After processing the loot, the group returned to the road.

They had to travel 500 miles in two days to reach Yecheng, but fortunately there were two people and two horses, but they were able to persevere.

Soon after hitting the road, Liu Bei seemed even more worried than yesterday.

After a few days of getting along, Li Su and Liu Bei also got acquainted, and occasionally joked, so he quipped: "The lord is worried that he may encounter more black mountain thieves on the road ahead?" Didn't the lord say the day before yesterday that the Black Mountain thieves were not to be feared? ”

Liu Bei couldn't help but laugh and scolded: "At this time, at that time, with Yun Changyi's martial arts, a small group of black mountain thieves is indeed not a problem." But at that time, how did I know that Jia Cong would withdraw the patrol soldiers and horses of Changshan and Zhao County, and the Black Mountain thieves would also be so much more active than in previous years? ”

In Liu Bei's original estimate, it was already very bad luck to travel for three days and encounter one or two waves of small groups of black mountain thieves.

But last night, after sleeping in the village, he was attacked, which forced him to raise his assessment of the probability of encountering the enemy.

Li Su smiled: "It turns out that the lord is also afraid. ”

Liu Bei was stunned for a moment, slapped Li Su on the shoulder, and almost slapped Li Su, who was not good at riding, but fortunately, Liu Bei's eyes were quick and he helped the other party again: "Didn't you think of some trick to avoid the enemy again, don't you tell me quickly!" ”

Li Su hugged the horse's neck and regained stability, then rubbed his shoulders and replied: "It's not a ploy, it's just a matter of taking advantage of the situation - the route we originally planned was to continue west, pass through Jingcheng County, and then go south along the wilderness west of Jingcheng, Shiyi, House, and Xiangguo counties, almost sticking to Taihang Mountain."

Judging from the situation in which Montenegrin thieves have become more and more rampant recently, the danger of encountering the army of Montenegrin thieves on this road has increased greatly. In my opinion, it is better to turn due south in advance, and pass through the eastern suburbs of the above-mentioned counties, so that you can save some turnaround distances, and walk at least fifty miles less, and second, you can avoid the thief army. ”

"But if you go to the east of the well, the house, in case you encounter the official and military patrol to check the talisman......" Liu Bei subconsciously retorted, halfway through speaking, he himself woke up, the problem he was worried about no longer existed,

Liu Bei suddenly slapped his thigh: "Clever plan!" We were negligent for a while, why didn't we think of it! Just Yiboya, let's immediately turn to the south! Avoid the hordes of thieves! ”

Originally, I didn't dare to take the easterly route, because I was afraid that the officials and soldiers would check it, but now they have all been evacuated by Shi Jiacong, what else is there to be afraid of?

At the same time, after Liu Bei shrank the route to the east, the large forces of the Montenegrin army generally did not dare to come over - the Montenegrin army bypassed the county towns controlled by the government, and the purpose was only to plunder, and it did not need too many troops.

If a large army is dispatched and the county town does not pull out the nails of the official army, it will rashly go deep behind the enemy's back, and if it is cleared by a strong wall and the way back is blocked, then won't it make trouble for yourself?

When a large army goes deep, it is necessary to consider logistics and military rations.

Only small groups of plundering scouts do not need to consider logistics, they can be self-sufficient because of food supply to the enemy, and they can easily use their mobility to escape when they encounter a broken back road.

But now, Liu Bei can just take advantage of the "virtuality" that Jia Cong showed to the Black Mountain thief, and instead of "real". There is a high probability that he will be able to walk on the edge of the actual control area of the official army and the actual control area of the Black Mountain thieves.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei didn't know why at first, but after listening to Liu Bei's analysis, they also thought it was true, and strictly obeyed the order to change the route.

Even Zhang Fei, a celebrity, really admired Li Su: "Mr. Li, a person who can learn real skills without worshipping a famous teacher, I have never served a few in my life, the second brother is the first, and you are the second." Where did you learn all these art of war? The superintendent is not in charge of the army. ”

Li Su smiled slightly: "Some people are naturally good at drawing inferences from one case to another - those sages who wrote "The Legend of the Ram" and "The Biography of Gu Liang", which one of the sages who did not study the "Spring and Autumn" in Confucius's mere 18,000 words, can annotate a biography of more than 100,000 words. If you are good at reading, you can read the book thicker and thicker, and then read more and thinner. ”

Zhang Fei was speechless for a while, secretly thinking that Li Boya's tone was big enough.

However, the follow-up itinerary quickly proved Li Su's judgment.

On the morning of the first day, everyone was very safe, and they did not encounter any thieves, and it was almost evening when they encountered the first group of thieves.

It was only a few dozen people, and Liu Bei and his party were killed without injury according to the template in the early morning, and nearly twenty heads were killed.

Because it is an enemy encountered in the wild, there is no need to worry about "leaving a living mouth will cause the Black Mountain thieves to retaliate against the local villagers", just kill those guys, there is no need to ensure that they are all wiped out.

In the evening of the same day, the group passed through the entire territory of Zhao County, and arrived to the east of Xiangguo County, in the north of Guangping County, and found a village to camp as usual.

In the middle of the night, another encounter was made with the Black Mountain Bandits, also small in number, a small group of scouts who had come to plunder. However, the night patrol soldiers arranged by Liu Bei were very vigilant and killed the other party in advance.

At dawn the next day, after walking a short distance, I found a village to sell the loot at a discount, left a name for the city, and then went on the road to continue to reproduce the glory of the previous day.

Although Liu Guanzhang and his Wuhuan cavalry were brave enough to kill the enemy, everyone knew in their hearts that the biggest credit for being able to reach Yecheng smoothly this time was Li Boya's decision.

If he hadn't changed his route temporarily, and encountered a brigade of Montenegrin Army more than ten times or even dozens of times the size, it would have been miserable.

The credit for pinching the soft persimmon is, of course, not as good as finding the soft persimmon.

On the evening of the fifth day of February, the group finally arrived at the north bank of Zhangshui.

In three days, Liu Bei personally slashed seven or eight black mountain thieves, and Guan Zhang killed dozens of people each. The three groups of thieves who repelled belonged to the three groups of thieves in the Black Mountain, Zhang Baji, Zhang Baiqi, and Li Damu.

Watching Yecheng appear on the horizon, the group felt quite emotional.

Liu Bei silently took stock in his heart, but he didn't expect that he could have so many seizures by killing the Black Mountain thieves along the way, adding up to millions of money, and there were thirty or forty more donkeys and horses, and it was a lot of money to sell them in Yecheng.

Of course, there were also losses, because of the continuous fighting, the Wuhuan Turquoise cavalry he brought killed three people, only twelve remained, and a few were slightly wounded.

These are all elite cavalrymen who have been with Liu Bei for several years, so the pension is much heavier than that of ordinary soldiers, and Liu Bei will give 100,000 yuan to his family for an average life. Those who did not marry were given to their brothers or their parents, but they had no family

In addition, Liu Bei could not swallow all the captures in the war, and had to give at least one-third to the living soldiers as a reward.

This money seems to be easy to make, but if Li Su didn't take the opportunity to adapt and re-choose the route, I'm afraid it would just be a bubble.

However, the distribution of the spoils and the disposal of the spoils are a matter of later information, and we have to get down to business for now.

As soon as everyone arrived at the north gate of Yecheng, the gatekeepers guarding the city were stricter than those in Zhongshan, so they stretched their bows and arrows from afar, and sent a team of sentry cavalry to intercept Liu Bei and his party from afar, and carried out various inspections.

Liu Bei took out the invalid official heirloom, and while dealing with the inspection, he explained that he had something important to ask for to see Jia Shi to report.

Even so, it was still given to the soldiers guarding the north gate at this moment, each of whom had a share of hundreds of copper coins, so that they could enter the city, and a total of tens of thousands of dollars were spent.

Moreover, only Liu Guan, Zhang and Li can directly enter the city, and the other cavalry can only find a place to rest on the side of the urn city, and be watched by the soldiers defending the city, lest they be black mountain thieves disguised and put into the inner city to cause trouble.

For this reason, Liu Bei called out to the cavalry of his henchmen to lead Liu Dun and instructed: "If the soldiers guarding the gate are greedy, you can share some wine and meat with them, which is really not good, and you can also take out ten horses of cloth and silk to share the profits, and it will be regarded as entering the city to pay taxes, and don't let the brothers suffer." ”

At the end of the Han Dynasty, the price difference between various places was so large, not only because of the difficulty of commercial transportation, but more importantly, the complex and repetitive commercial taxes.

Even if you find a way to avoid taxes, you have to give benefits everywhere, otherwise how can the price of horses in Luoyang be three or four times more expensive than in Youzhou.

Liu Dun gratefully promised: "Don't worry, lord." ”

……

After spending money to open the way, Liu Bei and his entourage finally begged to see the assassin Shi Jiacong in the evening.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were blocked outside the main hall of the Assassin's Mansion, and only Liu Bei and Li Su were allowed to enter.

After saluting, Li Su also secretly observed Jia Cong, who was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties, with a thin appearance, and a righteous face, which seemed to be a little inconsistent with the previous legend of the "eunuch" identity.

Jia Cong also became a first-level high-ranking official in the history of assassination in the first year of Zhongping and after the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. In 184, he was initially appointed as the assassin of Jiaozhou to persuade the civil unrest in Jiaozhi, and it is said that he has a good reputation.

In the past, he was accused of being greedy for goods and looting spices, pearls, and rhino horns that were special products of Lingnan, which caused the local indigenous people to boil. After Jia Cong took office, he claimed that he had not privately plundered the above-mentioned local products in three years, quelling the chaos.

So after Wang Fen's case in Jizhou this time, the imperial court quickly transferred him from Jiaozhou. Because of the long distance, Jia Cong arrived more than a month after Wang Fen's death, and it has been less than ten days since he took office. (It's already a quick horse to take office alone, otherwise it will not be enough to run from Lingnan to Hebei for more than a month)

However, Jia Cong also has a complex side of the late Han Dynasty's capable officials, that is, he attached himself to the eunuchs, and he also gave offerings to the ten permanent servants - this can also be said to be no way, at that time, many officials who wanted to make a difference had to turn a blind eye to send money to the eunuchs, and even Duan Cheng, the Taiwei who helped the Han Dynasty to pacify the Liangzhou Qiang Chaos in the early years, didn't he have to have a good relationship with the eunuchs.

And Jia Cong's attribute of "A Attached Eunuch" is now a blessing for him, which can make him more trusted by the imperial court at a critical moment. But in history, after the destruction of the Ten Standing Servants, he also ushered in a liquidation, and was replaced by Han Fu by Dong Zhuo, which can be regarded as currying favor with Qingliu.

This is destined to Li Su's attitude towards Jia Cong: It's okay to do business, but there is no need to bet to please, the ship is about to sink.

At this moment, Jia Cong sat in the hall and asked solemnly: "Liu Bei, as the county lieutenant of Anxi, why did you have to get a report from Yecheng?" Shouldn't we appeal level by level and find Zhang Chun, the prime minister of Zhongshan, first? ”

Liu Bei took a deep breath and replied calmly: "Back to the history of the assassination, this matter is very important, and it involves Zhang Chun!" ”