scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 298 Fatty Needs Time

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Let's go back and see Fatty Lu's appearance as a villain. On the second day after officially occupying Nanjing City, Fatty Lu started the army expansion operation while resting the exhausted Fatty Army, desperately expanding his own army. Strength, ready to annex Jiangnan completely.Fortunately, Nanjing City is not only the largest granary and bank in the south of the Yangtze River, but also the city with the largest population and the most abundant manpower in the south of the Yangtze River. With the help of two big bosses, Xie Dong and Mu Tianyan, the recruiting of the Fatty Army has been carried out. It went very smoothly. In less than three days, [-] new recruits were easily recruited. Coupled with the soldiers brought by Xie Dong and Mu Tianyan, the number of fat men quickly exceeded [-], reaching a total of more than [-] people.

On April 22, in the early morning of the third day of occupying Nanjing, Fatty Lu couldn't wait to lead the soldiers of the three armies to worship in front of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and Zhu Yuanzhang's Mausoleum, in order to win the hearts of the Han people all over the world.During the worship, Fatty Lu, the former movie star of the Qing Dynasty, wore a square scarf, held a libation, and cried three times. He cried until the sky was dark, the mountains and rivers changed color, and he fell to the ground. The wailing shook the sky, but the Han people who were watching were unaware, and were greatly moved, and couldn't help crying!Fatty Lu's feelings are so sincere and meaningful that even Zhu Yuanzhang, who was lying in the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, was so moved that he couldn't help asking Empress Ma next to him—our old Zhu family has a branch named Lu in Dali Descendants?

On the morning of the same day, the two generals Wang Xu and Li Jiyang who were stationed at Taiping Mansion sent an urgent report that the [-] Anqing Qing troops led by Niyahan had already arrived at the city of Taiping Mansion yesterday, and both the water and land battalions were stationed at Dongliang Mountain, but they did not launch an attack immediately. City—Obviously, news of the fall of Nanjing has reached Niyahan's army, so Niyahan is already weighing up what will happen if he uses his weak force to forcibly attack Nanjing City, which has [-] defenders as a result of?Don't throw the meager capital in your hand into the Yangtze River if you can't take back the city of Nanjing.

"Uncle Shao, use the fastest horse to reply to Wang Xu and Li Jiyang." Fatty Lu, whose mung bean eyes were crying into two rotten apricots, thought for a while, and immediately ordered in a hoarse voice: "Three orders, one, only to defend the city , are not allowed to fight, and within a few days, Mangou will retreat. Second, pay attention to protecting the alum mine in Taiping Prefecture. Alum is also a raw material for making sulfuric acid. The more the better for us. Third, send skilled miners to find iron Mine, according to my research, there must be a huge iron mine near Ma'anshan in Taiping Prefecture, if you can find it, it will be of great use!"

"Of order." Wang Shaobo agreed immediately, and then asked in a low voice: "Boss, do you expect Mangou to retreat without fighting? Is there really no need to send reinforcements to Taiping Mansion?"

"Of course." Fatty Lu replied confidently: "Niyahan's troops are not enough to counterattack Nanjing City, even if he storms the Taiping Mansion, it will not be of much use. Our second prince is definitely going to copy Niyahan’s old nest, Anqing City, and Niyahan will definitely settle this account.” Wang Shaobo stopped asking, and hurried down to write a letter, asking Fatty Lu to sign and seal it, and then send it with a fast horse. To Taipingfu.

In the next two days, Fatty Lu has been busy rectifying government and military affairs, appeasing the people of Nanjing, organizing people in the city to cut their braids and hair, and confiscating and receiving Nanjing's property. Let Fatty Army, a group of bumpkins from Yunnan and Guizhou, open their eyes. Just in the homes of four Qing officials, the governor of Liangjiang, A Xixu, Jiangnan Liangdao Zhou Lianggong, Jiangning Salt Road Xia Qitong, and Jiangning weaving Cao Xi. More than 380 million taels of cash were confiscated, not including other property such as jewelry, jade, fields and houses!
What surprised Xie Dong, Mu Tianyan and other local snakes was that among the five big greedy beetles, the person whose family property was confiscated the most was not the governor of Liangjiang, Ashish Xu, whom they all agreed, but Kang Mazi's favorite. My dear friend——Cao Xi!In his home, more than 1405 million taels were copied out of cash alone!Seeing this amount, Fatty Lu, who was already mentally prepared for it, couldn't help sighing: "No wonder the old Cao's family is really rich for a tael of silver and a pigeon egg!" After finishing speaking, Fatty Lu immediately ordered , Send all the women of Lao Cao's family into the military prostitute camp, and let the fat army officers and soldiers avenge the people of Datong.

With money in hand, Fatty Lu was naturally much more generous in rewards. More than 4 fat soldiers and the most ordinary soldiers also received a huge reward of 25 taels of silver, and announced that the salary of fat soldiers will triple from now on!In this way, the fat army soldiers whose monthly salary is only a few dollars are naturally all grinning from ear to ear. , Get promoted and get rich!
Taking advantage of the high morale of the fat army and the gradual recovery of the soldiers' physical strength, Fatty Lu ordered Gao Dejie and Li Guodong to lead [-] troops to attack Zhenjiang and Yangzhou. Suzhou and prefectures and counties along the way.Fatty Lu himself and Han Daren and others will be stationed in Nanjing City, thinking that the whole army will respond, while recruiting troops to accumulate strength, at the same time organizing a large number of craftsman apprentices to produce Sanhao explosives and Mihao rockets in the Weapons Bureau by the Xuanwu Lake.At the same time, Fatty Lu stopped hiding his secrets, and with a sly smile, he quietly replaced the mercury nitrate in the detonator used to detonate Miyoshi explosives with silver nitrate, which is less difficult to produce and cheaper to produce. Put—the mercury in this era is all extracted from cinnabar, and the cost of nitrating tribute is much higher than silver nitrate.

For Fatty Lu, it is relatively easy to rob money, food and territory at present. First, the strength of the Qing army defenders in various places in the south of the Yangtze River has been so empty that there is almost no city or place that can stop the expansion of Fatty's army and cavalry; It is the south of the Yangtze River that has the best foundation for anti-Qing and Fuming. The old and young of the former Ming Dynasty who refused to succumb to the rule of the Qing Dynasty are everywhere. won't break.

The third is Fatty Lu, who is good at using other people's psychology, promulgated a benevolent policy very rationally, that is, as long as the officials of the Qing Dynasty surrendered in Kaicheng, they would never confiscate their property, let alone harm their lives.Therefore, the Qing officials in various places in the south of the Yangtze River have a very weak will to resist, and almost all of them are hopeless. They are unwilling to be buried with the Qing court, which is gone. As soon as the fat army arrived, they would open the city and surrender, and then the money obtained by greedy ink would be dead without proof, and it would become the legal property of these officials. This would greatly reduce the resistance encountered by the fat army when it expanded, allowing the fat army to advance Very fast.

Expansion is easy and business maintenance is difficult. The Fatty Army is rampant in southern Jiangsu, but around Jiangsu, there are troublesome people everywhere that make Lu Fatty a headache. Anqing Niyahan is in the west, and Luzhou Jieshu is in the northwest. , and Zhao Xiangxing from Shandong in the north, these three Qing armies alone would not be afraid to attack Fatty Lu, but if the three forces attacked together, Fatty Lu would be overwhelmed.However, the above three roads are still considered good, and the ones that give Fatty Lu the most headaches are Li Zhifang and the Benta Department of the Qing Army in Zhejiang.

Previously, in order to resist Geng Jingzhong's northward march and put down Geng Jingzhong's rebellion, Kang Mazi had assembled [-] land and water troops in Zhejiang, and they were all front-line troops with fairly good combat effectiveness, far better than the second-line Qing troops encountered by the Fatty Army in Nanjing. military.Although this Qing army is still being bitten by Geng Jingzhong, once this Qing army negotiates a truce with Geng Jingzhong, or beats Geng Jingzhong back to his hometown in Fujian, it will turn around and attack the fat man who has not gained a stable foothold in the south of the Yangtze River. Army, then Fatty Lu will have a lot of fun.To make matters worse, once this Qing army joins forces with the other three forces to attack Fatty Lu, even if Fatty Lu can defend Nanjing City, his greedy ambition to annex the world based on the south of the Yangtze River will naturally be doomed.

"Boss, the students think that you are worrying unnecessarily. In fact, the situation around us is not that bad."

When discussing the direction of the military situation with Wang Shaobo, Zhu Fangdan and other running dogs, after listening to Fatty Lu's pessimistic forecast of the situation, Wang Shaobo first expressed comfort, and then said quite optimistically: "At least the students think that the Mangou court will gather four forces to encircle and suppress Our chances are extremely small, at least in the short term, we will never do this. The strategic focus of the Mangou court has long been attracted to Shaanxi and Gansu by the prince himself. , encircle us with all your might.”

"Yes, especially the truce with Geng Jingzhong is even more impossible." Zhu Fangdan echoed: "Who is Geng Jingzhong? After hearing the news that we have captured Nanjing, Geng Jingzhong will easily agree to a truce with Mangou? The Mangou imperial court tried to appease Geng Jingzhong at all costs. With Geng Jingzhong's character and virtue, he must have taken advantage of the fire to ask for the whole territory of Zhejiang and a large amount of military pay and grass. Maybe he would also propose to draw a river with the Mangou emperor as a boundary. Possibly—in the face of such harsh conditions, instead of appeasing Geng Jingzhong, Emperor Mangou might as well find a way to appease us!"

"Of course I understand what you're talking about." Fatty Lu shook his head, still with a worried expression on his face, "What I'm most worried about now is that Emperor Mangou has stopped the war with Geng Jingzhong at all costs. Geng Jingzhong is greedy and reckless He was able to capture half of Zhejiang before, but he was completely caught off guard by killing Mangou. Now that Mangou has reacted, his weakness of lack of stamina has been exposed. At the same time, he promised to lend Zheng Jingquan Zhang Erzhou, and Going back on his promises angered Zheng Jing, and the weakness of lack of political foresight has also been grasped by Mangou."

"And what about us? Although I am not as powerful as Geng Jingzhong for the time being, I am known as a capable minister. I am good at firearms and gunpowder, both civil and military. Once the half of Jiangnan, which is rich in the world, falls into my hands, it will be like a dragon entering the sea, and no one can control it anymore. As long as the Manchu court has a little foresight, it will definitely understand that I am the real and most terrible enemy I will also temporarily agree to all the harsh conditions of Geng Jingzhong, concentrate on killing me in the bud first, and then turn around and deal with Geng Jingzhong!"

Wang Shaobo and Zhu Fangdan looked at each other and smiled wryly. They were still a little uncomfortable with Fatty Lu's boastfulness, but Fatty Lu didn't notice it at all. He just continued to tap the table with his fingers, and said with a frown, "One more thing, what Geng Jingzhong and I played The banners are all anti-Qing and Fuming, but in addition to anti-Qing and Fuming, I also added a four-kill order-with Kang Mazi's treachery and cunning, he can definitely see the dangers of my government orders at a glance, and it will be more important to me. Beware of fear, it is more likely to temporarily negotiate a truce with Geng Jingzhong."

"What the boss said is very true." Wang Shaobo nodded, acknowledging that Fatty Lu's words were justified - Fatty Lu's quadruple killing order is indeed a vicious government order that is so insidious enough to make Kang Mazi sleepless and sleepless. Man must be divided.At the end, Wang Shaobo smiled again and said: "But it's okay, the four-kill order of the master is only passed down orally, and has not been written. Emperor Mangou may not know it yet, and we still have a chance to remedy it."

"How could the Emperor Mangou not know about my four-kill order?" Fatty Lu asked suspiciously: "I have already used this four-kill order to kill more than 3000 Mangou in Nanjing City, and released tens of thousands of Mangou out of the city. Run for your life, wouldn't these Man Gou report to the Man Gou Emperor?"

"Do these Mangou dare?" Wang Shaobo asked with a smile: "The four surnamed Mangou killed by the Dong family were all identified by these Mangou. Emperor Mangou knows, do they still want to have a good life? Keep this secret of being an official, master, have you forgotten?"

"Huh? It's possible." Fatty Lu was stunned for a while, and said happily: "It's possible. Ordinary Man Gou doesn't even have the chance to write a letter to the Man Gou Emperor. Man Gou who is an official or general is afraid of Man Gou The emperor pursued the responsibility, and never dared to report to Emperor Mangou. Before our army officially promulgated this four-kill order, Emperor Mangou might not know the existence of my four-kill order. Even if Emperor Mangou finally found out It will take a lot of time to issue this quadruple killing order."

"Even if it is an ordinary Mangou, I am afraid that I would not have the guts to spread what happened in Nanjing City that night." Wang Shaobo reminded: "My master, don't forget that Aixinjueluo is the surname of Emperor Mangou, Tong Jia, The three surnames of Niu Colu and Hesheli are also the common surnames of Man Gou, with a large population, and countless officials and generals. They are the core backbone of Man Gou Eight Banners. The Man Gou with the first surname is handed over to us for slaughter, so they are not afraid of the Man Gou with the fourth surname to retaliate?"

"And we have not officially announced this decree. Even if the Manchu officials around Nanjing have heard about it, they may not dare to report it to the Emperor Mangou immediately before they have convincing evidence—they are not afraid of fleeing from Nanjing. Revenge on the dogs who went out? Kill them to silence them?"

"It's possible." Fatty Lu nodded, and after thinking about it for a while, Fatty Lu slapped the table and said, "It's no use worrying. Those who should come will definitely come. If they shouldn't come, they will definitely not come. Do your best to obey the destiny." , The four-killing order has not been published in writing for the time being, and it will not be announced to the world. Master Zhu, Master Wang, please pick up your pen and write three letters for me, try your best to buy us some time."

"Okay." Wang Shaobo and Zhu Fangdan agreed together, spread out the letter paper and picked up the brushes together, Wang Shaobo said again: "Master, we are ready, please tell me."

"I'll talk about the main content. Please look at the embellishment and try to be more respectful in your tone." Fatty Lu ordered: "The first letter is to the prince. The content is first to win the victory and report how we captured Nanjing; the second is to plead guilty to the prince. Please punish my sin of taking risks without authorization; thirdly, please give me an order to instruct our army on the next move, whether to return to Jiangxi and join forces with our allies? ?”

"My lord, after reading this letter, must scold you to death." Wang Shaobo laughed, and said, "After finally winning Nanjing, I asked if I would give up. If I got it cheap, I would act like a good boy. If my lord doesn't scold my master for being a bitch, I would still set up a memorial archway." No wonder."

"He scolds whatever he wants, and if he has the ability, he will fly over and bite me." Fatty Lu smiled triumphantly, and added: "By the way, adding one more thing means that Yu'er is also pregnant, but Nanjing is surrounded by dogs. It is very dangerous, please allow me to try to send Lin Yu'er back to Yunnan, let her give birth in Yunnan."

"Boss, this is not a joke." Wang Shaobo was shocked and said, "What if the prince really agrees, what should we do? Your two children and two wives are all hostages in the hands of the prince!"

"Stupid!" Fatty Lu scolded with a smile: "My lord promised it's easy, but what if I can't send it back? Nanjing is full of dogs on three sides, and Zheng Jing is on the east side. Will the lord let me send my wife and children to Zheng Jing as hostages?" ?”

"Understood." Wang Shaobo suddenly realized, and said with a smile: "Anyway, it's just an empty talk, telling the prince, not only showing your loyalty to the master, but the prince has no way to really agree, so he can only push the boat to praise you a few words, and let the girl stay. It was produced in Jiangnan. High, really high!"

"Why do you say it so clearly? It's as if I'm as shameless as you said. Write a letter." Fatty Lu smiled, then turned to Zhu Fangdan and said, "Master Zhu, write a second letter to the second prince. I also want to win to him, and then tell him that my disciple is in the south of the Yangtze River for him to conquer the city and save the army's money and food, and ask him to send his troops to the east as soon as possible, join our army in Nanjing, and preside over our army in the south of the Yangtze River."

"Understood." Zhu Fangdan snapped his fingers and said with a smile: "After reading this letter, the second prince will definitely attack Anqing like crazy. Niyahan will not return to the army if he wants to. , and must have no choice but to reinforce Anqing, blocking the second prince's eastward path."

"Arrange a few reliable messengers to bring back some rare treasures collected in Jiangning City, so that the second prince can taste the sweetness first." Fatty Lu ordered again with a smile.Zhu Fangdan agreed without hesitation, and after writing the short message quickly, Zhu Fangdan asked again: "Boss, who is the third letter for?"

"Of course it was for Geng Jingzhong's Northern Expedition commander Zeng to raise his character." Fatty Lu replied with a smile: "Tell him about my capture of Nanjing, and then ask him to send his troops northward, capture northern Zhejiang as soon as possible, and join our army in Jiangsu. In addition Give him some valuable gifts, and tell him casually that after the reunion, our army will do its best to provide food, grass and military supplies for the Northern Expedition army."

"My boss is smart." Zhu Fangdan flattered, "As long as these two letters are delivered to the second prince and Zeng Yangxing, they will definitely rush to Jiangnan like crazy. The harder they charge, the safer we will be in Jiangnan .”

Fatty Lu smiled without saying a word, and said to himself: "Right now, we can only count on these two foolhardy fools. As long as they can keep the south and west man dogs in check for half a year, we can stop the north man on our own. It takes half a year for the dog to gain a firm foothold in the south of the Yangtze River, the new army is trained, the grain is harvested and put into storage, and new firearms are mass-produced. In this world, who am I afraid of?"

………………

On April 29, the first news of success came from Zhenjiang, the nearest city to Nanjing. After Gao Dejie and Li Guodong approached Zhenjiang City, more than a thousand defenders in the city tried their best to resist, but the Han people in Zhenjiang City spontaneously organized and opened the Zhenjiang City Gate. Dedicated the city to the Fatty Army, the Fatty Army invaded the city, killed the guard Chen Tianci's family and his main subordinates, Gao Degui, the prefect of Zhenjiang, did not go to the city to join the battle, after the Fatty Army entered the city, he took the initiative to lead his servants to surrender, and was pardoned by the Fatty Army.At the same time, Fatty Lu secretly ordered Gao Degui to be interrogated. After learning that Gao Degui did not report the four-killing order of the Fatty Army to the Manchu court, Fatty Lu was determined, so he decided that Gao Degui was still the prefect of Zhenjiang, and ordered Gao Dejie and Li Guodong to organize a full-scale investigation. The people in the city cut their braids and grew their hair, and began to prepare for the war against Yangzhou.

On the third day of May, the Fatty Army broke through Guazhoudu in the first battle, killing the mite Qing Jingkou General Li Xiangui, and marched to the city of Yangzhou on the second day. Arriving in front of Zhang Bingzhi, the procurator of Jiangsu, and Jin Zhen, the prefect of Yangzhou, Zhang Bingzhi, who had fled all the way from Jiangning, heard that his family property had not been confiscated by the Fatty Army with Mu Tianyan's persuasion, and that the Qing Army in the city had been broken by the Fatty Army at Guazhoudu. The escape was serious, so he and Jin Zhen and other city officials swallowed nearly 60 taels of salt tax in Yangzhou, and then surrendered in Kaesong, and the fat man army successfully captured Yangzhou City.

On the same day, Li Tianzhi and Mu Tianyan approached the city of Changzhou with soldiers. Mu Tianyan went to the city to persuade him to surrender. The prefect Wu Xingzuo had no soldiers to defend, nor was he in the mood to bury Kang Mazi with him. They all surrendered, but Gong Zhiyi, the county magistrate of Jiangyin, refused to surrender, beheaded the messenger of the Wu army, and threatened to organize the people to defend the Qing city. Li Tianzhi was furious and divided his troops to conquer. Li Ji has mobilized the people in the city to cut off Gong Zhiyi's head and present it in front of the Wu army—Gong Zhiyi may be regarded as a loyal minister to Mi Qing, but unfortunately he forgot one thing. When Mi Qing entered the customs, he carried out a massacre in Jiangyin Yes, and the well-known Sha Zhangbai and Li Ji happened to be the survivors of this massacre.By the way, Li Ji's surname is Xu, and his father is quite famous.

Relying on the support and response of the common people and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, the fat man's army expanded very smoothly in the empty Jiangnan land of the Qing army.However, what worries Fatty Lu is that, with almost no chance of winning, the Niyahan Department of the Anqing Qing Army has always refused to withdraw its troops from Taiping Mansion, which has always threatened the safety of the West Gate of Nanjing. At the same time, bad news came from the direction of Luzhou , Prince Kang Jieshu, who was once captured alive by Fatty Lu before the battle, actually led an army of [-] troops southward, all the way to the Taiping Mansion—it seemed that Prince Kang was planning to seek revenge from Fatty Lu.

Fatty Lu is not afraid of Prince Kang Jieshu's ability at all. The only thing that worries Fatty Lu is the signal represented by this incident. If the Qing court is really determined to counterattack Nanjing at all costs, then Fatty Lu The plan to annex the whole of Jiangnan as capital for making a fortune is bound to be completely disrupted.But Fatty Lu also understands very well that it is absolutely impossible to dream that the Qing court will ignore him - he has choked the Qing court's water transportation throat seven inches, and the Qing court will definitely No matter the cost, re-open the water transport.

So there was no other way, Fatty Lu had no choice but to order Wang Xu and Li Jiyang to stick to Taiping City, while preparing reinforcements for Taiping Mansion, and beat the two mangy dogs, Jie Shu and Niyahan, away with a stick.However, at this time, an unexpected news spread into Nanjing City. Fatty Lu's friend Wang Xu sent a messenger, saying that he was already heading south along the canal, and hoped that Fatty Lu could issue an order to let Wu Jun go, so that he could The fleet was able to pass through the river section controlled by the Wu army smoothly, and met with Fatty Lu in Nanjing to discuss important matters.

"Brother Zi Zhuan came south to meet me? What is he up to? He is the Secretary of the Ministry of War and I am a rebel. Why did he come to see me? Didn't he come to Nanjing to surrender to me because he was afraid of being implicated by me?"

After reading Wang Xu's autographed letter, Fatty Lu was baffled at first, and then soon came to his senses, with a smug smile on his fat face, "That's great, God helped me, with the help of Brother Zizhuan, I can temporarily stabilize Mangou. There is great hope for the imperial court to gain a foothold."

(End of this chapter)