Fengzhou army marched all the way, the next day at noon arrived at the Qinshui River side of Dou Zhuang, the thieves have disappeared, Dou Zhuang wall is also full of Zhuang Ding, countless guns pointed outside the village, Zhang Daojun even howled for a while, the door of the village opened, the old housekeeper of the Zhang family ran out to pray, Zijin Liang this thief led about 30,000 people to Dou Zhuang, the momentum was violent, the Tai lady summoned the Zhuang family Ding and the people Zhuang to defend the city, the city wall of Dou Zhuang is tall and strong, the number of guns is large, the thieves can not take advantage, early in the morning to withdraw the army.

"Young master, the thieves seem to be beating your idea, and they want to see you before the wall, and when they attack the village, they shout that they can't hurt you, and there is a letter left by the thieves when they leave, take a look." The old butler said.

Zhang Daojun took the letter, this letter was actually written to him by the giant Zijin Liang, Zijin Liang said in the letter, the righteous army for the way of heaven, conform to the will of the people, has gathered 100,000 strong soldiers, can set foot in Pingzezhou at any time, how can they be opponents, but they consider that if the war starts, it is bound to be a local erosion of life, and they are not immune to unbearable, they are the people who can't survive, and the rebellion is because they hate the corrupt officials who oppress them, and they don't have different thoughts about the emperor and the court, and they plan for the people of the world. They can accept the imperial court recruitment, the letter praised Zhang Daojun and a family official honest, generation of loyalty, admired by the people of the world, I heard that Zhang Xianggong and the governor of Shanxi and the general army of Shanxi have irreversible friends, so dare to come to disturb, ask Zhang Xianggong to dredge the matter of recruitment, after the completion of the matter will be thanked.

Zhang Daojun sneered after reading the letter, and handed it to Li Yu, Li Yu didn't look at it, but he sighed at Dou Zhuang, just now he has been observing this walled fort - Dou Zhuang rises from the ground by the mountains and rivers, the terrain is dangerous and easy to defend and difficult to attack, there is actually an urn city outside the walled gate, the whole village is surrounded by a wide and deep trench, the walled wall is also wrapped with green bricks more than three zhang high, there is a hidden soldier hole under the wall, the wall is full of perforations, and the black cannon muzzle is exposed from the battlements and the perforations, which is simply a copper wall. Compared with the Guanbao on the side wall, it is not inferior at all, and the rich man of Shanxi is really rich!

"Brother Zixuan, is this your home? Shall I go in and see? By the way, I would like to say hello to our mother. Li Yu pointed to Dou Zhuang and said.

"That's my mother, you have to be called Mrs. Tai, you can take someone to camp outside the village, I'll go home first." Zhang Daojun didn't admit it, and ran into Zhuangzi as soon as he slipped through the smoke, and the gate of the village was then closed.

"Don't be sentimental, people are from a family of eunuchs, my father was martyred in Liaoyang as a patrol in Liaodong, and my grandfather was also the secretary of the military department of the Wanli Dynasty, and those of us who were soldiers couldn't enter their house." Zhang Chuanjie pulled Li Yu.

Li Yu didn't stay long in Douzhuang, and in the evening, the messenger from Zezhou hurried to come - the thieves raided Zezhou City, and a city gate had been broken, and the guards of the city and the people were struggling to resist, the situation was very critical, and Wang Zhaosheng ordered Li Yu to rush to help, and there must be no mistake!

"Two thousand officers and soldiers are stationed, and they have lost the city gates, a bunch of waste!" Li Yu scolded and scolded the team and ran to Zezhou again, the soldiers of the Fengzhou army were also complaining, marching all the way and scolding their mothers, stumbling and running all night, and arrived at the city of Zezhou at noon the next day, and they didn't even see the shadow of a thief, Li Yu entered the city, and when he saw Wang Zhaosheng, he asked what was going on.

Wang Zhaosheng was still shocked, intermittently told the story of the matter, yesterday morning, a group of thieves pretended to be the common people who went into the city to deliver food, bribed the officers and soldiers at the east gate, deceived the city gate, fortunately the patrol officers heard their accent is wrong, went forward to investigate, the thieves were weak and moved first, killed the officers on duty and captured the city gate, a large number of thieves then rushed into the city, Wang Zhaosheng and guerrilla Xue Tianlu led the officers and soldiers, the people fought hard to resist, and the thieves fought all day, the thieves saw that they could not win, and fled at night, so as to keep Zezhou from losing, But in a day of chaotic fighting, four or five hundred soldiers and civilians died in Zezhou, more than 100 houses were burned, and the losses were not small.

"Rubbish! Lao Tzu is working hard outside, you can't even look at a home, tell me, which thief is bold? Li Yu was furious, and kicked Xue Tianlu, a guerrilla guarding the city, to the ground, Wang Zhaosheng was startled, this guy was going crazy again, and quickly hugged Li Yu.

"My lord, the last general has done his best, and there are five or six thousand thieves! The captured thief said that the leader was a thief nicknamed 'Breaking General', this person is a Mizhi man, his real name is Li Zicheng, and if the adult is angry, he will go to Mizhi to destroy this thief. Xue Tianlu clutched his stomach and yelled aggrievedly.

Li Yu snorted and left, breaking into Li Zicheng - a little thief who had never heard of it, he was too lazy to take it to heart, the Fengzhou army was too tired and had to enter to rest immediately, Li Yu felt more and more powerless, winning one after another, but the thieves were far away, and one day he and his army would be dragged down.

Back in the camp outside the city, Fan Erxi suddenly came, this guy was obviously thinner than in the past, but he was in good spirits, Li Yu knew that he was running around Lu'an Mansion and Zezhou during this time, and warned him with great concern that the money was not enough, and he still had to take care of his health.

"Great Commander, don't you know, the people in this place are too rich, they are very generous, our ordnance and private salt trading is surprisingly good, and I feel itchy in my heart if I don't make money," Fan Erxi glanced at Li Yu gratefully, and took out a letter from his arms, "This is a letter from the Baode camp, and our Titang was only delivered yesterday." ”

The letter was written by Li Huai and Du Hongtai to Li Yu, and the two said in the letter that this year's drought is more than in the past, and the spring inside and outside the border wall has not rained so far, and the large areas of land in the north have reduced production or even failed to harvest, and many people have become homeless, and there is an endless stream of people who defect to the Baode camp, and now there are more than 60,000 people, although Fengzhou has given strong support, and the money earned by Fan Erxi from reselling ordnance and private goods has also been exchanged for food and continues to be sent, but it can only ensure that people will not die of hunger for the time being, and the people are always in hunger and cold. The bigger trouble is that the survival of the camp is also threatened, the wasteland reclaimed by the displaced people was planted with potatoes and corn in the early spring, which is the life-saving food of the common people, but the local Haoqiang was red-eyed, and encouraged the local people to drive out the displaced people and grab the land, and the government also jumped out to urge taxes, Zhang Ding, Zhao Sheng and other leaders of the displaced people of course refused, and organized the people to rise up to defend themselves, the two sides clashed constantly, and there were dead people in some places, Song Tongyin, the governor of Shanxi, suppressed the local government and Haoqiang on the one hand, and did not allow them to act rashly, on the other hand, he sent a letter to Li Huai, Li Huai and Du Hongtai think that there are only two ways to go now, either follow the words of Lord Song and take the displaced people out of the customs, or simply throw the displaced people out of the customs by themselves, but no matter which way they go, Li Yu must withdraw the main force of the Fengzhou Army to Baode as soon as possible, and the end of the letter wrote that the Ming Dynasty is in a difficult situation at home and abroad, and it is difficult to get through this pass, and we can only do nothing about the Ming Dynasty, so we can only protect ourselves, and now it is time to consider getting out.

After reading the letter, Li Yu covered his head and pondered, Fan Erxi saw this, said hello and left quietly. Li Yu thought for a while, then read the letter written by King Zijin Liang to Zhang Daojun for his own use, and then sent someone to find Zhang Chuanjie, Bai An, Sun Shoufa, and Zhou Yuji—only a few of them could still discuss some things now.

After Zhang Chuanjie and others came, Li Yu took out the two letters and showed them them, and the four of them hung their heads and didn't say a word, there was silence in the big tent, the reality is complicated, the people will rebel if they have nothing to eat, and there is no end in sight to the thieves, unless they die in battle and are exhausted, the court will always force them to do it, but if they don't suppress the thieves, they will disobey the order, will the court let them go?

"Is there any news from Zhang Liwei?" Li Yu asked Sun to abide by the law.

"The letter came, he has already pulled dozens of people around Wang Jiayin, and even the pseudo-prime minister Bai Yuzhu is also interested in joining the gang, as long as you give an order, you will kill Wang Jiayin."

"It's useless, the thieves have their own forces, each has their own life, kill Wang Jiayin, the big thief, the thief will run all over the ground, and the situation will be even more difficult to clean up," Li Yu shook his head with a wry smile, waved his hand and said, "You tell Zhang Liwei not to act rashly, as long as you can spread the news of the thief, this is a great achievement." ”

"What is the name of the thief who surrendered to us at the Nanshan Pass?" Li Yu then asked.

"That guy's name is Xing Red Wolf, he was born as a swordsman in Yulin, and the one who was slaughtered by Wu Xian is called an armor-piercing cone." Zhang Chuanjie replied.

"Let this Xing Hongwolf send a letter to Wang Jiayin for me, I want to meet him," Li Yu waved his hand and said to everyone, "If he wants to beat me, I will accompany him to fight, he wants to recruit me and give him a way to live, his life is sadder than ours, maybe he is waiting to see me." ”

Zhou Yuji immediately shook his head: "He won't go out of the mountain, you are afraid of him, it's too late to hide, besides, he is extremely evil, if he is caught, Ling Chi will be executed, and you can't protect him." ”

"No matter so much, Wang Jiayin is also a northwest man, he should have a bloody nature, it is easy for him not to go out of the mountain, I will let it go, and surround him for another month, the township soldiers can't fight, but as long as I support him, he will be trapped to death, he can't get a grain of rice or a grain of salt, so it's done, we don't have time to spend it with him."

Yangcheng Nanshan, Wang Jiayin's days are indeed more and more bitter, on the way to flee south from the river meander, the bandits threw away the accompanying people and even their families, and almost all the elite soldiers who entered Zezhou, there is no official army garrison here, but it is very rich, Dayang, Runcheng, Duanshi, Guo Yu, etc. are all famous rich towns, there are nine dragons to help the head snake, just grab a few villages, he can live a good life, but then it will not work, the thieves heard that it is easy to mix here, a swarm of bees rushed over, local thieves, The homeless people have also taken refuge, his power has grown rapidly like a snowball, and it is of course a good thing to have a large number of subordinates, but what about food and clothing? Taihang Mountain is so poor that he can't afford to eat, it is a problem to drink water if it doesn't rain, more than 100,000 people are crowded in the mountains to stretch out their hands to him, and Wang Jiayin's head is big.

Immediately after that, the official army that played the Black Eagle Banner also arrived, and as soon as he made a move, he was a ruthless move, and within a few days of coming, the local tyrants and inferior gentry were agitated, and the local township soldiers relied on someone to support their courage and block the roads in and out of the mountain, and the food, cloth, and salt urgently needed in the mountains could not be transported in at all, and the township soldiers here were also cunning, if you hit him, he would run, and if you slackened a little, he would take a bite, and the rebel brothers were afraid of the Black Eagle Army, and they did not dare to go out of the mountain to chase, and the township soldiers were bold, so they simply blocked the door to blockade, which still did not let people live? Lao Huihui, the Eight Kings and Cao Cao, a group of young people couldn't stand it, and teamed up with nine dragons to go out of the mountain to grab a handful, but in Guo Yu suffered a big defeat, threw the nine dragons down and ran back, he taught a few lessons, these three guys were not convinced, and ran away with their respective subordinates, and the generals he had always been optimistic about were not willing to be lonely, and whimsically carried him to fight Zezhou City, Wang Jiayin felt cold when he thought about it, his own king was simply in vain, and even the young juniors did not listen to him.

Wang Jiayin is not afraid of the official army, as long as the official army enters the mountain, he has a way to deal with it, but this kind of blockade is too terrible, the righteous army is already in crisis, there is no food, no clothing, no medicine and even no salt in the mountains, more and more people are dying of disease and hunger, in order to eat more, the internal contradictions of the righteous army intensified, Shanxi people because they joined the gang relatively late, and their status in the righteous army is relatively low, Shaanxi people always press them, Shanxi people feel that they are suffering everywhere, and they join hands to fight against Shaanxi people, and the two sides are almost to the point of breaking up. The old brother Wang Ziyong clearly reminded him that it would not take long for the rebel army to collapse if it went on like this, and now he must make a decision as soon as possible, either accept the court's recruitment, or take his own people to escape as soon as possible, Wang Jiayin was indecisive and couldn't make up his mind, Wang Ziyong didn't wait for him, he went down the mountain to Douzhuang, claiming to capture Zhang Daojun of Douzhuang alive, so as to bargain with the governor of Shanxi, Bai Yuzhu resolutely supported Wang Ziyong, but Wang Ziyong returned empty-handed, and repeatedly sighed in his mouth, Douzhuang is not easy to mess with!

When Wang Jiayin was at a loss, Xing Hongwolf ran back in a hurry, and openly said that the chief soldier sent him to deliver the letter, and he brought everyone a way to live.

"The chief soldier of Shanxi is from our Yulin, and many of his subordinates are our fellow villagers, this is a personal letter from the chief soldier, and the king must take it." Xing Hongwolf respectfully held the letter to Wang Jiayin.

Wang Jiayin took the letter in surprise, but he immediately thought that he didn't know how to read, and held the letter to Bai Yuzhu and asked him to read it to everyone.

Li Yu's letter was written very simply: Wang Jiayin, do you want to fight or recruit An? If you want to fight, we will fight a battle quickly, whoever loses will get out, if you want to recruit An, I will protect you and your subordinates, everyone is a northwest man, do things happily, three days later, I will wait for you by the Qinshui River in Yangcheng, if you don't come, wait for death!

The thieves were dumbfounded when they heard this, and the star Hui Deng sneered: "Why is this chief soldier the same as us, those who don't know probably think it's our accomplice." ”

"I think it's good, I understand when I hear it, unlike those dog officers who have read books, and they can't understand what they're talking about for a long time, this chief soldier is like us Yulin people, it's happy enough!" Li Wanqing also laughed.

"I inquired clearly this time, Mr. Li's big is the town standard guerrilla of the marshal Juniper - the famous Yulin Flying Tiger Li Biao, the general soldier Li is also amazing, he has fought the barbarian Mongolia, fought the Liaodong Jiannu, and has never lost the battle, and now he has occupied a large area of territory outside the pass, and even the Yiren outside the pass are desperate to follow him, and he is only in his early twenties at a young age to act as the general soldier of a town, he is the glory of our Yulin people, and we people are not wronged in his hands! I've also heard that it's good to be on his side! Xing Hongwolf's eyebrows fluttered and he said, as if surrendering Li Yu was a face-saving thing.

There was some chaos in the lobby, the thieves surrounded Xing Hongwolf to inquire about Li Yu, and even Bai Yuzhu came over to listen, Xing Hongwolf boasted triumphantly, some people sighed after listening to it, Yulin finally came out with another hero, everyone was full of praise for Li Yu's shelter of Yansui villagers, Wang Jiayin and Wang Ziyong smiled relatively bitterly, everyone digressed again, and this time it was too far, what did Xing Hongwolf do when he came back, he blew Li Yu into the sky, how to fight the battle of the righteous army in the future?

Wang Jiayin stood up and coughed a few times, which led everyone's eyes to him again, but he suddenly felt that everyone's eyes seemed to be a little wrong, as if they were laughing and ridiculing him, he opened his mouth and didn't know what to say, and after a while scratched his head and sat back.

"Lao Wang, people are challenging, you can't be intimidated, you have also been a soldier." Whitden opened his mouth and talked nonsense.

"King, General Li must be better than you, or you can continue to escape." Zhang Yichuan, the sweeping king, then said.

Wang Jiayin felt uncomfortable, glanced at the old brother Wang Ziyong and Bai Yuzhu, these two sat indifferently, Bai Yuzhu said after a while: "This year's drought, crops can't grow in the mountains, many wells have dried up, stay in the mountains and wait for death, what else can we do?" ”

Wang Jiayin stomped his feet and gritted his teeth and said: "They are all Yulin men, his surname is a hero surnamed Li, and my old Wang is not a coward, if you fight, you will fight whoever you are afraid of, leaders, if you don't want to die, take your own people to meet by the Qinshui River, and we will meet him together." ”

At the end of May, Yangcheng Qinshui River suddenly lively, Wang Jiayin swaggered out of Nanshan, along the Qinshui River to the north, Zezhou around the Taihang Mountain, the mountains are endless, the big and small thieves are hidden, Wang Jiayin issued an order, Zezhou, Yangcheng, Qinshui, Lingchuan, Gaoping around the mountains of the righteous army quickly to Yangcheng rendezvous, and the official army to the death, the thieves who have been unable to endure have come out, drive away the township soldiers who are in the way, and go straight to Yangcheng.

Li Yu also led his troops to Yangcheng - the thieves were gathering, and the local tyrants and inferior gentry in Zezhou were not idle, Zhang Pengyun, the former governor of Shuntian, who retired from his post in the township, Zhang Guangkui, the former political officer of Shandong, and Zhang Daojun, the former commander of the Jinyi Guard, sent a heroic post, and summoned the gentry and rich households from all over Zezhou to Guo Yu to discuss the joint plan of the counties to prevent and suppress thieves - they planned to get rid of the government and do it alone, and they didn't greet the soldiers and governors, but invited the honest and honest Li Yu, in their eyes, This motley army from Toyosu is a real friendly army.