On September 27, the fifth year of Chongzhen, more than 1,000 elite soldiers of the official army and 300 people of Bai Guangen, the thief who surrendered to Shun, raided the old village of Hejia at near noon.

The thief Ke Tianfei He Chongwei fought desperately to the death, and won two heads of Ke Tianfei and Li Dusi, five heads of Ke Tianfei's younger brother and nephew, and three hundred and one heads of border thieves, and the rest of the border thieves scattered and fled. (Note 1)

On the 28th, Liu Chong, Guo Taiping, Xi Yingqi and others flew to report to the governor of the three sides, Hong Chengchou. Hong Chengchou was overjoyed, and after rewarding a few people, he personally led the chief soldier Yang Jiamo, the deputy chief soldier Zhang Quanchang, the guerrilla Ma Ke and his subordinates, and their subordinates, galloped into the nest from the starry night of Quziyi, and marched to Huai'an on the morning of the first day of October. (Note 2)

After Hong Chengchou and others drove into the thieves' nest, Cao Wenzhao, another thief general in the Ming army, had already killed the thieves in Longzhou and returned to Qingyang Mansion. When he heard that the army had entered the thieves' lair, he did not bother to rest, and on September 29, he led his army to chase Hong Chengchou overnight.

After that, Cao Wenzhao, who led the cavalry team first, rushed to Huai'an on the first day of October, and the soldiers successfully joined forces with Hong Chengchou's army. The co-owner of the thieves' nest, Ke Tianfei, has been eradicated, and the elite soldiers of the official army are gathered, and there is no doubt about the fate of the thieves' nest in Dongchuan.

Outside the borders of Dongchuan, Hong Chengchou ordered Yang Qi, the general soldier of Guyuan, to lead the troops to hold the area from Wuzhang in the north to Xijiao, Mengjiang Temple, and Zhenyuan County in the south, so as to prevent thieves from escaping into the Pinggu area.

At the same time, on the other hand, a large number of officers and soldiers in Ningxia Town led by He Huchen, the chief soldier of Ningxia, divided their troops to guard the five palms in the south, and the area of Raoyang, Sanshan, and Banyaojian in the north, so as to prevent thieves from escaping from the north into Dingbian and various places in Ningxia.

On the morning of October 2, all the officers and soldiers under Hong Chengchou rushed to Zhao Guan'er from Huai'an and Hejia Laozhai. On the seventh day of the first month, Baijiachengzi and other places, sixty or seventy miles away from Dingbian Shishui Pond, it has crossed the Tiejiao City for eighty or ninety miles, and the thieves everywhere are constantly cleared along the way.

The thieves are all over the place, because Ke Tianfei is dead, and they have lost their unified dispatch. They did not dare to fight against the official army, so they could only hide themselves in extremely precipitous areas such as deep mountains and large valleys. While supervising the advance of the official army, Hong Chengchou continued to appease the thieves who were willing to surrender, and after issuing them death tickets, he sent them back to their naturalized countries.

After that, on the 15th, the officers and soldiers turned around and came to the Iron Horn City. At this time, there was no resistance to the Iron Horn City, and the official army easily occupied the place.

Hong Chengchou continued to divide his troops and garrison everywhere, encountering little organized resistance. At the same time, he continued to appease the thieves in other places, and did not forget to use counter-plots to make them kill each other.

At this time, Zhang Fucang, a big leader under Bai Guangen, refused to surrender and found an opportunity to flee quickly.

And Bai Guangen didn't allow himself to be so out of shape in front of Hong Chengchou, he took his subordinates Liu Jin, Wu Guoming and others to chase him out and kill him. On the way to chase and kill, Bai Guangen got rid of Ma Chao, the personal deputy general of Liu Wu, another thief commander.

After that, Bai Guangen personally led more than 30 of his cronies, knelt in front of Hong Chengchou's camp with his head, begged the court to forgive his guilt, and at the same time expressed his willingness to take his soldiers to accompany the army to conquer and make meritorious contributions. Hong Chengchou thought that the other party was sincere and effective, so he asked him to return to the station for the time being and wait for the dispatch.

But another branch of thieves under Tianfei's hand, the big leader of the thieves in Xiyang and Sanchuan, Qi Yixun. In the end, he was also afraid of the military might of the imperial court's invasion of the army, and he also brought dozens of cronies around him to Hong Chengchou's camp and knelt down to surrender.

Hong Chengchou remembered that he was forced to lead the villagers to become thieves to protect themselves. Therefore, he did not impose any heavy punishment on him, but incorporated Qi Yixun and his cronies into Zhang Yingchang's troops, and then followed Zhang Yingchang, who was promoted to the chief soldier, to Shanxi to kill thieves and atone for his crimes.

In the advance of the official army, the thieves who lost their commanders either fled or surrendered, without making any decent resistance.

The escaped thieves finally gathered in the steep mountain cliff area of Gaojia, which is fifty or sixty miles away from Tiejiao City. He planned to resist stubbornly by virtue of natural danger and dragged the imperial army back because of the lack of military rations or because he had a police officer.

……

"Eighth uncle, how long do we have to nest in this ravine, all day long wandering around the ravines, searching for those thieves who are like rats. Originally, I thought we could rush back before my little brother's full moon wine. ”

This time, the official army marched to suppress the Dongchuan thieves, and Zhang Zhaoen, who had recovered from his injuries, naturally joined the operation.

"God knows how long it will take, this thief is hiding in the ravine. We can only look through them one by one and drive them out like rats. ”

Zhang Mengjin was also speechless, originally thinking that he would directly kill Ke Tianfei with one blow, and the remaining thieves should be able to clean up quickly. But they didn't expect that because of this, they had to constantly search the mountains to find out the thieves scattered and hidden everywhere. This obviously slowed down the speed of the official army's suppression of thieves, so that Zhang Mengjin could not go home to participate in his son's full moon wine.

Since the second day of September last year, that is, after the birth of the son of the second Zhang Mengguang. On September 21, the fifth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Mengjin's mother-in-law Liu, also gave birth to a baby boy weighing five pounds and seven taels safely.

The Zhang family has added a healthy new member, which makes the three Zhang brothers and the other leaders of Jindingshan very happy.

After Zhang Mengjin was born with his son, he also completely got rid of the influence of the stinky Taoist priest's nonsense. Under the congratulations of the brothers, he happily completed the three baptism services for his son.

But that's all, Zhang Mengjin, who organized the three baptism ceremonies for his son, received an urgent order on the same day, and he had to lead his troops to Dongchuan to suppress the thieves.

The previous raid on the He family's old village was successful, and Zhang Mengjin was still very optimistic that he could rush back before his son's full moon wine. Now it seems that he is really thinking too much, and the remaining thieves are scattered around. Now there is a gang of thieves who have re-established their stronghold on the bank of Gao's house. It will take some time just to destroy them.

If the officers and soldiers just rushed over like this, they might be able to catch up. However, the governor of the three sides, Hong Chengchou, only sent some scouts to watch out, and he himself sat in the camp all day to pardon the thieves who came to the camp. However, as far as Zhang Mengjin knew, these appeased thieves did not disperse according to the order, but secretly ran to Gao's house to join the gang.

According to this development, Zhang Mengjin's idea of presiding over his son's full moon wine is mostly difficult to realize. Moreover, most of the leaders of their Jinding Mountain came to Dongchuan, and Cai Xiaozi and others from Ningsai also joined the attack together with the general Wu Hongqi. In other words, there will not be many friends present at his son's full moon wine, and nine out of ten will become very deserted.

Thinking of this, Zhang Mengjin was very unhappy. A little angry, he kicked the big stone in front of him.

At this time, Zhao Wankui, who came over, saw his eldest brother's depressed situation, he stepped forward and said: "Big brother, don't be angry, you can think like this, the cleaner the thieves in Dongchuan, the safer our territory and the military fort on the West Road will be." In this way, the newly-born nephew will not be a threat and can grow up safely and well. ”

Zhang Mengjin heard Zhao Wankui's relief, and his heart was much better. Feeling that his performance was a little ugly, Zhang Mengjin adjusted his psychological state and asked Zhao Wankui: "How is the search in that ravine, are there any thieves hiding there, and is it empty again?" ”

Zhao Wankui remembered the news he was going to report, so he said directly: "The soldiers who came to report said that they found a few thieves, but the other party took the opportunity to escape. But there shouldn't be any worries, He Zongwei shot an arrow among those thieves. Yu Baocheng has already chased after his infantry brothers, and with our cavalry blocking them around, we will be able to capture them all back soon. ”

"We didn't come back empty-handed this time, so we were lucky. Guan Er has not come back, he escorted the thief caught a few days ago to the camp, and he should come back when the time is calculated. ”

Zhang Mengjin heard that this time it was not without gain, and his heart became a lot more comfortable. At the same time, he asked Zhao Wankui if he had received the news of Guan Zhiqing's return.

Zhao Wankui didn't receive any news, but he also felt that Second Brother Guan should come back. Some worried about whether something happened on the road, so he said with some anxiety: "Dongchuan is the largest thief's nest in Shaanxi after all, I'm worried that the second brother will encounter something, otherwise I will take some people to look for it." ”

"Then when they come back, you take the eggs and they out to find them."

Although Li Dan is now studying the sentry cavalry, Fan Shunjiang and Zhou Shaoteng both think that in the complex terrain environment of Dongchuan, it is very training to follow Yu Baocheng's sentry to search. Therefore, Li Dan was transferred to Yu Baocheng's subordinate again, and earnestly studied and experienced the work of various sentry.

"Hahaha, good news for the big boss."

Yu Baocheng's laughter came at this time, and seeing his excited expression, he knew that he had captured the fleeing thief. It's just that Zhang Mengjin is a little curious, what is the good news that Yu Baocheng said.

Yu Baocheng and Li Dan took a few foot soldiers and dragged an injured thief to Zhang Mengjin. Yu Baocheng grabbed the thief's hair with his hand and lifted his head up. He spat on the thief's face again, wiped the dust and blood from the thief's face with his sleeve, and said excitedly: "Big boss, look at who this is?" ”

Zhang Mengjin stepped forward curiously and looked at it carefully. Although the thief's face was not very clean, and the sloppy beard also made the thief look quite haggard, Zhang Mengjin still felt that the other party was a little familiar.

After looking at it carefully, Zhang Mengjin finally remembered: "Liu Wu, Liu Daojiang, it's actually you." ”

Liu Wu, who was tired and tired, was also looking at the former colleague in front of him. Thinking that the other party used to be a thief under the hands of God Yikui like himself, he also accepted Zhao'an together. But the current situation is diametrically opposite, Liu Daojiang's heart is very depressed. Why is it that he is also born as a thief, and the days of the monkey are getting better and better.

Liu Wu's heart felt quite unbalanced, so he said with some resentment: "Monkey, you are a dog for the official army, it seems that life is not bad." But don't be too happy, the government is just using you now. When all of us on the road are dead, the government will definitely dismantle you, the leper dog who should have died a long time ago. ”

"What the fuck are you talking about, let's find a smoke!"

"Huzi stop, you don't have to meet him in general."

After Zhang Mengjin stopped Zhang Zhaoen, who was about to whip Liu Wu with a whip, he turned his head to Liu Wu and said disdainfully: "Now that you are a lost dog, you should think about yourself, our brothers are blessed and unparalleled, so I won't worry about you." Someone will heal his wounds, and don't let him die. It is much better to send someone who can speak to Hong Chengchou than to send a head to the past. ”

"the sky, woo! Woowoo woo ......"

Liu Wu originally wanted to continue to abuse, but Yu Baocheng, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately stuffed a rag into his mouth. After that, he asked his soldiers to escort him down, Yu Baocheng said to Zhang Mengjin with a smile: "Now that Tianfei is also dead, and the three big leaders under him have also been settled, we should be able to leave this Dongchuan ravine soon." ”

Zhang Mengjin happily replied: "Capturing Liu Wu alive is a great achievement, and the imperial court will definitely reward you well." When you receive the money, you have to treat the brothers to a good meal. (Note 3)

"Hahaha, that's nature."

Yu Baocheng didn't mind being knocked on a meal by the big boss, the cavalry had won many merits before, and the hospitality was also made by the cavalry leader. Yu Baocheng, the infantry commander, has always been envious in his heart, and this time it is finally his turn to shine, and he will not be stingy when the time comes.

When Zhang Mengjin saw the other leaders present, he began to congratulate Yu Baocheng. He quietly walked to Li Dan's side and asked him in a low voice: "Are you tired these days, do you feel that you have gained something?" ”

Li Dan saw the big boss walking towards him, so he didn't follow Yu Baocheng. After hearing the question of the big boss, Li Dan said: "Things are a little hard, but I am not tired, I have more than a leader to take me, and I have learned a lot." ”

Zhang Mengjin patted Li Dan's shoulder with satisfaction, and then said: "Guan Er has been out for a while, and he hasn't come back yet, and he hasn't sent any news back, I'm worried that something will happen to him." You just work a little tired, and follow Zhao San out to find him. ”

"Yes."

Li Dan didn't hesitate, and immediately agreed. Zhang Mengjin called Zhao Wankui and asked them to go out with more than 20 soldiers to find news of Guan Zhiqing.

However, Zhao Wankui and the others went out for less than two moments, and they came back. Because on the way to search, they met the second master who returned to the camp. Guan Zhiqing didn't have anything to do, but he ran into a few thieves on the road, and he caught them.

Zhang Mengjin learned that Guan Zhiqing was safe and sound, and his heart was also a lot more stable. When Guan Zhiqing walked in front of him, Zhang Mengjin was about to open his mouth to ask, but Guan Zhiqing first said the news he received.

"Big brother, there are thieves who have invaded Ningzhou and Sanshui. Governor Hong Chengchou led the whole camp south to block and suppress, it seems that we will have to take it in this ravine for a while, and most of our nephew's full moon wine will not be able to drink. ”

"What! I, alas. ”

Zhang Mengjin was originally excited to forget his troubles because Yu Baocheng captured Liu Wu. But after hearing the news from Guan Zhiqing, his heart became a little depressed again.

Note 1: The source of the number of heads of the big and small leaders is still "the Ministry of War's title is to report on the punishment of Qu Kui and other things". However, the author has made some changes, as mentioned in the previous chapter, the actual number of officers and soldiers is 800. There is also the actual head of the border thief captured by this officer and army in history, which is two hundred soldiers. This book has only been added because of Zhang Mengjin's participation in the war.

Note 2: Zhang Quanchang is Zhang Yingchang's younger brother, the word Runzhi. Although at the beginning, he became a general in Lingzhou with his father Zhang Chengyin's relationship, but in fact he was also a good general of the Ming army, and he did not insult the reputation of his father and brother.

In history, after his eldest brother Zhang Yingchang died in battle, Zhang Quanchang still galloped on the battlefield and continued to fight, but then he also died at the hands of thieves. His son Zhang Fushou passed the martial arts examination, although it was in the fourteenth year of Shunzhi Ding Youke (Shaanxi Tongzhi). But then it became the garrison of Xuanfu Shenjing Fort, and it was also famous for its bravery, so their Zhang family can be regarded as a general.

Note 3: In actual history, Liu Wu's result was that "Liu Wu led several people to hide in dangerous caves deep in the mountains, and they searched (through 'all over') but did not find them, and they were trying to capture them." The book has changed for a number of reasons.