stubborn thief

Chapter 203 Yang He
On the official road from Fuzhou to Guanzhong, the governor of Shaanxi is very troubled to practice state affairs.

He is the eighth grandson of Lian Zining, the important minister of Emperor Jianwen of the Yongle Dynasty, after the famous officials.

At that time, his ancestors scolded Zhu Di after he ascended the throne, and his tongue was cut off. Zhu Di said: I want to be the Duke of Zhou to assist the king.

Lian Zining put his hand into his mouth, dipped in blood and wrote: Where is King Cheng?
Zhu Di was furious. He tore Lian Zining's body into pieces, killed 150 members of his family, exiled 370 members of his in-laws, and exterminated 480 households in his hometown. Only one young grandson survived.

Just half a month ago, Lian Guoshi noticed that the thieves in Yan'an Mansion were in decline, and many thieves didn't know where they were going, so he felt very excited.

The three most rebellious and fierce thieves, Wang Jiayin was besieged in Fugu, King Chuang was still in Shanxi, and Liu Chengzong didn't know where he was going.

Now those who stay in the various parts of Yan'an Prefecture are all young people.

Lian Guoshi realized that the opportunity to fight is fleeting, and the time to counterattack has come!
Immediately, Zhang Quanchang, the general of Lingzhou who was stationed in Qingyang, was dispatched to enter Yaozhou. Together with Zhao Dayin, the general of Yaozhou, he led the two generals to march northward together, intending to recover the Yan'an mansion that had been plagued by bandits for a long time.

Now there are two most difficult problems in Shaanxi. One is that there are no generals.

The generals who can take action are either defeated or Du Wenhuan's kind of wise and protective people. The generals used are all promoted from the grassroots, and they have neither the experience nor the strength to lead a large army.

The second is that the imperial court did not mobilize national power to provide disaster relief.

The censor who was born as a Jinshi in Lian's state affairs is different from the supervisory officials and the administrative officials. The former finds problems, and the latter solves them.

He can't lack what he wants, he can only use what he has to solve the problem.

Only two generals could be selected, each led 500 troops, and entered Fuzhou.

His first enemy was a leader named Lone Wolf, who led more than 2000 people to move in the mountains around Luochuan.

Lingzhou General Zhang Quanchang led five hundred soldiers to fight for three days and nights, beheaded more than 200 people, dismissed more than [-] prisoners, and placed them in the Yijun area.

The situation can be said to be very good, we just need to march into the hinterland of Yan'an, wipe out the bandits and restore the peace in the universe.

At this moment, news came from Xi'an Mansion that Liu Chengzong, a giant from Yan'an, entered Qingyang, and Yang He, the governor of the three sides, went to Ningzhou.

Lian was so frightened by state affairs that he quickly led his troops to retreat from Yanzhou to Xi'an Prefecture, and then turned to march towards Binzhou. At the same time, he wrote a letter to persuade Yang He to leave Ningzhou as soon as possible.

If you don't know how to fight and don't have generals, what chaos will follow!

But Yang He is much smarter than he imagined.

Shaanxi is a very chaotic situation. Regardless of the three sides or Shaanxi, the situation is the same. There are no generals, soldiers but no soldiers, food but no food, and money but no money.

How to calm the chaos at this time?
You can't fight, you can't fight, you can't beat the military officers to death, you can only call for peace.

A person has a historical mission for a certain period. Maybe in the future, the court can send troops to suppress the bandits when it reacts, but during the time Yang He is in, he can do nothing but recruit security.

And the one who entered Qingyang was none other than Liu Chengzong.

Yang He recruited several bandit leaders, and he knew something about the bandits in Shaanxi. He had always been afraid of this man, and he didn't dare to send troops to fight Liu Shizi again.

The more they fought, the fewer officers and troops there were, and the more Liu Shizi had, the soldiers who were obviously sent to suppress the bandits became bandits.

However, when Liu Shizi entered Qingyang, he must be rescued if he was attacked.

Yang He figured in Guyuan that Liu Shizi's entry into Qingyang should be to fight Pingliang, and Han Wang's Mansion is the closest and best vassal state to him.

Yang He calculated and calculated, and it was a dead end.

He sent weak soldiers to fight Liu Shizi, but the weak soldiers couldn't stop him; he sent strong soldiers to fight Liu Shizi, and then sent Liu Shizi a group of frontier soldiers.

He is guilty no matter what.

Yang He hasn't slept comfortably in the past six months, every night he feels that his life is coming to an end.

Sending troops to hunt down Liu Shizi is undoubtedly speeding up the process.

But he can't leave Qingyang Mansion alone.

In the end Yang He gave up, he figured out a way to leave this difficult weighing of gains and losses to others—isn’t he the governor of the three sides who must be saved by others?

I won't send troops, I'll go by myself, if you don't want to lose your position and suffer, come and save me quickly.

With this in mind, Yang He led [-] governor-general's pacesetters, non-stop, through Pingliang to Qingyang, and stationed in the Ningzhou government office.

Ningzhou magistrate almost pissed on Sunday in fright.

Zhou Riqiang was already very scared. Since Heshui County was set on fire, he could write eight letters of appeal for help to the surrounding prefectures and counties a day, begging his grandpa to tell his grandma to send reinforcements to Ningzhou.

Relying on Ningzhou's own strength, even if it is a fortified city surrounded by rivers on three sides and backed by mountains, it is impossible to defend it.

Gathering the three classes of yamen servants and the Xiangle inspection department, there are a total of 120 six defenders in the city.

With just 120 six, Zhou Riqiang and his two sons guarded eight battlements on average. How could they be able to defend it?
For several days and nights, Zhou Zhouqiang was hesitant in his heart between defending the state city or abandoning the city to escape.

It's settled now.

Yang He, the governor of the three sides, moved to Ningzhou, and he couldn't run away.

Sunset and setting sun, burning red half the sky.

Zhou Qiang, the magistrate of Ningzhou, wore a blue official robe embroidered with white pheasants, his back was slightly bent, and he stood on the top of the city gate with his hands in his hands. His brows and eyes were wrinkled into embarrassment, and he sighed wearily as he saw the back of his youngest son and the old servant riding south. tone.

Like a worried old farmer.

The eldest son said beside him: "Brother, go back, the governor's army is still waiting at the Yamen."

"It's really hard to be an official. You still want to be an official. Is it easy to be an official for the court?"

Sunday Qiang shook his head in distress, and said to his eldest son, "If you can survive this time, you can go back to Baoding, study and paint, do whatever you want, and don't take the imperial examination again."

He is from Lixian County, Baoding Prefecture. He has served as magistrate in Shandong and Henan, and he has done a good job. He never expected to be promoted to magistrate and come to Ningzhou.

When he first took office, he knew that this was the end of his official career in this life.

In Dangzhi County, Lijin, Shandong Province, there are more than 2 people in a county. He educates the people to grow crops and fish hard, and even uses his knowledge to help fishermen transform their fishing boats.

He is in Dangzhi County, Henan Province. There are more than 4 people in a county, and the fertile land can't be seen at a glance. The biggest problem is that rich households hide ordinary people and occasionally resist taxes.

When it was his turn to be the magistrate in Ningzhou, his official position would be promoted, but there was nothing he could do in this land.

There are more than 7000 people on the yellow book, but only more than 300 people can be found when collecting taxes.

The tax owed in previous years is almost the reign title of the Ming Dynasty from Hongwu to the present, and it does not fall every year and is owed every year.

With a black gauze hat on his head, he wants to set up households and collect taxes for the court;
After taking off the black hat, he is also a human being. No matter how he sees the common people running to the mountains to dig holes like mice to survive, he can still open his mouth to collect taxes.

Be an official, be a fart.

This is not something that humans can do.

Back at the state office, Governor Yang was sitting on his lacquered chair flipping through the books. When he saw him coming in, he raised his finger to the poem on it and said, "This is Tai Meng's Shou Ning Feelings? The words are sincere." .”

It was Sunday's poem, and he had nothing else to do here.

What is written in the poem is: the barren mountain and city are half deserted, and the huts where the people fled are completely abandoned and hurt;The scribes don't know the three-foot method, and Lu Yan has been in arrears for several years. Who should call Liang Gong to ask, and teach me how to save the suffering at that time.

Liang Gong was talking about Di Renjie. Di Renjie was once the governor of Ningzhou. The problems he faced at that time were official corruption and poor water conservancy.

Now the problem he has to face is the heavy taxation of the imperial court. On Sunday Qiang wants to punish a few corrupt officials. However, after Ningzhou is overwhelmed by heavy taxes, drought, and bandits, there is no room for corrupt officials to survive.

"A work of whining."

If in the past, the chief would have been very happy when he saw his poems, but now he really couldn’t lift his spirits and said: "Please go back to Guyuan. Come fight Ningzhou."

"But the military gate is here, so it's not necessarily true."

Yang He deeply sympathizes with the helplessness in Zhou Riqiang's poems, although their helplessness is different.

The so-called governors of the three sides are actually just scapegoats after the soldiers' money and food were embezzled from Liao Town. Those people with good military hopes were forced to death by these things.

Yang He was also helpless about this, he asked: "If I'm not in Ningzhou, where else can I be?"

Zhou Qiang didn't say a word, but stood aside with his hands down.

I heard Yang He say: "Tai Meng, now Yanqing's bandits are targeting Ningzhou, what do you think is a good way?"

"If you go back to the military gate, if you chase food and thieves, you can still persuade them to leave, bribe them away, or even plant them on the spot. Anyway, there is a lot of wasteland in Ningzhou, but Liu Chengzong is a rebel leader, and he has no good plan."

Zhou Riqiang spoke so boldly that Yang He raised his eyebrows, and even said that he bribed the thief?

He said angrily, "If you bribed him away, is it not robbery if you rob him elsewhere?"

"Reporting to the army, the lower officials don't know anything about military affairs, and they don't know much about Jiarong. There are only a hundred soldiers in Ningzhou, and the important town of Xiongcheng can't stop him. If you die, the lower officials can teach the bandits to retreat. You don't care about yourself."

Sunday insisted: "Just relying on the court's love for Ning's people to triple the tax, I'm afraid they won't be able to kill the whole city, but they will scramble to join the bandits."

He was not afraid of Yang He at all, and persuaded again: "So the military gate should go back to Guyuan. When the bandits attack the city, the people in the city may rush to join the bandits."

A person who cannot solve the problem is placed in a position where he must solve the problem, and there is no other way but to escape.

Death is also a way of escape.

Simple and effective.

Yang He was not angry, instead he asked what he just said: "You said that Liu Chengzong is the leader of the rebel army, what do you mean?"

Isn't that obvious enough?
Sunday Qiang said as it should be: "He used his real name. The officials have seen all the bandits in Yanqing, and there are only a few people who use their real names. Some of them gathered a crowd to rebel and did illegal things to make people recognize them. But Liu Chengzong has been useless since he robbed the prison in Yan'an Fucheng. over a pseudonym."

"I don't need a pseudonym. Of course I'm not the kind of thief who seeks to hide his name in order to get a few meals and some money."

Yang He applauded and laughed: "Well said, are you really not afraid of death?"

On Sunday, I strengthened my mind and turned my thoughts, thinking about what I just said, do you really want to kill me?
But the words have already been said, so he straightened his neck and said, "Don't be afraid, what does the military sect want me to do?"

"Do you dare to go deep into the bandit camp, follow the example of Guo Linggong Shijia and throw a spear, and retreat back to the He army alone?" Yang He sat upright, staring into Sunday Qiang's eyes and said: "Recruit him."

This should be a very impassioned moment, but Zhou Riqiang shook his head like a rattle, and said sternly: "I dare not."

Yang He almost couldn't hold back his curse, and gave him a blank look.

What I said just now seemed to love the people like children, but in fact it was empty talk.

Who can't stand and talk.

Unexpectedly, Sunday Qiang didn't finish his sentence. He asked: "It's okay to enter the bandit camp, and it's okay to die, but I really can't think of anything I can do to recruit him. That is to send him to death. I don't dare to send him to death."

When Yang He heard that there was still a chance, he struck while the iron was hot and asked: "Isn't it okay to be an official in the court? You can talk about it from the defense to the general. If you know the reason, what's the benefit of going against the court?"

On Sunday, he asked like a cannonball: "I hope the military gate will tell you where the money and grain will come from, where will the land be, where will it be deployed, and how will the soldiers and horses disperse?"

He always felt that Yang He's recruiting plan was just a joke. He couldn't afford money and food, and he didn't dare to give him an official position.
The most critical question is that the troops of the imperial court have never defeated Liu Chengzong, so what should he use to talk to him, what should he use to make him feel at ease.

"Soldiers and horses scattered to thousands of people, the military rations came from Shaanxi, and the people were placed in Yanqing. As for the money..." Yang He looked at Zhou Riqiang and asked: "He robbed 13 taels of silver, and he expected the court to give it to him again. His money?"

Zhou Qiang thought about it too, and asked, "If Thief Liu is dissatisfied with his position as a general, what should we do?"

"Then delay the time. The Shaanxi governor's reinforcements are on the way, and they will reach them in a few days. King Qin's army has also returned from the capital. When the army is finished, it will be wiped out."

As Yang He said, he bowed his hands to Sunday: "It's just that at that time, Taimeng will have to think about ways to get out."

The implication is that if the talks fail to work out, his end will be to die a worthy death.

But Yang He didn't just let Sunday force him to die, he said: "If Taimeng can help me facilitate this matter, he is the first giant bandit to join, and I will definitely recommend a fourth-rank in Shaanxi for your meritorious service to His Majesty." Official position, what do you think?"

Zhou Qiang's back was still slightly hunched, and he sighed.

To be honest, he is currently promoted from the fifth rank to the fourth rank, but he has been working in Ningzhou, and the promotion does not mean much to him.

In particular, he recommended a fourth rank in Shaanxi, which means that whenever the bandits make trouble again, the fourth rank will be picked again.

He has long recognized the reality, the court is finished in Shaanxi, this is not something he can solve.

Now he wants to go back to Baoding Mansion and live the rest of his life in peace.

He clasped his fists and said: "Then please ask the military sect to send a few followers and give a letter. If you decide to call for security, I will set off today to find Liu Chengzong."

"it is good!"

Yang He was very happy, thinking that the great event had been accomplished, he immediately took up his pen and wrote a letter for Zhou Qiang to persuade him to surrender.

On Sunday, he forcibly took this job. It was a natural disaster. He cried farewell to his relatives behind the yamen, and encouraged his eldest son to be a good man. Then he led the four cronies Yang Hedian assigned to him, led eight horses, and went out of the city with torches. In the deep night.

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)