Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 256

Chen Gu thought he was generous enough. As long as you are willing to talk, we can talk about anything. We can always reach a consensus by seeking common ground while reserving differences.

If there is really no way to reconcile the issues, then the dispute can be temporarily put aside.

But since you don't even want to talk, let's just fight first.

As long as you can afford it, it doesn't matter to me.

The reason why the roadblock took more than half a year to fight in Guizhou, where the army was short of troops, was mainly to eliminate the local chieftains in Guizhou.

There were hundreds of chieftain forces of all sizes in Guizhou, and the dozen or so largest ones were all wiped out by Blocker. When the remaining chieftains saw that something was not right, they quickly sent people to negotiate with Blocker about the issue of naturalization.

Chen Gu generously forgave them, but their gathering places had to be occupied by government departments and the chieftains had to hand over their power.

Small chieftains can govern themselves, but big chieftains do not have that treatment. What's more, those who surrender after being frightened by a fight have even less choice.

The defeated have no choice but to either continue fighting or obey.

There are no major chieftains in Guizhou today.

Lao Piao wanted to lead the army to attack Guangxi, but Chen Gu did not agree immediately, but did not refuse either. Instead, he comforted him to wait until after the new year.

Half a month before the Chinese New Year, the door of the Legislative Assembly Hall was finally closed. All legislative representatives were given travel expenses ranging from one to five taels of silver depending on how far they lived back home. At the same time, they were given their last month's salary and bonus, totaling six taels of silver.

All legislative representatives received a monthly salary of three taels of silver each month.

After all, they had delayed their work for a year, so Chen Gu should naturally give them some compensation. The money was not much, but for ordinary town representatives, it was already a very generous salary, and it also gave them the confidence to continue fighting.

The vacant conference hall was converted into a theater, and during the New Year period, there were drama performances every day, including Sichuan opera.

"The two lakes filled Sichuan" brought many new elements to the culture of Sichuan. Kunqu, Gaozu, Hu, Dan, Deng and other opera troupes gathered in the taverns and street alleys of the major cities in Bashu. Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo and Chou appeared on the small stage of the teahouse, and gradually formed a common style over time, which is Sichuan Opera.

Although Sichuan Opera also has sad dramas such as The Legend of the White Snake, it is more about using slang to make jokes, and of course face changing.

Face changing is still amazing in this era.

Chongqing set up a stage for opera performances, and other places in Sichuan also became lively.

After the equal distribution of land this year, the people enjoyed a good harvest for the first time, and the tax rate was extremely low, so they had extra money and naturally joined in the fun.

While Sichuan was bustling and prosperous, the capital of the Qing Dynasty was in a state of misery.

Emperor Jiaqing, in particular, had no intention of seeking pleasure at all, and even the smile on his face had disappeared for a long time.

The departure of Lao Piao reduced the pressure on Song Jun in Hanzhong. After all, compared to the warmongering Lao Piao, he was always thinking about attacking Hanzhong and there were military operations all day long.

Sanlang was much more stable and switched from active offense to defense.

This gave Songjun the opportunity to return to Beijing to report on his work. Jiaqing was quite satisfied with Songjun.

"Now most of Hubei is in ruins, Guizhou Province has been lost, and the rebel army is eyeing Yunnan and Guangxi. Only your Shaanxi is relatively stable!" Jiaqing sighed as he looked at Song Jun.

Song Jun quickly thanked him, "I am ashamed. I have been in Hanzhong for a year and have only defended it. I have not gained an inch of land and have not achieved any success. I am not worthy of your majesty's praise!"

"The enemy's armaments are strong. It is a great achievement for you to defend Hanzhong. However, after a year of operation, the armaments of our court have also been greatly improved. The mother-and-child cannons, hand-held guns and other armaments will soon be equipped on a large scale in various armies.

The time for counterattack will soon come!" Jiaqing said, clenching his fist.

This year was really torturous. Jiaqing was always worried that Chen Gou would attack from Sichuan. Fortunately, Chen Gou did not send out large-scale troops in the end, giving the court enough breathing time.

Unfortunately, the court was overstaffed, and Chen Gu never left Hubei, which made some people in the court relax.

Therefore, even though Jiaqing figured out the manufacturing technology of the submachine gun, provided a large amount of silver, and repeatedly urged the process, the manufacturing of new weapons progressed very slowly.

In the end, Jiaqing could not wait any longer and killed a group of managers of the arms manufacturing workshops and ministers who took on the corresponding tasks. This accelerated the progress of the new arms manufacturing.

What made Jiaqing distressed was that he had little silver left after manufacturing new armaments.

You have to know that Heshen has only been dead for more than two years. How come the national treasury, which was originally enriched by the confiscation of Heshen's property, is about to be depleted again?

Jiaqing could never understand why the imperial court spent hundreds of millions of taels of silver but was unable to wipe out the rebels at the border of Sichuan and Shaanxi, while Chen Gu was able to easily wipe out both the imperial court's army and the Sichuan and Shaanxi rebels.

Even that poor guy Chen Gu could easily make a cluster cannon, and such powerful armaments, but it would cost me hundreds of millions of taels of silver to make them.

Is it really that the Qing Dynasty was too incompetent, or is it that Chen Ke was too powerful?
However, the most important thing at the moment is to wipe out Chen Gu's Hua Xia tribe. As for the other things, they can be put aside for later investigation. However, the seeds of doubt have already been planted in Jiaqing's heart.

"The enemy army is not that elite. Although it is stronger than our Green Camp Army, it is not as good as our Eight Banners. If the armaments can be equal, or even if they are slightly weaker, I am confident that I can defeat the enemy army!" Song Jun said.

This made Jiaqing very satisfied, and he smiled and said, "My dear, if my imperial army wants to counterattack, from which direction should it launch?"

"This~!" Song Jun couldn't help but hesitate, and finally sighed and said: "Sichuan is easy to defend but difficult to attack. In fact, it doesn't matter which direction you launch a counterattack.

The road in the direction of Shaanxi is difficult to travel, and the Shu Road is full of terrain where one man can block the passage of ten thousand men. Going up the Yangtze River, one will also encounter obstructions along the way, and once the war becomes intense, the pressure on logistics will be very great.

As for the Guizhou direction, the road is also difficult to travel, and attacking Guizhou will give the enemy army sufficient time to prepare.

As for the direction of Dajianlu, it is necessary to bypass the vast snowfield, and the difficulty of marching and the pressure of logistics are also not small.

Moreover, attacking Chengdu will not inflict heavy damage on the rebel army."

"So, from which direction is it better to launch a counterattack?" Jiaqing asked with a frown.

Song Jun's words are very discouraging. Everyone knows that Sichuan is difficult to beat, but we can't just not beat them just because it's difficult, right?
It's a pity that Fu Cha Mingliang's plan did not succeed. Otherwise, with Chongqing, even if it was just Fengjie that was occupied, it would have made it easier for the court to counterattack.

(End of this chapter)