The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 96 A demon, a demon that divides the land, is wandering around! (Seventh update)
Hunan, Daozhou, Meihua Town.

This is a small town located at the southern foot of Yangming Mountain and the bank of Xiaoshui River. It is a key point for entering and exiting Yangming Mountain from the south. Because there are various minerals in Yangming Mountain, this Meihua Town is a town that prospers because of the mines.

Before the water transportation of Xiaoshui River was interrupted, thousands of miners lived in shacks in the town all year round.

Because it is much easier for these miners to make money than for farmers, and most of them are single men from outside the city, most of them have no family around them, so if one person is well fed, the whole family will not be hungry, so they spend much more than farmers.

Therefore, there are many shops in the town, which is many times more prosperous than Etang!
There are vast fertile fields to the south of Meihua Town, including large tracts of paddy fields on both sides of the Xiaoshui River. The rice and vegetables produced can be sold at a good price in Meihua Town.

However, the villagers around Meihua Town did not become richer because of the mines in Yangming Mountain and the miners in the town. Instead, they became poorer.

There are two main reasons for this. First, there are bandits in Yangming Mountain all year round, and there are a large number of "social people" in Meihua Town - in fact, both groups of people come from the same source, that is, Jiao Hong, Xu Yuegui, and Xu Xianggui!

These bandits who occupied the mountains or opened gambling houses, opium dens, and brothels in Meihua Town to collect protection fees not only targeted the small mine owners (who were actually also members of the Hongmen), but also extended their hands to the surrounding villages and slaughtered the local landlords as fat sheep.

Second, there is no wealthy man like Mr. Huang Shijie around Meihua Town!
Mr. Huang had a large family and a great business, so he had not yet become extremely evil. Moreover, he wanted to be like Tao Shu, Tang Peng, Wei Yuan and other predecessors of the School of Economics, who entered the officialdom and left their names in history, so he was able to restrain himself and his family from committing many evil deeds.

Moreover, the "king" in Yangming Mountain and the clerks in Daozhou City were quite afraid of him as a famous figure from a prominent family, and did not dare to do anything wrong in his territory.

The "young masters" in Meihua Town don't have so many concerns. They are bullied by the "hall masters and incense masters" in Meihua Town, blackmailed by the king in Yangming Mountain, and extorted by the clerks from Daozhou City. They are all on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to survive, how can they care about their dignity?

So the tenants and poor peasants under them suffered greatly!

For example, Mr. Huang only charged 50% of the rent when renting out his paddy fields to tenants. It seems high, but it is actually not that high. Because the exact amount of "50%" is determined by the harvest, and there is room for fluctuation. If the farmers suffer a disaster and have no harvest, then zero divided by two is zero! If the harvest is good, the farmers can pretend to be pitiful and underreport.

The tenants around Meihua Town all paid "iron rent"! No matter how big the disaster was, it would not be reduced! Although there would be no increase in the harvest, Mr. Huang would reduce the rent for disasters and conceal the rent for harvests!
Moreover, the rent for iron plates in the Meihua Town area was very high, almost the same as what Mr. Huang's tenants paid in a good year.

For another example, although Mr. Huang's business was dealing in opium, he would not force a woman of good character into prostitution. Otherwise, he would not have refused to take Wang Xier in. If he had taken her in, he would have sold her to Meihua Town to entertain customers. Wouldn't she be worth a lot of money? So Wang Xier could have starved to death in Etang, but in Meihua Town, she would have been raped and tortured to death!
The landlords around Meihua Town would not only capture and sell the "Xiers" from farmers' homes who owed debts, but would also capture and sell the "little white laborers" to the surrounding mines to do hard labor.

Zhu Ba was once a "little Zhu Bailao" who was sold. He was from "Zhuyang Village" next to Meihua Town. His family had some property and was considered a middle-class peasant. However, his father was brave and aggressive. He took several brothers from the same clan to fight with the neighboring village for water sources, and was beaten to death by mistake. Only his mother and a useless half-brother were left. His mother was a woman and could not take care of things. His brother was older, but he had no intention of farming. He often gambled in Meihua Town and became addicted to smoking. In the end, he was heavily in debt. Not only did he sell all the land at home, but he also owed a debt to the village tycoon Mr. Yang, who could not pay it back, so he sent him to the mine to pay off the debt.

Zhu Ba inherited his father's violent temper. When he was twelve or thirteen years old, he started fighting with people in the mine. He would fight until his head was broken and bloody, but he would not beg for mercy or admit defeat. As a result, he was sent down the mountain by the mine owner and ran to Etang Town to beg for food.

Eight years later, little Zhuba, who was sold to the mine, came back!
As a preacher of the God Worshipping Society, he and his senior brother Wang Yan, led ten male saint soldiers and ten female saint soldiers, singing the song "Welcome Peace" and returned to Zhuyang Village!

"The rent is heavy, the interest is high, and it is difficult for poor people to survive these days. Open the gates early to pray for peace, and all the people will be happy. Kill the Qing demons, slaughter the evil gentry, open the city gates to welcome peace, and when peace comes, divide the land"

Master Yang is the third child, known as Master Yang San. He is the head of the Yang family in Zhuyang Village and also a scholar. He took the provincial examination sixteen times but failed each time.

Although Master Yang San was not a good student, he managed his family business well.

Zhuyang Village was originally a rich village, with hundreds of acres of paddy fields around it, half of which belonged to the Yang family, and the other half belonged to the Zhu family in the same village. But more than ten years ago, Zhuyang Village and the Hakka clan next door, surnamed Li, fought for water sources and suffered a great loss. Many people died, and the paddy fields were turned into dry land, and the harvest dropped suddenly!
The villagers who were originally able to struggle to survive have gone bankrupt one after another!

Third Master Yang took the opportunity to lend money at high interest rates, and then colluded with the evil people in Meihua Town, relying on their power to collect debts and land. In just ten years, 80% to 90% of the land in Zhuyang Village became his land. The remaining part belonged to several members of the Yang family with a larger population - he still needed these members to help maintain his family's rule in Zhuyang Village!

But at this moment, Master Yang San has not yet realized how insignificant his power is when the wheel of history is ruthlessly rolling over him.
Although he had long heard that the Taiping Army was distributing land in more than a dozen towns and villages around Etang, Lingtang and Shuangpai, all the land in that area belonged to the local tyrant Huang Shijie.

Huang Shijie was a famous scholar and a wealthy man. He also organized a militia and was a sworn enemy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, Master Yang San was just a small local tyrant. He didn't care whether the world belonged to the Qing Dynasty or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He only cared about protecting his own land.

Whoever comes, he will kneel down to welcome them with his clansmen and villagers!
So now he brought a group of tribesmen and poor people, kneeling on both sides of the road leading to the village, with baskets of rice, cloth and copper coins in front of them.

"Yang San, do you admit your guilt?"

Just when Master Yang San thought that the Taiping Army leaders would soon take the rice, cloth and copper coins and leave satisfied, suddenly a voice with a Daozhou accent shouted loudly.

He looked up quickly and found a burly man with a ferocious face, holding a broadsword, standing in front of him, followed by more than 20 armed Taiping soldiers.

"You, you are."

"I am Zhu Ba!" Zhu Ba roared, "Zhu Fangsen is my father, and my family name is Kuanyan!"

"You, you, you, weren't you sold to Yangming Mountain? How come you became a Taimao?" Master Yang San was so shocked that he couldn't speak clearly.

Zhu Ba's father was bewitched by him to fight with people from the neighboring village, and ended up losing his life in vain. Master Yang San not only did not take care of Zhu Ba and his mother, but also added insult to injury by swallowing up his family's land and selling him to mine in the mountains.

"Take it!"

Zhu Ba shouted loudly.

"Wait!" Master Yang shouted anxiously, "Why are you arresting me? I don't oppose the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."

Zhu Ba sneered, "Who cares if you are not against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? You have been robbing and plundering for many years, forcing many people in Zhuyang Village to lose their homes? How much land have you taken from farmers? How much ill-gotten gains have you amassed? Today, we, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, will take the initiative for the people, divide your land and wealth, and burn the accounts in your hands, so as to give the people of Zhuyang Town a way to survive. Take him down!"

As soon as he finished speaking, several gun muzzles were pointed at him. The nephews and nephews of Master Yang San were quickly controlled by the Guangxi Taiping Army brought by Zhu Ba, and the cold blades were directly placed on their necks.

However, Zhu Ba did not order the killing. Instead, he looked at the people on both sides of the road who seemed to be at a loss, and said word by word: "Who is willing to be with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? You can stand up now."

(End of this chapter)