The process of the merchant army's capture of Luotian County is similar to that of Qishui County. However, the magistrate of Luotian County, Wang Jimin, was not as lucky as Zheng County, Qishui County. After investigation, it was confirmed that this guy was an absolute corrupt official.
Therefore, the deceased official became the first local official to be executed during the process of the merchant army's march into the Dabie Mountains. As a result, after the public trial meeting, along with several other county officials and several local bullies, they were all in the
The people were publicly executed amid the cheers of the people.
At the same time, the merchant army's advance did not stop, and its goal was to target Macheng County, an important goal of advancing into the Dabie Mountains.
In later generations, Macheng County was as famous as Hong'an. It is located in the northeast of Hubei Province, on the southern foot of the middle section of the Dabie Mountains, on the north side of Shangcheng County, Henan Province. The new county is bounded by the ridge and on the northeast with Jinzhai County, Anhui Province.
The ridge is divided into water, adjacent to Luotian County in the east, Tuanfeng County in the south, and Hong'an County in the west. It is an important location in the Dabie Mountains, so it was also selected by Shang Yi and Li Dingguo as an important county town for establishing the Dabie Mountains base.
Therefore, after Li Dingguo arrived in Luotian County, he immediately began to prepare to attack Macheng County, and this time he decided to lead the team himself.
At this time, the merchant army had entered Hubei for seven days, and successively captured Qishui and Luotian counties, which caused quite a lot of noise. In the nearby areas, some rumors were heard, and the magistrate Yang Anmin was
The county town is restless because the closest to Luotian County is Macheng County. He naturally knows what he knows more clearly than others. The merchant army spared the famous Qishui magistrate, but killed Luo
County Magistrate Tian is said to have also recruited some public trial meetings.
The magistrates of Macheng, Luotian and Qishui all have the word "minister" in their names, so the local one is nicknamed "Three Minister magistrates". According to the character of the three, it is homophonic to promote the people, to help the people in vain, and to pretend to be at peace.
This also shows the character of the three.
County Magistrate Yang knew very well that his behavior was even better than that of Luotian County Wang Jimin. Not to mention anything else, Yang Anmin did not release it this time to raise money and grain for Nanjing military supplies.
After this great opportunity, I had a 2-1-1-1-5-year increase. The money and grain collected had to be fully replenished. The excess was naturally added to Yang Magistrate's own pocket. I remember that once, everyone went to Huang together.
When he gathered in the prefecture, he and Magistrate Wang also joked about Zheng Xinmin together. He would not be an official at all. He was not much stronger than beggar Hua Jie. But now it was his turn to watch his jokes.
Yang Anmin also knew that once the merchant army attacked Macheng, he probably had the same result as Wang Jimin. He was dragged out to attend the public trial meeting and was executed. He would definitely not be able to escape. If he could not get the sky lantern lit, Ling Chi would not be able to do so.
Maybe. Although aide Sun Rencheng advised him to escape as soon as possible, Yang Anmin couldn't give up his wealth, and he left the county and fled. Then his future would be ruined and he would never be hopeless for an official for life. Yang Anmin
But he was still reluctant. At the same time, Yang Anmin also had a sense of luck, because Macheng was not far from Huangzhou Prefecture, and was less than two hundred miles away. He had sent a man to ask Huangzhou Prefecture for emergency, as long as he was
Holding in Macheng for two or three days, maybe reinforcements will arrive. Therefore, there was no suggestion from Sun Cheng. He decided to stay in Macheng County.
But now there are only more than 200 soldiers in Macheng County, and there are less than 300 people who are more than 200 soldiers. Although Macheng County is not big, there is only a few people, and even the city wall is not satisfied.
. Therefore, Yang Anmin recruited large households and militias in the county town, asking them to gather their servants and guard the courtyard to defend the county town together. Finally, all the big households knew the truth that they had lost their lips and teeth, and they also had positive influence.
The magistrate's job recruitment was paid by people and money, and in the end, he raised about a thousand people in total, which also comforted Yang Anmin.
Only the master Sun Ren shook his head and sighed, What kind of army is the merchant army? Hundreds of thousands of Qing troops could not defeat the merchant army. Is this just a few thousand mobs trying to resist the merchant army? But it was too late to say anything at this time.
Because the merchant army had already reached the front of the county town. In order to boost morale, Yang Magistrate also decided to supervise the battle in the city. The county masters all climbed the city themselves, and of course the other major households could not refuse to sacrifice their lives to accompany the gentleman, so they all
Cat on the city wall.
Seeing that Macheng County had already been prepared this time, he could only attack the county town. Therefore, at the order of Li Dingguo, an infantry battalion who was responsible for attacking carried the newly made wooden ladder and rushed towards the city wall of Macheng County.
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At this time, all the archers in the county were gathered in the city wall, with a total of 53 people waiting for the merchant army to enter the range. Because most of the bows and arrows they used were homemade, and the effective range was only three.
About forty steps, plus the height of the city wall, it will never exceed fifty steps. However, the merchant army stopped at sixty or seventy steps away from the city wall, then stood in a row, raised its guns and shot at the city wall.
After a row of gunfire sounded, more than 30 soldiers on the city wall immediately fell down, but the sound of gunfire from the merchant army did not stop. After a round, the guards who only attacked the city wall continued to fall to the ground and die, and the other soldiers
They were also scared to retreat, and some people ran to the city. Even Yang Anmin's order was no longer heard. In a blink of an eye, the defense line on the city wall was shattered.
However, the merchant army only fired three times and stopped firing, because it was difficult to replenish supplies in Hubei and ammunition must be saved and used in case of important battles in the future. However, the two companies that attacked suddenly rushed to the scene with the ladders.
A ladder was set up beside the city wall and the city wall was successfully climbed.
At this time, the Macheng Be defenders had no resistance at all. When the Merchant Army had not yet attacked the city wall, they had already scattered birds and beasts. Some of them had difficulty in their legs and feet and became prisoners of the Merchant Army. These also included
The magistrate Yang Anmin. He was fleeing, competing with other soldiers for the road. Someone was squeezed to the ground and twisted his feet and could not walk. As a result, he became a prisoner.
Then the soldiers of the merchant army opened the city gate and lowered the suspension bridge. The subsequent troops immediately rushed into Macheng County. First, they controlled the four gates of the county town, then sealed the warehouse, and searched for resisting soldiers in the county town, and followed the clues.
All the big families and gentry who contributed their efforts to defend the city were arrested and strictly investigated.
Because this time the merchant army planned to establish a base with Macheng as the core, Li Dingguo also decided to use this group of people to establish his authority. Even if it is not oppressing the people or those who are dangerous, they cannot be spared easily. All the property of the family must be confiscated.
And they must also do hard labor, just to save their lives. At the same time, they must find a group of people with great anger, and also recruit public trial meetings in Macheng County. The momentum must be made larger than that time, and even more
To announce in public, the merchant army will stay in Macheng and will not leave.
Of course, this time there is enough time to conduct a slow investigation and review. The first thing to do is to open the warehouse in Macheng County and distribute food to the people, which has also won the initial support of the people in Macheng.
However, Yang Anming is worthy of being a corrupt official. When searching for warehouse supplies in Macheng, the merchant army found that his family had more grain and silver than in the county warehouse. In addition, several large households whose property was confiscated were confiscated.
In Macheng County, we obtained a total of more than 15,000 stones of grain and more than 30,000 taels of silver.
In addition to the distribution to the people, the merchant army finally had a quota of supplies, including more than 10,000 stones of grain, more than 25,000 taels of silver, and other cloths, medicines, two carts, and animals.
Many of the merchants' supplies were greatly reduced. Even if the two subsequent regiments arrived, they could support them for at least two or three months. Therefore, Li Dingguo immediately sent a report to Hangzhou, on the one hand, to
Shang Yi reported on the progress since entering Hubei. On the other hand, he asked Shang Yi to send two other regiments from the Ninth Division as soon as possible, so that the base can be expanded and quickly gain a foothold in Hubei's northeast region.
In addition, after conquering Luotian and Qishui counties, more than 500 people were willing to join the army. Now Li Dingguo has organized them, started training, and is responsible for patrol and guarding the city.
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Just after Li Dingguo sent his first report back to Hangzhou, the review of the officials in Macheng County and the major households came to an initial conclusion. Therefore, Li Dingguo also decided to take advantage of the excitement of distributing food that Ma Zhao had not yet passed, and the public review was held.
At the conference, consolidate the foundation of the Merchant Army's control in Macheng and improve the prestige of the Merchant Army in the hearts of the people.
The facts have proved that the public trial meeting is indeed a magic weapon to win the hearts of the people. The worse the officials are, the better the results will be.
When Li Dingguo first entered Zhejiang with Shang Yi, he personally experienced the first public trial meeting of the Shang family army, which left a deep impression on him. Later, he had done it several times in other places in Zhejiang, and he was familiar with it.
.In Luotian and Qishui, the two public trial meetings held in Qishui, were rushing to act, and many of the procedures that should have been omitted, which made Li Dingguo quite unsatisfied.
This time, the public trial meeting recruited in Macheng County was held in sufficient preparation time and publicity was in place, so the momentum was greater than the previous two times. There were more than 20,000 people watching, and many of the tricks that were useless in the previous two times.
It was used once, and the audience arranged child care to cheer. The Taiwan also arranged for the people to expose officials, big families and gentry with their own personal experience. Finally, they kept talking in tears, and therefore they were very successful, making all the emotions of the people.
The atmosphere was very warm.
Li Dingguo was also very satisfied. It seemed that all his goals had been achieved. Therefore, amid the warm cheers, he personally announced that all 27 people, led by the magistrate Yang Anmin, would be sentenced to death and executed on the spot.
At this moment, the scouts also sent back the news that Huangzhou Prefecture had sent a large army to counterattack Macheng and prepared to destroy the merchant army. After Li Dingguo took the report, he thought about it and immediately stood up.