Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 77: Fortify the Wall and Clear the Fields

Niangziguan,
It is known as the gateway to the Three Jins and the ninth pass in the world.

Now this pass is being captured by the Jin bandits.

Chen Zhengdu took command again and was ordered to rescue Niangzi Pass.

However, when he arrived, he found that the place had been surrounded by Jin bandits and there was no way to rescue it.

There are too many of them. There are more bandits in Jin than imagined.

Different from the intelligence obtained by Chen Zhengdu, the Jin bandits were not just the uprising troops of Wu Sheng in Shanxi, but a general term.

For unknown reasons, a large number of Zhili people fled to Taihang Mountains, and now they have all become bandits. There are many bandits on various mountaintops, with some hundreds and some thousands of them. They work together to form a dense and terrifying force.

These people responded to Wu Sheng's call and attacked from both sides together with the Jin bandits in Shanxi, turning Niangzi Pass into a completely isolated city.

In addition, more people came down from the Taihang Mountains to plunder, rob the rich, and seize the people. Those people who suffered from banditry actually surrendered to the bandits afterwards. Eventually, the situation became bigger and bigger, and the whole place was filled with smoke of war.

Damn!

Chen Zheng had no idea how much the Governor-General of Zhili had concealed from him.

But he was sure that if he really rushed forward like that foolishly, the 30,000 soldiers under his command from the Beijing camp would not be able to cause even a single splash.

Niangzi Pass might have fallen long ago, or there might still be some people holding on, but it is meaningless now.

The idea of keeping the Jin bandits out of Zhili was no longer possible.

All Chen Zhengdu can do now is to keep the Jin bandits within Zhili in order to save the capital and wait for Wang Ziteng's reinforcements.

To be honest, Chen Zhengdu is a little regretful now.

If he had known the situation would be like this, he should not have agreed to Emperor Longqing's request to go on another expedition.

It would be so nice to just stay at home obediently.

Unfortunately, there is no regret medicine now.

If he retreated now, Emperor Longqing would definitely not forgive him, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and endure.

At that moment, Chen Zhengdu retreated back to the ancient city of Zhending in Zhili.

Among all the cities in Zhili, Zhending's defensive capabilities are among the best.

But there is still that point, too few people.

The number of Jin bandits is at least hundreds of thousands. Although there is chaos among the various bandits and refugees, these problems will be eliminated due to the absolute numerical advantage.

Chen Zhengdu only had 30,000 soldiers from the Beijing camp under his command.

Relying on these 30,000 soldiers from the Beijing camp to defend the pass would be quite difficult.

Especially when there are still people restricting you.

"General Chen, you changed the marching strategy without authorization. We will report the truth to His Majesty!"

A skinny eunuch military supervisor said threateningly.

Chen Zheng felt an enormous headache.

But he was no longer able to argue with her at this moment.

The strategy formulated by the Ministry of War was to have them garrisoned at Niangzi Pass, relying on this strategic pass to keep the Jin bandits out of Zhili.

But the reality is obvious. With such a small number of troops, he cannot even get close to the Taihang area, let alone garrison Niangzi Pass.

But he had to listen to the military supervisor's words, the tragedy of the Duke of Shan was still before his eyes, so Chen Zhengdu had to squeeze out five thousand taels from the pitiful military budget to win over the military supervisor so that he would report the situation here truthfully, not asking him to say good things for him, but just asking him not to exaggerate.

After resolving the issue of the military supervisor, Chen Zhengdu immediately dispatched soldiers and began preparing for the work of clearing the countryside.

As a general who had experienced the campaign against the Huaiyin bandits together with Duke Shanguo, Chen Zhengdu's ability in military command has improved a lot, especially in the two aspects of "holding on" and "establishing a defense line". Chen Zhengdu can be said to have deeply inherited Duke Shanguo's ideas.

Duke Shanguo was best at this kind of fighting style. He had used this method to defeat the brave and warlike Jurchens in Liaodong.

In Huaizhou, this method was used again to force Fang Yong into a state of helplessness.

Regardless of his character, this strategic approach is indeed effective.

Although the Duke of Shanguo is dead now, this style of fighting has been passed down. Chen Zhengdu discovered that the development model of the Jin thieves is extremely simple and crude, which is different from the development model of the Huaiyin thieves.

The Huaiyin bandits have a complete economic system, relying on salt trading and farming to support their soldiers and fight against the imperial court. Therefore, their internal stability is very strong, just like a small country.

Duke Shanguo once tried to establish a blockade to disrupt the economy of the Huaiyin bandits, but it had little effect. Instead, the price of his own salt increased dramatically, and the people suffered greatly.

In the end, Duke Shanguo had no choice but to order his troops to be sent to the other side's territory to massacre the people in order to achieve the goal of destroying the economy, which also laid the seeds for Duke Shanguo's later tragic death.

But the Jin thieves are different from the Huaiyin thieves.

The development of the Jin bandits was entirely supported by looting.

They robbed the rich and robbed the common people.

The people who were robbed had nowhere to go, and finally had no choice but to join the Jin bandits to carry out the next robbery, and the situation got bigger and bigger.

This bandit model does not have any industry that can generate stable profits, but is just continuous disorderly expansion. This expansion develops extremely quickly in a short period of time, but its shortcomings are also obvious.

That is, once they stop and can no longer plunder things, collapse begins.

As long as Chen Zhengdu defends his city and clears the fields, he can stop the Jin bandits here. It won't be long before the Jin bandits can hold on. At that time, whether the Jin bandits retreat to Shanxi or go south to plunder will not be something Chen Zhengdu should consider.

The fact that he was able to defend Zhending with his 30,000 men was already a testament to his extraordinary ability.

The four words "fortify the walls and clear the fields" simply mean strengthening the defenses and clearing the wilderness.

But it is easier said than done.

The word "clear" means clearing out all the people, food, livestock, and even houses and trees outside the city walls.

For ordinary people, this is actually nothing.

Because they have nothing.

They don't have poultry or livestock such as chickens, ducks, pigs, and dogs.

They have no valuables such as gold, silver, copper, and iron.

They don't have silk, cotton, or other clothing.

They have no food either.

Perhaps the only things they have are the dilapidated mud houses and the old locust tree at the entrance of the village.

In a village.

Chen Zhengdu's soldiers drove a group of numb people out. Adhering to the strategy of leaving nothing for the enemy, the soldiers threw torches and burned the dilapidated houses in the village along with the old locust trees.

The child looked at the flames burning on the old tree and said lostly:

"Mom, will we not be able to eat locust tree flowers next year?"

"Silly boy, the locust tree has been stripped of its bark this year and is dead."

Compared with the common people, the resistance of the rich and powerful is much stronger.

They were unwilling to obey Chen Zhengdu's order to defend the city and clear the countryside.

Especially their houses, those high walls and large courtyards embody the hard work of many generations of the family, and no one is willing to give them up easily.

If it were the Duke of Shanguo, he would definitely start killing people at this time.

However, Chen Zheng did not dare to learn from the Duke of Shan Guo because he had to consider his nine clans.

Therefore, Chen Zheng could only try his best to send people to persuade them.

Appeal to their ideas with reason and appeal to their emotions with emotion.

However, the final effect was not good, as many wealthy families were unwilling to give up their ancestral businesses.

The idea of starving to death rather than moving is deeply rooted in the minds of these people.

At worst, I can surrender to King Jin.

Some big investors thought so in their hearts.

(End of this chapter)