There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 94: It’s time to expand the army again

Nie Yu didn't know yet that the White Lotus Sect in Sichuan had actually started an uprising ahead of time, and accidentally wiped out an entire Eight Banners sect, which frightened the Governor of Sichuan so much that he personally took part in the battle.

Qianlong's strategy of combining the armies of four provinces to suppress Hubei failed before it was even implemented.

It was certain that the Qing troops from Sichuan could not come, and the Qing troops from Shaanxi and Gansu also had no time to go south to Hubei to join forces with Hui Ling to suppress the bandits.

Because the current Sichuan Governor Yingshan was about to suffer a devastating defeat in Yuechi, not only did he lose many soldiers and generals due to underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly, he almost died at the hands of the White Lotus Sect. Emperor Qianlong could no longer tolerate this and demoted the Shaanxi-Gansu Governor Eji Yimian, and changed his route to go south to help Sichuan suppress the bandits and quell the rebellion.

Of course, these things have nothing to do with Nie Yu for the time being. Qianlong wanted to mobilize troops from four provinces to fight against the White Lotus Sect, which had nothing to do with his Han Army.

Even if they really wanted to attack Jingzhou, the Mongolian governor Huiling would definitely not dare to mobilize troops first.

However, since the Yuezhou Prefecture City was captured by the Han army, the original government office has become the new general's residence.

"General, the land distribution officials sent by Jingzhou have arrived." Feng Xiuyong sent a telegram.

Having a radio is convenient. You can use the radio to send messages and communicate instantly, thereby remotely controlling and commanding everything.

Yuezhou Prefecture, as the frontline city of the Han army's southward advance, has become a major military town in the eyes of the Han army. With telegraphs keeping in touch at all times, officials who distributed land and craftsmen from firearm workshops have all taken boats to Yuezhou and Lizhou one after another.

Nie Yu took the telegram, glanced at it briefly, nodded, and instructed, "Disband these people first and let them be responsible for distributing land and building towns in the local area. As for the scholars sent by the wealthy gentry, let them follow in distributing land. First, let the old guide the new, and once they are basically familiar with local affairs, promote them and grant them official positions. We have already taken Yuezhou and Lizhou, and we must restore civil order here as soon as possible. We can't rely solely on the sword in our hands."

Nie Yu no longer has a shortage of officials under his command. Although the territory has expanded by two states at once, which is equivalent to tripling the size of the territory, the number of scholars occupying these new territories will also increase and become more saturated.

Some of these scholars passed the imperial examinations of the pseudo-Qing Dynasty, while some never passed in their entire lives. But it doesn’t matter. There is not much difference between passing the examinations and not passing the examinations. There is not much difference between being a Jinshi and a Juren.

Because it was already the first year of the Jiaqing reign, everyone had their own place, and the huge profit pie of the Qing officialdom had already been divided up almost entirely among the Eight Banners nobles, Mongolian nobles, bondservants, and wealthy scholars.

Every year, there are a large number of scholars who, after passing the imperial examinations, wait their entire lives for a real official position but never get one.

The officialdom was nearly saturated, but the number of scholars continued to increase. Many failed scholars became scholars, and even newly minted Jinshi, without official positions, still had no official positions. Even the top three Jinshi, who were guaranteed to be appointed at the beginning, could be unlucky and end up in a sinecure in the Hanlin Academy for the rest of their lives, with no chance of being transferred to other posts.

The Han army now gives these scholars official positions, although they are only the lowest-level land distribution officials and town mayors, but if they do a good job, they can be promoted, and they can even be promoted to county magistrates and prefects.

Traitor? What traitor?
How dare you slander our wise and brave general who knew how to appoint the right people and was against the Qing Dynasty and restored the Han Dynasty!
Under Nie Yu's combination of big sticks and sweet dates, the wealthy families and gentry in Yuezhou and Lizhou quickly fell.

Isn’t it just dividing the land?

Which founding emperor did not investigate the land properties of the landlords and the powerful families, and did not break up those powerful local families? Moreover, the general did not touch their floating wealth and shops. This can be considered benevolent, righteous and enlightened.

"Is there anything else?" Nie Yu arranged all the newly sent officials from Jingzhou. Seeing that Feng Xiuyong had not left yet, he knew that the other party had something to say.

Feng Xiuyong had followed Nie Yu for a long time and had already gotten to know his habits and temperament. He knew the general didn't like to talk nonsense, so he got straight to the point and said, "General, ever since our army took over Yuezhou and Lizhou, scholars from both states have flocked here, wanting to work for the general's mansion. Many of these gentry weren't actually forced to cut their braids, but instead shaved their heads and changed their clothes, then came to the general's mansion to recommend themselves."

At first glance, this seemed like a good thing, as the gentry and wealthy families were willing to surrender without having to cut their braids. This just proved that the Han army's momentum was gradually expanding with Jingzhou as its center, especially in Yuezhou and Lizhou, which were adjacent to Jingzhou Prefecture. They no longer believed that the Han army was a brutal and bloodthirsty White Lotus cult.

They really believed that the Han army might be able to succeed!
But this was not entirely a good thing, because the gentry in Hubei and Hunan thought that the Han army could accomplish things, so they took the initiative to cut their braids, changed into Hanfu, and came to help the Han army fight against the Qing Dynasty.

But they are not only here to help the Han army, they are also trying to steal the fruits of the Han army's rebellion. It is not that the gentry want to overthrow the Han army and overthrow General Nie Yu, they just want to seize more power from Nie Yu.

The Nie family can become emperor, and these local gentry must also share the country's prosperity and power.

Even Feng Xiuyong's proactive reminder now was not entirely out of public interest, but also out of vigilance, because he belonged to the defected staff faction.

Yes, that’s right, there were factions within the Han army.

This situation actually existed a long time ago, but the territory was too small at the beginning, so it was not obvious. The various factions mostly formed groups to protect themselves, and the fighting was not fierce.

But things are different now. The Han army has defeated the Qing army several times in a row and has the possibility of success. Even the great general Nie Yu seems to have some of the qualities of a real dragon.

Nie Yu asked, "What are your thoughts?"

Feng Xiuyong said, "We can follow the example of the pseudo-Qing dynasty and appoint officials to different places. I'm not talking about appointing officials to different places within a prefecture, but rather outside of it. Right now, our Han Dynasty only has two prefectures and one prefecture. We can allow officials from these three places to serve in different places. This way, they won't be able to form alliances with the local gentry, nor will they be able to favor the local gentry. Then, we can evaluate them based on their performance and force them to do real work. As our territory continues to grow, we should appoint officials to different provinces, and establish a system where officials from our own province are not allowed to serve as officials. Violators will be dismissed and severely punished!"

It is really just learning from the Qing Dynasty, but it is indeed useful. It is necessary to let officials serve in other places, which can reduce the risk of officials colluding with local gentry.

But this was not actually safe, because Nie Yu's territory was too small. When he first took over Jingzhou, all his officials were from Jingzhou and served in the local area. He could only separate the counties and towns to prevent favoritism. This caused many problems, and he had to severely punish many officials before he could barely stop the trend of corruption and favoritism.

It is basically difficult to implement the separation of prefectures and capitals now, because the basic foundation of the Han army is the distribution of land and the release of slaves, which requires a large number of grassroots officials. Grassroots officials are all newcomers and need to be trained and guided by old people. Over time, factional relations will be established.

This problem has almost no solution for the time being!
There is no other reason, because the territory is too small, there is not even a province.

Nie Yu shook his head. "Speaking of which, how's the recruitment of new soldiers and the manufacture of firearms going?"

Feng Xiuyong said, "Since the general issued the order that day, the Secretariat has already built several barracks for recruiting soldiers within Yuezhou Prefecture. We have already recruited 10,000 new soldiers. We are also recruiting soldiers in Jingzhou Prefecture, with an estimated recruitment of over 30,000. We have also recruited craftsmen from all over the prefecture to build the Yuezhou Firearms Workshop, which is mass-producing cannons, muskets, hand grenades, and other firearms."

As the territory expands, the army must naturally be expanded. How can we deal with the 100,000 Qing troops in western Hunan without expanding the army?
Although Nie Yu knew that these 100,000 Qing troops were unlikely to advance north, he still had to be prepared. Moreover, if the Qing troops could not advance north, he would have to continue to advance south to seize territory!

Nie Yu planned to expand the army by 40,000 people first, at least one-third of whom would be fully equipped with firearms.

Nie Yu has already purchased a treasury of seamless steel pipes for making muskets and cannons, which can at least produce thousands of muskets and hundreds of red cannons.

It's just that he spent a lot of money. If he hadn't just occupied two prefectures and made a lot of floating wealth, and hadn't had the support of the newly collected taxes from Jingzhou Prefecture, he would have been emptied out soon.

(End of this chapter)