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

Chapter 190 Gansu Town Uprising

Commander Jiang?
Chen Gang was stunned. He had never heard of any general in the imperial court with the surname Jiang. Could he be a newly transferred one?
Wang Wu didn't answer directly. Instead, he scooped out his waist knife, mace, and short axe all at once and threw them on the ground.

A few crisp clangs seemed to strike the hearts of everyone present.

The crowd looked at the brand-new, gleaming weapons before them, then down at their own rusty old tools, and fell silent.

The armory in the fort hasn't been updated with new equipment for who knows how many years.

Many of the spears used by people had rusted spearheads, and the sleeves connecting them to the wooden shafts had long since loosened, so they could only be haphazardly tied together with wedges and straw ropes to keep them in place.

Some of the bows on people's backs have tiny cracks in their bodies due to years of dryness, and the bowstrings are made of several different animal sinews twisted together, with uneven thickness.

Even worse, the blade of the waist knife was covered with nicks the size of rice grains, making it more like a saw than a knife.

Gao Yan held Wang Wu's waist knife, admiring it greatly.
"Fifth Brother, who is that Commander Jiang? Could he be a high-ranking official from the capital?"

"Otherwise, why would he issue so much equipment if you went out to suppress bandits?"

"This outfit alone would probably cost at least thirty or forty taels of silver."

"Next time there's a good opportunity like suppressing bandits, Fifth Brother, you have to give your brother a hand. I also want to follow Commander Jiang."

Wang Wu looked at his impatient expression and smiled faintly:
"Want to follow Commander Jiang? It's simple, I came back to recruit soldiers."

"As long as you want to go, not only will you be provided with plenty of food and drink, but everyone will also receive this set of equipment!"

Gao Yan was overjoyed upon hearing this and blurted out:

"With this kind of treatment, let alone suppressing bandits, we'd even join him in a rebellion!"

Wang Wu looked at him, his smile becoming meaningful:

"You're right, it is rebellion!"

"You may not have heard of General Jiang, the commander-in-chief of the imperial court."

"But you must know Jiang Han, who killed Wu Zimian, the general of Yansui, on the way to defend the emperor."

Seeing the surprised and doubtful looks on everyone's faces, Wang Wu smiled, a very happy smile.

He didn't talk about national righteousness; he simply recounted his new life in Jiang Han's army in a straightforward manner.

"In Jiang Zemin's army, there were three full meals a day, and meat was served every ten days or so."

"The salary I received was paid monthly, one tael and five mace, not a penny less."

"The weapons we used were newly forged by a master craftsman and are of excellent quality."

"If you get injured, there will be healers to treat you, and even the commander-in-chief will personally help you."

"Most importantly,"

As Wang Wu spoke, he unconsciously slipped into the role of the commander, his voice booming and infectious.

“There, we were not servants to be ordered around; our superiors treated us like brothers.”

"General Jiang said that we are fighting so that we can live a better life, not to steal water from some corrupt official's private land!"

The issue of "water grabbing" is a painful memory for the soldiers in Hexibao and the surrounding areas of Shuimochuan.

They went beyond the Great Wall to seize water, not just for their own food and drink.

The most crucial point is to prioritize supplying Commander Yang Shunan's private land!
Commander Yang of Yongchangwei owns more than a thousand acres of fertile irrigated land downstream of Shuimochuan.

Therefore, he forcibly assigned the task of scrambling water to the nearby garrison troops.

Anyone who dared to disobey would be subjected to a pretext for having their rations and pay withheld.

Wang Wu's words were like a key, instantly unlocking the long-suppressed resentment in the hearts of these soldiers.

"Fifth Brother, are you telling the truth?"

"You really joined Jiang Han from Yansui Town in the rebellion?"

More and more people gathered around, and Wang Wu stood in the center of the crowd, his voice growing louder and more powerful.

He starkly contrasted the suffering of the people, the greed of his superiors, and the incompetence of the imperial court with the new life in Jiang Han's army.

"Let me tell you, I spent this year's Spring Festival in Shanzhou!"

"The commander has set up dozens of tables of food and drink on the drill ground, all the hearty dishes are there, and there's plenty to go around!"

"This meal is specially for us lowly soldiers!"

"And there's a reward! The commander calls that a 'red envelope,' and it's a full thirty taels!"

"Everyone in the army, from top to bottom, whether you are an auxiliary soldier or a combat soldier, whether you are a newly surrendered prisoner or an old friend who rose to power with the commander-in-chief, will receive a share, without exception!"

The crowd below listened with parched throats, their faces filled with envy and longing.

Wang Wu, seizing the opportunity, continued to rally the people's support:

"That's nothing, we'll also have sorghum liquor to drink that day! Drink as much as you want!"

"The brothers were so drunk that they could barely walk."

Upon hearing this, Gao Yan, who was standing to the side, subconsciously asked:

"Fifth Brother, you're all drunk, who's going to keep watch?"

Wang Wu chuckled, a look of immense pride on his face.

"It was Commander Jiang, with his personal guards, personally keeping watch for us."

As soon as these words came out, the whole place was in an uproar.

Everyone was completely astonished, as if they were listening to gibberish.

In their minds, Shangguan was not someone to be trifled with.

Every time a centurion or chiliarch came from Yongchangwei, wasn't he a fierce and menacing man, forcing them to go beyond the Great Wall and fight the Mongol Tartars for water?
Wang Wu spoke eloquently to the people in the fortress, recounting his experiences and observations after joining Jiang Han's army.

His previous role as a commander in the military was put to full use at this moment.

His words were highly inflammatory, like a fire that ignited the dry tinder in everyone's hearts.

Wang Wu's original plan was simply to persuade a dozen or twenty of his closest brothers to follow him, which would be considered a successful completion of his mission.

Unexpectedly, after listening to him talk for a long time, almost everyone was moved.

"Fifth Brother! We all want to go!" Gao Yan was the first to step forward, and behind him, the soldiers surrounding him all had resolute expressions on their faces.

“That’s right! Fifth Brother, in my opinion, why don’t we contact the brothers in the nearby forts, like Shuiquan’er Post Station and Fengchengpu?”

"They were all forced to go to the border to steal water, so why not call them over as well? They're going to rebel anyway, so why not bring more brothers with us!"

After hearing Gao Yan's words, Wang Wu felt that they made sense. Since he was already here, he might as well gather more brothers and do something big.

Just do it.

Once this group of soldiers, who had been suppressed for too long, erupted, they displayed astonishing mobilization capabilities.

A group of people immediately went down the river and split up to go to the surrounding forts to recruit surrendered soldiers.

Initially, things progressed smoothly. The surrounding forts, which were closely connected with Hexi Fort, suffered greatly from the water-grabbing.

When they heard about Wang Wu's situation, they didn't hesitate and carried their own tattered belongings to join the group.

But gradually, things began to spiral out of Wang Wu's control.

Since he raised the banner of Jiang and gathered the soldiers from several nearby villages, he found that more and more people were flocking to him from all directions.

The army even shouted slogans to march on Yongchangwei and cut off the head of Commander Yang Shunan!

And so, what was originally a clandestine recruitment operation was turned into a massive armed uprising by Wang Wu.

You should know that Gansu Town is a "rebel old area" with a long history.

Back in the Jiajing era of Emperor Shizong, there was a shocking mutiny in Ganzhou that stunned the entire border region. The mutineers stormed into the commander's mansion and beheaded Xu Ming, the governor of Gansu, on the spot.

The Ganzhou Mutiny had a profound impact, becoming a model for mutinies after the Jiajing era.

Although there were military mutinies before the Jiajing Emperor, they were small in scale and did not involve killing high-ranking officials; the mutinies were merely a means for soldiers to protest against the court.

The Ganzhou Mutiny set a precedent, with the rebel soldiers directly targeting local officials such as the governor.

High-ranking officials, including the governor, were killed one after another during the mutiny, and the nature of the mutiny changed from a simple disturbance to a rebellion against the central court.

And so, Wang Wu led his nearly a thousand soldiers and marched in a mighty force toward Yongchangwei.

Many of these people were already familiar with the guards of Yongchangwei, or even related by blood.

The lower-ranking guards of Yongchangwei had also long suffered under Yang Shun'an's rule.

As soon as Jinfeng Yulu met, they won but countless on earth.

With the help of both inside and outside forces, Wang Wu led a capable squad and quietly slipped into Yongchangwei.

Riots broke out simultaneously at midnight in all the garrisons.

Flames shot into the sky, and shouts of battle echoed through the night.

Wang Wu had a clear objective. He first led his men into the armory and distributed all the weapons and armor stored inside.

Immediately, he led his men to rush towards the residence of Commander Yang Shunan.

At this moment, Commander Yang was completely unaware of what had happened and was fast asleep, embracing his newly acquired concubine.

He was jolted awake from his dream when the deafening shouts of battle broke through the courtyard gate and soldiers poured into his backyard.

The enraged soldiers, like a flood bursting its banks, instantly overwhelmed Yang Shunan's personal guards and retainers.

Wang Wu kicked open the door and dragged Yang Shunan, who was hiding on the bed trembling, out.

"Spare me! Heroes, spare me!"

"I have money, food, everything I need, take whatever you want."

Yang Shunan was so frightened that he wet himself and knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly.

However, the only answer he received was a sharp longsword.

"money?"

"I want your life!"

Wang Wu raised his knife and brought it down; a huge human head, accompanied by a fountain of blood, shot into the sky.

The next day, before dawn, a thousand-strong contingent of soldiers set out of Yongchangwei in a grand procession.

Wang Wu looted the Yongchang Guard's treasury and, carrying the seized gold, silver, grain, and cloth, headed south to meet up with Shao Yong at Gulang.

At the very front of the procession, a tall flagpole was lifted by several soldiers working together.

At the top of the flagpole, there was no flag, only a bloody human head tied with a strand of hair, swaying slightly in the morning breeze.

This is Yang Shunan's head.

This large army, carrying human heads as flags, marched eastward along the border wall.

Wherever they went, the garrison troops at each fortress cheered wildly, and many of them joined the rebel army on the spot.

The procession grew larger and larger, and by the time they arrived at Gulang, Wang Wu was followed by more than two thousand people.

Standing on the high slope, Shao Yong was stunned when he looked at the huge procession not far away.

He originally thought that the two thousand-plus people were the result of several groups of people he had sent out to persuade others to surrender, and that they had come together.

But he never expected that all of these two thousand people were pulled out by Wang Wu alone!
Looking at the army before him, though ragged, but full of high morale, Shao Yong couldn't help but sigh deeply, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

It seems that it's not just the border troops in Yulin Town who are suffering.

In the nine border regions of the Ming Dynasty, in the vast Northwest, there were probably very few border soldiers at the lowest level who lived a comfortable life.

However, Wang Wu and his associates' influence extends beyond this.

As other surrendered soldiers sent by Shao Yong began to exert their influence in various military fortresses throughout Gansu Town, the entire town became turbulent.

In an instant, countless Gansu border troops who had long harbored resentment became restless and uneasy.

Some even followed suit, directly raising the banner of rebellion, killing their usually domineering superiors, and gathering a band of outlaws in the mountains.

A single spark ignited a fire in an instant, transforming the isolated town of Gansu.

Seeing this scene, Shao Yong and Wang Wu exchanged a glance:
Oh no, things seem to have gotten really bad!
　I'm working overtime today, so it's a bit late.

　　Holy crap, there was an earthquake! I thought I was hallucinating from typing all this, but then I saw the screen shaking.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)