The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 44 I Understand

In the first month of the second year of Jianyan (1128 AD), the court appointed Liu Yu as the prefect of Jinan. However, Liu Yu was a coward. He was afraid of chaos in Shandong and did not dare to take office. He made a fuss in the court for a long time, but in the end he was powerless and Liu Yu reluctantly went to Jinan to take office.

In the winter of the same year, the Jin army attacked Jinan again and Liu Yu surrendered. In July of the fourth year of Jianyan (1130 AD), the Jin Kingdom named him the emperor of Qi and used Qi to indirectly control the Han people in the occupied territories.

This Qi State was called "Pseudo-Qi" by later generations. Its nature was exactly the same as that of "Pseudo-Manchukuo". Both were tool states used by foreigners to control the Han people. Liu Yu also became a puppet pseudo-emperor who was infamous for thousands of years.

During Liu Yu's reign, Shandong province was awash with resentment, with rebellions erupting one after another. Liu Yu played whack-a-mole for years, to no avail. Not only were the rebels causing trouble, but the Southern Song would occasionally send figures like Yue Fei to provoke Liu Yu. He was powerless to stop them, and ultimately had to beg the Jin Kingdom to send troops to suppress the rebels and confront Yue Fei.

Jin Wushu could not help but scold him, "It has been eight years since I founded your country, and you still need me to send troops to fight you. What is the point of having such a country?"

After cursing, Jin Wushu led his troops to charge out, but was also beaten into a quail by Yue Fei.

In the 1137th year of Tianhui ( AD), the Jin Kingdom felt that the Pseudo-Qi Kingdom was useless, so it deposed Liu Yu and the Pseudo-Qi Kingdom was destroyed.

Yue Wenxuan went over this period of history in his mind and concluded that in the next few years, the main enemy the rebels would have to deal with might not be the Jin soldiers, but the officials sent by the Song Dynasty and the puppet troops of the pseudo-Qi State. Of course, if the puppet troops were beaten too hard, the Jin soldiers would be dispatched...

Both Madam Gong Er and Qian Zhuoqun had strange expressions on their faces.

The True Lord had told them to "establish order," and they were just about to begin when they heard the news that the new county magistrate, appointed by the imperial court, was about to arrive. So, would order still be established? And who would do it? After all, the county magistrate was the legitimate official of the Song Dynasty, while the two of them were merely insurgents, "using the tiger's skin as a banner"—unjustified, and without authority.

The True Lord might let the "mandate of heaven" be handed over to the county magistrate.

Just as the two were thinking about this, they saw the True Lord descending from the sky.

Madam Gong Er quickly bowed deeply and said, "Greetings to the True Lord."

Yue Wenxuan waved his hand and said, "No need to be so polite. I just heard from above that Jimo County will soon have a new county magistrate."

Madam Gong Er looked embarrassed. "Yes! I was thinking about this as well. Now that the county magistrate has arrived, should we restore order?"

Yue Wenxuan smiled: "Madam Gong Er, do you still remember the price the government charged the salt workers at the salt fields?"

Madam Gong Er suddenly woke up: "4 cents."

Yue Wenxuan: "How much is it?"

Madam Gong Er: "40 wen."

Yue Wenxuan: "How much do you buy for now, and how much do you sell for now?"

Madam Gong Er said solemnly, "I am buying them now for 6 wen per jin, and then selling them to the villagers of Dongmiaozi Village for 12 wen. When the sea merchants come at the beginning of next month, I plan to sell them to them for 12 wen as well."

Yue Wenxuan asked, "Then the question arises: for both the salt collectors and the farmers, is it better for the government to take charge of this, or for you to take charge of this?"

Madam Gong Er: "I."

Yue Wenxuan nodded: "I understand!"

Madam Gong Er now understood that the True Lord would not support the county magistrate, or rather, would not support the government, but would continue to support the rebel army. This really made her ecstatic.

Qian Zhuoqun nodded thoughtfully. He had read a lot and seen a lot of the world. After hearing these words from the True Lord, he understood that what the True Lord really wanted to help were the people of this world. The Jin thieves were slaughtering the people, so the True Lord helped the righteous army to fight against the Jin.

The Song Dynasty court was not good to the people, and the True Lord also looked down on the Song Dynasty.

Whoever is good to the people will be favored by the True Lord.

Qian Zhuoqun stepped forward and said, "True Lord, I understand what you mean. However, our Jimo righteous army is ultimately not tolerated by the government. Once the county magistrate issues his order, what should we do? Should we occupy Dongmiaozi Village and oppose the county magistrate, or should we simply send troops to occupy the county town and kill the county magistrate? True Lord, just issue the order, and we will obey."

Yue Wenxuan smiled: "Kill one county magistrate and another will appear. You can never kill them all. Besides, county magistrates are not necessarily corrupt officials. Although the officialdom of the Song Dynasty is corrupt, there are occasionally white lotuses in the mud. Why not try a different approach..."

Qian Zhuoqun: “?”

Yue Wenxuan said: "It is actually useful for the officials to keep it."

Qian Zhuoqun's eyes lit up: "I understand."

Yue Wenxuan: "I understand."

After saying that, Yue Wenxuan flew into the sky and disappeared.

It was only then that Madam Gong Er spoke: "Second Uncle, what did you understand just now? Why didn't I understand at all?"

Qian Zhuoqun explained: "Second Madam, although we call ourselves the righteous army, in the eyes of most people, we are still bandits. The people fear us more than they trust us..."

Madam Gong Er nodded. She understood this. Whether it was the people from Guanhai Salt Field or Dongmiaozi Village, when they first saw her, they all called her "The Queen", without exception.

When they captured Yan Village, the salt workers didn't dare to talk to her.

When Dongmiaozi Village was captured, the villagers were too scared to come out.

It was very difficult for the rebels to gain the trust of the people.

But the government is different!
The government is inherently "legitimic". As long as they step up to take charge, the people will immediately restore order.

Qian Zhuoqun said, "What the True Lord means is that officials also have their uses. For the time being, we should ignore those new officials, let alone think about killing them and seizing the county. We just need to ignore them and not let them cause trouble, and they will naturally restore order in Jimo County."

Madam Gong Er: "But even if we ignore them, they will still come after us, right?"

Qian Zhuoqun nodded. "The government wants to control all of Jimo County, so they're bound to come after us eventually. But... to be frank, we're the biggest bandits in Jimo County, the most powerful and vicious. There's no way the newly arrived officials would attack us before they've wiped out the other petty thieves."

Madam Gong Er finally understood something: "Second Uncle, what you're saying is that the officials will restore order in most of the county and gain sufficient strength before they come to trouble us?"

Qian Zhuoqun smiled and said, "Yes! By then, order in almost the entire county will have been restored. The most important thing that the True Lord mentioned will have been accomplished. Then we can defeat those officials and take over the county. Wouldn't it be easy to take over a large area of ​​good land?"

Madam Gong Er understood instantly: "In other words, we can even provide some help to the government."

(End of this chapter)