Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 291

A typical small town in the south of the Yangtze River, with blue bricks and tiles, and a narrow path paved with bluestone slabs. In a cloudy and rainy day, the water and the sky are almost blue, and the boundaries cannot be distinguished. In the middle of the day, there were only fifty or sixty officers and soldiers defending the small new county, and the soldiers of the begging army who were hoping for a place to hide from the rain dispersed as soon as they charged. The small county had changed hands in less than half an hour.

At this time, military discipline was ignored, and even Sun Chuanting, an old-fashioned scholar, didn't say a word. Liu Zongmin led people from house to house and drove out all the original residents. The entire county was only more than 1 people, and it was best to be near the county government. The lesser half of the county was occupied by the begging army.

Green smoke rose from the roads of every house, and the soldiers who had broken free gathered around the stove one by one, trying their best to dry their wet clothes.

Xin County is still on the border of Henan, but it has already entered the Dabie Mountains. The last twenty miles to Xin County can be regarded as the most difficult road that the beggars have traveled since they went south. This is also a weak area ruled by the government. Even the county magistrate here is actually poor. It was the first time Song Qingshu saw the patched official uniform, and he came out to surrender tremblingly. Song Qingshu didn't bother to argue with him after reading it.

Entering here is regarded as entering a safe zone. Even in the era of highways everywhere in later generations, the Dabie Mountains are difficult enough to walk. When we came here, five hundred musketeers guarded the intersection. come in.

There is another name here, Yinghuo Mountain. Song Qingshu chose to settle here, not without reason, because in history, there have been peasant armies who have successfully established a foothold here.

In the 13th year of Chongzhen, the uprising army fell into the lowest ebb in history. Li Zicheng, who was defeated in Ningxia, was chased by Sun Chuanting with only eighteen riders left, and fled to Shangluo Mountain. With Luo Rucai, Liu Guoneng, etc., most of the important leaders of the rebel army were either killed or surrendered. This year, Emperor Chongzhen almost saw the shadow of the world's peace, but in this Dabie Mountain, the officers and soldiers took the fifth battalion of Gezuo no way.

Here, the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo has grown from thousands of people to tens of thousands of elite soldiers. Even Yang Sichang had no choice but to send people to negotiate with the intention of recruiting Gezuo. But at this time, the Songjin War broke out. In order to keep the Guanningjin defense line, Emperor Chongzhen ordered Hong Chengchou to lead the main force of the Ming army with 13 troops to leave the customs. With an army of one million, the Fifth Gezuo Battalion also gave up negotiating with the imperial court, left Yinghuo and went north to join Li Zicheng.

The story here is not over yet. In the 17th year of Chongzhen, the Ming Empire collapsed. The Qing army that entered the pass fought north and south, but still quickly defeated Nanming. Henan in the north, Nanzhili in the east, and Huguang in the south all fell. However, people in such a small place set off the anti-Qing banner and resisted the Qing government's hair-shaving order. This was the shocking Qihuang 48 Village. With its dangerous terrain, this small place has repeatedly defeated the Qing army. Until the fifth year of Shunzhi, when Jin Shengheng and Wang Deren fought against the Qing Dynasty in Jiangxi, the Qihuang Rebel Army also cooperated.

The sturdy folk customs in the Yinghuo area are also very different from the weak culture in the south of the Yangtze River. In the former Southern Song Dynasty, Wen Tianxiang recruited troops here to fight against the Yuan Dynasty. Later, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also fought fiercely with the Qing army here. Later, during the Great Revolution, this place also came out There are many founding generals, and regardless of the rugged terrain of Yinghuo Mountain, eastwards can threaten Fengyang, the central capital, Yingtianfu Nanjing, westwards is the Huguang barrier Xiangyang Wuhan, and northwards can threaten Kaifeng Luoyang, the hinterland of the Central Plains. A place of hegemony that is difficult to attack.

However, what bothers Song Qingshu is whether he can stand here.

He didn't dislike burying, and found a piece of dry clothes in the wardrobe of the poor county magistrate. Song Qingshu didn't care about his cold, and he was busy in and out to settle the soldiers, calm down the morale, and then went to seal the treasury. Once he opened the warehouse, A musty smell hit the face, and after a long time of inspection with a lantern, there were less than fifty tans of rice in total, and half of them were moldy. Song Qingshu immediately became popular after reading it, and directly ordered the poor county magistrate to be brought over again. .

"What about the grain? Where are you hiding it?" Song Qingshu asked angrily as he straddled the saddle and leaned forward. The counties he destroyed before had to have hundreds of tannins of grain at worst. It's really a beggar.

But the poor county magistrate had a mournful face, knelt down on the ground, kowtowed and cried: "My lord, no, there is no grain hidden! Xinxian County is a poor place, and the government has all the grain here. Great Wang Mingjian!"

"fart!"

I just went out for a while, and Song Qingshu also read it from house to house, and there was only half a pot of rice left in the rice jar. With the excessive collection of urine in the late Ming Dynasty, it was usually confiscated by the government. Looking at this poor county magistrate in his 40s and wrinkled The wrinkled old face looked more and more like an old fox, Song Qingshu stood up angrily again, pointed at the county magistrate's forehead and shouted loudly.

"I'll give you one last chance to hand over the hidden food! Otherwise, my soldiers will be very hungry, so I'll cook you up and drink!"

"Back to your Majesty, really, there is really no food!"

Hey, I'm really willing to risk my life and money!With a sneer, Song Qingshu waved his hand viciously: "Drag on!"

Recently I caught Fu Wang, and Li Zicheng's Fu Lu Geng seems to have infected Song Qingshu. The firewood was burning, and a cauldron was bubbling in the yard. Ling raised it up, as if he was going to throw it into the Chuzhou pot that the beggar army brought from Shanxi to cook porridge. The heat wave hit his face, and the old guy was so scared that he screamed and cried for his father and mother. After wandering around for a while, he finally Take it easy.

"Your Majesty, spare your life! Little one, the little one is willing to hand over the food!"

"If you don't see the coffin, you won't cry!" Song Qingshu snorted mockingly. Immediately, Song Qingshu asked Liu Zongmin to lead a dozen people to find out the stored grain. The army galloped continuously for more than ten days, and after only one supplement of grain, it was almost bottomed out.

However, more than ten minutes passed, and Song Qingshu's face darkened again when he saw the food that Liu Zongmin brought back.

Now Song Qingshu was too lazy to curse even after shaking his head, but the face that was brewing a storm was even scarier than cursing just now, so frightened the poor county magistrate plopped on the ground again.

"Grandfather, please spare me! The little salary is so low, and there will be no more food!"

"Old boy, court death! How dare you fool our commander!"

Song Qingshu said it was useless this time, so Liu Zongmin picked up the product and threw it into the pot again, but this time, even though the hot water was almost scalding the product's face, the county magistrate still cried out that there was no food.

There is still this bottom line when he fell to the ground, he didn't reach the point of really eating people, so there was nothing he could do, Song Qingshu waved his hand, and let him go again.

The pot of water was not wasted. I took the bucket of rice from the county magistrate's house and poured it in. I also threw in some dried meat brought by the beggar army from Shanxi. The porridge was boiled warmly, and it was almost ten feet cold. Tomorrow, the rainwater is the only dry food I gnawed, and I finally ate some hot food. Li Tiezhu, Zhou Yuji, Xiaoluobo, Liu Zongmin, Miaomei, Liu Dabeard and the others all gathered together, and each of them held a bamboo bowl. He snorted and drank underground, and for a while the sound of porridge drinking was left everywhere in the dilapidated county government office.

Being thrown aside and left unattended, watching eagerly, the county magistrate was drooling greedily, being stared at so eagerly, Song Qingshu felt uncomfortable drinking, and helplessly took another bamboo tube from his waist and threw it away. past.

"Do it yourself, don't look at it!"

"Thank you, my lord! Thank you, my lord!"

Song Qingshu's seniority has really risen a lot, and he kowtowed twice in gratitude. The county magistrate really made a bamboo tube full, and he didn't care about scalding his mouth. The man suddenly paused again, looked at Song Qingshu cautiously, they didn't pay attention to him when they were drinking porridge, and sneaked out with the bamboo tube in their arms.

If he had been so careless, Song Qingshu would have died a few times long ago. Seeing that the county magistrate ran away, Song Qingshu gave him a wink, and Xiaoluo went out with the bamboo tube in his arms. After a while, he brought the thing back again. Looking at the county magistrate's mournful face, Song Qingshu was speechless again.

Followed him back was a girl who looked only eighteen or nineteen years old. It seemed that the wife of this guy was not a concubine, and she was holding a child in her arms, and a smaller girl followed timidly by her legs, with her mouth There are still rice grains on the side. The mother and daughter are quite tall, but the tattered clothes are not as good as the cheapest clothes from Jiaduobao. What's the difference.

"Is this place really that poor?"

Helpless, Song Qingshu asked sadly, and the county magistrate immediately nodded helplessly.

"Your Majesty, the county magistrate's term is three years, and the younger one has been here for eight years! I have sent no less than six letters of resignation to the Ministry of Officials, but there is no reply!"

That's poor enough!Looking at the down-and-out county magistrate's family, Song Qingshu's head grew by three points. The officials are almost unable to support themselves. How can he support the more than 4000 people under his command?

(End of this chapter)