After Wu Shigong left the county government, he came to the teahouse next to the county gate and waited for Foreman Jiang to come back. He sat at a table alone, ordered a pot of tea, and drank it without a sip, feeling depressed in his heart.
.
Suddenly, a horse-riding government servant let go of his horse and rushed out of the county town. Suddenly he saw Wu Shigong's guard waiting outside the teahouse, so he quickly reined in the reins and jumped off the horse. The government servant confirmed to Wu Shigong's guard that
After Wu Shigong was in the teahouse, he quickly ran into the teahouse.
As soon as he saw Wu Shigong, the government official knelt down with a plop. With a cry in his voice, he reported to Wu Shigong: "Wu Qianhu, there are rebels who want to attack the county seat! The county magistrate asked Wu Qianhu to go to the county government office to discuss matters.
ah!"
The yamen servant shouted loudly, but Wu Shigong didn't respond at all. When the other teagoers in the teahouse heard this, they all scattered and went home with a "boom" sound.
When Wu Shigong heard the report from the yamen servant, his whole body was agitated. Did the world's chaos begin just like this? Is it possible that his office with thousands of households would bear the brunt of the world's chaos? Wu Shigong shook his head vigorously and sobered up.
He immediately stood up. He thought in his heart: "Don't say anything anymore. First go to the county government office to understand the situation."
When returning to the county office, Wu Shigong saw people in the county on both sides of the road running around like headless flies. It seemed that there was no secret in this county. It was estimated that by this time, the news had spread throughout the county.
There is news that the rebels are going to attack the county seat.
After arriving at the county government office, Wu Shigong immediately rushed into the county government office. As soon as he entered the county government office, he saw that in the lobby of the county government office, County Magistrate Qi was spinning around in the lobby, and a man dressed as a military attache stood in the lobby.
Next to County Magistrate Qi.
Hearing the footsteps of Wu Shigong coming in, County Magistrate Qi and the military attache both looked towards Wu Shigong. Wu Shigong also looked towards the military attache, and upon seeing them, both of them screamed out loud.
"Commander Li."
"Commander Wu."
That military attache was Wu Shigong's former commander when he was the commander of the Nancheng Military and Horse Command Department - Li Lu.
After seeing Li Lu, Wu Shigong's expression changed. In his memory, Li Lu went to Nanyang Mansion to serve as a guard. And between Nanyang Mansion and Guide Mansion, there were Runing Mansion and Kaifeng Mansion.
The distance between the prefectures. Could it be that Nanyang Prefecture, Runing Prefecture and Kaifeng Prefecture are all in chaos?
It turns out that the garrison position that Wei Zhongxian arranged for Li Lu was forced out of Li Lu by Wei Zhongxian for the sake of the British prince. There was already a general in charge of the garrison in Nanyang Mansion, so there was no need to arrange another one.
garrison.
However, due to Wei Zhongxian's orders at that time, the Ministry of War still squeezed out two counties from the east of Nanyang Prefecture and designated them as Li Lu's garrison area. However, the number of Li Lu's soldiers was definitely not as good as the general garrison.
In the Ming Dynasty, the garrison strength was generally between 1,500 and 2,000 men. However, Li Lu's garrison strength was only 800 men.
However, it was an unexpected blessing that Li Lu got this garrison official position. His leg was already lame, and logically he could not be an official at all, let alone a military attache who would lead troops into battle. Therefore, Li Lu
I don’t care about these anymore.
Besides, Li Lu's ambitions had been exhausted due to his disability. He just wanted to work peacefully in this garrison official position for a few years, make some money, and then return to the capital to retire.
Therefore, although according to the practice of the Ming Dynasty, Li Lu's soldiers could only receive 50% of their military pay after being divided by yamen at all levels every year. However, Li Lu saw that nothing happened in his defense area, and the surrounding defense areas also
There was peace. Therefore, Li Lu only raised 300 soldiers who were paid 30% of the pay, and dozens of personal soldiers who were paid 70% of the pay as his bodyguards. The rest of the military pay was put into his own pocket.
went.
After living peacefully in Nanyang Mansion for more than a year, Li Lu's scars healed and he forgot the pain, and his heart was ready to move again.
A few days ago, Li Lu hooked up with a good family again. So, two days ago, Li Lu went to that good family's home and started making fire again. After that, Li Lu would take his dozen or so soldiers,
Leave the town where the good family lives.
But the town where the Liang family is located is at the junction of Nanyang Prefecture and Runing Prefecture. To be precise, it should be in Runing Prefecture. After all, Li Lu left his defense area, so when he entered this town, he still
It's rather sneaky. But when he leaves, there is no need to be so covert.
However, Li Lu's appearance caused a chain reaction. That small town happened to be an important rebel gathering point of the Holy Spirit Society. Seeing the sudden appearance of dozens of officers and soldiers like Li Lu, those people from the Holy Spirit Society,
Thinking that his attempt to rebel had been discovered by the army, he immediately launched an uprising to kill Li Lu and others.
Li Lu and others were caught off guard and several people were killed. However, after all, they were all riding horses and had certain military skills. So in the end, most of them broke out of the encirclement.
However, after escaping from the small town, Li Lu became a little panicked. Originally, he should have returned to his defense area. However, that small town was the only way for Li Lu to return to the defense area. Therefore, Li Lu
If you want to take a detour, try to see if you can return to the defense area.
But as soon as they got around the small road, Li Lu and the others realized that something was wrong. All the opponents seemed to be in chaos. Li Lu and the others didn't care about the southeast, northwest, and they had no choice but to flee wherever there were fewer chaos.
In the process of escaping, Li Lu and others also found out that these rebels had gathered and opened several villages in the countryside. Moreover, the marching route of these rebels was exactly the direction in which Li Lu was escaping.
Li Lu was about to cry but had no tears. He thought to himself: "Am I just playing the role of a good family? Is it necessary for you rogues to chase after me?"
Li Lu and the others did not dare to pass through a place with a large number of rioters and approach several nearby counties. They galloped their horses all the way, and after several horses were exhausted, they finally arrived at the county seat of Qi County Magistrate after running for a day.
But having said that, although Li Lu's defense area is in the east of Nanyang Prefecture and Qi County Magistrate's county seat is in the west of Guide Prefecture, the distance between the two places is about the same as the distance from Qi County Magistrate's county seat to Guide Prefecture.
.However, Li Lu was able to travel from Nanyang Prefecture, through Runing Prefecture and Kaifeng Prefecture, to Guide Prefecture in more than a day. This shows that Li Lu, a cripple, is indeed first-class in his escape skills.
County Magistrate Qi and Wu Shigong carefully understood the situation of the rebellious people. Of course, Li Lu would not tell anyone about his scandalous affair with Li Lu. However, Magistrate Qi and Wu Shigong basically got nothing useful from Li Lu's mouth.
Information.
At that time, Li Lu and his men just wanted to escape. Therefore, Li Lu could only say: It is estimated that there are tens of thousands of these rebels. They are heading towards the county seat of Qi County Magistrate. However, after all, they are far away from the county seat.
How far is the distance? When will it arrive? Li Lu couldn't tell a reason.
After Magistrate Qi heard this, he cursed in his heart: "Did I encounter a ghost in my last year of tenure in this county? First there was a drought, and now the rebels are attacking the county seat."
Neither County Magistrate Qi nor Wu Shigong knew that although the rioters organized by the Holy Spirit Society were mainly people from Runing and Kaifeng Prefectures, there was a reason why they came towards Guide Prefecture.
That's because, although few of the people in the Holy Spirit Society have military literacy, after all, they have been operating in Henan for a long time, and they know where in Henan the army is the smallest and the defense is the weakest.
Defu is the place with the most emptied military power in Henan.
We have already known before that Guide Mansion is surrounded by large armies, so it appears to be very safe. Moreover, in the Ming Dynasty, the deployment of the army was also very particular. In addition to the deployment of troops at strategic military locations and transportation thoroughfares,
The other armies are basically deployed near the vassal territories of each vassal king. The main purpose of this arrangement is to prevent those vassal kings from rebelling.
In Henan, although there are eight vassal kings, it is also the province with the most vassal kings in the country. But it is precisely in Guide Prefecture that there is no vassal king. Therefore, in Guide Prefecture, except for one Guide Guard who serves as a local guard post,
There are no soldiers at all.
As for the current combat effectiveness of the Guide Guards, you can imagine it by looking at the performance of old man Zhao Ming. The more than 5,500 soldiers specified by the Guide Guards are all from the military households of the Guide Guards at this moment.
, can it be extracted? That is definitely impossible.
And the county seat of Qi County Magistrate happened to be on the only way for these rebellious people to get to Guide City. Therefore, it was no wonder that Qi County Magistrate and Wu Shigong were unlucky.
Just when Li Lu was explaining the situation to Magistrate Qi and Wu Shigong, all the local officials and gentry who had received the news, including Yao Yuan, rushed to the county magistrate. Seeing that everyone was basically there, Magistrate Qi
I just thought: "No need to say anything, let's arrange how to defend this county first."
The officials in the county government were very discerning. They had already moved chairs and placed them on both sides of the lobby, so that all the officials and prominent figures in the county could sit down. Magistrate Qi was also behind the big case.
seat.
After seeing that all these people had sat down, Magistrate Qi coughed twice and silenced the lobby. He said: "All colleagues and fellow villagers already know that the rebels are going to attack this county.
Then let’s not talk nonsense, I will first arrange how to defend the city.”
Then, County Magistrate Qi turned to Wu Shigong and ordered Wu Shigong: "First of all, Wu Qianhu will send someone immediately to bring all your soldiers to the county town."