It didn't take ten days, just eight days, for the troops and baggage to reach Puzhou. During this period, only more than 100 families came out of Yuyuan, and as for the thieves who came out to surrender, there were only a few dozen. They all escaped, and revealed to Li Yan the arrangement of the Yuyuan thieves.

However, Li Yan didn't care about the arrangement of these arrogant thieves at all. After the ten-day deadline was reached, Li Yan asked Bai Shixiong to divide the cavalry into three parts, and patrol the east, south, and west sides of the Yulin Forest to intercept and pursue the fleeing Yuyuan thieves.

As soon as the ten-day deadline arrived, Ren Qi, Zhang Qi, Liang Min and others in the elm forest put their subordinates on guard, ready to engage Li Yan's troops at any time. They no longer dare to send out sentinels, and one of Li Yan's cavalry has been roaming around Fanxian County, and none of the scouts they sent out can come back.

But by the thirteenth day, they were a little slack.

"Is Li Yan not coming?" asked one of the leaders.

Ren Qi also said: "Leader Liang, you should have been ruthless at the beginning, and if you rushed a few more times, you must take his baggage." Look at it now, it just killed and injured more than 100 people in Li Yan, who cares about this little person"

Liang Min's face was a little unsightly, in fact, he exaggerated the more than 100 people, according to his estimates, the casualties of Li Yan's department were no more than forty or fifty. However, the combat effectiveness of Li Yan's troops is really strong, and they are stronger than those officers and soldiers, I don't know how much. He only rushed for a while, and he suffered nearly 100 casualties, and the cavalry attacked the infantry, but the casualties were greater than the infantry, and he really didn't dare to rush again.

"It should come." Liang Min didn't have much confidence and said: "If he doesn't come, why do you have to limit the ten-day period?"

Zhang Qi said: "Don't worry, just wait, anyway, it's freezing now, and there is no shortage of food, wine and meat, and it's not bad to have a cat here in winter." If Li Yan bluffed, but he didn't move seriously, it would be a huge blow to his prestige. In the future, the people will still give us the land endowment, who cares about Li Yan hahaha. ”

Everyone also looked at each other and smiled, feeling that what Zhang Qi said was reasonable. Although they often went to various places to loot, they mostly robbed cattle, gold, silver, cloth, and other things, and the bulk of the grain was still collected by the people around them. Of course, they are not collecting in vain, they are responsible for protecting these people and will not be taxed by the government again.

"Big boss, here, here, Li Yan is here." A small minion came in and reported loudly to Zhang Qi.

Zhang Qi raised his wine glass and said to everyone: "Leaders, since the guests have come, then everyone will go back and prepare some dishes and drinks for the guests." Come on, do it."

All the leaders stood up, drank all the wine in their cups, and easily left Zhang Qi's cave and went back to their respective territories to prepare.

Li Yan and Li Mu led their troops to the northwest of Yuyuan and stopped two miles away. They were not in a hurry to attack, but asked the troops to search the edge of the woods first, and then began to cut down trees after finding no trace of the thieves. Others began to set up tents and prepare to set up camps.

The carpentry workshop masters who came with him instructed the soldiers to assemble the stone thrower. There are a total of six stone throwers transported from Qixian County this time, but the demand for beef tendon and deer tendon is too great, and they can't get a large number of them, so they only get these few.

By evening, the camp had been set up and the stone throwers had been assembled. But they did not stop, but slowly pushed the stone thrower to the edge of the elm garden, and the oil canister and torches were prepared.

"Fourth brother, you're all ready." Li Mu reported.

Li Yan looked at the branches swaying in the northwest wind, and lightly ordered: "Let's start." ”

After a while, the canister was placed on a wire net, and the soldier lit the oil-soaked linen tied to the outside of the canister. Then, as soon as the machine was released, the throwing rod of the stone thrower instantly bounced up, and the fire oil tank with flames was thrown high. After flying a distance of more than a hundred paces, they fell, collided and broke in the trees. The moment the oil splashed, it was ignited by the flames of the linen cloth, and the flames spread out as if they had been spilled out, sticking to the trees and burning violently.

The catapult quickly moved to the next position, and the throwing rod was pulled down again and again by the soldiers, and then the canister was thrown out again and again. After an hour, the entire northwestern side of the elm forest was on fire. Although it was already midnight and it was completely dark, the fire in the woods lit up the sky red, as if the sun was rising.

At this time, the wind fuels the fire, and the fire borrows the wind, and the flames are blown by the northwest wind to the southeast, and soon ignite the adjacent trees. The fire spread deep and at an alarming rate, and no force could stop it.

The thieves and the people who were hiding in the cave finally became frightened when they saw the fire, and some of them rushed out of the tunnel to extinguish the fire. But by this time the fire was too big for them to do anything, so they had to flee from their cave and take refuge in the distance.

By this time, the people in the tunnels deep in the woods had already slept, and when they were woken up by the panicked shouting, they found that their tunnels had been flooded in. Those people in the caves or tunnels with bad terrain were driven by the fire to take refuge in these well-located, large and deep tunnels. There were many people who could not get in, and those who ran slowly were caught up and swallowed by the fire, and let out terrible screams.

In the second half of the night, the thieves began to disperse. In the face of the fire, some of the thieves who were far away chose to continue to hide deeper into the woods, while others ran out of the woods. The thieves who were still in the woods feared that they would be burned to death by the fire, but the thieves and the people who rushed out of the woods were the first to be hit.

Li Yan's cavalry scattered in groups of hundreds and patrolled the woods in the distance. When they found the thieves who had escaped, they rushed forward, either slashing or smashing, and these panicked thieves were not worth their handcuffs. Where did the thieves think of getting out of the woods and intercepting, so after finding that they were powerless to resist and escape, they could only choose to kneel and surrender. And the people saw Li Yan's cavalry, and directly knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, which was the only way for them to save their lives in troubled times.

Early the next morning, Li Yan saw that the fire had burned a long distance. He instructed Li Mou: "I'll leave it to you here, be careful when you go in and search, try your best to get out the people and thieves, there must be many people hiding in the tunnel." Especially the people, we also need them to cultivate and work, and not to kill too much. ”

Li Mu promised: "Well, I know, I will arrest them all." ”

Li Yan didn't stay long, and after breakfast, he took the guards back to Kaifeng. He got the news that the Fan family had crossed the Yellow River with a large number of horses and was heading towards Kaifeng. And more importantly, Wu Niang also confirmed that he was happy, and he was so bad that he could barely eat, so he had to go back and see.

...