The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 171 Qiao Yiqi’s Benefactor
On that day, the various Kaiyuan camps piled the confiscated silver and cloth at the north gate of the city wall. Under the pretext of suppressing the remnants of the Wenxiang rebels in the city, the Kaiyuan army sealed the north gate and strictly prohibited the Shandong troops from entering or leaving.

A total of 300 people, including civil affairs officials, pacification soldiers, and central army guards who came with the army, worked overtime to count the supplies.

They were busy from noon on the 8th to the early morning of the 9th before they finished counting the mountains of gold, silver, cloth and silk that had been seized.

In addition to the spoils captured by the cavalry, there were a total of 953,600 taels of silver, 13,000 pieces of gold jewelry, and 73,600 pieces of cloth...
More than 10,000 dan of grain and fodder were seized, and about 5,000 dan were burned by the mob when the Wenxiang Sect retreated.

Since the Wenxiang Sect rebels were mainly infantry, with few cavalry and not much armor, the weapons captured this time were very few, only more than 800 war horses and some damaged armor and weapons.

The rich spoils of this battle were beyond the Marquis of Ping Liao's expectations. He had never expected that the prefectures and counties of Shandong were so wealthy.

In fact, Ping Liaohou knew very little about Shandong during the late Ming Dynasty.

His understanding of Shandong in the late Ming Dynasty mainly comes from the collector's edition of "Jin Ping Mei".

Just to add, that was a New Year’s gift from General Kang to Marquis Ping Liao.

In fact, the only thing Liu Zhaosun was interested in was the book's description of Linqing's commerce.

It is precisely such a commercially developed city that breeds Ximen Daguanren...

In fact, the two cities of Jining and Linqing, located at important nodes of the canal, were the richest in the world in the late Ming Dynasty, and were not inferior to Qinhuai and Jiangnan.

Liu Zhaosun must take these two canal cities.

Occupying Jining and Linqing would not only allow him to seize enormous wealth, but also control the north and south of the Grand Canal. To put it bluntly, if he could control the Grand Canal, the entire northern Zhili would have to rely on him.

In 1644, after the Manchus entered the Pass and occupied Beijing, they rushed south, not because the Southern Ming posed any threat to the Manchus, but because they needed to quickly control the Grand Canal. If the Grand Canal fell into enemy hands, it would not take long for the Eight Banners Army stationed in Beijing and Tianjin to starve to death.

The same logic applied to the later Opium War, when the British fleet arrived at Nanjing, the Qing Dynasty immediately surrendered.

However, for now, the Kaiyuan Army still has to try to occupy Wendeng first and move forward step by step.

Shandong's location is too important. If Liu Zhaosun suddenly makes a move, he will only be beaten by the surrounding forces.

Moreover, now is not the time to break off relations with the imperial court.

Liu Zhaosun had another concern.

Dengzhou Governor Yuan Keli is a capable man. His attitude will directly affect whether Ping Liaohou can gain a foothold in Shandong. First, we must find out his background and determine whether Yuan Keli is willing to cooperate with us.

From any angle, Liu Zhaosun did not want to take action against this tragic anti-Jin hero.

~~~
Wendeng County Government Office, the three-hall east flower hall.

The backyard, which originally served as the residence of the county magistrate's family, has now become a resting place for Kaiyuan civil servants.

In a wing facing the back garden.

Ping Liaohou waved his hand to let Sun Chuanting and Qiao Yiqi sit down, took the hot dishes from the guards, and handed them to the two of them. The two of them hurriedly bowed to take them.

Qiao Yiqi took a sip of tea and said loudly:
"Marquis Ping Liao, Beile Xicheng and the others have returned, having seized tens of thousands of taels of silver. I will have Xie Yang and the others register..."

Liu Zhaosun quickly interrupted, "Master Qiao, you may not know that when I recruited these Jurchen and Mongolian foreigners, I formulated military laws slightly different from those for the combat troops. Therefore, I don't need to confiscate all the silver. I will leave some for Burhanggu. This way, I can win over the foreigners' hearts."

Qiao Yiqi continued to drink tea. The Ping Liaohou in front of him looked more and more like Kang Yingqian, and his scheming became more and more profound.

He was about to speak when he heard Ping Liaohou continue:
"Inspector Kang and Superintendent Yuan are going to oversee the inventory of the seized goods. Governor Yuan is coming to Wendeng tonight, so you two will accompany me in receiving him."

When Liu Zhaosun said this, he looked up at Sun Chuanting, and Sun Chuanting quickly put down the teacup.

"Governor Yuan is an extraordinary man. I have admired him greatly since my time in Liaodong and have always wanted to make friends with him."

Qiao Yiqi said seriously:

"Back then, Japanese pirates were rampant in the southeast, and Wuzhong implemented a maritime ban. My enemies falsely accused me of recruiting soldiers and horses, attempting to gather people for rebellion..."

Twenty-five years ago, Yuan Keli (Zi Liqing) saved Qiao Yiqi's life.

In the 23rd year of the Wanli reign, Qiao Dazui was a frivolous young man dressed in fine clothes and riding a horse. It happened that the Imjin War broke out and the Japanese invasion continued in the southeastern sea.

Qiao Yiqi, a prominent family in Yunjian, was good friends with Qin Deng, the son of Qin Liang, the governor of Jiangxi Province and a prominent family in Wuxi, and Wang Shiqin, the second son of Taicang Wang Yanzhou.

It can be understood as a group of bad friends.

The three recruited local soldiers to defend their homeland from the Japanese invaders. Dressed in fine clothes and riding horses, they paraded through the city, but were soon reported by their enemies as gathering a group for rebellion.

This incident alarmed Emperor Wanli, who ordered a thorough investigation.

Geng Suilong, a member of the Ministry of Personnel, reported: "Danyang County residents Zhaozhou Ping and other evil young men were drunk and reckless. They were not the instigators of rebellion and should not have been allowed to enter."

However, his memorial was quickly suppressed. Fearing the loss of his position, the Zhejiang Governor Zhu Hongmo sentenced Qin Deng to death, Wang Shiqi to prison, and Qiao Yiqi to exile.

Yuan Keli, the then magistrate of Suzhou Prefecture, felt that there was indeed injustice in the case and insisted on a retrial despite the governor's obstruction.

After much investigation, he found that the so-called rebellion was nothing more than a storytelling performed by Wang Shiqiong's family in a restaurant about the Chenqiao mutiny and the emperor wearing the yellow robe.

At that time, Qiao Dazui was drunk and imitated Zhao Kuangyin in the storytelling, calling himself "I".

It has to be said that twenty-five years have passed, and Qiao Yiqi is still the same young man without any change.

Therefore, they were accused of rebellion by their enemies.

The truth of the case soon came to light, and with the help of people in the Qiao family, the three were eventually acquitted.

Unfortunately, Qin and Wang died in prison. Only Qiao Yiqi survived and was rescued from death row.

Qiao Yiqi looked back at the past, his eyes reddened, and he said with gratitude:
"If it weren't for Yuan Liqing's strenuous efforts to rescue me, I would have been dead long ago."

Sun Chuanting had heard about this unjust case. He had been to Beijing twice for the imperial examination and had seen a lot. He felt quite sympathetic towards Qiao Dazui's tragic experience.

The time traveler had long heard of Yuan Keli's name. He served in the Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi, and Chongzhen dynasties and was one of the most important officials in the late Ming Dynasty.

He was a Jinshi in the 17th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty. He was initially appointed as the magistrate of Suzhou Prefecture in Nanzhili. In the 23rd year, he was promoted to the Censor of Shanxi Province. In the first month of the 24th year, he was dismissed from office and returned home.

In the second year of the Tianqi reign, he was promoted to the position of Secretary of the Left Tongzheng Office and Attendant of the Imperial Lectures. On March 14th, he was appointed as the examiner of the imperial examination. On April 10th, he was appointed as the Right Censor-in-Chief and Governor-General of Denglai.

On the sixth day of October in the third year of the Tianqi reign, he was promoted to the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War... He eventually became the Minister of War and was given the title of Prince Taibao.

Throughout his life, Yuan Keli redressed unjust cases, instigated Liu Aita's rebellion, founded Dongjiang Town, and recovered the territory of southern Liaoning. He can be regarded as a capable official in the late Ming Dynasty.

Liu Zhaosun would certainly try his best to win over such a person with both moral integrity and talent.

~~~~~
At nightfall that day, under the escort of Dengzhou Standard Battalion, Dengzhou Governor Yuan Keli led the Weihaiwei Commander, the Tongzhi, and the county magistrates of Ninghaizhou, Fushan, Qixia and other places, and hurried to Wendeng County to celebrate the victory of Ping Liaohou.

After entering Wendeng County, the Kaiyuan Cavalry Battalion dispatched a thousand elite cavalry to provide cover on both wings of the Standard Battalion.

Governor Yuan had just taken office in Dengzhou and had only 2,000 soldiers under his command. A few days ago, they were defeated by the Wenxiang Sect in the south of Wendeng County, with 300 casualties.

Now they are all in a state of panic and their morale is at a low point. If it were not for the Kaiyuan cavalry guarding on both sides, they would never dare to approach Wendeng County.

Yuan Keli observed the Kaiyuan cavalry closely and vaguely felt that this army was full of murderous aura.

Beile Burhanggu of Xicheng spoke with Governor Yuan in poor Ming Dynasty official language. Yuan Keli was quite open-minded and had no discrimination against military men. He soon had a lively conversation with the Jurchen general who had defected from Haixi.

"You mean, the Marquis of Ping Liao also recruited the Jianzhou Jurchens as cavalry? And also the Hu Dun Tu cavalry?"

"Master Yuan, it is like this. You see, many of these cavalrymen guarding the surrounding areas are Mongolians."

Yuan Keli and Burhanggu rode side by side and carefully observed the riders around them who were wearing Ming helmets. They found that they did look different from the Han people.

Yuan Keli was amazed.

When he was in the capital, he heard about the policy of using barbarians to change the Chinese people implemented in Kaiyuan. He thought it was just the empty talk of Ping Liaohou, but he didn't expect it was all true.

During the Wanli Emperor's war to aid Korea, Yuan Keli heard that Liu Jing had many foreigners who had converted to Chinese culture, and among his servants were Siamese, Indians, and even those who had "surrendered to Japan."

Unexpectedly, Liu Jing's adopted son was even better than his father and actually directly recruited soldiers from the Jiannu White Banner.

"Like father, like son! Ping Liao Hou is a natural born genius. I'm lucky to have met him. Let's have a long conversation by candlelight tonight!"

~~~~~
In the Ming Dynasty, civil officials were respected and military officials were despised, and the status of a general was slightly lower than that of a governor.

Liu Zhaosun was the commander of the three guards of Kaiyuan, and was also blessed with the title of Marquis of Pingliao. Naturally, his status was not comparable to that of an ordinary general.

At dusk that day, Liu Zhaosun personally led Qiao Yiqi, Sun Chuanting and others out of the west gate to welcome Yuan Keli and his party.

Ping Liaohou had met Yuan Keli when he was in Weihaiwei, but the military situation was urgent at that time and there was no chance for an in-depth conversation.

Now that the Wenxiang Sect has been defeated, the situation in Dengzhou is basically stable, and it is a good opportunity to discuss the subsequent pursuit and suppression with Governor Yuan.

A group of deputy county magistrates followed Yuan Keli like tails.

Yuan Keli looked at the bloodstains at the city gate and heard that tens of thousands of people were killed in Wendeng County. The 58-year-old man's face turned ashen and he bit his lips tightly.

Liu Zhaosun saw Yuan Keli's beard trembling and his body shaking slightly. Fearing that he was too sad, he stepped forward and said to him:

"The bandit leader has been executed and is being tortured to death at the crossroads. Sir Yuan, the situation outside the city is chaotic, so we should first go inside."

(End of this chapter)