After experiencing the chaos and bloodshed in Zhaohua County, the Jiang family father and son could no longer bear the loss of control of the rebel army.

When the peasant army slaughtered the rich family, the father and son began to rescue their friends.

They have all read books and have some old friends in the county. Although the rescued people are angry, they can't afford to quarrel in this situation, and can only unite to maintain the situation.

After sacking the county seat, the peasant army split into two forces.

The Jiang family is a group of five fathers and sons, and the size of the army is only more than 1,000 people, most of whom are farmers and craftsmen, and a small number of scholars are also mixed in.

The other group has nearly 10,000 people, headed by Wu Tong, the head of the township soldiers, and there are many large and small leaders, all of whom are the heads of the township soldiers, ten generals, and Yu Hou. They formed a rebel alliance, ostensibly obeying Wu Tong's orders, but in fact they did their own thing. The backbone is the township soldiers recruited by the government, mixed with a large number of unemployed vagrants and low-level people in the county.

The two forces clashed in the city.

The reason is that the father and son of the Jiang family are not allowed to insult women, even if they are notorious, they will be killed if they are killed, but they cannot rape their daughters. Even if you want to rob a woman, you should give a name, and you can marry home and be a concubine.

In order to establish authority, the father and son of the Jiang family executed more than 20 people one after another, causing dissatisfaction among many peasant soldiers. Then he set military regulations and ordered the spoils of war to be handed over, forcing a large number of soldiers to run to Wu Tong.

This led to the fact that there were five fathers and sons, and there were only more than 1,000 troops left, while Wu Tong had nearly 10,000 people.

The two sides communicated, and the Jiang family and his son occupied the area around the county government, while Wu Tong and others controlled Nancheng District, so there was no large-scale bloody conflict.

After a short rest, we went to attack Lizhou City together.

Besieged the city for several days, built equipment, and attacked the city in only half a day. Most of the officials at the state and county levels were killed, and a small number fled north.

Then, the peasant army finally broke out into civil war, caused by the unequal distribution of the spoils of war and the fact that the Chiang family prevented soldiers from plundering civilians.

The father and son of the Jiang family were defeated, and with hundreds of remnants, they retreated to Zhaohua County to defend it.

Looking at the dilapidated county town and the hundreds of remnants behind him, Jiang Zhongru, the village school gentleman, was completely disheartened, and kept muttering: "What shouldn't be rebelled, what shouldn't be rebelled......"

"Father, it's useless to say this," Jiang Chengwu suggested, "the county town of Zhaohua is in tatters, the people have either fled or have been coerced into rebellious soldiers, and there is neither a source of soldiers nor money and food in the city. It is useless to attack Jiameng County, one can get money and food supplies, and the other can recruit young and strong soldiers. ”

Jiang Zhongru looked up at the remnant sun, leaned over and said, "Go now, you can get to Jiameng Pass before dark." ”

The location of Jia Meng Pass is in Wangxi Town, where they first plundered.

(The county seat of Zhaohua in the Song Dynasty was on the north bank of the confluence of the Bailongjiang and Jialing rivers.) Jiamengguan and Wangxi Town are on the south bank, that is, near the ruins of the ancient city of Zhaohua in later generations. As for the county seat of Jiameng, it is in the river valley area further south. ）

Hundreds of remnants of soldiers crossed the river with their families to find houses in Wangxi Town to live.

The Jiameng Pass next to it was empty, and the guards had already fled.

Two days later, the Jiang family father and son came to Jiameng County.

Facing the open city gate, Jiang Zhongru said to his subordinates: "The city gate is wide open, the rich people in the city must have fled, and the rest are all bitter haha, don't kill and loot indiscriminately." Equal to the rich and the poor, it is not like that. I am incompetent in leading the troops, and I have caused too many killings, and when Zhu Xianggong of Hanzhong comes, you all go and serve as soldiers for him. ”

Hundreds of remnants looked at each other, they were already more obedient, otherwise they would not have followed Jiang Zhongru all the time.

"Let's listen to Jiang Xuexue!" A soldier knelt.

The rest of the soldiers also knelt down, and the more than ten Zhaohua soldiers who accompanied the army finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this.

After the army entered the city, they did not commit any crimes, and only went to the official warehouse and rice shop to collect grain.

Jiang Zhongru sent people to post notices to reassure the people, and also looked for officials in the city to maintain law and order in the whole city as much as possible.

……

However, it was said that after the Jiang family and his son were driven away by Lizhou City, Wu Tong coerced the residents in the city as soldiers, and instantly pulled up a miscellaneous army of more than 20,000 people.

Knowing that Taishou Huang Deyu led his troops back, Wu Tong said to the leaders under his command: "I have inquired clearly, Huang Laogou only brought a few thousand soldiers back, but our troops are more than 20,000. We all know what the officers and soldiers are like, and they will collapse when the battle starts. Kill me out, kill Huang Laogou first, and then go to Zhu Xianggong, everyone can be a big official in the future! ”

"Kill it and be a big official!" The leaders shouted for joy.

A few miles north of the city, Huang Deyu found out that the thieves actually took the initiative to go out of the city to fight, and immediately issued a military order: "A team of five people, each pulling his belt and retreating." Who dares to loosen the belt and kill the captain! ”

Fearing that the retreat would turn into a rout, thousands of officers and soldiers turned around and marched like a train.

The officers and men gradually retreated halfway up the mountain, and the peasant army continued to leave the city one after another.

They thought that the officers and men were afraid, and their morale became even higher, and they could not help but speed up the march.

Huang Deyu set up a handsome banner on the mountainside, and asked all his troops to line up around him and occupy favorable terrain for defense.

The peasant army was disorganized, and there was no chain of command to speak of, relying on the big and small leaders to fight their own battles. Many of them had been recruited as village soldiers, but they had only been trained for a few days.

Wu Tong sent more than 10,000 soldiers and asked the leaders to lead troops to besiege them on three sides.

At the beginning, one by one, the blood surged, regardless of the physical strength, rushed up the mountain, and the momentum was like a rainbow, as if it was all Lu Bu's reincarnation. After the engagement, it was discovered that the positions of the officers and troops could not be broken, and tens of thousands of Lu Bu were quickly beaten back to their original shape.

Within a quarter of an hour of the battle, two leaders retreated.

"Kill!"

Huang Deyu quickly seized the opportunity and led the Chinese soldiers into battle, tearing through the gap where the enemy army had fled.

The peasant army was originally only a few hundred people in a rout, but when Huang Deyu rushed like this, the nearby leaders retreated one after another, and the chain reaction turned into a big rout.

Wu Tong was stunned at the bottom of the mountain, rubbed his eyes and looked again, and shouted in fright: "Run, this bird official is not easy to deal with!" ”

Huang Deyu took advantage of the victory to pursue and captured a large number of thieves, and Wu Tong fled the battlefield with only more than 4,000 people.

Moreover, Wu Tong did not dare to return to Zhoucheng, and ran east along the tributaries of the Jialing River, all the way to Jiachuan County (west of Wangcang County).

Huang Deyu led his troops back to the city, looking at the mess of the state city, and his whole body was so angry that his lungs were about to explode. When he returned to the back house of the state government, he found that there was no one inside, and after careful inquiry, he learned that his old wife and servants had been killed, and a mouthful of blood spurted out and passed out directly.

After lying for half an hour before waking up, Huang Deyu shouted: "Help me up, leave some soldiers to guard the city, and the rest will follow me back to Mantianzhai, where it is important to block the Zhu thief!" ”

The record who luckily escaped from the state city joined the army and helped Huang Deyu to sit up, and said with a sad face: "The soldiers have fled too much, and they can't be suppressed at all." I was afraid that I would force them to rebel, so I had to let them return to their hometowns. ”

"Just won a big victory, how can the soldiers flee?" Huang Deyu exclaimed.

Ma Zao said: "The soldiers heard that the state city was robbed of white land, and the thieves burned, killed, looted, and did all kinds of evil. I also learned from the captives that Zhaohua County was also killed too hard, and everyone was worried about their families in the countryside. Several township officers took the lead in clamoring, and the rest of the soldiers followed suit, snatching military funds and making entanglements to go home. The Xiang army didn't dare to stop it at first, and then followed the village soldiers to make trouble, and let go of the captured thieves......"

Huang Deyu sat for a long time, and finally came back to his senses for a long time: "How many soldiers are left?" ”

Ma Zao replied: "Two or three hundred people, all of them are single men with no families. ”

"Two or three hundred?"

Huang Deyu grabbed the placket of Ma Zao's clothes violently, and roared: "I have thousands of troops, and I have captured tens of thousands of thieves. Just in a coma for a while, you say there are only two or three hundred people left? ”

Ma Zao said helplessly: "I can't stop it, I'm in a hurry to go home." Those village soldiers were originally forcibly recruited, and if they blindly blocked them, they would also rebel. It's too defending, let's withdraw, Lizhou can't hold it. ”

"Where?" Huang Deyu asked rhetorically.

Ma Zao said: "Remove the Sword Gate Pass." The remaining 200 or so soldiers are all single and strong, and as long as they are rewarded, they will definitely be willing to retreat with us. With these more than 200 strong men, even if there is not a single soldier on Chengdu Fulu, we can still defend the Sword Gate Pass without losing. ”

Huang Deyu thought silently, and finally said in a hoarse voice: "Withdraw." ”

……

The county seat of Jiachuan.

The county order and the main book have run away, and Wu Kangguo, the head of the county school, is leading the people in the county to defend the city.

Refugees fleeing from the state town bring terrifying news. While scaring away the county order, it also made the people hate the same enemy, the rich took out money and grain for military funds, and the people took up arms to defend their homes.

It's true, there is money to pay, and there are people to pay.

Rich and poor, they were all frightened by those peasant armies, knowing what would happen if they didn't resist.

Wu Kangguo was a jinshi last year, and he was assigned to the county school to be the principal, and before his ass was hot, he received an official document to reduce the size of the school. With only twenty students left under him, he was bored, but now he was in trouble.

The county order and the chief secretary have fled, and the people unanimously elected him as the commander.

Wu Kangguo completely belongs to chasing ducks to the shelves, he has not even read the military book, so he can only arrange it in a daze.

First, take the armor as a unit, and let the armor chief organize the neighborhoods to defend a section of the city wall. Then let the rich serve as logistics officers and organize the old and weak to transport materials. There were no serious weapons, the flat shoulders of the vendors, the kitchen knives of the people, what to take, and some beams were dismantled to make rolling wood, and vegetable oil and dung water were prepared for cooking.

Wu Tong came with thousands of remnants of the army and immediately sent people to persuade him to surrender.

Wu Kangguo was furious, lying on the head of the city and roaring: "You wait for thieves, you have no humanity, and you will go to eighteen layers of hell!" ”

Seeing that the people in the city did not descend, Wu Tong demolished the houses outside the city to make siege ladders.

I thought that a war could be broken, but who knew that it was more difficult to fight than the state city. The people defending the city are all desperate, the principal Wu Kangguo is also the leader, and even many children of rich families are fighting.

Wu Tong suffered heavy losses under Jiachuan City, so he had to retreat with the remnants of the army, and heard that Taishou ran away halfway, so he killed back to the state city.

Many of the surviving civilians in the state city were coerced by Wu Tong as soldiers, and after being captured by officers and soldiers, they fled home. When they learned that Wu Tong had been killed, they also worked together to defend it, resolutely preventing this demon from entering the city again.

Just when Wu Tong was depressed, the leaders under his command began to fight among themselves.

In the end, they fell apart, and each took his subordinates and ran to the mountains to be bandits.

Zhu Ming came with a large army, learned about the situation in Lizhou, and stood in place for a long time without speaking.

(End of chapter)