The life of Ma Zizhou in Yanchang County is quite smooth, he studied hard, once he won the middle, in his thirties, he was nominated for the gold list in the Jinshi, and after the infinite scenery, he was sent to Fuping County, Shaanxi Province to be the Zhixian, I thought that after a few years of experience, he would return to the court to be promoted, but fate and Ma Zizhou played a big joke, three years later, Ma Zizhou was transferred from Fuping to Yanchang County and still did the Zhi County, the official position was not promoted, and Yanchang County was much poorer than Fuping, and the income of Ma Zhi County was greatly reduced. Ma Zizhou has been in office for six years and has not yet shown signs of promotion, but he is over 40 years old, and in recent years, Shaanxi has been plagued by a great drought, and sometimes thieves have gathered in the mountains and forests, and even killed officials and rebelled. The news from the court that the new emperor was very dissatisfied with the officials in Shaanxi, and it was very likely that he would take a few of them and make an example of them.

The famine in Yanchang County was more serious than in several other counties, not only because a large number of displaced people had gathered, but also because of bandits and bandits, and wealthy families were often robbed, extorted, and even killed. Recently, several landlords in the area of Guanzhuang Town have sent people to the county seat to send gifts to Mazizhou, asking Mazizhou to send troops to clear out a group of bandits in the area of Guanzhuang Town. This gang of bandits is sinister, not only robbing the rich but also robbing the bandits. More importantly, the scope of activities of this gang of thieves is getting bigger and bigger, and several large landlord families in other villages and towns have also received their extortion letters, and some of these big landlord families are officials in the court, and if the matter is reported to the court through connections, Mazhi County will be in big trouble.

Ma Zhi County found Master Song from the county government, and the two discussed that the county magistrate decided to distribute money and food and send troops to clear out the bandits.

The county was defended by an army of 100 households. The hundred households leading the troops are called Wu Ping. Soon Wu Ping was called to the county office. The Ming Dynasty was noble and martial, and the magistrate of the seven grades was at the bottom of the civil official system, but when facing a hundred households, he was completely like a high-ranking official.

Wu Ping walked into the county government and saw that Ma Zhixian and Master Song were above the lobby, and hurriedly saluted Ma Zhixian, "The lower official has seen the county lord." Then he sent a flattering smile to the master.

"Recently, there has been a rebellion of bandits in the area of Guanzhuang Town, you should lead the men and horses into the mountains as soon as possible to exterminate them." For these vulgar martial artists, Ma Zhixian didn't want to say a word.

"I listen to my lordship's orders, but the soldiers have not been paid food and salary for several months, and their fighting spirit is not aligned, which may not be conducive to war." Wu Baihu seized the opportunity and worked hard for his own interests.

Ma Zhixian glanced at Master Song, and said in his heart that these ruffians could not afford to be early, and they would not go to war if they had no money and food.

Master Song said to Wu Baihu: "The county lord has prepared three months' salary, one month's salary when the team starts, and another two months' salary when returning from victory. ”

Wu Baihu secretly scolded that the three months' food and salary had not even been made up for the arrears, so we had to work hard. "This is the silver?" Wu Baihu also wanted to fight for a little more, so that the money that fell into his pocket would naturally be a little more.

"There is no extra money and food, if you have merit in the war, I will reward you with the court, if you are afraid of the enemy and cowardly, I will write to impeach you. Tomorrow, we will immediately go out to clear out the bandits in the mountains, and there will be no delay. Ma Zhixian impatiently wrote a blank check and threatened.

"Listen to the orders of the adults, and you will definitely live up to the trust of the adults, and the officials will retire." Wu Baihu hurriedly gave a salute and withdrew.

Wu Baihu received a month's salary from Master Song, and of course, the filial piety of the county was not missing at all. Wu Baihu will not break the rules, and he will not be soft at all. The food was distributed to the soldiers in the evening, the first time in months, and the soldiers and their families were so busy cooking that few people cared about the danger of the thieves that would come tomorrow.

The news that the officials and troops were going to be cleared was passed to Zhang Chu that night, and it turned out that Zhang Chu had already ordered people to set up shops in the county town as a cover, collect information in the city, and establish a complete message transmission channel. After several inquiries into the news, Zhang Chu found that the sense of secrecy in the current government is generally not strong, and what happened in the county government will be spread all over the street after a while. When the soldiers of the Hundred Households distributed the grain and rice, the soldiers knew that they would set off tomorrow to clear out the bandits in Guanzhuang Town, and when the soldiers sent the grain home, it was already known to the whole city.

Zhang Chu urgently convened a meeting of the leaders of the security team to discuss countermeasures, now all the personnel of the security team have more than 300 people, but more than half of them are family members of the team members, and there are only about 150 soldiers who can fight.

In the end, Zhang Chu set his sights on Li Yi, Li Yi's cavalry brigade has been expanded by fighting horse thieves and bandits, and now has fifteen horses, becoming the strongest striking force of the security team now. "The success or failure of this battle depends on yours, can you do it or not?"

"There is no ambiguity in going into battle to kill the enemy, our cavalry team." The cavalry has its own pride of the cavalry, and the most important thing for the cavalry is the indomitable spirit. Li Yi replied loudly.

"Let's try our new tactics this time." Zhang Chu commanded. "Will that work? We can defeat them with our sabers. "Li Yi was a little disappointed." No, you can't have heavy casualties, we can't do anything to kill a thousand enemies and lose eight hundred, we can't fight hard, if you can't do it, we can withdraw, there are many ways to destroy the enemy. Zhang Chu told Li Yi.

Next, Zhang Chu arranged for everyone to prepare separately, and the war machine of the security team started.

Early the next morning, Wu Baihu took all the soldiers of Baihu out of the city, the county seat was fifty miles away from the thieves' lair in Guanzhuang Town, Wu Baihu was ready to rush to the thieves' lair before dark, and then set up camp, and then find a way to defeat the thieves.

He is still very confident in defeating the thief Wu Baihu, and the Baihu he led is in much better condition than other official troops. Wu Baihu is hereditary, although the Baihu also deducts military salaries, but the training of soldiers is still very tight, although there are only more than 150 soldiers, but the troops are complete, pikemen, sword players, archers are readily available. According to the landlords who fled to the city, there should be more than 200 thieves, but thieves often like to coerce the homeless, and most of the ranks are old and weak who act as cannon fodder, and there will be no more than 50 soldiers who can really fight. Moreover, the bandits lacked weapons and armor, and were not at all the opponents of the officers and soldiers.

There are more than a dozen of Wu Baihu's personal soldiers, this is Wu Baihu's private soldiers who withhold military salaries, more than a dozen personal soldiers are all wearing good armor, ordinary swords can't hurt them, everyone has horses, each person has a machete made of stainless steel, Wu Baihu often trains with them. There is no problem for these dozen or so personal soldiers to kill hundreds of bandits, it is more likely that the thieves fled into the mountains, as long as they catch a few homeless people and cut them down, they can report to the magistrate and receive the remaining two months' salary.

The team drove out of the city and walked all the way, almost by noon it had traveled more than 20 miles, the team began to disperse, Wu Baihu saw this and ordered to stop the team to rest, the soldiers took out dry food and were just about to eat, suddenly a team of dozens of bandits appeared in front, the team members were dressed in tatters, holding spears in their hands. Wu Baihu immediately ordered the whole team to move forward and eliminate this gang of thieves.

If the thieves were in danger in the mountains, it would have taken a lot of trouble, and now running out of the mountains is purely to send them to death, which shows that the leader of the thieves has no brains. The thieves were really a rabble, as soon as the officers and soldiers stepped forward, the thieves turned around and ran to the valley behind, Wu Baihu urgently ordered the team to pursue, and the thieves could not be allowed to run back to the mountain. This group of thieves escaped really fast, and Wu Baihu urged the officials and soldiers to chase after them.

Seeing that there was a sudden change when he was about to catch up, there were more than a dozen elm tree trunks on the road ahead, the thieves ran over and left behind a few thieves who lit the fuse on the elm tree trunk, the officers and soldiers just chased the fire from the elm trunk, a large amount of iron sand came head-on, and more than a dozen officers and soldiers were immediately knocked down, and the thieves took the opportunity to flee away, Wu Baihu could only stop the team to help the wounded, at this time the thieves turned around and came back, clamoring in front of the official and military ranks.

Wu Baihu knew that they wanted to do the same thing. Immediately took out his trump card to fight, and more than a dozen pro-soldiers rode in pursuit, not giving the thieves another chance to set up an ambush. As soon as the soldiers rode out of the team, the team of thieves who were still chaotic just now suddenly gathered together to form a circular formation, and the spears rushed out, which was really the standard formation of infantry against cavalry.