Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 412: Art Troupe and the Current News

The battle of Suzhou was planned by Xia Yu, and Yu Tongyuan was in charge of the overall command. A total of four divisions and more than 50,000 people were mobilized to participate in the battle. Zhao Junyong had only 30,000 soldiers in total, and they were scattered all over the place. There were only 20,000 soldiers in the core area of ​​Suzhou, and food and grass were not sufficient.

At the beginning of the battle, the Shengwu Army displayed a crushing momentum, and the outer cities offered almost no resistance. Of course, this was mainly due to the surrender of veteran Xuzhou generals such as Fu Youde and Li Xixi.

There were only two thousand people stationed in Wuhe, the closest to Haozhou. Yu Tongyuan personally led a division to surround Wuhe. Before they could officially take action, Wuhe surrendered.

Because Wuhe is the closest to Haozhou, all the previous transactions between the Shengwu Army and Xuzhou were conducted here. It can be said that apart from the top leaders of the Xuzhou Group, the Xuzhou soldiers in Wuhe are the ones who know the strength of the Shengwu Army best. They have long heard that the Shengwu Army has conquered Jiangnan and now has money and food. At the end of last year, many immigrants from Jiangnan moved here, all of whom were dependents of the Shengwu Army's newly formed troops.

After the Eastern Expedition, rewards and pensions were given to the newly immigrated soldiers and their families, which made the Xuzhou volunteers in Wuhe jealous. They had been thinking about joining the Shengwu Army for a long time. Now they finally got what they wanted, so why fight anymore? The grassroots soldiers in Wuhe were even less willing to resist than their generals.

The situation was similar in the westernmost Mengcheng, where the three forces of Xuzhou Volunteer Army, Shengwu Army, and Liu Futong's troops met. It was also a lawless area with only a thousand people stationed there. Zhang Long easily surrendered with a cavalry regiment.

Zhang Long even allowed the defenders of Mengcheng to remain in Mengcheng, as long as they changed their flags and joined the Shengwu Army and waited for reorganization. During the reorganization, he was also allowed to follow the Xuzhou veteran Li Xixi. This completely relieved the defenders of their psychological burden and they no longer had to worry about being targeted in the future or being squeezed out by other Shengwu Army troops. So they stayed where they were, changed their flags and waited for Li Xixi to take over.

Fu Youde and his men were veterans from Xuzhou. As soldiers from Xuzhou, they set out from Tianchang and passed through Xuyi, Hongxian (Sixian), and Lingbi, three cities in a row, all of which were directly surrendered. It seemed that Zhao Jun's battle with Peng Da was extremely unpopular within Xuzhou. In addition, with the help of Fu Youde, who was their own man, these outer cities almost unanimously submitted to the Shengwu Army. Li Xixi also selected elite soldiers along the way to form his new division.

Mao Gui in the north led the main force of his 51st Army directly south from Xuzhou and approached Suzhou. Finally, the four armies met at the foot of Suzhou city on March . More than troops surrounded Suzhou and began to steadily build artillery positions outside the city.

Peng Zaozhu cursed outside the city all day long, saying that Zhao Junyong was so cruel that he would do anything to annex and seize power, including killing his comrades. In the past, his father Peng Da had started a rebellion with Zhima Li and Zhao Junyong, and was one of the eight founders of Xuzhou. In the end, he did not die at the hands of the Yuan army, but died at the hands of Zhao Junyong.

Then he went around to recruit Zhao Jun's soldiers and generals, telling them that Zhao Jun dared to fight with his father Peng Da today, and they should follow him tomorrow. If they angered him, he could also fight with them, and there would be no good ending for following Zhao Jun.

This persuasion to surrender immediately shook the morale of the defenders in the city and also broke Zhao Junyong's defense. That night, Zhao Junyong sent his adopted sons Zhao Qi and Zhao Li out of the city to attack the Shengwu Army camp at night. However, the outside of the city was well prepared. Zhao Qi was beheaded by Fu Youde in battle, Zhao Li was captured alive, and the hundreds of people who went out of the city for the night attack were also wiped out. This further plummeted the morale of the defenders.

The siege officially began on the second day. The sound of cannons on the turrets outside the city immediately caused the defenders on the city walls to hide everywhere. The elite soldiers who had been prepared on the north, south and east sides took the opportunity to attack and climbed onto the top of the city walls with almost no effort. The defenders in the city surrendered in large numbers and were taken prisoner at the call of the veteran general of Xuzhou.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Zhao Junyong broke out from the west gate with treasures and trusted cavalry. Although the Shengwu Army was surrounded on three sides and left one side open, a cavalry regiment of Zhang Long had already ambushed outside the west gate. There were more than 4,000 elite cavalrymen, and each of them was equipped with a short flintlock rifle. The several hundred cavalrymen were overqualified to fight Zhao Junyong, and they quickly killed him from his horse. None of the remaining cavalrymen could escape.

After this battle, Lu Jin immediately sent a large number of officials, all of whom were county magistrates, chief clerks, county magistrates and others who had just been selected in the imperial examination, to Suzhou and nearby cities to formally establish a government.

All 133 soldiers under Zhao Junyong's command were incorporated, and hundreds of his trusted subordinates were killed, almost wiped out. As for the remaining ordinary soldiers, Li Xixi selected more than strong men to form his rd Division. The remaining old and weak were also reorganized into an agricultural reclamation division, ready to be taken to the Central Plains to build cities and cultivate land.

After Zhao Junyong was eliminated and his troops were officially incorporated, Li Xixi's 133rd Division returned to the army, and the Fourth Front Army in the direction of Luzhou was fully staffed. After the war, Mao Gui took the 51st Army back to Xuzhou and was incorporated into the Second Front Army. Fu Youde and Li Xixi took two divisions to Luzhou and were under the jurisdiction of Yu Tingyu's Fourth Front Army, and officially began training and preparations for war.

Back at the commander's headquarters in Jiankang, in addition to paying attention to the reorganization and training of the five armies, Lu Jin was also summoning the envoy sent by Tao Guangyi from Jinhua.

The envoy that Tao Guangyi found was the current principal of Tao's Academy and his uncle Tao Qixian. After all, for such a major event as betraying the court and actively negotiating surrender with the rebels, he would only feel at ease if a blood relative of his own had to step in.

Tao Qixian is a man in his forties. Because his family is rich and he takes good care of himself, he still looks like a middle-aged man. He has black hair and beard, and a long beard, looking like a great scholar.

In fact, if the Tao family simply wanted to negotiate surrender, there was no need for them to send such a pillar. Even if Guo Zixing could not make the decision on the enemy's surrender at the front line, he could report it to Yang Jing, and he could make the decision. The main thing was that what reached Jinhua this time was not only the news that Tuotuo was demoted in the north, but also the news that Lu Jin was implementing a new policy in eastern Zhejiang.

The Tao family is also a big landlord in Jinhua. They can surrender, but they are also worried that Lu Jin will implement a tiered tax in Jinhua in the future. Then they, the Tao family, will be forced to divide the family property. This is of course something the Tao family does not want to see. Once the family is divided, the entire Tao family will fall apart.

Under Lu Jin's tiered tax, these big clans basically won't have the opportunity to make a fortune in the future, so Tao Qixian also wants to come and see for himself how Lu Jin's new policy is implemented in eastern Zhejiang. If there is strong resistance from the people and riots everywhere, and he himself can't even gain a foothold in eastern Zhejiang, then there is no need for the Tao family to surrender.
However, Tao Qixian traveled from Jinhua to Hangzhou, then to Jiaxing, Suzhou, and finally to Jiankang, almost retracing the route of the Eastern Expedition, but he did not see the riots as he had imagined.

The feeling he got from the entire eastern Zhejiang was that there were a large number of garrisons in each city, and the Shengwu Army had a high rate of armor. He almost verified with his own eyes the rumor that "300,000 troops assisted in the implementation of the new policy." With so many garrisons in each city in eastern Zhejiang, it would be difficult for those landlords to rebel even if they wanted to, so no riots occurred.

Another thing is that it is now the spring ploughing season, and some people who are farming on the government fields are very enthusiastic about growing crops. After some inquiries, Tao Qixian found out that the government of Lujin had reduced the rent of the government fields by 10%, and those who rented the government fields only had to pay 40%. Therefore, the people were very supportive of the new government.

When passing through some towns, you can still see some disabled veterans who are training young and strong people from all over the place in martial arts and military formations. These soldiers have no armor, and they don't even have uniform military uniforms. They wear a variety of clothes, but they train meticulously. The officers leading the team also look like people who have really fought in wars.

After asking the people who escorted him, I found out that this was the internal guard army established by Lu Jin's headquarters, similar to the wing army of the former Song Dynasty, but the source of soldiers was different from that of the wing army of the Song Dynasty. Many of the wing troops of the Song Dynasty were either bandits or rebels who were recruited.

However, Lu Jin's internal guards were formed by selecting men from the registered civilians, with each village having about a dozen men, all of whom were from good families with property. It sounded similar to the Fubing system of the Tang Dynasty, but it was different from the Fubing system of the Tang Dynasty.

The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were hereditary soldiers. Once selected, they had to serve in the army for a long time. However, the inner guards of Lu Jin had a retirement system. The current system is a three-year military service system, and the inner guards usually do not have to leave the county where they are located and almost always serve in the local area.

However, there is no military pay now. Pay is only issued when there are field missions, such as helping the field army to escort food and fodder, or helping the field army to fill the line of troop to defend the city. In modern terms, it is called field allowance.

This military service system surprised Tao Qixian. The Tao family was originally a hereditary ten thousand households in Wuzhou Road, and they were also a family of generals. They were very familiar with the military. Tao Qixian was very keenly aware that Lu Jin's internal guard system was not cost-effective, especially the retirement system. A total of three years of military service, it was hard to train them into elite soldiers, and then you let them retire. Isn't this ridiculous? What's the use of training such soldiers?
Moreover, the three-year military service system means that one-third of the troops have to retire every year, and another one-third are new recruits. The only ones who are really useful are actually only two-thirds of the total force. This is such a waste.

Lu Jin's original intention of establishing the Internal Guard Army was not to use them to fight in the field. The Internal Guard Army is an armed police force used to maintain internal stability. In this way, they can take on part of the national defense tasks, reduce the number of regular troops in the field army, and save military expenditure. The three-year military service system he established was also well thought out.

The recruitment of men for the Internal Security Army is almost entirely based on the age of 17. In the first year of enlistment, they are first trained in military skills, and then attend literacy classes in the army to learn cultural knowledge.

In the second year, military training was reduced and soldiers began to work in local official fields (internal guard farms), learning new crop planting, new agricultural techniques, the use of agricultural machinery, and livestock breeding, including the raising of cattle, horses and donkeys. According to their interests, they could also learn a craft on the farm, such as blacksmithing, carpentry, bricklaying, or slaughtering livestock and cooking.

In this way, after these soldiers retire, they can immediately return home to promote the planting of new crops. The soldiers of the Internal Guard are recruited from various villages, so it can be ensured that every village has a group of young people who can grow new crops, which is very beneficial for the promotion of American crops.

They will start their official duties in the third year, guarding the local county town, patrolling important transportation nodes, guarding prisons, collecting taxes from various villages, assisting the police system in arresting criminals, or suppressing bandits. If telegraph lines are built in the future, each county can also organize a company of internal security forces to specifically patrol and repair telegraph lines.

After one year of service, they can retire. If they have made meritorious contributions or are good at studying, they can be recommended by the organization to apply for military academies. If they want to be professional soldiers, they can also apply to join the field army of the Shengwu Army. The purpose of Lu Jin's doing this is actually mainly to supply a large number of dual-use talents to the society, and at the same time to establish another upward channel besides the imperial examination, and also to cooperate with his industrialization ideas.

The Internal Security Force not only undertakes part of the national defense tasks, but also can carry out literacy training in the army, learn advanced planting and breeding techniques, and acquire a skill so that they can accelerate the construction of rural areas after retirement. The city's militia can also find a way to make a living with the skills they have learned after retirement, such as becoming construction workers or working in factories. These disciplined and educated veterans are definitely the best candidates to be workers.

Tao Qixian viewed the internal security army system purely from the perspective of training troops for warfare, which was certainly not cost-effective, but how could he know Lu Jin's real intention?

He also saw hidden dangers. Under this military service system, a group of veterans would flow into the civilian population every year. These people had received formal military training. If they rebelled, the destructive power would definitely be greater than that of an ordinary peasant uprising.

However, what Lu Jin was thinking was that this way he could hide his soldiers among the people. The people were filled with a large number of young and strong men who had received military training. These were potential reserve forces. When a surge of soldiers was needed, a large number of soldiers with military skills could be recruited from the people at any time, which was equivalent to a national mobilization system.

However, with the strength of China after its unification, if it really came to the point where it was necessary to mobilize soldiers to go to the battlefield, the main force would probably have millions of soldiers. After all, the main force of the Shengwu Army and the Internal Guards would have millions of soldiers. I really don't know what kind of war would require the mobilization of soldiers.
Tao Qixian suspected that these veterans might rebel, but when he arrived in Wuxi, he saw a scene that terrified him. It turned out that it was the art troupe of the Military Education Department of the Wuyuan, which was sent to tour various places in eastern Zhejiang.

Whenever the art troupe arrived at a place, it would first perform for the main force of the Shengwu Army, and then perform for the local Internal Security Army.

There were not many entertainment activities in ancient times. When people heard that there was a free play, they came from all over the place to watch it. If people from nearby came to watch the play during the performance, they would not drive them away and let them watch together.

The plays performed were all model operas compiled by Shi Nai'an according to Lu Jin's opinions, such as "The Injustice of Dou E", which highlighted the corruption and stupidity of Yuan court officials, and "The White-Haired Girl", which highlighted the evil deeds of the tax-farming gentry who collected more taxes from the people.

There is also "Driving the People", which tells the story of a Seljuq merchant who lent debts to the King of Hell for the Tartar emperor, and finally forced the good people to become slaves and sell themselves into slavery. There is also "Welcoming the Heavenly Soldiers", which tells the story of how the oppressed people welcomed the Shengwu Army and lived a good life.

Finally, there is a grand finale, the name of the play is "The Bitter Mandarin Ducks", which tells the bloody love story between a young lady from a branch of a large clan and an ordinary poor peasant boy. However, the love story is just a cover, and the content is mainly to expose the tax policy of the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty did collect less taxes on the surface, but the method of tax farmers and dozens of tax items specially extracted actually collected more taxes.

During this period, the big clans also annexed land, causing ordinary farmers to become landless tenants. The people's lives became more and more miserable. However, the big clans relied on various powers to carry out large-scale annexation and plunder the land of the common people. They also implemented internal oppression within the clan. Even women from side branches were not allowed to marry ordinary farmers. If a male from a side branch became an official, he would be forced to help the clan do bad things. Finally, if the court found out, the official from the side branch would be thrown into prison and not allowed to betray the family.

After the Shengwu Army arrived, they implemented a nine-level tax system. In order to avoid paying heavy taxes, the big clans were forced to divide up their property. From then on, the side branches of the big clans were liberated, and the so-called gentry and powerful people, under the pressure of the tax system, could no longer annex land.

The protagonist, a poor peasant boy, joined the Shengwu Army and was allocated 50 acres of land. According to the nine-class household classification, he only had to pay a light tax of 10%. The heroine's large clan was forced to split up due to heavy taxes and also successfully broke away from the clan. The heroine's family was allocated several hundred acres of land, which was distributed to her brothers. The original branch of the large clan has now become an ordinary peasant like the protagonist.

Then the heroine's brother passed the imperial examination and no longer had to be coerced by the clan leader to help them do bad things. The hero also made merit on the battlefield and became an officer. The star-crossed pair of mandarin ducks finally got married.

The main purpose of this play was to be performed for ordinary people and the side branches of large clans, so that ordinary people would know that the progressive tax was protecting them and preventing large landowners from annexing their land.

Let those illegitimate branches of the big families know that dividing the family property will only benefit you. Passing the imperial examination and becoming an official will bring honor to your family, not to the clan. You will no longer have to be coerced by the clan leader, and you will be able to live better than those so-called main clans. In fact, it is to induce those big family branches to take the initiative to make trouble and force the big clan to split up.
This series of highly targeted plays, like directional blasting, immediately caused a strong reaction among the army and the people. When "The Injustice of Dou E", "The White-Haired Girl" and "The Drunk Girl" were performed, the soldiers and the people in the audience were immediately outraged and cursed the Yuan Dynasty, the Semu merchants, and the corrupt officials. They wanted to rush onto the stage and kill a few of the actors playing the roles of Huai Ren on the spot.

When the performance came to the part of welcoming the heavenly soldiers, some civilians and soldiers cried for joy. From now on, they had driven away the Tartars and welcomed the Shengwu Army, and they could finally live a good life.

The final story of the two lovers sparked a heated discussion among the military and civilians. The instructor took the opportunity to give a speech on the stage, explaining the harms of land annexation. In the end, not only the common people with other surnames but also the illegitimate children of the big families were the victims.

Do you think that clans only oppress the common people of other clans? Bullshit! They rely on clan power to oppress their own clan members even more cruelly. The so-called side branches are actually the same as the servants of the main clan. Some clans even collect taxes from side branches in the name of clan land and school land. If a side branch family has a talented person, they will be forced to adopt him or her. Do you think there are no such people? What's more, there are family rules and clan regulations. The clan leader can even decide the life and death of side branches!

Therefore, no matter whether you are a common person or a branch of a large clan, only by firmly supporting the policy of tiered taxation can everyone be free from oppression in the future. If anyone dares to resist the new policy, the millions of Shengwu Army will resolutely destroy them!

This speech immediately resonated with the military and civilians in the audience, and also shocked Tao Qixian. He had previously doubted whether the veterans who had flowed into the civilian population would rebel, but after watching the performance of the art troupe, he felt that this way of promoting policy was too horrible.

The army and civilians are united and their morale is high. In order to preserve the fruits of victory, if the landlord reactionaries want to sabotage, or if the Yuan court attacks again, they will fight hard to beat the enemy back!

When leaving Wuxi and passing by a township in Wuxi, Tao Qixian once again saw the good show of retribution in this life.

After the results of the imperial examination were announced in March, documents announcing the good news reached eastern Zhejiang one after another. Officials went to the countryside with drums and gongs to announce the good news. There was a large landowner named Zhu in Wuxi. A descendant of Zhu's branch passed the imperial examination and was appointed magistrate of the county by the commander-in-chief's mansion.

After hearing the news, this side branch immediately went to the main branch to propose separation. The main branch of course disagreed, so the side branch who passed the imperial examination went to the government to sue the main branch and report his illegal activities.

There are many dirty deeds in big families, and as long as you want to report them, you will almost certainly fail. For example, keeping slaves can be a big thing or a small thing, but as long as you want to deal with someone, you can use it as an excuse.

The prefect of Wuxi was worried about where to gain political achievements, so he took action almost immediately after receiving the report. He arrested the head of the Zhu family and brought him to justice. Under severe interrogation, he forced out several other evil deeds. It turned out that Zhu not only kept slaves, but also set up a private torture hall, restricted personal freedom, and beat the slaves severely, eventually killing them.

This turned the case of raising slaves into a murder case. In the end, the patriarch of the main branch of the Zhu family was directly sentenced to death, and several of the main branch's sons were sentenced to be accomplices and exiled according to the law. In addition to part of the Zhu family's property being confiscated and used to compensate the victims' families, the government also took control of the fixed assets and divided them equally among several branches of the Zhu family.

In this case, the main patriarch of the Zhu family, who owned thousands of acres of land, had almost no power to resist and could only allow the government to deal with him. A solid fortress is always broken from the inside first. If a branch of the family reports the head of the family, then almost no one can escape.

The first sword after getting ashore is to kill the person you don't want to kill first, which is the patriarch of the main clan. This move is simply too cruel. Moreover, with the art troupe touring around the country, the influence of those model operas is still continuing to ferment, and similar cases will only become more and more in the future.

Tao Qixian also understood that with Lu Jin's smooth combination of moves, there would be no chaos in East Zhejiang. Moreover, if this set of moves was used in Jinhua in the future, the Tao family would not have any power to resist. Even if the surrender agreement could not be reached this time, the Tao family would probably be destroyed in the military attack and would not be able to wait for Lu Jin's new policy.
Since they couldn't resist, they could only cooperate actively. Tao Qixian finally adjusted his mindset. Instead of fighting against the monster Lu Jin, it would be better to find a way to sell Wuzhou Road while their family was still a millionaire in the Yuan Dynasty, and get some benefits. Maybe they could even catch up with the express ship of the new dynasty.

After all, the territory of Wuzhou Road belongs to the Yuan court, but the benefits gained in return belong to their own people. He can still figure this out.

It was with such complicated feelings that Tao Qixian finally arrived at the commander's mansion in Jiankang and was summoned by Lu Jin.
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PS: I'm back and will update from today on

(End of this chapter)