Chapter 294: The friendship between a father-in-law and son-in-law, treat everyone equally

In the Chongzhen period, the Jiangbei provinces suffered major disasters for years. Northern Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi were all living in poverty, but the most miserable one was Henan.

When it comes to the degree of natural disasters, Henan is not as good as Shandong and other provinces, but man-made disasters are fierce. If the land of Zhongzhou, Henan is located in the Central Plains on ordinary days, it has a wide range of transportation. The land is fertile and the population is large, which is also a first-class and good place. As a result, the Ming Dynasty court granted eight vassal kings in Henan, and there were countless other royal relatives and officials who retired.

These relatives and nobles occupied a large amount of land, and the most powerful Fu Wang was the King of Fu. When he was granted the title of king to become a vassal, the land in Henan Province was not even enough to be rewarded, and he had to divide it in other provinces. This was the result of the struggle between the ministers in the court and Emperor Wanli.

Such a small number of people occupy so much land, but because of the status and fame of these people, their land and tenants do not have to pay taxes and labor service from the court.

However, any additional taxes in the Ming Dynasty, such as training and Liao levies, included Henan within the scope of tax collection. These taxes could only be those poor people with no land and little land, and the disadvantages of adding layers of additional taxes were particularly powerful in Henan.

Every time the tax was added, a large number of farmers went bankrupt. The fields of these farmers were naturally embezzled by the vassal kings, royal relatives and nobles. Most of these farmers became refugees and became the root cause of the chaos in the Ming Empire. There were even fewer farmers left, and the taxes and oppression they had to bear were heavier.

Such a vicious cycle has made the living ecology of the common people in Henan extremely fragile and cannot bear the slightest disturbance.

For example, the drought in the 12th and 13th year of Chongzhen, Shandong had collective farms similar to the military autocratic system, which built water conservancy and reasonably regulated various resources, which could barely resist. But what about Henan? Only Zhang Xianzhong's repeated invasions, the brutal plundering of the generals of the Ming Dynasty as fierce as a tiger and Zuo Liangyu, and of course there seemed to be endless exploitation and oppression.

In March of the 13th year of Chongzhen, there were no pedestrians on the road in Henan Province and no one was inhabited by a hundred miles. Large groups of refugees gathered together to kill officials and rebel.

After Li Zicheng met with heroes in Henan a few years ago, there were no more riots in Henan, but now there are more than a dozen large groups of more than tens of thousands of people. Except for the prefectures and counties near Beizhili and Huguang, the rest of Henan are in chaos.

The officers and soldiers, landlords and gentry stayed in the city, relying on the transportation capacity of major rivers such as the Yellow River and Yishui to maintain entry and exit, and relying on the fortifications of the city to ensure safety.

The attitude of Henan toward these thieves is that as long as they are in the countryside, they will be treated as non-existent. If the officers and soldiers can be wiped out, they will be wiped out. If they cannot be wiped out, they will be ignored. Every day, they will be sent to the court. However, the court gathered about 70% of the Ming Dynasty's troops in Huguang, Sichuan, and Jinzhou, northern Zhili. They could not draw any extra effort to wipe out, and could only be held rampant.

But even if the situation is so critical, no one wants to ease such a situation, land annexation, uncontrollable tax collection, and no one wants to improve these evil policies.

A scholar once suggested to the court that the court would equalize the land and suppress annexation, but Emperor Chongzhen refuted: This strategy is unwilling tolerate. An official from Luoyang Prefecture also sincerely advised King Fu to reduce the land tax and labor service in the Wangzhuang field, but was scolded by King Fu and said, "My Zhu family's land, my Zhu family's people, what should I do if I am alone? What is Guan Qing?"

Originally, Yang Sichang's advice to Emperor Chongzhen said that Huguang and Sichuan's encirclement and suppression of Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai was not only to encircle and suppress these big thieves, but also to shock the thieves who were scammers in the world while destroying the big thieves, so that they dared not have the intention to act rashly.

No one expected that Zhang Xianzhong's defeat and Luo Rucai's desperate situation would have no deterrent effect on the common people in Henan, but instead made a more powerful mess.

Among the large gangs with more than tens of thousands of people, the more famous ones are "Song Jiang", "Li Zhenhai", "Potian Wang" and so on. Since Luo Rucai used "Cao Cao" as his nickname, it would not be surprising to use "Song Jiang".

Among the rioters gathered in Henan, three or four of them were the remnants left by the old eighth team in Shaanxi, namely Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong when they were active in Henan. These people are the strongest and most combat-oriented, and the most gathered people are the most.

"Song Jiang" cannot be said to be the largest, nor can he be said to be the strongest combat power, but he has defeated the least battle. Moreover, he appeared in the imperial court's will to suppress the people.

Because since February of the 13th year of Chongzhen, the "Song Jiang" group began to move around Kaifeng City. On several occasions, officers and soldiers on the top of the city could see the "Song Jiang" troops. As a result, Kaifeng City did not dare to open the city gate for more than three hours during the day, and the city gate would be closed immediately after a slight disturbance.

You should know that the disaster in Henan Province, the local harvest cannot meet the local needs, and must rely on the supply on the Yellow River waterway. However, the group of "Song Jiang" has been around the city all day long, and the grain and supplies outside the city cannot be replenished, and the city is in a dilemma.

Moreover, the bandits "Song Jiang" have really tasted the sweetness around Kaifeng City. Now in chaos, Henan is in chaos, and they live around the city and can run into the city in an emergency. The safety is much better than the surrounds in the countryside, and the city has abundant supplies, so life outside the city is better than in the countryside.

In this way, a large number of civilians with some wealth, even small landlords, lived outside the city. These people were much more fertile than those farmers who had no other things to rob. "Song Jiang" had gained a lot of money back and forth several times.

But Chen Yongfu, the deputy general who guarded Kaifeng City, was guarding the logistics supplies of the army in Nanyang Prefecture. Kaifeng City was extremely empty. Fortunately, the King of Zhou was very different from the King of Fu, who was unlucky. The prince was willing to spend money and food to mobilize a large number of strong men inside and outside the city to seize the city and guard it.

Although there has not been any leaks when defending the city with militias, it is always uneasy, and to be more precise, it is frightened. The King of Zhou sent envoys to the capital several times to ask for help, but Emperor Chongzhen was already frightened by the Tartars' incoming. Although there were many soldiers and horses in Northern Zhili, he did not want to send any of them to Henan.

The troops in Southern Zhili were fully guarded in Fengyang, Luzhou, and Anqing, and they could not draw any troops. The border soldiers in Shanxi were consumed in the battles with Mongolia and Jurchens in the past few years, and the second was to guard the Datong Pass, so they could not draw troops.

As for Huguang and Shaanxi's troops, they were still in Huguang and Sichuan to pursue Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, but they could not be transferred.

This matter is quite interesting. The soldiers and horses in Shandong were almost ignored by everyone. When the Tartars invaded Beizhili and Shandong in the day, Yang Sichang was wrong in mobilizing troops. He also worked with eunuch Gao Qiqian to force Lu Xiangsheng, the commander in charge of the war. Afterwards, he judged his merits and demerits, and killed the governors and generals of Beizhili and Shandong, and used them to shirk responsibility.

If Yang Sichang almost pushed all the responsibility to others, Emperor Chongzhen continued to give him unreserved trust, but one person destroyed his plan. Shandong general Li Mengqihe County defeated the Tartars army and beheaded more than 700. Such great achievements made Yang Sichang quite embarrassed. The punishment must be innocent. Any other treatment will involve his command errors in the Tartars' invasion of the capital.

So what Yang Sichang could do was to completely deal with this victory. Yang Sichang, a bachelor of the cabinet and minister of the Ministry of War, was particularly good at doing such things that deceive the world. The supervisor Lu Xiangsheng died in Julu for half a month. He also had to fabricate the fact that Lu Xiangsheng was alive and deal with this victory in a cold manner, which was even simpler.

As a result, the official did not refuse to admit this victory, but this victory was rarely mentioned, even in the official newspaper, it was just a few words.

And after that, whether in the court or elsewhere, Yang Sichang was extremely disgusted with someone, and he also took the initiative to stop others from talking about anything in Shandong.

Whether it is the victory of Shandong General Li Meng in Qihe County, Li Meng's victory in pacifying thieves and rebellion, or the peace scene in Shandong during the year of major disasters, refugees and disaster victims rarely appear.

Unlike Li Meng's modern era, there was no rich consultation and developed media at that time. The center handled somewhere in a low-key manner, and the people below would also ignore or forget. Li Meng had no aid in the center. Liu Fulai, the eunuch in Nanjing, was far away from the capital and was later demoted to the people. Shandong Governor Yan Jizu and military eunuch Liu Yuanbin and Li Meng were originally in a relationship of mutual control, and would not fight for anything for him.

As a result, Shandong, whether it is soldiers or civilians, was ignored by the people of the world. There seemed to be no chaos or outstanding places in this place. In general, there was nothing that others could care about.

However, after the court's reply to the decree, the King of Zhou quit. Nowadays, a large number of strong men and people are strong in defending the city every day, spending all the money from the King of Zhou's own family, and the food is also his private grain. The Henan Governor's yamen was poor and even the rats starved to death, so naturally they could not count on it. The River Door's yamen is now half-destroyed, and there is no silver allocated by the court, so he is not better than the Governor's yamen.

The King of Zhou knew that the money and food should be paid, but it would be really painful to continue like this and could not withstand the cost! But the court did not have troops to send, which was the truth.

If others accepted their fate, but King Zhu Gongye of Zhou was a little different from others. After the imperial court's order came down, the governor's yamen sent someone to inform him. Seeing this reply made people cry. King Zhu Gongye of Zhou was also wondering if it was a eunuch or a court master who wanted to ask for bribes. If there were such signs in the text, it would be worthwhile to collect a sum of silver to send it to unlock the danger of the closure.

At night, he looked over and over with the copied order. He looked at it and felt something was wrong. It seemed that nothing happened in Shandong, but why didn’t Shandong troops come to support it?

In combination with the information learned from the Dibao, Tangbao and various places, except for a Shandong army guarding the salt field in Huaibei, there was no military use in other places in the world. Moreover, although there were repeated reports of chaos in Shandong Province, the officers and soldiers arrived in a hurry and quickly pacified them, there was no uncontrollable chaos.

All the signs can be analyzed. There is no big deal in the soldiers and horses in Shandong Province, and they have absolutely no strength.

There were soldiers in Shandong and peace in Shandong, but the world was not heard of. There must be something strange about it. Maybe there are any taboos that cannot be touched. The King of Zhou was also a cautious person. He knew that although the vassal kings had a relative status, their every move was under the attention of the court and local governments. A slightly improper action was the crime of slashing the title and imprisonment. The Donghu Jurchens invaded the capital for the second time and raging in the capital.

King Zhu Youjian of Tang wanted to raise an army to help the king, so he recruited thousands of troops, but was not defeated by the Tartars, but was surrounded by the official army. In the end, the passionate prince ended up being blocked.

If he violated this taboo, would he end up with a similar end to the King of Tang? King Zhu Gongzi of Zhou was a little confused after thinking about it.

However, when the King of Zhou thought of Shandong, he felt angry. Even if there was no court action, Shandong was a taboo in the Zhou royal palace. Except for a few close friends who knew the inside story, the rest of the royal palace officials and servants knew that the word Shandong was a big taboo in front of the prince. If anyone mentioned it, the prince would lose his temper and no one would take the initiative to touch this bad intention.

Of course, everyone understands it. I think that Zhu Yunyao, the most loved princess of Zhou, suddenly died of illness, and it is normal for the prince to have something wrong.

King Zhou would rather stay in a remote place like Jiaozhou, Shandong than return to Kaifeng Prefecture. He was extremely dissatisfied with the behavior of forgetting his father when his daughter had a man. However, he also understood in his heart that if such an innocent and lively daughter was enclosed in this Kaifeng city or other cities for the rest of her life, she would really not be happy, and jumping out of the cage would not be a bad thing.

And I heard that Li Meng from Shandong is also a wealthy and powerful figure with a group of tigers and wolves. He could not treat his daughter badly, so he felt relieved not to think about her anymore.

But the situation is so urgent now. No matter what taboos there are, we must drive away the "Song Jiang" outside the city and disperse it first. The more the King of Zhou thought about it, the more he felt that Li Meng should come to rescue him. My daughter has already compensated you for the boy. Isn't it natural for you to save your father-in-law?

After reaching this conclusion, the more the King of Zhou thought about it, the more he felt that this should be. After "Song Jiang" led a large group of troops to wander around the city and occupied the Yellow River Ferry in front of the city for three days, the King of Zhou finally made up his mind and sent someone to invite the governor of Henan to the royal palace to discuss matters.

Local civil servants have the responsibility to monitor relatives and vassals, but in this situation, the Henan Governor and the King of Zhou are already on the same boat. Any method that can be solved, no matter what is involved, must be tried. If you commit a taboo again, it will be much better than the result of the city being destroyed and dead.

The matter was indeed urgent to a certain extent. The messenger sent by the Henan Governor to the capital was sent out four times, but it only ran out for the fourth time. The rest of the time were blocked by the bandits.

As soon as the memorial was delivered to the capital, the court was surprised to find that there were actually troops in Shandong that could be mobilized. This incident seemed like a joke, but it actually happened.

In fact, in addition to Yang Sichang's intentional indifference and intentional low-key and cold handling, Shandong's troops did not have a good impression of the Imperial Horse Supervision and the Ministry of War. Among them, Henan was in chaos and mobilized Shandong troops to pacify it. It was not only this time that people remembered it.

In the past, Liu Zeqing, the general of Caozhou in Yanzhou, was a general of Caozhou, who had been mobilized by the court to move him away from Shandong to garrison and fight outside Shandong. He was a false order. He never refused to obey, pretended to be sick, or had insufficient food and fodder. The relevant officials in the court were gritted in hatred, but he had no choice. The former general of Shandong Qiu Lei was also a similar role. North Korea was captured by the Later Jin Dynasty, and the Korean envoy came to the Ming court for help. The Ministry of War urged Qiu Lei to lead troops to sea to rescue, but Qiu Lei delayed.

By the time he went out to sea in Dengzhou, North Korea had already surrendered to the Later Jin Dynasty for almost a month. The Ming Empire could not even protect the vassal states. This was like slapping the court in the face. But at the same time, such a general who led troops could not be easily dealt with.

Now Qiu Lei committed suicide in shame, and Liu Zeqing died in a raid of bandits. The new general Li Meng was not a good man. His daily correspondence with the court was two different things, crying for poverty and asking for money. The court now has no money to allocate to the soldiers who are not fighting on the front line. Then Li Meng was crying and saying that there was no salary or food, the army could not fight, and the soldiers had no morale. Such a general was extremely difficult to deal with.

Anyway, Yang Sichang decided to deal with the civilian affairs of Shandong soldiers and others, so everyone followed suit and put the Shandong general and his soldiers behind their heads.

This time, the Henan Governor mentioned that the Henan Governor had nothing to do with Shandong. If he was not in a very embarrassing time, he would not have planned the military soldiers of other provinces in any case. This is really pitiful. Anyway, mobilizing troops was just an order from the court.

Moreover, although Emperor Chongzhen was mean, he attached great importance to his relatives and nobles. If these nobles made mistakes, the local officials and court officials involved would be extremely responsible, and were basically not far from the charge of abandoning the market and beheading. The officials in the court and the eunuchs in the company's rituals quickly formed a unified opinion.

This opinion was quickly reported to Emperor Chongzhen. At present, the "diligent priest" was paying attention to the war reports reported by the commander Yang Sichang all day long, as well as the military plans of the governor of Ji Liao Hong Chengchou for the outside of the pass. Henan and Shandong were really small things for Emperor Chongzhen.

Since the ministers and officials below had reached a consensus, Chongzhen followed suit and approved the matter, and issued an order to Shandong Governor Yan Jizu and military eunuch Liu Yuanbin, asking them to lead troops to support Kaifeng, Henan and pacify the bandits.

Now both northern Zhili and Shandong are in Taiping. The eunuch who was escorted by the Jinyiwei quickly arrived in Jinan City. He read out the decree with Yan Jizu and Liu Yuanbin in a grand manner, and then waited for Shandong General Li Meng to come and notify him again.

Not to mention what is going on in secret, but on the surface, the troops of each province are led by the governor and the eunuchs in the military supervisors. The generals and generals are just the subordinates. In fact, no matter how domineering the military generals are, the civil officials above can still command the movements. The eunuchs who sent the order naturally think that the same is true in Shandong.

Naturally, Shandong Governor Yan Jizu and military eunuch Liu Yuanbin could not say that in Shandong, some things on the surface were no longer useful. Shandong General Li Meng could not act at all, and he did not need to ask for the consent of the two of them. However, because the handle was held in the other party's hands, they could only face each other's faces with a smile on their faces when Li Meng acted like this.

Fortunately, Li Meng made some procedural things to save face, and the servants could not see any flaws. After the two of them escaped the disaster in which Yang Sichang judged their merits and demerits, they were both discouraged. Those who were waiting for Ren Man to return home would not take the initiative to issue any orders to Li Meng, which would make it boring.

Unexpectedly, the court suddenly issued an order, asking Shandong to send troops to rescue Henan, which made the two of them unable to cry even if they ask for help from Henan. Henan was already poor and could not even survive. They sent troops to rescue them, and they would not be able to make any benefits, but they would also cost a lot of food and money.

If there are no such loyal and righteous generals in the lower world today, even if Li Meng has no handle for two people, this soldier may not have been mobilized, let alone Li Meng, a person who cannot get up early without profit.

Shandong General Qiu Lei committed suicide in shame. Although the two of them said good things in the memorial, they also understood the actual situation. Whether the rope on Shandong General Qiu Lei's neck was put on by himself or Li Mengle was put on? This is a case that everyone knows clearly but pretends to be confused.

If Li Meng did not obey this order, the court would be anxious, Shandong Governor Yan Jizu and military eunuch Liu Yuanbin would be a serious crime. If Li Meng was anxious, Yan Jizu and Liu Yuanbin wondered if someone else would put a rope around their necks, and then the two of them would commit suicide because of shame.

It is strange that Li Meng Ming's actions are quite introverted and low-key, and are even more praised by the people in Shandong. He is known as benevolence and righteousness, and is much better than Zuo Liangyu and others. However, Yan Jizu always feels that Li Meng is extremely dangerous and can do anything domineering, even though it seems that Li Meng has never done it.

Shandong Governor Yan Jizuke politely passed on the imperial decree to Zhou Yang, the magistrate of Jinan Prefecture. Zhou Yang accepted the decree humbly, but did not make any substantial reply. He arranged for a quick horse to send an urgent report to Li Meng who was on the way. Of course, the lord himself had to make a decision on such a major event.

Yan Jizu himself also knew Li Meng's whereabouts. It would take up to three days to go back and forth. However, when there was no reply on the morning of the third day when the news was sent out, Shandong Governor Yan Jizu calmed down and it would be better to face such a situation calmly.

At noon, the governor's yamen was fine, so Yan Jizu simply returned to his home and explained the future to his family in a very relaxed tone, which scared his family because the tone was too much like explaining the funeral.

Early on the morning of the fourth day, Jiaozhou Camp Laoying Brigade and Li Meng's relatives finally arrived in Jinan City. According to the rules, the general came, and the governor and the military eunuch did not have to greet them. After the general arrived, he had to take the initiative to visit these two commanders. Yan Jizu was already quite discouraged. He originally treated Li Meng as a private attitude at the same level, but this time he simply did not send anyone to greet him.

The eunuch Liu Yuanbin, the military supervisor, was not as open-minded as him. He sent his closest personal soldiers and stewards over there and arranged a private banquet to invite him to the evening.

As a result, the welcoming ceremony was not over yet. The eunuch Liu Yuanbin, the military supervisor, hurriedly sent someone to deliver a letter to Yan Jizu, but it turned out that Li Meng did not come to Jinan.

After arriving in Jinan City, the Li Mansion housekeeper who followed Li Meng's brigade sent a private message to Zhou Yang, the co-magistrate of Jinan. After receiving the letter, Zhou Yang immediately asked to meet the eunuchs and the governor of the army and informed him of the situation.

Among the information conveyed, Shandong General Li Meng was quite polite. He said that he knew that the military situation in Henan was urgent, so he set out first and mobilized troops. He asked the governor and the military supervisor to follow him. Li was waiting in Yanzhou Prefecture. Yan Jizu, who received the news, was stunned. Then he was ecstatic. Then he was a little puzzled. He thought to himself why Li Meng was so quick to go to the battle.

No matter what the reason is, it is enough for people to go to war. As for the imperial envoy who was waiting to announce the order to the general, it was easy to pass. After hearing the news from the eunuch Liu Yuanbin of the military inspector, it was said that Jiaozhou Camp also prepared a generous gift for the imperial envoys. Now he didn't even need to pay for his own money, and he was very relieved.

The old camp team of Jiaozhou Camp who arrived in Jinan City had only 100 personal soldiers and 800 horse teams, and the rest of the troops were all officers and soldiers.

Li Meng led his personal soldiers and a cavalry team of 3,000 cavalry to Jining Prefecture, and dispatched 5,000 people, 1,000 veterans, 4,000 new soldiers, Chen Liu led his troops to fight and rushed to Henan to pacify the bandits.

The so-called words of asking the governor and the military supervisor to follow are just polite words. Once the imperial envoy who announced the imperial edict left, no one cared about these two adults who were willing to stay in Jinan, and they would follow them if they were willing to follow them. However, these two people were probably unwilling to go to a bad place in Henan to see the bloody swordsmanship.

On the seventh day of the fifth month, Li Meng led the cavalry to Jining Prefecture. After arriving, he declined the large mansion provided by several large merchants in Jining Prefecture, but instead set up camps in a camp built outside the city.

Kong Sande of Wenru Trading Company and the shopkeeper of Bamin Trading Company had been waiting in Jining City for a long time. Lingshan Trading Company had prepaid 50,000 taels of silver deposit for Wenru Trading Company. The Kong family's more than a dozen warehouses in Jining Prefecture are now lively. Their own dens and soldiers from the Yanzhou Army began to carry and load them nervously.

There are eight vassal kings in Henan, three in Shandong, King De, who was captured by the Qing army, King Heng, who lived in Qingzhou, and King Lu, who lived in Yanzhou Prefecture City, Yuyang City.

Shandong was the land of Lu. The first generation of King Lu was the youngest son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty, and was the first of all kings in Shandong. After the Jingnan Dynasty, Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di was extremely favored by the King of Lu. As a result, the King of Lu was passed down from generation to generation. The King of Lu was the most stable one, and his relatives and nobles from generation to generation were naturally extremely luxurious.
To be continued...