Chapter 282 The sorrow of slaves who have subjugated their country
Zhoushan.
In the newly established county office of Changguo County, Zhu Yihai was reading the letter sent back by Yan Wo's secret intelligence line.
The letter was encrypted, and the codebook was owned by Zhu Yihai and Yan Wogong to ensure that even if the letter was lost, it would be safe. After translating the content bit by bit, Zhu Yihai looked at it carefully.
These contents are very valuable, ranging from the interview between Mr. Yan and Dorgon after he came to Beijing, to the new deployment of the Qing court, and how he tried to delay time after going south.
This information is worth tens of thousands of dollars, more than the effects of tens of thousands of troops.
Dorgon's response was not unreasonable. The strategic mistakes caused by the overconfidence of the Qing Dynasty and the propaganda from the south had created a gap, which was now being quickly filled.
The first wave of reinforcements is the 10,000-eight-thousand-eight-banner elite from Pingnan General Luck Dehun, Ye Chen and others from Jiangning and other places. They are quickly transferred to the upper reaches of Wuchang to reinforce the Huguang battlefield and go to relieve the siege of Wuchang in Jingzhou.
The second wave of reinforcements came from the north and went south with Yan Wogong. The four generals Bashan, Kangkara, Zhumala, and Tuo unified the Eight Banners of Mongolia and Han and went south. They will be stationed in Jiangning, Suzhou, Songjiang, and Hangzhou.
And we will use them intensively first, and go to Shaoxing first.
The third wave of reinforcements was to mobilize 10,000 Mongolian and Han Eight Banners and 20,000 Han Army Banners from Beijing and outside the customs. The Xianghuang Banner Gushan Ezhen Tan Tai paid homage to the General of the Conquest South, and the King of Sanshun was mobilized to march south.
In the west, Dorgon also transferred Wu Sangui and his Guan Ning Army from Jinzhou, and cooperated with Li Guohan's Han Army Banner, about 20,000 people, to Hanzhong. He wanted to cooperate with Shaanxi Governor Meng Qiaofang to bring the unrest elements He Zhen and other Hanzhong Four Generals
The troops were captured, and this strategy was used to intercept Zhang Xianzhong and Yun Xiang's Ming army in Sichuan, preventing them from rushing into Hanzhong and Guanzhong areas.
There were four groups of troops in total, with a total of 60,000 troops going south to reinforce and 10,000 troops to reinforce Huguang.
If we include the Green Flag soldiers in Huguang, Jiangnan, Jiangxi, Henan and other places, their strength is already amazing. It can be said that their strength is not weaker than the last southern expedition of Duduo and Azige.
It is divided into two major battle areas. The west side has Hong Chengchou, Tong Dai, Luo Xiujin, and the military forces are Beilek Dehun.
Gushan Ezhen, four Meile Zhangjing, Chen Jin, Zhang Tianlu, Li Chengdong and others.
Burn the secret message in a brazier, sprinkle it with water and mash it.
Zhu Yihai fell into deep thought.
He expected that the Tatars would react this way, but it was a bit unexpected that they took it so seriously. This also shows that his strategy indeed posed a threat to the Tatars, and even hurt the Tatars.
There will be such a big reaction.
This is both a good thing and a bad thing.
The good thing is that his strategy worked.
The disadvantage is that it has only been more than three months since he raised the flag and raised troops. Whether it is his imperial camp or the Ming army in Huguang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Susong and other places, they have only just put up a show of strength. At this stage, there is still no frontal attack.
The strength of the duel.
Just like when Jin Gongyu, the commander-in-chief of Huzhou Town, attacked Zhang Cunren last time, three thousand against one thousand, he still waited for work to ambush Zhang Cunren and beat Zhang Cunren's exhausted troops who ran away. Jin Gongyu himself is very brave, and his generals are also very capable, and even have high morale.
High, but the result is still a huge disparity in strength, with more than a thousand casualties and less than a hundred losses to the enemy. Three times the number of troops defeated the enemy, but the result was a battle loss of ten to one. The actual battle loss ratio should be thirty to one.
At present, the generals and soldiers in Huzhou Town can be regarded as a pretty good Ming army. They have a 10% armor rate, the soldiers are full, and the generals are high in fighting spirit, but so what?
In a short period of time, they still cannot become a truly elite team, and the gap is too big when facing the Tatars.
This gap is due to the huge gap in equipment between the two sides. The Qing army, especially the main force of the Eight Banners, has a very high armor coverage rate, which may even reach 100%. Some armored soldiers even wear double layers of armor. Their supplies, pensions, etc. are very good. Soldiers dare to
Fight bravely, and even always have the upper hand psychologically.
The Ming army had lost to the Qing army for so many years, and it had a psychological shadow, and its morale was severely suppressed.
This must be regained bit by bit through victory after victory.
Since Zhu Yihai raised his troops, he has indeed fought many victorious battles, but none of them has been a real head-on confrontation, let alone a head-on confrontation with equal strength. All they rely on is avoiding the real situation and exploiting the weak, ambush and sneak attack, and using more to defeat the less.
Wait, these victories have really made the morale of the imperial camp very good today, and even when facing the Qing army, they don't have the fear of the Ming frontier army in the past.
But the training of the Ming army is still insufficient, and the armor coverage rate is only 20%. He is also stepping up his efforts to build armor and weapons, but this cannot be completed in one day.
Fortunately, it's not all bad news.
Yan Wogong penetrated into the enemy's high-level officials and learned many secrets.
For example, the treasury of the Qing Dynasty in Beijing is now empty. The princes, nobles and bannermen all made war fortunes, but the court has no money. Now Dorgon is still enclosing the bannermen's land in Beizhili, and specially made a investment deposit.
The method is to allow the bannermen to enclose the land and take the original owners of the land as their slaves. It is said that they voluntarily surrendered, but in essence they are slaves.
However, according to Yan Wagong, the horse racing and land staking activities are very fierce nowadays, and many people in the north are even willing to become bannermen. The reason is very simple, because the horse racing and land circling they engage in now is actually the same as those in the Ming Dynasty.
It was the same for the common people to surrender their land to the gentry, or even to become slaves themselves, all to avoid servitude.
After the bannermen encircled the land, the property rights of the land changed, and they began to collect rent. However, when the people also contributed, they did not have to pay taxes or serve. They only had to pay rent to the bannermen and do some service. In fact, it was better than the Ming Dynasty.
Perhaps at this time, the local taxes, taxes, taxes, and services of the Qing court were still light.
Many common people don't care about temples, the world, or Manchus, because they can't even provide food and clothing, and can't even feed their wives and children. They must take care of their immediate future first.
So now the banner people are racing to enclose the land. The fact is that the banner people are very happy, and the Han people who are enclosed are also happy. Only the Qing court is not happy, because these lands have become the banner people's land, and the population has become the slaves of the banner people.
, it has nothing to do with the imperial court.
There are also private opponents, namely the gentry in some places.
These people used to be a privileged class in the Ming Dynasty. They lived a very comfortable life. They had no business taxes, and basically could not pay taxes and servitude to themselves. Although they had to give gifts and bribes to maintain relationships and maintain their status, it is said that
After all, people are still superior to people in a place.
Now the Eight Banners are starting to seize the land, and they don’t care about you. First, they were asked to shave their heads and change clothes, and they were asked to sweep the floor politely. Now they are enclosing the land and making them slaves. Many people have never experienced this. There are many complaints, even quite a few.
The officials who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty also began to oppose this matter in the court, but they still thought it was in the Ming Dynasty?
Can officials suppress the emperor?
Dorgon didn't like them.
In addition to this, there is good news, that is, the area of Beizhi, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong and Huainan, basically north of the Yangtze River, is now very poor, hungry people are everywhere, and bandits are rampant. After the Tatars occupied these places, they began to expropriate
Taxation and levy were even more severe than in the Ming Dynasty.
They apportioned it layer by layer. Anyway, they apportioned it directly to the provinces and prefectures according to the original tax amount in the Ming Dynasty. They apportioned it layer by layer. Those officials who were demoted or newly appointed are now very active in accepting the orders of the Qing court for fear of being accused.
So the tax was collected from the province to the prefecture to the county, and from the county to the township. The most frightening thing about this method of tax collection is that in the past, taxes were levied on the basis of households. During wars and famines, some people paid taxes.
If you can't afford taxes or die of illness or hunger, or if your land is depleted and your household is wiped out, then the original tax amount cannot be paid. At most, there is a record of non-payment and the reason in the yamen.
But it doesn't work now. If this household has escaped or is extinct or cannot be handed over, then you and the other households of A must make up for their share of handing over their money.
If this amount is not enough, the co-insured person must make up the amount.
And then it’s completely like sitting together. It was already difficult for you to come from home, but now because your neighbor has run away, you have to pay for him? What is this called?
It won’t work if you don’t pay.
So many people were forced to run away.
What are you waiting for if you don't run?
Another wave of refugees began to appear in the north. People left their homes, not only because of floods, droughts, famine, but also because they were oppressed by taxes and forced to leave the land they could cultivate and flee, just to avoid labor and evade taxes.
Even many rich peasants, landlords and gentry cannot resist now, because the Qing Dynasty is increasing the pressure at every level and will not talk to you about any exemptions, privileges or anything like that. If you are a gentry, you are privileged, and you will receive the same exemptions, but there is no possibility of extra privileges.
In the past, it was easy for officials and gentry to collude, but now it is no longer possible. Because the pressure from above is so strong, officials will lose their heads at any time, so whoever wants to play with you is like you are good, I am good, everyone is good, money is given and accepted, but things can't be done.
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The poor fled in large numbers, and the taxes and levies were borne by the rich.
Local officials and local green camps will continue to plunder and increase taxes and consumption. I advise you to donate money. Anyway, they are just collecting wool over and over again, so that the squires and common people can fully understand the sorrow of being a slave who has subjugated the country.
Yan Wogong traveled north and south. What he saw along the way, from Huaiyang to Haixu, and then to Jinan Beizhi, were deserted fields everywhere. Even the fields on the edge of the county seat, many of which were originally good irrigated fields, had become
Grass grows in patches.
No one is farming.
If the common people stay and farm the land, the harvest they get throughout the year is not enough to hand over. In addition to the official salary, there are extra contributions. In addition to the extra contributions, there are also expenses. The expenses will be further increased. What is even more terrible is the labor. Originally, it has been done since Liwan.
They used money in lieu of labor, and even part of it was transferred to the land.
But now, all kinds of new services are emerging in various places, and they all have to recruit additional soldiers to serve, such as collecting grain, escorting grain, etc. Now they have to recruit soldiers for transportation, etc. You can also pay for the service, but he decided
The standard is several times higher than the actual one.
Especially those people who live along the canals and official roads will be robbed by the soldiers as soon as they pass by. They will also be arrested as civilians who transport grain, grass and baggage. They will even be drafted into young men. Sometimes they may even be robbed by the soldiers.
To those people.
Things have changed in the north, and the Ming Dynasty has been replaced by the Qing Dynasty, but the officials seem to be the same people, and they even exploited and oppressed even more harshly.
Now the north has entered a vicious cycle. The burden on the people was too heavy to flee, so it was borne by those who did not flee, forcing more people to flee. A large number of fields were left barren, which further aggravated the Qing government's financial difficulties, so it had to impose further taxes...
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Yan Wogong also told Zhu Yihai that most of the green camps in various places were recruited from the Ming Dynasty army, peasant army, bandits and water bandits, and were resettled in various places. Most of them had not been paid for a long time, so they looted the place or forced donations to survive.
The combat effectiveness is very low, no different from the previous Ming army.
However, the Eight Banners were very powerful in combat, and some of the Han banners transferred from outside the Pass and Beizhi were also well-equipped and had good combat effectiveness, so he should be careful.