After the battle ended, Zhu Youzhen first ordered people to keep the scene tightly sealed and never leak the news. Because a large number of thieves are nearby, if they hear the wind, they can only retreat to Jingyang.

Then the battlefield was cleaned up. After counting, it was found that the casualties of the Qin soldiers were minimal, only one cavalry was killed in battle, and two cavalrymen were seriously wounded. Several other recruits injured themselves due to excessive stress, but fortunately, the injuries were not serious.

Although it is inevitable that people will die in war, Zhu Youzhen is still very distressed. After all, there are too few cavalry under his command, even if it is only a few people, it will have an impact on combat effectiveness.

Compared to the battle damage, the gains in this battle are very staggering. not only captured the thief leader "Great Heavenly King" Gao Jian, but also annihilated all the thieves, and none of them escaped.

Among them, more than 300 thieves who could fight were killed on the spot, and 40 were taken prisoner. All the families of the thieves were also captured, and the men, women, and children together were two hundred and twenty-three.

And the 200 villagers in this village who have just been coerced into the gang have not even had time to receive weapons, and of course it is impossible to participate in the battle. Except for the inevitable killing of seven or eight people in the melee, the rest all fell to their knees and were captured. As for the surviving people in the village, there were about 200 people.

How to deal with these personnel made Zhu Youzhen quite brainless. First of all, the thieves are different from the bandits, and there are a large number of women and children in them. Although these people also bear the name of "thieves", they do not actually do evil, but passively follow the men to rebel. In a sense, they are also victims of thieves.

But it would be wrong to say that they were completely innocent. Although they did not directly cut people with knives, they also played an auxiliary role in cooking and washing clothes for the thieves and giving birth to children. It's like a priest, medic and nurse in modern warfare, who are not direct combatants, but are captured as prisoners of war.

The opinions of the generals in the army on the handling of these people are generally divided into two completely different factions. The faction headed by Lin Youkun advocated that these people be killed on the spot and cut down the grass and eradicate the roots. The reason is also very sufficient: the thief is a rebellion, according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, those who directly participated in the rebellion were executed by Ling Chi, and their family members were punished by the clan.

The other faction, represented by Qi Meifeng, believes that these dependents are just forced to be thieves, and there is no great evil in themselves, so it is better to release them.

Surprisingly, Zhu Youzhen did not adopt either of these opinions!

First of all, he first released all the villagers who were forced to be thieves, and gathered all the villagers together, shouting loudly: "Don't be afraid, we are the official army from Jingyang County!" You have been forced to be a thief, and you have not done evil, so this general is not to blame. However, this group of thieves was only the vanguard, and a large number of thieves arrived in the blink of an eye. For everyone's safety, General Ben suggests that you leave the village temporarily and take refuge in Jingyang County! Anyone who is willing to go, stand on my left! ”

As soon as the people heard that there were thieves behind them, who were willing to wait for death here, they all stood to the left of Zhu Youzhen.

Zhu Youzhen was very satisfied with this, and continued: "If you want to go, you have to leave quickly, don't bring anything with you!" In addition, General Ben has given you another task: to take the dependents of these thieves to Jingyang County. If you can complete this task, if you lose something in your home, General Ben will compensate according to the price! ”

When the villagers heard this, they burst into cheers. As the saying goes, breaking a family is worth a lot, let them give up their family property, to be honest, no one is very distressed. At this time, Zhu Youzhen said that he would pay compensation, which suddenly relieved their worries.

And for the families of those thieves, they also hate them to the core. In particular, the men who had been coerced into the gang were even more gearing up, taking out ropes from their homes one after another, and firmly binding those people into a string.

Zhu Youzhen was also afraid that the villagers would act excessively, especially for fear that someone would take the opportunity to insult the women, so he had to allocate ten more people from the Qin soldiers and supervise these people to immediately set off and rush to Jingyang. When he arrived in Jingyang, he asked Sun Chuanting to settle temporarily, and he would take care of it after he went back.

After getting rid of this big burden, Zhu Youzhen immediately said majestically: "Escort the bandit leader up!" ”

At this time, the "Great Heavenly King" Gao Jian has completely lost the demeanor of the "Heavenly King". His body was like a sifting chaff, and when he saw Zhu Youzhen, he fell to the ground like a mess of mud, kowtowing and begging for mercy.

Zhu Youzhen sneered and said: "I knew this was the case, why bother in the first place!" Let me ask you, how are the thieves distributed outside of Bupyeong, especially in the vicinity? If there is a half-truth, come and see! ”

As he spoke, he winked at Xie Yong. Xie Yong understood, and immediately ordered five thieves to be escorted up, and knelt on the ground in a row.

"You slaughter the people, the wives and daughters of the silver, and rob the property of others, the crime is extremely heinous, and you should be executed according to the law!" Zhu Youjian's face sank like water, "But I don't have time to serve you now, come, behead the public!" ”

As soon as the words fell, the knife and axe hand behind picked up the ghost-headed broadsword. The cold light flashed, and the five thieves immediately turned their heads in different places, and the first-level bones rolled straight to Takami's side.

Gao Jian was so frightened that he was so frightened that he kowtowed again and again: "The villain will never dare to have half a lie!" ”

Through his confession, Zhu Youzhen learned that it was Gao Jie's men and horses who were directly east of Gao Jian. Gao Jie's troops have a wide range of generals, and his strength in the camp is second only to Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin, and he is also quite brave and good at fighting. However, he is extremely lustful, and some time ago he took advantage of Li Zicheng's absence to secretly have an affair with his wife Xing!

As the saying goes, good things don't go out, and bad things spread thousands of miles. In particular, this kind of male-female affair spreads faster. Li Zicheng was of course very annoyed after hearing the rumors, although he did not catch the man and woman in bed, and Xing refused to admit it, but his attitude towards Gao Jie was obviously cold.

Gao Jie is a thief with a weak heart, and he knows that Li Zicheng is ruthless, so he is even more careful. In this attack on Fuping City, Li Zicheng did not let him enter the city to loot, and he was happy to stay away from Li Zicheng, so he advanced to the vicinity of the junction of Fuping and Sanyuan counties.

There were more than 4,000 men under his command, including more than 2,000 combatants. Now he led 1,000 men to be stationed in Meijiaping Town, and his three generals, Li Chengdong, Wu Shengzhao and Li Benshen, each led 300 men, stationed in Xiaoyang Village, Lijiagou and Shibafang to the west of Meijiaping, and several villages were not more than a few miles apart from each other.

Of course, Gao Jian's part ran the most advanced, and now it has been completely wiped out by Zhu Youzhen. After Gao Jian's confession, he said with a handful of snot and tears: "If the general can spare the villain from dying, the villain is willing to lead the way for the officers and soldiers!" ”

"A capricious dog thief like you, everyone will be punished!" Zhu Youzhen smiled coldly and said, "Come on, no matter the master and slave, all will be beheaded!" ”