I want to be emperor

Chapter 37
Chen Zhibang's letter clearly told Huang Guangmao that reinforcements should not be counted on!
However, Chen Zhibang didn't put pressure on Huang Guangmao. Instead, he took the initiative to decompress him, let Huang Guangmao slow down, stop for a while, don't take the thieves in Funiu Mountain too seriously, just pretend to expel him with force. There's no point fighting recklessly with those thieves.

However, Chen Zhibang asked Huang Guangmao to slow down and stop for a while, but Lushan County Zun Wang Jida was unwilling to slow down and stop for a while.

How should I put it, Tan Zhengling, the Right Counselor at the top, wants to be promoted for his merits, and so does Wang Jida.

Although Wang Jida is only a county magistrate and civil servant, he seems to have nothing to do with the military, but he is also responsible for guarding the soil. There are bandits in Lushan County and they should be wiped out. It is okay to kill a wave of bandits to get some heads.

Civil officials in the late Ming Dynasty were not purely civil officials, they also led soldiers.

Didn't you see Wang Jida coming here with five hundred county braves?

So after Wang Jida and Huang Guangmao met, he kept urging Huang Guangmao to advance quickly, wanting to take advantage of the reaction of the bandits and go straight to the depths of Funiu Mountain, to make a big kill and get some credit for promotion.

As a result, Huang Guangmao felt particularly uncomfortable.

He would definitely not be willing to ask him to take the initiative to fight against the bandit army in Funiu Mountain, but he dared not ignore Wang Jida's words.

Therefore, after Huang Guangmao led the troops into the mountain, he was passive and idle, and on the other hand, he showed the appearance of marching bravely.

It made him tired...

And when Huang Guangmao and Wang Jida's thousands of people were slowly advancing on the edge of Funiu Mountain, and at the same time sent a large number of sentries into the mountain to inquire about the situation.

Little did they know that their every move after entering the mountain had been exposed to the eyes of the bandits from the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Battalion.

After the bandits led by Wang Xiazi returned to Funiu Mountain, they sent all the supplies in the caravan back to Sanshui Village first, while he himself stayed at the edge of Funiu Mountain with more than [-] bandits in order to monitor the movements of the officers and soldiers. .

Later, Sun Chengli learned about the relevant situation, and personally led the pro-army cavalry, the left army under Lin Dongsheng, and the central army under Wang Dazhuang from Sanshui Village to the outskirts of Funiu Mountain to join Wang Xiazi.

At this time, the main force of the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Battalion had gathered in the outskirts of Funiu Mountain, including more than [-] elite cavalry and more than [-] new infantry.

When Huang Guangmao and more than a thousand officers and soldiers and young men entered the mountainous area outside Funiu Mountain, they were actually discovered by the sentries under Sun Jiancheng's command, and they followed them all the way.

At this time, Huang Guangmao and other officers and soldiers did not know where the bandit army in Funiu Mountain was and how many there were.

From the very beginning, the two sides have been unequal in information.

However, these matters have nothing to do with Luo Zhixue for the time being. Sun Chengli led the army to set off, intending to slow down the pace of the officers and soldiers from entering the mountain and buy enough time for the autumn harvest in the rear.

And Luo Zhixue also knew that the situation was more urgent, and he was very busy in the past few days. He needed to manage the weapon workshop, make more weapons, armor and arrows in time, and transport them to the front line to supply military supplies along with the follow-up food.

In addition, he also needs to prepare for the autumn harvest and subsequent food collection.

Each of these matters was extremely important, and Luo Zhixue could not neglect it, nor did he dare to neglect it.

Because this is not only related to the overall success or failure of the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Battalion, but also related to his future.

Luo Zhixue also wanted to use the banner of the Funiu Mountain Preservation Camp to continue to strengthen his own strength.

In the past few months, Luo Zhixue has achieved initial results. He already has four cavalrymen under his command and 60 infantrymen in the supply battalion.

In addition, an artillery team of 20 people was added to his supply battalion, including three artillerymen dispatched from Sun Jiancheng's pro-army.

It is worth noting that although these three gunners have been transferred to serve as artillery, they were serious cavalry before, and they can be directly used as cavalry when necessary.

The above-mentioned force is the result of Luo Zhixue's hard work in the past few months. Although most of the infantry and artillery in the supply battalion have insufficient training and poor combat effectiveness, this is actually not enough easy.

The newly recruited soldiers in the supply camp were all selected by Luo Zhixue himself, and all of them were in good physical condition, and at the same time they were honest and obedient.

In the follow-up training, Luo Zhixue also gathered as much food as possible to supplement their nutrition, and conducted appropriate physical training and tactical training, and provided them with basic equipment such as spears, knives, shields, and bows.

After training for a period of time, these newly recruited soldiers are naturally not good at personal tactical skills, but at least they can line up and follow orders to make some simple tactical actions.

And this alone is actually enough to distance itself from the pawns in ordinary thieves.

Except for a small number of elite bandits, most of the remaining so-called bandits are actually young and strong refugees who have not received any formal training.

Not to mention training, many of them don't even have conventional weapons such as knives and spears.

The reason why Luo Zhixue wanted to hide in Funiu Mountain to farm and recruit soldiers, and to serve as Sun Jiancheng's military staff, was to take the opportunity to build up an army that was truly his own.

Now that the plan has been initially completed, what is needed in the future is steady expansion.

However, the entry of the officers and soldiers may have planned Luo Zhixue's plan!

The thing is obvious, once the officers and soldiers are allowed to enter the mountains, let alone attacking Sanshui Village directly, even if they can't get to Sanshui Village, if they just go to the hinterland of Funiu Mountain and harm the surrounding villages of Sanshui Village, then it will be safe. The continuous expansion of village camps will lose the vital food base.

As part of the Rural Protection Camp, the expansion of the supply camp will also be greatly affected.

Luo Zhixue absolutely didn't want to see this, so he strongly supported Sun Chengcheng to lead the army out.

He hoped to keep the officers and soldiers out of the mountains more than Sun Jianli himself.

For this reason, Luo Zhixue was very caring when raising and transporting military supplies such as military equipment and food, but he did not hold back Sun Jiancheng and others.

And Sun Chengli did not live up to his expectations.

About ten days after Sun Chengli led the army out, Luo Zhixue received a message from Sun Chengli.

According to the news, Sun Jiancheng had led people to set up suspicious positions, and after deliberately revealing some flaws, he attracted officers and soldiers to the mountains to the west.

Sun Chengli was still very clear-headed, and he didn't fight the officers and soldiers directly. After all, there were thousands of officers and soldiers who attacked, and even if there were only a few hundred of them who could really fight, they were still in the thousands. What about officers and soldiers?

However, Sun Chengli and others have a total force of less than [-] troops, of which more than [-] are newly recruited infantrymen who have not been trained for a long time.

The ones who can really fight are actually the old squad of the Baoxiang Battalion, the sixty or so cavalry, but it is actually difficult for these cavalry to give full play to the advantages of cavalry in the mountains with complex terrain. Hands, infantry to use.

Whether it is a strong attack or an ambush, the risk is very high. This risk does not mean victory or defeat, but that the more than 60 cavalry may be damaged after a real fight.

This kind of elite cavalry cannot be easily replenished nowadays, and the loss of three or five casually will make Sun Chengli heartbroken for a long time.

Sun Jiancheng chose not to fight head-on, but chose to lure the officers and soldiers away. This also reassured Luo Zhixue a lot. He was also worried that Sun Jiancheng would get mad and directly confront the officers and soldiers.

Now it seems that Sun Chengli still has a brain.

Now that Sun Jiancheng had led the officers and soldiers to the west, Luo Zhixue could initially rest assured to carry out the autumn harvest and grain collection.

Now that the grain has gradually matured and harvesting has begun, Luo Zhixue personally took part in the battle in Sanshui Village, coordinating and commanding the prisoners in the supply camp and the prisoner-of-war camp to carry out the autumn harvest.

The Youjun who had stayed behind in Sanshui Village, that is, more than [-] people from the Youjun led by the old farmer Xu He, set off in advance to collect food from the surrounding villages.

This kind of grain requisition is simple and direct. When the mountain people in the surrounding villages harvested grain, part of the grain was expropriated to serve as "rural protection grain".

The name of protecting the rural grain was created by Luo Zhixue, and the proportion of food collection was not too much, only about [-]%.

This [-]% ratio is actually not as much as the land rent outside the mountains. Many tenants outside rent the land of the landlord. It is very common to rent [-]%.

At the same time, in addition to paying rent to the landlord, the tenants also had to bear various corvees and taxes from the government.

These days, even tenants who don’t have an inch of land have to pay taxes and corvees. It doesn’t mean that they don’t have to pay taxes if they don’t have land.

But in this Funiu Mountain, the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp in Sanshui Village will not do so many messy things. It only collects [-]% of the Baoxiang grain, and there are no other corvees, per capita taxes, etc. .

At the same time, the land of the mountain people is basically directly reclaimed and planted by themselves, and there is no big landlord above them to oppress them.

Therefore, even though farming in the mountains, the yield is not good due to factors such as poor land, difficult irrigation, and unfavorable farm tools, but after paying [-]% of the rural grain, the remaining grain is still enough for them to support their families, and even some of the surplus can be sold. To the caravan in Sanshui Village, buy some cloth, salt, ironware and other materials that they cannot produce by themselves.

This kind of life is actually much better than the poor people outside the mountains.

At least, you won't starve to death!
Luo Zhixue felt that he formulated the title of protecting the rural grain, and required the soldiers to strictly follow the regulations, and no additional collection was allowed.

Although people like myself are rebels, they can't rob them directly like ordinary thieves when it comes to requisitioning food, and they still rob them all.

Not only must the teacher be famous, but also to ensure that the mountain people can survive after the grain requisition.

In this regard, even Sun Chengli agrees.

Even Sun Chengli knows that they are now entrenched in Funiu Mountain, which is different from before.

In the past, they were rogues, and they often ran away after being robbed. As long as they were not overtaken or blocked by officers and soldiers, they would have no scruples in their actions.

But now, they have become bandits, hoping to stay in Funiu Mountain for more time, get more food, and recruit more soldiers.

Naturally, they will not be like the previous Dilong and the others. When there is no food, they will directly slaughter the village to grab food, and engage in the matter of drying up the marshes and eating fish.

And this is a good thing for the mountain people in Funiu Mountain!
(End of this chapter)