Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 568 0563 [Collect Southeast]

As Liang Shicheng was killed in the mutiny, the river defense of the small southeast imperial court immediately collapsed, and the garrison troops in the cities along the river surrendered one after another.

Everyone knows that the Song Dynasty is completely over!
The Ming Dynasty's river defense troops stationed in Huainan took the opportunity to cross the river to take over the city.

It has only taken seven months for these new Huainan troops to be reorganized.

Wang Yuan took a thousand heavily armored guards and went south as an envoy of the Qing army to reorganize his army. With the cooperation of Fang Mengqing, the left governor of Huainan Province, he killed and exiled more than [-] people to settle the matter.In addition, taking advantage of Zhu Guoxiang's accession to the throne, he pardoned tens of thousands of soldiers who participated in the mutiny!
And because they were about to attack Zhong Xiang and be on guard against Song Huizong, the Huainan New Army retained a total of 6 people.

Among these 6 people, nearly half were from the old Song Xiang army. In addition, there were a large number of bandits, bandits, gangsters, and rangers.

As for those old Song Xiang armies, they were mainly composed of grain troops and gang troops. To put it bluntly, they were the transport troops that escorted grain and Huashi Gang troops.

During Wang Yuan's reorganization, those who disobeyed orders were booby-trapped and killed if they could. Those who couldn't be booby-trapped were directly sent to the formation by the heavily armored guards.Those who fled into the mountains also used suppression and appeasement to induce their generals to kill the rebel leaders and accept recruitment.

The combat effectiveness of these 30 Huainan new troops is extremely weak, with an armor coverage rate of less than [-]%, and the armor is mainly made of leather, cloth, and paper armor.

But it was arranged on the north bank of the Yangtze River, which was more than enough to defend against the small court in the southeast, because there were also some well-matched opponents on the other side of the river.

Now, they crossed the Yangtze River in large numbers and moved southward, easily occupying various states and counties.

Moreover, the discipline was relatively strict, and there was no trouble. At most, it was just a few soldiers buying and selling by force.Because they had trouble in Huainan last year, those who took the lead and disobeyed orders were either already dead or exiled to southern Sichuan to deal with the barbarians.

"General, Zhejiang Zuobuzheng has arrived!"

"Follow me out of the city to greet you."

No matter how crazy Li Bao was, he did not dare to neglect him. He had just made a surprise attack on Hangzhou, and the imperial court appointed Zhejiang Zuobu envoy, and the person who came was Zhang Gen's younger brother Zhang Pu.

Arriving outside Jiangning City with his own soldiers, Li Bao saw a civil official and immediately stepped forward to greet him: "I have met Zhang Buzheng."

Zhang Pu took Li Bao's hand and said, "The general is really a peerless general. He was able to capture the southeast so easily. It is really a blessing to our Ming Dynasty."

Li Bao said: "It's still too early to capture the southeast. Jiangdong Road only accounts for half, and Liangzhe Road only accounts for one-third. Although all the state capitals have issued notices, local officials are mixed, and many of them took advantage of the chaos to cause trouble. people."

"As long as we can spread the word, it will be easy to manage." Zhang Pu said with a smile.

"That's what Zhang Buzheng said." Li Bao agreed with a smile, but he was actually quite disdainful.

Because Zhang Pu belongs to the die-hard Cai Party and is Cai Jing's charge general.

Zheng Juzhong was away from the court for half a year when Ding You went to mourn. When he came back, he found that his base was gone. Most of his close friends were impeached and dismissed by Zhang Pu.

However, Zhang Pu also had a very good reputation, because all the people he impeached were corrupt people, and he did so under the banner of cleaning up redundant officials.

For example, when Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty served as a military advisor and captured Quzhou, the bastard prefect was impeached and dismissed from office by Zhang Pu.

Li Bao looked down upon Zhang Pu's background in the Cai Party, and felt that this person could quickly rise to power in the Ming Dynasty by leveraging Zhang Gen's influence.

In fact, Cai Jing has a large number of capable ministers and officials!

Regardless of their personal ethics, they are capable of doing things and are much more useful than Wang Fu's gang.

After Cai Jing stepped down and Wang Fu came to power, he began to oust Cai Dang frantically and got rid of many officials who could still do their jobs, which put a heavy foot on the accelerator for the demise of the Song Dynasty.

Including Li Gang, strictly speaking, they are also Cai's party.

Moreover, some of Zhang Gen's actions were in cooperation with Cai Jing, intentionally or unintentionally, but they were also actions that benefited the country and the people (such as requesting the abolition of the Huashi Gang).

Although Zhu Ming did not question Zhang Gen face to face, he seriously suspected that a large number of officials formed gangs under the banner of Cai Jing and secretly supported Prince Zhao Huan.

The reasons for this situation were that, first, Zhao Kai passed the imperial examination as a prince, and second, that Zhao Kai's son was ranked higher than the prince when he was canonized.

Both incidents poked holes in the hearts of upright ministers, and behind Zhao Kai stood Zheng Juzhong looming, and Wang Fu inherited Zheng Juzhong's political assets.The civil servants who had placed their hopes on the prince were forced to side with Cai Jing, thus competing with Wang Fu and Zhao Kai.

Cai Jing's own attitude changed several times.

At first, Cai Jing supported the prince Zhao Huan and asked his confidants Liu Bing and Liu Huan to be the prince's successor. As a result, the two brothers were demoted one after another.

Cai Jing was too scared to get involved, but he had to compete with Zheng Juzhong and Wang Fu, so he acquiesced to certain officials who relied on him to cause trouble.

When the struggle was at its most intense, it was Song Huizong who personally took action and had the prince's family members executed for treason.

Cai Jing was horrified and completely gave in.

Afterwards, Cai Jing returned to the prime minister, claiming that he was blind, and let his son take over the government affairs. This was also an attempt to get rid of these princelings, which resulted in the collapse of the hidden princeling alliance.

By the way, almost all of Yu Wen Cuizhong and Yu Wen Xuzhong's family belonged to King Yun's party members.

In addition, Ju Ming recruited Ge Shengzhong, whose brother Ge Cizhong was also in King Yun's party.

The two groups of people who lost their minds due to the dispute over the reserve position are now officials in the Ming Dynasty.They didn't take any action on the surface, but secretly they each took sides. King Yun's party was severely suppressed, because the person responsible for the prince's party's words was now Zhang Gen!

Of course, they can no longer be called princelings and princes. They are just a continuation of the struggle for the throne of the previous dynasty.

"Where did the fight to the west go?" Zhang Pu asked.

Li Bao said: "The entire territory of Chizhou has been occupied. Quan Bangyan stationed troops in Jiangzhou. When he learned that the flanking Jiang defense collapsed, he moved at least 2 people to Pengze."

Zhang Pu smiled and said: "I can write more than ten letters in hand to persuade Jiangxi officials to submit to the imperial court and cut off Quan Bangyan's retreat. When the time comes, he will naturally be willing to lead his army to surrender." This was Ju Ming's original intention, and he wanted to pacify Jiangxi through Zhangjia. , otherwise why would you throw Zhang Pu to Zhejiang?
The administrative divisions of the Song Dynasty are very interesting. Jiujiang, Hukou, Nankang, Duchang, Poyang, Fuliang, Shangrao, Guixi, Qianshan... these places are not classified as Jiangxi Road, but belong to Jiangdong Road.

Strictly speaking, Zhang Gen is not from Jiangxi, but a serious Jiangdong person.

"Then the chief envoy will be overworked." Li Bao pouted. The prince sent a civil servant to recruit him to surrender, and his achievements in conquering the southeast would be greatly reduced.

But it doesn’t matter, I still have a backup plan——

Defeat Fujian!

……

Jiangzhou (Jiujiang).

In Jiangxi and the western part of Jiangdong Road, Quan Bangyan is no longer the top leader.

Because Song Huizong didn't trust him very much, he sent his immediate superior, Song Huizong's cousin Xiang Ziyi.

Fortunately, Xiang Ziyi did not give random instructions, and the two of them cooperated quite happily.

"Is there no news from Your Majesty yet?" Quan Bangyan asked.

Xiang Ziyi shook his head and sighed: "I sent many people to search, but there was no news. However, I found Cai You. Tong Guan sent a secret letter in Fujian, wanting to establish another clan as the emperor. He has already found a clan. "

Quan Bangyan said: "Xinzhou and Raozhou have changed their flags, and the prefects of the two states have also written letters to persuade me to return... to join the bandits."

"Oh, vote." Xiang Ziyi sighed.

Quan Bangyan was quite surprised: "You are His Majesty's cousin, and you are actually willing to surrender to the new dynasty?"

Xiang Ziyi asked back: "If you don't surrender, do you still have to fight stubbornly? Although you have tens of thousands of soldiers, there are only a few thousand who can actually fight. It is only the strong city of Jiangzhou that can stop Prime Minister Zhong. Nowadays, many counties behind him have defected to Xinjiang." Chao, where do you get the food for tens of thousands of people? You don't dare to divide your troops and go back to suppress it. Li Bao's army may come at any time. Tong Guan has been suppressing bandits in Fujian for half a year, but he can't even wipe out a few bandits in the mountains. He can stop them. Li Bao’s Tiger and Wolf Master?”

After hearing these words, Quan Bangyan felt a sense of relief.

Xiang Ziyi is the emperor's cousin, and Tong Guan is the emperor's confidant. The two of them insist on not falling into the trap of reason.But why don't you surrender?There is no need to be buried with the old Song Dynasty.

Moreover, the soldiers under his command may have been plotting to submit to the new dynasty.

Zhang Pu's letter was of nuclear bomb level. He personally wrote the letter as an endorsement, and Zhang Gen was still the prime minister of the new dynasty. Jiangxi gentry encouraged the prefect to surrender.

Even some local wealthy families, especially the Xinzhou and Raozhou families, are already preparing their descendants to take part in the imperial examinations of the new dynasty!
There is no place to supply food and grass. What will Quan Bangyan's soldiers eat?

Xiang Zikai personally wrote the surrender form, and then asked Quan Bangyan to also sign it, and the two routes in Jiangnan were handed over peacefully.

The main reason why things went so smoothly was that Song Huizong disappeared, and the "capital" Hangzhou was also gone. How could local officials persist?
Soon they received a reply from Zhang Pu, along with the appointment edict of the new Ming Dynasty.

"Did the Ming Emperor give Zhang Pu two blank edicts, otherwise how could he be so quick?" Xiang Ziyi said dumbly while holding the appointment edict.

Quan Bangyan also had a look of astonishment on his face and guessed, "Maybe the Ming court has determined that you and I will lead the troops back to justice."

Xiang Ziyi said with emotion: "With the Holy Emperor in the government, it is no wonder that the old Song Dynasty overthrew so quickly. Even I, a cousin of the emperor of the old dynasty, can be a high official in the new dynasty."

These two people all became the chief envoys of Jiangxi, Quan Bangyan was the chief envoy to the left, and Xiang Ziyi was the chief envoy to the right.

Both are talented people, and allowing them to take charge of Jiangxi can achieve a smooth transition.

As for the reform of the system in the future, such as the sharing of land between people and the like, other officials will have to be transferred, and Zhang Pu will also have to be transferred far away from Zhejiang.

In addition, their military power will be stripped away, waiting for Li Bao to send people to reorganize.

The administrative divisions also changed. Jiangnan West Road was changed to Jiangxi Province, and some states and counties were delimited by Jiangnan East Road, which was roughly equivalent to the scope of Jiangxi Province in later generations.

Jiangdong Road was cut in half, merged into Liangzhe Road, and renamed Zhejiang Province.

This is very different from the provincial planning of later generations!

This means that the areas north of the Yangtze River in Anhui Province and Jiangsu Province will all be counted as Huainan Province from now on, with the provincial capital located in Huai'an.

The areas south of the Yangtze River in Anhui Province and Jiangsu Province, together with the Liangzhe Road, were merged into Zhejiang, and the provincial capital was located in Hangzhou.

This method of administrative division is extremely beneficial to the economy, and it is also very convenient to collect money and grain.

But separatism is easy to occur, and the Manchu rule was to prevent separatism!
It doesn't matter whether Zhu Guoxiang or Zhu Ming is a father and son. The Huaihe River and the Zhejiang River are both rich and prosperous places, and waterways extend in all directions.Dare to rebel in these places, as long as the court is not corrupt, the rebels can be crushed easily.

As for the end of the dynasty, what should be done, children and grandchildren will have their own blessings.

Li Bao sent his lieutenants to Jiangxi to take over the troops, while he himself returned to Hangzhou to wait for the monsoon and ocean currents.

The troop transport ship was mixed with a group of maritime merchant ships and marched toward Fuzhou in a mighty manner.

Repeat the old tricks to gain military glory.

Conquering Fujian is just a basic exercise. If he still has the strength to spare, Li Bao would also like to capture Guangdong!

As for the mess in Zhejiang, let Zhang Pu clean it up slowly. Civil servants who want to take advantage and gain credit have to put in a little hard work and sweat.

(End of this chapter)