Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 139: Captain Hou, are these the soldiers you lead?
On the other side, the situation on Wang Yao's side was not much different from that on Zhang Yi's side.

It was only by some persuasion that the tenants of the Wang family were tricked into stopping Wang Yan and others from measuring the land.

After doing all this, Wang Yao no longer had the energy to take care of Puzhou's affairs.

Because the Zhang family has already sent all the missing items to the Wang family.

In the Wang family compound, several donkeys pulling carts stopped in the yard.

These donkey carts were loaded with food and fodder, enough to meet the Wang family’s shortfall.

"Master Wang, everything is here, please count it."

The Zhang family's servant pointed at the donkey cart behind him and nodded to Wang Yao.

Wang Yao looked around and asked, "Where are the things?"

"Here it is, Master Wang."

The Zhang family's servant brought Wang Yao to a donkey cart, removed the food and fodder covering it, revealing the iron sheet hidden in the middle.

These things are very valuable. Wang Yao took out the iron sheet and examined it carefully. After confirming that it was correct, a look of joy appeared on his face and he covered the food and fodder again.

"Thank you for your hard work. Go back and tell Master Zhang that I will leave this afternoon."

Wang Yao said this and rewarded the servant with a few copper coins.

The Zhang family servant took the few pitiful copper coins and happily wished Wang Yao a happy new year: "Thank you, Master Wang, for the reward. Master Wang, happy new year and safe journey."

After Wang Yao sent the Zhang family away, he spoke to his father Wang Ze and began to organize people to pack and load all the goods needed from the north, ready to set off.

Among these goods, in addition to a large amount of grain, the main ones were tea, iron and silk.

There is also a small amount of salt and some other daily necessities.

It was very unsafe to escort so much goods to Xuanfu on the road, so the Wang family hired a large number of guards who were specifically responsible for escorting the goods.

After hiding all the things in the grain, Wang Yao set out from Puzhou to Xuanfu with a large number of Wang family guards.

……

During this period, Wang Yan and Yang Jizong were in a good mood.

The land inventory work in Pingyang Prefecture has been going smoothly so far.

Just as Yang Jizong said, although Gong Ang, the prefect of Pingyang Prefecture, did not help them, he did not stop them like Zhang Hai did.

Therefore, they were able to survey the land relatively quickly and soon completed the survey of the land in an entire county. The survey work in the second Puzhou County was also being carried out in an orderly manner.

Puzhou Post Station.

Wang Yan and Yang Jizong, who had just returned from the fields, changed their clothes and were drinking tea and chatting.

"It snowed so heavily this year."

"Yes, as the saying goes, auspicious snow indicates a good harvest. Next year will definitely be a good harvest with good weather and good harvest."

"Alas, I don't know when this work of surveying the land will be completed."

"It's the day for the whole family to reunite and celebrate the New Year, but we are still out there. Sigh."

"Why? Are you missing your wife and children?"

"Who says it's not..."

As the two were talking, there was a sudden noise outside the post station.

The sound was very loud, as if hundreds of people were shouting.

And they were all yelling their own things, and Wang Yan and Yang Jizong could only hear a few shouts like "Get out" and "Get out of Puzhou".

"Lord Wang, it's bad. We are surrounded by the people of Puzhou."

"Master Yang, there are so many of them here, and the outside of the post station is full of civilians!"

"Master Yang, what should we do now? They won't rush in, will they?"

"..."

Officials from the Ministry of Revenue and the Censorate rushed into Wang Yan and Yang Jizong's room in panic, with expressions of horror.

"Ah?! There is such a thing!"

Wang Yan stood up in surprise, feeling frightened, and behaved no better than the other officials.

Yang Jizong seemed much more calm. He stood up with a frown and tried to calm everyone down.

"Don't worry, wait for me to go out and take a look."

"Remember, this is the Ming Dynasty, they can't rebel!"

Yang Jizong walked out of the room and came outside the post station.

I saw Qin Lu leading a dozen Western Factory guards, holding knives and confronting a large number of Puzhou people.

It was already night, the sky was dark, and it was impossible to see how many people were gathered around.

Many people in the crowd were holding torches. By the light of the torches, everyone could see the nervous expressions of the people, as well as the hoes, sickles, bamboo rakes and other farm tools in their hands.

"Everyone, be quiet! I am Yang Jizong, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate!"

"If you have any questions, tell me one by one!"

People didn't know how high of an official position the Left Censor-in-Chief was.

But seeing that he spoke with such vigor and such aura, everyone actually quieted down.

In front of Yang Jizong, the people were timid and no one dared to speak first.

Zhang's close confidants who were mixed in with the common people, seeing that the situation was not right, had no choice but to bite the bullet and speak first.

"Get out of Puzhou as soon as possible. We won't let you take the land away!"

"Our ancestors have lived on this piece of land for generations. If you take it away, what will we eat and drink?" "Do you want us to starve to death?!"

When Yang Jizong heard such outrageous remarks, he was stunned for a moment, then angrily said: "Who told you that we are going to take the land away?!"

"We are following the order of the current Ming Emperor to re-measure the amount of land in the country."

"After this is accomplished, it will bring a hundred benefits to you, the people of the Ming Dynasty, and no harm at all!"

what? !

Aren’t you here to collect the land?
The people looked at the confidant in confusion. Why is it different from what you said?
The confidant felt tremendous pressure, but he had no choice but to continue speaking.

"Stop lying, if you don't want to take the land away, why do you want to measure it again?!"

"Fellow villagers, we must not be fooled by him. We must drive them out of Puzhou!"

"That's right! We can't let him cheat us. We can't let you take this land away!"

"Get out! Get out of Puzhou!"

Seeing that the words of Zhang family's confidants were becoming increasingly powerless, fortunately, Wang family's confidants stepped forward and helped Zhang family's confidants speak.

There were quite a few such confidants among the people. Under their instigation, the originally hesitant people gradually became unified in their thoughts.

Since ancient times, there has been a saying that imperial power does not extend to the countryside. The feudal dynasties' control over the lower classes of society was indirectly managed through local gentry and local gentry.

When the words of court officials are contrary to those of the gentry with whom they live day and night, they will subconsciously question the words of outsiders.

Moreover, people tend to follow others blindly. When the same voice starts to ring around them, it is difficult for people to remain rational.

They follow their own nature and blindly follow the voice of the masses, and finally one voice represents the thoughts of the entire masses.

This is the situation right now. When slogans like "Get out" and "Get out of Puzhou" are heard everywhere, other voices will be drowned out by them.

"Everyone listen to me!"

"It's not what you think!"

"We are really doing this for your own good!"

"..."

Yang Jizong was still trying to explain, but the people around him were no longer willing to listen to any explanation.

Qin Lu, the second in command of the Western Factory, watched all this coldly and immediately understood the trick.

He memorized the appearances of Zhang family's cronies and Wang family's cronies who were among the common people.

Afterwards, Qin Lu instructed the Western Factory guards behind him, "You stay here and protect Doctor Wang and Censor Yang."

"Don't let the people mess around. Try to avoid direct conflict. I'm going to Puzhouwei to mobilize troops."

"Yes, Second Gear!"

Qin Lu put away his knife and led the horse out of the stable at the post station.

Then he jumped on his horse, broke out of the encirclement of the people, and rushed towards Puzhou Wei.

Puzhou Wei Post was not far from Puzhou Post Station, and Qin Lu quickly arrived at Puzhou Post Station.

After Qin Lu knocked on the door of Puzhou Guard Station, Hou Wei, the captain of Puzhou Guard Station, knew that it was time for him to show his abilities.

Hou Wei pretended to be surprised and went up to him: "Master Qin, why are you here..."

Before Hou Wei finished speaking, Qin Lu took out Zhu Youtang's order and ordered in a cold voice: "Immediately mobilize 500 guards and follow me to the post station to control the situation."

When Hou Wei saw the handwritten order given by Zhu Youtang in Qin Lu's hand, his face turned grim and he quickly bowed to accept the order.

"Yes, Master Qin!"

Hou Wei then quickly summoned several personal soldiers and asked them to go to the farmhouses of the garrison to gather military households.

Hou Wei also privately instructed them to find those military households and soldiers who had been working in the fields and had not participated in training.

The commander of a local thousand-household unit in the Ming Dynasty was generally hereditary.

So starting from Hou Wei’s grandfather’s grandfather’s generation, they began to gradually encroach on the farmland of military households.

Many military households with military status had lost their land since birth and had been making a living by farming for Hou Wei.

These military households had never received any military training and were just farming slaves of the Hou Wei family.

At the same time, some of the Hou family's personal soldiers stopped farming altogether. They received food from the Hou family for generations, conducted regular drills, and became the Hou family's de facto family army.

Therefore, the garrison soldiers were composed of two parts. One part was the soldiers with combat capabilities, called the garrison soldiers.

The other part is the military households who have no combat capability at all, and they are called military household soldiers.

The Hou family exploited their soldiers quite harshly. There were more than 800 soldiers in total, but only less than 200 were still in training, and the remaining 600-plus soldiers were reduced to military households.

What Hou Wei recruited at this time were military households and soldiers, a total of more than 400 people.

There were only a few dozen combat-capable personal soldiers of Hou Wei, mixed in among them.

Moreover, these personal soldiers had received Hou Wei's orders in advance. They would take the lead in launching an attack and create the illusion of a defeat.

When these soldiers in the farmhouses received Hou Wei's order to call for troops, they wondered if they had heard it wrong.

They had never done anything except farming since they were little. When they were suddenly asked to take their weapons and gather at the garrison, their first reaction was to run away.

But under the supervision of Hou Wei's personal army, they could only pick up weapons that had long been rusty. Some of those who had no weapons took farm tools such as hoes and sickles and gathered at the garrison.

Qin Lu looked at the group of ragtag soldiers in front of him. They were standing crookedly, holding different weapons, with dull eyes and numb faces. His face was so gloomy that it seemed as if water could drip out.

Can such a team be combat-ready?

"Captain Hou, are these the soldiers you lead?!"

Hou Wei's old face turned red, but it couldn't be seen in the dark.

(End of this chapter)