October 15.

It was supposed to be an ordinary day after the autumn harvest, but it left a strong mark in history.

On this day, the news of the great changes in Jiangnan began to spread to the whole country.

In Bangdongyuan, northwest of Qingxi County, Muzhou, Fang La gathered more than 1,000 poor people to declare an uprising with the call to kill Zhu Mian.

Taking advantage of the layout of Manichaeism and Fang La's reputation in Qingxi, wherever the rebel army passed, the people all responded and joined the rebel army.

The rebel army first occupied the county seat of Qingxi. With the echo of the Manichaeans in the city, the rebels entered the city without difficulty, disemboweling the county magistrates, the chief bookkeeper and other officials in the city, and hanging their corpses for public display.

Most of the elite soldiers in the rebel army were peasants dressed as Manichaeans, and they were Fang La's cronies, who could not only go into battle to kill the enemy, but also demagogue, and strengthen the loyalty of the new people to Fang La, and their belief in the victory of the rebel army.

After the rebels occupied Qingxi, within three days, the number of soldiers increased dramatically to 5,000. In addition to the people who responded to the wind, there were also various forces such as the Fangla clan forces, the clan forces that supported Fangla, and the local forces that suffered from the Huashigang.

It includes Fang Qifo, Si Xingfang, Li Tianyan, Shi Bao, Wang Yin and other backbone members who have been conspiring for a long time, and they have been reused by Fang La as soon as they joined.

In less than two days, the news of Fangla's uprising quickly spread to the city of Muzhou with the help of the Manichaeans, and Zhang Hui, the governor of Muzhou, was taken aback, and in order to prevent the rapid growth of the rebel army, he hurriedly ordered Cai Zun, the commander of the soldiers and horses of the two Zhejiangs, to lead the army to suppress it.

Cai Zun commanded the Xiang army and a part of the township army stationed in the place, and his combat effectiveness was no different from that of ordinary bandits. He also heard of Fang La's reputation, and when he heard that it was Fang La's uprising, he didn't dare to lead the army at first, until Zhizhou Zhang Hui repeatedly ordered and said that Fang La was no more than a thousand people, and most of them were poor people, so he put his heart down and led the army to ask for it.

On October 20, the 5,000-person army under the leadership of Cai Zun set out from Jiande and headed for Qingxi. The army marched for three days, close to the territory of Qingxi County, and collided with the Fang La army who led the army at the mountain pass, which can be described as a narrow road.

Cai Zun was overjoyed when he saw that Fang La's army really only had more than 1,000 people, and there were still no armor, bows and arrows, and immediately ordered the whole army to attack, in a vain attempt to defeat Fang La in one fell swoop.

Seeing the officers and soldiers stretching from the mountainside to the foot of the mountain, Fang La's army was in a state of confusion, and was scattered by the officers and soldiers in a face, and the casualties were not counted. Fang La hurriedly ordered the front army to retreat, and the rest of the army to retreat. After Fang La led the army to escape, the 300 righteous troops left behind were slowly surrounded and killed by the official army.

Cai Zun has also read some military books, and knows the truth that when the forest does not enter, the poor do not chase, and sees the strange rocks behind the col in front of him, the trees are thick, and the terrain is very complicated, so he wants the army to rest on the spot, explore the road and then march.

However, the adjutant general next to him pointed to the corpse of the rebel army on the ground and told him: No matter how strong Fang La's personal strength is, the people he leads are just some people without force.

Cai Zun pondered for a long time and felt that what the adjutant general said was reasonable, so he ordered the whole army to continue to advance and pursue Fang La.

No matter how bad the Xiang army is, it must be better than the ordinary people. The officers and soldiers did not chase long along the winding mountain road, and they saw the Fang La rout army in front of them from a distance, and saw them in three steps, which seemed to be a sign of lack of strength.

When Cai Zun saw this, he was immediately excited, and asked the whole army to speed up, and it was bound to wipe out all the rebels before dark.

After another half an hour, the officers and soldiers were less than fifty paces away from the rebels, and the closer they got, the more obvious the fatigue and riots of the rebels became.

After Cai Zun saw the state of the righteous army, he gradually had a bad feeling, and the tired appearance of the righteous army seemed to be too neat. How could there not be a single person with outstanding physical fitness among the hundreds?

In doubt, he looked around and found that the army had reached a deep stream and dense forest, not to mention the rough and narrow road, surrounded by trees that obscured his vision, and he shuddered, and hurriedly ordered the whole army to stop.

However, at the same time as he gave the order, the rebels in front suddenly stopped and turned around.

"Long live the Holy Father!"

In the woods on both sides, shouts suddenly sounded, and countless rebels poured out of them. Fang La, who was in front of him, "broke the army" and also began to charge at the official army.

Due to the narrow terrain, the formation of the official army is in the shape of a long snake, and the righteous army in the woods on both sides will kill the generals, and the official army will be divided into several sections and slowly encroached.

Cai Zun was terrified and wanted to retreat, but saw that the officers and soldiers in the rear had been cut off by the rebels, and the rebels had surrounded him, and Fang La in front was rushing towards him all the way, and the officers and soldiers in close quarters were all flying flesh and blood.

However, before Fang La approached him, the rebels in the woods on both sides had already killed him, and among them was a stout man who was extremely conspicuous, holding a wind-splitting sword and slashing horizontally and vertically, tearing a hole in the official army.

Cai Zun's martial arts are ordinary, and he has not yet reached the realm of entering the hall, seeing that the man is so brave, he hurriedly called the soldiers around him to go up, and he ran back.

Seeing Cai Zun hiding in the crowd, the man simply put down the big knife, took out the meteor flying hammer tied to his waist, held it in his hand and pretended to use it for fighting, and after the hammer flew several officers and soldiers, he shook it violently a few times above his head and threw it at Cai Zun.

Cai Zun, who was standing behind the official army, saw a black shadow flying out of the crowd, and before he could react, he only heard the nearby soldiers shouting urgently, "General be careful", and then the flying hammer smashed on his head, smashing his huge head to pieces.

Seeing that Cai Zun was killed by one blow, the surrounding rebels shouted: "General Shibao is mighty! ”

As soon as Cai Zun died, the scene became chaotic, and many officers and soldiers saw that the general trend had gone, so they directly threw away their weapons and knelt on the ground to surrender.

The fear quickly spread among the officers and soldiers, and in less than half an hour, except for those who stubbornly resisted and were killed by the rebels, all the rest knelt on the ground.

At Wang Yin's suggestion, Fang La ordered the surrendering officers and soldiers to take off their clothes and armor, let the rebels put them on, and pretended to be the official army to attack Muzhou City.

After Cai Zun's death, the prefectures and counties were completely exposed to the attacks of the rebel army.

In order to expand the results of the battle, Fang La immediately ordered the troops to divide into three routes, and led a large army to attack Muzhou City, the capital of Muzhou, and Fang Qifo and Wang Yin each led a thousand righteous troops to capture Sui'an, Shouchang, Fenshui, Tonglu and other counties in the north and south. It was agreed that after completing the task, they would meet in Qingxi County, and then join forces to capture Shezhou in the west.

After winning the battle, the peasant army of faith was full of enthusiasm, and after less than a day's rest, it started again. Most of the poor villagers along the road joined the rebels, and if they did not have weapons, they used their shovels, steel forks and other farm tools as weapons.

Three days later, under the city of Muzhou, thousands of "officers and soldiers" slowly approached.

The colonel guarding the city gate thought that it was Cai Zunjun, who had returned from victory, so he ordered the city gate to be opened. After the order was given, the little colonel looked many times, but Cai Zun was nowhere to be seen, and suddenly realized that something was wrong, and hurriedly ordered not to open the city gate.

However, by this time, the city gate was halfway open, and the rebel army disguised as an officer approached the city gate. The defenders who heard the order hurriedly pulled back to the city gate, but saw two people suddenly flying out of the rebel army - Fang La and Shi Bao.

The two of them rushed away, and with all their strength, they crashed into the two city gates, and several defenders who were returning to pull the city gates were directly shocked out, and the half-open city gates were also slammed open. The rebel army took advantage of the situation to rush in, and the already weakly defended city of Muzhou was captured in a few shots.

Fang La, Shi Bao and others quickly led the army to surround the Muzhou Mansion, tied up Zhizhou Zhang Hui like a cow and sheep, and paraded in front of the people who were deeply exploited by him, and finally Shi Bao cut off his head with a knife and hung it on the city gate.

The rest of the court officials were also arrested and beheaded, and all of their families except women were killed, while beautiful women and women were given to the soldiers as trophies. All the wealthy families in the city who were involved in the government and oppressed the people were also raided by the Manichaeans and their property was looted.

After the capture of Muzhou, the rebel army grew rapidly, and most of them were poor people inspired by Manichaean teachings, but there were also many unscrupulous people who saw the strength of the rebel army and pretended to join for the sake of welfare.

In less than a day, Fang La received several reports from the Manichaean tribe that someone had plundered wealth and humiliated women in the city in the name of a rebel army. However, most of the people who dared to do these things were smart people, and knew that collecting personal gain would definitely be a dead end, so they presented most of the looted wealth to the rebels.

Fang La also acquiesced to their small actions because of this, as long as it was not too excessive, he would rarely pay attention to it. You must know that it is not enough to rely on the grain, grass, and money looted from the government and the wealthy to maintain an increasingly large army.

A few days later, the good news of Wang Yin and Fang Qifo reached Muzhou City one after another. They recruited villagers along the way to increase their power, and before they approached the county seat to be attacked, the officials in the city fled with their families to other states and counties, they almost did not resist, and easily took Sui'an, Fenshui, Shouchang, Tonglu and other four counties, at this time according to the previous plan, leading the army to Qingxi to converge.

This day was the second day of the first month of November, and the rebel army took the entire territory of Muzhou in less than half a month. Fang La appointed Lou Minzhong as the main general and Shi Bao as the deputy general to guard Muzhou City, and he himself led the army to Qingxi County.

On the fifth day of the first month of November, the armies of Fang La, Fang Qifo, and Wang Yin were assembled in Qingxi County. When they went out of Qingxi, the rebel army was only about 5,000, but now it has reached more than 12,000 people, even if half of them don't even have decent weapons.

The number of rebels is large, and grain and grass have become a big problem, even if Fang La and Zu Shiyuan, Shen Tao and others have estimated and planned before, but when the war really starts, the transfer of grain and grass has still become a big problem.

Fortunately, there are rivers passing through Muzhou City, Qingxi County, and Shezhou City, and waterways can be used to increase the efficiency of grain and grass transportation. So Zu Shiyuan and Shen Tao divided and cooperated, one person was the main water transporter, and the other was the main vehicle transport, constantly transporting grain and grass to the rebel army on the front line.

On the tenth day of the first month of November, Fang La's army hurried to the territory of Shezhou and approached the city of Shezhou.

The rebel army was mighty with tens of thousands of people, but there were only more than 3,000 defenders in Shezhou City.