When Ma You heard this, he hurriedly said, "Only leave a thousand people for me?" Will it be too little, in case other forces or officers and soldiers take advantage of the weakness, my thousand people will not be able to hold it. ”

James Shiqian also looked at Gu Hou with questioning eyes. Gu Hou patted Ma You's shoulder: "Third brother, don't worry, a thousand people are enough, and three thousand officers and soldiers are not enough to fight Pengcheng, so you can still divide the troops to fight us." As for the other forces, it is even more impossible, we go to fight the officers and soldiers, and they copy our back road? Dong Liang and An Zhihai can do this kind of thing, and they are not afraid of being drowned by others' spittle. Li Ming has just been defeated, and even Ao Lai Peak has been lost, and it is impossible for him to come to fight us, so you can rest assured. Besides, this time we poured out of the nest, not only to rescue Pengcheng, after we repelled the officers and soldiers, these people will also be used to occupy Pengcheng. When the time comes, we will have this village and a lake, and there will be someone in the Dongshan area who will be more powerful than us. ”

James Shi understood Gu Hou's true intentions, and said with great joy: "Second brother, you are worthy of being our military advisor, Li Hai has Wang Lun, and I have Gu Hou, but Li Hai's idiot looks down on scholars, and he uses Wang Lun if he doesn't understand." Second brother, if you can successfully take Pengcheng this time, Pengcheng will be handed over to you to take care of in the future. ”

Gu Hou was overjoyed: "Then I will thank the owner of the village first." ”

Ma You was also infected by the two and left his worries behind.

Two hours later, James and Gu Hou marched towards Pengcheng with the army of Xianghu. They would never have imagined that just as they were leading their army away, another large army also quietly came to the vicinity of Elephant Lake.

Not far from Pengcheng, the five hundred people who faced Xun Yuqing with six thousand people in front of James Shi were actually a little worried: "Second brother, don't they have three thousand?" Why did you send 500 men to meet us, will there be any deception in this? ”

Gu Hou was also confused: "Why don't we send a thousand people from the front army to test it first?" ”

Zhan Shiqian nodded, and ordered the front army to meet Xun Yuqing, as soon as the two sides fought, although the number of officers and soldiers was small, but the forbidden army was the most elite army in the Great Song Dynasty, and the Xianghu soldiers lived on the water all year round, and land warfare was not what they were good at.

Xun Yuqing saw that the opponent was superior in numbers, and knew that he could not touch it hard, so he ordered the whole army to retreat. Seeing this, James was overjoyed and ordered the whole army to pursue.

The black pressure of the Xianghu soldiers all poured up, and the official army suddenly became chaotic, and the army was defeated like a tide, and actually fled in the direction of Pengcheng Walled.

James Shiqian laughed and said: "What's so great about me being a forbidden army, I lost the battle and fled for my life. They fled in the direction of Pengcheng, and if Wang Lun sent troops to attack us back and forth at this time, would they not be wiped out? ”

Gu Hou was a little cautious: "Village master, it's better to be careful, you take three thousand people to pursue, and the remaining half of the people follow me, in case there is any ambush, I can still kill you and rescue you." ”

James took Gu Hou's suggestion and led 3,000 men to begin the pursuit.

The army killed all the way to the gate of Pengcheng, and the officers and soldiers were about to be forced to have no way to escape, at this time the gate of Pengcheng Walled City was opened, and a force was killed inside, and James Shi recognized that the leader was Wang Lun, the second leader of Pengcheng.

James Shiqian shouted loudly: "Wang Lun, we will attack back and forth, annihilate this army, and don't let any of them go." ”

Wang Lun agreed loudly, but the army passed through the officers and soldiers and killed in front of Zhan Shi, and Xun Yuqing also led the army to turn around and join forces with Peng Cheng's soldiers. Before James could react, the two armies had already met, and the Xianghu soldiers were caught off guard and suffered heavy damage.

"Withdraw, withdraw." James hurriedly ordered a retreat.

Gu Hou, who was in the distance, saw this scene and hurriedly led the army to respond, and when he arrived, he had already lost half of the 3,000 people. The morale of the coalition of officials and bandits in the back was even more boosted, and the sound of killing was soaring. Gu Hou didn't dare to fight, and retreated directly before and after rescuing James.

Wang Lun also handed over all the Pengcheng soldiers to Xun Yuqing under the command, at this time the number of coalition troops had exceeded the Xianghu soldiers, and James Shiqian did not dare to fight, and planned to withdraw directly to Xianghu.

Xun Yuqing was not in a hurry to catch up, he followed behind unhurriedly, as long as James stopped to rest, Xun Yuqing sent someone to harass him. came down several times in a row, making James miserable. Fortunately, Xianghu Lake is only a two-day trip from Pengcheng, so James made up his mind before he didn't rest on the road and withdrew to Xianghu Lake in one go. As long as he returned to Xianghu, with the advantage of water warfare, James Shiqian was still very confident that he would be able to keep the officers and soldiers out of Xianghu.

After two days of sleepless work, James finally withdrew to Xianghu with the remnants of the army, and in the past two days, people have been left behind and escaped, and now the number of people brought back is less than 3,000.

When he came to the lake, James found that the lake was empty, and there was not a single ferry. I wondered in my heart: "Could it be that something happened to the cottage?" ”

James arranged for someone to find a boat, and on the other hand, he asked people to build a raft and go back to the cottage to let Ma You bring the boat to pick him up.

It didn't take long for Xun Yuqing to chase after Xianghu, looking at James from a distance and sneering, not planning to come forward to fight. James Shiqian was even more panicked in his heart, and asked Gu Hou, "Second brother, what should we do now?" ”

Gu Hou is also a scholar, his physical fitness is not as good as that of James Qian, he has not rested for two consecutive days, and now he can't open his eyes when he sits on the ground, how can he come up with any ideas.

"The owner of the village, a boat is coming, and it is the third master who has come to meet us." Someone reported to James.

James looked around, and sure enough, a row of warships appeared on the lake, speeding towards the shore. James was overjoyed, waved his hand at the lake and said, "Third child, here, hurry up." ”

As soon as the boat approached, James had to jump on board. At this moment, a package was thrown from the cabin and smashed in front of James. James caught it with his hand, and while opening it, he scolded: "Third child, what the hell are you doing." ”

As soon as the package was opened, it was actually the head of Ma You, James was startled, and Gu Hou was also scared to sober up, staring at the boat on the lake with a frightened face.

"Hahahaha, Liu has been waiting for the master of Zhan Zhai here for a long time." A person walked out of the cabin, it was Liu Zixuan.

On that day, Liu Zixuan took advantage of the opportunity when James and Gu Hou took away most of the troops, and sneaked into Xianghu, and as soon as he entered the camp, Liu Zixuan first found Ma You, and chopped off his head like chopping vegetables and melons. How could the remaining 1,000 water bandits be the opponents of these forbidden armies, and the water bandits died and surrendered under the rush of the army. Because Xianghu Lake is a water village, in order to prevent the news from leaking, Liu Zixuan sent people to guard all the boats on the lake as soon as he entered the village, so none of those who were unwilling to surrender ran away, all of them were locked up, and naturally no one reported to James in front of him.

At this time, James Shiqian's face was already as pale as earth, and from the beginning of the dispatch of troops to Pengcheng, what happened later seemed to be controlled by an invisible hand, and he walked into the trap set by others step by step. Wang Lun was obviously asking for help from himself, why did he lead the army to attack him instead when he arrived in Pengcheng? I obviously left Ma You to guard the village, why is Ma You dead now, and it is Liu Zixuan who appears in front of me?

James looked at Gu Hou, Gu Hou had already figured all this, and was about to open his mouth to tell James Qian. It's a pity that Liu Zixuan's knife didn't wait for him, a knife light swept by, and the head in front of James also fell, like his sworn brother Li Hai, he also became a fool, and he didn't understand where he lost until he died?

When Gu Hou saw that James was killed, he also sighed and said to the bandits beside him: "Brothers, everyone surrender, the officers and soldiers will not kill you." After speaking, he picked up the long sword in his hand and swiped it towards his neck.

The remaining bandits saw that the three masters had all been killed, and they were also besieged by officers and soldiers, plus they had not closed their eyes for two days, their whole body was weak, and there was only a dead end for stubborn resistance, so they put down their weapons and chose to surrender.

Liu Zixuan saw that Gu Hou had broken himself, and he also admired him as a man, and asked someone to bury him well. After cleaning up the battlefield, Liu Zixuan and Xun Yuqing returned to Pengcheng to join Wang Lun.

Wang Lun had already received the news and stood at the door of the cottage to greet him, Liu Zixuan patted his horse and ran in front of Wang Lun, laughing and said: "Sir, everything is as you expected, we successfully took Xianghu, James Shiqian and Ma You were beheaded by me, and Gu Hou also committed suicide, Xianghu is peaceful." ”

Xun Yuqing also rushed to Wang Lun's side, dismounted and hugged his fists and said to Wang Lun: "Mr. is resourceful, this time he can win Pengcheng and Xianghu in one fell swoop, Mr. is the first to take the lead, Xun is very impressed." ”

Wang Lun said politely: "Wang didn't dare to take credit, if it weren't for the bravery of the two generals, these two Dazhai would not be so easy to take." ”

Liu Zixuan said: "Okay, okay, let's not be polite." Of the five bandits, two have now been wiped out, and Li Ming in Dongshan has also been seriously injured. It's a good start, but we can't relax yet, Li Hai and Zhan Shiqian were originally the two weakest of the five mountain bandits, and the rest of Dong Liang, An Zhihai and Li Ming are not easy to deal with, Mr. Wang, you have to give us more ideas. ”

Wang Lun said: "It should be like this, but I don't know if the two generals plan to continue to march into the army, or go back to Jeju to join General Shi?" ”

Liu Zixuan said: "I have already discussed with Yuqing on the way here, and I plan to let Yuqing stay in Pengcheng to garrison, and by the way, train the troops of Pengcheng and Xianghu." The city defense army of Jeju City is not afraid to use it, and these surrenders can just make up for the lack of our troops. My husband and I will return to Jeju with 2,000 forbidden troops to rendezvous with Nakseung, and then discuss the next step. By the way, there is one more thing I would like to ask sir, as far as we know, Jeju City Taishou Jang Man-sung should have contact with the bandit capital, do you know anything about this? ”

Wang Lun shook his head and said: "In the past, as long as there were officers and soldiers to suppress the bandits, someone would inform us to hide, and we didn't even know who the other party was, but we just guessed that it was Zhang Mancheng behind it." Among the mountain bandits in the Dongshan area, only Li Ming should really have contact with Zhang Mancheng. ”

Liu Zixuan was a little disappointed: "It seems that I can only find a way to get evidence of Zhang Mancheng's collusion with the mountain bandits on Li Ming." ”

Wang Lun asked in surprise: "In addition to suppressing bandits, the purpose of several generals here is to take down Zhang Mancheng?" ”

Liu Zixuan thought to himself: "This Wang Lun is a great talent, tell him the truth, firstly, not to treat him as an outsider, and secondly, to let him come up with ideas together." So he told Wang Lun some of Shi Luosheng's views on Zhang Mancheng.

Wang Lun was shocked after hearing this: "It turns out that their target is Tian Yulong, who is a behemoth of one of the five great families of the Great Song Dynasty, Liu Zixuan does not hide such an important matter from me, it seems that he really treats me as his own." ”

Wang Lun had some feelings when he met Bole: "Speaking of Li Ming, he was originally just the leader of a small gang in Jeju City, and among the bandit leaders of the five major forces, his talent was not outstanding, and he was not even as good as his second leader Tian Leopard, but after Zhang Mancheng took office, he was able to quickly rise to become the most powerful mountain bandit in Dongshan, and the reason behind this is intriguing." If Li Ming can be taken down, evidence of their collusion will definitely be found. ”

Liu Zixuan nodded: "Then we will go back to Jeju City tomorrow, and together with Luosheng and Master Guo, we will think of a way to see how to take down Li Ming." ”