Chapter 2144 Flower Struggle (52)

In the twenty-seventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Yang Rong, the former supervisor of Shanshan Food Supervision, went to Yunnan to serve as a tax supervisor.

The emperor of the Ming Dynasty placed great emphasis on eunuchs. These eunuchs sent out to local areas plundered gold and silver from the people, or expropriated money violently under clever pretexts, or seized land and destroyed people's houses in the name of mining. These arrogant envoys aroused resistance from people everywhere.

Mining copper mines is extremely hard work. Although the Spanish had already transported silver from South America to the Ming Dynasty, copper coins were still the main currency circulating within the local area, and silver was mainly used for long-distance settlement.

The copper coins of the Ming Dynasty were minted at the Baoyuan Bureau in BJ City, which belonged directly to the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry. This money was mainly used to pay military salaries, and then distributed to various places. Most soldiers received a lot of copper coins from the places where they were stationed.

This has led to the phenomenon that border posts have too much copper coins to spend, while economically developed areas do not have sufficient supply of copper coins.

In the Qing Dynasty, reforms were carried out to allow various localities to cast their own copper coins, which caused other problems. For example, the exchange rate of copper coins and silver in Zhili was inconsistent with that in Guangzhou and other places, making it difficult to be fair when trading with foreign businessmen.

The biggest difference between a land government and a maritime government is transportation. A maritime government can transport "ballast" such as food and porcelain by sea, but it is very laborious and expensive for a land government to transport these things. The freight costs become a huge sum.

Big expenses, not just money, but also manpower. Tongmin may not even have enough to eat after a hard day's work, because it is also very difficult to transport food to Yunnan and Guizhou.

After Yang Rong arrived in Yunnan, he served as a mining envoy and tax supervisor. He was in charge of mining and tax collection. The minions attached to him searched everywhere and built a luxurious residence for Yang Rong, which ultimately aroused the anger of the masses. The students gathered together

Together, they wrote poems to satirize Quan Gong and his minions, the Yunnan magistrate, and the prefecture for resisting mining. Yang Rong framed these officials and sent them to prison, and the entire Yunnan administration was paralyzed.

Lijiang is a good place. Dali has Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake, and Lijiang has Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Lugu Lake. Yang Rong used mining as an excuse to ask Tusi Muzeng for this land.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, the Mu family has been guarding this place, guarding the iron bridge leading to Tubo. Did Yang Rong take over this place with the intention of guarding it himself?

Yang Rong's wanton behavior eventually led to a civil uprising. In the 30th year of Wanli, the people burned the tax factory and killed one of Yang Rong's minions, Zhang Anmin. Yang Rong was so angry that he ordered his men to arrest thousands of people and torture them all to death.

, and then tortured the commander Fan Gaoming who refused to cooperate with him and put him in the shackles. In the 34th year of Wanli, the commander He Shixun and others could not bear it anymore. They led tens of thousands of enemies to burn Yang Rong's mansion, killed him and threw him into the fire.

His bones were thrown into the Jinsha River, and none of his more than 200 followers escaped.

Later, the imperial court sent Chen Yongbin to put an end to the problem. The first thing he did when he arrived was to stop the mining tax.

If people can eat well and live a comfortable and comfortable life, they usually will not rebel. However, Chen Yongbin's memorial was "retained" and was not seen by the emperor. At this time, bandits had begun to break out in Yunnan, and during the Yang Rong Rebellion

, both petty officials and the people participated. In order to appease him, the court sentenced only He Shixun to beheading, and the others did not ask any questions. But who can guarantee that the court will not "settle accounts"?

Those who had participated in the rebellion fled into the mountains and forests and became bandits, and mixed with the local indigenous people. Together they attacked Wuding City. The local magistrate Chen Dian was afraid of their ferocity and fled with his seal.

Chen Hongmou's method of mining copper mines was to contract the mining rights to merchants. After obtaining the mining license from the chief envoy, they organized the copper miners gathered near the mine to mine, and were responsible for refining the necessary charcoal and tunnel support.

All the hustle and bustle in the world is for profit. If there is no profit to be gained, who would do a thankless thing?

These manufacturers exploited the copper people, and the power of the imperial court did not penetrate into these deep mountains and old forests, so the White Lotus Rebellion became so powerful.

Guangdong was originally relatively wealthy, but with too many people and land annexation, not everyone had land. However, compared with people in Sichuan and Chu, they had other ways to make a living. The academies run by Chen Hongmou in Yunnan also made some

People no longer believe in superstition easily. Even though it is also located in a place with inconvenient transportation, Yunnan has not joined them.

To put it another way, a civil unrest also needs the foundation of a civil unrest. The people in Guangzhou and surrounding areas still support the admiral. Juren believes that pirates are a greater threat than the White Lotus Sect.

During the Chongzhen period, there was a Minister of War named Xiong Wencan. When he was serving as governor of Fujian, pirates attacked Tongshan from Xiamen.

Xiong Wencan recruited one of the pirates and appointed them as coastal defense guerrillas to attack the pirates Li Kuiqi, Liu Xiang and others, and completely pacified the pirates on the southeast coast.

Later, he recruited Zhang Xianzhong, Liu Guoneng and others, but Zhang Xianzhong only surrendered on the surface. In fact, he demanded payment from Xiong Wencan and stationed tens of thousands of troops waiting for the opportunity. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong rebelled again, and Xiong Wencan was also arrested for failing to appease the bureau.

He was imprisoned and beheaded the following year.

The admiral is about to step down. Of course he doesn't need to recruit pirates like Xiong Wencan, but Nick can't be like those enemies who immediately kneel down and shout that they are wronged when they get to the court. He has to find something else to say.

Nick slept comfortably last night, but Juren had been thinking of ways for him. After all, we couldn't just rescue him from the tiger's den and then send him to the wolf's den.

Nick really couldn't explain where the note came from. If he couldn't explain it, he wouldn't explain it. The confession was also a kind of making up a story, otherwise the fortune teller "Zhang Siru" would not have appeared.

Chen Hongmou's teacher Yang Jiaxiu once said that opera singers think their acting is good, but whether it is good or not depends on the evaluation of the theater people and the foreman in charge of the actors.

Nick didn't speak Chinese well, but it was impossible to call for an interpreter in this situation. He had to repeat the "confession" that the judge had said. Cao Xi and the admiral did not rush him at all, and allowed him to take his time.

Finished speaking.

"You mean, this is pirates 'attacking the east and attacking the west'?"

After Nick finished wiping the cold sweat on his forehead, the admiral asked.

"What does it mean to attack the east and attack the west?" the scholar Pingxi asked.

Cao Xi smiled strangely, and the admiral did not explain what he had just said, but fell into deep thought.

There was a deathly silence.

"Is it true that foreigners were not involved?" the admiral asked.

"Is there any damage in Guangzhou?" Nick asked.

"A flour store exploded, and several people were killed and injured," Cao Xi said.

Nick was surprised. It was understandable that gunpowder would explode, but would flour also explode?

But he did not discuss this topic with Cao Xi and waited quietly for the admiral to figure it out.

"In other words, when we transferred our soldiers to Guangzhou, we fell into the enemy's trap?" the admiral asked.

It can also be said that if Nick did not hand over the piece of paper to the admiral, he could have pretended that nothing happened and everything was just a false alarm.

"You must not ignore the evil that such behavior breeds." Nick said anxiously.

"We really cannot give the Outlaw Alliance an opportunity to take advantage of it," Cao Xi said.

"The parishioners on that island..."

"They are just some foolish village women who were bewitched by monsters."

Nick remembered that Yang Rong tortured thousands of people to death, leading to a larger-scale civil uprising, which immediately fit the saying "mercy, compassion".

"What about General Liu?" the admiral asked.

This time Cao Xi stopped talking.

Of course, the death of a court official cannot be dismissed easily, not to mention that he also has a list of rebels. Although the names on this list may have been made up by the villagers to avoid suffering more physical pain, it is also possible that

it is true.

"You guys go down," the admiral said to the two of them, and then to Cao Xi, "arrange a place for Ping Xi to live."

Then Nick was taken to a house in the military camp by Cao Xi.

Although Cao Xi did not torture Nick, he was surrounded by soldiers, and just like in the hospital, there were two guards at the door. Cao Xi told Nick that he could ask them to do anything for him.

There is a kapok tree in the atrium of this house. The tree is full of red flowers and there is not a single green leaf.

This is a characteristic of the kapok plant. In winter, all the leaves will fall off. When they bloom, there are only flowers. Leaves will grow after the flowers have bloomed. In summer, the green leaves are shaded. In autumn, the leaves become withered and yellow. In winter, the leaves fall off.

, and finally only the bare tree trunks were left.

And when kapok falls, unlike cherry blossoms, the flowers will fall off entirely. There are many intact kapok trees under this ancient kapok tree, and it looks like a red carpet.

If you want the red flowers to bloom, you must wait for severe frost.

Now that the red flowers have bloomed, will the severe frost come?
Chapter completed!