I

The layout of Nanjing Imperial City and Beijing Imperial City is not exactly the same, but they can be said to be similar.

The locations of the six offices are similar.

Zhao Han now lives in the area to the west of Liubu. Walking north along the Qinhuai River, you can reach Taipingmen. Beyond Taipingmen is Xuanwu Lake.

There were many lakes in Nanjing in the late Ming Dynasty. In addition to Xuanwu Lake, there were also Qianhu, Nanhu, Zhonghu, Mochou Lake and so on.

Before Zhao Han conquered Nanjing, Xuanwu Lake was a forbidden area for the royal family.

Now, of course, the ban has been lifted. There are fishermen going to the lake to fish, farmers farming by the lake, and even famous prostitutes moving their boats to Xuanwu Lake.

Zhao Han took the boat today, not to visit famous prostitutes, but to take his whole family on a trip. After the flood receded, I took advantage of the opportunity to visit the lake and let Fei Rulan, Pan Qimei, and Zhao Zhenfang relax.

Several women were lying at the window of the boat, looking at the scenery of Purple Mountain in the distance, chattering privately.

"There should be a sluice gate on the city wall over there."

Zhao Han pointed to a section of city wall northwest of Taiping Gate: "Emperor Hongwu built the city and forcibly separated the Qinhuai River from Xuanwu Lake, which made Xuanwu Lake unable to be used for flood discharge during floods. The water from the Yangtze River could not flow into Xuanwu Lake through the Qinhuai River. It will become smaller and smaller. We must also order that the land around Xuanwu Lake within half a mile must not be used for farming!"

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the ban on Xuanwu Lake was lifted, and the gentry and the powerful continued to encircle the lake to create farmland, resulting in a crazy reduction in the area of ​​the lake. The lake filling caused the Nanjing Middle Lake to disappear directly.

Xu Nianzu nodded and said: "It is indeed time to reconnect the Qinhuai River and Xuanwu Lake. This year, the water in the Qinhuai River has flooded the streets on both sides."

The famous prostitute Gu Hengbo is playing the piano in the cabin.

Lu Xiangsheng listened to the music, closed his eyes and rested his mind. He was waiting for Zhao Han to assign errands.

Zhao Han stood up and looked at the lake, but he was thinking about how to stabilize Beijing if Nanjing was the capital.

In the Ming Dynasty, there was Shuntian Prefecture where Beijing was located, Yingtian Prefecture where Nanjing was located, and Chengtian Prefecture (the hometown of Jiajing) in Hubei. These three are equivalent to municipalities directly under the Central Government, and strictly speaking, Fengyang must be added.

If we want to stabilize Beijing and prevent Beijing from declining, we must establish "directly-governed municipalities."

The administrative establishment of Chengtian Mansion must be abolished, and Zhao Han, a municipality directly under the Central Government, plans to establish five——

The first is Nanjing, the second is Beijing, the third is Shenyang, the fourth is Xi'an, and the fifth is Kunming.

The prefects of these five municipalities must have the same rank as the chief envoys. Only with a high enough level can large cities in remote areas be able to radiate to surrounding areas and play a role in stabilizing the country.

Suddenly, Zhao Han turned around and said, "Mr. Jiutai, you can go with the army to fight Anqing."

"Yes." Lu Xiang rose and raised his hands.

Zhao Han said with a smile: "Read the "Datong Collection" carefully several times first, and serve as a military missionary officer for a year, so that I can turn you into a commanding general."

This summer we suffered floods in several provinces and it was indeed not suitable for an all-out Northern Expedition.

But it is still possible to occupy cities along the river and use them as strongholds for the Northern Expedition.

Fei Ruhe has already occupied Yangzhou, and there are still Liuhe, Jiangpu, Hezhou, Wuwei, Wangjiang, and Anqing to occupy.

These cities are all on the riverside or not far from the Yangtze River.

There is no need to recruit a large number of civilians to transport the baggage. You can just cross the river by boat and capture it. Once you capture it, it will be the front station of the Northern Expedition.

End of June.

Lu Xiangsheng held "Datong Collection" in his arms and followed Zhang Tieniu to fight against Anqing.

Anqing is a fortified city.

King Ning rebelled and was blocked here, and the Jiajing Dynasty built more cities again.

"Fujun, Jiangxi soldiers are coming." Fang Yuegong, the prefect of Anqing, said.

Li Yukui, the governor of Anlu, asked: "Do you want to surrender the thieves?"

Fang Yuegong sighed: "My home is in Gucheng. It was occupied by the Eight Thieves (Zhang Xianzhong) for a year, and now it has been completely occupied by the Eight Thieves. My father wrote a letter saying that the property in the family is still there, but the frivolous wealth has been robbed, leaving only a few The silver buried in the cellar.”

Li Yukui smiled bitterly: "You still know the information about my hometown, but there is no news about my family. I don't know if they were robbed by the intruder (Li Zicheng)."

Li Zicheng was sweeping Shanxi, and Li Yukui was from Shanxi.

Fang Yuegong added: "Zhao Han opened a port in Shanghai, and I built the seawall and stone pond in Shanghai County with my own hands. If you want to come, you can go there to ask for a job."

Over in Shanghai, there is also Fang Yuegong’s shrine... built voluntarily by the common people.

It was also because Shanghai's rich households were forced to pay for the construction of seawalls and stone ponds. Those with more than 100 acres of land were paid eight cents of silver per acre, which violated the interests of the gentry. They were falsely accused of embezzling 3,000 taels of silver, and Fang Yuegong was once imprisoned.

After the grievance was revealed, Fang Yuegong was sent to supervise the transportation of grain.

In recent years, the grain supply has been cut off every day, and Fang Yuegong was demoted to be the prefect of Anqing because of his poor performance.

Li Yukui walked out of the governor's residence and came to the city head with Fang Yuegong.

Looking at the enemy troops landing outside the city, Li Yukui said to the officials and soldiers around him: "If you want to surrender, then surrender. Jiangxi soldiers will not kill innocent people indiscriminately."

Anqing cannot be defended.

In the first two years, Shi Kefa trained the Anlu New Army, and Ding You went home to mourn. Last year, Zheng Eryang led the new army across the river to defend Taiping Mansion, but was eventually forced to surrender.

Now, Li Yukui has succeeded as the governor of Anlu. How can he still have any troops at his disposal?

There are only a few thousand recruits in the city, and they are all recruited vagrants!

Anqing is a very important cargo transfer station in the Yangtze River Basin. In particular, a lot of grain from the provinces in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River is transported here for storage. Therefore, the transit trade is extremely prosperous, the population gathers rapidly, and homeless people can find jobs to make a living.

After Zhao Han occupied Jiangnan, he did not dare to transport food to Anqing for transit, for fear of being detained by the imperial officers and soldiers.

There are also many other goods that dare not go to Anqing.

Anqing's trade volume declined rapidly, and a large number of urban vagrants were unemployed. Li Yukui could only recruit these vagrants as soldiers.

Now that Zhao Han's army is coming, what choice will the homeless people defending the city make?

Of course, they must surrender immediately and resume trade and transportation in Anqing as soon as possible so that they can find jobs and make money to support their families. If they continue to serve as soldiers, their whole family will starve to death sooner or later!

Li Yukui knew this and said with a sad smile: "Surrender, everyone go to Kaicheng and surrender."

Li Yukui looked at the north again and murmured: "With the helpless king in power and the treacherous ministers in the dynasty, the Ming Dynasty is hopeless. But the dynasty has been raising scholars for three hundred years, how can it be without ministers who died for righteousness? Your Majesty, Sir Take a step forward and it won't be too late for you."

Fang Yuegong felt something was wrong and said: "Fujun, don't think too much. The revolution of the country and the reincarnation of destiny are beyond human power... Fujun!"

Li Yukui suddenly rushed forward, jumped over the female wall, and jumped from the high city wall, and his head fell downwards.

Fang Yuegong wanted to stop him, but his movement was too slow and he only caught the corner of Li Yukui's clothes.

"Bang!"

With a muffled sound, the human body fell to the ground.

Lu Xiangsheng had already landed with the army, and when he saw the flag lowered on the top of the city, he was lamenting that the Ming Dynasty was completely hopeless after taking the huge city so lightly.

There was a muffled sound, and the body was only a few dozen steps away from Lu Xiangsheng.

Lu Xiangsheng ran over quickly and turned the body upside down. The brain matter has burst out, and blood has flowed over half of his face, but he can still vaguely identify who it is.

Lu Xiangsheng said sadly and angrily: "Li Yifu, why are you so confused!"

The city gate gradually opened. Zhang Tieniu led his troops over. He looked at the corpse and said, "You are really confused. You have already surrendered. Why are you seeking death?"

Lu Xiangsheng shook his head and said: "You don't understand, you don't understand. He did not die for the emperor, but for the Ming Dynasty. Throughout the dynasties, when the country was changing, someone always had to die."

Zhang Tieniu muttered: "Why should I die? Let the people have enough to eat."

Playing the harp to a cow was unclear, and Lu Xiangsheng was too lazy to explain it further.

After the officers and soldiers in the city came out of the city to surrender, Lu Xiangsheng said: "Let the martyrs be buried generously. I will pay for it myself."

"Greetings to the general!" Fang Yuegong and his officials bowed to greet him.

Lu Xiangsheng recognized Fang Yuegong and reminded: "Zhang Bingyuan, this Mr. Fang is very famous. He supervised the construction of the first seawall and stone pond in the south of the Yangtze River. He protected countless fertile fields and provided food and clothing for thousands of people. Shanghai The county still has his birthplace."

Zhang Tieniu originally looked down upon Fang Yuegong, but after hearing this, he immediately raised his hands and said with a smile: "You are a good official, Lao Zhang will salute you now."

Fang Yuegong returned the greeting and said: "General, you don't have to be like this. It's reasonable to serve as an official for one term and benefit one party."

While they were talking, all the defenders in the city had come out. They put down their weapons and ran to find work.

When the army arrived in Anqing, it naturally had a lot of baggage, and the defenders were mostly homeless coolies. These people did not want to fight, they just wanted to work as coolies to make money, and took the opportunity to carry baggage for the Datong Army.

"General, please bring us the rations on the ship!"

"That's right, I've been carrying bags at the dock for several years, so I'm very strong."

"Your Majesty, please give me some work. The wages are very low, guaranteed to be less than the coolies in Nanjing."

"..."

These people, who were the defenders of Anqing just now, suddenly nodded and came to take over the work.

Lu Xiangsheng couldn't laugh or cry. He was so full of emotions that he could only sigh.

He often fights with bandits, and this situation cannot happen when bandits attack the city. Not to mention the homeless coolies, even the residents in the city will spontaneously go to the city to defend themselves when encountering rogue bandits, because rogue bandits will inevitably rob when they enter the city!

This cannot be achieved by having strong military power, but must also have a reputation of benevolence and righteousness spread far and wide.

The people of Anqing knew that as long as they surrendered to King Zhao Tian, ​​they would definitely have a good life in the future.

All the cities along the Yangtze River know this truth. There was only a river across the river, and they heard countless rumors that the farmers on the other side had divided their fields, and the people in the city did not pay excessive taxes.

What a wonderful life it was, why didn’t King Zhao Tian come across the river?

"The world is unified!"

"Long live King Zhao!"

The people had some doubts at first, but when they saw that the soldiers of Datong did nothing wrong, they walked out of their homes one after another and stood on both sides of the street to watch and cheer.

Lu Xiangsheng followed the army into the city and saw more and more people celebrating joyfully.

This feeling is absurd and intoxicating.

Maintaining order in the city during the day, Lu Xiangsheng took out "Datong Collection" at night. He has read this book more than ten times, but he has new thoughts every time he reads it.

Many of the principles in the book can be verified by the farmers in Yixing and the citizens of Anqing.

Lu Xiangsheng was also considerate of the people, and Tianxiong's army also did nothing wrong.

But the Tianxiong Army and the Datong Army are obviously different.

One is fighting for the emperor, and the other is fighting for the people!

Lu Xiangsheng read the three chapters "Yuanjun", "Yuanchen" and "Yuanmin" repeatedly, and he finally fully understood what Zhao Han said about the great unity of the world.