The three-way army went out of the city in three days, and Peng Jinhong, the commander of the three battalions, led 10,000 soldiers and horses out of Deshengmen, crossed Jilong Mountain, and the army entered the territory of Nankang Mansion the next day.

Li Changgeng, the magistrate of Jianchang County, who was closest to Nanchang City, had already guessed that the thieves would definitely not be satisfied with only occupying one city of Nanchang, and they would definitely send troops north to attack the two prefectures of Nankang and Jiujiang.

As a result, less than three months have passed, and the anti-thieves really sent troops.

Li Changgeng, as the magistrate of Jianchang County, had already mobilized the people of Jianchang County to defend the city three months ago, but unfortunately the local people no longer had hope for the imperial court because they heard about the looting of the official army in Jiujiang Mansion. In addition, in recent months, from time to time, some people who have returned from Nanchang have preached the anti-thief policy among the people, saying that they would overthrow the landlords and divide the land, and abolish all lowly status.

If these words were to be said in normal times, maybe the people would not be able to take them to heart, because the big guys felt that it was impossible to happen.

But now it's different, there is often news in Nanchang Mansion, and many people who have relatives in Nanchang Mansion have received the news that King Mo has carried out the policy of abolishing the land in Nanchang, and the people of Nanchang have been allocated fields to each family, not to mention, and even some of the children of the former untouchables can still study, and they will still have the qualifications to be officials in the future.

China has been around for thousands of years, and if there is anything that the people of this country like the most, I am afraid that there is no second choice except to be an official.

For being an official, the people of China are almost obsessed with madness, and I don't know how many teenagers dream of being Tian Shelang and ascending to Tianzitang at dusk.

As long as they are men, they dream of one day living in the temple.

But due to various reasons, especially in the Ming Dynasty, there are many people whose backgrounds doom him to not be an official, even if this kind of person is knowledgeable and profound, he is destined to not be able to participate in the imperial examination.

These people are the people who have lived under the untouchable system since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Most of these people are the descendants of various untouchables, such as miscellaneous servants, convicts, prostitutes, noblemen, officials, military households, etc.

But now it's different, as soon as King Mo's new order was issued, the untouchables were all out of the untouchables, and their descendants could study and take exams to become officials.

This is terrible, I don't know how many lowly people have run to tell each other about this, and this policy is like a virus scattered around Nanchang Mansion.

Because in this era, there are too many untouchables who are excluded from the imperial examination.

For example, the tenants of large families and the descendants of servants are not eligible to participate in the imperial examination.

There are also military households, excellent people, prostitutes, and officials, whose descendants are untouchables all their lives, and it can be said that they will never turn over.

For this kind of day when you can see the head at a glance, these people have no ideals for life.

Without ideals and hopes, life is just a matter of survival.

No father wants his son to be like himself for a lifetime, and no prostitute will want his child to be a turtle for the rest of his life, and his daughter will become a prostitute after birth.

This hopeless life is hellish for these untouchables, with no hope.

But now it is different, King Mo has abolished the lowly status, and their lives have hope again, and their children and grandchildren can study and participate in the imperial examination.

All of a sudden, there was hope for the tenants who worked in the fields, the prostitutes who picked up customers in the brothels, the house slaves of large families.... After learning the news, everyone was full of hope for King Mo, hoping that the king would lead his troops north as soon as possible.

Now that King Mo's army is finally here, where can the people take care of the county magistrate to defend the city, no one will pay attention to the county lord at all.

Even the county officials don't know the county lords.

The arrest of the fast officials belongs to the officials, and it is impossible for their descendants to be officials, but now it is different, King Mo is coming, who still gives him allegiance in the Ming court, and the big guy is waiting to welcome the righteous army into the city.

The county magistrate Li Changgeng didn't see a single official in the county office, and after a long time, the county Cheng Meng Wenzhen walked in, and he said weakly: "My lord, the anti-thief army has entered the city!" ”

"Oh!" Li Changgeng let out a long sigh, full of helplessness.

"It's the city gate that the second king of the head catcher led people to open!"

Hearing this, Li Changgeng was slightly stunned, but he quickly recovered his expression.

"Got it, Meng Xiancheng, today is our last day as Jianchang's parent official, we can't lose the face of the literati, let's go, go and meet the thief!"

Li Changgeng tidied up his official robes and walked out of the county office with Meng Wenzhen, and as soon as he got out of the county office, he saw a team of soldiers in full armor walking outside the door, numbering as many as several hundred.

At the front of the team, there was a black-faced general riding on a horse, and the black-faced general looked at the two people who walked out of the county office, and couldn't help asking: "Are the two of you the magistrate and the county of Jianchang County?" ”

"Exactly! I am Li Changgeng, the magistrate of the county, dare to ask this general, what are you going to do with us? ”

The black-faced general smiled and said: "It's not up to me to decide what to do with you, but the people of Jianchang have the final say, and a public trial will be held in the afternoon, whether you are dead or alive, it depends on what the people think of you, the parent official!" ”

After saying that, the two were taken away by the soldiers.

It was the first time Li Changgeng saw that an official was about to be interrogated by the people, and his heart was full of panic and uneasiness.

In the morning, after the soldiers of the rebel army entered the city, they walked through the streets and alleys, beating gongs and drums, and spread the news of the public trial of the county officials to the streets and alleys.

It was the first time that the people of Jianchang had heard of a public trial meeting, and they also said that it was the local people who had the final say on whether to convict or not.

This time it was lively, and the people poured into the city, crowding the small Jianchang county.

In the afternoon, the public trial meeting officially began.

First of all, the civil official of the Third Battalion Culture and Propaganda Section took the stage to speak, this is a talented man from Linjiang Prefecture, named Han Dewei, who is only 23 years old this year.

Han Dewei was very eloquent, and after a speech, he quickly mobilized the emotions of the people.

On the stage, Han Dewei took the newly issued iron horn and shouted to the people below: "Folks, the one kneeling on this platform is your former county master, today, according to the practice of our righteous army, these officials and masters will be tried now, among the villagers, if there are people who have been abused by the county officials, even if they stand up and speak, as long as it is the truth, our righteous army will not spare it!" ”

After this operation, the people of Jianchang can be regarded as understanding what a public trial conference is.

Soon, a few strong men ran up to the stage, pointing to a small official kneeling beside Li Changgeng and said: "My lord, these soap officials, relying on the right to collect grain taxes, wantonly oppress our people, my family has to pay two taels of silver every year, and if the silver is not enough, they will take rice to offset the tax, I will carry a stone of rice to walk thirty miles of mountain road to the county office, but these dog mongrels said that I only picked seven buckets, and forced me to go back and pick three buckets."

We, the small people, where dare to fight with the officials, can only run home and carry three buckets of rice, but when they arrive at the county office, they say that there is only one bucket of rice, my lord, please call the shots for us small people! ”

Peng Jinhong, the chief military officer sitting in the audience and preparing to watch the execution, knew that what he said was absolutely true as soon as he heard the words of this fellow.

Because he was also bullied by the soap officials of Yichun County back then, a stone of rice picked dozens of miles to the county government, and the result was that ten buckets became seven buckets, sometimes even only six and a half buckets, these officials, the corruption is simply extremely vicious, more ruthless than bandits.

Peng Jinhong immediately waved his hand and said: "These soap officials don't need to be interrogated anymore, all of them will be raided and beheaded!" ”

As soon as the soap officials kneeling on it heard this, they were immediately frightened, and everyone trembled with fear.

The beheading soon began, dozens of volunteer soldiers stood behind him with butcher knives, and with the commander's order, more than 20 human heads fell to the ground in an instant.

Li Changgeng and Meng Wenzhen, who were kneeling on the side, felt a little scared when they saw this scene.

Meng Wenzhen is the official of Jianchang County, and he assists Li Changgeng in handling government affairs on weekdays, and he still has some power in his hands.

The soap officials who had just been cut off had been in charge of him before.

All his subordinates have been beheaded, will the next one be far away?

Meng Wenzhen glanced at Li Changgeng who was kneeling next to him with a sad face, and couldn't help crying: "County Zun, save me!" ”

Li Changgeng let out a long sigh and said with a helpless wry smile: "I can't protect myself, how can I save you, you go first for the time being, I will go down and make peace with you immediately!" ”

After cutting off the small officials, it will be the turn of the main master.

Han Dewei pointed his finger at Li Changgeng and Meng Wenzhen again, and asked the people in the audience: "Fellow villagers, these two are Li Changgeng of the county and Meng Wenzhen of the county, if the villagers are bullied and mutilated by them, just stand up and avenge their grievances!" ”

When the people in the audience heard that they were going to start interrogating the county lords, the lively scene just now was gone, and the people's emotions were not as excited as they were just now.

Peng Jinhong saw that the people suddenly changed, and he was suddenly a little puzzled.

He stepped down from the stage and came to a group of people and asked, "Folks, what's the matter?" If you have been wronged, you can avenge your grievances now, and this general soldier can give you anger! ”

A man stepped forward and said, "Lord Commander, although this Lord Li has only been in Jianchang for a short time, he has no evil deeds, and he has not imposed harsh policies on us. ”

"Yes, General, Master Li is really not a bad official, he is very good!"

This play can be said to have caught Peng Jinhong off guard.

He followed the handsome man from birth to death, and the magistrate who had seen the beheading of the county already had seven or eight subordinates, and now he finally caught one with his own hands, and he was not a corrupt official.

Although Peng Jinhong was a little disappointed in his heart, he was still a little happy.

The handsome's favorite is the Qing official, this Li Changgeng turned out to be a Qing official, it would be a pity to kill him, and the people of Jianchang also said that he did a good job, although he had just arrived, but he didn't commit any major crimes.

In this way, Li Changgeng escaped, and Meng Wenzhen, who was with him, also survived, and the two were pressed back to Nanchang Mansion by the Ten Volunteer Army, and saw the legendary thief Mo Wen, which is not stated for the time being.

On Jianchang's side, Peng Jinhong won the first victory without much effort, and the army won a county town without injury, and Peng Jinhong was in a good mood.

Early the next morning, Peng Jinhong left 200 soldiers and horses to defend Jianchang, and he himself personally led the army to continue north to De'an County in Jiujiang Prefecture.

Kangding, the county governor of De'an, was panicked when he heard the news, and immediately sent people to Fucheng to find the prefect Zhang Maoqian for support.

Where does Zhang Maoqian have soldiers in his hands to support him at the moment, the soldiers guarding the city of Jiujiang Mansion are only less than 2,000 together, and the imperial court sailors docked at the dock still have 2,000 people, but this is used by the imperial court to prevent the northern liukou from going south.

With these two thousand soldiers and horses, he couldn't move a small Jiujiang prefect at all, because the thousand commanders of the water division didn't bird him at all.

Besides, even if the thousand generals are willing to lead the troops ashore to defend against the enemy together, this number is still too small, and they are not the opponents of other people's thieves at all.

Zhang Maoqian had no choice but to quickly send a message to Lu Xiangsheng, who was rescuing the siege of Kaifeng, hoping that he would find a way to send troops to save Jiujiang.

After Lu Xiangsheng received the letter, he looked up to the sky and sighed a few times, he pointed at the sky and said: "I have the intention to kill the thief, but I am powerless!" ”

Lu Xiangsheng really didn't have anything to do with Mo Qian, when he was in Nanchang, this kid stayed honestly, as soon as he left, Mo Qian immediately led the troops to expand.

Lu Xiangsheng is burdened with the emperor's order, of course, it is impossible to leave at will, and now Lu Xiangsheng is in a hurry, so he can only write a letter back to Zhang Maoqian first, asking him to organize the townsmen to defend the city first, and give him an order to hold on for at least a month, waiting for him to lead the army back to help!

After Zhang Maoqian received the letter, he was discouraged, for a month, how could this small Jiujiang be kept!

I'm afraid that by the time the governor returns to Jiangxi with his troops in a month, the banner of Jiujiang Mansion will have already changed its name.

Lu Xiangsheng was worried about the battle situation in Jiangxi, and now he did not have enough cavalry to deal with the peasant army, so he could only be stationed on the periphery of Kaifeng City, so that Li Zicheng did not dare to attack the city at will.

Since the burning of the Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum, there has been a lot of gap between Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

The two quarreled because they were fighting for the spoils of war in Fengyang, and they almost didn't fight in front of the leaders of the thirty-six seventy-two battalions.

Since then, the two have basically been inseparable, this time Li Zicheng suffered a defeat in Luzhou, and Zhang Xianzhong was also beaten by Lu Xiangsheng in Chuzhou.

The two fled back to Henan in embarrassment, and Li Zicheng soon pulled up another 200,000 displaced people in Henan, known as an army of 300,000 to the outside world.

In fact, among the 200,000 displaced people, only 30,000 or 40,000 young and strong people can fight, and the rest are all old and weak family members.

Zhang Xianzhong led his cavalry, and directly stopped staying in Henan, turned his head and went south, and stayed with 30,000 horses to fight the idea of Wuchang Mansion.

There was a vassal kingdom of the king of Chu in Wuchang City, and Zhang Xianzhong learned that the king of Chu was rich in the world, and the gold and silver in the treasury were as much as one million taels.

As soon as Zhang Xianzhong heard this, he immediately led 30,000 troops to the west, borrowed the road from Lu'an Prefecture and Mall, and then turned south and went straight to Wuchang.

Tang Hui, the governor of Huguang who was sitting in Wuchang, heard that the anti-thief army was pressing the border, and he was immediately frightened that the six gods were lost, and immediately ordered the 10,000 troops stationed in Xiangyang to quickly return to help and stick to Wuchang Mansion.

The news that Zhang Xianzhong was going to attack Wuchang Mansion soon spread on both sides of the Yangtze River.

Mo Qian, who got the news, heard that Zhang Xianzhong was going to fight Wuchang Mansion, and immediately realized that this dog thief was eyeing the gold and silver treasures of Wuchang Chu Palace.

At this time, Peng Jinhong's soldiers and horses had just left Jianchang County and were heading north.

Mo Qian summed it up slightly, and felt that Wuchang must not be taken by Zhang Xianzhong, otherwise the King of Chu's family wealth would not be his turn.

That's a lot of wealth, Mo Qian recalled some history, and then remembered that when Zhang Xianzhong attacked Wuchang in his previous life, he searched out one million taels of gold and silver from the palace of the king of Chu, and he didn't finish loading hundreds of carts.

Such a large sum of money, if Zhang Xianzhong really snatched it, then how could he get rich!

Mo Qian took out the map and looked at it, and immediately counted it in his heart.

He immediately called Lu Zhao, who was resting in Nanchang, and ordered him: "Immediately reorganize the army for battle, and the whole army will go north with me to cross the river." ”

"Crossing the river?" Lu Zhao looked confused.

"Yes, cross the river, I'm going to fight Wuchang!"

When Lu Zhao heard this, his eyes immediately widened, and he looked at the handsome way like that, it didn't seem like a joke.

Lu Zhao couldn't help but ask curiously: "Dashuai, we haven't eaten Jiangxi yet, why did we suddenly go to fight Wuchang?" ”

Mo Qian pointed to the location of Wuchang and explained: "There is a king of Chu in Wuchang City, this is a big fish, fat flowing oil, copy his palace, we have the money to raise another 100,000 soldiers and horses, that Zhang Xianzhong didn't know where to get the news, he actually dared to grab the chopsticks in front of me, I have to give him a good look this time, order the firearms battalion, bring me all the red-clothed cannons and thunderbolts, this time I will have a big meal!" ”

The first battalion of the whole army was prepared in only one day, and the grain and grass were quickly loaded at the Nanchang wharf.

In addition, Mo Qian also wrote a letter to Changsha, ordering Qian Dayou to lead his troops from Changsha to go north with him and besiege Wuchang Mansion!

Looking at the location of Wuchang City on the map, Mo Qian patted the case and said: "The king of Chu is a big fish, this governor has eaten it, don't try to snatch it when the king of heaven comes!" ”

Lewen