Wang Hanxin, who returned to the Andong Metropolitan Protectorate again, did not even bring an entourage except for Zhou Siyi, Chen Shihua, and Chen Shijie's brothers, but his identity has completely changed.

Liu Yan gave him the title of envoy of the Eastern Road, and gave him the right to act cheaply, and was specifically responsible for courting the rebels in the territory of the Eastern Capital of Ping'an. This move is a wanton interference in the Anton Metropolitan Protectorate, although Liu Yan did not put forward any written reprimand to Yang Lian, who was unfavorable to the counterinsurgency, but this move is more difficult to get off the stage than the actual reprimand, especially Wang Hanxin's identity and authority have been out of Yang Lian's control, and he can transfer the troops of the Anton Metropolitan Protectorate at will, and Yang Lian has no other way than to cooperate. Yang Lian let out a long sigh as soon as she received this holy decree, and she didn't show a trace of a smile for three whole days.

However, He Jianyi, who assisted him, explained that the emperor's intention was nothing more than to solve the chaos of the Andong Protectorate as soon as possible, and although Wang Hanxin was a little confused, he was not a person who would forget his roots in terms of actual etiquette and morality, and if he could solve the problem, it would also facilitate his future rule, and the envoy was a temporary position, as long as the rebellion was quelled, then Wang Hanxin would have to return to Beijing to resume his life. After listening to He Jianyi's words, Yang Lian could be regarded as having a step down.

In fact, just as He Jianyi expected, Wang Hanxin came to Pyongyang City lightly, and was as respectful to Yang Lian as ever, and repeatedly asked Yang Lian for this appointment.

Since Wang Hanxin is like this, Yang Lian is not good at pulling down his face with a shelf, he happily handed over the talisman for mobilizing the army and handed it to Wang Hanxin: "The emperor is sage, the lower official is really not good at military affairs, so the lower official handed over this talisman to Ambassador Wang, and I hope that Lord Wang will fight." ”

Wang Hanxin hurriedly stepped forward to catch it, and said: "Yang Du's words are heavy, the emperor's order is difficult to disobey, and it is a last resort in the next place, and the rebellion must be quelled as soon as possible, and this talisman will be returned to Lord Duhu as soon as possible." It's just that this matter of quelling the rebellion must be carried out by a decree issued by Lord Metropolitan Protector to help him, so please don't shirk it. ”

As soon as Yang Lian heard this, she understood that this matter was not so easy to do, so she said: "Wang Zhao, please speak, and the lower officials will do their best." ”

Wang Hanxin said with a smile: "Lord Du Hu is too worried, this matter is not difficult to do, the only problem is only in Lord Du Hu your principles, this request under the order is against your original teachings to the next, and I hope that Lord Du Hu will not be surprised." ”

"Oh? What's that? ”

"It's not a secret, there's a plan here. My lord, please think about it, what is the reason why the rebels in the Andong Metropolitan Protectorate are mainly concentrated south of Pyongyang? First, the north of Pyongyang was sparsely populated, and even the remnants of Goryeo who barely survived were crippled and unable to fight. Second, most of these rebels are still watching the fortress of Pusan, and their main purpose is to destroy our army's food routes and at the same time contain more of our army's troops. This Goryeo hometown mountain range is crisscrossed, it is easy to hide a thousand eight hundred thieves, plus those ordinary people secretly help, if it is a serious attack of 800 troops, even if it is fought for three or five years, it may not be able to eradicate it, so the best way is to lure the snake out of the hole and kill a hundred people. At present, it is the time when the green and yellow crops are scarce, and the surplus grain of the peasants' families has been almost consumed after this winter, and everything in this mountain is good, but there is no grain production, so it is inferred that the grain reserves of these thieves have reached a precarious point. As long as you give an order, saying that the Metropolitan Government urgently requisitions grain from the people, with a period of five months, and returns three cents of interest after the autumn harvest, so that the peasants' surplus grain can be collected as much as possible, so that the grain storage of the thieves can be reduced to the greatest extent, and at the same time, it also sends a signal to them that we will end the siege of Busan within five months. In this way, whether these thieves are forced to make a living or to help Busan, they will do their best to attack our army's grain routes, so that there will be an opportunity to concentrate their forces and eliminate them one by one. ”

Yang Lian was overjoyed when she heard this, and said, "This plan is very good, but what is the blame for the king's request?" ”

Wang Hanxin arched his hand and said: "I just said below that I want to kill a hundred people, in order to deter those civilians who secretly help the thieves, the thieves captured this time will not leave a living mouth in the next place, so I want to ask Lord Du Hu not to blame the vicious means under it." ”

Yang Lian realized that Wang Hanxin came to ask for his permission first in order to avoid conflict with himself in the future. Of course, Yang Lian is unwilling to do this kind of thing in his own ruling area, but he understands in his heart that even if Wang Hanxin doesn't agree, he can still do it, and this time he has the right to be arbitrary, and informing himself is completely for himself to go down this step. After thinking about it, Yang Lian had to pretend to be smiling and said: "Since the king's recruitment has been successful, then the lower officials can only fully cooperate, as long as the king's recruitment can be stopped, the lower officials will never complain." ”

"Thank you, Lord Duhu, for putting down the thieves' rebellion and taking a piece of Busan for you by the way!"

With Yang Lian's order and the 20,000 troops specially allocated, Wang Hanxin began to act drastically. The first thing he did was to reorganize the army, and by virtue of his notoriety, he quickly established his prestige in the army, and made one sentence the iron law of this army temporarily assigned to his command, that is, "those who violate my orders will be beheaded immediately", although this cannot make this army stronger, but at least it can achieve the effect of orders and uniformity. This led to the next step.

In just two months, the nearly 2,000-mile road from Pyongyang to Busan turned into a killing hell.

As Wang Hanxin predicted, the rebels who lacked food lost most of their food sources - since the peasants' surplus grain could only last almost until the autumn harvest, then once handed over to the rebel army, it would be equivalent to declaring the death of the peasants themselves, if the rebel army forcibly expropriated, they would be more disgusted by the local people than the silk country, if they did not levy it, they would only starve to death, and they could not use this to strengthen their ranks, because even if a sufficient number of peasants were willing to take risks to join the rebel army, But they also need to consume food, and the rebels' already bottomed out food will not be left with a penny.

The larger the number of rebels, the greater the food crisis, so the larger the number of rebellions, almost all of them chose to plunder the grain routes, because fortified towns were not something that their siege forces could do, especially if the towns were already heavily guarded. And Wang Hanxin's army is like a hungry wolf waiting for their arrival.

It has to be said that Wang Hanxin's actions also effectively prevented a considerable number of ordinary peasants from joining the rebel army, and he showed no mercy to the defeated rebel army, and the corpses of the slaughtered rebel soldiers were collectively incinerated, and the ashes were used to fill the potholes in the road. Most of the rebels along the way were reduced to pieces under the fangs of Wang Hanxin's troops, and the remaining large forces could only choose to break into pieces, robbing houses and houses everywhere to seek a livelihood, while Wang Hanxin attacked separately and annihilated them one by one. According to historical records, more than 150,000 rebels were killed in the four months after Wang Hanxin's attack, and more than 7,000 civilians who secretly communicated with the rebels were beheaded for public display. When the people of Goryeo heard Wang Hanxin's name, their legs would go weak and tremble.

The rebel army active in southern Goryeo lost nearly two-thirds of its troops, and the remnants of the army starved to death in the mountains and died of countless diseases, and their strength was greatly weakened. (To be continued.) )