The commander-in-chief of Sichuan was Lin Chong.
He originally led troops in Chengdu and stayed in Hunan after killing Zhong Xiang. In the past few years, he was transferred to eastern and southern Sichuan. In the past two years, he returned to Chengdu to take charge of all Sichuan.
Lin Chong and the officials of the Third Division of Sichuan were both happy and worried after receiving the imperial order.
The good news is that you can perform meritorious service in battles, and even civil servants can achieve political achievements by helping with logistics.
The worry is that not only do we have to fight, but we also have to relocate the people and return to their hometowns!
Some places it's possible, some places it's difficult.
Take Zhizhou as an example. It is said to be a Jisi Prefecture, but in fact it only has a palm-sized territory in the western mountainous area of ​​Shimao County. The mountains are high and the valleys are deep, the land is barren, and there are even mountains with snow all year round. It is difficult for the Han people to cultivate there.
Sichuan Zuobuzheng envoy Lu Benzhong said: "There are three chiefs in Zhizhou, Zhi Yongshou, Tang Junyan, and Dong Cheng. The imperial court said that they wanted to kill the Dong family, so we killed Dong Chengyou, but Zhi Yongshou and Tang Junyan were still
It should be combined with suppression and pacification. This method will also be used in other Jisu areas where it is difficult for immigrants to cultivate and cultivate. Kill one group and conquer another group."
"But the imperial court must completely change its status quo and return to its original position." Lin Chong said.
Lu Benzhong shook his head: "Luoyang is thousands of miles away. The princes in the court only know the general information and do not know the specific facts of the place. Even a few of us only recently found out more and more detailed information from merchants and prisoners.
"
"It is still necessary to explain it to the court." Zhan Shangzhidao, the envoy to the right.
Lu Benzhong said: "There is not much time left for us this year. We will send troops while reporting. We will attack the places where we can convert the soil back to the flow. It happens that those places have more convenient transportation. The places where we cannot convert the soil back to the flow are all in places with high mountains and dangerous valleys."
, you can leave it alone for the time being and wait until the court approves before taking action."
Lin Chong thought this statement was very reasonable, and immediately called Maozhou merchants and Tibetan prisoners to inquire about the situation carefully before formulating a plan to send troops.
Since the duties of civil servants and generals are clearly divided, it is no longer a matter of civil and military checks and balances holding back each other, but of civil and military officials each performing their respective duties and working together to gain merit and political achievements.
As soon as the sweltering summer days passed, Lin Chong personally led the army on the expedition.
He only took away 6,000 field troops and 10,000 garrison troops, and then he went to Maozhou with great fury.
These 16,000 troops can defeat the barbarians belonging to Maozhou several times, which is a bit like killing a chicken with a sledgehammer. However, the number of troops cannot be reduced. To establish a stronghold, people must be left to defend it, and then protect the immigrants and build villages, and prepare protective armor to let the Han people
Only when you have the ability to protect yourself can you withdraw your troops.
The arsenals of various prefectures in Sichuan took out old equipment one after another.
While Lin Chong was leading his army on the expedition, Luo Bingzhong, the Sichuan capital commander, was also busy.
He couldn't wait for landless peasants to apply for the draft, so he ordered the military recruitment agencies in Mianzhu, Deyang, Long'an and other counties to forcibly draft draftees based on previous years' draft files. Farmers with more than five males who were still separated from each other must draft a strong boy under 25 years old.
Be an immigrant.
Emperor Zhu found it difficult to recruit immigrants, but for the local civil and military forces it was not a problem at all!
On the pretext of training militiamen, they were forcibly selected and reorganized, and then sent to fight in places where immigrants were needed. After the war, they stayed there directly, settled in the land and registered them. Those who had wives and children took their wives and children, and those who did not have wives married local people.
Women - Killing the male members of the barbarian chieftain's family can leave many women for marriage.
This approach can be easily accomplished as long as the local civil and military authorities cooperate tacitly.
Especially since Sichuan has been in peace for twenty years, it has produced a large population of young adults. Families with too many boys are everywhere, and having one in a family is nothing at all.
Except for the person who was selected, who may have objections, even their brothers are probably willing. Because they can get a settlement fund, and there is one less brother to fight for the family property!
This is what Lin Chong did in eastern and southern Sichuan.
Southern Luzhou, Nanguangbu (Junlian), Zizhou (Xishui), Yelang, northern Luoshiman (Xuyong, Gulin), northern Mahu (Mabian, Suijiang)... a total of more than 60,000
Men were deceived and thrown into those places on the pretext of training militiamen for combat.
In addition to their wives and children, as well as the exiled criminals, more than 100,000 Han people have been expelled from the entire southern Sichuan region in the past ten years!
In the weaker Nanguang tribe, that is, in the Junlian area, the barbarians were directly driven back into the mountains. They wanted to take back the land at the foot of the mountains, but every time they went down the mountains to plunder, they were defeated by Han immigrants.
Because before the Han people immigrated, they were all well-trained militiamen and were issued leather armor, swords, guns, and bows and arrows!
The emerging villages in southern Sichuan all have their own villages.
Even when farming is busy, manpower will be deployed to stand sentry in nearby mountains.
Even though it is a remote and poor place, the education is very developed. Almost every new village has prison officials. They teach children to read, and the villagers help them farm. These prison officials are also responsible for making decisions when encountering major events.
In another ten or twenty years, when these immigrants and the children of prisoners have grown up, at least ten more counties can be established in southern Sichuan - some counties will even be in Yunnan and Guizhou in later generations.
Since killing Zhong Xiang, Lin Chong has not had any spectacular achievements.
But he teamed up with Sichuan civil servants to operate illegally, and they were actually expanding their territory.
The violation was a real violation and was always hidden from the court.
They firmly refused to admit that they had forcibly recruited men, saying that they all signed up to migrate voluntarily. As long as the counterattacks of the barbarian tribes can be suppressed, and as long as large-scale deaths of immigrants can be avoided, Sichuan's civil and military forces can continue to achieve political and military achievements!
These guys even developed a process and are constantly improving it.
Some civil and military officials from Sichuan were also transferred to other provinces and brought this process with them.
For example, Hunan and Guangxi have begun to follow suit in recent years. However, their capital is not as strong as Sichuan. To put it bluntly, they do not have enough population to support them, so they can only implement it in a small way.
Do the censors who patrol various places know about this illegal phenomenon?
Know!
But they all chose to hide it and not report it.
Of course, we followed the procedures this time. Emperor Zhu said that at least 5,000 people should be immigrated. Those guys directly recruited 6,000 militiamen. Many of them were already married. They would also bring their wives and children with them. Counting the children, it is estimated that tens of thousands of people could immigrate.
.
…
Xiong Yangzu is 18 years old and his native place is Xiaoquan Town, Mianzhu County.
His ancestors were also from a wealthy family, and their families had not been separated for a long time. Therefore, his status was very strange. The family seemed to be powerful, but the ordinary members of the clan were just like tenants.
Seeing the pity, the imperial court ordered the big family to split up.
The Xiong clan of Mianzhu had been in disobedience for several years, until the clan dismantling incident in Jiangxi became a big issue, and the Sichuan government quickly took action. They directly sent troops to various prefectures and counties to forcibly separate clans. Xiong Yangzu's father was even assigned clan fields.
Unfortunately, there is not much farmland, only a few dozen acres.
There are parents, grandfather, three brothers, one younger brother, and one younger sister in the family. Each of the brothers married a wife and had children.
The dozens of acres of land we were allocated were simply not enough for food.
One brother went to work in the county town.
An elder brother occasionally goes to the town's oil refinery to help when he is not farming.
My father and grandfather were both bamboo craftsmen, and my mother and sister-in-law raised silkworms and weaved cloth. They could survive by farming a few acres of land.
Xiong Yangzu even attended a village school for three years. Unfortunately, his qualifications were mediocre and he was definitely hopeless in the imperial examination. He dropped out of school after he learned some daily vocabulary.
Just after harvesting the rice this year, officials suddenly came to the village.
The official left some settlement money and took away several men from the village, and Xiong Yangzu was one of them.
Xiong Yangzu was led northward in confusion, and other men continued to join him along the way, and finally settled in an unknown mountain village.
Many officers came, gave them soldiers and armor, and started training immediately.
Flags, orders, and formations are all simplified and quick versions.
Since Xiong Yangzu had studied for three years and was in good health, he directly became the squad leader of the Yuanyang Formation. Not only was he equipped with a spear, but he was also given a crossbow.
After the two-month militia crash training ended, Xiong Yangzu was taken to Maozhou.
He soon saw a captured village with hundreds of dried human heads hanging on it.
An officer rode up on horseback and said to the general leading the militia: "Why are you here? Leave five hundred people to settle here and choose the land yourself. The rest will be divided into three groups and dispersed to immigrate and cultivate in various places!"
Five hundred militiamen stayed behind, and dozens of regular troops temporarily guarded the stockade with the militiamen.
I heard that the bandit chiefs here have not been wiped out, and they have fled into the mountains with a small number of remaining soldiers. They may come back at any time to sneak attack on the village.
Before it snows in winter, you need to be well prepared.
After snowfall, you need to be even more careful. Those bandits are freezing in the mountains and are very likely to risk coming out to plunder.
Only after this winter is over and many of the remaining bandits are frozen to death and starved to death will the potential threat next year be even smaller.
Xiong Yangzu continued to march with his troops.
To be continued...