Liu Chengzu was panting, holding the white spear and looking around.
Looking at the corpses everywhere, he couldn't help but excitedly said to Zhang Dapeng, "Congratulations, sir, for annihilating all the thieves."
"They're just a bunch of bandits, not worth mentioning." Zhao Dapeng sat on the ground and panted. He had moved very quickly just now. He took the lead in charging and killed more than ten thieves in a row. When he stopped, he felt that his whole body was exhausted.
The group of disabled Sichuan residents who followed had also exerted a lot of effort just now. At least they roared loudly and created a lot of momentum, not to mention following behind and stabbing and killing people.
"The guard is mighty!"
Everyone is very excited.
"Hurry up and clean the battlefield. Tigers and leopards will come smelling blood soon," Ma Ke reminded.
Yang Wei still felt that it was not enough, and he excitedly waved the knife, "If the big insect dares to come, we will clean it up together. When the time comes, we will peel off the tiger skin and present it to Long Live. We can also have tiger soup tonight."
Everyone laughed, but did not dare to be careless. They all quickly started cleaning the battlefield.
Marco led everyone to cut off all the heads of the corpses of the yellow thieves and bring them back to pile them together. Then they took off all their clothes and packed their weapons together.
Finally, the headless corpses were thrown into the stream.
They collected a lot of swords, guns, bows and arrows, etc. Although the weapons of these yellow thieves were relatively crude, they still got a pair of iron armor, a pair of leather armor, several iron helmets, shields, bows and arrows, knives and spears.
They even found a lot of gold, silver, copper coins, some silk cloth, rice noodles, and several tents.
The silver was in pieces, and the gold was mostly ornaments. Most of them were women's ornaments, and they were relatively simple in style. You could tell at a glance that they were stolen from women of the common people.
The eight members of the family were rescued and were still trembling.
The gray-haired old man is the head of the family. He is wearing a long gown. It looks like they are a gentry family. The old man comes to say thank you.
"Thank you all for helping me, but you still don't know the name of my benefactor?"
The one-armed old man Zhang Xian laughed at the side and said, "These four are incredible. The Saint's Imperial Guard soldiers from eastern Zhejiang are now officers of the newly built imperial camp Sichuan-Shaanxi Expedition Camp. This is Zhang Shoubei, the commander of the first battalion."
"
Zhang Dapeng was humble and asked how the old man fell into the hands of the yellow thief.
The old man sighed.
Everyone sat by the fire, continued cooking from the thief's pot, and started chatting about their respective situations.
The old man's surname was Zhou, and he was from Baoning Mansion.
He was originally a scholar in the Ming Dynasty. Although he failed to pass the examination, his family had more than a hundred acres of land and he was still a small landowner.
None of the three brothers were good at studying, but one of the three brothers started a medicine business, the other two farmed at home, and hunted in their spare time. Anyway, they were pretty good.
But since the 67th year of Chongzhen, the world has been in chaos.
The peasant army from Guanzhong entered Sichuan, plundered everywhere, and also led the official troops into Sichuan. They also fought like bandits. Later, although most of the peasant army left, some of them stayed. They began to rush into northern and eastern Sichuan and colluded with local bandits.
Together, various families of yellow thieves were formed.
After that, Zhou Xiucai and others from northern Sichuan were in trouble. They were often robbed. At the beginning, the yellow thieves were not very strong, and they were just like ordinary bandits. They carried out sneak attacks, kidnappings, etc. However, in recent years, their power has become more and more powerful.
To be strong, we started to sneak attacks on even towns.
There was no place for people in the countryside, so everyone had no choice but to flee to southern Sichuan, hide in prefectures, or the gentry united to form a stronghold to protect themselves.
But there are still many villages that were finally breached by these thieves.
The officers and soldiers did not protect them, but exploited them. Today, one has to collect free dead money, that one has to collect cattle stamps, the day after tomorrow they have to collect dingyin, and the day after tomorrow they may have to collect some kind of household tax. Anyway, there are all kinds of obvious things.
Now, although these officers and soldiers did not kill people directly, they were so deprived of money that they could not keep any money or food.
The thieves are really coming, but no officers and soldiers will be seen to protect the people.
Zhou Xiucai's family has also gone through many hardships over the years. They were kidnapped by gangsters and paid money to redeem their people. Later, the government and the army raided the land again and again. In the end, the land could no longer be cultivated. The family left the land uncultivated and moved away.
In the southern county town of Boryeong Prefecture, Old Man Zhou was a scholar after all. His son also collected medicinal materials in the past, so he found a job as an accountant. One of his sons worked as a clerk in a drug store, and the other two also found work as clerks. The whole family also
I can barely survive.
But the world will not let them go.
First, Zhang Xianzhong founded the country in Wuchang and proclaimed himself king, and then Li Zicheng established his title in Xiangyang. Zhang Xianzhong did not want to be subordinate to Li Zicheng, and was afraid of being annexed by Li Zicheng like Luo Rucai, so he had no choice but to go up the river into central Sichuan. When he first entered Sichuan, he fought against Dashun Yongchang.
The title of the reign and the flag of Li Zicheng.
Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan, and Li Zicheng went on the Northern Expedition.
Li Zicheng was unstoppable and his prestige was rising. However, the Emperor Chuang was not satisfied with Zhang Xianzhong and was unwilling to let him occupy the middle of Shu. Therefore, he sent the former Ming Dynasty general soldier, the newly named Huairen Bomako, to escort the original Ming Dynasty.
Li Yutian, the last governor of Liaodong, went to central Sichuan to serve as the governor of Sichuan.
Li Zicheng's intention was obvious, which was to send troops to fight for Sichuan while Zhang Xianzhong had not yet captured all of central Sichuan and when his footing was still unstable, squeezing Zhang Xianzhong's living space and forcing the Eight Great Kings to finally surrender to Dashun.
However, when Ma Ke and others entered northern Sichuan, Li Zicheng had already defeated Shanhaiguan.
When the news reached Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong immediately sent his troops north to fight the Shun army.
Ma Ke entered Sichuan from Hanzhong, captured Baoning, and then Tongchuan. Zhang Xianzhong proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu, and personally led his troops north to defeat Ma Ke in Jinzhou, forcing the Shun army to retreat to Hanzhong.
The following year, Ma Ke and He Zhen led troops to Baocheng and attacked the Daxi Army in Guangyuan. The Daxi Army massacred Guangyuan and fled. Zhang Xianzhong then ordered Liu Jinxiao to massacre Baoning.
He Zhen was defeated, and his generals Yan Ziming and Zheng Tianlu looted Baoning and returned.
In the past two years, northern Sichuan has been in constant war, and it was already suffering from plunder by yellow thieves. As a result, Ma Ke led his troops into Sichuan after surrendering, and defeated the Ming army in northern Sichuan. Even the city of northern Sichuan Prefecture, which had been barely preserved, was destroyed.
It was captured by the Shun army.
Zhang Xianzhong then sent troops northward. The two sides fought several battles from Baoning to Mianzhou. Each had its own victory or defeat, but no matter who lost, they would return home with plunder. Zhang Xianzhong's Western Army was even more ruthless. Once they lost, they not only plundered
If they retreat, they will also massacre the people in northern Sichuan. The purpose is to destroy northern Sichuan and prevent the victorious Shun army from continuing to gain a foothold in northern Sichuan.
Without a population, there would be no production and cultivation to support the army.
Zhou Xiucai's family, who had finally settled down in the southern county, also suffered a lot. There were more than a dozen members of their family, but they were forced to flee due to repeated attacks by the Western thieves, and even several family members died.
Hiding in east and west, with no place to stay.
Later, he escaped into a deep mountain and joined a village built by a local man. They farmed and hunted in the mountains and trained in vigilance and self-defense.
But Ansheng's life didn't last long. They were attacked by a gangster one night. The thieves had already inserted spies into the village, set fire to create chaos, and opened the gate of the village. After holding on for more than a year, the village was still destroyed.
The remaining eight members of Old Man Zhou's family were captured.
As for the reason why they are here now, the gang of thieves who were killed just now are going to Boryeong Mansion to assemble under orders, and their family is the 'food' they brought with them. If there is not enough food along the way, they will be killed to eat.
They are carried like livestock to satisfy hunger.
After hearing this, Zhang Dapeng couldn't help but fell silent again. He didn't expect that the land of abundance in central Sichuan would reach this point now.
The tiger roared.
Zhang Dapeng raised his musket.
Facing the roar of the tiger in the darkness was a cannon.
There was a loud bang and the tiger escaped.
"The noodle soup is ready, let's eat first."
One-armed Zhang Xian shouted.
Smelling the aroma of noodle soup, everyone felt hungry.
So in the midst of this bloody situation, I quickly served the soup and ate it.
After meal.
When I heard that Zhang Dapeng was going to Hanzhong, Zhou Xiucai also planned to go with him. Zhang Xian and a group of disabled people also wanted to go with him.
Zhou Xiucai was afraid that Zhang Dapeng would not take him with him, so he quickly said, "Although I am a scholar, I can not only write and calculate, but I can also shoot arrows. My three sons are also young and can shoot arrows. I think they were seized from the thieves
He bought several bows for us to use."
Zhang Xian and others also said that they would not be a drag and that they were capable of fighting with swords and guns.
Liu Chengzu looked at these disabled, old and weak, and didn't want to take them with him, but after Zhang Dapeng looked at them for a while, he sighed, "You can follow me to Hanzhong, but you have to obey my orders in everything."
, we have to act as in the army, let’s form a simple team first, five people to a team, two teams to a ten, four ten to a team, we now have more than 20 people here, let’s organize into a team of two to four,”
Zhang Dapeng asked Liu Chengzu, Yang Wei, and Ma Liang to each lead a corps like him, and several women to form another corps.
The four teams are considered a fighting team. After a simple combination, two people hold shields, one holds a sword, one holds a bow, and one holds a spear. Zhang Dapeng and the four of them are suitable for both long-range and close combat.
The two pieces of armor seized were also distributed to Zhou Xiucai's two sons. They were not disabled and were relatively young and strong. Although they had been hungry for a while, they were still young after all. They were better than old loners like Zhang Xian and others.
The arms are stronger.
After such a simple combination, it looks pretty good.
The one-armed one like Zhang Xian holds a sword, the blind one holds a shield, the one with both hands and feet intact but missing a nose and ears holds a spear, and the one like Zhou Xiucai and his three sons all hold bows.
Everyone reported their names and briefly talked about their origins, which could be regarded as a temporary fighting friendship.
"I, Zhang Dapeng, am from eastern Zhejiang. I used to be an orphan. I grew up eating hundreds of meals. I began to make a living by doing odd jobs when I was ten years old. Later, I was lucky enough to meet Long Live Lord. I enlisted in the army and followed the Northern Expedition. I also met a man in Jiaxing.
A good woman, she got married and now has a child. She even bought a field at a cheap price in her hometown as a royal soldier.
I am now a battalion officer in the Infantry Army of the Imperial Ying Sichuan-Shaanxi Expedition. My military rank is the sixth-grade garrison. I have a monthly salary of fifty taels of silver. In addition, I still have one hundred and fifty taels of silver for the assistant secretary, oil candles, and all other office expenses.
Your Majesty is very generous to our officers and soldiers, and pays generous amounts to support the troops, and also provides high salaries to support honest people. Now in eastern Zhejiang, the people have regained stability, and the fields are busy. Officials are governing the people, soldiers are training and fighting, craftsmen are working, merchants are marketing,
The common people farm and the four people enjoy their work,
I believe that Sichuan will also get better in the future.
Everyone, follow me to Hanzhong now. I will temporarily organize you into my battalion. Each of you will be paid one cent and two cents of silver per day. For women and old people, you will be paid eight cents of silver per day according to the eldest husband. You will be rewarded on a monthly basis.
If the thieves are beheaded, captured, and captured, they will still be rewarded based on their merits according to the military system."
