SWDnovel Chapter 106 Suppressing the Rebellion
Chapter 106 Suppressing the Rebellion
Chapter 106 Suppressing the Rebellion
The next day, Chen Jizong led one hundred of his men and one thousand strong men to the scene and joined forces with Zhang Kun.
The rebels' temporary camp outside the east gate of the county had a fatal problem: there was no water source nearby!
After being "surrounded" by Zhang Kun and Chen Jizong for three days, the rebels, unable to hold out any longer, chose to surrender.
Most of the rebels started their rebellion because they couldn't get enough to eat, but now that they've surrendered, all they want is a bowl of water.
Zhang Kun put Chen Jizong in charge of guarding these surrendered bandits, while he and Zhang Jingzhen led their troops to Xianghe County.
To guard against Zhou Yin, the "Grand Marshal Who Saves from Suffering and Distress," who was rebelling in the southeast of Qukouji in Xianghe County.
The good news is that Zhou Yin did not attack Xianghe County to the west, nor did he attack Hexiwu to the south.
The bad news is that Zhou Yin attacked Baodi County to the east and successfully captured it!
But Baodi County is not in Zhang Kun's defense zone, so whether it dies or not is nobody's problem.
Subsequent news indicated that Zhou Yin continued his advance southeast, following the Baoqiu River down to attack the Liangcheng garrison.
Zhou Yin, who had captured Baodi County, now had a force of ten thousand men.
Logically speaking, taking down Liangcheng, a city with fewer than a thousand men, should have been a piece of cake.
The current guards, apart from a few elites, are mostly just able-bodied men, and far inferior to the river-protecting men of the river engineering battalion.
However, the families of the soldiers guarding Liangcheng were all surrounded within the city walls of Liangcheng, which allowed them to unleash combat power far exceeding their usual strength.
Zhou Yin encountered fierce resistance from the Liangcheng Garrison, suffering heavy casualties, and was forced to flee to the Hejian Salt Transport Office.
According to military reports from saltworks fortresses such as Lutai and Beitang, Zhou Yin's troops numbered only one or two thousand.
There were rebels in more than twenty counties and prefectures in Shuntian Prefecture, including Liangxiang County, Zhuozhou, and Bazhou, but their numbers were only a few hundred or a thousand.
Apart from the Iron King and the Grand Marshal of Salvation and Compassion of the Korean People's Association, there are currently only three large-scale ones:
The first place is Xiong County in Baoding Prefecture, where Dong Shengshi, who called himself "General Shengshi", was located.
After the uprising, they captured Xiong County, then attacked Renqiu County to the south, and Xin'an County and Anzhou to the west, with a scale exceeding ten thousand.
Using the surrounding lakes and marshes such as Baiyangdian and Wuguandian, they constantly maneuvered against the government troops who were suppressing them.
Could this guy be that Scholar Dong from last year?
Zhang Kun couldn't be sure whether Master Dong was actually Scholar Dong, but another piece of information that was certain made him very nervous:
Yang Hai, the leader of the bandits, defended Renqiu County under the name of "local bravery," made military achievements, and was awarded the official position of "Ban Zong" (a military rank).
This fellow even sent someone to deliver gifts to Zhang Kun, hoping that some "old stories" would no longer be mentioned.
The second place is Zhao Prefecture in Zhending Prefecture, where Wang Sen, who called himself "Fragrance King," lived.
After the uprising, they failed to capture Zhao Prefecture, but they did capture Ningjin County to the south, with a force of over ten thousand men.
Like Dong Shengshi, this fake Wang Sen also relied on Ningjinbo to deal with the government troops.
As it turns out, the Water Margin approach can be followed, provided that there is a Liangshan Marsh nearby when the uprising begins.
The third place is Qinghe County in Guangping Prefecture, where a certain person called himself "King of Guangping".
They failed to capture Qinghe County, and subsequently failed to capture any other prefectures or counties.
However, this fellow frequently raided the canal prefectures and counties such as Linqing Prefecture, Wucheng County, and Gucheng County, posing a threat to the canal!
Moreover, the number of disaster victims gathered in the canal prefectures and counties is several times or even more than ten times that of ordinary prefectures and counties, and its scale has exceeded 50,000!
Last year, there were many peasant uprisings in Zhili and Shandong, which were severely affected by the disaster, but only one county town was captured.
This year, not only has the number increased, but the number of counties captured has also increased to three.
This was still Zhang Kun's operation to suppress the bandits, where the powder keg was detonated prematurely, and the amount of explosives was not as much as in the original timeline.
In the original timeline, four or five years later, the Fragrance Cult had conquered nearly twenty prefectures and counties!
This is Zhili and Shandong, not northern Shaanxi. It has the Grand Canal, the Jilu Plain, and many more military towns!
No matter what chaos erupted elsewhere, Zhangjiawan and Hexiwu remained under Zhang Kun's rule.
The banditry in Tongzhou and the surrounding counties of Xianghe and Wuqing has been completely quelled.
"Joining forces to suppress and eliminate thieves in Tongwan River Affairs," resulting in the capture and killing of over 1,200 thieves;
The gold, silver and other valuables seized totaled more than 34,000 taels.
The confiscation of Guanyin Temple, Guangfu Temple, and other temples and businesses that colluded with the bandits amounted to more than 179,000 taels of silver.
"Suppressing the rebel bandits of the Wenxiang Sect in Tongzhou, killing more than 1,700 rebels and capturing more than 3,600;
The total value of the seized and confiscated items was over 52,000 taels.
The above-mentioned seizures and confiscations do not include real estate such as farmland, shops, and workshops.
Of course, it was impossible to divide all such a large amount of wealth privately, as there were so many officials in the capital watching.
The total amount was 24 taels, divided into three parts:
A document was submitted to the imperial court as an explanation to the court.
A document was submitted to the Wanli Emperor, claiming that the imperial estates, shops, and factories had suffered losses.
The remaining portion was divided among the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Western Division, Tongwan Tax Supervisor, River Work Battalion, Tongzhou Prefecture Government, and Tongzhou Military Commander.
Only 25000 taels were allocated to the arresting officers' office and the river work camp under Zhang Kun's command.
But half of those fields, shops, workshops, etc., were given to Zhang Kun, and the other half to his eunuch godfather.
Because of his merits in "jointly suppressing the bandits in Tongwan River Affairs" and "pacifying the bandits of the Wenxiang Sect in Tongzhou":
Li Ruzhen, who was the Right Commander-in-Chief of the Rear Army Commandery of the First Rank, was promoted to the even higher position of Left Commander-in-Chief.
Chen Jizong, who was originally the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guards (a third-rank official), was promoted to the Commander of the Imperial Guards (a third-rank official).
Zhang Kun, who was a fourth-rank official in charge of the Imperial Guard, was promoted to a third-rank official, serving as the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard.
The imperial court added the position of "Tongwan River Affairs Guerrilla" in Zhangjiawan and Hexiwu, and appointed Zhang Kun as the commander, with a force of 500 soldiers.
Furthermore, he demanded that Zhang Kun incorporate all three hundred river-protecting soldiers from the river work camp into the mobile army camp.
During the Jiajing era, in order to address the increasingly serious problem of privately owned retainers, the imperial court issued a series of orders:
Military officers could privately recruit retainers, reward and punish them as they saw fit, and take their retainers with them to various posts.
However, the servants had to be registered and incorporated into the military register, and the number of servants was limited according to the rank of the military officer.
The imperial court would provide a stipend to the household servants, and military officers could "pay out of their own pockets" to increase their stipend on top of that.
The vast majority of those who supposedly paid out of their own pockets were actually exploiting soldiers and drawing salaries without working; very few were actually sacrificing their families to defend the country.
In that case, it would be better for the imperial court to bypass the military officers and distribute the supplies directly to the household servants.
Incorporating the river protection troops into the mobile army is a repeat of the old trick, a way to restrain Zhang Kun's private army.
The conditions offered were quite good: the imperial court would provide 500 taels of silver and 500 shi of grain per month.
In addition to 100 taels of silver for military equipment and 300 taels of silver for horse fodder, Zhang Kun only needs to bear an extra 600 taels.
Zhang Kun did not object to this, after all, the Ming Dynasty was only in its twilight years and had not yet reached the end of its reign.
If you insist on refusing, then the imperial court will have to ask you what your intentions are!
What displeased Zhang Kun was that the imperial court had taken away his other two official posts:
First, the station commander and supervisor of the river works camp; second, the co-manager of the Jin Yun ship in both capitals.
Zhang Kun can designate the successors to these assignments, but cannot continue to hold these assignments concurrently.
In the eyes of the imperial court, Zhang Kun, who simultaneously controlled the River Works Camp, the Jinyun Ship, and the Mobile Army Camp, was already considered a threat.
Therefore, we must remove Zhang Kun's orders and gradually weaken his influence to prevent him from becoming too powerful to control.