Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 125 The Most Surging Feelings

Because Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion, was defeated, Hongniangzi and his men had to temporarily stop their march. After a military discussion among the people in the mountain stronghold, they decided to temporarily stop their advance and instead enter Siwang Mountain, which is located at the junction of Henan and Huguang.

The reason for stationing here is that this mountain overlooks Xinyang, Yingshan, Tongbai and Suizhou, so it is named Siwang Mountain.

If people from Xinyang Prefecture attack, they can run to Huguang, and if people from Huguang come over, they can turn around and go into Henan.

In a relatively open area, people were swaying, busy moving all the things to a dry place. The ground that had just rained was splashed with water when they stepped on it.

Carriages, horses, mules and crowds of people gathered, turning the mountains into a bustling market.

Chongzhen had been looking for an opportunity to escape these days, but he found that because of his improved status in the mountain stronghold, the third in command had arranged for more than a dozen households to surround him, under the pretext of protecting himself.

In addition, he began to be involved in all matters big and small in the village. Every now and then, Hongniang would call him to discuss matters concerning the village.

Chongzhen had no choice but to bite the bullet and try his best to find a way out of the situation.

Just like now, he once again received an invitation from Red Lady, asking him to go to the tent for a meeting.

Along the way, Chongzhen watched the people in the mountain stronghold coming and going, children running, women shouting, and men smoking pipes while building roofs and constructing their own homes. It seemed as if he had entered a village.

"Brother Li!" Although he didn't want to pay attention to Li Yan, Chongzhen still bowed symbolically.

"Brother Zhu!"

The latter also gestured to him and then walked forward.

The Third Master smiled and said to Chongzhen, "Ignore him. He is not a good guy. He was the one who pushed you to the First Master. Now the First Master doesn't care about him anymore. Isn't it his own fault?"

“……” The corners of Chongzhen’s mouth twitched a few times.

Although Chongzhen was a latecomer, after what happened last time, everyone in the stronghold looked at him completely differently than before.

Awe,

Hope,

fear,

Cautious...and so on.

Even those who had insulted Chongzhen before all came to apologize to him. Some people even asked him to tell their fortunes, and some women came to Chongzhen with things in their hands to ask if they could give birth to a son, treating him as a demigod.

This made Chongzhen very annoyed and he spent a lot of time explaining, but Prince Xiang was happy to do it and accepted their gifts.

The third in command introduced Chongzhen, "That is the fourth in command, Duan Benli. He just came back from Qi County. He was not there during the last attack on Qi County. He went to meet with King Chuang and just came back today."

Chongzhen then realized that it was the second in command who had returned. No wonder they had just held a meeting yesterday but had called everyone together again today.

I think he brought back some information.

The third leader introduced Chongzhen, "The fatter one is the sixth leader, Shen Tuqian. His martial arts skills are average, but his archery skills are the best in this mountain stronghold. He is the junior brother of the first leader and has always liked the first leader. But before the old leader died, he arranged for Li Yan and the first leader to get married."

"This person is reckless. He was particularly hostile to Li Yan before. Now... you'd better be careful."

Chongzhen immediately understood that now that Li Yan had escaped, he was put on the shelf, and the Sixth In Command would naturally set his sights on him.

After entering the tent, Chongzhen found a relatively inconspicuous corner to sit down, then watched Duan Benli and Shentu Qian who had returned and the people in the village greet each other and shout loudly.

"What? The marriage between the boss and Li Yan is off? ... Zhu Yonggan? On what basis? Where did such a thing come from?"

"Just sit over there..."

As Shentu Qian's gaze swept over him, Chongzhen realized that the other party had noticed him.

Shentu Qian was about to come over to Chongzhen. The people in the mountain stronghold had a strong sense of the underworld. Most of the time, they did not reason with each other, but just used knives to chop people, and decided the winner and loser in a duel to determine their status.

But he was stopped by the Third Chief, "Sixth Brother, he is now the military advisor of our village, you'd better not be too presumptuous."

"Military advisor? Him?"

"There are some things you may not know yet. I advise you to wait until the boss comes."

"Old Three, are you going to stop me?"

"Who?" Before he could finish, there was a sound of breaking wind and his head buzzed.

A figure came in from outside and swung out his right fist like a roaring wave, hitting Shentu Qian who was still speaking.

Shentu Qian also attacked instantly, but just as he raised his arm, he found a huge force hitting his arm, and his entire arm and face were like being hit by a speeding carriage.

His face suddenly twisted, and the fat was hit hard, spreading out like a wave. The man flew out of the tent and fell to the ground.

When everyone recovered, they found that Shentu Qian's face was swollen and blood was gushing out of his mouth and nose.

"The boss!"

"The boss..."

Everyone stood up, and Chongzhen also stood up quickly and swallowed his saliva.

This was the second time he saw Hong Niangzi take action. The first time, she shot a strong man to death with two shots, and now she knocked a big man away with one punch.

Hongniang glanced at everyone with a cold face. Without saying a word, she made everyone shut up.

Shen Tuqian had been helped up, his face was swollen, and he looked at Chongzhen with a sinister look, then at Hong Niangzi, "Senior Sister, why?"

"There's no reason. You've never been in my consideration."

"What about him? He's only been here for a few days?" Shen Tuqian roared with red eyes, "Why should he?"

"This is my business and has nothing to do with you!" said Hong Niangzi coldly.

"It has nothing to do with me. If it wasn't for me, you would have been killed by that rich man...?!"

"Sixth Brother!" The third in command shook his head at him, signaling him not to continue.

"Hmph!" Shentu Qian suddenly pushed away the two people who were supporting him and left angrily with his big knife.

……

As Shentu Qian left, the atmosphere in the tent became somewhat gloomy. Hongniang asked the fourth in command Duan Benli to tell him about the meeting with King Chuang.

“In the past, the network was large but the mesh was sparse, and it was just an empty framework that could not produce any real results.

However, this time the Ming court's suppression of King Chuang and Zhang Xianzhong was more severe than before. According to his deployment, the two main corps of the Five Prime Ministers and the Governor-General of Shaanxi each increased their troops by 3, the two military corps of Huguang and Henan each increased their troops by 1.5, and the two governors of Fengyang and Shaanxi each increased their troops by 1.

In addition, 5000 special defense soldiers were added to the Fengqi Ancestral Mausoleum and Chengtian Ancestral Mausoleum, bringing the total number of troops to 12. Together with the original number of troops in the Central Plains and Northwest War Zones and the "Six Corners" area, it exceeds ..."

Hearing that King Chuang's war was not going well, everyone's faces became increasingly grim.

But at the same time, more people looked at Chongzhen again, because what Chongzhen had said before about this situation had now come true again.

Duan Benli continued, "But King Chuang said that the Ming army was corrupt. Even though there were so many troops, it was still unclear how much combat power they had. Moreover, increasing the number of troops would require increasing salaries. With so many troops, the salary and food would cost at least 300 million taels."

"Last year, Chongzhen ordered the nobles and relatives to donate money, but they resisted until their death, showing no concern for the public and the country. Even the gentry in the Zhili provinces refused to donate."

"This will only squeeze more people out of the country, which will inevitably cause more refugees and more rebels to join us."

Li Yan listened and nodded continuously, "I heard that this time the Ming court mobilized 10 governors to carry out the so-called four directions and six corners. Based on their past behavior, whether they can effectively control the army is a huge problem." Chongzhen already had a certain outline in his mind. After listening to everyone's discussions, he gained another understanding of the Ming court's policies.

"Master Zhu? Master Zhu?"

"Uh..." Chongzhen suddenly came to his senses, and saw Li Yan bowing to him, "I wonder what Master Zhu thinks of the current situation?"

Hula~
Everyone looked at Chongzhen, "Yes, Master Zhu, why don't you tell me what you think about the current situation."

The fourth in command, Duan Benli, squinted his eyes as he looked at Chongzhen. He looked incredibly young, only about twenty years old, with a slightly refined air.

Chongzhen hesitated for a moment with a red face, but finally spoke.

Right now, the Sixth In Command sees me as a thorn in his side. The more I show my value, the safer I will be.

"I... I don't think so. The Ming court in the north has already defeated the Later Jin cavalry. Once the Ming court drives the Later Jin cavalry out of the pass, they will definitely have time to move south. By then, our lives will probably become difficult."

"And we have very little time..."

As for what Zhu Changgan would do, Chongzhen did not think about it, he just told his own analysis.

This way, he could show his own value without making himself too frightening among the rebels.

……

After the meeting was over, Chongzhen was about to leave but was stopped by Hongniang.

Chongzhen turned around with some confusion, only to see Hongniang handing the spear to a female soldier under her command.

Perhaps because Hongniang herself is a woman, there are many female soldiers in the mountain stronghold, and the people in charge of logistics in the mountain stronghold are also a few literate women.

It seems that some of them had worked in brothels, some had been concubines of wealthy families, and some had helped their husband's families with business. Later, when misfortunes occurred, they joined the rebel army.

"There are some things I still want to ask you."

“……” Chongzhen’s mouth twitched and he could only nod.

The two actually had very little interaction. It had only been less than half a month since Chongzhen was captured by the peasant rebels and taken to the mountain stronghold. During this time, he had been thinking about how to escape from here, so he had not paid much attention to the woman in front of him.

But because of Li Yan, the relationship between the two suddenly became ambiguous. Later, when the third in command came to ask for his birth date, everything became completely bizarre.

If he could not escape and everything continued as it was, Chongzhen really had no idea what would happen.

"Let's go for a walk together!" Hongniang smoothed her hair and said calmly.

"Okay!" Chongzhen was stunned for a second, but could only follow.

At first, neither of them spoke, until Hongniangzi suddenly asked, "Are you used to living in the village these days?"

"I'm used to it..."

"Who else is there in your family? I'll ask the third brother to go to Xiangyang and bring them over!"

Chongzhen was about to answer when he saw two groups of children suddenly fighting in front of him. Chongzhen saw that they were his students and wanted to go over to separate them, but Hongniang stopped him and said, "Let them fight, and see who wins."

"But they all use weapons." Chongzhen said anxiously.

This is a bit fatal. If we don't stop it, who knows what will happen.

Lady Hong simply said, "Then let them fight. It's fine as long as they win or lose. You separated them this time, but they will fight again next time. After they fight, you will know your position."

"Location?"

Lady Hong nodded, "The rebels have no order, so this method is the best and fastest way to establish order. Those who win and are fierce can join the rebel camp in the future, and those who lose and are not courageous enough will be eliminated and enter the logistics camp."

Chongzhen suddenly realized that the fighting between these children had always been carried out with Hongniang's consent.

Red Lady continued to walk forward and asked, "Where were we talking about just now?"

"Asked my family, there's no one at home... not many people."

Lady Hong nodded. "Old Third should have told you about my situation. My master raised me, taught me rope skills, martial arts, and the principles of life. Now that my master is dead, I am the only one left. Although I can read, I haven't read many books, so I am definitely not as knowledgeable as you..."

"Everyone has their own specializations. My martial arts are not as good as yours. No one is perfect."

She nodded. "There aren't any rebels in Xiangyang, right?"

"It's not that bad over there. There are a lot of water and lakes, so the damage is not that serious..."

Hongniang spoke about her own affairs quite naturally, as if she was chatting with an acquaintance.

In such an atmosphere, Chongzhen also relaxed a little and naturally talked about what he had seen in the Prince Xiang's Mansion and the cheating cases he had seen in the imperial examinations.

He couldn't help but ask, "Then how did you get on the road of rebellion?"

Just as I asked, I suddenly regretted it, but I saw Hong Niangzi said without any anger:

"Speaking of which, it was all because of me. I was fifteen years old that year, performing on stage, and was noticed by a wealthy landlord. He knocked me out while I was eating, but luckily Lao Liu saw me and killed me. Later, we were caught by the government, and then rescued by a group of rebels, and that’s how we started."

"Do you think this road can be reached?"

Lady Hong shook her head. "To be honest, I don't know. I just wanted to survive at the beginning, but now it's no longer just my business. There are tens of thousands of people in the whole village. Even if I can't make it to the end, I have to go on."

Her light brown eyes were like a pool of autumn water. She looked at Chongzhen firmly and coldly, "The Ming court is corrupt. I really hope you can stay and help me."

"The boss!"

"The boss!"

"..."

At this time, the two walked across a stream, and someone appeared and greeted Hongniangzi. At this time, the sky gradually darkened, and the mountain breeze was pleasant, blowing lightly, like a baby's hand brushing across the cheek.

Chongzhen was suddenly stunned.

Because he saw big red lanterns appearing on the house in front of him, one after another, hanging high.

The Third Boss jumped down from a ladder and greeted him gruffly, "Big Boss! Master Zhu...everything is ready!"

"Prepare……"

Chongzhen's head buzzed and he looked at Hongniang suddenly, but saw that she just nodded at him and got up and left.

At this time, King Xiang came over, holding him with tears and snot, "Son, I promised them that you will get married tomorrow."

Chongzhen's face and lungs were about to explode. He lowered his voice and asked, "No...how could you agree to them?"

What did you tell me at that time?

You said that there was one thing you could not accept no matter what, and that was that you could not marry this traitor.

How long has it been? How come...

"My son, I can't bear it anymore, I really can't bear it anymore..." King Xiang blushed and raised his fingers. Seven of the ten fingernails had been pulled out.

Chongzhen swallowed his saliva. Only then did he understand that the path that Hongniang had just walked with him and the words she had said were her most overwhelming determination.

(End of this chapter)