Chapter 291 Hangzhou’s surname will be Chen from now on
The Battle of Hangzhou Shiqiao completely established Chen Cao's reputation as a man of unparalleled wisdom and bravery. Chen Cao was even described as the God of War of the Ming Dynasty under the propaganda of thoughtful people.
Of course, this was just a propaganda effect, and Chen Cao didn't bother to pay attention to it, but now he had to deal with the surrendered Yulin Army and Zuo Liangyu.
Before the You Shiwei brothers were captured, Zuo Liangyu led his troops to attack Zhengyangmen several times and failed, so he had already had the idea of surrendering. Furthermore, he also received news that his close guerrilla Li Guoying had died in the battle, and 30,000 people had died in the battle. There are now only more than 15,000 soldiers left, and Zhang Yong is still wounded.
If this continues, not only will it be difficult for him to protect his soldiers, but in the end he will even have to give away all the wealth he grabbed from Suzhou. So he surrendered to Chen Cao at the suggestion of his confidant Jin Shenghuan, but in order to receive a certificate of surrender, Zuo Liangyu after discussion Decided to give the Yulin Army a fatal blow from behind.
It would appear that the You Shiwei brothers had just been defeated, and when Zhou Degong was about to save people, the Yulin army was in chaos. After two hours of fighting, Zuo Liangyu actually led his troops to crush the Yulin army led by Zhou Degong near the governor's office. Don't move.
It was not until You Shiwei finally asked Chen Cao to send troops to suppress it that the Shence Army of the brigade crossed the stone bridge and finally surrendered Zuo Liangyu.
"Master, what should I do with Zuo Liangyu?"
Chen Cao was also very hungry. He had just gnawed a leg of lamb clean, and was washing the greasy hands with the soap produced by the Shanghai factory: "How are the You brothers?"
Zhao Xindao: "You Shilu was seriously injured, but fortunately his life was saved. The two brothers You Shigong and You Shiwei were not seriously injured, but they were a little tired. However, Mr. You Shigong was angry that Zuo Liangyu killed so many of them. The Yulin veterans are now making noise in the camp to kill Zuo Liangyu to vent their anger."
Chen Cao's eyes lit up and he immediately asked, "How did You Shiwei react?"
Zhao Xin shook his head: "I can't tell that You Shiwei is a famous general in the Ming Dynasty. He can't express his joy and anger."
"It's good if you don't express your emotions and anger..." Chen Cao breathed a long sigh of relief: "Go and arrest all the guerrillas, Dusi, and garrison generals from Zuo Liangyu on down."
Zhao Xin thought that Chen Cao was going to kill and surrender, so he immediately organized: "Please think twice, sir. The so-called killing and surrender are unknown, not to mention that the prince is still using the banner of Prince Fu."
Chen Cao looked sideways at Xin Zhao and smiled: "You boy, I didn't say I wanted to kill him. I want people like Zuo Liangyu to be tried, a fair trial..."
Although You Shiwei was unwilling to surrender to Chen Cao, his brother You Shigong was a man with clear grudges. In the end, You Shigong first expressed his loyalty to Chen Cao and then persuaded You Shiwei. Under the circumstances, You Shiwei also had to bow to Chen Cao.
Of course, the biggest factor that made the You brothers willing to surrender was that Chen Cao publicly tried Zuo Liangyu and his party in Hangzhou on the third day after the war.
Originally, Zuo Liangyu was planning to surrender to King Fu and help Chen Cao seize Hangzhou. No matter how bad he was, he could win over a general soldier. However, he was caught in a confused manner and was finally tried by the Yulin veterans and the people of Hangzhou.
It turned out that except Zuo Liangyu, who had a conspiracy behind the You family brothers, in order to cause chaos for the defenders of Zhengyangmen when they attacked Zhengyangmen, they once again indulged their subordinates and robbed the people of Hangzhou. The whole south of the city was wailing and countless homes were broken. , raping a mob girl at a critical moment of life and death is even more extraordinary;
In addition, Zuo Liangyu's men robbed Suzhou, set fire to Wu County, and robbed Huating, causing a fire in Huating. After all calculations, those who were nailed to the opposite side of victory could only face death.
Zuo Liangyu himself, guerrilla Jin Shenghuan, Xu Yong, Zhang Yong, and Ma Jizhong were sentenced to beheaded in half after the public trial. In addition, Li Guoying, who died in the battle, was also sentenced to beheaded, but because he died, his body was burned after being found. Even if the body is scattered, it will not end well.
Of course, Chen Cao does not care about people like Zuo Liangyu. Judging from their historical reputation, we know that these people are not good birds. Except for Zuo Liangyu who died before the death of the Ming Dynasty, he did not lose the reputation of the other ministers. After that, several close guerrillas under his command were all included in the "Biography of Erchen", and Jin Shenghuan's reputation became even more bad.
Therefore, Chen Cao did not want to recruit these people and then use them. The current composition of the new army has eliminated most of the hereditary officers and turned to refugees and untouchables as the main officers. Their loyalty is more reliable than these people. .
The wealth of Hangzhou City is beyond Chen Cao's imagination, but now that he is under the banner of King Fu, he will naturally treat these people of the Ming Dynasty well and not make drastic actions. In addition, Songjiang's land equalization system is now used in Zhejiang , is still something out of reach.
Hangzhou was in some tatters, especially the Wulin Gate that was blown up by explosives. The city walls on the left and right of the gate collapsed for nearly three miles. The remaining city walls within five miles of the surrounding area had cracks to varying degrees. Obviously, The city of Hangzhou needs major repairs.
Chen Cao's office is in the governor's office. The meeting held today is about the issue of Zhejiang's jurisdiction. Qi Shangwen, the old father-in-law who was the former Zhejiang Chief Envoy's Zuo Councilor, was detained by Zhang Yangming before Chen Cao took action. Come down.
Precisely because of Qi Shangwen's identity, Zhang Yangming was also a bit wary and never took action against Qi Shangwen. After Chen Cao finally took over Hangzhou, Chen Cao directly appointed Qi Shangwen as the chief envoy of Zhejiang, with full authority to handle matters before there was no governor. General affairs in Zhejiang.
"According to the scouts' report, the army coming from Xianxia Pass and the reinforcements from Jiangxi have entered Quzhou, and there are no more troops in Zhejiang. The students thought that we should let a capable person pass through Zhejiang."
Chen Cao nodded in agreement with Huang Chunyao's words, then looked around at the dozens of civil and military officials present, and said: "I still belong to Taizhou's senior general Qi Changguo;"
As he spoke, he looked at Qi Changguo, who was sitting beside the old god: "I appointed General Qi as the governor of Zhejiang, with full authority to manage the military affairs of all the governments in Zhejiang. All troop deployments are decided by General Qi."
Qi Changguo stood up and saluted Chen Cao: "Veteran, thank you, Mr. Guo, for your trust."
Chen Cao smiled and waved his hand: "General Qi has a great reputation in Jinhua, Taizhou, Wenzhou, and Ningbo. It is completely feasible for General Qi to control the four prefectures with his strength;
In addition, the four prefectures of Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou are right in front of us, so we can divide our troops to garrison them in various important places. As for the three prefectures of Yanzhou, Quzhou, and Chuzhou, we don't need to worry about it for the time being. "
Chen Cao knew that the territory was too big to handle. If Nanjing hadn't pushed too hard, Chen Cao would have been unwilling to leave Songjiang and would have attacked Hangzhou, which was next to him.
"In addition, in order to ensure peace in Zhejiang, I decided to mobilize three divisions of troops to garrison Hangzhou Prefecture."
Currently, the only five organic armies under Chen Cao's command are the Dingwu Army and the Longwu Army. Both armies are on the front line of Suzhou. It is impossible to mobilize them. Taking advantage of the fact that all the troops are now disabled, Chen Cao wants to In order to reform the military system for the second time, but because he was in Hangzhou before the war, Chen Cao decided to return to Shanghai to make arrangements.
"I have decided to expand the army again. The remaining untouchables in Zhejiang will be recruited first, followed by the sons of good families under the jurisdiction of each government. The number is approved to be 300,000, and it must be completed as soon as possible. I hope all Hangzhou officials here will try their best to cooperate."
The general affairs of Zhejiang Province Chen Cao was handed over to his father-in-law Qi Shangwen, and the military affairs were handed over to Qi Changguo. In addition, Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting's troops were directly dispatched to Hangzhou to garrison.
At the end of August, Chen Cao led his troops and the loot obtained from various places in Hangzhou back to Songjiang.
After arriving at Huating, major repairs have begun. After getting on the train at Huating Railway Station, we went straight to Shanghai.
After returning to Shanghai, the first thing Chen Cao did was to go home and quickly attend to business with his wives and concubines, and then a lot of frontline news reached the Songjiang Governor's Office.
"On August 22nd, King Fu's army captured Fengyang and defeated the Datong frontier army north of Fengyang. If Qin Liangyu had not arrived in time, the Datong frontier army would have been completely wiped out.
The successful capture of Fengyang this time has many connections with the guarding eunuch Gao Qiqian. The eunuch chose to surrender to King Fu at a critical moment and opened the south city of Fengyang. So far, all the 100,000 defenders gathered in Fengyang surrendered. Governor Zhang Rentong, Governor Huang Kaihua, commander-in-chief Li Kai, and others were unwilling to surrender to King Fu, so they all committed suicide in their respective mansions. "
After listening to Zhao Xin's report, Chen Cao felt from the bottom of his heart that these officials really had some backbone, and he felt even more contempt for Gao Qiqian, the dead eunuch.
“In addition, the official army assembled 200,000 soldiers and horses in Zhenjiang Prefecture, originally preparing to attack Changzhou Prefecture, but after receiving the news of Fengyang’s fall, they evacuated 100,000 people, and now only about 100,000 are left; According to detective reports, these 100,000 troops are distributed in Dantu County, Danyang City and Jurong."
After hearing this, Huang Chunyao interjected: "The three places are to guard the main road to the east of Nanjing City. If it is lost, Nanjing will not be protected."
"Never mind..."
Chen Cao expressed his thoughts straightforwardly: "First, only the Longwu Army was left in Wujin, and all the Dingwu Army retreated to Suzhou. Second, now that our army has captured Hangzhou, the Zhejiang governments need to digest it, and our army has not The strength is head-to-head with that of Nanjing. Moreover, King Fu is now at the height of his power, and he is not inferior to us. If Fengyang falls, I estimate that King Fu will expand a lot, and he may send troops to Nanjing in the near future;
Our army has now experienced several battles, both good and bad. The good thing is that the troops have been trained and are no longer new soldiers. The bad thing is that the troops have suffered serious attrition. The Shenwu Army has been crippled and is in urgent need of new soldiers. . "
Several confidants present knew that Chen Cao had mentioned reorganizing the army in Hangzhou, and now that he has returned to Shanghai, this matter will probably be finalized.
"I decided to reform the military system and completely improve the composition of the troops in order to achieve the purpose of strengthening the army. Of course, this purpose is also to fight against the imperial court in the future, and even fight against the slaves."
None of the staff spoke, and several important generals who stayed in Shanghai did not speak. Everyone was tacitly waiting for Chen Cao to make an announcement. After all, preventing generals from becoming powerful was something that emperors in all eras had to be wary of.
