"General Tang, General Cao asked you to suppress the bandits." Cao Dingbang's subordinate sent a military order.

"Bandits?" Tang Yuan muttered in his heart: What tricks did Cao Dingbang do? Are there really bandits this time?

"Okay, tell me the exact location, and I'll send someone right now." Tang Yuan said.

"It's a bit far away, about two hundred miles away, and there are bandits in Scorpion Gully, which is said to be quite large, and some of them are still wearing the equipment of the original Flying Tiger Army. Probably made up of a group of wandering deserters. ”

"You go back and tell General Cao, just wait for the good news."

"Yes!"

Let Chen Bao and Ma Ben lead a thousand cavalry to Scorpion Gully, the speed of these two people is fast enough, and they came to the place in less than two days, but after looking for a long time, they did not find the shadow of a bandit.

At this time, Chen Bao wondered, is Cao Dingbang playing tricks?

Ma Ben scolded indignantly.

The bandits were not found, Ma Ben shouted to go back, but Chen Bao did not move, and sent scouts back to ask Tang Yuan's opinion.

Tang Yuan's eyes rolled, and he replied: "General Cao is making fun of us, but we can't help but give General Cao face, find more things to ignite the fire, and burn the scorpion ditch for me." And when he asked the local people to observe the fire, he said that two hundred bandits had been burned to death in the valley. However, before burning Scorpion Gully, you must first go and rob nearby states and counties, remember to hide your identity and act like a bandit. Then all the death row prisoners in the state and county were snatched out, and they were thrown into the scorpion ditch and burned, and the bodies of the death row prisoners were the corpses of bandits. Quick. ”

After receiving the letter, Chen Bao smiled and said: "Ma Ben, it seems that you are going to do your old job, you go and loot the three nearby counties for me, don't move the people, just rob the official mansion, the more you pretend to be a horse bandit, the better." ”

"All right!"

The young man Ma Ben recopied the old business, which was a familiar way, and led 200 bandits from Hexi to stir up the three nearby counties for a while, and the prison was also overthrown, and the death row prisoners were connected with ropes and pulled back to Scorpion Ditch.

When Ma Ben was making trouble, the scouts of the prefecture and county ran to the Xiangcheng military headquarters, but they were all stopped by Chen Bao, who said: We are here to suppress the bandits, and there is no need to run to the city.

As a result, Chen Bao followed the route of Ma Ben, walked behind Ma Ben, and finally chased after Scorpion Gully.

A fire.

Ma Ben threw several death row prisoners in Scorpion Gully, and he ran from behind, and the fire spread to the valley and burned for more than two hours, black smoke billowing up, and the soot could be seen from dozens of miles away.

A piece of black charcoal in the scorpion ditch.

found the bodies of those death row prisoners, transported them back to Xiangcheng, and gave them to Cao Dingbang, Tang Yuan also licked his face to ask for credit, saying that he spent a lot of money on the use of troops this time, and hoped that General Cao Da would be able to reimburse part of it.

Cao Dingbang's face turned pale and gave Tang Yuan fifty taels of silver.

Fifty taels is really less, it is simply burying people, but Tang Yuan still laughed and threw the money to Tang Hu to let him be happy.

"It's really ...... that General Cao did such a thing, hehe." Nalan Xin wanted to speak and stopped, but he couldn't hide his disdainful look.

Tang Yuan smiled and said, "I guess this is not Cao Dingbang's idea. ”

"The Queen Mother?" Nalan Xin guessed.

"Impossible." Tang Yuan said decisively: "The Queen Mother didn't have the leisure to play with me, and she messed up." This must be someone who doesn't know me. ”

Nalan Xin couldn't figure out who was making fun of him, but now that Cao Dingbang had taken over the moth incident, it seemed that he was giving that person a cover.

Tang Yuan came to the gate of the Jingguo Mansion and found that this place had changed greatly, the old mansion gate had been renovated, and the tall gatehouse was erected, which gave him some of the grandeur of the Duke of Guo.

gave the people of Xiangcheng an illusion that the Meng family seemed to have regained their luck, but it was a pity that they just hadn't seen the previous Meng family's house, in comparison, it was really a small thing, and these Xiangcheng people who sighed at the mansion of the Guogong Mansion have also become frogs at the bottom of the well.

At this time, the house where Meng Zhaoyang lived was not a standard cylinder house, but a square, nine-square-like house, and a store would be set up next to the south gate of such a house, and these three shops made a lot of money for the Meng family, and also supported Tang Yuan to build armaments and materials.

Fifty-fifty points, Tang Yuan has made so much equipment in the past few months, Meng Zhaoyang has completely got rid of the fate of living a poor life, and now he is very rich, but the only bad thing is that he is always cut off by Tang Yuan, no, Tang Yuan came to borrow money again, he didn't have the courage not to borrow.

"I said Tang Yuan, why don't you leave some for me." Meng Zhaoyang cried poor.

Tang Yuan narrowed his eyes: "Now your Meng family, you don't raise an army, you don't raise killers, you don't feed so many underground organizations, why do you keep so much money for?" Since there are these three stores, your family has not been less imported, when I first came to Xiangcheng, your family was less than 70 people, and now it is almost 100 people, right? Standard, a master with a minion, I think it's enough. ”

"How can it be used?" Meng Zhaoyang sighed: "You have to know, what kind of people in our family used to be, they were all generous, and when they were poor a while ago, they were looking for death and life. Now that you have money, good fellow, enjoy yourself with all your might, for fear that tomorrow Empress Dowager Cao will give an order and copy our house again. ”

"No, it won't." Tang Yuan waved his hand and said: "In the past, your family had an army, so you would be under the control of the Empress Dowager Cao, but now that you have no army, you will be under the control of the emperor and the prime minister." And Tang Zhen is old, so he said that he rarely asks about things, and now there is only one thing you have to do. ”

"What?"

"Be honest." Tang Yuan pointed out: "His Majesty the Emperor doesn't need you to make meritorious contributions, nor does he need you to slap the horse, as long as you live your duty, he can rest assured." But if you don't make him so reassuring, hehe. ”

"Then I'll contact you, this ...... Is this appropriate? ”

"What do you have to worry about?" Tang Yuan said: "My army is actually the emperor's army, and you don't know it. ”

"Yes, yes, yes." Meng Zhaoyang smiled: "If I support you, I am supporting His Majesty the Emperor." Well......, it's not very accurate, how do I feel, I'm supporting the queen? ”

"Whose queen is the queen?" Tang Yuan asked rhetorically.

"Of course it's the emperor's daughter-in-law."

"So." Tang Yuan stood up and made a gesture to leave: "I see, Shu Han is about to make a move again, I guess I can't run away, this battle with Shu Han is very likely to be a decisive battle, no matter who it is, after the battle in Hanzhong, it will not stop there." If Shu Han wins, they will drive straight into Chang'an and attack Chang'an; If the Liang Dynasty wins, it will definitely rush through the Jiameng Pass and attack Chengdu Mansion. ”。

"Emperor Liu Xun of Shu Han is not very old, can he be so strong?"

"He's tough, but that doesn't mean his troops are strong. Fighting a war is not a matter of moving your mouth. That's to be filled with human life. ”