Yijun County, looking at the Phoenix Valley in the depths of Huanglong Mountain in the distance, Lu Xiangsheng frowned.

A few days ago, he led his army from Whitewater to pursue the Rogue Bandit Army here, and he had just fought a battle with the Bandit Army.

Yijun King of Thieves left his department, taking advantage of the new arrival of the official army, led tens of thousands of thieves to attack.

This Yijun County is different from Baishui, which still has a large plain, but most of Yijun is located on the Loess Plateau, with undulating mountains, thousands of hills and ravines, and the terrain is extremely complex.

Under the guidance of the white water thief Li Hongji, Wang Zuo's troops relied on their familiarity with the terrain and launched a fierce attack on the official army, and Lu Xiangsheng hurriedly set up a formation to resist. However, the king of Zuohang was extremely brave, and personally led 500 cavalry to launch a surprise attack from the weak place of the official army's formation, and the Qin army led by Shangluo was cut through the formation by the thief cavalry and collapsed directly. Lu Xiangsheng's rate was all recruits, and most of them were panicked.

At the critical moment, Lu Xiangsheng ordered the artillery to open fire, and dozens of Franc machines fired at the same time, and the shells fell into the rushing thief horse, splashing the loess all over the sky.

The hasty shelling did not kill a few thieves, but the huge roar of the cannons shocked the thieves and calmed the minds of the new soldiers.

The firecrackers took turns shooting according to the training, and after three rounds of shooting, the rushing thieves fell more than a hundred, and the other cangs retreated. Lu Xiangsheng took the opportunity to order the whole army to attack, and the Praetorian Guards lined up in a strict queue to launch a counterattack on the thief array.

Rounds of projectiles flew out like raindrops, and before the two sides could meet each other, the rogue army fell by hundreds, and then the rogue army collapsed.

The battle between an organized army and a disorderly rabble, a Praetorian Guard armed with a large number of firearms and an outcast army with a hoe and sickle, was simple and lackluster.

Liu Yingyu also gathered a rout to re-attack, tens of thousands of rogue troops were killed, and the rest fled into the Phoenix Valley, where the terrain was complicated.

The two mountains of Huanglong Mountain and Yanmen Mountain face each other, and in the middle are broken loess, and the thousands of hills and ravines are like wrinkles on the old man's face. Although Lu Xiangsheng has nearly 20,000 horses in his hands, it is difficult to find the thieves in this kind of terrain, let alone eliminate them.

In desperation, Lu Xiangsheng could only send troops to defend the main road out of the valley, set up a beacon tower on a high place, and led the army to respond in the center and take the strategy of trapping the enemy.

The terrain of Phoenix Valley is complex but sparsely populated, so many thieves enter, it won't be long before their food will be exhausted, Lu Xiangsheng doesn't believe that if they don't come out, they will starve to death.

At this time, what happened in Qingjian County reached Yijun.

"Your Majesty, this is also ......" Shang Luo Bingbei Liu Yingyu sighed again and again, not knowing what to say.

The direct killing of the gentry and officials of a county is simply a bit appalling.

Lu Xiangsheng was silent for a while, and said in a low voice: "In troubled times, if the people of Shaanxi are in turmoil, how can those people be innocent?" ”

"But the killing is too heavy," Liu Yingyu sighed, "If according to this killing method, there are not many innocent gentry and officials in the entire Shaanxi Political Envoy Division, can Your Majesty not be able to kill them all?" ”

There are no officials in this world who are not greedy, and there are not many gentry in this world who do not oppress the common people, otherwise everyone is desperate to study and test for meritorious works, that is, Liu Yingyu himself, as a soldier, has not been less corrupt in military salaries, and his hometown has not less accepted the donation and annexation of land.

"What? Brother Boyun still sympathizes with those who are greedy and cruel? Lu Xiangsheng squinted his eyes slightly and looked at Liu Yingyu coldly.

"How can you?" Liu Yingyu was taken aback, and hurriedly said, "The lower officials are just worried, worried that there will be a new mess." ”

Lu Xiangsheng said lightly: "It's just that I killed some corrupt officials and bad gentry, and what chaos can I do." ”

Liu Yingyu sighed: "But these people who were killed are maintaining the operation of the place, they have all been killed, and who will manage the people?" ”

Lu Xiangsheng shook his head: "There is no need for you and me to worry, I believe Your Majesty has his own way!" ”

Looking at Lu Xiangsheng's face, Liu Yingyu didn't dare to say anything more, but he didn't know, and Lu Xiangsheng was also faintly worried.

This Ming Dynasty, in the final analysis, is the co-governance of the Son of Heaven and the gentry, the Son of Heaven lives in the temple, and the gentry are the real rulers of the herdsmen. Zhu Youzhen killed all the gentry of a county, which was really a bit appalling, and when the news reached the imperial court, I don't know how the courtiers would react.

Zhu Youzhen's behavior involuntarily reminds people of the time of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, which was a nightmare for civil officials!

Embezzle dozens of dollars to pick up the skin of Xuancao, erect a large number of people fur people in front of the county government, the slightest mistake will be killed, Taizu was the emperor in those years, the entire Ming officials were killed as many as tens of thousands, and in the end there was no official available, and the criminal had to be promoted to the court with shackles, which was simply a strange news in the world! Many courtiers will write suicide notes before going to court, for fear that they will not be able to return home. Now, that official is willing to go back to the Taizu era? Who wants to live that kind of fearful life?

Lu Xiangsheng also knew that the rule of officials in the Ming Dynasty had been corrupted to the extreme, and the gentry officials had taken greed as their instinct, even if they were sanctimonious, benevolent and moral on weekdays, most of them were male thieves and female prostitutes behind their backs, and it had reached the time when they had to take drastic medicine.

But right now, there are Jiannu raging outside, there are undetermined thieves inside, natural and man-made disasters, and there are too many worries in the Ming Dynasty, is it appropriate for Your Majesty to act so violently?

Lu Xiangsheng did not agree with Zhu Youzhen's rash actions in Qingjian, but his loyalty to Zhu Youzhen has now reached its peak.

Loyalty is not only the identity of the Son of Heaven, but also from the admiration for Zhu Youzhen's own behavior. The Praetorian Guard system established by Zhu Youzhen has completely conquered Lu Xiangsheng.

Who would have thought that the Luoyang Praetorian Guard New Army, which had just been established for only two or three months, would have such a brilliant record in the face of thieves? Baishui defeated Wang Er in the first battle, and Yijun still stood tall when the friendly army collapsed in the first battle, and then defeated the thief army. The performance of this 10,000 new army is not much worse than that of those elite border troops, at least much stronger than the Qin soldiers led by Liu Yingyu.

What made Lu Xiangsheng feel the most was the system of the Praetorian Guard, and although the name of the soldiers' committee was strange, it played a mainstay role in the army. Those soldiers' committee members instilled in front of the soldiers all day long the idea of being loyal to the monarch and patriotism and fighting for the emperor, and told the soldiers all day long where their happy life came from, which made the soldiers' morale high, which was also the reason why they were able to become an army in just two or three months of training.

Coupled with the employment and promotion system, as long as the performance is good, there are opportunities for promotion, which makes the soldiers have great motivation, Lu Xiangsheng believes that it will not be long before his army will become the most elite army in the world, enough to match the soldiers of the Jiannu Eight Banners.

Seeing that it is expected to defeat Jiannu and recover Liaodong, and Daming Zhongxing is promising, Lu Xiangsheng does not want chaos in the country at this time!