Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 393

Zhang Dapeng came from the prosperous eastern Zhejiang.

Although the mountains and rivers collapsed in the last years of the Chongzhen Dynasty, Emperor Shaotian helped the world and saved the east of Zhejiang.East Zhejiang is still relatively stable, but the price of food has skyrocketed due to drought and military turmoil.

But he didn't expect that the land of Shu, known as the land of abundance, turned out to be such a scene of purgatory on earth.

The yellow thieves, local tyrants, western thieves, and even the rebellious Ming army, landlord armed forces, chieftain forces and other forces have turned the entire Shu land into a purgatory.

"These bastards!" Zhang Dapeng couldn't help cursing.

The old man with a broken arm sighed, "Only we Sichuan people know the chaos in Sichuan and the suffering of Sichuan people. There are so many people in Sichuan, and there is no one who is more miserable than offering thieves. yellow thief.

The murder of the western thieves is carried on by the leader, but in the camp of the yellow thieves, even the boys of two or three feet in their teens will kill themselves, and they will kill everyone they meet.

The old man said that after he was released from the western bandit camp, he was captured by the yellow bandit and entered the village. He saw the bandit throw the child into the air and catch it with the tip of a spear. The child was stabbed in pain. They screamed, but they laughed loudly, and saw them tie a man to a tree, cut a hole in his stomach, and took out his intestines and wrapped it around him for fun,

And they carried the child's hands and feet, knocked the human head against the clock, and the brains were knocked out, but they clapped their hands and cheered..."

"Beasts, animals are worse!" Zhang Dapeng yelled, "It's even crueler than the Manchurian Tartars!"

The old man with the broken arm sighed, "Those people can no longer be called human beings. The yellow thieves all eat human flesh, and even force their captives to eat human flesh. I was in the bandit camp for a year, and I was also forced to eat human flesh. Weak and lacking an arm, they were cast out."

Speaking of this, the old man also showed pain in his eyes.

There are thirteen Yellow Thieves, but there are many big and small forces, and they basically focus on looting and almost no production.
However, from the middle of Sichuan to the present, due to disasters, military disasters, etc., a large number of fields have been barren. Landlords and gentry can still build villages to protect themselves, but ordinary people are no longer able to resist.

Soldiers and bandits have been over and over again, cattle are looted, and people are farming, but the food they grow is still unsustainable, and a large number of people begin to flee. Those yellow bandits who rely on plundering for a living generally dare not attack cities, and cannot get them in the countryside. After the food, they simply robbed people directly and robbed them for food.

They were very cunning and climbed up at night, looking at the distance, where there is beacon smoke, there must be people, so they sneaked in to plunder and slaughter them to satisfy their hunger.

In contrast, although Zhang Xianzhong, who entered Shu for the third time, also killed a lot of people, Zhang Xianzhong's Xiying would not feed on people directly after all.

As long as he surrenders without resisting, he will not kill indiscriminately. He will only brutally kill and retaliate against those who resist fiercely.

"Why didn't the officers and soldiers kill all these inhuman thieves?" Zhang Dapeng said angrily.

"The officers and soldiers in Central Shu are too busy to take care of themselves, so how can they spare the energy to encircle and suppress these yellow thieves?"

Since Chongzhen, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and many other rebel armies have invaded the center of Shu several times. Although the government and army encircled and suppressed them in every possible way, they made the land of Shu even more devastated.

And the yellow thieves who occupy remote mountainous areas and mainly loot in the countryside, although the government and army will also suppress them, these people are not easy to suppress.

What's more, the main target of the official army is on Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and other people.

"I heard that the imperial court seems to intend to appease Huang Shisan's family. It is said that Yuan Tao, the king of war for the world, will be awarded the post of commander-in-chief of the regiment." An old man with a missing nose said.

"This kind of thieves who are not as good as animals, you still recruit them? Impossible!" Zhang Dapeng shouted angrily.

"I've also heard that this happened. It seems that the governor of Sichuan, Wang Yingxiong, is sending people to appease him, and he wants to use the soldiers of the thirteen families to deal with the bandits!"

Zhang Dapeng was so angry that he wanted to curse.

"How can such a thief who eats people and takes pleasure in killing people be appeased? Long live God will never agree!"

A group of disabled old men were silent. To be honest, they didn't have a good impression of the imperial court for a long time. These years, everyone felt like falling into hell, but did the imperial court come to rescue them again?
Those officers and soldiers in Sichuan are not much better than those western thieves, yellow thieves, and local thugs.

The various Sichuan armies could not get food and salaries from the imperial court, and the local government could not effectively raise funds. The generals could only find their own way, but there was no other way except apportionment and persuasion for donations.

In the end, these officers and soldiers who were short of pay and food could only be looted and forced to recruit.

For example, Wang Xiang, the most important general under Wang Yingxiong, was originally a servant of Wang Yingxiong. With his bravery and ability to fight, and with Wang Yingxiong's support, he also became a general. Governor of Sichuan.

In order to be able to maintain the army, he also forcibly confiscated money and food from the people.

For example, each family is issued a death-prevention card and needs to pay a certain amount of taels of silver. Then, each cow is given a cattle ticket and needs to pay a certain amount of silver.

If you don't pay the death-free card silver and the bull ticket silver, you can directly tie people and lead the cows.

Even the death-free brand silver and bull ticket silver have risen again and again.

People who own fields have to pay donations per mu, and the amount is not fixed, and they are often distributed more, or even expropriated in advance.Those who have no land have to pay by the head.

Anyway, it is to find a way to forcibly collect money and food from the people to support the army.

Some officers and soldiers even ate the captives they caught during the war because of lack of food and wages, and even sold them to traffickers for slaughter and meat.

Even these officers and soldiers sometimes fight for territory and fight each other for money and food.

In short, Central Sichuan has long been in chaos.

The so-called governors, governors, generals, etc. have no real court system at all, and they all speak according to their own territory.

Those governors, governors, and Taoists had to win over some generals who led the troops, so that they could speak effectively. For example, the governor Ma Gan and Zeng Ying were in the same group, and Wang Yingxiong relied on Wang Xiang.

The governors and governors are all trying to win over those generals, and even in order to get more military support, they are also vigorously recruiting those bandits and bandits, even if they are local thugs like the yellow bandits, they are willing to recruit them.

Although the officials and generals of the Ming Dynasty in Bashu are willing to respect Zhu Yihai, they are still in a state of separation and separatism in essence. The governors, governors, and governors appointed by Zhu Yihai basically recognize the status of the various separatist forces in central Sichuan. .

Before the imperial camp in Shaanxi and Gansu was really established, and before it could fully obey the edict of the emperor, Bashu was actually still a place that the imperial court could not actually control.

At present, several major army leaders in central Sichuan are Qin Liangyu, Zeng Ying, Yang Zhan, Wang Xiang, Hou Yongxi, Ma Yingchao generals, and the three Tans in Zhongzhou, Tan Wen, Tan Hong, and Tan Yi.

The warlords from all walks of life ruled the roost separately, and for the time being, Zhu Yihai could only be the appointed governor, governor, admiral and other high-ranking officials, who actually recognized the status of the various forces in central Sichuan.

I hope that we can first unite with the outside world and unite the front.

However, he also sent Wen'an's strategy, reused Qin Liangyu, and started to set up the Sichuan-Shaanxi imperial camp, but it was obvious that it was still far away to truly control Sichuan.

Now Ma Gan, Wang Yingxiong, Fan Yiheng and other powerful local factions are still recruiting and wooing.

As the governor of Sichuan, Wang Yingxiong wanted to appease the Huang Shisan family. Naturally, he wanted to further strengthen his own strength, so that he could really secure the position of governor of Sichuan, so that he could move Yang Zhan and Zeng Ying with orders.

In this case, he didn't care about the brutal past of the Yellow Thieves, but he just liked the fact that the Thirteen Yellows claimed to have [-] troops.

Zhang Dapeng is an officer of the Imperial Battalion, he came to Sichuan by order, and there were many other officers who came with him, all of them were selected from the Imperial Battalion.

The emperor also knew the current situation of warlord separatism in central Sichuan. With the lessons learned from Huguang Wuzhong, the emperor obviously did not trust the military leaders in central Sichuan, but after all they still respected the imperial court, so under the threat of Zhang Xianzhong and the Qing army, Zhu Yihai also Can only draw it slowly.

The Sichuan-Shaanxi camp is the key. Elite soldiers are drawn from the Sichuan army, together with officers sent by the imperial camp, and some simple and young people from central Sichuan are recruited. This branch camp is the key to the emperor's step-by-step control of Sichuan.

But the road is still long.

Before coming, Zhang Dapeng also knew that this trip would not be easy.

But after hearing this now, he has a little more understanding of the complexity of the situation in Central Shu.

It is not easy to set up the Sichuan-Shaanxi camp and be completely loyal to the emperor.

"There is movement!"

Yang Wei approached quietly and went to Zhang Dapeng's side to report.

A group of common people fleeing together to Hanzhong were startled when they saw Yang Wei suddenly appearing, but they didn't notice him. Yang Wei was the captain of Zhang Dapeng's army and was born as a hunter.

This time he was transferred from the imperial camp along with Zhang Dapeng, Zhang Dapeng was the battalion officer, and Yang Wei was the captain directly under Zhang Dapeng's battalion, also known as the personal captain.

This time going north to Hanzhong, in addition to the stone pillar Baigan Sichuan soldier Liu Chengzu who acted as a guide, it was Yang Wei and another white soldier Ma Liang.

"What did you find?"

Yang Wei and Ma Liang were arranged by Zhang Dapeng in the dark to scout the situation.

"About two miles away, over this ridge, there is a small stream, and the camp is next to it. There are 50 people in total, both men and women. They have set up several tents. When we found them, they were boiling water,"

"What else?" Zhang Dapeng asked, "Can you confirm their identities?"

"It should be the local thugs, most likely the yellow thieves," Yang Wei dared to say because they found several people tied up in the camp. "There are eight people, men, women, and children. It looks like a family."

Zhang Dapeng stood up abruptly, "You mean these people are boiling water, ready to slaughter people for meat?"

"It should be so."

Zhang Dapeng's face was livid.

"Only these 50 people?"

"No one else has been found nearby."

"Damn it, I just talked about shaking yellow thieves, and I really ran into it. We can't just ignore it."

Yang Wei reminded him, "There are 50 people on the other side, and there are only four of us."

"Since we have met, there is no reason to ignore them. Who are we?" Zhang Dapeng reminded them, "We are from the Sichuan-Shanxi Camp of the Daming Imperial Camp, and we are the emperor's guards. If you want to eat people, how can you turn a blind eye?"

"But there are only four of us?"

"So what about the four of us, our dignified emperor's guards, are we still afraid of a group of beasts?"

Zhang Dapeng gritted his teeth, "Yang Wei, please tell me carefully, how many men and women do they have, and what weapons do they have? Are they prepared, have they sent someone to guard?"

(End of this chapter)