"Run west!"

"Grandpa—"

In late October, as a black old man shouted these words, he immediately turned around and rushed towards the officers and soldiers behind him.

More than a dozen paces away, more than a dozen grizzled young men could only watch as their respected grandfather was cut down to the ground by officers and soldiers along with the rest of the village.

There was no time to be sad, and the eldest boy immediately pulled the two young men around him and turned around and ran.

Seeing them running, dozens of other teenagers also ran to the forest not far away.

When a young man in paper armor riding an ordinary horse saw this scene, he immediately said to an older young man in iron armor not far away:

"The head of the house, there are dozens of people running over there, do you want to chase them?"

"Huh?" Hearing this, the young man in iron armor turned his head to look in the direction pointed by the young man in paper armor, and looked at dozens of young people burrowing into the forest, the corners of his mouth twitched, and his heart became interested:

"It's been a long time since I hunted, and the forest is not big, so let them run farther away first, and take the "merits" in front of them first. ”

"Yes!" Hearing this, the young man in the paper armor responded and set his eyes on the "slaughterhouse" a hundred steps away.

Dozens of housekeepers dressed in paper armor and riding horses under their crotches were slashing at farmers trying to escape, and hundreds of villages, because of their slashing, only a few quarters of an hour later only a corpse remained.

The corpses spread from the village to the front of the trees, and the winter land of Henan was covered with scarlet blood.

After confirming that all of them had been killed, the dozens of family members took out the bloodstained red scarves they were carrying, tied them to the heads of the men in the corpses, and threw some rusty spears and knives next to the corpses, creating a sign that the group of people were rebels.

When these things were done, they dragged the woman's body to the village, then doused it with oil, lit a fire, and began to search for valuable things in the village.

A few cows, a few horses, dozens of pigs, dozens of chicken coops with hundreds of chickens, and bits and pieces of silver and copper coins were loaded onto the wagons.

When it was confirmed that there was nothing left in the village, a family member set fire to the hut in the village.

In this way, the rebels looted the village, and then they led their troops to exterminate it, and then seized a lot of false appearances.

At this time, a forty-year-old general rode his horse to the iron-clad young man and said:

"The head of the house and the people below have calculated, and after the things are folded, there can be seven or eight hundred taels of silver."

"Oh? It's quite a ......" Hearing this, the ironclad young man nodded with satisfaction, and then said:

"Leave ten men here to guard the property, and the rest of me will go to the woods with me to hunt those "prey" ......"

"Uh...... Hearing this, the ...... said,

"Head of the family, will it be too few to leave only ten people? If a rebel comes......"

"Where are the rebels?" The ironclad youth sneered:

"When those rebels heard that the King of Qi was coming with iron horses, they had already run to Kaifeng, Luoyang, Nanyang, and Runing."

"Let's go!"

With that, the young man shook the reins of his horse, rode his horse into the woods, and with his left hand took out the bow and arrows from his bow.

Seeing this, the general had no choice but to turn his head and order his family, and after leaving ten people, he rushed to the forest with the rest of the people following the youth.

They followed behind the youth, who looked down and could see the less obvious footprints in the forest.

"But in three quarters of an hour, they can't run far, you all disperse, and chase me in groups of three."

"The head of a rebel army is five taels of silver, and those dozens of people are one or two hundred taels, and they can't be let go...... Drive! ”

The young man took the lead and rode his horse and began to chase after the woods, which had lost all their dead leaves, and soon they had been chasing for eleven or twelve miles, and through the woods, and saw a figure running in the distance.

"Give me chase!"

Seeing the group of figures, his eyes showed joy, and he rode forward, and with his bow and arrows, he took these honest young men as prey.

The generals and cardi-armored youths behind him followed him and rode their horses, taking out their bows and arrows one after another.

"II...... Second brother...... I can't run. ”

The dozens of fleeing teenagers had long since dispersed, and now there were only four teenagers running together, and they also heard the sound of horses' hooves behind them.

A twelve or thirteen-year-old boy cried profusely, only to feel the burning pain in his lungs, and his breathing was as loud as a bellows.

In front of him, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy heard this, although he was also very uncomfortable, he still stretched out his hand and pulled the other party to run together.

"Whew!"

"Uh-"

The sound of arrows breaking through the air didn't even give a chance to scream, and a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy next to him, who was called the second brother, was shot through the chest, staggered a few steps and fell to the ground.

"Good! Hit the head! ”

The ironclad young man's eyes were filled with joy, and he shouted hello, not feeling cruel at all.

When he applauded, the paper-armored youth and the general shot two arrows one after another, one of which hit the left shoulder of the other young man, and the other arrow was pulled by the leg of the young man called the second brother.

"Second brother!"

The pain made tears welling up in his eyes, and the young man fell to the ground, crying, only knowing to call his second brother.

"Shiro!" Seeing that his younger brother's leg was pierced by an arrow and blood was sprinkled on the ground, the young man was heartbroken, and immediately took Shiro, who was injured in his leg, on his back and fled with difficulty.

The other young man in the middle of the shoulder was not so lucky, he had just stumbled to his feet, he was slashed on the back by a quick knife, fell to the ground, and after a few convulsions, his body loosened, and he was silent again.

"Another one!"

The ironclad young man laughed happily, the laughter was hairy, and the young man dozens of steps ahead gritted his teeth and staggered forward with his younger brother on his back.

At this moment, they had already run onto the official road, and at the same time, the young man in the paper armor also rode his horse to follow, raising his arrow to aim at Shiro, who was carried on the back of the young man in front.

"Shoot! These two people have no armor, and one arrow can kill two! ”

The iron-armored young man's eyes were excited, waiting for the paper-armored youth to shoot this arrow, but at this moment, the sound of breaking the air struck, and in the next second, an arrow pierced the temples of the paper-armored youth!

"Be careful, master! There is an enemy attack! ”

The general turned around and yelled, but in the next second he heard the sound of a dense firecracker, and then he felt pain in his body and fell from his horse.

The sound of iron hooves sounded, and before the ironclad youth could react, an arrow suddenly hit the hip of the horse under his crotch.

The horse neighed in fright, raised its hooves, and threw the man off his horse in an instant.

"Beep!"

In a hurry, the young man who rolled to the ground grabbed the wooden whistle hanging around his neck and blew it, in a vain attempt to gather the scattered family members, but in the next second, a long knife was on his neck.

When he looked up, he saw a sturdy brocade guard in a scarlet robe and cuirass, glaring at him.

A large number of iron horsemen came, and the young man who was still carrying his younger brother couldn't hold back, snot and tears welled up, blurring his vision, and knelt on the ground and kowtowed vigorously in the direction of the sound of horses' hooves:

"My lord, go around me and my brother! We will never talk about today's events, I beg of you! I beg you-"

A few heads slammed the official road, and the young man's forehead soon oozed blood, and then blood flowed out, staining half of his face.

At this moment, there was no sound of horses' hooves around, and the young man slowly stopped moving, wiped his eyes and looked up, only to see a group of armored horsemen with a blue face, and a young man in armor sitting on horseback with a gloomy face that almost dripped.

Zhu Youzhen's teeth were clenched, the anger in his heart made his breathing very hot, the whole body was hot, but the surface of his body was as cold as if he had just jumped into a river of ice.

"Get on your knees!"

"Uhhh

At this time, Lu Xiu pressed the iron-armored young man and walked over, kicked him to the ground, and ordered him to kneel down at the same time, he was involved in an arrow wound, wailing and crying out in pain......

Lu Xiu tore off the iron plate on the young man's waist, walked up to Zhu Youzhen and handed it over with both hands.

Zhu Youzhen glanced at it, and there were ten big characters on the iron plate, "Suiyang Wei Taoyuan Thousand Households".

Officers and soldiers of the Daming Guard......

When the identity of this young man appeared, Zhu Youzhen only felt a hot pain on his face.

At this time, the sound of horses' hooves sounded from behind, and Lu Wenzhao came from behind with dozens of heads hanging on the horseback, and it was all the family members under the command of this young man.

"Your Highness, after the search, only seventeen young men in Xianghe Village survived, six of them were wounded, and the military doctors accompanying the army are already treating them."

Lu Wenzhao replied, and he was also shocked in his heart.

Originally, they were cleaning up the remaining rebels in Guide Mansion, but they didn't want to run into this thing.

If it weren't for the official road ahead, they met a few teenagers from Xianghe Village who were chased and killed, they didn't know that after driving away the rebels, some officials and soldiers began to fish in troubled waters, killing good and risking their merits!

"Sun Shou Fa!"

Suddenly, Zhu Youzhen shouted angrily, which made everyone's hearts tremble.

"The last general!" Sun Shoufa stepped forward immediately, and now he has changed into a guerrilla general's cloth armor, and his heroic spirit is extraordinary.

However, Zhu Youzhen didn't have the heart to look at him, but just raised his horsewhip and said to Taoyuan Qianhu, who was already scared stupidly on the ground:

"Bag this person for me and drag it back to Xianghe County, cut off the dog's head and stick it at the entrance of Xianghe Village!"

"Your Highness! You listen to the general's explanation, these people are all rebels! The last general ......"

Taoyuan Qianhu wanted to explain like crazy, but Sun Shoufa directly threw out the lasso, strangled his neck, couldn't say a word, his hands kept grabbing the rope around his neck, his eyes widened, and he rolled his eyes.

"And the ability to bark!"

Seeing this, Lu Xiu stuck the long knife on the ground, pulled out the short knife on his leg, stepped forward and stretched out his fingers to grab the person's tongue, and cut off the tongue with the knife in his hand, covering his mouth and rolling on the ground in pain.

Seeing this, Sun Shoufa also said to the two iron riding roads next to him:

"Put him in a bag!"

"Yes!" The two cavalrymen of Tiance Wei turned over and dismounted, took a sack from their horses, and then put the Taoyuan Qianhu who kept gushing blood from their mouths into the bag.

When the mouth of the bag was tightened, Sun Shoufa clamped the horse's belly, and immediately dragged the Taoyuan Qianhu who tried to escape from the bag to Xianghe Village.

More than ten miles away, it is estimated that when he returned to Xianghe Village, this person was not dead but also disabled.

Looking at the back of Sun Shoufa dragging the sack away, Zhu Youzhen looked down at the young man who was kneeling on the ground in a daze, not knowing what to say, and the young man who had passed out and was hit by an arrow in the leg, frowned and explained to Lu Wenzhao:

"Let the military doctor heal them and bring them back to Yanshan."

"Humble command!" Lu Wenzhao responded when he heard this, and then asked a military doctor to be called to bandage the two.

Fortunately, the arrow did not hurt the muscles and bones, and after a few months of cultivation, it is estimated that it will not affect the future life.

However, their deceased relatives will not return......

Zhu Youzhen on horseback had a dark face and said to Lu Wenzhao:

"Let Cui Yingyuan find out to me, how many people are still killing in the name of banditry!"

"Obedience!" Hearing this, Lu Wenzhao responded hard, the reason why he was stubborn was because he knew that it was difficult to find out why this kind of thing was true.

In the final analysis, because the situation is too chaotic, things that often appear in the border army such as killing good and risking merit, and rarely appearing in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty are enough to show how chaotic Henan is at the moment.

"Your Highness—"

Just as Lu Wenzhao responded, a shout suddenly came from a distance.

Zhu Youzhen looked at the same time as everyone, but saw the Qianhu army of Tiance Wei rushing back with men and horses, and came to the front of the formation to rein in the horse and said:

"Your Highness, Xiao Cavalry Guard came to report that the rebels are besieging Xiangfu County in Kaifeng Prefecture, please ask for instructions on whether to break the thieves immediately?"

"Leave them alone." Zhu Youzhen's eyes narrowed slightly, and he decisively issued his military order, and then ordered:

"Ordered the three departments of Xiao Cavalry Guard, Long Xiangwei, and Yulin Guard, and drove Liukou to Xiangfu County, Ruyang County, Nanyang County, and Luoyang County."

"Your Highness, such an intentional drive will probably make the imperial history of Henan catch the handle." Lu Wenzhao cautiously spoke, but Zhu Youzhen said:

"Who's to say it's intentional? Didn't the rebel general Wang Haoxian lead the rebels to flee to Bozhou in Fengyang Mansion, Nanzhili? What if the rebels invaded the Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum? ”

After that, Zhu Youzhen opened his mouth to the commander of Tiancewei and the thousands of households of the army:

"Pass my order, the army will go south to Fengyang and chase down the rebels!"

"Obey the orders of the king!" The generals of the various armies responded one after another.

At this point, even a fool can see that Zhu Youzhen is deliberately putting the vassal kings of Henan into a crisis.

Only when they fall into a sufficient crisis will they give up some interests in exchange for Zhu Youzhen's protection.

Yuan Keli in Shandong had been ordered by Zhu Youzhen to prevent the rebels from entering Shandong in a roundabout way, and without an order, it was impossible for Yuan Keli to command a large army into Henan to quell the rebellion.

Shanxi and Beizhili have Gongwei battalions waiting for them, while Shaanxi and Huguang are not allowed to mobilize troops and horses without orders.

In this way, unless the governor of Henan can rely on Henan's officials and troops to quell the rebellion, the rebels in Henan can only be exterminated by relying on Zhu Youzhen.

At the sound of an order, more than 5,000 iron horsemen of Tiancewei immediately went south with thousands of horses driven by 1,000 people.

Fighting in a rich land can only be said to get richer the more you fight, and Zhu Youzhen is even more so.

Several successive large-scale thieves have seized tens of thousands of horses, horses, and cattle, more than 2,800,000 yuan in silver, more than 4 million yuan in copper coins, millions of stones in rice and wheat, and all kinds of antique jewelry.

Henan and Shandong are all rich and fruitful lands, large farming provinces, and there are many ploughing cattle and horses.

If Zhu Youzhen didn't need to ensure that the population of the Ming Dynasty had the ability to open up outward, and he didn't want to increase his strength with internal friction.

Then he can completely let the rebels cause chaos, and even Huo Huo's entire Central Plains.

But he didn't, since he exterminated Xu Hongru, most of them led the cavalry to break the formation with cavalry, and then the army attacked the middle army, and finally ordered the army to surrender.

The continuous fierce battle for more than half a month did not allow him to gain much experience in leading troops, because almost every battle against the peasant army with four cavalry guards was a crushing situation.

But even if he quelled the rebellion so quickly, Henan and Shandong still inevitably suffered military disasters.

In order for him to achieve his goal, he needs to let the military disaster besiege the four prefectures, and the casualties caused during this period are inevitable.

If you don't use this means to pacify the most difficult to solve the King of Zhou and King Fu, to these two feudal domains, it may cause greater turmoil than this military disaster.

This so-called turmoil does not refer to the two raising troops, but to the two joining forces with Wenchen as relatives.

Now that Wenchen has put down his face, so if Zhu Youzhen wants to put an end to this possibility, he will use this military disaster to innovate the kings of Henan and solve internal hidden dangers.

Solving the exploitation of Henan, Shandong, and Shaanxi by the vassal kings, the Ming Dynasty can better recover Liaodong in next year's battle of Liaodong and fight with all its might.

The army went south, and Yu Linwei, Xiao Caiwei, and Long Xiangwei deliberately blocked the roads that the rebels wanted to loot some market towns in accordance with Zhu Youzhen's orders, and drove the rebels to Fuzhi County, where the kings were located.

This reduced the damage caused by the rebels to the people of market towns and villages, and brought the rebels together to make it easier to exterminate.

But such a gathering, as long as you are not a fool, can see that he is deliberately targeting the kings.

"Bang-"

When the sound of the teacup being broken sounded from the carrying hall of the Zhou Palace, Zhu Suqin's angry roar also appeared:

"Zhu Youzhen, it's clear that he is putting pressure on Gu, what is he trying to do? Do you want to drive the rebels to fall into auspicious charms?! ”

The roar of Zhu Suqin in the carrier hall made people feel depressed, of course, it was not only the Zhou Wangfu that was suppressed, it should be said that it was the entire Xiangfu County.

30,000 rebels are attacking the city, although Xiangfu County is large, but the sound of fighting and artillery can be heard, which casts the shadow of war on the people in the entire county.

There are only 3,000 soldiers and horses guarding the city in Xiangfu County, and Zhu Suqin has already sent out the 600 palace guards in his hands, but even so, the situation in Xiangfu County is still not optimistic.

Now it is not the end of Chongzhen, but the second year of the Apocalypse, and Zhu Suqin cannot recruit troops to defend the city in the name of Zhou Wangfu.

If he really did this, he would give others his handle, and Zhu Youzhen estimated that he would happily lead the troops to come, and then confined his whole family to Fengyang in the name of private recruitment.

Therefore, Zhu Suqin could only look at his millions of taels of silver, but he couldn't use them to recruit troops and protect himself.

The result of giving people a handle is something he can't bear, but what he can't bear even more is the fall of the rebels......

"Zhu Youzhen! Zhu Youzhen! Vicious children will have a harvest! ”

Zhu Suqin found that he couldn't play the means, so he could only start cursing verbally, and Zhu Gongqi, the prince of the King of Zhou, next to him, said with a sad face:

"Father, why don't you order someone to break through to the capital and sue Zhu Youzhen for his ineffective suppression of bandits?"

"Lone has already arranged manpower, but the capital has refused!" Speaking of this, Zhu Suqin is also angry:

"When they dismissed it, they actually said that the King of Qi led his troops south to rescue Fengyang."

"Then Zhu Youzhen is still embarrassed to say that the "Tomb of the Ancestors" cannot be lost? Now that his clan is besieged, he thinks of his ancestors! ”

"Father, otherwise it's still ......" Zhu Gongyu was tempted with difficulty, but Zhu Suqin responded angrily: "Impossible! ”

Zhu Suqin knew that Zhu Gongqi wanted to say that he should still support Zhu Youzhen's innovation, anyway, the royal treasury had one million silver, which was enough for them to squander.

But for Zhu Suqin, this kind of thing is completely non-negotiable.

He understood better than anyone that the fundamental reason why the Zhou clan was stronger than the other feudal clans was because the vassal king needed to manage nearly 20,000 clan disciples, so he had cultivated a good ability.

If you support Zhu Youzhen's reform and let go of the children of the clan, then after three generations at most, the Zhou clan will become like ordinary princes of the feudal domains, becoming a waste who only knows how to eat, drink and have fun.

Therefore, this is the reason why Zhu Suqin is reluctant to let go, unless Zhu Youzhen can give him new assurances, such as ......

Politics!

"Lone is the bloodline of Emperor Shenzong, how can he be subject to the younger generation?"

When Zhu Suqin was stubbornly trying to maintain that pitiful power, unlike him, in the palace of King Fu of Luoyang, King Fu Zhu Changxun was still maintaining his self-esteem that he had almost become the crown prince.

In other words, he knew that Zhu Youzhen would not dare to let him die at the hands of the rebels, because once he died at the hands of the rebels, Zhu Youzhen would be extremely passive in the game with the civilian officials.

The charge of losing a relative is enough to make Zhu Youzhen fall into a passive situation.

"Your Highness, Niangniang is worried about you, besides, the innovation of the clan is always not harmful to you......"

A familiar voice sounded, and in the study, Cui Wensheng, who was wearing regular clothes and had no beard, was earnestly persuading Zhu Changxun in front of him.

He was instructed by Concubine Zheng to drive for ten days before the rebels arrived in Luoyang at the end of October.

Naturally, he also received instructions from Zhu Youzhen, that is, to try his best to persuade Zhu Changxun to support the vassal king's innovation.

However, whether it is Zhu Youzhen or Cui Wensheng, they all underestimate Zhu Changxun's inexplicable superiority.

As an existence that has been suppressing Zhu Changluo since childhood, Zhu Changxun's eye fever for the throne, as well as his disdain for Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youzhen at the moment, I am afraid that ordinary people cannot understand.

He always thought that if he had become the emperor, he would have pacified Jianyu and destroyed Lu'an, how could Daming be so embarrassed.

Therefore, in the face of Cui Wensheng's persuasion, he showed contempt for Cui Wensheng and said:

"Cui Daban, Lone looks at you as you get older and more timid, Lone is the blood of Emperor Shenzongxian, if Zhu Youzhen's little son dares to make me fall, he will not die well!"

"If the emperor's nephew sitting on the dragon chair is so mean and unkind to his uncle, how good can he be to the kings of the world?"

"It's only been three years since the imperial examination and the royal brother died, and the two brothers are so mean to their uncles, they want to see what they were doing at the beginning! Take the ancestral legal system! The Wenchen who took the "Emperor Ming Ancestral Training" to suppress the lonely! What the hell will it do! ”

"Bang-"

Speaking of excitement, Zhu Changxun grabbed the precious inkstone on the table and smashed it on the ground.

The sound of smashing made Cui Wensheng's heart tighten, and he completely understood how jealous his Royal Highness the Fu King was of the current emperor and King Qi.

Perhaps in his opinion, if it weren't for the original Wenchen uniting against Emperor Wanli, then everything that Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youzhen have now would have been his!

He didn't think about whether he could do what Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian did.

What he wants is to see Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youzhen and the civil officials completely tear their faces, and let the two groups of people he hates the most eat dogs.

Isn't this a kind of sorrow?

If you have revenge, you can't take revenge, so you can only survive in a place far away from the capital, hoping that the two enemies will die together.

Cui Wensheng watched Zhu Changxun grow up, so he naturally understood the other party, but now he ......

As soon as "......" recalled the things he had experienced in the Imperial Prison, Cui Wensheng's bones and flesh all over his body ached.

In the end, he could only bow in front of the angry Zhu Changxun and responded:

"The slave knows His Highness's thoughts, and after the slave returns to Beijing, she will tell the mother as such, and ask the mother to put pressure on Banzai......"

After that, Cui Wensheng slowly withdrew from the study, and Zhu Changxun looked at his departing back, only to feel that the strength of his body was drained, and he sat down on the chair.

Zhou King Zhu Suqin is helpless, why is he Zhu Changxun......

There is a change at four o'clock

(End of chapter)