The situation in Weizhou was far more serious than the report received by the imperial court, and the size of the rebel army in the report was greatly reduced due to the concealment of local officials. The number of people who participated in the uprising in the Weizhou area reached almost 90 percent, and it can be said that all the people who survived and did not flee participated in the uprising, except for the residents of the towns.

The leader of this uprising was a man named Zhou Siyi. Speaking of which, Zhou Siyi is still a big family in Weizhou, and this disaster will not pose much of a threat to him. However, unlike other large households, he used all the food he had accumulated in his family to help the victims, and even sold his family property and then bought food from the rich families who hoarded food, and because of this, he almost bankrupted his family but won the love of the people. But Zhou Siyi himself never had the idea of rebelling at all, and the main reason why he became the leader of the rebel army was because of the two friends he made on the rivers and lakes - Chen Shihua and Chen Shijie's brothers.

These two people are famous knights on the green forest road, just because the people of Weizhou have suffered for many years, these two people went to Weizhou after hearing the news, found their friend Zhou Siyi, and the three of them worked together to relieve the local people. However, no matter how much Zhou Siyi's financial resources are, it is a drop in the bucket, and it has become more and more difficult to maintain for more than a year, so Chen Shihua and Chen Shijie secretly discussed, instead of sitting on empty seats, it is better to lead the people's uprising with Zhou Siyi's prestige. After the secret activities of these two people, they gradually mastered a group of like-minded people, and successfully raised the banner of righteousness, and this group of heroes unanimously elected the famous Zhou Siyi as the leader to fight together to save the people of Weizhou.

Zhou Siyi can be said to have been pushed to this position by the ducks, although he himself has no objection to saving the people from fire and water, but he is still a little hesitant to rebel to fight. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't think of a better way, he would never have agreed to join the rebels. In fact, Zhou Siyi's promise to be the leader of the rebel army was to put his life and death out of the question. Because he knew very well in his heart that even if such an uprising could break out for a while, it would not be able to last, especially if the imperial court sent heavy troops to encircle and suppress him. It is difficult for these inexperienced rebels to resist the well-trained officers and soldiers, and it is self-evident what fate they will face when the time comes. But Zhou Siyi agreed after thinking about it. He decided to give his own life to save millions of people from freezing and starving.

After becoming the leader, Zhou Siyi's actions were not harsh, he only targeted the granaries of those hoarders, and refused to hurt people's lives. According to him, the rebels wanted to save the lives of people who were starving and cold, not to take the lives of others. But the government didn't think so, and the officials of Weizhou soon sent officers and soldiers to recruit and suppress. With the help of the Chen brothers and the ordinary heroes of the green forest, the rebel army successfully repelled the invading officers and troops with only rudimentary weapons, and Zhou Siyi became famous. More and more people joined him, and things went in a direction he didn't expect, and thousands of people flocked to him, including of course a large number of old and weak women and children.

As the size of the rebel army expanded, the problems became more numerous, and with so many people and so many mouths, it was not a matter of robbing the granaries of a few wealthy and unkind families to feed them. The size of the rebel army has increased more than twenty times, but its combat effectiveness has decreased, because the vast majority of them are old and weak women and children who cannot afford to flee the country. They cannot be relied upon to fight, and not only that, but forces must be allocated to keep them safe. For this reason, Zhou Siyi had to take risks and conquered five of the fourteen counties in Weizhou in a row. opened the official warehouse to help the people. As a result, his prestige in Weizhou became more and more prosperous, and even many people in the surrounding areas came to him, so he could only continue to expand on the road.

Although Zhou Siyi was not born in the army. But he also understands the importance of intelligence, and what he has always worried most about is how the imperial court will react to this matter. When he conquered five counties in a row, and once again repelled the second attack of the Weizhou officers and soldiers. He understood that the army of Weizhou was no longer able to fight against him, so after that, either several nearby states would jointly send troops, or the imperial court would send troops himself.

Soon after Wang Hanxin's troops left Chang'an, Zhou Siyi received news that the imperial court had sent troops, but the news after that was chaotic made it difficult for him to make a correct judgment. On the one hand, it was because his intelligence system was not perfect, and the amount of information obtained was not enough, and the accuracy was not enough, and on the other hand, it was because Wang Hanxin's troops were moving fast and slowly, making it difficult for people to grasp the movements. Just as Zhou Siyi was still judging whether the opponent's marching speed was thirty miles per day or one hundred miles per day, Wang Hanxin's cavalry unit had already launched its first attack.

This was a full five days earlier than Zhou Siyi had envisioned the fastest speed, and his southernmost deployment was suddenly attacked by the official army. Due to the sudden attack of Wang Hanxin's cavalry troops, and the lack of training and combat experience of the rebel army, the 5,000 soldiers were in a state of rout after only one attack by the enemy, and the result of the battle was that more than 1,700 people were killed, and the rest were defeated and returned.

Immediately afterwards, the Western Route Army and the Northern Route Army were attacked one after another, and the result was much the same as that of the Southern Route Army, and they were defeated and returned after losing nearly 30% of their troops. Before Zhou Siyi could recover his senses, the Eastern Route Army also suffered misfortune, and this time it lost more than 2,000 people. In just six days of fighting, Zhou Siyi's four-way army was all defeated, and the rebel army lost nearly 8,000 people, which was close to 30% of Zhou Siyi's total combat strength. What's more critical is that Zhou Siyi lost the four-way army that expanded outward, which means that unless he sends a large army to conquer the new county seat, his food will soon bottom out, and then the tens of thousands of helpless old and weak women and children will face hunger again, and the continuous defeat has also greatly damaged the confidence of the righteous army.

We can't go on like this, we have to win a battle to boost morale. Thinking of this, Zhou Siyi immediately recalled the Chen brothers and discussed with them how to deal with this sudden army of officers and soldiers.

Judging by the results of these four defeats, not all the officers and soldiers came, they were only about 2,000 cavalry. This was very fortunate for the rebels, although the cavalry was very capable of fighting, but the number was still relatively small after all. Without the follow-up of the brigade, their combat effectiveness was limited after all, which can be seen from the fact that they could not completely annihilate their own troops in four battles. With this in mind, it was crucial to destroy this cavalry unit before the enemy brigade arrived, and it was also a good opportunity to use the sheer superiority in numbers to win in terrain that was not conducive to cavalry performance. For this reason, the Chen brothers chose to set up an ambush near Niubei Mountain, and then lured this cavalry into the ambush circle, taking advantage of the mountainous area to encircle and annihilate this cavalry.

"Two brothers, you send a message to all the combat troops, this time the commander of the official army is the notorious Red Tiger King Han Xin, I heard that he is a murderer in Goryeo, even the old and weak women and children do not let go, if you fight with this kind of person, you will either die or the net will be broken, and everyone must do their best to win!" Zhou Siyi finally admonished.

"Don't worry, big boss, we're going to make the soldiers morale high." The Chen brothers replied in unison. (To be continued.) )