Outside the side wall of Yansui West Road in winter, a group of people are driving the herd. There were horses, cows, sheep and camels in these herds, but the people who drove the herds were stranger, including the Han Chinese and the Mongols. And all of them were led by the two officers in the middle wearing Ming army armor.

"I heard that Zhang Da's family won a battle in Shanxi?"

Cai Zhongquan rode on the horse and watched the Jianding who were driving the herd doing a good job, so he began to chat with the Xiucai around him.

"It seems to be, but my eldest brother is in Shanxi where they went together under Cao Wenzhao, and I don't know how much effort they made to win this battle?"

Zhang Mengcheng was looking around with the newly bought telescope, and after hearing Cai Zhongquan's question, he withdrew his mind and replied to the other party.

The big boss Zhang Mengjin and others did win a battle in Huozhou, Shanxi, as if tens of thousands of thieves were crossing the Fenshui at that time. The eldest brother and Cao Wenzhao's troops attacked together, and then won a great victory, with a total of 573 ranks. (Note 1)

Perhaps it was because the thieves broke into Jinan before, and then defeated the official army in succession. In order to boost everyone's morale, the imperial court immediately went around publicizing Cao Wenzhao's victory as soon as he entered Shanxi. In addition, Shaanxi has restored calm, so the delivery speed of the Di newspaper is very fast, and Zhang Mengcheng did not take long to get the news.

"Although there are a lot of thieves in Shanxi, it sounded so powerful before, but when you meet the Shaanxi border army that really dares to rush, it's actually nothing remarkable."

Cai Zhongquan has always wanted to make a career by relying on military exploits, so he was also looking forward to being recruited and transferred to Shanxi. But the final result made him very disappointed, and he didn't expect that the court had only 3,500 people under Cao Wenzhao.

"This time, the eldest brother and they beat the thieves, it seems that they are not the more powerful guys in Zijinliang. So what the situation of the thieves in Shanxi is, it should be uncertain, and we will talk about it when more news comes in the future. ”

The situation in Shanxi is very different from that in Shaanxi, although the thieves in Shaanxi were very fierce before, they have been hospitalized in Yan'an Mansion and Qingyang Mansion. Even if the thieves stretched out their tentacles to other areas, they were finally cut off by the officials and soldiers in time and driven back. Xi'an, the most prosperous province in Shaanxi, has always been under the strict protection of the official army.

And Shanxi is now full of thieves, and Liaozhou was so troublesome before that even the state city was occupied. Even the thieves threatened the provincial capital of Taiyuan in Shanxi. And to the west of Taiyuan Mansion, Linxian was also occupied by thieves before, and I don't know if it has been captured now.

Some time ago, the thieves who planned to break into the Gyeonggi area are now operating in the area of Lu'an Province and Zeju, and they have repeatedly defeated the official army. And Huozhou, where Cao Wen's edict was successful, was in Pingyang Mansion in the west, and even the relatively peaceful Datong Mansion seemed to have the activities of thieves.

In other words, there are thieves of all sizes in almost the whole territory of Shanxi. This kind of situation of thieves and chaos is even more serious than the most dangerous period of thieves in Shaanxi before.

However, this does not mean that the combat power of the thieves in Shanxi must be stronger than the thieves before Shaanxi. Because after all, there are too many border thieves in Shaanxi, and these people are not comparable to the people who have been coerced in the interior.

It's like when Shen Yikui gathered people to attack Qingyang Mansion City, at that time, if Shen Yikui was determined to rebel to the end. The situation in Shaanxi had long been turned upside down, because at that time, there was no official army around that was the opponent of Shen Yikui.

If Shen Yikui quickly occupies the capital city and then continues to expand his strength, then perhaps the imperial court will have to gather the troops of the entire Shaanxi Province in order to compete with Shen Yikui. It seems that after the death of Shen Yikui, his remnants alone gave the court enough headaches.

"No matter how powerful it is, I don't believe that the thieves can be stronger than us. Let's just say that Zijin Liang is just a remnant of Wang Jiayin's subordinates. And the general (Li Zicheng's nickname) that I have heard a lot about recently, if it weren't for my eldest brother's insistence on chasing and not sticking to the mud, this guy would have been chopped up by our village. ”

Cai Zhongquan still looks down on the thieves in Shanxi, and he thinks that the thieves' combat power is at most as powerful as a god. Moreover, bandits like Shen Yikui are still very rare, and only Wang Jiayin, the former leader of Shanxi Zijinliang, can barely compare.

Zhang Mengcheng, who knows the development of history, is noncommittal about Cai Zhongquan's evaluation. In fact, when Zhang Mengcheng heard that Cai Xiaozi actually gave up the general in front of him in order to pursue without getting wet. His surprised look made Cai Xiaozi and the leaders of the gang think that Xiucai was not sick.

Before his eldest brother came to Shanxi's aid, Zhang Mengcheng was a little hesitant to let his eldest brother and others use Chuang as the main hunting target. But in the end, he didn't say anything, and let the eldest brother and others choose for themselves.

After all, Li Zicheng's influence in history is too great, if he just killed the other party directly. The historical changes that followed were too drastic, and the advantage of Meng Cheng and his prophetic foresight of those traversers might also be gone.

However, most of the original history has undergone some changes after crossing by itself. This special advantage of oneself may be less and less in the future, and the enhancement of one's own strength is an important guarantee for the last laugh in troubled times.

Thinking of this, Zhang Mengcheng retracted all his thoughts and continued to observe the herd he had brought out of the side wall. After feeling that he had almost rested, Zhang Mengcheng shouted to everyone.

"Everyone is moving faster, the cattle are already thirsty, and they are speeding forward towards Qingshan Lake in front of them."

Cai Zhongquan heard that Xiucai began to speed up the progress of work, so he gave up his plan to continue chatting. He summoned a few of his cronies brought by Artemisia Peak, and quickly rushed to a slower team in the distance, ready to help.

At this time, a red-armored cavalryman with a somewhat different face from the Han and Mongols quickly rushed to Zhang Mengcheng and said, "Leader, there are already some herds in Haizi in front of you drinking water. It's not our team, it seems to be a small group of migrated Dazi. ”

"How many of them have they, have they found you, and can you recognize which tribe they belong to?"

Zhang Mengcheng heard that another Mongol appeared near here, so he immediately began to ask the other party for details. The team that came out with him this time was divided and headed for the destination. If the Mongols were too numerous to assemble their forces quickly, they would be in danger.

"Tatsuko has eight tents with a total population of at least forty people. However, there are only about a dozen men who can fight. They didn't notice our sentinels, and Su He was still staring at them. We couldn't tell which tribe the other party belonged to, but they didn't seem to have many livestock, and they looked a little embarrassed, as if they had escaped from the north. ”

The man who came to report was fluent in Chinese, so he replied very clearly to the leader's question.

"Oh, since there aren't many people, let's get things done ourselves. You go and call the people of Xigui and Lao Liao in the back, let them leave a few people to take care of the herd, and gather the cavalry first. You go to the right to find Jin Zhong and Dayong's team, and the content is the same. ”

Zhang Mengcheng pointed to the two subordinates around him and told them to quickly gather the others. Just as he was about to call another subordinate, Cai Zhongquan ran back.

"Xiucai, what's wrong?"

"The sentinel in front reported that some Dazi were already there in Qingshan Lake. However, there are not many of them, and there seem to be only a dozen men who can fight, and I am giving orders to gather the men of the other teams. ”

"My fourth brother and Fan Leader are likely to patrol their team nearby, do you want to send someone to look for them?"

"Forget it, such a large area, I don't know how long it will take to find them. Since there aren't too many Takos, let's just clean them up ourselves. ”

"That's fine, but I'm going to fight this time, don't you want me to stay and watch the livestock."

"Don't worry, but if there is a fight later, you have to listen to me, no matter how I say that I am also a thousand households, I am higher than you in terms of grade alone."

"Whatever you want, I'm going to stretch my body and bones anyway, and I don't kill people for a while, I feel like I'm getting a little dull."

"Don't be so anxious to draw a knife, we don't have to kill. If those masters are willing to take refuge, let's gather them all. ”

"Then it depends on whether they know each other or not."

PS: Note 1: In the battle of Huozhou in history, in the ninety-second volume of "Guoyi", the officers and soldiers were cut in a total of 234 ranks. The increase to this number in this article is naturally due to the fact that history has changed.