Ancestors, please don't crawl out again.

Chapter 8 Han Xin's Ambition

night.

"Damn, these bastards, I can't do this without whipping them."

Yang Feng, standing on the Chengtian Gate, sat on a royal chair, holding a teacup and looking at the chaos in Nanjing.

Almost all the streets became battlefields.

There were flames and shouts everywhere, and the Qing army, who were rushing around like headless flies in the maze of streets, were surrounded by countless citizens attacking with various weapons.

The nobles within the city, hereditary military commanders, gentry with hundreds or even thousands of servants, clan leaders, and even temple elders all led their men out that night to fight. Add to that the citizens who spontaneously joined in, and millions of young and strong men laid siege to the less than 50,000 Qing troops within the city...

Terrified.

The horrific reality of Ningjin Bodi being razed to the ground by divine punishment, with no one in his family spared, finally made them realize that Emperor Taizu Gao was truly capable of incinerating a city with fire from heaven. They also finally remembered that Emperor Taizu Gao was no mere talker. He could skin and straw people, execute nine generations of a clan, and execute tens of thousands of people in prison at will. To deter those who printed counterfeit banknotes, he would even hang corpses all the way from Nanjing to Suzhou.

In his eyes, Nanjing's population of one million is probably just a number!

After killing millions of soldiers in Jiangnan, the sword in the box is still stained with blood!

It’s not like he hasn’t done it before.

and so……

Let’s sacrifice the king’s division!

It’s not like they don’t have the ability to do so. If they can’t offend Emperor Taizu, can they not offend the royal army?

They already had a complete military system, with nobles, hereditary generals, military households in the garrisons, and a complete command system. They were not short of weapons. The warehouses of each garrison had everything from old-fashioned firearms to armor, and countless cold weapons.

Even though it has been gathering dust for more than two hundred years.

But fortunately, a rusty knife can still kill the enemy.

The ancient Hongwu cannon was equally powerful in urban street fighting.

Not to mention the influx of refugees, and the city still harboring a large number of fleeing northern soldiers. The gentry all had household slaves, and even some officials had their own retainers. In those days, it was customary for officials to have several retainers. The fall of this city was never a matter of strength. As long as they didn't surrender, even if they had blocked all the gates, climbed the walls with hoes to defend, and smashed down with stones and wood, the Qing army wouldn't have been able to break in without suffering heavy casualties.

In the era of cold weapons, and even in the era of primitive hot weapons, the Nanjing City Wall was a despairing existence for attackers.

The cannon couldn't fire it open.

There are not so many lives to be lost in the ant colony.

The solid blue brick walls, which are more than ten or even twenty meters high, are immune to all siege equipment.

But unfortunately, they surrendered without a fight.

"It seems that this generation is not weak, but lacks courage."

Han Xin said.

On the street not far from them, a group of panicked Qing troops were heading south, trying to reach Zhengyang Gate to escape from the city that was already under attack. On the nearby wall, young and strong men holding bamboo spears kept stabbing at the Qing troops crossing the street. In the narrow street, the six or seven meter long bamboo spears kept knocking the Qing soldiers off their horses.

Bricks are still falling from the sky.

Although these blue bricks are too heavy and cannot be thrown too far, fortunately there is no need to throw them far.

As for the rooftops, there are archers, crossbowmen, javelin throwers, harpooners...

The harpoon ratio is still very high.

The barbed harpoons accurately pierced the Qing army and their war horses.

There are even some holding ancient magic guns.

It's a matchlock gun.

Flames burst out from the embroidered building of a mansion.

The antique short and thick general cannon found in some warehouse fired gravel shells that swept across the Qing army.

Although the latter's armor is enough to resist, the warhorse has no armor.

Amidst the chaos, an injured Qing soldier struggled to get up and seek help from his passing companions, but he was knocked down again by blue bricks falling from the sky. The result of being hit on the head by a blue brick weighing more than ten pounds was that he could only twitch on the ground and soon became motionless.

Behind the Qing cavalry, even the pursuing cavalry appeared, and they were obviously real cavalry. The cavalrymen holding three-shot matchlock guns on horseback fired at their backs. This thing was commonly used by the Ming cavalry in the later period, and it was even a revolving barrel, that is, three musket barrels equipped with a matchlock ignition system. After firing a shot, it rotates to the next barrel to fire again. The only ones who could use this were servants.

"Why, any ideas?"

Yang Feng said with a smile.

Han Xin is not him.

For him, this trip was just to complete the mission and have some fun at the same time, but Han Xin was originally a general who controlled a certain area and a prince. It was impossible for him not to have some ideas when he was suddenly brought here.

"What is the population of the Ming Dynasty?"

Han Xin said.

"It's hard to say. Their population has basically never been truly counted, except for a true national census conducted in Zhu Yuanzhang's later years. The population was close to 60 million, but that wasn't the full population, because there were still local chieftains in various places that weren't counted. The latter were similar to princes, submitting, paying taxes, and tribute, but the court didn't directly manage them. After Zhu Yuanzhang, there were no more. The official figures were just randomly changed to fool the emperor, so the population is estimated by later generations. Some estimates are over 200 million, some estimate around 150 million, and after the current chaos, it should be no less than 100 million. After all, the core population area of ​​Jiangnan was not affected by the war."

Yang Feng said.

There was only one census in the Ming Dynasty, which was completed in the 26th year of Zhu Yuanzhang's Hongwu reign.

In the future, local officials would submit reports, and the court would then make revisions based on these reports.

I was quite serious at first, but then I just wrote it down casually. And I couldn't write too much. After all, as the population increased, taxes had to increase accordingly. But population figures were easy to fabricate, and the emperor couldn't check them, but taxes couldn't be fabricated. If the official population grew, then taxes had to increase. But Ming Dynasty taxes didn't increase, but decreased year by year. So there had to be an explanation. So the official population couldn't increase, but had to decrease.

That explains it.

If the population does not grow, it would be more reasonable for the tax rate to decrease instead of increase.

Similarly, the fact that the gentry did not pay taxes on a large scale could be covered up.

The accounts cannot be cleared.

Once it is clear, there is no room for manipulation.

The less clear it is, the more room there is for manipulation, so the official population of the Ming Dynasty has always been around 60 million. Then, at the official level, the facts that a large number of gentry did not pay taxes, had hidden fields everywhere, and had thousands of servants were covered up in this confusing account.

"Is there any other country competing with it?"

“It’s hard to say. Due to limited conditions, those who can rival it cannot reach it. Although those who can reach it can bite it because of its weakness, the fact is that as long as this country returns to normal, there is no need to say that it will return to prosperity, just return to normal.

There was no nationwide famine, no internal rebellion.

These are just trash.

If you're serious, you can just step on it to death.

This was the case with the grandfather of the emperor who hanged himself. Although later generations judged the Ming Dynasty to have fallen under the Wanli Emperor, all those who attempted to challenge the country during his time were still defeated. The country was too vast, and both population and wealth overwhelmed the surrounding forces. As long as it could barely maintain normalcy, the surrounding forces could only kneel.

"Why not give it a try?"

Han Xin watched the melee outside with obvious excitement.

"Uh, you're not serious, are you?"

Yang Feng said in astonishment.

"If you don't want to, I'm willing to give it a try."

Han Xin said with an eager attitude.

It seemed like he had finally found the meaning of life.

Ever since he was brought here by Yang Feng, he has actually been in confusion. After all, he doesn't know where to go. Even if he could go back to his own era, he doesn't want to go back. But the problem is that he doesn't know where to go either. This era obviously allows people like him who have walked out of the chaos and disputes to find their former ambitions.

"Try, try as much as you want. After all, how much worse can it get? The Jiannu will massacre everywhere and slaughter countless cities. You won't kill half of the population if you try again." Yang Feng said.

Han Xin reformed the Ming Dynasty...

This style of painting is quite weird.

But Han Xin would only use the methods used at that time to reform the Ming Dynasty.

And their set...

What was the system of the Qin and Han dynasties?
Conscription, granting land for military merit, expanding territory...

We can only hope that the surrounding forces can die in a dignified manner. A classical empire with a population of 100 million, full of desire for territorial expansion, compulsory military service, and all good family members serving as soldiers, equipped with cannons and flintlock rifles, will really become a disaster for them.

The Western Han Dynasty had already exercised restraint.

After all, the Liu family was calling for the punishment of the tyrannical Qin, and they also wanted to recuperate and respect the Huang-Lao school of thought. Although the facts were not mentioned, the Western Han Dynasty was indeed restrained. The only one who did not restrain himself was Emperor Wu of Han.

"Grandpa, the Duke of Wei is waiting to see you."

At this time, Han Zanzhou suddenly walked up to the city wall to pay his respects and report.

Yang Feng turned to look at the Altar of Grain and Earth. Amidst the still-uncleared corpses of the Qing army, a sea of ​​red had already formed. Even more men in red and blue robes were arriving to join the kneeling procession. Because the Meridian Gate was still burning, and the battlefield lay outside the Right Gate of Chang'an, those ministers eager to see the emperor could only enter the Imperial City through the relatively safe Xi'an Gate and then wait in the open space behind the Altar of Grain and Earth.

In front of them was a Sheji Street Gate, which led to the area between Duanmen and Chengtianmen.

It was obvious that the nobles in the city had already thought that they would not be in danger. After all, they had been ordered to attack the Jiannu and could now come to the emperor for an audience.

"Which one is the Duke of Wei?"

Yang Feng said.

"That's the one wearing the gifted dragon robe."

Han Zanzhou pointed at a middle-aged man wearing a dragon robe and said.

This is Xu Wenjue, Duke of Wei. He inherited the title not long ago. His father is Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei who supported Hongguang.

"Let them all come in!"

Yang Feng said.

Then he looked at Han Xin and pointed at Duoduo below.

My Prince Yu of the Qing Dynasty was already dead at this time, and was obviously a little battered. Yang Feng meant that he should let these people have a physical taste of Prince Yu.

Han Xin looked at Yang Feng in confusion.

"We're all going to die, why do this?"

He said in confusion.

Yang Feng took a deep breath.

"You want to kill all of these?"

He said.

"These people have already surrendered to the enemy, and are now forced to do so. Although they have come to see the emperor, they already harbor hidden hatred in their hearts. Moreover, they have been entrenched here for hundreds of years. Even if they dare not resist openly, they must act in secret. Moreover, if we want to restore the world's military prowess, what use are these people? Not only should they be killed, but their entire clan should also be exterminated to prevent them from becoming a threat. Their wives, daughters, and slaves should be used to reward the soldiers, their property should be confiscated for state use, and their land should be distributed to the people to win their hearts.

There are two million people here, and if we recruit the young and strong we can get 200,000 soldiers.

Kill the powerful and wealthy to win their hearts.

Jiangdong is within easy reach.

Since Jiangdong contains half the world's people and all its wealth, if we take Jiangdong, the world will be at peace."

Han Xin said.

"Isn't that a bit harsh? Let me take a look. If it doesn't work, I'll just kill him with a part of his body."

After all, Yang Feng is not a murderer like him.

"If you want to kill them all, kill them all. Pick out a few and execute them. Do you still hope that the rest will be grateful?"

Han Xin said.

Han Zanzhou watched with trepidation.

He now realized that the man who called himself Emperor Taizu Gao did not look like Taizu, but the man who called himself Han Xin looked more like Taizu. He was going to wipe out all the nobles in Nanjing!
"Go and pass on the decree first!"

Yang Feng waved to him.

Han Zanzhou hurried to convey the imperial edict for Emperor Taizu Gao.

Yang Feng sat there pondering.

"You wish to gather the descendants of the Zhu family, and in the name of the Zhu family's great ancestor, you must strictly enforce the law. These people have gained their wealth and status from the Zhu family, and when they surrendered to the enemy, they were all traitors. According to the law, they should be executed along with their entire family."

Han Xin continued to seduce him.

Then he signaled with his eyes to the eunuchs holding AK47s.

"But if we kill them, I'm afraid that the gentry in various places will be frightened and may even surrender to the Jiannu and become our enemies. Nanjing is just one city, while Jiangnan still controls half of the country."

Yang Feng said.

"If he is a loyal minister, he will not rebel; if he is disloyal, he will be executed."

Han Xin said with a smile.

This guy is so bad.

Insidious, cunning, evil, and cruel.

but……

specialized!

This kind of thing needs to be handled by professionals.

Yang Feng knew very well that he was just an ordinary person, chosen by the so-called God, but his thoughts, morals and life experience were not enough to cope with this real chaotic world. He had never killed a chicken before, so he was no different from a chicken in this chaotic world with mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

To cope with such times, we must listen to professionals.

There is no doubt about Han Xin's reliability.

After all, he had seen that so-called god, and he didn't have the courage to cheat Yang Feng.

And his mind...

There is no doubt about it.

"Replace all your magazines with full ones."

Yang Feng said to the young eunuch.

The young eunuchs checked their magazines without hesitation. Those that were not full quickly replaced them with new ones. Even the young eunuchs who served as assistants in the back quickly filled the empty magazines with bullets, and then extended their guns from the firing ports on the parapet.

At this time, Han Zanzhou had already arrived at the Altar of Land and Grain and announced his decree to the nobles who were kneeling and waiting to see him.

He then helped Xu Wenjue up. This eunuch was also sensible. Even though he already knew the possible outcome for these people, he still put on a smile and held Xu Wenjue's hand like an old friend. His reaction reassured Xu Wenjue and the others. They hadn't thought much of it, though. These were truly useless people. With their intelligence and life experience, they hadn't considered any accidents.

Then they followed Han Zanzhou, acting as if they were meeting the Emperor Taizu Gao, each of them hunched over and lowered their heads, like a row of standing shrimps as they walked into the Sheji Street Gate...

(End of this chapter)