Li Xianzhong made a huge fortune this time, with 200,000 acres of fertile land and a lonely place.
I originally thought that the "Carpenter Emperor" Zhu Youxiao didn't care about anything and just dealt with Wei Zhongxian.
Unexpectedly, Zhu Youxiao was pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger. It seemed that he used Wei Zhongxian as a "chamber pot" to do dirty work and bear the infamy for himself.
Although Wei Zhongxian said that the matter was not completed and he was not rewarded for his efforts.
But can Li Xianzhong still take back what he has given away?
In fact, even if Zhu Youxiao asked the Li family to "forever control Liaodong", his lifespan should not be more than a few years, and the subsequent emperors could also disown him.
Although the Mu family, Duke of Guizhou, ruled Yunnan, the Ming Dynasty still established the "Three Divisions" in Yunnan and divided the rights of the Mu family.
The early Ming Dynasty followed the Yuan Dynasty's Xingzhongshu provincial system, but Zhu Yuanzhang soon realized that the Xingzhongshu, the prime minister, was in charge of the military, civil, financial and other powers of a province. His status was so important and his power was so great that a province could become an independent province. kingdom.
As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang made a decision to prepare for a rainy day-to abolish the province and establish three divisions.
It is to establish three agencies: the Department of Administrative Affairs, the Department of Punishment and Prosecution, and the Department of Capital Command, and let the three departments exercise the power that was originally concentrated in the Executive Secretary.
Specifically: the Provincial Envoys Department has one envoy on the left and right to be in charge of civil affairs and finance; the Provincial Envoys Department has one envoy to manage criminals and prisons; the Dual Command Envoys Department has one envoy, who is in charge of the military.
The three departments are not subordinate to each other, and each is directly under the central government. When encountering major issues, the three departments must hold a joint meeting to discuss, formulate a resolution, and report to the central government.
Since the jurisdiction of the three divisions is similar to that of the original province, people still customarily call this level of administrative region "province".
The particularity of Liaodong is that although there is a governor of Liaodong, he is subordinate to the Shandong Chengxuan Administrative Department and has many guard posts.
For example, Kaiyuan and Tieling in Li Xianzhong's hands were both guard posts, so they were relatively independent.
It is precisely because of the existence of the three-division system that it is difficult for Li Xianzhong to completely grasp the military and political power in Liaodong.
Since Wang Huazhen went to the Taiyuan Hospital, the governor of Liaodong has actually been concurrently held by Yan Mingtai, the governor of Jiliao. Now that the official department is finally no longer in the hands of the Donglin Party, Li Xianzhong directly arranged for Zhang Bingwen, the governor of Kaiyuan, to be promoted to the governor of Liaodong so that he could have better control Liaodong.
However, this time Zhu Youxiao restored his own governor of North Korea and gave him a governor of the Central Plains to suppress bandits, who could control the military power of Shandong Province. Zhu Youxiao still gave himself a lot of trust.
Moreover, His Majesty also promised privately that he would not touch his Liaodong strategy. It seemed that he knew what Li Xianzhong cared about most.
The most important thing right now is to quickly put down the White Lotus Sect uprising in Lunan.
From the bottom of his heart, Li Xianzhong did not want this uprising to be put down soon. After all, only when the mainland was in chaos could he absorb more refugees and the court would divert its energy away from him.
But since I had almost no memory of this massive uprising in my previous life, it should be put down soon! Moreover, the White Lotus Sect is of a cult nature, and this kind of uprising is much more harmful than a simple peasant uprising.
If this uprising is not put down, Wei Zhongxian's commercial tax reform will not be able to continue.
Now he wants to use Wei Zhongxian to detonate the gentry and bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty and challenge the existing order.
Therefore, Li Xianzhong decided to suppress the rebellion.
But how powerful can these White Lotus cultists be?
He only transferred 3,000 Liaodong cavalry and 3,000 civilian guards from Liaodong.
As for the general, he was replaced by Liaoyang deputy general Mao Wenlong. He had not taken Mao Wenlong with him when he attacked Hetuala before. He was considered an old man under his own command, so the suppression of the bandits this time gave him a chance to make meritorious deeds.
Originally, these soldiers and horses were preparing to rush directly from Lushun Port to Dengzhou. However, Zhu Chunchen, Duke of Chengguo, sent an urgent report saying that they were besieged by the main force of Bailian Sect in Hejian Prefecture in North Zhili, and asked Li Xianzhong for urgent support.
In desperation, these troops had to land in Tianjin and then rush to Hejian Mansion by land.
The total distance from the capital to Yanzhou is 1,150 miles. The fastest way is of course to go south along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It only takes six or seven days to reach Yanzhou Prefecture by water.
Even including the time to prepare the ship, it is estimated to only take about ten days.
Of course Zhang Weixian and Zhu Chunchen would not choose this fastest route. There were already hundreds of thousands of bandits in Yanzhou, and they were successively conquering surrounding counties.
If they arrive at Yanzhou Mansion quickly, they will have to fight the bandits head-on.
They are very clear about the fighting power of the Beijing camp, and they may not be able to defeat the bandits.
These people rarely practice much on weekdays. If they really want to fight, they will basically be defeated in one battle.
So they chose to take the land route, and their marching speed was extremely slow. They could only march 20 miles a day.
At this speed, it is estimated that it will take a month to arrive in Shandong.
Xiong Tingbi, Minister of the Ministry of War, could not stand it any longer. With the urging of the Ministry of War, they managed to march 30 miles a day.
I’ve been walking for almost half a month, and I’m still wandering around the territory of Beizhili.
Currently, the bandits of the White Lotus Sect are besieging Yanzhou City, and the situation is very critical.
Yanzhou is located at the junction of the three provinces of Shandong, Henan, and South Zhili, and controls both sides of the canal.
Once Yanzhou Prefecture falls, it will definitely cause shock to the three provinces.
Moreover, Yanzhou Prefecture is adjacent to Qufu, which is the hometown of Confucius. There are the "Three Holy Lands" of Confucius, Confucius Temple, and Confucius. The Confucius family also has many precious ancient books. If this place is captured by bandits, it will undoubtedly be a disaster. Cause a big earthquake.
Kong Yinzhi, the 65th grandson of Confucius who just inherited the title of Duke of Yansheng last year, has sent out several letters of distress in succession, asking the court to send troops for support quickly.
Shandong is the hometown of Confucius and Mencius. The thieves had already broken through Mencius' mansion and killed Meng Chengguang, the 66th descendant of Mencius. If they were allowed to attack Qufu again and destroy the "Three Kongs Holy Land", even the British Duke Zhang Weixian would probably be besieged by scholars from all over the world.
So Zhang Weixian had no choice but to lead the cavalry southward first. Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, refused to speed up the march no matter what, he insisted on waiting until Li Xianzhong's Liaodong cavalry went south before joining the Shandong battlefield.
In the end, he led the five thousand men from the Shenji Battalion to the end of the team.
Yu Hongzhi is the leader of the White Lotus Sect in Hejian Prefecture, North Zhili. He originally agreed with Xu Hongru and others to join the uprising.
However, the time they agreed on was the Mid-Autumn Festival, but Xu Hongru revolted on his own three months in advance and proclaimed himself emperor.
Yu Hongzhi can be said to be slow at one step and slow at every step.
At this moment, he had no choice but to accept the title of King of Hejian from Xu Hongru and prepare to start an uprising near Jingzhou in the southernmost part of Hejian Mansion, near Shandong.
As soon as Yu Hongzhi thought of something, he discovered that tens of thousands of officers and soldiers were moving south from the north.
As the saying goes, a man is judged by his clothes. Although these veteran soldiers from the Beijing camp were weak in combat, they were reduced to scum. But on the surface, the armor still looks bright, plus there are a large number of cavalry and firearms troops from the Shenji Battalion.
Naturally, the tens of thousands of people under Yu Hongzhi's command did not dare to take action.
Just when they were preparing to take shelter from the army and wait for the army to leave before revolting, a spy suddenly came to report: "Reporting to the King of Hejian, the large army of the army suddenly accelerated southward. Now the main force of the army has entered Shandong." .”
"But there are still five thousand people behind with the baggage!"
Originally there were 30,000 officers and soldiers, so they naturally had no choice but to avoid their sharp edges, but now there are only 5,000 people left, and there is also a lot of baggage.
This made Yu Hongzhi feel that the opportunity had come.
Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for more than 10,000 mobs armed with rakes and wooden sticks to attack 5,000 regular officers and soldiers!
But with the blessing of the White Lotus Sect's teachings, are these officers and soldiers nothing?
Yu Hongzhi said: "This king has invited Wusheng Old Mother to come down to earth. If you drink this bowl of talisman water, you will become indestructible!"
In this way, Zhu Chunchen's Five Thousand Divine Machine Battalion became the target of the White Lotus Cult.
At this time, Zhu Chunchen had received the news that Li Xianzhong's Liaodong Army was about to go south to participate in quelling the rebellion, and he was in a good mood.
With the elites from Liaodong joining, he would just wait to follow and take the credit.
Now they are stationed in Niutoushan, 15 miles away from Jingzhou.
He couldn't blame Zhu Chunchen for letting down his guard. After all, they were still in Beizhili territory, and the bandits in Yanzhou were five or six hundred miles away. He never dreamed that he would encounter bandits attacking his camp here.
Soon those White Lotus believers who had been injected with chicken blood shouted slogans and suddenly rushed towards the Ming army's camp.
The Shenji Camp didn't even bother to dig trenches, and simply placed a few resisting horses in front of the camp gate.
Facing the White Lotus cult members who were all over the mountains and plains, they quickly became a mess.
There are quite a lot of various firearms brought by Shenji Camp. In addition to the most basic bird guns, there are also various weird firearms such as "Thunderbolt Cannon", "Swarm of Bees", "Sacred Fire Flying Crow", "Wolf Venom Smoke" and so on. , can be said to be diverse.
However, Zhu Chunchen didn't usually train, and some of these weapons had been lying in the warehouse for hundreds of years.
Now that the camp is being attacked, it is simply impossible to rely on these to defeat the enemy.
"Bang, bang, bang"
With the firing of cannons, some "invulnerable" White Lotus followers were killed by the Shenji Battalion, but they had no chance to fire again.
At this time, tens of thousands of mobs had already entered the camp from all directions, and they started to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Shenji Camp.
If five thousand officers and soldiers faced more than ten thousand thieves during the day, the Shenji Battalion would be able to kill them reliably even with their sabers.
But it was night now, and Zhu Chunchen just felt that the mountains and plains were full of bandits. If you told him that there were hundreds of thousands of bandits, he would definitely believe it.
Soon Zhu Chunchen made a fatal decision. Under the cover of two hundred servants, he retreated towards Jingzhou without looking back.
As soon as the general ran away, the Shenji camp was completely in chaos.
And those members of the White Lotus cult who had been given chicken blood became more and more courageous as they fought, as if Our Lady of Wudang had really given them divine power.
At this time, Zhu Chunchen and others ran to Jingzhou City, but how could the Jingzhou defenders dare to open the city gate at night?
Fortunately, the bandits were busy dividing the spoils at this time and did not attack the city overnight.
Zhu Chunchen waited for two hours before finally escaping into Jingzhou City.
More than 3,000 people from the 5,000 Shenji Battalion were killed by the bandits, and the rest fled in all directions. In the end, only more than 500 people followed Zhu Chunchen and fled to Jingzhou City.
Zhu Chunchen, who was in a state of shock, quickly sent a messenger to Li Xianzhong for help.
After taking the Shenji Camp, the morale of Yu Hongzhi and others was greatly boosted. Especially after receiving food from the Ming army, the number of rebels increased crazily. In just two days, all the villages and towns around Jingzhou joined the rebels. In an instant, The rebel army of the White Lotus Sect increased to 50,000 people.
Yu Hongzhi, the king of Hejian, led tens of thousands of troops to surround Jingzhou City!
At this time, Zhu Chunchen also regretted that he had known that he could run south or north, which would be better than being besieged by bandits in Jingzhou.
But now he can only muster up the energy to defend the city. After all, he is also the queen of the generals. Although he has never been on the battlefield, he has read a lot of military books. He still knows how to defend the city!
Zhu Chunchen quickly organized the servants of the wealthy families in the city to defend the city together, and successfully thwarted the conspiracy of the Bailian sect to open the city gate.
The White Lotus sect was not good at attacking cities either. They tried several times but failed to capture Jingzhou City.
So they changed it to a siege.
At this time, Yu Hongzhi also received Xu Hongru's order, asking him to lead his troops south to attack Dongchang Mansion, and then both sides would join forces in Yanzhou, so that a great cause could be achieved.
However, Yu Hongzhi also had his own small thoughts. He was the local emperor in Hejian Mansion. The reason why he respected Xu Hongru as emperor was to take advantage of his fame, but he did not really want to go to Yanzhou to be his minister and accept his orders.
Just when Yu Hongzhi was in a dilemma, six thousand cavalry led by Mao Wenlong also arrived at Hejian Mansion.
The Liaodong cavalry is Li Xianzhong's real family background. Generally, only Li Xianzhong himself or Li Sanshun, the deputy commander of the Liaodong Army, can command it. Now that Mao Wenlong can command this heavy cavalry, it shows that Li Xianzhong trusts him.
Mao Wenlong, who was flattered, must behave well so as to live up to Marquis Ningyuan's trust.
Today's Pinglu Guards are also dragoons, all equipped with horses.
Even the 6-pound Franco machine gun used in the field was hauled by special horses.
However, cannonballs and lead bullets cost money. To deal with these bandits, the Liaodong Iron Cavalry's spear is the most practical.
However, the thieves hardly have many cavalry, and it is faster to kill these unarmored bandits with a saber.
So Mao Wenlong drew his saber and shouted: "Everyone, follow me to kill the bandits!"
At this time, Zhu Chunchen in the city was so excited that he almost shed tears.
Under the leadership of Mao Wenlong, the Liaodong Cavalry began to accelerate slowly.
The armor and sabers of the Ming army looked cold and radiant under the sunlight!
And the dust raised by the Ming army was like a storm blowing directly towards the rogue bandits.
There was no suspense in the battle. Every time the Ming army swung their swords, a bandit was killed. In a short time, nearly 10,000 bandits in the front line were killed by the Ming army. The pile of flags behind Hejian King Yu Hongzhi was even more conspicuous. As Yu Hongzhi was killed, the so-called 50,000-strong army collapsed immediately.
The "Yi Guandao" where Yu Hongzhi belongs belongs to a branch of Luo Jiao. Its predecessor was called "Momo Yi Zhu Jiao" and established a nine-level teaching hierarchy.
Namely: the first level of sentient beings, the second level of heavenly grace, the third level of righteousness, the fourth level of inducing grace, the fifth level of protecting grace, the sixth level of top line, the seventh level of ten fruits, the eighth level of ten places, and the ninth level of lotus platform.
In the end, the Ming army directly killed hundreds of White Lotus cultists who were third grade or above, and the remaining more than 30,000 bandits were directly imprisoned and prepared to be sent to Liaodong.
Soon the news of the "Jingzhou Great Victory", which killed the White Lotus Sect's Hejian King Yu Hongzhi and defeated more than 50,000 thieves, was sent to the capital. Now the population of Liaodong is extremely scarce.
Li Xianzhong directly wrote a letter to relocate these bandits to the newly established Pinglu County to enrich the population of Liaodong.
When Zhu Chunchen, who was surviving the disaster, saw Li Xianzhong, it was as if he had seen the savior.
Li Xianzhong was very sad when he heard about his battle record. With the combat power of the rogue bandits, it is estimated that three hundred Liaodong cavalry could push them down.
How could Duke Cheng Guo still suffer a huge defeat?
Zhu Chunchen said: "It is said that there are already 300,000 rogue bandits near Yanzhou. At this time, the Kong family in Qufu is in danger. Kong Yinzhi, the Duke of Yansheng, has asked for help many times. The British Duke immediately sent troops because he could not bear it. We should go south as soon as possible."
When he heard the words "Qufu Confucius", Li Xianzhong's eyes suddenly lit up. He had previously given Wei Zhongxian 200,000 acres of fertile land, and the losses outside the embankment must be replenished within the embankment.
Li Xianzhong did not expect that today's Yanshenggong would be the famous "Three Surnamed Yanshenggong" Kong Yinzhi in later generations.
The Ming Dynasty had supported the Kong family for more than 200 years. As a result, before the Ming Dynasty was destroyed, Kong Yinzhi turned around and took the initiative to defect to Li Zicheng and Dorgon, and even took the lead in shaving his hair.
Naturally, such scum cannot let them go.
Li Xianzhong smiled and said: "I heard that the Kong family is a local hegemon. There are fields owned by the Kong family in Yanzhou Prefecture and even the neighboring Xuzhou Prefecture, Huai'an Prefecture, and Guide Prefecture."
"The Kong family is as rich as the country. People in Qufu only know about the Kong family and don't know about the great emperor. It's rare for us to come out. Isn't Duke Cheng Guo prepared to make a good deal on the Kong family?"
Zhu Chunchen looked at Li Xianzhong and thought that this boy's appetite was getting bigger and bigger. He even dared to offend the Yan Shenggong family. Didn't he know his influence among the officials?
Zhu Chunchen said: "There were some disciples of the Kong family who did evil before, but in the end they were basically given a lighter sentence. The Kong family will not be threatened by us at all!"
Li Xianzhong said with a smile: "If it is a serious crime of treason, do you think Kong Yinzhi will surrender?"
Zhu Chunchen shook his head and said: "It's impossible. With the status of the Kong family, how could it be possible to support the bandits? Unless Kong Yinzhi had water in his head, and the water was still boiling."
Li Xianzhong said: "Let me ask you, who is rich in Yanzhou Prefecture or the Kong family in Qufu?"
"Is Yanzhou City easier to fight or the Kong family's mansion in Qufu?"
"These illiterate bandits dare to rebel against the emperor. Do they have any scruples about the so-called 'Sage Kong'?"
Zhu Chunchen said: "Of course it is the Kong family in Qufu."
Li Xianzhong said: "Then why are hundreds of thousands of thieves and bandits now besieging Yanzhou Prefecture, but have not launched any substantive attack on Qufu?"
After a series of soul torture by Li Xianzhong, Zhu Chunchen said: "The Kong family in Qufu must have secretly supported the bandits with money and food, so the bandits did not attack Qufu. But we can't find any evidence. Even if the bandits got the supplies, the Kong family can say that it was because of Their warehouse was captured by rogue bandits."
Li Xianzhong said: "The most difficult thing about suppressing bandits is not to defeat the bandits, but to prevent the bandits from escaping!"
Then, in the name of the Governor of the Central Plains for Suppressing Bandits, he ordered Shandong General Liu Zhaoji to station troops in Tai'an and Linyi to prevent the Yanzhou bandits from escaping to the Shandong hinterland of Jinan Prefecture and Qingzhou Prefecture.
He also ordered the Ming troops in Nanzhili and Guide Prefecture in Henan to guard the Yellow River to prevent the rogue bandits from escaping to the south bank of the Yellow River.
At this time, the Yellow River had already taken the Huai River and entered the sea, entering the Yellow Sea from today's Lianyungang. Therefore, he returned to Germany, and important towns such as Xuzhou were located on the south bank of the Yellow River.
Then the British Duke Zhang Weixian was ordered to sit in Puyang to prevent rogue bandits from fleeing westward into Henan.
After arranging all this, Li Xianzhong's main force slowly moved south and entered Dongchang Mansion in Shandong.
Originally, Duke Yansheng Kong Yinzhi felt a lot relieved when he heard that Li Xianzhong, Marquis of Ningyuan, personally led the Liaodong frontier army south to suppress the bandits.
Unexpectedly, although the Ming army around Yanzhou mobilized frequently, there was no trace of the Ming army around Yanzhou Prefecture and Qufu where the fighting was fiercest.
Kong Yinzhi immediately felt something was wrong.
I heard that the Liaodong Army was all cavalry, and it only took three days to get from Hejian to Yanzhou. But now seven or eight days have passed, and the reinforcements from the Ming Army have not arrived yet.
Moreover, not only did the Liaodong Army led by Li Xianzhong fail to arrive, but the British Ministry of Public Security, which was already approaching Yanzhou, actually turned around and headed west to station in Puyang.
Other Ming armies were also stationed around Yanzhou, euphemistically saying: "To prevent rogue bandits from escaping!"
Originally, the Yanshenggong Kong family could use their influence to exert pressure on other Ming armies, but now all the ministries refused to march on the grounds that they must not violate the general order of Li Xianzhong, the governor of the Central Plains to suppress bandits.
Even a fool can understand that this is Ningyuan Hou Li Xianzhong waiting for the Kong family to send money.
It is said that the Liaodong cavalry under his command defeated 50,000 rogue bandits in Hejian in less than an hour. At this time, they were reluctant to enter Yanzhou. Their purpose was Sima Zhao's intention, and everyone on the road knew it!
The Kong family has now reached a tacit agreement with the bandits at the price of 10,000 taels of silver and 10,000 shi of grain per day.
For every day Li Xianzhong delayed, they had to pay the bandits one more day.
In desperation, Kong Yinzhi had no choice but to relent, so he sent his cousin Kong Yintao to Dongchang to meet Li Xianzhong.
Kong Yintao said proudly: "Now that Marquis Ningyuan's army is very close to Yanzhou, please hurry up and send troops to Qufu. In order to show the sincerity of our Kong family, I specially brought the Silver Ten Ten thousand taels, please accept it with Marquis Ningyuan’s approval!”
At this time, Zhu Chunchen looked at Li Xianzhong, meaning that it was almost done, and he would close it after the construction was completed. After all, the Kong family is not easy to mess with. Now that they are willing to give money, there is no need to make it look ugly.
Li Xianzhong caused such a big battle, and the Kong family gave him one hundred thousand taels. Is this sending a beggar away?
He said: "I have been ordered to suppress bandits, so how can I accept money from Duke Yan? It is absolutely impossible. Li accepted Duke Yan's kindness, but there is no way he can collect this money."
Kong Yantao thought to himself: If you don’t accept it, it’s too little!
So he said: "Yintao came here in a hurry. These one hundred thousand taels are just for the army to set off. When the army arrives in Qufu, my Kong family will naturally give you generous gifts. I hope Marquis Ningyuan will not refuse!"
Li Xianzhong said: "It is absolutely impossible. How can I blaspheme the saints?"
"It's not that Li is unwilling to send troops. It's actually based on intelligence that more than 100,000 rogue bandits are setting up pocket formations in the south, waiting for me to get in. Sending troops at this time will not only fail to win over the Kong family, but will further worsen the situation!"
No matter how well-educated Kong Yintao was, he was a little angry at this time.
Where did the bandits come from? Isn't Li Xianzhong telling lies with his eyes open?
So he said angrily: "Kong says goodbye!"
Thank you to all book friends for your support with monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and follow-up subscriptions!
(End of chapter)
