Chapter 248: The Capital's Counterattack (VII)
Fei County. The magistrate sat in the county government office, trembling uncontrollably. Ever since he learned that Huo Chong had led his troops into Beijing to kill Emperor Yongzheng, he had known that this day would come. Huo Chong's men would not let go of Linyi, which they had once retreated from. However, when Huo Chong's men headed straight for Fei County, the magistrate was still trembling.
"Master, I'm leaving now." The lawyer bowed respectfully to the magistrate and turned to leave.
The magistrate wanted to curse the legal advisor for not staying to die with him. He moved his lips but didn't curse. The legal advisor was only hired by the magistrate, not a government official. When they learned that Huo Chongjun was heading to Fei County, northwest of Linyi, all the runners and clerks in the Fei County government ran away.
Even those who received salaries from the imperial court have fled, but the legal advisors who have no salary to receive are still here.
The magistrate was still sitting in the county office after the lawyer left for a long time. When he heard footsteps outside, he thought that maybe the lawyer or the clerks and runners had come back to drag the magistrate away. If someone dragged him away by force, the magistrate thought he would not resist.
A group of people wearing strange double-breasted clothes rushed in from outside. The leader looked at the magistrate for a moment and shouted, "Take him away!"
Several people came up, tied up the magistrate, and dragged him out.
Ortai did not believe that the Shandong local government could withstand Huo Chong's attack, so he sent scouts to various .
At this time, it was as if the line was reeled in, and the scouts came back in waves.
Fei County, located northwest of Linyi, fell without resistance.
Pingyi County, located to the west of Fei County, fell after less than half a day of resistance.
Like Fei County, Sishui County, located to the west of Pingyi County, was home to a large number of officials and runners who fled in panic, leaving the magistrate in the county seat to fend for himself.
According to Huo Chong's army's marching route, it was blocked between Jining and Pingyi County, as well as Qufu and Tai'an.
"Sir, where should we meet the enemy?" Yue Zhongqi asked.
Ertai looked up at Yue Zhongqi and couldn't help but think that this elder brother was just a warrior. So he said, "Brother Yue, we must defend both places."
"Divide the troops?" Yue Zhongqi frowned, "Sir, it would be better to transfer the troops from both places to Jining to fight Huo Chong. Besides..." Yue Zhongqi hesitated, "Huo Chong is a bandit and has never fought so far. Why not let them fight on this side of the canal?"
"If we don't defend it, we won't be able to explain to the court." Ortai replied.
Yue Zhongqi remained silent. He was still a criminal, and if he could not satisfy the imperial court, he would be imprisoned again at the order of the emperor. And the one who made the order was Ortai, so Yue Zhongqi could not object.
In the next two days, Yue Zhongqi thought that Ortai would send cavalry to assist Tai'an and Qufu, but he did not expect that Ortai would mobilize troops to gather in Jining, but did not take any action towards those two places. This made Yue Zhongqi even more confused.
On the second day of April, the Sixth Regiment led by Hu Yue chased a small group of Qing cavalry and rushed straight to Qufu. They were almost caught up several times, and the Qing cavalry tried their best to speed up and barely got rid of the pursuers.
Huang Renshi, the regiment's staff officer, panted and advised: "Captain, we can see the walls of Qufu. Let's wait for the artillery."
Hu Yue thought about it and ordered the troops to slow down their march. After walking for a while and catching their breath, Hu Yue said to the staff officer, "Do you know that the Kong family has offended the governor?"
“I’ve heard of it.”
"Yes... said that we have to discuss this matter with the Kong family this time."
"It was the elder sister who asked you to vent the governor's anger, right?" asked the staff officer Huang Renshi.
Most of the high-ranking officials of the Han Dynasty knew that Huo Chong had a feud with the people of the Kong family in his early years, and the Kong family almost forced Huo Chong to death. As a Shandong native, the Han Dynasty knew a lot about the power of the Kong family.
"Do it or not?" Hu Yue asked.
"The governor hasn't said he wants to deal with the Kong family yet. Let's not rush."
Hu Yue shook his head. "It's only a matter of time. As long as there is land reform, the Kong family can't escape. The Kong family, together, has more land than us."
Staff officer Huang Renshi frowned and said nothing. The Kong family was not just the Yanshenggong Mansion. The Yanshenggong Mansion had a huge amount of land, but the Kong family had more land. Now the land policy of the Han regime has become clearer and clearer. Huo Chong has been trained on the concept of land for so long that even the platoon leaders and squad leaders are very clear, not to mention the regiment level.
It is true that the Kong family had offended Huo Chong, but compared with this vast land, this matter was simply insignificant.
However, this trivial matter can be a starting point that can be greatly utilized.
"If the governor wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to take action against the Kong family, why would he let my eldest sister tell him?" asked the staff officer Huang Renshi.
Hu Yue narrowed his eyes slightly, thought for a moment, and praised: "If you hadn't said it, I really wouldn't have thought so. What do you think we should do?"
Huang Renshi sucked his teeth and said, "Captain, we still have to listen to the governor."
Hu Yue felt that it was right. When the eldest sister Qian Qing got angry, she only scolded him or punched him twice at most. Being beaten by the eldest sister, a female boxer, would at most cause physical injuries. Being taken away by the governor for ideological education would be mental torture. Compared with the two, being beaten all over the body is the better way.
The troops joined the artillery and headed straight for Qufu City, where they saw the city gates were closed and many people on the city walls.
The challengers of the Han army held up a megaphone and shouted at the foot of the city: "Brothers on the top of the city, if you are not soldiers, hurry down. When we attack the city, we will kill everyone we see. Your life is worthless? Those officials fought with us because they took money from the court. Why do you want to die? If you stay alive and sleep with your wife, won't he be happy? If you stay alive and take your children out to play, won't he be happy? If you eat and sleep every day, won't he be happy? Why do you have to act so arrogant! It's not easy for your parents to give birth to you. You have grown up to this age, but you haven't been filial to your parents yet, and you died for others. Are you stupid?"
A bunch of loud speakers were talking down below, and the Qufu County Magistrate on the top of the city was dumbfounded. These rebels down below were speaking vulgar words and were so shameless.
With his hands on the top of the city wall, the magistrate shouted at the people below: "You traitors! You are rebelling, aren't you afraid of death?"
This curse attracted the attention of the common people and soldiers below. One of them saw the magistrate's official position and raised his loudspeaker to curse: "Fuck you, you dog official, let others send you to death and bury you. I will catch you and squeeze your balls out."
The magistrate had never been insulted like this before, and he was furious. However, when he thought about what might happen to him in the future, he felt a chill in his crotch.
These people dared to kill even the emperor. If they really used the cleansing technique... I'm afraid they could really do it.
In the midst of panic, I heard someone shout, "I'm done. Give you twenty more numbers, and we'll fight!"
"Twenty! Nineteen!..."
In the countdown, the Han army approached the city wall, pushing the artillery closer and arranging the muskets, aiming at the top of the city with eager eyes.
“…Three, two, one!”
Hu Yue still didn't want to kill people randomly. When the countdown ended, he fired a volley at the top of the wall.
The dense sound of gunfire rang out like popping beans, and all other sounds on the city wall were completely suppressed by this motive.
After a volley of gunfire, the flag flying on the top of the city wall was shot into pieces. Everyone on the top of the city wall was stunned. In this silence, with the sound of wood breaking, the broken flagpole fell on the top of the city wall.
With a loud shout of "Oh my God!", someone immediately ran down from the top of the city wall and fled into the city.
The others saw that the Han army's firearms were powerful, so they shouted and fled.
The magistrate wanted to escape, but he saw that the corridor leading to the city was crowded with people and there was no chance for him to escape.
At this moment, the Han army had already begun to advance.
The ten-jin cannon was pushed in front of the city gate. After two blasts, the county gate, which had already been in disrepair, was knocked down.
When the Han army rushed to the top of the city wall, the only one left was the trembling county magistrate. The first to rush up was the brother who was shouting from below. When he saw the county magistrate, he remembered that the county magistrate had dared to curse before. He rushed forward and grabbed him and pushed him against the city wall, shouting, "You were the one who cursed just now?"
The county magistrate was a scholar, and he was the hope of his family because he was excellent in exams since he was young. After he passed the imperial examination, he was the only one who scolded others, and he had never been treated like this by a rough man. In his trance, he suddenly remembered that the other party was shouting to clean him up. He felt a sudden surge of heat in his crotch, and he almost fainted from fear.
As soon as Hu Yue entered the city, someone reported, "Captain, a group of people went to the Yanshenggong's house."
Hu Yue rushed forward, but saw a group of horses fleeing in the distance. He quickly asked the soldiers who had already arrived what had happened.
A platoon leader quickly shouted: "The horsemen carried some people over the wall and ran away."
Hu Yue was in a dilemma. Shandong people knew that the Yanshenggong Mansion was in Shandong. For thousands of years, this family had never fallen. He said he wanted to avenge the governor, but that was just talk. Hu Yue himself had never thought about breaking into the Yanshenggong Mansion.
If we can't get in, we can only treat them politely. We sent someone to knock on the door, but no one responded after knocking for a long time.
Just as he was thinking about whether to break down the gate, he saw black smoke billowing out of the Yanshenggong Mansion. There were constant exclamations in the yard.
The side door on the front suddenly opened, and someone rushed out and was immediately pinned to the ground by the soldiers.
The man cried out, "Fire! Fire!"
Three days later, upon learning that the Duke of Yansheng's mansion had been burned, Ortai heaved a sigh of relief. In the secret news brought by Fu Erdan before, the Thirteenth Master was very much looking forward to a full-scale conflict between Huo Chong and the Duke of Yansheng's family.
The Qing dynasty actually had no feelings towards Duke Yansheng, but scholars all over the world worshiped Confucius' tablet. Once Duke Yansheng's house was burned down, scholars all over the world would think that Huo Chong was wrong.
Now that the Duke of Yansheng's Mansion has been burned down, the rest of the things will be easy to handle. Ortai tried to use a sad tone and said, "Huo Chong burned down the Duke of Yansheng's Mansion. Let the world know about this."
Zhenjiang. Chen Mingtai's residence. The news that Gao Pang, the top scholar in the imperial examination, accidentally fell into the river while crossing it and disappeared without a trace, made Chen Mingtai feel both sad and happy.
Sadly, Gao Pang was one of Chen Mingtai's many disciples. He was also the only one who was selected as the top scholar. It was inevitable that he had some feelings for Chen Mingtai.
The joy was naturally that Gao Pang was dead, and Chen Mingtai would no longer be implicated by Gao Pang. On the contrary, because of Gao Pang, the top scholar, Chen Mingtai received countless honors.
Chen Mingtai explained to his daughter, "It's not that Gao Pang has ever offended me, nor have I ever scolded him. Being the top scholar in the imperial examination is fate, and has nothing to do with me. A year ago, I almost wanted to kick Gao Pang out. It's not that Gao Pang is bad. He lacks virtue, but relies on intelligence and tactics. However, Gao Pang has changed a lot when he came back this time. Although his virtue is still insufficient, his tactics have greatly improved. He can even wrap people up. Looking back, I just regret that I couldn't help him."
At this time, the prefect invited Chen Mingtai to go, and Chen Mingtai went there readily. However, when he entered the prefect's office, he saw that all the candidates had arrived and sat down in the inner courtyard. In the outer courtyard were a large number of scholars.
Seeing the arrival of the highly respected Chen Mingtai, the prefect was grief-stricken and said loudly: "Everyone, I just received news. The villain Huo Chong attacked Qufu, burned the Yansheng Mansion, and killed many people. It is really treasonous, treasonous!"
Chen Mingtai was really frightened when he heard this. A moment later, a scholar stood up indignantly and shouted, "Huo Chong is a villain. All scholars in the world will hate him!"
"Irreconcilable!" The other scholars also shouted.
The news soon spread to the group of scholars outside, and shouts of "Irreconcilable" were heard from the outer garden.
Chen Mingtai did not doubt the authenticity of the news. Yongzheng was the emperor of all scholars, and Confucius was the ancestor of all scholars. Huo Chong dared to kill his father and his emperor, and burned down the residence of Duke Yansheng. It was not surprising that he did the whole thing.
Amid the public outrage, the prefect called on scholars to join the army and candidates to form a militia to suppress Huo Chong.
Immediately, many scholars, already in tears, shouted that they wanted to join the army, and the prefect immediately asked the scholars to write letters of enlistment themselves.
The scene was truly tragic, with people crying together and their braids standing on end in anger.
When Chen Mingtai returned home, he was still furious. He called the whole family together and ordered them sternly: "From now on, you are not allowed to go out. Without my order, you are not allowed to see anyone outside!"
Miss Chen asked in confusion: "Dad, what do you mean?"
"It's for your own good!" Chen Mingtai shouted at his daughter unhappily. After that, he shouted at the servants, "If you dare to let anyone out or leak information, I will beat you to death if I find out! You have followed me for so long, don't say I am joking with you."
Seeing that Chen Mingtai was really angry, the servants quickly agreed.
Not only Zhenjiang, but the entire Jiangnan region knew that Huo Chong had burned down Duke Yansheng's mansion.
Not only in Jiangnan, the Qing Dynasty informed all parts of the country of Huo Chong's evil deeds at an expedited speed of 800 miles. Soon, scholars from all over the country, especially scholars, requested to join the army to eliminate Huo Chong.
The Prime Minister, the Fourteenth, was puzzled, so he went to ask the Thirteenth, "Brother Thirteen, why are you so urgent? Those scholars cannot serve as soldiers. Why are you doing this?"
Old Thirteen said indifferently: "Even if those people can't fight, they can always be killed, right?"
"Ah? What good would it be if they died?"
"It doesn't matter if they die, because there will always be relatives and friends who want to avenge them. Huo Chong shouted about restoring the Han Dynasty just for these scholars to hear. As long as enough scholars die at the hands of Huo Chong, naturally no scholar will believe in Huo Chong. In addition, many letters from Shandong mentioned that Huo Chong carried out the policy of "land to the tiller", seized the land of countless gentry families and distributed it to the poor. When Huo Chong kills a group of scholars, we can spread the news. Haha, it's useless for Huo Chong to shout anything more!"
After listening to what Old Thirteen said, Old Fourteen still felt that he didn't understand what Old Thirteen was thinking.
However, one thing is certain, the Thirteenth Brother's reason for recruiting scholars into the army was definitely not to make them officers. The Fourteenth Brother only cared about this point, if a group of educated Han people were just here to die, then there would be no problem.
After seeing off the Fourteenth Brother, the Thirteenth Brother took out the battle reports sent by Ortai and Yue Zhongqi, looked at them for a few more times, and his expression became gloomy again.
After Huo Chong's army conquered Qufu and Tai'an, they rested for a while and then set out from this mountainous area and headed straight for Jining.
Half a month ago, Ortai had learned through many channels that Huo Chong was sending people to fight in this way. However, Ortai was very skeptical, because fighting in this way was equivalent to first going south to conquer Linyi, and then turning northwest to attack Jining through the hilly area. Not only was the route strange, but there was also the difficulty of the road. If the Qing army fought in this way, it would take at least one and a half months.
I didn’t expect that Huo Chong’s troops would accomplish it in the next half month. It’s really scary.
Both Ortai and Yue Zhongqi suggested that since Huo Chong was so alone in the deep, it would be better to divide the 200,000 Qing troops into three routes.
The northern route attacked Linzi, the southern route attacked Linyi. The central route assembled 120,000 troops, first allowing Huo Chong's elite troops to attack Jining to cross the canal and block them at the foot of Jining. Then they cut off their retreat and gathered and annihilated them in Jining.
If the opponent was someone else, Lao Shisan would have agreed long ago.
After all, the veteran is a veteran. This plan is perfect because it takes advantage of the situation. After Huo Chong divided his troops, the rear was empty. In addition, with the help of local gentry, Huo Chong could not take care of both ends.
It should be said that Huo Chong had thought of such a possibility. He first sent troops out of Linyi to block the main route for the government troops to go north.
But this made Linzi's military strength even more depleted. The 40,000 troops in Jinan suddenly moved south, greatly improving their chances of victory.
As for Huo Chong's elite troops attacking Jining, once they crossed the canal, they would be trapped in a siege. 120,000 people against 30,000 should have been a sure death.
However, Huo Chong was Huo Chong after all. Old Thirteen had to consider the possibility that all the troops were completely defeated in the field battle.
In the past two years, Old Thirteen has repeatedly considered one thing and discussed it with many people. That is why Huo Chong is so powerful.
Everyone has reached a consensus now. Just like in the late Ming Dynasty, the Qing army may not win the siege. But as long as they fight in the field, the opponent will definitely lose. This is true for the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng, and the Southern Ming Dynasty.
Now the situation has reversed, Huo Chong is eager to fight the Qing army in the field. This is really troublesome.
But when things got to this point, Lao Shisan knew that he had to annihilate Huo Chong in a field battle. If he failed to do so, the Qing Dynasty would be finished. The Qing Dynasty would also be finished just as the Ming Dynasty had been.
Thinking of this, Old Thirteen hardened his heart and ordered the Beijing Camp to prepare for deployment. All the troops, including those in Northern Zhili, must be prepared for battle.
There is no reason to let Lao Ba live in peace. Tell the public that they are going to attack Lao Ba. After gathering together, consider whether to suddenly join the battle against Huo Chong. Anyway, this time, even if it means risking their lives, they must kill Huo Chong.
