It took about a meal, this person had already been recorded, and then he divided all the people who stayed behind into a dozen groups according to the distance of their residence, and then the money of each group was handed over to the nearest released person who lived, so that the settlement fee could be distributed to their respective homes in a very short time, Liu Cheng, who was standing on the side, already regretted his previous promise to release these people, just as he was thinking about what means to use to keep this person behind. The man counted the money that had not been sent, and presented it to Liu Cheng with both hands along with the roster: "My lord, there are eight hundred and seventy-three dollars left, these are the roster, please check it!" “

"Good, good, good!" Liu Cheng casually put the roster aside, and then he noticed that this person was actually not very old, but he was too thin so he looked old: "What is your name?" ”

"The villain's surname Xu is obvious, and the words are complete."

"Good!" Liu Chenggan laughed twice, and casually pushed the pocket containing the remaining copper coins over: "I have worked hard for you, you can also take the rest of the money back to make up for your livelihood!" ”

"No need!" Xu Xianming didn't take the pocket, but made a long gesture: "My lord, I won't go back." ”

"Why are you not going back?" Liu Cheng's heart was overwhelmed by a huge surprise, and he even stammered a little: "You can go back?" ”

"Yes, Xu Xiucai, are you crazy?" A few men next to him who were about to leave also whispered persuasion.

"Xiucai? Are you famous? Liu Cheng couldn't help but be startled, he couldn't imagine that the military discipline had been so bad at this time, and even Xiucai was arrested as a soldier.

"My lord, I'm not a showman!" Xu Xianming's face was slightly red: "My family is a small surname in the village, and I am often bullied, so my father asked me to study and want to make a name for myself, and I can also set up a portal." It's just that the villain is very dull, and he didn't enter the school after taking the exam twice, so the villagers gave him the nickname Xu Xiucai. The villain's parents died, there were only a few acres of thin fields at home, and he was not good at farm work since he was a child, so he could only live by telling fortunes and writing letters for people in the county, but in the past few years, the years have not been good, and everyone can't even eat enough, who will spend money to tell fortunes and write letters? I think the adult is a benevolent and righteous person, please take it in! “

"Sure enough, it's the end of the world, so you can get a desperate intellectual!" Liu Cheng couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart, although Xu Xianming's knowledge seems to be average, but in a society where illiterate people account for more than 95 percent, everyone who can write and calculate is a potential reserve of the ruling class, and if he doesn't want to be exhausted to death by account books and papers, he must find a capable and trustworthy account clerk as soon as possible.

"Good, good!" Liu Cheng smiled and took Xu Xianming's hand, and looked at the rather thin straight embellishment on his body: "Sir, this dress is a little thin, I'm afraid it won't be good for winter, Du Gu, bring my jacket and change it for Mr." “

For Liu Cheng, he naturally hoped that the order to set off would come as late as possible, and even with the help of veterans like Du Ruhu, it would not happen overnight to train more than 100 peasants in arrears of taxes into soldiers, and it would take time to develop a sense of identity that was necessary to integrate into a group. But everything has a beginning and an end, and soon Liu Cheng's short peaceful life ended.

The Qinling Mountains are like a towering wall that divides China into two parts from south to north. This mountain range stretching for thousands of miles from today's Baishi Mountain in Lintan County, Gansu Province all the way to the east, through the Maiji Mountain in the south of Tianshui into Shaanxi, where he is separated from the Weibei Beishan series of mountain ranges, the middle of the two mountain ranges formed a long and narrow valley of about 300 kilometers from east to west, the longest 80 kilometers from north to south, narrow in the west and wide in the east, after the Wei River, Jing River and other rivers enter here from the mountains, the water flow speed slows down rapidly, and a large amount of alluvium is precipitated here, forming a fertile impact plain. This is the famous Guanzhong Plain in ancient China. To the north of the Guanzhong Plain is the Beishan Mountain System, which consists of the Qiaoshan Mountains, the Huanglong Mountains, the Meridian Mountains, and the Longshan Mountains, which separate the Guanzhong Plain from the Loess Plateau. Different from the Guanzhong Plain of Yima Pingchuan, the climate of the Loess Plateau is much drier, and the annual rainfall is concentrated in summer, under the heavy rain, many ravines appear on the soft loess, and the rivers flow southward along these ravines, forming a series of river valleys, compared with the highlands that lack water sources, these river valleys have much better agricultural production and transportation conditions, and have become the passage from the Loess Plateau and even the Hetao region and the Mongolian Plateau to the Guanzhong Plain. The ancient Central Plains dynasties, whose capital was in the Guanzhong Plain, established a number of defensive positions in the river valleys of the Loess Plateau in order to defend against the invasion of northern nomads, and Yan'an, located at the confluence of the Yan and Fenchuan rivers, was one of them.

Yan'an, Pingrong Fort. This fortress was built in the Northern Song Dynasty and Yuan Fu period, located next to the Zangdi River, controlling an important passage to attack Yan'an Town from the northwest, and was one of the countless fortresses built by both sides in the Song and Xia Hundred Years War. During the subsequent Jin and Yuan dynasties, the fort was gradually abandoned and forgotten until the Ming Dynasty rebuilt the northwest defense line, and this ancient fort was renovated and became one of the many forts that protected the town of Yan'an.

The steep Meridian Mountains suddenly descended at Pingrong Fort, forming a gap, through which a fierce northwest wind blew in violently, slamming the sand from the Mongolian Plateau on Wu Bing'an's face, hands, and other bare skin. This unfortunate sentry squatted in the corner of the enemy platform, trying his best to wrap the tattered coat on his body tightly, and save his body temperature as much as possible, which was a life-threatening matter, and in the coldest time of the year, there would be a sentry on the enemy station vigil who was frozen to death.

The three-year winter of Chongzhen was not an easy one for Wu Bing'an, and the famine that had been going on for several years was fair to most people, and hunger also afflicted the peasants, military households, and the Mongols on the steppe, and the poor and the rich now became the difference between life and death. A bag of millet, a few handfuls of wheat, even a few catties of grass root bark, a few voles, will become the trigger for a fight or even a murder, in the face of hunger, honor, life, morality, kinship, and other things that were cherished in the past have become worthless, compared to others, Wu Bing'an has a huge advantage: he has no wife and children to support, his parents have long since died, and the only thing that needs to be filled is his own mouth. There are two reasons why he is willing to squat on the enemy platform at night and eat sand: 1. The night watchman can get two more liters of grain; 2. There is still food in Pingrong Fort, and having food at this time means life and safety.

As time passed, Wu Bing'an felt that his feet had gradually changed from numbness to unconsciousness, and in order to avoid frostbite, he struggled to stand up, wanting to move his hands and feet. After kicking and beating his hands and feet a few times, Wu Bing'an habitually looked northwest, and a dazzling fire reflected on his retina, and tears flowed from the thorns. Wu Bing'an rubbed his eyes in disbelief, and looked again, the number of firelights had increased to double digits, and more firelights emerged from the darkness.

Wu Bing'an almost rolled down the stairs of the enemy platform, and his heavy body didn't know what he had hit in the dark, making a loud noise. Wu Bing'an didn't care about the pain in his body, and shouted loudly: "Enemy attack!" Enemy attack! ”

It is difficult to describe the chaos in this small fortress at this time, and most people do not even believe what Wu Bing'an said. It's not that these soldiers are too unvigilant, the wind on the Loess Plateau is no joke, it is idle to suddenly drop the temperature by more than ten degrees Celsius in one night, and in this kind of weather, it is common for the army to freeze to death on the march at night, fall into a ditch and fall to death, even the Mongols will not choose such weather to attack.

However, the facts soon dispelled the doubts of the guards, and when General Chen, who was in charge of guarding Pingrong Fort, stepped onto the enemy platform, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, the dry riverbed of the Zangdi River, which was only forty meters away from the west wall of Pingrong Fort, was already full of dancing torches, and there were four or five hundred people in a rough calculation, and more fires were pouring into the riverbed, and there were less than eighty defenders in the entire Pingrong Fort.

"Quick, light up the wolf smoke! Inform the adults in the city! General Chen ordered.

"My lord, may I ask how many fires you should raise!" Wu Bing'an asked, according to the military law of the Ming Dynasty, the number of fireworks is used to convey the number of enemy invasions, less than 1,000 people will only light one pile of fire, more than 1,000 people will raise two fires, if there are more than 1,000 people besieged, then raise three fires.

"Nonsense, this also has to ask me, of course it's three fires!" General Chen scolded anxiously, he turned to the enemy and shouted: "Quick, open the powder keg, bring up the lead, ash bottles, and arrows, boil the water, and prepare to defend the city!" “

Chen's general order was swiftly carried out, and by this time the flow of people outside the city had already reached the steep cliff bank beside the riverbed. With the help of the firelight, Chen Jiang could clearly see that the people who came were not Mongolian Tartars in leather clothes, but Han people in cloth clothes, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. However, he still cautiously walked to the women's wall and shouted loudly: "This is Pingrong Fort, a border defense area, who are you, disperse quickly?" “

There was no immediate echo from under the city walls, only the sound of dense footsteps mixed with the sound of the wind, like the sound of silkworms eating mulberry leaves. Chen turned his head and made a gesture, and the soldiers silently pushed the loaded Furlong machine to the women's wall, and the gunner put the torch close to the arquebus, waiting for the order of the general Chen.

"The wind is full of sand and sand in the valley, the poor man can't live, roll up the bunk and wrap it, and the whole family goes to escape the famine!"

"Go and escape the famine!"

A desolate and high-pitched singing voice rose from under the riverbed, and immediately everyone responded, and the sound was heard for several miles, and the singing suddenly suppressed even the sound of wind and sand, and it sounded like there were not tens of thousands of people. Chen in Pingrong Castle turned pale all of a sudden.

"It's over, I'm afraid it's not a god brother!" Wu Bing'an's face on the side couldn't see anywhere, and as soon as he said this, everyone who heard it changed color. It turned out that the brothers Shen Yiyuan and Shen Yikui were originally border soldiers in Yansui Town, but due to the serious arrears of wages in the imperial court and the drought for many years, the border soldiers even had to rely on devouring Peng grass to survive. So just over a month ago, the brothers Shen Yiyuan and Shen Yikui led the border soldiers to rise up, because the hungry people were everywhere at that time, and the border soldiers were generally in arrears for many years, the two brothers went wherever they went, and their wives sent their husbands, mothers and children, and it is said that there were 60,000 or 70,000 people, of which there were 5,000 cavalry composed of rebels with rich military experience, and they were the most powerful among the many peasant armies. Yang He had to send the famous generals He Huchen and Du Wenhuan to supervise the troops to suppress them, kill Shen Yiyuan, and force Shen Yikui to go to Ningxia.

"What should I do?" The eyes of all the soldiers were full of pleading eyes, and Chen Jiang was always confused, although the firearms in this Pingrong Fort were complete and the medicine was sufficient, but no matter how you said it, there were only eighty people, and those people outside could tear down this fort even with their bare hands. No matter how many people they could kill, when the fort was finally breached, none of the eighty or so defenders would survive.

"That's it, anyway, the news has spread, and it's worth that little bit of money!" Mr. Chen gritted his teeth and made a concession

The soldiers stopped firing for the time being, and crawled to the battlements and shouted: "Whoever is in charge outside, let me know, so as not to hit the wrong person and hurt the peace!" “

After a while, there was a sound of horses' hooves on the riverbed, and then someone responded: "I am a big red wolf under the left wing of the god, and the brothers in the city will never hurt any of you as long as they don't fire, and the family is not guilty, if not, the chickens and dogs will not be left after the fort is broken!" “

After confirming that it was indeed Shen Yikui's department, Chen turned around and asked, "Have you released all the beacons?" ”

"Well, let it out, Sanhuo!" Wu Bing'an replied.

"Okay, let's set off the beacon fire, and we are worthy of the money and food of the imperial court, there are so many thieves outside, we are only eighty people, how many people can we kill? gave his own life in vain. Speaking of this, General Chen paused slightly: "I heard it clearly, as long as they don't come over, we won't send an arrow, God has accepted a lot of people, and there is no shortage of us!" “

Xi'an, Trilateral Governor's Palace, Backyard Study.

Yang He sat at the desk with breakfast, according to the habits of scholars at that time, he was over fifty years old, he followed the precepts of cherishing blessings and maintaining health, and the food was very simple, just a bowl of white porridge, a mutton beard cake, a plate of pickles, and a salted egg, which could be said to be extremely simple compared to his identity.

"Master, Di is here!" An old servant in Tsing Yi came in from outside the door, holding a cow-yellow pamphlet in his hand. Yang He didn't speak, but just tapped the table twice with his chopsticks, and the old servant put the booklet on the table, returned to Yang He, and stood with his hands down. Yang He didn't pay attention to the old servant, so he looked through the newspaper by himself.