As soon as April passed, the mountains and rivers of the Qing Dynasty were completely embraced by warmth. The last traces of ice and snow in the three provinces outside the Pass and Northern Mongolia were completely melted. All the mountains, rivers and seas seemed to come alive overnight.
The Heilongjiang River has completely opened up. Countless tributaries have gathered the snowy water from the mountains and dense forests and rolled in. The entire river has roared towards the east like a giant dragon.
As usual, the ferries on the Heilongjiang River will be busy at this time of year. The boatmen who have been idle all winter will start work. Doing business with Tsarist Russian merchants cannot do without their ferries to transport people and goods across the river.
But everything changed this year. All ferries from Heilongjiang to the mouth of the Amur River were heavily manned. The Qing army blocked all customs ports in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, while the Far East was full of volunteers.
Two of the three provinces outside the pass were completely out of control. The army began to move its defenses without any orders from the Ministry of War. Hunchun, like all warlords, began to carry out internal purges.
All the generals were examined one by one, and all officials who were close to the Queen Mother and the prince were purged. However, the poor officers who had been on the bench were reused because of their loyalty to the emperor.
The prisons were filled with diehards and corrupt officials, and the garrison camps everywhere were filled with cries and curses every night for urgent interrogations.
In troubled times, heavy codes must be used. This is the principle of the Han church. Hunchun deeply believes that he will now guard these two provinces for His Majesty for at least four years.
During this period of time, he not only had to solve the food and salary problem of the army, but also saved some military expenses for His Majesty and provided an elite force of more than 100,000 people. This is no simple task, and he must take action from now on.
Of course, the quickest way is to confiscate the family property. People who can be ruthless enough to launch a mutiny are naturally not good men and women. Hunchun is also a ruthless character after he makes up his mind.
The first trial, the second strike, the third threat... with Emperor Tongzhi's Shangfang Sword, a bloody storm broke out throughout Jilin and Heilongjiang. Countless powerful officials were pulled down. Not only were all their apparent family properties confiscated, but also Even the gold and silver hidden privately in other houses were confiscated.
For a moment, the official circles of the two provinces were shaken, with cries and curses. Fortunately, Hunchun was not a murderous person. After the officials of the hostile factions confiscated their property, they all spared their lives.
The civil and military officials who had escaped could no longer stay here. Suddenly, a large number of officials fleeing south began to appear on the main post road from Liaoning Province to Jilin and Heilongjiang.
Huaide, Yitong, Hailong, Tonghua... these cities at the junction of the two provinces immediately became a sensation. Those officials who were like mourning were dragging their families and their families and driving a thin carriage to escape southward, cursing and crying all the way, describing the brutality of Hunchun. His name spread throughout the country.
Liaoning is the birthplace of the Aisin Gioro family. It is the political, economic and cultural center outside the customs, and is also the seat of Shengjing. It is impossible for them not to know the news of the Hunchun mutiny in Heilongjiang. In fact, after Lieutenant General Lin captured Qiqihar, Shengjing had already received this shocking news four days ago.
Not only that, all the main post roads from Liaoning to Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces also spontaneously set up checkpoints. The local garrison was in standby for fear that Hunchun would lead his army to rush out from some mountain nook.
"The country has been in power for more than two hundred years. Have you heard of the Manchu generals rebelling? They are still rebelling in the land of Longxing. How did this fate become like this...Why don't God open his eyes!"
Countless veterans were trembling and guarding the checkpoint, praying that Hunchun would not go crazy and attack them, and that their own troops would not be ordered to send to the north to suppress the rebellion.
The veteran really thought too much. He overestimated the administrative efficiency of the Qing Dynasty and underestimated the Qing Dynasty's control over the army. After the news of the Hunchun mutiny reached Shengjing, in addition to the local garrison taking spontaneous actions to increase security, the rest was for officials across the province to start mobilizing supplies.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty started as a military group, and they naturally had a desire to control the army. Moreover, the Manchus were also willing to learn the history of the Han people and the cycle of rise and fall of the Central Plains dynasties.
Of course, the Manchus knew how terrible the situation would be if the army was controlled by private individuals. Not only did they have to control the Han people to seize military power, but it was also taboo for the Manchus to seize military power themselves.
The Eight Banners were originally a military alliance, and Aixinjueluo was just the most powerful one among them. In fact, there was no mythical aura of destiny.
In the early Qing Dynasty, the structure of the eight kings' political affairs lasted for a long time. In the end, it was actually Nurhaci's descendants Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong who violated the ancestral system and implemented the centralized power of the Han people. This gave rise to the political structure of the later Qing Empire. .
Throughout the entire history of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, there were actually people within the Eight Banners who wanted to restore the ancestral system and break the one-family dictatorship. This almost became a ghost in the Manchu and Qing court. As long as the imperial power was weak, this ghost would jump out and cause trouble. .
As a result, the more charming the ghost is, the stricter the court's control over the army. It is a capital offense for local military and political officials to join the army without the order of the court.
This group of hot pot ants in Shengjing City have no right to mobilize the entire province's army to quickly march north to quell the rebellion. Not only do they not have the power, they also lack the courage. If they want to take credit, they are naturally enthusiastic, but they can't take responsibility. They all shrank their necks.
"Anyway, Shengjing and Beijing have also communicated via telegram. Thanks to Mr. Qing's great ability, I now understand that telegraph is a good thing. If this kind of thing happens, just push it to Sijiucheng and let them go... "
This is the sentiment of all officials in Shengjing. Doing more and making more mistakes is the creed of life they believe in. Only fools can do such taboo things as leading troops to fight.
However, it is within their authority to mobilize resources to prepare for combat. All the arsenals, granaries, horse yards, inns... all kinds of institutions in Liaoning began to be busy.
Counting inventories, transferring accounts, making up for shortfalls, falsely reporting losses...and then transporting grain and grass from the east to the west, and then transporting wood from the west to the north. Regardless of whether the work is meaningful or not, at least I have the energy to be busy.
And as long as they are busy, these people can benefit from it. The shortfalls caused by corruption for many years can finally be settled when the accounts are in chaos. Some granaries even caught fire for no reason, and hundreds of thousands of loads of grain and grass were all reduced to ashes along with the accounts.
The frightened officer directly slammed the shit basin on Hunchun, "It's Hunchun's rangers! Hunchun sent elites to kill us. A small group of troops rushed in while we were unprepared to prevent the fire. They are going to start a war with the country!"
The mouth is on him, and he can say whatever he wants. In fact, the old army who looked at the warehouse has already understood everything. The burning granaries are actually empty, and the grain has been secretly sold by the officials. .
They also lit this fire themselves, and all they burned was straw!
The historians of later generations all sighed when they saw this moment. The corruption in the late Qing Dynasty was really rotten to the core. It is amazing that such a major event that shocked the world like the Hunchun Mutiny could also become a great opportunity for officials to become corrupt.
