Section 99 Aftermath

In the end, the two sides negotiated the conditions, and without any ceremony, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Chengmai County quietly opened the city and surrendered. Zhou Qian took more than a dozen personal soldiers from the city in advance, and the Fubo army arranged ships to send him away. The remaining 500 soldiers saw that the main general had left and had received more money, and they had no intention of resisting, saying that everything was arranged by the county.

At that moment, 500 soldiers drove out of the city, disarmed and surrendered. Subsequently, a special captive manager announced the four major captive policies: the captive must follow the command; Those who are injured or sick are given medical treatment, and no one is allowed to possess weapons; The lawful property of the individual shall be preserved.

They were then searched one by one, and to the astonishment of the officers and men, each of them had returned the silver, rations, and personal belongings they had brought with them only for a glance. All I had to do was a knife or something.

The officers and soldiers had been cleared out of the city, and the Fubo army immediately entered the county seat of Chengmai. According to the prior agreement, Song Zonghui would come forward to handle everything -- Liu Jingxuan refused to come forward in person -- Wei Aiwen did not care, and according to the advice in the civil affairs guidebook, the local gentry were much more useful than officials such as county officials, were more familiar with the local situation, and had the energy to be active, so they could be used for exploitation.

Because the personnel of the Chengmai office had not yet been selected, Wei Aiwen was in charge of civil affairs for the time being, and he arranged for soldiers to take over the guards of the city gates and key points in Chengmai first, and ordered all the Lian Yong in the city to gather and hand over their weapons. Only then did they count and confiscate the armor equipment abandoned by the officials and soldiers in the city, among which there were many ladders, and there were a hundred and ten strange balls made of leather, which were all black powder when they were opened. No one knows what it is. Later, when the prisoners were interrogated, they learned that it was a "mixed river dragon" -- a mine.

"Da Ming's firearms are really creative," Wei Aiwen exclaimed after reading it. As long as it is firearms, weapons, and offensive and defensive equipment, all the pieces are selected, and the state is more haode to open a separate order for preservation -- this is to be sent to the newly established Ordnance Bureau.

After the clean-up materials were completed, Song Zonghui dismissed Lian Yong, who had been summoned from various villages, as agreed. However, Wei Aiwen did not confiscate their weapons, because these weapons did not have much deterrent to the Fubo army, but the seizure made the village lack the ability to defend against bandits. Therefore, the Civil Affairs Guidance Manual suggests that the landlord armament in each village can be retained before the political cadres go to the countryside to maintain basic social order.

The soldiers and civilians were busy until dark, and finally cleared all the supplies left by the officers and soldiers in the city, and arrested a number of officers and soldiers who had changed into civilian clothes and tried to hide in the city. It was very unkind to them, and they were immediately stripped naked one by one, and they were tied up and escorted out. Song Zong will be secretly frightened, thinking that this Australian does he use the stripping of people's clothes as a punishment? He couldn't help but feel cold.

After the matter was over, the Fubo army really withdrew from the county seat as agreed. This relieved the whole city. Although no one patrolled the city on horseback, and there were no rebels who violated discipline in the streets, all the thieves and horses who entered the city were really innocent. Not only did they not enter the people's houses at will to rob them, but they even cleaned the streets after carrying and cleaning up the materials abandoned by the officers and soldiers on the streets. For a time, the gentry and the common people had completely different perceptions of this gang of "thieves".

That night, a small secret banquet was held at the house of Song Zonghui. At the banquet, Song Zonghui and the local leaders, including the master of the county order and Wei Aiwen, pushed the cup and exchanged the lamp, and the atmosphere was very warm.

At present, Song Zonghui presented a gift list on behalf of the gentry and common people of the county, including 500 stones of white rice, 500 taels of silver, 300 horses of cotton cloth, 300 horses of various silk satins, and 20 jars of rice wine and shochu produced locally. There were also thirty pigs and fifty sheep. "For the sake of your soldiers, for the purpose of the three armies".

When Song Zonghui presented the gift list and said this, several gentry present sighed again: what officers and soldiers need to ask for after entering the city, and what nonsense about what officers and soldiers robbed the county treasury, blackmailed the gentry, and said that the officers and soldiers were heinous, and said that Chengmai County and themselves were looted by the officers and soldiers, and they were so poor that they almost hanged themselves.

Wei Aiwen politely expressed his gratitude. Of course, this is a good thing, but it is not enough for the planning institute to plug the teeth, and it is not worthy of the huge appetite of the executive committee. Although there was a lot of loot obtained in the battle of Chengmai, and 10,000 free laborers were captured, the consumption was also amazing. Since Chengmai is already a piece of fat in his mouth, he naturally has to cook it well, squeeze it out, no, contribute more manpower and material resources to supply the entire new Chinese order. Therefore, he did not argue about the numbers - as long as the ruling power was established in Chengmai, at least the benefits in food would be far more than that.

He proposed that a "Aftermath Bureau" should be set up in Chengmai. Everyone was dumbfounded for a while. It is true that generally speaking, after a military disaster and a great chaos in a local area, the government always comes forward and appoints some powerful and well-known local gentry to form a team such as a aftermath bureau to deal with the aftermath. It is nothing more than burying corpses, giving relief to the poor, appeasing exiles, setting up agricultural businesses, appeasing places and the like. The name is not big, but the power is very extensive, and there are many things to handle, which are much faster and more effective than the official yamen.

This "Chief Wei" suddenly proposed to deal with the aftermath, and everyone felt that the intention was not good, but there was no way to refute it, and they did not dare to refute it.

According to Wei Aiwen's proposal, the Aftermath Bureau will still be elected by Liu Jingxuan, the county magistrate, and then select three or four highly respected gentlemen from the county to preside over specific affairs and serve as the office and committee members. As for them Australians, they have to occupy a place in it.

"We are not local to Chengmai, so we should be deacons on duty." Wei Aiwen pretended to be generous.

With a bitter look on his face, who doesn't know that the so-called "deacon on duty" of Australians is the real position in power. Moreover, once the Aftermath Bureau is established, it is equivalent to creating a "second yamen" in the county. The so-called aftermath is all-encompassing, and almost everything can be interfered with, and it won't be long before a dove will occupy the magpie's nest and take away the power of the county government.

Wei Aiwen didn't allow them to sigh and plead, and waved his hand with a big grin: "This matter is settled." ”

The gentry and the county order had nothing to do, it was originally a matter of people fighting for the sword and me for the fish, so I had to agree at the moment. Fortunately, there was no shortage of examples of this kind of half-official and half-civilian yamen at that time, and it could not be regarded as overstepping. Subsequently, it was discussed that Liu County Commander would serve as the general office of the Chengmai Aftermath Bureau according to the usual practice, and Song Zonghui was appointed as the sitting office, and four or five gentry who were rich and powerful in the county and were enthusiastic about public welfare were selected as members. As for this so-called "deacon", of course, it is to be reserved for Australians. In less than 24 hours, everyone changed the word "thief" to "Australian", and a character like Song Zonghui immediately greeted Wei Aiwen with "the chief is long, the chief is short".

Wei Aiwen arranged things properly and immediately sent a telegram to the executive committee, asking them to select and transfer personnel to form a working group to Chengmai as soon as possible to grasp the county government as soon as possible.

He Ming led the whole army to defeat the 22,000 people of the Ming Army's Guangdong General Commander's Office and 1 Guerrilla Station under the Chengmai County Command, and the news reached Lingao at noon on the same day. Both the Executive Committee and the Senate had been waiting for the news, although there was no suspense from the outset, and the war had been going very well for several days. But everyone was still very nervous.

Shortly after 10 o'clock in the morning of July 11, suddenly the drums of the city gates of Lingao were struck at the same time, and then the ships of the county seat, Bairencheng, Bopu, Nanbao, Gaoshanling, and Mayuan and the harbor fired three times at the same time. Sonic shook the city. Immediately, the soldiers and civilians everywhere knew that the official army had been annihilated in Chengmai on the morning of the 11th, and more than 10,000 people were captured.

Li Yunxing was the first person to know the news of the victory, and he received a call report from He Ming on the radio. However, this was only a verbal notice and would not be published until the official message arrived. At ten o'clock in the morning, the telegram of the field army officially announcing the victory of Chengmai finally arrived.

The Senate and the Executive Committee have learned that our field army has been defeated by the whole division of He Rubin's division at 0900 on July 11. Most of the enemy was annihilated.

Field Army Command He Dongmen Wei

"Quick, forward the full text and turn on the telegram" Li Yunxing opened the office door in a hurry, and personally sent the telegram all the way to Shaozong's hands.

Shaozong took a look at it and hurriedly went to the newspaper room in person. Within minutes, the message had spread to all departments and overseas sites that had radio stations.

Ding Ding had already sent a clerk to wait in the telecommunications office, and after copying the copy of the telegram from Shaozong's hand, he immediately rushed to the direction of the newspaper office.

After Shaozong sent the telegram, he immediately went to the telecommunications duty room: "Quick, send a group text message immediately"

A few minutes later, all the elders received the news of Chengmai's victory. As soon as the text message was sent, he heard sporadic gunshots and cheers outside.

"Damn, it's a waste of bullets."

By noon, as the first batch of trumpets still smelling of ink were issued, the envoys who had traveled all the way from Chengmai also came to Lingao, and then a special plenary meeting was held in the Senate, where the envoys reported the whole battle. When they heard that the enemy had been completely annihilated, everyone was very happy, but He Rubin and other major generals and officials had fled, and some people were very unwilling -- according to some people's ideas, they were preparing to drag these senior officials to Lingao and execute them in public, so as to show the prestige of "those who come to commit crimes will be punished."

"Since He Rubin and Zhao Ruyi were not caught, it is better to get the old dog Lu Yizhong who was caught and hanged in public" After the forced evacuation of the Guangzhou station, Guo Yi, Pei Lixiu and others participated in seven or eight hearings in the Senate like thieves. Everyone already hated Lu Yizhong and wanted to put him to death.

"The hanging is too light, it should be divided into five horses"

"The law, everyone must respect the law" Ma Jia hurriedly came out to oppose it, "We should organize a public trial and conduct a large-scale trial of war crimes, so that the masses can fully realize the seriousness of the law, and not engage in bloody non-punishment"

"Hmph, I think we should follow the example of the British against the Scots, disemboweling and executing them, and then cutting off the head and limbs, and hanging them at the gates of the high city gates, in order to set an example" As soon as the hippopotamus opened his mouth, it was extraordinary, "I'll do it." ”

"It's too bloody, it's too bloody" The person who made this statement was actually Dugu's marriage proposal, which made everyone stunned. Since Dugu's marriage proposal was "removed from all positions", it has become obscure. But Dugu used to be known for his cruelty to the indigenous people, and it was surprising that he would say the words "too bloody".

"I think we should use a pump to pump into their chrysanthemums until their intestines burst," his idea was really extraordinary.

Hippo disagreed: "Is this an overkill, or is it better to follow the British approach to dealing with Scottish separatists"

Someone said, "It looks like I'm going to cut off my genitals and hang them on the bridge or something......"

There is also a retro stream: several historical talents who worked in the big library asked to build a Beijing temple outside Lingao County. In order to highlight the great martial arts of the Australian and Song regimes.

"It's disgusting," Du Wen objected vigorously, "You don't have to hang a few heads, this inhumane and cruel dregs of feudalism must not be revived"

……

The Senate was full of people, and after a heated discussion on how to toss the living and the dead, the focus of the discussion turned to the arrangement of affairs after the great victory. After the big victory, Yu Wei occupied the whole of Hainan in one fell swoop, and it was already a matter of imminence. However, in Xiangshang, the elders also have many different views on the specific construction and governance. The meeting was not over yet, and the Senate was already arguing.

Ma Qianzhuo did not have the heart to participate in such an empty controversy, and before the meeting was over, he returned to the office of the Central Government Council, and took care of Wenyong to invite Wu De and other executive committee members and vice ministers of departments that had not yet elected executive committee members to hold the meeting.

"After the notice, you should go to the various departments of the Government Council to inform you: you want the heads of various departments to come to the enlarged meeting. Don't be absent" After Ma Qianzhu's care,

Half an hour later, the Executive Committee, the Vice-Secretary, and the heads of various departments arrived. They were not as happy and elated as the ordinary patriarchs, thinking about how to kill people, issue medals, and even make triumphal ceremonies, build triumphal arches, and so on. The Executive Committee and the Under-Secretary for Affairs have a deep understanding of the entire administrative apparatus and know that there are some problems and shortcomings in the political power, and that although the form is very good, many internal problems must be resolved as soon as possible.

"We're winning a big battle this time." Wen Desi, who presided over the meeting, said, "Xiao Cheng has always said that he can't afford to fight, and now that the war is over, he will move from a wartime state to a peaceful state tomorrow." Let's talk about how to deal with the next step of governance. ”

The first is the issue of the handling of prisoners. More than 10,000 captives have not yet been classified, and according to the preliminary report of the blowing rain at the east gate, about seventy or eighty of them have been identified as officers, and some of them should have tried to hide in the uniforms of small soldiers, and these people have not yet been identified.

The general policy was formulated long ago, and the officers asked their families to redeem themselves, and those who could not redeem themselves stayed in Lingao for labor reform.

As for the soldiers, most of the elders believed that the soldiers of this time and space had very strong bad habits, most of them were accustomed to killing and plundering, and they had no beliefs, and they were purely for the purpose of eating food and getting paid, and they could not be absorbed into the army.

"Even Qi Jiguang's training recruits know that they must choose dull and honest people in the countryside, not market singles. This kind of soldier oil is especially unusable. ”

However, some people take the PLA as an example of the transformation of "liberation fighters", arguing that ordinary soldiers under the old army system can still be transformed into qualified army soldiers.

Moreover, once the operation of subduing the whole of Hainan is to begin, a large number of troops must be invested in garrisoning everywhere, and the original structure of six battalions is obviously insufficient. Absorbing and transforming 3,000 or 4,000 people from captives can effectively solve the problem of insufficient soldiers.

However, this proposal was not approved by the majority of the people, and it seemed to them that it was a very risky thing to recruit these people immediately without a long period of reform.

Wu De said: "Yes, they have no national concept, and whoever pays them will fight for whomever they want. Whether it is a Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng or a soldier of Jianyu. With the generous treatment of our army, it goes without saying that they are extremely happy. Such people are very dangerous, to put it mildly, the GMD soldiers are better than them - at least people know that being a puppet army is a dishonorable thing. And at the turn of the Ming and Qing dynasties, did the soldiers who took refuge in Jianyu think about this? ”

"There should be, there are still a lot of people in the green camp anyway."

"But it's still a very small fraction compared to most." "Now we're not transforming a few people, dozens of people, but thousands. It is impossible for so many people to reshape their minds in a short period of time with our current capabilities. ”

"I think we can use them as immigrants sent to Southeast Asia by the Ministry of Colonial Trade, give them some supplies and weapons, and send them to Southeast Asia to establish tunpu and develop local resources," Skade said. Stipulate how much they pay each year, and we will supply them when they come up. Let them turn Southeast Asia into a land of fire and blood. ”

"It's not good. These soldiers are controlled by the strict punishment and strict laws in the army on weekdays, and if you send them to Southeast Asia, it doesn't mean that the foal has gone to the halter? Ude continued to object.

"They can do whatever they love in Southeast Asia, kill people, set fire to and rob girls, and if they can beat it, it will become a thing, and if they can't beat the locals, it doesn't matter if they kill the locals......"

"Destroy the locals, what fort will we build?" Wu De said, "Besides, if they mess around, how can they honestly open up wasteland and collect materials?" Wouldn't it be enough to rob directly. The best result we got to Zuihou was nothing more than the addition of a group of Han Chinese bandits in Southeast Asia. Is this colonization? These officers and soldiers have no one to control them, and I am afraid that they will kill each other as soon as they arrive in the local area. If we had sent someone else to manage the fort, we might have fought them first. The first thing in colonial reclamation is to unite, and it is difficult for such unruly people to come in handy. ”