As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang took the man away, Xu Renjie immediately rushed out of his small fortress excitedly, followed by a group of servants. It turned out that when Zhu Yuanzhang left, he did not take away the vulgar catapult that was temporarily made, but threw it on the side of the road.

Xu Renjie and a few servants ran towards the catapult at a speed like flying, shouting while running: "Hurry up... carry that thing back to the fort, hahaha, I want to study it carefully, lord."

Just like later generations, there were military fans, in fact, there were military fans in ancient times. Xu Renjie was a military squire. This guy was just an ordinary rice merchant more than a year ago, but since he defeated Zhong Guangdao with his hometown army more than a year ago and then lost to Zhu Yuanzhang, he has become obsessed with commanding the army to fight.

There is a fundamental difference between the war he is obsessed with and the war Wang Er is obsessed with. He likes to command, but Wang Er likes to take the lead in rushing forward. These are two different types.

Over the past year, he not only built his home into a military fortress, but also trained a large number of rural brave soldiers, read countless military books, studied the strategies of war, and liked to read the novels of war. For example, he bought "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by him for a lot of money and read it dozens of times. His family also stored many messy military books.

In fact, there were not many such people in ancient times, and there was also a very famous representative. His name was Emperor Zhengde. He was a good emperor and liked to be a general. He gave himself a rank of general and tried every means to sneak out of the capital to command wars. According to historical records, he also chopped and killed a Tartar soldier with his own hands, which was considered a very strange military-absorbed emperor.

Xu Renjie had similarities with Emperor Zhengde. He didn't like to be a good rice merchant, but he preferred to command the army, and he also fell in love with various weapons. Unfortunately, he was just a rice merchant and was not qualified to get authentic military weapons and siege equipment. He could only drool at the various weapons described in the military books.

This kind of emotion is easy to understand. There are still many otaku who want to play with real guns in later generations. The mood is similar to Xu Renjie.

When Zhu Yuanzhang pushed the trencher out, he was shocked, but after the initial shock, his heart became furious and thought: I could play with the trencher as well.

In the end, Zhu Ba turned around and left without knowing whether it was intentional or unintentional. The catapult was not taken away. Xu Renjie thought about it. Zhu Ba's army carried a lot of stolen silver and food, so how could he care about a vulgar catapult?

He was so ecstatic that he didn't even care about a lot of food and money that had just been robbed. He rushed towards the catapult with a few servants, lifted it up and ran to the fort, and shouted at the servants as he ran:

"Release me carefully for the master, and I will break my head off!"

"How do you put your hands? Don't lift the wooden beam, it will break! Lift there... it's stronger."

"Be careful, don't fall down. It's okay if you fall to death. Don't break my catapult..."

After sweating profusely, Xu Renjie finally returned to the fort with his new toy and started researching it quickly, just like a child just got a new toy. Unfortunately, he didn't see any name after looking at it for a long time. As a last resort, he invited the old carpenter in the village. After careful study, the carpenter told him seriously: "Master... This trencher is just a good thing, and there is no most critical piece of mechanical parts..."

"I know it's a good guy!" Xu Renjie snorted angrily: "Zhu Ba said, this is just for me to show you! If this thing is really useful, I wouldn't dare to move it home and hide the siege equipment. Don't I want to live anymore? I want you to come, and I'm going to make a beautiful and beautiful small trencher for me as I do... Master, I want to put it in the middle of the bedroom, take a look before going to bed at night, and sleep well..."

The old carpenter was stunned for a long time after hearing this...

Not to mention Xu Renjie was struggling there, after Zhu Yuanzhang and his soldiers left, he wandered around in the Baishui and passed countless villages.

Every village responded differently when they saw him coming. The poor villagers bowed to him, as if they saw a savior, while the rich villagers walked around, as if they saw the plague god.

Zhu Yuanzhang was not surprised by their reaction.

After hundreds of years of observation of wandering souls, he knew that no matter which dynasty or generation, once an uprising, rebellion or mass incident occurred, most of the people who jumped out of rebellion were poor, and few rich people would mix in it. Because the rich were beneficiaries of the current regime, they would not jump up and push them to the regime, but would only contribute to protecting the stability of the existing regime.

Any rich man who loses everything to support the rebellion must have greater ambitions. If he wants to have a better life, he will never be anything I am for the people! I am for the world peace! That's nonsense.

So Zhu Yuanzhang was not surprised by the villagers' reaction. He just waved his hand casually and asked the soldiers to bring the poor who welcomed him into the team.

"Brother Zhu, those who ran away when they see us are obviously going to go against us!" Ma Xiaotian couldn't help asking, "Do you want to chase them? Stop them becoming rural heroes in the future and come to fight us."

"No need!" Zhu Yuanzhang didn't even kill the gentry. How could he kill Fumin? He just smiled faintly and said, "The later people join our team, the more regretful they will be in the future. Don't worry about them now, leave them some opportunities to regret."

"Repent?" Ma Xiaotian was very puzzled.

"Oh my God!" Zhu Yuanzhang said earnestly: "Our army will definitely become stronger and stronger in the future. All those who join our army can gain huge benefits, but the benefits that each person can get are different. The earlier they join, the more merits they make, the more benefits they will get. And the later they join, the less merits they make and the fewer benefits they get."

"Oh, is that?" Ma Xiaotian said happily: "I was the first to follow Brother Zhu, wouldn't I get the most benefits?"

"Hahaha! That's right!" Zhu Yuanzhang slapped his shoulder hard: "So...be careful not to die, otherwise any benefit will have nothing to do with you."

After a long journey around the village, Zhu Yuanzhang collected about a thousand poor people. These people became Zhu Yuanzhang's free labor force, responsible for helping him carry the tax grain or tax silver he received on his shoulders. The Xinjiu and Xinjiu teams, which were originally looked down upon by Zhu Yuanzhang's veterans, became veterans for these newly joined people. They commanded the newly joined villagers to move here and there with great might, as if they were superior.

Ma Xiaotian saw this scene and then understood what Zhu Yuanzhang said just now. Those who joined earlier are more beneficial than those who joined later. This is the so-called opportunity in life. Go to heaven first and go to hell later.

In addition to these villagers, Zhu Yuanzhang's team also visited several gentry and landlords in succession, some of which were merchants and belonged to the low-tax class, while others were scholars, juren and jinshi. These people belonged to the tax-free class. Zhu Yuanzhang came to his house, surrounded their homes, and then reached out to collect taxes.

Some people have been obediently, while others have organized family members or village heroes to try to protect themselves like Xu Renjie. However, in front of Zhu Yuanzhang's army, their village brave army was simply vulnerable.

But if he continues, he can't get anything. Because after robbing several families in a row, news about Zhu Ba's reply to Baishui spread. Many gentry who had not been "visited" by Zhu Yuanzhang, fled into Baishui* County before he arrived, and hid in the city wall.

People outside the city either joined Zhu Yuanzhang's team or ran around in scattered ways. It was no longer possible to gain benefits from them.

Zhu Yuanzhang no longer led the people around, but gathered the team, reorganized the team, divided the soldiers and the villagers who transported the food into two queues, one after another, heading towards Baishui* County.

It was already evening, and the setting sun dragged his tired body and was slowly returning to its home in the West. Its back dragged the shadow of the nearby hills long and hung down obliquely. Baishui is a mountainous and undulating city, so the light and shadow are mottled, making people feel like a dream.

Zhu Yuanzhang and his army appeared outside Baishui* County under the reflection of this dreamlike light and shadow.

The county town does not have a very high city wall or a solid city gate. Although it experienced a major chaos last year, the court did not pay any attention to it and did not pay a penny to repair the city. The city wall that caught its eye was still as low and dilapidated as last year. The city gate is as usual, just two thin wooden doors... If you compare the Xujiabao with this city wall, you will find that the defense of the county town is actually not as good as Xujiabao.

As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang's army appeared under the city, a sound of exclamation and shouting sounded in the city: "Oh my God! Here we are!"

"Baishui Zhu Ba is here..."

"Mr. County Magistrate...Help..."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked out and saw many heads looking out on the city wall. All his eyes were directed towards his army. These heads included men, women, elderly, children, scholars, merchants, soldiers, and village warriors... They all came from all over the city and were unwilling to join Zhu Yuanzhang's village.

After the news of Xu Renjie's defeat spread, the county town was their only hope. They had been praying in the city for a whole day, hoping that Baishui Zhu Ba would not run to the city. Unfortunately, things went against their wishes. The brave Baishui Zhu Ba actually dared to lead the army to the foot of * County!
Chapter completed!