Qufu is only fifty miles away from the capital of Yanzhou. It is the hometown of Confucius, the eternal teacher. It is a holy place in the hearts of scholars all over the world. In later generations, it was even known as the "Jerusalem" of the East.

It is said that the title of Confucius's eternal teacher is not an exaggeration. The respect he received is beyond imagination. No matter how the dynasties change, no matter who is in power, they all respect him as a saint and set him as a model for literati.

Since 195 BC (the twelfth year of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty), Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, canonized Kong Teng, the eighth grandson of Confucius, as the enshrined king. From then on, the eldest grandson of Confucius had a hereditary title. In the following thousand years, the title changed many times.

It was not until 1055 (the second year of Zhihe in the Song Dynasty) that the title was changed to Yan Sheng Gong. It was once changed to Feng Sheng Gong, and then it was changed back to Yan Sheng Gong. Later generations continued to use the title until 1935 (the 24th year of the Republic of China).

, it took more than two thousand years for Yanshenggong's title to be deactivated.

Even in China today, although the descendants of Confucius no longer have titles, Confucius himself is still respected as a teacher for all generations, and it is estimated that he will continue to be respected, and it is not impossible for more than 10,000 years.

If there is one person who is truly immortal, it is probably Confucius. Even his descendants have benefited from this. The Confucius family has become the largest family in Chinese history that has endured and flourished for generations, making people all over the world famous.

Breathtaking.

However, Qufu, a holy city in the minds of literati, was captured ten years ago, in the sixth year of Zhengde, by the troops led by Liu Liu and Liu Qi who rebelled in Hebei. The entire city, including the Confucius Temple, was completely destroyed.

, the hatred made the literati all over the country gnashed their teeth and cried bitterly. However, the current Qufu City was rebuilt by the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao later.

Besides, Zhao Quan and others rushed to Qufu without stopping after leaving Yanzhou. However, Zhao Quan's destination was obviously not Qufu, but Sishui County, which is located northeast of Qufu.

Sishui County is under the jurisdiction of Yanzhou Prefecture and borders Jinan Prefecture. To the north is Xintai County of Jinan Prefecture, and further to the north is Laiwu County. Now Wang Tang is leading the rebel army to attack Laiwu County.

In the evening, Zhao Quan and his party appeared at the foot of Nishan Mountain in Sishui County, covered with dust.

Nishan is only a few dozen miles away from Sishui County, but there is a group of horse thieves entrenched here. The leaders are Meng Lun and Zhao Zhi. This group of horse thieves is not large in number. They are entrenched in Nishan and defend themselves from danger. They come and go as easily as possible.

The wind roared and gathered in the mountains and forests, and the officers and soldiers had no way to deal with them.

Zhi...

Zhao Quan and others were riding horses on the mountain road, when suddenly a loud arrow was shot from the dense forest beside the road, and then a team of horses rushed out, with bells hung around their necks, making a frightening tinkling sound.

Zhao Quan and others calmly reined in their horses to greet them, and the horse team that rushed out also slowed down. The two horse thieves in the lead rode their horses closer with a smile, and said loudly and boldly: "Elder brother, Xue

Senior sister, I have been waiting for you for a long time!"

The two leading horse thieves were surprisingly the leaders Meng Lun and Zhao Zhi. Zhao Quan smiled and said: "Junior Brother Meng, Junior Brother Zhao, are you okay?"

Meng Lun laughed and said: "Haha, I'm fine. I think this horse thief is alive. Senior brother, are you going to take action?"

"Let's talk after we enter the stronghold!" Zhao Quan said in a deep voice.

So the two groups formed a group and rode up to Mount Ni.

It is worth mentioning here that Zhao Quan has been active in several provinces of Shandong, Henan, and Hebei in the past few years. In addition to preaching and developing believers, he occasionally instigates some people to cause rebellion, and then he takes over nearby mountains and becomes a thief, supporting himself by robbing homes and houses.

It became a fighting force that could be summoned in the future. Meng Lun and Zhao Jing led just such a group of horse thieves. Both Meng and Zhao were White Lotus believers.

…

On August 24, the 16th year of Zhengde, Sishui County was still shrouded in pre-dawn darkness. In the south of the city, a group of soldiers responsible for guarding the city gates paraded past listlessly, with the spears in their hands lazily carried on their shoulders.

Some people even put it directly on the ground and dragged it.

At this moment, a dozen uninvited guests wearing night clothes suddenly appeared in the dark alley, and the patrolling soldiers Ning were all knocked down before they had time to react.

rumble……

The heavy city gate slowly opened, and the roaring horseshoes sounded like thunder, completely shattering the tranquility before dawn. Dozens of horse thieves drove their horses towards the Sishui County Government Office, and hundreds of thieves swarmed in behind...

In an instant, the shouts of killing shook the sky, raging fires broke out all over the city, women and children cried, men were busy putting out the fire, and the whole town turned into a mess.

There is no garrison in Sishui County. Normally, the security and defense of the city are only maintained by hundreds of government officials and militiamen. Now it is at dawn, when the defense is at its weakest. In addition, the city gate has been secretly opened by an insider. Horse thieves

Taking the opportunity to rush in, the government officials and militiamen on duty were slaughtered in an instant.

When the morning sun emerged from the horizon, the Sishui County government office was also attacked by fierce horse thieves. The government officials died and fled, and even the Sishui County magistrate was killed on the spot.

This group of horse thieves had an insider to guide them, and they went to every house in the familiar area to "roll call" and arrested all the officials and gentry in the city. At this point, the entire Sishui County was completely in the hands of the horse thieves.

At about nine o'clock in the morning, Zhao Quan walked into the county government hall, stepping on the blood on the ground. He felt passionate in his chest. He couldn't help but looked up to the sky and laughed and said: "Princes, generals and prime ministers, would you rather have the guts?"

Qiu Fu, Sun Cai, Meng Lun, Zhao Zhi and others around Zhao Quan also looked excited and enthusiastic. It's no wonder that they took over a county town so easily, it was like picking something out of a bag, and these guys became a little excited.

At this moment, Xue Bingxin walked in with a long sword stained with blood, and said with a cold face: "Elder brother, someone is robbing and raping the people in the city. This trend cannot last forever. Meng Lun and Zhao Jing, hurry up and restrain you."

Subordinate, otherwise don’t be rude to me.”

The main force in attacking Sishui County this time was naturally the horse thieves under Meng Lun and Zhao Jing. However, these guys were all ruthless gangsters who did all kinds of evil and had no discipline at all. After entering the city, they wreaked havoc, raped and plundered wantonly. Although Xue Bingxin slaughtered

Even two people can't stop these people from continuing to do evil.

Meng Lun said disapprovingly: "Senior Sister Xue, no one is willing to follow us in the business of losing their heads if there is no benefit. It's okay. Let them vent their anger and stop."

Xue Bingxin couldn't help but said angrily: "Nonsense, the people don't want to lose their support?"

Zhao Quan frowned and nodded: "Junior sister Xue is right, the one who wins the hearts of the people wins the world. Burning, killing, looting and looting are unpopular. Wang Lun and Zhao Jing, please go out and restrain them."

After hearing this, Wang Lun and Zhao Jing had no choice but to walk out of the county government office and mount their horses again to restrain the gangsters who were committing evil everywhere.

In the afternoon, Zhao Quan asked people to post notices to calm the people throughout the city, and opened the granaries to stock up on food, calling on the people to join the rebel team. The attraction of giving out money and food was quite large, and there were refugees who had no livelihood, as well as some ruffians and prisoners.

They joined in one after another, and by evening, thousands of people had gathered.

"A great calamity is approaching, the sky and the earth are dark, the sun and the moon have no light. The world will be in chaos, Maitreya Buddha will be reborn, Huang Tian is dead, and the sky will stand..."

Zhao Quan personally prepared this memorandum with a much better literary talent than Wang Tang's, but Zhao Quan also kept a careful eye on it and did not sign his own name on the memorandum. Instead, he published it in the names of Meng Lun and Zhao Jing.

Message.

Originally, the leader of the Maitreya Sect, Lu Mingzhen, did not plan to launch this year. He planned to quietly accumulate enough strength before taking action. As a result, Wang Tang acted without authorization and even raised the banner of the reincarnation of Maitreya Buddha. Therefore, Zhao Quan could only respond immediately, otherwise Wang Tang would once

If they were defeated and captured, the sect's arrangements for so many years would be destroyed in one fell swoop, so it would be better to give it a try.

On August 25, the Nishan horse thief Meng Lun Zhao Jing captured Sishui County and officially announced his rebellion against the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, the mine thief Wangtang led his troops to capture Laiwu County, massacred the officials and gentry in the city, and opened warehouses to release grain to recruit troops.

, the thieves under his command grew like a snowball.

That's not all. On the same day, the bandit Pan Jinliang in Yi County, Yanzhou Prefecture, and the Le'an bandit in Qingzhou Prefecture also announced a rebellion and attacked nearby states and counties. In addition, there was chaos at work on the Yellow River canal in Henan, and miners near Baoding, Hebei also revolted.

…
Chapter completed!