Han’s Son is Not a Slave

Chapter 212: Guangzhou

Guangzhou has been the military and political center of the South since the opening of Lingnan in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and it is also the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road. In the Tang Dynasty, it became the largest port in the East. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Guangzhou was the main port for the Ming Dynasty to trade with overseas. The level of commercial prosperity once approached Su Song, so that the **** of the Guangzhou Shipping Division became a popular choice for the inner court to go abroad during the Wanli period. This job is a bloodbath.

However, since the early years of Chongzhen, there have been successive natural disasters in the north, widespread famine in various places, and the rise of the war in Liaodong, and the north has fallen into dire straits. In order to survive, in addition to participating in the rebellion, the desperate people moved their families to the south. After all, compared to the north, where there was a thousand miles of famine and wars everywhere, the south with a suitable climate and peace and quiet gave them a little more hope of survival.

A large number of people migrated to the south to avoid disasters, so that the population of the south continued to rise in the last years of Chongzhen. After the Qing army entered the customs, the migration process added up in an instant. Initially, most of the people in the north chose to flee to Jiangnan and Zhejiang, but with the fall of the Hongguang regime, Fujian and further south Guangdong became the targets of these people. And it was no longer the people who could not survive in the north, but more people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang who were able to survive. These people migrated to the south not to survive, but to be slaves of foreign races.

The regimes of Nanming after Hongguang brought many officials, gentry and their families to the south at the same time, and the influx of scholars who refused to reject the Qing Dynasty immediately brought a gathering of humanities in Guangdong. Guangdong has even become the choice of the people of the world who are interested in the Ming Dynasty. Countless literati will be in its place to celebrate the grand event of the Ming Dynasty, and the world will look at it.

When the Yongli regime was first established, the local population in Guangzhou had reached more than 400,000. By the fourth year of Yongli (the seventh year of Shunzhi), the population of Guangzhou had approached one million. Such a large population has made Guangzhou the largest city in the world. Beijing, which has become the capital of the Qing Dynasty, is not as good as it, and its prosperity is even less than that of the Susong Erfu located in the south of the Yangtze River! However, with the arrival of Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao, all this was immediately wiped out, leaving countless unjust souls crying in the dark night of Guangzhou City.

Five years later, no one knows how many people in Guangzhou City died at the hands of the Qing army. The Yongli court determined that the Qing army slaughtered 700,000 people in Guangzhou. This figure was derived from the data collected by monks after the massacre. However, some people think that this number is even more, and it should be a million people, because the city of Guangzhou was already overcrowded at that time. . The local population plus the non-local population will never be less than one million. It must be known that at that time, the area outside the city of Guangzhou was full of people. After the massacre, there was no one except the monk who collected the corpse!

The massacre in Guangzhou five years ago. The Qing court never admitted it, only saying that "the two vassals of Ping and Jing went to Guangzhou, angered their people to defend themselves, and wiped out their soldiers", but never mentioned how many people were killed by "killing them". Guangzhou's official documents have never seen specific figures. The year before last, when Shang Kexi entertained the imperial envoy from Beijing at the Fuzhong banquet, he downplayed that when Guangzhou broke the city, there were only more than 10,000 people killed under the vassal.

How many people died in this turbulent era when the Ming and Qing dynasties were fighting has become unimportant. What is important is that today's Guangzhou city is more suitable as a county town than a provincial capital. The existing residents of the entire Guangzhou city were filled in by the Qing army who occupied Guangzhou from neighboring prefectures and counties. The total number is no more than 50,000, plus the coated slaves and garrison brought from Liaodong by Ping and Jing, the population of such a large provincial capital is only less than 100,000, even one tenth of the pre-massacre. not reach.

The bustling Guangzhou Port in the past was so quiet that it was different from the dead port. This is the case outside the city, and the same is true in the city. The war burned down most of the city of Guangzhou, cut down hundreds of thousands of corpses with butcher knives, and killed the hearts of the living.

When Li Dingguo's army attacked Guangzhou for the second time last year, in order to prevent Li Dingguo's army from breaking through Xinhui, it went straight to Guangzhou. Shang Kexi personally ordered the demolition of all the buildings near Sicheng, which made Guangzhou city even more withered. At the beginning of the year, after Li Dingguo's army retreated from the siege, the newly appointed governor of Guangdong, Li Suitai, introduced some measures to try to make Guangzhou prosperous again. After all, the Qing army was also a human being. If they want to take root in Guangzhou for a long time, they also need local supply. A provincial capital that could not bring any money, grain and taxation to the Qing army at all had very different meanings to the Qing army than a provincial capital that continuously provided money, grain and taxation to the Qing army. It's a pity that the Governor-General has only been doing it for a few months, but when Guangzhou City has improved a little, he has to interrupt this work. The reason is that the new club in the strong city, which Li Dingguo's tens of thousands of troops have not been able to conquer, unexpectedly called a team out of nowhere. The thieves were captured, and they blocked the attack of King Pingnan's army of 20,000 troops, forcing the King of Pingnan to have his son lead the army to besiege the city.

The siege of the city consumes not only the money and food of the thieves and soldiers in the city. Even more wasted money from the Qing army. In order to supply the siege army with food and grass, the Governor Yamen has tightened its belly, and the Guangzhou government, which directly undertakes the transportation of money and food, is even more distressed. In the massacre that year, the two princes, Ping and Jing, killed themselves, and it was a joy to kill, but it was a pain for the Guangzhou government. If there are no people under the rule, there will be no people in this land. Where do you tell them to get money and grain?

Zhu Guorong, the prefect of Guangzhou, turned over the land and finally managed to collect enough money for the army to go on an expedition. Zhu Guorong was so anxious that he hanged himself.

Sure enough, a few days after the siege of the city, the Governor Yamen called him there, and asked the Guangzhou government to continue to supply the siege army with food and grass no matter what, otherwise he would pack up the package and go back to his hometown in Shanxi.

How about going back to your hometown in Shanxi? !

Zhu Guorong's previous dynasty was nothing more than a little master who was born in the world. If the regent hadn't led a large army into the customs, Zhu Guorong would still be a little master even when he died. How could he have this position today?

I think that after the news of Li Dingguo's two famous kings spread to Beijing that day, the colleagues outside the official department who were in a hurry to wait for the candidate for office were all frightened and turned pale with fear. to die. At this moment, Zhu Guorong was daring and big-hearted, knowing that wealth and honor are at risk, he gritted his teeth and walked to the official department where there was no crow in front of the door, and voluntarily went to the south to become an official. This move reached the ears of the emperor in the palace on the same day, and the emperor Longyan Da Yue directly ordered Zhu Guorong to take over as the prefect of Guangzhou. From the master to the prefect, he has been promoted seven levels in a row. If Zhu Guorong didn't know that wealth and wealth are at risk, could such good things fall on his head?

In the past two years, it has been smooth sailing for the prefect. Although the provincial capital of Guangzhou is not as good as before, it is not a provincial capital. Whether it is official quality or income, Zhu Guorong is very satisfied, wondering if he will send people to Beijing for activities in the next two years. Activities, the name of the emperor has already fallen into the ears of the emperor. After a little activity here, he may be able to go to the upper floor and become a governor or an inspector. If you are lucky, maybe you can get a governor Dangdang.

The two vassal kings, Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao, have really served enough of their own. But to be honest, although he is not willing to serve these two vassal kings, Zhu Guorong never worried about his own life with these two vassal kings. Being an official these days, promotion and wealth are the second, and the most important thing is the safety of life. Therefore, aiming at this point, although the difference between the two princes is really difficult to handle, Zhu Guorong also gritted his teeth to accept it, but this time, he really has no choice.

Going back to his hometown in Shanxi, Zhu Guorong is definitely not going to work, but the errand of the governor's yamen can't be delayed. If he really doesn't go all out to finish the errand, the governor-general who came from the royal family can really stack him up. There was no other way, Zhu Guorong had to beg his grandfather to tell his grandmother, and desperately went to suppress the county below, regardless of whether the people lived or died, so he reluctantly gave the army food and grass. Fortunately, the Governor Yamen also knew about the difficulties of Guangzhou Prefecture. After a month, they transferred a batch of food from the Chaoshan area. This finally solved Zhu Guorong's urgent needs and made him stable for two months.

But I don't know if God sees Mr. Zhu as not pleasing to the eye or what. It has only been stable for two months, and the headache has come again. This time, it is not the Governor's Yamen that kills him, but the Pingnan Palace.

Just after noon, Zhu Guorong received an order from Shang Kexi, the king of Pingnan. The order was very simple. It was limited to Guangzhou Prefecture to gather 5,000 stone grains within seven days.

When the official document was still on the way from the Pingnan Palace, Shang Kexi handed a letter to Ban Zhifu, the capital, who had just returned from Xinhui, in the Pingnan Palace, which was rebuilt from the Yamen, the former governor of Guangdong and Guangxi in the Ming Dynasty.

The study area is very large, but UU Reading www.uukanshu.com is very simple. There is only one desk and a few chairs. It is said that it is a study, but there is no bookshelf, and there is not even a book on the desk. In the booklet, there is only a pen and inkstone, but judging from the dry appearance of the inkstone, I am afraid that King Pingnan never picked up a pen and wrote after he moved in.

The original owner of this study was Du Yonghe, the governor of Nanming and Guangxi, who was born in a martial arts but tended to be arty. After Li Chengdong's death, he privately opened the book without the consent of the Yongli court, and became the new owner of the governor's mansion. In order to show his elegance to the world, or perhaps he really felt that he had too little ink in his stomach, the second day he lived in the Governor's Mansion, Du Yonghe ordered people to loot thousands of books and put them in the study. Stay in this study for a while, or hold it and watch it for a moment, or ask the master to read it and listen to him. After the Qing army broke the city, Du Yonghe led his cronies out of the city, but these books were left here. As a result, after the new owner Shang Kexi moved in, he asked someone to remove all the books.

The different attitudes of the two owners before and after, the study has also changed a lot.

After reading the letter sent from Changsha word by word, Ban Zhifu put the letter on the table noncommittally, looked at Shang Kexi with inquiring eyes, and said softly, "What does the old supervisor mean? Let the lord go west?" (To be continued.)

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