I

  Chapter 151 149 [Faction Contradictions] (addition for the leader "the friend with the two-hand pattern who can't get the ID")

   Bow makers, kiln workers, and their families were taken away by Zhao Han. The total number of women and children exceeded 4,000.

   It is difficult to deal with elite soldiers, mainly because they are reluctant to part with their families.

   It is okay to insist on taking the surrendered soldiers away, but the morale of the army is hard to say, and one day they may turn against each other before the battle.

  So, Zhao Han specially stayed for a few more days, and scattered soldiers went to various villages to "pick up" their families. It was delayed for another sixteen days, and the Lantern Festival was over in the blink of an eye.

  The boats were used to transport supplies. In addition to those recruited by Tian Younian, Zhao Han himself also snatched more than ten ships.

  Old people, young children, also sat in the boat, and the rest all proceeded along the river bank. After joining up with Fei Ruhe from Fenyi County, the entire team has tens of thousands of people, marching towards the Ganjiang River.

   Arriving outside Xinyu (Xinyu) County, Tian Younian went ashore in person and shouted at the base of the city: "I am Tian Younian, the prefect of Yuanzhou. I am going to Ji'an to suppress the bandits. Hurry up and collect food and grass!"

  Damn bandits, they stayed in Fucheng for half a month, and the news had already spread to Xinyu County, everyone knew that the prefect of Yuanzhou was a thief.

  Xin Yuzhi County can't be offended. Seeing bandits dragging their families with them, it seems that they are just passing by here, and immediately ask the big households in the city to prepare food and grass. It's like spending money to buy peace, and it took half a day to get a thousand stones, and a merchant ship as a gift, and carefully sent the anti-thief gifts out of the country.

   After walking for another two hours, it was already evening, so they camped by the river to rest.

  A small boat sailed back, and the spy reported: "From here to the north of Zhangshu Town, there are no officers and soldiers from the general town."

   "Okay, you go to rest." Zhao Han said.

  Tian Younian frowned and said: "It shouldn't be, Li Maofang and Wang Siren's army should have arrived in Zhangshu Town after receiving my secret letter."

   "It doesn't matter, let's go back and talk about it first." Zhao Han didn't bother to think about what happened to the governor.

   Four days later.

  Zhao Han led a large army to Zhangshu Town, which belongs to the medicine capital of the world and is the distribution center of traditional Chinese medicine in the whole south.

  Zhangshu Town, Jingdezhen, Hekou Town, and Wucheng Town are also known as the four famous towns in Jiangxi. Back then, when Wang Yangming put down King Ning's rebellion, he gathered troops in Zhangshu Town and went northward.

  This place is extremely prosperous, and the number of merchants in a town is more than that of Zhao Han's Ji'an City.

  Businessmen have long been aware of the thieves, shops are closed one after another, merchant ships also flee to the north, and there are few people in sight even at the pier.

  The material fleet entered the Ganjiang River and returned to Ji'an along the south.

   There were spies rowing small boats to the north to investigate the information of the officers and soldiers. Finally, on the ninth day, the news came back that the governor led the troops to the Yangtze River waterway.

   "It must be the rogue bandits from the Northwest, who have flooded into the southern Zhili area." Tian Younian guessed.

  Zhao Han knew that Zhu’s family’s ancestral grave had been dug, but he forgot the year. He smiled and said, “The rebels may have gone to Zhongdu (Fengyang).”

  Tian Younian was startled, nodded and said, "Very likely!"

   A few days later, after crossing the boundary of Xiajiang County, the spies finally came back to report: "The Northwest Rebels have entered Nanzhi from Henan!"

  This information is very late. When Zhao Han was still in Yuanzhou Mansion, the bandits had already captured Fengyang.

  Thousands of people were stationed in Fengyang City, the central capital. Taking advantage of the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival, the rogues sent 300 soldiers in disguise to enter the city.

  Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong were all involved. The imperial mausoleum was destroyed, the temples were burned, and the Longxing Temple (Huangjue Temple) where Zhu Yuanzhang became a monk was burned. Thousands of officers and soldiers in Fengyang were killed even if they surrendered, and more than 60 eunuchs were also killed. The rogues raised the banner of "Gu Yuan Zhenlong Emperor" and drank happily in front of the ancestral grave of Lao Zhu's family.

   It was Zhang Xianzhong who proclaimed himself emperor, and Zhang Xianzhong also took down Fengyang City. Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng ran a little slowly.

   As for Emperor Gu Yuan Zhenlong, that is a legend of the White Lotus Sect. In order to win over the White Lotus Sect, Zhang Xianzhong assumed the title of Emperor, and fell out with Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng because of this.

  They are all brothers who rebelled together. If you suddenly proclaim yourself emperor, then what should I be?

  After that, the spoils were distributed unevenly, and Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong had a complete falling out.

  Li Zicheng walked northwest along the Yellow River.

  Zhang Xianzhong was heading south. At this moment, he was besieging Quanjiao. He wanted to cross the river and occupy the capital of Nanjing.

  …

   Mid-February.

  The Jiangxi army led by Li Maofang and Wang Siren set off eagerly by boat to protect the emperor's ancestral tomb.

  Walking halfway, I heard that Fengyang has fallen and the bandits are attacking Quanjiao. So, the two got off the boat by the Yangtze River and went to rescue Quanjiao on foot. They were considered loyal to the king and the country.

  After only marching for more than 30 miles, I heard that Quanjiao County was gone.

   Li Maofang was dumbfounded, and discussed with Wang Siren in private: "Ji Zhong, it is better to withdraw the army, or wait for the reinforcements of the friendly army. The bandit army is so large that we may not be able to resist it!"

  Wang Siren said: "You can't withdraw the troops, you can go to Hezhou (Hexian) to rest and wait for the troops from the six provinces to come to help."

   Both of them felt a little guilty at this time, but withdrawing troops halfway was too ugly, so they found a place to hide, and they could give the court an explanation regardless of victory or defeat.

  The next day, the Jiangxi army began to withdraw, and wanted to retreat to Hezhou City by boat.

  But they were already being targeted, and there were constant rogue cavalry chasing them. At the beginning, there were only a dozen or so cavalry, but after half a day, it increased to hundreds of cavalry.

   "Why do bandits have so many cavalry?" Li Maofang exclaimed.

  Wang Siren said: "I can't retreat to the river, go to the mountains in the northwest!"

  The 5,000 Jiangxi army, under the watchful eyes of the thieves, threw away their luggage and accelerated their march. Hundreds of thieves kept harassing, but they never attacked—they were all mounted infantry, mainly used for traveling.

  Seeing that the distance to Cloak Mountain was getting closer and closer, there was a sudden sound of rumbling horseshoes behind him.

  Zhang Xianzhong came in person, along with He Yilong (Ge Liyan) and Ma Shouying (Old Huihui).

  Three bandits, with a total of three thousand cavalry, swept in with astonishing momentum.

   "Run, the thief is coming!"

  The distance between the two sides was still very far, and the Jiangxi soldiers collapsed directly. Li Maofang and Wang Siren couldn't restrain themselves at all, so they could only run along with the defeated soldiers.

   This is not a battle, but a one-sided massacre, and the thieves and knights catch up and hack.

  The enemies that Zhao Han faced in Jiangxi were just like this, and he had no resistance against the bandits.

  Fleeing into the Cloak Mountain, Li Maofang and Wang Siren counted the number of people, and they all looked ashamed. More than 5,000 soldiers went ashore to suppress the bandits, and fought in a muddle-headed manner, and now there are only more than 1,000 soldiers left.

   "Two or three thousand cavalry, are these thieves?" Li Maofang was shocked.

  Wang Siren also said: "It's no wonder that the imperial court is so hard to wipe out. These thieves are more powerful than officers and soldiers!"

  Last year, the rogues were besieged by the government army. After he escaped, Zhang Xianzhong learned from the painful experience. From then on, whenever a town was conquered, the first thing to grab was not money and food, but sending troops to collect mules and horses.

  Mules and donkeys are used to carry supplies, and horses are used to run long distances.

  If you encounter elite officers and soldiers, just throw away the supplies, and the whole army will flee on mules and horses.

   Horse seven steps three, this is Zhang Xianzhong's army ratio.

   It cannot be called cavalry at all, strictly speaking, it is only mounted infantry.

   Moreover, Zhang Xianzhong became more vigilant. Every time he camped, the sentry cavalry sent out from all sides could reach ten miles away!

  How could Jiangxi Xiangyong beat such a ferocious bandit?

   Even the officers and soldiers of the six northern provinces were helpless against Zhang Xianzhong. Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang also followed suit, looting mules, horses and livestock along the way, but wealth was not that important.

   Li Maofang and Wang Siren no longer have any idea of ​​suppressing thieves.

  They walked along the mountain, took more than a thousand infantry down the mountain in the middle of the night, boarded a boat and led the water army back to Jiangxi.

  Northwest thieves, whoever wants to suppress them, anyway, they don't want to come again.

   But Zhang Xianzhong captured Quanjiao, and after recruiting and reorganizing, he captured Shucheng in three days. At the same time, partial divisions were dispatched to take down Lu'an City.

  Then went to attack Luzhou again, but at first they couldn’t fight down, so they ransacked the residents outside the city and pretended to leave. Secretly dispatched hundreds of people, disguised as academic officials, scholars, domestic slaves and handymen. Many of them wore Confucian shirts and carried scrolls, and were respectfully invited into the city by the magistrate Zheng Luxiang.

  Yes, you read that right, the magistrate welcomed the bandits into the city himself!

   Then, Luzhou (Hefei) was gone.

  After occupying Luzhou City, Zhang Xianzhong immediately trained sailors in Chaohu Lake. He always wanted to cross the river to attack Nanjing and establish a court. During the period, people from the palace were also selected as eunuchs, so that they can live the addiction of being an emperor first.

   At this moment, the real official army came, and Zhang Xianzhong was so frightened that he fled along the Yangtze River. After suffering several defeats along the way, he jumped from Huangmei County to Huguang.

   This is the closest Zhao Han is to Zhang Xianzhong. Huangmei County is less than a hundred miles away from Jiujiang.

  …

   Of course Zhao Han didn't know that Zhang Xianzhong was far away from Luzhou, and actually helped him destroy the main force of the governor of Jiangxi.

   Such a big favor, how embarrassing.

  He returned to Ji'an in mid-February, and all civil and military officials went to the south of the city to greet him.

   "Meng An Gong, long time no see." Tian Younian cupped his hands.

  Li Banghua had no impression of him, and thought hard: "Your Excellency is..."

  Tian Younian replied: "Tian Younian, the magistrate of Yuanzhou, when Meng Angong was the Minister of the Ministry of War, he was the head of the Ministry of Households in Xiayang."

   "It turned out to be Mr. Tian." Li Banghua was greatly surprised, but Zhao Han unexpectedly subdued the prefect of Yuanzhou.

  Chen Maosheng stood beside him with a gloomy expression on his face.

  Pang Chunlai looked across the Gan River, completely ignoring the scene in front of him.

  Zhao Han felt that the atmosphere was very strange. Something must have happened, which caused conflicts between Li Banghua, Pang Chunlai and Chen Maosheng.

   After returning to the General Military Mansion, Xiao Huan handed over a letter.

  Zhao Han opened it and looked, but it was a letter of death.

  Written by a female member of the mission group, she used to be a prostitute in Ji'an Prefecture, and later joined the mission group. Just during the Chinese New Year, the mission group organized performances in the countryside to visit grassroots officials and peasant association members in various towns.

  Borrowing at the home of the mayor halfway through, the mayor is a recruiter from a thief. Because of his outstanding performance in dividing the land and his high education, he was quickly promoted to mayor.

   This guy doesn't know what kind of style he is, but he is greedy for the beauty of the female missionary. Or, thinking that the other party has been a prostitute before and doesn't care about bed affairs, she even insulted the female missionary in the middle of the night.

  The next morning, the mission leader learned of this and immediately sent the mayor to report to the authorities.

  Ouyang Zheng, the county magistrate, was so overwhelmed that he had no choice but to hand over the case to the General Military Office because the mayor and the missionary team were involved.

  Li Banghua and Pang Chunlai quarreled over this, and the female propaganda teacher became more and more delusional, and even left a suicide note to commit suicide. Fortunately, a good sister discovered it in time.

  Chen Maosheng was so angry that he not only wanted to dismiss the mayor, but also accused him of **** women.

   Jishui faction officials also united, thinking that a prostitute pretending to be a martyr and committing suicide by leaving a letter is just acting.

  The contradiction between the elder faction and the Jishui faction broke out all at once.

  Zhao Han sighed: "The expansion is still too fast. Those scholars are still thinking before. It's time to kill a few!"

  (end of this chapter)