Ming Zuo

Chapter 222 How to be a man

The four people who followed Zuo Maodi were also local scholars from Laiyang.

One is Shen Xun and the other is Zhang Yunlun.The other two are brothers, Jiang Cai and Jiang Gai.

Zuo Menggeng just regarded him as an ordinary scholar and greeted them one by one.

Little did they know that these four people were all famous loyalists in history.

Shen Xun, Jiang Cai, and Zuo Maodi were all Jinshi in the fourth year of Chongzhen, and they were like-minded, so they were called the three gentlemen of Laiyang.

After the Qing army captured Laiyang in the [-]th year of Chongzhen, the Qing army divided up to attack Sun Shou. Shen Xun and his younger brother Shen Biao led the troops to resist the enemy with their strongholds. They fought fiercely for three days and nights, killing and wounding countless Qing soldiers, and the Qing soldiers retreated.

In the first year of Shunzhi, the Qing government issued an order to shave hair. Shen Xun occupied the village and vowed not to shave his hair and surrender.

At that time, Wang Wanxiang had already surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. He had been impeached by Shen Xun, and he also advocated attacking Shen Xun.

The enmity between Shen Xun and Wang Wanxiang began during the reign of Chongzhen.

At that time, the governor of Denglai was vacant, and Wang Wanxiang recommended Zheng Eryang, a military officer.So Shen Xun impeached Wang Wanxiang for controlling the government, which led to Wang Wanxiang's dismissal.

The Qing court ordered Fangfu Zhu Guozhu to lead 300 Qing soldiers and 3000 Qing Han soldiers to besiege Sun Shou Village. After three days of fierce fighting with the Qing soldiers in the camp, Shen Xun ran out of arrows and ammunition.

Seeing that the general situation was over, Shen Xun couldn't help but looked up to the sky and sighed.

His mother and the whole family committed suicide by hanging from a beam. After Shen Xun burned the corpses of his relatives, he made a pilgrimage to the north in full dress and then threw himself on fire. Twenty-seven members of his family died for the country.

The Jiang brothers were even worse.

In the last years of Chongzhen, Jiang Cai, who was in charge of the Li Ke at the time, was beaten with a hundred imperial staff and sent to Xuanchengwei because he resisted Chongzhen's unreasonable memorials.

At that time, Jiang Cai's father, Jiang Xieli, fought against the Qing Dynasty in Laiyang, and the city was broken and killed.

In order to let Jiang Cai come back to attend his father's funeral, Jiang Gai asked the court to order him to be his elder brother.

Chongzhen...not allowed!
Later, the Jiang brothers lived in the southeast, and after Ruan Dacheng got his wish, he wanted to kill Jiang Gai.

Jiang Gai had no choice but to hide his name and hide in Ningbo.

After the death of the Ming Dynasty, the two brothers did not surrender and stayed behind closed doors.

Even Zhang Yunxuan lived in seclusion in Laoshan after the death of the Ming Dynasty and did not serve in the Qing Dynasty.

However, Zuo Menggeng's detailed historical knowledge is not enough, so he knows something about Zuo Maodi's deeds.

However, these scholars admired Zuo Menggeng extremely, and did not feel proud of his status as a warrior.

The reason is that Daming faced Houjin in these years, and suffered repeated defeats. People at that time were sad, angry, and depressed.

It was not easy for a man who won the gold in the field with dignity, and immediately won countless praises.

Zuo Maodi and the others didn't know, because of Zuo Menggeng, they lost their Juren status this year.

The chief envoy of Shandong has reported to the imperial court that the provincial examination originally held in August has been canceled because of the chaos in Shandong.

On the contrary, because of defending the city hard and knowing the dangers of the battle, he admired famous generals like Zuo Menggeng even more.

He pulled over the general who had spoken rudely to Zuo Menggeng just now, and made an apology on his behalf.

"This is Sun Chengzu, the elder sister-in-law of the student. I don't know the name of General Zuo, please forgive me."

Zuo Maodi's uncle Zuo Zhiwu was the governor of Dengzhou Wei, and his brother-in-law Sun Chengzu was the guerrilla general of Dengzhou Wei.

The Zuo family is a big family in Laiyang, otherwise Zuo Maodi would not have become famous at such a young age.

Sun Chengzu looked at Zuo Menggeng with prudence in his admiration.

Did this young general really kill five thousand Tartars?
"The left seat, the last general is rude, please forgive me."

Of course, Zuo Menggeng didn't have general knowledge, but said: "Sun Guerrilla is also responsible, as it should be."

Seeing the harmonious atmosphere, Sun Yuanhua let out a sigh of relief.

"Zhongheng, this battle has been decided, how should we deal with so many prisoners?"

To be honest, Sun Yuanhua felt a headache seeing so many thieves captured by the new army.

With so many people, it would be better to kill them all.

Killing them all on the battlefield can still be counted as a military exploit.But now that they are all captured, they need food to support them.

Does the government have food?

Obviously, it is impossible to have Laiyang right in front of us.

And seeing how angry the people in Laiyang are, although they can no longer kill these captives for revenge, it is impossible to even think about providing food for the captives.

Huang Zongxi stepped forward and said: "Most of these are local people in Denglai, so they will naturally be handed over to Mr. Zhongcheng."

With so many people, Zuo Menggeng certainly wanted it.But under the watchful eyes of everyone, he had no valid reason.

Sun Yuanhua frowned, he really didn't want to pick up this hot potato.

He looked at Zhang Keda.

"General Zhang, if these prisoners are handed over to you, may they be properly disposed of?"

Zhang Ke got even more numb.

Of course he knew that killing prisoners was inauspicious, and he was unwilling to do so.But all the soldiers below are eager for military merits in exchange for money and food, and if they don't have enough, whoever will start behind their backs.

In case the captives are unbearable and violent again, it will be another chaos.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help complaining to Zuo Menggeng again.

Alright, just annihilate them all, why bother.

Seeing the dilemma between the two sides, Zhang Yunlun was still furious, and snorted: "Zhongcheng, General Zuo, why don't you hand over these captives to me to wait."

In the past few days of defending the city, Zhang Yunlun's uncle and younger brother all died at the hands of the White Lotus Sect, bloody enmity, it seems that he is not ready to give up.

Although the others did not speak, the bloody look in their eyes could not be concealed from others.

When Zuo Menggeng saw it, he felt angry in his heart, and asked in a deep voice: "Do you have a perfect plan? Now that Denglai has gone through this chaos, a lot of waste is waiting to be done. These captives are the best labor after they are disposed of. I'm afraid You can't wait to be kind and make trouble again."

Hearing this, Jiang Gai couldn't help saying: "The general kept excuses for these beasts. Could it be that my father in Laiyang deserves to die? The general knows that once these beasts break through the county, what a tragedy it will be for my father in Laiyang? Even now, the people of Laiyang It's going to be ten to five or six, and the vitality is seriously injured. If we don't avenge this revenge, how can we face the unjustly died fathers and villagers?"

Huang Zongxi stayed quietly at first, but when he heard this, he immediately became furious.

"Revenge, revenge. Even if you kill these people, what's the use? It's ridiculous for you to wait until you have read poetry and books, but you don't know the source, and you only cling to hatred."

His group ridicule immediately angered Zuo Maodi and others.

Everyone saw him standing behind Zuo Menggeng, inconspicuous, and thought he was the general of the left.

Although they respect Zuo Menggeng, these scholars don't have a good look at Qiu Ba in general.

Jiang Cai stepped forward with a stern face and sarcasm.

"You warrior, what kind of reasoning do you know? These thieves are like locusts crossing the border, destroying villages and towns, killing people in the wild, and causing countless people to destroy their families. Is it wrong to cooperate with us to protect the country and the people?"

Hearing his words, Zuo Maodi and the others agreed with each other, and for a while, they shared the enemy's hatred and were ready to teach this one-armed young warrior a lesson.

Unfortunately, they found the wrong partner.

Huang Zongxi sneered again and again, pointing at those ragged thieves.

"Why did they rebel? They weren't good people before the rebellion? Who made them take the risk? You guys in long gowns are the only ones who co-authored, and the real people are not as good as pigs and dogs?"

The lethality of these words was too great, which made Zuo Maodi and others change color suddenly, and wanted to refute, but they couldn't find a place to start.

Huang Zongxi didn't give up, he waved to the distance, and asked the soldiers to bring a prisoner over.

The prisoner was as skinny as a stick, with only a piece of rotten cloth covering his body, and his trousers were scuffed and full of holes.

They did wear shoes on their feet, but they were obviously not a pair.I probably snatched it from somewhere, so I put it on casually.

Being carried among a group of high officials, the prisoner was terrified and fell to his knees, trembling, not knowing whether he was dead or alive.

Huang Zongxi asked him, "What's your name? Where are you from?"

The man trembled and said: "The young one is called Gu Erzhong, from Chenjiazhuang, Laixi County."

Everyone was taken aback for a moment, but they didn't expect that the prisoner was actually a local.

Huang Zongxi was unmoved, and continued to ask: "Why do you want to be a thief?"

The man didn't know what he thought of, and his expression suddenly became sad and indignant.

"My family lived well. Although my father died long ago, my family has more than ten acres of land. My sister and I take care of my mother, but we don't have to worry about food and clothing. Later, my sister fell ill, so I took her to see a doctor But the prescription given by the doctor is too expensive, I have no choice but to sell the land to Master Zuo..."

Everyone couldn't help looking at Zuo Maodi.

The Zuo family is a rich family in Laiyang and Laixi. When it comes to the surname Zuo, they are basically relatives of Zuo Maodi.

However, it is not uncommon for poor families to sell their land to survive in disasters or illnesses.

Everyone didn't think there was any problem with this matter.

Gu Erzhong's voice became angry.

"Master Zuo knew that I was in a hurry to spend money, so he suppressed the price fiercely, and gave me a tael of silver for an acre of land."

Everyone's expressions suddenly became strange.

Everyone knows how much the land costs.Even in Susukita, one mu of land cost one tael or five renminbi.

Giving one tael of silver per mu of land is obviously an opportunity to snatch it.

As Gu Erzhong talked, he burst into tears.

"I don't want to sell the land, but my sister's illness can't do it anymore, so I agreed to him. Who knows that the master of the Zuo family has changed his mind again, and he is only willing to give eight cents per mu of land."

"Bastard!"

This time it was none other than Sun Yuanhua who got angry.

I have seen the scene of landlords exploiting and oppressing ordinary farmers, but no one with conscience can accept it.

(End of this chapter)