Liu Dingfeng took a deep breath, then nodded: "There are more, and there are many more."
Feng Ziying remained calm and said with a smile: "Tell me, it's already this time, I'm mentally prepared."
"There is also a group of rebels heading south. They were originally bandits from the Baiyun Mountains in the south of Jiazhou. They are divided into three small groups. One group is the bandits from the Baiyun Mountains, one group is the bandits from Wulihengling just south of the Baiyun Mountains, and another group The three groups were horse thieves in Tanjiaping and Aihaoping, which are close to Wubao County. Later, the three forces jointly launched an attack on Jiazhou three months ago and failed. They fled back to the mountains. After finally merging, the rebel army wanted to attack Wubao County. The news came south again."
Hearing Liu Dingfeng's detailed description of this rebel army, Feng Ziying was a little surprised. She glanced at him and then said slowly: "These are bandits, not rebels?"
"It turned out to be bandits, but after the uprising, a large number of rebels gathered to join, so their number quickly expanded from less than 2,000 after the failed attack on Jiazhou to about 3,000." Liu Dingfeng explained.
"Dingfeng, the internal forces of this rebel army are mixed and the relationships are complicated, but you understand it so deeply and meticulously. Is there any special reason?" Feng Ziying asked curiously.
Seeing that he couldn't hide it, Liu Dingfeng smiled bitterly and said, "I have a distant cousin who is from Jiazhou and has some martial arts skills. Who would have thought that he would become a thief if he didn't learn it well? I only found out after I went to Shaanxi this time. I contacted him and he is now a small leader in this rebel army, belonging to the Tanjiaping and Aihaoping branches."
Li Guibao obviously didn't know about this, and there was a strange look on his face, but it was no big deal. No one wanted to expose themselves to such scandals.
Feng Ziying didn't care about this. What he cared about was that Liu Dingfeng contacted his cousin, which meant there was a story inside.
"Dingfeng, it seems that your cousin has revealed some information to you." Feng Ziying said with a smile, "I believe you will bring me some good news."
"Yes, sir." Liu Dingfeng nodded and said, "My incompetent cousin also said that when they attacked Jiazhou, their group was reluctant to go, but because the then leader was invited by the other two groups to He had no choice but to follow, but he was defeated in a battle. He was driven out by the Yulin Town troops and had no place to hide, so he fled back to the mountains. As a result, the leader was injured and died soon after returning to the mountain. Now the new leader is not very good. I am willing to follow the other two troops, but because many rebels are joining because they want to fight against the government to distribute food, if they refuse to fight against Wu Fort, I am afraid that many people will abandon them immediately, and this team has no There is plenty of food to fill our stomachs, so we are at a loss and can only obey..."
This is the opportunity, Feng Ziying secretly thought in her heart, they were not on the same road in the first place, they were just accompanying each other when the matter was urgent. If there were other opportunities, they could naturally part ways, or even stab them in the back.
"Well, I understand. Can your cousin speak in this movie?" Feng Ziying asked patiently.
"I guess he is the person the leader of the thief trusts more now." Liu Dingfeng said with a wry smile.
He also knew that once the news came out, he would definitely be unable to avoid all the subsequent activities, but it could also be regarded as an opportunity for his cousin to escape the thief.
"Who are the main sources of their troops?" Feng Ziying asked thoughtfully.
He had to think more about it. Although he could obey the authority urgently or turn his back and deny it, he did not want to easily damage his image and damage his credibility, so he had to ask clearly.
Liu Dingfeng hesitated for a moment, "Most of them are landless refugees from the south of Jiazhou near the Yellow River in Wubao. Some of them are landless victims who came from Linxian County, Shanxi Province in the past two years. Of course, there are also some local rogues who are good at eating and lazy. In addition, there is a group of horse thieves who are engaged in robbery in Mizhi. The composition is also relatively complex. In the later period, more rioters joined in. It is estimated that they now account for about half of the people in this group. However, most of these people are They just need food to survive, so they don’t have much of an opinion, and most of the time they just follow the opinions of these people.”
"Approximately how many people does your cousin's unit account for in the entire rebel army?" Feng Ziying asked carefully.
"Because the other two units attacked Jiazhou the most fiercely, so they suffered the greatest losses. However, their unit suffered smaller losses, so now there are about 1,300 or 400 people in their unit out of 3,000. In addition, The two groups combined have about 1,600 to 700 people, but the number may increase."
Feng Ziying knew in her heart that if this unit could be conquered, then this rebel army would be nothing to worry about and could even be used for her own benefit, but it was still too early to say this now.
"Then there are other rebels who are also marching towards Wubao?" Feng Ziying was also a little surprised, why are they so interested in Wubao County?
"There is another rebel army that also came from Suide. They are the troops from Boyan Village and Baitang Village in the north of the state combined into one..." Liu Dingfeng's face became a little serious at this time, "Although this army is not large in number, There are only about seven or eight hundred people, but there are quite a few horses among them, and there are many soldiers from the Yulin border mixed in, with good combat effectiveness..."
Feng Ziying slightly chinned his head, he knew it when he mentioned Boyan Village and Baitang Village.
His father once told him that there are many villages in Yan'an Prefecture outside the jurisdiction of Yulin Town. They are close to the forts and border walls of Yulin Town and are also one of the important sources of border army personnel.
Later, because the imperial court was downsized and it was difficult to support them, these villages that were originally dependent on the border troops were gradually dismantled.
However, these people still wanted to live after being abolished, so they all gathered in these villages to make a living by farming. In fact, they changed from military settlements to civilian settlements.
However, the folk customs in the border areas were originally strong, and the frontier army had difficulty in paying food and wages, so many deserted soldiers were not pursued very much, and some soldiers were even deliberately allowed to flee to reduce the pressure on food and wages.
Most of these fugitive soldiers were from nearby people, and most of them made a living in this area after their escape. Therefore, many villages slowly grew up along the south side of the border wall in Yulin Town.
Boyan Village, Baitang Village, Liushu Village, Dongcun Village, Gushan Village, Shuangshan Village, Yuerhe Village, Tumen Village, Mahe Village, Datu Falcon Village, Xiangshui Village, and Boluosi Village, except for some of them It was there originally, and some of it grew up slowly in this way.
"What is the situation of the villages in the north of Suidezhou now? Have they all turned into rebels like Boyan Village and Baitang Village?" Feng Ziying was a little worried. If this was the case, the situation would be quite serious, and the Yulin Army might not be able to win. How many of them came south to help clear up the rebels?
Fortunately, Liu Dingfeng shook his head: "As far as we know so far, only the two villages, Boyan Village and Baitang Village, were short of food, and the Yulin Army in the north could not provide them with enough food, so they started We went south to eat, but Suidezhou and the others didn’t dare to touch it, so they had no choice but to come over to Wu Fort..."
Liu Dingfeng hesitated for a while and then said: "The people in these two villages are actually not very willing to go south, but due to livelihood, the other villages can barely get by at the moment, but if this situation continues, I think at most If they can persist for a month, they cannot delay it until October. These villages will gradually go the way of Boyan Village and Baitang Village, because it is impossible for the Yulin Army to support these villages with their own food, and a little relief will not solve the problem at all. …”
After all, it was still a matter of food. Feng Ziying knew very well that these villages were actually a buffer area between Yulin Town and Yan'an Prefecture, and they were in a state of neglect.
At first, most of the people in these villages were relatives of the Yulin Army sergeants. However, after seventy or eighty years, these people have multiplied and multiplied day by day, and their existing relationship with the Yulin Army is no longer as close as it was originally. In addition, Some of the escaped soldiers also fled into these villages to make a living, so Yulin Town also had an ambivalent attitude towards these villages.
The same goes for Yan'an Prefecture, where they all turn a blind eye.
Feng Ziying also realized that the problem was complicated and thorny. If it was just an ordinary rebel army, it would not be easy to solve, but there was always a way. But if all the villages on the front line became rebels because they had no food to survive, the situation would be serious. .
There are as many as a dozen villages in this line, and each village has hundreds to thousands of people. It is similar to large villages and towns in the mainland. The Suidezhou line alone may have more than 10,000 people.
These border people have strong folk customs and practice martial arts, archery and riding. Many of them are originally deserters, and there are also many strong horses raised in the village.
If they want to become a rebel army, their combat effectiveness will not be comparable to that of those who are just surviving on food, and there are deserters organizing and leading them, so they will have a very clear defense and attack routine for the border troops and local towns. Once a confrontation occurs, it will not be easy to eliminate.
"Are the food shortages in these border villages also very serious?" Feng Ziying asked again.
"There has been a severe drought for three consecutive years. To be honest, the situation in these border villages is much better than that in many places. However, they have more capable laborers and consume a lot of money. Originally, they could still get some support from the army, but the Northwest Army marched eastward. After that, the imperial court severely deducted food and salary from the remaining troops in the three sides and four towns. It was said that it was to support the war in Shandong. Therefore, the Yulin army had no time to protect itself and could not provide any more relief to these villages, so it was delayed until It’s pretty good now. Boyan Village and Baitang Village are the farthest away from the Dali and Xiaoli Rivers. It hasn’t rained since last year and this year, so irrigation is difficult. The corn harvest is almost extinct, so they are the first to run out of food..."
Feng Ziying waved her hand, indicating that she knew the situation, "Then why are you all coming to Wu Bao? Suide doesn't dare to fight, Mizhi doesn't dare to go, and Anding is not far away."
Liu Dingfeng smiled bitterly, "How many grains does Anping have? Isn't it also the case that chaos is everywhere and is in danger?"
