Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 595 Second goods
Suddenly, smoke and dust rose from the official road, Zuo Liangyu squinted his eyes and looked over, good guy, a large banner flooded from behind, and a big "Liu" character on the banner fluttered in the wind, extraordinarily enchanting, leading the way It was a large group of cavalry, riding tall horses. The knights on the horses were all burly, with tall oxen and big horses. , There won't be many such elites. It would be thankful to have a few hundred such elite soldiers out of an army of tens of thousands of people.Zuo Liangyu rode his horse to meet him, and laughed loudly: "Is this Linqing Liu Zongbing?"

The group of fierce knights stopped, and surrounded by several elite servants, a general wearing a golden crown and golden armor rode forward, raised his hand to Zuo Liangyu, and said, "It's Liu! Could it be that you are the Commander-in-Chief Zuo of Changping?"

Zuo Liangyu said: "It is Zuo! Mr. Liu, why did you come so late?"

General Liu smiled wryly: "My Shandong soldiers have been in peace for a long time, with lax military discipline and corrupt combat power. How can I compare with the Changping elite Zuo Zongbing who guards the gate of the capital and deals with Mongolian Tartars every day? In order to compare these hundreds of people Pulling it over, Liu has already spent a lot of effort!" He glanced over, and saw that the Changping Army, from general to soldier, was full of murderous intent and well-equipped, and he couldn't help but admire: "Good soldiers! , Good soldier! You are worthy of being the elite guarding the capital!"

This dear friend is Liu Zeqing, the commander-in-chief of Shandong Linqing.He made a little contribution in quelling the Denglai rebellion, and of course he also made a fortune. After the war, he was rewarded for his meritorious service. He was promoted to the general soldier of Linqing, and he was steadily marching towards the throne of Shandong general soldier.Linqing is a treasure land. It faces Hebei across the river. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal passes through the city. Relying on water transportation, Linqing rises at an astonishing speed. It is so rich that it occupies such a fertile land. Liu Zeqing doesn’t care much happy.After he took office, he did two things: making money and recruiting troops.He colluded with water transportation officials, made false accounts and embezzled the money, food and materials transported to Beijing. He set up a tax card on the Grand Canal for the purpose of arbitrarily apportioning and collecting taxes on the ships going back and forth. He complained endlessly.Of course, it is also necessary to carry some urgently needed goods into the water transport ships, and earn the price difference from the north-south misfortune. A considerable part of the water transport ships are purely for him and a group of officials' cargo ships, and they are free. Kind of like, as for the serious business of transporting money, food and supplies, they have thrown it aside--if you don't take advantage of the imperial court, you are a bastard!Relying on the favorable location and clever mind, our General Manager Liu earned 50 million taels of silver in just two years, which can be said to be a sudden wealth.As for recruiting soldiers and buying horses, it is even easier. These days there is a shortage of everything, but there is no shortage of refugees, and they don't need military pay. A basket of steamed buns can bring back a large number of people.There were also a lot of thieves in Shandong, a large sum of money was poured over, and a large number of ruthless thieves joined Liu Zongbing one after another, and Liu Zongbing soon became strong and strong.

Although life in Linqing was quite comfortable, Liu Zeqing was still a little uneasy: Linqing is good everywhere, but it is too close to Lu Xiangsheng's site!King Lu Yan didn't rub the sand in his eyes, and he would definitely not be able to hide the bad things he did. What if this king of Hades got the emperor's approval one day and suddenly dispatched the Tianxiong army to deal with him, how would he end up?In order to prevent the Tianxiong Army, an overly powerful neighbor, from coming to make trouble for him, Liu Zeqing worked harder to please the civil and military officials in the court. Someone is good at being an official!No, Hou Xun just took a trip to Shandong and asked him to lead the army to the south and cooperate with Zuo Liangyu to mess up Yang Menglong's Huguang New Deal. , Bai Wan rushed over in a hurry, and happened to catch up with Zuo Liangyu in Xinyang.

Liu Zeqing and Zuo Liangyu were neither good birds. Their fighting skills were mediocre, but their ability to scrape the ground was top-notch. When two guys with similar personalities came together, they became familiar with each other within a few words.When Liu Zeqing asked Zuo Liangyu why he chose the far side instead of going straight to Wuhan along the Han River from the Nanyang Basin, and instead went in a circle to Xinyang, Zuo Liangyu said angrily: "It's not the gang of unruly people who caused this!" He took Liu Zeqing's hand and vomited bitterly: "Brother Liu, you don't know, the people in Nanyang are so barbaric and very hostile to our army! Wherever our army passes, there will be people who poison the water sources and vegetables. They poisoned many of my people to death! What's even more outrageous is that I sent people to the villages and towns to ask for an explanation. Without saying a word, they gathered 2000 people, all of them holding sharp knives and crossbows, threatening to tell us to get out. Get out of their territory, or we’ll all be chopped into pieces!”

Liu Zeqing was startled: "Are they really so barbaric?"

Zuo Menggeng said sadly: "It's not just barbaric, it's simply lawless! The people of Nanyang are all a bunch of unruly people and disorderly people, they just deserve to die!"

Wang Yuncheng, Wu Xueli, Ma Jinzhong and other generals all agreed with resentment. According to them, Nanyang has become a den of thieves, a stronghold of villains, and an evil base that is always planning rebellion. Kill them all, and there will be no wrongdoing!Since they were in the army, no matter where they went, they were majestic, and even the center of the court had to give them some face, but in Nanyang they suffered from a bunch of bumpkins, how could they swallow this bad breath?They all tried their best to give the Nanyang people a hard time, and naturally they would not let go of the opportunity to file a complaint.Liu Zeqing naturally knew that one of the ten sentences this group said was true, but he didn't expose it, but echoed it.Together, the strength of the two troops increased greatly, and they quickly advanced towards Xinyang City.

It didn't take long for them to get the news of the civil uprising in Xinyang, and they immediately lifted their spirits, saying that the opportunity to make contributions has come.When they learned that all the people in Xinyang had risen to rebel, they were so excited that they almost fell off their horses.Zuo Liangyu laughed wildly and said to Liu Zeqing: "Liu Zongbing, our chance to make meritorious service has come!"

Liu Zeqing nodded again and again: "Extremely, extremely, if the civil uprising in Xinyang can be put down, it will be a great contribution!"

Zuo Liangyu saw thousands of people on their way several miles away, grinned grimly, and said, "Then what are you waiting for? These are rioters, and they are all exploits in battle! Kill them as much as you want, and chop off their heads as a treasure." Trophy!"

The cavalrymen of the Changping Army and the Linqing Army howled with excitement, and rode their horses towards the common people.Seeing so many cavalry rushing towards them, those common people were still at a loss what to do, so they swung their bright sabers, and blood flowed into rivers on the official road...

Not long after, Hou Xun, who was slowly following the army "supervising the battle" in a sedan chair with a beautiful woman, received a document from Zuo Liangyu and Liu Zeqing claiming to wipe out a rebel army in a certain place in Xinyang, beheading more than a thousand At the top level, none of the rebels slipped through the net.Hou Xun is a little confused, didn't you tell you to go to Huguang to suppress the rebellion?Why did they kill them in Xinyang, and killed more than 1000 people in one shot?Although Hou Shangshu had never fought a war, he had dealt with Qiu Ba and others a lot. He had seen a lot of all kinds of tricks, and he was somewhat experienced. If he thought about it carefully, he would know what was going on, but he also took Zuo Liangyu and Liu Zeqing has no choice but to rely on these two to deal with Yang Menglong. If they are beaten, who will do things for him?In desperation, Hou Shangshu sent a military envoy to catch up with the two brothers with a sum of money. First, he affirmed their military exploits and rewarded them. Then he euphemistically pointed out that the most urgent task is to put down the chaos in Huguang as soon as possible, so as not to cause trouble outside the Xinyang Festival... …Xinyang is not far from Nanyang, and Nanyang is the root of Yang Menglong. Making trouble next door to Nanyang is completely different from fighting in Huguang. Xinyang is in trouble, no one can guarantee how violent this bastard will react.

Hou Shangshu's words were euphemistic enough, but Zuo Liangyu and Liu Zeqing, who had just massacred thousands of people and robbed a large sum of property, couldn't listen to it at all. Along the way, what should be robbed should be robbed, and what should be killed should be killed. .When they passed by Queshan, they met a big fat sheep: Liu, the richest man in Queshan, led thousands of clan children to stand firm at Wubi during the civil uprising in Xinyang, and became a nail household with all his heart. The strong attack failed, and when Zuo Liangyu and Liu Zeqing led the army to attack, the Liu family's Wubao was still intact.What happened to this man proves once again that in troubled times, it is always easier for wealthy gentry to survive than farmers. They can build a wall to protect themselves when the situation is not good. Where can the common people flee?However, this man soon proved that the brain is not something everyone can have. He was probably frightened by the turbulent public sentiments of the Xinyang civil uprising. This man was as happy to see the imperial army as he was seeing his father, and opened the castle. Men went out with a large amount of wine and beef to greet them, chatted with them to express their gratitude, and then...

Then there was no more, this bastard was arrested by Zuo Liangyu and Liu Zeqing together with the clan children who went out of the city with him to meet Wang Shi. The two Ming armies charged together, and tens of thousands of peasants repeatedly besieged Wubao for more than a month. Just like that, the large amount of food and goods stored in it became the trophies of Zuo Liangyu and Liu Zeqing. As for the beautiful women of the Liu family, they even became prostitutes, life would be worse than death.Liu Daer was forced to witness the tragedy of his family's ruin and death. He wanted to cry without tears, and sighed to the sky: "You officers and soldiers are ten times more ruthless than the rebels. At least the rebels will not touch the women..."

What responded to his screams of grief and indignation were the wild laughter of the officers and soldiers when they were having fun and the mournful cries of the woman who was being raped...
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(End of this chapter)