The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 721 Governor-General of Shaanxi
Gansu Town was one of the nine important border towns of the Great Jin Dynasty. The highest military commander, the General of Gansu, was stationed in Ganzhou, which is now Zhangye City. During the Han Dynasty, Zhangye Prefecture was established, which means "to extend the arm of China, cut off the right arm of the Xiongnu, and open up the Western Regions".

Ganzhou is located in the middle of the Hexi Corridor. Since the Han and Tang dynasties, it has been an important node on the Silk Road and a prosperous place where merchants gather. It is sandwiched between the Mongolian Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, bordered by the Helishan and Longshoushan Mountains to the north and the Qilian Mountains to the south. It has abundant snowmelt water and the Heihe River runs through the middle. The land is flat and fertile, and it has long been known as the "landscape beyond the Great Wall". It is also an important horse-producing area. The historically famous Xiliang Iron Cavalry originated from this area.

The Gansu General Commander-in-Chief oversaw four guards: Ganzhou Guard, Suzhou Guard, Liangzhou Guard, and Xining Guard, plus several garrison garrisons, totaling nearly 30,000 troops. At a rate of one tael of silver per person per month, the annual military expenditure alone would amount to 360,000 taels. This does not include expenditures on horses, provisions, and weaponry; if those were included, the expenditure would more than double.

Of course, in a normal year, the annual fiscal revenue of the Great Jin Dynasty is fifty to sixty million taels, which is more than enough to pay the military salaries of the million-strong army across the country. However, in recent years, in order to guard against the Jurchens, 200,000 heavy troops have been stationed in Liaodong for a long time. This one place alone accounts for about half of the national military expenditure. With too many monks and too little porridge, if more is spent here, other places can only be reduced.

However, in the past two years, natural disasters and man-made calamities have continued, and peasant uprisings have sprung up one after another. In Shaanxi Province alone, there are as many as 300 rebel armies. It can be said that the land is engulfed in flames. In order to suppress these rebel armies, the local garrisons are exhausted and military expenses are spent like water, almost emptying the national treasury.

Since the failed restoration attempt by the retired Emperor Kangping, Emperor Qiansheng, now free from constraints, became increasingly arrogant and self-willed, developing a mindset of neglecting state affairs and indulging in pleasure. He spent over eight million taels of silver just on building his own mausoleum, and then spent tens of millions of taels to rebuild the Western Garden and construct imperial palaces on a grand scale, which further strained the already meager national treasury.

To maintain his enormous expenditures, Emperor Qiansheng relied heavily on the eunuch Shi Dayong, dispatching a large number of mining and tax inspectors to various parts of the country to extort money from the people, further exacerbating public resentment towards the court. Desperate refugees had no choice but to rise up in rebellion, and in order to suppress the uprisings, the court could only increase taxes even more and exploit the people to pay for military expenses, thus creating a vicious cycle.

Because of its remote location, the border soldiers in Gansu Town were naturally the last to receive their pay, making them the first targets for deductions. The problem with the Ganzhou mutiny stemmed from the issue of military pay.

Originally, General Hong Chengtao had promised to pay wages before the New Year, but in the end, he didn't. The soldiers were full of complaints and could only tighten their belts to get through the New Year. However, several months after the New Year, they still hadn't received their wages. Their families were so poor that they couldn't even afford to eat. Their children were crying from hunger, and their wives pointed at them and cursed them as good-for-nothings. How pathetic!

Finally, a centurion under the Ganzhou Guard couldn't take it anymore and led his men to their superior (a chiliarch) to demand their pay. This superior was also a damned one, as he was secretly eating roasted mutton, his mouth greasy. The men were furious and immediately shoved him, demanding their pay.

That commander was a seasoned veteran, and he started acting like a rogue with no fear. He said, "I have no money, but I have one life. Don't talk to me. I haven't received my pay either. If you're so capable, go ask the general for it."

This attitude instantly ignited the anger of the crowd. It was estimated that the centurion had a bad relationship with his superior, and in a fit of rage, he killed the commander with a single blow. Then he led his men into the general's mansion and took General Hong Chengtao hostage.

General Hong was a man who had seen his share of troubles. Seeing that things were not going well, he quickly tried to calm the group of rebel soldiers down with words, promising to pay them in three days. Unfortunately, General Hong's personal attendant, who was used to being bossy, pointed at the rebel soldiers and cursed them, saying that rebelling would result in the confiscation of their property and the extermination of their families.

This is bad. The centurion thought that since his whole family was going to die anyway, he might as well pull off a big heist and rebel against them!
So he killed General Hong with a single blow, forcing the deputy general to lead a rebellion. When the deputy general refused, he killed him as well. When the brigade commander refused, he killed him as well. Finally, he managed to force a guerrilla general to agree to lead the rebellion.

They acted immediately, taking control of the city gates of Ganzhou and then conducting a thorough purge, killing all the officials who refused to cooperate, while those who were willing to submit were allowed to remain in their posts.

In order to bolster their forces, the rebel leaders conspired to open the government granaries, distribute food, and recruit civilians to join them. In a short period of time, they amassed an army of tens of thousands. The Jin army in the nearby garrisons was unable to pay its soldiers and feared that their troops would follow suit. Therefore, they dared not send troops to quell the rebellion and instead remained in their respective garrisons to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, Jia Huan led a thousand cavalrymen, their murderous aura palpable, to Suzhou Guard. The Suzhou Guard soldiers, who had been restless, immediately became docile.

As the saying goes, a person's reputation is like the shadow of a tree. Although Jia Huan is young, he is a renowned war god. The mighty Nurhaci was utterly defeated by him. Last year, he captured Hami, achieving a victory against overwhelming odds. He also made Turpan cry out for its father and mother and submit to the Great Jin, obediently offering two million taels of silver as reparations to sue for peace. He even sent Taiji Amah to the capital as a hostage.

If such a domineering figure arrives with his troops, who would dare to provoke him? Unless they're tired of living!
However, Jia Huan did not show off his power after entering Suzhou City. Instead, he promised to pay the outstanding military pay within ten days. In an instant, everyone in Suzhou Wei was overjoyed and grateful, and the morale of the army quickly stabilized.

To solve a problem, one must address the main contradiction. The problem lies in military pay, so let's pay the military pay. With money in our pockets, we won't panic, and Jia Huan had just the right confidence to do so.

After stabilizing the morale of the Suzhou Guard, Jia Huan did not rush to send troops to Ganzhou. Instead, he immediately ordered Duan Yong to transport military supplies from Hami. At the same time, he drilled the soldiers of the Suzhou Guard every day to establish his prestige in the army.

Ten days later, Duan Yong indeed sent someone to deliver the military pay, and all the back pay owed to the soldiers of Suzhou Guard was paid in full at once. The soldiers were naturally overjoyed to receive their pay, and Jia Huan's style of "keeping his word and fulfilling his promises" won the soldiers' recognition and support.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Jia Huan gave the order and led his army toward Ganzhou. When the rebel soldiers in Ganzhou heard that Jia Huan was leading his troops to attack, they were thrown into chaos. This guy was no pushover!

After discussing it, the rebel leaders realized that they might not be able to defeat Jia Huan, the god of war, by fighting him head-on. So they decided to fortify their city walls and keep the gates closed, intending to wear down Jia Huan's forces with the strong walls.

However, Jia Huan's next move surprised the rebel soldiers. After arriving at the city of Ganzhou, Jia Huan did not attack the city. Instead, he conducted daily drills and arranged for people to cultivate the fields and sow seeds in the spring, as if he were preparing for a protracted war.

The rebel leaders were dumbfounded. First, they were completely confused, then they were furious. "You, Jia Ziming, do you think we're invisible? You dare to farm right under our noses! You may have a good reputation and be a good fighter, but we're not some bunch of peasant soldiers. We're a trained regular army. How dare you look down on us like this? You deserve to die!"

On this day, the rebel leader finally couldn't hold back any longer and sent men out of the city to challenge Jia Huan, attempting to dampen his spirits. Jia Huan didn't hold back and immediately dispatched his two fierce generals, Tie Niu and Man Gui, to meet the challenge.

Although Tie Niu was honest and simple, he possessed unparalleled bravery in battle, while Man Gui was even more fearless and daring, fighting with boundless energy. The two of them each led a cavalry unit in a charge, shattering the rebel army's formation in a single encounter—truly an unstoppable force. The rebel soldiers were terrified and fled in disarray. The rebel leader in the city hastily ordered the drawbridge to be raised and the city gates closed, daring not to venture out again to challenge them.

Man Gui originally wanted to press his advantage and attack the city, but Jia Huan ordered him to return. After all, this was a civil war, and the rebellion of the rebel soldiers in the city was not without reason. There was no need to push too hard and cause too many casualties.

Jia Huan did not kill the captured rebel prisoners; he simply confiscated their weapons and sent them to spring plowing and planting to avoid missing the farming season.

At the same time, Jia Huan ordered his men to use catapults to throw a large number of leaflets into Ganzhou City, promising to only kill the core members who led the rebellion, and that ordinary soldiers and civilians would not be pursued as long as they surrendered outside the city. He also promised that anyone who brought the head of the rebel leader would be rewarded with five hundred taels of silver.

Jia Huan's open scheme immediately made several rebel leaders feel extremely uneasy, unable to eat or sleep, and suspicious of everything. At the slightest sign of trouble, they would kill those around them in an attempt to make an example of them.

However, while this bloody method of repression was effective in the short term, it backfired in the long run. People below were afraid of being suspected, and the psychological pressure was increasing. Finally, some people took the lead in escaping the city and surrendering.

In this way, Ganzhou City fell without a fight in less than a month. The centurion who led the rebellion and the guerrilla general were killed by their subordinates. Jia Huan quelled the rebellion with almost no casualties, and his prestige in the army naturally rose to a new level.

When Duan Yong saw that Jia Huan had easily quelled the rebellion, he breathed a sigh of relief, but also had doubts in his heart. As Jia Huan's prestige in the army was growing, he, as the supervising officer, felt increasingly powerless and was afraid that he would not be able to control Jia Huan. After much hesitation, he wrote a secret memorial and sent it to the capital through the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard).

However, Duan Yong was unaware that the Great Jin Dynasty was already in turmoil, with hundreds of rebel groups in Shaanxi alone, and flames of war spreading throughout the north and south of the Yangtze River.

Just a month ago, the largest rebel armies in Shaanxi, led by Gao Yingxiang, Wang Ziyong, Wang Jiayin, and Zhang Cunmeng, launched a joint attack on Shanxi. They were known as the Thirty-Six Battalions, with a total strength of nearly 200,000. They captured Taiyuan City in Shanxi and destroyed the royal mausoleums within Taiyuan.

It is worth mentioning that although Emperor Taizu of Jin, Xu Jin, started his career in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and launched a northern expedition to expel the Tartars, his ancestors were from Taiyuan, Shanxi. Therefore, he later established the state with the name "Jin".

After Emperor Taizu of Jin established the country, he posthumously honored his ancestors for three generations and built a mausoleum for them in Taiyuan, which was also known as the Western Capital of Jin. Now that the royal ancestral mausoleum has been destroyed by the rebel army, it has undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to the Jin royal family and cast a shadow over the fate of the country.

The ancestral tombs were looted by the rebel army, which enraged Emperor Qiansheng. He dismissed and imprisoned Zheng Chongjian, the person in charge of suppressing the Shaanxi rebels and the commander-in-chief of the Three Border Regions, and also executed more than a dozen local officials, including the garrison commander of Taiyuan. The entire court was terrified and fell silent.

Just then, news of a mutiny in Ganzhou arrived, enraging Emperor Qiansheng. He was furious that peasants were rebelling, but now even soldiers were joining in the rebellion. This was outrageous! He immediately issued an edict ordering Jia Huan, the governor of Gansu, to quell the rebellion.

However, before Emperor Qiansheng's imperial edict could reach Ganzhou, the news of Jia Huan's successful suppression of the rebellion arrived at Emperor Qiansheng's desk first. The latter was both surprised and delighted. Jia Huan was indeed quite capable, handling matters cleanly and efficiently, far more so than the likes of Zheng Chongjian, the commander-in-chief of the three border regions.

Therefore, Emperor Qiansheng appointed Jia Huan to succeed him as the commander-in-chief of the three border regions, and to be fully responsible for suppressing the rebel army in Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi and Shanxi.

However, just as Emperor Qiansheng finished drafting his imperial edict, Duan Yong's secret memorial arrived. After reading Duan Yong's memorial, Emperor Qiansheng fell silent. He had never liked Jia Huan and was naturally worried that Jia Huan would wield too much power and eventually become a powerful figure with his own army.

However, the situation in the country is in a mess. As the saying goes, when the country is broken, people yearn for good generals, and when the family is poor, they long for virtuous wives. Wouldn't it be foolish not to use a commander like Jia Huan?

After much deliberation, Emperor Qiansheng decided to reinstate Jia Huan, but reassigned him as the Governor-General of Shaanxi, a position with significantly less power than that of the Governor-General of the Three Border Regions. In addition, presumably to show his favor, he pardoned the Xue family mother and daughter, removing them from their status as entertainers and restoring them to normal life.

However, in his imperial edict, Emperor Qiansheng also required Jia Huan to send Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu back to the capital. On the surface, this was out of good intentions, so that Jia Huan could focus on leading the troops without shirking his responsibilities. In reality, it was to leave the two women in the capital as hostages to prevent Jia Huan from becoming too powerful and controlling.

In mid-May of the twelfth year of the Qiansheng reign, Jia Huan, who was in Ganzhou, received an imperial edict from the Qiansheng Emperor, promoting him from Governor of Gansu to Governor-General of Shaanxi, responsible for suppressing the rebel army in Shaanxi and Shanxi, and giving him control over the troops in both regions.

In this way, the seventeen-year-old Jia Huan became a marshal who held the military power of two provinces, a true regional governor. He was the first person to assume such a heavy responsibility at such a young age since the founding of the Great Jin Dynasty.

Many people were naturally envious. For example, the Donglin faction strongly opposed it, saying that he was too young and inexperienced to take on such an important task. However, Emperor Qiansheng always looked at the results, not the advertisements. Jia Huan's achievements were obvious to all, so he overruled the objections, made the decision alone, and no one could object.

Old Master Zheng never expected that in just over a year, his illegitimate son would rise to such heights again. While excited, he couldn't help but worry. As the saying goes, the higher you climb, the harder you fall. It's not easy to suppress the rebels everywhere. The former commander-in-chief of the three border regions was dismissed for his ineffective suppression of the rebels and is currently imprisoned and about to be interrogated. In the end, he will probably not escape the death penalty either.

The news of Jia Huan's promotion quickly reached the Jia family, and the whole household was overjoyed once again. Aunt Xue was so happy that she cried tears of joy. Heaven help her, she and her daughter had finally been freed from their lowly status. It was all thanks to Huan-ge'er!
(End of this chapter)