Chapter 139: Death of Nian Gengyao (I)
When Yongzheng first heard the news of Huo Chong's rebellion, he was greatly irritated, but the target of his anger was everyone except Huo Chong. He even let it go after scolding them.
It had been several years since the last time he saw Huo Chong. Yongzheng couldn't remember what Huo Chong looked like. He could only vaguely remember that he was a tall man. Huo Chong was at best a hidden thorn in Yongzheng's heart, which would only flare up when touched. However, the thorns around him were right in front of him, almost poking Yongzheng in the eye. Compared with these people, Huo Chong was actually nothing.
After scolding the Eighth Brother and punishing Li Shude, Yongzheng seriously considered whether to punish the Fourteenth Brother as well. However, thinking that the Queen Mother had finally given him some respect in the past two years, and the Fourteenth Brother had been the leader for almost three years, he finally decided to let the Fourteenth Brother go for the time being.
Compared with his fourth brother Yongzheng, Yunxiang took Huo Chong to heart. Chen Shiguan's memorial was unclear, and it only vaguely said that the garrison Ninghai brought some troops to capture Huo Chong, but there was no information about how they were captured and how Huo Chong resisted. As for mobilizing troops from Shandong to suppress Huo Chong who fled to Mengyin County, this was even more unclear.
After leaving Yongzheng, Prince Yi hurried to the Ministry of War to inquire about the topography of Shandong. The Thirteenth Prince Yunxiang was not in good health. Unlike Yongzheng who was running around on errands, he only took a boat with Kangxi to Jiangnan four times.
The ministers of the Ministry of War were mostly Manchus. When the minister of the Ministry of War, Dong E Xun Zhu, saw Prince Yi coming, he immediately knelt down and kowtowed, "Master, if you have anything to say, just ask me to go."
Prince Yi immediately ordered someone to help Dong E Xun Zhu up and asked about the topography of Shandong. Dong E Xun Zhu looked stunned and said hesitantly, "This requires a geographical map."
"No, no." Prince Yi waved his hand quickly, "Is there no one in the Ministry of War who has been to Shandong? I just want to ask about the topography of Zibo and Mengyin."
Since he didn't need to get a map, the Minister of War Dong E Xun Zhu immediately felt much more relaxed. Soon, an official walked quickly to Prince Yi and knelt down to salute, "Your Highness, I am Xu Dingsheng, and I pay my respects to you."
Soon, Prince Yi roughly understood the topography of Mengyin County and Zichuan County from the military officer named Xu Dingsheng. Basically, Mengyin County is a mountainous and densely forested area, while Linzi County is a relatively flat area near the river. Zichuan County is located between the two, and the Zi River flows through the three places.
The Thirteenth Brother understood the terrain and felt that things were getting worse. He originally thought that Huo Chong was just a bad person, a notorious bandit as his fourth brother Yongzheng said. But now it seems that this may not be the case.
After leaving the Ministry of War, the Thirteenth Brother immediately went to see Yongzheng. Hearing that his Thirteenth Brother was actually going to send someone to question Chen Shiguan again, Yongzheng frowned. It wasn't that he thought his Thirteenth Brother was meddling, nor was he worried that his Thirteenth Brother was going to do something.
If the Qing Dynasty allowed the establishment of a vice emperor, Yongzheng would not hesitate to let his beloved thirteenth brother be the vice emperor and become Yongzheng's representative. Even if the ministers kowtowed to the thirteenth brother, Yongzheng would still have some opinions. Going to the Ministry of War and sending someone to ask the Shandong governor was even less of a big deal.
"Thirteenth brother, do you think Huo Chong will make things worse?" Yongzheng felt that this was what his Thirteenth brother was worried about.
Prince Yi shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, I feel that Huo Chong...seems...to be prepared."
"What?" Yongzheng frowned. After thinking for a moment, Yongzheng had to try to follow his thirteenth brother's line of thought, "Are you saying that Huo Chong has done many evil things and has been prepared for it?"
Seeing the thirteenth brother lower his bright eyes slightly, Yongzheng shook his head slightly. Yongzheng felt that the thirteenth brother's thoughts were a little further than his own. Sure enough, when the thirteenth brother raised his bright eyes, he heard him say: "Your Majesty, I am worried that Huo Chong has already prepared for a rebellion. It's just that it's really difficult to confront him at this time."
"Speak, tell me." Yongzheng quickly asked his thirteenth brother to speak boldly. Yongzheng was never afraid of those who dared to speak the truth.
Prince Yi continued to speak based on what he knew and guessed. There was no shortage of fierce bandits at any time, and if officers and soldiers suddenly encountered them, they would inevitably suffer casualties. However, no matter how fierce the bandits were, it was impossible for them to kill hundreds of officers and soldiers in one fell swoop. Even if the Qing army was not as brave and good at fighting as the Ming army in the early years of Kangxi, it was far from the level of the Ming army in the late Ming Dynasty.
Now too many situations are not clear. From the worst perspective, if Huo Chong turned the tables on his way to Mengyin County from Zibo County, he would have wiped out hundreds of government troops. Unless Huo Chong was as brave as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in the legend, there is only one explanation: Huo Chong had been preparing for a rebellion. He was well prepared and had enough strength to wipe out hundreds of government troops during his escape.
After saying this, Prince Yi felt his heart beating so fast that he was short of breath. He could only calm down first.
The two brothers were silent for a moment, and Yongzheng followed the path that his thirteenth brother had already pointed out and said, "If Huo Chong is really as you expected, he would have been preparing for a rebellion several years ago."
Prince Yi quickly responded, "Your Majesty. I would rather believe that Haining and Zhang Wei were not killed, but were ambushed by Huo Chong, resulting in heavy casualties. They were too embarrassed to face anyone, so they were preparing to attack Huo Chong with their men. If... Huo Chong was prepared, he would have been preparing for at least five or six years."
Hearing this time, Yongzheng's mouth twitched slightly. Five or six years ago, wasn't that the year when he met Huo Chong? No wonder he felt something was wrong with Huo Chong when he met him. If he had killed Huo Chong at that time, there would be no trouble now.
Just as he was getting angry, he heard his thirteenth brother continue, "Your Majesty, I want to send someone to question Chen Shiguan and ask him to tell the truth..."
"Why send more people? Why give this fellow such a big face?" Yongzheng said angrily. This anger was certainly not directed at his dear Thirteenth Brother, but at Chen Shiguan who dared to conceal the details.
Yongzheng had already drafted an outline after calling the eunuchs to the cabinet to call for people. The content was naturally to ask Chen Shiguan to explain the matter of Huo Chong in detail, especially the process of the imperial envoy going to arrest him, and nothing could be left out. If Chen Shiguan concealed anything or delayed anything, whether it was intentional or not, he would be demoted to a commoner and escorted to the capital to be punished.
After finishing writing, Yongzheng was able to calm down. He let his thirteenth brother handle official business first, and Yongzheng himself was also covered with memorials. When the cabinet ministers arrived, Yongzheng slapped the outline on the imperial desk and shouted, "Polish it according to this!"
The cabinet minister may be a corrupt official. No, there was no cabinet minister in the Qing Dynasty who was not corrupt. However, there were also very few incompetent cabinet ministers in the Qing Dynasty. He took the outline passed down by the eunuch and read it twice. The minister had already grasped Yongzheng's thoughts. He sat down at the desk next to him and wrote a draft of the imperial edict with a few strokes.
Yongzheng took the manuscript and saw that it was indeed his own idea. Even so, Yongzheng deleted and revised some words to appear less polite.
After all these formalities, the imperial edict was sent to Jinan in an expedited manner, 800 miles away. Chen Shiguan received the edict, opened it, and was so shocked that he almost dropped it from his hands.
From the perspective of an official, Chen Shiguan was also quite greedy. Even though he had a good reputation as an official in history, he still bought tens of thousands of acres of contiguous land in Shandong after serving as the governor of Shandong for several years. In the Qing Dynasty, a prefect in the Qing Dynasty could earn 100,000 silver coins in three years. Not to mention the governor.
But Chen Shiguan was not stupid. He immediately called together his advisors and officials and wrote down what he knew about Ning Hai leading troops to capture Huo Chong, trying to be as clear and detailed as possible. He also indicated who he had heard it from or whether it was hearsay.
Finally, Chen Shiguan wrote clearly that this was the current known content, and as soon as there was news about other content, it would be reported to the court immediately.
This memorial was also sent to the capital by a horse that could travel 800 miles at a time and soon arrived in front of Yongzheng.
As Yongzheng read, his expression changed from shock, anger, and rage to indifference. Finally, Yongzheng handed the memorial to his thirteenth brother and sighed, "You are right. Alas... I have long thought that Huo Chong should be killed, but I didn't expect Huo Chong to be... a big disaster!"
Prince Yi took Chen Shiguan's memorial from his fourth brother and read it for a while until sweat broke out on his forehead.
More than a month has passed since Yongzheng ordered the arrest of Huo Chong, and many things have been sorted out.
Some of Huo Chong's male and female bandit leaders were fierce and cunning, and they did not take the imperial court seriously. The imperial envoy and Ning Hai arrived in Zibo County one after another. When Ning Hai arrived at the gate, the male and female bandit leaders under Huo Chong immediately attacked the government troops.
The injured government troops did not participate in the pursuit of Huo Chong. According to them, the female bandit leader Qian Qing killed the government troops and then shouted, "The imperial decree must be to arrest Huo Chong."
After reading all this, Prince Yi was completely convinced that Huo Chong had long wanted to rebel. Otherwise, how could the female bandit leader have guessed that the content of the imperial edict was to arrest Huo Chong? A normal person would think that the content of the imperial edict was to reward Huo Chong.
Ning Hai led 700 soldiers, not the 300 that Prince Yi had initially thought, which made Prince Yi feel that something was really wrong. If 300 soldiers were annihilated, it could be said that the enemy of the soldiers was advancing too recklessly. If 700 soldiers were annihilated in one fell swoop, it would mean that Huo Chong already had at least a thousand bandits in his hands.
Thousands of fierce bandits...Except for the anti-Qing rebels in Shandong in the early Qing Dynasty, which could have such a scale, a few hundred simple bandits would be enough to shake the whole of Shandong.
It would take several years to gather more than a thousand people without realizing it. It must have taken more than ten years or even decades for the big forces to prepare for the rebellion against the Qing Dynasty to gather so many people.
Chen Shiguan had already stated that he had already mobilized the troops in Jinan and was now preparing to mobilize the entire Shandong province to suppress the rebellion. He would definitely not let Huo Chong escape.
After putting down the thick memorial, Prince Yi felt a little palpitation again. After taking a steady breath, he stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of War..."
"I have ordered the Ministry of War to allow Chen Shiguan to mobilize troops from Shandong."
"Your Majesty, I would rather succeed in one fell swoop. But I think there are always some backup plans, not as good as that year..."
"No!" Yongzheng immediately interrupted Prince Yi's suggestion to keep Nian Gengyao.
