On the seventh day of March in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, there was a long queue walking on the road from Changde Mansion in Hunan Province to Yongshun Division, which was at least more than ten miles long, and countless people and horses crowded the entire road that was not wide. More than a dozen soldiers in brown armor were struggling to beat the people blocking the road in front, and for a while, the people on the road shouted and screamed.

Liu Zongmin is walking on this official road with dozens of personal soldiers at this moment, Liu Zongmin at this time is much fatter than a year ago, his chin is also much rounder, and he is very rich when riding on a horse.

At this moment, he was retreating to Shaanxi with more than 50,000 remnants, although this retreat did not seem so willing to him.

Since he led the soldiers and horses to occupy Hunan alone, he has really lived a period of freedom, and this period is also the most leisurely and happy life in his life, a lot of silver for him to rob, a lot of women for him to sleep, in his opinion, this is a good situation that the gods do not change. It's a pity that the good times didn't last long, only a few days later, he listened to the encouragement of his subordinates in a dizzy mind, and had a crooked idea about the rich Jiangxi next door, commanding more than 100,000 Liukou to attack Jiangxi, at the beginning it was quite smooth, captured two state capitals, and never thought that this would annoy the gentry of the Jiangnan provinces, and in the face of the desperate counterattack of the Jiangnan provinces, Liu Zongmin suffered heavy casualties, and finally had to flee back to Hunan in disgrace.

A few days ago, King Zichuang sent a letter ordering him to lead his troops to withdraw to Shaanxi, Liu Zongmin summed it up, and now he has been beaten to the ground full of chrysanthemums, if those people in Jiangnan and the Great Zhou army above take the opportunity to attack again, he will really finish playing, so Liu Zongmin immediately packed up, packed up his belongings, and retreated to Shaanxi with more than ten girls who were robbed.

It's just that it happened to rain heavily a few days ago, and the official road was full of muddy mud, and the team was crowded, so he couldn't go fast, Liu Zongmin was anxious in his eyes.

"Everyone, hurry up, hurry up and catch up for twenty miles, and we can rest!" Looking at the slow team, Liu Zongmin kept shouting.

After a while, Hao Shaoqi, who was then the general of the Houjian battalion, rushed over, and after a long time of sweating, he said to Liu Zongmin urgently: "Chief Sentry Master, we can't rush like this, we won't be able to catch up with Shi Zhouwei within five days, if we let the Great Zhou Army catch up, we will all have to explain here." ”

Liu Zongmin shouted impatiently: "What can I do, you have also seen this broken road, it is so big, we have a lot of people and horses, and there are a lot of jars and jars, these things must be transported back by King Chuang, who dares to throw them away?" ”

Hao Shaoqi didn't speak, but secretly slandered: "You don't even want to throw those girls, let alone those treasures." But he only dared to think about these words in his heart.

After thinking about it, Hao Shaoqi said: "Mr. Liu, otherwise, from tomorrow, let's let those old and weak people in the back hall, and we will lead 20,000 young people to walk in front, so that we can speed up our speed, and we can also let those people help us resist the chasing soldiers, what do you think?" ”

"Well, this method is not bad, you kid can figure it out!" Liu Zongmin's eyes lit up when he heard this, he was originally a selfish person, and when he heard that this method could make him return to Shaanxi quickly, how could he be unhappy, and his brows stretched a lot when he heard it.

Seeing such a situation, Hao Shaoqi secretly shook his head, this Mr. Liu is not bad at fighting, but there are also many shortcomings, not to mention being cruel and lustful, now even the siblings in the army have to be left behind, how can the siblings in the army not be chilled. It's just that he is now only a general in the rear battalion, and it is impossible to say anything to his top boss who is a general of Quan.

After thinking about it, Hao Shaoqi sighed and said: "Mr. Liu, recently, I often think about why we people are forced to rebel, and the more I think about it, the more I can't give up halfway. When I was young, I herded sheep and was whipped. When I was twenty-one years old, I spent several months in prison because of my debts, because I was in prison, my parents were angry and sad, and they passed away soon. One day you tied your donkey to the gate of a squire, and when the gentry came out and saw the donkey and eggs on the ground, you forced the old man to pick it up and eat it. The old man knelt down and kowtowed and pleaded, willing to sweep the ground clean. But the bully didn't agree, and forced the old man to eat a few donkey eggs. From then on, the old man fell ill and died shortly after returning from Sichuan. Mr. Liu, don't say whether our uprising is to save the people, is it appropriate for us to do this now? ”

The relationship between Hao Shaoqi and Liu Zongmin is acceptable, Liu Zongmin was a blacksmith before following Li Zicheng for breakfast, although he is from Shaanxi like Li Zicheng, but when he was young, he followed his father to earn a living in Sichuan, and he suffered a lot since he was a child. He has been oppressed by the gentry and wealthy for a long time, and his heart has been distorted, which can be seen from what he has done in his daily life.

Now Hao Shaoqi said this means that he faintly warned Liu Zongmin not to forget his roots, but Liu Zongmin didn't hear it at all, and before Hao Shaoqi finished speaking, his eyes were wide open, his eyes were red, and he slammed his fist on the horse's back, and said loudly: "I his eight-generation ancestor!" Lao Tzu said that he followed the king to win the world, and when he arrived in Sichuan, he had to kill all those squires! Now you also know why Lao Tzu always kills those squires and rich families everywhere he goes, right? Lao Tzu is going to kill all their men, sleep all over their women, and make them cuckolds for the rest of their lives! ”

Liu Zongmin's scolding was very loud, which made the people around him look sideways, and even the low crying sound came from the carriages behind him, and the woman who was snatched by Liu Zongmin was in the carriage.

The low crying made Liu Zongmin even more annoyed, and he shouted angrily: "Turtle son, if any of you cry again, Lao Tzu will sell her to the kiln and let her pick up a hundred guests every day, and take the dirtiest and smelliest kiln sunspots." (Liu Zongmin refers to the peasants who dig coal, no matter what era it is, the workers who dig coal are always the dirtiest and hardest.) ）”

After listening to Liu Zongmin's words, the crying in the carriage slowly disappeared, and he was irritable and jerked the horse, the war horse neighed, and ran forward, and the galloping war horse knocked several soldiers who had no time to avoid it to the ground, causing a burst of screams

Just when Liu Zongmin slowly led the army to retreat through Sichuan to Shaanxi, Wei Jiang also led the Fifth Army to follow Liu Zongmin's footsteps.

Wei Jiang, who had been the commander of Laizhou, was not a descendant of Pang Gang, but he had received Pang Gang's life-saving grace and his orders had always been carried out without discount, and after learning the news that Pang Gang had established himself as king, he also quickly expressed his loyalty to Pang Gang, so Pang Gang promoted him to the position of commander of the Fifth Army after expanding the army.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Legion is the lowest among the five legions that the Great Zhou Army now has, it cannot hide the fact that this is a real legion after all, and the strength of 20,000 people is also genuine, for this reason, Wei Jiang is full of gratitude to Pang Gang in his heart.

I think when he was a commander in Laizhou, the soldiers and horses in his hands were only thousands, and they were all some soldiers, a few years ago because of the mutiny launched by the brain soldiers almost killed him, now well, holding 20,000 male soldiers in his hands, he swore that he must mix up well, must not embarrass the prince, if it is mixed well, said that the prince becomes the emperor, he can also mix a general or a hereditary lord dangdang, that is a great thing to glorify the ancestors.

At this time, the situation was like this, after Pang Gang swore an oath, he personally led two corps of 40,000 troops from Wuchang to attack Jiujiang, and Wei Jiang, who was old and heavy, was ordered by Pang Gang to lead an army alone to kill Hunan.

After the enthusiastic Wei Jiang went all the way to Hunan, he found that the Liukou had already withdrawn, and Wei Jiang became more and more depressed, along the way he saw nothing except the desolate fields, the dilapidated fields and the homeless people, until he passed Changsha and still did not find the shadow of the Liukou, and the unwilling Wei Jiang led the army to pursue all the way.

Later, Wei Jiang learned that the feelings of those rogues had been withdrawn before they came, looking at the dilapidated scenery, Wei Jiang couldn't help but sigh to Hao Dayong, who had been promoted to guerrilla general next to him: "What the prince said is really right, those rogues who don't produce will never do anything else except destruction, and the good Hunan has become this dilapidated appearance in less than a year after falling into their hands, if they are allowed to stay for a few more years, Hunan will be ruined." ”

Hao Dayong also nodded: "Lord Wei, a few years ago, when I followed the prince to fight the tartars, I also saw the cruelty of the tartars, why do you think that the virtues of these rogues are no worse than the tartars, no wonder the prince calls those rogues locusts, look at the good deeds these people have done, there is not even the bark left in the places they have passed." ”

Seeing the scene on the side of the road, Hao Dayong, Wei Jiang, and the young veterans who had fought with the Tartars were better, but most of the Fifth Legion were new recruits, and at first glance, many people's faces changed color when they saw the corpses that kept falling on the side of the road and even the bark of the trees had been peeled off to satisfy their hunger.

After marching for a while, a sound of horses' hooves came, and two people who did not collect their horses came from the front, and when they arrived in front of Wei Jiang, the two of them hurriedly raised their hands and saluted: "Lord Qiqi, the front has found a team of thieves and thieves, the number is about three thousand, please show me." ”

Wei Jiang, who was unhappy in his heart, said angrily: "What else is there to ask, notify the avant-garde battalion and exterminate them all!" ”

"Yes!"

The night of the order did not close a dock and ran to the front

(To be continued)