Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 259 After the Good News
"Sir, why don't you press on and pursue the victory?" After a brief meeting, Deputy General Yang privately sought advice from Jia Lian, which shows his high emotional intelligence.

Jia Lian did not answer this question directly, but beat around the bush and said, "The Shenji Camp mainly uses firearms. They didn't consume much medicine in this battle, so they can really pursue the victory. Another battle will make them run out of food. In the future, the Shenji Camp is destined to expand in size, and the three major camps of the Beijing Camp will definitely be adjusted and reorganized. Whether the Shenji Camp can become the main force of the Beijing Camp depends on your efforts. It is not determined by how many military exploits you have. It is important to bury your head in work, but it is even more important to look up and see the way forward."

Jia Lian's words caused Deputy General Yang to think deeply. If he did not agree with them, his future achievements would be limited.

Emperor Chenghui said that he wanted to quell the civil unrest as quickly as possible. That was the emperor's intention. But if you really did that, would the emperor have other ideas in his mind? That was another matter, not to mention what colleagues and superiors would think. When things were not going well, there was naturally nothing to say. When things were going well, did colleagues and superiors have the idea of ​​sharing the profits?
"More haste, less speed. What we need to do now is to curb the momentum of the religious bandits, stabilize the situation, and then push forward little by little. Although the rebels are not good at field battles, they will still be in great trouble if they really want to defend the city. What we need to do now is to slowly push forward and urge the logistics and the central army to catch up as soon as possible. Of course, we are not doing nothing. We will recapture Feicheng and level the front line in Henan. Liaocheng is in Hebei. Please explain the situation in the military report. Marshal Yue should have made arrangements."

Lieutenant General Yang was convinced by what he heard. He knew that if the person was not a confidant, he would not say these things to him.

Although the Jia family's military power is not as strong as it was in the past, the family still has great prestige. After Jia Lian appeared, his military performance was initially regarded as a family tradition. This time when he came to Shandong, he seized the opportunity to defeat the religious bandits head-on, and his overall evaluation would rise to a higher level, entering the so-called stage of not losing to his ancestors.

For someone like Deputy General Yang who has no foundation or background, normally he would be a deputy general for his whole life, and it would be very difficult for him to advance. But now, relying on the Jia family, it is not difficult for him to become a general.

"Sir, no matter what is said in Shandong, Governor Nie and General Qi will not be able to escape the blame."

Deputy General Yang was silent about this question. Looking across the country, the combat effectiveness of local garrisons was probably rotten. But can this be blamed on the local garrisons? Jia Lian knew very well that strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches was not a national policy, but the result of local corruption under long-term peace. There are countless precedents in history. When local governments become too big, the central government is difficult to check and balance. So, the emperor is happy to see it happen, right?
From the perspective of imperial power, the most pressing thing to guard against is the expansion of local governments.

In modern history, in order to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing Dynasty rulers had to delegate power to the local areas, and the Hunan Army and the Huai Army became de facto warlords. In the Gengzi Year, the Southeast Mutual Protection was launched. Looking at the problem from another angle, the Qing government is undoubtedly the main culprit for the weakness of modern China, but do the great figures such as Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, who were once in the limelight, have no responsibility?

After the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, what did the Beiyang and later Kuomintang governments do to change the country?
When it comes to marching and fighting, Lieutenant General Yang is an expert, but when it comes to strategy, he is very impressed by Jia Lian.

Deputy General Yang naturally resolutely carried out Jia Lian's arrangement. After a day's rest, Deputy General Yang reorganized his army and set out, leaving the Thunder Camp in Pingyin County and the main force of the front army heading east.

As for the Central Army, it was still three days away from Jinan. After receiving Jia Lian's battle report, Yue Qi was very excited. Being able to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop in the field battle, the seemingly corrupt situation was stabilized at once. This is how to suppress a rebellion. First seek stability, and the rest is the delicate work.

After the example of the Battle of Yunyang, Yue Qi's mentality changed a lot and was no longer the same as before. His mentality of fighting against the tribes on the grassland was also completely changed. After reading the battle report that Jia Lian had taken the initiative to send someone to contact Xuzhou in his name, Yue Qi nodded in approval and praised the cadre.

"Jia Lian used his troops flexibly and prudently, and had a clear understanding of the overall situation. He was wasted his talent as a vanguard. The battle of Pingyin defeated the enemy's main force, creating a situation that is extremely favorable to our army. I order..."

Yue Qi was also an old soldier, and of course he would not miss the sudden opportunity to fight, so he immediately made some adjustments. The central army was divided into two groups, one heading towards Liaocheng and Shangqiu, and with the cooperation of the local garrisons, blocked the religious bandits' momentum to the north of the Yellow River. Another army was sent to Weifang to block the possibility of the religious bandits going deep into the Yimeng Mountains.

The loss we suffered in Yunyang cannot be repeated this time.

At the same time, Yue Qi also submitted a memorial to Emperor Chenghui, asking the emperor not to let Jia Lian continue to be the vanguard. What he should do is to supervise the local areas and restore people's livelihood, just like he did in Yunyang.

Don't tell me, don't tell me. When the urgent war report of 800 miles arrived in Beijing, it coincided with the cabinet meeting. After receiving the victory report, Emperor Chenghui clenched his fists excitedly and turned around seven or eight times before he calmed down. After reading Yue Qi's war report carefully, Emperor Chenghui was really moved. According to Yue Qi, Jia Lian had experience in pacifying local areas and restoring people's livelihood. It should not be wasted, right?
Naturally, the five ministers in the cabinet also read the war report, but everyone had different thoughts. Not to mention being happy, some people were like ants on a hot pan, yet they had to maintain calm on the surface.

"Very good, very good, Jia Lian lived up to my expectations!" Emperor Chenghui was extremely happy at the moment, and could not help showing off his ability to judge people in front of all the ministers. Most importantly, Jia Lian said in his report, "The victory of the front army lies in taking advantage of the enemy's unstable foothold and the bandit's strength. It is difficult to win quickly in a hurry. It is better to stabilize the situation and prevent it from spreading. We should advance from north to south to suppress the bandit's strength and finally win a complete victory."

This was a report that analyzed the situation from a strategic perspective. Emperor Chenghui was deeply pleased that Jia Lian could still have such a clear understanding after the great victory.

Because of the victory report, the entire war situation was stabilized, and the White Lotus Sect certainly had no energy to expand outward. Based on past experience, the White Lotus Sect had only two choices: one was to hold on to the local area, repel the soldiers, and even form a regime. The other was to flee.

Among them, wandering is the most troublesome thing, especially under the current situation of local military deterioration.

To put it bluntly, if the canal coast can cause such a big commotion, let alone other places, the whole country is like a huge pile of dry firewood, and a little spark can set the prairie on fire. This is also the reason why the White Lotus Sect expanded rapidly in a short period of time after it succeeded in Jining. If it weren't for the internal strife, I'm afraid most of Shandong would have been occupied.

From Kong Zhao's perspective, Jia Lian's detailed report is frightening. Jia Lian combined the interrogation content of a large number of captured religious bandits and came to a conclusion that officers and soldiers could not make a living because of the exploitation of their superiors, so they became resentful and followed the bandits. What about ordinary people?
We can't say that the difficult life of the people is the responsibility of the Prime Minister, but we certainly can't say that he has no responsibility at all, right? We can't put all the blame on Fang Baiyi. It's not like the Donkey and the Elephant parties are accusing each other of ruining the country.

Having been the Prime Minister for several years, Kong Zhao had a general understanding of the national situation, but he did not expect that the actual situation was so serious. Not to mention Shandong, Shaanxi and Gansu are the most dangerous places, right?

Liang Daoyuan, the deputy minister, was in a very bad mood. The governor of Shandong was a remnant of Fang Baiyi's era, but it was difficult for him to get rid of the blame. He had been the Minister of Personnel for so many years, why didn't he select virtuous people to govern the local area? This pot would definitely be put on his head. Liang Daoyuan even thought that once the impeachment trend started, he probably wouldn't be able to explain himself clearly.

Li Sanjiang was walking on thin ice and didn't dare to say a word. Because from the battle report, Caoding was the main force of the White Lotus Army. Judging from the prisoners of war captured so far, former Caoding accounted for 30%.

It is impossible to expect Li Sanjiang to admit his mistakes. This is just like the incident in which a migrant worker was falsely accused of taking secret photos. He backed down due to public outrage at the time, and later made a TV series to overturn the verdict.

Logically, I was making money for the court, but the means were too drastic. Another thing, what's wrong with false accusations? I was doing it for all women. If Jia Lian was present, he would definitely slam the table and shout, "The traitor is in the cabinet!"

As for Li Chi, he is also in trouble because of the South China Sea incident. What does the incident along the canal have to do with me? I'd better think of a way to change the bad impression formed by Your Majesty. When it comes to governing the local area, Li Chi dare not say that he is an expert, but he has already prepared seven or eight drafts to flatter the emperor.

Guo Yan was probably the most relaxed, but he could sense that something was wrong with the atmosphere, so he didn't show any excitement.

After Emperor Chenghui calmed down, he picked up Jia Lian's report and read it carefully again, and his mood became heavier.

In fact, Jia Lian had another secret report, which Emperor Chenghui had not had time to read.

This public report was forwarded by Yue Qi, and its content was shocking. Jia Lian made no secret of the fact that the landless people on both sides of the canal relied on the canal for their livelihood, and this livelihood was unsustainable due to local exploitation, which was the opportunity for the White Lotus Sect to take advantage of. Looking across the country, what would happen to other places without the canal as a livelihood?

This puts the fundamental contradiction before the emperor and the cabinet.

Have ministers ever reported this kind of problem before? Yes, but every time there was no response.

Did the emperor want to change his mind? Of course he did. So the question is, why didn't he change his mind? Instead, his mind got worse. The emperor wanted to change his mind, so he asked his ministers if they agreed.

At this time, Emperor Chenghui remembered the suggestion Zhang Tingen had once made that the gentry should pay taxes together and distribute the tax according to the land.

Aren't you planning to merge? Well, cancel the preferential treatment for the gentry and pay taxes according to the acreage of land.

After Emperor Chenghui's good mood, he was not happy with the cabinet team in front of him. However, he knew better that changing a group of people would not be much better. After thinking about it, he thought of Jia Lian's suggestion. If internal conflicts are difficult to resolve, then transfer the conflicts to the outside. As long as the people who lost their land are taken outside, the problem can be said to be partially solved. Make up for the domestic financial difficulties through foreign trade and plunder, and ease the survival pressure of the people through policies, such as changing corvée to employment. For some national projects, such as regulating the Yellow River and dredging the canal, there is no need to issue corvée, but to hire people to work.

Of course, in this war report, Jia Lian did not mention how to relieve the people along the canal, because of the over-exploitation in the past few years, which had caused the accumulated grievances of the people. Emperor Chenghui had no intention of continuing the cabinet meeting, and decisively announced that the meeting would be adjourned for half an hour.

After leaving the cabinet meeting and returning to the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Chenghui couldn't wait to ask, "Where is Jia Lian's secret report?"

Qiu Shian took out a sealed document bag and handed it to Emperor Chenghui. After checking the seal, Emperor Chenghui found no problem and then opened it. He took out a thick secret report from Jia Lian.

To be more precise, it is a detailed record of the people's conditions along the way Jia Lian traveled south. The largest part of the article is not about the people, but about the local officials and gentry. From the lines, Emperor Chenghui saw Jia Lian's full of resentment.

Finally, it is pointed out that we must face up to the current situation of collusion between officials and gentry to harm the people. If we let this situation continue, we may end up like the end of the Ming Dynasty. Jia Lian is not exaggerating. The Zhou Dynasty has been established for a hundred years, and the population has more than doubled, but the land is limited. Although the number of people who have lost their land is difficult to count, it is definitely an astonishing number.

Jia Lian suggested that the fish scale book be recompiled to verify the population and land.

Without understanding the current situation in the country, it is difficult to make targeted changes. Of course, it is not that we should do nothing now. First of all, after the White Lotus Rebellion, we hope that the court will pay and recruit people to carry out a large-scale canal dredging project. In order to prevent the situation from changing, a series of river dredging and road construction projects should be launched as soon as possible in the canal sections where there has been no civil unrest.

As long as they are willing to spend money and carry out a number of projects across the country, they can greatly ease social conflicts and buy time for the next round of reforms. Jia Lian, who used to be very secretive, did not hide his attitude in the secret report this time.

When mentioning Shandong, Jia Lian didn't say a single good word about it. He pointed out more directly that if Shandong was like this, the whole country might be like this. There was another place Jia Lian didn't dare to mention. It's not Jia Lian's fault that he was timid, but that the descendants of the saints who were suppressed during the reign of Taizu were given various preferential policies during the reign of Taishanghuang.

Let me put it this way, Confucianism needs the spirit tablets of saints. If someone wants to destroy it, all the scholars in the world will rebel.

The emperor did not have the prestige of the great ancestor, and could not hold his ground, so he had to compromise. When it came to Emperor Chenghui, he dared not touch him.

After reading the secret report, Emperor Chenghui sat for about a quarter of an hour, and only returned to the cabinet meeting after Qiu Shian urged him to do so.

Emperor Chenghui changed his past style of not taking the initiative to speak and spoke first: "The local officials of Shandong cannot escape blame. The Censorate will send a few people down, and Jia Lian will be the inspector to investigate the problems of Shandong officials. I will ask the Dragon Guard to allocate a team of troops to protect Jia Lian's safety. Jia Lian is a versatile person, and it would be a waste to just lead troops to fight. In addition, the cabinet will discuss the specific rules for the court to allocate funds for dredging the canal by hiring. Minister Li is familiar with the situation, so please spend more time on it."

Emperor Chenghui's last sentence made Li Sanjiang feel as if he had been fished out of the water.

(End of this chapter)