Near the north gate of Shouyang, dust and smoke are mixed together, and the city wall can be vaguely seen collapsing down, revealing a gap six or seven zhang wide. The gravel and rotten bricks are piled up on a gentle slope, but the potholes are not very good to follow.

A large group of gray-clothed Ming officers and soldiers continued to pour into the gap from the starting positions outside the city, Miao Peilin and Luo Zenan also leaned forward with their guards, and the gunshots like bursting beans had already sounded, and then the noisy noise, shouting and killing, and the crisp sound of gold and iron clashing also sounded.

Looking over from a high ground forty or fifty feet away, the gap was like a cloud and mist, and the two streams of people had collided together, and the rifles with bayonets and the red tassel guns had struck each other. As the blades intersected, loud curses and shouts followed.

"Master Qi said, the reward number will be doubled, and the head of a Miao Party will be cut off and the silver will be rewarded with 10 taels!"

"Those who dare to retreat will be killed!"

"The heavenly soldiers of the Qing Dynasty have arrived in Datong, and they will come over soon!"

"The handsome man has an order, kill a thief and reward 10 silver dollars, brothers, kill quickly, the silver dollars of white flowers are waiting for us to spend them!"

"Miao Dashuai ordered, the first brother to rush into Shouyang City will be rewarded with 1,000 silver dollars, and the official will be promoted to the third level!

The officer leaders on both sides are desperately cheering up, Miao Peilin must win here, and he must win quickly, because Luo Zenan has already arrived in Shanxi and is supervising the battle under Shouyang City with Miao Peilin. And the wealthy businessmen and gentry of Shanxi such as Qi Suzao, Zhao Hongyou and Cao Fengxiang, who defended Shouyang, were also forced to a dead end and had to fight hard.

They really hit the muzzle of the gun this time, and many people had already written to Zhu Jishi, the emperor, to petition him, regardless of whether it was reasonable or not. The people who wrote were safe and sound. Unexpectedly, it was their turn to go to the book by the gentry and wealthy businessmen of Shanxi. Just touched the tiger's ass - in fact. They are different from the gentry in Sichuan and Jiangnan, they are peaceful gentry, and they are local tyrants and inferior gentry who are armed with regimental training, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are small warlords on one side, and they are also secretly colluding with the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty who have raised the anti-flag. This is no longer a "contradiction among the people" but a "contradiction between the enemy and us." So it happened to be slaughtered to scare the monkeys. It's also unlucky, if Yixin honestly withdraws the domain now, the unlucky one now is Miao Peilin.

On the other hand, the contradiction between Zhu Jishi and Miao Peilin is far from irreconcilable. Miao Peilin said that it was a feudal town. But he did not have the strength to resist the imperial court, and his little force did not pose a threat to Zhu Jishi's rule at all. Moreover, in the past few years, he has made a lot of contributions to Zhu Ming, and his ability to govern the army and the people is not bad, and he is still very energetic in doing things, which is quite useful.

"Brother Luo Shan, don't go any further, it's dangerous!"

Although Miao Peilin had fought a lot of battles, it was the first time he had been to the front line in person, and when he saw that Luo Zenan still had the intention of moving forward, he hurriedly grabbed him.

"Don't pull me. I'm going to take a closer look at how your Miao Yusan's elite was blocked under Shouyang City by a group of people's groups! ”

The relationship between Luo Zenan and Miao Peilin is very good. It wasn't for him to recommend Zhu Jishi at the beginning, why did Miao Peilin come to today's scenery. And in the past few years, Miao Peilin has also reciprocated with pears, and sent silver to Luo Dajun's mansion! But when he returned to Shanxi, Luo Zenan suddenly put up a clean official shelf, didn't accept any gifts, and as soon as he arrived in Taiyuan, he proposed to go to the front line to supervise the war, and dragged Miao Peilin to Shouyang, where the war was most intense.

At this time, although there was no smoke in Shanxi, there were also some gentry and wealthy businessmen who were forced by Miao Peilin to raise troops. However, due to the haste of the uprising, except for Taigu, Pingyao, Wutai, Shouyang and other counties in Shanxi where the regiment training was extremely powerful, the rebellion in the rest of the places did not make a big scene. However, the Miao army suffered in Taigu, Pingyao, Wutai, Shouyang four cities, the gentry here are too powerful, as early as 1848, they organized their own regimental bravery, and these regimental warriors have fought in actual combat, weapons and equipment are not too bad, there are a lot of foreign guns, although not as good as the Miao army, but according to the city can resist for a while.

Looking at the stalemate battle in front of him, Miao Peilin said hatefully: "I've only been lazy like this for two years, I really fed them for nothing......"

At the gap, the gray-clothed Miao army was standing side by side with a long rifle with bayonets on the wall, this one was like hand-to-hand combat, but he was not very willing to move forward, and the people on the opposite side were stabbed indiscriminately with red tassel guns, and did not cause much loss to the Miao army.

"It's rotten, Yusan, you haven't seen it yet? Your generals don't have much energy. ”

The system of the Miao army is that the soldiers are the generals, and the big warlords coax the small warlords, even if the military leaders below have no energy, Miao Peilin can't replace them all. On the other hand, the regular army of the Ming Dynasty is a soldier for the country (emperor), and the officers with the soldiers not only have a tenure, but also often assess, if they really have no energy to retire and go home to enjoy Qingfu. Moreover, the new-style military system is strict, and there are all kinds of discipline rules and regulations for daily training, officer training, promotion, rewards and punishments, equipment maintenance, salary payment, and marching and combat. Therefore, even in a peaceful environment, it can better maintain combat effectiveness, which is not comparable to the armed forces of warlords like the Miao family.

"This is decaying too quickly, I originally wanted to use them to achieve a career, but now I ......" Miao Peilin's face was unwilling, and Luo Zenan secretly sighed, he knew Miao Peilin's thoughts very well, and his daughter-in-law for many years became a mother-in-law! How many years have you only been in this position? I don't want to go into diplomacy.

Boom......

The infantry of the Miao army finally retreated, and the cannons began to roar again, as if to vent the dissatisfaction in Miao Peilin's heart, and one shell after another blasted into the city through the gap, and occasionally a few flowering shells exploded, throwing the broken limbs high.

Miao Peilin exhaled, the craftsmanship of the artillery is still there, and it seems that it is not completely hopeless.

"Yusan, what the hell do you think? Do you really want to dominate Shanxi for the rest of your life? Between the shelling, Luo Zenan suddenly asked Miao Peilin in a low voice.

Miao Peilin waved his hand, retreated left and right, and then sighed and said, "Brother Luo Shan still doesn't know my old Miao's thoughts?" I also want to make some meritorious deeds to earn more shade for my children and grandchildren, and a group of brothers from Huaibei also want me to be covered by this old brother. ”

"But Shanxi can't do it, Shanxi is not a border land, and there is no room for a feudal town like you." Luo Zenan kept shaking his head.

"Then change places, didn't the emperor ask me to send troops to Mongolia?"

"You want to be the governor of Mongolia?"

"Where can I be," Miao Peilin smiled, and his old face leaned in front of Luo Zenan, "How about letting me go to Hetao?" It is now the territory of the Mongols, sandwiched between the Ming Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Yixin and Yixu Quartet, which is very important. Give me 20 years, how about I turn it into another Liaodong? ”

"Third Brother Yu, what do you want to do?" Luo Zenan frowned.

The Ming Dynasty's policy of opening up the Northeast was to "kill people and colonize", drive away the remnants of the Qing Dynasty there, and then recruit military families and immigrants from the interior to settle down. This approach is clearly not feasible for the Northwest and Mongolia. The situation in the northwest is even more complicated, not only because there are complicated ethnic and religious issues, but also because of the infiltration of the powerful forces, and more importantly, the transportation between the northwest and the interior of the Ming Dynasty is not very convenient, and the land is not as fertile as in the northeast.

Miao Peilin smiled slightly and said, "How about learning from Emperor Taizu's policy of governing Yunnan?" ”

"Yunnan?" Luo Zenan frowned, "Yusan, do you want to be a Mu family?" ”

"I don't dare to think about the Hetao of Shizhen, it is enough to have 20 years." Miao Peilin said, "The northwest and the northeast are different, it is not okay to blindly kill everyone by force, isn't the emperor now also learning from the Manchu Qing Dynasty to repair temples and marry?" That's why we have to work on the water. As a first step, I plan to move 80,000 Miao soldiers and their families to Hetao, distribute land, and build a walled city; In the second step, I will recruit the Mongolian tribes of Hetao for the Son of Heaven, so that they can learn from us Han people to build cities and settle down; The third step is to fill in the real border of the people, follow the example of the northeast, establish farms and farms in the Hetao, and recruit landless farmers from the interior to come to reclaim the land; The fourth step is to open a school in Hetao, promote Confucianism and educate the people, and in the future, regardless of Mongolia and Han, they will speak Chinese, learn Chinese characters, and read the books of sages. In this way, in 20 years, the Hetao should be no different from the Han land, and this method can also be used in Khalkha Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai and other places in the future. (To be continued......)