Back at the General's Mansion, Deng Yuanjue said to Shi Luosheng apologetically: "I really didn't expect that the senior brother in charge didn't agree to accept you as a formal disciple, but don't be discouraged, I'll talk to him again in a while." ”

Shi Luosheng looked indifferent: "Don't worry about this matter general, it's nothing if you don't accept me as an official disciple, what Master Ding said makes sense, the martial arts of Tiandaomen are really not suitable for me, and I don't have much interest in practicing martial arts, it's better to learn one enemy than to learn ten thousand enemies, the general's army is recognized as the first in the world, I hope to follow the general to learn the way of using soldiers." ”

Deng Yuanjue pondered for a while and said: "Although I am the general of the Great Song Dynasty, I am also a disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect, since the senior disciple of the head of the sect does not agree to accept you as an official disciple, it is not convenient for me to accept you as an apprentice, and it is not good to teach you martial arts and the art of war in private." It's better to do this, if you don't dislike it, I will accept you as a righteous son, so that I can teach you justifiably, and it's not good for the head of the junior brother to say anything. ”

When Shi Luosheng heard that Deng Yuanjue wanted to accept himself as his righteous son, he was overjoyed: "Thanks to the general's wrong love, Luosheng is only afraid that he will not be able to climb high." ”

The Deng family is one of the five great families of the Great Song Dynasty, although it is not the most powerful, but only Deng Yuanjue can be called the pillar of the Song Kingdom, and there is no Great Song Kingdom without Deng Yuanjue, which is not only the consensus of the Song people, but also the consensus of the whole world. The Great Song Dynasty did not have Xiao Daocheng, and could have set up another emperor, but if there was no Deng Yuanjue, the Great Song Dynasty would have been destroyed by the Chu State long ago. A child of a poor family like Shi Luosheng can be accepted as a righteous son by Deng Yuanjue, and I don't know how many people will be jealous.

Deng Yuanjue laughed: "Luosheng, don't be presumptuous, I don't think you are anything in the pool, and it's hard to say which of us will touch whose light in the future." Since you have no opinion, this matter is settled. There is another thing I plan to hand over to you, although there is no war with the outside world in the Great Song Dynasty now, but after so many years of war, banditry is rampant in many places in the country, especially in the Dongshan area. In the past, I couldn't take care of them, but now I can finally spare my energy to deal with them, you have just been named General Yingyang, I will give you 3,000 forbidden troops, let Zixuan be your deputy general, and there are 30,000 city defense troops in Jeju City, the capital of Dongshan, which are also under your control, within half a year, you must destroy them, and then I will ask for credit for you in front of Your Majesty. ”

Three days later, Yingyang general Shi Luosheng and general Liu Zixuan left Jianye with 3,000 forbidden troops and went to Dongshan. On the way, Shi Luosheng asked the master of the army: "Mr. Guo, tell us about the situation in the Dongshan area." ”

The full name of this Guo master is Guo Xu, and he was originally a staff member under Deng Yuanjue, because this was the first time Shi Luosheng led the army alone, Deng Yuanjue sent Guo Xu and another school captain Xun Yuqing to help him.

Guo Xu is a person from Dongshan, and he also knows the situation in this area very well: "There are five main forces of mountain bandits in Dongshan, namely Li Ming in Dongshan, Zhan Shiqian in Xianghu, Dong Liang in Xiaqiu, An Zhihai in Zuoxi, and Li Hai in Pengcheng. Among them, Li Ming and An Zhihai are the most powerful, and there are tens of thousands of bandits under their command. The other three are not weak, and they all have more than 5,000 people on their hands. Compared to our troops, we are at a disadvantage, but Jeju City still has 30,000 city defense troops stationed in it, and we can use this part of the troops. It's just that this Jeju City is too guarded by Zhang Mancheng, he was raised by Tian Taiwei, Tian Taiwei and the general have always been at odds, and we use his men, we are afraid that he will make things difficult for us at that time. In addition, Pengcheng Lihai and Xianghu Zhanshi among these five forces are sworn brothers, and we must be careful that they will join forces to resist when we encircle and suppress. The relationship between Dong Liang of Xiaqiu and An Zhihai of Zuoxi is not very harmonious, and we can also take advantage of this. ”

Liu Zixuan added: "I have also heard a lot about the situation of the mountain bandits here in the General's Mansion, their combat effectiveness is not weak, and the official army has also organized several encirclement and suppression over the years, but each time it ended in failure, and we cannot underestimate the enemy." ”

Shi Luosheng said: "In the area of Dongshan, the terrain is complex, the foothills are thousands of miles, there are caves all over, and in many places only birds can communicate with the outside world, such a good place is naturally a comfortable nest for these mountain bandits." Every time the officers and soldiers launched a large-scale encirclement and suppression, they would be broken into pieces and hid in the mountains. As soon as the officers and soldiers left, they regrouped, and there was nothing they could do about them. This time, the general only gave us 3,000 men, just to let them see that we have few soldiers, so that we will not be reduced to pieces and hidden. ”

Shi Luosheng said to Guo Xu and Xun Yuqing again: "Mr. Guo, General Xun, I plan to take a step ahead with Zixuan, let's go to Jeju City to meet Zhang Mancheng first, and see how the combat effectiveness of the 30,000 city defense army is, you two will come back a few days later with the army." ”

Guo Xu was a little worried: "General, will this be unsafe, or will I and General Xun go." This Zhang Mancheng is only afraid that it is not simple, the Wulu mountain bandits have been under his nose for so many years, if there is no problem here, I will not believe it. ”

Shi Luosheng said: "Don't worry, Mr. Guo, let's just go and see first, we won't have a conflict with Zhang Taishou, and besides, Zixuan is the general's personal disciple, and his martial arts are strong, so he can handle anything." "Shi Luosheng has not shown his martial arts in public since he came back from Wuling Mountain, and even the broken knife was tied in his sleeve by himself, and he didn't show it to others. Every day, except for practicing the Flame Chasing Day, the rest of the time was spent on the art of war and strategy, so much so that everyone thought that he decided to abandon martial arts after being rejected by the Heavenly Sword Gate.

The two left the group and traveled by water to Jeju City. The two rushed to the ferry, and before they got on the boat, Shi Luosheng knew from the farmer on the shore that there was also a group of bandits on the river, and all the cargo ships that passed by the river were afraid of running into them every time.

The boat went along the water, with the rise of the river, the two sides of the bank were more open, the wind gradually rose, the boatman raised the alum, and the speed of the boat gradually accelerated. When they reached the middle of the river, suddenly several battered and narrow boats sprang out from both sides to block the way. When the boatman saw this, he trembled, and Shi Luosheng stepped forward to ask when he saw this, it turned out that this was the boat of the water bandits.

The water bandit with a big knife in his hand jumped on the boat, and the leader shouted: "Everyone on the boat is honest with Lao Tzu, we only need money, don't die, obediently take out the valuables on your body, I guarantee that you will leave safely." ”

Some of the people who accompanied him began to take out the valuables on his body and prepare to hand them over to the water bandits, Shi Luosheng stopped: "Slow, I am an official sent by the imperial court, Your Majesty wants me to come and garrison here, do you dare to rob the imperial court officials, don't you want to die?" ”

The water bandit led by the leader glanced at Shi Luosheng obliquely, and said with a smile: "Imperial court official? Just the two of you, if you don't take the official road, you still dare to take the waterway? Have you never seen an official in office? Isn't the official who came to Dongshan hugging from front to back, full of majesty, is there a poor sour person like you? I don't care if you're true or not, kill you first, brothers, up. ”

Liu Zixuan was furious, rushed up with an arrow step, and in a moment more than a dozen water bandits were all beaten into the river, Liu Zixuan grabbed the water bandit led by him, slammed it to the deck, and said angrily: "Do you dare to play tricks again?" ”

The water bandit immediately confessed, knelt on the ground and begged for mercy: "Ask your lord to spare your life, we were also forced to come here to be robbers, we used to be fishermen in this area, but the government is too heavy to pay taxes and miscellaneous taxes, I really can't pay it, and I hope that my lord will be gracious." ”

Shi Luosheng sneered: "Even if I let you go now, you won't be water bandits in the future, and you can be fishermen with peace of mind?" ”

The bandit's face was pale, and he didn't know how to answer, so he begged for mercy one by one.

Shi Luosheng waved his hand and said: "That's it, I can give you a chance, if I see you as water bandits next time, I will definitely let your blood stain this river." ”

When the bandits saw that Shi Luosheng was willing to let him go, they immediately jumped back to their boats with joy to make way for the waterway.

Liu Zixuan said: "Why don't you kill them with one knife and let them go back?" ”

Shi Luosheng said: "I think these water bandits are all local people, they are good citizens during the day, and they become water bandits at night. It is not difficult for us to exterminate the bandits this time, but the difficulty lies in the fact that if we do not handle it well and finish exterminating this wave, it will not be long before a new wave will appear. ”

Liu Zixuan also felt the same way: "Yes, the root cause of the people becoming bandits is still poverty, and only by making them rich can the bandits be completely cured." ”

Shi Luosheng said: "Now that there is no war, it is said that the taxes in the past three years are much lighter than before, but just now the water bandit also said that the taxes are heavy, it seems that Zhang Mancheng must have taken the opportunity to collect money in it." ”

Liu Zixuan nodded and said, "It's a pity that Zhang Mancheng is a county guard, and we can't deal with him." ”

Shi Luosheng said: "There is no need to deal with him, our task is to suppress the bandits, these mountain bandits can exist for so many years, there must be collusion with Zhang Mancheng, as long as we can get the evidence, after we go back, tell the general, let Your Majesty deal with him." ”

As he spoke, the ship had arrived outside Jeju City, which was much more depressed than Kokura Castle, with few pedestrians on the streets, dilapidated houses on both sides of the road, and large areas of open space outside the city that were uncultivated.

The two found a tea shop and sat down, the store sent a pot of tea, Shi Luosheng saw that he was over sixty years old, and asked: "Shopkeeper, we haven't fought in the Great Song Dynasty for more than three years, why do I see that there are still so few young people in the city, and no one cultivates so much vacant land?" ”

The shopkeeper looked at the two of them a few times and said: "The two must have come from other places, there used to be a war, and the men in the city hid in the mountains in order to avoid military service, and in the past three years, it has been a little peaceful, and some people have run back." When I returned to the city, I saw that although I didn't have to do military service anymore, the other conscriptions were heavier than before, and the Taishou had added some messy taxes, so I couldn't support myself by farming, so it was better to go back to the mountains. ”

Shi Luosheng deliberately asked, "In the mountains?" I heard that bandits are rampant here, and they hide in the mountains, aren't they afraid of encountering mountain bandits? ”

The shopkeeper smiled: "Mountain bandits? Could it be that there are more powerful mountain bandits than Zhang Taishou? ”

At this time, a woman next to her scolded: "Old immortal, what are you talking nonsense, hurry up and work." ”

Shi Luosheng and Liu Zixuan glanced at each other, and Zhang Man had a problem.