weaving

Chapter 1312 Yuzhai Ren Chen

The entire province of Henan seemed peaceful, except for the occasional sounds of gunfire and fighting within a hundred miles around the Xianggong Temple. Other prefectures, counties and districts seemed surprisingly quiet, as if the war in the south of Kaifeng had nothing to do with them.

Thanks to the rampage of King Chuang's army, except for the areas north of the Yellow River, only a few large cities south of the Yellow River, such as Kaifeng, Luoyang, Nanyang, and Ruyang, remained unconquered by the bandits, while the remaining more than 40 cities of all sizes had fallen into the hands of the bandits.

Although King Chuang did not leave behind officials and soldiers to rule, there was constant smoke of war in various places and the roads were completely blocked. The decrees of the Henan Governor had long been banned from leaving Kaifeng City and only had a certain effect in the surrounding areas of Kaifeng. Even the three prefectures north of the Yellow River began to disobey them in secret.

It was precisely because each prefecture acted on its own and recruited young and strong men to assist the officers and soldiers in guarding the city, while at the same time closing the city gates and cutting off all contact with the outside world to prevent the danger of bandits from entering the city.

Therefore, Henan Governor Gao Mingheng in Kaifeng City was not clear about the current actual situation of each prefecture. He didn't even know as much as Zhang Cheng, the Earl of Yongning, who was commanding the front line against the army of King Chuang.

The current territory of Henan Province can be said to be vast and empty, with no trace of human beings. However, wild dogs are running everywhere, and groups of wild wolves and other beasts appear from time to time in various rural areas, looking for starving corpses to eat, and even entrenched in some long-uninhabited villages, using them as hiding places.

Even many county towns have fallen into the state of being like villages. The city walls have been completely demolished, the county government offices are empty, and the county officials have long since disappeared. The whole place is in a state of anarchy, with refugees everywhere and scoundrels running rampant. Some wealthy families have fled, and those who failed to escape have only summoned servants to guard their doors and barely survived on a diet of plain porridge and wild vegetables.

Dengfeng was relatively better off. Ever since Li Jiyou led tens of thousands of refugees to relocate, the imperial court had sent new county magistrates and other officials. Although it was in a chaotic time, it was able to maintain order, so it was not as dilapidated as other counties.

Although some rebel troops passed through here, they only collected food from the surrounding villages and did not attack Dengfeng County, which had been harmed by Li Jiyu. It was because of Li Jiyu that they escaped this disaster.

However, Dengfeng County was like other counties. Except for the North Gate, which was left for people to enter and exit, all other city gates were completely sealed.

Ji Zhiying, the captain of the rear unit of the Xuanwu Camp of the Yongyi Army, led more than a thousand elite soldiers under his command and marched all the way, but was turned away by Yan Tinghui, the magistrate of Dengfeng. Even though he took out the official documents of Henan Governor Gao Mingheng, and the token and handwriting of Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng, it did not play any role.

The magistrate Yan Tinghui only said that Ji Zhiying was a bandit, and that the tokens and official documents of the Governor of Henan and the Earl of Yongning that Ji Zhiying held were all forged privately by him and were not credible enough. He refused to open the gate to let him pass and even refused to provide him with some food and fodder.

Ji Zhiying was unwilling to waste time talking to him and just asked him to send officials out of the city to check the token and official documents. However, Yan Tinghui only lowered a basket from the city wall and asked Ji Zhiying to put the token and official documents into the frame, and then hoisted it into the city for inspection.

A moment later, the tokens and official documents of Henan Governor Gao Mingheng and Yongning Earl were thrown out of the city by Yan Tinghui, who said that it was difficult to distinguish the authenticity and refused to recognize them. He also cursed Ji Zhiying as a bandit and told him not to try to open the city gate with the fake documents and tokens.

Ji Zhiying had no other choice but to curse for a while under the city. In desperation, he had to withdraw his troops from Dengfeng City and look for another way.

This was the first time he led troops into action after surrendering to the Earl of Yongning. Naturally, he was extremely excited and had a feeling of being valued. He was looking forward to performing well and winning some face for the generals who came from bandits in Dengfeng.

However, he never expected that he would hit a wall at the first blow, and it was like hitting a cotton ball, with no force at all, leaving him with no way to vent his anger.

However, Ji Zhiying was once a big bandit in Dengfeng and Mi County. Although he had been under the command of Earl Yongning for more than two years, he was already very familiar with the area and some of his connections were not cut off.

After some inquiries, Ji Zhiying led his army to Yuzhai on Shaoshi Mountain in the northwest of Dengfeng...

Yuzhai is adjacent to the Shaolin Temple, the "No. 1 Ancient Temple in the World" with a thousand-year-old tradition and a holy place of Kung Fu known as the "ancestral home of Zen Buddhism"!

Back then, this Yuzhai was Li Jiyu's base. However, after he was defeated by Zhang Cheng in one blow, he surrendered and became a guerrilla under Zhang Cheng. From then on, he left western Henan and went to Xuanfu.

It has been more than two years since he left home, and now he couldn't help but think of his old friends whom he had not been in touch with for a long time, and the other two people who had caused chaos together back then - Ren Chen and Zhang Ding.

The two of them, like Ji Zhiying, Shen Jingbang, Yu Dazhong and others, are among the most famous bandits in Luoyang Prefecture in western Henan!

It was because they were collecting grain in Song County, Yi Yang and Yongning and did not participate in the military operation to attack Mi County. Therefore, they did not encounter the Xuanbei border army led by Zhang Cheng, and lost the opportunity to surrender to the court.

Back then, Li Jiyu was the biggest bandit in western Henan, and all the other bandits followed his lead. Even though some of them were not convinced, they did not dare to disobey Li Jiyu's orders in person.

Ren Chen and Zhang Ding were originally ordered to go to this area to collect food and wait for an opportunity to seize one or two strategic strongholds to serve as their foothold in the west, so as to avoid being left with nowhere to stay after the main stronghold was breached by government troops or other big bandits.

Here, Ren Chen and Zhang Ding wandered around Songshan, Yishan and Yongshan for half a year before they captured a place called Pingfeng Village. Then they heard the rumor that Li Jiyu failed to capture Mi County and was forced to surrender by the imperial court.

After some discussion, the two of them decided that Zhang Ding would stay behind to guard the newly captured Pingfeng Village, while Ren Chen would lead all the cavalry and half of the infantry bandits back to Dengfeng and Mi County to gather information.

As a result, when Ren Chen led his troops back to Dengfeng, Li Jiyu had already led Zhou Ruli, Shen Jingbang, Ji Zhiying and other troops, as well as more than 100,000 refugees, and followed the Xuanbei Border Army across the Yellow River to Xuanfu.

Although Ren Chen also received the verbal message left by Li Jiyu, asking him to contact Zhang Ding and other bandits, or to join the general Zhang Cheng to go to Xuanbei with him, or to cross the river and join Chen Zhong who was stationed along the river.

But Ren Chen did not want to accept the imperial court's offer of amnesty. He was very satisfied with his current free and easy life. He had no worries about food and drink, beautiful women were always by his side, and there were a bunch of thieves around him. It was a great life...

Moreover, Ren Chen thought that since Li Jiyu had already surrendered to the imperial court, there would be no one in western Henan to control him. Wouldn't that be exactly what he wanted - he could finally have the final say and act tyrannically!

It was precisely because of these little tricks that Ren Chen neither followed Li Jiyu's instructions to surrender to Zhang Cheng or Chen Zhong, nor did he convey the message to Zhang Ding. Instead, he occupied the main stronghold that originally belonged to Li Jiyu - Shaoshishan Yuzhai, and became the king of western Henan.

Zhang Ding didn't know the truth at first. In addition, all the cavalry were under Ren Chen's command, and half of the foot bandits also followed Ren Chen back to Dengfeng Yuzhai. Judging from their strength, there were more than just one inferior...

Therefore, Zhang Nai remained silent after learning the truth. He considered Pingfeng Village to be a subordinate of Yu Village, and he followed Ren Chen's orders in everything and did not dare to disobey!