Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 178 Chongzhen: Am I the leader of the rebels?

The matter of the Denglai Navy has not been officially finalized, but the expansion of the Bingzhang Division has been put on the agenda. After several expansions, the original territory is no longer sufficient to support the current number of people.

There are many key people and eyes, and some secret departments are easily infiltrated by spies from the Qing Dynasty and other places.

"It seems that there are more than a thousand acres of saline-alkali land in the Beijing camp. Song Yingxing doesn't like it, so I allocated it to you." Zhu Changgan decisively allocated 50 taels of silver for the division and expansion of the Bingzhang Division.

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty."

Wang Hui, acting director of the Armoury Department, kowtowed again, extremely excited.

"I heard that nitric acid has been developed?"

"Your Majesty, it has been made, but the concentration may not meet your Majesty's requirements."

Zhu Changgan nodded, "Tell them that safety comes first and people are more valuable than things. How many people are there in the firefighting team I asked you to set up last time?"

"As Your Majesty said, I have established a firefighting team of 100 people, who are now on duty day and night in shifts."

Next, Zhu Changgan discussed the expansion matters with Wang Hui.

In addition to the most core sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and firearms, some basic research remained at the original headquarters of the Arms Department.

The rest moved to a branch fifty miles away from Yongwei Camp and Jing Camp.

There is a river nearby, which facilitates the subsequent construction of warships. With water, iron smelting, coking, cannon casting, ore dressing and other departments will also be more convenient.

In order to speed up the process, Zhu Changgan directly let the soldiers from the four major camps participate in the construction.

……

In the next few days, construction in the south of the city was in full swing.

Zhu Changgan stood on a high ground, and he felt as if he was watching a towering building rising from the ground in the future.

Zhu Changgan was in high spirits and raised his hand to ask, "Wang Chengen, have you ever thought that there would be such a day?"

"Your Majesty is the ruler of the revival of the country!" Wang Chengen's eyes were red and he wiped the corners of his eyes. Others could not understand why the emperor couldn't sleep every night and worked hard for state affairs. Only he felt distressed. Now, looking at this scene, he was happy for the emperor from the bottom of his heart.

Zhu Changgan shook his head. "This is just the beginning. I haven't even conquered the bandits, swept the Qing Dynasty, or traveled the world yet, and you're crying now?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, you can definitely achieve it."

Zhu Changgan rolled his eyes at him and said, "Boring."

If you are just acting, you could at least act more realistically. Your answer was so perfunctory, which shows that you clearly don't believe it!

Zhu Changgan looked into the distance and saw Ma Shiwei, deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, riding a horse towards him. He dismounted a few hundred meters away and then trotted over.

"Your Majesty, the generals from Shanxi, Datong, Tianjin and other places have already entered Beijing..." After kneeling down, Ma Shiwei reported the secret report to the emperor in detail.

"Notify the Brave Guards and the Arms Department to prepare for the military performance."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The military performance in the capital was something Zhu Changgan had already decided on.

When Huang Degong went south, the Jinyiwei went to various border towns of the Ming Dynasty with imperial edicts. Now that Huang Degong had finished fighting, the generals from all over the country were about to arrive in the capital.

The generals from places like Shanxi and Datong were close to the capital and arrived first.

The Ming Dynasty has a chess game in its hands, and it’s time to show off this move.

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Changgan read out a decision.

"Pass on my order to allocate two million taels from my treasury to fully support the expansion of the five major camps."

"The Yongwei Battalion was expanded from 25,000 to 40,000, the Jing Battalion was expanded from 30,000 to 40,000, the Zhongyong Battalion was expanded from 20,000 to 30,000, the Baigan Army was expanded from 20,000 to 30,000, and the Qi Family Army was expanded from 5,000 to 20,000..."

In this way, he would have an army of more than 150,000 men under his command. Once Jiangnan was pacified, he could march north to wipe out the Tartars.

……

After Sun Chuanting's troops formed a siege with Sun Yingyuan, they began to suppress the bandits from the northwest to the southeast.

"We're from the same village, and you don't even know each other?"

"kill!"

"Puff~" A government soldier directly beheaded the man.

"Master Hu, what should we do now? With the government troops investigating so closely, I'm afraid we can't hide anymore!" A bandit said to someone behind him in fear.

The man behind was the leader of a group of bandits. His name was extremely strange, it was called "Zhuatianhu".

The names of the rebel army in the late Ming Dynasty were extremely strange.

There are as many kings as dogs, dragons and tigers walking around everywhere, and there are all kinds of monsters and demons.

Compared with Li Zicheng's King of Rebellion, Zhang Xianzhong's Eight Kings, Luo Rucai's Cao Cao, Ma Shouying's Old Huihui, there are many other names whose real names cannot be remembered.

For example, the Mountain Guarding Tiger, a Tiger, Flying All Over the Sky, the Sky-Keeping Tiger, the Sky-Drilling Kite, the Five Dragons, the Little Heavenly King, the Black Wind Ghost, the Black Whirlwind, the Black Killing Tiger, the Flying Mountain Tiger, and the Ghost-Seeing Tiger.

This is the person in front of me. His nickname is "Zhua Tianhu" and no one knows his real name.

Zhua Tianhu swallowed hard and said, "Damn Sun Chuanting, I didn't expect him to be so cruel, searching village after village."

Zhuo Tianhu just met the government troops and was chased and killed by the other side in order to avoid them.

They split up into small groups, hid themselves in the village, and pretended to be local villagers.

Unexpectedly, Sun Chuanting was even more ruthless than him. Seeing that he was about to be exposed, he gritted his teeth and shouted, "It's a death sentence, brothers, kill them."

"kill!"

Dozens of bandits in the village drew their weapons and rushed towards the government troops.

"Bang bang bang~~"

Several muskets fired a few shots into the sky, and a large number of government troops poured into the village.

The number ratio is ten to one, and each village is equipped with twenty musketeers.

"Bang bang bang..."

A round of volleys of bullets whizzed past and hit the dozen people rushing in front. One of the bandits was hit in the head by a bullet, his eyeball shattered. He grunted, fell to the ground, shivered a few times and then stopped moving.

The bandits behind were so scared that they ran away, but before they had taken a few steps, the next round of musketry was fired.

Another dozen fell.

Zhua Tianhu covered his stomach and cursed. A government soldier came up and chopped him on the neck. The bandit was so frightened that his scalp went numb and his liver and gallbladder were broken. "We surrender, we surrender..."

"Surrender! It's too late to surrender now!"

"With people like you, you still think you can trick them?"

There was a dull sound of "chopping melons and vegetables".

In less than a quarter of an hour, the government troops cut off the bandits' heads and threw them into the bags.

"What a pity. Nowadays, the head of a bandit is only worth two taels of silver."

"Yes, back then, one bandit was worth twenty taels, but now the value has depreciated too much."

"The present is different from the past. You have not seen the artillery soldiers and firearms soldiers brought by Sun Yingyuan. Fighting the bandits is just like mowing the grass. In a short while, thousands of bandits fell to the ground. If it is still 20 taels per person, the national treasury should be able to take out the money, right?"

"Be content. At least you are full now. Don't talk nonsense. If the Jinyiwei hears you, you will be in trouble..."

The government troops cleaned up the battlefield and continued to check for bandits in the village.

Compared with Yang Sichang's "four sides and six corners, spreading a net in ten directions", which scattered hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses all over the place, Sun Chuanting's method was to ignore the situation in the central part and just focus on making dumplings.

The pockets on the edges were tied very tightly, squeezing towards the middle.

In the northwest, the 7 troops under Sun Chuanting were distributed in Shaanxi, Shaanxi, and along the Henan line. In the southwest, Sun Yingyuan had more than troops from Sichuan. In the north, there were troops from Baoding, Shandong, and Denglai, forming an army of .

Under the coordination of Sun Chuanting, the bandits were driven towards the southeast.

It has to be said that Sun Chuanting was a man of both military and literary talents and had a unique vision. He asked everyone in each village to guarantee each other, and those who did not guarantee would be killed.

This strategy can prevent bandits from hiding in villages and towns.

Like a comb, be patient and proceed in an orderly manner.

Break the whole into pieces?

It's impossible. Among the strategies designated by Sun Chuanting, there is a method to break the whole into parts.

Wherever they arrived, they cleaned up all traces left by the bandits and told the local people about the Ming Dynasty's three-year tax exemption policy, allowing them to return to their villages and farm.

The emperor told him clearly that Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other places were now so devastated by the bandits that no one could see the crowing of a rooster in a thousand miles. What Sun Chuanting had to do was not only to kill the bandits, but also to let the people return.

Therefore, in addition to suppressing bandits, Sun Chuanting's team distributed the "Da Ming Times" every day, so that everyone from bureaucrats, gentry, and ordinary people knew the Ming Dynasty's policies.

Many people from the Jinyiwei and Dongchang were also active on the battlefield. They were not military supervisors, nor were they the main force in conquering bandits. They were more like supervising troops.

Those who kill innocent people for credit can be killed on the spot by the Jinyiwei and Dongchang without asking for permission.

Sun Chuanting looked at the head of "Zhuatianhu" and sighed, "Put it away. This thief's head is worth ten taels." Ten taels!

After ten years of rebellion, this man, who has less than 10,000 bandits under his command, is only worth this price.

……

Zhang Xianzhong's defeat and capture, and Sun Chuanting's iron-bloodedness, shocked all the peasant armies.

Hundreds of thousands of bandits fled toward the southeast.

At this time, Li Zicheng had just arrived at the territory of Gucheng. Upon hearing this, he hurriedly pulled the reins of his horse.

"It's too late. Among the thirteen brothers, I didn't expect that Zhang Xianzhong would be the first to die in battle?" Li Zicheng regretted why he didn't come earlier.

The old Taoist priest standing by also opened his mouth wide. This man had always assisted Li Zicheng and Shang Ziming.

In addition, he has another identity, that is, the godfather of Sun Kewang's wife.

"More than 10,000 troops were wiped out by the Ming court just like that... The Ming court's Yongwei Battalion is really powerful!"

The young man who went to get the news was named Lei Shuangxi. He was drinking water in big gulps and said with lingering fear: "It's more than powerful. I heard from the people who survived in Gucheng that the artillery was like thunder from the sky. Zhang Xianzhong's people died in rows. Human life was more fragile than reeds..."

The old Taoist priest stopped Li Zicheng and said, "General, we can't go into Gucheng. Gucheng is such a small place, and it is full of spies from the Ming court. We must leave quickly to avoid unnecessary trouble."

Li Zicheng hesitated for a moment, "Zhang Xianzhong is not good enough, now... let's go find Lao Huihui."

"The only way now is to unite all the forces to fight against the Ming court."

Logically speaking, they should have headed south to Yinghuo Mountain, but Li Zicheng and his men turned their horses around and headed north.

……

Thirty miles north of Gucheng.

After Chongzhen ran out of Gucheng, people kept approaching him along the way. After asking, he found out that many of them were Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates who had fled before.

What was strange was that after they learned Zhu Yonggan's name, they all stayed and followed him all the way.

Wherever Chongzhen went, they followed.

"No, why are you all following me?"

"Everyone says you are the son of destiny. Now that the Eighth King is gone, we can only look for you."

"What the hell is this 'child of destiny'? Who told you that?!" Chongzhen's scalp was tingling, and he turned his head suddenly with a confused look on his face.

"I don't know either. Anyway, it has been circulating for several days."

Several refugees whispered timidly.

Looking at the frightened faces of Prince Xiang and Captain Han, Chongzhen couldn't help but break out in sweat on his forehead.

But before he could ask clearly, another group of people came over and asked, "Is that Mr. Zhu in front?"

"I am... who are you?"

"Oh, finally we found me. From now on, we will all rely on you."

Chongzhen: "..."

In just half a day, Chongzhen and his men encountered five or six waves of refugees, with more than three thousand people following behind them.

"What's going on?"

It was not until the seventh wave of refugees that Chongzhen finally asked this key question.

The leader of the refugees said, "An old blind man said that if we follow this direction, we will meet the man of destiny. Zhang Xianzhong is dead, and only you can save us."

When Chongzhen heard this, he froze in place.

When he was in Zhang Xianzhong's camp before, the old blind man always asked his apprentice to take him to visit various camps, and he always came back very late.

During this period, the old blind man told fortunes for many people.

Therefore, he was respected by many people in the camp. During this time, some people looked at him with strange eyes, but he did not pay attention to it at that time.

Now it seems... we finally know who is responsible for this.

The next second, Chongzhen suddenly went crazy, picked up a stone from the ground, and ran behind him, "Old blind man, you bastard, we let you eat and drink, and you want to hurt me like this, right?"

"Dad, don't stop me. I'm going to chisel him to death."

Prince Xiang's face also turned green. "Right now, the Yongwei Battalion, Zuo Liangyu, and Chen Hongfan are hunting down Zhang Xianzhong's men. If you go back now, you won't be able to explain yourself even if you have a reason."

The old blind man stood up, threw away the bamboo stick in his hand, and knelt on the ground. "My lord, Zhang Xianzhong's death was God's will. Now these refugees have come to surrender. Doesn't it further prove that your fate is invaluable?"

"I am an old blind man of humble talent, but I am willing to help you achieve great things soon."

"Do you know my identity?" Chongzhen was so angry that he was shaking all over, pointing at the old blind man's nose and cursing.

Right now, I am a vassal of the Ming Dynasty and the prince of Xiangwang Mansion. You keep saying that you want to assist me in my cause. What is in your mind?
"Of course the old blind man knows, but instead of letting these refugees be taken hostage by other bandits, have you ever thought about taking them into your own hands?"

"My Lord, please think twice~"

"My lord!" The old blind man knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his face.

The stone in Chongzhen's hand was hanging half an inch above the old blind man's head, but he couldn't smash it down no matter what.

"Don't follow me, get out of the way!"

Chongzhen was soft-hearted after all and did not smash the old blind man to death.

"Unless I die, I will follow you wherever you go, my lord." The old blind man knelt there and refused to leave no matter what.

"Hmph~" Chongzhen turned around and left angrily, but the more than 3,000 people behind him followed him closely.

After walking a few steps, he had to stop again when he saw the refugees surrounding him.

The head is as big as a bucket.

How to do?
Should we just let the Embroidered Uniform Guards kill all these people?
Captain Han did propose this, but it was rejected by Chongzhen.

But these are three thousand living people... not animals, not plants.

What's more, they are unarmed now and follow me only to survive. We haven't burned, killed or looted. If I just kill them like this, then how am I different from those bandits and robbers?
At this moment, Chongzhen was really in trouble.

The key point is that he is not Zhu Changgan, but the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. How can he be the leader of the rebels? !

This feeling is simply too weird and bizarre.

Chongzhen was like this, and so were Prince Xiang and Han Qianhu of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Seeing that more people were approaching, both of them looked at each other with their heads buzzing.

"Captain Han, you can't..." King Xiang grabbed the other person.

Han Qianhu slapped his hand away and said, "No matter how much you say, I have to report it. This is too outrageous."

Knowing the truth but not reporting it is a capital crime.

……

at night,

When Zhu Changgan returned to his original body, he was shocked to see the large group of refugees behind him.

This is crazy...

Zhu Changgan found a deserted place and quickly called Chongzhen.

"What's wrong with you? Wasn't Zhang Xianzhong captured? Why are there so many bandits following him?"

At this moment, Chongzhen was worried in the Qianqing Palace, "It's all the old blind man's fault..."

When Chongzhen finished telling the whole story, Zhu Changgan's face turned pale and asked, "How are you going to deal with these people?"

"I'm thinking about it, but I don't have any ideas yet."

"I..." Zhu Changgan finally stopped cursing and his mind was working rapidly.

Before long, he came up with an idea.

"I will handle the court's case. As for the refugees, you should stay put for now... I have a few leaves in my pocket, and you can come up tomorrow according to the leaves."

Zhu Changgan briefly explained his ideas to him.

In order to prevent Chongzhen from forgetting, he wrote it down. Without paper and pen, he could only use leaves. After writing, he put them in his pocket.

On the other side, Chongzhen in the Qianqing Palace was stunned. After a long while, he murmured, "Undercover? What do you mean... to infiltrate the peasant army?"

"After all, isn't he still the leader of the bandits?!"

……

ps: There will be another chapter tonight

(End of this chapter)