The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 99: The Haibai Rebellion breaks out early
The Little Ice Age struck, and the winters in northwest Ming Dynasty became increasingly cold.

The winter of the eleventh year of the Wanli reign was particularly cold.

At the end of October, it started snowing in Ningxiawei.

By the beginning of November, the weather was freezing cold, water turned into ice and people could be frozen to death.

The weather is cold, and people's hearts are even colder.

Under such circumstances, Ningxia Inspector Dang Xin actually withheld the border troops' food, wages and winter clothes!

Seeing his soldiers shivering with cold, Haibai could only keep sending people to ask Dang Xin for help.

As a result, the people he sent were either beaten black and blue by Dang Xin, or beheaded by Dang Xin on various trumped-up charges!
Haibai really didn't dare to rebel, he could only endure it silently.

However, the soldiers of the Ningxia Town Vanguard Battalion could not bear it anymore.

Seeing that Haobai had no intention of rebelling, Dang Xin actually attacked the soldiers of the vanguard camp as well!

The so-called vanguard battalion refers to those border troops who have no connections or background and can only go to the battlefield to fight the enemy.

Their lives are already hard, because when they go into battle and kill the enemy, they have to pay compensation for any damage to their weapons and uniforms!
Moreover, Dang Xin often withheld their food and wages.

In this cold winter, not only are we not getting any food or wages, we’re not even getting any winter clothes. Who can stand this?

Liu Dongyang, the lieutenant general of the vanguard camp, couldn't stand it anymore when he saw his soldiers shivering with cold and couldn't even get enough porridge.

He personally went to the Inspectorate to ask Dang Xin to provide him with food, wages and winter clothes. However, not only did Dang Xin refuse to provide them, he also threatened to execute his entire family!

Even a clay figure would have a temper, let alone the border soldiers who have been fighting the northern barbarians for years.

When Liu Dongyang returned to the vanguard camp and told them the situation, thousands of soldiers immediately became furious.

Dang Xin is trying to kill them!

They did not die on the battlefield, nor did they die at the hands of the northern barbarians, but they were frozen and starved to death in the city they were guarding!

Who can tolerate this?

I'm going to die anyway, so it's worth it to have a full meal, put on some cotton clothes and then die!

Liu Dongyang raised his arm and called out, and immediately many people responded.

Under his leadership, thousands of soldiers from the vanguard camp quickly rushed into the provincial governor's office, killed Dang Xin and all of his cruel officials, and took back the food, wages, winter clothes and military rewards that should have belonged to them.

Then, they decided to go all out and rushed into the general's residence, killed the unknown general Yang Siwei, and took away the general's seal.

Liu Dongyang also knew that there was no way out, so he immediately wrote a letter to Haibai, the deputy general of the Helan Mountain camp, respecting Haibai as his leader and handing over all the captured food, wages and military rewards to Haibai for disposal, and asking Haibai to join him in raising the banner of rebellion!

The reason why he did this was because the deputy general Haobai had outstanding military achievements. In Ningxia Town, he was the nominal general and had the highest prestige.

Moreover, all 3,000 soldiers in the Helan Mountain camp had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, so they were better fighters than them.

What’s even more terrifying is that these are Haobai’s private soldiers!
If Haibai followed the imperial court's order to encircle and suppress them, then as long as Haibai raised his arm and called out, probably 80% to 90% of the 20,000 to 30,000 troops in Ningxia Town would obey him.

By then they will really be dead!
After receiving Liu Dongyang's letter, Haibai hesitated for a long time, but finally decided to rebel!
Because he knew that the three powerful families in Puzhou were deliberately forcing him to rebel. If he continued to endure it, no one knew how they would torture him.

More importantly, he also knew that the soldiers in the vanguard battalion were very capable fighters.

If the imperial court ordered him to lead the army to quell the rebellion, he would have no choice but to go to Ningxia Weicheng and fight with the soldiers of the vanguard camp.

His subordinates are mainly cavalry, and the vanguard battalion cannot defeat them in a battle in the wild. However, if the vanguard battalion defends the city and they attack the city, that is a different matter.

By then, he didn't know how many of his private soldiers he would have to lose before he could capture Ningxia Weicheng.

Nowadays, if someone loses his power, the three great families of Puzhou can find any excuse to kill him without a burial place.

Therefore, he could not lead his private soldiers to fight with the soldiers of the vanguard camp and end up with mutual losses.

In this situation, it would be better to raise the banner of rebellion and defend Ningxia Town first. It is better to fight with others than with your own people.

Haibai was also decisive. He quickly led his troops to Ningxia Weicheng and, together with the acting general Liu Dongyang, issued an order to all the soldiers in Ningxia Town to revolt together. Anyone who followed him in the rebellion would be immediately given food and wages, winter clothing, and everyone would drink and eat meat together, no longer suffering from the hardship of being poorly clothed and hungry.

This time, all 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers in Ningxia Town rebelled!

Originally, there was a lieutenant general named Xiao Ruxun who defended Pinglu City to the death and refused to join the rebellion.

The problem is that Xiao Ruxun is only in his twenties now, not yet a lieutenant general, and not in Ningxia Town.

Without Xiao Ruxun, Ningxia Town soon became the world of rebels.

Wanli was also in the dark.

This is the thing he can't remember!

In August, he issued an order to dismiss Ningxia Circuit Inspector Dang Xin from his post and bring him back to the capital for trial!

Why hasn’t Dang Xin been taken back to the capital?
At that time, he was busy replacing border generals and seizing control of Xuanfu Town and Datong Town.

Afterwards, he focused all his attention on the provincial and palace military examinations.

Immediately afterwards, Prince Lu performed another act to him about refusing to be a fief.

At that time, his mind was full of ideas about using the excuse of escorting Prince Lu to his fiefdom to recruit loyal ministers and generals from the Qin family of Zhongzhou.

Moreover, during this trip to Zhongzhou, he fell in love with Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan. They were so in love with each other that he didn't want to care about state affairs and forgot everything else.

Next, news came that the remnants of the Maitreya Sect wanted to seek revenge.

After he arranged for people to follow the remnants of the Maitreya Sect to kill Zhang Siwei, he thought about returning to the capital to deal with Wu Dui, control the entire court power, and completely deal with the three major families in Puzhou.

This immediately drove the three major powerful families in Puzhou crazy, and they instigated the northern barbarians to invade Xuanfu Town, Datong Town and Liaodong Town.

His whole attention was drawn to these three border towns again.

At this time, they gather in the side hall of the aircraft counselor's office early in the morning at around noon every day to analyze military intelligence.

This time, the Northern Tartars seemed to have their brains frozen and were completely at a loss as to what to do.

It was snowing both inside and outside the Great Wall, and it was freezing cold everywhere. More than 300,000 northern barbarians were stationed at the borders of Liaodong Town, Xuanfu Town and Datong Town, stubbornly resisting the wind and snow!

There seemed to be no movement in the northwest. The Duolun Tumed tribe, the Weiwushen tribe, and the Hetao and Ordos tribes were all silent, as if they had gone into hiding for the winter.

This strange situation is really incomprehensible.

What exactly do the three powerful families in Puzhou want to do?

Early that morning, around noon, they had just been analyzing military intelligence in a side hall dedicated to military affairs when Duke Cheng of Cheng, Zhu Yingzhen, suddenly rushed in, clasped his hands and bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, this is an urgent report from Chen Rui, the Governor-General of Northwest Shaanxi and Gansu."

Something really happened in the northwest!
Wanli turned around and saw the empty hands of Duke Cheng, Zhu Yingzhen, and asked in surprise, "Where's the urgent news?"

Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen quickly waved to the outside and said, "Bring him in."

Do you need to bring in the urgent news?
Soon, two Jinyiwei came in carrying a Jinyiwei centurion.

This is the Jinyiwei captain he sent to protect Chen Rui!
When Wanli saw this, he couldn't help but change color with horror.

The captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard had frozen so hard that his face was black and blue, his lips were purple and cracked, and his eyebrows and exposed hair were all covered with ice chips!
It was obvious that he had ridden his horse all the way from Xi'an Prefecture!

As soon as the captain of the Jinyiwei saw Wanli, he immediately broke free from the two men's arms, lay on the ground, stretched out his hands that were frozen like carrots, took out an envelope from his bosom, held it up and said in a trembling voice: "Report, Your Majesty, an urgent message from the Governor-General."

What exactly happened in the Northwest?

Wanli quickly took the envelope and tore it open.

Upon seeing this, his face suddenly changed like someone performing Sichuan Opera face-changing, with realization, unwillingness, regret, and rage.

Chen Rui, the governor of the three border areas of Shaanxi and Gansu Town, urgently reported: Ningxia Town Deputy General Hao Bai and Vanguard Battalion Commander Liu Dongyang killed Inspector Dang Xin and General Yang Siwei in rebellion, and the entire Ningxia Town has been lost!
(End of this chapter)