In Ai Wannian, Cao Bianjiao had already completed his scheduled mission. Seeing that the situation was not good, he started to fight and then retreated.
Li Zicheng ignored the pursuit and personally led two sentries to Quanzhang Village.
Minzhuang led by Li Suiting, the magistrate of Jishan County, has been dispersed by the cavalry; Guo Zhuzheng is still confronting Li Guo.
As soon as the two outposts of the revolutionary army arrived, they surrounded Lao Guo in the blink of an eye.
As the saying goes, those who are close to pigs will be fat and those who are close to urine will be coquettish. Lao Guo was born in a sage family, and he still has character. He will not surrender.
But what's the use if he doesn't surrender alone.
"Surrender without killing!"
"The revolutionary army treats prisoners preferentially!"
"If you want to take your severance package and go home, stand this way!"
The revolutionary army shouted several times, and the old farmers in the guard station gradually dispersed. In the end, only about thirty people were left around Guo Zhuzheng.
Li Zicheng clapped his hands and stepped forward, "You have such a good physique. You can tell at a glance that you will survive until death."
Lao Guo held his sword on his neck, "Don't let the rebels be so rampant. As soon as Master Wang arrives..."
Li Zicheng smiled, "If you are willing to die, I will be willing to bury you!"
Lao Guo hesitated for a long time, his face was full of expressions, and he was reluctant to cut it with the knife.
"what do you want?!"
"Mr. Guo, the revolutionary army is advocating for justice, and they just want a way to survive. I don't want to kill innocent people indiscriminately. Let's do this, you pay 50,000 taels of silver, and I will let you go back. Then the revolutionary army will be defeated and flee.
.”
Guo Zhuzheng once supervised the Shanhaiguan Customs and managed it properly, saving 300,000 yuan. He should be rich. Try to deceive him.
"I'll give you a stick of incense and time to think about it." After speaking, Li Zicheng turned around and left.
Lao Guo secretly scolded, "Fifty thousand taels? Rub the big wood girl and sell it!" 1
A confidant stepped forward and advised: "Master, while there is still room for change, I still hope..."
"Room? Did your grandson leave it for me?" Guo Zhuzheng was furious.
"Master, please calm down. Now that the matter has come to this, I'd better think of something better..."
"Xili's solution? Think of it quickly!" Guo Zhuzheng was so angry that his brain was not working anymore.
If you don't get a penny, you won't be able to get rid of it, so just negotiate the price.
The confidant found Li Guo and said with a flattering smile: "General, although my husband is a third-rank official and his monthly salary is only thirty-odd taels of silver, he can't earn fifty thousand from selling his buttocks. It's really not that much." 2 Beginning Soldiers
Bei Dao is not an exclusive vacancy, but is concurrently held by the Chief Secretary and the Second Department of Chasi, such as political counselors, counselors, and deputy envoys. Therefore, the rank of the person who serves as Military Bei Dao is based on his own official title. The governor in the Ming Dynasty was similar. In theory
The above is a high-ranking inspector sent by the imperial court, and he is a Beijing official.
"Just tell me how much you can give." Li Guo was too lazy to talk to him.
"Eight hundred taels at most."
"Hey! Then you just wait to die!"
"No! General, I'm willing to surrender. I don't want severance pay..."
"It's too late! Let your master come out with fifty thousand silver."
Li Guo turned around and was about to leave...
"General, stay! Four thousand taels!"
"Fifty thousand can't be less, I'll leave you two hundred."
"General, how much money does Guo Zhuzheng have? I have a lot of money. I really can't afford fifty thousand taels. The current money is too much, just thirty thousand. If you ask him to bring money from his hometown, the day lily will be cold. Thirty thousand is not a lot...
...Well, it’s not easy for me to convince the master when I go back..."
"I'll leave you five hundred to make a friend."
"It's done!"
The two were doing dirty things here, while Li Zicheng found the magistrate Li Suiting near Jishan City Gate.
Half of the people fled in all directions, but Li You and his cavalry only surrounded three to four hundred people.
This county magistrate really dared to commit suicide, so the commander-in-chief stopped blackmailing for the sake of long-term plans, gave him a few words of advice and left the siege.
Li Zicheng returned to Quanzhang Village, and Li Guo reported that Guo Zhuzheng wanted the corpses of the officers and soldiers.
"Talent!"
Li Zicheng was very impressed. He probably paid 30,000 silver and was unwilling to give up, so he planned to get some heads back to report his merits.
The cavalry of the two armies in front of them killed each other. Cao Wenzhao's troops fell one hundred and fifty-six. Li Zicheng lost a total of more than 300 cavalry, and half of his sentries were destroyed. What a tragedy! If the revolutionary army had not been assisted by infantry formations, it would not have been possible.
A complete failure.
The armor and horses of the officers and soldiers were taken away, and the body was left to be buried by Guo Zhuzheng.
As for the corpses of the war horses, they were buried with dignity. The main reason was that Li Zicheng was not short of food now. The Ming army also had regulations for burying war horses, but it was unclear whether the other soldiers who had not enough to eat could abide by them.
Although Li Zicheng and Cao Wenzhao each suffered losses, they were not seriously injured. Zhao Sheng, the lamplighter, suffered the worst, and in the end only five or six hundred people were gathered back.
"Oh! I've finally seen through it. Just relying on too many people is not enough." Dian Dengzi said with a look of despair.
Of course. In the early days of the uprising, one or two thousand officers and soldiers often chased and beat up one or two thousand peasant soldiers. After all, most of them were hungry old peasants who were not honest enough to fight on weekdays. How could they fight? Let them rob an old rich man.
When faced with the regular army, it becomes dizzy.
Li Zicheng was good at tempting, "Dengzi, don't blame me for being so straightforward. War is very complicated, and the water here is very deep. You can't control it."
"Commander, I am completely convinced, really! Who can defeat Cao Wenzhao?!"
"Oh, that's all he is! If he hadn't run so fast, he would have been lying down today. Touko, don't say anything, just follow me! From now on, the revolutionary army will march across the mountains and Shaanxi, and they can fight whoever they want!
"
Li Zicheng said he was relaxed, but his heart was bleeding.
It's easy to replenish three hundred cavalry, but just pulling them out and running around requires at least half a year of training. If you want to have some combat effectiveness, you can go for a year. I don't know if this battle is worthwhile.
But judging from the training of the team and the subduing of Touko, we have barely recovered our money.
…
Near noon, another rebel king, the Eight-Clawed Dragon, arrived with his team.
In June, the twenty-four peasant armies of Shangdang dispersed, some went to Hebei, some went to Henan, some lurked in place, and most of them moved to the southern Shanxi area.
Then in July and August, most of them will return to their hometown in Shaanxi after most of the plundering.
Among the twenty-four, only Xu Shili, the eight-clawed dragon, is a native of Shanxi.
Xu Shili originally joined the army in Ningwu. Later, when the Tatars invaded, Shanxi officers and soldiers went to aid the capital. Because the station was tired and the superiors did not provide rations, eight thousand officers and soldiers dispersed and fled back to their hometown.
The eight-clawed dragon Xu Shili became a "rogue thief".
He only had a thousand men, and he passed through several counties without being able to gnaw at them. He was also closely pursued by other officers and soldiers, so he came here to join forces with the revolutionary army.
As long as he agrees to accept the supervision of the army, Li Zicheng will of course welcome it. He happens to be trying to settle accounts with Jishan County, at least to earn back the money he spent to buy mahua.
The preparations were busy for three days.
Just as Guo Zhuzheng's ransom money was delivered, Datong took the lead and rewarded each of the revolutionary troops with five taels of silver, and each of the Eight-Clawed Dragon tribe with one tael, and then raised troops to besiege the city.
County magistrate Li Suiting was heartbroken.
The "rogue thieves" bought people's hearts when they dismissed the people, and gave each person ten taels of silver. After returning to the city, Li Suiting wanted to confiscate them, which almost triggered a civil uprising.
He could not afford a higher price. The previous construction of the city had already drained the county treasury and there was no money. This time, the gentry and local tycoons only donated more than 300 taels of silver, which was a drop in the bucket.
Wait to die!
After the siege, the Octopus Dragon burst into laughter. No cannons were fired, and few people on the city fought back when the trenches were being filled. The ladders were set up and they climbed straight up.
The ladder is slightly lower than the wall to prevent the guards from pushing the ladder.
But there was no one pushing with a long pole, and the strong people in the city were already lying down obediently, waiting to get money.
The tide is over.
Li Suiting was filled with grief and anger. He shouted "kill the thief" three times, drew his sword and was about to wipe his neck and commit suicide...
The yamen servant who was the first to deliver the mahua had sharp eyes and quick hands, and he knocked down the magistrate with one move of a hungry tiger.
"Wahaha, I got three hundred taels of silver!"
"Rebel!" Li Suiting angrily gave him five or six swords.
"Ah...ah..." the yamen servant hiccuped.
Mr. Li struggled to stand up and hurriedly slashed at the battlement with his sword. The revolutionary soldiers who had just climbed up screamed and fell down.
Another revolutionary soldier climbed up the wall.
Wu Pingxiao was a former patrol officer on the Yellow River. He was very brave after surrendering to the bandits. 1 In the 17th year of Shunzhi, he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
Li Suiting glared with red eyes and stabbed, Wu Pingxiao swung the knife away and then slashed hard.
With one blow of the knife, the magistrate fell to the ground.
"Dog and thief, if you are rampant for a while, I will wait for you in the underground to kill you thousands of times..." Li Zhixian refused to rest in peace.
In this battle, the peasant army defeated the city at a small cost of twelve casualties.
Since the county magistrate died for his country, his back garden will be accepted by Li Zicheng.
The county government office is in tatters. Because of the official superstition of "not repairing the government office", the county magistrate will never spend money on it as long as the government office does not collapse. The last time it was repaired was during the Jiajing period more than sixty years ago.
However, the backyard where the county magistrate himself lives behind the county government office is quite exquisite.
Aizhuxuan is full of greenery, with a rockery, a fish pond, and two deer in the bamboo forest. The scenery is beautiful.
External matters were left to the acting magistrate Feng Qilong to handle, while Li Zicheng had to solve internal problems first.
"Uncle, if you need money, tell me. Can I treat you badly?"
"I...I'm really not greedy. I'm just afraid that the kids will spend money randomly, so I'll help them save it first."
Li Shouxin was in his early forties. He insisted on joining the army that day. He started working in the Huotou Army and is now the chief of the post. 1 Dashun Zhaohou was captured and killed by the Qing army.
Li Zicheng had many relatives in the revolutionary army, including two uncles, four brothers of the same generation, six nephews, and seven descendants. There were also twenty or thirty people who were more distantly related.
"There are regulations in the military, and you have learned them. But you are my biological uncle, what do you think I should do?"
Li Shouxin fell to his knees, his eyes red, "Huang Lai baby, you grew up eating your aunt, I...I'm really not greedy..."
Li Zicheng helped him up, dusted off the dirt on his trouser legs, and sighed, "I'll get you some money and go back to your hometown to raise your grandson."
What should we do if we are not lenient and kill people to establish authority? It's not time yet, let's deal with it quietly first. Don't talk about serious discipline. No team can completely implement it. It all depends on what the person chooses, and what happens in private is kept private.
It would be nice to solve it.
Li Shouxin burst into tears and smiled, "That's right, let's break the bones and connect the tendons, my family..."
Seeing his nephew's face darken, he quickly shut up.
Li Zicheng waved his hand, "Okay, you go back and clean up first."
Li Shouxin thanked him profusely. Just as he left, his son came in.
"elder brother……"
Li Zijia grabbed the corner of his clothes and was at a loss.
Li Zicheng didn't want to talk nonsense with him, "Go and call all the relatives over and have a meal together at noon."
The county government cook was very flattering, and a meal of venison made everyone's faces glow.
After they had eaten and drank enough, Li Zicheng could not help but mention a few words to them.
"I said earlier that after ten years of hard work, my descendants will be prosperous and wealthy for twenty generations. You all should give me some face and don't do those nasty things that will make me unable to get off the stage. Okay?"
Everyone was obedient. Some who drank too much patted their chests and swore to the sky, thanking the commander-in-chief for pulling them out of the fire pit, and they would be obedient in the future. Li Zijia also shed a few tears with red eyes.
Everyone has greed, and there is no way to stop it.
It is not appropriate to raise an honest person with a high salary at the moment. After all, this is not a time of peace. The war is in chaos right now, and it may be over tomorrow. Who would care so much?
All we can do is speak out and encourage the soldiers to report violations of discipline, and investigate and deal with each discovery. This time, it was reported to the Soldiers Committee.
…
The next day, Feng Qilong sent the list.
The city collected a total of more than 80,000 shi of "le donation" silver, 4,000 shi of grain and beans, and more than 300 shi of grain and grass from the county treasury.
It's a pity that the King of Jishan still does not live in the county seat, but lives in Shangdang. I don't know when I will catch the prince and give him a good meal.
There are no celebrities in Jishan County, but there are no treacherous or evil people either.
After the revolutionary army broke through the city, the local tycoons were asked to donate between 10% and 40% of their wealth based on their ethics. No one dared to refuse.
Li Zicheng took the list, glanced at it, and circled a name with a pen.
"Wang Zhihan's money will be returned. This gentleman is kind and generous, so let him go."
In the year of severe drought in the future, a wealthy king will donate 100,000 jins of grain at one time to provide disaster relief. I admire him!
On the other hand, no matter how many years of droughts there are, big landowners still have enough food in their homes. This is probably the benefit of water conservancy projects. However, ordinary homesteaders or small landowners do not have such conditions. This chapter has been completed!