It was in this city that we felt for the first time that in the heart of this vast empire, there was a huge power that was no longer subject to the government, and even seemed to be above it.

This huge force is the Zhao Jin force centered on Xuzhou.

This power has apparently only risen in recent years, so much so that our guides are as unaware of it as we are.

Because of this, we were defenseless against this, but went directly north with cannons, thinking that we would not encounter any danger in the hinterland of the Ming Empire!

Needless to say, the specific situation is needless to say, in short, as soon as we came to the city of Qingjiangpu, the huge eyeline of Zhao Jin's forces here was already eyeing us and the cannons we brought over. Moreover, even though they knew that we were invited and protected by the Ming Empire's government, they did not hesitate, but quickly decided to hijack us and take away our artillery.

As soon as we left the city and arrived on the outskirts of Qingjiangpu, we were surrounded by a group of men in strange uniforms.

After no fighting, the officers and men escorting us surrendered and were disarmed, and we, of course, did not put up any irrational resistance, and became their prisoners as well.

Of course, to be fair, although the faces were very strict, the demeanor of this group was not particularly impolite, and it was much more gentle than the robbers we had seen elsewhere.

Then, we were told that they would escort us to Xuzhou to wait for the fate.

Of course, this is bad news for us, we came to China after a lot of hardships, and then after great hardship, we finally got the opportunity to enter the capital of the Ming Empire and meet the emperor, how could we be willing to be taken away by someone like this?

We had asked them for forgiveness through guò interpreters, and even agreed to give them cannons, as long as we missionaries went north to the capital alone. All we got was a laugh from the commander of the group, and we understood that, despite the proper manners, we had no money to negotiate with them, and could only obey orders.

In this way, we embarked on a journey all the way to Xuzhou.

This is where another role of our guide comes in. Liu Wei kept explaining our origins to those who were escorting us, and finally convinced them that we were not malicious people, so we avoided the initial crisis, or at least saved our lives. He couldn't tell them to release us, but it was much better than we had expected.

Escorted by this rather smug of soldiers, we had to rush to the city of Xuzhou, the center of the territory controlled by the big man, and by the way, on the way we finally learned that in the propaganda on the Xuzhou side, they were not soldiers, but only patrols to maintain law and order, although it seemed to me that these well-trained men were already much stronger than the officers and soldiers of the Ming Empire.

In addition, I would like to stress once again that the discipline of these patrols is astonishing, and who, having charged us a certain fee, did not ransack us and rob us of all our belongings, but allowed us to take our own salutes. And you know, both in Europe at this time and in other parts of the Ming Dynasty, it was common for soldiers to rob merchants, and it was precisely because of this treatment that I couldn't help but wonder why such a well-disciplined and well-trained personnel were just patrols to maintain the local area under the hands of that big man? And what kind of demeanor is the combat unit under his command?

If this was just the initial shock, the next qiē made me feel even more shocked.

During the journey to Xuzhou, my guide kept telling me about his previous experience when he came here.

From his mouth, we know that although this is the hinterland of the Ming Empire, due to various natural disasters and poor government governance, it has long become a region tormented by disasters and famines.

Not long before, a terrible famine had occurred in the vicinity of this area, in which a large number of people starved to death, and the peasants who were lucky enough not to die began a mass exodus. On dusty dirt roads, on barren fields and along dry riverbeds, millions of displaced people walk in despair. They are poorly clothed, hungry for food, children cry, and adults without tears. In order to survive, it is said that cannibalism occurs from time to time.

Although I had come all the way from the south and could not see this scene intuitively, it was not uncommon among us missionaries to see what the northern Ming Empire was like now.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty, at least in the north, was no longer the excess of gold everywhere in Marco Polo's mouth, and the Ming Empire seemed to have passed its prosperity, but it was full of signs of decay and ruin. From the prosperous and wealthy places in the south of the Yangtze River, he didn't feel much of this decay, but as he traveled all the way north, deep into the ruined countryside of the empire, the shocking scenes automatically unfolded in front of his eyes.

Because of the increasingly strict land annexation and heavy taxes, the life of the peasants seemed to be on the verge of becoming untenable, and poverty was staggering and unchanging. The peasants' dwellings were the most rudimentary, often low-slung of mud, poorly clothed and fed, and on the brink of death—even though they were the hardest and most toiling group in the empire.

Even if there is a little bit of land, it is not a comfortable life. Their diet consists almost entirely of sorghum or millet mixed with soybeans or tofu residue, and a piece of white flour steamed bun is a special treat, and meat is eaten only a few times a year.

Although the general poverty had reached such a level, I heard from my guide that the situation there was already good, and that further north of the empire, even near the capital, large numbers of peasants had been forced to flee their homes by terrible disasters and tax looting, struggling to survive in any way imaginable, and yet countless people starved to death on the way.

Of course, I am not saying that the empire has fallen into general poverty, but in fact the empire is still surprisingly rich, but the wealth is concentrated in a small group of people.

These people were large landowners, who owned a large amount of land, and at the same time became officials of the empire through the mass selection examinations of the guò empire, and they used their political privileges to amass wealth on a large scale, and the city we just spoke of was actually in the hands of these people or their agents.

Their wealth and extravagance were more pompous than I had previously imagined, and unlike the European plutocrats, who were mostly local feudal lords, their wealth was linked to the central government, that is, the great tycoons amassed land and wealth through their connections with the central government, perhaps because of the empire's deep tradition of centralization.

It is for this reason that the family tradition of these wealthy people is to send their children and grandchildren to take the exams so that they can enter the central government.

However, I wonder how few of these tax-paying people, after amassing such wealth, are willing to invest it in business, but constantly use various means (legal or illegal) to expand their land, and then seal up the rest of the money, and occasionally take it out for usury, which adds to the devastation of the countryside and makes the poverty even more shocking.

I originally thought that I would see such a scene in Xuzhou.

However, I was wrong.

Along the way, there were bustling towns and farmlands as far as the eye could see, and the people I saw were neatly dressed, not shabby, and not grayish from hunger, but generally ruddy, healthy, and well-fed—they seemed to me to be just the people of the lower classes.

What surprised me even more was the mental outlook of the people here, who did not have the oppressive look of being bullied or plundered, nor the panic of being ruled by gangs, but seemed to be full of energy. Along the way, I saw many elderly people leisurely resting and chatting on the roadside, as if they were glad for their lives today.

This kind of expression, which is more powerful than any empty propaganda in the vernacular, undoubtedly convinced me that the power of the Ming imperial court over this place has disappeared, and even in the hearts of the people does not cherish it. The common people enjoy a relatively prosperous life in stability -- although they are not rich, they are many times better than the situation in which they are in dire straits.

Even, I think they're right.

In addition, I must mention that the road we traveled along was very smooth, and it was evident that it had been well repaired and carefully maintained, so that apart from the anxiety in our hearts and the regret that we could not go to the capital, this part of the journey was the smoothest and even the most comfortable.

I can't doubt the enthusiasm and honesty of my guide and my colleagues, so I think this strange contrast can only be attributed to Zhao Jin's power, and when I think of this, I suddenly became so interested in Zhao Jin and his group that I even had some feelings of 'it's better to go and see him like this'.

And on the roads, you can see horses and wagons passing by everywhere, and obviously many of them are still used for commerce, and it is clear that these roads are worth their weight - they greatly contribute to the development of commerce and make the people richer

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