On the mountain road from Zunhua to Da'ankou, a ragged team was marching towards Da'ankou under a group of officers and soldiers who were like wolves and tigers.

These people wearing ragged clothes were temporary forced recruits from villages in various Jizhou. More than 100 Ming soldiers were responsible for escorting the gangsters. In fact, the clothes they wore were not much better than those of the gangsters. The ragged mandarin duck war jackets were already dirty enough to see their original colors. At first glance, there was not much difference from the gangsters' ragged cotton jackets. The red tassel hat on their heads had long turned gray and black. It was no longer obvious whether it was a military hat or a commoner's hat. The only difference between them and the gangsters was that they had a waist knife on their waists and a whip in their hands to drive the gangsters forward.

He Xing is one of these civilians. His father died early and his mother was bedridden. Only young brothers and sisters were left in the family, but the officers and soldiers who were like wolves and tigers took him away from the house without hesitation.

From morning to now, He Xing has not had a grain of rice. Since his mother was ill in bed, his family has been too poor to lose money. He still owes a lot of money to profit, which is the money that donkeys roll. As long as they can't pay it back during the New Year, they will get more and more. At that time, they can only sell their younger brothers and sisters to pay off their debts.

He Xing, who was hungry all day, was unknowingly slowed down a little.

"Go quickly! You must go back before dark!" An officer wearing a pointed iron helmet, cotton armor, and a big mouth that can be stuffed into his fist. He looked despicable and whipped He Xing hard.

A whip on He Xing's back, and the torn cotton coat broke a hole. He felt a burst of skin and flesh, and the back was burning. He Xing knew this guy, who was originally a rogue among the Da'ankou military household, named Gong Xiaoda. Because his mouth was very big, he had a nickname called Gong Dazui. This person was not doing his job and relied on setting up gambling to cheat money.

I don't know why, such a scum actually became a small flag, put on an iron helmet, and cotton armor. It was Gong Dazui who caught He Xing from his home and threatened that if he didn't leave, he would kill his whole family. Moreover, the beast tried to touch his young sister. Fortunately, the village chief rushed in time, and the eleven-year-old sister was not injured. After all, the chief was a person with the reputation of Juren, and his clanship was still very powerful back then. Gong Xiaoda, an officer of the small flag, dared not do anything wrong when he saw the Juren master.

He Xing was angry: These officers and soldiers had no ability to resist the invasion of the Tartars, and were good at bullying the people.

It is said that the officers and soldiers came to arrest the civil servants and went to build the city with imperial edicts, and these civil servants also had to undergo simple training to become civil servants who assisted in defending the city.

The court could not afford to build the city, nor could it afford to recruit more soldiers. Emperor Chongzhen adopted a stupid strategy offered by the Donglin Party, which was to capture civilians to build the city and assist in defending the city.

Not to mention whether this will arouse civil unrest, it is still a question whether these untrained civilians can withstand the attack of the Later Jin army.

In the evening, He Xing and his men were escorted to Da'ankou. When he entered Guancheng, he saw that the city was covered with heads, and there were already thousands of ragged young and middle-aged men. Like himself, they were all men without military uniforms.

A man wearing a black hat and a scarlet official robe and looking like a civil servant was taking several minor officials to register and make a book for the new civil servants.

He Xing was stunned when he suddenly saw a third-rank official.

"When I see the imperial court's official, I won't kneel down!" He Xing only felt that his legs were kicked by someone, and his legs suddenly became weak and he couldn't help but kneel down. He turned around and saw that Gong Dazui was shouting behind him again.

"Get up and go there to register and make a book." Although the civil servant looked majestic, he still spoke in a gentle manner.

He Xing stood up and walked to a table.

In front of him was a small official wearing a green cloth and a narrow-sleeved robe. The small official looked at He Xing standing in front of him and asked coldly and majestic: "Name! Hometown!"

"Here is the grass people, and the villagers of Xiaogaozhuang."

After hearing He Xing's words, the minor official first flipped through the list on the table to the book of Xiaogaozhuang, then found the list with He Xing's name written on it, opened the page, pointed to the blank space on it and said: "This is the list of recruiting Minzhuang. If you draw a note on it, you can go in and rest."

He Xing was illiterate, but the people did not fight with the officials, so he could only honestly press a handprint in the blank space.

"If you draw the ban, you will be the defender of Da'ankou! When the Tartars came, if you dare to escape at the last minute, I will be the first to chop you up with the military method!" Gong Xiaoda glared at He Xing fiercely. He held a grudge against this unruly gangster who dared to contradict him just now and dared to call the clan leader to ruin his good deeds.

Then, He Xing and more than 100 civilians were sent to a corner of the wall that emitted a foul smell. A Ming soldier pointed to the foot of the wall with dry shit and spots on the wall and said, "This is your place to live, and you troublemakers will sleep here at night!"

"It's such a cold day, sleeping outside, you won't freeze to death!" someone muttered.

"Bang" the whip whipped hard on the face of the complaining man, and only a small flag was heard roaring: "Bold and unruly people! It would be nice for the court to sleep with you! Afraid of the cold? Go and make some straw to spread it! The court has to waste food to support you, the unruly people. If you talk nonsense, you would disobey the military order and behead you and will never forgive me!"

He Xing and his companions brought a bundle of firewood, and a group of strong people lay on the firewood. It was dark, and the climate at Da'ankou was extremely cold at the end of September. He Xing, who had only a thin cotton coat on his body, was so cold that he was trembling, but in the end he couldn't resist his sleep. He hugged the firewood and fell asleep. In the middle of the night, he woke up from hunger again, and a gust of cold wind blew, and his whole body was trembling.

After suffering all night, the sun came out and the warm sunlight shone on his body. He Xing felt much more comfortable.

The leader of the Ming army brought breakfast. The so-called breakfast is porridge made of rice bran, wheat bran and wild vegetables. Such porridge is still as thin as water, which can reflect people's reflections.

After breakfast, the Ming soldiers drove He Xing and the others up the mountain to cut stones. Another part of Min Zhuang was driven to dig soil to burn bricks.

The people who are young and strong can't even eat enough, so how can they have the strength to work? He Xing saw with his own eyes that someone was carrying a stone down the mountain, stumbled on the ground, crushed by a huge rock, and crushed it into a meat pie.
Chapter completed!