There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 338 Guangdong Heaven and Earth Society

Guangzhou, the Governor's Office.

"Your Excellency, something terrible has happened!"

"What's wrong? Tell me quickly."

The Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, Hutuli, was startled. He had only arrived in Guangzhou last month to take over the post of Ji Qing, who had been dismissed, and had not even finished getting familiar with the affairs of Guangdong.

The messenger was Chen Dawen, the governor of Guangdong. He had been promoted from the position of provincial treasurer in Guangdong two years ago and had served in Guangdong for quite some time. He was not only very familiar with the military and political situation in Guangdong, but also very confident in his abilities.

Chen Dawen said, "There are Hongmen organizations gathering people and raising flags in Dongguan and Foshan to mislead the people. Foshan has already fallen, and the situation in Dongguan County is unclear. I'm afraid it's also in grave danger."

"what?"

Hutuli was shocked. Dongguan County was one thing, but Foshan Town was right next to Guangzhou: "Governor Chen, what is the background of this Hongmen? How dare they gather people to rebel?"

“The Hongmen is the same as the Heaven and Earth Society,” Chen Dawen said.

Hutuli fell silent instantly, his head buzzing.

Chen Dawen remained relatively calm and said, "Your Excellency, Foshan is only a dozen miles from Guangzhou. If Foshan falls, the rebels from the Heaven and Earth Society will surely arrive soon. We must immediately call upon all the gentry and citizens of the city to prepare to defend the city!"

Hutuli, the new governor, had only been in Guangzhou for less than a month and hadn't even sorted out the basic situation yet. He couldn't care less about overstepping his authority and simply grabbed Chen Dawen's hand, saying, "Good, good, Governor Chen, I now entrust the defense of Guangzhou entirely to you. Make sure you defend this city well. If anything happens, you don't need to report to me; you can make your own decisions!"

Although Hutuli was timid and had just arrived in Guangzhou, and had not yet spread his power, he had already spent a month getting to know the bureaucrats of Guangzhou Prefecture.

In particular, Chen Dawen, the governor of Guangdong, was a man of both literary and military prowess, with exceptional political and military abilities. Even if he were a governor in the interior, he would be considered a top-tier governor.

Pirates were rampant along the coast of Guangzhou Prefecture, and the Qing army's repeated attempts to suppress them were ineffective, causing great harm to coastal fishermen and merchant ships.

After Chen Dawen was promoted to Governor of Guangdong, the first thing he did was to plan an ambush against the largest pirate group along the coast of Guangzhou. In one battle, he sank six pirate warships, killed more than 200 pirates, and captured two pirate leaders alive, which made him a formidable figure along the coast of Guangzhou.

The Guangdong Heaven and Earth Society was too hasty. As soon as they saw that the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, Ji Qing, had been dismissed, they couldn't wait to raise their flag and start an uprising, completely ignoring that the ruthless Governor of Guangdong, Chen Dawen, was still alive.

Chen Dawen received the power delegated by Hutuli and quickly took control of the defense of Guangzhou. He also cut down and destroyed all the city bridges, sealed off all the city gates, and called on wealthy families to conscript able-bodied men into the army.

In just a few days, the defenses of Guangzhou were made impregnable.

Chen Ming and Li Wencai, leaders of the Tiandihui in Guangzhou, had just captured Foshan Town and Dongguan County and were preparing to join forces to attack Guangzhou Prefecture.

However, they found that Guangzhou was completely isolated, and the city walls were guarded by Qing troops. Each section of the city wall was arranged to be airtight and without any flaws.

Chen Ming and Li Wencai were not fools. Seeing that a direct assault would not succeed, they decided to leave a portion of the rebel army to continue the siege, while the main force went out to conquer other regions. At the same time, they distributed a large number of proclamations and proclamations against the Qing dynasty, calling on the followers throughout the province to raise their flags in response.

At that time, the Heaven and Earth Society's influence in Guangdong was not very strong, but even if it wasn't strong, it couldn't withstand the dense population of Guangdong!

During the Qing Dynasty, Guangdong Province was a province with an explosive population growth. Almost every year, there were conflicts between the Hakka and the local people, whether it was over land and water resources or clan fights. And even so, famines broke out every year.

Because there are too many people here, and every year there are Hakka people moving to Guangdong, these Hakka people are very united when they arrive in a foreign land. When something happens, they gather together and stick together, and the locals often can't beat the Hakka people.

The conflicts between locals and migrants, the conflict between people and land, and the famine caused by insufficient food in Guangdong—these three problems combined could drive every governor of Guangdong to the brink of madness.

Even with the constraints of the government, the local people of Guangdong could almost get into trouble. Now, the city of Guangzhou is besieged by the Heaven and Earth Society's rebel army, which is calling on its members and the people everywhere to rise up, overthrow the government, and resist the Qing Dynasty.

This caused an uproar throughout Guangdong Province!
First came Chen Ming and Li Wencai, who spearheaded the uprising in Guangzhou, followed by Ge Jinshan, the leader of the Tiandihui branch in Shaozhou Prefecture, and He Hanming, the leader of the Sanhehui (a branch of the Hongmen, which is the same as the Tiandihui) in Huizhou Prefecture, who took advantage of the chaos. The number of participants in the uprising expanded from tens of thousands at the beginning to hundreds of thousands of rebels within a month, and the eastern Guangdong region was completely engulfed in war.

The Han official stationed in Liannan, responsible for building an academy for the Yao people in Bapai, immediately sent a telegram to Jingzhou upon receiving the news.

The telegram sent to Jingzhou contained only seven characters: "The Heaven and Earth Society uprising in eastern Guangdong!"
Nie Yu immediately summoned the cabinet ministers to discuss countermeasures against the sudden uprising of the Heaven and Earth Society in eastern Guangdong.

Liu Jun said, “To deal with the Heaven and Earth Society, we must first find out their background and origins. I once talked with a classmate from Guangdong and mentioned the Heaven and Earth Society. According to the people of Guangdong, the Heaven and Earth Society was founded by Chen Jinnan, a strategist of the Ming Zheng regime in Taiwan, and its main purpose was to overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming.”

Wang Ruoyu nodded slightly: "Since it is about overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming, then we can win them over and form an alliance. We are all righteous armies fighting against the Qing together. I believe that our Great Han should immediately send an envoy to Guangdong to discuss the alliance with them!"

Gu Jing suddenly interrupted, "I think so. The main purpose of the Heaven and Earth Society is to overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming, not to overthrow the Qing and restore the Han of our Great Han. Restoring the Ming and restoring the Han are worlds apart, though only one word apart. If we are to form an alliance, then who should be the leader? And after we have defeated the Qing army in Guangdong, what's next? Who should we attack?" Gu Jing's words instantly enlightened everyone present. The banner that their Great Han was raised was to overthrow the Qing and restore the Han, not the old and commonplace overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming.

Even if we asked them to overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming, and change their banner now, it would be impossible.

To regain sight? Why would you want to regain your sight?

The Ming Dynasty has been gone for over 150 years, so let it stay in the pages of history and not come back to life.

The banner of righteousness against the Qing Dynasty will be raised by the mighty Han people!

Therefore, we must carefully consider our attitude towards the Heaven and Earth Society in eastern Guangdong.

It should be understood that under the current Qing regime, the rebel armies that are still fighting have either joined the Han Dynasty or raised the banner of the Han Dynasty.

As for Liu Zhixie from Henan, he is a cult leader. He has no legitimate or righteous status and relies entirely on religious brainwashing to make his followers fearless. He is destined to never amount to anything.

Nie Yu glanced at the assembled officials below and suddenly burst into laughter: "Hahaha, alright, my lords, there's no need for such vigilance and worry. I have already made my decision."

Nie Yu said, "Although the Heaven and Earth Society in Guangdong raised the banner of overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming, this banner was ultimately used to gather people's hearts. To put it bluntly, the Ming Dynasty has been dead for more than 150 years. Even if there were any loyal ministers, they should have been killed by the Tartars by now. The remaining instigators are just using the banner of righteousness."

"Since that's the case, why worry? What you said earlier, Wang Qing, was very good. We are all rebels against the Qing together, so why distinguish between us? If we fight amongst ourselves before we've even eliminated the fake Qing, then this great cause will never be accomplished."

Since the King of Han had said so, although the ministers still harbored some resentment, upon careful consideration, they realized that what the King said was indeed true.

If you're already embroiled in internal strife before you've even accomplished anything significant, what kind of great things can you possibly accomplish?

After giving a reminder to all the ministers, Nie Yu then waved his hand and said, "Since the rebel army of the Heaven and Earth Society in Guangdong has already risen up, then our Great Han cannot sit idly by and watch our allies be wiped out. We must also adjust our strategic plan for next year."

The original strategic plan of the Han Dynasty did not intend to cease hostilities next year, because there was simply no time to rest. If the advance were to stop, it might give the Qing army a breathing space, putting the Han Dynasty in a serious strategic disadvantage.

The Han Dynasty may seem powerful now, but its territory is still too small. It really cannot stop until it conquers Jiangnan.

The strategic plan already established by the two major command headquarters of the Han Dynasty, the land and naval forces, is to first attack the Huainan prefectures in Anhui next year, including Luzhou, Liuan, Chuzhou, Hezhou, Fengyang (Huainan), Yingzhou (Huainan), and Sizhou (Huainan).

Although the Han army has now controlled the area south of the Yangtze River in Anhui, the saying goes that to defend the Yangtze River, one must also defend the Huai River. The long Yangtze River defense line is simply not going to hold. It is necessary to rely on the Huai River to establish a defense line in order to resist the large-scale southward advance of the Qing army from the north.

The reason why Anhui later moved its provincial capital from Anqing to Hefei is because Hefei's strategic position is too important, as it is located in the middle section of the Huaihe River defense line.

Historically, Cao Wei and Sun Wu fought several major battles here, including the famous scene of "Sun's 100,000 troops".

Even later, when the Red Army marched south, it first captured Hefei, which put heavy defensive pressure on the Nanjing government and ultimately led to the collapse of the Yangtze River defense line.

Only by capturing Huainan can the Han army launch a full-scale attack on Jiangning (Nanjing).

However, the plan has to be changed slightly. We still need to take Huainan next year, but at the same time we need to move south to Guangdong.

If Guangdong can be defeated, Nie Yu would be very willing to prioritize defeating Guangdong.

By taking Guangdong, the Han Dynasty could open up overseas trade routes ahead of schedule, conduct trade with foreign vassal states, and acquire various wealth and resources such as warhorses, silver, and high-quality sheep.

Moreover, with Guangdong under its control, the industrial revolution in the Han Dynasty could be accelerated slightly.

Thanks to maritime trade routes, cotton cloth no longer had to worry about being sold. The spinning revolution brought about by the early Industrial Revolution resulted in an excess of cotton cloth far exceeding domestic demand, which could all be sold through maritime trade routes.

After thinking for a moment, Nie Yu added to Gu Jing's instructions: "The Ministry of Rites should immediately begin selecting envoys to go to Guangdong to contact the Heaven and Earth Society rebels there. If they can be pacified, they should be pacified; if they cannot be pacified, they can form an alliance. In short, we should fight the Qing army first, and we can deal with the rest later."

This instruction was actually somewhat superfluous. Historically, when the Heaven and Earth Society of Guangdong rose up, although they also fought under the banner of overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming, they immediately submitted to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom when it came to power.

As long as the Great Han doesn't go too far with these Heaven and Earth Societies, treats their rebel armies normally, and can also properly resolve the local conflicts between the Hakka and the indigenous people, then they won't care whether the King of Han is surnamed Zhu Ming or Great Han!

(End of this chapter)