, the Yangtze River is in the north, and Taihu Lake is in the southeast.
Among them, only one county, Jiangyin, has 1.13 million acres of farmland. It is 140 miles apart from east to west and 70 miles from north to south. It transports more than 60,000 stones of grain and produces more than 100,000 taels of silver every year. There are prosperous cities in the south of the Yangtze River.
.
Huangshan Port is also connected to the ocean, and it can be reached in one day with a favorable wind.
Such a treasure land in the south of the Yangtze River was also troubled by disasters in the late Ming Dynasty. Affected by the Xiaoglacier, only in the Chongzhen Dynasty, there was no rain in the autumn of the second year of Chongzhen. In the third year of Chongzhen, there was no rain in the wheat and weeds, and all the vegetables were damaged. In the fifth year, there was a summer drought.
In the sixth year, the tide washed up on the polder bank, injuring people. In the ninth month, the wind changed, and the fields were swept away. In the seventh year, there was drought in the summer, wheat fell, and in autumn, heavy rains damaged the rice. In the tenth year, the two wheats were gone, and caterpillars ate the crops.
In the eleventh year, strong winds destroyed the wheat. In autumn, there was a drought, and locusts rose up, leaving the fields empty. In the twelveth year, there was a drought and locusts.
In the fourteenth year, there was drought and locusts.
In the first year of Hongguang, there was a severe drought.
In April, the city of Jiangyin learned of the great changes in Beijing. There were scoundrels in the city, and they took advantage of the opportunity to cause chaos. They formed in small groups and looted and burned in various towns, killing people like grass. Then many slaves, tenants, and hungry people also followed suit and started rioting everywhere, looting everywhere.
, the county magistrate had no choice but to ask the gentry elders from all over the country to mobilize the tribesmen and form township warriors to defend themselves and protect the country and the people.
He also invited distinguished gentlemen from the county to go to each township to inform them of their interests.
Classical historian Yan Yingyuan rode to the port alone to appease and quell the local riots.
In May, King Fu was rushed to Nanjing by Shi Kefa and others, and the unrest in Jiangyin settled down.
The Qing army went south. Chen Mingyu, the Dianshi, Hong Houdun, the governor, and Zhou Ruilong, the governor, all who had come forward to quell the chaos in the previous turmoil, summoned the squires in the county to gather for discussion, and planned to recruit men and horses from the local braves who had quelled the chaos before, and go north to King Qin.
, but in the end the matter was not decided and it failed.
In the blink of an eye, Nandu was destroyed and Hongguang was captured.
Liu Guangdou, the censor of Wujin, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Duduo ordered him to return to his hometown to appease the counties in Changzhou. Recruitment notices were issued and all counties surrendered, but Jiangyin did not reply.
Liu Guangdou sent someone to persuade him to surrender.
The county magistrate Lin Zhiji, the general Zhang Su, the coastal defense Cheng Yi, the county magistrate Hu Xuedong, the academic envoy Zhu Guochang, and the military commander Ma Mingting were afraid of the Qing army's power, so they resigned one after another.
There are no officials in the county, so everyone recommends Mo Shiying as the chief registrar to be the magistrate of county affairs.
But Mo Shiying turned around and ordered his servants to secretly bring the seal and the account book to Liu Guangdou's surrender. After receiving Liu's praise, he secretly took away the silver from the Yamen treasury and presented it to him, bought a good horse and presented it to Fu, and began to serve as the county magistrate in the county.
Call yourself.
Unexpectedly, the Qing people appointed Fang Heng from Henan as the county magistrate. This Fang Heng was very young, but he was a Jinshi. He came with twenty servants and asked Jiangyin to submit the household registration, land, account book and map as soon as he came.
Sent to Nanjing.
Immediately afterwards, an order was issued to shave the head.
Zong Hao, the prefect of Changzhou, also sent four Manchu soldiers to urge him to have his hair shaved. They lived in the procuratorate and acted as a show of authority and blessing.
“Keep your head but not your hair, keep your hair but not your head.”
Although Fang Heng was young, he still displayed great authority.
All the country gentry gathered together again. He Mao, Xing Shu, Zhou Shun, Xing Ji, Yang Fang, Xue Yong, Yang Qi, Ji Mao, Xin Rong and other country gentry gathered together to discuss the last time Beijing fell to Jiangyin riots.
They came forward to recruit local heroes to put down the thugs.
"How can you shave off the hair and skin of your body that is affected by your parents?"
"You can't shave your hair!"
The two capitals fell, Chongzhen hanged himself, and Hongguang was captured. The officials in Jiangyin all ran away, but the local gentry ran away. The monks could not escape from the temple. Everyone was helpless. Although they could barely accept the fact of the change of dynasty, they were unwilling to shave their heads.
Easy to take.
So all the country gentry went to the county government office, asked to see the magistrate Fang, and asked to keep their hair.
Fang Heng was a Jinshi in Yike. Before the Qing army captured Henan, he went to surrender early and followed Duduo all the way to Nanjing. In the end, he was only appointed as a minor official as Jiangyin County Magistrate, and he kept holding back his anger.
Seeing that these Jiangyin squires were still so disobedient, they cursed loudly.
He Mao was in his seventies and was very famous in the village. He had also been a fourth-rank official back then. He was scolded by a junior, so he was very angry. He picked up his crutch and scolded Fang Heng, "You are also a Jinshi of the Ming Dynasty.
Now he is still wearing a black gauze hat and a round-collared official robe, but he came to be the magistrate of the Qing Dynasty. He is not ashamed, nor is he ugly? "
Being pointed at and scolded, Fang Heng became even more angry, but knowing that He Mao was old, had high prestige, and had a powerful family, he tolerated it for a while and walked away.
He Mao was insulted and couldn't be more angry.
So he sat directly in the yamen, leaning on a cane and saying, "This world is really getting worse and worse."
"I didn't expect that the county magistrate here has no food and salt, so he must force us to shave our heads?" Zhou Shun said.
This group of squires all have great reputations, and many of them are heads of powerful clans. Several of them, like He Mao, have served as officials in the government. Now they are very old and are about to be buried in the coffin. This time they come to see the county magistrate.
I thought that if I could maintain my hair, I would be in line with the current situation.
But now I can't imagine that their faces are so worthless and insulted by a young man.
"I heard that both Su and Song mansions have been restored. Governor Shen Youlong and Su Song are stationed in Songjiang. Governor Wang Yongzuo and Su Song are now stationed in Kunshan. There are also Jiangnan Admiral Zhu Wu and his army in Jiahu. Now Admiral Huang Fei and Commander-in-Chief Wu Zhikui are here again.
Assembling troops to attack Suzhou, I don’t know who belongs in this world yet,” said a village elder.
"It's better to drive away this person named Fang, and then we gather troops to guard Jiangyin until the imperial troops recover Jiangnan!"
He Mao was a little hesitant. He actually believed that the Ming Dynasty had run out of energy, otherwise he would not have come to this Yamen today to be insulted by a junior.
"King Yiyang is in Chongming, unlike the master of Zhongxing." He Mao said this. King Yiyang's reputation is now very bad in Jiangnan. The eight generals who supported him have even worse military discipline and are robbing and kidnapping everywhere.
The common people forced donations from the wealthy gentry. Their reputation is now worse than that of the water bandits of Taihu Lake.
At any rate, the water bandits on Taihu Lake still followed some rules of the rivers and lakes. Even if they kidnapped people, they were mostly just asking for money, but the soldiers of King Yiyang did not follow any rules.
We usually guard against these people just like we guard against thieves.
"After the King of Lu launched his uprising in Taiwan, he became aggressive. It is said that Fujian, Guangdong, Huguang, Jiangxi and other places have begun to read the edict and express their congratulations. Shen Youlong, Wang Yongzuo and others also accepted the edict of King Lu and accepted the imperial edict from King Lu.
With this title, I think King Lu will revive the Ming Dynasty." Another village elder said.
Jiangnan Water Town has convenient transportation and smooth information.
These rural elders are not only well-known scholars and officials, but also often powerful local landowners. They even run business on the side. Information about each of them is relatively smooth. There is even a team of rural warriors in every family. This is what happened in Jiangyin after the fall of Beijing.
After the riots, the squires recruited and formed them, and they have not been disbanded to this day. The teams of many wealthy families are even very capable and well-equipped.
A group of squires chatted in the county government office for a long time. In the end, they all felt that the situation of the Ming Army's Northern Expedition was very good. Not to mention returning to Beijing, at least there was hope for restoring Jiangnan. These people were all local celebrities, and they usually enjoyed the benefits that the Ming Dynasty gave them. various privileges, but now a small county magistrate in the Qing Dynasty despises them so much.
"Secretly sent people south to pay homage to Lu to supervise the country, and asked Governor Shen, Governor Wang, and Admiral Zhu to send troops to help. Each of our families will send troops and pay, and gather the people in the city to guard Jiangyin together, waiting for reinforcements!"
He Mao has the highest prestige among everyone and has the final say.
So they agreed to go home.
Early the next morning.
More than a hundred children from each family took to the streets of Jiangyin. The scholar Xu Yong gathered the crowd and shouted, "The head can be cut off, but the hair cannot be shaved!"
Those who responded gathered, and countless people in Jiangyin gathered together, shouting that the head can be cut off, but the hair cannot be shaved.
Fang Heng heard the noise outside at the county government office and asked about it. He learned that the noise was due to the hair-cutting order, and he said dissatisfiedly, "You really don't know how to live or die."
He called the county clerk and asked him to copy the hair-cutting order and post it everywhere in the city.
The scribe picked up his pen and copied, and when he copied his head but not his hair, and his hair but not his head, he could no longer copy. He threw the pen to the ground angrily, and angrily tore up the notice, "You will die if you die!"
After that, he kicked over the desk, threw up his sleeves and walked out of the office, quitting.
When Fang Heng heard this, he angrily ordered his servants to take down the scribe, "Give me forty punishments with a cane!"
Classical historian Chen Mingyu and others quickly stepped forward to stop him and persuaded Fang Heng's men to stay.
"You slaves should all be beheaded!"
When Chen Mingyu and others heard this, they all threw up their sleeves and resigned with pale faces. The Yamen was deserted for a while.
The clerk there came out of the yamen and joined the gathering, and informed Fang Heng that he was going to have some typical men shaved for surgery within the three-day deadline of the hair-shaving order.
After hearing this, all the scholars were furious.
At this time, He Mao and others also sent their children to contact the North Gate disciples. The North Gate boy was good at boxing and was a kind of chivalrous boy. He Mao and others persuaded him, so they all put books in their cotton-padded jackets and wore them as armor. People with knives and guns and beating gongs and drums gathered together.
Headed by Ji Shimei, Ji Congxiao, Wang Shi, He Chang, and He Tai, they walked along the street and kept firing cannons.
As the sound of gunshots rang out, more and more people gathered. At the same time, people from various villages began to arrive one after another. By the time they arrived in front of the county government, more than ten thousand people had gathered.
Fang Heng was in the Yazhong Hall, trembling with fear, and wanted his servants to go out and drink and disperse the crowd, but the twenty servants, although they had good food and drink, acted like a fake after they arrived, but now they were asked to go out and face the excitement. The crowd, however, had no courage at all. Every one of them shook their heads like a rattle. No matter how hard Fang Heng urged them, they just refused to move.
A servant of the pseudo-prefect came to Jiangyin to deliver a letter to Fang Heng. He felt that the name of the prefect could scare people, so he volunteered to go out, stood at the door and cursed everyone, and shouted that he would report to the head of the family, the prefect, to send troops to kill these rebels.
Ji Shimei stood in front of everyone and looked at the slave with disdain, "The dog slave has such a strong tone, I will kill this barking dog first today!"
After that, he stepped forward, grabbed him, dragged him over, and knocked him to the ground.
All the young men gathered around him and kicked him wildly. Within a moment, the servant of the pseudo-prefect was beaten to death on the ground. Everyone shouted and prepared to take the opportunity to break into the Yamen.
Chief Mo was so frightened that he took off his official robe and fled. Fang Heng's servants quickly blocked the door. Fang Heng stood behind the door and shouted tremblingly, "Everyone, please calm down. This county will be left to the prefect and Jiang Ning." Letter, requesting that Jiangyin be exempted from shaving his head, everyone calm down, calm down."