The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 501 Little Li Wang on Maolu Mountain

'Mr. Li's ambition must be upright, like fire must be hot, like water must be cold, it is the sincerity of righteousness.

To unite with righteousness is like the union of all fires into one fire, and to unite with sincerity is like the union of all waters into one water.

Hubei Province, Yichang Prefecture, northwest of Xingshan County, on Maolu Mountain.

This place is located deep in the Daba Mountains, and the famous Shenlongjia is only 30 kilometers to the north. In other words, Maolushan can barely be considered a part of Shenlongjia.

About 120 kilometers southwest of Maolushan is Fengjie County, the capital of Kuizhou Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and 100 kilometers southeast is Yiling County, the capital of Yichang Prefecture, Hubei Province.

Among the Thirteen Families of Kuidong at that time, seven families from the Dashun Army operated in this area.

Li Xianwen read softly the inscription on the Holy Emperor's Palace, the only monument that had not been destroyed by the Qing Dynasty and whose handwriting was still recognizable. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and the big tears fell from his face into the dust in front of the monument with crackling sounds.

When I read 'In the ninth year of the Yongli reign of the Ming Dynasty, on the auspicious day of winter in the year of Yiwei, the emperor ordered the governor of the imperial camp and the provinces to resume military operations and recruit troops, and General Huaiyuan Yin, Prince's Guardian, Duke of Linguo, Qingjian Li Laiheng Dingjian', I could not help but fall to the ground, choking with sobs and unable to speak.

Behind Li Xianwen, his wife, Princess Mo Hui of the Kingdom of Yue, quickly pressed her three sons, who were crying as they looked at their father but did not show much sadness themselves, to the ground and made them kowtow.

As soon as they knelt down, Li Xianwen turned around and saw his wife and children kneeling on the ground with their heads lowered. He felt quite comforted.

In the 14th year of the Yongli reign, the rebel Qing Dynasty, with the pseudo-Jingxi General Murima, Dingxi General Tuhai, Huguang Admiral Dong Xueli and others, mobilized 70,000 troops and over 300,000 civilians to surround the mountain with plum blossom stakes. Almost all the surrounding trees were cut down, leaving a vast expanse of land.

My great-grandfather, Li Laiheng, the King of Loyalty and Martial Arts, saw that the situation was hopeless and sent over a hundred trusted soldiers to escort my great-grandmother away. He then set his entire family on fire, leaving over forty members of the Li family and over three thousand soldiers to die for the Ming Dynasty.

Hearing his father say this, he was a little dumbfounded. He had not inherited Li Xianwen's prudence at all, nor had he inherited Li Xianwen's eldest son Li Xingyang, who was smart and clever and good at networking with the Mo family. He opened his mouth to ask.

"If the mountains were surrounded on all sides and all the trees were cut down, leaving nothing visible above or below, how was your great-great-grandmother escorted away?"

But fortunately, no one knows a son better than his mother. As soon as Li Xingyang opened his mouth, Mo Hui felt that he could not say anything good, so he quickly pinched Li Xingyang's waist from behind and made him swallow his words.

"At that time, the Qing army surrounded the mountain, and my great-grandmother was able to leave easily. I think my great-grandfather, Prince Zhongwu, could have left as well, but he didn't."

Mo Hui does have a high emotional intelligence, and she has done this kind of thing many times before.

When her younger brother Mo Zibu was like a stubborn bull, always contradicting their father Mo Tianci, she almost always tried to smooth things over like this.

"Yes!" Mo Hui's words aroused Li Xianwen's nostalgia again, "When my grandfather was alive, he often told me that my great-grandfather could have left, but he had already made up his mind to sacrifice his life for his country.

I didn't understand why then, but today, after reading the inscription on the Saint Emperor's palace, I understand why."

Li Xianwen pointed at the characters on the stele and showed them to Mo Hui one by one, "Look at these places, how many correct characters are used, and they are mentioned almost all the time.

I think my great-grandfather already felt that the revival of his homeland was hopeless. The anti-Qing forces were overwhelming, and the number of Han people who surrendered was like crucian carp crossing the river. The only way was to use justice, inspire people, and persevere until the dawn.

Mo Hui also looked into it at this time, his eyes slightly red and hot, "The eighteenth year of the Yongli reign was the fourth year of the Kangxi reign.

Prior to this, Koxinga died of a sudden illness in Dongning, and Emperor Yongli was murdered by Wu Sangui. Our great country fell into enemy hands, and my great-grandfather, Prince Zhongwu, was the last remaining flame."

"Yes, our Dashun started out as a rebellion against the Ming Dynasty, but ended up sacrificing the Ming Dynasty for the sake of the country. I'm afraid this is the only example of this throughout history."

Li Xianwen said this with a slightly bleak tone, and there was a reason for his emotion.

Because when we reflect on the reasons for the demise of the Ming Dynasty and the second fall of the Han people, although it is not like before, when we simply cried out that the rebels and the bandits were the main culprits.

Most people still admit that the fundamental reason for the country's demise was that the cultural management group headed by the Donglin Party cut off the court's financial resources, and Emperor Chongzhen was self-willed.

But this is just a superficial phenomenon. Many people had to say this in order to cater to Emperor Mo Zibu's suppression of the Jiangnan gentry group and prevent them from forming a new Donglin Party through literary means.

In their hearts, most scholars in the world still believe that bandits like Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were the main reason for the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

What was even more coincidental was that Li Xianwen was pushed to the forefront by Mo Zibu, who used him as a weapon to continue suppressing the Jiangnan gentry and wealthy merchant group.

The specific manifestation is that Li Xianwen is only the chief minister of the outer court, but he can mobilize the financial and tax supervision cavalry flag team jointly formed by the Jinyiwei Northern Pacification Division, the Criminal Affairs Division and the Inner Court Transportation Division.

Because the commander of the Tiqi General Flag Team, Li Yashan, was originally known as Dabiansan, and was a pirate leader under Li Xianwen.

He was not good at naval battles, but he was good at searching mountains and seas, so he left the navy and became a spy chief under Mo Zibu, who was as famous as Huo Ran, the pacification envoy of the Northern Pacification Office.

Moreover, the Finance and Taxation Supervision Tiqi General Banner Team is only responsible to the emperor. Although it is only responsible for finance and taxation, it has its own trial and detention institutions, which is like an independent small judicial system from arrest to trial to execution.

People in the court even secretly called the Finance and Taxation Supervisory Tiqi General Flag Team the Little East Factory, which shows how much they hated it.

For a tax police department like this, which has the nature of a secret service organization, most people would turn their noses up and not necessarily cooperate much even if the emperor requested it, but Li Xianwen was the only one who could do that.

It is said that Li Xianwen brought more than 2,000 bandits and pirates to Mo Zibu. These people were not well educated, but they were brave in combat and had rich experience in the underworld.

Most of them did not hold high positions, but many of them held key positions in various key departments.

In addition to being loyal to Mo Zibu, they generally also have some respect for Li Xianwen, the big brother, which is why Mo Zibu pushed Li Xianwen to the top.

Let his brother-in-law act as a meat shield in the front, and Mo Zibu can hide behind and observe.

Find out those who have strong opinions on the policies of the new dynasty, especially the fiscal, taxation and foreign trade policies. Even if they are not dealt with now, they can be marked and paid special attention to.

However, some gentry and wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River were accused by the emperor of being the Donglin Party and of tax evasion, which led to the fall of the country. In reality, they were forced to almost completely implement the unified tax payment system for the gentry.

They did not dare to rebel against the court, so they took advantage of Li Xianwen's somewhat embarrassing identity and made a fuss about it.

A few months ago, some people even posted self-information on the streets of Nanjing's Yingtian Prefecture, listing various reasons and saying that the fall of the Ming Dynasty was entirely caused by bandits like Li Zicheng and Zhang Xian, and not because of tax evasion by the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

Although Li Xianwen didn't say anything on the surface, he felt very uncomfortable.

Mo Hui also felt a little uncomfortable, but what could he do? The emperor asked Li Xianwen to be the target, and he had to do it no matter how unwilling he was.

Just when Mo Hui didn't know how to persuade him, there was a burst of noise coming from the foot of the mountain.

When Li Xianwen went down, he saw a large number of people, holding the flags of former Dashun Army generals, rushing up the mountain in high spirits.

A very interesting phenomenon is that among all Sichuanese, a large number claim to be from Macheng, Hubei, or Xiaogan. In particular, the further east you go, the more people claim to be from Xiaogan.

In eastern Sichuan, which is the area from the northeast of Chongqing to the west of Yichang, immigrants who claimed that their ancestral home was in Macheng, Huguang and Xiaogan accounted for at least 60% to 70% of the local population.

According to actual official statistics, among the people from Huguang who moved to Sichuan, only about 20% were from Hubei.

Macheng and Xiaogan are small places in Hubei. Even if you move all the people from Macheng and Xiaogan to Sichuan, they will not account for such a large proportion.

But if we look at another thing, it will become clear that the place where the ancestral homes of Macheng and Xiaogan are most concentrated is precisely the area where the remnants of the Dashun Army among the Thirteen Families of Kuidong are most active.

At the same time, a large number of soldiers under the Dashun Army were recruited in the Xiaogan area.

This immediately corresponds to the fact that after Li Laiheng died for his country on Maolu Mountain, the Qing Dynasty immediately lifted the blockade of this area.

This caused some people who had followed the Thirteen Generals, such as Dang Shousu, to defect to the Qing Dynasty, as well as more remnants of the Dashun Army who had been hiding in the mountains to come out.

At that time, only one in ten people in this area remained, and large tracts of land were in urgent need of development. So these soldiers from Hubei, who were mainly recruited in the Xiaogan area, went downstream and returned to their hometowns, and finally brought back the landless poor people from their hometowns.

After the Qing government officially started to fill Sichuan with people from Huguang, since the exit to Sichuan was right where the remnants of the Dashun Army lived and worked, immigrants from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River could be cared for and accepted by the locals as long as they claimed to be from Macheng and Xiaogan.

Most of the people at that time had little education. Over time, the tradition was passed down from one person to another, and after one or two generations, their ancestral homes were all in Macheng and Xiaogan, Huguang.

When Li Xianwen saw these fellow villagers coming up, the haze in his heart disappeared, and he greeted them with a big smile. He took his eldest son and second son by the hand and said:
"Come and kowtow to your uncles. If it weren't for them, I, Li Xianwen, would have died in some desolate wilderness."

However, before Li Xianwen could kneel down and kowtow, the old man in front rushed over and helped Li Xianwen up.

"Erwazi, I really didn't expect that you could actually lead the Ming Dynasty back. Two years ago, news came that the person in charge of the court was a descendant of Li Zicheng. We couldn't believe it."

"You are truly worthy of being a descendant of the Li family, a descendant of Emperor Yongchang!"

Li Xianwen also smiled, with both joy and bitterness. He was happy because he had finally achieved success and lived up to the heroic reputation of his ancestors, and he also followed the emperor to restore the Han people's country.

The bitterness was because when the dynasty of filling Sichuan with people from Huguang entered a trough, the imperial court began to check the household registration books, and they, the descendants of the rebels who had already become quite large, could no longer hide the fact.

So he deliberately joined the White Lotus Sect to cause trouble in Dongxiang County, using the gray identity of a believer to cover up his identity as a descendant of a traitor and a beheaded person.

After the failure, he took three or four hundred people all the way down the Yangtze River, then passed through Huguang, entered Guangdong, and finally drifted on the South China Sea. In six years, he turned from a bandit into a pirate.

The circumstances were so strange and the process so dangerous that it was legendary.

"Hahahaha, yes, I am a descendant of the Yongchang Emperor who roamed the world, and I am the invincible and uncatchable Shanbei kid!"

Li Xianwen laughed and grabbed his uncle's hand, "We won't live in the mountains like Xingshan, Badong, Zhenping, Wushan, and Fengjie.

My nephew has bought some property in Fengjie, the capital city, so my second uncle and other elders should go to the city to live in retirement.

As for the young people, please follow me and let them go back to northern Shaanxi to have a look."

Uncle Li's eyes narrowed with laughter. He leaned close to Li Xianwen and whispered, "I've already gone to greet these believers in northeastern Sichuan, and they're all willing to listen to you.

My family has connections with the Christians in Yunyang, so no one would dare to cause trouble now."

Li Xianwen nodded. This was the reason why he, the Prime Minister, was able to leave Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture and head west, because within the Dayu Dynasty, Li Xianwen was the only one who understood the White Lotus Sect.

Even in the White Lotus Rebellion in Sichuan and Hubei more than ten years later, most of the rebels in Sichuan were remnants of the former Dashun Army and people who were close to them.

Secondly, after Hailancha surrendered, he stayed in Chengdu because Dayu had set up such a large business and there was no suitable candidate to take charge of Sichuan, at least to establish the basic framework.

Hailancha was also a famous general of the Qing Dynasty, and ordinary people could hardly control him.

If these surrendered Eight Banner soldiers from Chengdu were to be willing to serve as vanguards and go to Shaanxi and Gansu to suppress the Muslims who had been rebelling, Li Xianwen was the only one who could do it.

That night, Li Xianwen and his fellow villagers whom he had not seen for many years held a grand banquet at the foot of Maolu Mountain, with big pieces of meat and big bowls of wine, and they had a great time.

The emperor also issued a special decree to posthumously honor the soldiers and generals who finally persisted on Maolu Mountain. Liu Tichun, Hao Yaoqi, Yuan Zongde and others who had died for their country before, and even Dang Shousu, Ma Tengyun and Yang Bingyin who had no choice but to surrender to the Qing Dynasty in the end, were also posthumously honored.

At the banquet, Li Xianwen drank until he was staggering and his face flushed. He looked at his wife, Princess Mo Hui of Yue, and said,
"I am a little reluctant, because your brother, the emperor, is too oppressive. I don't want to be the chief minister, but he insisted that I be.

He even used me as a shield, causing the gentry and wealthy merchants of Jiangnan to regard me as a scourge. More than 70% of the infamy I, Li Xianwen, bear is due to the emperor."

Mo Hui was startled and immediately asked several maids around her to go over and block anyone from coming over. Then she looked at her husband with sympathy and helplessness.

Such a complicated situation, such earth-shaking changes, and an ambitious and workaholic emperor.

The position of Prime Minister is indeed not easy to hold.

In particular, Li Xianwen was already doing quite well as the Prime Minister, so the emperor transferred him westward to resolve the chaos in the northwest.

Everyone knows how difficult it is to deal with the Northwest, where the people are tough, the region spans a vast distance, and religious and regional conflicts are prominent.

Let’s look at the emperor’s implied meaning. He also wants Li Xianwen to kill people.

This is another huge scapegoat!
"But I've figured it out today. The pressure on the emperor is not low. If we Han people want to avoid the loss of our country, many areas do need reform.

I see that my uncles, aunts, and fellow villagers are living so well today. They have finally cut off their braids and can now hold their heads high and feel that their hard work has not been in vain.

In the past, I firmly followed the emperor on Champa Island and gave up everything I had without any complaints for sixteen years, because I knew that only the emperor could realize my wishes.

Today, I swear on this Maolu Mountain that I will, just like in the past, clear away the evil spirits for the emperor and keep the Chinese nation intact.

In this way, no matter how much criticism and blame I receive, I am willing to bear it, just like my great-grandfather, Li Gong Laiheng, King Zhongwu of Xia.

He once opposed the Ming Dynasty, but for the sake of the Han people's world, he was still willing to die as a bandit on Maolu Mountain."

(End of this chapter)