Ming Dynasty: Is a mere unruly commoner rebelling against heaven?

Chapter 280: Sudden Change, Chaos in Jiangnan!

Matsushita Kuro died with his eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace.

The last image he saw before his death was his own headless corpse.

Matsushita Kuro never imagined that a simple mission to burn down a shipyard would cost him his life so easily?

Matsushita Kuro's head rolled on the ground, his lifeless eyes staring blankly at his Wokou subordinates.

Matsushita Kuro's death deeply shocked the remaining Wokou.

Fear spread through their hearts, and they began to flee with all their might.

The eunuchs of the West Depot wanted to pursue, but were stopped by one person.

"Enough, don't chase them, hurry up and put out the fire!"

Li Sui, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, was anxious and urged everyone in the field to put out the fire as quickly as possible.

Li Sui was an official of the Ministry of Works, and for him, the ships in the shipyard were the most important thing.

As for whether the Wokou who set the fire could be caught or killed, it was irrelevant.

Since the matter had already happened, minimizing the losses to the shipyard was the most important thing at the moment.

"Everyone, fetch water from the river to put out the fire! The people from the West Depot, guard the shipyard to prevent the Wokou from attacking again!"

"Yes, sir!"

Under Li Sui's arrangement, everyone in the entire Fuqing Shipyard began to work together in an orderly manner to put out the fire.

In the Fuqing Shipyard, there were three to four thousand people, including craftsmen, garrison soldiers, and laborers.

In addition to the nearby villagers who rushed to put out the fire because of the fire, with five to six thousand people working together.

Before dawn, they had successfully extinguished the fire in the Fuqing Shipyard completely.

Afterwards, Li Sui led the officials from the Ministry of Works to begin calculating the losses caused by the fire to the shipyard.

After the calculation, Li Sui breathed a sigh of relief.

The losses caused by the fire were smaller than he had imagined.

Firstly, in the Fuqing Shipyard, some aging areas that needed to be demolished and rebuilt were burned down, and some core areas were also burned.

Thanks to the abundance of wood near Fuqing County, the shipyard could be rebuilt in about a month.

As for the ships, six Zheng He treasure ships were completely destroyed and lost their value.

Eleven treasure ships were burned to varying degrees, but they could all be repaired and used.

This would also take more than a month to repair.

Finally, there was the number of precious craftsmen killed and injured.

Last night, forty-one craftsmen were killed on the spot by the Wokou.

As many as one hundred and seventy-three craftsmen were injured, and it would take two to three months for them to recover and return to the construction of Zheng He's ships.

In general, the actual losses of the Fuqing Shipyard were still within an acceptable range, but the construction period was greatly affected.

After calculating the losses of the Fuqing Shipyard, Li Sui's face was filled with worry.

He took a deep breath and sighed: "The shipyard was burned and the craftsmen were killed. This matter is of great importance. Report it to His Majesty immediately and ask His Majesty to decide!"

...

On the same night that the Fuqing Shipyard was attacked, the Jiangnan Shipyard was also not spared and was also attacked by a group of Wokou of unknown origin.

Their actions were the same as those of Matsushita Kuro's group, first burning the shipyard and then killing the craftsmen.

But the fate of these Wokou was even worse than that of Matsushita Kuro's group.

At least some of Matsushita Kuro's group escaped.

However, Ji Sheng was personally in charge of the Jiangnan Shipyard, and all the Wokou who came to attack the Jiangnan Shipyard were spared, and no one left alive.

They were either killed on the spot or captured alive by Ji Sheng.

It was precisely because the rebellion was quelled quickly that the fire in the Jiangnan Shipyard was extinguished by Ji Sheng and the eunuchs of the West Depot before it even started.

The losses of the Jiangnan Shipyard were negligible.

At this time, the sky was already bright.

However, a basement in the Jiangnan Shipyard was still dark without a trace of sunlight.

The basement was dark and damp, and there was a large pool of turbid and foul-smelling water on the ground.

More than a dozen bloody, mutilated, disemboweled, and broken corpses were piled up randomly.

These were all Wokou who had been captured alive by Ji Sheng and died because they could not withstand the West Depot's cruel torture.

In addition to these corpses, there were another eight Wokou who had been tortured to the point of being on their last breath.

These eight people were covered in blood, their flesh turned outwards, and none of them were intact.

Some were missing fingers, some were missing arms, and some were missing an eyeball...

Ji Sheng sat in front of them, with all kinds of bloody and hideous torture instruments placed beside him.

"You have three breaths left."

Ji Sheng's eyes wandered over the torture instruments, and he spoke casually.

Then he reached out and picked up a serrated steel whip.

The serrations of the steel whip were still stained with dried blood, scattered pieces of flesh and bone fragments.

Seeing this scene, the eight Wokou who were on their last breath all cried out excitedly, their faces filled with fear, and their eyes were full of horror.

Just now, they had personally witnessed Ji Sheng using this torture instrument to saw open the head of one of their companions.

The immediate and immersive scene made them feel as if they had personally experienced the pain, scaring them out of their wits.

"No! No! No!"

"I'll talk, I'll talk, I'll say whatever you ask!"

"Don't come over! Don't come over!"

"..."

The continuous torture throughout the night completely shattered their psychological defenses.

Before Ji Sheng even asked, they said everything that should be said and what should not be said.

"It's Matsushita Kuro, he sent us here, you go and catch him, don't torture me anymore!"

"There is someone above Matsushita Kuro, there is also a person named Zhang Peng, he is also a high-ranking official of the Great Ming, with a very high position, many people respect him..."

"Yes, yes, yes, there is also a Zhang Peng, Matsushita Kuro is in contact with him, Zhang Peng gives us news and asks us to rob, kill people, and the money and food we rob belong to us..."

"This mission must have been issued by Zhang Peng, you go and torture Zhang Peng, please give me a quick death, kill me with one knife..."

"..."

There were too many people talking at once.

These Wokou may have been because they had not learned Chinese well, or perhaps because they had been tortured to the point of being mentally confused and mentally disturbed.

In short, what they said was incoherent, rambling, and did not distinguish between the main and secondary points...

Ji Sheng just listened quietly, without interrupting them, and only instructed the surrounding eunuchs of the West Depot to record all the confessions of these Wokou, word for word.

And he was in his mind, straightening out the logical relationship and chronological order between these incoherent and very messy confessions, and finally piecing together a complete account of what happened.

"Zhang Peng, Minister of War of Nanjing, is so bold that he deserves to be executed by a thousand cuts!"

Ji Sheng angrily slammed his fist on the wooden table in front of him, startling everyone in the basement.

This Zhang Peng had already begun secretly raising these wandering samurai who had come to the Ming Dynasty when he was still the Vice Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing.

In the coastal areas of Jiangnan, Zhang Peng was involved in seven out of ten pirate attacks.

Whether it was劫持 local tribute caravans entering Beijing or burning and killing granaries throughout Jiangnan, he was practically a professional at balancing accounts in the Jiangnan area.

This time, the attacks on the Jiangnan Shipyard and the Fuqing Shipyard were also directed by Zhang Peng behind the scenes.

This person must be诛之!

Ji Sheng did not delay for a moment and immediately reorganized these pirates' confessions into a secret letter, which was quickly sent to the capital.

江南’s sky changed dramatically overnight.

On the same night that the pirates attacked the Jiangnan Shipyard and the Fuqing Shipyard, a械斗 incident also occurred in Pei County, next to Feng County.

Six hours earlier, Pei County.

"The昏君 is tyrannical, return our land!"

"The昏君 is tyrannical, return our land!"

A large number of farmers shouting the same slogans, wielding sickles and hoes, surrounded the Pei County government office.

The Pei County Magistrate, Liu Chuan, was pale and sweating, directing the yamen runners and servants to block the doors of the county government office with chairs, benches, and other杂物.

To prevent the emotionally激动的 farmers from forcibly breaking into the county government office.

Generally speaking, the county government offices in various places are divided into two parts, front and back. The front is the office area of the magistrate, where he handles government affairs and conducts trials. All are in the front yard.

The backyard is the magistrate's living area, where the magistrate's family lives.

At this time, in addition to the magistrate's family, there were also Wang Yan, Yang Jizong, and Qin Lu, who were responsible for the nationwide land survey working group.

Pei County, as the hometown of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, has been well-developed since ancient times.

The area is large enough, and the population is large enough, so the county government office is large enough to accommodate Wang Yan and others.

Moreover, the Pei County Magistrate, Liu Chuan, is a very rare magistrate who supports the land survey work. He earnestly invited Wang Yan and others to stay in his county government office instead of the驿站.

So, now that the county government office was surrounded, Wang Yan and others could not escape.

"Why is this happening again? What should we do now?"

Wang Yan looked at the firelight outside the wall and felt like his head was about to explode.

Since they started surveying land all over the country, nothing has gone smoothly.

First, in Jinghai County, the Wang brothers used both soft and hard tactics to almost make Wang Yan commit a big mistake.

Then, in Puzhou County, they were also besieged by villagers, but fortunately, the villagers did not intend to kill them, and they withdrew from Puzhou safely.

And not long ago, when they were still in Feng County, they were privately detained by officials from the Nanjing officialdom.

In addition, the obstacles they encountered, large and small, never stopped.

It can be said that since they left the Forbidden City, they have not had a single comfortable day.

Now, they were surrounded by angry Pei County farmers in the Pei County government office.

Honestly, Wang Yan even felt a sense of numbness.

Yang Jizong clenched his fists, both angry and anxious, and couldn't stop sighing.

"The land survey is a good thing that benefits the country and the people, especially for the底层老百姓, it is a great喜事."

"But now, it is these底层的百姓 who are protesting, while those landlords and gentry never show their faces."

"This must be someone who is stirring up trouble among the people, spreading rumors, and maliciously distorting His Majesty's旨意!"

"These people should all be killed! They should all be杀干净!"

Yang Jizong was utterly furious and felt deeply悲哀.

It had been more than half a year since they started surveying land along the way.

They originally embarked on this task with the mentality of saving the黎民 from misery.

They felt that they were improving the living standards of the people, benefiting the people, and doing a great thing that would benefit future generations.

The people along the way, if not welcoming them like迎救星, should at least be grateful to them, right?

But along the way, these people not only did not welcome them but also listened to the words of those rich peasants and small landlords, opposing them everywhere and trying their best to stop them.

Yang Jizong really felt tired from the bottom of his heart, and his original high enthusiasm was rapidly cooling down.

Qin Lu frowned, listening to the increasingly激奋 slogans outside the wall and watching the increasingly bright firelight, his heart was alarmed.

"Go, bring out all the horses, everyone mount up. If anything happens, immediately run north to Yutai County, Luzhou!"

Qin Lu calmly ordered, while drawing out the long刀 at his waist, already prepared to kill.

At the same time, the twenty-odd Xichang spies behind Qin Lu also drew their blades, their bodies filled with murderous intent.

"Yes, Second Head!"

The Xichang spies behind Qin Lu obeyed the order and quickly brought all the horses from the county government stable.

"Mount up, everyone mount up!"

Under Qin Lu's order, all the officials who were surveying the land mounted their horses, including the Pei County Magistrate, Liu Chuan.

Because there were not enough warhorses, some people had to share a horse.

Qin Lu's worries were not without reason. Just as everyone was mounted, the people outside the county government office, under someone's lead, suddenly began to衝擊 the walls of the county government office.

The walls of the county government office were earthen walls, with limited strength. With hundreds of people pushing, the earthen walls collapsed轰然!

"Run!"

Qin Lu gave an order and斬 with his刀, immediately beheading the first person to rush into the county government office!

At the same time, dozens of Xichang spies began to protect the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the 都察院 and began to rush north.

And those farmers who rushed into the county government office were still一脸地懵. They did not expect the earthen walls to be so weak.

Before they could react, they were already standing inside the county government office, and someone next to them had died.

"Murder! Murder!"

When the crowd saw blood, the situation became completely chaotic.

Some of the farmers who衝擊 the county government office desperately ran out, while others took the opportunity to attack the officials who were surveying the land.

And the Xichang spies desperately protected Wang Yan and Yang Jizong and others, rushing north!

"Save me, save me!"

In the chaotic crowd, a shrill cry for help suddenly came.

Wang Yan and Yang Jizong turned their heads and saw that it was actually the Pei County Magistrate, Liu Chuan, who was surrounded by the Pei County farmers.

Before Wang Yan and Yang Jizong could do anything, the sickles and hoes in the hands of the Pei County people smashed hard at their parents官!