() @@@
"Yoho!" The bandits rushing over from the opposite side shouted unscrupulously. The bandit in front shook his hand, and a lasso was accurately put on Qin Mu's head. Qin Mu bent down and narrowly avoided it.
Qin Mu was greatly surprised. You know, it is not uncommon for people in the Central Plains to be good at horse riding, but not many of them can use a lasso.
The bandit on the horse seemed a little surprised as well. He pulled the lasso and laughed, "I didn't expect this dog official could escape my rope. It's like an old woman jumping upside down with her child. It's weird!"
"Hahaha, take your time, Brother Huo. I'll keep an eye on your surroundings and make sure the fat sheep doesn't get away."
"Huo Sheng!" Meng Ke suddenly took off his hat and roared, his voice like thunder.
"Meng... ... ... ... Ah! It's General Meng! It's General Meng!" When the bandits on the opposite side saw Meng Ke's face clearly, their faces showed various expressions, shock, joy and astonishment that were hard to describe. They pulled the reins hard, jumped off their horses, pushed away the golden mountains and overturned the jade pillars, and knelt on one knee to worship him.
"General Meng! Meet General Meng!"
"That's great, General Meng is not dead, General Meng is not dead, that's great!"
"General Meng!"
Meng Ke sat on his horse, as still as a mountain. He swept his eyes over the six or seven people who were prostrating themselves, and shouted in a deep voice, "Huo Sheng, Cui Feng, Ning Yuan, Ling Zhan, well, well, well! You are really capable! I was one of the four great warriors in the Japanese army, but you turned out to be a petty thief who robbed people on the road, and you even robbed me!"
"Please forgive me, General Meng. We thought that General Meng had been killed by the eunuchs..."
"So you guys just became bandits?"
"General Meng!"
"Stop talking nonsense. These guys behind are your minions. I'll give you one stick of incense to defeat the gang of thieves on the mountain. Otherwise, I'll show you how I'll deal with you."
"I will obey your order."
Several big men kneeling on the ground jumped up and called on dozens of minions behind them to charge into the forest immediately.
All these changes happened so fast that Qin Mu was a little overwhelmed. He watched quietly without saying a word. When Meng Ke gave orders, the iron-blooded atmosphere left a deep impression on Qin Mu.
This is definitely a powerful aura that can only be formed by crawling out of a pile of dead bodies. It is cold, hard, and decisive in killing, and every word reveals an unquestionable flavor.
Meng Ke didn't retract his sharp gaze until he noticed Qin Mu looking at him with a half-smile. He knew Qin Mu would not ask about his past, so he said in a more straightforward manner this time: "Back in Liaodong, although they were only centurions, they fought very bravely, but they were also unruly and participated in the military's riot over pay. I asked Commander Yuan to save their lives and transferred them to my command. Later..."
Meng Ke didn't say anything about what happened afterwards, as if he didn't want to mention it.
But Qin Mu could already guess roughly, and Yuan Chonghuan must have known that it was a pipe dream to pacify Liao in five years, but the words had been spoken, and he had to find a way to fill this hole.
After he arrived in Liaodong to command the army, he often exchanged private letters with Huang Taiji, hoping to facilitate peace talks between the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, because once the two sides reached peace, he would not have to "take five years to pacify Liaodong."
From the perspective of the overall situation at the time, making peace with the Qing Dynasty might not be a bad thing for the Ming Dynasty. At that time, Huang Taiji had brothers, uncles and nephews fighting for the throne, the Mongolian Khan Ligdan was eyeing him covetously in the west, and Korea was a constraint in the east. Huang Taiji was eager to make peace with the Ming Dynasty at the time, and his sincerity in negotiating peace was beyond doubt.
If the two sides really negotiated peace, the Ming Dynasty could concentrate its energy on suppressing domestic rebellions and sorting out internal affairs for the future. At least one thing is certain, if peace was really negotiated with the Qing Dynasty at that time, the Ming Dynasty would never have perished so quickly.
However, the Ming court insisted on not compromising and refused to negotiate peace, which made it difficult for Yuan Chonghuan to fill the huge hole of "pacifying Liao in five years".
The Qing army's first attack on Beijing was mainly to force the Ming court to negotiate peace. Yuan Chonghuan could not escape the suspicion of having a secret agreement with the Tartars and forcing Chongzhen to sign a surrender agreement.
No matter what Yuan Chonghuan's original intention was, he could not clear himself of the suspicion of colluding with the Tartars and ultimately ended up being severely punished.
Important generals like Zu Dashou were from Liaodong, and their family power was deeply rooted in the Liaodong army, so the court did not dare to pursue them. But if they did not have deep roots in Liaodong and were Yuan Chonghuan's confidants, such generals would hardly escape the fate of being purged.
Meng Ke probably belongs to the latter.
What Qin Mu needs to do now is not to inquire into the past of these people, but how to make them truly useful to him.
There may be things in this world where others will bow down to you just by being driven by a tiger, but both timing and momentum are indispensable. Once you have a strong enough "momentum", it will not be difficult to make others obey you.
But Qin Mu doesn't have such "power" now. Meng Ke is willing to follow because, firstly, he has no other good place to go, and secondly, he owes Qin Mu a life, but this does not mean that he will obey Qin Mu completely.
Along the way, the relationship between Qin Mu and Meng Ke was a little subtle. Qin Mu would order him around from time to time, but this kind of ordering came from Qin Mu as a "creditor", not a master-servant relationship in the ordinary sense.
Meng Ke had always been taciturn. As long as Qin Mu's shouts were not too excessive, he would obey. However, he maintained his original pride and would never be submissive like an ordinary servant.
The bandits on the mountain were easily defeated by Huo Sheng, Cui Feng and others. When Huo Sheng and others came back, blood was still dripping from their knives. They were full of murderous intent and treated this action as a child's play.
They only glanced at Qin Mu and then went up to Meng Ke to hand over the order. It was not difficult to see from their eyes that no one took Qin Mu seriously.
Qin Mu smiled faintly, and simply took Qiao'er to rest under a tree by the roadside, ignoring whatever they said.
Qin Mu was impressed by the little girl's strength. During the whole journey, she never complained about the hardship or tiredness, and whenever she stopped, she insisted on serving Qin Mu tea and water.
Qin Mu took the water bag, patted the grass beside him and pulled the little girl over: "Sit down and drink some water first. If you are tired, lie down for a while."
"Sir, I'm fine." The little girl answered while helping him to gather his messy hair and taking out a square scarf from her bag and tying it up.
"Okay, sit down, that's an order."
The little girl immediately sat down obediently. Qin Mu couldn't help but smile at himself when he saw this. It seemed that he could only let this girl obey his orders now.
Well, if you can't even clean up your own house, how can you clean up the world? To command the world, you should start by commanding this little girl.
Meng Ke talked with Huo Sheng and others for a long time. Finally, Huo Sheng turned his head and glanced at Qin Mu in the distance. He said with a little contempt: "According to what the general said, this man is just a failed candidate who got a job as a seventh-rank county magistrate by luck. What's the point of being with him? Why don't you take us with you? With our strength, if we have more brothers, we may not be worse than Li Zicheng."
Cui Feng, Ning Yuan, and Ling Zhan also tried to persuade him, but Meng Ke did not say whether he agreed or not. He just replied calmly, "I owe him my life."
"General, even if you owe him a life, you have already repaid it. If you hadn't rescued him, he would have died ten times just now."
"Don't underestimate him. In addition to saving my life, I am extremely curious about him. Huichang is now occupied by bandits. The previous two county magistrates died in office. No one has dared to drive him out for a year. He is alone. Not only does he not take the bandits in Huichang seriously, he also chases them away, saying that Zhang Xianzhong, who was defeated and fled to Danshui, will soon capture Huangzhou, Macheng and other places. His momentum will be greatly boosted. In May, he will cross the Yangtze River from Yadanzhou and capture Wuchang Prefecture. In August, he will go south to Yueyang, capture Changsha, sweep across Hunan, and point his troops to Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guangdong and other places..."
"What a mess! Is this guy crazy?"
"That's right. Zhang Xianzhong is still hiding in Danshui and may be destroyed by the imperial army at any time. What does he mean by that?"
Meng Ke smiled faintly and said, "If you are willing to follow me, you can observe for yourself whether he looks like a madman. Anyway, I am very curious, what is he trying to do to get ahead of Zhang Xianzhong?"
"General, this is obviously nonsense. Do you really believe him?"
"That's right, General, do you still plan to go with him?"
"No matter what, I have to repay the favor of saving my life. I must at least protect him to Huichang and wait for him to settle down before deciding whether to stay or go."
"Well, since the general has made his decision, we will just follow him on this journey."
"You can follow me if you want, but don't call me General anymore. Call me Brother Meng instead."
"Yes, Brother Meng!"
When Qin Mu was on the road again, there were twenty or thirty more burly men behind him, all of them looking at him fiercely. This was not a good thing for Qin Mu, at least for now. These people looked at him like wolves looking at sheep.
If it weren't for Meng Ke, Qin Mu might have become their target of slaughter at any time.
This reminded Qin Mu, and from then on he began to take in some strong people as his followers along the way. In this chaotic world with refugees everywhere, as long as you can provide three meals a day, there will be plenty of people willing to follow you. The only problem is that you may not want so much.
Qin Mu adhered to the principle that quality is more important than quantity, and all the people he recruited were carefully selected. Those who were not tall, young and strong were not accepted. Soldiers were given priority. Among the refugees, there were many defeated soldiers. Qin Mu recruited a total of 100 strong men, most of whom had military experience.
He didn't waste any time. He made these people practice martial arts every morning and evening, and treated the daytime as a forced march. Anyone who dared to complain or feel tired would be forced to spit out what he had eaten and then get out of here with his head held high!
Along the way, Huo Sheng and others wanted to kill Qin Mu from time to time so that they could take Meng Ke to "do big things", and Qin Mu was also thinking about how to swallow them. Who is the wolf and who is the sheep? Who knows
****************************
ps: Please collect, click, recommend, and give me more rewards if you have enough money! I have no subscription income in the past two months. I am poor and short of breath. The cold wind is freezing me to death... ... ... .
.
;
...