Xinyan Town

Since Zhao Yi left with his people in the morning, there has been a lot of discussion in the town, hoping that Zhao Yi can eliminate the bandits, but also worrying that his family will not be able to come back.

"Little Huzi, look over there, is it a team of cavalry?" The small pillar on the wall of the north gate pointed into the distance and said to the people around him.

The three villagers who stood guard with the pillar looked in the direction pointed by the pillar, and saw a cloud of smoke and dust in the distance, and in front of the smoke and dust was a team of knights riding horses to the town.

"It's not good, it's a mountain bandit!" One said loudly, his voice trembling.

"What are you still stunned about, ring the alarm bell!" One of them snapped. Since the turmoil of the mountain bandits, large and small towns have been equipped with alarm bells.

"Dangdang~"

"Come in, there's a bandit!" The alarm bell rang, and the townsman at the north gate shouted loudly. The townspeople who were originally calm near the town gate panicked, and the farmers in the fields in the distance also threw down their farming tools and ran towards the town regardless of the situation.

"Close the town gate! Close the town gates! Changgen, the leader of the township brave squad who was in charge of guarding the town gate today, shouted loudly.

"But there's still someone out there!"

"There are only a few dozen people outside, but there are thousands of people in the town, close quickly!"

"Damn, we're still outside, wait and close!"

"Let me in!"

"Help!"

When the alarm bell sounded, the people of the town also panicked.

"What's going on? Didn't Zhao Yi and Li Chenfeng go to exterminate the mountain bandits in Wohu Mountain? Why are there still mountain bandits, have they failed? Zhou Li shouted in panic.

"Chief, now is not the time to think about that, let's find a way to resist the bandits." Wu Han, who was following Zhou Li, said with a pale face.

"Resist, originally more than 1,500 young people, Zhao Yi took away 500, more than 300 were killed and injured last time, only 700 people, not to mention that they are all unarmed farmers, you say, how to resist."

"That's better than sitting here, let's go and see it first, maybe it's not the mountain bandits of Wohu Mountain, there are only more than 100 mountain bandits in Wohu Mountain, Zhao Yi has 500 of them, even if they fail, the mountain bandits will not lose nothing." If it's other bandits, see if you can give them something and let them go, and other towns and villages do it. ”

Zhou Li and Wu Han came out of the house and came to fight on the street, and when they saw the rioting crowd on the street, they couldn't help but tremble nervously.

"Folks, the mountain bandits are here again, if you don't want your wife and daughter to be bedded, or if your family is ruined, bring me guys and go to the north gate." Wu Han pretended to be bold and shouted.

"I'll go, I'll fight with these mountain bandits!" A strong man took out a hunting bow, came behind Wu Han, and shouted loudly.

"I'll go too!"

…………

"Xu He, you take a few people over to appease the villagers running around in front of you and explain your identity, don't make any more trouble."

Xu He led ten people to gallop away.

"Let's go, let's go under the north gate!" Zhao Xi went straight to the north gate.

"What to do? They're coming! Several people at the town gate shivered.

"What's going on?" Zhou Li and Wu Han finally came to the wall in the north of the town with more than 300 people.

"My lord, there is a team of knights over there, it's not anyone, it's probably a mountain bandit."

Zhou Li and Wu Han also saw a puff of smoke and dust coming straight to him.

"Closer to two hundred, can we stop it?" Zhou Li said involuntarily.

The townsfolk around him turned pale and didn't know how to answer.

"My lord, that's Erniu, Erniu, Erniu who went with Zhao Yi to suppress bandits!" A townsman shouted.

"I saw the dog, absolutely yes, it left this morning."

Zhou Li and Wu Han looked at each other.

"Knock knock!"

Zhao Xi and his entourage finally came to the north gate, looking at the north gate full of townspeople with kitchen knives and flat shoulders, the corners of Zhao Xi's mouth couldn't help but smile.

"Zhao Xi?" Zhou Li said in surprise.

"Zhao Xi!" Wu Han also said.

"What are you doing here? Even if you greet it, you don't have to fight so much! Tell everyone, we have exterminated the mountain bandits' nest in Crouching Tiger Mountain, and we have only killed three people in battle. That is to say, from today onwards, there will be no mountain bandits for more than 100 miles near Wohu Mountain. Zhao Yi looked above the town gate and said loudly.

"Yay!"

"Great!"

"Zhao Xi is really good!"

When the townspeople heard this, they immediately cheered.

Zhou Li and Wu Han's faces turned red: Damn, it's a victory, and I will say hello when I come back, which makes us nervous.

"Oh, it turned out that Commander Zhao came back, we thought it was the mountain bandits coming again, open the town gate quickly, let our heroes in!" Zhou Li suppressed his dissatisfaction and said with a smile.

"When we go back, we should tell our families about the situation, and also tell the families of those brothers who have not come back, so that they can come with us at that time. As for the three families who died, Zhao Hai, you can bring the silver to appease you, and if their families are willing to go with us, bring them too. Everyone prepares and returns to the mountain in ten days. Zhao Yi turned around and said to the more than eighty people behind him.

"Yes, sir!"

"Oh, by the way, starting tomorrow morning, you have to go to the threshing floor to train, if you don't go, you will be considered to be the one who leaves, and you won't have to follow me in the future. Did you hear it all? ”

"I heard you!" More than 80 people said in unison.

"Congratulations to Commander Zhao, who successfully exterminated the bandits in Crouching Tiger Mountain and reported it to the county, that would be a great achievement." Zhou Li said with a smile to Zhao Xian, who got off the horse.

Zhao Yi handed the horse to Xu He and said with a smile: "Everywhere, it's all the credit of the two adults, I'm just running errands." ”

Killing a group of mountain bandits can receive a reward of 1,000 taels of silver in the county, although it is not that much, but it will not be much less. What's more important is to be appreciated by the county. Zhao Yi is naturally not uncommon with this, so he gives the credit to Zhou Li and Wu Han.

"What about the others? Why didn't you come back! Wu Han asked in surprise when he saw that Zhao Xian had only brought one hundred and sixty or seventy people back.

"Oh, that's the case, after we exterminated the mountain bandits, there are still more than 100 homeless poor women in the mountains, I can't rest assured, in addition, on the east side of Wohu Mountain, more than 20 miles away from Wohu Mountain, there is a large group of 500 mountain bandits, the townspeople under Wohu Mountain are afraid that after losing Wohu Mountain, these mountain bandits will go west, and all beg us to protect them. So I left people there. ”

"What? You left the townsfolk in our town in Wohu Mountain to protect the townspeople there? Wu Han asked angrily, originally he also wanted to transfer the people in Zhao Xi's hands to form a new Xiangyong.

"No, a total of eighty people in the town have returned, and the rest are from other villages and towns who fled to our town, and now they don't want to come back, what can I do?" Zhao Yi replied helplessly.

"You ......" Seeing Zhao Yi pretending to be helpless, Wu Han was speechless for a while.

Zhou Li hurriedly said: "Commander Wu Han is also worried about the safety of our town, you leave all the people there, what if we encounter mountain bandits again?" ”

Zhao Yi said with a smile: "The southeast of Xinyan Town is Le County, there will be no mountain bandits, the southwest is Yanping Town, that is a big town, there are many towns, the mountain bandits will not come from that direction, there is only one place in the north, Wohu Mountain, and now it has been leveled by me, so except for the wild boar ridge at the eastern end of Wohu Mountain, no mountain bandits will come to harass here." Besides, even if we come, we will come from Crouching Tiger Mountain. ”

"Although those young men were originally not from Xinyan Town, their families are still here, so I don't believe they dare to come." Wu Han said annoyedly. Without his subordinates, how can he command the whole town.

Zhao Yi said lightly: "Those young people asked me to send their families to Crouching Tiger Mountain, where there is a lot of barren land, many of which they once abandoned, and now that the mountain bandits have gone, they hope to return to their hometown, presumably Commander Wu will not stop it." ”

Wu Han wanted to say something, but Zhao Yi continued: "They said, if anyone dares to be them, they will kill them, they are not even afraid of mountain bandits, what are they afraid of?" The ninety people who came back with me this time were in charge of this. ”

Wu Han's face turned pale: Yes, these guys have even killed the mountain bandits, not to mention the others?

Zhou Li's face was also pale, but he said: "Okay, is Commander Wu also thinking about the safety of the town, since this is the case, then let them deal with it themselves, when the time comes, we will be in trouble here, and I also hope that Commander Zhao will help." ”

Although Zhao Xi said that Qingzhuang was leaving, neither of them was a fool, and they both understood that Zhao Xi wanted to gather people and set up a town on his own. After all, it's much better to be the leader of the town than to be under someone else, especially if you don't have time to take care of yourself.

"Well said! Then I'll go home first, my mother is still worried about me. After speaking, Zhao Yi turned around and left.

"My lord, this Zhao Yi is too presumptuous, and he doesn't take us seriously at all." Wu Han said with a straight face.

"You don't take us seriously, but what can you do? Don't you see that more than 500 of his men have gathered, and these 500 people have fought against the mountain bandits, can you help him? Zhou Li said with a gloomy face.

"But my lord, five hundred people and their families are a lot of people, that's a lot of money, just give it to Zhao Yi, this little bastard?" Wu Han said unwillingly.

Originally from the fifteenth year of Wuxuan, the northeast of Youzhou was repeatedly harassed by the northern peoples, the mountain bandits were in turmoil, and the imperial court was busy exterminating the rebel people in the Central Plains, and could not take care of the north, but the three prefectures of Youzhou fell. So he ordered that the townships and towns under the jurisdiction of the state capitals in the northeast of Youzhou should be exempted from taxes, so as to build townships to bravely resist mountain bandits. The townships in the northeast of Youzhou could not collect taxes, but now the imperial court does not collect them, so that the townships and towns will collect a part of them to form the township Yong. In addition to defending against mountain bandits in his town, Xiang Yong will be transferred to the border army at any time to supplement the soldiers. The imperial court thought that it could not only reduce the survival pressure of the people, but also increase the reserve force of the border army.

Originally, the policy of the imperial court was good, but when it came to the following, it became a tool for officials to collect money. The people's taxes were not small at all, most of them were taken away by the officials, and only a small part was used as the food and salary of the villagers.

Now Zhao Yi wants to take away more than 1,000 people, Wu Han is unwilling, but he can't fight others.