Chapter 1046 The thief village is now a jade man
After noon, the sun made the farmers in the fields a little sleepy. They wiped their sweat, stopped their work, and ran to the fields to drink. At the moment when they looked up, they saw a team in the distance: more than fifty horses, men carrying bows and swords. The current two of them, jade-faced scarves, talk and laugh to a certain extent, looking at their demeanor, they are not ordinary people. Especially the scar-faced man beside the two of them, which is terrifying.
This group of people is naturally Ma Chao and others who went out to meet Zhang Yan. Along the way, everyone walked and stopped, which was very pleasant. In summer, the river is as bright as a mirror, sparkling, flowers bloom on both sides of the riverbank, green trees are lined up, new sprouts are sprouted in the fields, birds are singing and butterflies are dancing, and they are full of vitality. Ma Chao didn't have half of the nervousness of meeting the legendary bandits in Bingzhou this time, but it was like going out on a tour.
According to Ma Chao's understanding, the Ma family army under him is essentially just bandits with a skin. It's just that his army of bandits is numerous, well-equipped, strong, and has the highest discipline, so he is superior to ordinary bandits like the Yellow Turban Black Mountain. But fading all kinds of dazzling halos, what Ma Jiajun did was nothing more than killing people and setting fire to grab territory. This point, no matter how much it is beautified and disguised, cannot hide the core facts.
It's a pity that the world has been bound by the idea of loyalty for too long and it is difficult to see through. For Ma Chao, this so-called meeting was just a face-saving project for big bandits to annex small bandits, and he naturally didn't worry at all.
After finally entering the Taihang Mountains, Ma Chao saw dozens of people on the side to greet him. From noon to dusk, Ma Chao and his party finally arrived at Zhang Yan's old nest. Ma Chao was shocked by the scenery in the valley at that time, and only after watching the incense stick for a long time did he look at Zhang Yan's station.
"My lord, you see that the layout of this station is in an orderly manner, and the tents in the camp are all lined up horizontally and vertically. Although it is not a strong army, it is also convenient to gather people against the enemy. Zhang Yan is different. The ugly brother's eyes were on the wooden fence with thistles hanging outside the camp, as well as the military facilities such as the high topped lookout posts at the four corners of the camp. It is conceivable that once there is an invasion of foreign enemies, the soldiers on duty can quickly bang the gong next to them to warn, and the entire valley can be assembled into a fighting machine in an instant.
"Hey, it's a big bandit leader, and they're about to catch up with the regular army." Ma Chao nodded and looked at Guo Jia.
Guo Jia's vision was obviously unique, he pointed to one place and said, "Meng Qi, what do you guess Zhang Yanjun is doing?" Ma Chao stretched out his eyes and saw that many people were laying foundations and stone walls, as if they were going to build a camp. Rows of earthen kilns have been built in the rear, which are as ugly as tomb bags, which makes Ma Chao feel very unlucky.
But then, when Ma Chao saw that there were still twenty or thirty carts around those graves, his face changed slightly. The carts loaded with lime, grass, coal, and iron ingots were placed around the grave bag in large patchesβsuch a scene can only explain one thing.
Zhang Yan was building a large-scale ordnance workshop, and the so-called "grave bags" were furnaces for iron smelting.
"We are a little too optimistic now, Zhang Yan came to us, maybe to negotiate, not to surrender!" Ma Chao's face became a little gloomy, he turned his head suddenly, and asked quickly in a low voice but with full dignity: "Tell me, is Zhang Yan's grain and grass really beyond his means?!" β
"Small, villain is not clear. I only know that Zhang Yan goes out to loot every year, and when I said that there is a shortage of grain and grass in the grain, he did not deny it, or, maybe it is really a shortage of grain and grass, right? He didn't know why Ma Chao suddenly asked this, and he couldn't answer for a while.
'This idiot! Ma Chao was secretly annoyed in his heart, Zhang Yan went out to rob, maybe he wanted to make a name for himself, or maybe he wanted to develop this station, or even completely because of professional inertia. It is not necessarily because of the lack of food and grass, after all, Zhang Yandu has begun to build an arsenal workshop, and it doesn't look like he can't get enough to eat.
In desperation, Ma Chao hurriedly raised his eyes and looked at the terraced fields in this valley. I saw that the green wheat was thriving, but because Zhang Yan still planted ordinary wheat here, it was still not heading in the summer, and the low yield was certain. However, there are cattle, sheep and pigsty in the far side of the valley, and this agriculture and animal husbandry go hand in hand, Ma Chao really can't calculate whether these harvests can support the life of Zhang Yan's bandits in the camp.
In this negotiation, the Montenegrin army's food and grass beyond its means is a very important reliance for Ma Chao. And if this is not the case at all, then the weight in Ma Chao's hand will be much lighter - and then he glanced at the dazed and unincomprehensible expression, Ma Chao really wanted to stab this useless thing to death immediately.
Of course, there is another option, which is to completely exterminate the Montenegrin army. But after having the idea of subduing, Ma Chao didn't want to meet like this as a last resort - judging from the situation in front of him, Zhang Yan has at least the talent to guard a county. There are still 300,000 civilian soldiers and horses under his command, and it is a pity to kill them.
And just when Ma Chao hesitated, there was a commotion outside the gate of the village, and everyone looked intently, only to see a group of soldiers in armor holding sticks or wooden knives, smashing towards a person who was also wearing leather armor without a nose and a face. The man was still holding a cardamom girl in his hand, although he obviously couldn't resist it, so he had to pull the little girl and continue to run. But it seems that he can't tell the direction, so he has to rely on his intuition to turn around in the valley. The armor was clearly more familiar with the terrain than he was, and they attacked in combination, and on several occasions they came close to succeeding. The man panicked, suddenly felt that his eyes were wide, and he actually rushed out of the gate of the village, and saw more than 50 horsemen standing coldly.
"I'm dying!" The man shouted miserably, and hurriedly pushed the girl in his hand aside, shouting, "Run, don't look back!" β
"Second brother!" The girl exclaimed, but then after seeing Ma Chao and others dressed up, her eyes lit up, and she blurted out: "They are not Zhang Yan's people, they are officials and soldiers!" And he ......" The girl pointed at Ma Chao, seemingly hesitating, but finally insisted: "He is Yongliang Ma Mengqi!" β
Indeed, although Ma Chao did not wear armor this time, the weapons in his hands, the horses under his crotch, and the cold-blooded temperament all over his body, at first glance, he was a man who had been used to fighting for a long time. It's just that Ma Chao didn't expect that a girl who lives in the valley and doesn't know anything about the world could call out his name at once?
However, at the next glance, Ma Chao denied his speculation. The girl wore a round-necked long-sleeved summer coat, a green knee skirt, red silk embroidered shoes on her feet, yellow makeup on her face, a little thick eyebrows, and her eyes were like stars, which was really beautiful. If you take a closer look, you can see that in addition to the bare skin of this girl other than her face and hands, which was stained by running away, the skin exposed by the broken clothes on her neck and shoulder blades is as white as jade and as condensed as mutton fat.
Moreover, the man who fell to the ground was also a Confucian robe in leather armor, and there were no calluses on his hands, obviously a pampered person - these two people should be the meat tickets held hostage by Zhang Yan. And the second brother among the brothers and sisters, there are some small means, when Zhang Yanzhujun was busy welcoming Ma Chao, he changed into Zhang Yanjun's leather armor and wanted to take his sister out, but he still failed.
"These days, in addition to sacking Jinyang City, which caravan has Zhang Yan hijacked?" Ma Chao saw that those soldiers used wooden sticks and knives, and he also knew that these people still wanted to keep these two people for ransom. Immediately remained silent, and asked Xiang Gu again.
At this time, Ma Chao had already decided that if this Zhenggu dared to say 'I don't know' or 'I don't know' to himself again, Ma Chao would really stab this Zhenggu with one shot!
Maybe it's just as Zhang Yan said, this guy is still a little lucky. Seeing that Ma Chao's face was not good, he hurriedly replied: "This subordinate really knows that the Zhen family has invested in the Cao family these days, and secretly transferred the materials from Jizhou to Yecheng to fund Cao Cao. Zhang Yan somehow got the news and robbed the Zhen family caravan once. β
"The Zhen family?" Ma Chao thought of someone when his mind was neutral, and after taking a closer look at the girl, he whispered: "The skin is like condensed fat, like a jade coat covering it." This girl is ......."
With this guess in his heart, Ma Chao turned around and smiled at Su Gu: You guy, it's not completely useless....... Mu ^ remnant ^ Wen ^ Xue (), if you think it's good, press ctrl+D to collect this book!
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