"Didn't Ejun's family be driven to Yuzhang by us and die in Fanyang? Why did another descendant appear?"
After learning that Ge Ying established Ejun's descendants as "Kings of Chu", Anpu was quite shocked. This was something he had never thought of before.
Wei Jing had served as an official in Hengshan County and knew some of the local history, so he found it not surprising: "The Ejun clan has been in this area for hundreds of years, and their descendants are hundreds or even thousands? A random shepherd boy might be the same." Where are the descendants of Ejun?"
It is said that the first generation of E king was named Zi Xi, the younger brother of the King of Chu. His official title was Ling Yin and his title was Zhi Gui. He was granted a title in the land of E. His family continued to multiply and he was once the richest king in the Chu state.
A hundred years ago during the era of King Huai of Chu, E Junqi, the ninth generation descendant of Zi Xi, also had a huge fleet of vehicles and boats, monopolizing the goods and colonial trade in the south of the Yangtze River, and his merchants even reached Lingnan.
But with the fall of Chu, the hundreds of years of rule of the Ejun family also disappeared.
More than ten years ago, Tu, the general of the building ship, defeated the fleet of the last E king. Li You took the opportunity to cross the river to attack E, and led the captain Heifu to board first.
Heifu then took Anpu, surprised a group of township party brothers, robbed E Jun's treasury, and took away many copper ritual utensils, which became the starting capital for them to make a fortune in Yuzhang.
The last Ejun himself ran away from Yuzhang, was chased by Hei Fu, and finally died in Fanyang. His descendants were also scattered in various places, and there are many remnants in Hubei, so it is not surprising that a "descendant" appears.
"On the other hand, Ge Ying, who was only the commander of a hundred generals in the Southern Expedition Army, actually knew that he could not recruit unknown troops. After taking control of Hubei, he found the descendants of Hubei Jun and even supported him as the 'King of Chu'. This son The ambition is not small."
As he spoke, Wei Jing turned around and glanced at the long team with concern. Most of these soldiers of the Southern Expedition were from Chu...
They still remember the saying that is widely circulated in the Chu region: "Although Chu has three households, if Qin is destroyed, Chu will definitely die!"
The people who disagreed most with the rule of the Qin Dynasty were the Chu people. After all, Qin destroyed all the five kingdoms very easily, but it was almost overturned when it destroyed Chu. Although the Chu State was destroyed, the nobles, knights, and survivors never forgot their past glory. , the people were also easily incited because they suffered from heavy labor in renting Qintian fields.
Now that Ge Ying is calling "King of Chu", is anyone in the army shaken?
But when Anpu learned about Wei Jing's worries, he laughed loudly and asked several army centurions to be found and asked them this question.
Several military officials looked down upon the so-called "King of Chu":
"Don't say he is a fake king of Chu, so what if he is real? Regardless of Chu or Qin, life is still difficult! After Wu Zhonghou became the commander, he treated the soldiers a little better, and now he is more willing to take us north to return home."
"Therefore, we don't care about the emperors of Qin and kings of Chu. We only recognize the Southern Expeditionary Army and the Marquis Wuzhong!"
…
Seeing that the morale of the army was not shaken at all by the "King of Chu" flag raised by the rebels, Wei Jing felt a little relieved. At this time, the group also arrived at Tieshan after Lichen's riot...
The workshops here have been destroyed in the battle between the officers and soldiers and the ministers, the tall stoves have been knocked down, and the piles of charcoal piles have ignited fires. Thick smoke can be seen dozens of miles away.
"What a sin."
Wei Jing felt distressed. With such damage, it would probably take several months for Tieshan to resume forging troops.
As expected, the arsenal where the iron soldiers were stored was completely empty, and the rebels and subordinates stole most of the weapons.
Wei Jing said worriedly: "If they are equipped with iron soldiers and attack Hubei City, it will probably be a fierce battle."
Anpu was full of confidence: "It's just a mob. When it encounters the three-level soldiers who have been reorganized and trained for a long time, they will definitely fall apart!"
Going further north, we arrived at Tieshan Township, only to find that it was deserted, and the residents had all fled to pheasants. Those who did not have time to escape were either forced to obey, and those who did not obey were often killed.
You can often see roadside courtyard walls and corpses lying beside the courtyards. Many of them are half-clothed women and even teenage girls. They were all humiliated by the rebels and died in a miserable state.
Black crows were pecking at the corpse. When the three-passenger army approached, they croaked and flapped their wings and flew away...
Wei Jing relented and suggested: "Both of them were raised by their mother and father. They are separated from Nanjun by a river, and they speak the same language. They are all countrymen. It is better to leave some people and bury them. Otherwise, in a short time, Hubei will be destroyed."
There’s going to be an epidemic.”
An Pu agreed and sighed: "This scene seems familiar."
He remembered that more than ten years ago, during the battle to destroy Chu, the Chu court had been destroyed and Qin officials had not yet settled in. The vast Chu land had fallen into anarchy and bandits were rampant.
The next few towns we passed through were also deserted, with almost no one coming or going. Occasionally, we met one or two people. When they saw the army passing by, they all seemed to have seen a ghost and hurriedly fled into the mountains and forests.
I don't know if they were civilians who escaped, or if they were stray soldiers who broke away from the large army.
The closer it is to the county seat of E County, the more serious the damage is. When Wei Jing was an official in Hengshan County, he often traveled back and forth on this road. At that time, E County had been managed by E County for hundreds of years. It was a rare rich land in the south of the Yangtze River and was densely populated.
Collect, the road is full of pedestrians.
The local people are wealthy and outstanding, and they often sing the old song "Today, I will be in the middle of the river, and today I will be in the same boat with the prince." They live in peace and contentment. However, they did not expect that after the rebellion, they would turn out like this!
He couldn't help but sigh. They were both members of the Southern Expeditionary Army. They were relatively well-ordered under military law, but after losing control, the evil in human nature was magnified countless times.
"Ge Ying and other thugs and bandits should all die! We must get rid of these scum in the Southern Expedition Army!"
With this in mind, An Pu and Wei Jing ordered the army to move forward faster. The forwards successively annihilated several groups of rebels who were looting and searching for food in the wild. However, when they were heading towards the county town, a group of dozens of scouts stopped them.
Ahead!
Both sides looked at each other warily. After a while, several riders rode over to identify themselves and shouted:
"But the southern expeditionary army came from the north of Yuzhang?"
Anpu's scouts also came forward to contact him: "It is Captain An of Sanguan who has returned to Nanchang and is here on the order of the emperor!"
The horseman was led close, and after verifying the talisman, he dismounted and bowed:
"Captain An, the Commander-in-Chief of the East Gate was ordered by the Lord to march eastward to seize the territory. A few days ago, I heard that rebels were attacking Kou'e County, so I sent my troops to attack it. Now I am attacking the county. Please help me, Commander-in-Chief An!"
…
E City stands on the riverside. This city is slightly larger than Anlu County. It has five gates, each named after its direction. More than ten years ago, Anpu and Hei Fu conquered this city.
When An Pu and Wei Jing led their army to approach Tieshan Gate in the east, they realized that they were still a step too late.
Blood flowers bloomed on the city wall, traces left by two attacks on the city.
The walls inside and outside the city are full of corpses, all five gates are wide open, and a flag with "Wu Zhong" written on it is on the city tower. An army is cleaning up the battlefield, replenishing the wounds of the rebels who are not dead, and taking away what they looted from Iron Mountain.
Walking weapon.
Dongmen Leopard was sitting cross-legged on the side of the road, holding a bowl and drinking wine. When he saw Anpu, Wei came over in shock and couldn't help but laughed: "Anpu, you are surprised, did you crawl here? How come you are here so slowly? This is the public capital.
It’s been half a round and I’ve finished a whole bucket of wine!”
Anpu and Wei Jing looked at each other, feeling a little embarrassed for a moment.
They heard that Dongmen Bao led five thousand men. After the rebels hijacked some people in E County, they had almost the same number. They also captured many iron soldiers and occupied the city to wait for work.
It was supposed to be an evenly matched situation, but who could have expected that Dongmen Baohu was so unreasonable that it only took just an hour to break the army, capture the city, and annihilate the rebels!
Are the rebels too inexperienced, or the Dongmen Leopards too brave?
They could only salute Dongmen Leopard and only agreed. This guy was worthy of being the chief general under Marquis Wu Zhong, so he couldn't accept it.
Wei Jing also treated Dongmen Bao as his elder brother. After chatting for a while, he asked: "Where are Dongmen Commander Ge Ying and the 'King of Chu'?"
"The traitor Ge Ying was so cunning that he took a thousand people across the river on bamboo rafts and ran away before Nai Gong attacked."
Dongmen Leopard took another sip of wine, but he was not unhappy about Ge Ying's escape. Instead, he proudly pointed to the tower and said, "As for 'King of Chu Xiangqiang'? Over there!"
An Pu and Wei were surprised and went over to take a look. Only then did they realize that the "King of Chu" Xiang Qiang, who had only succeeded to the throne for three days, was beheaded by the Dongmen Leopard after he surrendered. At this moment, he was hanging with his body on the tower.
Swaying back and forth with the wind...
Like a dead dog.
In this troubled world, the first grass-headed king died!
…
"According to the rules set by the monarch in Shaxian, E County has been severely damaged. Not only must the rent be reduced, but the rent must be exempted for three years. The bonds owed to the government must be burned so that the people who escaped can come back to farm. Don't let
There are more and more refugees and bandits here."
The military judge who accompanied Dongmen Bao was called "Nu". He was Heifu's old acquaintance in Anlu County. He also served as a military sergeant in the Southern Expedition Army for two years, and his status was equivalent to that of Qu Ji.
As his name suggests, Nu has two thick eyebrows on his forehead and is a serious person. He is one of the few people who can rein in the wild horse of the East Gate Leopard. At this moment, he is formulating a recovery plan for E County in a strict manner.
"As for choosing an evil official to punish him? It seems that there is no need..."
Because the magistrates of E County, Wei and Cheng, have been cut into pieces by Ge Ying. When the rebels came to the city, the three of them fought to the last moment to protect the people. They were also Qin officials who were angry and hurt their own kind. Respect them for their loyalty to their duties and let people
He was buried happily.
Strictly punishing the rebels, governing the people and restoring order were left to Nu Lai, while Dongmen Leopard only cared about the military affairs entrusted to him by Hei Fu:
"The prince is in Shaxian, and the state mausoleum borrows food from the rich and middle-aged families. It can only make the seventy or eighty thousand soldiers and civilians suffer for half a month longer. It is not good practice to always gather in one place. Therefore, we follow the order of the prince and lead the army.
The army of five thousand came from the east, and I wanted to divide the troops and get food, but E County was rioted by the rebels, and I am afraid there is no food left..."
He had already drank two cups of wine, but was still not drunk. He asked Anpu and Wei Jing, "Can the grain from Yuzhang be transported here to eat?"
Wei shook his head in shock and said: "If we go overland from Nanchang to Echeng, it will take six hundred miles to feed us food, which is not easy."
"Xia Zhi, the grain reserves in Xunyang are relatively close, but the quantity is not large. If we borrow some from wealthy households and transport them here, we can sustain our 15,000 people for a month."
"One month is enough, one month is enough for me to fight to the other side!"
Dongmen Bao stood up, crossed his arms, and looked at the Taotao River north of E City. There was a city on the opposite side, looming in the river mist.
At that time, they followed Hei Fu from Zhu to Hubei.
Now, I am standing in Hubei, looking north at the city of Zhu.
Dongmen Leopard licked his lips: "The other side is the capital of Hengshan County, and there must be a lot of food. The Lord's order is for me to join forces with you, and then under the banner of Wuzhong, with great fanfare, launch a cross-river attack on Zhu.
The power of the city!"
Zhu City is not empty, there are at least five thousand guards, and I heard they were transferred from Jiujiang County and Donghai County.
But when E County was robbed by the rebels, Hengshan County Sheriff Wei Wei watched the people wailing across the river and countless people died under the butcher's knife, but he was indifferent and did not send a single soldier to quell the chaos. In the end, Dongmen Leopard took care of the situation.
.
An Pu thought: "Feng Wuze, who is stationed in Xiakou and Xiling, has more than 30,000 troops. He will not sit idly by and ignore it."
"When the rebels ravaged E County and slaughtered Qin officials and people, where was he? Isn't it unreasonable?"
Dongmen Leopard looked down upon Feng Wuze, who had been led by his own side. The old guy probably thought this was Heifu's plan to mobilize troops, so he just stayed put.
Abao slapped the table and said: "If he ignores it, we will directly take Zhu City and occupy it. If he ignores it, we will march eastward. We will drag Feng Wuze to Hengshan County and confront him across the river.
.In that case, the west side will be free!"
Wei Jing came to his senses: "Where is my brother?"
The Dongmen Leopard laughed: "The Lord has said that this is a plan to attack the east and attack the west. We are in the east, where do you think he will be?"
…
At this moment, Heifu had taken 25,000 people and crossed the river by boat to Zhouling County (opposite to Chibi City, Hubei Province).
Zhouling County is located between Yunze, Mengze and Dajiang. It was controlled by the Southern Expeditionary Army more than ten days ago.
Watching the waves of the river flowing eastward and the rocky walls on the other side reflected in the setting sun, Heifu couldn't help but sigh, and there was a word in his mind that he was about to blurt out:
"The great river goes eastward, and the waves are swept away, and the romantic figures of the ages. Therefore, to the west of the fortress..."
But he immediately covered his mouth and looked left and right at the two banks of Jiawei Miwang, which was hundreds of miles of desolate land, and he suddenly felt happy.
"Speaking of which, I am the first one to come here to make history, what a romantic figure!"
"This word should not be uttered by me, but should be used by people thousands of years later to praise me when they are nostalgic for the past!"
…
ps: Watch a movie with your family at night, no need to wait