Chapter 67 Adding fuel to the fire The sky was filled with sunset glow, and the horizon was a fiery red. In the evening, Li Dingguo returned to Dingbian City on a big black horse. "what?" "Why are there so many refugees in this city today?" "Could it be that some place nearby, a village or town, has suffered a major disaster?" As soon as he entered the city gate, he found the city was bustling with noise. On both sides of the streets, groups of refugees could be seen everywhere, and the city was bustling with people. Fortunately, there were teams of rebel soldiers maintaining order everywhere, so there was no trouble. In fact, ever since the Eighth King Zhang Xianzhong captured this county town, many refugees who could not make a living have been pouring in from all directions almost every day. Everyone must have heard that the Eighth King had opened up warehouses in Dingbian City to distribute grain and provide relief to refugees, so they tried every means to come here to seek a way to survive. At worst, it is possible to pass the selection assessment and become a member of the rebel army, which can temporarily solve the urgent problem of food and drink for one's family.
The Eight Kings have also been constantly recruiting soldiers, although most of the refugees who can pass the recruitment examination only enter the logistics camp and are temporarily raised as reserve soldiers. But in the past two days, Li Dingguo also heard that the old camp of the Eight Kings has increased by 500 people so far, bringing the number of combat soldiers in the old camp to 800. The number of rebels was expanding so quickly that Li Dingguo thought that the eight kings probably didn't have many cultivation resources left. Fortunately, their orphan youth camp has often gone out of the city for actual combat training in the past few days, and can solve nearly half of the training resources on their own, which has alleviated some of the difficulties of insufficient resources. But Li Dingguo did not expect that there would be so many refugees in the county today. This sudden surge in the number of refugees is either due to a severe natural or man-made disaster in some villages or a large-scale influx of demons and monsters. However, these refugees are not stupid. Since they have fled here, it proves that this county town is at least temporarily safe. Therefore, Li Dingguo was not too worried. "Unfortunately, the cultivation resources in the hands of the Eight Great Kings may not be so sufficient. Otherwise, this would be a good opportunity to expand our strength." Li Dingguo was not sure how much training resources and money and food supplies Zhang Xianzhong had obtained through large-scale looting after capturing this border county town. This is a dilapidated little town located in the northwestern frontier. Even if one tries to plunder it with all one's strength, it is impossible for it to have too many resources for cultivation. Now we have to supply the training needs of nearly a thousand warriors and soldiers. The training resources consumed every day are so huge that we have to use truckloads of them. It will definitely not last long. If we can't cut costs, we must increase revenue. It is estimated that it will not be long before Zhang Xianzhong will have only two choices: either lead the veteran battalion and the youth battalion that have already been trained, go out of the city to hunt down as many demons and monsters as possible to obtain additional resources for training. Or they could attack the manors and castles of the wealthy families outside the city and seize their large amounts of cultivation resources as well as money and food supplies. Li Dingguo guessed that the leisurely days of their orphan camp would soon be over. A sense of urgency suddenly surged in his heart, and his mood became much heavier. "I am only at the early second level of martial arts cultivation now. If I were in the midst of a chaotic army, I would not be safe at all!" He knew what his biggest shortcoming was right now: his cultivation level was too low.
In this world, only those soldiers who have reached the third level of martial arts are qualified to become a grassroots officer in an elite army. If one wants to lead an army alone and form a military killing formation to fight the enemy head-on, the commander must have the fourth level of martial arts cultivation. Otherwise, he would not be able to make his army exert its true military might. He rode his big black horse with a heavy heart, moving forward towards the Wang Family Courtyard at a moderate pace, his face solemn. …… "Kewang, you said that the reason why a large number of refugees are flocking to our Dingbian City is because the "hundred thousand people" who just captured Shenmu ordered their soldiers to plunder everywhere without distinguishing between officials and civilians?" "This idiot, what does he want to do?" The large parade ground where the rebels were temporarily stationed was located in a large house in the central area of the old barracks. The lights were on. Zhang Xianzhong sat in the main seat, listening to the report from Zhang Kewang who had just rushed back to the county town. He was breathing heavily and was so angry that even his beard stood up! One can imagine how angry he is right now. As the leader of an insurgent army in Yansui Town, Ma Jinzhong, also known as "Hun Shiwan", suddenly sent troops to capture Shenmu, an important fortress located northeast of Dingbian City. This was not a big deal. After all, all the rebel armies are similar and have the ability to capture some important towns. Of course, they have to take action in order to obtain a large amount of various resources and strengthen themselves. The problem is that this is just a 100,000 yuan mess, it's too ungentle! You are an army of rebels that has just started the uprising not long ago. You are a complete mob! Being so wanton and reckless, aren't you afraid of arousing the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people, as well as the complaints of the vast majority of working people? It’s a pity that this guy still uses the slogan of “acting on behalf of heaven”! He actually ordered his rebel soldiers to carry out large-scale looting regardless of whether they were officials or civilians, forcing countless people to flee and become displaced. The impact was too great. The current governor of Yansui Town is no ordinary person, but the very resourceful "living devil" Hong Chengchou! In order to avoid being punished by the court, Hong Chengchou would definitely speed up the preparation of money, food and supplies, summon the two elite troops of He Renlong and Cao Wenzhao, and set out to suppress the bandits. He might even dispatch another elite troop from Yansui Town: the You Family Army! The You family army is now led by Yulin General You Shilu. Several generations of the You family have been guarding the border in Yulin Town, so their roots are deep-rooted. You Shilu also has a brother: You Shiwei, the general of Changzhen, who also has a group of elite soldiers under his command. The eldest brother of the two brothers, You Shigong, the general of Liaoshen, was stationed in Liaodong ten years ago. When he was fighting against the enemy chief Huang Taiji, he died heroically in battle after the city was broken due to rebellion by an internal traitor. If You Shigong had not died in the battle, their You family would now have three generals! It can be said that among the nine important border towns of the Ming Dynasty, the You family army is definitely one of the top military families with a great reputation. The most crucial thing is that the You brothers have elite soldiers and generals under their command, who are all very good at fighting and dare to fight. They are not even afraid of the Tartar army. They are stronger than most of the border troops in Liaodong today. Whether it is Yulin General You Shilu or Changzhen General You Shiwei, they now have an elite army under their command, with both cavalry and infantry. In terms of background and the military forces under his control, Cao Wenzhao, the most famous deputy general of the Yansui Town East Route, is far inferior to You Shilu, the general of Yulin. With Zhang Xianzhong's current strength, he is extremely afraid of Cao Wenzhao and doesn't even dare to fight him head-on. How can he afford to provoke You Shilu? Now, Shenmu, an important fortress town under the jurisdiction of Yansui Town, has started a big chaos again, which will definitely completely infuriate the governor of Yansui Town, the "living king of hell", Hong Chengchou. All these changes were caused by that damn "hun shi wan" Ma Jinzhong, who was greedy and messed around! This guy is so arrogant that he is willing to eat anything he can get. The common people are already extremely poor. What can you get by robbing them? If you casually rob one or two wealthy families, you will gain much more than robbing tens of thousands of ordinary people! This "hundred thousand men" Ma Jinzhong is so cruel and vicious, would he really do such a thing? The key is Shenmu Town, which is located behind Dingbian City.
When the imperial army came to encircle and suppress the rebel army, the first person they targeted was not Ma Jinzhong, who led 100,000 troops, but Zhang Xianzhong! Whether Zhang Xianzhong is willing or not, he is destined to take the blame for Hun Shiwan this time. (End of this chapter)