Qin Official

On the tenth day of April, after half a month of hard fighting, Dongmen Leopard finally captured Zhu City, which was empty of troops! The capital of Hengshan County fell under the control of the Southern Expedition Army.

But the situation was different from other places. The conquest of Zhu City relied on the help of local leaders.

Xiakou's boatmen crossed the river and tried their best to block Dongmen Bao and Anpu. They finally crossed the river on bamboo rafts and had to face a tall and thick city.

Fortunately, the news of Wu Zhonghou's defeat of Feng Wuze and the capture of Jiangling came in time. Wei Jing asked the soldiers from Hengshan to convey the news loudly, which triggered an internal fight in the city: the local powerful leader Zhu's army crossed the river to attack the city in the south. At that time, he suddenly launched an attack on the official temple and arrested the county guard, causing chaos in the city. Dongmen Leopard took the opportunity to fall into the city.

When the army entered the city, Zhu sent two people to greet them respectfully.

The villain Zhu Fang.

The villain Zhu Cheng.

Meet the Captain!

Dongmen Leopard never liked dealing with these rich and powerful households, so he left proudly without even nodding, and only asked his guards to go to the warehouse and take a look:

Go and see if there is still any wine in the city. You will die of thirst!

Anpu led his army to the east to pursue the Jiujiang County lieutenants who had escaped from the city. The army was busy restraining the soldiers and maintaining order in the city, so the job of contacting the local forces fell to Wei Jing.

When they learned that the plain-looking middle-aged man in his thirties was actually the younger brother of Marquis Wu Zhong, the two of them were a little surprised, and their attitude became more and more respectful.

This can be regarded as a fake act.

Wei Jing was a little amused. He was no longer at the age when he was young, and he also learned some of his brother's pretentiousness and started chatting with the two of them.

Both of you are the descendants of Young Master Zou, right?

Meng Ke's hometown of Zou State was originally located in Zou County, Xue County. In the eighth year of King Kaolie of Chu (255 BC), Huang Xie, Lord of Chunshen, attacked Lu and destroyed the State of Zou by the way. The kings and people of the State of Zou were moved here to build a city, because the State of Zou was It was also called Zhu, hence the name Zhu City. The descendants of the duke's clan were divided into two branches, so they took the country's names Zou and Zhu as their surname. Later, some people went to the city to take Zhu as their surname and called them the Zhu family.

Zhu Fang said: I am the thirty-fifth great-great-grandson of Zhuzi Cao Jie.

He then pointed at the white-faced scholar next to him who was about forty years old and said: But this man, although he has the same surname as me, is not from the same clan. He is the son of Zhu Ying, a famous scholar...

Zhu Ying?

Wei Jing knew about Chu's old history, so he asked, Could it be Chunshenjun's disciple, Zhu Ying, who warned Huang Xie to be careful of unintentional disasters and suggested that he get rid of Li Yuan first?

It's my father.

Wei Jing sighed: If Lord Chun Shen listened to your father's words and got rid of Li Yuan first, I'm afraid he wouldn't have died at the hands of a villain and would have died outside the Thorny Gate.

Zhu Cheng was very impressed with Wei Jing and said politely: My father saw that Chun Shen Jun was not willing to listen to good advice and knew that he would definitely die, so he left Shouchun and came to Zhu City to take refuge. This is because it was my father who persuaded Chun Shen Jun to do it in the first place. Treat the Zhu family well. We have only been here for a few years. Qin conquered Chu and took Zhu, and we became the people of Qin.

Through the conversation, Wei Jing also found out that it was Zhu Cheng who persuaded the Zhu Fang family to raise troops to help the southern expedition.

Last month, we saw that the city of E on the other side was ravaged by the rebels. Our property in the city of E was destroyed. However, the defenders of Hengshan sat idly by and did nothing. There were corpses floating on the river. Now the general is following the orders of Marquis Wu Zhong to attack Zhu City. If the war lasts longer, our family will suffer greater losses.

Zhu Fang originally belonged to the Duke of Zou, and Zhu Cheng's ancestors were from Wei and lived in Chu. Therefore, they did not have deep feelings for Chu or Qin. Their greatest hope was to live and work in peace and contentment locally and preserve their family.

Don't worry, you two. My brother is raising troops to quell the country's calamity, to get rid of traitors and traitors, to punish evil officials and to punish the people, so as not to disturb the good people. Those who do business will go about their business as usual, and those who farm will farm as usual. There will be no delay.

By the way, he also promoted things like rent reduction and coupon burning for Heifu.

Now Er Zhu was relieved. In the Qin Dynasty, especially in the vast and sparsely populated Jiangnan, there were few tenant farmers. Because the theory was that the land belonged to the state and could not be bought and sold at will. The government collected rent from all the people in Guizhou through officials at all levels, and reduced the rent to the local people. For the wealthy family, this was a good thing rather than a bad thing. Of course they welcomed it with both hands.

Although I don’t know whether the Southern Expedition will be successful or whether it will be suppressed by the imperial court soon, but at least the current situation must be overcome. Regarding Wei Jing’s proposal of “borrowing food”, under Zhu Cheng’s persuasion, Zhu Cheng Fang also agreed and donated 20,000 dan of food, and repeatedly declined, saying that there was no need to pay it back.

Wei Jing stubbornly wrote an IOU to them.

My brother said that the Southern Expeditionary Army is a righteous army and will not harm the people. Please don't make things difficult for me!

…

This Zhu Cheng is a man who knows current affairs. I can recommend him to Brother Zhong to help us manage Hengshan.

The next day, after Wei Jing had dealt with all the above, Jun Zhengnu came to call him for a meeting. It turned out that Anpu was chasing the remnants of the enemy army and had returned from the east. Jiangling in the west also sent a letter from Marquis Wu Zhong Come.

Brother, have you captured the Jiujiang County Lieutenant? Wei Jing is relatively young, and he treats Heifu's subordinates as brothers.

An Pu sat on the couch and took a swig of water: The Jiujiang County captain panicked and led three thousand remnants into the hills of the Dabie Mountains. I was too lazy to catch up.

The Dabie Mountains stretch for hundreds of miles and are the watershed between Jianghan and Lianghuai, as well as the boundary between Hengshan and Jiujiang counties. Feng Wuze had previously mobilized 8,000 people from Jiujiang County in order to suppress the Southern Expeditionary Army. As a result, half of them were surrendered on the Jiangling battlefield, and the other half also suffered heavy losses. After Dongmen Leopard occupied Zhu City, the Jiujiang County captain saw that the situation was over, so he escape.

Where is Ge Ying? Wei Jing has always been obsessed with Ge Ying's evil deeds of destroying Hubei City.

An Pu said: That traitor Ge Ying was too clever and occupied Qinan Township (Qinan County, Hubei Province) to the east. I asked the partial army to chase him, but he also ran away and entered the territory of Jiujiang County...

At this time, Dongmen Bao, who was lying on the couch with a wine pot in his arms, seemed to come to life. He snapped at the table and said: Jun Zheng, what did the Lord say in your letter? Should we continue to march eastward and fight Jiujiang County for him? Come down?

No!

He angrily opened the letter sent by Hei Fu: The prince has captured Jiangling. At the same time, he ordered the officials to capture Dangyang, Yidao, Yiling, Jingling and other counties, and strive to capture all of Nanjun.

As for our side, the prince has said that after occupying the city of Zhu, we can no longer rashly divide our troops to seize territory. Otherwise, we must leave troops to guard every city we gain, and the southern expeditionary army will become a piece of scattered sand. Let's send people to capture it first. We went to Xiling to pay homage to the First Emperor who was buried there two months ago, and then joined up with Ji Ying and Li Cang who had recovered Anlu to clean up the remaining troops of Feng Wuze...

The enemy is not in the east, but in the north! Therefore, we only take Hengshan Mountain and do not cross the border into Jiujiang!

It is better to combine the troops than to divide them, occupy Jingzhou, and then concentrate the troops to deal with the subsequent suppression of the imperial army. This is Heifu's plan.

Who made him stand out...

So outside Jingzhou? Let the grass-head kings of all walks of life grow wildly for a while. At least it can help Heifu share the pressure.

Dongmen Bao was a little less interested: What a pity, what a pity. I remember that Shouchun in Huainan is much richer than Hengshan.

An Pu said: I'm afraid Jiujiang County is no longer as prosperous as it used to be. When I chased to Qinan, I heard that many people in Jiujiang County also raised troops to resist the government and kill Qin officials after learning about the Wuchang Shouyi incident!

One of the bandits named Yingbu, with a group of escaped criminals, actually defeated six counties!

Let the Jiujiang County soldiers and the Huainan rebels fight like dogs!

…

Liu County (Liu'an, Anhui) was a place of the Six Kingdoms in the Spring and Autumn Period. It was later destroyed by Chu. It is separated from Hengshan County by the Dabie Mountains. Therefore, from the southwest to the northeast of the county, there are high mountains and ridges.

The conflict between local Qin officials and Chu people was already fierce, and countless people were arrested and sentenced.

Last month, when the news of the death of the First Emperor came along with the first gunshot in Wuchang, the shackles were loosened and the hearts of the people in the six counties were moved.

Just at this moment, Tingbu, a native of the six counties who was fighting guerrillas in the Dabie Mountains for committing the crime of fleeing, came back with a team. This group of desperadoes was unstoppable. With the cooperation of the light knights in the city, they were soon defeated. He quickly defeated a few hundred county soldiers and captured six counties.

What followed was cruel revenge.

After all, they have been slaves of the subjugated country for more than ten years since the fall of Chu, and they have had enough of the days when Qin officials were arrogant and trampled under their feet.

After a massacre, the corpses of county magistrates, lieutenants, prime ministers, and a group of Qin immigrants, numbering in the hundreds, were all stripped of their clothes and hung neatly on the top of the city, while their heads were piled outside the door. It was built as a Jingguan. Every time a Chu person passed by, he would urinate here and ridicule and humiliate him.

Thieves from Qin, who tortured my father and brother, orphaned my son, cut off my limbs, and tattooed our faces, did you ever think that today would happen?

Tingbu's real name is Yingbu. His face has eye-catching ink characters. His hair has been braided and grown back without being tied into a bun. It looks like a master's mane. His bronze complexion is the result of years of hard work. There are also obvious marks on the backs of his hands and ankles. Traces of shackles.

He was once a slave. He was escorted to Lishan Mountain two years ago for hard labor. However, he killed the officials who were escorting him on the way and took seven or eight others to hide in the mountains. As a result, due to the harsh government and heavy corvee policies of the imperial court, more and more people turned to him. There were many, and in the end there were seven or eight hundred people.

Now Yingbu has regained his freedom with the sword in his hand and is going to do great things!

Yingbu occupied the county temple and sat with a group of subordinates in the court hall where cases were tried in the past to discuss the future.

When he heard his subordinates encouraging him to become king, Yingbu burst out laughing.

When I was young, a foreign guest read my fortune and told me that I would become king after being punished, that is, I would become king after being punished.

He touched the ink on the right side of his face and said: Six years ago, I broke the law because of my behavior as a knight, and was sentenced to tattooing. When Shi ordered me to be sentenced, I was not afraid to laugh back and said happily, People Is this the current situation when you treat me as a punishment and become the king?

At that time, Ling Shi burst out laughing and ridiculed me. But now, I have chopped off his hand, which had tattooed countless people, and kicked his head like a cuju.

Of course, my brother should be the king! How about calling him the Sixth King?

A prisoner who had his nose cut off said angrily: It's better to be the King of England!

The prisoners were quite angry, but Yingbu stopped them.

I definitely want to be the king, but not now. My status is too low. In the Chu land, I only respect the clan. Zhao Jingqu will not be the first to recognize me, and everyone in the world will laugh at me!

Secondly, we only have a thousand soldiers and occupy a small county. How dare we rashly claim the throne? We will definitely invite the Qin people to suppress us.

As a prisoner on the run, it is a capital crime to do so, but it is also a capital crime if he does not do so. However, after taking over the six counties, the criminals are still a little uneasy because their power is too small.

So someone suggested: Since my brother is not the king, we might as well go west to join Wuzhonghou. He fought several battles with the Qin army in Shouyi, Wuchang. He heard that he had hundreds of thousands of people under his command, and he even sent A group of troops was besieging Zhu City in Hengshan County, and it only took more than ten days to pass through six counties.

Of course, after leaving, Marquis Wu Zhong will at least make his brother a Sima!

Sima is not enough, at least he is a captain!

The prisoners were noisy and optimistic, but Yingbu threw his sword heavily to the ground, interrupting their discussion.

Yingbu sneered and said: Captain? Sima? Ha, if we really go to surrender to Marquis Wu Zhong, what we will get in exchange is probably the punishment of axe, and the body and head are missing, right?

Everyone was quiet, and some people were puzzled: Aren't we all going against the government?

Ying preached: I heard that Wu Zhonghou's banner was to avenge Qin Shi Huangdi and to liquidate the so-called treacherous ministers and rebellious sons, but he did not mention rebellion at all. Although he fought against the Qin army, wherever he went, he also We are only going to execute a cruel official who causes great resentment among the people, and all other officials will remain in office.

In my opinion, the relationship between the Southern Expeditionary Army and the imperial court is like dog eating dog, and neither of them is a good thing!

Marquis Wu Zhong still claims to be officials of Qin, but we are Chu people, fugitive prisoners, and have killed Qin people in all six counties. According to the law, we are all murderers, raccoon slaves and rats, who can escape Are you on the same road? If you seek refuge with Marquis Wu Zhong, you are seeking your own death!

Yingbu touched the ink on his face again. He had suffered a lot and had no trust or affection for the Qin officials who abused him with whips and instruments of torture!

What should we do?

The prisoners looked at each other. After conquering six counties and enjoying good food and drink for a few days, they had lost their way towards the future.

Go to Shouchun!

Yingbu made up his mind, stood up and said: In Luyi, east of the six counties, there is a rebel army in Chaohu under the banner of General Xiang Yan. They have repeatedly defeated the county soldiers for several years, and now they have raised their flag to rebel against Qin. The leader will He is the direct grandson of General Xiang Yan, the man who can carry the cauldron!

Unlike Marquis Wu Zhong, who is ambiguous about whether to rebel or not, Xiang Ji is upright and upright, and he has the banner of restoring Chu and punishing Qin!

The light knight who came from Luyi said that Xiang Ji had gathered three thousand people, and he even called on the heroes of Chu to go to Shouchun to gather together. Taking advantage of the absence of the Jiujiang commander, he captured the city, returned it to his old capital, and revived Chu!