Chapter 466: Only Two Hundred and Forty People
Starting Chapter 461 of "The Great Ming in the Box": Wang Xiaohua killed Black Shashen, made great achievements and was promoted.But these achievements were only... See what happens next!
Wang Xiaohua killed Black Shashen, made great achievements and was promoted.But these achievements were only directly absorbed within the army.
When it actually came time to report the merits to the emperor, it was a different story.
The petition was written to say, âUnder the wise command of Du Wenhuan, General Wang Chengen of Shaanxi led the charge at the forefront, rushing into battle, and personally took the head of the rebel Black Shashen.â
Wang Chengen had merit, Du Wenhuan also had merit, both of these men could be remembered in the emperorâs mind; the only person the emperor would never know was Wang Xiaohua.
Luckily White Cat didnât care about that!
He was an authentic founding-level rebel, a close deputy to Bai Shui Wang Er, the iconic figure of the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty. In terms of ârebellion spirit,â he was more resolute than many elders in Gaojia Village, and he would never sincerely want to climb up in the official ranks.
He was the best choice to âinfiltrate the enemyâs interiorâ.
Seeing the Great Generals begin to discuss the follow-up events, White Cat retreated to the corner of the room and said in a very low voice, âDeity, Iâve become a captain and can command four hundred and forty troops. Next is to bring our own people in, replace the garrison soldiers, right?â
Li Daoxuan seriously considered this question, thinking: In the late Ming Dynasty, the garrison soldiers lived very hard lives, barely surviving with insufficient food. If they replaced the garrison soldiers provided by the court, those soldiers would lose their jobs, and the likelihood of them joining the bandits would be very high.
This was certainly not a good thing!
While recruiting bandits for reform, if they drove people to become bandits at the same time, Gaojia Village would have no claim to justice.
âThese people need to be kept,â the Cloth Doll Deity spoke. âOur people must come, and the garrison soldiers must be supported too. Both hands must grasp firmly, both must be strong.â
âAh?â White Cat was stunned. âWouldnât that cause overstaffing? Might it lead to the court accusing us of rebellion? Our plan to infiltrate the officials would fail.â
The Cloth Doll Deityâs embroidered face flashed a strange smile and said, âIt wonât! Just wait and see.â
White Cat: â???â
Before long, White Cat understood.
When the four hundred and forty garrison soldiers assigned to him by Wang Chengen came to report, he carefully counted them, ticking off heads one by one, and found there were actually only two hundred and forty men.
The group of two hundred and forty men had four captains, each commanding barely fifty to sixty people.
White Cat broke into a cold sweat and said, âHow did this happen? Shouldnât there be four hundred and forty men?â
A captain surnamed Zhao stepped forward, looking at White Cat with the expression of someone eyeing a new greenhorn, and said, âCaptain Wang, our numbers here are perfectly fine.â
White Cat said, âHow are they fine? Canât I count? Or canât you all count? Four captains, each should command one hundred and ten men. With four of you, it should total four hundred and forty men. Why are there only two hundred and forty here?â
Captain Zhao leaned close to his ear and whispered, âThis unit has been at two hundred and forty men for the past hundred years, every captain maintained this number. The pay for the missing two hundred men all goes to you, general. If we really brought four hundred and forty men, you wouldnât get any extra pay to take.â
White Cat sputtered.
Captain Zhao thought secretly: This general really seems to be a newcomer, not even familiar with the old rules of the army. Faced with this, he actually shows a somewhat disgusted look. Normally, shouldnât he look pleased? The pay for two hundred menâthat tastes pretty sweet when you pocket it.
White Cat finally understood what the Deity meant by âno overstaffingââkeeping these two hundred and forty men and only bringing in another two hundred from Gaojia Village.
He snorted and said, âI get it! No wonder the garrison soldiers fight like crap. Is every unit understrength? If the outside counts a ten-thousand-man army, does it actually have just over six thousand?â
Captain Zhao said softly, âOver six thousand is even pushing it; with five thousand or so, thatâs a general with a conscience.â
White Cat couldnât help griping, âArenât the Great Generals afraid theyâll lose battles?â
The Cloth Doll Deity chuckled quietly in his ear and said, âActually no! All the Great Generals privately feed their own soldiers. They use the pay for those two hundred missing men to raise a bunch of desperadoes as household troops, putting them at the front during battle with the garrison soldiers at the rear.â
Only then did White Cat fully realize, âI see. When our Gaojia Village men arrive, weâll say theyâre my private household troops.â
He reorganized his inferior troops and returned to the conference hall.
There, he saw a group of Great Generals discussing their next strategy.
A scout stood in the hall, reporting loudly, âWang Jiayinâs main force fled southward. Still with him are only the forces of Zijin Liang and Bai Yuzhu, leaving them with just fifty to sixty thousand troops in total.â
âAs for King of Disruption (Gao Yingxiang), Xi Ying Eighth Great King (Zhang Xianzhong), Old Nan Feng (Ma Shouying), Cao Cao (Luo Rucai), and others, they all broke off from Wang Jiayinâs main force and scattered to all sides.â
Du Wenhuan pondered silently for a few seconds and said, âOur forces are insufficient to chase and divide the many bandit groups. After all, the emperor only wants Wang Jiayinâs head; the other bandits can be pacified with appeasement. For now, we just need to target Wang Jiayin.â
The generals clasped their fists and said, âYes, sir!â
With this major strategy settled, all the generals knew how to proceedâsimply chase southward and ignore everything else.
Du Wenhuan added, âWhen Wang Jiayinâs group broke out, they left over thirty thousand bandits behind in Hequ Countyâelderly and weak, women and childrenâwho couldnât escape with the young men. Now imprisoned in the city, what should we do with them?â
As soon as this question was asked, everyone immediately got headaches over it.
As soldiers, these men all thought much the same: one wordâkill!
But they werenât fools. Whoever dared to speak âkillâ first and others followed suit would later get all the blame dumped on them by the civil officials of the Appeasement Faction, facing endless complaints.
This was terribly hard to handle!
Even for civil officials, it was difficult, let alone a bunch of military officers with poor administrative abilities.
The Cloth Doll Deity gently tapped White Catâs cheek with its stuffed ball hand and whispered, âPropose handing them over to Inspector Wu Shen.â
White Cat suddenly understood, quickly stepped forward, clasped his fists, and said, âYour humble subordinate has a solution.â
His stepping out made the military officers overjoyedâfinally someone to be the sitting duck and take the blame later.
Great General Du Wenhuan, still angry, managed a rare strained smile; the expression was baffling as he said, âCaptain Wang, tell us, whatâs your good idea?â
As he asked this, all the military officers nearby thought to themselves: Kill! Say kill them all! Quickly say kill them all! Dare to say it, and weâll dare to do it!
White Cat said, âInspector Wu Shen brought a hundred thousand silver taels to pacify bandits, didnât he? We ought to hand over these thirty thousand captured bandit dependents to Wu Shen for handling.â