As the old saying goes, before the world is in chaos, Shu will be in chaos first; the world has been settled, but Shu has not yet been settled. The meaning of this sentence is that when there are signs of chaos in the world, Shu is often the first to be in chaos. When the world is stable, Shu is probably the last to settle down.
The reason is that the continuous peaks around Shu are the most difficult to conquer. Once the terrain is occupied, it will be a fierce battle that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. The same is true when the situation in Shu is extended to Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou.
Whenever the power in the Central Plains declines, chaos will surely break out in the southwest! At the end of the previous dynasty, the Taiping Kingdom rebelled, and Hunan was almost completely submerged in the Taiping Army's power. It was only after Zeng Shatou conquered Tianjing that the Taiping Army's power completely dissipated.
However, the Taiping rebels were not completely wiped out. Instead, as the rebels hid in Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou, they became bandits and bandits, and even rebels organized into parties. In order to quickly calm down the war, the capital began to Ordered the southwest to set up a regiment training camp to protect the environment and the people.
The entire territory of Hunan Province was once occupied by the Taiping Kingdom, and it was the most important target of the regiment training camp. When the regiment training camp in western Hunan was prepared, troops began to be deployed to suppress the bandits and eliminate the rebellious people. However, the folk customs in Hunan changed drastically in a few years.
These gangsters were much smarter than the government. They were not completely killed. Instead, they continued to flee to the southwest border area, or fled directly into Shiwanda Mountain, or stayed at the border between the two provinces, and ran wherever the control was relaxed, chasing them. When the officers and soldiers were exhausted, they lost interest in suppressing the bandits.
Huayuan County, Songhua County, and Xiu'an County belong to the junction of Sichuan, Hunan, and Guizhou. These areas are surrounded by mountains and rivers, have a large number of villagers, and have strong folk customs. They are also the areas where bandits are most rampant. Let alone the peace and chaos, the bandits on the local hills are all There are countless of them, and when bandits from other places come, they are even more difficult to control.
The political councils of the three provinces all understand that if you want to suppress bandits, you must eradicate them. If you only surrender your own territory, maybe all the bandits will run there for refuge, and then come back to make trouble as soon as they relax. Don't want to take the hot potato.
From the end of the previous dynasty to this time, in just twenty years, the Sichuan-Hunan-Guizhou border area had lost its ancient roads and lost its people. There were as many as one hundred thousand bandits in several nearby counties.
"Hundreds of thousands, doesn't it mean there are bandits in every household?" Ordinary counties have a maximum population of 50,000, and border counties have even fewer people. If the number of bandits exceeds 100,000, it can be said that almost every household has become a bandit.
"Yao Mei, you are right. The situation here is very similar to that of Han County. When a boy reaches adulthood, he will see others return home with a lot of money from robbing villages and villages, and he will only get a few hundred copper coins after working hard for a year. , I also know in my heart what to choose, whether it is for the future or not wanting to be poor, becoming a bandit is already a good way out."
"They are not ashamed to be bandits!" Ren Peacock paused and carefully introduced the geography of the three counties: "Tudong Town is located at the junction of Taohua, Xiu'an and Huayuan counties, with Qingshui River in the middle. It is divided into three, with Jiangxin Island as the midpoint. There are Kuahu Mountain, Fengtou Mountain, Funiu Mountain, and Laolongkou nearby. The nearby hills are all forts built in the town. When they are busy, they work, and when they are free, they carry machetes to protect themselves. The environment is safe for the people, and it can be regarded as a hometown protection group."
"In the past, there were still bandits who came to rob and do miscellaneous work. Later, the three provinces wanted the bandits to fight among themselves. These bandits were afraid of the three counties and sent troops to attack from here. They also had rules. They only robbed outside the three counties but not within the three counties, including Tudong. On the contrary, the three counties including the town have stabilized and have lived in peace for many years in the area where bandits are rampant." After that, Ren Peacock took out the homemade map: "If we want to leave, we can't go by land to avoid the bandits. From Dongting Lake Transfer to Yuanjiang River and Youjiang River, and then cross Huayuan River and Qingshui River after entering Huayuan territory. You can go directly to Tudong by water. Although the process is a bit slow, it is relatively safe." Song Siyuan looked at the ancient map, which was brown and slightly yellow. , tens of thousands of peaks have been marked with names, and countless water veins start from Dongting Lake, like a fine water network woven into the green mountains. The route they want to take has been marked with red ink. Sure enough, they can go directly to Tudong along the waterway, and even halfway No need to disembark.
"Then, when do we set off?"
"We have to wait for some more people!" Ren Peacock paused, and his tone became mysterious: "After leaving Yueyang City, you will reach the bandit territory. If you wear these clothes and enter the mountainous area, not to mention walking by water or flying in the sky, those who kill a thousand swords The bandits must also be beaten down, at least change their clothes into ordinary people's clothes, and then dress up as travelers entering the mountains. The less noticeable they are, the safer they will be."
"What I want to wait for are those corpse exterminators in Hanzhong!" Ren Kongque said something that made Yue Guanchao feel a little guilty. He thought of the corpse exorcists he met in Yangquanyi, but he didn't expect to meet them again.
"What are you waiting for them to do?" Yue Guanchao was obviously guilty, and let Peacock see through it without telling him. He explained: "There are many people from Xiangxi who go to other provinces. Once they die in a foreign country, they have to return the body to their hometown. This is what the corpse collectors do. The people in Xiangxi respect the corpse exorcists very much and are willing to give them face. Traveling with them can be considered as taking care of them. Then we can disguise ourselves as salt merchants and peddlers, which will make things easier."
