In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 558 1 is on the verge of collapse

In the history textbooks of my past life, rebellion was often described as a peasant uprising.

Uprising is obviously a positive term. From the perspective of the general public, those who dare to rebel against tyranny can indeed be called people's heroes.

In reality... peasant rebellions are far from as idyllic as they appear in textbooks.

Most of the rebel armies were more like bandits than armies!

Whenever these armies entered a city, the first thing they did was plunder the city's inhabitants. Robbery and rape of women were commonplace for the rebel army.

Yang Zheng's army was completely different. Yang Zheng knew how miserable the people were in those days, so he strictly disciplined his troops. Any soldier who robbed the people or raped women would be severely punished!

Under Yang Zheng's strict discipline, this army, known as the Yang Family Army, may have average combat skills, but its military discipline is excellent. They do not harm the people in the slightest, and if a few inconspicuous people do commit a crime, Yang Zheng will deal with them immediately.

Therefore, the people had almost no fear of Yang's army, because they knew that Yang Zheng would not harm them and would even give them food.

Of course, the Yang family army did not harm the common people in the slightest, but they might not have been so kind to officials and landlords.

Wherever the Yang family army went, local officials and landlords became targets of their wrath. Officials were beheaded, while landlords, though not beheaded, had to hand over all their grain. If they refused...

Their fate was beheading.

It can be said that Yang Zheng's uprising dragged these once high-ranking officials and landlords from heaven to hell. They were once noble and could decide the life and death of others with a word, but now they could only have their heads chopped off by the lowly people they regarded as livestock. It has to be said that this is really ironic.

In less than a month, Yang Zheng conquered half of Liangshan County and commanded an army of 100,000, making him famous throughout Liangzhou!

At this time, the imperial court finally received news of Yang Zheng's rebellion...

In fact, the first to know about Yang Zheng's rebellion were the local government officials, or rather, the prefect.

Although the prefect of Liangzhou was not very capable, he did not dare to take the rebellion lightly. He immediately reported to the court and at the same time mobilized 100,000 Liangzhou troops to Liangshan County to quell the rebellion.

One hundred thousand Liangzhou troops—it sounds quite intimidating, and the number is indeed very large.

In reality... due to the extremely serious problem of embezzlement, the Liangzhou army, which had a nominal strength of 100,000, actually only had 50,000 troops!

Under normal circumstances, it would be unlikely that 50,000 regular imperial troops would lose to Yang Zheng's 100,000 poorly trained and almost unequipped peasant army.

however……

Life can be so strange sometimes.

Not long after the 100,000 Liangzhou troops marched into Liangshan County, they broke into battle with Yang Zheng's Yang Family Army.

At the beginning of the war, the Yang family army was actually somewhat lacking in confidence. After all, it was the regular army of the imperial court, well-equipped and with a much longer training period than the rebels who had only been in rebellion for less than a month.

But after the battle, Yang Zheng and the others discovered that... the Liangzhou army didn't seem to be as powerful as they had imagined.

This is natural.

Although the Liangzhou Army was the regular army of the imperial court, the barren land of Liangzhou meant that the taxes from Liangzhou alone could not support an army of 100,000 men, and it also needed to rely on government funding.

The imperial court's allocation of funds... hasn't arrived for many months.

With an army of 100,000, there was no pay, and even food was extremely scarce. The soldiers were starving and sometimes full, so where did they get the fighting power?

If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad. Even without pay and poor food, the Liangzhou army still had an advantage over the Yang family army. After all, they were well-equipped, while most of the Yang family army's soldiers didn't even have armor. In terms of equipment, the Liangzhou army was completely outmatched.

however……

The officials in the imperial court were corrupt, and the generals in the Liangzhou army were no better.

The Liangzhou army's weaponry, such as swords and armor, had long been mostly sold off by the army's generals. When the Liangzhou army went to the battlefield, they used blades as thin as cicada wings. As for iron armor...

The Liangzhou soldiers on the front line could still wear rusty iron armor, but the Liangzhou soldiers behind them... had nothing to wear at all.

Under such circumstances, the Liangzhou army's equipment advantage over the Yang family army was naturally negated.

That wasn't all. In order to collect more pay without actually serving, the generals of the Liangzhou army specifically replaced healthy soldiers with the old, weak, sick, and disabled, all in order to save on food and military pay...

The Liangzhou army, which was supposed to have 100,000 troops on paper, actually numbered only 50,000, and 30,000 of them were old, weak, sick, or disabled...

What kind of fighting power can an army that is starving, lacks weapons and equipment, and is mostly composed of the elderly, weak, sick and disabled have?

Unsurprisingly, the Liangzhou army collapsed at the first encounter.

The fighting spirit of the 50,000 Liangzhou soldiers was frighteningly weak. They collapsed instantly upon contact with the Yang family army. Afterward, the 50,000 soldiers ran around the battlefield like headless flies. Some were captured by the Yang family army, while many more fled into the deep mountains and forests.

As for the generals of Liangzhou Army, with their personal guards and warhorses for transportation, they escaped quite quickly, and almost none of them were captured by Yang Family Army.

This battle established the reputation of the Yang family army and allowed Yang Zheng and his army to firmly establish themselves in Liangshan County.

However, Yang Zheng, who had defeated the Liangzhou army, did not rush to expand his territory. After taking control of the entire Liangshan Prefecture, Yang Zheng began to focus on development. He trained his soldiers while plundering the wealth of the landlords in Liangshan Prefecture.

Disliking landlord families and corrupt officials can be considered the political correctness within the Yang family army, so Yang Zheng naturally wouldn't be lenient towards landlords and aristocratic families.

Yang Zheng would visit every landlord and powerful family in Liangshan Prefecture.

Why is the word "visit" in quotation marks?

Yang Zheng's visit involved bringing at least a thousand soldiers to thoroughly search the homes of landlords and powerful families. Any grain, gold, silver, treasures, or medicinal herbs that the Yang family army found were confiscated. This incurred the wrath of many landlords and powerful families.

Even officials from the imperial court wouldn't dare to barge into their home so rudely, yet Yang Zheng not only broke in but also ordered the property confiscated...

The landlords of Liangzhou Army could not tolerate such humiliation. Some of them resisted when Yang Zheng came to their door, intending to rely on the martial artists in their homes to confront Yang Zheng.

However, can a martial artist confront an army head-on?