Chapter 51 4. One-eyed stone man

At the beginning of 1351, Jia Lu took office, and the Yellow River flood control project officially started. The focus of the project was to dig a new Baimao River in Huanglinggang—from Huanglinggang to Baimaokou in the south and Yangqing Village in the west. In order to strangle the Yellow River back to its old way.The whole project started on April 22 of this year, the canal was dug in July, the water was broken into the canal in August, and the boats were passed in September. There is a comment on this in "Yuan History Hequ Zhi San": "It is also a service. The court spared no expense, no expense, no harm to the people. Tuotuo can understand the meaning, not afraid of fatigue, not sympathetic, for the country Saving the people. Lu Neng exhausted his ingenuity, ingenuity and cleverness, took advantage of his courage, and did not hesitate to wear himself out, and was not afraid of ridicule and criticism, in order to repay the knowledge of the king and the people." This was a very remarkable water conservancy project at that time.However, it was this remarkable project that played the prelude to the great chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

In the restlessness of that early summer, a strange folk song suddenly spread on the construction site, "The stone man has one eye, stirring up the Yellow River and the world to rebel".Many strange characters appeared on the construction site, made friends everywhere, and told stories to other migrant workers. The center of the stories was always "Maitreya Buddha was born", "King Ming was born" and so on. They said that Maitreya was a good king who loved his people before he became a monk. After he became a monk, he was a top student under the Buddha Sakyamuni, with good grades and discipline.Since the death of the Buddha, the world has fallen into darkness, people's hearts have been so bad, and even the crops in the fields have reduced production. Everyone is living a miserable life, and it is extremely hard.Fortunately, there is still hope. It is said that Sakyamuni left a message before his death that Maitreya Buddha will be born to succeed him in another 5.67 billion years—then the world will be in great order. Sowing seeds once can yield seven harvests, and there is no need to dig the soil and pull weeds... In short, after the birth of Maitreya, the upstairs, downstairs, electric lights, telephones, potatoes and roast beef, everything the poor people want!

"How dare you!" The Runtus, who were so hard that they couldn't straighten their waists, were full of longing in the story. At the end, they wiped the corners of their mouths with their cuffs, and carefully took out half a hard bun from their waistbands. Steamed buns—this was hidden during dinner when the supervisor was not paying attention.He took a bite, looked up at the bright starry sky, and said to the storyteller, "It would be nice to have a piece of dog meat...but what kind of life should that be?" The storyteller looked around vigilantly, and put his mouth close to the other's ear pretending to be mysterious: "Everyone says Maitreya Buddha was born, brother, you don't know?" Maitreya Buddha was born?The Juntus all shook their heads; but the imperial court not only defaulted on wages, but also didn't have enough rations on the construction site, and the Juntus all knew about it.

In those nights filled with the fragrance of weeds, amidst the lonely whispers of the little insects, there were whispers everywhere: some were talking about Maitreya, some were explaining the king, and some were fabricating the magic and weirdness of the one-eyed stone man ——In short, they are using all kinds of promises that are unlikely to be fulfilled to canvass votes for the upcoming armed elections. During these nights, all the gods in the sky felt hot at the base of their ears, and some kept sneezing... A few experienced gods sighed: "Damn it, don't go to sleep, it's exciting to watch again! "

In the human world, on the Huanglinggang construction site, one day someone suddenly planed a hard object near a tree. Curious people dug it out, and it turned out to be a stone man—a man with one eye. Stone man, this guy is weird enough!People also found a line of writing on the back of the stone man. After reading by a literate gentleman, the inscription was: "Mo Dao stone man has one eye, and this thing will be reversed when it comes out of the world!" This meaning is very simple, and there is no need to explain it at all. . The sudden coincidence between the prophecy and the facts made those widely popular legends immediately become the topics of discussion among the river workers.With the rotation and escape of the river workers, the news spread quickly. For a while, people were confused up and down the river, and the resentment accumulated for nearly a century was about to burst out.

This is the "Fox Yu Danshu" in the late Yuan Dynasty, which seems to be the divine will in the dark - but we know clearly today that this is nothing more than a means used by Han Shantong.The stone man used as a prop is not worth much, so his whereabouts are unknown.Perhaps one day in the future, later generations will excavate it again in the old course of the Yellow River under Huanglinggang, and look at it with more dignified eyes. Seeing the success of the instigation, Han Shantong was overjoyed, so at the beginning of May of that year, Liu Futong, Du Zundao, Luo Wensu, Sheng Wenyu, Wang Xianzhong, Han Yaoer and others gathered in Bailuzhuang, Yingshang, and called more than 3,000 congregants to cut black cattle and white horses, and vowed to Heaven and earth, get ready for trouble.Liu Futong declared to everyone: Han Shantong is the eighth grandson of Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty and should be the Lord of China, while Liu Futong is a descendant of Liu Guangshi, a general of the Song Dynasty, and he is rightly assisting the old master to restore the world.So everyone elected Han Shantong as the "King of Ming", and they planned to raise troops soon.They used the Song Dynasty as a call, although it was just a means of propaganda, but it did reflect the people's nostalgia for the motherland at that time.

Han Shantong and others were swearing in the alliance, but some people in the congregation were timid. In order to show that they did not participate in the rebellion, they went to sue the officials very disrespectfully.A group of Yuan soldiers came to suppress, Liu Futong and others escaped by chance, but Han Shantong was caught and beheaded immediately for public display.Han Shantong's wife Yang and son Han Lin'er also fled to Wu'an Mountain near Xuzhou, Jiangsu today. On May 3rd, Liu Futong, who had escaped, was forced to raise troops ahead of time. The soldiers all wrapped their heads in red scarves, burned incense and worshiped Buddha, so they were called the "Red Scarf Army", also known as the "Fragrant Army".Liu Futong's troops rose up suddenly, and the Yuan Dynasty was unprepared, and they captured Yingzhou, Luoshan, Shangcai, Zhengyang, Huoshan and other cities by mistake.

Liu Futong claimed that Chen Yizhong, the prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, fled to Japan to ask for help, and issued an edict in the name of Han Shantong, saying, "Yun Yuxi is in Haidong, and elite soldiers are taken from Japan. The poor are in the south of the Yangtze River, and the rich are called Saibei." Flying the Ninth Five-Year Plan, reopening the battle flag of the Great Song Dynasty, and wanting to "follow the traces of the Great Song Dynasty and the deep hatred of Xueya Mountain". Here, we can see international relations that are quite different from today.In the eyes of Liu Futong, Japan at that time was a natural ally and a friendly tail country, while Mongolia was a long-standing enemy—so it was not ashamed to "take elite soldiers from Japan".In fact, when the Song Dynasty fell, many survivors fled to Japan, bringing knowledge, technology and ideas to the culturally barren island of Dongying, and also brought hatred for unorthodox China—these worship, inferiority and hatred continued. Accumulation, derivation, and further amplification during the Ming and Qing Dynasties finally formed the intricate feelings that the Japanese have towards China today.