The roar of cannon continued all night long.

The artillery fire across the river between the Ming and Shun armies continued feebly for the whole day. It was either a fierce bombardment or a slow artillery fire.

Peng Ziqin and hundreds of other talented people spent a night in fear, cold, and hunger, listening to the roar of cannons. Zhu Cixiang was really wicked. He would not let Wu Sheng outside the gate.

When the scholars went to the city, no one would bring them food, so they were starved until dawn the next day.

Of course, after dawn, there was still no one to bring them food. However, some New Army officers came out of Wushengmen and began to register the household registration, honors, and property of the hungry and cold scholars outside the city.

"What's your name?" A dark-skinned officer with a Northern accent came to Peng Ziqin with a notebook and a writing brush.

"My name is Peng Ziqin."

While the officer was recording, he asked again: "Where are you from?"

"People from Chengguan Town, Anlu County, De'an Prefecture."

"Do you have any fame?"

"Jiu people will gain fame!" Peng Ziqin's tired tone was full of pride.

"You are still a filial and honest person!" the officer smiled, "How much land does your family have? Only if you can produce the land deed, don't worry if you don't have the land deed."

What's going on? Peng Ziqin was stunned and asked this?

"Have you?" Seeing Peng Ziqin's refusal to answer, the officer urged him.

"Yes, yes..." Peng Ziqin said, "My family owns three to four thousand acres of land in De'an Prefecture. The land deeds have been brought to Wuchang, but they are not with me."

"Okay," the officer nodded, "Who else is there in the city? Where do they live?"

Peng Ziqin replied: "There is also my mother, my wife, two concubines, and two pairs of children, all living in..."

He has a big family! They are all waiting for dinner, but he came to Wuchang empty-handed! Thinking about it makes me anxious!

After the officer finished recording everything, he showed the notebook to Peng Ziqin. After confirming that it was correct, he took out an ink pad box and asked Peng Ziqin to make his fingerprints. Then he walked to a passage surrounded by horse guns at the city gate and said: "Give the gatekeeper

The soldiers can enter by looking at the red marks on their hands, and they will have food after entering."

There is food to eat...sounds like a beggar!

Peng Ziqin felt sour and shed tears. Isn't he just a beggar now? Anlu's three or four thousand acres of land had long been confiscated by Li Zicheng... If he hadn't been desperate, he wouldn't have made trouble.

ah!

Now that we are causing trouble and getting into trouble, how will we live in the future?

After entering Wushengmen, Peng Ziqin discovered that the door was also blocked with anti-horse guns, and an open space was created under the city wall. There were several large pots in the open space, and they were cooking fragrant rice porridge.

!

The new officers and soldiers were standing around, and one officer opened his throat and shouted: "Drink porridge first, drink porridge first, fill your belly and I have something to tell you!"

Peng Ziqin couldn't care about that anymore, so he followed the others to queue up for porridge. After a bowl of thick hot porridge, he finally regained some energy. Then he squatted under the city wall and thought about himself.

The worries are gone.

I don’t know how long it took, but when Peng Ziqin’s stomach started to growl again, I heard someone shouting: “The Imperial Governor of Hubei Kenanyi City has arrived!”

It turns out that Qiu Yu, the new governor of Hubei Province, came over to act as a good person.

Zhu Cihong was still very kind in nature, and he could not bear to starve to death the hundreds of scholar-bureaucrats outside Wushengmen!

So when they saw that the situation was almost over, they sent a "good man" to rescue them. However, at this time, the "good man Qiu Yu" had a sad face and was not in a good mood at all.

It turned out that Zhu Cixiang was willing to open up the net and give the Huguang scholar-bureaucrats in exile in Wuchang a way to survive. However, this way of survival was very narrow, and they could only make them struggle to survive, and also deprived them of their privileges and land ownership in Jiangbei.

Oh, it can't be said to be deprivation. It sounds unreasonable. Zhu Cihong is very reasonable. His principle is to exchange "a way of survival" for "privileges and land in Jiangbei"!

If the exiled scholar-officials want to live in Wuchang, they will have to give up their land in Jiangbei. At the same time, all tax privileges enjoyed by Huguang scholar-officials will be suspended.

From now on, Huguang will start to implement the unified payment of taxes and grains between the government and the gentry!

If the gentry trapped in Wuchang are unwilling to give up their land in Jiangbei...then they are also free to starve to death!

...

"What? The imperial court wants to exchange a few acres of Botian in Wuchang Prefecture for the land deed in Jiangbei?"

"Do you still want the officials and the gentry to pay taxes and grain together?"

"Still, you still don't recognize the merit of being a candidate for the exam! Why? Our candidate is the one who got the exam..."

"This can't be done! We are scholars, we are scholars, we are scholars!"

"How could the imperial court do this?"

"Wow wow wow..."

Although the scholar-bureaucrats in Wushengmen were empty-bellied and had just been frightened, they still couldn't help roaring.

Because the "way to survive" given by Zhu Cixiang is too deceptive. Only after giving up the land in Jiangbei and losing all their privileges can they qualify for "conferring land by plan", and there is not much land to get, that is, by granting land by mouth.

A few acres would be sufficient to grow one's own crops, but these scholar-bureaucrats are not capable of farming.

If these acres of land are rented out, it will be very difficult to get a few shi of white rice.

Moreover, after the five-year exemption period for these acres of thin farmland expires, they will have to pay taxes like ordinary civilian farmland!

The business tax benefits enjoyed by scholar-bureaucrats will be revoked immediately! They can no longer benefit from sheltering businessmen to evade taxes.

Just one person guarding two acres of land, how will he live in the future?

After roaring, these Huguang scholar-bureaucrats, who had effectively become proletarians, felt that they had no choice but to roar a few times and could only cry.

The cry rang out and reached Fenghuang Mountain. At this time, Zhu Cixiang had already set up a Chinese army on Fenghuang Mountain and erected the "Flag of the Reincarnation of Emperor Taizu Gao" - he came all the way to Wuchang Mansion not just to torment a group of people.

The Huguang scholar-bureaucrat defeated Li Zicheng, settled Zuo's army, recovered He Tengjiao, and turned the entire Huguang into the granary of the Ming Dynasty. This was the main purpose of his trip, so the war could not be left behind.

To defeat Li Zicheng, the first step is to recapture Hanyang Fucheng and Hankou Town, the two strongholds that blocked the Yangtze River and Hanshui River.

The easiest way to retake Hanyang Fucheng and Hankou Town is of course a powerful siege artillery!

Zhu Cixi went up to Fenghuang Mountain today to see the bombardment effect of the 24-pound and 36-pound cannons - he had placed an order with the Bojialao Artillery Factory in Haao a few months ago for more 2-pounder cannons.

Fourteen-pounder and thirty-six-pounder cannon.

In addition, before leaving Nanjing, Prince Zhu ordered large-caliber guns for the Bujialao Artillery Factory, Lopez Artillery Factory, Nanjing Artillery Factory, Anping Artillery Factory (owned by the Zheng family) and Shanghai Jiangnan Artillery Factory (Shen Tingyang's industry).

Mortar's foreign artillery contract, so more large-caliber artillery will soon be shipped to Wuchang Prefecture from the southeast!

Now is the time when the bombardment is intermittent (the artillery needs to cool down). Without the roar of the giant cannon, the people on Fenghuang Mountain can hear the sound of crying coming from Wushengmen at the foot of the mountain.

"Your Highness, it seems that the filial and honest scholars in Wushengmen are crying! Is the court treating them too poorly?" Yuan Jixian was the governor in charge of military affairs, so he followed them up to Fenghuang Mountain. When he heard the sound of crying, he

He leaned close to Zhu Cixi and muttered.

"Cry!" Zhu Cixiang sighed, "I know they are in pain, so I will let them cry without being punished... This is because they have not lived a good life! Now the world is divided into three parts.

, I still give preferential treatment to scholars here. At least I will give them a few acres of land. I will also open a Huguang Enke later and select a group of officials. There is still a chance.

As for those preferential treatment, it is not a good thing for themselves, the court, and the people of the world! Our country has fallen to this point. Isn’t it just giving too much preferential treatment to scholars, clans, and honorable ministers? If we continue to give it, it will be bad.

It was not that the Ming Dynasty fell, but that China fell. And... there are tens of millions of people in the southeast now, and eating is a big problem! So scholars can no longer eat farmers' meat, drink
Chapter completed!