In the next few days, Liu Fan took advantage of the temporary absence of wartime, dealt with the affairs of the battalion, and obtained Yu Dacheng's consent to start recruiting, Liu Fan recruited 500 young men from the countryside and displaced people near Qingzhou City, claiming to be a baggage soldier, usually led by the veteran training, in addition to the necessary drills and queue training, also simply trained some gun training, at the same time Liu Fan also stipulated that the broken army is divided into auxiliary battalions and combat battalions, the auxiliary soldiers are mainly responsible for baggage transportation and miscellaneous matters in the camp in peacetime, and the soldiers concentrate on training and improving tactical skills and are only responsible for combat, If an auxiliary soldier wants to be promoted to a soldier, he must be beheaded by one level before he can apply to become a soldier, and he can successfully join the war battalion after passing the test.

Now the time has entered October, the ancients said that the snow in September is not an exaggeration at all, due to the influence of the climate of the Xiaoice River, the winter at the end of the Ming Dynasty came earlier than other times, the weather in Shandong has been particularly cold since September, and now it has reached the level of dripping into ice, due to the recruitment of some auxiliary soldiers, Liu Fan did not prepare too many warm clothes, and had no choice but to ask Yu Dacheng for help in the hope of allocating some clothes and food for him. Yu Dacheng was not embarrassed because Liu Fan helped him fight and he was Chongzhen's cronies, and he happily gave Liu Fan this month's salary. Liu Fan received it only to find that the food and salary in his hand were only eighty percent, and the other two percent were "floated" before they left the treasury, which was still under Yu Dacheng's special care, if there were usually five achievements, it would be good. Liu Fan felt deeply helpless about this, Daming is really terminally ill, no wonder the generals are popular to support their families and eat empty salaries, not that they don't want to have a complete set of soldiers, but they have no money to support them, the soldiers' food and salary are not even, then they will be hungry, they will make a noise, if they recruit the soldiers in full, I am afraid that the soldiers will rebel themselves before the war is recruited!

On October 15 of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Liu Fan got the news from Yu Dacheng that Kong Youde's rebels flowed eastward, and captured the important town of Zhaoyuan, Denglai, and temporarily rested, and plundered the people near Zhaoyuan, forcibly conscripted strong men into the army, the army was quickly restored, and it was strengthened, Liu Fan asked Yu Dacheng to send troops to encircle and suppress, but was opposed and reprimanded.

On October 18, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, came with the news that he had gathered his forces and was ready to go north, but he asked for a postponement of the encirclement and suppression of the rebels, he thought that the rebels could be recruited, these soldiers were just a noise, as long as the imperial court appeased them, they would definitely be able to surrender, and the Liaodong soldiers had been in battle for a long time to deal with the Jianyu and still needed these Liaodong warriors. Yu Dacheng thought about it for a long time and finally agreed to Sun Yuanhua's request, Liu Fan was anxious when he saw this, he knew history deeply, and knew that it was really because of these unrealistic ideas that he did not quickly exterminate the rebels when they were weak, and sat back and watched the rebels attack the city and plunder the city and grow rapidly, so that Kong Youde went from a rebellion of only 3,000 people to a disaster that lasted for two years and affected most of Shandong. So Liu Fan tried hard to persuade Yu Dacheng to let him quickly send troops to encircle and suppress, Yu Dacheng ignored it, and finally Liu Fan took out Chongzhen's secret decree, but Yu Dacheng rejected Liu Fan's request on the grounds that winter was not suitable for fighting. Liu Fan was completely desperate for Shandong officialdom and the officials in it.

Disappointed, Liu Fan returned to the camp and began to train the army, Liu Fan hoped to quickly grow his strength, take the initiative in the future war, and win part of the right to speak. At the same time, he wrote a letter to Chongzhen to explain the current situation in Shandong, Liu Fan said to Chongzhen in the letter, Kong Youde's rebels are relying on plundering the people to recruit Liaodong old pawns and coerce the strong men to grow rapidly, Kong Youde's rebels are no longer what he says he will surrender, he must consider the opinions of his subordinates, once he violates the interests of the majority of people, I am afraid that his own life will be in danger, even if the imperial court recruits the main generals, but what about the tens of thousands of rebels who rely on killing the people to get benefits, will the imperial court properly settle them? Will they believe that the court will not settle accounts and kill them all? Even if the imperial court doesn't settle accounts, what about the gentry who were looted and killed by the rebels? Which of those court officials in Shandong had no relatives and were gentry, wouldn't they retaliate? So even if they surrendered, life would not be easy, and once they were tainted with the benefits of killing and looting, could they easily give it up? So the rebels have grown to the point where they are now, and it is impossible to turn back.

Sure enough, Liu Fan got the news on the fifth day of the first lunar month of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Kong Youde's rebels captured Pingdu, and the rebels burned and looted after entering the city, **** women, and the people of Pingdu were brutally killed. It is reported that Kong Youde's impatient attack on Pingdu is to avenge personal revenge, Kong Youde's mother was the wet nurse of the Cui family, a famous family in Pingdu, after giving birth to Kong Youde, she left her son to the Cui family for a living, and Kong Youde held a grudge since he was a child, and vowed to destroy the Cui family when he was developed in the future. Kong Youde's deputy generals Mao Youshun and Mao Chenglu all rebelled against Kong, so that the rebel army became more and more powerful, strengthened its combat effectiveness, and attacked the city and plundered the land without hindrance. Kong Youde ordered the siege of Pingdu City, and after breaking the city, he killed the Cui family. After the Cui family in Pingdu City got the news, the whole family escaped from the gutter under the north city wall overnight and escaped in Baiguoyuan Village outside the city. After Liu Fan learned the news, he advised Yu Dacheng again, but Yu Dacheng still didn't listen to Liu Fan's advice for some reason. Subsequently, the rebels continued to plunder the place, the people around Pingdu were poisoned by the war, the people suffered heavy casualties, according to the Pingdu County Chronicles, Pingdu did not return to the heyday of the population after a hundred years, just because Pingdu produced a Kong Youde but harmed the people of Pingdu innocently hurt so cruelly, the tiger poison is still not eaten Kong Youde actually led the army to slaughter the people of his hometown regardless of the hometown, since ancient times I have never heard that there are loyal ministers who will poison their hometown, so it is no wonder that they will surrender to the Tartars to be a big traitor.