Chapter Eighty-Five: Changing Strategies

The civil unrest in Shaxian County broke out very suddenly, but Deng Maoqi was not a fool.

Just over a hundred miles away, tens of thousands of troops were stationed.

He won't stay in Shaxian for long.

Therefore, the land in Shaxian County was scraped and went up the mountain.

Yes, this place in western Fujian, not to mention anything else, is that there are many mountains, and in the face of continuous mountains, the imperial court has nothing to do for a while.

Wei Guogong led a large army to be stationed in various counties.

And Fang Jin also came from Ningbo.

Fang Jin was the unluckiest.

When Ye Liuzong just got up, five thousand soldiers were enough to pacify, which was also a big credit to Fang Jin, but when he met the plague in Hangzhou, he was pulled to blockade the Ningbo area.

Waited until winter.

The plague in the entire Ningbo area is over.

It's not that the plague is gone. Rather, because of the weather, fewer people died.

The standard for plague is different at different times, and in the afterlife, a person dies, but in this era, as long as it does not become a village, it dies.

It's not a thing.

It can even be said that the spread of the plague was not controlled by people, but by the weather.

Fang Jin was able to come to the front line, but now that the war is falling into the mountains and gnawing bones, even if the Ming elite is trapped in the mountains and forests, it will not have much advantage over Ye Liuzong and Deng Mao's seven departments.

Wei Guogong, Guo Deng, and Jiao Hong met in Shaxian.

Jiao Hong made amends for his loss and urgently transferred a batch of grain to appease the people of Shaxian, after all, not all the people have the courage to follow Deng Maoqi into the mountain.

As for whether there were any robbers of grain among the remaining people, Jiao Hong could only deal with them according to the law and not blame the public.

also announced the policy of the imperial court to the people, the law does not blame the people, Deng Maoqi is sure to die, but other people who came down to the mountain to vote were exempted from responsibility.

It's just not good.

Once the people's trust in the government is broken, it is not a matter of a day or two to re-establish it.

Jiao Hong could only let go of the appeasement in advance.

The first problem he has to face is finance.

"Guogong." Jiao Hong's face was full of dust and said: "Now Zhejiang, Jiangxi, the army that has entered Fujian, plus the people of Beijing, the army of Fujian itself. There are already 100,000 people in total. ”

"Fujian is not rich in money and grain. Now it's barely supporting. The lower officials have embezzled 200,000 taels of customs silver, plus the Fujian Salt Transportation Division borrowed 200,000 taels of silver, which can be maintained, and this is the matter of Shaxian. ”

"The court has already issued an order to reprimand."

"All the money and food of the 100,000 army were borrowed from Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and Fujian was left at all.

”

The money and grain borrowed from the Salt Transportation Division were the first batch of salt sold overseas by Liu Dingzhi.

This time Fujian put down the rebellion, the Fujian Salt Transportation Division has made a great contribution, because salt can be used as money in many places, and Liu Dingzhi has not much else in his hands, and there is enough salt.

In normal times, the salt tax paid by the Fujian Salt Transportation Division is only tens of thousands of taels a year, but this year, not counting the salt directly allocated to the Fujian local government to pay the remuneration of the people, there are 200,000 taels of misappropriated silver alone, that is, nearly several times the previous salt tax.

It can be said that Liu Dingzhi's performance in the chaos this time is more brilliant than Jiao Hong himself, after all, the Shaxian civil uprising slapped Jiao Hong in the face.

Wei Guogong said: "I understand what Lord Jiao means, but Jiangxi is okay to say, the epidemic in Zhejiang also cost a lot of money and grain, and Lord Zhong Guo went due to illness, but within a month or two, he couldn't allocate money and food." ”

Besides, Zhong Guo Qingtian was originally a long-term sick body, just recuperating in Hangzhou, this time he was enabled by the imperial court, and he was even more desperate to sit in Ningbo, looking very good every day, not like a long-term sick old man.

But I don't know, it's just holding it in one breath.

After the plague was suppressed, the old man breathed a sigh of relief.

I was sick at the same time, and I couldn't hold it down anymore, and when I saw it, I could only shake my head, the oil ran out, and there was no cure. As soon as Zhong died, the governor of Zhejiang was vacant.

It will take time for the imperial court to send another governor over.

Coupled with the mess in Zhejiang, there is a plague in the north and a rebellion in the south, even though Zhejiang is a fairly wealthy province, the silver is also in hand for a while.

Jiao Hong said: "At most, it will be supported for a month, otherwise Guogong will fight in front of the royal court, and he will have no money, and he will die." ”

Xu Xianzong, the Duke of Wei, didn't know what to do for a while.

The army is out, and it can be said that it consumes a thousand gold every day.

The consumption of the army will not be reduced much because the army cannot fight. Without feeding the army, these armies may not be able to fight the enemy, but they are tyrannical to the people, but they are first-class good hands.

For this point, Zhu Qizhen has repeated orders, so Wei Guogong and below are very strict with military discipline.

It is useless for the Qiu Ba people below to reason, only to speak with money. If they don't give money, they are obedient on the surface, but what they actually do, it's really hard to say.

Even Jiao Hong is so angry, not only that Fujian can't support so many troops, but also that the army has repeatedly committed crimes, stealing chickens and dogs, and molesting women. and even robbery and extortion.

Cases large and small continue.

Guo Deng said: "Lord Jiao, Grandpa Guo, now Ye Liuzong is just a remnant of the defeated army, stranded in the mountains, the army is not easy to enter the mountains, and there is no need for so many troops." Is it that we jointly played Your Majesty, let the guest soldiers go out of Fujian, and only leave the people of the Beijing camp and the Fujian capital division. Trapped in the mountains? ”

Once the army returns to itself, it doesn't matter

Fujian's business.

Wei Guogong said: "Your Majesty is very anxious about pacifying the leaf thieves, and looks forward to it day and night. Negative intentions? ”

Wei Guogong understood that the emperor attached great importance to this place, and every time he played a recital, when it was sent back, there were large pieces of Zhu Criticism with different colors on it.

There are all kinds of questions asked, such as people's feelings, military conditions, people's hardships, military discipline, and so on.

Wei Guogong had to rewrite the recital to answer these questions in detail.

And the colors are different, which shows that these Zhu batches were not written at one time, but after repeated thinking. Because the drying time is different, there is a slight difference in the color of the ink.

What Gordon said is not unreasonable.

To be honest, the battle has reached this point, and it is impossible to go fast if you want to.

It's like Liu Pu is encircling and suppressing Yaomin, it's been a few years, and it's still like that, and it's not clean, is Liu Pu incompetent?

No, it's these people who are hiding in the mountains, they are familiar with both people and land, and the army enters the mountains, and they don't say anything if they don't have an advantage, and they will bite them if they don't get it.

I can only boil it slowly.

The same is true today.

Hidden in the mountains, many mountains do not allow large armies to enter and exit, that is to say, in many places, at most a few hundred people. I want to start a big war like tens of thousands of people, but I can't.

In this kind of skirmish, the advantage of the soldiers of the Beijing camp was offset a lot. The more anxious you are, the more you will suffer heavy casualties. What Guo Deng said was actually to change the strategy of encirclement and suppression, from encirclement and suppression by a large army to besieging the enemy in the mountains, and then sending a small army to attack, and even sending people to surrender, and so on.

It is good to use the minimum price to calm down this mess.

Jiao Hong said: "What General Guo said is extremely true, if the prince is unwilling to join the name, the lower officials are willing to play to the court alone. ”

Seeing this, Wei Guogong secretly said in his heart: "Guo Deng is the emperor's person, he can do whatever he wants." He said, "Okay." Let's do it. ”

Jiao Hong immediately began to write the question book, and after a while, Wei Guogong read it and couldn't find anything wrong, so the three of them jointly printed it and sent it to Beijing.

Wei Guogong breathed a sigh of relief and said: "This leaf thief is defeated, and there is a Deng thief rising, it is really a tree that wants to be quiet and the wind does not stop, these two thieves are in the mountains, I am afraid they are going to merge." ”

Guo Deng said: "What Guogong said is extremely true, but the mountains are difficult, they have more than 10,000 mouths, how can they feed, just besiege for a few months, they will not be able to help but go down the mountain." ”

"But it is the time to destroy the two thieves."

They guessed not wrong at all, Ye Liuzong and the remnants of the defeated army and Deng Maoqi's rabble were already in Tianjie Mountain at this moment, and the two sides were together.

This time they merged, and their strength suddenly grew.

It's just that the convergence of the two sides is not so easy.