Huanxian County, Iron Horn City.

The moon had risen halfway up the mountain, but the north wind brought clouds and mist that obscured most of the moonlight. The world was dark, and the air was filled with a faint smell of hay and dirt, wafting in the wind. A mist rose from the bottom of the ravine, pale in the bleak moonlight, like the skin of a dead man.

"Damn, the queen of the autumn will definitely enter the prison in a big way! This winter has been difficult again. Jiao Haoyun raised his head and sniffed in the air, his action was like a wild dog that had not yet been domesticated.

"Jiaotou, how do you know that the trap is going to enter the prison in a big way after the autumn? Could it be that you are Zhuge Liang, can you pinch and calculate? The sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy in the back asked curiously, looking at the eyebrows and eyes that were the one in the Tunpu, the eyebrows and eyes had opened a lot in more than a year, and he had become a beautiful young man.

"Pinch your head, count your head!" Jiao Haoyun habitually gave the young man a chestnut on the back of his head: "Lao Tzu smells it." ”

"Smelled?" The boy sniffed the air curiously, but he didn't smell anything.

"I didn't smell anything."

"Nonsense, if you can smell Lao Tzu, I'll let you do it!" Jiao Haoyun sneered, and he took two more breaths into the air: "This wind comes from the grassland, such a heavy earthy smell!" ”

"Smell of earthy?" The young man imitated Jiao Haoyun's appearance and took two deep breaths, and said with some uncertainty: "It's a little, but what does this have to do with being captured?" ”

"Think about it, the wind is blowing from the grassland, we can all smell such a heavy earthy smell, what is the drought on the grassland? What are the Tartars going to feed their cattle in this drought? The cattle are dead, and they won't come to us to grab a sum after the autumn, and they are still waiting to starve to death? ”

The young man was impressed by Jiao Haoyun's series of rigorous reasoning: "Jiaotou, you really have the ability, just tell the governor about this." Maybe you'll be promoted! ”

"Phew, don't have a bad idea! We don't have such tall weeds on our ancestral grave, and you have to eat whips if you talk nonsense, so you honestly follow me to finish this round, and it's important to go back to sleep! ”

"Silence!" A deep and stern voice interrupted the conversation between the two: "You two can afford to alarm the thieves' sentry and hurt your adults?" ”

Jiao Haoyun and the boy hurriedly shut up. About a dozen paces behind them, four or five cavalry shadows could be faintly seen, and the person at the head was Hong Chengchou, the governor of the Ming Dynasty. The moonlight shone on his face, showing bitter wrinkles, and the bitter battle of the Ming army in Shaanxi for several months finally reached the most critical juncture, with the continuous victory of the official army, the thieves or peasant army were forced to continue to shrink to the more barren northwest. But Hong Chengchou knew very well that at this time, the victory and defeat were actually only a thin line, although the Ming army had won many battles before, but there were very few who annihilated the backbone leaders of the thieves in one fell swoop like Liu Cheng. Most of them just defeated and drove them away, and its backbone was basically undamaged. In fact, such a tacit understanding has been formed between the thieves and the officials and soldiers, the thieves will not desperately resist the officials and soldiers, but will leave behind some of the booty and the coerced personnel to flee, and the officials and soldiers will not give up the pursuit, anyway, the large number of "thieves", poles, and hungry people's heads are enough for them to be promoted to the official position and make a fortune, so why fight to the death with the "border thieves" with strong combat effectiveness? But as the battlefield gradually shifted to the northwest, the situation gradually changed subtly. Retreating further to the northwest would mean starving to death, and the rest were the backbone of the thieves—deserters, mutineers, border smugglers, and so on, whom the imperial court called "border thieves." These people gathered like flowing water in the depression of Iron Horn. The dangerous terrain, familiar geography, and the grain that had just been harvested, in the face of such a stubborn enemy, the vanguard of the Ming army suffered.

"Poor rats eat cats!" Hong Chengchou's voice was inaudible, and by this time the group had already crossed the ridge, and he could clearly see the countless bonfires in the valley in the distance. That's the camp of the thieves. Hong Chengchou couldn't even count the number of bonfires, hundreds of bonfires formed a swaying band of light, and even the moon in the sky was eclipsed. This situation made him can't help but keep clenching his right hand into a fist and letting go.

"My lord, that's the camp of the thieves over there!" The middle officer lowered his voice and said to Hong Chengchou.

"Hmm!" Hong Chengchou nodded. He jumped off his horse and stared at the camp in the valley below, where the thieves had chosen a long and narrow valley where the entrance and exit were protected by ditches and earthen ramparts, and watchtowers on the slopes on both sides of the valley were stored. Judging from the fortifications arranged, the leaders of the thieves had considerable military experience.

"Take a closer look!" Hong Chengchou turned around and got on the horse, and the Chinese officer on the side hurriedly stretched out his hand to hold the reins and persuaded: "Your Excellency, please think twice, thieves have set up a hidden post in a high place, if the adult makes a mistake, the consequences will be unimaginable!" ”

Hong Chengchou whipped on the hands of his subordinates, the Chinese officer had to let go of the reins in pain, and the group went down the ridge, and the Jiao Haoyun in front saw this, and hurriedly opened the way in front, and the group went down the ridge, and in a dead silence, they could only hear the flow of the river below, the sound of horses' hooves, and the occasional collision of armor. Above everyone's heads, a crescent moon pierced through the thin clouds, overlooking the people, horses, and camp below.

As an outpost, Jiao Haoyun picked up the horn bow and stood on a large stone that was seventeen or eighteen steps below Hong Chengchou's oblique, carefully observing the surroundings, while the young man put the horse material bag on the horse's mouth, first, to hurry up and feed some material, and secondly, to block the horse's mouth, so as not to neigh. At this time, as the night wind gradually strengthened, the clouds in the sky were blown away, and the moonlight became brighter and brighter. Jiao Haoyun had to fall to his knees to reduce the possibility of being discovered.

The young man waited for his mount, walked to Jiao Haoyun's side, took out a piece of mixed dough cake from his arms, broke it into two pieces and stuffed it for Jiao Haoyun, and the two began to chew hard. The bread, baked from unfermented dead noodles, was as perishable as a stone and as hard as a stone, and the soldiers usually soaked it in water before eating it, and their cheeks quickly became sore.

Sou!

It seemed to be the sound of the wind, but the screams that followed proved that it was a cold arrow, and Hong Chengchou almost rolled off his horse, and a personal soldier who was only seven or eight feet away from him covered his eyes and fell in pain, sticking a feather arrow in his hand.

"Protect your lordship! Protect your adults! The reaction of the pro-soldiers was very fast, and they quickly surrounded Hong Chengchou. Shielding his body from feathered arrows that may fly. Almost at the same time, there was a whistling sound in the darkness, and at the same time, feathered arrows and stones flew at the same time, and the people in the panic could not determine how many enemies there were in the darkness, and the panicked soldiers jumped on their horses, surrounded Hong Chengchou and fled as fast as they could.

The teenager reacted quickly. As soon as the soldier was hit by the arrow, he turned and pounced on his horse, but a hand stretched out from behind grabbed him, and almost at the same time a cold arrow grazed the horse's back, and if it wasn't for that hand, he would have been hit.

"Stinky boy, don't look for death, the thieves are over there!" Jiao Haoyun lowered his voice and branched to the right, and the young man looked in the direction of his finger, and with the help of the crossing, he could vaguely see the shaking of the figure. Obviously, when the two of them were nibbling on the dough, the thieves' night was already touching, and because of the angle, the thieves' vision was blocked by the big stones, but if they jumped out now, they would definitely be shot into hedgehogs.

"What then?" It was the first time for the young man to encounter such a situation, and he was a little frightened, and he looked at Jiao Haoyun expectantly, as if the other party could come up with some ideas.

"It's too late to run. It's better to shoot down a few thieves and cover the escape of the Hong Army. Adults won't treat us badly! When it came to the end, Jiao Haoyun calmed down, and he aimed at the nearest rogue, pulled the bow over his earlobe, and then relaxed the strings, almost at the same time. Screams rang out in the cold air.

"There is an ambush, there is an ambush!" The ambushers a moment earlier let out a frightened cry, and they had to stop and bend down to avoid being attacked by the night's arrows. The young man looked at Jiao Haoyun with admiration. He followed suit and aimed his bow at another enemy.

In the camp, Li Guo huddled by the fire, although it was still September, the north wind blowing from the Ordos steppe still ruled the night here, although he was wearing a sheepskin jacket, he still felt a chill, maybe the cold did not come from the outside world, but from his heart. Since losing contact with his uncle, the young man had to carry the burden alone, and the danger came not only from the officers and soldiers, but also from the other peasant armies, if not more dangerous. A team of more than 100 people, but well-armed and a lot of horses, this is very delicious bait for other poles, and after losing Li Zicheng, Li Guo must also deal with internal challenges alone. There were no ranks or titles within the peasant army, and if Li Guo could not prove that he was brave, cunning and cruel enough, he would soon be ousted from the position of leader, which usually meant death.

Luckily, he survived all this, and after cutting off the heads of two thieves who were secretly colluding with another leader, and taking the opportunity to defeat and annex them, Li Guo earned the nickname "One Tiger" while also consolidating his position as the leader. Now in this small pole of more than 400 people, he is already the indisputable leader. Although he did his best to find his uncle's whereabouts, Li Zicheng seemed to have disappeared from this world, there was news that he died in battle, some people said that he surrendered to the government, and some people said that he fled to Shanxi, but none of these news had solid evidence. On the Loess Plateau in the fifth year of Chongzhen, it is too difficult to find a person's whereabouts. He had thought of crossing the Yellow River east to Shanxi according to Li Zicheng's plan, but Liu Cheng's boatmen played a role, and the spies were frightened by the flying official and military clippers on the river, and refused to take the risk of crossing the river. As the tide of battle changed, Li Guo had to retreat westward, and finally converged here.

"Brother Li, do you miss your uncle again?" A rough voice woke Li Guo up from his memories, and he looked up to see a bearded man standing in front of him, followed by four or five pro-soldiers, looking at him with a smile. Li Guo hurriedly stood up and arched his hand: "Boss Cao, it's rude!" “

"What a big boss, a big boss, a big boss!" The man patted Li Guo's shoulder with a smile, and said with a very affectionate smile: "They are all their own brothers, if you can afford it, call me Cao Cao, go, the weather is strangely cold, go to my place to drink a glass of wine and it's hot!" It turned out that this man's name was Luo Rucai, and he was also one of the leaders of the peasant army in Shaanxi, because of his cunning and wisdom, the people of the time gave him a nickname "Cao Cao", and he also called himself by this, and his real name was no longer called after a long time.

"Boss Cao, my brothers here are all here, it's not good for me to go drinking!" Li Guo excused himself.

"What's so bad?" Cao Cao said with a smile: "There is a young and old family who is humble, you are the leader, they are minions, and if there is wine and meat, you will naturally eat it first!" Otherwise, who will be in charge? People live for a lifetime, isn't it just drinking wine and eating meat, sleeping with beautiful girls? If it's just to eat millet porridge, why should we rebel? After that, Li couldn't help but say too much, and pulled him away.

Cao and Li walked for a while, turned two corners and came to a big tent, Cao Cao opened the curtain with a smile, and shouted loudly: "Damn, get out of here, let Lao Tzu and Brother Li have a good life!" ”

Compared to the outside, the temperature inside the tent can almost be said to be scorching, and the four corners are lined with copper basins filled with charcoal, radiating a dull red light, and the floor is carpeted with thick animal skins. A middle-aged woman in her thirties was grilling a few skewers of chicken in the corner, turning an iron skewer and applying seasoning to the chicken, and the aroma of chicken and spice filled the air. Four or five beautiful women were sitting on the brocade mat, doing needlework, one of them had a slight bulge in the abdomen, obviously pregnant, seeing Cao Cao come in, hurriedly stood up, and was slightly blessed: "The master is back!" ”

"It's back, it's back!" Cao Cao took off his fur hat, threw it aside, and said with a smile: "I brought a good brother here, you have to wait for him tonight, otherwise I won't agree, master!" ”

As soon as the words fell, the two women came up, grabbed Li Guo's arm, and pulled in, where had Li Guo seen such a battle, his arm subconsciously struggled, where could the two women stop him, and suddenly fell out, if it wasn't for a thick layer of animal skin on the ground, he would definitely fall and bleed.

"You two are really useless, why don't you make amends to my brother quickly!" Cao Cao scolded twice, turned to Li Guo and smiled: "Brother Li, don't be embarrassed by them, if you think they are not beautiful, you can pick them here, except for the pregnant one, which one you value to take away." (To be continued.) )

PS: There are too few chapters today, these are made up, and tomorrow will be the same as one chapter a day, with limited ability, forgive me!