When the ship reached the city, Zhao Bing looked towards the city. The city was closely guarded and the flags were planted. Not only were soldiers defending each other, but there were also horses patrolling each other. The gates were closed and the suspension bridge was pulled up. The moats under the city were connected to the Yangtze River through two lakes. Although it was already in the dry season, the water in the moat still filled most of the moats. It was not easy to cross the trenches. When their fleet approached, the defenders on the city immediately sounded the alarm bell, but for a moment, the city was full of soldiers, and they fired arrows at the fleet and released the crossbow.

"Don't pay attention, and get a distance and pass quickly!" Wang Meng saw the dense arrows and wanted to turn left to hide in the depths of the lake, Zhao Bing said.

"Put down the protective plate, prepare for shooting, the course remains unchanged, and pass through!" Wang Meng immediately ordered.

As the protective plate on the porthole fell, the cabin suddenly became dark, but the dull knocking sound of arrows shooting on the boat board could still be heard. It should be said that the stone thrower and crossbow installed on the city still pose a certain threat to the dragon ship. The convenience ahead was the entrance of the lake connected to the Yangtze River, and the waterway suddenly narrowed. If a counterattack would inevitably affect the speed, it would be safer to speed up.

"It's really too much. They actually attacked us!" Wang Meng suddenly said angrily.

"Ignore it, they won't hurt us." This section of the waterway must pass through the edge of the breakwater dike outside the city. The Yuan army stationed troops here to defend the dike and built a war shed. After hearing Wang Meng's words, Zhao Bing opened the observation hole on the porthole and looked out. He saw that the Yuan army guarding the long dike were shooting arrows and throwing stones when they saw them coming. What made people hate was that many of the people were mixed with them and threw stones at them. Some even climbed onto the dike and raised the stones to smash them hard at their warships.

"Your Majesty, these unlucky people did not respond when they saw the king's army arrive, but instead helped the evildoer to commit suicide. After breaking the city, they will be killed together!" Wen Tianxiang looked over and said angrily.

"Wen Xiang doesn't have to be angry, why bother with these people? They might just think it's fun." Zhao Bing smiled and said to Wen Tianxiang with a resentful look on his face.

"Your Majesty, since they knew that it was our people, they should not obey the enemy, but instead rose up to resist the storm. But what have they done now? Not only did they not fight, but they should not help the enemy, but shouldn't they kill?" Wen Tianxiang said even more annoyed when he heard the thumping sound of stones hitting the top of the ship.

"In order to stabilize the situation, it is necessary to suppress a group of traitors. But if we rely on killing to force the people to surrender, it is definitely not the best way. Otherwise, what is the difference between us and Baoyuan?" Zhao Bing frowned and said.

In order to shock the enemy and the people in the occupied areas, Zhao Bing carried out white terror after conquering Guangzhou and Quanzhou, and executed all the officials stationed by the Mongolian Yuan and the officials of the dynasty who were attached to the Yuan Dynasty, and their family wealth and female relatives were appointed as officials. After the battle to restore the country began, in order to quickly quell the occupied occupied areas, he issued an order to suppress the Mongolian Yuan officials, traitors and those who were attached to the enemy. However, in order to prevent random killing, conditions were still limited.

In the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas where he presided over, although a large number of Mongolian Yuan officials and traitors were suppressed, it did not expand, and it also involved ordinary people and ordinary vendors. However, Wen Tianxiang, who presided over the battlefields of Jiangxi and Guangxi, implemented iron-blooded methods, not only executed all the Mongolians and Semu people, but also confiscated their property. He also expanded the suppression policy. All ordinary people and merchants involved in the Mongolian Yuan were listed as targets of suppression. Their land was confiscated, their property was confiscated, and the harsh suppression of rebellion caused many people to flee, and even the local officials could not be selected.

The reason why Wen Tianxiang is like this is that Zhao Bing analyzes that this is certainly related to his hatred of evil, but it is also related to his experience over the years. He was squeezed out of the court and convened the rebel army to fight against the Yuan Dynasty in Jiannankai Prefecture. At first, he quickly gathered tens of thousands of people. However, as the Mongolian Yuan troops increased, the situation became more and more difficult. Many people began to leave the anti-Yuan team and even surrendered to the Yuan court, which seriously weakened the strength of the rebel army, resulting in failure and his defeat and captured.

On the other hand, there are family affairs. Wen Tianxiang has three younger brothers: Wenbi, Wenting, and Wen Zhang. Among them, Wen Ting died early; Wenbi was one year old, and in the winter of Jingyan, the Yuan army attacked Huizhou, where Wenbi was stationed, and he was the prefect, and he was the prefect of Wen Tianxiang, and Wen Zhang, who was thirteen years old, surrendered with Wenbi. Two years later, in the first year of Xiangxing, Wen Bi arrived in Qiongzhou, while Wen Zhang retired to the countryside without serving.

After that, Wen Tianxiang escaped from danger and became the right prime minister, and moved to Qiongzhou. People at that time often criticized this matter. His brother was so loyal and fierce, but his younger brother committed a scandal that damaged his reputation. Wenbi wrote to the court to apologize and defended himself for surrendering: First, the ancestral sacrifices were endless. One of Wen Tianxiang's two sons died early and the other was separated in the war. Wenbi adopted one of his sons to Wen Tianxiang; second, Wen Tianxiang's mother died in a foreign land and had not been buried, so she needed to carry a coffin back home; third, unlike the surrender faction that the Yuan army had just invaded the Song Dynasty, the court had actually perished when they surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty, and the result of the struggle could only make the people in the city unlucky.

Zhao Bing knew that when Chinese people face heroes, moral worship often escalated under constant touch. If this worship leaves the essence and loses the basic understanding and sympathy of human nature, it becomes moral kidnapping. Some people think that Wen Tianxiang should condemn his younger brothers, but on the contrary, he did not do what people hoped to do. He expressed silence on this matter, which made some people very disappointed, condemn him and sarcastically wrote poems.

Finally, Zhao Bing decided to remove Wenbi's reputation and never enter the officialdom for his entire life. However, Wen Tianxiang suffered a lot of public opinion and mental pressure. Now, the iron hand fights against traitors include both hatred and worrying that some people in the court will use this to make a fuss, and Jiangxi must be his hometown, so overcorrecting the repression will be expanded. However, the current situation has changed, and if it is still like this, it will inevitably lead to adverse consequences.

"Your Majesty's intention is clear, but they forgot the old dynasty and were willing to serve the enemy, but they did not dare to make righteous words in anger. They were actually obedient people of the Tartars. How can we spare easily? Your Majesty should not be too kind." Wen Tianxiang pointed to the long dike with a joke, watching the people who were hiding from left and right in the narrow waterway.

"In the literary world, the survival of the weak is the way of heaven. They have to surrender to survive. They are different from those who eat their salary. How can they treat them together!" Zhao Bing was a little bored. These scholars advised him to implement benevolent policies all day long, but when they came to them, they were stubborn and went from one extreme to another. But he still had to be patient and reasoned.

"I see that they have surrendered, they have already been equal to the Tartars. I have no king, father and country in my heart. Otherwise, why would I laugh at the king's army being humiliated without reflecting on myself?" Wen Tianxiang said indignantly.

"Wen Xiang said it is right, but it should also be understood that most of the people living in the grass market are fighting the people and making a living on the water, and merchants make a living by operating. Now that the two armies are fighting, their boats cannot enter the river, so there is no harvest, and it is difficult for the whole family to make a living. Similarly, the merchants in our army are unable to sell goods and it is difficult to sell those who purchase them. Although they were bullied by the Tartars before, they could barely fill their stomachs, but now they have cut off their life path and are naturally dissatisfied with us, so they will have extreme behaviors." Zhao Bing knew that choking on fire could only arouse Wen Tianxiang's resentment, leading the conversation to the extreme, so he could only change his way.

"Your Majesty said it is right. On the day of Lin'an's fall, all the people in the city cried and wept. When the Empress Dowager and the Last Emperor were hunting north, the people in the city went out to see each other out of the city for ten miles. But the court did not exist, so what could those common people do? They could only endure the oppression and exploitation of the Tartars. Even if they were determined to resist, it was like hitting a stone with an egg!" Xie Fangde sighed and said.

"This is true. The government was defeated before, the court was in a weak position, the treacherous ministers were in power, officials were corrupt, and they were as harsh as a cow's hair, but the people were unable to fill their stomachs after working hard for a year. In addition, soldiers were like bandits, forced to fight along the way, harass the people, and plundered everything, even hated the Tartars. Seeing the king's army avoiding the plague, the whole family fled. Some brave men formed camps to protect themselves against the official army, and some even saw the Tartars coming, forced the city gates, tied up local officials, and welcomed the Tartars into the city... The people's support was obvious!" Xie Ao frowned and said sadly.

"If the king is not kind, the people will not love him. These mistakes should not be pushed to the people..." Zhao Bing sighed.

When the dynasty was gradually stabilized in Qiongzhou, officials would always travel between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. After returning, Zhao Bing was in the Jiangnan situation. He all said that in the occupied areas, except for a very small number of traitors and traitors who were willing to abide by the enemy, the vast number of farmers, handicraftsmen, scholars and other patriots, based on national justice, in order to welcome the emperor to restore the country, they spontaneously or organizedly entered the struggle against Mongolia. As long as the emperor raised his arms and shouted, thousands of people would come to fight for justice, and the king's army would come to welcome him.

Generally speaking, if you hear such words too much, you will inevitably believe them, but Zhao Bing is not so easy to fool. Moreover, there are the real situations sent back by spies from the Bureau of Affairs, which enables him to understand the true situation in Jiangnan. He believes that the relationship between civil society and invaders in the occupied areas is not the absolute opposition between the Han and the foreign invaders, but has a considerable degree of ambiguity. The people are not patriotism and treason with clear boundaries, but should be in the "gray area" between the two.

However, this phenomenon was not known after arriving in Qiongzhou, but was discovered when it was conquering Guangzhou as early as the way from Jiazi Town to Qiong. At that time, this area had changed hands, and frequent wars and plunders destroyed the economic foundation. However, he discovered that after Quanzhou fell, the first thing he recovered was often business. It was not surprising that Guangzhou was built by commerce. However, Zhao Bing discovered that this phenomenon was not only to meet the people's daily needs, but at that time, business had become the only way for many people to make a living.

The war created a large number of homeless people, landless people and bankrupt handicraftsmen. However, Zhao Bing saw in the market in addition to traditional trade products, there were many second-hand daily necessities such as clothes, bedding, cloth, tableware, furniture, vases, bronzes and other second-hand daily necessities. It is not difficult to imagine that there will be a small number of homely items that are forced to betrayed by life, but it is certain that most of these items were robbed by soldiers or thugs on both sides. Perhaps most vendors were forced to distribute just for survival, but at least it shows that the tradition of moral self-discipline has collapsed.

In the face of the reality of supply stagnation and the law of survival priority, the above-mentioned moral requirements may not be too high, but if these two premises are lost, especially commercial activities that are at the cost of blaming others or endangering others' lives, there is no room for forgiveness. This is enough to show that the profit-seeking nature of merchants will not change due to changes in the environment, nor will it be restricted by the national view of justice. It also shows that even war and suffering are not enough to change their hearts in chasing profits, and it is not surprising to cooperate with the Mongols.

If these behaviors occur in the extremely chaotic social order and the early fall of the merchant group was not representative, then after the general army withdrew from Guangzhou, the Mongolians quickly took over the regime and immediately began to restore international trade activities here. In order to regulate the commercial activities in Guangzhou to collect taxes, the Yuan court re-examined and registered the merchants and established a guild. Their behavior should be able to truly reflect their national position.

What Zhao Bing saw was greed and profit-seeking, hoarding, black market transactions and smuggling and trafficking became the main body of commercial activities. Normal market transactions were also seriously affected by merchants' price raising and anti-price limits, showing a strong speculative color. Of course, this is also related to the Mongols' plundering policy. In order to get more profits, they forcibly impose high taxes with administrative means and privileges, resulting in a scarcity of materials and tight supply in the occupied areas. Not only did they not play a role in stabilizing the economic order, but instead activated commercial speculation and smuggling trading.

The subsequent currency conversion and the excessive issuance of Zhongtong Banknotes have caused continuous price increases and increased the supply tension. Merchants have had to adopt hoarding and counter-price limiting measures. There is a phenomenon that those who sell too much are not as profitable as those who sell less. Faced with the continuous rising prices and increasingly tight supply of goods, merchants dare not take the goods easily. Even if they take action, they have to add the price increase part of the next purchase. Due to the difficulty in measuring the increase, they have to add the insurance coefficient.

After such twists and turns, prices have been further raised, but no one cares about the lives of ordinary people. In short, the speculative activities of the merchants in Guangzhou have both self-protection and profit-seeking motivation. Zhao Bingwei did not see their consideration of nationalism.
Chapter completed!