Wang Xianzhu did not want to bring down the Ming Dynasty.
Although he is only a foreign affairs minister, he is still an eighth-grade official. He has ninety troops to guard Baita Township. In a year, he can earn two to three thousand taels of silver by doing things left and right, even if
You have to be filial and manage things, but you can have a net surplus of more than a thousand taels a year, which is more comfortable than the average rich man.
Emperor Shaotian has been in Shandong for more than a year. He has also heard about the Shence Army next door. Not only does it train every day, but no deductions are allowed. The military regulations are strict. And with his ability, he probably won't be able to keep it even if he surrenders.
This eighth-grade official hat.
"Sir, I think Emperor Shaotian is going to be serious this time." Jia Dingtou said bluntly, and even directly called the Son of Heaven as Emperor. It is said that this title was first spread among the victims of the disaster in Shandong, and now it is used everywhere.
Call that person.
Wang Xianzhu was very confused.
"It won't end well if we go to Zichuan, let alone Jinan. Let's talk about it. We might as well surrender to the Ming Dynasty. Even if the Ming army disdains us, if they give us a few pieces of severance pay, at least we won't have to worry about being fooled anymore.
Isn’t it cannon fodder?”
"Yes, if we don't serve as soldiers, we can start a coal mine. We can even transport coal and sell it."
No one wants to fight, especially against the Ming army's imperial camp.
"My lord, make up your mind quickly. If it's a little later, the team will probably arrive."
When Wang Xianzhu saw that several of his close servants were like this, he could only sigh and ran away but was reluctant to part with the property here. It had been a long time since he had been running the business and he had such a property of one-third of an acre. Who would want to give it up easily, let alone our wives and children?
They're all here.
If you leave here, you will become a homeless wild dog. If you are not careful, you will be chopped off by the above to vent your anger.
"Prepare some gifts, let's welcome Master Wang!"
Wang Xianzhu went to his pawn shop, picked out a few high-quality items, and took out two ingots of one hundred taels of gold. Then he mounted his horse and took his servants to the dustpan to meet Master Wang.
In order to make his people look like that and not be looked down upon by the emperor's royal division, he also specially asked his soldiers to return to camp quickly. In order to strengthen his momentum, he even asked the soldiers to guard the flood pond and sent all his own disciples to the camp.
Call in and pretend to be the number of people.
It's rare to get all the weapons in the arsenal that you usually don't want to use.
In the end, there were originally sixty soldiers, but he was asked to gather more than a hundred soldiers.
All the way to the dustpan.
"Raise the white flag and hurry up!"
He hurriedly asked his son to put up the white flag he had brought.
At this time, not far from Fenji Village, Ming troops were already cruising around at night. The people in the village were not too nervous. It was close to Boshan County, which was controlled by Ming troops, and was on the transportation line, so everyone was familiar with it.
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Even though there were four flood-tang Qing soldiers stationed in the village, the village chief actually often went to Yanshen Town for meetings, and even the Baojia Township Regiment formed by the big family in the village actually listened to that.
In the past, only the Ming army did not come, so on the surface the Green Camp was still guarding this place.
During the corn harvest season, people were harvesting corn and drying cobs everywhere. When this group of people came over, everyone was a little uneasy at first, thinking they were here to rob grain and force taxes.
But when they saw them raising the white flag, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Several big households in the village even sent people to bring tea and snacks.
"I heard that the Emperor's Royal Division was heading north, and I came here specially to greet him. Mr. Zhao, you are familiar with that place. Could you please go over and say hello to the King's Division forward?"
Wang Xianzhu knew very well that the village chief surnamed Zhao was actually close to the Ming army. He had known it for a long time, but he never bothered to care about it. Anyway, the man surnamed Wang would give him three birthdays and two birthdays every year. After receiving the money, he ignored it.
There is also a coal mine in the village, and he has to come regularly to collect money.
In the past, everyone pretended not to know about the transparency of the village. Even the weapons of the Baojia Township Regiment in the village were bought from Wang Xianzhu, the weapons of Hongtang that he sold privately.
Upon seeing this, Village Chief Zhao also patted his chest to express his willingness to come forward.
He personally left the village for a trip and then came back to settle the matter.
Ye Bushou in Shence Town was not surprised or embarrassed by Wang Xianzhu's surrender. They just asked them to hand over their weapons outside the village.
Promise to keep them safe, etc.
"No more?" Wang Xianzhu was a little disappointed. He originally thought that if he surrendered voluntarily, he would be able to retain his original position or even get an additional level of use, or even be given some rewards or something, but he didn't expect that he would ask them to leave the village and hand over their weapons and surrender.
"Don't worry, Mr. Wang Qian, Shence Army always keeps his word."
"All right."
The surrender ceremony is actually very simple.
In the fields outside the village in Jinqiu, Wang Xianzhu led more than 100 troops and surrendered to a group of twelve night warriors.
Wang Xianzhu handed over his seal, flag, armor and weapons, and finally gave him a gift of one hundred taels of silver.
The captain of the Ye Bu Collection team took away the seal flags, confiscated weapons and armor, etc. He also asked the team deputy to write a list with all the items listed on it. Finally, he asked Wang Xianzhu to sign it.
The one hundred taels of silver was confiscated.
The captain's original words were that he would not accept the gift as a private gift.
They took off their cotton armor, handed over their seals, guns, knives and even horses.
Originally, Wang Xianzhu wanted to keep the horse. This horse was not a war horse, but his private mount. But in the end, he did not dare to say more and could only reluctantly let Ye Bushou drive all the horses over.
The villagers were watching the fun and stopped harvesting the corn for the time being.
After the ceremony, I didn’t dare to walk around.
Wang Xianzhu had no choice but to let everyone stay in the village, while he took his son with him to meet the Ming army commander.
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"There is a mission!"
Zhao Xiaolou was peeling corn cobs when the captain came back.
"A mission has come. The Tatar garrison from Baita came over and surrendered. Our camp asked our sentry to rush to Baita Township immediately to take over the defense."
"It surrendered? Why did it surrender? Why didn't they resist? They were a bunch of cowards."
Zhang Tiezhu threw the corn cobs on the ground when he heard this, "Train every day, train every day, raise troops for thousands of days and use them for a while. Finally, we sent out troops, but we met the first opponent, and the result was defeated? This son of a bitch, does he have any backbone?"
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"Zhang Tiezhu, shut up, pack your things quickly, and get ready to leave. We will be stationed in the countryside before dark, and there will be many tasks by then."
Zhao Xiaolou didn't feel disappointed at all. Although he was secretly looking forward to fighting and wanting to be rewarded for his meritorious service, he was sometimes afraid of fighting and worried about being injured or even killed.
He hasn't married a wife yet.
Pack up the unshucked corn and pack all other things into a backpack.
He picked up the blunderbuss, tied the match rope around his waist, and put the bayonet in the muzzle of the blunderbuss.
"gather!"
"Line up!"
"Count!"
Li Baoquan gave orders repeatedly, and everyone gathered quickly as usual.
"Check the equipment again."
Everything is correct, everyone sets off.
More than 100 people from all eight teams of the sentry, together with the team directly under the sentry commander, gathered at the entrance of the village and marched singing military songs.
The surrender of Green Camp Houtang made it easy for them.
In the villages along the road, the village chiefs also brought Baojia and township groups to greet them and presented them with tea, eggs, etc.
The march was very fast and they reached the countryside smoothly.
Taking over the gate of the township market, the sentry general distributed tasks and guarded the township gates, square gates, and streets. He notified the people that the Ming army was officially stationed to take over the defense, and issued notices to calm the people. Everything was carried out in an orderly manner according to the usual drills.
Zhao Xiaolou's team of twelve people is responsible for guarding the east side of the fourth side of the village.
The township market is not big, with a cross street dividing the township into four squares. There are also several alleys in this square. They notify the villagers from house to house, and then they just guard the streets.
Zhao Xiaolou and the others put on cotton armor, helmets, and tied match ropes around their wrists. They were ready for battle. The twelve people were divided into two teams and took turns to stand guard.
The people in the village looked at them with some curiosity and some awe.
I was very wary at first.
But seeing that they were so well-disciplined and had no intention of harassing the people, they became curious again. Some even brought them tea, water, and even eggs and corn.
There are also wealthy people who come to send money.
But captain Li Baoquan politely refused. He asked deputy captain Liu to come forward to explain the military orders of the imperial camp to everyone, and asked him to come forward to communicate with them.
After all, Captain Liu had read a book, so it was easy to explain clearly.
dusk.
Zhao Xiaolou and the others switched defenses with another group of people in the team, and set up a pot on the street to cook corn.
Although some villagers gave them food, etc., they confiscated it. Military regulations were strict and they did not dare to cross the line easily.
Of course, they had plenty of food themselves. In addition to the corn they bought along the way, they also had meat and vegetables. They even had dry food, bacon, salted fish, salt vegetables, etc. they carried.
The bacon and corn are actually pretty good, fresh and slightly salty.
In the dusk of late autumn, half of the sky was illuminated by the blazing sunset. They sat around the stove on the street, gnawing corn and bacon, and drinking some tea with boiled corn leaves to relax their bodies after marching and standing guard for a day.
, which is quite pleasant.
There were even a few villagers chatting with them.
This doesn't look like a war at all, but rather like selling goods at a market.
With the smoke coming from the kitchen, more and more villagers came together to chat. Everyone expressed their envy for them, their welcome to the Ming Dynasty, and their expectation for the future.
"The Great Emperor's Master is here. We no longer have to pay taxes and gifts to the Tatars. We will also reduce rents and interest rates like those in Yanshen Town, right?"
"Are you going to stay here permanently from now on?"
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Wang Xianzhu and his son met with the battalion officer at the vanguard of the Shence Army. The battalion officer expressed his approval for his voluntary surrender. After chatting for a while, he also provided temporary resettlement methods.
Those who have official positions and are willing to stay in the army can stay with them temporarily and wait for arrangements from above.
The garrison guards at Shuntang who do not have official positions will all be dismissed and given a severance pay of one silver dollar.
If you want to continue joining the army, you can sign up, but the Shence Army is not recruiting troops for the time being.
The next day, Wang Xianzhu took his son and returned to Weiji Village with the army.
Shence Jun directly called his subordinates together and began to pay severance pay.
They took out a roster, which turned out to be the actual roster of the Baita and Xuntang soldiers, with only sixty people. It was obvious that people already knew what the situation of the more than one hundred people Wang Xianzhu had brought was.
The last sixty soldiers were given a silver dollar each and were dismissed on the spot. Their weapons and equipment were taken away, and another silver dollar was given to them.
Wang Xianzhu and several servants came on horseback, and some came on donkeys and mules, and the horses and mules were returned to them.
There were a total of ninety people in Hongtang, and there were only one Foreign Affairs Committee General and two Foreign Affairs Committee Generals. Three of them stayed with the army to wait for arrangements. The remaining fifty or so people went directly back to their respective homes, and one of them even carried a silver dollar in his pocket.
It's also a joy.
A battalion then arrived in Baita Township. Zhao Xiaolou and the others received orders to continue to Zichuan County with the battalion, without staying in the township.
They marched for a day and arrived at Zichuan County.
There were half a battalion of Qing city guards stationed here, trying to hold on.
Seeing that it was still early, the battalion commander ordered the musketeers to form a formation in the city, making nine and ten turns in a series of formations, and fired at the defenders on the city.
Zhao Xiaolou was a little excited and finally started fighting.
Light the match rope, load the ammunition, and line up to go forward.
Following the officers' orders, rows of muskets sounded.
Zhao Xiaolou excitedly pulled the trigger. He didn't know whether he was hit or not. No one could be seen in the city, but when the order to shoot was given, he could only follow and fire the gun.
Military regulations stipulate that musketeers must fire in a row. They are not allowed to be early or slow, and they are not allowed to fire alone. If they are to fire, a team of people must fire together. What is required is the effect of the salvo, not the accuracy of the individual.
If you are attacking the enemy, the first shot is particularly strict. You must wait for the enemy to get close before firing. Especially when facing cavalry, if you shoot too early, the hit rate will be too low. When you reload, you will be taken advantage of by the enemy.
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Therefore, salvo fire must be allowed only when the enemy enters the optimal shooting range. If you fire early, you will be marked and severely punished after the war.
After the volley fired, he immediately began to reload. As soon as he finished reloading and was about to raise the gun, he heard the sound of the gun had stopped.
The green flag of the Tatars on the top of the city was torn down and replaced with a white flag.
The Tatar city garrison commander Qian Zong originally wanted to resist.
As a result, more than 200 gunners, as well as gunmen and small artillery teams came out of a battle camp of the Ming army. They fired at them and killed more than a dozen of them. Then President Qian was also frightened.
surrender.
In fact, he didn't want to surrender, but all his men turned around and ran away.
And Baojia in the county, at this critical moment, actually gave "military advice". Those big gentry families actually brought Baojia with them to persuade him to surrender in Kaicheng.
Still holding spears, bows and arrows at him to persuade him to surrender.
The only people left running around Mr. Qian were a group of servants.
How dare you disobey advice?
I had no choice but to order my men to put down their weapons and raise the white flag.
The city gate was opened by Bao Jia.
The squires led the troops out to greet the Ming army.
Zhao Xiaolou still had a burning match rope wrapped around his hand and was holding a loaded blunderbuss on standby.
But the battle was over.
Just fired a shot.
Kaicheng of Zichuan County surrendered, and Zhao Xiaolou followed the order and blew out the match rope.
He looked at the city. The city walls were tall and solid, the foundations were made of large stones, and the city gates were tall and easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Deputy Liu led everyone into the city and said, "There is a saying here that Wei County is made of steel and Zichuan is made of iron. I think back when the Tatars broke through the Great Wall and entered the pass several times, and invaded Qilu, but they never invaded.
Zichuan County.
Now we can easily capture the city with just one shot of the cannon, and the reputation of our imperial camp is truly shocking to the world."
Zhang Tiezhu complained.
"I just took a shot in my arms and he surrendered, bad luck!"
"I'm still thinking of killing ten or eight of him so that I can get a silver reward for my meritorious service."
Team leader Li Baoquan scolded him rudely, "In normal training, you're the worst with a fucking gun. You fail eight out of ten times. Why the hell are you calling me a ghost?"
Zichuan was called Banyang City in ancient times.
This was originally an earthen city. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, Han Chengxuan, the magistrate of Zichuan County, rebuilt it into a stone city.
The streets and alleys in the city are intertwined, the pavilions are staggered, the palaces are majestic, and the archways are magnificent. Looking at Zhao Xiaolou, he is a little dazzled. If such a big and fortified city is stationed with three to five thousand troops, it will be difficult to attack if it really has to resist.
They entered the city through the south gate, which was called Yingxun Gate.
There is also a Linghong Bridge outside the south gate, spanning the Bayang River, and the post road from Zichuan to Boshan passes through it.
There is also a Liulong Bridge in Xiguan. It is said that in the 43rd year of Wanli, six people were selected at one time. The magistrate hosted a banquet on the bridge, so it was called Liulong Bridge because the carp jumped over the dragon gate.
There are three main streets in the city that lead directly to Simen.
Entering through the South Gate, you will find South Street, also known as Pangong Street.
There are the Chenghuang Temple, the Confucian Temple, and Banyang Academy in the city. There is also a very impressive Yingenfang in the city, which was built by Zhang Zhifa, a native of the city. During the Tianqi period, Zhang Zhifa served as the crown prince's Taibao, the Minister of Rites, and the cabinet scholar.
Because every time Zhang came to Shandong for inspections, he would visit relatives in his hometown of Zichuan, and he would also summon local officials to read out the imperial edict under the Yingenfang he built. From then on, Yingenfang became the place where officials welcomed the imperial edict and dragon's grace, so it was named Yingenfang.
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At this time, the Ming army entered the city, and all the officials and gentry in the city gathered under the Ying'en Square to greet the king's master in a grand manner.
During the Ming Dynasty, Zichuan produced 31 Jinshi, 96 people, and 10 martial arts candidates. It also produced a cabinet bachelor. Even for a small county town, it was still very impressive.
At this time, people all over the city came to pay homage to Master Wang.
The respectable gentry took out the Ming Dynasty clothes and hats one after another, quickly cut off their braids, and wore Ming Dynasty hats to cover up. Many of them even quickly wrote a word of respect to Master Wang on the front door of their house before going out.
And planted the sun and moon flag.
They shouted slogans such as ZTE, Restoration, and Long Live the Emperor.
Zhao Xiaolou looked at these people and felt very strange, but at the same time he felt very proud!