Dominate the Country

The Chen family army defeated the Qing army of 5,000 and then attacked the county town of Klushan. The impact of this incident is immeasurable. The Qing Dynasty was at its peak at the moment, and such a mess happened in the heart of the Central Plains. Not to mention how furious Emperor Qianlong in Beijing would be, even the officials and civilians outside would find it incredible.

Although none of them thought that the Chen family could hold on for long. But the outbreak of such a thing was shocking in itself.

And soon the Chen family army sent out two troops, one to the south to sweep Ye County and Wuyang, and one to the north to capture Baofeng and Jia County, and the troops were pointed directly at Ruzhou Prefecture City!

Wang Jun and Hu Rulin were very frustrated. They tried their best to summon militiamen into the city, but the Ruzhou militia suffered repeated heavy losses. As the first county of a prefecture, the prefecture city suffered even more damage, and the local militia was simply unable to support the prefecture city. The original purpose of the local villages and towns to form militias was not to work for the government, but to protect their own industries. If the situation is not critical, it is not inconvenient for them to obey the government's dispatch. Now that their own nests are under the threat of Chen's army, how can they send people to defend the state capital?

With the refugees from Baofeng and Jiaxian coming to the state capital recently, the actions of Chen's army in the two places have also spread. Chen's army does not kill indiscriminately or rob civilians. They are really just the government and those gentry who stand firmly on the side of the government. For those people, Chen's army did not show any mercy, and many gentry in Baofeng and Jiaxian were killed.

But if you don't stand firmly on the side of the government, Chen's army will not say that you will not be touched at all, but as long as you pay a sum of money for your life, Chen's army will not bother you. Of course, the premise is that your family's reputation is still good. If you are a family that stinks ten miles in the wind, you will definitely lose your head.

After the rumors spread in the state capital and Yiyang, the civil unrest and anxiety immediately subsided. A good reputation is accumulated in this way. When the Chen family army becomes stronger and stronger in the future, once the flag is raised - expelling the Tartars and restoring China, it will immediately be famous in China. If the reputation is not good, even if the Chen family army is now "anti-Qing and restoration of Ming", no anti-Qing heroes will surround it.

The intelligence system led by Chen Guang made great contributions in this matter.

After seizing Jiaxian and Baofeng, the territory controlled by the Chen family army has occupied half of Ruzhou. The Southern Route Army is led by Chen Erbao and Chen Ming's uncle Gao Pengqi. Chen Erbao is a standard rough man. He can fight and kill, but if the Chen family wants to maximize the benefits in Ye County and Wuyang, it depends on Gao Pengqi.

In order to distract the remaining Nanyang garrison troops and the Nanyang government to the greatest extent, Chen's army also sent dozens of people with the Gao family children and some ruffians gathered around Luyang Pass, and bluffed out of Luyang Pass, scaring Nanzhao County and Nanyang Prefecture City just south of Nanzhao County.

Chen Ming also took silver and food to recruit soldiers in Baofeng and Jiaxian, so he stayed in these two places for a few more days. At the same time, this was also to deter the powerful landlords in the two counties. There was no way, the Chen family army had too few troops, and Chen Ming was like a bear breaking sticks, breaking one and throwing one. After the two county towns of Baofeng and Jiaxian were captured, those who should be killed were killed, those who should be taken were taken, and a large amount of money and food materials were transported back to Lushan, and then the two county towns were thrown away cleanly.

When Chen Ming led his troops to the outskirts of Ruzhou, the number of the 500 he had when he left Lushan had risen to 1,000. In this "peaceful and prosperous era" where ordinary people can only take care of food and drink, the Chen family army's recruitment treatment is too generous - 10 silver settlement money, and a visit to the new recruit camp after joining the Chen family army, and a monthly salary of one tael of silver per person. After three months in the new recruit camp, you will be a regular soldier of the Chen family army, with 2 taels of silver per month. If you die, ten months of military pay will be used as silver for funeral expenses. For the disabled, five months of subsidies.

These are all the silver that the soldiers can actually get, unlike the Green Camp soldiers who still drink the blood of soldiers, and the Chen family army has wartime allowances before the battle.

The Chen family is no match for the Qing court in terms of righteousness or public opinion, so the only thing that Chen Ming can use is money. Besides, Chen's army now has a large amount of real gold and silver in their hands, which is just right for military pay.

Chen Ming has already asked the Iron Village staff to start researching the hydraulic coin machine, which is made according to the specifications of Yuan Datou. The weight is six cents and four cents and eight cents of pure silver in Kuping, with 89% silver and 11% copper. The weight of a finished silver dollar is 7 cents and two cents. Three silver dollars equal two taels of silver.

Chen Ming has six or seven hundred new soldiers under his command, and this is the number left after he sent some of the new soldiers back to Lushan. Otherwise, Chen Ming would have recruited more than 1,000 new soldiers in Jiaxian and Baofeng. Because Qingtiaoling in Baofeng was split, Zhao Chuanjing, the big boss, ran away with a few confidants, the second boss took away his belongings and disappeared, the third boss, the fast horse Yang Ping, and the fourth boss, the spotted tiger Feng Shaohua, took the remaining people to join the Chen's army and were appointed as the two captains by Chen Ming.

The number of these 1,000 new soldiers was based on the majority of the family assets of Qingtiaoling.

When the two counties were stationed by the Chen family army, there were reports from time to time that men were kidnapped by the Chen family army and local militias were killed in conflicts with the Chen family army. No one was a fool and everyone knew what was going on. It cannot be said that all of it was fake, but it is certain that 80% of it was fake. So, money can make the gods; so, how fake was the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong prosperity of the Qing Dynasty.

The four gates of the entire Ruzhou city were closed.

The main force of the Ruzhou Camp had been wiped out long ago. Only a few dozen people were left, together with the yamen runners, as the backbone and commanders to fill the young and strong team gathered by the state yamen to defend the city. At this time, everyone was looking at the Chen family army outside the city with fear.

The news that the Chen family army had a cannon with unparalleled power had long been spread in Ruzhou.

Wang Jun and Hu Rulin were not geniuses who had never appeared in the world. They could easily solve the difficulties with a quick turn of their brains, but they didn't have that ability. So when faced with this powerful cannon, they were entangled to death and couldn't come up with a suitable method at all.

Did you put too many people on the top of the city? If the cannon of the Chen family army was aimed at the top of the city and exploded, how many people would you have to fight against the gunpowder?

Why don't you put people under the city? It seems that they have avoided the direct threat of the cannon of the Chen family army, but no one dares to guarantee whether the shells will pass over the city wall and fall into the city. If that happens, it will still be very tragic. Moreover, when the city wall was short of soldiers, the Chen family army launched an attack. Wouldn't it be the same to push people to the city wall? What if the Chen family army cheated? They rushed back halfway, and the militiamen defending the city were also in trouble.

Chen Ming himself couldn't think of a good way to deal with bugs like the flying thunder cannon. Maybe it was a good idea to let go of the city wall and fight street battles, but this idea didn't exist in Wang Jun and Hu Rulin's mind at all.

In their minds, if the city wall was lost, the city would be broken, and they would all be finished.

Wang Jun and Hu Rulin waited for Chen Ming's arrival in such anxiety and entanglement, and the whole Ruzhou City seemed to have come to the end. Whether it was officials or civilians, all the horses were silent!