In February of the fourth year of Chongzhen, the great thief god Yikui colluded with the captives to repel the besieging officers and troops. He once again caused many of his leaders to make a fuss everywhere, and for a while, the prefectures and counties around the security guard were raided by rogues.

Especially in the southern part of Baoan County, in the southern part of Baoan County, there are also traces of many thieves. And the local bandits in Xi'an Province also seem to have received the news from their colleagues in the north, and they also took the opportunity to become active.

Because of the lack of troops, the government had to send a large number of township soldiers to carry out encirclement and suppression. But with no armour, no horses, not even food and money to feed them, how could they deal with the murderous thieves?

Therefore, the government can only let them guard the main traffic routes, hoping to cooperate with the few officials and soldiers to block the approaching thieves in order to defend the most important Xi'an Mansion in Shaanxi.

Shen Yikui showed his true intentions at this time, and he led a large group of men and horses to attack Heshui County in Qingyang Prefecture.

After the thieves arrived in Heshui County, they divided their troops into two routes, all the way around Heshui County in Qingyang Prefecture, and all the way to Qingyang Mansion City as the vanguard. On the 14th of February (Wu Wuwu), the vanguard drove some of the people who were held hostage and launched an attack on the east gate of Qingyang Mansion. (Note 1)

However, the soldiers and civilians of Qingyang Mansion did not choose to give in, and under the leadership of Li Hanpu, the governor of Qingyang Prefecture, and Ma Yixun, the official official, they cooperated with the official army guerrilla Wu Weifan to attack Shen Yikui's subordinates, beheading more than 500 people, which greatly boosted the morale of the residents defending the city. Shen Yikui's vanguard had to retreat after being frustrated because of carelessness. (Note 2)

On the 24th of Wuchen, Shen Yikui rushed to the city of Qingyang Mansion with the rest of his subordinates and launched another attack on Qingyang Mansion. Shen Yikui's deserters were very good at fighting, and a large number of firearms were captured from the official army, so their siege caused a lot of damage to the soldiers and civilians defending the city.

In the face of the attack launched by Shen Yikui, a thief who personally arrived, although the soldiers and civilians of Qingyang Mansion united and fought hard, the soldiers and civilians defending in the city still suffered heavy losses under Shen Yikui's artillery fire.

The fall of Qingyang Mansion seemed to be a doomed result, but Shen Yikui temporarily stopped the attack after that. He just cut off the waterways of Qingyang Mansion City and began to encircle but not fight.

It turned out that Shen Yikui finally got a reply from the personnel of the Ningzhou government, and in the previous Bingyin (22nd), Shen Yikui sent a group of envoys to rush to the boundary of Ningzhou. The officers and soldiers or village warriors who intercepted along the way were all scattered under the charge of this group of messengers. The envoy of Shen Yikui, who finally killed the city of Ningzhou, conveyed to the officials in the city their desire to be recruited.

After receiving the petition, a governor named Sunday Qiang in the city expressed his willingness to convey his wishes to Yang He, the governor of the three sides, who would arrive at the place later.

Before leaving, the envoys who completed the task also threatened that the troops led by Shen Yikui were short of food, and if the imperial court did not appease them as soon as possible, they would first go down to Heshui County to find food. After that, if the imperial court messenger still does not arrive, they will no longer scruple to directly conquer Qingyang Mansion City.

Yang He, the governor of the three sides, received the news of the siege of Qingyang on the 25th, and finally arrived in Ningzhou on the 27th with the governor's pacesetters of less than 300 men. Although the number of people was small, the presence of the governor in person still encouraged the soldiers and civilians of Ningzhou City and stabilized the mood in the city, and the governor of Ningzhou Zhou Qiang also conveyed the meaning of the rogues to Yang He afterwards.

Originally, Yang He didn't know who the thieves who surrounded Qingyang Mansion City were, but now he finally knew that it was the god Yikui who defeated the official army some time ago.

Yang He, who was unable to suppress it, had to consider the requirements of the rogue, if he could successfully pacify the subordinates of the good gods, he would be able to end the unfinished situation of the security guards, and he could also harvest a large number of good fighters.

And these thieves who accept the appeasement will also become an important force in their own efforts to restore order in Shaanxi. But this matter is not small after all, Yang He still needs to think about it in the long run.

After Zhang Mengjin proposed Zhao'an to Shen Yikui, Shen Yikui thought for a while and agreed with his idea. On the one hand, he led his troops to attack Qingyang Mansion to eat, and at the same time, he inquired about the movements of Yang He, the governor of the three sides, and conveyed his wishes to Ningzhou in the south.

Zhang Mengcheng was one of these envoys, but because of the vigilance of the government personnel, they did not have the opportunity to communicate directly with the court officials.

Zhang Mengcheng had no choice, so he had to rush back to report to Shen Yikui and others after sending a letter to Ningzhou with other people in his company.

……

Zhang Mengcheng, who had returned to the thief camp, stood quietly next to his eldest brother, who was in the big tent of Shen Yikui at this time. Although he drafted the letter for this exchange with the government, the person who is now reporting to Shen Yikui is Shen Yikui's confidant Liu Jin.

"Qi Yu is in charge of the plate, the people in the government are all eggless cowards, and no one dares to go out of the city to talk to us. A bunch of our brothers who went to contact us could only shoot a letter into the city, and after confirming that the other party had received it, we rushed back directly. "Liu Jin is a very trusted confidant of the two brothers Shen Yiyuan and Shen Yikui, even after Shen Yiyuan died, the successor Shen Yikui still reused Liu Jin, the leader who was quite righteous.

"The people in the government are indeed some rat guts, although I can't talk to them face-to-face, but it doesn't matter much. This time, we just expressed our attitude first, presumably they are also very anxious, and they should contact us, so let's wait here for a while. Shen Yikui also knew that this matter was not in a hurry, and he just threw stones to ask for directions first.

Liu Jin was also relieved to receive Shen Yikui's understanding. This time, as the leader of this group of envoys, he did not get any tangible results, and Liu Jin was always a little worried about whether he would embarrass Shen Yikui. After all, there are a lot of big bosses under Shen Yikui now, if they despise Shen Yikui, the big boss, because of this, it will be his Liu Jin's fault.

The other big leaders present, although many of them also had expectations for this initiative to show goodwill to the government. But after listening to Liu Jin's report, he didn't show too much disappointment. Because Shen Yikui had also given these people a preventive shot before, the matter of recruiting an would indeed come step by step.

Although no one directly expressed dissatisfaction with Liu Jin's actions this time, some people still put forward their own opinions on Shen Yikui's next arrangement.

"Big boss, it's not a way for us to wait here all the time. If we let the people of Fucheng take advantage of this time to recuperate, I am afraid that it will take us another effort to attack the city after that, and the officials and troops will also have time to mobilize and rush over. "One of the leaders expressed his concern about his own behavior of waiting for so long.

Shen Yikui said that the leader of his subordinates did not need to worry, he really valued this appeasement. But he would not make a mistake and give the imperial court too much respite, and Shen Yikui would take decisive action to coerce the imperial court to accept the appeasement, so he confidently replied to his subordinates. "If there is no news in a few days, it means that the court thinks that we are not good enough, and then we will show the court what we are capable of."

"That's right, when the time comes, we will directly take Qingyang Mansion City and have fun for a while, hahaha." After receiving the instructions of the big boss, a big boss who had always wanted to enter the city immediately began to fantasize about the days to come.

"The whole city was plundered for three days, giving his minions a chance to make a fortune. I also want to see what the mother-in-law in this city looks like, and whether it is crispy or not. The leader who spoke up laughed like a toad at the end.

Several leaders also expressed their opinions one after another, all saying that they would do something that the bandits liked to see in the capital city. It was as if the belongings and women of the city were already in their pockets. But what God said afterwards made them interrupt their illusions.

"No, let's not fight Fucheng first. Heshui County has not yet been captured, so let's first lay down Heshui in one breath and knock the mountain and shock the tiger to the imperial court. Ignoring the surprise of his leaders, Shen Yikui slowly spoke his own thoughts.

After waiting for a few days, Shen Yikui, who really didn't receive news from the government, thought that he needed to give the government a little color. He left people to continue to besiege Qingyang, and he took some of his troops to join the rest of Heshui County.

Shen Yikui himself directly took several big leaders and began to attack Heshui County. The people who had already prepared siege equipment launched a fierce attack on Heshui County.

PS: Note 1: Many historical materials record that Shen Yikui and his gang attacked Dongguan of Qingyang Mansion on the 14th (Wu Wu). The statement of "Guan" is somewhat ambiguous, and the statement of the East Gate in the "Huailing Liukou Always Record" is used here. Although there is no mention in Huailu of Wuchen (24th) Shen Yikui's siege of Qingyang Mansion, and there is no mention of this matter in "Chongzhen Record", but after the entry of Bingyin (22nd), it is said that Shen Yikui continued to surround Qingyang Mansion, and the forward arrived in Ningzhou, and Ningzhou was in an emergency. However, Yang He's report said that he got the news that Qingyang Mansion was surrounded on the 25th, and some other historical materials also mention this, so this article writes the plot according to this structure.

Note 2: "Pingkou Zhi", "Liukou Zhi" and "Suikou Jiluo" all record the affairs of Li Hanpu in Zhixian County. However, in some historical materials such as "Huailing Liukou Always Record" and "Chongzhen Record", as well as "Yang He, the Governor of Shaanxi Trilateral, Entitled Buxin Recruiting Surrender", there is no record of Li Hanpu's affairs. At first, the author checked Li Hanpu's information out of curiosity, and found in the "Huanxian Chronicles" that Li Hanpu did serve as a magistrate in the subordinate counties of Qingyang Mansion, but that was in Huanxian County, which is far away from the prefecture. Huanxian is in the north of Qingyang Prefecture, and the march route of Shen Yikui's troops at this time is to the south, and there is no Huanxian County. So will he be the magistrate of Anhua County, who was transferred to Qingyang Prefecture and Guo? After investigation, the person who served as the magistrate of Anhua County during this period should be Zhang Xiangdou, who served in the second year of the Apocalypse. Because his successor, Wang Xuan (tuān), was a native of Yongping and served in Chongzhen for five years.

I checked the "Qingyang Mansion Chronicles" of the Qianlong period again, and found that Li Hanpu had the following record: "Zhili Fangshan people, appointed in the first year of Chongzhen, promoted to the same governor of the main prefecture, and re-promoted to the Ningxia Lixing Yan'an prefect Jinglu Weidao." From this, it can be seen that Li Hanpu served as the governor of Qingyang Mansion, and has been promoted since then, and also became the governor of Qingyang Mansion. At the same time, I also found out that after Li Hanpu, the person who succeeded him as the magistrate of Huanxian County was Li Kezuo. The time is in Chongzhen for four years. Although I don't know the detailed date, the author guesses that Li Hanpu was a fellow acquaintance of Qingyang Mansion at that time. And it was precisely because of his outstanding performance in Qingyang Mansion that he continued to be promoted later. Therefore, it does not take the statement that Li Hanpu is the magistrate of the county in the historical data, but records it as Tongzhi in this article. Here is also a brief mention of Ma Yixun, a native of Jianshui in Yunnan, who has been Chongzhen for four years.