As soon as he received the news of the fall of the Fairy Temple in the evening, Han Xiufeng summoned Li Changjing to evacuate the gentry to help and the people near the bridgehead, leaving only more than 500 young people to dig a trench.

The bandits who had already reached the other side of the river could not find so many boats for a while, and even if they could find them, it would be impossible to force them to cross in the middle of the night, and the top priority was to prevent the bandits from attacking the fairy temple. The village warriors who practiced in Jiaojiazhuang were all summoned, but they did not let Lu Daming and them enter the camp, but let them go to the village in the east where the people had just been evacuated, and let them rest in the village.

The young Zhuang summoned by Han Bo and Wang Qianli were responsible for the vigil, Zhou Xingyuan sent more than a dozen spies in the direction of the Fairy Temple, Zhang Guangcheng urged the young Zhuang to continue as soon as he finished dinner, Wu Wenming only dealt with the thieves for one day, and even lost more than 30 villagers, he felt sorry for Han Xiufeng's trust, and followed Han Xiufeng with a bitter face without saying a word.

The more than 30 Xiangyong on the other side of the river, most of them were brought out from Hai'an, Han Xiufeng said that he was not worried about it, but he still comforted: "Brother Wu, don't worry about Chen Hu and Chen Biao, others don't know that I know, they are ghostly, they can fight if they can fight, and if they can't fight, they will run, and it is not so easy for the thieves to want their lives." ”

"Brother Han, I'm not just worried about them, but this errand hasn't been done well, I'm ...... I ......"

"The bandits are powerful, it is not easy for you to be able to deal with each other for a day, even if I go there in person, I may not be able to fight better than you." Han Xiufeng patted him on the arm, lifted the curtain and walked into the big tent.

As soon as Wu Wenming followed, Zhou Xingyuan chased after him from the eight-rank civil official with a disgraced face.

"Governor Zhang, this is the acting Taizhou Prefecture Tong Han Xiufeng Master Han. Zhixing, this is the alternate salt governor Zhang Yiguo Zhang brother! ”

It turned out that the thirty-year-old civil official in front of him, who was as cold as a bamboo pole, was Zhang Yiguo, the alternate governor of the Salt Transportation Division, Han Xiufeng hurriedly bowed his hand and said: "It turned out to be Brother Zhang, who has admired his name for a long time." ”

"Master Han, Xiaguan...... Xia Guan had nowhere to go, so he came to join Master Han and begged Master Han to take him in! In the past few days, he has been defeated repeatedly, and there are only a dozen or so of the more than 400 township warriors who have been recruited with great difficulty, and Zhang Yiguo's heart is like a knife, and he arches his hands and bursts into tears.

At the time of employing people, Han Xiufeng liked the kind of lifeless thing in front of him, held his hand tightly and said sincerely: "Brother Zhang doesn't need to be polite, it's really impossible to talk about defecting." To tell the truth, Xiufeng had long wanted to invite Brother Zhang to help with the camp affairs, but he didn't expect Brother Zhang to really come, and I added another tiger general to the Taiyong battalion! ”

"Let Master Han laugh, how can the lower official be called a tiger general, and the defeated general is almost the same."

"Brother Zhang has been defeated and fought repeatedly, and his loyalty to the imperial court can be seen."

"There is only one piece of loyalty left in the lower officials."

"You haven't eaten yet, big head, hurry up and get ready to drink."

"Master Han, don't be in a hurry to eat, the lower officials have something important to report!"

"What's the matter?"

Zhang Yiguo looked back at Wu Wenming and Zhou Xingyuan, and stopped talking.

Han Xiufeng reacted suddenly, and couldn't help laughing: "I patronized the greetings, but I forgot to introduce them." Brother Zhang, this one you haven't seen but must have heard of, he is Mr. Wu Wenming, the cousin of Wu Wenrong, the governor of Huguang, and Wu Wenxi, the salt tea ceremony of Sichuan. ”

Zhang Yiguo was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "It turned out to be Mr. Wu, the lower officials have admired the name for a long time, and they are disrespectful and disrespectful." ”

"I'm glad I will." Wu Wenming returned the salute.

Han Xiufeng continued: "Brother Zhang, this is not only Xiufeng's friend, but also Mr. Zhou Xingyuan Zhou, who was a friend of the Liangjiang Governor's Yamen. Mr. Zhou was born and also went to Chuxiong Mansion in Yunnan to serve as a magistrate. In short, it's all his own, if he can't even trust them, Xiufeng doesn't know who else to trust. ”

"Mr. Wu, Mr. Zhou, offended, the lower officials didn't know about it just now, and it wasn't that they couldn't believe the two, but this matter was big and didn't dare to ...... Don't dare ......"

"Those who don't know are not guilty, can you say it now?" Zhou Xingyuan looked at him with a smile and asked.

"Of course you can," Zhang Yiguo took the cup from Wu Wenming's hand and took a sip of water, wiped the corners of his mouth and said: "Master Han, Mr. Wu, Mr. Zhou, the reason why Xia Guan has been defeated repeatedly is not because he doesn't know the height of the sky, and he doesn't want to use his mantis arm as a car, but because he is waiting for news from Yizhen's side." ”

"Isn't Yizhen already falling, is there any news about Yizhen?" Han Xiufeng asked puzzled.

"The bandit stayed in Yizhen's guard Huang Desheng, a fellow countryman of Zhu Zhanao, the deputy general of Yangzhou who had been martyred, and he was forced by life to become a thief. Now the thieves occupy Jiangning, set themselves up as kings, and reward them in a big way, but all the rewards are old thieves in Guangxi, Huang Desheng is a native of Hunan, and naturally he is not treated by the bandit leader Hong Xiuquan, and he has a judgment in his heart. ”

Han Xiufeng finally understood that Zhu Zhanao obviously knew that he couldn't stop the bandits and had to go to Taohua'an to intercept him, and finally understood why the person in front of him was still defeated and fought repeatedly after Zhu Zhanao's death, it turned out that they were waiting for Huang Desheng to lead his troops to surrender, and waiting for Huang Desheng to give Lin Fengxiang a thunderous blow in the back.

Wu Wenming and Zhou Xingyuan were also taken aback.

Afraid that everyone would not believe it, Zhang Yiguo said eagerly: "Master Han, Huang Desheng will not be false if he wants to surrender, because the bandits are powerful, and he can attack wherever he wants, and he doesn't need to deceive me and Master Zhu, who has been martyred!" ”

"Brother Zhu, how can I not believe it, it's just that it's not so easy for Huang Desheng to lead his troops to surrender! As far as I know, most of the thieves who came from Jiangning to attack Guazhou, Yizhen and even Yangzhou were old thieves from Guangxi, and it is estimated that most of Huang Desheng's subordinates were also. He wants to return to the imperial court, are those old thieves in Guangxi under him willing? ”

"yes, it's not that simple." Zhou Xingyuan thought so.

Zhang Yiguo didn't have these things, but he was still lucky, and he didn't know how to say it, Zhang Guangcheng walked into the big tent with a letter, looked up at Zhang Yiguo curiously, and then turned around and said: "Brother Han, my father sent a letter, which said that Old Ghost Xu led a thousand young men to help the Fairy Temple, but now that the Fairy Temple has fallen, I don't know what he plans next." ”

"What else can he plan, he must find a place to prepare to intercept as soon as he receives the news."

Han Xiufeng sighed lightly, and continued: "Brother Zhou sent so many spies, and finally figured out the reality of the bandits. The military system of the bandits is a team of five people, and the commander of the army is in charge; Five Wu is two, and two Sima are unified; Four taels are pawns, and the chief of the pawns is the ruler, and there are one hundred and four people; The five soldiers are brigades, and there are brigade commanders, and the first brigade has five hundred and twenty-five people; The Fifth Brigade is a division, with division commanders, and the first division has more than 2,600 people.

The way to the fairy temple is a division, and the other side of the river is also a division, we have Liaojiagou natural danger, there is a camp, blocking the more than 2,600 thieves on the other side should have no problem. What does Xu Ying have, there is no danger to defend, there is no camp, and he doesn't even have a shotgun to carry a gun, how can he stop the bandits, nine times out of ten he will be defeated. ”

"Someone has to stop it, and you can't let the thieves go straight in." Zhang Guangcheng was too lazy to care about the life or death of Old Ghost Xu, and continued: "My father can lead two thousand villagers to Yiling Town at noon tomorrow at the latest, and fortify the east bank of the Baita River in the east of Yiling Town. My father said in the letter that if the bandits attack Yiling, let us quickly return to the defense, copy the back road of the bandits, attack the east and west, and catch the bandits off guard! ”

Han Xiufeng didn't say what he thought in his heart, what was attacking, what was caught off guard by the thieves, this was clearly on paper! I secretly thought that it was okay to guard the camp and go out of the camp to fight with the bandits who had experienced a hundred battles.

Just as he didn't know what to do, there was a sudden sound of gongs from the south.

Zhou Xingyuan blurted out: "It's pitch black, it's impossible for bandits to force their way at this time, nine times out of ten they are spies." ”

"It could also be harassment, Brother Zhou, didn't you say that, that's what they did when they attacked Jiangning," Han Xiufeng thought for a while, turned around and said, "Second Young Master, put aside the Yiling side in advance, you quickly urge the young men to dig the trench, and I'll go to the south to see what's going on." ”

"Master Han, I'll go with you." Zhang Yiguo said without thinking.

"Brother Zhang, don't worry about anything now, hurry up and eat and rest, I estimate that there will be a fierce battle tomorrow, and I will have to trouble you to help lead the army at that time."

Zhang Yiguo has been fighting almost every day in the past few days, and all of them have been defeated, as soon as he is defeated, he has to flee for his life, he has not slept well all night, he has not eaten a good meal, he really can't bear it, so he simply gave his hand and said: "Thanks to Master Han's trust, the lower official will not be polite to Master Han." ”