The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 493: Farmers Association (Thanks to KingOfBlade for the daily reward)
A year ago (the second year of Taichu), when Emperor Wuding returned to Liaodong, entered the pass to fight, and swept across the world, in Jieze County, Guangping Prefecture, the total number of all the Suoyi Guards and Chamber of Commerce personnel was only twelve people, which was very weak.

This was a weak spot in Qi's rule, with no Qi troops stationed there. Around the time Emperor Wu Ding ascended the throne, the Qi army was preoccupied with dealing with bandits and the Zhang Chun rebellion, leaving it unable to reach the area. Almost all Guangping Prefecture officials were former Ming defectors. They had complex ties with local gentry, and while they submitted to Qi, they pretended to obey the Qi Dynasty's land system and did not fully implement it.

Later, Du Du rebelled and Liaodong was in danger. The court had no energy to care about Guangping Prefecture.

The twelve remaining guards and civil officials in Guangping Prefecture had no choice but to establish three or five loosely organized peasant associations, following the same model they had used in Liaodong and Shandong. With little experience and no outside support, they had no idea how to organize the farmers and artisans in Guangping Prefecture's various counties to fight against the local tyrants and divide up the land.

Despite the immense difficulties, the twelve people resolutely formed the Guangping Prefecture Farmers' Association and the Chamber of Commerce, actively campaigning in Guangping Prefecture and putting forward a slogan: "Fight the local tyrants and divide the land!"

They hurriedly made ten Qi army battle flags and distributed them, and repeatedly explained the "Qi Dynasty Land System" to the members of the farmers' association:
Under Heaven, all land and wealth belong to the Emperor of Great Qi. Out of his generosity, he bestows his gifts upon the people of Qi, who enjoy the right to use them. Under the rule of Great Qi, all land is cultivated by all; all land is cultivated, all food is eaten, all clothing is worn, and all money is used.

The Da Qi had its own methods for recruiting, recommending, promoting, demoting, rewarding and punishing officials at all levels. Every 50 households had a "representative" responsible for managing production, distribution, education, justice, and local military affairs.
In the spring of the second year of Taichu, when Emperor Wuding led his army in a fierce battle in Xiangyang, twelve men from the Suoyiwei Chamber of Commerce resolutely followed the orders of Emperor Wuding and, taking Shandong and Liaodong as examples, declared war on the former Ming bureaucrats who were entrenched in Guangping Prefecture.

While the prefect of Guangping and the magistrate of Jize sat back and watched coldly as these small fry did whatever they wanted in Guangping Prefecture, Yang Su, a sergeant of the Straw Raincoat Guard, and Zhang Erniu, the leader of the Jize County Farmers' Association, first disarmed the local wealthy men, beheaded Duan Tiande, the wealthy man from Balizhuang, Jize County, and then killed all the men in the Duan family and divided up their food and property.

Zhang Erniu hung Duan Tiande's head on a bamboo pole and paraded it through the streets. When the people of Jieze County heard that a group of honest officials who specialized in killing local tyrants, evil gentry, and landlords had come from Liaodong, they were all delighted.

During the parade, the north and south streets were crowded with people. Zhang Erniu inserted the flintlock pistol issued to him by the straw raincoat guards into the shining gong belt on his open chest, wrapped his head with a black dragon bandage, and carried a ghost-head knife taken from the executioner, shouting loudly about the content of the Qi Dynasty's land system of fighting against the local tyrants and dividing the land.

When the shouting got more intense, Zhang Erniu brandished the ghost-head knife in his hand with great vigor and roared out the folk song of northern Hebei to the people of Jize County who were watching the excitement at the execution ground:
"Yuanjia River, long at both ends,

Li Sanwang lived in the middle.

Zhang the dyer who ran the letter,

Pedestrians move horses Liu Chengxiang,
Guiping River, Geping River,
Liu Baoguan was a talkative person.

There are many good houses in Longge Erping.

Which one is Haojiazihai?
The good family man is still Wang Shafu,
Wang Shaofu has a lot of money.
Wang Shaofu's money piled up like a mountain.
Better than Shen Wanshan back then.

In the eighth and ninth years of the Wanli reign,
Flooded for two consecutive years,
Mr. Peng moved his official post to Jize,

He sold the imperial court's disaster relief grain.
He sets the price with the farmers.
The price of rice is 450.
Corn is priced at 530.
When the good family heard that he was not going to sell or buy,
The damn official demolished his house.

Pig intestine hole, boat on the water,
Mules carry the burdens,
Grain was snatched from the city god.

A boatload of common people died

······
Tired of singing, Zhang Erniu swung his ghost-head knife and chopped off another old landlady. Then, raising his neck and picking up the wine bowl, he gulped down the Jieze County specialty, Shaodaozi yellow rice wine, and yelled, "Fuck you! I'm Huang Chao reincarnated! Kill all the old landlady ladies! Have fun!"

Wherever the Farmers' Association went, they killed everyone. Countless heads were hung on hemp ropes and passed through the streets and alleys of Jieze County like New Year's lanterns.

The farmers in this land, who had suffered from hunger and cold and been exploited by the government for thousands of years, celebrated all night long as if it were New Year to welcome Zhang Erniu and his companions.

The twelve straw raincoat guards who came from Shenyang finally felt the power of the farmers. Sergeant Yang Su felt that the farmers' association had gone too far and wanted to remind Zhang Erniu to be more restrained and not to touch the families of the county officials for the time being.

However, once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. Zhang Erniu, who was good at killing, not only resolutely implemented the land system of the Qi Dynasty, but also killed all the landlords and wealthy people. He distributed all the gold, silver, jewelry, grain and cloth in the cellar to the people of Jize, and also confiscated the female relatives and maids of the landlords.

In the winter of the second year of Taichu, when the main force of the Qi army was cautiously confronting the Southern Ming in Huainan, the farmers' association in Jieze County in the north continued to advance rapidly.

Zhang Erniu drove the women of the Jieze County clerk's brother-in-law's family into the young lady's boudoir, and forced them to put on heavy makeup and dress up seductively. Then he tasted all the fair and tender women of the clerk's brother-in-law's family, and then let other people from the farmers' association taste them too...
Sergeant Yang Su was shocked when he heard this.

"We are here to set an example for the people of Guangping Prefecture. How can you lead the way in watering women!"

Zhang Erniu was so angry that his teeth were itching, and he sang Ji Ze Mountain Song to the stranger from Shenyang. The general meaning was that the Qi State's Suoyi Guards were too long-winded, wanting to kill people, and demand a land system, as well as some kind of kingly way of tyranny.

Sergeant Yang Su was also a man of bad temper. He realized that if he allowed Zhang Erniu to continue to act recklessly, something bad would definitely happen. Before he could protest to Zhang Erniu, Zhang Erniu's men, after tasting the landlord's women, also raped some of the maids and servants who were born as tenants...

The Suoyi Guards could no longer tolerate this, so Yang Su immediately ordered the removal of Zhang Erniu from his position as president of the Farmers' Association. However, before the order was passed on, the leaders of Guangping Prefecture had already taken action.

The Jieze County Farmers' Association activities in December of the second year of Taichu ended with more than 5,700 farmers and craftsmen being brutally suppressed and skinned alive.

Yang Su and his men, members of the Suoyiwei Chamber of Commerce sent from Shenyang to Guangping Prefecture, were arrested overnight by servants of more than a dozen government officials.

The prefect of Guangping Prefecture posted a notice saying that these dozen people were not officials sent to the local area by the Great Qi, but bandits pretending to be officials. To be more precise, they were bandits from Shaanxi and remnants of Li Xianzhong. The heads of Yang Su and his men were cut off and hung on the four city gates of Guangping Prefecture and County, leaving them to be pecked at by crows.

As for Zhang Erniu, who had tasted the taste of countless landlords, wealthy local tyrants and evil gentry's wives, he was tied up and taken to the Jieze Old Camp parade ground.

Under the gaze of thousands of Jize people, Zhang Erniu was castrated in public by the executioner. The wealthy families and gentry within a hundred miles of Jize County hated the head of the farmers' association who had harmed their women and brought shame to them.

After Zhang Erniu was castrated, everyone was still angry, so Li Lusheng, the magistrate of Jieze County, ordered Zhang Erniu to be executed by slow slicing.

(End of this chapter)