Twenty miles south of Taiyuan, a small shop.

"Hurry, close the door, hurry!"

Yao Dangxian, the old man of the Yao family, shook his fat and shouted anxiously at the nursing home of Zhuangmen.

A village leader replied anxiously on the arrow tower: "Master, there are still many tenants outside, and they are about to be overtaken by those traitors." ”

"Leave them alone, close the door, hurry!"

"Yes, close the door, close the door."

The heavy gate was quickly closed, and the guards used logs to block the gate, and brought in bricks and stones to block the back of the door.

Outside the village, many tenants who were desperately rushing towards Zhuangzi saw this, and immediately despaired, knelt on the ground one after another, and kowtowed to a cavalry chasing behind and begged for mercy.

The cavalry did not kill anyone, but gathered the tenants into a pile, and a young general who looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old rode out and said in an old-fashioned manner: "Listen to the big guys, we are the Guan Emperor Army under the command of General Lou Fu Qin, and we have come here neither to kill nor rob grain, but to take everyone back to our territory to farm." ”

"We have a lot of land, and we guarantee that there are no less than five acres of land per dingkou, and besides, we only charge you 20% of the tenant rent."

"You heard it right, our general only collects 20% of the tenant rent, and the remaining 80% is yours."

"Including the land you rented to plant the Yao family, as well as the wheat you harvested today, our general only needs 20%, and the rest is yours."

"Now, go back and cut the wheat, I will take your family out of the Zhuangzi, and I will burn all the IOUs and rents you owe to the Yao family."

As he spoke, the young man pulled the reins of his horse and rode towards Zhuangzi, who was not far away.

He is the lynx, and he is also the battalion officer of the Tiger Guard Battalion of the Emperor Guan's army.

His 3,000 men and horses have been divided into six divisions, like a net, sweeping all the way from Taiyuan City to the south.

……

In the small shop, Yao Dangxian struggled to climb an arrow tower and glanced out.

I saw about 200 thieves outside, and they had arrived at the village gate a hundred paces away, and they were lining up unhurriedly.

"Dad, what's wrong?"

At this time, the clansmen of the Yao family rushed to Zhuangmen with the rest of the family's courtyard, and Yao Dangxian's eldest son, Yao Kun, rode a tall horse, grabbed a spear with a thin tip in his hand, and asked loudly under the arrow tower.

Yao Dangxian glanced back and said, "Son, Lou Annoy, the person surnamed Qin called, just outside, and two hundred people came." ”

"Oh?"

Yao Kun raised his eyebrows: "Two hundred people dare to come and beat my Yao family's Zhuangzi?" ”

"Son, the murderous name surnamed Qin is outside, so he naturally has some skills, so don't underestimate the enemy."

"Humph! If he only came to rob the grain in the field, it would be fine, but if he dared to attack the village, he would have to ask me if I would agree to the reed leaf gun in my hand. ”

As he spoke, Yao Kun waved the spear in his hand and shook a beautiful spear flower.

"Not good, they have cannons!"

On the arrow tower, a Zhuang leader screamed in shock when he saw the Guan Emperor army outside the village suddenly split to both sides, revealing a row of swarthy cannon muzzles.

As soon as the words fell, I heard a loud bang outside the village, and more than a dozen shells made a sharp and piercing sound of breaking the air, slamming heavily on the solemn door of the small shop, and there was a loud bang.

The sudden roar frightened the horses under Yao Kun's crotch, raised their hooves and neighed violently, and then ran away.

Yao Kun was letting go of the horse's reins, holding the gun in both hands and shaking the spear, the horse couldn't react when the hooves were raised, and was thrown to the ground heavily, screaming in pain.

After a few shouts, there was another burst of artillery outside the village, and there seemed to be a few gunshots among them.

Several village leaders and nurses on the arrow tower fell down in response to the sound and fell straight down.

Yao Dangxian's face turned pale with fright, and he climbed down the arrow tower with a roll, hiding under the wall and shivering.

Yao Kun got up dizzily, didn't even bother to pick up the reed leaf gun, only stumbled over and sat next to Yao Dangxian.

Not long after, there was another burst of artillery outside the village, and the sharp cannonballs smashed the gate with a bang.

There is a nursing home who is not afraid of death and pokes his head out of the arrow tower to see the situation outside, but his head just sticks out and explodes.

Outside, there are a few thieves who have aimed at the arrow towers on both sides of the village gate, and one by one dies when they go out.

The nurses no longer dared to probe.

As the bombardment continued, the wooden door had been smashed to tatters and crumbling, and would have collapsed if it had not been for logs and masonry.

The morale of the more than 200 Ding Nursing Homes in Zhuangzi had long been blown away, and they only shrank behind the wall, trembling and uneasy.

The shelling finally stopped, and after a burst of passwords sounded outside the village, the sound of neat footsteps was soon heard.

The Guan Emperor army outside the village was approaching.

"Quick, let go of the arrows, don't let them get close."

Yao Dangxian's face turned pale, and he hurriedly shouted at the arrow tower.

When several loyal nurses heard this, they hurriedly bent their bows and arrows, and leaned out half of their bodies to release their arrows.

But as soon as they poked their heads out, the gunshots outside rang out again, and the guards fell one after another.

"Shoot the arrows, release the arrows quickly......"

Yao Dangxian and Yao Kun didn't care about thirty-seven twenty-one, and only shouted upwards one by one.

However, there is no nursing home that dares to probe.

Because the birds outside are extremely sharp, and one dies when they go out.

Not long after, Emperor Guan's army advanced to the front of the Zhuang Gate, and the musketeers and marksmen continued to suppress the arrow tower above thirty paces away, while the sword and shield men pressed to the front of the gate with their shields and slashed the Zhuang Gate with their big axes.

At the same time, the loud Guan Dijun began to shout inside, affirming that after entering the village, he would only clean up the Yao family, and would not commit any offense to other people, and he could also take the poor, tenants, and long-term workers in the village to go to Lanzhou to farm, and also emphasized that only 20% of the rent would be collected.

After splitting several large holes in the gate and pushing the bricks and stones inside, Guan Dijun put several small Furang cannons loaded with scattered bullets into them, and then ignited the primer.

Countless scattered bombs poured into it like a torrential rain, blasting more than a dozen nursing homes into bloody people, and the rest of the nursing courtyards scattered in a hurry.

The father and son of the Yao family also fled back to their mansion with a crawl.

After Lynx led Emperor Guan's army into the village, he went straight to the Yao family's compound.

It's been a long time since they've raided a big family's house.

Almost at the same time, Jinsheng Town, Huangling Town, Xinyingzhai, Xiwenzhuang, Sunjiazhai, Liangjiazhai, Wayaozhuang and many other villages and towns within 30 miles south of Taiyuan were also captured by Emperor Guan's army.

No village or town could withstand the sharp firearms of the Guan Emperor's army, and it often only took three or four rifled guns to collapse the homes of those wealthy gentry.

At the time of the autumn harvest, the long-term tenants who were collecting grain outside, as well as the farmers of the royal palaces, no one could escape the iron hooves of the Guan Emperor's army, and they were brought back to continue harvesting grain.

This area is the richest area in the Taiyuan Basin, with many gentry and too many gold, silver and grain to count.

Emperor Guan's army was like a comb, combed from north to south, all the gentry in the fish and meat township raided their homes and killed people, at most leaving only a hundred handfuls of stone grain and a thousand hundred taels of silver for their old and weak women and children to live.

For the squires and ordinary yeoman farmers who did not commit crimes, Zeqiu did not commit any crimes, and even for those squires who helped the poor in the good township, Guan Dijun not only did not commit any crimes in the autumn, but also specially went to their doorsteps to commend them.

In addition to grabbing money and grain, they also had to rob the population, and all the tenants, long-term and short-term workers, poor peasants, etc., of the wealthy gentry, were all coerced and lured to Qinchuan's territory.

……

Shouyang City.

Liu Liangzuo, who had just been appointed by Chongzhen as the commander-in-chief of the army to aid and suppress, and sent to Shanxi to prepare to exterminate Qinchuan, and his generals Wang Shiying and Zhang Yixiang, the magistrate of Shouyang, were sitting in the second hall of the magistrate's yamen without saying a word, frowning and falling into contemplation.

After pondering for a long time, no one spoke.

"Report, General Qiyu, there are a few merchants outside, claiming to be from Zhangjiakou Fort, some with the surname Fan, as well as the surname Wang, the surname Zhai and the surname Tian, saying that they are here to talk to the general about the sale of iron materials and iron pots."

"Oh?"

Liu Liangzuo, who had been pondering for a long time, his eyes lit up.

Wang Shiying on the side also showed joy: "General, Lord Zhang, while the army of Qin thieves has not yet arrived in Shouyang, let's hurry up and sell those iron materials and iron pots, how much silver taels can be earned, if you wait for the Qin thieves to arrive, these goods will not be able to be shipped." ”

"Well, that makes sense."

Zhang Yixiang stroked his beard and head: "Then let's go out first to meet those merchants from Zhangjiakou Fort, handle this matter, and then discuss whether to send troops to rescue Taiyuan." ”

"Okay."

"By the way, wait for those merchants to pay the silver, and transport the silver and the 100,000 taels of silver to Zhending Mansion for temporary storage, if the Qin thief gains power in Taiyuan, the small city of Shouyang may not be able to stop him, let's transport the silver out first, and it is not too late to meet him and then see the opportunity."

"Yes, what Mr. Liu said is that the silver must be transported out first."

"Or, let's get out overnight tonight."

"Then the merchants have to pay the money."

"Urge, let them muster the money before dawn."

"Okay."

The three of them got up and walked out as they exchanged their heads and ears.