Chapter 313: Starting the Engine

This was the second question he needed to clarify: what exactly was the Australians’ purpose?

There was no such thing as a free lunch. The Australians’ great enthusiasm for the Deng-Lai rebellion was clearly driven by their own objectives.

Asking for help from others was, in the end, a matter of exchanging benefits. If one could not offer immediate benefits, then it depended on how much future benefit one could offer in exchange.

What were the Australians after? Sun Yuanhua was very puzzled.

Despite his confusion, both sides had a tacit understanding of the matter. That evening, Lu Yang and Lu Wenyan hosted a banquet for Sun Yuanhua in the inner hall.

The food and wine were simple, and no one’s mind was on eating and drinking. After three rounds of wine, Lu Wenyan sent everyone else away, and the two sides immediately had a frank discussion about “deep cooperation.”

Sun Yuanhua proposed the request to “borrow troops to aid in suppression.” Specifically, he asked them to dispatch their navy to blockade Dengzhou to prevent the Dengzhou side from colluding with Dongjiang.

As for his plan, it was also very simple. He planned to go straight to Laizhou the next morning, gather his remaining troops there, and at the same time, ask Yu Dacheng for help. With the support of reinforcements, he would hold Laizhou and Qingzhou.

Historically, it was the staunch defense of Laizhou by the succeeding Deng-Lai governor, Xie Lian, and the Shandong governor, Xu Congzhi, that confined the rebel army’s activities to the Deng-Lai area, thus giving the court the opportunity to mobilize reinforcements for suppression.

Lu Wenyan also agreed with this point. If Sun Yuanhua did not enter Laizhou, he would not be able to report to the court and explain his whereabouts. From the perspective of seizing the initiative, the sooner he got to Laizhou, the better.

“It’s just that I only have three followers with me now. I have to ask Master Lu to send someone to escort me.”

“No problem, no problem,” Lu Wenyan nodded. “I will send a fast boat to take you to Laizhou tomorrow, sir. As for you, sir,” he thought for a moment, “only three followers may not be enough. You don’t even have anyone to run errands and handle documents…”

Sun Yuanhua thought about it and agreed. All his staff and servants were trapped in the city, and he didn’t even have anyone to help with documents.

Although Laizhou was also within his jurisdiction, his relationship with the local magistrate and prefect was not that of a superior and subordinate. After he lost Dengzhou, it was still unknown how these officials would treat him. Without his own team, he might not even be able to get a glass of water.

Lu Wenyan then said that he had already prepared a team of followers, including a secretary, servants, retainers, and maids, all ready to go with him to Laizhou.

“They are all Catholics, and most of them are also from Shandong,” he said specially to allay Sun Yuanhua’s suspicions.

This group of people were indeed mostly from Shandong. After all, Sun Yuanhua’s trip to Laizhou was into a dangerous area, and it was not necessary to send too many naturalized citizens. People like retainers and servants could be recruited from the local refugees. Only a few were naturalized citizens. Among them, the one who helped with documents was a naturalized citizen from Zhejiang. This person was originally a scholar who failed to become a secretary and was instead thrown out by his master to take the blame. His scholar title was revoked, and he was exiled to Leizhou.

In Leizhou, because he had no money to bribe the officials, he was thrown into prison and almost tortured to death. At that time, the Leizhou station, in order to specifically recruit “bitter and deeply resentful” naturalized citizens, specially searched the prisons at the prefectural and county levels in Leizhou and rescued this dying, unlucky fellow. This time, he was specially sent to Shandong to be placed by Sun Yuanhua’s side.

As for blockading Dengzhou, Lu Wenyan readily agreed. Firstly, it was not a problem. Secondly, whether to blockade or not depended on the need—they would not blockade Dengzhou until they had fattened up Kong Youde. Historically, tens of thousands of Dongjiang soldiers and civilians had defected to Kong’s subordinates in Dengzhou. Just Chen Youshi’s unit alone brought seven or eight thousand men.

As for the reward, Lu Wenyan laid out the Senate’s conditions:

1. Sun Yuanhua would tacitly allow them to act as they saw fit in the Deng-Lai area, including purchasing land under false names, hiring labor, and taking in refugees, and allow them to freely transport people out of Shandong. He would also provide all conveniences.
2. Australian ships could freely enter and exit all ports in the Deng-Lai area.
3. The Australians would be allowed to freely train militia in the Deng-Lai and Qingzhou areas and be given official recognition.
4. Sun Yuanhua could not arbitrarily deploy the troops under the Australians’ command and could only communicate with Lu Wenyan through the liaison officer by his side.
5. Sun Yuanhua would provide a certain amount of grain and pay as a subsidy for the militia trained by the Australians.

Regarding the last point, Lu Wenyan was very magnanimous and said that considering his current situation, he would not specify a specific number, as long as he provided a little subsidy as appropriate.

At the same time, Lu Wenyan also stated that all Australian militia and navy would not fly the Australian flag but would use the name of local militia. Grain and pay.

After careful consideration, Sun Yuanhua believed that these five conditions were not excessive and immediately agreed to all of them.

The two sides reached an agreement and immediately drank and celebrated. Lu Wenyan reminded him:

“Before you go to Laizhou, sir, please write a letter to Grand Secretary Xu and Grand Secretary Zhou. I will arrange for a boat to go to Tianjin.”

“Yes, yes, I was muddle-headed!” Sun Yuanhua said repeatedly. He secretly blamed himself for being so excited that he had forgotten this important matter.

Xu Guangqi was his mentor and in-law, and Zhou Yanru was someone he had bribed with money. They were his biggest supporters in the court. He had to inform them of the situation as soon as possible so that they could speak for him in the court.

Of course, he could not mention the matter of his capture, nor the private discussion with the Australians. But he might as well explain his next move and plans in detail.

After some deliberation, Sun Yuanhua wrote letters to Xu Guangqi, Zhou Yanru, the Minister of War Xiong Mingyu, and a dozen other officials in the court with whom he had connections and could be relied upon as supporters. After sealing them, he handed them to Lu Wenyan.

“I will arrange for someone to deliver the letters to each household,” Lu Wenyan said. “If there are any replies, I will bring them back as well.”

“I’m afraid the replies won’t come so quickly…”

“It’s no matter. Just add a note on the envelope of the letter, sir, asking them to hand the reply to the Qiwei Post in the capital for delivery. It will be delivered in three to five days.”

“Good.” Sun Yuanhua nodded repeatedly. The Australians were indeed meticulous in their work!

Lu Wenyan instructed someone to pack Sun Yuanhua’s luggage and prepare a fast boat to take him to Laizhou the next morning. He then called for the secretary he had assigned to him and pointed at him.

“From now on, if you have any matters, sir, you can instruct this gentleman to relay them. If I have any news to report, I will also report it to you through him.”

Because he knew that Sun Yuanhua could not completely trust this secretary, it was better to simply give him the status of a “liaison officer,” so that Sun would not dare to underestimate him.

At this moment, Cheng Lingsu came over with a package and presented it. Sun Yuanhua looked at it with a puzzled expression.

“Please open it and take a look, sir,” Lu Wenyan said with a grin.

When he opened it, it was his official seal as the governor of Deng-Lai. Sun Yuanhua was greatly surprised. His official seal had been lost after the fall of the city and was probably taken by the rebel army. He had not expected to see it again here—where did they get it from?

However, upon closer inspection, this was not the original seal. Although the entire seal was made with exquisite craftsmanship, and even the serial number from when it was cast by the Ministry of Works was identical—even the nicks and worn strokes on the serial number were there—he could still feel that it was a counterfeit seal.

“This…”

He looked at Lu Wenyan. Although losing the official seal was a great inconvenience and also one of the “crimes,” using a counterfeit seal rashly would be a bad thing if it were discovered.

Lu Wenyan instructed someone to bring some Xuan paper and stamped the seal on it. The bright red seal was imprinted on the snow-white Xuan paper, and Sun Yuanhua was once again surprised. The weight and wear of the strokes on a counterfeit seal, no matter how skilled the engraver, could not be made identical. However, the characters printed by this seal were almost identical to his original one.

Considering that it was unlikely that his governor’s seal could have been found at the same time he was rescued, intelligence personnel in Dengzhou city had begun collecting Sun Yuanhua’s various notices and documents several months ago and sending them to Qimu Island. The seals on the documents were scanned with high precision, stored as digital files, and sent to Lingao by fast boat. They were processed by computer at Zhou Dongtian’s printing factory and then engraved using a joint processing center. As for the seal itself, it was found from historical materials. The various details on the seal were photographed by Huang Ande with a digital camera on one occasion. Therefore, all the details were complete after it was made. Finally, it was aged according to the photos.

Lu Wenyan just smiled slightly. He believed that Sun Yuanhua would not raise any objections to this. Now that he was out of trouble and had the governor’s seal in his hand, it was like a tiger with wings.

In the end, Sun Yuanhua just cupped his hands in thanks. With the official seal in hand, it was much more convenient to do anything.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Sun Yuanhua, escorted by the militia of Qimu Island, arrived in Laizhou by boat. The prefect of Laizhou was originally in a state of panic. There were many rumors outside, some saying that Sun Yuanhua was dead, and others that he had been captured. He sent people to ask Yu Dacheng for help, but unexpectedly, Yu Dacheng had been at a loss since receiving the news of the fall of Dengzhou and had been hiding in the governor’s mansion chanting sutras. The servants and officials secretly called him “Governor of the White Lotus.” The people sent by the prefect of Laizhou received no instructions and no reinforcements.

Just as he was at his wit’s end, Sun Yuanhua suddenly arrived. The prefect of Laizhou was both surprised and happy. He was happy that he finally had a backbone, and surprised to see where this Sun Yuanhua had come from. Fortunately, he had seen Sun Yuanhua many times, and Sun Yuanhua had dozens of followers with him, so he immediately opened the city gates to let Sun Yuanhua into Laizhou. He immediately ordered people to clean up the prefectural school to serve as Sun Yuanhua’s governor’s office.

As soon as Sun Yuanhua settled down, he immediately wrote a letter to Yu Dacheng and sent Sun Yuan to deliver it immediately. He knew very well that with the outbreak of this rebellion, he and Yu Dacheng were “in the same boat.” They had to maintain a coordinated position on how to deal with it.

Yu Dacheng’s responsibility for the Kong Youde rebellion was at most indirect. As long as he handled it well, it was very likely that he would get a reprimand and continue in his post. With him in Shandong, he would have more room to maneuver in the future.

Afterward, he immediately began to write a memorial to the throne.