stubborn thief

Chapter 658 Beating

It was the evening of October 2, the eighth year of Chongzhen.

The city of Xi'an was eerily quiet. Since it was surrounded, the martial law in the city had become increasingly severe.

When Chen Qihuang came back from outside the city, a layer of gloom gathered over the city.

No one knew what was happening, they only knew that there seemed to be something in the air, brewing restless thunder.

Until curfew.

Every house was shutting its doors, but from the streets one could hear the long-lost sound of an army marching, followed by curses, fighting, crying, and then the sound of wheels rolling over the stone slabs of the long street, over and over again until early morning.

By daybreak, the city had calmed down, but people noticed that more noise was coming from the direction of the royal city.

However, everything that happened in Xi'an City had nothing to do with Liu Chengzong outside the city.

The entire Marshal's Office's siege army focused its attention on the construction of two large camps on the plateau north and south of the Wei River, west of Xi'an.

Winter had arrived, and it was no longer suitable for the army to continue camping in the wild, so Liu Chengzong planned two permanent camps on both sides of the Wei River and began to build barracks.

The construction of these two camps had nothing to do with the siege, but the structure of Xi'an Prefecture was not built according to the specifications for stationing a large army.

There are barracks here, and the Four Guards of Xi'an have countless houses, but they have long been transformed from barracks focusing on military training to residential houses focusing on farmland. A thousand households can be dispersed over ten pieces of land the size of Yuhebao.

If the Second Battalion of the Second Brigade of Liu Chengzong's headquarters were to be stationed according to that specification, it would take three days to pass on an order.

What's more, the Yonggu camps on the north and south of the Weihe River can also provide a venue for winter training for the troops and make up for the lax military discipline caused by the prolonged siege.

So the camp must be repaired.

However, the city was still surrounded, just not as tightly as before. But this made almost no difference to the defenders of Xi'an City.

After all, although no siege equipment was built outside the city from the beginning, the siege facilities were very sufficient, with trenches and walls crisscrossing. Even if the troops and horses suddenly surrendered, they still couldn't get out.

Not to mention the large camp planned by Liu Chengzong on the south bank of the Wei River, the east wall of which was the west wall of the siege earthen rampart.

But then again, the defenders of the city had no intention of rushing out at this moment.

  The marshal's army outside the city is working hard to build barracks. With winter coming, who wouldn't want to rest comfortably in the barracks?

The morale of the Ming army in the city was even higher than theirs, because Governor Chen Qiuyu finally came to his senses and ordered the four guards to impose martial law on the four streets and divide the city into four parts. The four guards would demand food from the wealthy households in the four cities during curfew.

If they can get the grain, they will stop there. If they cannot, they will leave. After they have searched all the streets, they will confiscate the homes of those who refuse to hand over the grain.

The city was in turmoil that night.

Chen Qiuyu did not intend to confiscate Chen Qihuang's property as soon as he returned to the city.

He knew very well that Liu Chengzong was forcing him to give in.

It took me several days to make up my mind and get ready.

For example, the governor's headquarters was moved to the west gate of the city, and standard soldiers were assigned to guard the city defenses, ready to open the gate and run to the marshal's camp at any time if the situation became bad.

At the same time, during the day when he was preparing to issue the order, he specifically found Wang Qiaonian and others at the headquarters and ordered the standard-bearing soldiers to capture and place them under house arrest.

Of course this is to protect them.

After all, for the defenders of Xi'an City, executing such an order is not as easy as it sounds.

The order required someone to execute it, and many of the executors were from wealthy families in Xi'an. The wealthier their family, the higher their status in the army and the more determined they were to defend the city.

Fortunately, the raging fire did not burn his head. Many officers from wealthy families were killed by people around them before they could organize forces to fight against the rebellion.

Under the cover of night in the city of Xi'an, it was Chen Qiuyu who ostensibly ordered the house searches, and the Four Guards troops were carrying out the operations.

In fact, it is like a battle royale for officers. If any soldier draws his sword against an officer from a wealthy family, God will automatically match him with teammates, turning the one-on-one fight into a team fight.

There was no way, because many garrison officers who had a certain amount of wealth but not that much wealth did the math and found that instead of disobeying the governor's military order, it would be better to have their own families confiscated as well.

After robbing his own house, he would rob other people's houses and the money he embezzled would be more than what he had accumulated in the previous twenty or thirty years.

What's more, if the chief officer is eliminated, the deputy will be promoted, and we can move up with him.

When day came, the officers of the four guards reported their harvest. In one night, they had obtained more than 80,000 dan of grain and fodder, more than 25,000 jin of gold and silver, and countless copper coins from the city.

early morning.

Chen Qihuang stood beside Chen Qiuyu and narrowed his eyes when he heard the amount of money and grain reported by the officers of the Four Guards.

However, before he could speak, Chen Qiuyu tugged at his sleeve, accepted the amount with a smile, promoted the surviving garrison officers, and even won over a few of them.

After everyone left, Chen Qihuang said anxiously, "Brother, these soldiers are really crazy. The confiscated proceeds are being watched by Liu Chengzong outside the city, and they dare to take them. Do they want to save their heads?"

The Chen brothers knew very well that there was no need to guess the number, as it was far from the actual amount copied.

The grain supply could probably be around 60% to 70%. After all, even the wealthy families in Xi'an couldn't store much grain at home.

But the money is definitely just a fraction, not even half.

Thirty percent at most.

  Xi'an is such a big city, and the sounds of house searches and cars coming and going lasted all night, and in the end, only 400,000 taels were taken. Who would believe this amount of money?

Even their hometown, Baodezhou City, has more than this amount of wealth.

Either someone buried the money underground, or the soldiers took too much.

Chen Qihuang said: "I don't believe it, how can Liu Chengzong believe it? The day the city is opened will be the day when our clan will be exterminated, brother!"

Chen Qiuyu, however, showed a sense of resignation and waved his hands helplessly.

After Chen Qihuang repeatedly questioned him, he sat up straight and said, "Jin Xuan, Xi'an has been closed for three months, and only Commander Cui Hu died of illness among the officers, and he was a hereditary commander without actual title."

"Last night, nine commanders of the Four Guards died, and according to reports, none of them died in internal strife. Do you believe it?"

"Ah."

Chen Qiyu snorted and said to Chen Qihuang: "I know that the defenders are unreliable. How can Liu Chengzong think they are reliable? If they are unreliable, why do you want me to do it?"

"Uh, this..."

It’s not that Chen Qihuang didn’t know, he just slipped up.

He could feel in his heart the purpose of Liu Chengzong's doing this, but at the moment he had too many thoughts to describe it in words, so he could only open his mouth and mumble.

Chen Qiyu obviously had a better ability to organize his words on this matter. He just patted his chest and said, "Let me do it. Just let me beat myself up."

"Yes, that's what the stupid thief meant!"

Chen Qiyu rolled his eyes and said, "That's it. He doesn't care how much money he gets from copying. Why should I care about that? I'm just criticizing myself."

However, Chen Qiyu believes that the biggest problem with his half-brother is that his thinking is not comprehensive.

This is not his fault, but because his brothers all followed his advice and never took up official positions.

To put it bluntly, it doesn’t matter how much gold, silver and other valuables you have seized now.

Because before the opening of the city, it didn't matter who held the gold, silver and other valuables.

Silver has no legs, it can't run away. No matter how much gold and silver the Xi'an garrison has stolen now, it is just a temporary deposit to satisfy their cravings. When the city is opened and the ferocious Marshal's army comes in, they will all be swept away.

Chen Qiyu had no way to deal with this. He was only responsible for issuing the order. However, before this morning, he had not expected that the order would cause such great turmoil.

The killing of nine third-rank military officers at the commander-in-chief level meant that the inertia of the Xi'an defenders to accept fate had been completely broken.

The new commanders who reported to the West City Gate Tower were no longer the military officers who could follow orders, but rather unorganized and violent military leaders.

The inertia of power has always been strong. Even if the entire system falls apart, as long as there is a fig leaf left, the power structure can still operate on inertia until the leaf is torn off.

Until the cloth was torn off.

Chen Qiuyu was just thinking about himself. It was enough for him to preserve the lives of his clan members in this turmoil.

He said to Chen Qihuang: "Jin Xuan, when you leave the city, you and your brothers should all serve as officials."

Chen Qihuang's eyes were as big as copper bells: "Brother, you didn't allow us to serve in the government before, but now you want to surrender to the enemy and you allow us to serve in the government?"

Chen Qiyu was extremely bitter and shook his head, "I was wrong."

He's not wrong.

Chen Qiyu doesn't think his past suggestions were wrong at all.

In the past, clan brothers were not allowed to serve in government because of the national conditions of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty was like a machine that ran entirely on inertia. Everyone hoped that it could be restored to its original state by simply adding some oil, but all its parts had aged and this could not be done.

On the contrary, when oil was applied on this side and the running speed was increased, the pressure was great and the parts on the other side broke.

After finally replacing a usable old part there, parts somewhere else broke again.

He kept patching things up and walked shakily.

In this situation, everyone is likely to have problems.

The result is bound to be that the more you do, the more mistakes you make, and it is easy to make big mistakes before the sky falls.

Therefore, his decision was correct. He tried not to take up an official post to reduce the cost of making a big mistake.

But this theory is useful to the Ming Dynasty but useless to the Marshal's Office.

Chen Qiuyu's current understanding of Liu Chengzong can be summed up in eight words: vicious and cruel, and fond of implicating others.

You can't prevent him even if you don't take office.

However, the things that happened after surrendering to the Marshal's Mansion, such as breaking into the house and exterminating the clan, seemed too far away for Chen Qiuyu. The only real problem he faced now was: how to take over the Prince of Qin's Mansion.

In fact, it is much easier to capture Qin Fan than to search and search his property in Xi'an.

The main reason is that the name is not right and the words are not justified.

The defenders of Xi'an Prefecture were not rebels, so it was easy to ask them to raid the homes of the rich families. Anyway, the soldiers were already tortured by hunger and cold and were about to become restless.

But clamoring is one thing, mutiny is another, and being a real rebel is another level altogether.

The intensity of these three things is not equal, but progressive.

The most important thing is that the confiscation of property was ordered by Chen Qiuyu, and the soldiers were just executors. Even if the court were to hold the soldiers accountable afterwards, the court would not put the blame on the soldiers.

Even though everyone vaguely knew in their hearts that they would most likely not be caught by the court.

Even though they know it, having Chen Qiuyu as a scapegoat can still alleviate the idea that persists in their minds due to inertia.

But plundering vassal states is obviously another matter, which is almost equivalent to openly rebelling.

Even at this point, when the officials had seen the signs and knew clearly what was going on, the soldiers at the grassroots level were still unwilling to believe that Chen Qiuyu, the governor of five provinces, intended to surrender.

Another reason is that the left guard among the four guards garrisoned in Xi'an is the Qin vassal guard, with a staff of 3,000 and an actual number of more than 2,200.

In last night's house-raiding operation, they suffered the least loss, reported the least gain, and the commander was not killed. Although they were restrained and shrewd, they did manage to save a quarter of the city.

The reason lies in the special circumstances and status of the palace guards. Although they are the smallest in number, their living standards are the highest among all the guards in Xi'an, and the largest proportion of them come from high-ranking officials and noble families.

For example, the current commander Cui Erda, his father was once the magistrate of Taizhou, and his brother Cui Erjin was also the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue and the Governor of Tianjin. He is currently recuperating at home.

The officers of the Left Guard and the Qin vassal nobles and officials had long formed an intricate network of relationships.

It was impossible to ask them to search and confiscate the property of others, let alone ask the Qin guards to search and confiscate the vassal states.

Chen Qiuyu won over some guards in order to deal with Cui Erda, but now that the time has come, after repeated consideration, he really doubted whether those guards could kill Cui Erda.

What's more, this kind of thing must be done quickly, otherwise there will be more trouble.

If he blatantly ordered the guards to kill Cui Erda, and if things were not done carefully enough, the remaining flag troops of the Left Guard would retreat into the royal city. By then, the three guards' flag troops would not be united, and the development of the situation would probably be beyond his imagination.

Thinking of this, Chen Qiuyu couldn't help but curse in his heart.

  Liu Chengzong is such a vicious villain!

It is easy to get him to surrender to the Marshal's Office. I am afraid that the entire Xi'an city will not have any objection at this time.

  But asking him to confiscate the rich households in the city first and then arrest Qin's clan members is not that simple, and how could he have such great prestige?

The most crucial thing is that the intention that Liu Chengzong asked Chen Qihuang to convey was too obvious.

It's not about money or people, it's about making him defile himself.

So, this must be done in his name.

This is where the difficulty lies.

At this time, Chen Qiuyu missed General Ren Quaner even more.

At this time, he already knew that Ren Quaner had led his troops to surrender to Liu Chengzong, but knowing this only made him more resentful.

His rank of general-in-chief was still reserved for Ren Quaner.

Why are you in such a hurry to recruit him? It would be better for you to be a general under my command for a while, so that I will not be without anyone available.

As long as Ren Quaner's army was in the city, Chen Qiuyu would not have to worry about Cui Erda and would have just killed them directly.

When the time comes, I, Chen Qiyu, will take you to surrender together. Wouldn't that be better than a young general like you with no roots surrendering to Liu Chengzong alone?

  He thought to himself, what kind of official position can you get with your talent, a captain?

If you follow me, the governor of five provinces, and surrender to me as a lieutenant general, shouldn't you be given the rank of lieutenant general?

Ren Quaner, you are confused!

Thinking of this, Chen Qiuyu took a deep breath and looked at the defense map hanging on the west city gate tower. His eyes were focused on the south city wall that Cui Erda was responsible for defending, and his eyes were firm and ruthless.

"Jin Xuan, now that things have come to this, please write a letter on my behalf, and be polite, asking the Grand Marshal to send troops to attack the South Gate tonight. It would be best if the commander Cui Erda is killed on the city wall, so that I can capture the Qin clan."

After saying that, Chen Qiuyu ignored his brother's incredulous look and just slumped down in the chair, powerless.

This is also part of the beating.

good evening!