Chapter 228: Murder and Arson

The village of Zhangyuan sits on a plain, and there is nothing to defend except for the walls that link to the houses.

As soon as the gate at the entrance of the village was breached, it was completely dug up.

Emperor Guan's army held up the shield to move away from the horse, paved the trench with wood, and then moved the tiger squat cannon straight to the gate of the village.

There was almost no resistance during the whole process, only sporadic arrows and bricks flew out, smashing and injuring several Guan Di soldiers.

When the tiger squat cannon arrived at the gate, the nursing courtyard inside had already run away, and several members of the Fan family, including Fan Huchan, and the people of the Zhou family had all run away.

Qin Chuan led Emperor Guan's army into the village in an orderly manner, controlled several roads in the village, and surrounded the Fan family and the Zhou family's mansions.

Without waiting for Emperor Guan's army to set up the cannon, a group of long-term workers and family guards tied up Fan Huchan and several other members of the Fan family, then opened the gate and knelt on the ground to surrender.

Qin Chuan stepped on the steps, crossed the high threshold and walked into Fan's house, went straight to Fan Hu's birth, and asked lightly, "What is your relationship with Fan Yongdou?" ”

Fan Huchan hurriedly lay on the ground and kowtowed, and shouted vigorously: "Please spare your life, he is the little uncle...... I beg you to spare your life. ”

"Hmm."

Qin Chuan nodded, and then pulled out the long knife at his waist.

Luo Da Niu took a few steps forward, grabbed Fan Huchan's hair, and stretched his neck.

Fan Huchan realized something, and just as he was about to struggle, a sharp long knife slashed through his neck from top to bottom.

Since the court did not cure the crimes of the Fan family, he did it himself.

"Ren Liang, you take the Longwu battalion to guard the village, no one is allowed to enter or leave, and repair the gate and arrow tower, so as not to come in and harm the people in the future."

"Da Niu, you are responsible for raiding the house, all the people of the Fan family have been cut, and the people of the Zhou family are not less common people in this area, so cut down their people, as well as those nurses, call the villagers out, and ask which nurses do evil on weekdays, and they are all cut."

"The mansions of the two families have been carefully renovated, all the valuable things have been moved out, and the houses will be burned down before leaving tomorrow morning, remember, you are not allowed to touch the things of ordinary people, otherwise the military law will deal with it."

"Yes."

Ren Liang took the order, and Luo Daniu took the knife and walked towards the anti-family members who were crying all over the ground.

Qin Chuan wiped the blood stains off the knife on Fan Hu's corpse, returned the knife to its sheath, and then led the red-clothed attendant towards the Fan family's mansion.

This is a very large, magnificent mansion, carved beams and painted Danying carved trees, it is a pity to burn down.

But this is the Fan family's house, Qin Chuan can't occupy this place, if he dismantles the wood and gives it to the villagers, it will only harm those villagers, so he can only burn it.

As for the Zhou family's house, he wants to establish authority in this area, so he also has to burn it down.

Bursts of screams soon rang out in Zhang Yuan Village, and the sound of rummaging through boxes and cabinets, tearing down walls and digging the ground also sounded in the mansion of Fan Zhou's family.

……

In the evening of the same day, the person sent to Fenyang to ask for military rations came back and brought back three pieces of news, one was that Yan Siyin gave him military rations, and the other was that Yan Siyin ordered Qin Chuan to lie dormant in the area of Jiebei Mountain, and after he and Zhang Yingchang led the army to approach Mianshan, let Qin Chuan attack Liukou from both sides in the northeast.

The last piece of news was: Fei Jiajun was forced by Yan Siyin to commit suicide by throwing himself into a well.

Hearing this, Qin Chuan couldn't help frowning.

He talked with Wang Jizong, Wencheng and others about the officials of the three divisions of Shanxi and various state capitals, and there was a small book dedicated to recording the Qing officials, and he wanted to recruit these people to help him govern the place in the future.

Wen Cheng knew almost everything about the officials in Fenzhou, and especially admired Fei Jiajun, saying that this Fenyang magistrate had a very good set of local governance, and had previously governed the ancient city of Pingyao in an orderly manner, and he was an honest official, and he was a rare honest and capable official.

Because of Wencheng's admiration, Qin Chuan was very impressed by Fei Jiajun, and when he went to Fenyang to propose, he also visited him, but the other party politely refused Qin Chuan's visit in order to avoid suspicion.

I didn't expect to be forced to death by Yan Siyin.

This ancient literati is really looking for death at every turn, and the smell of temperament is too strong, but Yan Siyin's gelding dog is too arrogant. ok essay network

If you fight with this kind of person, you don't know when you will be sold.

Even if you win the battle, the credit will definitely not be your turn.

Qin Chuan didn't bother to pay attention to Yan Siyin's order, and decided to march to Mianshan early tomorrow morning according to his original plan.

Lao Huang and Bobcat, as well as Zhao Wu and Liao Sangun, they are all spying on the situation of the Liukou in the Mianshan area.

According to their report, there were nearly 10,000 Liukou in the Mianshan area, divided into seven or eight battalions, most of whom fled sporadically from Taihang Mountain, and then gathered here into a nest, wanting to attack Jiexiu or nearby villages.

Among these battalion heads, the largest one is Liu Guoneng, who was chased by Deng Xi and Zuo Liangyu south of Taihang Mountain, and he didn't know how to escape the encirclement and interception of the officers and soldiers, and ran over the mountains and mountains for hundreds of miles to Fenzhou.

According to Lao Huang, who pretended to be a rogue, after Liu Guoneng suffered a defeat in Taihang Mountain, many of the old battalions were scattered, and now he has less than 300 old battalion men and horses left, and even fewer others, adding up to only about 500.

Most of the rest of the rogues were temporarily put together, and many were hungry people along the way, who were coerced by Liu Guoneng and them all the way.

These people have almost no combat power to speak of, and it is estimated that they will run out as soon as the cannon is fired.

Moreover, Lao Huang sent back a very important piece of information: the Liukou in Mianshan are short of food.

Because of the defeat in the battle, when these rogues fled for their lives, they basically threw away all the food they had looted before, and only brought some gold and silver treasures that were easy to carry.

Qin Chuan's previous plan was to lure Liukou to take the initiative to attack, and he was originally worried that the other party would not be fooled, but now that the other party is short of food, things will be easy to do.

……

In the early morning of the next day, before dawn, Emperor Guan's army, which had eaten and drunk early, left Zhangyuan Village in an orderly manner.

Soon, two flames were lit in the village, and it was not long before the flames were half the sky.

The villagers of Zhangyuan Village, either carrying their belongings or carrying buckets, gathered together and stood far away, trembling at the monstrous fire.

Before the Guan Emperor army lit the fire, they demolished all the houses around the Fan and Zhou villages, and cut down the trees to prevent the fire from burning the houses of other villagers, but those villagers were still afraid.

More than 300 long-term workers and sheep herds of the Fan Zhou family held the grain they had just received, and looked fixedly at the shadow of Emperor Guan's army in the distance reflected by the firelight, and after watching for a while, someone suddenly knelt down and kowtowed three times to Emperor Guan's army in the distance.

The grain seized by the Fan Zhou family was only 180 stones, which was pitiful, but the beans were more than 300 stones, which could be used to feed the horses.

Although there was not much food, Qin Chuan still gave five catties of grain to the more than 300 long-term workers and sheep herds, and told them that if they went north from Zhangyuan Village to Wenshui County, they would enter Luliang Mountain, and continue to go north to reach Lou Fu, which would take three days if it was fast, and four or five days at most if it was slow.

Lou Fu has food to eat and land to plant, because the big families there are all dead, and there are a lot of fertile fields to rent for them to plant, as long as 40% of the rent in the early stage, it will only cost 30% in the future, as long as you go there, you can live a good life.

After distributing more than a dozen stones of grain, Qin Chuan still had two hundred and seventy stones, which was only enough to eat for ten days.

However, the Fan family and the Zhou family had more than 200 sheep, so it should be inconvenient to drive the sheep to the surrounding counties, and they couldn't transport so much at once, so they stayed.

The current weather is not suitable for drying bacon, Qin Chuan asked his subordinates to take all the sheep away, kill and eat on the road, and kill five heads a day for nearly two months.

Moreover, these sheep can also seduce the rogue on the road.

The two families of Fan Zhou seized more than 800 taels of silver, as well as a lot of gold and silver jewelry, most of which were dug out of the ground, which looked like private money hidden by some people.

There are also more than 30 mule and horse-drawn carts, which are enough for Qinchuan, and there are mountains of forage in the livestock yards of the two families.

In addition to loading grain and forage, Qin Chuan also asked his subordinates to load all tiger squat cannons and flintlock guns onto the mule cart, and cover them with hemp bags filled with forage to prevent people from seeing.

Until now, his flintlock pistol has not been unveiled.

When he attacked Zhang Yuan Village yesterday, he deliberately asked Zhao Wu, Liao Sangun and others to stay in the vicinity of Jiebei Mountain to prevent the scattered rogues from approaching.

The rogues in the Mianshan area should not know that he has so many firearms.

I didn't even know that flintlock pistols, which could be ignited without a fire rope, existed.