Sun Zhongshan and Bao Kan secretly sneaked back to Zhongzhai to transfer troops three days ago. He originally thought that the distance between Xiazhai and Zhongzhai was only forty miles, and one day was enough time to go back and forth, and then counting the time he spent in Zhongzhai selecting people and pre-arranging in Guanjiayou's house, two days, two nights, and twenty-four hours were enough. Who would have thought that the cold winter wind and snow not only covered the actions of the border army, but also made the road between the two military villages muddy and difficult, and it was already noon on the second day when he rushed back to Zhongzhai. He didn't bother to eat a mouthful of hot rice, he first took Shang Cheng's official jade pendant to recruit his subordinates, and then unloaded the messengers of several deacon officers in Zhongzhai, and gathered the original Ma Zhibian army in the military village to take care of them all, so he took four Shi people to brave the rain and look back, and took advantage of the dark night to surround the Guan family compound One by one, the military order made it clear that in order to completely annihilate the bandits, he could "act cheaply" to the Guan family and the You family, and all the consequences would be borne by Ma Zhi Xizhai commander Shang Cheng. Fortunately, Guan You's two families also weighed up what kind of crime "banditry" was, and as soon as he showed up with the border army, the two families immediately said that they would do their best to help and provide all convenience for the border army's operation. Not only that, but the two families also took the initiative to send their own close branch nephews to assist the border army to suppress bandits. As far as Sun Zhongshan is concerned, he is very willing to accept this proposal, in fact, it also solves the big problem that has been making him scratch his head, one by one, his lack of troops. The sentry he brought with him was not fully staffed, only fifteen troops, and now he had to be responsible for the security of Zhongzhai and leave men to guard the Ma Zhibian army to guard them against the bandits, and he finally drew out forty soldiers after racking his brains. Relying on this bit of manpower, if he wants to seize the bandits' stockade, he can only rely on a sneak attack, but he can't help but imagine a possibility, once Xingzang is detected by the bandits, what if he can't steal the village, what should he do? A siege is impossible; When you want to attack, you don't have ladders, ropes, bows and crossbows and other equipment; Temporary evacuation? It not only falls the sharpness of the border army, but also makes the bandits arrogant...... But he had no right to make a decision on the proposal of Guan You's two families, so he could only leave two people to monitor the actions of the two families, and he returned to the village with twenty soldiers and the leaders of the two families.

He originally planned to put his thoughts together as soon as he saw Shang Cheng's face, but Shang Cheng didn't see him, and only asked Zhao Shishi to come over and pass the word: eat first, and then even take a hot bath with him and his soldiers, and then talk in the backyard.

By the time Sun Zhongshan had stopped all the resettlements, it was already completely dark, and he led the two squires who looked restless and pretended to be calm to Shang Cheng's temporary settlement courtyard in Xiazhai.

The door of the courtyard has been replaced by the sergeant he brought from Zhongzhai, seeing that he is bringing people, the two soldiers only nodded at him and let them in, and entered the main house after walking two steps into the door. The main house is not big, it is slightly deficient than the hall of ordinary large households, the low beam is narrow, the house is only lit with an oil lamp on the small square table on the kang, and there are two guards who do not squint at the door, and in the dim light and shadow, I saw that the two officers of the lower village, Jin Xi and Qian Laosan, were all dressed in neat uniforms, their eyes were level-level, their expressions were solemn, and their waists were straight and sitting in the ground in front of the kang. Shang Cheng, the head of the military and political affairs of Xima Naochuan and the captain of Zhengqipin, was sitting behind the kang table right now, staring at the two squires without saying a word. The lights flickered, his face was dim and uncertain, and the scar crawled on his cheek like a flickering snake.

The two squires probably hadn't seen such a big official as Shang Cheng, or they were calmed by the gloomy atmosphere in the room, Sun Zhongshan just opened his mouth and said, "My lord, they are ......" The two of them knelt down as soon as their legs were weak, kowtowed again and again, and said in their mouths: "Xiaomin Guan Xuan, You Ze, please meet the captain and command the lord......"

Their actions made Shang Chengleng stunned. He asked Shi Chuan to teach Sun Zhongshan to come over to discuss the military affairs of suppressing bandits, and he didn't expect that the two landlords and tyrants would also follow, and these two people are Li Zheng and the other are elders, both of whom have heads and faces in the local area, even if they don't have a rank and official position, they also need to give him such a big gift, not to mention that the Guan family still has a village in Xuntian, even if the head of this family bumps into the admiral himself, he doesn't need to kneel. Besides, this is a military camp, as long as it is not against the ban of the military branch, whoever sees the merchant is a military salute with a cross arm.

Shang Cheng was stunned, Jin Xi and Qian Laosan were also stunned, and it took a long time to see Shang Cheng give them a gesture with a look, so one person helped one in the past. The two squires chattered to themselves.

Their native voice was anxious and fast, Shang Cheng didn't understand it very well, and he was impatient to listen to the things of the bandits in his heart, and when he saw that the two guys were still restless sitting on the bench, they kept standing up and making arches, so he said: "You sit down first, and I have something to ask you later." ”

His words were neither salty nor light, Guan Xuan and You Ze didn't know what he was going to ask for a while, so they hurriedly bowed down and said, "Don't dare, don't dare, as long as it's something we know, we must inform the adults in time." It wasn't until they were repeatedly warned by Jin Xi with their eyes that they stopped talking in panic.

Shang Cheng ignored them and asked Sun Zhongshan directly how things were going.

Sun Zhongshan leaned on the stool and said: "The affairs of Zhongzhai have been handled according to the instructions of the adults, but it is not too late to say goodbye to the old people for the time being, so I can draw not many people, only forty people." One or two people were ready to pretend to be packmen to seize the gate of the village, and the two people came to the village with me. He had just eaten a full meal, and had taken a hot shower and changed into clean clothes, and the cold around him was gone, and now he was sitting in this warm main house, so comfortable that his black face was also glowing red, and he sat on the stool and talked eloquently, "Because the snow blocked the road, and the bandits temporarily proposed to ask for six pairs of big red candles, it was not easy to organize for a while, so the You family sent the bandits a date of 'filial piety'......" Hearing him mention his own family, You immediately jumped up and shouted loudly, "My lord, we are reluctant to send things to the bandits!" Sun Zhongshan continued without a pause, "...... The date was moved back five days, and the caravan would not enter the mountain until six days later. Not only did Chief You agree to let our people pretend to be packmen to sneak in, but he also proposed with Guan Lizheng that the two of them should send their cronies and children to work with us to exterminate the bandits. ”

Shang Cheng sighed, turned his face to look at the two squires: "I want to thank the two of you." How many people can you send? ”

Guan You and the others immediately stood up and said: "It should be, it should be, it is our duty to assist the officers and soldiers in appeasing the place. In the past, we were confused, and we actually cooperated with bandits, and we will never do this kind of thing again......" The two said as they thanked Sun Zhongshan with their eyes.

Sun Zhongshan hurriedly said to the two guys, "Your Excellency is asking you something!" ”

Guan You and the two stopped to greet each other, but they humbled each other for who to talk to, until they saw Shang Cheng's face gloomy like water, and a trace of uncertainty flashed in his eyes, Guan You stood up and bowed down and said, "Back to the adult, let's close...... Our two families have selected a total of 27 strong offspring to be at the disposal of the adults at any time. These people are all village warriors, and a few of them have fought against the Turquoise people this spring, and they can understand the order to advance and retreat when they fight in front of the battle. Although these people are all children of good families with innocent family backgrounds, cutting grass and eradicating the roots is the key to exterminating the bandits, in order to prevent the news from leaking, these 27 people have been temporarily living in a separate courtyard in my Guan family's house, and the food and soup are delivered by two old servants who have been in my Guan family for decades. ”

Shang Cheng finally had a smile on his face. He is only afraid of one thing now, that is, he is afraid that the news will leak and the bandits will be on guard, so that no matter whether this group of bandits is guarding the village or abandoning the village, it will cause great trouble. As for the shortage of manpower and troops, he was not particularly worried. Jin Xi and Qian Laosan, who were determined to make corrections, originally had a few henchmen in the barracks, but in the past two days, they have selected more than ten trustworthy soldiers from the Xiazhai border army, plus the forty people transferred by Sun Zhongshan, it is very likely that this bandit nest will be eliminated in one fell swoop under the condition of being calculated by heart or not. Even if the sneak attack failed, he was not afraid. Seeing that the season is already a cold winter, the colder the weather will become, the bandits have not received the food and clothing sent by the You family, and there is a lack of food and clothing in the cottage, so it will be difficult to survive this winter. When the time comes, as long as a few people are sent to guard the few roads out of the mountain, everything will be fine in the spring, and the bandits will not starve to death, and they will freeze to death unless they can grow wings and fly out......

His fingers tapped lightly on the kang table, and all kinds of thoughts and ideas were racing in his mind.

Sun Zhongshan and Bao Kan must go into the mountain with the You family's caravan, so how can they contact the caravan on their side, and how can they ensure that the news is accurate? If Sun Zhongshan captures the bandits' gate and the rear team fails to catch up, can Sun Zhongshan hold out until the moment when the rear team arrives? And if the pack team didn't arrive and the rear team arrived first, and the rear team waited in concealment a mile away, would it alarm the bandits? These things have to be carefully planned......

He stroked his forehead and pondered hard, and suddenly raised his head for a long time and asked, "Do you know how many people are in the bandit village?" He has never figured out this problem, and the two sentinels said that this group of bandits does not even have a banner, at most there are thirty or fifty people, and they can only be small bandits. Shang Cheng was skeptical of their claims. But first, the time was too tight, and secondly, the weather was bad, and he really couldn't choose to send people to investigate the reality of the bandits.

Guan Miao also did not know the exact number of bandits. You Ze leaned over and said, "Tell your lordship, this group of bandits is at most fifty people. In the summer, my brother-in-law went to the store when he was delivering something, and he paid attention to it, and came back to say that there were less than ten rooms in the grass house, and there were only two smokes at noon. He also heard the female bandit leader arguing with the bandit leader, and scolded the big boss for being stupid, and ran to fight the officials and soldiers without knowing how to sympathize with the brothers' suffering, and one day he would take all these 30 brothers into it. ”

That's fifty. Coupled with the number of people who defected in half a year, there should be less than a hundred.

a hundred rabble; As long as Sun Zhongshan successfully captured the walled gate, even if the bandits were twice as large, it would be useless.

He frowned and only thought about how to seize the gate and how the rear team would follow up, and almost ignored the important news revealed in You Ze's words. He thought for a while, and although he felt that there could be no such coincidence in the world, he still asked, "Is there a woman among the bandits?" ”