The grain was quickly prepared, and this time they did not bring much grain, only about 1,000 stones, which was considered that it was not appropriate to spend a lot of money in the first transaction, so they prepared it this way. Sixty percent of this thousand-stone grain is brown rice, and only forty percent is potatoes, because potatoes are not yet universally recognized, and if they are used for money, they are far less good than brown rice.

Zhu Yuanzhang's plan is to take his time, first throw some potatoes at a low price to the other party, and when they taste the taste of potatoes, they will naturally not need to use brown rice as an introduction in the future.

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the old first team and the old second team as usual, and then ordered 300 ordinary soldiers who said that they were not good or new. Of course, people who are considered ordinary soldiers in Zhu Yuanzhang's army are much more powerful than the guards when they are released.

Five hundred soldiers plus Zhu Yuanzhang and his thirty-five personal guards, Xu Renjie, who must be used to talk about business, then Li Jieqiong, the daughter of Yuling Town, who went back to her hometown to take a look, and finally Xue Hongqi, the tigress who protects the little white rabbit, such a combination is weird.

Everyone came to Chengcheng first, and Desperate San Lang had already prepared many boats on the edge of the Yellow River, and after the grain was loaded onto the boats and put away, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered everyone to dress up in disguise a little, and if they were interrogated by the water checkpoints of the officers and soldiers, let Xu Ren deal with it in person.

After these details were arranged, the fleet went down the water and headed towards Yu Ling.

I didn't see half a person all the way to the boat......

It turned out that both sides of this section of the Yellow River have become uninhabited land. Let's talk about the northeast of the riverbank first, the northeast is actually the mountain * West Puzhou. That is, Zhu Yuanzhang was the first to capture the state city, since the 36th battalion and Zhu Yuanzhang made a fuss in this state city in a row, all the people of Puzhou have shrunk back into the city, and the suburbs outside the city have been abandoned by the good people and turned into a barren place.

On the southwest side of the Yellow River, there is Tongguan, where the 36th battalion of 100,000 thieves and soldiers were still making trouble here not long ago, and it is a miracle that there are still living people here.

There was no one on either side of the river, and naturally there would be no one on the water, so the trip was really smooth. It can be seen from this that the imperial court's ability to control the whole world has weakened a lot, and a vacuum that the government cannot control has begun to appear.

The fleet soon turned around the ninety-degree bend of the Yellow River, and sailed from a southward to an eastward, and the boundary on the south bank of the Yellow River was already the boundary of Tongguan. Everyone couldn't help but look at the south bank, wanting to see what had become of Tongguan, which had been ravaged by the 36th Battalion. But the view is not far away, and all you can see from the river is the dead trees on the shore.

It wasn't until after sailing more than 20 miles to the east that Zhu Yuanzhang said, "It's almost over, let's dock...... Yuling Town is coming. ”

Li Jieqiong looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with wide beautiful eyes: "Chief Sect Leader Zhu, have you been to Yuling Town before?" ”

"Nope!" Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said.

"Then why do you seem to know me better?" Li Jieqiong said embarrassedly: "I used to go out of the gate, and I really didn't know that I was about to arrive in Yuling Town." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and didn't answer her words. When he was the emperor in the previous life, he kept a geographical map of the mountains and rivers of the world on his desk all year round, and the officials of any small town and town gave him a recital. He would find out where the town was on the map, so he could see what was going on in his world. The ancients had a good saying: "History of the left hand, picture of the right hand." ”

If you want to master the world, you can't do it without looking at the map.

Like some remote towns, Zhu Yuanzhang may have a vague memory, but how can he forget the villages and towns near such an important strategic zone as Tongguan?

Five hundred soldiers went ashore. The grain was reloaded into the truck, and then off the river bank, cautiously heading south. They must not be discovered by officers and soldiers, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable. This is not only a matter of their own lives, but also the risk of exposing the three base areas of Baishui, Chengcheng, and Dali.

Fortunately, it is a scorched earth here, there are no people in a radius of dozens of miles, and everyone walked for more than ten miles, and they saw Yuling Town, to be precise, it is the wreckage of Yuling Town......

When the town was intact, it should have had a population of nearly 1,000 people, but by this time it had become a blackened dead town, with all the houses in the town without covers, the wooden walls and windows were burned out, and only the walls made of mud and stone still stood in a charred and blackened manner. Occasionally, charred corpses can be seen beneath some earthen walls, decomposing......

Li Jieqiong only glanced at it, and fainted at just one glance, but it saved a lot of trouble, if she didn't faint, but knelt in a pile of wreckage, holding a charred corpse and crying for her father, it would really be a headache.

Xue Hongqi put the fainted little white rabbit on his back and said with a wry smile: "She has to come and see, and she can't stand this blow, why bother to take a look?" ”

"Not everyone is as free and easy as you, you have to see the hurdles in your heart to get through, maybe she will wake up and turn into a female devil, more ruthless than you." Xu Renjie smiled, and suddenly looked left and said to him: "Brother Zhu, I found that the Thirty Gate Battalion had knocked down the town wall of this town, you see...... Over there, the fallen town wall was also burned black, so I didn't notice it just now......"

"Hmm!" Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "Your attention has improved a lot compared to before." ”

Xu Renjie got a compliment, and was immediately overjoyed: "Hehe...... Is that! Then he humbly asked: "Brother Zhu, why did the thief army tear down the town wall?" They snatch things and set them on fire and leave, which is more trouble-free, and pushing the wall is laborious and thankless, isn't it a waste of their own strength? ”

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said, "It is of great benefit for them to do this. Think about it, if there are walls everywhere, there are arrow towers, and places where the rogues pass, is it easy for them to wander? ”

"Of course it's not easy!" Xu Renjie replied: "If I go to wander the world, I wish all the cities in the world had no walls. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "That's right, the rogues of the thirty-sixth battalion have no way to stop when they are flowing, that is to say, the city he captured will soon have to be abandoned, and then flow to the next place, in this way, the city wall is useless for them, they don't fight defensive battles at all, but the city wall is extremely useful for officers and soldiers and village warriors......"

Speaking of this, Xu Renjie had already suddenly realized: "That is to say, wherever the 36th Battalion goes, it will be demolished, as long as the place he has captured, the city wall will be broken, so that when they kill a horse gun, the officers and soldiers will have no city wall to defend." The thirty-sixth battalion could easily storm the city and plunder the land. ”

"That's right!" Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

"It's a good idea, it's up to them to get it." Xu Renjie said happily: "In the future, if we also start to wander, we will also use this trick." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang glared at him, shook his head and said, "We can't use this trick!" ”

"Why?"

Zhu Yuanzhang silently didn't answer, he had the answer in his heart, but he couldn't say it now. The 36th Battalion's practice of fighting wherever it was folded did subvert the Ming court, but it also left a great problem, that is, when the Qing soldiers entered the customs, the walls in the hinterland of the Central Plains were all demolished, what to use to resist the Manchu Eight Banners? The Qing soldiers were overwhelming in the Central Plains, and it has to be said that Li Zicheng helped them lay a good foundation.

How happy are the Eight Banners cavalry, when they hit a city, they looked, huh? There are no walls, what's going on? Whatever, the cavalry will take a city as soon as they charge. Then take a look at the second city, huh? There are no walls! It's so cool! Just like that, all the way abruptly, all over the world became pigtail people.

Everyone passed through the burned Yuling Town, and then went south, which is the eastern part of the Qinling Mountains, from here into the mountain, and then to the southwest for a while, is the Lushi Mountain, where there is the "mine thief" that Li Jieqiong said.

Xue Hongqi looked up at the vast Qinling Mountains, and couldn't help but be a little dazed: "Are we going to go to such a big mountain to find a group of mine thieves?" How can this be found? ”

"Actually, you don't have to look for it at all, they'll find us." Zhu Yuanzhang smiled: "If someone comes to us in Huanglong Mountain, do you say that they found the Huanglong Cottage first, or our scouts found him first?" ”

Xue Hongqi smiled dumbly: "Yes, why didn't I think of it?" ”

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the whole army to enter the mountains, and after crossing a few ditches and ridges, he let the soldiers rest in place, set up pots and pans, and began to cook. The cooking formation of the 500 soldiers was still quite large, and Zhu Yuanzhang asked the soldiers to deliberately make some branches that were not easy to burn to light the fire, so that the cooking smoke was loud, and many conspicuous pillars of smoke were formed in the mountains and forests.

Zhu Yuanzhangjun made lunch and dinner in such an exaggerated way every day, and walked aimlessly in the mountains. It's like a leisurely stroll, occasionally finding a nest in a dark cave, occasionally resting in a ravine, and occasionally climbing to the top of a relatively high cliff and shouting twice.

The soldiers also deliberately lifted the lid of the pot when cooking, so that the fragrance of rice inside could come out, and let the breeze in the mountains bring the fragrance of rice to the woods, and after tossing like this for seven or eight days, the scouts who were on guard on the periphery finally came back with good news: they were targeted, and there were not many people staring at Zhu Yuanzhang's army, only four or five people, they did not dare to approach, for fear of being surrounded by Zhu Jun's scouts, so they hung on the mountain road a few miles away. Don't look at the mountain road that is a few miles away, an experienced hunter will not lose even a single beast to follow, let alone an army of several hundred people.

Zhu Jun's scouts had seen these stalkers from a distance on the cliff, but they disappeared if they couldn't see it really, it was estimated that they were hunters in the mountains, but how could ordinary hunters see an army of hundreds of people hanging behind all the time? It can be seen that these hunters are not coming from the right way.

There were few of them, and they didn't dare to fight with an army of hundreds of people, so they had to follow not far away, it seems that they are also gathering people, and they will wait for more people before using the brains of Zhu Yuanzhang.

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