Since the Qing court seized Guangdong, Southern Jiangxi has become almost a hinterland. Immediately afterwards, the Qing troops in Jiangxi, Fujian, and Southern Jiangxi cooperated to suppress the anti-Qing movement in Jiangxi, and the anti-Qing movement in Jiangxi was martyred, and the anti-Qing movement in Jiangxi was also at a low ebb. As a result, the Qing court began to resume production in Jiangxi and the southern Jiangxi region.

Cai Shiying, the former governor of Jiangxi, and Yi Yonggui, the current governor of southern Jiangxi, were mainly responsible for resuming production at the beginning of their tenure, and in the process of resuming production, an organization called the Mutual Aid Association quietly began to take root at the grassroots level in the two places. As soon as these organizations were organized by the gentry to restore production to the people, they were highly praised by the government and the common people because of their dual effect of providing stable food to the government and covering up the exorbitant taxes for the common people.

In Jiangxi, mutual aid associations spread all over the prefectures and counties, and many scholars and doctors who were originally just ordinary squires gradually began to participate in the grand event. In the Nanjiang region, the area with the highest concentration of mutual aid associations is Ruijin County, and most villages have mutual aid associations. At first glance, it seems that the people who have not joined the mutual aid society are in the minority.

Ruijin County is located in a basin and is surrounded by mountains. The county seat is located in the southwest of the basin, in the southeast mountainous area that is not too far from the county seat, a team of more than 100 people is helping the old and the young to stumble into the mountains.

The backbone of the mutual aid association is organizing the people to advance on the mountain road, and on the dirt slope on the side, Tao is condescending, looking at the long dragon slowly walking under his feet, his chest has already been full of expectations and worries, and the cry of relieving pressure is almost about to break out.

This is just the mutual aid association he is directly responsible for, a small village has been completely absorbed by the mutual aid association, and now the empty village has come out, leaving the county government with an empty shell.

"If it weren't for the reluctance of the villagers, a fire would burn the village clean, and I think it would have the effect of clearing the wilderness."

Chen Kai was preparing to launch a war of reconquest against the Southern Jiangxi region, and Tao Qian was the first to know the news. Although they have not yet been able to directly launch an armed uprising to carry out internal blasting of the local rule of the Qing court, they can still do a lot, so much so that by the time the county government reacts, they have already achieved initial results.

The officials and officials who were assigned to various townships and towns hurried back to the county office, and the bad news was sent to the case of the county magistrate one after another. The gentry who organized the mutual aid association in Ruijin County all ran away without a trace, and even the villages and towns with the great power of the mutual aid association were basically empty. In addition, many gentry in this county are also leaving the city in a hurry, and it is rumored that this time the Ming army is attacking in a big way, which is to take the Tingzhou Mansion at one time and directly insert it into the Ganzhou Mansion City. And Ruijin County, where they are located, is the only way to go!

The entire Ruijin County suddenly became panicked, and all kinds of rumors spread in the county, some of which were so similar that even if the magistrate wanted to control them, he couldn't control them.

Counting up, Ruijin has been the rear of Tingzhou Capital City for a year, and there has been no such thing in the siege of the city several times before and after. But this time, not only did things come out, but it was completely uncontrollable. Most of the city gates are people fleeing outside the city, as if the capital city of Tingzhou has now fallen, and the Ming army is making great strides into Ruijin County.

"Quickly, collect all the people who can be collected, and the grain and grass must be transported to the capital of Tingzhou immediately, and there must be no delay!"

The magistrate smelled something abnormal, but at this stage, it was not the time to put things right, and the most important work in his hands at the moment was to support the front line of the Tingzhou capital city.

Under the order of the magistrate, the officials and servants of the county government have been busy, but as time goes by, more and more people choose to flee their hometowns with their families in such a slack season, and the manpower and material resources that can be collected are becoming less and less.

The countryside where chickens and dogs used to smell each other and look up quickly became sparsely populated, but according to legend, the mountainous areas have been getting more and more lively lately.

Grain and grass must be sent over before the Ming army really besieges the city, because no one can predict whether the Ming army will be fully surrounded and how long it can besiege. Ignoring the nearby places for the time being, the magistrate organized a group of officials, officials and people, and under the escort of the local green camp, they went straight to the direction of the capital city of Nating Prefecture along the official road.

In a small village in the southeast of Ruijin County, the bustle is no longer as simple as it is said, but a reality that is happening. The Mutual Aid Association had been preparing temporary camps in various parts of the mountainous area early on, and before the outbreak it was said that it was nothing more than that it was adjacent to the front line, and that once the capital city of Tingzhou was not protected, members could have a temporary shelter to avoid military disasters.

For the sake of the benefits of the mutual aid association, the members also acquiesced, and now the capital city of Tingzhou has not yet fallen, but the camp has taken the lead in coming in handy, and the people in the camp are inevitably strange for this, but they have all come, and it is necessary to watch the style for a while.

Originally, there were only about a dozen families in the small village, who cultivated the thin fields in the mountains all year round, but this time two villages not far from the county seat retreated here, and the number of people suddenly increased several times. Fortunately, the Mutual Aid Association had already prepared, and Tao Qian and another Confucian scholar were busy with the backbone of the Mutual Aid Association, and it was easy to settle these people. At nightfall, the smoke is faint, the fire is light, and it is calm down for the time being.

"Now, shouldn't we go out and make trouble for the Tartars?"

Chen Kai's training was limited to Tao Qian and the gentry who came from Jie Chongxi. They were the first batch of members of the Heaven and Earth Society, and they had a better understanding of what to do. At this time, the member of the Heaven and Earth Association developed by Tao Qian asked, and there was no lack of eagerness in his tone.

Tao Qian nodded, and immediately threw a piece of wood into the fire, stirring up a little spark, and said faintly between the light and darkness: "I don't have time, I will leave tomorrow." We need to buy time for the comrades over there in the ancient town! ”

Here, the ancient town in Tao Qiankou is a town on the road between Ruijin County and Tingzhou City, which is also surrounded by mountains, and only limited roads are connected to these two places, and Tingzhou Mansion Green Camp has stationed a force there to ensure the traffic between the two places.

The situation in Ruijin County, the ancient town still knows nothing, and it can even be said that it can't be taken care of at all, because the degree of panic here is better than that of the county seat.

"Huangshan in Fujian is attacking Tingzhou Mansion, and Chen Kai in Guangdong is attacking Nanxiong Mansion. It's easy to say that the thieves have stopped for a year, and now they are here again, and they are clearly going to swallow this area of Nanjiang in one go! ”

Many of the gentry and common people in the town fled, and in the camp of the green camp, the garrison was still pacing back and forth in the big tent, anxiously waiting for reinforcements and military supplies, as before. But the entire barracks was full of whispers, and they seemed to know the direction of the Ming army's attack in more detail than the Yamen, the governor of Southern Jiangxi.

"What's going on, I heard that Nanxiong Mansion has fallen, and the head of Nanxiong General Su Yang Zhisu has been hung on the city. Now that Chen Kai ......" At this point, his voice immediately lowered a few degrees: "That Chen Fujun is leading the 100,000 troops of Guangdong to the capital of Ganzhou." ”

"I also heard that it is said that the vanguard general who was in charge of Chen Fujun's enemy formation was called Li Jianjie, and it was the godson of Li Chengdong, the governor of Guangdong who betrayed the imperial court. When Li Chengdong was defeated by Nangan and died, his godsons were all dead, and there was only such a lone seedling left, and later followed Chen Fujun. A few years ago in Qiongzhou Mansion, Liu Bolu and Liu Shuai died at the hands of this person. This time, he is here to avenge his godfather and righteous brothers! ”

"Oh, in this case, can the Ganzhou Mansion still take care of us?"

"Gu us? You can't get your head caught in the door! ”

A finger poked at the door of the former's head, and the latter looked left and right, then lowered his voice and said: "I heard that in a few days, there will be a batch of inventory in Ruijin County to be sent to Tingzhou Prefecture. Ganzhou Mansion is tight, this is the last batch, and after sending it over, it can only let Tingzhou Mansion City ask for more blessings. As for us, nine times out of ten, we ordered the ransacking of the local people to be self-sufficient. But the problem is, the people of this special ancient town have begun to flee, into the mountains, where to find it? ”

"So what do we do?"

"It depends, if it doesn't work, whoever gives food will do it with whomever you want!"

All sorts of news spread in the ancient town, but it was inevitable to cause all kinds of disturbances. Among them, the only news that is certain is that Ruijin County will definitely send another batch of military quartermasters and civilian men to the capital city of Tingzhou to enhance the ability to defend there. And these military quartermasters and civilians will definitely pass by the ancient town.

However, this only affirmation, the affirmation that the Qing army in the ancient town had high hopes for, has not yet arrived, as if the situation on the side of Ganzhou Mansion has become tense to the point that the materials in Ruijin County must be sent to the side of Ganzhou Prefecture, rather than the front line of Tingzhou Prefecture as usual.

The urging from the Tingzhou capital city has already arrived, just like when it was attacked before, what Ming army of 100,000 troops is thin in the city, there is a shortage of food and grass, a shortage of military supplies, a shortage of people, and so on. In a word, if the supplies cannot be delivered immediately, then the city will have to be breached.

Naturally, the urgent urging will not be given to the ancient town, but the officers of the ancient town have long been familiar with it. It's a pity that it was delayed, but this was not the original intention of Ruijin County, it was really a lack of energy.

The supply convoy set off from Ruijin County, which is located west of the Mianjiang River. All the way forward, but it is also unimpeded, although the newly repaired official road this year is somewhat damaged, but it is still not delayed. They kept going on like this, until a small river with a wall in front of the official road, and they realized that it was not so simple to go to the capital city of Tingzhou.

This is the southern part of Jiangxi, although it is not the water network of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong, but the rivers are the least. This small river is a necessary road, and it was originally built with a bridge. However, by the time it arrived, the wooden bridge had turned into a mess of pestles in the stream, and occasionally a wisp or two of green smoke would emerge from the exposed charred black after the wind blew, which seemed to still show its past existence.

The bridge was burned, which is the result of the immediate situation, and as for whether it was man-made or accidental, it can be put aside for the time being. At the same time as sending someone back to the city to report, the detour required dozens of miles more, and it was directly vetoed by the warden who led the team. However, they can't delay the trip because of this, so they can only let the people hurry up and repair. At the same time, we will collect ships from the left and near, and use the ships to try to transport some of them to the past and continue on the road.

They were unhappy with the trouble, but they didn't plan to restore the bridge to its original state, just to build a simple pontoon bridge that would allow donkey carts to pass through. It didn't take long, and after a day or two of stwept at the river, the convoy was able to pass through the obstacles.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. Soon, they found that the following official roads had been damaged to varying degrees at regular intervals, and all the bridges along the way had been destroyed, leaving not a single one behind.

This is no longer an accident, someone must have deliberately sabotaged it, and there can be no other possibility. Seeing this, the warden was naturally angry, but when the green battalion soldiers went down to the villages and towns near the left, they were often either empty, or they couldn't ask who the saboteur was. As a result, he could only send someone to the county government to complain, while silently repairing the official roads and bridges in order to continue to move forward.

In this way, I don't know how many dangers I experienced along the way, and finally arrived here in the ancient town. The ancients had clouds and fed food for thousands of miles, and the soldiers could not eat again for a day. The reason why this is the case is not that there is no food, but that a long journey will consume a lot of food on the way, so that when it is delivered to the front of the army, it is calculated from the next time the grain is transported, and it will take about a meal to last until the next food is transported to the army.

The food consumed on the journey was due to the wear and tear along the way—the food of soldiers, men, and even livestock, the decay of poor preservation, the loss along the way, and so on. These will increase over time, and even more and more. Now, the journey is not long, but it still takes a lot of time. By the time they arrived at the ancient town, some of the food had already been consumed, and after the established portion was left for the garrison, they continued on their way.

The road ahead has been walked like this, and the people of this group are relieved to be able to reach the ancient town. It's a pity that they didn't know that there was another ninety-nine-eighty-one difficulty waiting for them on the way from the ancient town to the capital city of Tingzhou......