Wubei Zhi (Vol. 17)

...er. Continuing from the previous page: "Qiu Fu sent an envoy... to request surrender." Immediately, those who had claimed illness and were lying at home arose. Those who had previously requested to retire from their posts fell silent.

The rebel sub-commanders Hong Shijian and Xu Huineng led their respective units to surrender. Wang Shi The newly appointed Imperial Inspector of Zhedong said to them: "Your surrender today is the correct path. You must now establish merit to distinguish yourselves from your past actions." He then ordered them to lead their followers as the vanguard. In six battles against the rebels, they were successful. Wang Shi then memorialized the throne to grant them official ranks.

Before this, rebel spies had entered Yuezhou Modern-day Shaoxing, the regional capital, and the local military clerks had hidden them, providing them with food and drink. At this time, some spies even pretended to lead rebel generals to surrender, but they were actually scouting the imperial army's strengths and weaknesses. Wang Shi searched for and arrested all of them, ordering their execution. He tightened the security at the gates and strictly patrolled the nights. Everything was handled with such thoroughness and secrecy that the rebels no longer knew what the imperial army was doing.

Wang Shi then ordered the various counties to open their granaries to provide relief to the poor and needy. Someone advised him: "The army's food supply is currently an urgent matter; we cannot afford to distribute it."

Wang Shi replied: "This is something you do not understand." By feeding the poor, Wang Shi was likely preventing them from being recruited by the rebels out of desperation.

The imperial army was short on cavalry. Wang Shi noted: "The Tibetans original: "吐蕃" (Tufan) and Uyghurs original: "回鶻" (Huihu) who were relocated to the Yangtze and Huai regions—those people are accustomed to rugged terrain and are skilled with saddles and horses." Upon checking the registers within his jurisdiction, he found several hundred such men. These captives had long been travelers in a foreign land and were in a state of extreme hunger and exhaustion. Wang Shi...