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Is Deng, who fought on two fronts in Ming Dynasty, a hero or a rebel?
Deng, many people will feel strange to mention this name, but in Fujian, Deng's name is very big, and his historical image has formed a huge contrast between the government and the people. Ruan Dacheng's opera Record of Thieves at the end of the Ming Dynasty eulogized the "glorious deeds" of the Ming army in fighting bloody battles to suppress the rebels. Xu, a scholar of Qing history, even referred to Deng, Liu Tong and Li Zicheng as the "Three Thieves" of Ming Dynasty.

The record of sin only says that the uprising "spread to several provinces in the southeast, poisoned millions of people, and the decline of the country began." Directly put the "sin" of the decline of the Ming Dynasty on Deng's head. However, Deng has always enjoyed a high reputation in Fujian. There are many "heroic dramas" featuring him in Fujian operas, most of which are "saviors" who bravely champion the three armed forces and make decisions for the people. As for modern times, the evaluation of this person is "peasant uprising in feudal times" As for the process of this uprising, few people trace the story behind it.

Ming Yingzong is also a legend in history. He is legendary because he is one of the few emperors in history and the only emperor with two titles in the Ming Dynasty. After the defeat of the civil fort, he was also captured by the Mongols and was able to come back alive. Because of him, the first national mobilization "Beijing Defense War" in Ming Dynasty took place in Deng Uprising one year before the civil engineering defeat in Ming Yingzong. It really made the Ming Dynasty a headache. The uprising in Shaxian County, Fujian Province lasted for two years. The insurgents occupied more than 20 counties, and the history contained "controlling eight provinces in Fujian and shaking three provinces". The Ming Dynasty suffered repeated wars and defeats. In the face of the collapse of the northern folk fortress, it also fell into the embarrassment of fighting on both sides of the north and south. Therefore, the Ming court hated the uprising and its evaluation was not much better.

Deng was a native of Jiangxi during the reign of Emperor Yingzong in the Ming Dynasty, and worked as a farmer for generations. However, with the increasingly serious land annexation in the Ming Dynasty, Deng's land was also occupied by people colluding with officials and businessmen. Deng killed the landlord in a rage and fled to Fujian to make a living by farming for others, becoming an out-and-out "black tenant farmer"

The land problem in the Ming dynasty was not effectively solved, which also became a major reason for the collapse of the Ming dynasty. The land policy of the Ming Dynasty has not been completely solved since the era of Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang's ideal is to establish an idealized agricultural society in which men plow and women weave. In order to achieve this goal, Zhu Yuanzhang enacted strict laws, stipulating that farmers should not leave home for no reason, and they need "road guidance" from local officials 200 miles away from home. However, in the orthodox years after one hundred years, the wind of land annexation became more and more fierce. With the aggravation of taxes and the polarization between the rich and the poor, rich landlords began to annex the land of yeomen on a large scale. Of course, this also includes dirty things such as collusion with the government. Land-lost farmers had to flee their hometowns on a large scale to make a living, and moved to Fujian and other places with little land at that time, forming the so-called "refugees." In essence, Deng is also a member of the refugee army.

These refugees have no legal status and household registration, and they can only make a living by being tenants of large local families. However, the local tycoons seem happy to recruit these refugees without legal status, because they can charge higher land rent and other shared expenses. The heavy burden makes many tenants live in poverty, and some tycoons even set up private courts to torture and interrogate tenants. More seriously, with the political corruption in the Ming Dynasty, Ming Yingzong trusted eunuch Wang Zhen to come to power, and Fujian bought officials and sold them. The "investment" of these people is "profit". Of course, when they arrived, they ransacked the place and levied exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees under various pretexts. Not only have many burdens been passed on to "black households" like Deng, but even urban and rural residents with local "legal hukou" have suffered greatly.

Another reason for Deng Uprising is that we have to mention the rural market, which is not what we are talking about today, but a rural market more similar to the black market. In the early Ming Dynasty, strict commercial franchise (also Zhu Yuanzhang's business) and commodity franchise were implemented. However, forced by hard labor and livelihood, "refugees" often smuggle goods and trade with local businessmen, who are also willing to trade goods with these black refugees to reduce costs. After all, Daming's state-owned enterprises are too inefficient. In Fujian, where capitalism is budding and overseas trade is convenient, these towns and villages located in the "three no-cares" zone of counties and counties maintain the normal operation of Fujian's commerce. Due to the illegality of villages and towns, these "black markets" banned by * * * are controlled by "leaders (mafia forces)", and businessmen and refugees involved in the transaction pay fees as "protection fees", and there are often fires between leaders.

Because of his martial arts, Deng Maoqi quickly became the leader of Jiangxi refugees and killed the head of a chicken in a fire to replace him. He was open-minded, made clear rules on rural trade and the amount of protection fees payable, lightened the burden on refugees and businessmen, and won the trust of local people. Therefore, he quickly controlled the operation of rural trade in Fujian. This Fujian farmer's child finally became the leader of the Jianghu in eight provinces of Fujian, and even businessmen knew him. But the good times didn't last long, and the conflict between Deng and the government finally broke out.

Deng offended Fujian minister Lin Xin, who spent 8200 silver to buy an official, because he resisted taxes with local businessmen. In a rage, Lin Xin ordered the banning of all township collections in Fujian and began to "strike hard". Deng had no choice but to flee to Shaxian County, Fujian Province, where his troops were hit by the government, causing heavy casualties and the rest were scattered everywhere.

When Deng arrived in Shaxian County, he was invited by a large local family to train security guards. Most of these vigilantes are composed of refugees recruited by local families, mainly to prevent pirates and other thieves. Deng Maoqi strengthened his strength in developing the militia, and finally opposed the local extended family, because he spoke for the refugees and asked them to reduce taxes and other apportionment.

After Deng ordered the refugees to refuse to pay "winter sacrifices" (winter supplies) to "big families", large local families jointly sued Deng on charges of "rebellion" and stirred up a hornet's nest. Deng's vigilante was well trained and defeated the "loyalists" who came to arrest him. The pent-up "popular grievances" broke out completely. Local refugees took up arms one after another to help Deng recover the official army, and captured the county government and Shaxian county magistrate in just one day. Wu Tao, also a "buy official", failed to escape and was beheaded on the spot after being arrested.

After the news of Deng Uprising reached the capital, the Ming Dynasty shocked the imperial court, but the eunuch in charge of state affairs thought that this person was careless and urged Fujian to suppress it on its own. However, the "thief" has become more and more serious, and many local refugees and miners have taken up arms to deal with it. The rebels were disciplined, and Deng began to set up offices in their territory to compete with the court. At this time, Fujian has fallen to the majority, and the court has no choice but to "suppress". There are different voices in Deng to continue fighting, because it is impossible to overthrow the court with the strength of Fujian. Therefore, Deng proposed that as long as the court promised to reduce taxes in Fujian and give the "refugees" legal status, they could surrender themselves. It's a pity that the defeated soldiers of the Ming Dynasty saw that Deng didn't fight, thinking that others didn't have the strength and wanted to make meritorious deeds, they led the troops to raid Deng and Deng was defeated, thus giving up the idea of wooing him.

In the 13th year of orthodoxy, the imperial court made up its mind to send 47,000 elite soldiers from Beijing Battalion and Shandong, Shanxi, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces south to suppress thieves. This was the most elite army of the Ming Dynasty, including the Zhejiang "standby enemy" who fought against the enemy in the southeast coast, the Xuanda cavalry who fought against the Mongols in the north, and even used the most advanced secret weapon at that time-Daming Ji Shen Camp.

The Ming Dynasty began to carry out a series of reforms while using various means to eliminate the remnants of Deng Zaifu. According to Xu Youzhen's suggestion, hundreds of thousands of refugees living in Fujian were re-registered in the Ming Dynasty and given legal status. During the Deng Uprising, the land cultivated by farmers was confiscated and distributed, and their "land property rights" were all recognized. Since then, Fujian's population has increased dramatically, and the amount of cultivated land has increased greatly, making it a "big taxpayer" in the national fiscal revenue.

Half a year after Deng's defeat, the battle of Neibao broke out, and Yu Qian, the minister of the Ministry of War, wanted to transfer the elite troops of Zhejiang who were fighting in Fujian back to Beijing. Unfortunately, due to the war in Fujian, only a small part was transferred back.

In the first year of Jingtai, the envoys of the Ming Dynasty sent to Wala, and Wala ridiculed "why the Ming army was vulnerable in the battle of the civil fort." Yang Shan replied: "All the powerful troops of the Sixth Division marched to the south (that is, conquered Deng), so they lost in World War I", which shows that Deng played a great role in containing the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming dynasty, under the condition of "hooligans inside and Land Rover outside", they fought on two fronts and won. Unfortunately, nearly 200 years later, the same situation happened again. This time, the Ming Dynasty couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed.