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Chapter 876 Operation Iron Fist
Jingxiang Daotai Hong Wenjun was born as a Jinshi in the 21st year of Qianlong. After serving as a cabinet secretary for two years, he was released to other places. He worked in Guangxi and Sichuan successively. He was promoted to Jingxiang Daotai in the 39th year of Qianlong.

Daotai was originally the chief minister of the former Ming Dynasty, who participated in politics left and right. His rank was from the third rank, second only to the governor and chief minister in a province.

Hong Wenjun, a Han official without any background, can be promoted to Daotai, which is rare among all Han officials, and he is really outstanding.

After the riots in Huguang in the 40th year of Qianlong, Hong Wenjun was not afraid of danger, and actively cooperated with Governor Zheng Dajin to raise food and grass, and recruited township brave groups to train and fight against Fanbing.

Once Fanbing gathered thousands of people to attack Dangyang County. Hong Wenjun, who was in the city at that time, beheaded Ding, the magistrate who wanted to abandon the city and fled in public. He successfully repelled the Fan soldiers and kept Dangyang City.

Later, in order to prevent the common people from colluding with thieves, Hong Wenjun even imposed heavy codes, and implemented the method of sitting together in the local area.

That is to say, if one person turns to a thief, the whole family will be killed;

When a family turns to a thief, the whole family will be killed;

One armor surrenders to the thief, one guarantee kills both.

It even ordered the local government to strictly investigate the formation of Taoism in clubs, and anyone who found more than three people who were not relatives or had a gathering for a reason would be arrested and sent to prison.

Under such cruel decrees, even though bandit soldiers swept Huguang, attacked Jingzhou, and occupied Wuchang, most of Jingmen Prefecture and Xiangyang Prefecture under Hong Wenjun's rule were still firmly controlled by the Qing army, except for a few areas.

Hubei Governor Zheng Dajin felt that Hong Wenjun was good at governing and had made great contributions to defending the country. He specially recommended him to Chen Huizu, the then governor of Huguang, as the procurator.

Afterwards, the situation in Hubei deteriorated greatly, and the bandit army swept across Hubei with the momentum of a great victory over Dingxi General Fengfeng. Hong Wenjun was no more than a civil servant no matter how well he governed, and finally had to flee to Xiangyang with the governor Zheng Dajin.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, Prince He Shuorui led the army to arrive in Xiangyang in time and reversed the situation in one fell swoop.

After the former prefect of Xiangyang committed suicide in fear of committing crimes by harboring people fleeing from the north, Zheng Dajin asked Hong Wenjun to serve as the prefect of Xiangyang first. Xiangyong also took the lead in persuading rich households in Xiangyang to donate, and raised 10,000+ taels of silver, which greatly alleviated the food and money shortages at the frontline of Huguang.

When Prince He Shuorui asked which officials were available in Hubei Province, the No. 1 listed by Zheng Futai was Hong Wenjun.

After hearing about Hong Wenjun's deeds, Prince Rui was overjoyed, and said that he would recommend Hong Wenjun to the imperial court for the vacant post of governor of Hubei after taking over Wuchang.

Soon, the "true and false king incident" occurred in which Prince Lu seized the military power of Prince Rui. This incident was also known as the "big and small king incident".

The great king is also Prince He Shuorui.

The little king is also the prince.

Prince Rui is the king of hats, so he should be the big one.

Prince Lu is the emperor's son, but since he inherited from the original source, he should be regarded as a minor.

The "big and small king" incident quickly evolved from the initial telephony and mutual accusations to a big battle between the two sides.

During this process, Hong Wenjun, as Jingxiang Daotai who also served as the magistrate of Xiangyang, stood clearly in the "big king" camp, actively provided food and grass for Prince Rui's troops, and mobilized civilians to help Prince Rui's troops pull artillery and other large They also mobilized the people to make "victory cakes" for the troops who went to the front to fight against the enemy.

After news of Prince Rui's Niuxinzhai annihilating Prince Lu's Ministry spread to Xiangyang, the whole city celebrated. Hong Wenjun was even more excited and said: "The dispute over the country has finally settled, and the reincarnation of a hundred years will finally belong to Rui. Prince too."

The implication is that Prince Rui, who has won a great victory, will soon ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor, and thus lead the army and people of the whole country to crusade against the thief Chen Jialuo.

Sure enough, a few days later, news came that Prince Rui Junqian proclaimed himself emperor.

As soon as Xixun arrived, all major units in Xiangyang City mobilized one after another, painting walls, tiling bricks, hanging ceilings, cleaning, and hanging lamps.
In two days, the whole city took on a completely new look, and all the soldiers and civilians waited eagerly for His Majesty's triumphant return.

Among them, the Yamen of Xiangyang prefect led by Hong Wenjun made great efforts.

Everyone in the yamen was discussing that after Prince Rui proclaimed himself emperor and returned, he would definitely reward those who made meritorious deeds, and that the magistrate would definitely be promoted to the vassal lord.

Especially the attendants who have followed Hong Wenjun for many years are even more excited.

The person involved, Hong Wenjun, didn't take this too seriously, but he couldn't help being happy.

After all, for an official, going further is actually more pleasing to him than grooming every night.

The whole city of Xiangyang was counting when the new emperor would come back, but after waiting for many days, the emperor did not come back. Well-informed sources said that His Majesty the Emperor is in the process of reorganizing the army, and it may take a while to come back.

This is also what it should mean.

After the great victory, if we don't take advantage of the situation to reorganize the army and consolidate the foundation, how can we launch the Northern Expedition.

Hong Wenjun's side is even more calm, and handles official duties step by step every day, but the people around him are discussing with Zhuge Liang when the new emperor will make a northern expedition and how to sweep the north. They can't help but put down their brushes and hum slightly: " One by one, just do your own thing well, what are you doing so much? I can't get involved in such a big matter, let alone you wait."

Master Wang En, who has been with Hong Wenjun for nearly ten years, said with a smile: "Master, they are idle, and Master will give them more errands to see if they still have this leisure time."

Just as he was talking, Lao Li, the concierge, rushed into the second hall in a hurry, saying that a group of officers and soldiers had come outside and were coming towards the master.

Wang En asked Lao Li: "Where are the soldiers?"

Before Lao Li could reply, more than a dozen soldiers had opened the door and walked in.

They looked like soldiers from the green battalion, but what was surprising was that there were no braids on the back of their heads. In addition, each of them had a piece of white cloth tied around their arm. On the white cloth was the word "internal affairs" written in red ink.

It's neither fish nor fowl, I don't know what it is.

Just as Wang En was about to get up and ask how these soldiers dared to trespass Lord Daotai's office, an officer leading the team stepped forward to look at his benefactor, looked at his benefactor, and asked, "Are you Hong Wenjun, Daoist of Jingxiang?"

Very bad tone.

Hong Wenjun couldn't help frowning, and said with some displeasure: "This official is Jing Xiangdao, what are you doing?"

The officer became a little more polite after confirming the target, cupped his fists and said: "We belong to the Internal Affairs Committee, please Master Hong come with us."

"Go with you guys?"

Wang En said angrily: "My lord is the Jingxiang Daotai appointed by the imperial court. What kind of thing is your internal affairs committee? Why do you want my lord to go with you! Is there any law for the king!"

While talking, a group of yamen servants who heard the commotion rushed over, and when they heard Master Wang's anger, they rushed into the office fiercely one by one to drive out the gang of soldiers.

Seeing this, the officer immediately pulled out his saber, and roared murderously: "The internal affairs are on errands, and the idlers are dispersed. Anyone who dares to obstruct the law enforcement will be regarded as a rebellion and will be killed on the spot!"

"Whoo!"

When the soldiers heard the order, they quickly drew their knives in their hands. This posture immediately shocked the gang of government servants who only had killing sticks and waist knives in their hands.

Outside, more footsteps could be heard, and another group of soldiers armed with guns rushed forward. Seeing that the servants dared to surround their own people, they immediately aimed their guns at them.

As a result, all the yamen servants were even more panicked and did not dare to move.

Wang En was also shocked. He didn't understand the origin of these guys who called themselves the Internal Affairs Committee, and why they came to take their benefactors.

The officer leading the team looked around at the yamen servants and ignored them. He went straight to Hong Wenjun, took out a brand new arrest warrant from his briefcase, and handed it to the Daotai lord.

"This is an arrest warrant issued by the emperor. Please sign it for confirmation, Mr. Hong. If Mr. Hong has something to say, someone will ask you to speak at the Internal Affairs Committee. Please don't embarrass yourself."

Then, a scene that surprised Wang En and all the yamen servants happened.

Mr. Hong sighed softly and silently took a pen to sign his name on the so-called arrest warrant, then walked out of the office with a wry smile.

Immediately, his hands were locked with something like iron cuffs by the members of the Internal Affairs Committee, and he was taken out of the yamen directly.

After the leading officer and other targets were taken away, he ordered his subordinates to immediately block the magistrate's office and immediately search Hong Wenjun's personal belongings.

During the period, all the staff from the sixth office of the prefect's yamen were called together and informed them that all work would continue as usual, and that the governor's yamen would send someone to take care of it later.

Hong Wenjun's teacher, Wang En, was also arrested, but he was not brought to the Internal Affairs Committee, but was only placed under residential surveillance in the Yamen.

For a while, the yamen of the Xiangyang prefect was barking like dogs and dogs, and there were raiding soldiers everywhere.

Not long after, all of Hong Wenjun's belongings in the back hall of the yamen were cleared out and sealed, and even the bedding was packed and pasted.

All the gold and silver were handed over.

After working for a long time, the preliminary statistics show that Hong Daotai only has tens of thousands of taels of cash in his yamen residence.

"Captain, all the personal belongings of the target have been confiscated and registered, but,"

Jia Wang, the team leader who was in charge of checking Hong Daotai's personal belongings, reported to the team leader Li Shaoqun that there was a concubine of Hong Wenjun in the backyard, and he didn't know how to deal with it.

Captain Li gave Jia Wang a blank look: "Is that concubine used by anyone other than Hong Wenjun?"

"Uh?"

Jia Wang was taken aback for a moment, then quickly shook his head: "That's definitely not the case."

"If it has not been used by others, it is the target's personal belongings. Take them back."

Captain Li made a final decision. He absolutely carried out the orders from above to the letter.

A similar scene is being played out in all prefectures and counties in the Qing army-controlled area of ​​Hubei.

This is an arrest operation directed by Ding Qing, director of the Internal Affairs Committee, and the operation code name is "Iron Fist" personally drawn up by His Majesty the Emperor.

"Operation Iron Fist" arrested a total of 165 people, including 87 serving officials, and the rest were retired, retired, returned home, and gentry from all over the world.

In order to ensure the complete success of the operation and arrest all targets, in addition to the action team directly under the Internal Affairs Committee, Director Ding also reported to His Majesty the Emperor requesting the use of garrisons from various places to participate in the arrest.

The plan was approved, and the number of troops who assisted in the arrest was as many as [-].

All of a sudden, the officialdom in Hubei was shaken.

(End of this chapter)