"Have the bandits retreated?" It was only then that the villagers woke up from a dream. Looking at the empty mountain road, the villagers were silent for a while, which turned into cheers.

"Retreat, retreat! Thanks to Lin Dong this time!"

Yes, without Lin Dong, Linjia Village would be in danger.

At the same time, some villagers were so jealous that when they saw the thieves retreating, they rushed out desperately and wanted to beat up the drowned dog. However, the bandit was not a drowned dog. He was clearly a hungry wolf. These villagers rushed out and were undoubtedly destined to die.

"Don't chase, come back quickly." Lin Dong shouted loudly.

It was a pity that the villagers could not listen to this junior's advice. They raised the tiger's fork and thrust it on the back of the bandit who fell at the end.

"Seeking death!" The bandit had already seen what was happening behind him. When he saw someone attacking him, he turned around and slashed the tiger's fork with his long knife, knocking the tiger's fork away. He then rushed towards the villager with a ferocious laugh.

Just now, there were too many people to use martial arts, but now it was another situation. The bandit used a whirlwind kick and immediately swept the villager to the ground. The long knife in his hand flew up and wiped the villager's neck.

"It's over!" The villager felt cold in his heart. How could he survive this knife? At this time, he felt full of regret. He regretted that he should not listen to Lin Dong's words for a moment, but now his life would be ruined.

However, just as the villagers closed their eyes and waited for death, a tiger's fork swung the long knife away with a clang.

The villagers felt something was wrong. When they opened their eyes, they saw Lin Dong holding a tiger fork in his hand and standing majestically beside him. The bandit's long knife was swung away by his tiger fork.

"Pull us back quickly." Lin Dong shouted.

The villagers immediately pulled Lin Dong and the villager back with all their might.

"Damn boy, I won't let you go." Seeing Lin Dong being pulled back, the bandit was extremely resentful and roared.

Lin Dong ignored it. At this time, he had exhausted his last bit of strength, and his newly recovered body was also a bit shaky.

"Old man, let's go!" the bandit said hello and disappeared at the end of the mountain road like the wind.

"Win, win..." The villagers didn't come back to their senses until now. The joy of victory made them forget themselves and chant, and many people even shed tears of excitement.

"Thanks to Nephew Lin this time. If it weren't for Nephew Lin, our Lin Village would be over."

The villager who was rescued by Lin Dong just now said with a face of shame: "Yes, my dear nephew, I would like to thank you very much. If it weren't for you, I would have died."

Lin Dong waved his hand and said: "Uncle, you're welcome. I am also a member of the village. If bandits come in, I will not be spared."

Hearing that he didn't take credit, everyone admired him even more. Aspiration lies not in age. The ancients said it is indeed true. Hey, when I was your age, I was afraid of everyone. How could I know how to command a war? It's really that people are better than others. You idiot.

You have to throw it away when comparing goods.

"Nephew Lin Dongxian, uncle obeys you!"

"Yes, we obey you!"

As the shouts got louder and louder, Lin Dong's name spread among the villagers for the first time.

"Lin Dong, grandpa really saw you right..." the patriarch said, stroking the sparse beards and nodding.

Huh, that's not what you said just now, Lin Dong secretly cursed in his heart.

Lin Dong waved his hand with difficulty, but his eyes fell on Lin Baoguo, and he said with a playful look: "How?"

Lin Bao's family and others were immediately speechless, hesitating and unable to speak. They did not expect that Lin Dong actually fought off the bandits, and their faces suddenly burned.

After standing for so long, Lin Dong was already exhausted. Seeing the bandits retreat, he relaxed, his body went limp, and he slowly fell down.

"My son, what's wrong with you? Don't scare me!" The old mother burst into tears and shook Lin Dong's body with her hands.

"His sister-in-law, Dong'er's nephew just fainted due to lack of physical strength. It's nothing serious." At this time, a middle-aged man dressed as a doctor touched Lin Dong's wrist and comforted him.

"Uncle, you didn't lie to me, did you?" the old mother asked half-believed and half-questioned.

"When have I ever deceived someone? Don't worry, as long as you let him rest for a while, he will recover."

The old mother felt relieved, and the patriarch enthusiastically arranged for two young men to send Lin Dong back to his home.

When Lin Dong woke up again, it was already halfway through the sunset, and the sun shone through the window into the house, which was quiet and peaceful. His mother, who was sitting in front of the bed, was wiping her tears.

"Mom, what's wrong with you?" Lin Dong pushed himself up and said weakly.

"Dong'er, you're awake..." The mother was obviously startled and hurriedly turned her head and wiped away her tears.

"Mom, how is the situation outside?" Lin Dong did not wake up, but rubbed his eyes and asked.

The bandits have retreated, but the clan leader said that this group of bandits is still at the foot of the mountain and refuses to leave, fearing that they will not give up easily.

Lin Dong nodded slightly. He knew in his heart that these bandits would not give up if they did not get any benefits. Standing still was not a long-term solution. The best way was to report to the government immediately and let the government send troops to encircle and suppress them.

However, this plan was quickly rejected by him.

After such a long period of rest, he finally sorted out the memory fragments in his mind.

Judging from these memories, this year is indeed the seventh year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty. At this time, the Ming Dynasty was experiencing internal and external troubles.

Starting from the first year of Chongzhen, large-scale peasant uprisings broke out one after another. The Ming army and the bandits went back and forth with each other, fighting with swords and swords.

Although the Ming army always maintained a strength advantage over the rogue bandits, the rogue bandits were not wiped out. On the contrary, in the seventh year of Chongzhen, the rogue bandits tended to become stronger and stronger.

The reason is that the commander-in-chief of each province can only be responsible for the rogue bandits within each province.

The reason why roving bandits are called roving bandits is reflected in the word "liu". They are very skilled in cross-province fighting and have a guerrilla style. During this period, they also take away the good people they meet on the road, which leads to the growing power of roving bandits throughout the northwest and central plains.

There was chaos, and the rogue bandits in several northern provinces could not be eliminated.

It was not until later that Emperor Chongzhen delegated power and appointed Chen Qiyu as the Commander-in-Chief of the Suppression of Bandits, who was fully responsible for the suppression of bandits. This official position governed the five provinces where bandits often appeared, including Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan, so he had great power.

Chen Qiyu was a Jinshi and a typical literati (this is very important. In the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent military generals from rebelling, civilian officials commanded the troops and military generals were responsible for implementation.), and even at that time, his reputation was very small.

It seems a bit unreliable, but this person is quite capable.

"History of the Ming Dynasty" records that in the fifth year of Chongzhen, the governor of Yansui captured and killed 177 ringleaders. In the sixth year, all bandits in the Yanshui Basin were wiped out. Please note that there were more than 170 ringleaders captured. At that time, he

There are no more than 2,000 soldiers in hand.

At that time, the Ming army maintained an advantage over the rogue bandits, and there were such fierce men responsible for comprehensively suppressing the bandits. Many people believed that the days of the rogue bandits were almost over, and things started to develop in this direction.

As soon as Chen Qiyu took office, he attacked from all sides and beat down the bandits until they howled like ghosts and wolves. Huguang was wiped out for a while. And his battle against the bandits was not haphazard. He had a systematic system. He gradually drove the main force of the bandits to one place and tried to encircle them.

Annihilate it.

This place was the main battlefield of this encirclement and suppression - Chechai Gorge. Chachai Gorge is located in today's Pingli County, Shaanxi Province. It is more than 40 miles long, surrounded by steep mountains, and the middle passage is extremely narrow, making it easy to enter and difficult to exit.

To put it bluntly, there was a mountain pass in front and back, and no matter how elite the bandits were or how well-equipped the equipment was, they would only die. At that time, the main force of the bandits was 70,000 to 80,000 people who came to this desperate place. The result can be imagined.

The Ming army blocked the mountain pass and stood on the mountain, throwing stones and torches. The stalemate lasted for dozens of days. More than half of the bandits died, and the living ones were even worse. There was no food for the people, no grass for the horses, and all the bows and arrows were lost.

, but it rained for another 20 days, which can be said to be a life-and-death situation. At this moment, as long as the Ming army launches an attack, the great success will be accomplished.

And Li Zicheng, the gravedigger of the Ming Dynasty in the future, was inside. At this moment when the battle was completed, the bandits came to ask for surrender. It’s a joke. After so many years of hard work, we have finally surrounded you all. Surrender? Why did you do it earlier?

Went. Even ordinary people would probably not agree to his surrender, but Chen Qiyu agreed.

As a result, more than 36,000 bandits faked a surrender and escaped, and a huge mistake was made. These people were not peasants who had just rebelled, but the elites who had been fighting against the government and the army for many years. After this difficult test, they had become a professional army.

level, he has magnificently completed the transition from bandit to army. He used to be chased and beaten by officers and soldiers, but now he can basically fight against them.

It is a pity that the officers and soldiers were basically unaware of this problem and thought it was just an ordinary defeat. They fought as they did before and they continue to fight now.

Soon the consequences became apparent. The fierce general He Renlong in northern Shaanxi was defeated and besieged by Li Zicheng. The fierce general Cao Wenzhao was forced to commit suicide with a sword during the battle. Hong Chengchou, Zuo Liangyu and other famous generals were afraid of the enemy and refused to fight.

In just the second year, Fengyang, the central capital of the Ming Dynasty, fell, and even Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral grave was dug up by the peasant army. At this point, the Ming Dynasty never had the chance or the ability to wipe out all the peasant troops.

Although at present, the Ming army still has an advantage over the peasant army, the large-scale domestic war consumes countless money and food, and the finance is already facing bankruptcy.

In addition, we are currently in the Little Ice Age, with abnormal weather, poor food harvests, and continuous natural disasters year after year, resulting in an empty national treasury.

In order to cope with the war in the north, the government, regardless of the suffering of the people, not only refused to reduce taxes on the peasants, but also arbitrarily increased taxes in various categories, levied excessive amounts of money, and made the people miserable, displaced and in chaos.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty's army had already become a group of villains who only knew how to make money. They had a variety of methods to deal with the common people. It was impossible to even think about asking them to risk their lives to deal with bandits.

At the same time, there were more and more princes and grandsons of the Zhu family in the Ming Dynasty. A large part of the country's money fell into the hands of these royal relatives. And because Emperor Chongzhen was so happy about his achievements, he was deceived and exempted from commercial taxes with a stroke of a pen.

, which made the imperial court’s income even worse.

As a result, all the imperial taxes fell on the peasants, and the imperial court could only maintain war expenditures by continuously increasing taxes, making the common people miserable.

And those armies that were piled up with a lot of money were already in decay. There were hundreds of thousands of armies, but the only ones with real combat effectiveness were the servants that the generals spent a lot of money to train.

During the founding period of the Ming Dynasty, the military system was mainly implemented in the military. Military garrisons were used as the source of military logistics and food. The Kaizhong method was used to encourage merchants to transport grain to the border or to form "merchant garrisons" on the spot, ensuring the security of the border troops.

Food sources.

But here comes the problem. One problem that the feudal dynasty can never get rid of is land annexation. In the Ming Dynasty, it was not just the big landowners who annexed the farmers, but also the princes, princes, military nobles, and our border generals.

Guard officers at all levels also frantically annexed land belonging to military camps like big landowners. By the Zhengtong period of Yingzong in the Ming Dynasty, there were already border generals who "set up farmland and stationed troops privately". By the Jingtai period, they were "guarding"

Most of the soldiers who guarded the city had no land to farm." By the Hongzhi period, "farming was in name only but in reality."

Guard officers at all levels took advantage of their positions to occupy military land and serve as private soldiers. At the same time, they colluded with businessmen to buy and sell goods. Through this series of means, they accumulated a large amount of wealth, which provided them with a sufficient economic foundation for their private accumulation of family members.

Roughly in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the situation of military generals privately keeping servants appeared. Starting from the Hongzhi reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, in just a few decades, they became the main force of the Ming Dynasty's border defense and played an extremely huge role on the battlefield.

However, as the greed of civil and military officials increased endlessly, the number of servants also gradually decreased. Coupled with the continuous evolution of conflicts within the army, the army no longer had much combat effectiveness. It was okay to ask them to bully the common people, but it was better to ask them to go to the battlefield.

After all, it is more comfortable to live.

As for the guard army, there was even less hope. Because the officers were too greedy, during the Chongzhen Dynasty, the living standards of the guard military households plummeted. They could not afford the clothing and equipment for their families, and the grain and rice harvested by their families was not even enough to eat.

Some military households were even naked, had no medicine to treat their illnesses, and had no money for treatment. In addition, the land of the military camps of the Weisuo Army was also invaded by princes, kings and nobles, which also made the Weisuo Army

Income has been greatly reduced.

The princes, kings and nobles took advantage of their positions of power to coerce and enslave the military households of the guards at will. The military households of the guards even became their exclusive slaves for generations.

Instead of working in the fields, the military households of the guard stations even served as laborers for princes, kings and nobles. Therefore, under such circumstances, the military households of the guard stations fled on a large scale.

Some military households became workers and small traders, some secretly fled back to their place of origin, and some simply left the army openly.

In this way, only seventy years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in the third year of the Zhengtong reign of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1438), the number of military households fleeing from the guards exceeded 1.2 million.

Such a number accounts for basically half of the country's military. Some guard posts only have one person left! The phenomenon of fleeing is extremely serious, let alone having any combat effectiveness.
Chapter completed!