The distance from Kaifeng to Yingchang Mansion is less than 300 miles, Li Bu abandoned all of them to ride horses for sixty or seventy miles a day, and if they couldn't catch up with Sutou, they were in the village and rushed to Yangzhai County, Yingchang Mansion in five days.

Not only can the Western Xia get news from the Privy Council and the Central Committee of the Great Song Dynasty, but even Guangzhi can do it, but instead of going through formal channels, he must pay bribes like the Western Xia spies. It's really weird.

Judging from the report obtained by the Privy Council, four Zhuangzi in Yangzhai County have been robbed by those strongmen recently, and Li Buqi is ready not to alarm the government first, and go to these four Zhuangzi to inquire about the news first. The government can say that the strongman not only occupies the terrain and drills the heavenly peak, but also can call the wind and rain, and fly away, there is no bottom line, how can he ask the real situation, it is better to have direct contact with the strongman to reflect the real situation.

Li Buqi, the first Zhuangzi who had been robbed, was surprised, the people on such a remote Zhuangzi already knew that they were coming to suppress the bandits. As soon as he signed up, people took it for granted. After asking carefully, it turned out that the government had long preached the power of thieves, and only by asking Li Bu to come could they deal with it, and the common people had already spread the news. This is obviously a desperate effort to hold Li Buqi to the high level, so that Li Buqi will fall harder in the future.

Li Buqi circled around Zhuangzi and had an intuitive understanding of the strength of this group of strongmen.

This Zhuangzi belongs to the monastery, there are more than 200 young and strong villagers, and a one-zhang high wall is built around the Zhuangzi. According to the people in the village, the gang of thieves built a ladder to attack the wall, and although the villagers resisted desperately, the strong man was armed with weapons and quickly broke their resistance.

Got a military bow and crossbow? That's kind of interesting.

Li Buqi asked the number of strongmen again, and there were different opinions, some said 500, some said 1,000, and some said that there were not many thieves at the beginning, but they became soldiers. As for the whereabouts of the thieves, the villagers all said that they went to the mountains, because the strongmen robbed all the livestock in the village, but they did not ask for vehicles, and even the grain was taken away by camels.

The next smaller Zhuangzi also said the same, and it was also mentioned that the strong man has a strong crossbow. Moreover, Zhuang Ke said that the official army had entered the mountains to suppress bandits, and at that time the husband of this Zhuangzi was requisitioned, but when he walked to a ravine, he was ambushed, and the strong man made the forbidden army suffer heavy losses as soon as he rained arrows. Fortunately, although the strongman robbed the money and food, he did not hurt the people much, and released all the people he caught.

Li Buqi hurriedly asked who was the man who let the strongman come back, and someone pointed it out to him, so Li Buqi gave the two men a few copper coins and asked them to explain the situation of the day in detail. From the mouths of the two men, they learned that they saw more than 200 strong men, all of them strong, and some of them wore the armor of officers and soldiers. It's not a full set, but it's armor.

There are strong crossbows and armor, it seems that these strongmen have a story. Li Buqi became more and more curious about these strongmen, so he gave Zhuang Ke some money and asked them to talk in detail about the situation of the strongmen in this neighborhood. According to them, this group of strongmen is new, not with a local accent, and behaves completely differently from the local bandits, so they should not be thieves on the Drill Sky Peak.

In the past, the two relatively large bandits in the mountains raided houses and robbed houses, and they were all small and powerful, and the small villages without power were never moved. The new strongmen were different, and even the river on the edge of the county town was robbed. That Zhuangzi is the Zhuangzi of the king of the county, and there are twenty or thirty outlaws who are accustomed to using guns and sticks on the Zhuangzi. Wang Zhusi is so powerful in Yangzhai County, and the strongmen of the big group dare not touch him. However, these new strongmen are Zhuangzi who has the power to pick which Zhuangzi, and they are not afraid of the encirclement and suppression of the government at all.

This is very different from the official documents of Yingchang Mansion, but the official documents of Yingchang Mansion have planted all the crimes committed by strongmen over the years on the heads of these new strongmen. Now that I heard that this group of strongmen was picking on the powerful Zhuangzi, Li Buqi was interested, and he wanted to see if the leader of this group of people was a figure like a king of Chao.

Just knowing the origin of the strongman is not enough to plan the battle, Li Buqi proposed to the owner of the village to hire a banker to lead the way into the mountain to have a look. The owner of the village robbed a hundred stones of grain, a hundred and ten pigs and sheep and dozens of cattle and donkeys, naturally hoping to exterminate the strongman as soon as possible, Li Buqi and a high reward, coupled with Li Buqi's prestige, finally two more familiar with geography of the Zhuang agreed to be a guide.

Li Buqi left the horses on the Zhuangzi, left a few people to guard the horses, and then led the rest of the people into the mountain with the guide. The guide didn't know where the new strongman was hiding, but he still knew about it. So Li Buqi asked the guide to take him to the Drill Sky Peak where the largest group of bandits was located.

Entering the mountain is the territory of the strongman, Li Buqi ordered everyone to prepare weapons, and sent sharp soldiers to send Xu San to the front. Don't look at Xu San as a cripple, but he climbs up the mountain like walking on the ground, and he is no worse than a young man.

After walking in the mountains for nearly a day, except for a few firewood, the people who collected medicine did not meet strong people. According to these people, Chen Tianwang, the king of Drill Tianfeng, suffered another strongman's loss, and during this time, he restrained his subordinates to stay in the stockade. It seems that the situation is quite complicated.

Li Buqi used his usual money to hire a woodcutter who was more familiar with geography, and he took Li Buqi to a place across a mountain from Zhuantian Peak and pointed the way: "After crossing the ditch in front, you can see Chen Tianwang's cottage." There have always been spies of King Chen on this mountain, and if they are allowed to see it, it will be difficult for me to gain a foothold here, and I will not dare to go any further. ”

Li Buqi gave the woodcutter the usual money, and then did not go into the ravine, but led people up the mountain quietly, climbed a big tree on the top of the mountain and looked at the Drill Sky Peak. At this time, the sun was setting, and sure enough, I saw a mountain house rising from a peak halfway up the mountainside, all of which were walled with wood and stone, and the sunlight reflected by weapons occasionally on the wall could be seen from such a distance. Let's not talk about how many people are in this stockade, just look at the strange rocks on the hillside, many places are at a 45-degree angle, in fact, there is only one way to get close to the village in the direction where Li Buqi is located, and the team of people and horses can't use it at all.

Obviously, it is not wise to attack such a stockade head-on, and it is necessary to see if there are other ways to get up. If it really doesn't work, you can only find a way to lure the bandits out. However, Li Buqi is going to accept the command of Yingchang Mansion, and the thinking of civil officials is normal and people don't understand, who knows if they will agree to Li Buqi's plan.

In the evening, everyone ate some dry food, found a sheltered place to sleep overnight, and the next day they crossed the mountains and went around to the mountain behind the Diamond Sky Ridge. The back mountain is even steeper than the front, and it is a few cliffs that cannot be climbed, but there is a narrow ridge that connects to another slightly lower peak.

Greatly, it's easy to do with this mountain beam. Li Buqi climbed to the tree on a nearby hill to observe the mountain beam, and he couldn't see it very really, but he could see that there was a stone fortress at each end of the mountain beam. Apparently, the bandits attached great importance to the defense in this direction. But for Li Buqi, as long as the fortress can be approached, it is not a problem.

Just as Li Buqi was pondering whether he should go to the mountain to see clearly, suddenly Xu San warned: "Official, there seem to be people around staring at us." ”

Li Buqi hurriedly asked, "What did you find?" ”

Xu San shook his head: "I didn't find it." But every time I encounter danger, I feel this way, and I can't be wrong. ”

The sixth sense of this kind of veteran who escaped death could not be disbelieved, Li Buqi ordered to strengthen the vigilance, and waited for half an hour but found nothing. Safety first, Li Bu gave up and had to order a retreat.

Turning over the two mountains and coming to the mountain in front of Diamond Sky Peak, Xu Sancai said that the feeling of staring disappeared. It seems that the other party should have left. Li Buqi ordered a retreat outside the mountain, and in the evening occupied a hill to strengthen the vigilance, but the night was peaceful, and nothing happened.

At noon the next day, I was about to go out of the mountain, and suddenly there was a mountain song on the mountain road in front of me, which shocked people's spirits. Turning around the foot of the mountain, I saw a Xiucai dressed in sackcloth and carrying a medicine hoe by the stream, washing his feet by the river, and next to him was a basket in addition to his shoes, which was full of flowers and plants.

Li Buqi smiled and said: "This talent is so leisurely." ”

Na Xiucai turned his head and saw a group of soldiers turning around the foot of the mountain, so he asked, "What did this official do in this deep mountain?" Are they also here to suppress bandits? ”

Li Buqi didn't answer, but asked: "Since Xiucai knows that there are strongmen in this mountain, aren't you afraid of strongmen entering the mountains alone?" ”

Xiucai laughed: "Even a strong man needs a doctor." This article is ordinary, but this medical skill can still be used. In the lower clouds, the strongmen I met were not two together, didn't they all take me well? ”

Li Buqi sat down next to Xiucai and asked, "No wonder you don't listen to your accent and you're not a local." I don't know how you came to this strongman-infested mountain? ”

Xiucai said: "I heard that Li Buqi, who made people fly to the sky, was the true legend of the gods, so he also had the ambition to wander away from the famous mountains and rivers to find some extraordinary opportunities. In this Zhongyue land, how can you miss the place where the Yellow Emperor ascended. ”