The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 174 The Nature of a Cruel Official
In early October, the three headquarters of the Kaiyuan Army, with a total of 8,000 combat troops, continued to advance towards the counties and prefectures of Dengzhou, and killed the Wenxiang Sect rebels with the momentum of sweeping through thousands of troops.

The remnants of the Wenxiang Sect fled in panic, offering almost no resistance, from Dengzhou to Laizhou.

The rioters retreated all the way to the southwest, and a large amount of gold, silver, cloth and silk were thrown away at will. Thousands of women who were abducted were thrown between Dengzhou and Laizhou, and all of them were seized by the Kaiyuan army.

When they entered Laizhou, the rioters had no time to catch their breath as Burhanggu led his cavalry and rushed over, defeating them again.

The prefect of Laizhou was well aware of what had happened in Dengzhou. However, he was not as upright as Yuan Keli. He readily accepted the two thousand taels of silver from Kang Jianjun, provided three days of food and fodder for the eight thousand troops, and asked Deng Changxiong and others to leave his jurisdiction as soon as possible.

The Wenxiang Sect thugs were like frightened birds, and their numbers were decreasing.

In just half a month, 50,000 to 60,000 troops died or fled, and when they escaped from Laizhou, only more than 10,000 people were left.

They knew that they were no match for the Kaiyuan army and that staying in Laizhou would mean death, so they continued to flee to Yanzhou.

Yanzhou is the base of the Wenxiang Sect. The chief minister Xu Hongru was eagerly waiting for the third minister to return triumphantly, until he heard that the Kaiyuan army had entered Yanzhou and a general named Deng threatened to cut him into pieces.

Hearing that Sangui was cut into pieces by Liu Zhaosun in Wendeng County and died a miserable death, Xu Hongru panicked.

He immediately gathered the remaining followers, making up more than 30,000 people, and prepared to abandon Yanzhou and flee to Southern Zhili.

Nanzhili had just suffered a flood this year, leaving refugees and overgrown weeds everywhere. Xu Hongru believed that if he went south at this time, as long as he raised his arms and shouted the slogan "Heavenly General Maitreya, save the people", he would surely receive a hundred responses.

When the time comes, he will occupy Fengyang first. Anyway, the imperial city and palace are ready there, so he can continue to be the Emperor of Zhongxingfu.

Unfortunately, the Kaiyuan Army did not give Dagui the opportunity to continue to be emperor.

On the sixth day of October, Burhanggu led the cavalry to cut off the roads between Yuncheng and Juye, blocking the escape route of the rioters to the south.

Two days later, the main forces of the three thousand headquarters approached Jining and Tengzhou one after another, completely cutting off Xu Hongru's possibility of fleeing to the west and south.

At the last moment, Xu Hongru did not sit idly by and wait for death.

Dagui personally went to the top of the city wall of Yanzhou Prefecture to perform a ritual, and invited out 28 gods including the Mother of Lishan, Chen Tuan, the Jade Emperor, Taishang Laojun, etc.

The gods bestowed holy water upon the believers overnight, and the followers of Smell Incense were told that they were invulnerable to swords and guns.

The next day, Dagui personally led his troops to a decisive battle with the Kaiyuan army in the south city of Yanzhou.

The result was naturally as expected. It was another crushing battle. After more than a thousand of the Wenxiang Sect's "divine soldiers" died, they collapsed completely. More than 30,000 people fled in all directions, and Xu Hongru only gathered more than 5,000 people.

Yanzhou was besieged on three sides, and the Kaiyuan army rested outside Yanzhou city and did not attack the city immediately.

On October 15th, the Wenxiang Sect, which had been entrenched in Yanzhou for nearly half a year, suddenly set fire to the city. Taking advantage of the chaos, they abducted a large amount of gold, silver, cloth, and civilians, and fled out of the city through the north gate to Qufu.

Qufu is where Duke Yansheng of Kong Yinzhi lived.

~~~~~
In the autumn of the first year of Taichang, Fengyang, Peixian, Xiaoxian and other places in Nanzhili suffered from floods, and a large number of refugees who lost their homes flocked to Shandong.

Some of the refugees were taken by the Wenxiang Sect and became cannon fodder for Xu Hongru to capture cities and territories. Others avoided the Wenxiang rebels and begged along the way until they reached Dengzhou Prefecture.

The Wenxiang Sect swept across half of Shandong, slaughtering gentry and officials from all over the place. The refugees were able to travel unimpeded from southern Shandong all the way to Weihai without anyone stopping them. The arrival of refugees from Fengyang also exacerbated the disaster in southern Shandong, and more people were drawn into this army of refugees.

After the Wenxiang Sect was driven out of Dengzhou, the number of refugees pouring into Wendeng County every day skyrocketed to thousands.

The 1,000th headquarters dispatched two thousand combat soldiers, who, under the command of various civil officials, gathered and screened the refugees fleeing from the south.

Dongguan instructor Sen Ti and his deputies distributed porridge to the South Gate of Wendeng for more than ten days.

When the porridge was almost cooked, the instructor stood in front of the iron pot and loudly preached to the half-starved refugees the various benefits of Kaiyuan.

Hearing this, everyone was excited and scrambled to push Sen Ti away and run to the front to grab the porridge.

The pacification soldiers guarding the area picked up wooden sticks and started beating the refugees who were in the front. The refugees cried for their parents and then retreated in an orderly manner to continue listening to Guangdong's preaching.

"My fellow men of Nanzhili, our Ping Liao Hou's words are golden and true! He said that if you stay in Wendeng, each of you will have 30 mu of land and pay 40% rent. If you go to Liaodong, you will be given 60 mu and only pay 20% rent! Therefore, I suggest that you all go to Liaodong. There is more land there! It will also be easier to find a wife!"

After drinking the porridge and having food in their stomachs, the refugees began to make plans.

An old man wearing a tattered straw hat squeezed to the front and shouted to the instructor:

"Sir, I would like to thank Lord Liu for saving my life and buying so much food for us refugees. However, I will not go to Liaodong. There are Tartars there. I heard about it from the village elders when I was a child."

The old man in the straw hat suddenly stopped talking here. He looked around and hesitated for a moment before mustering up the courage to say:
"God damn it, the Zhu Emperors have been moving the people around. People from the south have been driven north, and people from the east have been driven west. People from Nanzhili have been forced to go to Liaodong to farm there. The people in Liaodong are all Tartars, cannibals. I'd rather starve to death than go there."

The refugees around him echoed this sentiment, saying that they did not dare to go to Liaodong. The old man in the straw hat had clearly expressed their thoughts.

Sen Ti laughed heartily and, escorted by the pacification soldiers, walked up to the old man, raised his paper trumpet and shouted:

"Don't be afraid, old man! The Tartars don't eat people!" "The Tartars were killed by our Kaiyuan army a long time ago. We sent you there to enjoy life, not to feed the Tartars!"

~~~~
In the main tent of Wendeng Camp, Marquis Ping Liao summoned all his officials to discuss the issue of refugees.

Director Xie of the Ministry of Civil Affairs reported the amount of grain and silver spent in recent days.

"A total of 38,927 refugees were recruited, including 31,000 able-bodied men, 5,500 able-bodied women, and more than 2,000 elderly people and children..."

Xie Yang said this, and quickly looked at General Liu and explained:

"Sir, these old and weak are the families of refugees. Most of those refugees are boatmen. General Qi Qian said they are good candidates for military service, so he kept them."

Liu Zhaosun waved his hand and said with a smile: "We are not the Wenxiang Sect. We don't want to destroy their families. Since they have families, we can bring them along as well. As long as there are not too many people, it's fine."

"How much silver and food did the refugees spend?"

Xie Yang wiped the sweat from his forehead, took out the account book, and glanced at Kang Yingqian. Supervisor Kang coughed, and the Director of Civil Affairs said to General Liu:
"To Ping Liao Hou, apart from the 30,000 taels of silver and 2,000 dan of grain allocated by the imperial court to Dengzhou for disaster relief, from the sixth day of August when we landed in Weihaiwei until today, recruiting refugees and pacifying the people, a total of 123,670 taels of silver and 13,000 dan of grain have been spent..."

Everyone was dumbfounded when they heard this. Liu Zhaosun exclaimed:
“How can it cost so much?”

Seeing Shangguan blaming him, Director Xie quickly explained:

"Marquis Ping Liao, this is all done according to the previously agreed method. You said there's no limit on the number of people, and anyone who meets the requirements will be recruited as a soldier. In mid-August, thousands of people flocked to Wendeng every day to eat porridge. The number has increased in recent days, 4,000 the day before yesterday, 5,000 yesterday. Some refugees ate the porridge and fled, not going to Liaodong, and returned the next day to eat."

Liu Zhaosun's face was gloomy, and he turned to look at the instructor Sen Ti who was sitting next to Yuan Chonghuan.

Dongguanzi fell to his knees with a thud, angrily saying, "I'm incompetent. I preach to those stubborn people every day, but they refuse to go to Liaodong. The soldiers drive the refugees away, and they come back the next day..."

Even though Sen Ti tried his best and shouted himself hoarse, these refugees refused to go to Liaodong when they heard they were going there.

In the impression of the people in Nanzhili, Liaodong was a place where criminals were exiled, a remote place with poor mountains and bad water.

Even if they became refugees, they were unwilling to go to Liaodong.

The five cities in Liaodong require a large population, farming and military expansion. All the money and food have been spent, but this is the final result.

Liu Zhaosun felt like a failure.

Kang Yingqian was furious when he heard this, "We must not tolerate these unruly people, otherwise others will follow suit and millions of silver won't be enough to spend!"

Shao Jiechun, a representative of the hawk faction, said, "What good can Lord Liu do to these refugees? If we fail to satisfy them for a moment, they will turn against us."

Even Qiao Yiqi advised Liu Zhaosun, "The common people only focus on the present, not the long term. Back then, Emperor Taizu relocated wealthy families from Jiangnan to Fengyang and exempted them from taxes for three years. Those people, resentful of the long journey, started making up songs to curse Emperor Taizu. Today, we feed them in Kaiyuan and save their lives, but tomorrow, if we don't fulfill their wishes, they'll curse us again."

Ping Liaohou nodded to everyone, expressing his agreement with these views.

"You all have a point. We cannot be soft-hearted towards these unruly people."

"People in the interior already have some misunderstandings about Liaodong. If we allow these unruly people to slander us behind our backs, others will be even less willing to go to Liaodong."

"Those who have eaten the porridge and meet the requirements will be shipped back to Liaodong. If these refugees remain in Shandong, they will either starve to death or eventually become bandits. This matter will be handled by the 1,000th Headquarters. We must use force; relying solely on the instructors' words will not do the trick."

In the following months, the Bohai Sea was rough and the food supply was almost exhausted, so they could not continue to stay here and do charity. Ping Liaohou ordered his soldiers to forcibly escort these refugees across the sea to Liao.

Of the more than 38,000 refugees, 10,000 remained in Wendeng to cultivate land. The area surrounding Wendeng had just suffered a massacre, resulting in heavy population losses, especially among the wealthy families in the city, who were all wiped out by the Wenxiang Sect.

In Wendeng County, hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land were left vacant and uncultivated. The land was under the name of Wendeng Camp, which was actually the private property of Ping Liaohou. It was large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of households for cultivation.

The remaining 28,000 people were escorted by the 1,000th headquarters troops across the Bohai Sea and transported to Jinzhou in batches. After arriving in Jinzhou, these refugees were divided into five groups and sent to Fushun, Tieling, Qinghe, Kaiyuan, Kuandian and other cities.

From Wendeng to Weihaiwei, and then across the sea to Jinzhou, they were exhausted from the journey by boat and carriage, sleeping in the open air. More than 200 refugees died of illness on the way. Gradually, the refugees began to resist Ping Liaohou.

As Qiao Yiqi expected, a month later, a Fengyang flower drum, modified by refugees, quickly became popular in the five cities of Liaodong. The song was called "Mulan Ci" and it was said to go like this:
Talk about Kaiyuan, talk about Kaiyuan,
Kaiyuan is a good place.

Since Lord Liu came,
The war lasts nine out of ten years.

The wealthy families paid money,
All the small families died out;
I have no brother who died.
Join the army and travel all over the country on behalf of my father!
If you want to sue someone, there is a prefect.
I want to write a petition and send it to all directions.
As long as Lord Liu leaves.

I am not in vain to be a woman in this world!

As the saying goes, a little rice is a favor, a peck of rice is repaid with hatred. Liu Zhaosun's conciliatory policy towards refugees did not win the respect of the unruly people.

After Sun Chuanting returned to Liaodong, he immediately arrested those who sang the ballad. Anyone involved was either thrown into the mines or beheaded in public.

(End of this chapter)