Chapter 52: Folk Legends and Official Characterization
For the sake of the family tragedy of an ordinary soldier under his hands, he mobilized the people, rushed for half a day, destroyed the Wang family, the first wealthy family in Qingpu, and did not delay going back to eat Chinese New Year's Eve after the end, this kind of thing itself is very legendary.
Under Li Yongji's unintentional suppression, this matter quickly spread throughout the surrounding towns and villages through the mouths of the families of the officers and men of the Jingwu Army, and became the hottest topic among the broad masses of the people in the first month.
In this way, the brand of the Jingwu Army is regarded as a rather dramatic, and the masses are quite happy to see the thing set up, at least in the vast middle and lower classes, the Jingwu Army has become synonymous with righteousness and justice in their minds, when it comes to the Jingwu Army, the first impression they think of is to emphasize righteousness, heroic enough, and regard the Jingwu Army as a contemporary Liangshan hero.
From then on, the families of the officers and soldiers of the Jingwu Army did not need to mention it, they were very relieved, and they publicized their relationship with the Jingwu Army everywhere, and were proud of their family members to be a member of the Jingwu Army, while other people who did not participate in the Jingwu Army tried every means to make themselves, their children and husbands participate in the Jingwu Army, and they also hoped to have the treatment of the Jingwu Army, especially hoping to have a force like the Jingwu Army as the backstage.
Of course, that's all for later, after all, Li Yongji's incident was done too suddenly, almost everyone couldn't think of it, and due to the road conditions and means of communication in this era, this matter was only after the eighth day of the first lunar month, and with the successive return of the families of the Jingwu officers and soldiers, it spread through their mouths, but at first it was only spread in a few towns in Qingpu County.
Only with the New Year, with the flow of foot merchants, this matter was gradually known to the outside world, but after many transmissions and deductions, the matter has been far from the truth, and the farther away from Qingpu County, the more legendary the story is, there have been multiple versions, basically not much attention and belief.
That is to say, at least before the first month, not many people knew about the destruction of the Wang family by the Jingwu Army, basically within the Jingwu Army and the families of the officers and soldiers of the Jingwu Army, as for others, such as the tenants around the Wang family, at first they only thought that the Wang family was a bandit, but when they found out that the other party actually lived in the Wang family's old house, they didn't dare to approach and inquire at all.
In short, when Li Yongji led the army back to the camp, he no longer paid attention to this matter, but began to reunite with his family for the New Year, telling about the events after parting, and on the first day of the first lunar month of the next day, he exchanged New Year's greetings with all the officers and soldiers in the barracks.
On the afternoon of the third day of the first lunar month, when Su Su and Zhou Da, escorted by a team of soldiers, came over with the concocted evidence of the Wang family's bandits, the list of the Wang family's property, and the heads of many Wang family members who had their braids cut off, Li Yongji did not make a big fuss, but quietly reported the matter to his family and Wang Sanwu and other senior officers, and then began to discuss countermeasures, simply to discuss what to do next.
However, by this time, Li Yongji's prestige had been established, so Lin Chunsheng and the others didn't dare to say anything at all, just looked at what Li Yongji meant. As for Li Zhengxiang and other Li Yongji's immediate family members, at this time, they already knew the severity of the matter, and knew that they could no longer get out of the relationship, so they could only go all the way to the dark.
The result of the discussion was that the first unified voice was to condemn the Wang family's bandits to death, and to condemn the matter of death, the help of the government or the county magistrate was indispensable.
In this way, on the second day, that is, on the morning of the fourth day of the first lunar month, Li Yongji ordered the troops, leaving only one infantry battalion to guard the camp, and the rest of the people were all taken away, together with the evidence of the Wang family bandits and the heads, the whole army marched on foot and marched towards Qingpu County openly.
When such a well-disciplined, well-armed, and murderous army rushed to the foot of Qingpu County, it immediately frightened the whole of Qingpu County half to death, closed the city gate early, and did not dare to let this army enter the city at all.
In the end, he sent a messenger over, and Li Yongji Wang Sanwu personally shouted under the city gate, and He Zhixian personally identified it at the head of the city, so he was frightened and sent Master Chen, who had a relationship with Li Yongji, to come out to contact, and waited for Master Chen to confirm again that it was Li Yongji's Jingwu army, not a bandit, before agreeing to open the city, but still the Jingwu army was not allowed to enter the city, and only Li Yongji and other leaders were allowed to enter.
However, at this time, Li Yongji was already the spiritual leader and actual commander of the entire Jingwu Army, the backbone of everyone, and also represented the net worth and life of the whole army, so everyone strongly demanded that Li Yongji not enter the city alone to risk his life.
Li Yongji can go in, but he must bring at least one battalion of troops into the city, but this is something that Master Chen absolutely cannot allow.
In the end, it was finally determined that Li Yongji's father Li Zhengxiang, plus Li Yongji's uncle Wang Sanwu, would accompany Master Chen into the city, which was enough.
Wang Sanwu didn't say that Li Zhengxiang has now quickly accepted the facts under the impact of a series of events, knowing that his youngest son is no longer an ordinary person, so since this is the case, it is natural for a father to share his worries for his son and at least do what he can.
It was in this process of bargaining that the whole army of the Jingwu Army saw the weakness of Qingpu County, and had a deeper understanding of its own strength, and its self-confidence rose unprecedentedly.
Not to mention the change in the mood of the Jingwu army, when Li Zhengxiang and Wang Sanwu followed Master Chen into the city together, they first visited He Jiyun, the magistrate of Qingpu County, and first presented a silver ticket of 5,000 taels of silver to the other party to suppress the shock, and then talked about the Wang family, and showed evidence of the Wang family's bandits, including the secret agreement with the bandits, that is, the Taiping Army's bandits and their confessions.
He Zhixian's name is He Jiyun, although he is a third-class jinshi, but in the early years, he was unwilling, and the poor could only be mixed up in the lower classes, and later became the acting magistrate of Baoshan County by mistake, and worked hard for many years, and finally made up for a vacancy, and sat on the seat of the magistrate of Qingpu County. So his experience was more bumpy, and the grassroots experience was more abundant, and after getting through the initial shock, he quickly saw that there was something wrong with it.
Although he doesn't like the Kanazawa Wang family, it's not that he doesn't know the power of their family, such a family actually fornicates with bandits? It doesn't matter if others believe it or not, he doesn't believe it anyway. However, since there is such a hard physical evidence now, and it is said that the Wang family has been completely wiped out, the head is placed in the car outside the city, and he watched the military might of Li Yongji's elite army on the city before, and he knows that the Wang family was destroyed Nine times out of ten is true.
Since the other party has already done this kind of thing, it can be seen that both the heart and the means are extremely ruthless, and the threat of the Jingwu Army is outside, even if there is no silver to suppress the shock, He Jiyun knows what to do.
He Zhixian is not a fool, he knows that once the negotiations break down, if he does not agree with Li Zhengxiang's statement, the Jingwu army is cornered, I am afraid that it will immediately become a bandit attacking the city, and no matter what the result is, the consequences will be absolutely unaffordable for him.
"Brother Li, don't worry!" He Zhixian, who wanted to understand, said righteously, "The Wang family actually did such a rebellious thing, I will immediately report it to the imperial court and present all the evidence, of course, I will not forget the merits of the Jingwu Army, and I will also write it together, I must let the imperial court give the father and son of Brother Li, as well as the future of the Jingwu Army." ”
"In this way, we will thank you, but there are many twists and turns in this matter, and the credit of your lord is the main one, and our credit is secondary. Anyway, we have to carefully sum up this matter. Li Zhengxiang smiled and returned the salute, and instantly felt that his heart was unusually refreshing.
Once upon a time, how could the magistrate ever take a fancy to a character like himself, but what is happening now? Why is it so low? Not because of his own son? Isn't it because his son has soldiers in his hands? God is pitiful, such heroes as Yongji are in my family, and my Li family finally has a bright day!
With the help of He Zhi County, the matter of the Jingwu Army's destruction of the Wang family was determined by the local government and made an iron case, which also became a major achievement of the Jingwu Army and He Zhi County.
In the official face, the destruction of the Wang family is no longer the legendary story of Li Yongji rushing to the crown and being angry at Ding Huai, but an anonymous person first delivered a letter from the Wang family bandits to He Zhi County, so that He Zhi County accidentally obtained the information of the Wang family bandits. After learning that the Wang family was about to rebel and attack the city on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, he made a decision on the spot, urgently mobilized the nearby regiment to train the armed elite army, stayed overnight, and first struck a thunderous blow to nip the flame of the Wang family's rebellion in the bud!
In short, the protagonist of this new story is no longer the Jingwu Army, but has become He Zhixian, and the Jingwu Army is only a relatively important supporting role in this matter.
As for why the Wang family wants to commit bandits, it doesn't matter anymore, what matters is that the Wang family is a bandit, and they want to rebel. As for the fact that the Wang family wants to rebel, because the superficial evidence is conclusive and the confirmation process is correct, no matter whether others believe it or not, the court believes it anyway.