I wield power with my innate talents, and forge the Heavenly Court.

Chapter 131 Rebels Rise, Yang He Suppresses Bandits

While the dynasty led the army to capture the Shaanxi Provincial Commandery, turmoil was also brewing in eastern Shaanxi.

Anse Gao Yingxiang, Yichuan Wang Zuogua, Feishan Hu, Da Honglang, Luochuan Wang Hu, Heisha Shen, Yanchuan Wang Heshang, Qingyang Han Chaozai, Wudu Zhou Dawang, and other rebel armies rose up one after another.

Suddenly, the whole of Shaanxi was in chaos, with peasant uprisings and rebel armies everywhere.

This caused the Ming army to be constantly on the move, suppressing uprisings in various places, leaving Li Qiao extremely busy.

However, instead of suppressing the rebellions in various places, they made the rebel army grow stronger.

All these rebel armies nominally revered Wang Jiayin, which made Wang Jiayin's reputation spread throughout the Ming Dynasty. This caused Emperor Chongzhen to roar repeatedly in the court, cursing Li Qiao, the Shaanxi Provincial Governor, as a good-for-nothing who had failed to live up to his expectations.

Immediately afterwards, Chongzhen dismissed Li Qiao from his post and imprisoned him.

However, even if Li Qiao is useless, he was dismissed from his post and imprisoned.

However, the peasant uprisings in Shaanxi still needed to be suppressed.

At this time, Yang He, who had expressed his theory of vital energy, came to the attention of Emperor Chongzhen.

Yang He's theory of vital energy states that the key to good governance lies in cultivating vital energy.

Since the large-scale military campaigns and conscriptions, additional levies have been frequently imposed, exhausting both public and private resources and damaging the vitality of ordinary people;

Since the defeats and loss of discipline in Liaodong, Guizhou, and Sichuan, with bones piled up like hills, the vitality of the border regions has been severely damaged.

Since the gentry formed factions and betrayed each other, they have taken advantage of the situation, eliminated virtuous people, and damaged the vitality of the scholar-official class.

For example, in the early stages of a serious illness, when the body's energy channels are not yet in balance, it is easy for pathogenic factors to enter, and the body needs to be nurtured.

The general idea is that, in today's world, the common people are severely weakened, followed by the regional governors, and then the scholar-officials.

Therefore, Yang He advised the emperor not to rush things, but to allow the emperor to gradually recover his strength.

Emperor Chongzhen found the theory of vital energy very reasonable, so he summoned Yang He and wanted to appoint him as the Governor-General of the Three Border Regions of Shaanxi to suppress the peasant uprising in Shaanxi.

Yang He was unwilling to accept this, and even submitted a memorial to the emperor stating this frankly.

He said that his appointment as governor was a misapplication of his position.
He believed he lacked the ability to quell the unrest and the experience to defend the borders, so he wanted Emperor Chongzhen to choose someone else.

However, Chongzhen clearly had great confidence in him, and directly interrupted his statement, insisting on appointing him as the Governor-General of the Three Border Regions.

Later, Emperor Chongzhen asked him how he planned to suppress the bandits after arriving in Shaanxi.

However, Yang He, who was forcibly appointed as the governor of Shaanxi by Chongzhen, was just a civil official. How could he know how to suppress bandits?

All I could say was helplessly:

"The only solution is to remain prudent and self-disciplined, and to care for and comfort the soldiers."

After a moment of contemplation, Yang He then said:

"The rebel army in Shaanxi dispersed and then regrouped, but they never truly dispersed."

It is essential to provide genuine relief so that people have the means to make a living before it can be considered a true dissolution.

After the disbandment, resettlement is still necessary. Cattle must be provided in a real way so that they can return to farming and resume their livelihoods, and then they can be truly resettled.

If this is the case, then the thief will have the joy of living and no desire to die, and will naturally submit to appeasement.

With the pacification efforts settled, the suppression campaign also came to an end.

In short, it's all about disaster relief. As long as there's money and food, and the people can survive, those rebels and rioters will naturally die without being suppressed.

But he forgot that with uprisings breaking out all over Shaanxi, would they give him time to provide disaster relief?

As for specific strategies for suppressing bandits, Yang He had none.

However, Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied with Yang He's answer and immediately expressed his approval, saying that it was indeed appropriate to issue an edict to appease him rather than to simply suppress him.
Finally, he earnestly said, "Kou is also one of my children, and we should treat him with kindness."

In the end, with a mix of trepidation, helplessness, and a strong determination to serve the Ming Dynasty and fulfill the emperor's important mission, Yang He embarked on his journey to Shaanxi to assume the post of Governor-General of the Three Border Regions.

When Yang He first arrived in Shaanxi, he was very active in suppressing bandits and made many contributions.

Wang Zuogua and others attacked Yichuan, but were repelled by the county magistrate Cheng Cai. They then turned to attack Hancheng. The Hancheng government troops had no generals, so Yang He appointed Councilor Hong Chengchou to lead troops to resist them. More than 300 people were captured or killed.

Afterwards, Yang He again mobilized his troops and generals, defeating many rebel armies and causing them to flee in panic.

However, he then began to implement his ideas and policies, using both suppression and appeasement, with appeasement as the main approach. He began to recruit many rebel armies, promising that as long as they obediently returned to farming, he would not pursue their crimes.

Faced with the powerful Ming army, the scattered groups of so-called rebels, having no ability to resist, naturally surrendered one after another.

Suddenly, the situation in Shaanxi Province was very favorable.

Even Wang Er, the first leader of a rebellion outside the dynasty, died in the process.

His subordinate general, Wang Zizai, led the remaining troops to join Wang Jiayin's rebel army.

Although the dynasty paid attention to the disturbances from the outside world, it did not care much about them and instead devoted all its energy to the development and construction of its territory.

Through these battles, the dynasty has realized that the militia is on a completely different level from ordinary armies.

He was fully capable of leading the People's Salvation Army to sweep away all other armies and even directly occupy Shuntian Prefecture.

However, doing so would not make much sense.

Because they simply don't have enough talented people to govern, doing so would only lead to complete chaos in the world.

Therefore, the most important task for the dynasty now, besides building and developing its territory, is to cultivate enough governing talents.

As for national fortune and official positions, they only play a supporting role.

Even before, when the dynasty vigorously promoted members of agricultural cooperatives and village chiefs to various levels of official positions, didn't they all have experience as village chiefs? At the very least, they needed to have some management experience to be promoted.

Now that Wang Chao and his forces have suddenly occupied the Shaanxi Provincial Military Command, the shortage of administrative talent has become immediately apparent.

Of course, if the rules weren't so strict, many people would still be willing to join.

However, with the Salvation Army having grown to its current size, the dynasty was unwilling to compromise too much.

Therefore, although the dynasty had an army capable of sweeping across the world, it did not rush to conquer the world immediately. Instead, it focused on guarding its own territory and developing its internal affairs, while letting the outside world cause turmoil.

By June, the Shaanxi Provincial Military Command had finally stabilized, and the fate of the nation was completely intertwined.

However, compared to the original territory of the Salvation Army, the Shaanxi Provincial Military Command naturally had a lot of dark and gloomy atmosphere, which would require gradually winning over the people's hearts later.

At the same time, news of the People's Salvation Army's complete occupation of the Shaanxi Provincial Military Command gradually spread, causing a great uproar throughout the land.

Unexpectedly, such a force suddenly emerged in Shaanxi, and has even occupied a small part of Shaanxi.

And the name of the dynasty appeared on the desks of the major powers for the first time.

Of course, as an emerging force, the leaders of many forces were shocked that the dynasty and the People's Salvation Army had occupied a small part of Shaanxi.

However, before it could withstand the Ming Dynasty's attack, not many forces would take it seriously.

However, this does not include Emperor Chongzhen.

After all, Shaanxi was part of the Ming Dynasty's territory, so he had essentially lost his ancestors' land and heritage.

When Emperor Chongzhen received the news, he was stunned and muttered to himself:

"Yang Jiamo has betrayed me, Yang Jiamo has betrayed me."

In the end, Chongzhen felt a sweet taste in his throat and almost coughed up blood.

"Your Majesty, the best course of action now is to quickly send troops to encircle and suppress them."
Otherwise, this could very well become another Jurchen dynasty.

Zhou Daodeng, who had just been promoted to the position of Cabinet Chief, spoke with a solemn expression.

"Who is capable of shouldering this heavy responsibility of encirclement and suppression?"

Slightly regaining his senses, Chongzhen couldn't help but ask himself a question.

"Your Majesty, Governor-General Yang He of the Three Border Regions has achieved considerable success in suppressing bandits in Shaanxi."
Moreover, the location of the militia should also fall within his jurisdiction, so he should naturally urge Yang He to suppress the bandits.”

Without much thought, Zhou Daodeng spoke again.

After all, Governor-General Yang He of the Three Borders is doing a good job, and he is also closest to the People's Salvation Army, which falls within his responsibilities, so he is naturally the best candidate.

"Yes, yes, yes, issue an imperial edict urging Yang He to swiftly annihilate the Shaanxi Salvation Army."

Having just achieved some success, Yang He received the emperor's decree and, without much delay, immediately mobilized a large army, passed through Pingliang Prefecture, and marched towards Gongchang Prefecture.

After a series of great victories, Yang He felt that these rebel armies were just a bunch of rioters, and that the imperial army could wipe them out in no time.

The only concern is that the virus might resurface after being suppressed.

Therefore, he initially did not take the People's Salvation Army seriously, treating it merely as an ordinary peasant army.

On June 12, when Yang He led his army to the border area between Pingliang Prefecture and Gongchang Prefecture, they were suddenly attacked by thousands of militiamen.

Caught off guard, the Ming army suffered heavy losses and had to retreat more than ten miles before they were able to escape.

When Yang He reorganized his army and attacked Gongchang Prefecture again, he had become much more cautious.

Although the People's Salvation Army launched several more surprise attacks, causing numerous casualties, they eventually managed to force the People's Salvation Army to retreat.

However, before they even reached the city of Gongchang, the Ming army, from top to bottom, was already filled with fear, including Yang He.

How could this militia be compared to ordinary peasant uprising armies?
Even the elite border troops, and even the Tartars from beyond the Great Wall, are inferior to them.

They were just a force of a thousand men, yet they dared to attack their army of tens of thousands, and even managed to retreat calmly after several charges.

Consequently, the Ming army's marching speed began to slow down more and more.

Towards the end, they could only march a dozen or so miles a day.

It was under these circumstances that the People's Salvation Army assembled more than 5,000 regular troops and launched a final surprise attack when the Ming army passed through a mountain road.

This time, the Ming army could no longer hold out and soon collapsed. Then, like water bursting its banks, it became unstoppable, and the Ming army was completely defeated.

Yang He barely managed to lead the remaining troops to escape.

However, the People's Salvation Army did not give up and launched a retaliatory attack.

The People's Salvation Army stormed into Pingliang and Fengyang prefectures, completely occupying both prefectures and joining forces with Wang Shi's troops who had captured Jingluwei.

This made the leaders of the People's Salvation Army even more nervous.

However, the dynasty believed that this attack was absolutely necessary.

We can't just passively defend when the enemy is attacking, can we?

As the saying goes, "A single punch can prevent a hundred more."

After this incident, the Ming army will likely be less inclined to attack, giving him more time to develop.

Time is always on their side.

(End of this chapter)