On the night when Chen Yongfu attacked the army camp at night, Chen De killed the bandit Yi Dougu and even took away his body. Seeing that Yi Dougu was about to be snatched away with his body, the third master "Tiaojianhu" Du Youwei was furious.
But there was nothing he could do. Not only could he not recapture Yi Dou Gu's body, but half of his cavalry that had just gathered was disrupted by the government troops who attacked at night. At this moment, he also knew that the hastily gathered cavalry was no match for the government troops, so he hurriedly He greeted the hundreds of horse-riding thieves around him who were unable to escape.
On the second day, some more horse thieves and foot thieves came over and were gathered together by him. In the afternoon, there were more than 150 horse thieves and more than 200 foot thieves. He had already left Li Zicheng. Meaning, so he led these more than 300 people all the way through the new city and headed south.
They fled south in a hurry, with no food, wages, horses or grass. They stumbled past the new city and lost much strength. However, the intruder army besieged Kaifeng for many days, and the people in the surrounding small villages had fled, either rushing into the county, prefecture or big city, or surrendering. Within the surrounding strong villages.
Du Youwei was also very hungry. In desperation, he launched an attack on a large village at noon on the second day. However, these large villages not only had thick walls, but were surrounded by canals and trenches. There were also many surrounding small villages. young and strong.
After half a day of intensive attack, not only failed to break the stronghold, but more than fifty people were injured in his own house. He originally wanted to rest for a night and then attack hard after dawn the next day.
But who would have thought that at dusk, more than a thousand infantry and cavalry officers and soldiers came out of nowhere and immediately defeated them, less than three hundred thieves, even the more than a hundred horse thieves under his command could not escape. He was surrounded and captured by the group of officers and soldiers.
Later, I found out that it was actually a surprise force sent by the Xuanzhen official army that defeated the Crock Pot in the north of Kaifeng city. They originally wanted to set up an ambush here to attack Wang Li Zicheng. Unexpectedly, he was treated like a rabbit and beaten. .
Chen Zhong defeated hundreds of bandits in one battle and even captured the bandit leader Du Youwei alive. Although some brothers were killed or injured as a result, there was nothing he could do. Later, he saw that although the bandits had also fled south, their troops were in good order. , did not panic, and there were more than 2,000 horse teams patrolling around, so they did not attack rashly.
After that, he met Zhang Guangda who was following the intruders south. He reported in detail the capture of Du Youwei and the fact that he did not dare to attack the intruders rashly.
When Zhang Guangda heard that Du Youwei was so brave and could severely injure several of Chen Zhong's knights with the strength of one man and one horse, Zhang Guangda wanted to kill them to relieve the tension in his heart.
However, it was Chen Zhong's urging that saved the life of "Jiangjian Tiger" Du Youwei and came to the North Route Army Camp in Zhangchengxuan Town in the west of Kaifeng City.
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In the large tent of the Chinese army, Du Youwei's eyes flashed with the desire for life. He looked at Zhang Cheng who was sitting steadily after the last major case, his lips trembled, and he was speechless for a moment.
"Plop!"
He suddenly knelt down on his knees, kowtowed and shouted loudly: "Du Youwei is willing to follow the commander-in-chief and die in front of the army!"
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Zhang Cheng looked at Du Youwei kneeling on the ground with mixed feelings in his heart. Now in order to quickly increase his strength, he has begun to selectively recruit bandits from all over the country.
This was somewhat inconsistent with what he had thought when he first came to the Ming Dynasty, but it was also something he couldn't do. The Ming Dynasty had indeed reached its final stage of turmoil, and even a dose of strong medicine might not bring him back to life.
What's more, Zhang Cheng, up to now, has not been qualified to give Ming Dynasty a strong dose of medicine. At this moment, there are intruders, Xian thieves, Cao thieves, and the Five Camps of Gezuo.
On the outside, there is the Tartars, the most powerful enemy who has already established a country and proclaimed himself emperor. The most important thing is that they have a large stable base and a dedicated army of robbers.
Zhang Cheng knew very well that these thieves and bandits who were causing trouble in the heart of the Ming Dynasty were all veterans who had experienced battles for a long time. He must either kill them all or transform them into soldiers for him to drive.
He comes from the new era. Even if he did not personally participate in the war that transformed more than one million enemy soldiers decades ago, and although he has never eaten pork, he is still someone who has seen pigs running.
What's more, people in this era are far less active in their ideological understanding than later generations. They can use words such as loyalty and integrity, honoring their ancestors, making wives and children, and leaving their names for a hundred generations to impress their hearts, and then make them full and not hungry. From then on, there were strict military disciplines and clear rewards and punishments.
Zhang Cheng believes that through some tricks, these thieves and bandits can still be used for his own purposes. Just like in history, there are many cases where people first became thieves and then became officers and soldiers, but they were more accustomed to fighting than the original officers and soldiers.
Now, he has two purposes for regaining Du Youwei. The first is to imitate Shang Yang's meaning of "relocating trees to establish trust", so as to show the bandits that he loves and cherishes talents, which was implicit in his earlier recruitment of Li Jiyu. For this reason, letting Liu Tichun go before was also to gain this reputation.
The second is that they want to continue to use the recruited thief generals to lead the reformed thief soldiers. In fact, many thief bandits are unwilling to surrender to the court, just because they are afraid that the officials will kill them. Once they hand over their military power, they will only Can be slaughtered by others.
Zhang Cheng did this not to reassure these bandits. Once they accept his recruitment, they can still command the original bandits, but this new team must strictly abide by military discipline and must not violate orders, disturb the people, or harm the people.
In fact, whether it is recruiting soldiers, training soldiers, or controlling the army, it all depends on money and food.
As the saying goes, the emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers, no pay and no food, even if the king of heaven comes, there is nothing he can do. But if he is given enough food, wages and money, which army will naturally love to kill the people and slaughter the living beings!
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The smile on Zhang Cheng's face became even brighter. He looked at Du Youwei and said in a deep voice: "Your name was given by your parents. The ancients said, 'People have something to do, and then they can do something.' Now that you have devoted yourself to For me, I should know why I am doing something so that I can make a difference in the future. Even if I cannot honor my ancestors, at least my descendants can enjoy wealth and honor and no longer need to be thieves!"
He looked at Du Youwei with a deep look and said: "You should remember that since you are determined to follow me, you will never act as a thief again, nor will you do anything unfaithful and unjust half-heartedly."
Although Zhang Cheng's voice was not loud, every word hit Du Youwei's heart. He said to the ground: "Please don't worry, Commander. Du Youwei's life will be that of Commander-in-Chief from now on." Yes, if the commander wants us to live, we will live, if he wants us to die, we will die, and we will go through fire and water, without any second thoughts!"
Zhang Cheng nodded with satisfaction, turned to Zhang Chengfang who was standing on his left and said: "Chengfang, take Du Youwei down to bandage the wound, change his clothes and robes, and rest for now!"
Zhang Chengfang summoned his own soldiers to help Du Youwei up as ordered, and slowly exited the military tent with him.
