allonlinenovel Chapter 526 The Change at Hanshan
Chapter 526 The Change at Hanshan
Chapter 526 The Change at Hanshan
Zhu Youjian took the secret letter, opened it, and was equally shocked, breaking out in a cold sweat.
The secret letter was written by a spy from the Eastern Depot in Hezhou, and its contents were about the situation in Hezhou and Hanshan.
The prefects of Hezhou and Hanshan are now both prisoners. Wang Wenzhou's concubine, Zhang Jiao, has already prepared an army of 10, ready to march. According to scouts, this army is well-equipped and highly trained. Currently, both Hezhou and Hanshan are under Zhang Jiao's control.
It turns out that after Zhang Jiao returned to Hanshan, she immediately issued a mobilization order to protect Hanshan.
When Li Decheng, the prefect of Hanshan, saw this, he thought, "This is outrageous! Hanshan isn't facing any foreign invasion, so what's the point of defending it? Is it about defending Hanshan, or about starting a rebellion?"
Li Decheng immediately ordered his constables to arrest Zhang Jiao.
Li Decheng never expected that before his order even left the yamen, he would be arrested on the spot by the yamen runners as soon as he gave the order.
All the yamen runners in Hanshan came from labor camps. Even though their former foreman was transferred away from Hanshan due to collusion with others, they remained loyal to Principal Wang Wenzhou.
Who is Zhang Jiao? She was the principal's concubine and the former captain of the female police team. The constables not only knew her, but they also had all had contact with her.
Li Decheng dared to order the arrest of Zhang Jiao, how could this be allowed? Li Decheng was beaten so badly that even his parents couldn't recognize him, and then he was imprisoned. Subsequently, Zhang Jiao took over Hanshan.
Zhang Jiao's mobilization order shook the entire Hanshan County.
Everyone in Hanshan, whether locals or newcomers, owes Wang Wenzhou a debt of gratitude. In their hearts, Wang Wenzhou is a benevolent and upright official who wholeheartedly serves the people. Now that Wang Wenzhou is in trouble, the people are united in their resolve. Even though Zhang Jiao's orders are tantamount to rebellion, no one opposes them.
The people of Hanshan believe their happy lives are entirely due to Wang Wenzhou. A righteous and upright official like Wang Wenzhou is hard to find even with a lantern. Yet the imperial court imprisoned him. Shouldn't they rebel against such a court?
Because of the riots, Wang Wenzhou had made contingency plans when he was in charge of Hanshan. As soon as Zhang Jiao issued the mobilization order, all the people who had come from the labor camps responded one after another.
Wang Wenzhou has been away from Hanshan for a year. In that year, Hanshan’s development has not stopped. Hanshan has become a metropolis with a population of one million.
The members of the first 40 labor camps have now become the backbone of Hanshan. These people can be said to be doing quite well, and have become middle-class people with houses, horses, and girls.
At Zhang Jiao's command, these people not only picked up their weapons and went to sign up, but some even brought their shop assistants and relatives and friends to sign up.
As for those former heroes of Hanshan, who have now become the richest people in various regions and the bosses of the Hanshan Group, needless to say, after they organized a petition group to go to the capital, they all returned one after another, bringing their military forces with them and rushing to Hanshan.
After Wang Wenzhou left Hanshan, Zhu Youjian ordered the selection of elite troops from various regions to reorganize Hanshan Guard, totaling 4 men.
Zhu Youjian infiltrated Hanshan, transferring away Wang Wenzhou's confidants. Wang Wenzhou, in turn, tried to win over these people sent by Zhu Youjian.
The commander of Hanshan Guard was difficult to win over, after all, he was a hereditary high-ranking official and wouldn't blindly follow Wang Wenzhou. However, the lower-ranking officers of Hanshan Guard were quickly corrupted by Wang Wenzhou's sweet talk.
They all followed Sheng Liang, the little racing god, around, and their motto was: "Follow Master Liang and you'll get to drink."
Of course, it wasn't just about fine wine, but also beautiful women. The Spring Breeze Pavilion, once the residence of the Four Great Talents, later became Wang Wenzhou's property.
After the babies left Hanshan, Sheng Liang became the de facto boss of Hanshan. This young master didn't learn anything else from Wang Wenzhou, but he was extremely skilled at sleeping with girls, something he learned from Wang Wenzhou.
Sheng Liang had received orders from Wang Wenzhou to cultivate good relations with the officers of Hanshanwei and to win them over if possible.
Like Wang Qiang, Sheng Liang also regarded Wang Wenzhou as his idol. How could Sheng Liang dare to disobey his elder brother's orders?
Every day, the young racer would go to Chunfeng Pavilion to sleep with girls, always accompanied by officers from Hanshan Guard. The group would often have friendly races, and over time, in the hearts of the Hanshan Guard officers, Liang Ye truly became known as "Master Liang." No one dared disobey a word from Liang Ye.
This was actually determined by Sheng Liang's personality. He achieved success at a young age and was arrogant and domineering. In the entire Hanshan, even the prefect of Hanshan, Li Decheng, dared not offend him. In addition, he followed Wang Wenzhou and was influenced by Wang Wenzhou, so he also acted arrogantly and domineeringly.
Follow Master Liang and you'll get to drink; disobey Master Liang and he'll kill your whole family!
At first, not all the officers of Hanshanwei took Sheng Liang seriously. Two of them, being hereditary commanders of a thousand households and having relatives in the imperial court, angered Sheng Liang by vying with him for the affections of girls.
Sheng Liang directly led his men to castrate the two idiots, and also took the opportunity to sleep with their wives and concubines. In the end, nothing came of it; even their relatives who held official positions in the court dared not help.
How could anyone dare! That was when Wang Wenzhou was at his most arrogant; he had just forced all the civil and military officials to wet their pants. No one would dare to provoke Wang Wenzhou at that time.
It was precisely because of this that, as soon as Zhang Jiao issued the mobilization order, the 4 troops of Hanshanwei immediately became Zhang Jiao's subordinates.
In addition to the personnel from the first 40 sessions of the Hanshan Labor Camp, the 20,000 people currently in the labor camp, the subordinates of the Hanshan group bosses who came from all over the country, and the 10,000 youth soldiers from the orphanage, the total force is 100,000, all of whom are well-trained elite soldiers.
The loyalty of these 10,000 orphans to Wang Wenzhou surpassed that of those from labor camps. They called Sheng Lan and Liu Rushi "mother," and to them, Wang Wenzhou was their father.
When Gao Yingxiang's army was advancing on Hanshan, Wang Wenzhou's arrangement for the orphan camp was to have them run 50 li (25 kilometers) every morning. This was because if the rebel army attacked Hanshan, Wang Wenzhou would be unable to attend to them and would have no manpower to protect the orphans, so they would have to run on their own.
Later, after the situation stabilized, morning runs became a regular event at the orphanage. After Zhang Jiao mobilized the children, they enthusiastically signed up.
Zhang Jiao initially didn't want these children to become cannon fodder, after all, they were adopted by Sheng Lan and Liu Rushi, and if all these children died, Zhang Jiao was afraid of offending the two of them.
But the orphans disagreed! Because of the good food and daily exercise, most of the twelve- or thirteen-year-old children in the orphanage grew to be over 1.6 meters tall.
People in the Ming Dynasty were generally shorter than modern people, mainly due to malnutrition. 1.6 meters was considered the height of an adult. In ancient times, military service was based on the height of a cartwheel; men taller than a cartwheel could join the army.
The orphans argued their case, and Zhang Jiao eventually had to compromise. Anyone over 13 years old and taller than 1.6 meters could join the youth army. As for gender, Zhang Jiao made no rules; in her view, women could fight on the battlefield just as well.
Thus, eight thousand eligible young girls and two thousand orphaned boys joined the army, and the Youth Army was officially established.
As for the prefect of Hezhou becoming a prisoner, it was all because he brought trouble upon himself.
After being imprisoned, Li Decheng begged and pleaded with a jailer to help him deliver a letter to Jiang Ming, the prefect of Hezhou, asking him for help.
Upon receiving the letter, Jiang Ming was overjoyed. Although there was some danger involved, if he could quell the rebellion, it would be a great achievement.
Hezhou already had a 3-strong garrison, but these soldiers were incapable of fighting and were all old, weak, sick, or disabled. Despite this, Jiang Ming remained confident, issued a mobilization order, and gathered local militia to prepare to lead troops to Hanshan to quell the rebellion.
Although Hezhou was not Hanshan, its proximity meant that Wang Wenzhou's power was equally entrenched. Jiang Ming fared slightly better than Li Decheng; his orders were issued, and he was only imprisoned by his subordinates that same evening. With this, Hezhou was also taken over by Zhang Jiao.