The next day, before dawn, Zhou Shixiang got up early, but he was not in a hurry to find Zhao Sihai, but went to see Boss Hu first.

Although Zhou Shixiang really wanted to be the leader from now on, the fact is not. At least, in name, Boss Hu, a bandit appointed by the General Luo Dingzhou of the Yongli court, is the real master of Luo Dingcheng and the leader of the people of Daqiaoshan. No matter how eye-catching Zhou Shixiang performed, he was just a younger brother who followed Boss Hu. At best, he was a second- or third-person figure.

If you want to show your own banner and become a real leader, Zhou Shixiang must first have his own troops. Otherwise, it will be difficult for him to make Ge Wu and his gang obey him, and it will easily arouse Boss Hu's fear.

The anti-Qing cause was just beginning, and everything was still a strait team. If there was a split and internal strife due to the seizure of power at this time, it would be a fatal blow to anyone. Therefore, Zhou Shi always maintained respect and obedience to Boss Hu. Unless Boss Hu was confused, he would never conflict with him.

Fortunately, so far, the performance of Hu Quan is reassuring. He did not show short-sightedness like Ge Wu and others, nor did he show arrogance. He even led the way by taking Luo Ding. He also obeyed Zhou Shixiang and Duke Xiang of Song. In order to open up the situation as soon as possible, he gave them all matters to do. There was no doubt that Zhou Shixiang was ashamed of such a mind and courage.

Such a person is still the number one filial son in ancient and modern times. How could Zhou Shixiang be willing to turn against him for some power, face each other and kill each other?

The enemy of the enemy is a friend, uniting all forces that can be united. Even if the other party is a murderous enemy, as long as he is willing to join the struggle for the national salvation of the Han people, Zhou Shixiang will firmly regard him as an ally. As for right and wrong, merits and demerits, let it be commented on by future generations.

After roughly talking about what he did yesterday, Hu nodded with great agreement. After repeatedly reminding Zhou Shixiang to recruit soldiers, he quickly discussed how to deal with the Qing army prisoners, dozens of people, who were neither allowed to be killed nor released, and it was not a big deal to be kept in prison. Besides, he could not always lead people to guard the prison cells. Such a big mess in the city, can he be as good as his serious general Luo Dingshen?

When Boss Hu talked about his identity as General Luo Dingshen, Zhou Shixiang remembered that he should send someone to report good news to Cheng Bangjun. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t have the official service. The key is that he can coax some money and food from Cheng Bangjun. No matter how he is, he will seize the credit for a state city. It would be too cold for the gang of the Yongli court in Guangdong to release some blood.

No matter how small the sparrow is, it is still flesh. Moreover, this is also a way for the Yongli court to officially recognize Hu Quanluo as the general and admit that his men were an opportunity for the Ming army. It would be ridiculous to take the empty words Cheng Bangjun said before.

Zhou Shixiang even planned to find an opportunity to meet the Emperor Yongli, or meet Li Dingguo after the situation on Luo Ding's side opened.

The history of the Southern Ming Dynasty, which had few previous lives, told Zhou Shixiang that Li Dingguo seemed to have any conflicts with his righteous brother, Sun Kewang, the king of the Qin Kingdom, and Sun Kewang eventually surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, which led to the chance of reviving the Southern Ming Dynasty being strangled.

If Sun Kewang could be stopped from surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, the situation in the Southern Ming Dynasty would naturally not become worse because of Sun Kewang's surrendering to the Qing Dynasty. No matter how bad it is, it would be delayed by a few years more than the original history. The stronger the Yongli regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty and the longer it lasts, the more benefits it will be for Zhou Shixiang.

Although it was the twelve years of Shunzhi and the eighth year of Yongli, as long as the emperor of Yongli did not abandon the country for one day and the Southern Ming Dynasty did not perish for one day, this righteousness would still exist, and hope would be there. People in the world would not die and willing to be enslaved by the Manzhou people. As long as the Ming army appeared before them again, there would definitely be many people willing to stand up and resist the brutal Manzhou people again!

Zhou Shixiang never thought that he would also have to stab the Yi Ding in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. He knew that the failure of the Southern Ming Dynasty was due to the struggle between the throne, which caused all the power to be consumed in internal strife, so the Manzhou people took a big advantage. Therefore, before driving the Manzhou people out of the Central Plains and the northern land owned by the Han people for generations, he must not have any ambitions and repeat the mistakes of the internal strife of the Southern Ming Dynasty, even if it was thought about it! Moreover, at present, he is not qualified to intervene between the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The most favorable method for Zhou Shixiang's rise at present is to take the banner of the Yongli court of the Southern Ming Dynasty openly, use his hundreds of years of experience to compete with the Qing court for Guangdong, and then lead the Northern Expedition. Luo Ding is the first step of this plan and the most difficult step. Only by taking this first step can you take the second step. If you can't even take the first step, how can you talk about the second step? The third step.

A scholar rebelled for ten years.

Zhou Shixiang didn't want him to rebel for ten years but accomplish nothing. Therefore, he urgently needed to strengthen his strength and rise quickly. Otherwise, he would still become an insignificant little pawn in the long river of history and a meteor in the sky.

Borrowing all the power that can be used, borrowing all the names that can capture people's hearts, and borrowing all the means that can defeat the enemy. As long as it is beneficial to the anti-Qing Dynasty, Zhou Shixiang doesn't mind or cares whether he kneels down to any adult.

The news was simple. When Cheng Bangjun left, he said that once Luoding City was taken down, he could immediately send people to Gaozhou for a message. He and Zhang Xiaoqi, the governor of the four prefectures, would be stationed in Gaozhou City. In addition, the Grand Secretary Guo Zhiqi also did not regularly stay in Gaozhou for some time.

Duke Xiang of Song introduced to Zhou Shixiang that the General of Gaozhou Le Tongwu was Li Dingguo's confidant general. He had more than 1,000 elite Ming army from the Daxi Army, and there were three or four thousand Ming army adapted from the local armed forces of the Southern Ming Dynasty. The general was no less than 5,000. There were also Zhang Xiao, the governor of Gao, Lei, Lian, and Qiong, stationed in Gaozhou. Therefore, Gaozhou had replaced Guangzhou as the military and political center of the Guangdong Ming army to a certain extent. Behind Gaozhou was supported by the Li Dingguo army retreating to Guangxi. Therefore, the Qing army in Guangdong did not dare to step westward to avoid Li Laohu, who had just withdrawn from Guangdong, and rushed to another attack.

After Zhou Shixiang's reminder, Boss Hu also woke up and hurriedly recruited a subordinate and ordered him to ride a horse to Gaozhou to report the news.

Originally, Zhou Shixiang wanted to instruct the man to exaggerate the news, behead, captive, and seize, and so on, so he didn't have to be afraid of scaring people. But then he thought that the purpose of sending people to Gaozhou to report the news was to obtain material support from Gaozhou and the formal recognition of the Yongli court. If everything was reported to be large, Gaozhou would not give money or food, but he was afraid that he would have to seize it from them.

Things that are self-defeating cannot be done.

After leaving Boss Hu, Zhou Shixiang wanted to find Duke Xiang of Song, but Duke Xiang of Song had something to do. He had to bring people to inspect the 120 stones of grain he "borrowed" from the six families of Qi Yuantai last night, and he had to send someone back to transport the grain stored in the village. In addition, as the nominal governor of Luoding, he was inseparable from all major affairs in the city. Therefore, Duke Xiang of Song was also busy and had no time to accompany Zhou Shixiang to recruit soldiers.

The recruitment location was under the gate of the Dongcheng City Wall. When Zhou Shixiang arrived, Zhao Sihai and Peng Dazhu were sitting behind a table, one of them lay there and the other was lying there. Judging from the loud snoring, the two of them seemed to have just slept like this for the whole night.

There were several men from Daqiao Mountain patrolling with twenty or thirty young and strong men holding various weapons. Seeing Zhou Shixiang coming, the leading man hurriedly woke Zhao Sihai up.

He was awakened by someone who was sleeping soundly. Zhao Sihai had a bad temper. He was about to scold him, but he found Zhou Shixiang standing in front of him and laughed hurriedly: "The scholar is here!" As he said that, he pushed Peng Dazhu with his hand. The latter raised his head in a daze. It took him a long time to know which one was here.

Zhou Shixiang looked at the cave in the city gate. Three boxes of silver were piled up there. The seal of the upper box was torn. The two boxes below did not move. He couldn't help but ask: "How many people have you recruited and how much money have you spent?"

"How many people have you recruited?" Zhao Sihai pointed at the twenty or thirty young and strong people with his hands, and said helplessly: "It's all here."

"That's just a few people?"

Zhou Shixiang was shocked. One person gave two taels of silver to settle the family, but the money was really valuable these days. One tael of silver could barely survive half a month.

If it were the past, Zhou Shixiang would not have guaranteed that Luo Ding's young and strong would be deceived by two taels of silver, so he held his head and served as a soldier to pay. But last night, a big fire came and nearly half of the people were affected by the family. Not to mention food, they could not even rob a cloth bag. In this situation, two taels of silver could be said to be a straw for life. In the words of Duke Xiang of Song, the young and strong people in the family of the affected people should have very enthusiastic registration, but why did they go there overnight and only recruit these twenty or thirty people? Where did the imagined lively scene? How could those young and strong not be deceived by these two taels of silver?

"Why, the people don't want to be our soldiers? Didn't you say we are the soldiers of Li Dingguo?"

Zhou Shixiang was afraid that Zhao Sihai would not make clear the name of recruiting soldiers. The gentry probably knew that they were not Ming troops, but how could these people know about it? Li Dingguo attacked Guangdong two years ago and last year, and his reputation was quite famous among the people of Guangdong. If he borrowed his name, the people would not join the army with no reason.

Zhao Sihai smiled bitterly and said helplessly: "Scholar, we have told us everything you ordered, but my brother Dazhu and I both said that our voices were hoarse. These are the only people who were willing to sign up. No matter what we say, the others just refused to do it with us."

"If Brother Zhou hadn't told us not to move, and to be nice to those people, I would have tied them up with a knife long ago, so how could I be polite to them?" Peng Dazhu muttered a few words, thinking that he was angry in his heart.

Zhou Shixiang ignored Peng Dazhu's complaints and asked Zhao Sihai: "Do they think there is little money?"

Zhao Sihai shook his head and said, "This is not."

"Why is that?" Zhou Shixiang was also surprised.
Chapter completed!