Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

"David, the governor of Shandong and the admiral of military affairs, issued a letter to inform all civil and military officials, soldiers and civilians in Shandong: I am a Han Chinese, and I have received great grace from the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the world was in turmoil. The Manchus took advantage of our internal weakness to steal the sacred artifacts, changed our Chinese crown and clothes, and humiliated our Chinese people. They were cruel and unjust, treacherous and evil, and the officials were cruel and corrupt. The harsh policies and levies were so severe that the mountains were bleak and the rivers were sad. Women cried and children wept. In Shandong alone, how many people died from tyranny! Every time I think of this, my tears dry up and turn into blood. My heart aches silently, but I can't do anything! Fortunately, a saint rose in the West to fight against tyranny and save the people, and stood up to David. Lotus has a kind heart and helps the world. Each tribe should keep their clothes and hats, clarify the administration of officials, promote farming, reduce taxes and trade, lighten the burden of labor service, revive the rites and teachings in China, and restore Confucius and Mencius to China. The people's will is like thunder and lightning, so once the righteous flag is raised, it will be responded to by all directions. Although I am just a corrupt scholar, I am not willing to lag behind, so I will join the holy master and be willing to be driven. The army will march to the land of Qi and Lu to avenge the anger of the Han people in the world. Those who surrender will not be harmed, and chickens and dogs will not be frightened. Those who disobey and rebel will be killed, old and young, men and women will be killed. If there are righteous men who rise up to welcome the king's army, the court will not be stingy with high titles and generous rewards. Officials, soldiers and civilians in all prefectures should obey the warnings and not stain their swords with blood. This will be a blessing for the governor and the world."
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This manifesto written by Zhou Youde, the Shandong governor of the Wei Kingdom, to pacify Shandong quickly spread to the six prefectures of Shandong. In the office of the Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office in Licheng County, Jinan Prefecture, Shi Tianyi, the Left Provincial Administration Commissioner of Shandong, looked at the Right Provincial Administration Commissioner Yu Pengju, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Fang Dayou, and the Jinan Prefect Jiang Kun with a sad face. After a long time, he spoke: "Have you ever seen this letter from Zhou Fuyuan? He joined the Han Army's Red Banner, but I didn't expect him to surrender to Wei. Now that Zhu Duxian died for his country, Zhou Fuyuan surrendered to Wei, and Yang Shaobao fled without a fight, the entire province of Shandong has no soldiers to defend. What should we do?" On the surface, he was asking for advice, but in fact he wanted to test everyone's attitude.

This Fangbo was a good friend of the governor Zhou Youde. The two cooperated with each other and managed Shandong in an orderly manner. At the age of fifty, he had a tragic fate. His mother died early when he was young, and he was fostered in his maternal grandparents' home. He returned home when he grew up, but he encountered the chaos of the late Ming Dynasty and was abducted by the Qing army to the border. He fell ill and was abandoned on the way. Fortunately, he was taken in by a kind-hearted man named Zhou Yuexuan, and changed his surname to Zhou. Later, he participated in the imperial examination of the Qing Dynasty and gradually became the high position of the Left Governor of Shandong. He was honest and talented in his position. Because he had witnessed the brutality of the Qing army when he was young, and he was good friends with Zhou Youde, and most importantly, the current war situation was extremely favorable to the Wei army, he was inclined to surrender. However, such a major event cannot be decided by one person, and everyone's opinions must be listened to.

"We are the officials of Shandong Province and we have the responsibility to defend our territory. There is nothing to say, just fight," said Yu Pengju, the Right Provincial Government Envoy. Among the people present, he was the only one who had fought against Zheng Chenggong's army when he was a councilor in Fujian Province. He was considered to be a veteran of battles and the most courageous.

After hearing what Yu Pengju said, Shi Tianyi hesitated. It was easy to surrender to Wei, but if Wei didn't get the world, he would become a criminal in the future. After pondering for a moment, he asked Fang Dayou, the provincial governor, "What do you think, Ou Yu (Fang Dayou's name)?"

Fang Dayou was a Jinshi in the tenth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1637). He loved calligraphy and painting the most. He was good at writing, but he lacked military skills. Moreover, he was a traitor. Changing his master was not a big deal. How could he risk his life for his master? When he saw Shi Fangbo speaking, he smiled calmly and said, "I am a good-for-nothing scholar. I am willing to follow you two."

Well, asking is the same as not asking! Shi Tianyi glanced at him unhappily, then glanced at Jinan prefect Jiang Kun: "What do you think?"

Among the six prefectures in Shandong, Jinan is the provincial capital, with jurisdiction over four states and twenty-six counties, and is the most important. Jiang Kun was originally from Guangning, Liaodong. His parents and relatives are now in the Weiguo-controlled area. Seeing that the Qing court was doomed, he was willing to surrender to Wei. Seeing Shi Tianyi asking a question, he sorted out his thoughts and slowly replied: "The Shandong garrison has always been controlled by Zhou Fuyuan. The three battalions of Fubiao stationed in Jinan, the three associations of Yanzhou, Dengzhou, and Caozhou, and the garrisons in Qingzhou, Laizhou, Dengzhou and other places, including the main forces of the Dengzhou Navy Battalion and the Rongcheng Navy Battalion, were almost all buried when they followed Zhou Fuyuan to defend the king. There are really no soldiers available!"

"Humph! If there are no soldiers, recruit them; if there are no generals, transfer them. All the flood soldiers and yamen runners from all over the country will be concentrated in Licheng (the capital of Jinan Prefecture), and then the people will be recruited to defend the city. The city of Jinan is strong, and there is also food in the treasury, which is enough to support for a period of time," Yu Pengju said passionately. Seeing that no one responded, he suddenly took out a letter from his sleeve, "You are unwilling to fight, is it because you received Zhou Youde's letter?" It turned out that Zhou Youde wrote private letters to all the Shandong officials he was familiar with to persuade them to surrender. Private letters are naturally different from manifestos. They are all words of currying favor with each other and making promises. The letter written to Yu Pengju was full of exaggerated words, such as "Good birds choose trees, let alone great people. There is no time to spare, so plan for it early." The main idea is that if you follow me to surrender to the defense, you will have a bright future. If you refuse to surrender, you will die. Yu Pengju is a good guy. After showing the letter to everyone, he tore the letter to pieces, "I will never coexist with the traitors who betray my master!"

Everyone's face was uncertain, for no other reason, they had received such a letter. Seeing Yu Pengju's determination, Shi Tianyi also thought it would be a good idea to defend the city first, and surrender if he couldn't defend it. He nodded slowly: "In this case, Xiangzi (Yu Pengju's name) will be in charge of defending the city", and ordered Jiang Kun: "You should immediately command the yamen runners to patrol and recruit the people of Licheng to help defend the city."

"I obey your command," Jiang Kun accepted the order.

The crowd discussed the defense of the city for a while, but did not come up with a general idea and left in a hurry. When they returned to the house, Jiang Kun suddenly burst into laughter.

"Master, what are you laughing at?" his wife Zhao asked in surprise.

"My lord, my chance to rise to the top has come!" Jiang Kun said excitedly.

"I heard that the Wei army is going to attack Shandong. Master, do you have a good plan to defeat the enemy?"

"Haha, there are not many troops stationed in Shandong now. Even if there are, the princes in the hall have different opinions and cannot win. Where can we get a good plan to defeat the enemy?" Jiang Kun laughed, "I thought you would follow the will of heaven and return the land of Qi and Lu to Wei. If so, a mere prefect can hardly do anything. I didn't expect that after a whole day of discussion they actually wanted to fight a chariot with an egg. Now my chance has come, sir. I will write a letter to Zhou Fuyuan to be the internal support of the Wei army. Do you worry about not having an official position after making great contributions?" After saying that, Jiang Fuzun took out a letter from his sleeve, which was also written by Zhou Youde.
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Xu Dengdi, who used the alias Xu Biao, led 3,000 surrendered soldiers composed of captives and walked in front, followed by 4,000 elite soldiers of Zhou Youde, the governor of Shandong Province of David. These 7,000 people were all the troops of David to capture Shandong. Dezhou City became clearer and clearer, but Xu Dengdi was in a state of uncertainty. It was because most of the soldiers Zhou Youde gave him were the captives of the Qinghe Governor Zhu Zhixi. They were not strong in combat, and Niu Wancai picked up the weakest ones to give away. Xu Dengdi, who was also considered a fierce general, felt bitter when he saw these crooked people, and had to bite the bullet and lead these people as the vanguard. He killed more than a dozen deserters along the way and allocated some silver money, so that these civilians could barely be used.

Dezhou City originally had a city guard, who commanded 500 Eight Banner soldiers. However, after repeated withdrawals, there was only one cavalry captain and 200 cavalry and infantry soldiers left. Although he knew he was outnumbered, the cavalry captain, a Manchu, was still determined to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty and led his men to defend the city. In order to avoid insufficient troops, the governor Jin Zupeng was asked to recruit 1,000 civilians to help defend the city. "Mr. Cheng, how is it going?" Jin Zupeng asked Cheng Xianzhen softly on the east wall. Cheng Xianzhen was a famous scholar in Dezhou and a good friend of the great scholar Gu Yanwu in the late Ming Dynasty. He had always been anti-Qing.

"Don't worry, Mr. Jin. I have already contacted Zhou Fuyuan. All we have to do is open the city gate," Cheng Xianzhen answered slowly, with the calm demeanor of a famous scholar.

"Open the city gate!" Jin Zupeng gritted his teeth and shouted sternly.

Under the city wall, Xu Dengdi glanced at Zhou Youde's military flag behind him and felt suspicious. The East City was next to the water and was not conducive to siege. He didn't know why Fuyuan insisted on attacking the East City and said something like "the secret cannot be revealed."

"Creaky~Creaky~Creaky~" The heavy East City Gate opened unexpectedly. Xu Dengdi's eyes widened, and he finally understood the meaning of "Heaven's secret cannot be revealed".

"Brothers, follow me into the city!" He shouted, riding his horse and holding his sword, and was the first to enter the city. The general is the courage of the soldiers. Although the fighting power of his subordinates is not strong, it can be seen that the commander took the lead and there was an insider, so they all mustered up the courage to enter the city.

"Jin Zupeng, the governor of Dezhou, has rebelled on the battlefield. Please follow me, General." Jin Zupeng led the young men from Dezhou and Xu Dengdi to attack the north city where the Cavalry School was stationed. The Cavalry School had only 200 soldiers, scattered on various sections of the city wall. They were caught off guard and soon died under Xu Dengdi's sword.

"I have successfully captured the city, please allow me to enter," Xu Dengdi respectfully welcomed Zhou Youde.

Zhou Youde glanced at Jin Zhizhou who was following behind Lieutenant General Xu and laughed, "It seems that Shandong is easier to fight than we expected!"
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It was indeed easy to fight. All the counties along the way surrendered without a fight. When attacking Licheng, the prefect of Jinan, Jiang Kun, secretly opened the city gate. The guards rushed into the city. Shi Tianyi, the left governor of Shandong, and Fang Dayou, the provincial governor, saw that the situation was not good, so they simply led a group of officials to kneel down and surrender. Only Yu Pengju, the right governor, hanged himself in his house and died for the Qing Dynasty.

"We have long wanted to return to Wei, but were coerced by Yu Pengju and did not welcome the royal army. Please forgive us, Governor Zhou," Shi Tianyi and Fang Dayou knelt in front of Zhou Youde and pleaded guilty.

"You are all my old friends, why do you have to do this? Get up, get up quickly~" Zhou Youde smiled and helped his two old friends up, then hypocritically ordered people to bury Yu Pengju with great honor.

Seeing that the governor did not even pursue Yu Pengju, who resisted the king's army, people's hearts were at peace for a while. Qingzhou Military Preparations Director Jia Yiqi, Qingzhou Prefect Cui Jun, Laizhou Prefect Chen Qian and other officials surrendered, and even the few remaining warships in the Dengzhou Navy Camp and Rongcheng Navy Camp raised the flag of surrender to Zhou Fuyuan. Among the surrendered officials, Zhou Youde valued Kong Yanchun, the Tongpan of Dongchang Prefecture and the hereditary magistrate of Qufu County the most. There was no other reason, he was the 65th generation grandson of Confucius.

Coincidentally, the Great Khan of Lotus in Beijing also knew the value of the descendants of the saints, and specially issued an order to increase Kong Yanchun's salary to the third rank. (End of this chapter)