Zhao Han, Pang Chunlai, and Li Banghua held a three-person meeting.
Zhao Han sent a secret letter from Fei Yinghuan. Li Banghua said: "The Ruijin rebel army is gone, and only a few hundred people are left, fleeing into the mountains at the junction of Fujian and Jiangxi. Shen Youlong, the governor of Fujian, led more than 16,000 people , has moved to Ganzhou."
Pang Chunlai looked bad, so Li Banghua read out the contents of the secret message directly.
As he read it, Li Banghua became frightened because the letter was written in such detail. Not only did it include the number of firearms of the officers and soldiers, but also some generals were resentful and had themselves or their close associates been punished by the governor.
The letter also stated that Zou Weilian was raising food and fodder, and after the spring of next year, he would definitely attack the three counties of Wanan, Longquan, and Taihe. After capturing these three counties, he would confront Zhao Han and join forces with the governor of Jiangxi to attack from the north and the south.
The letter also said that there were wars all over Guangdong and Guangxi, and the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi were temporarily unable to enter Jiangxi. They should take the opportunity to defeat the officers and soldiers along the way. Otherwise, the combined strength of the officers and soldiers of the three provinces would reach 50,000.
Li Banghua said in surprise: "General Town, who wrote this?"
Zhao Han smiled mysteriously: "Among the enemy's troops, there is a big official who is my internal agent. At this time, no external reports are allowed to avoid leaking information about the internal agent."
"This is natural." Li Banghua stopped asking further questions.
Pang Chunlai said: "It's time to make a decision, whether to wait until next year to send troops, or whether to send troops now. Should we go north first, or go south first. No matter what we choose, our army must strike first, otherwise we will be in danger of being attacked from the north and the south." "
Zhao Han said: "Not only the north-south attack, Zhang Yinggao, the prefect of Guangxin, has trained five thousand village warriors. As long as Li Maofang is not stupid, he will let the Guangxin soldiers cross the government to conquer the Fuzhou bandits and destroy the Nanfeng County secret cult bandits there. This The time should be next spring. Once the Fuzhou religious bandits are wiped out, Zhang Yinggao can come from Fuzhou and penetrate Jishui County from the east."
"Well, by that time, there will be a flanking attack from the south, north and east, and the total strength of the army will be about 40,000." Li Banghua sighed.
Pang Chunlai suggested: "I think we should advance both by land and water, and attack the Fujian soldiers in Ganzhou first."
Li Banghua agreed: "Yes, let's attack the Fujian guest soldiers first. The secret message that should be sent here says that none of the Fujian generals have the will to fight. We can first spread rumors that Zou Weilian plans to replace him in order to protect the people of Jiangxi and fear that the morale of the army will be unstable. All military attachés from Fujian. And..." Li Banghua suddenly had a darkened expression, "'invited' Zou Weilian's mother and clan members to Ji'an, and sent forged letters to Ganzhou, saying that all the Zou clan were rebels. Chen Ting, the general of the Fujian army, Yes, we must be separated from General Zou Weilian!"
Chen Tingdui, the Chief of the Fujian Army, was a martial arts scholar. He was appointed Deputy Chief of the Guangdong Army by Chongzhen, and was later promoted to the rank of Chief of the Fujian Army.
This man was a die-hard loyalist of Chongzhen. If he heard that the Zou clan was a traitor, and if Zou Weilian suppressed Fujian generals, he might do something outrageous.
"Okay, let's invite Zou Weilian's clan members first!" Zhao Han expressed satisfaction with this strategy.
In the eleventh month of the eighth year of Chongzhen.
Jiang Liang led 500 soldiers and set out from Xinyu County in a swaggering manner, arriving at Shanggao County in three days.
Shang Gaozhi County was shocked. He had already recruited more than a thousand troops. At this time, he did not dare to go out of the city to kill the enemy. He only dared to lead troops to defend the city and sent people to Nanchang to report the news.
Jiang Liang grabbed a boat at the county dock, crossed the river by boat, and headed straight for Xinchang County (Yifeng).
Kamikochi Prefecture was confused, thinking that the rebels were pretending to leave but actually wanted to fight back, so they simply blocked all the city gates.
After Jiang Liang crossed the river, he abandoned the boat, "borrowed grain" from the landlords along the way, and then arrived in Xinchang County.
There were only a few hundred Xiangyong garrisoned in Xinchang County. The county magistrate was also so scared that he wet his pants. He thought that the Shanggao County next door had been occupied by rebels. However, Jiang Liang led his troops into the mountains. This move was even more confusing. The magistrate of Xinchang was completely
Totally confused.
Alas, that Fujian governor Zou Weilian came from a truly miserable background, and his hometown was actually in the mountains.
Although there is a relatively flat road out of the mountain, it is still a full 40 miles away from the county seat. When Zou Weilian was a child, his orphans and widowers made a living by chopping firewood, and a round trip of 80 miles was required to sell firewood in the city.
My late father probably left behind some mules or something like that, otherwise mother and son would have starved to death just relying on manpower to transport firewood.
When he arrived at Longgang Village and asked where Zou Weilian lived, Jiang Liang immediately led his troops to attack him.
In fact, the target is easy to find. The Zou family has a tall Jinshi memorial archway, and the house is relatively luxurious. The once poor orphaned and widowed mother has now built a large house. Zou's mother has maids to take care of her, and there are several grandchildren at her knees.
"Old madam, come with us." Jiang Liang said with a smile.
Mother Zou was not afraid in the face of danger and asked: "Are you rebels?"
"Yes," Jiang Liang threatened very politely, "I have been ordered to take the old lady and her family to Ji'an Mansion. If the old lady commits suicide, then the Zou family will have to be exterminated. When you leave, you can take some money with you, but you cannot bring anything.
If you carry too much, you will have to march a long distance after all."
Mother Zou sighed: "Oh, let me make some arrangements."
Zou's mother took out the land deed and the body deed, and donated the land to the tenants and slaves, and also gave some to neighbors and relatives. It took three days, Jiang Liang waited patiently, and then took Zou Weilian's family away.
.
Including Zou Weilian's two sons and one daughter, the oldest is only sixteen years old.
On the way back, Zou's mother saw that the rebels did not rob them randomly. Even if they asked the landlords to "borrow grain", they only took away a few kilograms each. She couldn't help but said to Jiang Liang: "General, I think you are also a kind person."
, he is not the same as the ordinary evil thieves. Why not join the government and serve the king and the court?"
Jiang Liang said with a smile: "It seems that the old lady has lived a good life for too long. She doesn't know how the poor can suffer hardships. The emperor is stupid and the government is dishonest. We poor people can't survive, so we started to rebel in order to survive."
Ms. Zou is still trying to persuade people to be kind. She said: "More than thirty years ago, my husband passed away, leaving only an orphan and a widowed mother. The more than ten acres of thin farmland at home were also occupied by relatives, leaving only two mules and one mule.
I took my dog into the mountains to chop firewood. When I got tired from chopping, I taught my dog how to read and practice calligraphy with tree branches. A mule carried firewood from the mountains to the county town and had to walk for a day and a night. I also asked my dog to endorse me while walking on the road.
No matter how hard it is, as long as you are willing to work hard, you can always get ahead."
Jiang Liang couldn't help but sneer: "What if your son didn't pass the exam? How many people in the world can be an official?"
Mr. Zou said: "If you don't want to be an official, you can also do other things to make a living. As long as you are kind to others, have good conduct, and work hard, you will be successful one day."
Jiang Liang finally couldn't bear it anymore, stopped and roared: "My father worked hard in farming, but he starved to death! My mother was sick, and she didn't have any money to buy medicine, so she just lay in bed waiting to die! If I didn't rebel, sooner or later I would too.
My parents ended up like that!"
"Alas, they are all miserable people." Zou could only sigh.
…
Zhao Han sent people to rob Zou Weilian's family, and Jiangxi Commander-in-Chief Yang Jiamo also started to take action.
This guy took hundreds of servants and hundreds of guardsmen left behind by Li Ruolian and took a boat all the way to the border of Qingjiang County.
If I didn't bring my war horses, they would be a burden.
On the river bank, a six-year-old cowherd boy suddenly turned around and ran away with his cattle. On the way, he met a villager shouting: "The officers and soldiers are coming, the officers and soldiers are coming!"
Not long after, the officer stationed in the village who was responsible for training the peasant soldiers ran around banging the iron pot and shouting: "Gather the troops, gather the troops!"
The village chief and farmers' association cadres also hurriedly organized the villagers to move: "Don't delay, just take a few kilograms of food and leave. Don't let the officers and soldiers kill you."
How could the farmers be so willing?
Not to mention carrying the food and leaving, even the pots and pans were wanted to take away, which greatly slowed down the transfer speed.
Not long after, Yang Jiamo led his troops into the village and shouted: "These are all thieves, no chickens or dogs left!"
Several farmers who had transferred all their belongings were chased by officers and soldiers and hacked to death on the spot. Their heads were cut off, and they were considered the heads of rebels, and could be rewarded for their merits.
Immediately afterwards, Yang Jiamo did not chase other villagers, but went straight to the nearby landlord's mansion.
"boom!"
The door of the house was knocked open, and an elderly gentleman greeted him with a warm welcome, saying with cupped hands: "My lords, you are finally here. My family is really a good citizen. We were not thieves, but were divided into fields by that Zhao thief. Thousands of acres of fertile land, all of it."
After being divided up, how can people live with the remaining acres...ah!"
Yang Jiamo slashed the gentry to death and ordered: "This county has been stolen by Zhao thieves, and everyone is a rebel. Kill the men, kill the old ones, and take back the young women and girls!"
What’s the point of robbing small people? It’s faster to rob big households!
What's more, this place is under the rule of rebels. Even if everyone is killed and robbed of all the big families, the evil deeds can still be blamed on the rebels.
Those bastard governors and chief envoys completely dismissed Yang Jiamo as a beggar. Jiangxi Dusi was also rubbish and had nothing. Yang Jiamo had to rob the people in order to raise his troops.
Not only can you steal food and money, but you can also kill good people and take credit!
Yang Jiamo's servants were responsible for killing people, and the hundreds of guardsmen were responsible for transporting the looted things back to the ship. In half a day, hundreds of heads were killed, and countless money and food were also stolen.
"Run quickly, the rebels are coming!" The guard soldier who was carrying the belongings was so frightened that he dropped his things and ran away.
The person in charge of commanding the guards was a local General Qian. He ran to Yang Jiamo and said, "General Yang, these bandits are powerful. It's best to return to Nanchang as soon as possible."
Yang Jiamo pointed to the distance and said with a disdainful smile: "That counts as soldiers? It's just a group of farmers. Call your people back and move all the goods to the ship. Let's see how I defeat the thief!"
Yang Jiamo's hundreds of servants are all elites who have fought against the bandits for several years.
Although the war horses were not brought, all of them were wearing iron armor.
The inner part is chain armor, and the outer part is cotton armor embedded with iron wire and iron sheets. It is not afraid of being cut by swords, and can even resist bows and arrows.
But what they were facing now were farmers and soldiers from nearby villages and towns.
This is Zhao Han's newly occupied territory. The peasants and soldiers have only been trained for two months. Many of them lack weapons and are still fighting with kitchen knives and bamboo spears.
Peasants and soldiers gathered in several surrounding villages.
Hu Dinggui, who is only fifteen years old, is now a leader of peasant soldiers. He is holding a long gun he picked up from the army.
"stop!"
The temporary commander-in-chief of these peasant soldiers was a serious soldier who was assigned to the village to train troops. He issued an order: "Don't rush forward to delay the enemy. President Gu Qian and President Li Ba will be here soon by boat!"
