In the middle of December, Li Yu's battle against thieves began, on the north road, Sun Xianzu's Shanxi army approached the river meander, 5,000 men and horses shrunk into a group, chose a dangerous place to set up a large camp, and according to Li Yu's instructions desperately dug trenches and cloth deer barricades, blocked the door of the thieves' house and could not be stopped, the thieves attacked several times and were bombarded back by guns, and there was no way to take him for a while. Li Yu on the south road bypassed Wuzhai Fort and advanced to Baode Prefecture, but he was safe and sound all the way - Wang Jiayin left Zhao Sheng, who lit the lamp, in Baode City, this guy heard that the officers and soldiers who played the Black Eagle Banner were coming, and thought that Li Yu was coming to him to settle accounts, and he was so frightened that he refused to go out of the city, and he counted the most people in Baode City, he did not dare to fight, and other thieves would not be stupid, everyone shrank together in the city and closed the door, Li Yu swaggered and set up the camp thirty miles outside Baode City, blocking the passage for the thieves to go south.

As soon as the official army arrived, the gentry and landlords of Baode Prefecture immediately became active, some time ago, the thieves could ravage them miserably, rob them of their money and food and kill their people, scared them into hiding in Tibet, and now the time for the counterattack is coming, these guys like emerging from the ground, took the initiative to come to the door to ask for assistance in the official army to suppress the thieves, Li Yu was overjoyed, and immediately ordered Bai An, Zhou Yuji, Hu Dawei and Meng Ruhu to take the opportunity to expand the team - Li Yu gave too little money, and they have not recruited enough people until now, They took the opportunity to coax and trick a large group of families, tenants, and even the children of large families into the ranks, and Li Yu named the four battalions that had just gathered enough to be the "Shanxi Thief Army."

Someone is willing to help lead the way, ventilate the news, Zhao Ji with Qiu Xian, Sun Fuhu two battalions of cavalry also have a chance to show a hand, this gang of treacherous and cunning horse thieves shot, since then the thieves have never had a stable life, Fengzhou iron cavalry along the Baode to the river meander, there is a chance to fight hard, no chance to hide, that set of floating, fast fight and fast walking tactics were played vividly. Seeing that the thieves were weak, the local tyrants and villagers who hid in the cottage also came out to take advantage of the fire to rob, not only to provide a place for the Fengzhou cavalry to feed and hide, but also to attack the thieves' strongholds in groups, intercept and kill the thieves and stragglers, the ground in Baode Prefecture was in chaos, it seemed that there was a war everywhere, the thieves were outsiders in the end, and the gang of local snakes and horse thieves were fighting, and soon they couldn't bear it, and they shrank into a ball around Hequ County, and it seemed that even Baode City didn't want to care.

Li Yu didn't fight a decent battle, and even before the main force moved, he trapped the thief so easily, even he couldn't figure it out, no, the strength of the thief was much stronger than mine, the more passive the situation, the more I should concentrate on fighting with me, the dog would jump over the wall when he was in a hurry, how could they shrink their heads and be beaten, do they want to escape across the river and return to their hometown, then I can't ask for it, Li Yu shook his head and smiled, and then ordered to send more scouts, and the search was expanded to forty miles.

When Li Yu was relaxed, Wang Jiayin in the hall of Hequ County was frowning, his left and right prime ministers Wang Ziyong and Bai Yuzhu also accompanied him sighing, the thieves from all walks of life didn't look at them, they formed a small circle and exchanged ears, the team of thieves swelled too fast, the people's hearts were scattered and it was not easy to lead, there was no discipline, the thieves each had their own mountains, he was a fart, and people didn't take him seriously at all.

"Leaders, how have you discussed, would you like to follow my old king south?" Wang Jiayin calmly asked again, today he has been persuading everyone to go south into the hinterland of Shanxi, but the leaders of each battalion have their own plans, and they can't settle down after arguing for a long time, he said bitterly again, "Our food is almost finished, and it will be too late if we don't leave, taking advantage of the unstable foothold of the official army, 200,000 people rush over in one breath, who can stop it?" Shanxi's officials and troops are all by the Yellow River, their stomachs are very empty, some are places to live, Shanxi is a good place, especially Pingyang, Zelu there are rich businessmen who are so fat that they are so rich, if they are not hundreds of thousands of properties, they are not rich, you definitely don't want to go home. ”

No one paid attention to him, Wang Jiayin glanced at it, pointed to one of the yellow-faced young men and opened his mouth, this guy is from Mizhi, he is usually very obedient and willing to work hard, so let's start with him.

"What is your name? I can't remember this king for a while, but I remember that you are the rising star of our rebel army, are you willing to fight with this king to the south? ”

"Junior brother Zhang Xianzhong, Yansui people call us the eight kings, don't forget the king," Zhang Xianzhong hurriedly stood up, saluted Wang Jiayin and said, "The younger brother is a rough man, the king has discussed it with the seniors, and the younger brother will follow along, and he will never delay the king's affairs." ”

"This posterior is very good at talking, I heard that you squeezed the lamp until Baode didn't dare to come back, for fear that you would swallow up his team, you have some ability!" Wang Ziyong stared at Zhang Xianzhong with a sneer, this kid is too ignorant of lifting, and he speaks without leakage, and the sides are muddy.

Zhang Xianzhong was shocked, when he was in Qingjian, he did everything possible to squeeze out the lamp, spread rumors and slander, sow discord, and do everything in the dark, and drove the lamp to Shanxi, and when he arrived at the river meander, he stared at the people who lit the lamp, and repeatedly sent people to Baode to dig the corner of the lamp, and the lamp was so frightened that he didn't dare to go to the river meander, and the annexation of accomplices was very common among thieves, but it was taboo to put it on the table, Zhang Xianzhong had shallow qualifications and weak strength, and he was still afraid of being caught by pigtails.

"The younger brother doesn't dare to do this kind of unrighteous thing, it's because he is timid to light the lamp, the younger brother heard that he was captured by the gang of Yi soldiers, and he also helped the officers and soldiers do a lot of things, he must be a thief, and the little brother feels that this kind of person staying in our righteous army is also a trouble." Zhang Xianzhong hurriedly defended himself, and by the way, he said a few bad words about lighting the lamp.

"Lighting the lamp is early, and you are also considered an old qualification in the rebel army, what kind of thing are you eight kings, dare to be disrespectful to your predecessors? I heard that you were also captured by those Yi soldiers, and you are still helping them fight and kill the rebel brothers in Huaining, are you considered a trouble? "Don't get mud Zhang Mengcun and Zhao Sheng are fellow villagers in Qingjian, and they can't get used to this guy being too flamboyant, so they can't help but teach a few lessons.

Zhang Xianzhong was anxious, and immediately swore to fight with the government to the end, there would never be half-heartedness, the thief found a new topic, and also revealed each other's shortcomings, surrendering and rebelling, rebelling and surrendering is a common thing for thieves, but no one can stand it on the table, and the hall immediately became a mess.

"I digress, I only talked about where to go today, and I didn't mention anything else." The right prime minister, Bai Yuzhu, shouted loudly, but no one paid attention to him, and Wang Jiayin knocked on the table vigorously to suppress the noise.

The younger brother refused to come forward to help, Wang Jiayin set his eyes on the powerful Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang, he tried to squeeze out a smile and asked: "Lao Gao, you have seen a lot of knowledge in the north and south, how about you tell us Lao Wang's idea?" ”

"Lao Wang, you said that everyone in Shanxi knows it, but it's too far away from your hometown, you are not familiar with the place, and you can't die if you are surrounded by the officials and soldiers, we still have to go back to our hometown, I heard that the Yansui officials and soldiers are going west to deal with the two brothers of Shen Yiyuan, and the west side of the river is very empty, let's take the Fugu and still have food." Gao Yingxiang, known as the king of Chuang, shook his head vigorously.

Wang Ziyong spoke dissatisfiedly: "King Chuang, you don't know what is going on in Yansui, how much grain can you eat?" I think you're a little cowardly. ”

"What's the matter, I'm instigated by the king, you Zijin Liang is instigated, do you dare to take the lead, if you dare to take the lead, I'll go, what, don't you dare to speak, the battle in Caiyuangou scared you, right?"

Wang Ziyong's face changed, the battle of Caiyuangou was commanded by him, he thought that there were many people and the time and place were advantageous, and he could win a battle and win some horses and livestock, but he didn't expect to suffer a big loss, losing thousands of elites, and now he thought of the other party's fierceness and felt weak in his heart.

Wang Jiayin hurriedly said: "Lao Gao, I have been a soldier in Liaodong, it is useless to deal with the cavalry of the Yi people, you can only use the cavalry to fight, you and the three of them are good hands on the horse, of course the soldiers are inseparable from you, we will never be idle, we will definitely help you, we are too many, the Yi soldiers can't stop us." ”

Liu Guoneng stopped doing it: "You can help you, our cavalry is just such a few people, many of them still ride mules and donkeys, how much is left after a battle, and they won't be able to live in the future!" ”

The Monkey immediately said, "You Fugu people are just cowardly, you have the most people, why don't you dare to take the lead?" It must be that they are afraid of the soldiers who beat the Black Eagle Banner. ”

Bai Yuzhu is also from Fugu, so he immediately quit: "Let's coax!" Then take down Baode and Hequ, why don't you cowardly come to us? ”

King Chuang was furious: "You Fugu people are trying to drive us away, right?" We have already seen that you are making a small calculation, and it is okay for the old king to pull the pole and become a king early, why did you two occupy the left and right prime ministers, you are a fart, to tell you the truth, we have made an appointment to fight the sky eagle, and we have long been eyeing Fugu, and we will cross the river and return to our hometown in two days, and you will go south by yourself if you want to. ”

Ma Jinzhong, who had not spoken, spoke: "Lao Wang, Shanxi is rich, but it is too risky to cross several rivers in Fenshui and Qinshui, and if you miss a little, these 200,000 people will be gone, I think it's better to forget it." ”

"Lao Wang was a soldier, but he was a deserter, he knows everything, let's go!" The Monkey sneered, and swaggered away with the king, the sky, and the 100,000, and as soon as they left, the other thieves found an excuse and slipped away, so angry that Wang Jiayin rolled his eyes.

"What did I do wrong? I'm not the king to do things for everyone, it's wrong to enter Shanxi, it's better than going back to my hometown to starve, okay, why are they making trouble? Wang Jiayin was so angry that he slammed the table.

"The **** horse thieves, they shouldn't have been taken in in the first place, and now they are crossing the river and demolishing the bridge." Wang Ziyong was also indignant.

"They are going to go very well, let them go to fight Fugu, we can't ask for it," Bai Yuzhu suddenly laughed, lowered his voice and said to Wang Jiayin and Wang Ziyong, who were wide-eyed, "What we are most worried about when we go south is the Yiren cavalry, since Lao Gao and they are going to cross the river to fight Fugu, then use them to lure away the Yiren, as long as the officers and soldiers give us a way to pass, the other battalions will definitely follow behind our butts." ”

"No, they are all rebel brothers, we can't do it in the dark." Wang Jiayin shook his head again and again.

"It's them who eat inside and outside and leave the team without permission, this can't blame us, the king can't be soft at this time, 200,000 lives are in your hands," Wang Ziyong immediately agreed, and said to Bai Yuzhu, "Lao Bai, you are a talented person who has read books, and you have more ideas than us, so you can say how to do it." ”

Wang Jiayin and Wang Ziyong looked at Bai Yuzhu together, and Bai Yuzhu nodded and smiled.

At night, Li Yu was suddenly woken up by Mo Rige - someone from Baode City came, Li Yu dressed neatly and walked to the big tent, and saw Bai An and a thin young man waiting for him, the young man seemed to be hungry, so he gnawed on a piece of black flour cake with water, and when he saw Li Yu come in, he hurriedly swallowed what was in his mouth, and got up to salute Li Yu.

"Gu Keli, the big leader under Zhao Sheng, found the big camp and said that there was an important military situation to report to the adults." Bai An whispered to Li Yu.

Li Yu waved his hand and motioned for Gu Keli to sit down, and Gu Keli said embarrassedly: "My lord smiled, there is little food in the city, and I can't eat enough, and I am greedy when I see these two cakes of Lord Bai." ”

"It's okay, talk while eating." Li Yu replied, Gu Keli said, the king of the river meander, the king of the sky, the monkey of Chaotian and the 100,000 people want to cross the river to attack Fugu, and set off the morning after tomorrow at the latest, there are more than 4,000 people, all of them have horses and livestock, Zhao Sheng heard about this and immediately sent him to report it while it was dark.

"It was Wang Jiayin who deliberately asked you to pass on the news, you probably think I'm getting in the way here, and you want to break me away, right?" Li Yu laughed when he heard this, this method is not very clever.

"There is no need to hide this from your lordship, it is indeed a letter sent by Hequ, but the news is true, we will never dare to deceive your lordship." Gu Keli nodded in acknowledgement.

"You want me to make a way out so that I can take the opportunity to enter the hinterland of Shanxi, do you think I will agree?" Li Yu sneered.

"Don't you want to destroy the Iron Riders of the Rebels? The four of them are finished, and the rebels will no longer be able to resist the adults' iron cavalry, so get out of the way and change the iron cavalry in the rebel army, which is worth a thousand to the adults! ”

"Enough, you are infighting and borrowing my knife to kill people, this account is well calculated, Shaanxi is already a piece of erosion, do you still want me to let you go to harm the people of Shanxi again."

"My lord is wrong, the crime of erosion in Shaanxi is not in us, but the result of the tyranny of the imperial court, who will be willing to rebel if the farmer has something to eat, the government scolds us as thieves, in fact, they are thieves, we are just a group of poor people who don't want to wait for starvation to death, and they don't have the ability to corrupt one side, adults think that we are going to harm the people of Shanxi, but the people of Shanxi who defect to us are endless, and we are afraid that we hate us only those court dog officials and squire bullies." Gu Keli shook his head and replied.

Li Yu stopped talking, and Gu Keli continued: "Actually, the adults know in their hearts that we 200,000 people are so hungry that we can't stop it, and the adults can't stop it if they want to, it's just to kill more people, but I know that the adults are good people, and they won't kill us poor people ruthlessly, I heard that the adults are also Yansui people, so let's give the villagers a way to live - adults, don't kill again, we have enough people starving to death!" ”

Gu Keli couldn't help but burst into tears and couldn't cry as he spoke, Li Yu stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and whispered, "Go back, I want to think again." ”

Bai An accompanied Gu Keli away, and Li Yu walked around alone in the big tent, and after a while he sat down, and said slowly to Mo Rige: "Immediately notify the officers of each battalion to go to the big tent to discuss matters." ”

West of the Yellow River, in a hidden valley of Gushan River in Fugu County, Li Yu looked at the valley mouth silently with his hands behind his back, Hadari and Brother Li Cha were still nibbling on the bread, a group of officers whispered around a map, they had been hiding here for two days, there was no movement in Fugu County, everyone was also a little anxious, this time the Fengzhou army used all the forces that could be used, in addition to the iron cavalry, Zhang Chuanjie, Man Zhu, Sun Shoufa's three infantry battalions of nearly 1,000 people who were good at riding and shooting were temporarily changed to cavalry to help the battle, Li Bei, the deputy general of Shenmu Fort, received the news, and also led more than 500 elite cavalry from Shenmu Fort and Gushan Fort with Du Sima Ke to support, a total of 5,000 cavalry hidden here, and Bai An led the four battalions of the "Shanxi Thief Army" and part of the Fengzhou infantry army to secretly move to the cottage near Baode - the camp outside Baode City was empty, and in fact, the road to the south was opened to the thieves.

"Yuzi, this time we did a bit of a hanging, if we didn't wait for the thieves' iron horses, Xingxian and Qilan were broken through again, the court would definitely blame it." Zhang Chuanjie said in a low voice.

"After the scouts found out that the bandit horse team had crossed the Yellow River, we rushed here at full speed, I believe they will come, wait patiently, this bandit elite must be eaten, otherwise the future battle will not be good." Li Yu waved his hand.

"Shanxi can't just rely on a few thousand of us, it's useless for the court to raise a lot of soldiers, you can only blame them for their incompetence, don't think about blaming us." Zhao Ji snorted, and then asked Li Bei, "Vice General Li, you have a lot of people there, it won't be your people who leak the news to the thieves, right?" ”

"Absolutely not, since the general matter of Yang Jiang, we have been cautious in everything, and the people sent to deliver letters to Yulin and Fugu are all my personal disciples, and the other brothers don't know a word, so they were brought here in a daze, and it is impossible to leak the news." Li Bei shook his head firmly.

Everyone talked about it, and Li Yu was also very anxious, for two days, he didn't dare to go out and walk around, he didn't dare to make a fire to cook, and he couldn't stand it if he continued like this. Near noon, more than a dozen cavalrymen hurried into the valley - Meng Ke and Qin Hu, who had gone out to investigate, returned, and the generals hurriedly stepped forward to inquire.

"Coming, it's almost to Fugu County, the black pressure is a large area, about 5,000 or so, the king, the sky, the monkey, and the 100,000 are all in it, and I also see the banner of the eagle." Meng Ke excitedly reported to Li Yu.

"****, three or four adults ride camels, mules, and donkeys, this is also a cavalry! Brother Yuzi, we have won this battle. Qin Hu was also anxious to interject.

Li Yu clapped his hands and gave the order to set off as a team, and the generals immediately dispersed, Hadari and Richard quietly slipped away, and Li Yu's sharp eyes immediately stopped them: "Where do you want to run?" Honestly stay by my side. ”

When the team set off, Zhao Ji quietly approached Li Yu's side and whispered to him: "Yuzi, you shouldn't have let the eagle go last time, he is too righteous, and he will suffer sooner or later if he stays in the middle of a gang of rotten thieves, he will definitely have to be left behind!" ”