Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

Just as Li Chang embarked on the road to finding Yang Mingzhao, Yang Mingzhao was busy seizing territory.

Last year, Yang Mingzhao led the Taiping Army to capture Baoning Mansion. This was originally just the Taiping Army's expansion plan, but it was like opening Pandora's box, causing the entire Bashu to fall into riots.

Just as the spring of this year began, the rebels in Bashu began to expand greatly.

First, the Nine Heavenly Kings captured the Wusau Mansion, Zhenxiong Mansion, and Wumeng Mansion. Then, the commander of the Shunan Dushima Commander Ma He invaded the Shunan Mansion, Dongchuan Mansion, and Mahu Mansion. Then the Black Tiger King was not willing to be lonely and directly occupied it. The largest prefecture in Bashu, Yuzhou Prefecture.

In addition, Yang Mingzhao, the Taiping King, the land of Bashu was eroded by the rebels from all directions.

Under such a situation, Yang Mingzhao naturally would not be idle. He also began to enter the stage of massive expansion, occupying Long'an Prefecture and Songpan Prefecture to the west, and sneaking into Shuzhou Prefecture, Tongchuan Prefecture and Shunqing Prefecture to the south.

In just half a year, Yang Mingzhao had occupied the four prefectures, the six prefectures and thirteen prefectures in Bashu Province were divided up by four rebels, and the prefectures and counties that the court could control were less than three prefectures.

At this time, the Sansi Yamen of Bashu was like a small beast surrounded by wolves. They could only hide in the tall and majestic Shuzhou City and shivered, not daring to leave the city at all.

In the lobby of Baoning Mansion.

At this time, Yang Mingzhao was having a meeting with several senior executives under his command.

However, due to the expansion of territory, many of his subordinates have been stationed in various places, with only a few civil officials and military generals left.

There are three people in the civil ministers, Ma Yan, Lu Wenchun and Qi Zhang, and there are three people in the military generals, Li Dagui, Chen Buyu and Li Baoshan.

"Young Master, you can't expand anymore. There are no more officials under our command. Now many officials are just candidates for filling in the gaps. We need time to cultivate more credible officials!" Ma Yan said.

Li Dagui nodded and said, "That's right, not only officials, but also soldiers. This year, our Taiping Army expanded from 3,000 to 30,000. Many of them were young and strong people who had just been recruited and had not even completed basic training!"

"We need time to purify military discipline and train soldiers, and we can no longer blindly expand!"

Li Wenchun stroked the horned beard and said, "Mr. Ma and General Li are right. We are in a pretty good situation now, so there is no need to continue to expand!"

"Now in our north is the Daliang army of the King of Daliang. They are expanding from Hanzhong Prefecture to the Shanhe Province. They will not think about entering the Bashu land in a short period of time!"

"The officials in Shuzhou Prefecture City in the south can only curl up in the city to protect themselves and fight back with their power."

"There is no threat to Kuizhou Prefecture in the east. The only threat is Anxi Town in the west. However, Anxi Town is also in a mess now, and I guess I can't take care of us now!"

To the west of Songpan Mansion is Anxi Town, one of the nine border towns in Darong. Although the nine border towns are divided into strengths and weaknesses, each border town has many elite soldiers and generals. Even Darong has now declined. It's not so good, the elite troops in the border town still have strong combat power.

Now the Taiping Army has occupied Songpan Mansion. If Anxi Town really intends to enter Bashu to suppress the rebellion, then Songpan Mansion is their must-pass place.

Therefore, Anxi Town is the biggest threat to the Taiping Army at this time and the direction that the Taiping Army needs to be most prepared for.

Although Yang Mingzhao is very confident in his strength, he has not yet arrogantly believed that the Taiping Army can resist a border town.

After hearing the words of several people, Yang Mingzhao agreed and said, "Then we will start to rectify the internal situation."

"First, build yamen at all levels in Songpan Mansion and Long'an Mansion, and start to clear the land of Zhangzhang and share the land for the people!"

"Then train the Taiping Army. Let's divide the Taiping Army into five battalions, front, back, left and right, middle and fifth battalions, training, adaptation, and garrisoning everywhere!"

"In the end, should we re-formulate the organizational structure of the Central Government?"

His Taiping Army is now a strait troupe, and the official positions and others are established according to Darong's official positions. The prefect, the prefect, the prefect, the county magistrate, the county magistrate, the chief clerk, the official, etc. are all Darong's one. They just arranged their own people to hold official positions.

In fact, there is no problem with these. As long as you can ensure that those who are officials are all their own people, Yang Mingzhao will be able to control the territory occupied by the Taiping Army.

But the problem is that their central government does not have a complete organizational structure.

Li Wenchun is the prefect of Baoning Prefecture. Li Dagui has 3,000 soldiers under his command to guard Baoning City, but there is no official position. Others just call him general, but what kind of general is he?

"What does the young master mean?" Li Dagui asked.

Yang Mingzhao smiled and said, "Set up six cabinet departments and build the Governor's Office. First, build the frame to ensure that our small court can operate normally!"

Although they only occupy the four prefectures now, it is time to establish a central agency.

Otherwise, the powers and powers of the superiors and subordinates are unknown, the ownership is unknown, and it is messy, and it is difficult to uniformly allocate and command.

As for the six ministers of the cabinet and the Governor's Office, Yang Mingzhao was too lazy to work hard and moved the team of Darong's court over.

The problem with Darong is not the organizational form of the central organization, but the officials who dare not take office.

Simply put, it is people who have no problems with the system, and there are problems to implement the system.

If Yang Mingzhao could really ascend the throne and become emperor, he might need to change the organizational structure of the central court, but he now occupies the four prefectures, so there is no need to be so troublesome. He just needs a small central court. As for the others, he can do it in the future Adjust slowly.

"Young Master is right. We do need a complete set of central institutions. However, I do not recommend using the names of the Cabinet, Six Ministries and the Governor's Office. If this is spread out, it will be too conspicuous."

"Why not establish a small court according to the regulations of the Three Departments?"

Li Wenchun suggested.

The Cabinet, Six Ministries, Six Departments, Five Temples, Governor's Office, etc., are all organizational structures that only the dynasty has. There is no benefit in using these official names now, but it will arouse the court's vigilance.

The current situation in Bashu is that the four rebels are encroaching on Bashu. The court has the same attitude towards the four rebels, but once they use the official names of the Cabinet and Six Ministries, the court will regard them as the number one enemy.

So these names cannot be used indiscriminately, and even Yang Mingzhao cannot be king now.

Yang Mingzhao has the title of King Taiping, but this title is more like the name of a bandit, not a real king title.

"Well, then we will set up the center according to the regulations of the three-division yamen!"

"The Provincial Administration Office is responsible for civil affairs. I will be the Provincial Administration Office. Lord Li, Lord Qi and Ma Yan will be the councilors. There will be a department under it to execute specific government orders!"

"The Dusi Yamen is responsible for managing the army. I will be the Duzhishi personally. There will be five camps of the Taiping Army under it to guard all sides."

"The Censorate, with Lu Bo as the Censor, will be in charge of judicial and supervisory affairs."

Obviously, this Sansi Yamen is different from the real Sansi Yamen, and it is not even the same thing.

This is actually more like the governor-general system of the border town, but the Censor is separated out to play the role of the Duchayuan and the Dali Temple.

But none of this is important. What is important is that in this way, Yang Mingzhao has his own central organization, no longer the previous makeshift team.

Everyone had no objection to this, and nodded in agreement with Yang Mingzhao's idea.

Then, Yang Mingzhao began to set up his own central organization, and he did not encounter any trouble in the process.

The Taiping Army is now a piece of white paper that has just been spread out, and Yang Mingzhao can write and draw on it at will.

Even if there is a problem, it will not cause too much problem, just need to correct it immediately.

As the saying goes, a small boat is easy to turn around. Now Yang Mingzhao and the Taiping Army are in the stage of trying to initially establish a court system, and also in the stage of laying the foundation for the future.

…

Yungui land.

Chen Hengchang of Jiujiang Prefecture is also expanding rapidly, but his expansion direction is not Bashu in the west, nor the west and south of Yungui, but the east of Yungui and the more easterly Jiangnan land.

With the support of Shenyang Sect, Chen Hengchang's expansion speed is extremely fast.

It has only been one and a half years since they started the army, and they have occupied the five prefectures in the east of Yungui, and are now ready to move towards Jiangnan.

Their expansion speed is much faster than Yang Mingzhao. Not only is the speed fast, but the goal is very clear.

The rich land of Jiangnan is their biggest goal in front of them.

Compared with Yang Mingzhao who was making trouble in the mountains, Chen Hengchang's ambition and confidence were undoubtedly greater.

Once Chen Hengchang occupied the land of Jiangnan, it was almost equivalent to taking away the most important source of tax revenue for the Darong court, giving the Darong court a fatal blow.

Therefore, the Darong court has taken Chen Hengchang's rebel army seriously and began to dispatch troops to encircle and suppress Chen Hengchang.

No mistake, one sentence, one post, one content, one 6, one 9, one book, one bar!

As early as three months ago, the court had ordered Yungui and Jiangnan to dispatch troops to encircle and suppress Chen Hengchang, and also ordered Nanjiang Town to send troops to attack Chen Hengchang from the south.

However, the results were somewhat unsatisfactory. The situation in Yungui and Jiangnan was similar to that in Bashu, and there were no soldiers to fight at all.

Even the situation in Jiangnan was more troublesome than that in Bashu.

The prosperity of Jiangnan was not the prosperity of the people of Jiangnan, but the prosperity of the gentry and nobles in Jiangnan.

In other words, the people in power in Jiangnan today are not officials at all levels of government, but those gentry and nobles.

If the imperial court wants to recruit soldiers from Jiangnan, it must first get the support of those gentry and nobles, but how can those gentry and nobles help the imperial court?

They are not afraid of chaos, because they think they have strong enough military force to protect themselves in the chaotic situation.

They don't care about the life and death of Bashu and Yungui at all, and many people even want to take advantage of the chaos in Bashu and Yungui to make a fortune.

So after Chen Hengchang started his army in Yungui, many merchants in Jiangnan began to transport various materials to Chen Hengchang. As long as they were given money, they were willing to sell everything to Chen Hengchang.

Salt, iron, grain, cloth, silk, weapons, etc., even population, as long as Chen Hengchang could come up with enough gold and silver, they could even sell the people of Jiangnan to Chen Hengchang.

Such a group of bad gentry and profiteers, do you still expect them to work for the imperial court?

Jiangnan is busy making war profits, while the southern and western parts of Yungui are in danger, and no one dares to take the initiative to take the lead in encircling and suppressing the rebels.

This is why Chen Hengchang's army was so powerful that conquering cities was as easy as eating and drinking.

As for Nanjiang Town, Xingguo Duke Qu Changkong was willing to lead the army into Yungui to wipe out the rebels, but the problem was that the Jinlong Dynasty in the south was also restless and was always thinking about taking a bite of Nanjiang Town.

Moreover, Nanjiang Town was quite far from the territory occupied by Chen Hengchang. If Qu Changkong wanted to attack Chen Hengchang, he would need to cross half of Nanjiang Town and half of Yungui Province.

This distance seems not far, but don't forget that it is Nanjiang Town and Yungui Province. At a glance, there are only mountains.

The difficulty of marching makes most people discouraged.

Qu Changkong did send out a town battalion, but it took a month for this 6,000-man town battalion to get out of Nanjiang Town, and then they could not move forward.

It was not that the soldiers did not want to move forward, but that they were running out of food and grass.

It was nonsense to supply food and grass from Nanjiang Town. Nanjiang Town was not rich to begin with, and the roads were rugged and difficult to travel, making it extremely difficult to transport food and grass.

According to Qu Changkong's idea, the soldiers of Nanjiang Town entered Yungui, and naturally the local government of Yungui would provide food and grass.

But what was the result?

The government at all levels in Yungui could do nothing except cry poor.

It took more than half a month to save up only half a month's worth of food for 6,000 soldiers.

How could they advance?

The speed of requisitioning food and grass was actually not as fast as the speed at which the soldiers consumed food and grass.

So in the end, the soldiers of Nanjiang Town could only stop at the junction of Nanjiang Town and Yungui, and did not dare to continue to march.

Qu Changkong was also very angry about this.

"This bunch of useless trash, if we had known this, we might as well not send troops to fight!"

In the Duke's Mansion, Qu Changkong said helplessly.

Qu Shaogong stood in front of him and sighed helplessly, "Grandfather, the court may not be able to hold on for much longer!"

Qu Changkong's expression was very complicated. The overthrow of Darong was now almost clearly laid out in front of the world.

Rebels rose up everywhere, and the court suppressed more and more.

The three provinces of Longyuan, Bashu, Yungui and other places have almost become the world of rebels, and many bandits have also appeared in Fuhai and Shanhe provinces.

The only place that is still peaceful is Liaodong, but Liaodong is located in the northeast of Darong. It is originally in a remote corner and cannot support other places at all.

There are also nine border towns, not to mention Chongshan Town. It is too far away and it is very inconvenient to mobilize troops. Moreover, the court is very afraid of Chongshan Town and dare not easily lead the elite troops of Chongshan Town into the hinterland of Darong.

There are Beiyuan Town, Longbei Town and Suzhou Town in the north, but these three towns have already encircled and suppressed bandits in the three provinces of Longyuan, and the results are not ideal.

In the west, there are Tingzhou Town, Anxi Town, and Wusi Town. These three border towns are weak to begin with, and they have to guard against foreign enemies. In addition, they are in a mess and have no ability to send troops.

In the south, there are Yunling Town and Nanjiang Town. The strength of these two towns is not weak, but Qu Changkong can't move at all, and the situation in Yunling Town is even worse.

Wuding Hou Guo Ying has been in charge of Yunling Town for 30 years. The entire Yunling Town has almost become the private land of the Guo family, and Guo Ying's intention to hold troops and be self-reliant is almost announced to the world.

If Chongshan Town belongs to the Yang family, then Yunling Town belongs to the Guo family.

The Yang family still has some face, at least they will not violate the orders of the court on the surface, but the Guo family has completely torn their faces and has long thrown the court into the clouds.

The governor and the eunuch guarding Yunling Town were driven back to Kyoto by the Guo family, which shows how clear the Guo family's thoughts are.