Chapter 1287: He Who Wins the People's Hearts Wins the Realm! (Happy New Year to Everyone)

Wang Youwen quickly helped Wu Sangui pick out a hundred leaders from among the righteous volunteers. They fell into two groups: either Sichuan men in their twenties or thirties, or older Shaanxi locals from Feng County and Lueyang County.

The former were the standouts among the conscripted laborers. Having grown up watching the children of military households throw their weight around, they all dreamed of rising in the world. But because their skill at being born into the right family was lacking, they had plenty of strength and nowhere to use it. Now that they had a chance to follow the royal army, what was there to hesitate about?

The latter were mostly scholars — men like Wang Youwen, whose families had a bit of money before the roving bandits came, so they had studied a little, perhaps even become xiucai. For twenty years they had dreamed of taking the civil examinations but never could. The Shun dynasty's suppression of this landlord-class intelligentsia had clearly not been thorough enough — they had actually been allowed to live until now, and some had even become figures of some authority among the peasants of southern Shaanxi! These men had wanted the Shun civil examinations and never gotten them. Now that the Great Ming was back, how could they not support it? They were all eligible to sit the Great Ming examinations!

Of course, these two groups now also shared a common goal — getting land of their own!

Whatever their origins, under the Shun dynasty's rule they had all become landless tenant farmers. The Shun dynasty also followed the path of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, and the people under its rule could hardly escape the influence, coming to regard land as supremely important.

And Wu Sangui, having fought the Shun dynasty for so many years, had some idea of what the common people on the Shun side were thinking. Recently he had also taken in Wang Youwen, that guide and collaborator, so of course he knew everything now.

So he immediately produced a highly targeted set of slogans — Land there will be! Military household status there will be! Civil examinations there will be!

Wu Sangui pounded his chest and gave his personal guarantee: "I, Wu, am the Empress's brother, the Crown Prince's uncle, a Duke of the Great Ming, holder of two garrison commands, and Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi! Listen to me and you won't go wrong. As long as you can take up a weapon and are willing to follow us in fighting the roving bandits — land, military household status, civil examinations, all of it will be yours!"

Wu Sangui looked at the stunned righteous-volunteer leaders in the great hall, felt he needed to push harder, and shouted again: "All who join the army and fight hard will receive fifty mu of land per man, with a deed issued, inheritable by sons and grandsons! Those willing to become military households — I, Wu, guarantee you a place to win merit and build a career. You may choose any garrison command in the realm; go wherever you like! Those who want to sit the civil examinations will all receive bonus points — twenty points added toward the Sichuan civil service examination!"

"And those who fight bravely and win merit will receive rich rewards besides!"

What a fine opportunity! Want land, get land. Want military household status, pick your garrison. Want to take the examinations, get bonus points! Win merit and there are rich rewards too. These were true royal troops!

Once this news spread downward through the hundred-odd righteous-volunteer leaders, the city of Lueyang instantly boiled over. Cheers rose straight into the clouds!

"Long live the Great Ming! Long live the Great Ming Emperor, for ten thousand years!"

The cheers of tens of thousands echoed through the great mountains on both banks of the Jialing River, carrying all the way to the ears of Chen Yongfu, who had climbed Flying Fox Ridge to look out toward Lueyang.

"What is..." Chen Yongfu froze for a moment, then looked to his left and right.

Chen Yongfu's son Chen De told his father: "My lord, it's a bunch of Sichuan barbarians shouting something about 'Long live the Great Ming.'"

This son of Chen Yongfu was not a true second-generation Shun man, but a first-generation one. He had already been in his early twenties when he followed his father in defecting to the Shun. Before that he had been a Ming military officer, and he had a deep impression of the Ming's corruption and decay.

Now, hearing the cheers with their Sichuan accent, he gave a cold laugh: "These Sichuan barbarians couldn't get anywhere under the Shun dynasty's bright and clear rule, and now they want to try their luck with the Zhu family. They're dreaming!"

Chen Yongfu sighed softly and said in a low voice: "These past few years, the common people truly have suffered somewhat..."

Chen De said: "However much the people suffer, it's still better than being in the Zhu family's hands. At least everyone has food to eat — not like the Chongzhen years, when corpses of starvation lay everywhere!"

That was in fact true. Though the people under Shun rule had little to strive for, they did at least have food. This was because the Shun dynasty's economic policies were relatively egalitarian, generally suppressing exploitation. The reason large-scale poverty and declining living standards had now appeared was that the military-household landlord class's population was growing too fast, while the long war with the Great Ming forced the Shun rulers to satisfy the military-household class's demand for land as much as possible.

Moreover, Sichuan had not experienced a "reset" of its population before the Shun dynasty occupied it; what had been reset was only the Great Ming's chaotic land system and rule. Therefore, in the early period of Shun rule over Sichuan, per-capita landholding was already relatively small. Over twenty years, policies of equalization, emphasis on agriculture, and suppression of commerce had kept population growth in Shun-controlled territory consistently high, making the conflict between people and land ever more acute!

It was precisely for these two reasons that Sichuan, stable for twenty years under the Shun dynasty's rule, had now become restless and unstable.

But within the Great Ming's borders, things were also unsettled now. A group of people had gathered on Tiger Fang Mountain in the western part of Jingzhou Prefecture, preparing to make a big move.

Tiger Fang Town, at the foot of Tiger Fang Mountain, had by this time become the domain of heroes and bold men who had hurried there from Jingzhou, Xiangyang, Chengtian, De'an, and other prefectures.

The richest man in Tiger Fang Town, Ding the Skinflint, had already fled. It was not Wang Sihu and Yang Sanbao who had driven him off, but that wine-loving drunkard Zhang. This Drunkard Zhang had joined forces with an old hired hand of his family — now the head laborer at Ding the Skinflint's place, Liu Laoqi — and together they had stirred up a group of Zhang family relatives to make trouble together and pick a quarrel with Ding the Skinflint, claiming that Ding the Skinflint had seized the property of the late master, the Zhang family.

Although Ding the Skinflint's family had money, they could not withstand so many people stirred up by Xiucai Zhang, and the atmosphere around Tiger Fang Mountain was also wrong. So he had no choice but to pinch his nose, pack up, and take his whole family off to Jingzhou's prefectural seat to lie low. His great mansion, along with several granaries of rice and grain, had all been seized by Xiucai Zhang, Liu Laoqi, and a crowd of Zhang family members.

Riding the momentum of driving out Ding the Skinflint, Xiucai Zhang had also caught the eye of some important figure who had come from Chongqing Prefecture. Wang Sihu was dispatched as a messenger to the Ding family mansion, to recruit Xiucai Zhang into the cause.

"Sir Xiucai, my master, Young Master Li, says this: as long as you're willing to join up, we'll all fight the Zhu family together and welcome the Roving King. Once it's done, a county magistrate's post won't be denied you!"

"And don't worry that this affair won't amount to much. I'll tell you straight: the Great Shun Heavenly Dynasty's million heavenly soldiers have already massed at Kuimen, and before many days they will march east under the leadership of the Great Shun's Eastern Prosperity Son of Heaven. We only need to hold Tiger Fang Mountain for ten days or half a month, and we'll be heroes who helped the Great Shun dynasty unify the realm!"

"And right now the bold men gathered at Tiger Fang Mountain number two or three thousand, including heroes of the Great Shun dynasty who have come over from Yong'an Prefecture. Are you afraid we can't beat those useless government troops in Yiling Prefecture?"

Wang Sihu spoke with great animation, as if he actually believed it himself!

Xiucai Zhang was also all excitement, rubbing his hands together: "Excellent, truly excellent! Once the Great Shun heavenly troops arrive, the sky over our Yiling Prefecture will be turned upside down, and I, Zhang, will have a few days of glory too! By the way, this Young Master Li you mentioned — just what is he?"

"Young Master Li" was simply a code name. The reason for using the name Young Master Li was that Li was the imperial surname of the Shun, which allowed for grand boasting.

Wang Sihu smiled mysteriously: "This Young Master Li is someone formidable. He's a Commandery Prince of the Great Shun dynasty — dragon seed, dragon grandson!"

"Truly?" Xiucai Zhang asked with interest. "Where is he? Would this humble one be fortunate enough to meet him?"

In fact, Wang Sihu himself had never even met this Young Master Li, but in his line of work one had to be able to talk big!

"As to where Young Master Li is," Wang Sihu said, still looking mysterious, "I can only say that he has already arrived in Yiling Prefecture. Originally we planned to rise up on the second day of the second month, but because the border inspections were strict, things were delayed. But Young Master Li has finally arrived, and within the next few days he will come up Tiger Fang Mountain. If you, Sir Xiucai, wish to join us, then as soon as Young Master Li comes up the mountain, I can take you to meet him."

"Good, good, good!" Xiucai Zhang nodded repeatedly, his face full of delight.

How could he not be delighted? A false Commandery Prince of the roving rebels! How big a fish was this? How great a merit would this be?

(End of Chapter)