Liu Huangchang's original intention was to ask Li Hualong to pay attention to Chai Guozhu. If there was nothing wrong, then it would be fine.
However, Liu Huangchang did not expect Li Hualong to be a person who particularly distrusted generals. He felt that they were all born to be traitors who only knew how to kill, so he treated generals badly. It would have been better if Liu Huangchang did not say it, but once he said it, Li Hualong immediately regarded Chai Guozhu as an enemy.
How could one easily trust an enemy?
Therefore, Li Hualong directly excluded Chai Guozhu. At this critical moment, Li Hualong felt that he had to send someone to take the initiative to stimulate the morale of the army. The best candidate was, of course, Chai Guozhu.
On one hand, he could rely on Chai Guozhu's strong combat power to increase the chances of victory. On the other hand, he could also take this opportunity to test Chai Guozhu's loyalty. If Chai Guozhu was loyal enough, he would definitely fight to the death. If he could win, then Chai Guozhu's suspicion would be lifted.
However, if there was indeed a problem with Chai Guozhu, Li Hualong did not mind getting rid of this hidden threat.
After all, generals could not be trusted.
While Li Hualong was preparing for a sudden counterattack, wanting to teach the Zhennan Army's navy a lesson, on the other side, the task force led by Xie He had finally arrived at Ningbo Prefecture.
Zheng Ying had been waiting for support for a long time, but when he saw that there were only more than 30 members of the task force and more than 200 guards, he did not feel good.
"Mr. Xie, Marshal only gave me more than 200 people? What's the use? Three days ago, I just quelled a riot among the rich families. Now is a time of shortage of manpower. If this continues, I won't even be able to leave Ningbo Prefecture. There are too many rich families here. It's too bad. "
Zheng Ying looked at Xie He anxiously. "Can you tell Marshal to give me two or three thousand people? At least they can guard Ningbo Prefecture, right? I only have 5,000 trustworthy brothers. The other surrendered soldiers are not very reliable. "
Xie He did not say anything. He just smiled, then took out a warrant and handed it to Zheng Ying.
"What is this?"
"Marshal's order."
Zheng Ying was stunned for a moment. He quickly opened it and looked at it. After reading it, he looked at Xie He in surprise.
"Marshal wants me to cooperate fully with you?"
"Yes, General Zheng, I came here to help you solve the problem of the big families rebelling and the lack of soldiers. Don't worry, as long as you fully cooperate with me, you will be able to see initial results within a month."
Xie He confidently expressed her stance to Zheng Ying.
"What do you want?"
Zheng Ying was confused.
"It's very simple. General Zheng, tell me, in the entire Ningbo Prefecture you have occupied, where are the people who are the most hostile to us?"
"Yinxian, of course."
Zheng Ying said, "Yinxian is Shen's hometown. Several big families are very wary of us. After we searched five big families, some people started to make trouble. What's more hateful is that the farmers who have received our land distribution also participated in this matter."
Xie He nodded.
"How did General Zheng handle this matter?"
"Well, we sent our troops back to defeat the troops. We killed all the guards and servants of the big families and confiscated their properties. The farmers were punished according to the severity of the crime. Basically, their land was confiscated. But even with such a punishment, there were still people who rebelled. I really don't understand what those farmers are thinking!"
Zheng Ying's face was full of anger, as if there was a lot of resentment in his heart.
"What are they thinking? Isn't it very simple? They have been tenant farmers for generations, living as the vassals of the big families. They are used to it. They may not be able to adapt to suddenly getting their own land. At this moment, if we don't eliminate all the big families, there will soon be new big families taking advantage of the situation.
These farmers are used to being threatened and coerced. As long as one of them is instigated, many will blindly follow, regardless of right or wrong, even if we distribute land to them. "
Xie He said coldly.
"Is there such a logic? My family used to be tenant farmers, but this … this is really hard to imagine. "
Zheng Ying shook his head.
"No matter how hard it is to imagine, this is the truth. For the farmers, this is not called biting the hand that feeds them. This is just seeking survival. They are used to using the smallest price to exchange for their own survival and are used to haggling over every ounce. It's too difficult to make them abandon the way of life they have lived for hundreds of years to help you."
Xie He said, "This is like a goat that always eats grass. If you put a piece of meat in front of it and invite it to eat it, will it be used to eating it?"
Zheng Ying indicated that he could not.
"So we have to force it to eat until it can get used to it."
Xie He finally made Zheng Ying dumbfounded.
"Ah? Forcing a sheep to eat meat? "
"Yes, forcing a sheep to eat meat is similar to the officials forcing the people to rebel. Compared to the officials forcing the people to rebel, only a few people are forced to rebel. What we are forcing is not just the sheep in a small village."
Zheng Ying looked Xie He up and down.
"Mr. Xie, what did the marshal send you here for?"
Xie He took a deep breath.
"We are here to help General Zheng get rid of this disaster."
After that, Xie He asked Zheng Ying to provide the village with the most fertile land around Yinxian County. The village had the most number of rich families and was the most hostile to the Zhennan Army. Zheng Ying felt that it was strange, so he mentioned Dayan Village. There were many rich families in the village that were married to each other. They were very difficult to deal with.
Xie He evaluated the difficulty level of this village and found that it was the most difficult to deal with. Hence, he decided to pick it.
Some people suggested that they should choose a slightly easier place to try their hand at, but Xie He flatly rejected them.
"If we want to fight, we should start from the most difficult place and get rid of the most powerful ones. Those below us are just small fries. We have soldiers, swords, guns, cannons, and crossbows. What is there to be afraid of? They are the ones who should be afraid! Not us! "
After unifying their thoughts, Xie He asked for help from Zheng Ying.
"What? Hooligans? Idlers? What do you want them to do? What's the point of looking for people like that? They are everywhere on the streets. It took us a lot of effort to get rid of them! "
Zheng Ying obviously did not have a good impression of these people.
Xie He nodded in satisfaction.
"Alright, this is it. General Zheng, find me a few dozen of them. I want the most vicious, the most mischievous ones. I have a use for them!"
Zheng Ying couldn't understand it at all.
"What use can they have? They don't want to find a proper job and only know how to cheat and rob. I will kill them all sooner or later! "
"Don't! Don't kill them all! If you kill them all, how am I going to look for trouble with those rich families? Ordinary people don't have the guts to do that. "
Xie He quickly stopped Zheng Ying's idea.
"Look for trouble with the rich families? Why am I getting more and more confused? "
Xie He shook his head.
"General Zheng, have you forgotten the marshal's orders? Cooperate with our task force and don't worry about anything else. When the time comes, I will naturally hand you a very obedient Ningbo Prefecture. "
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
