Chongzhen five years, the end of May!

Zhu Yuanzhang led an army of nearly 8,000 people to the edge of the Yellow River and prepared to start crossing the river.

Desperately Saburo had been waiting here for a long time, and on the banks of the Yellow River were moored many ferries he had collected in advance, ranging in size and number, with a total of more than 100 boats, and many improvised rafts were also mixed in them, which was very spectacular. Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang coming, Saburo hugged his fists desperately: "Brother Zhu, there are no officers and soldiers or rebels on the other side of the river, and it is safe to cross the river now." ”

"Excellent! Then start crossing the river! Zhu Yuanzhang ordered.

Eight thousand people crossing the river is not a matter of a moment and a half, and it is impossible to complete it without two days, so Zhu Yuanzhang is not in a hurry, he first asked the old team to wait for 500 elite soldiers to cross the river, guard the river beach, and then let the new soldiers follow the crossing, so as to ensure safety.

Xue Hongqi watched Zhu Yuanzhang's army start to cross the river, and her heart became inexplicably nervous, her nervousness was understandable, human beings, when they left their hometown for the first time and set foot in an unknown world, they would have a nervous mood. Although Xue Hongqi used to wander around, but never out of Shaanxi, everywhere she went, everyone spoke Shaanxi, so she has not yet had the feeling of "leaving her hometown", this time crossing the Yellow River, is the first time to set foot in an unfamiliar territory, she couldn't help but come over and ask: "Brother Zhu, the situation on the other side of the river...... Belch...... I don't know at all, can you talk to my little sister? ”

After Zhao Sheng, who lit the lamp last year, fought with the officers and soldiers on the other side of the river, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the desperate Saburo to set up a small black shop in the city across the river to find out information, and now he knows a little about the situation on the other side of the river.

He said lightly: "The place where we crossed the river in the past is called Puzhou, which was an important town in ancient times, and was once built in the capital, which is one of the six major cities in ancient times, and a very famous place!" Bai said that the mountains are at the end, and the Yellow River flows into the sea. If you want to be poor, go to the next level. You've probably heard of this poem, right? It is the famous poet Wang Zhilian wrote "Climbing the Stork Tower", the stork tower in this poem is located on the bank of the Yellow River in Puzhou. There is also the Pufu Temple in Puzhou, which is the place where Cui Yingying and Zhang Shengyuan set three lives in "The Legend of the West Chamber......"

Zhu Yuanzhang said a lot, it was Tang poetry again, and it was Yuan opera, all of which were things that Xue Hongqi had never heard of, which made her confused, although she didn't understand, but she felt that Puzhou was so powerful: "It sounds like a very powerful place, are the officers and soldiers there powerful?" ”

"Hah! The officers and soldiers are not powerful. Zhu Yuanzhang smiled: "At the beginning, the 36th Battalion also crossed the river from this vicinity, and as soon as it passed, the defenders of Puzhou were beaten to a pulp, and then the 36th Battalion was divided into dozens of troops, which were scattered from here to the entire west of the mountain, and several of the rebels were still circling around near Puzhou, so Puzhou is also one of the places with the greatest influence of the Liukou, and the government is now very headache here." ”

"I see! Then if we add these two strands, won't it become the thirty-eighth battalion. Xue Hongqi smiled-

Two days later, the army had crossed the river, and there was no danger or danger, and there was not even half a person on the other side who came to disturb them, and it seemed that within a radius of dozens of miles on the opposite bank, there were uninhabited wilderness. Zhu Yuanzhang can guess the reason, Zhao Sheng, who lit the lamp last year, was active on the other side of the river, and fought a bloody battle with Cao Wenzhao's troops, and it is very normal that there are no people within a radius of dozens of miles on the other side...... It is estimated that the good people have long been swept away or killed by the Lamplight Division, and those who are occasionally caught will be combed by the officers and soldiers again...... If you get it down like this, it's strange that there are still living people.

The army settled down on the bank of the river, eliminating the fatigue caused by crossing the river, and then, under the order of Zhu Yuanzhang, began to advance south along the riverbank.

Because this is a hard ground and unfamiliar with life, Zhu Yuanzhang attaches great importance to intelligence work, and the scouts are released fifteen miles away, and Xue Hongqi also volunteered to send thirty horse thieves to serve as scouts temporarily, and the slightest wind and grass around the army cannot be seen in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

They soon passed by a town, there was a stone tablet inserted at the entrance of the town, with the inscription "Dongzhang Town", behind the tablet was a dilapidated house, the houses were all black, apparently burned by fire, of course there was not a single living person in the town, not even a complete instrument could be seen, the ground was full of rubble and broken tiles, and the charcoal-burned roof beams fell horizontally to the ground, and as soon as the feet stepped on it, they clicked and then turned to black ash.

They left the burned Dongzhang Town, continued to walk south, and after pretending, they came to another town, this town is called "Zhangying Town", the situation here is the same as Dongzhang Town, the whole town has been burned, no living person has survived, and everywhere there is a smell of destruction.

Xue Hongqi pouted: "It seems that the situation in Shanxi is not much better than that in Shaanxi!" ”

"Hmm!" Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "Since the 36th Battalion crossed the river into the west of the mountain, it has been echoed by the local poor, and the team has swelled to 200,000 in an instant, which can be seen. ”

With a heavy heart, all the leaders marched south.

After more than half a day, Zhu Yuanzhang's scouts and Xue Hongqi's horse thief scouts rushed back at the same time, shouting excitedly: "I found an inhabited town ahead that is still intact." ”

Logically speaking, what's so exciting about discovering a town? But...... In the midst of this journey, which was like a journey to the end, the sudden discovery of an inhabited town became a matter of joy for the scouts.

Even Xue Hongqi's spirit was lifted: "Great, I thought there was no one alive in Shanxi...... A place to scare individuals to death. ”

All the leaders actually felt the same way, and nodded in unison.

Zhu Yuanzhang's brows furrowed deeply, and he ordered: "Okay, let's go and burn this town." ”

"What?" The leaders were shocked together: "You want to burn it?" Zhu Bugs...... Let's walk for a day, and we finally see a town where people live, but do we want to burn it with our own hands? ”

"Don't forget that we crossed the river to attract the attention of the government!" Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and said: "If we don't burn, kill and loot, how can we achieve the purpose of attracting the attention of the government?" Not only this town, but every town we come across in the future, must be burned. ”

"Wouldn't the people of that town be miserable?" Wang Er was a little unimpressed by this strategy, and he said seriously: "Even if it is for strategic needs, you can't burn down the town where the people live, I oppose it!" ”

Miao Mei also stood up: "Brother Zhu, I don't think this matter is very good, you have unparalleled wisdom, think of another way to attract the attention of the government." ”

Xue Hongqi's eyes widened as he saw them arguing, and couldn't help but interject: "What's wrong with burning a town?" We horse thieves do this kind of thing all the time...... I didn't expect that the leaders of the famous Huanglong Cottage were all weak in heart, and they didn't have a hot hand before me. ”

"We are the righteous army of the Heavenly Dao, not the bandits who burn and loot!" Wang Er said loudly: "This is what Zhu Bugling said when he took me to get into trouble, I will remember it for the rest of my life, you woman knows a fart, go cool." ”

He pushed Xue Hongqi's words back, then turned to Zhu Yuanzhang and said, "Brother Zhu, we can't do the same thing as ordinary bandits. ”

"Hah, I guessed you'd object." Zhu Yuanzhang was still frowning just now, but now he suddenly changed to a smile: "Since we don't burn the town, then if we want to attract the attention of the government, there is only one way to go......"

"Which way?" The leaders asked together.

"It's easy! Besiege! Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously: "Puzhou City is one of the six great cities in ancient times, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, which is very good. Although the 36th Battalion had hundreds of thousands of people, they did not dare to touch a single hair of this city...... Let's burn ten towns, it's better to attack this city to make the government nervous...... But brothers, you have to think about it, the difficulty of burning the town is completely different from the siege of the city, do you want to implement your own justice even if it is easy to seek the difficulty? ”

"Of course!" Wang Er and Miao Mei said in unison: "If you want me to be a villain who burns, kills and loots, it is better to die under Puzhou City." ”

"Hahaha! You can say that again! Zhu Yuanzhang gave a thumbs up: "It is worthy of being my brother of Huanglong Cottage, then let's change to attack the city." ”

"Siege again?" Xue Hongqi remembered the difficulties encountered when attacking Dali, and couldn't help but pout: "When attacking the city, my cavalry was useless at all...... Come here, Generalissimo, shall we disguise the grain transport team again? ”

"It's not going to work this time...... Xu Renjie spread his hands: "We don't know much about the rice business in Puzhou, and we don't even know which rice shops there are in the city, and we don't know when they will have a grain transport team in and out of the city...... I'm not counting the odds! ”

In fact, Puzhou City is a state city, which is very different from the county seat! The county seat is often very small, the city wall is not high, and the defense force is not much, but the state city is often much larger than the county seat, the city wall will be at least four or five meters high, and the defenders are more than twice as many as the county seat, and the city head of the state city is equipped with cannons, and the turret and barracks for sanitation will be erected on the hill outside the city.

In fact, in the early stage of the peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty, almost no peasant army conquered the state city and the capital city, Li Zicheng Zhang Xianzhong and others, and only had the strength to attack the county seat.

The leaders thought of attacking the state city, they all felt that it was tricky, and their hearts couldn't help but feel heavy, and at this moment, another scout rushed back from the front and shouted: "Brother Zhu, we found that a rebel army is rushing towards the town we just discovered...... Looks like they're going to burn and loot! ”

"What?" Everyone was shocked together: "Damn, we'd rather attack the state city than let that town go, which blindless bastard actually wants to deal with it?" ”

(To be continued)