Han Shizu

Chapter 1734 Head = Reward
Yulin, Xiazhou, Huangyangping.

In just half a year, this once-prosperous frontier town has completely changed its appearance. This past season was a critical period for production and food and clothing. Hu and Han merchants gathered one after another, and the trade in the border market was extremely prosperous.

Even at this time last year, although the atmosphere in Huangyangping was somewhat suppressed due to the influence of Li Jiqian's rebellion, it still managed to maintain a normal order and living conditions.

But now, there is only endless desolation and desolation left. Looking around, there are devastation, traces of war everywhere, ruined earthen walls, collapsed houses, burnt huts, and bones everywhere.

After the Battle of Fengzhou, under the overall planning of the battalion, the Yulin government army began to suppress the rebels from all walks of life, especially the remnants of the two major rebel groups, Li and Yuan.

As the base of Li Jiqian's rebellion, Huang Yangping, even if it has only existed for more than two months, is still a key target for elimination, especially since this place is so close to Xiazhou City.The result is doomed, and the process is cruel. This border town where Hu and Han gathered together was completely destroyed by the flames of war. The leading Han general Wang Meng, together with more than 3000 miscellaneous Hu cavalry, slaughtered the entire town and surrounding party members Yikong, while conquering the traitor concentration camp, he also took tens of thousands of heads back to Xiazhou to claim credit.

Wang Meng was originally the commander of an ordinary cavalry battalion under the Yulin Dusi. When Wang Yu first mobilized troops to attack Li Jiqian on a large scale, he also led troops to Huangyangping as an outpost.

But encounters between people are really impermanent. A year ago, he was just a cavalry battalion commander. A year later, he became the commander of Xiazhou's horse army. He can be ranked high in Xiazhou's military system.Of course, Wang Meng worked hard for all of this, and it was he who stained his future with the blood of rebels and party members.

The most crucial battle, the battle of Fengzhou without a doubt, Wang Meng fought with the army and led his cavalry to launch no less than seven violent attacks on Li Jiqian's troops until it was defeated, and he himself was wounded in more than ten places , which became famous.

Friendship arose on the battlefield, Wang Meng was recommended by Pan Luozhi, and got into the eyes of Zhao Wang Liu Fang, and Liu Fang was a Suxi warrior.Even though Wang Meng and Wang Yu had a relatively close relationship, they were not implicated. Instead, after the Battle of Fengzhou, they were promoted to command Xiazhou's horse army, which became a typical example of taking advantage of the situation in the Yulin chaos.

In the same way, Zhang Yan, the former mayor of Huang Yangping who was shoulder to shoulder with Wang Meng a year ago and called him a brother, because of his participation in the rebellion, even if he was coerced by Li Jiqian and the Yeli Party, his fate can only be described as miserable. He was killed and his head was exchanged for money, and it was Wang Meng, the "good brother" who ordered the attack.

The relatively primitive method of recording merit by using heads has been gradually eliminated in the Han army. Needless to say, the officers have higher requirements for the evaluation of military merit, and they have long since departed from the simple achievement of beheading.But even ordinary soldiers have a more complete set of merit recording methods that combine military supervision and evidence.

In the past, apart from deterring the target, the Han army rarely took beheading actions. The most recent time was when Tian Qinzuo massacred the Jurchen natives of the East China Sea in Andong, and used the corpses to build a temple in Beijing to deter the barbarians.

After many years, a similar scene reappeared in Yulin, and it was more direct, more cruel, and more natural.Regardless of whether it is the Han army or the slave Hu army, for them, those heads are credit and wealth.

This price is not high for the government, but it is indeed very attractive to the lower-level sergeants, especially those servants.

With the smelting of internal copper and the import of external copper, more and more Han copper coins are minted. Compared with the past, Han coins have depreciated a lot, but money is always the same as many low-level people who work hard for a month without eating or drinking. owned.

As far as the Yulin quelling the rebellion is concerned, this is a no-cost business. How difficult can it be to kill a few people and decapitate a few heads?At most it's just a bit of physical exertion.

And the imperial court is organizing officers and soldiers, usually paid, and combat subsidies, plus this beheading, participating in an operation means a large amount of income, and the enthusiasm is naturally high.

It has to be said that the officers and soldiers of the Han Dynasty are becoming more and more professional. Of course, they are also becoming more and more mercenaries. Even though Emperor Liu has been emphasizing loyalty to the emperor and patriotism in the past few decades, brainwashing with Xuan Weilang has a certain effect , but after all, it is not as intuitive as the temptation of money interests.

Furthermore, why you should be loyal to the emperor is to get promotion, social status, and wealth growth.Why be patriotic, because the empire can protect their vested interests.Putting all these aside, there is no way to talk about loyalty to the monarch and patriotism. Of course, ideals are still very important, but compared with interests, they pale in the end.

Compared with the well-paid Han army, those fan soldiers are more motivated. In the northwest region, poverty is still common, especially those miscellaneous barbarians, who are used to being poor, and they can work hard for a little money.

At the same time, they have another level of concern, that is the pressure of survival. The rebellion of the party members has a great impact on them. You can now protect yourself with the corpse of the traitor.

Especially when the camp came up with the temptation of naked interests, the choice was easier to make. Therefore, since the beginning of spring, the series of killings in Yulin were inhumane to the party members, and to the counter-insurgency officers and soldiers under the command of the Yulin camp. , every time you swing a knife, it is consistent money income.
And the targets of the killing, there is no doubt that those Hu Han traitors who rebelled and were enemies of the court, these people should have been killed, but Yulin was so chaotic, how to identify it was a difficulty.

The camp did not have a clear instruction, but the actions below were very liberal. At first, they were still watching the rebels, and then some smart people were watching all the party members.

In the end, it evolved into, no matter men, women, old or young, all beheaded, this head was still raised by Lingzhou's mixed beard and white horse.After not being able to find the "main force of the rebel army", Baimahu actively used their ineffective brains to hit those party members who were "suspected of being thieves", especially when they slaughtered a tribe, even the old and weak, women and children After Pandora's head was also exchanged for the same amount of money, Pandora's magic box was completely opened, and it was out of control.

In the massacre all over Yulin, some people did it for credit, while others did it for money.Of course, there are more people who want to survive, and most of these people need to fight with their lives.

Due to the chaotic situation in Yulin and the butcher knives wielded by the officers and soldiers, the party members in the territory did not sit still and be slaughtered.Some of them resisted, and the result of resistance was death. At most, they counterattacked when they were dying, causing a little casualties to the officers and soldiers.

There are also those who choose to flee. Migration is the instinct of these party members who maintain nomadic habits. However, although Yulin is large, there are only a few places for survival, and the entire territory of Yulin has long been sealed off by the government. Those who want to flee must either If they were intercepted and killed halfway, they were either blocked by the blockade of the government and the army, or eventually became "rewards".

For most of the Yulin Party, in the past few months, there was no way to go to heaven, no way to go to earth, and no way to escape. Of course, it is not that there are no survivors at all, and there are always lucky people in the world.

Some broke through many obstacles, escaped into the northern Shaanxi plateau, and hid in the deep mountains, while others broke into the desert with all their brains. If they can find an oasis, they still have hope of survival.

But these, after all, are only a few.

The deaths caused in Yulin included starvation and disease in addition to killing. In fact, tens of thousands of local Hu Han people died in the ice and snow in the past cold winter.

After the beginning of spring, all production activities have been abolished, and there is no room for it. Hunger and death are still the main themes, and the government and the army also uphold the attitude of not leaving behind the 1.1 rice millet and the rebels.

Even so, the officers and soldiers who suppressed the rebellion did not spare the dead Yulin people. As long as they could still be seen, their heads were cut off and exchanged for money.Perhaps for those who died, it is more fortunate that they have no feeling at this time, which is much less serious than suffering alive.

The suggestion of exchanging heads for money was put forward by Shangguan Zheng, the magistrate of Xiazhou. This person is not a good person, but a carnivorous class who drinks human blood, but he does not deny his talent. Back then, he accompanied Wang Quanbin in the southern expedition to Dali.Thanks to his outstanding performance during the Yulin Rebellion, discussions about Shangguanzheng's promotion have already begun in the Ministry of Officials.

Shangguanzheng's proposal was approved by the court, of course, mainly by Emperor Liu.The imperial court agreed, and even if there were some objections within the Yulin camp, they could only implement it with all their strength. At this time, no one dared to risk their lives, and no longer regarded the imperial edict as a trifling matter.

For this reason, Emperor Liu also asked the Financial Secretary to allocate 100 million guan for special use. In Emperor Liu's words, it is worthwhile to buy the entire Yulin "rebels" with a mere 100 million guan, and Yulin and even the century-old peace in the northwest.

Of course, not all of the leaders who were exchanged for rewards were party members, and there were also Han Chinese. When this de facto "cleaning movement" reached its climax, it was pathological, and it did not distinguish between the enemy and ourselves.

At the beginning, the government had to check it, but later, the government of each state simply opened up "head pits" and sent people to wait with rewards. Someone threw the heads of the "rebels" into the pit and distributed them according to the quantity. tips.

Generally speaking, the Han people were luckier in this great turmoil in Yulin. Of course, they are only compared with the party members, especially those who fled early, or flocked to towns early to seek asylum from the government , although they also suffered a lot of injuries, most of them were able to barely survive.

However, not all Han people are so smart, and they also have this kind of luck. At the same time, there are scum among the Han people, and there are also stupid people who have been bewitched by Yuan Ke and other thieves. Most people have also become the scum of the times, and their heads were beheaded in exchange for rewards.

(End of this chapter)