stubborn thief

Chapter 415 The Best of Both Worlds
Before the world is in chaos, Shu will be in chaos.

When Chen Min filed a complaint in the yamen, Qin Ke cursed a lot. Liu Chengzong believed what the two of them said was true, but they were from different angles, and what they saw was not the whole picture.

Liu Chengzong didn't care about the grievances between the two. It was the sixth year of Chongzhen, and the chaos that had spread from Shaanxi to the world had lasted for four years. Any kindness or hatred would become a mess in the four years of chaos.

He just wants to solve the problem.

First of all, you need to know where the problem is. Qin Keduo, who is only a teenager, can't give him an accurate answer to this question. Only the student Chen Min can help him.

But the Sichuan in Chen Min's mouth seems to be very different from the fertile land of abundance in Liu Shizi's impression.

Chen Min only said four words: the land is narrow and the population is dense.

Liu Chengzong was outside, so he had limited knowledge of the situation in Sichuan in recent years. At most, he knew about Yang Yinglong's rebellion decades ago, and the rebellion of She Chongming from A Liuna.

In addition, only the Songpan Guard Banner Army was bullied by the Qiang people, and the Yazhou government army's combat power was slackened. These are just trivial things.

People still think that Sichuan, unlike Shaanxi, has no severe drought and its interior should be stable enough.

But in fact, he had a long talk with Chen Min, a native Bazhou scholar, all night long. According to his recollection, he asked his attendants to record seventeen pages of the Sichuan situation by his side.

It is indeed different from Shaanxi. Many problems in Shaanxi come from the poor; many problems in Sichuan come from the rich.

The chaos in Sichuan can make him, the anti-king of Shaanxi, dumbfounded.

Liu Chengzong likes to analyze things from the contradiction between people and land, but the contradiction between people and land in Sichuan is not at all annexation of land, it must be called nationalization.

Like the land in Chengdu Mansion, seven out of ten acres belong to the king of Shu, and two acres belong to the army.

The remaining one mu of land, no matter how you say it, must belong to the master, right?As for other people being tenants, the problem in Sichuan does not lie with the tenants.

As long as there are no natural disasters, the tenants are actually not a big problem, because the tenants are not the bottom of society, but the mainstream of society.

Except for some small landlords with one or two hundred acres of land in their hands and no sons or relatives to work at home, large landlords have thresholds for recruiting tenants, and the thresholds are quite high.

Without the help of cattle, farm tools, and family members, I rented [-] to [-] acres of land, even if I was as strong as a cow, I would be exhausted and couldn't finish it.

If you don’t have skills and don’t know how to farm the land, and if you can’t pay the grain when it’s time to pay, the landlord will lose money; if a hooligan with no home or land in the local area picks up his ass and runs away, the landlord will suffer a loss.

Therefore, if you want to be a tenant, you must first be a local who knows the basics, and you must also have a cow, a full set of farm tools, the skills of farming in your hands, and a family by your side.

Otherwise, a fool will only rent land.

As a tenant, a small part of the created value is paid to the emperor to pay taxes, a small half or even half is given to the landlord, and the rest is his own.

Although the tenants may suffer oppression from the landlord, they can rely on the prestige of the landlord to avoid some informal distribution in some places.

For example, a local friend came to Mr. Wang’s house, and there were not enough bearers. He asked two yamen servants to work.

The land protection found a self-cultivator, and he didn't need to threaten or take a stick. He smiled and said that he could do me a favor, but the self-cultivator couldn't think of any good excuse, so he went.

If Dibao finds a tenant, the tenant will smile and say that he can't help, and if he goes to work for other Li Dashan's family, the land will be barren.

Dibao is the same.

Unless there is an economic crisis, that is, a drought or flood disaster, they will generally survive starvation, and no matter how bad they are, they can be regarded as the middle and lower classes of society who are more than enough than the top, and will definitely not fall to the bottom.

There are so many long-term and short-term workers, pawn peddlers, matchmakers who advocate high-quality, pedicures and haircuts, and there are so many people who make a living in a mess, no matter how low-ranking they are, they will not be able to turn to tenants.

But besides the ownership of the land by the kingdom, Sichuan has another social phenomenon that is different from other places, that is, the local tyrants are very powerful.

It is not easy for other provinces to enter Sichuan and natives to leave Sichuan in this relatively closed place. Before the Jiajing year, officials from other places heard that they would be transferred to Sichuan to serve as officials.

I really couldn't escape it, so I tried my best to postpone my appointment, and after a year or so, I slowly arrived at the appointment, and nothing would happen anyway.

Until the Jiajing year, the southern Japanese and northern captives made a lot of noise, and the atmosphere was completely new. The time for Sichuan officials to take office was shortened from half a year to two years to less than four months.

Throughout the Jiajing and Longqing years, officials were basically promoted and relegated, and their successors would be able to take office within the same month, which is also a symbol of the good operation of the state apparatus.

This state has been maintained until the Wanli period, the deterrent effect of the examination is still there, and the officials can still maintain the succession of the month, but... the Wanli master is rotten.

The promotion of national bureaucrats is a complicated and delicate matter. High-level officials are filled by recommendation, while middle and lower-level officials are filled by general elections.

Therefore, before the general election, the Ministry of Officials will first recommend the high-level officials to the emperor, and then the middle-level officials will flow to make room for the lower-level officials. This will be done one by one, so that the whole machine will be in motion, and then the general election will be held.

The top ones are bad, and the bottom ones have no officials. The lack of government officials in various provinces, prefectures, prefectures, and counties basically plunged Daming into a state of anarchy.

But anarchy means that the government is gone. In this case, the imperial court needs the support of the local government to fight the war, and the power that the government is responsible for is still there.

Without a big government, Sichuan is still functioning well for the imperial court, and the battles that should be fought are still no problem, win!
It's nothing more than the fact that power has fallen into the hands of the wealthy family or those who originally held power.

But when the small government meets the land vassal ownership, the situation becomes different.

The absence of self-cultivating farmers means that the tenants who are the backbone of the agricultural society, these serious earners have no chance to change their destiny; the lack of local administrative power means that crooked ways grow barbarously, and powerful people rely on seizing public power to rapidly expand their wealth.

People compete for extravagance, they are no longer simple, they are rich and impoverished, they trade at the expense of others, they make a living with heavy interest and withdraw their debts, they make friends with duplicity, they instigate tongues and swords, they indulge in greed and adultery, they commit adultery and conspiracies, and they become jealous when they see people succeed. , Listening to people's misfortune is gloating.

In Chen Min's words, the scene of harmony between the village and the village gradually disappeared, but people's hearts became more and more dangerous, so that father and son killed each other and brothers hurt each other, and friends killed each other and married couples hurt each other.

People's hearts are not good, and the four evils mentioned by Sichuan people also emerged as the times require.

These four evils are corrupt officials, domineering gentry, local tyrants, and servants.

They colluded with cats and mice, controlled local power, were good at fish and meat, dumped people's property, defrauded people's children, cheated people's money, bad people's fame, killed people's lives, raped women, demolished people's marriages, and occupied tens of thousands of mu and thousands of brocade clothes Jade food, but it makes good people cry with hunger and cold.

In such a situation, first She Chongming swept Jiangjin in Chengdu, Chongqing, then the Bailian Sect in Guang'an rebelled in seven years, and then the students and scholars in Dazhou clamored to kill dozens of yamen servants, cooked them alive, and vowed to eliminate the four evils.

Now there are five evils, and the other one is the yellow stick thief.

They are the Yudang of Daliang, King of the Southern Han Dynasty who rebelled in the first year of Chongzhen. After Wang Daliang and Chongzhen were killed by Liu Yingyu, the soldier of Shangluo in the second year of Chongzhen, the Yudang fled into the mountains. At that time, they were a group of bandits and robbers. , Looting business travel, so they are called stick thieves by Sichuan people.

In March of the third year of Chongzhen, they were attacked by the government army from Long'an Mansion to Jianzhou. After that, the imperial court set up a town in Guangyuan, guarded by fellow acquaintance Zhang Peng.

In the fourth year of Chongzhen, the thieves flourished and captured Kaixian, Kuizhou; in the fifth year, they captured Xinning, Kuizhou.

After finally making it this year, the yellow thieves conquered Daning County in Kuizhou, caught up with the flood in Hanzhong, made life difficult in the mountains, and met Zhang Xianzhong, the eighth king of Xiying, a big thief with 500 people running rampant. I heard that there was no drought in my hometown in Shaanxi last year. That's it, the governor of the imperial court is recruiting to surrender again.

Yao Zhangru was moved. Liu Chengzong was not the first person he contacted.

It's just that recruiting is a farce.

They surrendered, and Shaanxi officials asked them to collect firewood in the mountains for cooking on the road. They also bought bows and knives and stayed in the mountains for a month.

Here comes the funniest part. The yellow bandit was aware of it before the encirclement by the officers and soldiers. He used his old buddy's stick and stones to defeat the ambushing officers and soldiers.

The official army was defeated, they snatched weapons, armor and firearms, and those who survived separated into a loose alliance headed by Yao Tiandong and Huang Long, supplemented by the leader of the [-]th Battalion.

Cut off the way home, entering Sichuan can defeat the officers and soldiers, but cannot defeat the people in northern Sichuan.

The people have firearms and armor, and they built a fortress, trapping them in northern Sichuan. Tens of thousands of people can build a fortress, but hundreds of people go out to look for food. Guns and guns.

Because of this, the soldiers and people in the township will kill the yellow thieves when they see them, and the yellow thieves will kill people when they see the soldiers and people in the village without asking where they came from.

After finally grabbing back some food, their men were beaten again by Zhang Xianzhong.

Chen Min said that Yao Zhangru originally wanted to take Zhang Xianzhong into Sichuan and form a joint venture with them, but Zhang Xianzhong's soldiers were caught up in the flood in Hanzhong, so they couldn't go there.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the flood receded, Zhang Xianzhong turned his face directly.

Liu Chengzong always thought that Zhang Xianzhong's military discipline should be poor, but in fact, according to Chen Min, the Eight Great Kings were particularly shrewd in controlling the army. There were only 500 veterans in their troops, but their combat effectiveness was particularly strong.

They killed people without blinking at all. Several teams of the Yaohuang Shisan Family who built the fort were wiped out without a sound. Within a day, they fought three times in a row within a radius of a hundred miles. All were beheaded.

It looked as if they were suppressed by the army. Many leaders in Yaohuang didn't even think that Zhang Xianzhong had started the murder. They wanted to send someone to inform Zhang Xianzhong that soldiers had entered the mountain, but they didn't know until they sent someone to go to the mountain.

The Eight Great Kings have already left!

Only a pile of grain, grass and utensils that could not be taken away were burned and smashed left on the mountain.

Then the bandits of Huang Huang got the news that the imperial court had transferred Qin Liangyu, the chieftain of Shizhu from the front line of Liaodong, back to Sichuan, so Zhang Xianzhong did not join forces with them, and slipped to Huguang to take a detour into Henan to join General Hengtian Wang Chuang and others .

The thieves who shook the yellow group were furious, but they didn't recruit at all.

The shadow of the famous tree of people, all those who fought against Qin Liangyu in this world have been buried in the loess, and the bandits who shook the yellow were forced to a dead end.

"Brother, please take a look."

In the yamen of the Shuai Mansion, Liu Chengzong unfolded the map of northern Sichuan drawn by Chen Min, pointed to the Hannan Mountains occupied by Yao Zhangru, and said: "If Qin Liangyu leads the troops back, they will be in a dilemma."

Liu Chengzu, who had just been recalled from Hekou in the hall, laughed out loud: "They don't have enough food, they don't have good food, they don't have enough people, what are they going to fight with the stone pillar soldiers in the mountains?"

"It's true that Shizhuchuan soldiers are familiar with infantry combat." Liu Chengzong said: "If Qin Liangyu is really transferred back to Sichuan, there is no need to fight with them in the mountains. As long as the white poles are stationed in Guangyuan and Bazhou, Shaanxi will transfer another one." The army is stationed in Hanzhong."

As he said that, Liu Shizi opened his hands on the map to enclose the mountainous area occupied by the yellow thieves: "In a year and a half, they will be able to eat up all the grass roots in the mountain, and be suffocated to death in the Hannan Mountains."

Master Liu shook his head and said, "With so many mountains and rivers gathered together, it shouldn't be difficult for them to escape to Huguang."

"It's hard, big."

Liu Chengzong sighed: "They are not us. Wherever we go, the people who have benefited live in the same place, and they all report to us."

"They are bandits and thieves. Wherever they go, they run into civilians and they report to the officers and soldiers. 3 of them are marching in the mountains. Wherever they can go, even if they run out under pursuit, there are only 3000 left. people."

Liu Chengzong laughed: "If you really dare to run to Huguang and bring rich and beautiful women with you, Zhang Xianzhong can't go back and kill them all?"

Mr. Liu looked surprised: "They are all from the Shaanxi township party, so they shouldn't fight each other?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head and didn't say much on this topic.

The Marshal's Mansion doesn't say 20 troops, but only [-] soldiers. Yao Zhangru sent someone to send a letter, wanting [-] rebels to return to the Marshal's Mansion. Liu Shizi had to weigh in his heart whether he could get rid of these people.

Zhang Xianzhong's [-] soldiers come and go like the wind, and the entire team size will not exceed [-]. This is also the most comfortable force to use as a soldier. He can fight and run. How can he subdue Yao Zhangru and his gang?
What's more, just for looting, three thousand elite soldiers are enough to run rampant in the world.

Those who can beat him can't run away from him, those who can run over him can't beat him, and a city that can't be taken by 3000 people can't be taken by [-] bandit soldiers.

If you grab the same thing, why share it with 3 people.

Not to mention that they have already made enemies. According to Liu Shizi's thinking, they should not make enemies. If they do, they must kill the enemy if they seize the opportunity.

Liu Chengzong just said: "It's a good thing that they are in a desperate situation. I plan to let Qin Ke go back more often, and let him tell Yao Zhangru that if he is sincere in his attachment, he doesn't need to send gold and silver. Let him come to me by himself and see him."

Liu Chengzu shook his head, he frowned and said, "Do you really want to appease these gangsters? I think it's better to wait until the next two years, when there will be another big change in Sichuan, and then send troops into Sichuan to suppress them, just to win people's hearts."

"I'm afraid it won't be so popular. I thought so at first, but now Sichuan is too chaotic, and the temper of the natives in central Sichuan is too strong."

Liu Chengzong said: "When the big and small leaders in Sichuan become popular, they will not accept our old Shaanxi. I am afraid that when we enter Sichuan, it will be even more chaotic than it is now."

"What's more, after a few more years, the children of Sichuan will have to suffer a lot. Regardless of whether they can enter Sichuan or not, my idea is to send troops to the east next year, take Lanzhou Hanzhong Guyuan, and push Ningxia Guanzhong Sichuan. These people can help me take Hanzhong."

"Collect these stick thieves, select three or four thousand troops, send obedient ones to their hometowns to farm, and disobedient ones to hell to reincarnate, the best of both worlds."

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)