When all the courtyards were built, it was already the autumn of that year.

While all the tenants in the other village were busy grabbing the crops from the land, the situation outside was a bit bad.

In the spring of this year, most parts of the north experienced droughts of varying degrees. In some places, the drought became more and more serious. By the autumn harvest season, there was no harvest. However, the imperial court was stupid and non-toxic, and instead of reducing or exempting taxes, it increased taxes. Suddenly, it aroused public anger, especially in Shaanxi Province, where several insurgent troops were suddenly added.

When the news came that the county town where the Gu family was previously located had been breached, all the people who followed Shen Ling to Biezhuang couldn't help feeling a while back.

Shen Ling was not surprised at all. The county town was difficult to defend and easy to attack, and it was only a matter of time before it was breached. You should think hard about how to stand firm in this troubled world and expand your power.

Before she could figure out how to do it, Yang Bingwen submitted a policy argument one day. The policy theory is about the current situation and the future development of Biezhuang. It is suggested that Shen Ling should recruit the scattered refugees, expand the farming area of ​​Biezhuang, and train the army to guard the safety of Biezhuang.

When the time is right in the future, you can send troops to occupy Meishan County, and then expand your power little by little. The future of the separatist party is unknown.

After reading the policy theory, Shen Ling felt that the suggestions in it were quite pertinent, so she asked the author of the policy theory.

That policy theory was written by Su Mozhi. In the past two years, he has experienced a lot of things due to the turmoil of the current situation, and he is no longer the naive and innocent scholar. Since joining the rebels, he has been thinking about how to stand firm in this troubled world. It is a pity that the rebels now need the leader of the marching war instead of the counselor who makes plans, so he cannot be reused by Li Gui.

Then when he arrived at Biezhuang, he found that this was the place he had been looking for, so he came up with such a policy argument.

Shen Ling has seen many policy theories in the previous world. Su Mozhi's writing style can only be regarded as middle and upper, and the suggestions made are not very good. However, Shen Ling is in urgent need of counselors in this area, so she soon summoned them. Su Mozhi.

At this time, Shen Ling realized that Su Mozhi was the scholar she had met in the inn before. Su Mozhi had no impression of Shen Ling. He talked eloquently, telling him about the current situation all the time, persuading Shen Ling to accept some refugees, and then open up wasteland while expanding his sphere of influence.

After thinking about these two suggestions, Shen Ling accepted both of them.

So from the next day, Biezhuang began to cook porridge at the outer entrance of the courtyard, and at the same time hired the refugees who came to build walled houses and reclaim wasteland.

Within half a month, hundreds of refugees gathered near Biezhuang. These refugees all rushed here after hearing the news of the porridge being served here in Bezhuang, but during the middle of the journey, many people were unable to walk because of illness or hunger, so only half of the number of people who arrived in Bezhuang was there. .

After these people arrived in Biezhuang, a special person led them to a simple wooden shed, and then served them three meals a day with thick brown rice and bean porridge.

After they were relieved, Biezhuang hired them to build a wall, a wall around the courtyard, to protect the residential area where the rebels were. After the wall was built, the courtyard was built near the wall.

The courtyards were finally built before the early winter. After the refugees moved into the courtyards, Shen Ling ordered Li Gui to select the strong and healthy ones for military training. The remaining people were sent to the blacksmith, carpenter, and Guo Langzhong to fight.

When the refugees were all arranged to devote themselves to life in the village, the severe winter arrived.

The external situation has also begun to become severe.

After an insurgent army originating near Hanzhong captured the two cities and towns, it became more and more powerful. Coupled with the harsh winter, the refugees joined in one after another under the conditions of hunger and cold, and the number suddenly increased from a few thousand to tens of thousands.

The emperor and Baiguan in the capital couldn't sit still. In the usual disaster years, it was not that no one had raised a banner for an uprising, and was later either annihilated by the court or enlisted in peace. But the momentum and number have never been as great as this time.

After a tug of war, the imperial court sent generals and troops to suppress the rebels.

Prior to this, even if the common people felt that those people were a bit rebellious during the disaster year, people never mentioned it, but instead screamed at the officers and soldiers in private. Even those big families felt that the officers and soldiers sent by the court were even more terrifying than the rebels.

On the one hand, due to the fierce internal corruption of the officers and soldiers, not only did they not want to suppress the rebels, but indiscriminately killed innocent refugees and falsely reported their military merits. On the other hand, where the officers and soldiers arrived, it was like a locust crossing the border, and they had to peel off the large families of the local people before they would continue to move forward.

On the desk in Shen Ling's study, various news from scouts were presented to her every day.

Unlike the rebel team led by Li Gui, the team that originated near Hanzhong mostly chose wealthy towns to start because of the huge number of people. Of course, Meishan was skipped by them.

Originally, this matter was beneficial to Bezhuang, but the officers and soldiers didn't want to confront the rebels at all. Therefore, the routes specially selected by the officers and soldiers were places that the rebels would not reach, including Biezhuang.

"According to the news reported by the scouts, the officers and soldiers will arrive in Meishan County within half a month." Shen Ling told Li Gui and Su Mozhi about the news that the scouts had submitted. "What do you think?"

Li Gui was the first to speak, "These sons and daughters of the sons and daughters fight one by one after the battle, and collect their belongings, but are unwilling to lag behind." He raised his head and glanced at Shen Ling, "The owner, now there are people in our village who have food. , It is better to simply bring this group of officers and soldiers..."

Su Mozhi frowned slightly, and interrupted with a look of disapproval: "Those officers and soldiers have at least tens of thousands of horses, and there are only more than a thousand people in Zhuangli who can go to the battlefield. How can they be better than those officers and soldiers? The match will immediately arouse the attention of the court. This is very detrimental to the future development of our village."

"Mr. Su is right. Our Zhuangli cannot risk directly confronting those officers and soldiers." Shen Ling and the others both expressed their opinions before speaking, "But those officials act like locusts crossing the border, I It's really a bit of a blind eye."

Li Gui's eyes lit up when he heard this, "What smart strategy does the owner have?"

Shen Ling groaned: "From the fact that the officers and soldiers dare not confront the rebels, we can know their strength. We can choose surprise attacks without them being guarded. One lesson can be taught to them, and two can be captured. property."

Since the rebels led by Li Gui and hundreds of refugees joined Biezhuang, the number of people in Zhuangli now to feed has increased, but Zhuangzi has not made much money. Even though Shen Ling had a lot of food and property accumulated in the space, he felt a little pressure. Now that they heard that the officers and soldiers were making money all the way, they were moved.

If the assets in the hands of the officers and soldiers can be intercepted, Bezhuang’s financial constraints will be greatly eased.

Therefore, Shen Ling specially left Li Gui and called twenty bandits to discuss carefully how to surprise the officers and soldiers without them knowing their identity.

After everyone's deliberation, it was finally decided that Li Gui would lead all the people who could play in Biezhuang to pretend to be soldiers of the rebel surprise attack. It would be best to disperse the large forces so that they would not pose a threat to Biezhuang.

A few days later, Li Gui led a thousand people away.

Since they left, Shen Ling began to feel a little restless. These thousand people, especially two hundred of them, were private soldiers carefully trained after she came to Bezhuang, which cost her a lot of hard work. If it weren't for the large amount of property collected by those officers and soldiers, it would threaten the existence of Biezhuang. Shen Ling really couldn't bear to let them go out to take this risk.

Although the combat effectiveness of those officers and soldiers is not strong, they are still a team of tens of thousands of people.

But Shen Ling couldn't think that she still overestimated the resistance of those officers and soldiers.

When Li Gui led a thousand people into the place where the officers and soldiers were stationed quietly, a few generals headed by them were drinking and having fun in the tent, and there were a few singers who were snatched from the homes of the big families next to them.

The lower-ranking soldiers gathered together in twos and threes to gamble on money, without discipline at all.

Even so, Li Gui did not dare to underestimate the enemy. He ordered a few handy men to quietly light up a few tents and create some chaos, before leading a thousand people to kill them.

Those officers and soldiers were originally jealous of the rebels, otherwise they would not avoid them. Now when they hear the rebels sneak attack, they can’t help crying for their fathers and mothers. They don’t even think about how many people there are. They just run for their lives. .

Li Gui didn't fight these officers and soldiers once or twice, but it was the first time that he saw the officers and soldiers who fled before the war started. I think that the rebels have become more and more powerful recently, which scared their courage to suppress officers and soldiers.

Li Gui ordered his subordinates to scatter tens of thousands of horses, while he went to the tent where the officers and soldiers lived.

When Li Gui arrived at the generals' tent, several generals were already half drunk, and they were taken care of by his hands. The remaining singers were so frightened that they all fell to the ground one after another.

Capture the thief first capture the king, and now that the leader is resolved, Li Gui immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Even if the officers and soldiers were looking back, they couldn't figure out any tricks.

Li Gui wanted to turn around and leave, but when he was leaving, he inadvertently saw a singer lying on the ground. He couldn't help but his heart moved slightly. He glanced at the pretty singers, and the expressionless man ordered them to be killed. Take it back to Biezhuang, and then go looking for the collected property.

Since the officers and soldiers received an order to suppress the rebels, they began to collect money from the people.

Before Li Gui attacked these officers and soldiers, they had already collected the belongings of many large families. So when Li Gui found those belongings, he couldn't help being dazzled by those things on the ground.

When the things were transported to Biezhuang, Shen Ling was in the study room.

Hearing that the 1,000 people led by Li Gui were on their way back with almost no injuries, Shen Ling heaved a sigh of relief and ordered people to count the belongings.

A day later, the list came out.

There are more than one million taels of silver, more than one hundred thousand taels of gold, countless antiques and jade, and countless gold and silver jewelry.

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