Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 61: Pacification of Shanxi Strategy

Emperor Longqing became furious after reading Wang Ziteng's memorial.

At the court meeting the next day, Emperor Longqing sent someone to bring Chunyu Jian to the court for interrogation.

Chunyu Jian was the son of Marquis Lingchuan and a member of a noble family. After hearing about this the day before, his family members used their connections in the court to try to protect Chunyu Jian.

Since the news from Huaizhou had not yet spread, everyone still thought that Chunyu Jian was simply incompetent in fighting, so many people agreed to plead for Chunyu Jian tomorrow.

However, in the court, all civil and military officials are of one mind, and there are no complicated factions.

With the death of the old Prime Minister Zhang Tingzheng and the long-time absence of the emperor due to a serious illness, the emperor's line has almost been wiped out.

The remaining officials can be simply divided into two factions.

One faction is the loyal ministers, who are loyal to Emperor Longqing. Their representatives are Guo Bai, Cheng Fan and others.

The other faction is Yu Lian, who has formed his own faction and has been trying to obstruct the new policies and has second thoughts towards Your Majesty.

The loyal ministers can be further divided into the nobles and the upright.

But as the saying goes,
The soup made from stinky dog shit has no aroma of meat.

Nowadays, these so-called nobles and the clean stream are actually mixed together and connected with each other, and can no longer be called the clean stream.

So from a macro perspective, there are only two factions in the court now: loyal ministers and Yu Lian.

In the court, Chunyu Jian knelt below and was interrogated by Emperor Longqing himself.

"Chun Yu Jian, I want to ask you, did you collude with the Huaiyin bandits and give up the two cities of Gaoyou and Hailing?"

Chun Yu Jian was so frightened when he heard this that he shook his head repeatedly.

"Your Majesty, I am wronged. I am a loyal subject. Although I lost the city, I have never colluded with the Huaiyin bandits!"

Upon hearing this, Emperor Longqing asked:

"Then I ask you, how was Gaoyou City conquered?"

Chun Yu Jian trembled all over after hearing this.

Last night, in order to ensure tomorrow's interrogation could go smoothly, Dai Quan brought people to give him a complete set of "promotion" torture. He still remembers that hellish feeling vividly, so he dared not tell a lie at this time.

"I am guilty, I called all the generals to drink, which led to the fall of the city."

Emperor Longqing clenched his fists in anger and asked again:
"How did Hailing break through?"

Chun Yujian lowered his head and said in despair:

"It was the guilty minister who led the bandits to knock on the gate, tricking them into opening it, causing the city to fall!"

Emperor Longqing was so angry that he slammed his hand on the dragon chair and said angrily:

"How dare you say you didn't collude with the Huaiyin bandits after acting like this! I will kill all three of your clans!"

Emperor Longqing immediately ordered that Chunyu Jian be tied up and placed in a bronze tripod, boiled alive with wine and water! At the same time, all three clans of Chunyu's family were exterminated!
Apart from Yu Lian who stepped forward to advise against the use of torture as the situation was turbulent and people's hearts were unstable, none of the other officials dared to move.

Those nobles who had agreed to plead for Chunyu Jian yesterday all shrank like quails, fearing that they would be implicated.

In the end, Emperor Longqing certainly did not follow Yu Lian's advice.

He still chose to boil Chunyu Jian to death in wine.

The temperature of the wine after heating was not as high as that of water, not enough to kill a person immediately. Instead, it slowly boiled the skin and flesh, and Chunyu Jian ultimately died in a very tragic way.

Afterwards, Emperor Longqing summoned the cabinet ministers to discuss the military supplies that Wang Ziteng requested in his memorial.

After discussion, it was finally decided that except for armor that was too difficult to produce, the number was reduced to only 3,000 sets, while the rest of the military supplies were all allocated.

In addition, Emperor Longqing withdrew 1.5 million taels of silver from his private treasury and gave them to Wang Ziteng as food and salary to boost morale.

Soon, 900,000 taels of military pay left the capital and were successfully transported to the army where Wang Ziteng was.

Shanxi.

Dong Chen, dressed in rags, joined Wu Sheng's uprising team.

"Name?"

"Dong old fart."

"age?"

"34."

Dong Chen hastily registered his name and age, and was then assigned to a dilapidated military camp.

Someone brought a black cake and a bamboo spear, which were Dong Chen's military rations and weapons. There were sixteen people with Dong Chen, living together in a tent.

There was a yellow-faced man in his forties who was very talkative. Dong Chen gave him a small piece of the pie and got a lot of information out of him.

For example, the military camp here was actually converted from a former corvee labor shed.

There was a severe food shortage in Wu Sheng's army and no one had enough to eat.

However, due to excessive exploitation by the government and a severe drought this year, joining Wu Sheng's army could at least allow them to survive, rather than starving to death outside.

Wu Sheng's army had a serious class division. Those who followed Wu Sheng first belonged to the first class. They could live in the city, did not have to fight, and enjoyed delicious food and first-hand women.

Even if a city is captured by others, it must be enjoyed by the first-class people first before others can use it.

The second class are Wu Sheng’s fellow villagers. Although their treatment is not as good as the first class, they can also eat well and enjoy beautiful women.

The third category is those who come here to seek refuge from the surrounding areas.

Shanxi has a characteristic: the dialect changes every ten miles, which is caused by its unique geographical environment.

Shanxi is a place with many ravines and deep valleys in the mountains. This geographical environment has resulted in relatively severe isolation in various places and great differences in dialects.

Sometimes people in the two cities spoke completely different languages, which led to the fact that those who later came to join Wu Sheng's army from surrounding areas were discriminated against because of their geographical reasons, and their status was even lower.

After that, those who came further away had a lower status.

Dong Chen was in the fourth class, which was average. He had food to eat every day and sometimes women to play with.

It is said that the lowest level is ninth. You can imagine what the scene is like.

Next, Dong Chen stayed in the rebel army for several days and learned a lot about Wu Sheng's troops.

These inside stories are extremely valuable information, which is very difficult to obtain from the outside world, but can be easily understood from within.

One day, a woman was sent from above.

The woman looked dazed, covered in scars, and her eyes were full of fear, but from her fair skin one could still tell that she was once from an official family.

It is said that this is a daughter of the Cheng family. When Wu Sheng captured Xinzhou that day, the entire Cheng family fled. Although the main branch successfully escaped, many people in the branch were captured by Wu Sheng's troops and were eventually tortured.

After the woman was sent over, there was no need to explain the rest.

Because during these few days of getting along, everyone felt that Dong Chen was knowledgeable and a good person, so they all suggested that Dong Chen should be the first to enjoy it.

Dong Chen was a pragmatist, so in order not to reveal his identity, he had no choice but to agree.

After taking off the Cheng girl's outer clothes, they saw the horrific scene inside.

The skin and flesh on his body were all bitten off and oozing pus and blood. His whole body was already a disfigurement. Even some of his hair had been torn out, but I didn't see it because I was far away.

Dong Chen endured the discomfort and finished the task.

The yellow-faced man frowned and looked at Dong Chen.

On that day, Dong Chen's identity was exposed.

Although Dong Chen's appearance was well disguised, some of his details were exposed.

Dong Chen's hair is full of lice like everyone else's, but his private parts are clean. Does this make sense?

Dong Chen, whose identity was exposed, escaped under the protection of his personal soldiers hiding nearby.

After returning to the government army camp, Dong Chen washed up and regained the temperament of a court official.

Shi Ding came to see him and asked:
"Master Dong, now that more than a month has passed, do you have any strategy to defeat the enemy?"

Dong Chen nodded.

"I have a plan to defeat the enemy. It does not require a single soldier. I can put down the rebellion of millions of Jin thieves."

Shi Ding was very surprised when he heard this.

He was able to quell millions of rebels without a single soldier. Although he had heard that Dong Chen was a man of action, he still found it a little hard to believe.

Shi Ding asked quickly:

"I wonder what strategy Master Dong is talking about, and how we should cooperate with him?"

Dong Chen said:
"Marquis Zhongjing will lead the troops to defend the city. If we want to resolve the rebellion in Shanxi, the root lies in the people and food, not in fighting. I will draft a draft immediately and ask Your Majesty to provide food relief."

At that moment, Dong Chen wrote a letter and sent it to the capital.

(End of this chapter)