In the first month of the third year of Chongzhen, Yan'an thieves Prince Shun and Miao Mei took their own subordinates and fused many of the routs of the Qin Wang army. Gathering about three or four thousand people, they plundered the Suide area of Yan'an Province, and then they besieged Hancheng to the south. Yang He, the governor of the three sides, and Liu Guangsheng, the governor of Shaanxi, jointly attacked the thieves and won a great victory, and beheaded more than 3,000 people. After that, the Shaanxi army continued to pursue and defeat the bandits, and more than 300 bandits surrendered, while the others fled westward. (Note 1)

Zhang Mengcheng looked at the newly obtained Di Bao and estimated how powerful Wang Zishun and Miao Mei were.

Suppose that Zhang Mengjin of Jinding Mountain and Cai Xiaozi of Artemisia Peak are determined to conquer Baoan County, and the two big bosses gather all the subordinates together, which is only three or four thousand people. It's just that Zhang Mengjin and Cai Xiaozi's subordinates are more old, weak, sick and disabled. If most of the forces gathered by Prince Shun Miaomei are men, then the two bandits with the biggest security guards are still not as good as the two big bosses in the east.

Wang Zishun is a famous thief in Yan'an Mansion, and in July of the first year of Chongzhen, he raised the banner in Yichuan Longerzui. At that time, I heard rumors that they had more than 10,000 horse thieves, although this was mostly an exaggeration, but it also showed his strength from one side.

In the early rebellion of the Liukou, Wang Zishun was definitely the highest ranked one on the official blacklist. In fact, Zhang Mengcheng's eldest brother, Zhang Mengjin, had heard of Wang Zishun's name when he was still selling smuggled salt. Wang Zishun is a left-hander, nicknamed Zuo Hanger, and people often call him Wang Zuo Hang.

In the green forests around Yichuan, he is a famous big man. The ferocity of his subordinates is definitely much stronger than when Zhang Mengjin rode down to the grass in the eighteenth year. Since Wang Zishun, the predecessor of the green forest, was easily defeated by the official army, it is better not to blindly take the lead in the little foundation that Jindingshan has just saved.

The words of the third uncle still affected Zhang Mengjin, who was the big boss, and Zhang Mengjin did have a short meeting with the leaders in the cottage afterwards. Although everyone is not willing to do such a troublesome thing, it is not necessarily useful. But they also unanimously decided to put on a show to test whether Jin Dingshan had been blacklisted by the government.

The newly collected local official documents show that the power of Jindingshan has more or less appeared in the sight of the Shaanxi local government. For example, Zhang Mengcheng copied the official document in his hand, which said: "The security guard Tukou Monkey (Zhang Mengjin's nickname) was robbed in Ningsai, and the general Chen Sanhuai was beheaded for more than 30 levels. ”

This was actually a scene made by Zhang Mengjin and the officers and soldiers in the north, and even the heads captured by the officers and soldiers were prepared in advance. This temptation has proved that the size of the brothers in Jindingshan led by Zhang Mengjin is enough to appear in the field of vision of the government. Jinding Mountain can no longer make a fortune by guarding its own territory as in the past.

However, looking at the battle report of the imperial court in the east to suppress Wang Zishun, it can be known that Jin Dingshan is obviously not the opponent of the elite troops of the imperial court. Wang Zishun and Miao Mei, the two big bosses, have quite a lot of accumulated bandits and countless escaped Qin Wang Army. Even such a force can't win the official army, how dare Jin Dingshan provoke it.

Now everyone is only looking forward to finding an opportunity for the imperial court to recruit peace as soon as possible. The second brother Zhang Mengguang received news not long ago that his old boss Du Wenhuan had been reactivated by the imperial court. It's just that Du Wenhuan is now leading troops to exterminate the forces of Wang Zishun and Miao Mei in the east, and there are other masters who are making more trouble in the east, and Du Wenhuan has no way to return to the security for a while.

Although many people think that as long as the opportunity is right, the people of Jindingshan do not have the opportunity to use Du Wenhuan's relationship to clear their identity. But some people are worried that Du Wenhuan will take the heads of a group of brothers to ask for credit. And just a simple surrender to Du Wenhuan can't guarantee that everyone will get any official status. Therefore, under the complex mentality of expectation and worry, the bandits of Jinding Mountain are currently concentrating on farming and spending most of the year in a low-key manner.

During this period of time, the big bosses in the eastern part of Yan'an Mansion, after collecting a lot of deserters, also made a big fuss like Wang Zishun and Miao Mei. It's just these improvised rabble, though outnumbered. But even when they gathered, they were still not the elite opponents of the official army, and they lost several battles, and they fled to other places in disarray.

In February of the third year of Chongzhen, Wang Zishun, who had been hit one after another, finally chose to surrender with his remaining more than 700 subordinates. At this time, Wang Jiayin suddenly captured Fugu, but he was unable to defend it. Later, under the pursuit of the official army, he led the people to cross the Yellow River and attack Shanxi.

And several other big leaders, such as Lao Huihui, Hengshan Yizi King, Chaotian King, Eight King Kong, Heavenly Monkey and other leaders, are also fleeing from the pursuit of the official army, and crossed the Yellow River from Shenmu in March. (Note 2)

Liu Guangsheng, the governor of Shaanxi, continued to send troops to pursue and suppress the thief Miao Mei. First, he beheaded 100 people in April, and then ordered the general Du Wenhuan and the general Li Bei to continue the pursuit, and defeated Miao Mei's troops in Shuangliugou, Miao Mei's two uncles Miao Dengwu and Miao Dengyun surrendered with more than 200 people, and Miao Mei continued to flee with more than 100 people. In addition, the leaders of the Yellow Tiger, the Little Red Wolf, Yizhangqing, Long Deshui, and the Ground-Snatching Tiger also surrendered to the Ming army. (Note 3)

When the time came in April, the official army pursued Miao Mei Yu Baijiafeng again and rescued the kidnapped Qingjian itching Li Pangui. Wang Zhongning, the capital division, continued to chase Miao Mei to Hejiawan, but Miao Mei's subordinates were unwilling to flee anymore, so they beheaded Miao Mei and dedicated it to the official army. Also killed were the Flying Mountain Tiger, the Big Red Wolf and other leaders.

In June, after Wang Jiayin, who returned from Shanxi, captured Huangfuchuan Fort and Qingshui Camp, he once again occupied Fugu, which was across the river from Shanxi Province. Hong Chengchou and Du Wenhuan couldn't let the situation deteriorate, so they immediately led their troops to attack.

After that, the Ming army and the rogue and local bandits led by Wang Jiayin launched a series of battles in the area around Fugu County and Huangfuchuan Fort. Among them, different combat forms and conspiracies such as positional warfare, night raids, and fraudulent surrenders are staged here.

It is worth mentioning that Zhang Xianzhong, who became famous in the future, also led the people of the Eighteen Villages at this time, and asked for surrender because he was afraid of Du Wenhuan's military might.

After several efforts, the Ming army did not capture Fugu until September, and Wang Jiayin once again led the crowd to flee to Shanxi. However, Du Wenhuan did not take the opportunity to pursue and suppress Wang Jiayin, who had already collapsed, causing Wang Jiayin to recruit hungry people again later, and his strength was restored.

Wang Jiayin fled into Shanxi again, which made the officials in Shanxi all angry, and a large number of thieves from Shaanxi, including Lao Huihui and Wang Jiayin, actually rushed out one after another in their own administrative districts, which was not very peaceful, causing the situation in their jurisdictions to become increasingly dangerous.

Therefore, the officials in Shanxi can only keep accusing the thieves in Shaanxi of not being able to quickly exterminate the thieves and beggar-thy-neighbor. On the other hand, he racked his brains to mobilize troops everywhere and tried to intercept the many Shaanxi rogues who entered the country.

Zhang Mengcheng has been staying in Jinding Mountain for most of the year, and has watched this drama completely by collecting the imperial court's mansion newspapers. Due to the fact that a large number of big bosses in the eastern part of Yan'an Mansion kept jumping out to sing big operas, the people who were once very worried that the officials and troops would launch an attack on Jinding Mountain actually spent most of the year quite peacefully.

Not only did it gather a lot of people, but it also successfully completed the planning work of cottage agriculture. Sweet potatoes, which performed well last year, have been planted in large quantities this year to prepare for the shortage. Other crops such as wheat and corn were also affected by the water conservancy facilities carefully built by Zhang Mengcheng, and they actually achieved a bumper harvest in this year of famine.

Not only wheat and sweet potatoes have enriched the warehouse a lot, but even the corn and potatoes that Zhang Mengcheng has always wanted to experiment with have also achieved satisfactory results this year. is the tobacco that Zhang Mengjin has been saving very much, and Zhang Mengcheng has also made some, so that Zhang Mengjin, who is addicted to smoking, can finally let go of the restrictions, and a lot of old smoking guns have been added to the cottage under the leadership of the big boss.

Looking at the thriving cottage, many of the Zhang clansmen who originally planned to return to their hometowns at the beginning of spring finally chose to stay.

The cottage has achieved today's results, except for the panic in the east, and the government can't control it. The main reason is that Zhang Mengjin strictly ordered the people in the cottage not to act casually, and the efforts of the cottage to maintain a low profile are related. For most of the year, most people were busy with construction. After the first batch of sweet potatoes were harvested, they rarely even did anything to collect grain.

At the same time, there are others who are responsible for attracting hatred outside, and a group of new fugitives have been on the run lately. They continued to plunder at the junction of the western part of Yan'an Province and the northern part of Qingyang Province and the numerous military forts southwest of Yansui Town.

The leader is also said to be a fugitive from Liaoyang, whose name is Shen Yiyuan, who received the fugitives of the Qinwang army and the hungry people along the border during this time. The momentum has long overshadowed the previous security guard's biggest Tukou Cai Shorty. Cai Xiaozi is also happy to do this, as long as no one provokes him, he doesn't care what others say.

PS: Note 1: Although there are many historical records that Wang Zishun and Wang Zuohang are two people, but the records of the two in many places, the deeds are the same, and sometimes it is almost just two historical materials that almost just replace Wang Zishun with Wang Zuohang. Modern scholars have verified that Wang Zishun and Wang Zuohang are actually one person, and interested friends can read the paper "Wang Zuohang and Wang Zishun in the Peasant War in the Late Ming Dynasty".

Note 2: Sophisticated friends may find that there are too many contradictory records about the peasant army in historical materials and they are at a loss. Generally, everyone will choose Old Man Gu's "History of the Peasant War in the Late Ming Dynasty" as the main basis. The author also respects Mr. Gu very much, and many times it is based on his old man's writings, but this record is that in the history of the war, it is written that in February, Lao Huihui and Wang Zishun and others entered Shanxi first. From the article "Wang Zuojiao and Wang Zishun in the Peasant War in the Late Ming Dynasty" mentioned in Note 1, it can be seen that Wang Zishun chose to surrender in the spring of the third year of Chongzhen and did not cross the river into Shanxi. In addition, the author himself has read some historical materials, and there are records that show that the time when Lao Huihui and others entered Shanxi was not in February, but in March, so the setting here is not based on the records in the history of the Peasant War, and at the same time, the Hengtian Yizi King is not divided into Hengtian King and Yizi Wang.

Note 3: Each historical material is slightly different in terms of time, number of people, and even nicknames and other aspects, such as the surrender of Miao Dengyun in Liukou Zhili, which is under the entry of June, and the surrender is recorded in Longjiangshui. The record of Huailing Liukou is in April, and it is Long Deshui who surrendered. This article is only written with reference to various historical sources and making comparisons. Don't blame friends who have doubts.