August is a bumper month for Baishui County, Chengcheng County and Huanglongshan County. The rice and wheat harvests would normally have been poor, but now three grains, corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes, have filled the void so that people don't have to worry about starvation.

It was a terrible month for Chongzhen. The border army was making trouble everywhere, mutinies were happening everywhere, and the worst of all was the Tartars in Liaodong, who seemed to be unwilling to continue to be silent and began to move. Earlier, Chongzhen was rarely excited by Yuan Chonghuan's dedication to five years of peace and Liaoce, but now he was depressed by these guys and the people in Shaanxi.

Naturally, the newly allocated 500,000 taels of domestic funds will not be able to pull up the army in the first place. Even if you pull it up, you can't form a combat force. In fact, what Chongzhen didn't know was that the previous recruitment was because Governor Zhang's nephew was also in the army, so the food and salary could be supplemented. Now that Governor Zhang has lost his nephew, and has not placed any relatives to join the so-called new army, this money can naturally be deducted.

At least, the salaries used for recruiting soldiers in the five prefectures were only 20,000 taels, which meant that each prefecture only had 400 taels to conscript.

500,000 to eat 480,000 in one go, even the prefect in the rebel area can have such a terrible appearance, and how loyal can the prefect of the peaceful region be? The salt tax of the Ming Dynasty is even less than one million taels a year, and it has to be urged and asked in many ways, and the following people will be transported to Beijing, as a government, the Ming Dynasty is indeed a little sad.

The only consolation is that the last building of Lai Zongdao has not been changed, and the Shaanxi tax exemption has still been implemented for two years. This directly led to a decrease of about 70 percent in the banditry situation in Shaanxi compared with the beginning. The subordinates of the rebels from all walks of life either fled overnight or fled in groups, and the ranks shrank on a large scale.

In fact, 1628 was not the best year of rebellion, and it was a little rainy day. It wasn't until the second half of the year that there was a real drought, with no revenue and heavy taxes, that forced the people to rebel on a large scale. This rebellion will reach its peak with the continuous drought of 1630.

Now Zhang Hongbin revolted in advance, which led to the rebellion of these local forces, but when the timing was not right, a pacification edict from the Ming Dynasty made most of the rebels return to their respective hometowns for farming. A small number of solid rebels have also lost the support of the people one after another, either taking refuge in the larger rebel forces or disappearing into the long river of history.

This is actually Zhang Hongbin's deliberate behavior, he needs more rebels to attract the attention of the imperial court and relieve his pressure. But since it has been opened, there is no need to let too many people harm this great country. It's good now, the famous anti-thieves in history, except for Luo Rucai, Wang Jiayin, Gao Yingxiang and Lao Huihui are a force, only the Salvation Army can continue to make trouble in the Ming Brain, and the remaining small anti-kings such as the sweeping king, a dragon, and Lao Li Tou disappeared in the long river of history before they became famous.

The guard has been completely frightened, and even many military households in the guard have joined the ranks of the rebels. Except for a few guards on the border, the central part of Shaanxi is almost undefended. But if it drags on for a long time, Zhang Hongbin believes that Chongzhen will even drop the border army to suppress the bandits, so before facing the most elite troops of the Ming Dynasty, it is better to seize the time to fight monsters and upgrade them.

At this moment, he chose Pucheng County, which was originally the territory of the big red wolf, and of course, the big red wolf was not able to break the county seat.

To capture such a county town, Wang Er said that 5,000 people were needed; Li Dingguo thought about it and said that he wanted 3,000 people; Yang Hong gave the final answer, two return guns plus 1,000 people are enough. Different from Wang Er, who only knows how to fight bravely, and different from Li Dingguo, who is still immature, Yang Hong analyzed the strategy and tactics of how to break through Pucheng County, as well as the current situation in Pucheng County, and finally proved that one thousand people are enough to defeat Pucheng County.

At the same time, I would add, that is: "If you don't want those boys to really devote themselves to the bloody battle, three hundred people are enough!" ”

Wang Er and the others were not convinced, only Yang Hong was an officer of the Ming Dynasty, who had learned the art of war and really been in charge of the army, and was a practical talent. They are all from ordinary people, they have little culture, and the main cultural knowledge and military knowledge are all taught by Zhang Hongbin, so naturally they will not be comprehensive and practical.

Yang Hong has been an instructor for a while, and even the most stubborn Wang Er has to admire Yang Hong's training methods. Seeing that after more than a month of training, the soldiers may not be considered real soldiers, but according to Yang Hong's meaning, there is no problem in capturing three or four county towns in one go.

Of course, he said that it was taken without damage, or with minimal losses.

Entering the territory of Pucheng County, there is depression everywhere, even if it is so close to Baishui County and Chengcheng County, it is still like hell on earth.

For nearly 50 miles, there was not a single living person in sight. All you can see on the ground are bones, bones that no one has buried, and of course abandoned villages.

"What kind of sin did the big red wolf do!" When Tie Niu saw this, he couldn't help but feel his brain bruise, and he looked indignant.

Many of the people present were former people, and when they saw this qiē, it would be absolutely deceiving to say that they were not angry.

"This is the difference between the rogues and the rebels, who are destroying while carefully building a better world; As for the rogues, they only know how to destroy, they develop in destruction, they grow in destruction, and they can only survive in the process of continuous destruction. Li Dingguo summed it up.

"I said this as if the young master was in my ear...... Dingguo Boss, why have you been so literary lately, if you continue like this, I suspect that you are actually a civilian official! Iron Bull laughed.

"It's not bad!" Li Dingguo disagreed, but was a little proud.

"Okay, you two, thirty miles ahead is Pucheng County, everyone cheer me up!" Yang Hong let out a low cry in front.

Everyone immediately cheered up, especially Li Dingguo, who didn't need to come out this time, the reason why he came here was not to command the army to fight, but to follow Yang Hong and learn the art of war and the use of tactics. Since he was already about to start fighting, he naturally didn't dare to be distracted anymore.

"Scout, in the past, I told the officials of Pucheng County that if they didn't want to die, opening the door and surrendering was their only choice, and we only gave them two quarters of an hour to think about it!" Yang Hong said to one of the scouts beside him.

"Heartless boss, why are you talking so much nonsense with them, can't you just kill them?" Iron Bull was a little dissatisfied.

"Two quarters of an hour, just enough time for us to set up the return cannon, understand?" Yang Hong scolded.

Tie Niu understands it, and directly gives the other party a Jianyì, and the other party's surrender will naturally be exempted from a military disaster. If they do not surrender, they will inevitably discuss this for a period of time, and they will take advantage of this time to set up the return artillery, but the other party is afraid that they will not have time to send people out to make trouble...... It might be better if you send someone out to make trouble, just kill it. In the end, the two return guns were erected, and the demise of Pucheng County began to enter the countdown.

Thankfully, Pucheng County is not large, so there will be no artillery. If it is these border cities in Liaodong, there will be a large number of artillery, and even the Franco machine artillery and the Hongyi cannon, which are more powerful than the return artillery, and the return cannon is almost finished.

Now, the Salvation Army is bullying Pucheng County, as well as most of the internal cities in Shaanxi, which do not have the disadvantage of artillery.

The scout shouted in the past, just as Yang Hong had long predicted, the county order inside would rather live and die with the city than surrender.

If you fall into a thief, if you spread it, your career will be over. In addition, the county order has the obligation to protect the county seat from being occupied, the so-called city is dead, and the county seat is captured, even if the county order is still alive, it will still be cut down afterwards because of the loss of the city. No matter what the reason is, even if it is said that this county order is stupid to read and can't turn his head, and he has not considered that the righteous army may become the ruler of the country in the future, anyway, at this moment, Pucheng County is closed to the city gate, and it is not surrendered.

The county order, at this moment, I am afraid that I have already made a plan to let the people of Pucheng County accompany themselves to the funeral!

It is said that officials are the parents of the people, and the parents who force their children to bury themselves with them......

It is said that 'tiger poison does not eat children', are the officials of these years really worse than animals?

There were already a lot of 'defenders' on the city, 'defenders' wearing coarse linen clothes with simple tools such as wooden sticks.

The tragedy of the Ming Dynasty, the tragedy of China?

The scouts could even see that the faces of these civilians who had just become defenders showed expressions of fear. They didn't want to die, so they had to defend the city.

Maybe the role of officials also has some roles, but what the big red wolf did in Pucheng County before also made them have to defend the city desperately. They saw the Salvation Army and the Red Wolves as the same team, and thought that if the city was broken, they would not survive.

Public opinion is very easy to guide, and the county order uses such a method to make them very consciously come out to defend the city.

"Aim at the gate, don't hurt by mistake...... They are all the people of the Ming Dynasty, and the king said before that I am equal to the same root and the same origin, so as to retain some more vitality for Huaxia. Yang Hong turned around and said to the soldier who operated the return cannon.

The few people in charge of the operation nodded, set the angle, and started the first round of test firing.

It's a pity that the shot was a bit high, and the stone bullet fell directly into the city, but it destroyed at least three or four houses in a moment.

"All the houses that were destroyed, remember to register them and make them up after the war. Keep shooting! Yang Hong said something to Li Dingguo beside him, and then continued to order.

The second round of shooting began, and the other party had nothing to do but silently watch this qiē.

So, the gate was smashed open. The entire gate was deformed and fell backwards.

"Assault!" Yang Hong didn't talk nonsense, just let Tie Niu's sword and shield soldiers and the pikemen temporarily led by Li Dingguo charge.

The army, with almost no losses, entered the city gate and entered the county seat of Pucheng......