Chapter 3255
It was already dusk when Shi Diwen arrived in Yixing County by car.
The south gate of the county town completely collapsed during the previous siege, and now only ruins remained. The Haihan Army recruited hundreds of civilians from the county town, and it took them an entire afternoon to clear a temporary passage from the piles of rubble, which was wide enough to allow a carriage to pass.
Two rounds of searches were carried out in the city to ensure that no fish escaped the net and were hiding. But even so, it is still under military control for the time being. Barricade posts are set up at every intersection in the city, and people are prohibited from going out.
However, the buildings in the city are basically well preserved. At first glance, there are not many traces of the battle. It seems that the battle after breaking through the city defense was not particularly fierce.
The carriage stopped outside the county government office in the north of the city. A group of officers who had entered the county first were waiting at the gate of the county government office to welcome Shi Diwen's arrival.
After getting out of the car, Shi Diwen raised his hands in military salute to everyone, said a few words of encouragement, and then entered the county government office surrounded by everyone.
The space in the Yixing County Government Office is much larger than the small inn in Fudong Town, and it is more than enough to deploy the combat headquarters.
The county government office has five courtyards in depth. Enter the first courtyard through the gate with the plaque "Yixing County Government Office". The east and west wings are service rooms for handling daily chores such as corvee labor, taxes, money and grain.
Go forward through the Yimen, and directly in front of you is the lobby where the magistrate hears cases. On the east and west sides of the courtyard are the six rooms for soldiers, criminals, workers, officials, households, and rites, which are responsible for handling corresponding official affairs respectively.
After passing through the gate behind the lobby, this courtyard is the second hall where the magistrate, chief registrar, county magistrate and others work daily and receive visitors.
The courtyard behind the second hall is where the inner residence of the county government is located, that is, the residence of the magistrate, his family, and servants.
Behind the inner house, there is a small courtyard, which is generally used as a warehouse, a firewood shed, and for worshiping the seal-keeping immortals, earth gods and other gods and Buddhas.
But the county government's institutions don't stop there. To the east of this string of courtyards are the Yin Guesthouse for receiving foreign officials, the grain hall warehouse for storing official grain, and the private courtyard attached to the magistrate's inner residence.
To the west of this string of courtyards are the county jail where prisoners are imprisoned, the express room where police officers work, the local post station, and the warehouse where various documents and materials are stored, etc.
At this time, the lobby used for trial cases had been transformed into a combat headquarters, and the radio antenna was placed on the roof of the lobby.
Shi Diwen looked at the combat map that had just been placed in the lobby and listened to the officers' reports on the process of capturing Yixing County.
The Ming army captured more than 200 people and killed more than 600 people in this battle. The number of casualties mainly comes from the statistics of battlefield cleaning. Considering that the Ming army actively evacuated the battlefield after the city was broken, the actual number should be larger.
In addition, some civilian men who were temporarily recruited by the Ming army also died in the battle, numbering about seventy or eighty.
In terms of the size of the local defenders, the losses caused by this battle to the Ming army were actually not too serious. If it weren't for the fact that the county's city defenses were relatively weak, the Haihan Army would probably have had to work harder to succeed.
However, there were quite a lot of various materials that the Ming army did not have time to take away when they withdrew. This gave the Haihan army's quartermaster a bargain and got a batch of food and grass that fell from the sky in vain.
The number of casualties of the Haihan Army was much smaller, and the battle loss ratio with the Ming Army was about fifteen to one.
More than two hundred artillery shells were consumed during the siege, which was more than the headquarters expected. However, considering that shelling can effectively reduce one's own casualties in siege battles, it is certainly worth spending more ammunition. The performance of the Haihan Army was quite satisfactory. For Shi Diwen, there were not many details that needed to be addressed in this siege. The top priority now is to get Yixing County out of wartime control as soon as possible, return to normal social operation, and minimize post-war governance costs.
Regarding how to take over the newly occupied areas and restore social order in the war zone, Haihan has his own operating model, but the lowest cost and most efficient method is of course to use the original team of the local government agency.
After Haihan captured Yixing, the first thing he considered was adopting this plan. However, both the county magistrate and the registrar have taken advantage of the chaos to escape, and the magistrate here seems to be a die-hard who is unwilling to cooperate, so for the time being, military control can only be continued until administrative officials are sent from the rear to take over the local area.
Shi Diwen was free and decided to spend some time meeting the magistrate of Yixing, who was said to be quite tough.
In the past few years that Qian Wenxian has been the magistrate of Yixing County, he has been in the county jail a lot. But in the past, he came here to interrogate prisoners, but this time he became a prisoner.
After rejecting the request for cooperation, Qian Wenxian did not think that the Haihan people would let him live. He felt that what was more likely to happen was that the Haihan people would execute themselves in public to frighten the people.
Seeing someone coming to ask for his release from prison, Qian Wenxian thought that his time had come. Although he was frightened, he still tried his best to maintain a calm attitude. Otherwise, if there are people watching at the execution ground outside and you lose your dignity, the value of sacrificing your life for the country will be greatly reduced.
Unexpectedly, the visitor did not take him out of the county government office for execution, but to the second hall study where he worked daily - this was obviously not a suitable execution ground.
After entering the study, Qian Wenxian saw a man with gray hair. Before he could figure out what was going on, the soldier escorting him had already pressed him onto a chair from behind.
"Zhi County Qian, I am Shi Diwen, I believe you should have heard of my name."
The other party's self-introduction was very simple, but Qian Wenxian did not dare to take it lightly. This is the head of the Haihan Donghai Region. He is in charge of the power of life and death in a large area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. A big shot who can change the ownership of a small place like Yixing County with just one sentence.
Even if a cabinet minister from the imperial court comes, don't even think about showing off in front of him.
Shi Diwen did not wait for him to respond, and continued on his own: "Everyone's time is precious, so I will get straight to the point. I hope you can continue to perform your duties and return Yixing to normal as soon as possible."
Qian Wenxian's head was a little down. After thinking for a while, he finally understood what the other party meant: "Master Shi, do you want me to cooperate with your country?"
Shi Diwen said: "This is not for yourself or your court, but for the people of Yixing County! You must try to minimize the impact of the war and let the people under your rule live a good life! ”
Qian Wenxian said: "But this is against justice..."
"Great justice? What is great justice?" Shi Diwen interrupted him unceremoniously: "If you ignore the suffering of the people and let them fall into the flames of war in order to pursue the so-called loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, that is not called great justice."
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"As a parent official, you can make the people enjoy peace, that is the most important thing!"
"I heard that you have a good reputation locally, so I am willing to give you a chance. If you think you can't do this job, then go back to prison and continue to stay until you figure it out! But by then, I You should no longer be needed.”
(End of chapter)