（o392）

However, the wishful thinking of the horse thieves, the Tiger Ben army is very clear, and of course they will not give them a chance to survive. Zhang Zhun deployed a strong force around Pingzhou. Zhang Zhun arranged a total of six tiger troops to launch a large-scale encirclement and suppression of the horse thieves from all sides, and it was necessary to defeat the main force of the horse thieves before the officers and soldiers counterattacked.

According to Zhang Zhun's arrangement, each association of the Tiger Ben Army attacked separately and encircled Pingzhou from different directions, maintaining close contact with each other to form a large network. They had to deal with a relatively large group of horse thieves. As for the sporadic horse thieves, they are handed over to the sniper teams to deal with.

Due to the long range of the Tiger Gun and the ability to shoot horse thieves at a long distance, especially after the military competition, all units are practicing hard shooting at moving targets, so the shooting level of some fighters is quite high. As long as there are sporadic horse thieves, a single shot can knock the opponent off the horse.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

In the open fields around Pingzhou, sporadic gunshots can always be heard.

As the gunshots rang out, there was always one or more horse thieves who fell headlong from the horse's back and were silent. When the horse thief is killed, one or more figures always appear in the grass next to him, taking away the ownerless war horse. These people, all wearing gray military uniforms and carrying tiger guns, are naturally the various sniper groups of the Tiger Army.

The horse thieves in Pingzhou are not twisted together, they have a lot of mountains. If you want to say that the number of horse thieves in the mountain is more than the peasant army in Henan, there are definitely more than thirty-six. The largest number of these horse thieves was only two hundred. The smallest number of people, only a few people. Different groups of horse thieves have different areas of activity. They are scattered. Generally speaking, horse thieves in other territories will have conflicts if they run to the territory of horse thieves next to them to spread wild.

In the face of such sporadic horse thieves, it is naturally the most effective to fight in detachments. The ten sniper teams established by Zhang Zhun were dispatched again. In addition to them, there are more detachments of the Tiger Army, active in various areas of Pingzhou. Their main purpose was to ambush passing horse thieves and rob horses. The horse thief in Pingzhou, the wealth of Zhang Zhun in the eyes, and the war horse of the horse thief in the eyes of Zhang Zhun.

"A horse thief kills one."

"A war horse grabs one, it's one."

Zhang Zhun's order is very simple, it is to kill people and rob horses.

If the horse thief's horse is captured in battle, the Tiger Army will be put into use immediately. According to Zhang Zhun's meaning, as long as the war horse is grabbed, each association is responsible for forming its own cavalry for communication and preventing it from being broken by horse thieves. In fact, each association of the Tiger Ben Army has a strength of about 300 people, and even if it is besieged by horse thieves, there is no danger. Without a horse thief with unified command, it is simply impossible to encircle the Tiger Ben army on a certain road.

"Bang bang bang!"

"Bang bang bang!"

"Bang bang bang!"

From the day the Tiger Ben Army entered Pingzhou, the gunfire around them continued.

Of course, the gunfire is getting farther and farther away from Pingzhou. Under the oppression of the Tiger Ben army, the local horse thieves were forced to leave the city of Pingzhou Prefecture and retreat to the Daze Mountains in the north. The various units of the Tiger Ben Army naturally continued to pursue in the back, pressing the living space of the horse thieves step by step. In the end, most of the horse thieves were compressed in the area of Daze Mountain in the north of Pingzhou.

The battle between the tiger army and the horse thief froze here.

At this time, Zhang Zhun was formulating a new plan for expanding the army.

According to Zhang Zhun's judgment, it will take some time for the officers and men to counterattack.

At present, Shandong, the strength of the Ming army is indeed very empty. In the area of Qingzhou Mansion, there was no main force of the Ming army. Shandong's military strength is obviously strong in the east and weak in the west. In the east of Dengzhou Mansion and Dongjiang Town, tens of thousands of Ming troops gathered. However, just relying on the thousands of soldiers in Dengzhou Mansion could not help Zhang Zhun at all. If Zhang Zhun is willing to be a rogue like Li Zicheng, it is not impossible to lead the army to sweep Qingzhou Mansion after taking Laizhou Mansion. It's just a pity that he didn't want to do it.

With the current strength of the Tiger Ben Army, it is still a bit insufficient to control the huge Laizhou Capital. At present, there are only 10 associations in the main force of the Tiger Army, and except for the six associations that coordinated to go out to suppress bandits, the other four associations are not even one in each county. With the huge Qingzhou Mansion, it is even more difficult. If the territory is not digested well, it is going to have diarrhea. Therefore, in the rear of Aoshan City, Zhang Zhun asked Lin Bin to organize more soldiers.

According to Zhang Zhun's new army expansion plan, the original 10 associations will be upgraded to 10 battalions, and each battalion will temporarily govern two associations, with a total of 10 teams and a total of 5oo soldiers. These 10 battalions will be the main force of the Tiger Ben Army in the future. According to the Five-Year Plan, after the full number of personnel, the strength of each battalion will exceed 7,000. Together with the equipped artillery units, it may exceed 1,000 people, or even reach 10,000 people.

Each battalion of the Ming army is generally about three or four thousand people, and the number of soldiers in each battalion of the Tiger Army is more than twice that of the Ming army. Ten battalions, that is, 70,000 people, even in a field battle with the Tartars, is almost enough. In addition to these ten battalions, more cavalry and artillery units were needed. According to Zhang Zhun's plan, the cavalry should form at least three battalions. It would be nice to reach five battalions. As for professional large-caliber artillery, about five hundred should be about the same.

Since Zhang Zhun does not have so many soldiers for the time being, every battalion is seriously dissatisfied with the number of soldiers. There was also a first-level structure called "department" between the Concord battalions, which had not been established. However, the ten battalions combined, there were also five or six thousand people. It is basically enough to protect Laizhou Mansion. As long as the expansion of the troops is completed, there is no need to worry about the counterattack of the Ming army.

As for the future soldiers, Zhang Zhun does not need to worry at all. As long as the land reform is completed, the number of soldiers will definitely not be a problem. In the northeast of the year, before the land reform, many army generals had to work as army traffickers, go to various places to find soldiers, deceive, coerce and lure, and only then can the troops be successfully replenished. However, after the end of the land reform, there were so many soldiers that it was impossible to digest them, and the main force was not so large, so a large number of independent divisions were formed. The total number of troops swelled to more than one million at once. Chang Kaishen was immediately so tragic that he couldn't be more tragic.

Therefore, the key to all work is land reform.

The key to the smooth completion of land reform is to eradicate banditry.

At this time, the tiger army and the horse thieves were in a stalemate in the Daze Mountain area.

"I'll see for myself!"

Zhang Zhun frowned and said slowly.

The main force of the Tiger Ben Army and the horse thieves are in a stalemate, which is not a good thing. These horse thieves must be eliminated before a massive counterattack by the officers and soldiers arrives. Otherwise, they will cooperate with the officers and men inside and outside and make trouble in the rear of Laizhou Prefecture, which will bring huge trouble to the operation of the Tiger Ben Army. More importantly, unless these bandits are eliminated, it will be impossible for Pingzhou's land reform to be successfully completed.

On the twentieth day of the first month of the Chongzhen year, Zhang Zhun came to Pingzhou.

Sure enough, the situation of the bandits here is quite not optimistic.

Through the continuous attacks of the six associations of the Tiger Army, the large number of horse thieves could not be stopped, and they had to retreat to the north continuously, and finally concentrated in the area of Laishan (now Zhilai Mountain in Ping City) and Tianchiling to hide. Due to the very complicated situation on the ground, the progress of the Tiger Ben Army is not very large.

Pingzhou is the largest county in Laizhou, covering an area of more than 3,000 square kilometers. At the same time, Pingzhou is also one of the most complex states. In particular, the Daze Mountain area in the north has always been an area where poor mountains and bad waters breed and thieves breed. The remnants of the Wenxiang Sect were once hidden here, and the officers and soldiers had never been able to clean them up.

Near the main peak of Daze Mountain, there are many peaks and complex terrain. Outsiders can easily be ambushed when they enter the area. A large number of horse thieves gathered here, gathering and scattering, bringing great pressure to the surrounding land reform work. From time to time, horse thieves haunt the area, killing supporters of the Tiger Army and obstructing the land reform work. If these horse thieves are not eliminated as soon as possible, the casualties of the people will be even greater.

In addition, the large number of horses of horse thieves is also one of the main reasons. A large number of horses means that they are highly mobile. You can't outrun four legs on two legs. After a period of fighting, the Tiger Ben army only captured one hundred and seventy war horses, which was far from sufficient.

"Go into the mountains and have a look."

Zhang Zhun pondered for a moment and said slowly.

Soon, Zhang Zhun took the sniper detachment and came to the area of Tianchi Ridge.

Sure enough, the terrain here is indeed very complicated. The mountain peaks are connected to each other. There are mountains in the mountains, holes in caves, and ditches in ditches. The road around Tianchi Ridge is narrow, winding, passing through the mountains and caves, and it is thrilling. If someone who is not familiar with the situation goes in, they will soon get lost.

It is also the source of many rivers, and there is enough water to prevent horse thieves from worrying about water at all. As for food, it should be possible to get it with the skill of a horse thief. Daze Mountain produces grapes, and horse thieves can support it for a while just by nibbling on raisins. So, the siege is simply impossible.

All the clairloom saw were mountains, and there was no one. However, Zhang Zhun knows very well that there are many horse thieves hidden in the places he can't see. Most of the mountains are high and densely forested, and there are many caves. Hiding some horse thieves is not a problem at all. The Tiger Ben army of the Six Associations was scattered here, and it was like a drop of water in the sea, which fell in the Sahara Desert and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Of course, as long as there is enough time, the Tiger Ben Army can clear the bandits inside. The problem is that the Tiger Army doesn't have that much time. If the bandits cannot be eliminated by the end of February, a counterattack by an army of officers and men will come.

Zhang Zhun learned more about the situation.

The horse thieves hiding in the Daze Mountain area are said to be horse thieves, but in fact, there are still most infantry without horses. They are mainly the backbone of landlords who are unwilling to be suppressed, or bandits who rob homes and houses. Together, these become the hardest bones to gnaw. It is accurately estimated that there are about 100 war horses among the horse thieves around the entire Daze Mountain. In other words, a hundred cavalry.

Zhang Zhun's eyes suddenly lit up.

If there is anything he needs most at the moment, it is a war horse. **Hundreds of war horses, but it's a good thing! As long as most of them can be captured, two cavalry associations can be formed. If all of them are captured, three cavalry associations can be formed. In future battles, if you have cavalry, it will be a powerful superior force!

"Command, stop attacking!"

Zhang Zhun said decisively.

He ordered that all the troops of the Tiger Ben Army should no longer organize detachments to enter the mountains to look for horse thieves, and to guard the main checkpoints and intersections, so as not to let the large army of horse thieves escape. The situation in the mountains is too complicated, and it is difficult to communicate with each other. There are too many troops, and they can't be used. There are fewer troops, and they are easily broken by the enemy individually. Kill a thousand enemies, hurt yourself a hundred, Zhang Zhun doesn't do such a thing.

Subsequently, Zhang Zhun ordered Mo Yu to organize personnel to help transcribe a large number of notices and prepare to throw them into the mountains.

"Welcome all the brothers in the Osawa Mountain, come and surrender with the ranks and war horses of your companions."

"With the level of a horse thief, I am not to blame in the past."

"With the rank of two horse thieves, the reward is ten taels of silver."

"With the rank of three horse thieves, the reward is twenty taels of silver."

"Ten taels of silver for each horse thief! The more Horse Thief levels you carry, the more rewards you get! ”

"Each horse is worth thirty taels of silver! The more horses you bring, the more rewards you will get! ”

"Any horse thief who surrenders, after repenting of his crimes, can join the Tiger Army!"

Regarding the content of the notice, Zhang Zhun said in an orderly manner.

Mo Yu said a little strangely: "My lord, will the horse thief really be fooled?" ”

Zhang Zhun said confidently: "You can see it slowly." ”

Mo Yu then organized the staff to transcribe dozens of notices, the contents of which were all described by Zhang Zhun. Worried that the horse thief's education level was not high and he couldn't read the text, Mo Yu also drew some easy-to-understand pictures on the notice. After Zhang Zhun saw these pictures, he appreciated them very much and encouraged Mo Yu to draw more cartoons in the future and post them in various places in Laizhou Mansion.

After everything was ready, Zhang Zhun immediately asked the cavalry soldiers of the Tiger Ben Army to post these notices at various important passes. He also sent men into the Great Plain Mountain, and threw these notices everywhere. Throw one here, one there, and throw them all down wherever there is a chance that horse thieves will be there, so that most horse thieves can get an easy-to-understand notice. Then, he waited quietly for the situation to unfold.

The first month of the year passed quickly, and February arrived in a hurry.

When Zhang Zhun confronted the thieves in Pingzhou, the entire Central Plains region was on fire. At the beginning of February, Zhang Zhun received news from Fengyang Mansion that the rebel army and officers and soldiers were fighting in the vicinity of Fengyang Mansion, and the battle situation was very tragic, and several of the officers and soldiers were killed in the battle. On the side of the rebel army, the losses were also not high, Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others began to attack from the fifteenth day of the first month, and attacked for more than ten days in a row, but they still did not take Fengyang Mansion.

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