Just a few days later, news gradually spread in the south of the city that every night around noon, near the alley where the Black Tiger Righteous House is located, there will be a man in a gray cloak wandering there, and from him you can get a bamboo stick engraved with the word "tiger".

This bamboo stick is the token of the black tiger thief in Yingshan, as long as you take this bamboo stick to the east mountain of Yingshan, you are eligible to defect to the black tiger thief.

Some people may say that the Yingshan Black Tiger Thief was exterminated by the joint efforts of Kunyang, Runan, and Yexian counties, who would be stupid enough to defect to such a thief who is destined to be exterminated?

People who would think like this would underestimate the reputation of the 'Black Tiger Thief' in Kunyang.

After the collapse of the Black Tiger Village, they had to go far into the mountains, but why did Feng Village, Xiang Village and other nearby villages continue to shelter the group of women and children who are unclear with the Black Tiger Village? Is it just because of the request of the county government?

Moreover, why did Ma Gai at that time want to kill Xu Fen but dare not?

The reason is simple, because the backbone of the Black Tiger Thief is still there.

Although most people don't know about the existence of Zhao Yu, the backbone of the black tiger thieves such as Guo Da, Chen Mo, Wang Qing, and Niu Heng were still alive at that time, which is first of all an indisputable fact, and no one is sure whether this group of bandits will return to Kunyang one day.

Therefore, whether it was Fengcun, Xiangcun and other local villages, or Ma Gai, they did not dare to act rashly at that time, because they all knew that the black tiger thief was a rather fierce mountain thief.

How fierce is it?

Kunyang encircled and suppressed the black tiger thieves a total of three times, and the first time was a fiasco, with about seven or eight hundred officers and soldiers killed in half; In the second small victory, the county lieutenant Ma Gai successfully destroyed many other cottages in Yingshan, forcing the black tiger thieves to abandon the old village because of the edge of the officers and soldiers, but the strength of the black tiger thieves was almost not lost; The third and most fierce one, the three counties of Kunyang, Runan, and Yexian joined forces to crusade against the black tiger thieves, and the three county lieutenants of the three counties led about 1,800 officers and soldiers to attack a black tiger village with about 800 people at that time, and as a result, the officers and soldiers killed about 300 black tiger thieves at the cost of sacrificing more than 700 people, and finally nearly 200 black tiger thieves still absconded.

Anyone who wants to learn of this result can't help but ask: Did the officers and soldiers really win?

In this regard, Zhao Yu naturally has the most evaluation qualifications, at least in his opinion, the officers and soldiers did not win, even after the battle of Xiangcun, he was still able to make the officers and soldiers lose both, the reason why he decided to withdraw to Luyang County was only because of his scruples about Zhang Jing, after all, this General Zhang's personal ability is not concerned, his identity alone is enough to make Zhao Yu jealous, so in the case of a way out, Zhao Yu does not want to fight to the death with that General Zhang, so as not to completely provoke the other party.

These secrets are naturally unknown to ordinary Kunyang people, but even so, Black Tiger Village still made a name for itself in the county through these three confrontations with officers and soldiers.

A fierce bandit that caused heavy losses to the officers and soldiers of Kunyang and took two years to exterminate, this alone is enough to attract those restless guys.

At the beginning of February, one after another, people with the 'Black Tiger Token' defected to Yingshan Mountain, and defected to the Black Tiger Thieves who were rebuilding the main village there.

At this time, Chen Mo, Chu Jiao, Liu Heimu and others had also taken the rest of the villagers and the women and children in the village to quietly return to Kunyang from Luyang County and join Guo Da, Wang Qing, Chu Yan and others.

According to the previous assignment, Guo Da is still fully responsible for the construction of the main village, Wang Qing is responsible for controlling the main road under the mountain, Chu Jiao, Chu Yan and his son are mainly responsible for assisting Guo Da in building the main village, and Chen Mo is preparing to train a regular army in the village according to Zhao Yu's requirements.

Bandit regular army?

At first glance, it sounds very ridiculous, but this is indeed Zhao Yu's request to Chen Mo, he asked Chen Mo, who was born as a soldier, to use the requirements of training soldiers to train the villagers to cope with the increasingly severe challenges.

What are the growing challenges?

On the seventh day of the second lunar month, Zhao Yu took Jingnu and Niu Heng from Kunyang County to the main village where he was repairing the Black Tiger Village, and that night he summoned Guo Da, Chen Mo, Wang Qing, Chu Jiao, and Chu Yan to have a meeting, in which he explained this question.

He said to these leaders: "Since ancient times, officials and thieves have not been separated, and now that we have returned to Kunyang, we will inevitably clash with certain local forces and groups again, and these conflicts of interest will inevitably lead to Kunyang County launching a crusade against my Black Tiger Village again, and this is not something that Liu and Ma can cover up." …… The confrontation between us and the officers and soldiers of Kunyang County can only be said to be a small-scale exchange of fire now, and the threat to our cottage is not great, but this situation will not last long. As far as I know, the merchants of the Luye Freemasonry have reported to the Kunyang County Ya one after another, although Liu and Ma are temporarily delaying, but it is obvious that as long as those businessmen realize that the Kunyang County Ya cannot solve our problems for them, then, it seems that the previous Kunyang, Runan, and Ye County three counties jointly crusaded against our Black Tiger Village, will happen again, at that time, Liu and Ma will not be able to help me wait, the most important thing is to depend on us, we must have the strength to fight against the officers and soldiers of the counties as soon as possible, You can't leave the main village and run away again, right? ”

In this meeting, Zhao Yu clearly put forward a request to the main village, asking the main village to have the strength to resist the officers and soldiers of the counties as soon as possible.

And this requirement mainly involves two aspects, on the one hand, the defense capability of the main village, which is mainly responsible for Guo Da and Chu Jiao; On the other hand, in terms of manpower, Chen Mo, Wang Qing, and Chu Yan are mainly responsible.

Regarding the construction and consolidation of the main village, Guo Da and Chu Jiao have been stepping up, and they sent people to inform the young people of Xiangcun, Fengcun and other neighboring Xiangcun, forcing these Xiangcun to send young people in the village to help build a cottage in the village, but how to solve the problem of recruiting people in the village?

At this time, Guo Da, Chen Mo and other leaders finally understood the foresight of Zhao Yu ordering Chen Zu to open the Black Tiger Righteous House in the county seat.

Since the beginning of February, there have been ruffians, rangers, and unemployed people in Kunyang County who have been 'tricked' into coming to the cottage.

It is said that it is 'deception', in fact, it is not right, after all, the Black Tiger Village does not 'force the good to be a prostitute', forcing the good people to do evil, a bamboo stick with the word "tiger" engraved in black ink, in fact, it has clearly indicated to those people what kind of existence they are about to go to, I believe that among the people who came to the Black Tiger Village, at least ninety percent actually know that the object they defected to is the black tiger thief who has been in the limelight in the past two years, but these people are still here, it can be seen that these people are not good.

In addition, in terms of treatment, the Black Tiger Village did not treat these people who came to them badly, the old village drank wine and ate meat, and those newcomers who came to defect also drank wine and ate meat.

Of course, for some restless guys, the leaders in the cottage will naturally not indulge.

Don't think that those who defect to the Black Tiger Village are good people, the real good people, the Black Tiger Yishe will not be introduced to the cottage at all, at least not at present, after all, there is also a shortage of people on Chen Zu's side at this time, and some rangers with a sense of justice, Chen Cai has already been introduced to Chen Zu's side.

In other words, the people who are willing to come to the Black Tiger Village are all some guys who are not very peaceful, and some of them are not exaggerated even if they are called evildoers.

Since he is a wicked person, he needs to be controlled by a wicked person, and in just a few days, those guys who defected to the cottage were cleaned up by Chen Mo, Wang Qing, Chu Yan and others, and told him not to dare to go west if he went east.

Of course, there are some of them who want to escape from the cottage, but under the coercion of the cottage, these guys eventually return to the cottage honestly.

In this way, through the Black Tiger Righteous House, Zhao Yu ate Kunyang black and white, and people with a righteous conscience were introduced to Chen Zu's side, and on the contrary, they were recommended to the main village of Black Tiger Village, in February and March, in just two months, Chen Zu's side has gathered more than 100 rangers as guards, and the main village of Black Tiger Village is even more exaggerated, the number of people has skyrocketed from less than 200 to 500 people, and there is a faint trend of restoring the heyday of Black Tiger Village.

During this period of time, the news of the return of the black tiger thief to Kunyang gradually spread throughout Kunyang County, making the county commander Liu Bi and the county lieutenant Ma Gai very troubled.

Having said that, did Black Tiger Village do anything hurtful to Kunyang County during this time?

Not really.

During this time, the only evil move of the Black Tiger Village was that they regained control of the main road under the mountain, and collected about 20% of the value of the caravan's goods from the caravans as they had done in the past.

Of course, as in the past, as long as the black tiger thief is wealthy, he does not want to die, as long as the past chamber of commerce is honestly cooperative, the black tiger thief will not hurt anyone.

In addition, the Black Tiger Thieves neither intrude the village nor offend the county seat, so except for the merchants, the other Kunyang people and the Black Tiger Thieves actually do not have any direct conflicts of interest, at most they are just outraged by hearsay and the various evil deeds of the Black Tiger Village.

Therefore, the county order Liu Bi can bear it for the time being, at most, the number of people who are worried about the Black Tiger Village is increasing.

After thinking about it, Liu Bi privately discussed with Ma Gai: "There are unfavorable rumors about the Black Tiger Yishe, which gradually spread throughout the county, if my county government does not react, it will inevitably arouse suspicion, you go to see that Zhou Hu and ask him to settle down for a while, otherwise, the county government can only follow the will of the people and investigate the Yishe." ”

Seeing that Liu Bi threw the hot potato to himself again, Ma Gai was really unhappy in his heart, but there was no way.

At this time, Chen Zu had already moved to his mansion to live, and Chen Cai was in charge of the Black Tiger Righteous House.

After seeing Chen Cai alone, Ma Gai said directly: "Recently, someone reported to the official, saying that near your Black Tiger Righteous House, there are people suspected of being 'Black Tiger Thieves' distributing tokens every night, instigating people to defect to the cottage......"

Hearing this, Chen Cai's eyes widened and exclaimed, "I don't know about this?" ”

Ma Gai looked at Chen Cai expressionlessly, sneered, and said deliberately: "If it weren't for your subordinates, then I would arrest you?" ”

"No, just kidding."

Chen Cai put away the surprise on his face, nodded with a smile and admitted: "That's right, it's our people, and I ask the county lieutenant to raise his noble hand." ”

Ma Gai didn't know that the 'we' package in Chen Cai's mouth didn't include him, but he didn't want to know, so he said with a calm face: "Distributing tokens all over the street, tempting people to go to the cottage, what do you want to do?" ”

Chen Cai spread his hands and said, "Without him, it's just to recruit some villagers." …… This is a good thing, hasn't the county lieutenant noticed that the security in the city is getting better and better? ”

"Hey."

Ma Gai snorted softly.

In fact, even if Chen Cai didn't mention it, Ma Gai had already noticed that the ruffians and rangers who had nothing to do in the county, and even made trouble everywhere, couldn't even see the figure of the person for a while, and they knew that they had gone to the Black Tiger Village when they guessed.

These guys are not a good thing, they are gone, and the security in Kunyang County has improved a lot, but this alone is not enough to hide the fact that Black Tiger Village is recruiting people on a large scale.

As the number of people defecting to the Black Tiger Village increased, Liu Bi and Ma Gai both felt a little panicked.

"Restrain yourself." Ma Gai said solemnly: "Many people have reported to the official one after another, and if this continues, it is impossible for the county government to be unresponsive, so don't blame me for bringing someone to search when the time comes." ”

Hearing this, Chen Cai said with a smile: "It is impossible to converge, it is impossible for a lifetime, but the problem that Liu Gong and the county lieutenant are worried about, the big leader has already had a way to deal with it. ”

"Oh?" A hint of surprise flashed in Ma Gai's eyes.

He is still very interested in the response of the black tiger thief Shou Zhou Hu.

Seeing this, Chen Cai told Ma Gai what Zhao Yu asked him to convey: "Just as the chief said to Liu Gong before the big head took the lead, since my Black Tiger people have taken root in Kunyang, they will naturally not come here. Since the beginning of this year, what harm have I done to the people of Kunyang? Never! …… Since the people of Kunyang have no direct conflict of interest with our Black Tigers, then we can completely guide public opinion and divert the attention of the people of Kunyang. In just a few days, I will arrange for some rumors to be released to distract the attention of the county people......"

Magai heard some reasoning, and returned the letter suspiciously.

The next day, when Ma Gai came to the county office, he felt that the people in the county government were looking at him with strange eyes, intentionally or unintentionally.

Even, Yang Dang, the head catcher under him, came to test him: "County Lieutenant, I heard that you have taken a fancy to the young daughter of Wang Fu's family in Qianjie who has not yet come out of the cabinet, and you intend to welcome her as a second room?" ”

"What?" Ma Gai felt inexplicable: "Who said that?" ”

"I heard it this morning when the county guard went out to patrol the streets, saying that you and Liu Gong both fell in love with the daughter of Wang Fu's family on the front street, and they had a gap with Liu Gong for this reason." Yang dared to say it well.

Ma Gai was immediately angry, and immediately sent someone to investigate, only to learn that I don't know who spread the news last night.

At the same time, there is news about Chen Zu, saying that the owner of the Black Tiger Righteous House has returned to Kunyang, and because his wife has passed away, he is ready to marry a room in Kunyang as the main room.

Chen Zu, as the owner of the Black Tiger Righteous House, has been in the limelight in the county recently, and the people in the county have been rumoring for a while now, speculating how much money this rich man Chen has.

However, when the exciting news of 'the county commander Liu Bi and the county lieutenant Ma Gaiyin Wang's daughter turned against each other' came out, Chen Zu's news was almost unnoticed.

What the? Black Tiger Thief?

Who the cares about a bunch of bandits!

Compared with a group of bandits, the people of Kunyang are more interested in who the Wang family is, after all, the county commander Liu Bi and the county lieutenant Ma Gai are the top group of people in Kunyang County.

Not to mention ordinary civilians, even the county officials and officials in the county government are very curious about the authenticity of this matter.

Under the attention of Yang Dang, Ma Gai went to see Liu Bi in a bit of a panic and told Liu Bi about it.

Liu Bi didn't know about this, and when he heard that there were rumors in the county, he was immediately furious: "Who dares to spread rumors about this official?" Go and investigate it immediately and punish it severely! …… There's no way to do it! ”

In addition to Liu Bi's anger, Ma Gai said his guess with some humility: "This ...... Perhaps it was the Black Tiger Righteous Sacrifice that diverted the attention of the county people, so that the county people no longer paid attention to the Black Tiger Thief......"

Hearing this, Liu Bi was shocked and angry.

In all fairness, at the moment when they are powerless against the Black Tiger Thief, divert the attention of the county people, reduce the county people from reporting to the county government, and downplay a series of things about the Black Tiger Village and the Black Tiger Righteous House, which is indeed a very good way, but even so, you can't spread rumors about him!

Liu Bi said with a gloomy face: "You immediately go and contact that side to see if it was those people who did it." ”

At Liu Bi's request, Ma Gai had no choice but to go to the Black Tiger Yishe again.

Facts have proved that those rumors were indeed sent by Chen Cai, and Chen Cai also admitted the matter very simply and frankly, and asked Liu Bi and Ma Gai to keep silent about it.

To be honest, in view of the fact that there was a handle in the hands of the Black Tiger Thief, Ma Gai had speculated many times, guessing that the Black Tiger Village would use this to force him to do something harmful, but he never expected that the Black Tiger Thief would actually propose such a ...... Such an excessive request.

On that day, Ma Gai returned to the county office with a frown, ready to convey the black tiger thief's request to Liu Bi, but to his surprise, he came to Liu Bi's study and did not see the latter.

"What about Liu Gong?"

happened to see a small official come to the house with the case file, Ma Gai hurriedly asked.

The little official said with a strange expression: "Liu Gong went to the back office, Mrs. Fang Cai sent a little girl over, and Liu Gong left with a calm face......"

Ma Gai was about to ask, and suddenly heard a woman's crying and scolding from the direction of the back office, and he could vaguely hear words such as 'Wang's daughter', 'second room', and 'everyone knows'.

When he opened his mouth, he didn't know what to say.

After a while, I saw Liu Bi return to the study in a rage.

Ma Gai looked at this Liu Gong carefully, and looked at the slender scratches on Liu Bi's cheeks and neck with a strange expression.

"The small, the little one retired first."

Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, the little official left as if he had fled.

After Ma Gai closed the door and window of the study, Liu Bi asked with residual anger, "How?" But what did they do? ”

"Hmm." Margay nodded.

Seeing this, Liu Bi slapped the table with hatred and said angrily: "Such a yin method can only be thought of by Zhou Hu!" ”

But scolding and scolding, he can't do anything.

On that day, no one in the county government knew what Liu County Ling and Ma County Lieutenant said when they closed the study, they only knew that the grape trellis of the back office had fallen again.

When he returned to his home in the evening, Ma Gai also felt that the atmosphere at home was a little wrong.

Sure enough, after finishing the meal, his wife Zou asked him about it: "Today...... Today, the concubine listened to the neighbors talk about her husband, and said that her husband was ...... I fell in love with the daughter of the Wang family on the front street......"

Looking at his wife's resentful and uneasy gaze, Ma Gai showed a little wry smile on his face.

Although Liu Bi and Ma Gai suffered, in general, Zhao Yu's method of guiding public opinion was quite successful, and for a time the attention of Kunyang people was shifted to the entanglement between Liu and Ma and Wang's daughter.

However, Jingnu had some objections to this: "It's just that the Wang daughter is suffering, and this matter is well known, so how will the daughter's family marry in the future?" ”

Zhao Yu said with a smile: "Who said that?" It is not necessarily a blessing in disguise. ”

Jing Nu tilted her head and thought about it, and then she understood what Zhao Yu meant.

In short, in the case of Liu Bi and Ma Gai's slight sacrifice, the people of Kunyang finally have no time to pay attention to the affairs of Black Tiger Village and Black Tiger Yishe for the time being, and the pressure on Liu Bi and Ma Gai has naturally decreased a lot - of course, from another point of view, their pressure has increased dramatically.

But no matter what, with the help of Zhao Yu's strategy and the sacrifice of Liu and Ma, although the people of Kunyang County have learned the news of the 'Black Tiger Thief's return to Kunyang', Liu Bi and Ma Gai can still make the county government keep silent about it and try to downplay the things about the Black Tiger Thief.

It's a pity that it is not only the people of Kunyang who will put pressure on Kunyang, but also the Luye Freemasonry who hates the black tiger thief the most.

No, in early March, Lu Kuang, the president of the Luye Freemasonry, went to Kunyang County again and met with Liu Bi, the county commander.

Of course, Liu Bi knew why Lu Kuang came.

And the facts also proved that he guessed very accurately, after a cliché opening remarks, Lu Kuang once again reminded the threat of the black tiger thief, and asked Kunyang County to deal with this bandit as soon as possible.

Forced by the energy of the Luye Freemasons in the nearby counties, Liu Bi naturally refused Lu Kuang in person, but he couldn't help but scold his mother in his heart.

Encircling and suppressing the black tiger thief? It's easy to say!

If he had the courage to disobey Zhou Hu, the leader of the Black Tiger Thieves, then the grape trellis in his back office would not have fallen!

Who in the county government doesn't know that his dignified county master has slept in the study of the former government these days?

But scolding is scolding, on the surface, Liu Bi still has to stabilize Lu Kuang, after all, the energy of the Luye Freemasonry is very great, and he can't help Lu Kuang, but Lu Kuang can send someone to report the matter of the black tiger thief to Yingchuan County, so that the county can put pressure on him.

It's actually okay for the county to put downward pressure, but I'm afraid that the county will send people to help suppress the thieves, and then the matter will be big.

Rao is Liu Bi, and he can't tell what the black tiger thief Shou Zhou Hu will do.

After some negotiations, Liu Bi promised Lü Kuang that he would organize a crusade against the Black Tiger Village as soon as possible.

How long is this as soon as possible?

Considering that it is now approaching April, it is estimated that it is impossible before spring planting.

If you ink a few more times, it will probably be May.

Fortunately, Lu Kuang also knew that the Kunyang County Ya was in ink, and it was not unacceptable to the scheduled deadline of 'May'.

As long as Kunyang County can completely eradicate the Black Tiger Village this time.

In April, Heihuzhai continued to collect money from passing caravans, and the county government organized manpower to start busy with spring ploughing, including many villages in the county.

It is estimated that people who come to Kunyang County for the first time will not be able to understand the strange tranquility of Kunyang: there is obviously a group of hundreds of bandits in the territory, but the locals are busy with spring ploughing as if they are blind, and the incredible thing is that the group of bandits has never jumped out to make trouble.

And at this time, the head-catching Shiyuan, who had been away from Kunyang for several months, returned to Kunyang with Xu Bai, Wang Ping, and Chen Gui.

Thinking about it, he would never have imagined that in the few months since he left Kunyang, Kunyang County has undergone earth-shaking changes.