Chapter 140 Cao Jie Makes a Fortune from the War

The bandits and robbers in Yizhou, Shandong are nothing.

Even the capital city like Kaifeng Prefecture was infested with bandits, let alone remote and poor places like Yizhou in Shandong.

Although Shandong is the birthplace of Confucian culture, it is also the famous hometown of Confucius and Mencius.

With these two labels, Shandong should naturally be seen as a place full of culture and etiquette in people's minds.

But in fact, Shandong has been not only rich in culture since ancient times, but also rich in bandits.

Guanzi said it well: When one has enough food and clothing, one will know honor and disgrace; when one's granaries are full, one will know etiquette.

Shandong has suffered frequent disasters in history, including droughts, floods, wind and hail, and these natural disasters are obviously extensive, multiple, clustered and derivative.

The ancients had a weak ability to resist natural disasters. Once a serious disaster occurred, their livelihoods would immediately be destroyed and large-scale famine would follow.

In order to survive, many people had to become thieves and started a business where they had to pay money to pass through.

The government naturally doesn't care much about doing a business with no capital and robbing the common people of their money and food, but killing the chief official of a state, if this is not rebellion, then what is rebellion?

When the government determines whether a group of bandits is rebelling, the first thing they do is kill the officials.

But you have to know that he is the top official of the state from the fifth rank!
As the ruling class, they were assassinated by the peasants. How could this be tolerated?

Send troops, wipe out, torture, grind to dust!
No wonder Chen Xizhen sighed to the sky.

In "Water Margin", when Song Jiang rebelled, the highest-ranking officials he killed were Gao Lian of Gaotang Prefecture, Murong Yanda of Qingzhou, and Gao Feng of Yizhou, who were of the same rank.

Ever since he learned that Gao Feng was assassinated, Chen Xizhen knew clearly the horrific consequences he would soon face.

This is yellow mud falling into the crotch of your pants. It's either shit or it's shit.

So he did not complain about himself or try to refute the rumors. Instead, he quickly responded as a rebel should, fully demonstrating his decisiveness and means.

The killing of the prefect directly led to the demoralization of the three armies that were besieging Yuanbi Village. Chen Xizhen and his daughter Chen Liqing immediately led the soldiers of the village to charge and killed the main military commander of the state, and the three armies quickly collapsed.

Next, they rushed to the nearby county town, emptied the granaries, and obtained "free funding" from many manor owners.

They then used food and fodder to mobilize the working people who could not survive, and launched a snowball-like charge towards Linyi City, the capital of Yizhou.

Speed ​​is of the essence in war. Before the government could even react, the mob broke into Linyi city.

Chen Xizhen distributed grain again, openly driving the rioters to continue to wreak havoc on the surrounding towns, but secretly emptied the treasury, looted a large amount of gold, silver, and grain, and selected 3,000 elite soldiers from the rebels who were involved, and fled into Yuanbi Village with a large group of carriages and horses.

With the replenishment of soldiers, weapons, and food supplies, Yuanbi Village's strength increased greatly.

Half a month passed quickly and the government and the public were shocked.

However, the rebellion in Yizhou was still not quelled, and even intensified.

Even in Qingzhou there were strongholds that responded.

Of course it’s not Erlong Mountain, Qingfeng Mountain, or Taohua Mountain.

Since the turmoil in Yizhou, Qin Ming and Huang Xin, master and apprentice, have calmed down. Apparently, Murong Yanda also knows that now is not the time to suppress the bandits.

If this were to happen, Qingzhou would also be in chaos.

Then things will really get out of control.

Even the letter from Lu Zhishen said: That old thief Murong wanted to take over Erlongshan and had sent people to the mountain to ask for surrender. If Lu Zhishen was willing to surrender, he would be given a dog official position as the military commander.

How ridiculous! That day, news came from Yanggu County that Zhujiazhuang wanted to pre-order a large batch of raw herbs from the herbal medicine shop, and clearly stated that money was not a problem.

Even the pre-sale payment was made in advance.

But you have to know that since the chaos in Yizhou, the prices of essential goods such as food and medicinal materials have almost doubled.

There are only a few people in Zhujiazhuang, and even if there are farmers in hiding, they cannot consume so many raw herbs.

Obviously, there are huge problems here.

Therefore, this unusual business information was promptly transmitted to Liangshan and placed in front of Cao Jie.

"What do the scholars think?"

Wu Yong was always paying attention to the rebellion in Yizhou. He even hung a map of Shandong in the Liangshan Gathering Hall, and even a geographical sand table of Shandong, which had not yet been completely completed, was placed in the middle.

Now if the brothers want to drink, they can’t do so in the gathering hall, they need to go to the cafeteria.

"Brother, I heard that Chen Xizhen subdued a great general who was good at using the Fang Tian Hua Ji. His name was Zhu Yongqing. Since his last name was Zhu, he must be related to the Zhu Family Manor in Yanggu County."

What Wu Yong said was right. This boy was the third half brother of Zhu Chaofeng, the owner of Zhujiazhuang. He was an officer in Yizhou. After being captured, he surrendered quickly, perhaps because he was afraid of death or because he was lustful.

"So, is Zhujiazhuang planning to join the rebellion?"

"Maybe he coveted that little bit of gold and silver, and planned to buy the medicinal materials from us, and then sell them to make real money from Chen Xizhen. I wonder how much gold and silver Chen Xizhen looted after conquering Linyi City!"

"We can just do this business ourselves. Why should we give Zhujiazhuang a discount?"

Zhu Family Village and I have an irreconcilable feud. After all, "Yi Zhang Qing" Hu Sanniang is now the fiancée of Zhu Biao from Zhu Family Village.

Wu Yong didn't know that his brother had already started to plan the three attacks on Zhujiazhuang. He pointed the goose feather fan in his hand to the southeast of Shandong and said, "Brother, we need a muddy Yizhou. So should we help Chen Xizhen? I'm afraid that once the imperial army arrives, they will wipe out his Yuanbi Village."

"In addition to the medicinal materials, please also provide some obsolete weapons! I remember there are 2,000 Pudao in the warehouse..."

"Yes, that was exchanged for the new Cao family sword. We plan to melt it down to make farm tools."

"We sold them for a large sum of money. Except for Yuanbi Village, other villages should also be short of weapons. The enemy of our enemy is our friend. Once Shandong is completely destroyed, the imperial court will have no control over us."

There is always bloodshed in the change of dynasties.

As the saying goes, a general's success is built on the bones of thousands of soldiers. In order to prevent future generations from living in enslavement of wild boar skins for hundreds of years, what does it matter if a little blood is shed now?
I, Cao Jie, am determined to make a fortune from this war.

Walking out of the Juyi Hall, the first thing they saw was Liu Tang and others showing off their newly acquired weapons.

Everyone holds a saber and an embroidered spring knife.

Although they all call it Cao Family Knife.

The specific appearance of the saber is the long-handled broadsword used by Mr. Jia Qian, and there is no need to describe the Embroidered Spring Knife in detail.

Unlike the new standard weapons of Liangshan, the weapon used by this leader was naturally forged by "Golden Leopard" Tang Long himself, made of fine steel that had been tempered a hundred times.

The shape of the saber was actually derived from the Tangmo Sword.

"Old Book of Tang·Biography of Li Siye" records: During the battle, the two men brandished huge swords and killed several people with one swing. They were unmatched. If they encountered enemy cavalry, both the men and horses would be smashed to pieces, leaving the enemy exhausted.

Liu Tang danced with the saber, and it was indeed "white blade flying like frost, red blood flowing like stars"...

(End of this chapter)