Prior to this, Yu Xiaotian only learned from the news from the Fushan Station that on a certain day in early June, the Northern Detachment patrolling the waters around Yangma Island had defeated the rebel sailors once, and had won a lot, sinking many enemy ships, and capturing hundreds of rebels.

However, because of the difficulty of news transmission in this era, Yu Xiaotian did not know to catch such a big fish as Mao Chenglu before this.

So Yu Xiaotian was furious about this matter, and hurriedly sent someone to Xishan Village to give an order, ordering Liu Wei and Wu Shengtian in Xishan Village, including Luo Feng, not to kill Mao Chenglu, and to treat this person well for the time being, he will be of great use to this person in the future.

Fortunately, although the news was not transmitted to Yu Xiaotian in time, and Yu Xiaotian did not get his instructions for a long time, Liu Wei and others did not dare to dispose of Mao Chenglu without authorization, but only imprisoned him in a cell in the Tuweizi of Yangma Island, although he was not polite, but he did not abuse this guy too much.

Later, after getting Yu Xiaotian's instructions, they quickly moved Mao Chenglu out of the dungeon and transferred him to Xishan Village, placed him in a slightly comfortable place, and took care of him again, and also improved the supply to him, which is just equivalent to when Xiaotian will come in handy with this guy next.

And this time the conflict at sea also surprised Li Jiucheng, originally in his opinion, nine out of ten is safe, just waiting for Mao Chenglu to send someone back the news, driving several big ships full of food and women, returning to Dengzhou City, he waited for not the news of Mao Chenglu's victory, but the news that Mao Chenglu's remnants of the army were defeated, driving more than 20 broken ships, and fled back to Dengzhou.

Li Jiucheng was so shocked that his hand shook at that time, and the tea bowl fell to the ground, he couldn't think of Mao Chenglu going over this time, even if he couldn't beat Yangma Island, but it was just a few deaths, how could it be that even the fleet he brought was almost wiped out, and even Mao Chenglu himself was missing.

So he hurriedly summoned the defeated soldiers to the front to ask, and only then did he know that there were not only some powerful township warrior regiments on Yangma Island and Xishan Village, but there was also such a small but very powerful sailor who was protecting Yangma Island.

It turns out that the big ships that have been haunting Yangma Island recently are not only some merchant ships that transport people and goods, but also some standard warships loaded with cannons.

This time, Li Jiucheng's intestines were about to turn green, he knew that this was the case, he said that he would not send Mao Chenglu to attack Yangma Island and rob those big ships, this is simply their own sheep into the tiger's mouth! This time it was good, not to mention that fifty or sixty boats were folded in at once, and more than 2,000 soldiers, including Mao Chenglu, were damaged, which really made Li Jiucheng regret it and wanted to vomit blood.

Only then did Li Jiucheng understand, don't look at their rebels who have been very bullish in the Denglai area recently, but on the side of Xishan Village, there is a force that they can't provoke, this force has a very ambiguous attitude, and it seems to be in a semi-neutral state, as long as his rebels don't provoke these people, these people won't provoke them.

But if their rebels want to provoke this group of people in Xishan Village, this group of people will not be polite to them, and they will kill them every time.

Such a force, not far from Dengzhou, made him feel like a tiger lying on the side of a couch, although this tiger did not intend to take the initiative to trouble him, but he would never be allowed to go to the trouble of this tiger.

Li Jiucheng was frightened, and wanted to mobilize troops and horses, and then attack Naxishan Village and Yangma Island from the land, but it was already summer, not to mention the hot weather, the main force of their rebels was now basically taken by Kong Youde to attack Laizhou City, and the remaining troops were enough for them to go out to collect food and defend Dengzhou, even if he led his troops to fight Xishan Village, he could defeat Xishan Village, but the other party could also abandon Xishan Village and withdraw to Yangma Island.

In that case, wouldn't it be possible for his men to swim over and attack Yangma Island? If the fleet is sent over, there is a group of unidentified warships on Yangma Island, and they are so powerful, if they beat them up again, then it is estimated that there will not be much left of these warships that they have managed to get.

For them, Li Jiucheng knew very well that this was their last way to retreat, if they didn't even have a warship, once the imperial court mobilized a large number of officials and troops to suppress it, they couldn't withstand it, then they would be completely blocked in this Dengzhou city.

So after suffering this big loss, Li Jiucheng not only did not dare to immediately raise troops to come to Xishan Village to take revenge, but instead came to a turtle's big nest neck, and he stretched his neck and swallowed this bitter fruit.

Considering that since he can't afford to provoke this group of people in Xishan Village, then he can't continue to fight with them, once this group of people is provoked, if he takes the initiative to come to them for trouble, then his life will not be easy.

After Li Jiucheng carefully discussed with his advisers, he decided to repair the relationship between the two sides, after all, the two sides still have a lot of money to buy and sell, and he can get a lot of raw food on hand, and he wants people in Xishan Village, he wants food and silver, if it is stiff, this deal will be broken, and it will not be good for him.

So after Li Jiucheng made up his mind, he sent someone to prepare a batch of so-called gifts, which mainly included twenty good-looking young women, and they were the kind of unwrapped Tianzu that Xishan Village specially wanted, and prepared some other gifts, and sent people to Xishan Village to see Liu Yuanwai there.

Although Liu Wei received Yu Xiaotian's clear instructions for their next move, he still decided not to turn his face with the rebels for the time being, after all, they still have to collect the population next, and if they completely tear their faces with the rebels, then it will not be beneficial to them.

So everyone pretended to be confused together, and they didn't say anything about it, and when the matter was a misunderstanding, Liu Wei didn't mention that they captured Mao Chenglu, and the rebels didn't take the initiative to inquire, so the two sides ended the negotiations in a very "friendly" atmosphere.

The population business between the two sides can continue, but Liu Wei also took the opportunity to suppress some prices, and now the Denglai Rebellion has developed to the peak moment, Denglai was not too poor, but after the war, the entire Denglai is almost in ruins.

Under the raging rebels, the people in this area can not cultivate at all, so that a large amount of land is abandoned, and more land has become terra nullius, which is even more serious The food shortage in this area, June was originally the summer harvest season, but there is almost no land on the side of Denglai where the grain is ripe, even if there are some places where the grain is ripe, it will immediately cause the rebels to rush to harvest and forcibly take away these ripe grains.

Therefore, the famine in Denglai continued to spread, more and more people completely cut off what they could eat, a large number of hungry people almost ate everything they could eat, tree bark, wild vegetables, grass roots were all eaten by them as food, after there was really nothing to eat, some people had to sell their wives and children, and their wives and children were sold, and they still had nothing to eat, so they could only find a way to live.

Some people went to join the rebels, some people fled to the south, ran to the southeast of the mountains to escape the famine, and some people learned the news of Xishan Village and ran to Xishan Village, so that after the time entered the summer, the number of refugees collected in Xishan Village not only did not decrease, but also began to increase day by day.

So much raw food is of no value to the rebels, but they can exchange a little food from Xishan Village, and food is now what the rebels need most, and they can exchange a little if they can exchange it, so the rebels are still happy to continue to do business with Xishan Village.

After the victory in Laizhou, Zhu Dadian led the army to stop in Laizhou City for more than half a month, in the name of resting and recuperating and accumulating materials for the station, but another purpose was to leave time for Yu Xiaotian to dispose of the more than 10,000 prisoners.

After Yu Xiaotian had already vacated the prisoner camp, Zhu Dadian moved his troops again and began to advance in the direction of Dengzhou, on the way from Laizhou to Dengzhou, there were also two counties, Zhaoyuan and Huangxian, which were controlled by the rebels.

But after the defeat of Laizhou, the morale of the rebels began to become very low, coupled with the fact that there was such a bug as Yu Xiaotian's Yu Jiajun, Yu Jiajun was responsible for suppressing the rebels in the city with firepower, and they did not dare to show their heads.

Although they were reluctant, but under Zhu Dadian's order, they did not dare to disobey the order and disrespect, so they could only send troops to fight, but they still scolded in their hearts, Laizhou was a great victory, although in the end Yu Xiaotian spit out some trophies, but the most important war horses and women, and a lot of goods, Yu Xiaotian refused to spit it out, and they didn't have the courage to take it out of Yu Xiaotian's mouth, plus Zhu Dadian suppressed it, they could only admit it.

However, under the strong fire support of the home army, the siege of the city became relatively simple, and Zhaoyuan County, after only five days, was recovered by the official army, and this time several other officers and soldiers also had long faces and became morale-high.

This time, Yu Xiaotian didn't go to grab the spoils with them, so the three soldiers and horses rushed into the city and looted a lot, although they didn't say that they made a lot of money, they finally made up for the imbalance in their hearts.

And Yu Xiaotian also showed Xiàn's great generosity, and he didn't ask them for it afterwards, and left them with the three soldiers and horses, which made them embarrassed, look at how generous they are, and then look at their appearance, this is higher than their character, and even they themselves are embarrassed to meet Yu Xiaotian.

As for Huangxian, under the strong attack of the siege of the city by the official army, it did not last for a few days, and it was also broken by the official army, killing and capturing more than 2,000 rebels.

At this point, the rebels went from the initial offensive state to a completely defensive position, and gradually began to be compressed back to the Dengzhou area by the official army.

Finally, in September, the rebels gathered all their forces in the city of Dengzhou, and in the middle of September, the news of the recovery of all the states and counties that had been lost came out.

The main force of the official army finally arrived outside Dengzhou City at the end of September.

(As always, continue to thank the Moxiao Zephyr brothers for their tips!) In addition, continue to ask for monthly passes and red tickets! In the past few days, the monthly pass list has fallen relatively fast! Hehe! Ask for a monthly pass! ）