There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 269 Merchants' Secret Meeting
The Qing army's night raid failed, and it was clear that this news could not be kept secret.

The next day at dawn, the Han army drove more than two hundred local militia prisoners to the city of Linjiang.

Liu Ding immediately realized something was wrong and wanted to order his soldiers to fire arrows.

Unfortunately, the Han army acted faster, immediately giving the leading village militiaman a megaphone.

"Don't fire the arrows! Don't fire the arrows!"

"I am Wang Ermazi. Is Li San here? Is Li San here? We were captured by the Han army last night when we went out of the city with General Liu for a night raid."

With a few shouts, Li San, who was directing his archers to prepare to fire arrows, immediately ordered everyone around him to put down their bows and arrows.

"Put it down, put it down! Those below the city are my brothers, they're all on our side, don't shoot!"

Li San peeked out and heard Wang Ermazi still shouting.

"Surrender! All the brothers in the city, surrender! We can't win this battle. General Liu can't win, and neither can these corrupt officials."

“I know what you’re worried about. After the Han army captured us, we saw for ourselves that they are not bad people, and they are not as vicious as those corrupt officials said!”

"The Han soldiers are all very good people. They promised us that as long as we surrender, we will all be forgiven, and even the officers will not be killed."

"Everyone will receive land, and we won't have to be beholden to the landlords anymore."

“Defending this city is pointless. Even if we hold it, we'll still be ordinary people, and we'll still be bullied by the landlords. Even General Liu only gave us a full meal, but he expects us to risk our lives. It's not a worthwhile deal at all!”

"Surrender! Surrender now! Why are you working for those corrupt officials?!"

"..."

This series of calls to surrender had greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers defending the city walls. If it had been the beginning, they certainly wouldn't have been so willing to surrender.

Because the Han army was ultimately a righteous army, who knew what kind of people righteous armies were, and whether they kept their word?

This wasn't a problem solely with the Han army; rather, it was because other rebel armies at the same time went too far, almost indistinguishable from the Qing army.

Therefore, the credibility of the rebel army had already been greatly compromised, and it was inevitable that the local militias in Linjiang would not trust the Han army.

However, after several days of fighting to defend the city, the Qing army did not suffer heavy casualties, but the psychological shock was surprisingly great.

In addition, Liu Ding led his army out of the city for a night raid in the middle of the night yesterday, but they suffered a crushing defeat without even seeing a trace of the Han army.

Of the three hundred elite soldiers who went out of the city, fewer than thirty returned.

This victory not only failed to boost morale, but also caused the already volatile morale in Linjiang City to plummet to rock bottom. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that everyone was on edge.

With all these factors combined, it would be a lie to say that they weren't tempted when they heard "one of their own" say that the Han army wasn't so bad, but rather that they were all good people who would be given land, help them become masters of their own destiny, and fight back against the landlord Lao Gu who bullied them.

Liu Ding clearly noticed something was wrong with the soldiers, so he had no choice but to run down the city wall himself, snatch an arrow from an archer, and shoot it at Wang Ermazi, who was still shouting below the city.

The arrow struck Wang Ermazi squarely in the chest, and he fell to the ground with a thud, his trumpet falling to the ground and emitting a piercing buzzing sound.

Liu Ding roared, "Fire! All of you, fire! They're not on our side anymore, they're all traitors now. Anyone who doesn't fire can expect their property confiscated and them beheaded!"

The combined power of the General of Southern Jiangxi and the threat of confiscation of property and execution forced these wavering soldiers to raise their arrows.

"Shhhhhh!"

Several of the local militia prisoners gathered below the city were shot dead before they could react, while the rest scattered and fled.

On the surface, the Han army's psychological warfare strategy seemed to have failed, but Liu Ding was not a fool. He could vaguely sense the subtle hostility in the eyes of the soldiers around him.

Restoring the morale of the troops, which has already wavered, is not so simple.

Moreover, the Han army promised to forgive all soldiers and officers and to distribute land to them so that they would no longer be bullied by landlords.

Even if these are all fake, the soldiers will still have illusions, thinking, what if they are real?
Anyway, Linjiang City was clearly indefensible. Even Liu Ding, the commander-in-chief, couldn't hold it and was defeated by the Han army. What's the point of fighting anymore?
The soldiers were getting restless. Liu Ding knew he couldn't let things drag on like this, so he went to Zhang Chengji again that day and asked him to give the soldiers another pay and resettlement allowance, and to make sure it was generous enough that they could see the money.

Even if less than a third of the 20,000 local militia were to receive resettlement allowances, and the majority of them were soldiers on the city walls, it would still be a considerable sum.

Zhang Chengji hesitated for a moment, but after some hesitation, he nodded in agreement. Although he was greedy, he knew that money was only money when it was spent; otherwise, it was just worthless. Besides, he had already spent a large sum, so spending another large sum now wouldn't be a big deal.

If all else fails, he can also squeeze the wealthy merchants in the city to pay for it.

Linjiang is prosperous, mainly in commerce and industry. The wealthy merchants here are not much weaker than the salt merchants and Huizhou merchants.

Linjiang Prefecture City, Jiefu Lane (also known as Jiefu Lane).

Several businessmen are plotting a secret meeting. The government had just tried to extort money from them during the day, and they've already come out to meet secretly tonight.

It wasn't that these merchants were too stingy, but rather that they had been driven to the brink by the government.

Before the other merchants who were meeting in secret could all arrive, one of the Chinese-dressed merchants couldn't wait to say, "We have to pay for recruiting local militias and organizing local militias. We also have to pay for repairing the city walls and procuring supplies for defense. Now we even have to pay the soldiers. The government is treating us like pigs to be slaughtered!"

Another merchant added, "Pigs are fattened up before slaughtering, but this time the government seems to be drinking poison to quench its thirst. My family's cloth shop has already closed down by almost half because of what the government is doing."

"Who says it isn't?"

"My family's rice shop is too."

"Most of my family's boats were requisitioned by the government and have not been returned to this day..."

Many merchants eagerly recounted their own circumstances, clearly expressing their extreme dissatisfaction with the puppet Qing government.

After a long period of chatter and noise, Zhou Zongli, the initiator of this private meeting, stood up and asked everyone to quiet down.

Zhou Zongli continued, “The government wants money, and we give it to them. There’s no problem with that. It’s always been that way. It’s impossible for merchants to do business without paying the court some money. The real trouble is that the government is now clearly determined to defend Linjiang Prefecture to the death. Moreover, in the previous battles, all the ships have been requisitioned by the government troops, and checkpoints have been set up in various places. The trade route has been cut off for a long time.”

The trade routes have been severed; this is the root of the problem and the key reason why these merchants would risk coming out for a secret meeting.

Everyone looked at each other, waiting for Zhou Zongli to continue.

Zhou Zongli cleared his throat and said, "Given the current situation, without external intervention, it is conservatively estimated that the government troops and the Han army will have to fight for at least several more months, or even a year and a half. Unless a victor emerges, the trade route will remain cut off, which would be too much of a loss for us, and we simply cannot afford to wait it out."

To put it bluntly, all merchants care about is their own losses. If trade routes are cut off and they can't do business, then the status of Linjiang Prefecture as an important industrial and commercial town becomes meaningless, and it will instead become a heavy tax burden on them.

Therefore, in order to restore trade routes, they must fully support one side and win this protracted battle.

As for which side to take?

Zhou Zongli shook his head: "It's obvious that the government troops can't win anymore. In the past few months, the government troops have either suffered major defeats or been forced to hold their ground. Even if we help them, they still can't win."

Some businessmen raised concerns: "Isn't there a risk in siding with the traitors?"

Businessmen are risk-averse; if the risk is too great and the potential reward insufficient, they simply dare not undertake it.

Zhou Zongli sneered: "No matter how big the risk, can it be greater than the risk of the government troops immediately ransacking our homes? In the current situation, if the government troops want to defend the city or even defeat the Han army, it is impossible without ransacking all of our homes. If this continues, we will all be finished."

Another merchant asked, "That's true, but if we surrender to the Han army, won't they also discard us after they've served their purpose?"

Zhou Zongli shook his head: "It shouldn't be. I know about the situation of the Han army. The King of Han doesn't dislike us merchants. He even set up a special commercial office to help us merchants. I heard that the Great Han Law will be introduced soon to protect our merchants' normal business operations."

Hearing this, the merchants were finally relieved.

As long as the Han Dynasty is willing to protect commerce and reason with them, they are willing to pledge allegiance.

Unless the Han army is also unreasonable, then they have no choice but to fight to the death.

Having finalized their decision to join the Han army, these merchants immediately began discussing how to rebel and surrender the city.

"The city is now under the control of General Liu and the governor. How can we surrender it?"

"set fire!"

"Set fire? Where to burn?"

"We can only burn our own houses; we can't do anything else. Once a big fire breaks out in the city, it will inevitably cause unrest. General Liu and Governor Zhang are outsiders after all; they can't control the unrest."

(End of this chapter)