Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

One day after the autumn harvest, Wu Shigong received a message from the yamen servant sent by the county magistrate Yu Zilian in the fortress of Qianhusuo: let Wu Shigong go to the county yamen to discuss matters.

After knowing that Yu Zilian became the county magistrate, Wu Shigong and Yu Zilian acted as if the other party didn't exist, and never communicated with each other.No one wants to make things difficult for themselves.

But this time Yu Zilian took the initiative to send someone to look for Wu Shigong, and he sent someone from the county government office instead of the servants around Yu Zilian, so there must be business matters to discuss.Wu Shigong didn't dare to be negligent, he quickly put on his official robe, brought the guards, and followed the servant to the county government office.

But after meeting, Yu Zilian didn't have any nonsense with Wu Shigong at all. He threw an official document to Wu Shigong and said, "Wu Qianhu will do things well according to the requirements of the official document." Then he turned and went into the inner hall left.

Wu Shigong opened the official document and saw that this official document was jointly issued by the Henan Governor's Yamen and the Guide Mansion Yamen to the local guards and garrisons.The content of the official document probably means: In view of the rebellion of the Holy Spirit Society, many of the scattered rioters turned into bandits, causing bandits to be rampant, so all guards and garrisons are required to carry out joint suppression of bandits in their own defense areas this winter action.

After reading the content of this official document, Wu Shigong cursed in his heart: a large part of his current income is the escort fee for escorting the caravan.If those bandits are wiped out, then no one will hire him to escort the caravan.I managed to balance my income and expenditure, but I didn't expect that such a demon moth would appear now.

However, the banditry was rampant, and the government ordered it to be wiped out. This was a very reasonable and normal order, and it was impossible for him to disobey it.Therefore, Wu Shigong still decided to go back and discuss with some people, to see if there is any good way to do what he wants.

After returning to the fortress of Qianhusuo, Wu Shigong summoned all his main leaders and asked everyone to work together to find a good solution.

That Zhang Xuebin first said: "Boss, in fact, there is no need to worry too much about this matter. Although the official document says that it is a joint suppression of bandits, the students think it is the old way of sweeping the snow before the door. The boss is just going to wipe out the county. However, there are not many bandits in this county on the two routes that the owner escorted the caravan. Those bandits are all in the defense area of ​​other military officers. Over the years, their military officers have not wiped out these bandits. Bandits, this extermination will definitely not have any effect."

Hearing Zhang Xuebin's words, Wu Shigong nodded and felt a little relieved.What Zhang Xuebin said was true.In view of Wu Shigong's prestige, there were actually no bandits who dared to settle and rob near the Qianhusuo fortress.The bandits in this county are basically in some areas on the edge of the county.

Then Deng Qifan came up with another idea: "My lord, the students have an idea here. Since your lord wants to suppress the bandits, then go there with great fanfare. As long as your lord releases the news about the bandits, those bandits also have feet. I will be busy running away. At that time, my lord will just go out and hang around like this, and it will be regarded as dealing with the errand. And those bandits will not go back to business as usual after the lord returns. This is to support the bandits!"

Wu Shigong nodded repeatedly after hearing this, and Deng Qifan's idea was even better.It's really one person counting the short, two people counting the long!Just do it.Therefore, Wu Shigong immediately asked Zhang Xuebin to write two official documents, and sent people to submit them to Yu Zilian, the county magistrate, and Zhao Ming, commander of Gui Dewei, respectively.

In the official document, Wu Shigong wrote in detail that he would carry out the bandit suppression operation in the county one month later, that is, on November [-]th.Moreover, Wu Shigong also explained in detail his marching route and bandit suppression plan in his official document.In addition, Wu Shigong also sent people to the county town to put up notices, announcing that he was going to suppress the bandits.

Wu Shigong couldn't believe it anymore: Don't those bandits have any eyeliner in the government and the county?They will definitely get the news of their suppression of the bandits.Some powerful bandits can even get their own marching routes and action plans from the government.

By that time, the bandits could have survived as long as they avoided their own army.And Wu Shigong was just carrying out an armed march, which was considered to have carried out the order of the superior yamen to suppress bandits.

But Wu Shigong never expected that the notices he posted in the county would bring Wu Shigong a lot of trouble.Because these announcements were written in accordance with the public format of the Ming Dynasty’s announcement on bandit suppression, the general content of this announcement is:

First of all, of course, the bandits were reprimanded for some evil deeds in a high-sounding manner, and then these bandits were allowed to go astray and accept the imperial court's recruiting, and the imperial court also ignored the crimes they committed before.Otherwise, the imperial court will send a large army to give these bandits a thunderous blow and so on.

People like Wu Shigong felt that there should be no problem with the bureaucratic articles on the notice.But I didn't expect that it was precisely this announcement that shocked the bandits who knew the content of the announcement and aroused huge repercussions.

This starts with the composition of bandits in the Ming Dynasty.In the Ming Dynasty, bandits were generally divided into three types: one was the semi-bandits who usually worked in agriculture and became bandits in their free time.Most of these bandits are actually supported by the local tyrants and evil gentry, and they are not really bandits.Of course, it is not easy to find these bandits from the common people.

The second type is horse bandits.Horse bandits are also bandits who run around and commit crimes. In order to maintain their mobility, they generally have horses.But in Henan, the hinterland of the Central Plains, the horse bandits had no fixed resting place to rest, nor any fixed point to sell stolen goods.In addition, Henan, the hinterland of the Central Plains, is full of cities and armies.Therefore, in Henan, the number of horse bandits is relatively small, and their life is relatively miserable.

The third is to build bandits with stockades on remote mountains.Those bandits are basically composed of some refugees who fled and those who escaped the court tax and corvee.Therefore, in these villages, there are often families of bandits living there.

Apart from robbery, a large part of the bandit's income is actually obtained by reclaiming land on the mountain and growing food.

It can be seen from this that, apart from the first type of half-bandit, the lives of the latter two types of bandits are actually not easy.

In addition to the current severe drought, the grain grown by the bandits was basically useless.So for these bandits, how to spend this winter has become a difficult problem.

But now Wu Shigong's notice pointed out a way for these bandits.The news of these bandits is also very well-informed.These bandits are also aware of the bravery of Wu Shigong's army, and if they are asked to directly resist Wu Shigong's army, these bandits will definitely not dare.

However, these bandits also found out that Wu Shigong was really kind to the captured rebels. He took these rebels into house slaves, and made them have enough food and clothing.Moreover, although Wu Shigong's Qianhu is vicious, judging from the rumors, this Qianhu is also very reasonable and trustworthy.

Now that Wu Shigong has proposed to these bandits, why not give it a try?No matter how bad it was, it was better than starving to death this winter.There are also some nimble bandit leaders, thinking that after joining Wu Shigong, with their own abilities, they might be able to earn a job as an official, and they can also honor their ancestors!

So within a few days after Wu Shigong's notice was posted, a group of more than a dozen horse bandits came to Wu Shigong's fortress of Qianhusuo to surrender.At this time, Wu Shigong was quite happy to see the bandits surrendering.They were recruited on the spot, incorporated into the cavalry, and paid [-]% of their military salary.

Moreover, Wu Shigong also promised to the dozen horse bandits: as long as these horse bandits pass the assessment in a few months, they will enjoy all the treatment of soldiers.

Wu Shigong's move unintentionally played the role of a golden horse bone, and immediately caused a huge sensation in the local bandit circle.

Then more and more bandit envoys came to Wu Shigong to contact Zhao'an.At first Wu Shigong accepted everything, but gradually, Wu Shigong realized that something was wrong.In just ten days, Wu Shigong found that he recruited more than 1000 bandits and their family members.

It would be a big expense for Wu Shigong to raise more than 1000 people!So Wu Shigong began to raise the standard: it was stipulated that the bandits who were recruited must bring a horse, and Wu Shigong also accepted the four family members of the bandit with horses as domestic slaves.

This regulation caused a rapid increase in the incidence of horse theft cases in the vicinity, and the price of horses in several nearby mule markets also skyrocketed.There is still an endless stream of bandits who surrendered to Qianhusuo Fortress.

At this time, Wu Shigong was surprised to find that all the bandits in his county were about to be recruited by him before he sent troops.This is not possible, Wu Shigong still has to keep some bandits to ensure that he can charge the escort fee for escorting the caravan.

So Wu Shigong slammed on the brakes.He registered all the bandits who came to be recruited in the future, and promised them that in the next few years, he would gradually arrange for them to be recruited.

Moreover, Wu Shigong also gave them some food according to the population of these bandits' cottages to ensure that the people in the cottages would not starve to death.This farce of suppressing bandits was easily completed by Wu Shigong just sitting at home.

During this recruitment process, Wu Shigong recruited more than 400 bandits with horses (these bandits with horses may not necessarily be able to ride horses), and also accepted more than 800 bandit family members as his domestic slaves.Among these family members, there are also five or six hundred young adults.And Wu Shigong also rescued more than 800 shi of grain for those bandits who had not yet been recruited.

In addition, almost all the bandits in Wu Shigong's county offered to surrender to Wu Shigong.It can be said that Wu Shigong used his own food to complete his bandit suppression operation.Of course, for Wu Shigong, supporting so many more people will definitely increase his expenditure.Now Wu Shigong is in deficit again.

After finishing all this work, Wu Shigong finally breathed a sigh of relief.But before Wu Shigong could catch his breath, the bandits in the nearby counties also came to surrender to Wu Shigong after they got the news of Wu Shigong's appeal.