The night was like ink, the sky was still raining, the water on the official road reflected a faint light, and the road could be faintly discerned, and the sound of horses' hooves smashed the cement and the tranquility of the rainy night.

The two horses were galloping along the official road towards the lead mountain, and the knights on the horses were soaking wet, and the torches in their hands were extinguished by the rain.

Suddenly, there was a terrible neighing of the horse, and the horse in front stepped on a deep puddle of water, and suddenly lost its front hooves, and fell to the ground with a thud, and the knight on the horse was also thrown out and fell into the weeds beside the road.

The knight behind hurriedly tightened his reins, and the whole horse neighed and stood up to avoid colliding with the horse in front of him.

"Brother Mu, are you okay?" The knight in the back nimbly jumped off his horse and rushed forward to check.

"Fortunately, it's grass, otherwise I'd have lost half of my life!" The knight in front stood up from the grass, it was Mu Yong, the guardian, and the one in the back was naturally Xie Erjian.

The two encountered heavy rain on the way to Leadshan County, and Mu Yong actually went in the wrong direction, and when he came back, he had been delayed for several hours, so when the two entered Leadshan County, it was already evening.

As a result, when they inquired, the governor Sun Sui was not in the county seat of Lead Mountain at all, but personally went to the periphery of Lead Mountain to supervise the army to suppress the bandits, so the two hurried out of the city and rushed to Lead Mountain, and the torches they brought were extinguished by the rain.

"Brother Erjian, this black-lit horseback riding is very dangerous, why don't you find a place to shelter from the rain first, and then hurry when it is dawn." Mu Yong's heart palpitated.

Xie Erjian shook his head and said, "No, my brother-in-law asked me to deliver the letter to Governor Sun as soon as possible, the road has been delayed for several hours, and it will be too late if I wait until dawn." Brother Mu, walking along this road is Lead Mountain, right? ”

Mu Yong nodded and said, "It is estimated that there are still about ten miles away!" ”

"Okay, then I'll go by myself, Brother Mu will find a place to spend the night first, and then you can go straight back to Xujia Village."

Mu Yong had no choice but to nod and agree, the horse he was riding had a broken leg and could not run anymore. Xie Erjian turned over and continued to hurry.

……

Yu Linsheng is 22 years old this year, took over his father's class last year, and became a hundred households (military attache of Zheng Liupin) at a young age, and the thousand households he garrisoned were located in Yiyang County.

This time, in order to exterminate the bandits in the area of Lead Mountain, the governor Sun Sui transferred the garrisons of nearby prefectures and counties, including the Yiyang Qianhu Office where Yu Linsheng was located.

The army of the Ming Dynasty implemented the guard system, and set up guard posts throughout the country to guard the key places.

There are 5,600 people in the first bathroom, divided into 5,000 households, and 1000 households under the jurisdiction of 1,000 households, each under the command of a 100 households, and each 100 households has 112 people when it is full.

However, Yu Linsheng's soldiers were less than 100 people, and the soldiers were seriously lacking. Because by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had begun to decline, and the most important manifestation was the slack of military equipment, and the phenomenon of soldiers fleeing from various guard posts was very serious.

It is worth mentioning here that at the beginning of the founding of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, followed Liu Bowen's suggestion, set up a guard system, stationed in important places across the country, and implemented the hereditary method of military soldiers.

The so-called hereditary military is the death of the father and the succession of the son, that is, the father hangs, the son is on top, the eldest son is on the top, the second son is on the top, and if there is no son, the grandson, or the side branch and nephew fill the vacancy, such a family is called a military household, and the household registration is unified under the jurisdiction of the five military governors, not subject to local control, and enjoys a certain right to tax exemption for errand soldiers.

The ancestors of military families have lived in the garrison of their subordinate guards for generations, ploughing the fields and cultivating the land during farming, participating in training in leisure time, and going into battle to kill the enemy in wartime.

This kind of military cantonment guard system did play a great positive role in the early days of the founding of the country, greatly reducing the burden on the central government's finances, and Zhu Yuanzhang once proudly said that he raised a million male soldiers without spending a penny!

However, the drawbacks of this military system became apparent over time. First of all, the powerful and powerful in various places privately occupied the land, the land annexation became more and more serious, the military camps were seriously damaged, the land on which the military households depended for survival was gone, and life became more and more difficult. Secondly, the generals of the guard enslaved ordinary sergeants at will, and oppressed them as tenants. Because of this, the soldiers fled, and some even fled with their families.

During the orthodox period, Wang Qiong, the secretary of the military department, sent a report to the emperor, saying that more than 50% of the soldiers in the national guard had fled, which shows that the situation is serious, and the situation is further aggravated in the current Zhengde Dynasty.

Therefore, although Sun Sui transferred two guards and horses, claiming to be more than 10,000 people, in fact, there were only eight or nine thousand people, or even less, and there were only about 80 sergeants under Yu Linsheng, and the shortage of soldiers was nearly 30 percent, not to mention combat effectiveness, even eating was a problem, who was willing to train hard?

Of course, Yu Linsheng, a hundred households, is still very hard-working, after all, he is young and strong, the edges and corners have not been smoothed, and he inherited the position of one hundred households at the age of twenty-two, and he is ambitious and ready to do a great career. However, Jiangxi is located in the south and the situation is stable, so it is difficult to have the opportunity to make military merits, so naturally there is no hope of promotion, and you can only be an honest farmer for the rest of your life.

However, now that the opportunity has come, Governor Sun has transferred troops to encircle and suppress the cottage in Lead Mountain, which is a rare opportunity for meritorious service, so Yu Linsheng is very active and is ready to seize the opportunity to fight for a good future.

Therefore, although it was raining heavily at this time, the remaining hundred households were still wearing robes and patrolling the camp with torches in hand, urging the soldiers on duty to be vigilant.

Yu Linsheng was responsible for guarding a trail into the mountains, and the barracks were set up on a slope next to the road.

"Damn, these bandits can really hide, it's been two or three months, and they haven't seen their heads, why don't they hide in the mountains and eat mud to live?" After Yu Linsheng finished patrolling the camp, he scolded and went to his camp.

It is said that since the siege of the mountain in early March this year, the officers and men have only had sporadic contact with the bandits, and they have not even been able to catch half of the thief's hair, and the brothers under Yu Linsheng have long complained that they must know that now is the busy season for farming, and they cannot reap the merits and benefits of war, and they have delayed the agricultural time, and no one is comfortable in their hearts.

At this moment, a sound of horses' hooves came, Yu Linsheng couldn't help but perk up, it was still raining in the black light, could it be that the thief finally couldn't help but escape from the mountain?

Yu Linsheng took out his waist knife and shouted warnings, and took a few henchmen and brothers to rush to the middle of the road to wait for him.

"Boss Yu, it seems to be from outside the mountain!" One sergeant wondered.

Yu Linsheng also heard the sound of horses' hooves coming from the direction outside the mountain at this time, and couldn't help but secretly sigh unlucky.

By this time the rain had subsided considerably, and there were scattered drops, and soon a horse had turned out in the distance of the col, and a man on the horse could be faintly seen in the light of the torches.

Without Yu Linsheng's orders, the sergeants under his command shouted and ordered the people to stop.

It was Xie Erjian who was riding on the horse, and when he saw the outfits of the sergeants under the firelight, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and finally found the right place, and hurriedly turned over and dismounted, leading the horses to the front, so as not to cause misunderstanding, and shouted: "Master Jun, I'm just a messenger, not a thief, don't let go of arrows." ”

"Don't talk nonsense, tie people up first!" Yu Linsheng waved his hand, and his brothers rushed up and tied up Xie Erjian.

Xie Erjian frowned, but he didn't dare to resist, and said loudly: "Master Jun, I am indeed sending a letter here, and I have something important to ask to see the governor." ”

"Hey, boy, you think you're a green onion, and you can see it if you want, Lord Governor?" One of the sergeants scoffed.

Yu Linsheng looked at Xie Erjian by the light of the fire, and saw that it was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy, frowned and asked, "Who sent you here and what letter did you send?" ”

As soon as Xie Erjian wanted to answer, a large amount of fire suddenly appeared in the dark mountains in the distance, and the sound of killing came.

Yu Linsheng's face changed, and he said loudly: "It's the side of the thousand households, nine times out of ten, the bandits have broken into the camp, brothers, the time has come to make meritorious contributions, all of them are ready to fight with Lao Tzu." ”

Yu Linsheng said and shouted at the whole team with a knife, and the atmosphere became unprecedentedly tense. As for Xie Erjian, he was escorted to the camp by the two sergeants, and no one paid attention to him no matter how Xie Erjian explained.

Before Yu Linsheng could form a team, a herald rushed over and shouted loudly: "Yu Baihu, Lord Qianhu asked you to bring people to support immediately, the thieves are breaking through in two ways." ”

"Haha, these thieves really can't hide, go, brothers, go and make meritorious service to Lao Tzu to kill thieves!" Yu Linsheng took the lead, with dozens of sergeants, wading through the muddy water and rushing towards the direction of the firelight.

In the dense forest, the second master, Li Zhen, was holding his horse and cautiously approaching the trail in the drizzle, followed by fifty bandits.

The bandits led their horses, holding their breath and trying to avoid making loud noises. The thieves walked out of the woods and walked smoothly up the mountain path.

Li Zhen turned over his horse and looked at the two fires in the distance, which were the other two brothers led by the big boss Wu Sanba and the third boss Zhou Boling, who were attracting the attention of the officials and soldiers.

Li Zhen held a cooked copper stick in his hand, and grinned: "These officers and soldiers are just a bunch of idiots, brothers, light torches and follow Lao Tzu into the camp!" ”

A group of thieves turned on their horses, lit torches, and rushed to the camp of officers and soldiers beside the mountain road in the distance.

In order to complete the task assigned by King Ning, Wu Sanba sent out all the fifty horses under his command, and the fifty bandits were all sturdy guys, and their combat effectiveness was the strongest.

"It's not good, I've been tricked, kill back!" Yu Linsheng had just run halfway when he suddenly saw a bright fire behind him, and a team of bandits rode their horses and rushed towards the camp.

Yu Linsheng and his brothers hurriedly returned to help, but how could two legs outrun four legs.

Li Zhen rushed to the front of the camp with a group of bandits, and before a left-behind sergeant could run away, Li Zhen smashed his head with a stick, and the remaining sergeants were so frightened that they crawled to the side of the road.

Li Zhen laughed contemptuously, and the familiar tong stick picked up the horses that were lying in the middle of the road, and then took the fifty bandits away.

Yu Linsheng ran back to the camp, and the bandits in Li Zhen had already run away, so they could only look at the torches in the distance and grit their teeth.