Late Ming sea owl

Ghost Festival
Lin Hai raised his eyes and saw a young woman at the end of the team holding on to the little boy behind her. Then several young men rushed over. The old people quickly stepped forward to stop her. After a long time of commotion, they finally calmed down.

The young men finally agreed to let the little boy follow the team, but they still ordered him to get out as soon as he received the food and never come to the village again, otherwise he would be beaten every time he saw them.

Lin Hai was surprised and asked the old people who came forward to dissuade him: "What's going on? Why are there two Tatars here?"

"The two Tatars are all relatives in the same village. His father worked for the Tatars in the past just to earn a living. Now that everyone is dead, why are they settling these old scores?"

"That's not entirely true. When Gouwa's grandfather was still alive, he thought about going to Jianzhou to join the Tatars every day. His father wasn't a good guy either, and he was killed with a knife in the end."

"Hi...his grandfather has been an old man for many years, so he just said it casually. As for Gouwa's father, he has done good things and bad things when he became a Tatar, but this can't be counted. On Gouwa's head, how old is he?"

"That's true, but you said that God is also blind. Gouwa's father, a Tatar, can still have a queen in the end. My whole family is only left with a lonely old man, and there is no point in living."

"If you want to put it this way, those real Tatars have done a lot of bad things, and they are still living well. How can there be any retribution in this world?"

"God is watching what people are doing. When we fled, the Tatars didn't have enough to eat. I don't know how many people have starved to death now. How can these damn people know how to farm? If the Han people are forced to flee, they will all starve to death sooner or later. , Hey, retribution!”

Several old people talked for a long time, and Lin Hai finally figured out the whole story.

It turns out that the refugees in this village were all fellow villagers near Liaoyang. The father of the little boy Gouwa was doing small business in the city. After the city of Liaoyang was broken, he served as a guide for the Tatars. He led a group of Houjin soldiers to station in several surrounding villages, and also He gave his wife and widowed sister to the leader of the Tatars.

The Tatars also valued Gouwa's father and asked him to help manage the Han people in several surrounding villages. So Gouwa's father took the opportunity to act arrogantly, and several families who were celebrating the festival were ruined by him.But in general, he took good care of the people in this village, so some people were grateful to him.

Later one night, a group of Tatar soldiers got drunk at Gouwa's house and forced Gouwa's sister, who was only ten years old at the time, to get on the kang.Gouwa's parents hugged the Tatar's thighs and begged, but they were chopped to death one by one like cabbages. Gouwa's sister was also ravaged to death by more than a dozen Tatars that night.

Gouwa was adopted by his uncle. Soon after, the Tatars began to kill the grainless people, and rebels were everywhere in Liaodong.The young men and women in the village took advantage of the Tatar soldiers to go out to suppress the rebellion and killed all the Tatar men and women who stayed in the village. Several nearby villages responded by killing the Tatars who stayed behind, and everyone fled together.

Gouwa's uncle was one of the leaders of this operation. He was stabbed with a sword by a fierce Tatar woman. He died on the way to escape soon after. The people who were rolled over to the temple island were the hundreds of people in front of him. .

Everyone hated the Tatars, and they also hated Gouwa's father, a Tatar, so many people took their anger out on Gouwa.Especially those young guys just now almost beat Gouwa to death several times. Fortunately, other people persuaded him so he didn't kill him.

However, Gou Wa could no longer stay in this village and could only beg everywhere on Temple Island. Of course, his original neighbors still occasionally helped him, otherwise he would have starved to death long ago.

Gouwa would not come to the village easily, because he would be beaten as soon as he came. This time, he was probably very hungry, so he secretly ran to find the neighbors. As a result, he met Lin Hai and others giving alms here.

"Gouwa, do you hate your father?" Gouwa was at the end of the queue. After receiving the food, he heard someone talking to him.

"I hate that my father is blind." Gou Wa raised his head, his eyes showing a coldness that did not match his age, "Those who wanted to beat me just now were all two Tatars under my father."

Lin Hai was stunned for a moment, and then he understood why those people wanted to beat Gouwa, so he said again: "Then do you blame your father for being a Tatar?"

"No wonder, my uncle told me that there were many people who wanted to be two Tatars back then. They were all forced by the government to survive, and they all hoped that the Tatars would come soon."

"My grandfather was a wealthy businessman in Liaoyang City. He was arrested by the eunuch Gao Huai. My grandmother sold her property and redeemed my grandfather. However, he was beaten to a disability and could not get off the kang for the rest of his life. She kept thinking about going to Jianzhou every day. They surrendered to the Tatars. My grandma had to sell herself in a brothel to support my father and three brothers." "My uncle later went to work as a soldier outside the border wall. As a result, the three members of the family were beheaded by the officials, saying that they were Mongolian Tatars. At that time, the Mongolian Tatars robbed our village and killed many people. The officers and soldiers of the imperial court watched in Liaoyang City, and afterwards they said they had won a great victory."

"Many people in the villages couldn't survive, so they sneaked to Jianzhou to work as cattle or horses for the Tatars. Life there was also hard, but they could still survive. Who would have thought that these dog Tatars would turn out to be worse than the government officials? ?”

Gou Wa talked a lot, and Lin Hai was speechless for a long time. He knew that what Gou Wa said was true, and this was a common phenomenon in Liaodong in the late Ming Dynasty.

Thanks to Gao Huai and Li Chengliang, the pair of sleeping dragons and phoenixes, Liaodong in the late Wanli period was probably the darkest place in the entire Ming Dynasty. Indiscriminate tax collection, occupation of people's fields, instigation of enemies and looting, killing good people and taking credit... These were commonplace in Liaodong. Likewise, countless Han people fled to Mongolia and the Jurchen tribe.

This is why Xiong Tingbi repeatedly emphasized that Liao people were not available, but Sun Chengzong insisted on using Liao people to defend Liao soil.

During Xiong Tingbi's era, five out of ten Liao people were members of the leading party.At that time, Houjin's siege ability was still very weak, but Nurhachi was able to defeat Shenyang, Liaoyang and Guangning in a short period of time, and Liaonan Siwei and Kuandian were all rumored. This was in line with the popular sentiment in Liaodong at that time. They are inseparable from each other.

By the time of Sun Chengzong, because Nurhachi was suspected of being insane in his later years and killing people everywhere, Liaodong had been completely reduced to a human Shura field.Compared with the already rotten Ming Dynasty, the Liao people's hatred for Hou Jin was even more profound.

There is no way, this is an era of lower limit competition, and the restoration of people's hearts depends entirely on the support of peers.

Lin Hai stared at Gou Wa and said, "Then what are your plans in the future?"

"Live, grow up, kill corrupt officials, kill Tatars!" Gouwa's eyes shot out a chilling light again.

Lin Hai took Gou Wa with him when he left the village. When he returned to the port, it was almost dusk, and a little girl was putting a lantern on the beach.

"Today is Ghost Festival..." Gouwa murmured.

On the half of July, the gate of ghosts opens. The Buddhist Obon Festival is also the Taoist Ghost Festival. It is generally called the Ghost Festival among the people.Lin Hai also bought a few lanterns and put them into the sea with Gou Wa to watch the waves carry them far away.

When the Bowang set off, it was already completely dark. With the light of the mast lamp, Lin Hai saw that all the theater troupes in front of Xianying Palace were gone. People in twos and threes were burning paper, and they could not help but cry. Coming from any corner.

Day or night, which one is more real?
Somehow, Lin Hai always felt that this was the cry of the unjust souls. Some of them died at the hands of the Ming Dynasty officials who raped their bones and sucked out their marrow, and some died at the hands of the barbaric and cruel Houjin warriors.

This is an era where people cannibalize people.After setting off from Phi Island, Lin Hai reminded himself more than once that his ambition could not tolerate the slightest bit of kindness from a woman. As the saying goes, compassion does not control soldiers and righteousness does not control wealth. If there is no Shura means, how can we talk about the heart of a Bodhisattva?
But for some reason, he often thought of the little eunuch under Hu Liangfu. He was just a poor boy whose family was too poor to take the blame and went to the palace to beg for food. He shouldn't have done many evil things so far. Should he deserve it?

This thought would pop up from time to time, lingering in my mind like a fly.

Lin Hai knew that this was an annoying fly for the career he pursued. Now that the fly was gone, his heart was as calm as the sea water in Miao Island Pond.

The Bowang sailed into the depths of the night, and Lin Hai standing on the bow was hidden in the darkness.

Under the light of the mast light, he saw the bow of Bowang like an iron plow, plowing out a string of bright waves on the dark sea.

(End of this chapter)