Zhang Chu looked at the increasing number of officers and troops on the top of Yuncheng, and established a huge military camp outside Yuncheng. Judging from the size of the military camp, there are already tens of thousands of people, and it seems that Hong Chengchou really made a decision this time, and mobilized most of his military strength for Zhang Chu's 20,000 horses.

Fortunately, due to the terrain, although the city wall of the whole Yuncheng is very long, it is mostly built according to the mountain, and the attacking officials and troops can only attack a section of the city wall in the west of the city with a large army. Zhang Chu also focused his defense on this side, not only temporarily repairing the city wall blown up by the security army with bags of earth and sand, but also sending teams to dig trenches outside the city for defense, and erected various wooden stakes in front of the trenches to keep away horses.

The retreating officers and soldiers were not idle, they rushed to the mountains and forests and villages around Yuncheng, the trees in the mountains and forests were cut down one by one, all the usable things of the villagers in the villages were requisitioned, and even the door panels, beams, and sandalwood strips of the houses were torn down and transported to the official and military barracks. The villagers did not even have time to grieve over the demolished houses, and the fierce officers and soldiers had already driven them away and gathered in the barracks to perform all kinds of labor.

Hong Chengchou watched the brief confrontation between the official army and the security army, and his heart became even heavier, the firearms of the security army were sharper than before, and the officers and soldiers had no power to fight back, and they lost hundreds of people without even touching the side of the security army. Hong Chengchou was worried about how to defeat the security army in the big tent of the Chinese army, when a small colonel came in and bowed and said, "Your Excellency the Governor, the county lords of several counties around Yuncheng have arrived, and they want to ask to see your lordship." ”

"Call them in." Hong Chengchou thought to himself that he was looking for these rich people, and he must release some blood from them today, and defraud them with more silver to boost morale.

It was the magistrates of Linyi, Xiaxian, Ruicheng, Pinglu and Yongji counties around Yuncheng who came. According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, the food and salary of the Ming army was provided by the state and county where the Ming army was stationed, and it was required that the food and salary should be distributed on the second day after the station. After Hong Chengchou set up camp in Yuncheng, he immediately sent people to the surrounding prefectures and counties to demand food and wages.

The magistrates of the counties around Yuncheng complained bitterly, these days they finally realized what is called the two heavens of ice and fire, and the days were good All of a sudden, a large number of thieves rushed over from the north, and the county lords heard the news, and immediately the six gods had no master, and felt that the end of the world was coming, and the city where they were located had few soldiers, which was a good target for the thieves to attack. When the rich salt merchants in the city heard the news of the arrival of the thieves, they packed up their gold and silver, and took the salt and Ding Xiang Yong to defend the salt lake, and ran to the fortified Yuncheng City.

The county commanders began to regret being the official of this sesame mung bean, as the county magistrate, he has the responsibility to defend the land, and now it is impossible to run away, and the Ming Dynasty is hesitant to do other things, but the county officials who lost the city and lost the land have never been soft. Staying here and waiting for the thieves to arrive, the magistrate didn't believe that the county seat could hold it, and it was only a dead end if he was caught by the thieves. All they can do is hide in the county office every day and sigh, someone has prepared the rope for hanging. If the thief breaks through the city, he immediately commits suicide to report to the court, and will never be insulted by the thief, so he thinks that he is still virtuous, and he is more of a constant prayer there, cursing other states and counties, and asking the gods to bless the thief to attack others and spare himself.

Their prayers really worked, and the thieves didn't look at their small county towns squarely, and went directly to Yuncheng.

The hearts of the magistrates were relieved at once, and this disaster was finally avoided. The thieves attacked Yuncheng, and it didn't matter to them whether they won or lost. The official army won and the thieves were defeated, and everyone was naturally safe, even if the thieves won and broke through Yuncheng, the unlucky ones were the rich families who hid in the city and the generals who defended the city. With the habits of thieves, if Yuncheng is breached, such a rich city will definitely loot, and then flee far away with food and property to prevent the retaliation of the officials and soldiers.

In any case, this official can still go down again. Now it seems that the county magistrate is not a small official, and there is still a lot of oil and water to be fished.

I was not happy for a while, and there was a report from the officials, saying that the governor of the three sides, Lord Hong Chengchou, led an army of more than 100,000 to pursue the thieves to the outside of Yuncheng City, and now he has set up camp, and the grain urging officer sent the official document to the yamen.

When the county magistrate heard the news, he immediately felt cold, as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water off his head on a summer day.

Hong Chengchou's notoriety has now spread, and this evil is not only for the rebels of the uprising, but also for the grassroots officials in Shanxi and Shaanxi in Daming. Hong Chengchou never relented in killing thieves, whether he surrendered or not, he killed. For low-level officials, if they are not doing well, they will not be punished by him. Such a person is now highly valued by the emperor, and many officials and envoys have written to participate in Hong Chengchou, but they have been suppressed by the emperor. If you want to live a stable life, it is better not to offend him.

The actions of the county officials were still very uniform, basically they invited the grain urging to come in, entertained them well, and stuffed a lot of silver before leaving, asking them to say a few more kind words in front of Governor Hong. Then hurriedly prepared the carriage and horses, brought gifts, and hurried towards Hong Chengchou's camp.

The guards in Hong Chengchou's camp didn't take these small county orders seriously, and stopped them outside the tent until the county orders of the five counties were all in place, and they secretly sent silver to the guards, and the guards showed a little smile and went in to report to Hong Chengchou.

"How's the food, grass and military pay prepared?" Hong Chengchou didn't even say a word of greeting to them, and asked about money with a straight face.

"We are working hard to prepare for the rations, but we are a small county, with a sparse population and limited financial resources, and I am afraid that we will not be able to supply all the rations of the governor's army." The county magistrate of Xia County is older and has some seniority, and he was elected to reply to the words of the governor. He wanted Hong Chengchou to understand their difficulties, ask for a little less food, and relieve himself of a little pressure.

"It is your duty to provide food and pay for the garrison, I have led my troops from afar, in order to protect the territory and the people, and eliminate the thieves who have attacked your land, this is all for you, there is no reason to let the soldiers fight on an empty stomach, do you still have to do this little thing of collecting food on the spot?" Hong Chengchou's face was full of displeasure.

"Don't dare to work for the military masters, we will do our best to prepare food for the army." The magistrate of Xia County understood what Hong Chengchou meant. There is no way to hide from this matter of food. Let those ruffians go to collect food on their own, and that's okay. Hong Chengchou means that if he doesn't give money, he will let his officers and soldiers rob it, if these officers and soldiers just rob some poor ghosts in the village, they don't have anything, how can they not have a grain of grain in the hands of the poor ghosts now, those soldiers and ruffians will definitely rob the rich families in various places, those big rich families have many backers in the court, and they must be the ones who will be involved in the performance.

"This time the thieves' actions are very strange, they did not harass your jurisdiction, but directly attacked the strong Yuncheng of the city, whether there is any hidden meaning in this, it depends on how loyal you are to the court." Several magistrates were still worried about the food and salary, but they didn't expect Hong Chengchou to throw out these words again. (To be continued.) )