There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 198 Specific Circumstances Should Be Handled Specifically
The situation in Baoqing Prefecture was much more complicated than that in Yongzhou Prefecture.

The Yao people of Baoqing Prefecture were forced into rebellion by the government, but their Yao King, Lan Jinlong, genuinely wanted to take the opportunity to sit on the throne.

The cabinet and the Ministry of War both agreed that a battle should be fought first, not too fiercely, but it was essential to inflict pain on Yao Wang Lan Jinlong and suppress his arrogance.

Then, they slowly used peasant associations and land distribution policies to infiltrate and divide the Yao villages in Baoqing Prefecture. Yao King Lan Jinlong wanted to fight, sit on the throne, and become a local emperor.

However, there were always other Yao village chiefs who were unwilling, or who preferred to accept some benefits and then behave themselves. These were the targets of the Han army's infiltration and division. Once they started to fall into chaos, the Han army would then calmly deal with them.

After all, if the Han army were to force a war against the Yao people, it wouldn't be that they couldn't win, but it would become extremely troublesome once the fighting started.

These Yao people will not only not fear the Han army's military might, but the war will also force all the villages that were watching to side with Lan Jinlong, and they will fight against the Han army with a common hatred.

Although they still certainly can't win, they can still retreat into the mountains and wage guerrilla warfare against the Han army. That would be a real headache.

No matter how powerful the Han army's firearms and cannons were, they were helpless if they couldn't traverse mountainous terrain. Even if they eventually suppressed the rebellion, the cost in money, food, and manpower would be extremely high.

After careful consideration, Nie Yu replied with the same sentence: "Approved."

While appeasement is important, we shouldn't be truly afraid of war.

As a time traveler, Nie Zi certainly doesn't discriminate against the Yao or Miao people. But his lack of discrimination is useless; he must convince the Yao people that he doesn't discriminate and truly treats them equally.

The Yao people in Yongzhou Prefecture were not so resistant, so we could try to contact them directly through the Farmers' Association, letting them know that the Han army was different from the Qing government, that the Han army was good, and that the Qing government was evil.

With the Yao King Lan Jinlong being a major unpredictable factor among the Yao people of Baoqing Prefecture, the only option is to fight him first, inflict pain on him, and then proactively show goodwill so that Lan Jinlong can no longer act arbitrarily, thus physically dividing the various villages of the Yao tribe in Baoqing.

Next, let the farmers' association reach out to those wavering Yao villages and use them to spread the word against other Yao villages until Lan Jinlong is left all alone.

……

Chenzhou.

Prefect Pan Boyong was handing over his duties to the newly arrived Prefect Wang Hao. He had already received the appointment letter from the new Prefect, who also brought his own transfer letter.

Pan Boyong didn't care about this. Being able to save his life and even get a promotion to a position in the Ministry of Rites under the Prince of Han was already quite good.

Chenzhou was given away, and that was that. In any case, when he surrendered, he had already thought that he could at most save his life and did not expect to continue to be an official.

Continuing to serve as an official is clearly a case of the Prince of Han spending a fortune to buy his way out of trouble. Pan Boyong is also very cooperative and sensible, leading the new prefect to the yamen to complete the handover.

"Prefect Wang, this is the official seal of the Qing dynasty issued to me. You may dispose of it as you see fit." "What use is a Qing dynasty official seal to me? I'd better hand it over to Your Majesty!"

“That’s right, and here too… These are the government’s records and archives about the Chenzhou area, as well as the ‘Chenzhou Gazetteer’ and the roster of local county and town officials, showing which wealthy and powerful families in the area might be hiding how much land they might have.”

Pan Boyong led Wang Hao around, explaining the basic operation of the yamen and the various archives. He even explained how much land a local wealthy family might be hiding.

It's impossible not to know that Pan Boyong's year as prefect was not for nothing. In resisting the vicious bandits led by Sha Jinwang, not only was he, as prefect, working tirelessly, but the local wealthy families also had to contribute significantly to supporting the government's recruitment of soldiers to fight the bandits.

After a while, Pan Boyong didn't get any clear information, but he could reasonably backtrack on the money and grain provided by these wealthy households, and then, based on the grain yield per acre, determine how much of the grain provided by these wealthy households was old rice and how much was new rice. Over the course of a year, he accumulated a lot of useful information.

Wang Haorao, who usually looked down on these pseudo-Qing officials who had surrendered, now showed a rare hint of respect and couldn't help but ask, "With your talent, why didn't you take action against these local gentry and bullies before?"

"So what if they took action? Will they be dismissed from their posts?"

Pan Boyong shook his head and said, "Prefect Wang, I have heard about what it was like under the rule of the Prince of Han. You must feel that the atmosphere of officialdom has been completely renewed and is thriving under the Prince of Han's rule. But I was a prefect under the pseudo-Qing dynasty. Have you heard of the saying in the pseudo-Qing officialdom?"

"A proverb?" Wang Hao asked.

"A clean county magistrate for three years can amass 100,000 taels of silver."

After Pan Boyong finished speaking, he found it somewhat amusing: "Heh, 100,000 taels of silver can be earned in three years as a county magistrate. In such an officialdom, do you think it's better for me to go along with the corrupt practices and rise through the ranks, or to be a truly honest official who can innovate and get impeached and imprisoned?"

"..."

Wang Hao fell silent instantly, feeling inexplicably fortunate that he was born in Huguang and had joined the Han King relatively early.

……

Yongzhou (Lingling).

Ding Yunjin, leading a large number of officials and gentry from Yongzhou, is kneeling outside the city to welcome the Han army.

"Ding Yunjin, the convicted official and prefect of Yongzhou, respectfully welcomes the Heavenly Army of the Great Han!"

"Welcome the Heavenly Army of the Great Han!"

"..."

Ding Yunjin took the lead in fawning and shouting, and the many Yongzhou officials and gentry who knelt to welcome him quickly followed suit and shouted in unison.

The three shouts were met not with a friendly "Please rise," but with Xu Minwen, the newly appointed prefect of Yongzhou who had come with the army, pointing and saying, "Arrest him!" Two fierce Han soldiers immediately rushed forward and pinned Ding Yunjin, dressed in Manchu official robes, to the ground.

thump!
Ding Yunjin didn't even have time to react before she was shoved to the ground, getting a mouthful of mud and a painful thud in her chest.

Ding Yunjin was filled with shock and struggled to get up, but two strong Han soldiers were pressing down on him, making it impossible for him to move. He could only writhe and cry out, "My lord, why is this happening? Why is this happening?"

Xu Minwen said calmly, "Do you think that as long as you surrender, you can gain the merit of surrendering the city, keep your official position and life, and avoid being punished?"

Upon hearing this, Ding Yunjin's heart skipped a beat.

Xu Minwen continued, "Even if you don't surrender, our Great Han can take Yongzhou City in a battle if we want it. On the contrary, you have been tyrannical in your administration, creating various pretexts to levy taxes, acting like a local tyrant, and oppressing the people. The Yao people of Yongzhou could no longer tolerate it, which is why they rebelled. Now our Great Han has to clean up this mess for you. You can just obediently wait for the public trial and use your head to quell the public anger!"

"Injustice! Injustice!"

Upon hearing that he was to be beheaded, Ding Yunjin was so frightened that he almost wet his pants on the spot, and cried out that he was innocent.

Unfortunately, the Han army's intelligence spies were not incompetent, and coupled with this guy's greed in the local area, they drove the Yao people to the brink of despair, not to mention the Han people living there.

Xu Minwen stopped listening to the man's nonsense and turned to the general beside him, saying, "Commander Wang, there's no need to waste words with this scoundrel. Take him away and hold a public trial, let the people count his crimes themselves, and then we can give his head to the Yao tribe's rebel army as a greeting gift."

Commander Wang nodded: "Alright, the military order from the Grand General's Office is to cooperate with you in pacifying the Yao tribe in Guihua Yongzhou. You can do whatever you want."

As the two were talking, it became clear that Ding Yunjin's head was about to be moved.

Ding Yunjin was dragged away by two Han soldiers. At first, he begged for mercy and cried out that he was wronged, but later he started to curse.

They not only insulted Xu Minwen, but also insulted Nie Yu, the King of Han, for not even understanding the rule that surrendering does not mean being killed.

Surrender and you won't be killed?

What a joke! If you surrender and don't kill them, who will those people you killed seek justice from?

After arresting the prefect, the remaining officials should not be let go either. The current policy of the Han army is to have fewer but better officials than to have bad ones. If the surrendered officials have no bad records, they can be retained depending on the circumstances. If they have bad records, they should all be punished according to the law.

The first group of officials to surrender to the Han army were actually the luckiest; they were simply dismissed from their posts and sent home to farm.

Only a few who committed heinous crimes were publicly tried and punished, beheaded, or sent to the mines to serve their sentences.

The public trial lasted only a few days before Ding Yunjin's head was delivered to Zhao Yu Nian of the Yao tribe in Yongzhou.

With the former prefect's head as a gift, Zhao Yu Nian, who was forced to start the uprising, showed a significant reduction in his resistance to the Han army.

Finally, they agreed to allow the Han army's land distribution officials to enter the areas they controlled to oversee the land distribution among the local Han people and to establish farmers' associations. At the same time, the land distribution officials also brought various daily necessities such as salt, tea, and iron pots.

These are all hard currencies, especially since the Yao tribe's salt supply was forcibly cut off by the puppet Qing dynasty since the uprising began.

This is normal. Even the Han army's salt supply channels were blocked by the puppet Qing. If Nie Yu hadn't had a market that provided modern refined salt, the finances would probably have collapsed long ago due to the salt problem.

The reason why the Yao rebels could not capture Yongzhou was twofold: firstly, their troops were not well-trained and they were not skilled at attacking cities and seizing territory; secondly, the shortage of salt prevented them from continuing the siege and fighting, and they could only maintain a stalemate with Yongzhou.

Now things are much better. The arrival of the Han army has solved their salt shortage problem, which has also improved the Yao people's impression of the Han army.

The benefit of this was that while the Han army's land distribution officials still couldn't go to the core villages of the Yao tribe, the farmers' associations could go to counties controlled by the Yao people, such as Xintian and Ningyuan, to buy and sell goods and transport cheap salt.

Over time, the peasant association quickly became one with the equally impoverished Yao people. During their back-and-forth trade, they also shared information about the Han army's land policies and attitudes towards ethnic minorities.

I won't say much more about the land administration; it's about distributing land to the people so that they have land to cultivate.

The policy attitude towards ethnic minorities was a new one proposed by the King of Han, which was a supplement and improvement to the previous policy towards the Miao people in western Hunan, and expanded to include all ethnic minorities, including the Yao people.

In short, it can be summarized in four sentences:

First, the Han dynasty would help them build schools and promote literacy education.

Second, encourage people from all tribes to leave their mountain villages and settle down as civilians. Those who are willing to move down the mountain and settle down will be granted civilian household registration, and those who are unwilling to move down the mountain will be granted mountain dweller household registration.

Those registered as commoners can receive land and tax reductions just like ordinary Han Chinese.

Those registered as mountain dwellers do not enjoy these benefits, and even their transactions with the outside world are subject to government control and restrictions.

Third, villages and towns were established for the various ethnic minorities registered in the household register. Each tribe was allowed to elect its own village chief and town chief, but the land distribution officials and peasant associations required the permission of the Han Dynasty to appoint and dismiss them.

Fourth, all people in all tribes should abide by the laws and regulations of the Han Dynasty and must not violate them.

In short, it was essentially a semi-autonomous region. It couldn't work without doing it this way, because no matter how powerful the Han army was, it certainly couldn't deal with the endless guerrilla forces of various mountain tribes.

(End of this chapter)