Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 514 A bloody murder caused by a chicken

After listening to Hei Yunlong's story, Wang Rong felt very uncomfortable. As a member of the Shanxi army, he was naturally close to people from his hometown. What's more, he himself was born in a Shanxi military household.

Although the Shanxi troops of Governor Geng Ruqi and General Zhang Honggong were not soldiers of Luzhou Guard, they were still his fellow townsmen after all, and most of the Shanxi guards were related by marriage, so they could be more or less connected. Now that the Shanxi army had run out of food and was still causing so much trouble for the court, Wang Rong was very angry.

He did bring a lot of baggage with him this time, and he had enough food for the time being, so he could squeeze out some to support the Shanxi Army. If he had known about this situation earlier, he might have helped a long time ago. Thinking of this, Wang Rong coughed and was about to speak, but before he could say anything, there was a sudden noise outside, and then Li You's voice rang out outside the tent.

"What's the matter? Come in and talk!" Zhu Shenzhui said.

As soon as he finished speaking, Li You walked in quickly. Seeing Zhu Shenzhui and the others, he bowed first, and then said, "General Hei, General Wang, I just received news that the Shanxi army mutinied!"

"What!" When Li You said this, the three of them were shocked and stood up involuntarily.

Just now they were talking about the Shanxi army, but how come they mutinied in the blink of an eye? What was going on?
How could they sit still after hearing this news? Hei Yunlong and Wang Rong were about to go out to inquire about the situation. Although Zhu Shenzhui was anxious, he did not run out with them. He had a special identity and did not hold a military position in the army. He had no problem staying in the camp, but it would be troublesome if he ran into trouble outside. So although he was also anxious and wanted to understand the situation, his reason made him stay and wait patiently for news from Hei Yunlong and Wang Rong.

Hei Yunlong and Wang Rong temporarily left the military camp and went out to inquire about the news. Zhu Shenzui waited patiently for the news. It was not until the evening that Hei Yunlong and Wang Rong came back and brought back the situation of the Shanxi army.

The Shanxi army did mutinied, and the main reason for the mutiny was lack of food.

The Shanxi army came from afar to support the emperor. After arriving in the capital, the imperial court had not distributed any food. Since the Shanxi army did not carry much food and did not have enough dry food, they soon fell into a food shortage.

In order to get food from the imperial court, the governor Geng Ruqi and the general Zhang Honggong begged for food several times, but they could not get enough food. As time went by, the food in the Shanxi army had long been eaten up. Not only did the 8,000 soldiers go hungry, but they also changed three defense zones in three consecutive days, which was very troublesome.

One day, the soldiers could not bear it any longer. If they continued like this, they would starve to death. They had come from thousands of miles away to fight for the country, but they could not even get enough food. The court did not even treat them as human beings. How could the soldiers tolerate this? In order to fill their stomachs, a few brave soldiers decided to find a way to get food by themselves. The so-called way was nothing more than looking for food from the people near the capital.

It sounds good to say that looking for food among the people is actually just stealing food from the hands of ordinary people. At this time, nothing is more important than filling your stomach.

Who would have thought that by doing this, they would end up stealing from the home of an official from the capital. Several soldiers stole an old laying hen from the official's home.

The housekeeper of the Beijing official's family found out that the Shanxi army had stolen his old hen. He was so angry that he relied on his background to find the Shanxi army stationed nearby to ask for punishment. When the governor Geng Ruqi and the general Zhang Honggong learned about the situation, they were speechless after asking about the situation. After all, it was against military discipline for the soldiers of the imperial army to steal the food of the people, and they also stole the old hen of the Beijing official's house, which was even more serious.

Originally, the governor Geng Ruqi and the general Zhang Honggong planned to settle the matter peacefully and pay the compensation themselves. But they didn't expect that the housekeeper would bully them by taking advantage of his power and didn't take the governor Geng Ruqi and the general Zhang Honggong seriously at all. They kept saying that these soldiers were so bold, do you know whose old hen this was? But it belonged to their master! And who was their master? It was the minister in the court!
So what if you are the governor? So what if you are the general? You have to kowtow and apologize when you see their master? Now you have stolen the master's old hen and killed it to eat? It's simply lawless! This is clearly looking down on their master and slapping their master in the face! Is it enough to just pay some money? If so, where is the face of their master? Where is the prestige of the officials in Beijing?
The steward was unyielding and kept shouting that he didn't want the money. He was determined to teach these soldiers a lesson today. Anyone who stole his master's old hen would be severely punished according to military law. How could he let him off so easily?
Punish according to military law? Isn't it that the soldiers who stole the chicken should pay for the old hen's life? You should know that the military law of the Ming army is very strict. It was established during the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang. According to the military law, this kind of situation is punishable by death by beheading.

But in fact, after so many years, almost no one abides by these military laws of the Ming army. Stealing a mere old hen is a matter of reason. Because the court has not allocated food, everyone is so hungry that they can't stand it. From this point of view, it's fine for the victim to ask for some compensation. Even the governor and the general are willing to pay the compensation. Why force them?

But no one knew what was wrong with the steward's brain. He refused to pay the silver and insisted on punishing the soldiers who stole the chickens according to military law. Helplessly, the governor Geng Ruqi had to ask people to find the soldiers who stole the chickens and kneel on the ground to beg for forgiveness. However, even so, the steward still refused to give in and even forced the soldiers to die.

The behavior of this butler, who relied on his superiors for power, immediately aroused the anger of the soldiers. They were already dissatisfied with the court's treatment, and now someone's life was being taken just for a chicken. How could these soldiers tolerate this?
Immediately, several soldiers who were close to the soldier who stole the chicken stood up for their brothers. How could they bear it in such anger? They drew their swords and killed the arrogant housekeeper on the spot. After killing the housekeeper, the murderer raised his arms and shouted that since the court would not give them food, they could not starve to death like this! They came to serve the court and ended up like this? An old hen in the official's home could actually save several lives of his brothers? They were going to die anyway, and now that the person had been killed, they might as well go all out and rob the official's home. It would be better to die of fullness than starvation! These words directly touched the hearts of many people, and the anger of the crowd was aroused at once. In addition, everyone's anger had been accumulated for a long time, so how could they stop it? In a blink of an eye, hundreds of soldiers rushed towards the village where the official from Beijing lived. Before Governor Geng Ruqi and General Zhang Honggong could come to their senses and try to stop them, the soldiers rushed directly into the village, drew their knives and killed everyone in the official's family, looted all the food and silver in the house, and set a fire when they left, burning half the sky red.

As soon as this incident happened, the news spread quickly to the capital, especially the minister whose house was burned down and people died. He was extremely angry and quickly informed Emperor Chongzhen of the matter. He cried and exaggerated, saying that Governor Geng Ruqi and General Zhang Honggong failed to control their subordinates and deliberately condoned their subordinates to looting and killing, which was simply unforgivable.

When Emperor Chongzhen learned about this, he was very angry. He sent people out of the city to arrest Governor Geng Ruqi and General Zhang Honggong without saying a word. He tied them up and put them directly in prison.

When the soldiers who had caused the riot learned that the governor and the general had been arrested and imprisoned, they were stunned. They had not expected the consequences to be so serious. Even such high-ranking officials as the governor and the general were imprisoned. If the case was brought to the attention of the soldiers, wouldn't they be beheaded?

The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became. With the two main generals having been captured, the entire Shanxi Army was leaderless. Several middle and lower-level officers and soldiers in the Shanxi Army met and discussed, and they all felt that they should not have come to support the king this time.

They had come from afar with great difficulty, originally to rescue the capital. But now the treatment they received was completely different from what they had imagined. Not only were they not able to eat enough, but they were also beheaded for an old hen. Why should they continue to work for such a court? Damn it! Whoever loves to serve the emperor should serve the emperor. I quit! If I don't run away, will I just sit there and wait to die? Run!
Just like that, not long after Governor Geng Ruqi and General Zhang Honggong were captured, the Shanxi army mutinied. The 8,000 Shanxi soldiers scattered in a hurry, and many of them wantonly looted several nearby villages. During the looting, they encountered resistance and became ferocious, and directly drew their knives and killed many people.

For a while, the surrounding areas of the capital, which had been looted by Huang Taiji's Eight Banners soldiers not long ago, were looted again by the Shanxi army. This time, the looting and destruction caused by the mutiny was even worse than that of the Eight Banners. After robbing the things, these chaotic soldiers wrapped the looted things in bundles and carried them on their backs, and ran to Shanxi without looking back. When Hei Yunlong and his men received the news, the Shanxi army camp of 8,000 people was empty, not even a hair was left.

After hearing the news brought back by Hei Yunlong and Wang Rong, Zhu Shenzhui and others looked at each other, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Although this matter seemed to be a problem of the Shanxi Army, in fact it was the imperial court that let down the Shanxi Army first. If the imperial court had allocated food in time, refrained from harassing the Shanxi Army, and properly settled this army, how could such a chaos have happened?
"When I came back, an imperial decree came down from the capital, asking my troops to pursue the fleeing Shanxi troops." Hei Yunlong said with a wry smile.

"Hei Shuai, you're not really going to send troops to chase them, are you?"

Hei Yunlong shook his head: "We have to send people, after all, the court has to give an explanation, but to what extent it will be done is hard to say. Well, if we talk about this matter, we can't blame these brothers entirely. This is the best I can do."

Hei Yunlong said so, and Wang Rong agreed: "These officials in the court are all bastards! How could such a thing happen if they hadn't forced them? In my opinion, if things continue like this, today's incident is just the beginning, and it may happen again."

After Wang Rong said this, everyone stopped talking, but the worry on everyone's face was obvious, because Wang Rong was right, this was indeed a big problem.

On the second day, because of the Shanxi army mutiny, the arrested Shanxi Governor Geng Ruqi and General Zhang Honggong were directly executed. Emperor Chongzhen clearly wanted to use killing to intimidate the troops and warn them that if they could not control their own troops, these two people would serve as a lesson for them.

But Emperor Chongzhen never expected that his actions would not only fail to work, but also make the local loyalist troops disappointed in the court. Because there is a key issue, that is, the reason why the Shanxi army mutinied has never been solved by the court, and the various troops have always faced such a problem. As long as this problem is not solved, the hidden danger will still exist.

Just three days after Geng Ruqi and Zhang Honggong were executed, the Yansui Army also encountered trouble, and the cause of the accident was almost the same as that of the Shanxi Army. Not long after that, news suddenly came from Gansu that the Gansu Qinwang Army had mutinied and killed the commander on the way, and the troops directly rebelled. For a time, the morale of the Qinwang Army was unstable, and Emperor Chongzhen received bad news from various troops one after another. There were continuous Qinwang Army troops that either dispersed because of mutiny or killed officials because of mutiny. The emperor was dumbfounded.

(End of this chapter)