Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 120, Change Fang to Wan

Fang Yong's army was marching towards Chaozhou. When they were approaching, they ran into a few woodcutters who were walking towards the army awkwardly, carrying firewood baskets on their backs.

These are obviously not ordinary people. No matter how brave ordinary people are, it is impossible for them to walk directly in front of the army.

"Stop, who are you?"

An officer of the Huaiyin Army asked.

The leading woodcutter said, "I am Ge Huan, the prefect of Chaozhou. I have come here in disguise to meet with the Marquis of Huaiyin. Please inform me."

After hearing this, the officer sent someone to inform Fang Yong.

After Fang Yong learned about it, he first ordered his men to search the Chaozhou prefect, and then bring him to meet him after confirming that there was no problem.

As soon as they met, the prefect of Chaozhou bowed and said:
"The guilty official Ge Huan pays homage to the Marquis of Huaiyin."

Fang Yong said, "Please stand up. I wonder what the matter is that Prefect Ge disguised as Qiao Fu came to see me?"

Ge Huan said:
"Huan is a criminal official of Daxi, and dares not call himself the prefect in front of Marquis Huaiyin. Huan came here this time because he has worked for Daxi for many years and helped the tyrant to commit atrocities. He is guilty of a serious crime. Today, he came to help Marquis Huaiyin, hoping to atone for his crime with merits!"

Fang Yong became interested when he heard this and asked, "How do you atone for your sins with your merits?"

Ge Huan said:
"There is a large lake in Chaozhou, a hundred miles long, called Chaohu. There are nearly five thousand elite soldiers in the lake, and their leader is called Zuo Changhe, who is good at water warfare and serves Daxi. He does not know the weather and wants to stubbornly resist the million-strong army of Huaiyin Marquis."

"Hearing that the Marquis of Huaiyin was approaching, Zuo Changhe colluded with the local wealthy man Tao Dingfang, recruited soldiers and horses, and agreed to launch a surprise attack from Chaijiaao at 2:15 tonight. The guilty official heard about it and came to inform you, hoping that the Marquis of Huaiyin would make full preparations and capture this crazy maniac in one fell swoop."

Fang Yong was very happy after hearing this. He immediately ordered people to entertain Ge Huan, sent scouts to secretly go to Chaijiaao to gather information, and ordered the army to be prepared.

In this way, the army continued to move forward, and after walking another six or seven miles, they met a group of fishermen.

The leader was a burly man with a broad face and red beard. The way he held the oars was like he was holding a gun, which was obviously a problem.

The Huaiyin Army officers then went to interrogate him.

The fisherman replied, "I am Zuo Changhe, a naval commander from Chaohu Lake. I have come here in disguise to report something important to General Fang."

When the Huaiyin army officers heard this, they looked strange and sent someone to report to Fang Yong.

Fang Yong was quite surprised when he heard this, and had Zuo Changhe searched carefully and brought in.

Not long after, Zuo Changhe arrived, knelt down and said, "I, the guilty general Zuo Changhe, greet General Fang."

When Fang Yong heard this, he thought to himself that this man came prepared. Ge Huan called himself Marquis of Huaiyin, but he called himself General Fang. It was obvious that he had found out the title beforehand.

"What's the matter with you?"

Fang Yong asked.

Left long river channel:

"I have admired you for a long time and wanted to serve you, but I have no way to do so. Now I have a good opportunity to help you seize Chaozhou, so I came here in disguise."

Fang Yong was very curious when he heard this, "What's the plan?"

Left long river channel:

"General, you may not know that Chaozhou Governor Ge Huan is loyal to Daxi and has long been dissatisfied with you. Tao Dingfang, a wealthy family in the city, is a relative of the Wang family in Yangzhou and also bears a grudge against you."

"These two people contacted me and allowed me to send troops to launch a surprise attack on the general from Chaijiaao at 2:15 tonight. How dare Changhe obey such an act against heaven? So I came to tell the general. The general can take advantage of their trick and pretend to be attacked. Then let his trusted men pretend to be victorious government troops, and I will cooperate with them to open the city gate."

Fang Yong: ...

With an expressionless face, he had Zuo Changhe taken away to be entertained.

The army moved on.

Zuo Changhe was invited to a military vehicle. After entering the vehicle, Zuo Changhe was stunned. "Why are you here too?"

……

After walking a few more miles, we saw more than a dozen vendors on the roadside, selling wine, dates, fruits and other items.

The merchants gave all the goods to the army. The leader stepped forward, and before he could speak, the officer of the Huaiyin Army asked directly:

"You also have something important to report to the general?"

Tao Dingwan was stunned for a moment, nodded, and was then searched and brought before Fang Yong.

"The criminal Tao Dingwan pays homage to the general!"

Fang Yong: ...

Tao Dingwan said: "Chaozhou prefect Ge Huan and Chaohu water general Zuo Changhe are ignorant of the will of heaven and intend to attack you from Chaijiaao at 2:00 tonight. You should make preparations early and wipe them out in one fell swoop. I am willing to open the gates of Chaozhou in the middle of the night and invite you to enter the city!"

Listening to Tao Dingwan's words, Fang Yong couldn't help but hold his forehead with his hand, trying hard to pull up the skin on his face to stop himself from laughing.

"Um, Tao Dingwan, do you know Tao Dingfang?"

Tao Dingwan said seriously:

"General, this man is the criminal. His previous name was Ding Fang, but when I heard that your surname was Fang, I dared not use the name Ding Fang anymore and changed Fang to Wan."

Fang Yong suppressed his laughter and waved his hands, "Okay, okay, you can go down..."

Soon after, Tao Dingwan was also invited to the carriage.

Ge Huan and Zuo Changhe: "You are here too?"

Chaozhou was destroyed.

After Hefei and Chaozhou were successfully captured, the surrounding areas such as Tongxian and Luxian surrendered one after another, and almost all of Huizhou's most fertile land was seized by Fang Yong.

On the one hand, Fang Yong arranged for people to organize military settlements in the local area, because it was approaching spring plowing time, and if the land was not distributed quickly, it would affect the harvest of the next year.

On the other hand, Fang Yong did not stop the war. He ordered Ma Laohei to lead 50,000 troops to cross the river and attack Anqing and Chizhou.

Zhang Yuan from Nanjing led 10,000 men down the river to Tianma Mountain and attacked Ningguo Mansion again.

The Ningguo Mansion here is not the Duke's Mansion in Shenjing, but a place name in Huizhou, similar to Anqing Prefecture and Chizhou Prefecture. Its geographical location is roughly located in the current Wuhu area.

At the same time, Zhai Xun led his troops across Chaohu Lake and joined forces with Zhang Yuan to attack.

The battle broke out quickly, and Anqing encountered basically no resistance. After crossing the river, Ma Laohei led his men to successfully capture the city in just three days. Half of the wealthy families in the city fled, and the rest all surrendered.

The reason why it was so smooth was mainly because the governor of Huizhou had previously falsely conveyed the imperial edict and transferred many garrisons in Anqing and Chizhou, and fled back to their hometowns with a large amount of family property and ships, which greatly reduced the resistance in Anqing City.

Even the governor has run away, what else can these people do to resist?
The same thing happened to the neighboring Chizhou, which surrendered after not much resistance.

On the contrary, there was a county town below, called Lantian County, that put up strong resistance.

Lantian County is located in the mountains at the end of Huizhou, surrounded by mountains and hills, and has little contact with the outside world. There is a Geng family in the county who has been entrenched in Lantian County for generations. They have great power, and their origins can even be traced back to the early Ming Dynasty.

After years of occupation, the Geng family became local tyrants in Lantian County. Most of the assets and land in the county belonged to the Geng family, and the wealth accumulated over the years was almost comparable to that of the Yangzhou salt merchants.

In order to ensure the inheritance of the family, the Geng family spent a huge amount of money to build a small town in the county, which was used as the family's residence.

In other places, newly appointed officials are required to give some face to local wealthy families.

Here, Mr. Geng gave the magistrate of Lantian some face for the sake of the imperial court.

(End of this chapter)