Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 177 A new journey
When spring comes, flowers bloom and all things grow.

The girl waited in the inn for a long time.

When she felt bored, she would sit quietly by the window and read the novel left to her by the "female knight".

She waited from the rising sun until the sky was filled with stars, but she never saw the man.

A year's plan begins in spring, and the farmland at home still needs to be taken care of.

She had no choice but to follow her parents and leave the inn with her younger brother and return to her hometown.

When she returns to her hometown, she will stop at the village entrance for a long time, go to the dilapidated temple to search, and pass by the place where the man saved her and recall that firm and handsome figure.

She would smile when she thought of him "tease" her.

The girl stared down at the knife he had given her, as well as the brand new sachet.

But day after day passed, the man still did not show up.

Maybe he went on a dangerous mission and never came back—

She heard about the "great chaos" in Qufu and Yanzhou, where many people died.

But she still couldn't believe that he was gone.

She firmly believed that he would appear because he promised to come back when spring came and flowers bloomed.

She waited and waited in front of her home, at the entrance of the village, in the dilapidated temple, and in the midst of longing, like a village guardian stone, slowly spending each long day.

Friends would also come to play and have fun with her.

Her friends told her that after Lord Kong's family was wiped out, the owner of the farm who was in charge of collecting rent from their family was replaced by a new one.

I heard that these farm owners came from the "Kun Gang" and had very strong backstage connections. Even the county magistrates didn't dare to offend them. They were even more powerful than the children of the Cao Gang.

However, the boss of the Kun Gang was quite friendly and immediately allowed them to reduce the land rent from 50% to 60% to 25%, and the unit for paying grain and silver was also changed to "Yikun".

The Kun Gang leader claimed that "One Kun" was the Kun Gang's motto, and that they would complete everything in two and a half days, two and a half years, or two and a half buckets...

What they worship is the great "Ancient Martial Spirit - Chicken Kun".

The gang members learn a set of Kun boxing to strengthen their bodies. As long as they learn Kun boxing for two and a half years, they can become core members of the Kun Gang.

When the girl first heard about the "Chicken God", she thought it was referring to Aji, the "Zodiac Knight", but after asking around, she realized she was mistaken.

The partners don’t know whether Kun Gang is a good person or not, and whether they will change their attitude and increase the rent in the future.

All we know is that the Kun Gang lowered the rent to 25%, no, it was 100%. That was a huge good thing, and the tenants could breathe a sigh of relief.

The girl had a lot of fun playing with her friends, but not as happy as before. It was like a piece of her heart was being torn out, and she always felt empty.

Suddenly one day, a friend mentioned casually that he had seen someone who looked like Aji somewhere.

The friend also said that the man should not be that person, after all, Aji looked dull and dazed, how could he look like such a handsome knight.

The girl froze as if she had been electrocuted, and immediately picked up the knife and sachet, and ran out of the room in the confused eyes of her friends.

She didn't think about why that person didn't come to her first.

She wanted to see him again, even if it was just an illusion.

She came to the dilapidated temple where she first met him, and sure enough, she saw a familiar figure.

Her vision gradually became blurred, and the man in front of her became blurry and distorted.

In a trance, she seemed to see a disheveled man standing at the door of the dilapidated temple, smiling at her stupidly.

The man smiled and stretched out his hand to her, as if asking for food and coins, and she handed him the half-eaten multi-grain dumpling.

Tears rolled down her cheeks, and at that moment, the girl's vision became clear.

She seemed to be back to that afternoon, when he was telling the story blankly, the cold wind was howling outside, and the burning woodpile in the house was crackling.

She looked at the disheveled idiot and suddenly felt a strong curiosity——

"What's your name, big guy?"

"Aggie."

He turned his head and she met him head on.

When a girl meets a knight, it is like a spring river flowing eastward.

The man took off his bamboo hat, turned his head to look at the gift he had placed on the table as if to seek credit, and then gave the girl a faint smile of reunion after a long separation.

"I am back."

……

Liaodong, Shenyang.

The spring rain is drizzling down.

In the imperial palace built during the reign of Nurhaci, Huang Taiji stared coldly at the princes and beile kneeling before him.

He did not speak, but the Han official Fan Wencheng read out the punishment on his behalf.

"Dorgon's southern offensive was ineffective, and he arbitrarily divided his troops to attack cities and strongholds, resulting in the disastrous defeat of the left wing's central siege. Fifteen Niulu were deprived of their registered residence, demoted to Duolo Beile, and forced to reflect on his mistakes..."

"Mazhan disrupted the morale of the army and advanced recklessly, causing heavy losses to the left wing. He deserved to be executed, but His Majesty, in his grace, has spared your life and demoted you to a commoner, allowing you to retain nine manors, two gardens, and thirty slaves..."

"Hauge fought poorly..."

All the generals who participated in the Southern Expedition were punished one by one by being stripped of their Niulu, ranks and positions.

Only half of the tens of thousands of Eight Banner soldiers who went south this time returned, and the money, grain, jewelry, people, horses and mules they brought back were only 20% of those who went south many times.

This was no longer a failure, but the most tragic defeat since Nurhaci founded the country and Huang Taiji proclaimed himself emperor! The lost baoyi and slaves could be obtained by looting neighboring countries and tribes.

However, the number of Manchu soldiers was reduced with each death. If there were not enough Manchu Eight Banners to deter the evildoers, the ruling foundation of the Qing Dynasty would be unstable in an instant.

Huang Taiji was very angry and wanted to make a big fuss and kill the incompetent generals who led the team.

But he cannot act recklessly, and a hegemon cannot let his emotions control his behavior.

He also wanted to achieve great ambitions and conquer the nine provinces to become the ruler of the world.

Ever since he ascended the throne, he has always stood on the moral high ground. Whether it is real or disguised, he strives to maintain his image as a fair and just "judge".

He has come to where he is today, step by step, carefully maintaining the balance of the Eight Banners nobles.

He subdued the Mongols south of the Gobi Desert, conquered the Joseon Dynasty, went north to hunt down the Solon Jurchens to enrich the population of the Eight Banners of Manchuria, and colluded with "smugglers" in the interior of the country, forming an "encirclement of the Ming Dynasty" and suppressing the Southern Dynasty in all directions.

The Qing Dynasty's national fortune was prospering. Huang Taiji originally planned to gather heavy troops to besiege Jinzhou after this entry into the pass, and then attack the reinforcements to further deplete the vitality of the Southern Dynasty, and finally completely remove the largest "bridgehead" outside Shanhaiguan.

Then he used spies to observe the movements inside the Great Wall, and as soon as the situation changed, he assembled the Eight Banners Army and marched south to seize the world.

It’s a pity that today’s defeat interrupted all his plans over the years!
He hated it, but he endured it.

Failure is the mother of success. Huang Taiji experienced many failures, but was never defeated by failure.

This time he had to swallow the bitter fruit skillfully and re-plan his strategy to destroy the Ming Dynasty.

Black Flag Army.

This "fierce soldier" who suddenly rose to prominence at the end of last year was even more powerful than the Zhejiang and Sichuan soldiers of the Southern Dynasty back then, and was a stumbling block on his road to hegemony.

He must be removed.

He ordered all the spies lurking inside the pass to quickly collect all the intelligence about the Black Flag Army.

He wanted to plan a killing move against this powerful army.

To eliminate the enemy, you need not only swords and knives, but sometimes you can also use pen and paper.

……

Ten miles outside the city of Xiangyang.

A team of officers, soldiers and entourage slowly moved south.

Suddenly, a violent explosion erupted in the middle of the road. The carriage carrying the "noble man" was blown away by the blast, and the noble man fell beside the window with blood spitting from his mouth.

Hundreds of bandits rushed out of the deep pit covered with fallen leaves, shouting and killing, and collided violently with the noble team.

The shouts of killing were deafening on the official road. Hundreds of bandits fought to the last man. The last man shouted "Heaven punish the false Ming" and drew his sword to commit suicide, preferring to die rather than be captured.

However, the team whose nobleman died did not disband. Instead, they gathered themselves together and continued to march south.

After this group left, a group of refugees who arrived later stopped in front of the corpse for a long time.

One of them stood up and stared at the corpse in a daze. "I've heard for a long time that beggars are fond of attacking and killing officials and gentry. Today I've verified that it's true..."

"Commander-in-Chief Yang, should we take a detour south to temporarily avoid the Qihuo bandits?"

"No need. Since they think this group is escorting me, they won't stab me a second time." Yang Sichang looked down at his refugee outfit. "Beggars care most about the people, so disguising themselves as refugees is the best..."

Yang Sichang leaned on a wooden stick and pointed ahead, "Let's continue on our way."

……

A village in the southwest of Kaifeng Prefecture.

The poor villagers were still working when they suddenly received an advance notice from the tax collectors.

Starting from this year's summer tax, an additional 7 cents of silver will be levied per mu, but in fact the "training salary" levied by the court is only 1 cent per mu.

After being levied by provincial, prefectural and county officials, the tax increased from one cent to seven cents. If the seven cents of additional tax alone was not too much, ten mu of land would only cost seven cents of silver.

But the bad thing is that some poor families have to bear the burden of several "runaway households", not to mention that the tax payer will use the excuse that the exchanged silver is of insufficient quality and ask the farmers to add more silver.

After several rounds of accumulation, the additional payment of seven cents of silver has become an unbearable burden, like the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Farmers who could not bear the heavy taxes decided to flee with their families and join the beggar army.

If you are caught and join the "rebels", you may be executed, but if you stay where you are and farm and pay taxes, your whole family will surely starve to death.

However, the poor families were not as knowledgeable as the clerks and runners, who knew that many refugees would appear after the news of the "increase in levies" was passed down.

They asked the county to send fast and strong squads in advance, as well as militia trained by local gentry, to block the main traffic routes.

Any fugitive who was caught would be severely beaten. Some were beaten to death and their bodies were left exposed in the wilderness to feed dogs.

This year, there are signs that the drought is worsening in various parts of Henan Province. People who fled were either beaten to death or forced to sell their children and their families by debt collectors.

For a time, there was wailing everywhere in the province and counties.

Things have changed.

The poor people could not bear the humiliation and hunger, so they had to hang themselves to free up a precious share of food rations for their families.

Some people wanted to resist, but the Ming Dynasty's three hundred years of accumulated power still existed, so they did not dare to go against the court.

Moreover, even if they rebelled locally, they would not be able to defeat the officials and county soldiers. They could not even produce decent iron weapons, so how could they fight against the officials and soldiers?

Then a man appeared.

He brought with him a thick stack of yellow paper and a box of props and plunged into the suffering of the poor people.

(End of this chapter)