The original 1,000 or so men under his command took off their trumpets, rolled up their military flags, and scattered in several villages along the canal. As soon as the soldiers entered the village, they controlled the whole village, and they were not allowed to enter or leave. Every night, Mr. Qian led the team and went out to plunder in batches. Kong Youde did not allow them to go out sporadically, for fear that they would be captured alive by Xiang Yong's counterattack. I just sent detectives out every day to spy on them, and I took a fancy to where there were big households, and I blackened my face and went out at night.

He didn't stay much in each place, and he would inevitably move places in about two or three days. Because his subordinates were all cavalry, he was very free to choose routes, and sometimes he would suddenly leave the canal for dozens of miles with his whole army, and then turn back in another direction. It is impossible to figure out the pattern of his movements and the location of the camp.

Some of the looted property was handed over to the "grain platform," and some was distributed to the officers and soldiers according to their ranks. Within a few days in Dongguang, all of them were full of bags, the soldiers were well fed, there was a little silver in their hands, and they became bolder, and some people ignored Kong Youde's orders and went out in groups to rob and commit adultery.

This place could not be stayed any longer, Kong Youde thought to himself, if he stayed for a long time, the soldiers would slack off, and besides, they would not be able to keep it secret -- it was impossible for Hebei to have such a large-scale "horse bandits," and it would be impossible to hide it if they stayed any longer, and the magistrate just pretended not to know, not really ignorant.

If you really want to let the officers and soldiers under your command make trouble, sooner or later the magistrates will not be able to cover it up. When the time comes, it will really make trouble, don't talk about yourself, even Sun Yuanhua may not have the ability to deal with it.

It's time to get back on the road and continue to Shanhaiguan.

The night before, Kong Youde ordered the Chinese army to invite all the officers above 1,000 generals to his residence and announce the specific itinerary of the next step.

Unexpectedly, at the meeting, his order to reinforce the road of Shanhaiguan with the whole army was opposed by many subordinates: in these ten days of robbery, the officers made a windfall. This is a great stimulus for middle- and lower-ranking officers who have been trapped in Dengzhou for a long time and have nothing to speak of except embezzling military salaries.

They were fed up with the anger of the Shandong and Southern soldiers in Dengzhou, and they were already complaining, but now they were going to Liaodong again as soon as they got some benefits -- many people were unwilling to give up the opportunity to "continue to make a fortune" and were unwilling to go to Liaodong to "die."

Kong Youde was very isolated at the meeting. Except for a few of his cronies, most of the officers expressed their reluctance to go to Liaodong, and Li Jiucheng, who had just arrived, not only did not help persuade him, but instead made frequent activities among the soldiers and junior officers in private, inciting the soldiers to "return to Dengzhou."

This made Kong Youde unexpected-he originally expected Li Jiucheng to help suppress the troops. I didn't expect to secretly give myself eye medicine!

Because of the great backlash from the generals, Kong Youde did not dare to give the order to set off immediately, so he had to stay in the local village, a small village by the canal, for another day, preparing to continue to persuade everyone in the evening.

On this day, Kong Youde just got up and finished washing, and he was thinking about having a good talk with Li Jiucheng and others. Suddenly, someone came to report that there was a suspicious cavalry movement more than ten miles away.

Because he did this job without seeing the light of day, he sent 24 cavalry to scout the horses day and night, and he could detect abnormal movements about 20 miles away. Recent news is indicated. An unidentified Scout is following his men. His scouts tried to capture them several times, but they tried to avoid confrontation and were always able to avoid them before his cavalry noticed their movements, and the presence of these scouts was one of the reasons why he was anxious to leave the area.

"How many are there?"

"But there were more than 20 people, all in civilian clothes. There are swords. Tangma hesitated. But all the horses are well ridden! ”

"Is it a charlatan?"

"It's not like, the team is neat, and the ranks are neat."

"Let's go down and rest first." Kong Youde was secretly worried in his heart, and after asking Tangma to retreat, he ordered people to ask the camps to inform Jiang Zuo to come to his next place for a meeting in the evening, and prepare to try to persuade everyone again.

At this time, Chen Sigen and his team had arrived less than twenty miles away from Kongbu. After hearing the news that Kongbu's Tangma had discovered his traces, he ordered the whole team to turn back and quickly get out of Tangma's detection range.

In a grove. He sent out a guard post, and then sent scout cavalry to confirm the specific location and situation of several candidate targets, and more than 20 young members of the team, dressed in cotton jackets and bare sheepskin jackets often worn by small traders and peasants here, were still in good spirits despite the fact that the temperature outside had dropped to freezing.

"Well, didn't you freeze the eggs," Chen Sigen joked. The team grinned, white mist spewing out of their mouths and noses.

"Alright. We'll rest here for a while, and we'll go out in the evening to run errands! Chen Sigen said as he picked up a branch and drew a simple diagram on the ground, "Our target tonight is a lock gate by the South Canal. It is about twenty-five miles away from Dongguang County. ”

He marked the terrain with branches and stones, and explained the terrain one by one. This location was handpicked by him from a dozen alternate locations reported by the Scouts. The site of the attack must first be a place where the boats on the canal would anchor overnight, usually in the more prosperous riverside markets or villages. In order to make sure that there are enough witnesses. Secondly, the location must not be far from the village where Kong Youde's subordinates spent the night.

Although Kong Youde paid great attention to hiding his whereabouts all the way, Chen Sigen knew from the report of the reconnaissance cavalry that the local people already knew that it was a group of officers and soldiers who were plundering the locality, but the people did not know where they came from -- the county magistrate had already pulled up the townsmen, and all villages and villages had also strengthened their vigilance.

However, there were no defenses at this gate, and although it was not a banknote gate for tax collectors, it was also a small branch of the Caoyun Yamen.

The South Canal is located in the north, and in order to maintain the water volume of the canal and cross the watershed, many locks were built along the way to regulate the water volume of the canal.

These sluices are guarded and maintained by sluice gates, and they are regularly opened every day to release water and boats, so they are also official institutions - ordinary bandits and rebels do not dare to attack this place, after all, this is the territory of the official face.

Knocking out this place will not only involve Dongguang County, but the entire Caoyun Yamen. The gravity of its nature was far greater than the slaughter of a few villages, and by that time, Kong Youde, who was nearby, had no other way but to rebel.

Originally, Chen Sigen considered whether to blow up the sluice gate - he brought some C4**, and blowing up the sluice gate would obviously help to aggravate the chaos of the whole incident, but Zhu Mingxia and Lu Wenyuan thought that this was too much beyond Kong Youde's ability. Moreover, it is difficult to explain the motives. Attacks are therefore limited to targets of economic value in the vicinity of the sluices.

The valuable target is to guard the residences of several local lockmen: the canal is water-dependent, and the opening and closing of the locks is related to the time and convenience of the ship's navigation. Since the officials who manage the sluice gates have power, they naturally want to seek rents, so they are all rich. Chen Sigen was ready to take them under the knife.

"The goal, everyone is clear. The first is the dwellings of several gate officials, and the second is the boats on the wharf. He pointed to the direction on the makeshift sand table, "Remember, we are soldiers, and although we do unsightly wet work, we are not bandits and robbers. During the operation, it is forbidden to kill innocent people, it is forbidden to commit adultery with women, it is not allowed to set fires at will, and all seizures must be returned to the public! ”

"Understood!" The team members replied crisply.

In the evening, Kong Youde and the generals were in a meeting to discuss the next step: the generals still mostly insisted on going back to Dengzhou. Kong Youde was never able to convince everyone, and gradually the meeting was driven out of control, and several generals even revealed the meaning of "must do it", and it was very Kong Youde who was going to be angry on the spot if he didn't obey. Li Jiucheng constantly appeared in the middle as a mediator, but in fact, he was forced to make a decision.

Just as everyone was talking about dry lips, the atmosphere was gradually tense. Suddenly, a soldier came to report: there was black smoke and fire on the bank of the canal seven or eight miles away, and there was a faint sound of killing. The battalion sergeants, pawns, and horses were in a bit of a commotion.

"What?" Kong Youde was taken aback, got up and looked at the window—sure enough, there was a fire in the distance, and the sky was red. He turned his head and glanced at all the generals: all the generals under him were there, and they shouldn't be his own subordinates.

However, there were only more than 1,000 presidents present, and it is difficult to say whether the president or even the small boss took someone out to mess around without permission.

The generals also felt inexplicable, and looked at each other one by one.

Kong Youde immediately ordered to send a horse to take a look. In less than a meal, the scouts had already returned with flying horses, bringing terrible news: more than a hundred cavalry were burning and killing and plundering the sluice.

"Where is it?" Kong Youde was very anxious, the sluice gate is an official land, and it is a big deal to make trouble. He turned his head and glared at Li Jiucheng fiercely, guessing in his heart that this was the best thing that Li Jiucheng instructed his subordinates to do - this was forcing him to do it with them!

"Ritu!" Li Jiucheng saw that he was not kind to his eyes, and knew what he was thinking, for fear of causing a misunderstanding - this team was brought out by Kong Youde, and if it really collapsed, he wouldn't be able to please himself. immediately came out to express his position: "Everyone just wants to go back to Dengzhou, and don't go to Liaodong to die in vain, there is absolutely no other meaning!" Didn't do anything wrong with it! We didn't do it! If my Lao Li dares to say half a lie, he will immediately hit five thunderstorms! ”

"Returning to the general, I can't see where it is." Tanma said, only vaguely saw that they were all riding haode Mongolian war horses, covered with robes and sheepskin jackets, but it seemed that they were wearing a number of barriers inside.

The important thing is that the weapons of this group of cavalry are very neat, unlike the usual bandits, and the weapons are not disorderly, so it must be the officers and men of which battalion. To be continued