The weather in Jiangnan in May has become very hot. After more than ten days of tea poisoning by the bandits, Huizhou Prefecture, which was once prosperous in the past, has now withered people, and pedestrians on the streets have become extremely scarce. Even if there are occasional people just pass by, the shops on the streets have basically been closed.

Li Yan walked slowly on the street surrounded by a team of guards. At this moment, he was wearing a half-old felt hat, a gray-white long gown, a pair of thin-soled cloth shoes, a leather armor covering the outside, and a sword hanging around his waist.

This outfit is no longer much different from that of ordinary bandits. Even if someone who was familiar with him in the past walked in front of him, he would probably not be able to recognize him for a while.

Looking at the deserted streets and the withered city, Li Yan looked sad.

After more than a month of sweeping, all the wealthy gentry in Huizhou Prefecture were wiped out by the peasant army under Li Zicheng.

After this operation, the entire army of bandits was full of money, and everyone was smiling. Even Li Zicheng's pain of losing his nephew was reduced a lot.

But among the entire bandits, only one person was worried and rushed, and this person was Li Yan.

In Li Yan's view, although their move raised millions of taels of silver and more than 100,000 stones of food for the peasant army, it also caused devastating disasters to Huizhou Prefecture.

Before this, Huizhou Prefecture had more than 60,000 households and nearly 300,000 people. After this battle, the population had dropped to 250,000 or 60,000. Naturally, all the population could not be drawn closer to the team, otherwise so many people could eat the peasant army just by eating.

For this reason, after reporting to Li Zicheng, Li Yan selected more than 20,000 young and strong men to join the peasant army, and summoned all the blacksmiths, collected various iron tools, and built weapons for the peasant army day and night.

But even if more than 20,000 young and strong people were recruited, there were still more than 200,000 left. So many people only ate astronomical figures every day. However, the contacts of Huizhou Prefecture have been cut off from the outside world. After more than ten days, most people have no food at home, and countless people are so hungry that they scream.

These days, many people have tried to go out of the city to find a living or buy things, but the bandits who were afraid of being infiltrated by the officers and soldiers ordered that the people not be allowed to leave the city, and some people were killed for this.

Under the intimidation of the heads hanging at the city gate and the weapons shining with cold light in the hands of the bandits, the people of Huizhou Prefecture endured hunger and were honest for several days, but Li Yan felt a little uneasy.

Today, he rejected Li Zicheng's banquet and wandered around the street with a group of guards. He walked along the way and looked at the almost empty street and the pairs of eyes that had become green due to hunger that appeared from the dark corner. His heart became trembling.

Perhaps because of feeling the uneasiness in Li Yan's heart, a young man wearing leather armor and helping a red scarf beside him, riding a horse to him and whispered: "Brother, you don't have to worry too much. Although Huizhou Prefecture is short of food now, there is still no problem to support it for another ten days and half a month."

This young man is Li Yan's cousin Li Nian. Li Yan felt that there was no one around him recently, so he wrote a letter to Qi County to recruit his two cousins ​​Li Nian and Li Mou into the peasant army.

Hearing Li Nian's words, Li Yan slowly shook his head. He was about to say something, but he heard a sound of horse hooves coming from the front.

"Pudding lump..."

A rush of horse hooves came from the street, and soon a dusty cavalry appeared on the street.

"Doway... Everyone will dodge me." The cavalry not only did not slow down when he came to the street, but instead shouted loudly.

Looking at the cavalry running on the street, Li Nian's face changed and was about to scold him. After seeing the other party holding a red pennant in his hand, he quickly retreated a few times and called the guards beside him to move aside.

From ancient times to the present, no matter which army it is, it has given the greatest rights to the messengers and messengers who perform emergency military affairs.

No matter who it is or how big the official position is, you must automatically avoid the messengers and messengers who perform tasks. Otherwise, if they are hit and killed, they will die in vain. If the messengers are hit and killed or disturbed by your reasons, it will affect their orders to convey the orders, no matter how big your official is, what awaits you will be severely punished by military law.

As Li Yan and others avoided, the messenger quickly passed by them.

Looking at the messenger passing by quickly, Li Yan sighed lightly and said to Li Nian: "Let's go back."

Li Nian asked in confusion: "Brother, aren't you going to the military camp to inspect? Why did you go back?"

Li Yan shook his head: "Looking at the appearance of the messenger just now, it was obvious that he had been running for a long time. I guess something must have happened. I guess I can't go to this military camp."

"All right."

Although Li Nian was a little puzzled, he still followed his brother's advice and turned his head backwards.

Sure enough, after walking for a while, they met someone sent by Li Zicheng, who said that the King of Chuang asked them to go to Juyi Hall to discuss matters immediately.

When Li Yan arrived at the Juyi Hall, he saw that many generals in the army had already arrived.

Seeing Li Yan coming, Li Zicheng quickly called him to come and sit down next to him.

"Military advisor, come here and sit down."

"King of Chuang, what happened?" Li Yan walked to Li Zicheng and sat down, and asked quickly.

"well!"

Li Zicheng sighed and said loudly: "Brother Laiheng, tell me about the information you just got."

Li Laiheng stood up and bowed to Li Zicheng: "Yes!"

Then he said to Li Yan: "Military advisor, just now, the Zongmin brothers sent someone to send letters. After supporting the Anqing Mansion for ten days, the Tian Jianxiu brothers were defeated by the officers and soldiers and were forced to retreat to Ningguo Mansion. However, the Jiangning army chased him like a mad dog. The Tian Jianxiu brothers' men are now completely killed and injured.

For this reason, he followed the convoy sent by Zongmin brothers to transport food and pay to Huizhou Prefecture, but the Jiangning army chased them from behind. Now he sent someone to ask us to send troops to pick them up. The King of Chuang was in a dilemma for this matter."

"In a dilemma?"

Li Yan looked at Li Zicheng with a strange look. Logically, after occupying Huizhou Prefecture, their team expanded again. Li Zicheng's direct old camp alone expanded more than 10,000 people. Under such circumstances, it was not a problem to send a team to pick up Tian Jianxiu. Why did they make things difficult for everyone to do this?
Chapter completed!