In order to blackmail the imperial court and ensure his own interests, Zuo Liangyu expanded the number of people to hundreds of thousands, so that the imperial court did not dare to touch him.

His hand really made the court jealous, even if Zuo Liangyu lost many battles and did many bad things, the court did not dare to do anything to him.

After all, hundreds of thousands of people are not handled well, and they rebel every minute, and the imperial court is afraid that it will not be easy to control.

However, with so many soldiers and horses, it is impossible for the imperial court to be stupid enough to raise Zuo Liangyu, and Zuo Liangyu needs to maintain men and horses, so he can only connive at the soldiers and generals to harm the people of Wuchang and Huangzhou.

The situation of the people in the two prefectures is almost exactly the same as that of the people in northwest Hubei when Zuo Liangyu was stationed in Xiangyang.

In Wuchang Mansion, not to mention that it is difficult for small people to survive, even large households are also ruined by Zuozhen.

In Wuchang and Huangzhou, Zuo Liangyu has no popular will at all, not only the small people hate him, but even the gentry wish he died early, but Zuo Liangyu did not think so.

The total population of the two provinces is less than 1.5 million, and one-third of them are either Zuozhen soldiers or dependents of Zuozhen.

With such a huge volume and an army in hand, and compared to Zuo Zhen, the people are scattered, and Zuo Liangyu is naturally not afraid of the turbulent public opinion.

When Wei Wujun entered Hunan, the people reacted coldly, but as soon as they entered Wuchang Mansion, no matter whether they were poor or gentry, they all welcomed each other.

The land of Wuchang, just like a long drought and a rain, the states and counties along the way look at the wind and fall.

In addition to the gentry and common people welcoming Wei Wujun's entry into Wuchang Mansion, even many soldiers and horses from Zuozhen in Wuchang Mansion also took the initiative to surrender, and Gao Yihuan entered Wuchang without a single battle.

The ratio of the number of troops in Wuchang Mansion to the people has far exceeded the normal level, even if Zuo Liangyu allows them to loot the people, there are not so many people to loot.

Because there are too many troops, Zuo Liangyu can't level a bowl of water, so among the hundreds of thousands of horses, only tens of thousands of core people and horses can actually eat enough, and the peripheral people and horses are in great difficulty, and they can even only farm their own land.

This made many peripheral soldiers and horses hungry and full, and they lived like the people, and they did not have any centripetal force for Zuo Liangyu.

In late February, Gao Yihuan's soldiers and horses walked to Jiayu County, and more than 100,000 people from Wuchang Mansion gathered around him, and even a few people from Zuozhen took the initiative to take refuge.

Of course, in addition to Zuo Liangyu's unpopularity, the main reason is that Gao Yihuan is generous.

After losing Li Zicheng, a big buyer, the grain in Gao Yihuan's hands was no market, and this time he conquered Hunan and controlled the grain-producing northern Hunan region, so he had a lot of grain in his hands, so this time he went east to Wuchang, Gao Yihuan carried enough grain.

Outside Jiayu County, Gao Yihuan rode a war horse, escorted by a group of cavalry, and came to a camp.

A thin old man next to him, wearing a wrinkled shirt with a patched official robe, introduced: "Guogong, here are all the people who have come from the vicinity, there are more than 10,000 people. ”

Gao Yihuan looked at the camp, it was chaotic, the camp was full of people with yellow faces and thin muscles, men, women and children, adults were all dressed with vegetables, and the children were even more pitiful, all with big heads and very small bodies, which was not a normal proportion at all.

Seeing this, Gao Yihuan couldn't help but cry when he saw this, "The people are suffering! Ben Shuai is late. ”

The thin old man said in his heart that the Korean Duke is really a good person, "The Korean Lord, the lower officials hope that the Duke of Korea can allocate a little more food and distribute it to the people!" In addition, spring plowing is about to take place, and the lower officials also want to ask the government to lend a batch of seeds to the county, so that the people can plant the seedlings. ”

Gao Yihuan said: "Zhou County Commander rest assured, Ben Shuai immediately allocated 5,000 stone of grain, and another batch of cloth to the people!" ”

The old man was almost moved to tears, and saluted again and again on the back of the donkey, thanking Gao Yihuan for his kindness for the people.

Gao Yihuan is ready to pull up a group of people to strengthen his momentum so that he can negotiate with Nanjing, but the quality of this group of people is worrying, so Gao Yihuan is not ready to take it away.

He instructed Zhou County to pacify the people, and then led his subordinates to the next camp.

At noon, when the camp was having dinner, Gao Yihuan and others came over on horseback, and saw that the soldiers in the camp were like jackals and beasts, squatting on the ground with hot white rice and broth, eating and drinking.

The whole camp was full of sitting and squatting soldiers, and no one spoke, only the sound of a pig's mouth clattering like a pig's food.

Gao Yihuan grabbed the reins of the horse, pointed to the soldiers in the camp, and said left and right: "This commander doesn't need to start an army to see the battle, as long as he prepares enough food, he can collapse Zuo Liangyu's Zuozhen." ”

While he was laughing, several generals in the camp wearing armor and mouths full of oil hurried out.

After the Nanjing court appointed Wang Yan and Chen Zilong as the chief and deputy envoys, the two were worried that the situation in Huguang would further deteriorate, so they immediately discussed and decided that Wang Yan would go west first, and Chen Zilong would come with Jiang Shui's master.

Gao Jingzhong is a fierce general who defeated the Qing army, and Zuo Liangyu can't take it at all compared with him.

This made Wang Yan very worried that Zuo Zhen would not be able to defeat Gao Jingzhong and give up Wuchang. If Wuchang falls into the hands of Gao Jingzhong, if he wants to spit it out again, the imperial court will definitely pay a huge price.

In addition, if Zuozhen gives up Wuchang, he will definitely occupy another place, which is also a great harm to the imperial court.

The sailor went up the river, relying on the sail with the wind, and relying on the people to pull the fiber against the wind, the speed was relatively slow, Wang Yan was afraid that Zuo Liangyu would lose Wuchang, so he took the land route, and quickly came to Wuchang with the horse, ready to give Zuo Liangyu a reassuring pill first.

This time, Zuo Liangyu is not authentic, but now that the imperial court is employing people, he also needs him to block Gao Jingzhong in Wuchang.

Therefore, the imperial court's attitude towards Zuo Liangyu was much milder than that of the Donglin Party.

It is not easy for Daming to train a general, and the imperial court means to let Zuo Liangyu punish himself with three cups, accompany Gao Jingzhong, and suppress this matter.

Wang Yan galloped all the way, and within a few days, he entered the boundary of Huangzhou, which was controlled by Zuo Zhen.

As soon as they entered the area controlled by the Left Army, the situation was completely different from that of Nanzhili, and the fields along the way were abandoned, which looked like the granary of the world.

Escorted by a team of guards, Wang Yan entered a small village and town, and saw the ruins of broken walls, the closed doors of every house, and the depression was bleak, and his heart couldn't help but feel a little heavy.

Wang Yan rode on a horse and looked around, his heart was sad, and he was shocked that under Zuo Zhen's rule, he was actually like this.

At this moment, the first few soldiers came out of the courtyard, everyone talking and laughing, disheveled, wearing helmets crookedly, and carrying large bags and small bags out of the courtyard.

Wang Yan frowned, looking at the appearance of several soldiers, he knew that they had not done anything good.

"Take it for this official!" Wang Yan shouted angrily.

As soon as the guards and brocade guards swarmed up, they controlled several left troops.

One of the leading 100 households entered the courtyard, closed the door and retreated after a while, and said to Wang Yan, who came over on a horse: "My lord, don't go in." ”

Wang Yan frowned, turned over and dismounted, separated the hundred households that stopped him, pushed open the courtyard door, and immediately smelled a smell of blood.

When he walked into the courtyard, he saw two male corpses lying in the courtyard, one old and one young, the younger one was only seven or eight years old, his stomach was torn open, his internal organs were flowing all over the ground, the old man's eyes were wide open, and his two arms had been cut off, and in the hall was a naked female corpse with a distorted face.

Wang Yan's face was gloomy, and he couldn't make a sound, and suddenly he heard the cry of the left army outside the courtyard begging for mercy, and when he waved his hand, he roared angrily, "Kill!" ”

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(End of chapter)