At dawn, except for a layer of mist in the center of the river not far away, the situation in the four miles was already clearly visible, and the summer cicadas that had been calling all night seemed to be tired and rested, and the sound of early birds was heard in the forest from time to time.

This is only more than ten miles away from the county seat of Hejiang in the lower reaches of the Minjiang River, two sergeants wearing light armor rode slowly along the embankment, except for a battle jacket on the body is black, the tassels on the head are white, the style is no different from the Song people.

"Lao Xu, there's not much movement here, let's go further?" A young sergeant looked left and right, and there was not a single boat on the river, and he couldn't see the other side clearly, and there were no people in his direction.

The man he called "Lao Xu" didn't say anything, jumped off the horse and squatted on the ground to look at the turf carefully, and from time to time he plucked one and put it between his nose to sniff, the grass blades were stained with dew, and they looked crystal clear.

"But what's wrong?" The young sergeant jumped down and squatted with him.

"It's hard to say." Lao Xu straightened up and looked ahead.

According to his analysis, the grass in this area is smooth and traceless, there are no signs of a large number of people, there is not much rain in the past two days, if there are footprints on it, the cover will not be so fast, this is unusual, if the Song people did not take this road, then where would it be?

The two of them were the scouts of the vanguard of the army, and they were the most advanced of all the scouts. At this moment, the forward led by Zan Wanshou is still half a day's way away from here, not to mention the main army behind.

Lao Xu is a veteran soldier who has been in the army for more than 20 years, and a veteran soldier who has been in the army for so long has not even been mixed with a military leader, but he has not had the slightest guilt, because most of his colleagues who are braver, more enterprising than him, and even smarter than him have become a cup of loess, but he has survived unharmed until now.

Of course, he was sent to the front not only because of his caution and discernment, but more importantly, because he was a native and familiar with the terrain.

Seeing the young sergeant riding on his horse and moving forward, Lao Xu did not mean to follow, he took out a handful of hay from the cloth bag tied to the horse's back, and looked at the river while slowly feeding the horse, he always felt that something was not right, the water level seemed to be lower than yesterday? I don't know if it's an illusion.

At this moment, an alarm suddenly appeared in his mind, and his body was subconsciously lying on the side of the horse, pulling the reins in his hand to turn the horse's head, and then he heard an exclamation not far ahead.

"Ahh

He did not dare to look back, but as soon as he rolled over and got on his horse, he lowered himself and jerked sharply, and his mount began to speed up and jog, and the wind whirred in his ears, and a crossbow bolt almost flew over his head.

"Dog Tartar, you're running pretty fast!" Several Song soldiers came out of the mountains and forests, and one of the leaders looked at the figure that had gone away and spat on it, and said hatefully.

"This is not done, but this horse is good, it is not hurt at all, all heads, we have earned it." His men led the horses excitedly.

"Cut off the head, pack it up, and let's go." Du Head kicked the corpse in the ground, as if to verify whether it was really dead.

In a short time, several people took everything they could with them, and with the loot they had just obtained, they turned around and burrowed into the forest, leaving only a headless corpse lying on the grass.

Half an hour later, Zan Wanshou saw the scout who fled back, and after listening to his report, he couldn't help frowning, not far from Hejiang County, the army of the Song people was still nowhere to be found, where was Zhang Jue going to appear?

In order to guard against possible sneak attacks, they were cautious all the way, not only sent scouts in front, but also infantry soldiers in the mountains and forests next to them to investigate, and the speed of the march was extremely slow, in order to react quickly and reduce the time to change from the marching army column to the battle formation.

can go all the way from the city of Chongqing to here, and they haven't even touched the shadow of the Song people, and now they are almost in Hejiang County, can they finally hold back? Zan Wanshou kept asking for details in order to make an accurate judgment.

"Signing the matter, the two subordinates traveled along the river, and when they arrived not far from the county seat, the Song people suddenly came out of the forest, and the subordinates were weak and weak, so they had to fight and retreat. His subordinate companion was unfortunately hit by an arrow and fell off his horse, and only one of his subordinates had to turn around, so please punish him. ”

"Have you two seen how many Song people there are, and are you on guard in the county seat?" Zan Wanshou ignored those lies, there was no blood stains on this person's body, but he was afraid that he would run away as soon as he saw someone.

"Not much, there should be about more than ten people, and they are all spies like their subordinates, but it's a pity that their subordinates were discovered before they approached the county seat, and they can't find out the truth." Lao Xu didn't dare to guess, he had a faint feeling that the Song people didn't want to fight with them in Hejiang.

Fortunately, Zan Wanshou didn't ask any more questions, waved his hand to let him retreat, Lao Xu hesitated for a moment, looked at Shangguan's expression, and swallowed the words that came to his mouth, he was afraid that his feelings were groundless, and he couldn't please him in the end.

"Order the whole army to slow down, and send someone to inform Wang Shuai that our department has been in contact with the Song people and is searching and advancing."

Zan Wanshou called his own soldiers, and passed down orders one after another, according to the results of the reconnaissance cavalry, the intensity of searching the mountain should be increased, he could be a little slower, and he didn't want the Song people to succeed.

Almost at the same time, the front of the Song army stationed in Hejiang County also got the news that this county seat was determined by rumor, and when Zhao An led the troops over, Yuan Zhixian took people out of the city for ten miles to greet him, which made him lose a credit.

And the purpose of his coming here is not to capture the city, Hejiang County is not as strong as the Shenjian City, the city wall is short, not to mention that it is still in disrepair. Therefore, the first thing he did after entering the city was to ask the magistrate to post a notice telling the people of the city to evacuate as much as possible.

Whether they want to or not, the people can only go now, the army of the Tartars is close at hand, and there is no shortage of precedents for slaughtering cities that have fallen and rebelled like this, so Zhao An did not bother too much, and the people in the city have already helped the old and the young out of the city along the Chishui River.

"It's so slow." Zhao An glanced at the head, this was a young Han man who had somehow been sent as a scout.

"That is, the brethren waited for them in the woods for a day, and only then did they wait for two men." The head of the capital still has some regrets, there are only two enemies in total, and one of them ran away by surprise, and his face is dull when he talks about it.

"Good run, most of the Tartars will also get the news, you can take someone to see it again, just stay away, you don't have to engage them."

Zhao An didn't care much, there weren't many people in his department, he didn't think about fighting with the Tartars, the task given to him by the marshal was to evacuate the people here, and it had been two days. The place had almost become an empty city, and his men had now fled to the countryside, and he tried to mobilize the people there to avoid it as much as possible.

Now the momentum of the Tartars is still very strong, grind them for a few more days, and wait until their sharpness is gone, and they can fight with ease, Shuzhong needs a victory too much, the more so, the more cautious Zhang Jue is.

"Bandits?" Liu Yu, who returned to Qiongshan County, was a little surprised when he heard Jiang Cai's story, but he didn't expect that he had been gone for two days, and things would become like this.

Jiang Cai's efficiency is also very high, at this moment, hundreds of thieves who were released and recruited into the army, together with the recruited people, have begun to fill in the land he has circled, and in addition to the officials in the city who are responsible for maintaining order nearby, there are nearly a thousand heavily armed sergeants on the side.

And what they blocked out were the Wang family's family members and hired households, as well as the people nearby, and it was no wonder that anyone who saw the rice that was about to ripen was shoveled would be unwilling.

This is naked hegemony, in front of the barrel of a gun, the landlord class is just a paper tiger, the history of the Chinese Revolution for more than a hundred years has proved this, and now it appears alive in front of Liu Yu.

Liu Yu was a little shocked by their simplicity and rudeness, and casually proposed one of the thieves in prison and asked him to confess that the Wang family had contacted them, which confirmed the charge of a gangster, and if it was strictly in accordance with the criminal law, the Wang family would "come from his family, the person in charge will be beheaded, the rest of the women will be filled into prostitution, and adult men will flow for 3,000 miles, and they will not be pardoned." ”

It's too ruthless, people are just unwilling to sell land, Liu Yu has to try to convince himself that they are an out-and-out exploiting class, and they are the ones who want to be defeated, and he himself can only be regarded as a bully.

"It's not all about wronging his family, when the thieves besieged the city, in order to keep the family property outside the city, they did send food and other things to the thieves, and the housekeeper in his house also recognized this, so he ordered Shi Zhong to start work first."

Jiang Cai added, he is not used to doing this kind of thing, it was all a method that Shi Zhong came up with, but he didn't expect it to happen by mistake.

"But his family does have in-laws in Leizhou, it seems that he is still a Zhizhou, it is probably impossible to sit down, what does it mean, if his family knows the opportunity, he will offset those fields, and he doesn't want to kill them all, Ziqing, what do you say?"

Liu Yu also did not have the consciousness of being a bully, and nodded when he heard the words, originally what he wanted was that land, but now that he has it, as long as the Wang family is safe, he has no opinion.

"This matter has to be grasped quickly, a certain and Zeng Shilang have met, he is ready to set up the city in Lingao, there is also a certain place, it is really good, but the local manpower is in short supply, and now it is agricultural time, I am afraid that I will not be able to recruit much, and I have to go elsewhere to think about it."

Jiang Cai has no good way to do this, the local population is sparse is an indisputable fact, and it can't be solved in the short term, so he picked up the teacup on the table, but found that there was no water in it, and he was just about to call someone, and he saw a woman carrying a teapot to the hall.

"Forgive the slave for talking a lot, just when I heard Shangguan's words and lack of manpower, I don't know if it's or not?" Liu Yu was also a little surprised by her appearance, the cliff thieves had already been suppressed, why did she stay here?

"Erniang is now back in Handi, helping the brothers in the army wash clothes and cook, and she has nowhere to go." Jiang Cai saw his expression and quickly explained a few words.

"I see, there is Lao Erniang, there is indeed a shortage of manpower, and the dock and houses will be built soon."

Liu Yu secretly discussed, in this way, wouldn't he bury a great inventor and a model of a working figure.

"But I don't know what the Yi people can do?" Huang Erniang added tea to him, and then asked softly.

Her words made Liu Yu's heart move, in addition to the Han people on this island, there are also Li people known as Yiren, technical work can't be done, and the rough work of moving and lifting is definitely no problem, and the amount of this kind of work is the largest.

He glanced at Jiang Cai, the latter obviously thought of it, and had to say that this is really a way, and he has cooperated with them in the matter of suppressing bandits, and with a good foundation, it will definitely be feasible this time. R1058