I

In May of the ninth year of Chongzhen.

The Datong army conquered Yichun, Pingxiang and Yongxin counties, and the thieves leader Sweeping King and Nine-Headed Bird were defeated. The thief's head was one foot tall and he fled to Wanzai County to wreak havoc. The bandit leader suppressed the mountain tiger and fled to Chaling County to wreak havoc.

In addition, Bai picked up Yongning County, which is remote and poor.

The troops stationed in the four newly occupied counties will be very busy this year, because many scattered bandits have fled into the mountains, and repeated anti-bandit operations must be organized to eliminate them.

Administrative divisions were adjusted again——

Ji'an Prefecture: Luling, Jishui, Anfu, Taihe, Yongxin, Yongning, Yongfeng, Wan'an, Longquan.

Linjiang Prefecture: Qingjiang, Xingan, Xiajiang, Xinyu, Fengcheng.

Yuanzhou Prefecture: Yichun, Fenyi, Pingxiang.

Ouyang Zheng was the prefect of Ji'an, Yuan Yunlong (his niece married Fei Ruhe) was the prefect of Linjiang, and Liu Ziren (a poor scholar from Qianshan) was the prefect of Yuanzhou.

Fei Yuanjian was transferred to the post of magistrate of Jishui County, while the Fang brothers, who had surrendered their lands, served as magistrates of Yongxin and Xiajiang counties respectively.

Even Huang Shunde and Liu Fang, who were transferred out of the General Military Mansion because of their marriage to a wealthy family, were promoted to magistrates of poor counties because they made no mistakes in their follow-up work.

He will not treat his old brothers unfairly, nor will he treat newcomers who work seriously. Zhao Han respects the rules and cherishes old friendships.

In addition, the rules for town-level yamen are also completely determined. In the future, town-level government offices will no longer be reduced. Large counties will have six towns, medium counties will have four to five towns, and small counties will have three towns.

On the court side.

Zhang Qiping, the governor of Baoding, was transferred to the governor of Huguang South Road. He took office in mid-May to recruit troops to assist in the suppression of bandits in Jiangxi.

Zhu Xieyuan, the governor of the five southern provinces, ordered Zhang Qiping to train his troops quickly and agreed to attack the Zhao bandits in Luling together after the autumn harvest.

It could be delayed until the autumn harvest at most, but the Fujian officers and soldiers were already almost exhausted. They began to ignore Zou Weilian's military orders and privately plunder the surrounding towns and villages of Ganzhou Prefecture. Zou Weilian could only give small punishments but big warnings, and did not dare to really kill people to establish his authority, otherwise it would easily lead to a mutiny.

Just this year, a mutiny broke out in Ningxia.

Zu Dashou's younger brother Zu Dabi, nicknamed "Zu Er Madman", was transferred to the Ningxia Army Corps last year. This guy was as greedy as ever, and the governor was unable to raise enough military pay. The frontier army was completely unable to survive, so he ordered Wang Ji, the governor of Ningxia, to be killed.

At the same time, Huang Taiji began to reform the internal affairs and established three internal academies: the Internal History Academy, the Internal Secretary Academy, and the Internal Hongwen Academy.

After the reform of the three inner courtyards was completed, Huang Taiji ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. He changed the name of the country to "Chongde", the name of the country to "Qing", the name of the clan to "Manchuria", the capital to Shenyang, and the title of "Emperor Kuanwenrensheng". Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and Shang Kexi were all named kings.

The enthronement ceremony lasted for more than twenty days, and the entire Ming Dynasty system was copied.

After ascending the throne, Huang Taiji immediately sent 100,000 troops into Xifengkou and Dushikou in three groups.

Wang Zhaokun, the imperial censor of the Ming Dynasty, was killed in battle, and the Manchu and Qing troops invaded Juyong and Changping North Road. Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Datong, rushed to the rescue and killed more than a thousand Manchu soldiers in return.

The Qing army fought all the way to Liangxiang and Shunyi, which later became Fangshan District and Shunyi District of Beijing.

The capital is under martial law.

Lu Xiangsheng was promoted to premier of seven provinces, defeating Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng. Just as they were about to take advantage of the victory to encircle and suppress the bandits, they were suddenly transferred to the capital to defend against the Manchus. The bandits were beaten to the ground, so they once again had a chance to breathe.

Due to problems with military pay in various places, and the Manchu Qing raging in the capital, many troops began to have trouble with pay, and Chongzhen became increasingly dissatisfied with Hou Xun, the Minister of Household Affairs.

Wen Tiren, the first assistant, understood the holy will and began to arrange for his party members to impeach Hou Xun.

Whenever the Tatars retreat, Hou Xun, the Minister of Household Affairs, will be imprisoned!

By the way, Tang Wang Zhu Yujian raised troops to serve the king, but was deposed as a commoner...

…

"Wang Ting tried to hedge his bets." Zhao Han took out a secret letter and translated it.

Pang Chunlai looked at it closely for a while and then handed the secret message to Li Banghua.

After reading the content, Li Banghua said with a smile: "We have a capable governor here. Of course he will not turn to us wholeheartedly."

"This internal response may be of some use in the future, but it must not be relied upon." Pang Chunlai said.

Wang Tingzhi, an old guy, saw that Li Maofang was a bastard, so he came to seek refuge with Zhao Han. Now that Zhu Xieyuan is here and he thinks highly of him, he starts to actively work for the government again.

Hedging your bets, don't be guilty of hedging your bets.

If Zhao Han wins, he is a hero of Conglong; if Zhu Xieyuan wins, he may become an official of the imperial court again.

He wants to take advantage of every advantage, he is simply daydreaming!

Li Fenglai, a merchant, knew how to send his son as a hostage. The scholars who came from Nanchang and Fengcheng to defect to the army also captured the commander-in-chief Yang Jiamo on the way to make a declaration of surrender.

Only Wang Tingshi said nothing and was timid in doing things and refused to take risks.

Pang Chunlai suddenly said: "Yang Jiamo has been raising it for half a year and has spent a lot of rice and grain. It's time to cut it down."

Li Banghua shook his head and said: "It's useless. This kind of little trick can't possibly anger Zhu Xieyuan."

"Whether it's useful or not, let's cut it down first." Pang Chunlai said with a smile.

Zhao Han suddenly said: "Judging from this information, Zhu Xieyuan's character is extremely cautious. Sending Yang Jiamo's head will not provoke him to send troops, but will make him think that this is our strategy to provoke the generals. He will definitely stick to Nanchang and train troops." fight."

"Our army will have the upper hand if we drag it on," Li Banghua said.

Although both sides are developing, Zhao Han is obviously developing faster, especially the continuous production of ordnance equipment.

According to the information sent by Xu Ying, the Nanchang Ordnance Institute is also expanding its scale, but in terms of scale and production efficiency, it is far inferior to the rebels.

"We will definitely win if we drag it on, but it's not a problem to be surrounded by officers and soldiers all the time," Zhao Han said with a smile, "What I mean is that sending Yang Jiamo's head will scare Zhu Xieyuan into training in Nanchang. Let's take the opportunity to send troops to Ganzhou. , first deal with the Fujian soldiers there."

Li Banghua firmly opposed: "I don't agree to send troops to Ganzhou. Wan'an is a dangerous place. Our army only needs a small number of soldiers to station in Wan'an County to stop tens of thousands of officers and soldiers. After taking Ganzhou, we have to send more troops." Stationed to guard against officers and soldiers from Guangdong and Guangxi who may return at any time."

Pang Chunlai echoed: "I agree with Mr. Meng An's view that the most beneficial strategy for our army is to use a small number of troops to defend Wan'an, Pingxiang, and Yongxin, and use the mountains and rivers to block the officers and soldiers of Guangdong, Fujian, and Huguang. In this way, We can calmly mobilize the main force and lure the Jiangxi officers and soldiers in Nanchang into a decisive battle!"

Li Banghua continued: "I understand Chongzhen's character. He allowed the local governor to delay, even for two or three years, as long as the situation did not continue to deteriorate. However, Chongzhen did not allow the governor to be defeated or the situation to continue to deteriorate. I The army only needs to defeat Zhu Xieyuan once, and the governor will probably lose his position."

"Once Zhu Xieyuan is replaced, how can the court still send a powerful person to be the governor?" Pang Chunlai said with a smile, "When the time comes, everything will be fine."

Zhao Han shook his head and sighed. It is now the ninth year of Chongzhen. If the original historical process is followed, Chongzhen will hang himself in another eight years.

And I was still nestled in Jiangxi, so how could I have time to spend time with Zhu Xieyuan?

Zhao Han said: "We are fighting for the world, and we cannot place our hopes on the emperor's incompetence and the incompetence of the government. Zhu Xieyuan will not move his troops in the short term. If he moves, it will definitely be a three-sided attack. We must take the initiative and defeat the officers and soldiers first! The rumors that started spreading last year will definitely be spread within half a year. It has already fermented. The Fujian soldiers are in internal confusion and the generals are at odds. We should take advantage of this opportunity to win in a single battle!"

Pang Chunlai and Li Banghua looked at each other with helpless expressions.

They chose the safest way, but Zhao Han decided to take the risk, and the only one who really made the decision was Zhao Han.

With Zhao Han's character, once he makes a decision, no amount of persuasion from others will be of any use.

A few days later, Nanchang City Gate.

A bloody human head was placed in the middle of the road outside the door, with a piece of paper containing four in it. Letter: A small gift is not a sign of respect, please accept it with pleasure from Master Zhu.

Someone soon recognized that it was the head of Yang Jiamo, the former Jiangxi commander-in-chief.

Nanchang officials and soldiers were all frightened, and the whole city was under martial law, thinking that Zhao Han was going to lead an attack.

Zhu Xieyuan appeased everyone and said: "Zhao thieves do not dare to attack Nanchang, intending to provoke me to send troops for a decisive battle. The governor will definitely send troops, but the training of troops has not been completed at this time, and the officers and soldiers on Huguang South Road have just begun to recruit. Don't worry, gentlemen, wait until the time comes. When he matures, he will definitely attack in three directions and surround the Zhao thieves with the power of thunder!"

Immediately, Zhu Xieyuan restricted his generals not to cross the border and plunder Fengcheng County, and at the same time sent spies to observe the movements of the rebels.

Soon he received news that Zhao Han had sent the navy southward with great fanfare, but the Datong soldiers in Fengcheng and Qingjiang counties disappeared. It seemed that they had all been transferred to attack Ganzhou.

This made Zhu Xieyuan confused. He didn't know whether Zhao Han was deliberately tempting him to send troops, or whether he was really concentrating all his efforts on attacking Ganzhou.

Have both!

Zhao Han is transporting troops to Wan'an County to assemble, but the armies of the northern counties have not moved, and they can recruit peasant soldiers to fight at any time.

If Zhu Xieyuan did not move, Zhao Han would attack the Fujian soldiers in Ganzhou.

If Zhu Xieyuan dares to send troops, Zhao Han will immediately send the navy back, recruit farmers and soldiers from northern counties, and cooperate with the regular army to fight the decisive battle with the government!

This was actually a conspiracy, and Zhu Xieyuan quickly figured it out. The Zhao thief took advantage of the lack of preparation of the officers and soldiers to force him to make some kind of difficult decision.

Zhu Xieyuan chose to continue training. He could only believe that Zou Weilian could defend Ganzhou City undefeated.

The city of Ganzhou was majestic and strong. Of course, Zhao Han could not attack by force, and he did not intend to conquer it - taking Ganzhou would be detrimental to the defense of the southern territory.

Zhao Han continued to transport troops and food, and camped at the foot of Egong Mountain in Ganzhou Prefecture, confronting Ganzhou City across the river.

Zou Weilian quickly took the main force of the Fujian troops back to Ganzhou City. It's not like he's done nothing. He has already built hundreds of small sampans. He didn't even bother to apply tung oil on them. They are all one-time fire attack vessels.

Once you find the opportunity, burn Zhao Han's navy to the ground!

As for my father-in-law, Fei Yinghuan, he went to Fujian last winter. As the magistrate of Fujian, he could not stay in Jiangxi forever, otherwise he would inevitably arouse Zou Weilian's suspicion.

The strange thing is that after Zhao Han arrived in Ganzhou, the navy and army did not move much.

Instead, they brought a large number of backbones of farmers' associations and, under the protection of small groups of troops, went deep into the countryside to form local farmers' associations. There is no rush to divide the land for the time being, because there are not enough officials at the grassroots level. They are just forming peasant associations to resist rent and taxes, and at the same time help local farmers train peasant soldiers.