Chapter 568 0563 [Collecting Southeast]
As Liang Shicheng was killed by the mutiny, the river defense of the southeastern court collapsed immediately, and the garrisons in the cities along the river surrendered in an organized manner.
Everyone knew that the Song Dynasty was completely finished!
The Ming Dynasty Jiang Defense Force stationed in Huainan took the opportunity to cross the river and take over the city.
It took only seven months for these Huainan new troops to complete the reorganization.
Wang Yuan took a thousand heavily armored guards as a Qing army envoy to the south to reorganize the army. With the cooperation of Fang Mengqing, the left governor of Huainan Province, he killed and exiled more than 2,000 people to get the matter done. In addition, he took the opportunity of Zhu Guoxiang's ascension to the throne to pardon tens of thousands of soldiers who participated in the mutiny!
Because they were about to attack Zhong Xiang and had to guard against Song Huizong, the Huainan New Army retained 60,000 people.
Among these 60,000 people, nearly half were the old Song Xiang Army, and there were also a large number of bandits, bandits, gangsters, and wanderers.
And those old Song Xiang Army were mainly grain troops and gang troops, which were transport troops for transporting grain and flower and stone gangs.
When Wang Yuan was reorganizing, those who disobeyed orders were lured to death if possible, and those who could not be lured to death were directly sent to the heavy armored guards to charge. Those who fled into the mountains were also suppressed and appeased, and their generals were lured to kill the rebel leaders and accept the amnesty.
The combat effectiveness of the 60,000 Huainan new troops was extremely weak, with an armor rate of less than 30%, and the armor was mainly leather armor, cloth armor, and paper armor.
But it was deployed on the north bank of the Yangtze River, which was more than enough to defend against the small court in the southeast, because there were also some equally matched opponents on the other side of the river.
Now, a large-scale crossing of the river to the south, easily occupying various states and counties.
Moreover, the discipline was relatively strict, and there was no chaos. At most, some soldiers forced to buy and sell. Because they had made trouble in Huainan last year, those who took the lead in disobeying orders were either buried or exiled to southern Sichuan to deal with barbarians.
"General, the Left Governor of Zhejiang has arrived!"
"Follow me out of the city to welcome him."
No matter how arrogant Li Bao was, he dared not neglect it. He had just launched a surprise attack on Hangzhou, and the court had appointed the Left Governor of Zhejiang, and the visitor was Zhang Gen's younger brother Zhang Pu.
When Li Bao arrived outside Jiangning City with his personal soldiers, he saw a civil official and immediately stepped forward to greet him: "Meet Zhang Buzheng."
Zhang Pu took Li Bao's hand: "General is really a peerless general. It is a blessing for my Ming Dynasty court to take over the southeast so easily."
Li Bao said: "It's too early to take over the southeast. Jiangdong Road only occupies half, and Liangzhe Road only occupies one-third. Although all prefectures and cities have been ruled by edicts, local officials are mixed, and many of them are people who take advantage of the chaos to start a rebellion."
"As long as we can rule by edicts, it will be easy to govern next." Zhang Pu smiled.
"What Zhang Buzheng said is right." Li Bao agreed with a smile, but he was actually quite disdainful in his heart.
Because Zhang Pu belonged to the die-hard Cai Party and was a charging general under Cai Jing.
Zheng Juzhong was away from the court for half a year because of mourning for his father. When he came back, he found that his base was gone. Most of his confidants were impeached and dismissed by Zhang Pu.
Zhang Pu had a very good reputation because he impeached all corrupt officials and used the banner of cleaning up redundant officials.
For example, when Song Huizong was the military advisor to capture Quzhou, the bastard governor was impeached and dismissed by Zhang Pu.
Li Bao looked down on Zhang Pu's Cai Party background and thought that he could quickly rise to power in the Ming Dynasty by relying on Zhang Gen's influence.
In fact, there were a lot of capable officials under Cai Jing!
No matter what their personal morality was, they were able to do things anyway, which was much more useful than the people under Wang Fu.
Cai Jing stepped down, Wang Fu took over, and began to frantically dismiss Cai Party officials, and also dismissed many officials who could still do things, which put a heavy accelerator on the demise of the Song Dynasty.
Including Li Gang, strictly speaking, he was also a Cai Party official.
Moreover, some of Zhang Gen's actions were also intentionally or unintentionally cooperating with Cai Jing at that time, but they were also beneficial to the country and the people (such as requesting the abolition of the Huashi Gang).
Although Zhu Ming did not ask Zhang Gen in person, he seriously suspected that a large number of officials were forming cliques under the banner of Cai Jing and secretly supporting the crown prince Zhao Huan.
The inducement for this situation was that Zhao Kai passed the imperial examination as a prince and the rank of Zhao Kai's son was equal to that of the prince when he was canonized.
Both events pierced the hearts of upright ministers, and Zheng Juzhong was vaguely standing behind Zhao Kai, and Wang Fu inherited Zheng Juzhong's political assets. The civil servants who placed their hopes on the crown prince could only be forced to stand on Cai Jing's side, and thus compete with Wang Fu and Zhao Kai.
Cai Jing's attitude changed several times.
At first, Cai Jing supported the crown prince Zhao Huan and asked his confidants Liu Bing and Liu Huan to be the crown prince's servants. As a result, the two brothers were demoted one after another.
Cai Jing was too scared to get involved, but he had to compete with Zheng Juzhong and Wang Fu, so he tacitly allowed some officials to rely on him to make trouble.
When the struggle was the most intense, Song Huizong personally took action and executed the prince's family manager for treason.
Cai Jing was horrified and completely gave in.
After that, Cai Jing returned to the position of prime minister, claiming that he was blind and letting his son take full power to handle government affairs, which was also intended to get rid of these princes' factions, resulting in the collapse of the hidden prince alliance.
By the way, almost all of the family members of Yuwen Cuizhong and Yuwen Xuzhong belonged to the Prince of Yun's faction.
In addition, Ge Shengzhong, who was recruited and reused by Zhu Ming, and his brother Ge Cizhong were also members of the Prince of Yun's faction.
The two groups of people who fought each other because of the dispute over the throne are now serving as officials in the new Ming Dynasty. They did not make any moves on the surface, but in fact they stood on their own sides in secret. The Prince of Yun's faction was suppressed badly because Zhang Gen was now the boss of the Prince's faction!
Of course, they can no longer be called the Prince's Party and the Prince of Yun's Party. They are just a continuation of the previous dynasty's struggle for the throne.
"Where did you fight westward?" Zhang Pu asked.
Li Bao said: "The entire territory of Chizhou has been occupied. Quan Bangyan stationed troops in Jiangzhou. When he learned that the flanking Jiang defense collapsed, he moved at least 20,000 people to Pengze."
Zhang Pu smiled and said: "I can write more than ten letters in hand to persuade Jiangxi officials to submit to the imperial court and cut off Quan Bangyan's retreat. When the time comes, he will naturally be willing to lead his army to surrender."
This was Ju Ming's original intention. He wanted to pacify Jiangxi through the Zhang family. Otherwise, why would he throw Zhang Pu to Zhejiang?
The administrative divisions of the Song Dynasty are very interesting. Jiujiang, Hukou, Nankang, Duchang, Poyang, Fuliang, Shangrao, Guixi, Qianshan... these places are not classified as Jiangxi Road, but belong to Jiangdong Road.
Strictly speaking, Zhang Gen is not from Jiangxi, but a serious Jiangdong person.
"Then the chief envoy will be overworked." Li Bao pouted. The prince sent a civil servant to recruit him to surrender, and his achievements in conquering the southeast would be greatly reduced.
But it doesn’t matter, I still have a backup plan——
Defeat Fujian!
…
Jiangzhou (Jiujiang).
In Jiangxi and the western part of Jiangdong Road, Quan Bangyan is no longer the top leader.
Because Song Huizong didn't trust him very much, he sent his immediate superior, Song Huizong's cousin Xiang Ziyi.
Fortunately, Xiang Ziyi did not give random instructions, and the two of them cooperated quite happily.
"Is there no news from Your Majesty yet?" Quan Bangyan asked.
Xiang Ziyi shook his head and sighed: "I sent many people to search, but there was no news. However, I found Cai You. Tong Guan sent a secret letter in Fujian, wanting to establish another clan as the emperor. He has already found a clan. "
Quan Bangyan said: "Xinzhou and Raozhou have changed their flags, and the prefects of the two states have also written letters to persuade me to return... to join the bandits."
"Oh, vote." Xiang Ziyi sighed.
Quan Bangyan was quite surprised: "You are His Majesty's cousin, and you are actually willing to surrender to the new dynasty?"
Xiang Ziyi asked back: "If you don't surrender, do you still have to fight stubbornly? Although you have tens of thousands of soldiers, there are only a few thousand who can actually fight. It is only the strong city of Jiangzhou that can stop Prime Minister Zhong. Nowadays, many counties behind him have defected to Xinjiang." Chao, where did your tens of thousands of troops come from? You still don't dare to divide your troops and go back to suppress them. Li Bao's army may come at any time. Tong Guan has been suppressing bandits in Fujian for half a year. He can't even wipe out a few bandits in the mountains. Li Bao’s Tiger and Wolf Master?”
After hearing these words, Quan Bangyan felt a sense of relief.
Xiang Ziyi is the emperor's cousin, and Tong Guan is the emperor's confidant. The two of them insist on not falling into the trap of reason. But why don't you surrender? There is no need to be buried with the old Song Dynasty.
Moreover, the soldiers under his command may have been plotting to submit to the new dynasty.
Zhang Pu's letter was of nuclear bomb level. He personally wrote the letter as an endorsement, and Zhang Gen was still the prime minister of the new dynasty. Jiangxi gentry encouraged the prefect to surrender.
Even some local wealthy families, especially the Xinzhou and Raozhou families, are already preparing their descendants to take part in the imperial examinations of the new dynasty!
There is no place to supply food and grass. What will Quan Bangyan's soldiers eat?
Xiang Zikai personally wrote the surrender form, and then asked Quan Bangyan to also sign it, and the two routes in Jiangnan were handed over peacefully.
The main reason why things went so smoothly was that Song Huizong disappeared, and the "capital" Hangzhou was also gone. How could local officials persist?
Soon they received a reply from Zhang Pu, along with the appointment edict of the new Ming Dynasty.
"Did the Ming Emperor give Zhang Pu two blank edicts, otherwise how could he be so quick?" Xiang Ziyi said dumbly while holding the appointment edict.
Quan Bangyan also had a look of astonishment on his face and guessed, "Maybe the Ming court has determined that you and I will lead the troops back to justice."
Xiang Ziyi said with emotion: "With the Holy Emperor in the government, it is no wonder that the old Song Dynasty overthrew so quickly. Even I, a cousin of the emperor of the old dynasty, can be a high official in the new dynasty."
These two people all became the chief envoys of Jiangxi, Quan Bangyan was the chief envoy to the left, and Xiang Ziyi was the chief envoy to the right.
Both are talented people, and allowing them to take charge of Jiangxi can achieve a smooth transition.
As for the reform of the system in the future, such as the sharing of land between people and the like, other officials will have to be transferred, and Zhang Pu will also have to be transferred far away from Zhejiang.
In addition, their military power will be stripped away, waiting for Li Bao to send people to reorganize.
The administrative divisions also changed. Jiangnan West Road was changed to Jiangxi Province, and some states and counties were delimited by Jiangnan East Road, which was roughly equivalent to the scope of Jiangxi Province in later generations.
Jiangdong Road was cut in half, merged into Liangzhe Road, and renamed Zhejiang Province.
This is very different from the provincial planning of later generations!
This means that the areas north of the Yangtze River in Anhui Province and Jiangsu Province will all be counted as Huainan Province from now on, with the provincial capital located in Huai'an.
The areas south of the Yangtze River in Anhui Province and Jiangsu Province, together with the Liangzhe Road, were merged into Zhejiang, and the provincial capital was located in Hangzhou.
This method of administrative division is extremely beneficial to the economy, and it is also very convenient to collect money and grain.
But separatism is easy to occur, and the Manchu rule was to prevent separatism!
It doesn't matter whether Zhu Guoxiang or Zhu Ming is a father and son. The Huaihe River and the Zhejiang River are both rich and prosperous places, and waterways extend in all directions. Dare to rebel in these places, as long as the court is not corrupt, the rebels can be crushed easily.
As for the end of the dynasty, what should be done, children and grandchildren will have their own blessings.
Li Bao sent his lieutenants to Jiangxi to take over the troops, while he himself returned to Hangzhou to wait for the monsoon and ocean currents.
The troop transport ship was mixed with a group of maritime merchant ships and marched toward Fuzhou in a mighty manner.
Repeat the old tricks to gain military glory.
Conquering Fujian is just a basic exercise. If he still has the strength to spare, Li Bao would also like to capture Guangdong!
As for the mess in Zhejiang, let Zhang Pu clean it up slowly. Civil servants who want to take advantage and gain credit have to put in a little hard work and sweat.