I

  Chapter 196 194【Going south to Ganzhou】

   Chongzhen ninth year, May.

  Datong Army captured Yichun, Pingxiang, and Yongxin counties, and the leader of the thieves, Sweeping Diwang, and Nine-headed Bird were defeated. The head of the bandit fled to Wanzai County to wreak havoc. The bandit leader suppressed the mountain tiger and fled to Chaling County to wreak havoc.

   In addition, Yongning County, which is partial and poor, was picked for nothing.

  The troops stationed in the four newly occupied counties have been very busy this year, because many scattered bandits have fled into the mountains, and they have to organize repeated bandit suppression operations to eliminate them.

  Administrative divisions are adjusted again—

  Ji'an Prefecture: Luling, Jishui, Anfu, Taihe, Yongxin, Yongning, Yongfeng, Wan'an, Longquan.

  Linjiang Mansion: Qingjiang, Xingan, Xiajiang, Xinyu, Fengcheng.

  Yuanzhou Prefecture: Yichun, Fenyi, Pingxiang.

  Ouyang Zheng was the prefect of Ji'an, Yuan Yunlong (niece married to Fei Ruhe) was the prefect of Linjiang, and Liu Ziren (a poor scholar in Qianshan) was the prefect of Yuanzhou.

  Fei Yuanjian was transferred to the magistrate of Jishui County, and the Fang brothers who donated soil to him served as county magistrates in Yongxin and Xiajiang respectively.

  Even Huang Shunde and Liu Fang, who were transferred from the General Military Mansion because of their marriage to a rich family, were promoted to magistrates in poor counties because they did not make mistakes in follow-up work.

  The old brothers will not be treated badly, and the newcomers who work hard will not be treated badly. Zhao Han is both polite and nostalgic.

  In addition, regarding the township level yamen, the rules are also completely determined. In the future, there will be no reduction of town-level yamen, six towns will be set up in large counties, four to five towns in middle counties, and three towns in small counties.

  The imperial court.

  Baoding Governor Zhang Qiping was transferred to be the Governor of Huguang South Road. He took up his post in mid-May and recruited troops to assist Jiangxi in suppressing bandits.

  Governor Zhu Xieyuan of the five southern provinces, in view of the situation of all parties, ordered Zhang Qiping to train troops as soon as possible, and agreed to attack the Luling Zhao bandits together after the autumn harvest.

   At most, it could be delayed until the autumn harvest. Fujian officers and soldiers were about to explode, and began to disregard Zou Weilian's military orders and plundered the surrounding towns of Ganzhou Prefecture privately. Zou Weilian could only punish him with small punishments, and did not dare to kill people to gain power, otherwise it would easily lead to a mutiny.

   Just this year, a mutiny broke out in Ningxia.

  Zu Dashou's younger brother Zu Dabi, nicknamed "Zu Er Crazy", was transferred to the general army of Ningxia last year. This guy was greedy for ink as always, and the governor was unable to raise enough military pay, and the frontier army could not survive at all, so he made a fuss about paying and killed Ningxia governor Wang Ji.

  At the same time, Huang Taiji began to reform the internal affairs and set up three internal institutes: the Institute of Internal History, the Institute of Internal Secretaries, and the Institute of Neihongwen.

  After the completion of the reform of the inner three courts, Huang Taiji ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, changed the Yuan to "Chongde", changed the country's name to "Daqing", changed the family name to "Manchuria", established its capital in Shenyang, and honored it as "Kuanwen Rensheng Emperor". Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and Shang Kexi were all crowned kings.

  The enthronement ceremony lasted for more than 20 days, and the Ming system was completely copied.

   After ascending the throne, Huang Taiji immediately sent 100,000 troops to enter Xifengkou and Dushikou in three routes.

  Daming patrol censor Wang Zhaokun was killed, and the Manchu and Qing troops invaded Juyong and Changping North Road. Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Datong, rushed to help, and beheaded more than a thousand soldiers of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.

  The Qing army fought all the way to Liangxiang and Shunyi, which later became Fangshan District and Shunyi District in Beijing.

  The capital is under martial law.

  Lu Xiangsheng was promoted to the premiership of the seven provinces, defeating Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng. Just waiting to take advantage of the victory to encircle and suppress the rogues, they were suddenly transferred to the capital to defend against the Manchus, and the rogues who were beaten all over the place had a chance to breathe again.

  Due to the problem of military pay in various places, and the Manchu and Qing ravages in Gyeonggi, many troops began to make troubles about pay, and Chongzhen became more and more dissatisfied with the Minister of the Ministry of Households, Hou Xun.

  The first assistant, Wen Tiren, observed the holy will and began to arrange for his party members to impeach Hou Xun.

   Whenever the Tartars retreat, Hou Xun, the Minister of the Household Department, will be imprisoned at any time!

  By the way, Zhu Yujian, king of the Tang Dynasty, rose up to serve as king and was deposed as a commoner...

  …

   "Wang Ting tried to hedge his bet." Zhao Han took out a translation of the secret letter.

  Pang Chunlai looked closely for a while, and then passed the secret letter to Li Banghua.

   After reading the content, Li Banghua said with a smile: "There is a capable governor, of course he will not give us his whole heart."

   "This internal response will be of some use in the future, but it must not be relied on." Pang Chunlai said.

  Wang Ting tried this old thing and saw that Li Maofang was a jerk, so he ran to join Zhao Han. Now that Zhu Xieyuan is here, and he is especially valued, this guy has started to actively work for the government again.

   Hedge your bet, neither side will take offense.

  If Zhao Han wins, he is a hero from Conglong; if Zhu Xieyuan wins, he may resume his career as a court official.

  He wants to take advantage of everything, he is daydreaming!

   Li Feng came to a merchant, and everyone knew that he sent his son as a hostage. The scholars who came from Nanchang and Fengcheng also arrested the general soldier Yang Jiamo halfway to make a certificate of honor.

  Only the Wang Tingshi did not say anything, and he was timid in doing things and refused to fight.

  Pang Chunlai suddenly said: "Yang Jiamo has raised it for half a year, and he has spent a lot of rice. It's time to cut it down."

   Li Banghua shook his head and said: "It's useless, this kind of trick can't possibly anger Zhu Xieyuan."

   "Whether it's useful or not, let's cut it off." Pang Chunlai laughed.

Zhao Han suddenly said: "Judging from the information, Zhu Xieyuan's character is extremely cautious. Sending Yang Jiamo's head will not provoke him to send troops, but he will feel that this is our strategy to provoke the generals. He must stick to Nanchang to train troops. fight."

   "Dragging it on, our army has the upper hand." Li Banghua said.

  Although both sides are developing, Zhao Han is obviously developing faster, especially the production of ordnance and equipment.

  According to the information sent by Xu Ying, the Nanchang Weapons Institute is also expanding its scale, but in terms of scale and production efficiency, it is far inferior to the rebels.

"If we drag it on, we will definitely win, but it's not a problem to be surrounded by officers and soldiers all the time," Zhao Han said with a smile, "I mean, sending Yang Jiamo's head will scare Zhu Xieyuan to practice in Nanchang honestly. Let's take the opportunity to send troops to Ganzhou Let’s deal with the Fujian soldiers there first.”

Li Banghua resolutely opposed: "I do not agree to send troops to Ganzhou. Wan'an is a dangerous place. Our army only needs to station a small number of soldiers in Wan'an County to stop tens of thousands of officers and soldiers. After capturing Ganzhou, we have to send more troops. Garrison to guard against officers and soldiers from Guangdong and Guangxi who may come back at any time."

Pang Chunlai echoed: "I agree with Mr. Meng An's opinion. The most beneficial strategy for our army is to defend Wan'an, Pingxiang, and Yongxin with a small number of troops, and use the mountains and rivers to block the officers and soldiers of Guangdong, Fujian, and Huguang. In this way, You can calmly mobilize the main force and lure the Jiangxi officers and soldiers in Nanchang to fight a decisive battle!"

Li Banghua continued: "I understand Chongzhen's character. He allows the local governor to delay time, even two or three years, as long as the situation does not continue to deteriorate. However, Chongzhen does not allow the governor to be defeated and the situation to continue to deteriorate. I The army only needs to defeat Zhu Xieyuan once, and the governor probably will lose his position."

   "Once Zhu Xieyuan is replaced, how can the court send a powerful person to be the governor?" Pang Chunlai laughed, "At that time, everything will be alive."

  Zhao Han shook his head and sighed. It is now the ninth year of Chongzhen. If the original historical process is followed, Chongzhen will hang himself in eight years.

   And myself, still nestled in Jiangxi, how can I have time to slowly dawdle with Zhu Xieyuan?

Zhao Han said: "We are fighting for the world. We cannot rely on the emperor's stupidity and incompetence. Zhu Xieyuan will stand still for a short period of time, and if he moves, he will be attacked from three sides. We have to take the initiative and defeat all the officers and soldiers first! The rumors that started spreading last year will definitely take half a year. It has been fermented, the Fujian army is chaotic and the generals are not in harmony, we should take the opportunity to win a battle!"

  Pang Chunlai and Li Banghua looked at each other with helpless expressions.

  They chose the safest method, Zhao Han chose to take risks, and the real caller can only be Zhao Han.

  With Zhao Han's personality, once a decision is made, no amount of persuasion by others will help.

   A few days later, Nanchang City Gate.

  A **** human head was placed in the middle of the road outside the door, with a strip of paper on it. Letter: A small gift is not a respect, please accept it with a smile.

   Someone soon recognized that this was the head of Yang Jiamo, the former general of Jiangxi.

  Nanchang officials and soldiers were shocked, and the whole city was under martial law, thinking that Zhao Han was going to lead troops to fight.

Zhu Xieyuan reassured the crowd and said: "Zhao thief did not dare to attack Nanchang by force, and intended to provoke me to send troops to a decisive battle. The governor will naturally send troops, but at this time the training of troops has not been completed, and the officers and soldiers on Huguang South Road have just begun to recruit. Don't worry, gentlemen, wait until the time comes. If you are mature, you will definitely go all three ways to encircle and suppress the Zhao bandits with a thunderbolt!"

   Immediately, Zhu Xieyuan restrained the generals from crossing the border to plunder Fengcheng County, and at the same time sent spies to observe the movements of the rebels.

   Soon he got the news that Zhao Han sent the navy to the south with great fanfare, and the Datong soldiers in Fengcheng and Qingjiang counties disappeared instead, and it seemed that they were all transferred to fight Ganzhou.

   This made Zhu Xieyuan suspicious. He didn't know whether Zhao Han was deliberately luring him to send troops, or whether he was really concentrating on fighting Ganzhou.

  Have both!

  Zhao Han is transporting troops to Wan'an County to assemble, but the troops in the northern counties have not moved, and they can recruit farmers and soldiers to fight at any time.

  If Zhu Xieyuan does not move, Zhao Han will go to fight the Fujian soldiers in Ganzhou.

  If Zhu Xieyuan dared to send troops, Zhao Han immediately ordered the navy to return, recruit farmers and soldiers from the northern counties, and cooperate with the regular army to fight a decisive battle with the government!

   This is actually a conspiracy, and Zhu Xieyuan quickly figured it out. Zhao thief was forcing him to make some kind of difficult decision due to the lack of preparation of officers and soldiers.

  Zhu Xieyuan chose to continue his military training. He could only trust Zou Weilian to be able to defend Ganzhou City undefeated.

  The city of Ganzhou is majestic and strong. Of course, it is impossible for Zhao Han to attack by force, and he didn't even think about taking it down. Taking down Ganzhou will not be conducive to defending the southern territory.

  Zhao Han continued to transport troops and food, camped at the foot of Egong Mountain in Ganzhou Prefecture, and faced Ganzhou City across the river.

  Zou Weilian quickly took the main force of the Fujian army back into Ganzhou City. It's not that he didn't do nothing, he has already built hundreds of small sampans, and he didn't even bother to brush the tung oil. They were all one-off fire attack ships.

   Once the right opportunity is found, Zhao Han's sailors will be burned to the ground!

  As for the father-in-law, Fei Yinghuan, he went to Fujian last winter. As the magistrate of Fujian, it is impossible for him to stay in Jiangxi forever, otherwise Zou Weilian would be suspicious.

  The strange thing is that after Zhao Han came to Ganzhou, the navy and army didn't move much.

   Instead, they brought a large number of backbone peasant associations, and under the protection of a small group of troops, went deep into the countryside to form local peasant associations. There is no rush to divide the land for the time being, because there are not enough grassroots officials. We just set up farmers' associations to resist rent and taxes, and at the same time help local farmers train farmers and soldiers.

  (end of this chapter)