choke element

Chapter 119 Gains and Losses

Ten days ago, Guo Ning repelled the Mongolian pursuers in Ya'erzhai, and openly declared his Han'er identity to the Mongolian envoy.His words were actually nothing special, but many generals felt suddenly cheerful, excited and excited.

The more knowledgeable people whispered to each other that day, gearing up.Even some ignorant ones began to feel the atmosphere in the army, and the mood of the comrades was obviously different.

Then Guo Ning met with Miao Daorun, Zhang Rou and other big men, and immediately came up with a plan to promote the king to the central capital, intending to seize the power of the court by taking advantage of the Mongolian invasion.This plan easily impresses the Hebei tycoons who heard the news.

Dahaos are all bold and reckless people, and there are many people who are afraid of chaos in the world.They each have strength in their hands, living in Tangbo, Hebei, how can they be willing?It's nothing more than a fight, and you don't lose anything if you lose.If there is something to be gained, it will be a big profit like a splash of heaven!
When Guo Ning led them to meet the ascended king Wanyan Congjia, and Yichai Chucai, a representative of the right prime minister Tu Danyi, mediated as a guarantee, so everyone enthusiastically mobilized their forces and joined along the way.

Just a few days later, the Anzhou volunteers, whose total number of soldiers did not exceed 500, were no longer the main force.

Instead, it was the Hebei Volunteer, whose scale was rapidly expanding like a snowball, and the number of soldiers was nearly [-].Including the elderly, weak, women and children who accompanied the army, the total number exceeded [-], with no fewer than [-] horses, and more than [-] ships of all sizes along the way.

Even Guo Ning himself didn't expect such momentum beforehand.

This huge team marched quickly along the east-west stretching pond area, and spent ten days constantly crossing the complex terrain between lakes and marshes.

Guo Ning himself led the army as the guide, and all the subordinates he gathered at the Feijunhe camp accompanied him.When encountering prefectures, counties, and army villages along the way, they unceremoniously extorted food and fodder supplies, and then swaggered quickly across.

In the evening of this day, he led people across Yijin Pass in Bazhou, and was about to approach Xin'an County.

The Tangbo area bends for more than [-] li. In this area, it is bounded by the Yishui River and the Hutuo River, and the distance between the north and the south is much narrower.Guo Ning and others have deliberately marched along the remote road with few people in the water, but they bumped into more and more fleeing civilians on the road.

Some refugees staggered in groups of three or four, some rested on the roadside or lying on the ground, and some scattered in ponds and woodlands to search carefully, trying to catch fish or pick up fruits, gorgon seeds and other things to eat.

If you distinguish carefully, you can find that they are all yellow and thin, and most of them are old and weak.Unless there is a large team of dozens of people or more, there are hardly any middle-aged men.

Du Shisheng is from Xin'an County.Although he has been away from home for decades, he still cares about it, so he immediately rode over to ask.

After a while, he dropped the saddle bag that was hanging by the saddle.After the bag fell to the ground, it fell apart, revealing some scones, mixed fruits and other food wrapped inside.The people immediately gathered and divided up the food in the bag in ecstasy. Some people turned to stare at Guo Ning and the others, with a look of extreme longing in their eyes.

Guo Ning looked at Du Shisheng.

Du Shisheng smiled bitterly.

"I have a lot of dry food, give me some more." Guo Ning said to his companions: "Let's hurry up and go to Xin'an tonight, so we can't delay."

At that moment, the servants gathered together two more bags of food and handed them to Du Shisheng.

Guo Ning led the cavalry to move on.After riding the horse for half a minute, Du Shisheng caught up from behind.It seemed that the process of distributing the food was not smooth, probably because someone looted it. His clothes were messed up, and it seemed that someone had torn his bun.

"Are those common people fellow villagers of Mr. Jinzhi?" Guo Ning asked.

"Their village is only twenty miles away from my hometown."

Du Shisheng sighed: "The power of the Mongols has not yet extended to this place. These people were all forced into the water by the officials of the county. The officials in the county said that the Mongolian army is about to kill, and all places will be killed." According to the city, they robbed them of all their food reserves under the banner of Hebu, but they were not allowed to enter the city to take refuge... So they had to flee to the pond, try to catch fish and shrimp, and survive this."

Speaking of this, Du Shisheng was suddenly taken aback, probably thinking of his own clan's situation.

After a while, he sighed again.

"In the reign of Emperor Shizong and Emperor Zhangzong, Hebei Suhao was prosperous and prosperous. There were more than two million households in the east and west of Hebei alone, accounting for a quarter of the total number of households in the Dajin Kingdom. Whether it is agriculture, textiles, ceramics, mining, etc. All are prosperous."

"However, after arriving in Mingchang and Taihe, the court's political disputes continued, and the finances were on the verge of collapse. In order to maintain the situation, the government at all levels searched Hebei and Zhongdu every day, but it happened to be hit by floods, droughts and locust plagues. Officials did more mischief and took advantage of the opportunity to squeeze. As a result, people's hearts were shaken, thieves and thieves rose up, and the moose continued to boil for more than ten years."

"When the northern frontier became more and more distressed, the Jurchens who were the backbone of the Jin army suffered heavy casualties and their morale was low. At this time, the court thought that the lack of combat effectiveness of the army was because the Jurchens had little land to support their families. A real person. As a result..."

Du Shisheng shook his head again and again: "Dajin's methods of encroaching on land are so cruel and his appetite is so greedy that it has never been seen in ancient times. Jurchen's Meng'an Mouke originally has more than [-] million mu of land in Hebei and Shandong, accounting for [-] acres of land. One-third of the local farmland, and during the Cheng'an period, Yan Zonghao, the prime minister, presided over Kuodi, and gained more than [-] million mu, four times more than the court plan. That is to say, Hebei Han'er's household registration, The population is nearly ten times that of the Jurchens, but they only own one-third of the land, and a large amount of official land has to be deducted... and the taxes and miscellaneous taxes they bear are more than [-] million yuan per county! Every time they collect When strong men go to war, no man over the age of twenty and under fifty can escape!"

"In this way, can the people still live? Since ancient times, how could any court have forced the people to such an extent? How can a court that has forced the people to such an extent deserve to be called a court?"

When Du Shisheng said this, he was stunned for a while, and then slowly said: "Mr. Lang, you know that I worked under Prime Minister Xu's family in the early years. The Jurchen nobles said that Prime Minister Xu is a traitor. I also saw it with my own eyes. The officials under his sect are all disgraced. But they are trying their best to control the water, change the currency law, and the tax law. They want to save Dajin's life. The Jurchen nobles are not happy to see this move, so what can they do? ?”

The place where Du Shisheng rode his horse at this time was the artificial forest land intersected with ponds and ponds.

When the Song and Liao confronted each other, the Song people densely planted elm, willow, mulberry, jujube and other trees between the ponds and ponds. The trees planted had a path in the middle and could only accommodate one horse, which was used to limit the cavalry of the Khitan people.After hundreds of years, the trees have become more and more luxuriant, and the trees in the embrace are intertwined and dense.

The cavalry walked among them, the tree shadows were thick, the light was dim, and there was no wind, so the heat was unbearable.

As he was talking, a twig crossing the road in front of him pressed on him.Guo Ning reacted quickly, and immediately stretched his arms over, pressing his shoulders down violently, and he subconsciously lowered himself down, so that he didn't hit his head.

He straightened up, looked back with lingering fear, and then turned forward.

After riding the horse for a while, Du Shisheng said again: "In the early years when I was in Zhongdu, I shouted in the street that the world would be in chaos. People in the world either thought I was bewitching, or thought I was crazy. In fact, I took it seriously. Sir, Dajin is about to end, and the common people are already tired, no, they even hate Dajin! We have been traveling along the way, and we have seen it more and more clearly. So..."

He finally gritted his teeth and asked: "I heard that, according to Mr. Lang's original intention, he wants to go...to Shandong?"

When Guo Ning gathered the crowd for the first time, he discussed with the leaders of the defeated army where to go next.After that discussion, Guo Ning never publicly mentioned plans in this regard.

At this moment when Du Shisheng suddenly mentioned it, Monk Luo laughed a few times, and Li Ting urged him to come up immediately without showing any signs, to see Guo Ning's expression.

"That's what I thought at the time." Guo Ning nodded.

"Guo Langjun, are we really going to Zhongdu to swim in that muddy water? Is it worth it?" After a pause, Du Shisheng lowered his voice again: "Let's go directly to Shandong, isn't it good?"

(End of this chapter)