One day after the autumn harvest, Wu Shigong received a message from the yamen sent by the county magistrate Yu Zilian in the Qianhusuo fortress: Wu Shigong was asked to go to the county yamen to discuss matters.
After learning that Yu Zilian had become the county magistrate, Wu Shigong and Yu Zilian acted as if the other didn't exist and stayed away from each other until death. Neither one wanted to cause trouble in their hearts.
But this time Yu Zilian took the initiative to send someone to find Wu Shigong, and he sent someone from the county government instead of the boy next to Yu Zilian, so there must be official business to discuss. Wu Shigong didn't dare to neglect, and quickly put on his official clothes.
He wore a robe, accompanied by guards, and followed the yamen servant to the county government office.
But as soon as they met, Yu Zilian had no nonsense with Wu Shigong at all. He threw an official document to Wu Shigong and said: "Wu Qianhu will do things well according to the requirements of the official document." Then he turned around and went inside.
Don left.
Wu Shigong opened the official document and took a look. It was an official document jointly issued by the Henan Governor's Yamen and the Guide Mansion Yamen to the local guards and garrisons. The content of the official document probably means: In view of the rebellion of the Holy Spirit Society, the scattered mobs
Many fallen grassroots have turned into bandits, resulting in rampant banditry. Therefore, various guard posts and garrisons are required to conduct joint operations to suppress bandits in their own defense areas this winter.
After reading the content of this official document, Wu Shigong cursed in his heart: A large part of his current income is the cost of escorting the caravan. If all the bandits are wiped out, then there will be no one to hire him to escort the caravan.
Team. I finally managed to balance my income and expenditure, but I didn't expect that such a monster would appear again.
However, bandits were rampant and the government ordered them to be eradicated. This was a very reasonable and normal order, and it was impossible for him to disobey it. Therefore, Wu Shigong decided to go back and discuss with some people to see if there was any good way to disobey it.
After returning to Qianhusuo Fortress, Wu Shigong summoned all his main leaders and asked everyone to work together to come up with a good solution.
Zhang Xuebin first said: "My boss, in fact, there is no need to worry too much about this matter. Although the official document said that it is a joint suppression of bandits, the students think it is still the same as before, everyone is doing it alone. The boss wants to wipe out the county.
They are just bandits. However, there are not many bandits in this county on the two routes where the master escorts the caravan. Those bandits are all in the defense areas of other military attaches. Over the years, their military attaches have not wiped out these bandits.
Bandits, this eradication will definitely have no effect."
After listening to Zhang Xuebin's words, Wu Shigong nodded and felt a little relieved. What Zhang Xuebin said is indeed true. In view of Wu Shigong's reputation, there are actually no bandits who dare to stay and rob near Qianhusuo Fortress. This county
Those bandits are basically in some areas on the edge of the county.
Then Deng Qifan came up with another idea: "Sir, the student here has an idea. Since you want to suppress the bandits, then go to suppress the bandits with great fanfare. As long as you let the news of the suppression of bandits out, those bandits will also have legs, and they will definitely
They will be busy escaping. When the time comes, you can just go out and walk around, which can be regarded as taking care of your errands. And those bandits will not be business as usual after you come back. This is to raise the bandits' self-respect!"
Wu Shigong nodded even more after hearing this. Deng Qifan's idea was even better. It's true that one person is short-term and two people are long-term! That's it. So Wu Shigong immediately asked Zhang Xuebin to write two official documents and sent them to the county magistrate Yu Zilian respectively.
And Guidewei commander Zhao Ming is here.
In the official document, Wu Shigong wrote in detail that he would carry out the anti-bandit operation in the county one month later, that is, on November 6th. Moreover, in the official document, Wu Shigong also detailed his marching route and plan to suppress bandits.
Everything was explained clearly. In addition, Wu Shigong also sent people to the county town to post notices, announcing that he was going to suppress the bandits.
Wu Shigong didn't believe it: Don't those bandits have any informants in the government and the county? They will definitely get the news of their own suppression of bandits. Some bandits with great supernatural powers can even get their own marching routes and actions from the government
plan.
At that time, these bandits can survive as long as they avoid their own troops. Wu Shigong also conducted an armed march, which can be regarded as executing the order of the superior government to suppress the bandits.
But Wu Shigong never expected that the notices he posted in the county would bring Wu Shigong a lot of trouble. Because these notices were written according to the public format of the Ming Dynasty's bandit suppression notices, the approximate content of the notices is
:
First of all, of course, he reprimanded the bandits for their evil deeds in a high-sounding manner, and then allowed these bandits to return from their lost ways and accept the imperial court's recruitment. The imperial court would also ignore the crimes they had committed before. Otherwise, the imperial court would send a large army to rescue these bandits.
The bandit struck with thunder and so on.
Originally, Wu Shigong and others thought that there should be no problem with the official articles in the notice. However, they did not expect that it was this notice that shocked the bandits who knew the contents of the notice and caused a huge response.
This starts with the composition of bandits in the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, bandits were generally divided into three types: one was the semi-bandit who usually worked as a farmer and was a bandit in his spare time. Most of these bandits were actually local tyrants and evil gentry.
Those who support them cannot be said to be real bandits. Of course, it is not easy to find these bandits among the common people.
The second type is horse bandits. Horse bandits are bandits who roam around and commit crimes. In order to maintain their mobility, they usually have horses. However, in Henan, the hinterland of the Central Plains, horse bandits have no fixed place to rest and no fixed point to sell stolen goods.
Selling stolen goods. In addition, Henan, the hinterland of the Central Plains, is dotted with cities and large armies. Therefore, the number of horse bandits in Henan is relatively small, and their misfortunes are relatively miserable.
The third type is bandits who have built strongholds in remote mountains. Those bandits are basically composed of refugees who have fled and those who are escaping from royal taxes and corvees. Therefore, these bandits often live in these villages.
A family of young and old.
In addition to part of the bandits' income coming from robbery, a large part of their income is actually obtained from cultivating land in the mountains and growing food.
It can be seen from this that, leaving aside the first type of semi-bandit, the lives of the latter two types of bandits are actually not easy.
In addition, in the current drought year, the bandits have basically failed to harvest any grain. Therefore, how to spend this winter has become a problem for these bandits.
But now Wu Shigong's notice points out a way for these bandits. These bandits are also very well-informed. These bandits also know the bravery of Wu Shigong's army. Let them directly resist Wu Shigong's army. These bandits
I definitely wouldn’t dare.
However, these bandits also found out that Wu Shigong was really good to the captured rogues. He took these rogues as domestic slaves and kept them fed and clothed. Moreover, although Wu Shigong, a thousand-year-old family, was vicious, he never
Judging from the rumors, this Qianhu is also very reasonable and trustworthy.
Now that Wu Shigong has offered to recruit these bandits, why not give it a try? No matter how bad it is, it is better than starving to death this winter. There are also some bandit leaders who are smart and think that after joining Wu Shigong,
Depending on your abilities, you might be able to earn an official position, and that would also bring glory to your ancestors!
So a few days after Wu Shigong's notice was posted, a group of more than a dozen horse bandits came to Wu Shigong's Qianhusuo fortress to surrender. At this time, Wu Shigong was quite happy to see the horse bandits coming to surrender. He was very happy on the spot.
They were recruited, incorporated into the cavalry, and given 50% of their military pay.
Moreover, Wu Shigong also promised these dozen horse bandits: as long as these horse bandits pass the assessment in a few months, they will enjoy all the benefits of soldiers.
Wu Shigong's move inadvertently played the role of worth a thousand pieces of gold and horse bones, and immediately caused a huge sensation in the local bandit community.
Then more and more bandit envoys came to Wu Shigong to contact him for recruitment. At first, Wu Shigong accepted them all, but gradually, Wu Shigong realized that something was wrong. In just a few days, Wu Shigong discovered that the bandits he had recruited were
There are more than 1,000 people with their families.
Raising more than a thousand people would be a big expense for Wu Shigong! So Wu Shigong began to raise the standards: it was stipulated that the bandits who accepted the recruitment must bring a horse. Wu Shigong also accepted the four family members of the horse-bringing bandit as his family.
slave.
This regulation caused a rapid increase in the incidence of horse theft and robbery cases nearby, and the prices of horses in several nearby mule and horse markets also skyrocketed. There was still an endless stream of bandits surrendering to Qianhusuo Fortress.
At this time, Wu Shigong was surprised to find that he had not yet sent out troops, and all the bandits in his county area would be recruited by him. This would not work. Wu Shigong also had to keep some bandits to ensure that he could collect the escort fees for escorting the caravan.
Woolen cloth.
So Wu Shigong came to an emergency stop. He registered all the bandits who would come to accept recruitment and promised them that in the next few years, he would gradually arrange for them to accept recruitment.
Moreover, Wu Shigong also gave these bandits some food according to their population in the village to ensure that the people in the village would not starve to death. During this farce of suppressing bandits, Wu Shigong just sat at home and relaxed.
Done.
During this recruitment process, Wu Shigong recruited a total of more than 400 bandits with horses (these bandits with horses may not necessarily be able to ride horses), and also accepted more than 1,800 family members of the bandits as his domestic slaves. In
Among these family members, there were between five and six hundred young men. Wu Shigong also gave more than 1,800 shi of food to the bandits who had not yet been recruited.
In addition, almost all the bandits in Wu Shigong's county offered to surrender to Wu Shigong. It can be said that Wu Shigong used his own food to complete his anti-bandit operation. Of course, for Wu Shigong, it is not enough to support him so much.
If there are many people, they will definitely increase their expenses. Now Wu Shigong has another deficit on his account.
After doing all this, Wu Shigong finally breathed a sigh of relief. But before Wu Shigong could take a breath, the bandits from the nearby counties also came to surrender to Wu Shigong after receiving the news that Wu Shigong was recruiting troops.