Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 288: Transformation of Captives

In the afternoon at the government office in Dangtu City, after all the civil and military officials of the Marshal's Mansion had arrived, Lu Jin finally had time to meet Tao An and others who came to seek refuge.

"Sir, please take a seat. Bring me some tea."

"Thank you Ming Gong."

Lu Jin took a sip of tea and then asked, "Sir, do you think the Yuan court can still be saved? Can the rebel army win?"

"This." Tao An thought carefully after hearing this.

It is now 1352, not 1355 in the original history when Zhu Yuanzhang led his army across the river.

By that time, Toghto had already died, and the Yuan court's million-strong central army had collapsed. The Yuan court had entered the countdown to its death and could no longer provide a central army to suppress the Red Turbans. The world had completely entered an era of warlords.

In the original history, Tao An also surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang at that time, but the current situation is different from that in history. Since the Red Turban Army uprising last year, the Yuan court has not yet officially taken action against the Red Turban Army.

Tao An thought for a while and then said, "In my opinion, in the long run, the Yuan Dynasty will definitely fall. The biggest problem of the Yuan Dynasty is the serious corruption, from top to bottom. The officials are all in office and do nothing, bullying the people.

"Another problem is that the people of different ethnic groups cannot live in harmony. The Yuan court was originally founded by barbarians who came to rule the Central Plains. They do not understand the customs of the Han people and they use Semites to suppress the Han people, who are more numerous. The Marshal also said that they are corrupt and exploit the people.

"Also, the Han people value agriculture over commerce, while the Yuan court was just the opposite. It treated merchants very favorably and returned farming to pasture. Except for Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty, who still attached great importance to farming, the emperors after him generally did not take farming seriously. This naturally did not work in the Central Plains."

"The central government of the Yuan court also had serious problems. The barbarians did not understand Chinese customs and Confucianism, and still used the system of the steppe barbarians. They said that the throne was passed down. In name, they used the Confucian system of the Han people, that the son succeeds the father, and the younger brother succeeds the elder brother. But in reality, it was still the same system of fighting and killing among the steppe barbarians, and fighting for the throne.

"Whoever has the strongest army and the most powerful horse will be the emperor. Ever since Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty launched a counterattack on the grasslands and established the Yuan Dynasty, he began to fight among his brothers. After Emperor Shizu's death, his successors did the same thing again and again. Twenty years ago, they even caused the tragic Battle of the Two Capitals, which caused the provinces in the Central Plains to wither.

"We Han people value farming the most, and the people want peace and stability. It is a blessing for the world if the throne can be handed over and inherited in an orderly manner. However, the barbarians led the people of the world to fight and attack each other. The people of the world have suffered from the Yuan Dynasty for a long time.

"In addition, most of the Hu emperors in the Yuan court were weak and their ministers were strong. There were many treacherous prime ministers who monopolized power and deposed and enthroned emperors. Twelve years ago, the treacherous prime minister Bayan was finally exiled to Lingnan. However, the newly appointed prime minister Tuotuo is also a tyrannical and domineering person judging from his behavior.

"At the beginning of this year, his brother led troops to attack Liu Futong, but was defeated. After returning to Dadu, some court officials impeached his brother. Tuotuo not only shielded him but also put the impeacher in jail.

"I heard that this time when Xu Shouhui's troops attacked Hangzhou, it was the same thing again. The provincial and ministerial officials who fled at the sight of the enemy were not in any trouble, but the local officials who failed to stop the pseudo-Song army were brutally exiled. The Yuan court was so perverse and unclear about rewards and punishments. It seems that it will never be destroyed."

Lu Jin nodded, "Sir, what you said is right, but these are all deeper reasons. If that's all, it's not enough to judge when the Yuan court will fall and whether the rebel army can win. So what do you think of my question?"

"this."

Tao An knew that Lu Jin was testing him, and the previous questions didn't hit the point and didn't satisfy Lu Jin. After thinking about it, he could only say it bluntly.

"Please bear with me, my lord. I am not good at military strategy, but I can learn from history to understand the rise and fall of dynasties. Although Chen Sheng and Zhang Er started the rebellion at the end of the Qin Dynasty, they made wedding dresses for Emperor Gaozu of Han and Xiang Yu. Although Zhang Jiao caused chaos in the world at the end of the Han Dynasty, it was the Wei and Jin Dynasties that finally unified the world.

"Under the current situation, the Red Turbans are like Zhang Jiao and Chen Sheng. Although they have the potential to destroy the Yuan Dynasty, they do not have the ability to rebuild the country. In addition, Liu Futong started the rebellion first, and Xu Shouhui claimed to be a false emperor later. The two groups will definitely be thorns in the eyes of the Yuan court, and the Yuan court will want to get rid of them as soon as possible.

"And your army is located between the two. The most urgent task is to use the two armies to attract the attention of the Yuan court, expand in a low-key manner, avoid false reputation and focus on practical work. Don't claim to be king first, but focus on occupying the population, money, food and land of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and sweep away the soldiers and food in the world. This is the foundation of your life.

"Since you have followed Han Qinhu's example and crossed the Yangtze River, why don't you go one step further and advance north to seize Jiankang? Jiankang is a place of great strategic importance, an ancient capital of many dynasties, and has the natural barrier of the Yangtze River. With Jiankang as your base, you can advance to the Central Plains or retreat to keep Jiangdong. Why don't you seize Jiangsu and Zhejiang first, prepare your troops, and wait for the right time?"

clap clap-

Lu Jin clapped his hands and praised, "Sir, your comments on the mistakes of the Yuan court are really insightful, avoiding false reputation and focusing on practical matters. Your idea of ​​taking Jiankang first also coincides with my opinion. However, I can see that you really don't understand military strategy and your judgment of the current situation is still insufficient.

"I have been preparing for the crossing of the river in Luzhou for half a year. Sir, do you know why I chose to cross the river at this time?"

Tao An thought for a moment before saying, "Because Xu Shouhui's pseudo-Song army had just failed in its attempt to conquer Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and had also led part of the Yuan army from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were not so short of troops at this time, but they were much weaker than before, so this is a good time for you to cross the river, sir?"

Lu Jin nodded, "Yes, that's right. Then sir, do you know why I deliberately humiliated Chen Yesian and let him go?"

"This..." Tao An had tried to stop Lu Jin from doing this before, but Lu Jin did it anyway, and he looked like he had planned it all along. So, there was only one possibility, "Are you trying to lure Chen Zhaoxian to lead the Yuan army from Jiqing Road to attack with all their might?"

Lu Jin nodded again.

Tao An was puzzled, "But why is this happening? Isn't it better to just take it slow and steady?"

Lu Jin stood up and stared at the sky outside, then turned his back to him and said, "I just asked you, sir, when will the Yuan court be defeated and whether the rebel army can win, but you kept avoiding the question. In fact, you know that since the rebel army started the uprising, the Yuan court has not really made any effort. It is the local Yuan army that is fighting, and the central army of the Yuan court has not yet taken action, so the outcome is still unknown.

"When the Yuan court's central army marches south, even if they fail to wipe out the rebels in one fell swoop, they will certainly suffer heavy losses. You actually don't have confidence that our Shengwu Army can succeed."

Lu Jin turned around and stared at him, "Really?"

Tao An and Lu Jin looked at each other and immediately avoided each other's gaze guiltily. He was indeed not very optimistic about the current situation. From a long-term perspective, the destruction of the Yuan court was a foregone conclusion. It would be a wise move to find another employer at this time. However, there were actually three reasons why Tao An dared to join Lu Jin now.

First, Lu Jin's position was between Liu Futong and Xu Shouhui, so the Yuan court could not attack him and he could develop calmly for a period of time; second, Lu Jin did not engage in cults, which could win the support of most Confucian scholars in the world and attract more talents; third, Lu Jin showed great combat power during his crossing of the river. If he wanted to fight for the world, being able to fight was also the key.

But if Lu Jin wants to succeed, there is a prerequisite for everything. If the Yuan court has collapsed now and the world has entered a stage of warlords fighting for supremacy, Tao An will definitely support Lu Jin with full confidence. But now that the Yuan court has not been lost, whether he can withstand the thundering attack of the Yuan court and outlast it is what Tao An is unsure about.

However, under Lu Jin's gaze, he finally had to admit, "Your Excellency is very observant, and I cannot hide it from you."

Lu Jin turned his head to look at the sky again, and said quietly, "You are worried that the Yuan court's central army will be able to defeat the rebels with a thundering blow. This worry is actually correct. I have received news a long time ago that Tuotuo is recruiting soldiers in Dadu to prepare for war. He was originally scheduled to go south in September, but it was delayed until now because of farming. He will definitely take action by the end of October at the latest.

"At this time, Xu Song retreated from Jiangnan and led away some of the Yuan soldiers from Jiangnan. Tuotuo would go south two months later. I chose to cross the river at this time. At most two months, the Yuan soldiers from Jiangxi would definitely return to Jiangnan for support, and the Yuan army in Dadu would definitely go south. So do you know why I deliberately angered Chen Zhaoxian?"

Tao An raised his eyes in disbelief. He was dumbfounded. This meant that Lu Jin chose this strategic window period, which was only a little over a month? Then he dared to cross the river at this time. Wasn't he afraid that the Yuan army would attack from both north and south? This man was simply crazy!
"Unbelievable, right? Do you think I'm so bold? Since I already knew about the possible actions of the Yuan court, I still insisted on crossing the river at this time. I must have made preparations long ago, otherwise, do you think I'm crazy? "However, preparation is one thing, but the time that has been gained with great difficulty cannot be wasted. I am not afraid of Chen Zhaoxian's 15 troops coming to attack, but I am afraid that he will use heavy troops to guard various cities, and my troops crossing the river are very short. If I divide my troops to attack the city, I don't know when it will end. I don't have that time to waste with him. It is better to force him to come and fight to the death with me in Dangtu!"

Lu Jin turned around and looked at Tao An, and found that the man's forehead was already sweating. He came here to seek refuge, not to go crazy with Lu Jin. If he had known the situation would be like this, he would definitely not have come here to seek refuge at this time.

"My headquarters has two academies, the civil and military, and under the two academies, there are departments to handle important military and political affairs. There is also a secretariat to oversee the confidential matters of the two academies. You are the first talent from Jiangnan to join me after I crossed the river. You must be set as an example." Lu Jin paced in the room and thought for a while before speaking.

"Since you are not familiar with military strategy, the position in the Martial Academy is not suitable for you. Only the Criminal Law Department and the Etiquette Department of the Liberal Arts Academy have vacancies. I wonder if you are willing to take the position?"

Tao An looked at Lu Jin at this time. He had just listened to Lu Jin's general plan and knew Lu Jin's strategic purpose. Even if he wanted to jump ship now, Lu Jin would definitely not let him leave alive. Otherwise, who could guarantee that he would not tell others? After thinking about it, he had only one way to go, so he asked.

"May I ask, sir, what are the criminal law department and etiquette department in charge of?"

Lu Jin immediately explained, "Didn't you say that we should avoid empty talk and be practical? In fact, the Military Academy is like the Privy Council, the Literary Academy is like the Shangshu Province, the Secretariat is like the Zhongshu Province, and the Criminal Law Department and the Etiquette Department are the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Rites. They are just changed to cover up their identities. So, would you like to be the Minister of the Ministry of Justice or the Minister of Rites?"

Tao An finally understood and said, "I am willing to be the head of the Etiquette Department."

Lu Jin nodded, "Okay, I heard that you were the principal of Mingdao Academy established by the Yuan court. I think you know a lot of Jiangdong talents. I want to help the world, and the Marshal's Mansion is in need of talents. You can be the head of the etiquette department first and recruit Jiangdong talents for me."

"Yes, that is what I wish for. I dare not ask for it. I will do my best."

Tao An swallowed hard and had no choice but to agree. He felt like he was on a broken ship hurtling through a rapid current. Although it was cutting through the wind and waves, no one knew if the ship would hit a reef and sink the next moment. But soon, he realized what Lu Jin meant by 'no time'.

The Shengwu Army and the civil and military officials of the Marshal's Office who had just crossed the river had no time to celebrate and immediately plunged into their intensive work.

The lists of casualties from various units were reported and sent to the Huainan Province, which provided pensions. All the wounded were transferred to the auxiliary troops for recuperation, and the vacancies in the combat camps were filled by the auxiliary troops. The combat effectiveness of several damaged troops was instantly restored.

Lu Jin also went out of the city to inspect the various troops camped outside the city, then changed into white armor and followed Ye Sheng's cavalry regiment to survey the terrain in the surrounding area, looking for a suitable battlefield for a decisive battle.

The instructors of various departments in the city also began to transform the prisoners and started to prepare for the expansion of the army.

Smoke rose from various prisoner camps in the city. While serving meals to the prisoners, the instructors began to take statistics, registering the prisoners, asking about their place of origin, how many people were in their families, and whether they had any land. After finding out all the information, they wrote them a list and someone took them to different camps to start classifying the prisoners according to their land.

At first, the surrendered Yuan soldiers were confused and didn't know what the Shengwu Army was going to do. But gradually, many people who had land at home were grouped together, and these people gradually felt that something was not right.

Because apart from hereditary military officers, most of the Yuan army were recruited locally in the past year, or landlords led their tenants to surrender voluntarily, so most of those who could become officers in the Yuan army were landlords with land, or the landlords' lackeys.

But now the Shengwu Army has picked out these landlords and lackeys from among the landless tenants and soldiers. If you say that the Shengwu Army has no intention of doing anything to them, they themselves don't believe it.

Those singled-out officers and lackeys soon started a commotion and launched a prisoner riot, which was then suppressed on the spot by the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp wearing heavy black armor and the guards armed with muskets. A volley of musket fire killed the troublemaking prisoners, and the rest immediately became obedient.

When Tao An heard the news, he quickly went to Lu Jin to persuade him, "My lord, it is unlucky to kill the captives. Our army has just crossed the river. It is time to win the hearts of the soldiers and civilians in the south of the Yangtze River. How can we kill the captives now?"

Lu Jin frowned and said, "I didn't order the killing of the prisoners. It was they who refused to cooperate and wanted to rebel, which led to their deaths."

"Then why did the lord send people to sort the captives? Wasn't he preparing to kill them?" Tao An asked again in confusion.

Lu Jin added, "Sir, you may as well go and see for yourself what the instructor is doing. Even if some people have to die in the end, they deserve it. I do want to win the hearts of the soldiers and civilians in Jiangnan, but it is useless to keep the black sheep. It is better to get rid of them as soon as possible to avoid damaging the morale of my army."

Tao An wanted to say something else, but seeing Lu Jin's firm attitude, he stopped talking. He planned to wait and see, and if it didn't work, he would find a way to resign.

As the saying goes, if the general does not listen to my advice, he should leave. If Lu Jin insists on having his own way and refuses to listen to advice, then there is no point in him staying.

So Tao An followed Lu Jin's order and went to work with the instructors in person.

According to the policy of two trials and two investigations, and heart-to-heart talks formulated by Lu Jin, on the first day of crossing the river, the instructors first classified the prisoners according to their land properties, and on the second day they announced the land distribution policy for the prisoners. Those who had no land at home and were willing to join the Shengwu Army could all be allocated 50 acres of land in Luzhou. Those who had less than 50 acres of land could also be allocated 50 acres, but they only had 50 acres in their name, and the extra acres could be distributed to their relatives.

Anyway, Huainan is vast and sparsely populated, with plenty of wasteland, so there is no shortage of farmland.

Those who do not want to join the army can be given a bushel of grain and sent home. This bushel of grain can be regarded as severance pay.

The captives were immediately excited when they heard this. This treatment was much better than when they were in the Yuan army. They immediately asked one by one whether they would really be given land and what the specific policy of land distribution was. If they were to reclaim wasteland, could they be exempted from taxes for a few years? After all, there would not be much harvest when reclaiming wasteland.

Seeing this, Tao An finally understood why Lu Jin had people classify these prisoners into different categories. It turned out that he wanted to use land distribution to win over the morale of those landless prisoners.

The instructors also answered their questions one by one and explained the land distribution policy in detail to the captives. As long as they were willing to join the army, they would not only be able to get land, but if their families lacked labor, the government would also help lend them cattle and organize people to help open up wasteland. They would also be exempt from taxes in the first three years of opening up wasteland, as long as they came to serve in the army.

The captives were immediately excited when they heard this, and they all clamored to join the Shengwu Army. However, soon, the instructors launched a second round of review, saying that the Shengwu Army only recruited soldiers from good families, and did not accept evil scoundrels. If there were such people around them, they should expose each other and report these people. If someone knew about it but did not report it, or was reported by others, the Shengwu Army would refuse to accept them.

This caused an uproar among the captives. Some of them who had helped the landlords and officials to do bad things became furious. Ordinary tenants who were usually oppressed also found support from the organization and began to report and expose the crimes.

A Yuan army soldier named Cai Wuyi raised his hand immediately when he heard that if he did not report the bad guys around him, he would not be able to join the Shengwu Army and would not be able to get 50 acres of land.

"Sir, I want to report that our captain Chen Jiusan had cheated my family out of money before and made them borrow money from Mr. Liu. Then, somehow, the amount of money he owed increased and he couldn't pay it back. In the end, he took away all six acres of land from my family, saying that he was using the land deeds to pay off the debt. Does this count?
"Also, it seems that Chen Jiusan was taken to another camp by the adults before."

"Sir, I also reported Chen Jiusan. He also cheated my family and borrowed money at high interest."

"I want to report it, too. Old Huang, tell me quickly. Didn't he trick your two children into paying off debts? He even forced your wife to death. Now we have the rebels backing us up. Tell me quickly."

Among the crowd of captives, an old man who was probably only forty years old but looked like he was sixty suddenly raised his cloudy eyes.

(End of this chapter)