Wu Fu, who entered Shaanxi to start relief, worked very hard in all kinds of work. However, the complexity of the relief work and the limited strength of the government still made it impossible to quell the thieves in Shaanxi, and the thieves who were appeased had already rebelled.

Fortunately, the organization and combat power of these thieves are not strong, and they are not as good as the previous Shen Yikui and Wang Jiayin, so the official army can finally suppress them.

The Shaanxi official army continued to win successive victories since May and June, and won another victory in the battle of Yanshui Pass in Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province on the second day of the seventh month of the fourth year of Chongzhen. The generals of the official army, Ma Ke and Li Bei, joined forces to defeat the thieves and beheaded more than 200 ranks, and the thieves who were driven into the river and drowned were not counted.

On the same day, the thieves plundered Juzhou and camped in Taipingyuan. Yang He personally supervised the battle in the middle of the line, and together with Wang Chengen, he led the troops to win a big victory. A total of 313 beheadings were beheaded, and more than 2,000 people were surrendered. The next day, Yang He, who personally inspected the head, confirmed that the head was all strong thieves.

In the victory of the Taiping Plains, the five hundred soldiers who had been recruited and enlisted in the army played an important role. In the past, due to the lack of strength, Yang He could only endure a lot of thieves. However, through successive victories, Yang He, who was greatly strengthened by the military, found that he already had the capital to attack in an all-round way. So he made up his mind to wipe out the remnants of the thieves in Shaanxi. (Note 1)

However, the nomadic cavalry outside the Great Wall disrupted his plan to attack and suppress, and the Mongols did not let go of this opportunity to take advantage of the fire and loot, and once again invaded the border towns of Shaanxi. Geng Haoren, the governor of Ningxia, twice wrote to Yang He to warn him, saying that the border police in the east of Ningxia Town were very anxious and asked Yang He to return to the border as soon as possible to organize the autumn prevention.

Yang He, who was chasing and killing the thieves in the territory and was in a good situation, had no choice but to return to the town on July 20. Only the townsman Wang Chengen was left to garrison Yan'an, and the camera was suppressed. (Note 2)

The Genshin Impact Ichikui tribe stationed on the West Road once again put on armor and went into battle. It's just that the focus of the Mongol invasion this time is in Ningxia Town, and the defenders of several military forts on Yansui West Road have recently become famous for their murder, and there are not many criminals. Shen Yikui and others, who went out of the fort to defend against the enemy, soon came with good news, beheaded the fifth level, and captured three people alive.

Although Shen Yikui, Zhang Mengjin and others did not cut many ranks this time, they chased them out of the border wall and seized the herd left by the Mongols, which relieved their food pressure to a certain extent.

The Dingding, which was planted around Ningsai, actually reported three victories in a few months. It really inspired many people in the imperial court to appease people, and many people praised Yang He for his foresight, and Yang He was also pleased with this. But it didn't make him happy for long, and the governor of the three sides, who had just returned to the town, received news of the deterioration of the situation in the interior of the country.

The thieves in the area of Dunzhou and Luochuan, who were originally killed and scattered, were pleasantly surprised to find that many of the officers and soldiers who pursued and surrounded them were transferred. Having escaped the catastrophe, they chose to continue south. On July 29 (Xin Chou), Li Laochai, Lone Ranger Wolf and others approached the central county with their men and horses.

At this time, more than 600 thieves, including Tian Jinjing, Evil Tiger, Panshan Tiger, and Hanzhishan, who had already accepted the appeasement and were placed to garrison Malan Mountain, chose to rebel again and raised troops to respond to Li Laochai and others, and the central county fell immediately. (Note 3)

At that time, the patrol was in charge of the line of the imperial historian Wu Fu, and he just arrived at Longfang Town, which was forty miles away from the central county seat. After learning of the fall of the central region, the general Li Pei persuaded Wu Fu to retreat to Yanzhou. Wu Fu was worried that his retreat would shake people's hearts and strengthen the momentum of the thieves, so he insisted on stationing in Longfang Town.

Two days later, Wang Chengen's troops arrived and stabilized the situation in time. After converging, the officers and troops from all walks of life who arrived one after another, Wang Chengen and others launched a joint battle with the thieves in the central part of the country, and beheaded more than 700 levels in one battle. Since then, the thieves have been besieged in the central county seat.

In addition to supervising the suppression of the thieves by the officials and troops again, Wu Fu also attached great importance to the situation in various places that were burned and plundered by the thieves, and Shi Kefa, the official of Xi'an Prefecture, who was very appreciated by Wu Fu, was once again ordered to go to Sixiang to begin an investigation.

What worries Wu the most is that the previous relief has allowed many hungry people to start agricultural production again. Now that God will not continue to make trouble, if the food planted by the hungry people is burned because of the raging thieves, then the money and grain paid by the imperial court and Wu Fu's efforts during this period may be in vain, and the thief rebellion in Shaanxi will continue.

These things are also the things that Yang He, the governor of the three sides, is worried, and the most important thing in Shaanxi today is food. If this year is not because of natural disasters, but because of thieves, Shaanxi will be in trouble again.

No matter how many reasons there are, the court will definitely hold him accountable, and political enemies will begin to fall into the trap. At that time, it is very doubtful whether Yang He will be able to survive the predicament safely.

Therefore, Yang He kept forcing the officials and troops in various places to quell the thieves as soon as possible. He also worked hard to command the border troops to fight against the Mongol invasion, hoping to complete the autumn prevention work as soon as possible, and began to start the work of attacking and suppressing the thieves in various parts of Shaanxi.

It's just that although the situation in the central county has stabilized, Yang He didn't expect to press the gourd and raise the scoop again, and Liu Wu (Liu Daojiang) and Liu Liu (Liu Daohai) in the north of Qingyang Mansion rebelled again. They began to plunder everywhere, gathered troops to the top of the remaining families, and openly began to resist the rule of the government.

Yang He couldn't sit idly by and watch the situation continue to deteriorate, so he hurriedly dispatched more than 4,000 officers and soldiers, including Wang Xingshan, deputy chief soldier of the Chinese army, and He Huchen, chief soldier of Ningxia, to Huanxian to suppress it.

Fortunately, at this time, the Mongols outside the military fort of Yansui West Road had retreated, so Zhang Mengjin's subordinates, who had made meritorious contributions again in the last interception, could also free up their hands to accept the government's requisition.

……

Zhang Mengjin led more than 300 elite soldiers under his command to Huanxian County to obey He Huchen's command. The original Huanxian thief Chen Weili, because he was familiar with the terrain of Huanxian, followed Zhang Mengjin and others to Huanxian this time.

At this time, Chen Weili was sitting in a ravine in Huanxian County, sharing dried sweet potatoes with the brothers around him.

"I'm tired of chewing dried sweet potatoes all the time, so if we run out of the side wall again and eat Dazi's roast leg of lamb." Although Chen Weili said this, the speed at which he reached out to grab the dried sweet potatoes did not slow down.

"You can be content, people Liu Wu and Liu Liu don't even have anything to eat, and they are forced to rebel again, you might as well ask them and see if they want to chew your dried sweet potatoes." Besides, how could Dazi be so easy to catch, if it wasn't for their team running to Ningxia Town this time, we really wouldn't dare to run so far out of the side wall casually. Yu Baocheng took a sip of sweet potato wine and handed the gourd to the other brothers around him.

When He Zongwei heard about the food, he chatted about the recent news while chewing dried sweet potatoes. "In other words, the talents in our village are very capable, and my mother-in-law wrote to say that the crops in our village are growing very well. It seems that we should not have to worry about whether we will go hungry this year. The last time I went to Ningsai Fort with the big bosses, their life there was not good, and I heard that the soldiers in Ningsai Fort were making trouble a while ago. ”

When Chen Weili heard that He Zongwei actually knew how to read, he couldn't help but ask curiously: "The Tai Sui (He Zongwei's nickname) in Jinding Mountain is actually literate, this is the first time I have heard of it." ”

Yu Baocheng grabbed a dried sweet potato and put it in his mouth, but accidentally chewed a grain of sand mixed in it, and quickly opened his mouth and spit it out. After spitting out the sand, I happened to hear Chen Weili's curiosity.

Regarding He Zongwei's behavior of liking to show off everywhere when he gets an opportunity because he knows two words, Yu Baocheng is a little disdainful. So he said quite disdainfully: "He just followed Xiucai to recognize a few words, not any ability." Or if you ask him to write two words, it's like a ghost drawing a symbol, and it's not as good as the baby in the village school. ”

He Zongwei was not annoyed by being lifted, but said with a smile: "It's not good to write, it's not a word." At least I'm much better than you who are blind, and now I don't need Xiucai's help, I can turn more than a dozen pages of Water Margin. ”

He Zongwei likes to listen to the Water Margin, and his nickname was also copied from the Water Margin. Once the people in the village went out to collect food and grabbed a book of Water Margin, he handed it to Zhang Mengcheng and asked him to read it. Zhang Mengcheng was annoyed after reading it a few times, so he simply taught him to start reading and writing. So unlike other people who start with a thousand characters to read and write, He Zongwei started to learn from the Water Margin.

After that, there was a school in the cottage and a pinyin textbook, and He Zongwei followed it from time to time, and now he can recognize a lot of words.

"Hmph, what's the anger. I don't care to follow some dolls to fool around, waiting for my son to grow up, he must know more than you can read. At that time, I won't let him read Water Margin and Three Kingdoms. I directly asked Xiucai to teach him to read sage books and learn university knowledge, and after learning well, I asked him to take the top exam. ”

"That's a shadowless thing, maybe when your son grows up, Xiucai will already be admitted to the Jinshi and go to other provinces to become an official. And your son can read and not you can read, I'm still better than you are blind. ”

Chen Weili looked at the two masters of Jindingshan and teased each other sentence after sentence. He also remembered that he was placed in the cottage, and one of his own girls had been placed in the school to read and write. Chen Weili is a little regretful that his son is still too young to go to the academy to study. As for his daughter, he was a little disapproving, and felt that it was useless for a girl to study.

However, Chen Weili couldn't think about it for long, and Zhang Mengjin, the big boss, received a report from the sentry cavalry and immediately began to give orders to prepare for battle. "All the guys stood up, the west found the movement of the thieves, we didn't catch a head last time, this time we must open, don't let others rob the business."

Hearing the order, the soldiers of Duhe Fort immediately stopped eating. When the infantry lined up in formation, the cavalry team, which had received more training, rushed out with Zhang Mengjin, who had already followed the big boss.

On the second day of the eighth month (癸卯), He Huchen designed to lure the thief Liu Liu (Liu Daohai) in Huanxian County, and beheaded the remaining thieves at the 344th level. On the twelfth day, he slew one hundred and forty-four thieves who had escaped, of which fifty-two were obtained by the fort of Duhe. The thieves were hit hard and fled, and the situation near Yansui West Road and the northern part of Qingyang Province was temporarily calmed.

PS: Note 1: For details, see page 15 of the "Historical Materials of the Peasant Uprising in the Late Ming Dynasty" compiled by Zheng Tianting and others, "Yang He, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, entitled Gong Report on the Situation of Suppressing Thieves".

Note 2: Ibid., p. 19, "Yang He, the Governor of Shaanxi Trilateral Governor, entitled "The Crime of Thieves and Ministers of the Peaceless Days."

Note 3: There are records in volume 91 of "Guoyi", volume 1 of "Suikou Chronicles", and volume 4 of "Chongzhen Records". Although the fourth volume of the Huailing Liukou Records records this incident as an incident that happened in May of the fourth year, at the end of this entry, there is also a small note that "discuss the matter of the seventh month of the ugly person".