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Abstract

In the Southern Song dynasty, the system of "tea monopoly" made tea unprofitable, and then tea merchants took risks and caused frequent riots. These riots were not peasant uprisings, but illegal activities similar to gangsters' organized crimes. They not only fought against the government's crushing of tea smuggling, but also plundered houses and pillaged civilians. It is a misunderstanding that the academia usually refers to the armed gangs of the tea merchant Lai Wenzheng as the "tea merchant army". The "tea merchant army" was an official army that specialized in dealing with the rebellion of tea merchants. The armed gang of Lai Wenzheng started the revolt in Hubei, and soon moved into Hunan and Jiangxi. The court of the Southern Song dynasty sent the regular army to put it down, replaced three judicial executives, and used tens of thousands of troops to suppress the gang but to no avail. Xin Qiji was appointed as judicial executive of Jiangxi Province and went to Ganzhou to suppress the revolt. He adopted a series of tactics such as besieging with massive forces, ambush by multiple ways, offering amnesty for surrender. In the end, he spent about two months defeating the armed gang of Lai Wenzheng, and fully demonstrated his talents. His meritorious deeds aroused his confidence and hope for the future, but the next appointment disappointed him, for his dreamed expedition to the north failed once again. He took his new office from Ganzhou to the north, and wrote "Pu Sa Man · Writing on the Wall of Zaokou in Jiangxi" when he passed by Zaokou. This poem shows the anxiety for elapsing time. In this case, the main purpose of the poem is not to express the irresistible torrents of history, nor to allude to the capitulationists in the imperial court and all kinds of reactionary forces that obstructed the struggle against the Jin dynasty.

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