Just when the battle situation in Longdong County in the south was in suspense, the battle situation in Meishan County in the north was particularly "calm".

On May 27, after the reconnaissance troops searched almost the entire western part of Meishan and still found no trace of the enemy, Shangguan Yonglun and Ding Daniu, together with their deputies Deng Dashan and Mi Da, decided to divide the troops into two routes again and sweep from the north and south directions to clear out the small rebel forces that might be left behind, and agreed to meet in Meishan County five days later.

On May 29, Shangguan Yonglun led the Tokugawa Second Garrison Division of the Northern Front into Majiaji, an important town in the northwest of Meishan County, and encountered a small group of rebels, annihilating them in one fell swoop, capturing 1,298 people.

On May 30, Ding Daniu led the 1st Tokugawa Garrison Division on the southern line to regain Shilipu, an important town in the south of Meishan, which was warmly welcomed by local residents.

The weather is still bad, and the summer season has been hot for several days, but the bad weather has not stopped the local people from longing for a stable and peaceful life.

Marching on the spacious street, the pace of the army was obviously much slower, looking at the people who were huddled in the streets and alleys under the scorching sun and braving the scorching heat, Ding Daniu said to his deputy Deng Dashan next to him with deep feelings: "It seems that the desire for a happy life is enough to make it difficult and timid, and from the welcome of the people here, you can know the disgusting Cheng dù of the rebellious army, which is also doomed to the end of defeat of these rebellious army." ”

"Lord Ding, I'm afraid you don't know much about the life of the countrymen, if a real peasant can really have a bite to eat, and who is willing to risk killing his head to participate in any rebellion, it is forced to have no way to embark on this road. I was born in a peasant family, and I was well aware of these situations. In my hometown of Yanyun County, almost every year, there are many farmers who cannot pay taxes and their families are ruined. is to fall into the grass for a coward, or to kill officials and make food, and live one day at a time. ”

After a pause, Deng Dashan, the commander of the First Garrison Division on horseback, sighed deeply, "If the whole world is like Tokugawa County and Northwest County under the rule of the county guard, I think there are still any rebellious rebels." ”

Speaking of these rebel rebels. Deng Dashan felt a complicated feeling in his heart, he deeply understood the state of mind of those desperate people, who is willing to rob their homes and become bandits, and who is willing to risk the torture of a thousand knives to become enemies of the imperial court? That's just a helpless choice.

Although Ding Daniu was quite familiar with Deng Dashan, he didn't know Deng Dashan's family background, and hurriedly asked, "Then how did you join the army?" ”

"My family is quite well-off, but the large number of people in my family has become more and more difficult to maintain, but fortunately I studied with my neighbor's private school teacher for a few years. Only then did he join the army and eat with his mouth. Deng Dashan is still immersed in the memories of the past, and his voice is much lower.

Ding Da Niu also snorted from his nose, "Now the officials at all levels of the empire are becoming more and more corrupt and incompetent, and the officials are also taking the opportunity to collect the people's fat and ointment, and the common people are even more unable to survive. Not at all. ”

After looking around carefully, Ding Daniu was a little surprised. The surrounding houses and buildings are still relatively intact, there are no imaginary ruins, and the welcoming people are quite passable, and it seems that the situation reflected by the intelligence organization is really accurate, saying that there is a volunteer team active in the south of Meishan, and has defeated the rebel army several times. As a result, the rebel army was never able to fully control the southern part of Meishan County. Since his army has been stationed in Shilipu, he will have to see the true appearance of this team when the time comes.

Just thinking like this in his heart, he suddenly heard Deng Dashan's surprised voice: "Lord Ding, look, whose army is that?" ”

Keep your head up. Looking at the past with Deng Dashan's eyes, he has arrived at the town center of Shilipu, there is a decent square here, it is quite good to have a square of this scale at the market town level, in addition to some officials and gentry-like people on the square, there are several columns of soldiers neatly arranged, but the clothes are a little messy, but the momentum is very strong, could it be that this group of people is those volunteers?

As the distance got closer and closer, the faces and images of the group of people who came to greet them gradually became clearer. The first one was a fat man who looked like a gentry, the left was a middle-aged man dressed as a businessman, and the images of the two on the right immediately attracted the attention of Ding Daniu and Deng Dashan.

The one on the left is about 30 years old, of medium height, with a thin face, burnt skin, a pair of eyes that are very smart, a short beard under the chin, and a calm demeanor; The person on the right is only in his twenties, tall, with a proud momentum between his eyebrows, his golden hair is combed with a ponytail, and he is thrown behind his back at will, looking very trendy, but he has a sheathed giant sword in the soil in front of him with both hands, and looks coldly at Ding Da Niu and his party who are facing him.

"Two adults, Xia Guan is the first season of Shilipu Town, and he has been waiting here for a long time."

When Ding Daniu and Deng Dashan dismounted from the saddle and stepped forward, the fat man who looked like a gentleman greeted him warmly and introduced himself.

"This is the president of our Shilipu Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Chu Juezhi, the largest wine merchant in the south of our Meishan County."

After introducing the businessman-like person on the left, this Ji Gaoming introduced the two people on his right, "This is Mr. Long Zizi, the leader of our volunteer soldiers in Shilipu, and this is his deputy Hillman." ”

Immediately afterwards, Ji Gaoming made a speech of thanks to the government army for coming to save the people from fire and water, and after some cold noise, Deng Dashan left to arrange the camp of the troops, and Ding Daniu walked into the town office with a few people.

As early as before leaving, Qin Duan had a special relationship with the local government officials to minimize resistance and win their support, and Ding Daniu was no exception.

While talking enthusiastically with several officials, I also learned about the basic situation of Shilipu. Shilipu is the most important and largest market town in the south of Meishan, it is located in the traffic artery, the land is fertile, the climate is very suitable for planting grapes, there are patches of grape plantations everywhere, several market towns around are also important grape producing areas, Shilipu also concentrates several famous wine workshops in the Great Qin Empire, and the red wine produced is well-known throughout the continent. During the grape harvest season, the vineyards in the surrounding areas send the best grapes to Shilipu, and the horse-drawn cart pulling the grapes is said to be ten miles away at the longest time, hence the name Shilipu.

But this is more than ten years ago, since the East Tengger steppe Huns became stronger, soon controlled the northern passage across the eastern, central and western continents, they not only levied heavy taxes on the passing caravans, but also seized goods at will, and even many military personnel also disguised themselves as bandits to rob the passing caravans, the local social security also deteriorated rapidly, many real bandits also chose this important northern passage as a good place to forage, so that no one dared to take this once glorious trade route.

The detour to the south of the channel, not only the distance is much farther, but also the intermediate checkpoints are also as many as a cow's hair, transported to the middle continent, the price has risen several times, and transported to the west continent, the price can even rise to ten times the factory price. Within the empire, except for the upper class and ordinary people, wine was not very fond of wine. Due to the above reasons, the wine industry in the southern part of Meishan County declined rapidly and has been sluggish, until the Qin Dynasty defeated the Huns in the past two years, and the vineyard owners and wine merchants of Meishan County saw a glimmer of dawn in the dark night.

While talking and laughing, Ding Daniu also learned some information about the volunteers. Most of the members of the volunteers came from the children of farmers in the vineyards in the south of Meishan, and some of them were recruited from other places at the expense of the town's chamber of commerce, totaling about 2,000 people.

Their leader, Long Zi, was originally an officer of a thousand commanders of the local army of Meishan County, two years ago because of discord with his superiors at the time, and was personally enmitigated by the superiors, and he was dismissed from the military for some reason, and he was dismissed, and he returned to his hometown Shilipu to make a living as a farmer, until this year there was a riot in the whole territory of Meishan County, and then developed into a full-scale rebellion, and the rebels looted everywhere, which caused the panic of the merchants of Shilipu, so they jointly funded with the town office to recruit volunteers in the name of the town office, conduct training, and defend their homes, Long himself was also hired as the commander-in-chief, responsible for leading this group of volunteers.

After he took over the leadership of the volunteers, on the one hand, he stepped up the training of the volunteers, and on the other hand, he recruited some reservists from Meishan County, who had been trained by himself, and quickly formed a certain combat effectiveness.

In several battles in which the rebels came to attack, he led the volunteers to take advantage of their familiarity with the local terrain to adopt guerrilla tactics of fighting if they could win and running away if they could not win, and at the same time constantly harassing the supply lines of the rebels, so that the rebels never succeeded in fighting the rebels until the rebels disappeared some time ago.

Ding Da Niu was very appreciative of the tactics adopted by the dragon himself, and when the enemy was strong and I was weak, he was not only able to save himself completely, but also dealt a powerful blow to the enemy, which was indeed a great achievement. Long Zi saw that Ding Da Niu was very appreciative of the tactics he used and the results he had achieved, and he felt very proud in his heart, but he also knew that because he had not encountered a strong opponent, a really large-scale chaotic army would attack, and his tactics might not be applicable.

Hillman, who had always had a cold attitude, saw that Ding Da Niu had an approachable attitude, and did not look down on the rebels because he was a regular army, but praised the achievements of his own side, and his attitude changed greatly, and he also took the initiative to talk to Ding Da Niu.

After the relationship was already relatively harmonious, Ding Daniu still asked the question he was most concerned about: "Mr. Long has led the volunteers to resist the harassment of the rebels here for a certain period of time, have you found anything abnormal in the activities of the rebels recently?" (To be continued......)