Annan followed the system of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with civilians leading the military. The Governor of Haiphong Province, Le Yu, was originally the chief envoy of Shanxi Province. After wiping out the local peasant armed forces in Annan, Xie Wenfeng, he was promoted to the Governor of Haiphong and managed the military affairs of Haiphong and Guang'an provinces.
defense.
Five days ago, Li Yu had just sent away a group of French missionaries when he saw one of his staff coming to pay him a visit.
"Sir, I have something important to report to you."
"If you have something to say, tell me quickly. I don't have time to listen to your nonsense!" Li Yu said with a bad face just after being offended by the French.
"I have received news that the Tang people's armed forces have been gathering in the Halong area in recent months. According to the investigation by my subordinates, the number of Tang people gathered in Halong has exceeded 10,000. The Tang people have gathered in large numbers. I am worried that they have other agendas," the staff said carefully.
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"Didn't the Tang people say hello half a month ago? They were hired by the American country of Brazil to recruit Tang people from Annan to work in South America. You know these things, so why is there such a fuss?"
Sun Bin bribed local officials in Annan, which naturally required a share of Li Yu's money. Li Yu accepted people's money to do things for them. Li Yu maintained his identity as a scholar and complied with the things he agreed to, so he was very dissatisfied with his staff disturbing him with this matter.
"Your Excellency is busy with affairs, and I don't dare to distract you with small matters. However, this group of Tang people is not as simple as merchants on the surface. Since the business leader arrived in Ha Long last month, he not only recruited Tang people's rebel forces, but also transported food and food through large ships.
Weapons and supplies were prepared to train the young men of the Tang Dynasty as soldiers. In less than a month, Sun Bin, the leader of the Tang Dynasty, had thousands of young men and more than a thousand muskets under his command.
Sir, the Tang people did not recruit people to train their troops, it was not the business of businessmen!"
"Are you telling the truth?"
"Everything I say in this humble position is true. If there is even half a lie, I would rather be dealt with by military law!"
The staff said what they meant.
"Okay, I feel pity for you and other Tang people who resisted the Tatars. I took the risk of offending the Manchu Tatars and kindly took you in. But you didn't know your good intentions and instead followed the villains with the intention of treason. It is really an unpardonable crime!"
Li Yu's face was livid, obviously stimulated by the news he heard, but his performance in the eyes of his staff was completely different. The rebels of the Tang Dynasty who fled into Annan were not the officials who kindly took them in, but defeated Annan who was encircling and suppressing them.
army, forcing the other party to acquiesce to the fact that the peasant army exists.
The staff did not uninterestedly remind the governor of the failure of the armed siege of Wu Yazhong last year, but followed his words and said: "The leader of the Tang Dynasty, Sun Bin, recruited troops and established a stronghold without authorization, with evil intentions. Your Excellency should immediately send out troops to attack and remove them for the country."
After annihilating the Tang people in this way, the Prince Consort of Hue will definitely appreciate your leadership of the army and recommend him to serve in the court."
Haiphong Province is an important gateway to northern Annam. After the signing of the first "Saigon Treaty", Haiphong was opened as a treaty port. Although Le Yu served as the governor of Haiphong, although he was prosperous on the surface, behind the scenes he had to face the French and the naturalized Christians of Annam.
Making the engine required a lot of effort and effort, and if he did not do it well, he would be reprimanded by the Hue court. Therefore, Le Thu did not want to stay in Haiphong and suffer the consequences, so he wrote to his benefactor Huang Jiyan many times, requesting to be transferred back to serve in the central government of the court.
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Huang Jiyan was in charge of the affairs of the northern province of Annam and did not have many officials with both civil and military skills. Therefore, he vetoed Le Yu's request and appeased him to stay in Haiphong to serve the country. He would be transferred back when the situation in the northern provinces stabilized.
Because of Huang Jiyan's words, Le Yu had to continue to stay in Haiphong Province, and now a group of non-Tang people were entrenched in Quang'an Province, which also brought worries to him when he saw the hope of returning to the imperial court.
Annan's domestic troops were lax and the soldiers' combat capabilities were low. During the battle with the French army, five to six thousand soldiers were often no match for the opponent's 200 troops.
Annan's army suffered repeated defeats and could not defeat the French. The remnants of the peasant army living in the territory could not even defeat the local rebel forces. In the end, they asked the Qing army to enter the customs and barely suppressed the domestic peasant uprising.
With such an army under his command, Le Yu was not very confident that he could defeat the Tang armed forces entrenched in Ha Long.
Seeing the hesitant look on his master's face, the staff felt that their opportunity had come, and hurriedly said: "Your Excellency, you can request the imperial court to send General Feng, the governor of Guangxi, to send troops to help encircle and suppress the Tang armed forces. In this way, the rebel forces in Ha Long area
You can catch them all in one fell swoop.”
"No, the last invitation to the Qing army to suppress bandits has aroused the dissatisfaction of the French. If we ask the Qing army to enter the country again to help, the French are afraid that they will tear up the Treaty of Saigon and attack the country and the DPRK in an all-out way."
Li Yu refused to invite the Qing army to enter. On the one hand, he was afraid of the attitude of the French, and on the other hand, he did not trust the Qing army. The Qing army inherited the Manchu Eight Banners system and would loot places every time they fought to boost the morale of the troops.
, so although the Qing army that entered Vietnam last time wiped out the rebel forces in Annan, the people in the places they passed suffered greatly, their property and livestock were robbed, and young women were brutally raped. When the Qing army withdrew into the country, Annan was robbed.
The people joined the absconding rebel forces, and the security situation in the northern provinces still did not improve. Inviting the Qing army to enter the pass was a double sword. Neither Le Thu nor the Hue court would choose this path unless it was a last resort.
Eliminating the option of Qing troops entering the country, there was only one way for Li Yu to rely on the power of the Annan army to encircle and suppress the Tang forces.
Le Yu was in charge of the coastal defense and Guang'an provincial armies. The number of soldiers he could deploy was about 10,000. Ten thousand people could fight against one or two thousand Tang people. In Le Yu's eyes, the outcome was a close win. If he wanted to achieve a greater victory rate, he needed to deploy more soldiers.
army.
After careful consideration, Le Yu decided to borrow troops from his colleague during the counter-rebellion, the current Governor of Hai Duong, Ruan Ke Thu, to quell the rebels. He had already made up his mind and said immediately: "I want to borrow 4,000 troops from the Governor of Hai Duong, Ruan Ke Thu. Yuan Jia will send them as soon as possible."
Someone will go down and make arrangements."
The staff persuaded Li Yu to send troops to exterminate Sun Bin's troops. Naturally, it was not for the sake of the Annan court. When he heard that Li Yu wanted to borrow troops from other officials, he did not bother to hide it and hurriedly said: "My lord, you must not do it. I heard that Sun Bin, the leader of the Tang Dynasty, must not do this.
Bin is as rich as anyone in the country, and he has a large amount of gold and silver stored in the Halong camp. If you ask Governor Hai Duong for help, will the gold and silver still fall into your hands?"
"Halong is it really true that there is a large amount of gold stored in Ha Long?" After hearing the word "gold", Le Yu lost his composure for a moment. In the golden age of antiques, gold was in troubled times, and the Hue court was suffering from internal and external troubles. It was the consensus of officials at all levels in Annam to make more money while they were in power.
Otherwise, Sun Bin would not have bribed officials of all sizes who lived in Guang'an so easily.
The staff member was a person close to Li Yu, and he also received bribes from Sun Bin. However, compared with ordinary officials, he was more greedy and wanted to rely on Li Yu's power to swallow up the money of Sun Bin and others.
The staff did not want more people to know that Sun Bin and others owned a large amount of gold and silver, so they immediately encouraged: "To be honest, sir, not long after the Tang Shang leader arrived in Halong, he discovered that something was wrong with them, so he specially warned a few people near Halong.
A petty official secretly watched. Three days ago, the Tang Dynasty fleet accidentally dropped a box while unloading, revealing the gold hidden inside. The Tang Dynasty man who was responsible for transporting the box at that time hurriedly asked people to put the gold away, but he was still arranged by his humble position.
people saw it.”
“If there is gold in one box, how can we tell that there is gold in other boxes too?”
"There are many gold hidden in other boxes. I don't know about this, but if you think about it carefully, your Excellency, the people of Tang Dynasty spent money to supply food and supplies for tens of thousands of people. They didn't feel bad at all for bribing officials with tens of thousands of taels of silver. Will they have less money?"
"
"What you said makes sense." Li Yu thought of the five hundred taels of gold kept in the back house of the Governor's Mansion. According to his understanding, it would cost so much gold to bribe him alone. There were dozens of officials, big and small, in Quang'an Province, and the total amount was the same.
No, Li Yu's eyes immediately lit up when he thought of the gold and silver shipped by big ships.
"This opportunity cannot be missed, and it will never come back. There are five to six thousand local patrol militia groups in Haiphong and Guang'an provinces. If they are recruited together, can a force of 17,000 people still defeat one or two thousand Tang rebels?"
The words of his staff greatly increased Le Yu's confidence, and he became more courageous when he thought of the yellow gold in the Halong camp.
"It is my duty to suppress the bandits and bring peace to the people. I have decided to personally lead the armies of the two provinces to wipe out the armed forces of the Tang Dynasty in Halong and restore peace to the people of Guang'an."
With huge wealth at hand, Li Yu felt it was worth taking some risks.
After making a decision, messengers carrying Li Yu's handwriting rushed to the army garrison in the two provinces to summon the army. On the other hand, Sun Bin, who was troubled by many things, did not expect that in order to avoid trouble, he bribed officials with extra money, which attracted prying eyes.
