It's a bit of a laugh to say.

It's been half a month since the Wuchang Uprising happened here, and the central government of both Hubei and the Ming Dynasty didn't know that something had happened to Wuchang Mansion, the provincial capital of Huguang.

In the half month since the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, several changes have taken place in the entire Wuchang City.

The first is that in the entire Wuchang Mansion, from the Huguang Governor's Yamen, the Huguang General Soldier's Yamen to the Wuchang Prefect's Yamen, all the civil and military attaches were killed by the soldiers of the Wuchang Uprising. From the Chu Wangfu to the ordinary shops and grain stores in the Wuchang Mansion, they were all robbed by the soldiers and people who participated in the uprising.

In the early days of the uprising, after He Zuxian led the soldiers to kill all the civil and military officials in Wuchang Mansion, the entire Wuchang City was in a carnival atmosphere. Not only did the soldiers and people who participated in the uprising live for seven or eight days, eating white rice and white noodles every day, and having a heavenly good life with wine and meat. Even these soldiers who participated in the uprising and the families of the common people have lived seven or eight days that they have never had a good life in their lives.

The second is that after seven or eight days of Wuchang City being in a state of happy carnival, He Zuxian found that the food and materials in the entire Wuchang Mansion were quickly consumed.

You must know that the soldiers and civilians who participated in the uprising did not plan the use of materials. But when they saw the silver and gold, they went home, and when they saw the grain, they filled their mouths. A few days later, except for He Zuxian's more prescient protection of a few warehouses, keeping a certain amount of grain and a certain amount of gold and silver, as well as some military supplies, the food and materials in the city of Wuchang Mansion were quickly emptied.

After the food and materials were consumed by the soldiers and civilians who participated in the uprising, He Zuxian used the dozen or so brothers in his hands to make a simple count of the size of the entire uprising soldiers. He was shocked to find that there were nearly a quarter fewer people who were able to rally around him in an organized manner than they had been at the beginning of the uprising.

In Wuchang City, the number of people who went to the Yamen of the Huguang General Army, where He Zuxian was located, every day, from more than 2,000 people at the beginning, quickly expanded to 6,000 or 7,000 after the uprising expanded. However, after the food and materials available for consumption in the city of Wuchang Mansion were exhausted. The number of people who can go to He Zuxian's place every day to order Mao has quickly shrunk from six or seven thousand to more than 1,400.

Of course, on the bright side, the people who can still insist on going to He Zuxian at this time must be those backbone elements who are bent on rebellion and sincerely revolt.

The third is that the social order of the entire Wuchang Mansion has turned from carnival to madness. Before the food and supplies were exhausted, all the soldiers and civilians who participated in the uprising were able to obtain all kinds of food and materials at will. However, after the food and supplies were moved back to their homes, internal conflicts began to erupt.

All kinds of robberies, strong-edges, murders, and brawls began to emerge one after another. The entire Wuchang Mansion began to fall into a state of chaos.

In this state, He Zuxian's efforts to maintain order in Wuchang Province were very difficult to achieve. Many soldiers under He Zuxian's command who were responsible for carrying out the disciplinary orders of the purge were discovered. Many of the people who robbed, forced, killed, and fought were brothers with whom they had been fighting and eating in the same pot not long ago.

In this way, the soldiers who carry out the order have no way to really kill these former "comrades-in-arms". And those former rebel soldiers and civilians, after finding that their actions were uncontrolled, became more and more unscrupulous. They quickly transitioned from insurgents to rogue scoundrels.

He Zuxian is a knowledgeable person. He knew that the imperial court would definitely not allow this situation to continue. Killing civil and military officials and vassal clans by himself is already a mortal sin. He clearly knew that if he wanted to save his head, he had to capture the troops.

However, He Zuxian's insight is only relative to ordinary military households and ordinary people. He Zuxian knew what he had to do, and he had to set a new goal for everyone in order to gather people's hearts. However, he didn't know how to do that.

The chaotic state of Wuchang Mansion not only made him tired of maintaining order, but this disorderly state was eating away at the few troops he had left. More and more soldiers who have lost hope no longer come to the Yamen of the General Army.

He Zuxian watched the situation get worse day by day, and he already realized in his heart that there was no need for too many troops, and in a few days, as long as there was a local army of three or four thousand people who received an order from the imperial court to come and clear it. This mutiny of his own is about to fall apart. He Zuxian has already begun to calculate the date of his beheading after being caught by the imperial court.

Just when He Zuxian was becoming more and more desperate. One morning, a small flag officer ran into He Zuxian's room and reported, "There are Jiangnan merchants who admire the name of General He Zuxian and have come to help." ”

In fact, not to mention that modern people will not believe in the bridges in this kind of romance novels, even in ancient society, people with a little insight and common sense will not believe in the bridges in this kind of romance novels.

However, this kind of bridge that can often be heard from storytellers, such and such a great man admires such and such a sage, and then comes to defect with food and money, is often the bridge that illiterate people like He Zuxian who have a little insight and those who are purely illiterate under He Zuxian believe in and are enthusiastic about.

For He Zuxian, there were merchants who sold horses in the Three Kingdoms who defected to Uncle Liu Huang. So in the Ming Dynasty, there was a businessman who came to my General He, isn't this also very reasonable!

Of course, not only for now, but also for Li Zicheng's uprising in the future, no businessman from the landlord and gentry class will take refuge and deliver supplies. They preferred to take refuge in the Manchus. It's a choice made by their class instinct. From the point of view of class theory, the landlord class defected to the peasant rebels, which was originally a violation of social laws.

Don't you see that those literati and strategists under Li Zicheng either went to prison in the Ming Dynasty, or their own father went to prison? Those people couldn't survive in the environment of the Ming Dynasty, so they took refuge in Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng's power is so big, there are no serious feudal landlords and scholars who take refuge, He Zuxian is just the head of the rebels who occupy a city, and it is even more unlikely that anyone will take refuge in him.

Therefore, these so-called Jiangnan businessmen are members of the Wuchang Uprising Dispatch Team of the Fuxing Society sent by the Fuxing Society.

Huang Bochang is the chief of staff of a battalion in the Renaissance Army. He was the head of the entire Fuxing Society's Wuchang Uprising Dispatch Team. The fifteen people under his leadership covered military command, military training, political propaganda, medical support, material allocation, organization and production, equipment maintenance and other aspects.

Huang Bochang was born in Nanzhili, so it is very suitable for him to play this admiring Jiangnan businessman.

He Zuxian heard that someone came to vote. What's more, the people who came to vote still brought a lot of food and supplies, not to mention how happy they were. He didn't notify anyone at all, and with a few close subordinates, he rode directly to Wuchang Wharf.

After meeting Huang Bochang, He Zuxian sensitively found that whether it was the sailors on Huang Bochang's boat or the subordinates of Huang Bochang who were responsible for carrying supplies, they were all in a state of moderate manners, rules and goals in every word and deed, and a very high militarization of the organization. He Zuxian was a little jealous of this sudden appearance of Huang Bochang.

However, after saying a few words to Huang Bochang, He Zuxian relieved his mind again. Because Huang Bochang told He Zuxian that he and his subordinates were all soldiers and grassroots military attaches who had participated in the Hangzhou Mutiny a year earlier. Feeling the failure of the Hangzhou mutiny, he went to He Zuxian to join the gang.

What really made He Zuxian let down his guard was not Huang Bochang's introduction of his identity, but Huang Bochang's idea to He Zuxian.

He Zuxian organized the people and soldiers in Wuchang Mansion to come to the dock to greet Huang Bochang and his party with great fanfare. In this way, the people and soldiers of Wuchang Mansion can see hope. Having a businessman from other places like him come to take refuge, isn't it a good way to boost everyone's morale?

After He Zuxian listened to Huang Bochang's advice, he was completely relieved on the one hand, and completely happy on the other.

In He Zuxian's view, such a thing as taking refuge in the rebels is generally afraid that others will know about it. Because once more people know about this kind of thing, then it will be confirmed that the refuge will participate in the rebellion. Therefore, Huang Bochang organized his own people to greet him with great fanfare, which shows that he is a person who sincerely participates in the rebellion.

Second, in He Zuxian's opinion, as soon as Huang Bochang came to Wuchang, he just met him, and he was able to propose such a good morale-boosting proposal for himself. This shows that this Lao Huang is a person who sincerely wants to take refuge in himself and sincerely wants to contribute to himself. This kind of person with brains and abilities happens to be the person He Zuxian lacks the most at present.

Organizing people is something that not everyone can do well. Let's take He Zuxian as an example, after killing all the white hands of the officials in the yamen who can suppress the people on the street, it really took He Zuxian a lot of effort to organize the people.

Fortunately, Wuchang Mansion is now in a depression, and there are a lot of idlers on the street. Therefore, the people who came to the pier to watch were also crowded.

The paddle steamer with a steam iron rib wooden hull of more than 1,200 tons is the most mature product of the Jiangbei Shipyard of the Fuxing Society. There are now about 150 such steamers running on the Yangtze River. Among them, merchants in the Jiangnan area ordered one-third of them. There are quite a few so-called "Jiangnan" businessmen who went to the Jiangbei shipyard to buy ships, and they speak authentic Fujian official dialect, and their origins are very suspicious.

However, even on the Yangtze River, it is not too unusual. However, for the people of Wuchang Mansion, such a large, smoking, and wheeled steam and sail dual-purpose ship on the outside still brought a huge shock to everyone

Space-Time Gate 1619