September 28, the 12th year of Kangxi reign in the Qing Dynasty.
Jiangxi Province, Guangxin Prefecture, Yingtan Town.
This large town, located on the bank of Jinjiang River and at the foot of Longhu Mountain, is now full of slaves and has become a gathering place for the Qing Dynasty's slave soldiers and their families.
These slave soldiers in Yingtan Town are led by Geng Jingzhong who does not want to be a slave but only wants to be the master. Although Geng Jingzhong had great ambitions, he was very "smart" and knew not to reveal his ambition too early and had to "pretend to be a slave" to confuse Emperor Kangxi. Therefore, after Geng Jingzhong became the general manager of Fujian and had the power of "Geng Xuan", his servant spirit was stronger than before.
Except for a few confidants such as Zeng Yangxing, Liu Yan, Wang Jin, Zuo Chunqiu, Liu Bingzheng, and Wang Jinggong, they knew his intentions. Most of the generals and officials below regarded him as a good slave of the Qing Dynasty!
Since Geng Jingzhong is still pretending to be a good slave of the Qing Dynasty, of course his army will also be reorganized into a "slave-like" army. However, the "enslavement" of Geng Jiajun was different from the enslavement of other Qing army green soldiers.
The "enslavement" of other Qing army green battalion soldiers was to promote all middle and high-level officers into the Eight Banners and Han Army, and to turn all the basic veterans into the Eight Banners' clad minions - in this way, the backbone of the green battalion soldiers We have a place to belong, and everyone is a good slave of the Qing Dynasty! And there is also a clear picture of the minions.
That is to say, the promotion route is from the ordinary "green camp soldiers - coated slaves - Eight Banners Han Army - twenty-four prospects".
Once you reach the level of the Eight Banners and Han Army, you will truly join the glorious Eight Banners team and become the emperor's "own servant", and your descendants will become slaves.
So after such reforms, the cohesion of the Green Camp soldiers has indeed increased... Don't think that it is embarrassing to be a slave, and it is even more embarrassing to be a traitor. They have all become traitors, so what else can they not be slaves?
But Geng Jingzhong is ambitious!
He can't do this, otherwise the people under him will become good slaves and good servants of the Qing Emperor. How can he still be the emperor?
So he played a trick and wrote a memorial to Kangxi saying that the "enslavement" of Geng Jiajun should be carried out in two steps. The first step is to determine who is a slave and who is a slave; the second step is to separate the slaves and the slaves. They were organized into various banners and placed under the direct control of the Qing emperor.
The reason why it was divided into two steps was because his army and family members were very busy recently and had to move from Fuzhou to Shaowu and Guangxin. He also had to go to Hunan to copy Wu Sangui's retreat. Therefore, there is no time to "separate flags" for the subordinates - just like being slaves, it is also a bit particular about which flag you belong to. The slaves and servants of the Three Banners are much better than the slaves and slaves of the Five Banners!
Therefore, once flag status is assigned to slaves and slaves, a lot of trouble is still inevitable.
In addition, after the flag status is divided, a new Eight Banners organization must be established. Originally, the number of bannermen in the Green Camp was very small, so there was no need to establish additional organizations. But now the rate of "slavery" of the Green Camp soldiers has increased, with almost half of them being slaves and slaves, so it is indispensable to establish a group of "Green Camp Assistant Leaders" who are under the management of the Eight Banners garrison.
This is all trouble!
Of course, Kangxi immediately granted this reasonable request.
Therefore, Geng Jingzhong's army has only increased the "slavery rate" and has not incorporated these slaves into the corresponding Eight Banners system.
At the same time, he took this opportunity to combine his Jingnan Prince's Banner Army with the Green Camp Soldiers below, and reorganized his army into thirty-five generals and one hundred and seventy-five generals. The "Flag Army" of each commander also established seven commanders on top of the thirty-five commanders.
Moreover, he also deceived the middle and low-level officers and soldiers under him by saying that they had "been admitted to the banner"... Even if they were still green camp soldiers, as long as they performed meritorious services in the future, they would become slaves of the coat of arms and slaves of the Eight Banners, and then You can start to "mix your future".
The so-called "future" is actually the Qing Dynasty's military merit system. From ordinary bannermen upwards, there are a total of twenty-four levels up to first-class merit, which are called the twenty-four futures. And these "prospects" are closely related to official positions. With "prospects", you will have a rank, and you will have the opportunity to be an official!
The combat effectiveness of the Manchus in the early years of the Qing Dynasty relied on, first, letting go and looting; secondly, it relied on the support of peers; thirdly, it relied on this military merit system.
By the time of Kangxi, because there were too many Eight Banners nobles with hereditary prospects and not enough errands to send out, the appeal of this military meritocracy system to Eight Banners insiders who knew the rules had greatly declined. He could also deceive the green camp soldiers and banner village tenants who had been kneeling to look up to the Eight Banners masters, as well as some "country coats", and various savage Jurchens (Saurons, etc.).
However, Geng Jingzhong was planning to start his own business. Once he opened his own court, he would have plenty of positions to reward people.
So he planned to use the ready-made set of military merits from the Eight Banners for his own use... Look, how smart this is!
I admire Geng Jingzhong for being "smart enough". He has been in a pretty good mood these past two days!
Because he had already learned the good news that Emperor Kangxi had arrived at the front line of Jingzhou and Wu Sangui was marching to Dangyang and Qianjiang from the Tang newspaper sent down from above.
Moreover, he also received a letter from Emperor Kangxi, urging him to march to Hunan as soon as possible!
Kangxi also promised in the court letter that once Wu Sangui is killed, he will be made the vassal king of Hunan - Yongzhen Hunan!
Obviously, the war on the front line is tense!
In the palace of King Jingnan in Yingtan Town, Geng Jingzhong was looking over and over with the imperial mail he had just received from Emperor Kangxi. The more he looked at it, the more proud he became, when suddenly there was a rush of footsteps outside the door. Then came the voice of Fujian Governor Liu Bingzheng: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty...Kangxi is here!"
"Who? Who is here?" Geng Jingzhong suspected that there was something wrong with his ears, so he hurriedly said, "Who is outside? Come in and talk!"
"嗻......"
A bunch of people responded, and then they saw the door of the study room being pushed open, and Liu Bingzheng, Zeng Yangxing, Liu Yan, Wang Jin, Zuo Chunqiu, etc., all came in with a cheer.
Each of these guys had very surprised expressions.
"Your Majesty," Liu Bingzheng was the first to speak after saluting Geng Jingzhong, "Kangxi is here! Wang Jinggong, who is stationed in Anren County, sent someone to report that the emperor suddenly arrived at Huangqiu Port in the northwest of Anren County!"
"What?" Geng Jingzhong was shocked, "How is that possible?"
"It's not wrong," Zuo Chunqiu also said, "Wang Dutong has already met the third master... The third master said that the emperor is going to Longhu Mountain to offer incense, and he stopped by to see you."
"Go to Longhu Mountain to offer incense?" Geng Jingzhong was stunned again, "When did the Emperor believe in Taoism?"
"I have believed it for a long time," Liu Bingzheng said with a smile, "I heard my brother (Liu Bingquan) say about this. The emperor began to believe in Taoism after Master Qiling from Longhu Mountain offered the Heavenly Thunder Immortal Technique."
"It seems that there is such a thing," Geng Jingzhong nodded, "I have heard about it too... It seems that the alchemy was made in the imperial kitchen and the water was leaked."
Liu Bingzheng added: "A Taoist Hanlin was also established in the Hanlin Academy."
Geng Jingzhong frowned and said, "Then what should we do now? Should we..."
As he spoke, Geng Jingzhong's very shrewd-looking face showed a hint of murderous intent.
"Let's act according to the situation!" Zuo Chunqiu said, "The emperor did not come in a simple carriage, but Tu Hai and Jieshu came with an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people to protect him..." He paused, "Maybe there is a scam. ah!"
"Is there a fraud?" Geng Jingzhong was shocked, "He wants to capture me?"
The "Dadu Tong" under Geng Jingzhong once said: "Your Majesty, we have 35,000 elite soldiers... Why don't we all mobilize them to Anren County to pick them up, and then invite the emperor to come for a military parade. If the emperor refuses, then It means there is a fraud! If the emperor agrees, it is better to do nothing and eradicate this beast for the world in one fell swoop!"
Geng Jingzhong nodded heavily, gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, that's it!"
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