Zhu Yuanzhang went back to the house to clean up, put on a tight-fitting suit, hung a Pu knife around his waist, and stuffed a few flatbreads in his arms. I don't know how many days it will take, and as the manager of the Ma family's partial courtyard, it is not okay for him to leave his post without permission, so he asked Li Chujiu to help him watch the affairs of the partial courtyard, and then went to Ma Qianjiu to report it, saying that he was going to inspect the treacherous villages scattered by the Ma family.

The Ma family's industry is not only around the Ma family's compound, there are many villages nearby that are tricky in the Ma family, such as Xigu Village is one of them, these villages are managed by the side courtyard, so it is normal for Zhu Yuanzhang to go to inspect a circle, he is usually calm and calm, and the director is also hardworking, Ma Qianjiu let him go without doubt.

Only then did Zhu Yuanzhang and Wang Er go out together, and they hurried over in the direction where the officers and soldiers were walking. Both of them traveled extremely fast, and it didn't take long for them to catch up with the tail of the officer and soldier, and then they were far away, not close to the past.

The scouts of the officers and soldiers soon found Zhu Yuanzhang and Wang Er, who were following behind and planned to watch the excitement, but they didn't take it to heart.

In ancient times, when marching and fighting, there were often people watching from the side, which was a very common phenomenon, for example, there was a story told in the "Zizhi Tongjian" that there was an old minister in the Northern Zhou Dynasty who rebelled and brought more than 100,000 troops. Yang Jian also led an army of more than 100,000 to quell the rebellion and fought under the enemy's fortified city. On the high slope not far away, there are tens of thousands of people watching the battle and watching the excitement, and the people in the city have also gone out of the city, bringing small benches, melon seeds and peanuts and other snacks, and there are still people holding parasols to watch the excitement together. Later, Yang Jian was about to lose, and he ordered arrows to be shot at the onlookers, which frightened the people into fleeing into the city, and as a result, the enemy formation was disrupted...... Victory!

In fact, in modern wars, there are still ordinary people watching the excitement on the side of the battlefield, but the planes and artillery are bombarded several kilometers apart, and they can't see any taste, and the risk of watching the war in modern times is too high, and it is easy to lie down and get shot, so the atmosphere of onlookers watching the war has been slightly restrained. A few days ago, there was a news that a certain person was watching from the side of the battlefield and took pictures with his mobile phone, but a stray bullet flew and hit the mobile phone in his hand with a snap...... Tsk, the powerful mobile phone, not only can take pictures, but also can be used as body armor, everyone remember to check the bulletproof effect when you buy a mobile phone in the future...... Let's get back to business.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Wang Er followed the officers and soldiers from afar, but the officers and soldiers ignored them, and just marched in the direction of Dongzi Cliff.

Dongzi Cliff, located at the junction of Baishui and Chengcheng, is a strange shape of the hill, or it is not a mountain, but four or five hills put together to form, between the mountains and the formation of four or five ravines, there is a deep cliff, the cliff is up and down, there are caves everywhere, so this place is called Dongzi Cliff.

It has been several months since Zheng Yanfu fell to the grass this spring, and a simple cottage has been built on the Dongzi Cliff, and the village is built on the top of the most dangerous mountain cliff, and there are two mountain roads to go up and down before and after. A wooden fence was built around the village, there were simple arrow towers, and a lot of rolling stones and sassal wood were prepared, and the rogue robbers who came in the name of Zheng Yanfu had more than 400 people.

The speed of the march of the officers and men was not slow, and the distance of 30 miles was passed in a single day. In the evening, the officers and men had already arrived at the outskirts of Dongzi Yashan, lit a campfire, and buried pots to make rice.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Wang Er also took out cakes to eat.

Wang Er glanced at the camp of the officers and soldiers from a distance, and said with a smile: "These guys eat worse than us, we have bread, what kind of paste are they eating?" ”

Zhu Yuanzhang took a bite of the cake and sighed lightly: "The imperial court is short of money, very short of money!" ”

"The court is short of money?" Wang Er said dissatisfiedly: "The officials spend every day drinking and drinking, and the emperor's relatives are all prosperous and wealthy, and I don't believe them when they say they lack money." ”

"Well, officials are not short of money." Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously: "The court is lacking!" ”

"Isn't the official the imperial court?" Wang Erqi said.

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and stopped talking. With Wang Er's knowledge, it is impossible for him to make it clear that officials and the court cannot be separated. One reason why the court of the Ming Dynasty lacked money came from land annexation, and there were too many tax evasions such as "trickery", and the court could not collect taxes, and the second reason came from the unreasonable taxation, which collected low taxes from merchants, high taxes from farmers, and tax exemption from the gentry class...... These traps harmed the tax system of the Ming Dynasty, and it was he Zhu Yuanzhang himself who formulated it, and he really didn't have the face to continue. I just hope that there will be an opportunity in the future to correct these wrong decisions.

Wang Er smiled again: "Look at the mush these officers and soldiers eat, you said that they can win Zheng Yanfu, I really don't believe it, you will lose this bet." ”

"Wait and see!" Zhu Yuanzhang pillowed his hands on the ground and lay down: "Within three days, you will see." ”

Early the next morning, the officers and men pulled out the camp and began to climb the mountain. The mountain was gentle at first, but after walking for a while, it became more and more complicated, with a ditch in the east and a cliff in the west, and the difficult mountain road seriously interfered with the marching speed of the officers and men. And the mountains are not cool, because of the drought, the trees appear weak, the water in the leaves is not full, the air is hot, and there is no wind.

After walking for a long time, they did not touch a stream, and the water bladders carried by the soldiers were quickly half empty. The morale was somewhat shaken, and the officers and men began to be lazy, either walking slowly, or taking advantage of the commander's inattention, they sat down to rest.

Wang Er became more and more convinced that this army of officers and soldiers was not able to fight, and in front of the heroes, these rabble would definitely collapse.

In the afternoon of that day, the officers and men finally arrived at the bottom of the cave cliff, and when they raised their heads, they could see the cottage on the cliff, and the crude wooden houses and thatched houses were spread out on the top of the cliff. Several rogues poked their heads out from the top of the cliff, looked at the officers and soldiers below, and then retracted their heads.

"Do you guess, Zheng Yanfu and his gang will choose to defend the village, or rush down to face the battle?" Wang Er had never seen a battle, and he immediately became excited: "I hope they rush down to fight, so it looks energetic, but it should be more advantageous for them to defend the village, if their brains are not burned out, they should be guarding the village." ”

"It's a pity ......" Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly beside him: "Most of the mountain bandits have burned out their brains. In particular, when the officers and soldiers came to suppress the bandits for the first time, the mountain bandits who did not take the officers and soldiers seriously would choose to go down the mountain to face the battle, and they would only know how to retreat to the cottage when they suffered a loss. ”

"Hey, why do you keep saying that Zheng Yanfu will suffer losses? I've been following the officers and soldiers for so long, haven't you noticed yet? They have no combat effectiveness at all, they are all a bunch of cowards. Wang Er was a little dissatisfied.

There was a light whistle on the top of the cliff, followed by a strange scream, a group of strangely dressed rogues opened the gate of the village, and walked down from the top of the mountain, Zheng Yanfu walked in front, his pig-killing knife had long been thrown away, and now he was holding a good knife made of stainless steel, and the minions behind him were holding weapons of various shapes, which were very interesting, some with big axes, some with sledgehammers, some with halberds, some with double whips, and those with maces......

Heroes and heroes, of course, use some Qimen weapons that can show that they are great. For example, most of the weapons used by the Water Margin are very strange, which is made up by the storyteller in order to increase the interest of the story, but in the ears of ordinary people, they think that heroes must be like this to be energetic.

Zhu Yuanzhang estimated that most of the money stolen by this group was spent on building these flashy weapons.

There was also a person behind Zheng Yanfu holding a white flag with four crooked characters written on it: "Walk for Heaven".

Wang Er slapped his thigh and praised: "Good man! Fun! Although we don't know a few big characters, we can barely recognize the appearance of the four words for Tianxingdao. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed: "These guys are carried away and take themselves too seriously." ”

A group of yellow-faced and thin-skinned, ragged soldiers stood in horizontal rows, and the neat spears were pressed forward together, the tips of the spears stretched forward, and the leather shields, wooden shields, and other objects were supported in a row in front of the formation. Although the officers and soldiers were dressed in tatters and the weapons in their hands were not very neat, Zhu Yuanzhang knew at a glance that this was the posture of fighting, not to comment on stories, not to rob in the green forest, and not to perform the Water Margin.

Yang Hong stood in the middle of the formation, the sword in his hand was raised, and he was shouting at the left and right wings of the team to keep them from messing up, and turned to the few people behind him who were holding big drums and gongs: "Pay attention to my orders!" ”

The people who played the drums and gongs were military bands. In ancient times, a military band was indispensable in warfare, because once a war started, thousands of troops and horses, people roared and neighed, and even if the officers yelled with the strength of milk, only a few people around them could hear it, and the orders could not be effectively conveyed in words, and the military band must be used to transmit orders. The so-called drumming marches and Mingjin collects troops, which is what it means.

If you read a novel, during the battle, the officer shouted: "Collect the troops!" "Then all the soldiers heard the order, stopped the fight and obediently retreated, this must be.

Yang Hong was still standing next to the little maid Qiuye, she was pointing at Zheng Yanfu with her finger, and screamed loudly: "It's him, he's Zheng Yanfu......"

"Good!" Yang Hong took advantage of the fact that the battle had not yet begun, and the battlefield was still quiet, and shouted loudly: "Standing at the front, the big man with a steel knife hanging from his waist is Zheng Yanfu, the reward for capturing Zheng Yanfu alive is one hundred taels of silver, and the reward for killing him is fifty taels of silver!" ”

"Yes!" The officers and men were in high spirits.

Zheng Yanfu and his group slowly walked down the hillside in a scattered formation, indifferent to the posture of the officers and soldiers, and let out strange laughter one by one: "The officers and soldiers are playing at home, hahaha, we just need to rush, and we will make sure that the officers and soldiers are overturned." ”

"Look at the Xuanhua big axe in my hand, and I will behead the dog head of the military attaché."

"My mace wants to smash a few heavenly spirit covers to play with, and after this mace is made, it hasn't been stained with blood......

Wang Er looked at these "heroes and heroes" from a distance, his face was full of envy, and he sighed sincerely: "What a good man, he talks and laughs freely in the face of the enemy formation, and I can't wait to join them." ”

"Come on!" Zhu Yuanzhang slapped Wang Er's shoulder and said, "Seriously facing the enemy is the real army." Before the military formation, he was still talking and laughing about the style of heroes and heroes, looking for death! ”