After conquering the ancient town, Xiao Tianjian only ordered a small number of troops to enter the town to clean up, completely control the town, and don't look at the ancient town is not big, but it is a place where businessmen gather, it is very rich, this battle is a surprise to everyone, in the post-war inventory, Xingtianjun found that there are several large warehouses in the town, which are full of all kinds of materials, including grain, salt, copper and iron, cloth, etc., the number can be said to be quite amazing, it can be seen that although the people are very poor in this era, But the commerce of the Ming Dynasty is still quite prosperous, and the life of the upper class can be said to have reached an extremely luxurious level, no wonder the world is so chaotic now, and the common people are not anti-It's no wonder!

In addition to these materials in the town, when the Xingtian Army raided the dock southwest of the ancient town, it also intercepted more than a dozen ships, which were also loaded with various goods.

When the ancient town was conquered, the Xingtian Army had completely cut off the east-west traffic in Yuanqu County, and the news quickly spread in the local area, plus the two groups of township warriors who were temporarily organized by the surrounding gangs were defeated by the Xingtian Army in one fell swoop, which suddenly made everyone in the surrounding towns and towns in Zhuangbao put themselves in danger, and they closed the gate one after another, making a posture of desperately resisting the attack of the Xingtian Army, but as for whether they can withstand the offensive of the Xingtian Army next, these people are uncertain.

On the second day after the Xingtian army captured the ancient town, it ordered Xizuo to spread the news in the surrounding area to give food to the poor, so the poor people soon flocked to the outside of the ancient town, looking forward to the relief of the Xingtian army.

And Xiao Tianjian did not break his promise, when even in the materials obtained, nearly thirty percent of the grain was taken out, and a relief point was opened outside the town, and the number of one bucket per person was distributed to the people who came to receive relief grain, and for a while, the ancient town immediately became lively, and the people in various townships and villages heard the news more and more, although the food distributed to them was very limited, but for the people who were already extremely poor, even if there was only one bucket of food per person, it was also a huge temptation for them. So they flocked to the ancient town from all directions.

And this time, the number of generals led by Xiao Tianjian to the ancient town is very limited, that is, it is limited to Yan Chongxi and Luo Li, plus some scouts and some artillery generals, the total strength is only about 1,000 people, if you only rely on the strength of this thousand people, there is no problem in attacking Yuanqu County, but Xiao Tianjian's purpose this time is not just to loot and loot and pull down, his purpose is very clear, that is, like the situation in Yangcheng County, Completely included the area around Yuanqu County into his control area.

Therefore, when the people began to flock to the ancient town in large numbers, Xiao Tianjian ordered a recruitment notice to be posted outside the town, which was written very simply, that is, to recruit a thousand new soldiers in Yuanqu County to enrich the army.

Due to the meticulous propaganda in advance, the common people in Yuanqu County have long heard of the style of the Xingtian Army, and they rarely harm the common people, they are indeed with the poor people, and the matter of dividing the land is not deliberately deceiving the people, so once the notice is posted, there is no need to make any more guarantees, and many local people immediately rush to sign up and join the Xingtian Army as soldiers.

As long as they are familiar with the topography of Yuanqu County, they all know the importance of ancient towns to Yuanqu County, except for Lishan Town, basically towns and villages are divided in a linear manner, and the fertile fields of Yuanqu County are also concentrated on this line, and the villages and towns along the line are a bit like a bead chain, and the ancient town is the middle of this bead chain, once occupied by the Xingtian Army, Yuanqu County was cut off by the Xingtian Army, and things could no longer take care of each other.

Moreover, the area around the ancient town is still the confluence of three rivers, and the land is very fertile, once the Xingtian Army controls this place, the rest of this place will be dangerous.

And the officials of Yuanqu County are a little unbelievable about the speed of the Xingtian Army, they just received the news that Lishan Town was controlled by the Xingtian Army on the first day, and it was only two days before the ancient town was captured by the Xingtian Army, and the distance between the two places was nearly 100 miles. It's like a rib with two wings! Is this thief of the Heavenly Army a human or a demon? Why is it so fast?

But the matter has been so far, it is not possible to sit and wait, so Yuanqu Zhixian once again quickly sent people to report to Jiezhou and Pingyang Mansion, asking for help, and at the same time once again stepped up the mobilization of Xiangyong in Yuanqu County, separately strengthened the garrison of Yuanqu County, and mobilized a group of Xiangyong to rush to the northwest of the lonely city to the Hebei Village area leading to Yuanqu County, in order to prepare for the punishment of the Heavenly Army After capturing the ancient town, it turned around and attacked in the direction of Yuanqu County, as for the villages and towns in the east of the ancient town, they can't take care of it at the moment. I had to let the villages and towns over there fend for themselves.

After Xiao Tianjian captured the ancient town, he did not immediately lead his troops to attack along the river again, but immediately recruited troops on the spot, recruited more than 1,000 recruits, armed these recruits with captured weapons, and ordered them to temporarily garrison the ancient town, and from the two sentinels of Luo Li and Yan Chongxi, who were among his personal guards, a total of 50 healthy soldiers and low-level officers were transferred to Diao Zhengzheng, who had been promoted to the rank of general because of his merits, and trained and stationed outside the ancient town to protect the ancient town from being attacked within ten miles of the surrounding area, in a short period of time. For this newly recruited army of soldiers, Xiao Tianjian didn't expect them to go into battle to kill the enemy, he just wanted them to have the power to protect themselves, to ensure that the ancient town would not be lost, and to liberate his soldiers for the next action.

And just after the ancient town was conquered, Liu Bao from Yangcheng dispatched a group of recruits to rush to the ancient town from Yangcheng through the newly opened road, and at the same time, a group of people who stayed in Lishan Town also organized the people and began to widen the road newly opened up by the Xingtian Army connecting Yangcheng and Yuanqu County, so that it could pass through the carriage as soon as possible.

After all, Xiao Tianjian's strategy is very different from that of many rebels, since the Xingtian army arrived in Yangcheng, it has changed its previous style of acting, no longer like the general rebels, with looting as the main purpose, but after each battle, strive to control more land, expand their sphere of influence and the area of the base area, and the number of people in the area under their jurisdiction, and use this as a base to lay the foundation for future expansion.

In this way, it is impossible for them to take down a place like an ordinary rebel army, snatch it up and eat it up and then leave, but they must lay down a place, stabilize a place, and ensure that the territory in hand can no longer be taken away by the official army, at least when there is no particularly strong enemy army to attack, it is easy to lose the territory in hand, so Xiao Tianjian is facing a lot more things than before, in addition to the military, it also involves the handling of civil affairs in many places, and in a few days, Xiao Tianjian is almost all spinning, There is no time to take a good rest every day, and there are many things at hand, which are like cow hair, and I am very busy.

Especially for so many materials obtained by the ancient town, it is obviously unwise to leave it in the ancient town, although the ancient town is converging with three rivers, but it is basically on flat ground, which is easy to attack and difficult to defend, so if this place is not expected, it will become a place for the government and the Xingtian Army to fight, it is necessary to transfer this batch of materials to Lishan Town to be safer, if you can, it should be safer to transfer it back to Yangcheng, but considering that between Yuanqu and Yangcheng, it is necessary to cross Wangwu Mountain, and the road under the current road is very narrow, It was very difficult to pass the cart, so the only way to transfer it to Lishan Town was to settle first.

For a while, the road leading from the ancient town to Lishan Town was also busy, and on this mountain road that few pedestrians on weekdays, many horse-drawn carriages appeared in one day, full of various materials, and transported to Lishan Town like ants moving.

And for the raid on Yuanqu by the Xingtian Army, not only the rich people and officials in Yuanqu County were unhappy, but even some local bandits were also very dissatisfied, as several gangs of bandits entrenched in Yuanqu County, they were also extremely indignant about the news, because the poles also had a tacit understanding with each other, each had a piece of power territory, and under normal circumstances, they did not cross the line, but the Xingtian Army stretched out their hand to their territory in Yuanqu County, so these thieves were also very unhappy, and felt that the Xingtian Army had broken the rules, so they also made small moves.

While the Xingtian Army was transporting supplies from the ancient town, a group of local bandits in Yuanqu suddenly attacked the Xingtian Army's transport team, in addition to snatching a batch of supplies, they also killed some civilians who helped the Xingtian Army transport goods, as well as more than a dozen soldiers of the Xingtian Army who escorted the supplies.

This incident made Xiao Tianjian very angry, and immediately ordered to find out who did it as soon as possible.

In addition to these miscellaneous matters, some of the local big families also felt that it was not a way to go on like this, if they waited, sooner or later they would be attacked by the Xingtian Army one by one, so they joined together, and the big families in the east of the seven or eight ancient towns gathered together their respective Zhuang Ding and the village warriors, and once again gathered more than 800 people, and handed them over to a local Haoqiang surnamed Zhang, so that he could take these villagers to resist the Xingtian Army to continue to attack and plunder to the east.

This guy surnamed Zhang, in the early years, it is said that he was also a bandit, and later robbed a lot of money, afraid of being captured by the government, so he washed his hands, ran to Yuanqu County with the money robbed, bought a Zhuangzi, and took his men to settle down here, and now the Xingtian Army has invaded Yuanqu County, for him, the rich life that is finally in hand, how can it be so destroyed by the Xingtian Army, so he came forward to preside, gathered the Zhuang Ding of the surrounding big households to his hands, led these Zhuang Ding, and planned to share the rank with the Xingtian Army.