The sun never sets in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 614 Central Plains Erosion
Patriarch Li has long heard that there are larger bandits who can even take down the county seat. If they come to attack Lijiatunbao, thousands of clansmen here will probably die, and there will be no redemption for him.

He wanted to lead his clansmen to look for a safe place, but he didn't know where to stay. When he was in a dilemma, the Nanguo male horse who rescued the suffering appeared in front of him. How could he miss such an opportunity?
Xu Sijiu chatted with this failed scholar for an hour, and introduced him to the basic situation of the Huang family.

Patriarch Li was very excited when he learned that Jiaozhi, his homeland, had become the territory of the Huang family. He knew that there were a large number of acres of land that urgently needed to be cultivated by the common people. Every household who went there would get five acres of private land without paying taxes.

When the clansmen dragged their families to the south, the food and clothing along the way would definitely be able to feed and clothe every commoner. Such good immigration conditions strengthened the confidence of patriarch Li to lead the whole clan to move south.

Next, the servants of the "God of War" actually have to go east, and they have to approach the war zone to try their best to rescue more ordinary people.

Patriarch Li was inspired, and he sent eight men from the clan who had practiced martial arts since childhood to accompany him, because these people were familiar with the terrain and could be good guides.

Xu Sijiu and Guo Sanxi led 800 troops and pushed [-] wheelbarrows loaded with [-] shi of grain to continue westward.

In the team, eight locals including Li Yiyong and Li Yiquan rode together on horseback.Patriarch Li equipped the eight men with leather armor and hunting bows in case of accidents, so they all have certain combat and defense capabilities.

On the first day of December in the sixth year of Chongzhen, Xu Sijiu and Guo Sanxi's team approached about [-] miles east of Yiyang County to detect and report that a large group of bandits was besieging the county.

The person in charge of the sentinels was Zhu Guobing, the chief banner officer who was from the personal army, and six others were also chief banner officers from the personal army. The other 29 were riders recruited in Henan, not considered cavalry.

There are 18 people in each group and four martial artists from Lijiabao take turns to go out and look around. They often climb high and use the binoculars they carry to observe the situation around the official road. When encountering dangerous terrain, they will go back and forth at least three times.

Zhu Guobing knew that the food on the wheelbarrow would attract too many bandits to covet. If the bandits snatched the food due to negligence, the bad guys would starve to death and too many good guys would die.

Riding the frozen Yellow River, the rogues who jumped out of the huge encirclement circle of officers and soldiers spread like locusts again. How can Henan, which has been suffering from unsustainable disasters for years, be burned, killed and looted by these thieves again?The corruption of the Central Plains is a foregone conclusion.

After the thieves swept past, there was almost no tile left, and their ferocity was no less than that of Jiannu. Due to the large number of people engulfed by the people, the team of the thieves rapidly expanded like a snowball.

Zijin Liang Wang himself was promoted as the leader by the 36th Battalion Anti-Bone Boys, and the rogue bandits, who had become fat with thieves, entered the northwestern area of ​​Henan. In order to get rid of the chasing soldiers who followed, they split and regrouped, and they already had the strength to attack the county.

After successfully attacking the county seat several times, the Anti-Bone Boys were supplemented with weapons and food, and gained confidence in themselves. The thieves under him were willing to follow the leader to attack the county seat.

Because every time these thieves break through the city, they will grab too much gold, silver, treasures and beauties, and there will be more or less food in the official warehouses in the city. The thieves collected all the nearby food and held it in their hands.

Ordinary people who don’t want to be thieves have to choose to commit suicide or starve to death. If they want to survive, they have to follow the thieves and continue to harm the next city.

The bandit soldiers were very cruel. They forced the people who had just been forced to follow them to charge the city with planks, ladders, sandbags and other crude siege supplies to make cannon fodder.

Sometimes the soldiers and civilians defending the city are quite determined to fight, and the battle situation is quite tragic. The corpses of ordinary people under the city are piled up like a mountain, and the backbone of the rogues can rush to the top of the city by stepping on the corpses of ordinary people.

The rogues call their new force the old camp brothers, as the name implies, they are all old bandits.

The rogues in the 36th Battalion were organized chaotically. They looted alone or in partnership. Several leaders of the Zijin Liang Division, Destroying Shanhu, Chongtianzhu, and Youlihua, entangled more than [-] people and prepared to besiege Yiyang County.

Jin Huijia, magistrate of Yiyang County, paid close attention to the movements of the rogues. He had already learned that several county towns had been captured by the rogues, and the county magistrates and their families all died.

Jinzhi County sent out the four servants who had been with him from their hometown to inquire about the thieves. These servants were all descendants of the clan, and their loyalty was beyond doubt.

They found a large group of rogues coming from all over the mountains and plains, and they realized that the momentum was wrong and hurried back to report to the Patriarch. Jinzhi County decided decisively to abandon the city and flee immediately.

Li Zhongzheng, a township official, lived in Yiyang County. He once served as the sixth-rank chief of the Ministry of War.

His family is a prominent family in Yiyang County, this man is bloody, not only did he not run away, but he also used his private property and food to gather family members and recruit strong men in the city to prepare to defend the city.

There is also a student named Chang Xingshen who is also a wealthy family in Yiyang County. He mobilized more than [-] children in the clan to help Li Zhongzheng defend the city. Many officials and ordinary people responded one after another, collecting all kinds of equipment to follow.

Although Destroying Mountain Tiger, Chong Tian Zhu, and You Li Hua gathered more than [-] people, in fact, most of these people were ordinary Henan people who had just been coerced, and they belonged to a mob.

Even so, more than [-] people came overwhelmingly, and the momentum still made the soldiers and civilians who stood firm in Yiyang County shudder.

The frenzied bandits drove the common people to attack the city with ladders, door panels, and giant logs in a mess.

They didn't have a unified command, and they didn't choose any key breakthroughs. They just relied on the large number of people and took the lives of the common people to consume the rolling logs, stones and arrows of the Yiyang city guards.

The leaders of the destroyer Shanhu and others led the old bandits to suppress the battle. When they found that the driven people turned around, they immediately swung their knives and killed the poor innocent people.

Flesh and blood were killed, the mountains and rivers were discolored, and the soldiers and civilians at the top of the city were also extremely sad. Many of those who were killed under the city knew many of them, and they were all from the nearby villages and eight miles!

Li Zhongzheng yelled towards the city with red eyes: "Folks, don't come up again, take up weapons and kill those thieves behind! If you die under the city, you will be killed when you turn around and attack the thieves." He is also a martyr!"

Li Zhongzheng knew that this battle might be more dangerous than good, he was going to lead his clansmen to sacrifice their lives for righteousness, and he also called on the villagers not to be rebellious, but it was a pity that it would not help if he shouted hoarse.

The coerced common people would be beheaded by the thieves who supervised the battle even if they ran a little slower. They dared not face the thieves' swords and spears and could only choose to bite the bullet and attack the city again and again.

(End of this chapter)