After the matter of Che Jibao's widow's remarriage was resolved, the residents of Jindingshan and Zhang Mengjin and others in Jingbian Camp returned to their normal appearance.

But in the days that followed, they were all immersed in joy again. Just like Wu Fu, who has left his job, said in the previous days. Shaanxi is not harassed by thieves, and most of the areas where agricultural production is carried out with peace of mind have seen bumper harvests.

After the autumn harvest of Jinding Mountain, Zhang Mengcheng was pleasantly surprised. The amount of grain collected in the stockade was nearly 20% higher than he had expected.

This means that all the residents of Jinding Mountain can live another fat year. And the soldiers under the eldest brother of the Jingbian Battalion do not need to worry about the reduction of their daily relatively rich rations.

And after getting the consent of the eldest brother, Zhang Mengcheng used part of the money, grain and materials in the village to make a large transaction with Huo Bingxiang and other businessmen.

In exchange for the cottage, a lot of cloth and silk, these are more precious things in northern Shaanxi. As an additional benefit, it will be issued to the non-commissioned officers under the eldest brother and the standing armed forces of Jinding Mountain according to the standard of one point.

The vigor of the continuous development of his own forces has also inspired everyone up and down Jinding Mountain. With a better mood tomorrow, everyone will complete their work positively.

This kind of vitality is very rare in the entire Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Huo Bingxiang, a businessman who wanders around, has to sigh at the difference of Jinding Mountain.

At the same time as the harvest of Jinding Mountain, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, finally began to attack. On September 25, Hong Chengchou had pardoned 4,000 rogues and men and placed thousands of thieves.

As the deadline approached, the trilateral governors judged that the number of thieves in the nest had been greatly reduced. And most of the thieves who are still staying in the thieves' nest should be stubborn big and small leaders and real border thieves.

Since these people finally chose to get together and not disperse, Hong Chengchou, who had already implemented the anti-intermittent plan. In the name of rehousing refugees, he moved to Quziyi.

At the same time, he quietly ordered Yang Jiamo, the chief soldier of Gansu, to select soldiers and soldiers, and organized a total of 1,000 elite officers and soldiers, and on September 27, they chose remote paths from Quzi, Huai'an, and Xiangshan to march for more than 70 miles, and arrived at Hejia Laozhai at close to noon that day. (Note 1)

And the one who also came to the He family's old village suddenly was Bai Guangen, the leader of Ke Tianfei's subordinates. With the efforts of Bai Wenzhao and Guo Jinxiao sent by Hong Chengchou, Bai Guangen had already secretly surrendered to the official army. This time, he took his subordinates Liu Jin, Wu Guoming and other 300 people, and quickly killed them at the agreed time. (Note 2)

……

"Give me death." After Zhao Wankui aimed at the enemy, he finally pulled the trigger. As the sound of the bird's gun sounded, one of the brave armored horsemen under Ke Tianfei fell to the ground.

Using Zhao Wankui's bird gun launch as a signal, more than 50 mounted infantry under his command also shot out the lead in their bird guns almost simultaneously. More than a dozen rogue cavalry soldiers rushed towards him, and half of them were shot and killed in an instant.

Most of the other half were shot and fell to the ground wailing. Only one horseman stood alone on horseback in the wilderness, not daring to continue the charge.

The other party didn't dare to kill him, but Zhao Wankui's side began to take the initiative to assault. Fan Shunjiang almost drew a war bow into a full moon and shot out with great power. The only remaining rogue horseman, who could not avoid the feathered arrows that came at him, was shot through the chest and died.

The complete destruction of the cavalry in front of him shocked the thief foot soldiers who were still following behind. They stared blankly at the officers and cavalry who were rushing towards them on the opposite side, not knowing what to do. When the archers of the officers and soldiers fired sharp arrows again, they knew not to hide behind their shields and not to take their heads lightly.

It's just that the number of their shields is limited, and some people are still killed and injured by feathered arrows shot by the official army. Under the constant rebuke of one of the bandits, these men finally mustered up the courage to charge again. They plan to take out these opponents with sharp guns in one go before the official army reloads.

At this time, the archers of the official army stepped forward again to harass, constantly delaying the charge of the thieves' foot soldiers. The opponent's fast and accurate rapid fire made many thieves have feather arrows stuck in their armor.

Fortunately, these rogue foot soldiers are rare elites among the thieves, and their solid armor still withstands the rain of arrows shot by the archers of the official army. And the strict discipline, as well as the rich combat experience, let them know that this time must keep moving forward.

When the thieves were almost twenty or thirty paces away from the officer's oratorymen, the thieves' footmen had already arrived at the spot where their own cavalry had been subjected to a volley.

And at this moment, several sharp-eyed thieves found that there were five tiger squatting cannons hidden in front of the official and military birds. The officers and soldiers did not use tiger squat artillery first, but first used bird guns to meet the enemy, which seems to have been planned before.

Five two-foot-long tiger squat cannons were put down by the officers and soldiers, and a total of nearly 500 lead shots were fired. The thieves' footmen, like the rogue's horsemen before them, were blinded by a volley of firearms at close range. At this time, the officer of the official army took all the cavalry around him and launched a surprise attack on the rogue foot soldiers whose formation had been shattered.

Zhang Mengjin used the nail fist in his hand to smash the head of a thief foot soldier. The guards around him also used the bones, axes and other weapons in their hands to kill other thieves who dared to resist one after another.

At this time, the little leader of a thief foot soldier raised the Pu knife in his hand and rushed towards Zhang Mengjin.

Zhang Mengjin unhurriedly pulled out a handcuff, and after a bang, the little leader of the thieves fell down holding his chest. sighed that the hand given to him by his third brother was really useful, and Zhang Mengjin led his subordinates to continue to assault forward.

With the slashing and smashing of the officers and cavalry around them, the rogue foot soldiers no longer had decent resistance, and they had been completely crushed by the assault of Zhang Mengjin and his gang.

The still alive foot soldiers scattered and fled, but the cavalry of the official army did not choose to pursue them. Instead, under the leadership of Zhang Mengjin, he rushed towards the target found further away.

Because Zhang Mengjin found out that the leader of the thieves who was fighting with other officials and soldiers in front of him was the big leader of the thieves he knew under Shen Yikui before, Ke Tianfei.

However, at this time, a group of rogue cavalry suddenly rushed over from the side, and with only more than 20 people, they bravely rushed into Zhang Mengjin's army, which had nearly 150 horsemen.

This group of rogue cavalry is indeed commendable, and some of them are also extraordinary. However, these still could not make up for the huge gap in the combat power of the two sides, and it didn't take long for these rogue cavalry cavalry who rushed into the formation to be killed by the weapons attacking from all directions.

At this time, the trace of Ke Tianfei was gone, Zhang Mengjin was quite annoyed, and the cooked duck in front of him actually flew. So he kept shaking his head and looking around, but he couldn't find Ke Tianfei, an old acquaintance.

The other thieves on the battlefield have all been defeated by the official army, and the figures of the fleeing thieves and the chasing officers and soldiers are very mixed, making it difficult for Zhang Mengjin to judge accurately.

"Lao Fan, you take someone to the east to look for it, and Meng Guang, you take someone to the west to search. If there are other officers and soldiers on the way, don't be polite to them, just kill them. As long as you catch Ke Tianfei, you don't have to worry about these little things at all. Unable to search for the target for a while, Zhang Mengjin had no choice but to divide his forces and scatter to search.

"Yes."

"Got it."

After Fan Shunjiang and Zhang Mengguang received the order, they each led dozens of cavalry and searched in opposite directions.

Zhang Mengjin saw that not far away, there were some sneaky other officers and soldiers, who were actually staring at the corpses of the thieves on his side. Zhang Mengjin, who knew their intentions, hurriedly issued an order to a young man beside him to be on guard.

"Danzi, you organize people to dismount and cut the level, and I will personally bring someone to show you the field. I'm going to see if there's going to be a thing that doesn't have long eyes to rush to our turf and grab its head. ”

"Yes, you, you, you, and a few of you over there, all get off the horse and work, let's harvest the heads under our feet as soon as possible."

Li Dan immediately responded to the order, relying on Zhang Mengjin's old qualifications as a personal guard. Li Dan immediately ordered seven or eight soldiers of the surrounding guards and dismounted together to cut off his head with him.

Under Zhang Mengjin's angry glare, the other officers and soldiers who had crooked thoughts still gave up provoking these friendly soldiers who didn't look easy to mess with.

After some time, Li Dan reported to Zhang Mengjin that he had completed the task assigned by the big boss.

"The big boss, the head has been cut. We have also collected the weapons and horses of the thieves. ”

"Follow me back to join Wan Kui, let's go there and wait for the rest of us to come back."

Zhang Mengjin looked at the surrounding battlefield, and the other parts of the official army had already taken the opportunity to attack the He family's old village. At this time, at most, it is to pick up some leftovers and burn cold, Zhang Mengjin disdains to do this kind of thing.

So he ordered all the soldiers around him to go back and join Zhao Wankui's bird hand.

Zhang Mengjin, who went back to join Zhao Wankui, waited in place for about half an hour, and Fan Shunjiang and Zhang Mengguang, who were sent out, rushed back one after another. It's a pity that neither of them brought back Ke Tianfei's head, but only captured a few injured thieves as prisoners.

After their identification, among the seventy-nine heads captured by Zhang Mengjin and others, there was actually a big fish called Li Dusi.

After the other officers and soldiers also cleaned up the battlefield, the battle of the He family Laozhai was really over. Under the combined attack of more than 1,000 elite officers and soldiers, as well as 300 anti-water thieves. Caught off guard, Ke Tianfei was able to organize a defense that was quickly broken by the officers and troops. Taking advantage of the victory, the officers and soldiers who rushed forward attacked the He family's village, Ke Tianfei's lair, in one go.

Although later, from the mouth of the captive, the official army learned that Ke Tianfei's real name was He Chongwei. But at this time, this message no longer has much meaning for the officers and soldiers.

Because after the war, the officers and soldiers at the head were counted, and it was found that the big palm plate Ke Tianfei had been killed on the spot. For the other officers and soldiers who missed Ke Tianfei, this news made them feel very annoyed, and Zhang Mengjin, the capital of Jingbian Camp, was one of them.

Therefore, the officers and soldiers could only pin their remaining hopes for meritorious service on other thieves who remained in Dongchuan. The next step of the purge will also begin later.

PS: Note 1: The source is Zheng Tianting's "Historical Materials of the Peasant Uprising in the Late Ming Dynasty", "The Ministry of War Entitled Gong Bao Punishment Qu Kui and Other Things", in actual history, there are only 800 elite soldiers, and this book is to add 200 people from Zhang Mengjin. Historically, Yang Jiamo selected military attachés including: Yuan Kuoyu, the actual garrison under Hong Chengchou's standard, Zhai Yingxiang, the original leader of the army under Cao Wenzhao, Yang Jiamo's garrison Yang Guangguo, Han He's deputy general Zhang Quanchang, Tian Yinglong, and the guerrilla Ma Ke's Qian. And in this book, it is necessary to add Zhang Mengjin, the commander of the military preparation Dao Dai Junen, who sits in the camp.

Note 2: The source is the same as the note, but the author thinks that Liu Jin under Bai Guangen may be the same person as Liu Jin under Shen Yikui mentioned earlier in this book. Because Bai Guangen's historical territory is Wuqiying, this place is very close to Ningsai Fort. Historically, thousands of Shen Yikui's subordinates were planted around Ningsai, and Liu Jin may have been mixed with Bai Guangen after Shen Yikui's death. Of course, this is just the author's speculation, and the author's setting in this book is divided into two people.