Autumn is high and cool, the wind is light and the clouds are light, it is a good season to travel and travel, usually on the official road in the south of Zhili at this time, people and cars come and go, very lively. However, at this time, due to the impact of the Gengzi National Change, there have been no pedestrians and vehicles on the official road for a long time, and a lot of weeds have grown on the roadside.

At a three-way intersection of the official road, a small tea stall was opened, and two cloth sheds were supported at the door, and three or four tea tables were placed, but there was no guest, and the two men were lying on the table and playing, looking very deserted.

At this moment, I saw a dense sound of horses' hooves, and I saw that from the direction of Zhengding Mansion, the sky was full of smoke and dust, and a team of people and horses galloped from far and near. The two men also woke up from their sleep, and with sleepy eyes open, they saw dozens of horsemen and horses standing in front of the tea stall. Only then did the two men see clearly that the men on horseback were all dressed in the same gray-green costume, with a short-brimmed hat on their heads, carrying muskets on their backs, and carrying a single sword at their waists, which seemed to be an army.

There was a nervous look on the faces of both men, because in this era, there was no difference between an army and a bandit, and if they met an army in the wilderness, they would be killed nine times out of ten. Although this is not a wilderness, there are few people in this area during this time, so if this army really does a murderous thing, it will not be wasted at all.

At this time, I saw a man get down from the horse, and a few steps came to the front of the man, and said, "Fellow, if you want to go to Shanxi, which way to go." ”

Seeing his mild attitude, the two guys were also a little relieved, one guy pointed to the two forks in the road, and said: "The left one leads to the Donjing Pass, and the one on the right leads to Shunde Mansion, and this road is to Henan and Shandong." ”

The soldier nodded and said, "Thank you." He walked out of the shed and said loudly to the other knights: "The first class will go to the left, and the second class will go to the right, and each will go forward 20 kilometers, and then report back, and the others will dismount and rest on the spot." ”

The two groups of cavalry set out from two separate paths, while the rest of the soldiers dismounted, sat down on the ground opposite the tea stall, and took the kettle from their horses to drink. The two men exchanged glances with each other, and these soldiers were very different from other soldiers.

At this time, another person came out of the house, and two men greeted him, saying, "Shopkeeper, look...... Would you like to greet them?"

The shopkeeper waved his hand and said, "Don't act rashly, take a look first." ”

About half an hour later, I only heard the voices of people and horses boiling on the official road, the wheels retreated, and the dust raised almost covered half of the sky, and I saw a group of people and horses slowly coming from the official road. Stopping in front of the tea shop, the soldiers of the previous cavalry army all got up and greeted them.

The shopkeeper couldn't help but look at the essence and muttered, "What a big deal, if this deal is completed, it will be enough for us to eat for a few months." ”

A guy said: "But I'm afraid this business is a little hard, but it's not very delicious, I don't know if I can eat it in the village club." ”

The shopkeeper said: "Whether you can eat or not, you have to go back and report it, and let a few masters decide, and notify the sentinel in front of you, and keep an eye on this group." ”

The man agreed, turned away, and went into the bushes behind the tea stalls, where there was a hut with two horses tied to it. The man said to the house: "Come to buy and sell, but it is very strong, let the brother in front keep an eye on it, and I will go back to the village to deliver the letter." So saying, the man untied his horse, turned over and jumped on the horse's back, shook the reins, and galloped away.

The man rode the horse and ran out of more than 60 miles in one breath, and ran straight to the horse foaming at the mouth, and came to a big house, only to see more than 20 men at the entrance of the village who were boxing and kicking to practice martial arts, and there were weapon racks under the eaves on the left and right sides, and weapons such as knives, guns, halberds, and other weapons were inserted. Seeing that the guy was coming, everyone also stopped practicing martial arts, and said, "Seventh brother is back, seventh brother is back." Then they all came up around Long.

The man got off the horse, panted and said, "Go and tell the head of the regiment and the heads of the family that there is a deal coming, but it is ruthless." ”

Immediately after hearing his words, some people ran into the courtyard to deliver the letter, others asked the man to sit down under the eaves, some led the horse to drink and feed, and some brought tea to the fellow.

After a long while, someone came out and said, "Seventh brother, the head of the head of the group and all the heads of the family have asked you to go in." ”

When the man heard this, he immediately got up and walked into the courtyard, and when he came to the lobby, he saw a man about 40 years old sitting in the middle, with medium height, big ears, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a blue cloth dress. On his left and right hands sat six or seven people, of different ages and clothes. The guy hurriedly saluted and said, "I've seen the head of the group, everyone is in charge." ”

The head of the group said: "Chen Qi, is there a deal?"

Chen Qidao: "Yes, this deal is not small, there are 5 or 60 carts alone, and there are more than 200 horses, but there are also a lot of people, not to mention 1 or 2,000 people, and almost everyone has a guy with a ring, which is very prickly." ”

The head of the regiment said: "So many people, are they officers and soldiers of the imperial court?"

Chen Qi shook his head and said: "The clothes you wear are not like them, they are all wearing green clothes, some of them are like the military uniforms of foreigners, but the people are from our Qing Dynasty, but there are some officers and soldiers of the imperial court inside." ”

At this time, there was a humane on the seat on the left: "But he wears an iron helmet, a belt hanging diagonally, and a legging on his calf." ”

Chen Qi nodded again and again, and said, "Yes, yes, that's what it looks like." ”

The person who spoke turned to the head of the regiment and said, "Brother Jing, everyone is in charge, this should be the People's Army." ”

There was a burst of discussion in the room, and someone said: "Li Zhuangyong, you are not wrong, why did the People's Army come here." ”

It turned out that the person who spoke earlier was Li Zhuangyong, who defected from the People's Army. After defecting from the People's Army with a few people, he first went to Shanhaiguan and hid two boxes of rifles by himself, and then recruited more than 50 former Boxers from the former Boxer Regiment, and took these people to raise a team and carry out activities in Xuanhua, Zhangjiakou, and other areas outside the control of the People's Army in the northwest of Beijing. And insisted on only hitting large landlords and never harassing ordinary people.

Although Li Zhuangyong's team was small in number, after all, he had spent nearly half a year in the People's Army, and had also learned some training methods of the regular army and fighting at the squad, platoon, and company levels, and there were also a few backbones and dozens of rifles, so his combat effectiveness was very strong, and the local order of the Qing court at that time had not been restored, and there were no officers and soldiers to recruit and suppress them. Ordinary landlords were not their opponents, and as a result, Li Zhuangyong broke the encirclement of three landlords in a row and grabbed a large amount of grain, money, and dozens of earthen muskets.

After breaking the siege of the landlords, all the landlords who were caught announced their crimes in public and shot them, and distributed some of the food and property they had stolen to the villagers, and immediately won the favor of many villagers, and some villagers even wished to join Li Zhuangyong's team.

Two months later, Li Zhuangyong's team expanded to more than 200 people, as well as more than 20 horses, Li Zhuangyong led the team to raid a small guard post of the Qing army, not only grabbed more than 30 horses, but also captured more than 20 rifles, 3 small cannons and some ammunition.

However, with the expansion of the team, it is not a long-term solution to wander around and loot, it is necessary to find a base area, and the area around Xuanhua Zhangbei is relatively desolate, it is difficult to maintain the supply of a large team, Li Zhuangyong and a few brothers discussed, and decided to go to Guangzong to join Jing Tingbin and Zhao Sanduo according to the plan formulated before. The support of local forces like Zhao Sanduo is also conducive to fighting the Qing army; second, now that some of his subordinates have guns and horses, even when they go to Jing Tingbin, they also have the strength to speak.

So Li Zhuangyong reorganized his men and went south to Guangzong. Along the way, they broke the encirclement of several landlords in succession, annihilated a group of bandits, and also ran into two groups of lone soldiers of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and also increased some manpower. By the time Li Zhuangyong and his entourage arrived in Guangzong and met Jing Tingbin and Zhao Sanduo, his team had expanded to 285 people, with 109 guns, 45 horses, 36 donkeys, and a large amount of food, money, and other materials.

Jing Tingbin is Shang Qing. Zhili Guangzong County (now belonging to Xingtai, Hebei) Dongzhao Village. The eleventh generation of plum blossom boxing, born in a small landlord's family, the family is more solid, since childhood to practice martial arts, write a good hand, and the strength is greater, shoulder 200 pounds do not panting, 24 years old had been admitted to the martial arts people, but for the generous and righteous, not accustomed to the officialdom dark, so has not been an official, in the village to recruit apprentices.

Because Jing Tingbin has an upright and frank temperament, he is good at fighting and holding grievances, and he has great prestige in the Guangzong area, after the Eight-Nation Coalition Army broke through Beijing, the order in the Zhili area was in chaos, the army was routed, and the thieves were numerous, and Jing Tingbin recruited villagers. The formation of the Lianzhuang Association, training the township Yong to Lianzhuang self-protection, the villages unanimously recommended Jing Tingbin as the leader. Due to Jing Tingbin's fame, many Boxers who fled from Beijing defected to Jing Tingbin's disciples, and Jing Tingbin had also joined the Boxers before, but he had never been to Beijing, so he naturally sheltered a large number of remnants of the Boxers.

After the Eight-Nation Coalition occupied Beijing, they asked for money and grain from the counties around Beijing, but the local officials did not dare to refuse, so they had to pass it on to the people, and some officials also took the opportunity to increase the weight, called "foreign cha", and the southern part of Zhili, the area around Shandong was originally the place where the Boxer Rebellion was initiated, and the resistance of the people against the government, the church, and the foreigners was extremely high, and Jing Tingbin was not used to the darkness of the Qing court, and was also very dissatisfied with the cruelty of the foreigners, and led the villagers to resist the silk and the poor in righteous indignation. After Zhao Sanduo, the leader of the Boxers in Shandong, fled to Julu, he also recruited the remnants of the Boxers to form an alliance with Jing Tingbin, so he embarked on the road of confrontation with the government.

At this time, the traverser landed from Tianjin, the Eight-Nation Coalition Army flawlessly took care of Jing Tingbin, and the government was unable to expropriate and suppress, so Jing Tingbin's power also continued to expand, and the surrounding more than a dozen Lianzhuang Association, League Association, local gang forces, etc., everyone elected Jing Tingbin as the head of the general group, and played the two banners of "official forced rebellion" and "sweeping away and destroying foreigners", openly rebelled, and now the number has exceeded 10,000 people, and there is quite a momentum of reviving the prestige of the Boxer Rebellion, and then doing a big job. However, compared with the hundreds of thousands in the heyday of the Boxer Rebellion, it is still very inferior.