The Record of Righteousness

In the twenty-eighth year of Taifeng, it was late in the sixth month of the lunar calendar.

The head of the Taishan Sect, He Bayue, colluded with the White Lotus Sect, gathered disciples and cronies, raised an army to rebel, and killed the imperial officers and soldiers on the night of June 26, taking the opportunity to cause chaos in Jinan City.

Later, the White Lotus Sect and its Taishan Sect cooperated internally and externally, and raised more than ten thousand troops. After conquering Jinan Prefecture, they massacred the court officials and massacred the loyal people who were loyal to the court.

Since then, Dengzhou, Qingzhou, Dongchang, and several prefectures in Jinan have all fallen into the hands of the rebels, and the captured prefectures have become one.

The life and death of Fang Daqing, the commander-in-chief of Shandong Province, was not known. Jinan's new prefect, general magistrate and other civil and military officials were all executed.

Wang Hao, the military supervisor of the Shandong Guard Station, fled in embarrassment with a group of his cronies and retreated to Huai'an Prefecture.

The White Lotus Sect claims to have an army of 100,000, using Jinan as a springboard.

Long Shuo, the guardian on the left, served as military governor and military advisor, and Mo Qingqiu, the new guardian on the right, served as the commander-in-chief and oversaw the military affairs of the entire army.

The leader of the five halls under his jurisdiction is the general.

The troops were divided into five groups from Jinan, and each led a so-called 20,000-strong army to attack the other prefectures and counties in Shandong with lightning speed.

Until mid-July.

The two masters of Jintang and Mutang raised 40,000 troops and joined forces to attack Clay Province.

The magistrate of Laizhou was executed, his whole family was killed, and all the civil and military officials in the city were killed.

Later, the 40,000-strong army was divided into more than ten groups and marched towards the counties in Laizhou Prefecture that still had resistance, killing and looting.

The three hall masters, Earth Hall, Fire Hall, and Water Hall, are all the newly promoted hall masters, and all three of them want to perform well.

The three armies jointly attacked Yanzhou. Long Shuo, the military governor and military advisor, sent his agents to sneak into the city and used huge sums of money to buy off the generals and soldiers who were guarding the city in advance.

Later, he led troops to attack, carefully set fire to the city, and took the opportunity to seize the city gate.

The bribed soldiers turned against each other, and the defenders fled in panic. Yanzhou was easily captured.

The city of Yanzhou was destroyed, the prefect of Yanzhou was executed, his whole family was killed, and all the civil and military officials in the city were killed except for the generals who had surrendered to the White Lotus Sect in advance.

The people in the city resisted the White Lotus Sect fiercely, killing and wounding more than a hundred White Lotus sect infantry, which made Long Shuo furious.

Then the governor Long Shuo went against the grain and ordered a massacre of the city. Within seven days, all the people in the city, old and young, male and female, were slaughtered.

For a time, blood flowed into rivers and corpses were scattered everywhere.

The Kun River runs through nine provinces of the Great Shu Dynasty, and even passes through several state capitals in Shandong. At this time, countless densely packed corpses are floating on the Kun River, and the clear yellow river water is dyed blood red.

Later, Tutang Hall Master and Long Shuo stayed in Yanzhou, and once again divided their forces into several groups to attack the remaining counties that were sporadically resisting.

As for the two leaders of Huotang and Shuitang, they crossed the border of Yanzhou and rushed to Xuzhou with their entire army.

The Xuzhou garrison fled without a fight. The Xuzhou magistrate saw that the White Lotus bandit army was overwhelming and unstoppable, so he offered the city to surrender, hoping that the White Lotus cult would save the lives of the people in the city.

Unexpectedly, the two leaders of the White Lotus Sect reneged on their promises and massacred and plundered the city after they captured it.

All civil and military officials in the city, including the prefect, and low-level subordinates were killed.

Young and strong men were forcibly recruited into the bandit army, and the old, young, women and children in the city were wantonly raped and plundered for the pleasure of the White Lotus soldiers. Not even one of them was left alive.

In less than a month, the White Lotus Sect almost swept across Shandong.

This shocking and tragic news was like a huge stone smashing into a small pond. The government and the public were shocked, and the whole country was shocked.

Emperor Long Yan was furious and wanted to issue an order to dismiss Wang Hao and Fang Daqing from office, arrest them, and imprison them for accountability.

But how could Wang Hao and his father Wang Erhe, a powerful second-rank official and an old man who had been in the officialdom for decades, stay informed?

He was a veteran of two dynasties, and he understood the emperor's temperament best.

The emperor was good-natured, but he was indecisive and disliked political affairs.

When it comes to important matters, he likes to listen to others' advice, but he can't make up his mind. Once his anger rises, he hates the other person to the bone, but after the anger dissipates, he feels reckless.

He immediately wrote a letter to the emperor's close eunuch Cao Taiqing to express his feelings, and then offered ten thousand taels of gold and silver in the hope that the eunuch would say a few good words in the ear of the emperor.

Its essence is just one sentence:

“The responsibility for the fall of Shandong lies not with the officers and soldiers, but with the lack of information and the lack of communication between the top and bottom. The people’s livelihood was ruined and they became bandits. The civil servants enriched their own pockets and ignored the people. They did not report to the court and let them go. This is really the fault of Chen Guangzhi, the chief envoy of Shandong.”

At the same time, Wang Erhe met in private with many officials and censors, asking them to say a few good words for Wang Hao in order to ask the Holy One to give him a lighter punishment.

Within a few days, the emperor really issued the decree.

The chief minister of Shandong, Chen Guang, was dismissed from his official post and imprisoned for accountability.

At the same time, Wang Hao, Fang Daqing and their cronies were ordered to perform meritorious service and quell the Shandong White Lotus Sect bandits within a month, otherwise they would be punished.

After discussion by the cabinet, the Ministry of War drafted a plan, and the emperor approved it.

Immediately, 50,000 troops from Liaodong were dispatched to Hejian Prefecture to deploy defenses to prevent the White Lotus bandits from invading the capital.

At the same time, he was strictly ordered to the surrounding prefectures in Shandong and their guards, civil and military officials, to share the same hatred of the enemy and to take good defenses to prevent the White Lotus bandits from taking advantage of the situation. If there was any omission, they would be dismissed from office and imprisoned for accountability.

Hejian Prefecture borders Shuntian Prefecture to the northwest, while Shuntian Prefecture surrounds the capital to the north.

Once Hejian Prefecture is lost and Shuntian Prefecture has no natural protection for a strong city, the capital will be in danger.

The entire territory of Shandong was in the hands of rebels. Armed resistance loyal to the imperial court continued sporadicly, and was always brutally suppressed by the White Lotus Sect.

At this time, the situation in Jinan was changing, and its former glory was no longer the same.

It's been more than half a month.

The White Lotus Sect has recruited all the hungry people, and including those previously sent to attack other states and counties, the total strength is already 100,000.

The White Lotus Sect follows the lead of the Taishan Sect on the surface, but since the two of them occupied Jinan together, there have been constant minor frictions.

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