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Chapter 764 So, Who Is The Rebel?

Wuchang.

Since the Xinghan army captured Wuchang, the most ferocious person who clamored to expel the Tartars and restore China was actually a demoted official.

This person is the Yichang Xuezheng Wang Ang who was the first to surrender to the Xinghan Army.

Since the descent of the Han army, what Wang Ang has often talked about is righteousness and orthodoxy.

He believes that since the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, I have slaughtered my bare-handed people, changed my clothes, cut off my civilization, and reduced my Chinese family to slaves and ignorant people. Together to overthrow the Qing court.

Since Wang Ang was the first official of the Qing court to surrender voluntarily, he was appointed as the governor of Hubei by Gu Shidao, commander of the Xinghan Army.

It may also mean a thousand gold horse bones.

Immediately after Wang Ang took office, he mobilized the people in Hubei to cut their braids and grow their hair, and also promoted Hanfu and Hanguan to mark the legitimacy of the Xinghan regime.

For this reason, the Hubei Buzheng Yamen promulgated the "Han People's Crown Clothes System" and "Han People's Crown Clothes Map", requiring officials at all levels to take the initiative to wear Han official costumes, and to restore the former Han etiquette, and to introduce many bad customs imposed on the Han people by the Qing court. Abandon and burn a large number of historical materials compiled by the Qing Dynasty.

For this reason, it became a bit crazy, and even the textbook "Disciple Regulations" given by the Qing government to children from all over the world was banned, and "Kangxi Dictionary" was renamed "Hongwu Dictionary".

It is also stipulated that whenever the words of the Qing court appear in the official documents of the yamen at all levels, they will be replaced by "Tartar" and "Hulu". just.

However, due to the Manchu Qing occupation of China for a hundred years, the common people don’t know much about Hanfu, even the Ming Dynasty did not know much about it. Therefore, although the Xinghan Army itself is an organization of Ming Dynasty adherents, it preserves the civilization of the Han people in the Ming Dynasty. Complete, but due to the demonization propaganda of "traitors" by the Qing government, most of the people in Hubei, except for a few members of associations and speculators who were close to the Xinghan army, were skeptical and resistant.

At the same time, since there had been no war in Hubei for decades, although the officials were corrupt, the people could still have enough food and clothing, so there was no motivation to overthrow the Qing government.

Therefore, the new policy of restoring clothes and crowns implemented by Wang Ang did not arouse great resonance among the people. Only the streets of Wuchang and other big cities have reappeared Hanfu, and the rest of the places are still worn in the past.

On the contrary, the mandatory cutting of braids and hair storage has achieved a lot of results.

In order to let the people take the initiative to cut their braids, Wang Ang actually issued a strict order, ordering people to post notices everywhere, saying, "Manchu captives steal the country, change my crown clothes, and forcibly weave hair. The system is based on the customs of the smelly smell. . . . Today, the Qing court The general trend is over, and the restoration of the Han Dynasty is about to succeed. All my compatriots, please wash away the pollution of the old pollution and become the people of the new dynasty.

Anyone who has not removed their braids will be cut off within [-] days from the date of the order, and those who do not comply will be punished with a serious crime like the Manchurian Tartars. "

It's just that the notices are posted, and the effect is not very good.

The reason is that the common people think that the parents who have received the body, hair and skin, if they cut their braids today, it would be unfilial to their parents.

In addition, many people think that although it is ugly to wear braids, if you cut off the braids, you will have a bald head, which looks even uglier.

Of course, the most important reason is that the Qing government has ruled for a hundred years, and the braids are deeply ingrained in the hearts of the people. They believe that the braids have been inherited since the beginning of human beings. If they are cut off today, they will damage the inheritance of the ancestors.

In addition, some squires who were not optimistic about the Han army spread rumors secretly, saying that if the Qing soldiers came again after cutting their braids, they would all behead them.

In response to this situation, Wang Ang adopted the method of lure at the beginning, that is, setting up free meals at various traffic arteries and city gates. As long as the people are willing to cut their braids, they can enjoy free meals with the braids they cut off. You can get three Wen coins.

This method has a certain effect. Many poor people really come to cut their braids for this free meal, but many of them cry while eating, and take their braids back when they leave, saying that they will be dead in the future. It is also possible for loved ones to put it in when they are encoffined.

After the information about braid cutting from various places was fed back to Wuchang, Wang Ang immediately knew that lures alone would not work, so he asked the army to help force the braid cutting.

"It has been more than a few months since Huguang was restored, and the braids have not been removed, and the people are still hesitant, and those who hesitate not to cut them are full of thieves. The ugly custom still exists, and it damages the prestige of our Han people."

Gu Shidao, commander of the Xinghan Army, immediately ordered all ministries to cooperate with the localities to cut braids. With the intervention of the army, the localities began to cut braids on a large scale.

After all, compared with fate, braids are not too important.

However, although many local gentry were forced to cut their braids and grow their hair, they still cursed the Xinghan army with "long hair", saying that "long hair" would definitely not last long.

However, as the Xinghan army became more and more powerful, and even the general Dingxi of the Qing Dynasty was killed, the attitude of the gentry obviously relaxed a little.

When many people talk about "long hair" in private, they no longer attack viciously like they did at the beginning, but instead say a few words with emotion, saying that in the past, not all of our Han people had long hair?
The success of cutting braids greatly increased Wang Ang's confidence. In order to gain merits and gain a firm foothold in the Xinghan Army, he also suggested that the senior officials of the Xinghan Army go to Xianling to worship to show that the Xinghan Army regime was the successor of the Ming Dynasty and was the orthodox of China. where.

Xianling Mausoleum is the mausoleum of the former Ming Emperor Jiajing's biological father Zhu Youzhu. It was originally buried in Songlin Mountain under the rule of a prince. It was restructured and upgraded during Jiajing.

It is also the only mausoleum of the Ming emperor except the two capitals.

This worship activity is the first time that the survivors of the Ming Dynasty worshiped the tomb of the former Ming emperor in a hundred years, so it is very important from top to bottom.

In the name of Gu Shidao, Wang Ang wrote "The Essay on Mingming's Mausoleum", and wrote: "...the Manchu Dynasty entered the middle Xia Dynasty during the period of the Qing Dynasty, and I helped the husbands and brothers of the people, and piled up the stones for more than a hundred years."

This article refers to the century-old period of the Qing government’s rule as the era of China’s subjugation. It is intended to warn the world that the Han people will regain power and restore China, just like Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated the Yuan Dynasty and established the Ming Dynasty.

Chen Huizu, governor of Qinghuguang, also made a series of suggestions after his surrender.

First of all, it is proposed to reorganize the army, and reorganize the Xinghan Army, which had been divided into battalions, into the main twelve armies.

The financial problem is currently the biggest problem for the Xinghan Army.

Originally, the main force of the Xinghan Army was less than 4000 people, and the battles were mainly captured, but now it has expanded to more than [-], and it occupies the land of three provinces. On the contrary, it is necessary to carry out actual local governance. Therefore, with the rapid increase in the number of troops, both ammunition, equipment, and food are in short supply.

In addition, due to the war, business was blocked, residents were trapped, and the market was depressed. Once the external pressure was too great, such an environment would easily collapse from the inside.

As Chen Huizu said: "If the money and food are not handled well, the soldiers will turn into thieves, and the people will rise up and become bandits."

In the past, Gu Shidao only led the survivors in Jinchuan to fight against the Qing Dynasty. In terms of territory, he was no more than a county magistrate, and in terms of soldiers, he was no more than a general. His integrity was unparalleled in the world, but he had almost no actual political experience.

Therefore, Gu Shidao treated Chen Huizu, who had been the governor of Huguang, with great courtesy and kindness. He still appointed Chen Huizu as the governor of Huguang, and appointed Bayan San, the governor of Hunan, as the governor of the Yangtze River.

That is to say, Chen Huizu helped the Xinghan Army establish political power and carry out local actual governance;
Take Bayan San as the Xinghan Army to attack the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

After Chen Huizu took office, he tried every means to provide money and food to the officers and soldiers of the Xinghan Army to ensure the morale of the army.

At the same time, a similar rate-raising unit was set up in Wuchang, called the "Rate Assistance Bureau".

The way to raise funds is to send personnel to investigate, go door-to-door to persuade donations, identify the amount, and fill in the donation book.

Large and small businesses in Huguang, local gentry, and wealthy big households are all included in the payment.

The focus is on those officials who have served as senior officials in the Qing Dynasty.

For example, Guo, the former servant of the Criminal Ministry, was personally persuaded by Chen Huizu to donate. Facing the threat of Chen Huizu's genocide, Guo had no choice but to donate 30 taels.

However, there are many people who take the initiative to donate money to the Xinghan Army.

Liu, a native of Jingzhou who once served as Su Songdao, offered to donate 10 taels of silver to the Xinghan Army, and told Chen Huizu that if the Xinghan Army did not harass the people or persecute the retired officials in Huguang, he could come forward to persuade him to donate.

He also persuaded the Xinghan army not to torture and plunder the gentry like Li Zicheng did back then. In that case, the revival of the Han Dynasty may be short-lived.

This Liu Mou really had the idea of ​​recovering the Han Dynasty, but because of various reasons, he did not dare to surrender openly like Chen Huizu.

Chen Huizu did not make it difficult for Liu, agreed to his request, and repeatedly asked the Xinghan Army stationed in Jingzhou not to disturb the gentry.

So under Liu's running, the retired officials of the Qing court and local gentry in Jingzhou donated 158 million taels of silver, [-] shi of grain, and more than [-] cotton clothes to the Xinghan Army.

In addition to persuading salaries, Chen Huizu rebuilt government, prefecture, and county yamen, and persuaded many Qing officials who had avoided disaster to come out to become officials.

Other money and food will be levied as usual, soil paste will be donated as usual, taxes and salt taxes will be collected as usual, and all public funds and properties will be checked and withdrawn at any time.

All kinds of policies, coupled with the Xinghan Army's powerful means, really sorted out the financial problems of the Xinghan Army in half a year. Although the money and food supplies are still insufficient, they are enough to support the needs of the war.

Gu Shidao, the commander of the Dexing Han Army, looked at Chen Huizu with admiration and said: "If you get Huizu alone, it is like getting half of the wall."

At the same time as solving the problem of money and food, Chen Huizu strongly advised to rectify military discipline.

Due to the rapid expansion of the former Fanxing Han army and the complex composition of personnel, there were a large number of scattered soldiers and local ruffians filling it. Therefore, except for the elite core, the military discipline of the rest of the troops was worrying. The dissatisfaction of the Xinghan army.

For example, when more than 400 soldiers from the Huangzhou green battalion who had surrendered were called on the school grounds, the soldiers even extorted their salaries. The state lost more than [-] taels.

On the fourth day after the mutiny took place, it was suppressed by the Xinghan army, and dozens of leaders were executed.

In fact, the problem of military discipline first appeared when the Xinghan Army captured Jingzhou. At that time, after the main force of the Xinghan Army entered the city, they only paid attention to the Eight Banners in the city in a hurry. The vagrants also took advantage of the fire to loot, causing the outer city to not be quiet for two days.

Most of the shops were robbed, and the one that lost the most was robbed of more than [-] taels of cash on the same day.

A lot of new recruits were added in the follow-up, but the order was disordered, the soldiers did not order, the discipline was poor, and it was difficult to command.

After all, time is limited. Even if the Xinghan Army is aware of military discipline issues and has taken many targeted measures, it is still difficult to integrate more than [-] troops in a short period of time.

It is not easy to achieve the current situation.

In terms of military strength, the Xinghan Army's 10,000+ main force is not inferior to the Qing Army. Therefore, as long as it can continue to create victories, various internal deficiencies will not affect the overall situation.

The trend of the situation was exactly as Chen Huizu expected, the Qing army retreated steadily, and it took no effort to win Jiangxi Province.

Under the massive oppression of the Xinghan army, the Anhui and Jiangsu Qing troops in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were transferred to Anqing. It seemed that Anqing was hard to chew, but as long as the Xinghan army could conquer Anqing at any cost, it would be a matter of time before Anhui and Jiangsu changed. thing.

With the support of money and food in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, it would not be a dream to restore the grand scene of the Hongwu Northern Expedition.

Therefore, Chen Huizu urged the upper reaches to focus on defense, and concentrated money, food resources and elite troops to attack the lower reaches.

In addition, it is constantly suggested to change the title of Xinghan Army, formally use the name of Ming Army, and support Zhu Ming's descendants as emperors as soon as possible, completely overpowering the Manchus in general.

Gu Shidao, his nephew Gu Mingyuan, and other high-ranking members of the Xinghan Army agreed to the strategic plan to attack the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and planned to transfer two more armies from Hubei to participate in the Battle of Anqing. He disagreed with his nephew Gu Mingyuan.

Gu Shidao regarded himself as a survivor of the Ming Dynasty, so he was willing to restore the Ming Dynasty and become famous ministers like Xu Da and Chang Yuchun who would last forever.

Gu Mingyuan did not agree to support the descendant of Zhu Ming as emperor, saying that the descendant of Zhu Ming that Chen Huizu found was not sure whether it was true or not, and Yu Daming had no merit in restoring the country. How could such a person be made emperor? .

Many other generals of the Xinghan Army also disagreed with supporting Zhu Shaogong as emperor. Lu Yuanguang, the commander of the First Army, even believed that if he had to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor, the Ming Dynasty could be used as the country name, but the emperor's surname may not necessarily be Zhu.

The implication is that Gu Ming replaced Zhu Ming.

If Gu Ming replaced Zhu Ming and Gu Shidao had no sons, his nephew Gu Mingyuan must be the crown prince.

Even though Gu Mingyuan had no ambition to be an emperor, facing the easy-to-get throne of the Son of Heaven, he couldn't help but have some daydreams in his heart.

Gu Shidao thought over and over again, temporarily putting aside the dispute over whether to support Zhu Ming's descendants as emperors, and only asked people to treat Zhu Shaogong kindly, and called a military meeting to say that restoring Ming Dynasty was his long-cherished wish. Rejuvenation.

This is also a prudent method, at least for now, the Xinghan army can be united and the Xinghan army can concentrate its strength to advance.

Just when Gu Mingyuan planned to transfer two armies to join the downstream battlefield, the Qing army made a big move.

Prince He Shuorui, Aixinjue Luo Shikai, was named the General King by Qianlong, and led tens of thousands of Eight Banners from the Beijing camp to go south to Huguang.

At the beginning, no one knew which temple this Aixinjueluo Shikai was a deity. After the follow-up information found out that this Aixinjueluo was actually Jia Jiashikai, the Xinghan Army knew the details of this person, whether he liked it or not. Disgusted, all fell silent.

"You son of a bitch, how did you get along?"

Lu Yuanguang thought about it for a long time, but he couldn't figure out the reason, but the Eight Banners boy who pointed at his face with a cheap face and tied a white cloth strip on his right arm was always flashing in his mind.

"Are there not many people in the Qing army who are as cowardly as a mouse, greedy for life and afraid of death?"

"If the imperial court reuses me, it will be good for you, isn't it?"

"."

Just thinking about it, the boy's envoy came and wanted to have a talk with them.

"Talk about him!"

Lu Yuanguang didn't agree with Gu Mingyuan talking to that kid, because he thought that kid was a waste at all, and he could beat him ten times.

In order to prevent Gu Shuai from agreeing to talk to this kid, Lu Yuanguang persuaded Gu Mingyuan not to report the matter.

After all, that kid is Gu Shuai's son-in-law.

In order to make Gu Mingyuan believe that Jia Jia Shikai is a big parallel importer who came here to give away his head, Lu Yuanguang even told everything he knew.

Afterwards, the two armies that were supposed to be transferred downstream were no longer transferred, and under the command of Gu Mingyuan, they were preparing to fight the Qing army to the death.

But the news that the son-in-law led the troops to Huguang was still known by Gu Shidao, but Gu Shidao just sighed and did not ask why his nephew was hiding it from him, but instead let his nephew take full charge of commanding the battle with the Qing army.

But what the Xinghan army did not expect was that the Qing army did not make any major moves after that, and it seemed that they were preparing to attack Wuchang after the New Year.

When Zhong Xiang fell and the news that Qiu Ba, the commander of the Third Army, was murdered by his subordinates reached Wuchang, the Xinghan Army was shocked.

Soon, news came that the defenders in many places were instigated by the Qing army.

Knowing the horror of the silver bullet attack, Chen Huizu proposed to Gu Shuai to send someone to assassinate Prince Rui, thinking that as long as Prince Rui died, the Qing army would be leaderless.

He pointed out that the soldiers of the Xinghan Army were inherently complex, and more than half of them were surrendered troops from the Qing army and local village warriors.

If only a few generals were bought over, it might not have a big impact on the overall situation, but if they surrendered in large numbers, even if it was only a local second-line army, it would shake the ruling foundation of the Xinghan Army.

In addition, there are a large number of Qing army troops who have come over from the Xinghan army. If these troops are bought by the Qing army again, the great cause of expelling the Tartars and restoring China may be wiped out.

However, the finances of the Xing Han army cannot be compared with that of the Qing court at all, so it is impossible for the Qing army to pay 100 taels, and they will pay 200 taels, using money to fight money.

Either organize a large-scale offensive immediately, or capture the king first.

It is possible to organize a large-scale offensive. The problem is that no one knows how many troops will be bought by the Qing army. If some troops mutiny during the transfer, they may not even have a chance to clean up.

Therefore, the only strategy is to capture the thief first and capture the king first.

Get rid of that Prince Rui, and the Qing army will collapse without a fight.

However, this suggestion did not get Gu Shuai's consent, and even Gu Shuai's face was clearly displeased.

This made Chen Huizu very puzzled, and looking at Lu Junshuai's awkward face, he was even more confused in his heart.

"That Jia Jia Shikai is my brother-in-law. He has always taken good care of us in the past. It is all thanks to my brother-in-law that we are what we are today."

When Gu Mingyuan said this, his face was very strange, but he did not deny the fact.

Without this brother-in-law, they might have died for the Ming Dynasty in Xiaojinchuan long ago.

"Ok?"

Chen Huizu was stunned. If this happened, then the question would be, who is the traitor?
It can't be him, Chen Huizu.

He's a traitor to the core.

(End of this chapter)