After experiencing the chaos and bloodshed in Zhaohua County, the Jiang family and his son could no longer tolerate the rebels losing control.
When the peasant army massacred wealthy households, the five father and son began to rescue their friends.
They all had studied and had some acquaintances in the county. Although the rescued people were angry and made trouble, they could not care about quarreling in this situation and could only join forces to maintain the situation.
After looting the county town, the peasant army split into two forces.
The five fathers and sons of the Jiang family had an army of only a thousand people, most of whom were farmers and craftsmen, with a few scholars mixed in.
The other group consisted of nearly ten thousand people, headed by Wu Tong, the head of the township soldiers, and there were many leaders, big and small, who were all the heads of the township soldiers, ten generals, and Yuhou. They formed a rebel alliance, ostensibly obeying Wu Tong's orders,
In fact, everyone does his own thing. The backbone of the rural soldiers are recruited by the government, mixed with a large number of unemployed vagrants and low-level people in the county.
The two forces clashed in the city.
The reason is that the Jiang family and his son are not allowed to insult women. Even if they are notorious, they will kill them, but they cannot rape their female relatives. Even if they want to rob women, they should be given a title, and they can take them home as concubines.
In order to establish their authority, the Jiang family and his son executed more than 20 people one after another, which aroused the dissatisfaction of many peasant soldiers. Then they set military regulations and ordered them to hand over the spoils of war, forcing a large number of soldiers to flee to Wu Tong.
This resulted in the five men, father and son, having only a thousand troops left, while Wu Tong's side had nearly ten thousand men.
The two sides communicated, and the Jiang family and his sons occupied the county government area, while Wu Tong and others controlled Nancheng District. At least no large-scale bloody conflict broke out.
After a short rest, we went to attack Lizhou City together.
They laid siege to the city for several days, built weapons, and stormed the city in only half a day. Most of the officials at the state and county levels were killed, and a small number fled north.
Then, the peasant army finally broke out into civil war, caused by the uneven distribution of spoils and the fact that the Chiang family and his son prevented the soldiers from looting civilians.
The Jiang family and his son were defeated and retreated to Zhaohua County with hundreds of remaining soldiers to defend themselves.
Looking at the dilapidated county town and the hundreds of remnant soldiers behind him, Jiang Zhongru, a village school teacher, was completely disheartened and kept muttering: "You shouldn't rebel, you shouldn't rebel..."
"Father, it's useless to say all this," Jiang Chengwu suggested. "Zhaohua County is in dilapidated condition. The people have either fled or been coerced into rebels. There are neither soldiers nor money or food in the city. It's useless to attack Jia on such a white ground."
In Meng County, one can obtain money and food supplies, and two, young men can be recruited as soldiers."
Jiang Zhongru looked up at the setting sun, hunched over and said, "Go now, we can reach Jiameng Pass before dark."
The location of Jiameng Pass is in Wangxi Town, where they first plundered.
(Zhaohua County in the Song Dynasty was on the north bank of the confluence of Bailong River and Jialing River. Jiameng Pass and Wangxi Town were on the south bank, near the ruins of the ancient Zhaohua City in later generations. As for Jiameng County, it was in the valley further south.
.)
Hundreds of remnant soldiers crossed the river with their families and sought shelter in private houses in Wangxi Town.
The Jiameng Pass next to it was deserted, and the soldiers guarding the pass had long since fled.
Two days later, the Jiang family and his son arrived in Jiameng County.
Facing the open city gate, Jiang Zhongru said to his soldiers: "The city gate is wide open. The rich people in the city must have fled. The rest are miserable. Stop killing and looting indiscriminately. Wait until the rich and the poor are equal." The rich and the poor do not behave like that. I am incompetent in leading the army and have caused too many murders. When Zhu Xianggong of Hanzhong comes, you all go to serve as his soldiers."
The hundreds of remaining soldiers looked at each other in confusion. They were quite obedient, otherwise they would not have followed Jiang Zhongru.
"We listen to Chiang Kai-shek!" A soldier knelt down.
The other soldiers also knelt down, and the dozen or so Zhaohua soldiers who accompanied the army finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this.
After the army entered the city, Qiu did not commit any crimes and only went to official warehouses and rice shops to collect food.
Jiang Zhongru sent people to post notices to calm the people, and also searched for subordinate officials in the city to try his best to maintain public order in the city.
…
But it was said that after driving away the Jiang family and his son in Lizhou City, Wu Tong coerced the residents of the city into soldiers, and instantly raised a miscellaneous army of more than 20,000 people.
When he learned that the prefect Huang Deyu had led his troops to fight back, Wu Tong said to his subordinates: "I have inquired clearly that Huang Laogou only brought back a few thousand soldiers, but ours has more than 20,000 troops. What are the officers and soldiers like? We all know You know, if we fight, we will collapse. Follow me and kill Huang Laogou first, and then go to Zhu Xianggong. From now on, everyone can become a high official!"
"Fight out and become a high official!" the leaders cheered and shouted.
A few miles north of the city, Huang Deyu found out that the bandits actually took the initiative to leave the city to fight, and immediately issued a military order: "A team of five people, each holding his belt, retreats. Whoever dares to loosen his belt will kill the captain!"
Fearing that the retreat would turn into a rout, thousands of officers and soldiers turned around and marched, pulling their belts like a train.
The officers and soldiers gradually retreated to the mountainside, while the peasant army was still leaving the city one after another.
They believed that the officers and soldiers were afraid, their morale became higher, and they involuntarily accelerated their marching speed.
Huang Deyu set up a commanding flag on the mountainside and asked all his troops to line up around him to occupy favorable terrain for defense.
The peasant army has no structure and no chain of command. It relies on leaders, big and small, to fight independently. Many of them were recruited as rural soldiers, but they only practiced for a few days.
Wu Tong sent more than 10,000 troops and asked the leaders to lead troops to besiege on three sides.
At the beginning, everyone's blood surged, and they rushed up the mountain regardless of their physical strength. Their momentum was like a rainbow, as if they were the reincarnation of Lu Bu. After the battle, they found that the official position could not be broken, and tens of thousands of Lu Bu were quickly beaten back to their original shape.
In less than two quarters of an hour of fighting, the two leaders retreated.
"Kill him!"
Huang Deyu quickly seized the opportunity and led his soldiers into the battle, opening a wider gap for the enemy's retreat.
The peasant army was originally defeated with only a few hundred men, but due to Huang Deyu's charge, the nearby leaders retreated one after another, and the chain reaction turned into a huge rout.
Wu Tong was dumbfounded at the bottom of the mountain. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. He was so frightened that he shouted: "Run quickly, this bird officer is not easy to deal with!"
Huang Deyu took advantage of the victory to pursue the enemy and captured a large number of traitors. Wu Tong fled the battlefield with only more than 4,000 people.
Moreover, Wu Tong did not dare to return to Zhoucheng and ran eastward along the tributaries of the Jialing River, fighting all the way to Jiachuan County (western Wangcang County).
Huang Deyu led his troops back to the city. Looking at the state city in a mess, he was so angry that his lungs almost exploded. Returning to the back house of the state government, he found that there was no one inside. After asking carefully, he found out that his old wife and servants had been killed.
Killed, a mouthful of blood spurted out and he passed out immediately.
After lying down for half an hour before waking up, Huang Deyu shouted: "Hurry up and help me up. Leave some soldiers to guard the city. The rest will follow me back to Mantian Village. It's important to stop the red thieves there!"
The official who was lucky enough to escape from the city joined the army and helped Huang Deyu sit up. He said with a sad face: "There are too many soldiers fleeing and we can't suppress them at all. I'm afraid of forcing them to rebel, so I can only let them return home."
"How could the soldiers flee just after a great victory?" Huang Deyu asked in surprise.
Ma Zao said: "The soldiers heard that the city was turned into a wasteland, and the bandits burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of crimes. They also learned from the prisoners that Zhaohua County was also killed too hard. Everyone was worried about their family members in the countryside. Several villages
The military officers took the lead in making noise, and the rest of the soldiers followed suit, snatching military supplies and extorting money to force them to go home. The Xiang army did not dare to stop them at first, but then they followed the local soldiers and let the captured traitors go..."
Huang Deyu sat in silence for a long time, and finally came to his senses: "How many soldiers are left?"
Ma Zao replied: "There are two to three hundred people, all single men without family members."
"Two or three hundred people?"
Huang Deyu suddenly grabbed the lapels of Ma Zao's clothes and roared: "I have thousands of troops, and I have captured tens of thousands of thieves. I have just been unconscious for a while, and you think there are only two or three hundred people left?"
Ma Zao said helplessly: "I can't stop you. They are all in a hurry to go home. Those rural soldiers were recruited by force. If we stop them blindly, they will rebel. Prefect, withdraw, Lizhou cannot be defended anymore."
"Where to evacuate?" Huang Deyu asked.
Ma Zao said: "Withdraw Jianmen Pass. The remaining more than two hundred soldiers are all single and young men. As long as we are given rewards, they will definitely be willing to retreat with us. With these more than two hundred strong men, even if not a single soldier is sent out from Chengdu, we will not leave."
We can also defend the sword gate without losing it."
Huang Deyu thought silently, and finally said in a hoarse voice: "Withdraw."
…
Jiachuan County.
The county magistrate and chief registrar have run away, and the county school principal Wu Kangguo is leading the people in the county to defend the city.
The refugees who fled from the prefecture brought horrific news. While scaring away the county magistrate, they also made the people share the same hatred. The wealthy households used money and food for military supplies, and the people took up arms to defend their homes.
The truth is, if you have money, you will have money, and if you have money, you will have people.
No matter rich or poor, everyone was frightened by the peasant army and knew what would happen if they did not resist.
Wu Kangguo was a Jinshi last year. He was assigned to be the principal of a county school. Before he even got started, he received an official document to reduce the size of the school. He only had twenty students left. He was bored at first, but now he encountered a big problem.
The county magistrate and the chief registrar had fled, and the people unanimously elected him as their commander-in-chief.
Wu Kangguo was just rushing to the shelves. He didn't even read the military book, so he could only make arrangements in a muddle.
First, use Baojia as a unit, and let the chief of Baojia organize the neighbors to defend a section of the city wall each. Then let the wealthy households serve as logistics officers and organize the old and the weak to transport supplies. There are no serious weapons, such as street vendors' poles and common people's kitchen knives. Take whatever you have.
They also dismantled some beams to make rolling logs, and prepared vegetable oil and dung water for cooking in pots.
Wu Tong came with thousands of remaining soldiers and immediately sent people to persuade them to surrender.
Wu Kangguo was furious, lying on the top of the city and roaring: "You bandits, you have no humanity, you will go to the eighteenth level of hell!"
Seeing that the people in the city refused to surrender, Wu Tong demolished the houses outside the city to build siege ladders.
I thought it could be defeated in one battle, but it turned out that it was even more difficult to fight than Zhoucheng. The people defending the city were all fighting tooth and nail. Principal Wu Kangguo also took the lead, and even many children from wealthy families were fighting.
Wu Tong suffered heavy losses under Jiachuan City and had to retreat with his remaining soldiers. On the way, he heard that the prefect had escaped, so he fought back to the city.
Many of the surviving people in the prefecture city had been kidnapped by Wu Tong as soldiers, and then fled home after being captured by the officers and soldiers. When they learned that Wu Tong had returned, they worked together to defend and determined not to let this devil enter the city again.
Just when Wu Tong was depressed, the leaders under his command began to fight among themselves.
Finally they broke up and each took their men with them and ran to the mountains to become bandits.
Zhu Ming came with his army and learned about the situation in Lizhou. He stood there without speaking for a long time.
