Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 315 Old Chen Zilong

From the moment he entered Lanxi, Yang Chao saw groups of refugees, the old and the young with their heads down, moving slowly like zombies.

Everyone has no expression on their faces, as if they have long been used to what happened to them.

The common people in China are the most tolerant people in the world. They are not used to complaining, and they know that there is no way to complain.

This is because Chinese people suffer the most. Chinese government, why do you let your people suffer so much, and let them have nowhere to complain, so they can only endure it again and again. If they can't bear it, they will take Take up the knife in your hand, when you call them mobs!
"My lord, the Tang newspaper said that after Xu Du raised his army, he first conquered Dongyang County, and then went down to Yiwu, Zhuji, Pujiang, Yongkang, Wuyi, Tangxi, Lanxi and other counties."

Huang Fengfu helped Yang Chao organize a series of new Tang newspapers.

Yang Chao frowned and said, "It seems that the Baitou Army forces are all active near Jinhua."

Yang Chao didn't know about the situation that Huangfeng Mansion said. He didn't see it last year, and the pond newspapers he saw this year were also inconsistent. There were rescue pond newspapers from Yanzhou Mansion and Shaoxing Mansion, which reported the strength of the White-headed Army. Extremely exaggerated, ranging from 10 to a million people.

Moreover, both Yanzhou and Shaoxing said that the main force of the Baitou army was in their territory, and they hoped that the imperial court would send reinforcements to rescue them. They said so firmly that it was impossible for people to judge the real situation from the Tang newspaper.

Along the way, Yang Chao had to re-collect information from the places he passed. Lanxi County's pond newspaper should be said to be relatively accurate, but unfortunately they were still occupied by the White-headed Army a month ago, so they couldn't issue a real pond newspaper at all.

"What's the situation now?"

Huang Fengfu looked through a few more Tang newspapers, and then said: "On the 28th of the first month, the white-headed army and the main force of the official army fought under the Jinhua City. Now they have retreated. I don't know exactly where they retreated?"

Yang Chao set off from Nanjing at the beginning of February. It is impossible for him to know what happened on the 28th of the first month. Like Haizhou, the local government is too exaggerated. Exaggeration has an advantage, it can hide failures and avoid responsibility.

The real strength of Xu Du's army is estimated to be tens of thousands of people, but no matter how many people there are, the most important thing is to find them.

"My lord, Jinhua has arrived!"

Just now, the shadow of Jinhua City can be seen from the bow of the ship. Of course, Jinhua City has also seen Yang Chao’s fleet. It is too difficult for a large-scale fleet not to be discovered. The gate, and then a large number of soldiers appeared on the top of the city.

Yang Chao couldn't help smiling bitterly. There wasn't a single city for Yang Chao to enter along the way. Yang Chao had already prepared for it, but Jinhua City was probably the most nervous, obviously related to the battle they had with Xu Du not long ago.

Already at a distance of two hundred feet, Yang Chao ordered the fleet to stop first, sent his own soldiers ashore, and rode to Jinhua City to explain the situation. It would be bad if the city misunderstood and overreacted and launched an attack. Who knows if there are any cannon.

I saw a ship in front of the back immediately docked, and someone pulled a horse from it, and rode towards Jinhua City, holding some documents that Yang Chao handed over to him, all of which were written by Shi Kefa's military department. It proves that Yang Chao is here to help Jinhua.

At least the soldiers rushed over, shot the document into the city with an arrow, and waited for an answer under the city.

After several months of training, Yang Chao finally trained more than 100 cavalry, but Yang Chao is very determined, other troops can ignore it, his own soldiers must learn to ride horses, this is the reserve army defined by Yang Chao And the elite army that is pressing the formation, the personal soldiers have to undertake the pursuit task at critical moments. The personal soldiers may not practice bird guns, but they must practice horseback riding.

But among the 100 soldiers, only more than [-] have learned it, and there are only a dozen or so who can skillfully ride horses to fight.

This person who reported the letter is the best among them. It is ashamed to say that this person is not a Nanjing veteran who has followed Yang Chao for a long time, but a Minzhuang recruited in Haizhou. He can ride a horse, and now he can even shoot a bow and shoot arrows on a horse, and dance left and right to kill.

But when Bian Er was just an ordinary citizen, he dared to rush into Yang Chao's camp with a wrist-removing knife, and wanted to give the captive Bo Luo a sudden shock. Yang Chao also knew that this was not an official material.

Soon Chengshang shot down the reply, but Bian Er didn't even look at it, just picked it up and came back directly.

It was a letter from Jinhua Bingbeidao. At this time, the prefect of Jinhua happened to go home to observe the funeral. The new prefect who replaced him had not yet taken office. As a result, Xu Du rebelled. Then Bingbeidao, who holds a heavy army, suddenly had the right to speak. It is said that Jinhua City is now this soldier Bei Dao is presiding, even Jinhua County Magistrate and Jinhua Tongzhi Ni Zuoshan and other civil officials can only follow his lead.

It's just that he asked Yang Chao to camp on the other side of the river, and he was not allowed to approach the city wall for no reason. This kind of vigilance was a bit frightening, but in the eyes of literati, he might be considered mature and prudent.

Yang Chao could only ask everyone to stop the boat immediately and camp on the other side across the river from the city wall.

However, Wang Xiong also invited Yang Chao to the city to discuss the matter of suppressing the bandits.

Wang Xiong was probably like a frightened bird, now that he heard that a powerful general like Yang Chao was coming, of course he also wanted to use Yang Chao's troops, so Yang Chao decided to go to the city after thinking about it.

Then he took a few soldiers and asked the soldiers to cross the river and walked slowly towards the city wall. It is ashamed to say that Yang Chao himself has never learned how to ride a horse. There is always a feeling of vanity when riding a horse, and his body is stiff. In addition, there is no time, so I have not learned.

When they arrived at the base of the city, the soldiers on the city yelled, and Yang Chao didn't understand his accent until he yelled several times. It turned out that Yang Chao was asked to enter the city alone.

Let his soldiers camp across the river, Yang Chao can understand, let Yang Chao go in to discuss and Yang Chao also agrees, but not even a single soldier is allowed, which makes Yang Chao a little unbearable, this is no longer a matter of worrying about soldiers harassing the people Yes, this is treating Yang Chao as a thief.

When Yang Chao was in Haizhou, he had no military discipline in the autumn, and he had spread all over the country with his illustrious military exploits. He was still so defensive. The defense of Jinhua was not much stronger than that of Haizhou Zhizhou. Yang Chao snorted coldly, Turn around and leave.

Just in time, Yang Chao has always been somewhat resistant to suppressing the peasant army, probably because of the influence of education, often the peasant army has an uprising on its head, and the word uprising has the word "righteousness" in it. Uprising, isn't it unjust.

And I know that the reason why the peasant army appears is often because of land annexation and oppression by the government. Besides, there is no suitable soil for the peasant army to survive. Why didn't there be a large-scale uprising in the prosperous age, when everyone was busy To make money, who has the time, only at the end of the world, when the economy collapses, there are a lot of idle labor and can't live on, will they take risks, otherwise, with the small peasant mentality of the Chinese people, if they can survive, they will not seek death. This is a nation that is the easiest to manipulate, but they are all forced to take up the butcher's knife. It is really suspected of being a lackey of the imperial court to attack them.

Now that Wang Xiong doesn't let Yang Chao enter the city, he just has an excuse to return to Nanjing immediately. After returning, he can wait for a while to wait for Chongzhen's Qin Wangling. The city of Beijing is safe, giving the Ming Dynasty a last mouthful of blood, so that he can continue to breathe a sigh of relief, because the natural disaster has finally passed.

Throughout history, the luck of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be the worst. It was tossed by the peasant army for more than ten years, and it has always been tenaciously alive, but just before the natural disaster was about to pass, he fell down.

After Li Zicheng entered Shaanxi, he proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an. The reason why he dared to do this instead of continuing to flow as before was precisely because the severe drought in the northwest that lasted for more than ten years finally came to an end. Li Zicheng recruited refugees in Shaanxi, reclaimed and abandoned wasteland After Tianmu, he quickly accumulated enough resources, and then he went out of Shaanxi, and then he was surrendered all the way until Beijing.

If the Ming Dynasty is allowed to continue at this time, it will slowly survive, and Yang Chao has made great contributions and gained more power. He should have enough prestige to encourage the emperor to make some reforms, not to mention other reforms, as long as the sea ban is lifted. , Encourage business and industry, with the commercial form of Daming Jiangnan, as long as it is stimulated, the court does not need to take care of anything, and can spontaneously enter the commercial society, and then slowly develop into a capitalist society.

The most important thing is to prevent the fall of Beijing. Li Zicheng, who has no foundation in the Gyeonggi area, can only return to Shaanxi. Henan has been smashed and it is impossible to gain a foothold. Otherwise, Li Zicheng would not choose to go from Shanxi to Beijing. Obviously Henan is closer, so there is a no-man's land like Henan in the middle, which is enough for Li Zicheng and the Ming Dynasty to be peaceful for a few years. There will be no natural disasters in a few years, and the productivity can be restored. Then the Ming Dynasty can wipe out Li Zicheng and wipe out Zhang Xianzhong, then fought to the death with the Manchus, and then dominated East Asia and went to the world.

Although this idea may be too idealistic, there is always a hope that it will not, instead of letting China fall on the eve of the industrial revolution for the second time. The first time was at the end of the Song Dynasty and was interrupted by the Mongols. It was interrupted by Man Qing.

It's just that Yang Chao's plan failed. On the second day, Wang Xiong sent people to Yang Chao's camp, brought pigs, mutton, beef and fine wine, and worked hard, making Yang Chao lose the excuse to leave directly. This Wang Xiong is much better than Gao Liangming.

Moreover, even a civil servant was sent to appease Yang Chao.

One of them was an acquaintance of Yang Chao's, whom he had met in Jinchai Tower, Chen Zilong of Songjiang Huating.

Yang Chao had seen this Chen Zilong when he was raising funds at the Ruanjiahe House. He came with Xia Yunyi at that time.

But after Chen Zilong became an official, he never saw him again.

"General Yang is safe and sound. I haven't seen you for a few years. General Yang has become famous all over the world. It's really generous."

Yang Chao cupped his hands and said: "Mr. Chen has also become a high official."

In fact, Chen Zilong has long been a Jinshi and can be an official, but he was keen on learning before. He has been sorting out Xu Guangqi's great book "Agricultural Administration", so he has no intention of being an official. Ling, stepped into an official career, maybe after Zhou Yanru, who regarded himself as the leader of the Fushe, came to power, he had to mention a few people from the Fushe, or Chen Zilong opened up the relationship with Zhou Yanru, otherwise how could he stay in Jiangnan as an official? , instead of being sent to a war-torn northern area that lacks more officials.

At this time, Chen Zilong was the manager of the Shaoxing government in Zhejiang, Hangzhou, but he was returning from Jiangxi to suppress the bandits with a thousand Zhejiang governor's pacesetters. He happened to encounter Xu Du's rebellion, so he came to Jinhua to garrison.

Along with Chen Zilong, Xu Tiaoyuan, the magistrate of Jinhua County, also came.

After the two exchanged a few polite words, Chen Zilong introduced Xu Tiaoyuan to Yang Chao.

(End of this chapter)