I

Jishui County is on the east bank of the Ganjiang River, but its highlight is on the west bank.

Li Banghua sailed past the county town by boat and saw many soldiers on the city tower. Apparently the magistrate of Jishui County had recruited brave soldiers to defend the city.

"Fortunately, fortunately, the rebels did not attack the city." Feng Zhang, the county magistrate, looked frightened as he watched the pirate ship leave and sat down limply.

A Confucian scholar said: "The auspicious water is over."

"You have to kill him back." Another Confucian scholar said with a fist.

These two people are brothers, one is named Zhou Ruibao and the other is Zhou Ruixu.

Zhou Ruibao was a county magistrate in Sichuan last year. Due to successive years of severe drought in the area, he led the people to build ponds and weirs and dig wells to draw water to alleviate the drought. All the grain was used for disaster relief, so naturally he could not pay taxes, so he was dismissed from office and returned to his hometown.

Zhou Ruixu used to be a county magistrate in Zhejiang Province. Due to his outstanding political achievements, he was praised by Chongzhen and promoted to the rank of doctor of the Wenxuan Department for four consecutive levels. Of course, his teachers and classmates were very helpful, otherwise this promotion would be too outrageous. It's a pity that my butt was still hot, so I suddenly received the bad news and hurried back to my hometown for the funeral.

When the two brothers learned about the Luling banditry, they came together to visit the magistrate of Jishui County and contacted the gentry of the county to recruit local braves.

At first, the gentry in Jishui County were still waiting and watching. But during the summer harvest season, most of Luling County rioted, frightening the gentry in Jishui County next door.

Today, they have recruited more than 1,000 local warriors.

The squires who participated in the recruitment of soldiers brought their money and food with them and moved their families to the county town. Only a few ethnic groups and domestic slaves remained in the village.

"Brother Chang, you must contact the governor to suppress the bandits!" The person who spoke was named Li Chun'an, the son of Li Rixuan, the prime minister of Dali Temple, and the grand nephew of Li Banghua.

Zhou Ruixu said worriedly: "Governor Li is in Duchang to suppress bandits. I'm afraid he won't be able to go south until spring."

There was also a scholar next to him named Li Musheng, the son of Li Yuanding, the head of the Literary and Selection Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and also the grandnephew of Li Banghua.

There are a lot of scholars here, including the son of Luo Wanjue, the brother of the prefect Shi Fengyuan, and so on. There are also those who escaped from Luling County, such as Hu Yilong's brother who was involved in the incident, etc. People who have family members who are officials in the government will not compromise easily.

They brought more than a thousand village warriors with them, fed them with their own food, and relied on the dangers of the Ganjiang River to defend Jishui County.

Until the evening, the rebels had not come to attack the city, so everyone finally dispersed, leaving some soldiers to take turns on guard duty.

News came the next day that rebels were raiding villages and towns, and the leader was none other than Li Banghua!

Everyone was silent. It was unimaginable that Li Banghua was a thief. They all thought it was fake news before.

In front of the Li brothers, many gentry could not speak openly, so they gathered together in private and scolded the eighteen generations of Li Banghua's ancestors.

Li Musheng quietly found Li Chun'an and said, "Brother, my uncle has become a high-ranking anti-thief official. How about we become thieves too?"

"Asshole!"

Li Chun'an yelled: "Your father and my father are both officials of the imperial court. If we become thieves, our fathers will go to jail. You are being disloyal and unfilial!"

Li Musheng said with a grimace: "If we don't return to our hometown, all our land will be divided by the rebels."

"So what about dividing the land?" Li Chun'an sneered, "I have already brought out the money and food. As long as there are people in the court, are you afraid that there will be no land in the future?"

Li Musheng sighed and said, "The rebels are so fierce that I'm afraid the governor won't be able to wipe them out. What will happen then?"

Li Chun'an scolded: "Stop talking nonsense. Can Thief Zhao still seize the country?"

Li Musheng remained silent. His family had the largest land, which was tens of thousands of acres of land. It had been saved by several generations!

…

Gucun, Li family.

"Kneel down!"

Li Tingjian was so angry that he was trembling all over, pointing his crutch at his son and yelling.

Li Banghua knelt down and said to his subordinates: "When you go to do things, first divide my family's land. If anyone blocks it, tie it up."

Li Tingjian was dumbfounded and said with a shocked look on his face: "You traitor, have you been fed ecstasy? You are just a traitor, but you actually brought a traitor to divide your own land!"

Li Banghua sighed and said, "Does my father still remember how my grandmother was buried?"

"At that time, the family was poor and everything was simple," Li Tingjian sighed. "The children and grandchildren were incompetent, so they could only let the elders wrap themselves in straw and bury them secretly away from the village neighbors. But after you became rich, you chose a geomantic treasure land to be a glorious place for your elders. Moving and burying him once is considered worthy of his ancestors."

Li Banghua asked again: "Father, do you still remember that there were only a few acres of land left at home? Now there are more than a thousand acres."

Li Tingjian said: "You are a high-ranking official and your family only has a thousand acres of land. You are already extremely incorruptible."

Li Banghua knelt straight and asked: "Father, does he know how many scholars and people there are in the world? When their elders pass away, they can only be buried carelessly, and they work hard all day but don't have enough to eat? Does father know, how many people are dead in the northern provinces?" Not only can’t he be buried, but his flesh will also be divided and eaten!”

"What does it have to do with me!" Li Tingjian roared.

Li Banghua's tone slowed down: "Father, the articles in the child's belly were all taught by you back then. What is benevolence? What is righteousness?"

Li Tingjian angrily shouted: "What is loyalty and what is filial piety!"

Li Banghua smiled bitterly and said: "Haier, how have you ever been disloyal? But this loyalty is of no use! The boy was in charge of Tianjin. At that time, the Tianjin New Army had only been established for a few years, but it was already in a mess. The boy had offended countless powerful people, and he rectified the Tianjin New Army. It was a model for the towns in Beizhi. However, after the first year of Chongzhen's reign, he passed through Tianjin on his way back to Beijing. In just a few years, the new Tianjin army lost all its combat power, and only 30 to 40% of the soldiers fled."

"The boy reorganized the capital camp, worked hard, and arranged layers of defenses. Not to mention defeating the Tatars, at least it made it difficult for the Tatars to plunder. But the Tatars had just broken through and were still hundreds of miles away from the capital, so the imperial court withdrew all the capital camps. , several lines of defense were as leaky as a sieve. The child, a dignified minister of the Ministry of War, could only catch spies in the city! The child could not command any of the soldiers guarding the city. The artillery fired on the city accidentally injured friendly troops, and it was the child's fault, so he resigned and returned. Township!"

"This court, this emperor, how can anyone be loyal to me!"

Li Tingjian was so angry that he banged his cane on the ground crazily: "Then you can't be a thief either!"

Li Banghua suddenly laughed: "Father, do you think the child is a person who easily becomes a thief? If he encounters an ordinary rebel, he will be captured, and at most he will die."

Li Tingjian finally calmed down a little and asked doubtfully: "Then what is so special about Thief Zhao that you are so confused?"

"It's just about helping the world and saving the people." Li Banghua also didn't believe in universal unity, he knew that was impossible.

Li Tingjian was so angry that he laughed: "A rebel, you say he helped the world and saved the people?"

Li Banghua said with emotion: "The princes in the court are eating nothing but their corpses, and they are ignoring the people of the world. To allow a rebel bandit to come to save the world and save the people, the world is upside down. If it is upside down, it is upside down, and it is better to rebuild the world as soon as possible. My father has lived in Jiangxi for a long time, not Understand what the north is like. Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong have experienced disasters year after year, and people's lives are difficult. The court only knows how to suppress, but has no ability to recuperate. The rebels in the north will only suppress more and more. This Ming Dynasty is already at the end of the dynasty. .”

Suddenly, Li Banghua kowtowed respectfully: "Father, the Li family's land must be divided. Otherwise, it will be difficult to convince the public. Please forgive me, father!"

Li Tingjian sat back on his chair and was speechless for a long time.

Li Banghua kowtowed again, stood up, walked out of the main room, and personally presided over the distribution of the fields, starting with his own fields.

…

night.

Zhou Ruibao, Zhou Ruixu and other gentry sons took hundreds of village warriors across the river in small boats.

When they arrived at the west bank, due to the darkness, these rural warriors had dispersed into several groups. But there were also many scholars taking the lead, twenty or thirty people, each leading his troops into the villages along the river in the dark.

"kill!"

"Kill the mob!"

The sound of killings was heard one after another. The gentry and the village warriors rushed in and killed the houses when they saw them.

Zhou Ruibao, a good official who loves the people like his own son, gave up his hat in order to help the people. But at this time, he transformed into an executioner and killed two families of tenant farmers with his own hands, just to retaliate against the tenant farmers for dividing the landlord's land.

Huang Yao, Huang Shun and other military attachés followed Li Banghua to Jishui County this time. Fifty soldiers were stationed in one village to protect the officials and missionary personnel.

Hearing the cry of killing, Huang Yao immediately jumped up and shouted: "Luo Chun, your people are here to guard, others follow me to kill the thief!"

Missionary officer Xiao He rushed over quickly: "Boss Huang, we don't need to protect you. We will go with you to kill the thieves."

The situation was urgent, and Huang Yao was too lazy to say anything more. He only warned: "Follow closely, don't get lost."

The people held torches, the soldiers carried weapons, and the civilian officials had a variety of weapons.

The soldiers scattered in various villages were killing the nearby enemies. Xiang Yong not only killed people, but also set fire to the house. The fire was so bright that it was easy to identify the direction.

"Kill the thief!"

"The thieves are coming, run!"

Both sides call each other a thief, and they don't know who is the thief.

But one thing is clear: the country warriors recruited by the gentry are very timid in the face of battle. When he saw the peasant army coming to kill him, he immediately turned around and ran back to the shore and escaped by boat.

There are also many local brave men who are in a panic and cannot choose their way out in the dark, unable to find their own boats.

Huang Yao met a group of enemies and fled madly along the shore. He ignored his soldiers, sprinted quickly with his long legs, and rushed behind the enemy alone.

"kill!"

Huang Yao shouted to encourage himself and stabbed the enemy in the back.

The village heroes were so frightened that they didn't know how many pursuers were behind them. They all ran forward in the dark with their heads covered.

"The ship is over there!"

Under the moonlight, some villagers shouted loudly.

"kill!"

Huang Yao chased after him and stabbed another one.

The village heroes panicked and climbed onto the boat, only to see that Huang Yao was the only one there. But they didn't dare to fight back because there were more pursuers in the distance.

"kill!"

Huang Yao poked the third one.

"Pull me up quickly!"

"I haven't boarded yet, so don't start the boat."

"Don't squeeze, don't squeeze, it's going to fall over."

"..."

There were six boats here, but in the panic, only two managed to escape back to the other side.

Many Xiangyong simply jumped into the water to escape, but Huang Yao stood on the shore and stabbed two more to death.

Early the next morning, Li Banghua hurried over and saw the burned house and the bodies of the tenants. He stood there in silence for a long time.

"Can the dead be counted?" Li Banghua asked.

Huang Yao replied: "The bandits attacked six villages at night. They did not rob money or food, but only killed people and set fires. No one we brought was injured or killed. But among the farmers in Jishui County, including children, a total of 358 people were killed. Kill. The thieves ran fast, but we only killed 21 and captured 6 alive."

Li Banghua sighed: "Oh, sooner or later something like this will happen."