Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 296: Battle of Yangzhou! (Part )
It was not until this time that Master Dai showed his fangs.

"Well, there is a way, but it depends on whether you are willing to do it."

Master Dai smacked his lips and said with embarrassment: "Let me first state that my method is still somewhat dangerous."

"But no matter what, it's better than you just sitting here and waiting to die."

Before Mr. Dai finished speaking, many villagers from Daijiazui asked him to tell them his solution.

Mr. Dai no longer hid his intentions and said frankly, "I'm sure you are all very clear about the current situation."

"The soldiers from the imperial court really want to kill us civilians. They will not stop until they kill us."

"In our Daijiazui, I know of no less than five fellow villagers from Xuzhou who are hiding in our Daijiazui and dare not go back. Is that right?"

When Master Dai said this, he deliberately glanced at the people below.

I saw many people in the crowd lowering their heads guiltily, which seemed to be true.

This further increased the credibility of his words, making the villagers of Daijiazui believe him without a doubt.

"So if we want to survive, we have no choice but to unite, fight to the death, and fight these imperial officials and soldiers to the end!"

"Let them know that we are not so easy to mess with!"

"We must beat them until they are severely beaten and scared, and drive them out of Jiangnan completely!"

After hearing this, the villagers of Daijiazui finally understood the meaning of Master Dai’s words.

But now, they are very hesitant.

It's fine to let them express their support and curse in the streets, but asking them to actually stand up and resist with force, doing something that may cost them their lives, is another matter.

"But Master Dai, there are so many soldiers and they are so strong, how can we possibly defeat them?"

"Yes, Master Dai, with just a few of us, we will definitely be beaten to death by them. You should think of other ways!"

"Master Dai, please go and beg those officers and soldiers for mercy. As long as they promise to let us live, we will do whatever they ask us to do!"

"..."

When encountering a problem, people's subconscious thought is to ask someone for mercy, as if they can only survive through the mercy of others.

"madness!"

Mr. Dai's face darkened instantly, and he angrily scolded: "You people are short-sighted and have no fighting spirit at all!"

"This is a struggle! A life-and-death struggle!"

"How can you rely on the mercy of others for your life?!"

"How can you expect your mortal enemy to show mercy and let you go?!"

"Think about it yourself, do you think this is possible?!"

"Victory is not given by the enemy, but won with the weapons in your hands, with real swords and guns!"

After being scolded by Master Dai, the villagers of Daijiazui blushed, but they also felt that what he said made some sense.

But they really didn't dare to resist the officers and soldiers.

Their courage is proportional to the number of people. The more people there are, the courage they have.

When they do not have the advantage in numbers, they dare not go against others.

Mr. Dai has been dealing with these villagers all his life and knows their psychological activities very well.

He knew what these villagers were worried about, so he continued, "Besides, this struggle is not just about us, but about the people of Jiangnan."

"The entire Jiangnan region, hundreds of millions of people, will fight to the end against these soldiers heading south!"

"Not only the common people, but also the local garrison soldiers in Jiangnan will join us and fight against those officers and soldiers heading south!"

"Do you think that the tens of thousands of soldiers can defeat the millions of people in Jiangnan?!"

Master Dai's words completely ignited the resistance enthusiasm of the Daijiazui villagers.

After knowing that they had millions of companions behind them, the villagers of Daijiazui behaved very actively, and the aggrieved and miserable expressions on their faces turned into an indignant look.

"Master Dai is right. We must teach those officers and soldiers a lesson and let them know that we are not to be trifled with!"

"That's right. Since we'll die if we just keep silent, we might as well pick up a hoe and fight them to the end!"

"Since the emperor won't give us a way out, then we have to fight for our own survival!"

"..."

The fighting enthusiasm of the villagers in Daijiazui suddenly became extremely high.

And this situation is exactly what Master Dai wants to see.

When the villagers were excited and shouted that they would fight the imperial officials and soldiers to the end, Master Dai stopped talking.

Instead, he slowly walked down from the stone and returned to the village of Daijiazui.

After returning to his luxurious mansion with three entrances, Master Dai first blocked the servants around him.
Then he quickly walked to the backyard and walked into his study.

In the study, a middle-aged man wearing the seventh-rank official uniform of the Ming Dynasty was flipping through a vernacular novel at his desk, bored.

The old master Dai, who had been so majestic and domineering outside just now, now said with a shy face and a charming smile: "Sir, I have completed all the tasks you asked me to do."

"The effect is very good. Now everyone in Baoying County should know that the soldiers sent by the court killed a large number of civilians in Xuzhou."

"Just now, I just provoked them slightly outside, and suddenly many villagers from Daijiazui were determined to fight those soldiers to the end!"

The middle-aged man in Mr. Dai's study was the official sent by Zhang Peng to various places in Jiangnan to contact local gentry.

In Baoying County, Yangzhou Prefecture, the news that imperial soldiers had killed Xuzhou civilians was able to spread so quickly and widely because of his organization.

Of course, in addition to spreading the news that the imperial officers and soldiers had killed people, he also had another task, which was to urge the local gentry to organize the people and fight against the imperial officers and soldiers.

"Very well, you did well."

The official put down the script in his hand, first gave a word of praise, and then asked another question.

"What about these people you gathered? Are they reliable?"

"Will it be like those unruly people in Xuzhou? Once the fight started, everyone ran away."

Master Dai patted his chest and assured, "Don't worry, these people are brainless, they will believe whatever I say."

"I told them that the soldiers from the imperial court were going to kill them all, and that they could only survive by fighting them to the end. They believed it without a doubt!"

"So don't worry, for the sake of their own lives, these people will not escape in the middle of a battle!"

After hearing what Master Dai said, the middle-aged official nodded with satisfaction: "That's good, but time is urgent, and I really don't have time to give you."

"Tomorrow afternoon, your people must rush to the outskirts of Yangzhou City."

"Once you get there, someone will naturally come to recruit you and tell you what to do."

"Yes, sir!" Master Dai nodded quickly and accepted the order solemnly.

The middle-aged official also stood up and left at this time: "Your matter is settled, I will go to Zhaojiawan next door to take a look."

Master Dai bowed and said to him: "Yes, sir, take care!"

……

In the end, a total of 427 people from Daijiazui decided to go out to resist the imperial court officials and soldiers.

In addition to the previous intimidation, Master Dai, like the four major families in Xuzhou before, offered a lot of inducements to the villagers who were willing to go to the war.

Like less rent, more land rent, reduction of some of the grain arrears, giving a certain amount of grain... and so on.

Daijiazui is not far from Yangzhou County, and Master Dai let Dai Qingniu take full charge of the team.

They set out from Daijiazui in the morning, and two hours later, the team arrived outside Yangzhou City.

Before they got close to Yangzhou City, the people in the team saw people gathering outside the city, forming mountains and seas.

According to a rough estimate, there are at least 100,000 people here.

Like them, these people were from Yangzhou Prefecture or surrounding counties.

The local landlords and gentry may say something different from Master Dai, but their purpose is the same.

That is to trick them all here.

However, at least there is one thing that these landlords and gentry did not deceive them.
That is, the soldiers of the garrisons in Jiangnan were indeed, like them, clearly opposed to the officers and soldiers sent down from the court.

Outside the city of Yangzhou, in addition to the people brought from various places, there were also some soldiers from the Yangzhou garrison.

They were dressed like ordinary farmers, at least they were not holding agricultural tools like hoes and sickles, but real swords, spears, and halberds.

Not long after the people from Daijiazui arrived here, an official came over. After asking about their origins, he organized them and the farmers from several other villages into a square formation.

It is under unified command by a garrison officer.

What surprised them was that in this camp, there was no limit on the amount of food they could eat.

They, who could not even get enough to eat at home, could eat and drink to their heart's content in a place called Yangzhou.

Despite the huge population of over 100,000, there were numerous wealthy businessmen in Yangzhou, and the food they contributed was enough to feed 100,000 people for one or two months.

These wealthy businessmen in Yangzhou were originally as stingy as a miser and never gave a penny.

Before this, let alone asking them to contribute such a large amount of food, even if they were asked to donate a bucket of food, they would feel very distressed.

But now, after hearing about the plight of the landlords, gentry, wealthy businessmen in Xuzhou Prefecture, I heard that the imperial court officials and soldiers would continue to march south to Yangzhou.

Now, when their lives were at stake, they suddenly became generous and willing to contribute their food.

They became generous and took the initiative to show their food, not because they had developed a conscience, but because the people who were going to revolutionize them were coming!

The joy of the villagers in Daijiazui did not last long. Soon they saw a black steel torrent sweeping in from afar...

At this moment, Gao Shun led 40,000 soldiers from the Xianzhen Camp and rushed all the way from Xuzhou to attack Yangzhou.

After seeing the more than 100,000 people outside Yangzhou City, Gao Shun couldn't help but frown and his face became gloomy.

Before he came, he had already guessed that there must be resistance forces outside Yangzhou City.

But he did not expect that there would be so many troops outside Yangzhou City.

Moreover, only more than 10,000 of them were garrison soldiers, and the rest seemed to be farmers from nearby areas.

However, Gao Shun only frowned and thought for a moment, then immediately ordered: "Everyone, slow down!"

"Just use the back of your knife to attack and scatter those peasants. You don't have to kill them!"

"Yes, General!"

Under Gao Shun's command, the 40,000-strong Xianzhen Camp army gradually slowed down the speed of their cavalry charge.

Otherwise, even without using knives, the galloping horses would trample the farmers who stood in their way into meat paste.

At the same time, the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp on horseback also drew out their long swords, ready to use the backs of their swords to disperse the peasant soldiers in front of them.

Gao Shun also issued this order based on the performance of the peasant army during the last attack on Xuzhou.

Gao Shun felt that these peasant armies in Yangzhou, like those in Xuzhou, would disperse after a fight and there was no need to expend too much effort.

On the other hand, the peasant soldiers outside Yangzhou City were extremely nervous.

They had never seen such a murderous army or such a tense scene before, and many people were scared silly at the time.

I stood there in a daze, not knowing what to do.

The soldiers of the Yangzhou garrison performed much better than those of the peasant army.

The commander-in-chief of Yangzhou, Gui Hui, did not hide in the city like the commander-in-chief of Xuzhou, Cui Zhu.

Instead, he stood outside the city with his own troops and personally commanded the army to fight.

"Everyone, stay in formation and prepare to attack!"

After Gui Hui gave the order, the soldiers in the garrison obeyed his orders and were ready for battle.

But those peasant soldiers had never received any military training.

Even if an officer gave them orders, they just held the hoes and sickles in their hands, at a loss as to what to do.

But there is no time to respond to them at this moment.

The 40,000-strong army of the Xianzhen Camp had already rushed in front of them and slammed into their formation!

"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!"

"Hold them! Stop them!"

"Don't retreat! You are not allowed to retreat! Fight back! Fight back!"

"..."

The soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp waved their long swords and wantonly slashed at the surrounding peasant soldiers with the backs of their swords, causing screams.

But at the same time, these peasant soldiers also used the hoes, sickles and other tools in their hands to randomly attack the soldiers in the Xianzhen Camp.

Although the damage they caused was limited, they were outnumbered.

When the number accumulates to a certain level, it will also cause harm to the soldiers in the Xianzhen Camp.

What's more, today's peasant armies did not disperse as soon as they were attacked like in Xuzhou.

Instead, they gathered together tenaciously, with red eyes, and fought with the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp.

The army of the Xianzhen Camp was caught in a bitter battle from the very beginning!
(End of this chapter)