When he learned the news from the clerk, Mi Ling was sitting upright reviewing the accounts. He jumped up when he heard the news, dumbfounded.
Since the first Yellow Turban Rebellion, countless thieves and bandits in every state and county across the country have devoted themselves to the great cause of rebellion one after another.
It can range from a dozen times a year to dozens of times in a few months.
But even though it was so frequent, there were many rebels, but only a few who proclaimed themselves emperors.
Back then, when Zhang Jiao gathered millions of people and eight states responded, and almost swept the world, he did not dare to pretend to be emperor.
The initiators were cautious, and the newcomers rarely dared to make mistakes.
Especially under the banner of the Yellow Turban, if he proclaims himself emperor, not only the people of the world but also his own family will rebel against him.
A great sage and good teacher is just a self-proclaimed general. What kind of family do you think you dare to surpass him and claim the title of emperor?
Of course, there are always idiots.
For example, in Yizhou at that time, there was a group of yellow turban thieves, whose leader was named Ma Xiang. They occupied only three counties and then proclaimed themselves emperor, making everyone in the world laugh at them.
The final result was that from the inception to the defeat, they persisted for less than a month before they were defeated and died, and their bodies were separated.
Now, it seems that a second person is about to appear.
"Now that he has no more than 10,000 troops, he declares himself a general, and he is still using the banner of Zhang Jiao's reincarnation. I already think this guy is extremely arrogant..."
Mi Ling murmured to himself and sat down slowly: "I didn't expect that he would be so crazy to occupy a whole county... this..."
"Is this the beginning of the dream of becoming an emperor?"
As he spoke, Mi Ling shook his head repeatedly: "Such a stupid and arrogant boy can actually gather a crowd to cause chaos, and he got lucky..."
It seems incomprehensible and even more unbelievable.
The waiter also showed disdain and echoed:
"Shopkeeper, you still don't know that not only does the leader of the thieves have a bad government, but the thieves under him are also vulgar and illiterate, and they don't understand etiquette at all."
"Then Wu Niu went to some storytellers in the county and asked what it would take to be an emperor. The scholars said that they would build palaces, make dragon robes, and make chariots and so on."
At this point, the waiter paused and couldn't help laughing: "Wu Niu and the storytellers didn't understand what a buggy was, so they directly found a carriage and covered it with gold powder...
He said that since it is the Emperor's vehicle, it must be made of gold just like the golden shoulder pole..."
"Hahaha."
Hearing the waiter's vivid description, Mi Ling couldn't help laughing, laughing, and asked: "What else?"
"I also heard that Wang Zheng is planning to proclaim himself Wen Cheng Wude Ze, the Holy Emperor of the Common People. He will officially ascend the throne in Zhao County in three days. All his thieves will become generals."
"It is said that there must be more than a few hundred, or some kind of hereditary power, and they want to enfeoff around Zhao County."
"The fields owned by those wealthy gentry families in the past are also within the enfeoffment scope."
The last sentence made Mi Ling's face turn cold immediately. He couldn't help but gritted his teeth and said, "The thief really deserves to be killed!"
Although his family's several properties and businesses in Zhao County have not been invaded by thieves at present, the Mi family is also one of the largest landowners in Xuzhou. Hearing what Wang Zheng did, he couldn't help but feel sad and even more angry.
"There are thousands of people in total, but there are only a few hundred generals?" Mi Ling snorted coldly: "It's really perverse and self-destructive."
Speaking of this, he felt a little emotional: "It seems that I thought too much before."
"When we first met that day, the boy was acting pretentious, but he frightened me."
"Later, he completely let the transaction go. My family set the price on our own and did not send anyone to supervise it. I was still worried at the time, always feeling that something was abnormal and maybe something fishy."
"Now it seems that this guy is an ignorant and stupid thief who never thought of this at all!"
Hearing this, the clerk's eyes lit up and he asked: "In that case, should we go and notify the pawn shop?"
"It's still too late to do anything."
Hearing this, Mi Ling's expression changed, and after thinking for a while, he still waved his hand:
"That's not necessary. The thief's life is not long anyway, so why should we cause trouble?"
Even when he thought he had some tricks, Mi Ling didn't think he could cause much trouble.
After seeing the information sent by his family, Mi Ling became even more convinced that the defeat of this bandit was not far away.
After all, the gap between the Qingzhou Yellow Turban bandits and the regular army under Cao Cao is too big.
But with so many people and such a short-sighted leader, Mi Ling felt a little pity in his heart.
Proclaiming himself emperor is an act of great rebellion.
When dealing with the Yellow Turban bandits before, Cao Cao was still particular about killing only the first culprit. I am afraid that this time, he wants all the rebels to be dragged away to be buried with Wang Zheng.
"Three days later..."
Thinking of the movements of Cao's army contained in the previous intelligence, Mi Ling made a secret estimate.
It's quite late in terms of time.
He told the clerk: "Go and notify the pawnbroker. All goods must be accounted for before today. After notifying Wang Zheng, we will ship the goods out quickly."
"If after Cao's army breaks the city, this batch of goods is seen by them, it will be troublesome."
"In this world, there is actually no difference between officers and soldiers and bandits."
"yes."
.....
Zhao County at this time.
Hundreds of Tianfu troops were beating gongs and drums, carrying baskets of rice, spreading out, and shouting loudly along the streets.
"The heavenly army is recruiting!"
"Men over the age of 15 and under 40, as long as they are healthy, can sign up and be fed two meals a day."
"If you go into battle and kill the enemy and get military merit, you can also get extra rewards, including grain, cloth, gold and silver, and keep it so that your whole family can live a good life together."
"Elderly people who have skills such as blacksmithing, wound healing, horse riding, good archery, literacy, etc. are treated more favorably!"
"Not only do we take care of meals every day, but we also receive extra military pay every month!"
"Those who don't want to go into battle to kill the enemy can also sign up to join the auxiliary army and be responsible for building the city wall. There is no restriction on men and women. You can do as much work as you want and get as much food as you want. The more you work, the more you get."
Such straightforward words are for the convenience of public understanding.
After the Heavenly Army encircled the city three times in a row to end this propaganda campaign, the news that the Heavenly Army was recruiting and expanding its army had quickly spread throughout Zhao County, arousing quite a bit of discussion.
Cao Jun also recruited troops in Zhao County before, but they were simple and crude "recruiting strong men".
In comparison, Wang Zheng's methods were relatively gentle, and there was not much resentment in everyone's mind.
Especially in this simple slogan, even if some of the words are half-understood, many people are quite moved.
Of course, most of them, like Mi Ling, are not optimistic about the future of the Heavenly Army.
After all, the historical achievements of the Yellow Turban bandits are there.
But this idea is completely no match for the "rice" and "satisfaction" in the slogan.
Especially at this time, after the wealthy families in the county were wiped out, many people are now unemployed.
At this time, either to fill their own stomachs or to make some money to support their families, there are even some former scoundrels who really wanted to join the army to obtain military functions and become officers.
So when seven or eight recruiting points appeared in Zhao County, countless people rushed forward.
Most of the time, Sheng Dou Xiaomin only cares about what is in front of him.
Some of them may also have thought about how they would behave if they joined the Heavenly Army at this time and the officers and soldiers came to quell the chaos.
But I just couldn't care less.
Are you a thief? Have a bad reputation?
Only people who have no worries about food and clothing would worry about that.