Chapter 304: The army is demoralized, and Yangzhou is captured! (Part )

“Open the city gate quickly! Open the city gate quickly!”

The soldiers defending the city were originally garrison soldiers. When they saw Gui Hui and his troops rushing towards them, they quickly opened the city gates.

Gui Hui fled all the way and returned to Yangzhou City with the remaining loyal soldiers of the garrison.

The atmosphere in Yangzhou City was already tense, and now Guihui returned to Yangzhou City in a dishevel. This immediately touched the sensitive nerves of the powerful people in Yangzhou City.

“General Gui, the prefect wants to see you.”

Before Gui Hui dismounted from his horse, a minor official from the government office came to invite him.

In the previous riot that affected the entire Jiangnan region, the deceived and misled people stormed a large number of government offices and county yamen, resulting in the death of many prefects and county magistrates on the spot.

But this impact is not random.

The Ming Dynasty implemented a very strict system of avoidance of place of origin.

Emperor Taizu stipulated that officials were not allowed to hold office in their native place in order to prevent them from doing evil in the local area and colluding with landlords and gentry due to personal interests or family relationships.

Therefore, that night, all the prefects and county magistrates that were attacked were not from Jiangnan.

They were not of the same kind as the Nanjing officials, so they were easily dealt with.

For example, the magistrate of Pei County and the prefect of Xuzhou Prefecture were in this situation and died on the spot.

As for the prefect of Yangzhou, he was not from Yangzhou, nor even from Nanzhili.

But he is from Ganzhou.

Although he is also from Jiangnan, he is not from Nanzhili.

In this way, even if he served in Yangzhou Prefecture, it would not be considered as breaking the rules set by Emperor Taizu.

Moreover, since we are all from Jiangnan, we have the same interests and are easier to talk to.

In important prefectures like Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, etc., officials in the Jiangnan area would not let outsiders take up the posts of local officials.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the native place avoidance system, Zhu Yuanzhang also issued a special order strictly prohibiting people from the four places of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Song from serving in the Ministry of Revenue.

From this we can see that as early as the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely wary of officials in Jiangnan.

And everyone knows the rest of the story.

After Zhu Yuanzhang’s death, Jiangnan officials such as Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru supported Zhu Yunwen to take the throne.

This regulation has become a dead letter.

Except during the Yongle period, Zhu Di did not use people from these four places as the Minister of Revenue.

In other dynasties, there are records of people from these four places serving as Minister of Revenue.

After hearing what the clerk in the government office said, Guihui’s face turned even darker.

He nodded and said, “Got it. I’ll be there right away.”

The clerk bent down and held out his hand: “General Gui, please.”

……

Yangzhou government office.

A dozen people sat in the reception room, frowning and looking thoughtful.

From time to time, they would whisper and have a conversation.

The person sitting at the top was naturally the prefect of Yangzhou City, Yang Lin.

Most of the others were wealthy businessmen in Yangzhou City, and a few were big landowners in Yangzhou.

In Yangzhou city, due to such a tense situation, internal disagreements had already occurred.

Because the interests of the new dignitaries are different from those of the old dignitaries, their attitudes towards the court are also slightly different.

“Sir Yang, the imperial court has proposed a slogan to kill the landlords and distribute the land. This has caused people in Yangzhou to become restless and it is difficult to lead the troops!”

“As far as I know, many of the peasant soldiers outside Yangzhou have already secretly returned home. If this continues, we really won’t be able to withstand the next wave of attacks from the imperial army.”

“Lord Yang, if we continue to resist like this, there will be no way out. Let’s open the city and surrender and submit to the court!”

The person who was speaking was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing gold and silver and dressed very luxuriously.

This man’s name was Xiang Zhiheng. He was a private salt dealer in Yangzhou Prefecture. In the past twenty years, he had made a fortune by smuggling private salt to Qianzhou.

Xiang Zhiheng was a typical upstart in Yangzhou, who had made his fortune in the last twenty years. Although his family was rich, they did not own much land.

Because the land of Yangzhou Prefecture is all in the hands of those old aristocratic families.

Although Xiang Zhiheng was rich and willing to spend money to buy land, the wealthy families who owned large tracts of land were unwilling to sell them to him, so he could only worry.

But now, the ones who should be anxious are not him, but those aristocratic families who are unwilling to sell the land to him.

Since he had no land, he was not considered a landlord, and Xiang Zhiheng didn’t care at all about the slogan of killing landlords and dividing the land.

Sometimes, I even felt a little gloating, and was glad that those wealthy families did not sell the land to me.

At the same time, he felt from the bottom of his heart that continuing to resist would be a dead end, so he hoped to open the city and surrender.

But for the aristocratic families in Yangzhou City, opening the city and surrendering would be like asking for their lives, there would be no difference.

“Xiang Zhiheng! Stop talking nonsense there!”

“We’ve come this far, is there any way out?!”

“We must resist to the end! Only by resisting to the end do we have hope, otherwise all of us will die!”

Another old man with white hair roared with full energy.

He is the helmsman of the Wu family, one of the major families in Yangzhou City.

The head of the Wu family attempted to bring these wealthy businessmen to the same side as himself, but Xiang Zhiheng did not fall for their trick at all.

“Come on, it’s you landlords who are going to die, not us!”

Xiang Zhiheng sneered: “The court wants to kill the landlords, not the merchants. We don’t have any land, so what are we afraid of?”

“But don’t be afraid. At worst you can just hand over all your land to the court.”

“Anyway, the court’s goal is land. After you hand over the land, maybe His Majesty will be in a good mood and let you go.”

Xiang Zhiheng spoke in a sarcastic tone, which immediately caused great dissatisfaction among those old-time dignitaries.

“How dare you! What are you talking about?!”

“You want us to hand over the land? That’s easy for you to say. Why don’t you hand over all your silver to the court?”

“Xiang Zhiheng, look at how smug you are! I can tell you clearly that the imperial court will never let you off easily!”

“…”

In the middle of the argument, Guihui walked into the reception room.

“Master Prefect.”

Guihui bowed to the old man at the top.

Yang Lin, who had been silent all this time, nodded to Gui Hui and said, “General Gui is here, please take a seat.”

Gui Hui had just sat down when Yang Lin asked, “Master Gui, what happened outside the city just now? Why is it so noisy…” Before Yang Lin finished speaking, Gui Hui said, “The peasant army outside the city rioted, and a large number of peasant soldiers ran away.”

“what?!”

Yang Lin was taken aback and looked at Gui Hui in shock, with fear in his eyes.

The noble families in the room also showed horrified expressions and were unwilling to believe this reality.

“How could this happen? Why did those peasant soldiers run away?”

“General Gui, you are in charge of the military affairs of Yangzhou City. How come you couldn’t stop them from escaping?!”

“That’s right. If it doesn’t work, we can kill a chicken to scare the monkeys!”

“Those unruly people are the most cowardly. If we kill a few more of them, they will be scared and become obedient, and won’t dare to run away again!”

“…”

Facing the overwhelming questioning, Gui Hui said bluntly: “If tens of thousands of people riot at the same time, how can I suppress it?”

“What do you mean by killing a chicken to scare the monkeys? Just now, at least a hundred of my soldiers died. What chickens are you killing now to scare the monkeys?”

Gui Hui looked at those old and powerful families, but no one dared to meet his gaze.

“Then what should we do now? Without those unruly people, how can we defend Yangzhou Prefecture?”

Someone asked in a crying voice, his face full of despair.

“Since those peasant soldiers have already fled, let’s just open the city and surrender!”

“If we surrender voluntarily, there might be room for maneuver. The imperial officers and soldiers will not go to extremes!”

I proposed surrender to Xiang Zhiheng again, thinking that it would get some support.

But what was unexpected was that the first person to stand up against him was Gui Hui.

“shut up!”

“Since we have chosen to resist, we must resist to the end!”

“Anyone who talks about surrender will be killed!”

Being looked at by Gui Hui with vicious eyes, Xiang Zhiheng felt a chill in his heart. He closed his lips, lowered his head, and dared not say anything more.

Because he knew that Gui Hui might really do such a thing.

For Gui Hui, others might have had room for maneuver, but as the commander-in-chief of Yangzhou Prefecture, he took the lead in rebellion and resisted the court’s censorship.

If he cannot force the imperial court to give in on this matter, then his fate will surely be execution. There will be no other outcome.

So he would never allow anyone to surrender and must fight to the end!
Even if you know you will die, you must fight to the end!
……

On the other side, the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp led by Xu Chang were at a place called Tangjia Ya.

They had just finished killing the landlords and dividing the land in Tangjiaya. Before they had gone far away, they saw hundreds of people walking towards them.

Xu Chang led his team and walked towards them.

When they got closer, the people stopped in fear and bowed respectfully to them: “Sir…”

Xu Chang asked, “Who are you? Where are you going?”

Among the villagers, an older man quickly replied, “Sir, we are villagers from Tangjia Ya.”

“We heard that officials were distributing land to every village in Yangzhou Prefecture, so we came back to Tangjia Ya from Yangzhou Prefecture.”

The villagers’ words immediately aroused Xu Chang’s interest.

Xu Chang narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, “You are from Yangzhou City? How many people are there outside Yangzhou City now?”

“My Lord, there aren’t many people left. Most of the people outside the city have left.”

The villagers described it vividly: “When we left, the soldiers wouldn’t let us go. We had to fight with them and kill a lot of them before we could leave.”

After hearing this, Xu Chang smiled slightly and felt extremely excited.

He didn’t expect that the policies Zhu Youtang gave them would be so effective.

Only a few days had passed, and the tens of thousands of people who had gathered outside Yangzhou City had actually dispersed.

Doesn’t this mean that their chance to capture Yangzhou City has arrived?
Thinking of this, Xu Chang immediately turned around and ordered a lieutenant: “You return to Xuzhou as quickly as possible and report this to General Gao Shun.”

“Please ask General Gao Shun to send troops to help. I will capture Yangzhou City immediately!”

“Yes, my lord!”

The lieutenant bowed and accepted the order, then immediately whipped his whip and galloped away.

Xu Chang also waved to the villagers of Tangjia Ya and said, “The land has been distributed to you. Go back quickly.”

The villagers of Tangjia Ya were overjoyed and thanked Xu Chang ecstatically: “Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir…”

At this moment, Xu Chang had already issued an order: “Everyone listen up, immediately recall all teams in Yangzhou, rush to Yangzhou City, and prepare to attack the city!”

“Yes, my lord!”

The soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp behind Xu Chang scattered towards the villages in Yangzhou Prefecture.

They were going to gather the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp who were scattered all over Yangzhou Prefecture and rush to Yangzhou Prefecture together.

It only took one night for the lieutenant colonel who was going to Xuzhou to report the situation to arrive at the capital of Xuzhou.

Arriving with him at Xuzhou City were 20,000 border troops.

During this period, border troops sent from the northern border towns also arrived in the south of the Yangtze River one after another.

The number of soldiers under Gao Shun’s command is increasing as the battles go on, so he doesn’t have to worry about the source of soldiers at all.

“Report! General!”

After the lieutenant arrived at the Xuzhou government office, he immediately relayed the news that the peasant army had withdrawn from outside the Yangzhou city to Gao Shun.

After hearing this, Gao Shun was also shocked.

He also didn’t expect that the method given by Zhu Youtang would be so effective.

In just a few days, he had perfectly solved the problem that had been bothering him.

Sure enough, it was a natural thing to resolve the conflicts in the countryside first and then resolve the conflicts in the capital.

Now, without the obstruction of the peasant army, the city of Yangzhou could only be destroyed by pure violence.

Gao Shun immediately ordered: “Okay! You will lead 20,000 border troops to Yangzhou City immediately, follow Xu Chang’s command, and capture Yangzhou City!”

“Yes, General Gao Shun!”

Therefore, the 20,000 frontier troops who had just arrived in Xuzhou set out on the road to Yangzhou before they had even had time to rest.

In addition, Gao Shun also began to arrange personnel and sent teams to Huai’an Prefecture, Fengyang Prefecture and other places to kill landlords and divide the land.

Just like what Xu Chang did in Yangzhou, Gao Shun organized two thousand men into a group and sent ten teams to each prefecture.

They had only one goal, which was to go to various villages within the state capital, kill the landlords, and divide the land!

Gao Shun was determined to spread the trend of killing landlords and dividing land throughout the entire Jiangnan region!
(End of this chapter)