Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 185 Recovering Hubei
In the late Qing Dynasty, foreign cameras were introduced to my country. People said that it was a magic weapon used by foreigners to capture souls, which could capture people's souls with just a single shot.

As for trains and cars, people thought they were foreign monsters, and they didn't even dare to use steam engines to pull trains, and instead used horses to pull them.

People in later generations naturally know that this is science, but the ancients did not know it. They were ignorant and often attributed things they could not understand to the stories of ghosts and gods.

So when Zhu Yunfeng showed the drone, they mostly believed it.

When I showed them the tablet again, they believed it completely.

After all, Lu Daqi, Li Qiande, Liu Xizuo and others had really been there during the Hongwu period, and with the evidence of such immortal artifacts, everyone gradually accepted the fact that Taizu had descended to the earth.

Soon, people began to discuss the matter. Some said, "No wonder the bandits were pacified so quickly. It turned out that it was His Majesty Taizu who came. Only His Majesty Taizu could do this."

"With His Majesty the Great Ancestor coming, the Ming Dynasty will be saved. This chaotic world will also come to an end. This is truly a blessing for the Ming Dynasty and all the people of the world!"

"Hurry up, hurry up, go and see His Majesty Taizu. I hope His Majesty Taizu will forgive our rude behavior just now!"

"Yes, let's go quickly."

Someone shouted loudly, and the rest of the people woke up as if from a dream. They hurriedly trotted into the city, vying for the first place, fearing that they would be a step slower than others and be blamed by Emperor Taizu.

Seeing this, Zhu Yunfeng scratched his head.

These people are really superstitious, but then again, perhaps it is precisely because the ancients were superstitious that they can believe it so easily.

Otherwise, in the future, if there were no photos or videos to support it, I'm afraid no one would believe it.

of course.

It's hard to say.

After all, countless people can be deceived in such places.

There are so many fools that even scammers can’t fool them all.

Maybe the trick of saying "I am Zhu Yuanzhang, if you pay me money, I will make you the crown prince" can fool a few fools.

In the afternoon.

Tang He, Feng Sheng and Fu Youde commanded 200,000 to 300,000 refugees to set up camp. All the baggage was properly preserved and stored in military tents, and soldiers were sent to guard it strictly.

Seriously speaking, these supplies are more valuable than the heads of all the officials in the city.

Corrupt officials can be killed, but if these materials are not properly stored and a fire accident occurs, Zhu's plan for the Northern Expedition will be in vain.

Therefore, in order to protect the baggage, 1,500 soldiers were deployed.

After Lao Zhu went to the provincial government office himself, he started walking along the city wall without stopping, like a lion patrolling his territory.

This was a habit he developed during his early years of fighting. Whenever he arrived at a new place, he would observe the terrain in order to prepare for battle.

By the time Zhu Yunfeng and his men had arranged the supplies and went to find Lao Zhu, Lao Zhu had already moved into the provincial government office. Many officials were stopped outside the government office, standing there cautiously, and no one dared to leave.

Fu Youde stayed outside the city, while Tang He, Feng Sheng, Zhu Yunfeng, Ji He, Li Qiande and Liu Xizuo went straight in. The guards did not stop them, and it was impossible for them to stop them.

When they went in, Lao Zhu was reading official documents.

It is a detailed report submitted by Wang Yangji on the number of Ming troops, food supplies, and occupation status in Wuchang, Hanyang, Huangzhou and other places.

Since Zuo Liangyu drove away Zhang Xianzhong and recovered Huangzhou Prefecture, Wuchang Prefecture and part of Chengtian Prefecture and De'an Prefecture, Li Zicheng's troops occupied the central and northern parts of Chengtian Prefecture and the central and northern parts of De'an Prefecture.

Therefore, the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty who stayed in Wuchang and other places are now engaged in a tug-of-war with Li Zicheng's remaining troops in Chengtian and De'an.

Zhang Kuang, the prefect of Mianyang, was born into a wealthy family. He spent all his family fortune to obtain a thousand taels of gold and recruited thousands of soldiers. He fought with Bai Wang's tribe for Mianyang three times and lost it three times. Not long ago, Zhang Kuang was just driven out of Mianyang again.

Du Yinxi and Wang Yangji also led the troops of Wuchang and Huangzhou prefectures, and fought many battles with the troops of Luo Dain and Yang Yanchang. The two sides surrounded the two prefectures and neither could do anything to the other.

These places are actually Xiantao and Anlu in Hubei Province in later generations. Li Zicheng's troops are stronger than the Ming army, but they are afraid of Zuo Liangyu. They are also attacked from both sides by the Xunyang Ming army, so the two sides are temporarily in a stalemate.

After Zhu Yunfeng entered, he saw Mao Xiang spreading a large number of maps on the table, and also took out various notebooks and tablets containing information.

There is no shortage of electricity for electronic products because they brought a lot of solar charging panels.

It can only charge small amounts of electricity, but not large amounts of electricity, so they can't get electric cars or electric tricycles over, which seriously slows down the army's movement speed.

But it doesn’t matter.

Zhu Yunfeng went up and greeted Old Zhu first, then started to operate his notebook and took out the information about Li Zicheng's troops in Hubei area in 1643, information about Ming officials, maps and various intelligence.

Lü Daqi whispered to Lao Zhu, "Your Majesty, the officials in Hubei have now believed that you have descended to the earth, and are now outside the official residence. Should we summon one or two of them?"

"Let them wait."

Lao Zhu said calmly: "The most urgent task is to make good deployment first."

"Yes."

Lu Daqi responded.

Zhu Yunfeng said: "I just took a look and there are quite a lot of corrupt officials out there. How do we deal with them?"

"Don't rush to kill him. You can find an excuse later."

Old Zhu said casually.

As a founding emperor with mature political experience, he knew very well that killing people at this time was not appropriate.

Although there were many corrupt officials and people who later surrendered to the Qing Dynasty among the surviving officials in Hubei, they were still needed to govern Hubei and stabilize the area.

If we start slaughtering them right away, half of the officials outside might be killed, which would easily cause panic and anxiety among the remaining officials.

Therefore, the most sensible way is to maintain stability first. Once Hubei is completely recovered, government offices in various places are established, and order is restored, then it is time to start the massacre.

Anyway, the list of people to be operated on is there and we can't escape it, so why rush it?

"Row."

Zhu Yunfeng added: "Old Four has already defeated Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng will probably have to retreat to Nanyang in the next few days. I feel this is the best time to eliminate Li Zicheng. It's just that Old Four doesn't have much ammunition."

"Ok, I know."

Old Zhu threw the document in his hand on the table, closed his eyes and thought: "Li Zicheng's troops have many horses, and now they have become frightened birds. It will not be easy to wipe them out completely."

"Zhang Xianzhong didn't know our background and thought we were Zuo Liangyu. He recruited soldiers in Hunan and thought he was powerful. He also wanted to use Hunan and Jiangxi as his base, so he dared to fight us in Hengzhou."

Lu Daqi beside him also said: "But I know very well that Li Zicheng is cunning. The strength we showed in the battle of Tongguan has been able to easily defeat him. I am afraid that we will have to chase him again in the future."

"take it easy."

Old Zhu thought for a moment, then said, "Tang He."

"His Majesty."

"Tomorrow you will take 300 men across the Yangtze River, first capture Chengtian Prefecture, and then advance to Xiangyang."

"Yes."

"Feng Sheng."

"exist."

"You also take 300 people north to take Anlu."

"Yes."

"Lu Daqi."

"His Majesty."

"You will take charge of Wuchang and immediately restore the people's livelihood management."

"Yes."

"Quickly resolve the issue, don't drag it out."

Zhu Yuanzhang gave instructions: "To deal with bandits, we must do it like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. After Li Zicheng retreats, he will definitely gather his troops and plan the next move. We should strike him head-on and not give him a chance to react or escape."

"Yes."

Everyone responded in unison.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang had only 300 men at the beginning, making it seem like he had an army of 300,000, no one would doubt that 500 men could deal with Li Zicheng's army of hundreds of thousands.

If they had enough ammunition, let alone 500 men, even if they had 100 men, they could have turned hundreds of thousands of Li Zicheng's men into sieves just by using automatic rifles to form a firepower network.

The military power of industrial civilization is overwhelming that of agricultural civilization, so five hundred people are enough to recapture the two prefectures of Anlu and Chengtian.

After assigning the tasks, Lao Zhu began to meet with local officials in Hubei.

Among them, some have their names recorded in history, while others have no records in history at all. After all, it is impossible for historical records to remember every official of the Ming Dynasty clearly.

Those who were recorded were either of relatively high rank, or died for their country in the fight against the Qing Dynasty, or finally surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, or had special contributions.

For example, there were even scholars and bandit leaders like Cheng Tianyi, a student from Wuchang, and Yi Daosan, the chief of Baiyun Village.

In times of national crisis, they spent all their wealth and joined the Ming army to defend their country.

In contrast, many officials do not even have a name.

Zhu Yunfeng has searched all the information that can be found on the Internet, including dozens of books such as "History of Ming Dynasty", "Veritable Records of Yongli", "Chronicle of Ming Dynasty", "Northern History of Ming Dynasty", "Long Chronicle of Chongzhen", etc.

Among them are even local county and prefectural chronicles from Hunan, Hubei and other places, which record the local officials and their performance during the late Ming Dynasty.

There must be some unclear or erroneous records in it.

But basically, Zhu already knows most of the situations, including the current situation of officials of all sizes in Hubei, which he knows well.

Therefore, when facing those honest officials who advocated fighting against bandits and the Qing army and eventually died for their country, Zhu Yuanzhang was kind and encouraging.

As for those corrupt officials, his attitude was a little worse, but in order to maintain stability, he also said a few words.

There is a problem, however.

That is the problem of "the world is neither black nor white, but a delicate gray."

There were some corrupt officials in it with very bad work styles. They took a lot of bribes and made a lot of money, but in the end they died for their country.

For example, Wang Yangshi, the magistrate of Luotian, colluded with gentry Sheng Shiyan, Zhou Mingwei and others in the territory, and committed a lot of corruption and bribery.

However, when Zhang Xianzhong attacked Huguang, he fought hard to protect the territory and the people. After Luotian was conquered, he ran to the mountains and hid. Zuo Liangyu recaptured Wuchang and returned to Luotian. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he died fighting against the Qing Dynasty.

There was also Chen Ce, the magistrate of Qizhou, who was also a corrupt official.

When Zhang Xianzhong came, he and the prefect Xu Ximing defended the city and personally led the army to fight against the bandits. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he still led the local militia to fight against the Qing Dynasty. He was captured and refused to obey until his death, and was finally executed.

So human nature is complex. Some people are honest officials, but their abilities are mediocre, and some even surrender to the Qing army. Some officials are corrupt and do all kinds of bad things, and end up bleeding to the last drop of blood.

It's really unexpected.

of course.

A corrupt official is a corrupt official. His past bad deeds cannot be written off just because he died for his country in the future.

Therefore, although Zhu Yuanzhang had complicated emotions towards these officials, he still stated that those who died for their country could be considered to have died for their country, and those who should be punished in the future would still be punished. It was just a matter of whether they could escape the death penalty or the punishment of living punishment.

After meeting with the officials, Zhu asked them to return to their hometowns, reduced local taxes, and allocated supplies from the baggage he brought to help the victims according to the situation. He then organized local people to reclaim wasteland and build water conservancy projects in preparation for the next spring plowing.

Fighting is fighting, but farming is still necessary. Even after Li Zicheng took over Henan, he still had to cultivate the land. Therefore, farming was the top priority, and he had to maintain stability in the occupied areas before he could continue to send troops to the Northern Expedition.

soon.

The next morning, Tang He and Feng Sheng each led 300 men, plus more than 1,000 auxiliary troops pushing the Shenwei General cannon and pulling food and supplies, and marched across the Yangtze River in a mighty force.

In addition to Tang He's own troops, there was also Mianyang prefect Zhang Kuang following him. Zhang Kuang was not only an honest official, but also an official who died for his country. Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards him became much better, and he made him Tang He's military adviser.

Mianyang in the Ming Dynasty is the later Xiantao City, but it is not in the urban area of ​​Xiantao, but in the area of ​​Tonghaikou Town southwest of Xiantao. The straight-line distance from Wuchang is about 120 kilometers, and the actual distance is about 150 kilometers.

In just three days, on October 24, the army arrived outside the city of Mianyang.

This was because the thirty rapid-fire cannons reduced the efficiency of the operation, otherwise they would have arrived in two days by forced march.

Mianyang City was occupied by Baiwang's tribe. Zhang Kuang fled from Mianyang for the last time last month. He spent all his family wealth to recruit thousands of people to take back Mianyang, but was defeated by Baiwang's general Shi Dayi and fled to Wuchang through a small road.

It was early winter, Hubei was bleak, and the sea outside Mianyang City was surging and the waves were rolling. The surrounding areas were fertile fields, countless farmlands, and a large number of lakes scattered in the wilderness.

However, after the war, the originally fertile fields were now overgrown with weeds, the farmland in the surrounding villages was in ruins, and the withered and yellow grass branches swayed in the winter wind.

Tang He led his troops along the main road toward the southwest.

Before long, I saw the ancient city of Mianyang Prefecture standing in the wind in the distance.

Right now the city gates are closed, there are bandits patrolling on the city walls, and there are checkpoints further away.

It seemed that they had discovered the arrival of the government troops. After just a moment, a desolate horn sounded, startling the birds in the wild.

Immediately afterwards, the city gate opened, and a large number of cavalry swarmed out and charged towards this side in a mighty force.

Judging from Tang He's experience of fighting for many years, a rough estimate is that there should be about three to four thousand people, which is not a large number of soldiers and horses.

Zhang Kuang rode on horseback, scanned with a telescope, pointed at the thief leader and said angrily: "Duke Xin, that man is the thief leader Shi Dayi."

"hehe."

Tang He smiled and said, "I didn't expect that they would dare to come out of the city to fight."

"Maybe because we are few in number."

Zhang Kuang turned around and looked at the troops behind him.

Tang He had only 300 soldiers, and behind him were just over 1,000 baggage carriers. One could tell at a glance in the wilderness that their numbers were pitifully small.

"Then let them see how powerful we are."

Tang He waved his hand and said, "Mortars ready!"

Immediately, fifty soldiers dismounted and went to the baggage train at the rear to bring back the mortars.

The enemy was still riding their horses at a moderate speed. They were probably still about four or five miles away from them, advancing at a steady speed.

The artillerymen calmly set up the mortars, adjusted the direction of the muzzles, made advance preparations and waited for orders.

After a while, when Shi Dayi's troops were about three miles away, Tang He said, "Fire!"

"Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!"

The unique sound of a mortar firing was heard, and dozens of shells fell directly into the enemy crowd.

In an instant, people and horses were thrown to the ground.

"kill!"

After just one round of shelling, the Shi Dayi tribe was thrown into chaos.

Tang He waved his hand and said, "Destroy them all!"

"kill!"

The soldiers, driven mad, rode their horses at full speed and rushed towards the enemy like a torrent.

Before the two sides even came into contact, the Shi Dayi tribe had already suffered a crushing defeat.

The soldiers rushed forward on horseback, stopped and fired directly with AKs.

The remaining rebel troops hurriedly turned around and fled towards the city.

Tang He's troops continued their pursuit.

The rebel army fled into the city and closed the city gates for defense.

However, in the face of the Shenwei General Cannon, this defense is meaningless.

In the afternoon, Tang He blasted through the city gate and occupied Mianyang!

Feng Sheng in the north also captured Anlu on the same day and recovered De'an Prefecture.

Afterwards, they continued to advance northward and recovered the entire area east of the Han River!

(End of this chapter)