Orthodoxy 14th year of the beginning of August.

After Liu Juntao dealt with the head and tail of the Xu family, he led the Central Military Department and Zhang Xiaojun's headquarters of the Yushan Town Escort Team to march towards Yanzhou Mansion, preparing to go to Qingzhou Mansion through Yanzhou Mansion to conquer the thieves of Ye Zong's Liusu Department.

As for Gao Ran's subordinate Qingzhuang, he continued to be stationed in Qulipu to maintain order in Xuzhou, and assisted the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Yushan Military Bureau in the affairs of Xuzhou in the south.

Tang Yu, Guo Yongzhong, and Zhang Baigui also rushed to their own right-hand men, and they were busy in Qulipu and other places, and the heroes and gentry from all over Shandong also rushed to carve up the blank space left after the defeat of the Xu family under the leadership of Yushan Town.

A few days later, Liu Juntao led his troops into Luoteng Town in the south of Yanzhou Prefecture, and after resting in Luoteng Town for a day, the brigade continued to march eastward.

The army moved quickly, and it took only four days to enter the Qingzhou Mansion and settle down in Yinan County.

After Liu Juntao showed the official documents of Qingzhou Mansion and Ren Chengwei, the supply of money and grain for the army was provided by Yinan County, which also saved a lot of money and grain consumption in Yushan Town.

At this time, Liu Juntao took advantage of the time when the brigade was replenishing money and food, and asked Liu Zi'an to immediately send someone to contact Zhou Zongsheng's subordinates, and ordered him to immediately lead his troops to rendezvous, and at the same time to explore the location of Ye Zongsheng's subordinates, as well as the specific situation and deployment.

Three days later, Zhou Zongsheng led more than 1,600 young men of the cavalry to join him, and reported to Liu Juntao about the pursuit of Ye Zongliu's bandits.

"Mr. Lian, this time Ye Zongliu and Wang Neng's thieves once again ravaged Qingzhou Mansion, coercing more than 200,000 people, and now the number of thieves under Ye Zongliu has increased to more than 80,000! Now Ye Zongliu is extremely arrogant, plundering people everywhere and running rampant in places, and he doesn't take the government in his eyes at all, so he almost pulls the flag and rebels! ”

"Where have the thieves fled to now?"

Zhou Zongsheng frowned and said, "Mengyin County! Ye Zongliu took the thieves back to Mengyin County again, and now it is very likely that he has a plan to attack Mengyin County! When I came back, the county seat of Mengyin County had closed the city gates, and the whole city was under martial law! ”

Liu Juntao said with an unkind face: "We must annihilate the thieves of Ye Zongliu's department as soon as possible, and we must not let the Ye thieves regroup, otherwise there will be endless troubles!" ”

So, on the same day, Liu Juntao joined forces with Zhang Xiaojun and Zhou Zongsheng, and led three troops with a total of 6,000 men and horses towards Mengyin County, Qingzhou Prefecture.

Qingzhou Mansion, Bauhinia Pass.

Bauhinia Pass is one of the important passes of the Great Wall, located in Mengyang ~ the west bank of the water, 60 miles west of Yinan County on the Bauhinia Ridge, is one of the main roads into the Taihang Mountain, known as "a husband as a pass, ten thousand people in front of the risk".

This time, Liu Juntao led his troops to enter the Bauhinia Pass, and more than 100 guards guarding the pass avoided one after another, and immediately handed over the control of the Bauhinia Pass, Zhang Xiaojun immediately commanded his escort team Qingzhuang to take over the entire Bauhinia Pass City.

After Liu Juntao settled the team, he took Zhang Xiaojun and Zhou Zongsheng around the city.

I saw that the Bauhinia Pass was built very steeply, the whole body of the Guancheng was covered with bricks, and the front gate was built with an urn city, and a smaller acropolis was built on the left and right sides of the Guancheng, which showed the perfection of the overall defense system of the Bauhinia Pass.

"Mr. Lian, this Bauhinia Pass is only more than 100 miles away from Mengyin County, it is estimated that the news of our arrival in Qingzhou Mansion will spread soon, I think we have to hurry up and act!"

Liu Zi'an said with some concern.

Liu Juntao stood on the wall and looked into the distance, nodded, and said, "Don't worry, wait until your exploration department sends back the exact news of the thieves in Ye Zongliu's department, let's stay in Zijing Pass for a few days now." ”

At this time, Zhou Zongsheng hugged his fists and said: "Mr. Lian!" I'll take my brothers from the cavalry department to open the way in front of the army! Our department has been entangled with thieves, if this time suddenly disappears, Ye Zongliu may guess something! ”

Liu Juntao groaned for a moment and said, "Don't worry! Now the brothers in the cavalry department are already very tired, so it's good to take a rest at Bauhinia Pass. As for Ye Zongliu's side, there shouldn't be any reaction for a while! ”

That night, the 6,000 troops of the Yushan Town Escort Force were resting and waiting at Bauhinia Pass, and Liu Juntao also found a map of Qingzhou Mansion, and carefully discussed with Zhou Zongsheng, Zhang Xiaojun, and Liu Zi'an how to start this battle.

Zhang Xiaojun advocated that the 6,000 army should be pressed up in such a dignified manner, forcing the thieves of Ye Zongliu's department and the Yushan Town Guards to conduct a decisive battle, striving for the victory or defeat of the battle, and completely pacifying the thieves of Ye Zong's Liu's department!

However, Zhou Zongsheng objected, thinking that although the thieves of Ye Zongliu's department were single-handed, they had a large number of people, and the six thousand guards were young and strong against nearly 100,000 thieves, and there would definitely be a lot of casualties, after all, there were many ants biting elephants!

Neither of the two could convince anyone, so they argued, Liu Zi'an persuaded two sentences, and then said: "I think it is still mainly based on the Central Military Department and Zhang Qian's General Office, supplemented by Zhou Qian's General Office, and at the same time press up, and it is more appropriate to use the opportunity to use the strategy to consume the troops of Ye Zongliu's department first, and then find an opportunity to fight a decisive battle." ”

Zhang Xiaojun and Zhou Zongsheng saw that Liu Zi'an neutralized the opinions of the two and took care of the faces of the two people, so they no longer insisted on their own opinions.

Liu Juntao looked at the three of them, also pondered, and then said: "Ye Zongliu is not an ordinary thief, if we rush up like this, he may not be obedient to the battle, if you don't make Ye Zongliu run around, drag us down and down!" ”

When he said this, Liu Juntao thought of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the late Ming Dynasty, these two-stirring sticks can be described as tenacious, not only dragging the officials and troops of all walks of life to embarrassment, but also dragging the dying Ming down the abyss!

"Thieves deserve to die! It should be killed! ”

Thinking of the tragic situation in the late Ming Dynasty in later generations, and the serious consequences of the thieves poisoning the world, Liu Juntao's heart was full of anger, and he was full of hatred for the thieves left by Ye Zongliu, and he couldn't wait to break the corpses of Ye Zong's thieves into pieces.

Zhang Xiaojun, Zhou Zongsheng, and Liu Zi'an were also a little worried when they heard this, as the saying goes: don't suffer from thieves gathering, but suffering from thieves scattering.

If the thieves of Ye Zongliu's department faced the guards of Yushan Town, they really avoided the battle, and nearly 100,000 horses were turned into zero, causing trouble in all parts of Qingzhou Mansion, then everyone really had a feeling that they didn't know where to start, and when the time came, there were thieves everywhere and wars everywhere, even if the people and horses of Yushan Town were pulled over, they would not be able to finish the conquest!

"Mr. Lian, what should we do?"

Zhang Xiaojun, Zhou Zongsheng, and Liu Zi'an all looked over, waiting for Liu Juntao to come up with an idea, and the faces of the three of them were not very good-looking.

Liu Juntao said in a deep voice: "Now we might as well take a gamble!" ”

"Bet on what?"

"Just bet on whether Ye Zongliu regarded himself as a thief!"

"Is this still a gamble? Ye Zongliu was originally a thief! ”

All three of them were a little puzzled.

Liu Juntao said in a deep voice: "If Ye Zongliu didn't regard himself as a thief and a thief, then he wouldn't have learned from those thieves who were running around like a thief, and if his strength allowed, he would have chosen to fight against us." Ye Zongliu should still want to use his own strength to fight for the world, instead of nesting in the mountains for this life. ”

The three of them were a little uneasy when they heard this, it seemed that Liu Juntao had no idea for the time being, otherwise he would not have pinned his hopes on Ye Zongliu, a thief.

Two days later, the men and horses of the Investigation Department finally sent back the news: Ye Zongliu and Wang Neng gathered 200,000 people, organized an army of 100,000 thieves, captured Mengyin County a few days ago, killed hundreds of officials at and below the magistrate of Mengyin County, and brazenly raised an anti-flag in Mengyin County, calling themselves "Great King"!

Hearing the news here, Zhang Xiaojun, Zhou Zongsheng, and Liu Zi'an were all dumbfounded, and they didn't understand what Ye Zongliu relied on, thinking that he could claim the king with 100,000 rabble?

Liu Juntao laughed out loud and said to everyone: "It's okay now! Now that Ye Zongliu is the king, he won't learn the fighting style of those little thieves anymore! The order went down, and the army immediately went north to Mengyin County to pacify the thieves! ”