Li Mu put away King Lu's treasure, and waited for the troops behind to follow before continuing the pursuit. And let the money be sent back to Kaifeng.

All the way to the north, there was basically no major war, and this area was also harassed by the Qing soldiers, and the land was barren. The walls were dilapidated, and the government was unable to repair them. When their army reached the county seat, most of the officials inside fled, and the soldiers and civilians surrendered in Kaesong.

After the Qing soldiers raided the south again and again, the officials also learned that very few of them defended to the death, and most of them chose to abandon the city and flee. This time, Li Yan's soldiers came over, and they did the same. The soldiers defending the city can't pay their salaries, and they are about to mutiny, not to mention that Li Yan, who is said to be able to divide the land, came over.

The Zhangde Mansion was soon controlled, but Puyang, Nanle, Qingfeng and other places belonging to the Daimyo Mansion also came to be represented, some were soldiers and some were ordinary people, and asked Li Mu to take them there.

Li Mu didn't like that there were many places, so he took the troops around and took Nanle, Qingfeng, Puyang, Fanxian and other places. Basically, they all took the initiative to open the door and surrender, and only Puzhou City planned to resist stubbornly in the city. However, Li Mu led the artillery over, and six three-inch cannons continued to bombard the southwest corner of the newly built earthen city wall two hundred paces away. After firing hundreds of iron bullets, the corner of the city that had not yet dried collapsed, forming a gap six or seven zhang wide.

Li Mou asked the infantry to quickly seize the gap, and then led the troops into preparation for street fighting. But as soon as the city wall collapsed, the south gate opened by itself, and the defenders inside killed the county commander and the magistrate, and went out of the city and surrendered. Zhizhou, on the other hand, fled early before they besieged the city.

Li Mu didn't care about this, and after occupying these county seats, he reported to Li Yan. At the same time, a small number of troops were left to train the original garrison, and most of the other troops were stationed in Zhangde Fucheng and Nanle County to guard against the attack of the officers and soldiers.

At the same time, he sent people to inform the well-known Yuyuan thieves in the surrounding area, asking them to come out and surrender, divide the land, and be good citizens. Originally, for them, it was enough to exterminate the bandits, but this Yuyuan thief is said to have more than 100,000 people, and the official army has failed to encircle and suppress them in the past two years. Therefore, Li Mu still has to divide and disintegrate first, and it is not too late to leave only those diehards to encircle and suppress.

But in this way, too many troops have been put here, and Huaiqing Mansion has not yet been taken down. He only had a reserve of 2,000 people left, so he could only ask Li Yan for help.

Li Yan received news from Li Mu, so he had to personally transfer a thousand people from the defenders of Kaifeng to take Huaiqing Mansion. Of course, he didn't rely on only 1,000 people, but after crossing the river, he concentrated Chen Yongfu's troops with 5,000 as the main force, and his 1,000 people were regarded as the overseers.

Huaiqing Mansion had long known the news of Li Yan's rebellion, and they were only separated by a river from Li Yan's control area, so they naturally knew how powerful Li Yan was. And the people are also waiting for Li Yan to come over and give them the land. Even those rich gentry wanted to organize regimental training for defense, but they couldn't recruit personnel, so there were almost no garrison measures in each county town, and they could take it without much effort.

He crossed the river himself, just to go back to his hometown to see. He hadn't been back for seven or eight years since he escaped being wanted by the government. Although he knew that everyone in the family was fine, he still wanted to go back and see for himself.

Li Yan advanced all the way along the official road, passing through the counties to open the city and surrender, the state and county officials fled early, and the prince of Fuwang in Huaiqing Mansion also fled into Shanxi early.

When he came to Lijia Village, Hanoi County, no one from the village came out to greet him. He had already sent Zhang Yi to report first, but the family was still closed, looking cold. He walked around the outside of the village, but fortunately, the fields have not been abandoned, and there are no houses in the village that have been burned and destroyed, indicating that there has not been much impact in recent years. This is also related to the fact that all the children of his family practice martial arts and boxing, and ordinary bandits do not dare to come here to spread wild.

Since the clansmen didn't want to see him, he didn't force it, and after looking at it, he left with his own soldiers. But as soon as he walked for a while, a year old relatives chased him out.

"Fourth brother." Someone shouted.

Li Yan took a good look and asked uncertainly: "Is it Brother Ji?"

"It's me." Li Ji said happily: "Fourth brother still remembers me. Later, he explained: "It was the uncle who said that you rebelled against the court and had a bad reputation in your family, so you didn't let the clansmen come out." ”

Li Yan shook his head and smiled bitterly and asked, "You are here to send me"

"No, I'm here to fight the world with the fourth brother." Li Jian said excitedly.

"Did the second uncle agree to fight the world, and your daughter-in-law also agreed," Li Yan asked with a smile. Li Jian only got married last year, married to the Chen family of Wenxian County, and Chen Zuoting is a family.

Li Jian frowned and said unhappily: "I'm an adult, don't worry about them." Good man, ambition in all directions"

As soon as Li Jian finished speaking, an old man hurriedly chased after him. He was not afraid of these generals, and went straight to where Li Yan and the others were, and scolded loudly: "Bastard, who told you to sneak out and go back to study"

Li Ji's neck shrank, completely losing the vigor he had just now. He pleaded: "Father, in today's troubled times, what is the use of studying, it is better to win fame immediately." ”

"Don't be entangled" Li Chunhua ordered: "If you go back to the troubled times now, sooner or later, you will have to settle down, and you will fight the world immediately, but you can't rule the world immediately." If you don't study, who will govern the world"

"Second uncle." Li Yan bowed and saluted. After that, he instructed Li Ji: "Then go back, so as not to make the second uncle angry." However, remember that there is no way out. The ancients had the wisdom of the ancients, and the people of today must also have the wisdom of the present. It is certainly not possible to follow the old ways and find a way from the classics. ”

Li Jian reluctantly agreed: "Well, I wrote it down." Fourth brother, I'll go back first. ”

After Li Ji left, Li Chunhua looked at Li Yan for a long time before frowning and said, "Yan'er, this Ming is really hopeless."

"Didn't the second uncle teach me, it should be clear." Li Yan smiled and replied.

Li Chunhua thought for a while, and then asked: "If you don't rebel and help Daming, I know that Li Zicheng is not your opponent." ”

Li Yan shook his head: "At most, I will only hold on for another twenty or thirty years." It's messed up like this now, so why wait twenty or thirty years to make it happen again."

"Alas" Li Chunyu sighed, turned around and left. However, he stopped again, turned around and asked, "You and Li Chuang are in the same group."

"It's not." Li Yan replied simply.

Li Chunhua nodded and said lightly: "Don't learn from him." Killing too many people hurts heaven and peace. Also, I've heard that you collect taxes from everyone, which is not good. Taizu did this when he was a child, and not all of them exempted the officials and gentry from servitude, and without the support of the gentry, nothing could be done. ”

Although Li Yan didn't agree with this statement, he still said respectfully: "Second Uncle Xie taught. ”

...