I don’t know if it was God’s will, but since the first year of Xuanhe in the Song Dynasty, the three major powers on the land of China have suffered a series of great changes.
First, there was a rebellion from the Jurchen Jin Kingdom in the north of the Liao Kingdom. Small-scale fighting continued for a few months. Later, even Nanjing had a rebellion led by Xiao Jinde and Yelv Sibuda. If it hadn't been for some Yelu Dashi and Yelu Xiongge sent troops in time to quell the rebellion, and I am afraid that Daliao will fall into a split.
But even if the rebellion was finally suppressed, the Liao Kingdom was still in turmoil. Tens of thousands of people died as a result of the rebellion, which was a great loss of vitality.
Originally, this would be an opportunity for the Song Dynasty in the south to conduct a Northern Expedition, but what people did not expect was that at this time, two major chaos broke out in the Song Dynasty. First, bandits suddenly appeared in Liangshanbo in Shandong. Not only did they attack several state cities in succession, killing officials and rebelling, but in the end they even set fire to and looted the Daming Mansion in Beijing during the Song Dynasty. There were countless casualties, which shocked the government and the public.
And just when the imperial court was mobilizing troops to quell this group of bandits, a more terrifying thing happened - the people in the Jiangnan area could not stand the exploitation of corrupt officials and the endless burden of Hua Shi Gang, and finally announced that In the autumn of the first year of He Dynasty, a large-scale uprising led by Fang La broke out!
In terms of status in the eyes of the world, Fang La was far from comparable to leaders such as Liangshan Song Jiang. But when he raised the banner of rebellion, the chaos caused was much greater than that of the Liangshan bandits. In just a few months, Jiangnan Prefecture fell into the hands of the rebels one after another, and Fang La quickly gathered nearly ten people under his command. With an army of ten thousand people, this alone shows that the people in the south of the Yangtze River have suffered from the harsh rule of the Song Dynasty for a long time.
The emergence of two powerful rebel armies in the north and south at the same time forced the Song Dynasty court to temporarily shelve its original plan to send troops to the Liao Kingdom and instead send all its troops to quell the civil strife. But at least so far, the court's effectiveness in countering the rebellion has not been significant. Several groups of officers and soldiers have been defeated repeatedly, which has only fueled the arrogance of the two groups of rebels!
There was civil strife in the Liao and Song Dynasties. This should have been a great opportunity for the Xia Kingdom in the west to rise. However, in the winter of that year, a turmoil broke out in the capital of Xixia. Although the scale of the chaos this time is not comparable to that of the Liao and Song Dynasties, its impact is obviously greater. It is said that all forces in the Xia Kingdom have been involved in it, and it will be impossible to use external troops for at least a few years.
Changes occur frequently in the Three Kingdoms. For those in the court, this is both a danger and an opportunity, because only when there is such continuous chaos can someone take advantage of the opportunity and rise from a penniless official to a wealthy official. An unparalleled hero who can save the world and support the building from collapse.
But for ordinary people, this is undoubtedly a real disaster. The successive turmoils made the people of the Three Kingdoms miserable and precarious. Especially for the people of the Song Dynasty, whose rebellion had not been put down for a long time, life was even more difficult.
Originally, May was the time when everyone was busy working in the fields, but this year the fields in many prefectures and counties in Shandong have been deserted due to the incursions of Liangshan bandits. This is due to the fact that Liangshan bandits are plundering and disturbing the people everywhere, but more importantly, the government continues to recruit strong men into the army, which has greatly reduced the number of men in the village. Naturally, it is impossible for the remaining old, weak, women and children to give up all the remaining fields. Planted.
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However, even if times are difficult, people still have to struggle to survive. Those who have land work hard to cultivate, but those who have no land have to find other ways.
For example, on the edge of the official road leading to Qingzhou, there is a newly built teahouse. A trembling old man is preparing pots of clear and bitter wild tea for passing guests to quench their thirst.
Originally, this method of just making tea with water and drinking it was not popular in the Song Dynasty. However, since Sun Dujian often entertained guests in his official hall, at least the people in Shandong Province began to drink it. I gradually accepted this extremely simple way of making tea. Coupled with the fact that it was early summer and the weather was hot, the business in this small teahouse was pretty good, at least allowing the white-haired old man selling tea to make a living.
It's the same today. When noon is approaching, there are already five or six pedestrians walking on the official road sitting in the teahouse. When they are thirsty, they will spend thirty to five cents to buy a pot of tea and rest. Drink tea.
At this time, another person came slowly from the end of the official road. When he saw the teahouse set up on the roadside, he immediately looked a little haggard, and the young man with a gloomy look in his eyes finally showed a hint of joy. When the smile came, he immediately turned over and fell off his horse, tied the horse to a tree trunk by the roadside, walked into it, and called to the old man: "Old man, bring me a pot of tea to quench my thirst."
There were only three wooden tables and a dozen stools in the teahouse. At this time, each table was occupied by guests, so the young man could only sit with two of the guests, while drinking the food that was served to him. While drinking bitter tea, he looked at the few acres of deserted fields around him and couldn't help but ask: "Old man, do you know why no one is planting the fields over there? It's such a pity to let them lie idle like this. .”
The old man also gave a wry smile when he heard this: "My lord, you don't know. In fact, these acres of land belong to the old man's family. But now, all the young and strong men here have been forcibly recruited into the army by the government, and my sons are even more so. There has been no news since I left, and I am old and frail, so I can no longer plant the land, so I can only let it lie uncultivated. I can only make a living by picking some wild tea and selling tea here."
"Is this happening? Are bandits rampant even in Qingzhou now?" Qingzhou frowned, with worry and doubt on his face.
Several guests on the side took a look at the young man. Although he was a rare person riding a horse, his clothes were really shabby. He was just a shabby linen shirt and had a beard on his face for many days. He had never been groomed and his face was covered with dust. At first glance, he did not look like a young man from a wealthy family. This made them feel a little relieved, and someone explained: "Brother, you have just come to our territory of Qingzhou, so you don't know the situation here. In fact, although there were indeed bandits running rampant in our Qingzhou territory at the beginning, they have long since It was put down by Sun Dujian who had just taken office two years ago, and now I don’t hear of any bandits daring to cause trouble in our Qingzhou territory again.”
When they heard him mention Sun Dujian's name, everyone present showed respect, both the old man selling tea and the tea customers. The young man's eyes flashed slightly when he heard this, and then he asked: "If that's the case, then why does the government continue to force young men to join the army?"
"Hey, it's not the newly appointed Qingzhou magistrate and the governor who are causing trouble..." This person said, the look of anger on his face became even worse, but his voice dropped.
He said a little less consciously: "Originally, with Sun Dujian in our territory of Qingzhou, the lives of our people were getting better and better. But at the beginning of last year, for some reason, Sun Dujian was no longer in office. I heard that he was The imperial court sent him somewhere on official business, but who would have expected that after autumn, the news of his murder would come... "
"It's true that good people don't live long... There are too few good officials like Sun Dujian who are not greedy for money and can also do practical things for the people like us. I think when he was here, we Qingzhou people could already rely on growing grain to make a living. I don't have to worry about those bandits and bandits plundering here. But as soon as he left, the court quickly sent a new prefect and governor, and now I have a hard time waiting. Not only various taxes It was much more than the previous two years, and they also sent people from door to door to ask for food, saying they were going to fight the Liangshan bandits." Another person couldn't help but tell some of the inside information he knew.
And his words also attracted another person's words: "Actually, it would be fine if they could really lead our Qingzhou soldiers to win a few battles like Sun Dujian did. But in the end, they were defeated in Liangshanbo. After several defeats and finally losing their troops, they had no choice but to forcibly recruit troops within the territory. This is how they recruited my two nephews... I heard that in order to prevent them from escaping, they even had their faces tattooed. What a crime! Who knows when, for the sake of their own future, these officials will send these newly recruited soldiers to the swords and guns of the Liangshan bandits again."
"I thought that our officers and soldiers in Qingzhou had just made a great name in the past two years. Unexpectedly, in just half a year, they were almost completely defeated by the two new officers. If Sun Dujian knew about them in the sky, Whatever I do, I’m afraid I’m going to come back to life!”
After listening to the words of these people, the young man's face, which was not very good-looking, suddenly became more and more gloomy: "As far as I know, Sun Dujian actually has many generals who can lead troops in war. Don't they even have the ability to lead troops in war?" Can you lead us to a few victories?”
At this time, everyone did not care about why this new guest knew such a thing, and casually explained: "Originally, we in Qingzhou do have several generals who can lead troops in battle, but they are all direct descendants of Sun Dujian. How can the new prefect and governor reuse them? So in the past six months, these positions have been deprived of all their powers, and two of them were even thrown into prison for some things."
"Not only were they thrown into jail, I heard that they were also convicted of a serious crime of colluding with bandits. They will be executed after this autumn. Alas... In fact, everyone knows that they were wrongly accused. They are the two new officials. In order to establish his prestige and meet their resistance, he carried out this murder..." Before the man finished speaking, he heard a crisp sound, and then he was surprised to find that the rough pottery tea bowl in the hands of the young man in front of him was actually smashed. He pinched it in half, and the tea flowed all over the table. No one seemed to care at all, but his eyes were already filled with blazing light!
"Wow, I didn't expect that my Sun Tu has only been away for a year, and you have already turned my Qingzhou into such a state!" This young man who looks haggard and tired is Sun Tu who finally returned to Qingzhou from Xia Kingdom!
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