Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 355, The Changes in Liaodong

In fact, given Ma Laohei's strategy of steady progress and step-by-step advancement, these so-called rebellions pose no real threat and will be destroyed sooner or later.

But wouldn't it be better to quell the rebellion sooner by using the help of others?

Zhang Haicheng assembled the Ding'e Army and immediately began his lapdog mode.

He embodied Fang Yong's will and publicized his loyalty to Fang Yong, portraying himself as a devoted dog who had pledged allegiance to Fang Yong.

When asked to confront the Huaiyin Army, he readily agreed.

Letting him carry out an internal purge would be a powerful move.

Prior to this, Zhang Haicheng had been a target of those resistance forces.

Those who resisted knew they could not fight Fang Yong's tyranny on their own, so they sought allies everywhere, such as Zhang Haicheng and Liu Xiang, who all sent people to request an alliance.

Now, Zhang Haicheng turned his gun on these people without hesitation and began a massacre.

Although the Huaiyin Army had the advantage in combat strength against these rebels, they were unfamiliar with the terrain, the climate, and the local dialect. Sometimes, even if they defeated the enemy, they could not wipe them out completely, and the enemy would find an opportunity to escape and hide.

(As mentioned before, the majority of the troops under Ma Laohei's command were from Shandong and Zhili.)
Zhang Haicheng's men were mostly locals who knew the situation perfectly, which made the operation much smoother, and they seemed to have divine assistance when they wiped out the remaining forces.

Sometimes, they encountered some disloyal gentry who outwardly submitted to Fang Yong but inwardly opposed his policies. Dealing with such people used to be troublesome, but now it's very simple: just hand them over to Zhang Haicheng, frame them as rebels, and kill them.

Ma Laohei was happy with this arrangement. Zhang Haicheng was in charge of suppressing the resistance forces, while he took over the territory from behind.

Zhang Haicheng showed no mercy in persecuting powerful families, and a large number of resistance fighters were massacred at his hands.

Anyone who dared to resist Fang Yong's rule or was dissatisfied with Fang Yong was arrested and killed by Zhang Haicheng and his men, and publicly executed. Then, he publicly proclaimed his loyalty to Fang Yong.

Zhang Haicheng did this in order to portray himself as a typical example of someone who had sided with Fang Yong. Only in this way would Fang Yong, for the sake of the bigger picture, not dare to kill him.

Such behavior naturally aroused widespread hostility from the gentry, and even many gentry who had pledged allegiance to Fang Yong could not tolerate Zhang Haicheng's actions.

In the capital, Fang Yong smiled and put down a memorial.

Another lawsuit against Zhang Haicheng.

He casually tossed it aside, and a pile of such folded papers had already accumulated nearby.

These days, memorials impeaching Zhang Haicheng have been pouring in like snowflakes, piling up like a snow mountain.

Fang Yong knew that this was the powerful families putting pressure on him.

Because Zhang Haicheng was using his name in public, those powerful families would definitely assume that Zhang Haicheng's actions were secretly instigated by him.

Some of the memorials sent were impeachments against Zhang Haicheng for his brutality, some were framing of him, but others were genuine grievances.

For example, the memorial just mentioned a story about a widow and her son from Hanchuan whose family was persecuted and wiped out by Zhang Haicheng. The mother and son were hunted down, barely escaped, and then began to seek justice.

In the story, Zhang Haicheng is undoubtedly a classic villain.

When a petty person gains power, they frame others and wipe out their entire family.

The mother and son, though from a noble family, were considered rare good people among the gentlemen compared to other families that bullied men and women. They not only performed acts of kindness such as repairing bridges and roads, but they were also more lenient with their servants than others.

This kind-hearted family did not really defy Fang Yong's rule, only expressing some slight resistance to Fang Yong's policies in private, for example:

"A wise man understands righteousness, while a petty man understands profit. The King of Wu's consolidation of land and his forced cultivation of farmland by the people is an act of abandoning righteousness for the sake of profit..."

Furthermore: "The people can be made to follow a path, but they cannot be made to understand it. The book 'Elementary Learning' contradicts the teachings of the sages..."

These were not serious remarks. The other party did not say them in public, but only discussed them privately with a friend. There was nothing seriously wrong with them, but they were reported by their friend and ended up like this.

In fact, this kind of behavior often occurred in the capital, and Fang Yong did not prohibit it, because that was how scholars were in this era. Even many of those who had long since pledged allegiance to Fang Yong did not understand some of his policies.

For example, Jia Yucun, who had long since pledged allegiance to Fang Yong, did not understand why Fang Yong was so insistent on popularizing education. Wasn't it easier to rule if the people were ignorant?

Fang Yong did not forbid these remarks, as long as they did not affect the public in public. They could discuss them in private; he couldn't possibly stop people from speaking.

However, in order to demonstrate his loyalty to Fang Yong, Zhang Haicheng resolutely arrested and exterminated the entire family, which led to this memorial.

Fang Yong felt sorry for that family.

He felt great sympathy for the other person's plight, realizing that it was probably just a few drunken complaints to a friend that led to such a tragic end.

Unfortunately, he couldn't avenge this family.

Although from the perspective of the powerful families, Zhang Haicheng is undoubtedly a heinous villain, the key point is that Fang Yong, who usurped the country, is no good person either!

Zhang Haicheng is indeed notorious for his evil deeds, but to be fair, he's quite useful.

Therefore, Fang Yong withstood pressure from all sides and did his best to protect Zhang Haicheng.

Now Zhang Haicheng is truly his man.

On the ninth day of the sixth month, news came from the Imperial Guards in Liaodong that Chu Yuqi seemed to have really fallen seriously ill and had not seen anyone for nearly two months.

The morale of the Liaodong army was wavering, and the eldest son, Chu Renfeng, wanted to take control of the situation, but he was powerless to do so.

Young Master Chu Renji was born to Chu Yuqi and the Zu family, a prominent local clan in Liaodong, through a marriage alliance. He was only about six years old by the traditional Chinese age reckoning, and three and a half years old by actual age. He originally did not have the ability to compete for power.

However, his mother was Chu Yuqi's second wife. This woman was extraordinary. It seems that in the early stages of Chu Yuqi's illness, she quickly took control of Chu Yuqi's mansion with swift and decisive measures, concealed the news from the outside world, and secretly transferred her brother, who was also Chu Renji's uncle, back to Fengtian.

Chu Renji's maternal uncle, Zu Zhimao, led a large number of troops into Fengtian, and the Chu family's business is now in danger of changing hands.

It was precisely because of this that the Embroidered Uniform Guard dared to confirm that Chu Yuqi seemed to be seriously ill this time.

In fact, you can tell from their names, Feng and Ma. Chu Yuqi clearly prefers his eldest son, Chu Renfeng, to his younger son, Chu Renji. Previously, when he sent troops to the grasslands, it was his eldest son, Chu Renfeng, who commanded the troops.

Chu Renji was merely the product of a marriage alliance between Chu Yuqi and the Zu family, the purpose of which was simply to better control the situation in Liaodong. In the future, the family business would definitely be passed on to the eldest son, Chu Renfeng.

However, perhaps even Chu Yuqi himself did not expect that he would suddenly fall ill in the prime of his life, putting his family business at risk.

If the family business is really inherited by Chu Renji, wouldn't a three-year-old child be completely controlled by the ancestral family?

(End of this chapter)