I

Zhang Guowei is a member of the Donglin Party and just came to Nanjing this spring to serve as Minister of the Ministry of War.

The rise of Zhao Han in Jiangxi led to major changes in officials in various provinces. Moreover, the food shortage in Jiangnan became more serious, and the famine became more serious. The Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing and the Censor in charge of food changed several times.

Those who have been replaced must either go back to their hometowns or go to jail to face charges.

At this moment, many cities in the south of the Yangtze River began to recruit troops to defend their cities. Firstly, they were afraid that Zhang Xianzhong would cross the Yangtze River, and secondly, they were afraid that Zhao Han would suddenly send troops.

As for combat effectiveness, well...it's hard to say.

Let’s tell a story first——

In the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing's reign, about seventy Japanese pirates landed on the coast of Zhejiang. Within eighty days, they fought in three provinces, killing and injuring thousands of people, and finally fled away.

During this period, two Japanese pirates were captured and more than ten people were killed.

It's a pity that this kind of record has nothing to do with the officers and soldiers. It turned out to be ordinary people from Wuhu who stood on the roof and threw lime cans, causing the Japanese pirates to flee.

The more than 50 surviving Japanese pirates went to attack Nanjing, which had a garrison of more than 100,000 troops.

Of course, not all of these more than 100,000 officers and soldiers are in Nanjing. Some are guarding the imperial mausoleum, and some are working in the fields on the outskirts of the city. Anyway, the number of troops on paper is more than 100,000.

Zhu Xiang and Jiang Sheng, two commanders of the Nanjing Guards, took the initiative to lead troops out of the city to conquer. Because the weather was too hot and the Japanese pirates did not come, the officers and soldiers took off their armor to enjoy the cool weather. The officers also drank wine under the trees.

More than fifty Japanese pirates suddenly came and killed them. The officers and soldiers were so frightened that they immediately ran away and fell into the ditch trap they had dug in advance.

In this battle, the Ming army suffered more than 300 casualties.

The two leading generals, Zhu Xiang, were killed and Jiang Sheng was seriously injured.

The whole city of Nanjing was under martial law and soldiers were recruited to resist the Japanese pirates. Until more than fifty Japanese pirates left for several days, Nanjing was still under martial law for fear of being killed by the enemy.

After the Jiajing Japanese Rebellion subsided, decades passed and Jiangnan became even more emptied of military equipment.

It is said that all prefectures and counties recruit troops to defend the city, but where do the local officials have the money?

Even if there is money to recruit soldiers, there is no food to support them.

All the money and food from Jiangnan were shipped to Beijing!

For example, in the city of Nanjing, tens of thousands of new troops were temporarily organized and trained. Most of them are civilians who were forcibly recruited, and some are people in the city who take turns. Anyway, they can make up for it with a mouthful of food.

Several knights were standing there with swords on their backs, but the Minister of War in Nanjing did not dare to arrest them.

After arresting these people, what will the Zhao thieves do if they don’t sell the grain?

The anger of the people in the whole city must be directed at Zhang Guowei.

Zhang Guowei thought about it and decided that since the Nanjing treasury had no money, he would ask the nobles and gentry to buy grain, and let the restored scholars in the city bear witness.

As long as the nobles and gentry bought food, Zhang Guowei was not afraid of being impeached as a traitor.

As long as the scholars of the restoration community bear witness, if these noble gentry who buy grain dare to hoard it and sell it at high prices, Zhang Guowei will not be afraid of provoking public resentment.

Moreover, you can also use public grievances to force the noble gentry to open warehouses and release grain!

Two days later, the nobles, gentry, and powerful people from around Nanjing City came with their money after hearing the news.

Nanjing Pier.

Liu Shunyi, the general of the rebel navy, stood at the dock and shouted: "There are fifteen ships of grain now. Rice is worth six cents of silver per stone, and corn is three cents of silver per stone."

so cheap?

A man in brocade suddenly asked his entourage to beat the gong, and then shouted: "Silence, silence, no one is allowed to rob, my family will buy five large boats of rice first!"

Everyone dared not speak, they were afraid and angry.

The speaker is a servant of the Duke of Wei.

Liu Shunyi smiled and said: "Each family can buy at most one boat."

The slave of Wei Guogong immediately said: "For every stone of rice, I will give you one tael of silver!"

Liu Shunyi shook his head: "If you don't sell it for one tael, it will only sell for six yuan."

There was an uproar everywhere.

The slave smiled and said, "Hey, I've never seen anyone doing this kind of business. They don't sell for one tael of silver per stone, but they only sell it for six cents. Does it hurt your hands to have too much money?"

Liu Shunyi handed over to everyone: "Dear friends, there is not much food in Jiangxi. The more than ten ships of food now are all collected by the people of Jiangxi who live frugally. King Zhao Tian can't bear the people in Jiangnan to starve, so he specially asked me to transport them. The grain is here. Rice only costs six coins per stone. The grain merchant buys it and beats it into white rice. You decide how much it should be sold for!"

"good!"

"King Zhao is righteous!"

Liu Shunyi turned around again and said to Wei Guogong's slave: "If you want to buy it, buy it. You can only buy one boat!"

The slave looked at the guns and cannons on the ship, looked at the heavily armed sailors, gritted his teeth and said, "One ship at a time, the biggest one!"

The city gates of Nanjing are closed, and the rebels are on the river.

However, there were many coolies on the wharf, hired to carry food on the ship, and the commune scholars and the people outside the city watched the whole process of the nobles doing business with the rebels.

The scene was a bit weird and extremely outrageous.

The officers and soldiers of the navy also came over, as well as many cano ships and canal troops. Although they clearly had more ships and more strength, they did not dare to attack the rebel navy, and even hid far away for fear of being beaten.

Liu Shunyi sneered with disdain. He would write down how much food each family bought in a small notebook.

Whoever sells grain at ridiculous prices will definitely be liquidated in the future!

Huang Zongxi shook his head and sighed: "The world has collapsed and everything is upside down. It's really..."

"Hey, I don't ask for food prices to fall, I just ask for food prices to stop rising." Gu Gao sighed.

Gu Gao is the son of Gu Xiancheng, the founder of the Donglin Party. Gu Xiancheng's family only has a few hundred acres of land. If each landowner can reserve 20 acres of land, the Gu family is really not afraid of being divided.

When the Donglin Party was founded, its purpose was very simple, which was to save the country. Most of its members were small and medium-sized landowners.

After the big commotion, all parties joined in, resulting in a mixed bag of good and bad, and became a political tool for big landowners and businessmen.

Fushe is just the opposite.

When Fushe was first established, most of them were big landowners and businessmen. After the organization expanded, countless poor scholars joined, and the number of small landowners and small businessmen increased rapidly.

Wu Yingji suddenly said: "Before the summer harvest, it will definitely rise to two taels of silver per stone!"

Chen Zhenhui said: "Indeed."

"I want to go to Jiangxi to surrender to the thieves. Can any of you go with me?" Wu Yingji asked.

Gu Gao said: "I also want to go to Jiangxi, not to become a thief, but to observe its governance."

Huang Zongxi said: "Then let's go together."

Wu Yingji had already made up his mind and advised Zhao Han to take over Southern Zhili and Zhejiang immediately.

This gentleman was born into a wealthy family. Not only did he get along well in society, but he also liked to make friends with wanderers.

Based on his years of experience in the Jiangnan area, he wrote "An Opinion on Killing Bandits in the South of the Yangtze River" to discuss and summarize how to eradicate bandits. He also wrote "Jiangnan Fair Price Discussion" to discuss how to stabilize prices. Anyway, many of them are very practical articles.

Wu Yingji swaggered over and said to Liu Shunyi, "I want to be a thief."

Liu Shunyi corrected him: "He defected to the rebel army."

"It's all the same," Wu Yingji said with a smile, "I'm too lazy to find a boat, so I'll use a warship to take me a ride."

Liu Shunyi cupped his hands and said, "Sir, please get on board."

Seeing Wu Yingji boarding the boat, Gu Gao and Huang Zongxi also ran to follow.

Zhang Guowei, the Minister of War in Nanjing, was standing on the city tower at the moment, watching from a distance three Fushe scholars boarding the pirate ship, his facial expressions were extremely exciting.

The food, porcelain and other goods on the ship were transported for two days and sold to the gentry and merchants of Nanjing.

After unloading the warship, it immediately dragged the giant wood to Shanghai, where Zheng Zhilong's ship helped transport it to Guangdong.

Zhang Guowei watched the anti-thief fleet leave and sat down weakly.

He looked at the sky. There were dark clouds, and it seemed like it was going to rain.

It would be great if it rains, which means the drought will not be serious this year.

Historically, Zhang Guowei was widely known as a martyr against the Qing Dynasty, but his true identity was a water conservancy expert. He wanted to calm down the war and build water conservancy in a down-to-earth manner, and he would enjoy it even if he worked hard.

Shanghai.

Watching the Jiangxi navy hand over the huge tree to the Zheng family ship, Wu Yingji said: "Zheng Zhilong has colluded with Jiangxi. I'm afraid the entire province of Fujian can be captured in ten months."

"It's best to capture Jiangnan!" Huang Zongxi said angrily.

Although Huang Zongxi's resentment towards Chongzhen has not reached its peak, he has already secretly cursed him countless times.

Amidst this resentment, his thoughts gradually changed, but he had not yet systematically written an article. He felt that the evaluation of the order and chaos of the world should not be based on the rise and fall of one surname, but on the joy and sorrow of all people.

As long as all the people can be happy, it doesn't matter if the dynasty changes!

Zhao Han's article "On the Family, the Country, and the World" simply touched Huang Zongxi's heart. Moreover, Huang Zongxi did not expect many of the contents. After reading the article, he suddenly felt enlightened.

Back in the cabin, Huang Zongxi read "On the Family, the Country, and the World" again, and suddenly began to write a manuscript.

"Yuanjun"!

"At the beginning of life, everyone is selfish and everyone has his own interests. There is a public interest in the world, but there is no way to promote it..."

Since the beginning of human society, people have been selfish.

No one starts things that are beneficial to the public; no one gets rid of things that are harmful to the public.

If there is such a person, he does not seek personal gain, but only seeks the benefit of the world. He does not seek to avoid personal harm, but seeks to avoid harm to the world. Then he must have worked tens of millions of times, put in tens of millions of times of hard work, but he did not enjoy the benefits. Ordinary people would not do it... This has been the case throughout the ages, and the three generations of saints are not immune to this.

The monarchs after three generations regarded themselves as masters of the people, ascribing the benefits of the world to themselves and the harm of the world to others. It also makes people in the world dare not be selfish and regard their own private interests as the public interests of the world. You may start to feel ashamed, but over time you will feel at ease.

Huang Zongxi's "Yuanjun" was influenced by Zhao Han's "Lun on the Family, State, and World" and wrote much more in-depth history than the original history.

He compared the country to a big business house. The emperor was the chief shopkeeper of the business, and the officials were the second shopkeeper, the third shopkeeper, and the branch shopkeeper. All the people in the world were shareholders of the business.

A firm is a firm owned by shareholders, and the world belongs to everyone in the world.

If the emperor and officials are incompetent, they should all be replaced. Just like shareholders replacing many shopkeepers, this is the most reasonable. In today's world, the top shopkeepers and second shopkeepers are actually trying to seize the shareholders' property, and they will not stop until they starve to death.

Only those ignorant little Confucians will cling to the righteousness of monarch and minister, thinking that the relationship between monarch and minister is innate and unchanging.

A true Confucian should understand the truth: the people are more important than the country, and the country is more important than the king!

After writing "Yuanjun", Huang Zongxi gave it to Gu Gao and Wu Yingji.

After the two of them looked at it, they were inexplicably horrified.

Wu Yingji said: "This article must not appear in the world, otherwise which monarch can tolerate it?"

"Burn it quickly, or you may be killed!" Gu Gao advised.

Huang Zongxi smiled and said: "Many of the meaning of this article comes from "Lun on Family, State and World", but I wrote it more openly. If Zhao Han of Jiangxi can be tolerated, then this person will be the wise master of the ages. If so. He can't stand it, he is a person who deceives the world and steals his reputation, so it would be better to kill me so that the world can see his true face."

(The temperature dropped suddenly, I caught a cold, and my throat and nose felt uncomfortable. There are only two updates today.)