Li Laiheng woke up from his saddle this morning. On the way from Yiyang to Luoyang, the Little Tigers happened to encounter a group of government soldiers. Although Li Laiheng deployed his troops and annihilated them all, it was also delayed.
After a long time, by the time they arrived near Luoyang, it was already the last day of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, and tomorrow was the New Year.
After Li Laiheng simply ate half a piece of pancake and saw that the soldiers were well rested, he prepared to mount his horse. He expected that everyone would arrive in the outskirts of Luoyang at noon today at the latest to participate in the battle against Luoyang.
The cold pancake was very hard, so Li Laiheng took two hard bites before biting off a small piece. After laughing to himself, he saw Fang Yiren next to him, who had been biting a piece of cold pancake for a long time without even biting it.
When Li Laiheng saw that Fang Yiren couldn't bite, he actually threw the cold pancake aside and couldn't help but joked: "Leshan, the reason why the Little Tigers don't feed idlers is because there is too little food. Although a lot of food was seized in Pingfeng Village,
After a large part is handed over to the main force of the camp, it will be very difficult to sustain thousands of soldiers and horses with the food in the two mountains. If you don't like eating cakes, you might as well imitate the hungry people and eat maggots and locusts, which will be easy to bite."
Fang Yiren sneered, picked up the cold pancakes and ate them again. He heard Li Laiheng calling his cousin Leshan instead of calling him by his first name. What he was thinking about was whether this meant that the team leader regarded him as one of their own.
Already?
"It's not that easy to eat maggots and locusts. I heard Wai Qi asking the hungry people on the road. It is said that recently even maggots and locusts have been eaten by everyone."
After Fang Yiren finished speaking, he sighed again and exclaimed: "There is a businessman from Suzhou in Yiyang City. I heard from him that even the Wujiang area has no rain due to severe drought, locusts cover the sky, and now the streets are full of beggars.
Dead bodies are lying on the pillow. The tree scraps and elm bark in the south of the Yangtze River are also swept away for the hungry people!"
Jiangnan has actually reached this point.
In Li Laiheng's mind, only Shaanxi and Henan in the north were a hell on earth, with people starving and dying everywhere. But he did not expect that the Suzhou and Hangzhou in his impression, a place where people were singing and dancing, and living in wealth and luxury, had now reached this level due to natural and man-made disasters.
Is there no paradise left in the world?
While the little tiger team was having breakfast, Hao Yaoqi suddenly galloped back. He was originally responsible for the vanguard mission, leading the troops and horses to clear the way, but at this time he did not know what unexpected situation he encountered.
He actually came back early in the morning.
What surprised Li Laiheng even more was that another cavalryman following Hao Yaoqi turned out to be an old acquaintance of everyone, Li Zicheng's adopted son Li Shuangxi.
"Brother Shuangxi! Why are you here? Did something happen in Luoyang?"
Li Shuangxi was riding on the horse, with strong skills, and he stopped the horse with a slight lift of the reins. During this period, he followed Li Zicheng in his battles in the north and south, and his rash temperament weakened a lot, and he gained a layer of stability and perseverance.
"Little tiger, we two brothers haven't met each other for a long time!" Li Shuangxi smiled and got off his horse. As soon as he approached Li Laiheng, he gave him a big hug, held Li Laiheng in his arms, and said, "Luoyang's
Things have indeed changed, you never expected that the attack on Luoyang would go so smoothly."
"In the early hours of this morning, Luoyang was captured by the Chuangying camp!"
"ah!"
The news that Luoyang had been broken shocked everyone. The news immediately spread to the whole army, including Niu Jinxing, Liu Tichun, Gao Yigong, and Guo Junzhen, Li Shiwei and others under Li Laiheng. Everyone.
Everyone gathered around and asked Li Shuangxi, wanting to hear what happened when Luoyang was breached.
Many people were angry and dissatisfied. They felt that they were full of fighting spirit and came all the way from Xiong'er Mountain or even Funiu Mountain to Luoyang. As a result, they got up early in the morning and rushed to a late market. As soon as they arrived near Luoyang, they saw that there were still people there.
After half a day's journey, Luoyang had already been captured!
Li Shuangxi saw that everyone was very excited. After laughing a few times, Li Shuangxi spread his arms and re-introduced the war in Luoyang: "When our soldiers arrived near Luoyang, the poor and hungry people nearby heard about it.
How the intruders and horses were strictly disciplined and never committed a crime, how they only punished the rich and powerful and protected the good people, how they opened warehouses to provide relief to the hungry, and how the poor people burned incense to welcome them and rushed to surrender."
"Then we unexpectedly encountered a group of officers and soldiers coming from Yanshi to aid Luoyang near Luoyang. They were led by deputy general Luo Tai and staff general Liu Youyi. Both of them were afraid of death and as timid as rats. They were afraid of our rebels.
They were also afraid of their soldiers. Not long after the battle, most of the officers and soldiers mutinied, and many people took part in breaking into the camp with artillery."
Niu Jinxing nodded at the side and said to Li Laiheng and others: "Little general, the army of officers and soldiers we encountered yesterday should be Luo Tai and Liu Youyi's Yanshi troops who were dispersed by Shuangxi and the others."
Hao Yaoqi put his hand on his forehead and lamented: "Damn it, we were delayed by these guerrillas and failed to catch up with the grand event of conquering Luoyang!"
Li Shuangxi laughed and continued: "After that, we used the captured artillery to bombard the city of Luoyang. There were many people in the city who were dissatisfied with King Fu. According to what the people in the city later told us, overnight, the city walls were covered with stickers
Only a small part of the nameless posts were posted by our internal staff, and most of them were done voluntarily by the people in the city."
"The anonymous post contains rumors about how benevolent and righteous our boss is, only killing officials and not disturbing the common people, and no longer being oppressed by the wealthy officials."
Li Laiheng also sighed and said: "Lao Zhangpan has been traveling in southwest Henan for more than half a year, only taking out strongholds but not attacking county towns, only killing gentry but not looting civilians. The stories of the invading army have been filled in the mouths of the people of Heluo."
"That's right! Poor the pig-headed King Fu, he is still sober at this point and is extremely stingy. The people in Luoyang said, 'The food in King Fu's warehouse is piled up like a mountain, and it is too rotten to eat. But we people live on the streets and starve to death every day.
"It's strange that I don't follow the king!" Not only the people of Luoyang said this, but also the soldiers of the army said, "King Fu's gold and silver are too much to count, and the strings of coins are all rotten. We haven't been paid for almost a year."
, which bastard is working hard to defend the city for him!'"
"There are two worlds inside and outside the palace wall of Prince Fu." Niu Jinxing shook his head and murmured, "Luoyang has been the hometown of the emperor since ancient times, and the Zhu family cannot use it. It is God's gift to the marshal."
After Niu Jinxing sighed for a while, he asked Li Shuangxi: "Lv Weiqi, who is retiring in Luoyang City, is the Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing. He is a famous scholar in Neo-Confucianism, a popular scholar in Heluo, and has very good skills. In Luoyang City, I only worry about this one person, Shuangxi.
How is Lu Weiqi?"
"Lv Weiqi? I have some impressions of this person!" Li Shuangxi replied after recalling for a while, "This old scholar has some backbone. After Prince Fu was caught by us, he repeatedly persuaded Prince Fu that 'life and death have their fate, and the principles are always the most important.'
, It’s a pity that King Fu couldn’t listen to his words at all, and he kowtowed in front of us like we were pounding garlic, and he was so frightened that he lost control of his feces and urine.”
"Lü Weiqi still has people at sea. Before I went to Xiong'er Mountain, I persuaded the marshal not to kill Lu Weiqi if Luoyang City was defeated. I wonder where he is now?"
When Li Shuangxi heard this, he said with some embarrassment: "We didn't kill this Lu Weiqi. The boss failed to persuade the old man to surrender, so he spit on his face. But the boss remembered what Qi Weng said, and still
Instead of killing him, we asked us to pay him ten taels of travel expenses and let him go back to Beijing and Nanjing. It’s just..."
Li Shuangxi paused for a while before continuing: "It's just that we didn't kill Lu Weiqi, but some people refused to let him live. As soon as Lu Weiqi left Prince Fu's Mansion, a group of Luoyang people arrested him and beheaded him. People said that Lu Weiqi was indeed powerful.
A noble scholar with integrity should not kill him like this. But the Luoyang people who killed Lu Weiqi also said that they were tenants of Lu Weiqi's family. As usual, the Lu family's wheat accounts were settled in a small way, and a big one was in, and they were exploited at high profits.
"
"Because these tenants could not pay off the Lu family's green wheat account and the king of hell's debt, some people hanged themselves on cliffs, some went to jail, sold their children and daughters, and their wives and children were separated. The Lu family also maintained a group of minions, specializing in
He would be harsh on the poor, extort money, and rape his wives and daughters. Although Lu Weiqi was popular, these tenant farmers felt that Lu Weiqi allowed his minions to abuse the poor, and they deserved revenge."
After Niu Jinxing heard the news that Lu Weiqi had been killed, he put his hand on his forehead and was very shocked and frightened. He originally wanted Li Zicheng to recruit Lu Weiqi, but even if he didn't recruit him, he should never kill such a well-known and virtuous Zhongzhou man.
Being famous as a Confucian is a sure way to enter the camp and recruit people.
Li Laiheng saw Niu Jinxing's look and knew what he was thinking, so he smiled and said: "Weng Qi, Lu Weiqi may indeed be a very popular sage and scholar. But such a scholar with a reputation for integrity is still deeply hated by the tenant farmers.
, then it is even more conceivable what other wealthy officials, gentry, and wealthy people who do not have a good reputation will do. Since we are revolting, we must first win the hearts of the tenant farmers before we can consider winning the hearts of the scholars!"
"Shuangxi, please continue talking about the attack on Luoyang! What happened to destroy the city so quickly?"