Gong Chengkang, born in the forty-fourth year of Wanli, is a native of Baimalong, Jiujiang Prefecture, five feet six inches tall (32 centimeters of Ming one foot), tall and strong, and can easily lift a boulder of 300 catties with one strength.

The Gong family is a peasant class, with 15 acres of paddy fields at home, his parents are alive, there are three brothers and sisters, he is the eldest, and his brother has become a family, with a son and a daughter.

Sister Gong Yulan married into a Xiucai family in Jiujiang Mansion.

At the end of April, Gong Chengkang entered the city to visit relatives, which coincided with the third day of Liu Liangzuo's official army entering the city.

Gong Chengkang's brother-in-law's family was not spared and was targeted by four rebels.

Gong Chengkang saw that the rebels came in and grabbed them, and he raised his knife to kill people, but without saying a word, he rushed up and punched a few times, and killed four rebels with his bare hands.

When his brother-in-law Xiong Jingqi saw it, he hurriedly closed the door of the house, and worked with Gong Chengkang to hide the four corpses in the well at home.

Gong Chengkang was arranged to hide at a friend's house in the city, and Gong Chengkang was hidden by his brother-in-law's friend on the second floor of a haystack room and hid for three days.

After there was no movement outside, Gong Chengkang jumped down from the second floor, and when he went out, he found that his brother-in-law's friend's house was in a mess, and the corpses in the courtyard were lying horizontally.

When Gong Chengkang saw the scene, he immediately ran back to his brother-in-law's house, but saw his brother-in-law holding a corpse and crying bitterly.

Gong Chengkang took a closer look, it was his own sister.

Gong Chengkang's anger surged into his heart, he wanted to go to those heavenly officers and soldiers to take revenge, but he was persuaded by his brother-in-law Xiong Jingqi, Xiong Jingqi said to him: "Those thieves are out of the city, you go home and see!" ”

Gong Chengkang panicked when he heard this, he rushed back to his hometown in Baimalong, and when he entered the village, he was stunned.

There was no life in the whole village, and even the big yellow dog at the head of the village, which was usually the most popular bark, was gone.

Gong Chengkang walked and saw the traces of the big yellow dog on the side of the road, and saw a scorched black dog head thrown in the weeds on the side of the road....

When Gong Chengkang saw this dog head, he suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart, he ran wildly in the direction of his home, but saw that there were corpses of villagers everywhere along the way, all the way.

When Gong Chengkang returned home, the scene he least wanted to see still appeared.

The parents died tragically at home, the elder brother also died at the door of his house, and the sister-in-law was lying on the bed bare, with a knife on the stomach being extremely obvious.

Under the bed, there were two corpses, that is, their one-year-old nephew and two-year-old niece, the two children had long been out of breath, and when they reached out and touched them, they were cold.

Gong Chengkang picked it up and saw that the back of the child's head was covered with blood, and the bones of his body were broken in several places, which was thrown to death....

"Ah.....h

Gong Chengkang finally couldn't stand this stimulation, he shouted loudly...

The next day, Gong Chengkang, who had buried his family, took his luggage into Jiujiang Fucheng, and he found his brother-in-law Xiong Jingqi, and the two worked together to fish out the four bodies hidden in the well.

After salvaging the bodies, Gong Chengkang chopped off the heads of the four people with the firewood knife he carried with him, and then wrapped them in cloth.

After wrapping his head, Gong Chengkang said to Xiong Jingqi: "Brother-in-law, I want to go south to join the army!" ”

Xiong Jingqi asked curiously: "Join the army?" Join the army? ”

"Officers and soldiers? I have a common enmity with them, brother-in-law, I can see it, this Ming is afraid that he is going to die, I heard from the people who took the goods, King Mo of Yuanzhou has already raised the flag to rebel, and now he has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and he also defeated the three mansions of Yuanzhou, Ji'an, Linjiang, and even the governor of Jiangxi is not his opponent.

Then Liu Liangzuo's dog thief went south this time to conquer King Mo, I plan to go to Linjiang to vote for King Mo, work for him, and avenge my relatives! ”

Xiong Jingqi is a talent, and he is naturally clearer than his brother-in-law about this kind of current affairs.

He nodded and said: "You are not unreasonable, I also heard that Mo Wen of Yuanzhou is a character, this person has been developing so fast in less than a year, I heard from a classmate who participated in the township test together, Li Shangshu of Ji'an Mansion also voted for Mo Wen, and now he is the main minister under Mo Wen!" ”

As soon as Xiong Jingqi's words came out, Gong Chengkang's determination to join the army was strengthened.

He said: "Brother-in-law, why don't we go together, this bird court is almost over anyway, let's go and vote for King Mo now, if you don't know how to fight for your background in the future, you can mix up an official and a half-job, and if you want to avenge your relatives, we can only have a chance if we vote for King Mo!" ”

Gong Chengkang's words moved Xiong Jingqi, but he didn't agree immediately.

He said to Gong Chengkang: "Chengkang, you go south to join the army first, brother-in-law and I have to contact some classmates, the two of us go to vote alone, I'm afraid we won't be reused by that Mo Wen, brother-in-law pulls a group of classmates to go together, and I will definitely be able to find a good future in Mo Wen's territory!" ”

When Gong Chengkang heard this, he immediately agreed: "Okay, then the little brother will go first, brother-in-law, take care of yourself, if you go south, you can ask someone to bring a letter, I can introduce you!" ”

"Okay, little brother, take care!"

Gong Chengkang said goodbye to Xiong Jingqi, found a boat with four heads on his back, and told the boatman that he was going to Linjiang.

As soon as the boatman heard that he was going to such a far place, he wanted to refuse on the spot, but when Gong Chengkang revealed the bloody firewood knife, the boatman was scared and could only row south.

From Jiujiang to Linjiang, because it is a countercurrent, it takes at least two days to take the waterway.

It was not until the third day that Gong Chengkang arrived at Zhangshu Town, and as soon as the boat arrived in Zhangshu, he was stopped by the soldiers of the righteous army on the Gan River.

The soldiers of the rebel army asked them what they were here for, and Gong Chengkang immediately replied that they were here to join the army.

When the rebel soldier heard that he had come to join the army, his eyes couldn't help but be full of suspicion, he pointed at Gong Chengkang and said: "This person is very likely to be a fine work of the imperial court officials, brothers take it for me!" ”

Gong Chengkang didn't expect King Mo's soldiers to open their mouths to take him, he was suddenly a little confused, he subconsciously wanted to resist, but when he turned his head and thought that he was here to join the army, if he started to resist now, wouldn't it be a suspicion that he was a meticulous worker.

Gong Chengkang immediately stopped resisting and let the rebel soldiers tie him up.

The rebel patrol sailor tied Gong Chengkang to the tent of Niu Ji, a staff officer of the second battalion and the third brigade.

"General, we caught a detailed work of an officer and army, saying that he came to join the army!"

Gong Chengkang hurriedly defended: "General, I'm not meticulous, I'm really here to join the army!" ”

As soon as Niu Ji heard that it was a fine work, he suddenly came to his senses, he stared at Gong Chengkang carefully left and right, and then asked: "You said that you are not a fine work of the official army, but a member of the righteous army, then let me ask you, where are you from?" ”

"The little one is from Jiujiang Mansion!"

"Jiujiang? That place is hundreds of miles away from us, why did you come to join our rebels? ”

"I have a common enmity with the officials and soldiers of the imperial court, Liu Liangzuo killed seven members of my family, I want to avenge my family, so I came to join the army, general, please see, this is the head of the four officers and soldiers I cut off in Jiujiang, so as to prove that I am not the official army!" As he spoke, Gong Chengkang untied his burden, and four heads wearing official military hats rolled out.

Niu Ji was immediately stunned when he saw it, and he couldn't help but admire: "What a good man!" ”

Niu Ji saw that Gong Chengkang was tall and strong, and he could also slash four officers and soldiers, so he personally included Gong Chengkang in the scout flag camp of his third brigade and became a scout.

Wu Chang asked him if he would make a bow, and Gong Chengkang shook his head and said no.

Gong Chengkang received spears from the infantry, which were used exclusively for land combat, and even longer for the water sergeants, who used spears that were sixteen feet long.

That night, Gong Chengkang received an order from their commander, and their squadron was assigned to go out at night to investigate the enemy situation outside the city.

Since it was a night mission, not a frontal battle, the commander did not let everyone go out with a spear, but only carried a saber with him.

Gong Chengkang's squad has five people, the captain is their superior, the two squads are combined into a squadron, the chief is the commander of this squadron, the captain is generally the captain of the first team, and Gong Chengkang is the second team.

A group of ten people took advantage of the night to leave Zhangshu Town and crossed the Ganjiang River in a small boat to land on the north bank.

The north shore is now in a war zone, and there are often patrol scout squads of officers and soldiers, and the scouts of officers and soldiers are extremely rich, with fast horses, and some squads are also equipped with crossbow arrows, but these squads basically haunt during the day and return to the camp at night to rest.

The rebels had no cavalry, and the only cavalry was also in Qingjiang County, and the deputy commander-in-chief of the second battalion would not be sent out at will on weekdays, resulting in the rebels being unable to detect the enemy during the day.

Therefore, the evening became a good time for the rebel soldiers to go out to investigate the enemy.

Gong Chengkang followed a few comrades-in-arms to the north for five miles, and did not even encounter a hare along the way.

After walking two miles further, suddenly a ball of fire appeared in front of him, and the chief immediately told everyone to crouch down and observe the enemy's situation.

Gong Chengkang lay on the ground and poked his head out to look in the direction of the firelight, only to see that the flat ground in the distance was densely packed with tents...