In Yongcheng County, the guard Wang Fatty shouted orders, seeming impatient.
"Sir, what happened?"
Fatty Wang had just returned from meeting his old boss Xu Dingguo in Suizhou City. "The world is going to change!" he shouted to his subordinates and confidants.
The three-pronged Northern Expedition of the Ming Army made the Qing court panic. Especially when Zhu Yihai took Denglai and annihilated Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, the Qing court could not sit still.
Not only did they mobilize their troops south, they also issued multiple orders to Henan.
Henan Province, which originally did not have an admiral, also created a new admiral for Henan, and sent back Xu Dingguo, Liu Zeqing and other generals who had been brought back to Beijing for idle time.
Xu Dingguo was granted the title of Admiral of Henan, and Liu Zeqing was appointed Admiral of Shandong.
Xu Dingguo was Fatty Wang's old boss. He had previously ensnared and killed Gao Jie in Suizhou and then surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. He was the vanguard of the Qing Dynasty, attacking Xuzhou, Yangzhou, etc. Later, he returned to Beijing and was idle. Now that the situation is tense, he was sent back.
Even in order to make Xu Dingguo work hard, the Qing government promised him that when the situation in Henan was stabilized, he would be allowed to lead his troops southward. At that time, the land of Luzhou Prefecture would be used as a vassal and a town, and he would be granted the title of Lu State in advance.
male.
His son Xu Er'an was also specially appointed as the commander-in-chief of the army, and his other two sons were also named deputy generals.
Xu Dingguo's mission is to return to Henan, which he is familiar with, to pacify the Henanese fortresses, to wipe out the gentry and local bandits who are defending themselves in the strongholds, and to prevent the Ming army from causing further turmoil in Henan. Huainan has already abandoned its defense, so Henan cannot go out again.
Messy.
The Eight Banners, Green Camp, etc. that were originally stationed in Henan had to be transferred to Jinan and Xuzhou for reinforcement and garrison. Xu Dingguo went south and had no troops, so he had to find a solution on his own.
Anyway, when there was no money and no food, the Qing government still expected him to join forces with Liu Zeqing to recruit troops, wipe out the native villages in Shandong and Henan provinces, and suppress the hungry people at the same time.
Fatty Wang was an old confidant of Xu Dingguo. As soon as Xu Dingguo returned to Henan, he immediately called him over. After confiding in him, Xu Dingguo promoted Fatty Wang to the rank of guerrilla general and gave him three thousand troops.
But he was also given a task, asking him to recruit three thousand soldiers as soon as possible, and then prepare for battle.
Xu Dingguo's first battle plan was to join forces with Liu Zeqing to suppress the thirty-sixth floor fortress of Heyi Ji Zhentian King Yu Guangdou in Chengwu County, Yanzhou Prefecture, which is across the Yellow River from Guide Prefecture, and Manchu in Jiaxiang County.
There are two large earthen villages in Jiadong, Daitian Palace and Wencai.
The Manjiadong Tuzhai force has more than 20,000 people and occupies more than 100 caves where stone mills were originally mined. They mainly work on stonework. They used to have close relations with Dashun. They are located on the bank of the Yellow River and in Zhu Yihai's hometown of Yanzhou.
, so Yang Fangxing, the governor of the river channel, has been writing to the court, believing that the Tuzhai in Yanzhou should be wiped out first to prevent them from secretly colluding with Zhu Yihai to cause chaos.
Yu Guangdou built thirty-six watchtowers in Heyiji, Chengwu County. In the past, no matter the officials or bandits, they did not dare to mess with them. The towers were five to six feet high and each tower was connected by narrow corridors. It was easy to defend but difficult to attack.
It also has a crowd of tens of thousands.
In addition, Sun Jihong also owned four villages in Yangshan, adjacent to Manjiadong, with more than 5,000 people.
In Langshan Ji in Jiaxiang County, there are sixteen Tuzhai alliances with more than 10,000 people.
In nearby Juye County, there are twelve Tuzhai alliances including Lijialou and Houjialou, with a total of more than 12,000 people.
These tens of thousands of native villagers were very powerful. Under the planning of the river governor Yang Fangxing, they planned a joint encirclement and suppression campaign between the two provinces. They first eliminated the area between the Yanzhou Prefecture Canal and the Yellow River, where the native villagers were the strongest.
In the past, it was located on the border between two provinces and was extremely difficult to suppress.
Of course, the imperial court wanted to suppress the imperial court first, and Yu Guangdou did so because they not only claimed to be kings, but also gathered thieves, defied the imperial court, resisted taxes and military service, owned weapons privately, and even openly fought against the government.
Another reason is that these local villages are very powerful. Although they are not the strongest since Chongzhen, they are the strongest group that can survive to this day. They have stood firm in Henan for many years and accumulated accumulated wealth.
He bought a lot of weapons, money and food.
Both Manjiadong and Heyiji were earthen villages with at least 20,000 people and tens of thousands of stones of grain stored in them. For the Qing army, which was now in urgent need of money and grain, these were rat holes with rich grain stores, and of course they had to pay for them.
Since the turmoil in the late Ming Dynasty, villages in Henan, Shandong and even Shanxi have been built everywhere to defend themselves. These villages are also divided into several categories. For example, there are villages built by gentry, which are mainly based on their landlords' manors, and are mainly composed of clan children and
Tenants and others came to defend, and some village owners were even former court officials. Through official channels, they could get artillery and muskets to help defend. Ordinary officials and bandits did not dare to touch them.
Another category is the villages built by ordinary people, mainly for hungry people. They built villages in dangerous places in some mountainous areas or even in some mines. They did not have self-sufficiency in fields, food, etc., so they could only
By looting, some also cultivated wasteland.
The other type is purely a village composed of bandits, thieves, horses, bandits, etc. This type is a bandit village.
After more than ten years of turmoil, especially the Tuzhai villages in Henan Province have also undergone great changes. For example, in the late Chongzhen Dynasty, the leaders of several major Tuzhai villages, such as Liu Hongqi and Li Jiyu, claimed to occupy 10 to 20 counties and had 100,000 or 200,000 people.
The leader of hundreds of villages.
Even the Ming Dynasty and the Shun Army were vying to win over and appease him.
For example, Liu Hongqi, even Hongguang wanted to recruit him to be the commander-in-chief. Liu Hongqi was recruited by Chen Qianfu, now Zhu Yihai's imperial minister. However, he was later defeated by Li Zicheng's general Yuan Zongdi and had to leave Huguang to vote for Zuo Liangyu. He returned to Huguang last year.
When he was in Henan, he was surrounded and annihilated by the Qing army.
Another big leader, Li Jiyu, was a private salt dealer who was unwilling to study when he was young and devoted himself to learning boxing and martial arts. When he was young, he led his brothers to sell salt and make friends on the road. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, he also recruited people, established a stronghold, and was granted a title.
They raided Shaolin and robbed Shaolin of its money and food.
Gu Jun
Last year, he was forced to surrender to the Qing army. At that time, he claimed to have led 250,000 troops to surrender.
However, this man was not very honest after joining the army and refused to leave western Henan. Originally, the Qing government planned to kill Li Jiyu this year, but now there is such a big turmoil.
The Qing government had no choice but to appoint Li Jiyu as the chief military officer of Henan regiment training, and even promised to seal Shouzhou to him in the future, open a vassal Yongzhen, and grant him the title of Duke of Shou. Li Jiyu was asked to lead the local soldiers to be reorganized into Henan regiment training, and to accompany him to suppress the Manchu family.
Cave etc.
In the past ten years or so, countless Tu villages have appeared in Henan, and there are often as many as two to three hundred Tu villages in one county. In fact, apart from those in prefectures and counties, these Tu villages are the only ones that still exist in Henan.
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Basically no other villages can survive.
Some of the native villages all over the place had surrendered to the Shun Army, some had been recruited by the imperial court to help defeat the Shun Army, and many had immediately surrendered to the Qing court after the Qing army moved south, while some still remained independent, and some even
He directly calls himself the King and so on.
Not counting those liquidity thieves.
There are two forces, the native stronghold and the wandering bandit. One is to defend the native village and form a stronghold, and the other is to flee.
Fatty Wang was named a guerrilla, promoted, and got three thousand soldiers in the guerrilla camp. But the problem is that he now only has dozens of servants who can fight, and hundreds of gangsters. Even his original garrison camp is not satisfied. Now
You have to recruit 3,000 people, and you have to immediately go to Yanzhou to encircle and suppress the bandits. Isn't this life-threatening?
And he didn't even have food.
On the way back, he had already made up his mind. Now he could only find his sworn brother Zhao Zhongyi who he had just befriended not long ago.
He had been in contact with Zhao Zhongyi for a while and felt that this young man was someone he could get along with. He knew etiquette and knew how to advance and retreat, and he showed a lot of filial piety to him. He also knew that Zhao Zhongyi organized a Red Spear Club in Daqiuji and got many people to join the club.
Wang Shoubei knew that he was practicing gunmanship, even secretly selling smuggled salt and cloth, etc., but he turned a blind eye after receiving the money. If he really wanted to suppress smuggling, he might not be his opponent.
After drinking a few times, I felt more and more like this little guy.
I also helped him set up a regiment training camp in Yongcheng before, and also led him to set up cards to collect taxes, and suppressed a group of thieves who were scurrying into the country. The cooperation was good.
Those red gun teams are quite capable of fighting.
He is now planning to recruit Zhao Zhongyi and his men, so that they can directly take up the banner of the Yongcheng guerrilla battalion. When the time comes, he can lead them to Yanzhou to suppress the bandits, and they will be able to make meritorious deeds and earn face.
"Is Zhao Zhongyi willing?"
The servant team was asking.
Zhao Zhongyi's Red Spear Club is somewhat different from ordinary Tu villages. It is no longer limited to one village, but exists in many villages, and has even developed in some other Tu villages.
They are mainly young and middle-aged ordinary people in rural areas. They spread the word under the guise of gun training, mainly for self-defense, and they also engage in smuggling business secretly.
"I plan to offer Zhao Zhongyi a garrison officer position. Do you think he is willing?"
In times of trouble, if you have swords, guns and men, you can seek official positions.
Although Zhao Zhongyi is a white man, the Yongcheng Red Spear Club has a lot of troops, and a fifth-level garrison is not impossible. Originally, the Qing army would set up a garrison in each prefecture to manage the local green camp.
For example, Fatty Wang was originally a garrison in Guide. Because Guide later established a general army and was one of the three towns in Henan, he moved to Yongcheng.
"Zhongyi is my adopted brother, and Admiral Xu is my adopted father. Zhongyi is naturally Admiral Xu's adopted son. He is coming with the red spear, so shouldn't it be appropriate for my adopted father to give him a guard duty?" Fatty Wang felt that Zhao
Zhongyi will definitely agree.
Anyone who can recruit people to set up a secret society these days must be ambitious, even more ambitious than those who set up a local village, so wouldn't he be quite happy to get him a Yongcheng group training before?
If you give him a defense now, he will definitely be more willing.
Now that the Qing government is letting Xu Dingguo return to Henan, the purpose is to let him re-establish a rural army and then clear out the local strongholds. No matter what the stronghold is, it must be dispersed and returned to farming, so that the Eight Banners and Green Camp can fight the Ming army at the front with peace of mind.
At the same time, they also want to squeeze money and food from these local villages to alleviate the current urgent problem of money and food for military supplies.
Before Xu Dingguo killed Gao Jie in Guide Mansion last year and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he had already wiped out many strongholds in the territory. He had a good record. Basically no stronghold could stop him. Ningling officers and soldiers resisted and were defeated by him.
Then they plundered the whole city.
Xu Dingguo became famous in Guide. When the villagers heard his name, they all trembled, and the children stopped crying when he heard his name.
After he entered Beijing last year, he joined the Han army with a white flag and was awarded a first-class title. This time, he was directly granted the title of Duke of Lu. Knowing that the Qing government was also in dire straits, he was asked to supervise Henan, but he had no troops and no pay.
After Xu Dingguo arrived in Henan, he could only sign a bunch of letters of appointment. His old subordinates were all promoted and some of the leaders of the local villages who had been recruited by him were also given official positions, asking them to quickly gather their troops and join him.
"This time we not only have to ask Brother Zhongyi to recruit men and horses, but we also need to borrow some money and food from him!" Fatty Wang said in a hurry, "Brother Zhongyi should be satisfied with a fifth-level guard, right?"