In Huating, the capital city, Su Song Governor Shen Youlong and Chen Zilong welcomed the envoys to supervise the country and respectfully received the imperial edict.
"Really withdraw?" Xia Yunyi hesitated.
Chen Zilong, the Supervisor of Su Song, gritted his teeth, "The purpose of the Supervisor is clear. If you save the land and lose the people, you will lose both the people and the land. If you save the people and lose the land, you will save both the people and the land. This uprising, we have quickly recovered the entire territory of Songjiang, and we have met our expectations. We will punish them." Traitors kill traitors and punish false officials. Now that the main force of the Tatars is passing through the border, it is right for us to avoid the spotlight for the time being."
"Is it true that we can't defend it? Our situation is very good now. Su Song only has one Suzhou city left in the hands of the prisoners, and they can capture it in a blink of an eye."
After all, Shen Youlong has served as governor several times and has a good view of the overall situation.
"Nearly 100,000 people from Boluo returned north. After all, we are an incipient rebel army. We are short of soldiers and weapons, so we cannot confront them head-on. We temporarily withdrew from the county town and dispersed to the countryside. We also took the opportunity to reorganize our troops. What His Highness said is that there are not many soldiers but good ones. Moreover, when we go to the countryside, we can still control the place. We should hurry up and train our troops, build ordnance, and obey the will of the supervising country."
"I have done everything I need to do before withdrawing."
What Shen Youlong said should be done was to purge the fake officials appointed by the Qing Dynasty and the evil gentry and traitors who took the initiative to surrender to the captives, especially those local fake and evil gentry who led the way to the captives. These people must be suppressed.
Otherwise, when the Tatars come, they will definitely lead a crazy team to retaliate. Suppress them, eliminate future troubles, and also raise some military expenses.
"The Supervisory State hopes that we will withdraw from the county and go to the countryside to reorganize our troops. On the Songjiang side, the Governor-General has 3,000 people, and the Supervisory Army Road and the Military Preparation Road have 1,000 people each. There is also one member of the guard general and the town's standard. Three thousand, one deputy general, two staff generals, and four guerrillas, each with one thousand men, for a total of fifteen thousand troops. The rest of the volunteer rural soldiers will be organized into the rural heroic militia."
"The fighting soldiers are given food and wages, and they specialize in fighting and defending. The village brave militia does not take off work. They train during slack farming periods and provide logistical support during wartime. If they are called up, they will be given food subsidies."
"Everyone who has made meritorious service shall be rewarded, and anyone who is killed or disabled in battle shall be compensated."
Songjiang Prefecture revolted this time and regained the whole territory. There were rebels everywhere in Wuyangyang. They probably numbered less than a hundred thousand in total. It was really too chaotic to have so many people.
Zhu Yihai hoped that Shen Youlong and the others would take the opportunity to reorganize and form a real fighting force.
"The various departments dispersed into the countryside and established camps in the dangerous lakes, seas and mountains. The villages were registered as households and married, and the news was smooth."
"Also, this time the Boluo army is crossing the border, try to avoid lurking and don't provoke them to attack. Let's wait for a while and wait until they leave."
Everyone was silent. Although they felt that this decree made everyone feel a little aggrieved. After all, we only had a small army of 100,000 rebels, but when we thought about the 30,000 people in Jiaxing before, they were defeated by others, and they had no confidence.
The strategic plan of the Supervisor State is very clear. Before the main Tatar force passes by, they will first plow Su Song, beat what should be beaten, and copy what should be copied. Then they will temporarily abandon the towns, return to the countryside, and build up a mountain in the mountains, lakes and islands. Establish a base on.
After the Tatars leave, everyone will be a good man again. When the time is right, that is, when the soldiers and horses are truly trained, we will then come back to the real showdown with the Tatars.
"Did Jian Guo lead his army to Suzhou?"
"Well, this time the supervisor plans to capture Suzhou and then rescue Chongming. The supervisor hopes to persuade King Yiyang to abdicate and return to the vassal in person, so that our two families can become one family and fight against the captors together," said the messenger Huang Zongyan.
"Well, it is a wise act for the supervisor to come to the rescue at this time."
"We in Songjiang can still gather some troops. Please let me lead a team to reinforce His Royal Highness." Shen Youlong suggested.
However, Huang Zongyan said, "The Supervisory State has already issued a decree for you to stay here. In addition, there will be several troops coming from Jiaxing soon, such as Haiyan Deputy Chief Zheng Jiwu, Jiashan Counselor Wang Youqian and other Green Camps. Let's go there Just put on a show and let them defeat us, and then seize the cities."
The hall was filled with senior civil and military officials from Songjiang, and there were no outsiders. Huang Zongyan then dictated the secret decree of supervising the country. Zheng Jiwu, Wang Youqian, etc. were actually his own people. "Does Shen Butang have such a suitable general?" How powerful? Can you arrange for a surrender?"
Shen Youlong was really stunned for a moment. He didn't expect that the supervisors were having such a fun time. Only then did he realize that all kinds of miscellaneous intelligence from Jiaxing always said that the Qing captives were ferocious and powerful. Turns out that was the truth.
"Under my command are Shen Pan, Xie Mingyu, and eighteen other righteous generals."
Shen Pan was originally a son of a declining official, originally from Wucheng. He met the Huzhou boxer Xie Mingyu in Songjiang, and later met Ru Shiba. The three of them became sworn brothers in Jinlan. When the Tatars went south, Susong officials surrendered one after another, and the three of them gathered their companions Bai Bai. The remaining people resisted the Tatars and massacred the puppets, and soon received a response from many fishermen and boatmen, with more than a thousand people and more than 70 boats.
Later, Shen Youlong sent people to appease him in handwriting, and he recognized the great righteousness and responded, so he worshiped Shen Pan as a guerrilla, and Xie Mingyu and Ru Shiba were both made capital officials.
"Can the loyalty of these three people be trusted?" Huang Zongyan asked.
"He is a loyal and righteous man." Shen Youlong replied.
"Well, please quickly invite the strong men to come and meet us. If they are willing to shave their heads and pretend to surrender, then they can be a covert chess piece."
Shen Youlong asked three people to come in and meet the envoy of the country.
Huang Zongyan explained the situation.
The three of them, Shen and Pan, were hesitant. At first they were unwilling to cut off their hair and submit to the captives, so they gathered a crowd to revolt, gathered in Taihu Lake, and went out in all directions to fight against the puppet officials and traitorous landlords who surrendered, and even robbed and killed them. Tatar messenger cavalry.
The three of them all had their heads wrapped in red scarves at this time. They were all tall and strong, and they were all forthright men.
"I think Guan Yunchang also temporarily surrendered to Cao Ying back then, but he was in Cao Ying and his heart was with the Han Dynasty. Now in order to restore Zhongxing, he temporarily shaved his head and changed his clothes. It was a temporary expedient."
Ru Shiba and Xie Mingyu were still hesitant, but Shen Pan, who had studied before, handed over his hand and said, "For the sake of the country, I am willing to shave my head."
"Can you just shave off all your hair and leave no braids? Tartar's braids are too ugly." Ru Shiba shouted.
Shen Pan said, "You can shave it off if you want. We can keep our hair braided. It doesn't matter if one of us is missing."
Huang Zongyan then took out a few blank petitions, filled in his name and position in public, awarded Shen Pansongjiang the deputy general of the town, awarded Ru Shiba and Xie Mingyu the rank of guerrilla general, and gave each of the three people a hundred households that could be inherited by their descendants. World position edict.
"What the three generals have to do is actually very simple. They are to shave their heads and surrender to the Qing Dynasty. This is of course a false surrender. After the surrender, you will still be assigned to guard Songjiang and other places. You may even guard Songjiang Prefecture and further be granted a general military command. It’s possible.”
"Although we come from a rough background, we have always known loyalty. Even if we shave our heads and change clothes, we will still be absolutely loyal to the Ming Dynasty and loyal to the supervision of the country."
Huang Zongyan, on behalf of the Supervisor State, finally discussed several points with Shen Youlong, Chen Zilong and other leaders of the Songjiang Rebel Army. The main point was to withdraw from the prefectures and counties. This did not mean that they would disband their troops and stop fighting against the prisoners, but that they would temporarily avoid the edge and change the way of fighting.
First, according to the requirements of the supervising country, these 15,000 soldiers should be integrated and trained. Then the township should organize order, the lijin bureau should be established, the lijin should be collected, the people should resume agriculture, and the craftsmen and merchants should be restored. We must also resume business and industry. We cannot let everyone's lives be turbulent. Life must go on.
In other words, for the next period of time, the main tasks of Shen Youlong and others are to appease the local area, train soldiers and horses, and leave the war to the Northern Expeditionary Army led by the Supervisor.
"The Supervisor hopes that you can take on the task of building ordnance and supplying food and grass. Don't worry, the Supervisor will send you money and even iron materials. What you need is to recruit craftsmen and organize civilians to build it in a hurry to support the army. "
Shen Youlong was still a little surprised by Zhu Yihai's arrangement. We really didn't need them in this Suzhou battle. Wouldn't the more soldiers the better?
"The Jianguo side really doesn't need our support from Songjiang?"
"Don't worry, there are only a thousand captives in Suzhou now, and the imperial camp is enough."
After Huang Zongyan left, Shen Youlong immediately began to make arrangements for his retreat.
"My son, you are responsible for leading people to eliminate these fake officials and traitors in the city first."
Chen Zilong nodded. This big boss of Fushe was also the first poet in the Ming Dynasty, whose name was Wanyue Ci. He was the leader of the Yunjian Ci School. At this time, the scholar was carrying a sword, and he was also very determined.
In the previous struggle, he had seen many former teachers, students, friends and even relatives, and now each was fighting fiercely for his own master. For the faith and loyalty in his heart, he also yearned to become a great patriotic poet like Xin Qiji.
"Kill those who deserve to be killed, don't be merciful, just kill the traitors, don't involve their families too much, just take their family property and confiscate it to support the army, and finally leave them some food to live on."
"I understand." Chen Zilong understood the cruelty of this sentence. With the anti-traitor order, many false officials, traitors, etc. in the entire Songjiang prefecture and counties will be liquidated.
Even if they are forced to surrender and surrender, they will definitely have to be persuaded to pay.
Fortunately, this time Zhu Yihai specially asked Huang Zongyan to remind everyone that those who were forced to surrender can only be regarded as refugees, so there is no need to embarrass them too much, especially the people who were forced to shave their heads, and they should not be treated as refugees just because they have no hair. Traitors were liquidated and executed.
As long as they don't lead the way, don't do evil, and don't attack the Ming army, then these people are just poor refugees and need to be treated with consideration.
Only those who actively defected to the Tatars, led them, and took the lead in attacking the loyal ministers and martyrs of the Ming Dynasty were traitors and lackeys. In addition, those rogue and local bullies who took advantage of the situation will also be eliminated.
Shen Youlong sent Chen Zilong away and began to find some craftsmen to inquire about the cost of making ordnance.
The craftsmen told the truth, "Iron-headed wooden sticks cost six and a half cents each."
"A javelin with a wooden handle costs one cent and eight cents. If you replace it with a javelin made of bamboo, it only costs six cents."
"A spear with hook and sickle is nine cents of silver, and a sword is worth seven cents each."
None of the old craftsmen dared to quote randomly.
Shen Ruru was not very interested in these bamboo guns and wooden sticks, "Can you make guns, cannons, and armor?"
"It's possible, but there's a lack of craftsmen and there's no output."
"What about the cost?"
"The large copper franc machine is worth fourteen taels of silver each, the small copper franc machine is worth six liang and one cent each, the copper gun is four cents and five cents each, the iron bowl mouth gun is three cents and nine cents each.
Bird guns cost nine coins each, and hundreds of guns cost one, two or three coins each."
"It would be much cheaper to replace the bronze cannon with an iron one. Iron guns are worth two taels and eight cents each, silver cannons are three cents and three cents each, and wooden frames are two cents and two cents each.
The price of a row of mountain cannons and blunderbuss is five liang and six cents each, two cents and four cents, a large lead piece of silver is three cents and three cents, a medium lead piece is three cents and three cents, and a small lead piece is three cents and six cents."
"Aren't there any better cannons?"
"The Lumi guns are worth one liang and one cent each, the No. 1 Weiyuan artillery battery is five liang and three cents and three cents each, the No. 2 Weiyuan artillery battery is five taels and three cents and seven cents each." ·····
"One pound of saltpeter costs three and two cents and a half cents, sulfur costs five cents per catty, one pound of gunpowder costs eleven liang and eight cents of saltpeter, yellow 2 taels and one cent, and charcoal ash twenty liang and one cent. Even the equipment can be artificially converted into one cent and four cents of silver. ······”
Shen Youlong asked for a long time. These are the ordnance craftsmen of the former Jinshan Guard and other battalions. They can indeed make many things, but when they inquired about the output in detail, they couldn't help but shake their heads. Moreover, although the prices they quoted were in parts, they still could not make them. It's still not low, especially the armor. They can make a pair of cotton armor for at least nine taels of silver. The problem is, it's far from the eight taels of silver that other Tatars can make, and it's not as comprehensive.
The most important thing is that the number of craftsmen is too few and the output is too low.
Shen Youlong tapped the table, "We will evacuate the town soon, and all your craftsmen will also evacuate with us. Don't worry, I won't treat you badly. Each of you will be given five taels of silver to settle down, and I will return it to your family when you get there. There are rations and commissions and rewards for making ordnance. In short, the money will not be short. You all should go back and pack it up. If you have apprentices, friends, or relatives, bring them too. In this troubled world, it is also a good place to build ordnance here. A job to support the family.”
The task of supervising the country is very obvious. The Northern Expeditionary Army will still need them to provide ordnance support in the future. Shen Youlong once served as governor in Fujian and as governor in Guangdong and Guangxi. He is well aware of the power of Western guns and artillery at this time. After much thought, he felt that he still had to send people to Lingnan, Fujian, to recruit more craftsmen from there, and even directly hired some Hongmao Ban and other Yi Ban craftsmen with high salaries to come over and make gun and cannon armor.
The best iron for making guns and cannons is Fujian iron, and you have to buy it from there. Of course, if you can buy ready-made guns and cannons from there, it will be better. Japanese knives are also pretty good, and you can also buy them in Fujian.
He even planned a base for building ordnance. He chose Dianshan Lake to the west of Songjiang, Tongtai Lake, and Huangpu. It was very convenient and easy to defend.
On the other hand, Chen Zilong, Xu Fuyuan and Xia Yunyi who had returned to the society also started to draw up a list of purges.
"I always feel that there is no need for us to retreat to the countryside. We are not rogues. If we don't defend the big city, how can we restore the world?" Xu Fuyuan said.
Chen Zilong figured it out, "Let's take it step by step. We will definitely not be able to hit an egg against a rock now, but we need to take two steps back and gather strength before coming back. Then we will have a chance to defeat each one."
"I'm afraid that if we retreat, people's hearts will be scattered."
"No, if we were defeated, people's hearts would be dispersed. But if we voluntarily withdraw and our troops are still there, how could our hearts be dispersed?"
"You believe in the Supervisory State? In just a short period of time, the Supervisory State has already sent its troops to attack Suzhou. Isn't that enough to convince us?"
Xu Fuyuan had nothing to say.
"I just feel a little reluctant to give up. Such a great situation, but now I have to give up on my own initiative."
