The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 315
In the sixth year of Chongzhen, Ding Yi was led by Yan Xiong, and the governor of the yamen came forward. He hid behind the scenes, seized the opportunity, and once again swept the tyrants and gentry in Denglai and Lai.

Kong Youde fought indiscriminately for more than a year, and almost half of the tyrants and gentry in Denglai and Laizhou were wiped out by Kong, except for those who hid in Changyi, Laizhou and other counties that had not been breached.

Ding Yi scanned again, and the two lands occupied the most fields, and the richest top gentry were severely hit.

At this time, the remaining gentry are divided into two types, one is those with a relatively strong background, such as close relations with the prefect of Denglai Prefecture, etc., such as marriage, relatives, etc. Yes, these two will not move for the time being.

One of them went to dig a gold mine, but Yan Xiong came to teach him a lesson, and in the end honestly handed over 1000 taels of silver and let him go.

Ding Yi is using the routine of Journey to the West. The goblins who are related are let go first, and the ones who are not related are destroyed first.

After this strike, he seized a total of 86 taels of silver and 14 taels of gold, making him very rich.

This incident also opened up the demon in his heart, and Ding Yi suddenly wanted to learn from the Peasant Army.

Think about it, Li Zicheng copied more than 7000 million taels in the capital in history, while Yan Xiong randomly copied nearly 100 million taels in Denglai.

Sure enough, the business of beating local tyrants is really getting better and better.

But reason reminded him that he couldn't do that right now.

This will offend all the gentry in Da Ming. Before one's own strength is not enough, this kind of thing can only be done once in a while.

And this time Denglei could not have done so easily without the rebels and a suitable reason.

But Ding Yi didn't expect that after a while, Lu Chao found another reason and did it again.

After cracking down on the gold theft, Xu Fuzuo and Liu Yuan each got 1 taels of silver.

General Yang Zhen of Laizhou received 5000 taels of silver.

Ren Dong, the prefect of Laizhou, and Kou Hua, the prefect of Dengzhou, each received 5000 taels of silver.

They also went to Zhu Dadian in Jinan and Gao Qiqian in the capital, and gave 1 taels per person.

Ding Yi also did something that surprised everyone. He gave two taels of silver to each of the small officials in the county government of Dengzhou and Laizhou, who were working for the court anyway.

The reason for issuing the silver is that "disaster relief contributes to the silver", implying that they will contribute to the common people during the disaster relief.

Officials and small officials in Denglei and Denglai all praised him highly.

I have served the court for so many years, and I have never seen the court pay a bonus.

After Ding Yi's thunderous blow, the gentry and powerhouses in Denglai and Denglai quickly understood one thing.

If you want to hang out in Denglei, you'd better not touch three things.

Minerals, salt, grain fields.

For a period of time, various reports and impeachment documents from the two places and even other places in Shandong flew to the Governor's Yamen in Shandong like snowflakes.

Zhu Dadian pressed the button and neither sent nor replied.

Some family members of a powerful family lodged a complaint against the governor of Denglai, Liu Yuan, to plunder the capital. However, these local strongmen had little to do with the capital, and in the end, nothing happened. Soon, someone found out that the strongman who had lodged a complaint with the capital was wiped out again.

So, soon the rest of the powerful gentry learned to shut up.

Facts have proved that the Shijin Haoqiang in the late Ming Dynasty were indeed very powerful, but the premise is that they must be enough, united enough, and able to resist killing.

As for the Denglai area, Kong Youde and Ding Yi made such a move, and there were not many remaining gentry and powerful people, so they couldn't make waves.

At the beginning of March, Ding Yi finally returned to Lushun after arranging all the affairs.

After he left, Yan Xiong's suppression of Haoqiang continued, and it was not completely stopped until April.

On the third day of March, Du Ruhai brought a group of people from Lushun, and began to build a fort in Dengzhou to stockpile fields. The reason for the outside world was to restore people's livelihood, build water conservancy, and rebuild Denglai.

The Dengzhou Rebellion led to a decline in the population of the two prefectures of Denglai, and because Kong Youde was forced to rebel by the Wang family, he hated the big family and killed many wealthy businessmen.

Then Ding Yi swept away another group of rich businessmen and powerful people in the name of stealing gold mines.

After Du Ruhai arrived, he quickly approached Liu Yuan with Lu Chao. After a month of statistical investigation, the population of Denglai and Lai prefectures is less than 20, and the fertile land without owners has reached 11 mu.

The owners of more than 13 mu of fertile land used to be wealthy businessmen and officials, but now all the masters of the family have been killed, leaving only the old, the weak, the sick and the young.

For example, the former king Xuqianzhai had less than a thousand households, and hundreds of military households were killed by the rebels. After the death of the officer, more than 1 mu of military land was left, which is now temporarily returned to the Dengzhou government, waiting for redistribution.

The imperial court originally wanted to send other military households, but later Wang Weizhong was ordered to set up the Dengzhou Battalion. One of his subordinates, Chief Qian, temporarily served as Qianhu, and led [-] Lushun troops to garrison them. The land also belonged to Lushun.

The guards in the two states of Denglei were almost wiped out during the rebellion, and those who survived were also surrendered to the rebels, and were captured by the officers and soldiers.

At present, most of this field belongs to Dengzhouying, with a total of more than 3 mu.

When he heard the news, Du Ruhai quietly asked Lu Chao when no one was around: "I heard that after the lord captured the prisoners, he cut off all the officers above Xiaoqi (Shichang)?"

Lu Chao was stunned for a moment, then shook his head solemnly: "Nothing, my lord originally thought that the rebels were all Ming soldiers, and everyone is Ming people, so let them go as soon as they can."

"It's that bastard Wang Weizhong, who made his own decisions, and was afraid of sending troops to gather crowds to make trouble, so he chopped them all down."

Du Ruhai took a meaningful look at Lu Chao. In the Dengzhou Rebellion, Lu Chao, who did not lead troops to fight at all, was promoted to a thousand households because of his meritorious service, and was stationed at Jinshan Zuo (now on the Weihai Sea). He really could speak.

"Wang Weizhong did a good job." Du Ruhai immediately nodded and said, "Otherwise, these army farms are not easy to distribute."

Lu Chao looked bewildered, as if he couldn't understand what it meant.

In the evening, Liu Yuan, governor of Denglai, was at home, and hosted a banquet for Du Ruhai, Wang Weizhong, Lu Chao (now the Qianhu of Jinshan Zuo), Zhou Yougen (now also the Qianhu of Wang Xuqianzhai), Fang Duotai (now also of Qishan Suo Qianhu), Yang Duan (now also known as Haiyang Suo Baihu) and more than ten people.

Liu Yuan was also slightly taken aback when he saw them. These hundreds of households, a few days ago, turned all the thousand households into guards on the spot after a single order.

Generally speaking, most of the conversion of battalion soldiers to guard soldiers is not very original, because the military status of the guard has been passed down from generation to generation, which is not very good.

But Lushun soldiers turned directly without saying a word.

The court also wanted them to turn around.

One is that the guards have been cleared out during the rebellion, and it is unrealistic to transfer guards from other places, so the battalions can only be transferred on the spot.

The second is to divide Ding Yi's soldiers and horses in this way, turning his elite soldiers into garrisons in the guard.

The princes of the court feel very good.

But Liu Yuan looked at the room full of Ding Yi's subordinates, and suddenly felt that the whole Denglai was almost Ding Yi's.

But he knew that he had no way out, because the robbery of gold was done in his name, and the tycoons in Denglai and Liu Yuan now hated him to the bone. If he didn't have Ding Yi's protection, I'm afraid I can't live until tomorrow, so I can only walk to the end with my eyes closed.

And Ding Yi did treat him kindly, this time he saved his life abruptly.

After drinking for three rounds, Liu Yuan was not polite, and said in a loud voice: "This time you are called to discuss the important matter of Ding Zongbing."

All the soldiers listened intently.

"Mr. Ding wants land, and he wants a lot of land. After our statistics, there is no problem with the military land, and there are still 28 mu of land owned by owners. However, these original owners have all been killed, and there are only clan members in the family—"

After Liu Yuan finished speaking, he probably meant that they could try to use money to buy it. At present, their main family does not want it. Many wealthy households and officials are dead, and the family members may be willing to sell it.

"It costs a lot of money." Du Ruhai is in charge of logistics, so of course he knows that an acre of fertile land now costs about five to ten taels.

Master Ding can't afford so much money.

"One liang of silver per mu, I'll talk to them." Lu Chao said at this time.

"..." The audience looked sideways, are you going to grab it?

"I'm afraid I won't." Liu Yuan wondered.

"Give me another hundred soldiers." Lu Chao sneered, "Now that the chaos in Dengzhou has just ended and the chaos has just ended, I want to see who won't?"

"Hiss..." All the generals gasped in unison.

"Don't do it." Liu Yuan immediately said: "Mr. Ding has always loved the people like his own son and valued the voice of the people. If Lu Qianhu did this, it would only be counterproductive. If it gets out, it will damage Zr. Ding's reputation."

"Bang..." Lu Chao jumped up against the crime, and hummed, "It's too late for the common people to clap their hands and applaud the profiteers and corrupt officials killed."

"If the farmland is over a thousand, is the butt clean? It's either a profiteer or a corrupt official."

"Lu Qianhu is right, I support it." Zhou Yougen laughed.

Then the generals clamored for support.

Liu Yuan was in a hurry.

What a bunch of rude soldiers.

He persuaded earnestly: "You can't kill it. If it spreads out, it will only cause greater resistance if it goes to other places in the future."

Du Ruhai saw that he was strong, and said: "Master Liu, you are too worried. This is what the rebels did, and we don't know how to do it. Why did it spread?"

"Master Liu, don't you and Master Ding have the same heart?"

Liu Yuan was shocked, and quickly shook his head: "No, that's not what I meant."

"Lord Liu can be the governor with peace of mind. As long as Master Ding is here, I guarantee you will be fine." Du Ruhai finally said.

In mid-April, another rebel army who fled into the mountains came out again to rampage Denglai, attacking and killing wealthy gentry with a large number of grain fields many times. With peace, the two states of Denglei gradually returned to stability.

The rioting of the army and the crackdown on gold theft happened one after another, and they were finally put down almost at the same time.

When the news reached Pidao, Ding Yi was furious and wanted to kill Lu Chao, and all the generals knelt down and begged.

In the end, Lu Chao was charged with fifty sticks, and was demoted from a thousand households to a small flag, and transferred back to Lushun.

(End of this chapter)