Xue Shao's heart stirred, and strange light flashed repeatedly in his eyes. After pacing in circles twice, he said, "If the person behind Feng Hongde really is Cao Rong, then it would make sense for him to have mobilized the manpower and military strength of all the Guangdong military colonies to amass this wealth."
"Most of these military-colony soldiers were relocated from the Central Plains and South of the Yangtze, but after the Hongwu and Yongle reigns, they had been rooted here for at least three generations. They had long since blended with the local people. Feng Hongde and the others treated the military-colony soldiers so harshly—would that not have affected the surrounding commoners? Would they not harbor resentment?"
Xue Shao murmured, "They are not like the military-colony soldiers, who have military law pressing down on them and are able to endure. If they suffer injustice and their discontent piles up, they will certainly resist."
Pan Yun nodded. "That's true."
In her own time and space, throughout the entire Ming dynasty, Guangdong and Guangxi had seen the most uprisings, and the ones that lasted the longest.
Guangdong had maritime trade to sustain it, giving its people a chance to catch their breath. But Guangxi had more mountains and less land. Throughout the Ming dynasty, who knew what screw had come loose in the Tusi's heads—they wanted to use the native people under their rule as slaves. The Imperial Court fought wars in every direction and raised taxes everywhere to fund military expenses. Then the Tusi added another thirty percent on top of the taxes imposed by the Imperial Court and passed them on to the native people.
The whole arrangement was simple: the Imperial Court took half, they took half, and in the end the native people were crushed beyond