Late Tang

After Li Jing took over as governor of Dengzhou, he immediately started to burn his own new official three fires.

The first fire was to order the Zhendong Army to be stationed in four counties. While taking over the defense of each place, they immediately launched an appeasement and bandit suppression operation code-named Thunder.Except for the Nutao Camp and the Black Bear Camp, which were left by Li Jing in the Daxie Islands, and the left and right sides stationed in Qingni City and Beisha City in Liaodong, 25 of the 23 battalions in the front, middle and rear sides landed in Dengzhou.Then the five rear battalions of engineers, medical, logistics, auxiliary soldiers, and supplies entered Dengzhou and did not participate in the bandit suppression. The remaining eighteen battalions, including the officers and guards battalions outside the military establishment, also participated in the comprehensive bandit suppression operation here. middle.

Nineteen battalions with nearly 2 horses were dispatched at one time, and the action was like thunder.

This is the result of Li Jing's negotiation with Li Liang, Li Zhen, Guo Cheng'an, Lin Wei and others as soon as they entered Dengzhou.It is not only to wipe out the big and small bandits and pirates in Dengzhou, but also to restore a stable and peaceful environment in Dengzhou, and it is also to deter the rich and powerful families in Dengzhou.

The previous landing at Dengzhou Wharf was a shock, but it was not enough.Especially after the reconnaissance by the scouts of Flying Eagle Battalion and the investigation by Gongsun Lan of Plum Blossom Gate, it is known that many pirates in Dengzhou are also merchants and pirates. thief.The situation of those bandits and thieves is similar, many of them are in collusion with some local wealthy families to cause disaster to the local area.

Especially right now, although Dengzhou is rich, there is also a severe famine, and there are many refugees.These bandits are already ready to move, wanting to take the opportunity to cause chaos.This is not only the greed of the bandits, but also the temptation of those wealthy families.Especially after Song Wen left with soldiers and horses from all over the country, the situation became even more serious.At such a time, Li Jing will never be soft-hearted. No matter who it is, as long as he dares to challenge his majesty, he will definitely be killed without mercy.

There are dozens of townships in the four counties of Dengzhou, with a population of more than 5 households. According to the imperial decree on March 18, [-]th year of Tang Kaiyuan. "Taiping is a long time. The household registration is increasing. It is appropriate to take [-] households as Shangzhou. [-] households are Zhongzhou. Less than [-] households are Xiazhou. Among them, there are six males, ten Wangzhous, three assistants, etc. and the same as above. Governor of the state. And Ji Nei Prefecture and Shangzhou. The [-] households in the border state have been transferred to Shangzhou. The [-] households have been transferred to Zhongzhou. His prince is the governor of Zhongzhou Xiazhou. It is also Shangzhou."

There are more than 5 households in Dengzhou, with a population of more than 1000. The four counties below also meet the standards of upper counties.The four counties of Dengzhou, because of the Dengzhou Port, especially after the mid-Tang Dynasty, the economy has been at the leading level in the country. Not only is the commerce developed, but the agriculture is also very developed. The cultivated land area of ​​​​Dengzhou has reached [-] hectares, which is a full [-] million Mu of land, more than [-] people, can reach [-] mu of land per capita.

However, land mergers were serious in the late Tang Dynasty, and Dengzhou was the same.Of these tens of millions of land, only a small part is occupied by ordinary self-cultivating farmers, and most of them are occupied by big landowners.

There are many powerful landlords in Dengzhou, and many of them own thousands of acres of fertile land, or even hundreds of hectares of fertile land.There are also many wealthy businessmen in Dengzhou. Due to Dengzhou's long coastline, numerous ports, and Dengzhou Port, plus the seaway into Bohai Silla, the straight-line distance from Silla is only two or three days away, and it is also located in Hebei. In the middle of Jiangnan, Dengzhou has many maritime merchants, traveling to Silla and Japan, going to Jiangnan along the coast, and going to Youzhou.They also earn a lot of money, and there are many wealthy businessmen in Dengzhou, so there are many powerful landlords.

Although Li Jing has not been able to build up his prestige in Daxie Village for a year, to many wealthy families in Dengzhou, Li Jing is only a young man in his early twenties, and he is not from a family background, so he can't help but despise him.This time, Li Jing wanted to use the bandits' heads to shock these people.As long as these people are shocked, the next thing will be easy to handle.

Nineteen battalions attacked together. It can be said that each of the four counties of Dengzhou has assigned more than 20, 5000 troops.Under such a powerful offensive action, the bandits in various mountains and villages were wiped out one after another.Only then did they realize how powerful the Zhendong Army was.

Can't beat it, if you want to stick to the mountain, it may be useful for the troops who suppressed bandits in the past.But for Zhendong Army, this is of no use at all.No matter what kind of dangerous terrain, relying on the advantages in numbers, the Zhendong Army can easily surround them, and then deal with them with heavy equipment such as cannons, flying fire and long-range powerful weapons.No matter how strong the gate of the village is, if it is shot by the crossbow gun with thick arms, it will be directly smashed down.No matter how strong the defense was, they would have to be breached under the attack of a burst of flying fire.

Li Zhen came up with a plan for Li Jing, that is, set up thousands of wooden stakes outside the city gate of Dengzhou, and set up a high platform at the gate of the city.

After the Zhendong Army launched its attack, bandits' strongholds were breached almost every day. Except for the bandits who were directly killed on the spot, all the bandits would be immediately escorted outside Dengzhou City.Li Jing will sit on that high platform and publicly try these bandits in front of the people of Dengzhou.Moreover, this trial is all serious and strict. According to Li Jing's words, this is a severe blow.

As long as it is a bandit, no matter how old or young, they will be beheaded immediately after the trial, and then the head will be thrown into the oil pan and fried again, and then stuck on the sharp stake outside the city, and the corpse will be killed.And the family members of the thieves will be sent to reform through labor, and they will undergo reform through labor ranging from ten years to three years in the army bunker.

On the first day of the public trial, tens of thousands of people came to watch.The reason for such a sensation was that the one who was tried was the most legendary robber in the history of Dengzhou.This thief is a woman, a woman in her mid-forties who still has a charming charm.But this beautiful, even pitiful woman has been a legend in Dengzhou for 20 years.

It is said that her family was originally a family of officials in the capital, but she was later convicted for offending the powerful.No one in her family was spared, except her.She was only six years old at that time. After escaping, she made a living by begging. Later, she met a girl and took her as an apprentice. She learned a mysterious ability and then went down the mountain ten years later.After going down the mountain, he directly found the dignitaries who harmed his family back then, and killed 360 members of the other family in one night. Not only did they kill them, but they all chopped off their heads.

This caused a great commotion that year. Although the head of the family had retired, he was also a high official in the imperial court before, so the imperial court sent six sects to hunt him down.After several years of pursuit, she killed dozens of spies, and was shot down in the last pursuit. She was thought to be dead.Unexpectedly, a year later, she appeared in Luoyang and became a thief, specializing in robbing the rich and helping the poor.The Six Doors found again, then disappeared for over a year.

I thought she would die this time, but who would have thought that she would appear again, but she has become a leader of horse bandits all over Yanzhou. In a few years, she has grown to thousands of people.Then, a few years later, her horse thief was wiped out, she disappeared, and finally showed up in Dengzhou, becoming a very famous female pirate in Dengzhou.

This time when Li Jing suppressed the bandits, the woman named Hong Niangzi brought her 30 pirates and was caught. After some fighting, the pirates wanted to flee from Rushanpu to the sea.But Li Jing had been prepared for a long time. Several squadrons of the Raging Wave Camp patrolled the sea, and none of them escaped. Even this female devil, who has not been caught for 1 years, has become Li Jing's no. .[-].

After Megan heard about such a woman, she pleaded with Li Jing and wanted to keep this woman.But after Li Jing met this woman in person, he didn't intend to let her go.Although she used to steal from the rich and give to the poor, this woman's mind seemed to have been stimulated too much in her childhood, so that she had a deep-seated hatred for the rich and officials, which could never be resolved.Don't let her join the Zhenhai camp, just let her go, maybe she will have to seek revenge from Li Jing and the Zhendong army later.

Such a legendary woman became the first object of public trial, which attracted a flood of spectators from all over Dengzhou, and even people from nearby Laizhou and Qingzhou, as well as Xuzhou farther away came to watch.

After some interrogation, Hong Niangzi was also stubborn and did not refuse to admit her crime.As soon as Li Jing waved his hand, the executioner raised the big knife in his hand, and slashed down fiercely, and blood flew up immediately. This legend has been going on for 30 years, so that many people now regard this person as a woman who can't tell the difference between ghosts and ghosts. killed.

On the first day, kill Hong Niangzi and his pirates.Then the next day, more than 300 bandits were killed.On the third day and the fourth day, seeing that the wooden stakes outside the city were filled up quickly, not many people were willing to watch the murder and beheading.For those nobles of the wealthy clan in Dengzhou, Li Jing's murder was so overwhelming that it also made them lose face.

After killing for half a month, more than 100 bandits, horse thieves and pirates in Dengzhou were wiped out, and more than 1000 people were beheaded after the public trial.This is because Li Jing later saw that the deterrent effect had been achieved, so he only killed some notorious bandit leaders, and sentenced the rest to reform through labor.The more than 100 large and small cottages, combined, killed more than 3000 people after the trial, and 3 people died directly on the spot during the suppression of bandits.In addition, five or six thousand bandits were sentenced to labor camps in various fortresses, and their families together numbered as many as [-] to [-].

There are so many bandits, but the property stolen after the extermination is very little, only hundreds of thousands of property and food.Li Jing also understood that many bandits were not thugs, and more than half of them were refugees from other places who fled to Dengzhou after the famine last year, and eventually became bandits.

After wiping out bandits, large and small, in the four counties of Dengzhou, these more than 1000 heads completely made the people of Dengzhou realize Li Jing's toughness and iron blood.

"Zhang Lushi, get ready and make an announcement. From the day after tomorrow, the four counties of Dengzhou will start to open warehouses to distribute grain and disaster relief." Li Jing said to Zhang Hong, the chief steward of money and grain.

Zhang Hong was a little confused: "Young Marquis, Dengzhou has more than 5 households and a population of more than 30 people. I'm afraid we won't be able to withstand the opening of warehouses." There is still a lot of grain in the warehouse of the Zhendong Army. But this is all the grain that has been stored for the time being. The ones that are usually used, including the ones that were given to Song Wei last time, have not used the grains in those warehouses.In addition to those, there is still food in the warehouse, but it is not much, and it is impossible to supply more than 30 people.

"You first send people to inform the wealthy families in the four counties of Dengzhou, and invite them to come over if the landowners own more than [-] mu of land. Tomorrow I will hold a banquet to celebrate the successful suppression of bandits and invite them to the banquet. " Li Jing said with a smile.

"Does the Marquis plan to have these people's ideas?"

Li Jing laughed loudly: "What do you mean by hitting on them? In addition to the official warehouses in my Tang Dynasty, every county and township also has free warehouses. Usually, during the good harvest, everyone has to pay grain. Now it's this time , Isn’t it time for the Yicang to take effect? ​​Of course, there is not much grain in the Yicang, so our Zhendong Army has to take out some of the grain, but these famous landlords in the four counties and townships of Dengzhou, At this time, we also have to set an example and help those in need and those in need."

Zhang Hong was a little hesitant. In such a calamity year, borrowing food on behalf of the rich people, wouldn't this mean cutting their flesh? Who would be willing?

Li Zhendao: "Just go to Zhang Lushi, the other counties have their own plans."

When Zhang Hong left, Li Zhen smiled and said to Li Jing: "The Marquis of the county has done a good job these few times. The suppression of bandits will not only stabilize the peace of Dengzhou, but also shock the whole of Dengzhou, and even raise a sum of money and food. But now After suppressing the bandits and killing the heads, he turned around and began to release food to help the disaster. This is a blessing and a blessing. And now that the Marquis of the county asks to borrow food, I don't think anyone in Dengzhou will deliberately refuse it. "

Li Jing shook his head: "Killing is a last resort, but in the current situation, if you don't suppress it, you will kill it. Then under the current famine situation, the situation in Dengzhou will only get worse. People-oriented, what about uneasy people? It can develop. Disaster relief is even more necessary. Otherwise, if we kill this group today, it is estimated that another group will go up the mountain to become bandits tomorrow. The key point is to let the people have food first, even if they have a bowl of porridge first. .”

"But the famine is so serious right now, I'm afraid that even if we open warehouses to fight the disaster, the grain in the warehouse will actually be used up every year. Although we have some grain, except for Dengzhou, Daxie Island, Qingni, and Beisha There are still several 10 people in the two cities. No matter how much food there is, it will not be able to hold up to these 70 million mouths. The landlords will definitely be intimidated by the general’s power and take out some food, but it will never be too much " Guo Chengan said with some worry.Not to mention that the military reserve food cannot be moved, even if it can be moved, it will not last for too long.

"I've thought about this issue for a long time. The most important thing right now is to stabilize the situation in Dengzhou. We can't cause trouble just because Song Wen took the army away. We can't let the people in Dengzhou panic because of the famine. Become a refugee. Although the Zhendong Army is strong, if the people of our Dengzhou run away, then the Dengzhou we managed to get will be worthless."

Suppress the bandits and kill people first to establish their prestige, and then open warehouses to show favor to the disaster, these have to be done step by step.

(To be continued)