There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 369 Visit
At the end of March, Suzhou Prefecture surrendered.

During the Qing dynasty's rule, Jiangnan Province was divided into Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, with Anqing as the capital of Anhui and Suzhou as the capital of Jiangsu.

Nanjing served as the dual residence of the Governor-General of Liangjiang and the General of Jiangning, making it a military stronghold, but it did not bear the obligations of being the provincial capital.

With Suzhou's surrender, the heart of Jiangsu had been completely occupied by the Han Dynasty, and the remaining prefectures north of the Yangtze River were no longer of great importance.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Jiangsu Governor Yue Qi and Jiangsu Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Alinbao both jumped off the city wall and committed suicide.

Upon hearing the news of the city's fall, Fang Ang, the Jiangsu Provincial Governor, fell seriously ill and died suddenly.

Only Qian Yue, the Jiangsu Provincial Education Commissioner, remained, and not only did he not manage affairs, but his hometown was also in Zhejiang. Upon hearing that Zhejiang had been completely taken over by the Han, he immediately led all the officials of Suzhou Prefecture to surrender to the Han to save their lives.

While the Han army in Jiangsu captured Suzhou Prefecture, the Han army in Anhui had also basically captured the prefectures of Huainan.

Li Yaodong, the prefect of Fengyang who was loyal to his duty and defended the territory for the pseudo-Qing dynasty, ultimately could not stop the Han army's offensive. It should be said that in the end, it was not the Han army that defeated him, but the people and citizens of Fengyang.

Li Yaodong indeed had a good reputation as an official. During his years in office, he showed compassion for the people, provided disaster relief, repaired city walls, and cracked down on illegal salt smuggling. He was a model local capable minister.

But everything is relative. If it were the White Lotus Rebellion's rebel army that came, the people of Fengyang would really stand up for Li Yaodong, this upright and just official.

The White Lotus Sect has a terrible reputation. It is a heretical sect that fools the people and commits arson, murder, and looting. It is almost no different from the government troops.

The Han army was different. After arriving in Fengyang, they attacked the city once, but found the resistance fierce. They then reduced their forces to besieging the city with a small number of troops, while the main force went to the countryside to help the people, tenant farmers, and settle down, and to free them from slavery.

Almost every day, local tyrants and evil gentry were identified by the people, their homes were confiscated, and they were then dragged out for a public trial. After the trial, those who were guilty enough were beheaded, and those who were not guilty enough were exiled with their homes confiscated.

The confiscated land was distributed to tenant farmers, everyone received land, their slave status was removed, and their debts and loans were forgiven.

At first, Li Yaodong noticed it, but didn't pay much attention to it.

Later, the Han army led the farmers who had been allocated land to Fengyang Prefecture and shouted slogans at the city.

"Little Liu, it's your third uncle! Come back quickly! The Han army magistrate in the village is now helping us and has distributed land to us. Come back now, and your family will get a share too."

"Yes! Gou Dan! Come home quickly. I am your father. We have also divided the land. The Han army magistrate said that if you come back, he will forgive and forget the past and divide the land together."

"Brother, I'm your older brother. Don't you trust your older brother's words? Get down here right now and stop working for those damn government officials."

"..."

After only half a day of shouting, the morale of the soldiers on the city wall of Fengyang Prefecture was greatly stirred, and people recognized their fathers and brothers from time to time.

Li Yaodong couldn't even order the arrows to be fired, not because he was truly benevolent and loved the people like his own children, but because the people shouting below were often family members or relatives of the soldiers and laborers guarding the city.

If Li Yaodong dared to give the order, these civilian laborers and soldiers who had previously supported him would immediately bind him and surrender the city.

Li Yaodong felt a chill run through his body. How could they fight a war like this?
The Han army's psychological warfare tactics continued until evening, with wave after wave of farmers coming to demand their land.

Li Yaodong was listening at first, but later he simply went back into the city tower, sat quietly, and closed his eyes to rest.

I sat quietly all night, and the next morning...

Several garrison officers entered the city gate tower and looked at Li Yaodong, who was sitting upright, and exchanged bewildered glances.

The head clerk cupped his hands and said, "Master!"

Li Yaodong opened his eyes and said calmly, "Since you want to surrender, whether you kill or tie me up is up to you!"

"..."

After a short while, Fengyang Prefecture surrendered.

The Anhui Han army captured the last prefecture city south of the Huai River without losing a single soldier.

Li Yaodong, the prefect of Fengyang, did not commit suicide, but he also did not surrender voluntarily. Instead, he allowed his soldiers to tie him up and hand him over to the Han army.

The Han army commander in charge of the siege originally intended to have the man publicly tried as usual, but Li Yaodong's reputation was indeed excellent. Not only did the soldiers who had surrendered with the man bound help plead for him, but the gentry and common people in the prefectural city also helped plead for him.

Such treatment doesn't necessarily mean an honest official, but it certainly suggests he is a good official.

Unable to make a decision regarding the Han army detachment that had captured Fengyang, they simply reported the news of this fellow along with the victory report to their own general, Bai Nan.

Bai Nan also didn't know how to handle it, nor did he want to get involved, so he packed it up and reported it to the Prince of Han without changing a single word.

After Nie Yu read it, he was also quite surprised. So far, the number of fake honest officials he had encountered was not few, but there were very few who were even human.

The fact that the entire city's citizens spontaneously pleaded for leniency shows that he did a pretty good job!
After thinking it over for a moment, Nie Yu decided to ignore the guy. What did it matter to the big man if he was a good official?
The Han Dynasty has no shortage of good officials. At most, Nie Yu will not kill anyone and will not be punished for serving the Qing Dynasty.

Despite his loyalty to the Qing dynasty, if he could show compassion and love for the people, Nie Yu, being merciful, would still be willing to make an exception and pardon his crimes.

Nie Yu casually wrote a decree to cut off people's queues and release them back into the wild. After thinking for a while, he issued an edict to the Ministry of Personnel team (only half of them) that had come to Nanjing to work, ordering them to immediately arrange for officials to go and take over the prefectures and counties of Huainan, southern Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces.

The Han Dynasty now has a very large territory, and it has been established for almost five years.

The initial reforms to higher education have already yielded some initial results.

The new education system for selecting officials, consisting of three years of primary school, three years of middle school, and three years of university—a total of nine years—is producing the first batch of talent for the Han Dynasty.

Of course, the talent that can be produced at present is mainly ordinary graduates who have completed three years of primary school education.

These primary school graduates are not highly educated; they only know some basic arithmetic and can perform some common literacy and writing tasks.

But that was enough. Being able to read and write was considered a high-achieving student under the pseudo-Qing regime.

After the Han Dynasty defeated the puppet Qing Dynasty, and faced with widespread illiteracy in its newly occupied territories, these primary school graduates were more than enough to fill the Han Dynasty's most pressing need for grassroots officials. As for county magistrates and prefects, that was even simpler.

What the Han Dynasty always lacked were town mayors, land distribution officials, and peasant associations; officials of higher ranks were not really in short supply.

……

Nanjing, April in summer.

Half of the officials from the various departments of the Han Dynasty's cabinet in Jingzhou Prefecture have been officially stationed in Nanjing.

Liu Jun, dressed in a brand-new scarlet official robe and wearing a black gauze hat, stood at the front of the line, holding a jade tablet. Behind him stood the ministers of the eight ministries of rites, personnel, war, work, revenue, justice, commerce, and postal services, as well as the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.

Behind them were officials of various ranks from the various departments of the Han Dynasty, as well as a column of surrendered Qing officials led by Yuan Shu, the former prefect of Jiangning.

The number of these surrendered officials was not large, because during the public trial, not only were several thousand Manchu bannermen killed, but also many local Han officials in Jiangning Prefecture who had committed numerous evils.

Those who are still alive now are mostly those who haven't done much evil, or those who were just transferred here and didn't have time to do anything wrong before Jiangning changed hands.

Such a large group of officials were all standing patiently in front of the Han Prince's Mansion.

Most of them wore Han Dynasty official robes, with some pseudo-Qing official robes worn by surrendered officials like Yuan Shu mixed in, except they had removed their official hats and wore thick leather hats on their heads even in the sweltering heat.

After cutting off my braids, I became completely bald, which didn't look good, so I had to wear a hat.

"The King of Han has arrived!"

Yuan Mingyao temporarily took on the role of the Ministry of Rites' announcer.

"Your Majesty, we pay our respects! Long live the King!"

"Your Majesty, we pay our respects! Long live the King!"

"This guilty official pays his respects to Your Majesty! Long live the King!"

"..."

There were quite a few officials waiting at the entrance, at least several dozen people. They shouted in unison, and their voices were quite loud.

Nie Yu was dressed in a very formal royal robe, and several sedan chair bearers were carrying an exceptionally ornate sedan chair with tense expressions.

This sedan chair was previously used by the puppet Qing Dynasty's Viceroy of Liangjiang. After Nie Yu recaptured Nanjing, the sedan chair became the property of his Prince of Han's mansion, so it wouldn't be appropriate to dismantle and abandon it.

Nie Yu glanced at it twice, then suddenly laughed and said, "Go and fetch my horse."

Minister of Rites Gu Jing hurriedly stepped forward: "Your Majesty..."

Nie Yu raised his hand to stop him: "Although I am going to Zijin Mountain today to pay homage to the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, I am also paying homage to the Han people together with my Han people to pay homage to our Han dynasty. If I ride in a sedan chair, I will only be able to see the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum in Zijin Mountain, and I will not be able to see my Han people."

How can one respond to such a statement?
Gu Jing had no choice but to retreat.

Nie Yu mounted his horse, and Yuan Mingyao beside him shouted, "Let's go!"

Numerous Han officials followed Nie Yu on foot, while countless Han soldiers served as the guard, responsible for clearing the way on both sides and in front of the procession.

Because the news had been released in advance, the streets of Nanjing were already packed with onlookers.

"I'm coming!"

"The King of Han! It's the King of Han!"

When the common people and gentry saw Nie Yu riding a warhorse, his majestic royal robes were particularly eye-catching.

Nie Yu smiled and raised his hand to the onlookers, gesturing to them.

"Long live the King of Han! Long live the King of Han!"

Immediately, the onlookers, both commoners and gentry, knelt down and kowtowed in worship.

Although the Han government had clearly told them that they did not have to kneel before officials, or even before the King of Han, they still knelt on their own initiative.

It wasn't because of popular support, but because the Prince of Han immediately waived their previous tax arrears and slaughtered all the Manchu bannermen in Nanjing who had committed numerous evils.

Nie Yu quickly waved his hand and shouted, "Everyone, get up quickly. Today we are just going to pay our respects at the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum. Those who want to come can come along. There's no need to kneel anymore."

Nie Yu shouted loudly, and although he didn't use a loudspeaker, many ordinary people and gentry could still hear him clearly and stood up one after another.

There really are government officials and emperors in this world who don't want their people to kneel!

No, the King of Han is not the emperor yet. If the King of Han becomes the emperor in the future, won't the good days of suffering for the common people finally come?

As Nie Yu waved, he slowly rode his horse. The road was almost completely blocked by onlookers, and even with Han soldiers maintaining order, it was still very crowded.

Halfway there on horseback, Nie Yu felt it was too slow, so he decided to walk with his officials.

The Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is located on the southern slope of Zijin Mountain, which is located in the southeast corner of the city outside Nanjing.

Nie Yu's team started from the Han Prince's Mansion, first passing through Liren Street, Chengen Temple, and Dongshen Palace, then bypassing the Manchu city of Nanjing via Taiping Street, and heading east, they were able to pass through Taiping Gate.

Exiting Taiping Gate, to the north is Xuanwu Lake (Houhu), and to the south is Zijin Mountain.

At the southern foot of Zijin Mountain lies the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.

(End of this chapter)