Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 341 0336 [Lizhou in a Mess]

After experiencing the chaos and bloodshed in Zhaohua County, Jiang's father and son could no longer bear the loss of control of the rebel army.

When the peasant army massacred the rich, the father and son set out to rescue their friends.

They have all read books, and they have some old friends in the county.Although the rescued were angry and rioted, they didn't care about the quarrel and could only unite to maintain the situation.

After looting the county seat, the peasant army split into two forces.

The five fathers and sons of the Jiang family consisted of only a thousand troops, most of whom were farmers and craftsmen, with a few scholars mixed in.

The other group has nearly ten thousand people, headed by Wu Tong, the head of the township soldier, and there are many big and small leaders, all of whom are the head of the township soldier, the ten generals, and the Marquis of Yu.They formed a rebel alliance. On the surface, they obeyed Wu Tong's orders, but in fact they did their own things.The backbone is the township soldiers recruited by the government, mixed with a large number of unemployed vagrants and low-level people in the county.

The two forces clashed in the city.

The reason is that the Jiang family father and son are not allowed to insult women. Even if they are notorious, they will be killed if they are killed, but they cannot rape their female relatives.Even if you want to grab a woman, you should give it a title, and you can marry it and be a concubine.

In order to establish their prestige, the Jiang family and his son executed more than [-] people one after another, which caused dissatisfaction among many peasant troops.Then he set up military regulations and ordered to hand over the spoils of war, forcing a large number of soldiers to flee to Wu Tong.

This led to five father and son, only a thousand troops left, while Wu Tong had nearly ten thousand people.

The two sides communicated, and the Jiang family and his son occupied the county government area, while Wu Tong and others controlled the Nancheng District. At least there was no large-scale bloody conflict.

After a short rest, let's attack Lizhou City together.

After besieging the city for several days, building equipment, and attacking the city in only half a day.Most of the officials at the state and county levels were killed, and a small number fled north.

Then the Peasant Army finally broke out into civil war, because the spoils were not evenly distributed, and the Jiangs prevented the soldiers from looting civilians.

Jiang's father and son were defeated, and with hundreds of remnants, they retreated to Zhaohua County to defend.

Looking at the dilapidated county town and the hundreds of remnant soldiers behind him, Jiang Zhongru, the Mr. Jiang Zhongru, was completely disheartened, and kept muttering: "Those who shouldn't rebel, shouldn't rebel..."

"Father, it's useless to say these things," Jiang Chengwu suggested, "Zhaohua County is dilapidated. The people have either fled or been coerced into rebellious soldiers. There is no source of soldiers and no money or food in the city. It is useless to attack Jiameng County. First, we can get money and food supplies, and second, we can recruit young men as soldiers."

Jiang Zhongru looked up at the setting sun, bent his body and said, "Go now, we can reach Jiameng Pass before dark."

The location of Jiameng Pass is in Wangxi Town, which they robbed at first.

(Zhaohua County in the Song Dynasty was on the north bank of the confluence of Bailong River and Jialing River. Jiameng Pass and Wangxi Town were on the south bank, near the ruins of the ancient city of Zhaohua in later generations. As for Jiameng County, it was in the river valley further south.)
Hundreds of remnants and their families crossed the river and found houses in Wangxi Town to live in.

The nearby Jiameng Pass was empty, and the guards had fled long ago.

Two days later, Jiang's father and son came to Jiameng County.

Facing the open city gate, Jiang Zhongru said to the soldiers under his command: "The city gate is wide open. The rich people in the city must have fled. The rest are bitter, haha. Don't kill people and loot indiscriminately. It is not like that. I am incompetent in leading soldiers and have committed too many murders. When Zhu Xianggong of Hanzhong comes, you all go to serve him as soldiers."

Hundreds of remnant soldiers looked at each other in blank dismay. They were relatively obedient, otherwise they wouldn't have followed Jiang Zhongru all the time.

"Let's listen to Jiang's pedantry!" A soldier knelt down.

The rest of the soldiers also knelt down, and the dozen or so Zhaohua scholars who accompanied the army finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this.

After the army entered the city, Qiu did not commit any crimes, and only went to the official warehouse and rice shop to collect grain.

Jiang Zhongru sent people to post up the notice of safety for the people, and looked for subordinate officials in the city to try to maintain law and order in the city.

……

However, after Lizhou City drove away the Jiang family and his son, Wu Tong engulfed the residents of the city as soldiers, and instantly pulled up a motley crew of more than 2 people.

Knowing that the prefect Huang Deyu had led his troops back, Wu Tong said to the chiefs under his command: "I have found out clearly that Huang Laogou only brought back a few thousand soldiers, but we have more than 2 troops. We all know what the officers and soldiers look like, and they will collapse when they fight. Come out with me, kill Huang Laogou first, and then go to seek refuge with Zhu Xianggong. From now on, everyone will be a high-ranking official!"

"Go out and become a high official!" The leaders cheered and shouted.

A few miles to the north of the city, Huang Deyu found out that the bandits had taken the initiative to go out of the city to fight, and immediately issued a military order: "A team of five, each pulls their belts and retreats. Who dares to loosen their belts, kill the corps leader!"

This is because they are afraid that the retreat will turn into a rout. Thousands of officers and soldiers turned around like this and marched with their belts pulled like a train.

The officers and soldiers gradually retreated to the mountainside, and the peasant army was still leaving the city one after another.

They thought that the officers and soldiers were afraid, and their morale became even higher, so they couldn't help speeding up the march.

Huang Deyu set up a commander-in-chief flag on the mountainside, and let all the ministries line up around him, occupying favorable terrain for defense.

The Peasant Army has no rules, and there is no command system to speak of, it all depends on the big and small leaders to fight on their own.Among them, quite a few had been recruited as village soldiers, but they had only practiced for a few days.

Wu Tong sent more than 1 soldiers and asked the leaders to lead the troops to besiege on three sides.

At the beginning, all of them rushed up the mountain with enthusiasm, regardless of their physical strength, and the momentum was like a rainbow, as if they were all Lu Bu's rebirth.After the battle, it was discovered that the position of the official army could not be broken, and tens of thousands of Lu Bu were quickly beaten back to their original forms.

Within two quarters of an hour of the battle, two leaders retreated.

"Kill it!"

Huang Deyu quickly seized the opportunity and led the soldiers of the Chinese army into battle, tearing even more from the gap where the enemy fled.

The Peasant Army was originally defeated with only a few hundred people, but after being rushed by Huang Deyu, the nearby leaders retreated one after another, and the chain reaction turned into a big defeat.

Wu Tong stared dumbfounded at the foot of the mountain, rubbed his eyes and looked again, and shouted in fright: "Run, this bird officer is hard to deal with!"

Huang Deyu took advantage of the victory to pursue and captured a large number of bandits. Wu Tong fled the battlefield with only more than 4000 people.

Moreover, Wu Tong didn't dare to go back to Zhoucheng, and ran east along the tributary of Jialing River, killing all the way to Jiachuan County (west of Wangcang County).

Huang Deyu led his troops back to the city, looking at the messy state city, he was so angry that his lungs were about to explode.When he returned to the back house of the State Yamen, he found that there was no one there. After careful inquiry, he found out that his old wife and servants had been killed, and he fell into a coma after spitting out a mouthful of blood.

After lying down for half an hour before waking up, Huang Deyu shouted: "Help me up quickly, leave some soldiers to guard the city, and the rest follow me to return to Mantianzhai. It's important to stop the Zhu thief there!"

The recorder who was lucky enough to escape from Zhoucheng joined the army, helped Huang Deyu to sit up, and said with a mournful face: "There are too many soldiers fleeing, and they can't be suppressed. I am afraid that they will turn back, so I can only let them go back to their hometown."

"Just after a big victory, how could the soldiers flee?" Huang Deyu was surprised.

Ma Zao said: "The soldiers heard that the state city was plundered as white land, and the bandits burned, killed, and looted all kinds of crimes. They also learned from the prisoners that Zhaohua County was also killed too hard, and everyone was worried about their family members in the countryside. Several village soldiers and officers took the lead in arguing, and the rest of the soldiers followed suit.

Huang Deyu sat there for a long time, and finally came to his senses after a long time: "How many soldiers are left?"

Ma Zao replied: "Two to three hundred people are all bachelors without family members."

"Two 300 people?"

Huang Deyu grabbed Mazao's skirt suddenly, and roared: "I have thousands of troops, and I have captured tens of thousands of bandits. Just for a while, do you think there are only two or three hundred people left?"

Ma Zao said helplessly: "I can't stop them, I'm in a hurry to go home. Those soldiers from the countryside were conscripted by force, if they just try to stop them, they will rebel. Eunuch, withdraw, Lizhou can't hold it anymore."

"Where to go?" Huang Deyu asked back.

Ma Zao said: "Remove Jianmen Pass. The remaining 200 soldiers are all single young and strong. As long as rewards are given, they will definitely be willing to retreat with us. With these 200 strong soldiers, even if there are no soldiers on Chengdu Fulu, we can still defend Jianmen Pass."

Huang Deyu thought silently, and finally said hoarsely: "Let's withdraw."

……

Jiachuan County.

The county magistrate and chief bookkeeper have already run away, and Wu Kangguo, the head of the county school, is leading the people in the county to defend the city.

Refugees fleeing from Zhoucheng brought terrible news.While scaring away the county magistrate, it also made the common people share the same hatred. The rich households provided money and food for military supplies, and the common people took up weapons to defend their homes.

It's true, money gives money, and some people give people.

No matter rich or poor, they were all frightened by the peasant army, knowing what would happen to them if they didn't resist.

Wu Kangguo was a Jinshi last year, and was assigned to be the principal of the county school. He received an official document to reduce the size of the school before his butt was hot.There are only twenty students left under him, who were originally bored, but now they are in such a big trouble.

The county magistrate and chief secretary have fled, and the people unanimously elected him as the commander-in-chief.

Wu Kangguo is completely in the category of rushing ducks to the shelves. He hasn't even read military books, so he can only make arrangements in a daze.

First take the Baojia as the unit, let the Baojia chief organize the neighbors, and each defend a section of the city wall.Then let the rich households serve as logistics officers to organize the transportation of supplies for the old and weak.There are no serious weapons, street vendors' poles, common people's kitchen knives, take what you have, and some beams are dismantled to make rolling logs, and vegetable oil and dung water are prepared for cooking.

Wu Tong came with thousands of remnants and immediately sent someone to persuade him to surrender.

Wu Kangguo was furious, lying on the top of the wall and roaring: "You and other bandits have no humanity, and you will go to the eighteenth floor of hell!"

Seeing that the people in the city did not surrender, Wu Tong demolished the houses outside the city to make siege ladders.

I thought it could be broken in one battle, but it was even more difficult to fight than Zhoucheng.The people defending the city were all desperate, and the principal Wu Kangguo also took the lead, and even many children from rich families were fighting.

Wu Tong suffered heavy losses at the Jiachuan city, so he had to retreat with the remnants of his soldiers. He heard that the prefect had escaped halfway, so he rushed back to Zhoucheng.

Many of the surviving people in Zhoucheng were once coerced by Wu Tong into soldiers, captured by officers and soldiers, and fled back home.When they learned that Wu Tong had returned, they worked together to defend, resolutely preventing this demon from entering the city again.

Just when Wu Tong was depressed, the leaders under his command began to fight among themselves.

In the end, they fell apart, and each took his subordinates and ran to the mountains to become bandits.

Zhu Ming came with an army, and when he learned about the situation in Lizhou, he stood there without saying a word for a long time.

(End of this chapter)