Kyoto, the Imperial City.

In the inner courtyard of the palace, Emperor Qin Yu looked at the letter from Qingzhou sent by his subordinates and smiled slightly.

He didn't expect that a small Lingshui County would actually write to the imperial court to go to Yuzhou to quell the rebellion.

In Qin Yu's eyes, Xiao Jiu has always been regarded as a chess piece placed in Qingzhou.

Now that the northern border has undergone great changes one after another, those local officials who hold real power in various places are silently watching from the wall, but it is this neglected small magistrate who proposes to send troops to Yuzhou at this time, which is difficult not to surprise Qin Yu.

The cannons sent by Lingshui County before were beyond the expectations of Emperor Qin Yu, and now this letter has reached his hands, which makes Qin Yu feel inexplicable.

Afterwards, Qin Yu asked the guards of the forbidden army who came to deliver the letter some specific details.

When he learned that Li Luoyao, who had been married to Xiao Jiu before, had returned to Kyoto, he directly sent someone to Li Li's mansion to send some palace jade.

Now Xiao Jiu can no longer be regarded as a dispensable chess piece as before, just blocking the menacing Qingzhou Army with a county is already impressive.

Now that he has written such a letter, it is enough to prove that Xiao Jiu is not a busy person.

Regardless of whether Xiao Jiu was loyal to the country or ambitious, his thoughts were not important to Qin Yu.

Now in the whole world, what is lacking is a local army that takes the lead in counterinsurgency.

After Yuzhou was captured by the rebel rebels, the internal bureaucracy had already existed in name only.

And according to reliable sources, there are many families in Yuzhou who play a vital role in it.

Without the covert support of these big clans, the peasant people, whose overall quality is generally low, would never have been able to organize on such a large scale.

Qin Yu knew very well about these in his heart, but he didn't dare to use the forbidden army in the Kyoto area easily, and he had always maintained the current stalemate.

Originally, after Jizhou Governor Xia Cheng suppressed the rebellion in Benzhou, Qin Yu also planned to wait until Jizhou recuperated and sent a part of the forbidden army to recover Yuzhou.

But with Xia Cheng's death, the situation in the entire Jizhou began to become chaotic again.

In such a situation, Qin Yu did not dare to gamble with the only tens of thousands of forbidden troops in his hand, and a single move would usher in the collapse of the dynasty.

Now that Xiao Jiu of Lingshui County is taking the lead, it is a good time to unite many forces in the north.

Previously, Qin Yu had crowned Lu Yaoliang, the governor of Qingzhou, as the general of the Zhu Kingdom, but the other party had always had an ambiguous attitude, and it was obviously not an empty name that could be dismissed.

Since Lu Yaoliang in Qingzhou was unreliable, Qin Yu decided to shift his attention to Xia Ming, the son of Jizhou who had just taken over his father's power in Jizhou.

This time, Qin Yute issued an edict and crowned Xia Cheng's son Xia Ming as the governor of Jizhou to help him stabilize his authority in name.

Even if the local generals in Jizhou who held military power had other ideas, they would not dare to make trouble in the name of killing the lord.

Of course, as a price, Qin Yu also asked Jizhou to send troops to recruit the rebels in Yuzhou.

When the time is ripe, the forbidden army of Zhili can move eastward and recover Yuzhou.

At that time, the imperial court will control Zhili, Wanzhou, plus a Yuzhou, which can be completely reshuffled in the north.

At that time, Qingzhou, which is in a corner of peace, and Jizhou, which is constantly fighting, will no longer be a threat to Qin Yu's imperial power.

But Ren Qinyu's calculations in his heart were clanging, and the most important thing in front of him was to see the progress of the counterinsurgency in Yuzhou.

Only when the rebellion in Yuzhou was put down could the follow-up plan be continued, so after receiving the letter from Lingshui County, Qin Yu attached great importance to it.

In addition to Jizhou, Emperor Qin Yu directly sealed Xiao Jiu as the county guard of Yangcheng County in Yuzhou.

The implication is to take Yangcheng County, which is Xiao Jiu's own territory, and this edict also gave Xiao Jiu a reason to enter Yuzhou.

In addition, Qin Yu was also ready to transfer some money and grain from Kyoto to support Xiao Jiu to form an army.

Qin Yu went through his plan in his heart, with infinite expectations for the future in his eyes.

……

Yuzhou, the city lord's mansion.

At this time, the leaders of the rebel army and the high priest of the Vulcan Sect gathered in the City Lord's Mansion, but everyone had a bitter look on their faces, and the scene was quiet and terrifying.

The failure of the attack on Jizhou was regarded as making them truly realize the gap between themselves and the regular soldiers of Great Xia.

These militia-like rebels are okay to fight a good fight, but once they encounter a difficult bone to gnaw, they become vulnerable.

It was also the process of capturing Yuzhou that was too smooth, which made them less in awe of the Great Xia court at the beginning, thinking that they could easily crush it with their numerical superiority.

Basically, few of the brothers who went to Jizhou could come back, and the governor of Jizhou was like a butcher who would be killed by him even if he surrendered.

Fortunately, not long after the rebel army withdrew from Jizhou, the news that Jizhou Governor Xia Cheng was poisoned came from the north, and the rebel army celebrated for a while.

But now the situation in the entire northern border will not be reversed because of Xia Cheng's death.

The last time the rebel army poured out to attack Jizhou, it was unsuccessful, and it had already hurt its own foundation.

What they want to do now is to temporarily recuperate in Yuzhou, and if they blindly use military force without waiting for the government to exterminate them, they will collapse because of famine next summer.

At that time, these people under your hands will not even be able to eat, who will be in the mood to accompany you in rebellion?

The peasants would choose to rebel because of the corruption of the imperial court and natural disasters, but once the situation could not be stabilized, these peasant rebels with low overall quality would eventually only scatter, which was also a common problem of peasant uprisings in previous dynasties.

For several days, the leaders of the rebel army, who had been divided into various places, gathered in the city of Yuzhou to discuss, and the content of the discussion was only which family could share more grain.

But when attacking Jizhou before, most of the stocks had been used for military purposes, and the rest were not enough at all.

In the end, only a few stronger rebel troops could be divided, and the remaining small forces of thousands of people could only swallow their anger and prepare to cut back on food and clothing in the days to come.

Just when the leaders withdrew from Yuzhou City one after another, Gu Chong, the high priest of the Vulcan Sect, took a few followers to a mansion in the corner of Yuzhou City.

Gu Chong and his entourage came to the house, and before they could knock on the door, a man dressed as a domestic servant greeted him at the door, saying that he had been waiting for a long time.

Then Gu Chong walked into the courtyard with a few followers with expressionless faces, only to see a golden maple leaf in the courtyard, and under the maple tree was sitting a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar sipping the tea in his mouth.

"Elder Gu, I've been waiting for a long time."

The middle-aged warm voice slowly came out of his throat, but Gu Chong on the opposite side still had that cold face, and he slightly clenched his fist at the middle-aged man in front of him.

"Mr. Zhao."

The man opposite Gu Chong smiled slightly when he heard such a title, and then led Gu Chong and his party into the back hall.

It wasn't until late at night that Gu Chong left the mansion with a few attendants with him.

It's just that the expression on Gu Chong's face was a little unpredictable when he came out, and he heard Gu Chong sigh slightly at the dim sky, shook his head lightly and returned to his residence.

Since Gu Chong visited this mysterious mansion, the rebel army in various parts of Yuzhou began to receive money and food sent by strange forces one after another, which also solved the urgent need of the rebel army.

Just when the rebel armies from all walks of life in Yuzhou were entrenched in various parts of Yuzhou and were preparing to temporarily rest and recuperate, the first batch of counterinsurgency advance troops sent by Xiao Jiu also arrived in Yangcheng County on the border of Yuzhou.

This team was led by Jinzi, and there were only about 200 people, all of whom were cavalry, and although there were few people, they were all full of spirit.

Their cavalry battalion did not come to Yuzhou to fight this time, but to prepare to rebel against the local people who were under the rule of the rebel army.

According to Xiao Jiu's understanding, although the rebel army now entrenched in Yuzhou killed most of the landlords in the process of rebellion, its policy was still the same as that of a feudal small peasant society.

After killing the landlord Lao Cai, who was usually powerful, those rebel leaders took their place and began a new round of reincarnation.

It's just that there aren't too many people under the rule who have a long-term vision and can see through the essence of things.

Simply thinking that the rebels helped them kill the bully riding on their heads, and these rebellious heroes may be able to survive in the troubled times.

But with the unsuccessful siege of Jizhou by the rebel army, the rebel army, which was originally in the limelight, was also dragged into the quagmire of war.

When the rebel army returned to Yuzhou in disgrace, the biggest problem they faced was food.

Without food, these people who could not eat would no longer have accepted the rule of the rebels.

And the cavalry battalion sent by Xiao Jiu went to Yuzhou to promote only one thing, that is, to serve as a soldier in the imperial court to have food to eat.

When the people in the towns and villages of Yuzhou heard this, they began to be eager to try, and they also thought very clearly, rather than waiting to starve to death, it was better to eat a full meal now.

Perhaps when the drought in the north first began to spread, these victims were deeply disappointed with the imperial court and turned to some mystical religions.

But now those who helped them drive away the landlords' old wealth hoarded all the grain in the county town and waited for them to starve to death, and the rebel army lost its original righteousness.

Unconsciously, the people's aspirations have begun to slowly turn upside down.

……

Yuzhou, Yangcheng County.

In a village called Zaoshu Village, under the jurisdiction of Baosong County, Yangcheng County, the villagers are gathering in the ancestral hall of the village.

"Patriarch, the generals will transport grain to the county seat, which is going to cut off the villagers' way of life."

A villager with a sallow face spoke to several old men with serious faces in the ancestral hall.

Several old men sitting in the ancestral hall looked at the men, women and children gathered here, their faces were tangled and hesitant.

These people were their sons, nephews and relatives, and when the rebels were in trouble, many people followed them to kill corrupt officials and rob landlords in the county town.

But now that the whole of Yuzhou has been defeated, the grain that was originally hoarded has been transported to the county seat one after another, and there is no meaning to distribute it to them at all.

For this situation of crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, the people in the village are full of anger in their hearts.

But the rebel army in the county town was so powerful that they were a group of unarmed villagers, and they were afraid that they would lose their lives in vain before they could grab food from the county seat.

Just as the ancestral hall was gradually arguing, the thin young man who had spoken before released unexpected news.

"The day before yesterday, I met a group of Qingzhou soldiers in the village, they were afraid that they were going to fight, anyway, there was no way to live, we might as well follow the court to fight the heavenly soldiers."