Just as Longkou was nervously making preparations, a small village in Wuqiao County, Hebei Province, adjacent to Shandong, was covered with rain and snow, and there was a dilapidated small temple, standing alone on a small bare mound. Under the mound, scattered horses and disheveled soldiers, about a thousand people. crowded next to each other against the flickering bonfire, scolding his mother while stretching out his hand to warm up on the fire.

A burly young general, wearing a burqa over his armor, stood under the eaves of a small temple. His face was swarthy, his skin was rough, and his face was covered with a cold and solemn look that had been battle-hardened. Behind him, a banner was erected. The flag was already soaked in the cold rain and snow, and hung weakly under the eaves. A cold wind blew, and I could barely tell that there was a "hole" on it.

There were a number of horses tied in front of the temple, and they were much taller than the horses at the bottom of the hillside. The horses, with a look of disgust, reluctantly ate the blackened wheat straw that the soldiers had dragged from the peasants' roofs.

He seemed to be waiting for someone, staring intently to the north. To the north, separated by large fields and sparse groves, there is a faint light - that is the town of Sangyuan, where the county seat of Wuqiao is located.

This general is none other than Kong Youde, the general of the left infantry battalion in Dengzhou. Although his official position was in the left battalion of the infantry, in fact, all the cavalry of Liaodong in the past were in charge. He is a native of Tieling in Liaodong. Both his father and he were local miners. After Nurhachi raised his army, Tielingwei soon fell. When he was a teenager, he participated in his father's uprising against the Later Jin regime in Tieling. After the failure of the uprising, he went into exile in various parts of Liaodong, joined the army in Guangning, and once became an official travelogue. After Guangning withdrew from the town, he joined Mao Wenlong and changed his name to Mao Yongshi.

After Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan, his old Dongjiang department was under the command of Chen Jisheng, the deputy general of Dongjiang. Soon, the general Liu Xingzhi rebelled on Phi Island, killing Chen Jisheng and more than ten others, and the new Dongjiang General Huang Long immediately went to Phi Island to suppress it. Because they felt that they were being squeezed out by Huanglong, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming were not subject to Huanglong's domination, and led their troops to defect to Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai. Kong Youde became the general of the left battalion of the infantry. It is still the old ministry that rules over the past.

It was raining and snowing continuously, and the northwest wind was blowing, blowing onto the already soaked burqa, which looked particularly cold. Every breath spews out a thick mist of white sè. Most of the cavalry at the foot of the hill were thinly dressed, dirty and torn, and they were huddled in groups of three or five, wrapped tightly in their rags. Someone was whispering, someone was staggering, and he had fallen asleep.

At this time, several fast horses came all the way from the north. The sound of horses' hooves broke the silence on the hills, and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief at the sound of horses' hooves.

Soon the sound of horses' hooves came nearer, and then in the midst of the sparse, leafy bushes, under the vast moon, a small group of men and horses appeared.

There were four or five people in this team, and the leader was a young man. After walking up the hill. They all jumped off their horses. The officer at the head led the horse to the general and said, "General: The matter is over. ”

Hearing the news, Kong Youde's eyebrows stretched. Originally, the long-distance march to aid Liao was already a miserable one. The messenger with a bleak future, I didn't expect such a thing to happen on the road!

When Kong Youde led his troops to Wuqiao, they happened to encounter bad weather with rain and snow, and the troops were underfed, hungry and cold. There is neither silver nor bread or grass. asked Wuqiao County to prepare grain and grass, but the county simply ignored it. Kong Youde is a passer-by from Shandong, and has no influence in Hebei. The army is already running out of food. The common people in the villages and towns were extremely afraid of the officers and soldiers -- the discipline of the army at the end of the Ming Dynasty was extremely poor, and the long march was almost like a wandering bandit -- and they fled one after another as soon as they heard that the army was coming, although the county town did not shut up from them. But everywhere is closed, and there is nowhere to go even to buy food, let alone no money at all.

Since ancient times, there has been a saying that the soldiers who do not die of hunger are self-sufficient. With the acquiescence of the officers, small units were divided at night. Quietly leaving the camp and going around the countryside and city in search of "food" - in fact, robbery.

During the plunder, a soldier broke open the door of a seemingly inconspicuous family in the city and snatched a chicken. Unexpectedly, this chicken was raised by the servants of the Wang Xiangchun family of the Wang clan in Shandong.

Offending a local big family is the same as robbing the common people, and the result is very different. As a result, the robbing soldiers were "paraded through the camp with arrows" - a punishment that was the heaviest punishment in the ancient army, second only to beheading. The soldier with a grudge immediately killed the servant.

This stabbed the basket to Kong Youde, who originally wanted to settle things: the gentry of the Ming Dynasty were extremely powerful, not to mention Wang Xiangchun, a former senior bureaucrat who had been on the "Donglin Point General Record" - that was a local first-class gentleman, and the county magistrate and prefect had to be polite when they saw his film. Wang Xiangchun's son refused to give up and must demand that the responsibility be investigated.

Kong Youde is just a small general, although he can command thousands of people to charge into battle, when it comes to the position of power, he is far from being the opponent of a gentleman like the Wang family, not to mention that the Donglin Party is very powerful in the imperial court.

Therefore, he could only continue to compromise, lead his men and horses to withdraw from Wuqiao County, stationed in this wasteland, and sent Li Yingyuan to negotiate the matter.

"I beheaded the kid who committed the crime, and the matter is settled." Li Yingyuan was indignant, "The manager who came out to speak still doesn't seem to be relenting, and I have to take out another ten taels of silver to make him comfortable." ”

Kong Youde sighed heavily: "This is also a helpless thing!" It's a pity that a good man! He stomped his feet, "These sour sons are hard to give up their money, and they force us to go to the public service!" ”

"The brothers said they couldn't stand it anymore -- first they forced us to go to sea to Phi Island to quell Huanglong's rebellion. If it weren't for the general, you would have fed the fish and shrimp on the spot! This will make us have a frozen and hungry Baba rush to the Daling River to die! Li Yingyuan said and moved, "Let's give the court birth and death, follow Mao Shuai to blow the wind on the island, eat sand and fight tartars, how many brothers have died!" The court and the big families don't treat us as human beings at all! ”

There was a ripple among the surrounding soldiers and generals - they were all the old Dongjiang troops who followed Mao Wenlong in Liaodong back then, and Mao Shuai's beheading had planted the seeds of dissatisfaction in their hearts. In Dongjiang, he was squeezed out by the Yellow Dragon, and after arriving in Dengzhou, he was always discriminated against and excluded by the local army in Shandong and the southern army.

This time going north to reinforce Daling River was originally a treacherous battle that would never return, and he had to suffer such anger along the way. The hearts of the soldiers became more and more resentful.

These words also resonated with Kong Youde, his xiōng mouth rose and fell, as if he wanted to say something, but finally didn't say anything, he waved his hand decisively, and said with a cruel smile: "We can't afford to mess with these masters, we can't stay here, we will freeze the people and horses, all set off, let's go far away to find a village to slaughter, everyone be warm and warm!" ”

"Piercing!" Li Yingyuan and several officers beside him echoed with excited expressions. Although the army continued to loot along the way, they only managed to get some food to eat, and they didn't dare to do too much. Since you want to let go of your hands this time, you can get a little oil and water.

Everyone went to prepare to leave, and Li Yingyuan was about to leave, Kong Youde stopped him: "Yingyuan, when will your father arrive?" ”

Li Yingyuan's father's name is Li Jiucheng, although he is only a guerrilla in his position, but he is extremely prestigious in the old Dongjiang Department in Liaodong, and people like Kong Youde have to respect him a little.

Li Jiucheng was ordered by Sun Yuanhua to buy horses from the ancient people of Méng more than a month ago, but the horses were not bought but all the money was spent, and he did not dare to return to Dengzhou for fear of crime.

Li Jiucheng has a very high prestige in the old Dongjiang Army, and now the hearts of the people in the army are shaken, and he urgently needs an old man like Li Jiucheng to be suppressed and appeased, otherwise this sentry will collapse halfway if he can't reach Shanhaiguan. He, the commander of the army, had to flee if he wanted not to have his head cut off.

Li Yingyuan replied: "My father sent someone to say that he was blocked on the road because of the wind and snow on the road. It will take two days to go to Wuqiao to meet with the general. ”

In the old time and space, Li Jiucheng, who did not dare to return to Dengzhou because of the loss of the money to buy horses, was already in Kong Youde's army on October 31.

Li Jiucheng's father and son's incitement of soldiers was the main reason for Kong Youde's troops to launch a rebellion in Wuqiao. But in this time and space, Li Jiucheng was blocked by the road, and if he did not arrive in the army on this day, he lost the opportunity to incite soldiers to riot.

The butterfly wings of history are slightly biased towards different places. This was something the patriarchs had not expected.

"Alright, let's head north!" Kong Youde ordered, "Send a few fine brothers to Sangyuan Town in civilian clothes and wait for General Li to catch up again." ”

With the sound of the order, the soldiers who were originally hungry and cold, and fell asleep suddenly came to their senses, tightened their horses' belly belts, and turned over on their horses. More than 1,000 foot riders let out a cry and headed north.

The sun shone on the county seat of Wuqiao on the morning of November 1, and the people in the county town could not help but breathe a sigh of relief when they learned that the army from Shandong had gone far away, and they opened the gates one after another to do their own business. No one knew that they had just escaped a catastrophe that they were destined to suffer.

More than twenty miles north of them, a large village had been wiped out and slaughtered.

The patriarchs who were waiting for the battle on the island, no one expected this. In their opinion, any historical event will strictly follow the historical trajectory of the old time and space.