Chapter 516: Returning Home

When Li Meng was still a general, this Zhang Chengye was already a thousand commanders of the Jiaozhou battalion, but now Li Meng is the Duke of Qi, and there are nearly ten generals and generals under him, and this Zhang Chengye is just a garrison.

When the Tatars entered Koushan Mountain, Zhang Chengye had made great contributions, and the Yan prefect and his wife were safe, but it was his credit, but today he was only a garrison, and he was also responsible for the garrison of local security, which was really speechless.

It is too appropriate to describe this Zhang Nanshan with mud that can't support the wall, others are trying to forge ahead in the Jiaozhou battalion system, so they can accept the strict military discipline and hard training of this system, but Zhang Chengye was a greedy and womanizer when he rebelled.

People like to enjoy, how can they not lift their spirits to forge ahead, greedy for life and afraid of death, it is needless to say, the Jiaozhou battalion's marching speed has always been Zhang Chengye.

When Dolgon led the troops into Shandong, the Tartar forward was very close to Zhang Chengye's station, this Zhang Nanshan knew the news too late, but after knowing the news, he ran for his life, and the Tartar cavalry could not catch up, and also set a new record for the march of the Jiaozhou battalion troops.

Originally, he saved the Yan prefect and his wife by mistake, and Li Meng rewarded him for his merits and was ready to promote him to be a guerrilla, but the appointment and dismissal order of the base camp had not yet been issued, and the news that Zhang Chengye was greedy for military salaries and ate empty quotas was reported to Li Meng's desktop.

Eating empty money and drinking the blood of soldiers, this is the accumulation of disadvantages of the Ming Dynasty soldiers and horses, and it is an extremely shunned thing in Shandong, Zhang Chengye made such a mistake, of course he will not be promoted.

Zhang Chengye's troops were directly under the command of the Jinan battalion, and when Li Meng saw this proclamation, he directly ordered the pro-military battalion to arrest him, prepare for interrogation and behead him.

This Nanshan thief is also well-informed, after knowing this, he was so frightened that his soul was scattered, on the one hand, he made up for the deducted military salary and the vacancy of the army, and on the other hand, he begged to the door of Yan Zhifu with tears in his eyes, so he was a benefactor who saved his life, and he made up for the money, and Yan Zhifu also asked for a few words for him.

At that time, this matter did not spread widely, and after making up the money, he was considered a meritorious person, and Li Meng directly demoted Zhang Chengye's position to the general manager.

After this incident, Zhang Chengye also found that although the Jiaozhou battalion watched the silver flowing everywhere, there were not many places to make money, and the various ways of drilling the camp and greedy ink among the Ming officers and soldiers he knew in the past were completely useless.

Zhang Chengye's heart in the face of the future of the Jiaozhou camp is also light, when he rebelled, there was a lot of money left in his hand, although it was unsatisfactory, but after all, he was the general of the Jiaozhou battalion, many people still have to sell a little face, there is a relationship and capital, and it is a prosperous place such as Dongchang Mansion, Zhang Chengye did some business of goods in the north and south, and after a few years, he also became a rich man.

Despite the changes in the various departments of the Jiaozhou battalion, Zhang Chengye has already been beaten into the cold palace, and the commanders of various armies are considering the people to be promoted, and this Zhang Chengye is not taken into account.

But there is a rule in Shandong, each county and each state should have a military attache stationed in accordance with the rules, this military attache is not necessarily with a garrison, but nominally in the place to command all the non-garrison armies, such as the Tuntian Grange's village guard team and armed salt Ding, etc., a county set up a thousand generals, the state is a garrison, and each prefecture has a division, this setting, in fact, is to accommodate those who retreated from the Jiaozhou battalion, or were recruited to surrender and have nowhere to arrange the generals, originally an idle post, many places are vacant.

Zhang Chengye's matter is different, although he was demoted to a general, the 300 people under his command are still the old brothers who followed back then, and it is no longer meaningful to stay up like this in the field army, so he simply begged for help, and turned his own army into an armed salt army.

Don't look at him Zhang Nanshan is not treated well by everyone in the Jiaozhou camp, but after all, he is an old qualification, and he can still send the request directly to Li Meng's desk.

More than 300 people, that is, the size of one squadron of armed Yanding, the local security force, Li Meng simply transferred him, and specially arranged to go to Linqingzhou, because Linqingzhou is a big city, two squadrons should be placed among them, and it is also reassuring to have another one to contain and monitor.

Don't look at the mess you have done in the army, but as an armed salter, it is a rumor, this Zhang Chengye was originally born as a local snake, and he has a lot of business. It is difficult to hide from him if there is any turmoil and petty theft in the whole place, let alone the smuggling of goods and trafficking of illicit salt outside the city.

Let Zhang Chengye continue to rise, or be the armed salt in charge of a government, no one is assured, so he simply let him make up for the vacant position of the Linqing Prefecture garrison, nominally managing the soldiers and horses of this state, but in fact, the power he has is still about 300 people, and his status is still high, which can be regarded as a great joy for all.

Zhang Chengye, who got this position, also understands that his career is afraid that it will come to an end, he is almost forty years old, and he has earned a lot of money, but there is nothing to be dissatisfied with, with this identity as an umbrella, he can do business with peace of mind and enjoy wealth, and there are no regrets in life.

Every day, the sound of dogs and horses, luxury enjoyment, this has become Zhang Chengye's daily life, the night of the Maitreya uprising, he was sleeping soundly in the largest green building in the city.

Hearing the noisy commotion of the people outside, Zhang Chengye woke up from his dream, he is such a reckless martial artist, extremely sensitive to such things, hearing the panic outside, and some people shouting something like "Maitreya descends into the world, Buddha descends into the world", "Kill Li Mengde Taiping" and so on, and understand what is going on.

He usually wears a garrison robe that is swaying around, so naturally he doesn't dare to wear it out, if he goes out, he will definitely be hacked to death.

This Zhang Chengye is indeed a bachelor, he went directly to another room with a knife, forced other prostitutes to take off their clothes and change them for him, and then ran out secretly.

Although the various military forces under the Jiaozhou battalion system worked hard all day long and trained every day, the common people and officials living in Shandong had a sense of security, and no one would think that something was wrong, and they all felt that under the protection and rule of the Jiaozhou battalion, Shandong would definitely be extremely safe everywhere.

Under such a paralyzing mentality, the chaos together, the situation was not easy to control all of a sudden, and the Zhizhou Yamen was attacked at once, but fortunately, Zhizhou and the others ran fast and fled into a nearby courtyard, and a group of officials held sticks and swords against the wall, and those people were deadlocked.

The armed salt Ding and the small arsenal in the city are together, and the performance on his side is even worse than that of the Zhizhou Yamen, and the guards who put down the sentry were solved by several disciples, and when the news was sent out by the secret sentinel, the vanguard of the sect composed of those ferocious strongmen and the Ming army had already rushed into the camp.

However, this camp also has some fixed layouts, such as when the enemy comes in, you can temporarily build a defensive line to support it.

The armed salt in the city is Zhang Chengye's team, the military discipline is a little lax, and the implementation of various regulations is not so sufficient, as a result, all kinds of arrangements are not used, but they have been rushed in like this, and there are heavy casualties.

Fortunately, the soldiers in this profession were better than those who blindly rushed outside, and in the end, they barely formed a formation and retreated to the side of the arsenal to support them.

After all, this Jing Sect Master is not a real Buddha, and there are many things that must be done at night, but he has not done it, such as controlling the city gate, Zhang Chengye, who is dressed in civilian clothes, directly showed his identity when he arrived at the city gate, and let the nervous city guards open the door.

Seeing that the garrison was coming, he was also a backbone, and hurriedly listened to the order to open the door, and the ordinary people in the city may not dare to escape from the city on the street, but only dare to stay at home tremblingly, but the messenger sent when Zhizhou was besieged, as well as this Zhang Chengye, took advantage of the chaos to rush out.

On the one hand, the resistance was tried to resist there, and the sharpness of the disciples of the Maitreya Sect was lost, although one side was besieged and the other side was resisting, but it was also stalemate, and the leader of the Jing Sect did not continue to send people to attack at this time, but made a yellow robe, and went to the Zhizhou Yamen to enthrone the emperor, and what emperor's "jade seal" was used to seal a sealed "edict" and sent it out, thinking that the people and officials everywhere saw that this edict must be the king of the people.

This is the absurdity and ridiculousness of the cult, and the Jing Sect Leader was giving orders in the Zhizhou Yamen with high spirits, but Zhang Chengye led the armed salt and village guards outside the city to rush back.

Linqingzhou is the hub of Cao Yun, and there is also a squadron of armed salt Ding stationed on the canal wharf outside the city, as well as 500 Tuntian Tianzhuang guards who are transferred to assist according to the rules, almost a thousand people.

Zhang Chengye was in a hurry at this time, if Linqingzhou was lost, he was afraid that he, a military attaché, would be killed by military law for dereliction of duty, not to mention that there was still his family wealth in the city, and when he thought about his hard-earned money being ruined in such a flash, Zhang Chengye's eyes were red.

His ineffective garrison also has the right to mobilize armed forces at such times, and these soldiers stationed outside the city were also a little flustered after hearing the news, and Zhang Chengye's order was the backbone of their hearts.

Zhang Chengye was also an outlaw at this time, leading the soldiers into the city, he first ordered the soldiers guarding the city gate to close all the city gates, and then led the armed salt Ding and the village guards to kill them.

Although this Maitreya Sect has strongmen who have defected everywhere, as well as Jinyi Guards, Daming's routs, etc., they are not opponents at all when they encounter trained semi-regular armed forces such as armed Yanding and Huzhuang teams.

The two sides were killed and defeated, and the next thing was that the armed Yanding and the guards were divided into small groups to chase the remnants of the enemy fugitives in the city, and Zhang Chengye and the rescued Zhizhou began to command the gathered people to fight the fire.

It's ridiculous that the Jing Sect Master was called the emperor less than two hours ago, and he was arrested, tied up in a knot, and when the matter came, this Jing Young Master found out that the things of these years were just wishful thinking, and it was about to be a catastrophe, but now it was too late to think about anything.

However, it was late, and the messenger sent out to report the news by Linqing Zhizhou was already unable to catch up, and the messenger naturally did not know that the situation in Linqingzhou was already stable, so he ran all the way and spread the news to Liaocheng in Dongchang Mansion, and the Wang Governor of Dongchang Mansion was naturally shocked, and hurriedly sent someone to send an urgent report to the marshal.

By the time the news of the safety of Linqing City was known, the urgent messenger could not be recovered, everything was handled according to the rules here, the disciples who participated in the rebellion, and those who coerced and obeyed were all imprisoned, and those who committed the most heinous crimes were beheaded first, and the culprit Jing Sect Master and a high-ranking cadre were loaded into a prisoner car and sent to Jinan.

Speaking of the Maitreya Sect gathering people to attack the yamen and the military camp, the generals of the Jiaozhou battalion who listened looked nervous, and when Zhang Chengye fled from the Qinglou in embarrassment, everyone laughed, and when Zhang Chengye led people to kill back, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

At this point, even if he was finished, the salt Ding saluted and turned around and walked out of the Qing Army Hall, and after a slight pause in the atmosphere in the room, he began to laugh and be lively again.

Compared to the generals below, several high-ranking people sitting at Li Meng's table, including Fang Yingren, knew that this matter was not so ridiculous.

Li Meng had a calm face, there was really nothing to be happy about, what was the Qing Cha Si eating, there was such a big movement under his eyelids, but he didn't notice it at all, fortunately, this Zhang Chengye had the courage to kill him back at that time, what if he was panicked and timid, but ran away.

Although it is unlikely, if there is really chaos on the Linqing side of the city, the news will quickly spread along the canal to the north and south, at that time he happened to be out of the war, I am afraid that the situation in Shandong will not be easy to clean up, this Zhang Chengye looks at people so obscene, there is no courage to fight, but think about the achievements he made when maintaining law and order in Linqing, as well as the performance in this matter, but can be arranged to do things in other aspects.

The atmosphere on the table was rather awkward, and several people knew that Dashuai's temper was not very good now, and they didn't dare to speak out loud, or Li Meng himself opened his mouth first:

"Mr. Yuan, Linqing garrison Zhang Chengye will go to the Clearance Investigation Division to do things, first be Jiang Xianxuan's deputy, there will be a reward for merit, and a punishment for no merit!"

Over there, Yuan Wenhong hurriedly recorded it, Li Meng groaned, but this time the question was asked by Fang Yingren on the side, talking to his subordinates and talking to these people who were similar to Keqing, the tone was completely different, Li Meng opened his mouth and asked:

"Fang Tongzhi, over there in Yangzhou, how is the temple and Taoism?"

This question was quite vague, but in combination with what the messenger had just said, Fang Yingren knew what to answer, and replied very respectfully:

"If you return to the country, according to the rules, these temples and Taoist temples are exempt from taxes, many people are hanging their fields in the temple, and some are directly dedicated to the temple Taoist temple, which is always a way to reduce or reduce taxes, many big temples and temples are big landlords, and there are a lot of people and tenants under them."

Li Meng nodded here, but turned to Yuan Wenhong on the side, although he didn't speak, Yuan Wenhong understood in his heart, and hurriedly replied:

"Dashuai, because of the Confucian family in Shandong, there are no big temples and Taoist temples, only a few Taoist temples on the Aoshanwei side, but they are almost equivalent to our own offerings, and we can rest assured."

Aoshanwei is the Laoshan area, most of the Taoist priests there are the children of military families, the relationship is close and extraordinary, Li Meng does not believe in God, and the generals have nothing to believe, but the female dependents of each house and those who are old, it is inevitable to offer incense to ask for some blessings and peace, Jiaozhou Camp moved to Jinan City, and there are several Taoist temples that have also opened a lower courtyard in Jinan City.

Hearing this, Li Meng nodded and commanded:

"Temples, Taoist temples, these places for monks, since they also eat and profit from the land, they must also have corresponding obligations, all the places under the jurisdiction of the public, the taxes paid by the monks are equivalent to ordinary people, and they cannot be exempted, and in addition, send a document to the Inventory Division, let them keep an eye on the affairs of the underground sect, and do not be exploited by others!"

Taxing monks, all dynasties and dynasties rarely did this, hearing this order, Yuan Wenhong wanted to persuade him, but seeing that Li Meng's mood was not too good, he hesitated and still didn't say anything.

This night, the generals of the Jiaozhou battalion also dispersed happily, but Li Meng has always been thoughtful.

When the group arrived in Yanzhou, after meeting with Kong Sande and local officials during the day, Li Meng called Yuan Wenhong in the evening and instructed:

"Mr. Yuan, check whether Chahar and Tumut believe in the Red Sect or the Yellow Sect?"

It's very simple to check this, Jining Prefecture is a prosperous city, and there are many businessmen who come and go from the south to the north.

It didn't take much effort, Yuan Wenhong, the head of the Jiaozhou battalion, had already brought back the news, originally the Chahar Department and the Mongolian tribes all believed in the Tibetan Yellow Religion, but more than ten years ago when Lin Dan Khan was still there, he converted to the Red Religion, and this change of faith caused the division of various departments on the grassland.

The so-called Red Religion and Yellow Religion are all branches of Tibetan Buddhism Tantra, when the Mongol Yuan Dynasty first emerged, although the iron horse swept the world, there was no culture commensurate with the strength, the ethnic group was relatively close, and the culture was relatively developed Tubo culture began to be actively and passively accepted by the Mongolian tribes.

Tantric lamas have a very high status in the ministries, and the status of the enthroned lamas of each religion is even second only to the khans of the ministry, but for the barbaric Mongol Tatars, these lamas with a relatively high level of education are in many cases equivalent to the role of high-ranking civil officials, and have a great influence on the policies of the ministries.

"Can you send an order to the temples under your jurisdiction, so that the monks over there can go to the grassland to have a look, if you can be like those lamas, say that those Mongolian princes worship them, it will be a great achievement, and this duke will not hesitate to reward them."

Li Meng's idea is indeed a bit whimsical, but it also has his considerations, religion is a kind of thing, it has been passed down for thousands of years, and if it is handled well, it may be a help, but if it is not handled well, it is a scourge, and this small chaos in Linqingzhou is caused by the contempt for the underground sect.

Yuan Wenhong thought about it, and said with some embarrassment:

"Dashuai, those monks in the temple are either poor and can't be monks to beg for food, or they are pampered and blessed, who will have the heart to go to the bitter cold place outside the Saiwai, the villain feels afraid that no one will be willing to go."

Li Meng sighed, leaned back in his chair, and said slowly:

"Those Mongolian Tatars outside the Guan, speaking their Mongolian language, believing in Lamaism and shamanism, are completely different from our Han people, if you don't assimilate them with the same things, I'm afraid that if you repeat it a little, these Mongolian Tatars will make trouble."

Hearing Li Meng's statement, Yuan Wenhong's heart was quite shocked, as the master of the Jiaozhou battalion, his mind has been on the war that has just ended, how to stabilize the place, the handling of prisoners of war and those hands, but he didn't expect Li Meng's mind to think so far.

This is the so-called heart of the world, indeed, now the Central Plains and the north can no longer find an enemy worthy of being an opponent, if nothing else, the south will no longer form any resistance, and now the enemies and opponents that the commander has to consider are only outside the pass.

Yuan Wenhong pondered for a while, then bowed down and said:

"The handsome's thoughts, the villain understands, please give the villain some time, although such a monk is difficult to find today, it may not be impossible to find, and when you find a suitable candidate, you will report to the marshal!"

For Li Meng's victory, the great victory that decided the world, the various territories under Li Meng's rule reflected completely different reactions, and Shandong, as the base camp and foundation, was very calm, because the people and officials here were accustomed to the victory of the commander, and they also had this confidence.

At present, the civil officials from top to bottom in Shandong, except for congratulating the victory of the marshal according to etiquette, are all busy with the settlement of the work of Chongzhen for 17 years and the budget for the second year, and the higher-level officials are studying the details of the land sale in Henan.

If there is something different, it is that the atmosphere of the New Year festival in Shandong this year is a little stronger than before, and people can celebrate more happily.

When the troops led by Li Meng arrived in Qihe County, letterheads from all over Shandong began to fly like snowflakes, and the contents of the letters were the same: first, congratulating the commander on his victory, and second, asking the commander to seek greater wealth. Some people began to talk about Li Meng's destiny, and some people began to say that Li Meng's various visions when he was born in the thousand households of Xuejia Island on that day, and this kind of thing is always indispensable for the change of dynasties.

Shandong's attitude towards this is not to take any stand, to let it develop, and not to look at these flattering and strange things at all. Of course, we can't refuse coldly, and now people everywhere are eagerly looking forward to Li Meng, and we can't chill the "loyalty" of local people.

On the morning of the eighth day of November in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the west gate of Jinan City was opened, and the relatives of the Duke of Qi, the officials of the various yamen of Shandong and Jinan Mansion, and the officers under Zhao Neng, the general soldier of Denglai, were all lined up in two teams outside the city.

Li Meng, the Duke of Qi, returned with his army today......