Chapter 255: 254 The Throne

Chapter 255 Drive the people and attack

In the next period of time, Longwangzhai and the various imperial troops and horses attacked and defended each other. There was Chen Feng’s front. The imperial troops and horses basically defended and did not take the initiative to attack. The defenders retreated, and the two sides remained in a strategic stalemate.

The army of the imperial court occupied the county and started to attack the villagers in Huyang, using Yu Wenyan’s five strategies to break thieves.

Longwangzhai has defended the people’s grievances and spread martial arts in the past few years. It is very popular among the people. As a result, there are many thieves among the people in Huyang, and the prefectures are powerless to control. But now that the army is here, the court decree has the confidence to implement it all at once.

After all, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses are sitting in Huyang, and they can’t deal with the bandits for the time being. Can they still deal with the people?

The ten-household sitting method was quickly implemented. If one of the ten households was a thief, the remaining nine households would be held accountable. But if these nine households report to the government, then the report is good, not only do they not have to sit together, but they can also get rewards such as silver and farmland.

Of course, with Chen Feng’s prestige and the government’s low credibility, even if most people know which thief is a thief, most of them will keep silent and protect each other together.

Therefore, Ma Zhen did not expect the people to take the initiative to practice this method. He first used force to enforce this method, killing chickens to warn monkeys and Huairou to appease them.

There is no private report for the time being. It is easy to figure out where the most serious thieves are in Huyang. At the same time, if some of them take the initiative to confess their guilt and submit to the law, or if some people want to escape from even sitting and confessing to the thief, they will be temporarily pardoned, and they will be given benefits as appropriate, and they will be announced to prove that the report has merit and is not false.

When the people heard that the imperial army was practicing this method, they were all panicked. Some people were afraid of suffering, so they took their children and fled to Longwangzhai overnight.

This move is right in the middle of Ma Zhen’s arms. The more refugees flee to Longwangzhai, the more they will consume their opponent’s food and grass. And the empty countryside will reduce the thieves’ eyesight in the countryside, and it will also be able to fortify the walls and clear the fields.

At the same time, Huang Ping obeyed the order and sent his soldiers to pretend to be bandits and loot the village.

The court secretly sent people to spread rumors, linking links, saying that because there were too many people fleeing to Longwangzhai and the food on the mountain was limited, the Zhaizhai had to send people down the mountain to grab food, trying to store food for winter, and ignoring the lives of the people who were robbed. That Chen Feng is nothing but hypocrisy.

In other words, there was not enough food on the mountain, and Chen Feng did not accept the desertion, so these refugees were driven down the mountain and had to form a new gang to loot everywhere, and the countryside was already unsafe, etc.

For a time, the people were panicked.

Of course, there are some people who can ruthlessly commit to the cottage, and naturally there are also Shunmin who are unwilling to follow the rebels with their heads up.

When the lords and gentlemen suffered, many people were happy, but they didn’t have the guts to act like a thief. They just wanted to sit on the sidelines and watch others do justice to themselves. be implicated.

There are still many people who do not want to lose their present life until they cannot survive at all. Because the situation is stronger than people, they have to work hard to supervise to prevent which family is implicated in themselves, and if they already know who is the thief, they will take the initiative to report to the government, and win no responsibility.

Those who have already benefited are more and more afraid that others will harm them and lose what they have gained, or they want to get more benefits by reporting, so they are more active in monitoring their neighbors.

In the process of implementing this law, the imperial court also drove villagers from different places to live in a concentrated place, and selected some villagers to manage and supervise on their behalf, similar to Lizheng.

There are officers and soldiers behind the back and supervising. These elected “temporary officers” have to work hard, for fear of being replaced or even held accountable.

And some clever “temporary lizheng” use this little power at hand to form gangs among the civilians to secure their positions, and at the same time, they can strengthen the control of other villagers and strictly monitor them to prevent people from The thieves made them implicated.

As a result, the people are naturally divided, and everyone is vigilant against others and supervises each other.

Although Longwangzhai spreads martial arts, most people do not have outstanding talent, they have to work every day, and their time for martial arts is limited. .

In addition, the imperial army was huge, and most people knew that their arms could not twist their thighs, so they did not dare to resist directly… If there were people who resisted in public, the officers and soldiers would directly kill them as an example.

However, the officers and soldiers did not immediately execute the captured thieves, saying that although these people were accomplices of the rebellion, they were bewitched by the thieves and gangsters. , when fighting, charge at the front, and those who retreat will be cut.

The officers and soldiers declared to the villagers that the accomplices of the thieves should be executed according to the law, but since the thieves and thieves are good at manipulating people’s hearts, the government specially made an excuse. It’s just that the death penalty can be avoided. This is the punishment for the thieves. All of them are sent to the battlefield for a while, and they charge for the officers and soldiers. In the end, if they survive, they will let it go.

In several battles, the officers and soldiers drove the criminals at the front, while the troops hid behind, using the criminals as a barrier, advancing step by step.

These criminals are basically unarmed, and behind them are the officers and soldiers accompanying the battle, they can only rush forward.

In this situation, the Longwangzhai side is **** and allows the officers and soldiers to drive the people into chaos. This is of course not possible. It is also quite embarrassing to let arrows kill the villagers and elders. There may be the parents and brothers of Shanzhai Erlang. no.

Fortunately, most of the battles are water battles, and the tactics of officers and soldiers to drive the people to fight are limited by the terrain, and their role in water battles is limited and cannot achieve the best results.

This kind of cruel tactic is easy to criticize, but if the target is a traitor who is guilty of treason, the court will be at ease.

After Ma Zhen and Yu Wenyan implemented their strategies one by one, officers and soldiers gradually regained their control over the people of Huyang. Although they were not supported by the people, they were equally effective in dividing the people, intimidating and deterring, and managing under high pressure. more efficient.

…

Longwangzhai side, the big tent of the Chinese army.

The leaders gathered to discuss, and the group was angry.

“Damn, the tactics of the officers and soldiers are really sinister, and they even drove the people to death!”

“Not only that, they also pretended to be bandits, robbed the people, and blamed me, etc. It’s hateful!”

“The court acts like this, yet dares to pretend to be orthodox. Are we like bandits, or are they like bandits?”

Zhou Jing sat in the main seat, listening to the indignation of the leaders, but his expression did not change much.

The five strategies of officers and soldiers to break thieves, he already knew from the opponent’s mouth when he was fighting against Lingfengzi in front of the formation.

He had to admit that these methods of the imperial court were very effective, and despite the style of wronging more villagers, they did remove many of Longwangzhai’s attention and dark stakes among the people.

In his opinion, the officers and soldiers acted so ruthlessly. First, he thought that Huyang was full of troublesome people, and his own people who basically had no intention of the court had to be treated with severe medicine. The second is that this is the first battle of the imperial court and the national movement. Victory is the top priority, not the time to care about the governance after the event, so the grass-roots people are not treated as human beings.

Zhou Jing was not surprised, after all, it was the feudal era, and the army basically had no ethics at all.

At this time, Guo Haishen frowned and said, “The officers and soldiers are so coercing the villagers, should we go and rescue them?”

Zhou Jing looked at him and shook his head:

“The court has long lost the hearts of the people of Huyang in Huyang, so Ma Zhen went out of his way and treated all the local people as accomplices of treason, and acted without any scruples. If we are really gangsters who do wrong and ignore the people, he may not With this tactic, but when we win the support of the people, the officers and soldiers will regard the people’s hearts as the key point of our army and threaten us.

It is just a conquest by the whole country of the imperial court. A long battle is not good for our side. If our army devotes its energy to rescue the people, it will be in the hands of the officers and soldiers. There are many people in Huyang Township, and it is difficult to rescue them all. This move will consume our troops and food, and will also reveal flaws, allowing the officers and soldiers to predict our actions and conduct an ambush. ”

Fang Zhen quickly asked, “Brother, what should I do?”

“If you want to solve the predicament, the only way is to repel the officers and soldiers quickly, otherwise it will only drag down our army.”

Zhou Jing responded in a deep voice.

On the battlefield, there is rarely the best of both worlds strategy of “I want it”. Thinking of breaking the strategy of officers and soldiers to save people’s hearts, you will be led by the nose by the opponent.

In his opinion, only by knocking down officers and soldiers quickly can stop losses.

Although people’s hearts are useful, most of the time people are unreliable. Although they support Longwangzhai, they have their own interests. Common sense – this is the most common method used by rulers.

Zhou Jing didn’t expect to win his opponents by relying on the people’s hearts.

Duan Yunfeng’s eyes flashed and he said solemnly:

“The officers and soldiers drove the people to attack, and the fathers and the villagers called to each other in front of the battle, so as to disintegrate the fighting spirit of our army. As the saying goes, kindness does not control the soldiers. If the officers and soldiers come again, I will not be merciful to the villagers, and shoot arrows to chase them away. “The bottom line is that the imperial court forced them to death, and let the sons kill more officers and soldiers to take revenge.”

Du Ying nodded in agreement and added: “Yes, and there are drawbacks to expelling the people. If our army takes the initiative to attack, this group of villagers will be caught in the middle, they will run around blindly, panic and flee, and they will also attack the enemy formation. It’s not necessarily all bad things… if it’s going to happen, you have to be ruthless!”

Zhou Jing was silent.

This method of expelling the people is inherently difficult to choose. As long as the opponent uses it, there is almost no other way to deal with it. If you can’t be ruthless, the result will only be worse.

The Longwangzhai Uprising claimed to be killing the powerful and powerful for the people. As an opponent, the imperial court would naturally not let them maintain their “righteousness”… Being splashed with dirty water, divided, forced to make decisions against their will, and so on Situations are bound to be encountered. The enemy will never allow everything to go smoothly for you. It will cause you a lot of trouble, and will never make a point less. This kind of life-and-death war, even if it hurts both sides, it will not hesitate to hurt the opponent.

Zhou Jing squinted his eyes, stood up suddenly, and said in a clear tone:

“When the officers and soldiers act like this, our army naturally wants to vent their anger against the people of our army, and at the same time deter the officers and soldiers… Order a soldier and follow me out of the village by water.”

“What does the village owner care about?”

“Attack the camp and build a view of the capital.”

(end of this chapter)