Seeing that more and more people came to the front row, Li Yanzhao couldn't help but be overjoyed: "Okay, good." Fan Ting on the side saw this scene, and he also said goodbye repeatedly. The two of them immediately made a decision, and selected a number of young and strong women, as well as a small number of old people who could still ride horses. asked everyone to go back and take out their horses, and arranged for Li Yanzhao to lead more than 100 cavalry soldiers of the Guangwu Army to escort the families of these thieves to Changning.

Li Yanzhao quickly gathered all the cavalry of the Guangwu Army, and everyone packed up their swords, guns, bows and arrows. They all brought their horses and immediately got on their horses and lined up. Soon after, the families of the thieves who were willing to go to Quang Ninh also came with their horses. Fan Ting ordered their horses to be connected by several long ropes and dragged together. In this way, it is easier for the escort soldiers to be guarded in a centralized manner, and no one will escape from it to report the news. Except for the stringing of the horses together, there were no restrictions on the rest of them, which made everyone secretly grateful for the general's magnanimity.

The bald and orphaned family members are also in the team that will go to Changning, but their treatment is not so good. The three women, the bald wife and concubine, and his two sons, were bound to horses with flowers. A long rope strung their horses together individually, and they were cared for by the escorted Guangwu cavalry. The five men were not honest when they were tied to their horses, and they struggled endlessly.

Seeing that everyone had finished their preparations, Li Yanzhao said goodbye to Fan Ting, and immediately got on the horse and gave the order to set off. The cavalry surrounded the two hundred or so thieves and their dependents in the middle. Urging the horses, under the guidance of the sentry horse, they went straight to Changning County.

It was peaceful along the way. Only at the wooden bridge, because the wooden bridge is not wide, Li Yanzhao sent fifty horsemen to cross the bridge, and then led the thieves' dependents across the bridge in batches of horses strung by long ropes, and the next fifty people also carefully crossed the bridge, and helped some thieves' dependents who were inconvenient to get on the horse in front of them, and the team continued to gallop towards the destination Changning County.

Several of the cavalry soldiers sent out at the time of departure had already returned at this time, and reported to Li Yanzhao that the county seat of Changning was still safe at the moment, and the thief army had not yet entered the Changning area. However, Li Yanzhao kept shouting at his cavalry to speed up, and he was faintly uneasy in his heart, if the main force of the thief army besieged Changning one step ahead of him, then everything he had done for so long would be in vain.

If it gets to that point, what should you do? Li Yanzhao was riding on the horse, his legs kept trying to clamp the horse's belly, his subconscious at the moment was to be faster, faster.

If the situation is at that time, he can only send a letter to Fan Sima, asking him to send someone to Xiping County, trouble General Liao Hu, the governor of Xiping, to lead the army, and take the families of many thieves to temporarily settle in Xiping County. If you want to win the merit of the thief's family, Liao Hu should not refuse.

What about yourself? Do you have to lead the more than 100 cavalry soldiers under the Guangwu Army, find the Ma Du Wei Department, and meet with it, and then send the 200 or so thief army dependents to Guangwu County, and then according to the plan originally told to Lord Taishou, he and Ma Du Wei led the remaining 600 cavalry soldiers of each other's two departments to follow the thief army to fight guerrillas?

If I didn't arrive in time and caused the county town of Changning to fall, I'm afraid I really have only this way to go. Li Yanzhao thought pessimistically.

At the same time, Ma Ping, the cavalry commander of the Guangwu Army, was leading Wei Yun, the cavalry commander of the Xiping Army, and more than 500 cavalry soldiers under Wei Yun's command, to lurk out in the mountains and forests. Trailing the thieves.

When the thieves left the north bank of the Huangshui, the morale of the soldiers was low. They already had a full view of the scene on the south bank. However, in more than an hour, his team lost one-third, as well as all the grain and grass. Anyone who thinks about it is terrified. Especially looking at those comrades who were still jumping and laughing together an hour ago, an hour later they became a cold and lifeless headless corpse on the south bank, or they were cornered and forced by the Xiping army to jump into the river. The psychological stimulation of the thieves and soldiers is even more cold and intuitive.

Maybe soon, I will become such a cold, lifeless headless corpse. In this dejected team of thieves, many soldiers began to think of this.

For the first time since the rebellion with the bald man, they were aware of the consequences of the failure of this matter. When the incident first started, they listened to the bewitchment of the bald and orphaned, saying that it was for the survival of the tribe, and they did not expect that day; Later, they captured Linqiang County, they burned, killed, looted, robbed everywhere, robbed cattle, sheep, grain, and all kinds of valuable things they liked in Linqiang County, they still didn't expect that day; It wasn't until under the long-standing Xiping County City that the corpse of the dead Tong Ze fell to the foot of the city wall, and gradually stacked up to nearly one person high, they still didn't expect that day, until they saw the other side of the river with their own eyes, the Tong Ze who was still alive and kicking under the merciless attack of the Xiping army swords one by one, and died. They are beginning to realize their own situation, and that of the tribe behind them.

Ma Ping and Wei Yun took more than 500 horses with hooves and human ranks, divided into arrays and hung at the tail or side of the thief army not far away, constantly trying to create some trouble for the thief army and slow down the advance of the thief army. The first few groups of people dug a pit in the middle of the dangerous road, cut down some trees, and brought stones and other objects to block the valley road between the two mountains. After a while, he fired a few arrows at the thieves, and then he climbed to the top of the mountain, found some large rocks, etc., and rolled these stones as the thieves passed along the foot of the mountain, and threw them at the passing thieves. Although they often can't roll on the head of the thief army, these stones are blocked by the rocks, grass and trees on the mountain, but they still bring a lot of trouble to the thief army.

These guys are also very slippery and smart. If the thieves are provoked, and they come after them, they look at the number of people who are in pursuit, and if they are far less than the men and horses that are harassing them, they pretend to run away, and flee a mile or two, and if they are still pursuing, they turn back and fight. Kill these chasing centaurs. If there are more pursuers than they do, they will indeed flee on horseback. For a while, the sleepy thief army could not catch up with these ubiquitous but lingering small harassing troops.

And when the thieves gathered their men and moved on, it wasn't long before these nasty harassing troops reappeared, following them like ghosts. It made the generals of the thief army have a splitting headache and misery. The already low morale was gradually on the verge of collapse under the harassment and blows of these officers and soldiers who spared no effort to harass and attack.

Seeing this situation, the leader of the thief army, Bald Fu, had the idea of sending light cavalry to take the county seat of Changning. After all, the officers and soldiers rode out in all directions, erratic, and there were many mountains and forests nearby. Presumably, these cavalry have been in the nearby mountains and forests for a long time, and they sent light horses to exterminate them, and the other party is more familiar with the nearby terrain than his subordinates, and there are fewer people who go, and they are often counter-suppressed by the other party, and there are more people who go, and often they can't even touch a single hair of the other party. However, if you think about it, if you send all the light cavalry straight to Changning, the remaining foot soldiers will be even more powerless to deal with those harassing enemy rangers. On the contrary, the light cavalry going to Changning was also powerless to attack the city. This arrangement is tantamount to attacking the enemy's strength with one's own shortcomings, although it can threaten the county seat of Changning as quickly as possible, but if it can't be captured, what's the use?

After thinking about it, the bald man still gave up this unrealistic idea, but in the face of the harassment of the official army rangers, he could only order his subordinates to take strict precautions, so the speed of the team was undoubtedly much slower.

Ma Ping hid in the woods, his head and face covered with scratches from the bushes. It doesn't look like it's the same as before, but it's a little more embarrassed. He didn't care about the blood drawn on his face, but continued to lead dozens of his men back and forth through the woods.

"Quick, go to that stone over there, and fire two more waves of arrows at the thief soldiers on the road!" Ma Ping said to his subordinates.

The horsemen did as they were told, and then when they reached the boulder that Demapin had pointed out, they took out their bows and crossbows, and condescendingly fired two waves of arrows at the enemy foot soldiers on the road down the mountain.

Ma Ping raised his eyes and looked in the direction of Changning County in the distance, and said to himself: I have done my best, Li Yanzhao, you should hurry up over there.

When Li Yanzhao and his more than 100 cavalry soldiers rushed to the county seat of Changning with more than 200 thieves and their dependents, they heard the bell ringing in the county.

Li Yanzhao secretly breathed a sigh of relief, the cavalry who went to Changning County to report before was on the city tower, and when he saw Li Yanzhao and the others coming to the city, he hurriedly went to the battlement to identify it, and after a while, the city gate was opened.

Li Yanzhao led everyone in. Outside the cave of the city gate, there was an official in a green robe, followed by a group of officials in various robes. When Li Yanzhao saw this person, he thought that it might be a figure like the local county magistrate of Changning, so he hurriedly dismounted and handed over the reins to Liu Jiwu beside him. He hurried forward to greet the official.

Li Yanzhao just walked in front of the official, and when he was about to bow down with his fists, the green-robed official had already bowed to Li Yanzhao and said: "This official Changning County Commander Ren Qing is here to thank Li Shichang, a subordinate of the Guangwu Army's cavalry captain, for risking his life, and the people of Changning County are in danger of hanging upside down!" ”

Li Yanzhao saw that the Changning County Commander personally greeted him at the city gate, and he was so polite, he was already flattered, and hurriedly hugged his fists and bowed: "Li Yanzhao, the commander of the Guangwu Army's cavalry commander, specially led more than 100 Guangwu cavalry soldiers to escort the families of the chaotic army to Changning, thinking that the siege would be lifted. I didn't dare to greet Lao Mingfu in person. ”

Ren County Ling hurriedly stepped forward and helped Li Yanzhao up, and said politely in his mouth. After helping Li Yanzhao up, he looked around, then stroked his beard with his right hand and said with a smile: "Li Shichang is young and promising in the Guangwu Army, and when I see it today, he is really a good strong man!" ”

Li Yanzhao didn't dare to say anything, but pointed to the people behind him: "The families of the rebellious army all came voluntarily, intending to persuade their families to stop helping and abusing the government and making enemies of the government. The villain thinks that the Ming Mansion can be used as a big help, and if it is used properly, the thief army besieging Changning can be defeated without attacking! ”

Ren County Ling looked in the direction pointed by Li Yanzhao, nodded and smiled with satisfaction, and then he seemed to see something terrible, the smile on his face froze, and then asked Li Yanzhao in confusion: "What is the reason for the five people who were tied up right away?" ”

Li Yanzhao glanced at it, but turned his head and said to Ren County casually: "The Ming Mansion doesn't need to panic, the five people tied to the horse are the bald and orphaned family members of the thief chieftain. ”

When Ren County Commander heard Li Yanzhao's words, he suddenly realized. I was pleasantly surprised. The family of the thief chief, what a blessing this is. It was really a gold ingot falling from the sky, and Ren Xianling felt that he was a little dizzy by this flying windfall.

The happiness of flying a windfall made the county magistrate more respectful to Li Yanzhao.

Li Yanzhao entrusted the county commander to settle more than 100 cavalry soldiers and more than 200 thieves' dependents. He said that he went up to the city tower to look at it, and he and Cao Jian and Liu Jiwu went up to the city tower. The city wall of Changning County is a rammed earth city wall, although it is strong, but it looks very low. Li Yanzhao estimated that the city wall of Changning was only two zhang high. If you really have to face the siege of a large army, such a low city wall looks like a drum falling.

The three of them went up to the city tower and were looking out, but they saw the city riding a flying horse. The guards on the tower saw the rider and hurriedly went down to the city to open the gate. The man who rode into the city, dismounted and galloped to the side of Ren County, who was in the urn city, and said: "Baoming Mansion, most of the thief army has reached five miles southeast of the county seat!" ”

When Ren County Ling heard the report, his expression was slightly shocked. Even Li Yanzhao, who was in his chest, also felt short of breath in his chest when he heard the news.

Something that you have to wait for solemnly, even if you have prepared for it before, when it comes, it will inevitably give birth to inexplicable excitement and nervousness from the bottom of your heart.

came, Li Yanzhao said to himself. Counterinsurgency has become all he has lived these days. Take the right and let the rebellion be put under the city of Changning, and finish it in one battle!