In mid-February, the front line in northern Sichuan, which had been full of war, suddenly fell silent. The Protector Army and the official army joined forces to advance the front to the north of the line from Guangyuan to Bazhou and Dazhou, and then stopped advancing. One is that they urgently need to be replenished; Second, some officers and armed forces need to be reorganized.

Zhang Zuokai, Jia Denglian, and Wang Xiang, who suffered heavy casualties, took the lead in withdrawing from the front line for repairs.

Hundreds of remnants led by Zhang Zuokai withdrew to the Dahucheng area east of Cangxi, joined up with some of the officers and soldiers of Zhang's battalion left behind, and temporarily came under the command of the Cangxi County Brigade, with less than 700 capable soldiers left. The wounded soldiers were transported to Boryeong Province via the Dong River for medical treatment, including Zhang Zhuokai, the chief general with a broken arm, and Li Xiangchun, the commander of the capital who was lucky enough to jump into a dry well and escape from the fire.

A force of several hundred men split from Zhang Zuokai's ministry was stationed in Bazhou under the command of Ma Gan, deputy military envoy, and Yang Mingshi, the general manager of the discipline.

The headquarters of Wang Xiang, the defender of Bazhou, originally planned to withdraw to Baizhang Pass for rectification and reorganization, but the main general Wang Xiang repeatedly asked to stay in Bazhou on the grounds that the casualties were not large, so that he could participate in the next wave of offensives.

In the face of Wang Xiang, who was enthusiastic about participating in the war, Ma Gan had no choice but to respond with praise, but the location of the repair was changed from Bazhou to Enyang Town, south of Bazhou, so as to rely on the Enyang River for supply. When the offensive in northern Sichuan was launched, Enyang Town was the combined attack point of several official armies. It is a land and water dock, and the buildings are relatively well preserved, but there are no residents. Not a single one, it's a dead city.

The total casualties of the Jaden joint division exceeded 3,000, which was larger than that of Zhang Zuokai's division, but when it withdrew, the whole army was overjoyed, and it was completely different from the gray face of Zhang Zhuokai's division. They withdrew to the area of Yuji Mountain and Beiyuan Temple to the east of the southern county, and honestly waited for the reorganization order. Jia Denglian threw down his subordinates and ran to Baoning Mansion with Yang Weidong of the Chinese army, handing over the sign and waiting for Zhu Pingjin's summons.

It's a pity that Zhu Pingjin is not available now. The little eunuch who passed the decree said that the prince asked General Jia to "wait for good news", and Jia Denglian scratched his ears and cheeks. Yang Weidong was not idle, he took this opportunity to recognize the mother of the four generals of the He family, Kong Shi, as his godmother, and at the invitation of his uncle Kong Shangxue, he led the general Jia Denglian, who had always hated scribes, to Jinping Academy to blow up with the scholars, and held a "report meeting on the heroic deeds of the copper walled city".

At the report meeting, Jia Denglian focused on the inevitable connection between the success of Yue Wang Temple and the righteousness of Yue Wangye, which won the praise of scholars.

……

After the three divisions of Zhang, Jia, and Wang entered the repair, the official army and the Protector Army along the Bazhou line east of Baizhang Pass made the following offensive deployments:

About 6,000 people from the main force of the Northern Sichuan Official Army, Liu Zhen, and the 18th Battalion of the Protector Army, Wang Shengwu, were stationed in Wuya Town, and the main combat direction was the direction of the Nanjiang River and the Micang Ancient Road;

He Qiukou of the Protector Army led the Fifth Regiment to garrison Bazhou, commanding more than 2,000 people from Yang Mingshi's department in Bazhou City and Feng Rubao's special force of the Protector Army in the ancient city of Zengkou, whose task was to garrison Bazhou and respond to the Liu Zhen Domain;

Lu Yinchang and Luo Jingyun of the Protector Army led the Fourth Regiment to Jiangkou Town and commanded the third battalion of Dai Dongbi stationed in Jiangkou Town; the 17th Battalion stationed in Tieshan Pass, Shiqiao, Shiti and other places and the Pengzhou Huzhuang Brigade; The 8th Battalion stationed in Sanhui Town and the cavalry, artillery, and baggage units under its jurisdiction totaled about 4,000 people.

With the Ba River as a chain and the important towns along the coast as the lock, the above-mentioned troops divided the Bashan area into two parts, north and south, forming a heavily defended defense line that spanned east and west.

To the north of the Ba River are the Yang Zhan and Tulong departments that continue to hold on to the two county towns of Nanjiang and Tongjiang.

To the south of the Ba River were five battalions led by the headquarters of Tan Sigui's Third Regiment, which had recently arrived in Jinchengzhai.

Tan Sigui arrived late and did not get a big battle to fight, so the task of the ministry was changed to clearing up the local area, responsible for cleaning up the remnants of bandits in the Ba River and Jialing River triangle areas. The ministry also has another important task, that is, to implement Zhu Pingjian's "one village and one fort, armed reclamation; Serious Yellow Book, Inventory of Identity".

As a result, the fighting on the first line subsided, and the second line became lively.

"One village, one fort, armed reclamation; improve the yellow book and check the identity", it is Zhu Pingjin in Li Changxiang to "connect villages and townships, and organize group exercises; Consolidate Lijia, serious Yellow Book" and Wang Xingwu's "move to the countryside and merge the villages, arm the villages" on the basis of the proposal.

Zhu Pingjin believes that whether or not the villages will be merged is not the key to the problem at present. There are two key points.

The first is the comprehensive militarization of the countryside.

In order for the countryside to stand firm and stand firm under the continuous attacks of the local rioters, it is necessary to build and fortify the living and production areas. The peasants of the countryside must be tightly organized and armed. It is the people who pick up the hoe, and it is the army to put down the hoe. This is the connotation of "one village, one fort, armed reclamation";

Second, it is necessary to strictly manage the household registration and identity cards of the people in the areas where bandits are suppressed, and in particular, to strictly monitor the floating population, so as to prevent local thugs from infiltrating them.

The yellow book is the household registration book of the Ming Dynasty. The reason why it is called "yellow book" is because the household registration book uses yellow paper with herbs added to prevent insect damage.

Zhu Pingjin improved and perfected the yellow book system, adding a yellow card that can be carried with him in addition to the yellow book retained by the government, that is, the Ming version of the ID card.

With the yellow card, the yellow book system can really manage the specific head. In addition to the number, age, parents, address and issuing unit, the yellow card also contains the guarantor and other items with Ming characteristics. But because there was no photo, Zhu Pingjin added a special column of information to the yellow card to check his identity: fingerprints.

……

It is precisely because of the strict management of household registration and ID cards that a confusing story is introduced in the historical records of Shuming.

In early February, the Li father and son, who were in charge of checking the household registration of Xinzheng Dam, jointly played a joint performance, which attracted great attention from Zhu Pingjian.

Li father and son said, as far as they know, the cottages in some remote areas of Yilong and Cangxi are also bandits and people. Not only did he provide information to both sides of the official and bandit at the same time, but he also often pretended to be a local thug to go out of the village to rob. In this regard, Zhu Pingjin specially summoned Xu Shaoxun, the magistrate of Cangxi, and Wen Jiuru, the magistrate of Langzhong County, the new office.

Xu Shaoxun and Wen Jiuru admitted that the situation reported by the Li father and son was true, and also admitted that this situation of "the king's law does not come" has been going on in the local area for decades, all the way back to the Wanli Dynasty. In other words, people in these places have a tradition of being local rioters, which is the origin of the word "soil" in local rioters.

At the strict order of Zhu Pingjin, the two quickly provided a list of copycats suspected of being bandits in Cangxi and Langzhong counties. After getting this blacklist, Zhu Pingjin did not get angry, he just calmly ordered Tan Sigui that all the remaining cottages in the two counties should provide 20% of Ding Zhuang to serve the national protection army, which must include the sons of the village owner, patriarch, village elders and gentry. Anyone who resists will be punished as a throofer.

I turned a blind eye to the past, and I didn't blame the past, giving these cottages a way out. In the sound of the great victory of the Protector Army, they also dared to make a voice of resistance, which was tantamount to an egg hitting a stone!

Zhu Pingjin's judgment is very accurate, these large and small cottages in Bashan have survived until now, which one is not black and white? They are afraid of the liquidation of the Protectorate, and with the will of the prince to pay the hostages, it means that they have passed the test temporarily.

Tan Sigui reported that except for the agate cottage group (Note 1) in the northeast of Cangxi County, the rest of the large and small cottages have been subdued.

This agate cottage is built on a piece of mountain soil, although the terrain is not too dangerous, but this place is in the center of Cangxi County, Baizhangguan and Bazhou. The distance is far away, and it is difficult to replenish. With this village as the center, there are Longshan, Yunshan, Bolt (Note 2), Wenjia, Yuntai and other cottage groups nearby, which have been blind for a hundred years.

Tan Sigui prepared to use the strength of the fourth battalion of the main force and two new battalions to strengthen artillery, engineers, cavalry and baggage troops to carry out a thorough sweep of the area. The 5th and 16th battalions continued to sweep the area near the Jincheng Walled City.

The first target Tan Sigui chose was the Longshan Cottage, which was the closest to the Three Temples.

Soon, Zhu Pingjin approved the sweep plan.

But neither Tan Sigui nor Zhu Pingjin thought that a tragic bloody battle was about to happen. Even Zhu Pingjin himself will join hands with the Grim Reaper for several days.

……

The war situation in northern Sichuan was not alarming, and the simultaneous meeting of Baoning ministers was fierce at first, and then it was dull and smooth.

At the beginning of the meeting, Liu Zhibo was the most troublesome. He had no objection to all the issues that Liao had raised, including launching a vigorous anti-rebellion campaign. However, he demanded that all policies and measures be promulgated, that everything must go through the government, that everything be subject to the command of the government, especially the army, and that it must be separated from the Shu Wangfu and put under the name of the government.

Liu Zhibo made a difficulty, as Zhu Pingjin expected. But what Zhu Pingjin did not expect was the attitude of two other important officials in Sichuan: Chen Qichi, who participated in politics and participated in politics in West Sichuan, and Long Wenguang, who participated in politics and participated in politics in North Sichuan.

In the middle of the meeting, Long Wenguang, who was sitting in Guangyuan, suddenly sent an envoy to Baoning Mansion with his handwritten letters to Governor Liao Daheng and Governor Liu Zhibo.

In the letter, Long Wenguang spoke strongly about the hardships of the people in northern Sichuan, and hoped that Liao Fu and Liu would reduce taxes and rents, provide relief to the victims, develop people's livelihood, and let the people take a breather. He also spoke of the difficulties brought to the management of the government in northern Sichuan by the division of military and civilian nationality, and hoped that through the Qing army and other methods, the old and weak women and children in the guards could be transferred to civilian registration, and the soldiers who could fight could be transferred to the battalion soldiers.

Long Wenguang's letter gave Chen Qichi a chance. Chen Qichi suddenly shouted at the meeting that the "46" rent reduction should be implemented in Sichuan in an all-round way, that is, the distribution of products, four landlords, six tenant farmers, and the landlords should also be responsible for 10 percent of the tax revenue.

Chen Qichi is in charge of the taxation of a province, and in the past, the more taxes were levied, the better. His sudden turn from the extreme right to the extreme left not only stunned Zhu Pingjin, but also caught Li Chongwen, who is in charge of people's livelihood issues, off guard.

The issue of people's livelihood needs numbers to speak, and it is impossible to pat your head.

Li Chongwen was sober-minded and not swayed by personal emotions. He immediately spread out the provincial tax collection account books, and summoned Vice Premier Hong Qihui, Wang Kunshan, Wu Tai, chief and deputy directors of the General Logistics Department of the National Defense Army, to study the feasibility of Chen Qichi's proposal.

Chen Qichi suddenly found that the subordinates of the prince Zhu Pingjin were very different from the court officials' false words, so he had no choice but to accept the idea of speculation and began to honestly make basic calculations with Li Chongwen and others. With the full participation of the feudal secretary Chen Qichi, Li Chongwen and others' calculations were much more accurate and their horizons were broadened a lot. From then on, their vision gradually went beyond the scope of the Shu Wangfu and the Protector Army, and rose to the height of the whole province and even the Ming Dynasty.

People's livelihood issues are checked by his wife, and Zhu Pingjin is not stunned. But the command of the army is Zhu Pingjin's life, and even if it is something called formalism, it has touched Zhu Pingjin's bottom line. If the command of the army cannot be negotiated, then the Boryeong Conference will simply fail.

Liu Zhibo was noisy, and Zhu Pingjin was furious, and sent his big-voiced personal soldiers with dozens of baby soldiers who couldn't understand Chinese to come to the door to smash and rob, and teach Liu Zhibo a profound lesson. Just as the Boryeong Bloody Case was about to be brewed, a holy decree came in time like a comedy, changing the direction of the meeting.

The emperor opened the door in the holy decree, and highly praised the behavior of the Shu Wangfu to donate silver and pay and hand soap in the wind and rain, which originated from the good family education and consistent loyalty of the Shu Wangfu, so the emperor hoped that the Shu domain would make persistent efforts to donate more silver and pay tribute to more and better objects, "do not live up to the name of the ancestors".

The emperor also changed his stern tone from the last time to the Sichuan government and affirmed the major victory of the Sichuan official army in the Battle of Changping Mountain. Therefore, the list of rewards and meritorious service of the Shu side is approved, the salt industry reform plan of Shu is also approved, and all the tax arrears of Shu thirteen years ago are also exempted.

In the end, the Divine Decree allowed the Sichuan side to raise their own salaries and form 20,000 "righteous troops" who could win battles like the caravans in the Battle of Changping Mountain, "to relieve the worries of the monarch's father."

Along with the holy decree, there were two private letters from Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the current dynasty, one to the governor Liao Daheng and the other to the governor Liu Zhibo.

Liao Daheng did not open the envelope at all, and directly read and circulated the letter given to him by Zhou Yanru in public at the meeting of important ministers.

In the letter, Zhou Yanru hinted to Liao Daheng that the emperor had originally prepared to refute the excerpts of Shudi, and it was he who personally met him after the Zhengdan Dynasty meeting and argued with reason to achieve such a good result; The emperor originally did not allow the Shu domain to donate silver to help him, for fear of touching the ancestral system of "the vassal king cannot lead the army", and it was he who quoted the scriptures to protect the loyalty and law-abiding of the Shu domain, which made the emperor change his mind.

Zhou Yanru also told Liao Daheng that since the gold and silver mountains of the Shu Wangfu were not finished, and he voluntarily donated silver to help him, he could only encourage it, not suppress it. Therefore, the Sichuan side should not be bound by the number of 20,000 righteous soldiers in the holy decree, in short, it is Han Xin who points the troops, the more the merrier, anyway, it is not the imperial court that pays for it. As long as he can train elite soldiers, pacify the whole Sichuan, and have him, the emperor's incomparably trusted Shoufu, all problems will not be a problem, and Liao Daheng will not lose the position of Jiuqing in the future.

Liu Zhibo received the letter and did not make it public. The next morning, after a sleepless night, he personally delivered the letter to Zhu Pingjin's desk.

The letter said that the emperor was generally satisfied with Liu Zhibo's work in Shu, especially that he took into account the overall situation and maintained the Shu Provincial Governor's Bureau. However, the emperor was deeply concerned about his close relationship with Liao Daheng, and was very dissatisfied with his unprovoked attack on Zhang Jimeng. Zhou Yanru clearly told Liu Zhibo that Li Rixuan, the secretary of the ministry, would soon play according to the emperor's wishes, and Zhang Jimeng would be appointed as the secretary of the Sichuan domain. At this time, he clashed with Zhang Jimeng again, "It's really unwise!" ”

Zhou Yanru also revealed an important information to Liu Zhibo in the letter, the Rui Fan was trapped in Hanzhong, and the emperor intended to move the Shu land to share the benefits of the Shu land, so that he could prepare early.

Facing Liu Zhibo, whose eyes were red and insomnia was excessive, Zhu Pingjin only said one sentence and asked him to bow down:

At the end of the meeting, Zhang Jimeng was beheaded and sacrificed for Shudi! At that time, please ask Lord Liu to supervise the punishment, and ask the eunuch who sent the decree to be beheaded together, and three hundred and seventy-nine heinous local tyrants will be beheaded together! ”

Note 1: Agate cottage group, one of the bases of the White Lotus Rebellion in the Qing Dynasty. The Qing general Yang Fang defeated the White Lotus Sect bandits in the agate cottage, "the zombies are several miles, and the blood is full of grassland", so it was renamed "Deshengping", which is still used today.

Note 2: Bolt Village, now Cangxi County Quanjia Village. The tether, i.e., the deadbolt, means to be strong. This village is famous for withstanding Zhang Xianzhong's attack in history.