The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 516: Eradicate All Pests and Become Invincible (Part )

Lanzhou City, Gansu Province.

Manchu and Han officials including the Governor-General of Gansu, Le Erjin, and the Governor of Gansu, Wang Danwang, gathered on the city wall, staring eagerly at the east.

Because the former Green Camp general of Suzhou Town who risked his life to enter the city said that the newly born Dayu court had ordered the son-in-law of the emperor, Li Xianwen, the Duke of Xia, to lead a large army to quell the rebellion.

"When will Duke Xia come? If he doesn't come soon, the whole city will have no water to drink." Le Erjin was waiting anxiously on the top of the city wall, fearing that his life would be in danger.

At this time, under the threat of these extremists, the Manchus seemed much more lovable.

Hearing Leerjin's words, Wang Danwang rolled his eyes. He knew that Leerjin's words had a hidden meaning.

This is the most daring corrupt official in the more than 100 years since the founding of the Qing Dynasty. He is too greedy and has not yet been brought to justice.

Wang Danwang started out as a juren (a scholar) and rose through the ranks from county magistrate to provincial governor, all through bribery. He obtained all his official positions with money.

This kind of success made Wang Danwang extremely superstitious about the power of money. In his opinion, there was nothing in this world that could not be solved with money. If it could not be solved, it must be because there was not enough money.

That's why he dared to fabricate the Gansu relief fraud case and drag the Shaanxi-Gansu Governor Le Erjin and all the officials in Gansu into corruption.

This almost angered Qianlong to death. From ancient times to the present, even at the end of a dynasty, there have always been a few officials with conscience and who work hard.

But our Qing Dynasty has not yet reached its end, so how could such monsters appear?

In history, there is only one case like the Gansu relief fraud case in the Qing Dynasty, where all the officials in Gansu were corrupt, all of them were corrupt, fleecing the country and squeezing the people.

Historically, Wang Danwang was afraid of being punished and even attempted to bribe Emperor Qianlong. On Emperor Qianlong's 70th birthday, he presented him with a pair of jade bottles made entirely of top-grade mutton-fat white jade and a jade mountain carved from the finest Hetian jade.

The so-called Yushanzi is a landscape painting carved from jade. The Yushanzi presented by Wang Danwang is not only made of top-grade jade, but also has extremely exquisite carving craftsmanship. It can be said to be an exquisite work of art.

How good are these two things? So good that even Emperor Qianlong regarded them as treasures.

Of course, Qianlong was still very capable. He knew that he could not accept such precious gifts from his ministers, otherwise local officials would follow suit and it would be troublesome.

At the same time, he also began to doubt, because with Wang Danwang's family background and financial resources, it was impossible for him to own two treasures that even he, the emperor, coveted.

So he returned the two items to Wang Danwang, but he still couldn't forget them. So when Wang Danwang got into trouble, the first thing Qianlong did was to find the whereabouts of the two treasures.

Then they discovered Chen Huizu, who was even more daring and dared to swap the treasures.

Wang Danwang was so superstitious about the power of money that he naturally had a plan in mind. He planned to continue using money to pave the way and use 500,000 taels to bribe Li Xianwen, the Duke of Xia, to avoid death.

Then he used the mutton-fat jade bottle and the jade mountain to bribe Emperor Mo in an attempt to make a comeback.

Ahem, in this time and space in 1780, the Qing Dynasty was about to die, so Wang Danwang naturally did not present these two treasures to Emperor Qianlong to celebrate his th birthday, so the things were still in Wang Danwang's hands.

It is precisely because of this that Le Erjin, a member of the banner, is anxiously waiting for Li Xianwen to lead his army.

This does not mean that Lanzhou City is at risk of being captured. As the only city in China where the Yellow River passes through it, Lanzhou's city defense is extremely strong.

At this time, Le Erjin had already abandoned the city area on the north bank of the Yellow River at the advice of his generals and only defended the old city on the south bank.

This old city on the south bank has the Yellow River to the north, a moat on each side of the east and west, and is backed by mountains. There is no place for a large army to gain a foothold on any three sides. If they want to attack, they have to fill up the moat so that the army can deploy.

Moreover, the city wall of Lanzhou is more than ten meters high. It is built entirely with stone slabs as the foundation and blue bricks mixed with rammed earth. Unless there is a regular army like the Dayu army using 36-pound cannons to bombard it.

Otherwise, as long as the people in the city are not demoralized, it is impossible for the chaotic army outside, with only tens of thousands of muskets in their hands, to break into Lanzhou City.

So what Le Erjin was really afraid of was not the chaotic army outside, but Wang Danwang beside him.

In this era when the Han people retook the empire, bannermen like Le Erjin fell straight from heaven to the mud, fearing that Emperor Mo would order his entire family to be executed.

As a result, the relationship between Le Erjin and Wang Danwang was directly reversed.

In the past, Lord Leerjinman was high and mighty, but now Wang Danwang is complacent, and Leerjin is as panic-stricken as a dog that has lost its home.

In less than a year, Wang Danwang had taken back all the 300,000 taels that he had given to Le Erjin in the past few years, and he was even eyeing Le Erjin's property.

Le Erjin was afraid. He knew that Wang Danwang hoped to buy his life with money, but he, Le Erjin, hoped even more.

His family is said to have been detained in Beijing. If he cannot demonstrate his value, at least he can come up with some money. How can he rescue his family?

At present, Le Erjin still has about 200,000 taels of private money. This money is his last guarantee and must not be snatched away by Wang Danwang.

"Bang, bang, bang!" A burst of musketry sounded from below the city, and the entire city suddenly became noisy.

It turned out that it was a team from Lanzhou City going out of the city to fetch water, and they were being shot at by Christians outside the city.

Lanzhou is located in the northwest, and the precipitation has been decreasing since the end of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the groundwater level is very low, and the few wells dug are completely unable to meet the needs of the entire city.

In order to maintain drinking water in the city, people had to go out to fetch water from the Yellow River or the moat almost every day.

The believers outside the city kept dumping human and animal feces into the moat, forcing the people inside the city to fetch water from the Yellow River.

However, the rebel army did not dare to approach the Yellow River which was too close to the city wall because there were cannons on the city wall. So they specially arranged people on small boats or rafts on the Yellow River to shoot at the people fetching water with muskets.

Amidst bursts of gunfire and plumes of smoke, at least three or four civilians who were fetching water were knocked to the ground. The civilians on the city wall could not help but cry and roar loudly when they saw this.

Not far from Le Erjin, an old teacher named Ma Guobao stood on the top of the city wall and shouted insults at the rebels outside the city, and his insults were particularly harsh.

The people around were used to it, because the Su Forty-three rebels outside the city killed everyone except those who believed in religion or were crazy like them.

Even those who belonged to the same Jahriyya clan as them were killed as long as they spoke Mandarin or held any official position.

Emmm, it was actually similar in later generations. Most of those who supported the imperial court had some property and lived a relatively comfortable life.

Most of those who cause trouble are fools who believe in religion and demons and live in poor mountain valleys and vast deserts.

Seeing the rebels slaughtering people on the Yellow River, a small gate at the corner of Lanzhou City quietly opened, and the Gansu Governor, Baoning, a member of the Mongolian Plain White Banner, suddenly rushed out with a dozen personal guards. From a distance of over 160 meters, Baoning fired three bursts of arrows from his -force, nearly -pound bow. The cavalry behind him followed suit with their -force bows.

This man is one of the few remaining classical military generals that Emperor Qianlong nurtured with national resources. He can use a twelve-force bow immediately. In the early Qing Dynasty, he could also be an officer among the white-armored soldiers.

Historically, Baoning did a good job as the General of Ili, and successfully suppressed the Kazakhs from secretly crossing the border to migrate into the Ili River Valley.

It is a pity that after his death, later generations were unable to impose strict restrictions, resulting in most of the Ili River Valley and the Seven Rivers Land, which originally belonged to China, being gradually occupied by Kazakh tribes and then easily cut off by Tsarist Russia.

On the Yellow River, in order to increase accuracy, the Christian rebels stayed about a hundred meters away from the shore.

They did not notice Baoning coming out, and the matchlock gun was no match for the strong bow, so they were immediately shot and suffered heavy casualties. Several rafts overturned in the water, and twenty to thirty people were killed or injured.

When the people on the city wall saw this, they cheered loudly and laughed and insulted the rebels outside the city.

After Baoning shot away the rebel army, he also considerately covered the retreat of the people, most of whom were Han people fetching water, and successfully won gratitude and praise again.

Baoning had done this kind of work many times. Amid the praises of the people around him, Baoning looked at Le Erjin on the top of the city wall and sighed slightly in his heart.

The Qing Dynasty was over, but he still had to live. If he did not show his ability and knowledge at this time, his family's rich life would not be guaranteed.

The Bannermen, after all, were actually a bandit gang without their own ethnic group or country.

When the Qing court, their "stronghold", was destroyed, the remaining people had to find the next group to accept them in order to ensure their survival.

"Well done, everyone, practice your riding and archery skills well, so that when Duke Xia comes, we can protect our families and our current lives."

After driving away the rebel army on the Yellow River, Baoning hurriedly encouraged the personal soldiers behind him.

No matter how powerful a person is, he can't accomplish much. He still needs to have brave men following him.

On the north bank of the Yellow River, at the bridgehead of Zhenyuan Floating Bridge, the bridge has been destroyed by the defenders, and the rebel army is trying to find a way to repair it.

The leader of the rebel army, Su Forty-three, was standing at the head of the bridge. He looked resentfully at Baoning, who was showing his might a few hundred meters away, and some Ah Hongs on the top of Lanzhou City Wall, and some of them were so defeated that they started cursing.

"These damned Ketais and Kalmaks, these Kafirs, one day I will kill them all, and those heretics of the White Mountain Sect will be chopped into pieces by the scimitars of the faithful!"

Ketai is actually another transliteration of Khitan. After Yelu Dashi dominated the Western Regions, the ethnic groups in the Western Regions and the Muslim Turks in Central Asia no longer called the Han people Taohuashi people, but Ketai people.

In the Qing Dynasty, they even called the Bannermen Ketai people because these guys couldn't tell the difference between Han people and Bannermen.

Kalmak is another translation of Kalmyk. It was originally used to refer to the Dzungar people. After the Dzungar Khanate was destroyed by the Qing Dynasty, it gradually became the name for all Mongolians in the Western Regions and Central Asia.

However, Su Forty-three who said this did not even look at his face. He looked exactly like a Han Chinese. His ancestors were either Han Chinese or Tibetans.

But now, he has abandoned his ancestors and become the spiritual dog of the Arabs.

"General, Lanzhou City is too difficult to capture. We have been besieging it for five months and have consumed 100,000 dan of grain, but we have only filled half of the moat.

If this continues, we'll have to siege for at least half a year. If Lanzhou City runs out of food, we'll be in trouble."

After Su Forty-three finished cursing, another leader of the rebel army, Han Sange, quickly said to him, "We have over 200,000 people, and the cost of food and horses is high every day under Lanzhou City. We need to make a decision soon."

Su Forty-three was a little dissatisfied because Third Brother Han was too unsteady.

He initially supported the attack on Lanzhou City because he felt that taking a provincial capital like Lanzhou would not only allow them to plunder extensively, but would also allow them to secure their position as the leader of the Gansu Province's rebellious army.

But now that they see that they cannot defeat Lanzhou at all, they regret taking on this tough task.

In the past month or two, Han San Ge was jealous of the other rebel armies that had captured Ganzhou City and reaped great rewards, so he kept making a fuss about attacking other places.

But despite his dissatisfaction, Su Forty-three could only persuade them for the sake of the overall situation: "The Ma family of Ba Ting conquered Ganzhou, but they didn't gain much.

Besides, we are different. If we take Lanzhou, we will gain more than ten times as much."

It was just another big promise, and Han Sange was a little dissatisfied. He muttered, "Lanzhou has a lot of treasures, but it also needs to be conquered."

Su Forty-three saw that all the leaders, big and small, had gathered around him, and he laughed deliberately.

“The reason why Lanzhou was difficult to capture was not because it was strong or because there was plenty of food in the city, but because the people in the city still had hope, still hoping that the court in Beijing would come to their rescue.

I heard that a certain Duke Xia came from Guanzhong with over 30,000 men. Even if all of them came, plus the Han troops at Xiannongtan east of the city who didn't dare to come out and fight us, there would only be 50,000 men."

At this point, Su Forty-three's face was full of confidence. "But we have 300,000 people. Six of us against one of them, how can we not win?"

Before the rebellion, this shameless guy was actually an Ahong, who was responsible for explaining the meaning of scriptures. He had some influence in Xunhua, but he knew nothing about military affairs.

The rest of them, including Han San Ge, Han Sailimai, Qi Yuxian, Yang Jieqing and others, were either local Ah Hongs or people who only knew how to fight bravely and fiercely in the countryside with their lackeys.

They are now lucky enough to be able to display these 200,000 or so believers outside Lanzhou City in a decent manner. It is really a stretch to ask them to know anything about military affairs.

Not to mention them, even the Arabs, the core of the entire Muslim religion, have no martial ethics to speak of since they were beaten by the Turks.

For those who don't know much about military affairs, their first instinct about war is to do math problems.

Well, war is indeed a math problem, but it is not a simple comparison of size that means more people will definitely win over fewer people. Instead, we need to consider all aspects to reach a relatively stable conclusion.

Therefore, when these guys who didn't understand much heard about the numerical advantage of six against one, they immediately became much more confident.

But before Su Forty-three could take the opportunity to cheer himself up, the sound of horse hooves came from afar. Soon, the sentry brought the news of Jinjibao.

The imperial army that was sent to suppress the rebellion did not attack Jinjibao, but moved to Lanzhou to attack them.

Su Forty-three was stunned for a moment. Although he said nice things, he couldn't help feeling a little panicked when he thought that the imperial army had really arrived.

The leaders of the surrounding rebel forces were in a similar state, all of them looked pale.

(End of this chapter)