Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 193

"Run west!"

"Grandpa—"

In late October, as a dark old man yelled these words, he immediately turned around and rushed towards the officers and soldiers behind him.

A dozen or so gray-faced teenagers could only watch helplessly as their respected grandpa was chopped to the ground by officers and soldiers along with other people in the village.

There was no time to be sad, the biggest young man immediately pulled the two young men around him and turned around and ran away.

Seeing them running, dozens of other young men also ran to the forest not far away.

A young man in paper armor riding an ordinary rough horse saw this scene, and immediately said to an older young man in iron armor not far away:

"Patriarch, there are dozens of people running over there, do you want to chase them?"

"Huh?" Hearing this, the young man in iron armor turned his head and looked in the direction the paper-armored young man was pointing at. He watched dozens of young men sneaking into the forest. The corners of his mouth twitched, and he felt interested:

"It's been a long time since I hunted. The forest is not big. Let them run a little farther away first, and accept the "achievement" in front of them first."

"Yes!" Hearing this, the young man in paper armor bowed in response, and set his sights on the "slaughterhouse" a hundred steps away.

Dozens of servants in paper armor and riding rough horses on their crotches are slashing at the farmers who are trying to escape. The village with hundreds of people, because of their slashing and killing, only a few quarters of an hour later, there is only one place left. corpse.

The corpses spread from the village to the woods, and the ground in Henan in winter was covered with scarlet blood.

After confirming that everyone was killed, the dozens of servants took out the blood-stained red scarves they were wearing, tied them on the heads of the men among the corpses, and threw some rusty spears and short knives Beside the corpses, there were signs that this group of people were rebels.

When these things were done, they dragged the woman's body to the village, poured oil on fire, lit the fire, and started searching for valuables in the village.

A few cows, a few draft horses, dozens of pigs, dozens of cages containing hundreds of chickens, and scattered silver and copper coins were all loaded onto the draft cart.

When it was determined that there was no more of the previous things in the village, a servant set fire to the hut in the village.

In this way, it created a false appearance that the rebels plundered the village, and then they led the troops to destroy it, and then captured a lot.

At this moment, one of the servants, a slightly older general in his [-]s, rode his horse up to the iron-clad young man, bowed his head and said:
"The head of the family and the people below have the final say. After the things are folded, there will be seven or eight hundred taels of silver."

"Oh? Quite a lot..." After understanding this, the armored youth nodded in satisfaction, and then said:

"Leave ten people here to guard the property, and the others will follow me into the woods to hunt those "prey"..."

"Er... this..." Hearing this, the general said:

"Patriarch, is it too little to leave only ten people? If there are rebels coming..."

"Where did the rebels come from?" The armored youth sneered:

"When those rebels heard that King Qi led the cavalry, they had already fled to Kaifeng, Luoyang, Nanyang, and Runing."

"go!"

After saying that, the young man shook the reins of the horse, rode the horse and rushed towards the forest, and took out the bow and arrow from the bow bag with his left hand.

Seeing this, the general was helpless, so he could only turn his head and order his servants. After leaving ten people behind, he led the rest and rushed towards the forest with the young man.

They followed behind the young man, and the young man lowered his head and could see less obvious footprints in the forest.

"But in three quarters of an hour, they won't be able to run very far. You all disperse, and let me chase them in groups of three."

"The head of a rebel army is five taels of silver, and the dozens of people are worth one or two hundred taels. We can't let it go..."

The young man took the lead and rode his horse to start chasing in the woods that had lost all the dead leaves. Soon he chased and cruised for eleven or twelve miles, and passed through the woods. silhouette.

"Follow me!"

Seeing that group of figures, he had joy in his eyes, rode his horse and charged forward, and drew his bow and arrows, taking these honest young men as prey.

The generals and young men in paper armor behind him rode their horses and took out their bows and arrows one after another.

"Second...second brother...I can't run anymore."

Dozens of young men who had escaped had already dispersed, and now there were only four young men running together, and they also heard the sound of horseshoes behind them.

A twelve or thirteen-year-old boy cried anxiously. He only felt a burning pain in his lungs, and his breathing was as loud as a bellows.

In front of him, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy, Lang Wenyan, even though he was very uncomfortable, stretched out his hand and pulled him to run together.

"call out!"

"Forehead--"

The sound of arrows piercing the air came, and without even giving a chance to scream, a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy who was called the second brother was shot through the chest, staggered a few steps and fell to the ground.

"Okay! Hit one end!"

With joy in his eyes, the armored youth shouted hello, without feeling cruel at all.

When he applauded, the paper-armored youth and the general shot two arrows one after another, one arrow hit the left shoulder of another boy, and the other arrow was pulled by the boy's leg called Second Brother.

"Second brother!"

The pain caused tears to well up in his eyes, and the boy fell to the ground, crying, and only knew to call him his second brother.

"Shiro!" Seeing that his younger brother's leg was pierced by an arrow, and the blood spilled all over the ground, the young man was heartbroken, and immediately carried Shiro, who had injured his leg, on his back and fled with difficulty.

The other young man in the middle of the shoulders was not so lucky. Just as he staggered up, he was slashed on the back by a sharp knife and fell to the ground. After a few convulsions, his body loosened and he was silent again. .

"Another one hunted!"

The young man in iron armor laughed happily, and that laughter made people feel hair-raising. He heard the young man who was dozens of steps ahead grit his teeth, and ran forward with his younger brother on his back.

At this moment, they had already run up the official road, and at the same time, the young man in paper armor also rode his horse to keep up, and raised his arrow to aim at Shiro who was carried on the back by the young man in front of him.

"Shoot! These two people have no armor, and one arrow can kill two of them!"

The iron-armored youth's eyes were excited, waiting for the paper-armored youth to shoot the arrow, but at this moment, there was a sound of piercing through the air, and an arrow pierced the paper-armored youth's temple in the next second!
"Patriarch be careful! There are enemy attacks!"

The general turned around and yelled, but in the next second he heard the sound of dense firecrackers, and then he felt pain all over his body, and fell off his horse.

There was a sound of iron hooves, and before the armored youth could react, an arrow suddenly shot at the buttocks of the ragged horse under his crotch.

The nauseous horse neighed in fright, raised its hooves, and instantly threw the man off the horse.

"Beep!"

In a hurry, the young man who rolled to the ground grabbed the wooden whistle hanging from his neck and blew it, trying to call the servants who were scattered around, but in the next second, a long knife was placed on his neck.

He looked up, and saw a robust brocade guard in a crimson robe and a breastplate glaring at him.

A large number of cavalry came, and the young man who was still carrying his younger brother couldn't hold back, his nose and tears poured out, blurring his vision, and he knelt on the ground and kowtowed vigorously in the direction of the sound of the horse's hooves:

"My lord, let me and my brother go around! We will never tell the outside world what happened today, I beg you! I beg you—"

Knocking their heads hard on the official road, the young man's forehead soon oozes blood, and then the blood oozes out, staining half of his face.

At this time, there was no sound of horseshoes around, and the young man slowly stopped, wiped his eyes and looked up, only to see a group of armored cavalry with livid faces, and a group of armored cavalry with faces so gloomy that they were about to drip water, sitting on horseback. A young man in armor on his back.

Zhu Youjian clenched his teeth, the anger in his heart made his breathing very hot, his whole body was hot, but his body surface was as cold as if he had just jumped into a glacier.

"Your Majesty!"

"Uh-"

At this time, Lu Xiu came over with the armored young man on his back, kicked him to the ground, ordered him to kneel down, and at the same time, he was wounded by the arrow and wailed in pain...

Lu Xiu tore off the iron plate from the young man's waist, walked up to Zhu Youjian and handed it with both hands.

Zhu Youjian glanced at it, and there was an inscription on the iron plate: "Suiyang Wei Taoyuan Thousand Households and Thousand Households".

The officers and soldiers of the Daming Guard...

When the identity of this young man appeared, Zhu Youjian only felt a burning pain on his face.

At this time, the sound of horseshoes sounded from behind, and Lu Wenzhao came from behind on a horse with Tiny, with dozens of heads hanging on the horse's back, which were all the servants under the young man's command.

"Your Highness, the search is over. Only seventeen young men survived in Xianghe Village. Six of them were injured. The military doctors accompanying the army are already treating them."

Lu Wenzhao bowed in return, feeling equally shocked in his heart.

Originally, they were trying to wipe out the remaining rebels in the Guide Mansion, but unexpectedly they ran into this incident.

If it weren't for the fact that they met a few youths from Xianghe Village who were hunted down on the official road ahead, they would not have known that after driving out the rebels, some officers and soldiers began to fish in troubled waters, killing the good and pretending to be meritorious!
"Sun Shoufa!"

Suddenly, Zhu Youjian shouted angrily, which shocked everyone.

"The last general is here!" Sun Shoufa stepped forward immediately, and now he has changed into a guerrilla general's cloth mask, with extraordinary heroism.

But for this, Zhu Youjian didn't have the heart to look at him, he just raised his whip and said to Taoyuan Qianhu who was already scared on the ground:
"Pack this man up and drag him back to Xianghe County, cut off the dog's head and stick it up at the entrance of Xianghe Village!"

"Your Highness! Listen to the general's explanation, these people are all rebels! General..."

Taoyuan Qianhu frantically wanted to explain, but Sun Shoufa threw the noose directly, strangled his neck, couldn't say a word, kept grabbing the rope around his neck with both hands, his eyes widened, and pulled out rolled his eyes.

"There is still the ability to bark!"

Seeing this, Lu Xiu stuck the long knife on the ground, pulled out the short knife on his leg, stretched out his fingers and grabbed the man's tongue, and cut off the tongue with the knife in his hand. He covered his mouth in pain and rolled all over the floor.

Seeing this, Sun Shoufa also said to the two cavalry next to him:
"Bag him!"

"Obey!" The two cavalry guards of Tiance got off their horses, took a sack from the horse's back, and then put Taoyuan Qianhu, who was gushing blood from his mouth, into the bag.

When the bag was fastened tightly, Sun Shoufa clamped his horse's belly, and immediately dragged Taoyuan Qianhu, who was trying to escape from the bag, to Xianghe Village.

With a journey of more than ten miles, it is estimated that when he returns to Xianghe Village, this person will be either dead or disabled.

Looking at the back of Sun Shoufa dragging the sack away, Zhu Youjian looked down at the young man who was kneeling on the ground in a daze, not knowing what to say, and the young man who had passed out and was shot in the leg, frowning at Lu Wenzhao Explained:

"Let the military doctor heal them and bring them back to Yanshan Institute."

"The humble officer takes orders!" Lu Wenzhao complied, and then someone called a military doctor to bandage the two.

Fortunately, the arrow didn't hurt any bones. After a few months of training, it probably won't affect my future life.

However, their lost relatives can't come back...

Zhu Youjian on the horseback said to Lu Wenzhao with a dark face:
"Let Cui Yingyuan find out for me, how many people are still doing good deeds in the name of suppressing bandits!"

"I obey the order!" Hearing this, Lu Wenzhao responded bravely. The reason why he was brave was because he knew that it was difficult to find out why this kind of thing happened.

In the final analysis, it was because the situation was too chaotic. The rare occurrence of things like killing good men and taking meritorious service in the frontier army, which rarely happened in the hinterland of Ming Dynasty, is enough to show how chaotic Henan is right now.

"Your Highness—"

Just as Lu Wenzhao responded, shouts suddenly came from afar.

Zhu Youjian looked at the same time as the others, but saw Qianhu, the former soldier of Tiance Guard, riding his horse back with his men and horses, and came to the front of the battle, reining in his horse and bowing to him, saying:
"Your Highness, Xiaoqiwei came to report that the rebels are besieging Xiangfu County, Kaifeng Prefecture. Do you want to destroy the bandits immediately?"

"Don't worry about them." Zhu Youjian narrowed his eyes slightly, and decisively issued his military order, and then ordered:

"Order the Xiaoqi Guards, Longxiang Guards, and Habayashi Guards to drive out the bandits to Xiangfu County, Ruyang County, Nanyang County, and Luoyang County."

"Your Highness, I'm afraid the censor of Henan will get caught by such an intentional expulsion." Lu Wenzhao said cautiously, but Zhu Youjian said:

"Who said it was intentional? Didn't the rebel general Wang Haoxian lead the rebels to flee to Bozhou in Fengyang Prefecture in Nanzhili? What if the rebels invaded the Fengyang Emperor's Mausoleum?"

After all, Zhu Youjian gave orders to Tiance Guard Commander and Qianhu of each army:

"Pass my order, the army will go south to Fengyang to chase down the rebels!"

"Follow King Qi's order!" The generals of all armies bowed one after another and responded loudly.

At this point, even a fool can see that Zhu Youjian is deliberately putting the vassal kings in Henan into crisis.

Only when they are in enough crisis, they will give up some benefits in exchange for Zhu Youjian's protection.

Yuan Keli in Shandong has been ordered by Zhu Youjian to prevent the rebels from entering Shandong again. Without the transfer order, it is impossible for Yuan Keli to command a large army into Henan to suppress the rebellion.

Shanxi and Beizhili have Gongwei battalions waiting in full force, while Shaanxi and Huguang are not allowed to mobilize troops without orders.

In this way, unless the governor of Henan can suppress the rebellion with the help of Henan's official army, the rebels in Henan can only be wiped out by relying on Zhu Youjian.

With one order, Tian Cewei's more than [-] iron cavalry immediately headed south with thousands of horses driven by a thousand peasants.

Fighting in a rich land, there is only the saying that the more you fight, the richer you get, and this is especially true for Zhu Youjian.

After defeating the bandit army several times in a row, tens of thousands of draft horses, rough horses, and cattle were seized, more than [-] million yuan in silver, more than [-] million copper coins, millions of stones of rice and wheat, and various antique jewelry were seized. There are countless more.

Both Henan and Shandong are rich and rich lands with large agricultural provinces, and they also have many cattle and draft horses.

If Zhu Youjian didn't need to ensure that Daming's population has the ability to expand outward, and he didn't want to use internal friction to increase his own strength.

Then he can completely let the rebels make trouble, and even hustle and bustle the entire Central Plains.

But he didn't. Since he wiped out Xu Hongru, he mostly led the cavalry to break through the formation with blunderbuss, and then the army attacked the Chinese army, and finally ordered the army to surrender.

The continuous fierce battle for more than half a month did not give him much experience in leading the army, because almost every battle with the four cavalry guards against the peasant army was a crushing situation.

But even if he suppressed the rebellion so quickly, Henan and Shandong were still unavoidable.

If he wants to achieve his goal, he needs to let the military disaster besiege the government of the four prefectures, and the casualties caused during this period are inevitable.

If you don't use this method to pacify the most difficult King Zhou and King Fu, if you give these two vassals, it may cause greater turmoil than this military disaster.

This so-called turmoil does not mean that the two men raised an army, but that the two joined forces with civil servants as relatives.

Now that the civil servants have put down their faces, Zhu Youjian wants to prevent this possibility, so he has to use this military disaster to reform the kings of Henan and solve internal hidden dangers.

After solving the feudal lord's exploitation of Henan, Shandong, and Shaanxi, Daming will be better able to fully recover Liaodong in the battle of Liaodong next year and fight with all its strength.

The army went south, while Habayashi Guard, Xiao Qi Guard, and Long Xiang Guard followed Zhu Youjian's order to deliberately block the roads where the rebels wanted to plunder some market towns, and drove the rebels to the prefectures where the kings were located.

This approach reduced the damage the rebels did to the people in market towns and villages, and gathered the rebels together, making it easier to wipe out.

But this kind of gathering, as long as you are not a fool, you can see that he is deliberately targeting the kings.

"boom--"

When the sound of the teacup being smashed sounded from the Chengyun Hall of Zhou Wangfu, Zhu Suqin's angry roar also appeared:

"Zhu Youjian, it's clear that he's putting pressure on Gu, what is he trying to do? Want to drive the rebels to fall into Xiangfu?!"

Zhu Suqin's roar in the Chengyun Palace made people feel depressing. Of course, it was not only the Zhou Palace that was depressing, but the entire Xiangfu County.

Thirty thousand rebels are attacking the city. Although Xiangfu County is large, the sound of fighting and artillery can be heard, which casts the shadow of war on the people in the entire county.

There were no more than [-] soldiers guarding the city in Xiangfu County, and Zhu Suqin had already dispatched the [-] palace guards in his hands, but even so, the situation in Xiangfu County was still not optimistic.

Right now is not the end of Chongzhen, but the second year of Tianqi, Zhu Suqin simply cannot recruit troops to defend the city in the name of the Zhou Palace.

If he really did this, he would have given others his handle, and Zhu Youjian would happily lead the troops, and then imprison his whole family in Fengyang in the name of privately recruiting soldiers.

Therefore, Zhu Suqin could only look at his millions of taels of silver helplessly, but he was completely unable to use them to recruit soldiers and protect himself.

The result of giving someone a handle is something he can't bear, but what he can't bear even more is that the rebel army captures Xiangfu...

"Zhu Youjian! Zhu Youjian! The vicious child will be reaped!"

Zhu Suqin found that he couldn't play tricks, so he could only curse verbally, while the son of Zhou Wangshi Zhu Gongyun who was next to him said with a sad face:

"Father, why don't you order someone to break out of the siege and go to the capital to sue Zhu Youjian for not doing enough to suppress the bandits?"

"Gu had already arranged the manpower, but the capital rejected it!" Speaking of this, Zhu Suqin was also itching his teeth angrily:
"What they dismissed was actually saying that the king of Qi led the troops south to rescue Fengyang."

"Then Zhu Youjian is ashamed to say that the "ancestor's mausoleum" must not be lost? Now that the clan is under siege, he thinks of the ancestor!"

"Father, or else..." Zhu Gongyun tried hard, but Zhu Suqin responded angrily: "Impossible!"

Zhu Suqin knew that Zhu Gongyan wanted to say that it would be fine to support Zhu Youjian's innovation. Anyway, the royal treasury has millions of silver, which is enough for them to squander.

But for Zhu Suqin, this kind of thing cannot be discussed at all.

He understands better than anyone else that the fundamental reason why the Zhou clan is stronger than other clan clans is because the clan king needs to manage nearly [-] clan clan children, so he has cultivated good abilities.

If you support Zhu Youjian's innovation and let go of the clan's children, Zhou Fan will become like ordinary princes of all feudal clans after three generations at most, becoming a waste who only knows how to eat, drink and play.

Therefore, this is why Zhu Suqin is unwilling to let go, unless Zhu Youjian can give him new guarantees, such as...

Participate in politics!

"Gu is the descendant of Emperor Xianzong of Shenzong, how can he be controlled by the younger generation?"

When Zhu Suqin was stubbornly trying to maintain that poor power, unlike him, in Luoyang Fuwang's mansion, Fuwang Zhu Changxun was still maintaining his self-esteem that he almost became a prince.

In other words, he knew that Zhu Youjian would not dare to let him die at the hands of the rebels, because once he died at the hands of the rebels, Zhu Youjian would appear extremely passive in the game with the civil servants.

The crime of losing a relative is enough to make Zhu Youjian fall into a passive situation.

"Your Highness, Your Majesty is worried about you, besides, there is no harm in the innovation of the vassal clan..."

A familiar voice sounded, in the study, Cui Wensheng, who was dressed in normal clothes and had a white face, was persuading Zhu Changxun in front of him.

Under Zheng Guifei's order, he traveled for ten days and arrived in Luoyang at the end of October before the rebels approached the city.

Naturally, he also got Zhu Youjian's instructions, that is to try his best to persuade Zhu Changxun to support the reform of the vassal king.

However, both Zhu Youjian and Cui Wensheng underestimated Zhu Changxun's inexplicable sense of superiority.

As an existence that has always dominated Zhu Changluo since childhood, Zhu Changxun's enthusiasm for the throne and his disdain for Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian are probably incomprehensible to ordinary people.

He thought from beginning to end that if he had become emperor, he would have pacified Jianlu and destroyed She'an long ago, how could Daming be so embarrassed.

Therefore, when faced with Cui Wensheng's persuasion, he showed contempt for Cui Wensheng:
"Cui Daban, Gu sees that you are becoming more and more timid as you get older. Gu is the descendant of Emperor Shenzong Xian. If that kid Zhu Youjian dares to make me fall, he will die a terrible death!"

"If the emperor's nephew sitting on the dragon chair is so mean and unkind to his uncle, how can he treat the kings of the world?"

"It's only been three years since the death of Huang Kao and the emperor's elder brother. The two brothers are so mean to their relatives. I want to see those who used righteousness in the past! They used the ancestral legal system! They used the "Emperor Ming Zu Xun" to suppress the orphan. The civil servant! What will I do!"

"boom--"

Speaking of excitement, Zhu Changxun grabbed the precious inkstone on the table and slammed it on the ground.

The sound of the slamming made Cui Wensheng's heart tighten, and he fully understood how jealous his Royal Highness, King Fu, was to the current emperor and King Qi.

Perhaps in his opinion, if the civil servants hadn't united against the Wanli Emperor, everything that Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian had now belonged to him!

He doesn't think about whether he can do what Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian have done.

What he wants is to see Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youjian and the civil servants completely tear their skins apart, and let the two groups he hates the most.

Isn't this a kind of sadness?
If you have a grudge, you can't avenge it. You can only linger in a place far away from the capital, hoping that the two enemies will die together.

Cui Wensheng watched Zhu Changxun grow up, so he naturally understood him, but right now he...

"..." Recalling the things he experienced in the prison, Cui Wensheng's bones and flesh ached.

In the end, he could only salute in front of the distraught Zhu Changxun, and responded:
"The servant knows what His Highness thinks. After the servant returns to the capital, he will tell the empress so, and ask the empress to put pressure on Long Live..."

After all, Cui Wensheng slowly withdrew from the study, while Zhu Changxun looked at his leaving back, feeling drained of all his strength, and slumped on the chair.

Zhou Wang Zhu Suqin was helpless, so why not him Zhu Changxun...

　Four o'clock and one more

　　
　
(End of this chapter)