During the Ming Dynasty, whether the administrative structure of a place was set up as a state or a government mainly depended on the registered population.

Jingning Prefecture is a county under the state, and with this system, it means that it has a large population.

However, after the Musuman Rebellion that spread throughout Longxi Gannan and the Hexi Corridor, by the time Ma Shouying led the Huihui camp to take over the city, the population of Jingning Prefecture had lost 10% and 60%.

The Han people in the state city either fled or died, and the entire city and outside the city were almost all Mu Suman.

These Musu barbarians in Jingning Prefecture, men, women, and children combined amounted to as many as forty or fifty thousand people, and after Ma Shouying arrived, all of them returned to the camp.

Only at the west foot of Liupan Mountain, dozens of miles east of Jingning Prefecture, there are more than ten large or small Han people who have formed villages to protect themselves.

Among these Han township regiments, some of them were large local Han families, such as Tang Zhongheng, some were Yan Ce and Zhang Wugui, the leaders of the fast hunting squad in the yamen, and more were bandits and bandits who originally fell into the grass, such as Gao San, Liu Changjiao, and Qin Jun and Qin Qi brothers.

In other periods, these people were inseparable from each other or even hostile to each other, but when it came to the Musuman Rebellion, they could only rely on each other to survive on this barren mountainous land.

If the leader of the thieves who crossed Liupan Mountain and came to take over the city of Jingning Prefecture was not Ma Shouying's return to the camp, or there was no Ma Shouying's return to the camp, then these Han armed forces who formed a village to protect themselves may have already joined the thieves like other Han armed forces in Jingchuan, Qin'an and other places, after all, life in the mountains is not easy.

However, the main team that came to take over Jingning Prefecture City happened to be Ma Shouying's return to the camp.

These Han armed forces west of Liupan Mountain are as deep as the sea with the local Musu barbarians, and it is impossible to take refuge in Lao Hui Hui no matter what.

After Li Zicheng took the general camp to Jingning Prefecture, he repeatedly sent people to contact the Han people on Liupan Mountain, and made a wish, but these people finally did not choose to belong because Li Zicheng's general camp and Lao Hui's department belonged to the same group.

Even those northwestern bandits who had taken refuge in the Great Shun Army in their original history turned away the envoys sent by Li Zicheng in this life.

When Zhang Jiamo, the general soldier of Gansu, led a large army to besiege Jingningzhou City, and sent his subordinate generals Zhang Tianli and Luo Junjie to lead the official army to sweep Mu Suman, Tang Zhongheng, a big landlord with thousands of people, and Liu Changshan, a small thief with three or five hundred minions, all flocked to ask for annexation.

Speaking of which, just over half a year has passed, but bandits and bandits like Gao San, Liu Changjiao, and Qin Jun and Qin Qi brothers, who originally opposed the government and fought against the official army, have completely changed their attitude towards the official government and the official army.

Now that they see the officers and soldiers, they don't fight or run away, on the contrary, one by one the bandit leaders hug their heads and cry, as if they were seeing their relatives.

Such a scene made the officials and generals of Gansu Town who came to take them in shock one by one.

The same people, on the night of the destruction of Jingning City, one by one, armed with the standard Qi knives issued by the officials and soldiers, fought bravely to be the first, poured into the city, and hacked to death those in the city who knelt down and surrendered because they had no time to escape, as well as the soldiers of the Huihui battalion who resisted stubbornly and hid in Tibet, and the Musu barbarian rebels, as well as the battalion of the generals who had not had time to escape, hacked to death one by one in the streets and alleys, in front of the houses and behind the houses.

At dawn, in the city of Jingningzhou, except for the Gansu town officials and soldiers stationed in the city, there was no one alive.

And Li Zicheng's battalion of generals who finally pulled up again, a team of more than 6,000 people, after the defense of Jingningzhou City and the breakthrough battle after the city was broken, was also beaten back to its original shape again, leaving less than 1,000 left, and fled in a hurry.

Ma Shou should abandon the city and flee westward!

Li Zicheng went south to Zhuanglang!

In the early morning of the third day after the destruction of Jingning City, these two news reached Pingliang City.

Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, who had been worried about the situation in front of him, suddenly heard these news, and he was like thunder, and he didn't even eat breakfast early in the morning, so he called the major leaders in Pingliang City to his mansion.

"Ma Shouying is this ungrateful bastard, Lao Tzu let him have tens of thousands of people to take charge alone, but he abandoned the city and did not defend it, causing Lao Tzu and his brothers to be in a dilemma! If it is not my race, its heart will be different! ”

As soon as Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, called the leaders in Pingliang City to come to him, he was still angry and scolded Lao Hui Hui Ma Shou Yinglai, and in front of the white-hated and barbaric Tulun Tai at the same time, he scolded Lao Hui for not being of my race.

This made the leaders who hurriedly came to discuss countermeasures immediately feel Gao Yingxiang's unprecedented anger.

For a period of time, there have been countless things that have made Gao Yingxiang thunderous, first Guyuan City was lost, and He Yilong and He Jin, who had followed Gao Yingxiang for many years, died under the friendly saber that suddenly turned his face, which made him furious at the fickle Mu Su, and he was also noncommittal to the cooperation proposal put forward by Bai Minghe and others, the commander of Qinzhou.

Then, not long after, Xiao Guan, who was stuck between Guyuan and Pingliang and was crucial to the safety of Pingliang City, was lost by Lin Yang, who he had high hopes for.

In this regard, Gao Yingxiang was angry, but he did not give Lin Yang any major punishment.

Because after He Yilong and He Jin died, Gao Yingxiang suddenly felt that there were not many old brothers around him, and people like Ma Shouying, Luo Rucai, and Zhang Xianzhong always disobeyed themselves and were not very obedient.

However, the consequences of not punishing Lin Cultivation severely were immediately apparent.

Because Liu Xiyao, who was also sent out by him with high hopes, retreated ahead of schedule when he faced a large-scale attack by the official army.

This was even more furious than when Lin Chengcheng was defeated and retreated from the artillery bombardment of the official army in Xiaoguan.

But I didn't deal with Lin Chengcheng before, so I couldn't deal with Liu Xiyao at this time.

What's more, Liu Xiyao's command basically did not lose much, and there were more than 20,000 people brought back to Pingliang City from Zhenyuan, as if they were already an important force under his command.

In this way, Gao Yingxiang was furious, and in addition to reprimanding Liu Xiyao, he did not give any decent punishment.

In this way, after Lin Yangyang and Liu Xiyao returned, the military discipline under the command of King Chuang in Pingliang City existed in name only, and the conflict between the Han thieves and the Musu barbarian army in the city began to be out of control like in the camp of Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and others.

At this time, Liu Zhe, Liu Xiyao, Lin Yangsheng, Gao Yigong and others listened to what King Gao Yingxiang said, and everyone went to see Tolontai, only to see Tolontai with his head down, and his face, which was already a little red and black, was even more red and black.

At this time, Liu Zhe, the number one henchman under Gao Yingxiang, suddenly said: "King Chuang!" The old man ran back, Jingning Prefecture was lost, and now the encirclement of the official army has been completed, and the official army is powerful, and it is no longer something that my Pingliang Righteous Army can compete with! Although Pingliang is good, it is not a place for me to stay for a long time! ”

After Liu Zhe said this, Lin Yangcheng also said: "King Chuang! On that day, the brothers were ordered to garrison Xiao Pass, and fought fiercely with Zhou Yuji's troops under Yuan Chonghuan, and the fierceness of their artillery firearms was by no means comparable to flesh and blood!

"If it weren't for the fact that Xiao Guan was in disrepair and was destroyed by the official artillery, the brothers had nothing to defend, leaving behind more casualties, and I wouldn't dare to flee back!

"Now that Xiaoguan has been lost, Zhenyuan has been lost again, Pingliang City is no longer defendable, think twice about the king!"

Hearing Lin Chengcheng say this, Gao Yingxiang nodded, and was about to speak, when Liu Xiyao, who was on the side, suddenly stood up and said:

"King Chuang! The art of war is cloudy, and the use of soldiers is expensive to avoid reality and virtuality! Now that our righteous army is weak and the official army is strong, the righteous army is small and the official army is strong, it is time to avoid the real and make up for nothing, instead of living in the city and resisting hard!

"And my generation of righteous soldiers, has always been called a thief by the imperial court, in fact, whether it is the imperial court or the official army, I am most afraid that we are erratic, mobile and not living, now my generation is gathered in one place, living in the city and guarding, isn't it a cocoon to bind itself, waiting for the official army to besiege? ! This is not a long-term solution! ”

After listening to everyone's words, Gao Yingxiang had already made a decision in his heart, looked around at the crowd, and then looked at Tuluntai, who bowed his head and was silent, and said:

"What do you say? Do you want to go with someone who is high with me? ”

Tuluntai was originally the head snake of Pingliang, and after launching a mutiny, he became the leader of the Musu Barbarian Army in Pingliang City, of course he didn't want to leave.

And Gao Yingxiang and these thieves are cross-river dragons from northern Shaanxi, and coming and going is commonplace in their eyes.

At this time, when Tuluntai saw Gao Yingxiang asking about this, he hesitated, looked up at Gao Yingxiang, and asked Gao Yingxiang rhetorically:

"Dare to ask King Chuang, where are you going to take your brothers?"

Gao Yingxiang thought for a while and said, "What Liu Xiyao said is right, use soldiers to kneel to avoid the truth!" Where the officers and soldiers are, Gao will go there! ”

After saying this, Gao Yingxiang's eyes looked over the faces of his generals Liu Zhe, Lin Yangsheng, Liu Xiyao and others one by one, and then sighed and said:

"Of course, my hometown is the best, but now that the Shaanxi officials and troops are powerful, Gao and the brothers can't turn back!"