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

Chapter 71 After the War
Since taking Yan'an Prefecture, Jiang Han has been extremely busy these past few days.

He first sent Li Liyuan with his men to arrest most of the officials in Yan'an Prefecture and bring them back to their offices.

Jiang Han only took over the city's defense and some other tasks, such as maintaining public order.

He didn't take over Yan'an Prefecture simply to get revenge on Wu Ze and Zhang Nian; he was after all the resources Yan'an Prefecture had to offer.

Therefore, Jiang Han had no interest in governing the people; he only needed to keep Yan'an Prefecture from descending into chaos.

The rest can be handled by those former officials. As long as they don't cause trouble, I won't bother with them.

Jiang Han's men were all uneducated and illiterate, unable to even read properly, let alone understand civil affairs.

In order to appease the people of Yan'an Prefecture, Jiang Han specially ordered these officials to post notices all over the city, stating that they were a righteous army and would not rob people's homes or commit mass killings.

Once the notice was posted, the people saw those familiar clerks still loitering in the streets, and their anxieties finally subsided.

The common people don't care if you're a rebel army or a bandit army; as long as you don't come to their door to rob them of grain or kill them, they're too lazy to run away.

After all, there are thieves everywhere in northern Shaanxi right now.

If you were to flee the city with your family, and were to run into other thieves, being robbed of everything would be the best outcome; losing your head would be truly not worth it.

With this in mind, Yan'an Prefecture gradually stabilized, and only a small number of people fled.

Jiang Han didn't bother with them; he had more important things to do.

He personally led his men to take over the guard warehouse in Yan'an, and opened the armory and granary inside.

As expected, the granary was completely empty when the door was opened; not a single grain of rice remained, and the wind blowing in could be heard echoing.

The armory was passable, filled with old items from the Jiajing era, including various swords, spears, halberds, and a pile of tattered cotton armor.

Since the uprising began, the weapons and armor of Jiang Han's border troops have not been replaced. They are worn out and many of them were taken from the dead.

In addition, the losses from the recent months of continuous battles have been staggering.

Some people's cloth armor had all the cotton stuffing gone out, and many of the inner plates had fallen off. When the wind blew, it looked like a tattered cotton-padded coat, offering no protection against swords or spears at all.

So Jiang Han found the artisans in the garrison and asked them to help make a new batch of armor and weapons.

The Yan'an Garrison's Ordnance Bureau originally had more than 400 households of military craftsmen, but now only 150 households remain, either having fled or scattered.

Jiang Han summoned the group of military craftsmen to the training ground and prepared to assign them tasks.

But when these people saw that the training ground was surrounded by rebels, they were so frightened that their faces turned pale and their legs went weak. They were afraid that Jiang Han would kill them, and they knelt on the ground and kept begging for mercy.

Seeing this, Jiang Han quickly stepped forward to help them up and comforted them:
"Master craftsmen, don't be afraid. We are not ruthless killers and will not kill indiscriminately. You can rest assured!"

"I've called you here today because I need your help."

The craftsmen glanced up at him furtively and cautiously asked:
"Whatever your orders are, General, we will do our best."

Jiang Han didn't beat around the bush and said directly:

"I need the master craftsmen to forge a batch of cloth armor, and also to repair the tattered armor of my soldiers."

"In addition, I want to manufacture another batch of weapons, such as bows, knives, and hammers, which are standard military equipment."

Jiang Han had originally planned to make dozens of chainmails, but then he thought that chainmail was time-consuming and laborious to make.

Each piece weighed at least forty pounds, which made it too difficult for the brothers to move around in. Moreover, it would require a lot of livestock to carry the armor during marches, which was really not cost-effective, so we had to give up on it.

Upon hearing Jiang Han's demands, the craftsmen present frowned deeply, inwardly cursing Jiang Han for his insatiable greed. Crafting armor was the job they least wanted to take on, and it was also the most grueling, time-consuming, and material-intensive.

The key point is that these artisans have always paid out of their own pockets to work for the imperial court.

Now Jiang Han is asking for a batch of cloth armor, isn't he trying to drive them to their doom?

The crowd looked at each other, angry but not daring to speak out. After holding their anger in for a long time, an old craftsman finally stepped forward.

He knelt down shakily, his face contorted with pain as he pleaded:
"General, please have mercy and spare our lives! We really have no money left to buy armor!"

“We can manage to forge other weapons by gritting our teeth, but a cloth armor will cost at least three or four taels of silver.”

"This is still cloth armor without any plates. If you add plates inside, it might not even weigh seven or eight ounces!"

Jiang Han was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then quickly realized what was happening and hurriedly explained:

"You've misunderstood. I'm not asking you to pay for it yourself!"

"I will prepare all the materials for you in advance, so you don't need to buy them yourself."

"At the same time, I will pay you all your wages, whether it's by the day or by the piece, I won't let you suffer any losses!"

He almost forgot that these artisans in the Ming Dynasty were also a group of unfortunate people. They were alright during the early years of the dynasty, but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, they could only be exploited by officials at all levels.

Upon hearing this, the craftsmen present were all dumbfounded, their eyes wide with disbelief.

They always paid for their own work and even lost money to do it. I've never heard of them getting paid.

The old craftsman on the ground kept rubbing his ears, wondering if he had misheard.

Seeing this, Jiang Han smiled:
"Don't worry, everyone. I also have several military craftsmen under my command who have been with me for more than half a year. I have never shortchanged them a single penny."

"They will come over to help with the work then, you can ask them about it."

Hearing this, the craftsmen were still somewhat skeptical, but they were less resistant than before.

The old craftsman on the ground looked up at Jiang Han and tentatively asked:
"Since the general has said so, we have no choice but to comply. As soon as the materials are ready, we will start work immediately."

This old craftsman has been a craftsman for generations, and he himself has been doing it since the Tianqi era. He has heard this kind of story countless times.

Every time they needed to manufacture weapons, their superiors would tell them that they would definitely be paid, but after the weapons were finished, they would never hear from them again.

Whenever the craftsmen went to collect their wages, the officials would make excuses, saying that the crafted items were not up to standard and that they had all been destroyed.

How could he not understand after hearing this?

With his family having been artisans for generations, how could he not know whether the things he made were up to standard?

Therefore, he didn't dare to trust Jiang Han, so he used a little trick and said that he would start work as soon as the materials arrived.

Jiang Han didn't point it out. He now controlled the resources of the entire Yan'an Prefecture, so how could he lack a little money?
He immediately waved to his personal guards to go to the government office to find Magistrate Zhao and tell him to collect the supplies as soon as possible.

Just then, a messenger stumbled over:

"Sir, you should go and take a look!"

"That Li Liyuan has gone mad! He's arrested all the officials and gentry in Yan'an Prefecture and brought them to the prefectural government office. He's about to behead them!"

"As a result, he was tied up by Chief Li. Chief Li didn't know what to do with him, so he specially sent me to invite you over!"

　I've been working on plot developments lately, so updates have been a little late. Please forgive me, fellow godfathers!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)