On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month in the second year of Chongzhen, it was Emperor Chongzhen’s birthday again.
Snowflakes are floating in the sky above Yan'an Prefecture, casting a layer of silvery white on the overlapping khaki mountains in northern Shaanxi.
The old thieves from northern Shaanxi stepped into the snow and entered the Xingzi River.
When Gao Yingxiang arrived, Liu Chengzong was swinging a pickaxe on the frozen Xingzi River, shirtless. The cold cast a light red layer on his skin, and sweat steamed slightly on his head.
Soon, the carrier handed over a hand-stretched towel. After wiping the sweat from his body, he quickly put on his clothes and then exhaled a white breath and asked: "Master Gao?"
"What are you doing? Forget it. Come on, take me into the house to warm yourself up."
Liu Chengzong exercised in the morning. After running, he cut a hole in the river and then wiped his sweat and put on clothes. His whole body was hot.
Gao Yingxiang was different. He rode all the way from Yanchang County, and his eyebrows and beard were all covered with ice from the cold, so he immediately hid in the yard.
Seeing his appearance, Liu Chengzong did not take him up the mountain and went directly to Lin Wei's house at the bottom of the mountain.
Together with the five followers around them, the six gentlemen entered the house and huddled up on the fire bed, all of them shivering from the cold.
Liu Chengzong deliberately stood outside for a while, waiting for the sweat to completely fall off his body, and then walked into the heated room and asked, "Why are Master Gao here?"
"Can I not come? You asked your general Cao Yao to lead his troops to the east across Yanchang. How long has it been and you still dare to divide your troops?"
As Gao Yingxiang spoke, he took out seven or eight stacked papers from his entourage, handed them out and said, "Look at it!"
After receiving the letter, Liu Chengzong roughly scanned the top letter, which was similar to the letter Zhuan Tianmao sent some time ago.
It's just that the request is the opposite. The letter Gao Yingxiang handed over said that if he sends people to recruit people, he will agree to recruit people; if he sends people to conquer, he will agree to surrender.
Similarly, the official position promised in the end was also lower, and it was to be the general manager.
Liu Chengzong was happy when he saw it: "This Yang He has a lot of little tricks, and they are fake. Believe me, I have them too."
Gao Yingxiang said angrily: "Look further."
The smile on Liu Chengzong's face froze, and he continued to read the next letter, flipping through several letters in succession, with a relaxed expression on his face. It was not until he saw the last two letters that he gritted his teeth and cursed in a low voice: "Fuck you." Each of the letters brought by Gao Yingxiang is different. The first few letters are roughly the same. They all confiscate the letter's author and have various arrangements for the next actions, whether it is to carry out a suppression campaign or recruit people to surrender.
Some agree to recruit people if they are asked to do so, some do not allow them to agree to recruit people, some ask them to surrender as well, some do not allow the leader to surrender, and some even persuade the leader to run away or fight to the death.
Basically, these letters mentioned the choices that subordinates would make when encountering recruitment and suppression campaigns.
Liu Chengzong believed that this was a counter-intentional plan to bully the rebel leaders into being loosely organized, causing suspicion among the superiors and subordinates.
These letters were discovered by people. When the leader knew about the existence of this letter, he asked his subordinates how to recruit people from the imperial court. He said that those who agreed to the recruitment may be spies of the imperial court, and those who disagreed may also be spies of the imperial court.
There is no way he can be the leader.
When the subordinate's letter exists, he will not dare to answer any questions asked by the leader. Anything he says will be suspected as a spy for the imperial court.
There is no way I can be a subordinate anymore.
The reason why Liu Chengzong was convinced that this was a counterintuitive plot was because it was more fake than real.
If it were true, it would be of no use.
What people are afraid of is the spy itself, not the suggestion of surrender or war.
Liu Chengzong is quite proud of this point, because it is ineffective against the Lion Camp.
If you want to follow the style of Water Margin, the mountain king always has a dog-headed military advisor by his side. This method will work.
But there are no intellectual figures in the entire Lion Battalion, and bandit-style democracy is not implemented in the team. Only Cao Yao can use his rich gangster experience to check for leaks and fill in the gaps.
And with Liu Chengzong's understanding of Cao Yao, Cao Yao wanted to hide as far away from the government as possible. This didn't even matter whether Cao Yao was loyal to him.
Liu Chengzong was not afraid of Cao Yao's surrender at all.
If others surrender, they may turn around and come back to follow orders to fight the peasant army.
Cao Yao surrendered, and he would not work for the government if he could. Maybe he is still sleeping in the camp today, and tomorrow he will go into the mountains with his cronies by defrauding him of some military food and salary.
Except for Cao Yao, Liu Chengzong has been the mastermind and vanguard of the entire team in the past six months.
He was also trained to become more and more powerful in the process.
This letter is false. If he doesn’t believe it, it will be fine.
This letter is true, but it is of no use. As long as the soldiers are restrained and they are not given the opportunity to inform the government, it will be fine.
But when Gao Yingxiang brought the last two letters, it was different.
They were two letters of persuasion to surrender, and they were from the internal staff persuading the surrender. They said that if they took these letters when they surrendered, they would be pardoned and given official positions in the army according to the instigation of rebellion.
Gao Yingxiang saw the solemn look on his face and knew that he had seen these two letters, so he said: "I stopped Cao Yao for you. If you still let him go, send someone to say it again, but let me tell you, the government is instigating rebellion."
At this time, it is best to guard the troops and horses."
Liu Chengzong pulled up a stool and sat down. He did not respond to Gao Yingxiang immediately. He held his chin with his hand and thought for a moment, then turned around and asked, "Master Gao, how did you find these letters?"
"It's not me. King Hun Tian returns to Yanchuan, Hun Tianhou is in Luochuan, and their subordinates are all scattered in the winter. By the time someone hands them the letter, it will be everywhere."
Hearing this, Liu Chengzong's face relaxed and he said with a smile: "Master Gao, I overestimated."
"Overestimated, overestimated for what?"
He flicked a few letters with two fingers: "We overestimated the impact of these letters, and the government also overestimated us... Do you have so many literate people under your command? Can you understand them? Can they understand them?" Liu Chengzong estimated that these letters had no impact at all.
It's good to alienate people, but it's disgusting.
But this thing is a strategy used by scholars who are separated from the social environment.
If you look at urban and rural areas, there may be forty people out of a hundred who are literate, but there are less than five people who can keep accounts, write letters, and read.
Hungry refugees become homeless thieves with even lower levels of education.
According to the current cultural level of the bandits, if a letter is handed over to the five leaders, three of them will not know each other.
Not to mention his subordinates.
Hun Tian Monkey, when Hun Tianwang's subordinates got these letters, they just picked up a piece of paper to pad the legs of the table, went to the latrine to wipe their butts, and were afraid of printing ink.
Gao Yingxiang was also stunned by the question. He thought about it in his mind, and it seemed that this was indeed true.
"Hey, I'm not saying anything harsh. It's the same thing in my team. I can't pick fifty out of ten thousand people who can read the whole letter."
Liu Chengzong reached out and waved his hand at the table, pointing at a few letters: "Only those literate people, how many of these pieces of paper can fall into their hands? Master Gao, please take it to heart and ask people to watch the literacy in the camp.
Yes, everything will be fine."
Liu Chengzong said this mainly because he wanted to calm Gao Yingxiang's heart and also let Gao Yingxiang appease several other leaders.
Because he knows very well that this matter has no solution for the team of Huntian Monkey, Huntian King and others.
Whether it's true or not, they can't come up with any way to deal with it, and they don't have any ability to deal with it.
If the leader is not disturbed, then he is resigned to fate; if the leader is disturbed, then it is no longer his turn to listen to God, and the huge but loosely organized team will collapse directly.
Liu Chengzong felt that the room was a bit stuffy, so he walked to the wall and opened the wooden window. Suddenly, a cold wind mixed with snowflakes rushed into the room, making him feel dizzy and clear his mind.
He thought along the line and said: "Huntianwang received it in Yanchuan, Huntianhou received it in Luochuan, I intercepted it from Yan'an Fucheng half a month ago, and Master Gao in Yanchang, I in Ansai
, but did not receive it, what does this mean?"
Need to ask?
Gao Yingxiang didn't hesitate to answer.
Liu Chengzong did not expect him to answer, but just straightened out his thoughts: "Three groups are advancing, Yang He from Guyuan, Hong Chengchou from Hancheng, and the one from the north... No, Guyuan should come slower than the north, could it be Zhang Nian?
”
Gao Yingxiang added: "To the north should be the sacred tree ginseng general Ai Wannian and the Ningzhai ginseng general Ai Mu. King Hengtian mentioned them, and there will be next year."
Gao Yingxiang looked at Liu Chengzong as if he had just remembered this, and said: "It's snowing in Yan'an Mansion, and there is this letter, what do you think about next year?"
As the saying goes, auspicious snow heralds a good harvest.
But for him, snowing is not a good sign.
When the harvest comes, they will be finished.
In this magical land of northern Shaanxi, a snowfall can change many things.
The people who are protected by them and provide them with information do not need to resist taxes.
"I just sent people to Zhuantianmao this morning to tell me to find another place to hide. People like me have no place to hide. I will probably be wandering around next year."
"Come here, I see that wheat is planted in the river valley. Are you willing to part with it?"
"With this snowfall, the eleven hectares of wheat fields in the river valley may be able to harvest nine bushels. If there is no drought next year, there will be more than fifty hectares of slope land and more than sixty hectares of four bushels of rented land. This place alone can afford to raise it.
I have a whole battalion."
Liu Chengzong counted the harvest of Xingzi River, shook his head and said with a smile: "If you don't want to give up, what can you do? I plan to ask my eldest brother to come over. If I can save it, I will save it. If I can't save my life, I won't have enough food."
There are so many fields in Xingzihe Wangzhuang that Gao Yingxiang and a few of his followers were dumbfounded.
He even made Gao Yingxiang say something unexpectedly: "I'll join forces with you, can you hold it?"
Liu Chengzong seemed to be smiling but not smiling: "Master Gao, what do you think?"
In fact, it is very likely that it can be defended and the first and second attacks can be defended.
However, the first attack will expose them to the sight of the official army, and the second attack will require the army to press forward, while deploying troops and generals to block the main roads.
The next step must be to mobilize heavy artillery, press forward step by step, seize water sources, besiege the fertile fields, and attack by force within the opposition areas. In the end, you will either break out of the siege or be trapped and exhausted.
But if you want to break through, what's the point of holding on for a month, half a year or even a year?
Gao Yingxiang shook his head and tutted: "It's just a pity that unlike you, others are not afraid of this letter. The other leaders are planning to stay away... Shanxi, are you going?"
"All going to Shanxi?"
Gao Yingxiang nodded and said: "Everyone is going to Shanxi. King Hengtian will go to Shanxi from Fuguhequ to deal with Ai Wannian. Zuo Guazi and Huntianhou will go to Hancheng to seek revenge on Hong Chengchou and enter Puzhou. If Bu Zhanmu comes from Jiazhou, I will go from Jiazhou.
Wubao crosses the river."
This is to attack Shanxi across the board.
Liu Chengzong asked: "What about Shaanxi?"
"Li Laojiao and Lao Huihui don't want to enter Shanxi. This time they enter Shanxi. The people in the north will go to the south; the people in the south will go to the north. If Lao Huihui and Li Laohui don't go, they will guard the Suide, Qingjian, and Yichuan lines. You
What do you think?"
Liu Chengzong secretly calculated in his heart.
On the front line of the northern border wall, Wang Jiayin and Lao Huihui were dragging the army; on the south line of Hancheng, Wang Zuogao and Li Laojiao were there to deal with it.
In other words, only the officers and soldiers in the direction of Qingyang are left. There are local troops from Han Chaozai and Liu Liu and Liu Qi, and there is Ren Quan'er's gate at the north gate of Yan'an Prefecture.
In this way, it is not dangerous for my father and brother to stay near Yan'an Fucheng.
"When will we leave?"
"Next March."
Liu Chengzong nodded and said: "Then I want to go to Yanshui Pass."
Yanshui Pass, he is familiar with that place, and the most important thing is that he is familiar with the target.
Earlier this year, when he only had a few hundred men, he peeked at the Zhuangtian of the Qingcheng Palace of the Jin Dynasty in Fenzhou Prefecture from a distance, but at that time he was blocked by the Guangwuzhuang Inspection Department of Luliang Mountain.
This time it was different. He wanted to break into Xiaoyi, capture several villages in Prince Qingcheng's palace, and distribute some food to the people of Shanxi.
This kind of thing should be done sooner rather than later. If it's too late, Wangzhuang will be gone.
Gao Yingxiang did not stay at Xingzi River for long. He only had a meal and then rode back to Zhanzhou again. Also traveling with him was Wei Qian'er, who went to convey to Cao Yao that he should continue his eastward journey and explore the situation at Yanshui Pass.
Oral message.
Two days before the end of the New Year, Liu Chengzong took his sister and son back to Zhuantianmao.
There was a rat outburst in the Panlong River Basin, which made Mr. Meibang extremely happy. He had endless work to do, and he caught them from the 30th day of the Lunar New Year to the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year.
I haven't finished eating it myself, it's like I finally have the opportunity to repay Liu Chengzong for his kindness in raising me. During those few days when I went back to Zhuantianmao to celebrate the New Year, all the old Liu family's big roosters were laid off.
Every morning before dawn, Liu Chengzong would be woken up by the loud scolding of the kitten at the door.
There must be several fat and black mice neatly placed outside the threshold.
This does not mean that Mr. Meiba shows him the results of his work, but actually calls him to have breakfast.
Not to mention, in this era of northern Shaanxi, because there were so many people fighting against heaven and earth who did not believe in evil, everything was thin except for the rats.
They are also afraid of the cold, so in winter they have to find people and dig holes in houses.
I heard from farmers in Zhuantianmao that when they were about to retire, some farmers would secretly run back to the Heilong Mountain to hoe the fields and dig out the seeds that had been sprinkled in the ground but did not grow.
Nothing can be dug out, the seeds buried in the ground are just gone.
When a mouse hole is found, dig it out accurately, and it will be filled with ungerminated seeds hidden by mice, which can cook half a pot of porridge at a time.
Mr. Liu is a man who can hide things. During the past few days during the Chinese New Year, Liu Chengzong talked about his plans for spring, but he didn't say anything. He didn't stop him until he was about to go back to Xingzi River on the third day of the new year for breakfast.
"Lion, you will lead your team to Shanxi in February. Before leaving, go back to Black Dragon Mountain and take care of the prefect's brother-in-law so that you can worship your ancestors at home during the Qingming Festival."
Liu Chengzong lowered his head to eat and asked vaguely: "Where is Zhang Nian?"
"Zhang Nian is fine, just let anyone shoot a gun in the city."
When Liu Xiangyu talked about this, he was so angry that his teeth itched: "His brother-in-law lived in the fort built by our family, and we worked together with the old Liu family to build a fort for him!"