Qing Yao

Chapter 378 Lord Zhao, when will you return home in glory?

"I have come to Fengyang this time for no other reason than to completely eradicate the salt bandits who have been entrenched in northern Anhui for many years, restore peace to the region, and eliminate the threat of the White Lotus Cult in this province, so as not to fail His Majesty's trust!"

There was no need to hide it anymore, so Zhao An directly stated his purpose.

An Deshun was startled upon hearing this, not expecting that the provincial governor had not come to Fengyang to inspect the post-disaster reconstruction, but to deal with the salt bandits, which made him feel troubled.

Those salt bandits were too fierce and brave. The Green Standard Army had launched several attacks before, but not only had they failed to eliminate them, they had also lost many officers and soldiers. As a result, the Green Standard Army in various parts of northern Anhui developed a "fear of bandits". As long as the salt bandits did not go too far, the local governments would turn a blind eye to them.

There was no way to deal with them; they were simply too difficult to handle. Even the governor's office's hefty reward for the heads of Xie and Yang had been ineffective.

It's a good thing that the provincial governor has personally come to Fengyang to oversee the bandit suppression, but what if he still can't suppress them?

After all, those salt bandits were not only fierce and brave, but also very cunning and treacherous.

They have bribed countless people and planted countless spies within local government and even the Green Standard Army.

If the salt bandits were to inflict another crushing defeat on them, just like the previous two times, An Tongzhi would not be worried about the damage to the prestige of the provincial governor, but rather whether the salt bandits would become arrogant and think they were the reincarnations of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

Zhao An ignored what An Deshun thought and asked him, "Why have these mere salt bandits been able to occupy northern Anhui for more than twenty years and have been eliminated by several governors?"

"This"

An Deshun could not answer. The problem of rampant illegal salt trade in northern Anhui existed since the early days of the People's Republic of China, and it was even a widespread problem throughout the country.

Li Wei's greatest achievement in Liangjiang was using the grain transport gang to crack down on the salt gang, thereby stabilizing the purse strings for Emperor Yongzheng.

The fact that Xie and Yang, the two bandits, have grown to their current size is also due to "historical reasons." It is impossible to say that there was no collusion between officials and bandits behind it, but it is difficult to explain in a short time.

If we sit down and talk, we could chat for at least a day.

Seeing this, Zhao An waved his hand: "I don't care about or want to know about the past. This time, I must wipe out this bandit gang. Now, I ask you, Magistrate An, do you have confidence?"

My past life habits were so strong that I subconsciously ask people if they have confidence.

"Yes, yes!"

An Deshun nodded quickly, not daring to show the slightest sign of fear.

Whether the salt bandits are easy or difficult to suppress is not important; what is important is not to "lose face" in front of the provincial governor.

Even if the provincial governor wanted him to go into the oil fryer right now, he would have to agree to it first, and it wouldn't be too late to run away once the oil fryer was actually set up.

Loyalty is not absolute, it is absolutely disloyal.

An Deshun, who was determined to rise to the position of prefect, understood this principle better than anyone else.

He's already in his late forties; if he can't get promoted to the fourth rank, he'll see the end of his life ahead of him.

Who would accept that?
The promotion from fifth to fourth rank seems easy and simple, but in the Qing Dynasty's officialdom, the fourth rank was a threshold that 90% of officials could not cross until their death.

Once you cross that threshold, you become a powerful figure in your own right.

Except for a very few lucky ones, officials who want to get past this hurdle can only hope to be helped by influential people.

Who is the benefactor?

Isn't this the one right in front of me!
No matter how many achievements An Deshun made in his local work, it couldn't compare to a "letter of recommendation" from the provincial governor, who held the power to evaluate officials throughout the province!
Zhao An did indeed intend to appoint An Deshun as the new prefect of Fengyang.

The saying "It's easy to get an official position if you have connections in the court" is absolutely true. The current Minister of Personnel, Su Ling'a, is related by marriage to the brothers Heshen and Helin, and is also a key member of the Heshen faction in history.

As everyone knows, Zhao An was a model official promoted and established by He Shen. Whether he liked it or not, from the moment he voluntarily paid 1,000 taels of silver to plead guilty, he was naturally labeled as a member of the He Shen faction, and was even publicly cursed by the Fuzhou General as a dog of He Shen.

Otherwise, would Ren Jiaqing have allowed his homeroom teacher and Chinese language teacher to deal with him?

With this connection, Zhao An is a 100% member of the He Party, so the people he promotes are naturally also members of the He Party.

In this way, the "letter of recommendation" reached the desk of Su Ling'a, a bigwig of the He Party who was in charge of the Ministry of Personnel. In addition, An Deshun had been awarded a second-class merit for his meritorious service in transporting grain in the previous victory in Suzhou. He was also a fifth-rank official and was very familiar with local affairs. It was only natural for him to take over as the prefect of Fengyang.

In the Qing Dynasty, officials were only responsible to their superiors!
An Deshun was responsible to Zhao An, and Zhao An gave him a future; Zhao An was responsible to Heshen, and Heshen also had to work hard to promote him.

The reason why Zhao An went to such great lengths to make Xie and Yang the leaders of the White Lotus Rebellion was not only to eliminate the influence of the White Lotus sect in northern Anhui and to control the salt profits, but also to be responsible to Heshen.

Heshen had previously sent a message through his guards that as long as Zhao An could handle the affairs in Anhui thoroughly, he would allow him to go to the capital to meet the old master.

To speak directly with the chairman is a privilege that even the governor of Anhui, let alone the provincial governor, doesn't have.

Will Zhao An let this good opportunity slip by?

How can one get to the capital? Of course, by achieving another great feat, and then legitimately bringing two bags of local specialties to the palace to visit the old master.

While having his cake and eating it too, Zhao An also dreamed of moving up a rank and giving the position of Governor of Anhui a real one.

During the Qing Dynasty, there were governors-general who also served as provincial governors, and provincial governors who also served as provincial treasurers. In addition to personal ability, the most important factor was whether one had connections in the court.

With Heshen around, and the four fools of the Fu family helping him, and having earned his position in the capital through merit, and with the old master being terribly muddle-headed, who would dare to compete with Zhao An for the position of Governor of Anhui?
Therefore, this battle must either not be fought at all, or it must be won!

"In the past, bandit suppression was just treating the symptoms, not the root cause. Therefore, I carefully considered this on the way here. This time, bandit suppression must be carried out in a three-pronged approach: military, political, and civil affairs. None of them can be neglected."

Seeing An Deshun's puzzled expression, Zhao An further explained, "Military operations mean resolutely suppressing bandits with superior forces. Without the deterrence of military might, all political strategies are meaningless. Previously, the suppression of bandits in various places was led by the local Green Standard Army, whose forces were both weak and unable to form an encirclement. Therefore, I have asked the Governor-General of Liangjiang to coordinate, and not only will the elite of the Green Standard Army in our province be dispatched, but the three prefectures in northern Jiangsu will also send troops to assist in the suppression."

An Deshun suddenly realized: "Does Your Excellency mean to use overwhelming force to make the salt bandits have nowhere to hide?"

"good."

Zhao An nodded, looking shrewd and calculating. "While deploying troops to suppress the rebellion is of utmost importance, political maneuvering should not be underestimated. You must understand the principles of dividing and weakening, and winning hearts and minds."

An Deshun quickly replied modestly, "This humble official is dull-witted, please enlighten me, sir!"

Zhao An didn't particularly like this kind of humility that pretended not to know when one clearly knew, but thinking that he himself had been humble in the past, he said lightly: "The principle of this bandit suppression is that the ringleaders must be punished, while the coerced will not be questioned. If ordinary salt bandits are willing to abandon their evil ways and return to their hometowns to behave themselves, the government will not investigate them and may even provide them with travel expenses as appropriate."

Furthermore, one should send messengers to inform the relatives of the salt bandits, appealing to familial bonds to persuade them to repent and not follow the bandit leader in his stubborn resistance. Those who surrender and serve should be engaged to provide intelligence, guidance, or even to persuade them to surrender; this approach is far more effective than a blind campaign.

"Your Excellency is wise!"

After offering a casual compliment, An Deshun hesitated, "Your Excellency's benevolence is commendable, but isn't it too lenient towards the salt bandits?" "Lenient?"

Zhao An chuckled lightly, "How can we make the bandits disloyal and distrustful if we don't indulge them? Only when they are fighting amongst themselves and distrusting each other can the government troops achieve great success in their campaign."

After a brief pause, he instructed that in addition to military strikes and political maneuvering, civil affairs were of even greater importance.

"Civil affairs are the foundation of bandit suppression and the key to preventing the resurgence of banditry. I ask you, do the bandits Xie and Yang have great prestige among the people?"

"This"

An Deshun hesitated for a moment, then dared not conceal the truth. He frankly admitted that Xie and Yang, the two thieves, only smuggled salt and did not rob. In addition, they sold low-priced salt, so they were indeed quite popular among the ignorant common people. Even some scholars admired the two thieves.

"Quite popular?"

Zhao An shook his head, his expression somewhat grave. "It's more than just being popular; I think it's about winning the hearts and minds of the people. Otherwise, why would the government troops always have someone tipping them off whenever they launch an attack? And why would the civilians who guide the government troops go to such lengths to harm them?"

That's a rather awkward question.

Fortunately, Zhao An didn't really need An Deshun to give an answer. He slowly got up, walked to the entrance of the hall, pointed to the flower pond in the courtyard, and said with feeling, "If the salt bandits are the fish in this pond, then the people are the water. In the past, the government was only concerned with catching fish, but never thought of draining the water, so the fish darted around in the water and were difficult to catch. Now, I'm not in a hurry to catch the fish, but the water must be drained first!"

His tone was strong, and his attitude was firm.

Only by severing the ties between the salt bandits and the common people can the fish be forced to lie in the dried-up pond and wait to die.

Zhao An had no intention of commanding the Qing army in a "people's war." Xie and Yang only had a little over three thousand men. No matter how fierce they were, as long as Zhao An kept sending troops to encircle and suppress them, Xie and Yang would eventually meet a tragic end.

However, this also means that the civilians in the "war zone" will be severely affected, even if Zhao An repeatedly orders the Green Standard Army to pay attention to military discipline and not to kill innocent people indiscriminately.

Anyone who participates, even if it's just to tip off the salt bandits or sell some grain, is essentially a traitor.

In order to survive, the salt bandits will definitely resort to coercion and manipulation, and at that time, Zhao An will have no choice but to be soft-hearted.

Therefore, only by severing the relationship between the salt bandits (a large fish) and the common people (a small pond) can the losses be minimized.

An Deshun, as a fifth-rank official, certainly understood the principle, but how could he separate himself from his wife?
"Your Excellency's plan is excellent, but the people have received small favors from the salt bandits for many years and are afraid of their retaliation. How can they be willing to help the government troops?"

Zhao An turned his head to look at An Deshun, and said with a slight smile, "We don't need the help of the people, just neutrality is enough."

"neutral?"

An Deshun did not understand his meaning.

"So-called neutrality means not taking sides."

A sly glint flashed in Zhao An's eyes. "If you want the people to be neutral, you need to ruin the reputation of the salt bandits in their hearts. This is the third thing I asked you to do earlier."

"I see!"

An Deshun suddenly realized: "Brilliant! Your Excellency has instructed me to find someone to impersonate a salt bandit and do things to oppress the people. The people won't know if it's real or fake, but seeing the salt bandits doing this, how could they possibly support them anymore!"

"You just understand."

Zhao An admitted that doing so was somewhat underhanded and would have some "negative effects" on the people, but in extraordinary times, extraordinary measures must be taken. As long as Xie Hongyi and Yang Biao can be uprooted, the harm to the people from "fishing in troubled waters" can actually be ignored.

Even if there is some damage, as long as no one dies, the government can provide compensation afterwards.

As the saying goes, they are more than capable of ruining things than accomplishing them.

I can't transform the Qing army into good people and gain the support of the people, but I can make good people become bad people and lose the support of the people.

As long as the salt bandits continue to oppress the people, even if some people don't believe it, they can't withstand the power of public opinion. With deliberate propaganda, the good reputation that Xie and Yang have built up over the past twenty years will be ruined in an instant.

It's like Zhang San and Li Si are both running for councilor. Zhang San gives each villager a bag of rice and a bottle of salad oil, winning the villagers' favor. They all say they'll vote for Zhang San.

Because Li Si was poor and couldn't afford to give the villagers anything to appease them, he decided to take a risky tactic: he would have someone impersonate Zhang San's men at night and forcibly take the items back from the villagers.

No matter how Zhang San explained afterward, it was no use.

Without the support of the common people, no matter how capable the salt bandits were, they were nothing more than tools for Zhao An to train his troops.

No matter how many people are killed or injured on both sides, Zhao An doesn't care.

Essentially, Zhao An was raising poisonous insects.

To achieve a comprehensive approach to bandit suppression that combines military, political, and civil measures, local officials and government agencies must play a sufficient role.

Zhao An's last instruction to An Deshun was to conduct an internal investigation within the government offices. This involved transferring people from organizations that had no dealings with salt to "station" in those organizations that did, secretly monitoring the officials within these organizations to ensure that no one tipped off the salt bandits.

The next step was to relocate personnel, that is, to transfer people from County A to County B, and people from County B to County C, thereby restricting personnel from areas that colluded with salt bandits.

After all the arrangements were made, Zhao An had someone bring Yang Xiaoshuan, who was hiding in an inn in Fengyang City, to the city.

Xiao Shuan escaped with his life by fighting salt bandits. After escaping, he didn't know if there were any salt bandits in Fengyang City, so he hid after writing a letter to Zhao An.

The former friend was clearly terrified. When he saw Zhao An, he rushed over as if he were seeing a relative and started crying loudly.

Zhao An was really heartbroken. It was no wonder Xiao Shuan was timid, because he had only ever fought with petty thugs before, and had never dealt with bandits before, let alone almost lost his life.

"Don't cry. It's good that you're alright. If anyone's to blame, it's me. I shouldn't have let you put yourself in danger."

As Zhao An pulled Yang Xiaoshuan to sit down, he took out his white handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped away the tears from the corners of Yang Xiaoshuan's eyes.

Yang Xiaoshuan, perhaps feeling a little embarrassed by the wiping, stopped sobbing: "Brother An, did I embarrass you? Sigh, I know you want me to do something important, but... but I'm really a coward. I was so scared I almost peed my pants."

"Shame on you? Shame on you for what?"

Zhao An chuckled and patted Yang Xiaoshuan on the shoulder. "Nobody is born to do great things. A little over a year ago, I was just hanging out with you guys in the countryside. Did I ever imagine what today would be like?"

"Ah."

Yang Xiaoshuan wiped away his tears with his sleeve, looking at Zhao An, who wore a double-eyed peacock feather hat and the official robes of a second-rank official, and couldn't help but feel envious: "Brother An, you are really capable, you actually made such a high-ranking official. If the people back home knew how powerful you are, they would definitely all come to rely on you. By the way, Brother An, didn't you always say back home that if you did well outside, you would return home in glory? When are you going back?"

(End of this chapter)