Scholars and craftsmen continued to come to Zhongyang, and Zhang Hongzhi County really kept his promise and arranged the corresponding work for them. Seeing that the work was settled without worry, and thinking of the bonus of 30,000 taels, many people wrote to their relatives and friends to ask them to come to Zhongyang for development. Of course, the letter should greatly praise Zhongyang's environment.

Zhang Hongzhi County kindly passed the letter to everyone. The people who received the letter were moved and then wrote a letter to their relatives and friends after arriving in Zhongyang, so the cycle, Zhongyang had more talents, Zhang Zhixian in order to strengthen the management of all personnel, if the work is not done well, they will be dismissed, and the corresponding will lose the qualification to receive the award.

Ren Xianglong, the commander of the Shanxi Metropolitan Command Division, frowned when he looked at the order transferred by the command office, and ordered him to lead his troops to Jiaokou County to suppress the bandits, and repeatedly stressed that he should hurry up preparations and strive to send troops within a few days. Because Jiaokou may have been attacked by thieves more than two months ago, and if you can't get it, it will now fall.

Regarding the situation of the thieves, the order is not very clear, only that there is news that Daning County, Xi County, Jiaokou County, and Zhongyang County have all been attacked by thieves, and now the roads between the east and west of Jin have been cut off, and the news is isolated.

Originally, there were people from Jiaokou and other counties who said that there were thieves attacking the county seat, but they never received an official report, and then the news spread more and more chaotically. There are also people who say that the saint opposed corruption in Zhongyang County, arrested officials who embezzled and took bribes, and also used the emperor's secret power, which was called Ming Security. It made the Shanxi officials confused, and they were even more anxious in their hearts, when did the emperor have his own secret power again, and named it Daming Security, what is the emperor going to do. can't help but remind people of the harm of factory guards. For these people, it is better to stay away.

It was not until the news of Lüliang came that it was confirmed that several counties were indeed attacked by thieves, and Sun Qianhu of Lüliang also led more than 1,000 officers and soldiers into the mountains to clear and suppress, but there was no news after entering the mountains, and the victory or defeat was unknown, and Jinxi could not mobilize enough strength to enter the mountains to suppress bandits.

The governor of Shanxi was shocked at this time, and urgently ordered the command department to mobilize officials and troops into the mountains to encircle and suppress bandits, at least to open up the road to the west of Jinxi, and figure out the current situation in several counties. However, the commander also attached great importance to it this time, and a full 3,000 soldiers and horses were transferred, and the grain and grass were being requisitioned from all over the place. This is already the limit of the command division's troops.

With the anxiety in his heart, Ren Xianglong sent troops, he decided to make this trip steadily, now the enemy's situation is unknown, these three thousand people can't eliminate the thieves, but there should be no problem in protecting their own safety. It was found that the thieves were separated by high mountains from the counties of Jindong, and the roads were difficult, only the roads between Jiaokou County and Jindong were better than other counties, so Ren Xianglong decided to take a look at the situation of the thieves in Jiaokou County. However, according to past experience, thieves often loot after attacking a place, and then flee, and after more than two months, the thieves may have fled without a trace.

Therefore, Ren Xianglong was not in a hurry to march, and after a few days of stop-and-go, the official army finally arrived at the border of Jiaokou County. Gradually moving from the plains to the mountains, the soldiers of the officers and soldiers kept cursing the damned mountain roads, and at the same time cursing the bureaucrats who made the decision to march. This was originally a matter of Jinxi, why should they send these officials and soldiers of Jindong to suppress it.

The spies sent from the front came back with news that a low wall had been built on the road, and there seemed to be a figure shaking behind the wall, which should be guarded. Ren Tongzhi immediately ordered the team to camp on the spot and personally went to the front to watch from a distance, the low wall was only half a person high, the situation behind was not clear, and he did not see the flag, it should not be an official army, and the thieves should have just arrived at the height of the wall, and they had not had time to build the wall high. It's a good opportunity to attack.

Ren Xianglong ordered a thousand men and horses to attack immediately. After some preparations, the attack began, the soldiers struggled to push the shield carts, the sword and brand players held huge shields and leaned together, followed by the archers of the brigade, ready to enter the range of the bow and arrow to deliver a fatal blow to the thief.

The officers and soldiers walked very slowly, a little tentatively, and moved forward. There was no movement behind the low wall, the whole battlefield was quiet, the atmosphere was a little suffocating, the judgment of the officers and soldiers was not wrong, when they were about to enter the range of the bow and arrow, there were a few loud bangs, a few cannonballs flew out from behind the low wall, the black iron ball smashed on the shield car, the wooden plank on it was smashed, the splashing wood salt pierced the officers and soldiers next to it, the iron ball hit the rocky ground and bounced up and jumped in the queue through a few blood alleys, with the sound of cannons sounded one after another, The shield carts were all knocked to the ground, and the officers and soldiers retreated at once, ignoring the interception of the officers behind them. Ren Xianglong was greatly annoyed, counted the team, and found that not many were really killed, but the morale of the officers and soldiers was greatly damaged.

Fortunately, the master gave him an idea, let the soldiers rush forward quickly with light equipment, the loading speed of the artillery was slow, and a single shell could not kill a few people, and when he rushed under the low wall, the enemy's artillery would have no effect. Ren Xianglong made sense when he heard it. The officers and soldiers reorganized their men and horses, and after half a day, the officers and soldiers rushed up again, this time the shield car and the big shield did not bring anything, only holding knives and guns. The officers and soldiers shouted and rushed forward, their strategy working, and the thieves' cannons did not sound until they came within range of the bows and arrows. But a little further forward, a sudden change occurred, only to see a row of people standing behind the low wall, holding muskets aimed at the officers and soldiers, a burst of gunfire in the front row of soldiers were knocked down, and at the same time, a rain of arrows was thrown from behind the low wall, and the personnel behind were not spared. The frightened officers and soldiers turned around and ran, fleeing the place of death as quickly as possible.

The official army was defeated again, and Ren Tongzhi couldn't suppress the anger in his heart, so he asked the overseer team to cut off the heads of a few deserters to stabilize the team. At this time, the officers and soldiers killed and wounded nearly 100 soldiers.

Ren Tongzhi, who was on fire in his eyes, suddenly thought, I also have cannons, and after a period of nervous busyness, the sixteen general cannons carried by this march were pulled up. Build a good position, Ren Tongzhi gave an order, the artillery roared in unison, and the gravel at the low wall flew wildly, and some of the low walls were collapsed, after several rounds of artillery fire, there was no movement in the direction of the low wall, Ren Tongzhi was afraid that the people of the Zhongji team would immediately step forward, and found that the thieves had already fled, and the morale of the officers and soldiers was greatly boosted, and cheers were everywhere.

Ren Tongzhi ordered the pursuit. But just chased not far before there was an explosion, gunsmoke everywhere, many injured officers and soldiers on the ground rolling and screaming, the team of people and horses were frightened and did not dare to go further, Ren Tongzhi hurriedly asked the master what was going on, the master thought for a long time and said that it should be a thief who planted a mine on the road or something, and the official army exploded as soon as it passed.

I've only heard of such sharp weapons, but I didn't expect them to appear here, it seems that there are capable people among the thieves, and they should not be underestimated. Ren Xianglong hurriedly asked if there was any way to crack it, and the master said that mines often bury braziers and fire ropes in the ground as ignitions, and after a long time, the fire source is burned out, and the mines are not terrible.

Ren Xianglong ordered the officers and soldiers to camp on the spot, taking care not to let the thieves change the fire source on the road, and the officers and soldiers spent the night amid the painful groans of the wounded soldiers.

Early the next morning, Ren Xianglong ordered to continue to advance, but the waiting of the officers and soldiers did not work, and the officers and soldiers walked past and there were still explosions, and the injured officers and soldiers lay on the ground. Because the security forces used the latest flintlock mines, the officers and soldiers just waited for 10 days and half a month to do nothing.

Can't be scared back like this, Ren Xianglong was ruthless, and ordered the supervising team to force the officers and soldiers to rush forward one by one, the explosions and screams continued to sound, and after a morning of torment, the officers and soldiers rushed to a low wall after paying dozens of casualties.

Ren Xianglong learned his lesson and stopped the team, turned up the artillery, and after a wild bombardment, there was no sound in the low wall opposite, thinking that the thieves should have fled like last time. The team was ordered to attack, but as soon as the officers and soldiers rushed up, they were caught off guard by the security musketeers who appeared from behind the low wall, and the lead bullets of the muskets and the shotguns of the Francos swept by, and the charge of the officers and soldiers was knocked down again.

Ren Xianglong entered a state of explosion, he had long forgotten the idea of fighting steadily, reorganized the team and let the artillery fire together, regardless of whether he would accidentally injure his own people, and let the soldiers of the official army attack at the same time as the shelling, and this time he successfully captured the low wall, and the thieves behind the wall ran away.

Ren Xianglong climbed over the low wall and looked around, he wanted to see why these thieves were not killed in the first round of shelling, and finally he finally found many small holes that the thieves dug in the ground that could only accommodate one or two people, it turned out that the thieves were rats and hid in the holes, no wonder they couldn't kill the thieves, this group of thieves was really hateful and cunning.

The road ahead was still not smooth, and after clearing the mines planted by the security forces with dozens of lives, the officers and soldiers were desperate to find a tall stone wall built in the narrowest part of the road.