In the early morning of the next day, after Zhang Jing woke up, his personal guard Li Cheng reported to him.

"General, the soldiers sent to carry out the tired plan last night seem to have encountered the thieves on the mountain, so that there have been some casualties."

Zhang Jing frowned and asked, "How can you be so careless?" …… Forget it, you invite Lieutenant Huang to come, and I will ask him in person. ”

"Yes."

After a while, Li Cheng sent someone to invite Huang Ben.

Seeing Zhang Jing, Huang Ben bowed and saluted, and then listened to Zhang Jing ask: "County Lieutenant Huang, I heard that the harassment of the bandits last night was not smooth?" ”

Huang Ben's face was scornful, and he explained: "It's not prudent enough to blame the humble position. ”

As he spoke, he told Zhang Jing about the incident of harassing the thieves in the mountains last night.

Last night, around midnight, according to Zhang Jing's orders, Huang Ben came to the foot of the mountain with more than 30 officers and soldiers, banged on his weapons and shouted, creating the illusion of a sneak attack on the thief's cottage.

At that time, there was a quiet place on and off the mountain, although Huang Ben and his group only had about 30 people, but the momentum was not small, during which Huang Ben vaguely heard some commotion on the mountain, and his heart was happy.

But the good times didn't last long, and the thieves on the mountain immediately sent a team of men to look for them all over the mountain, and when Huang Ben and the others made a noise for the third time, the other party finally found their location and launched an attack on them.

Fortunately, there were not many people sent by the thieves, and after some chaos, Huang Ben finally successfully retreated with his officers and soldiers, but during the retreat, they inevitably suffered some casualties, and it was estimated that more than a dozen people were missing—probably dead.

After listening to Huang Ben's explanation, Zhang Jing nodded, not very concerned.

As a general, he can't win every battle without blood, the only thing he can do is to reduce the casualties of his own soldiers as much as possible - and last night's sacrifice is inevitable.

Of course, although it was inevitable, Zhang Jing still told Huang Ben to be extra careful in the next few days: "Since there were bandits who came down the mountain to search you and others last night, then in the next few days, they will definitely do this, I hope that Huang County Lieutenant will be careful in the next few days, and don't let the soldiers sacrifice needlessly." ”

"Yes."

Huang Ben swore that he would harass the bandits in the next few days, shouting and changing his vigilance, promising that the bandits on the mountain would not find them and work in vain.

Zhang Jing smiled and sent it out of the tent.

After another day, after waking up the next morning, Zhang Jing immediately asked Li Yingdao: "Huang Ben harassed the bandits last night, did any bandits chase and kill them?" ”

"Yes."

"Did Huang Ben's men ever suffer casualties?"

"Not really." Li Cheng shook his head and said, "County Lieutenant Huang was extra careful last night, and there were no casualties. ”

"Good!" Zhang Jing nodded with satisfaction.

He didn't care that the bandits on the mountain sent people to hunt down Huang Ben and his gang, after all, the essence of this tired strategy was to not only make the enemy unstable, but also not let the other party find his whereabouts, as long as the bandits could not find the whereabouts of Huang Ben and his gang, the more people they sent, the more they fell into Zhang Jing's hands - if they could use Huang Ben's gang of only twenty or thirty people, they would be exchanged for hundreds of bandits who chased them all night and couldn't rest? Isn't that what it means to earn?

However, just as Zhang Jing was relieved, he saw Li Negative and said with a strange expression: "General, although the soldiers under Captain Huang County did not suffer any losses last night, the soldiers who patrolled outside our camp at night were attacked by bandits. ”

"Huh?"

Zhang Jing was stunned when he heard this, and his face became a little strange like Li Cheng.

"Could it be that those bandits couldn't catch Huang Ben and the others, and their hearts were on fire, so they took out their anger at the soldiers patrolling outside our camp? That's ......

Zhang Jing smiled bitterly and shook his head.

On the same day, in order to cooperate with the tired soldiers, Zhang Jing and Ma Gai, Huang Ben, and Gao Chun, the three county lieutenants, made an appointment to feint and attack the Black Tiger Village, with only one purpose, that is, to make the thieves in the Black Tiger Village unable to make up for sleep during the day.

Hundreds of officers and soldiers slaughtered halfway up the mountain, using the old village of Black Tiger Village, which had become a ruin, as a base and trying to climb to the top of the mountain.

Just as Zhang Jing guessed, the thieves on the mountain really sent people to stop them, and the two sides had a stalemate in a whole forest.

During this period, Huang Ben, Gao Chun, and Ma Gai tried to launch an attack every once in a while according to Zhang Jing's instructions to disturb the bandits on the opposite side.

It was not until it was near dusk that the officers and men went down the mountain again.

Around the end of the day, there were officers and soldiers under Huang Ben quietly approaching the bottom of the mountain and harassing them.

Feints during the day and feints at night, Zhang Jing didn't give the bandits on the opposite side a chance to breathe, just to make them tense their nerves at all times.

And the bandits on the other side seemed to be in order to take revenge on him, sending people down the mountain every night, and these bandits would look for the whereabouts of Huang Ben and others in the first few days, but in the next few days, they simply attacked the patrol soldiers outside the officer and soldier camp, which made the soldiers in charge of night patrols quite frightened.

In this regard, Zhang Jing also found it quite interesting, he said to Li Cheng: "The 'plotter' on the mountain must have seen through my tired tactics, you see that in the past few days and nights, he simply did not send people to look for Huang Ben and others, and specifically attacked the patrol soldiers outside our camp. …… This person, kind of interesting. ”

It has to be said that in the recent days when Zhang Jing and others were tired of troops, Heihuzhai sent people down the mountain every night to arrest the guards patrolling outside the officers and soldiers' camp.

Pity the guards who patrol the night with torches, often walking, shooting a few arrows in front of them, and then a group of bandits will attack them.

The enemy is dark and I am clear, which is simply impossible to prevent.

Although Zhang Jing also set up some ambushes for this, such as asking Gao Chun to send people to ambush at night, as long as there are patrol soldiers attacked, they will immediately send out to provide support, and take advantage of the situation to hunt down those bandits.

But the effect of this move is not obvious, those bandits are very cunning, once they succeed, they immediately retreat, if they find that they have been ambushed, they will flee so quickly that the officers and soldiers have no way to deal with this group of bandits.

Therefore, Zhang Jing felt that this was a counterattack made by the 'plotter' in the Black Tiger Village against his tired tactics.

It's kind of interesting.

Li Cheng nodded, and then asked, "Did the general guess the purpose of his sending people to arrest our patrol guards?" ”

Hearing this, Zhang Jing fell into deep thought.

Yes, the first few days weren't obvious, but as the days passed, he gradually discovered that the bandits sent by the plotters of the Black Tiger Village seemed to be aimed at arresting the patrolling soldiers, rather than killing them.

In all fairness, it is much easier to kill than to capture, kill on the spot, and let the corpse be exposed in the wilderness, but if you arrest it, you have to take it away, Zhang Jing suspects that there must be some purpose in this.

"Could it be the bandits trying to trade their captured soldiers for their captive?" Li Cheng guessed.

"Possibly."

Thinking that there were still dozens of bandits imprisoned in the camp, Zhang Jing nodded thoughtfully.

This speculation is not impossible, but the question is, are the bandits in Black Tiger Village really so righteous? Fearless of danger to rescue their captured companions?

Or is there some conspiracy in this?

Zhang Jing personally prefers the latter, but for the time being, he can't guess the other party's intentions.

Around 18 May, that is, about 10 days after Zhang Jing carried out the plan of exhausting the troops, the officers and men under the mountain had gradually changed from a feint attack to a tentative attack on the village, and only waited for the bandits in the Black Tiger Village to get tired and launched a general attack, but it was a pity that Zhao Yu had already seen through the plan of the officers and soldiers to exhaust the troops, so that Zhang Jing's intention did not succeed.

In this case, the things prepared by Zhao Yu, Guo Da and others are almost ready.

Around the hour of the day, Guo Da came to Zhao Yu's house with a stack of papers and handed the paper in his hand to Zhao Yu.

This is not ordinary paper, but a confession that Guo Da forcibly asked those officers and soldiers to sign prisoners.

In the past few days, Chen Mo and Chu Yan have led people down the mountain every night to arrest officers and soldiers, and after each officer and soldier is arrested in the cottage, there are only two ways in front of them: either sign a confession and become the internal response of the Black Tiger Village; Or die.

When they learned that there was still hope for their lives, most of the officers and soldiers chose to sign a confession.

Taking the stack of confessions handed over by Guo Da and looking at them casually, Zhao Yu smiled and said to the former: "Okay, send someone to negotiate with the officers and soldiers." ”

Guo Da nodded, and sent someone down the mountain that day to deliver the news to the patrol soldiers of the officers and soldiers in the form of arrow letters.

When the officers and soldiers on patrol got this arrow book, they did not dare to slack off, and immediately informed the three county lieutenants, Gao Chun, Huang Ben, and Ma Gai.

"Black Tiger Village asks for a prisoner exchange?"

After seeing the contents of the arrow book, Gao Chun, Huang Ben, and Ma Gai looked at each other.

Of course, they knew that many of their men had been captured by the bandits of the Black Tiger Village in the past few days, and they originally thought that there was some kind of trick, but they never thought that the other side was actually planning to exchange these captives for their captured companions.

"Hey, that's righteous." Huang Ben sneered.

However, ridicule and ridicule, do you want to agree to the Black Tiger Village's request for a prisoner exchange?

Runan County Lieutenant Huang Ben refused on the spot: "How can you compromise with the thief?" Can't say yes! ”

Gao Chun, the county lieutenant of Ye County, shook his head and said: "There are no absolutes in the world. Although it is true that you can't compromise with the thieves, there are indeed our soldiers in the Black Tiger Village, do you want to let them go? Even these thieves are trying to save their companions, if we don't save them when we die, how do you make the soldiers in the camp think of us? ”

Just when Huang Ben and Gao Chun were arguing, Zhang Jing looked at the arrow book repeatedly.

As a general, he does not rule out exchanging prisoners with the enemy, after all, it is not only the captured soldiers who are exchanged, but also the morale of the army and the support of the soldiers, so as long as it is not a critical time, it is not a big deal to exchange prisoners with the enemy.

What he pondered was the intention behind this prisoner exchange.

The conspirator on the other side wants to exchange for the dozens of bandits captured by his officers and soldiers, which is not a problem in itself, but the question is, can the Black Tiger Village change the whole situation with dozens of more bandits?

Of course not, judging from the current situation, even if there are dozens of more bandits, Black Tiger Village is still at an absolute disadvantage.

Since it was impossible to change the overall situation, the conspirator on the other side spent a lot of energy to ask his bandits to arrest the patrol officers and soldiers, and now he has put forward a request for prisoner exchange, what is the purpose of it?

『……』

Quietly glancing at Ma Gai sitting in the tent, Zhang Jing suddenly had a guess in his heart.

"If you agree to exchange prisoners, how can you ignore those soldiers?"

He made a decision right away.