On the east bank of Fenshui, in the temporary camp of the Fengzhou Army shrouded in night, piles of bonfires are burning, ordinary people sit together in groups of three or five, drink a few mouthfuls of hot water and nibble on a few mouthfuls of dry food, and children who love to fight are also lying quietly in the arms of adults, people are tired from a day of travel, calmly waiting for the night to pass. In the night, the soldiers of the Fengzhou army are still fully armed, the infantry army lit a fire around the camp and launched a cordon, the cavalry assembled on both sides of the official road, people do not unload their armor and horses, but the Fenhe River is full of people's voices on the surface of the river, under the illumination of countless torches, the new battalion and the homeless people are still in full swing to build pontoon bridges, and look at the stars by the Fen River at night from afar.

On a mound by the Fen River, Li Yu's face was heavy, and he stared at the river in front of him with his hands behind his back without saying a word, and Zhang Chuanjie and the temporarily appointed Chinese army guerrilla Zhou Yuji and the secretary Bai Yuzhu stood quietly beside him. Although Song Tongyin replied that he did not know about the Linfen massacre to disperse the displaced people, and once again ordered the prefectures and counties along the way to receive grain and grass and ensure that the displaced people left the country safely, but the city gate of Pingyang Mansion was closed and nothing was pulled, and only boats and wooden planks were provided to build pontoon bridges, urging them to cross the river and leave the country quickly.

"Tell Du Hongfang and Yang Danian to work faster, we must build a pontoon bridge at dawn, we must cross the river as soon as possible, the longer the time drags on, the greater the consumption of grain and grass," Li Yu took a long breath, turned his head and said to Bai Yuzhu, "The people can't eat enough, and they have to walk a long way, so they can't stand it and naturally want to flee, take some money out and give it to Fan Erxi to buy food, and no one can starve to death on the road." ”

"The food brought out by Yangcheng can last for four or five days if it is saved, the people are used to it, they can live if they have something to eat, adults don't need to worry about it, those who run away are thieves with no conscience, it is better for them to leave, and they can also save food, Zijinliang and Guotianxing What they do is purely superfluous." Bai Yuzhu can write and calculate, and was selected by Li Yu as the clerk in charge of money, food, and confidentiality, as soon as his identity changes, his speech and action are not the same as before, and in the past few days, people have fled continuously, Wang Ziyong, Hui Dengxiang and other leaders of the displaced people feel embarrassed, and they are arrested and fled from the camp, but he feels that these little thieves who are detached from morality have run away, and it is a disaster to stay.

Zhang Chuanjie said very dissatisfied, "We don't have much money, it's all spent on the road, how to live in Baode, the governor is really dizzy, how much money and food can be saved by killing the displaced people, and those thieves will be more harmful in the future if they escape." ”

"I'll talk about it later, let's get through the current pass first, and don't let the people go hungry," Li Yu frowned and continued, "After the pontoon bridge is built, your battalion will go over and seize the mound on the other bank first, and bring Ding Qiming's artillery team with you, and whoever dares to come will beat me hard." ”

Zhou Yuji said in a low voice: "Hermes-Epitek, are you too careful, we are an official army, and we are ordered to go to Baode, who has the courage to move us?" ”

"We are not an official army, in the eyes of the imperial court, we are the northern captives, similar to these homeless people, it is a troublesome thing to stay, there must be people who want us to finish with the homeless, Lord Song is afraid that we will not be able to reach the whip, we have to guard against it." Li Yu shook his head and replied.

There was a shouting sound under the mound, and in the light of the fire, a group of homeless young people were escorted and walked over, and the leading Wang Ziyong and Hui Dengxiang looked angry, and beat and scolded this group, and when they saw Li Yu walking down, Wang Ziyong hurriedly stepped forward and said: "My lord, these cowards wanted to escape while it was dark, and I caught them back, and I brought them to ask the adults for their guilt." ”

Li Yu raised his eyes and looked, there were about three or four hundred people who were escorted, Wang Guozhong and Zhang Liwei led people with sticks and ordered them to kneel, but this group of people stood unruly and did not kneel, and scolded and scolded in their mouths, Bai Yuzhu whispered to Li Yu, the fierce nickname "Chuang General" headed by him, his real name is Li Zicheng, Mizhi people, this guy has been a soldier and is a bandit, he was the captain of the eighth team under Wang Zuohang, he has always been unrepentant and resisted the court, Wang Zuohang surrendered to him without mud, and he also surrendered to Wang Jiayin, who was born a thief, Li Yu nodded, he remembered this guy, strode in front of this person, stared at each other for a while, this is a young man who looks about the same age as himself, his face is a little thin, but he is very tall and his body is also very strong, and a battle robe changed from a Ming army uniform is dirty and torn, Li Zicheng saw Li Yu staring at him, his heart was empty, his arrogance disappeared all of a sudden, and he lowered his head in frustration.

"You're the thief who beat Zezhou? It's not a small courage," Li Yu sneered, and suddenly grabbed Li Zicheng's collar and shouted angrily, "My brother endured hunger and saved food for you to eat, and also took you to Baode to find a way to live, you tell me, why did you run away?" ”

Li Zicheng was half a head shorter than Li Yu, he was grabbed by the collar and couldn't speak, he was thrown by Li Yu casually, and sat on the ground with his buttocks, the two strong men behind him rushed over to help, Mo Rige and Wu Xian swords were unsheathed, and the cold blade was pressed on the necks of the two in an instant, Wang Ziyong was taken aback, and shouted back to the two: "Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, do you want to find death?" Go back. ”

Li Zicheng got up and straightened his collar, and shouted confidently: "My lord, I can't believe you, we have surrendered, but we still can't eat, and the officials and soldiers are also going to kill us, is there a way to survive in Baode?" If the adults rebel, we will follow you, destroy the Ming Dynasty and you will be the emperor, if you want to take us out of the customs to be Hanyi, we will never agree! Our roots are in the pass, and we will die in the pass. ”

"The thief's heart of the **** has not changed, you are not worthy of this kind of thing if you want to get out, Lao Tzu killed you first!" Zhang Chuanjie was furious, and he stretched out his hand to draw a knife.

"You can't trust me, you don't want to go out of the customs to be Hanyi, you want to stay in the customs and continue to rebel, right?" Li Yu's face changed, he casually pressed Zhang Chuanjie, and said to Li Zicheng coldly, "You want to destroy Daming, okay, I'll let you, Daming lives or dies is my business, but have you thought about how long you want to fight?" By the time you destroy the Ming Dynasty, how many people will still be alive? If you are defeated, how many people will be buried for you? ”

Li Yu ignored Li Zicheng, walked to the crowd and said loudly: "I want you to live, I want more people to live, but I need you to trust me, to tell you the truth, whether the court will allow you to stay in Baode, I am not sure at all, and the outside of the customs is too hard, survival is very difficult, I will never let you out of the customs until the last resort, at present I can only find a way to force the court to make concessions, and allow you to be self-sufficient in Baode and Hequ Tuntian, you don't trust me, then I will not be reluctant, if you want to go, say hello, I give each person two liters of rice, immediately give me the fuck off! ”

After Li Yu finished speaking, he turned his head and left, Zhou Yuji opened his mouth to say something but didn't say anything in the end, Bai Yuzhu was a little proud, and said loudly to Li Zicheng and his group: "Get out, get out of here, the farther the better, we don't need you, a bunch of cowards, waiting to die!" ”

"Han Min, let this group of bandits go, they will continue to harm the court, you are laying the root of the Ming Dynasty, you just need to nod your head, I will kill them all, and I will bear the charge of killing the prisoners." Zhang Chuanjie caught up with Li Yu and said angrily.

"There are millions of displaced people in Shanxi, and there are no less than 100,000 bandits, have you finished killing them? We have done our best for the Ming Dynasty, as long as the court implements good governance, the rogue will naturally disappear, a few small thieves can't set off much of a storm, if the court continues to wreak havoc on the people, no one can save the Ming Dynasty, drive these people away immediately, what I see in their eyes is ambition and desire, they are too dangerous, this kind of person will not become our brothers," Li Yu stopped, turned to Wang Ziyong, Bai Yuzhu and others behind him and said, "You pass on my words, you can leave anyone who wants to go, each person will send two liters of rice and leave, I will not force anyone to stay, including you, for after dawn we will cross the river and go north, and it is up to you to decide whether to go or to stay. ”

"Where else can I go? I'll just follow the adults to find a way to live for the villagers. Wang Ziyong shook his head and said, Bai Yuzhu, Hui Dengxiang, Xing Hongwolf, Li Wanqing, Zhang Yichuan and others also expressed their willingness to follow Li Yu to death.

"If you are willing to stay, then we are brothers, the future is dangerous, and we will work together to break a way for these tens of thousands of people!" Li Yu nodded, waved his hand at Zhou Yuji and said, "Organize the young and strong, give them weapons, and those who don't have weapons must also have a sharpened wooden stick, whoever dares to bully us will start to fight, I will not allow anyone to harm our people." ”

Li Yu's order was passed on, and after a night's work, 20,000 homeless people left the camp and ran to the four directions, and most of them chose to stay - the soldiers and horses were all over the place, except to follow the team, they couldn't think of where to live. At dawn, more than 40,000 displaced people helped the old and the young to cross the Fenshui one after another on the newly built pontoon bridge, and walked hard along the road to the north.

In June, the long-distance journey of more than ten days of the displaced people team finally arrived in Baode, the two groups of displaced people gathered together the number of more than 100,000, the camp of the displaced people was full, Baode Zhizhou immediately ordered to close the city gate, Zhao Sheng saw the previous accomplices, the waist pole suddenly stiffened, during this time they for the land, water and crops, and Baode, the government of the river meander, and the local gentry of the village soldiers did a few, Li Huai, Du Hongtai sandwiched in the middle and mud, barely able to maintain the situation, Now that a large number of displaced people have come, Baode and Hequ have not yet become their world, and Li Huai and Du Hongtai's heads are immediately big.

"Hermes-Epitek, you brought so many people back, these guys are even more rampant, and if we continue to make trouble like this, we will probably become thieves." Li Huai shook his head at this Li Yu.

"What can I do, I can't watch them die," Li Yu sighed, and then said, "I immediately wrote a letter to Lord Song and the military department, asking them to start playing to the imperial court, and quickly send someone to take over the camp of the displaced people, and the only way is to support the people in Tuntian." ”

"It's useless, Lord Song has written several times, and every time he urges us to take the displaced people out of the pass, the court won't care about your affairs, you are not even the acting chief soldier of Shanxi now, you can't take care of Shanxi's affairs, wait and see, the court will definitely drive us out of the customs together." Li Huai stomped his feet vigorously, and Du Hongtai also shook his head and sighed on the side.

"It's not uncommon for me to stay in the pass, if you want to drive us away, let the court take the money and grain out!" Li Yu replied with a sneer.

Jingshi, the young emperor was ambitious to make a big difference in his Chongzhen four years, the eunuch party was eradicated, the Donglin party was suppressed, and even the aggressive Jin army rolled out of the pass, the authority of the Ming Emperor was no longer challenged, he could do whatever he wanted, in order to show his self-confidence and tolerance, Qian Longxi, the former assistant who was arrested in Beijing because of Yuan Chonghuan's case, although it was agreed as a capital crime by the three law divisions, he still pardoned the old guy and let him go home to retire - the emperor has high ambitions, and wants to prosper the Ming Dynasty, Not interested in beating the water dogs, the most important thing in the Ming Dynasty is to rectify the rule of officials and unite people's hearts, Emperor Taizu ruled the troubled times with heavy regulations, and he also wanted to control his subordinates with heavy regulations, and today's chaos is caused by corrupt and incompetent officials, and it must be severely punished.

However, God does not give face, since the beginning of spring this year, there has not been a drop of rain in Gyeonggi, and there has been a drought in Beizhili and Shandong, and the people are panicked for a while, and the emperor who believes in the Confucian doctrine of heaven and man in order to move the heavens, deliberately moved from the Qianqing Palace to the Wenhua Hall to fast, and issued an edict to review the lack of government with the courtiers, and the edict listed the many shortcomings of today: improper selection of employers; Those who are in charge of the prevarication; The punishment was wronged and the prison was unjust; The ink officials are vertical and horizontal, and the small people are lost; The official's participation in the discussion of resentment and favoritism; Impeachment of the mortgage shall be subject to bribery; the north and south and the thirteen provinces of the poor people of the dark faction; The people of the border plug ointment filled the private pockets of officials; The army harassed the locality and killed innocent .......

The courtiers were moved by the emperor, and began to talk nonsense again, Zhejiang Dao Yushi Wang Dao said bluntly: The emperor should be prosperous, and it has not been effective in the past four years, the reason is that it is necessary to use heavy canons, and now it is appropriate to raise the world to peace, so that the meaning of spring life is often more than autumn killing, but now it is unsatisfactory, and the punishment does not follow the law, arbitrarily severe, which is contrary to the will of heaven; Yunnan Provincial Imperial History Wang Xiangyun also said that the reason for the drought is too poor is that the people's livelihood is too poor, and the root cause of the people's livelihood is too poor is nothing more than too many private factions of the government, too wide to raise thieves, too longitudinal beetles, too heavy taxes, too cold to worry about the people, and the art of collecting wealth is too urgent...... the emperor listened to such advice with an open mind, and adopted it as appropriate, in order to show respect for the heavens, in early May, he also led the minister of civil and military affairs to the southern suburbs of Chongyun altar on foot, and held a grand ceremony to pray for rain, it rained in June, and finally did not let the emperor lose face, but the emperor was frightened, Whether it is to use the powerful rule of the Legalists of the ancestors or the rule of Confucianism leniency as mentioned in the scriptures, he himself does not know.

The emperor didn't have time to figure out how to govern the government, and it was imminent to solve the chaos in Shanxi, and in the first month, he was entangled by the courtiers, and he reluctantly took out 100,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury and handed it to the imperial history Wu Xian to go to the northwest for disaster relief - the courtiers were cheating again, and as always, they calculated the emperor's private money, but the emperor's family was not rich, and the gold and silver over the years were always in arrears, where to find money! Fortunately, there are still some confiscated money from Wei Zhongxian, which can barely cope with it for a while, the emperor is very sad, and when the money from Wei's hard work and bribery is spent, he will definitely be pit into a poor egg by these heartless courtiers.

100,000 taels of silver is obviously a drop in the bucket, and Yang He, the governor of the three sides, got his wish at the beginning of the year and recruited a giant god to settle down, and immediately stretched out his hand to the imperial court, and the exiled people went home to ask for food, and the mutinous soldiers returned to the camp to ask for salary, and then paid for it! Where can the court get the money, the household department first cries poor, the tax is always not collected, the old man Sun Chengzong wants to repair the Daling River and Lushun forts and still has money to lose, the household department is about to open the pot, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War are also making fun, and they all say that their lives can't be lived, the emperor has seen more of this kind of scene of competing for poverty, and he is already a little numb, so he simply doesn't say anything, he knows the virtue of these people, and he must not disturb them to cry poor, otherwise he will have to focus on his own private money.

Shanxi Governor Song Tongyin Shangshu impeached Yansui Governor Hong Chengchou and Shaanxi Governor Liu Guangsheng beggar-thy-neighbor to expel the local homeless people across the river, but they strictly guarded against refusing to accept the homeless people to return to their hometowns, and Zhang Zongheng, the governor of Datong, also expressed solidarity with his fellow villagers, and stressed that if he had not sent Datong's Fengzhou Iron Cavalry to help in time, the Shaanxi Liukou would have caused Shanxi to be a scourge. And Hong Chengchou and Liu Guangsheng did not show weakness, and replied to the imperial court, the officials and soldiers of the towns in the northwest worked hard to suppress the momentum of the thieves, thanks to the imperial court, the rampant thieves in Shanxi are all due to the ineffective suppression of thieves, and have nothing to do with Shaanxi, Liu Guangsheng also cited human and material evidence, proving that seven or eight out of ten thieves sent back by Shanxi are Shanxi people, Shanxi is beggar-thy-neighbor, the governors on both sides quarrel, the governor of the three sides Yang He, and the governor of Xuanda, Wei Yunzhong, also joined in, each spoke for his own people, and then asked the court for money together, and the court could not take out the money, simply ignored it, and the governors of the three sides and the towns of Xuanda quarreled even more.

At the beginning of June, the news of Yangcheng's victory reached the Beijing Division, and there was a cheer in the court, the giant Kou Wang Jiayin was killed, and more than 100,000 thieves were cared for, the emperor and the courtiers felt relieved, but they were shocked when they then settled the accounts, the Shanshan Pacification was almost a bottomless pit, Hong Chengchou had intercepted 700,000 taels of imperial court tax silver in Shaanxi for military expenses, Yang He appeased Shen Yikui and waited for money, and that Beiyu Li Yu dug a big pit for the court this time, this guy is too bad, he won the battle at two ends in three days, but he refused to kill people, Instead, make a big camp of Baode refugees to make trouble for the court, you are obviously a barbarian, you should be a murderer, kill all the thieves and everyone will save trouble, the court will not count a barbarian to kill people like hemp, if you don't kill people, you will make trouble, now that Wang Jiayin is finished, you should go back to your hometown immediately, in the condemnation of the courtiers, Li Yu's acting Shanxi general soldier and deputy general of aid and suppression should come to an end.

The emperor is still a little reluctant to go, Li Yu's merits are still there, Hong Chengchou and Song Tongyin have repeatedly mentioned in their recitals, it seems inappropriate to always have no reward, but the courtiers don't like Li Yu, and he can't say anything.