The battle lasted until noon the next day, and the main force of the rebels was finally defeated by the merchant army. However, because the battlefield was too messy, the results were not initially counted until the evening of that day. In this battle, two rebels were killed in total. More than 5,000, nearly half of them were burned to death or trampled on each other and captured more than 15,000 people alive. Only after the fleeing rebels were added, it can be said that they were indeed the main force of the rebels who destroyed the rebels. The merchant army suffered less than 100 casualties.
However, Ma Jinzhong, the chief general of the rebel army, escaped his life again, but at this time there were only more than two or three hundred people left by his side. Ma Jinzhong also knew in his heart that this time it could be considered annihilated, although it was mainly because the merchant army was too strong. The reason is, but as the chief general of the entire army, he naturally cannot escape his responsibility. He may not have a good result when he returned to Hangzhou. Moreover, after this defeat, the Xuanhuang Cult was greatly damaged. It may be difficult for him to do so within ten years. No matter how great he was, Ma Jinzhong did not return to Hangzhou, and fled Zhejiang with these two or three hundred people, leaving the Xuanhuang Cult to find another place.
Shang Yi was also very satisfied with the results of the battle. On the next day, only Yang Wucheng's cavalry battalion, a new camp and auxiliary soldiers guarded the prisoners, and led the rest of the troops to march in the victory to capture Hangzhou.
When the men of the merchant army arrived in front of Wulin Gate in the northwest corner of Hangzhou City, they saw that the Wulin Gate gate was wide open, the suspension bridge was lowered, and there was no defense. There was no rebel soldier guarding it. However, I heard a vague sound in the city. There were shouting sounds, and from time to time, people ran out of the city, and they were all very panicked.
Shang Yi couldn't help but feel a little surprised and stopped a few people who ran out to ask what was going on in Hangzhou.
Seeing that the government army was coming, the people felt a little relieved. Then they told Shang Yi about the situation in the city. It turned out that after the rebels occupied Hangzhou City, they plundered the homes of the rich and wealthy people in the city, and all the money and materials were seized. , for military use, of course, many people were killed during this period, but for ordinary people, there was no excessive persecution, nor did they massacre the city like bandits, and the order in the city was restored to a certain extent After all, the rebels planned to use Hangzhou as their base.
But for some reason, since last night, the rebel soldiers snatched around the city, regardless of the rich and poor people. They robbed whatever they saw, and killed them if they resisted, and even set fire to burn some houses. Therefore, the order in the city was also in chaos. And after dawn, someone saw some rebels driving their carriages and fleeing out of the city. But there were still many rebels left in the city, and they were also even more vicious, burning, killing, and plundering, and everything was done. As a result, many people escaped from the city to take refuge.
After Shang Yi heard them say that it was probably because the Xuanhuang Cult took the opportunity to defend the Hangzhou city and the sutra was meaningless, so he only left a part of the elite, evacuated from Hangzhou, lived in seclusion, or went to another place. The other rebel soldiers recruited Lalong were abandoned. The other abandoned soldiers were unrestrained and were full of despair. They could only use murder and set fire to vent. Of course, some people wanted to rob. After one vote, he ran away, which led to chaos in Hangzhou. This is very likely.
However, although he thought so, Shang Yi did not dare to be careless and ordered Duan Peng to take a reconnaissance company into the city first to observe the moving scenery in the city, as it was said, and to occupy the tower and gate of Wulin Gate.
After Duan Peng led his army into the city, he sent someone to repay him and completely controlled the Wulin Gate. The city was in chaos, and no one organized resistance.
In fact, Shang Yi could see it very clearly outside the city. Some of the merchants used their meridians to climb the city tower, and some of them were guarding the city, and they did completely control the Wulin Gate. So Shang Yi immediately ordered the entire army to enter the city. .
After the large group of people entered the city, Shang Yi stepped onto the city tower and looked into the city. The city was indeed in chaos. The streets were full of residents, and many corpses were lying on the ground. Therefore, Yan Yi immediately ordered to stay. The artillery battalion of the Second Regiment guarded the Wulin Gate. He and Zhou Shaohuan took a musket battalion, two reconnaissance companies and two new recruit battalions to occupy the prefecture government office. The remaining musket battalion and a spear battalion were scattered into units of companies. Immediately went to stop the rebels' atrocities in the city and captured them all in the prefecture. Those who dared to resist were killed in a hurry.
Shang Yi led his troops to the government office in Hangzhou, where the building was empty, and the merchant army opened the gate of the government office without any effort and occupied the government office. Then Shang Yi sent three new camps to attack and occupy them. All gates of Hangzhou City are not allowed to enter and exit.
Hangzhou was once the capital of the Song Dynasty after the southern transition. During the Southern Song Dynasty, there were thirteen dry gates and five water gates. After the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou City had been fixed to ten city gates since the Yuan and Ming dynasties. They were Dongyouqing. Chunmen, Qingtai Gate, Wangjiang Gate, there are Houchao Gate, Fengshan Gate, Qiantang Gate, Qingbo Gate, Yongkin Gate, and Wulin Gate, and Genshan Gate. All of them must be assigned to guard the city gate. One is assigned to each city gate. The company guarded the company, and the remaining three companies stayed in the government office, preparing to guard the prisoners.
At this time, the rebels were committing violence in the city, but soon they found that there were troops of distinctively armored soldiers on the streets and alleys. Someone first shouted, ordering them to put down their weapons and immediately surrender.
Of course, the rebels were unwilling to be tied up like this, but the other party didn't talk much to them. After shouting twice, they didn't see any action, they immediately raised their guns and shot them. After the gunshots, the rebels fell to the ground and died. Seeing that the situation was not good, the other rebels immediately fled everywhere. Of course, some rebels were dissatisfied and wanted to rush up to take action. As a result, before they could rush to the ground, they were hit by the projectiles, even if some of them were I rushed to the front of the merchant army by chance, but what awaited them was Xueliang's bayonet.
Although there is another part of the merchant army who are spearmen, the spearmen of the merchant army are not something that the mobs like rebels can resist now. As a result of the two sides' actions, the rebels fell to the ground and died without exception.
After knowing the power of the merchant army, the rebels did not dare to resist. A small number of them escaped in the chaos and hid, most of them threw away their weapons, surrendered, and were taken to the main square in front of the government office. take into custody.
After noon, under the vigorous and decisive attack of the merchant army, the turmoil in Hangzhou was basically pacified. Then, under the organization and command of the merchant army, the fire in the city was extinguished. Fortunately, the rebels were not sincere. The city was set on fire, so the fire was not big. By the time it was approaching dusk, it was finally destroyed. Although many houses were still burned and many residents were killed and injured, the losses were not considered as the whole city. It is nothing compared to Wuchang, which was burned by Zhang Xianzhong.
Shang Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Hangzhou was finally taken down. He immediately ordered the soldiers outside the city to escort the prisoners into the city, and at the same time cleaned up the remains of the corpses in the city.
There were more than 1,500 rebels killed by merchants in the city, but there were nearly 2,000 rebels arrested in front of the government office. Nearly 4,000 people in the city were killed and injured, and the houses were buried. More than 60 rooms were burned, more than 200 other stores were smashed and robbed, and more than 5,000 people were injured. Therefore, on that night, crying could be heard everywhere in Hangzhou City, and the scene was quite miserable. .
Although Shang Yi was a little sad, he had seen many such things now and his heart became much harder. At the same time, although he occupied Hangzhou, there were still many things to deal with aftermath. It happened that the middle and lower-level officials in Hangzhou knew about the court. The army recovered Hangzhou and also went to the government office to visit Shang Yi, and brought Hangzhou's household registration, treasury, fish scale book, etc. Among them were the Promoter Lan Binghao, the experience of Yang Kan, the governor Wan Shaohua, and Zhaomoji Jun, Tian Binwen, the chief clerk, Xiao Fangzhong and others, as well as the yamen runners and the officials, there were 20 or 30 total number of people.
They are basically all middle and lower-level officials, and the biggest prosecutor is not the seventh rank. For example, the official is not even a rank, so they are not even considered an official. They belong to the category of officials. In ancient China, local government affairs were not so much like that. "Official rule" is better to say "official rule". Since the Song Dynasty, almost all local officials in prefectures, prefectures and counties have been selected from the imperial examinations. It is a master of moral articles such as "Zhihu, Zi said poetry." However, it is only a little bit clear about the administrative affairs of local governments. In addition to the complex procedures and basic laws, there are many examples that should be cited or analogy.
In addition, the ancient legal system was not fully established, so a certain official business should be handled according to which law or provision cannot be found in books such as Laws and Huidians, and can only be applied from previous examples. , to ensure that there is no mistake. Otherwise, if there is any mistake or a mistake made by your boss, it will be rejected at the least, and scolded at the worst. Maybe it will be lost or dismissed for this? In this regard, only the talents who are doing specific things are pure.
In order not to make mistakes or find it troublesome, officials could only entrust all these things to Bo, the yamen runners' clerk of the three ranks and six ranks below to deal with them. As a result, formal local officials such as the prefectures and magistrates were instead emptied. However, officials with humble identities actually control local administrative power.
Officials are not officials, they have no rank or promotion, and they are often hereditary. This is also a political phenomenon in Chinese history, called "officials have no feudalism, but officials have feudalism", so most of them do not have What kind of moral concerns are usually colluding with local big businesses, giving full play to their own interests, and harming the people. They are basically doing things like shooting tips, breaking color and fire consumption.
They were not very loyal to the court. Once the dynasty changes, it was not their turn to come, because no matter who came to be an official, they could not live without them. They would always be tumblers, because after the rebels captured Hangzhou, They surrendered to the rebels, and now that Shang Yi has recovered Hangzhou, they all immediately turned to Shang Yi.
Shang Yi was certainly aware of these bad habits, but at present, they cannot be touched for the time being, and household registration, treasury book, fish scale book and other materials are also very useful things, so he accepted them without hesitation.