Jinxiang County, Jining Prefecture, Shandong Province has been in dire straits in recent years. The territory has been burned, killed and looted by the Qing army of Abatai and the Ming army of Liu Ze. The population has dropped by 60% to 70%, and most of the villages have been burned down. Many surviving people have chosen to go south to beg.

Jia Gongrang, the magistrate of Jinxiang, passed the Shandong provincial examination in the eighth year of Chongzhen. He only went to Jinxiang to serve as the magistrate in September last year.

Jia was not qualified to be the magistrate, but one of the three magistrates was killed by the Qing army, one of them was killed by the Ming army, and another one was abandoned and fled. Then the Ministry of Personnel sent Jia, who was appointed as the magistrate of Jinxiang.

After Jia took office, because there were bandits and bandits everywhere in Jinxiang, he led the few thousand remaining residents in the county to guard the city. The city gate was closed day and night, and only opened for half an hour during the day for residents to enter and exit.

The county was in decline and the people were not easy. Jia Gongrang was still a clean official and could not bear to increase the burden on the people who survived the disaster, so he grew vegetables in the open space behind the yamen.

On the same day, when I was carrying manure and watering vegetables with my old slave, Lu Yuan, who was responsible for guarding the city, ran over quickly and said with a disgusting look that a large number of bandits came outside the city.

Mr. Jia was shocked and almost accidentally knocked over the feces bucket.

"Quick, get to the city!"

While running towards the city wall, Jia Gong asked the yamen staff to quickly beat the gong to gather the young and strong people in the city to prepare to defend the city.

When I arrived at the city, I saw a large number of bandits outside. Not only were these bandits numerous, but they were also riding horses. It was obvious that they were much more powerful than the bandits in Jinxiang.

"What should I do!"

Just as Mr. Jia was scared, the bandit suddenly had more than a dozen cavalry rushing out of the formation, and then cast a flag and rushed to the city wall.

"So smooth!"

When Lu Dianshi saw the flags raised by the bandits, he lost his voice and said, "It's the treacherous soldiers, the treacherous soldiers!"

"Is it Dashun's soldier?"

Unlike Lu Dianshi's fearful voice, Jia Zhixian's voice was very excited, and he was not talking about robbers, but about Dashun. Lu Dianshi was stunned by this.

"Listen to the city, we are the King of Dashun. We are here to come to the state of peace and contentment under the order of Emperor Dashun. You can surrender quickly and prepare some food and drink. We will also have to Fengzhou City!"

The knights under the city shouted three times in a row.

As soon as the third voice was finished, Jia Gongrang stretched out his head from the trunk and asked: "I wonder how Emperor Dashun can safeguard the people?"

The knight below said without thinking: "No ban on robbery, no killing, those who dare to violate the violation will be killed without mercy!"

"Okay, okay, this county is willing to surrender!"

Jia Gongrang made a decision without hesitation, then looked at Lu Dianshi and others in a daze, and urged: "Why are you still standing there? Can these Dashun soldiers be worse than the imperial soldiers? How can we defend them? Let's get some food and drink quickly, and don't mess with Dashun soldiers."

Lu Dianshi and others, who were completely unprepared for "subduing the thief", took a long time to digest the magistrate's decision to surrender the thief. Everyone looked at me, I saw you, and finally reached an agreement to surrender. They were okay to fight bandits, but fighting with the thieves was really not enough.

"You go and get some food soon. I'll go down to open the city to welcome the Dashun army."

When Jia Gongrang was about to go down to the city to open the door, his old servant grabbed him and said, "Master, these people don't look like Dashun Army."

"how?"

Jia Gong was stunned.

The old servant said that the soldiers and horses outside were dressed in tatters and covered in dust, and there was no baggage, but they seemed to be chased and fled, and they were not like the army that came to Awaken the people.

After asking the old servant to say this, Magistrate Jia also became alert and looked at Lu Dianshi and others carefully, but found many problems.

For example, this army that claimed to be the Dashun Army did not seem to have a few Dashun banners, and it seemed that some soldiers were wearing Ming army clothes.

"Officers and soldiers?"

Jia Gongrang's face darkened. If it were Ming Jun, he would not be able to open the door if he was beaten to death.

Under the city, it is indeed not the Shun Army, but the Ming Army.

The generals led the team were Li Chengdong and Hu Maozhen, the general officer of General Gao Jie. These two were brave and good at fighting under Gao Jie's command, and were invincible, which was very trustworthy by Gao Jie.

Gao Jie was originally a general of Li Zicheng, nicknamed Fanshan Yao, and was very good at fighting, but he defected to the Ming Dynasty because of his affair with Li Zicheng's wife Xing, and he became the general officer.

At the beginning of the year, the Dashun Army fought eastward. The generals of the Ming army surrendered. Gao Jie did not dare to surrender to Li Zicheng because of the Xing family. He led his troops from Shaanxi to Shanxi and fled all the way to Shandong.

After arriving in Shandong, he found that local people were very hostile to the Ming army. In order to successfully pass through various prefectures and counties and obtain food and wages, Gao Jie ordered his troops to pretend to be Shun Army, and as a result, he arrived in Jining with "cheating food and drinking" all the way. Because the escape was too smooth, Gao Jie's troops did not know that there had been major changes in the north.

Li Chengdong and Hu Maozhen each had more than a thousand cavalrymen, and they were cheating for food for the infantrymen in the later Gao Jie team.

Seeing that there was no movement in the city for a long time, Li Chengdong's adopted son Li Yuanyin couldn't help his father Li Chengdong said, "Dad, did you realize that we are not Shunjun in the city?"

“It’s possible.”

Li Chengdong nodded.

Li Yuanyin was not his biological son. His original surname was Jia. He was originally a scholar in Nanyang. When he was young, he was taken as an adopted son by Li Chengdong. He was born and died for seven or eight years. The father and son had a deep relationship. In order to make his adopted son become a talent, Li Chengdong also asked him a teacher to teach him. Mrs. Xing praised Yuanyin for being a young man, understanding the truth, and having a good sense of power.

"Li Hezi, the city is not fooled, let's attack!" Hu Maozhen was a little impatient.

Li Chengdong shook his head and said that he could not attack forcefully. Jinxiang is already very close to Xuzhou. I heard that Shandong general Liu Zeqing was attacking Xuzhou. They might as well rush to Xuzhou first to meet with Liu Zeqing.

Hu Maozhen thought about it and it was also very troublesome to attack, because they did not have siege equipment, so they agreed with Li Chengdong's opinion.

"I have to send someone to tell me later." Hu Maozhen said.

Li Yuanyin hurriedly said, "Father, let's report to Gao Shuai."

"You are thinking about the food at your wife, go and be careful of bandits on the way."

Li Chengdong smiled, Li Yuanyin scratched his head and laughed a little embarrassedly, and took his personal soldiers to run behind.

Thirty miles away, an infantryman with about 5,000 men was marching towards the south in rags.

In a carriage in the team, a very beautiful woman was feeding the baby in her arms with her bra open. Because the carriage was bumpy, the baby's little mouth would bit the woman from time to time, making the woman frown her eyebrows so much that she kept frowning.

The woman is Gao Jie's wife Xing. She was once the wife of Li Zicheng, the current Emperor Yongchang of Dashun. She has been helping Li Zicheng manage logistics supplies in the army and is a rare virtuous supporter for Li Zicheng.

Unfortunately, because she was attracted by Gao Jie, who looked handsome, Xing chose to elope with him, otherwise she might be likely to become the queen of Dashun.

"lady,"

Gao Jie, who was driving his horse and the carriage outside the carriage, bent down and lifted the curtain. Seeing that Xing was feeding his son Yuanjue, he couldn't help laughing, and then licked his mouth and said, "Madam is still so white."

"No formality."

Xing gave Gao Jie a blank look and said with some concern: "We are not far from Xuzhou. Do you think Ma Shiying won't accept us?"

"I sent someone to Shouzhou to tell Ma Shiying that we have 30,000 soldiers and 9,000 mules. It is impossible for him to be moved by Ma Shiying."
Chapter completed!