The troops of Yang Wenyue and Hu Dawei were not all stationed in Ruyang City, the capital of Runing Prefecture, but were scattered around Xiping, Suiping, and Shangcai cities in the northeastern part of Runing Prefecture at the junction with Nanyang Prefecture.
The emperor issued an edict and the Ministry of War urged the war, and he was as anxious as a spark. However, Yang Wenyue knew that Li Zicheng's strength was not what it used to be after the great development of Henan, so he could not ignore it. Therefore, he did not rush to fight the Chuang army, but divided his troops to defend Xiping and then pacified it.
After waiting for Fu Zonglong to deploy his army, he and Fu Zonglong attacked Li Chuang.
Since Yang Wenyue did not move, the rebels had no choice but to take the initiative.
The sunset in August is particularly beautiful, and it looks even more red on the vast plains of Henan. There are some scattered treetops at the end of the plain, and beyond that are stretches of fields, but there are no lush crops in the fields.
The place where it fell was twisted and dry branches.
Because the local people heard that the army was coming and had to pass here, they were afraid of being harassed and afraid of fighting, so many people left the village and avoided the main road. The fields could not be taken care of, so they continued to be abandoned. Henan
Like Runing Prefecture, there are many other places that are gradually turning into endless wasteland.
The people of Runing Prefecture were mainly afraid of the government troops in the past, especially Zuo Liangyu's troops who had been stationed here and burned down dozens of villages.
But what people are afraid of these days is mainly the "social soldiers" trained by Henan patrol officer Gao Mingheng. The so-called "social soldiers" are a militia unit organized by wealthy gentry. However, they recruit bandits indiscriminately and have extremely poor military discipline. It is spread everywhere in Henan.
He sang songs such as "If you want to make money, become a social soldier", "Following the patrol and patrolling around, and you won't change even if you are given a military officer".
Moreover, the social soldiers also distributed grain and wages to villages in prefectures, counties, and counties. If there was resistance or insufficient payment, the villages would be attacked, burned, killed, and looted.
Last month, Ruyang soldiers burned and robbed four local villages on the pretext of failure to pay money and grain in Queshan County. They burned, killed, raped and committed horrific crimes. Many people had their limbs cut off and cut into pieces. A group of children were also raped and raped.
The sharp knife penetrated through his left ear, came out from his right ear, and was nailed to the wall.
Women were even more humiliated, and many were tortured to death. Some who could not bear the humiliation jumped into the well, and the soldiers even threw their bodies into the well with rollers to vent their anger.
"I heard that the Chuang army has arrived in Runing Mansion!"
Many young people are spreading rumors that the now famous intruder has rushed into Runing Mansion, but most people don't think that the intruder will be much better than the official army.
The people of Runing Prefecture do not believe that there are so-called benevolent and righteous soldiers in the world, let alone that thieves and soldiers will not harass the common people.
"How can a stray thief be any better than an official army or a social soldier? He is so good that he is still a thief, not a serious thing. If he fights with the official army, it will be dog bite dog. We all have to hide."
Because this village is on the road leading to Shangcai, the villagers are afraid of the army passing by and the intruders coming from the west. Everyone made up their mind to hide all the food, wine and meat, and then hide in the mountains.
Avoid disaster.
"After the battle between the intruders and the army is over, no matter who wins or loses, there will definitely be a lot of defeated soldiers running out. Then we will kill all the defeated soldiers and rob them of their weapons and money, so as not to suffer any loss.
"
These villagers were not religious men and women. When the army encircled and suppressed the bandits several times before, they had picked up the pieces after the battle and killed many fleeing officers, soldiers and bandits. When the villagers mentioned this, their faces became ferocious.
But at this time, a large cloud of smoke suddenly appeared on the road in the distance, and in the gradually thickening dusk, a large group of cavalry rushed over.
The villagers who were preparing to flee and hide on the road met the cavalry head-on and were unable to escape. The children were frightened by the neighing of the horses, and they all cried. There were also old people who fell to the ground and cried miserably for help.
This group of villagers wanted to see the cavalry passing by, but they did not dare to look directly at them. Their eyes were full of fear, surprise and curiosity. What they were afraid of was that they didn't know where these people and horses came from and whether they would cause harm to them.
Or the young people among them were taken away. What was surprising was that they had never seen such a neat team before. When they passed by, they did not do any terrible things to them, nor did they insult them, nor did they even look at them fiercely.
Because they felt surprised in their hearts, they couldn't help but secretly observe the troops with curious eyes.
They saw an overly young general in the team, riding on a horse, wearing a white felt hat with red tassels, a sky-blue arrow jacket, and a red cloak. They also saw a flag with the word "Chuang" in front of the young general.
, suddenly realized: Isn’t he King Li Chuang?
People in Henan often confuse the legends of Mr. Li and King Li Chuang together and have evolved various versions. So is the general on the horse the same as King Chuang?
People winked at each other secretly, but no one dared to speak. Some people couldn't help but kneel down, because according to thousands of years of custom, ordinary people have to kneel down when they see officials, whether they are civil servants or military attachés, so they saw the word "Chuang"
When the banner arrived, when they saw the general on horseback, whether he was King Li Chuang or not, they all knelt down.
But this cavalry team did not stop, but walked directly in front of the kneeling villagers.
Everyone was very surprised. What was going on? The villagers had never seen such an army. When they encountered the villages and people, they neither asked for food distribution nor for recruiting young men.
And how orderly the cavalry was! Their horses were lined up in a tight formation. Although the fields on both sides of the road had long been deserted, not a single cavalry person trampled them.
There were also some older women who originally hid their daughters when they saw the army coming. However, they did not expect that the invading cavalry would not look at them at all, let alone look like a socialite.
They raped women just like soldiers.
An old woman clasped her hands together and chanted sutras to thank Bodhisattva for his blessing and said: "Amitabha, Bodhisattva bless you so that these thieves will not burn, kill, and rob us here."
At this time, some villagers suddenly heard the young general saying to another leader on horseback beside him: "Zhang Pizhu, give them some food."
The leader led more than a dozen cavalrymen and rushed to the fleeing villagers and refugees on the road. He reined in his horses, threw down five or six bags of coarse grains, and said, "Folks, don't be afraid. The army has always shown compassion to the elderly and the poor.
Whenever we go to a place, we usually open a warehouse to provide relief to the hungry people. Today, because of the emergency of the war, we don't have much food with us. Just now our sentry saw that you are all poor deserters, so we ordered me to bring some food."
He then pointed his horsewhip at several elderly villagers and said: "Which of you is the leader? Share the food. No matter it is the local villagers or the refugees passing by, everyone should share some to help the emergency. Wait until we defeat the officials.
After the army breaks out, they will take out more food from the warehouses of the rich and gentry and distribute it to the poor people. Don't be afraid. The army will only suppress the troops and calm the people, but will not disturb the people."
At that moment, an old man walked out from the fleeing crowd. He was the elder of a local village. After he knelt down and kowtowed to the leader, he asked in a low voice: "Thank you Chuangjun for the rescue... May I ask the person under the banner with the word 'chuang'?"
General, is he none other than Mr. Li, the Prince of Chuang?"
"ha!"
The cavalry leader laughed dumbly. He couldn't understand how King Chuang and Mr. Li could be confused as the same person. But then again, the general's nickname was Chuang Jiang. I don't know when, even Chuang General began to use Gao Yingxiang's nickname as the same person.
The nickname Chuang Wang An was assigned to the marshal. In fact, Gao Yingxiang has nothing to do with the marshal.
"He is Mr. Li... He is also an admirable figure in the Chuang Army! It is enough for you to know this. If anyone asks, just say that he is Mr. Li of the Chuang Army who advocated righteousness for heaven and punished the people.