I

When Zhang Tieniu fought from Huguang to Guangdong and picked up fifteen cities for nothing, Fei Ruhe's army on the south route only captured one Heping County town.

Moreover, it was Jiang Dashan who succeeded in the surprise attack in Heping County, and it had nothing to do with Fei Ruhe himself.

Fei Ruhe climbed over the mountains and ridges and crashed into Longchuan County. He has not been able to conquer the city until now.

Shen Youlong divided his troops to defend strategic locations and did not go out to fight in the field. He just fought in a rigid manner. However, he still had sufficient troops, and they were all veteran soldiers who had suppressed bandits for three years. Fei Ruhe tried every method and failed.

Jiang Dashan led his troops to join forces and besieged Longchuan with Fei Ruhe, but there was still nothing they could do.

In desperation, Fei Ruhe could only continue to surround Longchuan and let Jiang Dashan lead troops to attack Xingning County. Apart from Xingning County, there is no other place to go, because no matter where you go, you have to climb mountains and ridges.

After Jiang Dashan arrived in Xingning, he was also stuck under the city. There were also three thousand old soldiers stationed here.

The two sides stood still and entered a two-month confrontation period.

Outside Longchuan City, Datong Military Camp.

Fei Ruhe pulled his troops out as usual, and the moat had been filled. He tried to attack the city once, and then he was too lazy to fight again.

This guy had a smile on his face, no trace of frustration at all, and he took out his telescope to observe the tower.

In the county town, Shen Youlong was worried.

He didn't dare to leave the city at all and could only remain passively defensive.

Moreover, it is impossible to increase troops, because the main force must be stationed in Nanxiong. If troops were mobilized to support Longchuan, if Nanxiong fell, it would be equivalent to losing half of Guangdong.

Nanhai Juren Feng Yushun, who was Shen Youlong's staff at this time, looked outside the city and frowned: "Supervisor, this is not the way to go. The rebels have been dividing the fields outside the city for nearly two months, and Longchuan has essentially become an isolated city. "

"The battle outside the city will be defeated." Shen Youlong said with an ugly face.

Some time ago, Shen Youlong saw that the main force of the Zhao thieves was in Longchuan, so he asked the commander-in-chief Lu Qian to send troops from Nanxiong in an attempt to take advantage of the opportunity to capture the three passes of Meiling.

Lu Qian led 5,000 elite veterans to attack Meiguan where 300 men were stationed. After the battle, he lost his helmet and armor and suffered more than 600 casualties. Lu Qian was so frightened that he hurried back to Nanxiong and hid.

Lu Qian also sent news that there were a large number of "thousands of enemies" in Zhao's army.

Moreover, those enemies with ten thousand enemies are all made of ceramic shells, and can be thrown a long distance on flat ground.

Shen Youlong said worriedly: "What I'm most worried about is Lu Qian's side."

"Can Mr. Lu still be a thief?" Feng Yushun asked doubtfully.

Shen Youlong sighed and said, "He was impeached by Tongyi, the same gentry from your hometown."

Feng Yushun was speechless for a moment, secretly cursing his fellow villagers as mentally retarded, and at the same time slandering Lu Qian as a bastard.

Lu Qian, the commander-in-chief of Guangdong, killed several Nanhai gentry during the suppression of bandits last year and robbed their goods for smuggling.

In the Ming Dynasty, smuggling along the coast was not only carried out at sea, but also had to be supplied by land.

Lu Qian relied on his status as commander-in-chief to forcefully intervene in the land-based smuggling trade. And he went too far, often launching troops and plundering, which angered the land-based private traders in Nanhai County.

Feng Yushun said: "The imperial court is at a time when it is hiring people, so it is unlikely that General Lu will be dismissed."

Shen Youlong shook his head and said, "If Lu Qian is not removed from office, the gentry in Nanhai County will join forces to become thieves."

"This... is really possible." The more Feng Yushun thought about it, the more terrifying it became.

Guangdong has many mountains and little land. Those coastal gentry and wealthy families do not rely on land income to make their fortunes. When goods from Huguang and Jiangxi arrived, they purchased them openly and then secretly sold them to maritime merchants behind the back of the imperial court.

It is these people who have been blocking the Ming Dynasty from opening up the sea!

As for merchants and pirates, they are either their puppets or their partners.

Now, the Datong Army has closed the Meiling Three Passes, preventing goods from Jiangxi from entering Guangdong. The Huguang trade route was also cut off, and smuggling merchants in Guangdong suffered heavy losses. Even maritime merchants like Zheng Zhilong also suffered huge losses.

There are also Guangdong salt merchants. Their main sales markets are Huguang and Jiangxi, and they can't transport it now.

Salt merchants, maritime merchants, and land smugglers are now as anxious as ants on a hot pot. They did not dare to offend the "King of Jiangxi" Zhao Han, because Jiangxi was the source of goods, so they tried every means to backstab Guangdong officers and soldiers.

They not only impeached Lu Qian, the commander-in-chief of Guangdong, but also Shen Youlong, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.

For these merchants, Guangdong can be occupied by rebels, but it must not be a long-term war!

…

A few more days passed.

Chen Maosheng led the missionary officers and the backbone of the farmers' association over the mountains and ridges, and most of his followers were Yao people and Hakkas.

Seeing Fei Ruhe, Chen Maosheng couldn't help but ask: "You didn't make it clear in your letter, what is the actual situation in Guangdong? The main town also asked me to pass on the news, why after two months of sending troops, only one county was captured."

Fei Ruhe said confidently: "Here in Guangdong, Shen Youlong's heavy troops are defending all the strategic locations. If we attack each one by force, once Guangdong is captured, all the soldiers in my hand will die. In fact, if we capture Guangdong, There is no need to fight at all, I already discovered it as soon as I came here."

"Just say it straight, don't beat around the bush." ​​Chen Maosheng said.

Fei Ruhe said: "The counties in Guangdong have suffered from severe drought for two consecutive years, and this year has become slightly normal. Since the end of Wanli, civil unrest has continued here. Shen Youlong himself has repeatedly suppressed bandits twice. The man in front of him There was also a large-scale suppression. Until now, the Yao rebellion in Lianzhou and Lianshan has not been calmed down. As long as Zhang Tieniu captures Lechang, I estimate that half of northern Guangdong will be in chaos."

"Where's this side of Guangdong?" Chen Maosheng asked.

Fei Ruhe said: "The people in eastern Guangdong live in extremely poor conditions, and they hate the government to the core. Under successive years of severe drought, Shen Youlong has to raise troops and has forced countless people to rebel. Seeing that Longchuan County cannot be attacked by force, I decided to Immediately let the mission team and the farmers' association take charge of the land distribution. Now, most of Longchuan County has been divided into fields. Longchuan has long become an isolated city, and the villages and towns outside the city are our territory."

"Then why did you ask me to bring people here?" Chen Maosheng asked confused.

"The situation here is too complicated," Fei Ruhe explained. "There are Hakkas, Yao people, Miao people, and Tong people (Zhuang people). Take the Yao people, for example, they are divided into Pingdi Yao and Gaoshan Yao. , the mess makes me dizzy. Those Gaoshan Yao are even still cultivating slash-and-burn farming, so you, the great master, must do it yourself."

In the Guangdong and Guangxi regions at the end of the Ming Dynasty, more than half of the prefectures and counties were inhabited by Yao people.

Pingdi Yao are highly Hanized, and many Yao people even speak Chinese, wear Han clothes, and use Han names. They organized households and unified the people, and they had to pay taxes to the court. There were even Yao landlords and Yao tenants.

This kind of Yao people can directly divide their fields, but they are exploited miserably by Yao officials and landlords.

The degree of Hanization among the Yao people in Gaoshan is uneven. The most primitive Yao tribe is still cultivating slash-and-burn farming. They burn a mountain forest and cultivate it for two or three years, and then move to another mountain forest to burn and cultivate. Anyway, there are many mountains here, so they can be called a "nomadic farming tribe".

There are also some Gaoshan Yao who have learned advanced farming methods, but they still cannot speak Chinese.

This type of Yao people are ruled by Yao native officials.

The local officials forced the Yao people to collect, dig, and make various special products. Every few years, they had to go to Beijing to pay tribute and exchange the Yao special products for the goods rewarded by the emperor.

However, Emperor Chongzhen was also a poor man, and the local officials of the Yao tribe gradually became unprofitable. If they had anything to do, they would lead their tribes down the mountains to plunder, or they would simply attack cities and rebel directly.

This type of Yao people must be treated with caution. They cannot speak Chinese and are controlled and exploited by Yao officials. If you kill local officials directly, the Yao people will not appreciate it. They must first understand the policy.

In many places, the Han, Yao, Miao, and Zhuang ethnic groups are merging, and it is difficult to tell which ethnic group they belong to.

In Guangdong at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were a large number of Yao, Miao and Zhuang people, and they were constantly being Hanized.

Such a complicated situation confused Fei Ruhe, so he could only write a letter to invite Chen Maosheng to take charge of the work.

Chongyi County in the southern Jiangxi region is full of Yao and Miao people. At the beginning of the year, the land distribution work was completed and a farmers' association was formed. When Chen Maosheng went south this time, at Fei Ruhe's request, he directly brought more than 300 Yao and Miao people.

As soon as Chen Maosheng arrived, Fei Ruhe immediately divided his troops and personally led the main force to bypass Longchuan and go to surround Heyuan County.

…

"Superintendent, the bandits have divided their forces," Feng Yushun said in confusion, "With such a swagger, they are not afraid of being cut off from the food route and being attacked from the north and the south?"

Shen Youlong was very angry at this time: "They are just trying to lure me out of the city, and they don't take me seriously at all!"

Feng Yushun said: "Since the rebels have divided their forces, it is better to send five hundred elite troops to attack the rebel camp at night."

"That's exactly what I meant!" Shen Youlong also let out a bad breath.

There was no action that night, and a few days later, Shen Youlong felt that the bandits had relaxed their vigilance, so he asked a Qian general to lead five hundred troops out of the city to attack at night.

I went and never came back...

It wasn't that Mr. Qian was a thief, but that he was defeated while stealing the camp, and the soldiers simply took the opportunity to flee back to their hometowns.

Fei Ruhe took Chen Maosheng to Heyuan to divide the land. He had already summed up experience in Southern Gansu. As long as the land outside the city is completely divided, the people in the county will be their own, and they can take the opportunity to suppress the landlords and increase military rations.

"Report!!!"

"The Badai Yao uprising has captured the four cities of Lianzhou, Lianshan, Yangshan and Ruyuan!"

Upon hearing the news, Fei Ruhe smiled and said: "There is no need to fight in Guangdong, the officers and soldiers will soon collapse across the board."

The three cities of Lianzhou, bordering Huguang to the north and Guangxi to the west, are all inhabited by Yao people at the junction of the three provinces.

In the eight years of Chongzhen in history, it was not just Liu Xinyu who led the Huguang Yao people and miners to rebel. At the same time, there were also the Badai Yao uprising in Guangdong, the Jianghua Yao uprising in Huguang, and the Yao uprising in He County, Guangxi.

Yao people and miners from three provinces rose up in rebellion at the same time, and the rebellion lasted for three years before the imperial court sent a coalition of five provinces to encircle and suppress them.

The Badai Yao Uprising was the most commotion. Five provinces were encircled and suppressed, and two governors were changed. It was suppressed from the 11th year of Chongzhen to the 15th year of Chongzhen.

Two years ago, Shen Youlong spent all his energy to finally beat Badai Yao back to the mountains.

At this moment, Zhang Tieniu led his troops to occupy Lechang, which happened to be Bapaiyao's territory next door. They took the opportunity to go out of the mountains, captured all four cities, and cooperated with Zhang Tieniu to fight against the officers and soldiers.

Guangdong is gone, and the officers and soldiers cannot bear it.