Daming kill

Chapter 169
"Why did you get away so quickly?" Li Ping was very curious about Zhou Wen's arrival.

As soon as the battle was over, Zhou Wen was assigned by Li Ping to deal with the swarms of excited city officials and gentlemen who wanted to claim credit and make friends with them, and he also used his identity as a scholar to appease them.

But Zhou Wen's work is done too fast this week!

Normally speaking, at this moment, the kung fu probably hasn't even recognized the head.

Faced with Li Ping's doubts, Zhou Wen smiled wryly and said, "Although I am a scholar, I am only the general's subordinate after all, and I have no right to make decisions about major affairs. What people want to see is you, the general."

"Why, they stumped you so quickly? Tell me, I can answer you. As for meeting them, forget it! Tell them that the general is busy." Li Ping's answer was very straightforward.

Since he had no intention of guarding Huangpi from the beginning, Li Ping was naturally very reluctant to meet the local officials, gentlemen and people. He didn't want to waste his energy for nothing, and he didn't want to embarrass himself who wanted to save face. That's why he pushed Zhou Wen out.

Seeing Li Ping's resolute attitude, Zhou Wen looked a little disappointed, but he didn't seem surprised, but just asked respectfully:

"General, shall we guard Huangpi?"

Li Ping asked casually in surprise, "What do you mean?"

Only attacking but not defending is their established strategy, and Zhou Wen, the head of the training department, should know this better than anyone else.Although the situation is somewhat different, Zhou Wen's judgment should not be inferior to Ma Yong's.

Unless he has other ideas.

"The elders, officials and people in Huangpi City hope that the general will lead them to stick to Huangpi, and hope that the general will order to kill the false magistrate and all those who have taken refuge in the bandit army so that the whole city can guard its will."

When he said these words, Zhou Wen's expression was very serious, and his eyes were a little weird.

Calling officials appointed by the Peasant Army pseudo-officials was a relatively unified statement by the government at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

As for the pseudo magistrate of Huangpi County, in fact, he has not officially taken office yet, so he has not yet lived in the county government.

This is a scholar who has just joined the peasant army in De'an Mansion. He rushed to Huangpi County last night under the escort of several peasant soldiers, and was about to take office later, but he was captured before his ass touched the official chair. .

"You know our established plan, why do you still ask?" Li Ping's tone became a little cold.

But Zhou Wen remained calm, and continued to say seriously: "I made a mistake in my judgment before. I didn't expect the people in the city to hate thieves so much. Since the situation is different, the general may have different ideas. Zhou Wen dare not preside over this matter." Sure, it’s better to ask clearly.”

"Then do you think we should guard or not?" Li Ping's tone became strangely flat.

Looking at Li Ping, who was expressionless, and Ma Yong, who was already very serious, Zhou Wen sighed slightly and said: "It seems that the general has already made up his mind, so there is no need for Zhou Wen to say more, I just listen to the general's orders. "

"Then you still ask me?" Li Ping replied bluntly.

"Forehead…"

With black lines on Zhou Wen's face, he didn't know how to answer for a long time.

But Li Ping said with a half-smile: "Why! Are you afraid to say it or don't want to say it? My thinking may not be right, maybe you can convince me."

Zhou Wen looked left and right again, and finally said helplessly: "Although we sympathize with the gentlemen and people here, we still don't have the conditions to guard Huangpi. Because Zuo Zongbing will not support us. Without his support, we are completely You can't stand alone."

Li Ping finally nodded his head, his expression softened and he said, "Since that's the case, then we have no differences."

Zhou Wen also nodded sadly.

"Sir, there are many aspects of this battle that I haven't figured out yet, why don't we discuss it together." Ma Yong suddenly interjected at this moment.

"That's a good proposal!" Li Ping praised.

Immediately afterwards, he said without hesitation: "Our great victory has a lot of accidental elements in it. We must not be proud of our victory, especially our command must stay sober. Staff Du, please tell me first."

This is very obvious that I don't want to continue the previous topic.

"Yes!"

Du Sanjiang, who was suddenly named, replied instinctively.

Then, under the watchful eyes of Li Ping and Ma Yong, he licked his lips and said hastily: "The people in the city who helped us were killed or injured. It is estimated that there are more than [-] people. The fighting power of He Yilong's tribe is still very strong..."

"So much?" Ma Yong couldn't help exclaiming.

It is not difficult to guess that there were casualties among the people, and the casualties were quite large.After all, most of them had no military training, and they also participated extensively in attacks on the peasant army.

But Li Ping, who has the most information, still doesn't know the extent of their participation and the extent of their casualties, which is important for understanding their incredible victory.

However, Du Sanjiang obviously already understood a lot.

It turned out that Du Sanjiang went to act alone after the battle, checked every battlefield, understood the whole battle process, and did what a combat staff should really do, and was just met and captured by Zhou Wen.

In Du Sanjiang's narration, more information was revealed.

Hundreds of big officials and gentry in Huangpi City, including the family members and servants of many merchants, quickly and spontaneously launched a siege to the peasant army stationed in various places when the chaos broke out in the city, and killed many peasant troops who had just awakened. The soldier was directly killed in his own yard.

And the peasant army was not given in vain.

Although they were beaten, most of them resisted desperately and caused a lot of casualties to the people who attacked them.

In the end, less than 1000 of the more than 300 new and old peasant troops were captured, and most of them were recruits and surrendered soldiers.

This is a very shocking phenomenon.

Obviously, the peasant army did not enjoy the broad support within Huangpi City that it had enjoyed in the vast Huangpi countryside.

The unbelievable behavior of the Peasant Army's excessive indulgence in the city should have aroused a lot of resistance and dissatisfaction, and rebellion in the city has been brewing.

Although Du Sanjiang was still ignorant of this abnormal phenomenon of the peasant army.

But what he is now certain of is that without the great help of the people in the city, they would not have been able to seize the city so smoothly, nor would they have nearly wiped out the peasant army, let alone with so few casualties.

Moreover, Du Sanjiang also believes that although Fang has already won a big victory, there are too many irreproducible features in this battle.

Du Sanjiang's narration made Zhou Wen, who had always been a little absent-minded, slowly gather his attention and seemed a little stunned, as if he didn't understand this at all before, and he didn't know what the two of them had exchanged on the way here.

However, after Du Sanjiang finished speaking, Zhou Wen followed up with a speech.

Zhou Wen probably thinks that the overindulgent behavior of the peasant army in Huangpi City may be related to the close relationship between He Yilong's tribe and Luo Rucai's tribe, which enjoys the most enjoyment among the peasant army.

The whole of He Yilong's army is likely to be generally contaminated with a lot of bad ethos and refuse to strictly implement Li Zicheng's new requirements for military discipline of the entire peasant army.

Although He Yilong's vanguard army did not bully the low-level people in Huangpi City, it was also very unfriendly to even those with a little wealth, and completely ignored Li Zicheng's strict order that all troops not live in private houses. As a dead letter.

Coupled with their undisguised public and large-scale bullying of the rich and powerful, it eventually led to the fact that seeing is believing, and ordinary people in Huangpi City who were not harmed by it no longer believed in other promises of the peasant army.

But in the end, Zhou Wen used this to raise a serious concern.

He was very worried that the peasant army would carry out bloody revenge on the gentry and civilians in Huangpi City who had given great support to the siege army, and this was also in line with the consistent tradition of the peasant army.

Li Ping was startled suddenly, he couldn't help but looked towards the city, and looked at the clearly recognizable jubilation everywhere in the city, he found that he seemed to have indeed ignored this issue.

But he didn't say anything, and he didn't take a stand.

Ma Yong also chose to filter, he just went on to talk about some purely military spectators.

Ma Yong believes that the superior geographical advantages between Huangpi and Wuchang Hanyang and the arrogance of the peasant army brought about by successive victories led to the serious paralysis of the peasant army in Huangpi.

Therefore, urging troops to remain vigilant and guard against arrogance and impetuosity must become an important task for officers at all levels, especially after a big victory, like they are now.

I am afraid of everything you say and brainstorm, and the truth often comes from this.

The Battle of Huangpi actually opened Li Ping's horizons and made him amazed. Although there are some dramas, history is often so complicated.

The famous Huangpi special dish "Huangpi Sanxian" is said to come from this period of history.

After the peasant army captured Huangpi City, the local people took out fish ball meatball meat cakes that were only used for festivals and cooked them together to warmly entertain the peasant army.

But at the same time in the real history, shortly after the peasant army captured Huangpi, the officials, gentry and people in the city actually took advantage of the peasant army's unpreparedness to revolt and drive the peasant army out of Huangpi City, and beheaded the false magistrate.

That's right, in real history, the people of Huangpi did this by themselves, without any external force at all.

As a result, the peasant army was furious, attacked Huangpi again and took revenge by massacring the city. At the same time, the entire Huangpi city wall was completely demolished. This is how the Qing Dynasty rebuilt Huangpi County.

Li Ping is not clear about these histories.

Of course, if he knew, his heart would be at peace, because his surprise attack probably saved the people in Huangpi City.

It is always different to be breached by the government and the people themselves anyway.It is very likely that the peasant army will only resent the officials and soldiers and will no longer anger the people of Huangpi, and the massacre of the city and the demolition of the city wall may not be done.

Although he did not know the real history of this period, Li Ping gained a deeper understanding of the complexity, diversity and constant change of social contradictions in the late Ming Dynasty during this battle, and he also gained more intuitive feelings about the peasant army.

The majority of poor people outside the city were enthusiastic and blindly obedient to the Peasant Army, and the city's citizens, including merchants and some gentry, welcomed the Peasant Army from the initial cautiousness to the rapid aversion and opposition.

All of this deeply portrays the huge social gap in the late Ming Dynasty, the violent swings in social understanding, and the huge consequences caused by the conqueror's policy mistakes.

Li Ping believes that the problems of He Yilong's troops may have a lot to do with his long-term struggle in the impoverished Dabie Mountains (commonly known as Yinghuo Mountains in the late Ming Dynasty) before joining forces with Li Zicheng in Henan.

Enough tenacity and ability to fight, but relatively low resistance to the colorful world and decadent life.

Coupled with the fact that most of its key officers come from Shaanxi, which has been plagued by disasters, and many of its key soldiers come from the difficult Dabie Mountains, He Yilong's troops have an excessive hatred of officials, gentry, and merchants from top to bottom.

In the end, they let their bodies wander in Huangpi City, which they thought was safe, and then triggered a strong rebound from all walks of life in Huangpi City.

"Ma Yong, you send someone to notify the officers at all levels immediately, order them to strictly restrain the troops, and order Qian Dongzi to be strict in picketing. Although we don't intend to defend the city, we can't let the troops develop indulgence here. Habits." Li Ping, who was analyzing, said hurriedly.

When Ma Yong was looking for someone to arrange the order, Zhou Wen suddenly seemed to remember and said: "General, there is one more thing I forgot to ask for instructions."

"Say!"

"The fathers, elders, and people in the city hope that the general will return the money and horses and mules looted by the bandits."

"what?"

Li Ping was taken aback, and Ma Yong also turned around in shock.

Although the number of horse mules looted by the peasant army in Huangpi City may not be many, it is estimated that there are only a hundred or so at most.But for Li Ping, who was short of horses and mules, it was a pain in the ass!
But under the breathless gaze of the crowd, Li Ping only thought for a moment with a sullen face before announcing:

"Returning the money is no problem.

It's okay to kill the fake officials you said before, but we don't and can't do it.They can be prevaricated by saying that there is a shortage of hard labor in our army.

As for whether to guard Huangpi or not, don't say it clearly.It only needs to be said that guarding the land and fighting thieves is the duty of us warriors, and it is our duty.But we are the subordinates of Zuo Zongbing after all, and we should obey the unified dispatch of Zuo Zongbing. "

Li Ping suddenly answered all the questions at once, and his tone was quite kind, probably influenced by what Zhou Wen said.

"What was seized is ours, why do we have to return it? If they want to, they will find the culprits themselves, so what does it have to do with us?" Liu Qiang's loud voice suddenly sounded.

This guy is eavesdropping again.

"It is indeed a very large amount of wealth! Even except for the war horses and some horse mules, it is all we have seized, and it is estimated to be many times what we currently have. It is a pity." Zhou Wen continued with a strange sentence .

Li Ping glanced at Zhou Wen, he knew that Zhou Wen was testing him again.

Of course, Li Ping knew very well that the goods that the Peasant Army looted from the rich officials and gentry were the most valuable, and the inventory left by the government before the run might be basically zero or very little.

But Li Ping is now in the army, and he plans to continue to rely on the Ming government for a while, and he still has some small problems with Zuo Liangyu.

This means that he had better not do things like Zuo Liangyu's blatant robbing or the equivalent of blatant robbing, and it was even better not to stand on the opposite side of the big officials and gentry and block his own way.

Besides, Li Ping has always promoted the righteous way in the army, and it is even more impossible for his subordinates to be confused by saying one thing and doing another thing.

And once the mind is messed up, it is more troublesome than anything else.

"A gentleman loves money, and there is a proper way to get it. There are all the sufferers, so there is no reason to seize it. Besides, without the help of the people in Huangpi City, how could we have captured the city so smoothly. In terms of emotion and reason, we should Return the property looted by the bandits to them." Li Ping firmly expressed his opinion.

"But there's no reason to spit it out after eating it." Liu Qiang yelled loudly from behind.

Li Ping's face changed, and he turned to Liu Qiang and cursed: "If you only have greed, how am I different from a thief? Liu Qiang, if you want to be a thief, go yourself."

"But brother, that's a lot of money!" Liu Qiang was still unwilling.

"Go away!" Li Ping was furious.

But Liu Qiang didn't mean to go away at all, he just pointed his head at Dong Jiangpeng very aggrieved, with an expression of why don't you support me.

But Dong Jiangpeng raised his face to the sky, a gesture that I don't know anything and has nothing to do with me.

Seeing this, Li Ping ignored it.

"What the general said is true, I understand." Zhou Wen took the words at this time, with a clear expression of relief on his face.

"One more thing..."

"Anything else?" Li Ping interrupted Zhou Wen in surprise.

"Well. It seems that the general has not arranged to report victory to the Zuo Zongbing, Zhou Wen is willing to go." Zhou Wen said with twinkling eyes.

Li Ping looked suspiciously at Zhou Wen, who had always kept a low profile but was now clearly looking forward to it. A gloomy haze flashed through his somewhat softened heart again.

This is a very strange intuition.

But he just pretended to be confused and said: "The reminder is right. But you don't want to go. Ma Yong is more suitable than you and can represent me better."

"General, I..." Zhou Wen seemed to want to fight again, but was interrupted by Li Ping's direct wave.

"This matter has been decided, so let's do it like this." Li Ping didn't want to hear any more.

Just when Zhou Wen didn't want to give up and planned to work harder, Duan Qiang suddenly came to him in a hurry.

"Sir, we have caught a suspicious scholar. During the interrogation, the scholar insisted on seeing you." Duan Qiang reported.

"He sees me whenever he wants to. What are you doing!" Li Ping, who was in a bad mood, immediately choked.

Duan Qiang, who didn't know why, glanced at Zhou Wen uneasily, and then said cautiously: "The scholar said that he has something important to tell, and the time is tight, but he will only say it if he meets the general himself. Shi Lei doesn't think what he said is fake If so, I am in a hurry to report."

"Oh?" Both Li Ping and Zhou Wen were stunned unexpectedly.

(End of this chapter)