The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the border troops, it was overthrown and the Qing Dynasty was destro

Chapter 146 A Scoundrel Who Harms the People

As for Jiang Han, since he repelled He Renlong, no government troops have come to cause him any trouble.

Seeing that there were no more obstacles near Hongdong County, Jiang Han waved his hand and ordered his troops to disperse and gather grain from all directions to replenish the army's supplies.

However, a few days later, Jiang Han keenly sensed that something was amiss.

Since entering the heart of Pingyang Prefecture, the troops he sent out have encountered increasing resistance.

It was no longer the officers and soldiers, but the hostility from the countryside and ordinary people.

Jiang Han originally intended to repeat his old tricks, just like in Fenzhou Prefecture, by raising the banner of a righteous army and uniting the common people to fight against the landlords and gentry.

To his surprise, the people near Hongdong County treated his entourage as if they had seen a plague god.

Without saying a word, they turned and ran, as if trying to avoid it at all costs.

Upon seeing this, many of the captains and platoon leaders chased after them, trying to talk to the people and explain that they were not ordinary bandits.

No matter how they explained, the people turned a deaf ear, their eyes filled with fear and disbelief.

After being released, these people never showed their faces again and all hid in the mountains.

Seeing this, Jiang Han couldn't help but feel a little puzzled.

This method worked quite well in Fenzhou Prefecture, so why didn't it work in Pingyang Prefecture?

Although Jiang Han was completely baffled, he could only put the matter aside for the time being and focus on finding the local landlords and gentry.

In his view, as long as he destroyed the strongholds of a few landlords and distributed some grain to the people, people would naturally flock to his cause.

The fortified villages built by these landlords might be a tough nut to crack for ordinary bandits.

But for Jiang Han, who wielded heavy artillery, these rammed earth walls were no different from those made of paper.

The only problem now is that we can't mobilize the local people to search together, so the efficiency of harvesting grain has been greatly reduced.

As soon as the people near Hongdong County heard that bandits had entered the area, they would take their families and hide in the deep mountains, and they could not be found at all.

Just as Jiang Han was worrying, two uninvited guests arrived outside his residence.

These two men, one calling himself Qin Lei the Mountain-Climbing Hawk and the other Wang Kang the Timely Rain, were local bandits from Pingyang Prefecture.

They led a force of seven or eight hundred men to Jiang Han's camp, saying they admired the reputation of the Mountain Tiger and had come specifically to join him.

Jiang Han saw that they were locals, so he didn't think much of it and called them to the military base to learn more about the situation in Hongdong County.

According to Qin Lei, there is a village called Daojue Village near Guangsheng Temple in the east of the county town, and there is a wealthy family surnamed Wang in the village.

The Wang family, backed by Guangsheng Temple, routinely bullied and oppressed the local people, making them a local tyrant.

After Qin Lei and Wang Kang rebelled, they always wanted to lead troops to cause trouble for the Wang family.

However, their forces consisted mainly of starving peasants and bandits, and their equipment was poor. They failed to capture Wangjiazhuang despite repeated attacks.

They came here to ask Jiang Han for a hand and to lend them a few heavy artillery pieces.

Furthermore, he promised that half of the spoils would be given to Jiang Han after the deed was done.

Jiang Han pondered for a moment, thinking that taking down the Wang family would be doing a service to the people, so he didn't doubt it and nodded in agreement.

So he sent Li Zicheng with three heavy cannons to Daojue Village with Qin Lei and Wang Kang.

The other leaders split up and continued searching for nearby villages.

Li Zicheng, Zhang Tianlin, and others all adhered to Jiang Han's rules, always maintaining strict military discipline and never easily disturbing the people.

But no one expected that the newcomers Qin Lei and Wang Kang were a bunch of outright scourges of the people.

Li Zicheng, leading his troops and escorting three heavy cannons, joined forces with Qin Lei and Wang Kang, totaling more than two thousand men, and headed towards Wangjiazhuang.

During the march, Li Zicheng specifically instructed the two men that after capturing the village, they must restrain their men from indiscriminately killing innocent people and from robbing ordinary civilians.

These are all rules set by Jiang Han. Now that we are harvesting grain together, we must abide by Jiang Han's rules.

Qin Lei and Wang Kang readily agreed, patting their chests to assure them that they would never break the rules of the Mountain Tiger.

With three heavy cannons leading the way, the earthen walls of Wangjiazhuang were no match for them.

With several loud bangs, amidst billowing smoke and dust, several holes were blasted open in the earthen wall.

Despite the desperate resistance of the villagers, they were quickly overwhelmed by the swarming bandits.

After attacking the village, the two men, wary of Li Zicheng's presence, initially pretended to restrain their subordinates and released many captured civilians and tenant farmers.

They simply searched out all the main members of the Wang clan and killed them all.

Seeing this, Li Zicheng nodded in satisfaction. He then left a detachment of men behind and headed towards Guangsheng Temple, which was not far away.

I've heard that Buddhist temples are always wealthy, so he can't go back empty-handed after his trip.

However, to Li Zicheng's surprise, the Wang family was not some landlord who preyed on the villagers.

On the contrary, they were a rare kind family in this chaotic world.

Since banditry broke out in Shanxi, the Wang family, in order to protect the people and safeguard the region, voluntarily distributed their wealth to gather local militia to forge weapons and build fortifications, thus protecting the local population.

Led by the Wang family, the local militia relied on the fortress and once repelled many bandits and outlaws, including Qin Lei and Wang Kang.

These two men had been tyrannical in the area in their early years and had been taught a lesson by the Wang family, so they harbored resentment.

Later, seeing the chaos in Shanxi, they seized the opportunity to become bandits and outlaws, their only thought being revenge against the Wang family.

However, their strength was insufficient, and they were never able to defeat Wangjiazhuang.

Hearing that the tigers on the mountain were powerful, he conceived the idea of ​​using someone else to do his dirty work. Sure enough, with the help of heavy artillery, he easily broke through Wangjiazhuang.

When Jiang Han first arrived in Hongdong County, he was completely clueless about the local situation, and the local people feared them like the plague and avoided them at all costs.

I was caught off guard and trusted these two bandits.

After Qin Lei and Wang Kang led their troops to break through Wangjiazhuang, they ransacked the village and carefully inventoried the spoils, but the result greatly disappointed them.

Although the Wang family is indeed a wealthy household, in recent years they have spent most of their wealth on repairing their fortified village and manufacturing weapons, leaving them with far less than they had imagined.

The thought of having to give away half of their already meager spoils made the two of them extremely irritated, like cats scratching at their hearts.

However, even if they had a few more lives, they wouldn't dare to attack Jiang Han's men.

So the two bandits turned their attention to the unarmed villagers of Daojue Village.

Seeing that Li Zicheng was gone, Qin Lei and Wang Kang disregarded the rules about not disturbing the people.

They directed their men to surround the village and begin looting house to house.

Many villagers wanted to resist, but this only fueled the evil intentions of the bandits.

And so, a massacre began.

The ruthlessness of these bandits was an eye-opener for the men left behind by Li Zicheng.

They went on a killing spree in the village, and when they were still not satisfied with killing, they began to take pleasure in torturing people.

Villagers who dared to resist were captured by bandits, who gouged out their eyes and cut off their ears, leaving them unable to die and only able to wail in darkness and pain.

Severing hands and feet was commonplace; many villagers were cut into human stumps, rendered useless, and writhed in agony in pools of blood.

The bandits lit torches and interrogated the villagers. As they watched the flesh sizzle and burn, emitting a foul stench, they instead let out sinister laughs.

Even worse, some would find bowstrings and tightly strangle the villagers' legs until their tendons were severed and their flesh was mangled, and they would not stop until they were covered in blood.

Most appallingly, they actually lit a pot of oil and pressed living people into it to cook them.

Hearing the villagers' screams and the bubbling of the oil in the pot, the bandits finally revealed satisfied smiles.

Li Zicheng was completely unaware of this; he was outside Guangsheng Temple, preparing to cause trouble for those high monks.

But when he heard the news of the bandits massacring the village, he no longer cared about the Buddhist temple in front of him. He immediately mustered his troops and rushed towards Daojue Village.

When Li Zicheng saw the blood-soaked Daojue Village before him, a surge of anger rushed to his head.

Without saying a word, he drew his waist knife, led his personal guards, and rushed into the village. With swift strokes, he cut down several bandits who were committing violence.

Seeing this, Qin Lei and Wang Kang stopped pretending and quickly led their men to surround Li Zicheng.

"General, what do you mean?"

"In front of so many people, you dared to kill my brothers without even asking what happened?"

"Do you perhaps wish to fight us?"

Despite saying that, the two of them still lacked confidence.

The troops brought by Li Zicheng were far superior to their own rabble in terms of both equipment and morale, so the two dared not actually make a move.

Li Zicheng was enraged upon hearing their words:

"You two, before you came here, you bowed and scraped and promised me that you would never do anything to harm the people!"

"You turn around and slaughter villages and even torture and kill civilians. What's the difference between you and beasts?!"

This barrage of insults left Qin Lei and Wang Kang somewhat embarrassed, so they simply stopped pretending and adopted a "what's the worst that can't be done?" attitude. Wang Kang, the "Timely Rain," yelled at the top of his lungs:

"General, we are all brothers who raised the banner to resist the tyrannical Ming Dynasty. Do you intend to attack us?"

"Unless you kill all of us brothers today, or word gets out that we're fighting amongst ourselves, hmph!"

"I'd like to see if you, this 'rebel general,' can still survive in the rebel army!"

Qin Lei chimed in, speaking sarcastically.

The reason they dared to act so recklessly was because they relied on an unwritten rule among the various rebel armies.

The rules are simple: the leaders cannot fight amongst themselves, and they certainly cannot annex other teams.

If you don't like each other, just keep your distance and respect each other; you must never attack each other.

This rule originated from Wang Jiayin, the leader of the rebel alliance.

Wang Jiayin's original intention was to hope that the various rebel groups could unite, point their guns outward, and jointly fight against the government troops.

If the rebel army were to fight amongst themselves, it would only waste its strength and might even push its opponents to the side of the government forces.

It was precisely because of this rule that various rebel armies were able to rapidly grow and expand.

Even if they join forces, they don't need to worry too much about being stabbed in the back.

However, if someone breaks this rule and instigates internal strife, they will be ostracized once word gets out.

Those who stir up trouble will not only be hunted down by government troops, but will also be ostracized by the rebels themselves, and may even be targeted for extermination.

That's why these two dared to challenge Li Zicheng so brazenly, and even threatened to go to the mountain tiger to settle the matter.

Li Zicheng, enraged, spat on the ground and coldly snorted:
"Bah! Who among you traitors who harm the people is a brother?!"

"I have repeatedly warned you to abide by military discipline and not to kill innocent people indiscriminately."

"Now that you've lost all your conscience and are massacring civilians, you still dare to turn around and accuse me of instigating internal strife?"

His eyes widened, and he shouted menacingly:

"Believe it or not, I'll kill both of you scoundrels right now!"

Seeing Li Zicheng's murderous intent, Wang Kang felt a chill run down his spine, but he still tried to maintain a facade of composure:

"General, you may not be able to kill us all today!"

"As long as you dare to make a move, I guarantee that within three months, your reputation as a vanguard will spread throughout the entire Shanxi province!"

"When the time comes, all the rebel armies will rise up and attack you. Let's see how you handle that!"

Although Li Zicheng was furious, he was also well aware that Wang Kang was not bluffing.

The rule against internal strife was the bond that kept the various rebel armies together.

If I were to kill these bandits myself today, and they manage to escape, my reputation would be ruined.

At that time, not only will Li Zicheng find it difficult to establish himself, but Jiang Han will also likely be implicated.

With this in mind, Li Zicheng swallowed his anger.

Let's put these two back in custody and wait for Commander Jiang to deal with them personally.

"Row!"

Li Zicheng let out a heavy snort.
"Since you keep insisting on seeking justice from the Commander-in-Chief, then very well!"

"Let's go see the Commander-in-Chief together now and see how he makes a fair judgment!"

After saying this, Li Zicheng led the bandits back to Jiang Han's camp.

At this moment, Jiang Han was studying the marching route when he discovered that Li Zicheng had stormed back.

When he learned what had happened in Daojue Village, he was furious and immediately wanted to kill the bandits.

Jiang Han finally understood why he had always felt like he was struggling to move forward after entering Pingyang Prefecture.

In the eyes of the people of Pingyang Prefecture, Jiang Han's troops are probably no different from Qin Lei and Wang Kang, who are inhuman scoundrels who harm the people!

It should be noted that the people of Shanxi were not actually enthusiastic about rebellion; they were still barely able to make ends meet.

Although it is currently the Chongzhen era, the drought in Shanxi is not severe, and the major grain-producing areas have not been greatly affected.

Back then, Wang Jiayin led his men to Shanxi to plunder, and then fled back to Shaanxi.

Later, Shanxi imposed a grain embargo on Shaanxi, which is why various rebel armies from Shaanxi came to Shanxi to buy grain.

However, due to the Lüliang Mountains blocking the way, the Fenhe Plain, the core grain-producing area of ​​Shanxi, was not significantly affected.

It wasn't until Jiang Han entered Shanxi and broke through the Lüliang Mountains that he successfully entered the Fenhe Plain.

But other places were not so lucky. For example, Pingyang Prefecture and Lu'an Prefecture were ravaged by various rebel armies several times over.

Add to that the local bandits of all sizes in Shanxi, as well as the Shanxi loyalist army that had fled back, and the whole of Shanxi was thrown into chaos, with the people suffering terribly.

A force like Jiang Han's, capable of disciplining its subordinates, maintaining strict military discipline, and refraining from wantonly plundering the people, is extremely rare among the various rebel armies.

The vast majority of bandits, like Qin Lei and Wang Kang, left nothing but desolation in their wake, often slaughtering entire villages and annihilating entire settlements.

This is the norm for bandits in chaotic times.

"Men, muster the troops and slaughter these traitors who are harming the people!"

"Then hand over the heads to the villagers of Daojue Village!"

Jiang Han was furious and immediately prepared to kill the group of people.

But at this moment, Li Zicheng stepped forward and advised:

"General, please reconsider!"

"If we kill these people, our reputation will be ruined. What will the other rebel armies think of us?"

Jiang Han was unaware that there was a rule within the rebel army that forbade infighting.

After he understood the situation, Jiang Han also felt that it was somewhat tricky.

Qin Lei and Wang Kang were shrewd. They kept saying they wanted to let him make a judgment, but they deliberately left a group of men at a distance to prevent Jiang Han from killing them.

This rule was set by Wang Jiayin, and Jiang Han and Wang Jiayin are still allies, so it wouldn't be good to directly offend him.

Back in Pingyang Prefecture, Wang Jiayin had given Jiang Han a lot of face.

Upon hearing that Jiang Han wanted to cast cannons, they not only sent several cannon makers but also allocated a considerable number of horses to Jiang Han.

Jiang Han could not forget this kindness.

If two scoundrels embarrass Wang Jiayin, the leader of the alliance, and cause a rift between them, then it would be a great loss.

At present, Wang Jiayin and Jiang Han are the leaders of the rebel army. If they really turn against each other, Chongzhen would probably be laughing in his dreams.

However, the rule that they were not allowed to harm the people was personally set by Jiang Han.

A person cannot stand without integrity. If these two are released, won't the brothers under your command harbor resentment?

Why are these two allowed to live after breaking the warlord's rules?

Does that mean we can break the rules too?

Jiang Han could ignore the massacres and destruction of cities and villages by other rebel forces, but he had to eliminate Qin Lei and Wang Kang.

Therefore, Jiang Han had to come up with a way to save face for Wang Jiayin without breaking the rules he had set.

But what should we do?

Just as Jiang Han was deep in thought, a personal guard rushed into the tent and handed him a secret letter.

The letter was sent by someone sent by Deng Yang.

Jiang Han first carefully examined the sealing wax on the envelope, and only after confirming that everything was correct did he open the secret letter and read it carefully.

As he watched, his furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and a slight smile even appeared on his lips.

Since Deng Yang has been suspected, let him take the heads of Qin Lei and Wang Kang.

By sending Deng Yang's "official army" to suppress the bandits, he could avoid personally taking action and thus save face for Wang Jiayin.

　Although from a class-based historical perspective, this group of people in Shaanxi could be called a righteous army.

　　But from another perspective, these people are indeed outright scourges of the people.

　　for example
　　According to the inscription on the stone tablet, "A Record of the Changes in the Universe":
　　The bandits used all sorts of torture methods on people, including knives, axes, and other weapons, to damage their eyes and ears.
　　At that time, it rained for five days, causing immense suffering. Men, women, the old and young cried out in agony. On the twentieth day, the weather cleared up slightly. Just as the bandits set up camp, the entire village searched for their fathers, called for their mothers, their sons, and their grandsons. Their wailing shook the earth, and their cries of sorrow reached the heavens.

　　Moreover, corpses littered the ground, several families perished, and those who survived were mostly mutilated. An investigation revealed that over a thousand people had died from murder, burning, hanging, drowning, or starvation, and countless others, including unidentified refugees from other villages, were also injured.

　　Gold, silver, pearls, jade, mules, horses, and clothing were all looted; pigs, sheep, and cattle were devoured; every household was left with nothing, and everything was destroyed.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)