Sanliu, Chengcheng Zheng Yanfu

  Zheng Yanfu bowed to the group of villagers waiting for him: "Brothers... sorry to keep you waiting! I went to Qingliang Temple to pay respects to the Buddha, so I'm a bit late. Don't blame me, everyone."

  The villagers chimed in, "Not surprising, of course not surprising."

  "We ourselves are also desperately worshipping Buddha, how can we blame Brother Zheng Yanfu?"

  "Big brother, please come into the village... This is the entrance of the village, it's inconvenient to talk here."

  The villagers welcomed Zheng Yanfu to the center of the village, where there was an ancient ancestral temple. During the Ming Dynasty, people's family concept was very deep, and often a village lived with all members of one big family or two to three families. They usually collectively raised funds to build an ancestral temple in the village for everyone to worship their ancestors, also commonly used as a gathering place, and major events related to the interests of the entire village would be decided inside the temple, which was divided into ancestral temples, branch temples, and home temples.

  The villagers pushed Zheng Yanfu into the ancestral hall, and surprisingly, no one was left outside. The whole village squeezed in, it seemed that what they were going to decide was extremely important, related to the interests of every single person in this village, so everyone participated.

  Zhu Yuanzhang slowly made his way to the outside of the ancestral hall, sat down under a window, and leaned against the outer wall, just able to hear the conversation inside.

  "What's going on in there he couldn't see, but he heard Zheng Yanfu's voice say in a low tone: 'Have you all made up your minds? Once you follow me, there's no turning back.'"

  An old, weak voice chimed in: "Zheng Zhuang Shi, our Nan Yao village had a clan meeting the day before yesterday and decided to follow you. We can't survive anyway, with years of severe drought and poor harvests, but that Zhang Diao Yue is still rushing us for taxes. Yesterday, the day before, and the day before that, some of our clansmen were caught by him and beaten with a board, forced to pay up... When they came back, their buttocks were beaten to pulp, and they couldn't even walk properly. If this goes on, we won't need to pay taxes anymore, he'll beat us all to death!"

  "That's right!" A young voice chimed in, "Brother Zheng Yanfu, let's not say much more. Wherever you want to go, I'll follow you, and we'll make our way in the world together. It's better than dying at the hands of that corrupt county magistrate."

  Zheng Yanfu seemed to be silent for a while before saying: "Alright, then kill that son of a bitch Zhang Douyao."

  Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang understood that the murderous aura surrounding Zheng Yanfu was directed at Zhang Douyao, the county magistrate of Chengcheng. In Chengcheng County, he must have been a renowned hero, earning the respect of the local people just like Bai Shui Wang Er. This spring, when the taxes were not paid, the common people of Chengcheng had already begun to stir up trouble and secretly formed an alliance with him to kill officials and rebel. Then he worshiped Buddha, solidified his faith, and united with the villagers, planning to start a rebellion.

  Many forgotten memory fragments in his mind began to combine, and Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly remembered something. A year before the White Water Wang Er Uprising, there was another relatively famous uprising, which was Zheng Yanfu's killing of officials and rebellion in Chengcheng County.

  In the spring of 1627, during a difficult time when crops were withering and people were struggling to survive, Zhang Douyao, the county magistrate of Chengcheng, showed no regard for the lives of his subjects and continued to demand taxes ruthlessly. He whipped and flogged peasants who were unable to pay their taxes, leaving them with no choice but to rise up in revolt rather than die under the lash. On March 21st, a group of enraged peasants, led by Zheng Yanfu, stormed into the county government office through the west gate. Zhang Douyao was sitting in the hall demanding taxes when he saw the crowd and fled in fear to his private quarters, where he was pursued and killed by Zheng Yanfu with repeated blows of his sword.

  As he thought of this, Zhu Yuanzhang also heard Zheng Yanfu whispering in the ancestral hall: "The day after tomorrow, that is, at sunrise on March 21st, you will wait for me on Tiger Head Mountain outside the west gate of the county town. In the next two days, I will go to contact other villages. With just our few people, it's not enough."

  "It's all up to Big Brother's arrangement!" Several young villagers hastily responded: "You should contact several more villages, our village alone can't accomplish anything, the more people there are, the more at ease we'll feel."

  "Rest assured, it's not just your village that can't make ends meet. In fact, Duanzhuang Village, Liu Family Village, Liujiayuan Village, Chengjia Village... none of them can pay their taxes either. I think they also have the intention to rebel. Tomorrow, I'll spend a day visiting each village, and by the day after tomorrow morning, we can gather at least 200-300 men. We'll storm into the county city, kill that scoundrel Zhang Duiyao, seize the grain from the county warehouse, and have a good meal. Remember, on March 21st, early in the morning, wait for me outside the west gate of the county city, at Tiger Head Mountain!"

  "Good!"

  "Remember, this matter must not be leaked out, whoever goes to the government to report it, will cause the government to be prepared..." Zheng Yanfu said here, lowering his voice, Zhu Yuanzhang heard the sound of a knife cutting through the air, apparently Zheng Yanfu had drawn out his knife to threaten everyone.

  "If anyone betrays us, heaven will strike with five thunders and we'll become ghosts to kill him."

  The villagers all swore oaths, their voices rising and falling in the temple. The village chief of Nanyao Village ordered the villagers to catch chickens, and then the villagers took turns swearing oaths in front of their ancestors' plaques, dripping chicken blood into wine, and making a blood oath. This procedure took a long time and couldn't be finished in a short while.

  By this point, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that there was no need to listen any further. The situation was clear: Zheng Yanfu was going to kill the officials and start a rebellion. If nothing unexpected happened, or if he himself didn't intervene, then this rebellion would be able to succeed at first. Zhang Douyao would be hacked to death by random knives. This was the conclusion drawn from the historical development of the previous life.

  So now the question arises, whether to intervene or not?

  As the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had an instinctive aversion to peasant uprisings because peasant uprisings were a rebellion against the Ming Dynasty, which was a rebellion against him. However, he himself was also established through peasant uprisings, so although he was opposed to uprisings in his heart, he also identified with them, and this psychology was very contradictory, far beyond what others could understand.

  After thinking for a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang made a decision and stopped him!

  According to his observations from the sky in his previous life, there are many differences between the peasant uprisings at the end of the Ming and Yuan dynasties. Generally speaking, the peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was a just war for the Han people to resist foreign aggression and drive out the Mongols. Moreover, the leaders of the peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, such as Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, Xu Shouhui, including himself, were all leaders who understood construction and development, and not a single one was a warmonger.

  However, the leaders of the peasant uprisings at the end of the Ming Dynasty were mostly real bandits and vagrants. Whether it was Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Wang Ziyu, or Wang Jiayu, they were all a group of people who only knew how to destroy and did not know how to produce. Wherever they went, they would dismantle city walls, plunder wealth, conscript strong men, kill innocent civilians who refused to join them, and force others to join their rebel army. They led more than 10 million people to become bandits, but these bandits did not engage in production and still needed to eat. What could be done? They had no choice but to plunder one city after another, leaving the country in ruins. The destructive effect far exceeded the constructive effect.

  Later, the Qing army entered the pass and allowed Ming officials to surrender, but they killed all those who participated in peasant uprisings. Even the Manchu barbarians knew that Li Zicheng's gang was unreliable and useless.

  Even the most uncivilized people wouldn't look down on him, would Zhu Yuanzhang? Besides, Zhang Douyao and Ma Jia are at their best relationship now, they exchanged daughters, in the future they will be a family with one nose. At this time, letting Zheng Yanfu kill Zhang Douyao, not only will it make Ma Jia lose an ally, but also make himself lose a chance to rise up. It's better to stop Zheng Yanfu's rebellion and establish a small merit, maybe he can get Zhang Douyao's promotion, further gain the recognition of the officialdom, improve his social status, if he can mix into the officialdom, starting from a small officer, there is also a possibility to show off.

  As he thought of this, his thoughts drifted back to the past again. After becoming a minor official, how could he save the Ming Dynasty? How could he fight against the entrenched officials of the Ming Dynasty and eliminate corruption? Alas... still no clue!

  In the ancestral hall, Zheng Yanfu was still beheading chickens and drinking blood wine with the villagers of Nanyao Village, while Zhu Yuanzhang quietly got up from outside the ancestral hall, walked to the village entrance, and after walking about half a mile, he drew out the wooden knife from his waist and dug a small pit on the ground that was about ankle-deep. He filled it with soft grass leaves, then dug many more shallow pits of various sizes next to it. After finishing digging, he sat down under a nearby tree, waiting quietly.

  About half a time later, Zheng Yanfu walked out of Nan Yao Village. He had drunk a lot of blood wine and the killing aura on his body was even more intense than before. Generally speaking, scenes where people make a blood oath would make them hot-blooded, and he was no exception. Now his whole body had inexhaustible energy, and he could only hope to hurry to the next village to mobilize the villagers and rebel against the officials.

  Under the cold moonlight, his lonely figure was obviously heavy and full of bad luck.

  After leaving Nan Yao Village, he walked forward for about half a mile when he suddenly heard a cold voice coming from behind the trees by the roadside: "Zheng Yanfu of Cheng City?"

  Zheng Yanfu's nerves suddenly tightened, his big hand immediately grasped the butcher knife at his waist, and all the muscles in his body tensed up. He said word by word: "Exactly! Who is there? Don't hide your head and show your tail!"

  Zhu Yuanzhang slowly walked out from behind the tree and stood opposite Zheng Yanfu, both of them sizing each other up in the moonlight. Under the clear and cold moonlight, Zhu Yuanzhang could see that Zheng's face was constantly twisting, obviously highly emotional.

  Zheng Yanfu said in a low voice: "You are that man from the Wenshu Hall of Qingliang Temple... Have you been following me all along?"

  "Hmm!" Zhu Yuanzhang said in a low voice: "I already know about your plan to kill the official and rebel, come with me to see the official."

  "It was the government's loyal dog!" Zheng Yanfu suddenly became angry, he had been accumulating a killing aura since he worshiped the Buddha in the Qingliang Temple, and just now he had drunk blood wine, now it was the time when his blood was boiling, in a fit of anger, how could he bear it, without even thinking about saying another word, the killing pig knife at his waist was drawn out with a brush: "Ignorant rat, you have the ability to catch me and see an official just because of your skinny monkey appearance? Look at the knife!"

  Zheng Yanfu took a big step forward, his hand holding the butcher knife straight out, and with one swift slash, he struck directly at Zhu Yuanzhang's neck! He didn't have any fancy knife skills, just a simple country-style swing, but his physique was robust, his strength enormous, and his movements quick. This powerful slash of his would be worthy of a general on the battlefield; an ordinary soldier wouldn't stand a chance against this blow.