"What? Even He Huchen is dead? Liu Cheng's movements stopped, due to the huge difference in status, he didn't have much contact with this person in the past, but he killed a senior general like the deputy chief soldier, it seems that Hong Chengchou lost this time. At this juncture, write a letter to yourself, and its content will not be known. He quickly opened the letter, just read two lines, threw it aside, and scolded: "Damn, I want to transfer Lao Tzu to suppress the thief!" “

"Lord Liu, I can't do without you here!" Lu Boqi seemed to have been drained of all the bones of his body at once, and he collapsed to the ground all of a sudden, tears dripping down his cheeks, making a mess of his originally neatly combed beard: "There are thieves everywhere, if you leave, what will happen to the fathers and elders of Tongzhou!" “

Liu Cheng threw off Lu Boqi's hand irritably, it was not a pleasant thing to be grabbed by an old man in his fifties crying, Hong Chengchou's sudden order caught him off guard, and he had been working hard for so long, and finally had a situation, but now he had to leave by himself. It is impossible to refuse an order, so who should be left behind when you leave yourself?

Liu Cheng jumped out of bed and walked back and forth in the room barefoot, Lu Boqi held his breath and looked at each other blankly, as if everything about himself depended on Liu Cheng's decision. After a while, Liu Cheng stopped: "Lord Lu, since the Hong army has an order, I have to go, let's say, how many soldiers do you want to keep here?" ”

"Lord Liu!" Lu Boqi replied with a sad face: "You are no better here than other places, pontoon bridges, market towns, workshops, and ditches and ponds that are being built outside, all of which have to be guarded. “

Liu Cheng snorted coldly, although Lu Boqi was timid, his words were good. If it is an ordinary state or county, the entry of thieves only needs to make the people of each township retreat into the city. The thieves have nothing to plunder, and they have to leave after staying for three or five days at most. And Liu Cheng made these industries scattered in many places, not in the city wall at all, if he scattered his troops to defend how many soldiers were not enough.

"Okay, I'll leave Du Ruhu to you, he is the most experienced in using soldiers, and I'll give you another hundred bird guns, if you really can't do it, I'd rather not Tongzhou City, but also defend here." Liu Cheng replied helplessly. The importance of this foundation to him is self-evident.

"Would you rather lose Tongzhou City?" Lu Boqi's eyes widened, and he said in a slur manner: "Lord Liu, I am a soldier in Tongzhou, if Tongzhou City is lost, then I will be imprisoned and punished!" “

"But here is three years of military salaries, and armor and ordnance are piled up!" Liu Cheng's voice interrupted Lu Boqi's appeal, and he pointed to the rows of houses outside the window: "As long as this place is intact, Tongzhou City can always be recaptured if it is lost, if it is gone." That's all gone, Master Lu, do you understand? “

Lu Boqi looked at Liu Cheng's eyes, and finally he lowered his head. Liu Cheng nodded with satisfaction, walked out quickly, and shouted loudly: "Drumming, order soldiers!" “

The rumbling drums were heard. Liu Cheng went back to bed and began to dress, and a breeze blew and brought the letterhead to him. Liu Cheng picked up the letter casually. His eyes swept over Hong Chengchou's vigorous handwriting on it: "When the Ming Dynasty is played, you will be the deputy chief soldier of Yansui Town, and you will be the deputy chief soldier of Yansui Town!" Seeing this, Liu Cheng's face showed a disdainful smile: "Deputy Chief Soldier, what a big bait!" “

Huan County, Anhua Village

Wisps of black smoke rose in all directions, blood stained the rock-made walls, and crows hovered in the air, making screeching cries from time to time. These messengers of death are patiently waiting for the victors to depart and enjoy their share of the meal.

"Hurry up, move quickly!" Li Guo commanded his subordinates to carry the corpses belonging to him to the open space and stack them together, and the best houses in the village have been demolished, so that the owner's hidden belongings can be found, and second, there is fuel for cremation. The situation of the war was so unpredictable that less than a month ago the thieves had been hiding in the valley of Iron Horn Mountain, and now they could safely besiege the villages to obtain the necessary food and goods. It turned out that after He Huchen was killed, the morale of the officers and soldiers was greatly reduced, and there was no food in the local area, so it was very difficult to hold on, and Hong Chengchou had to lead his troops back to Qingyang Mansion. Cao Cao, whose morale was greatly boosted, took the opportunity to divide his troops to loot property and grain, and Anhua Village, which is located more than 70 miles east of Huanxian County, became one of the victims.

"Brother Li, you can leave this little matter to the little ones, come here and I'll give you something good!" Cao Cao shouted at Li Guo on horseback.

"Boss Cao!" Li Guo responded, ordered his subordinates to say two words, and ran over. Cao Cao jumped off the horse with a grin, patted the horse, and said with a smile: "What do you think of this 'Fengzi' (black language, referring to horse)?" “

"Good horse!" Li Guo looked the horse up and down, looked at the horse's teeth again, and said with a smile: "It's only four years old, this horse is really good, you got it in the stockade?" “

"Hey, hey!" Cao Cao laughed: "The owner of the village, it's good, take it!" “

"Give it to me, what's so embarrassing?" Li Guo stroked the horse's back in surprise and joy, the approach of the stranger made the sensitive beast a little uneasy, Li Guo gently stroked its mane, and let it gradually quiet.

"What's so embarrassing, let's talk about it in advance, you have three and seven things in this village, and I have taken all the money from the woman of the owner of the village, shouldn't you give this good horse to you!" Speaking of this, Cao Cao's face showed a lewd smile, and he lowered his voice and said, "If Brother Li wants that little lady, it's okay, I'll have someone send it to your tent later!" “

"No, no, I want this horse!" Li Guo replied with some embarrassment, which caused Cao Cao to laugh loudly, he patted Li Guo on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "Brother Li, if we kill officials and rebel, maybe one day our heads will fall off, but we can't live this life in vain." “

Li Guo didn't know how to answer Cao Cao's ridicule for a while, he avoided these topics and asked, "Leader Cao, did you get more grain this time?" “

"It's okay!" Cao Cao habitually shook his head: "More than 1,000 stone thick grain, more than 60 large livestock, more than 800 taels of silver, some cloth, these more than 30 lives have not been lost in vain." “

"Then when are we leaving Huanxian?" Li Guo asked, "This is not a place to stay for a long time!" “

Cao Cao smiled and made a gesture, the personal soldiers beside him widened the distance, he walked up to Li Guo and asked, "It's almost enough to break two more stockades." By the way, does Brother Li have any plans for the future? Tell me about my brother? “

"I'm going to go east, to Shanxi!"

"Shanxi? That's across the Yellow River! I heard that the officers and soldiers still have ships, how did they live? “

"Don't be afraid, I've figured it out!" Li Guo said in a low voice: "It's almost October now, and it will take more than ten days to take down two villages, and it's almost November when you get to the Yellow River, and the river is almost frozen at that time. “

"Hmm. That's a great idea! Cao Cao laughed, and Li Guo, who had been dealing with him for quite a long time, saw a trace of disdain under his smile.

"Leader Cao, what do you have in mind?"

"Me?" Cao Cao laughed: "I'm also leaving, but I'm afraid of the cold, and I plan to go south to Hanzhong." “

"Go south, go to Hanzhong?"

"Not bad!" Cao Cao smiled: "Brother Li, I guess, this idea was come up with by your uncle, right?" “

Li Guo was stunned for a moment and asked, "How do you know?" “

"Huh!" Cao Cao did not answer Li Guo's question. He gently patted Li Guo on the shoulder: "Brother Li, let's kill officials and rebel, in order to live a good life of eating meat and drinking wine, wearing brocade and silver." It's not for what to fight the country and win the world, it depends on fate! You know? That uncle of yours thinks about going to Shanxi all day long, but what kind of place is Shanxi? After the Taihang Mountain, it is the North Zhili, which is the city of Beijing. Do you think the Son of Heaven will let you make such a fuss? Why don't you mobilize troops from all over the world to fight you? Do you have what it takes to fight? Listen to your brother Cao's words, go to Hanzhong, there are few officers and soldiers there. And it's convenient to go to Bashu and Nanyang, it's not like our poor jingle here in Shaanxi, and everyone can live a good life of eating meat and wearing brocade for a few days, which is serious! “

"Brother Cao!" For Cao Cao's words, Li Guo's feelings are very complicated, he was moved by the other party's obvious kindness, but more because of the other party's indignation at Li Zicheng's attack, in the heart of this young peasant, Li Zicheng, a young uncle similar to him, actually occupies the position of father, brother, and leader, and any attack on Li Zicheng is difficult not to arouse his disgust. He Huo stood up suddenly: "What you said is that everyone has their own lives, you take your Yangguan Road, I take my single-plank bridge, and when the food is enough, I will go east, you go west, let's go our own way!" “

"Stop!" Cao Cao drank Li Guo: "Our baby in Shaanxi is stubborn." I will not hinder you if you go east, so when you go back, take a hundred strong brethren and twenty good horses from my camp, and give you a strong and strong walk. “

"Brother Cao!" Li Guo was moved by Cao Cao's generosity, he lowered his head and wanted to say a few words of apology, but he couldn't say it, Cao Cao smiled: "Don't say anything, I also said just now, if you want to fight the world, you have to depend on your fate, who said that there is no such root on the grave of your old Li family?" Isn't the surname of the Tang Dynasty for hundreds of years your surname Li? “

While Cao Cao and Li Guo were discussing the future, Liu Cheng's army arrived at Qingyang Mansion: 600 cavalry, 1,600 infantry, of which 200 were armed with fine iron cuirass, iron helmets with manes, four-meter-long spears and machetes, and spears. As with the vast majority of nomads, the Mongol armies were equipped with armoured nobles as heavy cavalry, while those who could not afford to be armoured followed their leaders as mounted archers. When Chesang learned that Liu Cheng was about to send troops, he immediately expressed his willingness to join as a righteous servant, and Liu Cheng immediately took out new helmets, cuirasses, spears, spears, and steel knives from the arsenal and armed his followers. This hodgepodge-style army immediately caused a small stir in Qingyang Province, and the officers defending the city refused to even open the gates - they suspected that it was a Mongol Tartar that had crossed the border lines. It wasn't until Liu Cheng took out his own seal letter and Hong Chengchou's letter that the defenders opened the city gate suspiciously.

"Overseer, the end will be late, please forgive your sins!" Because he was wearing armor, Liu Cheng just bowed and saluted, and the armor leaves on his body collided with his iron gloves, making a crisp sound.

"Excuse me!" Compared with the last time they met, Hong Chengchou's face was a little less high-spirited when the new official took office, and a little more haggard. He tried his best to hide the surprise in his eyes, obviously the reinforcements brought by Liu Cheng were somewhat unexpected to him, judging from the number of war horses and the armor battles of the soldiers, they even surpassed Hong Chengchou's own standard battalion, and Liu Cheng was just a general, where did he get these armor battles and war horses?

"Lord Liu, no, it should be Mr. Liu! It's been hard along the way, but what's inconvenient? Hong Chengchou deliberately omitted the word "deputy" in Liu Cheng's official rank, and he showed a smile on his face that could almost be said to be flattering, no matter how much fog Liu Cheng's body shrouded, but it is unwise to pursue these when employing people, use everything that can be used, and abandon everything that must be discarded, this is the indestructible truth in the officialdom. Hong Chengchou is not a fool, he will not make the wrong choice at the wrong time.

Liu Cheng saw Hong Chengchou's tone, so he replied with the mentality of giving it a try: "It's all okay, it's just that the army owes half a year's salary, and the place where the soldiers live is a little small, and there are more cavalry under the last general, and the place is bigger, and the forage is more!" “

"Unpaid? I'll do it right away! The official will also inform the Governor of Zheng about the problem of accommodation and forage. Hong Chengchou agreed very happily, which made Liu Cheng a little surprised. Immediately, he gave Liu Cheng some instructions for the next use of troops, which was nothing more than a quick battle and a quick victory to sweep away the thieves in one fell swoop. In the end, Hong Chengchou asked, "General Liu, in your opinion, how can you wipe out the thieves in one fell swoop?" ”

Liu Cheng stood up respectfully and owed his body: "In the foolish opinion of the last general, if you want to wipe out the thieves in one fell swoop, you must slow down and fight quickly!" ”

"Slow and fast?" Hong Chengchou repeated Liu Cheng's words and asked, "General Liu, please speak." ”

"The thieves are a rabble, and if the officers and soldiers are gathered, they will surely gather together and be in a hurry; If the officers and soldiers go away, they will surely divide up and plunder in order to have winter food. If the lord shows comfort on the outside, and accumulates troops inside, calling it unprepared, and smashing the place in his heart, he will definitely be able to win his leader and win a great victory. (To be continued.) )