Xie Ming

Chapter 301 Qinghe County Post-War Settlement

Half an hour later!
The fifth day of June, 6:06 am (10:30 am)!

Li Huchen's troops attacked and captured the four passes in Qinghe County.

Outside, Sun Peizhong's troops were also able to encircle the city. In the east of the city, a small group of Jiangbei troops took the opportunity to flee, causing Peizhong to lead all of them to be captured within five miles in front of the pass!
In the city, facing the original military camp to the east, Li Hongsheng, together with Li, Gonghe and Ji Zu's troops, used thundering means to control most of Li Chengdong's camp.

More than 400 people who disobeyed orders and rebelled were beheaded on the spot to serve as a warning to others.

Another half hour has passed!
The city was completely cleared, and Ma Minglu took the rear army's supply department, transported supplies, and protected the prince, and entered Qinghe County.

In terms of military affairs, Xiao Jingchuan immediately found the Central Army Minglu and assigned him four tasks.

First, find the place where Li Chengdong stored the silver, count and accept the seized silver, and report the total amount.

Second, survey the food, fodder, military equipment, and military supplies in the city, and confiscate and seal them all.

Third, try your best to appease the people in the city. Because there are many soldiers and horses entering the city and the city is crowded, you should also start to assign soldiers to prepare to set up camp outside the city!

Fourth, the most important thing is to get Minglu to come in person to conduct a strict investigation and audit, and to find out whether there are any serious violations of discipline among the officers at all levels in the Jiangbei surrendered army. Once discovered, they will be arrested and detained, awaiting subsequent punishment!
The follow-up of the Li Chengdong incident was left to Xiao Jingchuan and Qiu Zhizhong, who brought the supporting evidence, the Qinghe County Magistrate, to meet with the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang, and recounted in detail the absurd and bad behavior of Li Chengdong, a subordinate of Gao Jie of Fengyang in Jiangbei!
Just like before, when the two of them faced each other in the backyard of the county government office, His Highness' discussion in front of them made the prince rely on them even more!
The next morning (June 6th).

After a night of proofreading, Ma Minglu found the location of the Jiangbei military garrison's silver box carts and counted more than 115,000 taels of silver.

More than 3,500 shi of grain were also confiscated.

There were five hundred war horses, seven large-caliber Tiger-crouching field guns, twelve Portuguese cannons, and sufficient ammunition.

There is no plan for the remaining miscellaneous military supplies and weapons.

It was also necessary to clean up after the war and capture and surrender Jiangbei troops, a total of 4,368 people!
There were 695 casualties during the siege that day.

On the Xiao family army's side, the total casualties reached 272 people!

In addition, De Minglu was ordered to audit the appointment of demoted soldiers to military posts at all levels, and the preliminary review has been completed.

After this detailed investigation, they reported each other.

A total of two generals, one military officer, four thousand commanders, twelve battalion commanders, and thirty-five hundred commanders were arrested and detained.

In addition, there are 76 officials in charge of various other matters.

As a result, among the surrendered soldiers from Jiangbei, eight or nine out of ten military positions above flag officer have been lost!
That afternoon, in the small county of Qinghe, east of the city, Xiao Lang ordered a stage to be set up to set up a training ground.

He also ordered all members of the combined army, all the surrendered soldiers from Jiangbei, and the common people of Qinghe, young and old, to gather in an open field.

On the high platform in front of the parade ground, Xiao Lang acted as the commander-in-chief of the entire army and gave a passionate and enthusiastic speech.

It not only shows the army's ironclad responsibility to serve the people and defend the country, but also denounces the vile behavior of Li Chengdong and other troublemakers!

When the movement reached its climax and the crowd was outraged, Xiao Lang ordered De Changting to bring Li Chengdong's head to the stage to show it to everyone, and to pay tribute to the souls of the people in Qinghe and surrounding areas who were persecuted to death by this thief!

And then!

According to Ma Minglu's preaching, all the officials in Jiangbei who were involved in the cases of looting, murdering and raping the people were escorted to the front by soldiers.

Xiao Lang saw the situation clearly and gave an order to behead all the officials involved in the case, a total of more than 130 people! It is conceivable that this move would cause a sensation among these Jiangbei soldiers!

Many soldiers were frightened silly on the spot!
I have never seen such severe criminal and military laws!
Xiao Jingchuan therefore took this opportunity to reiterate the details of the Seventeen Prohibitions and Fifty-four Beheadings in the Xiao Army of the Ming Dynasty.

However, this thunderous measure did produce some unpleasant side effects.

That is, after the meeting, the surrendered soldiers from Jiangbei could not stop themselves for some reason because of Minglu's report yesterday. So by the evening, they even reported on each other and arrested more than 300 soldiers who had seriously harmed the people.

Xiao Lang was in a dilemma about this. It was really difficult to do it or not.
After all, there are examples of this kind of order to expose corruption in ancient times, and its side effects are already significant. In the later period, people who have old grudges against each other or belong to different factions often use this as a sharp weapon to attack the enemy!
It's not that Xiao Jingchuan was unaware of this, but he had never imagined that it would change so inexplicably quickly.

There is no law, and the incident cannot be resolved without executing the person who has reported the incident with complete evidence.

So, that night, they set fire to the camp outside the city and beheaded more than 300 evil soldiers who had committed crimes!
The killing was so numerous that the people were in a panic!

[Statistics of enlistment in the army in Qinghe County]

[Total number of newly surrendered soldiers of Jiangbei Army: 4368]

【Statistics of the various departments.】

[Sun Peizhong's troops (lieutenant general): 2200 people (before Qinghe) - 34 people (losses in the encirclement and suppression campaign) + 531 (newly recruited Jiangbei surrendered soldiers) = 2697 people (completed, full infantry battalion)]

[Li Huchen's troops (lieutenant general): 2000 people (before Qinghe) - 238 (casualties in the four passes) + 935 (newly recruited Jiangbei surrendered soldiers) = 2697 people (completed replenishment, full cavalry battalion)]

[Ma Minglu's troops (Military Supplies - Garrison): 1000 people (Qingheqian) + 1000 (Newly recruited Jiangbei surrendered soldiers) = 2000 people (supplementary expansion)]

[Xu Jizu's troops (Bazong): 1000 people (before Qinghe) + 600 (newly recruited Jiangbei surrendered soldiers) = 1600 people (supplementary expansion)]

[Li Hongsheng's troops (garrison): 1300 (before Qinghe) + 1000 (newly recruited Jiangbei surrendered troops) = 2300 (supplementary expansion)]

[Liu Wenbing + Gong Yonggu's combined forces: 1200 people (before the Qinghe Camp) + 302 (newly recruited Jiangbei surrendered soldiers) = 1502 people (supplementary expansion)]

[Total number of soldiers and horses accompanying the army: 12]

[In addition, Wang Chuanwu's troops (garrison) 522 people + Xu Baoyi's troops (captain): 274 people, stayed in Baoding as the initial source of troops for the Taihang base, and did not move with the main army, so they are not included! ]

[A list of supplies seized from Li Chengdong of the Jiangbei Army in Qinghe County, as well as statistics on losses during the march over several days! ]

[Silver: 16.1 taels (before Qinghe) - 0.8 taels (one month's salary for surrendered soldiers) + 11.5 taels (earned by Li Chengdong from the people) = 26.8 taels]

[Food: 1.7 shi (before Qinghe) - 0.25 shi (many days of food and horse consumption) + 0.35 shi (military rations seized from the Jiangbei Army) = 1.8 shi]

[War horses and military horses: more than 2000 horses (originally ridden by Li Huchen's cavalry) + more than 500 horses (captured in Qinghe) = more than 2500 horses (all transferred to Li Huchen's cavalry to form a full-strength cavalry battalion!)]

【火炮：红夷大炮（8门）；虎蹲炮（5门+7门=12门大口径，45门小口径）；佛朗机炮（10门+12门=22门）弹药足备！】

[Firearms and muskets (bird muskets, three-eyed muskets, etc.): Equipped with the number of 6,000 soldiers in the army! ]

[Armor and cold weapons are equipped with the army and are no longer counted as extra! ]

(End of this chapter)