Dominate the Country

The Chen family army went out again, in full force.

They attacked Henan Prefecture to the north, Xuzhou and Chenzhou Prefecture to the east, and Runing Prefecture and Nanyang Prefecture to the south.

They were like crazy, attacking all the territories they could get. What was strange was that Chen Ming, the number one in the Chen family army, stayed firmly in Lushan and did not move with the army.

Many people looked at the Chen family army with a mocking look of "self-destruction", thinking that Chen Hui and Chen Ming, father and son, had lost their heads. With the strength of the Chen family army, even if they conquered the territory, they could not hold it firmly in their hands. They simply did not have the strength to divide their troops to defend.

Until Chen Erbao of Yancheng led his Chen family army to capture Linying and Fugou, and then conquered the empty Xuzhou City in one fell swoop, and then drove the carriages and horses, carrying a mountain of money and grain, and retreated to Yancheng; the Chen family army that entered Henan Prefecture also tried to attack Luoyang City after conquering Yiyang, Dengfeng and Songxian in succession, and returned to Yiyang obediently with cattle and sheep, fat pigs, and carriages and horses carrying money and grain; many people who looked at the crazy Chen family army before their self-destruction with mocking eyes suddenly realized that this was not the father and son surnamed Chen going crazy, but they did it on purpose.

The Chen family army pushed so far in the south, north and east, not to occupy territory, but to plunder money and grain while reducing the local support of the Qing Dynasty, and also disrupted the order of Xuzhou, the southern part of Henan Prefecture, and the western part of Chenzhou Prefecture.

Without mentioning other aspects, let's say that the next time the Qing army comes to encircle and suppress the army, it will be impossible for them to easily requisition horses, vehicles, manpower, and even some money and food materials from the local areas like the Buddha who has been stripped of his hat.

Facts have proved that the Chen family army has been attacking instead of defending in the two major directions of the north and the east, and the Chen family army is not greedy for occupying cities. But in the south, the Chen family army seems to be determined to take over Nanyang City.

The remaining troops in Nanyang Town and the thousands of militias that Nanyang Prefecture desperately gathered were defeated by the Chen family army in Xindian. Unless the green camp soldiers in Yunyang Town and Xing'an Town can grow a pair of wings and rush to Nanyang Prefecture overnight, this city will most likely become the first prefecture city conquered by the Chen family army. Moreover, while attacking Nanyang Prefecture, the Chen family army also took care of the nearby Sheqi Town.

This is an emerging commercial town. Like Zhoujiakou, Shanxi merchants continue to occupy a leading position here, but besides local merchants from Nanyang, there is also a Shaanxi person around him.

In terms of business scale, the still prosperous and developing Sheqi Town is not as good as Zhoujiakou in its heyday, but this small town also gathers more than 400 guesthouses and shops, which is much more prosperous than ordinary county towns.

Grain is the first industry operated by Sheqi merchants. This place is backed by Henan, which is one of the main grain export areas in North China. At least one million shi of grain enters and leaves here every year. Then there is cotton. Henan is also one of the main cotton producing areas, but Henan cotton is mostly exported to Shaanxi and Gansu, which are short of cotton, and the amount exported to Shanxi and Hubei is relatively small. The cotton industry is far less important to Shedian Town than grain.

Finally, there is tea. This is one of the two main downstream sources of Zhoujiakou tea transshipment. It is controlled by Shanxi merchants and mainly sold to Russia and Mongolia. Chang Baoshan's name is absolutely loud in Shedian Town.

Below the three major industries are many unsavory businesses, such as paper, wood, sugar, porcelain, cloth, fur, medicinal materials, hookah, etc.

Shedian Town, with more than 400 merchants, is half of Zhoujiakou. The Chen family rushed over fiercely, and the merchants in Sheqi Town, like the merchants in Zhoujiakou, knelt down with their bones soft. The money and food materials were flowing, and the carriages and horses that transported them traveled diligently on the trade road between Nanyang and Ruzhou every day.

…

There is a saying: When the big river has water, the small river is full.

When the boss Chen Jiajun made a fortune, the Chen Jiajun soldiers who were his younger brothers, whether they were officers or soldiers, were all benefited. Especially in terms of mineral resources, the private mines of the Chen Jiajun have now become naked public mines. The Chen Jiajun is shouting to recruit workers and find workers every day.

And the best food is obviously the best reward for the miners who work hard every day.

Jingkong looked at the boiled vegetables and tofu in the bowl, and the unpaste cake in his hand. Although he could eat as much as he wanted, no matter how many unpaste cakes he had, they could not match the greasy meat buns, and no matter how many vegetables and tofu he had, they could not compare to the aroma of meat.

Just across the fence from the prisoners, the "traitors" who had defected to the Chen family army were holding meat buns and eating fat meat and yam stewed with vermicelli. How could the tempting aroma be blocked by a mere wooden fence?

All the prisoners knew that the Chen family army did this to lure them, weaken their fighting spirit, and make them surrender. But sometimes the power of the glutton in their stomachs was so strong that their weak will could not resist it at all.

"Pah!"

The sound of chopsticks falling reached Jingkong's ears. Jingkong knew without even looking up that someone must have been unable to resist the temptation again.

"Boss Jiang..."

"Boss Jiang, don't seek temporary happiness and ruin your reputation for the rest of your life..."

Jingkong suddenly raised his head. The one who surrendered was Jiang Tianfang. This guy had the same status as Jingkong, both of them were foremen of the group.

"What a lifelong reputation. I've been captured, how can I be so wise? I want to eat meat, I want to eat meat. Even the monks in Shaolin Temple can't stand the boiled vegetables and tofu every day, so why should I endure it?" Jiang Tianfang cursed, not afraid of offending Jingkong, since he had surrendered anyway. How could Jingkong bite a single feather from him!

Standing outside the cafeteria were the armed mining guards, their black armor gleaming in the sun. Even in such a hot day, they didn't relax at all.

The entire mine was guarded by these mining guards and their two-legged dogs, leaving no room for them to sneak away.

Jiang Tianfang had given up resisting. He couldn't stand the food, and he couldn't stand the tenant hooligans who used to not dare to speak loudly in front of him, but now they were shouting at him in groups of five or six. It was not long since he was captured in the mine. This guy was captured when the Chen family army entered Yiyang. He was a military scholar from Song County and the leader of the Song County militia who reinforced Yiyang.

As time passed, the Chen family army was still strict in guarding prisoners of war, but they had been much more relaxed in their use. People like Jiang Tianfang were no longer "reformed through labor", but were directly thrown into the army of prisoners of war and left. It was just that the people in his group were not from Song County.

For Jiang Tianfang, the trampling of dignity was what he could not tolerate the most. And he also knew that his whole family was captured by the Chen family army. When the Chen family army broke into Song County, they captured his whole family. His eldest son was thrown into the road construction team by the Chen family army to do hard labor. He was less than fourteen years old. This was what the new captives from Song County told him.

So Jiang Tianfang chose to surrender. Whether it was the need for food, dignity, or the needs of his family, Jiang Tianfang had no reason to continue to insist.