After Zhong Xiang, Wang Daji and Gu Sitong led the Third Army in the uprising, a domino-like effect was triggered within the Xinghan Army. In just over ten days, more than ten units of the Xinghan Army came to invest one after another, ranging from more than a thousand to as few as
Then hundreds.
Two state cities and thirteen county towns were declared rebels without even using a single soldier from the Qing army.
These show the weakness and fragility of the Xinghan regime, and also directly prove that Jia Liu's money offensive was more effective than the military offensive.
But in Ji Yun's view, the reality was that the Xinghan Army itself had not trained a bureaucratic team and had too few core forces. Therefore, most of the local officials employed were demoted officials and gentry with some local reputation.
For example, Chen Huizu, the governor of Huguang appointed by the Xinghan Army, and Wang Ang, the governor of Hubei, were demoted.
Provincial-level officials are all demoted and appointed, and the composition of officials in the lower prefectures and counties is even more conceivable.
Basically, these officials have the Qing Dynasty in mind, that is, the "speculators" and "wavering elements" that the prince often talks about.
The reason why he served in the Xinghan military regime was that he had to bow his head when he was under the roof.
Therefore, Ji Yun suggested increasing the "united front" against these local officials appointed by the Xinghan Army. As long as the court did not pursue their crime of subjugating thieves, these people would flock to them even if they were dismissed from office after surrendering.
General Feng Sheng'e of Dingxi who died for his country did not realize this. Once the officials who surrendered to the thieves were captured, they would be severely punished. As a result, many officials who surrendered to the thieves were not willing to become enemies of the Qing soldiers at all, but wanted to save their own lives.
He had no choice but to work for the Xing Han army, and as a result, the Qing army's military operations were repeatedly frustrated.
The most typical one is that when Feng Sheng'e was there, he mobilized more than ten thousand troops to besiege the city of Jingmen. The magistrate of Jingmen appointed by the Xinghan Army was Song Kui, the captured magistrate of Dangyang County, and most of the defenders in the city were from the original Jingmen area.
Garrison soldiers and village warriors.
Therefore, as long as Feng Sheng'an can pardon Song Kui and others' crimes, the city of Jingmen can easily be conquered.
When Pian Feng was promoted, he wanted to use Jingmen as a model, intending to destroy it with heavy troops and kill a group of officials who had surrendered to thieves, thereby deterring those officials who had been demoted to work for the revitalization of the Han army.
As a result, the Qing army laid siege for more than three months, but failed to capture Jingmen Prefecture, which only 3,000 people refused to defend, and instead lost thousands of troops.
Now that Prince Rui has changed his past policies and replaced the previous severe punishments with gentleness and comfort, this is undoubtedly a great progress in history and has also greatly shortened the distance between the prince and the throne.
I have to say that the prince’s wisdom is both high and strong.
However, in order to prevent the prince from saying that he was like him, Ji Yun never revealed his inner thoughts.
But for the likes of Chen Huizu, Wang Ang and Bayan, Ji Yun felt that he could not be gentle.
According to his recent understanding, these former high officials from the imperial court really helped the Xinghan Army a lot after they voted there. Chen Huizu, for example, single-handedly helped Wuchang establish the Huguang grassroots regime.
Although it is weak and has an unstable foundation, it has actually built a governance system and continuously provided money and food to the Xinghan Army.
Therefore, those demoted officials who played a major role in the development of the Han Dynasty army should be caught and killed immediately.
Therefore, Ji Yun pointedly suggested that the prince could form a "anti-traitor team", which would involve sneaking into the bandit-occupied areas through a small and capable team, and weakening the bandit army's control ability by assassinating the demoted officials who helped the bandit army develop.
"Um?"
Ji Yun's suggestion made Jia Liu's eyes light up because it seemed very familiar.
Seeing that the prince was interested, Ji Yun became even more enthusiastic, and then added: "If possible, it would be best to get rid of the bandit commander Gu Shidao and others, and capture the bandit first."
Unexpectedly, the prince became furious after hearing this: "You bastard! You are trying to trap me into being unfaithful and unfilial! I don't want to end up like Temujin!"
"What?"
Ji Yun was confused. How could this matter have anything to do with Genghis Khan? How could he be unfaithful and unfilial?
"Old Ji, you don't understand politics."
Deputy Director Ding patted Director Ji's shoulder sympathetically, "Let me tell you a secret quietly. That Gu Shidao is the prince's father-in-law, and his daughter gave birth to a son for the prince. He may be his successor in the future. You
My lord, you asked the prince to send someone to assassinate my father-in-law, didn’t you mean to make the prince’s family uneasy?”
"."
Ji Yun's face turned green and red, and he muttered for a while: "It's great to have a prince in the Qing Dynasty."
The question is, since we are a family, why should we fight for life and death? Let’s just talk about it.
If the Xinghan Army is really another part of the prince's family business, and it belongs to one unit with two brands, then it can be completely merged, and then the white-clad and white-armored troops can lead the Northern Expedition to avenge Emperor Chongzhen.
"Lao Ji, tell me you don't understand politics, you really don't understand,"
Deputy Director Ding shook his head, "This matter is very complicated, very complicated. It will be difficult to explain it to you for a while."
"What's so hard to explain?"
Jia Liu said sarcastically, "Isn't it because I raise the bandits out of self-respect, and end up raising the bandits to be fatter than me?"
This explanation is more vivid, and it took Ji Yun half a stick of incense to understand the twists and turns.
It’s just that the team is getting bigger and it’s hard to lead people.
"Relatives belong to relatives, state affairs belong to state affairs, and everything belongs to the same thing. If we should fight, we should fight, and if we should talk, we should talk. There is nothing to think about."
Although Jia Liu did not completely close the door to peace talks, he also knew that there would inevitably be an ultimate showdown between himself and his father-in-law.
Because this is determined by faith.
His father-in-law and his son-in-law are essentially not the same person. Although the two have the same purpose, one is walking to the left and the other is walking to the right, so it is difficult for them to come together.
"Since ancient times, when a high-ranking officer surrenders to thieves, the harm is the most serious. However, if you can do the work, you still have to do the work."
Jia Liu agreed with Ji Yun's analysis. He didn't know much about Bayan San and Wang Ang, but he was somewhat familiar with Chen Huizu.
The reason is that not only did his father and son serve as governors of the Qing Dynasty, but they were also members of the mutual aid association.
Of course, he has been removed from the list by the former leader and rich man.
The problem is, it seems that the current chief director of the mutual aid association is Aixinjue Luo Shikai.
Therefore, the decision of the predecessor can be completely overturned.
It means that Lao Chen can be vindicated and his reputation and status in the meeting can be restored.
After thinking about it, Jia Liu wrote a letter to Chen Huizu. This letter was not written as Prince He Shuorui of the Qing Dynasty, but as the current president of the mutual aid association.
The content of the letter is also very simple, just two sentences.
The first sentence is: "Old Chen, I have the leading stick and account book here."
The second sentence is: "I will buy you a villa in Beijing and give you another hundred thousand taels. Can you help with the work?"
After he finished writing, he did not avoid Ji Yun and asked him to seal the envelope and send it to Chen Huizu through special channels.
Ji Yun took it and looked at it, frowning and said: "Your Majesty, why are you speaking in vernacular?"
"Nonsense, what kind of literary words can I write at my level?"
Just as Jia Liu picked up the tea cup, Hubei Governor Zheng Da came in.
Lao Zheng came here very angry because people from all over the country were complaining that the surrendered Xinghan army had extremely poor military discipline and was robbing homes and buildings everywhere, seriously ruining the reputation of the Qing army.