The next morning, Zhong Dewu led his men and horses to escort a large number of grain and grass that had been discarded by Bai Wenbo, and hurried to Liulinbao.

Although at this time, in Liulin Fort, the second batch of coarse grain from the other side of the Yellow River had been received from the Yansui Town Supervisor Yu Shi Mamao, and there was no shortage of food, but the more grain and grass in the army in this era was always more and better, and no one would be too much.

At noon on this day, Hong Chengchou replenished enough grain and grass for the Zhenxi camp and the men and horses from Suizhou, and then ordered Zhang Zongheng, the envoy of Shanxi, to continue north with the men and horses of the Zhenxi camp to search for and pursue the Cao Cao camp of the fleeing thief Luo Rucai.

At the same time, he also ordered Jiao Shengchang, the governor of Suizhou, to lead his army back to Shilou, Xizhou and other places, and organize the fleeing people to return to their hometowns and resume farming as soon as possible.

After all, at this time, it was the end of May, and in the six months since the thieves in northern Shaanxi entered the Jin Dynasty, they had caused a great chaos in the boundaries of the prefectures of Shanxi west of Luliang Mountain.

At the same time, the cities are ruined, the countryside is withered, and a large amount of farmland is abandoned and uncultivated, and if we do not seize this opportunity in summer to replant the last season's grain, then in the autumn and winter, especially in the spring of the following year, there will be another famine.

Although Hong Chengchou is the governor of Shaanxi and has no responsibility to take care of the affairs of Shanxi, as a minister trusted by the emperor, since he knows the root cause of the thieves' rebellion, of course he still has to do his best to share the emperor's worries and consider the imperial court.

However, the sharp decline in the population of this area could not stop Hong Chengchou's murderous intent on the 8,000 thief army captives who went to Yongning Prefecture City to clean up the city.

In his opinion, even if the population of southwest Jin was greatly reduced and the land was abandoned, these captives of the thief army who surrendered were not qualified to divide the land and then live and work here in peace and contentment.

Because the outcasts who have been thieves are like dogs that have bitten people, if they can't give them an unforgettable lesson, once there is a little more trouble, these people will become thieves again, and they will become the main force of thieves who are more difficult to exterminate because of their previous experience as thieves.

As for the land that is now abandoned, he has already written a note to the imperial court, asking the emperor to recruit displaced people from Jinzhong or northern Shaanxi and other places to reclaim it.

Therefore, at noon on the second day when Zhang Zongheng and Jiao Shengchang, the governor of Suizhou, each led their troops to leave Liulinbao, Hong Chengchou left Hong Qiyin to continue to sit in Liulinbao to be responsible for the transfer of grain and grass, and he set off for Yongning Prefecture City with two thousand thieves and their relatives under the escort of Li Wenyun and Zhong De's five departments.

When Hong Chengchou and the others rushed east along the Lishi River to the vicinity of Yongning Prefecture, they asked about a strong foul smell from a distance.

When they arrived, they realized that in an open area outside the city, several hills of highly decomposed corpses had been piled up.

This is all after the forced surrender of the king for his own use, within three consecutive days, Shaanxi general soldier Wang Chengen led more than 8,000 thieves to take prisoners, and the corpses cleaned up from the city of Yongning Prefecture were more than 22,000 corpses, and eight or nine out of ten were old and weak women and children.

Seeing the hellish scene in front of him, Li Wenyun, a general from a martial arts background, finally understood why his governor hated the thieves so much, and even if he surrendered, he would kill them cleanly.

If those thieves who have committed such heinous crimes are cared to become officers and soldiers, and if they are cared to become generals, how can they stand side by side with them?

Zhong Dewu, who came to Yongning Prefecture City again, had entered the city before and knew the tragic situation in the city, so as early as when Hong Chengchou outside Ningxiang City ordered to kill those thieves and prisoners, although he couldn't bear it in his heart, he still resolutely carried out the order.

At this time, when he came to the outside of Yongning Prefecture again, looking at the corpses of the people like those hills, the hatred and anger in his heart still could not be calmed.

In order to prevent the epidemic of serious diseases of these decomposing corpses, Hong Chengchou ordered Wang Chengen and other generals to demolish some dilapidated houses in the city, cover the corpses with timber, and then pour the fierce fire oil that has been replenished again on them and set them on fire.

The fire burned all night, and by the next day, the four hills of corpses had been flattened a lot, and the stench had almost dissipated.

Hong Chengchou concocted the same method, let Wang Chengendu, the chief soldier of Shaanxi, lead more than 8,000 thieves to take prisoners, outside the west gate of Yongning Prefecture City, on the side of the four corpse piles, dig a large pit with a length and width of 40 steps each, and a depth of 2 zhang, and then the whole army dispatched more than 8,000 thieves and prisoners, as well as more than 2,000 relatives and relatives of the thieves who were originally concentrated in Shennanyu, all into the deep pit.

And with the bones of the people of the city that had not been burned, they buried alive all the prisoners and families of the thieves who had been driven into the pit.

The soldiers of Shaanxi Fubiao and the musketeers of Li Bei's mining camp, who had seen the tragic situation in the city of Yongning Prefecture, not only did they have no complaints this time, and they had no mercy for the thieves who were buried alive, but they were also full of deep awe for the young governor who was now leading them.

And the 2,500 Shanxi young men who participated in the pit killing of the thieves and captives twice before and after, also passed the test after burying this group of prisoners, and were officially accepted by Shaanxi Governor Hong Chengchou under the account, and incorporated into Shaanxi Fubiao, becoming the heavy carpenter camp in Shaanxi Fubiao, temporarily led by Zhong Dewu, who is responsible for camping, transshipment, building bridges and paving roads.

When Hong Chengchou was in the city of Yongning Prefecture and dealt with the aftermath, Emperor Chongzhen's will was finally transferred to Hong Chengchou's hands.

There is not much content specifically related to Hong Chengchou, because Hong Chengchou's department did not have any eye-catching performance before.

There are only two directly related to it, first, Li Bei, the general of the Baiyecheng Mining Battalion, was transferred to the deputy chief soldier of the Shanxi Zhenxi Battalion with the musketeers of the department, and the highest military position at the beginning of the Zhenxi Battalion was only the general, which was appointed by Pei Shize, and now the deputy chief soldier is set up, so Li Bei will be the boss of the Zhenxi Battalion in the future.

The second is to order Li Banghua and Hong Chengchou to behead Liu Lingyu, the governor of Puzhou, on the spot, confiscate the family property, and confiscate the family.

Along with the emperor's will, of course, there were also orders forwarded by Li Banghua from Shikou, one was about Li Bei's transfer, after Li Bei was transferred to the deputy commander-in-chief of the Zhenxi Battalion, it was still under Hong Chengchou's control, and the second was about Liu Lingyu, who handed over the full authority to dispose of Liu Lingyu, the governor of Puzhou, to Hong Chengchou.

Now, Hong Chengchou has almost swept away the thief army of the Zijin Liang King's self-use department on the western front and the left hanging department of the Liang Wang, and there is almost no aftermath, and there is nothing urgent to do at hand, so on the day he received the holy decree, on the one hand, he ordered Li Bei to lead 1,200 musketeers who originally belonged to the Baiyecheng mining camp to quickly go north to Linxian and go to Zhenxiying, which had arrived in Linxian at this time, to take up his post.

On the other hand, he ordered Zhong Dewu to cooperate with the general banner of Jinyiwei, who came with Li Banghua's personal soldiers to deliver the decree, to go to Puzhou, arrest Liu Lingyu, the governor of Puzhou, and his family members, and confiscate all his family property.

Compared with Hong Chengchou's pit killing of prisoners and leaving no future troubles, Li Banghua and Lu Xiangsheng are now having a headache for the large number of thieves who surrendered before.

Before and after the Battle of Shimen Pass, Li Banghua successively took charge of the "Collapse of the Sky" Liu Guoneng and received more than 6,500 thieves, and in the first battle of Shennanyu, Lu Xiangsheng received tens of thousands of young and strong prisoners.

What about these people? Is it raised for nothing? It's impossible.

Recruit them as soldiers? It is possible to co-opt some of them, but it is not possible to co-opt them all.

Even if they were to be incorporated into the army, they could not be left in Shanxi or the northwest.

After all, although most of these people are ordinary people who are coerced by thieves, but in terms of their origins, they are the same as thieves, and most of them are poor people who can't survive.

Therefore, when Li Banghua, the minister of military aircraft, went to Beijing to serve as the supervisor of Shanxi to suppress thieves, Emperor Chongzhen explained to him one of the precautions, that is, not to indiscriminately incorporate the team of thieves.

Because today they can change from thieves to officials, then at some point they will change from officials and soldiers back to thieves. [.]