The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 341: Chaos in Three Qins (Li Zicheng Appears)

On the fifth day of July in the second year of the Tianqi reign, while the Duke of Huguo was still enjoying himself and feasting with his wife and two concubines in the capital, thousands of miles away in the capital of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, a scene of desolate and miserable despair was unfolding.

A great chaos sweeping across the Three Qins is about to happen.

On the east side of Guangji Street, a major north-south street in Xi'an, stands a high-rise building with double eaves and three-drop-shaped roofs, built of blue bricks and white plaster.

This is the famous Drum Tower.

The Drum Tower was first built in the 17th year of Hongwu and has stood in Sanqin for nearly two hundred years.

Going up the cypress steps, you can see the four corners of the eaves rising up like a bird spreading its wings, tall, spacious and beautiful.

Climbing to a high place and looking far into the distance, the scenery of Xi'an's downtown and Qinchuan are all vividly visible, which is refreshing and pleasant.

The area near the Drum Tower is where various government offices are concentrated.

To the north of the Drum Tower is the Censorate, to the northwest is the Circuit Censorate, to the southwest is the Censorate, to the southeast is Xi'an Prefecture, and to the east is the "Provincial Government Office".

Whenever there is any disturbance in the Shaanxi officialdom, this Drum Tower, surrounded by various government offices, will definitely be the first place to receive the news.

Xi'an Prefecture is the best district in the Three Qins, and is also a key point for travel between the south and the north. The city has a prosperous business, with the Drum Tower as the center. The north and south streets are bustling with people, and the sounds of hawking from shops along the street are endless.

In order to consolidate border defense, the Ming Dynasty implemented economic policies such as "opening salt trading", "tea-horse trade", and "taxation of cotton cloth" in border areas.

Stimulated by these policies, wealthy merchants with regional characteristics came into being.

Taking the opportunity of Emperor Yongle's Northern Expedition, a large amount of military supplies were stockpiled and circulated in Xuanda, Yulin, Yansui and other places.

As a result, Shaanxi and Shanxi merchants rose rapidly. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Shanxi merchants extended their tentacles into the government to gain greater profits.

In the fourth year of the Longqing reign, Altan Khan defected to Xuanfu. Wang Chonggu, then the governor of Xuanfu, took this opportunity to start negotiations with Altan, which was known in history as the "Longqing Peace Talks", replacing war with trade.

From then on, Shanxi merchants stepped onto the political stage of the Ming Dynasty.

Among Wang Chonggu's relatives, there were three big businessmen, and all of them were important figures in the officialdom of the late Ming Dynasty.

Wang Chonggu's second sister was the mother of Zhang Siwei (the Prime Minister in the tenth year of Wanli). Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei's children married Yang Bo, the Minister of War who was a merchant from Puzhou, and Ma Ziqiang, the Grand Secretary who was a merchant from Shaanxi.

These complex marriage relationships together constitute the unbreakable political network of Shanxi merchants.

Of course, compared with the Shanxi merchants who are good at smuggling trade, have connections with the interests of big bosses, the money bags of local princes, and have complex forces, the Qin merchants who ride horses, have sharp swords, are brave heroes, use dried meat, water bags, and old sheepskin, and value courage and bravery over death, are undoubtedly harmless little white rabbits.

Scholar Gu Yanwu pointed out:

There are many heroes in Guanzhong. They started out as merchants and eventually became powerful. Most of them value filial piety, righteousness, integrity and have the demeanor of ancient gentlemen.

~~~~~
On July 28, the second year of the Tianqi reign, the summer heat in the Guanzhong Plain gradually dissipated.

The sudden rain had just stopped, and cold raindrops fell on the street in front of Gulou, hitting the cheeks of hundreds of thousands of Qin people.

As dusk approaches, the ancient capital is covered with twilight rain, which can’t help but give people a sense of autumn.

Of course, what is more depressing than the drizzling evening rain is the surging civil unrest in the six prefectures and thirty-one counties under the jurisdiction of Xi'an Prefecture since last winter.

The storm was about to come, and on the 28th, all government offices closed early.

The heads of various departments, who usually don't get along well with each other, got together today and took a sedan chair to the governor's office.

Everyone wanted to go and pay a visit to Hu Tingyan, the governor of Shaanxi, who was nicknamed "the virtuous master of the provincial capital" by the hungry people.

Last spring, locusts and drought hit Lantian County simultaneously. The people were unable to harvest food and had to survive by eating grass. However, the cruel officials continued to levy taxes excessively, which eventually led to a civil unrest.

The governor of Shaanxi insisted that the magistrate of Lantian County was making a big deal out of nothing. He beat the magistrate with twenty strokes of the cane, then went into seclusion and refused to see visitors. He began to concentrate on Zen meditation and studied Wang Yangming's philosophy of mind.

From June of the first year of the Tianqi reign to July of the second year of the Tianqi reign, the Ministry of Revenue allocated a total of 1.2 million taels of silver for disaster relief.

The disaster relief silver lost 200,000 taels on the way, and after arriving in Xi'an Prefecture and passing through the hands of Mr. Hu, who admired Wang Yangming, another 600,000 taels evaporated.

In the end, the amount of silver distributed to each county was only 400,000 taels.

After going through the hands of the eldest master, the second master and the county clerk, the average amount of silver distributed among the six states and thirty-one counties was less than five thousand.

Five thousand taels of silver could be used to buy food, which could roughly provide each victim with three bowls of rice porridge.

This is the last guarantee that the Ming Dynasty can provide to the people.

After drinking three bowls of white porridge, life and death are determined by fate, and wealth and honor are in the hands of God.

Due to the uneven distribution of disaster relief silver, the governor of Xi'an Prefecture and the governor of Yansui, Yue He, who was said to be a descendant of Yue Wumu, had a war of words.

They accused each other of dereliction of duty, and of course, both sides reached a tacit understanding not to mention the issue of disaster relief funds.

It was also Mr. Hu and Mr. Yue who were lucky.

While the two sides were cursing each other, the Protector of the Nation was engaged in a fierce battle against the shogunate's coalition forces in Kyushu, completely unaware of the current situation. As fate would have it, Liu Zhaosun never saw the reports from Yansui and Xi'an regarding the mutual attacks.

Otherwise, the time traveler would definitely be angered to death by them.

~~~~~~~
The autumn rain was drizzling, and the Drum Tower became a temporary shelter for pedestrians.

On the street, luxuriously decorated official sedan chairs were rushing towards the governor's office in the drizzle. In front and behind each sedan chair were a large group of servants and clerks, like thick tails.

These servants and clerks of the officials were all big and strong, and they walked recklessly, bumping into several pedestrians in succession, appearing to be quite imposing.

When the old Qin people who were taking shelter from the rain under the drum tower saw this, a thin and talkative man immediately started cursing:

"You idiots! You're a bunch of indestructible bastards. Are you in such a hurry to go and reincarnate?"

Another tall Qin man next to him replied:

"How could it be reincarnation? The county magistrates from Chang'an, Xianning, Lintong, Gaoling, Lantian, and Huxian have all come. At noon, they were beating drums in front of the governor's office. They didn't find Master Wu, but they did alarm Master Hu..."

A smiling, plump fur merchant with white cheeks exclaimed:
"You dare to disturb Master Hu, are you trying to kill yourself? Master Hu hates trivial troubles the most."

"How can it be a trivial matter? Last month, people were eating each other in Lantian Village. Don't you know? Women in Gaoling Village can be bought for fifty cents, and they are virgins. I heard that Mr. Hu is greedy for this amount. I wonder how many virgins he wants to buy!"

The person who was best informed was an elderly peddler. He put down his basket full of needlework and agate, spat a lot, and then stretched out five fingers.

"fifty thousand?"

"Half a million!"

Everyone was amazed.

"The countryside has become like this. How can the peasants survive?"

Not far away, a group of refugees were taking shelter from the rain.

They huddled under the drum tower.

They were all pale and thin, dressed in rags, and some children were not even wearing any clothes. They were shivering as they watched the autumn rain outside the eaves.

"There are refugees every day, and the city soldiers can't stop them. Otherwise, why would the officials be so anxious to find Mr. Hu?"

"Something big is going to happen!"

~~~~
The young man leaned against the stone pillar of the Drum Tower, with raindrops falling on his pale face from time to time under the eaves above his head. The inner part of the Drum Tower was occupied by another group of refugees, who were stronger than him and there were more than one of them.

The boy held up a torn paper umbrella full of holes and stared at the girl beside him in a daze.

He used the broken umbrella and his own body to shield the girl from the wind and rain.

The girl was curled up on the ground, her hair like a pile of dead grass, her body skinny, and her face buried in her arms, so her age couldn't be seen.

The two had been on the run for some time.

The crowd taking shelter from the rain cast contemptuous and indifferent glances at him.

Some men's eyes wandered over the girls.

The young man raised his sword-like eyebrows slightly.

Suddenly, the crowd moved.

The fur trader came to the stone pillar, holding his nose.

He took out two steamed buns from his pocket and kicked the boy.

His eyes turned to the girl who was curled up like a little animal.

"Here, get up and eat some bread."

The young man looked at the merchant and reached out to take the bread, but heard a mocking laugh in his ears:
"What's her name? Who is this girl to you?"

Without waiting for the boy to speak, the merchant said, as if he was buying or selling furs,
"Sell her to me for two loaves and twenty cents. I'll give you the money now."

The young man was silent.

"What? Too little? Over there, see? A bigger one than hers is only thirty cents. I just bought these two cakes for ten cents."

The young man raised his head, his eyes like swords.

A mouthful of spit landed on the businessman's fat face, and the Mizhi dialect echoed around.

"roll!"

(End of this chapter)