There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 17: Expanding the Armed Forces and Preparing for War
Nie Yu and Zhang Zhengmo made a verbal agreement that Yidu and Zhijiang belonged to Nie Yu, and Changyang belonged to Zhang Zhengmo, and the two sides divided Hubei with Huya Mountain as the boundary.

Of course, for Zhang Zhengmo, it is too far-fetched to talk about dividing Hubei now. He doesn’t even have a county!

After Zhang Zhengmo had negotiated the terms, he did not dare to stay in Yidu for long. Now he had few men under his command, so he had to return to his base in Changyang as soon as possible to feel at ease. He also had to seize the opportunity to raise an army and seize territory.

Zhang Zhengmo was greatly encouraged by the fact that Nie Yun was able to capture Yidu County in one day. Even Yidu, which was under the jurisdiction of Jingzhou, was so vulnerable, so what about Changyang, which was under the jurisdiction of Yichang?
Zhang Zhengmo left without stopping, or rather ran away.

He didn't even bring the trainees from Phoenix Mountain. There weren't too many of them, less than two hundred in total, and there were also dozens of blacksmiths and cooks, so he didn't feel bad about giving them away.

……

The next day.

It's dawn, Yidu County Government Office.

Two groups of yamen runners stood in front of the yamen. They were all ordinary yamen runners who were unwilling to follow Zhang Zhengmo and leave their hometown, so they stayed and joined Nie Yuyi's army.

The yamen runners had been waiting for a long time and finally saw a sedan chair arriving.

In front of the yamen runners, Wang Er, the leader, with a knife on his waist, shouted:
"Welcome, old master!"

"Welcome, old master!"

"..."

Nie Jieren got down from the sedan chair (which was confiscated from the government office) tremblingly. He had just been brought into the city this morning. He had dark circles under his eyes and was so nervous that he couldn't even sleep on the way.

God knows, yesterday his son said that he would directly raise an army to capture the county and seize the city. He was so scared that he sat on pins and needles in the lobby of his front yard all night. He didn't dare to go back to rest or close his eyes, for fear that if he was not careful, a group of soldiers would break into the house to arrest the remnants of the rebels.

He endured this until morning, when he was almost unable to hold on any longer, and finally got some news.

It's good news, but also a little unreal.

The county town was actually taken down by his son?

So easy?

He was helped out of the sedan chair by Butler Liu. Although he was not very old, only about forty years old, he did not look "old and frail" at all.

Nie Jieren reached out and touched the pole of the sedan chair. He heard that this was the sedan chair that the county magistrate used to ride in. The county magistrate was the local official of Yidu, whom he often wanted to meet, but it was difficult for him to do so.

Now, it is his turn to ride in the sedan chair of this fatherly official.

Thinking of this, Nie Jieren, who was about to support others, suddenly became confident again. He straightened his back, put his hands behind his back, and then strode into the yamen.

Wang Er, who led the team to greet him, was a little confused, but he hurriedly followed because he was afraid that the "old man" would not know the way.

At that time, in the inner hall of the government office, Nie Yu was calling a small meeting with the rebel generals.

Although they were called rebel generals, they were actually just rookies, because they had already captured the county town. Although it had been less than a day, they were considered rebels who officially had their own territory, or in other words, they were considered threatening rebels in the eyes of the Qing court.

Then it is necessary to establish laws and regulations. Even if it is not effective governance, at least some decent internal operations must be maintained.

The fundamental reasons for the failure of numerous peasant uprisings throughout history are nothing more than two:

First, without the support of the landlord class, the peasant uprising would really just be a peasant uprising.

Second, without the involvement of the landlord class, or the educated class, peasant armies, mostly illiterate, often struggled to establish effective rule. Their uprisings were destructive, not constructive. A nation is like the human body; its decline is like a serious illness. You can't simply perform surgery (peasant uprisings) to remove the diseased tissue without also applying medication and bandaging (construction). Ultimately, the person will bleed to death.

Nie Yu officially proclaimed himself "General of Anti-Qing and Restoration of Han" and reorganized and reformed the rebel army.

The military law corps was disbanded and reorganized into a personal guard corps.

The Wang Er who was responsible for welcoming Nie Yu's father was also the personal soldier Wang Er who drew his sword against Zhang Zhengmo during the negotiations yesterday. He was temporarily the captain of the personal soldiers.

He Shunan, the former captain of the military law team, has been officially promoted to the commander of the rebel army, in charge of 500 soldiers.

Three other people were promoted together with him, namely Xu Sanlang, Chen Younian and Bai Nan.

Xu Sanlang, a true refugee, was separated from his wife and children during his escape and eventually arrived in Yidu, Hubei, where he joined his rebel army. Because of his extraordinary courage and strength, he was the fastest to attack the county town, which earned him the title of "first merit."

Chen Younian was also born into a refugee family. His family was also ordinary common people. He was once forcibly conscripted into the defense army (Yongying) by government soldiers. He finally survived and returned home, but his family had starved to death. The government also came to collect taxes, so he fled and became a refugee.

There were many people who had similar experiences to these two during the "Kangxi and Qianlong prosperous era", and they were too numerous to count.

They are all potential sources of soldiers for the White Lotus Rebellion that is about to break out, and are also the main source of Nie Yu's subsequent recruitment.

Finally, Bai Nan’s identity surprised Nie Yu the most, because this guy actually had his own brand and almost passed the examination to become a scholar.

It's a pity that it's useless. If you offend the Eight Banners master, even if you are rich, in this "Qianlong's prosperous era", your family will be destroyed.

"General, I don't ask for high positions or generous salaries. I only hope that one day I can break into the Forbidden City, capture the dog Emperor Qianlong alive, and kill all the Eight Banners bastards in the world!" Bai Nan was full of anger and hatred, and even ignored Nie Yu's "obstruction" and insisted on kneeling down and kowtowing.

Nie Yu sat upright. Since he couldn't persuade him, he could only raise his hand to appease him: "Brother Bai, don't worry. Since this general is fighting against the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Han Dynasty, I promise that one day, I will lead my brothers to break into the Forbidden City, capture that old dog Qianlong alive, and take back our Han country from the hands of the Manchu Eight Banners dog slaves. Let the Han people live uprightly and uprightly in this land of China again! Instead of kowtow and do the work of these dog slaves now!"

Nie Yu's words were not enthusiastic, but they still made everyone excited.

"Thank you, General!"

Bai Nan immediately declared his stance: "I am willing to go through fire and water, even death, for the great cause of anti-Qing!"

"I am willing to go through fire and water, even death, for the great cause of anti-Qing!"

"..."

Upon seeing this, He Shunan, Xu Sanlang, and Chen Younian also quickly stood up and bowed.

In this way, people's hearts finally settled down, and the future anti-Qing policy was almost determined.

Nie Yu continued, "Alright, let's continue discussing military expansion and the household registration system..."

Nie Yu proclaimed himself the general, reorganized his personal guards, and appointed four thousand generals at once, which was equivalent to giving out two thousand soldiers, but he definitely did not have so many soldiers in his hands.

Therefore, the next step will definitely be to carry out large-scale military expansion.

It turned out that he only had a small town called Yangjinfan, so naturally he could only afford to support an army of less than 500 people.

Now that Yidu County is in our hands, it is time to expand our military.

(End of this chapter)