Be the emperor from the postman

Chapter 858 Burning the Imperial Mausoleum ([-] in [-])

Gao Yingxiang led the rebel army to follow the strategy given by He Jinzhao, avoiding the real and attacking the weak, and using the strategy of avoiding the enemy and exhausting the enemy, they entered Henan to stir up and attract most of the officers and troops to gather.

Because Chen Qiyu, the former governor of the five provinces, mobilized troops into Shaanxi to suppress bandits, Henan and other places were empty of troops.

Gao Yingxiang's army broke through Dongzhou, Lingbao, Xingyang, and Sishui. When they broke through Sishui, they dug holes to attack the city. The rebel army had miners to join, and the officers and soldiers could not defend.

When they heard that Zuo Liangyu was leading an army, they divided up their troops and went to Xiacai and burned Runing to confuse Zuo Liangyu in pursuit.

Then continue to develop to the southeast, pass Zhengzhou, force Zhuxian Town (southwest of Kaifeng), break Chenzhou (now Huaiyang, Henan), and divide into central Henan.

The officers and soldiers were unable to deal with it. Even though Lu Xiangsheng was guarding Xunyang, he never sent troops to Henan without Hong Chengchou's military order.

Just when Hong Chengchou slowly came out of Tongguan, he was preparing to dispatch troops to besiege the rebels in Henan.

Gao Yingxiang and others adhered to the high speed of soldiers, and they slipped away before the imperial court's troops from all walks of life gathered in Henan.

Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others attacked Yingzhou (Fuyang, Anhui). Another rebel army ran from Gushi (now Henan) to Huoqiu (now Anhui) and burned Zhengyangmen in Shouzhou (Shouxian, Anhui).

Five days later, Yingzhou was conquered. Gao Yingxiang and others killed Zhang Heming, the former Shangshu of the Ming Dynasty who led the army to resist, and his family's children, as well as Yin Menglong, the magistrate of the state, and Zhao Shikuan, the state judge.

At this time, Gao Yingxiang and other rebels were not far from Fengyang, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown.

And there is no imperial army here, so it is the good time that Gao Yingxiang and others are looking forward to.

The last time he went to the capital with He Jinzhao and bombarded the Daming Ancestral Temple, after all, he didn't do it himself, and it was never easy to brag about it.

Gao Yingxiang had long wanted to pick up his Zhu family's ancestral grave, but was stopped by the Huguang army last time, and he had to return to Shaanxi from Hanzhong, and his entire army was almost wiped out.

However, after the feigned surrender, Chen Qiyu dispatched troops into Qin in a panic. On the contrary, a large area in the south was left without troops to defend.

Now in Fengyang, if you don't urinate on Zhu Yuanzhang's grave, it's absolutely unreasonable.

Gao Yingxiang said in high spirits: "This time, I'm going to stamp on Zhu Yuanzhang's grave."

"King Chuang, can you just stomp your feet?" The Eighth King Zhang Xianzhong laughed loudly: "I want to shit on his grave."

Li Zicheng and the others were also quite excited. They were quite envious that Gao Yingxiang and He Jinchao could go to the Daming capital to kill the emperor, and they were able to escape unscathed.

This move caused Zijin Liang Wang Ziyong, the former leader of the 36th Battalion, to sigh secretly, and his prestige plummeted.

As for Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, he was still angry, and there was nothing he could do.

Before, there were Jin tartars who came to Beijing to wreak havoc, and later, rebels came to Beijing to kill the emperor, and they came directly to hit Chongzhen in the face. He could only punish the people under his command, and had no chance to get angry with foreign captives and rebels.

The reason why Gao Yingxiang and others chose this area is because the defense here is empty, and the second is because this is where the imperial mausoleum is located.

Fengyang and Haozhou in the Yuan Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was a native of Guzhuang Village, Taiping Township, Zhongli, Haozhou, and was a monk at Huangjue Temple here.

After he became emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang rebuilt his parents' earthen tomb into a majestic imperial mausoleum, and called his birthplace Zhongdu.

The left-behind division of Zhongdu was established here, and the Haozhou was Fengyang mansion.

The left-behind department of Zhongdu has eight guards under its jurisdiction: Fengyang guard, Fengyang left and right guards, Huangling guard, left-behind left guard, left-behind central guard, Changhuai guard and a thousand households.

It has a squadron army, a high wall army, a cao army, and a new army to protect the mausoleum, with an establishment of 6000 people.

The governor of Fengyang and the governor of water transportation are resident in Huai'an. In order to protect the imperial mausoleum, the inspector censor dare not leave Sizhou one step.

Fengyang was originally a poor place, but it became even more impoverished after it became the imperial mausoleum!
After everyone else became an official, the people in the family even wished to eat the emperor's food, to be superior to others.

It is true that one person attains the Tao, and chickens and dogs ascend to heaven.

Take care of the folks to gain a good name, and then expand your own fields naturally.

But after an emperor came out of the village, the people here were not taken care of.

Fengyang Huagu sang a ditty: "Talk about Fengyang, talk about Fengyang, Fengyang is a good place. Since Emperor Zhu came out, there has been a shortage of nine out of ten years."

The so-called ten years and nine famines certainly have natural disasters, but more of them are man-made disasters-the swaying endowment of the imperial mausoleum government office.

Fengyang was designated as the central capital and enjoyed a special political status.

Although there are resplendent palaces, lush and majestic hills, pampered mausoleum guard eunuchs and local officials, for the local people, it is an out-and-out hell on earth.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang once ordered that "the people of Fengyang and Linhuai counties will be restored to their corvees and taxes, and they will have nothing to give from all ages."

In fact, it was precisely because Emperor Zhu was born here that there were so many pretensions and servants that the common people were overwhelmed.

The farmers worked hard for a year, and finally laid down a little grain, and the slaves followed.

If he refuses to give once, his neck will be tied with a rope, and if he refuses to give again, his body will be hung upside down.

The common people appealed to the imperial court, but the emperor ignored it, and even thought it was an honor for you, but not everyone can become a native of my hometown!
In fact, in November of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Qian Shisheng, the right servant of the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing, was ordered to pay homage to the Fengyang Emperor's Mausoleum, and he reported the decline of the Fengyang area.Really surprising.

After all, the hometown of the ancestral tomb of Da Mingzi is just like this, which is really unreasonable.

The land is barren, the houses are collapsed, and the hills are overgrown. At a glance, there are not many living people.

Or a skinny person with a dying look and dull eyes.

The land in Fengyang is barren, and it is ranked as the lowest (last) in all the prefectures in the north of the Yangtze River. Whenever there is a famine, the people will lead their wives and children to beg for work.

The second is the loss of household registration, the accumulation of unpaid taxes year after year, and constant reminders for collection, forming a vicious circle.

Although there was an emperor in Fengyang, the local people did not get any benefits, but instead suffered all kinds of additional oppression and exploitation, which made them miserable.

If it ends up like this, who the hell is willing to be the emperor's fellow countryman?

Qian Shisheng hoped that Emperor Chongzhen could implement a benevolent government for the people of Fengyang and exempt Fengyang from taxes, and the reduction was only a drop in Taicang.

However, Chongzhen was afraid that Fengyang would set a precedent, and all regions would follow suit, so that they would not be able to collect taxes in the future, adhering to the thinking that no matter how hard it is for my people, I will let you live a better life in the future.

He then commented on Qian Shisheng's memorandum that his sympathy for the people has been repeatedly ordered.

It means that I have made a decree a long time ago, you don't care about it, and just prevaricate it with empty words.

Let this matter go.

It can be said that when Gao Yingxiang and others entered Henan and had the momentum to go straight to Fengyang, the "land of Longxing", the imperial court didn't pay attention to it at all. They only thought that they had dispatched Hong Chengchou with extraordinary means to suppress the bandits, and they would surely succeed in one fell swoop!
Lu Weiqi, Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, felt the seriousness of the situation. After all, the last time no one expected Gao Yingxiang to go to the capital: Tianjie trampled on the bones of the public.

Insufficient guards, he was slapped in the face by thieves in public.

Now who can guarantee that these thieves will not go to Fengyang Imperial Tomb to make trouble?
They even dared to fight the emperor who was still alive in Ming Dynasty, let alone the emperor's tomb where the dead were buried.

Lu Weiqi wrote a letter to Zhang Fengyi, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, saying that the Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum is weakly defended, and preparations should be made early.

Zhang Fengyi had this idea before, but as the chief assistant of the cabinet, Wen Tiren, did not pay attention to it, he also perfunctorily issued a document to Fengyang, the two governors of Shandong, and Caojiang Yushi (the special governor of Guazhou and Zhenjiang in the Yangtze River), asking them to strictly prepare Keep harm.

The following people said they knew it, and the Minister of the Ministry of War did not give specific measures, so let's just light up the lantern~ as usual.

Zhang Fengyi's perfunctory performance was not out of haste, but out of ignorance, after all, there are people who understand in Daming.

When I asked Zhang Fengyi to prevent Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum, Zhang Fengyi refuted it plausibly:
"You are from the south, why worry about bandits?

The thieves started in the northwest, they don't eat rice, and the horses of the thieves are not used to the forage in the south of the Yangtze River, don't worry. "

This answer can't be straightened out by many courtiers.

What the fuck is this weird remark?
The dignified Minister of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty made this evaluation of the peasant uprising army. I don't know how Chongzhen chose him for this position.

The Shangshu of the Ministry of War above is such an idiot, and the governor of Fengyang Yang Yipeng and the inspector Wu Zhenying below are all greedy, contemptible and stupid people who have more success than failure.

Wu Zhenying is Wen Tiren's fellow villager and in-law. He used to serve as Wen Tiren's aide, and later obtained an official position in the Procuratorate, where he has been avoiding business trips for seven years.

Later, due to public opinion, he had to serve as a foreign mission. He was supposed to go to Guizhou for inspection, but he relied on the power of Wen Tiren, the chief assistant of the cabinet, to exchange Fengyang for Guizhou.

Because Fengyang is close to Huaiyang, it is known as the land of Shan, and there is a lot of oil and water, which can be used for fishing.

Governor Yang Yipeng is the head of the old Wang Yingxiong of the current court, relying on this teacher-student relationship all the year round, using the excuse of being old and sick to relax and ignore business.

Yang Ze, the eunuch guarding the mausoleum, is also a raccoon dog, greedy and tyrannical, and takes the military and civilians as his ability.

If the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked, if the upper officials are like this, the lower officials will only go too far.

Last year, Hou Dingguo, a petty official under the eunuch Yang Ze, pretended to be a tiger, provoked a mutiny among the soldiers, and was killed by the rebels.

The mutiny soldiers wrote to the government, threatening to collude with thieves and come here next year.

Both Yang Yipeng and Wu Zhenying are not people who worry about business affairs. They just throw them away when threatened by some assholes. A bunch of filthy things are also worthy of threatening the Grand Master?

As for what measures to take?
I'm sorry, when you have to use your brain like this, can't we elders listen to the ditty twice?
Although Fengyang is the location of the imperial mausoleum and is known as the central capital, its city defense cannot be compared with that of the northern and southern cities.

It is said that because of Feng Shui considerations, no city walls were built at all, and there was no danger to defend.

Because Yang Ze, the eunuch guarding the mausoleum, corrupted and abused the merchants on a daily basis, the merchants petitioned the governor's office, but they were scattered with sticks, and finally went to the eunuch's office to make noise, and were ordered to be hacked and killed, causing chaos for a while.

Since the imperial court refused to be merciful, the poor people could only pin their hopes on the insurgents.

When the rebel army besieged Yingzhou, the poor people of Fengzhi invited them from hundreds of miles away and gave them to the thieves with a book.

Therefore, the rebels quickly went to meet Gao Yingxiang and others, pointing out that there are rich families in a certain place, and there are no soldiers in a certain place.

Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and others were overjoyed, but they felt that the imperial tomb of Ming Dynasty would be heavily guarded no matter what.

I also have a lot of doubts about the brochures sent by these rioters. After all, things are too smooth, but they are like a trap.

Gao Yingxiang dispatched [-] elite soldiers, disguised as businessmen, coachmen, monks, and Taoist priests, to infiltrate Fengyang first, and conduct investigations separately as internal responses.

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival.

In Fengyang City, there are like clouds of scholars and women, singing and singing, and it is a peaceful scene.

Especially in the morning when the fog was thick, Zhang Xianzhong pretended to be an officer and marched into Fengyang swaggeringly under the banner of pilgrimage, with cavalry in front and infantry behind.

When Zhang Xianzhong found out that there were really no officers and soldiers, and there were people singing on both sides of the street, and he saw that there was no imperial army, he immediately ordered to do it.

Suddenly, fires broke out everywhere in the city, and the scholars, women and gentlemen celebrating the festival just woke up from their dreams and ran wildly.

Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help laughing out loud, he loved to see the picture of the high-ranking person in the past, kneeling down and begging for mercy, howling and running away.

By the time someone went to the left-behind office to report the letter, Zhang Xianzhong had already arrived at the Drum Tower in the city.

The bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty were drunk and blinded, and sent someone to severely punish the person who reported the letter.

It wasn't until the rebel army appeared in front of him that he was so scared that he peed his pants.

Shuzheng Zhu Guoxiang, Qianhu Chen Hongzu, and Chen Qizhong who stayed behind in the government office collapsed after a short battle and died in the battle.

They had been fighting with the woman on the bed last night, but today they have become soft-legged shrimps, their former bravery is completely gone, and they can't even run.

Zhang Xianzhong captured Yan Rongxuan, the magistrate of Fengyang, and sentenced him to death after enumerating his crimes in front of the people.

Sun Kewang and others directly entered the Forbidden City, burned down the Imperial Mausoleum and Xiangdian, then opened the high wall, released the prisoners (prisoners of Zhu Ming's clan), and burned down the government houses.

Yan Rongxuan, the magistrate of Fengyang, saw that the situation was not good, so she changed into a prison uniform and hid in the prison. When the rebels released the prisoners, they were found out.

Zhang Xianzhong ordered people to hold the emperor's unique yellow cover (obtained from the grave), advocating and playing music (captive royal musicians), sit in the high hall, judge the magistrate, and ordered people to kill him with sticks.

After Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng arrived, they distributed the food in the treasury to the local poor farmers, and asked the farmers and the people of the four towns to cut down hundreds of thousands of pines and cypresses from the imperial mausoleum.

They also demolished the surrounding buildings and Longxing Temple (also known as Huangjue Temple) where Zhu Yuanzhang became a monk, and then dug the emperor's ancestral grave, and at the same time killed all the rich households in Fengyang.

This time, the government offices of the three prefectures (Fu, Yan, and Fu) were burned down, a total of 590 four offices were left behind, the Drum Tower, 74 Longxing Temples, and 550 private houses were burned down. Six officials were killed and 66 students were killed.

Killed more than 700 soldiers from the Mausoleum Army, 800 from the High Wall Army, more than [-] elite soldiers, and more than [-] from the Cao Army, and the rest surrendered.

Zhang Xianzhong watched the Ming Imperial Mausoleum being burned by himself, couldn't help laughing, and immediately called the "Emperor of Gulong Zhenyuan".

There was a small episode in such an exciting act of the rebel army.

That is, Li Zicheng also wanted the emperor's guard of honor, but was rejected by Zhang Xianzhong, and there was a small-scale friction between the two.

Zhang Xianzhong was also held up by the counselors under his command to reject Li Zicheng with the words that the first to enter the Guanzhong is the king. Why should I give it to you if you want it?
　Thanks to Hua Xiaoyun for the sponsorship of 100 taels of silver.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)