Daming kill

Chapter 23 The Silly Big Man's Call for Help

On the second day in Xiangyang, Li Ping woke up early.

These days, his sleep has been very bad.No matter how late he slept, he often woke up very early, even if this night was the first time he slept in the house since he came to this world, there was no exception.

At this time, the sky was already bright, and the summer morning came very early.

Through the broken windows, the blue sky rushed into the eyes, and the unique freshness after the rain also rushed to the face, and the calls of various insects kept coming and going.

Looking at Song Baolai, who was sleeping soundly beside him, Li Ping got up carefully and opened the door gently. The core members of the team huddled together in a group sleeping soundly at the door immediately occupied his sight.

The rain shelter outside the door under the roof of a small remaining big house seems to be the most sought-after place. Although this palm-sized place is not very good, it has become a symbol of power and status.

However, Li Ping keenly found that Ma Yong and his brothers were not crowded here, otherwise the two brothers should have woken up with vigilance.

He looked into the distance, and saw that the ordinary soldiers who were sitting in twos and threes against the walls of the courtyard and under the broken walls of the houses were basically all stumbling around, making many of the small and simple rain shelters that were set up turned into decorations.

Many days of exhaustion and sudden relaxation are making almost everyone sleep very deeply.

At this time, a rare figure still leaning on the seat caught his attention. The figure was obviously shaking, and soon met Li Ping's gaze.

Accompanied by a smirk, the figure stood up as soon as it grunted, and then trotted towards him, Li Ping was immediately stunned.

Why is this stupid big guy awake? It's not his temperament at all!
and many more.

His two big dark circles are too obvious, it's because he didn't sleep much at all!

After hastily waving his hands, Li Ping carefully stepped over the crowd on the ground and walked towards the stupid big man who had stopped in place.

After approaching, Li Ping asked softly: "Big guy, what's the matter?"

Liu San continued to smirk while scratching his head and said to Li Ping, "Team... Oh, Boss, I want to go back to my old neighborhood."

Liu San's reaction to Li Ping's new official position was actually quite fast, but Li Ping himself was still a little unprepared, mainly because he didn't have that many soldiers at all.

But after hearing what the big fool said, Li Ping also understood why this kid was so abnormal.This is the door of his house. It's no wonder he's not excited. He probably didn't sleep well all night.

Looking at the sky, he hesitated again, Li Ping still approved the silly big man's request.

This guy's heart has already flown, and forcing him to stay just makes him continue to suffer. Anyway, it's dawn, and it's in the city again. He shouldn't have a big problem in terms of safety as a local household.

Seeing the big, silly Liu San run away impatiently, Li Ping suddenly slapped the back of his head.

Only then did he realize that the Xiangyang people in his team were not just one big fool, but a dozen or so, and most of them were conscripted by Zuo Liangyu at the beginning of the year.

Isn't it a waste of such a good resource not to use it?

Moreover, they are not from the city, but from the surrounding countryside, which is even more suitable and cannot be more suitable.

Wouldn't it be very cheap if these people were allowed to go home and recruit some villagers, and his strength could be raised to a higher level.It's just a little troublesome that many of those who were forcibly recruited half a year ago were folded in Zhuxian Town, which became a bad negative teaching material.

However, in this chaos, there should still be some people who are willing to go to the army to make a living.The scale of the war is already so vast, and the place is already rotten. Is it possible to die faster if you are not a soldier?Being a soldier seems to have a greater chance of survival.

There's still something to be said for this.

Thinking of this, Li Ping became excited, and immediately began to think about how to adjust the organizational structure of his troops.

When he became the commander in chief, his subordinates would naturally also be promoted, and he had to prepare for the expansion of the army immediately.

When the sun was getting higher and the soldiers woke up one by one, preparing breakfast became the most important and top priority task, especially for the first time after they separated.

But it's a bit discordant that they don't have a pot.

There are only two pots in total, and Li Ping and Zhao Jin will share one pot according to the latest agreement, and this pot will naturally be placed with Guerrilla Zhao Jin.

After Li Ping arranged for some soldiers to bring rice to Zhao Jin's place to prepare breakfast together, he called Duan Qiang, Hu Zhongshan and Ma Yong together, and he planned to hold a small-scale meeting.

But Song Baolai, who didn't know why, also came over, and Li Ping hesitated for a while, but he didn't push him away.

It is very unrealistic to let those Xiangyang soldiers go home one by one. I am afraid that they will run away, and the main reason is that they dare not.

Now in this chaotic world, walking alone in the countryside, the risk factor is extremely high, it is uncertain what will happen, and it is easy to harm them.

After deliberation, Li Ping finally decided to ask Ma Yong's black-faced brother to bring a few loyal and capable soldiers, a mule, and two donkeys to accompany the dozen or so people home one by one.This keeps everyone together at all times, and there is always some guarantee of safety.

However, when it came to promoting his subordinates, Li Ping chose to be cautious.

He just announced that the whole battalion will temporarily form three outposts first, and Duan Qiang, Hu Zhongshan and Ma Yong will serve as the outpost chiefs respectively and continue to lead their original teams. What is made up, the team level will not be set for the time being.

For this plan, Li Ping explained that not all of them could be officials and no one should be a soldier, and the three people who were promoted would naturally not say anything.

Finally, there is the very important issue of barracks construction. They must first give everyone a place to shelter from the wind and rain.

After discussing for a long time, Song Baolai kept his head depressed, probably because of embarrassment, neither staying nor leaving, until Li Ping naturally assigned him the matter of camping and building a house, and then became active again.

After finally finishing their breakfast and sending away the conscripts, the rest of them immediately began to clean up the rubble and search for materials to build simple houses.

It's just that the rubble is easy to clear, but the materials for building a house are hard to find.This is the city, they can't demolish other people's houses!And going out of the city is also not so easy and easy.

It is not bad to be able to make do with two shacks today, and many people may have to sleep in the open air at night.

When everyone was depressed, Zuo Liangyu delivered the food, wine and meat that Zuo Liangyu had promised.

It was already getting late when they arrived here yesterday, so of course there was no time to prepare these things, and it was already extremely fast to send them here before noon today, which also shows how much Zuo Liangyu attaches importance to them.

Although there were only a few strips of meat distributed to Li Ping and it was a little smelly, the wine was only a jar of water, and the food was only a stone of old rice, but this was the first formal supply they had seen. They are very critical supplements to those whose food has bottomed out.

And along with the food, wine and meat, there are also some clothes, although they are not silk and satin, but they are probably new clothes without patches. They should be replaced by the leaders who have been a little tattered along the way. Clothes, Li Ping is unceremoniously close to the water and has to get a full body first.

The consideration is really careful, and it seems that they are really serious about them.

After generously announcing that all the wine and meat will be taken out for everyone to eat in the evening, the officers and soldiers, who were somewhat depressed due to work in the morning, finally rose again.

However, not long after, when Li Ping continued to sweat profusely, Zhao Jin suddenly sent someone to call him.When Li Ping passed by, he found that people like Shi Ming and Wang Chengwu had also rushed over, not knowing what was going on.

After all the people were gathered, Zhao Jin immediately conveyed an order he had just received with frowning: Zuo Liangyu asked all the ministries to immediately start to expand the army with all their strength, and strive to expand the army by more than 10 times in a short period of time.

After listening to Li Ping, he thought he had heard it wrong. After confirming it again, he pondered for a long time and couldn't understand it.

Xiangyang has actually lost the conditions for large-scale conscription.

The officers and soldiers had conscripted once the year before last, and last year the peasant army came, and the officers and soldiers fought back again.Fighting back and forth, and you recruiting me, there are very few young and strong people left who can serve as the army. These can also be seen from the guarding conditions of the two cities of Xiangfan yesterday.

Small-scale requisition may be okay, but large-scale requisition may only be enough to make up for it.

Zhao Jin obviously didn't want to communicate too much with everyone on this issue, and he could also see the problems that Li Ping could see.After simply proposing that everyone should find their own way, Zhao Jin asked everyone to disperse.

In the afternoon, the stupid Liu San finally came back, so Li Ping got some new information.

In the past few years, Xiangyang has not only been back and forth with troops, but also suffered a lot of disasters. Last year, there was a moderate locust plague, and many people were displaced.If Zhang Xianzhong hadn't called and opened a warehouse to release food, many people would have died.

But because of this, many people followed the rebel army.

The neighborhood where Liu San lived before has naturally changed a lot.Some people died, some people left, and some people came, and he probably still knew two or three out of ten.

The grain store that Liu San hated the most is no longer open, and has changed to a store that collects groceries. There are only five or six servants left. , Even the boss's three sons and one daughter are said to have lost one.

The silly big man was very relieved, but also a little resentful. He was a little disappointed that there was only one of them.

However, the sister Xiaohui who always took good care of him is still alive, the father and son of the blacksmith who treated him well are still there, and He Zhuzi, the former clerk of the carriage and horse shop...

Speaking of these, the silly big Liu San kept laughing, and it seemed that he also had a lot of good memories.

After a barely sumptuous dinner, Li Ping went to discuss with Zhao Jin.

Zhao Jinzheng was suffering from a headache. He had been thinking about it all afternoon, especially when he realized a very serious problem: that is, if he did not recruit enough people, his guerrilla position might not be stable.

This was very tricky, and he was forced to make great achievements in terms of recruiting and expanding the army. He even thought about Li Ping's move in the morning very seriously, but he was not very optimistic about it.

At present, he is more inclined to Shi Ming's plan.

Shi Ming and Wang Chengwu ran out for a walk all afternoon, they were observing the movements on the ground in Xiangyang, Shi Ming did not hide his thoughts after returning.Shi Ming intends to go directly to the streets tomorrow and go to the countryside to rob, because some Ming troops have already started doing this, and Shi Ming thinks it is not a big problem to follow the trend.

Li Ping was a little speechless about Shi Ming's plan. He was completely unprepared for such a crude Latin method, but he also felt that it might be the only feasible method.

Anyway, these ordinary people can't hide. Being pulled by them will definitely be better than being pulled away by other officers and soldiers. At least they have more civilization bottom line.

But Li Ping still decided to tidy up his one-acre three-point land first.

He felt that it might not be so easy to recruit strong men in the city. The magistrates of this kind of big city might not be afraid of these big soldiers, and naturally they would not let them run amok. Only the lawless places outside the city have their space.

But if you go outside the city, you have to fix your home first!In particular, his subordinates also need to cultivate for a few days, this is his foundation.Most of the soldiers who could have escaped from the defeat were of relatively good physical fitness. Such soldiers were also likely to be the core of his army in the future, and he had to catch them first.

Moreover, he is also hesitating about what kind of army to build.

Pulling a bunch of old and weak to make up the numbers is definitely not what he has in mind, especially now that food is so tight, he has to be more cautious.

In war, 5 weak soldiers are not as effective as 1 elite soldier, but the consumption of 5 weak soldiers is much higher than the consumption of [-] elite soldier. The route of elite soldiers is theoretically more in line with the current food supply level.

What's more, Li Ping also dispatched a man to pull the soldiers, which was regarded as an early opportunity, and he could wait.

So the next day, Li Ping still led the rest of the officers and soldiers to build barracks while resting. At the same time, he also planned to use a short period of time every day to conduct some simple training for the rest of the people, so as to increase his control over the troops.

But Zhao Jin did not continue to hesitate. He even rushed to the vast countryside of Xiangyang with most of the troops faster than Shi Ming. Li Ping could only stay in charge obediently. He needed to replace Zhao Jin to take over the bosses. New orders and requirements.

After all, they are already organized, and they can't all disappear.

Another day, when Li Ping was honestly leading the people to continue working, Liu San suddenly ran back from the outside in a panic, and was anxious to see Li Ping.

After he had recovered his breath, Li Ping realized from his broken words that the idiot wanted Li Ping to help him.

It turned out that Li Ping told Liu San to go to the blacksmith and his son today to see if he could do something, but when he went, he found that a large group of officers and soldiers had blocked the entire street there, and there was a lot of chaos inside.

Liu San asked a soldier on the outskirts and found out that someone had reported that several households here were spies of the bandit army, and they were catching bandits.

But the scene inside did not seem to be catching thieves, but more like looting. Liu San clearly saw that the officers and soldiers were breaking down doors along the street without letting them go, and ransacked the inside. Pull it out and kill it in the street at will.

Liu San was in a hurry at the time, so he ran all the way back to ask Li Ping for help, to see if he could save the few people he knew well.

But Li Ping had black lines on his face.

Xiangyang is not an ordinary small county, but a prefecture and famous city with many nobles, and the magistrates here are by no means vegetarian.

But that group of officers and soldiers still dared to blatantly block the streets and do evil openly. It is very likely that they have a strong background and have the acquiescence of the local officials, otherwise they would not have such courage.

But what is he, Li Ping?
It is said to be the general, but in terms of military strength, he can only be regarded as a post commander at best, a small person who is not at all popular or even on the stage.He simply didn't have the capital to go through this troubled water.

Isn't it a joke to ask him for help!
Notes:

A stone is a unit of volume, not a unit of weight, and the stones of different dynasties also vary greatly. In the Ming Dynasty, a stone of rice weighed about 153.5 catties, which is about 183 catties today.The catty in the Ming Dynasty was not the current 500 grams per catty, but the Ming Dynasty’s 594.6 grams per catty.

(End of this chapter)