Chapter 35: One rush will collapse 【Seeking monthly ticket】
Since Chongzhen moved south, natural disasters have continued to occur frequently throughout the south.
Especially this year, Zhejiang and Huguang, two major grain-producing provinces, have been severely affected and grain prices have risen sharply.
In addition, the imperial court increased the number of officials and corvees year after year, the large gentry oppressed the peasants without restraint, annexed the land, and profiteers drove up the price of grain.
Due to multiple factors, the entire south of the Yangtze River is full of hungry people with green eyes.
It can be said that although the people in Zhejiang, Guangzhou, Fujian, Huguang, Nanzhili and other places are not living as miserable as the people in Shanxi and Henan, they are also on the verge of an outbreak.
Everyone knew that those wealthy families had food that was uneaten and almost moldy, but the hungry people did not dare to attack these large families that raised a large number of slaves and even private soldiers.
In other words, they have not yet reached the stage of true despair.
But they didn't dare, but Zhu Yuanzhang, a professional rebel, did.
Nowadays, several provinces in the south are like a powder keg filled with gunpowder. It only takes a small spark to ignite a prairie fire in an instant.
And Zhu Yuanzhang is the one holding the torch.
Of course, rebellion is not a simple matter. There is actually a lot of knowledge hidden in it.
Zhu Yuanzhang happened to have studied this deeply and had quite a lot of experience.
Otherwise, why in history, all the peasant uprisings starting from Chen Sheng and Wu Guang failed in the end, with only Zhu Yuanzhang being a successful example.
Regarding the rebellion, so far, Zhu Yuanzhang has taken second place, and no one has dared to take first place.
Especially now that people are in famine and their eyes are green with hunger, rebellion is as easy as drinking cold water.
When he returned to the late Ming Dynasty two years ago, he had already begun to lay out the sparks of uprising throughout the south. Those people had been handed over to Xu Da before. Now these people suddenly broke out and spread to several provinces in the south. The subordinates of King Yi were the second
approved.
This was also one of Zhu Yuanzhang's back-up tactics to deal with the gentry.
If there are no accidents, as soon as this back-up plan comes out, 80% of the aristocratic families south of the Yangtze River will be wiped out.
"what to do?"
In the camp behind Hulukou, more than a dozen officials and gentry from Zhejiang gathered together, discussing countermeasures with solemn faces.
They had just received news from the rear that there was an uprising in Zhejiang and they were attacking their own city.
The situation is quite critical, and more than 60% of the families present are under attack.
Once such an emergency happened, how could they care about Xu Da's ten thousand people.
So what if these ten thousand people were wiped out? If their entire family was massacred by thieves, then everything they do now would be meaningless.
"Of course, go back!"
"We must protect Zhejiang. If our family fortune is lost, we will be sinners for the ages!" someone said.
As soon as he said this, he immediately received unanimous agreement from many officials and gentry.
"Everyone should contact the children of each family who are in the military now and explain to them that we will leave tonight."
Qian Qianyi gave the final instruction, hesitated for a moment and then said: "Something may happen. Let's break camp quietly at midnight tonight. Don't let Ma Shiying, Huang Degong and others know about it."
"When we are away from the large group of people, we will send people back to explain things clearly to them..."
Like these Zhejiang officials and gentry, many gentry formed several large and small groups according to their regions that night, all secretly discussing the retreat.
There was no moonlight that night, and the entire Hulukou was shrouded in darkness.
If it were normal, you might still hear a few insects and birds chirping here from time to time, but tonight it was eerily silent.
Huang Degong was lying behind a big rock, holding a piece of weed in his mouth out of boredom, staring at the entrance of the gourd mouth intentionally or unintentionally.
He was the one who came up with the plan for the pocket formation, so the task of tying the pockets was naturally his.
Just when he wanted to narrow his eyes for a while and let his soldiers keep an eye on him, there was sudden movement from the direction of Hulukou.
Then he saw a large group of people pouring into the canyon silently.
"Sure enough, it's here!" Huang Degong was shocked and looked at these people with wide eyes, as if he saw Feng's wife Yinzi, with gold, silver and jewelry waving to him.
Xu Da looked at the dark, silent mountains on both sides, and couldn't help but narrowed his eyes slightly.
How could he not know that there were people hiding in the mountains on both sides?
But he still plunged into the pocket formation because he knew very well that the military morale of the gentry would be unstable after learning the news of the fire in the backyard.
Moreover, he had received definite information from Xizuo that there was indeed more than one enemy army trying to escape tonight.
How could he let go of such a good opportunity.
After all, if a pocket formation wants to be effective, not only must there be someone to hold on to the pocket, but the bottom of the pocket must also be hard enough. Otherwise, if someone rushes into it and it collapses, then it is not a pocket formation and can only be regarded as a joke.
On the other side, in the official and gentry camp at the bottom of the pocket, the Zhejiang official and gentry quietly broke out of camp at midnight and were preparing to retreat under the cover of night, when they unexpectedly ran into another group of people.
"Who?" Qian Qianyi was so frightened by the sudden appearance of a large group of people that he broke into a cold sweat and couldn't help shouting.
The person on the other side obviously didn't expect to meet anyone in the middle of the night, and was equally frightened.
Soon the torch was lit, and Qian Qianyi was embarrassed when he saw the other party's true face, because standing opposite was his old acquaintance Ma Shiying.
"You want to escape before the battle?" Ma Shiying looked shocked and angry.
Qian Qianyi was still a little guilty at first, but soon he felt that something was wrong. The people opposite him looked like they had the same plan as him and others.
"Haha, do you still have the nerve to criticize me?"
"Don't you want to run away?" Qian Qianyi sneered.
Ma Shiying blushed and couldn't help but argue: "We are not running away, we are returning to support South Zhili. Civil unrest is rampant there, and we must go back."
Qian Qianyi sneered again and again, and was about to say something more, when suddenly a fire suddenly lit up in the distance, followed by a loud shout of death.
"The Righteous King is here. Anyone who doesn't want to die will get down!" Someone in Xu Dajun roared.
At the same time, Xu Da took the lead, relying on his powerful strength as a master of energy transformation to split open the camp gate with a single blow.
Behind him, an army of 10,000 people who had regained their strength, all wearing armor, formed a torrent of steel and roared in.
"Hand in the gun and don't kill!"
"Hand in the gun and don't kill!"
Although these soldiers were fast, their formation was not chaotic at all. At the same time, they shouted extremely loud and orderly bugles as they walked.
In comparison, the army of gentry was more like rogue bandits.
Although the soldiers in the front camp were well prepared for the attack on the camp, all of them were sallow and thin, and there were only a pitiful number of fire rifle soldiers.
Even talking about it made Xu Da feel ridiculous. The army of the late Ming Dynasty two hundred years later, compared to his old guy of more than two hundred years ago, would actually lag far behind in terms of weapons and equipment.
And the most important thing is that until now, not even a person leading the army has appeared.
"Fire...!" Seeing that he was close to the shooting distance, Xu Da gave an order, and the two thousand firecrackers fired their guns in unison.
In an instant, bursts of howling ghosts and wolf howls were heard from the opposite side.
The entire front camp, which had nearly 20,000 people, was directly hit by this round of fire cannons and was immediately defeated.
"Keep going!" Xu Da raised his eyebrows and ordered decisively.
To be honest, although he had a hunch that this battle would not be too difficult, he did not expect that it would go so smoothly to such an incredible extent.
"Are these gentlemen all useless?" he thought with a grin.