In another memory, someone said that the only thing that can truly unite a group of good friends is a corpse in the backyard.
The dead tiger general is the corpse.
Liu Guoneng was also a scholar. His ancestors had guarded the border for generations. His father, brother and children were killed in battle and the living were replenished. They all died outside the Great Wall.
There is only his old mother at home.
As the only scholar in the village, Liu Guoneng naturally became the leader of the people.
When the drought came, he led the villagers to build water conservancy projects.
When thieves come, build swords and guns to defend against them.
Until the official came.
Liu Guoneng gathered men from four villages and besieged Wangzhuang Fort with sharp weapons. The purpose was very humble.
He just wants to harvest enough grain from the king's fields to pay taxes to the court.
Now that there is more food, Liu Guoneng is confused.
The villagers don't plan to be thieves anymore, and people hope that the drought will not continue next year.
Thinking that life can always get back on track.
But he knew he couldn't go back.
In a Guandi temple in Nanjia Mountain, Liu Guoneng set up a banquet for three people.
During the dinner, while changing cups, Liu Guoneng expressed his bitterness: "The rice grains we left for the people's homes are probably enough for half a month. After half a month, there will still be chaos around Fucheng. I don't know what to do!"<
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"It's not just around Fucheng. Brother Guoneng, I see you haven't trained your country soldiers."
Liu Chengzong advised: "Practice, organize the young men and strong men, in the name of resisting the thieves. Now that you have food and drink, it is the best time to train troops."
"I don't know how to train troops, and Yang Baihu can't come here every day."
Liu Guoneng spread his hands. His father was a veteran, but he was killed outside the Great Wall in northern Xinjiang very early. He has been growing up in Nanjiashan.
My family was poor and it was difficult to study. I could only get the Four Books and Five Classics that were tested in the imperial examination. I was able to be a scholar by virtue of my intelligence, but there were extracurricular books like military books.
Never seen it.
"If you don't know how to train troops, I can find a friend to come over. As you said, the people nearby have no food. Even if you have food, you will cause chaos. Then there is no food in Shaanxi, but there is food in Shanxi and Henan, so you can stay out of it?" p>
Liu Chengzong drank a glass of wine: "The great uprising is imperative!"
"I don't think so... The tiger general who took your name gathered hundreds of people and spent two days to get his name spread to Yan'an Mansion, and another two days to get his name into Li Bei's merit book."
Liu Guoneng shook his head and said: "What's more, the emperor's sage will soon see what northern Shaanxi looks like now."
Yes, he is loyal to the emperor and patriotic.
"You don't know what to do. Let me tell you, in the face of life and death, there is no right or wrong."
Liu Chengzong said: "The severe drought destroyed Shaanxi and Shanxi. The Donglu dragged the northeast of Liaoning, and She Chongming dragged the four southwest provinces. The entire Ming Dynasty relied on a canal to survive, and the emperor did not care about Shaanxi.
The imperial court's expenditures are overrun every year, and every province that has less tax revenue has more holes. There are more and more holes, tax collection has become more and more fierce, and the country's people are exhausted."
Liu Guoneng frowned and said, "You want to rebel?"
Looting is not rebellion, it is an expedient measure driven by desperation.
Therefore, he did not think that he had rebelled, and he also thought that inviting Liu Chengzong to his home was a mistake.
Liu Chengzong did not answer this question clearly, but asked instead: "The drought has made Shaanxi like this for two years. The court should be exempted from tax, but have they exempted it? Who forced you to become a robber is the court."
Liu Guoneng was speechless, but the other two people became excited.
"Yes!"
Li Wanqing echoed: "If the imperial court did not exempt taxes, I would not have taken in more than 200 tax evaders in the mountains."
Yang Yanchang made a very serious suggestion to Liu Chengzong: "Brother Chengzong, I saw it that day. You are all frontier soldiers, but Li Bei is really difficult to deal with. We can't defeat him with thousands of soldiers." "If you don't fight, how will you know if you have fought or failed!"
Li Wanqing may have been happy because he stood up and waved: "Tiger general, you lead us to rebel. I, Li Wanqing, will be your vanguard. I will kill you first. When the time comes, I will also be a general to recruit you, so I won't suffer from this bad attitude anymore!"<
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Liu Chengzong asked: "What's the use of being a general? The world has not changed. The rich have piles of money and food that are rusting and rotting, and the poor cannot make ends meet by selling their wives and children.
You fight bloody battles and kill this and that, just to ride on the people's heads and bring power, and then you massacre them when they rebel."
Li Wanqing was silent, and slowly sat down and said: "Then what can we do? Even if we take Yan'an Mansion, we can't hold it. If we don't surrender and recruit peace, will we smash ourselves to pieces for the sake of chickens and stones?" p>
"You're right, you can't keep it!"
Liu Chengzong turned to Liu Guoneng and said: "That's why we need to train our troops now. If we really wait for a rebellion, we will have no chance. Being able to run will be more important than being able to fight. If we are blocked by the army in a decisive battle, we will die."
Liu Guoneng was silent for a long time, no longer arguing about loyalty to the emperor, and asked: "Then tell me your plan, what do you plan to do?"
"Of course I want to accumulate strength and wait for the opportunity.
But it is not my turn to wait for the opportunity. We are all like the imperial court, a candle in the wind and cannot bear any risk."
Liu Chengzong always uses his own family as a reference.
His family is the kind that would not rebel under normal circumstances.
Rebellion requires a mass base. Once his family is forced to rebel, it means that the time has come for rebellion.
"We have fought side by side and are considered friends. If you rebel in the future, don't think about recruiting people. Recruiting people will not end well. Either don't rebel. The only purpose of rebellion is to overthrow the imperial court."
This is so difficult that when Liu Chengzong said this at this moment, it sounded like a joke to the ears of these three people.
Even if the Ming Dynasty is in ruins, it cannot be overthrown by people like them.
But anything in this world is never determined by whether someone wants it or not.
Halfway through the wine, someone stumbled into the temple and shouted: "Master Liu, more than thirty officers and soldiers have surrounded Youcaili. They want food and young aunts!"
Liu Guoneng was stunned for a moment, and then said angrily: "Where did the dog come from? It doesn't have enough food?"
Yang Yanchang also asked: "Who will lead the team?"
The villager shook his head and said, "I don't know him. He said he was a soldier from the south. He chased Wang Zuogua all the way to here."
"Isn't this fucking fart? Zuo Guazi ran away to Qingyang, why did you come to Yan'an!"
Perhaps Liu Chengzong's words just now had an effect, allowing Liu Guoneng to suppress his anger and walk out of the temple gate, adjust his mood and said: "Just give them some food and send them away."
Several people also walked out of the temple gate and looked down the mountain. They saw a group of soldiers blocking the entrance of a village in the valley two miles away from Liu Guoneng's home.
Dozens of villagers gathered there, and some went out to negotiate with the officials and soldiers.
Without knowing what was said, the negotiating officer returned to the team.
The scene that followed made Liu Guoneng's eyes wide open.
A row of gunpowder smoke rose, and soldiers in Guards uniform fired volleys with three-eyed muskets, causing scores of villagers to fall.
The people behind fled into the village, and the soldiers rushed into the village with knives and bows.
When Liu Chengzong ran out, he saw the villages in the valley fighting. Liu Guoneng stood there with his eyes wide open.
As he took off his official robe, he shouted to Liu Guoneng: "Why are you still standing there, gathering people! They are not officers and soldiers!"