Li Laosi was riding on his horse, frowning as he looked at the tightly closed village gate and the villagers holding red-tasseled guns on the wall.
Unexpectedly, the Huben troops went to Henan to buy food from the people, but they encountered armed resistance from the Henan villagers.
In fact, the village that Li Laosi found was the only place with living people within five miles nearby. Henan experienced drought for several years, and experienced a tug-of-war between the rebel army and the government army. The population was only 30 to 40% of the original.
The small villages were abandoned by the people because of their small population, and the people gathered in large villages with fertile land to live together.
However, although many people died, these common people knew better than anyone else: the misfortune of farmers in Henan was caused by the gentry. The gentry relied on the support of the government to annex farmers' land without paying taxes, and passed all taxes on the common people.
That's why farmers in Henan are so vulnerable to natural disasters and so many people died.
Therefore, after Li Zicheng occupied Henan, the policy of land equalization and tax exemption greatly moved the farmers in Henan. On the one hand, because the population of Henan was greatly reduced due to the war, the surviving farmers were allocated a considerable amount of land. On the other hand, all these fields were free of land rent.
He Tianfu's fields made the people of Henan suddenly rich.
Coupled with last year's abundant rainfall in Henan, this year's winter wheat harvest was a bumper one, and every household received far more food than before. Basically, the entire Henan Province had enough food and clothing, and Li Zicheng's prestige was at its peak.
At this time, Li Zicheng sent people to spread rumors throughout the province, saying that Li Zhi would confiscate the fields allocated by the people and that Li Zhi would make these fields public and let the people pay rent. The people in Henan completely believed this rumor and regarded Li Zhi's tiger troops as
Like the enemy.
Li Laosi led his troops to attack near Xinyang, the southernmost point of Henan, and successfully divided Henan into two. However, Li Laosi had almost enough food and grass, so he asked the grassroots officers to buy food from the local area, but all failed. Li Laosi
Si took a trip in person and discovered that the people in Henan hated the Tiger Army more than they imagined.
Li Laosi found a soldier with a loud voice and asked him to go up and shout.
"Fellows in Henan, don't be afraid. We, the Tiger Army, are here to buy grain and will not rob you of your property. We buy grain from you at a price higher than the market price, and we guarantee that the fellow villagers will not suffer."
However, the soldier shouted several times, but the villagers on the wall still looked coldly at him, seeming determined to defend the village.
He Donggui, the leader of the gangster division next to Li Laosi, said: "Sir, do these villagers really think they can defend the village?"
Li Laosi looked at He Donggui and sighed: "I didn't expect that Li Zicheng was so popular in Henan and that the people believed their rumors so much."
He Donggui said: "Commander, we can't buy food without force. Let's start from here today and use force to collect food!"
Li Laosi nodded.
He Donggui waved his hand and asked a soldier to walk up with a rocket launcher. The soldier walked fifty meters away from the village, aimed the rocket launcher at the village gate, and fired with a bang.
The rocket pierced into the thick village gate. It was silent for a few seconds, and then exploded with a bang. The fire shot into the sky, and the huge shock wave immediately blew the two-meter-wide village gate into pieces, destroying the earthen wall next to the gate.
It blew down more than three meters. The road leading to the inside of the village was opened.
The reason why these farmers dared to resist the Huben Army was entirely because of the reputation of the Huben Army for not disturbing the people. They also heard that the Tianjin people left empty-handed after the previous villages resisted the Huben Army's grain expropriation, so they thought that as long as they showed armed resistance,
If you are determined, the Tiger Army will return defeated like in other villages.
They didn't expect that the Tiger Army would actually attack the farmers.
They hope that the Huben army will withdraw from Henan without food, so that they can keep their fields. However, if the Huben army is strong, they will not dare to resist.
The huge explosion on the village gate made the farmers in the village realize the power of the Tiger Army. They turned pale with fright and panicked. They threw away their weapons and fled into the village with their heads in their hands, not daring to raise their heads to resist again.
The Huben troops loaded their rifles with bullets and rushed into the village with their rifles in hand.
From now on, farmers in Henan will also be subjects of the Duke of Jin. Seeing that no bloodshed occurred, Mr. Li felt relieved and rode into the village.
The village was not big, with just over a hundred households. At this time, a company of tiger soldiers rushed into each household to check the food, and everything was in chaos.
Li Laosi rode for a while and saw several tiger-headed children holding wooden toys in their hands, standing in front of a farmyard, staring at him with wide eyes.
Seeing the innocence and cuteness of these children, Li Laosi thought of his own son and daughter. He jumped off the horse and wanted to tease these children.
However, the children were full of hostility towards Li Laosi. Seeing Li Laosi jump off his horse, the children shouted and ran into the yard.
Li Laosi was stunned and said to the children: "Do you want to learn a new game?"
Those children were not tempted by Li Laosi at all, so they picked up gravel from the ground and threw it at Li Laosi.
"Beat the bad guy!"
"The bad guys from Tianjin want to rob our fields!"
"We don't play with bad guys!"
Of course, a stone as big as a finger could not hurt Li Laosi, but when he saw the children's actions, Li Laosi's face turned dark.
The guards around Li Laosi rushed forward and drove the children into the house.
Li Laosi took a breath, clapped his hands, and said nothing.
The Huben troops rushed into every household, but the villagers did not have the courage to fight against the Huben troops. The village women honestly opened their warehouses for the Huben troops to inspect. The farmers who had just pretended to fight with arms on the wall of the village, now
I don't know where to hide anymore.
Soon, the statistical results were reported.
"Master, there are about 5,300 shi of food in this village."
"There are so many?"
Li Laosi could not have imagined that there were more than 5,000 kilograms of grain hidden in such a small village, and secretly thought that he had underestimated the level of Henan's bumper harvest this year. In the first year that Li Zicheng took control of Henan, the people achieved such a bumper harvest. No wonder the farmers in Henan had such a great harvest for Li Zicheng.
Follow your advice.
After hearing the results reported by He Donggui, Li Laosi nodded.
"Leave 2,500 stones for the people to eat, and use the remaining 2,800 stones as military rations. Give the people two taels and a half of silver for each stone as compensation."
He Donggui looked at Li Laosi and said: "Commander, the scouts in the east reported that no large groups of bandits were found in eastern Henan. They seemed to have fled to Shaanzhou in the west in advance. There were only a few tens of thousands of hungry soldiers.
Still stranded in eastern Henan. Hong Chengchou's plan to intercept the bandits from eastern Henan seems to have failed."
Li Laosi nodded and said: "The intruders are cunning and it is impossible for us to achieve what we want. But in this way, we have occupied central and eastern Henan and controlled two-thirds of Henan. As long as we concentrate our forces to attack Henan
Xishan District is fine.”
He Donggui said: "Commander, the farmers in Henan are so supportive of the intruders. I'm afraid we won't be able to recruit local grain when we enter the mountainous area. To transport grain to Shaanzhou in the mountains, our grain road will have to travel five hundred miles in the valley.
, somewhat dangerous.”
Li Laosi looked at the surrounding villages and said nothing.
