Chapter 333: The South Gate Suburb

There were many officials in Laizhou city. Besides Sun Yuanhua and the local Prefect Zhu and Magistrate Hong, as well as the military commanders of the garrison, there was also the Shandong Censor, Wang Daochun. According to the historical trajectory, a large number of officials and generals would arrive in Laizhou in February: the defeated general Yang Yufan from Xincheng, the new governor of Shandong, Xu Congzhi—logically, Xie Lian should also be there, but now that Sun Yuanhua was safe and sound, it was unknown whether it would be his turn to be the governor of Deng-Lai. In addition, there were also the supervising eunuchs Xu Deshi and Zhai Sheng, and so on.

Among the local gentry, there were also a group of former high officials. The highest-ranking one was Jia Yuxiang, the former Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Left. Slightly lower was Zhang Xin, a jinshi of the fifth year of Tianqi, who was now dismissed and at home… All these people participated in the defense of Laizhou.

These people were all very shrewd. His own group of “militia” had too many traces of “Kun thieves.” Although the Ming Dynasty did not have a news broadcast, the officials’ news was relatively well-informed. They probably had a vague idea that there were “Kun thieves” in Guangdong with sharp firearms. It was not appropriate for him to show his face too much in front of them.

Sun Yuanhua was a very shrewd person. As soon as he heard Lü Zeyang’s words, he immediately understood what the other party meant. Although he did not know the future direction of history, he had already received the news that Xu Congzhi was going to enter the city. He completely agreed with the other party’s desire to avoid further complications.

“Where would you like to be stationed, brave warrior Lü?” Sun Yuanhua nodded in agreement with his request.

Lü Zeyang had already considered this problem on the way. If he stayed in the city, various guest and host armies would soon gather in the city. Historically, the relationship between guest and host armies was rarely harmonious. Even if the officials suppressed them effectively, his one hundred or so men would inevitably be implicated. He would also have to spend a lot of effort to deal with the relationships with all sides, which would be very exhausting.

Moreover, the intelligence forecast from the Great Library’s historical research group also mentioned that Sun Yuanhua was very likely to lose his position as governor of Deng-Lai. Even if he continued to hold this position, there was still Xu Congzhi in Laizhou city. In the future, it would be difficult for Sun to maintain absolute authority in the city. After all, his own force was small. Without Sun Yuanhua’s support, he might be used as cannon fodder.

It was the best policy to be stationed outside the city. But this location could not be too far from the city, otherwise he would be isolated and unable to play a role at a critical moment, which would defeat the purpose of his coming to Laizhou. So after careful consideration, he said that he was willing to lead his troops to be stationed in the suburb outside the city. The location was the suburb outside the south gate.

The suburb outside the south gate was relatively remote compared to the suburbs of the other three city gates. There were many ancestral halls and burial grounds of large families outside the city, and there were many empty houses, which was convenient for stationing troops. More importantly, it was relatively close to Laizhou’s main harbor, Hutouya, which was convenient for the navy to respond from the sea.

In the Ming Dynasty, in any siege defense, as long as conditions permitted, the defenders would try to set up camps outside the city to directly protect the city gates. It was not surprising that Lü Zeyang volunteered to defend the south gate suburb.

“It’s fine to be stationed in the south gate suburb. But you only have a hundred men. How can you defend the south gate suburb?” Sun Yuanhua felt that the other party’s willingness to volunteer to defend the south gate suburb was commendable, but it was a bit of an overestimation. According to his plan, the force stationed at the south gate should have at least five hundred combat troops, supplemented by militia and able-bodied men—which might not be enough. The large number of firearms in Dengzhou city would very likely be transported by the rebels to attack the city. At that time, he was afraid that even five hundred men would not be enough.

“I’m sure you know that our firearms are sharp—” Lü Zeyang did not hide it. “The rebels are just chickens and dogs.”

This was a bit too arrogant. Just as Sun Yuanhua was a little displeased, Lü Zeyang added, “If there are some surplus troops in the city, and a few hundred more able-bodied militiamen are called to help, I would be very grateful.”

The implication was that he did not want government soldiers. Sun Yuanhua understood what he meant. But when he thought of entrusting the south gate suburb to a few hundred militiamen, he was a little hesitant. But then he thought that he did not have many fresh troops in his hands, and the fall of the suburb was only a matter of time. It was better to keep the strong combat troops to directly defend the city.

Although the troops brought by Lü Zeyang were called militia, their actual combat effectiveness would not be inferior to that of the Ming combat troops—perhaps even superior. Otherwise, they would never have defeated He Zhentai’s large army in Hainan.

“Good!” Sun Yuanhua nodded. “You will be stationed in the south gate suburb.” He pondered for a moment. “The defense of the south gate will be personally supervised by me.”

“Your Excellency is wise!” Lü Zeyang thought to himself that Sun Yuanhua was indeed a sensible person. It was a common practice in the Ming Dynasty for the main officials in the city to be responsible for one gate each during a siege. In the historical defense of Laizhou, Xu Congzhi, Xie Lian, and others were each responsible for one gate. Xu Congzhi was even killed by rebel artillery fire during the siege. If another official were in charge, it would inevitably arouse suspicion about the origin of this militia. It would be much more convenient for Sun Yuanhua to be directly in charge.

As for the militia sent, Lü Zeyang was confident that he could control them all. He would first use them as civilian laborers, and finally incorporate them all into the advance column.

“It’s just that the south gate still lacks a commander…” Sun Yuanhua remembered another matter. In any case, Lü Zeyang was just a “commoner” and had no official rank. It would be difficult for him to be in charge of the defense of the south gate suburb, and it would not be easy to cooperate with the other units in the city. He had no trusted generals in his hands, which made him a little embarrassed.

“You can ask General Zhang Tao to defend the south gate,” Lü Zeyang said. Seeing Sun Yuanhua’s surprised expression, Lü Zeyang immediately told him in a low voice the news of the rescue of Song Guanglan, Wang Zheng, and Zhang Tao.

“Rest assured, sir. We have temporarily kept them on the island. After they have rested for a day or two, we will escort them to Laizhou,” he said meaningfully. “The several gentlemen were able to fight their way out of the chaotic army at that time. They are naturally people who understand the greater good and know the situation. You don’t have to worry, sir…”

“Excellent!” Sun Yuanhua was overjoyed. The rescue of these people was certainly good news for him, who was almost a bare commander. But they also knew something about his capture. Now, what Lü Zeyang said was very clear: these people were all prepared to conceal the experience of being captured. Everyone was on the same side. As long as they all told the same story, there was naturally no need to worry about the matter of being captured anymore.

Sun Yuanhua then gave him a few more instructions and then called for a secretary to take his handwritten order to see Zhu Wannian. All militia who entered the city to assist in the defense had to register with him, report the number of people and weapons, so that the yamen could issue them grain and military pay, and at the same time, supplement them with some weapons as appropriate.

Walking on the straight north-south road of the Drum Tower Street in Ye County, looking at the dilapidated Laizhou Prefectural Yamen in the distance, Senator Lü Zeyang couldn’t help but feel a sense of absurd incongruity.

Lü Zeyang and Lü Yang, although their names only differed by one word, had no kinship at all. Lü Yang was from Ningxia, while Lü Zeyang’s family was from Shandong, or more precisely, Laizhou City, Yantai, Shandong, which was now the county seat of Laizhou Prefecture where Sun Yuanhua was. This was also why the Senate, at a critical moment in the Engine Operation, finally freed him from the heavy audit work of the Cheka and sent him to the front line in Laizhou. In terms of familiarity with the scenery of Laizhou, no one in the entire Senate could surpass him. Not to mention anything else, the Laizhou dialect spoken by the special reconnaissance soldiers and the lurking intelligence officers was taught by Senator Lü Zeyang himself.

Although there were also deserters or refugees from the three eastern prefectures among the naturalized citizens, such as Huang Ande, most of them were from Dengzhou Prefecture, which was further east, that is, the area of Weihai and Yantai in later generations. The difference between the dialect there and the Laizhou dialect was so great that it could be distinguished by ear. This was also a very troublesome problem for the Executive Committee during the planning stage of the Engine Operation. In the absence of any Laizhou-born naturalized citizens, they had to pull Senator Lü to train people as a last resort. Fortunately, the population composition of Laizhou did not change much from the late Ming Dynasty to the entire Qing Dynasty, and the dialect was well preserved. Therefore, Senator Lü’s Laizhou dialect teaching, according to the feedback from the Engine front command, was “quite effective.”

In fact, during the preparation stage of the Engine Operation, Senator Lü wanted to return to his geographical “hometown” to take a look. Unfortunately, he was neither a military personnel nor an dispensable “soy sauce” person. As a graduate of the accounting department of Xiamen University, even in the talent-rich financial circle, Senator Lü was a scarce financial and accounting professional. Moreover, he was one of the few who had worked in both the State Taxation Administration and the稽查局, and was familiar with the organizational structure. Therefore, Cheng Dong and Yi Fan had always used him as a main labor force. In the initial stage of the establishment of the Cheka and the State Taxation Administration, Senator Lü had always been at the forefront. And the start of the Engine Operation coincided with the year-end accounting stage of taxation. Senator Lü felt that he had almost returned to the days of his internship at the accounting firm: from morning to night, one cup of coffee after another, in a smoke-filled office, facing a mountain of year-end reports, busy and overwhelmed…

The busy Senator Lü naturally missed the opportunity of the first batch of personnel dispatch. He himself had a lot of opinions about this. The reason why he gave up a bland civil servant life to participate in the transmigration was naturally to make a career. Senator Lü had a great ambition: to follow the example of the God of Wealth, Song Ziwen, and establish a Senate version of the Salt Gabelle Police, or, an armed financial guard!

The tax police was a powerful department established for the purpose of anti-smuggling and cracking down on tax evasion. It was set up in countries with powerful local forces such as Russia and Italy, but not in China. The tax稽查局 only had the right to audit accounts. The business of cracking down on tax evasion belonged to the economic crime investigation department of the Public Security Bureau. This was even worse than the customs, which at least had full-time anti-smuggling police. Of course, the ultimate tax police was the Salt Gabelle Police of the great brother-in-law Song Ziwen. Of course, this was impossible under the Senate system. But following the example of Italy, establishing a small-scale, quasi-military “armed financial guard” was quite to the liking of several leading figures in the financial circle. As their power expanded, Yi Fan also felt more and more that it was necessary for his department to have a firm grip on the gun barrel, otherwise the name Cheka would be a waste.