Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

After experiencing the chaos and bloodshed in Zhaohua County, the Jiang family and his son could no longer bear the rebellion's loss of control.

When the peasant army massacred wealthy households, the five father and son began to rescue their friends.

They have all read books and have some acquaintances and old friends in the county. Although the rescued were angry and rebellious, they could not care less about the situation 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 had an army of only more than a thousand people, 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 soldiers, and there are many leaders, big and small, who are all the heads of the township soldiers, ten generals, and Yuhou. They formed a rebel alliance and ostensibly followed Wu Tong's orders, but in fact they were doing their own thing. The backbone of the soldiers were rural 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 and his son are not allowed to insult women. Even if they are notorious, they will be killed, but they cannot rape their female relatives. Even if you want to steal a woman, you should give her a status, and you can take her home as a concubine.

In order to establish their authority, the Jiang family and his son executed more than 20 people one after another, which aroused the dissatisfaction of many peasant soldiers. Then he set military regulations and ordered the spoils of war to be handed over, forcing a large number of soldiers to flee to Wu Tong.

This resulted in the five men, father and son, having only a thousand troops left, while Wu Tong's side had nearly ten thousand.

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

After a short rest, we went to attack Lizhou City together.

They laid siege to the city for several days, built equipment, and stormed 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, caused by the uneven distribution of spoils and the Chiangs' father and son preventing soldiers from looting civilians.

The Jiang family and his son were defeated and retreated to Zhaohua County with hundreds of remaining soldiers to defend themselves.

Looking at the dilapidated county town and the hundreds of remnant soldiers behind him, Jiang Zhongru, a village school teacher, was completely disheartened and kept muttering: "You shouldn't rebel, you shouldn't rebel..."

"Father, it's useless to say all this," Jiang Chengwu suggested. "Zhaohua County is in dilapidated condition. The people have either fled or been kidnapped as rebels. There are neither soldiers nor money or food in the city. It's better to attack Jia if the land is so empty. In Meng County, one can obtain money and food supplies, and two, young men can be recruited as soldiers."

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

Jiameng Pass is located in Wangxi Town, where they first plundered.

(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 Zhaohua City in later generations. As for Jiameng County, it was in the valley further south. .)

Hundreds of remnant soldiers and their families crossed the river and sought shelter in private houses in Wangxi Town.

The Jiameng Pass next to it was deserted, and the guards had long since fled.

Two days later, the Jiang family and his son came to Jiameng County.

Facing the open city gate, Jiang Zhongru said to his soldiers: "The city gate is wide open. The rich people in the city must have fled. The rest are miserable. Stop killing and looting indiscriminately. Wait for the high and low to be treated equally." The rich and the poor do not behave like that. I am incompetent in leading the army and have caused too many murders. When Mr. Zhu of Hanzhong comes, you all go to serve as his soldiers."

The hundreds of remaining soldiers looked at each other in confusion. They were quite obedient, otherwise they would not have followed Jiang Zhongru.

"We listen to Chiang Kai-shek!" A soldier knelt down.

The other soldiers also knelt down, and the dozen or so Zhaohua soldiers 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 official warehouses and rice shops to collect food.

Jiang Zhongru sent people to post notices to calm the people, and also searched for subordinate officials in the city to try to maintain public order in the city.

…

But it was said that after driving away the Jiang family and his son in Lizhou City, Wu Tong coerced the residents of the city into soldiers, and instantly raised a miscellaneous army of more than 20,000 people.

When he learned that the prefect Huang Deyu had led his troops to fight back, Wu Tong said to his subordinates: "I have inquired clearly. Huang Laogou only brought back a few thousand soldiers, but ours has more than 20,000 troops. What are the officers and soldiers like? We all know You know, they will collapse after a fight. Follow me out and kill Huang Laogou first, and then go to Xianggong Zhu. From now on, everyone can become a high official!"

"Fight out and become a high official!" the leaders cheered and shouted.

A few miles north of the city, Huang Deyu found out that the bandits actually took the initiative to go out of the city to fight, and immediately issued a military order: "A team of five people, each holding his belt, retreats. Whoever dares to loosen his belt will kill the captain!"

This was because they were afraid that the retreat would turn into a rout, so thousands of officers and soldiers turned around and marched like a train, pulling their belts.

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

They thought that the officers and soldiers were afraid, their morale became higher, and they involuntarily accelerated their marching speed.

Huang Deyu set up a commanding flag on the mountainside and asked all his troops to line up around him to occupy favorable terrain for defense.

The peasant army has no structure and no chain of command at all. It relies on leaders, big and small, to fight independently. Many of them had been recruited as rural soldiers, but they only practiced for a few days.

Wu Tong sent more than 10,000 troops and asked the leaders to lead troops to besiege on three sides.

At the beginning, everyone's blood surged up, and they rushed up the mountain regardless of their physical strength. Their momentum was like a rainbow, as if they were the reincarnation of Lu Bu. After the battle, it was discovered that the official position could not be broken, and tens of thousands of Lu Bu were quickly beaten back to their original shape.

In less than two quarters of an hour of fighting, the two leaders retreated.

"Kill him!"

Huang Deyu quickly seized the opportunity and led his soldiers into the battle, opening a wider gap for the enemy's retreat.

The peasant army was originally defeated with only a few hundred people. After Huang Deyu's charge, the nearby leaders retreated one after another, and the chain reaction turned into a huge rout.

Wu Tong was stunned at what he saw at the bottom of the mountain. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. He was so frightened that he shouted: "Run quickly, this bird officer is not easy to deal with!"

Huang Deyu took advantage of the victory to pursue and captured a large number of traitors, but Wu Tong fled the battlefield with only more than 4,000 people.

Moreover, Wu Tong did not dare to return to Zhoucheng and ran east along the tributary of the Jialing River, fighting all the way to Jiachuan County (western Wangcang County).

Huang Deyu led his troops back to the city. Looking at the state city in a mess, he was so angry that his lungs almost exploded. Returning to the post office of Zhou Yamen, he found that there was no one inside. After careful inquiry, he found out that his old wife and servants had been killed, and he passed out immediately after a mouthful of blood spurted out.

After lying down for half an hour before waking up, Huang Deyu shouted: "Hurry up and help me up. Leave some soldiers to guard the city. The rest will follow me back to Mantian Village. It's important to stop the red thieves there!"

The official who was lucky enough to escape from the city joined the army. He helped Huang Deyu sit up and said with a sad face: "There are too many soldiers fleeing and we can't suppress them at all. I'm afraid of forcing them to rebel, so I can only let them return home."

"We just won a great victory, how could the soldiers flee?" Huang Deyu asked in shock.

Ma Zao said: "The soldiers heard that the city was turned into a wasteland, and the bandits burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of evil. 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 villages The military officers took the lead in making noise, and the rest of the soldiers followed suit, snatching military supplies and extorting money to force them to go home. The Xiang army did not dare to stop them at first, but then they followed the local soldiers and let the captured traitors go..."

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

Ma Zao replied: "Two to three hundred people, all single men without family members."

"Two or three hundred people?"

Huang Deyu suddenly grabbed the lapel of Ma Zao's clothes and roared: "I have thousands of troops, and I have captured tens of thousands of thieves. I have been unconscious for a while, and you think there are only two or three hundred people left?"

Ma Zao said helplessly: "We can't stop them. They are all in a hurry to go home. Those rural soldiers were recruited by force. If we block them blindly, they will rebel. Prefect, withdraw, Lizhou cannot be defended anymore."

"Where to evacuate?" Huang Deyu asked.

Ma Zao said: "Withdraw Jianmen Pass. The remaining more than two hundred soldiers are all single and young men. As long as we are given rewards, they will definitely be willing to retreat with us. With these more than two hundred strong men, even if there is not a single soldier out of Chengdu, We can also keep the sword gate closed without losing it."

Huang Deyu thought silently, and finally said in a hoarse voice: "Withdraw."

…

Jiachuan County.

The county magistrate and registrar have fled, and Wu Kangguo, the principal of the county school, is leading the people in the county to defend the city.

Refugees fleeing from the city brought horrific news. While scaring away the county magistrate, it also made the people share the same hatred of the enemy. The wealthy households used money and food for military supplies, and the people took up arms to defend their homes.

The truth is, if you have money, you will have money, and if you have money, you will have people.

No matter rich or poor, everyone was frightened by the peasant army and knew what would happen if they did not resist.

Wu Kangguo was a Jinshi last year and was assigned to be the principal of the county school. Before he could even sit down, he received an official document to reduce the size of the school. There are only twenty students left under him. It was boring at first, but now it's something serious.

The county magistrate and the chief registrar had fled, and the people unanimously elected him as their commander-in-chief.

Wu Kangguo is completely rushing to the shelves. He has not even read the military book, so he can only make arrangements in a muddle.

First, use Baojia as a unit, and let the Baojia chief organize the neighbors to each defend a section of the city wall. Then let wealthy households serve as logistics officers to organize the transportation of supplies for the elderly and the weak. There were no serious weapons, either street vendors' poles or people's kitchen knives. They took whatever they had. They also dismantled some beams to make rolling logs, and prepared vegetable oil and dung water for cooking in pots.

Wu Tong came with thousands of remaining soldiers and immediately sent people to persuade him to surrender.

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

Seeing that the people in the city refused to surrender, Wu Tong demolished the houses outside the city to build siege ladders.

I thought it could be defeated in one battle, but it turned out that it was even more difficult to defeat than Zhoucheng. The people who defended the city were all fighting tooth and nail. Principal Wu Kangguo also took the lead, and even many children from wealthy families were fighting.

Wu Tong suffered heavy losses under Jiachuan City and had to retreat with the remaining soldiers. On the way, he heard that the prefect had escaped, so he fought back to the city.

Many of the surviving people in the city were recruited by Wu Tong as soldiers, and then fled home after being captured by the officers and soldiers. When they learned that Wu Tong was fighting back, they also worked together to defend and determined not to let this demon enter the city again.

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

Finally they broke up and each took their men with them and ran to the mountains to become bandits.

Zhu Ming came with his army and learned about the situation in Lizhou. He stood there without speaking for a long time.