Make It Known to The World

Chapter 24: When you want to kill a mouse, you encounter a tiger

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According to the garrison organization established in the 17th year of Hongwu, one garrison had 5,600 soldiers, under which there were thousand-household garrisons, hundred-household garrisons, general flags and small flags.

But as time went by, the military settlement system gradually deteriorated, and a large number of "jianjun" and "pinjun" phenomena emerged. The so-called "jianjun" meant that military generals forcibly occupied military land, ranging from 20% to 30% or 50% to 60%, and even forcibly claimed neighboring civilian land as their own.

The "poor soldiers" refer to the poor among the military households. Their creditors not only seize their land, but also lend them money at high interest rates. As the interest compounds, the debts of the military households become increasingly large, and they have no choice but to serve the creditors like slaves.

Generals at all levels occupied the garrisoned land and ate the empty salaries. The situation became increasingly serious, forcing many military households to flee. There is a clear record in the Ganzhou Prefecture Annals that by the Jiajing period, there were only 2,765 garrison soldiers left in Ganzhou. By the Chongzhen period, there were even fewer, less than 1,800.

Qin Mu found out that the so-called Huichang bandits, whose leaders Ma Yongzhen and Gu Xiancheng were originally soldiers of the Huichang Qianhu Suo, could not bear the oppression of their generals, so they killed officials to vent their anger and went to the mountains to become bandits.

Considering that many of the rebel kings such as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were once soldiers of the Ming army, it is not an exaggeration to say that they were destroyed by the corruption of the military settlement system.

Qin Mu sat in a small pub behind the government office, drinking boredly. Most of the officials in Ganzhou Prefecture were now busy resettling refugees and raising military supplies. No one paid any attention to him, a small magistrate who couldn't even go to his own territory.

Except for Yang Tinglin who was relatively polite to him, Chen Shaoping, Gao Dingfang, Ma Sizhong and Wang Gong all disliked him. Qin Mu smiled self-deprecatingly, thinking that perhaps it was because he was a little too high-profile in doing things. He became famous in Jiangxi before he even took office, which made people dislike him!

The little girl sat across the table with her chin in her hand, in a daze. Qin Mu reached out and flicked her forehead lightly: "Girl, what are you thinking about?"

Qiao Er pouted and rubbed her forehead, saying, "I was wondering, why are there so many refugees in this world? I thought things would be better in Ganzhou, but I didn't expect there are even more refugees here. What is going on in this world? Alas!"

"Haha, my Qiao'er has actually learned to worry about the country and the people. Not bad, not bad. Pity the people of this world, who have so many worries."

Qiao Er asked in a girlish tone, "Sir, are we still going to Huichang?"

"why are you not going?"

"But aren't the bandits from Huichang coming to attack?"

"Ha, the mountains are high, but they can still prevent the white clouds from flying!"

After hearing these words, Meng Ke and others who were sitting at the other table could not help but exchange glances secretly. If the previous suppression of bandits along the way reflected Qin Mu's planning ability, then today's suppression of the riot in front of the government office reflected Qin Mu's ability to respond.

Coupled with the inexplicable mystery surrounding him, Meng Ke, Huo Sheng and others had no doubt about what he said.

Liu Meng, who was sent out to gather information, finally came back. Liu Meng was one of the one hundred soldiers recruited by Qin Mu. Because of his bravery and loyalty, he was promoted to company commander by Qin Mu. The title of company commander was given to him casually by Qin Mu. After all, these one hundred soldiers were not the army organized by the court, so it was not appropriate to call them centurions.

Meng Ke and his men also gathered around. Qin Mu made a slight gesture, and Liu Meng said softly, "Sir, I have heard that the rebels are now divided into two groups. The northern group led by Ma Yongzhen is said to have 10,000 troops. After conquering Ruijin in the north, they moved westward and successively conquered Xijiang, Baie, Zhuangkou, Hefeng and other towns. Then they broke through Yudu County and are now approaching Luojiang Town, only 50 or 60 miles away from Ganzhou City. Ganzhou Guard Commander Zhu Teng is leading 1,000 troops to defend Nanshe Mountain in Luojiang Town. The two sides are facing each other, and a war is imminent.

Sir, I have also heard a piece of news. Although Ma Yongzhen claims to have 10,000 troops, he only has a few thousand at most, and most of them are auxiliary troops used to maintain the law and order of the occupied counties and towns. Only 800 troops are actually used for combat. These 800 troops are quite elite. Zhu Teng encountered them the day before yesterday, and the two armies fought fiercely. In the end, Zhu Teng's 1,000-odd troops were defeated, so he retreated to Nanshe Mountain on the west side of Luojiang Town."

After listening to Liu Meng's words, Qin Mu and Meng Ke exchanged glances, and both of them couldn't help but become cautious. It seems that Ma Yongzhen is not an ordinary person. Many people understand that the quality of soldiers is more important than their quantity, but not many rebels can really resist the desire to expand their army.

Looking at the peasant armies that rebelled throughout the dynasties, almost without exception they expanded rapidly, like a snowball. Therefore, even if their numbers grew rapidly in the early stages, their combat effectiveness was very poor. Their rise was sudden, and their fall was also sudden.

Generally, only after a few years of mobile warfare, under the law of survival of the fittest, can an elite force be slowly trained. There are almost no people like Ma Yongzhen who choose the elite route from the beginning, and such rebels are often more difficult to extinguish.

Qin Mu asked in a deep voice: "Is there another way?"

"My Lord, there is another southern army led by the second in command of the rebels, Gu Xiancheng. They went southwest from Huichang and first broke through Anyuan County. Gu Xiancheng was different from Ma Yongzhen. After he broke through Anyuan County, he killed and looted on a large scale, opened warehouses to release grain and recruited soldiers. The number of people suddenly increased to more than 8,000. Then he ravaged villages and towns such as Chongshi, Banshi, Xintian, and Anxi. Wherever he passed, officials, gentry, and wealthy families were killed and looted, and the people were forced to follow the bandits. The number of people has increased to 12,000, and they claim to have 80,000. Now they are approaching Xinfeng County in the south."

Among the counties under the jurisdiction of Ganzhou Prefecture, four have now been occupied by the rebels, and Xinfeng County is on the verge of being lost. When Qin Mu came, he only intended to suppress the bandits, so he only recruited a hundred men and horses, but the situation changed too quickly, and fighting a mouse turned into fighting a tiger.

Meng Ke asked calmly, "What are your plans next, sir?"

Qin Mu did not answer but asked Liu Meng, "What is the relationship between Ma Yongzhen and Gu Xiancheng?"

"I have never heard of this."

"Go immediately and make sure to find out everything."

"Yes, sir." Liu Meng clasped his fists and immediately turned and left.

Ning Yuan asked, "Does your Excellency feel that the two rebel forces are at odds with each other?"

Meng Ke helped answer, "The styles of the northern Ma Yongzhen and the southern Gu Xiancheng are completely different. Now Gu Xiancheng is desperately recruiting soldiers. As long as he captures Xinfeng County, his momentum will overshadow that of the big boss Ma Yongzhen. In my opinion, it is only a matter of time before the two go their separate ways or even fight each other."

Qin Mu said calmly: "The key is whether it's sooner or later. If Zhu Teng can't hold on first, and Ma Yongzhen and Gu Xiancheng take over Ganzhou before they have a falling out, what business will it have on us if they fall out in the future?"

Meng Ke nodded and replied, "There are tens of thousands of refugees in the city. Why don't you recruit some more troops from them and then go out of the city to look for opportunities to fight? Gu Xiancheng's troops in the south are also newly recruited refugees. Their numbers are growing so fast. They are just a mob. They can rush forward in a favorable battle, but if they are attacked or assaulted, the more people they have, the faster they will collapse. There is really nothing to be afraid of."

"No money!" Qin Mu answered bluntly. The little money he brought with him when he came here has been almost used up. Maintaining an army is indeed a huge expense. With more than a hundred people, he had basically spent all the two thousand taels of silver in just one month.

Now the officials in Ganzhou City do not like him, so whether they will allow him to recruit soldiers from the refugees in the city is still another question.

Cui Feng asked in surprise: "Are you going to sit back and watch?"

Huo Sheng, Ning Yuan and Ling Zhan all looked at him. From what Qin Mu had done along the way, he didn't seem like a man who was content with loneliness. He lived and ate with a hundred of his men, and trained hard. Could it be that he was really just planning to wipe out a few bandits

The four men looked at Qin Mu with eager eyes, one could even say it was terrifying, because all four of them were extremely strong and fierce men, staring at one person so intently, almost like a tiger feeding on its food.

Qin Mu remained calm and composed under their gaze, smiling without saying a word.

Meng Ke glanced at the four of them and said softly, "Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you fight a hundred battles without danger."

Huo Sheng and the other three suddenly understood. If Qin Mu planned to stand idly by, he would not have sent Liu Meng's men out to gather information. Moreover, they not only had to find out the situation of the rebels, but also the official situation of Ganzhou. Only in this way could they maximize their benefits when taking action.

It’s just that Qin Mu gave people the impression of being too calm, which inevitably gave them the illusion that he had nothing to do with the matter and was indifferent.

After thinking this through, Huo Sheng volunteered, "Sir, Xinfeng is 150 miles away from here. I will leave the city immediately and return tomorrow evening. I will make sure that I can give you a complete picture of Gu Xiancheng's situation."

"Thank you very much." Qin Mu responded with a smile.

Ning Yuan next to him also said: "I'll go check out Ma Yongzhen. He's quite interesting. I like him!"

As the saying goes, it is easy to get thousands of soldiers but hard to get a good general. Ning Yuan and Huo Sheng showed such performance. Although Qin Mu remained silent on the surface, he was very happy in his heart. Qin Mu was confident that sooner or later he would make these powerful men willing to serve him.

At this time, Yang Tinglin, the prefect of Ganzhou, was gathering the gentry and wealthy families in the city, preparing to appeal to their emotions and reason so that the wealthy families in the city would be willing to donate money and grain.

What will be the result? Qin Mu is looking forward to Yang Tinglin getting a result that will surprise him.

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ps: Let me talk about updates today. Due to some reasons, there will be only one update per day this week. I hope you can understand. Haoyuan is suffering now. The original plan was to update 300,000 to 400,000 words within a month and a half so that it could be put on the shelves at the beginning of the month. Now it has become like this. The number of clicks, collections, and recommendations is terrible. There is no doubt that this is a huge blow to me, but my dear friends, Haoyuan will not give up and will still stick to it. May God reward those who work hard. I hope everyone will support and encourage you!

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