Ma Hong raised his head to look at the full moon hanging in mid-air, the cold wind fluttering around his sleeves, and there was something like tears in his eyes. Suddenly, a black shadow blocked his bright moon, and the sword in the black shadow's hand stabbed at him, it was Xu Shu's face, Ma Hong was startled and then woke up from his dream.

At the moment when Ma Hong opened the tent, the early morning sun sprinkled slightly weakly into his eyes, and the hay under his feet, the horses that had not woken up not far away, and the lazy soldiers aroused the anger in Ma Hong's heart. Ma Hong suddenly returned to the tent and picked up the sword and walked directly in front of a chief, then pulled out his sword and pointed it at the throat of the chief.

The chief fell to his knees in shock, his body trembling uncontrollably.

"Do you know why I have this sword around your neck?" Ma Hong spat out a few words.

"The villain doesn't know." The chief raised his head and looked into Ma Hong's eyes in fear.

"You were in charge of patrolling last night! And what about the soldiers on patrol? Ma Hong asked.

The chief did not answer, because the soldiers on patrol were already asleep, and now he understood his responsibility, but he thought that they should not be attacked when they were still marching on the land of Jingzhou, so he allowed his subordinates to rest when they were patrolling at night.

"Do you think that marching on Jingzhou itself will not be attacked? If there had been a sudden attack by horse thieves last night, I am afraid that all the lives of more than 200 of us would have fallen here! Ma Hong asked aggressively.

"The villain is guilty." Nash said.

"If you are convicted, make amends with your life! Someone! Take him down and behead him. Ma Hong waved his sword and ordered the soldiers around him.

But no one around him listened to his opinion, these two hundred soldiers were originally Cai Mao's subordinates, although they were now loaned by Liu Qi, but they were not very obedient to Liu Qi.

At this time, Liu Qi hurriedly walked over and said, "Why do you want to kill someone?" ”

At this time, the chief saw Liu Qi hurriedly buckle his head and said, "Please spare your life." ”

After listening to Na Shichang's explanation, Liu Qi said to Ma Hong with a smile: "Although this soldier is guilty, his crime is not to death. Let's go to Xinye to level the thief, if there is no thief, then kill the subordinates, I'm afraid it's not good. ”

"Childe's words are wrong, we led the troops to Xinye to level the thieves instead of being robbed, does Childe think that we can go to the thieves with soldiers of this quality?" Kuai He didn't know when he was already standing behind Liu Qi.

"If Childe can't bear to kill even one person, how can the countless stumbling blocks on the road ahead be removed." As he spoke, Ma Hong stuffed the sword in his hand into Liu Qi's hand, and then continued: "Make up your mind!" This is the time for you to be in the military. If the sword is not stained with blood, the road ahead will not be able to go on. ”

Liu Qi looked at Ma Hong's eyes and then looked back at Kuai He's eyes, with a hint of helplessness on his face, and then swung the sword in his hand and stabbed it into Na Shichang's throat.

Childe killed, and the soldiers who witnessed it all tensed their nerves. After that, Ma Hong and Kuai He formulated a series of military disciplines, and then the team of 200 people set foot on the itinerary to Xinye.

Ma Hong rode a horse and walked forward side by side with Kuaihe, Kuaiyue wanted to let his nephew go to the army to have some training, and he was very relieved to hand Kuaihe over to his future son-in-law.

"Childe didn't eat this morning!" Kuai He said with a smile on his face.

"The first time I killed someone, it was like this, and I got used to it when I saw it more later." Ma Hong laughed back.

Kuai He smiled, and then asked, "Cai Mao only gave us two hundred people, and the lord didn't say anything?" What do you think the lord means? ”

"I think the lord is testing the strength of the son, if the son can bring these two hundred people to the thief, the lord will definitely appreciate the son."

"I'm afraid that the number of thieves is close to these two hundred soldiers, how does Brother Xian think that our soldiers compare to the soldiers you brought when you were under Jiangxia Huang Taishou?"

"Cai Mao naturally won't put the elite soldiers in his hands into our hands, the combat power of these two hundred soldiers is only equivalent to the combat strength of fifty people of the Jingzhou Army in Jiangxia."

"Speaking of which, the road ahead is quite troublesome, Childe is sad all the way, and now he will soon arrive in Xinye City, what are the plans of the virtuous brother?"

"Thieves don't have to rely on fighting, they have to use temptation."

Ma Hong and the others took the army to Xinye after staying in Xiangyang for ten days, and now they have taken two hundred infantry for five days, and they will be able to arrive at Xinye City in another day, and Gan Ning is just a light horse to Xinye, counting the time to send the order, if Gan Ning does not delay the time, he will have arrived when Ma Hong and the others arrived in Xinye.

On the first day of their arrival in Xinye, Ma Hong and others took over the 1,000 soldiers of the Xinye garrison and transferred the original county order to Huyang. On the second day, Gan Ning arrived and brought more than 200 horses, it turned out that Gan Ning arrived in Xinye two days earlier and encircled the thief Kou Kongbai in the north of Xinye. Kong Bai was originally a member of Gan Ning's tribe and once started an incident with Gan Ning in Yizhou. After the defeat, Gan Ning was the first to flee into Jingzhou, and then Kong Bai also fled into Jingzhou. After Kong Bai fled to Jingzhou, he wanted to defect to Gan Ning, but Gan Ning went to Jiangxia because he was not reused by Liu Biao, and Kong Bai went to Xinye City to continue to be a thief. But the connection between Kong Bai and Gan Ning was not broken, this time Gan Ning came to Xinye, and he led his subordinates to defect to Gan Ning.

Kong Bai's addition not only brought Liu Qi two hundred combat power, but also brought extremely important information. There are 24 large and small thieves in Xinye County, of which the smallest number of thieves is about 10, and the largest number is more than 600 people. Kong Bai is a relatively large thief in Xinye, with more than 400 people, but Kong Bai only brought more than 200 people this time, because the remaining 200 people chose to leave because they didn't want to defect to the Jingzhou army.

"Next, what we have to do is to quickly decompose the power of the new wild bandits, in the near future, Gan Ning and Kong Bai are responsible for clearing the power of the bandits in the new field, the meaning of this elimination must be understood by you, that is, to do our best to win over the bandits in the new field to expand our army, and try not to fight with the thieves when necessary. Kuaihe was responsible for rallying the people to build damaged walls and survey the enemy. I went to be in charge of deploying the defense of various parts of Xinye and counting the amount of grain, grass and weapons, and at the same time making an accurate count of the number of existing people in Xinye. Childe is responsible for communicating with and receiving the support of the wealthy clans in the territory of Shinno. What do you think? If there are any deficiencies, please add them. "Ma Hong assigned their respective tasks according to the current situation.

Liu Qi laughed and said: "It's quite thoughtful, I'll add one thing here, don't disturb the people when the army acts." ”

Everyone nodded, and Ma Hong said again: "The grain, grass and property jointly prepared by the Kuai family, the Xi family and the Ma family will be transported to Xinye by my cousin Xi Wei, and they will be able to reach Xinye within five days." ”

"Then let's worry about it again, please let go and do things!" Liu Qi said with a smile.

After Gan Ning and the others received the order, they went out to do their own business, leaving only Liu Qi and Ma Hong, Liu Qi saw that everyone had left, so he asked Ma Hong softly: "Is it wrong for me to hand over the military power to Gan Ning?" ”

Ma Hong smiled and said, "I know what my brother is worried about? The elder brother was worried that Gan Ning would take advantage of the opportunity to lead the troops to quell the thieves and defect to Cao Cao. ”

Liu Qi said: "Exactly. ”

Ma Hong smiled and said: "Brother worry-free, that Gan Ning is a smart person, he will not be stupid enough to take more than a thousand soldiers with low combat effectiveness to join Cao Cao, this combat power is dispensable to Cao Cao, but this combat power is all for us." If Gan Ning stayed in Jingzhou, he would definitely have to rely on it than to go to Cao Cao with this weak gift, and Gan Ning himself also lacked self-confidence, he was originally a thief, what would the thief think in his heart? The thief will think that if he does not bring a gift to the master, he will definitely be looked down upon. ”

Liu Qi smiled and said, "But Uncle Huang (referring to Huang Zu here) wrote a letter saying that Gan Ning has always been ambitious, and he is also a murderer, but is there such a thing?" ”

Ma Hong replied: "Yes, but now some of his shortcomings are also good things, and thieves are often afraid of thieves who are stronger and more cruel than themselves." ”

Liu Qi nodded, and then asked, "How can Brother Xian see that Gan Ning lacks self-confidence?" ”

Ma Hong smiled and said, "Brother, people who lack self-confidence often rely on gorgeous or bizarre outfits to show themselves, Gan Ning is a man who combines gorgeous and bizarre. ”

Liu Qi showed a look of sudden realization, and then said, "It's really teachable." ”

Ma Hong smiled and said, "Brother, what's the point?" ”