Chapter 56 Ban
Guan Shengyun knew that the battle of Shaanzhou would be the first tough battle he would face since joining the army. It would also be a real urban battle, where life and death were at stake.
First of all, the Yellow River has a huge drop here (the Sanmenxia Hydropower Station is here), and it is impossible for your own raft to cross it in one go. According to the plan, the army must leave the Yellow River here and take the land route. Secondly, the Ming Dynasty set up a guard post here - Hongnong Guard. If you bypass the city, you will leave a huge threat behind you. Once you are attacked from both sides, the consequences will be disastrous. Third, in the early stage of the army's march, most of the baggage can be carried by boats and rafts. The further journey is by land, which requires a large number of vehicles and sufficient preparations must be made - only large cities can provide enough manpower and material resources for this kind of supplement. Finally, there is a long road ahead, and they are bound to encounter the siege of the army. On a journey of thousands of miles, no matter how capable the troops are, they cannot withstand the exhaustion of one battle after another. Therefore, the first battle must be impressive, creating a huge sense of oppression and fear. , so that the officers and soldiers will be frightened and flee without fighting, so as to avoid unnecessary consumption to the greatest extent.
Earlier at the military meeting in Lingbao, Luo Yonghao repeatedly emphasized these four points to the generals of each battalion. Not only that, after weighing and weighing again and again, Military Advisor Luo finally raised a difficult question to Guan Shengyun:
If you encounter determined resistance, should you massacre the city to establish your authority after breaking it?
If you encounter stubborn resistance, the benefits of massacre are obvious: destroying the determination to resist with terror. The reason why Genghis Khan's cavalry is invincible across thousands of miles is that, in addition to direct factors such as combat effectiveness and logistical support capabilities, huge terror plays a greater role. He once issued an order: cities that surrendered would only be robbed, and cities that did not kill would be slaughtered if they resisted! Under the accumulated power of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, one city after another surrendered to Temujin...
Luo Yonghao, who has been trapped in the core of the den of thieves, knows very well: Yu Zi, even if he accepts the court's offer in the future, even if the court spares everyone, or even spares Guan Shengyun, his father and son will not be able to escape the fate of dying - no matter what, the court will definitely He would not tolerate the existence of a precedent of officials committing themselves to thieves and living a peaceful life. He would kill them no matter what. Only by relying on this army could his father and his son have a chance to survive. Yu Gong quickly demonized this army and used people's fuel and jealousy to do so. Spreading the terror to the maximum extent will greatly help achieve the strategic goal of the Three Thousand Mile March. However, Luo Yonghao was, after all, a local official in the Ming Dynasty. The traditional education he had received since childhood and his inner conscience told him that this was wrong.
In the battle between heaven and man, Luo Yonghao threw the problem to Guan Shengyun, psychologically finding a little excuse for himself, but at the same time, he also pushed Guan Shengyun into a desperate situation. Guan Shengyun and his generals are by no means saints. They rob, they rape, they kill. When they are extremely excited, sometimes they even take pleasure in killing. However, under normal circumstances, most of them would avoid topics such as massacre of unarmed women and children - in their hearts, they always imagine themselves as Liangshan heroes who eliminate violence and do justice for heaven, and never use "two feet" "Sheep" are those demons like Huang Chao who makes military rations!
For a while, the lobby of Lingbao County Government Office was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Gu Baihua, who was impatient, suppressed his face and blushed. He hesitated and said in a low voice: "A man, just kill him. Killing a baby is not a man. Gu can't do it."
Gong Derun, who was born as a landlord in Baoding, had attended private schools for several years. Apart from Guan Shuai and Da Luo, he was considered the most educated person in the group. He hesitated and said: "The book says that the massacre of the city did not mean killing all the babies. , Those who are less than four feet tall will not be killed. Ahem, but..."
Gu Baihua grabbed Bai and said: "What about the four-foot-one-inch one? Can you take out the sword? And you, you, you!" As he spoke, he pointed at the generals of each battalion one by one. Those who were pointed could not help but lower their heads and remained silent.
Guan Shengyun cleared his throat: "Hmm, ahem, let's take down the city first. We'll talk about it then. We'll see what happens."
Gu Baihua's Gangfeng Battalion was good at fighting in the field, but it was a bit wasteful to use it to dig up the city wall and attack the city wall. They were sent to Xia (pronounced "Xia") Shiguan, fifty miles southeast of Shaanzhou, to stop the reinforcements. Gong Derun's Zhenyong Battalion stayed in Lingbao, one to protect the army's retreat, and the other to rob and collect supplies. The main offensive mission was led by Gao Tengdou's three flying beast battalions, You Futian's Furious Wave Battalion and Zhang Ding's Pili Battalion. Tianyi Battalion continues to be responsible for surface defense, and Guan Shengyun leads his own army, Poxiao Battalion, as the general strategic reserve.
Both Nuxiang and Lingbao came down at once, and the cavalry successfully blocked the traffic line by virtue of the objective conditions of only one road, so Shaanzhou is still unaware of the threat that is so close at hand. However, this advantage will cease to exist sooner or later as the large troops come out of the canyon. With the siege of Shaanzhou, the news will be made known to the world, so Guan Shengyun simply opened up the attack formation openly.
It is just over a hundred miles from Lingbao to Shaanzhou. The reconnaissance Tangqi routinely goes out thirty miles every day to make intelligence tentacles. Since there is Gong Derun's garrison in the rear, the cavalry does not need to break up the formation. They follow Tangqi as a group and take on the responsibility of catching pedestrians. The merchant's task is to delay the warning time for danger in Shaanzhou as long as possible.
The army marched on the road for four days and set off at dawn. At dusk, they slept on the mountain roads one after another. The narrow mountain roads greatly increased the burden of transporting baggage, which in turn slowed down the marching speed. Finally, at dusk on the fourth day, the vanguard troops reached the distance. Twenty miles away from Shaanzhou, in the afterglow of the setting sun, the outline of the Shaanzhou city wall can be vaguely discerned.
It was impossible to light a fire at such a close distance, so everyone ate dry food prepared in advance the day before. The soldiers who participated in the battle for the first time were too excited to sleep and were talking among themselves, while the leaders and veterans fell asleep. They knew very well that they needed good physical strength and reaction ability to survive tomorrow's fight. Greater chance of survival.
Shaanzhou is bordered by the Yellow River to the north, Qinglong Stream to the south, Xiaoling to the east, and Han Valley to the west. It is not only the political and economic center at the junction of Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, but also the choke point for entering and exiting the Central Plains. It is a must-have for military strategists. land. Therefore, the central governments of all dynasties have attached great importance to it, and those who can serve as officials here are mostly capable people. By the way, the name of Shaanxi Province is also derived from Shaanzhou - "the west of Shaanzhou".
Shaanzhou is a Zhili state, and Ma Wensheng, the magistrate of the state who has just been in office for less than a year, is recognized as a ruthless character: more than two years after he became the magistrate of Dingtao, most of the wealthy households in Dingtao were ruined by him!
There are four famous works in the Ming Dynasty: "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", "Water Margin" and "Jin Ping Mei".
One of them is a banned book. Which one, guess?
Hehe, I guessed wrong.
It's "Journey to the West"!
Because Emperor Jiajing was superstitious about Taoism, this book is suspected of criticizing Sang and Huai!
The ambitious Ma Wensheng released the magistrate. He knew that he had finally taken the first step in his long career. If you want to be promoted, you must either make money or have political achievements. However, Dingtao, located in southwest Shandong, is not a wealthy place. There is only one famous local specialty: bandits.
A county magistrate without military power wants to gain promotion through annihilating bandits who come and go like the wind. The difficulty and risk are too great. The local area is too poor. It is impossible to achieve the task by collecting more taxes than necessary. It is self-defeating. Don't even think about digging into your pocket - Ma Zhixian understands that being an official for thousands of miles is just for money. He is determined to find a new way and not take the ordinary path.
The cultural taboos of the Ming Dynasty were actually not too big, and were not comparable to those of the Qing Dynasty. In order to show their loyalty, some hypocrites insist that "Journey to the West" contains insinuations and negative energy and should be banned. On the surface, the court issued an official document, but governments at all levels did not take it seriously. Folks even said that as long as they didn't set up a stage opposite the Yamen to blatantly challenge officials, they would be too lazy to deal with it. In those days, officials did a lot of things like men stealing from women and prostitutes behind the scenes, but they did it in a big way. Most people still want to be shy about this kind of thing, fearing that someone will poke their spines.
Ma Zhixian is a poor boy from the countryside. He has been living in poverty for more than ten years, and he only wants to survive until he can prosper in the capital. He knows that to achieve this goal, something must be sacrificed - face is the least important among them.
A wealthy family member in Dingtao celebrated the birthday of his wife, who was serving as a member of the Communist Party of China. In order to curry favor with the young county magistrate, she not only invited her over and over again, but also sealed her with two hundred taels of "money pen" and insisted on inscribing the word "longevity" on her. It was actually the first time for Mr. Ma, who had just become the county magistrate, to touch such a large amount of money. He was so happy that he went to congratulate him in person that day - it was so good that the grass stage troupe temporarily invited to the yard to entertain was performing "Journey to the West"!
The monkey-goblin fight was lively on the stage, and everyone in the audience was so mesmerized that they didn't notice the strange expression on Mr. Ma's face - at this time, there were two little people fighting in Mr. Ma's mind.
One said: "No, I just gave you money!"
Another villain said: "What can you buy with two hundred taels? You can obviously get another two thousand taels!"
The first person suddenly realized: "Yes, do it quickly!"
So that day, Ren Yuanwai's whole family was sent to jail.
Ren Yuanwai really asked someone to send him two thousand taels. The two little people in Mr. Ma's mind started arguing again.
One said: "They really sent me two thousand taels, should I let them go?"
Another said: "Confused! Even if we can kill him, the 20,000 taels will all be ours!"
The first one said: "Yes, yes, hurry up and kill him!"
As a result, Ren Yuanwai's entire family almost died.
Of course the grass-roots team must arrest him even more! This is a money-spinner: tell me, where and who has performed it!
Search every house!
It turned out that several households had private collections of banned books!
Mr. Ma's achievements went far beyond that - he also solved a major case of "falsely discussing Taizu".
Dingtao County is under the jurisdiction of Yan (pronounced "Yan") Prefecture in Shandong Province. In the private notes of a wealthy family, Mr. Ma actually made a major breakthrough.
It is said that the great ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang approved Lu Xiong recommended by the Ministry of Personnel as the magistrate of Yanzhou. After Lu Xiong took office, he issued a proclamation. When he used the seal, he was dumbfounded: it was engraved on it was "Gun (pronounced "Gun") Prefecture Magistrate of Shandong" - and the official seal , was engraved based on the text of the edict!
In other words, Taizu made a typo!
Forget about the Great Emperor, today, would you like to correct the typos of leaders at any level? However, Lu Xiong was stubborn. Not only did he point out the mistake, but he also wrote a memorial to Zhu Yuanzhang - the memorial had to go to the Secretary of State, in other words, to publicize the matter to everyone.
Who is Zhu Yuanzhang? There was a monk who wrote a poem about kneeling and licking him, which contains the word "ze" which means "lead by example" - and the word "ze" has the same pronunciation as "thief" (ancient pronunciation, refer to Peking Opera Nian Bai). Lao Zhu thought about it: Are you insinuating that I have been a thief? Kill without mercy! After receiving Lu Xiong's memorial, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious again: "I conquered the whole world. You can call me whatever you want!"
This Lu Xiong didn't do a good job as an official, and he couldn't find any happiness for himself, so his head moved...
Copying this record from a wealthy family's home made Mr. Ma feel like he had found a treasure!
In a small way, this is called "disrespecting Taizu and disrespectful"; in a big way, it is said that the crime of "rebellion and immorality" cannot be escaped! It is hard to say whether the seizure of "Journey to the West" alone can be regarded as superior in the "big plan" - the officials of the Ministry of Personnel may also look down on their own behavior and find faults in other places, and this kind of unreasonable discussion of Taizu's principles and important matters , As long as the memorial can be written as sharply as a knife, who, how many brains dare to intercede?
After that, Mazhi County started by censoring banned books. From the county magistrate to the prefectural magistrate and then to the magistrate, the official career was prosperous. With this move, in ten years, hundreds of families were destroyed and thousands of people were tortured to death. Today, in his thirties, he has become the magistrate and top leader of Zhili Prefecture (a level similar to that of a prefecture).
