Chapter 252: The Guangdong Theater

When Zhang Tieniu fought his way from Huguang into Guangdong and picked up fifteen cities for free, Fei Ruhe's southern-route army had taken only a single county seat — Heping.

And even Heping County had fallen to Jiang Dashan's surprise raid; it had practically nothing to do with Fei Ruhe himself.

Fei Ruhe crossed ridge after ridge only to slam straight into Longchuan County, and to this day he still has not been able to take that city.

Shen Youlong split his forces to hold the strategic points and refused to come out for a field battle — he just fought a rigid, plodding defensive war. To make matters worse, he had ample troops, all of them veterans of three years of bandit suppression, and every method Fei Ruhe tried ended in failure.

Jiang Dashan led his troops over to link up with him, and together they besieged Longchuan, yet still they could find no solution.

Left with no choice, Fei Ruhe could only keep Longchuan encircled and send Jiang Dashan to attack Xingning County. There was nowhere else to go anyway, because no matter which direction they took, they would have to cross mountains.

After Jiang Dashan reached Xingning, he too was pinned beneath the walls; that place was also garrisoned by three thousand veterans.

Both sides then halted their operations, settling into a standoff that lasted two full months.

Outside Longchuan city, the Great Unity Army camp.

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Fei Ruhe, as usual, marched his troops out for a stroll. The moat had already been filled in; he had tried storming the city once, and after that he could not be bothered to throw away more lives in a head-on assault.

The man was all smiles, showing not a trace of frustration at the setback, and he even had the leisure to pull out his spyglass and study the gate tower.

Inside the county seat, Shen Youlong was the one weighed down with anxiety.

He dared not venture out of the city at all and could only maintain a passive defense the entire time.

Nor could he bring in reinforcements, because his main force had to hold Nanxiong. If he shifted troops to relieve Longchuan and Nanxiong happened to fall, that would be tantamount to losing half of Guangdong.

Feng Yushun, a juren from Nanhai who was now serving as Shen Youlong's private secretary, gazed out beyond the walls and frowned. "Supreme Commander, this cannot go on. The rebels have been distributing land outside the city for nearly two months. In practical terms, Longchuan has already become an isolated city."

"If we go out seeking battle, defeat is certain," Shen Youlong said, his face grim.

Some time earlier, seeing that the main rebel force under Zhao was all at Longchuan, Shen Youlong had ordered Regional Commander Lu Qian to march out from Nanxiong and try to seize the three passes of Meiling while they were lightly defended.

Lu Qian took five thousand picked veterans and attacked Mei Pass, which was held by three hundred men. A single engagement sent him fleeing, discarding armor and weapons, with over six hundred casualties. Terrified, Lu Qian scurried straight back to Nanxiong to hide.

Lu Qian also sent word that the rebel army of Zhao was using large numbers of "ten-thousand-man killers."

Moreover, those ten-thousand-man killers all had ceramic casings and could be thrown a considerable distance even on flat ground.

Shen Youlong said, heavy with worry, "What concerns me most is Lu Qian's side."

"Surely Regional Commander Lu isn't going to turn rebel?" Feng Yushun asked, puzzled.

Shen Youlong sighed. "He has been impeached for colluding with foreign barbarians — impeached by the very gentry of your home county."

Feng Yushun was instantly speechless. Inwardly he cursed his fellow townsmen for idiots, while at the same time privately grumbling that Lu Qian was a scoundrel.

The Guangdong Regional Commander Lu Qian, while suppressing bandits the year before, had conveniently killed several Nanhai gentry and seized their goods to run his own smuggling operation.

Coastal smuggling in the Ming dynasty was not conducted only by sea; someone on land had to supply the goods as well.

Using his status as Regional Commander, Lu Qian tried to muscle his way into the overland smuggling trade. He went too far, however, frequently letting his troops plunder, and he thoroughly enraged the overland private merchants of Nanhai County.

Feng Yushun said, "The court is in urgent need of capable men; it should not dismiss Regional Commander Lu."

Shen Youlong shook his head. "If Lu Qian is not dismissed, the Nanhai County gentry will conspire to join the rebels."

"That… is actually quite possible," Feng Yushun said, the more he thought about it the more alarmed he grew.

Guangdong was already a place of many mountains and little arable land; those coastal gentry and powerful clans did not build their fortunes on land income. When goods from Huguang and Jiangxi arrived, they openly purchased them, then secretly sold them to maritime merchants behind the court's back.

The very people who had always obstructed the Ming from opening up maritime trade were precisely these men!

As for the maritime merchants and pirates, they were either their puppets or their business partners.

Now, the Great Unity Army had sealed the three passes of Meiling, cutting off the flow of Jiangxi goods into Guangdong. The Huguang trade route had also been severed. Guangdong's smuggling merchants had suffered devastating losses, and even a maritime merchant like Zheng Zhilong had taken a huge hit.

There were also the Guangdong salt merchants: their primary markets were Huguang and Jiangxi, and now they could not transport their salt there either.

The salt merchants, the maritime merchants, and the overland smuggling merchants were now as frantic as ants on a hot pan. They dared not offend Zhao Han, the "King of Jiangxi," because Jiangxi was the source of the goods, so they tried every means to conspire and stab the Guangdong government troops in the back.

They impeached not only the Guangdong Regional Commander Lu Qian, but also the Governor-General of Liangguang, Shen Youlong.

To these merchants, it was perfectly acceptable for Guangdong to be taken by the rebels — but absolutely unacceptable for a protracted war to be fought there!

……

Several more days passed.

Chen Maosheng arrived, crossing the mountains with a contingent of propaganda officers and peasant association cadres, most of whom were Yao people and Hakkas under his command.

Upon seeing Fei Ruhe, Chen Maosheng could not help asking, "Your letter wasn't clear. What is the real situation in Guangdong? The Garrison Commander also told me to ask you: why, after two months of campaigning, have you taken only a single county seat?"

Fei Ruhe replied with full confidence, "Here in Guangdong, every strategic point is heavily defended by Shen Youlong's troops. If we storm them one by one, by the time we finish taking Guangdong, my soldiers will all be dead. In truth, occupying Guangdong does not require fighting at all — I realized that the moment I arrived."

"Just say it plainly, don't beat around the bush," Chen Maosheng said.

Fei Ruhe said, "The prefectures and counties of Guangdong suffered severe drought for two years in a row; only this year has the weather been somewhat normal. And ever since the last years of Wanli, popular uprisings have never stopped here. Shen Youlong himself has carried out two major bandit-suppression campaigns, and his predecessor also conducted a large-scale suppression. Even now, the Yao uprising around Lianzhou and Lianshan has yet to be put down. The moment Zhang Tieniu takes Lechang, I reckon half of northern Guangdong will erupt in chaos."

"What about eastern Guangdong?" Chen Maosheng asked.

Fei Ruhe said, "The common people of eastern Guangdong live in extreme hardship, and they hate the officials to the marrow of their bones. With years of drought, Shen Youlong still has to maintain his army, and he has already driven countless people to revolt. When I saw that Longchuan County could not be taken by storm, I immediately ordered the propaganda corps and the peasant associations to carry out land distribution. By now, more than half of Longchuan County has had its land redistributed. Longchuan has long since become an isolated city; the villages and towns outside the walls are all our territory."

"Then why did you have me bring people here?" Chen Maosheng asked, puzzled.

"The situation here is too complicated," Fei Ruhe explained. "There are Hakkas, Yao people, Miao people, and Zhuang people. Take the Yao alone — they are divided into Lowland Yao and Highland Yao. It's such a mess it makes my head spin. Those Highland Yao are still practicing slash-and-burn farming. It has to be a capable man like you who comes and handles it personally."

In the late Ming, more than half the prefectures and counties of Liangguang were inhabited by Yao people.

The Lowland Yao were relatively deeply sinicized; many Yao even spoke Chinese, wore Chinese clothing, and used Chinese names. They were registered households who paid taxes to the court, and there were even Yao landlords and Yao tenant farmers among them.

This kind of Yao people could have land distributed to them directly; they were being brutally exploited by Yao officials and landlords.

The Highland Yao, on the other hand, had varying degrees of sinicization. The most primitive Yao tribes were still practicing slash-and-burn farming to this day. They would burn a patch of mountain forest, farm it for two or three years, then move on to burn and farm another patch — there were plenty of mountains here, after all. They could be called "shifting-cultivation tribes."

There were also some Highland Yao who had already learned advanced farming methods, but they still could not speak Chinese.

This type of Yao people were ruled by Yao native chieftains.

The native chieftains forced the Yao people to gather, dig, and produce various local specialties. Every few years, they had to travel to Beijing to offer tribute, exchanging Yao specialties for goods and money bestowed by the Emperor.

However, the Chongzhen Emperor was also dirt-poor, and the Yao native chieftains gradually found it unprofitable. Whenever they felt like it, they would lead their tribesmen down the mountains to plunder, or simply attack cities and seize territory in open rebellion.

This type of Yao people had to be handled with caution. They could not speak Chinese, were controlled by Yao native chieftains, and were also exploited by them. If you simply killed the chieftains, the Yao people would not feel grateful; you first had to make them understand the policy.

In many other places, Han, Yao, Miao, and Zhuang people were in the process of merging, and it was very hard to tell which group they belonged to.

In late-Ming Guangdong, there were large populations of Yao, Miao, and Zhuang peoples, and they were steadily undergoing sinicization.

Such a complicated situation gave Fei Ruhe a splitting headache, and he could only write a letter asking Chen Maosheng to come and take charge of the work.

Chongyi County in the Southern Jiangxi region was entirely inhabited by Yao and Miao people. Land redistribution had already been completed there at the beginning of the year, and a peasant association had been formed. On this trip south, at Fei Ruhe's request, Chen Maosheng brought over three hundred Yao and Miao people directly with him.

As soon as Chen Maosheng arrived, Fei Ruhe immediately divided his forces, personally leading the main army to bypass Longchuan and advance to encircle Heyuan County.

……

"Supreme Commander, the bandits have divided their forces," Feng Yushun said, puzzled. "Marching past so brazenly, are they not afraid of having their supply lines cut and being caught in a pincer attack from north and south?"

Shen Youlong was absolutely furious at this moment: "They are luring me out of the city, showing me no regard whatsoever!"

Feng Yushun said, "Since the rebels have divided their forces, why not send five hundred elite troops to raid the rebel main camp at night?"

"That is exactly what I intend!" Shen Youlong also wanted to vent his pent-up rage.

No action was taken that night. A few more days passed, and Shen Youlong, sensing that the bandits had let down their guard, ordered a Battalion Commander to lead five hundred troops out of the city for a night raid.

They went and never came back...

It was not that the Battalion Commander defected to the bandits, but rather that they were routed during the raid on the camp, and the soldiers simply seized the chance to scatter and flee back to their home villages.

Fei Ruhe took Chen Maosheng to Heyuan to distribute land, having already summed up the experience in Southern Jiangxi. As long as all the land outside the city was distributed, every commoner in the county would become one of their own, and they could also take the opportunity to suppress the landlords and increase military provisions.

"Report!!!!"

"The Eight Rows Yao have risen in revolt and have already captured the four cities of Lianzhou, Lianshan, Yangshan, and Ruyuan!"

Hearing this news, Fei Ruhe laughed and said, "There is no need to fight in Guangdong anymore. The government troops will soon collapse along the entire front."

The three cities of Lianzhou bordered Huguang to the north and Guangxi to the west. The border region where the three provinces met was entirely a Yao settlement area.

In history, the eighth year of Chongzhen was not only when Liu Xinyu led the Yao people and miners of Huguang in rebellion. Simultaneously, there was the Eight Rows Yao uprising in Guangdong, the Jianghua Yao uprising in Huguang, and the He County Yao uprising in Guangxi.

The Yao people and miners of three provinces rose in rebellion at the same time, all causing disturbances for three years before the court finally dispatched a five-province joint army to suppress them.

And the Eight Rows Yao uprising caused the greatest disturbance. The five-province suppression campaign saw two Governor-Generals replaced, and it lasted from the eleventh year of Chongzhen all the way until the fifteenth year of Chongzhen before it was finally quelled.

Two years ago, Shen Youlong had expended all his energy and finally managed to drive the Eight Rows Yao back into the mountains.

At this very moment, Zhang Tieniu had led his troops to occupy Lechang, which was right next door to the Eight Rows Yao territory. They seized the chance to march out of the great mountains and captured all four cities, coordinating with Zhang Tieniu to fight the government troops together.

Guangdong is lost. The government troops cannot hold out.

(End of Chapter)