Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 534: Laws outside the law, heaven outside the sky

Yun Weilin listened to Pei Yuan's question, and the expression on his face became more and more struggling. "Captain, please don't embarrass me on this matter. This involves Captain Han's matter, so you'd better go and ask it yourself."

Pei Yuan saw that Yun Weilin was afraid, so he handed over another imperial edict and said lightly, "I'll show you something, but this matter has not been made public yet, so don't spread it out yet."

Yun Weilin breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he wasn't forced to express his opinion right away, other things would be fine...

However, when Yun Weilin was caught off guard and saw the contents of the edict, he was immediately stunned.

Is this the emperor's edict granting marriage to Han Qianhu and Pei Yuan?

Yun Weilin was stunned for a while before he looked at Pei Yuan in disbelief.

Captain Han was actually captured by this bastard?
With Yun Weilin's experience, how could he not see that this arranged marriage was somewhat coercive?

Otherwise, who would need this thing for normal marriage discussions?

However, no matter what means he used, judging from this imperial edict, Pei Yuan finally succeeded.

Yun Weilin was shocked, but he quickly judged Pei Yuan's intention.

Pei Yuan then calmly said, "The emperor has granted me and Han Qianhu a marriage. I just thought that I didn't have much contact with Han Qianhu in the past and didn't know her well enough. So I thought that I should ask more advice from old people like you in the Jinyiwei."

"If General Yun doesn't give me face, then I can only ask others."

Yun Weilin no longer hesitated.

They are about to get into the same bed, is this secret still a secret?

It would be unbearable to offend Pei Yuan because of those insignificant things.

Yun Weilin immediately smiled happily and congratulated excitedly, "It turns out that Captain Pei and Captain Han have tied the knot. This is a great event for our Captain's Office!"

Pei Yuan quickly signaled, "Keep a low profile, keep a low profile. Captain Han will be coming to Beijing in a few days. You guys shouldn't make a fuss until she nods. You understand, right?"

Yun Weilin quickly said, "I understand, I understand."

Captain Han was coveted by the villains under his command, and he used the power of the emperor to succeed. If this matter were to be made public, wouldn't Captain Han have any face left?

Pei Yuan looked at Yun Weilin again and said calmly, "Then why did General Yun teach me?"

Yun Weilin did not hesitate any longer and asked directly, "Captain Pei, have you ever heard of the shed dwellers in Jingxiang?"

Pei Yuan was stunned when he heard this, and subconsciously asked, "The shed dwellers in Jingxiang, what are those?"

Yun Weilin saw that Pei Yuan was not pretending, so he patiently explained to him, "Jingxiang is connected to Henan, Sichuan, and Shaanxi, and has long mountains and valleys stretching for thousands of miles."

"There are deep mountains and vast land, dense forests, and many open fields in the middle, where you can build houses and rent land. There are also silver mines and gold sands that can be mined. The climate is mild, the rainfall is moderate, and the land is extremely fertile, so you can slash and burn the land. Even the wild fruits and plants are enough to fill your stomach."

"During the chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of people fled to the mountains to survive. At one point, there were millions of people. After that, whenever there was a natural disaster or man-made disaster, a large number of refugees fled to the mountains of Jingxiang."

"These people live in huts and form their own area. They do not pay taxes to the court and are not subject to the emperor's control. They are called the law outside the law and the sky outside the sky. Han Qianhu is the leader of the hut dwellers in Jingxiang."

Pei Yuan was dumbfounded and asked in astonishment, "How can the Ming Dynasty tolerate such a place?"

Yun Weilin sighed after hearing this, "Of course the Ming Dynasty would not tolerate such a place. Back then, Emperor Taizu sent General Deng Yu to exterminate the shanty dwellers, killing them so much that blood flowed like a river and the valleys were emptied. He also set up mountain bans and checkpoints to prevent the people from entering the Jingxiang Mountains."

"But what of that?"

"When Taizu was still alive, refugees once again gathered in the mountains of Jingxiang. By the time of Taizong, the powerful families, who had had enough time to recuperate, began to annex land, and many people who had lost their land were forced to flee to the mountains again."

"In addition to man-made disasters, there are also natural disasters."

"In the third year of Xuande, the harvest in Shanxi was poor, and the hungry people fled to the counties of Nanyang, with no less than 100,000 people hiding in the mountains."

"In the tenth year of the Zhengtong reign, severe drought hit Xi'an, Fengxiang, Qianzhou, Fufeng, Xianyang, Lintong and other prefectures, states and counties in Shaanxi. The people were starving and could not bear it. A large number of people fled from the north into the mountains with their wives and children."

"During the Jingtai period, there were more than 1,035,000 refugees in the six prefectures of Southern Zhili alone, with more than 3,620,000 people. Most of them fled to Huguang to survive."

"In the 12th year of Chenghua, Henan suffered from a poor harvest and famine. Tens of thousands of hungry and cold people once again broke through the mountain ban and rushed into the mountains like a surging tide to seek survival."

Pei Yuan was stunned.

He had thought reality was outrageous, but not that outrageous.

Pei Yuan subconsciously asked, "Then the court never took care of it afterwards?"

Yun Weilin said, "At the beginning, we didn't care about it, and no one wanted to care about the refugees. After all, if we want to get them out of the mountains, we have to give them food to eat."

"But then things were different."

"The land in those unowned areas is very fertile. It can be used to grow wheat or rice. Even the mountains and hills have been turned into plains by the shanty dwellers and used to cultivate paddy fields."

"There are also a large number of tea plantations in the mountains, where people can grow and collect raw lacquer, tung oil, indigo, and cultivate fungi and medicinal materials. There are also a large number of miners mining minerals, and there are wood factories, charcoal factories, iron factories, gold mining factories, pharmaceutical factories, salt factories, and even paper mills around them."

"The huge interests made the court no longer careless, and they repeatedly sent people to attack and capture refugees. During the Chenghua period, the refugees gathered together to declare themselves kings in order to resist. They once broke out of the mountains and attacked the various prefectures in Jingxiang. However, after several efforts, they all failed."

"The imperial court killed those shanty dwellers over and over again, but the shanty dwellers in Jingxiang were like overgrown weeds, which could not be killed or chopped off. Even now, the people who were still tenaciously alive in the mountains of Jingxiang were as many as 1.5 million."

Pei Yuan was a little dumbfounded, and asked in astonishment, "Then, then what does this have to do with Han Qianhu?"

After hearing this, Yun Weilin said, "Then we have to talk about the rebellion of White Lotus Buddha Mother Tang Sai'er. I'm sure Captain Pei is also clear about the cause and effect of this matter."

"Although the Jianghu figures recruited by our Qianhu helped the court to eliminate the evil cult, they also angered the emperor because they indulged in lawlessness and raped innocent people at will."

"The imperial court was unwilling to support those underworld figures who were recruited, and those underworld figures were in a state of panic, fearing that they would be killed and eventually punished."

"The captain of that generation was called Han Chuan. In order to feed the thousands of thugs under his command and to seek resources to support this army, he set his sights on those shanty dwellers."

"After that, the Qianhusuo took root in Huguang and slowly infiltrated the mountains of Jingxiang. Relying on the military force in hand, they gradually took control of a relatively large number of farmers and miners and became the leader of the shed dwellers."

Pei Yuan exclaimed in his heart, "WTF?" It turns out that she is really a leader of a faction with a copy!

Pei Yuan thought about it and concluded that the territory of these shanty dwellers should be roughly around Wudang Mountain and Shennongjia.

That kind of terrain is indeed not easy to manage.

Then he thought of the court's attitude and asked nervously, "Doesn't the court know about this?"

Yun Weilin replied, "The court also knows about this, but there is no better solution."

“There are two main reasons for this.”

"One reason is that those thugs were originally a mob, and the Qianhu Division had very limited control over them. After several generations of reproduction, the relationship between them has become very weak."

"Although Han Qianhu has the title of co-leader and can effectively mobilize some of the resources, it is difficult for him to have substantive rule over them."

"So dealing with Han Qianhu is a completely thankless task for the court. It will not actually solve the problems of the shanty dwellers, but will intensify unnecessary conflicts."

"Another reason is that in the 12th year of Chenghua, the imperial court finally compromised in the face of the killing of more and more shanty dwellers. In order to prevent the situation from escalating, the imperial censor Yuan Jie was sent to tour all the valleys to inquire about the sufferings of the people."

"The two sides finally succeeded in the negotiation."

"In order to resettle the shanty dwellers, Huguang cut off Yindian from Zhushan County to establish Zhuxi County; cut off Wuyang from Yun County and Jinyang from Shangjin County to establish Yunxi County; Henan cut off Nanyang, Ruzhou, and Tang County to establish Tongbai, Nanzhao, and Yiyang counties; Shaanxi cut off Shang County to establish Shangnan and Shanyang counties, and Shang County was renamed Shangzhou. In addition, Yunyang Prefecture was established in Yun County to govern the six counties."

"The relationship between the imperial court and those shanty dwellers has gradually eased, so there is no need to do anything unnecessary."

Pei Yuan was somewhat surprised and asked, "Do those shanty dwellers really believe in the sincerity of the imperial court?"

Yun Weilin said, "Of course it's not that simple. Giving away land to the shanty dwellers was a compromise made by the shanty dwellers. The court's compromise was to set up a Huguang Xingdusi in addition to the Huguang Dusi to supervise the Jingxiang mountain area. The soldiers of this Huguang Xingdusi were one male adult from each shanty dweller's household."

Pei Yuan felt it was outrageous again.

Doesn’t this mean that the entire Huguang Xingdusi is actually controlled by the shanty dwellers?

In name, the imperial court recruited people from the shanty towns to serve as soldiers, but in reality it was equivalent to allowing the shanty townspeople to have their own weapons.

In other words, the shanty dwellers exchanged security for the imperial court's power of governance?
Yun Weilin continued, "Many years have passed since Chenghua. The imperial court has wanted to abolish Yunyang Prefecture and Huguang Xingdusi every day, but because of the constant wars and disasters, they are unable to solve this problem."

"Those gangsters who controlled the shanty dwellers in the early years have become a loose group after several generations."

"It is precisely because people's hearts are divided that those who have influence among the shanty dwellers attach great importance to Han Qianhu's status as the co-leader. This is because the structure of the Qianhu Office may be the only way for them to unite and deal with changes in the court."

"In order to prevent the shanty dwellers from getting out of control again, the imperial court sometimes uses Han Qianhu as a middleman to win over the leaders of the shanty dwellers."

After listening to Yun Weilin, Pei Yuan finally understood why Han Qianhu was able to come up with so much capital.

Not to mention the rich resource channels in the mountains of Jingxiang, the Huguang Xingdusi controlled by the shanty dwellers alone can give her very strong support.

Moreover, if taking root in the mountains of Jingxiang was the plan of Han Qianhu's ancestors, then they would definitely have left her with enough backup plans.

Countless thoughts were popping up in Pei Yuan's mind at this moment.

Judging from the cards, the sphere of influence influenced by Han Qianhu alone includes thousands of miles of land, over a million people, a well-run prefecture, and the Huguang Xingdusi with eight guards and nine defensive Qianhu offices under its jurisdiction.

The Shandong province that he was trying to control had a large population, vast farmlands, abundant coal and iron, as well as the benefits of fishing, salt, canals and maritime trade.

Pei Yuan can use Han Qianhu's power to speed up the completion of his layout in Shandong.

Captain Han can also use Pei Yuan's foundation to turn his control over Jingxiang from virtual to real.

The marriage arranged by Brother Zhaozi is a powerful alliance and a match made in heaven.

As long as time allows these two forces to be integrated, they can become a major force in the Ming Dynasty.

Pei Yuan was thinking about these things, and suddenly something came to his mind. He asked Yun Weilin, "With such a background of Qianhu, why did you dare to disobey in the first place?"

Yun Weilin felt a little embarrassed after hearing this, and replied hesitantly, "The foundation is the foundation, but Han Qianhu has no intention of fulfilling it."

"This matter is not a secret within the Qianhu Office."

"Back then, Captain Han once warned some influential people in the Thousand Households Office not to get too involved with the shack dwellers. Because those people just wanted to use her identity to rally the people, but when the scattered sand came together again, she, the leader, would become a thorn in the eyes and flesh of many people."

"Instead of this, it is better for each of us to be well and support each other."

Pei Yuan thought to himself, so that's how it is.

This is similar to the concerns mentioned by Tian Fu.

For those ambitious people, as long as they have crossed the river, the bridge can be dismantled, and it can also prevent others from coming.

Captain Han just wanted to dig into the Ming Dynasty occasionally and didn't want to participate in such a dangerous game.

She formed a group with those southern tyrants and pursued her own interests, and completely regarded her identity as the leader of the shanty townspeople as a burden.

With this mentality, people naturally see the disadvantages of the shack dwellers rather than their advantages.

But this identity is a burden to Han Qianhu, but not to himself. Pei Yuan also has enough patience and ability to transform those people and resources into a force that can be mobilized.

Pei Yuan looked at Yun Weilin and continued to ask, "What else?"

Yun Weilin smiled bitterly and said, "No more. What I said before is not a secret."

"Although the young people in the Qianhu Division don't know much about it, some of the older people, even if they didn't experience it themselves, have heard about it from people who experienced it, and they all have some general impression of it."

"As for Captain Han, she has been staying in Nanjing since she took over the Captain's Office and rarely goes north. What I know about her is based on bits and pieces of information passed down by others. As for the rest, I really don't know."

Pei Yuan was somewhat disappointed after hearing this. It seemed that he could only wait until after the marriage and then slowly explore things on his own.

(End of this chapter)