Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

In Huguang, Sichuan and even Jiangxi, Sun Qingfeng's experience is just a microcosm of the tragedies that are happening everywhere in this land.

Xinhua County Magistrate Cheng Zhi frowned as he read the proclamations from various places. Ever since the commander-in-chief Yang Sichang issued the order to collect grain locally, the people in various places have been suffering. Most of them have been forced to sell their ancestral land to make a living.

Those landlords also took advantage of the situation and lowered the price of land, forcing the people to sell their land at a price less than half the market price.

This is still better, at least there are still fields to sell, but the people who rented the fields were even worse off. In Xinhua County alone, eight families committed suicide...

Cheng Zhi was very reluctant to do this, but this was a strict order from above. Supervisor Yang said that if the quota for each county could not be met, there would be no chance of achieving any results in this year's exam.

The so-called performance evaluation is actually the assessment of local officials by the Ministry of Personnel once a year. Those with outstanding performance can be promoted, those with average performance can be retained, and those with inferior performance can be dismissed or transferred to more remote places.

The grain was indeed collected in full, so he thought it should not be a problem to keep his position, but his superiors actually asked him to sell 30% of the grain to grain merchants in exchange for gold bars.

Of course Cheng Zhi knew what was going on, but he felt a little bit reluctant. After all, those grains were the life-saving food for the people.

If the grain was sold to grain merchants, they would take advantage of the fact that people had no grain at home and raise the price of grain, forcing people to sell their children to buy expensive grain.

But, those crops were grown by them!

Although Cheng Zhi cared about his official position, he also felt that doing so was a bit unscrupulous, so he kept dragging his feet and did not carry out the order from his superiors.

"Mr. Magistrate, Prefect Hou has come to see you in person. He has already arrived at the front hall. Please go and greet him quickly!" The chief clerk of the county government came over anxiously to deliver the message.

Cheng Zhi sighed when he heard this. He seemed to know why Governor Hou came.

When they arrived at the county hall, the well-fed Magistrate Hou stood up with a smile and said:

"County Magistrate Cheng, what's the matter? Do you really have to let this prefect come to look for you personally?"

Prefect Hou can be said to have come straight to the point. The magistrates of several other counties had already handled the matter, but the magistrate of Xinhua, Cheng Zhi, was the only one who deliberately delayed.

"Lord Hou, that's not the case. I've been too busy lately. I've been outside supervising the grain collection." Cheng Zhi explained.

"Then you are finally done now, right? Don't blame me for not reminding you that Xinhua County is a top-class county.

There are quite a few people eyeing this seat!" Prefect Hou reminded with a smile.

Cheng Zhiwei pondered for two full breaths before saying:

"I will do it as soon as possible and it will be completed within three days."

When Prefect Hou saw that Cheng Zhi finally agreed, he said with satisfaction:

"You keep 10% of the gold bars from selling the grain, and I will take care of the rest."

Cheng Zhi frowned, as if struggling, and finally stood up and said:

"My Lord, forget about my share."

As long as he could pass the exam, Cheng Zhi didn't want to earn the hard-earned money of the people.

Upon hearing this, Prefect Hou looked at Cheng Zhi and frowned.

"Sit down, sit down."

Cheng Zhi didn't know what this meant, so he had to sit back in his seat.

Governor Hou took a sip of tea and his mercenary smile reappeared on his face:

"County Magistrate Cheng, we can't just stay still and not make any progress. We need to learn to be humble and have a broad perspective.

If you don’t take it, how can I take it?

If I don't take it, how can the Chief Secretaries take it?

If the chief secretaries don't take it, how can you and I make progress? "

There was a profound meaning behind Prefect Hou's words. He strongly disapproved of Cheng Zhi's style, but he admired him very much.

When Governor Hou had just passed the imperial examination and became the first county magistrate, he wanted to be a good official who spoke up for the people like Cheng Zhi, but he stayed in the position of county magistrate for eight years.

Until one day, he realized.

In a place filled with the stench of corruption, being honest is a crime.

So he was promoted from county magistrate to prefectural magistrate.

Seeing that Cheng Zhi was silent, but his frown finally relaxed, Prefect Hou felt relieved.

"Remember, 30% of the food must be exchanged for gold bars, the sooner the better."

……

Huguang, Jingdu.

Inside the central military tent of the barracks, there was a large table of sumptuous dishes. They were prepared by the chef who was personally sent by Chen Guang, the left governor of Huguang Provincial Government. It was said that he had once been the imperial chef of the Wanli Dynasty.

Only the commander-in-chief Yang Sichang was sitting at the table. He had military intelligence from various places in his hands and had no interest in the delicious food in front of him.

The war with the bandits has reached the most critical moment. In the Battle of Junzhou, an army of 110,000 defeated Li Zicheng's army of 60,000. Now Li Zicheng has lost all his fighting spirit.

All we need to do is gather them together and annihilate them, and the mission will be accomplished. The only ones left will be Zhang Xianzhong's 40,000 men.

This matter was handled by Xiong Wencan, the governor-general of three provinces. Xiong Wencan was recommended by Yang Sichang and was given an important position. He was able to hold his current high position because of Yang Sichang's good words in front of the emperor.

In Yang Sichang's view, Xiong Wencan not only had outstanding political ability, but also outstanding military management ability, and most importantly, he got along well with him.

Yang Sichang and Xiong Wencan were often attacked by the Donglin Party, but they were always able to support each other, which enabled them to gain a firm foothold in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Yang Sichang and Xiong Wencan had very different ideas on how to deal with the bandits.

In Yang Sichang's view, since the bandits were rebelling, the only way was to wipe them out, otherwise there would be no way to set things right.

Yang Sichang has always been a staunch advocate of fighting against bandits.

But Xiong Wencan seemed to be more inclined to appeasement. He believed that most of the bandits were just trying to make a living and as long as they were given land, they could be spared from the war.

For this reason, Xiong Wencan, with an army of 80,000 in his hands, surrounded Zhang Xianzhong's troops who were defending Gucheng, but he surrounded them without attacking.

It is said that Zhang Xianzhong has agreed to accept the imperial court's amnesty, but the two sides are still discussing some details.

Although Yang Sichang did not quite agree with Xiong Wencan's appeasement, he did not blame him excessively. The main reason was that Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry was too fast.

Unless all of Zhang Xianzhong's troops can be wiped out in Gucheng at once, once he breaks out, it will be difficult to encircle him again.

Although Zhang Xianzhong had only four or five thousand elite cavalry, they had a terrifying number of three horses for each man. When it came to long-distance raids, the government troops, which were mainly composed of infantry, could not catch up at all.

Zhang Xianzhong even wrote a doggerel poem to satirize many generals of the government army:

In the past, there was Governor Shao, who often came to dance with the troupe.

Later, Liao joined the army and followed me without fighting.

Great Yang Gebu, he’s three days away from me!

This shows how arrogant he is.

Of course Yang Sichang wanted to kill Zhang Xianzhong, he wanted to kill anyone who dared to humiliate him.

But even though he had a large number of troops, it was already insufficient to just contain Li Zicheng, and he could not force Xiong Wencan to fight an uncertain annihilation war.

Just surrender and appease him. It is difficult to kill Zhang Xianzhong who has a large army. But if this guy accepts the surrender and becomes an official of the Ming Dynasty, Yang Sichang will have a hundred ways to kill him.

"General, the additional grain collected from Xunyang Prefecture, Xiangyang Prefecture, and Kuizhou Prefecture has been delivered to the military camp. As the journey to other places is a bit longer, it will probably take a few more days." The quartermaster walked up to the tent and knelt down.

"How much?" Yang Sichang asked as he picked up a chicken tongue with chopsticks.

"A total of 460,000 stones." The quartermaster replied quickly.

"Send 60,000 dan of silver to Cao Bianjiao, and tell him to guard the right flank tightly and not let Li Chuang escape to Jiangxi. Tell General Cao that we will fight him in ten days and he will be the vanguard."

The secretary at the side quickly took out pen and ink to write the military order, carefully took out Yang Sichang's seal, stamped it, and handed it to the quartermaster.

Although Cao Bianjiao had only more than 10,000 men under his command, they were all frontier troops capable of fighting tough battles. Cao Bianjiao himself was also very brave and always rushed to the front in every battle. He was considered the most capable of the many troops that were sent to encircle and suppress the bandits.

Yang Sichang was not worried that Cao Bianjiao was not loyal. Like him, Cao Bianjiao had an irreconcilable hatred for the bandits. His uncle, former general Cao Wenzhao, died because of the bandits.

"Send 100,000 dan of silver to Zuo Liangyu's army and tell him that those who have made contributions in this battle will be rewarded by me, and those who dare not fulfill their responsibilities will be punished by me!"

Yang Sichang was really troubled by Zuo Liangyu. Zuo Liangyu was simply a soldier who was only willing to fight when the wind was favorable most of the time.

After being defeated twice in a row by Zhang Xianzhong, Zuo Liangyu was worried that he would be ignored by the court due to the heavy losses in his troops, so he began to cautiously retain his strength.

Yang Sichang didn't like this kind of people very much, but Zuo Liangyu had 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers under his command, and these soldiers only listened to Zuo Liangyu.

But this time, wiping out the bandits was too important for him, and he would never allow anyone to fail to try their best.

In preparation for this decisive battle, Yang Sichang ordered the provincial governments of Huguang, Sichuan and Jiangxi to start collecting grain one month in advance.

He knew the possible consequences of increasing taxes, but he thought that this was the best opportunity to eliminate the bandits.

After years of planning, the bandits were finally surrounded and blocked in Huguang.

How could we miss this opportunity because of a lack of food and fodder? We can only let the people suffer for a while longer.

As long as the bandits were eliminated, he could report to the emperor and ask him to exempt the three provinces from one year's land tax as compensation to them.

As long as he eliminated the bandits, he could not only avenge his father, but also redeem himself.

It can also let the court, including the emperor, see that people like Zhang Shikang who are only good at talking are useless.

Only he, Yang Sichang, has the ability to defeat the powerful enemy and is the hope for the revival of the Ming Dynasty.

As long as the bandits are eliminated, even the Donglin Party members will not dare to trip him up easily.

As long as he eliminates the bandits, the emperor will surely obey his orders again, and he will surely be remembered for all eternity.

All of this is based on only one prerequisite: to eliminate the bandits.

All the costs are worth it.

……