(I have something to do today, upload it in advance, in order to let the book friends not scold me, hehe)

On the way from Yan'an to Ganquan, an army with bright armor was marching forward, and gusts of howling winds continued to raise the loess in the sky, splitting their heads and covering their faces, so that the entire advancing army continued to come with bursts of curses.

Originally, it was already early spring in March, but this thief didn't have the warmth of spring at all, and it was still the same as in winter, and the hands and feet of people who were frozen were painful, and if they didn't keep marching and moving, maybe a few would freeze to death.

It's just that the weather is cold, but the wind that should blow this spring has arrived as scheduled, with the cold from the far north, endlessly, making people unable to open their eyes and stay steadily. The flags of the hundreds of households were also scraped crookedly, and the tall general flag in the former army guidance brigade became a burden, and the strong man flag bearer was changed several times, and he only held on for a while, and the shaking flag made the flag bearer exhausted and complained.

Zhang Yuan, who covered his head and face with a cloak, also cursed this ghost weather in his heart, but he scolded and scolded, and the pace of progress did not stop.

In fact, Zhang Yuan's march was much easier than Li Yuanhao's, although the pack horses and donkeys were given to Li Yuanhao to transport materials, grain and grass, and his own cart carrying materials, grain and grass could only be pushed by manpower, and the speed could not be accelerated, but fortunately, it has always been an official road along the way, the road is quite flat, plus a large group of people and horses, the armor is bright, the swords and guns are complete, and they have not been harassed by pole bandits, but the road is safe and sound.

Looking at the sweaty Xiangyong who was still tired of pushing the cart in this cold day, some brothers around Zhang Yuan suggested that Zhang Yuan should catch some masters along the way to help transport the cart, so as to save some Xiangyong's physical strength, Zhang Yuan nodded and agreed at the time, indeed, his army of 3,000 only had 3,000 masters, and it was indeed a little less.

The army of the Ming Dynasty went out on the expedition, the first thing was to collect the masters and sons along the way, the carriages and horses, the construction of barracks for the army to build roads and transfer materials, and so on, and these masters and sons had to prepare their own dry food tools, and accept the officials and soldiers in every way to make things difficult and oppressive, often the officers and soldiers were only 1,000, and the collected masters and sons were to reach 3,000, and even more, the masters and sons were not only responsible for road construction and transport, some of the officers and soldiers had to be carried forward by the people, and the officials and old gentry along the way also took the opportunity to get their hands on and off their hands to profit from it. Here's an example.

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, the Zhili Daimyo Mansion Fengwen started to ship Tianjin rice beans, and the government must pay the price to the transporter according to the regulations. However, the undertaker of Kaizhou "privately sent more than 2,000 Lijia cars, each of which was converted into two taels of silver and allowed to be free of charge." …… Drill the driver and extort money. fold the cashier's money, so that the state is poured into the bag to lose, and there is no one who does not suck its blood. ”

The officers and soldiers also took advantage of the time of the raff to loot and fill their own pockets, rape and murder are not uncommon, this is also a major way for soldiers to get rich when they go out on the expedition, officers not only do not care, but also often instigate and instigate, the reason is that first, the officers and soldiers have long been in arrears of money and food, and the officers can use this method to appease the soldiers and coax them to go on the expedition. Therefore, he took advantage of the expedition not only to extort Shangfeng but also to rob the people and share the accounts with the soldiers, so there are bandits who are like combs and soldiers who are like shaving, but in fact, even the bandits sigh when the officials and soldiers pass by.

When Zhang Yuan ordered his subordinates to take some of the villagers to the countryside to arrest Ding Zhengfu, Zhang Yuan, who was waiting for the news, waited for an unexpected joy.

The official road that was originally silent and did not even have a ghost shadow suddenly spread dust in front of the flags, which made Zhang Yuan, who was waiting for the news of the brothers, shocked, not that the pole did not open his eyes, and he wanted to rob the official army, Zhang Yuan now thinks that his own township brave armed forces are official soldiers, because the official army is also eating their own money, food, salary and silver, and their brothers also have official positions, and now, the absolute official gentry is one.

Zhang Yuan hurriedly organized people to start defense, and was attacked by a sneak attack on the official road, so his face was lost, but now he doesn't know military affairs at all, and a group of brothers who dare to go into battle to fight have gone to the surrounding villages to catch strong men, leaving him really frightened.

But the people from the opposite side stopped in the distance, and several strong men on horseback rushed out of the queue and ran directly in front of Zhang Yuan, but when the people who came were nervous, those who came turned over and dismounted not far away, stood on the side of the road and bowed deeply.

Look at the other party's dress, it doesn't look like a pole, but the son of a powerful landlord, urging the horse to come forward and ask carefully, and after some vigilant politeness, I know the origin of this way.

Feelings, this is a few landlords in the north of Ganquan Haoqiang, heard that he Zhang sent troops to suppress thieves, and organized a team of township brave coalition troops to rush to help in the battle, the number of people was as many as 2,000, all of them were strong, neat swords and guns.

But it turned out that the army in the south of Ganquan to carry out a vigorous rent reduction and interest reduction to collect protection fees, greatly stimulated the northern part of Ganquan has not been affected by them, the army forced those landlords and gentry to those mud legs to give profits to live, and did not allow unlimited free conscription, so that they lost too many advantages and interests, although the southern families in the strong army can only be submissive, but the heart is also the boss unwilling, although the north has not been affected, but also knows that let the thieves continue to make trouble, it is a matter of time before they sufferSeeing Zhang Yuanxiang's courage to come to encircle and suppress this time, the southern landlords did not dare to send people, but secretly they were supplied with a lot of money and grain, and the landlords in the north were even more enthusiastic.

At the same time, everyone also has their minds in mind, looking at those children of the Zhao family, the Chen family, the Zhang family and other families, all of whom have taken this opportunity to get an official position in the official family, which one is not extraordinarily red-eyed? I can't say that this time, firstly, I helped the official army to eliminate the serious trouble, and secondly, I also made some military achievements for my family to win one or two official positions to come out and glorify the ancestors, and I will be more able to call for wind and rain in the local area. Why not have the best of both worlds?

is still the same sentence, if you go to one point of money, you can still get two points, Xiang Yong died a batch but recruited another batch, and the opportunity was only this time, but it was impossible to lose, so he organized the coalition army to take the initiative to help.

Zhang Yuan asked the reason for the great joy at the moment, not only got the help of these many soldiers and horses, but also got a lot of genuine filial piety, and also recovered a lot of their own investment, and immediately greeted these landlords and sons of the landlords who rushed over, sealed the official and made a wish, and opened a blank check. Those children are even more grateful to Dade for crying bitterly, and ah, flattering and sycophants.

was being busy touting each other here, but seeing his own children coming back dejectedly, Zhang Yuan confessed his guilt and hurriedly stepped forward to hear the results.

One of his brother-in-law said hatefully: "These untouchables are also hateful, I heard that the officials and soldiers came to suppress the bandits for them, not only did they not carry the pot to carry the pulp to welcome the king, but they were bewitched by those bandits, and they escaped for a time within a radius of dozens of miles, and they didn't even leave a night pot, they are really a group of people." Thinking of the embarrassment he had just encountered, he couldn't help but say hatefully: "These Diao people, look at how I rectify them when I return to the teacher." ”

Zhang Yuan felt helpless after listening to the report, so he had to curse those Diao people in his heart with hatred, and wanted to report to Shangfeng when he returned to the division to accuse them of colluding with bandits, and purge them greatly. Now, Zhang Yuan, who has become a member of the official army, has eaten the marrow and knows the taste, and he is greatly happy about the benefits he can get from his identity, not only can he justifiably plunder the people and enrich himself, but also can get the funding of the squires and heroes from all over the country, as can be seen by looking at the enthusiastic and eager sons and daughters on the side of the road.

The leaders of the coalition who had just joined saw that Zhang Yuan was annoyed by the lack of people, and they hurriedly stood up one by one and said, "My lord, will it be some people soon, why is this difficult?" The small ones took the township Yong to protect the home, and they were worried that they could not help much, so they just asked them to tow and transport for the army to relieve the army's labor. ”

Zhang Yuan laughed when he heard it, but he didn't postpone it, and arranged for them to go after saying hard work, and those who came with the owner of the Xiangyong Nursing Home originally came with high spirits, hoping to make a small fortune in this march and change their situation, but they didn't want to become coolies, and they all scolded the owner for being mean, but people are stronger than people, and they could only watch the children of the owner around Lord Zhang blowing and beating, and they had to do it in frustration.

However, in this way, with the addition of a new force, it did speed up Zhang Yuan's marching pace, and he could only climb a distance of twenty miles a day, but it was restored to forty miles a day, and he originally thought that he would be able to reach Ganquan in ten days, so it took less than five days, and he arrived at Ganquan City before midnight on the fifth day.

When he arrived at Ganquan City, there was no such lively atmosphere of beating gongs and drums as Zhang Yuan imagined, and the people were in the middle of the road to welcome Wang Shi. Everything seemed deserted, only the driver and officials stood outside the north gate to greet them, especially looking at their wandering eyes, close to the city gate, and they simply turned around and closed the door as soon as they saw that the momentum was not good.

Is it really that rampant that thieves?

Hearing that the reinforcements had arrived, Ganquan Qianhu and the county lord hurriedly took the generals and officials out of the city wall one by one, and stood next to the city gate, definitely not taking one more step.

Zhang Yuan got off the horse and saw them one by one, especially the county lord with black eyes and a pale and sickly face. After all, although the county is a seven-grade and a half-grade Zhang Yuan, he is a civil official, and he usually doesn't regard this five-grade military general as a pig and a dog, and the thousand households are even more five-grade officials, and they are their own top bosses, which can not afford to offend. After stepping forward to pay homage according to the rules of officialdom, but seeing that everyone who came to greet him was coughing and sighing, Zhang Yuan cautiously asked: "Why are you so depressed?" Could something big happen? ”

The thousand households sighed loudly and said: "The thieves are too deceitful, last night, they blocked our gate outside this Ganquan City, and in one night with the help of thousands of untouchables, they poured water into the city, blocking the throat of the thieves, how can it not be discouraged." ”

This Qianhu is frank and does not hide it, so he tells the situation of these days and the qi he has received in one go.

Hearing this, Zhang Yuan was shocked, thousands of untouchables helped the thieves to become a city overnight, and then thought about catching a untouchable person and couldn't get it, he couldn't help but sigh, how clear the heart of the untouchables is.