Jia Yujing of Red Mansion

Chapter 306 Critical Situation

Just when the Jurchens invaded Liaodong on a large scale, the various tribes of Oara also raised their troops to go south as if they had agreed.

However, unlike the Jurchens who gathered heavy troops to storm one place, the Mongols sent out troops in multiple groups and invaded Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei and other places. Each group had about 5,000 troops.

The northern border of Dachu stretches for thousands of miles, and it is impossible for all places to be defended by the Great Wall and garrisoned by troops.

The Mongols gave full play to the mobility of their cavalry troops, attacking everywhere, looking for defense loopholes everywhere. Once a loophole was found, they would get in directly, regardless of whether the retreat would be cut off.

This seemingly reckless dismissal caught the Dachu border troops off guard. Soon, Doluwala troops broke into the hinterland of Dachu, burning, killing and looting everywhere. For a time, the northern border provinces were full of smoke and warnings.

When the grassland aliens invaded the border on a large scale, rebellions within Dachu also began to break out.

Under the banner of the White Lotus Sect, Han Shantong developed a large number of followers among the victims and river workers in the Yingzhou area. He also buried a one-eyed stone man in Huanglinggang and spread nursery rhymes widely.

The saying "One eye of a stone man can stir up rebellion across the Yellow River" is widely circulated in the Yingzhou area.

When the news of the outbreak of the border war came, seeing that the time was ripe, the court's attention was attracted by the nine-border war, and a large number of troops were mobilized north to deploy defenses.

Han Shantong took the opportunity and ordered people to dig out the stone figures to incite the victims and river workers to rebel.

In just a few days, Han Shantong gathered tens of thousands of troops and quickly captured Yingshang County.

Han Shantong then opened a warehouse to put grain, killed a white horse and a black cow to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, wrapped his head in a red scarf, and swore an uprising.

He claimed that he was a descendant of the Southern Song Dynasty royal family, the eighth grandson of Song Huizong, and proclaimed himself King Ming. The rebel army he led was called the Red Turban Army.

As the news spread, many rebel armies quickly appeared in Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Jianghuai and other places to respond.

Liu Futong, Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, Peng Yingyu, Xu Shouhui, Ming Yuzhen, Guo Zixing, etc., were no less than twenty groups of rebels, large and small.

Among these people were members of the White Lotus cult, local heroes who were dissatisfied with the imperial court, private salt dealers who licked blood from their swords, and careerists who wanted to draw chestnuts from the fire.

At that time, there was a great disaster in the Yellow River, and there were many refugees in various places.

Although the imperial court has allocated a large amount of money for relief, under the exploitation of officials at all levels, not even 30% of it can actually fall into the hands of the victims.

What's more, officials in some places are so greedy that they can embezzle 90% of the 100% disaster relief funds, leaving local victims starved of food and causing public resentment.

The millions of refugees in the north are like dry firewood that has been exposed to the scorching sun for many days. As long as there is a spark, it will ignite a raging fire.

Under such circumstances, the rebel armies in various places basically grew rapidly.

Even if most of these rebels are barefoot farmers without any military training, their weapons and equipment are extremely crude, and their combat effectiveness will definitely not be much stronger.

But once the quantity reaches a certain level, there will be a qualitative change.

What's more, there are many private soldiers in the rebel army raised by powerful people from various places, as well as some experts who have been recruited and trained in advance. These people are not easy to deal with.

At this time, most of the elite troops in the north were restrained by the nine-sided war. The guards in various places were generally neglected in training and had low combat effectiveness. They were unable to quickly extinguish these rebel forces.

In the early stages of the rebellion, the imperial court misjudged the situation and did not pay due attention to these rebels. It only ordered the local governors to suppress the rebellion on their own.

However, after the order was issued, most of the counter-insurgency work in various places was not going smoothly. In some places, local guardsmen were even eliminated by the organized forces or even surrendered. As a result, the situation in each province quickly deteriorated, and the rebel forces further grew in power.

Especially in the Jianghuai area, rebel forces such as Han Shantong, Liu Futong, Zhang Shicheng, and Guo Zixing were all concentrated in this area. As a result, the local defenders lost sight of one thing and suffered defeats in a row, and soon they could only retreat. Several forces responded to each other and took the opportunity to grow bigger. In just over a month, they captured more than a dozen counties and cities, and their strength expanded rapidly.

Among them, Han Shantong, Liu Futong and Guo Zixing quickly joined forces and captured 11 counties in the Huaixi region, with a force of 80,000.

Zhang Shicheng occupied the four counties of Huaibei alone and had as many as 30,000 troops.

As their military strength increased, the ambitions of Han Shantong and others also expanded rapidly. They were no longer satisfied with capturing small county towns, but were planning to attack larger cities.

Only when the urgent news came that the rebels were besieging Yingzhou Fucheng did the court realize the seriousness of the problem.

The cabinet quickly made a decision. While removing a small number of elite soldiers from the Nine Borders and heading south to stabilize the situation in Henan, Hebei, Shandong and other places, the cabinet quickly mobilized 50,000 elite troops from the Jiangnan Camp to go north to quell the Jianghuai rebellion.

However, it is difficult to save fire from afar. The Jiangnan camp is far away in Jiangxi. The army is dispatched and there is a lot of food, grass and baggage, so the marching speed will naturally not be fast.

It will take a month for the elite troops from Jiangnan to rush to the Jianghuai area. By then, the situation in the Jianghuai area will not necessarily have deteriorated to such an extent.

October 15th is Xiayuan Festival, also called "October Watch". This day was a very important festival in ancient times.

Volume 56 of "Yunji Qizhuan" contains: "After the chaos is divided, there are three elements of heaven, earth and water, which generate human relations and nourish all things."

Taoism respects the three ancient wise kings Yao, Shun and Yu as the three officials of heaven, earth and water. They record the good and evil of people in the world and are the basis of all things.

The three officials of heaven, earth, and water each perform their duties. The weather is perfect on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The weather governs life and bestows blessings to benefit people's livelihood, so blessings are given.

On the 15th day of the seventh month, the earth energy is perfect, the earth energy dominates the state, becomes blessed and forgives sins, so sins are forgiven.

On October 15th, the water qi is perfect, and the virtues are in the water. The water qi dominates and removes all filth, so it relieves misfortune.

Therefore, the folk call the three yuan "Shangyuan", "Zhongyuan" and "Xiayuan" respectively based on the birthdays of the three officials.

Since the Song Dynasty, the Xiayuan Festival has become a festival to pray for water officials to relieve worries and troubles, to offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors, to ward off disasters and avoid evil spirits, and to pray for a good harvest in the coming year.

The customs of Dachu were inherited from the Song Dynasty, and they naturally attached great importance to the Xiayuan Festival.

Every year on this day, a very grand sacrificial activity will be organized in Chang'an City, and the people in the city will light lanterns in every household to bless them, which is as grand as the Lantern Festival.

To the south of Jinmingchi, there is a hill called Dafu Mountain, and there is a Yongan Temple on the mountain.

This Yong'an Temple is not large, but it is very famous because there is a very famous White Pagoda in the temple.

During the Xiayuan Festival, believers will light Buddhist lanterns and walk from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the White Pagoda at night to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters.

From a distance, the lights look like stars, scattered all over the mountain road, which is a great scenic spot in Chang'an City.

On this day, monks in yellow clothes will chant sutras, blow conch shells, and beat tambourines all night long to pray for believers and the country.

At this time in previous years, Emperor Longqing would give his courtiers a holiday so that everyone could celebrate the festival and rest for a few days.

However, this year the country was suffering from internal and external troubles, and the year was unfavorable. Emperor Longqing adopted the advice of the Ministry of Rites and planned to take the important ministers, dignitaries and wives of the third rank or above in the court to climb the White Pagoda to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters for the country.

(End of this chapter)