It was the fourth day of May in the first year of Chengtian and the first year of Republic.
The Taishan Army integrated and deployed two battalions from Ding Sheng's former military academy to station in the northwest region of Zhao State, and also dispatched five battalions from Zhang Dan's right military academy to station in Zenan, the mainland.
The above seven battalions, nearly 7,000 people, are the entire Taishan Army responsible for suppressing bandits. With the help of local garrison troops, they will be responsible for quelling the banditry in northern Zhao and Dalu Ze.
The Hebei area where Jizhou is located naturally has smooth roads, so even if there is banditry, it is easy to eliminate it, because the bandits are hidden in the mountains, forests, lakes and seas.
However, there are two areas in the central and southern region of Jizhou that are very difficult to suppress.
One is the Taihang Valley in the northwest of Zhao State. One is the vast mainland of Miaomiao.
From the northwest of Zhao State to the Zhongshan area, there is no pass through the Taihang Mountains, but this has become a paradise for thieves.
Because the Taihang Mountains transitioned from the Shanxi Plateau to the North China Plain, countless small impact fan-shaped valleys were formed. Although the central parts of these fan-shaped valleys are small, they are more fertile than the land in most areas of Jizhou.
Therefore, for countless years, countless mountain bandits have settled here and made a living. In addition, these areas are deep in the mountains and are easy to defend and difficult to attack, making them even more difficult to suppress.
The same is true for the bandits in another Daluze area.
There are many swamps in the Julu area, but none of them are as good as mainland swamps. There are countless water pirates and thieves lurking in the swamps of the vast continent.
The above two areas have naturally become a paradise for bandits due to their unique geographical isolation.
But unlike the poor and thieves in the northwest of Zhao State, the giant deer in central Jizhou were already wealthy and had many young people. But why are there so many bandits?
Zhang Chong went to ask Tian Feng, who was still in the prison camp, for advice on this issue.
After Tian Feng was captured, he did not express an extreme desire to die. On the contrary, Tian Feng did whatever the Taishan Army arranged for them.
Tian Feng's cooperation also allowed him to quickly gain a certain degree of freedom. Not only could he move around the prison camp, but he also had a tent of his own.
So when Tian Feng saw someone entering his tent at night, he was frightened and surprised.
But when he knew that this person turned out to be Zhang Chong, the bandit leader, Tian Feng was speechless.
Who would have thought that a thieves could be so thirsty for talents and be courteous to the virtuous?
But Tian Feng still had to tell himself in his heart that Han and traitors are not at odds with each other, and he, Tian Feng, must keep the integrity of the Han and learn from Su Wu's spirit.
But when Tian Feng learned that Zhang Chong wanted to suppress Lu Ze, he hesitated.
For personal reasons, he deeply hated the banditry in Dalu Ze. Now there is the Taishan Army to suppress the bandits. Even though Tian Feng doesn't want to join the Taishan Army yet, he still gives his own suggestions.
From Tian Feng, Zhang Chong also learned more details about Lu Ze.
It turns out that the reason why bandits are rampant in the central and southern region of Jizhou is all because of one thing, that is the unruly river.
It is precisely because the river changed its course many times and had periods of flooding that this situation occurred in the Julu area.
That is, people living in recessed areas are often displaced by floods of rivers and become increasingly poor.
However, those areas with slightly higher terrain can avoid floods and can even occupy the fertile and silted fields after the water recedes and become richer and richer.
With such a huge gap between rich and poor in the same county, it is natural that the heads of Guizhou in low-lying areas take risks and become thieves. And those rich and powerful people naturally formed a stronghold to protect themselves and expand their tribes.
In this way, a flooded river made Dalu Ze the last choice for countless bandits. On the one hand, they took advantage of the cover of Dalu Ze to hide, and on the other hand, they came out of the marsh to plunder those settlements.
What's more, the convenience of Dalu Ze has become a paradise for countless private salt sellers.
Although this dynasty was different from the former Han Dynasty in that salt and iron were no longer directly operated by the government, it still imposed heavy taxes on salt.
Therefore, a large number of cooks in the Bohai and Youzhou regions secretly cook private salt and then traffic it to the mainland, where the profit is ten times greater.
Precisely because of Dalu Ze's "tolerance", these private salt dealers also opened up business routes and transfer stations here.
Therefore, if the Taishan Army wants to suppress the water bandits in Juluze, these private salt dealers will also be their enemies.
From Tian Feng, Zhang Chong learned another detail.
That is, the water bandits in Daluze are not the product of a few years or ten years, but the product of several generations. This is deeply rooted. Which powerful person along the mainland's swamp is not inextricably related to the water bandits in the swamp?
Not even the officials of previous generations could solve this problem.
For example, Guo Dian, the former governor of Julu, may have been strong enough, but he still did not dare to slash at Daluze with his sword.
Of course, this does not mean that these bandits in Juluze are all supported by the surrounding powerful people. In fact, most of them have serious enemies with these powerful people.
Originally, the Julu powerful people formed a stronghold to resist bandits, but their armed forces instead formed a stronger suppression on the Guizhou leaders.
They have more power to exploit and plunder, leaving the poor with no place to stand. These people also commonly borrowed cloth and millet to further exploit the people below them.
Since these Guizhou leaders were squeezed like this, they naturally held grudges. In addition, not far away was Dalu Ze, where bandits gathered, so many of them took desperate risks, luring thieves into the stronghold and destroying their families.
In addition to these people, some Guizhou families with a large population often join bandits in order to make a living.
We know from the previous example of Zhang Chong that when the family can no longer be divided and can only support these people, the second son of the family needs to go out and make a career on his own.
So what can Qian Changzi, who only has the strength, do? Become a bully for powerful people? Or go to Dalu Ze to be a good man?
Isn’t it difficult to choose?
In fact, Tian Feng was quite familiar with the situation of bandits in Dalu Ze. The Tian family had been broken up by a group of water bandits in Dalu Ze before, and his brother died there.
Therefore, after Tian Feng became the staff of Guo Dian, the governor of Julu, he made several suggestions to suppress the bandits, but to no avail.
So after knowing that Zhang Chong decided to suppress the bandits, Tian Feng told him all the information he had.
The water bandits in Dalu Ze, apart from the private salt traders, are all sitting bandits, which means that these people are basically from Julu.
Generally speaking, these bandits generally do not rob people in the same area, nor do they rob people near Daluze.
At first, when the nearby villagers learned that the second son of a certain family had become a water bandit, they didn't want to have anything to do with it. But when the nearby villagers began to buy stolen goods at low prices from these water bandits, and even profited from them, more and more people began to become accomplices of the water bandits.
They not only sell stolen goods for these water bandits, but also often act as their eyes and ears. Whenever they encountered out-of-town traders in Litingshe City, these people would pass the news on to the water bandits in Zezhong, and then ambush these traveling merchant teams.
What even surprised Zhang Chong was that most of these so-called mainland Zeshui bandits did not live in the Zeli, but settled nearby, and even brought money and food back regularly.
The information obtained from Tian Feng made Zhang Chong aware of the complexity of bandits in the Daluze area. It turns out that most of these people are also villagers nearby. They work as farmers during the farming season and are bandits in their spare time. As Tian Feng mentioned, the peak period of banditry in Dalu Ze is from November to February of next year. Then during the busy spring period, the number of bandits decreases significantly, and it is not until June or July that the peak begins again.
In this case, how can the Taishan Army distinguish who is a citizen and who is a bandit? After all, no one has a thief written on their face.
It was precisely because of the complexity of the banditry in the Daluze area that Zhang Chong decided to let Zhang Dan personally lead nearly 5,000 elite troops from his Right Military Academy to the southern part of Daluze and take full charge of the suppression of bandits here.
Zhang Dan also gained a deep understanding of Lu Da Ze's situation through Zhang Chong's instructions.
This time, Zhang Dan decided to station the marching shogunate to suppress the bandits in Ren County, which was also where Tian Feng said the bandits were most intense.
As for Tian Feng, after providing such detailed information, he actively requested to join Zhang Dan in suppressing the bandits. He wanted to avenge his brother and his tribe.
Zhang Chong thought for a while and agreed. After all, with the existence of Tian Feng, a local, it would be easier to suppress bandits.
Of course, Zhang Chong also privately gave Zhang Dan a purpose of suppressing bandits, that is, to use both suppression and appeasement, killing the stubborn ones and appeasing the submissive ones. You must master the balance between the two.
As for Tian Feng's suggestion, Zhang Chong asked Zhang Dan to think more about it. After all, this person was from a wealthy family and had a blood feud with the mainland Zeshui bandits. It was difficult not to use their Taishan Army to seek revenge.
Zhang Dan kept all this in mind, and then on May 4th, he ordered his troops to go north.
The actions of the Taishan Army were quickly learned by the Han troops lurking in Handan in various counties.
Seeing such a large-scale operation, these people ignored the exposure of their whereabouts and flew to various counties to make preparations.
In the end, the outcome of these meticulous efforts was naturally doomed. Shortly after they sent out the news, they were captured by the flying army's internal troops.
From these detailed reports, the Taishan Army obtained a large amount of precious information.
As for the counties in Hebei? They don't care about these details? All they have in mind now is the Taishan army coming out of the city.
When the Taishan Army's march route was to the north, the Han Army in Changshan, Zhongshan, Hejian, and the northern area of Julu was shocked three times in one day.
Afterwards, the Taishan Army's Right Military Academy Headquarters turned towards Julu along the official road. At this time, the Han army in Changshan area was relieved, but the Han army in the northern Julu and Zhongshan areas fell into great panic.
Especially when the Han army learned that the Taishan Army was stationed in Ren County, the Han army in the north of Julu was in panic. Every day, a large number of powerful people abandoned their fields and evacuated their families to Zhongshan.
And what kind of chaos is Zhongshan in now? As soon as these powerful people with frivolous wealth entered Zhongshan, they were ambushed by several local forces and killed to death.
At this moment, the powerful people in the northern part of Julu fell into despair. There was really a tiger in front and a wolf behind.
But at this time, hope appeared. They discovered that the Taishan Army really only stayed in Ren County and had no intention of going north.
At this time, they suddenly realized and set their sights on the mainland.
It turns out that the Taishan Army came to suppress bandits?
Haha, now these Han troops from various counties are finally alive again. They also set their sights on Dalu Ze, thinking:
"You Taishan Army actually want to suppress bandits? Then I can't help you."
Therefore, each family used their own methods, and they all planned to let Lu Luze consume the Taishan Army's strength.
For a time, Dalu Ze gathered the attention of all the forces in Hebei and rolled up a thousand waves.
It was also in this whirlpool that Zhang Dan's troops stationed in Ren County began to take action.
……
At this time, in the shogunate of the bandit suppression march in Ren County, Zhang Dan was listening to the intelligence of the flying army's foreign troops carrying the flag.
There is a group of giant thieves in Ren County, named Black Horse Thieves. Their leader is Zheng Fu, who has been a thief for generations.
It turns out that this black horse thief is just an ordinary bandit in Dalu Ze, with only a hundred people in power. But last year, the Taiping Dao uprising in Julu plunged Julu into huge chaos.
At that time, Zheng Fu was so bold that he led a hundred people to kill Ren County.
At that time, there were three hundred soldiers from Han County in Ren County, so they naturally did not pay attention to this ordinary water bandit. So take the initiative to join forces with the dark horse thieves. But who knew that the Han army was defeated in this battle. Except for a few soldiers who escaped, the rest were all captured and executed.
Afterwards, the black horse thieves took advantage of the situation and broke into Ren County, opened warehouses, recruited soldiers and horses, and soon gathered thousands of people. Then Zheng Fu saw that the Yellow Turban Army was powerful, so he sent envoys to pay tribute and surrendered to the Yellow Turban Army's tent, becoming an independent force.
Later, Youzhou Tuqi and Lu Zhi's northern and southern armies entered Hebei, and the Han army in Hebei began to counterattack across the board. Seeing that the situation was not right, Zheng Fu took his men and horses and hid some of the men back to Daluze.
At that time, all the energy of the Han army was used to fight the Yellow Turban Army. When they saw the black horse fleeing back to Zeze, they just pretended that it had not happened.
However, Zheng Fu, whose strength had expanded, quickly relied on the armaments seized from Ren County's arsenal to expand his power in Zezhong. It is said that there are thousands of thieves now, and they are among the most powerful thieves in Zen.
After gaining strength, Zheng Fu quickly got rid of the Yellow Turban Army and went on his own. In addition to plundering powerful people from time to time, they also often attacked nearby counties.
One of his larger actions was before Taishan's army entered Julu. Taking advantage of the opportunity when the Julu Han army was wiped out in Handan, he once again made a surprise attack on Pingxiang, south of Zen on the mainland. At one time, it was only twenty miles away from Julu City.
Zheng Fu was originally prepared to attack Julu this time, but who knew that the Taishan Army would come so quickly and so cruelly.
After seeing the elite cavalry of the Taishan Army, Zheng Fu knew that he was no match, so he could only reluctantly withdraw to Zenei and continue to lurk.
He never thought that those Taishan troops could defeat them? This mainland swamp is their home. Their ancestors have been wallowing in this swamp for generations. They are not familiar with all the water, ditches and depressions in it.
To put it bluntly, they could cross this place with their eyes closed. Therefore, if these Taishan troops come and become thieves, they will die.
By then, they will be able to harvest a large number of plump fish and turtles.
So when Zhang Dan came with his army, the black horse thieves didn't take it seriously and continued to live their peaceful lives.
However, Ansheng's life ended soon. Envoys from Hejian, Qinghe, Bohai and other places, and even Changshan, came to Zheng Fu one after another. They not only awarded him the captain's seal, but also sent many armors. Weapons and military supplies.
For a time, Zheng Fu wore the imperial seal of the five counties in Hebei and received military supplies from various places all day long, as if he was favored by fate.
It seems that the arrival of the Taishan Army is not a bad thing, right?