On 24 December, Li Zhi sat in the second hall and listened to Li Laosi and Huan Yihua's report on the situation in Shandong. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

This time, Li Zhi dispatched more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, so naturally he couldn't let Huan Yihua be the commander-in-chief. Li Zhi asked Li Laosi to sit in Jinan and be the governor of this crackdown.

Li Laosi arched his hand and said: "The owner, after more than 10,000 tiger soldiers are in place, all over the country still have a fluke mentality, smashing the newspaper readers and burning the newspaper. However, the soldiers of the Tiger Ben Division did not relent, and in the past five days, the soldiers killed more than 400 people in various places and raided 27 households, which can be regarded as suppressing the sound of resistance. ”

Li Zhi was stunned when he heard the figure of more than 400 people. Li Zhi originally thought that after the soldiers and horses of the Tiger Ben Division were in place, the local gentry would judge the situation and give up. He didn't expect the momentum of Shandong's rebellion against the newspaper to be so fierce, and these gentry dared to make trouble when there were tigers and soldiers in the county.

But speaking of which, it is actually understandable, after all, Li Zhi only sent a hundred people from one county. In a place as large as a county, with a radius of tens or even hundreds of miles, the deterrent power of a hundred people is extremely limited in such a large area. To completely control the order of a place, it takes at least a few hundred people.

For example, although there were few officials in the Ming Dynasty, there were a large number of privately hired civil servants under the officials. Among them, Minzhuang, Kuding, Dou Level, and Shop Soldiers are good, and soap, fast, catch, beg, janitor, and door are cheap. There are often thousands of civil servants in a county. Liu Heng, who used to be the magistrate of Ba County, Sichuan, recorded that when he took office in Ba County, there were as many as 7,000 civil servants of all kinds. Even with so many civil servants, the state legal system still could not control the countryside during the Ming Dynasty, and clan autonomy was often practiced in the countryside.

Li Zhi stationed a hundred people in a county, and it was impossible to scare those gentry empty-handed. If you don't kill some people to set an example, the gentry in the countryside are not afraid of Li Zhi at all. Only by hanging bloody human heads on the city gates can the gentry who are ready to move, even risking their lives.

Li Laosi is not good at stubble, and when he encounters a provocative squire, Li Laosi will definitely suppress it with iron and blood. Under such a confrontation, the killing of more than 400 people is an inevitable result.

Li Laosi said again: "The owner, the family has obtained 720,000 taels of goods, and it has been sent to Tianjin. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Give all these goods to the Son of Heaven, lest the Son of Heaven blame us for killing too many people." After a pause, Li Zhi asked again: "After killing so many people, how is the situation in various places now?" ”

Li Laosi arched his hand and said: "The owner, now that so many people have been killed, the gentry everywhere have been deterred, and there are no more who dare to make trouble publicly." However, although there are no more people who do it on the surface, there are still people who do it in private. There are still many cases of newspaper readers being attacked by masked men when they go home at night. ”

"There are also two teahouses that were set on fire at night by people who don't know where they came from. Our soldiers are looking to see who set the fire, but they don't have a clue for a while. ”

"These small actions in the shadows are estimated to be uncontrollable if they are not suppressed for a year or half a year."

Huan Yihua said: "Uncle, I think the gentry are resisting so stubbornly, and it is also related to the fact that the articles in our newspaper are too strong. Our "Shandong Daily" came up to advertise commercial taxes and collect land taxes from the gentry, which frightened these gentry, and they had to fight with us. I think that when we did not talk about these reforms at the beginning, but only reported on the major events of the world, I am afraid that the resistance of the gentry would not be so fierce. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said: "This is also a reason, we can indeed slow down for a while and not promote these first." Later, when the newspaper is spread, the fire is slowly added. ”

When everyone heard Li Zhi's words, they didn't speak.

Li Zhi didn't expect it to be so difficult to promote a newspaper. More than 10,000 people have been stationed in Shandong, and now it seems that the number of troops is far from enough. He took a long breath and frowned.

Li Xing, who was sitting on the side, suddenly said: "Big brother, now our more than 10,000 soldiers and horses are stuck in the quagmire of Shandong, and they will not be able to pull out for a while, what should we do to support Jinzhou?" If we don't send troops again, we will really be disobeying the holy decree. ”

Li Zhi said lightly: "The matter in Jinzhou is in a hurry, let's play the Son of Heaven, explain our situation in Shandong clearly, and see what the Son of Heaven can do to help us." ”

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In Tashan City in western Liaoning, Cao Bianjiao led 3,000 soldiers and horses to defend the city.

Tashan is located in the middle of the Ningjin defense line, 200 miles south of Jinzhou, and is the only place to support Jinzhou from the Guannei. Cao Bianjiao received the holy decree of the Son of Heaven on November 19, so he sent troops to reinforce Ning Yuan in the starry night.

Cao Bianjiao is now the crown prince and young protector, and he has been loyal to the emperor for a long time. The soldiers and horses under his command are strong and strong, and there will be no ineffective command like other battalions and horses, bombing the battalion, mutiny, and there is no delay along the way, and he is the first general soldier in the pass to arrive in Ningyuan.

Seeing that all the reinforcements had not yet arrived, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, asked Cao Bianjiao to be stationed in Tashan City, north of Ningyuan, waiting for other reinforcements to gather.

However, the Qing army that surrounded Jinzhou was very arrogant. They attacked Jinzhou, where Zu Dashou was stationed, and then drove 200 miles to the south, hit the city of Tashan, and surrounded the city of Tashan, which had few defenders, with 20,000 men.

Cao Bianjiao secretly poked his head out of the battlement wall and looked out of the city.

The so-called more than 10,000 soldiers and horses are boundless. 20,000 Qing troops surrounded Tashan City, and that team of soldiers and horses made people's scalps tingle. Tens of thousands of small flags with small flags on their backs fluttered in the wind, hunting sounded, and the flags set up by various officers of the Tartars, Da Xu, which looked strong and strong, seemed to have an indestructible momentum.

The soldiers and horses of the Tartars are not only imposing, but also very strong in combat. Not to mention those Eight Banners Manchurian Bannermen who are good at riding and archery, just the newly trained Han Army Banner Fire Soldiers from Tartar made Cao Bianjiao suffer.

The Tartars not only imitated Li Zhi to form a firecracker, but also learned Li Zhi's well fence tactics. On the first line of the northern city wall, the Tartars built fifty well-railed carts. These well-railing carts were pushed to the edge of the city wall, sixty paces away from the wall. The 2,000 musketeers on the well railing fired suppressively at the Jiliao Ming army on the city wall.

Sixty paces is a good distance for a musketeer, and a bow and arrow are not lethal at this distance. Cao Bianjiao's men and horses were all horse soldiers, equipped with three-eyed guns, but they were not equipped with long-distance firearms such as bird guns, and they were pressed behind the battlement wall by these high-precision firearms soldiers, not daring to show their heads.

Under the suppression of the well fence, the Tartar soldiers and horses under the city calmly dug earth and filled the moat, and it was about to be filled by the moat in the north of the city.

Cao Bianjiao scolded a thief, waved his hand, and asked several soldiers to push a rocket cart onto the battlements of the city wall.

The captain of the car lit the fire rope behind the car, and only to hear hundreds of loud hissing sounds, which merged into a roar. One hundred tiger arrows and two hundred long snake arrows on the rocket car burst out and shot at the Qing soldiers on the well fence.