The Ming army carried out a final assault on the phalanx, and the enemy army completely collapsed.

After this battle, the rebels of the White Lotus Sect, which had been lurking in Jiangnan for many years, had been completely annihilated, and at the same time, hundreds of thousands of people were rescued, and the Ming army itself suffered no more than 100 casualties, which can be described as a brilliant victory!

"The general is mighty!"

"The Ming army wins!"

The Ming soldiers hammered their breastplates one after another, shouting wantonly.

This was the first pure firearms battle experienced by the newly established Tax Guard, and it was also of great significance to those of them who had changed arms halfway.

"Bang bang bang-" The Ming artillery was also firing in celebration.

At this time, Jiang Xinghuo, Chen Xuan, Liu Sheng and other generals came over and stood at the gate of the White Lotus Sect camp.

Jiang Xinghuo looked around and asked, "What do you think of this battle?" ”

Liu Sheng hugged his fists and said: "The last general congratulates the national teacher, today's great victory, capturing more than 100,000 people, after that, Jiangnan will change the law, and it will be smooth sailing!" ”

What Liu Sheng said is the truth, and the biggest significance of this counterinsurgency is actually to give all the unstable factors in Jiangnan to one pot.

Regardless of whether it is the White Lotus Sect or the bandits and bandits involved in it, the local government does not dare to manage it and can't manage it, it is a long-standing and difficult problem for many years, and now it is considered to be cleared, and the local public security will naturally be greatly improved, as long as it continues to be strictly grasped, it will be able to create a stable and good environment for changing the law, only if the people feel safe, business can be done, and personnel can flow, and the people do not go out is not only because of a road guide, but it is easy to lose their lives when they go out, which is the biggest risk factor.

Chen Xuan said with a smile: "The national teacher is clever, anticipating the enemy's opportunity, this battle has long been in hand!" ”

The other generals praised and said everything.

Jiang Xinghuo listened for a while, waved his hand and said: "Don't praise me, it is all the credit of the soldiers to win such a beautiful award, and go and see the people and prisoners." ”

The White Lotus Sect's camp was already a mess, corpses were everywhere, countless rebels were trampled to death, and the people were isolated in the middle and cleaned up once when they went out in the early morning, but they didn't suffer too much impact from the defeated soldiers, but Rao was like this, these people who were coerced by the White Lotus Sect also shrank in the corner, staring at Jiang Xinghuo and the others with frightened eyes.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the appearance of these ordinary people who were coerced by the White Lotus Sect who were quite afraid of him, and his heart was a little complicated.

Jiang Xinghuo originally wanted to wait for the porridge to be finished, gather the people, hold a meeting of 10,000 people, and say something seriously.

Even, he even typed the manuscript.

But at this moment, looking at the appearance of these people full of vigilance, fear, envy, horror, etc., Jiang Xinghuo suddenly felt uninterested.

In the words of the writer, it is "I seem to have a chill, and I know that there is a sad thick barrier between us".

In the first year of Yongle, after four years of brutal baptism of civil war, the people's and material resources in Jiangnan have reached the point of almost exhaustion, these peasants were double-oppressed by the Jiangnan gentry and the Jianwen court, and lived an extremely poor and miserable life, and they were completely dependent on the landlord class economically; ideologically, he was plagued by superstitious ideas such as the White Lotus Sect and Pushen; There is no channel to speak out politically, that is, the so-called dynasty and gentry rule the world, not the people.

This miserable life makes them naturally wary of any power with overwhelming superiority, because no one in power has ever been kind to them, and the tragic experience of the past has taught them that anyone in authority is coveting what little property and labor they have left.

This layer of thick barriers is the shadow of this special era in the early Ming Dynasty, and it is also a cage that tens of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty cannot break.

"The good employees are still afraid of me, but it doesn't matter if the day is long."

In fact, in a certain way, they are the same as Jiang Xinghuo at the beginning, but they are more fortunate than Jiang Xinghuo and can choose to embark on a different life path at the most critical time.

"Master Guoshi, this place has been controlled by our department, please instruct!"

Seeing that there were thousands of households coming to report, Jiang Xinghuo was thinking about it again, and Liu Sheng said loudly: "What to do next?" ”

Jiang Xinghuo came back to his senses and thought about it, and said: "First settle the people here, now boil water and cook porridge, the porridge can be mixed with some other grains, it doesn't need to be rice porridge completely, but it must not be too thick, use thin porridge for the first meal, and then put thick porridge at noon, maintain order on the scene The old and weak in the camp are part of it, and the rescued strong men are part of it." ”

"There may still be remnants of the White Lotus Sect mixed in the ranks of the Zhuang Ding, let them identify each other, and then let the identified people identify the captives of the White Lotus Sect, do things carefully, cross-identify don't be afraid of trouble, don't because of the personal grudges between the Zhuang Ding people, lead to wronging good people and handling wrong cases."

"In addition, we have to find out those traitors who escaped again, this is the area where the law reform will be the focus of implementation, we must be careful to prevent the White Lotus Sect from making a comeback! Order the cities near Taihu Lake to strictly check everyone's whereabouts from now on, but there are traitors from the White Lotus Sect, detain them first and wait for handover, if they dare to resist with weapons, they will be killed! ”

"Yes!"

Jiang Xinghuo and the others walked while saying that after a while, they saw a large number of White Lotus Sect soldiers tied up by hemp ropes.

"These people?"

Zhu Gaoxu happened to change horses at this time and rushed over, the armor on his body seemed to be dyed red by the big dye vat, all of which were bloodstains that could not be washed, and he grinned: "As for these rebels...... If I want to say, these people should be beheaded on the spot to show the public, and pile up a Jingguan to set an example! ”

"Jingguan is also a bit outdated."

Jiang Xinghuo said: "All the leaders of the White Lotus Sect who are caught, wait for my order, and deal with them in a different way later; Those so-called heroes of the green forest who robbed homes and robbed houses with a lot of blood debts on their hands, let Ding Xiaohong find someone to identify them, and they will be publicly beheaded and executed today; The rest of the ordinary White Lotus priests will be killed in fifteen strokes, and the rest will be sent to the coal mine to dig coal, and then they will be used in preliminary industrialization. ”

Although the coal resources in Jiangnan are not abundant, they are still much more than the silver mines that Li Jinglong once supervised.

For example, there is Changxing Coal Mine in the nearby Huzhou Prefecture, the local underground is rich in high-quality bituminous coal, in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, from the Wanli period began to excavate, because the ancient method of coal mining adopts the shaft method, this method is dirty and tired, Xiong Mingyu of the county is a heavy punishment, and also sent some criminals to the coal mine, so that they can help the mine dig coal, it can be seen that the scale is indeed not small.

This point is also reflected in the "Changxing County Chronicles": the depth of the well is more than 100 zhang, as far as two or three miles, and there are dozens of excavators and more than 100 people. Often digging into deep places, suddenly spring water gushes out; or the branch is not strong, collapsing from the top; There are also workers who are not careful, and the lamp oil is burned and burned. Human life is as light as grass, so nothing else.

In addition, there are many large and small coal mines in the south of the Yangtze River, and if you look farther, the Huanghuai Political Envoy Division, which was just split and established last year, has even more amazing coal reserves.

Therefore, if it is only for the moment to engage in preliminary industrialization, the coal reserves in Jiangnan are temporarily sufficient, as for iron ore. Next to Nanjing, there is the Ma'anshan iron ore mine with reserves of 1.635 billion tons, which is still an open-pit iron mine, which will not be used up for hundreds of years just for the needs of the first industrial revolution.

But the biggest problem with coal mining is that it is very laborious.

Jiang Xinghuo couldn't immediately rub the steam engine to pump water in the mining area, this kind of headless work was too cruel for ordinary people to do, but for these White Lotus Sect traitors, it would be regarded as atonement for their sins.

When Jiang Xinghuo finished saying his thoughts, the generals around him were silent.

If you want to maximize the use of resources, you have to be a national teacher.

They just want to kill a happy person, and the national teacher uses the value of every type of person to the extreme.

The first evil bandit was killed to anger the people; coerced from the rebels to send them to the coal mine to dig coal for meritorious service; The coerced people organized themselves to work for relief, and the men repaired the infrastructure and the women went to weave, so they didn't support the idlers.

"The last general obeys!"

"Also." Jiang Xinghuo paused and continued: "Send a war report to the capital, report the situation of the war here, and naturally have a pension for those who die in battle, and other meritorious soldiers should ask Your Majesty to give corresponding commendations, and it is best to have multiple bronze medals." ”

The generals smiled when they heard it, and they didn't dare to say anything else, but the medal system proposed by the national teacher was indeed very popular with the soldiers.

- Who doesn't have a collecting addiction?

Although counterinsurgency is a small battle, multiple bronze medals are also good.

Zhu Gaoxu took off his hood at this time and scratched his head, as if he suddenly remembered something.

"By the way, Master, the one you said last time. The ranks of the generals who are not honored are not worth reporting to their fathers together? ”

Jiang Xinghuo was stunned when he heard this, and he remembered it for a moment before he remembered.

It was a joke when talking to Liu Sheng and Zhu Gaoxu at the military academy before, Jiang Xinghuo took out the stalk of "five-star general" and said it casually, but he didn't expect Liu Sheng and Zhu Gaoxu to think that it was very appropriate to add a military rank to the generals as a logo.

Because there has been an embarrassing phenomenon in the Ming army for a long time, that is, many powerful generals do not have corresponding titles.

Hongwu founding and Yongle Jingnan, this kind of period when an emperor began to ascend the throne, it is easy to carry out large-scale rewards, but in addition, in relatively peaceful times, it is more difficult to be knighted alone, unless he has made extremely outstanding achievements.

And this has invisibly caused that the merit that could be awarded the title of Marquis in the past can now only be awarded an earl; In the past, he could be crowned an earl, but now he can't seal anything.

In addition, the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies is also full of a large number of nobles who have not made an inch, but have become the second generation of the prince and uncle by relying on the shadow attack, and the positions of these people are all on the heads of powerful generals such as Liu Sheng.

This naturally makes many people, especially the nobles who grew up in the middle and late Hongwu in the Southern Army, unbalanced, complaining that they are working hard for the imperial court, and now that King Yan is on the throne, it is embarrassing, and he does not have a "father of my country".

There is also this situation in the Northern Army (Yan Army) system, such as Liu Sheng's merit is not enough to be an earl, but his merit is obviously higher than that of other generals, and Zhu Gaoxu's meritorious service cannot be knighted. In their hearts, they still yearn for a system that can mark their merits.

Therefore, adding a hierarchy to the generals and distinguishing those nobles who have no merit is actually the common voice of many people in the Southern Army and the Northern Army.

"Okay, I'll write it then, and I suggest that the generals and above be divided into generals, lieutenant generals, and major generals, and generals will be divided into one to five stars according to their military exploits, so that the non-honorable generals will also have a distinction and hope, and I will present it to Your Majesty along with the battle report."

Well, I hope that Li Jinglong, the greatest hero of the Battle of Jingjing, Emperor Yongle can give him a five-star rating.

In this way, the five-star emperor McJinglong really lives up to his name.

Calculating the time, Li Jinglong should be about to leave for Japan to return to China, and he hasn't seen him for more than half a year, so he should surprise this old friend.

And Li Jinglong's return to China not only means that the war against Japan has begun to enter a substantial preparatory stage, but also means that Jiang Xinghuo finally has a handsome talent around him who can command hundreds of thousands of troops.

What is the most precious thing in this era? Talent, of course!

Don't talk about how Li Jinglong fought, just say if he can lead the troops, right? Being able to lead hundreds of thousands of troops to march and fight and plan everything in an orderly manner is ability, and this is by no means something that can be done by relying on staff officers or anything else.

Once the conquest of Annam to open up the market for the Jiangnan cotton textile industry was hindered by the coach's physical factors, then Li Jinglong, who was also in the prime of life and tried to make a comeback, would immediately be able to lead the troops to make up for the last link that might have an accident.

"By the way, there's one more thing." Jiang Xinghuo paused suddenly, looked around at several generals, and was silent for a few breaths before he said slowly: "You should all know the rules of interrogating prisoners in the army, you don't need to say it. At present, Jiangnan wants to change the law, and there are many officials who are ideologically resistant to changing the law, and they are still eating in the corpse position. ”

Although it's not easy to say too obviously, the generals still understand, this is the meaning of directly changing people without changing their minds, or carrying people down with chairs.

"Don't worry, the national teacher." Chen Xuan said with a smile: "After the White Lotus Sect is exterminated, we will interrogate the rebels of the captured prisoners to confirm who their henchmen are and whether they have participated in the rebellion. ”

"Hmm." Jiang Xinghuo nodded: "Remember, no matter who it is, as long as it involves the crime of treason, it must be severely punished." ”

Liu Sheng also smiled and said, "National teacher, don't worry, it's not the first time we've done these things." When we first entered Nanjing, we used to arrest Jianwen Yu all over the city for interrogation, but now it's just a different object. ”

Although Liu Sheng is modest and gentle on weekdays, it doesn't mean that he doesn't understand these things that can't be said publicly, on the contrary, in the entire Yan army system, Liu Sheng is definitely delicate, and he is also good at speculating on the psychology of others, and it is rare that during the period of conquering some cities in Hebei and Shandong to implement military management, he has made great achievements in handling government affairs.

Otherwise, how could Liu Sheng be recorded in the later period of Yongle as "favored by the right of the liehous" and become the most favored marquis.

Of course, people are floating, and Liu Sheng, who was "arrogant in his words", is of course not the same thing as the current Liu Yan.

At this point, Liu Sheng is a bit similar to Ji Gang.

However, the current Commander Ji is also staying honestly in Nanjing, because the dispute over the reform of the law in Beijing is becoming more and more intense, and he has mishandled some issues, which can be regarded as a crime.

This is a later story, everything has been arranged at the moment, since there is no need to hold a meeting for the people after changing his mind, the rest is to interrogate Bai Yu, the leader of the White Lotus Sect.

It is not appropriate to say that it is an interrogation.

It might be more appropriate to call it a dying chat where "people are dying and their words are good".

In the tent, the attendants around him retreated dozens of steps, and the two faced each other.

"What do you want to know?" Bai Baiyu, who was tied up by five flowers, looked indifferent, and he couldn't see his inner struggle at all, and even his expression seemed very calm.

He doesn't care about life and death, anyway, he has already lived enough for this age.

"I heard that you have colluded with the Japanese island of Kyushu, is this really the case?"

Jiang Xinghuo first picked an 'important, but not so important' question to ask.

Although it was a question, it was not polite, and even a little persecution and questioning.

And what Jiang Xinghuo said is indeed true, there are Japanese samurai in the army of the White Lotus Sect, and Bai Yu's gang did hide in Japan in the middle and late Hongwu Dynasty, and the Jianwen Dynasty returned to China.

It's just that among the people present, what kind of transaction is inside, I'm afraid only Bai Baiyu knows.

It's naturally best to ask clearly, 'instigating participation in the rebels' is also a reasonable excuse to send troops to conquer Japan in the future, and with this, it is natural to be able to make up less others.

"Are you Japanese...... Well, I'll admit that I've been in contact with that side. Bai Bai Yu replied frankly.

"Oh, can the White Sect Master tell me how you got in touch? Who are you contacting in Japan? Jiang Xinghuo continued to ask.

"Check it out for yourselves, I believe that with your means, you should be able to find clues."

Bai Tianyu sneered, and a few hints of mockery flashed in his eyes.

Jiang Xinghuo's hand held the knife, squinted slightly, and stared at Bai Yu Liangjiu: "Sect Master Bai, are you going to say this?" ”

Hearing this, Bai Baiyu's face changed, and he said coldly: "Hmph! If you want to kill, you have to listen to the respect, why pretend to come to this set! Even if you say that, can you let this seat go? You Jiang Xinghuo is the age of this seat, are you scared? ”

He has a tough attitude and is not afraid of life and death at all.

"Thousands of no, no, you shouldn't collude with those Japanese samurai to participate in the Jiangnan rebellion, in my opinion, this is as hateful as you sacrifice young children."

Seeing that Bai Yu was still this dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water, Jiang Xinghuo didn't bother to say anything, and got up and planned to leave.

Unexpectedly, when he turned around, he didn't know what was touched in his heart, but Bai Tianyu suddenly struggled violently, but he was about to enter the earth, and Da Ming was not a world where the older he was and the higher his martial arts, he naturally couldn't break free from the hemp rope tied up by the five flowers.

"Today, the old man failed to slay the dragon, and he was defeated in the hands of you, a scholar, and the reason for this is that you are just relying on sharp weapons, and what rules and principles do you know? It's your turn to teach the old man a lesson?! ”

During the day, Yu Wu struggled endlessly, different from his previous attitude of waiting for death, but he was really annoyed, and even completely lost his words, these words were like an ordinary old man who relied on the old and sold the old to quarrel with others, and it should not be said by a person in his position at all.

Jiang Xinghuo was stunned.

He really didn't expect that when this old thing was dying, what he cared about the most was that he couldn't be instructed and taught by his juniors.

"Who has achieved great things, which one is not ambitious? I'd rather be burdened by others, than by others (from Sun Sheng's "Miscellaneous Notes" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty), how can a yellow-mouthed child like you who has no hair on his mouth understand? is to destroy my White Lotus Sect, Jiangnan and even the world don't know how much opposition to you, do you think you can last long? Not out"

"Smack!"

There was no one else in the tent, Jiang Xinghuo did it himself, even with a knife and a sheath, and slapped it heavily on Bai Baiyu's old face.

A few charred teeth, covered with tartar, fell from the already swollen pig-like mouth with blood splatters, and rolled on the ground several times.

Jiang Xinghuo withdrew his knife, his gaze cold and indifferent.

There may be so-called ambition in this world, but Bai Baiyu said that he is just an old god who pretends to be a god and plays a ghost and does unscrupulous means, and his methods are extremely despicable, and he can do things that sacrifice young children, and he is not worthy of these words.

"You"

Bai Tianyu was so angry that he tried to turn his hands on his back while being tied, and reached out to grab the knife in Jiang Xinghuo's hand, but as soon as he touched it, he was trampled on the back of his hand by Jiang Xinghuo.

The sound of bones shattering was heard.

"Ahh

The screams of killing pigs resounded throughout the tent.

"You little brute!"

Bai Bai Yu was so painful that he broke out in a cold sweat, looking at the young man with murderous intent in his eyes, and he was shocked and angry.

Jiang Xinghuo looked down at him: "What kind of hero do you think you are?" Or are you also worthy of rebellion and dragon slaying? ”

Bai Bai Yu endured the pain and didn't dare to move, gritted his teeth, his forehead was bruised, and he forcibly suppressed his resentment: "Jiang Xinghuo, the old man has been crisscrossing the rivers and lakes for more than 50 years, I never thought that it would be planted in your hands, you."

"Bang Bang!"

Jiang Xinghuo threw out a few more scabbards.

Bai Baiyu's eyes were about to breathe fire, and he glared angrily at the man in front of him: "You junior, dare to humiliate the old man like this, the old man swears to let the lifeless old mother break your body into ten thousand pieces, break your bones and scatter ashes, so that your soul will not be reborn!" ”

"Heh~"

Jiang Xinghuo chuckled: "Then you let the childless mother come now, if you can't come, just accept it obediently and listen to me. You said you rebelled to slay the dragon? Which dragon to slay? ”

Bai Baiyu gritted his teeth and said: "When autumn comes on September 8, I will kill all the flowers!" Tu De is naturally Zhu Ming's dragon! At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he Zhu Yuanzhang was just the time and the momentum, and he won the world! If I had risen earlier, which turn would have gotten their Zhu family to sit on the dragon chair?! ”

"Coincidentally, I'm going to slay the dragon too."

Bai Bai Yu was stunned when he heard this, but he forgot about the pain.

The thief is in the Chengtian Temple? What kind of bad joke is this?

"You want to slay a dragon? Zhu Di favors you so much, is it not enough to give you the position of national teacher? ”

"Not enough."

"One person is below ten thousand people, and the power is not enough to dominate the world?"

"Not enough."

Bai Baiyu's gaze was a little unbelievable:

"You want to be emperor yourself? Do you want to be Wang Mang? ”

"I don't want to."

"Then what are you going to do to slay the dragon?" Bai Tianyu suddenly shuddered.

Didn't he slaughter the dragon of Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen just to prove that he was capable of slaying the dragon like the demon monk Daoyan?

Jiang Xinghuo said calmly: "I want to slaughter the emperor to make this dragon." ”

"Impossible! No way! For thousands of years, it has been like this, how can there be no owner in the world? ”

Bai Bai Yu showed extreme disbelief, even in his conception, even if a dynasty ruled by the White Lotus Sect was established, there would be an emperor.

"I slay the Emperor Dragon with an evil dragon, why can't I?"

In Jiang Xinghuo's expression, there was only calm like an abyss.

There were things he could not say to the living.

In the tent where no one was around, when Jiang Xinghuo's words ended, Bai Baiyu's eyes were full of horror, and he looked at Jiang Xinghuo in horror.

At the end of his life, he finally understood what Jiang Xinghuo, a "yellow-mouthed child and a scholar" in his eyes, wanted and what kind of world he wanted to build!

Compared with Jiang Xinghuo's grand and real future world, the "vacuum hometown" type of present world he wants to establish is like a child's naïve fantasy.

Who is the ignorant person, at a glance.

Bai Yu's body trembled: "You are crazy, you are going to go to the eighteenth layer of hell!" ”

"If I don't go to hell, who will go to hell?"

Jiang Xinghuo simply knocked out all his teeth and stuffed a ball of rags to gag his mouth.

"I can't go to the vacuum hometown, I'm waiting in hell, you"

Bai Bai Yu was dragged out by Wang Bin and the armor warriors, and not far away, the ceremony of collectively executing the bandit leader of the White Lotus Sect was underway.

He was stuffed into a wooden barrel like everyone else, and then put in a full saltpeter, this kind of death may not be as good as Ling Chi, but watching his limbs freeze, blood vessels began to gradually reduce the blood supply, and then his heart stopped beating, but there was nothing he could do, for these most heinous people, it was enough to make them repent of their sins in pain.

The White Lotus Sect Holy Maiden Tang Yin, the Left Protector Niu Zhen and others, who had already surrendered to avoid this torture, were watching from the shore with palpitations, and they were asked to watch this scene compulsorily.

Tang Yin saw Bai Baiyu.

In her eyes, this hero, who has always been full of majesty and always strategizing, is looking at her with indescribably complex eyes like a child who has been woken up.

The old man's whole face was twisted, motioning for her to look in Jiang Xinghuo's direction.

Tang Yin quietly looked up and didn't see anything.

The national teacher was squatting happily touching the little head of a child who was being coerced, and there was a woman beside the child.

"What's your name?"

"My name is Li Bajiu."

"Oh"

Listening to the familiar name, Jiang Xinghuo recalled a story he heard next to Qingpingbo, Huzhou Mansion.

"Here's for you, eat slowly."

Jiang Xinghuo took out his own dry food, fine noodles and steamed buns.

The child took it excitedly, and then handed it to his mother, his mother, that is, the sister-in-law of the Qingping Bo Yishi, carefully took it, put it in her arms, and looked into the distance wistfully, she heard that thanks to the kindness of the national teacher, many strong men have survived, and her second brother should also be there.

Next, the fate of their lives is about to change dramatically, maybe they don't know it yet, but no matter what, everything will develop in a good direction.

There is no doubt about it.

Jiang Xinghuo wanted to clap his hands, but he licked the steamed bun scum on his fingers with some reluctance before he stood up.

His eyes saw Bai Tianyu, who had been thrown into the water and gradually frozen into ice sculptures as saltpeter absorbed heat, turning the water into ice, and also saw Tang Yin, who was secretly peeping at him.

Jiang Xinghuo showed a harmless smile at Tang Yin, and his six teeth were very white in the sun.

(End of chapter)