Spurred by the opportunity to vent, Hong Chengchou began to elaborate.
It turned out Wang Er had not been idle.
After departing Chengcheng County, he first entered Yijun County, rallied an army of six thousand, breached the county seat, beheaded the magistrate—events that were already widely known.
From there, Wang Er continued northward.
He understood that proximity to Xi'an invited swift military reprisal. For safety, he needed to push further north. He traversed Yijun County and entered Luochuan, where he briefly merged forces with the local bandit "Bu Zhanni" ("Mud-Slicker").
After a short, tense alliance, Wang Er, unimpressed with Bu Zhanni's character, decided to part ways. He pushed north again, soon reaching the outskirts of Yan'an Prefecture.
"When Wang Er reached Yan'an," Hong Chengchou continued, "he happened upon the 'Chuang Wang' of Ansai, who had also risen in rebellion."
Hearing "Chuang Wang" (Dashing King), Li Daoxuan paused momentarily, then remembered. It's still early. This isn't Li Zicheng. It's the first Dashing King, Gao Yingxiang of Ansai.
This was still the early phase of the peasant uprisings. Gao Yingxiang, not wanting to implicate his clan, operated under the nickname "Chuang Wang." He wouldn't reveal his real name for another two years, so apart from Li Daoxuan, no one here knew his true identity.
"Wang Er joined forces with the Ansai Chuang Wang," Hong Chengchou went on, "greatly swelling their numbers to over ten thousand men. But Yan'an was a prefectural city, beyond their capacity to storm. The two leaders bypassed it, continuing north until they reached the Yulin region…"
San Shier murmured, "Surely the Yulin region isn't also in rebellion?"
Hong Chengchou gave a grim smile. "You surmise correctly. Yulin was also in turmoil. Two other rebels—'Zijin Liang' (Purple-Gold Beam) from Suide and Wang Jiayin from Fugu—had just risen. Wang Er, Chuang Wang, Wang Jiayin, and Zijin Liang converged. Four rebel leaders, combined forces numbering in the tens of thousands. Their momentum is… formidable."
A wave of shock passed through the listeners. Without their realizing it, the rebel forces outside had already swelled to such a scale?
"Wang Jiayin is a former frontier garrison soldier," Hong Chengchou explained. "Skilled with bow and horse, he knows how to train troops and forge weapons. Wang Er, meanwhile, is the infamous 'First Rebel Under Heaven.' Together, one draws swarms of outlaws with his notoriety, while the other trains these rebels using frontier army methods…"
Here, Hong Chengchou actually chuckled with bitter amusement. "'Loot until spring and they'll settle'! Ha! 'Loot until spring and they'll settle'! It's laughable. A year ago, anyone reporting bandit activity would be seized by the governor's men, beaten with boards without trial, forbidden from speaking of rebellion. Hahaha! And now? If you don't speak, and I don't speak, and no one speaks… the bandits number tens of thousands. Now, we must speak. Let's see if his head aches or not."
The table fell into a heavy silence.
After a long pause, San Shier finally sighed. "In the end, it's the common people who suffer. Superintendent Hong, forgive my limited perspective, but… how can this rebellion truly be resolved?"
Hong Chengchou had been stewing in his own thoughts, with no one to voice them to. Asked directly here, where it seemed safe to speak freely, he let his ideas flow. "The scourge of roving bandits begins with natural disaster. And this disaster shows no sign of ending soon. Therefore, appeasement is useless. Even if temporarily pacified, without food, they will rebel again. To quell this rebellion, they must ultimately be… exterminated."
"Extermination… is too contrary to heavenly virtue," San Shier ventured cautiously. "Could the opposite be considered? If there were sufficient food, perhaps extermination wouldn't be necessary?"
"Exactly! If there were enough food to genuinely appease them, extermination wouldn't be needed." Hong Chengchou's voice turned weary. "But the great drought shows no sign of relenting. Where would such food come from? Unless Heaven itself takes pity…" He shook his head. "So, in the end, extermination is the only path."
From his vantage point, he saw no alternative to slaughter.
Li Daoxuan sighed inwardly. While he had no allegiance to the Ming court, from its perspective, suppressing the rebels was indeed the optimal—perhaps the only—solution.
In the late Ming, several governors and viceroys had attempted appeasement—men like Yang He and Xiong Wencan. All failed.
Why?
The reason was simple. To appease rebels, you must provide them with food, land, a means to survive. If you cannot, how can you appease them?
The Ming treasury was bankrupt, unable to provide sufficient food.
With natural disasters rampant, the Ming court could not provide an environment for growing grain.
Several appeasement attempts failed, only giving the rebels a chance to recuperate. They would pretend to surrender, eat the court's rations for a few days, rest, then rebel again, drawing more innocent civilians into their ranks, further destroying productive capacity and reducing food output.
As productivity was destroyed, food output plummeted, eventually creating a grain deficit for tens of millions.
With such a massive deficit, tens of millions had to die so the remainder could have enough food to survive the famine.
Therefore, the court's only correct course early on should have been to abandon naive appeasement and relentlessly crush the rebellions, protecting the un-rebellious populace and productive capacity to prevent the food deficit from widening, thereby reducing future deaths.
But launching a bloody suppression from the outset was seen as excessively cruel—something only the Manchus, Zhang Xianzhong, and a few authors of sensational fiction would dare.
Thus, the Ming court vacillated between appeasement and suppression, unable to commit to either.
Fortunately, Li Daoxuan could defy the natural disasters.
He wore no Ming uniform. He had the confidence to avoid the "extermination" path. He had ample food. The only thing he lacked now was capable personnel to manage all aspects of this growing endeavor…
Li Daoxuan spoke quietly to Gao Yiye, who whispered into San Shier's ear.
San Shier composed himself and asked, his tone grave, "Superintendent Hong, forgive my forwardness… I must ask: if someone could provide you with enough food… what would you do?"
Hong Chengchou snorted softly. "If there were truly enough food, it would be simple. Execute the worst of the rebels—the ruthless, untrustworthy ones who flip-flop. Then appease the decent folk who were forced into banditry by giving them sufficient food. The rebellion would naturally subside."
He sighed again, the sound heavy with frustration. "But this is mere fantasy. First, I lack such quantities of grain. Second, I am merely a fourth-rank Superintendent of Grain Transport—a minor official escorting supplies. Matters of such magnitude are far beyond my authority. Left to the old, muddled fools in charge, any attempt would be botched completely."
The method he described was precisely what Li Daoxuan was already implementing. This man is highly capable, and his record is still clean, Li Daoxuan thought. If I could recruit him into Gao Village before his fall, deny him the chance to become corrupt… with his abilities, he could be genuinely useful.
But…
A fourth-rank official wouldn't become one of my little people easily. A mere divine manifestation wouldn't make him prostrate himself in immediate loyalty.
The higher the official, the greater the lust for power, the more cunning and manipulative.
If I "manifested" to him—showed the Thanos Gauntlet—he would most likely kneel and worship on the spot, pretending absolute submission. Then, the moment he left my sight, he would flee far away, never setting foot in Gao Village again.
That's how shrewd such men are.
I'll have to let it go for now.
We'll see what fate brings.
...
During the Wanli era, the Ming population was over 100 million. By the Ming-Qing transition, only 50-60 million remained. Tens of millions had perished.
The early Qing dynasty's cessation of famine was partly due to the Little Ice Age easing, and partly because the population had decreased by tens of millions.
Those tens of millions of deaths reduced food consumption, making the existing food supply sufficient.
Simply put, during the Little Ice Age, food production dropped. The empire could not feed its entire population. Tens of millions had to die. There was no other solution…
The late Ming peasant rebellions were, in essence, a brutal natural selection—killing others to ensure food entered one's own stomach.
If you couldn't conjure food from thin air, even as a time-traveler, you couldn't save those tens of millions. They were doomed to die—by starvation, by Ming troops, by rebel armies, or by Manchu soldiers. However they died, die they must, because the food shortage was unsolvable.
It was a grim, inescapable reality. Without a "golden finger," anyone would be powerless.
(Fact: Hong Chengchou's analysis is chillingly accurate for a Ming official of his time. The debate between "招撫" (appeasement) and "剿滅" (extermination) tore the late Ming bureaucracy apart. Hong, later known for his ruthless efficiency against rebels (before his defection), represents the hardline "extermination" faction. His bitter critique of Governor Hu's failed policy reflects the very real, fatal indecision at the highest levels of Ming rule in Shaanxi.)