Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 289 Chen Zhaoxian's Doubts
Looking at the continuous reports and condemnations from the crowd around him, Cai Wuyi could not help but open his mouth wide. He never dreamed that the centurion named Chen Jiusan not only cheated his family of money, but also cheated other brothers in the same hundred to borrow money at high interest, deliberately set up a trap to force people to pay off debts with their children, and even forced Lao Huang's wife to death.

It turns out that this man has done so many evil things, but he was able to become a centurion by relying on his connections!
In fact, this situation was very common in the Yuan Dynasty. Whenever the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty was short of money, he would send Semu merchants to lend money at high interest rates among the people. However, those Semu merchants did not know who was rich or poor, or who needed to borrow money. When they arrived at the local level, they could only rely on local gentry and ruffians. Officials and businessmen colluded to exploit the people.

The Seljuq merchants only wanted money and sold slaves, while the landlords and gentry took the opportunity to annex land and buy and sell slaves. The two sides hit it off and each got what they needed. Naturally, a large number of young scoundrels were needed, and the evil slaves acted as thugs and pioneers. The Captain Chen who was reported was such a character.

Moreover, the situation in Jiangnan was much more serious than that in the Jianghuai region. Huaixi was not rich to begin with, and had suffered from a series of disasters. Even if the people were squeezed dry, they could not get much money. The Shengwu Army encountered relatively few such situations in Huaixi, but when they arrived in the "rich" Jiangnan, such incidents became more frequent.

When the Yuan government was recruiting soldiers, the landlords and gentry gathered their former thugs and accomplices and conscripted the tenants as soldiers. If the tenants did not agree, they might even have to raise their rent, making it even more difficult for the families to survive.

Moreover, those gentry also carried out reactionary propaganda against the tenants, saying that the Red Turbans were evil soldiers and traitors. They made extremely slanderous statements and forced those coerced tenants to numbly follow them in suppressing the rebels. Even though they knew in their hearts that the rebels were not necessarily bad, they could only pretend to believe them under coercion.

In the past, Cai Wuyi did not dare to think too much, thinking that the world was naturally like this. Some people are born rich, with fine clothes and delicious food, and a group of servants, while some people are born like cattle and horses, without their own land, and have to work as long-term laborers for the landlord and pay rent for their whole lives.

If the harvest was bad, they had to borrow money from the landlords, and then they would never be able to pay it back. Eventually they were forced to sell their land, their children, and their families would be broken up.

Cai Wuyi's family environment is relatively good. He is 19 years old this year. When he was a child, his family still had 20 acres of land. But later his mother fell ill and they had no money to treat the illness, so they had to sell some fields. They were short of money to sell the land, and they were even short of money after selling the land. From then on, they embarked on a vicious cycle until three years ago, when his family was deceived by Chen Jiusan and borrowed money from the government at high interest. The last six acres of land were also used to pay off the debt, and his family completely became tenant farmers, which is what Lu Jin classified as a destitute household.

In the past, Captain Chen bullied people by taking advantage of his power, and he did not dare to offend him. Even when he was captured, he did not dare to report Captain Chen. He was afraid that the Shengwu Army would side with those officers, and then they, the soldiers, would still not have a good end. Until the officer called the instructor said that if they did not report the bad guys around them, they would not be able to join the Shengwu Army and would not be able to get land, he became anxious and could not help but be the first to report Chen Jiusan.

I didn’t expect that such a single stone would cause such a huge uproar and that so many victims would emerge.

Listening to the accusations of the people around him, Cai Wuyi raised his hand and shouted again, "Master Instructor, will you arrest Captain Chen? We have reported him now. If we let him go, he will definitely take revenge on our family."

Cheng Jun, the training officer of the newly formed 24th Regiment, immediately said, "As long as this man is still among the captives, we will definitely arrest him and put him on trial. Even if he is not among the captives, when our Shengwu Army attacks, we will also capture him and bring him to justice. Then everyone can avenge their grievances and revenge. Did you see that man when you were captured just now?"

Cai Wuyi immediately shouted, "Yes, he was taken to another team before."

Cheng Jun nodded, "Okay, don't worry, I will definitely catch him and never let him go back to avenge your family. Do you have anyone else to report? Not only those who cheat people and lend money, but also those who bully people and steal things on weekdays, report them all!"

When this shout was uttered, some people in the crowd suddenly panicked. Don't think that all the impoverished tenants are good people, and someone reported it immediately.

"Instructor Cheng, I'm reporting Qi Dongzi. He relied on his sister being a maid in Mr. Liu's house to have an affair with Mr. Liu's second son. He always acts arrogantly in our village, often eats and drinks for free, and even reported us for being naughty and not letting Mr. Liu rent our good land. Kill him!"

"Yes, Qi Dongzi also stole my sheep. That day I heard the dog barking, so I went to the sheepfold and found that one sheep was missing. I went out to look again, and saw a man running very fast with a sheep in his arms. When I chased him to Qi Dongzi's house, he was killing the sheep and cooking the meat. I said it was mine, but he refused to admit it and beat me up."

"kill him!"

"kill him!"

The man called Qi Dongzi was so frightened that his legs went limp. He knelt on the ground with a thud and shouted in fear, "I am not a human being. I apologize to you, but I have never done anything evil like selling people's children. Please let me go. I will kowtow to you and apologize. I have elderly and young people at home. If I die, how will my family survive?"

"Bah! Now you think of your family. The people in my family are not human. I curse that if you give birth to a son, he will not have an asshole, and if you give birth to a daughter, she will have a tail. Beat him to death!"

This sentence seemed to serve as a warning to the people around, and the surrounding captives immediately rushed forward and started beating and kicking Qi Dongzi.

Seeing this, Cheng Jun shouted, "Stop hitting people! Stop it! Do you still want to share the land? Stop it! If you continue to hit people, I won't give him any land!"

But the place was filled with noise and the people beating him didn't hear what he said at all. Cheng Jun had no choice but to ask the guards to fire warning shots into the air. With a bang of the musket, the prisoners stopped.

Cheng Jun took the opportunity to say to the captives, "Those who want to join the Shengwu Army and want to share the land, listen to the military rules now. You are not allowed to fight privately in the army. If you have any conflicts, find the training officer to solve them. The training officer will naturally judge for you. Even that Captain Chen will be sentenced and executed in public. You are not allowed to execute people privately!"

Wang Er, who reported Qi Dongzi, immediately stood up and said, "Then Instructor Cheng, please judge for us. Does Qi Dongzi, who bullied the villagers, deserve to be put to death?"

Cheng Jun immediately asked Qi Dongzi, "Qi Dongzi, let me ask you, do you admit everything they just reported? If you lied, I can't protect you today."

Qi Dongzi immediately crawled over and cried, begging, "Sir, I did steal his sheep and had conflicts with the neighbors, but I really didn't kill anyone. Please spare my life, and I will do anything for you!"

Cheng Jun looked at the captives and asked, "Is what he said wrong? If he has harmed your family or done anything more heinous, tell me now and I will judge for you."

The prisoners suddenly stopped talking. Cheng Jun waited for a while before speaking.

"Okay, since you guys are silent, Qi Dongzi only knows how to steal and do dirty things. Of course, our Shengwu Army doesn't want such a scoundrel, but his crime is not punishable by death, so we can't just kill him right away."

Upon hearing this, Qi Dongzi raised his head in surprise and listened to what Cheng Jun continued to say.

"Qi Dongzi, I will punish you to go to Luzhou to mine and do forced labor to atone your sins. You will do forced labor for one year first. If you sincerely repent and do not make mistakes again, you will be given five acres of land after one more year of work. The same will apply in the future. The maximum you can get is thirty acres of land, and then I will let you go home. How do you do it?"

"Thank you for not killing me, sir. I am willing to mine and I will definitely repent. Thank you for not killing me!" Upon hearing this, Qi Dongzi kowtowed repeatedly to express his gratitude. As the saying goes, there is great terror between life and death. He was almost scared to death by what happened just now. Now, not only can he survive, but he also has the opportunity to share the land. Naturally, he agreed immediately.

Cheng Jun looked at Wang Er again and asked, "Wang Er, are you satisfied?"

"Coach Cheng is fair in his dealings. It is reasonable to punish him to go mining. But isn't it too easy for him to be given land?" Wang Er was still a little dissatisfied.

Cheng Jun added, "His family doesn't have any land either, and he was also oppressed by Mr. Liu. Although he has a rogue style, he is not a scoundrel who would harm the world or call for violence and killing. Since he is willing to work and repent, and he knows his mistakes and can correct them, we can't deny him a way out.

"Besides, his family is innocent. If we don't give him a share of the land, how will his family live? Besides, there's no money for mining. We can't let him mine for seven years for nothing. These thirty acres of land should be his family's compensation."

Wang Er still had a sullen face and didn't say anything. Cheng Jun then looked at everyone and said.

"We, the Shengwu Army, have risen up to overthrow the tyranny of the Yuan court, expel the Tartars, restore China, establish laws and disciplines, and save the people. What do we mean by saving the people? All Han people in the world are our compatriots, our brothers and sisters, and we must treat them equally.

"Your brother made a mistake, but it's not a serious crime that harms the world. Are you going to beat him to death? Since he is willing to change, then give him a chance. After he changes, we are still brothers and sisters. We are all poor people oppressed by the Tartars of the Yuan court. Why do you have to make things difficult for your own people? If you have the ability, why don't you go and seek revenge on the worse Tartars?"

Wang Er heard this and said, "Since Instructor Cheng said so, let's give him a chance and see if he will change."

"That's more like it. If anyone else wants to report me, please tell me one by one."

Then more people kept reporting, and those young thugs who had murder cases on their hands, evil gentry and slaves, as well as those scoundrels who had not committed any murders, were all arrested one by one.

Then the public trial took place. The centurion Chen Jiusan confessed everything under the testimony of many people and was finally executed on the spot. The moment his head fell to the ground, countless captives applauded!

The scoundrels who bullied others on a daily basis were also sent to Luzhou to work in the mines and perform hard labor to atone for their sins.

On the third day after crossing the river, the instructors found some old soldiers of the Shengwu Army and held a grievance meeting with the captives. One by one, they went on stage to tell about the sufferings they had suffered from the oppression of the Yuan court officials. This immediately resonated with the captives below the stage. Many strong men could not help but shed tears. Then the old soldiers of the Shengwu Army talked about the changes that happened to them after joining the Shengwu Army.

The families who were sold as slaves were rescued, and those whose family members were killed also followed the Shengwu Army to seek revenge. The extremely poor families who had no land at home were now allocated land, and their lives began to get better. This autumn harvest brought a lot of grain, and the taxes set by the Marshal were not high. They just had to wait for the Tartars to be driven away, and then they could go home and live a good life. If they could fight and make meritorious deeds, they could be promoted and given titles in the future.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang was dragged onto the stage to complain about his miserable life. Under the oppression of the Yuan court, his entire family was wiped out, and he became a refugee. He worked as a monk and begged for food. Later, he joined the Shengwu Army. Because he worked hard to improve his skills and study military tactics, he made great contributions in this battle. The commander-in-chief rewarded him with money and land, and made him an earl and a commander of a thousand households. The captives were immediately jealous when they heard this.

Then the instructors encouraged the captives to go on stage to complain. Some captives could not help but go on stage to talk. They said more miserable things, because the misery of the veterans of the Shengwu Army had passed, but their misery was far from over. The captives took turns to go on stage to complain, which made everyone understand that they were all oppressed and miserable. At this time, the instructors went on stage to speak again. Why did everyone live so miserably? In the final analysis, it was the fault of the Yuan court Tartars. They were corrupt, oppressed the Han people, ignored natural disasters and refugees, only cared about their own enjoyment, formulated tyranny, and exploited the people. If they did not drive away the Tartars and overthrow the tyranny of the Yuan court, they would never have a good life. So what should they do? Naturally, they should join the Shengwu Army and follow the wise Lu Shuai to drive away the Hu Lu and restore the Han people's country!

"Drive out the Tartars and restore China!"

"Drive out the Tartars and restore China!"

"Overthrow the tyrannical Yuan regime and stop being slaves to the Tartars!"

"Overthrow the tyrannical Yuan regime and stop being slaves to the Tartars!"

After the grievance meeting, the captives who were the bad apples were picked out and, under the leadership of the instructor, they became immediately excited and their blood boiled, as if if they were given a spear, they would fight the Yuan army to the death.

Tao An watched all this in amazement. He followed the instructor for three days. In just less than three days, he saw with his own eyes how the instructor transformed those numb Yuan army prisoners into determined and high-spirited anti-Yuan fighters. He was shocked beyond words!

I heard that this was all arranged by Lu Jin. If it is true, then Lu Jin's means of manipulating people's hearts can be called evil. With such means, why worry about the lack of troops? As long as there are people, why worry about not having a large army?
It's just that Lu Jin's method of treating gentry is a bit too harsh. After all, there are more gentry in Jiangnan. If Lu Jin continues to implement this method, it will be difficult to win over the gentry class in Jiangnan.

So Tao An immediately found Lu Jin.

"My lord, your method of dealing with the prisoners really opened my eyes. If you follow this method, the Shengwu Army will surely grow rapidly. But will my lord continue to treat the gentry in Jiangnan in this way in the future? I'm afraid it will be difficult to win their support."

Lu Jin immediately retorted, "I killed those who were in collusion with the Yuan court and oppressed the people. Since they dared to raise troops against me, they must be prepared to be defeated and liquidated. I didn't touch any of those kind and sensible people. For example, aren't you a kind and sensible country gentleman?
"Besides, those people have raised an army to fight against me. Can I still expect them to join me? I don't even expect to win their support!"

Tao An was silent for a moment, and then couldn't help but say, "But there are still many gentry like this in Jiangnan. If you kill them all like this, my lord, you won't be able to kill them all."

Lu Jin immediately said, "If they insist on fighting me, then let me see whether there are more gentry like this or more tenants under them, and whether those tenants are on their side or on my side, who is distributing land to the tenants!
"Huaixi has suffered from disasters over the years, and many people have died. There are plenty of wastelands! After Huaixi is divided, there is also a lot of land in the north waiting for population expansion. I really don't believe that there will be no land to be divided. If they dare to resist, I will fight to the end!
"Go ask those newly converted prisoners outside the door and see who they are helping!"

Tao An was silent for a while after hearing this. Well, what Lu Jin said did make sense. Since they were already enemies, there was no need to be polite. In addition, with the system of training officers designed by Lu Jin and the method of converting prisoners, he could really fight those gentry to the end. So he simply stopped persuading them.

After Tao An left, Cheng Jun came again and raised a new question.

When Lu Jin formulated the method of converting prisoners, he divided the prisoners into four categories according to their land properties. But now he encountered a new problem. Some of the prisoners' families were still in the Yuan court's territory. If their families could not be moved there, even if they were given land in Huaixi, no one would farm it. The key was to migrate more people.

There is another question. After dealing with some of the bad gentry in Jiangnan, such as Mr. Liu who was reported by the prisoners today, to whom should his land be distributed? Which prisoners should stay in Jiangnan to share the land, and which prisoners should be moved to Huaixi to share the land?

Lu Jin immediately gave instructions to first distribute land to the captives whose families could be found, and then move their families to Huaixi for farming. For those whose families were still in the Yuan army's territory, they would be organized into an army first, and when they returned to their hometowns in the future, their families would be allowed to go to Huaixi to distribute land. For the time being, they could be issued land deeds, and even if they died in battle, the land deeds could be handed over to their families, who would then use the "land deed receipts" to claim 50 acres of land in the future.

As for the land vacated by the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, it can be temporarily used as government land and rented out to landless people for cultivation. The government can collect rent and use it for government expenses. In the future, Jiankang will be used as the base and capital of the country, which will definitely attract a large population. Those government lands can also be distributed to new people, such as the artisan families coming from Luzhou.

It can also be distributed to captives who already have land in Jiangnan but have less than 50 acres of land, so that they can stay there.

After receiving clear instructions, the work of expanding the army accelerated. Cheng Jun quickly selected a group of captives who had no land and were from Dangtu, found their families, and sent them to various counties in Huaixi to divide the land. In just one day, a new 24th regiment was formed.

Xu Yong brought a group of veterans and immediately began training the newly formed 24th Regiment, temporarily using equipment captured from the Yuan army.

In the attack on Dangtu City, there were a total of 24 Yuan troops defending the city. Nearly were killed or wounded, leaving uninjured prisoners. A new th Regiment was formed using more than people, and hundreds of scoundrels and evil gentry were publicly tried. Some soldiers who had land in the south of the Yangtze River were left to fill the gaps in the old army. There were only prisoners left, which was not enough to form another regiment.

However, there are still some prisoners in Caishiji, about 22 intact prisoners. After replenishing the casualties of the 23th Regiment and picking out the scum and rogues among them, two new regiments, and , were formed, which would use exactly people.

The remaining 6,000 people, plus the remaining 3,000 people in Dangtu, add up to 9,000 people, and can form two more regiments.

So Lu Jin promoted Wu Fu of the 25th Regiment to be the commander of the newly formed 26th Regiment, and Hua Yunlong of the 37th Regiment to be the commander of the newly formed th Regiment, and then formed two new regiments, all of which were assigned to the th Army.

The newly formed 110th Division was composed of Xu Yong's newly formed 24th Regiment, Wu Fu's newly formed 25th Regiment, and Hua Yunlong's newly formed 26th Regiment. Xu Yong was the commander-in-chief of the 110th Division, which was affiliated with Yang Jing's 37th Army.

In this way, even if the 37th Army is fully staffed, half of its troops are newly formed troops and have no combat effectiveness yet, so they can only be used to defend the city.

Within just five days of crossing the river, Lu Jin used the prisoners of the first battle to expand five regiments. Two were stationed on Chang Yuchun's side at Caishiji, and three were stationed on Dangtu's side at Dangtu City.

With these three new regiments used to defend the city, the Yuan army in Lujin and Jiqing Road can use all their main forces in the decisive battle!
Yang Jing's 4th Regiment, Yu Tonghai's 9th Regiment, Zhang Desheng's 17th Regiment, three main infantry regiments, plus Ye Sheng's cavalry regiment, totaled 18,000 people. Add to that the two imperial guards brigades with 15,000 people, and the total force available for mobile warfare was 33,000 people.

Thirty-three thousand troops against Chen Zhaoxian's 150,000 troops, the difference in strength is only one to five. If they divide their troops to attack the city, Lu Jin will naturally not be able to defeat them. But if it is a decisive battle in the wild, he is not afraid of the Yuan army at all!
It has been five days since they crossed the river. Lu Jin is working hard to expand his army, but what is Chen Zhaoxian doing?

He is shaking people like crazy!

While Chen Zhaoxian was gathering troops in Lishui County east of Dangtu and arranging his father's funeral, he also had to report the military situation here to several Pingzhang of the Yuan court's Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province, Dingding, Jiaohua, and Yuelu Temur, and ask for help from them. At the same time, he had to send scouts to spy on the situation in Dangtu and Caishiji, and find out Lu Jin's deployment and specific military strength.

Chen Zhaoxian dared not forget his father's advice before his death. He said that Lu Jin deliberately humiliated him in public, perhaps to lure Chen Zhaoxian over for revenge. Maybe Lu Jin had set up an ambush somewhere to ambush him. So Chen Zhaoxian was very careful and sent scouts to spy on the situation in Dangtu every day.

However, the situation reported by the scouts was very strange, and it seemed that Lu Jin had no ambush at all.

According to the news obtained from the local people, Lu Jin was going to distribute land to the captives. Now all the captives have defected to the Red Turbans. There is a so-called regiment stationed at Caishiji and Niuzhuji, and there are two new regiments formed with captives, a total of three regiments, with more than 10,000 troops, and there are also naval ships stationed there.

On the other hand, in Dangtu, all of Lu Jin's troops were deployed outside the city and camped with their backs against the city. There were a total of three red-armored infantry regiments, one white-armored cavalry regiment, and two yellow-armored guard brigades. All of them had large flags erected in the camp and could be seen from a long distance away. If Lu Jin was not being mysterious, he would definitely not be wrong.

However, Chen Zhaoxian has not yet figured out what the organization of the Imperial Guard Brigade is and how many soldiers it has. He only knows that it has more soldiers than ordinary regiments and is equipped with heavy armored infantry with black armor. They have strong combat effectiveness and are Lu Jin's imperial guards. The yellow armored soldiers of the Imperial Guard Brigade mainly use firearms.

These were the accounts given by the Yuan army captives who sent his father to Lishui. They were the only ones who had close contact with the Shengwu Army in Dangtu and had been captured.

By this calculation, Lu Jin had deployed more than 30,000 soldiers outside Dangtu City. Aren't all the soldiers guarding the city captured? Or did Lu Jin transfer other troops from Huaixi on the other side of the river to defend the city?

Chen Zhaoxian didn't know what tricks Lu Jin was playing, but he didn't dare to act rashly, so he temporarily stationed in Lishui County to confront Lu Jin, and at the same time mobilized troops.

"Young Marshal, the troops from Danyang, Jintan, and Liyang have also arrived. We now have 80,000 troops. When will we counterattack Dangtu?"

"Wait a little longer. Have the cavalry from Jurong and Shangyuan arrived? That bastard surnamed Lu has 5,000 armored cavalry under his command. They are not something that ordinary infantry can resist. We have to gather more cavalry."

"The cavalry needs to prepare additional food and fodder, so I'm afraid it will take another two days."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhaoxian was immediately furious, "Go and urge them, ask them why they are still delaying. The autumn harvest has just been completed, so where can we find food and grass? Ask them to come and gather the troops quickly. The horse feed in Lishui is enough for them to eat for half a year!"

"Yes!"

"Wait a minute, go ask when Lord Pingzhang Yuelu will be able to come back. He has also taken with him more than a thousand cavalrymen from Taiping Road."

"Yes, I will ask right away."

(End of this chapter)