In a short period of time, the Red Turban Army grew rapidly, occupying the territory of more than ten states and counties, and the Red Lady commanded more than 100,000 troops. However, the management of the Red Turban Army was very extensive, and it was impossible to effectively control the territory occupied.

The red lady and her old brother are both from the rivers and lakes, and they don't know how to manage civil affairs at all. And because of the murder of the gentry, the gentry scholars everywhere were unwilling to join the Red Turban Army. Only a few officials were willing to join out of speculation, and all of them were reused and appointed as magistrates. And these officials are naturally not a good thing, after becoming officials, they took the opportunity to get up and down, embezzled and blackmailed, and even the generals of the Red Turban Army were pulled into the water, and the Red Lady couldn't notice it.

All in all, the Red Turban Army at this time is similar to the Rogue Army, but it is better than the Rogue Army, but that's all. Although the team is very large and occupies a lot of territory, everything is very extensive.

And the Li Yan brothers, who ran away, chose to be different from the red lady.

From the very beginning, Li Yan had a plan for his next moves.

His rebellion was forced, and a large part of it was motivated by the desire of the heart.

He is a person, but his knowledge is not very solid, he is very mediocre compared to Hou Fangyu and others, and he has little hope of being admitted to the Jinshi, even if he can be admitted, I don't know how many years later. The admission rate of Daming Jinshi is about one in thirty, and many people can't get into the Jinshi exam after a lifetime, Li Yan feels that he is such a person.

The career is hopeless, if you want to be an official, it is not impossible, go to the official department to sign up and queue, and spend some money, you can also be an official, but you can only be an assistant and miscellaneous official like the chief bookkeeper, and you can be a county magistrate for a lifetime, which can not satisfy Li Yan's ambition at all.

Li Yan can't read the four books and five classics, but he has read a lot of miscellaneous books, his conceit is a masterpiece of the moment, and he doesn't want to live a mediocre life. And now, he saw an excellent opportunity to do great things.

The emperor has no way, slaughtering and looting scholars, and he has already been the eyes of the world's scholars. The local gentry and officials were all very afraid of the emperor and disgusted with it. It's just that the majesty of the Ming Dynasty for 200 years is still there, and the emperor's majesty of pacifying Liaodong Mongolia is still there, and no one dares to openly oppose it.

However, the current Ming Dynasty is not peaceful, and the people are not living in contrast to Huanghuang's martial arts. Shandong, Henan, Huguang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and all provinces of Daming have been plagued by droughts, and ordinary people have lived a miserable life, and uprisings and rebellions have occurred one after another.

Compared with other places, the people of Henan are particularly poor, after all, Henan has the largest number of vassal royal clans.

This situation made Li Yan seem to see the end of the Han Dynasty, the end of the Tang Dynasty, and the end of the Yuan Dynasty, this is the last year of the dynasty, this is the rhythm of the end of the world!

That's why Li Yan made up his mind to rebel!

Of course, if he is as smart as he is, he will naturally not let himself become the target of the imperial army's attack, so he instigated the Red Turban Army to divide his troops and plunder, and instigated the Red Lady to march into Runan. He hopes to first mess up the whole of Henan, so that the whole of Henan will be full of rebels, and then he will quietly raise things, silently increase his strength, and wait for the opportunity.

From ancient times to the present, those who succeed are not the first to do things, but always come from behind. Liu Bang is like this, and so is Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of this dynasty.

Therefore, it is destined to leave the red lady, even if there is no Lin Jiuchuan, there will be other excuses!

After leaving Taikang, Li Yan led his army all the way west without any banners. Because the car was simple, because the subordinates were all from their own people, there were no constraints, because they carried enough military rations, the marching speed was extremely fast, and they arrived at Linying in a few days.

Li Yan sent his younger brother to lead people to enter Linying in disguise first, and then quickly arrived outside Linying City with 500 troops, and then waved the banner of the Red Turban Army. Yes, this guy is still under the banner of the Red Turban Army, and he has not chosen to change the banner, so that he can push the disaster on the Red Lady.

Because there was no killing and robbery along the way, Linying City didn't know that there were thieves coming, and the city was easily captured by Li Yan.

Then it was time to open warehouses and release grain and expand the army.

Li Yan was very polite to the local gentry, and let go of anyone who was willing to join him, and if he refused to follow the thief, he would all raid his house. After all, no matter how much he is a member of the gentry, he also has to raise an army, how can he do it without money and food?

However, even with money and food, Li Yan did not expand the army as aggressively as the Red Lady, but only selected young and poor people to join the army, expanded the army to more than 2,000 people, and then left Linying and entered the territory of Nanyang Mansion from Ye County.

Li Yan's destination is the mountainous area of western Henan, and he wants to establish his own territory in the mountainous area of southwest Henan, and then use the mountainous area of western Henan as the foundation to conquer Henan. And if the imperial army can't be defeated, you can enter Jingxiang south.

After entering Nanyang Mansion, Li Yan openly played the banner of the Red Turban Army, under the slogan of "Quickly open the door to welcome the red scarf, the red scarf will not accept grain", and under the temptation of opening a warehouse to release grain, the people of western Henan came to join one after another, and easily laid down Ye County, Lushan County and other places.

Then Li Yan did not blindly expand his territory, but took the two counties as the foundation, began to organize and train the army, and waited for the officials and troops to suppress it. After marching hundreds of miles all the way and capturing several cities in a row, under strict training, this army was no longer comparable to when the incident first started, and Li Yan believed that his army was no longer weaker than the official army.

The first to attack was Nanyang's army, Li Yan used deceptive tactics, sent his younger brother Li Mou to lead an army to lure the official army, and led people to ambush himself, easily defeating the official army. The 5,000 Nanyang army was defeated and more than 1,000 prisoners, all of whom were incorporated into the army by Li Yan, and their strength increased a lot.

Then Li Yan took the opportunity to lead the army to attack, and defeated Yuzhou, Nanzhao and other counties, and the troops advanced until the city of Nanyang.

In Nanyang City, hearing that the thieves were coming, Zhu Yujian, the king of Tang, took out the money and grain of the palace, summoned the young men of Nanyang City to defend the city, and personally climbed the city wall to defend.

Driven by Zhu Yujian and stimulated by money and food, the morale of the Nanyang defenders was very high. Li Yan attacked several times, but was unable to enter the city. Even the slogan of opening a warehouse and releasing grain is not good. Zhu Yujian even wanted to personally lead the army out of the city to attack the thieves, but was persuaded by Shang Yuncheng, the prefect of Nanyang. Although Zhu Yujian is a vassal king, he does not have the power to lead the troops, so he can only do it.

couldn't beat Nanyang, which made Li Yan very disappointed. If he can defeat Nanyang, the money, food and wealth in it will be enough for him to expand his army of 100,000!

If you take Nanyang, you will be able to occupy the rich Nanyang Basin, and you can attack Xiangyang, Jingzhou to the south, so that Li Yan will not be moved.

In desperation, Li Yan could only retreat to the north, attack Ruzhou first, and decide to take down the mountainous area of western Henan.

At this time, in the mountainous areas of western Henan, there were anti-thieves everywhere, and there were people in Songxian, Lushi, and Luanchuan. However, these thieves are all rabble, and they can't be compared with Li Yan's subordinates at all.

After easily annexing several rebels, Li Yan's subordinates expanded to more than 30,000 people. However, Li Yan did not try to attack Nanyang again, but retreated in the mountains, silently farming and training, waiting for an opportunity.

There are many mines in the mountainous areas of western Henan, and the miners suffer from the double oppression of the mine owners and the government, and their lives are worse than those of the peasants. Miners are more organized than peasants, and they are the best candidates for soldiers, and there are iron mines, coal mines, and copper mines in western Henan, which is a good place to build weapons and train the army!

Li Yan believes that as long as he gives himself a year, he will be able to train tens of thousands of strong troops in western Henan, and then he will have the capital to dominate the world. But can I have a year?

The Red Turban Army of the Red Lady has occupied the entire Runan Mansion, Kaifeng Mansion, Henan Mansion, Guide Mansion, and even Huaiqing Mansion and Weihui Mansion on the north bank of the Yellow River have rebels everywhere. However, Zhang Shize, who was in the north of Pingbei, did not make any movement, and did not send troops to quell the rebellion, which made Li Yan a little uneasy.

Li Yan believed that neither Zhang Shize, who was waiting for Pingbei, nor the emperor who was on his way to the south, would not allow the rebels to wreak havoc in Henan, and would inevitably send troops to quell the rebellion.

However, there is really some news here in western Henan, and the news that Li Yan can get is only known from the seized official mansion newspapers, and he does not know all about the situation in various parts of the Ming Dynasty. The spies he sent could only get information about the surroundings.

Henan is in chaos, and other provinces should also be in chaos, right? Li Yan thought secretly.

What kind of reaction will the emperor make to the southern tour, the local officials on the southern tour, the gentry in Huai'an, Fengyang, Yangzhou, and even Susong?

How could the gentry of the world allow the emperor to be so horizontal and domineering without any movement?

It's impossible!

......

Kaifeng City, in the face of the situation in Henan, where anti-thieves are everywhere, Zhang Shize looked confused.

Zhang Shize was ordered to be the chief soldier of Henan, shouldering the heavy responsibility of the clan reform. He originally wanted to go to Kaifeng City first and reform the clan of King Zhou first. Who knew that when passing through Kaocheng, someone suddenly blocked the road and sued, accusing the Kaocheng gentry Zhou of occupying land and robbing people's daughters, and suing the Kaocheng magistrate for favoring the nurse and the gentry of Caocao for people's lives.

Faced with this situation, Zhang Shize naturally couldn't ignore it, and Kaocheng was only more than 100 miles away from Kaifeng, Zhang Shize thought about taking the opportunity to investigate the case in Kaocheng and try to implicate Zhou Wangfu, so as to quickly open up the situation.

After Zhang Shize entered Kaocheng, he first took the county magistrate of Kaocheng in the name of Jinyiwei and began to investigate the case. As for whether Jin Yiwei has the power to take down local officials, he naturally doesn't care. With soldiers in hand and the support of the emperor, what is it to take a small county?

Through the investigation of the case, Zhang Shize soon found a way to implicate King Zhou.

King Zhou has been in Kaifeng Mansion for more than 200 years and has occupied too many fields, and Kaocheng naturally has the fields of King Zhou's Mansion.

According to investigation, four years ago, when the emperor sent the imperial historian to Kaifeng to carry out the reform of the clan and the feudal system, and the fields illegally annexed by the Zhou Wangfu of Qingzhang, the king of Zhou saw that it was not good, and sold a lot of fields to many gentry at a low price. For example, in Kaocheng, more than 2,000 acres of land were sold to Zhou Juren.

After discovering this matter, Zhang Shize was overjoyed and finally had a way to deal with King Zhou.

Although he is the chief soldier of Henan and the candidate of Pingbei, after all, he is facing a vassal king, and his status is higher than him, and there is no direct evidence, so there is no excuse to deal with the king of Zhou.

Some people were left behind, cleaned up the Kaocheng official mansion, raided the homes of the gentry and officials, arranged for the people brought to enter the Kaocheng County Government to serve as officials, and then set up the Qingtian Division and the Inspection Division, all in accordance with the regulations.

And Zhang Shize himself continued to rush to Kaifeng with a large group of people.

Who knew that when he first arrived in Kaifeng City, before he had time to do it, he heard the news that there were people in Qixian County who rebelled. The anti-thieves have reached tens of thousands, and they have already captured the county seat of Qixian.

"Master Hou, quickly send troops to quell the chaos!" Bingbei Dao Guo Bijin requested.

"You are a Kaifeng soldier, and now there are rebels in Kaifeng Mansion, so you will lead the troops to quell the rebellion." Zhang Shize said lightly.

"There are too many thieves, the Kaifeng defenders have not been trained for a long time, and they are short of food and wages, so they can't be suppressed at all. Master Hou, the Praetorian Guards under your command are extraordinary, and it is naturally easy to suppress the thieves and quell the rebellion, so please ask Lord Hou to lead the troops to quell the rebellion. Guo Bijin said humbly.

Zhang Shize frowned: "Lord Guo, you are a soldier, you have the responsibility of counterinsurgency, the number of troops in Kaifeng is more than 20,000, can't you even deal with the anti-thieves?" Why did Ben Hou come here for the first time, or Lord Guo went to quell the chaos. ”

Zhang Shize knew that his task was to reform the clan system and to inventory the fields of the Zhou Palace, so he naturally did not want to quell the chaos.

Seeing Zhang Shize's insistence, Guo Bijin had no choice. Although he is a civilian official and a soldier, it stands to reason that he can control a military general like the general army, but Zhang Shize is not an ordinary general soldier, but a dignified military meritor, and his status is far above him.

So Guo Bijin summoned the army in Kaifeng City, and set off with his troops. Who knew that as soon as they left the city, before they arrived at Zhuxian Town, the army stopped, and the officers and soldiers clamored for salaries, and it turned out that the army in Kaifeng had been in arrears for a year.

Guo Bijin had no choice but to return to Kaifeng City in person, and convened officials such as the Kaifeng prefect and the subordinate Xiangfu Zhixian to discuss the matter of collecting money and grain. As the chief soldier of Henan, Zhang Shize was also invited to attend the meeting.

As a result, Zhang Shize saw all kinds of nonsense at the meeting, and all officials complained bitterly, saying that there was no silver, no silver in the Kaifeng treasury, and no silver in the Xiangfu County treasury. Summoned the gentry in the city to donate, and the gentry also complained, and it took half a day to talk and only get 5,000 taels of silver.

20,000 troops, what is the use of these 5,000 taels of silver?

At the critical moment, the king of Zhou sent someone to come and sent 30,000 taels of silver as military expenses for the suppression of bandits, so all the officials in Kaifeng praised the king of Zhou in unison.

Zhang Shize watched from the sidelines and watched all this. He suspected that these local officials and gentry were all in collusion with the king of Zhou. Otherwise, how could the Kaifeng Mansion of Nuoda not be able to take out tens of thousands of taels of silver for the army?

"Master Hou, King Zhou is really a virtuous king, he often takes out money to donate to the school, and often sends people to give porridge to the homeless people outside the city. Now he has given money for his salary. Guo Bijin sighed.

"King Zhou Xianming, you love the people like sons, but why are hundreds of people rebelling outside the city?" Zhang Shize sneered.

The officials were silent.

"Alas, years of disasters and droughts, the people have suffered a little harder, but it is not enough to rebel, this time the people revolt, there must be demons bewitched." Guo Bijin is in the right way.

"Then I wish Lord Guo a victory and exterminate the anti-thieves as soon as possible." Zhang Shize said lightly.

Whether Guo Bijin can exterminate the anti-thieves is naturally able in Zhang Shize's opinion. After all, Guo Bijin has 20,000 troops, while those in Qixian County are only tens of thousands of displaced people, and Zhang Shize still knows how weak the combat effectiveness of the displaced people is.

However, Zhang Shize never expected that only a few days later, the news of Guo Bijin's defeat came......

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