Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 84 Conspiracy loudly
"When and where?" General Chen Hongfan moved closer.

"See for yourselves."

Li Xianfeng handed the letter to the senior generals for circulation, but the hand holding the letter froze for a long time and no one took it.

He glanced around suspiciously, and saw that several generals and lieutenant generals all had confused and expectant expressions on their faces.

“I don’t recognize them all.”

Chen Hongfan took the lead in answering, and the other generals all smiled awkwardly. In these war-torn years, there were many military generals who were promoted rapidly, and many of them could not recognize complete words. Even if some people could understand a few words, they could not fluently read the flowery letters written by literati.

"Ugh."

Li Xianfeng secretly sighed that the cultural level of the warriors was really low, but he was too disdainful to read the letter to these vulgar warriors like a servant, so he handed it to the staff beside him to read on his behalf.

The gentry's plan was simple—

The gentry and landlords staged a riot under the pretext of "resisting excessive taxes and levies". Thousands of landlords and militiamen went to a wealthy village in Gwangju to meet up, and then gathered to attack Gwangju, forcing the bandit troops to lift the siege of Gwangju.

At the same time, the main force of the government army could take the opportunity to cross the river and head south to defeat the bandits in one battle.

In this battle, the core backbone of the landlord armed forces was the "housekeeping team" of Lijiazhai in Shangcheng County.

"Is the head of this Lijiazhai called Li Mu?" Chen Hongfan asked solemnly.

"That's right." The staff member who had already collected local information answered on the spot.

"That's right. The locals say that the young master of the Li Family Village is extremely brave and has unparalleled strategy. He single-handedly wiped out the bandits in the mountains—"

He infiltrated the mountain stronghold under the guise of seeking refuge, then sowed discord among the bandit leaders, luring them into a fight. He then led farmers from over ten miles around into the stronghold and annihilated all the bandits. "Such a brave and capable man, not even twenty years old, is a man I will recruit if I have the opportunity during my trip south."

"What I heard is different from what you heard," the aide said. "Local legend has it that the young man from the Li family learned the art of 'earth refining' from the 'Tiaoshu Taoist'. One day, he was wandering down the mountain and saw bandits harassing the people. He casually threw dozens of mud beans, and they instantly transformed into humanoid forms. Soon, they were armed and killed the bandits."

"Ridiculous." Zuo Liangyu glanced at his staff with disdain.

Chen Hongfan, Jin Guoliang, and other military generals also found it absurd and ridiculous. Although these crude warriors had not read much, they also knew that a gentleman should not talk about strange and supernatural things.

There might be hermit masters living in seclusion in this world, as well as unknown evil methods and techniques, but they had never seen something as exaggerated as turning beans into soldiers.

"I've heard that the Li family kid was elected by a group of gentry as the 'General Manager of the Reconciliation' for the city. The gentry gave him money and food, hoping he would punish the traitors. But after taking the money and food, he turned his back on us once he entered the county. He even said he'd eat your money but wouldn't do anything for you."

"Hahaha, you don't recognize the brothel girl anymore after you put on your pants, right? This guy is just what I like, I want him!" Chen Hongfan laughed heartily and slapped his thighs repeatedly, treating the usually arrogant gentleman as a lowly brothel girl.

"I heard that guy is quite handsome. So, do you want him to give you the Warm Ruyi Stick?"

"What are you talking about!" Chen Hongfan frowned and raised his fist to hit someone, but fortunately the deputy general retreated nimbly and was not hit.

Li Xianfeng looked unhappy, and the general of the battalion beside him kept shouting, "Quiet, quiet, the governor has something to tell you."

The governor was sitting in the main seat, drinking a sip of warm tea to moisten his throat. "What do you think of the suggestions made by the gentry in southern Henan?"

"can."

"I have no objection."

"I think it's feasible."

"Okay, since everyone has no objection, let's do this—" Li Xianfeng's expression suddenly changed, and he shouted, "All officers, listen to my orders!"

As soon as these words were spoken, a group of senior generals left their seats and knelt on one knee in front of the governor.

Li Xianfeng suddenly drew the sword from his waist. "Zhao Shun, Zhou Wenyuan, you two will lead 18,000 soldiers to besiege the enemy city. Dig deep trenches, cut off the river transportation, and don't let a single bandit escape!"

"The last general takes command!"

"The rest of the troops will follow me across the river and head south, where we will join the local volunteers in crushing the Qihuo bandits. Your Majesty has granted me the authority to control the military affairs of an entire province and to conquer the Qihuo bandits in southern Henan. I only ask to report to Your Majesty and bring peace to the people. If anyone fails to exert all their strength in attacking the city today, I will do the same!"

Li Xianfeng shouted loudly and swung his sword to cut off a corner of the square table.

All the generals were shocked and clasped their fists and said loudly, "We will definitely fulfill our mission!"

……

In a wealthy family's village at the junction of Shangcheng, Guangzhou and Gushi.

The wealthy families lurking in the "occupied areas", the gentry whose families had long been ruined, and the wealthy merchants and petty officials who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty, either attended the meeting in person or sent their family members to walk to the location at night.

Dozens of representatives felt that they had met each other too late. Some hugged each other and cried loudly, releasing the humiliation they had suffered in the "occupied area" for many days. Some blushed and cursed, scolding the beggars for stealing their land and property. Such traitors should go to the eighteenth level of hell.

Others gathered in groups of three or four, brought small stools and sat in a circle, eating multi-grain dumplings while laughing and discussing how the government troops would torture the treacherous people who had taken their land after they wiped out the beggars.

The gentry and landlords chatted like old friends who had not seen each other for a long time, and told jokes and dirty stories in a leisurely and elegant manner.

All the ten cruel tortures, including those that slowly torture people, must be severely inflicted on the thieves and evil people, otherwise the hatred in their hearts cannot be relieved.

The thieves and peasants usually had to ask for favors and connections everywhere to see them. Now that they are praised to the sky by the beggars, they even dare to argue with them.

These lowly bastards have rebelled!

This time, we must give these peasants a slap in the face and shatter their dreams, forcing them to squat in the mud and till the fields to pay rent.

"All the treacherous people who aided and abetted the evil should be put to death. Their wives and daughters should be killed right in front of them first..."

"What good ideas do you have for punishing these treacherous people, Mr. Lin?"

A gentry turned to look at the leaders of the Lijiazhai retainers: one chief and two deputies. The leader was Lin Dengwan, and the two deputies were Lin Dengtu and Lin Dengshui. All three were serious, speaking only occasionally in private. They responded to the gentry's inquiries with lukewarm responses.

"No."

It is said that the three men were originally three brothers from a good family. One day, soldiers broke into the village and killed everyone they saw. They chopped off their heads and called them "bandits."

By chance, the three people from the Po family were taken in as servants by the Li family. They received all kinds of favors from Li Mu and became the confidants of the young man from the Li family.

This time, the three of them represented Li Mu and led eight hundred family servants into battle.

However, these servants seemed to be "naughty monkeys", as if they had just transformed from monkeys into human forms yesterday, and were feeling very novel when they saw the mortal world for the first time.

As soon as the "naughty monkeys" entered the village, they jumped up and down, climbed walls and rooftops, rummaged through boxes and cabinets, stripped the gentry's clothes, and did backflips as if they were performing acrobatics.

Someone even grabbed a "man-made object" and threw it at a wealthy man's face, yelling, "Old Eight, I'll treat you to a hamburger!"

This made the wealthy man with a dirty face so angry that he screamed and even after taking several showers, he still had an indescribable smell on his body.

The wealthy families were all very pleased that Lijiazhai sent their servants to support the "rebellion plan". After all, the other party had accepted so much money and food from them, so they should contribute some effort.

However, this group of servants was too naughty, and before the "rebellion plan" even started, it had already caused complaints from all the gentry.

It was like spending a lot of money to buy a fake that was harmful. The gentry unanimously asked the Li family to replace the servants with a group of more energetic ones, like the one who looked in excellent spirits when entering the city.

"I have conveyed your requests to my master. He said that these are the newly trained servants. Although they are naughty, they are useful and worthy of the money and food you have given. If you want to add more people or replace them with more obedient ones, the price will be different."

"So that's it."

The gentry pretended to let it go on the surface, but in their hearts they firmly labeled Li Mu as a skinned man.

This kid is only twenty years old, how come he has developed such a stingy and greedy character? He would rather break a grain of corn into two meals.

Didn’t we just collect taxes and grain in the name of the government during the autumn harvest? It would be more than enough to organize a group of two to three thousand militiamen.

In the end, only 800 people were given the money, which was extremely stingy.

Some people also secretly had negative thoughts - after the government troops recovered the lost territory, they would definitely find a way to pull the boy from the Li family out of the position of "General Manager of Post-Disaster Relief" and drive him back to the village.

"Everyone, everyone! Now that everyone is here, let's discuss this matter. The governor has sent a letter saying that he will be crossing the river south soon and that we should be prepared to meet him."

"No, this is not what we agreed on. Shouldn't we gather our people to attack Gwangju City first to attract the main force of the bandits?" Lin Dengwan was the first to point out the omission.

"The governor said we had no siege equipment and was worried about our ability to capture the city. Therefore, he asked us to focus on building ferryboats to ferry the troops across the river—those beggars were so abominable they sank all the ferryboats along the shore!"

"You damned beggar thief! I will never reconcile with you!"

This was an honest gentleman whom even the beggars had not expected to come to the meeting secretly.

Lindenwan raised his hand and gestured to the man, who was puzzled. "What's wrong?"

"Well, this is the blessing gesture used in my hometown. It means that all your wishes will come true."

"Oh, Mr. Lin, you are a very nice person." The gentleman followed suit and made the same gesture to Lin Dengwan.

"How many militiamen have come from Gushi?"

"At least three thousand."

"Okay, okay! Counting the people here, there are nearly 10,000 people, right?"

The gentry sighed: If the beggars had not forced them to do so and forcibly took away most of their land and property, giving it to the peasants for free, they would not have fought so desperately.

Unless they personally organize an event, they don't know how powerful the mobilization power unleashed by leveraging their wealth and connections is.

Of course, the main reason was that the beggars were greedy and forced them too much, and the government troops who were recovering the lost territory were on the north bank, which gave countless cowardly gentry the confidence to take a gamble.

"Even if the bandits took over the people, leaving some here and some there to garrison, the actual number of men left would not exceed 10,000."

"Linden Wan" complained in his heart that ten thousand was not enough. Excluding the militiamen left behind in the town, the Beggar Army still had fifteen thousand mobile troops.

Oh, no, fifteen thousand eight hundred.

"These gentry have gathered several thousand militiamen, but we are the only ones who can fight. I wonder what expressions they will have when we suddenly cause trouble." "Lin Dengshui" whispered in Lin Dengwan's ear.

"Is there a subtle feeling that the winery is all undercover?" "Lindentu" also joined the topic.

"Watch your expression. You're laughing too wildly." Lin Dengwan patted A Shui's shoulder, signaling him not to be too exaggerated.

"Oh, sorry, I haven't received professional training, and I couldn't help myself for a moment."

"I just went offline and told them about the gentry's new plan. Let's let them laugh for a while—" Lindenwan had just finished speaking when he suddenly stood up and raised his arms and shouted. His indignant expression was completely different from the content of his words, "Kill all the beggars and take back our money, food and land!"

The gentry were all stunned when they heard this, and then they burst into laughter. They thought that the young man from the Li family was a stingy and greedy person, and they didn't expect that the servants under him were also greedy for money.

It is true that things are gathered by kind, and people are divided by groups.

"Hahahaha, this battle will surely wipe out the arrogant beggar thief!"

"Finally, finally, our hard work has paid off and we can see the light of day again!"

"Rob money, rob food, rob women!"

(End of this chapter)