There was a gentleman riding a mule, and a few of his companions stood behind him, and he sat drinking tea, and several merchants and passers-by did not dare to get too close to the gentleman, and sat far away at the rest of the tables.

After looking at it for a while, the gentry frowned and said, "What are these guards doing?" ”

This gentleman was wearing a Dongpo scarf, wearing a royal blue round-necked robe, and stepping on black shoes, and at a glance he knew that his status was not low. ”

"I waited all the way here, but I didn't see any bandits?" The gentry pondered for a moment and said, "If this is the case, we will not be in a hurry to leave, and we will see the excitement later." ”

Several of the gentry's elders looked at each other, and one of them stepped forward and bowed down and said, "Second master, if it is really dangerous to fight, let's leave in a hurry." ”

"I've seen all the officers and soldiers suppress the thieves, and some bandits don't have cavalry, what are you afraid of?" The gentry smiled and said casually: "Besides, whether there are bandits or not are two words, what kind of person is this military attache who leads the troops, and when he comes out like this, his power will rise." ”

"It's from our Dahe Wei Min family." A banner army, possibly a small banner, said respectfully: "The master doesn't know, Deputy Min Qianhu is indeed a capable person." ”

This little flag officer said the matter of Shuiguan very vaguely, and mentioned the matter of drying salt, and there was no lack of envy and jealousy in his words, but no matter what, his attitude also represented the attitude of many lower-level military attaches and banner soldiers of Dahewei, both envy and jealousy, and also recognized Min Yuanqi's ability.

This young trial hundred households, now a deputy thousand households, does have the capital to stir up the Dahewei Yunti Pass!

"No wonder." The gentry laughed a few times and said: "Yang Shili has always been rebellious, but recently he has a feeling of disappearing, it turns out that his brother was attacked and killed, and it is not wrong for him to be cautious." In this case, it seems that the bandit attack is true, and I will naturally not give up on such a big scene, and I want to take a look. ”

The gentry said a few more times, and whispered: "This Min Yuanqi is interesting, knowing that now is the time when the chaos is about to arise, drying salt and accumulating grain and storing grain, training to protect himself and save it, showing off his strength, taking the initiative to invite bandits and pirates, not afraid of foreign strong enemies, such a reputation, he is even more daring to commit here in Yunti Pass." In the year of this weak crown, is his scheming so deep, I don't know if the elders of his family planned this matter, and this Min Yuan came out of it? It's not right, Min Qiande doesn't have a son, if this person presides, why bother to cheap outsiders, isn't it better for his own son to come out? It seems that it was really this Min Yuanqi who did it himself, it was amazing, and he was born later, and it was really good. If this person can really come out to stir up the situation, he might as well help, and after seeing this, I will meet with the eldest brother to see if he has any regulations. ”

The gentry passing by is Zhou Liangmin, the younger brother of Zhou Lianggong, the current Huaiyang coastal defense soldier, this time passing by is from Kaifeng to Weixian in Shandong, then to Xuzhou, and then from Xuzhou to Haizhou, from Haizhou south to Yancheng, and then to Taizhou.

The road is tortuous and winding, but also forced to do so, the Zhou family lives in Nanjing, and the ancestral home is Kaifeng, Henan. Kaifeng was besieged four times, the last time the city was destroyed after digging the Yellow River embankment, the Zhou brothers in Kaifeng to raise people, under the famous Confucian Zhang Minbiao in Kaifeng, Kaifeng was destroyed and abandoned after the army did not continue to stay, now Kaifeng is like a ghost. Zhou Liangmin returned to Kaifeng to check the tombs of his ancestors, and after checking, he went to Weixian to pick up some things left there, to see his old friends, and then to Haizhou through Xuzhou, and then to Yancheng, but it was a task given by his brother, all the way to see the situation from Haizhou to Yancheng.

Huai'an to Yangzhou, there are many states and counties, the local situation is relatively smooth, Haizhou and Yancheng are very remote, and the coastal places are even more remote, almost a place where no one cares, Zhou Liangmin is not too concerned about this task, anyway, there is almost no change here for decades or hundreds of years, there is no change in the land and salt and Weisuo, there is no possibility of a large stream of gangsters in the place, and there is no change worth paying attention to, who knows that when he arrives near the city of Yunti Guansuo, he is about to cross the river to Yancheng, actually saw such a strange thing with his own eyes, and then thought of the arrival of the guest soldiers, the mysterious whereabouts of Yang Shili's first rat at both ends, etc., Zhou Liangmin faintly had a thought and hope in his heart.

If this Min Yuanqi can really defeat the people sent by Yang Shili, he may not be able to meddle in the affairs of Yancheng. At this time, this person can train hundreds of strong soldiers, but it is not necessarily impossible to train one or two thousand strong soldiers.

According to the Ming camp system, about 2,000 people are a battalion, and with the support of the local government and gentry, it is not difficult to gather a few thousand people.

Liu Zeqing's elite core main force is only a few thousand people, if such an armed force appears here in Yunti Pass, who knows that it will not be able to fight against this person in the future?

Zhou Liangmin's eyes lit up, for a time the idea was far away, according to the system, Zhou Lianggong's Huaiyang Road can have its own road mark battalion, but Zhou Lianggong took office not long ago, two years ago was only the county governor of Wei County, the Qing army besieged Wei County for the fifth time, Zhou Lianggong persuaded the gentry in the city to gather Ding Zhuang to prepare materials to go to the city to defend, his wives and concubines all went to the city to throw stones together, Wei County was not broken by the Qing army under the same hatred of the army and the people of the city, it was a small miracle at that time. You must know that on the way south of the Qing army, the main force of the Ming army dodged and did not dare to fight, and whenever the city was encountered, it would be broken, even if it was a provincial capital like Jinan, it was also conquered by the Qing army, and dozens of prefectures and counties in Shandong were almost all conquered by the autumn wind sweeping the leaves. Zhou Lianggong is famous for knowing soldiers and fighting well, Zhou Liangmin is his brother, of course he knows his brother's predicament at this time, because he is jealous of Ma Shiying, and the Donglin Party in Nanjing is not all the way, Zhou Lianggong is quite excluded, and he often feels depressed and unhappy...... This is also the reason why Zhou Lianggong was in the early years of Shunzhi to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, it was crowded out in the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing army went south because of its knowledge of the army and attached great importance to it and co-opted, the rulers on both sides were really high-level judgments, Zhou Lianggong was very smooth in the early days after the Qing Dynasty, but later went to prison many times for some reason, but also because of its wisdom and wisdom, too shrewd and capable, the so-called do more, there are many mistakes, and there are many handles.

But at this time, Zhou Lianggong was only in his early thirties, and he had just made great contributions, and his literary name was also widely spread, proficient in seal carving, calligraphy, painting, and poetry were all everyone, although the political views were different, but Fang Yizhi and others in the Donglin vein had close contacts with Zhou Lianggong. Such a young and well-known official, of course, does not want to be trapped in a foreign feudal town like Liu Zeqing, if he can master a henchman force, which is enough to restrain the generals, of course, it will be of great help to Zhou Lianggong's future.

Shi Kefa is backed by Donglin, Huang Degong, Zuo Liangyu, Liu Liangzuo and others are all controlled by him, Ma Shiying is because of his ability and ability, plus Ma Shiying is from a family, and there are many family members from Guizhou under his command, which can help him control the generals.

Zhou Lianggong is just an ordinary eunuch family, how can he have the background to support his family?

Zhou Liangmin's eyes were smart, flashing with a strange light, for him, the things in front of him may be an unexpected opportunity......

……

To the beat of the drums, all the flag troops stood up and prepared to continue their march.

The sentry rode more than ten miles farthest away, and continued to explore the villages and towns and the seaside.

Each hundred is about 100 steps apart, and the four hundred are in a long line.

At this time, the timid had already avoided it, and some dared to watch from a distance, and the banner soldiers had already given warnings, and they did not pay attention to these bold onlookers.

After continuing to move forward for another five or six miles, the sentry cavalry reported that Liang Shifa's subordinates had turned back in front, and the bandit brigade was already less than ten miles apart.

Min Yuanqi pondered for a moment, and then decided to face the battle here.

On the left side is a residential village, outside the village there are trees, farmland, canals, ridges, twists and turns, not conducive to the brigade to swing out, and bandits are unlikely to attack from the other side of the village.

On the right-hand side is a small amount of farmland and tidal flats, with a few scattered houses, and it seems that the bandits should have come from the coast.

Min Yuanqi ordered the four hundred total to be placed in turn, the first hundred total protruded forward, the second and third hundred were always on the left and right sides, and the fourth hundred total was a little behind in the middle position.

Each flag team, squad, to the level of 100 is open, because the official road to the sea is narrow, which is not conducive to the formation of the army, so the mandarin duck squad, flag team, and 100 total are placed in the array, but it is the most suitable battle formation.

The cavalry was concentrated on the side of the official road on the left flank, the tidal flat was terrain and wet, and the cavalry was not so stupid to charge on such a terrain.

The atmosphere gradually became tense, Liang Shifa rode a sentry horse and rushed forward, and Min Yuanqi watched the soldiers set up on the official road.

The battalion flag is in the array, and the four hundred flags are spread out in turn, or the sword player is in front, and the officer with the flag gun is in front of the spear, followed by the pikeman, and then the pikeman is backward, and then the boring handle. Three mandarin duck squads form a flag team, three flag teams are a hundred total, and four hundred are deployed according to the mandarin duck formation, Min Yuanqi looked at it for a while, and felt that the gun formation was a little weak, the depth was too shallow, and the long-range attack was only in the fire flag team on the right side of the 300th total near the tidal flat, there was no artillery, and there were no archers, and the long-range attack power was quite insufficient.

These are all shortcomings, but Min Yuanqi knows that he can't be in a hurry, and a new army can reach the current point, which is enough to make him proud.

Looking into the distance on the left, two or three miles away, there seemed to be countless people following and watching in the distance.

The suppression of bandits by officers and soldiers is common in the area from Haizhou to Shandong, and it is rare to see such a formation from Haizhou south to Yancheng. One is that there are not many bandits, and there are not many pirates who come to commit crimes, and the second is that the local forces are weak and cannot do so at all.

Such a big bustle, even if there are some risks, is worth watching.

Min Yuanqi felt a little strange in his heart, he and the others were going to risk their lives to fight the thieves, and there were people waiting to see the excitement on the side...... It's a weird feeling.

After the formation of the flag army, a whistle sounded, and everyone sat down cross-legged again, waiting for new information to arrive.