stubborn thief

Chapter 682 Wang Ji and his son

Mutiny, rebellion.

When the news reached the Governor's Office, Hong Chengchou and Yu Chongxiao remained calm.

This kind of thing happening in Ningxia is not worth being surprised about.

Hong Chengchou was well prepared. He raised his hand to untie his belt, and took off his official robe and hat. His servants put them away. Then the officials, clerks, and military officers of the mansion went through a side door and took a small path towards the governor's camp.

The reason why the imperial court did not dare to say much about the military settlements in Ningxia was because it was difficult to handle.

Since Ye Qi's reform, the imperial salt was packaged and sold to merchants in Lianghuai, and the country received one million taels of silver from the salt merchants every year, enriching the national treasury income.

The ones who paid the price were Gansu, Yansui and Xuanfu border areas centered on Ningxia.

However, the price came very slowly, and from the perspective of later generations, the problem lay with Ye Qi.

However, at that time, after the reform, the commercial settlements in Ningxia still provided food for the towns for nearly thirty years.

Such slow changes made it difficult to see any connection at the time.

After all, the Kaizhong Policy was so successful that, with the help of the Kaizhong Commercial Tun, the price of grain in places like Yansui, which produced very little grain, reached a terrifying level of three or four coins per stone. The rations for the soldiers in the garrison could be purchased locally at low prices, and there was almost no need for the court to transport official silver to the capital.

The commercial farmland did not become worthless all of a sudden. Even if it could not be exchanged for salt permits, it could still be sold for grain. Grain prices gradually rose, military expenditures gradually increased, and the empire's finances became increasingly worse as it was like a frog in boiling water.

By the time people realized something was wrong, the fields had already become the people's fields, and they were their basis for food and clothing, so they could not be moved.

The army also deteriorated. The border troops began to flee, and new recruits were taken in. The number of troops remained the same, but their combat effectiveness declined.

In this process, it was inevitable that some officers would get rich first, and by eliminating the good and retaining the bad, Ningxia would have a unique advantage in mutiny.

It is different from mutinies and riots in other places.

Although each town had a large number of hereditary military officers who controlled wealth and the army, and were also relatively closed class societies with the same harsh exploitation from the upper class, there were still differences between mutiny and rebellion.

Yansui and other places were poor and starving, and the soldiers did not have much resentment towards the court. They only rioted for a bite to eat. More often than not, people knew that they would get nothing to eat if they rioted, so they simply gave up.

The real trouble was caused by poor management by the superiors, so the soldiers rebelled against their superiors, killed their direct superiors, and then ran away.

If the leader is also a good one, the choice of the army over there is generally to avoid detours and just run away and become bandits!

Liaodong faced the enemy head-on. The enormous military pressure overwhelmed everything. People had to unite from top to bottom and the Liao soldiers were united as one. Only by unity could they survive and win.

Therefore, mutinies in Liaodong were usually caused by foreign troops, because the imperial court could not afford to pay the foreign troops' salaries, which were high.

The border troops in Ningxia were starving and poor while guarding wealthy areas, and this environment made them extremely angry.

They are just a basket of firewood soaked in oil or even rotten. As long as there is a spark, it doesn't matter what the spark is, they will just make a big fuss.

During the Haibai Rebellion, the military supervisor Mei Guozhen once analyzed the Ningxia mutiny.

From the Hongwu period to the Jiajing period, the invaders invaded every year and we were on guard every year. Although the armies had the hard work of fighting and defending, they did not suffer the pain of being defeated.

From Jiajing to Longqing, peace was reached and no war or defense was required. Although the armies suffered from the pain of defeating the enemy, they did not have to work hard to train.

Nowadays, we are trying to maintain peace externally while wanting to fight at the same time internally. If we try to maintain peace, we will inevitably still be weakened and used as a means to please the enemy. If we want to fight at the same time internally, we will only have training but no hope of winning the first victory.

He showed no mercy and oppressed them, making it impossible for them to make a living and having no chance to make a living.

  It is difficult to win their hearts when there is nothing to do, so how can we avoid their resentment when we have to use force?

The key word is resentment.

The experience of the Ningxia army made them resent the world. This resentment was not directed at any specific person, but was directed equally at everything.

They should have become rich, they should have lived a good life, they were living in a fertile land, but their lives were a mess.

This led to mutinies in Ningxia, which rarely occurred in the Ningxia guards, and were concentrated in the Ningxia town cities.

On the surface, there are always political demands, but in reality, the military officers with demands just loosened their reins, and the border troops who had long wanted to make a big fuss took up their knives and killed people.

They do not kill civilians or their immediate superiors, but always point their knives at outsiders.

At the least, they attacked and killed the governor, while at the most, they raised the flag of rebellion and gathered many followers.

During the Zhengde reign, Prince of Anhua Zhu Zongqi learned that his soldiers were dissatisfied, so he invited the generals to drink, rewarded the entire army with one or two taels of silver, raised the flag of rebellion on the spot, proclaimed himself the old emperor, and killed the governor An Weixue.

During the Wanli period, Haibai rebelled, mobilized soldiers to demand pay, and killed Dang Xin.

Being a governor in a place like this, especially in this year, the possibility of encountering a mutiny is too high.

Not to mention Hong Chengchou, the governor Wang Ji ran faster than him.

Wang Ji had experienced the Ningyuan Rebellion and was originally very optimistic about the mutiny. He always felt that he could reason with the army.

But last year, there was a small change.

Wang Ji was from Tai'an Prefecture and had a son named Wang Dechang, who was a scholar.

After the Ningyuan Rebellion, Wang Ji was appreciated by the emperor. His son wanted to join the army and serve the country. He also had the honor of serving as an officer under the battalion of General Yang Yufan in his hometown. He was promoted to the rank of assistant commander for his meritorious service in suppressing bandits the year before last. He now had the opportunity to fill a vacant garrison position in Linqing.

Last year, when Wang Dechang heard that Tongguan had been massacred and Shaanxi had fallen, he panicked, resigned from his official position, and led more than ten servants to Ningxia to find his father.

A very shrewd person.

At the border of Shanxi and Shaanxi, they dressed like deserters and bribed and lied their way into Shaanxi. They told everyone they met that they wanted to seek refuge with the Grand Marshal. Even the people of Yan'an heard that he was from Shandong and came from afar to seek refuge with him. They were amazed and provided food for this good young man.

The journey took three months and was filled with numerous dangers and difficulties.

Fortunately, my father Wang Ji was there and Ningxia was not lost.

Wang Dechang took advantage of his familiarity with the overall affairs of the general standard and selected soldiers from Ningxia to serve as model soldiers for his father.

He basically did the work of a lieutenant general, but he had no official position. Even though Ningxia had lost contact with the court, Wang Ji did not dare to appoint a lieutenant general on his own.

However, it was this acting lieutenant general who frightened Wang Dechang.

He found that Ningxia was in a state of turmoil. The Ningxia soldiers in that battalion had serious ideological problems. They were so angry that they didn't know who to vent their anger on.

Let's just say it only takes three glasses of wine.

You can let a Ningxia soldier incite a mutiny and kill the governor.

Even without wine, this Ningxia soldier could be made to kill the mutinous soldiers.

They just have no meaning in life.

In addition, Hong Chengchou cleared the land one guard at a time.

Yes.

Wang Ji and Wang Dechang both knew that if Hong Chengchou could stick to this and finish the work, Ningxia would be completely transformed in a year. But they knew that this would cause a big mess.

In particular, the current mental state of the Ningxia soldiers is extremely confused, and they simply cannot hold out until the military settlements are cleared out.

Wang Dechang had advised Wang Ji several times that if it didn't work, he should resign and return home to Shandong. Although the journey back home was difficult, it was better than staying in Ningxia.

Judging from Hong Chengchou's current behavior, there will definitely be some internal strife. If Hong Chengchou gets angry, he will have many soldiers while we have only a few. If there is a mutiny, we will suffer.

But Wang Ji could not make up his mind because he knew that Liu Chengzong was about to attack Ningxia.

Just last winter, the commander of Lingzhou, across the Yellow River in Ningxia, handed him a report on the capture of a spy, which included a defense map of Lingzhou drawn by the spy.

The map of Lingzhou stretches from Hongsibao near Zhongwei to Andingbao and Xingwuying near the wall, with villages, puddles, rivers, lakes, roads, mountains and forests.

In some places, Wang Ji was even able to find out the omissions and fill in the gaps by comparing them with official maps.

Lingzhou City is particularly exquisite and detailed. The prison in the southeast corner of the city, the warehouse in the northwest, the river-suppressing tower, the palace, and the parade ground outside the city, and even the double-urn city in the north of the city are all painted vividly.

What they intercepted was only Lingzhou.

The Marshal's Office was not adequately prepared and was unable to carry out such a detailed survey of Lingzhou. Lingzhou was in such a situation, and other fortresses and garrisons were not much better.

It was clear that a war was imminent.

At this time, he was afraid of mutiny and escape, which would only make Ningzhen's already poor defense even worse.

Therefore, he could only hope that the mutiny could be delayed until the war came, and at the same time asked his son to do his best to prevent mutiny in the standard camp.

But for Wang Dechang, it is useless to guard against a standard camp, as he cannot keep an eye on everyone.

It only takes a dozen people to cause a mutiny or storm a government office, and by enlisting the help of several hundred people, the town can be thrown into chaos.

Therefore, Wang Dechang's attention was not on preventing mutiny at all. Instead, he was convinced in his heart that mutiny was bound to happen and made preparations to escape after the mutiny.

On the one hand, he placed his trusted men from Shandong in various places in the city, and on the other hand, he selected those who were both crazy and loyal, brave and trustworthy from the Ningxia camp.

This is not a contradiction, because the madness of the Ningxia soldiers is reflected in the fact that they have no room for advancement. They can kill anyone, and working for the governor can help them get promoted overnight, which can also be considered a room for advancement.

Inside the city, he had his trusted confidants stationed at the Fu Yamen, prepared many sets of civilian uniforms, parked two cars with ladders on the back wall, and promoted some trustworthy Ningxia soldiers to guard the nearest city gates.

Outside the city, he set up a carriage shop to raise horses, bought fodder and prepared meals, and made friends with the postmasters and managers of the post stations along the way and the garrison of Qingtongxia, planning a route to escape from Ningxia.

He prepared more carefully than Hong Chengchou.

Therefore, as soon as he heard about the mutiny, Wang Dechang rushed to the Fu Yamen. At this time, the front gate had been surrounded by mutinous soldiers, so he hurried to the back wall.

Just then he saw his old Shandong soldiers standing on the wall, busy trying to carry his old father, who was wrapped in an old sheepskin coat, out. Then they drove two carts straight to the city gate.

The city was in chaos, with people running around in the streets and alleys. I ran safely out of the city and looked back just in time to see the black smoke rising from the Fu Yamen.

Wang Ji, who was kept in the dark, did not know that his son was going to take him away from Ningxia. He stayed in the car and dared not show his head. He planned to seek refuge in the governor's camp and send his son to negotiate with the mutinous soldiers after the storm was over.

As a result, I heard a noise and lifted the curtain. Wow, everyone was outside the city. A group of soldiers who had changed into civilian clothes were changing horses and preparing food in the carriage shop.

Wang Ji was dumbfounded.

The key point is that his son's subordinates didn't listen to him at all. They just focused on changing horses and packing food. After that, they set off with bows, swords and armor.

The group crossed the Yellow River and headed straight for Qingtongxia along Shajing and Shigou. They traveled nearly 600 miles in three days and nights and entered the territory of Huan County in Qingyang Prefecture.

Until this moment, stationed in the ruins of the barren mountains and hills, Wang Dechang finally had time to comfort his panic-stricken old father who had abandoned his official position and fled.

But there is not much time left for him.

Because soon, their group of sixteen people were captured by the registered soldiers of Yanqing Road of the Marshal's Office.

They came at an unfortunate time.

On the one hand, Ding Guodong, who was stationed in Qingyang Prefecture, was anxious to cut back on troops because the army was overstaffed. He was busy conducting winter drills to eliminate the old and weak, and the army was at its largest at the time.

On the other hand, Zhang Zhen, the general of Yanqing Road, had just ordered Ding Guodong to step up defenses in Huan County to prevent border troops from moving south.

Ding Guodong wanted to cut the army because the Yanqing Brigade was overstaffed.

The troops stationed in each brigade of the Marshal's Office are divided into two offices, the main office and the deputy office. The office where the general is stationed has two battalions, one large and one small, with a total of 7,000 troops; the office where the deputy general is stationed has two battalions, one standard and one small, with a total of 5,000 troops.

The Yanqing Brigade had an overstrength of 2,000 people because of the Yan'an prefecture's fellow villagers who came to join the army to bring food and food. It was organized into one large camp of 5,000 people and three standard camps of 3,000 people.

But the situation changed when Ding Guodong moved into Qingyang Prefecture.

There were many peasant armies in Qingyang, mainly because several major battles had occurred there in the past. For example, the local Liu family brothers Jianghai and Shen family brothers were both ruthless gangs with tens of thousands of people. After being defeated and disbanded, many of them hid in the mountains.

The prefect Ju Sirang had already deployed tens of thousands of peasant soldiers under his command, and they all wanted to fight when He Renlong arrived.

At the same time, there were still many peasant armies in the area who had not been resettled and were living their own lives in the mountains.

Ever since Qingyang Prefecture changed its flag and joined the Marshal's Office, the peasant army leaders wanted to join the army as soon as they found out that the Grand Marshal was Liu Chengzong.

The key speeches were all quite tough, and they would say that they had cooperated with Marshal Liu in camps and besieged cities, and some even said that they had made shoes and socks for Liu Chengzong.

Ding Guodong had no way to refuse, so he asked Liu Chengzong. Liu Chengzong also said that it was true, so he told him not to make things difficult for himself and to confess everything first. He then let them farm and slowly eliminate the plague through training.

Liu Shizi also wanted to strengthen the military strength of the Yanqing Brigade. This brigade was originally weak, and its only elite troops were Ding Guodong and Milayin's two or three thousand Gansu veterans.

It would not be a bad idea to take this opportunity to select the elite forces of the peasant army scattered across the country, draw them into the army, and leave some of the old and weak in the local area for Ju Sirang to recuperate.

Therefore, he gave Ding Guodong eight words: It is more important to recruit more soldiers, but it is more important to select good soldiers.

On the other hand, Zhang Zhen asked Ding Guodong to pay attention to Huanxian’s defense, not because Zhang Zhen had the ability to predict the future and knew that there was a mutiny in Ningxia.

In fact, it was because something happened in Yansui Town.

Yang Qi of the Mo Nan Military Governor's Office was out of his mind. First, Sanang Taiji led hundreds of Wushen cavalry to break through the Yansui border wall, and then they rushed to the surrounding forts and quickly rolled southward.

The chaos lasted only an hour. The Wushen cavalry, who had broken through the border wall, returned to the Maowusu Lake through the breach and sailed away into the desert Gobi.

Governor Yang Qi took advantage of this opportunity and led more than ten riders, each driving four or five horses. They only changed horses in various places in Yan'an Prefecture along the way and rushed to Xi'an at a speed of 400 miles a day.

The soldiers did not dare to intercept him on the road, and before Zhang Zhen received the news, he had time to ask questions before his old commander had already run out of Yan'an Prefecture.

Ding Guodong didn't know what Zhang Zhen asked him to guard against, but since he had a lot of people, he just guarded against everything.

They just happened to catch Wang Ji and his son who had sneaked into Huan County.

good evening!