national surname chiming

Chapter 409 What Zhu Shuren and Dorgon Are Doing
The Qing court in the north, at the end of February and the first half of March of this year, finally chose to temporarily withdraw its troops to rest, suffer from the people from within, and tap the potential to rebuild its armaments.

This is of course very effective for quickly rearming a regime, but it is also like drinking poison to quench thirst, greatly losing the hearts of the people——

Fortunately, Dorgon also knew what he was doing, so he didn't expect to win the hearts of everyone in the north from the beginning to the end.

He just had no choice but to choose to pull and beat, to feed the people he wanted to win, and to offend those who had already offended to death, until he was forced to exterminate his species, smash his bones, squeeze his marrow, and cut off his children and grandchildren.

After the above measures were implemented step by step, the first reaction was that the offensive of Azig's army from Henan to Huguang was completely stopped.

The two red flags, which were slightly damaged, were pulled back to the hinterland of Henan to recuperate, to supplement the supply of troops from the Eight Banners Ciding in the rear reserve, and to re-drill.

Abatai in Huaibei also transferred to a stalemate to rest and eat on the spot. The reserve soldiers of the two white flags in the rear and the backbone of the two white flags who were transferred from the two yellow flags to rebuild the two white flags also chose to go directly south to Huaibei. Into the army.

Dorgon knew very well that the Central Plains today must be getting colder and poorer as it goes north in this unusually cold and natural disaster era.

It is very important to reduce transportation losses when there is absolutely not enough food to eat, and some people must be squeezed to death internally, or even cannibalized.

Therefore, even if the army does not fight, it should allocate a large part of the population to the southerly areas for deployment and eat food locally, saving the trouble of transporting food northward.

A place like Beijing is simply not suitable for a population of more than 30 to [-] in an era when the water transport economic chain is broken.Therefore, those green battalion recruits recruited from trackers and dock workers in Beijing, Tongzhou, Tianjin and other places will also be transferred from the surrounding areas of Beijing and deployed to the south.
Just give them a picture of "as long as they win in the future and the Qing Dynasty wins the world, they will naturally be allowed to return to Beijing for generations to live", so that these spirits who are unwilling to leave Beijing will drift north and choose to serve the Qing Dynasty. Work hard.

In contrast, although Huaibei was the front line that was repeatedly seen by the flames of war last year, it is still better than Hebei and can support more people.

……

The story is divided into two parts. While the Qing court was going against the grain and brutally squeezed the potential for war internally, the Ming court in the south, as the enemy's military pressure eased, also rarely entered a period of recuperation.

Although the Southern Ming Dynasty suffered a great loss of armaments and supplies due to the previous continuous battles, it was difficult to support the Northern Expedition, but the money and food situation was much better than that of the Qing Dynasty.

It's just that everyone from the emperor to the ministers of the cabinet are more benevolent. They can't bear to let the people starve to death on a large scale, and cannibalism is strictly prohibited. This is why we must digest the results of the battle, rectify the interior, strengthen production, and breathe a sigh of relief.

The Huainan battlefield returned to calm at the end of February. The Ming army immediately organized military settlements and refugees to resume production as soon as possible.

And the last battlefield where the truce took place was Nanyang Mansion in Henan Province.
Zhu Shuren's cousin, Zhang Huangyan, the former Huguang soldier, led the army to defend the isolated city, resisted to the death, withstood Azig's offensive from October last year to the present, and defended for more than five months.

From the 17th year of Chongzhen to the first year of Longwu, it can be called the strongest heroic city on the battlefield of Ming and Qing Dynasties.Not only far exceeded the record of Jiangyin City in this time and space, but even surpassed the Jiangyin in the parallel time and space that was guarded by Yan Yingyuan for three months.

At the end of the battle, 3 people were killed by the Qing army in the city, died of serious injuries, and died of epidemic diseases.
Coupled with the part that was lured and wiped out by the enemy in the previous mobile battle, as well as the wounded, Azig's loss definitely accounted for [-]% of his total troops going south!

Of course, this [-]% loss is much better than Duoduo's direct destruction of more than [-]%. Relying on the background of his peers, Azig can be said to be "a small defeat is a victory".

In addition to Zhang Huangyan, Fang Yizhi and other Huguang generals defended the Hanshui-Xiangyang defense line in the rear, which was also remarkable. They did not allow the Qing army who tried to temporarily build ships on the north bank of the Hanshui to smuggle any chance.

After all, in the early days of the Huguang Battle, the Qing army only hoped to capture Nanyang, and then dispatch the northern ships from the Baihe River to the south to forcefully cross the Han River.

Later, as the battle lasted for more than two months, especially after learning that Doduo had also encountered an accident, Azig, who was eager to cross the Han Dynasty, had long since given up his original idea and began to do everything possible to directly build ships on the north bank of the Han River.

In the next few months, it is completely in time to build a new ship.This requires the Hannan Ming army to guard against death. Once it is found that there may be a Qing army's shipyard in any county on the north bank, or other crossing rivers to gather, it must find a way to harass and destroy the waterway, so as to prevent the Qing army from gradually gathering enough water. division strength.

In these continuous investigations and destructive operations, the generals in Huguang performed quite well, and Fang Yizhi was also considered diligent, so Azig finally failed to catch the loophole.

In the end, with the end of the Nanyang-Hanshui series of battles, Azig's retreat was confirmed and the victory was sent to Nanjing. Of course, the Longwu court did not hesitate to reward these heroes.

The military generals Zhu Wenzhen, Li Dingguo and others who made the most contributions in the battle of defending the city received the greatest rewards. Zhu Wenzhen was originally the commander in chief, but now he was also conferred the title of an earl who was reduced by one rank.

Li Dingguo was originally of a low rank, but after this battle he was finally officially promoted to the rank of chief soldier, and he was rewarded with 1000 taels of gold and 2 taels of silver, and the soldiers of various ministries also received other rewards.

The other generals in the rear can more or less be promoted to one and a half levels.

In terms of civil servants, Zhang Huangyan, who made the greatest contribution, was also promoted from military preparations to the newly established "Governor of Anhui and Henan". Plus Xiangyang Mansion, Suizhou Mansion, and Huangzhou Mansion in Huguang.

Basically, it is similar to Zhu Shuren's jurisdiction when he first served as "Wanfu" a few years ago, but there are slight differences.The main reason is that compared with Zhu Shuren's former governor's jurisdiction, Nanzhili and Jiangxi prefectures on the south bank of the Yangtze River were missing, and Nanyang in Henan was added.

In the original peaceful era, of course Ming did not set up a governor like this, but now it is a time of war and peace, and the rest of Henan Province has not been restored, so it is specially set up like this for the needs of military defense.It is equivalent to letting Zhang Huangyan be in charge of the northern defense line in the southern direction of Huguang.

According to the division of the east, west and middle frontier defenses in the south of "Yang, Jing, and Yi" since ancient times, Zhang Huangyan will be in charge of the middle route army in the future, accounting for one-third of the northern border defense of Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Huang said that he was only two years older than Zhu Shuren. Zhu Shuren was the governor of the three provinces at the age of 24. In the past year, at the age of 25, he has "restrained Chinese and foreign military forces", and he is also the governor of the southern provinces.

So now that the siege is over, Zhang Huangyan is only 27 years old. To be a governor at his age is unimaginable to ordinary people.

But the real credit is there, and Zhu Shuren's even more heaven-defying example broke the precedent. Emperor Longwu Zhu Changhao personally proposed to promote Zhang Huangyan as governor at the court meeting, and no one jumped out to oppose it. This matter will be passed. up.

After Zhang Huangyan was promoted to governor, Fang Yizhi, who had slightly less credit than him, was promoted to "Governor of Huguang" because of his seniority in officialdom and better career background. There was also no objection from the cabinet and officials.

After all, Zhang Huangyan's official career is based on meritorious service, while Fang Yizhi is an official on the top two lists.Yizhi is more suitable for reuse at his age. He is 33 years old, and Zhang Huangyan is six years old.

Of course, because Zhang Huangyan's jurisdiction occupies the three prefectures of Huguang, Fang Yizhi's governor's district has to deduct Xiangyang, Suizhou, and Huangzhou, that is, all Hanbei and Jiangbei lands, on the basis of the traditional Huguang governor.The governor's office continued to be located in Wuchang.

……

Throughout March, after the Nanjing court settled the truce work and dealt with all the officials who should be rewarded,

The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were originally worried that the important ministers of Zaifu, the famous generals and governors who were successful in their youth, would take drastic measures to make new officials take office.

But the follow-up actions of Zhu Shuren, Zhang Huangyan, Fang Yizhi and others made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.Because in the spring of this year, the imperial court did not toss about any political reforms and military and industrial construction.

Just resting with the people, encouraging production, persuading farmers to expand land reclamation, and making efforts to resettle the refugees from the north——

With the exhaustion of Dorgon in the north and the drawing of internal lines to "focus on suffering some people", the flow of refugees from Huaibei to Huainan naturally cannot be restrained.

Within a hundred miles of the north bank of the Huaihe River, there were even many contiguous no-man's lands. The unbearable Huaibei people directly fled south to live in the Daming-controlled area, even if they didn't want their houses.

With such a large population, the imperial court must of course resettle them with care. Basically, try to resettle them in the military area of ​​Huainan first, plant taro and water chestnut lotus roots in the muddy and low-lying areas, and grow potatoes in the rugged areas, striving for self-sufficiency as soon as possible.

Those who are still not enough to be resettled have to organize transportation to the south to further tap wasteland and tap the potential, or to resettle in Zhenjiang and Changzhou, which have just been poisoned by the war and killed more than half of the population. A large price was paid, and a large number of people were slaughtered, so some unclaimed land appeared in a short period of time, which could be redistributed by the court.

Considering the damage caused by the war last year, Zhu Shuren is very clear that the workload of spring plowing this year will be particularly heavy. For example, many damaged fields need to be repaired and opened up, and the labor intensity is much higher than in normal years.At this time, it is natural not to toss the people, and all other industrial constructions are suspended, so they can concentrate on farming.

The continuous busy farming after spring plowing is estimated to last until the fifth month of the lunar calendar. Afterwards, some areas have earlier summer harvests, and they will have to double grab and sow new seeds.Basically, after this wave of busy work is over, other things such as demolition and construction, mining and factory construction, and expropriation of people's labor can be considered.

……

Of course, while resting with Min, Zhu Shuren didn't do nothing.Just because he doesn't torment the people doesn't mean he won't torment officials and landlords.

Taking advantage of these few months of recuperation, Zhu Shuren took advantage of the opportunity to bring an internal political reform to his daily routine, that is, while resettling refugees, he thoroughly investigated the actual situation of land and population in several provinces directly under the central government in the south.

Theoretically, the Ming court would have done this kind of thing every few years, but since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it was basically thunder and rain.
It is difficult to check the actual population thoroughly. The numbers on the books were only tens of millions in the Wanli year. In fact, everyone knows that those numbers are false.

The land area is even more confusing. All kinds of land are dedicated to corrupt officials and evil gentry with fame and reputation, enjoying tax exemption, while the pressure of land tax is apportioned to unprivileged people who are increasingly unsustainable.

In fact, no one knows how much taxable land each prefecture should have, and how it will be apportioned and passed on.

But this time, Zhu Shuren came with an excuse and an opportunity, so he planned to get rid of this stubborn disease.

When he heard Zhu Shuren's proposal, Shi Kefa, who was also in the cabinet discussing politics, was naturally taken aback.

Shi Kefa himself is very upright, and he also knows that in this time of national calamity, everyone should help each other, share the same hatred, and contribute to the world of the Han people.

But he also knew that based on his experience with the Ming Dynasty's long-standing abuses, he believed that this matter would cause great resistance.

So out of publicity, he asked Zhu Shuren to think about it again, not because he would not do it, but whether he could postpone it:
"His Royal Highness, please think about Zhang Juzheng's precedent. Although this kind of thing is beneficial to the country, will it lead to the separation of people's hearts if it is implemented now? The court has just repelled the Tartars once, and there are probably many gentry watching from all sides. .”

But Zhu Shuren thought better than Shi Kefa, he analyzed straightforwardly: "I just feel that the timing is just right now! It's the most suitable for cutting the mess with a sharp knife!
First of all, the imperial court has achieved a great military victory, and the military power has been completely united, just to eliminate stubbornness internally!Whoever dares to resist, will take advantage of the prestige of the great victory in the foreign war, and directly kill a few assassins!
What's more, a thorough investigation of the population of the field is a law made by the court. If they want to resist, they don't even take the righteous name!Originally, it was nothing more than passive resistance by means of population fleeing, land abandonment, and no one paying taxes.

Now because of the tyranny of Dorgon in the north, countless refugees have gone south, and the imperial court originally planned to resettle hundreds of thousands or even millions of refugees in the future.If the people in the south are willing to flee and resist tax in order to avoid being thoroughly investigated, they will not return to their hometowns in the future!Anyone found fleeing and resisting will be regarded as no such person, and the land will be redistributed by the imperial court to the refugees for cultivation! "

After Shi Kefa heard this, he was silent for a long time. After thinking about it, he sighed: "It's not unreasonable to say that. Indeed, in the past, whenever my court of the Ming Dynasty had a little bit of 'competition with the people', the gentry would unite and fight against it. It didn't end well, and Zhang Juzheng also died that year.

At the beginning, so many people responded to the bandits, and even responded to the Tartars, because they felt that the late emperor treated the people harshly... Maybe they hoped that the robbers and the Tartars would be better.

But now, the tyranny of the Tartars and the indiscriminate killing of innocents by the trespassers and thieves have long been known to the world, not to mention the thieves have been completely wiped out.Scholars all over the world have made a comparison, and perhaps they can know that this world is difficult, but God's will is so, and Daming is relatively the most benevolent.Take some action at this time, perhaps the resistance can be suppressed to a minimum. "

While talking, Shi Kefa was sorting out his thoughts.

After mutual inspiration with Zhu Shuren, he figured it out: Ming and Qing Dynasties were a worse world!

In the words of later generations, it is distance that produces beauty.

For example, on the Internet of Later Times, a group of people who have never been abroad live a very good life there, washing dishes can earn tens of thousands of dollars a month (it is said to be a knife).

And also in the United States, there are also a large group of low-level hanging silks who have never been abroad, and they are complaining about the United States, saying how thoroughly poverty is eradicated in China.

But in fact, no matter which country Diaosi goes to, life is unsatisfactory (unless there is a way to become naturalized in the four Nordic countries).Which major country in the world is likely to allow the bottom poor to live in complete comfort?nonexistent.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many people were obsessed with the society they lived in at the beginning. It couldn't be worse.It wasn't until after being brutally tortured by the three parties in turn that it turned out that the Tartars were more brutal, and Daming was not bad.

Zhu Shuren saw that Shi Kefa had figured this out, so he smiled slyly, and pointed it out: "So, Duoduo actually helped us this time. mess——

Before Duoduo came, who in the south of the Yangtze River would believe that 'the Tartars will force everyone to shave their heads'?Gu said that the gentry in the world would not believe it, but would think that this was slandering the Tartars and seeking more from the people for the convenience of the court!

But now, they have to believe it!If there is no Daming, they all have to shave their heads!For those gentry, being ruthless by Qingzhang Yintian and Yinto, or being ruthlessly shaved by the whole family!They know how to choose!

Gu has already made a plan, and asked someone to write a songbook in advance, and the court funded the dissemination of the Yangzhou massacre, Changzhen's righteous people's resistance to shaving their hair, and Duoduo's brutal massacre of unshaven righteous people. .

A two-pronged approach may be able to suppress resistance to a minimum. "

When Shi Kefa heard this, he couldn't help but gasped slightly.

Prince E has completely understood the propaganda war.

And those librettos mentioned by Zhu Shuren were actually written by Bian Yujing, his fourth concubine, in private in the past two months.Bian Yujing was originally famous for writing Kunqu opera librettos in Qinhuai Bayan,

A few years ago, Zhu Shuren also asked her to cooperate with Fang Ziling to alienate those inside Li Zicheng's bandit army. Book.The effect was really good. At one time, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai had a gap between the old troops of Ma Shouying, and they did not cooperate well during the Battle of Kaifeng, and they were suspicious of each other.

Therefore, Bian Yujing can be regarded as a veteran who is more familiar with the cultural and entertainment propaganda front in this era. Letting her continue to be in charge of these tasks can be regarded as realizing her life value.

……

After the unification of the opinions of the Cabinet Department of the DPRK and the Central Committee, the follow-up specific policies will naturally have to cut through the mess quickly, and there is no room for hesitation.

Zhu Shuren was in charge of the money, food and military equipment of the southern provinces, and his father was also the Minister of the Household Department. In fact, Shi Kefa did not need to directly handle this matter.

Obtaining Shi Kefa's support is nothing more than to better unite the opinions of the central government, and at the same time, to get more guarantees in the selection of officials to implement policies.

After all, Shi Kefa controls the Ministry of Officials, as well as the right to promote and test merit for officials all over the world.In the past two years, anyone who thoroughly investigated Yintian Yinhu's work was not effective, he was transferred and demoted.

Anyway, there are too many officials in the world now. When the North fell, not all officials chose to surrender directly to the Tartars and become traitors.

Of course, the imperial court will not treat this kind of officials who have passed the screening test and have national integrity.If the local officials in the south are not doing well right now, these officials who fled from the south to the north can be replaced immediately.

Under so many pressures, and Wang Duo and Qian Qianyi brought a small group of Donglin swaying traitors to surrender and were purged by Zhu Shuren.This time, there was much less resistance to the thorough land and population investigation.

Those who resisted openly and secretly were only a very small number, and they were all wiped out physically by Zhu Shuren with the might of the army of great victory.After setting up a few models, coupled with the propaganda work on the cruel and forcible haircut of the Tartars, within a few months, the resistance forces were almost completely disintegrated.

For so many years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, even when Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, he did not clear the land so efficiently and smoothly.

In just a few months, the taxable land in the southern provinces on the books of the imperial court was more than half more than that in the last years of Chongzhen!I don't know where so many fields fell from the sky out of thin air!

In terms of population, Zhu Shuren originally estimated that there would be 4000 million people in the last year of Wanli. How could it be possible that the official household registration statistics of the imperial court were only 7000 to [-] million?

When Chongzhen ascended the throne, there should be close to 9000 million. After that, even if disasters, wars, plagues and massacres occurred in successive years, and the reduction of millions every year, there should be less than 8000 million or [-] million when Chongzhen died. Jun and Li Zicheng repeatedly ground the meat, which set off another wave of huge population decline.

Now after a thorough investigation, this figure really confirmed Zhu Shuren's guess—the figures in the first year of Longwu showed that the southern provinces of the Ming Dynasty, except Yunnan and Guizhou, which had not yet been fully controlled, should have a total population of 870 million.If Yunnan and Guizhou are included, the total should be between 5000 and 300 million.

Among these 870 million miles, Nanzhili is the most populous, with a real population of 160 million.

Followed by Huguang, about 820 million. (The Hunan area was killed by Zhang Xianzhong for less than half, but Zhu Shuren had been farming there for many years, and resettling the refugees was quite effective, so the increase came back a lot)

Sichuan again, about 650 million (this is also the number half a year after Zhang Xianzhong was briefly massacred, it was originally more).

Zhejiang again, about 510 million.

Jiangxi again, about 440 million.

Guangdong and Guangxi again, with a total of 470 million.

The last is Fujian, with only 220 million.

In addition, only two prefectures in Henan Province were controlled by the Ming court, and only one prefecture in Shaanxi was under the control of the two occupied areas, with populations of 60 and 15 respectively.

Of course, this by no means represents the actual population size of Henan and Shaanxi, after all, more than half of them are under the control of Tartars and Wu Sangui.

Finally, there is the Denglai area controlled by Liu Zeqing in Shandong. Now, because he is alone behind the enemy overseas, he must not be able to rectify the internal affairs according to the unified government order. 10 people.

When all these figures are added up, it is actually less than 400 million.Compared with Zhu Shuren's final count of 870 million, there is a difference of 500 million people!
And these 500 million people are the biggest achievement of this population clearing, because after the investigation, it was found that these are the land-lost refugees in the north who have been fleeing southward for the past few years!

And it has not been properly settled by the south so far, unable to buy its own fields, or hidden by the southern gentry as an invisible labor force!

However, any immigrant with some money, who bought land and houses in the south, would still be registered by the government.

After Zhu Shuren's thorough investigation, he found out that there are so many people in Daming who fled from the north to the south, and they have been invisible people for many years!Even some Chongzhen fled south in two years, and lived in Jiangnan for fifteen or sixteen years, but it was never reflected in the government bills.

A total of 500 million refugees are invisible!Counting the other rich peasants, middle peasants, and gentry who were not invisible but also went south, there are probably several million.

It can be seen how the population in the north has been hollowed out due to successive years of disasters. In the past 20 years, almost ten million people who could not survive in the north went south, and arrived in the south alive. It's not counted.

……

Zhu Shuren took advantage of Duo Duo, a colleague, to conduct a thorough investigation of population fields in the south and integrate internal dispatching capabilities. At the same time, Dorgon actually did similar things in the north.

It’s just that Dorgon’s operations belonged to the “basic operations when changing dynasties”—which dynasty and generation established the country, not a thorough investigation of the population and acres of land,
Even if it was Liu Bang who directly let Xiao He take the account books of the Qin Dynasty, he had to check it again, not to mention the account books of the Ming Dynasty in Beijing that Dorgon got, which was a pile of bad accounts.

And Dorgon's method of checking population fields is also much rougher. He just wants to set up green camps, pull young men, and enclose land, and he can just use a knife to complete these tasks.Moreover, he started doing it earlier than Zhu Shuren, and started doing it last year.

After Dorgon's butcher's knife inventory, the final calculation shows that the actual remaining total population of the northern provinces is only 900 million.

Among them, there are 90 Manchus and nearly one million Mongols. These two parts add up to be regarded as the ruling ethnic group, accounting for 200 million.

There are also 200 million Liaodong Han people outside the original pass, that is, veteran Han people who have served the Later Jin/Qing since the period of Nuerhachi and Huang Taiji.

This group of people is equivalent to the "auxiliary ruling class" bought by Britain in history in India, and they are tool people who use Han to control Han.

In addition, there were hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese who surrendered their captives, surrendered from the Ming army, recruited new green camps, and raised flags after entering the customs. Including all the families of these people, there are also nearly one million.

In the end, there were only 400 million Han Chinese who were purely forced by the ruling class and used to suffer the people. The rest were either killed, starved to death, died of plague year after year, or fled to the south.

200 million ruling ethnic groups, 300 million auxiliary ruling Han people, together suppressing 400 million purely oppressed Han people, this oppression has to be said to be very high.

The only good news for survival is that after so many years of repeated land washing, the north has finally entered a state where the land is vast and sparsely populated, and everyone has a field.

However, the quality of the field is due to destructive reclamation, and no one has repaired water conservancy to insist on long-termism, resulting in low fertility and soil erosion. It can only be extensive planting and low harvest, a vicious circle——

The Zhu Shuren in the south, in order to fight against the short-sightedness of the refugees and not engage in water conservancy to disrupt the reclamation, did not lose their efforts. How could Dorgon in the north have such a slow and meticulous art of governance?

Of the 400 million purely exploited Han Chinese, there are approximately 420 million in Northern Zhili, 350 million in Shandong, 170 million in Shanxi, 230 million in Henan, 190 million in Huaibei, and 30 in Shaanxi.

In terms of population control, Dorgon's human resources are about one-third of Zhu Shuren's.But he has no choice but to rely on this limited basic market and fight for a comeback in the future.

(End of this chapter)