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Zhu Chongba at the end of Ming Dynasty Volume 1 Chapter 506: Time is running out

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    It's autumn in the blink of an eye, and Zhu Jun's autumn corn (also called summer corn, usually sown in late summer and harvested in late autumn, so it is also called autumn corn) has already been sown. At this time, many autumn corns have popped up.  .  In the small village where the Qiang people live together, corn is growing well. The one hundred Qiang people who were left here to learn corn planting techniques all have happy faces.

    They were treated well in Zhu Jun's territory. They not only gave them clothes, but also gave them furniture and kitchen supplies. Zhu Jun even often invited them to listen to Han operas and storytelling. In just a few months, they had changed.  They are very similar to Han people. Except for the two clusters of plateau red on their faces that remind them of their identity, they are almost the same as Han people in other places.

    Because they often interact with Zhu Jun, they even use the Qiang language relatively little. Most of the time they communicate with Zhu Jun in Sichuan dialect. After going back and forth, they gradually get used to the new life.

    Rimaimousi sent several people to inquire about the growth of corn, and received satisfactory answers, so he sent people from the plateau to bring many daily utensils used by the Qiang people.  Unexpectedly, these one hundred Qiang people now feel that Han people's things are better, and they don't like to use Qiang people's things.  This is just like some people in later generations who think coffee tastes better than tea. They have been affected and cannot change it even if they want to.

    Take pots for example. When they were on the plateau, they used shallow pots with oil to bake barley cakes, but at the bottom of the mountains they needed to use deep pots to boil water, rice and corn. In this way, the Qiang people¡¯s pots  They're not used to it.  As for the wine glasses made of horns, how can they be as useful as the Chinese wine glasses made of ceramics?  Clothes made of fur.  Although the thermal insulation performance is good, the temperature at the foot of the mountain is not as low as on the mountain, so fur clothes are not needed at all. On the contrary, light linen and cotton clothes are better to wear.  The sun's ultraviolet rays are not strong, so they no longer need to wear thick leather hats, they only need to tie a sweat towel on their heads.

    The Qiang people suddenly found that their previous way of life was completely negated. It was obvious that the life of the Han people was much more comfortable than theirs, because the Han people were better at living a small life.

    Zhu Yuanzhang had already expected such a situation.  Instructed some small businessmen.  Use more Han products to exchange the Qiang products in their hands. In this way, these one hundred Qiang people have extra products in hand.  Human beings.  Although he is selfish at heart.  But he is very selfless to his family.  Once these Qiang people have extra property in their hands, they will naturally think of their families, so they write a letter home.  Attach some Han products and give them to the envoys sent by Rimaimousi, so that they can help bring them back to the tribe and hand them over to their families.

    Once these Han products are sent back to the mountains, they will become very popular. The families of these Qiang people have become proud in the tribe, and their status seems to have become higher.

    This is a bit like the early days of our founding of the People's Republic of China, when everyone was still very poor, and someone's relatives suddenly brought back a color TV from abroad. That would make others envious.  And this kind of thing will also become part of cultural and economic aggression, making people think that the moon in foreign countries is really rounder than that in China.

    Once Zhu Yuanzhang used these methods learned from later generations, the Qiang tribe was indeed shaken. The remote Qiang tribe did not know these things and did not talk about it, but the three people of Rimai Mouxi, Tashi and Masi  The tribe led by the big leader has a Han style. The Qiang people are proud to use "Han items". Who has a few items obtained from the Han people at home, such as cups, bowls, pots, bronze mirrors, etc.  If you are like this, you will become the envy of everyone in the village.

    The anti-Han mentality of the Qiang people began to fade, and many people began to advocate trade with the Han people. Their closed-minded mentality was also fragmented little by little.

    On this day, Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting in the yamen of Guangyuan, dealing with some daily chores, when he saw a spy running back and handing over a newspaper with both hands: "General, we robbed someone in a small county east of Bazhou.  A post horse has received this report, please take a look."

    Zhu Yuanzhang knew that if it were an ordinary Tang Bao, there would be no important news in it, and spies would not send it like this. It seemed that the information in this Tang Bao was very trivial, so he put down what he was doing, took the Tang Bao and read it carefully.  stand up.

    When I saw this, I couldn¡¯t help but feel refreshed.

    It turned out that what was recorded in this newspaper was really important. After Zuo Liangyu captured Zhang Xianzhong's wives, concubines and military advisor, he was frightened by Zhu Yuanzhang, so he fled eastward to Xiangyang and imprisoned Zhang Xianzhong's wives, concubines and military advisor.  In the dungeon of Xiangyang City.  Zuo Liangyu then left Xiangyang and wandered back and forth at the junction of Sichuan and the two lakes, passive and idle.

    After Zhang Xianzhong found out the news, he left Sichuan from Kuimen (today's Fengjie County), entered Hubei via Wushan, captured Xingshan, killed the officers and soldiers guard Wu Guomao and the county magistrate Liu Dingguo, and then marched eastward to Dangyang County.

      Dangyang County, where Zhao Zilong made seven in and seven outs and became famous, is very close to Xiangyang.  Zhang Xianzhong temporarily stationed troops in Dangyang County and found out that the defenders in Xiangyang City were weak. He personally led the light cavalry and galloped for more than 200 miles day and night. He quickly arrived at the gate of Xiangyang City. The command general led 28 cavalry disguised as officers and soldiers.  , sneaked into the city with Yang Sichang's troop deployment documents seized from the officers and soldiers, set a fire that night as a signal, and coordinated internally and externally, and actually captured Xiangyang easily.

    King Zhu Yiming of Xiangyang was captured alive and then beheaded by Zhang Xianzhong. Zhang Xianzhong rescued his wife, concubines and military advisors, and robbed all the property in the Xiangyang palace and distributed 500,000 yuan in silver to feed the hungry people.

    At the same time, Li Zicheng was not idle either.  After he was dispersed by Zhu Yuanzhang, he boldly fled north into the mountains of Shaanxi, escaping Zhu Jun's pursuit. Soon Liu Zongmin also fled through the mountains, leading the Eighth Army to the border between Shaanxi and Henan.  Li Zicheng was found in the mountains, which revived Li Zicheng's momentum. Although he only had more than a thousand people after his last defeat, these more than a thousand people were the most elite Lao Ba team. With this thousand, it can be  With 10,000 stupid thieves, Li Zicheng relied on these 1,000 people to go out of the mountains and eastward to Henan, and conquered Yidougu (not the same person as the previous Yidougu) and Crock Pot who rebelled in Henan.  The counter-flag was raised again.

    Then, Li Zicheng defeated Lushan, Jiaxian, and Yiyang counties, and then conquered Yiyang. He did not kill civilians, but only officials. He gained the support of a large number of poor people, and soon had tens of thousands of people under his command.

    Soon after, Li Zicheng's troops attacked the north gate of Luoyang. Luoyang was the fief of King Fu Zhu Changxun.  There is a story about Zhu Changxun. He was born to Concubine Zheng, the favorite concubine of Ming Shenzong.  A son is more valuable than his mother.  Zhu Changxun was naturally favored by Shenzong.  In the late Wanli period, there was a fierce struggle surrounding the establishment of the crown prince.  Zhu Yijun could not overcome the public opinion of the government and the public, and was forced to agree to make the emperor's eldest son Zhu Changluo the crown prince.  Since the original intention of establishing his beloved son Chang Xun could not be realized, he and Concubine Zheng used various means to give Chang Xun preferential treatment financially, not only giving him a large amount of wealth accumulated in the palace.  Moreover, for the farmland, salt sales, commercial taxes, etc. that King Fu asked for begging for, all of them would be repaid in the morning and in the evening.

    Zhu Changxun became a vassal of Luoyang.  Compared with the kings who have been enfeoffed since the early Ming Dynasty, the time is much shorter.  But the property he owns is "the richest in the world".  The extravagant and extravagant life that King Fu lived in Luoyang was in sharp contrast to the disasters suffered by the people of Henan at that time.  A wall of Fu Di Palace separated two worlds: inside the wall, there was extravagance and endless extravagance; outside the wall, there was desolation and melancholy.  It's like hell.

    Lv Weiqi, the Minister of War of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty who was living in Luoyang at the time, described the critical situation in a letter to King Fu as follows: "Three years of extraordinary famine have never been heard of in ancient times. The villages and towns are all starved to death, and the cities are killing people and eating them. Everywhere.  The local bandits were entrenched and combined with tens of thousands of bandits, they defeated Lushan, Jiaxian, and Yiyang counties, and within six days, they defeated Yiyang and Yongning counties.  . There is no stronghold that cannot be broken, and there is no attack that cannot be conquered. Moreover, there is a danger of confusion among the hungry people, and the disintegration of people's hearts. Moreover, none of the Futai soldiers arrived. Although there were Cao and Yi soldiers, there was no food and pay, and there were no soldiers on the city walls.  A man with the shape of a ghost and a dove face, dying. There is no one to rely on in the city, and there is a danger of laying eggs exposed."

    (Note: In order to prevent readers from being uncomfortable when reading the ancient text, here is a special translation. What he means is that soldiers cannot fight well without military pay.)

    On the one hand, he suggested to King Fu and urged Henan Governor Li Xianfeng to send troops to Luoyang to strengthen the city defense; on the other hand, he pointed out that the government treasury was in dire straits and asked King Fu to consider his own wealth and life and spend money to pay for the army.  Lu Weiqi specifically cited the two cities of Yiyang and Yongning that were captured by the rebels as a lesson from the past.  The clan officials and gentry in the two cities "lived in a leisurely manner, relying on the weather to make a living, never raising a penny, not parting with a penny, not listening to a word. Even though they are biting their navels now, what's the point of complaining."

    "It's a pity that Zhu Changxun is a man who loves money as much as his life, so he won't listen at all.

    The officers and soldiers guarding the city knew that there were mountains of money and property in Prince Fu's treasury, but they went to defend the city hungry. They were all aggrieved.  Some soldiers openly cursed on the road: "The palace has millions of dollars and is full of rice and meat, but we are so hungry that we are so thief?"

    When Li Zicheng approached the city, the officers and soldiers guarding the city and even some of the middle and lower-level subordinates had no fighting spirit and quickly turned to the side of the rebels.  The soldiers of the general Wang Shaoyu revolted at the top of the city, arrested Wang Yinchang, the deputy envoy of the Ming Dynasty, and opened the city gate to welcome the insurgents into the city.  The rebel army quickly and unsuccessfully occupied the entire city of Luoyang. King Fu Zhu Changxun and his son Zhu Yousong hurriedly escaped from the palace and hid in Yingen Temple.  During the raid by the rebels, Zhu Changxun was captured alive, and the crown prince Zhu Yousong took advantage of the opportunity to escape. This was the Hongguang Emperor who later ascended to power in Nanjing.  Lu Weiqi, the Minister of War in Nanjing during the Ming Dynasty, was also captured.  When escorting these vampires to present prisoners to the leader of the rebel army, Zhu Changxun shouted to Lu Weiqi: "Mr. Lu, save me!" Lu Weiqi also lamented: "My life is also in an instant." Li Zicheng said sarcastically: "Lv Shangshu today  Invite troops and pay tomorrow. If you want to kill me, Cao, what will happen now?"

      After Li Zicheng captured Luoyang, he did not flee immediately as before. He thought of Zhu Ba. Everyone can have a base, why can't I?  So Li Zicheng began to try to establish his own political power in Luoyang. He followed Zhu Ba's example, captured a demoted official from the imperial court in the city, and appointed him as the prefect of Luoyang, responsible for managing the government affairs of Luoyang

    After reading this long letter, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little funny. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were beaten so miserably by him in the battle of Agate Mountain, but he didn't expect that they would turn over so quickly.

    Just as I was thinking of this, I saw Li Yan, Xu Renjie, Wang Er, Hong Niangzi and other leaders coming in one after another. After the soldier who delivered the pond newspaper handed the pond newspaper to Zhu Yuanzhang, he went to notify these leaders as well.  Once, everyone knew that this was a big deal, so they ran to the Yamen to see Zhu Yuanzhang, wanting to hear his elder brother's opinion.

    Xu Renjie was the first to speak: "Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are really troublesome. No wonder the court has been chasing these two guys but they can't be chased to death or extinguished. It really makes sense. If they don't kill them directly  If you take the heads off, I'm afraid these two guys will still be wandering around the world as ghosts."

    Li Yan was once a subordinate of Li Zicheng. Hearing this, he felt inconvenient to interrupt, so he shrank aside obediently.

    The red lady said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Brother Zhu Ba, do you think how on earth these two guys are going to die? I gave them a painful blow last time, but I didn't expect them to turn around and get up. One of them captured Luoyang.  . Capture Xiangyang alone, is this really getting stronger with each war?"

    Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at them indifferently, put the Tang newspaper in his hand on the table, and then said: "Do you want to know the reason why Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong kept fighting but not killed?"

    The leaders all shook their heads.  Only Li Yan's eyes flashed.  But to avoid suspicion.  But it was not convenient for him to join in the conversation about Li Zicheng, so he had to keep silent.

    But his expression did not escape Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes. He waved his hand to Li Yan and said, "Master Li, it doesn't matter."

    The name was called.  It was inconvenient for Li Yan to avoid suspicion anymore. He coughed lightly, stood in the hall, and said seriously: "The fundamental reason why Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong cannot be killed is that the people are too poor No matter where they go, there will be people alive."  The people who are unwilling to go down are willing to join them. There are so many people in the world and how many reserve soldiers they have Therefore, if you want to exterminate them, blindly chasing and suppressing them is useless. You still have to work steadily and improve the lives of the people.  That¡¯s the point.¡±

    When Li Yan said this, the leaders finally understood and said: "No wonder Zhu Bage has been insisting on moving forward slowly. After conquering a place, he first develops the agriculture of that place. It turns out that this is the reason."

    Zhu Yuanzhang nodded to Li Yan, indicating that what he said was very good, and then said: "Currently, we can't intervene in Henan and Hubei, so let Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong make trouble. One of them will kill King Fu, and the other will kill Xiang."  King, there have been a lot of troubles now, and Yang Sichang has to get busy again."

    Zhu Yuanzhang was right. Yang Sichang had already received the news that Luoyang and Xiangyang had been breached. He was organizing Sichuan soldiers and chieftain soldiers to contact Zuo Liangyu, He Renlong and others who were passive and idle, asking them to organize an encirclement again.  , came to Guangyuan and Bazhou, but I didn¡¯t expect that the flowers were blooming in the backyard over there before they were well organized.

    Poor Yang Sichang quickly returned to his army and rushed towards Xiangyang and Luoyang.

    By the way, why did he insist on attacking Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong who were running around while Zhu Ba stood still and did not attack the obvious target?  This was the advantage of Zhu Yuanzhang's choice of base in Shaanxi. Firstly, Shaanxi was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Secondly, it was located on the western border, far away from the capital.  To put it harshly, even if Shaanxi was occupied by foreigners, the threat to the Ming court would be relatively small.

    But it was different for Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong who were wandering in the Central Plains. Luoyang and Xiangyang were both extremely important core cities. The imperial court could not allow these two cities to fall into the hands of thieves under any circumstances.

    Judging from the strategic and world situation, Yang Sichang must first recapture Luoyang and Xiangyang, and disperse Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong before he can free up his hands to deal with Zhu Yuanzhang in the west. Otherwise, the entire Ming Dynasty will be defeated by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.  The thread was cut off.

    Everyone was talking about this matter, and suddenly another spy came in. Judging from his panic, it was obviously a more important matter than Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's attack on Xiangyang and Luoyang. When this spy came in front of the leaders, he jumped with a thud.  On the ground, he shouted anxiously: "Something bad has happened, the Manchu Tatars are blocking the border again!"

    "What?" Everyone's expressions changed drastically.

    The spy urgently reported: "On September 22 (the eleventh year of Chongzhen), the Qing army divided into two groups and entered the wall.At Qingshan Pass and Qingshan Pass, Ming Ji, Liao Governor Wu Aheng, and Commander-in-Chief Lu Zongwen were defeated and died, while Zhongguan Zheng Xizhao fled.  The Qing army then marched straight in and stationed their troops in Niulan Mountain.  At that time, Xuan and the Great Governor Lu Xiang were promoted to Dingyou, but they were still waiting for the throne.  The emperor then ordered the commander-in-chief Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu and Hu Dawei to enter the defense.  "

    "On the 24th, the capital was under martial law. On the fourth day of October, the emperor summoned Lu Xiangsheng, the governor, to the Wuying Palace to ask about the strategy. Xiangsheng replied, 'I will lead the war.' At that time, Emperor Chongzhen hesitated between war and war. An important minister in the court, Yang Sichang,  , Gao Qiqian, and Chen Xinjia all advocated for peace talks. On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the emperor sent 40,000 gold rewards to the army. On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, he also gave 100 royal horses, 1,000 imperial servant horses, and 500 silver and iron whips. The decision was made to discuss the war. "

    Zhu Yuanzhang's heart sank, and he remembered, this is Lu Xiangsheng is about to die in battle, right?  It should be in this battle that the Ming Dynasty will lose another loyal minister and good general.

    Zhu Yuanzhang still has a good impression of Lu Xiangsheng, and if conditions permit, he would like to keep him under his command. However, it is obvious that Zhu Yuanzhang is too late to subdue this person. If the Qing troops enter the pass this time, Lu Xiangsheng will die in battle.  Zhu Yuanzhang's current strength is still in the west, and he can't control the affairs in Liaodong at all.

    He couldn't help but sigh softly, and silently looked at the northeast direction for a few breaths. When he looked back, his eyes were shining brightly, and he said in a calm voice: "Pass my order, and the entire army is preparing to attack Jianmen Pass  ¡­We don¡¯t have much time, we must capture Sichuan as soon as possible and strive for the Central Plains!¡±
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