There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 36 Jingzhou
The city of Jingzhou was in complete chaos at this time.

Nie Yu acted quickly because he wanted to create a time difference, but plans could not keep up with changes and the news leaked out as expected.

It was not that the traces of the rebel army were discovered, but that some of the soldiers and civilians who had escaped earlier bravely ran all the way back to the provincial capital to report the news.

There was nothing that could be done about it. Nie Yu was not a professional rebel after all. It was good enough for me to be able to distinguish the enemy from the enemy when there were thousands of people fighting in the middle of the night. With so many defeated and disorderly soldiers, it would be impossible to capture them all even if we urgently went to capture them after the war.

There were a few who slipped through the net, and they happened to be the servants of the wealthy families in the city. These people were very loyal, or their families were in the hands of their masters, and they did not think that the rebel army could succeed.

These people desperately fled back to the city and informed their master, and then the Jingzhou government office indirectly learned the news.

"The Governor was defeated!?"

When Cui Long, the prefect of Jingzhou who was in charge of the garrison, saw this, his head was buzzing. He quickly asked, "Tell me, how did the governor fail?"

Although he did look down on the governor, there were more than 3,000 people, which was either 3,000 pigs or 3,000 pigs. It would take some effort to kill them!
Besides, there were 300 Manchu cavalrymen supporting them. How the hell did they lose?

Or, how could they lose?
Wei Yao, the magistrate of Jiangling County (affiliated to the capital), who rushed to report the news, said, "I don't know either! But these past few days, defeated soldiers have been arriving from Yidu and Zhijiang, saying all sorts of things. Some say the governor was defeated, some say he wasn't defeated, but simply lost Zhijiang, and some say he wasn't defeated, but sided with the enemy..."

After hearing the other party's explanation, Cui Longjian was almost confused, but no matter what kind of rumor it was, it seemed that the governor was defeated, and Zhijiang was probably lost.

After all, if the governor really lost the battle, what would Zhijiang use to resist the rebels?

Jingzhou Tongzhi Wang Shuxun also thought of this and hurriedly asked, "Your Excellency, regardless of whether the governor was defeated or sided with the bandits, there are no soldiers left in Jingzhou City. What should I do now? Please make a decision as soon as possible!"

make a decision?
What can he do? You know there are no soldiers available in Jingzhou. What else can he do?
Cui Long was filled with resentment and wished that Hui Ling, whose life or death was unknown, would just die in battle.

Cui Longjian took a deep breath, thought for a moment, and said, "Give orders to the city defense battalion to immediately close all the city gates. Then, in the name of the government office, declare martial law throughout the city."

Upon hearing Cui Longjian's order, Tongzhi Wang Shuxun immediately understood: "Are you trying to suppress the news, sir? But now that the news has spread, I'm afraid all the big families in the city have already..."

Cui Longjian shook his head. "It's because they already know that we have to suppress the news. Now the governor is missing, and the battle situation on the front lines is unclear. Therefore, we must not allow any chaos in the city. If it does, it will be troublesome."

"Send someone in the name of this government to invite Lord Chengde, the deputy governor of Jingzhou, and tell him that a major incident has occurred in Jingzhou and ask him to come to the government office as soon as possible to discuss matters."

After all, he had participated in suppressing the White Lotus Rebellion in history. His military skills may not be very advanced, but he would not be so panicked if a big event really happened.

With a series of clearly organized orders, even if there are rumors and riots in the city, no major problems can be avoided in the short term. As for what happens next, we can only act according to circumstances.

Cui Long suddenly said, "And... Wang Tongzhi!"

"Your Excellency the Governor?" Wang Shuxun responded quickly.

Cui Longjian said, "You and I will sign a letter to the governor, informing him of the military affairs of Jingzhou and the matter concerning the governor!"

"I understand!"

Wang Shuxun understood immediately after hearing what he said. It was nothing more than passing the buck and shirking responsibility!

After all, Jingzhou has no soldiers available, and it is still unknown whether they can defend it if the rebels really attack. In addition, Jingzhou is responsible for the money, food and supplies of Hunan. If something goes wrong in Jingzhou, they cannot bear the responsibility and must drag the governor to bear it together.

……

On the Yangtze River waterway, Nie Yugang led the large ship around Bailizhou.

Because of the fake governor's banner, the people and fishermen of Bailizhou avoided it as much as possible. Even the magistrate of Songzi County, which was at the fork of Bailizhou, rushed over after hearing the news, bringing wine, meat, money and food to flatter the governor.

Well, this guy was unlucky. He obviously didn't meet those defeated soldiers who fled back before, otherwise he would not have been unaware that the governor had been defeated.

Nie Yu wasn't shy about it. He thought, "It's a gift that's been delivered to your door, so wouldn't it be rude not to accept it?" The Songzi County Magistrate was instantly hacked to death by Nie Yu, and even before his death, he wore a fawning smile.

Songzi County was taken down, and just like Zhijiang County, all the wealthy families and officials had their braids cut off. Those who refused to cut their braids had their property confiscated and their families exterminated. Then a Han flag was specially erected on the top of the city wall, announcing that the city was now the territory of the Han army.

That’s right, the name of the rebel army under Nie Yu’s command is now the Great Han Army. This was a suggestion made by his new advisor Feng Xiuyong.

The slogan of "anti-Qing and restoration of Han" is too empty. Many people are illiterate and may not understand what it means at all.

Therefore, it is necessary to establish a truly easy-to-understand banner for the military, officials and civilians!
It just so happened that when Nie Yu was fighting against the Qing army on the city wall, he raised a flag with the word "Han" on it, so let's just change the name to the Great Han Army!

This also conforms to the slogan of anti-Qing and restoration of Han!
After Songzi County was captured, as usual, the grain was left behind, the silver was looted and loaded onto ships and taken away, and the county town was left to the group of wealthy families and officials who had been forced to become rebels.

"General, we have passed Huishi Town. Further ahead is Hudukou. On the other side of Hudukou is the capital of Jingzhou." Feng Xiuyong said, pointing to the map of Hubei that Nie Yu took out from somewhere.

After saying this, he was secretly surprised again. This great general was indeed a hidden talent. He originally thought that he was only good at training soldiers, but now he could even get such a detailed map.

You have to know that this was not a few hundred years later, but the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, which was almost the most corrupt and feudal dynasty.

Forget buying a map, even if you draw a map yourself, it is illegal, and the minimum penalty is the death penalty. If the map is too detailed and circulated too widely, your entire clan may be exterminated.

To give a very simple example, in the story of Jing Ke's assassination of Qin Shi Huang, Jing Ke went to Qin State with the map of Yan State, and was able to pay homage to King Zheng of Qin.

Because when a king surrenders, he basically cannot do without three elements: seal, yellow book (household registration book), and map.

The first two are symbols of power, and the latter map represents the country's military and defense secrets.

Showing a map to an enemy country is basically equivalent to telling the enemy country how many cities my country has, where the military defense is mainly located, how many rivers there are, how many roads there are, etc. It is almost like lifting up your underwear and showing it to others.

There is also this scene in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where Zhang Song shows the map of Yizhou to Liu Bei, but Zhang Song is not the governor of Yizhou.

Then why show Liu Bei a map?

Because Zhang Song was selling out Yizhou's military secrets, which was considered as a token of his loyalty to Liu Bei.

This was during the Qin, Han and Three Kingdoms period. By the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, this map became even more important.

There was even a rather outrageous event here, which happened to be the work of the old dog Qianlong. This guy invited Western missionaries to come to China and used advanced surveying and mapping technology to map the entire country of the Qing Dynasty.

After the map was surveyed, the main copy was treasured in the Qing Imperial Palace and was not allowed to be circulated outside.

However, copies were brought back to France by missionaries and widely printed and circulated. These extremely accurate maps, which marked longitude and latitude, even down to the level of prefectures and counties, were later bought by the Japanese.

Later on, those who understand will understand...

"Well, let's proceed according to the original plan. Tell the Mongolian governor that as long as he's willing to cooperate with us in deceiving the city, I, the general, can spare his life. Even letting him go is not a problem!"

After Feng Xiuyong bowed and accepted the order and retreated, Nie Yu said to He Shunan and the other generals who were also looking at the map in amazement, "You guys too, go down and prepare for battle immediately!"

"General, didn't you say you wanted to swindle the city?" He Shunan asked doubtfully.

Nie Yu said: "Deceiving the city is only the best strategy. If that fails, we must also be prepared to attack the capital city!"

Now they understood, and several of them went down to prepare.

(End of this chapter)