Chapter 426 Destruction of the Ming Dynasty. The Dream of the New Army IV
Shi Li is a fisherman girl with a strong figure and slightly dark skin, but she is still a beautiful girl. She smiled and replied: "Young Master is right, the little girl sang "Huansha Ji"." At that time, Liang Chenyu "The Story of Huansha" was being performed all over the south during the Ming Dynasty. Almost everyone in the prostitutes' house in the old courtyard of Nanjing knew the story of Fan Li and Xi Shi. The play was also spread everywhere in the fireworks and willow lanes of Hangzhou.
"How about it? Let me go boating on the five lakes sometime." Yu Zigao was in a good mood and planned to make fun of this beautiful boat girl.
Shi Li smiled and immediately retorted: "Who will go boating on the five lakes with you? You are a military commander, and the armor you wear is so heavy that it will sink the boat."
Yu Zigao smiled slightly: "How does the young lady know that I am a military commander?"
Shi Li, a girl from the Dan family, smiled: "Look at the way you walk, you are vigorous and steady, and all of your men are men with sharp eyes and quick movements. Although this little girl has only met you twice, she still I guessed your origin,"
Yu Zigao sat up curiously. He had never seen such a straightforward and lovely girl in Fireworks Willow Alley, and he couldn't help but look at Shi Li with admiration.
He had been lazy and visited the West Lake many times. This was the second time he visited the lake on the Shijiaban's boat. He and Shi Li were also considered acquaintances. He unconsciously changed his title and asked: "Where are you from, Miss? Why are you here?" Making a living on the West Lake painting boat,"
Shi Li smiled sadly on her healthy and round face, lowered her head and said: "It's okay not to mention my family background. This little girl is just a little boat girl on the West Lake, so why should the general care about her?"
Yu Zigao frowned and was about to ask more questions when his guard captain Luo Xiaoming suddenly came behind him and whispered: "General, there are boats approaching from both sides. There are no signs and the behavior is suspicious."
Yu Zigao was stunned. He opened the cabin curtain and looked around the ship. Sure enough, there were three fishing boats with semicircular awnings silently approaching the Huafang where Yu Zigao was from three directions. The people on these three fishing boats The boat operators all covered their faces with large bamboo hats.
Luo Xiaoming waved his hand, and several of Yu Zigao's guards had already stood up from the stern of the boat and stood at both ends of the boat. They pulled out the flint-haired muskets they carried with them. Luo Xiaoming shouted at the top of his voice: "Who is coming? This is under the jurisdiction of the Zhejiang Dusi. The officer in charge of Ninghai Guard is here,"
The other party did not answer, and the three fishing boats continued to move forward in silence. It was almost dusk at this time, and there were almost no boats on the water of the West Lake. Yu Zigao's painting boat was the only boat still in the center of the lake at this time. It was winter. Not many people are interested in taking a night tour of West Lake.
Yu Zigao snorted coldly, stood up and stepped forward to grab the fisherman girl Shi Li: "Go inside the cabin, it's dangerous here." He easily pulled out the flintlock gun from his waist - this It was a souvenir given to him by Yin Feng himself when he left the Chinese Military Academy.
At this time, a tuneless song suddenly came from those ships: "If all people are united, Mount Tai can shake it. Only loyalty and righteousness can be fought in a bullfight. The general will kiss me better than his parents. If he violates the military law, he will not be free. Order I will send you a letter of rewards and punishments clearly, I will go through fire and water if you dare to stay late, report it to the emperor, I will go down to rescue the head of Guizhou, kill all the Japanese slaves, and find a marquis."
This is a military song composed by the famous general Qi Jiguang: "Song of Victory". More than ten years ago, when Yin Feng led the Chinese company's army on an expedition to Ryukyu and Kyushu Island, this military song was sung by Chen Di in the army.
Yu Zigao had already guessed who the visitor was. He couldn't help but sigh, lowered his hands and stood solemnly, shouting loudly: "Yu Zigao, a student of the third command class of the Chinese Military Academy, is here. The person who comes is that senior brother. "
Three fishing boats crossed the hull, forming a half-moon shape surrounding the boat. Yan Siqi, a lean man dressed in black, appeared on the bow of one of the fishing boats. He bowed his hands to Yu Zigao and said, "Yan Zhenquan, the fourth-term student, is here." ,Senior Brother Yu has always been kind,"
Yu Zigao was slightly surprised. He knew that Yan Siqi was one of Yin Feng's generals, and that he was also a wanted criminal in the imperial court. He actually showed up in Hangzhou City, where the Zhejiang Chief Secretary was located. He raised his hand and returned the greeting: "It turns out it's Zhen Zheng. Brother Quan, farewell to Hainan Island. I heard that you defeated invincible opponents all over the world and your reputation spread to foreign lands thousands of miles away. I admire you so much and envy you."
Yan Siqi laughed, and without any weapons at his side, he jumped from the fishing boat to Yu Zigao's boat in a swaggering manner. He said very directly: "Brother Yu, the ship owner is about to send troops to the west to seize the world. You He is his favorite disciple, what do you want to do now?"
…
At this moment, there was a commotion in the regiment training camp in the north of Yuyao City. More than 10,000 soldiers of the "New Army" mutinied after not receiving a cent of military pay for five consecutive months.
The New Army has 15,000 people, one artillery battalion, one guard battalion, five infantry battalions and one cavalry battalion. More than 1,200 people in the first battalion, which is completely controlled by Yuyao Xie's family, received half of their pay. The remaining troops, nearly 2,000 people from Jiangnan Controlled by officers deployed by major families, they can also receive some military pay.
The rest of the troops were raised by two mothers. There was not enough military rations every day, they could not get military pay, their weapons and equipment were picked up by others, and they had to serve as servants for the Xie family in Yuyao.
On this day, because Yu Zigao secretly went to Hangzhou City to laze around, the military law team composed of the personal guard battalion did not go out to patrol. As a result, the starving soldiers took the opportunity to revolt.
Many of the soldiers who revolted were former soldiers of the Ming Army Guards, and some were farmers recruited by Yu Zigao from his hometown in Fujian. These people were the most marginalized among the new army, but they were the largest in number. The Xie family of Yuyao and the Jiangnan family Many of the troops under control are locals, and they tend to form gangs, and many of the officers are locals. Therefore, the former Ming army soldiers and Fujianese were usually the targets of oppression. Now they are finally united because of the lack of pay. .
The trouble first started with the 5th Battalion, where Fujianese were the majority. They took the tables, chairs and benches in the barracks, wooden fake guns for training, and a few flintlock muskets and bayonets hidden in advance, and rushed to the armory in groups. .
The armory was guarded by more than 50 people led by a son of the Xie family in Yuyao. They were caught off guard for a moment and were knocked to the ground by the soldiers who were making trouble. After the armory door was opened, more people were guarding the armory. Many troops began to make trouble. Except for the first battalion, the guards battalion, and the artillery battalion, people from other troops gradually participated in the trouble.
At this time, there were no officials in charge in the New Army camp. Yu Zigao went to Hangzhou, and Yao Zongwen, the Hu Ke who was in charge of money and food, went to Nanjing. Officers with some prestige among the soldiers, such as the artillery battalion commander Luo Xiaoming and others, followed Yu Zigao. Gao left.
In the camp in the north of Yuyao City, there was only one officer with the rank of Qianhu sent by the Xie family of Yuyao. He was considered the most senior officer. His first reaction to the soldiers' demands for pay was to assemble the more obedient soldiers of the first battalion, fully armed. to suppress the troublemaking soldiers.
As a result, the riot among the New Army soldiers over pay quickly developed into a mutiny in which most of the New Army soldiers participated.
Led by low-level officers, the rioting soldiers who had seized weapons began to shoot at the troops controlled by the Xie family in Yuyao. Suddenly, there was loud gunfire, smoke rose everywhere in the north of Yuyao City, and the people in Yuyao city were in commotion.
The mutiny quickly spread to the entire barracks. More than 3,000 soldiers stood on the side of Yuyao Xie's family to fight against the rebellious soldiers. However, Yu Zigao's personal guard battalion and artillery battalion did not join any side. They also grabbed weapons, but He just trapped himself in his barracks and couldn't hold on.
In other parts of the camp, 10,000 mutinous soldiers were setting fires and firing guns everywhere. Some soldiers had already rushed out of the camp, shouting "Yuyao Xie's family is the culprit," and rushed in groups to the Yuyao Xie family's house ten miles away. go.
The magistrate of Yuyao County and officials at all levels in his yamen closed the county yamen door tightly and hid under the desk shivering. The messengers reporting to the officers and soldiers of the Ninghai Guard Station and Hangzhou were on their way, but they also understood that the rioters wanted to It was easy to kill them. Fortunately, the troublemaking soldiers just passed through the city and went straight to Xie's house in Yuyao.
The yamen of the New Army Logistics Department in the city was set on fire. Amidst the gunshots and shouts of death, several accounting clerks in the Yao Zong Civil Service Department were hung by New Army soldiers from light poles on the cross streets of Yuyao City. Hanged alive, the fire quickly spread in the city and approached the county government office.
Large-scale mutinies were a common phenomenon in the Ming Dynasty. However, in the Jiangnan and Zhejiang areas, such mutinies due to lack of pay were rare. The mutiny of the new army in Yuyao City was considered the largest man-made disaster in the local area in hundreds of years. The Japanese pirates' crimes back then were incomparable.
The soldiers of the New Army, who had the most sophisticated firearms in the Ming Dynasty, were forced to mutiny due to lack of food and pay. No one expected that the mutinous soldiers used gunpowder packets to blast open the large mansion of the Xie family in Yuyao, killing the recalcitrant servants of the Xie family. They were all killed. The head of the Xie family was in Hangzhou, but he luckily escaped the disaster. Most of the hundreds of other members of the Xie family were killed by the mutinous soldiers, and their family property was plundered.
The soldiers of the Xie family in the military camp heard that their master's house was being robbed, and rushed out of the door in an attempt to rescue them. Compared with them, the mutineers were disorganized, and the units were not affiliated with each other. They were rushed out of the military camp in a short time, and even more A major war broke out in Yuyao City. Xie soldiers and mutineers started full-scale street fighting in the city.
Military discipline was completely gone. Some of the mutineers and Xie family soldiers began to go from house to house, rob, set fire, and kill people. The new army troops controlled by the various big families in Jiangnan also began to disintegrate. They rushed out of the barracks and started fighting. Yu Zigao's relatives The guard barracks was set on fire, and they had to rush out to fight with the mutineers and anti-mutinies.
More heavy firearms were brought out, and most of the houses around the military camp were set on fire and blown up by gunpowder packets. All the wealthy families in Yuyao City were robbed.
The villages and towns outside the city were also affected by the rebels. Those mutinous soldiers who wanted to disperse and go home after grabbing a handful carried large and small bags out of the city. Along the way, they constantly clashed with locals coming from neighboring villages. Xie's family members in various places in the local area The members rushed into the city in an attempt to rescue the master's family, but they happened to encounter the mutinous soldiers who were leaving the city. The soldiers used muskets, grenades, and blunderbuss to blast the peasants and servants to a pulp. Starting in the early morning of that day, the unrest in Yuyao City began to spread to surrounding towns and villages.
Some tenants took the opportunity to cause trouble and rushed into the landlord's house to burn the land deeds and IOUs. Several groups of bandits from the Siming Mountains took the opportunity to go down to cause trouble. Even some of the Xie family's slaves took the opportunity to rebel and burned their own deeds.
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