Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 84 Opening

Shen Wenzhong sent people to invite nearby village chiefs and clan elders, and talked about the combat mission straight to the point.These days, Shen Wenzhong has become one with these village chiefs and elders, and the relationship is very good.

Since the arrival of Shen Wenzhong and the others, the rare peace has been restored in the countryside. Those local ruffians who came to extort money were driven away, and water thieves who came to grab food were also captured.

Even the puppet officials in the county and the two Tartars who came to collect grain and urge taxes were also driven away.

With the help of the Bannerman Battalion, each village organized and practiced Baojia, and formed its own militia team. The Bannerbearers sent people to organize their teams and practice assassination. Everyone united and defended themselves.

"Li Yuchun was one of the perpetrators in the Yangzhou Ten-Day Massacre. The Jian Guo has issued a must-kill order. Our mission is to ambush and eat a battalion of his rear."

Most of the village chiefs and elders invited here are local landlords and gentry, many of them are Jinshi or Juren, at least they have a reputation as a scholar, and some have even served as officials. At this time, they are also in the village. very disturbed.

Since the Qing army went south, they also thought about joining the new dynasty. Whoever dominates the world is not sitting. They should still be their own country gentry and landlords in the countryside, but the reality is not satisfactory.

The situation is turbulent, people from all walks of life are coming to ask for extortion, everyone's life is miserable, like meat on the chopping board, being slaughtered by others, after the arrival of the Bannerman Battalion, it is a completely different style, no offense to Min Qiuhao, Even helping to maintain law and order, they also see it in their eyes.

From the superficial cooperation at the beginning, watching in secret, and even thinking about tipping off the news, to the basic recognition now, this change is very fast. To put it bluntly, it is because no matter whether the Qing soldiers or the newly surrendered puppet officials and puppet soldiers, they are all staring at them. Robbing, only the soldiers of Lu Jianguo defended their interests.

The soldiers of Lu Jianguo bought food from them with silver, and they also paid on IOUs. It was not a lion's mouth to borrow. Even the Lijin Bureau that is currently being planned has regulations to follow. Taxes and so on were not levied, and they were directly exempted. These behaviors of talking about rules and reasoning made them have a good impression of Lu Jianguo.

What's more, Lu Jianguo treated the squires in these places well, and issued letters of appointment to the squires everywhere, conferring official positions.

But when they heard that they were going to fight Li Yuchun, the gentry were still a little worried.

Fearing that they would not be able to defeat them, the Tartars would retaliate.

"This time Jian Guo personally went to the Northern Expedition. The cross-river king's army is full of elites. The battle is entrusted to us. You just cooperate to carry the spoils, rescue the wounded, and clean the battlefield."

After all, Shen Wenzhong was also born as a scholar, so his dealings with these gentry were relatively smooth.He could guess their thoughts, so he gave them peace of mind.

"The main force of the Tartars in Hangzhou is now being dragged along the Qiantang River by the supervisor Zhang Guowei and others. The thousands of troops led by Li Yuchun are just a mob. From Sizhou to Yangzhou, then to Jinling and Hangzhou, they were like locusts along the way, grabbing wherever they went."

"The Xiashi Town in Haining County next door was looted by Li Yuchun not long ago. Several famous gentry in the town were accused of being the leaders of the rebel bandits and killed. More than 500 men were taken to pretend to be creditors, and all the young women and girls were kidnapped and raped, even the old and weak children were not spared."

"Everyone, if Li Yuchun and his gang are allowed to garrison in Jiaxing, there will never be peace in the future. Xiashi Town yesterday may be Majiawan tomorrow."

When things were like this, these country gentlemen had no other choice, and they all nodded in agreement, expressing their willingness to fully cooperate with the battle of the Banner Bearer Battalion.

After crossing the sea, the outposts of the battalions dispersed. Shen Wenzhong acted with the outpost of the Zuoying, the standard bearer. At that time, there were two hundred people at one outpost, and they were scattered in several nearby villages in groups. These days, they were not lurking. Didn't do it.

They lurked in various villages, not only established good relations with villagers and gentry, but also suppressed rogues and thieves, and organized the village militia. They are also programmed under them.

An order was given to fight, and the result was unexpected, and the people were very active.

A reward was issued from above. A real Tatar would be rewarded with ten taels of silver for capturing and beheading, and a false Tatar would be rewarded with five taels of silver. Regardless of whether it was an officer or militiaman, as long as they brought their heads to bring captives, they would all be rewarded with silver.

Even captured horse mules, knives, guns, armor, etc. are also given corresponding rewards.

Of course, apart from the enticing rewards, the main reason for the people to actively participate in the war is that after the Bannerman Battalion came, it maintained the peace of the place, especially the newly promulgated series of decrees for supervising the country, such as exempting the people from taxes owed over the years , Exemption from this year's taxation, etc., especially the false three rates and various additional payments, etc., all made the people feel relieved.

Everyone hopes that Lu Jianguo can restore Jiangnan and stabilize the country, so that everyone's life will be hopeful.

If the Tatars are allowed to occupy the south of the Yangtze River, then everyone's good life will come to an end. Not only the original tax of the Chongzhen Dynasty, but also the three salaries, and the additional dispatches have to be paid, and even the Tartars have added many new names. The people have been unable to afford the food and payment.

Half a day later, the outpost teams of the Banner Bearer Battalion came to Majiawan to assemble, and they also brought the village militia they had reorganized in the village, as well as the guards of the country gentry.

A team leader who was in charge of forty brothers actually brought back four to five hundred people. The squire guards, the Zong family's village brave, and the militiamen are basically young and strong guys. Although they have simple weapons and equipment, they wear ordinary clothes. , holding simple spears and spears made of wood or bamboo, and only a few bows and arrows, etc., but an outpost that originally only had about 3000 people has now gathered more than [-] sympathizers.

Seeing so many troops, Zhang Quan blushed with excitement. This Liaodong veteran had never commanded so many troops. Even though most of them were peasants who had just put down their hoes, they still had the feeling of becoming a general.

"Zhuzi, the task given to us by the supervisor, how many people are there in the bandit camp we are going to attack?"

"About 300 people, but they kidnapped a lot of strong men and a lot of women, adding up to five or six hundred."

Zhang Quan laughed a few times, "I have never fought such a rich battle. We have more than 3000 people fighting two or three hundred traitors and puppet troops. We won this battle without fighting."

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the battalion was an establishment with no fixed amount, ranging from dozens to hundreds to thousands of people, and there was even a large battalion above the battalion. Anyway, all troops were basically called battalions, and those who surrendered to the Tatars like Li Yuchun Zi's ​​Ming army generals, their troops were even more chaotic.

For example, the official number of troops assigned by the Tartars to Li Yuchun was only more than 1000 people divided into two battalions, but he actually had more than 5000 people. Originally, there were only the left and right battalions and the central army, but in the end, five battalions were set up under the left and right battalions. , a battalion of five hundred, and then three small battalions were set up under each battalion, each with a hundred people.

Therefore, under the command of Li Yuchun, the deputy general of Xiezhen, there are actually two large battalions, ten middle battalions, thirty small battalions, and the middle battalion.

This time I came to Jiaxing to suppress the garrison, and looted along the way, pulling strong men everywhere. Originally, there were 5000 people, but now it has expanded to 8000 or 300 people. There are many, and most of them are recruits who are recruits.

Anyway, the favorite of these surrendered generals is the strong men. What they value is the number of soldiers. The more soldiers the better, the more powerful they will be to the master of the Qing Dynasty. As for whether they can fight or not, they don't care about food and wages.

Soldiers are generals, and where there are soldiers, there is strength.

These new recruits who have been brought in are defeated and dead, and they can be recruited again, if the food and wages are not enough, they can just grab them, but the number of soldiers and horses must be large, otherwise the master will have no status.

As for the Bannerman Battalion, although many militiamen were newly recruited, they were not joined together with the Bannerman Battalion. They were a separate sequence and only assisted the Bannerman Battalion in their operations, which was equivalent to the logistics of auxiliary soldiers on the battlefield.

The advantage of doing this is that it can keep the flag bearer battalion in combat.

[-] Ming troops crossed the sea to the north, and in less than ten days, tens of thousands of militiamen were mobilized and organized in the two counties of Haiyan and Haining. In the blocking battle above, they will definitely play a big role.

Excited Zhang Quan set off first with two hundred brothers from the outposts assembled, Shen Wenzhong followed with a few hundred people from the relatively elite village valor group, followed by more than 3000 village soldiers from various villages.

The Hangjiahu Plain in West Zhejiang is flat, but the water network is densely covered and criss-crossed.

It is actually very easy to lay an ambush.

The general under Li Yuchun's command, Li Bizhong, was originally named Li Laoqi, but later changed his name to Bizhong. He also followed Li Yuchun from Sizhou all the way here.

When he set off from Hangzhou, his first battalion had only a hundred people, but it was only ten days old, and now his battalion has more than 300 people.Riding a black horse, Li Bizhong was very proud and turned his head frequently. What about the more than 300 people? When the Haining Guard rebellion is put down, the deputy commander-in-chief will probably be awarded a named commander-in-chief, and he may also be awarded a named garrison?

Of course, none of this is important. What is important is that he and his men have robbed a lot during the trip this time. Seeing the carts, horses, mules and donkeys behind the team, and the money, food, and belongings loaded with them, he couldn't help but laugh. mouth.

Although most of these things were paid tribute, he could still keep a lot, and after distributing most of them to his brothers, he could still get a lot.

This is very satisfying for a salt worker who once picked salt from the sea in the Lianghuai Salt Field.

The sun was still in the west, and he was already thinking about whether to take advantage of the cooler weather and find a rich village to fight, and then grab some money and food, and by the way, he can also enjoy the beautiful little girl he just snatched. Cool.

Passing by a river beach, suddenly many arrows rained from the reeds, knocking down the unsuspecting thieves, while Li Bizhong, who was riding on a tall black horse, was reflecting on the plump body of the young girl, and when he smiled obscenely, It has long been locked by Zhang Quan.

This guy was riding a big horse, and he was still wearing cotton armor. The helmet gun on the leather helmet stood up high, it was too obvious, and he could tell at a glance that it was the head of the camp.

Zhang Quan raised his bow and shot directly at him.

Catch the thief first to catch the king.

In the rain of arrows, Li Bizhong was hit by an arrow and fell off his horse, and let out a scream. The frightened black horse dragged him with one foot still hanging on the saddle and ran wildly. .

In the rain of arrows, a few flag-bearer battalion leaders rushed out with their knives in hand, and rushed into the chaotic band of bandits.

(End of this chapter)