At the beginning of March of the second year of Chongzhen, in the southeast of Henan Province, in the hinterland of Tongbai Mountain at the junction of Henan and Hubei, Zhang Xianzhong was taking two small schools to negotiate with the magistrate of Tongbai County, the county Cheng, and the history of the classics.

Tongbai County is located in the east of the Nanyang Basin, north of Tongbai Mountain. The territory is dominated by shallow mountains, hills and basins, and it is also the watershed of the two major river basins of the Yangtze River and Huai River. Therefore, the territory is densely forested and there are many rivers.

Although the cultivated land in Tongbai County accounts for less than half of the county's land, most of it is irrigated by water, and drought is rare. As a result, the harvest of the county's fields is not far from that of the Ueda on both sides of the Yangtze River.

Tongbai County is the main road between Hubei and Henan, known as "the throat of Wandong" and "the barrier of Xinxi". Therefore, it is also the key point of business travel in Hubei and Henan, and the shops in the county here are crowded next to each other, occupying two or three streets. The lives of the people in the prefecture are quite affluent.

In the flower hall of the second hall of the county government, Huang Lingyu, the county magistrate, kept sweating on his round face for Zhang Xianzhong's aggressive questioning, and said half-pleading and half-threatening: "Zhang Baihu, why are you so arrogant. That Tongbai Mountain bandit army has nothing to do with the Lu family in Huaiyuan, but a few rungies from the Lu family are using the banner of his family to ruin the reputation of the Lu family.

The Lu family is the largest household in the county, with thousands of fields under its name, and at least half of the people in the county eat the Lu family's food. If the Lu family is forced to rebel by you, have you ever thought about how to end it? As far as this official knows, there are no less than 1,000 Zhuang Ding in Lujiazhuang alone, and Lujiazhuang itself is very strong, and it is not a fortress that can be taken by a few hundred soldiers.

If the Lu family is really forced to go up the mountain and recruit troops, I am afraid that the county will be in a rotten situation in an instant. Why do you have to tear your face with his family so that everyone can't get off the stage?

Under the order of the county government, the Lu family has also woken up, and does not dare to resist the will of the imperial court anymore, and is willing to sell 30,000 stone of grain to the imperial court. He also promised to offer 3,000 taels of silver as Zhang Baihu's labor expenses for the soldiers, and also prepared 500 taels of silver for your Excellency.

As long as the hundred households can let his family go, then the Lu family will be rewarded afterwards. Although this official is not from a Jinshi, he is also an economic official appointed by the imperial court, Zhang Baihu is so aggressive, he has to go to Lu's house to arrest and search, and he refuses to give this official a face, so he is not afraid that this official will be arrogant and domineering? ”

Zhang Xianzhong didn't pay any attention to Huang Lingyu, who was dry-mouthed in front of him, he looked up and glanced at Lin Zhixian, who was sitting silent, and said unceremoniously: "Is this what Lin Zhixian mean?"

Lin Zhixian, who was nearly 60 years old, glanced at Zhang Xianzhong, and then looked at Huang Lingyu, the county Cheng who had always kept himself in his eyes, and couldn't help but say with some hesitation: "Zhang Baihu don't be angry, according to this county, it is better to invite Lu Yunlong to come to the county seat to personally explain whether the Lu family is related to the bandits who attacked the grain collection officers and soldiers, so as to relieve everyone's doubts." ”

Lin Zhixian's words had not yet fallen, and Zhang Dianshi, who was stared at fiercely by Huang Lingyu, was already busy saying: "Lu Yunlong suddenly fell ill the day before yesterday and has not been able to get out of bed so far. Now the whole Lujiazhuang is very panicked, and even the person in charge can't be found, and when the lower officials went to Lujiazhuang yesterday to invite Lu Yunlong to come to the county government to discuss matters, they saw it with their own eyes. ”

Zhang Xianzhong suddenly stood up and said to the three officials of Tongbai County: "Since Lu Yunlong is sick and can't get out of bed, and can't come to the county government to explain why the bandits who looted the grain convoy last year want to call the Lu family, then the only way to go to Lujiazhuang to visit in person is to go to Lujiazhuang." Please ask Lin Zhixian to arrange a few officials to be a guide for me. ”

Huang Lingyu suddenly said a little anxiously: "Zhang Baihu, should you bring the army outside the city to the door together?" My Tongbai County has not suffered a military disaster for hundreds of years, is it possible, do you want to destroy the Taiping County of this county? ”

Looking at the county man who was like an ant on a hot pot, Lin Zhixian and Zhang Dianshi glanced at each other, and there was an inexplicable pleasure in their hearts.

When Emperor Hongwu opened the country, the Lu family quickly took refuge in the new dynasty, so after entering the Ming Dynasty, the family business became more developed. However, the Lu family does not have any ambitions in their careers, but just wants to be the emperor of Tongbai County wholeheartedly.

By the end of the Apocalypse, the Lu family not only occupied nearly half of the cultivated land and mountains and forests in Tongbai County, but also controlled half of the county's shops. For example, the mountain goods near Tongbai County must be sold to the business opened by the Lu family, and the merchants who come from other places to buy mountain goods can only purchase from the Lu family's business.

However, if the mountain people dare to secretly bypass the Lu family business and sell their mountain goods to passing merchants, or foreign merchants buy mountain goods from local people without authorization. In the worst case, their property will be confiscated and they will be driven out of the county, and in the worst case, their lives will not be guaranteed.

Lu Jiaguang monopolized the trading of mountain goods every year, which is a net income of tens of thousands of taels. Therefore, the local people have a proverb, the surname of the Ming Dynasty is Zhu, and the surname of Tongbai County is Lu.

The Lu family is so strong in the local area that even the intersections in and out of Tongbai Mountain are inspected by his family's Zhuang Ding to prevent people from carrying mountain goods out of the mountain. The upper and lower personnel of the county government of Tongbai County have naturally been inextricably linked with the Lu family for a long time.

Although Huang Lingyu, the county leader, is a native of Hubei, he is the brother-in-law of Lu Yunlong, the head of the Lu family. In the entire Tongbai County, only Lin Zhixian and Zhang Dianshi are real outsiders.

With Lu Yunlong's support, Huang Lingyu not only holds all the power in the county, but also has been a county leader in the local area for almost 18 years. For the magistrate and the historian who came to office single-handedly, the Lu family is obviously not a local snake that they can fight. Their power is to draw and sign on the copy prepared by Huang Lingyu.

The Huaiyuan Lu family has been in the county for too long, not only trying their best to squeeze the people of the county, but even the landlords and gentry of the county are also not letting go, so it can be said that the people are angry and resentful in the county.

After they became accustomed to being tyrannical in Tongbai County, even their reverence for the imperial court gradually lost. After the imperial court issued the grain policy of unified purchase and sales, the principal of the Lu family said as soon as possible that the grain policy of the imperial court was a pile of shit.

The Lu family's grain can be sold wherever they want; You can sell it at whatever price you want, so why do you need the court to dictate. Because Tongbai County was close to Hubei, Lu Yunlong refused to sell grain to the imperial court on the one hand, and on the other hand, he took advantage of the imperial court's grain policy of unified purchase and sales to set up a card on the passage between Tongbai County and Huguang to forcibly purchase grain trafficked back and forth at a low price, saying that he was implementing the grain policy of the imperial court.

The Lu family's death-making behavior naturally attracted the attention of Jinyiwei, who was ordered to crack down on the inferior gentry in Henan. Xu Xianchun specially sent a small team of men and horses to Tongbai County, confiscated the 18,000 stone of grain that the Lu family had forcibly purchased, and prepared to transport it to Luoyang before the snow.

But the bold Lu family actually sent their own minions, and a group of bandits raised by the Lu family on Tongbai Mountain attacked the grain convoy. Of the 50 officers and soldiers, including 6 Jinyi guards, only 3 escaped in the end.

This incident immediately aroused the anger of the Jinyi Wei officers who were cleaning up the Minmutiny Army and the Henan gentry, but when they received the news, the weather had already begun to snow, and it was obviously not suitable to go into the mountains to settle accounts with the bandits.

In the early spring of the second year of Chongzhen, Xu Xianchun sent Zhang Xianzhong, who was the most effective in clearing out the bandits in Shaanxi and Henan last year, and had been promoted to one hundred households in Jinyi Wei, to inquire about the case and eliminate the bandits.

Although Zhang Xianzhong is only a hundred households in brocade clothes, he now has 6 or 7 hundred subordinates. Among them, 50 people are Jinyiwei, who are also his direct subordinates. The rest are one-third of the Shaanxi official army, one-third of the Henan Weisuo army, and one-third of the Henan New Army.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Henan Weisuo Army is low, they are quite familiar with the customs and customs of the province. Therefore, not long after entering Tongbai County, I inquired about the location of this gang of bandits and their background.

The Huaiyuan Lu family has been able to run rampant and domineering in this county for so long, and this bandit has also made a lot of contributions. But this secret is not a secret to the local gentry of Tongbai County.

In fact, when Zhang Xianzhong entered Tongbai County with nearly 700 officers and troops to track down the attack on the grain convoy last year, many local gentry who had a grudge against the Lu family already wanted to take revenge on the Lu family.

Zhang Xianzhong was able to obtain the information and the location of the cottage of those bandits so quickly, and they also contributed a lot. It's just that these gentry haven't seen the hope of completely overthrowing the Lu family, so they didn't stand up directly.

Although there are less than 300 of these bandits raised by the Lu family, they are all old bandits and prisoners released by the Lu family from the county government, so their combat effectiveness is also quite impressive.

But they did not expect that the officers and soldiers would find them so quickly. It should be said that if the more than 500 people who attacked the cottage were only the Henan Weisuo army, these bandits could completely block the attack of the official army by virtue of the dangerous terrain where the cottage was located.

However, the officers and men with the Shaanxi official army and the Henan New Army as the backbone fought much more fiercely than the Henan Weisuo army that these bandits had seen. Moreover, the hundreds of arquebuses equipped by the Henan New Army were much more effective than the hunting bows in the hands of these bandits in this dangerous terrain.

Less than 20 days after entering Tongbai County, the bandit cottage that attacked the grain convoy had already been breached, except for a few bandit leaders who fled, and the others chose to surrender after being wiped out by a third.

However, although Zhang Xianzhong captured the cottage and found the weapons and armor of the attacked officers and soldiers from the warehouses of the cottage, he did not find strong evidence of collusion between this gang of bandits and the Lu family.

Although many of these bandits were sent to the mountain by the Lu family, there is no solid physical evidence, and it is not easy to bring down a powerful family like the Lu family.

Although the Huaiyuan Lu family has not produced a few jinshi, it is still endless to raise people and show talents. Moreover, the marriage between the Lu family and the gentry families of Hubei and Henan is quite extensive. It is said that the Lu family is also related by marriage to the side branches of the current Yuan Keli family, as well as the clan of King Zhou.

Therefore, when Zhang Xianzhong returned to the county seat of Tongbai County, he notified the local county officials and asked Lu Yunlong to be summoned to the county government for questioning. But it was not until the third day that these officials told him that Lu Yunlong was sick and could not come, but they wanted to use a few thousand taels of silver to smooth out the matter.

Zhang Xianzhong was immediately angry, after entering the Jinyi Guard, he was promoted quickly, and he was greatly appreciated by his current boss, which was very different from being embarrassed everywhere in the border army. Although last year because of some mistakes made in dealing with the people's rebellion army and local gentry in Henan, he missed a promotion.

But overall, he is satisfied with his current living situation. If it weren't for the temporary order to inquire into this case, he would have been transferred to the capital for a six-month training period, and then he would have been officially integrated into Jinyiwei's system.

Therefore, he was still a little hesitant about how to deal with the Lu family, and he also specially sent someone to ask Xu Xianchun how to handle the case. But the Lu family didn't even send an important person, so they wanted to send them away with thousands of taels of silver, which obviously regarded him as a beggar.

Because of the smooth career of his career, Zhang Xianzhong's temper is much better now, but it does not mean that he has changed his temperament. The Lu family's actions had completely annoyed him, and he had already decided to attack the Lu family first and arrest the Lu family first. As for the consequences of such a move, he couldn't care about it.