The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 452 The mob
In the middle of the twelfth lunar month, the snow fell even harder. Even the three Beijing troops mobilized from Yingtian Prefecture were unable to reach Jiujiang on time due to the dangerous journey.

So Mo Zibu decided not to leave and set up his temporary court in Jiujiang, preparing to celebrate the New Year there.

The Huguang Campaign, which had been basically prepared, could not be carried out because the snow was too heavy. The snow in the entire Jiujiang, and even in northern Jiangxi, southwestern Anhui, and southeastern Hubei was almost knee-deep, making it impossible to fight.

The Xing Tang Army once again failed to sweep through the area as Chen Yanzu and others had imagined, which made them more confident. There were even rumors that Emperor Guangzhong was discussing how to recruit the gentry of Huguang.

Well, it’s not really a rumor, it’s more like a rumor, a rumor specially fabricated by the Northern Pacification Division of the Jinyiwei.

Of course, it is impossible that Hubei Province is without smart people. In the 1771th year of Qianlong's reign (), Li Huang, a native of Anlu Prefecture, was ranked th in the second class of the Xinmao Special Examination and was very sensible.

The Xinmao examination in 1771 was a special examination, specially held for the th birthday of Emperor Qianlong's mother.

This kind of imperial examination with a queue cut-in was not very popular among scholars, because there were only so many positions in the court, and the special examination was equivalent to a queue cut-in, so the positions generally arranged were not very good.

In addition, in the Qing Dynasty, most of the official hats in the court were given to the Manchus, so there were not enough to go around. Li Huang was a student of the special examination, so he had no future at all.

Historically, Li Huang served as a Hanlin for his entire life, and only became a Vice Minister when he was almost sixty years old. However, this also gave him the leisure time to concentrate on studying, which enabled Li Huang to achieve remarkable attainments in mathematics and astronomy.

However, in this time and space, Li Huang did not choose to continue to suffer in Beijing. When there was a change in the south and news came that Zhu Hongwu had appeared, he resigned from his official position and ran back to his hometown to lie in wait.

Anlu Prefecture is located in the northwest of Wuchang Prefecture. It was once known as Chengtian Prefecture because it is the hometown of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty.

However, in the Qing Dynasty, Anlu Prefecture was naturally stripped of its title of Chengtian Prefecture and returned to its original status.

The decline in status resulted in Anlu Prefecture, which originally had a heavy military garrison in the Ming Dynasty, having a very weak garrison during the Qing Dynasty. There were only 600 people in the Anlu Camp under the Green Camp Yunyang Town, which was in charge of a lieutenant general.

The Green Camp of the Qing Dynasty decayed very quickly, especially the Green Camp in the mainland. After Mo Zibu entered Nanjing, local gentry such as Li Huang organized people to cause trouble and drove away all the Green Camp soldiers of the Anlu Camp, who had little combat effectiveness.

In fact, this is also the norm in Hunan and Hubei provinces. The local Green Camps have basically been driven away. Only the cities with generals and the provincial capitals’ Fu Biao and Ti Biao are still there, but most of them have torn down the Green Camp signs and transformed into militia.

The capital of Anlu Prefecture is Zhongxiang County, which is right on the bank of the Han River. Going upstream is Xiangyang Prefecture, and further upstream from Xiangyang Prefecture is Yunyang Prefecture.

Therefore, at this time, Zhongxiang was considered the gateway to Xiangyang. With Anlu Prefecture stuck in the waist of the Han River, Chen Yanzu, who was located in Wuchang Prefecture, had lost control of the entire western and northwestern Hubei.

"Brother Yunmen, this Chen Yanzu has sent another order from Wuchang, but this time it's not a private letter, but an official letter from the Governor of Hubei and the Admiral of Hubei."

A local gentry from Jingshan County came to Li Huang with an order from Chen Huizu. Li Huang sneered, "Chen Yanzu isn't even a juren. He's just a student. How dare he use the seal of a provincial governor?"

He dared to show off his power in Wuchang Prefecture with only 500 Changde soldiers. Once the Han army from Dayu arrived, he would be dead.

I think Chen Huizu is really cruel and ruthless, even wanting to betray his own brother."

At this time, Hunan and Hubei could even be regarded as one province, because it was only after the Qing court abolished the Pianyuan Governor in the first year of Yongzheng's reign (1723) that Hubei and Hunan appeared as provincial-level units for the first time. Before that, they had always been together.

Therefore, when Chen Yanzu arrived in Wuchang Prefecture, he was not regarded as an outsider. It was just that the troops he controlled were too few and he had no talent.

The local tyrants in Hubei generally put him in front just because they need someone to take the lead and take the blame.

"Having said that, we have few people in Anlu Prefecture, only about a thousand people so far. If Chen Yanzu really comes to attack, and people from Yunyang and Xiangyang also come, then we will be in trouble." The gentry was still a little worried.

Li Huang nodded and said, "Then gather everyone together and we will defend this city. As long as we can hold out until March of next year, everything will be safe."

Before the squire could say anything, Li Huang said earnestly, "Yunyang Prefecture is full of refugees, and no one is taking care of them. In Xiangyang Prefecture, there are evil people preaching, so much so that the militia has become a gathering place for Hunyuan Sect believers.

If we give way to Anlu and don't resist, the Hunyuan Cultists in the north will take advantage of the situation and move south. They're so poor they barely have food to eat, and we know what they'll do when they get to Anlu Prefecture. We'll be the ones who suffer then."

"Yes, in this world, there is no peace anywhere." The squire sighed twice, was persuaded by Li Huang, and then walked out.

Li Huang let out a long sigh. The Hunyuan followers in Yunyang and Xiangyang were just an excuse for him to scare people. There might be some harm, but it would not be too great.

The real reason why Li Huang decided not to get involved with Chen Yanzu and others was that he saw through Mo Zibu's policies.

In other words, Li Huang was very clear that no dynasty, except at the end of the dynasty, would allow local forces like the brothers Chen Huizu and Chen Yanzu to exist.

At the same time, as a local, Li Huang had a deep understanding of how cruel these local tyrants were who made a fortune from land by moving people from Huguang to Sichuan.

More than 20 years ago, Li Huang's father, Li Zhaoyu, died of illness while serving as the prefect of Haizhou, Jiangsu. As a teenager, Li Huang returned home with his father's coffin. Upon his arrival, before his father's burial, local tyrants set a trap for him. They colluded with the prefect to seize his family property and threw him into prison.

If it weren't for the later Hubei Governor Li Yinpei's keen observation, Li Huang would have died in prison.

Even the son of an official like him could not keep his family property. One can imagine how many of the people who were forced to move to Sichuan had their property confiscated and were driven away. It is simply unimaginable.

Therefore, for both public and private reasons, and for both emotional and logical reasons, Li Huang would not get along with powerful people like Chen Yanzu.

February 1780, 2. The 20th year of the Guangzhong reign of the Great Yu Dynasty, the th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, and the th day of the first lunar month.

A lot of the snow in Huguang has melted. Although the weather is still quite cold, it no longer hinders the army's advance. Mo Zibu appointed Reinstein as the commander-in-chief in Jiujiang and led an army of 50,000 to march westward.

Before the Dayu Xingtang Army set out, fighting broke out within Hubei. Chen Yanzu, who thought he had been very tolerant, but Li Huang still didn't know what was good for him, took his 20,000-strong militia and, without making any defense to the east, went up the Yangtze River to the Han River to attack Li Huang.

At the same time, the militia of Yunyang and Xiangyang, led by local gentry, went down the Han River to attack Li Huang, hoping to get rid of this ungrateful guy first.

Over the past year or so, the Xingtang Army has been strictly guarding Jiujiang and refusing to leave, which has given the gentry in Hubei a feeling that the Xingtang Army is slow and dull.

In Chen Yanzu's opinion, he had more than 20,000 men, and the powerful people in Yunyang and Xiangyang had more than 10,000 men. It would be easy for 40,000 men to attack Anlu Prefecture, which had only more than 1,000 people.

I'm afraid that after he breaks through Anlu Prefecture, the Xing Tang Army will still be in Jiujiang and not take any action.

But in fact, Mo Zibu received information from the Jinyiwei from Wu Sanniang, and knew that Chen Yanzu and others were going to attack Anlu Prefecture, so he ordered the army to set off just after the Lantern Festival.

At the same time, Li Huang had no military talent, but his administrative ability was good. He was the top scorer in the Hubei provincial examination and had been a child prodigy since childhood. People in Anlu were quite convinced of him.

Therefore, he handed over the military affairs to his subordinates and was only responsible for pacifying the people, and he actually did a good job of defending the city.

On the 21st day of the first lunar month, Chen Yanzu's troops arrived at Zhongxiang, the capital of Anlu Prefecture, and launched a strong attack. Unexpectedly, they were unable to capture the city after a long siege.

Therefore, he could only urgently order the troops in Yunyang and Xiangyang to move south.

And this army "lived up to expectations". Almost 30% of them were Hunyuan believers, and the rest were not Hunyuan believers. However, most of the small local tyrants at the bottom of the society had connections with Hunyuan Sect.

In the Hunyuan Sect, except for the leader Song Zhiqing, the rest of the troops such as Gao Chenggong and Qi Lin were in the army.

As they headed south, they basically had to fight their way through. Countless houses were destroyed and civilians were killed. People from all over the country even heard that the Xiangyang soldiers were coming, and when they saw them, they would quickly hide in the mountains regardless of whether they saw anyone or not.

This does not mean that those who believe in the religion will become demons. In fact, the same is true for those who do not believe in Hunyuan Sect.

In this era of population explosion, overpopulation, and extreme poverty, the competition for production materials has reached the point where even a few kilograms of wheat or a few bowls of rice is worth shedding blood for.

The atrocities committed by the Xiangyang militia as they marched south aroused the anger of the people of Anlu. Li Huang's prediction was verified in a painful way. The people of Anlu Prefecture became more united in their hatred of the enemy and fought desperately to defend the city.

Almost at the same time when Chen Yanzu failed to take Anlu, Dayu's western expeditionary army arrived at Wuchang County (Ezhou). The more than 200 local militiamen left behind had already fled, and Wuchang County was captured without a fight.

The next day, Huang Jincai (Huang Wangcai), the vanguard of the Western Expedition Army, arrived in Huangzhou (Huanggang) and prepared to launch the attack.

Chen Yanzu invested a lot of manpower and material resources in this important riverside town. He strengthened the city walls, stockpiled 200,000 shi of grain, dug a new moat, and built four fortresses outside the city.

He also left his brother-in-law to guard the city, with a garrison of 4,000 men.

However, this is of no use. The biggest feature, or shortcoming, of the Hubei Green Camp is that Hubei is connected by the Yangtze River. The Green Camp has cavalry but no navy.

Because the navy of the Yangtze River in Hubei is under the responsibility of the Jingzhou Banner Camp Navy in the upper reaches and the Jiujiang Town Navy Camp in Jiangxi in the lower reaches.

Now the Eight Banners stationed in Jingzhou have withdrawn, and the warships followed them along the Yangtze River and into the Han River as a means of transportation. After arriving in Xiangyang, the warships' cannons were dismantled and taken away, and the ships were basically sold.

As for the Jiujiang navy, they had all fallen into the hands of the Xing Tang Army long ago.

That's right, Huang Jincai didn't need to attack from the front. He could just take the water route around Huangzhou, land at the northwest ferry, and then turn around and attack from both sides.

The militia in Huangzhou City had no idea that the Xing Tang Army would arrive so quickly. After Huang Jincai set up cannons on the hills northwest of Huangzhou City and bombarded it, the defenders immediately scattered and abandoned Huangzhou City and fled in all directions.

On the 28th day of the first lunar month, the army continued to go upstream along the river and arrived at Wuchang Prefecture. At that time, there was no city of Wuhan. The capital of Hubei Province was Wuchang Prefecture, which was across the river from Hanyang Prefecture.

The defense here is not as good as that of Huangzhou, because the strategy set by the Hubei militia is to resist the Xing Tang army in Huangzhou (Huanggang), hold out for a period of time and then surrender after getting the benefits.

Therefore, they pretended to make some defenses in Huangzhou, while Wuchang and Hanyang were basically empty cities, and the Xing Tang army took them down almost without a fight.

The journey was so smooth that Reinstein had not expected it to be so easy. He also had a basic understanding of the level of the Hubei militia, so he immediately convened a military meeting.

"According to the current situation, if we move quickly, we can definitely surprise the Hubei militia before they can react.

General Ye, please stay in Wuchang Prefecture and stabilize the area. I will lead two thousand cavalry to raid the main force of the militia in Anlu Prefecture at night."

Ye Xianchun nodded when he heard this. There was nothing wrong with Ryanstein's arrangement, although he was the deputy coach and Ryan was the head coach.

But Ryan is a big golden retriever. If he stays behind, not only will he fail to bring a sense of security to Wuchang Prefecture, he will probably scare ordinary people.

"However, 2,000 cavalry can only successfully launch a surprise attack, but cannot inflict large-scale casualties or drive the enemy away. We would like to ask General Yu to lead 5,000 infantry on a forced march to follow."

General Yu is Yu Jinao. He rebelled while serving as the governor of Jiangnan and was later transferred to serve as the governor of Anhui. Now he is also leading 5,000 Anhui troops to join the march.

"Okay, then let's stick to the original plan. First, defeat Chen Yanzu's Hubei militia. When the army reaches Anlu Prefecture, we won't head north, but will turn south to completely eliminate Chen Huizu's Hunan militia."

(End of this chapter)