537 Attack Against the People (1)
In the next period of time, the Dragon King Stronghold and the various troops of the Imperial Court attacked and defended each other. With Chen Feng on the battlefront, the Imperial Court’s troops basically defended and did not take the initiative to attack. As for the other routes, they probed and attacked several times, but were forced back by the guards of the various strongholds. The two sides were still trapped in a strategic stalemate.
Over the years, the Dragon King Stronghold had avenged the people and spread martial arts manual throughout the world. It was extremely popular among the people, so they had many supporters among the people of Huyang, and the state capitals were powerless to control them. Now that the army was here, the Imperial Court’s orders could be immediately implemented.
After all, with hundreds of thousands of troops guarding Huyang, even if they could not deal with the bandits for the time being, could they still not be able to deal with the weak peasants?
The “10 households as a cluster” method was quickly implemented. If one household in their cluster was a thief, the other nine households would be held accountable. However, if these nine households reported it to the government, then they would be meritorious. Not only would they not have to be clustered continuously under surveillance, but they would also be rewarded with silver, fields, and other benefits.
Of course, with Chen Feng’s prestige and the low credibility of the government, even if most people knew who were the bandit supporters, they would most likely keep quiet and protect each other.
Therefore, Ma Zhen did not expect the people to take the initiative to implement it. He first forced this method by force to make an example out of those who were caught.
It did not matter if there was no report from the people for the time being. It was easy to figure out which part of Huyang was the most serious, so all the army and officials had to do was directly stand watch over those areas and take the measure of clustering the people in a village to capture all of them. At the same time, if anyone took the initiative to confess or wanted to escape from being exposed, they would be temporarily pardoned and given benefits at appropriate times. They would announce it to the public to prove that their claims were not nonsense.
When the people heard that the Imperial Court’s army had implemented this method, they were all terrified and uneasy. Some were afraid that they would suffer, so they gathered their families and sought refuge in the Dragon King Stronghold overnight. Some were afraid that they would suffer an undeserved calamity and fled one after another.
This move was exactly what Ma Zhen wanted. The more refugees fled to the Dragon King Stronghold, the more rations the opponent would consume. The countryside devoid of people would reduce the chances of having the spies of the outlaws within the area, and it could also help clear the space in wilderness around their camp.
At the same time, Huang Ping followed the orders and sent his soldiers to pretend to be bandits to plunder the villages.
The Imperial Court secretly sent people to spread rumors, one after another. They said that because there were too many people who had fled to the Dragon King Stronghold, there was limited food on the mountain, so the stronghold could only send people down the mountain to snatch food and try to store food for the winter. They spread news that the stronghold ignored the lives of the people who had been robbed, and that Chen Feng was just pretending to be benevolent.
To put it in another way, because there was not enough food on the mountain, and Chen Feng no longer accepted the idea of the villagers seeking refuge. Therefore, these refugees were chased down the mountain and could only form a new group to plunder everywhere. The countryside was no longer safe.
For a moment, the people in Huyang were panicking.
Of course, if there were people who could make up their minds to join the stronghold, there were naturally those who were unwilling to follow the rebels.
When the nobles suffered, although many people were happy, they did not have the guts to actually commit treason. They only wanted to watch from the sidelines and watch others uphold justice for them, but they did not want to be involved in any trouble. They wanted to live a low profile and support Chen Feng on the premise that they would not be implicated.
Until they could not survive at all, there were still many people who did not want to lose their current lives. Because the situation compelled them to do so, they could only work hard to survey each other and prevent any family from implicating them. If they had long known which family was the culprit, they would have taken the initiative to report to the government to seek innocence.
As for those who had already benefited, they were even more afraid that others would implicate them and cause them to lose what they had already obtained, or they wanted to obtain more benefits through reporting others, so they spied on their neighbors more vigorously.
During the process of implementing this law, the Imperial Court also drove the villagers from different places to live in one location. They also chose some of the people in each area to manage and supervise the entire place, similar to the role of a Junior Officer.
With the support and supervision of the officials, these “temporary officers” who had been chosen had no choice but to work hard, afraid that they would be replaced or even held accountable.
As for some of the smarter “temporary Junior Officers”, they used the little power they had to form factions among the civilians to stabilize their positions. At the same time, they could also strengthen their control over the other villagers and strictly monitor them to prevent anyone from implicating them.
As a result, the people were naturally divided. Everyone was wary of others and spied on each other thoroughly.
Moreover, the scale of the Imperial Court’s army was huge. Most people knew that an arm could not win against a thigh, so they did not dare to resist directly… They knew that if anyone resisted in public, the officials would directly exterminate them as a warning to others.
The officials announced to the villagers that those who were caught supporting the bandits should be executed according to the law. However, in view of the fact that the bandits were good at playing with people’s hearts, the government specially gave them a way out. However, even if they could escape death, they could not escape punishment. This punishment was for those who were accomplices was to all be sent to charge into the battlefield on the side of the Imperial Army. If they could survive in the end, the court would let bygones be bygones.
In several battles, the soldiers chased away the sinners in front, while the troops hid behind. They used the sinners as a barrier and advanced step by step.
These criminals were basically unarmed, while behind them were the soldiers who were in charge of the battle. They could only charge forward with their heads lowered.
This situation left the hands and feet of those in the Dragon King Stronghold tied. They naturally could not allow the soldiers to drive the people into chaos. It was even more difficult to shoot and kill the villagers’ parents and elders. There might be the parents and brothers of the stronghold inside, so it was not a good idea to clash with them.
Fortunately, most of the battles were in the water, and the tactics of the soldiers to drive the people to fight were limited by the terrain. Their effect in the water was limited, and they could not achieve the best effect.
Such a cruel tactic would easily be criticized, but if the target was an unruly citizen who had committed treason, the Imperial Court would have a clear conscience.
Under Ma Zhen and Yuwen Yan’s strategy, the military’s control over the people of Huyang gradually rose. Although they were not popular with the people, it was still effective to divide the people, intimidate, and manage them under high pressure… As long as they had enough strength, this would be even more efficient in the short term.
…
In the main tent of the Dragon King Stronghold.
The leaders gathered for a discussion, all furious.
“Damn it, the soldiers’ schemes are really sinister. They’re actually driving the people to their deaths!”
“Not only that, but they even pretended to be bandits and plundered the people to frame us. How hateful!”
“The Imperial Court still dares to call themselves orthodox after doing this. Do we look like bandits, or do they look like bandits?”
Zhou Jing sat at the head of the table and listened to the indignant discussions of the leaders. His expression did not change much.
He had already learned about the five strategies of the soldiers when he fought Ling Fengzi in front of the formation.
He had to admit that these methods of the Imperial Court were effective. Ignoring the fact that they had wronged more villagers, they had indeed removed many of the spies and hidden pillars of the Dragon King Stronghold.
In his opinion, the reason why the officials were so ruthless was firstly because they felt that Huyang was filled with unruly people that did not have the heart to side with the Imperial Court. They had to be governed with force and threats instead. Secondly, this was a battle of the Imperial Court’s national fate. Victory was the most important thing, and it was not the time to care about the subsequent governance, so they did not treat the commoners as humans.
Zhou Jing was not surprised. After all, this was a feudal era, and the army basically had no integrity to speak of.
At this moment, Guo Haishen frowned and said, “The soldiers are coercing the villagers like this. Should we go and save them?”
Zhou Jing looked at him and shook his head,
“The Imperial Court has long lost the hearts of the people in Huyang, so that Ma Zhen went all out and treated all the local people as accomplices of the rebellion. He thus has no scruples when doing things. If we were really bandits who did evil and ignored the people, he might not have used such a plan. However, we have the support of the people, so the officials treat the hearts of the people as the vital points of our army and threaten us. This is an open plot to ruin our righteousness.
“It’s just that the Imperial Court has mobilized the entire country to attack. It’s not beneficial for our side to fight for a long time. If our army diverts their energy to save the people, it will play into the hands of the officials. There are many people in Huyang, so it’s difficult to save them all. This move will consume our troops and food, and we will also expose our flaws, allowing the officials to predict our actions and ambush us.”
“If we want to resolve our predicament, we have to defeat the soldiers quickly. Otherwise, we will only drag our army down.”
Zhou Jing replied in a deep voice.
On the battlefield, it was almost impossible to adapt those “I want to win both sides” strategies. If one thought of breaking the plan of the soldiers to win back the hearts of the people, they would instead be led by the nose by their opponents.
In his opinion, only by quickly defeating the imperial soldiers could he stop his losses.
Although the hearts of the people were useful, the people were unreliable most of the time. Although they supported the Dragon King Stronghold, they each had their own interests and were not united. It was impossible to expect everyone to abandon everything to help him. Therefore, there was nothing to blame them for protecting themselves. It was common sense to be divided — this was the most common method used by rulers.
Zhou Jing did not expect to rely on the hearts of the people to defeat his opponent. He had to use real weapons.
Duan Yunfeng’s eyes flashed as he said in a deep voice,
“The officials and soldiers drove the people to attack. In front of the formation, those fathers and friends called out to each other from afar to disintegrate the fighting spirit of our soldiers. As the saying goes, kindness does not lead the troops. If the officials and soldiers come again, we won’t show mercy to the villagers anymore. We’ll shoot and chase them away… At the root, the Imperial Court was the one to force them to their deaths. All we can do is let those sons and friends kill more officials to take revenge.”
Du Ying nodded in agreement and added, “That’s right. Moreover, there are drawbacks to driving the people into battle. If our army takes the initiative to attack, this group of villagers will run blindly and panic. They will also attack the enemy formation. It might not be a bad thing… If we want to succeed, we have to be ruthless!”
Zhou Jing was silent.
This method of expelling the people to fight was an innately difficult situation. As long as the opponent used it, there was almost no other way to deal with it. If one could not find it in themselves to be ruthless, the outcome would only be worse.
The Dragon King Stronghold’s uprising was said to be to kill the nobles for the people. As their opponents, the Imperial Court naturally would not let them maintain their “righteousness”… They would be slandered, divided, and forced to make a choice that went against their will. Such situations were inevitable. The enemy would definitely not let everything go smoothly. If the Imperial Court could create 10 sets of problems, they would definitely not create even one less. In such a life-and-death war, they would not hesitate even if the method ended up harming both sides.
Zhou Jing narrowed his eyes and suddenly stood up,
“Since the officials are doing this, our army naturally has to take revenge on the people of our army to vent our anger. At the same time, we have to intimidate the officials… Summon up a troop and follow me out of the stronghold by the water.”
“Chief, what are you thinking of doing?”
“Attack the camp and build a feature.”