When the soldiers saw the figure in the abandoned town, they immediately became alarmed. He had heard Yue Yun explain earlier that he might encounter harassment from the Qi army, so he immediately thought that it might be an enemy attack. However, when he took a closer look, he soon found that there didn't seem to be many of those figures, and it was impossible for the Qi army to be stupid enough to send a dozen people to attack the city.

"Quick, quick, there is a situation, go and inform Young Marshal Yue. The soldier immediately shouted.

Another soldier hurriedly ran down the city and notified the cavalry who had been waiting below the city, and asked the cavalry to ride their horses and hurry to find Yue Yun.

At this time, the figures from the abandoned town had already arrived under the city.

The soldiers in the city did not wait for these people to approach, and immediately shouted: "Who are you?"

These men looked very depressed and exhausted by the light of the torches in the city. When many people came to the city gate, they fell directly to the ground, gasping for breath.

After a long time, one of them shouted to the castle tower: "Quick, open the city gate, I am the former battalion and are preparing to review Li Shu! Open the city gate quickly, I have something important to tell Zhou Envoy. ”

The soldier didn't know Li Shuping, so he didn't dare to open the door rashly, but replied: "You guys wait a minute, we are under the command of Young Marshal Yue, and we don't know you, so we can only open the door if we ask Young Marshal Yue to recognize it in person." Let's be wronged. ”

Li Shuping was a little depressed in the city, but he knew that this was a rule, so he had to endure it. He looked behind him and made sure that there were no bandits chasing him before he sat down on the ground with a big grin. Panting. There was also a look of horror on his face.

Two or so moments passed. Yue Yun, Zhou Bo and Li Xuzhong all rode horses and hurried from the city to the north gate. As soon as he got off the horse, a soldier came to report the current situation, saying that there were only about 20 people in the city now, and one of them claimed to be Li Shuping.

Zhou Bo immediately climbed the tower, followed by Yue Yun and Li Xuzhong.

When he came to the city tower, Zhou Bo leaned on the battlements and immediately shouted below: "Li Shuping, Li Shuping?"

Li Shuping heard the shout. Recognizing that it was Zhou Bo's voice, he immediately got up from the ground and replied, "Zhou Yuanjun, it's me." "■dǐng■diǎn■小■said,.2≤3.o≡s_();

Zhou Bo confirmed that it was Li Shuping, turned to the soldiers and gave an order: "Quick, open the city gate quickly, these people are all their own people." Quick, prepare water and food!"

The soldiers immediately split up.

When the gates opened, a dozen soldiers ran out and helped the men into the city. Only then did they realize that Li Shuping had blood stains on their bodies. There were also quite a few people who were hit by several feathered arrows. Thankfully, none of them were in danger of life.

After entering the city. The gates were reopened.

Some other soldiers had already brought water and fruit, and slowly let these people drink water and eat, and at the same time, some people saw that their injuries were not light, and hurriedly went to the city to find Dr. Langzhong.

Zhou Bo, Yue Yun and Li Xuzhong immediately found Li Shuping, only to see that Li Shuping had the most injuries on his body, but they were all flesh wounds. He was stabbed in each shoulder, and with an arrow stuck in his back, the shaft of the arrow was naturally broken. In addition to this, there are also some abrasions on Li Shuping's legs. Li Shuping's military robe is now torn, blood is stained everywhere, and Fan Yang doesn't know where to throw it.

"What's going on? What's going on?What about the others?" Zhou Bo hurriedly asked. He looked at the other twenty or so people, all of whom were soldiers guarding the car, but the craftsmen of the survey team were gone.

"Zhou Yuanjun, we have met mountain bandits, many, many mountain bandits. Several brothers died in the convoy, and the craftsmen of the survey team were also killed or wounded, but most of them were captured by the bandits. Li Shuping forcibly held back the thirst in his throat, he knew that Zhou Bo was very confused now, so he preemptively said with the little body left.

"What, mountain bandits?" Before Zhou Bo could express the surprise in his heart, Yue Yun was surprised first, and then turned into anger, "Damn, mountain bandits are so presumptuous?"

Li Xuzhong didn't say anything, he handed a gourd filled with water to Li Shuping, and asked Li Shuping to take a sip first.

Li Shuping took the gourd and drank all the water in it in one go. After a long sigh of relief, he reluctantly recovered some of his body and said, "These mountain bandits should have not escaped from the Qi army, and then they fell into the grass." They were still wearing the armor of the Qi army, but they were in tatters like a group of Hanako. I led the convoy to fight back two sieges and cover the retreat of the survey team, but ...... Alas......"

Zhou Bo and Yue Yun glanced at each other, they already knew the result, and both of them were in different moods with anger and anxiety.

Li Shuping paused, and then said: "There are more and more of these mountain bandits, as if they can't be killed at all. Later, I had no choice, I planned to fight with these mountain bandits, and let the survey team quickly escape and report a message. But the craftsmen of the survey team were scattered when the bandits charged. There's no way I'm not going to bring this news back, so I've got to lead the convoy myself out of the encirclement. ”

After saying that, he sighed heavily, and his expression was extremely guilty.

Zhou Bo sighed, patted Li Shuping's shoulder, and said, "Okay, I know you did your best." ”

At this time, Yue Yun asked again, "Brother Bi, where did you meet the mountain bandits?"

Li Shudian said: "We came to the iron mine very smoothly, and we also found the cave left by the previous mining of ore. It was noon, and I told everyone to stay and rest and eat, and in the afternoon to investigate the surrounding area of the iron mine. ”

Zhou Bo interrupted and said, "Is the iron mine you said really twenty miles to the north?"

Li Shuping thought for a while and said, "I'm not sure about this, because we walked all the mountain roads later, and it took about two hours to find the location of the iron mine. It should be a distance of about twenty to thirty miles. ”

Zhou Bo diǎn diǎn head, he knew that the mountain road was more difficult to walk, so it was impossible to measure the distance with the method of average steps.

Li Shuping continued: "I was too careless at the time. Those old guides lived, and roasted jerky to eat. We're all greedy. So there was no stopping them. I think it was the smoke of the fire that made the mountain bandits discover us. In the afternoon. I took people around to find out what was going on. As a result, after walking two or three miles, he was ambushed. The bandits first released cold arrows and wounded a few brothers, and then we retreated, and they chased and killed them!"

Zhou Bo was silent for a while, it seemed that as worried as he was, these mountain bandits were afraid that they would be the troops of the Qi army after they fled, although the combat effectiveness of the Qi army was not very good. But just listening to what Li Shujing said, of course, there are a lot of them. He took a deep breath, his face extremely heavy.

"Did you see that the craftsmen of the survey team were captured alive?" he asked suddenly.

"Yes, I saw that the bandits, after surrounding some of their lone brothers, did not kill them, but captured them alive. Li Shuping said with certainty, but after thinking about it, he added, "However, because I only saw a few brothers being captured alive." I didn't see the craftsmen with my own eyes, so I wasn't sure for it. ”

Yue Yun touched his chin. Puzzled, he said, "Why did they capture people alive?"

Zhou Bo only thought for a moment and said, "I believe that these mountain bandits attacked you with the principle of capturing you alive. So, those craftsmen either died on the spot, or they are now prisoners. ”

"They're not going to capture people...... Let's eat?" said Li Shuping, a little worried.

"That's disgusting, isn't it? Li Xuzhong couldn't help but say.

"Yes, if that's the case, they will be damned!Hmph, if they dare to do such an inhumane thing, I will definitely lead a large army to destroy them, and not one of them will be left!" Yue Yun said angrily.

"I don't think so," Zhou Bo shook his head and said, "There are probably two possibilities for them to catch them alive." Either as a strong man and expand his scale, or as a hostage, and then extort the hostage's family to ransom. ”

After listening to Zhou Bo's analysis, everyone was finally relieved.

Li Shushu said: "Yes, there is a possibility. Although most of the attacks on us were Qi troops, there were also many ordinary people with sticks in their hands. These people are either refugees or strong men who have been captured by this gang of bandits. ”

Yue Yun sank his breath and asked Zhou Bo: "Zhou Envoy, what should we do now? If we want to suppress the bandits, I have nothing to say, I will mobilize all the people of my headquarters at dawn, I don't believe that I can't deal with these rabble bandits." ”

Li Xuzhong said again and again: "That's right, these mountain bandits that the Qi army has turned into, although they are not hindering us now, they are potential threats after all. Moreover, the detention of so many craftsmen and brothers cannot boost their arrogance, and we must teach them a good lesson. ”

Zhou Bo diǎn diǎn head and said, "What you said makes sense. If it is said that the suppression of bandits, I do agree with it, after all, this is an action to eliminate violence and peace. But in any case, the mountain bandits also have the advantage of mountain bandits, and we must not underestimate the enemy too much, and we must take action after taking a long-term view. ”

Everyone knew that what Zhou Bo said made sense, so they didn't argue about anything, and they all answered.

Subsequently, Zhou Bo settled these people who had escaped, and then returned to the yamen, and asked Li Shuping to report in detail what had happened and all the situations that had been investigated. With this information, they came to speculate on the extent in which the mountain bandits' nest was located.

After some discussion, because Li Shuping was also in a hurry when he was attacked, he couldn't say it correctly. Moreover, even if Li Shuping can name an approximate location, it is still an unconfirmed place, and marching and fighting is a major event, and it is impossible to make a hasty decision like this.

After Zhou Bo sank his breath, he ordered: "Let's rest first, we will continue to discuss tomorrow morning." ”

However, Li Shuping was worried about the comfort of those craftsmen, and hurriedly said: "Zhou Yuanjun, won't you send troops to fight against these bandits early tomorrow morning?"

Zhou Bo shook his head and said, "It's easy to say, deep in the mountains and wild forests, without exact information, how to send troops?"

Li Shudian said: "But, what about those brothers of the Kamcha team? They must still be waiting for us to come to the rescue!!"

Zhou Bo took a deep breath and said, "I naturally know this. ”

On the side, Li Xuzhong also felt that he should take action immediately after dawn, so that he could catch the mountain bandits off guard. So, he said: "Zhou Envoy, as the so-called soldiers are fast, these mountain bandits can't let them have a chance to breathe!"

Yue Yun diǎn diǎn head and said, "I agree with the idea of the head of the higher education. What's more, didn't you also say that Zhou Envoy Jun said before, but if you want to act, you just need to wait until dawn?"

Zhou Bo smiled slightly and said, "What I said before was to search for Li's book review after dawn. But what you are talking about now is attacking the bandits. The key problem is that we don't know the details of the bandits. Where are they? We don't know. How many of them are? We don't know. If you attack rashly without knowing anything, isn't that a child's play in war?"

All three of them were stunned.

However, Li Shuping still said: "However, if we don't do anything, it's not a solution." ”

Zhou Bo said: "It's not that you don't do nothing. I'll let you rest first, that is, to maintain your energy. Whether we need to send someone out tomorrow to carry out the operation, then we can continue to discuss tomorrow. Besides, if the bandits are trying to ask for ransom, I think they might come and contact us. ”

Li Xuzhong asked, "Then, what if these mountain bandits don't come to contact us?"

Zhou Bo took a deep breath, and then said, "It doesn't matter if the bandits contact us or not. We're going to take action. But there must be no rush. We must first find a way to figure out the nest of these mountain bandits, and also find out the surrounding terrain, so we can't let us send cavalry to encircle and suppress them in the ravine. ”

Li Shu commented on the diǎn head, and Yue Yun also felt that it made sense, but they were still anxious in their hearts.

Yue Yun thought that there was no need to be so cautious in dealing with these mountain bandits, but fortunately in his mind, he still remembered his father's earnest teachings, and he couldn't be too impulsive in everything. In the end, he had to sigh and say, "In that case, okay then." Let's go back and rest. Tomorrow, if Zhou Envoy Jun needs to send more troops to act, even if he comes to me, even if my troops are not enough, I can ask Junzhou to transfer some troops. ”

Zhou Bo arched his hand to Yue Yun and said, "Thank you, Brother Yue." ”

After he finished speaking, he ordered the guards of the yamen, and placed Yue Yun, Li Xuzhong, and Li Shuping in the yamen, anyway, there are so many rooms here. At the same time, he also knew that Yue Yun would definitely get up in the middle of the night to inspect the garrisons of the various city gates.

Li Xuzhong and Li Shuping went out first to distribute the 600 soldiers outside the gate to settle under the city wall, because there was no barracks in the Guanghua Military City, and naturally there were no extra barracks to house these soldiers. However, because the city wall has always been an important place for attack and defense, there will be some spare thatched huts, wooden houses, and warehouses in the building, and in the event of a war, these buildings will store weapons, grain and grass.

At this time, 600 soldiers had to be placed here for the time being.

After Yue Yun, Li Shuping and Li Xuzhong left, Zhou Bo still didn't sleep. He pondered in the lobby what method to use to deal with these bandits.

With the current situation of the Guanghua Army, it is easy to cooperate with the Yuejia Army to exterminate this group of mountain bandits. And these mountain bandits obviously knew about this, so they did not dare to harass the border towns arrogantly for the past two months. Of course, it is possible that these mountain bandits will not dare to harass Xiangyang Mansion alone, but if they go to harass the border of Qi State, it is still possible. (To be continued.) )