The autumn is clear and the wind is light and the clouds are light. It is a great time for travel and travel. Usually, people and cars are coming and going on the official roads in southern Zhili at this time, which is very lively. However, due to the influence of the Gengzi Rebellion, there have been no pedestrians and vehicles on the official roads for a long time, and a lot of weeds have grown on the roadside.

At a three-way intersection on the official road, a small tea stall was opened, with two cloth sheds at the door, and three or four tea tables were placed, but no one of them was there. The two guys were lying on the table and slapped, looking very deserted.

At this moment, a dense sound of horse hooves came. From the direction of Zhengding Mansion, smoke and dust were everywhere, and a group of people and horses were riding from afar. The two men also woke up from their sleep, with their sleepy eyes open, and dozens of horses were stopped in front of the tea stall. Only then did the two men see clearly that the people riding the horse were all gray-green clothes, with short-edged hats on their heads, muskets on their backs, and single-knife on their waists. It seemed that they were an army.

Both guys showed nervous expressions on their faces, because in this era, there was no difference between the army and the bandits. Since they met the army in the wilderness, they would most likely die. Although this place was not considered a wilderness, there were few people in this area during this period. Therefore, if this army really became fierce, it would be useless to wash the small tea shop.

At this time, a man came down from the horse's back and walked a few steps to the client, saying, "My fellow villager, which road should I take to Shanxi?"

Seeing his gentle attitude, the two men were also a little relieved. One man pointed to two forks and said: "One on the left leads to the Bonjing Pass, and you will enter Shanxi after leaving Jingjing Pass, and the other on the right leads to Shunde Prefecture. If you want to go to Henan, Shandong will take this road."

The soldier nodded and said, "Thank you." He walked out of the shed and shouted to the other knights: "Team 1 goes to the left, and 2 goes to the right, each goes to the front 20 kilometers, and then return, the others dismount and rest on the spot."

The two teams of cavalry set off from two roads, and the other soldiers dismounted, sat down on the ground opposite the tea stall, and took a kettle from the horse's back to drink water. The two guys exchanged glances with each other, and these soldiers were very different from other soldiers.

At this time, another person came out of the room, and the two friends greeted him and said, "Shopkeeper, look... do you want to greet them?"

The shopkeeper waved his hand and said, "Don't act rashly, look first."

About half an hour later, the sound of the horses on the official road was boiling, the wheels were undone, and the dust raised almost covered half of the sky. A group of people slowly came over from the official road. Stopped in front of the tea shop, the former cavalry soldiers stood up and greeted them.

The shopkeeper couldn't help but look shining and murmured: "What a big deal. If this deal is done, it will be enough for us to eat for a few months."

A guy said, "But this deal is a bit thorny, but it's not delicious. I don't know if it can be eaten in the shop."

The shopkeeper said: "No matter whether you can eat or not, you must go back and report it. It is up to the decision of several leaders and notify the sentinels in front and keep a close eye on the group of people."

The guy agreed, turned around and left, and got into the small bushes behind the tea stall. It turned out that there was a small house in the bushes, with two horses tied behind the house. The guy said to the house: "I'm here to buy and sell, but I'm very tying, so let the brothers in front of me keep a close eye. I'll go back to the village to deliver a letter." As he said that, the guy took off a horse, turned over and jumped onto the horse's back, shook the reins, and galloped away.

The man ran more than 60 miles in one breath, and ran straight to the horse foaming. When he arrived at a big village house, he saw more than 20 men at the entrance of the village practicing martial arts. There were still weapons and stands under the eaves on both sides of the left and right sides, with weapons such as swords, guns, halberds and swords. Seeing that the man was coming, everyone stopped practicing martial arts and said, "Brother Seven is back, Brother Seven is back." Then they all surrounded the mountains.

The guy got off the horse's back and panted, "Go and tell the head of the group to all the leaders that there is a deal, but it's ruthless."

After hearing his words, someone immediately ran into the courtyard to deliver the letter, others asked the guy to sit under the eaves, some led the horse to drink and feed, and some brought tea to the guy.

After a while, someone came out and said, "Brother Seven, the head of the group and all the leaders asked you to come in."

After hearing this, the man immediately got up and walked into the yard. He came to the lobby. He saw a man about 40 years old sitting in the middle. He was of medium size, big ears, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and blue cloth clothes. There were 6 and 7 people sitting on his left and right hands, with different ages and clothes. The man hurriedly bowed and said, "I have met the head of the general group, and you all."

The head of the group said: "Chen Qi, is there any business coming?"

Chen Qi said: "Yes, this deal is quite large. There are 5,60 big cars alone and more than 200 horses, but there are also quite a few people, at least 1,2,000 people, and almost everyone is carrying a guy with a loud sound, which is very irritating."

The head of the general regiment said: "Are so many people, are they officers and soldiers of the court?"

Chen Qi shook his head and said, "The clothes I saw through didn't look like them. They were all wearing green clothes, some of them looked like foreign military uniforms, but they were from our Qing Dynasty, but there were some officers and soldiers from the court inside."

At this time, someone on the left seat said, "But wear an iron helmet, a slanted belt, and a calves."

Chen Qi nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, yes, that's it."

The speaker turned to the head of the General Group and said, "Brother Jing, everyone, this should be the People's Army."

A voice of discussion suddenly sounded in the room, and someone said, "Li Zhuangyong, you are right, why did the People's Army come here?"

It turned out that the person who spoke before was Li Zhuangyong, who defected from the People's Army. After he defected from the People's Army with a few people, he first went out of Shanhaiguan to hide two boxes of rifles, and recruited more than 50 old subordinates of the Boxer Regiment. He led these people to form a team and operate in areas outside the control of the People's Army in Xuanhua and Zhangjiakou in northwest Beijing. He insisted on only fighting against large landlords and never invading ordinary people.

Although Li Zhuangyong's team was not large, he had been in the People's Army for nearly half a year, and had learned some regular army training methods and platoon-level combat combat. He also had several backbones and dozens of rifles, so he had strong combat effectiveness. At that time, the local order of the Qing court had not been restored, and there were no officers and soldiers to conquer. The general landlord armed forces were no match for them, so Li Zhuangyong broke the siege of three landlords in a row, grabbed a large amount of food, money and dozens of earth muskets.

Li Zhuangyong and others have been in the People's Army and have learned some more up-and-coming styles. They have no style of bandits and robbers and killing. After breaking the landlords' siege, they all announced their crimes in public and shot them to the villagers, and also distributed some of the food and property they had snatched to the villagers, which immediately won the favor of many villagers. Some villagers even wished that the children would join Li Zhuangyong's team.

Two months later, Li Zhuangyong's team expanded to more than 200 people and more than 20 horses. Li Zhuangyong led the team to raid a small guard of the Qing army. Not only did he grab more than 30 war horses, but he also captured more than 20 rifles, 3 small cannons and some ammunition.

However, as the team expanded, robbing around was not a long-term solution. It was necessary to find a base. Moreover, the Zhangbei area in Xuanhua was relatively desolate and it was difficult to maintain the supply of the large team. Li Zhuangyong discussed with several brothers and decided to go to Guangzong to join Jingtingbin and Zhao Sanduo according to the previous plan. First, it was Guangzong. The Zhengtai Generation Area was located at the junction of Shanxi, Henan, Zhili and Shandong Province. It had convenient transportation and a relatively developed economy. It could support a large group of people. With the support of local forces like Jingtingbin and Zhao Sanduo, it was also conducive to fighting the Qing army. Second, now there are some people under his command, and even when they reach Jingtingbin, they have the strength to speak.

So Li Zhuangyong rectified his troops and went south to Guangzong. Along the way, he broke the encirclements of several landlords, annihilated a group of bandits, and encountered two groups of single Eight-Nation Alliance soldiers, and added some personnel. When Li Zhuangyong and his party arrived in Guangzong, they met Jing Tingbin and Zhao Sanduo, his team had expanded to 285 people, with 109 guns, 45 horses, 36 donkeys, and a large amount of food, money and other supplies.

Jing Tingbin was named Shang Qing. He was from Dongzhao Village, Guangzong County, Zhili (now Xingtai, Hebei). The 11th generation of plum blossom boxing descendants were born in a family of small landlords. He was well-off. He had been practicing literature and martial arts since he was a child. He was good at writing and was more capable. He carried 200 pounds on his shoulders and did not breathe. At the age of 24, he passed the martial arts juren, but he was generous and kind, and could not stand the darkness of the officialdom. Therefore, he never became an official and recruited disciples in the village to teach martial arts.

Because Jing Tingbin is upright and frank in his character, he is willing to stand up for justice. He has great prestige in the Guangzong area. After the Eight-Nation Alliance defeated Beijing, the Zhili area was in chaos, and the army was defeated, and thieves were everywhere. Jing Tingbin recruited fellow villagers. He formed a Lianzhuang meeting and trained the villages to protect themselves with Lianzhuang. All villages unanimously recommended Jing Tingbin as the head of the delegation. Because Jing Tingbin's reputation rose, many Boxer Rebellionists who fled from Beijing defected to Jing Tingbin's disciples. Jing Tingbin had joined the Boxer Rebellion before, but had never been to Beijing, so he naturally accommodated a large number of Boxer Rebellion.

After the Eight-Nation Alliance occupied Beijing, it asked for money and food from the counties around Beijing. Local officials did not dare to refuse, so they had to transfer it to the people. Some officials even took the opportunity to increase their investment, called "foreign maids". In the southern part of Zhili, the Shandong area was originally the origin of the Boxer Rebellion. The people were very resistant to the government, churches, and foreigners. Jing Tingbin was originally unhappy with the darkness of the Qing court and was very dissatisfied with the cruelty of the foreigners. He was infuriated to lead the villagers to resist the silk and fight against the enemy. After Zhao Sanduo, the leader of the Boxer Rebellion in Shandong, fled to Julu, he also recruited the Boxer Rebellion to form an alliance with Jing Tingbin, so he embarked on the road of confrontation with the government.
Chapter completed!