Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 111, The Court’s Response

Xu Feng, courtesy name Fengsheng, was from Huaizhou.

After the Chuzhou battle ended, Xu Feng was appointed as the magistrate of Xiao County by Fang Yong.

Xu Feng's talent was not outstanding, but his grandfather had passed the imperial examination and left some wealth to the family.

But by the time of Xu Feng's generation, the family's financial situation had begun to decline because his father had not achieved much.

Xu Feng wanted to emulate his grandfather and take the imperial examination to bring honor to his family, but he seemed to have low talent and could never truly understand the essence of the eight-legged essay. After studying hard for a long time, his handwriting improved a lot, but his essays were still mediocre.

In addition, the Daxi examination hall was somewhat dark, and Xu Feng, who had studied hard for many years, failed to even pass the examination for a scholar.

As he approached thirty, his family savings gradually ran out, and Xu Feng had no choice but to set up a stall with his classmates to sell calligraphy for a living.

This continued until the Huaiyin army arrived.

At first, Xu Feng thought that the Huaiyin Army was just a group of bandits and would be wiped out by the imperial court in no time.

But soon, Xu Feng witnessed with his own eyes the Huaiyin army growing stronger and stronger, training soldiers, recruiting talents, defeating the imperial court, hoarding land and grain, and seizing land.

The power has developed in an orderly manner, which is definitely not something that ordinary bandits can achieve.

Later, the leader of the Huaiyin Army issued a notice for the imperial examination.

Xu Feng gritted his teeth and decided to participate.

Later, Xu Feng passed the exam, but his ranking was not high.

He was sent as an instructor in the army.

Xu Feng was somewhat disappointed with the result, but after all, this was still a small official position, which was much better than selling calligraphy on the street.

Xu Feng joined the army and taught the soldiers to read little by little.

When people from different classes and with different ideas get along with each other, it is naturally difficult for them to integrate at first, and many conflicts arise.

But later, as Xu Feng gradually adapted, he gradually gained a foothold in the army, gained the respect of the soldiers, and made many friends.

Although the soldiers in the army are not well educated, most of them are simple and reliable.

Moreover, many soldiers had good understanding, which even made Xu Feng ashamed.

Two of them became very good friends with him during teaching, one was named He Ai and the other was named Gao Li.

Afterwards, Xu Feng was promoted because of his outstanding teaching and started working under Zhou Shuan, responsible for some clerical work.

Occasionally, he would also participate in discussions on military strategy.

Later, Zhou Shuan was stationed in Yangzhou, and Xu Feng also stayed in Yangzhou to take charge of some government affairs.

Later, after Chuzhou and other places were pacified, Fang Yong read Xu Feng's resume and personally transferred him to Feng County to serve as the magistrate.

Xu Feng felt a little emotional when he came to Feng County.

Now he is in charge of the government affairs of a county, which makes him somewhat of a higher-ranking official.

In Feng County, Xu Feng was mainly responsible for the overall management of local officials.

Some of these officials were imperial examination officials like Xu Feng, some were practical officials, and some were demoted officials from Daxi. Xu Feng was responsible for the overall management of these officials so that the government affairs of Feng County could run smoothly.

Then, he assisted the Huaiyin army stationed in the area to carry out military settlements, explained policies to the people, led the people to divert water and irrigate canals, and other trivial matters.

In addition, there is some case review work, which is not too important.

Because Feng County had just been recovered not long ago, most affairs were still under military control. Once a serious case occurred, the army would directly intervene and take the person away and beheaded. Therefore, Xu Feng's case trial work was very easy.

During the time he was in power in Feng County, Xu Feng often saw a strange sight.

Geographically, Fengxian borders Shandong Province.

Beyond Fengxian County is Jeju Prefecture in Shandong.

Therefore, there were quite a few Huaiyin troops stationed in Fengxian County.

On the other side, the imperial court also had a large army stationed at the border. Every day, the imperial court's army would practice military formations at the border, shouting and killing, and sometimes they would fire cannons, but they would fire cannons in the opposite direction of Feng County.

Xu Fengzhen didn't understand the purpose of these imperial troops.

They did not attack Feng County, but just practiced in the void. Did they want to let their troops here relax their vigilance through this behavior?

Xu Feng once witnessed with his own eyes that once when the imperial army fired in the opposite direction, the artillery barrel exploded, killing several soldiers of the government army.

It's so weird!

Beijing,

A prison van slowly drove into the capital.

Wu Sheng in the car had been dead for a long time, but he was still tied to the prison car and his body was used to intimidate the people.

This is what happens when you rebel.

Emperor Longqing in the palace was somewhat unhappy at this time.

He had received the report of the great victory in Zhili a long time ago.

Wang Ziteng and Zhili Governor Zhao Shihong joined forces to defeat the three million-strong army of the Jin bandits and captured one million bandit soldiers.

Marquis Zhaowu bravely broke through the enemy's formation, captured the head of the enemy general among millions of soldiers, and beheaded Wu Sheng, the leader of the Jin enemy, achieving an unprecedented feat!
Although there were some minor incidents along the way.

For example, Chen Zhengdu shamelessly tried to steal credit, and after his failure, he led the remaining troops to flee for fear of punishment.

But overall, this is still an unprecedented victory.

The imminent Jin bandits were successfully dealt with. Sure enough, he made the right decision in using Wang Ziteng!

His ability is no less than that of Li Mu and Lian Po in ancient times, and he himself is also a wise ruler, who is just right to control such a famous general.

In fact, Emperor Longqing was somewhat skeptical about Wang Ziteng's report.

After all, Chen Zhengdu is his confidant. Although he has no idea how capable he is, at least his character should be fine. Why would he steal the credit for no reason?

Emperor Longqing, who was puzzled by this, sent Guo Bai as an imperial envoy. On the one hand, he was to comfort the army on his behalf, and on the other hand, he was to investigate the authenticity of the battle report.

Soon, Guo Bai brought the truth.

It turned out that Chen Zhengdu was afraid of the Jin bandits' military strength and did not dare to fight with them, so he watched Niangzi Pass being lost.

Later, he was stationed in Zhending and did not dare to fight with the Jin bandits, so he secretly reached an agreement with the Jin bandits, allowing them to bypass Zhending and attack the rear of Zhili.

Fortunately, Wang Ziteng arrived in time with his troops. The generals were united and fought desperately to block the Jin bandits' advance. They also joined forces with Zhili Governor Zhao Shihong. Both of them were loyal and patriotic people. They were well versed in military tactics and fought bravely. With the blessing of Your Majesty, they finally defeated the Jin bandits with great difficulty and put down the rebellion.

At this time, Chen Zhengdu was afraid that his cowardice would be exposed, so he took the risk to grab the credit. After his failure, he fled for fear of being punished.

With Guo Bai's explanation, Emperor Longqing no longer had any doubts about Wang Ziteng's battle report.

Emperor Longqing immediately ordered that Wang Ziteng be named Duke Zhongguo, rewarded him with a large amount of money, and had the Ministry of Internal Affairs fund and recruit civilian workers to build a Duke's mansion for him to live in.

He also conferred the title of Marquis of Jing'an on Zhao Shihong, the Governor-General of Zhili, and promoted him to the position of Associate Grand Secretary of the Cabinet.

He also conferred the title of Marquis of Zhaowu on the young general Mao Cheng and made him a role model for the entire army of Daxi, with treatment comparable to that of Huo Qubing, Marquis of the Han Dynasty!

Gao Zhi was also conferred the title of Viscount.

Other officers at all levels were also rewarded, and several of them were made barons for their military achievements.

Afterwards, Emperor Longqing sent a large number of officials to reorganize the lost territories and resume new policies in order to allow the people to recuperate quickly.

The matter of the Jin bandits has been largely resolved for now, and the next thing that will fall into Emperor Longqing's sight is the Huaiyin bandits in the south.

This is also the reason why he looked sad.

An urgent report came from Shandong: Huaiyin bandits led an army of 500,000 to attack Jeju, and Shandong people fought desperately...

(End of this chapter)