Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 519

At the beginning of February 1791, at the time when the people of the whole country. Ahem, just as the people of Quanbeihai Town were in winter, a huge "escape event" broke out in the island country of Kyushu, which shocked the shogunate and the Kansai feudal clans.

You must know that the current total population of the entire Kyushu Island is only about 320 million, and the number of farmers involved in this fugitive event accounted for one-tenth.This time the peasants voted with their feet, not so much because of the "rumors" that spread from south to north, but because of the exploitation of the feudal clans and the suffocating annual tribute. The peasants can no longer live happily.

To put it bluntly to some people, as long as the peasants who led the Qing Dynasty in the [-]th century did not cause disasters or fight wars, they were considered the luckiest peasants in East Asia. At least they could still have enough to eat.

But farmers in countries like Li Dynasty and the island countries are living in hell. They are called farmers, but they are actually serfs.These people worked hard day and night, but [-]% to [-]% of their annual income had to be paid in taxes, which was not enough to support their parents and wives.

Although Ruan Fuying has a good reputation in Annan, his oppression of the peasants under his rule is a little lighter than that of Xi Shanchao.Although the Mekong River Plain is rich in rice, the people in Quang Nam eat taro, and the rice is given to Nguyen Phuc Anh in exchange for arms.

On the other hand, in the island country, since the Tianming famine in the past few years, not only did the Kansai vassals not lower taxes, but they repeatedly shipped the rice they produced to Edo and Osaka for profit.Although Matsudaira Sadanobu adopted a policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business during the "leisure reform" period, farmers still had enough to eat.

To put it bluntly, the characteristics of the shogunate system determine the economic policies of various parts of the island country.In order to limit the strength of the subordinate daimyos, the shogunate had to let them undertake the heavy tasks of "serving the public", including accountants, expenditures for the Edo feudal mansion, military service, general recruitment, security at various gates in Edo Castle, and fire protection in Edo Castle. And receive the imperial envoys sent by Kyoto, etc.

Even Date Village, which manages the Satsuma domains in the south, is the same.In order to divide the Sendai clan, Matsudaira Sadanobu specially asked the seal seal to confer Date Village Chang as the lord of the Satsuma clan.Although Date Village often does not need to visit the Tokugawa shogunate, he has to go back to Aoba Castle every year to "participate and explain".

If a daimyo doesn't want to abide by this set of "playstyles", he has no choice but to rebel.The problem is that even if the rebellion wins and sits on the throne of general, under the premise of the closed small peasant economy, he still has to play this game and has no choice.

This was true for the Tokugawa shogunate, and even more so for the Sendai clan.Of course, Beihai Town didn't have the heart to help the Sendai clan change the feudal system, so that's fine.

The cause of the incident stemmed from a dispute over arable land between Lubei Town of the Kumamoto Domain and Kuma Village and Tsunagi Village of the Sagara Domain. The land was re-measured and checked.

From the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate by Tokugawa Ieyasu to the 20s, the island nation experienced five national land clearings, namely, the Qingchang inspection site, the Kan Yongqing security inspection site, the Kanbunenbo inspection site, and the Genroku inspection site. Inspection ground, Xiangbao Xintian inspection ground.After enjoying the security checkpoints, the shogunate has never conducted large-scale land checks, but small-scale checkpoints are still carried out in various places.

At the beginning, the purpose of enjoying the new land inspection was to get rid of the predicament at that time, hoping to alleviate financial constraints by increasing the annual tribute income, and collect as much annual tribute as possible from these developed new fields.The Tokugawa shogunate divided the farmland in the world into seven grades, namely, upper class, upper lower, middle, middle lower, lower, lower lower, and isolated land.

After being graded, if floods and droughts cause poor harvests, if you want to appeal to the Daiguan, you deserve it!You have to pay as much as you want, even if you miss a grain of rice!
Unexpectedly, for the sake of selfishness, Tokuhei Kawai, the vassal lord of the Kumamoto domain, sent by Tokuhei Kawai only let his fellow subordinates operate the clearing of the land, and did not allow the people in the village to intervene at all. The annual tribute burden increased by four thousand taels of rice.

The problem is that it's already winter, so even if you want to increase the annual tribute, you can wait until next year to prepare for the common people.As a result, Kawai Tokubei ordered Ashihoku Town to make up the four thousand pieces immediately.In addition, this guy also forcibly collected the wine shop tax that was exempted in the town, which caused complaints.

Of course, the people in Lubei Town quit, and the rabbits bite people when they are in a hurry.But if there are no three counties occupied by Beihai Town in the south, these peasants will go to the Shogunate in Nagasaki to petition at most.And the final punishment of the shogunate is generally [-] boards each; Kawai Tokubei should be punished and punished, and the common people will sue the officials by the people.
However, when the villagers were discussing, some people told the rumors about the three southern counties that they had heard, and everyone exploded immediately.what!Is there another way to live?
After some discussion, someone suggested that it is better to sue the officials and gods, because the world is as black as crows.Why don't we all smuggle to the south together, and let the [-] taels of rice be grown by the bastard master himself, and our Zhu Bajie throws a rake, so we won't serve you anymore!

The reason for this is that the three counties under the rule of Beihai Town have completely changed from other places.Compared with farmers in other parts of the island country, farmers in the three counties are living in paradise.

Since Beihai Town actually controlled the three counties of Southern Kyushu, it began to implement the regular annual tribute of "three lords and seven people". Apart from this, there are no miscellaneous taxes, even if it is levying corvee, it will also pay money.Not only that, the township government with civil affairs in the three counties also opened up the mountains and forests, allowing ordinary people to go hunting in the mountains, but logging needs to be reported.

At the beginning of last year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, considering that Isa and Lingkari counties had a lot of mountains and less land, and their output was poor, simply encouraged farmers to start poultry farming, mainly Satsuma chicken, which is a special product of the Satsuma area in another time and space, and the slaughter time is only 60 days. sky.The Ministry of Civil Affairs sent personnel from villages to villages to carry out breeding training, and also provided interest-free loans through Beihai Trading Co., Ltd., and all livestock were open for purchase after they were slaughtered.

Last June, a large meat processing plant was established in Akuneroku, Izumi County, employing nearly a thousand people.All the purchased chickens will be sent here, cut up and frozen before being shipped to Beihai Town.

With interest-free loans and purchase guarantees, the farmers began to try raising chickens. After two or three months, when they saw that the families raising chickens made money, the enthusiasm of all the people suddenly increased, and every family started raising chickens.

The reason for doing this is actually to supplement meat nutrition to the soldiers and the people under the rule.When the total number of soldiers in the Beihai Navy reached 5.5, and it will continue to rise, it will also lead to several tons of meat, poultry and eggs for the troops every day, not to mention the immigrant workers and school children who have become rich. Nutrients are needed.

The problem is that even though the lives of farmers in the three counties have improved, it is even more difficult for farmers from other domains to come here.The reason is that the feudal clans have set up layers of checkpoints on the roads entering the three counties of Izumi, Isa, and Lingkari.

However, when hundreds of farmers in Lubei Town were about to give up their homeland with their families and mouths, the news spread out somehow, and dozens of miles away, such as Kuma Village, Shanjiang Village, Sagara Village, Nishiki Town, and Asagiri Town, etc. The whole village also began to move around.

These people thought that the strength of a large number of people, or that the law does not punish the crowd, so on one night in early February, more than 2 men, women, children and children held torches and started to enter the southern mountain, heading towards the three counties of Izumi, Isa and Rhikogari.

The Tokugawa shogunate was set up in a "office" on the mountain path of Mount Yatake. The soldiers on duty in the distant view (lookout) saw a torch suddenly lit up on the mountain path to the north, as if someone was in the snow-capped mountains. Brushed with a gold brush.Seeing the abnormal situation, the soldiers on duty rang the bronze bell to call the police.

It is said that the gates on the post roads between the feudal clans in the Edo period were directly managed and controlled by the shogunate, and the feudal clans were not allowed to set up privately.These customs offices are important nodes in the shogunate regime, used to monitor the flow of population and materials across the country, and to grasp information on public opinion events.

Originally, Kyushu was far away from Edo, and each vassal government set up their own customs offices after the approval of the shogunate. However, after the death of the Shimadzu family, because the southern part of the Kumamoto and Sagara vassal bordered the three counties of Beikai Town, the Tokugawa shogunate set up their own customs offices. Since the year before last, several customs offices have been specially set up here. The large one has 100 people, and the small one has 50 people.

As the bell rang, the guards who had already fallen asleep were awakened. As soon as the samurai Okubo Masanobu who served as the "companion leader" lit the lantern, the shoji door was opened.

"My lord, something is wrong! Someone wants to break through!"

"Has anyone caught it?" Okubo Masanobu, who was only wearing a coat, was not panicked. Although there were incidents of breaking through the barriers in the past two years, they were all thieves, and they couldn't escape the "sight of the shogunate".

The samurai in charge of "regular people" said anxiously: "You should come out and have a look. It seems that there are quite a few people here, probably thousands of subordinates."

"How, how is it possible!"

After a while, Okubo Masanobu, who climbed up to the watchtower, also saw the fire dragon getting closer, and he immediately ordered all his men to be on alert, string their bows, and reload their muskets.

There are a total of 50 people in this checkpoint. Okubo Masanobu is the head of the company—that is, the person in charge. There are one yokometsu, eight ordinary people, and forty pawns.In addition, there is a "renjian woman" who is responsible for examining women.

When the fire finally approached, the people in the prison saw clearly through the fence door that a group of ragged peasants came from the opposite side.These people were carrying big and small bags, men, women and children. When they saw the closed gate, they immediately slowed down. They didn't stop ten steps away from the gate until a samurai shouted and stopped. .

"You don't sleep well at home late at night, what do you want to do?!"

Hearing the samurai's scolding, a man in his 30s wearing straw sandals walked out of the crowd. He handed over the torch in his hand to others, walked to the position five steps away from the door, and knelt down in the snow with a plop. Weepingly said: "I implore the master to take pity on us, give us a way out, and let everyone pass."

After all, the men, women and children behind him also knelt down.

"This!"

Okubo Tadanobu sternly said: "Is this going to defect to Beihai Town? It's really lawless! The government has an agreement with Beihai Town. Even if you pass through the customs, Beihai Town will not take you in! Go back quickly, my officer Don’t blame the past! If not, swords and guns have no eyes!”

A samurai immediately said: "Have you heard what Master Bantou said?! Back off quickly!"

The man seemed to have expected it a long time ago, and immediately got up, and said loudly to the people behind him with grief and indignation: "We work hard every day, but the government is oppressing us day by day, and we don't even give us a way to survive! What?! It's all dead, as long as you rush through here, you will have a way to survive!"

"If you fight with them, you will die on both sides! Instead of starving to death, why don't you rush over and earn a living for your family!"

"Those who want to survive, go together! Fight with them!"

With the chanting of the instigators, those peasants who were pleading just now suddenly became fierce and fierce. They pulled out hatchets and wooden sticks from their packages, and rushed towards the gate of the gate come up.

"My lord, what should I do?!" The warriors and soldiers in the pass panicked, they never thought that the cowardly farmers would become like this.

Okubo Tadanobu saw the crumbling gate of the gate, gritted his teeth and shouted: "Iron cannon! Shoot!"

Twenty shotguns fired immediately, and the roar of the muskets broke the silent mountain forest in the night. The birds flew in fright, and woke up the Beihai town post a mile away.

"There is a situation! Everyone gather!"

With a hurried whistle sounding, seven or eight soldiers of the Northern Navy got dressed in a hurry, and rushed out of the barracks with their rifles in hand.The squad leader who led the team first sent someone to call to report to the barracks behind, and then went up to the guard tower to look around.At this time, the roar of muskets sounded again, and then there was a faint cry of killing.

"What happened?"

The squad leader who led the team looked suspicious. Since he was sent to guard this outpost, he had never heard of shooting from the opposite side.Since the armistice between the Tokugawa shogunate and Beihai Town, the hostile relationship between the two sides has gradually eased. Sometimes the customs office will send people to send some gifts such as rice and sake. specialty in the past.

Thinking of this, he said to the deputy squad leader: "You bring five people to guard here, and I will take two people to have a look."

In the shogunate gate a mile away, two heavy fence gates had already been knocked down by the swarming crowd.Dozens of corpses lay at the door, some of these people were shot dead, some were stabbed to death by two sharp guns; and in the courtyard of the detention center, the crowd who ignored death would be terrified one by one. The soldiers fell to the ground, snatching the weapons in the opponent's hands.

The "hitami girl" in the quarantine station was scared and hid in the toilet shivering, while Okubo Tadanobu and other samurai had already retreated into the prison because they were outnumbered.

The angry crowd seemed to have forgotten what their purpose of coming here was. Everyone, regardless of gender, waved the "weapons" in their hands frantically, and surrounded the Fansuo.Then, someone threw the torch in his hand towards the house.

As more and more torches were thrown, the fire finally ignited uncontrollably.The panicked samurai stumbled out of the house, waving their samurai swords in their hands without thinking, trying to disperse the farmers who kept approaching.

"You, you are rebelling! If you dare to kill officials, you will be executed, executed!"

In the face of Okubo Tadanobu's howling, no one cares, and I don't plan to be an obedient citizen of the shogunate anymore, who cares whether you are an official or what!Seeing the former high-ranking official become disheveled and disheveled, everyone's heart seemed to release something, and they only felt bursts of happiness.

The squad leader of the Beihai Navy who rushed over with two of his men suddenly understood something when he saw the soaring fire in the customs office and the dark crowd in the courtyard.He hurriedly blew the copper whistle hanging around his neck, and the attention of the crowd was attracted.

"Bei Hai Hai! They are Bei Hai Hai!" With a person yelling, men, women, old and young in the detention center suddenly rushed in front of the squad leader, fell to their knees, and begged to be taken in, crying and howling.

The three Bei Haijun stared blankly at the people kneeling all over the ground in front of them, not knowing what to say.That night, a total of 2031 refugees fled from the villages of the Kumamoto Domain into Lingkari County.

(End of this chapter)