Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 647: Chaos in the Southwest of Darong
Just when Li Chang set out to find Yang Mingzhao, Yang Mingzhao was busy seizing territory.

Last year, Yang Mingzhao led the Taiping Army to capture Baoning Prefecture. This was originally just an expansion plan of the Taiping Army, but it was like opening Pandora's box, causing the entire Bashu to fall into riot.

At the beginning of this year, the rebel forces in Bashu began to expand rapidly.

First, the Nine Heavenly Kings captured Wusa Prefecture, Zhenxiong Prefecture, and Wumeng Prefecture. Then, Ma He, the commander of the Shunan Xingdusi, invaded Shunan Prefecture, Dongchuan Prefecture, and Mahu Prefecture. Then, the Black Tiger King was not to be outdone and directly captured the largest prefecture in Bashu, Yuzhou Prefecture.

With the addition of Yang Mingzhao, the King of Taiping, the land of Bashu fell into a situation of being encroached upon by rebel forces from all directions.

Under such circumstances, Yang Mingzhao naturally would not sit idle. He began a stage of massive expansion, occupying Long'an Prefecture and Songpan Prefecture to the west, and sneaking into Shuzhou Prefecture, Tongchuan Prefecture and Shunqing Prefecture to the south.

In just over half a year, Yang Mingzhao had occupied four prefectures. Most of the six states and thirteen prefectures in Bashu Province were divided up by the four rebel forces, and the court could only control less than three prefectures and counties.

At this time, the three government offices of Bashu were like a small beast surrounded by a pack of wolves. It could only hide in the tall and majestic Shuzhou City and tremble in fear, not daring to leave the city at all.

In the lobby of Baoning Prefecture government office.

At this time, Yang Mingzhao was meeting with several senior executives under his command.

However, due to the expansion of territory, many of his subordinates have been stationed in various places, and only a few civil and military officials are left around him.

The civil officials include Ma Yan, Lu Wenchun and Qi Zhang, and the military officials include Li Dagui, Chen Buyu and Li Baoshan.

"Young Master, we can't expand any further. We don't have enough officials under our command. Many of them are just unqualified people. We need time to train more trustworthy officials!" said Ma Yan.

Li Dagui also nodded and said, "That's right. It's not just the officials, but also the soldiers. This year our Taiping Army has expanded from 3,000 to 30,000. Many of them are young and strong men who have just been recruited and have not even completed basic training!"

"We need time to rectify military discipline and train soldiers. We can't expand blindly anymore!"

Li Wenchun stroked his horn beard and said, "What Lord Ma and General Li said are both correct. Our situation is pretty good now. There is no need to continue expanding!"

"To our north is King Daliang's Daliang Army. They are expanding from Hanzhong Prefecture towards Shanhe Province and will not think of entering Bashu in the short term!"

"Officials in Shuzhou Prefecture in the south can only huddle in the city to protect themselves and are unable to fight back."

"There is no threat from Kuizhou Prefecture in the east. The only threat is Anxi Town in the west. However, Anxi Town is also in a mess right now, and I guess they can't take care of us now!"

To the west of Songpan Prefecture is Anxi Town, one of the nine border towns of Dayong. Although the nine border towns vary in strength, each border town has many elite soldiers and generals. Even though Dayong has declined beyond recognition today, the elite border towns still have strong combat effectiveness.

Now the Taiping Army has occupied Songpan Prefecture. If Anxi Town really intends to enter Bashu to quell the rebellion, Songpan Prefecture is a place they must pass through.

Therefore, Anxi Town is the biggest threat to the Taiping Army at this time, and it is also the direction that the Taiping Army needs to defend most.

Although Yang Mingzhao was very confident in his own strength, he was not so arrogant as to think that the Taiping Army could resist a border town.

After listening to what they said, Yang Mingzhao agreed and said, "Then let's start to rectify the internal affairs."

"First, we need to build government offices at all levels in Songpan Prefecture and Long'an Prefecture, start surveying the land, and distribute the land to the people!"

"Then we will train the Taiping Army. First we will divide the Taiping Army into five battalions: front, back, left, right, and center. We will train and reorganize them while stationing them in various places!"

"Finally, do we need to re-establish the organizational structure of the central government?"

His Taiping Army was now just a makeshift team. The official positions were all set up according to Darong's official positions. The prefects, state magistrates, county magistrates, associate magistrates, county magistrates, chief clerks, clerks, etc. were all Darong's. They just arranged their own people to hold the official positions.

There is actually no problem with these. As long as Yang Mingzhao can ensure that the officials are his own people, he can control the territory occupied by the Taiping Army.

But the problem is that their central government does not have a complete organizational structure.

Li Wenchun is the prefect of Baoning Prefecture. Li Dagui has three thousand soldiers under his command who are responsible for guarding Baoning City, but he does not have a formal official position. Others just call him general. But what kind of general is he?
"What does sir mean?" Li Dagui asked.

Yang Mingzhao smiled and said, "We should set up a cabinet, six ministries, and a governor's office to build the framework first, so that we can ensure that our small court can operate normally!"

Although they only occupy four prefectures now, it is time to set up a central organization.

Otherwise, the responsibilities and authorities will be unclear, the affiliation will be unclear, the situation will be chaotic, and it will be difficult to coordinate and command in a unified manner.

As for the six ministries of the cabinet and the Governor's Office, Yang Mingzhao was simply too lazy to make any effort and simply moved the team from Darong's court over.

The problem with Darong lies not in the organizational form of the central government, but in the fact that those officials are afraid to take on their duties.

Simply put, there is nothing wrong with the system; the problem lies with the people who implement the system.

If Yang Mingzhao could really ascend the throne and become emperor, he might need to change the organizational structure of the central court, but he now occupies four prefectures, so there is no need to go through so much trouble. He only needs a small central court. As for the rest, he can adjust it slowly later.

"You are right, sir. We do need a complete set of central institutions. However, I do not recommend using the names of the six ministries and the Governor's Office. If this gets out, it will attract too much attention."

"Why not establish a small court according to the regulations of the Sansi Yamen?"

Li Wenchun suggested.

The Cabinet, Six Ministries, Six Departments, Five Temples, the Governor's Office, etc., these are organizational structures that only exist in the imperial dynasty. There is no benefit in using these official names now, but it will instead arouse the vigilance of the court.

The current situation in Bashu is that four rebel armies are encroaching on Bashu. The court has the same attitude towards the four rebel armies, but once they use the names of the official offices of the six ministries of the cabinet, the court will regard them as its number one enemy.

Therefore, these titles cannot be used indiscriminately, and even Yang Mingzhao cannot be called king now.

Yang Mingzhao had the title of King Taiping, but this title sounded more like a bandit's title than a real king's title.

"Well, then we will set up the center according to the regulations of the three government offices!"

"The Provincial Administration Office is responsible for civil affairs. I will personally serve as the Provincial Administration Office. Lord Li, Lord Qi, and Ma Yan will serve as the Councilors. Under it, there will be a Department of Housing, which is responsible for executing specific government orders!"

"The Dusi Yamen is responsible for managing the army. I personally serve as the commander-in-chief, and I have five battalions of the Taiping Army under me to guard various locations."

"The Censorate, with Lu Bo as the Censor, is in charge of judicial and supervisory affairs."

Obviously, this Sansi Yamen is different from the real Sansi Yamen, and is not even the same as the real one.

This is actually more like the system of governors and generals in border towns, except that the censors were separated out to play the role of the Censorate and the Dali Temple.

But these are not important. What is important is that in this way, Yang Mingzhao will have his own central organization, and it will no longer be the makeshift team before.

No one had any objection to this and they all nodded in agreement with Yang Mingzhao's idea.

Then, Yang Mingzhao began to set up his own central organization and did not encounter any trouble in the process.

The Taiping Army now is like a piece of white paper that has just been spread out, and Yang Mingzhao can write and draw on it at will.

Even if there is a problem, it will not cause too much trouble, you just need to correct it immediately.

As the saying goes, a small boat is easier to turn around. Right now, Yang Mingzhao and the Taiping Army are in the stage of trying to initially establish a court system, which is also the stage of laying the foundation for the future. …

The land of Yungui.

Chen Hengchang of Jiujiang Prefecture was also expanding rapidly, but his expansion direction was not Bashu in the west, nor the west and south of Yungui, but the east of Yungui and the Jiangnan area further east.

With the support of the Shenyang Sect, Chen Hengchang's expansion speed was extremely fast.

It was only a year and a half since they started the rebellion, but they had already occupied five prefectures in the eastern part of Yunnan and Guilin, and were now preparing to attack Jiangnan.

Their expansion speed is much faster than Yang Mingzhao's. Not only is it fast, but their goals are also very clear.

The prosperous land of Jiangnan is their biggest target at present.

Compared with Yang Mingzhao who was making trouble in the mountains, Chen Hengchang's ambition and confidence were undoubtedly greater.

Once Chen Hengchang occupied the Jiangnan area, it would be almost equivalent to taking away the most important source of tax revenue for the Darong court, dealing a fatal blow to the Darong court.

Therefore, the Darong court has taken Chen Hengchang's rebel army seriously and started to dispatch troops to encircle and suppress Chen Hengchang.

As early as three months ago, the imperial court had ordered Yungui and Jiangnan to dispatch troops to encircle and suppress Chen Hengchang, and also ordered Nanjiang Town to send troops to attack Chen Hengchang from the south.

However, the result was somewhat unsatisfactory. The situation in Yungui and Jiangnan was similar to that in Bashu, and there were no soldiers available to fight.

The situation in Jiangnan is even more troublesome than that in Bashu.

The prosperity of Jiangnan does not belong to the common people of Jiangnan, but to the gentry and wealthy families of Jiangnan.

In other words, those who are in power in Jiangnan today are not officials from government offices at all levels, but the gentry and wealthy families.

If the imperial court wants to recruit soldiers from Jiangnan, it must first obtain the support of the gentry and wealthy families. But how could those gentry and wealthy families help the imperial court?

They are not afraid of chaos because they believe they have strong enough military force to protect themselves in chaotic times.

They don't care about the life and death of Bashu and Yungui at all, and many of them even want to make a fortune by taking advantage of the chaos in Bashu and Yungui.

So after Chen Hengchang started his rebellion in Yungui, many merchants in Jiangnan began to supply various supplies to Chen Hengchang. As long as they were given money, they were willing to sell everything to Chen Hengchang.

Salt, iron, grain, cloth, silk, weapons, armor, etc., even population. As long as Chen Hengchang could come up with enough gold and silver, they could even sell the people of Jiangnan to Chen Hengchang.

They are just a bunch of evil gentry and profiteers. Do you still expect them to serve the court?

While people in the south of the Yangtze River were busy making war profits, people in the southern and western parts of Yunnan and Guangxi were in danger and no one dared to take the initiative to lead the fight against the rebels.

This made Chen Hengchang's army so unstoppable that conquering cities was as easy as eating and drinking.

As for Nanjiang Town, Duke Xingguo Qu Changkong was willing to lead a large army into Yungui to wipe out the rebels, but the problem was that the Jinlong Dynasty in the south was also restless and was always thinking about taking a bite of Nanjiang Town.

Moreover, Nanjiang Town is quite far away from the territory occupied by Chen Hengchang. If Qu Changkong wants to attack Chen Hengchang, he needs to cross half of Nanjiang Town and half of Yungui Province.

This distance seems not far, but don’t forget that it is Nanjiang Town and Yunnan-Guizhou Province. At a glance, there are nothing but mountains.

The difficulty of marching would discourage most people.

Qu Changkong did send out a garrison battalion, but it took this 6,000-man battalion a month to leave Nanjiang Town, and then they could not move any further.

It’s not that the soldiers don’t want to move forward, but that they are running out of food and supplies.

It is nonsense to supply food and fodder from Nanjiang Town. Nanjiang Town is not rich to begin with, and the roads are rugged and difficult to travel, making it extremely difficult to transport food and fodder.

According to Qu Changkong's idea, when the soldiers from Nanjiang Town entered Yungui, the local government of Yungui would naturally provide them with food and fodder.

But the result is.

Government officials at all levels in Yungui can do nothing but cry poor.

After spending more than half a month's time and effort, they only managed to collect half a month's worth of food for 6,000 soldiers.

How can we advance like this?

The speed of requisitioning food and fodder was actually slower than the speed at which the soldiers consumed it.

So in the end, the soldiers of Nanjiang Town could only stop at the border between Nanjiang Town and Yungui, and dared not to advance further.

Qu Changkong was so annoyed by this that he had no temper at all.

"What a bunch of useless trash. If we had known this would happen, we might as well not have sent any troops to fight!"

In the Duke's Mansion, Qu Changkong said helplessly.

Qu Shaogong stood in front of him and sighed helplessly, "Grandfather, I'm afraid the court won't be able to hold out for much longer!"

Qu Changkong's expression was extremely complicated; the downfall of Dayong was now almost clearly laid out before the world.

Rebellions arose everywhere, and the more the court tried to suppress them, the more they appeared.

The three provinces of Longyuan, Bashu, Yungui and other places have almost become the world of rebels, and many bandits have also appeared in Fuhai and Shanhe provinces.

The only relatively peaceful area was Liaodong, but Liaodong was located in the northeast of Dayong, and was originally isolated and unable to support other places.

There are also nine border towns, not to mention Chongshan Town, which is too far away and very inconvenient to mobilize troops. Moreover, the court is very wary of Chongshan Town and dares not easily lead Chongshan Town's elite troops into the heart of Dayong.

There are also Beiyuan Town, Longbei Town and Suzhou Town in the north, but these three towns have already encircled and suppressed the bandits in the three provinces of Longyuan, and the results are not ideal.

In the west, there are Tingzhou Town, Anxi Town, and Wusi Town. These three border towns are weak to begin with, and they have to guard against foreign enemies. In addition, they are in a mess themselves and are simply unable to send troops.

There are Yunling Town and Nanjiang Town in the south. The strength of these two towns is not weak, but Qu Changkong can't move at all, and the situation in Yunling Town is even worse.

Wuding Hou Guo Ying has been in charge of Yunling Town for thirty years. The entire Yunling Town has almost become the private land of the Guo family, and Guo Ying's ambition to command troops and gain power is almost announced to the world.

If Chongshan Town belongs to the Yang family, then Yunling Town belongs to the Guo family.

The Yang family still has some shame, at least they will not disobey the orders of the court openly, but the Guo family has completely lost face and has long thrown the court to the winds.

The governor and the eunuch guarding Yunling Town were driven back to Kyoto by the Guo family, which shows how clear the Guo family's thoughts are.

(End of this chapter)