The rebel army is besieging the county seat of Changle, and countless people have gathered to besiege this quaint and old town.

The inscription on the stone plaque on the city gate has been somewhat blurred, and the city tower has no majestic momentum; The rammed earth city wall is only more than two people high, and the appearance of the strong men guarding the city on it can be seen clearly. The two sides are so close that it seems that the city will be breached at any moment.

The defenders of the city were burning dung juice with charcoal and firewood, and the rebels besieging the city also used rudimentary stone throwers to throw burning objects into the city; On the noisy ground, smoke billowed from all sides. The new branches and flowers among the plants and trees seem to be withering in the smoke.

There was chaos not far from the city gates, several wooden ladders were overturned, and the rebels scattered in all directions with shouts. The people of the city mainly used rolling wood and stones and "golden juice" (boiling dung water) to ward off the enemy, and all kinds of equipment were relatively rudimentary; Rao so, the rebels were still repulsed several times, and they retreated too easily.

The ringleader, Liu Jun, watched for a while, but he was unmoved by such a situation. The city was too low, there were no decent officers and soldiers, and the over-frightened officials and gentry led the people, and it was only a matter of time before the city was destroyed.

Liu Jun only cares about the reinforcements from the guard station on the side of Qingzhou Mansion now.

The rebel army came from the direction of Linqu County, and the flank between Linqu County and Changle County was Qingzhou Mansion. Therefore, it is very risky for everyone to go to Changle County, and the flanks are easily attacked by the officers and troops, and Liu Jun did not agree to enter Changle County at first.

However, after everyone plundered the inside and outside of Linqu County, the officials and troops of Qingzhou Prefecture have been standing still; In addition, someone suggested sending someone to disguise themselves as ordinary people and keep an eye on Qingzhouwei's movements. With this situation, Liu Juncai agreed to continue the march in order to expand his strength.

As expected, when the rebels attacked the surrounding counties, Qingzhouwei did not move at all, and the officers and troops did not even gather into a camp.

At this moment, a horse shuttled through the crowd and went straight to Liu Jun's banner. There were not many horses in the rebel army, and most of the horsemen on horseback were scouts. Not long after, the knight wearing a white turban on his head found Liu Jun and dismounted to report: "The official army is here." ”

Liu Jun suddenly showed a look of surprise and asked, "From Qingzhou Mansion?" ”

The white turban shook his head and said: "General Hui, we saw the officers and soldiers in the north, all of them were cavalry, and there were many people and horses, and there were only twenty miles left." ”

And Qingzhou Mansion is in the west. Liu Jun asked where the officials and soldiers were, but the scout didn't know, and only said that the commander's surname was Wang, because he saw the banner with the word "Wang" written on it.

Liu Jun sent additional people to the north to investigate, and on the other hand, he found other leaders in the White Lotus Sect to discuss. The White Lotus Sect has dead soldiers, but most of them are rabble, and a few people know it in their hearts; The officers and soldiers came to help, and everyone was going to retreat, and there was nothing wrong with this idea.

However, there was a dispute over how to retreat. Liu Jun felt that this place was far away from the mountainous area of Linqu County, and the crowd besieging the city could not outrun the cavalry, so he should abandon most of them as soon as possible, and only take his henchmen to ride horses first. But Bailong and the others disagreed, after all, they ran away before they fought, and it was indeed a little unreasonable.

The officers and troops came very quickly, and in less than an hour, they were gradually approaching the county seat of Changle from the north.

Liu Jun accompanied the white dragon and other leaders and rode to the north of the city. His gaze passed over the gathered array of rebel troops, and immediately saw the men and horses of the official army.

At this time, Bai Long's voice suddenly said, "I think that General Liu's previous proposal has some truth. ”

General Liu's previous proposal was to directly give up resistance and run away, but Bai Long was opposed at first. As soon as Bai Long's words fell, several people around him looked at him with strange eyes.

But I saw that the dust and fog were filled in the distance, and the muffled sound of "boom" was shrouded in mid-air, as if something huge was coming overwhelmingly. The dark shadows of the cavalry were faintly visible in the dust, and from time to time there were bright armor reflecting the sunlight in the haze. The cavalry groups of the officers and soldiers formed a general procession, the banners flew in the horse team, and the long cherry spears were erected and dense like a forest, and the horror was like this.

After a short time, a small group of men and horses quickly came out of the formation, and they were the first to run closer. At the end of the stone, someone in the squad shouted, "There is a decree from the saint, and those who put down their weapons can live." ”

There was a chord sound in the crowd of rebels, and arrows flew away. The group then turned back, and at the same time a trumpet sounded in the large herd of horses to the north.

After a few moments, the horses in the officers and troops began to accelerate, and the dust became even heavier. On the ground, it was as if there were several earth dragons that were burrowing into the ground, swimming in the soil, rolling up the dirt and flying.

The arrows soon enveloped the air, and countless black shadows made the light on the ground seem to dim a little. The whistling arrows galloped in the north and south, but most of the bows and arrows of the rebel army were hunting bows seized from the county government, as well as homemade rough bows and arrows, which were shot onto the clothes and armor of the official army, like raindrops, "clanging" and sounding, not to mention shooting people, most of the arrows could not even shoot through the hard leather armor of the war horses.

On the contrary, the rebel army was in chaos in an instant. The arrows flew sideways, and the screams were incessant, and many of the people who were carried by them could not even bear the salvo of bows and arrows, and soon began to disperse.

The cavalry formation of the officers and soldiers was almost unaffected, and the horsemen in groups maintained their formation, shooting in front of the formation in a roundabout way. After the light cavalry, the large group of cavalry behind raised the cherry spear and began to charge, and the horses charged like arrows from the string, rushing faster and faster.

The Iron Cavalry was barely hindered, and soon burst into the crowd of rebels, piercing through their formation. On the flat ground outside the city, soldiers and horses from both sides fell from north to south. The smoke-filled outside of the city seemed to be boiling at this moment. The crowd of rebels, who had been moving slowly before, also seemed to have become more flexible, after all, it was very desperate to flee in all directions.

…… In the cavalry battalion of the rebels who rushed to Changle County, the banner of the word "Wang" was the banner of Wang Bin, the Duke of Dingguo. The cavalry led by Wang Bin was the elite of the Beijing camp that accompanied the northern tour. The cavalry of the Beijing camp were well-equipped, richly rewarded, and had been in battle since the battle of the crime, and it was not at all something that the rebels could resist. Even if the rebels were ten times as numerous, I am afraid it would not be effective.

There was no suspense in the battle outside Changle County. The next day, the fast horse had already reported the good news directly to Zhu Gaoxu's line. At this time, Zhu Gaoxu and the rest of the escort soldiers and horses had just entered the ground in Shandong.

The eunuch Cao Fu was in an earthen house, in front of the monarch and ministers, and read Wang Bin's recital.

Zhu Gaoxu's face was expressionless, and he didn't have many surprises. The content is roughly that the officers and soldiers broke through the rebel army formation with one blow, hacked to death the stubborn thieves, most of the rebel homeless people abandoned their weapons and surrendered, and the officers and soldiers captured a large number. The officials and people of Changle County opened the city to greet and praise the saint Yunyun who sent troops to rescue. Zhu Gaoxu noticed that Wang Bin did not catch the leader of the thieves, and the leader of the thieves fled to Linqu County.

After the eunuch finished reading the report, Qiu Fu, the prince of Qiguo, hurriedly said: "There is a mountain to the west of Linqu County, and the traitor will definitely escape into the mountain. Dingguo Gong chased after him, and then I was afraid that it would not be so easy, and maybe he would have to suffer. ”

Of course, Zhu Gaoxu understood what Qiu Fu meant, Qiu Fu wanted to go on his own, and he seemed to look down on Wang Bin's ability to be the Duke of the Kingdom.

Qiu Fu was crowned the Duke of the State after the Battle of Jingyan, and later he has always stood on Zhu Gaoxu's side, and his seniority is of course older than Wang Bin. However, looking at the ability to fight with soldiers, Zhu Gaoxu did not feel that Wang Bin was inferior to Bhushu in his heart, but he was unwilling to comment lightly.

Wang Bin, like Qiu Fu, was born as a guard in the Prince's Mansion, and he reached the peak of martial arts with the skill of the new monarch's descendant. Their foundation is still a little worse, and they are not as good as Qu Nengsheng Yong'an in terms of strategy. However, Zhu Gaoxu knows Wang Bin very well, Wang Bin performed well in the battles of Yunnan Tusi and the "Battle of Crime"; Except for the occasional disobedience, Wang Bin has little problem presiding over local battlefields and makes good use of tactics.

Zhu Gaoxu pretended to be relaxed and said: "The White Lotus Sect in Qingzhou Mansion is just a rabble. The soldiers of the Beijing battalion fought against it, and the chances of winning were very great, so there was no need to worry too much about fighting this kind of battle. The problem of Shandong's political envoys is not mainly on the battlefield. ”

He then said in a joking tone: "Wang Bin has just won the battle in front, if I replace him with an edict, he can't be angry?" ”

The civil and military forces in the hall laughed together.

Zhu Gaoxu said again: "Transfer two more infantry corps to the past, put them under Wang Bin's command, and bring artillery and other heavy weapons, so that it will be easier for him to attack the village in the mountains." ”

Hou Hai and the others immediately agreed.

Speaking of which, Zhu Gaoxu didn't want to talk about the counterinsurgency battlefield anymore, and he really didn't have anything to worry about.

While pondering, he said: "For those who participated in the rebellion, if the leader is caught, he will be sent to the capital to interrogate the Fa; A small number of obsessed members of the sect sent the slave Gandusi by boat to cut wood. The rest of the people were all exiled to Liaodong, and Liaodong did not lack food but people. ”

Hou Hai took up the pen and recorded it, and carefully reminded him: "Holy Lord, there are still many chaotic parties of the White Lotus Sect in various provinces in Shandong. ”

Zhu Gaoxu said: "After the rebellion in Qingzhou Mansion is quelled, tell Chu Yun and others not to worry. Let's wait for the exemption of grain tax, exemption from forced labor, and distribution of relief grain to win the hearts and minds of the people; The villagers and villagers in various places will also need time to publicize the evil deeds of the White Lotus Sect. Three or two years later, there is a clear distinction between good and evil, and we have slowly figured out the list of leaders of the White Lotus Sect in various places, and then we will catch them all again and completely solve the chaos of the political envoys in Shandong. If you have more help for the righteous and less help for the unjust, where will the party flee in chaos at that time? ”

After hearing this, Zhu Wenwu bowed and shouted: "The Holy Wisdom and Martial Arts. ”

At this time, the reform of Beiping and Jiubian was being prepared, and the affairs of the Shandong political envoy were not over, but everything needed time. There was no need for Zhu Gaoxu to stay in the north, and he then ordered to leave for Beijing.

The most important place for dynasties was usually in the north, and it was a matter of rising and falling dynasties. However, Zhu Gaoxu's eyes often look to the south, and he has always believed that the ocean is the future of this era.