Guo Yu's joint defense and suppression of thieves conference was held in a sad and indignant and solemn atmosphere, the chairman of the conference, Zhang Pengyun, first made an analysis report on the situation of thieves in Zezhou, and the old man pointed out in the external report that the situation this year is extremely bad, the drought in the northwest has spread to Shanxi, North Zhili, and Shandong prefectures, and Henan will not be able to hide sooner or later, after the catastrophe, the displaced people are everywhere, bandits are rampant, and the imperial court is helpless against this. The thieves are becoming more and more rampant, and the officials and soldiers of the imperial court are not effective in suppressing thieves, disturbing the people, and even secretly cooperating with thieves, the place is rotten in the troubled times, the most pitiful is us rich people, the government sends food and donations, the officials and soldiers extort money, and the thieves do not give us a way to live, rob us of our money, kill our people, and cause our family to be ruined, and we have only one way out, that is, to work together to protect ourselves, to have money to contribute, and to make a strong contribution, to establish our own township soldiers, and the counties to jointly defend against thieves to ensure the safety of our side and the lives of our families.

The words of the old man caused a strong reaction to the delegates, Zhang Guangkui from Dayang told their tragic experience with tears, Dayang iron needle marketing the world, is a famous rich township near and far, but the rich people are not united, when the thieves are killed, the gentry and the rich only care about their own lives, as a result, the century-old town fell into the hands of thieves, was scourged into a piece of ruin, those thieves who were stabbed by a thousand knives robbed our property, burned our houses, and ruined our women, it is unbearable or unbearable, this account must be calculated. As soon as Zhang Guangkui finished speaking, a group of robbed gentry immediately jumped out to accuse the thieves of the crime, every household has a blood and tears account, they waved their fists to exterminate the thieves to take revenge, and never allow Zezhou to change the sky, several gentry from Pingyang and Lu'an also shouted and shouted to kill, but they reminded the same kind that not only to prevent thieves but also to guard against the official army, those guys did no less bad things than thieves, and the officials and soldiers often blackmailed and robbed them when they suppressed thieves in Pingyang and Lu'an. Zhang Daojun hurriedly stopped the speeches of these guests - Li Yu, the representative of the official army, was sitting in the corner, and Zhang Pengyun remembered that he had forgotten about Li Yu, and a group of gentry pulled Li Yu to the front desk.

Zhang Pengyun solemnly introduced the acting chief soldier of Shanxi Town to the conference, saying that Li Yu is his own person, not only strict military discipline and never disturb the people, but also to help them do good deeds, kill thieves and win many battles, and also issued an official document to support the squires and rich families to run their own group exercises, with him to support us, it is a matter of time before the gangsters are exterminated, Wang Zheng and a group of representatives of rich households also expressed their willingness to raise food and help Li Yu, and everyone's praise was loud, so that Li Yu was embarrassed.

On the second day of the conference, the news of the thieves gathering in Yangcheng came, the delegates gasped, if the thieves from all over Zezhou gathered, at least more than 100,000, this is going to fight with us, the gentry and the rich have committed the old problem again, and they want to run away when they shrink their necks, Zhang Daojun was also startled, Guo Yu is by the Qinshui River, could it be that the thieves heard the wind and wanted to come here to serve us in a pot, a large group of people immediately surrounded Li Yu, but Li Yu was overjoyed, Wang Jiayin was a man, and finally dared to go out of the mountain, he patted his chest and said, The thieves are all recruited by me, the more they come, the better, just clean up together, as soon as these words came out, the faces of the gentry turned white with fright.

"There are many thieves, but it is not difficult to fight, they have always carried the people's families, more than 100,000 people are only 350,000 men, of which the strength of the weapons will not exceed 20,000, it is good to have horses and bandits to make up 3,000, and our army has seven battalions of infantry troops, three battalions of elite cavalry and nearly 5,000 elite villagers with the battalion, our army's strength is absolutely superior in this battle, there is nothing to be afraid of!" Li Yu's words made the gentry a little arrogant again, and a few of them were about to pay again, Li Yu continued coldly, "There is no doubt that our army will win, but my troops cannot be consumed, I can only eat the opponent one bite at a time, the battle is likely to take some days, erosion in the Qinshui River is inevitable, and you will also suffer some losses, which is called a slow victory." ”

"How can I win?" Zhang Pengyun immediately asked, feeling distressed at the thought of loss.

"Then you have to give up the money to give people, Zezhou is so big, it's no problem to mobilize 20,000 township soldiers, of course the township soldiers can't fight the bandits, but it's more than enough to deal with the thieves with sticks and hoes as weapons, as long as you dare to work hard and help my Fengzhou army, you can break the thieves in one battle, think about it yourself!" Li Yu replied lightly.

The gentry exchanged their heads for a while, and finally made up their minds to fight, anyway, they were unlucky not to destroy the thieves, and the gentry voted to pass the resolution of the establishment of the Zezhou Thief Joint Defense Bureau as soon as possible, and elected Zhang Daojun as the general office, Zhang Pengyun, Zhang Guangkui and other old bureaucrats with high moral standing as assistants, and the counties also elected township soldiers to supervise, most of them were retired military attaches at home, Zhang Daojun immediately ordered the township soldiers to quickly go to Yangcheng to meet together to suppress the thieves, the more manpower, the better, and to bring more food and grass with their own weapons, if there is a shortage of people, they will put the family, The tenants were sent here, and now there were still some days before the summer harvest, and they were just in time to go home to harvest the wheat after the thieves.

Zhang Pengyun reminded that he still had to say hello to the government, although he didn't plan to take them to play this time, but they also had to contribute to the local government, and if they were interested, they could also share some credit with them, if they didn't work hard just to eat, we would squeeze them away in the future, and the local snakes immediately agreed.

Thieves and local tyrants are mobilizing their troops, people come and go on the banks of the Qinshui River, Wang Jiayin was surprised to find that there are really a lot of his people, and there are as many as 150,000 people who come out of all places, but there are too many people, there are a lot of men, women and children, but there are not many young and strong people who can fight, most people can only follow the mixed rice to eat, Li Yu's military camp is twenty miles away along the river in an open area, a large number of village soldiers are moving closer to him one after another, Wang Jiayin wants to take advantage of the other party's unstable foothold, with an absolute advantage of the force to fight over, But the opponent's iron cavalry was too terrifying, and before the men and horses he sent out were close to the opponent's camp, they were driven back by the fierce cavalry, and the opponent's village soldiers were also bold, and ran to the camp of the rebels with firearms, frightening the people to run around. The battle can't be fought but you have to eat, the amount of food consumed by more than 100,000 people every day is amazing, Wang Jiayin can't stand it, and gathers the big and small leaders to discuss, everyone thinks that it can't be delayed any longer, otherwise it will be a dead end, but how to fight is a problem, they all know how powerful the other party is, no one wants to send them to death, the leaders of each battalion think that Lao Wang has the most people under him, there are 50,000 people, and no matter how many people die, he can't hurt his muscles and bones, so Lao Wang should go first, just help with their small business, Wang Jiayin's face was silent for a long time, and finally waved his hand and ordered, the big guys are on it together, and no one wants to be a coward.

The thieves set off in a hurry without eating early in the morning, in front of them were young men with weapons in their hands, behind them were hobbling people, and there were fierce soldiers riding cattle to guard the leaders of the rebel army, people walked numbly with expressions, and no one knew what the fate of the future would be - they were not short of people but lacked food, a few young and strong people could still eat one meal a day, and other people could not guarantee two meals a day, wild vegetables and bark had almost become staple food, and everyone was actually in despair to go out of the mountains to find a way to live, Wang Ziyong looked at the endless ranks of the rebels, He shook his head and sighed.

"Lao Bai, the villagers are so hungry that they can't walk, are we going to fight or are we going to die?" Wang Ziyong asked the white jade pillar beside him sadly.

"Let's go, what kind of fight is what, even if we accompany the king for a ride, we may still have a way to survive if we surrender, but the king can't escape Ling Chi's death no matter what, we have to think about it." Bai Yuzhu bowed his head and replied.

"More than 100,000 people, what a good folk, we were cut off like this, what did we do!" Wang Ziyong couldn't help but burst out of his eyes with tears.

"Zijin Liang, don't talk nonsense, maybe we can still be saved." Bai Yuzhu said in a low voice, and stabbed Wang Ziyong with his hand.

The team dragged and dragged away for ten miles, the front came the sound of the military horn of the Fengzhou army, and more and more Fengzhou scouts appeared in front of the righteous army, the experienced scouts swept in front of the righteous army, and then extended to the two wings, the cavalry of the righteous army immediately went out to intercept, but the horses, horsemanship and weapons of the two sides were too different, and the cavalry of the righteous army was quickly compressed to the vicinity of the team, and could only watch the other party cruising back and forth in front of them, and the righteous army had not yet arrived on the battlefield, and it was actually blocked.

"Let's line up here, we'll wait for them to come." Wang Jiayin was a little helpless, there were already black eagle flags in the distance, and there were some messy flags, which should be the banners of Zezhou Township Soldiers, there were really a lot of people, at least more than 10,000.

"King, I'll take my own team to interview and find out the truth of the Black Eagle Army." Wang Guozhong, the leader of the pro-soldiers, whispered to Wang Jiayin.

"There's no need, you gather all the battalion leaders, I have something to say, you and Zhang Liwei are also listening on the side." Wang Jiayin waved his hand.

The leaders of the battalions of the righteous army came soon, and the gang didn't seem to be in a hurry, and a few of them asked with a hippie smile why they didn't go forward, Wang Jiayin didn't say a word with a gloomy face, and when they were almost there, they said slowly.

"The Black Eagle Army is in front, and it will be pressed over soon, I think you must be making small calculations in your own hands, I know you look down on me, that Li Zongbing is from a better background than me, capable and kind, taking refuge in this fellow villager is more promising than following my old Wang, what am I, a farmer who doesn't know a big word, so poor that he can't even marry his mother-in-law, and he has become a king by mistake, there must be someone among you who wants to cut off my head to make meritorious contributions to the court, and make a glory and wealth for himself, don't shake your head, there are many such things in the righteous army," Wang Jiayin looked at the leader mockingly and said, the leaders of the righteous army turned pale one by one, hung their heads and did not dare to speak, Wang Jiayin suddenly laughed, "My old Wang has never read, but he is not stupid, this head will not be taken for nothing, I have nothing to do, but I really want to find a way for the villagers to live, from the day of the rebellion, I will make a plan, my life as a poor man is not worth anything, live a day is a day, if you can help the villagers, then give this head out." ”

"Come here," Wang Jiayin beckoned to Wang Guozhong and Zhang Liwei, and said to the two of them, "What did you two do secretly, thinking I couldn't see it?" Guozhong, you are my brother, I treat you well, right? And you, Zhang Liwei, I know you hate me for robbing your sister, but your sister is widowed at home, do you know how hard it is, since she followed me, her life has been better and she has smiled a lot, don't you see? Don't be afraid, I won't kill the two of you, I'll let you go, go to the Black Eagle Army and tell your new master, just say that I, Wang Jiayin, am also a man from the northwest, and I still have a lot of ability. ”

Zhang Liwei and Wang Guozhong's faces were pale, and they turned around and ran away, Wang Jiayin smiled faintly, turned his head and said to Wang Ziyong and Bai Yuzhu beside him: "We are old brothers from Fugu, I know what you think, don't worry, I won't get in the way of your business!" ”

After Wang Jiayin finished speaking, he sat down quietly on a stone, took out the cigarette stick and smoked it beautifully, Wang Ziyong and Bai Yuzhu accompanied him, tears kept falling, and the leaders of the rebel army also sat down next to him one by one, looking at Wang Jiayin silently, and his eyes were full of respect and concern at this time.

The Fengzhou army stopped advancing two miles away, and after a while, hundreds of armored cavalry with flying tiger flags came out of the queue and galloped quickly towards the righteous army, "The chief soldier is here!" Xing Hongwolf stood up and went to greet him, as if the dog was as excited as seeing his master, Wang Jiayin glanced at it with disdain, knocked on the cigarette stick, and led the leaders to greet him.

"Leader Wang, we are fellow villagers in Yulin, and the people of the Northwest are doing things happily, how are you going to break off with me? You can't fight like this. Li Yu waved away Zhang Liwei and Xing Hongwolf, looked at the crooked array of the righteous army, and asked Wang Jiayin directly.

"Master Li, we heard that you are sheltering tens of thousands of Yansui villagers in Baode, and we admire it very much, are the villagers doing well?" Wang Jiayin did not answer, but asked rhetorically.

"The villagers are living very hard, and they can only barely starve to death, but I don't know how long this can last," Li Yu briefly explained the situation in Baode to the leaders of the rebel army, and then said eagerly, "I need to go back as soon as possible, 20,000 out of the customs, and 60,000 in Baode!" I'm scared when I think about it, whether it's a fight or a recruitment, you have to make a decision immediately, I'm worried that if it drags on here for a long time, Baode will change. ”

"This is indeed a big deal, adults should go back to Baode earlier, light the lamp, fight the eagle, mix 100,000 They are really good, they have done a good thing to save the suffering, Zhang Miao, don't stick to the mud, and the tune of not sticking to the mud is the highest on weekdays, how can you escape from the pass by yourself at this time!" Wang Jiayin was also anxious for Li Yu.

"My lord, why is the burden of helping the people on you, you should force the court to pay for food, you have soldiers in your hands, what are you afraid of those dog officials doing?" Whedon fought for Li Yu.

"I'm scared of a fart! That bullshit court can't come up with money at all, Lao Tzu's military salary is still owed, and he has to rely on himself if he wants to live. Li Yu couldn't help but scold.

"I think so, my lord, I am a Xiucai, I have done things in Fugu County, and the life of the government is also tight, and I am short of money to do some official business, but it is the official who has made enough money." Bai Yuzhu forced himself in front of Li Yu and interjected.

"I'll tell you, don't go out and talk nonsense, I saw the emperor when I was in Beijing, that kid was young and unlucky, it was pitiful to look at, it must be those treacherous and cunning court ministers who stole the money away, if the country is so rich, how can there be no money!" Li Yu pulled the thieves together, and mysteriously spread the gossip, and everyone suddenly realized, and scolded the court and the dog officials together - the hostile two sides seemed to be accomplices at this time.

I digressed again, this time it was Wang Ziyong who coughed a few times, and the leader of the rebel army remembered who the other party was, and closed his mouth in embarrassment, Wang Ziyong asked with a heavy face: "My lord, we don't want to fight with you, but if we accept Zhao'an, how will the court treat us?" ”

"I don't want to fight either, but how to deal with you can only depend on the meaning of the court, I can only try my best to keep you alive, to be honest, there are so many of you, I have a headache when I see it." Li Yu replied a little dejectedly.

"If we don't believe in the imperial court, we will believe you, and my lord will say it directly, if the imperial court wants to kill us, and it doesn't matter whether the people here live or die, how will the adult deal with it?" Wang Ziyong then asked.

Li Yu hesitated for a while, gritted his teeth and said: "I'll get you some food, the local Shanxi people are easy to do, send some food and go home separately, if you are afraid of the court asking for guilt, then follow me to Baode, I try to ask the court to pardon you, if you can't do it, you will go out of the customs, Fengzhou is lawless, I see who dares to go to my territory to arrest people, but if any of you do something hurtful to the heavens and reason, I can't help him, so it's better to run away as soon as possible." ”

The leaders of the rebel army immediately patted their chests to ensure that they were all good people and had never done anything bad, but Li Yu's conditions were too low, and in addition to saving their lives, they did not give any benefits, such as being an official or something, everyone was a little disappointed, and they talked about it.

"Shut up for me, a bunch of bastards, did you come out to rebel just for yourself, the people have shed enough blood, they can't die anymore, and if you want to be glorious and rich, get out of me!" Wang Jiayin was angry, pointed at the leaders of the rebel army and scolded them, and then solemnly looked at Li Yu and said, "My lord, we don't expect the imperial court, they lied to us in Yansui that Zhao'an had food to eat, but we are still starving, my lord, you say something happy, can you give the people a way to live?" ”

Li Yu was silent, the people standing in front of him were shocked by the black pressure in front of him, the people of Fengzhou and Baode had already overwhelmed him, and now there are these homeless people in Yangcheng, can he still carry this burden?

"My lord, it doesn't matter if we live or die, the people are suffering, the crops are dying in the field, and the government is coming to grab the food again, and there is no way to live! Adults are from Yulin, help the villagers, they are not rebelling, they just want to find a way to live! Wang Jiayin looked at Li Yu with tears in his eyes.

Do I still have a choice? Li Yu thought painfully, but nodded his head involuntarily, Wang Ziyong and Bai Yuzhu immediately shouted to the people, the lord agreed, he wants to give us a way to live, kneel down and thank you! The common people knelt down in an uproar, Wang Jiayin, Wang Ziyong, and Bai Yuzhu then knelt down to Li Yu, and the leaders of the rebel army glanced at each other, and also knelt down one after another, Li Yu's face was pale, and the muscles on his face continued to twitch, he really didn't know whether to cry or laugh.