Dominate the Country

Wuhan in June was so hot that it felt like it was scorching. The whole city was like a burnt brick kiln, making it hard to breathe. The old yellow dog of the Qiu family lay on the ground and spit out his bright red tongue. In the stable, Qiu Jiashan's mount's nostrils opened wide with each breath. In the stone trough, the clear water poured in the morning was only a shallow layer, and it was still as hot as boiling water.

Qiu Jiashan was expelled from the Qiu family, but now he has become the chief of the prefectural police of Wuchang Prefecture in the Fu Han Army. This is a position equivalent to the Tongpan in the past, of course, specifically speaking, it is far less powerful than the Tongpan.

In the newly-made Han official system of the Fu Han Army, the full-time bureau-level cadres at the prefectural level are of the sixth rank, the prefect is of the fourth rank, and the magistrate is of a much higher status, belonging to the fifth rank. As for whether it is regular or regular, it depends on the qualifications and position. Important units like the police station are of course regular sixth rank.

Wuchang is a special case. All officials were promoted by one rank. Qiu Jiashan, the chief of the police station, was promoted to the fifth rank.

There was no provincial system under the rule of the King of Han. According to the official regulations issued, the provincial level was only the third rank. The Daotai level was removed. The Han family only had the three-level system of county, prefecture and province, and the state was also removed. In the central ministries and commissions above, the heads were only the third rank. Only those who entered the cabinet were the second rank, and only the first and second assistants could enjoy the honor of the first rank officials.

Qiu Jiashan was not sad about being expelled from his family, because he knew that this was the way for the Qiu family to protect themselves, and even did so with his consent in advance. Three months ago, Qiu Jiashan, who was desperate, sold the Zhonghe Gate of Wuchang for his clan blood relatives and became a great contributor to the easy capture of Wuchang City by the Fu Han Army. He and Zheng Jingchun of the Zheng family are now the chief of the police station in Wuchang Prefecture and the magistrate of Wuchang County. But when they received the appointment, neither of them could smile comfortably. The awkward and stiff smiles seemed as if they received not an official hat, but a deadly poisoned wine.

The Qing Dynasty's sticky pole office assassinated Qiu Jiashan several times in the following days, and so did Zheng Jingchun. It was not until their two hideouts in Wuchang were destroyed that Qiu Jiashan's family settled down.

There is no need to explain the thrills in the middle. The Qing court's several unsuccessful assassinations really made Qiu Jiashan more grateful to the newly-minted Prince Han and Duke Lu. Especially the development of the Fu Han Army in the past two months has made Qiu Jiashan unexpectedly smooth. To the south, the Fu Han Army captured Yueyang. When the battle of Wuchang just ended, the Fu Han Army seized the opportunity to defeat the more than 10,000 Hunan Green Camps that arrived at Banzhou Bay. Hunan Governor Fang Shijun disguised himself as a civilian and escaped in embarrassment. Then the Fu Han army, with two or three thousand land warriors, plus a part of the navy battalion and the logistics navy, took all the counties of Wuchang Prefecture. There was also the battle of Banzhou Bay, where the navy battalion of the Fu Han army easily wiped out the Hunan navy, captured more than 30 warships, and then went down the river and easily captured Yueyang. The smooth march stunned Qiu Jiashan, who was panic-stricken at the time, and naturally felt relieved.

At the same time, the Sichuan soldiers in Hanchuan were also defeated by the Fu Han army. However, Ma Mingxun was a veteran who had been on the battlefield for a long time, and was more experienced than Fang Shijun. He took away three to five thousand people from the defeated army, and then reorganized in Jingshan, and gathered two to three thousand defeated soldiers, and went all the way to Xiangyang.

Two or three thousand captives were sent to the outside of Wuchang City, and the panic atmosphere in the whole Wuchang was immediately eased. At that time, Qiu Jiashan was still at home, and after hearing the news, he ran out of the city like a rabbit to take a special look. The dusty Qing prisoners of war and the captured flags were like a stream of ice that calmed his angry heart. He was then appointed as the chief of the Wuchang Police Station on the front line. His first task was to prepare and organize the police to maintain order among the people outside the prisoner-of-war camp.

For more than half a month, before the prisoner camp was taken north, it was the key surveillance location of the police station and the Wuchang garrison. Every day, hundreds of people ran to watch, many of whom came from the countryside. There were many stalls selling tea and melon seeds outside the prisoner-of-war camp.

The complete defeat of the Qing troops in the north and south is said to have made Agui on the Xiaogan front spit out a mouthful of blood. In April, the Fu Han Army marched north in a big way, dividing a part of its forces to attack Jingzhou and Yichang in the west, but the main force still went north, directly expelling Agui's troops from Hubei, and forcefully captured Xinyang Prefecture in Henan. And all this relied on cannons.

Zhu Gui of Jingzhou fled in panic, and fled to Yichang Prefecture with Fan Shishou, the governor of Hubei, who had fled there without anyone knowing. The Fu Han army stopped at Zhijiang. Because the main force of the army had already gone north, it was too late to rely on the westward force to reach Zhijiang.

On April 14, the Fu Han army surrounded Xiangyang City, and then opened up land communication with southwest Henan. The transport ships that had been stranded on the Wuhan River before sailed along the Han River to Xiangyang.

To this day, Qiu Jiashan didn't know what was in those one or two thousand ships. He only saw a lot of salt ships and cloth ships, but the number was only a part of the total. Later, it was said that the "old people" in southwest Henan were so happy to see the white salt that they burst into tears and stuffed it into their mouths directly; there was also a folk legend that the ships were full of gold and silver, and that there was gold and silver under the salt and cloth, but Qiu Jiashan was determined not to believe it. Because he thought he knew why Duke Lu was obsessed with the old base, and he thought many people had already realized this reason.

When the old base in Henan was in a bad situation, he did not move the old base to Jiangnan, but returned thousands of miles away.

That's because of the armored cannon - because the Fuhan Army's home base has extremely powerful weapons and iron manufacturing capabilities.

After Chen Ming's army established contact with the old base area, while shiploads of materials flowed into the old base area, shiploads of iron armor and cannons were also continuously transported out of southwestern Henan. Just like the ships of salt ships and cloth ships spread out before, the iron armor of the ships and the cannon barrels as thick as a strong man's thigh were shocking to look at.

Almost on the day the fleet arrived in Wuchang, Qiu Jiashan came home from the police office in the afternoon and saw that the Fuhan Army patrol troops on the streets were no longer wearing thin uniforms, but majestic iron armor. On a hot day, the patrol soldiers were sweating profusely, but their faces were filled with endless pride and confidence.

Qiu Jiashan was sweating profusely when he returned home that day. The joy and shock in his heart were like an erupting volcano, scorching hot and out of control. That night, he gave his old wife a fierce blow to regain his glory.

Just after Shen Shi that afternoon [three o'clock in the afternoon], the entire Wuchang City, including the patrol soldiers in the city, the soldiers guarding the city walls, and the barracks at the horse racing field, all the soldiers uniformly changed their armor. Thousands of armored men were really dumbfounded by the entire Wuchang City. Tens of thousands of people. The 40,000 prisoners of war outside Wuchang still seem like yesterday. How many days have the army been marching north? So much iron armor has been shipped back. In fact, the two hundred armed police officers in the police station also changed their armor at that time.

There were two hundred pairs of iron armor, and they were taken out with tung oil. Qiu Jiashan was dumbfounded at the time. After coming back to his senses, he firmly believed that the Fuhan Army was by no means a grasshopper after the fall, and the future of the Fuhan Army was still bright. Although it may not be possible to truly overthrow the Dragon Court in Beijing, how easy is it for the Manchu Qing court to destroy these armored Fuhan troops?

Yes, the Fuhan Army's home base is very short of salt. Even now that the Fuhan Army in Hubei is still very short of salt, there is no salt production area in this place. Although this 'salt deficiency' is compared under relative conditions, southwest Henan and Hubei are not without saline-alkali land. The salt in the saline-alkali land is also edible, as long as it is processed several times, and eating too much is not good for the body. . Qiu Jiashan also heard that the reason why Lu Gong abandoned Jiangnan and returned to Huguang was because the salt shortage in the general's mansion was becoming more and more serious, because Nanyang didn't even have much saline-alkali land, at least not enough to feed the millions of people in the entire base area. Yes, the matter has reached a point where it must be resolved. He didn't know whether this was true or not, but no matter what, Qiu Jiashan was no longer the anxious Qiu Jiashan three months ago. The Fuhan Army is obviously still strong. It has been several months since Lu Gong's army returned to Hubei. The officers and soldiers in Jiangnan have not captured Nanjing yet, and some rumors have been self-defeated. He now doesn't really believe that the Fuhan Army can overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty and revive the Han Dynasty; but he also doesn't believe that the Fuhan Army is as dangerous as a candle in the wind and will be blown out by the army in the next moment.

From that day on, the gangsters in Wuchang City began to frequently forcibly cut off other people's pigtails. One pigtail could be exchanged by the government for two kilograms of rice, or a bowl of offal soup and two large steamed buns, which could provide enough food for a day. Then there are still pigtails, that is food, that is not hungry.

As for people who had their pigtails forcibly cut off and complained to the government, haha, the government of the Fuhan Army had a much lower threshold than the Manchu government, but it just ignored such things. This is not a phenomenon that only occurs in Wuchang, but also in Hubei as a whole. Therefore, many people who would rather pay the extra braid tax than cut their braids cut them off themselves.

You can keep it at home if you cut it yourself, otherwise if it gets into the hands of the government, it will be burned in one word.

Many people were crying like their mother had died. During those days, Qiu Jiashan could often see people with swollen eyes like peaches, who were out of their minds.

Besides, in mid-May, a few days before the King of Han became king, the iron-clad Xiangyang City could not really withstand the artillery shells of the Fu Han Army. The city's defenders suddenly collapsed. First, there was chaos between the Xiangyang City defenders and the Sichuan soldiers. Then the chaos quickly spread to the Xiangyang militia, and finally to the Hubei Green Camp. Then the Fuhan army captured Xiangyang without any blood. Admiral Detai of Huguang and Admiral Ma Mingxun of Sichuan were lost in the chaos. Zhao Yongji and other generals either died or surrendered, and more than 20,000 troops in Xiangyang were wiped out.

According to folklore, the Chen family had dragon spirit. The Xiangyang defenders had been fighting for a month, but they collapsed on the eve of Chen Hui becoming king. In addition, the Fuhan Army did not send out a large force to attack the city during this month. This is not God protecting the real dragon emperor, what is this?

Qiu Jiashan dared to swear on his own life that this rumor was definitely spread by the secret camp, and the officials from various places were adding fuel to the flames and deceiving the ignorant people. Yes, that's not God protecting the True Dragon Emperor, that's God trying to fool the mud-legged man.

Qiu Jiashan knows what it feels like to be bombarded. Xiangyang City has been under bombardment for a month. There are no reinforcements outside and there is no hope. The soldiers inside are roaring and collapsing. Qiu Jiashan is not at all aware of it. Not surprising. Only those who have personally experienced the suffering of being bombarded by artillery can best speak about it.

As soon as the King of Han came to the throne, he issued a decree to hold a ceremony to discuss talents. Anyone who thinks he has the ability can go and sign up. He also holds a scientific examination. Regardless of his origin, as long as he can read and write, anyone who is willing to give it a try can also You can sign up. From local governments, now we don’t call them officials, we call them governments. They will provide you with your ID card and road guide. With these two things, you can go to Lushan.

The ID card is another new policy of the Fu Han Army. In fact, it is an ivory plate. In the pre-Ming Dynasty, ivory, animal bones, wood, metal, etc. were used to make plates. The name, position, resume and government office of the license holder were engraved on it, depending on the identity, status and function. When entering identity information, sometimes "native place" or other warnings are written, or warnings such as the crime of using ivory plates or not using ivory plates are marked. By the Qing Dynasty, this thing had begun to turn to the middle and lower classes. The Fu Han Army is a one-step deal, and all people have to do it.

The household registration department of the police station has been busy for several months. Qiu Jiashan thinks that this is a census of men and women.

The road permit is called a road permit, but it is actually a book with a "pass" printed on it. It records in detail the appearance, native place, home address, relatives, and the signatures of the co-guarantor in the pre-Ming Dynasty.

Today, Qiu Jiashan got off work early and went home. He returned home safely from the government office under the protection of two armed policemen in armor. These were his bodyguards, not only him, but also Zheng Jingchun and others. In addition, inside and outside the courtyard of Qiu's mansion, there was always a group of armed policemen with live ammunition doing security work day and night. The latter were different from the ordinary policemen in the police station. In Qiu Jiashan's opinion, these armed policemen were fully equipped garrisons, which were not available in the county-level police station. The entire Wuchang police station had only 200 people, and it was said that they were two combat teams directly transferred from the army.