The hundreds of thousands of rogue troops lurking among them were active in Pingding County, Leping County, Heshun County and other areas not far from Jingxing. They established camps in the mountains and no longer ran around, but planned to spend the winter there.
In the normal historical timeline, Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang and other thirty-sixth battalion of peasant troops did not stay in the Taihang Mountains for long. They quickly turned south and fought across the Yellow River and through Henan. In the first month of the sixth year of Chongzhen, they fought
Now that we are in Hubei, there is no time to stop and make repairs.
The reason is that the mountainous areas are barren and sparsely populated. It is impossible to find enough food to feed the hundreds of thousands of peasant soldiers. They can only fight and grab all the way. If they stop, they will be short of food, and the 36th Battalion will collapse without a fight.
But in this time and space, Gao Yingxiang and others chose to stay in the Taihang Mountains because they found enough food - potatoes and sweet potatoes! These two high-yielding crops were introduced to the Taihang Mountains by someone unknown and were planted on a large scale. With their
The yield of two to three thousand kilograms per mu has attracted many fleeing households to plant in the mountains, hoping to live a life of food and clothing in a paradise.
As a result, they did not live a life in paradise, but they allowed hundreds of thousands of bandits to have enough food and clothing. With the amount of potatoes and sweet potatoes they forcibly collected, they could eat enough for more than three months, and they could wait until spring before leaving the Taihang Mountains.
The imperial officers and soldiers basically stopped chasing and suppressing.
On the Qinglong Mountain with difficult terrain, in the Juyi Hall.
The leaders of the 36th Battalion of the Peasant Army gathered together for a rare occasion today, served food and wine, and held a celebration meeting in a lively atmosphere.
"Brothers, please eat and drink. You don't have to be polite here. We treat it as your own home." Sitting at the top of the Juyi Hall, Prince Zijinliang, the leader of the rebel army, said in the most enthusiastic Shaanxi accent, and arranged a meeting.
Class singing and dancing, allowing a dozen pretty women to perform singing and dancing, and bear the gaze of a pack of wolves.
"Alliance leader, we have spent so many years with the imperial court, and this year is the most comfortable we have ever had. I didn't expect to find so much food in the Taihang Mountains, and such a tender woman." This one-eyed, rough man with a big face on one side.
While stammering at the wine and meat, he suddenly stretched out his hand to grab a dancing woman, ignored her struggles and screams, started to molest her wantonly, and burst into laughter. This person was Ge Liyan He Yilong.
"The Taihang Mountains are pretty good. Why don't we just build a stronghold here to open up wasteland? We don't have to wander around anymore. With the strength of the imperial army, it is impossible to capture hundreds of thousands of us. As long as we form a stronghold and defend it, we may not be unable to survive in this mountain."
, establish a long-term foundation." Lao Huihui Ma Shou responded. He had long been tired of the erratic and wandering life. He wanted to lay down a solid base and develop steadily for a few years, but the government and the army never gave him this opportunity.
, and the Taihang Mountains are steep and precipitous, with very few passable roads. As long as you can guard the key passes, you can get a living space where you can recuperate.
"Haha, we can't defend Taihang Mountain. We have to leave next spring!"
Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang, who was dressed in white robes, took a sip of sweet potato wine and said with a smile: "The imperial court is powerful and Taihang Mountain is too close to the center of the Ming Dynasty. It will not be tolerated by the imperial court. There will be a fierce siege next year. If we don't do it earlier,
If we leave, we will only be stuck in the Taihang Mountains and be hunted down by the imperial court! We will have to travel far and wide next year."
"What King Chuang said is absolutely true. We are all wolves who have traveled thousands of miles to eat meat. How can we be local dogs guarding the mountains and waiting to die? We haven't ventured enough in this colorful world, and the hands that are used to holding knives can no longer work with hoes.
That’s it.” Eighth King Zhang Xianzhong said.
"Yes, I, Lao He, have tasted the tastes of girls from Shaanxi, girls from Shanxi, and girls from Henan. I have not tasted the tastes of women from other places. How can we stop here?" King Zuo Jin said.
"I don't know if you have noticed it. As long as we go eastward, we will find more food, and there will be more big and wealthy households. Even in the Taihang Mountains, we can find millions of stones of food. If we go further east
Now, are there countless wealthy places waiting for us to make a fortune?" Li Zicheng, who was still a general at this moment, expressed his opinion.
These words made many leaders' eyes light up.
"The land south of the Yangtze River is richest in the world. The Taihang Mountains are close to the south of the Yangtze River, so they naturally become richer."
"I heard that Xujiazhuang came out of South Zhili and was called the richest man in the world. The potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and other grains we eat were all handed down from Xujiazhuang. There are also watches we seized from big families.
Magical objects such as lighters also come from Xujiazhuang, which shows that it is not necessarily the wealth of Jiangnan, but the existence of Xujiazhuang that makes Jiangnan very rich." A consultant analyzed.
"How about we break out of the Taihang Mountains next year, first sweep across the south of the Yangtze River, and then capture the extremely wealthy Xujiazhuang. With enough money and food, we can recruit millions of soldiers, and finally march north to destroy the Ming Dynasty and seize the throne of the emperor.
! Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we lined up our seats in the Jinluan Palace and divided the world?”
"It's better not to divide the world, but the throne can be taken in turns. Let's let the alliance leader sit for a few days first, and then let King Chuang and the eight kings sit for a few days. Anyone can enjoy the addiction of being an emperor. In this way, between us brothers
, wouldn’t it be wonderful to kill here and there?” The words of the leader, nicknamed the King of Troubled Times, won many caring looks for the mentally retarded, but he had to echo them. At this time, the unity among the rebels is the greatest.
correct.
The Prince of Zijin Liang was listening to the discussion, which was like a vegetable market. When he saw He Yilong and other leaders, they were already holding dancers and doing shameless things in public, which made him twitch at the corner of his eye.
It was difficult to keep the kind smile on his face.
Wang Ziyong knew that the reason why he was elected as the leader of the rebel alliance was not because of his outstanding abilities or strength, but because of his good-natured character and by the way, he was chosen to be at the front to attract the court's firepower.
But he was the unanimously elected rebel leader after all!
Not some clay Buddha!
What's more, clay figures also have a certain amount of anger, and good people also have a bottom line.
Zijin Liang secretly decided that after he captured the Ming Dynasty and sat on the Supreme Dragon Throne, even if all the thirty-six heroes in the Juyi Hall survived to the end, he would kill at least half of them!
Especially He Yilong who is too cruel, Gao Yingxiang who is too smart and proud, and Zhang Xianzhong, He Jin and others who are too unruly. These people must be killed by Zijin Liang!
But verbally, King Zijin Liang still smiled and said very kindly: "What all the leaders said is reasonable. In this way, when next spring comes, our rebel army will work together to fight eastward, capture the land south of the Yangtze River, and capture Fuke
The enemy's Xujiazhuang had enough money and food, so they sent their troops north to seize the emperor's throne! When we get to the Jinluan Palace, I will share the wealth and honor with you, eat meat in large chunks and drink wine in large bowls, and weigh the gold and silver!"
"The leader is wise!"
"He who knows me is the leader of the alliance."
"The Sweeping King swears allegiance to the leader to the death!"
Wang Ziyong's words were very useful to many leaders, and they all said words of allegiance, which made Zijin Liang feel like they were surrendering. It was like being in the clouds, and they just accidentally saw the corners of the mouths of Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and others.
When Wang Ziyong taunted these people, his murderous intention towards these people became even stronger.
…
October 21st.
It took nearly three days for the imperial army led by Yang Yufan, Wang Hong, and Deng Qi to penetrate more than fifty miles into Jingxing, sweep a large area, and capture a total of more than 30,000 "rogue bandits". Because the arrests were too clean and thorough, they did not
People tipped off the information, and the army of rogue bandits didn't even know what was going on.
On the 22nd, the imperial army entered Pingding County and officially began to have contact and collision with the bandits, and even fighting and conflicts broke out.
But recruit Wang Guixiang discovered that the bandits were not much harder to catch than the local mountain people. All they had to do was throw a net bag over them.
"Hold on, hold on, hold on!"
"Tighten, tighten the net bag, don't let him escape!"
"Press down his hands and feet together, remove the net bag, take away the weapon, and tie him up with a rope!"
"Okay, take this bandit over to receive the reward."
Wang Guixiang joined a professional team of ten people. Everyone divided the work and cooperated together and practiced repeatedly. When encountering three rogue bandits or less, there is no need to throw out nets, everyone can swarm them; when encountering four to six rogue bandits, use net bags to deal with half of them, and use
Use force to deal with the other half; if you encounter 7 to 10 bandits, you will use net bags, quicklime, traps, laxatives, and everything else; if you encounter more than 10 bandits, call in a friendly team to help, creating a situation where more people fight against fewer people.
Therefore, today's raid ended. Wang Guixiang's team captured a total of 36 bandits, mostly young and strong men. Today, they harvested a total of 19.2 silver dollars.
Including the harvest of the past few days, Wang Guixiang has successfully received a dividend of 32.5 silver dollars, completing his previous goal of saving 30 silver dollars.
But not enough!
After his wife gets married, he still needs to save three hundred silver dollars, build a brick house with two rooms, give birth to at least four children, and prepare at least fifty silver dollars for each child.
We still have to find a way to earn another 500 silver dollars in dividends, which means we have to catch at least fifty young gangsters.
The efficiency of teamwork is too slow, and the security and reliability are high, but it can only make a small fortune, not a big fortune.
Wang Guixiang plans to take a desperate risk and go it alone!
In order to increase the success rate of catching the bandits, he actually spent all the more than 30 silver coins he just received to buy a small net bag, a set of climbing ropes, an alloy dagger, and compressed biscuits from the Xujiazhuang caravan.
A few, a kettle, a bottle of cod liver oil, laxatives, etc., and then the adventure began.
On the evening of the 23rd, Wang Guixiang sneaked into a bandit's village and successfully captured one of the bandits. The bandit was physically strong, struggled with all his strength, kept roaring, and formed a tug-of-war with Wang Guixiang. Although the bandit had a strong desire to survive, Wang Guixiang was exhausted from the torture.
, but after Wang Guixiang ate a piece of compressed biscuit, the tough bandit, faced with the desire to get rich in Wang Guixiang's eyes, had to lower his head and finally chose to surrender.
On the evening of the 24th, Wang Guixiang failed to lurk and was besieged by rogue bandits. However, relying on his physical strength and weapon superiority, as well as his desperate posture, which looked like crazy and completely desperate, Wang Guixiang killed six people and forced the remaining four to surrender. He only suffered injuries.
Slight injury, create a small miracle.
On the 25th, Wang Guixiang played a big trick. He sneaked into the camp of a bandit's family and successfully poured laxatives into the water source. More than 300 people in the camp were infected. The next day, Wang Guixiang tied a string of two people with a rope.
More than a hundred old and weak people were brought back to the army camp, causing a sensation in the entire camp.
It also made this imperial army become more fanatical and crazy.
…
As for the rogue bandits, the Qinglong Mountain garrison used by King Zijin Liang for his own use has received incredibly bad news for several days in a row:
"Alliance leader, King Hundian's camp was attacked by the army and more than 5,000 people were missing."
"The leader of the alliance, Gypsophila, Gust of Wind and nine dragons were attacked by the army. The three leaders and more than 15,000 tribesmen all disappeared."
"Alliance leader, a man from Xing Honglang's tribe came and said that they were attacked by the army in the middle of the night and had been killed or captured. Of the more than 8,000 tribe members, only he escaped."
"Alliance leader, my lord Chuang Ta Tian was frantically besieged by the army. Eight hundred elites rushed down the mountain and only I was able to break out. Alliance leader, please send troops to rescue us quickly. If it's a little later, our stronghold will fall!"
One of Liu Guoneng's subordinates, covered in blood, knelt down and begged for help.
A bang.
Prince Zijin Liang was stunned. What was going on? The situation of the rebel army was very good a few days ago. They were planning to conquer the south of the Yangtze River, break through Xujiazhuang, and then seize the Ming Dynasty. However, it has only been a few days, and a total of thirty-six
Several battalions of rebels have been completely destroyed. Should this change come so quickly and catch people off guard?