Chongzhen Undergraduates

"I don't know either. It is said that the magistrate of Feicheng is a cadre. After Jinan Jinbing Jinan slaughtered the city, this person became an official with Ming Jing (the honorific name of Gongsheng), and succeeded the previous magistrate of Feicheng, Henan Cai Shixin, as the magistrate of Feicheng. Since his term of office , the official voice is quite good, and is deeply supported by the people."

"You sent someone to deliver a letter before, did you reply?"

"Never, and the messenger didn't come out." Cheng Xianzhen was also very surprised, why the other party neither opened the door nor responded?

Zhu Youjian took the striker with a thousand soldiers and horses, and waited alone for the opponent five miles outside the city. Ten miles behind him were other material personnel of the team, and they all hoped that this side could enter the city sooner.

Suddenly, there was a cannon sound behind the surrounding hills, and thousands of enemies rushed out, and surrounded Zhu Youjian's men in a swarm.Zhu Youjian's side is full of cavalry. He wanted to resist at first, but he didn't expect that the opponent appeared too fast and was so close.

The most ridiculous thing was the opponent's tactics. They actually lifted a large number of wooden fences, and thick branches were used as shields to tightly surround Zhu Youjian's thousand cavalry.Because he felt that Feicheng was a county under the banner of the Ming Dynasty, he did not rule out scouts such as night refusal, and suffered a big loss all of a sudden.

"Bold thief, hurry up and get off your horse and die." Through the dense branches, Zhu Youjian saw a young Confucian scholar in his thirties, wearing a square scarf, wearing a Confucian shirt, and waving a folding fan, commanding the enemy to shout loudly. scold.Zhu Youjian felt that if he replaced the folding fan on his hand with a lupine, he would look very much like Zhuge in the film and television drama.

"Here is the crown prince, who is so bold as to let go?" Cheng Xianzhen shouted at the other party.

"Don't lie to me here. There are many fake princes and princes that I have received. They all say that they are royal relatives, princes and generals, but they are just a bunch of liars who eat and drink. You wait for bad behavior , You can hide it from others, but you can't hide it from me." The other party refused to accept it, and insisted that he was a liar, Zhu Youjian couldn't laugh or cry.

At this time, a young man in ordinary clothes with a towel tied on his head jumped off the horse from the crowd on Zhu Youjian's side, pointed at the people on the opposite side, and cursed: "Zheng Wei, you are so tired of your job, are you?" Well, you don’t even know me anymore?”

Zhu Youjian took a look, isn't this the boy Deng Zhirong!I saw that this kid was so courageous, he rushed in front of the enemy with a quick step, and the leader of the opponent was a hug.

What's going on, two good friends?

Just when Zhu Youjian was feeling dark, Deng Zhirong quickly walked up to him with the Confucian scholar opposite, knelt on one leg, clasped his fists and said, "Brigade Commander, this guy is Zheng Wei, the magistrate of Feicheng County, my classmate and friend." He was still grinning, and the ashes from the bottom of the pot hadn't been wiped off his face.

"Misunderstanding, misunderstanding, the humble officer didn't know the general was here, and mistook the general for a liar. Please redeem the crime of ignorance." Zheng Wei also hurriedly saluted.

"Magistrate Zheng, I think you have a lot of men, there must be thousands of people?" Zhu Youjian has long been envious of the large group of soldiers around him. Although these soldiers are dressed in various styles, they are all young and strong , must not be weaker than his own men.

"Hey, it's hard to say. Please come into the city quickly, and let me tell you slowly." Zheng Wei hurriedly led Zhu Youjian and his group into the city.

Zhu Youjian walked slowly along the road and found that the city was in good order, the market was prosperous, and there were many shops, which was much more prosperous than Dongchang Mansion.Such a small county town is more lively than a prefectural city by the canal, everyone was quite surprised.After entering the county government, Zhu Youjian heard Zheng Wei talk about his difficulties.

It turned out that since he took over as magistrate, refugees have been pouring in from the west.Feicheng is a hilly area, which is safer than the plains and more fertile than the mountains.Hundreds of thousands of refugees flooded into the small Feicheng Basin in just a few years.Feicheng, which was originally just a small city, has grown in population to the size of a big city.

The population has increased, but there are still so many officials, and various conflicts between migrants and locals are prone to occur.Zheng Wei moved from side to side, supporting everywhere, barely maintaining stability.Unexpectedly, Chuangjun came again at the beginning of the year.It's just that there are not enough officials to break into the army, and their eyes are only on Tai'an Prefecture, ignoring this small Feicheng County.

Later, thieves appeared everywhere, all kinds of swindlers and robbers were rampant, and Shandong has had thieves since ancient times.Zheng Wei had no choice but to set up Feicheng's own township troupe in order to keep one party safe.Fortunately, he had a good official reputation, and the common people supported him, and the Township Warriors suddenly became a well-known elite soldier in the neighborhood.

"How many soldiers do you have now?" This is the focus of Zhu Youjian's attention.

"Six thousand, 350 people."

"So much?" Zhu Youjian was taken aback. He thought about Feicheng being fat, but he didn't expect Feicheng to be so fat, much fatter than Dongchang Mansion.

"Otherwise I won't be able to maintain the safety of these hundreds of thousands of people!" Zheng Wei sighed.It's not easy for him. A county magistrate is in charge of the population of a state capital. If there are no people, I'm afraid it will be a mess long ago.

One person guards a small county town for several years.In the middle, everyone's stability can be guaranteed, and a team of elite soldiers has been trained. The ability of this county magistrate under the eyes of various forces is impressive.It can be called a lone hero!

"Is this the case in several nearby counties?" Zhu Youjian was happy. If all the nearby counties are so fat, then he will get rich this time.Maybe you don't even need to go to Nanjing, just lead the Northern Expedition directly.

"Tai'an Prefecture is still in the hands of the Chuangjun. There is a group of about 2000 Chuangjun stationed in Tai'an. When Dezhou changed flags, they only responded, but the state capital is actually still in their hands. Qufu in the south is because it is Kong People don’t want to go to the territory of the prefecture, so they are concentrated in several other county prefectures.”

"Why don't you go to Qufu?"

"Because the area around Qufu is basically the land of the Confucian family, there is no land for land reclamation. Even if the land is reclaimed, it is still counted as the property of the Confucian family, so no one is willing to contribute in vain." Cheng Xianzhen added.

"It's so possible for the Kong family to monopolize the land of a state?" Zhu Youjian couldn't understand, a state capital has a large area, how could it be possible for a family to occupy so much land.

"Naturally, the head of the Kong family can't occupy so much, but the Kong family has other branches. After hundreds of years, the various branches attached to the big tree of the Kong family have completely controlled Qufu. After leaving Qufu, the Kong family may not have Such a powerful force, but around Qufu, no one else can compete with them. Qufu can be regarded as an independent kingdom."

"It turns out to be like this." Zhu Youjian understood at once that the Kong family, as the hereditary invincible title Yan Shenggong, has been multiplying for 600 years since the Song Dynasty.In less than 300 years, the old Zhu family had 600 descendants. The Kong family has only been in Qufu for [-] years, which is already very controllable.

It turns out that I took it for granted. Feicheng is rich because the location is good, there are no vested interest groups, and the land is fertile.The key is to have a good magistrate county for the people, and all the people are crowded here.Other places do not have such good conditions. It can only be said that Feicheng is a special case, a place of good luck under the general trend.

"Can you take Tai'an Prefecture?" Zhu Youjian was thinking about Tai'an Prefecture, and that was the real purpose of his trip.

"It's not a big problem. The Chuang army has only been stationed in Tai'an Prefecture for less than two months, and there are no officials to govern. As long as we play the banner of the prince, we can get the support of the surrounding people. Once the city is besieged, the Chuang army can only be a lone army. I can't keep it." Zheng Wei continued: "As a small county magistrate, I don't have that much appeal, but now that the prince is here, the prince's banner is enough."

Zhu Youjian used the banner of the prince all the way. After all, the prince is orthodox, which has played a role in promoting the enthusiasm of the people.It can be seen that the people at this time still have a sense of identification with Daming in their hearts.

"Then spread the word to the surrounding counties, saying that the prince is going to win Tai'an Prefecture, and let them all come over to support the show, and we will not wait after the expiration date." Zhu Youjian counted the troops in his hands. He had more than 4000 people in his hands, adding There are more than 6000 people in the Zheng position, so there are more than 1 horses.Recruit some more young and strong, collect [-] yuan, and you can almost go to Tai'an Prefecture for a while.

It's not that I don't know, it's that I was shocked.From the capital to here, Zhu Youjian accidentally mastered tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. The emperor's banner is really more effective than ordinary traversers.Zhu Youjian thought to himself, if this time travels to an ordinary person, if he wants to raise tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, it will take three to five years without even thinking about it, and it will have to be smooth sailing for three to five years.

Siege is not an easy task. Although it is said that Tai'an Prefecture is easy to attack, there is still a lot of preparation work.

The first is the soldiers. The soldiers in Zhu Youjian's hands are currently from different subordinates, and most of them have just joined, and they cannot be coordinated.But the attack on Tai'an was just around the corner, so he didn't have time to train his troops slowly, so he could only do what was of use.

Chongzhen had never fought a war, and Zhu Youjian had never really fought a war. The battle of a piece of stone could not be counted at all. Zhu Youjian just went to the battlefield to pick up cheap ones.What's more, this is a siege battle with cold weapons, which is completely unfamiliar territory.Perhaps the only one who actually commanded the battle was Deng Zhirong, but what Deng Zhirong fought was only a small-scale battle.

Seeing that kid's brows on his lips and his inability to do things well, Zhu Youjian didn't dare to entrust such an important matter to him.If the performance fails, Zhu Youjian's first reputation will be stinky, not to mention that it is also related to the strategic issue of whether he can recruit soldiers in the future.

Just when Zhu Youjian was having a headache, the left-behind sentry of Dongchang Mansion said that Yao Hai had returned and brought a young man with him.Zhu Youjian counted the time, Yao Hai has been away to Henan for more than half a month, and it is almost time to come back.But who is he bringing back, will it be Li Yan?

Chapter 35: Purgatory on Earth

The straight-line distance from Feicheng to Tai'an is [-] kilometers, which is very short.But if Xiaoyu climbed over a mountain in a straight line, the large army would not be able to go at all.

Zhu Youjian was puzzled, since Feicheng is so close, why the Chuangjun stationed in Tai'an Prefecture didn't directly capture Feicheng.Could it be the thousands of soldiers who are afraid of Zheng Wei?This reasoning doesn't make sense. How can one be afraid of a mere few thousand townspeople who have invaded the city and plundered land for more than ten years.

In order to find out, Zhu Youjian decided to go to Tai'an Prefecture to investigate in person.Zhu Youjian wanted to personally investigate the enemy's situation, Wang Chengen was the first to jump out and objected, the reason was simple, it was too dangerous.After finally getting out of danger, if there is a mistake, the consequences will be disastrous.

Unable to stop Wang Chengen, he finally compromised, but the additional condition was that he and fifty other soldiers who were most capable of fighting must be brought along.Zhu Youjian was amused when he heard it: "I'm here to investigate the enemy's situation, not to visit the night market. With fifty bodyguards, you are afraid that the enemy will not know who I am?"

The two argued for a long time, and finally Zhu Youjian decided to take Wang Chengen, Wu Ganlai and two young guards with him, and the others stayed in Feicheng.In this way, the five people happily set off before dawn the next day.

After walking along the way for a whole day, Zhu Youjian took people to see the city wall of Tai'an Mansion until the sun was about to set.Traveling in ancient times was really a pain, relying entirely on the soles of the feet. I didn’t feel it when I was fleeing for my life before, and I didn’t feel it when I was riding a car. This time, Zhu Youjian firmly experienced what it means to measure the land with his feet.

"Brigade Commander, do you find anything strange?" Ji Biao, one of the young guards, said looking at the city gate in the distance.

"What's wrong?" Zhu Youjian also felt something was wrong, but he didn't think too much.

"There are no men among the people who go out of the city." As soon as Ji Biao said, Zhu Youjian was overjoyed, thinking that you, you boy, only stared at women.

"No, what I mean is that there are men among the people who enter the city, but none of the people who leave the city." Ji Biao re-explained.

Zhu Youjian took a closer look, and it was really as he said, the time to close the city gate was approaching, so there should be a lot of people entering or leaving the city.But among so many people, the people who went out of the city really didn't have a single man.This is not the case!

"Go, find someone out of the city and ask what's going on." Zhu Youjian pushed Ji Biao.

Ji Biao blushed and said, "I haven't talked to a woman alone yet."

"It's worthless, so what will you do when you find a wife in the future? You are destined to be single like this." Zhu Youjian scolded with a smile.

"You don't need to talk to find a wife, just blow on the light to bring her back. By the way, Brigadier, what is a single dog?"

"If you ask a woman who is out of town, I'll tell you what a single dog is."