Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

On the dirt road in Jiangnan in autumn, a dozen riders walked down a slope.

They had not gone very far, about a mile and a half, when they turned around a small screen-like earth col, and a village appeared in front of them.

It's not quite accurate to say it's a village.

According to Zhu Di, it looks more like Wubao.

The so-called Wubao is a form of wartime civilian self-defense organization that has been passed down for thousands of years since the late Han Dynasty. It has complete fortifications and can achieve simple self-sufficient production internally. It is often called Wubao in the north and fort in the south.

"Book of Jin·Biography of Su Jun" records: During the Yongjia Rebellion, the people fled into exile and gathered in villages.

To put it bluntly, the establishment of Wubao was to deal with the chaos in the world. When the world was in chaos, since the people had no power to protect them, they had no choice but to seek the protection of rural self-defense organizations. Generally speaking, Wubao was originally built by the people. The result of spontaneous voluntary choice. Of course, after an organization is established, joining is voluntary, but it is hard to say whether leaving is voluntary.

Without further ado, when he got closer, Zhu Di carefully observed that there was a circle of land outside the village. The young man with a strong country style did not brag. Yes, he was tall and thick, about two feet, six or seven feet. It is four feet high and four feet thick. It is made of gravel mixed with mud.

Of course, this kind of fortifications only feel very safe in the eyes of these local tycoons who have never seen the world. In the eyes of Zhu Di, the best general in the world, it is far worse than a real fort.

The best person in the world at defending a city is none other than Geng Bingwen, but no matter how strong a city fortress is, what's the use against Zhu Di? It's not just like paper.

The young men in the village who were standing guard on Tuxie saw that one of their own people had returned, so they opened the door without asking any questions. The young man who was leading the group frowned greatly.

"Zhang Erlang, are these your classmates?" Qing Zhuang opened the door and asked with a smile, holding a rake.

The man who was called Zhang Erlang raised his riding whip and gave him a crack on the head.

"Snapped!"

Qingzhuang ducked subconsciously, and the linen clothes on his shoulders were torn apart by the whip, and the skin and flesh inside instantly burst open until they were bloody and bloody.

"Idiot! If the enemy held me hostage, would you open the door without asking?"

Zhang Erlang was almost furious. The young man who was beaten looked embarrassed, but he did not dare to refute anything. It was as if Zhang Erlang had a high prestige in the village.

Zhang Erlang turned his head from his horse, his expression became calm, and he just raised his hands and said.

"The guests are laughing. Nowadays, the world is in chaos, so we have to be careful."

Jin Youzi nodded, and the others dismounted from their horses and walked into Tuweizi. Jin Youzi also stretched out his hand and touched the soil and gravel on the wall.

"It hasn't been long since you started practicing?"

As soon as he saw it was so new, he knew what was going on. Zhang Erlang didn't hide it, and simply said: "When the Yan army crossed the river a few months ago, rumors spread all over the south of the Yangtze River. In short, we are not the only one to do this. It’s just to protect yourself during times of war and chaos.”

"Then nothing's happened now, so why not dismantle it?"

Facing Jin Youzi's nose and face, the riding crop in Zhang Erlang's hand made a noise. The scholar who was accompanying him quickly said: "Zhang Erlang, you don't know something. This is a court official from Jiangxi. I passed by this place when I was visiting my hometown, and I didn’t know much about the scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, so I had more questions.”

Zhang Erlang glanced at Jin Youzi.

Court official?

After careful inspection, Jin Youzi did have the style of an official.

He is tall and thin, and although he is not very old, he carries himself with a certain air of air.

A trace of gloom flashed between Zhang Erlang's brows, and then he grinned and said: "I don't know if it's the Shangguan who's here, but it's the common people who are rude."

“He who does not know is not guilty.”

Jin Youzi was really out of breath, so he shook off his baggage on the spot, changed into a green robe at the door of Tuxerzi, then put on his official hat and walked in grandly.

"Can you show me around the village?"

Seeing this posture, Zhang Erlang was shocked and angry. He glanced at his classmates and managed to suppress his anger. It was obvious that he had gotten a little too tempered from traveling around the countryside on weekdays, and he really didn't work hard enough to nourish his energy.

"Sir, please follow me."

Under the leadership of Zhang Erlang, Zhu Di and others strolled around this fairly large village.

Generally speaking, the condition of the village is not as bad as Zhu Di imagined. Not to mention that it is like a peach blossom garden with "flat fields, neat houses, fertile fields, beautiful ponds, mulberry and bamboo", and it can be regarded as dozens of acres scattered into small areas. The dry land is enclosed behind the village and connected to the hills. Not every household has poultry, but chickens are still quite common.

There is a col in front of the village, and behind it there is the remnant of a hill, and a small river. Or maybe it is more appropriate to call it a stream, the kind that an adult can jump over in one jump. All in all, it’s a Feng Shui treasure.

In addition to the main gate in front of Tuweizi, there is also a small gate against the hill. There is a dirt road in front of the door. Although it is tightly closed, there must be a road behind the door leading to the mountain.

"Who is this woman?"

Jin Youzi saw a woman from a family being driven into a corral by a man like a dog, shivering with her hair disheveled.

Zhang Erlang glanced at it and replied casually: "I did something wrong."

Jin Youzi opened his mouth to ask, but then stopped as if he thought of something.

The sun sets earlier in autumn than it did in the long summer days before, and the chirping of cicadas that my ears have long been accustomed to disappears without even realizing it.

There were no villagers active outside in the village for a long time. Several people were arranged to rest in the village chief's or Wubao owner's home.

The steamed buns and water that were delivered were put aside, and no one touched them since they were no longer hot.

Tong Xin led several guards to set up defenses, and the astonishingly large ox-horn bow in his hand was ready to be fired at any time.

Zhu Di and Jin Youzi sat cross-legged on the couch. Zhu Di took a sip of cold water from his cowhide water bag, then took out a sesame seed cake from his arms that was already white with wet bubbles, stuffed it into his mouth and started chewing it. .

"Your Majesty, with his body of a thousand gold, went into the tiger's den alone, and he didn't seem to panic at all." Jin Youzi held the cake in one hand, and held the fallen sesame seeds in his open hand, and said while eating.

"Shit tiger's den, this is also a tiger's den, so what is the Beiyuan Great Account? What is Daning City?" Zhu Di said vaguely, "When I was still a young man, not long after I conquered Beiping, I led my army to the north and went deep into the country. Mobei traveled thousands of miles to the Beiyuan lair, made a surprise attack on a snowy night, led troops to surround the Beiyuan tent, and surrendered countless Taiwei, prime ministers, and magistrates of the Beiyuan. Not to mention that during the Jingnan period, Peiping was defeated by Li Jinglong's 600,000-strong army. Being surrounded, I cut off my retreat and marched two thousand miles to seize King Ning's troops. Compared with these, what does a small village mean now?"

Jin Youzi nodded, that was true.

A ruthless person like Zhu Di has done too many daring things in his life, and it really doesn't matter now.

Seeing Jin Youzi take a mouthful of sesame seeds, Zhu Di looked at Tong Xin and said with a smile: "Don't panic, Commander Tong will make sure all the guards are safe and go out."

"Is it because Commander Tong's Haidongqing went out to report the news?" Jin Youzi asked.

Tong Xin spoke dullly.

"Notify the nearby loyal guards, just in case."

"That's it?" Jin Youzi was surprised for a moment.

Zhu Di pointed to the big ox-horn bow in Tong Xin's hand and said, "Have you seen this bow?"

Jin Youzi nodded, and Zhu Difu added: "Commander Tong's bow skills are unparalleled in the world!"

"During the Jingnan period, when the Southern army was already in decline, and they were about to make a last-ditch effort, two brave Tatar officers came to me with their elite armored cavalry and charged at me desperately. It was true that thousands of troops and horses were fighting in front of me. Together, Commander Tong, on such a chaotic battlefield, shot out the eyes of two Tartar officers' horses with one arrow and one arrow from dozens of steps apart. Do you know what the concept is?"

Jin Youzi was shocked.

"Don't worry." Zhu Di clapped his hands after finishing the sesame sesame cakes, "There are a few people standing in front of Commander Tong, not to mention the strong people in the village. I'm afraid they don't even have a pair of cowhide armor. Even if they have armor, Using this ox-horn bow with heavy arrows, Commander Tong could kill a wild boar or black bear within thirty steps with one arrow, let alone a human. Commander Tong would not be able to finish a barrel of arrows, and all those who could fight would die. "

After hearing this, Jin Youzi felt relieved. Now that the safety issue was guaranteed, he had time to talk about other things.

"Your Majesty, after walking around for a while, I found out that although Zhang Erlang always intentionally or unintentionally separated us and prevented the villagers from contacting us, I still feel that the people in this village may not all be from the village."

"Tell me about it." Zhu Di held up his hands without comment.

"The livestock stalls are in different styles, and the chickens, ducks, and dogs we raise are also different. Moreover, there are several dogs that bark not when they see us, but when they see Zhang Erlang approaching. Obviously they are unfamiliar with him and the most What’s important is that some of the dozens of acres in the mountains behind the village are newly reclaimed. It’s definitely not because we didn’t want to reclaim the land before, but because we don’t have enough manpower to plant the land in the village,” Jin Youzi analyzed.

Perhaps feeling that the evidence might not be enough, or perhaps just thinking of it, Jin Youzi added: "The woman we saw being imprisoned in the livestock pen before did not look like a local, and she must have been forcibly married."

"It makes sense, so what do you think is going on?" Zhu Di asked.

"Refugee."

Jin Youzi simply said: "The ruling power of Wubao, even the newly established Wubao, will definitely not be in the hands of outsiders. It will definitely be dominated by local powerful people. Maybe as time goes by, there will be conflicts among the leaders of the refugees. The dock owner was recommended by the locals, but it must not be now. After all, looking at the freshness of the soil, it is estimated that Zhang Erlang's words are not false. It should be that before and after His Majesty crossed the river, the people of Jiangnan were in panic, so he built the dock. Fort to defend itself.”

Zhu Di nodded. This incident was really not unique. Along the way, the further east and south we went, the more common it became.

As for Dangtu and other places close to Nanjing City, there are none. It may not be that they don't want to repair it, but that the Yan army crossed the river too quickly and did not have time to repair it.

The Susong and Jiahu mansions in the south of the Yangtze River are relatively prosperous. It is not an incomprehensible phenomenon for the people to build Wubao for self-defense in the face of possible military disasters.

It's just that the rich man Zhang Erlang and his hidden agenda are really alarming.

"Then why do these refugees seem so convinced of Zhang Erlang?"

"Your Majesty." Jin Youzi analyzed with his fingers, "Although Wubao under the powerful leadership is composed of clans and villages, it actually has a certain degree of cooperation. Whether the refugees who migrate here are originally powerful foreigners or ordinary villagers, Faced with the loss of farmland and the hardship of production and life in the short term, it must be necessary to cooperate and help each other, or to unite with each other to deal with the outside world, so he showed his confidence in Zhang Erlang to us."

"Even if clan and village organizations have residual cooperative qualities, since they are led by local tycoons and powerful people, these powerful powerful people will inevitably use this newly established Wubao organization to serve themselves. The most common one is to establish a master-slave system. relation."

Jin Youzi explained in detail: "The dock owners and fortress owners are the local emperors on the fields they occupy. They often recruit refugees, who are placed on the fields for production and pay rent to serve. In the sphere of influence of the dock owners and fort owners In the country, the power to allocate fields lies in the hands of dock owners and fort owners. Whether a certain field is in the Ming Dynasty's fish scale book actually does not matter much to them."

"These forts in the south of the Yangtze River."

Zhu Di stood up from the couch and walked around the room.

"I will clean it up completely this time, leaving no one behind."

Jin Youzi also got off the bed, bowed and said, "What your Majesty said is absolutely true."

Zhu Di frowned slightly, turned around and asked: "Then tell me, what happened to the burning villages we heard from those scholars on the road? No one in this Wubao seems to have that ability. Could it be bandits? But how can ordinary bandits do such things calmly in the gaps between so many armies? "

Jin Youzi pondered for a moment and replied: "Maybe the burning of the village was a fiction. After all, we didn't see it with our own eyes, and the four scholars didn't see it with our own eyes. The source of the information is nothing more than Zhang Erlang's words. It's also possible that Zhang Erlang was motivated by something. The ulterior secret was deliberately made up to deceive these people in order to prevent them from moving forward."

Zhu Di nodded and agreed with Jin Youzi's statement.

After all, judging from Zhu Di's military experience, the Loyalty Guard was born out of the Yanshan Three Guards. They were all elites who fought hard in the Northern Expedition and the Jing Dynasty. They can be called the strongest force in the Ming Dynasty at this time. On the battlefield, despite being blocked by heavy troop groups, they could effectively detect information and communicate. How could bandits openly burn down a village in their marching ranks without being discovered by any scouts?

Therefore, the burning of the village is most likely a myth.

Then, the question comes to something that is almost a matter of course.

Why did Zhang Erlang lie to his classmates and prevent them from moving on?

why?

Not far away, in the cellar of the owner of Wubao.

"Why did you bring the official here?!"

The cellar, lit only by a few oil lamps, was dark and damp. An old man covered his mouth, coughed, and scolded Zhang Erlang.

"I didn't want to attract him."

Zhang Erlang said helplessly: "I wanted to scare off those classmates. When I asked about it, I just told them that I had heard the rumors. But those people insisted on following me. They had knives in their hands at that time. How could I dare to tell them? What? Apart from bringing him back and making plans, is there any other way?"

The old man knew that there was nothing wrong with what Zhang Erlang said, and it would be like this for anyone else to deal with it, but he was irritated and coughed more and more.

In the end, he just stamped his feet and sighed.

"——Boshen is wrong!"

Zhang Erlang also smiled bitterly: "Dad, now that the matter has been done, what should we do? Do we really want to kill officials and rebel? How can the few volunteers gathered by Zhou Shibo be worth the thousands of troops of the Yan army?"

The old man was silent. He looked older. He was less than fifty now. He was used to being prestigious in the countryside. It was natural that he had his own ideas and was not an old fool.

The old man said: "Won't those refugees betray us and go to the officials to inform us?"

"I'm worried about that too."

There was a possibility that something important would be exposed. Once exposed, it would be a major crime against the Nine Clan. How could Zhang Erlang not be worried?

Zhang Erlang said with some frustration: "The refugees seek our asylum for two reasons."

"Firstly, it was because the Yan army crossed the river a few months ago. At that time, it was said that the Yan army wanted to kill the people in the south of the Yangtze River and dye the Yangtze River red. That's why there were so many precarious farmers. I was heartbroken. He left the land and became a refugee and came to Wubao."

"The second reason is that the corvee service in the Jianwen Dynasty was originally very heavy, and the people were as afraid of the corvee as they were of the evil tigers in the mountains, but who knows, who knows, alas!"

Zhang Erlang sighed heavily, and the old man said directly.

"Who knew that the imperial court would come up with a show called "Servants working on their own property"?"

Zhang Erlang nodded heavily.

"I don't know who came up with this idea of ​​'sharing the labor into the household', it's simply a desperate plan!"

The old man coughed and nodded with a wry smile.

For local tycoons like them, who are organized into clans, sharing the labor force into an acre is a plan to wipe out the entire family!

It would be okay if there were large clans scattered in several villages. In the past, they could organize young and middle-aged people to do corvee work in turns. Now, there is no problem if they don't do corvee work. They can just continue to cultivate the land.

But in this small clan with one village and one surname, many refugees, foreigners, and even locals are willing to surrender their fields as invisible tenant farmers. Isn't this essentially a fear of corvee labor?

it's good now.

The corvee is cancelled!

Without the oppression of corvee, why don't these people farm their own land and instead become tenant farmers for you?

So without the refugee labor force and the tenant farmers who dedicated their fields, the small local tyrants lost their personal control and property management rights over these people, so why should they dominate the countryside?

At best, they are just wealthy farmers with a little more land.

Zhang Erlang sighed: "Working as a slave laborer will destroy our roots!"

"It's not just that." The old man said in a daze, "After this round of general implementation in the south of the Yangtze River, people's hearts will inevitably return to the new emperor. I am afraid that the big things you, Zhou Shibo, will do will be like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. It was blown away without a trace.”

"The general trend is the general trend and the people's will is the same. Emperor Jianwen will never come back."