"Boom, boom!" A long line of tiger squat cannons emitted white smoke and roared and spat out fiery red artillery fire. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The commander of the artillery battalion, Ma De, squinted his eyes, covered his ears, and silently counted a few times amid the deafening sound of artillery. After firing a few rounds, and when the last run was finished, he ran to the handsome tent where Seng Lingqin was stationed behind, knelt down on one knee and said loudly: "Great commander, the firearms battalion has fired the tiger squat cannon eight times!" ”

"Okay, Jerim's cavalry rushed forward and saw how the thief was stance!" Monk Grinqin twisted the mustache and ordered.

"Yes, Lord Wang!" The commander of the Jerimi tribe stroked his chest with his right hand, performed a Mongolian salute, and hurriedly left the tent.

After half a meal, the leader of Jerim entered the tent in a rage, "Lord Wang, those thieves have already ridden back and forth like the wind, and they only cut off the heads of a few thieves who were injured by the cannons, and I have already called one to follow them closely." ”

"That's it, this king also knows that this is the case, these twisted thieves are not as rebellious as the Northern Expedition, when we were in Henan, we were the head snakes, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang were dragons crossing the river, and we were not familiar with the place, so we could win quickly, and now we have arrived in this land of Hehuai, but they are the natives who are familiar with geography, you just ask people to follow, don't fall for their tricks to lure the enemy, and damage the heart of our army."

"Yes."

"Twist" is the Huaibei dialect, meaning "a group", the twist army originated from the "twist", originally Anhui, Henan a region of nomads pinched paper, the grease was ignited, burned oil twisted paper used to make a method, in the festival gathered to perform, for people to drive away diseases, disasters to make profits. In the early days, the twist was to donate sesame oil money to the villagers to buy oil twisted paper. Later, there were also phenomena of intimidation and extortion, which were no different from thieves. The more the famine year, the more people enter the twist, the so-called "residents for the people, out of the twist", and the Qing Dynasty officially called it the twist bandits.

Therefore, in the final analysis, the people in the Central Plains are fierce, and in addition, it is because of the poor harvest and natural and man-made disasters that more people have crossed the horse and followed the people in the township to go out to do a few transactions without capital.

Or the monk king in Henan quick battle, the military prestige is prosperous, so that Lin Dahu and other similar into the WTO is not deep twist thieves wash their hands, Henan area is peaceful, but because of the monk king's Manmeng Eight Banners to the east, Anhui Huaibei area of the small group of twist thieves forced to gradually unite, Xianfeng four years of the fifth day of the fifth month of the Dragon Boat Festival, the twist army in Anhui Bozhou Pheasant River assembly alliance, the largest local twist army leader Zhang Lexing was pushed as the leader of the alliance. After the union, the Twist Army established a five-flag military system, using yellow, white, red, blue, and black five-color flags to distinguish the army. The main yellow flag is Zhang Lexing, the chief white flag owner Gong De (Gong Deshu), the chief red flag owner Hou Shiwei, the chief blue flag owner Han Laowan (Wan Feng, wolf), and the chief black flag master Su Tianfu. This was a year and three months earlier than the Five Banners Alliance in later generations.

Monk Greenqin fought a few battles after the Five Banners Alliance, each with a victory, the Twist Army came and went like the wind, and then fled away if there was a slight disappointment, Monk Greenqin's army marched slowly, like this cannon bombardment, the follow-up infantry could not pursue, and could only watch the Twist Army go away.

Because they had fought a few times, Monk Lingqin made a lot of hard work to collect the information about the Twist Army Alliance's advocacy of Lexing. Zhang Lexing's family lives in Zhang's old family village in Bozhou, which was relatively wealthy, and his father Zhang Weizu has more than 100 acres of land. Zhang Lexing has three brothers, the eldest brother Zhang Wenxing passed on to his uncle; The second brother Zhang Minxing moved to Yuan Xiaolou's father-in-law's house, which was seven or eight miles away from Zhang's hometown, and became the owner of a large day of several hundred acres of land. Zhang Lexing and his second brother got more than 70 acres of land, and it is said that he also donated Xiucai, and there is a folk song called "Zhang Lexing, Hongmen Supervisor, self-proclaimed alliance leader is brave and brave". Zhang Lexing is influential and powerful, and has become the only person in the whole clan who looks forward, in addition to his strong economic strength, but also because Zhang Lexing is righteous and squandering money, loves to fight and hold grievances, and is famous for his good "protection". When the clansmen are in trouble, he will contribute money and efforts to help and support them; If there is a dispute, you just need to find him, and you can solve the problem in a few words. In northern Anhui, where the rule is so dark as the above, the significance of having someone to speak for the people is absolutely extraordinary. Jiang Xiangnan, a contemporary of the time, once wrote: "Ants swarm and swarm, and the magistrate dare not do anything", and people call it "Xiang Lao". "Ringing the old man, people have grievances for the peace, for a long time, the people who go to the complaint, praise is full of praise and roaring far and near, such as wind drums and thunder, then it becomes a ringing twist." Jiang Xiangnan asked the villagers: The state has set up officials for the people, and if you have something to do, why don't you go to the official and go to twist? The villagers replied: "The official office is like a temple, and the gods cannot be seen." Si Yan's majesty is like a ghost, and he can't resign if he has no money. Cast but the official or not allowed, allowed but not passed on, passed on and quality or indefinite, quality and straight can not be fully understood. However, there are already fees, fees for officials, fees for passing papers, and fees for shops, and the fees for waiting cannot be counted. Therefore, the property of the Chinese people, there are those who break the family in a lawsuit. How can it be better to resort to 'ringing old' (twisting the head), and bend upright without spending a penny, the weak stretch, and the strong suppress, that is, in one day? Jiang Xiangnan sighed: "The ranger of the Han Dynasty? When he hears the difficulty, he can, and when he sees the disagreement, he can ignore his body, and in order to be martyred, he is in line with the so-called emergency town (relief) support of Taishi Gong, and there are benevolent and righteous walkers. (Note: Jiang Xiangnan: "The Posthumous Collection of Mr. Jiang Zixiao", Volume 3 of "Qijinglou Wen Yuan", "The Biography of the Ranger Reading Hanshu".) The clansmen and villagers just called Zhang Lexing a "benevolent and righteous bachelor" and supported him. The folk song says: "Zhang Laole, he can say and do, and send steamed buns in all directions." "In the Qing Dynasty, the country was divided into 11 salt areas, and it was stipulated that the salt in each salt area could only be sold within the specified area (called the shore), otherwise it would be strictly punished. Northern Anhui spans the two Huai and Changlu salt areas, except for Suzhou, which belongs to the Luyan area, other states and counties belong to the Huaiyan area. The price of reed salt is low and the taste is good; Huai salt has a bitter taste and a high price. Many people risk smuggling and selling reed salt in Suzhou to other states and counties for profit. As the living conditions continued to deteriorate, the sale of smuggled salt developed into a collective action of the whole village, the whole clan or a large-scale salt baron. The geographical location of Zhang Lexing's hometown Pheasant River is particularly special, with two states and one county, and the gap in the north is not only the boundary river of Su and Bozhou, but also the boundary line of the two salt areas - the north of the ditch is the Luyan District of Suzhou, and the south of the ditch is the Huaiyan District of Bozhou. Zhang Lexing's family has many poor people and unique living conditions, and they have long been selling smuggled salt, and Zhang Lexing is the natural leader. He gathered a group of strong thugs, known as 18 gunmen, and later developed to 50 gunners and 100 gunners, specializing in protecting the clansmen and trafficking in smuggled salt. There is a road leading to Henan Yongcheng and other places next to the pheasant river, which is the only way for Henan smugglers to pass through. So Zhang Lexing then became the "salt master" of the private salt car. Zhang Lexing was powerful and famous, the bandits did not dare to rob, and the government salt patrol did not dare to investigate, which not only gave him considerable economic income and a more stable position in the clan, but also made him get acquainted with many other clan leaders, such as Li Daxi, the head of the Bozhou Dahuati, and Li Zhaoshou, the head of the Gushi Twist in Hebei. Under such harsh economic conditions in northern Anhui, not only the smuggling of salt, but also the leader leading the whole clan to plunder and rob the big households, will also get the heartfelt support of the clansmen. As early as the Jiaqing period, some people pointed out: there are many thieves, singles, and smugglers in northern Anhui. They were all "cultivators" who "could kill and not be thieves, singles, or smugglers?" And the husband is fierce in the front, and the woks are in the back; When it is ferocious, I don't know that there is a Ding Wok and "Twist the Army" folk songs, "follow Zhang Laole, have to eat and drink", "follow Gong Blind, eat chickens and ducks", "follow Han Laowan, wear silk and satin", "Follow Jiang Laotai, Bao Gu is full of arms", etc., it can be seen that the clansmen and villagers are in the desire to survive, and have strengthened their longitudinal dependence on the clan and the representatives of the clan and the villagers.