Although Zhang Mengjin and others were active in the defense area of Jingbian Garrison Road on Yansui West Road, public order was rapidly stabilized. After that, as long as the heavy snow no longer covers the roads, the merchants can recover. When the time comes, the money from other places and the grain of the merchants will arrive, and the hearts of the people on the western road will be completely calmed. But there was unforeseen circumstances, and bad news came from the south.

On the 26th day of November in the fourth year of Chongzhen's leap (Yi Chou), more than 1,000 people gathered in Bailiuxi to raid Ganquan, and Zhang Yundeng of Hexi Province and Guo Yonggu of Zhixian County led the army and civilians to defend the palace. The hungry people in the city opened the door and delayed the thieves, so they could not refuse. Ganquan was plundered, and 18,000 taels of silver were robbed of Yundeng's salary. (Note 1)

Bailiuxi is the remnant of the Heavenly Monkey, and was appeased and placed in Juzhou by Yang He. This time, the salaries of the officers and soldiers were robbed, and Ganquan was looted again. Most officials in Shaanxi once again criticized Yang He's previous policy of appeasement. Hong Chengchou was shocked to hear of the incident and hurriedly mobilized Wang Chengen's troops to the south, while Hong Chengchou personally led more than 400 people to Ganquan. (Note 2)

In the original history, the thieves of Ganquan were afraid that Ansai's officers and troops would go south, so they chose to evacuate Ganquan quickly. And because of Zhang Mengcheng's little butterfly in this time and space, Ansai's Tan Xiong's troops have long been cleared, and the official army has no people in Ansai at this time.

Therefore, the thieves in Ganquan looted it even more, and then slowly withdrew from Ganquan County. However, this time, the officers and soldiers, who were slower to respond, still failed to recover the looted salaries.

Zhang Yundeng, who escorted the military salary, was killed in battle, and there was a vacancy in Hexi Road. The imperial court had to elect officials to re-take office and settle in Juzhou as soon as possible to manage the vast defense areas of Juzhou, Fushi, Ganquan, Yanchang, Yanchuan, Luochuan, Yichuan, Central and Yijun, totaling eight counties and one prefecture. Ye Tinggui, a native of Henan, will go to work in the future to start earning seniority for his future promotions. (Note 3)

For Zhang Mengjin of Ningsai, the robbery of Ganquan County's salary is terrible news. Most of the rewards for their exploits were also robbed. And Ning Sai Ding, who had just been pacified, needed Zhang Mengjin and Cai Xiaozi to bother to appease. The behavior of sending them to the lair to beg for food one after another has caused some dissatisfaction in the lair of the two.

If the above is annoying enough, there are some other things that Zhang Mengjin doesn't know, but fortunately he didn't know about it. Jingbian soldiers prepared for Dai Junen on the grounds that he had been robbed of his salary and was unstable. For the time being, he dispelled the idea of Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, and Zhang Fuzhen, the governor of Yansui, and put Zhang Mengjin and others under his command. So Zhang Mengjin was on the road of military attaché, and unconsciously took a long detour.

"Brother Meng Jin, we have recently received a lot of people in our village, and there is not so much food anymore. There are some sweet potatoes and potatoes that Xiucai taught us to grow in the village, and we can squeeze out hundreds of stones by gritting our teeth in the village. As for the wheat and millet, you can only think of a way by your village, and you also know that it is not as convenient for us to grow grain as in Jinding Mountain. ”

At this time, the two real power figures in Ningsai, who are also the two major degraders Zhang and Cai, were discussing how to distribute the food needed by Ningsai. Former Tukou Cai Lvzi was the first to vomit bitterness, saying that his village could no longer raise more food. The current predicament can only be borne by the other party.

And the former thief and monkey are naturally unwilling to move out the precious wheat and millet in their own village to fill this hole. So he also put on a bitter face and said: "Lao Cai, you don't know, I just received the news from Meng Cheng yesterday. Because we don't have enough food in Jinding Mountain, many animals starved to death in the village. Now even the cavalry horses guarding the cottage are starving. There is also a shortage of food in our village, and now the children in the village have been nibbling on sweet potato fries for a long time. ”

Cai Zhongming saw that Zhang Mengjin didn't let go easily, so he had to change his method and said: "Otherwise, we made thirty brand-new helmets a while ago, and also repaired and sorted out fifteen pairs of cotton armor, and I will make five pairs of chain mail from under my hands." I'll give you all this, so how about you bring another 300 stone wheat millet from Jinding Mountain? ”

Hearing Cai Xiaozi's suggestion, Zhang Mengjin's heart was a little shaken. Although Jindingshan has developed over the years, an armor workshop has been established in the stockade, and it can also produce good cold-forged armor.

But in terms of production and craftsmanship, it is better to make more armor from Artemisia Peak. The cold forging armor that Jindingshan is proud of also has similar products in many proud works of Artemisia Peak.

For example, Jin Dingshan made mostly a six-petal helmet riveted with several pieces of iron. One-piece helmets are still relatively rare. With the skilled craftsmen accumulated over the years, Artemisia has always been able to produce a lot of lightweight, comfortable, but extremely protective one-piece helmets.

Moreover, the cotton armor produced by Artemisia is also quite sophisticated, and the brothers of Dai Junen and Zhang Mengjin in Jingbian think it is very good, and hope to get some. In Dai Junenwen's crepe words, it is: "There is no obstacle to advance and retreat, and it feels light." In addition, with a layer of iron leaves, there is no reason for all fire guns to penetrate. ”

Although this is somewhat exaggerated, Zhang Mengjin once used the bird gun in his own village to test-shoot, and it is indeed impossible to make a contribution if he does not get closer. If you wear a pair of refined chain mail inside, the defense power will be quite amazing. (Note 4)

"I heard a while ago that you got a lot of cotton, but now it seems to be true. There is not much cotton in our place, but it is worth a lot of money in a good day. But for now, it's better to eat. But I do want some cotton, or I will add some silver, and exchange some of the birds from the stockade for some cotton. Zhang Mengjin wanted some cotton, not to make war armor, but to add some new clothes to the people in his village.

Cai Zhongming saw that the other party was off topic, and hurriedly pulled Zhang Mengjin back to the topic, and said, "Let's prepare the food in the fort first, and then talk about other things." If there is not enough food, not only will the food be reduced, but even our brothers will inevitably rise up and make trouble because of the lack of food. You see, the man surnamed Wu is now hiding in the official residence all day long, worried that the descendants will make trouble and kill him. You don't want to live like that. ”

Hearing the other party's reminder, Zhang Mengjin also got rid of the temptation of cotton. Thinking of the general Wu Hongqi being stared at by the subordinates and frightened all day long, Zhang Mengjin was quite disdainful. Under him and Cai Xiaozi, there are nearly 1,000 elite soldiers in total.

So I'm not so worried about the degraders committing crimes, but I just don't want these people to make trouble and make their official reputation unpleasant. Moreover, he and Cai Xiaozi have also been thinking about how to completely absorb the nearly 1,000 subordinates into their own strength.

"To tell the truth, we still have some money and food in our two cottages. Moreover, I received news from Meng Cheng before that there are already some caravans buying and selling grain in Baoan County, if we pay to buy the grain. Eating it with sweet potatoes should be able to feed so many people. In the previous battle of Zhang Mengjin's pursuit of the mud, most of the food and materials captured by Dai Junen were collected by Dai Junen and used to feed the hungry and cold residents in Anding City. However, Zhang Mengjin kept an eye on it, and he had hidden a lot of silver money before.

Cai Zhongming did not deny that he still had enough silver, but he was not optimistic about the way to buy food to appease the Ding. "At the moment, there are still too many people in Ningsai, even if we have the money to buy food and completely pay our pockets to feed these people for the imperial court, our two families will definitely not be happy. I said that we should change more people, as long as we can collect all these people in our hands, there will always be a way to feed these people in our village. ”

At present, Zhang Mengjin and Cai Xiaozi are both secretly replaced. Swap the Jianding in each cottage with the Jianding in Ningsaibao, and only select some good Jianding each time, and return to the cottage to work and eat food, while the Jianding in the cottage comes to receive pay and exercise.

However, because Ningsai Fort is next to the eyelids of Jingbian Bingbeidao, some things cannot be done too blatantly. So the progress of this thing is not so fast.

Zhang Mengjin saw that the other party was not optimistic about his attention, so he started the idea of cotton again. "Then I look at it like this, you count all the armor you just mentioned, and then bring me two hundred catties of cotton. We can add 80 stone of wheat millet and 500 stone of sweet potatoes to our village. The rest of the gap, half of our two families. ”

"If you don't send me these armors and cotton, I'll give you a hundred stone of wheat millet and eight hundred stone of sweet potatoes." Cai Xiaozi rolled his eyes at Zhang Mengjin.

"One hundred and fifty stone of wheat millet and seven hundred stone of sweet potato. It can't be any more, we still have to take care of the food of the dolls in the school in the village. ”

"Two hundred and fifty stone of wheat millet and eight hundred stone of sweet potato. If you give up the few more droppers I fancied, I'll give you five more pairs of chain mail. ”

"Two hundred stone of wheat millet, and I will send ten more birds. You send the armor and the cotton, or there is no negotiation. ”

Just when the two big bosses kept haggling for a share of the grain. Guan Zhiqing walked in and said to Zhang Mengjin and Cai Xiaozi: "I have seen Master Dai, and he will not be able to collect money and food to fill this big hole for a while. He wants us to act at the right time, and if the degraders are not easy to control, we can appropriately cut off some disobedient ones. If the rest of the people still don't understand the plight of the court, we can decide whether to kill or not. ”

After listening to this, Zhang Mengjin asked: "Most of the people who descended from some military households, how to abolish this, and what if the imperial court wants to investigate?" ”

After Guan Zhiqing recalled Dai Junen's original words, he said: "I also asked Lord Dai, he just said that the previous military register has been damaged, and he has no time to organize a man-made register at the moment, and the imperial court is now busy chasing and suppressing thieves from all over the world, because there are fugitives joining the thieves every day." I wondered if Master Dai was hinting at us. ”

Cai Xiaozi said at this time: "Have you continued to ask, what did Master Dai say?" ”

"I tried to continue asking, but Master Dai just said what he just said again." Of course, Guan Zhiqing asked, but Dai Junen continued to hint without saying anything.

After Zhang Mengjin and Cai Xiaozi listened to Guan Zhiqing's words, the two glanced at each other. Now that they have the tacit approval of Dai Junen, they can further annex the power of Dingding.

After that, the two big leaders gathered their men, and after a period of collective discussion, the two sides made a preliminary plan. After the plan was negotiated, Ning Sai's rubber stamp Wu Hongqi, as usual, expressed his support for the next action of the two.

A few days later, Ninsey posted a list of "old and weak" who needed to be eliminated. In this list of 300 people, they are all people that Zhang Mengjin and Cai Xiaozi usually woo. The other degraders saw that the people who had been dismissed were all people who were usually close to the two adults in the fort, the garrison and the guard.

The degraders suddenly felt a little tired, but then the two adults sent some money and food to appease the other descenters, and the degraders who had food no longer cared about other things.

In fact, many of the people on the list are from military families. Even if the border army really wants to reduce its soldiers, it should start with recruitment. It's just that the previous confusion, the military registration of the guard is not very easy to check.

Moreover, now that the military garrison road that manages the west road has acquiesced to Ningsai's actions, it will naturally not make any obstacles. As for the replacement of troops in the future, it is completely possible to find various reasons to shirk it at that time, and it will be difficult to find evidence in a few years anyway.

At the same time as Ningsai laid off the troops, Zhang Mengcheng of Jindingshan and Cai Zhongde of Artemisia had already received news from their eldest brother. They began to organize food supplies and prepare for the resettlement of the visitors.

At the same time, they also opened their own maps and planned where they should reclaim land in the coming year. According to Ninsei, the rest of the denders will also be subsumed into their cottages in the days to come. In the days that followed, their work would only become more and more ******S: Note 1: The time of the twenty-sixth day is clearly mentioned in the "Chongzhen Long Edition". The author checked it, and the stem branch should be Yi Chou. And in the ninety-first volume of "Guoyi", this incident is also recorded next to the suppression of the thieves by King Chengen. And in the ninth volume of "Chai An Shuji", "Reducing Thieves and Intercepting Salaries Abnormally Changed Dramatically", it was indeed a matter of the 26th.

What's more, according to Wu Fu, the amount of these salaries is only "18,000 yuan", not 108,000 taels of silver in other historical materials. It also clearly said that "the demand for money in the north was very urgent the month before last", and the secretary worked hard to make it up. For the northern Shaanxi region, which has been short of money for a long time, if the Sifu can really make up 108,000 taels of silver so easily, then the rebellion of the rogues in northern Shaanxi will not be so big. Therefore, the author of private history who is biased towards a corner of the book really can't be credulous in some figures.

Note 2: In the fourth volume of "Huailing Liukou Always Record", it is clearly pointed out that the leader of the Dingding who captured Ganquan was Bailiuxi, and it was also clearly stated that Bailiuxi was a subordinate of the Heavenly Monkey. In other historical materials, it is either simply said that it is a descendant, or it is said that it is a mixed weather. In the first volume of "Suikou Jiluo", there is a saying that "the chaotic monkey and others oppose the removal of the heavenly monkey in Dunzhou", which clearly points out that the chaotic monkey and the heavenly monkey are two different people.

If you feel a little confused, you can read the notes in chapter 36 of this book again. It has already discussed the relationship between the Mixed Sky Monkey, the Heavenly Monkey, and the Hun Sky Monkey.

Note 3: Ye Tinggui's succession, the author is from the record of volume 17 of "Yan'an Mansion Chronicles". In addition, in this book, there are only seven counties in the record of eight counties and one prefecture in the jurisdiction of Hexi Road, and the author has added Yichuan County here.

Note 4: The author of this sentence was changed from the Qing Dynasty's "Pacification Shuo Desert Strategy" volume 20, the original text said "all bird guns", the author just changed the bird guns to fire guns. As for whether there will be iron leaves in the cotton armor of the Ming army, the author has not yet found relatively clear information. In the Battle of the Hunhe River, the Ming army said that there was cotton armor in addition to the iron armor, which looked more like wearing two layers of armor.